"deadline: white house" with nicole wallace starts right now. hi, everyone. it is 4:00 in new york. as coronavirus is sending the markets into a tail spin for the second straight day. the dow closing down nearly 900 points. following warnings from federal agencies that we're on the brink of a global pandemic. we'll get to that story and the serious questions its raising about the administration's preparedness or lack there of but on a day where everything is possible in the democratic in the primary with the nomination of bernie sanders becoming more likely with the rising poll numbers, the final debate before saturday's critical south carolina prime is underway a few hours from now. that south carolina primary which is now must-win for former vice president joe biden is just four days away. and super tuesday, the biggest delegate jackpot of the young primary season, one week from

today. here is the latest nbc news poll of south carolina voters. joe biden still in first place with 27% of the vote. bernie sanders behind him down by 4. that is within the margin of error. and for his part, sanders is now undergoing the kind of skrut intdy typical of any front-runner in this stage of the race. sanders facing a wave of critism over his comments about fidel castro. comments sanders reupped overnight in a trumpian display of doubling down on what critics say might hurt him politically. >> when fidel castro first came to power which was when? 59. >> 59 or 60, he initiated a literacy program. there are a lot of folks in cuba at that point who were ill litt litterat and they helped people learn to read and write. you know what, i think teaching people to read and write is a

good thing. >> those comments have inviting protests from cube's community and competitors for the nomination all of whom he faces off against in a few hours. mike bloomberg tweeted this, fidel castro left a dark legacy of forced labor camps, religious repression and widespread poverty. but let's talk about the literacy program. and kpacomparing his world view donald trump and pete brought it back to electability and donald trump. >> in our one shot to defeat donald trump, we should think carefully about the consequences of nominating senator sanders. as a democrat i don't want to be explaining why our nominee is encouraging people to look on the bright side of the castro regime when we're going into the election of our lives.

>> fair point there. the 64,000 question this hour, though, in what may amount to something of a last stand for some of bernie's 2020 opponents how will they take their attacks on sanders directly to him face-to-face on debate stage tonight. in charleston, analyst john heilemann, also joining us donna edwards from maryland, at the table pulitzer prize winning washington post columnist eugene robinson and former aide to the state department, elise jordan who i can't wait to talk to about making castro great again. but i'll start with john heilemann on the campaign trail covering all of the campaigns. there is something of an address lynn rush and a bit of desperation if you're not in the front-runner spot that sinks in. i know it from both more the latter category from my years on

campaigns. what is the mood among the sanders camp and the biden camp, the two for whom the stakes are highest in saturday's contest? >> reporter: hey, nicolle. good to see you. hear from you. good to be with you. hi. >> you look sharp today. what is that jacket. >> reporter: somebody stuck it on me. somebody took it from -- this is the homeless dress in charleston. you know, i think a little bit of both the way you just said. adrenalin and desser pati -- den and i think more desperation and put bernie sanders in one category and adrenalin is there and they know they're about to face a withering onslaught. they saw what happened to michael bloomberg last week in vegas and i think it is written, people will maybe go back to that debate and ask why so many people spent time attacking a guy whose name was not on the ballot in nevada rather than

attacking the guy whose name was on the ballot in nevada and on the way to a decisive huge momentum-shifting race in nevada beating bernie sanders. so they got out of nevada with the big win and feel good about where they are. they decided to throw down all in on south carolina, something they had not done in a year and announced in "the new york times" we're going in and trying to kill joe biden and lock this race up. and that has gotten -- concentrated the minds i would say of a lot of democrats including joe biden. people recognize that bernie sanders win in south carolina would mean that bernie sanders had won three of the first four contests and had a claim to winning iowa with the most popular votes there, if not the most delegates and that would make him -- historically unprecedented, the idea that you could stop a democrat who had won three of the first four contests. so people looked up and said, wow, maybe we're getting around to this a little late but we saw what you could do to michael bloomberg if we all trained our

guns on him in las vegas. we'll all train our guns on bernie sanders. and i think that is a reflection of everyone but bernie sanders of a certain sense of desperation about the fact that it may be too late already to stop bernie sanders given the state of place on the super tuesday states but if it is not too late, it is got to happen here. so people recognize they have to stop him here and that probably means joe biden is the only one that could beat him here given the state of the polling. but everyone is willing to get in on the action to stop bernie sanders if they can tonight. >> the structural challenge, and this is something i asked joe biden about, john, and i wonder your thoughts on this, so give biden the victory in south carolina. that is expected that the polls still reflect. because i agree with you, if bernie wins in south carolina, i'm not sure the case when you have four alternatives. so give biden -- say he wins on saturday, what happens next? it would seem that that isn't

