pearly gates. >> just go, two jews walk into a bar. >> take over for a while. i'll be right back. >> i was called upon to appear on virtually every talk show in america when these people died. because they had been on "inside the actors' studio" and answered that question. i'd rather not be the eulogist. >> he allowed you to see the other side of people that you don't normally see. you got to see the inside of who they actually were. such an incredible interview. "inside the actor's studio" one of cable's longest running season earning 20 emmy nominations, and lipton got nearly 300 actors and oscar and emmy winners to share the secrets of their craft. >> that does it for us here on "first look." "morning joe" starts right now. the question we've got to

ask ourselves, which is a terribly, terribly serious question is -- who is the best candidate, which campaign is the best campaign to defeat trump! [ cheers and applause ] >> we are better than this president, and so get up, let's take back this country! we're the united states of america and there's not a single thing we cannot do, and we do it together! and then there were two. not that long ago the field of presidential candidates looked like this. more than 20 contenders vying for the democratic nomination. today on this super tuesday it looks more like this. effectively, a two-person race between joe biden and bernie sanders with elizabeth warren and michael bloomberg still in the mix. good morning. and welcome to "morning joe." super tuesday, march the 3rd. along with joe, willie and me we have msnbc contributor mike

barnicle and msnbc national affairs co-host of showtime's "the circus" and editor of "the recount" john heilemann joins us. great to have you this hour. >> and joining with steve kornacki breaking down the number and let us know what's happening with super tuesday tonight. best case scenario for bernie and for joe biden. things are moving quickly on the ground. a poll or two out yesterday that shows just how quickly things are moving. also, steve gave such a moving, a moving tribute to our good friend chris matthews. we'll be talking with him about that as well, and about chris matthews next block. we're going to dive into all of yesterday's fast-moving developments surrounding joe biden's numerous high-profile endorsements and also have the very latest on the coronavirus as more testing confirms more new cases in the u.s.

the total number of confirmed cases in, is now 110, including the first positive tests in georgia and new hampshire. experts worn that number will grow as more people are tested revealing just how much the virus was able to spread undetected. four more deaths have been reported in washington state bringing the death toll here in the u.s. to six. the number of confirmed cases in china appears to be slowing down, but the virus is still moving fast across the globe. here's what the director of the national institute of allergy and infection diseases dr. anthony fauci told nbc news foreign chief correspondent richard engel. >> we'll dealing with an evolving situation. we're dealing with clearly an emerging infection disease that reached outbreak proportions and likely pandemic proportions.

this is multiple, sustained transmissions of a highly infection agent in multiple regions of the globe. >> okay. that's pretty strong. we'll have a lot more on that, and the white house response to the virus just ahead. but we begin with super tuesday. that's today. 14 states hold their primaries from california to maine. plus, a caucus in american samoa. more than 1,300 dell gets up for grabs. a total in the democratic race for the nomination. 1,191 needed to secure the nomination. california has the largest prize with 415 delegates followed by texas with 228 and north carolina with 110. it's also a big test for mike bloomberg who's on the ballot for the first time today after skipping the first four contests. and a dam break of endorsements for joe biden ahead of today's contests.

three of his former rivals for the democratic nomination all came out in support of the former vice president yesterday. pete buttigieg, amy klobuchar and beto o'rourke. just a day after ending his presidential bid, pete buttigieg appeared at a campaign stop with biden where he announced his endorsement and biden compared buttigieg to his late son beau. >> you know, when i ran for president, we made it clear that the whole idea was about rallying the country together, to defeat donald trump, and to win the era for the values that we share. and that was always a goal that was much bigger than me becoming president, and it is in the name of that very same goal that i'm delighted to endorse and support joe biden for president of the united states. >> and don't think i've ever done this before, but he reminds me of my son beau, and i know that may not mean much to most

people but to me it's the highest complement i can give any man or woman. i look over at pete during the debates and i think -- i think, you know, that's a beau, because he has such enormous character. such intellectual capacity and such a commitment to other people, and, folks, i can't tell you how much it means to me that he would step up and endorse me. i just can't tell you how much i appreciate it, because i promise you, you're going to end up over your lifetime seeing a hell of a lot more of pete than you are of me. >> later in the evening, senator amy klobuchar, who ended her campaign yesterday and beto o'rourke both joined biden at a rally where they, too, delivered they are endorsements. >> it is up to us, all of us, to put our country back together, to heal this country and then to build something even greater.

i believe we can do this together, and that is why today i am ending my campaign and endorsing joe biden for president! [ cheers and applause ] >> we need somebody who can bring us together and heal us. we need somebody who can re-establish the moral authority of the united states. we need somebody who will fight for democracy here and abroad, because democracy is under attack here and abroad. we need joe biden! [ cheers and applause ] >> beto will be our guest this morning. biden also gained several other notable endorsements yesterday including former senate majority leader harry reid and former national security adviser susan rice. a big day for joe, joe. >> it really was. willie, incredible day in politics yesterday. and, yes, a big day for joe

biden, but let's not forget that front-runner bernie sanders. he is still the front-runner. but this is effectively -- there's been a narrowing, a real focus, and in the democratic party now it comes down to the question that bernie said in that huge rally, and that is -- who is the best candidate, what is the best campaign, to take on and beat donald trump? this morning it's gain om. >> game on. you can't match an better 48 hours for vice president joe biden winning south carolina by nearly 30 points. dominating among african-american voters who delivered that victory for him, and then picking up all the endorsements you just laid out and just heard from pete buttigieg, amy klobuchar, beto o'rourke and others. what coalescing looks like. john heilemann, the question today on super tuesday, 1,357 delegates handed out for context

only handed out 155 so far in these first four states. the question will be, is this a south carolina story joe biden or is this now a national story for joe biden? >> it is a question, and we know several things. we know that the biden campaign was effectively dead going into south carolina and biden's victory there a combination of his own grit and jim clyburn's endorsement. when i say effectively dead, i mean they were broke. the investments weren't happening in super tuesday states. they were not on the air in any of those 14, 15, states and territories. they didn't have organizations on the ground in most of those places. that was a matter of necessity, not a matter of choice. didn't have the resources. right? so they looked up with this incredible victory on saturday night that exceeded anyone's expectations and now they have this narrow window. the schedule, the calendar is what it is. they have a window too small even to take advantage of the money that is pouring across the

biden campaign. you just can't get on the air. can't convert millions of dollars into advertising in 48 hours. can't make that happen. certainly can't get boots on the ground. so how does that end? in a lot of these states and the big ones california, text, early voting, mean s percentages of votes, in california started voting when the iowa caucuses were taking place those were all bad things for joe biden. as much mow mend um coming out of south carolina, that's real. the wave of earned media, endorsements, everything. all of it is real and limited it's effect on this set of races because the window is so narrow. what now happens? you know, we'll see today. in a normal year with real resources and real investments this kind of momentum, you'd see biden certainly in the states with demographics that have electorates that look like south carolina's, the historical

pattern, would mean he would win overwhelmingly, decisively in places like alabama, north carolina and virginia. whether that will actually happen today, because of the thing i was just talking about, we just don't know the answer to that and the other interesting factor. middle of which is the bloomberg factor. right? during a lot of the time this vote has been going on mike bloomberg was doing better, before the debate collapse in vegas, and bloomberg was banking vote in a lot of these places when he was on the rise with his pure advertising strategy. so bloomberg is clearly falling. biden is clearly rising, but the fall and the rise are happening in this period where, again, a lot of those votes were banked and mike bloomberg still on the air and all the rest. we'll see. i think everybody expects joe biden to have a good day today. how good? is it good enough? ski questi key question, good enough to keep bernie sanders from bringing in delegates, does he have a delegate lead over joe

biden tomorrow? that is insurmountable. >> what does a good day look like for joe biden? a place where bernie sanders is leading and leading big in a long time, in california. do those voters look what happened in south carolina and change their minds which way they're going to go? maybe. and as john heilemann said, the bloomberg affecter. seen him twice underperform at debates. are they actually going to go in and pull the lever for him and if they don't, what happens to mike bloomberg if he doesn't get a payback in all of that investment? >> a good question and nobody can answer that except for michael bloomberg. everything john said is accurate including the most important aspect of it. the votes already banked by early voting. but interestingly enough, if you buy the theory that ordinary people -- they sort of follow the iowa caucus results. they sort of follow the early

beginning of this campaign in new hampshire, but suddenly, after saturday in south carolina, it was as if joe biden had made his entry into the presidential race. massive amounts of free media that he got on saturday, sunday, yesterday and including this morning. free media. and what happened in that free media? joe biden looked like an ordinary empathetic, humble, compassionate human being. a striking contrast to the president of the united states, and i think a lot of people paid attention to it. they saw him. they like him. they liked him anyway and they liked him even more after they see him in these settings. so what happens today? nobody knows what's going to happen today, but i expect he would have a much, much, much better day today than he ever dreamed of having last friday. >> yeah. joe, as you know, a lot of moderate democrats in the parties who are going to vote today on super tuesday and beyond sort of waiting to see who is that candidate?

if i don't like bernie sanders, who is it? amy klobuchar, pete buttigieg, harry reid and others going down the list said yesterday, it's joe biden. >> yes. as susan rice, barack obama, word out that barack obama had sent the message over the last few days that joe biden was the guy to get behind. they threw cold water on that, once that got out, but that word certainly getting out to other democrats. but you know, today's got to be fascinating. the name mike bloomberg came out but we learned in 2016, paid advertising is not moving voters. it didn't in 2016. it certainly didn't for tom steyer who ran a tough, hard campaign in south carolina. was there all the time working hard. spent a lot of money there, spent a lot of money in nevada. it did not translate into votes. and i just wonder if we're not going to see the same thing in a very big way tonight with mike

bloomberg. you know, mika, look at the polls that have come out. only a few polls that have come out completely post-south carolina. one a virginia poll where joe biden and bernie sanders were deadlocked just a few days ago's in a new poll joe biden is up by over 20 points. the impact of that, on delegates coming out of virginia would be massive. especially if elizabeth warren and bloomberg didn't reach the 15% threshold. if we are starting to see that across the deep south, joe biden is going to pull in a hell of a lot more delegates in some of these southern states, especially, than anybody ever anticipated. the question again, though, with california and some other states goes to those banked votes. how many absentee votes, how many early votes are going to be coming in. things that were locked in. votes that were locked in when biden was in fourth place, fifth place, second place in nevada?

