overnight, and the trump campaign has built into its process ahead of the rally a whole bunch of opportunities to capture their cell phone details and monetize and get their data into the system so they can capture them. >> oh, my. whew. that sounds a little creepy. jonathan swan, thank you very much. anytime politicians is taking your data sounds a little creepy. >> yeah. personal information. >> exactly. >> poking you on facebook. >> yeah. jonathan swan a pleasure. thank you. reading axios a.m. in a bit. sign up for the newsletter at signup@axios.com. that does it for us. i'm yasmin vossoughian along side ayman mohyeldin. "morning joe" starts right now. i told you all if you can launch a candidacy, you launched bill clinton, barack obama to the presidency, and now you launched our campaign on the path to defeating donald trump! [ cheers and applause ] >> we have won the popular vote in iowa.

[ cheers ] we have won the new hampshire primary. [ cheers ] we have won the nevada caucus. [ cheers ] but -- you cannot win them all. >> honestly, i can't see a path where i can win the presidency. so am i going to continue to work on every single one of these issues? yes, of course i am, because i've never stopped. >> the two most important words that need to be written about the trump administration. you know what they are? "the end." but "you're fired" would work fine. >> then they thought i wouldn't make it through the summer, and that i wouldn't make it to the debates, but here i am headed into super tuesday. >> my campaign is built for the long haul, and we are looking forward to these big contests. [ cheers ] >> i will no longer seek to be

the 2020 democratic nominee for president, but i will do everything in my power to ensure that we have a new democratic president come january. [ cheers and applause ] >> ooh. >> what a difference a weekend makes. the landscape of the democratic nomination fight completely altered over the course of just a few days. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is monday, march 2nd. with us we have white house reporter for the associated press jonathan lemire. host of msnbc's "politicsnation" and president of the national action network reverend al sharpton. national political correspondent for nbc news and msnbc and author of "the red and the blue" steve kornacki and former chief of staffs dccc and former director for hillary clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, adrienne ed rod joins us. we have so much to sort through and the right people to help us through it.

jonathan lemire reports or shifting the blame on the coronavirus. richard haass analyzes the u.s. peace pact with the taliban and we go live to south bend, indiana, where pete buttigieg just dropped out, and bob costa looks at joe biden's piece to consolidate support in the wake of south carolina, and jeremy peters says despite some setbacks, mike bloomberg is getting better on the trail. and we will begin this morning with that much-needed shot in the arm for the biden campaign. the former vice president dominated in south carolina's primary on saturday running away with 48% of the vote. bernie sanders came in a distant second place at 20%. followed by tom steyer at 11%. pete buttigieg, elizabeth warren, amy klobuchar and tulsi gabbard still in the race, all in single digits. the former vice president pinned his hopes on black voters, and they did not let him down. according to nbc news exit polls

black voters made up 56% of democratic primary voters in south carolina, of which biden took a commanding 61%. including 81% of black voters over the age of 65. in fact, biden dominated among black voters of all ages, including the youngest 17 to 29 bracket, which typically goes for sanders. also key to biden's victory. the endorsement of south carolina congressman jim clyburn. 49% of the vote, of voters, said his endorsement was important to their vote. as of right now with four states behind us, biden trails sanders by seven delegates, 60-53. biden, however, has now overtaken sanders in the popular vote. so, joe, a big weekend for joe biden. >> boy, it was a big weekend for the entire democratic field and the democratic party. the results out of south carolina affectively reset the

race. just immediately reset the race, and actually, it proved what a lot of people have been saying for quite some time. that biden was not going to do well in iowa. he wasn't going to do well in new hampshire. because they were majority white states. and -- and 90% white even for those that were voting in the democratic primary, and the caucuses. it just, it was, those were two states that did not reflect the overall demographics of that state and then you go to nevada. it's a caucus. it's a strange, weird, bizarre caucus. it doesn't reflect actually how votes should turn out in primary races. so this, reverend al, was the first primary where you actually had an electorate, a primary electorate, that looked like the democratic party, and despite the fact there were some polls, including nbc news's polls say

it was a four-point race. this wasn't a four-point race. this was a blowout, and it gave biden a shot in the arm. it also put the rest of the field on notice, and showed, did it not, that, of course, mayor pete, who's out of the race, made the wise choice, but elizabeth warren, amy klobuchar, let's just face it. they don't have a future in this race, because they couldn't get above 5% of the black vote on saturday night. >> it was very important what happened saturday night for the reasons you said, and in addition to that you must remember, this was a saturday primary. so people weren't working. people were not in school. if you had the ability to do a huge turnout, if you had the surge we were hearing that bernie had, you couldn't have had a better time to demonstrate it. it just didn't happen. and when you look at the -- >> rev, can i stop you there? rev, we've been hearing now for four years, and i'm getting

really tired of it. i'm telling my own colleagues, please. don't show me the package that says, "but there's a huge gap between old black voters and young black voters." i've seen these bernie sanders things on this network and every network saying, yeah, just -- people just hoping that somehow there's going to be this huge split in the black vote. it never materializes for bernie. bernie's not bringing out more people. bernie's consolidating a certain part of the democratic base, not knocking him. doing a great job. but that's it! these stories, these are what reporters want the truth to be. it's just not the truth. >> no. i think bernie does an excellent job, but he would do even better if they would be realistic about what they have and what they do not have. when you operate off of faulty

information and act like that is true, you won't make up where you ought to make up, and if you look at the data, and i go to steve kornacki, who's the expert there, they actually, in terms of black voters under the age of 30, they equalled in south carolina which should be a wake-up call to bernie's operations. i think the other thing that was very important here is that when you see the almost opposite vote in terms of what biden got, in a state that was dominated by black voters, and the states and caucuses that were not, it shows you if the democratic party is to win in november, they must have an energized black base as well as latino base. so you've got to look at how that happens, particularly if you're going to deal with the bottom part of the ticket. so i think south carolina reshaped this race, and i think many people including those of us in the media needs to stop

wishing for things and tart dealideal ideal -- start dealing with things. again. this was a saturday primary. if you can't get a huge turnout on a saturday it's like a preacher sunday morning. if you can't fill a church on sunday morning, you can't fill the church. >> you can't fill the church. seriously, reporters, just stop with your stories wishing for something that's just not going to happen. and i've seen -- again, i've seen the bernie sanders stories for four years. young jane smith came back from school, and she's talked to her grandparents, who are black voters who were going to vote for hillary clinton, but are now going to vote for bernie sanders. they were going to vote for joe biden, but now they're -- no! it's not happening. okay? like -- like, save it, just save it. i'm getting tired of those stories. you're embarrassing yourself. all right. got that off my chest. i just -- i have seen those stories for four years.

it's getting old. he's also not expanding the electorate. doesn't matter. bernie could still win it all could, have a huge super tuesday and run away with it. steve kornacki, before we get to all the numbers shows bernie sanders going up 300, 400 points could almost lock this thing down on tuesday, thanks to mike bloomberg. let's first talk about -- let's just talk about realities about what we saw. okay? and i know when i -- when i suggested that elizabeth warren is attacking everybody on the debate stage might not help her in nevada i was called a misogynist. i think she finished in fourth place. where i questioned her logic on the debate stage in the south carolina debate, same thing. oh, you have to be misogynist because you say that may not help her. elizabeth warren had a rough night again. all right? but that's not all. i want you to tell me. how do candidates, like elizabeth warren, who get 5% of the black vote, or mayor pete who got out with 3% of the black

vote, or amy klobuchar who got 1% of the plaque vote. you tell me how can they win the democratic nomination? because i see no pathway forward for them at all, and the time we start getting real, whether you're a bernie fan or whether you're a biden fan. how do they do it if they can't get even half way through the single digits with black voters? >> this is it. if you want to win a national nomination in the democratic party in this day and age you need to show you can build significant non-white support. sanders campaign will tell you if you look out at nevada. i know. it's a caucus out there. >> a caucus. >> tested more. >> it's a caucus. >> tested in the primary in california next week. the sanders campaign tells you look at the hispanic support able to attract, significant in california, texas -- we'll find out tuesday because those states vote tuesday. yes, african-americans made up one out of every four votes cast

in the 2016 democratic primaries. 26% nationally and this was the first major test of that. we said it for months. watched pete buttigieg take off last spring and last summer, saw him getting big crowds moving up the polls in iowa and new hampshire. said unless he can show he can get out of single digits move meaningfully into double digits with black voters and beyond he's not going anywhere. electorate in nevada 10% black. pete buttigieg got 2% of the black vote out there and the electorate you say in south carolina near 60% black. got 3%. not coincidentally, drops out of the race a day later's if you cannot make meaningful roads, you're not going that far. >> bernie sanders is actually doing better among hispanic vote issers, among latino voters. correct? >> yes. i mean, the exit poll in nevada. you are correct to caution. that's a caucus. we'll see if that bears out when you get to these larger

electorate primaries. the exit poll in nevada said bernie sanders got an outright majority of hispanic vote there. 51%. so if you were to translate anything like that to a state like california, a state like texas, even a state like colorado, there are real opportunities for bernie sanders. it's why folks one of the reasons when you look ahead, talking about this a little more. why there is the opportunity still for sanders to get a pretty big delegate hall out of tuesday. in terms of the african-american vote, something the sanders campaign was really hurt by four years ago. remember, he got through iowa, new hampshire, nevada and very close to hillary clinton in 2016. went to south carolina and the bla black vote in south carolina sanders got 14% of the black vote in 2016 and he and his campaign spent the last four years trying to find a way to build that. polling indications maybe makeig progress and get to the south carolina primary, moved 14% four

years ago to 16% in 2020 and there's biden over 60%. >> yeah. that's obviously a bad sign for the campaign. the question is, though, whether jim clyburn is a one-off. if jim clyburn's endorsement means so much to that state that actually bernie may do better, may actually do better among black voters in 2020 compared to 2016 in other states. we will find out on tuesday. steve, talk about super tuesday. i've seen you go through the maps over the weekend. we're, again, dealing with old polls, polls not taken after, after south carolina. i mean, we have a couple this morning that were taken sort of in the middle of it. so that's not going to give us a clean look at momentum. but i thought you set it up really well, suggesting that what biden needs to do is he needs to stay fairly close to bernie sanders. >> right. >> because after super tuesday,

okay? because everybody -- after super tuesday people are going toish shooting off confetti if he does well or even up only by 100 or 150, the later contests in florida, arizona where biden is way ahead. biden's going to catch up down the road. the question is, is bernie going to be so far ahead that he's not going to be able to ultimately catch him? so break down tuesday for us. and, please, don't go on the old polls that were taken before south carolina. >> right. >> just talk about what we're looking at and what the most likely outcome on tuesday is going to be. >> the one thing i have to say and i totally hear you on, this race changed, it seems like, on saturday. so much of -- i am talking millions of votes for super tuesday. >> in california. >> texas, colorado, california -- so many votes are los locked in because of early

voting. it's extensive, it's the way of life increasingly in the wiest and could curtail for biden. look at it. 1,344 delegates up for grabs on tuesday. one-third of them basically are in california. what sanders has going for him are two things. number one, the polls have shown him far ahead in california, doing extremely well with the hispanic vote and getting a big chunk of that vote locked in. it's clear sanders will cross that delegate threshold in california easily. 15% state-wide. 15% in congressional districts. it's also clear at this point that sanders, support everywhere, going to exceed 15%. expect in every state from california on the west coast to maine on the east coast sanders is going to be collecting delegates and in a race like this, that starts to count. the were e here, the suspense for me is twofold. number one, is joe biden able to break that 15% threshold in

california? starting to think he's going to be able to do that. the poll this morning, it's a one-third postsouth carolina got biden sitting there at 21%. if biden's able to get in the 20s in california a very good night for joe biden and changing the picture substantially. >> explain this to me. it also, from what i saw this weekend listening to you, david plouffe is great too. you guys really broke this stuff down really well. from what, from what you guys explained, the more people that get over 15% -- >> yes. >> -- the better news for joe biden. joe biden doesn't want to be the only one over 15% for bernie. he'd love to see elizabeth warren get over 15%. michael bloomberg get over 15%. for some reason elizabeth over, mike over 15%, that chops um the p pie to possibly saveed bien from a 300-point loss.

