a new samsung galaxy s20 ultra. xfinity mobile. click, call or visit a store today. keeping watching us all day and night, here is chris jansing in austin, texas. chris? >> andrea, thank you so much. hello, i am chris jansing, coming to you live from austin, texas. this is one of the critical states out of super tuesday unlike anything we've seen in memory. the results with the power to virtually crown a nominee or hurdle the race towards a contested convention or a lot of possibilities in between. 14 states are having primaries, 1344 pledge delegates are up for grabs in a race where 1991 delegates will lock up the nomination. frontrunner senator bernie sanders and former vice

president joe biden are ready to slug it out for the delegates. sanders leads in california and texas, moderate democrats are trying to slow his momentum and getting behind joe biden. less than 24 hours before voting began, pete buttigieg, amy klobuchar, and beto o'rourke all gave enthusiastic endorsements to former vp joe biden at events in texas last night, even as sanders was rallying his troops with his own take on the moderates coalescing. >> the political establishment is getting nervous. and they look at rallies like this in st. paul and say what's going on here? >> democrats want a nominee who's a democrat. a lifelong democrat. a proud democrat.

an obama biden democrat. join us. >> our government must be based on principles of economic justice, social justice, racial justice, environmental justice. so to all of amy and pete's millions of supporters, the door is open, come on in! >> i think, you know, that's a beau because he has such enormous character. 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 it is the highest compliment i can give any man or woman.

>> and on this big day with so much at stake and the uncertainty building, even more uncertainty in tennessee where we frankly just don't know what impact destructive tornadoes might have, we're also going to give you a look at the way they're dealing with coronavirus fears in delegate rich california. we have a team of reporters fanned out across the country. we want to head to three of today's big states. joining us, cal perry at the drop off center, gad ee schwartz, and cal, officials in solano county, california are taking procautionary measures against coronavirus. tell us what's happening where you are. >> reporter: as we talk it through, to let you know, right here is the curbside drop off location, somebody voting behind me. as you look at that, i want to introduce you to john gardner, assistant registrar for voters

here. we're going to talk about the intersection of two national stories, super tuesday of course and also the coronavirus. i know people are worried, this is the west coast. what's being taken as precautions in and around the voting center? >> you can see we have curbside drop off locations, that's the normal operation. to take precautionary measure, we added one additional location, 80% vote by mail voters, a lot of people already voted by mail, just adding more locations is more opportunities for voters to drop off ballots. >> any voter can drop it off, doesn't matter from where, central location, is that the idea? >> any voter can go to any drop off site, drop off the ballot, we bring them back to the office multiple times a day, will process them here. >> inside the polling location, what precautions for coronavirus? >> we have given hand sanitizer, wipes, instructions how to use

hand sanitizer, proper hygiene. all polling locations can be a curbside drop off location. we have a blue cone outside, a phone number on the phone. any voter can call and your ballot can be dropped off or they'll bring it out to you. >> thank you so much for the time. chris, talking to doctors, they'll say you have to do what you have to do. still have to live your life. for now, get out and vote, state of california is trying to make it easy as possible. >> cal, thank you for that. gadi, your state's first primary in 20 years, polling locations are expected to be very busy. what are you seeing? >> reporter: polling locations aren't busy inside because of drive by voting. this is a no brainer seems like. they have this set up, people pull up, they're able to cast ballots on the spot, they hand them over. seen it happen, four or five seconds. we have a nice bmwer, coming in.

this is where they're going to do voting. he is asking if he can -- are you changing from klobuchar and buttigieg? >> yeah. >> reporter: you're coming in to mark it differently. okay, no. this is something we heard all day. people coming by with ballots, some of them have marked amy klobuchar or pete buttigieg and they want to change their vote now that they dropped out. the ones unfortunately that already sent it in, they cannot do that. they have to -- their vote is gone. the people that procrastinated until today can come in, get a new ballot.

