coverage 4:00 p.m. eastern through 11:00 p.m., tomorrow part of the msnbc special coverage of the south carolina primary. i want to thank everyone here in south carolina, keep it locked here on msnbc. let's see. we did all right. "hardball" is up next. who's watching out for us? let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in charleston, south carolina. there's increasing concern over the scope and impact of the coronavirus tonight. i'm starting the show talking with dr. anthony fauci, leading professional in the u.s. government dealing with the threat of the virus. the u.s. stock market continued to slide today marking its worst

week since the 2008 financial crisis. the dow fell for a seventh straight day, closing down 350 points. that's a 12% loss since last week. it comes as additional countries report their first cases of coronavirus, including mexico, nigeria, belarus, new zealand, and the netherlands. now learning a second person in california contracted the coronavirus without having traveled to any effected areas. in a series of tweets overnight the president congratulated himself, his vice president, and his administration for their handling of the crisis in this country. among other things, trump said his decisions are, quote, putting us way ahead in the battle with coronavirus. here's how he tried to calm fears of the virus late today. >> as you know with the flu on average we lose from 26,000 to 78,000 people a year, even more

than that in some cases, some years. we haven't lost anybody yet and hopefully we can keep that intact. there have been no deaths in the united states at all. we are working on cures and getting some very good results. they're working as rapidly as they can on a vaccine for the future. we haven't seen an increase and people are getting better. almost everybody we see is getting better. and it could be everybody, too. >> this comes as the world health organization raises the threat assessment to the highest level as their executive director said today, quote, this is a reality check for every government on the planet. wake up. get ready. you have a duty to your citizens, you have a duty to the world to be ready. yet many are questioning this administration

administration administration administration readiness. they have warned we are ill prepared for a dangerous pandemic. trump calls the global security team as a clear loss, saying now we are behind the ball. then there's confusion over who exactly is in charge. first trump put health and human services secretary alex azar in charge, then announced vice president mike pence would lead the effort. pence selected debra burks to be the response coordinator. even as pence leads the way, he found time for a political fund-raiser on the way to florida. there's breaking news tonight. nbc news reporting the trump administration called off a summit of asian leaders next month in vegas over growing alarm in the coronavirus virus. joined by dr. anthony fauci from national institute of health. i guess everybody watching now has one question. how serious is this?

>> well, right now presently, chris, i mean, what you said is true that we have been able to handle and contain cases that we have, but if you look at what's going on the rest of the world, that will ultimately dictate impact on us because you're seeing a considerable number of cases in multiple countries throughout the world. when that happens, what's going to happen here is we will see additional cases and it is going to be the proof of the pudding how we handle them. will we be able to identify, isolate, and contact trace. and that's the thing right now that's going to be the big challenge. because when you look at italy, iran, south korea, there are considerable number of cases there. that bodes that we will see cases here. question is how are we going to handle it. >> i guess what i'm hearing, it is snowballing, is that right?

>> well, certainly on the outside world, we are seeing that. this is what happens when you have a highly transmissible infectious disease. you get into a country and if you don't have the capability of doing the identification, isolation, contact tracing, then it gets out of hand and you have cases that appear that you don't know what the index case was that transmitted it. that has the makings of a much broader impact on the globe, and it looks like we're heading that direction. >> so it is like other countries when they don't have a good tsa at the airport, it effects us, is that right? other countries may drop the ball, increases the geometric speed of this spread. >> well, yeah, chris, you're right. in other words, we are an interconnected world. i mean, that's very, very clear.

