shines as a beacon around the world once more. this is our chance to answer that call. >> that is our broadcast for tonight. brian will be back tomorrow. thank you for being with us. good night from nbc news headquarters in new york. with coronavirus fears on the rise we are following new reporting about a whistleblower complaint that alleges u.s. workers were sent to assist evacuees in china without protective gear or training. the former new york city mayor telling nbc news he plans to stay in the presidential race right until the bitter end. and the turkish army says it has suffered mass casualties following an air strike, as fears grow between a possible conflict between russia and turkey which is a nato ally.

good morning, everyone, it is friday, february 28th. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian and we're going to get to that story in syria in a moment. we begin with concerns over the trump administration's response to the growing coronavirus. a whistleblower complaint reported by "the washington post" claims more than a dozen federal employees were potentially exposed to the virus after being sent to work with americans who were evacuated from wuhan, china, the epicenter of the outbreak. according to the "post" the complaint alleges the workers had face-to-face contact with the returning passengers three times without proper training or protective gear. in some instances, the teams were working alongside personnel from the cdc in full gown, gloves and hazmat attire. the complaint which was also reported by the "wall street journal" and "the new york times" claims that workers were then allowed to return home on commercial airlines. the hhs workers were from the administration of children and families which does not work

with infectious diseases. >> according to the post, about 14 employees were sent to work with passengers who arrived on a charter flight at march air force base in riverside county, california, while another team of about 13 workers was sent to travis air force base in solano county, california. solano county, by the way, also the location of the first case in the u.s. where the source of the infection is unknown. officials saying the infected woman had no known contacts with anybody quarantined at the base. here's what hhs secretary alex azar said when questioned about the hhs workers. >> were any of the employees exposed to high risk of evacuees from canine. >> they should never have been without ppe. >> what's ppe. >> personal protective equipment. >> it is my understanding that, you know, there was a team, as you just confirmed that was sent to the march and travis air force bases and it was kind of

chaotic on the ground, to your knowledge, were protocols follow followed at all times? s >> i would not accept your proposition that it was chaotic at all times. i'm not aware of violation of quarantine or isolation protocols. >> meanwhile the trump administration is trying to tighten control of messaging about the virus. several officials tell "the new york times" that the government health officials and scientists will have to get permission from mike pence before speaking publicly about the threat or the response. dr. anthony fauci has told associates that the white house has instructed him not to say anything without clearance, as the president continues to down play what health experts say is a very serious threat. >> we're almost all better now, but we do things, and it would be really nice if we could be recognized by the press fairly and you know what it would be nice if we do something wrong we

get criticized by the press but i gave a press conference yesterday that was a very good press conference and it was a calming press conference, a conference to say we're doing well. it's going to disappear one day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear and from our shores, you know, it could get worse before it gets better. it could maybe go away. we'll see what happens. nobody really knows. >> the coronavirus chaos continues on wall street as the dow and the s&p are on space for their worst weekly performance since 2008, down more than 10.5% on the week. yesterday the dow experienced its single worst day point drop in history. plunging nearly 1,200 points, while both the s&p 500 and the nasdaq closed in correction territory. the poorly performing markets come in stark contrast to their success earlier this month. the dow closed at a record high on february 12th and took the s&p 500 six days to fall from an all time high to correction levels marking the fastest drop

of that magnitude. this morning, the dow futures pointed to an opening loss of more than 700 points, while the s&p and the nasdaq also pointed to lower openings. joining us now from washington, d.c., political reporter for the hill, julia manchester, good to have you with us. let's talk about the president. what potential impact might president trump's reelection bid feel after what we're seeing happen in realtime. markets taking a sharp downturn, we're still quite a few months away from voting day come november. he is entirely pretty much been running on a successful economy so far and if the markets take another downturn like we're expecting to see today because of the coronavirus, this could only get worse. >> yeah, we are months from his reelection bid. we don't know what necessarily is going to happen with the coronavirus. however, right now in this moment, i would say there is probably some panic around his orbit right now. i think this opens the door for

democratic presidential contenders to really go after president trump in terms of how to deal with crisis, how to deal with crisis in the economy so this puts president trump at this moment in a very vulnerable position as these democrats are really trying to break out of their own respective packs and we know that to democratic voters, beating president trump is a number one priority, so this is just another line of attack that you're going to hear from democratic contenders, going into these major primary states. >> julia, talk about this latest whistleblower complaint, which is incredibly troubling to say the least that this team was ill prepared. they didn't have the proper protective gear. they were sent back on commercial flights. some of them going to that county in california where we now have this one case, and we don't know where that case contracted the virus, how does this change conversation about how prepared this administration is to handle a potential outbreak?