>> president trump has been following the democrats through their primary states with rallies of his own. last night continuing on the trend in charlotte, north carolina. one of the states that votes today. here is the political analyst in chief. >> it's being rigged against -- it's sad -- it's being rigged against crazy bernie. crazy bernie's going to go crazy. crazy. i think crazy bernie's going to be more crazy when they see what they're doing. i called it a long time ago. >> so, joe, he seems rattled. just looking at his tweets and he's going after bloomberg. he's going after biden. he's going after the press. he's trying to bring up old videos concocting ways that these candidates look like they've said something terrible. i mean, there is a all-on onslaught to take on the emerging candidate. >> yeah. we've talked about this for some time, mika.

it's fastcinating how much donad trump -- >> petrified politically of joe biden. he obviously is seeing internal polls that shows that he must be doing badly in a lot of those swing states against joe biden. because, again, joe biden was a man that donald trump feared so much that he allowed himself to be impeached over joe biden. trying to dig up dirt from a foreign leader in exchange for military funding. i mean, only the third president in u.s. history to be impeached, and he did it to try to stop joe biden, and now, of course, he goes to these rallies and he just rants endlessly about the democrats trying to steal this process from bernie sanders. he's just, again, obviously really shaken and disturbed by the prospect of facing joe biden. >> yeah. that's the backdrop. he was impeached because of his behavior around joe biden. let's bring in white house reporter for the associated

press jonathan lemire. besides the rallies and worrying about joe biden, he's also got the coronavirus sort of creeping into his presidency. has the strategy there, are there any plans to try and focus addressing this virus as well as he's dealing with the super tuesday candidates? jonathan? >> good morning. the president, yes, proceeding on two tracks. start with the politics first. as you said on a rally last night in north carolina hitting the same notes he's been on a few weeks. trying to sow disenchantment on the bernie sanders quarters alleging the party is trying to steal this primary away from the vermont senator. last night he did so much as to suggest simply endorsements of buttigieg and o'rock and klobuchar, inappropriately railing behind biden nap is nonsensical. no evidence of that whatsoever. from the rally he took shots at all the major candidates.

joe biden in particular, where he suggested that biden was sort of feeble minded, made a number of mistakes lately in terms of places what state he was in and what date suggesting even using, for a clip going around that biden was talking about super thursday rather than super tuesday. innocent mistake the vice president quickly cleaned up, butted president the president that joe biden is not up for the job and made fun of mike bloomberg. used pocahontas to describe elizabeth warren. at the heart of this, joe pointed out correctly, his fears of joe biden and biden's able to win away some of those white upper west voters, white voters may have backed barack obama in 2008, 2012 but then supported president trump in 20916. biden of the democratic candidates has the best chance to steal away.

the president's fear of that led him to be indeed impeached. we're suddenly seeing now as biden stage add remarkable comeback in the last few days, the president is focusing on that again and his aides are previewing witness mo ining onct hearing an hunter biden and ukraine as he ramps up attacks suddenly thinks joe biden might emerge certainly at a co-person narrowing it to a two-person race with bernie sanders. >> speaking of feeble minded. i was stunned. a lot of people were stunned, by the clip of the president trying to grasp the process of making a vaccine. trying to grasp what a vaccine is. what a pandemic is. can you give us some background how the president went in so ill-prepared to his meeting yesterday, and just so igger innant of the basics of the process of trying to develop a

vaccine for the coming pandemic. >> from the start of this administration the president has not been one drawn to in-depth briefings or preparations for a variety of subjects. national xusecurity. in this case a global health crisis. i talked to people in the last couple days of president was indeed uncertain of process to develop vaccines, confused about the process to develop the process, obvious yesterday at the meeting here at the white house suggesting a vaccine could be on the market for consumers in the next few months. obviously corrected a year or more after testing before people could start using it. certainly this is, the white house is very concerned about the coronavirus. yes, relieved. market's done better. a good day yesterday. certainly the economic angle, something that worries trump and his allies because if the economy were could really slow down, perhaps the most devastating blow to his re-election bid, but also trying to show a more organized sort of

sober response. we had another briefing yesterday from the vice president. there's going to be another one this afternoon. they're letting dr. fauci be out there to be more of the public face. just saw a clip, an interview, a trusted voice on this and trying to prepare americans that, look, the number of cases inevitably will go up, even if things are slowing in china, it's growing elsewhere in the world, it's growing here in the united states. had more deaths including in washington state and the white house is trying to project two things at once. that they're in control, handling this and ease off panic. suggesting, look, americans, this is probably going to get worse before it gets better. >> all right. jonathan lemire live for us at the white house. thank you very, very much, and still ahead on "morning joe," as we mentioned, former presidential candidate beto o'rourke joins the conversation on the heels of his big endorsement of joe biden. and up next -- steve kornacki is camped out as a big board where he has a very

busy day ahead. we'll get his opening thoughts on super tuesday straight ahead. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. i'm happy to give you the tour, i love doing it. hey jay. jay? he helped me set up my watch lists. karl! he took care of my 401k rollover. wow, you call a lot. yeah, well it's my money we're talking about here. help from a team that will exceed your expectations. ♪ 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.

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♪ ♪ [ dishave you ever wondered [ distant band playing ] what the motorcade driver drives when they're not in a motorcade? [ upbeat music starts ] [ engine revving ]

♪ this one drives a volkswagen passat. ♪ amounts i've ever known as a viewer, chris is the most human and i say that as one of the highest complements i can pay to someone. i'm sorry. i think you got him and i think he got you and all of us are going to miss him. >> what a moving, moving night last night and when steve kornacki called chris matthews the most human tv personality he had ever known, steve, of course, said that was meant as his highest compliment.

and it should have been. you know, chris didn't measure his words. he was a man without guile. you knew what chris believed and why he believed it. he was a former capitol hill cop who always wore his heart on his sleeve and through the years it occasionally got tip's favorite guy, tip's go-to guy in trouble. but you know what? it also made chris matthews a beloved figure and made his show "hardball" a political institution that i think more than any other show over the past quarter century defined our political times. all too human? yeah. i guess so, but those of us still playing or reporting on the hardball of politics could stand a bit more of this humanity these days. even if it sometimes reveals our flaws, disposes or weaknesses and, yes, even shows our blind

spots. chris gave us his all every night, and that's why we were wiping tears from our eyes last night. and why we're going to miss him terribly tonight, and every night when 7:00 rolls around. thank you, chris, for all you've done and steve kornacki as the big board, thank you for what you said about chris last night. >> no. appreciate that, joe, and your words right there, i think you just, flushed out what i was trying to get at with chris. and it was, that's the word. trying to think of what to say on the air and the word came coming back to me over and over again. human. human in terms of the relationship with his audience. always saw it. you saw it, too. every time he was around groups of people. public settings, and i know a lot of people, myself very much included can be a little standoffish. you see a complete opposite with chris. he loved people and they loved him and i just saw that

relationship up close and personal. it always struck me. it always made an impress on me and i think human and one of the good ones. you know? >> yeah. you know, it's not even 12 hours after his referring nation, some sort of still processing what has happened, reading a lot, but i'm sad. chris' passion and joy was infection as we've all said, and it was backed up by a political gut that was unmatched in our world, and you can't imitate that. you can't replace that. you can't replace that. and he shared that with us every night. and as a woman, i just, i want to say this. i loved working with chris matthews. really enjoyed being his colleague, and i really -- i understand the important changes around this so-called cancel culture. they're important, they're hard, they're painful, and in many cases they are necessary. i do wonder at this point,

though, as we move forward and we look at this and what happened here if there might be a better way for all of us in the future where we work through this and get to a better place. but for now i'll just say i'll miss him every night at 7:00 p.m. but i remain his friend. >> and now let's go to willie at the big board with steve kornacki. >> okay, guys. a big day of politics. chris' favorite day perhaps of the season. primary season. take a look at the big picture first of all, steve. where should people tuned into msnbc waiting to see you standing in this exact spot about 13 hours from now, where should we be looking to get a sense how this night's going to go? >> obviously all the attention out here on the west coast, to california. not until 11:00 p.m. we get anything out of california. put that aside for now. early on virginia, north carolina. these are going to be the two states we start to get early results from. these are going to be states

that tell you, was there a big, and i mean big, because that's what we get possibility of big movement towards joe biden just from last saturday. not just winning the states getting up close to double digits, ever getting past double digits? if he is, indication that is for real, biden is for real and this raced changed 180 degrees in a couple days. >> obviously joe biden on the strength that african-american voters in the state of south carolina, counting on that similar support in states outlined there. the only polling we have, we mentioned earlier, since south carolina is in virginia. where joe biden has opened up a big lead. where else are you looking at among demographics? >> like you say. basically to varying degrees these states in the southeast, looking at the african-american vote. especially alabama. in alabama looking to see, does biden basically get what he got in south carolina in terms of the margin? not as much in terms of african-american vote in

oklahoma but conservative rural white voters. that's another constituency to think about. massachusetts is interesting, because here's a great test for biden where if you took a poll there -- there was a poll there last saturday night as he was winning south carolina, a poll came out in massachusetts and joe biden at 11%. at 11%, zero delegates in massachusetts, because warren, home state, sanders, next door neighbor that sort of thing, well over 20%. if biden, keep that 11% in mind when you see the massachusetts numbers. up ins 20s, big indication in terms of momentum. >> talk mike bloomberg. what does a good night look like for him? he spent half a billion waiting for this day right here. hasn't played in the first four early states. what does he need to do to continue on? >> two things. this number, talking about it a million times. 15. hit 15%. getting 15% state-wide in the big ones in particular, in texas, in california, north carolina, virginia, massachusetts. if so, he's going to be collecting a fair number of

delegates. running, i have one in front of me i did just before we came on the air. a good night for bloomberg in terms of hitting thresholds. ended up with about 250 delegates on the night. the potential is to get the delegates. the other question with bloomberg, the justification of his candidacy. he's safety valve for democrats who don't want a sanders and worried about biden's here's bloomberg. if biden is having a big night, sweeping the southeast, making in-roads in klobuchar's minnesota, warren's massachusetts, competitive in california, running ahead of bloomberg in all of these states, if he's winning these states outright, even if bloomberg walks away with the night with 200, 250 delegates puts him in a distant third or fourth place and the question more getting in the way of biden, at that point a very, very real shot of knocking off sanders. >> as you said, bernie sanders is look at that state to take home a lot of if not the vast majority of delegates there.

we won't know until 11:00 p.m. or later because of all the post-mark votes. >> at 11:00, earliest of the early voting. favors sander, i expect. the question, would it move towards biden as you get more votes in. >> steve kornacki, a long day and night ahead. steve, thanks so much. joe? >> and of course we may not even know who wins the day and how super tuesday turns out until this time tomorrow, because california does start their vote tallying so late and it is such a critical piece of this puzzle. john heilemann, there are a lot of different scenarios we could go through as far as delegates go. let's go on the one i'm assuming right now, only because i've always believed politics is about momentum more than anything else, especially these early presidential contests. let's just assume right now that this poll out of virginia is right. biden has a big win there.

wins by double digits there. double digits in north carolina. double digits in alabama and in tennessee. i assume at 11% last week he's going to reach that 15% threshold in places like massachusetts. do well in minnesota where amy klobuchar got out. but, of course, texas and california, big fight, as you said. a lot of votes already banked there. what do the numbers look like? what's that scenario? how does that scenario play out if momentum does, in fact, give joe biden a big push tonight. yeah. like, look. if you think -- take it in the aggregate here, joe. if biden wins in a lot of the states that look like south carolina and wins big, you mentioned minnesota. i think that's a state where the dogfight there is between, it was going to be between amy klobuchar and bernie sanders, the state that bernie sanders won in 2016. colorado, a state bernie sanders won in 2016. states where sanders is strong.