and when you have an infectious agent that can transmit rather readily, anything bad that happens in another country in the global community is going to be a greater challenge for us. so we have the situation where thus far we've actually done very well, and i think the idea that we early on did a travel ban from china and not allow people from china to see the country with cases that could have spread retrospectively thinking about that, that was a very good idea, but as more and more countries get involvement with this as we're seeing with italy, as we're seeing with south korea, the challenge becomes even greater. >> let's talk about preparation because if it was just china or a few countries that had infections, we'd only have to worry about people coming from there. now that we have all these countries in europe and central

asia, russia, former russian soviet republic, we have it everywhere, on every continent, how do you play defense, and are we ready to do that now? can we play defense against all these possible areas of infection? >> you know, chris, we put together a few years ago a pandemic preparedness plan that was originally geared for influenza and so much ability to extrapolate that now, that that's what you hear when we say you have to take a look at parts of that plan whi is called mitigation. in other words, how do you deal with it when it is here in the country. and there are a number of ways to do that. and that's the thing we're getting geared up to do. >> do we know how it hops from one person to another when there's no physical contact? >> you know, it is a respiratory borne disease, chris, and the

way that's transmitted is very characteristic, very similar to influenza, respiratory droplets, maybe aerosol, and also people sneeze or cough into their hands, they'll shake hands with someone else, they'll touch a door knob. that's the reason as though it sounds simplistic, you say one of the best things one can do is wash your hands frequently as we should be doing with influenza. >> let me ask you about the president's hopefulness. he was very calming. i understand that. he was calming in a way i wonder if it is true or not. he talks about april coming. does the arrival of real spring offer hope this will subside as a danger? >> it could be, chris. i mean, classically when you have respiratory diseases like influenza, they tend to diminish, so the concept of a respiratory illness that's transmitted readily diminishing as you get to warm weather is

not an unreasonable concept. the only issue is we're not sure what's going to happen with this virus because we've never had any previous experience with the virus. we are hoping that's the case, but there's no guarantee that that's going to happen. >> well, i'm thinking if the southern hemisphere where it is summer now, where it is warm, and australia is suffering from it, haven't benefitted from warming of the seasons, have they? >> well, no, but what this might turn out to be that you might see a seasonal issue here, and that's the reason why they're hard working on a vaccine. maybe a vaccine certainly won't be ready for a year, it might be good for next year. >> the "new york times" is reporting vice president pence is controlling the flow of information to the public on this question. the story includes detail about you. the report said dr. fauci told associates the white house instructed him not to say anything else without clearance.

are you operating under normal clearance or procedures for getting out public health information? >> that was completely misconstrued, chris. i'm not being muzzled. everybody who gets on shows like this, you have a normal clearance. i was cleared here, here i am talking to you, and i'll give you the whole truth the way i always have. >> i love to hear that, my friend. dr. anthony fauci. you deserve the medal of freedom, you're a great man. thank you for coming on. your work against hiv has been wonderful. thank you, sir. >> good to be with you. >> with trump's credibility in question, he is trying to deflect blame, accusing democrats and us the media of needlessly elevating the public's concern. president trump's acting chief of staff mick mulvaney went further, saying media coverage of the coronavirus is intended to bring down the president.

>> we took extraordinary steps four, five weeks ago. why didn't you hear about it? what was still going on four, five weeks ago? impeachment. that's all the press wanted to talk about. the press was covering their hoax of the day because they thought it would bring down the president. the reason you're seeing so much attention to it today is that they think this is going to be what brings down the president. that's what this is all about. >> this comes after vice president pence claimed the administration was putting politics aside. >> the president made it clear yesterday, we're all in this together. this is not the time for politics. the president also directed me to reach out. i spoke to speaker pelosi, i spoke to senator schumer. >> how did those conversations go? >> they were good conversations. >> they were politicizing it almost instantaneously. >> yeah, i know. >> joined by ben rhodes, former adviser under president obama. you're good explaining how

bureaucracies work in political seasons which we seem to always be in now. how would a normal presidency have handled threat of coronavirus? >> well, chris, first of all what's concerned a lot of us for years is what was done before the virus which is an office had been established in the white house on global health security under president obama to deal with precisely these pandemic threats that originate in other countries, allows you to get health infrastructure and collaboration into those countries to mitigate risk, help prevent spread of pandemic. that office was shut down. funding for cdc in repeated trump budgets was slashed. it has been raised for years. now we would like to see since this arose from china, you would like to see professionals like dr. fauci who is a national treasure front and center communicating to the american people about the crisis. instead, what we've seen the last several weeks is an effort by president trump to downplay the crisis, and tell everybody

that it is okay, tell people it will go away in april, not necessarily informed by the facts as we just heard, to calm financial markets that seem to be the principal concern. the goal, the bureaucracy should function where the white house plays a leadership role empowering agencies and working with other countries, and my concern is i haven't seen evidence that that's entirely what's happening. >> we are fortunate to have had dr. fauci come directly without any attempt by anyone to stop him. asked whether this is an economic crisis or public health crisis, the president blamed democrats for the downturn of the stock market. >> i think it's just people don't know, it is the unknown. you know, they look at it, they say how long will this last. i think they're not very happy with the democrat candidates when they see them, i think that has an impact, and we think we're going to win. we think we're going to win easily, but you never know, it is an election.