>> yeah. put numbers to this. i was playing with my very limited delegate calculator before i came on here this morning. if you do a scenario where only bernie sanders clears 15% in california, what polls showed last week. sanders is going to get roughly 330, we'll say, of the 415 delegates in california. in those congressional districts some of the other candidates pick up. sanders getting like 330 and everybody else getting chump change. go to the other end you're describing. sanders, biden, warren, bloomberg. all of them clear the threshold. buttigieg getting out, much more possible right now. in a scenario like that, where biden gets into the 20s, you're talking about sanders netting maybe 60 or 70 delegates out of the state over joe biden. margin being about 60 over joe biden coming out of there. that's a win, but not what his campaign has been looking for. >> so adrienne elrod, talk about mike bloomberg, still playing to win. on "60 minutes" last night and he still is saying he's going to

push through. does it impact joe biden or bernie sanders if he stays in the race? >> well, interesting to mika and joe, hear steve kornacki talking about the scenario the bloomberg campaign is basically laying out saying if we stay in the race longer, on super tuesday, it actually helps joe biden and hurts bernie sanders. the more people who make viability, the more candidates on that, on the ballot on super tuesday, clear 15%, the bloomberg campaign maintains that that helps the moderate side. maybe it holds joe biden from getting more delegates, but most importantly to them, keeps bernie sanders from amassive a giant swarm of delegates. the real question becomes after super tuesday is it effective for mike bloomberg to stay in the race? does he come out of super tuesday with more delegates than joe biden? we don't know yet. what we do know, to what steve

said, a lot of voters in california over, i think over 3 million have already voted by mail. they voted early, and a lot of other states that's the kacase, too, but i've also talked to a lot of people, mika, out there in super tuesday states waiting to vote on election day, because they wanted to see what was going to happen in south carolina. they were looking to the voters of south carolina to tell them what to do, to give them guidance. so a lot of voters who might normally vote early were waiting until election day to see how things played out in south carolina. so that definitely helps joe biden, but lots of unknowns going into super tuesday. >> absolutely. >> a lot of unknowns. you still have to put bernie as the favorite. maybe not the prohibitive favorite as before south carolina but things are still looking pretty darn good for bernie. jonathan lemire, let's talk about bloomberg. you covered him. you covered him in new york as you've covered every new york mayor since laguardia. let's talk about the purpose of him running.

i know this. the reason mike bloomberg ran was to stop elizabeth warren and to stop bernie sanders. elizabeth warren is going nowhere. just -- not. people can shout whatever names they want to shout. she got 5% of the black vote. she's not going to win the nomination. and he knows that. he's now got joe biden in a position where joe biden actually can challenge bernie sanders. didn't look that way when bloomberg got in the race. so that's why he got in the race. bus looks that way now. there's nobody in america that thinks that michael bloomberg is taking votes away from bernie sanders. what in the world can be his logic of staying in this race when all he's going to do is take away votes from bernie sanders competitors? >> first covering the mayor in the administration was

particularly challenging hnkinc >> had to be exciting. >> it was. first off we saw yesterday not just on "60 minutes" but the $1.5 million i believe 3-minute ad he bought on a couple of networks including nbc standing in front of an oval office-type room talking how he would respond to the coronavirus outbreak and touting his record handling disasters in new york city including hurricane sandy and aftermath of 9/11. other terror threats, et cetera. now, those of us who covered him in new york know that record is spotty, hurricane sandy in from slow in parts of the city. he's trying to present himself as the competent technocrat and scattershot efforts from the trump administration. they believe, super tuesday the bloomberg goal all along. didn't play in the first four states. they spent a lot of time and money in these states and feel

he'll put up an impressive showing and score delegates across the southern states and be viable going forward. yes, crosses 15, in ways that helps joe biden because it keeps bernie sanders overall delegates down but for the bloomberg folks it's always been a convention play. they want no one to reach the threshold and feel things could come to them in milwaukee as they point themselves as the candidate with the most resources going forward. can't be overstated, briefly, how important south carolina was for joe biden. it is momentum and only has a couple days to pull it off. he has limited resources in some of the super tuesday states. one stat. he raise $10$10 million this weekend. more than he raced in the entire month of january. did all the, most of the sunday shows yesterday trying to bank on free media and trying to sling schott m slingshot momentum. not a clyburn endorsement in every state but he has a chance. momentum, some money. a feeling around him he has a chance.

>> tell you what, he certainly in virginia got a couple of key endorsements. terry mcauliffe, bobby scott, other leaders that actually matter in the democratic party in virginia. jumped onboard with him, mika. there are some states where, again, he's going to be competitive. will probably win. should do well across the deep south. but it is california and as steve brings up, those are early votes, they've already locked in a lot of support for bernie sanders. so people are going to be staying up very late on tuesday night. >> yeah. >> to see what the new shape of the democratic field looks like. >> so now to the big news from late last night. joining us now from south bend, indiana, msnbc news correspondent vaughn hilliard. i guess they have to change the sign behind you, vaughn. >> reporter: i don't know. i think they could afford to leave it up for a while around these parts, in this town of 100,000 where, look, i mean, just one year ago four of these individuals including pete

buttigieg and his husband chasten left south bend to drive to iowa for their first campaign event. here in indiana, south bend is the fourth biggest city. over the course of the year built up a campaign operation that ultimately led them to an iowa caucus victory and nearly the opportunity to compete beyond super tuesday in a real shot to win the democratic nomination. pete buttigieg suspended his campaign yesterday and returned to south bend last night to give you speech here to his locals back home. take a listen. >> after a year of going everywhere, meeting everyone, defining everybody expectation, seeking every vote, the truth is that the path has near arrowed close. we have a responsibility to consider staying in the race any further. our goal has always been to help unify americans to defeat donald trump and to win the era for our values. so tonight i am making the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the presidency.

i will no longer seek to be the 2020 democratic nominee for president, but i will do everything in my power to ensure that we have a new democratic president come january. [ cheers and applause ] >> i talked to multiple campaign officials last night after buttigieg's announcement. they told me he exited this race for the same reason he got in. he wanted to bring the party together and usher in a new era of politics. the reality is they saw what one campaign official told me was "a very narrow path to winning the nomination." yesterday morning he actually flew to plains, georgia, with his husband chasten to meet up with former vice president jimmy carter and there headed to selma joining reserved sharpton crossing the edmund bridge. to note, this is an individual who visited south carolina, held

more events than anybody besides tom steyer. he stoke about humility, earning trust and credibility. you see the two individuals leading the delegate count, joe biden and bernie sanders. been around a bit longer than the 38-year-old mayor. for this campaign told me it wasn't a matter of campaign crash. had the ability to go on. would have their best fund raising quarter to date. go back to a conversation i had with peete buttigieg morning of the nevada primary. he told me this party could wake up this march 4th, super tuesday, with the reality bernie sanders could have an insurmountable lead. it was the need to win this field. somebody to truly counter bernie sanders. of course coming out of iowa and new hampshire hoped it was them, but the stakes became too hard for them and they have turned. the last night joe biden and pete buttigieg exchanged voicemail calls and a buttigieg aide revealed the contents

including the idea of consolidating support around the former vice president. joe and mika? >> all right. vaughn hilliard, thank you. joe, i wonder what your thoughts are here. se seems to me in so many ways an a-plus campaign. did everything right. >> he really did. he exceeded all expectations. >> absolutely. >> he drove his opponents crazy. because he was young. believed he was inexperienced but extraordinarily effective. >> the debates. wow. >> reverend al, bring you in here. i spent the past 25 years politely telling presidential candidate who needed to drop out of the race to protect their future viability to drop out and rarely did they listen. i didn't i would not presume to talk to mayor pete about that, but he made a wise decision. he ran a great campaign. made a wise decision, and you know, george washington won the war because he first became a master of strategic retreats

during the revolutionary war. it's the same with politics. this was a strategic retreat for mayor pete, who ran a great campaign, but still has to figure out when he runs again how to get support from the black community. >> certainly that becomes a challenge later in his career, but the good news for him is there will most likely be a later in his career. i think -- >> absolutely. >> -- he startled everyone with how well he came off. it was a historic race because he was able to bring in the center of main street politics and openly lgbtq candidate and america embraced it, democrats embraced it. so he certainly has put a mark in history, and i think he didn't spoil it by staying too long. one of the things the godfather of soul james brown taught me is when you get the crowd you kill them and leave. you can sing past your peak if

you don't know when to walk off the stage, you can make a great show a very bad disaster. >> exactly. >> yep. >> you know, sinatra said, mika, i know you know this. >> yeah. >> sinatra, asked sinatra what made him different than other singers, why he was the greatest, he said, because i do the 48 best minutes and then i get off the stage. i always leave them wanting more. mayor pete did a sinatra routine last night. >> yes, he did. steve kornacki, thank you so much and great weekend working so hard. thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," the latest developments with the coronavirus, including two deaths and fears the virus went undetected in one state for weeks. plus, we mentioned at the top an issue that has weighed over the past three presidencies and will impact the next one as well. the war in afghanistan is entering a new phase in the signing of a peace pact with the taliban. we go live to the white house,

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a live look at the white house. 34 past the hour. a lot going on this morning. joining us from the white house hans nichols. three big stories. start with the administration's response to the coronavirus. what's the late jest. >> reporter: you saw a shift this weekend. with that saturday briefing trying to send the message they're taking this seriously, trying to remove it from politics the president trying to clean us his hoax comment from fripd r friday's rail, just talking about the media coverage of all this and vice president pence, expect more cases. they expect it to get worse and trying to temper the panic

button and today's schedule. a briefing on this, but it's at 5:00 p.m. why is that significant? because after the markets close. the president has a busy schedule this morning. actually meeting with the colombia president in the 10:00 a.m. hour. i'll be curious to see if any of these meetings open up in the morning. he's got the pharmaceutical executives here as well. a great deal of rick for tsk fo president to talk about this why the market can comment on it in realtime. so far nothing on the schedule open before the markets close this evening. guys? >> the other big issue happening there is this taliban peace deal. is it -- is it hitting any road blocks? >> reporter: well, you know, define road block? there are clear hedges the administration built into this and the president said, i pressed him on this saturday saying, look if things go south there, we will send everyone back in, because none other than the former national security

advisers john bolton called this an obama-style deal. the president is clear on this. there's war fatigue and he wants to bring troops home and a provision to bring everyone home within 14 months, but there's still a lot we don't know about this, and just whether or not the taliban is serious about it. the president, though, is serious about having the taliban, or meeting with senior taliban leaders. i pressed him on that. he said, look, we're going to meet with them in the not too near distant future. it may be adrod. a broad. may be here. but the president wants to sit down with the taliban, what is the choice to head up the dni. a name, of course, we've heard before? >> second go for john ratcliffe. the president wanted him to be head of dni summer of july, withdrew the nomination because of so many concerns, now put him up again. i think the most important and