he is going to go inside and request a new ballot, going to change his vote to who knows, he won't say. we've been hearing support for bernie sanders out here. everybody we talked to, five or six people that are coming in to change votes say that after what they saw yesterday with pete buttigieg and amy klobuchar, before that endorsing biden, they're going for biden. that's what's going on now, chris. we're staying on top of this. it keeps happening throughout the day. back to you. >> thanks so much. and i was checking local papers in north carolina, i thought it was interesting in raleigh news and observer one of the headlines said no, if you voted early, you can't change your vote. this is a state where a poll, marist poll, puts biden and sanders in a virtual tie. what's your sense being on the ground? >> my sense on the ground is it is very close, and voters are feeling like those endorsements by amy klobuchar and pete buttigieg have really made them

want to vote for joe biden if that is the candidate, and there are people i interviewed over the weekend that were early voting, a lot of pete buttigieg signs. and interestingly enough, not a lot of biden signs at the polling location i went to, i can understand why voters think what do i do. i should say overall, this is a state that has 110 delegates up for grabs, a lot of state officials understand this is a crucial battleground state. this is test driving for the general election where we're going to see both president trump and whoever the democratic nominee is battle it out. for super tuesday, people are enthusiastic, understand their vote will be pivotal. both candidates, bernie sanders and joe biden, have come to the state to try to rally voters, they also understand what's at stake in the state. >> thanks to all of you. much appreciate it. even with the transformation of the race, there are fundamental questions hanging over today. who do voters believe can beat

donald trump? and will "the 11th hour" endorsements be enough to keep biden in the race? as of now, sanders is in the lead with 60 delegates, biden in a close second with 53, buttigieg, 26, warren 8, klobuchar 7, tulsi gabbard still in the race not on the board. joining me from the big board in new york, msnbc correspondent steve kornacki. let's start with the most critical number. how close does biden have to stay to keep in the race. this morning, you were on "morning joe" with john heilemann who said 100, biden camp says 150. what are the critical things you look at tonight first in california? >> yeah, the bar seems to keep changing on this. just a week ago, looked like biden couldn't possibly be within 300. now you say certainly could be within 100, maybe 50, maybe closer. let me tell you why. one piece of evidence here, here's a national poll from morning console, they have been

polling since south carolina. look what they find. biden at 36%. ten days ago in the poll, biden was 19%. so he's basically doubled in the poll, national support in a matter of days. that suggests rapid movement. and that rapid movement changes what we're talking about in terms of delegate math. you mention california. 415 delegates up for grabs in california tonight. this is like a third of the total for super tuesday just in california. a week ago at this time when biden had 19%, didn't look like he would crack 15% in california, that would mean he wouldn't get any delegates and a scattering of district delegates. that's what it looked like a couple days ago. with that national race changing, with south carolina, with the endorsements, now it looks like biden will clear that 15%, likely to clear that in

california. now maybe get into the 20s. now maybe be in a situation where it is looking like a massive sanders delegate pull in california, but not nearly the scale the sanders campaign hoped for. that's the possibility when you see rising national poll numbers and momentum. that's the biggest single variable. if biden momentum is hinting at it, you would see that around the country, you would see him in massachusetts where a couple days ago he looked like he was getting zero delegates, you would see him on the board there and in minnesota where klobuchar dropped out, and where it looked like biden was on the way to get zero delegates. you would see him run up the score potentially in southern states, especially alabama, a state with demographics similar to south carolina. you suddenly start to see opportunities on the map, maybe a close race in texas, a chance for biden to win texas if that kind of movement you saw in the national poll is real.