>> well, injects quite a bit of worry and concern into the conversation right now. you know, there are so many unknowns about this virus, and so many unknowns about how fast this will spread, if this will be fast spreading in the united states, and i think at times of crisis, at times of, you know, when you're hearing, you know, the words potential pandemic and headlines, and the american people want to feel reassured and right now when you have those whistleblower reports that are suggesting the government is somehow ill prepared to combat this, that's very concerning, and is definitely cause for some worry. >> julia, let me switch gears for a moment and talk about how this may play out internally in the united states with obviously anthony fauci saying he is not allowed to speak. do you anticipate this becoming more of a political battle among both parties if there are health officials who are in some cases trying to sound a little bit more of an alarm or perhaps put information out there that this

administration does not like but the administration is trying to muzzle them? >> no doubt. we are in the middle of an election year. we are post impeachment. it's a very partisan time in washington. i definitely foresee political mud sling wing when it comes to this virus. >> we're going to talk to you. still ahead, joe biden with a commanding lead heading into tomorrow's south carolina primary. we're going to give a live report from the palmetto state. new reporting that democratic leaders are willing to risk damaging the party in order to stop bernie sanders from winning the nomination. those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. maria ramirez?

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. welcome become, ahead of tomorrow's south carolina primary, a new monmouth university poll showing joe biden holding a commanding lead in the state. the former vice president sitting at 36%. 20 points ahead of the

democratic primary field. he's actually followed by a statistical tie of senator bernie sanders, 16, tom steyer at 15. stier is up 11 points since last year. among south carolina's black voters, biden has 28% sitting at 45% of support, 28% lead, excuse me, sitting at 45% support, meanwhile, 39% of south carolina's democratic primary voters say they are firmly decided on their pick, while 39% say they are open to a different candidate. 15% are still undecided. >> joining us now from orangeburg, south carolina, garre garrett haake, good to have you with us. let's talk about bernie sanders, what is bernie sanders final pitch to voters in south carolina ahead of tomorrow's primary? >> reporter: bernie sanders pitch has been pretty consistent over the last several weeks. if he's changed anything up recently i would say the latest change is he's more about the unity candidate than he is a

candidate who can beat donald trump. he's trying to address the electability concerns that have long existed about putting him at top of the ticket directly. it's weird to hear bernie sanders come out on a stump and talk about polls but that's what he's been doing, talking about national polling that shows him beating donald trump nationally and in the swing states. he's not addressed the polling you just described in south carolina, which has him trailing here pretty significantly, but that's sort of okay for the sanders campaign, winning south carolina was never a goal for them. they'd like to keep within punching distance of joe biden. there's been a couple of other polls that have come out in recent days that have had him down in single digits. i think that would be fine with the sanders campaign. you can see that in where they have sent the candidates. we were in north carolina, virginia, two states that vote on super tuesday and in fact, tonight, he'll be in boston. he's working ahead in the calendar, trying to get to states where he can do much better on super tuesday and potentially rack up delegates,

the final south carolina tally here, as long as he gets some delegates, if he gets above the 15% threshold in south carolina, that final number could be an after thought for the bernie sanders campaign, at least so they think. >> if you're looking at this monmouth university poll which was interesting to say the least, that he's not within punching distance of joe biden. i spoke to steve kornacki, not only was joe biden so far on top of the poll but that he had actually gained momentum, considering his poor showing in the early voting states. >> reporter: yeah, and that's a fair point. biden's numbers here have been incredibly durable, despite how many negative news cycles, despite getting shin iowa and n hampshire, and he's held up here incredibly well and if that's reflected in the final tally come saturday i think it will say a lot about his durability

more broadly and among african-american voters he has been targeting with incredible vigor the last few days since he has been in south carolina. i'll also just caution, we're in a little bit of choose your own adventure territory when it comes to polls in south carolina, there's a post and courier, the local news here that showed sanders in a handful of points that buoys his campaign. the other x factor is tom steyer who has spent tons of money in south carolina, spent more time in south carolina than any of the other remaining major candidates, but that was the case in nevada, too and when the rubber hit the road, his support evaporated there. if steyer is a paper tiger where does it go, joe biden, bernie sanders, or does it go somewhere else. the possibility exists that steyer is, you know, threatening in those poll numbers but may not be able to close out come election day. >> garrett haake with the all american childhood reference to the choose your own adventure.