significant comment we heard on this, not just the president's friday night tweet announcing this, but what we heard from senator richard burr, ranking chair of the intel committee on the senate side. burr indicated he's willing to give him a hearing. the choice for burr and what may have changed. he has a choice. move radcliffe through the process or accept richard grenell in an acting capacity. if the senate doesn't act and the president formally nomen ais the radcliffe, the senate and everyone is stuck with grenell. seen movement from the senator and that to me seems like movement. >> thank you very much, hans nichols. more on these stories with richard haass coming up. >> wondering, jonathan lemire, do you have any reporting that suggests that he, that donald trump selected radcliffe, somebody already proven to be very unpopular even with republican senators, just as a

tactic to keep grenell in there, despite the fact many in the foreign policy community said that grenell is the worst selection he could ever make for the acting dni director? >> i mean, the president has fondness for radcliffe and if that can happen, the white house would be happy with that, but no question. that tactic was part of the strategy here. the idea of using the vacancies act if radcliffe goes away, buys them another i believe up to 200-odd days at least for grenell in that post. you're right. a lot of foreign policy experts including the aforementioned richard haass expressed concern about grenell saying he is unpopular unpopularly wanted in that post. that he -- much more a political actor and not act in the most responsible way, joe, for the president in what is a vitally important job. >> many different mats across europe, mika, and the world have

told me they consider grenell to be one of the worst ambassadors they've ever seen in all of their years of public service. i think most american diplomats and people in the foreign policy community would agree. he is a nightmare. so if this is nothing more than a tactic to keep him in place, that is a clear and present danger for the united states of america, and by the way, anybody -- anybody defending grenell in this position reveals themselves to be nothing more than a trump lackey, and are humiliating themselves. he is not up to this job, especially, just like he wasn't up for the job in germany. this is an embarrassment even for republicans, even for donald trump supporters. >> wow. we'll dig deeper on these issues with richard haass in a moment. we'll be right back. as your broker, i've solved it. that's great, carl. but we need something better. that's easily adjustable has no penalties or advisory fee. and we can monitor to see that we're on track.

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officially hitting the us.virus man: the markets are plunging for a second straight day. vo: health experts warn the us is underprepared. managing a crisis is what mike bloomberg does. in the aftermath of 9-11,

he steadied and rebuilt america's largest city. oversaw emergency response to natural disasters. upgraded hospital preparedness to manage health crises. and he's funding cutting edge research to contain epidemics. tested. ready. mike: i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message.

what precisely falls under your set of responsibilities as secretary? >> sure. so mr. chairman, so you know, we

agreed i would come here to talk about iran and the first question today is not about iran. >> make it about iran. make it easier. >> i'll be happy -- >> youp brate in iran 2, 45 cases is the latest number. have you or any other senior administration level been inside the iranian government to coordinate on this response and mitigate the further spread of the virus? >> we have made offers to the islamic republic of iran to help. >> wow. a lot going on pertaining to the coronavirus. brick in t bring in in the president of council and fourth coming book "the world: a brief introduction" richard haass joins us. >> thanks for being with us. i was going to start around the world, china, and others with the coronavirus but start with iran. obviously a lot of suspicion that iran once again lying to its people and lying to the world about the extent of the

outbreak, because of the large number of leaders in iran who are coming down with the virus. what can you tell us? >> i think this is serious, joe, because it doesn't happen in a vacu vacuum. it happens against the backdrop of draconian sanctions, decimated the iranians and shootdown of the airliner, the regime lying to its people and now the holy city and senior people involved. again the regime is both incompetent and lying to its people. i won't stand here and say the regime is on its last legs, but if and when the history of the islamic republic is written some 40 years after coming into existence, that has to be its most vulnerable moment. it's not clear to me necessarily that has a permanent hold on its country. >> is there any chance that the iranian leadership will allow the united states and other western powers to go in and help them contain the virus? >> i think the chances are that

are remote. one, they wouldn't trust us. two, the admission that needed that kind of help would be extraordinarily difficult for them to do. >> they need that kind of help. talk about china, obviously. the focus of this outbreak started there. they've taken some pretty draconian measures to tamp down the spread of the virus. those draconian measures, only countries like china can undertake, appear to be working. what were you tell us? >> seeing a persistent slowing down of the outbreak of new cases. statistics are a little suspect but the trend is pretty clear showing what happens when you have that degree of social control. i think there's a lesson to us there, joe. it's only half of the battle to close down people coming in to the country. the other thing, you've obviously got to deal with the fact that the virus is within

your society. it's really interesting to look at the amount of testing going on in countries, say, like south korea, which seem to be getting slightly more on top of it, and for us the lesson is, we lost several months. we didn't do anything like the testing we should and could have done, and we have to play catch-up. half the challenge is keeping people infected from coming in, but the bigger challenge, identifying those already here who are walking around with the virus. >> right. and i'm sure we're going to see at some point school closings. a lot of conferences already being canceled in the united states. let's talk -- let's change topics and, richard, i have a strange way in to this topic. have we discussed homeland before? are you an avid viewer of "homeland." >> behind this season given the afghanistan thing. i apologize, i can tell you. it is rasualable, jonathan

lemire. go to jonathan a second. on "homeland" a couple years ago they predicted the rise of isis and the paris bombing and they are in the middle of this season, of course, where the united states, where saul is trying to strike a peace deal with the taliban that the afghanistan government doesn't want to be a part of. i would say from the headlines, ripped from the headlines, as always, "homeland" is about six months ahead of reality and exactly what's going on here? >> as if they peered into the future, in terms of the peace talks at doha, the afghan government's reluctance to release prisoners and no spoilers, let's hope what happened last night episode of "homeland" does not happen here, it certainly took a pretty stunning turn. but, richard, talk about the real peace deal and set aside saul, although he would be perhaps an upgrade to the national security adviser

position, in terms where things stand. in particular, there seems to be a few road blocks already. right? the prisoner release. what else? where do you see this going over the next couple of days? >> the agreement signed as everyone knows was just between the united states and the taliban. the next phase of it are "intraafghan talks between the government and the taliban." one problem release of 5,000 taliban prisoners. we don't control those. the afghan government what do do that and they're not anxious to do that. the agreement make no mention of pakistan providing sanctuary. the agreement only has two ementions. one, we get out. over the next 4 1/2 months, troops come home and 14 months altogether all u.s. troops come out. secondly, essentially asking the taliban to deal with the terrorist threat of afghanistan. almost as if we're subcontracting to them.

but i think the odds of this ever happening in full are remote, and a bigger thing. this is solving a problem, jonathan, that doesn't exist. supposed to end a forever war. the level of u.s. effort in afghanistan is not at a war. we're going down to what was the level of troops when the president came in. they're not involved in combat. so what we're really talking about is, should we have some kind of modest presence in afghanistan that would help keep the peace? or are we so anxious to say we got all u.s. troops out that we are prepared to pull the rug out from under our partner? this is not the first partner the united states has shown a willingness to walk away from. that is not getting talked about 234u6. >> let's bring in u.s. congressman max rose, of course a recipient of the bronze star and purple heart and will certainly have opinion on a peace deal with the taliban. max, seems we as a country are torn. many americans want to get out of that forever war, but many of

our policymakers remember what happened in 2011 when we abruptly left iraq. it create add void that isis filled. >> right. >> do you have some of those same concerns if we leave afghanistan completely? >> look, of course, have those concerns and thank you so much for having me on. with that said, this decision by the administration is 100% correct. we have got to focus on politics now in our longest standing war, this is deeply personal to me. deployed to afghanistan some years ago and the folks i deployed with have now deployed to afghanistan four, five, six, seven times. if we continue to only focus on combat, then this war will continue in perpetuity. we now see soldiers enlisting in the united states military who were not born when we first sent

our soldiers to afghanistan. you mentioned 2011. ip think one of the biggest problems with that withdrawal from iraq is that they, for the most part, ignored politics. ignored the necessary power balance that would have to be sustained between the sunnis, shias and kurds. for us not to say this is a war going on right now, i think does a massive disservice and a disrespect to the family whose have lost soldiers just this year. tens of families. this war's got to end. >> congressman, say we now need to turn to politics. what are the politics? do you really think there's a chance of a viable power sharing government between the government of afghanistan and the taliban? do you think the taliban really is prepared to lay down their arms and be essentially become political rather than the fighters they've been for the last 25 years? what is the political path? >> it's good to see you, my friend. first of all, i think we have to learn from history.

you were involved in this issue when the soviet union withdrew from afghanistan, but we cannot misread history. the government that the soviet union was supporting actually stayed in power. it was not until years after the soviet union dissolved that the taliban was able ultimately to obtain power. and with that being said as well, i do have confidence, albeit cautious optimism, that the taliban is and can be, can proceed as an entity that does want peace. we have seen 18 years of war, and i think that forcing them to the negotiating table, albeit with conditions going forward, we owe it to our soldiers to do this. but we should always keep in precautions and keep in a capacity to respond, should a

terrorist organization move in to afghanistan, but we should have that same level of capacity for any other country in the world that poses a threat to america's security. >> reverend al, one needs only follow you on social media you have more contact with voters, more contact with american citizens every week than most politicians do over a month's time or even a year's time. what are you hearing about afghanistan? what are you hearing about the forever war? do the people that you communicate with day in and day out a community events, in marches in churches in the pews? do they want to bring american troops home or do they believe we should keep troop there's. >> mostly hearing they want to see american troops come home. people do not understand why we're still there. many have members of their family that have served there, so i think that if there is a

kind of answer that would really encapsulize majority of the feelings i get as i move around, they want them to come home. the issue is who in this administration can help bring those sides together. it does not seem to be someone with the gravitas to unite them nap is the fear people have. to borrow from your conversation with jonathan i can tell you, after having a beautiful, peaceful march yesterday in selma, to get on the plane and watch "homeland" last night, i went to sleep horrified. >> by the way, i want -- can we just briefly talk about selma? i'd love -- the images always moving, john lewis being there, of course hs, had a special resonance this year. tell us about selma. tell us why yesterday of all times especially with john lewis, why it was such a moving

movement for everyone there. >> to go where 55 years ago people marched across that bridge, amelia boykin and jose williams leading the march and they were beaten by state troopers. you have to remember, these were not klansmen or -- not in that capacity, not outsiders. these were the people that enforced the law, beat them and tear gassed them simply for marching across the bridge heading to montana to get the right to vote and dr. king came in after they were beating the next day and finished the march. to go from that, and this is what was really awe-inspiring yesterday. to go from that 55 years ago to seeing five years ago a black president and then the day before the black voters in south carolina dominate and reset an election shows how far we've come. and john lewis who was beaten on that bridge, who is now fighting

cancer, the diagnosis, to just make himself come forward, to gather up the strength to come and meet us at the peak of that bridge that he was beaten and bloodied 55 years ago, if that did not give us the strength and the determination to finish doing what we need to do to protect that vote and to really hold that vote sacred i don't know what could have done it. it was almost like him saying, even as i fight this battle, you've got to continue this battle. i've done mine at the peak of this bridge. the bridge now for you to cross is still yet ahead. >> hmm. i have fought the good fight. i have run the good race. john lewis, rev, your friend, my friend. he is -- such an inspiration to those who know him and to millions and millions of people who do not, and will always be an inspiration for our children

and grandchildren for years to come. we'll be right back.