he's strong, and particularly point to the right ones. texas and california. the biggest question out there, because look at that delegate for california. 415 delegates. double, close to double the number of the second biggest state in texas. so the big question is -- which of the candidates get the viability in california and which do not? there is no good polling on this right now in california. all polling we have is from before south carolina. so we, if you want to -- kornacki yesterday actually laid out a bunch of delegate scenarios from best case to worst case, and most hinges on that question. does biden make viability in california? number one. 15%. and who else makes viability? does elizabeth warren make viability? does mike bloomberg make viability in that state? if you look at the scenarios you can imagine a day on wednesday morning where bernie sanders, the best possible day he could have, is a day where he comes out maybe -- maybe, with as much

as a north of 300, maybe even pushing up to 400 pledged delegate lead for the day. now, that day is a day where bernie sanders is the de facto nominee of the party wednesday morning. 300 pledge lead is not closeable. no matter what happens after that. look at bernie sanders as nominee of party. so there's a better scenario for joe biden at the other extreme, which is bernie sanders is up by, you know, let's say 50, 60, 70 delegates. that's the best case scenario for joe biden. that's an eminently closeable gap especially given a lot of the states further down the calendar for biden where he is going to do well presuming again the south carolina result replicates. a state like georgia. a state like mississippi, and then the acela corridor, delaware, where biden is from and similar states like thatyou could close a 50 or 70 gap. what the biden campaign hopes for, i can tell you right now,

over/under, 150 delegates. if they can get through this and survive and wake up on wednesday and be 150 pledged delegates behind, or less, they are going to consider that a good night for them. internally. anything north of 150 is when it starts to get into problems and start to have a gap they will be very, very hard pressed to close. pay attention to that number when we get through the other side of the super tuesday vote. >> that's an important number. the over/under, important number. john heilemann puts it at 150 and, of course, again, as john said, look at some of the later states coming down the road. look at florida. you look at arizona. you look at other states where joe biden was doing extremely well even before south carolina. even before the endorsements. even before this huge gust of wind at his back to help push him along. that's why bernie sanders needs a big win tonight. because we've been looking at

bernie sanders through the possibility of him locking this down. the other side of that is, bernie does need to bank enough delegates tonight that he can be north of 200 delegates ahead to help buffer him from what is sure to come down the road. mike barnicle, final thoughts on super tuesday, and obviously, at least for this block, and obviously, a longtime friend of chris matthews. final thoughts on chris? >> well, joe, i have known chris matthews for over 40 years. and john's excellent outline of the potential electoral vote breakdown tonight was superb and i understood it. i got it all. but where do i go now at 7:00 at night for an honest, heart on my sleeve reaction to politics in america? not just electoral politics today but the politics of every day? where do i go? my friend, your friend, chris

matthews is not dead. he has retired from "hardball," but he will still be around, and i hope to see him as a guest many times right here on "morning joe," but the thing that i fear most, joe, about what happened yesterday, chris' resignation, is it opens the door further to an flelement in our cull dhature that i find disturbing. no matter how valid the complaints were about chris there's a sense of easy outrage in this country that is fed largely by twitter sometimes, and the outrage quickly becomes toxic, and that toxic outrage has the opportunity, the chance and often results in something that we saw last night. chris' resignation. as i said, again, i'm going to say it again. chris is not going anywhere. he's resigned from his post at "hardball" but he will be around, but we should think about what happened to him and

think about the reaction to what he is charged with having said or done, and it could happen to you. it could happen to all of us. it could happen anywhere. so let's pump the brakes on the easily obtained outrage and live our lives. >> thank you, mike. still ahead, with americans bracing for a potential coronavirus pandemic, some doctors are saying hospitals are not prepared. the growing concerns be a the response to the virus next on "morning joe." guy a promotion. you should be mad at forced camaraderie. and you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. but you're not mad, because you have e*trade, who's tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. don't get mad. get e*trade's simplified technical analysis.

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before i came here this morning i was in the emergency room seeing patients. i still do not have a rapid diagnostic test available to me. >> that's easy to do. is it not? is it hard to manufacture? >> it is easy to do for some countries. what happened in the united states is that the cdc created a test -- sent a test out to 50 states and said, oop. hold up. don't use it. let us fix it. it's now marked. we hear it's coming very soon

but i'm here to tell you right now at one of busiest hospitals in country i don't have it at my fingertips. i still have to call the department of health and plead my case to test people. this is not good. we know there are 88 cases in the united states. there are will hundreds by the middle of the week, thousands by next week. >> that is just gross ineptitude costing americans lives by the day. it's really remarkable, mika. unbelievable. >> that was new york city infection decease physician matt mccarthy telling cnbc that hospitals have a shortage of diagnostic tests which has left them unprepared to take on the coronavirus. joining us now, "morning joe" medical contributor dr. dave campbell. dr. dave, thanks for being on. what do we know about when testing will get everywhere, or is this an issue where some localities may not get tests and there will be many cases out there? >> well, mika, we already know

there are many cases out there, and the numbers that you hear every single day increase. 15 states, over 100 cases. six deaths as of now. and if you don't have a test kit or a testing ability or the ability to get this to the public health center locally, you can't get a positive test. if you look at the map of the united states and see state-by-state being added to the list of states with positive findings, it's growing -- it's rather like a wildfire. you see state after state attached to each other. so when will we get more test kits? it's a work in progress. >> dr. dave, it's willie. we heard frustration in the voice of that physician here in new york city yesterday. the best you can understand, why aren't these tests made available? as he said, it's easy to do in other countries. should be easy to do here. why don't the hospitals have the testing kits they need? >> willie, there's a few reasons, and part of it is that

there have been some regulatory hurdles that have been put in place. as those get lifted, as -- particularly with dr. fauci now yesterday saying that we have community spread. he said yesterday that we have a likely pandemic, and when dr. fauci with the nih is concerned that within the next few weeks that we will be seeing increasing community spread, that becomes the definition for pandemic when it is global. we have that now. >> dr. dave, i spoke yesterday with an expert in the field who told me he would not be surprised within the next month if you started seeing school closings for two weeks, three weeks. would not be surprised if you saw theaters shut down. would not be surprised if you saw just the way we live altered

greatly, and he talked about china, and how china moved so rapidly. in a way, this democratic country could never move, but how china moved rapidly. how japan's moved rapidly and how when that happens, when a society moves quickly, it actually -- there actually can be at least a slowdown of the spread of this potential pandemic. >> joe, look at china. china has finally seen a slowing down of the spread. when you look back in january and see the numbers then. so that is encouraging. that's perhaps the only encouraging news i can give you today. that china may be turning the corner, but china and the entire world -- look at the entire world. we have -- compare where we are now with the influenza virus that affects a billion people a year, and every year season's

flu kills somewhere between 290,000 and 650,000. we only have a few thousand deaths so far with the covid-19 disease that comes from this novel coronavirus, but as the numbers increase, we will be seeing that, that gap between seasonal flu deaths and covid-19, coronavirus, deaths start to narrow. a couple weeks ago we spoke about this and we were fearful for community spread. fearful and prepared to do things when we need to. school closures, as you said. it's now time to do these things. >> dr. dave -- >> wow. >> big picture, how should people be thinking about this? a lot of parents watching, a lot of families watching who see all the headlines and say, okay. i have the information. what am i supposed to do about it right now? there's the grocery store here in new york city, last night the line was 45 minutes long, because people are snatching up

all the food and the bottled water, preparing for the worst. how should americans watching right now be thinking about coronavirus? >> you know, i'm here in florida. when a hurricane is coming, you go to home depot and you go to the store and you stock up. when this theirs theater bans start to hit you know you wished you had gone to home depot before. the theater bans are here. so we need to start preparing last week by stockpiling whatever you need for your home in case you can't get out or don't want to get out or the schools close. trips are being canceled. lots of my friends and colleagues that had trips or meetings to go to have canceled those. so this is the week, not to become overly excited. to become very focussed, become very prepared, and prepare your workplace. prepare for your kids to be home. prepare to work from home if need be's if we're told to do that. we aren't being told that yet,

but this is the first week that i would say you really have to prepare right now for those possibilities. >> all right. dr. dave campbell. thank you very much. we'll be having you back for sure to talk more about this ongoing story. up next, president obama hasn't endorsed a candidate but nbc news reports that he has made his choice of joe biden clear. we're talk to former obama campaign manager david plouffe. "morning joe" is coming right back. (soft music)

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coming up, texas has 261 delegates up for grabs today. and former congressman beto o'rourke is hoping the majority of them go to joe biden. the former 2020 candidate joins us on the heels of his new endorsement. "morning joe" is back in one

minute with claire mccaskill and david plouffe. what's important to you. saving for ava's college. being able to retire on our terms. taking care of dad. why ameriprise financial? my advisor cares about my personal goals. he gives us comprehensive advice. i feel prepared for what's expected in life and even what's not. she helps us feel confident. we know our financial future is secure. with the right financial advice, life can be brilliant.

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of that very same goal that i'm delighted to support joe biden for president [ cheers and applause ] >> it is up to us, all of us, to put our country back together, to heal this country, and then to build something even greater. i believe we can do this together, and that is why today i am ending my campaign and endorsing joe biden for president! [ cheers and applause ] >> we need somebody who can bring us together and heal us. we need somebody who can re-establish the moral authority of the united states. we need somebody who will fight for democracy here and abroad, because democracy is under attack here and abroad. we need joe biden! [ cheers and applause ] a dam break of endorsements for joe biden ahead of today's contest. three of his former rivals for the democratic nomination all

came out in support of the former vice president yesterday. pete buttigieg, amy klobuchar and beto o'rourke. >> you see that coordination? i mean, that is -- >> the right thing. >> that's exactly what republicans -- >> yeah. >> -- of course they support donald trump, but republicans who hated him, actually hated him at this time four years ago. begging marco, begging ted. go down the list. they wanted everybody to come together and have that kind of night. coordinated night, to stop donald trump. it was the best thing to do, but, you know, mika, they actually, the democrats have gone against type. this was a very organized -- process. they planned this out, and executed it extraordinarily well. i'm surprised. because this hardly ever happens

in politics. emotions, ego, pride. >> yep. >> anger, rage. it all gets in the way of something that -- but, willie, there you had it yesterday happening. >> yeah, and not a moment too soon. joe biden needs it now and coming out of south carolina. we'll see tonight if the delegates, the endorsements make a difference, won by more than 30 points in south carolina make as difference. likely it will acrouse the south but what about other places? texas what about california? despite the momentum we see now around joe biden, if bernie sanders plows his way through the state of california and picks up as many delegates as he possibly could among the 415 available, we could wake up tomorrow as we study what happened in california and say despite all that happened in the last few days with joe biden, bernie sanders has all but locked it up. >> right. it's clear these candidates know what this is about. it is tuesday, march 3rd.

