yet released. president trump called the gunman a "wicked murderer" and expressed his condolences to the families ahead of his coronavirus news conference yesterday evening. and the house yesterday overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill that would make lynching a federal hate crime. the bill known as the emmett till andy lynching act passed on a 410-4 vote. this after lawmakers unsuccessfully failed to pass 200 times dating back to 1900. the senate will approve the house-passed version and send to president trump's desk. i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. does everyone understand? great. did everyone use the bathroom? does anyone still need to use

the bathroom. senator sanders -- would anyone like to tell mayor bloomberg to screw himself? very good. and who ordered the pastrami? the chicken breast? the caviar? a jar of mayonnaise? this salad with a comb in it? senator klobuchar. lastly, anyone who knows they shouldn't be here? thank you. good-bye. okay, then. let's begin. >> that was fun. good morning and welcome to -- we need a little levity, right? welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, february 27th. an with joe, willie and me we have the president of council on foreign relations and author of forthcoming book "the world of bree introduction" richard haass. i like that. also with us, historian, author

of "the soul of america" and rogers professor of the presidency at vanderbilt university jon meacham, nbc news and msnbc contradicter and author of -- look at you two -- "the last words of jesus from the cross" is out today. very good to you have both. that's the great news. >> great to have you on. decided to go with a lesser-known subject. those footnotes. >> his presidency controversial, but consequential. >> wise. >> oh, lord. >> the last words? >> "the last words." i was down the street here at saint thomas episcopal church, did the three-hour service, you do a a little sermon, last towards from the cross, formed an amazing, what a medieval scholar called "the final sermon," where you can see the entire story of the christian

saga unfolding on what he said from, "father forgive them, they know not what they do" to "it is finished". >> we'll dig into that more in a minute. first the big news of the morning. the cdc announced yesterday a new case of the coronavirus has been confirmed in northern california, and it is believed to be the first instance of what the agency calls community spread, meaning the patient didn't have any relevant travel history, or exposure to another known patient. so far there have been at least two other person-to-person transmission cases in the u.s. that both involved spouses of people who had traveled to china. that development comes as president trump held a news conference in the briefing room yesterday alongside top administration health officials in the briefing the president accurately described the risk to americans as low, but still said he's assembling a task force, which will be led by vice

president mike pence. >> we have a total of 15 people, and they're in the process of recovering with some already having fully recovered. >> we're at that it very low level, and we want to keep it that way. so we're at the low level. as they get better we take them off the list so that we're going to be pretty soon at only five people, and we could be at just one or two people over the next short period of time. and, again, when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to 0, that's a pretty good job we've done. >> mr. president, as we've been briefed, while the threat to the american public remains low of the spread of the coronavirus, you have directed this team to take all steps necessary to continue to ensure the health and well-being of the american people, and the people of this country can be confident that under your leadership we will

continue to bring the full resources of the federal government in coordination with our state and local partners to see to the health and well-being and to the effective response to the coronavirus here in the united states of america. >> and just in the course of last couple of minutes you have disputed some of what officials working in your administration behind you have said about the risk of coronavirus and its spread. could you trust your health officials to give you good information? >> i don't think i've said -- they could it could be worse and i said it could be worse too -- i don't think it's inevitable. i think we're doing a really good job in terms of maintaining border, letting people in and checking people and also one of the reasons i'm here today. getting the word out. so we'll can -- they'll no. >> a source familiar with the government's efforts tell nbc news there is internal tension within the administration on how to contain public concern about

the spread of the virus. a rift that dates back to last month's decision to implement travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines. allies of the president say that he wants to make sure his team is initiating the appropriate responses at the right times without creating mass panic. the report says that trump has largely hinged his frustration on the center for disease control after they announced an outbreak was all but inevitable, yet experts of past epidemics claim that trump's decision to downsize the white house security staff and eliminate jobs addressing global pandemics is likely to hinder the government's response to the virus. here is the president's response to a question yesterday about those budget and staff cuts. >> -- system called for enormous cuts to the cdc, nih and w.h.o.

you talked a lot today about how the professionals are excellent, critical and necessary. does this experience give you pause about -- nompl. because we can get money. >> it's a question i asked the doctors before. some of the people we cut haven't been used for many, many years. fe we ever need them we can get them really quickly and rather than spending the money, i'm a business person. i don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them. >> oh, boy. that decision kearns me a lot. >> and talking about a sizable budget to get this moving. so, willie, it's interesting that, i watched the press conference. first of all, was very glad he had a press conference. >> in the briefing room. very important. robert gibbs said at noon that he needed to do. the president in the briefing room with his team behind him sends a very clear message that he is on alert.

now, listen, people might say it's because he cares more about the stock market than the coronavirus. i don't really care why he's in there. it's important he's in there. what robert gibbs says. once again today is the necessary time to be in the white house briefing room. please bring out the public health experts and walk the nation through the response what comes next and what americans need to prepare for. we need to hear it, please. for the most part it's what the president did. brought his team together. had experts come up and lay out the possibility and, of course, we're grading on a lower scale and, of course, we had to listen to poor mike pence bow and scrape and talk about how great donald trump was every three seconds, but, again, all that aside, the president came out, got the message out. yes, he was being overly optimistic, but there were several times, i believe during that press conference, where he said, yes it could get worse and

his health official said, that's what we need to prepare communities for, and this is what communities need to do. so, you know -- i know -- i know a lot of people were slamming the president for what he did. they were bet you are off this morning because he did what he did than had he not gone out at all. >> the unease that was spreading. >> i thought, there are a couple of little side barbs that he threw out there. he brought the wall on passing, and also asked about india. how great was your trip to india? set up perfectly. i don't really want to talk about that. let's talk about the virus. grading on the trump scale, lower scale, i was actually pleased and comforted that the president of the united states brought the entire health care team out, and they talked to americans about this very important situation. >> the president obviously earned everyone's skepticism when he first starts talking he's told so many lies,

protected his own interests before the interests of the countries and did what presidents do. not get in the nitty-gritty of the science of the whole thing but try to ease the country as a sense of panic begins to xet se around the world. he said the risk was very low and cdc officials came in said, no. we don't know where this is headed richard haass. we have to be careful saying the risk is low, he did his job, the scientists did theirs. the president didn't want people to go out and talk about how serious, might hurt the markets and hence hurt his potential for re-election t re-election. that's obviously there. >> we don't know what the risk is. the numbers of those that have the disease are probably far larger than publicly known, in part because lots of people are asymptomatic. the good news from that, the fatality rate is probably lower than the published rate.

i think he made one important move. establishing one person in charge of this. you need a whole of government effort. one person senior to the cabinet ho coordinate the cabinet and link the foreign and domestic aspects of that. appointing the vice president was the right thing to do. but it was a sobering press conference in the sense while the president was leaning towards the, let's not overreact, the danger is actually underreaction. what dr. fauci said sobering. at best, at best, a year to a year and a half before we have a vaccine. >> right. >> meantime, not just this first wave, but there could be other waves of the virus. by the time we have the vaccine the waves of the virus might be different than the vaccine created would be applicable to. one of those things that will play out over a lot of time. it's a serious virus. it's beginning to show up in the united states and around the world. i think we have to work from the

assumption it's going to spread and what fauci said i liked. a public concern. >> and people who run corporations, large corporations, are sending the message out today to all employees. we are severely limiting travel. >> sure. >> getting on planes only if you have to do that. multiplied many times over, and it is going to have quite an impact on the economy, but at the same time, we'll hopefully limit the spread of this virus, but you're right. we don't know. >> i think the test for this presidency is going to be, something we've talked a lot about on this show, in terms of voids in staffing at the state department. often we've talked about -- first of all what exactly that looks like, when you have someone basically purging, not filling jobs basically weakening that institution and leaning towards the president's

tendencies which is to be a strongman. if you don't have people underneath you and people questioning you and don't have jobs filled there is a weakness. if he has gotten rid of too many scientists, if he has gotten rid of too many people at the centers for disease control, if we don't have the right people in place, what he said, the last sound bite we ran. we'll just get them back. that's not so easy, and it will be very interesting to see exactly who they can gather together. >> right. >> beyond who they put onstage yesterday to really deal with this. >> if i'm going in and i have to have brain surgery, i don't care whether somebody likes "morning joe" or not. >> right. >> i want the best brain surgeon. the purge that republicans are talking about donald trump going through throughout the government right now, jon, we've really heard about over the past week, that purge looks at an official and said, not, is that the official who will best make sure. >> right.

>> that people in wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, north carolina and florida and the rest of the country do not die from this virus? or is this a person who's going to be like mike pence and kowtow to the president every three sentences? and when this -- i'm hoping this is a wake-up call for the administration and for the president that in a lot of positions, loyalty to him doesn't have to come first. especially if it's about science. if it's about infection disease, if it's about safety. >> yeah. the push and pull in our history has been between political appointees and a more professionalized civil service out of a progressive instinct you actually want government to be an instrument, a competent instrument, and seems to me that my greatest anxiety, aside from the impact of the virus itself,

is, we're living in an age of xenophobia. >> uh-huh. >> and it is not impossible to imagine a scenario where blame is cast. >> hmm. >> that's right. >> on some country or group of people if this becomes worse. >> happening in asia. >> what about tom cotton? didn't tom go to harvard? >> i think so. >> i think tom is a harvard guy. very well-educated. tom cotton a couple of days ago spouting a conspiracy theory that the chinese made this virus up. >> there you go n.in a lab. you have rush limbaugh, presidential freedom winner. hard to say it's the most reckless thing he's done but saying this is just a conspiracy and made up to hurt donald trump, he said something yesterday, i can't even keep up with it, but every day is a new dangerous conspiracy theory.

i mean, this is -- this is serious stuff, folks. don't worry about your ratings for one week. don't try to -- don't try to spool up some of whoever's wearing tinfoil hats in your audience, but that's what's happening. still, these conspiracy theories are still saying things that are going to be extraordinarily dangerous for this country. we need to all come together. >> the other thing that's dangerous here is resource allocations. talking about the scientific talent. the other is money. this is an administration that cut money for the centers for disease control, for it national institutes of health. dramatically slashed u.s. support for the world health organization and for aid around the world. a perfect example of penny wise and pound foolish. because we haven't invested in the infrastructure domestically and internationally on dealing with pandemics like this, we are far more vulnerable than we needed to be or want to be. >> this is the thing, willie.