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no, no, no! no, no, no, no! no purell. i got a bottle of that junk, and on the label it says it kills 99.99% of germs. what happens to the top .01%? [ applause ]

why are we protecting them? i say, enough with the potions! just use good, old-fashioned bar soap and scalding hot water. now, i might get in trouble for saying this, but you know who was great at washing his hands? josef stalin. >> oh, my god. that is "snl's" take on bernie sanders. >> larry david is so great. >> he's so funny. and the coronavirus. jonathan lemire, reverend al sharpton, adrienne elrod still with us. and nick confessore joins us. "new york times" reporter jeremy peters. washington anchor for bbc "world news america" catkatty kay and political analyst robert costa, moderator of "washington week" on pbs. good to have you all this hour. >> bob costa, a lot to talk about. a lot to digest this morning,

but we've -- let's go to your alma mater first. let's go to south bend, indiana. you followed mayor pete early on. you told us all that this guy was going to have a remarkable campaign. he certainly did. tell us about the decision he made last night. >> he was sitting with president jimmy carter on sunday morning in plains, georgia, and president carter turned to reporters and said, i'm not so sure he knows what he's going to do after south carolina, and mayor buttigieg at the time turned to reporters and said, hey, every day i do the math. in the final few hours of this campaign he did do the math. he saw there was not a path to the nomination. he also sees a future where he could be part of stitching together a version of the obama coalition in the coming dweecad, not trying to put it all on the line in 2020. only 38 years old, coming from nowhere in south bend, indiana,

speaking unity at a time when vice president biden is rising. >> jeremy peters, you've followed mayor pete for some time. what can you tell us about his decision and about his future plans? so i think there was always a sense inside the pete campaign that i picked up from pete himself at times when i interviewed him that, you know, what's the worst that could happen if i run for president at 37 years old? i get this under my belt. i have this incredible experience. i learn how do to it, and if it doesn't go the way i want it to go i can always try again. the next election i will still be in my early 40s. this is kind of the thinking, and you know, you look at, to bob's point, what the democratic party might look like in four or eight years, and the type of decision that pete made last night, i think, could buy him a lot of goodwill with voters and party leaders, because he's doing what they all seem to be

in agreement on. that the party needs people to drop out so they can unite around somebody who can beat donald trump. and that's essentially what he did. he's the only one to do that. he's really the only one to kind of put his money where his mouth is on that as somebody close to him said to me last night, and in was this tremendous pressure building on him over the weekend to do so. democratic donors, party leaders were calling. support of his campaigns and saying essentially, look, elizabeth warren won't listen. amy klobuchar is being unreasonable. pete is reasonable. he needs to demonstrate that he's reasonable and drop out. and that's exactly what he did. and it's not usually what you see in situations like this, because when candidates have support still, they don't drop out. because -- and they don't drop out and then they lose that support and then their support becomes worth nothing in terms of an endorsement. what we may see from him later

on a biden endorsement i don't know but it's something to watch. >> i said it earlier in the show. i'll say it again. i've been talking to presidential candidates for over a quarter of a century. when it was obvious their campaigns were going nowhere. i've recommended oh plig polite their get out before they suffer a series of losses and i've got to say mayor pete is one of the only ones who's actually smart enough -- i never talked to him about this -- but was smart enough to make that move himself. >> yeah. >> and push away from the table at a time when his, really, his stock was at its highest. bob, this didn't happen obviously in a vacuum. we can talk about saturday night and just how big joe biden's victory was. the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll only had joe biden ahead of bernie sanders by four points. it ended up being an absolute

rout. there were other polls showing that steyer and, and -- steyer and sanders were cutting in to biden's support among black voters. that also was bad data, bad polling. biden blew the doors off that contest, and had a huge win. nobody expected it to be that big. what's happening now, though? you've written about the consolidation of the democratic party. there's some talk that biden's people actually want amy to stay in to take delegates away from bernie in minnesota, and don't mind elizabeth staying in, taking delegates away from bernie in massachusetts on super tuesday. what can you tell us about that as well as bloomberg and the ongoing efforts to consolidate the cause against bernie sanders? because right now it does seem to be bernie sanders against the democratic establishment. >> when i was sitting there in

the "post" newsroom sunday writing the story for foed's front page about vice president biden, clear it's not simple. deciding to get out and drop out and endorse vice president biden or mayor bloomberg. they're thinking about the cal lations on super tuesday. 14 states, more than 1,000 delegates. 34% of the convention delegates at stake. because of the way the democratic national committee has set up the rules, you could have someone like bernie sanders come away with a huge haul on tuesday if senator klobuchar or senator warren stay in their races through tuesday -- don't stay in the races through tuesday night. so there's talk, very private, behind the scenes, about maybe it's best for them to stay in until tuesday night to try to keep senator sanders number lower. it's also clear that senator sanders, even at vice president biden does surge ahead and bring together a lot of the democratic establishment and centrists, he

is well-physiciositioned, sande going back to his 2016 campaign now to this 2020 campaign a real operation, ground game in texas and california, and those are the major prizes tuesday night. >> adrienne elrod, what are you hearing in the party and from these campaigns about the issue when to drop out? and the mind-set of some of these candidates? are they even there? >> yeah. mika, i'm hearing a lot of the same things bob is hearing. that there is a desire for amy klobuchar, for example to stay in the race to keep bernie sanders from winning minnesota. and, of course, elizabeth warren in massachusetts. of course, there is risk in that, too, mika. if bernie sanders wins minnesota, and bernie sanders wins massachusetts, klobuchar and warren have cleanup to do back at home for respective senate races and re-elections. >> hmm. >> right now that is kind of, everyone's sort of watching to see how this plays out. the bloomberg campaign maintains

that their analytics, their data shows those around viability, around 15%, 16%, which they count mayor bloomberg in, in some of the key super tuesday states, they maintain him staying in the race, being on the ballot actually helps keep bernie sanders to a lower delegate count and are using that as rationale to stay in the race. sort of seems counter intuitive, but that's what they are saying. i think the real question becomes i don't think anyone's dropping out before super tuesday, but i think very intense pressure to narrow this race to a two-way race between presumably joe biden and bernie sanders going forward after super tuesday. >> katty kay, this is supposed to be a change election, but with mayor pete dropping out now, the youngest democrat, male democrat, in the field is now joe biden. we've got 77 and 78-year-old men

running, and, again, if you're young and you're looking for agents of change, you -- you're probably out of luck, or you're looking at a 78-year-old guy who had a heart attack back in october. this is fairly extraordinary for a democratic party that was -- that saw donald trump coming, and knew that they were going to have to put up a challenger that could beat him in the fall. and here we are with three guys in their late 70s who are at the top of the pack. >> yeah. i'm sure millennials are happy to notice that it was the youngest candidate in the race who behaved like the adult in the field by getting out in south bend last night. >> yes. >> but the true. you've got basically three white men in their 70s vying to take on another white man in his 70s. that doesn't look much like change, but make no mistake that

bernie sanders would represent radical change for the united states. this -- we are in a world where the polarization of politics and we always thought america was the kind of centrist country that wasn't going to deviate from that, if bernie sanders is nominated, if he were to win the election in november, then that would be a big shift in american politics in the line of the kind of populist left we've seen many times in europe before. so they don't look like change, but bernie sanders certainly represents change. >> and the youngest just to follow-up on that point. the youngest male candidate now running for president is donald trump. nick, i want to go back to pete buttigieg for a moment. i don't think we should gloss past what exactly his campaign and his candidacy really was. that was a powerful moment on the speech with the hug and kiss with his husband there. i think that, you know, it shouldn't be lost he was the first openly gay candidate to not just achieve national recognition but to win iowa. i think if that state hadn't had the counting issues he might

have gotten more of a boost out of that maybe wins new hampshire and may plays out differently. although challenges with minority voters still exist. he thought about doing this last night and stdecided to hold off. what's next? maybe a cabinet post. if not run for something else down the road. can he do it from indiana? >> he ran the most successful failed campaign we've seen in a long time. we went from nothing in national politics to a contender, which is really a amazing. for young gay people to see him up on the stage is a powerful moment. we should stop and pause and recognize how powerful it is, but for his future, it's all upside for him. he could do it from home from the governor's mansion or a cabinet post.

interesting about his calculation is, a democratic party that is controlled by bernie sanders with the nominee or as president is going to be a transformed party. and not as open to a buttigieg-style politics as a party controlled by joe biden or a president joe biden. so i think a lot depends on poo who the nominpoo -- who that nominee is and if they lose and four more years of trump ashes prolonged period of war in the democratic party over the next direction and he could be a player in that war, too. >> so, rev, talk about the democratic party super tuesday and beyond and who's going to win this nomination fight. just help me out with the numbers here, because we've talked about it before. i've said from the beginning there were about 21 121, 22, 23 kan candidates in this race and the party long split since the bill clinton party and the bill bradley part of the party.

and about 20, 21 candidates from the bill bradley part of the party and one from the bill clinton, joe biden part of the party. and what i'm saying is, bernie, for all his work, made no progress over the past four years picking up black votes in south carolina. elizabeth warren 5%. mayor pete, 3%. amy klobuchar, 1% among black voters. i still -- i'm still not sure how a candidate wins the democratic nomination without getting a significant amount of support from black voters and right now that appears to be joe biden and joe biden alone. am i missing something? >> well, if you are, then i'm missing it as well. it is amazing to me how if you just study the last two decades, anyone running seriously for the nomination would not get that they are going to have to have a

real base and real support and real organizing on the ground for black voters, and i think that this is the problem that some of those that have been in this race have had to come to face, and i think it's the thing that's challenging bernie, who's run an excellent campaign, but it still behind there, and rather than act like he's not, i think he needs to recognize it and then go forward. i also think something we haven't talked about, joe, that comes into play. we talk about the age of those that are running, which are 10 or 15 years older than me is that if becomes important who they are going to select as their running mate. bought assumption is given the age they're talking about, they'll only do one term, and a lot of how the future of the party will be is who is the secondary person on the ticket. which is why you hear a lot of us talking about stacey abrams and others on yesterday even in

selma, because people are going to look for a package deal when you talk about people in their late 70s becoming the standard bearer of your party and i think that that also could be a way that we judge whether they put someone on the ticket that either is black or can gain a lot of credibility with the black community. so i think running mate becomes a real subject when you're dealing with people of this age. >> you know, mika, and i'm not going to name any names right now. i will say, though, there have been some candidates at times that i've seen on the stage in their 70s that just don't look healthy. in both parties. if i saw that look on my father, which i did, who had a heart attack who had other health issues, i would immediately, and everybody around him would immediately put him to bed. again, i'm not just talking about bernie sanders here who

obviously had a heart attack back in october and that has to be a concern, but there are times, of course, when a certain republican presidential candidate also looks very unhealthy. so i think for the first time in modern american history, maybe the first time ever, we're going to have candidates in their 70s who are not of the best, in the best of health, and the vice presidential selection for both parties, be it republican or democratic, that vice presidential selection has to be ready to govern from day one, because of the health concerns that i think a lot of americans are going to have about the candidates on the top of the ticket. >> so just some more context to that. i have parents and i know of people who have had heart attacks live through them, survive decades and thrive. >> right. >> having said that, when you have one, no matter how mild, you must have a dramatic

lifestyle change, in the time after it. that's something to consider as well. i mean, you certainly shouldn't be ramping up. i can't imagine one doctor on earth that would say, ramp up your schedule. jeremy peters, though, jump to mike bloomberg. you're writing about the billionaire. i'll ad, the billionaire in his 70s. >> late 70s. >> tell us about it. >> so anybody who's covered new york politics or lived in new york city for a while knows that michael bloomberg is not admired for his strengths as a retail politician. the rest of the country who's kind of just getting introduced to him from texas to tennessee to north carolina and all of these other super tuesday states are seeing this up close. and what mike bloomberg had the benefit of over the first couple months of his president's campaign is nobody was paying attention. as we kind of looked at his campaigning in december, january, when everybody in the