really a road block for the sanders candidacy because they have super tuesday three days later. >> well you're right. that is why i said it may be too late already. but, look, there is a bunch of problems with joe biden even if he wins here. even if he wins decisively here. ear not on the air in a single super tuesday state and he's on the air in none of them. he's basically broke. and so what is going to happen on super tuesday to your point about the question you asked, it is the prisoner's dilemma question where everybody stayed in the race because, well, why not me and i had as good of a claim as anyone else and why would i get out if thoeb else is getting out. but without a consolidated moderate wing stopping bernie sanders given the number of delegates he'll rack up in california, where a third of the vote is already in. a third of the vote in california already in the bank, a bunch of votes banked all over super tuesday.

so the question -- a bunch of things have to happen. one is joe biden winning decisively on saturday and another is michael bloomberg giving a good enough performance here tonight to revive his candidacy, given the resources he'll pour into not just super tuesday but the other march states and require some people dropping out of the race. after saturday, people who are sticking around right now but don't have a real path towards the nomination, i'm looking at you amy klobuchar and pete buttigieg, you tom steyer, people taking vote away from the anti-bernie cause but have no plausible chance of being the democratic nominee. a number of things would have to happen to stop bernie sanders. the first one is beat him here. and then other stuffs have to happen. but i say it may be ultimately to late to stop him given the head start he has now and given the running room he has and the money he has going forward through the big march contests stretching out before us, not very far before us right now. just a couple of weeks away.

>> so donna edwards, two questions for you. one, the only reason this is relevant is because it is democrats who are expressing public and private concern about sanders' world view, the castro comments have a lot of democrats distraught about whether or not that is the best kind of candidate to put up against donald trump. whether there is this vetting that seems to have begun in earnest of bernie sanders now and whether there is a desire, hindsight down the road that there is an alternative and do you agree with the analysis that, one, there is a dire to have bernie and another option that is viable picking up enough delegates to remain viable for the next few weeks and, two, is it really realistic? the dream never dies.

people want to run for president and the dream never dies but is it realistic that pete buttigieg or amy klobuchar said i could get out so someone else could consolidate the moderate vote. >> it doesn't sound like from the statements that came out of those campaigns, it doesn't sound like they're on the verge of doing that. and, listen, let's not assume that just because those moderates get out of the rate that all of that vote then goes to joe biden because we've seen where people are making what we in the press might describe as irrational first and second choices. so bernie could pick up some of that. i would look to is what does really happen with the black vote in south carolina. because bernie kind of -- he's picking up ground there, something that he did not do against hillary clinton four years ago. and so that is something to look to because that then could be replicated in other states.

and i would say, for all of the people who are whining about bernie sanders and wanting to vet him now when they should have vetted him in 2016, they need to stop whining and start winning some contests and that may require some people to drop out of the race. i'm not sure who that should be yet. and i think joe biden absolutely has to win in south carolina. and he's got to win by enough of a margin to convince people that he's the alternative, not just to bernie sanders but that he's the alternative to beat donald trump. that is still at the top of everyone's list. and coming out of nevada, looking at the kind of coalition that bernie sanders got was rather stunning. the latino, the latin x vote across demo dprgraphic groups et those getting medicare that bernie wants to protect.

so i'm not sure what stops him at this stage. and i know if people are counting on waiting to get to the convention to somehow and it unravels there. that is a huge mistake and i think could destroy the democratic party and so whoever is going to win needs to get in there and beat him at the polls during the primary. >> so eugene, you have a simple message. you're my daily dose of tough love today. your message, deal with it. and i'll read from your piece but i love the whole thing. bernie sanders of vermont who is not even a democrat is leading the race for the presidential nomination, it looks possible that none of the rivals will be able to catch him. if you want to get rid of trump, get behind sanders and do anything you can to hake him president. that is the bottom line. >> that is the bottom line. as things look right now. obviously things could change. there could be a huge surprise in south carolina and on super tuesday. but if there isn't -- you know, the idea that there is a