when you start -- when you have donald trump spending the money that he spends and cutting the taxes that he's cutting and then he gets to these parts of the budget and i know it's not him. it's just people mindlessly going, take 10% off of this, and 10% off of that and it has to do with health. it has to do with food safety. it has to do with research and development for alzheimer's or for diabetes or for making, you know, americans, i mean -- talking about diabetes, the incidence of diabetes is higher in red state america than it is blue state america. a lot of this research he's slashing are hurting the very people that he would prefer to protect. >> yeah. and those cuts all come home to roost eventually and impact people regardless of political preference. right after the press conference the cdc announced a new case of coronavirus from northern

california reportedly from someone who hadn't traveled to any of the affected countries raising a new question how that's being transmitted. let's go to the white house and geoff bennett let's talk about the decision to appoint the vice president mike pence as the point person, at least. what will be the chain of command as the white house looks at this pending prices? >> reporter: look, any news coming out of that news conference that was it. all day white house officials and sources tell us president trump was not going to name a czar. alex azar, health and human services secretary, had it all under control. even as republicans on the other side of pennsylvania avenue, some had made the point azar already runs one of the biggest government agencies and that his sort of response effort needed a point person who would report directly to president trump, and so that's precisely what president trump announced yesterday. apparently blindsiding azar

himself. azar had been on the hill in some zb committee hear some subcommittee members and had said there would be no czar. that vice president pence will report back to trump. pence has a lot of experience handling interagency work given his experience as a past governor of indiana although public health experts said he was roundly criticized for on hiv outbreak in 2015 in his home state of indiana. pence at the time refused to accept really the hard science on needle exchanges and how that would be beneficial from a public health standpoint. i think the next part of this, though, is fully funding the response effort. you saw earlier in the week the white house requested $2.5 billion that was criticized by democrats and republicans. richard shelby, senate appropriations chair, thought

the white house was lowballing it. dr. anthony fauci at the nih said that $2.5 billion would be in effect a down payment and chuck schumer wrote his own bill $8.5 billion to handle that and president trump said, fine. what they want to gish us, we'll fully accept that. i'm told about $1 billion of that will go to vaccine development and stockpiling equipment like masks and that sort of thing and the government also has to fix and deploy the government-designed test for coronavirus, which i think would go in large part to getting the numbers of detections up to a point where the it might be more accurate to go to richard haass' point earlier. so much is asymptomatic when it comes to coronavirus, guys. >> let me ask you. any reporting what moved the president of the united states to go from tweeting attacks on cable news channels in the morning and saying that they were overhyping this coronavirus to giving, i think, a pretty

somber press conference in the afternoon and delivering, again, the sort of officials of the information that robert gibbs was suggesting earlier in the day he needed to deliver? where was the point earlier in the day the president understood this was something he was going to have to talk to the american people about? >> reporter: we knew early yesterday morning the president would offer some sort of media availability. throughout the day it evolved into being the press conference we saw yesterday where the president himself really for the third time in his entire administration walked into the press briefing room flanked by the krvice president and member of the so-called coronavirus task force virus. one, wanted to calm markets, a major concern of his, and also wanted to sort of show the american people or try to show the american people that his administration was fully prepared to handle the response and in control. even though that press

conference at times devolved into the president offering up parts of his stump speech where he used his favorite pejorative nickname i won't repeat for chuck schumer, why he should be re-elected, flamed the stock market slide on democrats running for re-election and experts point out as y'all pointed out, a couple of things he did right. talked about, encouraging americans to take steps to slow the spread of this virus. even acknowledged the fact there would be quarantines if there is such an outbreak. talked about the importance of shoring up the response efforts amongst state and local authorities, that sort of thing, guys. >> all right. bennett, thank you, very, very much. >> a good point. right now if we suspect someone has the disease or we don't even know, we can't test them on the site and get something back to us. we have to test them, send biological samples to places like atlanta where the centers are disease control are overwhelmed by it and it takes days. you need a lot of money to develop as quickly as possible a

mechanism for testing and getting feedback within seconds of whether a person is infected with the disease. that's the reason this begins to add up. the money, $2.5 billion administration asked for only half new money. a lot reprogrammed. there is a lot that needs to be spent here. >> a lot that needs to be done. the president's press conference yesterday, i don't know that it assured the markets. because the futures fell. s&p futures fell. europe is having another rough day. i think part of that is, though, the news, as you mentioned after which is that there was a new case in california from somebody who had not traveled. >> right. >> so that puts it into a new game and, again, when you have the largest corporations in america, some starting to pick up the phone and deciding they're going to severely restrict travel for all of their -- their staff, because of

the coronavirus, people saying, no overseas trips, starting to hear people talking about limiting trips to the west coast. that suddenly has a pretty significant impact to the economy. >> absolutely. >> and on supply chains. >> we'll talk a lot more about this. still ahead on "morning joe" we'll talk to senator chris coons who helped lead capitol hill's response to the ebola crisis a few years ago, and mayor bill de blasio talking about preparations against the coronavirus and his endorsement of bernie sanders for president, plus a big announcement concerning know your value and forbes magazine. we'll tell you about that right after the break. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. (howling wind)

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♪ ♪ all right. it is 28 past the hour and we have really big news for all of us here. i'm happy to announce "know your

value" is partnering with forbes to create an amazing powerful new platform entitled "50 over 50." a list celebrating the trailblazing women who achieved significant success after 50 and way beyond, and there are so many. the inaugural 50 over 50 list will highlight and celebrate the inspiring stories of 50 incredible women all over the age of 50 who have overcome formidable barriers in their lives. this new partnership shine as light on those women rewriting the rules of success and who inspire all of us as they shatter misconceptions about age and gender in the workplace. the collaboration will also provide a template to empower women of all ages to become a better advocate for themselves. so in addition, 50 over 50 will be a centerpiece of the first single topic issue of forbes magazine in three years. it's a powerful list showing the most powerful women on the front

lines of success and paying it forward as well. so we're going to have much more on this coming up a little later on "morning joe," when forbes chief content officer randall lane joins us to talk about how we're going to roll out this project and all of the exciting parts of it. >> really, really exciting. throw names out here. nancy pelosi. >> oh, yeah. >> she's got to be on the list, who do you -- >> anne fanewton. >> mike barnicle will -- >> we shall see. >> congratulations. you know, the world advertisers are catching up to that 18 to 49 may not be the demo that matters the most in this country. that we're all disposable income and the juice is in the over the 50. ahead of the curve. nicely done. >> women over 55, the fastest growing age and gender workforce category and men are declining. so what's happening -- proof of that -- >> tell us something we don't know.

yes. >> we are churchill and -- >> we have arrived. >> you want to know the pop culture affirmation of that, not aploying to this but "bachelor" is coming out with a 65-plus "bachelor." i missed by a few years. it's true. shows you the power of the -- no, no. kidding aside, really shows where the pow sir in this country from a completely obviously different vantage point but congratulations, mika. >> thank you very much. i'm excited. >> all right. okay. tell me how that goes. >> so -- >> in a few years. >> we obsess on the youth culture so much. fascinating. talking about "range" a book my son joey had got an year ago and the idea was that -- >> a great book. >> did you get it? >> yeah. unbelievable. >> changes your mind really about everything. how you move towards success. what's the most effective thing?

and he talked about -- the part i loved. talking about how start-ups. we always think, tech start-ups be in your 20s or 30s. no. you need to get beating up at about 20 or 30 things and start a tech start-up in 40s and 50s go by the numbers. begins with a ceo in their 50s. it's something like two or three times as likely to succeed as a tech start-up for somebody in their 30s and goes through, you know, whether it's van gogh or einstein or whatever. he talked about the multitude of failures each of these people got and poor van gogh was a colossal failure at everything. he wanted to go into the ministry, and committed his life to christ and went out into the nether regions and they didn't like him. just horrible. just on and on and on.

he tried drawing, and teachers, this is absolutely the worst drawing i'm ever seen in my life. everything he did, a colossal failure, but all of those skills came together and you saw this extraordinary thunderstorm outside and ran, covered himself up and just started throwing paint on the canvas after all of these years of failure, and what he saw in five minutes was -- wait. oh, my god. this is -- this is what i'm -- going to do. >> throwing paint. >> donny knows this. any successful person i know the first thing they talk about is failure and rejection, the things they tried and trial and error and things that haven't gone well for them that brought them to the place where they are. >> and this is a male centric response, but franklin roosevelt and polio at 39. >> right. >> churchill in ga liply leaves the government goes to the front in world war i age of 40.

dante, comedy, lost his way middle of the journey. reagan gets divorced loses his career. everybody sort of at that point who is in the male political world has had some cataclysm about that point and either, you either flinch or you go on. >> the two greatest examples. lincoln and churchill. time and time again. one loss after another loss after another loss. >> we're gorge to be celebrating the women who have had success rather than loss. >> congratulations. it's great. >> it's a big deal. >> we do have failures as well and talk about them as well a lot in the "know your value" community. i think this is a great space for women in the "know your value" community to really talk about the successes after 50. the women paving the trail for all of our daughters, and there's so many more of them. why i think this list is so important. thank you all very. stay in place. gene robinson live in south carolina coming up after the

break. >> by the way, did you hear where bernie's campaigning on friday and saturday? >> wow. >> it's lovelier. >> he's going to massachusetts. >> massachusetts. >> good thing elizabeth warren was -- >> ooh. >> -- was so nice to him on the debate stage. >> things are going really well there. >> rick wilson had a quote a couple days ago, and rick said, you know -- because he's a florida guy. he goes, you can feed the alligator fried chicken. all the fried chicken you want. at the end, the alligator eats you. and the alligator -- >> i like that. >> -- is going up to massachusetts on friday and saturday instead of campaigning in south carolina. we're going to talk about what that means. first of all, other than just bernie trying to finish elizabeth's campaign off once and for all, but also what it means about maybe biden. maybe he thinks, i can't catch biden in south carolina. it's his. >> all right, gene robinson live

in south carolina when we come back. near point comfort, virginia. it carried more than 20 enslaved africans, who were sold to the colonists. no aspect of the country we know today has been untouched by the slavery that followed. america was not yet america, but this was the moment it began. [sfx: typing] 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. and now for their service to the community, we present limu emu & doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need.

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

i can think of no one that the integrity, no one who will admit it to the fundamental principles that make this country what it is than my good friend, my late wife's great friend, joe biden. >> i know joe. we know joe. but most important, joe knows us. >> hmm. >> wow. >> now, that was a powerful endorsement. with us now from charleston, south carolina, pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of the "washington post" and msnbc news political analyst eugene robinson. >> so, gene, we now know why

bernie sanders is leaving south carolina early. >> yeah. >> i mean, listen. >> yeah. >> i always told politicians that tell me about the endorsements that they have, i think endorsements don't matter, but i will tell you, two notable exceptions as far as i'm concerned. one a clyburn in south carolina and harry reid in nevada because those two guys have their states wired the way the old states used to have their states wired. this clyburn endorsement, pretty huge, right? >> the best thing that could have possibly happened to joe biden's campaign here in south carolina. jim clyburn had, you know, been non-committal whether he would endorse at all and he waited until the, you know, just the moment, i think, for biden, after biden's much stronger performance in the debate the

other night. boom. here comes the endorsement of the most important political figure in the state. certainly in terms of the democratic party. he is the guy, and, you know, i got to, was around here and then went home to orangeburg and talked to a lot of people yesterday. just heard a lot about joe biden. >> yeah. >> and also talked to a lot of people who are looking at this race like -- we have somehow bred an entire nation of pundits. so every was calculating, well, i think the clyburn endorsement will make people more likely to vote for him. it was hard to get people to talk about actually who they were going to vote for, but it came down to most of the people i talked to, i just really got a sense that this is a, this has been probably joe biden's best week of the campaign and will do well on saturday. >> you know, so, willie, here we

have -- once again politics going in a direction that nobody can predict and the law of unintended consequences. mike bloomberg decided he had to get into this race when elizabeth warren moved into first place. >> uh-huh. >> and when bernie sanders was not far behind. and at the same time that a lot of joe biden's people were concerned he was going to finish in fourth in iowa and new hampshire, that's what he did. it wasn't, he had told everybody throughout the summer, ooii'm n doing it i'm not doing it, i'm not doing it and then facing a democratic nominee who's a sanders or a warren, i have to do it. so here we find ourselves, at the end of february, and the law of unintended consequences have