we're going to have to wait and see how it turns out tomorrow. >> turn to page 47 for south carolina results. >> choose your adventure starting january 1st. >> garrett haake, much appreciated. for a first look at your forecast, let's go to meteorologist bill karins. >> you can go back to those folks if you don't like the end result. >> that's the genius of the choose your own adventure. >> we can't do that in the elections. your temperatures this morning are one of the stories, along with the lake effect snows, epic along lake erie, it was blizzard conditions, so we had the blowing and drifts of snow with 40 to 50 miles per hour winds and on top of that, heavy lake effect snow. the worst was in the rural areas north of syracuse, and south of buffalo in the very typical snow towns, and so, again, it's not ending. we're going to see this continuing until tomorrow for anyone traveling through that region. again, the temperatures, it feels like winter a little bit at least. this weekend it's going to warm up, though, mobile feels like 32 this morning.

we're at 29 in atlanta for a windchill. green bay at negative 8. there is cold air out there. and because of that we have lake effect streakers, the heaviest lake effect snow is in between syracuse and watertown. we have had lightning strikes. and there's still a little bit of snow outside of cleveland. buffalo hasn't gotten too much. most has been south of there. this band here is about as impressive as you get. some will end up with 3, maybe 4 feet of snow by the time it ends on saturdayment we'. overall, though, the forecast, anyone traveling today, no problems, we warm up this afternoon. it's going to be fantastic this afternoon in areas of the southeast, and this weekend, after a chilly morning on saturday, then the warm up begins in areas of the east, look at chicago, 53. d.c., 52, and finally guys by sunday, we're going to warm up areas of the northeast. it's a short lived cold blast and that's it. looks fine in south carolina for voting, too, and we'll start focussing on super tuesday.

>> thank you, bill. >> thanks, bill. still ahead, new reporting about the wide ranging college admissions scandal. a lawyer for lori loughlin and her husband says new evidence exonerates them. danny cevallos will talk about that next. . cosentyx works on all of this. cosentyx treats the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis to help you look and feel better. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. watch me! get real relief with cosentyx.

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oh wow. silverado offers an optional technology package with up to 15 different views - including one enhanced view that makes your trailer appear invisible. wow. - that's pretty sweet. - that's cool. oooohh! that's awesome. where'd the trailer go? i love it. it's magic. welcome back, everyone. new evidence produced by prosecutors in the college admissions cheating scandal may exonerate actress lori loughlin and her husband mossimo, notes from the alleged master mind show that investigators sought to pressure him to lie by saying that he told his clients who participated in the alleged scheme that their payments were bribes, not legitimate donations to schools. singer pleaded guilty in march of 2019 to charges of racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering, conspiracy to

defraud the u.s. and obstruction of justice but he also cooperated with investigators and wore a wire. >> loughlin who pled not guilty to charges of bribery was accused of paying $500,000 to singer who allegedly faked athletic credentials to help their daughters gain special consideration to the university of southern california. and wrote about loud and abrasive calls with agents, writing this, they continue to ask me to tell a fib and not restate what i told my clients as to where their money was going, to the program, not to the coach and that it was a donation, they want it to be a payment. government lawyers contended in court there was nothing in singer's notes that proved they were legitimate. joining us here on set to help clear this up and see if this is a legitimate thing, msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos.

lo loughlin's lawyers calling this exonerating for the defendants. could the notes exonerate lori loughlin and her husband in this. >> it's possible. that's not the focus on the motion, whether or not they ultimately exonerate the defendants, it's about discovery. the government has limited discovery options in a federal criminal case but they have to turn over what's called brady material, material that tends to exculpate or show that the defendant is negligent. they have an obligation to turn that over. the challenge for defense attorneys like me is that the people entirely in charge and making that decision is the government. the defense attorneys have no role in it. so in this case, these notes, the government is arguing, that they held on to them for months and months and months because they believed that they were attorney client privileged, in other words that this person was writing these notes to give to his attorney and therefore they couldn't be turned over. now they say just this last week they've gotten permission from singer's attorney to turn these over. the defendants say that's not a really good explanation because you've known about these since