political world had their eyes focused on new hampshire and iowa, bloomberg was saying things that he probably shouldn't have said. like complaining to a crowd in denver, light heartily, he'd rather be skiing in vail up at his house there than he would be opening a campaign office in denver that day. so he's worked some of those bugs out of the system. the staff has kind of drilled into his head, look, you know, you are under such a microscope. you can't afford to be rolling your eyes at debates. you need to be as warm and fuzzy as possible. of course, mike bloomberg was never going to be a feel your pain, empathetic type of candidate. he never will be. the learning curve here is pretty steep, and i think it comes down to, mika a question of what kind of candidate voters want. do they really need somebody who's empathetic, who is warm

and fuzzfuzzy? or do they want somebody as mike bloomberg's campaign said, get it done. i think the latter works a lot in his favor, and we'll see what happens. you know, i think this 15% threshold in a lot of these super tuesday states is going to be hard for him to crack. i think a lot of people were disappointed by his debate performance. a lot of supporters saying you know how important this is. why didn't you do a better job? we'll see what happens. >> right. you know, bob costa, ah -- too bad debate performances obviously should be a real concern to mike bloomberg, but also, i wonder what he should read into, and curious what your thoughts are. the experiences of tom steyer. only a few weeks ago we were showing tom steyer doing very well in the polls in nevada, and in south carolina. he spent a ton of money there. and yet it just never translated

into votes. should that be a warning sign for mike bloomberg? >> it could be a warning sign, but based and my reporting over the last 24 hours, another thing mayor bloomberg will face in the coming days. pressure from joe biden's circle, both the campaign and more broadly in the democratic party to get out of this race and to back vice president biden. so far there's a lot of agitation in the biden world about what is bloomberg up to? is he really going to stay in past supertuesday? what's his plan in the march 10th and the march 17th states and unhappiness if he's not going to get behind biden this week, then he threatens to enable sanders to be the nominee. because the way the biden people see it, sanders could emerge with a delegate lead after super tuesday hopefully in their eyes biden does well, competitive, maybe equal. bloomberg doesn't get out they

see the vote split and sanders moving ahead. look for that pressure this week on bloomberg. >> and michael bloomberg has been given the perfect out waiting to see who wins the democratic nomination, because bernie sanders has said he doesn't want his support and the will not take his support. there's joe biden who certainly wants it and will take it. finally, bob, tomorrow the biggest contest of the year, obviously. super tuesday. i'm wondering. what are you going to be doing as a reporter over the next 24 to 36 hours? what are you looking at? >> flying to burlington, vermont to see sanders tuesday. not going just because members of phish are playing at the sanders rally. >> yes, you are. >> one state i'm looking at, joe, the real state to pay attention to, is north carolina. senator sanders argued that south carolina and his people argued, is not totally representative of all the super tuesday states. made the case they can win younger african-american voters in north carolina.

that's not the case tuesday, senator sanders will have a difficult road ahead in terms of arguing he can bring together all parts of the democratic party. >> all right. robert costa, jeremy peters, thank you both. still ahead on "morning joe," new cases of the coronavirus reported here in the u.s. this past weekend, including the nation's first two deaths. we'll talk to former health policy adviser to president obama, dr. ezychweekiel emanuel and on february 22nd tweeted, hey, pete buttigieg try not to be so smug when you just g got or hmm kicked. show humility. yesterday a congratulations. ready to turn your government blue in indiana you'll have a lot of us to help. you're watching "morning joe."

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the united states' government is ramping up efforts to contain the coronavirus after troubling new signs the virus is spreading. health officials in washington state say a second person has died and the number of confirmed cases in king county has risen to ten. the governor declared a state of emergency in response. in florida governor ron desantis declared a public health emergency after two people tested presumptively positive for the virus means they tested positive, been tested positive by a public health laboratory, but the results are pending confirmation by the cdc. in new york, governor andrew cuomo confirmed the first case of coronavirus in new york city.

the woman in her late 30s contracted the virus while traveling in iran. in response to the global increase in confirmed cases, the trump administration announced on saturday that it would extend an existing travel ban on iran. it will apply to any foreign nationals who have been to that country over the past 14 days. the state department is also increasing its warning advising americans not to travel to italy and south korea. joining us now, a virus expert and outbreak responder, dr. joseph ferry. an msnbc former contributor and health adviser under president obama. from the university of pennsylvania and author of a new book entitled "the trillion dollar revolution: how the affordable care act transformed politics, law and health care in

america." we'll get to that. first the coronavirus. >> doctor, what are we looking at with the outbreak obviously in several states. what exactly is happening right now? are we just finally having people taking tests and finally getting positive tests? do you suspect this is already far more widespread than we know? >> absolutely i do. i mean, overnight we've seen cases go from two states to seven states, and it's all about the diagnostic testing. until we have the diagnostic tests rolled out broadly, they are coming out now, you heard from florida, tested by public health laboratories and the way they work, presumptive positive, meaning it's tested came out positive. then confirmed positive by a second test by the cdc. so what we're seeing is expected. we do expect it to spread throughout the united states undoubtedly. >> so people waking up this morning in florida, texas, nebraska, illinois, these other states that are just last week

hearing the president say we haven't had an outbreak, haven't had anybody die in the united states of coronavirus, that's happened now. obviously, this is not the time to panic. but what are they to do with this information? >> really, it comes down to individual personal responsibility for your hygiene. you are your own best defense. so hand washing, using tissues to push elevator buttons and hold on to handrails et cetera. i don't recommend masks most use them incorrectly and the type of masks available on the market are not effective in preeventin this virus. >> mika, talking basics. washing your hands. if you're obviously coughing covering your mouth coughing. as the doctor said, even pushing elevator buttons, rails, always have something between you and that object. >> so, zeke, we want to ask you first of all about testing across the country.

is it happening? is it available? how long until certain areas get the tests? because i guess i would predict they would be an increase in numbers when that testing gets there. but what is the process right now in terms of how prepared localities are for testing for this virus? >> we're ramping up and ramping um across the country. the increased numbers that you see are a reflection of increased testing, and that's going to -- we're going to see double and triple overnight numbers as we test more people, and as we sort of get to the south korea level of 10,000 people being test add daed a da. interesting question, who do you test? you can certainly test people you suspect have shortness of breath, fever and other symptoms of coronavirus, but also we know lots of people are asymptomatic. think they have a cold and nothing more serious. the question is, what level of suspicion do you have to have to test?

we need a prevalent survey. how prevalent is it in a community? and how many people have symptoms, have severe symptoms and that we don't know yet. i would not be surprised to see this go well over certainly 1,000 before the end of the week, and i think you know, we are going to see people respond to that. there's a lot of fear. i'm already at the university of pennsylvania and in other scenarios, people saying, because of an abundance of caution i'm canceling this trip or not going to be there. i think you'll see a lot more of that kind of behavior because of the uncertainty. >> yeah. seeing that as well, but, zeke, when you talk about the testing, we're ramping up. i'd like to know more about what that means exactly, because, for example, there's two cases brewing in the news in florida, for example. in an area where i think there might be testing. but how does testing get to all areas? how long will that ramp-up take? >> to be honest, mika, i don't

know how long it will take. we should have had this ready. south korea shows you can have it ready. there have been multiple complications at the cdc. latest report, contamination maybe in test kits they were developing. all of that is a real concern, because if you can't test, you don't know how this virus is really spreading, and how much in the community it is, and as you've pointed out, some of it is coming in from outside, but i think the big spread in the country now is going to be from internal spread. people who have it, have the coronavirus and don't know it and are spreading it to others, and that's going to be our most serious threat, like terrorism, it's not really coming from the outside. and unfortunately, we did not do a good job, the administration didn't do a good job when it delayed people coming back from china, bought some time. a few weeks, in prepping for the

eventuality it would be here. i think they hoped it wasn't going to come. that just shutting borders would be enough. that is clearly never enough for a virus and they were warned about that. >> dr. fair, pick up on that thread, which was the administration's response. >> wow. >> in particular, we've seen a shift over the last 48, 72 hours. written and reported that the end of last week seemed they were trying to politicize this. trying to blame democrats. trying to blame the sort of institutions of government for being slow here. saw the president call it a hoax from the rally stage although claims his words were misinterpr misinterpret. a sobering response saturday. health experts with him and the vice president expected to do another briefing today. do we feel they're getting around this and how to inform the public? and second question, what's the tipping point? what sort of number of cases might we need to see for the government to step in and say, actually we need to close schools for a while, take more drastic measures like we're

seeing in other countries? >> comes down to the locality and if you have confirmed cases in that locality or in a school that's going to be the time to close that school for at least a period of time, like we've seen in japan. all schooling are closed at least one month right now. as far as the government's response, they are responding much more aggressively now since we know we have community transmission in one state and presumably in many other states if we've had it in one state with no confirmed travel, or any other links, so presumably a lot of cases of unknown origin, rerefer to that as. >> katty kay? >> why did the government not do more on the testing? why has it been so slow? because what do we have? something like 70,000 tests take place already in south korea. we heard the vice president this weekend saying that 15,000 more were going to be shipped this week to centers around the

country. was it just denial that this was going to happen? did we not have the resources available to ramp up as quickly as we need to? has there been a lack of funding? seems to me a massive hold from the government's reaction just in the first few weeks. we lost a lot of time. >> obviously, i wasn't in the decision room on those decisions when being made, but presumably because it was a new virus, largely contained in china. the initial criteria, if you hadn't traveled to china you couldn't be tested for the d.c. itself or for the virus itself, rather. now that we know obviously italy is having a major outbreak. cases doubled over the weekend. iran, south korea, all of those countries are having community-based transmission and a lot of people coming from those countries in the times we only tested people come trg china. there was a lag in that response. to get diagnostics up and running usually that does go through fairly a lengthy process through the fda.

this is what we call an emergency use authorization for tests. tests not formally cleared by the fda. there are mistakes in making them because you haven't gone through the lengthy and usually very rigid testing criteria of developing a diagnostic to be confident in its results. right now we're under what's called emergency use authorization for the tests being rolled out. >> and we have to be smart as a nation. take the case in florida reported out of hillsborough county. in the tampa area. one of the two people that have been reported in the state of florida was a hillsborough resident who just flew back from italy and brought the virus back with them from italy. >> zeke, i feel like i keep asking the unanswerable questions, but for the areas with no testing, if people are exhibiting symptoms, maybe you could describe, and is there any difference from the common flu?

the common version of the flu? and in areas where there's no testing and people are exhibiting symptoms, is it possible there are people with coronavirus that don't know about it and are they being treated for it? how is this being handled until testing actually gets everywhere it needs to go? >> that is a great question. yes, in large measure it is just like the flu. except that you've got this big respiratory component to it. shortness of breath. and that is, you know, fever, shortness of breath. fatigue are going to be critical to this. and it is hard to differentiate even for experts between the flu and this coronavirus. and one of the problems is, you know, we have to isolate these people where we suspect a case so they don't spread it commonly. as we've seen it appears that each person will spread it to 2.2 people. we know it spreads relatively

easily. maybe even easy letter than tie. having people when you suspect it. one of the most distressing signs we've had, when health care workers did suspect it they weren't able to test people or the test was delayed and that is a serious concern. i think part of the issue that we've learned is, you can't keep the virus out. it is going to spread in the community, and that's what we have to be aware of, and i agree that we're not going to do a nationwide shutdown of schools or malls or sporting events, but you're going to have it in spot places where there's high prevalence. what we were thinking about and did actually during the swine flu epidemic in 2009, 2010 in the obama administration, but i think that's definitely a possibility, and a leading place could be seattle, because of the

outbreak there and the suspected, you know, could be as many as 1,000 or 1,500 cases there, and you have to see a response. >> hmm. >> zeke before we close this out, let's talk about your new book "the trillion dollar revolution." talk about affordable care act, how it changed everything. tell us about it. >> well, it clearly changed the health care system. it also changed the law with five supreme court cases and looks like we'll have a sixth, and obviously it's changed politics. initially it was against the democrats, now it's for the democrats, and people are really for it, and you can see from the coronavirus outbreak, having universal coverage, having people being able to access diagnostic tests, the emergency room and hopefully we'll have both therapeutics that can mitigate the problem and a vaccine, having that insurance will be really important to people and you hear on the campaign trail over and over that health care's the number

one issue and they want people to address the problem of the last 10% who don't have coverage and costs. we've got to get on to that conversation. coronavirus is important. the longer-term issue is how will we keep can health care costs in the united states under control so everyone can get good health care without going broke. >> that's what the book's about. >> that's amazing. thank you so much. we'd like to have you back to talk about the book and to also contin continue. >> great. >> continue coronavirus story. the book is out "the trillion dollar revolution." thank you, dr. joseph fair, thank you. we'll see you again. coming up, here's one way to start a new job. just published for the "new york times" explaining why the paper's excess may be "bad news for journalism." okay. ben smith joins us next on "morning joe."