it that if joe biden has a great night on saturday night, that if that is still michael bloomberg's goal, is to stop bernie sanders or elizabeth warren, he needs to drop out early sunday morning, because if he does not, take a look a the this texas poll. if he does not, he is actually helping bernie sanders win the nomination. this billionaire will be helping bernie. this is the 2020 democratic nomination polling out of texas. biden and sanders are tied at 24% with bloomberg at 17%. this is what it would look like if bloomberg got out of the race. >> hmm. biden easily wins. he's outside the margin. and you can go ahead and put that across another 20 or 30 states. i mean, i know that would be

extraordinarily tough for bloomberg to do, but, you know what? they're 45% away through the game after super tuesday. he, mike bloomberg, if biden does well, and if bloomberg stays in the race will be the guy remembered as the politician, the billionaire, who got bernie sanders elected, well, michael bloomberg is not going to get out before super tuesday. his entire rationale, i can put all the resources into those races and that's where it begins for me. to be alternative to bernie sanders and elizabeth warren and he's turning out to be alternative for joe biden for a lot of voters. on saturday, donny, all signals are joe biden's going to do well there. bernie sanders wouldn't be going to massachusetts tomorrow and having a rally and on saturday day of the vote wouldn't be having a massive rally on boston

common not in columbia, south carolina if he didn't see this going for joe bidan chandos bae. what happens we wake up sunday morning and looks like joe biden's campaign is revitalized what does mike bloomberg do with that? >> a positive storm for biden after the debate performance. if biden win wins, and i think l win fairly substantially, that changes a lot. everybody already anointing bernie and almost overreaction if someone else has a good moment, a good day. i think there will be an overreaction, oh, my god. we have our anti-bernie. to that point, if mike bloomberg wants to be an american hero, he would step out. i've said all along bloomberg's got a great opportunity. after these first two debates i don't think the right stuff is there. if he came out that next day and said not only getting out, getting behind biden and biden said i'll make you my secretary

of state, that could -- that would change dynamics in a major way. mike bloomberg would be a patriot here. >> politicians always make the right decision about two weeks too late, and these presidential contests, the damage has already been done. the 20-car pileup is all over the road and then they get out of their car and say i think it would be best to just give you the car keys and i'll just walk home. thanks. in this case, there is no doubt that if biden has a big night, bloomberg needs to get out of the race immediately, before super tuesday, and -- and we can give an example, a very specific example of how bloomberg could possibly take from biden is jim clyburn last week all of my sources were telling me that

clyburn was moving towards a bloomberg endorsement but he was going to watch the debate before he decided whether he was going to go back to the guy he originally wanted to be with, joe biden. joe biden had a great debate. i think clyburn was going to endorse him by that point anyway, because bloomberg had had a weak first debate, but that's a great example of how mike bloomberg is not hurting bernie sanders. mike bloomberg is now hurting joe biden. >> absolutely. >> what the mayor could do, presumably, say i got into this race to make a more -- sort of moderate -- make a more sensible nominee possible who will reach the broad american public. my work is done. it is clear that the vice president, former vice president, has a path here, and i will devote all of my resources to this, but as you

say, you know, that's what people would say at the kennedy school. >> right. >> or, you know -- >> or around the table at "morning joe." >> yeah, yeah. it's a -- but it's a regency hotel -- >> right. driving on the icy road. you say get off the road. you're going to kill some people. >> i mean, warren rudman would have been president if centrists had their way on everything. so, you know, when the history of his campaign is written i suspect where we're going to be is a democratic socialist who caucuses with the party, will be the nominee and run against a man who five years ago was not a republican. that tells you something about the strength, in quotes, of the american party system. >> i heard somebody, willie, on twitter actually wrote something like, wait. hold on. let me get this straight. this race is going to come down

to, a billionaire running as a democrat who used to be a republican. a billionaire who is president of the united states, who spent his adult life as a democrat giving money to democrats who's running as republican. >> if he is a billionaire. >> and a socialist who refused to join the democratic party. >> hmm. >> great. >> yeah. >> no. >> no, thanks. what to say of many democrats. gene robinson, bloomberg said for him the campaign starts on super tuesday. he spent a half a billion dollars, but i will point to polling, which shows he is at best plateaued in most of those super tuesday states and in some of them gone down quite a bit percentagewise. if he's going into super tuesday looking at these numbers, despite having poured half a billion dollars into those states, and he's not, forget winning the states, not able to win delegates in the states, is there any chance you believe he does take a look and say maybe i need to pull back, if the idea

is first defeat bernie sanders then defeat donald trump, maybe joe biden is the guy? i don't see it personally. i wonder what you think? >> well, that. i mean, i doubt it. but even if he wanted to, you know, that's like trying to turn an ocean liner on a dime. right? you've poured hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars into telling people, you know, i'm the guy. bloomberg's the guy and now all of a sudden go, wait, wait, wait p i'm not the guy. biden's the guy. look at a state like california. okay. so bernie sanders is clearly going to be above the threshold in california. >> yep. >> the nightmare scenario for those who want to stop bernie is that he's above the threshold and a bunch of other candidates don't reach the 15% threshold and he reaps the lion's share of those 400-odd delegates in california, and gets a huge

lead, and that's a conceivable scenario. >> uh-huh. >> and keep in mind that maybe a third of the california vote is already in. so a lot of this is already kind of baked in to the biggest and most important state in super tuesday. so, you know, if bloomberg's going to make this dramatic move and throw it all behind him he better do it in, like, five minutes because it's awfully late already. >> and a socialist not just mike bloomberg, amy klobuchar and pete buttigieg. neither will be the democratic candidate, conceivably one could be vice presidential candidate, particularly senator klobuchar. and that's, add them together, probably another 10%, 15%. >> exactly. >> could have a tremendous impact on the two leading people on the moderate track obviously vice president biden as well as mike bloomberg but they also have to make a decision quickly, if their support will be

relevant. >> to the human, talks what an existential threat trump is and these candidates have to look in the mirror and say, do i want to be a part of serving bernie sanders up, who i think that zero chance of beating donald trump. we are in a moment of time. imagine trump four more years? machen, god forbid, bernie on the ticket and they take the house? it's over. >> so all of that sort of is the rational political view but the human reality is, and i attribute his to president kennedy in my head but i suspect it comes from somebody else. you get to the senate look around a couple days and say, wow, how did i get here? and spend the rest of your career thinking, jesus, how did the rest of these people get here? that must be true on the debate stage. right? and the institutionalized solupsism, selling yourselves

for years, you only see your own name when they hold up a sign. what do you see when you look back? you don't actually see other people. ideally you would, but you see they're here for me. >> in your world, it's still a possibility. >> gene, thank you so much. your piece for the "washington post" entitled "sanders is leading something rare and unpredictable in u.s. politics." every take a read. still ahead, some mixed messaging from president trump yesterday after he appeared to tweet that he could live with pete buttigieg as president. >> meaning he's trying to move in on his husband? what did he mean? >> what? plus while it is unclear how urgent a threat the coronavirus poses here in the u.s., senator chris coons will look to his experience in dealing with the 2014 ebola outbreak to give perspective when he joins the

conversation. also live ahead, in south carolina. the primary is joe biden's to lose but elizabeth warren's to surprise us. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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that to beat trump you cannot run a conventional campaign. same old same old is not going to do it. and i say to my good friend joe biden, joe, you can't do it when you are have voted for variable trade policies like nafta and pntr with china which have cost us millions of jobs. [ cheers and applause ] joe, you're not going to bring working people in to the political process when you voted for a terrible bankruptcy bill. [ cheers and applause ] you're not going to bring people in to the political process when you voted and strongly supported

the war in iraq. [ cheers and applause ] and you're not going to bring people in to the political process when you have stood on the floor of the senate time and again talking about the need to cut social security, medicare and veterans programs. >> today people are talking about a revolution. what the country's looking for are results. what they're looking for is security. what they're looking for is to be able to sustain and maintain their dignity. >> welcome back to "morning joe." it is thursday, february 27th. donny deutsch is still with us along with historian jon meacham. new book entitled "the hope of

glory: reflections from the last words of jesus on the cross." out today. and msnbc contributor mike barnicle and msnbc news national co-analyst and co-host of "the circus" and editor and chief of "the recount," john heilemann from charleston, south carolina, john, we're picking up a few things. first of all, the endorsement yesterday obviously in carolina, jim clyburn means a world of a difference in his endorsement. >> huge. >> also the news of bernie sanders, that he's leaving the state on friday. he's going to start campaigning up in massachusetts -- to try to finish elizabeth warren's campaign off once and for all. and also something i found very interesting. donald trump and his campaign team starting ads in south carolina once again trying to damage joe biden.

they really -- he's holding a rally. >> -- they really fear this guy biden? >> yeah. so all of those things are true. the clyburn endorsement huge for joe biden. i would say from the ground here, joe. i can't find anybody who's plugged in here, particularly in the world of african-american politics who does not now think that joe biden is clearly going to win this race on saturday and the question is by how much. some people, there was a clemson poll yesterday, very accurate -- a poll historically been accurate in south carolina had biden up by 20 points yesterday. >> wow. >> with tom steyer in second and sanders in third. see whether that turns out to be true. a lot of confidence now even though the biden people are trying to keep expectations low assuming biden will win. the question, by how much? narrow victory or a big double-digit one? the second thing. sanders, smart for sanders to get out and get to the super tuesday states. y point out the massachusetts thing.

the possibility bernie sanders could beat elizabeth warren in massachusetts and he'll campaign monday up in minnesota where if amy klobuchar is still in the race, a chance sanders will beat amy klobuchar in her home state. he's looking for a show of force and understands he's not getting it done here, not killing off joe biden which they talked about a few days ago. talked about the possibility of doing that here in south carolina. they're moving on to the big delegate prizes on super tuesday and it's smart for sanders and joe biden right now in those 16 states and territories that vote on tuesday, how many of those do you think joe biden's on the air on right now with paid media, joe? >> let me see. >> zero. zero. >> texted zero i'll get zero. >> zero. >> yes. >> so sanders setting up -- yeah. looking for a big day next tuesday, sanders. the last thing you mentioned, the trump thing. trump's been flying into all of these states. there's a vote, iowa, new hampshire, trump flies in trying to mess with the democratic

race. and a pro-trump race with barack obama's voice. >> what a stupid ad! by the way what a stupid ad. >> yes, but managed to annoy the president, former president barack obama so much. barack obama does not want to get involved in this race but was so annoyed he came out through representatives yesterday and demanded the ad be taken down from south carolina television. tells you how desperate the trump people are. see joe biden getting strong again here in south carolina and are right back at it again trying to mess with the democratic race and mess with joe biden. >> mark caputo sent me a quote where they had asked the trump people, well -- but joe biden is damaged. right? response, yeah, but not dead. >> hmm. >> they are obsessed, which tells you one thing. all of their internal polling. >> sure. >> all of it shows joe biden is going to beat donald trump. if joe biden can win the democratic nomination, they know

that -- that biden beats trump. and so think about what they did in iowa. everybody did -- you know, the republicans threw everything they had at trying to hurt him there and now they're doing the same thing in south carolina. i mean, trump got impeached because of his obsession with joe biden. >> yeah. and it's always been that joe biden has been the biggest threat to donald trump. they've always viewed that, but they thought now that his campaign after iowa and new hampshire and nevada, they thought finished with him. now they're seeing in south carolina embers of his campaign are still there. we won't even play. so ugly and misleading, the ad with barack obama's voice from the audio book he did many years ago pretending it was him talking about joe biden, but joe biden, that clemson poll, jon is right. up almost 20 points in that poll. had a good night last night at that town hall. a moment we'll play in a moment i know where he connected with