i don't think that's helping. >> well, ben, i thought there was -- sometimes people can argue the trump side of the argument feistily. it was hard to debate, as chaotic as the debate got, having anything to do with the market monday morning, tuesday morning, wednesday morning, thursday morning, friday morning. that was one incident that happened after market closings had gone to a thousand point drop in the dow both days. >> yeah, chris. this is completely absurd he is taking the conversation this direction. look, we dealt with multiple pan dem imcompeten cans. h1n1 in 2009, the ebola epidemic that broke out in 2014, and you know, chris, this is the kind of issue that breaks through politics. this is something people are talking about at kitchen tables across the country. they're not thinking politics. the reality is president trump has been worried about markets, the way to deal with that is to put people front and center.

if you can stop the spread of the pandemic, get back control, and communicate clear information that's credible to people, that's the kind of thing that might prevent further economic damage. by focusing more on messaging around markets because he is concerned about economic downturn before his election, president trump doesn't seem to be prioritizing response to the pandemic. that's what the american people want. my hope as an american, chris, is that experts are put front and center. get politics out of it from the white house, get the spin, messaging, attacks on democrats out of this, let the experts deal with this. unfortunately we have a president who disdains expertise, who attacks civil servants, called them the deep state. these are people you need when things get really serious as it does in pandemic. you need government when government is the place of last resort for protecting health of our citizens. >> all right, dr. fauci said the

point you made, didn't understand the challenge we face in this country as all the points where there are infections around the world, multiple points all over asia, africa, latin america, every continent but antarctica has infections. for us to be prepared for that multiplicity of threats is different than dealing with something we thought was just from china. this is galloping, we have to catch it. thank you so much for coming on tonight. >> thanks. coming up, joe biden's favored to win tomorrow in south carolina. will it be enough to lift him to victory super tuesday? he can pick out a couple, four, five states this weekend. who knows. jim clyburn endorsed biden, warning about down ballot carnage if democrats pick the wrong candidate. congressman clyburn comes here next. big night for "hardball." as rivals target bernie sanders, new poll shows his strength is growing nationwide. sanders is growing big.

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i'm confident about south carolina because i worked so hard over 30 or more years here in south carolina, not to run for president but to have a relationship with the community, and i have been deeply involved in this community and this state, and i feel very good about it, felt good about it from the beginning. it was the launching pad for barack, i think it will be for me. we'll see how much i win by. i don't want to jinx myself. i feel very good. i worked hard to earn the votes, i think i'll do well. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was former vice president joe biden saying he is confident he will do well in the south carolina primary. as politico put it, just as the white house bid appeared to sputter to an ugly end, there are signs of life for joe biden

still. a poll out yesterday from monmouth university showed biden with a commanding 20 point lead over bernie sanders in south carolina. politico reports the poll and others like it in south carolina was welcome news for a campaign with losses in three states. it had them writing his campaign off for dead. biden joined the campaign as national frontrunner is about 11 points behind sanders according to real clear politics polling average. a resounding biden win in south carolina tomorrow could change the narrative ahead for super tuesday. south carolina congressman jim clyburn endorsed biden earlier this week, says he hopes the state will give him a surge into super tuesday. i am joined by u.s. congressman jim clyburn, democratic whip of the congress. thank you, sir. you're a leader of congress and leader in south carolina. tell us what you think will happen tomorrow, sir.