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49 past the hour. joining us now former editor and chief of buzzfeed news, now a media columnist for the "new york times." ben smith joins us. he's out with his inaugural column for the paper entitled "why the success of the "new york times" may be bad for journalism"? >> and you walk into the newsroom. everybody shakes your hand. >> great story idea. >> says welcome to the team. you release your first article that says, the "new york times" is bad for america. bad for journalism. bad for western civilization. i'm wondering, did they all nod, shake your hand and say, nice knowing you buddy? it's gotten a lot of buzz. it's a great article. >> today is actually my first day and nick confessore on your

set i'm hoping will walk me into the building's i don't even have a key card or anything. we'll see. >> you need some protection. it's fascinating. >> pretty gutsy. >> got to say, such a i must say, my big takeaway from it -- obviously, concerned about media consolidation, but you paint an extraordinary story of just an unbelievable turnaround in the "new york times"? >> yeah, it is -- i think what has happened is the "new york times" has basically joined this digital economy where success can come really fast if you do it right. unlike almost everybody else, they invested heavily in journalism and they've seen this shocking rise and it's a great success for them. if you look across these other digital economies, they're on the scale of a google or a facebook, but almost every business you look at these days and not only in digital you have a winner and you've got a couple in second and third place and everybody else is down here.

increasingly, that's what journalism is looking like. >> so, "the washington post," obviously, with jeff bezos' backing and fred ryan there, i know fred and know a lot of people at "the washington post," write a column there regularly. they've also experienced pretty great growth over the past four or five years. but you gave a stat says the "new york times" has more digital subscribers than the post, "the wall street journal" and the gannett papers? >> yes. >> why? >> in these industries, you hit these circles where you have more subscribers, more revenue, you spend that on better tech, more journalists and it's a circle. that's how you have these huge players in industries. that's not to say the post isn't thriving, they all are.

but "the times" has a big advantage. it's going out and buying the podcast serial. very hard to imagine a few years ago. >> so tell me, how much -- i'm trying to figure out a safe way to ask this question. i just won't ask it safely, how much do they owe their success to donald trump? the man who calls them the failing "new york times," of course that too is a massive lie. "the times" are doing better than they could have ever imagined before donald trump became president? >> trump has been a gift to all the media that he's obsessed with. you guys included. i think the president is always the media consumer in chief and whatever is running in his brain, he gets the added status. for obama, he was obsessed with new media and that was great for us when i was at buzzfeed.

trump has elevated television, fox news, but he's certainly elevated "the times" and the post and in some ways he lit the fuse that started this rise. but i think if you look at it, big chunks of their subscribers are doing the cross words. it's certainly not all donald trump. >> the thesis of your piece is the success of the "new york times" is coming at the expense of smaller outlets, the regional papers. what's the evidence that that's true, that actually our subscribers are being taken from them as opposed to people kind of coming out and subscribing to us who weren't subscribing before? >> i had a great conversation with our boss about this just last week. and i think "the times" view is, "the l.a. times," we wish them well, they're local newspapers, they don't cover the world, they don't have lots of

correspondents in washington. but that's the -- that's the consequence of the fact that they've been knocked out of the business. they're not even competing in "the times" category anymore. that's the evidence. there's no world where the minneapolis star tribune is the first to read. it's now a local publication for people who care about minneapolis. >> stepping back slightly about the crisis in local journalism. with so much power and influence being consolidated in places like "the times" or "the washington post," the argument you hear, shouldn't jeff bezos buy a couple small regional newspapers? how dire is it right now? not necessarily the star tribune, but people who live in smaller towns who don't have the ability to get the local news that informs the decisions about

city council and mayor, things that impact their daily lives? >> it's incredibly dire out there. maybe you never wanted to read about the city council, but it was good that there was a reporter there making sure they didn't steal all day. people have pulled out the parts of the newspaper that were most popular, the national reporting of sports, and what's left is kind of coverage that was so important for civic life, you know, it was like a utility. it wasn't necessarily popular. it wasn't driving advertising. if you look at everywhere from big cities like los angeles where "the l.a. times" is fighting its way through a huge subscription goal, new york city, you have small local blogs that are growing up hopefully into something bigger and you have newspapers fighting to survive. it's really quite dire. >> ben smith, good luck on the first day on the job. >> if they let me in.

>> they might not. still ahead, joe biden scores its first primary season win in south carolina but will it translate into super tuesday success? wall street just saw its worst week since the financial crisis. we'll take a look at where the markets stand this morning with new cases being confirmed from coast to coast in the u.s. of coronavirus. stephanie ruhle joins us for that. "morning joe" will be right back. fun fact: 1 in 4 of us millennials have debt we might die with. and most of that debt is actually from credit cards. it's just not right. but with sofi, you can get your credit cards right by consolidating your credit card debt into one monthly payment. including your interest rate right by locking in a fixed low rate today. and you can get your money right with sofi. check your rate in two minutes or less. get a no-fee personal loan

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i told you all if you could launch a candidacy, you launched bill clinton, president obama to the presidency. now you launched our campaign on the path to defeating donald trump. >> we have won the popular vote in iowa. [ cheers and applause ] >> we have won the new hampshire primary. [ cheers and applause ] >> we have won the nevada caucus. [ cheers and applause ] >> but you cannot win them all. >> honestly, i can't see a path where i can win the presidency. so am i going to continue to work on every single one of these issues? yes, of course, i am. because i've never stopped. >> the two most important words

that need to be written about the trump administration, you know what they are? the end. but you're fired would work fine. >> then they thought i wouldn't make it through the summer and then i wouldn't make it to the debates. but here i am headed into super tuesday. >> my campaign is built for the long haul and we are looking forward to these big contests. [ cheers and applause ] >> i will no longer seek to be the 2020 democratic nominee for president. but i will do everything in my power to ensure that we have a new democratic president come january. [ cheers and applause ] >> what a difference a weekend makes. the landscape of the democratic nomination fight completely altered over the course of just a few days. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is monday, march 2nd. with us we have jonathan lemire, host of msnbc's "politics

nation" and president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton, steve kornacki and former chief of staff and former director of strategic communications for hillary clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, adrienne elrod joins us. and we will begin with the much needed shot in the arm for the biden campaign. the former vice president dominated in south carolina's primary on saturday running away with 48% of the vote. bernie sanders came in a distant second place at 20%, followed by tom steyer at 11%, pete buttigieg, elizabeth warren, mym klobuchar, and tulsi gabbard still in the race. the former vice president pinned his hopes on black voters and they did not let him down. according to exit polls, black voters made up 56% of voters in

south carolina of which biden took a commanding 61%. including 81% of black voters over the age of 65. biden dominated on black voters. the endorsement of jim clyburn, 49% of the voters said his endorsement was important to his vote. as of right now with four states behind us, biden trails sanders by seven delegates. biden has now overtaken sanders in the popular vote. so, joe, a big weekend for joe biden. >> it was a big weekend for the entire democratic field and the democratic party. the results out of south carolina effectively reset the race. immediately reset the race. actually, it proved what a lot

of people have been saying for quite some time, that biden was not going to do well in iowa, he wasn't going to do well in new hampshire because they were majority white states. and 90% white even for those that were voting in the democratic primary, in the caucuses. it just -- those were two states that did not reflect the overall demographics of that state. and then you go to nevada, it's a caucus, it's a strange, weird bizarre caucus that doesn't reflect, actually, how votes turn out in primary races. so this was the first primary where you actually had an electorate -- a primary electorate that looked like the democratic party. and despite the fact there were some polls, including nbc news's poll that said this was a four-point race. this wasn't a four-point race.

this was a blowout. and it gave biden a shot in the arm. it put the rest of the field on notice and showed, did it not, that of course mayor pete who is out of the race, made the wise choice. but elizabeth warren, amy klobuchar, let's face it, they don't have a future in this race because they couldn't get above 5% of the black vote on saturday night. >> it was very important what happened saturday night for the reasons you said. in addition to that, you must remember, this was a saturday primary so people weren't working, people were not in school. if you had the ability to do a huge turnout, if you had the surge we were hearing that bernie had, you couldn't have had a better time to demonstrate it. it just didn't happen. and when you look at the -- >> can i stop you there? we've been hearing now for four years, and i'm getting tired of it, i'm telling my own colleagues, please, don't show

me the package that says, but there's a huge gap between old black voters and young black voters. i've seen those bernie sanders sayings on this network and every other network that says, yeah. people just are hoping that somehow there's going to be a huge split in the black vote. it never materializes for bernie. bernie is not bringing out more people. bernie is consolidating a certain part of the democratic base. i'm not knocking him. he's doing a great job. but that's it. these stories, these are what reporters want the truth to be. it's just not the truth. >> no, i think bernie does an excellent job. but he would do even better if they would be realistic about what they have and what they do not have. when you operate off of faulty information and act like that is true, you won't make up where

you ought to make up. if you look at the data, and i go to steve kornacki who is the expert there, they actually in terms of black voters under the age of 30, they equalled in south carolina which should be a wakeup call to bernie's operations. i think the other thing that was very important here is that when you see the almost opposite vote in terms of what biden got in a state that was dominated by black voters and the states and caucuses that were not, it shows you if the democratic party is to win in november, they must have an energized black base as well as latino base so you've got to look at how that happens particularly if you're going to deal with the bottom part of the tickets. i think south carolina reshaped this race and i think many people including those of us in the media needs to stop wishing for things and start dealing with things.