super tuesday. with joe, willie and me we have msnbc national affairs analyst john heilemann. former u.s. senator now an nbc news and msnbc political analyst claire mccaskill and msnbc political analyst david plouffe who served as senior white house would adviser to president obama and managed his 2008 campaign and he is author of the new book "a citizen's guy to beating trump." great to have you all onboard this hour. >> so, david, first of all, were you surprised by the ruthless efficiency of the democratic party! i mean, this -- this question answers itself, of course. we're all surprised by the ruthless efficiency of the democratic party, at least yesterday. but everybody seemed to fall in line and give joe biden even more momentum coming out of south carolina. what do you think the net effect of that's going to be tonight? >> well, joe, first of all, it's not the democratic party. i think the biden campaign did a

good job and most importantly the candidate who didn't see a pathway forward decided to get out when it was clear. you know? i think that was as you said, a rarity any politics. maybe it will set a new standard. bernie sanders will have a good day as far as a delegate standpoint. this is whether joe biden can survive super tuesday. if he can leave tonight and we may not know until deeper into the week what the delegates look like. and missouri and claire can speak to that, ohio, states where he'll do well. new jersey, i think. he can catch up to bernie sanders. the question is, bernie sanders had a big lead. has a big organization. joe biden doesn't have a big organization in those states but has big momentum. so -- and a lot of people that voted early. he's really got to overperform on election day today. in california, in texas, in colorado. people are going to the polls. joe biden's has to do much

better today with those voters than he's done in the early vote. >> claire, joe biden's had about as good a three-day run as possible between south carolina and super tuesday. nobody would have expected it would have gone this well. that it would have gone this smoothly. will it be enough for joe to keep it close? >> i don't know. and joe's going to have to stay on his game. i mean, we can talk about clyburn and how important that endorsement was. we can talk about the unification of the black vote in south carolina and how big that was, but also, joe biden was better. he was better in the debate. his speech after the south carolina primary was the strongest he'd given the entire cycle. so he's got to stay on it. he's got to stay strong and punchy. i think tonight's really exciting. i can't remember a time when -- because it's only three days between the time that joe biden had this momentous victory and this big, big day in terms of

delegates that we really don't have much polling. that we can say it's accurate. we don't really know what's going to happen tonight, and for somebody like me who kind of loves politics, it's like, ooh! this is like christmas. you know? i have no idea how this is going to turn out tonight, but i have a feeling we will no longer be talking about whether or not he gets to 15, that's joe biden, in all of these states, but, rather, will he actually go above 15 and really cut in to any delegate lead that bernie sanders was counting on? >> and john heilemann, we obviously have been talking about the top two candidates right now in the race. >> right. >> joe biden and bernie sanders, but also elizabeth warren and michael bloomberg will play key roles in the delegate counts as well. will they get to 15% in a lot of these states? and poll even more delegates away from bernie sanders? how will elizabeth warren fare?

elizabeth warren fare up in massachusetts? how will bloomberg fare in texas, in california? talk about the difference between these two candidates reaching 15% in a lot of these states and now reaching 15%. not only for their own campaigns but more importantly for the overall race for the democratic nomination? >> right. well, interestingly, just one quick thing, joe, before i do that. everybody should pay attention to one thing happening this morning. joe biden starts his day in california with an event at 10:00 pacific time in oakland. and i would not be surprised to see another endorsement potentially added to the truck of endorsements he has picked up in the last few days in the form of kamala harris, who, that's her hometown. so i'm not, not reporting that i know that to be true, but i would pay attention to that, to that event and at least look out for the possibility it could happen. >> well, do you have any information on that? because we'd heard a little bit about that last night and then a

lot of people close to kamala harris poured cold water on it. others said, no, it might be happening this morning. you have heard anything this morning? >> what you said i've heard over the last couple of days. conflicting reporting on it and why i say right now i would not be surprised to see it happen. i've had people say that they've been trying to make it work. people say it was not going to happen and those that said it was going to happen. i don't know what's going to happen. it's notable joe biden's going to be in oakland at a time, talking about overperforming in california. a last-minute endorsement but given the importance of california are and the how it's so pivotal the way bernie sanders puts away this nomination, every little bit would help joe biden. to your own point. in a lot of places it would be better for joe biden and the biden campaign and the cause, if you will, the moderate cause of trying to slow down bernie

sanders it would be better for them to see mike bloomberg or elizabeth warren achieve viability in many of these states and get some delegates. better for them that that happen, have those people get to 15% than the worst-case scenario, which is warren or particularly bloomberg. because the bloomberg voters are almost exclusively people who would go to joe biden otherwise. the worst case scenario is bloomberg at 10%, 12%, 14% in various states where he doesn't get the viability and doesn't eat into bernie sanders's total but eating away at joe biden's vote total. it's obviously the case no bloomberg voter will be a bernie sanders voter. those are coming straight out of joe biden's column. i think there is a chance that in various states they could help joe biden's cause, and in various states could hurt joe biden's cause. m massachusetts is clearly the one. the reality, we don't know. a very close race. a chance bernie sanders beats elizabeth warren in

massachusetts. in either case, a close race and elizabeth warren will achieve viability there. her presence in the race is helpful to the biden people, because she will at least chip away at what would otherwise be a bigger delegate hall for bernie sanders if she wasn't in the race . >> i still find it remarkable that michael bloomberg's entire purpose for returning, his entire stated intent for returning for the president of the united states as a democrat was to stop bernie sanders. and to stop elizabeth warren. and to stop socialism, and here -- >> and to beat trump. >> and to beat trump. and here he sees, there is now joe biden with a clear shot, and a much better shot, to beat bernie sanders, than michael bloomberg will ever have. and what is he doing on super tuesday? he is -- every vote michael bloomberg gets is not a vote that he takes away from

elizabeth warren, or a vote that he takes away from bernie sanders. it's a vote that he now takes away from the consensus moderate candidate. it's -- if -- if bernie sanders ends up winning this, and in part because bloomberg peeled off votes from joe biden, then michael bloomberg's legacy will be, and isn't politics funny sometimes? >> yeah. >> the takeover of a democratic socialist in the democratic party in 2020. that will all be on michael bloomberg's shoulders. >> the democratic front-runner, bernie sanders, said he was unsurprised by the other candidates motive to exit the race before super tuesday. >> said he got out of the race to try to stop you. >> i am shocked by that. >> are you concerned about the moderates consolidating behind joe biden? >> look it is no secret. i mean, the "washington post"

got 16 articles a day on this that there is a massive effort trying to stop bernie sanders. that's not a secret to anybody in this room, but the corporate establishment is coming together, the political establishment is coming together, and they will do everything. they are really getting nervous. they're working people, they're standing up. >> i know that there are political differences, but i also know that virtually all of amy's support and pete's support understand that we have got to move toward a government which believes in justice, not greed. so to all of amy and pete's millions of supporters, the door is open. come on in! >> that's actually -- that's a great message, and that's a great way, a great way to talk about it, and many times endorsements actually don't matter. people still vote with their hearts and go where they want to

go, but, david, just listening to what bernie sanders said could have been lifted directly from donald trump talking about the republican establishment four years ago. the lobbying establishment four years ago, the corporate establishment four years ago and, yes, even attacks on the "washington post." bern hie has it all. and by the way, me against the world? that is a hell of a strong political message to send out to your supporters, isn't it? >> well, i thought bernie sanders's message in the speech, second clip you showed is great kmp which is i weck people with mayor pete and with amy. what he said from the press conference i don't understand it from a simple math standpoint. he won't be nominee unless he grows his share. pete buttigieg, african-americans part of a corrupt establishment. anybody not with him. that won't help hip win the

nomination fanned he's the nominee he needs all of those people beat the president. he needs to be careful. the second message was the right message. to malign everybody, basically and he's been careful about that. others who supported him have been clear. i'd like to see going forward the second message. which is still a strong message but a welcoming message. if i could joe, on bloomberg. one thing i would say. bloomberg, he'll get some delegates tonight, but say there's a scenario bloomberg gets a tcouple hundred and gets out of the race soon. those delegates are maybe not all go to joe biden but fair to assume a good chunk will. looking at totals look at the delegates other candidates have gotten and how they might reallocate. it isn't purely an the super delegates but the pledged delegates of the candidates who

dropped out go along the way and how those will reallocate. >> tell us about your book. >> thanks for asking. i wrote this really, i hope folks maybe even claire will get an idea or two. probably not, but really for people who have not been deeply involved in politics. maybe have given money but haven't volunteered and capture white the individual effort, smart about creating content and sharing it on social media. signing up to be a volunteer leader in you live in the battleground state. if you don't live in a battleground state all the things you can do to make an impact. this election will be razor thin. democrats despite the compliment you gave earlier, joe, we don't have fox, sinclair or the russians. incumbent president with billions of dollars. we have to rely on a citizen army of people, so to speak and when people go out knock on doors in wisconsin and michigan and talk to two or three people

in an afternoon can think about not a lot. when you think of it in an in a agricultuing aggregate that make as difference. you want to wake up as donald trump walks across mar-a-lago and declares himself a winner and you think, there's more i could have done. >> how different it the process in 2020 just 12 years later? you talk about digital media, talk about the 90% problem, talk a lot about technology in this book. how different is it running a campaign and winning a president's election today than it was 12 years ago? >> i think it's harder in many ways to reach voter because they're on so many different platforms and easier. the average citizen can whip out their phone. a neighbor who voted for trump last time and now switched. take a 30-second individuvideo

and send it out. the strength of the republican infrastructure digitally is massive. so -- we've got a president who is ma nighically obsessed with winning the election. there is no bottom to what he'll do in the most powerful office the world has ever known, and we don't have a counter to that. we've just got citizens. that can stair peopcare people. hue on earth can i make a difference? you alone maybe you can't. y joyou joined by millions of people can. the volunteering we need is greater than obama and greater than '08 because that's what we're up against. >> the new book, "a citizen's guide to beating donald trump." david plouffe, thank you so much. still ahead in june of last year beto o'rourke was on "morning joe" where he said, "we cannot return to the past. we cannot simply be about defeat

be donald trump." that inspired willie. >> that cannot be who we are going forward. >> the former productal candidate joined joe biden and joins us next to talk about it. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. vo: there are talkers

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all right. a live look at burlington, vermont, on this super tuesday, one of my favorite things about burlington, learned this early on after getting into politics. as go burlington, so goes france. >> did you know i worked in burlington for six months? >> did you really? tell me about it. >> governor madeleine -- >> really? ever work in falls church, virginia? >> yes, i did, actually. >> did you really? ever work in charlottesville?