the reverend from mother emanuel church's wife killed there. if you're joe biden you win big in south carolina and suddenly feel like you've got some new life. >> no doubt about that if he wins big in south carolina and allows him to raise some money and still get up on the air digitally by super tuesday in some states given the money he might raise. one thing about the biden campaign regard to donald trump and other campaigns. i don't know whether john would agree with me or not. what you hear, the spectacular data gathering operation of the trump campaign. brad parscale, genius at data and the data clearly shows joe biden, uh-oh, is a problem for donald trump, with joe biden. >> got to tell you, so much democratic money laying on the sidelines with nowhere to go. if biden has as big a day in south carolina saturday, those

financial floodgates are going to open up. i said this off-camera. biden seems to have a different pep in his step. seems to be, starting the di debate. almost unsure of himself as bizarre as it seems and all of a sudden a certain, gravitas waiting to come out coming out and this race could dramatically shift. back to bloomberg. one of the guys said early on, bloomberg has a great shot. this world would turn upside-down if mike bloomberg, it's a hypothetical, "morning joe," a hypothetical, next morning out putting my money behind biden that would turn this thing upside-down. >> go over to the regency and have breakfast? same thing around the table. john heilemann you worked fought nor bloomberg b nor -- not for mike bloomberg

but working there you know bloomberg better than most of us. are chances between 0 and 1% if biden has a big night on friday night, or saturday night, that bloomberg will get out of the race on sunday? so not to help bernie sanders? >> i'd say less than 0%. not based on what i know about the culture there, but talking to those guys as i talked to all the campaigns constantly. you know, their attitude goes back to one of the things i just said to you, joe. they think that this is like a dead catoe biden here in south carolina. they look at him, the campaign is broke, look at the campaign states. doesn't have the financial resources to compete with sanders down the line. they think that mike bloomberg can recover from the bad debate performance he had in las vegas and be better. >> do they give an explanation why he did so badly?

two just horrific nights? he looked like brick tamlynn in "anchorman." he just looked lost, in both debates. maybe they can explain this too. the first debate, bloomberg's first good answer came 70 minutes in when he talked about climate change. in the second debate, his first good answer came about 68 minutes in. should they set his alarm about 70 minutes earlier on debate days? or should he just avoid debates? >> well, i think -- i think -- maybe -- look, the ideal thing, no more debates for mike bloomberg. better off when they weren't happening. their spin of course is, these things aren't as bad as they looked although they could see he didn't do very well in vegas. i agree. asked for their spin. reality is that they're a very talented bunch of people over there.

howard wilson, kevin sheekey, they know what they're doing. you have a man worth $60 billion not used to being critiqued often and not used to -- >> in his 70s. >> -- in his 70s, mika says, not prone to change and never a good political performer. strengths of mike bloomberg never as a debater or public speaker. he's super competent, a manage je -- managerial -- i wouldn't mind mike bloomberg running the country in a state of, dealing with a pandemic but reality, never been good at the onstage stuff. tried to prep him. i think genuinely mike bloomberg did not think he was as vulnerable ob some of the questions like the ndas for instance, as he turned out to be and also i think debating is hard. i think he underestimated how good his opponents would be and learned pretty quick in vegas

how far behind he is and then never going to catch up to bernie sanders on the debate stage. got to do it another way. >> what you call that, mika? >> what do you call no? >> call that the $58 billion bubble. >> that is. except one thing he could have done, john heilemann, is, the debate stage, it's a stressful 90 minutes. everybody -- especially in this last debate everybody was screaming at each other and literally no control over the conversation. that is not a good place for mike bloomberg to shine, and i don't care how many, you know, letterman jokesters are writing for you and top people like kevin sheekey and whoever, they're not the ones out there feeling the burn of the lights and trying to handle this completely untenuous situation. what mike bloomberg needs to do, should have done is tons of interviews with really, really challenging interviewers and should practice with his top people about handling those things, but in-depth interviews with high-profile journalists

really kind of taking ownership of some of these issues that are challenging to him and taking the narrative over sir where he could shine if he did the work on that. getting ready for a debate. >> option two, never did debates. >> no need to do a debate. >> don't do the debates. >> aren't we in a head and heart situation in terms of progressive politics? bernie is the heart. bloomberg is entirely, almost entirely data driven. that's very much the head. and at least for our purposes, i think for a lot of us who know him, biden's an interesting combination of the two. he's got a big heart but he's a practical guy. >> yes. >> people vote with their heart by the way. and i got one thing that i saw with bloomberg. just not there onstage. john, the point you made, nerve her to answer to anybody. if you put for, any of these guys up there, that gastault is

going to show. i don't need to answer to you, i don't have to answer to you. never used that muscle their entire life. >> when do you think the last time michael bloomberg -- >> never. >> -- was ever asked to put up his hand to speak? fourth grade, maybe? >> never. that's not going to change. it's in that wiring. not all the prep will change it and that's my concern. >> yeah. it -- it's -- again, the problem, though, is that i don't think biden's going to have the "dead cat bounce." i mean if you look in texas, if you look at these other states, i think over the past week people have exaggerated bernie sanders' success in super tuesday states, and you know this, john. everybody said, oh, he's at 35%. at 40 -- no, he's not. he's in the low 20s in some states. the mid-20s in some states. >> right. >> biden with a big win. i don't think it's a dead cat

bounce. i think biden's going to because of name i.d. and everything else and seen as a front-runner, joe biden has a chance to do what happened before. what do you think? not if you agree with my theory. i'm not chris matthews here -- we love chris by wait. >> love him. can't wait to watch tonight. >> by the way, i think that's the central question. right? you know, you had bernie sanders who won in iowa. 25% of vote. new hampshire, 25%. can he grow his vote? up into the 30s and 40s eventually. a big night in nevada. is that a caucus they worked it really hard and deserved a big win? blew out the doors in nevada, but does that now project forward? is bernie sanders now, is that carrying forward? in the mid-40s going forward.

or an aberration and anomalyano. look to south carolina, a lot of african-american vote. your theory is a plausible one. if we see joe biden win in a big way, does that suggest bernie sanders is very strong but not as strong as it looked like coming out of nevada and if biden replicates throughout super tuesday states with a lot of african-american vote in a lot of big states, does that mean maybe people got a little ahead of themselves on putting the crown on bernie sanders and if that's the case, you know, can joe biden put together a game financially quickly out of south carolina? does the money pour in, as donny suggested? and can they do something with it? almost as important as getting the money. in the course of march, up close to two-thirds of delegates sggin

away basically in four weeks in march. can the biden campaign get all of that money and effectively operationalizehe many large states that lie ahead in these states? you could end up with a serious donnybrook between sanders anded by all that plays out in just the right way. >> mike, keep thinkis in contex and talk about what we've been saying at least since october and that is that joe biden was going to be disadvantaged in the first states, because they were overwhelmingly white. also we said repeatedly, all of us, and our guests said repeatedly, that we don't get a contest that looks like the democratic party until south carolina. this contest, and, boy i just got to say. the dnc screwed up. they have screwed up for the past 20 years.

starting with two lily white states. these states are as white as nantucket. just put murray'sing tolerry all over iowa and new hampshire? it is so white. juice bars on every corner. >> all right. come on. >> you know what i'm talking about! you know what i'm talking about. so here we are in the first state. >> uh-huh. >> that is representative of all the states that are going to follow. and it's south carolina. and if biden, like the clemson poll says wins by double digits, wins by 20 points, what does that tell you? it tells you that biden is actually best positioned to -- to -- to roll through these things, if bloomberg doesn't cut him off at his knees and takes 10 percentage points away from him in every state and elects

bernie sanders. >> you know, not for the first time, and this is certainly not the first election year, where events occur and the chattering class, i have to include myself in the guilty, we sometimes overestimate bernie's strength immediately. right out of the box. especially given the las vegas numbers, and underestimate and somehow characterize joe biden as almost dead by the side of the road given his failure to score really well in new hampshire and nevada and things like that, but he's not. his campaign is not dead. and he needs a big victory in south carolina to sustain the campaign and to raise more money and your description of john mccain's campaign when he ended up going from flying private leer jets to riding a bus around the country is incredibly apt and fits joe biden to a t. i still think there's a contest here. i think joe biden versus bernie

sanders, and if he does get him in anything that approximates a one-on-one confrontation to your point, donny, i think the money flows towards joe biden, and danger, swing the pendulum all the way back. don't underestimate bernie sanders. just won nevada by 26 points and as john and others pointed out this morning, his lead in california, which offers 415 delegates is 21 points right now in the polling average. he leads elizabeth warren and the others. so bernie sanders is a strong, strong front-runner. all of this conversation we're having is about an alternative to them for people who want to see an alternative, but bernie sanders' support is huge and especially in states. he tied in texas with joe biden for the lead there. he's got leads or is tied for the lead in states that give a ton of delegates. if he does as well as polls say in super tuesday, it will be over. >> just going back to kentucky derby analogy which i love giving. yeah. bernie is secretariat right now.

trying to figure out who sham is. who is -- is there a horse that can push secretariat? >> good lord. >> well, he's henry wallace in a way. >> that's good, too! go back to 1948. >> yeah. >> so it is 1948. >> no. >> beat the hil out of strom. >> go ahead. >> i think one of the things we're seeing here and i know before the internet explodes, this is not an equivalence between senator sanders and the president, stipulated, to be sure, but we are at a moment in our tribal politics where it is now entirely plausible that a man who was not a republican five years ago is leading that party as the incumbent president and a man who is not a democrat will be the nominee of the democratic party. >> yeah. >> and in 1948, which was in ways the first modern campaign, you had strom thurmened over

here for the dixiecrats who bolted because of a pro-civil rights speech. nominate harry truman integrated the military, becomes first president to address the naacp and tom dewey moderate republican figure but a four-way race. where we are now, we may have the henry wallace progressive and the strom thurmond conservative without the two intermediary figures. >> right. >> and prohibitively, if bernie sanders is the democratic nominee, it is not a choice between, hey, here's a moderate and here's trump. it's here's a democratic socialist and here's trump. >> by the way, it's just, again, it's -- >> great. >> this is anecdotal, but anecdotal actually matters. donny, sure you've heard, heard from a lot of my florida friends, not big contributors,

but my florida friends vote for anybody who is not donald trump saying i will not vote for bernie sanders. >> that is all i hear. >> heard it time and time again. what about trump? doesn't matter. what about trump? doesn't matter. i'm not voting for a socialist. >> either staying home or hold my nose and vote for trump is all i hear in new york, by the way. literally, either i don't know what i'm going to do or you're going to force me to vote for trump. this country is not -- by the way, 2018, 40 seats. all moderate. all suburban women. >> i don't know if any of those people talking to you are russian, but that seems to be the moscow view. >> russians feel the same way. yeah. we always talk about -- >> before we close, jon meacham "the hope of glory." tell us about it. >> the crucifixion, in two minutes. >> wow. okay. >> and for or against it? >> jesus is tracking polls, they were very high heading into the jerusalem caucus. >> got it. >> no. sorry.