again, this was a saturday primary. if you can't get a huge turnout on a saturday, it's like a preacher on sunday morning, if you can't fill a church on sunday morning, you can't fill the church. >> you can't fill the church. reporters, stop with your stories wishing for something that's just not going to happen. and i've seen -- again, i've seen the bernie sanders' stories for four years. young jane smith came back from school and she's talked to her grandparents who are black voters who were going to vote for hillary clinton but are now going to vote for bernie sanders. they were going to vote for joe biden, but now they're -- no! it's not happening! okay. save it. just save it. i'm getting tired of those stories. you're embarrassing yourself. i've got that off my chest. i have seen those stories for four years and it's getting old. he's also not expanding the electorate. bernie could still win it all,

he could still have a huge super tuesday and run away with it. steve kornacki, before we get to all the numbers that shows how bernie sanders could almost lock this thing down on tuesday thanks to michael bloomberg, let's talk about realities, about what we saw. i know when i suggested that elizabeth warren attacking everybody on the debate stage might not help her in nevada, i was called a misogynist. i think she finished in fourth place. when i questioned her logic on the debate stage in the south carolina debate, same thing, oh, you have to be a misogynist because you say that may not help her. elizabeth warren had a rough night again, all right? but that's not all. i want you to tell me how do candidates like elizabeth warren who get 5% of the black vote, or mayor pete who got out with 3% of the black vote, or amy klobuchar who got 1% of the black vote, you tell me how can

they win the democratic nomination? because i see no pathway forward for them at all and it's time we start getting real whether you're a bernie fan or a biden fan. how do they do it if they can't get even halfway through the single digits with black voters. >> if you want to win a national nomination in this day and age, you need to show that you can build significant nonwhite support. sanders' campaign will tell you, if you take a look at nevada, it's a caucus out there, but the sanders' campaign will tell you, look at the hispanic support in nevada. that's significant in california. we're going to find out about that on tuesday because those states are going to vote on tuesday. african-american made up one out of every four votes that were cast in the 2016 democratic primaries. that's 25% nationally. and this was the first major

test of that. and we were saying that for months. we watched pete buttigieg take off last spring and summer, getting big crowds, moving up the polls in iowa and new hampshire, and he says unless he can show that he can get out of single digits with black voters and beyond, he's not going anywhere. well, the electorate in nevada was 10% black, pete buttigieg got 2% of the black vote out there. and the electorate in south carolina was nearly 60% black. he got 3% of the black vote right there. not coincidentally, he drops out of the race a day later. if you cannot make meaningful inroads, you're not going to go that far. >> now to super tuesday. steve kornacki sizes up tomorrow's battlegrounds. that conversation is next on "morning joe."

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in august 1619, a ship appeared on this horizon, 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] officially hitting the us.virus but this was the moment it began. man: the markets are plunging for a second straight day. vo: health experts warn the us is underprepared. managing a crisis is what mike bloomberg does. in the aftermath of 9-11, he steadied and rebuilt america's largest city. oversaw emergency response to natural disasters. upgraded hospital preparedness to manage health crises. and he's funding cutting edge research to contain epidemics. tested. ready. mike: i'm mike bloomberg

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♪ let's talk about super tuesday. i've seen you go through the maps over the weekend. we're dealing with old polls, polls not taken after south carolina. we have a couple this morning that were taken in the middle of it. so that's not going to give us a clean look at momentum. but i thought you set it up really well suggesting that what biden needs to do is he needs to stay fairly close to bernie sanders because after super tuesday, because everybody -- after super tuesday, people are going to be like shooting confetti off saying the race is over if he does well, or even if he doesn't, we have those later contests in florida, in arizona, where biden is way ahead.

biden is going to catch up down the road. it's just the question is, is bernie going to be so far ahead that he's not going to be able to ultimately catch him. so break down tuesday for us. please, don't go on the old polls that were taken before south carolina. just talk about what we're looking at and what the most likely outcome on tuesday is going to be. >> the one thing i have to say, and i totally hear you on this race changed on saturday, so much of -- i'm talking millions of votes -- >> in california? >> texas, colorado, california, so many votes are locked in because of early voting. it's extensive. it's the way of the life in the west. that could curtail a bit of momentum for biden. if you take a look at it, there are 1,344 delegates that are going to be up in the air on

tuesday. what sanders has going for him are two things, number one, the polls have shown him far ahead in california doing extremely well with the hispanic vote and getting a big chunk of that vote locked in. it's clear that sanders is going to cross that threshold easily. 15% statewide, 15% in delegates. sanders support is going to exceed 15%. you can expect in every state from california to maine sanders is going to be collecting delegates n. delegates. in a race like that, that starts to count. number one, is joe biden able to break that 15% threshold in california? i'm starting to think he's going to be able to do that. the poll this morning is a one-third post south carolina, it's got biden sitting at 21%. if biden is able to get into the 20s in california, that's a got night for biden in california. that changes the delegate

picture out of california substantially. >> can you explain this to me, from what i saw this weekend listening to you, david ploufe was great too. from what you guys explained, the more people that get over 15% the better news for joe biden. joe biden doesn't want to be the only one over 15% with bernie. he would love to see elizabeth warren get over 15%, michael bloomberg get over 15%. if you had for some reason elizabeth over 15, joe over 15, mike over 15, i mean, that really chops up the pie in a way that possibly save biden from a 300-point loss. >> yeah. you can put some numbers to this. i was playing with my limited delegate calculator before i came on here this morning. if you do a scenario where only bernie sanders clears 15% in california, that's what the polls were showing last week, sanders is going to get roughly

330, we'll say, of the 415 delegates in california in those congressional districts some of the other candidates will pick them up. go to the other end here, sanders, biden, warren, bloomberg, all of them clear the threshold. with buttigieg getting out, that's much more possible. in a scenario like that where biden gets into the 20s, you're talking about sanders netting maybe 60 or 70 delegates out of the state over joe biden, the margin being about 60 over joe biden. that's a win, but that's not what his campaign has been looking for. >> coming up on "morning joe," on paper at least, mike bloomberg doesn't really have any results to show from south carolina, but his name will be on the ballot tomorrow and that will play a big role in the race. we'll talk about that next on "morning joe." they cared about explaining every aspect of my treatment

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♪ adrienne elrod, let's talk about mike bloomberg. still playing to win. he's still saying he's going to push through.

does it impact joe biden or bernie sanders if he stays in the race? >> well, that's interesting to hear joe and steve kornacki talking about the scenario that the bloomberg campaign is basically laying out saying if we stay in the race longer, if we stay in the race on super tuesday, this actually helps joe biden and it hurts bernie sanders. the more people who make viability, the more candidates who are on that ballot on super tuesday who clear 15%, the bloomberg campaign maintains that that helps the moderate side. maybe it holds joe biden from getting more delegates, but most importantly to them, it keeps bernie sanders from amassing a giant swarm of delegates. looking after super tuesday, is it effective for mike bloomberg to stay in the race? does he come out of super tuesday with more delegates than joe biden? we don't know yet. what we do know is a lot of voters in california, i think

over 3 million, have already voted by mail. they voted early. but i've also talked to a lot of people out there in super tuesday states who are waiting to vote on election day because they wanted to see what was going to happen in south carolina. they were looking to the voters of south carolina to tell them what to do, to give them guidance. a lot of voters who might normally vote early were waiting until election day to see how things played out in south carolina so that definitely helps joe biden. lots of unknowns going into super tuesday. >> absolutely. >> a lot of unknowns. and you still have to put bernie has the favorite, maybe not the prohibitive favorite as he was before south carolina. but things are still looking good for bernie. jonathan lemire, let's talk about bloomberg. you covered him in new york as you've covered every new york mayor since mayor.

let's talk about the purpose of him running. the reason mike bloomberg ran was to stop elizabeth warren and to stop bernie sanders. elizabeth warren is going nowhere. just not. people can shout whatever names they want to shout. she got 5% of the black vote. she's not going to win the nomination. and he knows that. he's now got joe biden in a position where joe biden actually can challenge bernie sanders. didn't look that way when bloomberg got in the race so that's why he got in the race. it looks that way now. there's nobody in america that thinks that michael bloomberg is taking votes away from bernie sanders. what in the world can be his logic of staying in this race when all he's going to do is take away votes from bernie sanders competitors? >> covering the mayor was a particularly challenging -- >> that had to be exciting. >> it was thrilling stuff.

the mayor and his team, they're looking at this at a couple different levels. yesterday we saw the $1.5.03-minute ad that he got on a couple of networks in which he was standing in front of an oval officelike room talking about how he would respond to the coronavirus outbreak and touting his record handling the aftermath of 9/11, et cetera now those of us who covered him in new york know that record is spotty on stuff . the rebuilding of hurricane sandy was slow. he's contrasting this with these efforts from the trump administration. they still believe, super tuesday has been the bloomberg goal all the long. they spent a lot of time and money in these states. they feel like he's going to put up an impressive showing and can score a number of delegates in

some of these southern states and be viable going forward. if he crosses 15, that helps joe biden, but for the bloomberg folks this has always been a convention play. they want no one to reach the threshold. they point to themselves being the candidate with the most resources going forward. how important south carolina was for joe biden. it is momentum. he only has a couple days to pull this off. his limited resources in some of these states, but one stat, he raised $10 million this weekend, that was after south carolina. that was more than he raised in the entire month of january. he did all the sunday shows yesterday trying to bank on free media and slingshot some momentum. he's not going to get a clyburn endorsement in every state. but he has a chance here. he's got some momentum. he has some money. there's a feeling around him that he has a chance. >> coming up, politics is about

timing, when to get out and when to get out. pete buttigieg just made that call last night. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." in america we all count. no matter where we call home, how we worship, or who we love. and the 2020 census is how that great promise is kept. because this is the count that informs where hundreds of billions in funding

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the united states government is ramping up efforts to contain the coronavirus after troubling new signs that the virus is spreading. health officials in washington state say a second person has died and the number of confirmed cases in king county has risen to ten. the governor has declared a state of emergency in response. in florida, governor ron desantis has declared a public health emergency after two people tested presumptively positive for the virus, meaning they've been tested positive by a public health laboratory but the results are pending confirmation by the cdc. and in new york governor andrew

cuomo has confirmed the first case of coronavirus in new york city. the woman in her late 30s contracted the virus while traveling in iran. earlier, we spoke with former white house adviser for health policy under president obama dr. ezekiel emanuel and an expert on virus outbreaks, msnbc medical contributor dr. joseph fair for their takes on this. >> what are we looking at right now with the outbreak obviously in several states, what exactly is happening right now? are we -- are we just finally having people taking tests and finally getting positive tests? do you suspect this is already far more widespread than we know? >> absolutely, i do. overnight we've seen cases go from two states to seven states and it's all about the diagnostic testing. until we have those diagnostic tests rolled out broadly, which they are coming out now, as you heard from florida, those were tested by public health laboratories and the way that

lab systems work, you'll have a presumptive positive, it will then be confirmed positive by a second test by the cdc. what we're seeing is expected. we do expect it to spread throughout the united states, undoubtedly. >> so, zeke, we want to ask you, first of all, about testing across the country. is it happening? is it available? how long until certain areas get the tests? because i guess i would predict there would be an increase in numbers when that testing gets there. what is the process right now in terms of how prepared localities are for testing for this virus? >> well, we're ramping up and we're ramping up across the country. and the increased numbers that you see are a reflection of increased testing and that's going to -- we're going to see double and triple overnight numbers as we test more people and as we sort of get to the south korea level of 10,000

people being tested a day. but it's also an interesting question, who do you test because you can test people who you suspect who have shortness of breath, fever and other symptoms of coronavirus, but we also know that lots of people are asymptomatic, they think they have a cold, not anything more serious, and the question is, what level of suspicion do you have to have to test. we need a survey. how prevalent is it in a community and how many people have symptoms, how many people have severe symptoms, and that we don't know yet. but i would not be surprised to see this go well over certainly 1,000 before the end of the week and i think we are going to see people respond to that. >> all right. one of the things that's important during a crisis like this is people need to have trust in their institutions and the information coming out of the government. joining us now, staff writer at

the atlantic, george packer. george, thanks for being on today. there have been certainly stories in the past few years of the president undermining certain institutions, intelligence, et cetera, but now this i think really does actually pique the interest of the american people as a whole because it applies to them. how do you see what has been happening with the cdc so far being part of the narrative that you're talking about? >> it's good to be with owyou, mika. when trump came into propertowe saw it as his property, not loyalty to the constitution or the professionalism to the institutions but to the american people but to him. we saw him fumbling in the first couple of years trying to break the will and the independence of