>> yes. i did. not in charlottesville. wish i had. >> tell me a place you haven't worked? >> what does that say about me? joining me from dallas former democrat beto o'rourke. >> congressman, thank you so much for being here. yesterday a very big day for joe biden and i've got to say, if -- if joe biden is a man of character, if he is a man of taste, then the highlight of that day had to be taken into wh wanna burger. is he a true texan this morning. he loved it. i think that said something about his character and his taste. this is a staple of the texas road diet, and we lived on waterburger two years in 2017 and 2018. not only did he love the

cheeseburger with the diced onions and mustard on it, but as you all know, connected like no one else can connect with the people who are there. with the kids, asking them about what grade they're in. what sports they're playingwhat they're excited about, parents listening to their stories. probably took us 15 or 20 minutes to get to the counter because he wanted to stop and meet and listen to and talk with everyone. i think that's just one of the most beautiful things about biden. he genuinely loves people and wants to listen to them and be with them. that's a great quality toy have in a president for this country. >> yeah. by the way, wanna burger is not just a texas road diet it's a pensacola, florida, staple as well. fed my family nothing but those four years straight and look at us. i love them. tall, healthy. not only did they survive, they thrived, my man. they thrived. >> that's right. >> tell me about the endorsement yesterday.

why joe biden? why yesterday? >> i really see three reasons to support joe biden. number one, i think he can beat trump. in fact, i think he is the antithesis of trump. his kindness, his humility and empathy. we watched that town hall in south carolina where reverend thompson's talking about the a & e shooting and biden's response better than any other candidate like him. the ability to transcend the policies and make a human-to-human connection was absolutely profound, and his ability to speak to the healing, that that man or that community needs is an ability to speak to the healing that this very country needs. that's what people in america want right now and biden's the guy to do it. number two, i think he can best

accomplish the ambitious agenda that democrats have set when it comes to health care or climate or immigration. this guy can build coalitions. he can build consensus. he can reach across the aisle when necessary and he's demonstrated an ability during his career to do all of those things and last point here in texas we are but nine seats from claiming a majority in the state house for the first time in 20 years, and if we do that, in a census year, when we redraw the political boundaries in the state, we will no longer have the racist gerrymandering that has made us the lowest voter turnout state in the country and be able to move forward on things we care about. ending gun violence, extending medicaid and medicare in health care and making sure this street leads the world in climate change. and it's what's most important to me and what this country needs at the moment. >> you let us know what you

think joe biden should do, which is keep running and you support him. as someone who's been a candidate himself what do you think mike bloomberg should do? >> i think mike bloomberg should do whatever he wants, and whatever he thinks is in the best interests of this country. i would think, and i haven't spoke ton hn to him, so i don't. if he doesn't perform well today that he bows out tomorrow and fulfills his commitment to spend whatever he thinks is necessary to help the democratic nominee, regardless of who that might be. we just have the most important job before us, and that is defeating donald trump who poses "the" single greatest existential threat to this country, to our democracy, to our elections, to our standing in the world. all of us need to be on the same team and on the same page and i hope that mayor bloomberg if he does not perform well today and other candidates will take that into consideration, get behind a candidate and then do everything

we can to defeat donald trump. >> congressman, willie geist, good to see you back on the show. this beginning to boil down. see what happens after today. down to a binary choice between joe biden and bernie sanders. you said to supporters yesterday that you like senator sanders thinking big, impressed by energy of his supporters and the movement he has established, but what was it about bernie sanders that wouldn't let you support his vision for the country and to go with joe biden? >> yeah. that's right. i think that thanks to bernie we've had a really robust, constructive conversation about health care. ip think bernie's moved the window on what's possible when talking about funding college education. i think he's really forced us to think big and his followers especially young people at the vanguard of his movement have the kind of energy that we need in this country to actually accomplish so many of these objectives, but to perhaps put

it in positive terms, i really do think that only joe biden can beat donald trump. i think only joe biden can help lift those down-ballot candidates in states like mine in texas. it's not just me saying that. i've been listening to members in congress, the state house reps, they want biden at the top of the ticket, and i think only biden has demonstrated a proven capacity to build coalitions and consensus. if we want health care for every and do everything to successfully confront climbed change, more than the idea, more even than our followers we're going to need to build coalitions, and relationships, and joe biden, there's no one better at doing that. not only domestically and with the congress but think about internationally what we're going to have to do, the coalitions we'll have to build. vice president biden has a proven track record of getting that done. so for that reason, he's the candidate i'm supporting. >> and you say, congressman, you're not the only one to say this obviously. only joe biden can beat donald

trump. why do you believe bernie sanders cannot beat donald trump? >> i think bernie sanders can beat donald trump. and i think bernie sanders could be a great president and i think elizabeth warren can do both of those things. so i don't want to the define anybody in contrast to the other candidates by saying this person can only do the following things. i just think that joe biden has the best chance of accomplishing those things and i think it's, democrats, as democrats, we should be really careful about diminishing anybody running because they may well be our nominee and we're going to have to do everything to get behind them and make them successful. i just think biden has the capacity, character, the track reported to accomplish my three criteria, beating donald trump, helping down ballot races and actually accomplishing a very ambitious agenda. >> congressman a very full-throated athletic endorsement of joe biden last night. the arms flailing on the stage,

going back and forth. the full beto o'rourke treatment you gave him, but with regard to senator sanders you just mentioned the word would, you don't want to see anybody diminish any of the other candidates. what do you think? are you now an establishment democrat ganging up on bernie sanders as a result of your endorsement? some of the language he employed in his rails lately indicates he thinks there is a division in the democratic party a portion of the party, that would now include you against him, trying to stop him, as he phrases it. what's the deal? which part are you a part of? >> yeah. i am who i am. same guy, believe in the same things, and just want to be there for my country at this defining moment of truth, and you know, thinking about the candidates. listening to them. this is a decision that i came late to. really wanted to make sure that i made the right one. decided that joe biden's the best person to be at top of the ticket, and to your point, mike i just don't know that it helps

when any of the candidates dismiss the other candidates or their supporters or write them off or write them out. we need as many people on our side going in. certainly every democrat, no matter what your stripe or what part of the party you exist in, but we also need independence, and i'd go as far as to say we need moderate democrats. in 2018 when i took on ted cruz, half a million people vote ford me on the same ballot. if we're going to win in states like texas and i think we must, 38 electoral college votes in the state. imagine if the democratic nominee won those? donald trump is over. but to win texas, you've got have someone who can bring everyone in. so i would just caution all the candidates to make sure that you're talking inclusively about your fellow democrats and your fellow americans for that matter. >> beto, it's claire mccaskill. listen, first of all, kudos to

you for trying to keep our party together, and you've been very careful this morning and very skillful in talking about how we can't demonize anyone. i hope some of that bleeds over to the bernie camp and the bernie supporters because the going to be a problem if they keep demonizing anyone who's not for them. i don't think anybody in america would call you an establishment politician or a corporate interest or institution. you are a candidate who got the ground game in texas. you did it like no one had ever done it before. bloomberg has spent just a lot of money on television. in texas, can you tell us, does he have a ground game? is there a ground game? is there organic support for him on the ground, has he really ginned that up with money? or is that something that is really not there and it's just about the tv ads? >> you know, mike bloomberg has opened i think 19 offices in the state of texas.

i don't think there's been a presidential contender to open even half that number of offices in the state. including in el paso, which he visited or for which i'm grateful. he hired a lot of really good people including people that used to work for me now making two or three time what's they made for me. he'd made an investment in a state, a state you all know is usually an after thought if thought of at all. it's so big. media markets so expensive. presidential contenders just don't play here. for all of that i'm grateful. claire, to your question, i think those are purchased assets in texas, and it doesn't diminish their ef caefficacy bu not as a grass roots effort i see on behalf of joe biden and i see on behalf of bernie sanders. really passionate supporters willing to do the very tough legwork of knocking on one door after another. making one phone call after another. even sending out texts to

connect with the texas voters here. so i don't sense the grass roots support for bloomberg certainly have encountered a lot of people who are supporting him, but i think the real fire, the real energy starts to develop when you've got those grass roots leaders and i really see that in biden's campaign. in sanders, and even in warren's campaign. we travel the state, as you know and are seeing folks supporting all the candidates, but i think you'll see that especially play out for biden and sanders. >> beto o'rourke, great guy. look forward to catching up with you again. live from texas this morning. thanks very much for being on. north carolina is another state voting today and where we find correspondent from pbs yamiche, the theme emerging and the voters sshs that , is that ? explain. >> the panic i've seen is base and conversations with lawmakers and conversations with the

candidate and voters here in north carolina. on one side there's the panic when it comes to state of the race. joe this morning called it ruthless efficiency on the part of the democrats. i say it's forced urgency. before south carolina so many people on the moderate wing of the party that were saying we're letting this go to bernie sanders. we're helping bernie sanders by not being able to coalesce around a candidate. that's why you saw this rush to then go to joe biden to try to give him some support. people saw him as waning. of course, michael bloomberg is complicating that in this state which has 110 delegates. michael bloomberg is coming in third. it's a three-man race it seems in this race. other thing to note, panic on the bernie sanders wing of the party. you have bernie sanders talking about possible conspiracy theories essentially around whether or not democrats are trying to take him out. emails going out from allies of bernie sanders, not the campaign itself, saying that democrats are trying to steal the race from him. a surrogate for bernie sanders said joe biden was a mercenary

of donald trump. what you're seeing is heightened agracive language on the bernie sanders campaign. panic in that and panic on the actual process of voting here in north carolina. state election officials tell me they're preparing, trying to protect their election as much as possible. new voting machines here and on top of mind of these voters is the possible interference in the election. we saw eight federal and law enforcement agencies yesterday put out a joint statement saying they're warning people about foreign actors trying to sway voters, and voters tell me they are also really, really worried about the fact that maybe the results of super tuesday will have some of that foreign interference on people's minds, that people will think about it as they vote. >> yeah. a good joint statement, i thought, coming from the federal government. quite like, i'm glad that they've at least started sending that out to voters. yamiche, you had talked about concern on the sanders side to talk about a possible

conspiracy. we started picking up yesterday and the day before, of course, attacks against the media. especially the "washington post" by bernie sanders, and even reporters inside the press pen said they were starting to get booed and starting to get attacked verbally at least by bernie sanders supporters. is this a growing concern among members of the press or is this a growing concern among democrats that you talk to that there's -- it's certainly no moral equivalency between what happens at a trump rally, but at the same time, concern that there are these strains of supporters that are following bernie sanders around, and at this point he's not discouraging it? >> there is concern that bernie sanders in a language he's used especially when it comes to the "washington post" and other national news organizations calling them corporate media,

making the case they have some sort of agenda against him that he's feeding into the fuel that his supporters have to try to really be angry at the media and some people compare that, of course, to donald trump who has called a lot of the media, branded them fake news. a feeling there. of course, no moral equivalency there but this idea the candidate himself, bernie sanders hashes some responsibility to say, look, these are people doing their jobs we shouldn't be booing them. instead we're seeing an idea they're working with this moderate democratic party to probably try to take me down. as the days go on that will be an untenable situation and bernie sanders may have to say something maybe even at a rally if his supporters continue to boo reporters. that, of course, is really behavior that mimics and looks so much like donald trump's supporters he's going to have to say something. >> yamiche alcindor, thank you for your joining us.

and the taliban gives more cause to a questionable newly signed peace deal. that's our conversation, next. i remember thinking about things i did and wondering if that was the last time i was going to do that thing. coming to cancer treatment centers of america, they treat the whole person. everything is here. imaging, infusion. i don't have to go anywhere else.