this is a series of good friday homilies, essays, about, there are seven things in the passion that jesus said from the cross. according to the gospels, and kind of form a last sermon about forgiveness and mercy and grace and duty, and this, the christian story is unimaginable without both good friday and easter. and one of the things that fascinating me is for two millennia christians referenced not an empty tomb but a cross. and so what did that mean in realtime both to the person who was -- the lord who was executed and how did his followers make sense of this cataclysm? >> let me just -- two things jesus said on the cross that have always fascinated me and wondered, theologically what was behind them.

one, my god, my god, why have you forsaken me? he knew what was coming if he were god and man. the god part of him knew what was coming. why would he ask jesus -- why would he ask god, why hast thousand forsaken me and of course it goes back to the old testament. >> jesus of nazareth is speaking in verify knack la nakna verify psalm. being scorned, power of the dog but ends with an image of deliverance. the central drama of the hebrew bible is we have fallen into corruption and disorder but israel is, in fact, a chosen nation and that god will ultimately deliver the nation

into restoration. >> right. so it is -- it is a reference to a psalm. >> right. >> that is about restoration. >> exactly. >> and finally, it is finished. the last three words. >> the greek word and i won't try to pronounce it with my accent is, it is accomplished. it is done. and the antecedent of "it" is always important. haven't had antecedent thrown at you -- >> i have not. >> antecedent, i have done the work i was sent to do. what's so fascinating about this story to me is that the desipings and the people there weren't sure what this meant. if they had been sure, why would they have dismissed the first reports of the resurrection? this is not a smooth and uncomplicated story. and if you climb -- part of the historians, if you go back to that moment and try to put yourself in the shoes of those who were undergoing it, i come

away with a stronger faith, not a weaker one. >> hmm. >> the book is, "the hope of glory: reflections on the last words of jesus from the cross." i can't wait. >> beautiful, to receipt it. john peopn meacham, thank you, n heil mann, talking about your several black flags for a better and more healthy life. >> awesome. up for that. >> thank you. >> thank you john heilemann. still ahead on "morning joe" more on the administrations reaction to the threat of the coronavirus. we'll be right back. somebody sneezes i try to bail out as much as possible with sneezing. a man came up to me hadn't seen him in a long time. said how ya doing? fine, fine. hugs me. i said, are you well? he says, no. [ laughter ] he said, i have the worst fever

and the worse flu and he's hugging and kissing me. i said, excuse me. i started washing my hands. >> at some point i hope they get get it. >> will you turn it over? >> at some point i might because it's a fantastic financial statement. it's a fantastic financial statement. let's do that over. he's kaufr aring in the middle of my answer. i don't like that. if you're go to cough, please, leave the room. >> i'm come over here. >> you just can't do it. >> just to change the side. >> can't do it. tor, i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchumal- cut. liberty biberty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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he has faith in you, he believes in you. it was about always showing up and doing your best. i always knew that he had my back. he was raised by an extraordinary woman, she supported him all along the way and that's very much a part of who he is. mike supports women, he promotes women, and he respects women. choosing a health care provider doesn't have to be." molly: "that's why i choose a nurse practitioner for my family's primary care." david: "my np is accessible and takes the time to listen. i love my np." molly: "our np orders tests, makes the correct diagnoses and prescribes the medications we need." david: "my name is david and i choose an np." molly: "my name is molly and we choose nps." np: "consider an np.

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ask. shop. discover. at your local xfinity store today. all right. welcome back to "morning joe." we're back. >> good to be back. >> yeah. are you sure? >> yes. >> okay. joining us now a member of the senate foreign relations and judiciary committees democratic senator chris coons of delaware. great to have you back on

"morning joe." by the way, backing joe biden for president. put that there. and start with the president's news conference and announcements last night about the coronavirus. do you believe he is handling the issue correctly? >> well, mika, i was pleased to see president trump come to the briefing room and to actually give a press conference. something that's become quite unusual and to name the vice president to lead the administration's efforts, but i you know, regret having to say this but we all know that president trump in the course of his service has disrespected science and scientists, has told an awful lot of untruths, and his own record back during the ebola virus outbreak which happened when president obama was president and joe biden was vice president, president trump stood on the sidelines and helped with the fearmongering and the spread of disinformation. so i hope that the administration and president trump in particular will respect

the scientific leaders, the very capable leaders, at nih and cdc, his budget proposed deep cuts to these vital organizations. he left empty or dismissed folks who were put in place in the previous administration at the national security council to handle pandemics and in some part, mika, this is chickens coming home to roost. may sound like a short-term savings to empty out an office that isn't actively used to fight pandemics, but when something comes up like this, it will show that we're not well-prepared. i remind you there is still an ebola outbreak in africa in the democratic republic of the congo. in congress we have to work well and quickly across the aisle to provide financial support for a robust response. >> something we talked about yesterday in terms of this white house and some of the incompetence that some say has been revealed over the years but incompetence literally can be a

killer in this case. >> in this case it can. so senator with the president saying he'd even accept chuck schumer are $8.5 billion budget for this, would that fund things to a degree where some of those spaces could be filled? >> yes. we ultimately appropriated roughly $5 billion in response to ebola, an outbreak largely contained in three west african countries but preparedness and research and response here in the united states cost quite a bit. this is an epidemic now, a pandemic that has hit. i think it's at 47 countries now. and last night the cdc was reporting what may be the first case of transmission in the united states that's unrelated to someone who's returned from china. so i think we all have to work closely together, and the level of resources needed may rise quite quickly here. >> you know, the thing, dr. dave

sent me a "new york times" breaking article about how in japan now shuttering all schools to try to keep, try to keep it under control. we don't, again, americans i think need to understand how quickly this can move and how greatly it could impact everybody's lives. >> no question about it. the cdc i think yesterday officials there, senator, tried to make that point as they came up and spoke after president trump saying we don't know where this is headed. a lot of uncertainty around this. expect more cases pup have a pretty good perspective on these things. you pointed out took a leadership role in 2014 during the ebola crisis. how should americans be looking now as of this morning at the coronavirus and a lot of people pointed to the fact the cdc says as many as 61,000 people could die in this country this season just of the flu. 3,000 people have died around the world of the coronavirus but we did get that report yesterday of a new case in northern california. someone who reportedly had not

traveled to one of these countries or traveled outside the country. how should americans getting kids ready to school now look at the coronavirus? >> well, three things. first, it's important to make a really clear distinction between ebola, very deadly, but does not transmit between people easily and coronavirus which is very easily transmissible between people, we think from what we know so far. but is nowhere near as deadly. closer to the seasonal flu than ebola. but if it is transmissible by people who don't have symptoms, then it's going to be much, much harder to track and contain. so far that is suspected but not fully proven. so it will travel much like the flu does. in the annual flu and cold season, and folks who are particularly compromised, either very young or very old or who are immunocompromised, cancer patients, for example, are really going to be at risk. so we're going to have to take

the public health precautions frankly we should be taking during the seasonal flu season about washing hands, avoiding contact and isolating people that are sick but this will strain or public resources to the limit and require a measured, capable leadership that respects the science and we're going to have to resist temptation on the part of folks in office, whether the administration or congress to play politics with this. the public needs to have confidence. i have great confidence in the folks at nih and cdc we need to listen to them and the public health facials in every state and community for their direction. >> thanks for coming on, senator coons. talk to you again. still ahead, mayor de blasio about the precautions new york city is taking for the coronavirus. plus, what speaker nancy pelosi had to say about the concerns of some that bernie sanders at the top of the democratic ticket

would put the party's house majority in jeopardy. "morning joe" will be right back. >> the coronavirus that we're talking about is a respiratory virus. it's spread in a similar way to the common cold or to influenza. it's spread through coughs and sneezes. so those everyday sensible measures that we tell people to do every year with the flu are important here. covering your cough, staying home when you're sick and washing your hands. tried and true, not very exciting measures, but really important ways that you can prevent the spread of respiratory viruses. maria ramirez?

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doebn't you as a leader feea desire to jump in and do kwhafr y whatever you can to avoid losing

the house. >> we're not losing the house. we are taking responsibility winning the house and we're not assuming anything. i feel very confident. >> wouldn't a non-bernie candidate make your job easier of keeping the house? >> whoever the nominee is we will embrace with enthusiasm. >> do you agree with the premise a bernie sanders nomination makes it harder to uphold the house. >> i think we're going to hold the house. >> pretty much said that bernie sanders top of the ticket expect a sweeping of the house in 2020? >> i look forward to renominating speaker nancy dele sandro pelosi to the floor. >> democratic house leadership dismissing some people's concerns that senator bernie sanders at the top of the democratic ticket could hurt

congressional democrats down the ballot. joining us now, msnbc political analyst and former republican strategist steve schmidt. chairman of the libertarian party nicholas sarwork and brittany patnet focusing on the link between politics and activism. first person to tell me. giving the american people a choice between the socialist and social yo pa sociopath, they will take the sociopath every time. wondering what your thoughts are on joe biden, possibility a new pull out up by 20 points in south carolina. bernie sanders leaving the state friday and saturday to try to finish off elizabeth warren in massachusetts campaigning there

instead. what's biden's chance of becoming in 2020 what john mccain became in 2008? and that was a comeback candidate who was a front-runner, thought i'll go away and then fought his way back? >> joe, reasonable. right? always four currents in his democratic primary. there's been a desire in the electorate for someone young and new. seen mayor pete ascend in that. an identity politics current shaped by black lives matter and the #metoo movement. we've seen a progressive current, where bernie sanders is ascended and lastly, there's the electability current. democrats want to beat trump or say they want to beat donald trump and joe biden staged his candidacy in that area. at 77 years old with joe biden, would he have run if it was p t

president kchris christie or president rubio? probably not. he's substantially underperformed. end of the day he has to win. if he wins big in south carolina against bernie sanders goes into the super tuesday states, he's going to finally have a mano a mano contest between a socialist and himself, and he's going to be ale to surface this electability argument to the front. going to have to go out and communicate and say to the american people, democratic voters, a lot is at stake when you consider four more years of donald trump as a visseration of the rule of law. his revenge that he's taking out on -- public service officials across the u.s. government. he's going to finally not be in a race with 15, 16, 17 people in it, but one on one and have an opportunity, but bernie sanders is very, very close to running away from this unless his momentum is blunted by a

decisive win by somebody somewhere in one of these early states. >> so, nick what is a libertarian to do in an age where it looks like the two major party candidates are going to be former democrat, who is the biggest spending republican of all-time -- actually, they've had biggest budget ever. biggest national debt ever under donald trump. biggest deficit ever in a non-depression is or recession time. spending is absolutely outrageous, and then on the other side a democratic socialist? what -- are these the bleakest of times for libertarians? >> these are the best of times for libertarians because americans are likely to be faced with huge deficits, debt, a government building walls bailing out farmer more than bailing out the banks or

socialism. neither are palatable. dice affected democrats and republicans who want something different from this hobson's choice of populism versus socialism and there's an opportunity for americans to choose something better. choose free trade, get government out of your lives. the american people are the most dynamic that ever walked the face of the earth. soon as government gets out of the way. only the libertarian candidate will be on every ballot offering that alternative to populism and socialism. >> brittany, in so many ways bernie sanders candidacy, his campaign, is built around the activism you study. young voters obviously support bernie sanders by wide margins. looks in south carolina he's seen the writing on the wall and is moving on to massachusetts. be there tomorrow holding rallies and on saturday. perhaps conceding south carolina