democratic establishment that somehow is going to -- >> i know what you are going to say because i said it about the republicans over and over again. >> that is exactly what i was going to say. in 2016 we waited for the republican establishment to exercise adult supervision and it was dead. it doesn't exist. >> not only is it dead, it is not a good idea. i think the humbling piece of all this is the voters have electability top of mind and the person they view as most electable is bernie sanders full stop. >> so the person who does wins and that is just kind of logical. and democracy is messy. but the voters, stubbornly refuse to look at this race the way that we do. right. the way that this ideology spectrum with bernie sanders way over the to left and michael bloomberg on the right and others kind of spaced along at regular intervals. that is not the way the voters are seeing this. the number one second choice of

biden voters is bernie sanders. >> right. >> so as people drop out and they will when they run out of money, a lot of that support or some of it at least is going to go to sanders. so now the big wild card is michael bloomberg's money. it had a huge impact on the race now. he's climbed into arguably into second place behind bernie now nationally. and he's -- if he pours twice as much money in the next couple of weeks into the super tuesday states. in the next week. >> i want to ask you about intellectual honesty because a journalist made this point to me on saturday after our coverage and he said, listen, if all of the coverage over the last three years is about trump about a threat to the rule of law, to the intelligence product, to corrupting the military justice system, isn't anybody, including bernie sanders, an improvement,

that is the philosophy that undergurds your piece. >> it does. and there are people you could imagine who could be worse than donald trump as president. but none of them are running in the democratic primary process. i think so that bernie sanders would respect the rule of law. i think he would not politicize the justice department. i think he would staff the government. so we're ready for example to confront something like the coronavirus. i think he would be a competent president. i wouldn't agree with everything he wants to do. he certainly wouldn't be able to do everything he wanted to do. but i do think donald trump is an existential threat. therefore it is not a leap to say you -- if bernie sanders is the nominee, you support him. >> elise, i think some of what is so humbling about covering the election after the election we got so wrong is knowing that we know nothing about how controversies land and bernie sanders is mired in a

controversy about not just saying that castro did good things, he pushed a literacy program but doubling down on something that was offensive not just to the cuban community but to anyone who fled that kind of regime. it is covered as a crisis, a communications crisis, a snafu, but i they we don't know what voters are processing. in normal times, doubling down on your defense of fidel castro is a disaster but these are not normal times. >> and when the behavior is baked in a bit, i went back after this morning and watched some of the full segments of bernie sanders on vermont public access television and the rhetoric is the same. the things are the same. he's praising noriega, he's praising the sand on eastas. this is not outside of the normal ideology platform. so it doesn't land with a boom as something hugely shocking

when voters already have been exposed to bernie sanders coming from this ideology strain. what is surprising is, hey, democrats want to win florida. they want to keep those purple states, keep the trump states that flipped. >> let me say this. you found it on the internet. why didn't the bloomberg or the biden campaign find it on the internet three months ago when they could have made this argument. let me show you the ad biden is running. person with the most on the line in the upcoming primary. here it is. >> when we rally together to defend our president sand all of the progress he made, they had his back. he had his back. and you have his back. but back in washington there was one guy with another plan. >> i think it would be a good idea if president obama faced primary opposition. >> when it comes to building on president obama's legacy, bernie sanders just can't be trusted.

>> so another thing. that in normal times would did he devastating blow but i dare pause it and we're not living in normal times. >> you're taking on a popular democratic president. but bernie sanders at that point wasn't he even labelled as an independent? >> he still is. he's not a democrat. >> in 1981 straight out socialist labels, speaking at the socialist convention in '83. this is not different from his decades in the public eye. >> but john, i think the difference is now he's the democratic front-runner for the nomination. >> reporter: well, yeah. and i think that -- i do think that to your point, nicolle, the question of how controversies are going to land and the question of whether doubling down on a controversy as he did last night on the castro thing in the age of trump, isn't this the age where you -- you don't back down or apologize and go straight through it. maybe that works. but the thing i want to say is

listing that the digital ad and video, that is a different thing. that is not about socialism. a lot of the voters voting, not this saturday but overall, the younger ones, they don't know would daniel ortega is or castro is. they all know who barack obama is. and i tonight what you'll see on the debate stage and attaching to what donna said, the big unknown question in this race is what african-american voters are going to do. we've said it over and over again. and not just in south carolina but beyond. but most important constituency in the democratic party they've not had a chance to speak. saturday is the first time they'll have a chance to speak. we've seen polling that shows sanders closing the gap or catching up with biden but saturday is still a long way away and i think what you'll see tonight is attacks for sanders on all sides and the onces that have a chance of cutting are the