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and i'll say this for the taliban. they're great fighters. you know, obviously they're great fighters. all you have to do is ask the soviet union. are they great fighters? they are great fighters, but they're tired also. this is 19 years. 19 years. >> that was president trump last weekend at cpac. hours after the u.s. signed a peace deal with the taliban. cracks are now starting to appear in the agreement to help end america's longest running war. a spokesman for the taliban told the afp that they would resume fighting against afghan security forces ending the brief truce just before signing the deal.

the taliban said its fighters "will not attack foreign forces but our operations will continue against the kabul administration forces." also yesterday north korea fired two short-range missiles off its east coast towards the sea of japan according to south korea's military in a sign that the reclusive nation is resuming weapons tests after a brief pause. south korean officials believe yesterday's missile launch was part of a military drill that north korea began last friday. coinciding with the one-year anniversary of president trump's summit with north korean leader kim jong-un in hanoi, vietnam. well, that went well. joining us now columnist and associate editor for the "washington post" david ignatius. >> david, here we have on the same day both the taliban and kim jong-un. >> oosh.

>> making donald trump look foolish on the world stage. my words, not yours. but certainly also playing into hard-liners deep suspicions like john bolton and most of the republican establishment that he's been far too generous with both of these entities, both of these american enemies, and he's now paying for it. >> well, what's striking that john bolton jumped in on both north korea and on the afghanistan agreement to say that he thought the administration had been too mild. on afghanistan, which i think for the moment is the most important. this is a serious effort to try to end out of longest war. the problems in this agreement were baked in. it was known from the beginning that the taliban was not going to stop fighting the afghan government. that the truce, in effect, the withdrawal agreement, was with the united states. on march 10, another week,

negotiations between the afghanistan government of preside, the president of afghanistan, think that this will crater and we'll know this deal was fundamentally flawed and then president trump has a real decision. does he keep pulling u.s. troops out even as the situation gets more chaotic on the ground in afghanistan or not? north korea, joe and mika, honestly, i think the thing we should probably be focused on most is the spread of coronavirus in that country where health care is so primitive. signals from north korea and even a statement from china yesterday warning that this is very serious, that the chinese said this is so bad we ask the world to think about relieving sanctions in some areas because north korea may be hurting so much. >> so let's go back to the afghanistan issue. you talked about future

negotiations between the afghan government and the taliban and said that's where the real negotiating begins. if that's the real negotiating, then what was donald trump doing? was that, again, more stagecraft? he was actually talking about releasing thousands of taliban prisoners? obviously that would be something that should cause the afghan government grave concerns. >> joe, our negotiator has been working on this deal for more than a year. it has all kinds of contradictions, as i said, as with many diplomatic agreements, issues that are baked in and not fully resolved. prisoners is one of them. the deal says, the deal between the u.s. and taliban says that 5,000 taliban prisoners will be released in exchange for 1,000 afghan government prisoners. the problem is that the prisoners are actually held by the afghan government. so they're under gadi's control and talking last night with u.s.

commanders reviewing this, they said this is an attempt by gadi to get leverage to have a stronger position in the negotiations. the bottom line, joe, for me is that when i talk to our commanders in afghanistan, they have decided that this is a risk worth taking. that they think it's important to try to reduce the number of troops, reduce our commitment. this war's going on too long. and so getting it started. is that process going to work? secretary esper, secretary of defense, said it would be a long, bumpy, winding road. okay pap road that goes off a cliff or barely stay on? and i'm watching. don't want to declare this dead yet. >> it's willie. i want to ask about coronavirus as well and the world's response to it. obviously, focus in asia, borne in china. they're handle it their way, japan handling it their way, shutting down schools and travel

restricted around the world. major global companies restricting travel shutting down supply chains. it has an obvious ripple effect. what's your sense talking to people around the world about america's readiness, america's coordination with those globa n capitals handling the coronavirus? >> i thought it was significant financial markets responded positively to news yesterday that the u.s. would join with g7 finance ministers, world central banks for coordinated discussions we know from past experience helped settle anxieties and markets. it was true in 2008, 2009, true with the asian financial crisis. every one of these i covered. you need to have this coming together of leadership in the financial system. we'll see how markets do today. the world looks to the united states for leadership in these areas. our public health system, structure is thought to be very

strong. i must say the fact that the cdc had not provided test kits so there could be clear measurement of the spread of this disease in the u.s. when that kind of testing was going on around the world in other countries has been a surprise. but again, this is one of the moments where we all just want to hope people pull together on the financial side and the health care side. >> david ignatius, thank you very much. still ahead, the state of the race this super tuesday after amy klobuchar, pete buttigieg, and tom steyer all drop out. as we go to break, a lot going on at knowyourvalue.com. 50 over 50. impart neri impart -- i am partnering with forbes. sheinelle jones shares the woman that changed the trajectory of her life.

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so the question we have to ask ourselves which is a terribly, terribly serious question, which campaign is the best campaign to defeat trump? >> we're better than this president, so get up! let's take back this country. we're the united states of america, and there's not a single thing we cannot do if we

do it together. >> and then there were two. not that long ago the field of presidential candidates looked like this. more than 20 contenders vying for the democratic nomination. today on super tuesday it looks more like this, effectively a two person race for joe biden and bernie sanders, with elizabeth warren and michael bloomberg still in the mix. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." super tuesday, march 3rd. along with joe, willie and me, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, msnbc national affairs analyst, co-host of show time's "the circus" john heilemann joins us. >> and obviously we're going to be talking with steve kornacki. he is going to breakdown the numbers, let us know what's happening with super tuesday tonight. best predictions, best case scenario for bernie and for joe

biden, things are moving quickly on the ground. there was a poll out that shows how quickly things are moving. also, steve gave such a moving tribute to chris matthews, we'll talk with him next block. >> we will move into fast moving developments on joe biden's numerous high profile endorsements, and we have the latest on the coronavirus as more testing confirms more new cases in the u.s. total number of confirmed cases is now 110, including the first positive tests in georgia and new hampshire. experts warn that number will grow as more people are tested, revealing just how much the virus was able to spread undetected. four more deaths have been reported in washington state, bringing the death toll in the

u.s. to six. the number of confirmed cases in china appears to be slowing down, but the virus is developing fast across the globe. here's what the director of national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, dr. anthony fauci, told correspondent richard engle. >> we are dealing with an evolving situation, clearly an emerging infectious disease that has now reached outbreak proportions, likely pandemic proportions. if you look at multiple definitions what a pandemic is, the fact is this is multiple sustained transmissions of a highly infectious agent in multiple regions of the globe. >> that's pretty strong. we're going to have more on that, and the white house response to the virus just ahead. but we begin with super tuesday. that's today. 14 states hold their primaries from california to maine, plus a

caucus in american somoa. about a third of the delegates for the presidential nomination. california has the largest prize with 415 delegates, followed by texas with 228, and north carolina with 110. also a big test for mike bloomberg who's on the ballot first time today after skipping the first four contests. and a dam break for joe biden. three former rivals for the nomination came out in support of the former vice president yesterday. pete buttigieg, amy klobuchar, and beto o'rourke. just a day after ending his presidential bid, pete buttigieg appeared at a campaign stop with biden where he announced his endorsement and biden compared buttigieg to his late son beau.

>> you know, whether i ran for president we made it clear that the whole idea was rallying the country together to defeat donald trump and to win the era for the values we share. that was always a goal that was much bigger than me becoming president. it was in that same goal that i am delighted to endorse and support joe biden for president. >> i don't think i've ever done this before, but he reminds me of my son beau. and i know that may not mean much to most people, but to me that's the highest compliment i could give any man or woman. i look at pete during the debates, i would think, you know, that's a beau because he has such enormous character. such intellectual capacity, such a commitment to other people. folks, i can't tell you how much it means to me that he would

step up and endorse me. i just can't tell you how much i appreciate it because i promise you, you're going to end up over your lifetime seeing a hell of a lot more of pete than you are of me. >> later in the evening, senator amy klobuchar who ended her campaign yesterday and beto o'rourke both joined biden at a rally where they, too, delivered their endorsements. >> it is up to us, all of us, to put our country back together, to heal this country and then to build something even greater. i believe we can do this together. that is why today i am ending my campaign and endorsing joe biden for president. >> we need somebody who can bring us together and heal us. we need somebody who can re-establish the moral authority of the united states. we need somebody who will fight

for democracy here and abroad because democracy is under attack here and abroad. we need joe biden. >> biden also gained several other notable endorsements, including former senate majority leader harry reid, and susan rise, former national security adviser. >> it was, willie, incredible day in politics yesterday. and yes, a big day for joe biden. but let's not forget that frontrunner, bernie sanders. he's still the frontrunner. but this is effectively, there's been a narrowing, a real focus and in the democratic party it comes down to the question that bernie said in that huge rally, and that is who is the best candidate, what is the best campaign to take on and beat donald trump. this morning it is game on.

>> game on. you can't imagine a better 48 hours for vice president joe biden, winning south carolina by 30 points, dominating among african-american voters that delivered that victory for him, and picking up all of the endorsements you laid out and that we heard from pete buttigieg, amy klobuchar, beto o'rourke, harry reid, mark kelly in arizona waiting to make his endorsement. this is what coalescing looks like. john howman, the question will be today on super tuesday, we have 1,357 delegates handed out, we only handed out 155 so far in the first four states. the question will be is this a south carolina story for joe biden or is this now a national story for joe biden? >> it is the question, and we know several things. we know that the biden campaign was effectively dead going into south carolina, and biden's victory is a combination of his own grit and jim clyburn's endorsement, so when i say they were effectively dead, they were

broke. the investments weren't happening in super tuesday states. they were not on the air in the 14, 15 states and territories. they were -- they didn't have organizations on the ground in most places. that was a matter of necessity, not a matter of choice, they just didn't have the resources, right? so they looked up with this incredible victory saturday that exceeded anyone's expectations, now they have a narrow window, the calendar is what it is. they have a window that's too small to take advantage of money that is pouring across into the biden campaign. you can't get on the air, convert millions in advertising in 48 hours, can't make it happen. certainly can't get boots on the ground. so how does that end, there's a matter of california, texas, early voting means large percentages of votes were banked. in california, started voting when iowa caucuses were taking place. those are bad things for joe biden, they're all challenges he

faces. as much momentum as he has out of south carolina and that's real, the wave of earned media he is getting, endorsements, everything. all of it is real but limited in effect on this set of races because the window is so close, so narrow. what now happens? we'll see today. in a normal year with real resources, real investments, this kind of momentum, you would see biden, certainly in states with demographics have electorates that look like south carolina, historical pattern would mean he would win overwhelmingly, decisively in places like alabama and tennessee and north carolina and virginia. whether that will actually happen today because of the thing we were just talking about, we just don't know the answer to that. there's the other interesting factor in the middle, the bloomberg factor. during a lot of the time the vote has been going on, mike bloomberg was doing better, it was before the debate collapse in vegas, and bloomberg was banking vote in a lot of places when he was on the rise with