>> well, i'm very hopeful about tomorrow. thank you so much for having me, chris. i think joe biden is going to do well in south carolina. i certainly hope so. joe biden has been a long time friend to this state, and almost an adjunct resident of the state. he has been in and out of here for 25 or more years. it is nothing to walk into a restaurant and see joe sitting there, chilling out for the weekend with jill. people of south carolina appreciate him. he has a record that endears him to people here. when he was chair of the judiciary committee, we extended voting rights act for 25 years. he wrote the violence against women act. he was a real force to be reckoned with when we were dealing with things the civil rights act, the housing law,

fair housing laws, these things are almost second nature to joe biden. so i'm very comfortable with him. he's been a very close personal friend over the years, my late wife was just crazy about joe, so i'm very comfortable supporting his candidacy and i think people of south carolina would be very comfortable with this presidency were he to get there. >> let's talk politics and the future, sir, talk about where the election will take us in south carolina, how important it is, what does it mean if joe biden is able to overcome, overtake bernie sanders and begin to win primaries outside of south carolina, especially on super tuesday next tuesday. how important is that that he be the frontrunner again? >> well, it is very important to all our down ballot races because most of the people i

talk to almost to a person, every one of the democrats that flipped seats two years ago by and large, they are very favorable towards joe biden. they think joe biden would do more to help them in their re-election bids than anybody else that is running, and that's what's so important. it is one thing to have the presidency, it is something else to have a house and senate that can be supportive of his programs. we know what it is like to have one body and not the other. where would the supreme court be if barack obama had help in the senate rather than hinderances that it did have? where would we be, even if you go all the way back to laws being passed during previous republican administrations, even during democratic administrations, we had a republican house. what kind of house would we be

dealing with if we had another type running the house of representatives, we need nancy pelosi as speaker of the house, and the best insurance for that i believe is a joe biden candidacy that will hold onto the house, give us a chance to win the senate. jamie harrison is doing well here in south carolina and he would do much better than he's doing now if we had a presidential candidate like joe biden. >> we're going to have jamie on in a moech in a moment. he is running against lindsey graham for the senate seat there. the language was down ballot carnage if bernie sanders is the nominee of the party. >> i think i was in texas about three weeks ago, i talked to the faith community down there and they were very, very concerned

about whether or not you'll do something, have somebody on the ticket that will cause down ballot carnage. that's our biggest problem in my members. we want to see somebody on the ticket that will allow us to expand our numbers, not having to run some kind of rare god campaign to keep from being tarnished with a label. >> thank you. thank you so much. thank you so much, jim clyburn, majority whip of the u.s. congress and leading figure in south carolina politics. thank you so much for coming on tonight, sir. it's good to see you. >> thank you. still ahead. more on the crucial contest in south carolina, also looking ahead to super tuesday, we have 14 states on the ballot next week. what does it mean to polls that show sanders ahead of warren in her state of massachusetts, in

the commonwealth of massachusetts. and is mike bloomberg destined to play spoiler? you're watching "hardball" from charleston, south carolina. there it is. this commute's been pretty rough, huh? it's great actually, i've been listening to audible. it's audiobooks, news, meditations... gotta go! ♪ ♪ hey! you know, i do think it's weird you've started commuting when you work from home. i'll be in my office. download audible and start every day off right. (mom) [thunder] were you planning on mowing the lawn today? (son) no. (burke) seen it. covered it. at farmers insurance, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. so call 1-800 farmers to get a quote. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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forgot, there is a primary here in south carolina. when we started the campaign in south carolina, i think we had 25 or 30 points behind, we made up a lot of ground. we're in striking distance. and if there is a large voter turnout of working people, low income people, come out and vote. i think we have a shot to win this. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was bernie sanders, vermont senator, in south carolina earlier today. while joe biden is betting big on south carolina with an eye towards super tuesday three days out, sanders has already moved on. tonight, he is holding a rally in massachusetts, one of 14 states voting next tuesday, when more than a third of all delegates for the nomination are up for grabs. look at the map. sanders leads in the latest poll out of massachusetts today, 25%. overtaking senator elizabeth warren in her home state. she's second at 17%. pete buttigieg at 14. former new york mayor mike bloomberg at 13. biden at 9.