the justice department, the state department, and the intelligence community. it took him a while, but i think he got pretty close to doing it. and now, really in the two weeks between when this story closed and when it has now gone online this morning, we see agencies across the government turning out to have been already compromised if not gutted by the president and this view that he has that he is the state. and the cdc is the one everyone is focused on because we're all waiting in terror for this virus. if you do what he's done, if you start cutting budgets, personnel, and creating loyalty tests, you put people at risk because the state needs to remain neutral in some areas. once the state becomes politicized in every area, it cannot function as a modern state. that seems to be the direction the united states is heading in right now. >> the problem for the

president, his focus of success, much of it has depended on the stock market going up. right now we have a market that had its worst slide since 2008 and the great recession, trading overnight in the futures has been extraordinarily volatile. the markets are expected to open lower again today. so the president finds himself in this position where he is the victim of his own success. the victim in trying to undermine confidence in the federal government and right now the markets and the economy and most importantly america's health depends on him reversing that dynamic. >> which i don't think he can do because it's core to his idea of power and of his own place as president that anything that isn't loyal to him, that doesn't -- isn't answerable to him is a threat to him. and so when during the campaign in the early months of his

campaign the fbi was investigating russian interference in the election, he saw it as a threat and set out to crush not just the independence of the fbi but some individuals in the fbi and he really was remarkably persistent in going after people like andrew mccabe who i wrote about in this piece, until their careers had been destroyed and they now served as a model for others in the government who dared to pursue higher interests than the president's own personal interests. he put mccabe out there as an example, this is what will happen to you if you cross me and i find that my interests are colliding with your job. i will survive, you will be crushed. >> obviously this is going to require a global response as well. let's bring in katty kay. >> i was wondering if this is not just against the state but whether this is also what we're seeing a little bit in europe is we're living in a moment that is

anti-expertise, whether it's economic expertise, financial expertise, and now scientific expertise. and whether it would take something like the coronavirus to have a swing back against all of this, to make people realize that we need people who are experts who are not beholden to the powers that be and can say no to the powers that be. >> that would be a great scenario. my fear is is that we are now far enough gone in the world of conspiracy theories that those who are already suspicious if not outright hostile to what trump calls the deep state are going to become more so, not less because we've taken wheels off that are very hard to put back on while a crisis is in motion as this one is. >> obviously the focus right now is the government's response to this virus. but it was just a couple weeks ago where it felt like the

president's influence on another branch of government, the department of justice, was being felt. he weighed in on the roger stone sentencing, we're waiting for the durham probe, the results coming in the next couple of weeks. in terms of your reporting iffer t for this story, it feels unprecedented, but where does it go if he were to win a second term? >> i think there would be a mass exodus. i talked to a prosecutor who told me that people he knows are barely holding on because one term has already done enough damage to their sense of integrity, to their ability to do their jobs without the fear of political interference and also to their confidence that their boss, attorney general barr will have their back in they come under political pressure. that's been push today the limit. four more years of that, he said, it's almost unthinkable that people can hang in there. i think there's going to be a collapse of a lot of areas of the government, maybe the state

department, maybe the justice department, where most of the pressure has been, and we'll see the best leaving and areas of expertise just hollow, void. we'll find out. we need a functioning state. we can't do without this civil service. in my reporting, i found out how important they are. what an incredible sense of allegiance to the constitution your average civil servant has. why else would they do it? not a lot of benefits compare today the private sector. without that sense of consciousness, we're going to have a crust of loyalists at the top, they're already there, and underneath a more hollow shell. >> this story is built on interviews of a number of civil servants. and in trump's mind, the deep state is filled with these operators who are counter man

dering his policies. but the sense that actually trump has outmastered the deep state and they underestimated the president and his ability to inflict his will and impose his will. tell us about that. >> you're right. there is a long-standing bureaucracy that thinks it can outlast any president. it has its own interests, it can resist presidential policies that it doesn't like. that's been true ever since the modern bureaucracy was created. we've never had a president who was willing to go this far to pursue personal vendettas. and james baker who was the general counsel of the fbi until he was driven out said to me was, yeah, we came in thinking we've got this. we know how to do this. trump is going to be gone and we'll still be here and we know how to use the levers of power,

not to serve our own interests, but to resist presidential interference that's unwarranted and we were fooling ourselves. he's light years ahead of us. trump has certain qualities, political qualities that people have always underestimated, his instinct for weakness. he has a philosophy of human nature which is human beings are weak and they can be crushed or cowed or corrupted through that weakness. he has a staying power that no one anticipated. no one quite understood how devoted he was to himself and what that could do in the hands of the president. trump is still here. the adults have all left. on their way out, they didn't say a word about what we all had to worry about. and without the adults, it's trump's government. and he now also has people in place in key agencies whose interests align with his and who are willing to make the

government his own personal object. >> george, why don't we expand just a little bit before we go on those adults that left and you said without saying a word. does general mattis have a responsibility to stop playing it safe and step forward? do the other people who left have a responsibility to stop giving blind quotes to reporters talking about the madness inside of the trump administration? >> absolutely. this is my own view. i think that general mattis, general mcmaster, dina powell, the list goes on and on, the people who have benefitted the most from the view that they were holding the line and doing their best to prevent the worst from happening now need to tell us what the worst was or could have been or will be. because i'm not sure what the higher duty is than that. i'm not sure where there's a

higher allege to the american people who they were serving and who i think need to know exactly what the risks are of a government that is more and more concentrated in the hands of one man who has no sense of its higher purpose than serving his own interests. yeah, i think they should be telling us what they know. >> to build on that, the allegiance is to american values and america. if not the president, to go beyond that for that if the president isn't -- isn't adhering to those. george packer, thank you so much. we will leave it there and have you back. we'll be reading the new issue of "the atlantic." we really appreciate you being on. up next, stephanie ruhle says that business leaders usually align with government leaders in times of crisis or great risk. but she says that's not what's happening with the coronavirus outbreak and she joins us next. and this story for you as we go to break. two weekends ago, country music

star garth brooks played before 70,000 fans in detroit. the concert was at ford field, home to the nfl's detroit lions. >> one of the greatest running backs of all time, barry sanders. anybody who's from detroit knows, that's barry sanders' town. >> and so brooks chose to honor barry sanders by wearing his number 20 jersey. >> which is great. if you're in new york, maybe it's, you know, aaron judge, if you're in boston -- well, actually -- who knows? >> after the show, brooks posted this photo on instagram of himself wearing -- >> that's awesome. >> it has sanders and 20 on the back. >> isn't that nice? barry sanders is a great running back that you see that and anybody that obviously knows anything about sports knows, that's really awesome, right? >> nfl hall of famer.

best running back of his generation. what could possibly go wrong with this jersey? >> nothing, right? >> that's actually where the trouble began. the comments section under the photo erupted under the photo erupted. >> oh, no. were they chicago bears fans? >> he was endorsing sanders. >> he has friends in high places. (howling wind) (howling wind) kelly clarkson! what're you doing on our sofa? hey there! what're you doing on your sofa? try wayfair. you got this! woah. yeah! let me try! all alright, get it! blow it up!

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in august 1619, a ship appeared on this horizon, near point comfort, virginia. it carried more than 20 enslaved africans, no aspect of the country we know today america was not yet america, but this was the moment it began. [sfx: typing]

hey, welcome back. we have breaking news and certainly sad news for those of us that knew jack welch, were friends of jack welch. the former ceo of general electric passed away. he became chairman and ceo of io decades, he died at the age of 84. his wife susie announced that this morning. he was actually called manager of the century by fortune magazine and neutron jack for slashing tens of thousands of jobs. under his leadership, general electric became the world's most valuable company after microsoft. while at the helm, welch bought

and sold scores of businesses, expanding the industrial giant in the financial services and consulting areas. ge capital bank was founded seven years into his tenure. acquisitions included rca, who then owned us, nbc. and kiter pea body, the brokerage that was entangled in an inside scandal later on. and welch was again, he was bombastic, very opinionated, but also, mika, obviously beloved by many people at nbc and general electric and again, a guy many people called ceo of the century. >> gave us great advice. he was a good friend. our prayers are with susie this morning. we will be talking about this a lot more with mike tomorrow. joining us now, nbc news senior

business correspondent and msnbc anchor stephanie rule. steph, we are following this story, of course, and coronavirus, and the markets. take it away. >> you know what's been extraordinary in the last few days, this is the first time, mika, joe, we have seen this complete divide between the president and corporate america. think about it. wednesday, thursday, friday last week, larry kudlow, economic adviser to the president telling people buy the dip, buy the market. at one point saying we have this thing practically air tight. and the president calling it a hoax. how does corporate mercury spond? the opposite. they're taking precautionary measures to protect their employees, they'll have a negative in the short term impact on the economy. this is the first time global business leaders are showing they're losing confidence in what the president says. i spoke to an investment banking chief that said this time it is

different, whether you talk sars, ebola, when we are facing crises, government and business leaders actually work together for the common good. in the financial crisis, hank paulson, love him or hate him, worked with bank ceos to save the world here. imagine now ceos are talking to one another, they know they can barely get to the cdc. one ceo said when they ask the cdc, they know they barely want to give the answers. this is a moment they can't trust the information from our own white house. >> stephanie ruhle, we know you have to get to your desk. we will talk to you in a few minutes. thank you so much for being with us and talking about the new reality, jonathan lemire, that stephanie was saying, that there is a divide between businesses and the white house. a lot of the same ceos said i may not like what donald trump says day in, day out, but he is good for business now understand that trump's very qualities, the

secrecy, lack of transparency, the lying, trying to put a positive spin on absolutely everything actually is damaging the economy, making the situation more difficult for health officials and spooking markets which ones again, the futures had a tumultuous night. >> all of that is right, joe. this is a president that latched his fortune to the stock market like no one that ever held that office before. it sparked great worry in the white house, how wall street responded to the crisis. two things to look out for today, very different, perhaps. the vice president gives a coronavirus update from the white house, we'll expect a somber response, hopefully clear headed look at where the crisis stands. and tonight, another political rally. a couple nights ago, he called the matter a hoax. see if he can maintain any discipline this evening.

>> patty, final thoughts? >> everyone will be watching the fed to see if the central bank can help america out of the economic hole of the markets, but as one economist said this weekend, trouble is central banks don't make vaccines for coronavirus. they may be limited what they can do, too. >> obviously the fed reducing rates isn't going to do anything to predict forward what the companies are going to be facing. nick. final thoughts? >> joe, thinking of the irony, the lesson for president trump, in his effort to talk up markets and prevent news of the virus from sinking the markets, he's actually made things worse for himself, he cut off these companies from access to information from the cdc that they want and need for planning and now it is going to rebound back on the president. >> and mika, again, a tumultuous night for futures. we'll see if the stock market rebounds. let's hope.

only time will tell. >> a lot to talk about tomorrow morning. 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 monday, march 2nd. here's what's happened. there's a significant jump in number of coronavirus cases in the united states. since friday, the total has risen from 60 to 80 cases, including two deaths. both deaths happened in washington state at a nursing facility where dozens of people are being tested. over the weekend, we saw the virus make its way to the east coast, florida, rhode island, new york, all reporting the first cases. this morning, dr. anthony fauci, director of national institute of allergy and infectious disease said the situation will get worse before it gets better. >> certainly when you have a number of cases you identified and they have been in the community awhile, you're going to wind up see