pure advertising strategy. bloomberg is clearly falling, biden is clearly rising, but the fall and rise are happening in this period where again a lot of votes were banked, bloomberg is still on the air and all the rest. we'll see. everybody expects joe biden to have a good day today, but how good, is it good enough. the key question, is it good enough to stop bernie sanders from bringing in so many delegates today that the delegate lead over joe biden, which he will have a delegate lead, does he have a delegate lead over joe biden tomorrow that's insurmountable. >> mike, what does a good day look like for joe biden, the state of california with delegates is a place bernie sanders has been leading and leading big a long time. to some voters, look what happened in south carolina, do they change their minds which way they go? maybe. and as john says, the bloomberg factor, the moment we have been waiting for to see what do voters think of mike bloomberg, they've seen him twice

underperform at debates, are they going to pull the lever for him. if they don't, what happens tomorrow morning to mike bloomberg if he doesn't get payback on all the investment. >> the interesting thing that john said that's accurate, including i think the most important aspect of it, the votes that have already been banked by early voting, but interestingly enough if you buy the theory that ordinary people sort of follow the iowa caucus results, early beginnings of the campaign in new hampshire, but suddenly after saturday in south carolina it was as if joe biden had made his entry into the presidential race. massive amounts of free media that he got on saturday, sunday, yesterday, and including this morning, free media. what happened in free media? joe biden looked like an ordinary, empathetic, humble,

compassionate human being, striking contrast to the president of the united states. i think a lot of people paid attention to it, they saw him, they like him. they liked him anyway, they liked him more after they see him in these settings. what happens today, nobody knows what will happen today, but i would expect that he would have a much better day today than he dreamed of having last friday. >> still ahead on "morning joe," we go to the white house with how the president is prepping for super tuesday. first, here is bill karins. >> this is one of the rare occasions in our history where a major city is hit by a strong tornado overnight in nashville, tennessee. these are new pictures just in, just east of nashville area, you can see look at the homes, roofs are torn off, tree splintered halfway up, no tops to trees left. they looked like they were well built homes. hopefully all these people got

to basements. there were six fatalities, two in nashville, three in areas 90 miles east of nashville, one 90 miles west of nashville. it wasn't just nashville area, but nashville was significantly hit by looks like an ef 3. here's the details. here is nashville and the tornado warning, they had ten minutes of warning before the tornado hit. the sirens were going off, at 1:00 a.m. in the morning, everyone running to basements. this is donaldson christian academy, elementary school. you can see the building, this is before and this is the picture that came out this morning. just seeing new pictures here, the school is almost completely gone. wiped away. a lot of this was a brick structure. this was a very strong tornado at certain portions of its life. let's give you the rest of the st super tuesday forecast. rain in virginia, possibly to the north. no problems in areas of the west. salt lake city, denver, california, fine.

the south will have additional thunderstorms in alabama. we clear it out in nashville after heavy morning rain that followed up storms, and we'll see light rain in areas of vermont, massachusetts, maine. again, biggest problems are in nashville area. we have gotten word from the secretary of state, 18 polling sites are closed that people were supposed to be voting at today. they'll open an hour late. polls are still going to close at the normal time, 7:00 p.m. local time in nashville and wilson county area. it has implications for people getting out to vote at the polls, they have to find new voting locations. we'll give you updates through the day and of course here on "morning joe." be right back. in august 1619, a ship appeared on this horizon, steve

stevewhich of your devices are protected by daily security updates? daily security updates... daily? i don't know. the only thing... i'm struggling with this. some providers you have to manually download updates to each device. comcast business securityedge updates every 10 minutes to help keep your connected devices protected against new ransomware, malware and phishing threats. every 10 minutes feels pretty good. get secure, reliable internet and voice for an amazing price. call today. comcast business. beyond fast. . president trump has been following the democrats to the primary states with rallies of his own, last night continuing the trend in charlotte, north

carolina, one of the states that votes today. here's the political analyst in chief. >> it is being rigged against, it is sad, being rigged against crazy bernie. crazy bernie is going to go crazy, crazy. i think crazy bernie will be more crazy when he sees what they're doing. i called it out a long time ago. >> joe, he seems rattled, looking at tweets, going after bloomberg and biden, going after the press, he is trying to bring up old videos, you know, concocting ways the candidates look like they've said something terrible. i mean, there's an all on onslaught to take on the emerging candidate. >> we talked about this for some time, mika, it is fascinating how much -- >> paranoid. >> -- donald trump fears, is petrified politically of joe biden. he obviously is seeing internal polls that he must be doing

badly in a lot of swing states against joe biden because again, joe biden was a man donald trump feared so much, he allowed himself to be impeached over joe biden, trying to dig up dirt from a foreign leader in exchange for military funding. only the third president in u.s. history to be impeached and he did it to try to stop joe biden. now he goes to rallies, he rants endlessly about the democrats trying to steal the process from bernie sanders. he is again obviously really shaken and disturbed by the prospect of facing joe biden. >> that's the backdrop, he was impeached because of his behavior around joe biden. let's bring in white house reporter for associated press jonathan lemire. besides the rallies and worrying about joe biden, he has the coronavirus creeping into his presidency. has the strategy there, are

there plans to try to focus addressing the virus as well as he is dealing with super tuesday candidates, jonathan? >> good morning. the president is proceeding on two tracks. start with politics first. as you said, he was in a rally last night in north carolina, hitting some of the same notes he has been on for a few weeks, trying to sew disenchantment with bernie sanders supporters, alleging the party is trying to steal the primary away from the vermont senator, and last night he did so much to suggest to endorse that. buttigieg, klobuchar, and o'rourke were behind biden. from the rally stage, he took shots at all the major candidates, joe biden in particular where he suggested that biden was sort of feeble minded, made a number of mistakes, what state he was in, what date, suggesting he was for

a clip going around, biden was talking about super thursday instead of super tuesday, an innocent mistake the vice president cleaned up. the idea that joe biden was not up for the job. he made fun of mike bloomberg for the money he spent with very little results, used the racial slur, native american slur pocahontas to describe warren. it is the biden thing that's the heart of this. as joe pointed out correctly, it was his fears of joe biden and biden's ability to get upper midwest voters, white voters that may have backed barack obama in 2008 or 2012, then supported donald trump in 2016, the president is banking on again, he fears that biden has the best chance to steal away. it was his fear of that that led him to be indeed impeached. we're seeing now as biden staged a remarkable come back the last few days, the president is focused on that again, his aides

are previewing that once more we'll start to hear about hunter biden, ukraine, inappropriate behavior as he ramps up attacks, thinking biden might emerge if not the favorite from today, certainly as a co-favorite, narrowing it to a two person race with bernie sanders. >> jonathan lemire, thank you. coming up, an important update on the coronavirus and threat of global pandemic. we'll start with the latest in the u.s., up next on "morning joe." we made usaa insurance for members like martin.

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hi.aria ramirez? mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... maria ramirez. to help more employees achieve their dreams. 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. of all the television personalities i've ever known as a viewer, chris is the most human. and i say that as one of the highest compliments i can pay to someone. i'm sorry. i think you got him. and i think he got you. and all of us are going to miss him. >> what a moving, moving night last night, and when steve kornacki called chris matthews the most human tv personality he had ever known, steve of course said that was meant as his highest compliment, and it should have been.

chris didn't measure his words. he was a man without guile. you knew what chris believed and why he believed it. he was a former capitol hill cop who always wore his heart on his sleeve, and through the years it occasionally got tip's favorite guy, tip's go to guy, in trouble. but also made chris matthews a beloved figure and made his show "hardball" the political institution that i think more than any other show in the past quarter century defined our political times. all too human? yeah, i guess so. but those of us still playing or reporting on the "hardball" of politics could stand a bit more of this humanity these days, even if it sometimes reveals our flaws, exposes our weaknesses, and yes, even shows our blind spots. chris gave us his all every night, and that's why we were

wiping tears from our eyes last night, and why we're going to miss him terribly tonight and every night when 7:00 rolls around. thank you, chris, for all you've done, and steve kornacki at the big board, thank you for what you said about chris last night. >> appreciate that, joe, and your words there. i think you flushed out what i was trying to get at with chris. that's the word i was trying to think of what to say on the air, a word kept coming back to me over and over, human. human in terms of the relationship with the audience. that's the thing i would see, you all saw it, too. every time he was around groups of people, public settings, i know a lot of people, myself included could be standoffish, and you see the complete opposite with chris. he loved people, they loved him. i just saw that relationship up close and personal. it always struck me, always made

an impression on me. i think human one of the good ones, you know? >> yeah. you know, it is not even 12 hours after his resignation, sort of still processing what has happened, reading a lot. but i'm sad. chris has passion, his joe infectious, and it was backed up by political gut unmatched in our world, and you can't imitate that, can't replace that, you can't replace that. he shared that with us every night. as a woman, i want to say this, i loved working with chris matthews. i really enjoyed being his colleague. and i really, i understand the important changes around this so-called cancel culture. they're important, they're hard, they're painful, and in many cases they are necessary. i do wonder at this point, though, as we move forward and we look at this and what

happened here, if there might be a better way for all of us in the future where we work through this and get to a better place. for now, i'll just say i'll miss him every night at 7:00 p.m., but i remain his friend. coming up on "morning joe," texas was the center of the political conversation yesterday, with joe biden getting a big boost there from a number of former rivals. we look at the dynamics playing out in that state next on "morning joe." you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from any one else.

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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. which of your devices are protected

by daily security updates? daily security updates... daily? i don't know. the only thing... i'm struggling with this. some providers you have to manually download updates to each device. comcast business securityedge updates every 10 minutes to help keep your connected devices protected against new ransomware, malware and phishing threats. every 10 minutes feels pretty good. get secure, reliable internet and voice for an amazing price. call today. comcast business. beyond fast. i was shocked to hear, three, four weeks ago, said how many people a year die from the flu, in this country i think 36 or 37,000 people. i'm saying wow. nobody knew that information. >> president trump met with top pharmaceutical company representatives at the white house yesterday where they kept explaining to him why it's going

to take some time to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus. >> when do you think you can have the vaccine, have it, start providi producing it now. >> we're producing it now. proteins take longer than some of the other ways, it is a technology that works. we could be ready for clinic in a year, depending on the nature of how the epidemic goes or doesn't go, you know, we would, and with help of the agencies of this country, perhaps -- >> we have antibodies in dishes, we are screening them, selecting them. anticipate if all goes well, 200,000 doses per month can come out of the factory in new york starting in august. unique thing about our technology. >> you would be able to use the vaccine that early? >> depends what we see, how we work closely with the fda, which we will do.

the fda already reached out to us. we have to work closely -- >> the process would be faster? >> we are working on the material, as soon as we get phase one bills out of nih, we start phase two right away. >> what is the timing? >> get the phase one start very soon now, just waiting for green light. the product is at the nih. then it would be a few months to get human data that will allow us to start phase two. >> in the next few months, you think you can have a vaccine. >> you wouldn't have a vaccine, a vaccine to go to testing. >> and how long would that take? >> a few months before we get to phase two. >> talking within a year. he is talking a few months. >> we will be there in june.