strong showing in south carolina could give biden momentum particularly in southern states voting tuesday. biden got a big boost today from tim kaine, hillary clinton's running mate in 2016. he endorsed the former vp. first, voters in south carolina get to have their say. the first contest where african americans makeup a majority of the democratic voters. former adviser to the hillary clinton campaign, trymaine lee, and jamie harrison. democratic candidate for u.s. senate against lindsey graham in south carolina. i want to ask what you discovered. you have been around the state. >> i discovered there are huge pockets of black voters in rural counties that feel disconnected, disengaged, almost forgotten by the establishment, also the black vote is more fluid than we assume. obviously joe biden has been around the block, has a loyal

base, bedrock of the black community, older folks, churches and schools, but there are young people between 25 and 35 years old looking for someone to connect to. there could be opportunity, they haven't felt that spark yet. >> like the rest of the country. >> that's right. >> one african-american voter he spoke with was reverend joseph darby, pastor in charleston. he talked about the divide among african-american voters here. let's watch. >> i think there's a bit of a divide. probably i say 40 plus years old lean more towards biden, 40 and under, there's some significant division, whether it should be biden or bernie or one of the other candidates, even my youngest son is wrestling with that. >> you're at this point in biden's corner, but you have a younger son leaning sanders? >> he is leaning sanders and a couple other possibilities. >> reverend darby spoke in personal terms about his own

concerns. here he goes. >> i think for me it is déjà vu because i voted in my first presidential election in 1972. george mcgovern. when mcgovern was what would be called a progressive today, he had good policy ideas, a lot of youth energy, and understood the nomination, and totally smashed in the election. that's what worries me this time around. i see that same kind of thing materializing. >> with bernie sanders? >> yeah. >> thank you. let's go back to adrian. i think i am the eldest one here. i remember mcgovern. worked for the dnc as a volunteer then, took some time off to work the convention. everybody there was in a frenzy of happiness. george mcgovern was going to beat richard nixon a second term, didn't work. >> you hear reminiscing about

george mcgovern in the '72 campaign and how it played out, but look, we have to keep in mind that bernie sanders, should he be the nominee, he can build his own unique coalition the same way barack obama built a unique coalition and hillary clinton built her unique coalition. he generated so much energy among young voters, african americans, hispanics, working class voters. he's got a very strong coalition and people are very excited about him. i understand people having concerns. i think bernie sanders could do very well as the nominee. >> let's go to a guy that will be on the ballot, jamie harrison, running for senate in south carolina against lindsey graham, incumbent. who would you like to be running on the ticket with? >> well, in the end, chris, this is something my grandma always told me. she said jaime, control the things you can control, leave the rest to god. end of the day, i am going to be top of the ticket in south carolina, i have to focus on how i connect with the people of

this great state. and that's what i'm focused on. i'm going into rural communities and we're connecting on the fact, many of them their hospitals closed, don't have access to broadband. 14 of our 46 counties where there are no ob/gyns. there are many issues in the state where lindsey graham oversaw issues, hadn't done a thing to address them. i need to focus on that. that's what i'm doing now. >> let me ask you about the age thing. do you see the same thing among african-american voters between older voters being more traditional candidates like joe biden and younger ones looking for something radically new? >> listen, the african-american vote is not a monolith, that's something that i've told every one of the presidential candidates, go in and speak to

experiences of the various groups in our community. you know, what younger folks are looking for are very different from my grandma's generation or my mom's generation. it is important to understand what the hopes, aspirations, fears are of those groups. that's what we're doing each and every day on the campaign. that's why we're building a movement in south carolina. that's why folks should go to jaimeharrison.com and be part of it. >> polls show senator sanders with significant leads in two large states super tuesday, texas and california, combined more than 600 delegates. texas, senators leads 29%, followed by biden, 20%. bloomberg at 18. warren 15. the other candidates don't reach double digits. here, the big story, in california, sanders on top, 35%, 20 points ahead. 21 points for elizabeth warren at 14.