2018 and they are very much exculpatory, they are very much something that tends to show these dfefendants may be, at minimum, we shouldn't have found out about this at the eve of trial. whether or not they ultimately exonerate the defendants is a separate issue. the real key is did the government violate its discovery obligations by holding on to these notes until a time so close to trial. >> you said we are close to trial. the trial, i believe is, according to the judge, the case has been set for october, which you would think is actually a pretty long time out. and now they're asking even for a postponement to that trial to try to sort out some of these issues. how likely is that scenario to happen? why would the judge consider that when you're talking about ten months out? >> it's very much up to the judge, but generally in federal court the mandate is to move

cases along faster than in state court where they can drag on for years. the most federal cases won't have extensions out to that long, like october for this case, so i wouldn't be surprised if the judge comes up with an alternate remedy where he or she says that, while we look at this and government you better explain all the documents you have and why you're holding on to them, at least to me the judge before we go forward. i wouldn't be surprised if the judge doesn't push out the trial date and instead comes up with a remedy to ensure dfefendants tht the government is meeting its obligations. >> if this evidence were proven to be true, wouldn't this affect other cases, including felicity huffman who served 14 days in jail for what happened with her? >> i'm a biassed defense attorney. to me, these notes tend to show singer's state of mind. the government is going to argue that they are meaningless. he was writing things down, all potential defendants say they did nothing wrong but the defense attorneys in this case i think have a pretty strong

argument that these are the kinds of things that should have been turned over at the beginning. again, bias defense attorney. >> that's a surprise. so candidly admitting that you're biassed. danny cevallos, appreciate it. >> danny cevallos, biassed defense attorney. still ahead, what mike bloomberg is saying about staying in the 2020 race and perhaps challenging bernie sanders if the senator fails to hit the delegate threshold. we're going to get a live report on the syria air strike that is said to have killed turkish forces, raising escalation in the region. we're back in a moment. so try febreze fabric refresher. febreze finds odors trapped in fabrics and cleans them away as it dries. use febreze every time you tidy up, to keep your whole house smelling fresh air clean. fabric refresher even works for clothes you want to wear another day. make febreze part of your clean routine for full home freshness. la la la la la

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welcome back, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. we begin this half hour with the effort to stop senator bernie sanders in dozens of interviews with democratic party officials. "the new york times" found that not only are some establishment leaders worry about sanders' candidacy but they're also willing to risk damaging the party to stop his nomination. the times says since sanders' victory in nevada on saturday the paper has interviewed 93 party officials, all of them super delegates who found overwhelmingly opposition to handing sanders the nomination if he falls short of a majority of delegates. the times notes such a situation may result in a brokered convention, a messy political battle the likes of which democrats have not seen since

1952 when the nominee was adli stevenson. nancy pelosi was asked what she's saying to reassure democrats worried about a sanders' nomination. here's what she had to say. >> i have been very clear in all of this, our responsibility is to win the house. my responsibility is to make sure those we elected last time return to congress, keep the majority and add to our numbers. the presidential is its own race, and contrary to what you may be hearing or writing, we are not getting -- we are all unified, whoever the nominee is of our party we will wholeheartedly support. our gospel is one of unity, unity, unity. >> and campaigning in south carolina yesterday former vice president joe biden took issue with senator bernie sanders' reported interest in a 2012 primary challenge to barack obama after warning against the challenges of a medicare for all

health care policy. >> one of the great things, and i must tell you, i'll be just straight with you. one of the reasons i like bernie, one of the reasons i resent bernie, though is he wanted to primary barack in 2012, he said he should be primaried. people are disappointed, doing a lousy job. i fundamentally disagree with that. >> senator sanders medicare for all push will be a long, long expensive slog and cost over $35 trillion. and the patients can't afford to wait for what he calls and others call and i believe they're totally sin veecere, a revolution. people when they're sick want peace of mind, and know you will be able to be cared for, and you're not going to leave your family destitute or handle whatever the cost is you need. our patients can't afford to wait. >> at a campaign event in