ones that relate to barack obama and in the notion that sanders thought primarying obama and that could damage him with black voters here. >> donna edwards, your name was invoked. let me give you a quick last word. >> all of that was out there in 2016. why it has taken us to get to this time to have these revelations is unknowable to me. but the fact is that tonight, if anybody wants to challenge bernie sanders, tonight is going to go be the night that they have to lay down the marker. otherwise we're going to go be lining up behind somebody who can defeat donald trump and his name is going to be bernie sanders. >> wow! you all blew my mind. go give that jacket back. it looks nice. >> i'm keeping it. no one is 25ikitaking it away f me. >> thank you. coronavirus meet donald trump, per varor of conspiracy

theories and spreader of 6,000 lies and counting and destroyer of government agencies. we go inside of the president's political freak out that should put the grown-ups back in charge, if there are any left. also ahead donald trump receiving political advice on his revenge plot from the wife of one current supreme court justice calls for two other supreme court justices to recuse themself. inside of trump's upside down views on the supreme court. and michael bloomberg gets one last chance at a do-over after his disastrous performance last week. what to expect from the former new york mayor. all of those stories coming up. e ninja foodi pressure cooker, 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. be stronger... with nicorette coated ice mint.

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top u.s. health officials said today that the spread of coronavirus in the u.s. now appears to be inevitable. if it is not a matter of if, but a matter of when. we're now officially on the brink of a full blown gloebl pandemic. from china, the disease epicenter to south korea, italy and iran. 2,700 people are dead worldwide with more than 80,000 confirmed. and here at home the dow closing down nearly 900 points a day after 1,000-point plunge. the american people should expect a honest and intelligent coherent plan forward but donald trump is following his own playbook as he's known to do. the crisis surrounding his credibility aside here he is this morning in india. >> you may ask about the

coronavirus. which is very well under control in our country. we have very few people with it and the people that have it are -- in all cases i have not heard anything other. but the people are getting better. they're all getting better. >> they're all getting better. nothing to see here. the reality is that trump faces a situation now that he can't just witch hunt away. politico reporting trump top aides faced an urgent threat on monday with monumental implications and knocking down the u.s. economy and walloping markets in an election year all against accusations about whether the trump administration had mismanaged and underfunded a critical response with american lives on the line. to sum it up, not only it donald trump asleep at the wheel he's driving a vehicle he spent the better part of three years dismantling. joining our conversation, washington post white house reporter ashley parker. with us at the table former fbi

andrew weissmann. this seems to represent a first chapter -- and i was part of the planning for the bird flu. i know what it is like in the federal government to prepare for the possibility of a global pandemic and just to make sure our viewers are not more scared than they need to be, that has not been declared. the concern is we're on the brink of one. but the president seeming to say we got this and the economic team saying it is all fine. that is not matching up with the messages coming from the world's health leaders. >> that is exactly right. not just from the global health leaders, but from the cdc that basically warned today that it is not a question of if, but when the coronavirus comes to the united states. so what you're seeing is this very disconcerting split screen where you have the president and some of his top advisers saying it is all under control. nothing to see here. and then another set of people

also affiliated with the administration saying we need to be prepared. we potentially need to be alarmed. it is not necessarily all under control. we're working to get it under control. and there is very good reporting in the post and elsewhere of things that have already gone wrong from tests that have been faulty to testing not being as widespread in the united states as some people would like to see to the president himself being furious about some passengers who were quarantined on the japanese cruise ship flying back with healthy americans. and so it is not the sort of perfectly streamlined machine that the president wants everyone to believe. i'm not saying people should be deeply alarmed and panicked yet. but i think the problem is there is a disassociation between what we're hearing from the president at the top and other people more acutely involved in the details of this process.

>> talk about the intersection of something the posthas been covering and it said axios and that is the president's obsession of post impeachment purge aided by hit lists coming from the wife of a supreme court justice and some of the reporting, i'll read something from foreign policy magazine about the security officials ousted. in may 2018, trump ordered the nsc, the national security council entire global health security unit shut down. calling for reassignment of rear admiral timothy discipler. the month before john bolton pressured tom bossert to resign. along with his entire team. another the nsc or the department of homeland security teams have been replaced. the global health section of the cdc was drastically cut in 2018 that much of the staff was laid off and the number the countries was working was reduced from 49

to 10. meanwhile through 2018 the u.s. agency for international development and its director mark green came under fire from the white house and the secretary of state mike pompeo. although congress has so far managed to block the plans to cut the public health service commission core by 40%, the disease fighting have eroded as officers go unreplated. there is a documented effort on donald trump and others to purge the federal government, to decapitate all of the leaders of our public health agencies. >> that is right. i think you do have to separate. there has been as we read today a hollowing out of the scientific community in the trump administration since he took office. separate this from the other purge we're seeing post impeachment which is very much about installing loyalists, punishing people who testified against the president.