>> in a couple of months. i like the sound of a couple months. when you say june, not a completed vaccine. >> a vaccine ready for testing phase one. >> ready to use when? ready to use? next season? >> assuming the vaccine is tolerated, safe and efficacious, i think the question is how we get the fda to expedite as fast as possible to a fast track program to get through phase two and testing. >> quickly. the same vaccine could not work. you take a volume i did fsolid wouldn't have impact on corona? >> probably no. >> wow. joining us, infectious disease doctor, senior scholar at the johns hopkins center for health

security, thank you so much for coming on the show. seems the president was having a hard time understanding the timing of when a vaccine might become available, whether or not the flu vaccine could be used for it, which it can't. what are we looking at for realistic time line for vaccine and how does that effect those today? >> the vaccine, the development time is measured in years. it is not something we'll see for 12 to 18 months. we are going at record speed, getting to clinical trials, that's not going to impact people sick now. it is important work to do, but it is not going to be some rescue during the first wave of outbreak of the virus. >> talk about the first wave which the vaccine will have no impact on, talking about a vaccine available in 12 to 18

months, not a few months, which the president kept thinking that's what he heard. what are we expecting in terms of numbers rising as testing gets out into localities, and i'll double up and say how long will it take to get testing across the entire country. >> we're going to see case counts increase substantially all over the united states as more test kits come online, more state departments are able to test. we'll see more mild cases diagnosed, which is good. we'll understand where the spread of virus is, understand what community spread means and get communities ready when they see cases are popping up all over. i think it will take some time for complete testing at all hospitals, commercial laboratories. months to get where we need to with testing. we need to test like we do for influenza, need it in the hands

of clinicians, be able to tell people when they have this. we will find more mild cases that bring down the ratio. >> willie geist, appreciate you bringing expertise to the conversation. i want to put to you a question we asked dr. campbell last hour, how you're looking at this. there's some panic setting in among some people, runs on water and food at grocery stores. your clear eyed view how americans should look at coronavirus today. >> i don't think they should panic. i think they have to be alert to what's going on in the community. they have to realize most cases of this will be mild. most people will recover. the fact is this is going to be very contagious. this is going to be something that every community has to deal with. it will be troublesome for hospitals that work near capacity all the time to deal with influx of patients. many will be mild, but it will still be disruptive to functions at a hospital, certain municipalities may cancel public

events, change policies around schools. all of that you have to be prepared for. this isn't cataclysmic but disruptive, similar to 2009 with the h1n1. >> if you could, could you go over the easiest, most understood means of trying to avoid contracting the virus, simplest things available to ordinary citizens, and the other aspect is is it true or accurate to say small children, young children, are less likely to contract this than older adults? >> sure. so the first thing is there's simple measures to decrease your chance of getting this virus. wash your hands a lot, touch your face less. if you are somebody that's elderly or has other medical conditions, maybe reconsider large crowds or travel to certain places of the world that

have high densities of cases. there's not a vaccine, it is simple stuff you do during flu season. regarding children, it is not that they're not getting infected, they're not represented as severe cases. most testing is being done almost exclusively on patients that require hospitalization or need to go to the doctor, so young kids are not getting tested. we know they can get infected, but they do well, don't need hospital level care. it is not that they don't get it, they have mild cases, true with many cases like chickenpox, for example. >> why is it they do very well with it as you just put it? >> the fact that a child's immune system isn't as robust, a lot of symptoms are when your immune system reaction to what's infecting you. the other is we know there are four other coronaviruses that cause 25% of common colds, and children get many more common

colds than adults do. maybe there's cross immunity because they're getting infected all the time with other coronaviruses in daily life, they might be protected. important question to answer. >> as a scholar at one of our premier medical institutions in the country, can you explain why the united states didn't have adequate test kits available when other countries had them available and ready to use? >> it has been a major short coming in response, the fact that test kits were not available. i think there were missteps at the cdc pushing it out, there was a flawed test kit. i think that when they made an emergency declaration, public health emergency, it paradoxically made it harder for labs, state health labs, hospital labs or commercial labs to make their own test, they had to go through emergency use process. before when there isn't emergency declaration, you can make your own test at your

facility. that had to be fixed. it took bureaucratic wrangling. now it is fixed and hopefully we'll see a proliferation of tests. >> i know the first case in china was december 1. had the u.s. government working worked on this then, would we have tests in place? >> i think if we would have known about this december 1, remember, the chinese didn't report this to the world health organization for several days after that. we didn't know what was going on in china. the virus was spreading certifica probably from november. that virus had a major head start, now we've been playing catch up for some time. >> thank you very much for being on with us this morning. up next, polls in several states are beginning to open on super tuesday. we discuss where things stand as the moderate lane gets less crowded. keep it here on "morning joe." as a caricature artist,

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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.

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] we all love joe, and i am going to treat joe and jill right. we're taking them to a world class meal tonight, there's a what a burger less than a half mile from here. >> not only did he love the

cheeseburger with diced onions, he connected like no one else can connect with people that were there, with the kids, asked them what grade they're in, what sports they're playing, what they're excited about, with their parents, took us 15, 20 minutes to get to the counter, he wanted to stop, meet, listen to, talk with everyone. that's one of the most beautiful things about biden, he genuinely loves people. >> that's true. beto o'rourke on our show earlier today. joining us from austin, texas, professor at the lind on b johnson school of public affairs at the university of texas. msnbc contributor victoria defrances co. and publisher of real clear politics, tom bevin. victoria, i start with you. how is it looking there, what are you hearing about bernie sanders and how is mike bloomberg playing into the conversation these days? >> right.

there's a huge bloomberg factor here, mika. what we have been seeing in the polls the last two, three weeks, biden and bernie neck and neck with sanders with a little lead. the big thing again is bloomberg. there was a poll done late last week that showed the support that biden gets with bloomberg in the race. hypothetically, if you took bloomberg out of the race, joe biden is the clear frontrunner with 31% of the vote in texas. with bloomberg in, it is neck and neck with him and bernie, and bloomberg getting about 17% of the vote. this is a huge thing, mika. he has only been in texas the past six to eight weeks. bloomberg has been huge. the other thing i want to point out, don't sleep on warren. warren has been gaining support slowly but surely, and what we saw is that when folks are asked who the second choice was in texas, there was mayor pete and then there was warren. so for all the folks supporting

mayor pete, once he dropped off, you see the bulk of the votes go to warren. biden has good momentum after south carolina, but we can't ignore the other two elephants in the room, namely bloomberg and warren and obviously sanders. >> tom, you watch the polling closely. here we are, it is time to vote, refreshing your page, trying to keep track of what's happening here. how are you looking at tonight? where should we be focused in onto see where the race is headed? >> the data we have gotten, again, small sample sizes, snap polls in some states, trying to gauge what biden's momentum looks like, he's in good shape in southern states, the key to this is california. latest polls we have gotten, he popped to 25%. warren at 16. just above that viability threshold. if they can keep sanders, i mean, couple days ago, week ago, we looked at sanders walking away with 350 plus delegates out of california. if he is not able to do that, if

biden can siphon off some delegates, that makes this a real race. >> in early polling, biden wasn't viable in california. that likely to change now after south carolina. >> i think that's the question. seems to me the central question is california and are there four candidates that's viable or one. the problem is we're shooting in the dark with polling, but what's the sense you have of that, and what about the early vote in california, seems like another big question mark. >> good question. we don't know. some of the latest polls, people registered votes, even for folks no longer on the ballot. i think the key is bloomberg, whether he can reach viability. he is on the cusp in polls. if bloomberg manages to underpeunde underperform, that could be a big lift for joe biden. and the other thing, too, bloomberg still has money, biden hasn't spent a lot in these

states, his momentum versus his organization. >> professor, i'm curious, i saw congresswoman escobar endorsed joe biden yesterday, you saw the clyburn effect in south carolina. i know she's popular in a heavily latino congressional district around el paso. will that have an impact on bernie's latino support as it stood before yesterday, will she be able to move people over to the biden camp? >> if i were a betting woman i would say only very modestly. veronica escobar is a superstar but a relatively newcomer on the political scene. we have known her from state politics in texas, nationally not as well known and outside of el paso as well. however, she has name recognition. i think it is more additive effect.

you saw sylvia garcia, another latino elected, veronica escobar, which is helping biden, but we can't lose sight of momentum that sanders has with his ground game of latinos. one thing i want to throw in, we have been talking about california, but the key piece about texas that i want to highlight, even though we have fewer delegates than california, we're probably going to know the results of super tuesday results tonight, whereas with california, we may not know. so the big impact with texas isn't just the delegate count, but the potential momentum it provides to candidates going forward, whether it is biden or bernie or sanders. this is a key take away for tonight from texas. >> and you mentioned elizabeth warren, she thanked pete buttigieg and amy klobuchar for running spirited races during a rally in california, but at the

same time warren emphasized to make change, this country needs someone who has not yet been in the white house. >> i also want to congratulate joe biden on his win in south carolina. i respect his many years of service. but no matter how many washington insiders tell you to support him, nominating fellow washington insider will not meet this moment. nominating a man who says we do not need any fundamental change in this country will not meet this moment. and nominating someone who wants to restore the world before donald trump when the status quo has been leaving more and more people behind for decades is a big risk for our party and for

our country. >> claire mccaskill, talk about that and mayor bloomberg saying he's in it for the long run. >> well, i think that will be determined probably by what happens tonight. and tom, i'm curious, your side is known for compilation of polling, are you a little nervous that polling is maybe not so reliable because of what's happened, are you sweating that he will say the real clear politics average was way wrong? >> haven't seen this flux this quickly take place maybe ever, so a lot of polls in the field are just useless now, you have to throw them out. ones we have, as i mention, looking at a single poll, two polls and small sample sizes. yeah, makes me nervous. don't know where the vote will go, how this will shake out. i think we should be able to discount things, if polling or averages aren't spot on.

we have excuse. >> the moment where the real politics average is don't trust it. >> truth is, there hasn't been polling since south carolina. >> there's no time. yeah. >> mika? >> we shall see. thank you both for being on the show this morning. this news before we go. governor andrew cuomo announced a second confirmed case of coronavirus in new york. it is a man in his 50s, in westchester county, just outside new york city. that suggests it was spreading in communities not known for hot spots. cuomo said the second patient is hospitalized. willie, this is going to be an ongoing story, a, the economy, b, the virus itself. there will be cases like this every day. i'm just concerned, a, of pandemic, but equally about a panic. >> i think that's what the doctor we had on was trying to

tamp down a little bit, that this is not yet time for panic, clearly it is spreading and clearly it is contagious. keeping a close eye on it. mika, send our thoughts to nashville, middle tennessee is hurting. a huge tornado ripped through there overnight. >> absolutely. >> incredible damage, schools wiped out that were standing a few hours ago. we're thinking of nashville today. >> thank you. that does it for us. stephanie ruhle picks up coverage right now. >> thanks so much, mika, thanks, joe. hi there, i am stephanie ruhle. it is super tuesday. march 3rd. here's what's happening this morning. these are the headlines people across the nation are waking up to as polls open and voters get ready to weigh in on the 2020 race. the state of the race is changing by the hour. after suspending their campaigns, pete buttigieg and amy klobuchar officially endorse former vice president joe biden in