virginia, senator bernie sanders hit former vice president joe biden over his voting record. >> the way we defeat trump is by bringing forth the largest voter turnout in the history of this country. that's what you need to beat tru trump, and in my view, you don't do that with the same old, same old style of politics. now, my good friend joe biden, who i have a lot of respect for. joe is not going to bring new people into the political process when people know that he voted for the war in iraq. not going to create excitement among working people when they learn that he voted for an awful bankruptcy bill. not going to bring new people into the political process when

they learn that he voted for trade agreements like nafta and pncr with china, which cost us millions of good paying jobs. not going to bring people into the political process or the democratic party when they learn that he stood on the floor of the senate time and time again talking about the need to cut social security, medicare and medicaid. >> and billionaire democratic presidential candidate michael bloomberg says he is ready to fight for his presidential bid to the bitter end. here's what he told nbc's kasie hunt yesterday when asked how long he's willing to stay in the race. >> as long as you have a chance of winning, absolutely, why would i spend all this money and all this time out of my life and wear and tear, you know, which i love incidentally, it reminds me of my three campaigns in new york for mayor, the difference here is i have to fly from event to event, there i had to drive. sure i love it.

i'm going to stay right to the bitter end as long as i have a chance. if bernie sanders were to get a majority, of course not. >> so a majority is the line for you, even if he has a clear plurality, you would stay in. >> if it was one vote away from a majority you would have to start thinking about it. if it's just a plurality. you got to be in it to win it. i'm running a race, and i'm behind with one lap to go. what am i going to quit, no, you run harder. >> so mike bloomberg released new additional medical records about his heart health and is calling on senator bernie sanders to do the same. the former new york city mayor's annual health exam last july included cardiac stress testing, according to a letter from dr. steven sisone from john hopkins university. his doctor says he's in great physical shape. the sanders campaign has refused to release more detailed records saying they have released the appropriate documents, such additional medical records could clear up concerns after the

78-year-old vermont senator suffered a heart attack on the campaign trail back in october. >> joining us once again from washington, d.c., political reporter for the hill julia manchester, good to have you back with us. let's talk about reporting that democratic leaders are willing to risk some party damage to stop bernie sanders from getting the nomination. do you think we could be headed to that brockerkered conventiond what is the big deal about them saying that they would consider other candidates if he doesn't have the majority. isn't that how it's supposed to play out, if the doesnhe doesn'e majority, they debate that. >> reporter: absolutely, i think it's possible that we could be headed toward a brokered convention. we're a little early. we need to get through south carolina and super tuesday first to see which direction this is playing into, but i think it would be a very controversial move for establishment leaders to really get involved and try to pitch their own candidate. i think there is a deep divide within the democratic party right now about the impact

bernie sanders would have on a democratic ticket and, you know, t the divide between progressive and establishment figures in the party. it was interesting listening to nancy pelosi a few minutes ago talking about how they are a unity party. from the people i have been talking to and what i have been hearing, i am not hearing that. i am hearing there are some members in her own caucus, joe cunningham from south carolina who has talked about the negative impact bernie sanders would have on south carolina in terms of him touting socialism and how socialism is not the way to win south carolina. there is definitely concern about how, you know, bernie sanders will impact this party in the general election, so i think there's real discussions happening about how to move forward with someone like a sanders at the top of the ticket. >> what could happen, julia to bernie sanders supporters and the democratic party as a whole if there were to be a brokered convention because the super

delegates do not hand this nomination over to bernie sanders because he only has a plurality and not a majority? >> reporter: obviously a major rift would be created. there is already tension when it comes to bernie sanders and super delegates. he has been very vocally opposed to them in the pastme. i think there's skepticism going into this on the part of sanders supporters. if you go to a sanders rally, talk to sanders supporters, there is so much animosity, i would say between them and the democratic party establishment. there is not a lot of mutual trust there, so i think this could really blow up and maybe negatively impact democrats as a whole going up against donald trump. the republican party is very very unified under president trump but the democratic party, with just months to go until the general election hasn't really unified behind a standard bearer. now, some people have criticized the number of moderates in the race for not consolidating, however it's just not unified at this point. >> i'm going to go out on a limb

and say, you know, when bernie sanders goes after the so called democratic establishment, he probably has some of these super delegates in mind who don't want him to get the nomination no matter what. >> we were literally having this same conversation back in 2016, leading up to a possible trump nomination in the republican convention. >> julia manchester, live in d.c., always a pleasure. a dramatic escalation in the conflict between turkey and russia backed force, we're going to get a live report from alcom next. with advil liqui-gels,