biden, 13, bloomberg 12, and fox news poll has sanders holding on to substantial lead nationally, beating biden by 13 points. let me go to trymaine and then adrienne. it seems there's a similarity in voting pattern, black, white ratio, if you will, south carolina, alabama, tennessee. in those states, biden is running away with it. then you have more purple states out west, it is a closer battle. biden i look to pick up five states next week if he rolls down here saturday. >> one thing that's interesting, reverend darby epitomized the idea of pragmatism, a lot of people are concerned about top tier candidates, but who can beat donald trump. you think of younger voters looking for inspiration, may find appeal in what sanders is offering, can you count on them to show up? count on darby and churches and institutions to come out. biden is banking on that. if he comes up big in south

carolina, that will reassure those that are hemming and hawing but feel confidence in his experience. >> adrienne, older people are slower making decisions, they've seen a lot of mistakes. >> older i get, the more i can identify with that. what concerns me are california numbers. you look at the numbers, the only person that's consistently polling 15%, the threshold you have to get to even qualify for delegates in california is bernie sanders. if you are joe biden, elizabeth warren, this state has 441 delegates. bernie sanders coming out of that state potentially with every delegate, that's where the challenge is for the rest of the democrats. >> i see you next to the guy you'll beat there, maybe, lindsey graham. >> tim scott. >> who is that? >> tim scott. >> oh, i'm sorry. big mistake. mistaken identity, sir.

sorry. tell me how you'll beat lindsey. >> everybody knows lindsey, everybody doesn't like lindsey graham. that's how i'm going to beat him, chris. he is down in charleston tonight with the president and we just released our first tv ad to hit lindsey graham on hypocrisy he had the last few years. this is a guy you can't trust. this is a guy doesn't have a moral compass. all he is focused on is washington, d.c. games. end of the day, folks in south carolina are going to give lindsey graham a one way ticket, maybe not here to south carolina, but possibly to mar-a-lago. we're fed up with sending people to washington, d.c. and not representing us here in south carolina. >> thank you, sir. jaime harrison, candidate for u.s. senate here. up next, facing one of the

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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. welcome back to "hardball." as the country faces two crises, a global health epidemic showing no signs of slowing down, and potential economic crisis resulting in the worst week of stock market losses since 2008, all eyes turn to the president for signs of leadership. his public schedule yesterday remained very light with just his daily intelligence briefing and evening event with african-american supporters. we saw a bit of that last night. there was something else that took up most of the president's time yesterday. according to the "daily beast," he spent most of an hour in the

oval office meeting with superman actor dean cane, and buffy the vampire actress chris tee swanson. they're starring in a play that dra drama advertises text messages between strzok and page. they were caught exchanging personal text messages, criticizing the president as they worked for the fbi. and right now, president trump is having a rally here in south carolina ahead of tomorrow's democratic primary. that's right. there's no republican primary held in south carolina tomorrow, but he's here. the state's republican party voted to cancel it in september. so why is the president there tonight, here? in his own words, about being the troller in chief, his title he has given himself. that's next. you're watching "hardball." er] (son) no. (burke) seen it. covered it. at farmers insurance, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two.

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and my lack of impulse control,, is about to become your problem. ahh no, come on. i saw you eating poop earlier. my focus is on the road, and that's saving me cash with drivewise. now the democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. you know that. coronavirus. they're politicizing it. democrats will only say horrible things, even though they know we're doing a great job. we're doing a great job with what we have to work with, it is incredible. the democrats want us to fail so badly, even if their actions and you take a look, hurt the people of this country. >> welcome back to "hardball."

that's president trump. of course tonight, rallying supporters here in south carolina, making the trip even as his government fights a global health crisis. the president will not be on tomorrow's ballot, of course, in south because the south carolina republican party has decided not to have a primary. this is trump's. he's going to win but trump's here anyway, just like he was in iowa and new hampshire and nevada before votes were cast in those states in democratic contests. yesterday he seemed to admit why. >> we have tremendous popularity in south carolina. we're going to go down. some people said i'm trolling the democrats, and maybe i am. >> i'm joined by kathleen parker from "the washington post" who comes from around here. and jonathan allen, senior political analyst for nbc news digital. kathleen, you watched this president trolling, the new generational term used for a lot of things. he seems to want to be around