at least to joe biden. what does it look like for the sanders campaign if biden wins big in south carolina as he turns the corner to super tuesday? >> well, i certainly think there will be a lot for bernie sanders to evaluate if joe biden does take this state handedly. most certainly this state is joe biden's to lose. also i think, though, it is up to people like elizabeth warren or tom steyer potentially to off are a surprise. tom steyer ads are everywhere. clearly spent the money in an effective way and elizabeth warren frankly is the only front-runner who hasn't had major gaffes or major policy issues directly targeting the black community. not guilty of stop and frisk, wasn't involved with the crime bill. has been staking a lot of her work on relationships and endorsements from black millennial women and lgbtq folks. could potentially be a surprise from her given the last debate

was not only broadcast on cbs but simulcast on b.e.t. and a lot of those folks were listening. you're right. young people are deeply interested in what progressive candidates are saying. young people are children of the great recession, came of age in that era and so many of us are they came of age in that era. so many of us worried that a dieing planet or white supremacy could erupt before we even have the chance to he are pay the mounds of student loan debts that are currently crushing us. so we're not looking for people that are going to simply shift around the chairs at the existing table. we are looking for folks, young voters are looking for someone who like my preacher daddy used to say is ready to flip some tables. that's what progressive candidates have been promising. >> so steve schmidt, saturday, joe biden wins a significant victory in south carolina. let's say that happens. tuesday, we don't know what's going to happen. but mike bloomberg's candidacy after tuesday, if he doesn't do well across the board or semi

well in some states across the board on tuesday, what happens to the bloomberg candidacy wednesday morning vis-a-vis the other candidacies, specifically biden's problem with raising money. >> well, at the end of the day, mike, when you come into super tuesday, which is the first contest that bloomberg is specifically contesting, if you haven't divided a vote between amy klobuchar, pete buttigieg, mike bloomberg and joe biden, you know, that enhances the likelihood that bernie sanders is going to do really well on super tuesday. because he's really only sharing vote share with elizabeth warren. so, you know, everybody is going to have to look in the mirror on tuesday and they're going to have to look at it through the prism of, well, do we want to see donald trump re-elected? and who is the candidate that is the strongest candidate to take him on? so, you know, we're getting into the point of the campaign where

there's a lot of soul searching ahead. and i remember specifically thinking about john mccain's comeback in 2008. john mccain would not have been the republican nominee in 2008 but for fred thompson happening around in the race in south carolina. which pulled enough votes away from mitt romney that john was able to get out on top. so there's a number of candidates in the race that have the ability to shape the outcome of the race even though they don't have any type of path to the nomination. >> so, nick, i'm just curious, who do you consider to be a bigger threat to the well being of america economically and every other way, socialist like bernie sanders or someone who calls himself a republican who spends more money than, well, any democratic or republican administration before it? >> the answer is yes. they are both a terrible threat.

they're both providing the same kind of socialistic policies. you know, the only advantage that sanders has, and i think it's an advantage that he has going into south carolina, that people aren't talking about, is he is the strongest on the democratic side on criminal justice reforming. ending the races war on drugs and getting us involved in fewer foreign entanglements overseas. and i think that's why you're getting this surge of youth support because those are the kids who are going to be sent over to die in foreign wars. those are the kids who are likely to be caught up in the criminal justice system, especially if they're people of color, and i think that that -- that is the silver lining on the cloud. but both of them are going to be terrible for the country. they're both going to spend our children and grandchildren into oblivion. that's why i think a lot of americans are going to vote libertarian this november and they don't want to choose the form of the destructor, like in ghost busters. >> i would love to hear your

thoughts, especially as you cover sort of activism and influence on politics of what's happening with mayor pete and what south carolina looks look for him. >> so i would first of all disagree with the last commenter. i actually think it's fascinating as an activist myself who has worked a great deal on issues of criminal justice reform and police reform. the activist community widely believes castro had the widest justice platform. and it is interesting that he chose to endorse elizabeth warren. i think it's clear that that is a part of the conversation. as far as mayor pete goes, there are a lot of open questions that remain about his bona fides on criminal justice issues, on race issues broadly. and we have to remember that race issues are not just criminal justice issues. but there are certainly a lot of open questions on mayor pete that a lot of people have been asking and frankly don't feel like they've been getting a lot of satisfactory answers. the black population in south

carolina is -- has been growing at that massive rate in part because of a reverse migration, rather, back to the south of african-american people. and when you look at the kind of folks who have had urban experience and who have lived in southern parts of the country, have lived in rural areas, we know that our blackness follows us absolutely everywhere. so if a mayor cannot handle those difficult race issues in small town america, we've got real questions as to whether or not he can handle them for the entire country. >> brittany and steve, thank you both. nicholas, thank you, as well. still ahead, one of the top actors working today from the big screen to the broadway stage, ed harris joins "morning joe" to talk about his latest project.

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great. did everyone use the bathroom? does anyone still need to use the bathroom? senator sanders, you're going to have to hold it. okay. would anyone like to tell mayor bloomberg to screw himself? very good. and who wanted the pastrami? the chicken breast. the caviar. a jar of mayonnaise? this salad with a comb in it? senator klobuchar. lastly, is there anyone who knows they shouldn't be here? thank you. good night. okay then. the. good morning and welcome. we needed a little levity, right? welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, february 27th. along with joe, willie and me, we have the president of the council on foreign relations and the author of the forthcoming

book "the world of brief introductions." richard haas. also with us, historian author of "the soul of america on i "and rogers professor of the presidency, jon meacham. he's an nbc news and msnbc contributor. and his new book -- look at you two -- "the hope of glory, reflects on the last words of jesus on the cross" is out today. very good to have you both. thought agrees news. >> great to have you on. decided to go with sort of a lesser known subject. those footnoters. >> his presidency was controversial. >> presidency. >> it was. >> the last words. >> tell us -- >> down the street here at st. thomas episcopal church about six years ago. i did the three hour service where you do a sermon on each of the last seven words on the cross. it's what a medieval scholar

called the final sermon where you can see the entire story of the christian saga unfolding and what you said, father, forgive them, they know not what they do. fascinating. >> we're going to dig into that a lot more in just a bit, but first, to the big news of the morning. the cdc announced yesterday that a new case of the coronavirus has been confirmed in northern california and it is believed to be the first instance of what the agency calls community spread, meaning the patient didn't have any relevant travel history or exposure to another known patient. so far, there have been at least two other person to person transmission cases in the u.s., but both involved spouses of people who had traveled to china. that development comes as president trump held a news conference in the briefing room yesterday alongside top administration health officials in the briefing. the president accurately described the risk to americans

as low, but still said he is assembling a task force which will be led by vice president mike pence. >> we have a total of 15 people and they're in the process of recovering with some already having fully recovered. we're at that very low level and we want to keep it that way. so we're at the low level. as they get better, we take them off the list so that we're going to be pretty soon at only five people and we could be at just one or two people over the next short period of time. and, again, when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done. >> mr. president, as we've been briefed, while the let to the american public remains low to the threat of the spread of the coronavirus, you have taken all the steps necessary to ensure

the health and well being of the american people and the people of this country can be confident that under your leadership we will continue to bring the full resources of the federal government in coordination with our state and local partners to see to the health and well being and to the effective response to the coronavirus here in the united states of america. >> and just the course of the last couple of minutes, you have disputed some of what the officials that are working in your administration have said about the risk of coronavirus and its spread. do you trust your health officials to give you -- >> they've said it could be worse and i said it could be worse, too. i don't think it's inevitable. i think that we're doing a really good job in terms of maintaining boarders and in terms of letting people in, in terms of checking people. and also, that's one of the reasons i'm here today, getting the word out so people can -- they'll know. >> okay. a source familiar with the government's efforts tell nbc

news that there is internal tension within the administration on how to contain public concern about the spread of the virus, a rift dates back to last month's decision to implement travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines. allies of the president say that he wants to make sure his team is initiating the appropriate responses at the right times without creating mass panic. the report says that trump has largely hinged his frustration on the center for disease control. after they announced an outbreak was all but inevitable. yet experts of past epidemics claimed that trump's decision to downsize the white house national security staff and eliminate jobs addressing global pandemics is likely to hinder the government's response to the virus. here is the president's response to a question yesterday about the budget and staff cuts. >> consistently caused for

enormous cuts the cdc, the nih and the w.h.o. you have a lot to say about how these experts are -- does this experience at all give you pause about -- >> no. we can get money and we can increase staff. we know all the good people. it was a question. i asked the doctor this before. some of the people we cut, they haven't been used for many, many years. if we have a need, we can get them very quickly. rather than spending the money -- and i'm a business person. i don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them. >> oh, boy. that part concerns me a lot. >> well, we obviously do need them now. we also have the democrats talking about a sizable budget to get this moving. >> willie, i watched the press conference. he had a press conference in the briefing room. i thought that was very important. something robert gibbs said at like noon that he needed to do.

the president in the briefling room with his team wind him sends a very clear message that he is on alert. people might say it's because he cares more about the stock market than the coronavirus. i don't really care where hey h there. please bring out all the public health experts, walk the nation through the response step by step. what comes next and what americans need to do to prepare for it. we need to hear it, please. and that's for the most part what the president did. he brought his team together. he had the experts come up and lay out the possibility and, of course, we're grading on a lower scale and, of course, we had to listen to poor mike pence bow and scrape and talk about how great donald trump was every three seconds. but been again, all that aside, the president came out, get the message out. yes, he was being overly optimistic, but there were several times, i believe, during

that press conference where he said, yes, it could get worse and his health officials said that is what we need to prepare communities for. and this is what communities need to do. so, you know, i know a lot of people were slamming the president for what he did. they were better off this morning because he did what he did. than had he not gone out at all. >> unease that was spreading. >> i thought, you know, there were a couple of side barbs that he threw out there, but he was asked about india at the very beginning. hey, how great was your trip to india? set up perfectly for him. he said i don't really want to talk about that. let's talk about the virus. grading on the lower scale, grading on the trump scale, he was very pleased and actually comforted that the president of the united states brought the entire health care team out and they talked to americans about this very important situation. >> the president obviously has

earned everyone's skepticism. when he first starts talking, he's told so many lies, he's protected his own interests so many times ahead of the rest of the country. but he didn't get into the nitty-gritty science of the whole thing, but to try to ease the country as a sense of panic begins to set in around the world. he said the risk is very low. then those cdc officials came forward and said no, we don't know where this is headed, richard haas. so he did his job. the scientists did theirs. there's always the question, though, we've heard the reporting that the president didn't want people to go out and talk about how serious it was, it might hurt the markets. that could hurt his prospects for re-election. that is always there. how do you evaluate his performance and more importantly where this is headed with the coronavirus? >> we don't know what the risk is. the number of those who have the disease is probably far larger than is publicly known in part because lots of people are

asymptomatic. the fatality rate is probably lower than the published rate. i think he made one important move was establishing one person in charge of this. you need a whole of government effort. you need one person who is senior to the cabinet who can coordinate the cabinet, who can link foreign and domestic aspects of that. so i think appointing the vice president, he was the right thing to do. but it's was a sobering press conference in the sense that when the president was leaning towards the let's not overreact, the danger is obviously underreaction. and i thought what the doctor fouchi said was quite sobering. at best, it's a year to a year and a half before we have a vx ev vaccine. in the meantime, not just this first wave, but there could be other waves of the virus. by the time we have the vaccine, the waves of the virus might be different than the waves of the vaccine might be applicable to. this is one of those things

that's going to play out over a long time. it's a serious virus. it's beginning to show up in the united states. i think we have to work from the assumption that it's going to spread. and i thought what fouchi said was right. for the time being, this is a public health channel. >> up next, we'll go to the white house for a look at how this is playing out inside the administration. my psoriatic arthritis pain? i had enough! it's not getting in my way. joint pain, swelling, tenderness... ...much better. my psoriasis, clearer... cosentyx works on all of this. four years and counting. so watch out. i got this! watch me. real people with active psoriatic arthritis are feeling real relief with cosentyx. cosentyx is a different kind of targeted biologic. it treats the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis to help you look and feel better. it even helps stop further joint damage.