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[wood rolling] alexios, add toilet paper to the shopping list. [chiseling on stone] oh, and camel milk. and a chicken. and moisturizer. alexa: thanks, guys. i'll take it from here. the turkish military suffered multicasualties in syria in a dramatic escalation in the nine-year civil war. 33 turkish soldiers were reportedly killed and 30 injured according to a senior turkish official as turkey blamed russian-backed forces for conducting an air-raid where the

turkish troops were stationed. we stand by our nato ally turkey and continue to call for an immediate end by the despicable offense by the regime. turkey retaliated with air strikes against the government targets. the last syrian province held by rebels opposed to the governor of senior president bashar al assad. joining us live from london, ali arouzi, good morning to you, thanks for joining us on this. turkey has said that it retaliated against syrian targets today. what is the latest so far on the turkish response to this attack? >> good morning, yasmin, well, in the early hours shortly after that attack, president erdogan convened an emergency meeting with his senior staff, and right after that meeting the

retaliation began. turkish artillery pounded regime, and turkey carried out missile attacks on targets in syria's central, northwestern towns of zara, as well as an attack where the russians have a strong foothold. erdogan's communications director said that they are hitting with land and backed up by air all known regime targets and they will continue their operations in syria which is setting the scene, yasmin, for a full scale confrontation between turkey and syria, especially since assad seems intent on taking back control of the area and he's being backed by the russians. >> ali, let me get your thoughts really quickly on nato's role in all of this. some have said turkey has put themselves in a box because they have gone inside syria, they're going against the ate sad regime as well as russia but they have done so without the necessary approval from nato, so now that

turkey comes under attack, is there any chance, are we likely to see some kind of nato response that kind of pretty much says an attack on one nato member is an attack on all? >> well, hi, ayman, yes, nato certainly has that responsibility. it's an all for one organization and turkey has called on nato to enforce a no fly zone in idlib where there's already a humanitarian catastrophe but nato members have refused to engage militarily in northwest syria. they're reluctant to do that because they don't want to get into a direct confrontation with russia. it's a complicated situation. turkey, as you said, is a nato member and that's prompted fears that they'll have to respond in some sort of way through their allies in europe and north america, but if they did, that would dramatically escalate syria's already very complex war which has a dual aspect as both

a civil war and a proxy war with lots of outside parties backing various different factions for their own strategic ends. we've just heard that nato is about to give a presser on this ongoing situation there, as soon as we get details of that presser, we'll bring them to you guys. maybe they will shed some more light on how they are planning on dealing with this very complicated situation. >> yeah, as ali arouzi said, it is a powder keg, literally a powder keg about to explode there. nbc's ali arouzi live in london. thanks, it was a pleasure. the dow experiences its worst point drop in history on the 6th straight day of stock market losses in fear over the coronavirus. plus, how the potential pandemic is affecting marketing for the beer brand of a similar name sake, the story ies drivin your business day are next. they are both very much hand in hand. so you should really be focusing on both and definitely at the same time. the new sensodyne sensitivity & gum

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welcome back, u.s. stock futures have put the market on pace for its worst week since

2008 as the coronavirus continues to plague wall street. cnbc's will em marks joins us live from london. quite a look. a lot of ups and downs, mostly downs, any relief in sight the financial crisis, yasmin. look at the speed of the correction, the market calls it a correction when it falls this way. during the great depression this happened. in terms what's happening in europe, not great, to be honest. was worst about an hour ago. there may be a chance markets return a bit closer to flat line. you mentioned. looks like major u.s. markets will open lower. more cases in germany and more cases in france and in the uk and more cases in austria makin nervous.