the -- like a mosquito the night before they vote. >> he is exactly doing that, swarming and taunting. he loves to show up where they are to minimumi -- minimize wha they're doing and applause, his feed, he needs the lights and action and cameras going again on him and he loves doing it and he doesn't care. >> sort of like him during the debates when hillary's was doing something he's wandering around in the background. >> he's always looming. i woke up this morning and picked up the paper and there's a headline about donald trump. everybody here sees that trump is here. there's six, seven democratic candidates and he's getting an opportunity to talk to voters here, a clear shot. it makes political sense except for there's a coronavirus situation going on, and he's campaigning for president. in addition to that, the market is dropping off a cliff and he's campaigning for president in the doing his job in the white

house. >> at the same time republicans could you see democrats of politicizing the coronavirus, it was president trump who spent part of his news conference on wednesday this week attacking the democratic leadership. we know that. here he is. >> i think speaker pelosi is incompetent. she lost the congress once. i think she's going to lose it again. same thing with crying chuck schumer. he says the president only asks for $27.5 billion, he should be $8.5 billion. he shouldn't be making statements like that because it's so bad for the country. and nancy pelosi, she should go back to mother district and clean it up. >> that's a riddance canging ca unity. he's using this as sport to make fun of his usual cast of enemies. >> no one expects sincerity from donald trump and he's going to take pot shots at his opponents every chance he gets. when he's talking about unity at the same time that he's criticizing everybody and name calling, crying schumer, it's

just his shtick. i don't know why anybody expects to take president trump seriously on any subject at all. >> just a minute ago president trump attempted to blame the democrats again for the threat of the coronavirus. so the border is the lack of the wall being completed because of this threat. here he goes. >> we will do everything in our power to keep the infection and those carrying the infection from entering our country. we have no choice. whether it's the virus that we're talking about or many other public health threats, the democrats policy of open borders is a direct threat to the health and well-being of all americans. now, you see it with the coronavirus. >> here's the question -- >> other than handing off this problem to vice president pence, there's some simple things that the president could be doing, so easily. why doesn't he call in all the medical correspondents and show

them, talk to them about what they're doing. call in all the governs and have a conversation about what each state needs to be ultimately prepared for whatever may come. he's not even doing the easy things. >> yeah. >> and then just essentially handing it off so it can be somebody else's fault when it does not work out. that said, i do know, of course, that the cdc and the national institutes for health are talking with the white house. >> you can't pr it away. and i think he's really good at the flimflam. he knows how to blame other people. but in the end if this things gets really bad, and we hope it doesn't, the government of the united states will be blamed and his running it. >> this is the first time we've seen him have to deal with an external crisis. he likes to have chaos and create crises and then say that he solved them. this is the first time that something is completely out of his control. in addition to that, you're watching the market fall.

he doesn't have any levers to really stop that from happening at this point. and we watched him essentially declare victory from the white house briefing room, you know, in what -- look, hopefully that's the ninth inning. hopefully he's right. hopefully this will stop and it will be contained. but a lot of people think it might be the first inning, including the people who are standing behind him there on that stage, the senior career official at the cdc, anthony faulchi. here's the president telling the american people got this all under control here and playing scientist on television. we all know the president's a lot of things, one of them is not scientist. >> tonight it's leader. we need a leader in this fight. listening to the doctor tonight, seemed to me if he "w" efface a snowfalling effect from around the world. if they all start coming at once, that's a bigger challenge. thank you, kathleen parker,

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. stay with msnbc all day tomorrow, of course, for live coverage here of the south carolina primary. and then the focus shifts to the critical primaries on super tuesday. that's this coming tuesday. we'll have complete coverage of all that. by the way, i should apologize for that slipup tonight. i got the word i thought that that was jimmy harrison standing next to lindsey graham, it was tim scott. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts now video tonight on a special edition of "all in" from charleston, south carolina. >> this is a reality check for every government on the planet. wake-up, get ready. >> global warnings get louder and the domestic response remains misleading. >> it's going to disappear. one day it's like a miracle, it will disappear. >> tonight the latest on the spread of coronavirus. >> this is a potential community transmission case. >> a testing