but it doesn't change the facts on the ground when there is potentially this global pandemic the president at some point will have to turn to these agencies that are not as robustly staffed as you would necessarily want them to be. that is just a reality. that is something that he's grappling with and it is just the factsond ground. and i would i would add one final point. you know from the bush administration, when there are huge crises out of our control and we report self-sabotaging and this is out of his control and if you remember president bush with hurricane katrina and how tough it was to recover from bungling that response. that is a potential risk that president trump faces now. >> i will never for got that. andrew weissmann, i think the intersectionality, the response and the people that were responsible for foreign policy were the national security adviser and the homeland

security adviser condi rice and franktown send and they were in the room when we practiced for the bird flu outbreak. by decimating every 12 weeks you're decimating any muscle memory or knowledge about how to deal with a global crisis. >> so one of the oddities that you have here with the president is he spends so much time denigrating all of these agencies, whether this is the intelligence community, but then when it comes time that you need to rely on them, because you want to go after an important isis leader, suddenly they're accurate and good. but here he's going to have the same issue after challenging all sorts ever agencies and saying their incompetent. the cdc is really going to need to step up and he's going to be relying on them and this is the agency and many other agencies that he said don't trust. and so the sort of lack of competence that you sort of --

projected is something that i think everyone is going to be really seeing, is he able to carry throughme carry -- carry through because i think the information management is going to work here when people want health management. >> i think the most sort of relevant parallel is his handling of the hurricane. where he took a black sharpie to alter the findings from noaa and said path smath and that was science altered by trump and then at noaa they foiaed the emails and the people who were scientist were you know what to try to make the facts match the president's little sharpie mark. >> but here, that was serious because it is such a challenge to facts and you have this issue of somebody just not willing to deal with facts. but here you can't take a sharpy and say people haven't died.

and the only other point i would make is if you're so into american isolationism and thinking it is america first, well there are certain problems which are really global. whether it is climate change or terrorism or an illness that has to be solved by having all of these countries come together, that doesn't work with saying america first. you need to have international partners to figure out how to deal with this. >> elise, i remember when donald trump was trying to keep the ebola doctors out of the country and fanning the flames of xenophobia and a risk to people at home. do you have any confidence that he won't just arbitrarily shut down entry from italy, new yorkers or someone from kansas goes to italy. >> would never bet that donald trump will not do anything that is outside of the norm. i know that donald trump is enjoyed saying that i alone can

fix it and that he doesn't need ambassadors all over the globe, that he could make these huge cuts at the state department. but if i'm nrn an american on a cruise that had had to get quarantined. >> i would be appreciative who helped facilitate my exit and get in contact with my family and play such a critical role and i've seen this be done successfully. and i just hope that the government has the resources to do what they need to do in the worst case scenario. >> no one is going anywhere. when we come back, trump keeps up his attacks unless he perceived as disloyal to him this time setting his ire on the supreme court. he's a systems quarterback.

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. the united states supreme court now thrown into the mix of government institutions donald trump has attacked on twitter. from the very same day "the new york times" details how one justice's wife clarence thomas's wife is leading the charge on a hit list for trump of government employees that he should fire. the president attacked two supreme court justices by name. calling for them to recuse themselves from future trump-related cases. trump's demand was in response to a measured dissent issued by justice sotomayor in which she called out the white house frequent use of the highest court in the land to settle cases. she adds this, quote, this court is partly to blame for the breakdown in the appellate

process. that is because the court has been all too quick to grant the government's reflexive requests. perhaps more troubling the recent behavior on stay has benefited one litigant over others. i fear this disparity and treatment erodes the decision-making process that this court must strive to protect. ashley, donna at the table and we're back. explain first what justice sotomayor was saying. >> so, i think she was trying to say we have to be careful about the appearance of impropriety. there is nothing that she said that would in any way support the claim that she has to recuse herself. the law on that is so clear. you have to show that she has information from outside of the courtroom that has improperly biased her such that she could not be fair or have the appearance of being fair. so this is to me an example of the president again getting away