and the boeing 737 grounded. agreed to pay engine designs, welcome news for share holders and another big u.s. corporate story closely watched by investors around walmart. vox reporting walmart has been looking for 18 months to develop a membership model a bit like amazon prime with 150 million members worldwide. not a huge amount of detail yet. the company confirms to cnbc it will be called walmart plus. >> interesting. a new aspect to this. ask you about corona a moment. it's facing backlash after a poorly placed ad. what more do you have on this? >> spanish word for crown, name of a well-known beer and clearly a kip type of virus meaning this a lot of tightropes to walk at the moment. new forms of their products, coming ashore, the language they used, with the product's washing

up on a beach. critics saying in poor taste. others a bit more generous saying bad timing. the company says this is the way they've been operating for 20 years. they're not going to change it. al difficult time for their marketing team at this point. >> sit this one out. do not try to capitalize the use the hysteria surrounding coronavirus. everybody knows the brand. we'll try it when it comes out. don't shove it down our throats withparanoia. thank, willem. any polling shows vice president joe biden maintaining his lead over the democratic field in south carolina. the last day of campaigns before primary ballots of cast. "morning joe," everyone, just moments away. pplements-nea has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration.

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welcome back, everyone. joining us now, axios

editor-in-chief, great to have you with us. what is the "one big thing" for today? >> good morning. today's "one big thing," the coronavirus recession fears that are growing. you touched what it's doing to the stock markets but economists quickly this week have been raising the alarm bells about how coronavirus could infect the global economy. talking to our markets editor earlier this week, he was at a conference of economists at washington and in the span of 48 hours coronavirus went from someone no one was talking about to the only thing people are talking about. very much warning about the impact in germany and japan, the virus could tip both into recessions soon and in the united states economists warn we could see flat growth the next six months as sort of the fears continue to grow, see possible shutdowns of schools, retail places, impacting in the stock market. you saw earlier. a lot of retail focus stocks, restaurants and retail chains and movie theaters and i think a big thing to keep in mind how it might play into politics. the biggest thing president

trump has going for him and re-election, the booming economy. record stock market highs, record low unemployment. coronavirus is already impacting the stock market up more than 10%. that begins to trickle more into the broader economy and tip the u.s. into recession that will definitely play out in the presidential vote later this year. >> axios on hbo coming back this sunday. >> we're back. >> a first look at a clip where axios founder mike allen, we speak to a lot here sat down former trump aide roger stone. >> the only fear i have is not being right with god. >> and where are you on that score? >> i feel pretty good, because i've taken jesus christ as my personal savior and it's given me enormous strength and solace, because he knows what's in my heart. >> tune in this sunday on hbo for more of mike's interview with roger stone. interesting to think about, how is president trump right with his heart?

whether this president will pardon roger stone, waiting for a hearing on a new trial, the president weighing in a lot on twitter. i love about that interview, roger stone has a flare for dramatic. taped at the watergate hotel in washington. >> and axios is reporting 2020 presidential primary officially surpassed the $1 billion mark making history at this stage. yes, obviously the big elephant in the room is mike bloomberg but we still have four months to go. >> staggering. >> a long way to go before spending dies. >> hitting huge records. mike bloomberg a huge part of that, over $4 opini00 million. a lot of spending in super states early. never saw that before. and not just mike bloomberg. two other interesting things, analytics deploying more money sooner, understand how it works on the internet better and bernie sanders has a tremendous fund-raising army. small donor donations and spending a lot boosting totals. >> staggering numbers. kind of disappointing as well.

nicholas johnson always a pleasure. reading axios a.m. in a bit. sign up at signup@axios.com. i'm yasmin vossoughian along side ayman mohyeldin, "morning joe" starts right now. the white house suggests how to wash hands. step one. turn on water. step two, apply soap to hands. step three, rub hands together. step four, dry them off. now you're safe to do the things you love virus-free. >> so good! hmm. >> a message from cdc.gov. >> that's right. why we need to eat our vegetables. >> oh, boy. it's friday, february 28th. welcome to "morning joe," everyone. along with joe, willie and me we have white house reporter for the associated press jonathan lemire and a lot going on

pertaining to the coronavirus. officials in california are now looking for anyone who may have come into contact with the california woman who contracted the coronavirus from an unknown source here in the u.s. it's the first time an american tested positive for the virus without traveling or coming in contact with someone who has the virus. according to officials at the uc davis medical center, the patient was left undiagnosed for days, because an immediate request for testing wasn't initially granted by the cdc. the agency has since revised and broadened its testing criteria. >> to what? if somebody has it, you can test for it. >> well, it's sort of a -- this is a work in progress obviously. last night california congressman john garamendi told cnn the patient is now in serious condition. this as officials are now bracing for a larger outbreak in northern california yesterday. california