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let's go to the white house. joining us now, nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennet. good morning. let's talk about the decisions to appoint the vice president, mike pence, as the czar through all this, as the point person at least. what will be sort of the chain of command as the white house looks at this pending crisis? >> and look, if there was any news coming out of that news conference yesterday, i think that was it because all day white house officials and our sources have been telling us that president trump was not going to name a czar, that alex,

the health and human services secretary, had it all under control. even as republicans on the other side of the pennsylvania avenue, some of them made the point that he already runs one of the biggest government agencies and that this sort of response effort needed a point person who would report directly to president trump. so that's precisely what president trump announced yesterday, apparently blind sighting hazar himself. he had been on the hill in some subcommittee hearings and told various lawmakers that there would be no czar. here is what we understand. we understand this task force will continue to meet daily and that vice president mike pence would report back to president trump. pence has a lot of experience in handling this interagency work given his past experience as a governor of indiana. although public health experts have pointed out that he was widely criticized for his own handling of an hiv outbreak in

2015. pence refused to receive the hard science on needle exchanges and how that would be benefit from a public health standpoint. the next part of this, though, is fully responding the public response efforts. richard shelby, the senate appropriations chair said he thought the white house was low balling it. dr. anthony fauchi said he thought that would be in effect a down payment. you had chuck schumer write his own bill for $8.5 billion to handle that response effort and president trump said yesterday fine, if that's what they want to give us, we'll fully accept that. i'm told about $1 billion of that will go to vaccine development and stockpiling masks and that sort of thing and the government has to fix and deploy this government-designed

test for coronavirus which i think would go in large part to getting the number of detections up to a point. so much of this is asymptomatic when it comes to coronavirus. >> so let me ask you kb do you have any reporting on what moved the president of the united states to go from tweeting attack owes cable news channels in the morning and saying that they know overhyping this coronavirus to giving, i think, a pretty somber press conference in the afternoon and delivering, again, the sort of officials and the information that robert gibbs was suggesting earlier in the day that he needed to deliver? where was that -- the point during the day where the put understood that this was something he was going to have to talk to the american people about? >> well, we knew early yesterday morning that the president was going to offer some sort of media availability. and throughout the day, it sort of evolved into being the press conference that we saw yesterday where the president himself

really, for the third time in his entire administration, walked into the press briefing room flanked by the vice president and members of that so-called coronavirus task force. the reason for that, twofold, really. one, he wanted to calm the markets. that had been a major concern of his. and he also wanted to show the american people or try to show the american people that his administration was fully prepared to handle the response and in control, even though that press conference at times deinvolved into the president offering up parts of his stump speech which he used his favorite be jorive nickname for chuck schumer, he talked about why he was be re-elected, but public health experts point out, as you all pointed out, that there were a couple of things that he did right. he talked about -- he encouraged americans to take steps to slow the spread of this virus. he acknowledged the fact that there could be quarantines if there is such an outbreak, talked about the importance of shoring up the response efforts, you know, among state and local

authorities. that sort of thing, guys. >> all right. bennet, thank you very, very much. coming up on "morning joe," bill de blasio and ed harris are starting by. the new york mayor teamed up with the acclaimed actor to give thousands of kids a once in a lifetime experience. we'll talk about what that is when we're back in just a moment. humira patients... this one's for you. the heroes who won't let your disease hold you back. you inspired us to make your humira experience even better with humira citrate-free. it has the same effectiveness you know and trust, but we removed the citrate buffers, there's less liquid, and a thinner needle, with less pain immediately following injection. if you haven't yet, talk to your doctor about humira citrate-free. and you can use your co-pay card to pay as little as $5 a month.

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vomike bloomberg has a recordgue of doing something. as mayor, he protected women's reproductive rights. expanded health coverage to 700,000 new yorkers. and decreased infant-mortality rates to historic lows. as president, he'll build on obamacare, cap medical costs, and will always protect a woman's right to choose. mike bloomberg: a record on health care nobody can argue about.

mike: i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. we have some really big news for all of us here. i'm happy to announce that know your value is partnering with forbes to create an amazing, powerful new platform entitled "50 over 50," a list celebrating the trail blazing women who achieved significant success after 50 and way beyond and there are so many. the nearly 50 over 50 list will highlight and celebrate you the inspiring stories of 50 incredible women all over the age of 50 who have overcome formidable barriers in their lives. this new partnership will shine a light on all those women who are rewriting the rules of success and who inspire all of us as they shatter misconceptions about age and gender in the workplace. the collaboration will also provide a template to empower

women of all ages to become a better advocate for themselves. so in addition, 50 over 50 will be a centerpiece of the first single topic issue of forbes magazine in three years. it's a powerful list showing the most powerful women on the front lines of success and paying it forward, as well. we'll have much more on this when forbes chief content officer randall lane joins us to discuss this exciting new project. he joins the conversation next on "morning joe." ♪ limu emu & doug

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i've learned the only way -- i don't know how you've dealt with it, reverend, but the way i've been able to deal with it when my wife was killed and my daughter was killed and then my son died, i've only been able to deal with it by realizing that they're a part of my being. my son, beau, was my soul. and what i found was i had to

find purpose, purpose. and what was the purpose. every day i get up -- i'm sorry to go on. i apologize. every day i get up i literally -- and not a joke, reverend, and i think you know this about my boy, that i ask myself, i hope he's proud of me. he knew i would take care of the family, but he worried what i would do as i would pull back and go into a shell and not do all the things i've done before. it took a long time for me to get to the point to realize that that purpose is the thing that would save me. and it has. what you did, you changed, you changed -- you brought down that confederate flag. you're the ones who changed the attitude in this state in a way that was profound. >> wow. >> expecting a profound talk about that moment with beau. and what it means. >> well, joe was speaking to the pastor of emanuel baptist church

whose wife was killed in the shooting in charleston in 2015. and when you hear him speak, when you hear people or see people listen to him and hear -- look at -- witness their reactions, not just on tv, but when he does it in person, sometimes he doesn't do it every day, obviously, you realize there's an empathy gap in this country. there's a compassion gap in this country. and he fills it. he fills that void. people listen and they understand and they are looking for empathy and looking for simp sympathy thee to whatever personal plights or tragedies they have lived through. the identification factor is enormous. if you follow joe biden down a rope line, it is incredible the number of people who reach out to tell him their own personal story of grief or loss, seek understanding and empathy. and they get it. >> and, you know, willie, so

often, it's so hard to comfort certain people who have been through things that we haven't experienced. and one of the more moving moments i've seen in joe biden's career is when he spoke to gold star families. >> yes. >> and spoke to them and received something back from them, which was an understanding that, a respect that you have been through what we have been through and you've been through it not only with your son, but also with your daughter and with your wife. >> yeah. those moments with joe biden exist on a plane somewhere above the food fights during the debates or the sound bites or even on policy. they speak to him as a man and his character. and i think there is, as mike says, there's a -- that's missing, that empathy. we don't see a lot of it or enough of it from politicians. and joe biden does connect on that level. he always has. because it comes from a place of

his own personal loss, obviously. and i think most people would agree and he's never better than in those moments of real connection when he's not trying to get out a sound bite or have a moment with the debate. >> all right. joining us now, chief content officer at forbes media and founder of 30 under 30, randall lane. also with us, president and ceo of time's up now. tina chen, an old friend of mine, former chief of staff to michelle obama, former assistant to president obama and served as executive director of the white house council on women and girls. boy, we go way back. >> we do. >> and we've come a long way. >> and we have. we have. speaking of, randall, 50 over 50 -- >> yes. >> we have news. gosh, how did this come about? >> we have a guest editor. >> do you like the guest editor? >> i do. >> do you know her? >> she's got --

>> she's good. >> you know what is so fascinating about this, mika has spent certainly her career here on "morning joe" helping young women that are coming in. she she -- they will tell you this, but people don't know it. she takes somebody that comes into the building and says, let me train ow teleprompter. let me train you like they trained me at cbs. she will call them up. she becomes their agent. unfortunately for phil griffin and she's calling, you need to tell what you're paying him, the ceo -- >> she knows. >> so it's been great seeing her do that with young women coming into the business. but how exciting with comeback careers or new book that talks about women getting back into the workforce. this is such a perfect compliment to this and the next great step. for women who are over 50 that too often in the past have been pushed to the side. >> well, again, if we're going to unlock the full power of

capitalism and entrepreneurship, this is a demographic that is undertaped, that has unbelievable experience, potential, and is not fully reaching it. and what we're going to do is hopefully amplify that as you guys mentioned earlier. we're doing our first ever in 103 years, three years ago, we did a centennial issue. this is the first time we did a whole issue about one topic only. inclusive capitalism. you can't be inclusive without taking a demographic that has more knowledge and ways than any other but has not got a fair shake at the table. not just women over 50 who are making it, but who are making it when they're over 50. it's not like -- >> right. >> who is riding it since she's been in her 30s or even in her 20s, but people who are having their best years starting at late 40s or in their 50s. >> with that long runway. >> and, you know, tina, what was so fascinate background this class of women over 50, 50 over 50, these are people that grew

up in a business culture where they were -- >> so interesting. >> the only one. okay. you are one woman and we're going to put you there. or putting up with a culture radically different. 20, 30 years ago. so these really are the trail blazers. there are women that mika helps in their 20s that will never know what all women over 50 went through back in the 1970s, 1980s. >> well, i would suggest they're still going through. one of the statistics from the times of legal defense, we've had 4500 people come forward in the last two years for help. 59% of them are over the age of 40. >> wow. >> you know, you think about it as being when people are young and at work. but guess what? women who are older, women in this demographic are facing that double bind of ageism. and, you know, they're overcoming those obstacles to be

successful. that's why, mika, your book and giving inspiration, i'm in the demographic to women over 50. >> also, randall, there's positive to this. there's so many power in women over 50. the numbers are growing. women over 50 and over 55 in the workforce, women getting up to -- rising in the ranks and staying in the game so they're going to be so many incredibly powerful and influential women that we can profile and really put a frame around. >> 100%. and, again, we have our 35 under 35 which is world famous highlighting young entrepreneurs who are using technology, but also technology is a playing field for older women, too. anybody can be an entrepreneur. you don't have to wait for somebody else just like we were just talking about that, you know, it was the only woman and she had to impress the boss and the boss had to -- you know, and she had to work harder and be better. but now these women have the tools, even if they were a stay-at-home mom and out of the workforce to be their own boss,