with adjectives instead of facts. to sit there and just say the person is biased, this is unfair. what is the reason? there is a complete absence of setting forth actual evidence. just as we're sitting here, the president is doing that with respect to amy berman jackson. she's holding a hearing on whether the jurors were fair in the roger stone case. that is a totally appropriate motion for the defense to make. it may not be meritorious but that is their job and she's holding a hearing on that and the president has attacked not just the jury, but also the judge saying they're biased. again, an adjective with no facts. there is nothing to support it. so i think this is sort of a distraction in terms of the president gets a lot of media attention from saying this. >> well i think it gets covered because it shocks the system to

see the president attack the supreme court. >> oh, absolutely. but i think that the take-home has to be really holding him to account on, okay, we hear you on your claim and what a judge would say to that which is okay, i hear it, what are r-- what ar the facts to support that? if you want to claim that justice sotomayor is biased, let's hear that. and i know his followers may not want to hear it. but i do think that it is still an important function to ask for a factual basis. >> but there are no facts. there are no facts to back it up. and anybody who disagrees with him is biased against him. it is a ridiculous position. where is attorney general barr. remember when he said the president needs to stop all of this and making it impossible for me to do my job. he's at it again. so you might not have noticed. >> so sad. i'm about to quit --

>> haven't heard a peep from him yet. >> not a thing. do you expect, is it appropriate for john roberts to weigh in at this moment. he has done so sparingly but this would seem like a moment to call it. >> you could imagine justice roberts doing that and judge howell who is the chief judge in the d.c. court who already has once swayed in to all of the district judges but here you have a direct attack from the president. two justices and more district judges. so i think that is concerning. >> ashley parker, crazy like a fox, this is how trump has been described to me. is this part of a larger mission to delegitimate mize something the supreme court. >> they felt the president which is often the case with tweets was simply responding to a segment he saw on fox news. and they said that privately in

general for whatever it is worth, the president does not frequently gripe about the supreme court when he's talking about the court privately more often he boasted about how great they said his two appointments are and the fact that he's hoping he might get to fill another vacancy and talks about when a decision gets a ruling he doesn't like it the lower court that he's very excited when it is kicked up to the supreme court and then very gratified if they do rule in his favor. which, in fact, was what justice sotomayor was kind of writing about in her dissenting opinion. saying that is a problem they have to watch for. so he did politicize it but i don't know that is his intention. >> thank you for spending time with us, pulling back the curtain in his mind. this is riveting. after the break, michael bloomberg gets another try ahead of the debate but has the field already moved on.

former new york city mayor michael bloomberg took a lot of heat at last week's debate over many things including the nda's his company signed with women. when asked about them his long time partner diana taylor said this. >> none of them was he accused of doing anything other than saying something nasty to a woman. that is not who he is. life is changed. i grew up in that world.

it was a -- culture. we've come a very long way and michael bloomberg has been at the forefront of that change. it was 30 years ago. get over it. >> campaigns said those remarks don't represent their view but michael bloomberg is still working to change the narrative. today he released a new ad promoting his work with women. there it is there. can we listen to it? not going to listen to it. there it is. promoting women who have worked for him and talk about the opportunities they had under michael bloomberg. donna and table are back. p donna, this is interesting and i know from covering and trying to understand how donald trump could say what he said on access hollywood and be elected, i know from covering some of that suburban women vote that some people do have mike bloomberg's partner's view, there was a different generational tone to it. but that is not what any campaign on the ropes after a pretty dicey performance wants to be putting out there before

super tuesday, is it? >> no. it is not. and frankly from the emergence of the me-too movement to the conviction of harvey weinstein yesterday, it is clear that that is actually not a 30-year-old culture that we still have have culture in the workplace and in our communities that is very hostile toward women. i think if we are going to examine joe biden and bernie sanders and what they did 30 years ago, we definitely have to examine and vet michael bloomberg not just for the things that he did 30 years ago, but things that he has done and said over the last couple of years since he has become a democrat. so i think that this is not over and michael bloomberg is really going to have to demonstrate that he can earn the support of democratic women to get through this primary and i'm not really quite sure that continuing to