to create their own fortunes, to forge ahead themselves. >> and by the way, it was so interesting. younger women won't understand what women over 50 went through. i was talking about, again, in so many cultures, we're going to pick one woman to be on the board. >> right. >> we're going to pick one woman that considered the big boys table. we're going to pick one woman and then if anyone came along, then you would see two women fighting each other instead of now there is this incredible networking of women and organizations like yours that empower everybody. >> time is up. >> yeah. absolutely. one of the things time's up is born out of post harvey weinstein where in this week his conviction, but what the women found when people started to speak out is that they thought they were alone, but there's a community of coming together has been powerful. and that's what's fueled our success over these last year. >> powerful women over 50, michelle obama, oprah, gayle, ann fanukin, wonbonnie hammer,

people who are literally not at their peak, they're just cooking. it's excite to go be able to really put them on a list instead of a kind of focussing on youth, which is always fun, and it's great to see people breaking out with new ideas and doing incredible things at a very young age. but this is also kind of amazing, too, and i think it's an area that is untouched, that we haven't covered. >> and we're soliciting stories that we don't know. so we have a site that launched this morning 50 over 50 where you can nominate anybody that is out there that we haven't heard of. so it's about surfacing stories that aren't the well known stories of women. >> i'll tell tell you one of the things i know in chicago. it is the women in the neighborhoods outside of chicago coming together to form those grassroots organizations that are helping kids who are the

subject of violence, who are protecting each other. they are fueling that kind of grassroots energy and leadership and it's great that you can highlight them and have a place for them. >> let me ask you about the universe of politics that you know pretty well. obviously, you've got elizabeth warren and amy klobuchar among the front runners who fit into this demographic, as well. nancy pelosi, obviously one of the most powerful women in the house. but i have a 12-year-old daughter who has come up in a world created thanks to people like you who say that you've never had a woman president. it doesn't fit their framework of what the world should look like. so how do we do better there in terms of political leadership? >> well, we need to highlight those women and celebrate them. i mean, although if that amy klobuchar and elizabeth warren, i'll leave it to you guys to decide whether they're going to make it through to the end because we're in a moment where we've had more women running than ever before and that window

is narrowing down pretty fast. there is still having about the country that is maybe not fully ready. i love that our young people are, but i'm not sure the rest of the electorate is yet ready for that highest hardest glass ceiling to break. >> people under 30 say they like socialism. talk to me, randall. >> we surveyed earlier this week 1005 young voters and it turns out that senator sanders has increased his lead among the under 30 likely voters, 32% to 38% in the past month. but we asked about socialism. more young democrats are inclined to like socialism than capitalism. wh that is a shift. we've been seeing that over the past few years, but to get to the tipping point among democrats and even a plural alty among independents where if you're under 30, the word "socialist" is not a dirty word.

>> do you have any idea beneath those numbers that we just displayed what the impact of the 2008/2009 economic crash was on them? >> we hit that exactly and that is exactly what is driving -- this is a generation that has only grown up knowing debt, inequality and we guess the economy is good, but they don't feel -- it's about what we're talking about, they don't feel that they are a fair shot. they have too much debt and if they get get a job, how are they going to pay off this debt, afford a house, get a mortgage. >> so when sanders talks about free health care and erasing student debt, that sounds good. and he says that's socialism. they say, hey, i don't know what socialism is. the berlin wall fell before i was born, literally. it's ancient history. it might as well be the roman times, but i like whatever that is. it's something that they -- the sanders message resinates with young people. he didn't have to call it socialism.

it's actually not socialism. but yet he puts this giant anchor around him because anybody over 40 thinks, no thanks. democratic socialism, no way. young people like the message. but he's associated himself with a word that is taxic among older americans. but young americans, he's done a great job. they're all in. >> the question is will they vote. >> thank you guys so much. >> tina, stay with us. will you stay one more time? randall, we'll be in touch. i'm so psyched about this 50 over 50 partnership with forbes. up next, a mayor, an actor and about 18,000 students. bill de blasio and ed harris describe their partnership in honor of black history month. keep it right here on "morning joe." when i showed my mom the dna results, it made her feel proud. ancestry® specifically showed the regions that my family was from. greater details. richer stories. and now with health insights. get your dna kit at ancestry.com.

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explanation and i already understand. >> that was a scene from yesterday's performance at the broadway show "to kill a mocking bird bird." mayor bill de blasio declared february 26th as the national to kill a mocking bird day. joining us now, the man you saw playing atticus finch, ed harris and the mayor of new york city, bill de blasio. great to have you both. that is so cool. >> it really is. tell us about the inspiration. >> first of all, ed harris, aaron sorkin and scott ruden, everyone did this as a labor or

love. and it was audacious to think, we're going to take this play, which is in some ways very intimate and we're going to put it in front of the biggest audience in history and the greatest arena in the world and middle school and high school students and i heard -- you could have heard a pin drop. i could you could tell there. that these kids were feeling they were a parts of something so powerful and so important. so i give a real credit in a world where we often talk about the struggles, look at the good news here. look at the power of bringing our young people theater and waking them up and showing them what it means for them and boy, did they respond, ed. you saw it. >> and, ed, you said, boy, they liked that line about they don't deserve an explanation. were there certain lines that the kids responded to more than the people who go out every night to you that spoke -- >> definitely, yeah. for instance, when tom robinson is on trial or giving his testimony, he's the man who has been accused of rape, a black

man, and early on when i meet him, i say, you know, what is your response to why did you go visit the young woman who accuses him of rape. he says i felt sorry for say t court, you can't say that. say she could use a hand. when he does his testimony, the prosecuting attorney finally says i felt sorry for her. he said wait, say that again? he said i felt sorry for her. >> can i just ask you as an actor, i would think there's just not a better role. such a remarkable 20th century -- >> well, it is interesting. when i was asked to do this, i

knew jeff daniels had been doing it for a year, i got an email from scott reuben to say play atticus. i was like how do you get rid of gregory peck? and such an indelible performance. aaron's script, he is a different character than the one depicted in the film. much more conflicted and he is not nearly as perfect a human being as gregory portrays. >> so in what way? >> well, he's struggling to hold onto his belief there's goodness in everybody, that even though this town is full of people with very strong racist views, that there are still good people underneath, still a way to appreciate their goodness. and that gets, he gets put to the test with that. by the end of the play, he is going i don't know these people any more. i thought i knew them, i don't

know them. >> i just said that over the past year about some people i know. >> that's one of the modern themes that comes in the rewrite of the play. ed, let me ask you as a performer, stage performer, to stand in the center of madison square garden with 18,000 people, you're used to doing a more intimate setting with a couple thousand people. what's it like to walk out there. >> well, you know, i was just -- they had the monitors. i couldn't look, i didn't want to see anything on the screen, i kept my focus down and focused on my fellow actors. i was trying to do the best i could doing the play, let the rest take care of itself. i was aware there were 18,000 kids there, appreciated the

response, changes the timing of things because of their reactions, but in essence i was really just trying to do the play as well as i could. >> tina, you mention timeliness, 18,000 kids were there in the moment, you could hear them responding, they were engaged. that's kind of surprising in itself. hard to keep the attention of 18,000. >> as a mom who raised teenagers. >> the mayor and his wife spoke before the play, and then spike lee said a few words and he said to the kids, he said just listen to the words. and they did. they did. i mean, you could hear a pin drop at certain points. >> because it is about them. that's what's so powerful. looks like another time and place, it is about your lives now, how you value your lives, how your lives are treated. and they feel that. they're trying to figure out their place in the world, and this place is very pertinent to their lives.

>> tina, this is an environment we live in where there isn't a lot of affirmation for messages like this and for deep thinking for young people. >> well, that's something we're so focused on the 30 second sound bite for them. they paid attention to the entire play. if we give them time and space and give them the quality production to listen to and learn from, they will do that, they'll absorb it. it doesn't have to be a twitter feed or instagram tiktok thing. there's thoughtful content if we give it to them. >> that's a good point. they couldn't leave, put it on pause, go to the bathroom, watch the damn thing and they got into it. it was very exciting. really proud of the cast, too, you know, and bart, the director. we had to rehearse this thing all over. we had to reblock the whole deal. >> for me, there's a tragic

undertone. grew up in the south, went to university of alabama, and you always felt a sense of superiority, reading that book, reading that book through the 80s thinking i am glad we got through that. here we are in 2020. whether it is muslim bans, moral equivalency, i can't imagine that to kill a mockingbird, what harper lee did to expose what was happening in the south before i was born is now relevant when i'm a 56-year-old man. >> and that line about it never went away, you know, that it is

not ancient history, you're saying it, joe. it's still here. it is a fight we ought to fight in our time. i think there's a battle for the soul of the nation going on, they're actually bringing it out. this correlates to young people. they want the truth, the real talk, and the whole country is coming to grips with this. and maybe that's the birth canal, the time you go through to get where we are supposed to be. >> mike has a question. >> ed, one of the more interesting aspects of yesterday's performance with this iconic work to kill a mockingbird, in this culture that we are part of, you can go to the best high school, have a fabulous grammar school education, yet the true deep history of injustice and race is basically skimmed over. has it ever occurred to you in performance in the palace like you performed in yesterday with

the emotion and content of the play, the media provides young people with an education, a sort of education into those issues that they just won't get from a textbook. >> for sure. i think that's one of the reasons scott had this idea, he was hoping the audience for the show on broadway would be more diverse which it isn't to be perfectly honest. he said okay, let's give it to them. >> we have school busses, we made it happen. get you all sorts of diversity. >> mr. mayor, while we have you, want to ask about coronavirus. president trump and the cdc had a briefing yesterday at the white house. >> yep. >> what are you doing in new york city, what do you say to families that are genuinely worried. a lot of them, should i put my kid on the subway, what are you

saying to families? >> very simple. it has been five weeks. it will come here, just a matter of when. new yorkers heeded warnings. if you might be sick, get to the doctor. if you have nexus to travel that might connect you to coronavirus, take it seriously, don't ignore it. do the basics, wash your hands, cover your mouth when you sneeze, all this basic stuff. people have been doing it. we have seven cases that might be coronavirus, every one was negative. that said, we have 1200 hospital beds we can turn on if we need to if it turns into something bigger, and we have every element, public health and every other element trying to make sure people know to get to care, make it easy to get to care. we do that all over the country, i think this country will be good. the federal government needs to speed up, step up in terms of making testing available locally so it is not waiting on atlanta.

make sure there are resources for local areas that can't afford to put people up in hotels if they need isolation. it can be done. i would like to see more energy on the federal side, but i think we can get through this. >> ed, mika and i don't get out much, we are sad we missed jeff daniels in his role, we will be sad if we miss you in this role. how long do mika and i have to actually -- >> april 19th. >> through april 19th. tell me, what has this meant to you to be able to do this role at this time? >> you know, it is hard to put into words, you know. what we do as actors is so public in one way, but so intensely private in another way, and intimate in terms of what you go through to do what we do in terms of your life experience and training,

awareness, so it has been a great acting experience. and the cast i am working with are wonderful people, not only great professional actors but really great people, very positive energy. no complainers. probably 30 people in the cast. >> mayor bill de blasio, ed harris, thank you. really appreciate it. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up coverage right now. thanks so much, mika, thanks, joe. i am stephanie ruhle. it is thursday, february 27th. there's a ton going on today and we're going to start with breaking news. worries about spread of coronavirus are growing as a new case is identified in california, this one with no apparent connection to a foreign country. the cdc says it is not clear when or where this person got sick, in their words, quote, it's possible this could be an instance of community spread of the virus which would be the first time it happened in the