hide the nondisclosure agreements is going to be glossed over by producing an ad. again, i say we've got to look into the full package before he becomes a nominee of the democratic party. >> and i think he announced that he was releasing three women from their agreements. >> three women. >> let me ask you something, the bloomberg campaign at this point is really just an idea and an unlimited bank account, right? >> yeah. >> it's the idea that warts and all and his spokesman tim o'brien has been more articulate of saying mike is flawed but if you want an alternative with unlimited funds with the sole objective of defeating donald trump in november i'm on the menu. >> that's what they're saying. it's an idea, it's an unlimited bank account, it's 2,000, 3,000, i don't know how many staffers nationwide. >> it's a lot. >> well-paid. >> it's carpet bombing ads in the super tuesday states. and it's come a long way from zero to, you know, arguably

second place on the strength of those ads. certainly not on the strength of that debate performance which was pathetic. >> right. >> you know, he has to do better tonight. what he doesn't have and what bernie sanders does have is a movement, a parkssion and peopl who are passionately committed to him. as you said, i'm here and i can do it and i will spend $2 billion, 3 billion soou$3 billit takes, i will get it done. that's actually a powerful argument this year. >> and democratic voters especially women are pretty pragmat pragmatic, i guess it's anyone's guess. >> it's anyone's guess. we have yet to see what voters think of michael bloomberg and we won't see until super tuesday. >> which will be here before you know it. we'll right back. ♪ upbeat music

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a gentle, non-acid amino sugar exfoliant that works within the surface and boosts cell turnover by 10x. for brighter, wide-awake skin. bright boost. pair with illuminating serum for 3x the brightening power. neutrogena® we're back talking about the possibility that bloomberg may be out before he has even been on a ballot. what do you think? >> if bloomberg doesn't do well tonight in the debate and can't show that he can eek into the race after not doing the hard core year on the campaign trail i don't really see what the path s although i'm sure he wants to see what he's going to get for his money on super tuesday. >> andrew? >> if i were him i would really focus on the fact that i'm a new yorker he was our mayor for 12 years and also his record on guns and on the environment is i think second to none of all of

the other people who are running. so, you know, he actually has something to run on that would differentiate him from both senator sanders and from tom steyer so he is not just another billionaire. >> it underscores the urgent need to get out of your own way. donna is saying clean up what you can clean up on the ndas, release everybody, let them turn their story. i think tim o'brien is on to something, i'm flawed, but you're right here is what i've tried to do with guns with a paralyzed and unwilling congress and here is what i've tried to do with the environment. >> he has actually accomplished a lot on both guns and the environment and he has a story to tell and he should tell it. i think he is in potentially for the duration. >> why not? >> why not, right? unless he completely bombs on super tuesday and just sees it's hopeless. if he does reasonably well i think he will be around for a long, long time. >> all right. that means lots more stories to

cover about him. we're going to sneak? one extra break. sorry about that. we will be right back. got it. i bet you lunch you can't make it in there. i'm thinkin' sushi. alexa, ask buick to start my suv. you can do that? you can do that? you can do that? yeah, with a buick. what? at the heart of every buick suv...is you. find out why buick is number one in dealer sales and service satisfaction. pay no interest for 72 months on most buick suv models plus current eligible gm owners get 7-50 purchase allowance. plus current eligible gm owners hey hey! you guys man, i'm thinklook like foodies. would you like to try our trashy back ribs? oh, that sounds great... everything is locally harvested, farm to dumpster to table. uhhh, what do you... what else do you got? (stammering) w-we have a melon rind stew. comes with a pork and bean reduction. yeah, we're going to just do a lap and we'll come back. okay. well, we'll be here. man! why isn't this working? my mouth is watering. i think that's just your rabies flaring up. with geico, the savings keep on going. just like this sequel. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more

on car insurance. we got gristle pot pies! vo:for president.ver that's mike bloomberg. a middle class kid who built a global company from scratch. mayor of new york, rebuilding the city after the 9-11 terrorist attack, creating 450,000 jobs. running for president - and on a roll. workable plans to deliver on better health care. affordable college. job creation. common sense plans to beat trump, fix the chaos in washington, and get things done. mike: i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message.

i can talk to these friends for another hour but we are out of time. my naings to con nan, andrew, eugene and elise. "mtp daily" with chuck todd starts right now. ♪ ♪ > . [ no audio ] -- start of tonight's democratic debate. for the seven candidates on stage tonight this will be the last debate before south carolina's primary on saturday and the last debate before super tuesday one week from today. which means tonight could be the last stand for some candidates on that stage. some campaigns are signaling they think it could also be the field's last stand to