it is just a completely, completely changed delegate map, chris. a week ago i would have been standing here telling you joe biden will be lucky to get out of super tuesday less than 300 delegates behind, and now you could actually piece together a scenario here where he is close to tied tonight, which for his campaign from their standpoint obviously would be fantastic news, when you consider what comes next in those states. >> he said high drama. nobody better to guide us along the way than steve kornacki. evan smith, ceo f texas tribune, manny garcia, executive director of the texas democratic party, and emmy ruiz, partner at new coast strategies. second biggest number of delegates at stake. a couple of very smart people in texas told me yesterday they believe the race is tightening. what are you hearing on the ground, how busy are polls, what are you looking for? >> lots of traffic at the polls,

on our polling locator. folks are getting out there. the name of the game is turnout. we have more than a million people already vote in the election, early vote. as we see a fluid race, moving by the hour, are another million come out. >> what's the hard of the fluidity, is it what happened to joe biden the last couple days? >> in the past couple weeks we have seen resounding support for bernie sanders out of nevada, resounding support for joe biden out of south carolina, dynamics of the race have changed, folks are getting excited, coming out to vote, having their voice heard tuesday. >> one of the big questions was did it come soon enough. so many states like california and texas have early voting, big early voting. even if it did make a difference, too many people voted to change the outcome? >> no. look, texas is this new frontier, there's already voter excitement. you look at states like south

carolina where there was higher turnout than 2008, i think texas is definitely on the path. people were already very excited. i think the last 72 hours have been critical for joe biden. not only that, beto o'rourke endorsed him, pete buttigieg, amy klobuchar, we're seeing a lot of energy and excitement. i was at my polling place this morning where there's usually not a line, waited awhile with people very excited to cast a vote. going to continue to see the energy and momentum across the state, and i definitely think there will be a close race. i think a week ago it was a given for senator sanders, i don't think that's the case today. >> biden team thinks there could be an upset in texas, it would be critical to offsetting if biden does not have as great a night as he would like to have in california. i want to play what beto o'rourke had to say, somebody you folks know well this morning on "morning joe" about this whole thing. take a listen. >> i think he can beat trump. in fact, i think he is the and

hit sus of trump, his kindness, humility, empathy, ability to transcend the politics and policies and just make a human to human connection, it was absolutely profound. >> i have long been a skeptic of endorsements and what they do, but i also heard a lot about ho how el paso had gotten visits, a lot of surrogates were going there because of the weird delegate math, it could be important. does beto help? >> he got more votes statewide than any democrat in the history of texas, more than 4 million votes. even the democrats were looking to take back the texas house are benchmarking against how beto o'rourke did in many of the house districts. in some ways, his involvement in the race helps the democrats' case, trying to look back to 2018 and magic he was able to pull off there. look, it is late for endorsements to come. yesterday, i appreciate where manny and emmy are coming from,

a lot of early votes were cast before his come back in south carolina. he has to crush it on election day to offset what might have been big sanders turnout among early votes. what's interesting, chris, we literally don't know sitting here middle of the day primary day who will be the winner in texas. i can't think of a lot of election cycles we could say that. >> one of the questions is money. he got some money, biden had money coming in. bernie in almost all states had a bigger infrastructure, we haven't mentioned michael bloomberg. it becomes a question of where does momentum get you as opposed to having good ground game in place and ads on the air. >> endorsements do help. these are coming in late, clyburn in south carolina came in late, more than 50% of voters said it was a contributing factor why they went with vice president biden. he has a strong organization in

terms of endorsers, veronica escobar endorsed him, sylvia garcia in harris county. so these are a few examples, they're mobilizing the network to turn out the vote. i think that i agree that a lot of early votes were probably cast for senator sanders, but who are early voters? they tend to run older voters, whiter voters, and a lot of these voting blocks are with vice president biden. >> most important thing, beto took joe biden to what a burger. after the campaign, i thought we were done with beto and what a burger. it was nostalgia. >> other people are going what is what a burger. let me ask you, is there anybody else we're not talking about? what biden and bernie wanted was to be seen as a two man race. you can really see the difference in what they stand

for. is something else happening here or elsewhere that could surprise? >> important to understand the structure. yes, it is 228 delegates at stake. the majority are given by 31 senate districts. we may see a result in texas where four people qualify for delegates, statewide and in senate districts. i don't think anybody is running away with texas. i think what we are seeing is robust turnout, and everybody will be able to pick up a pretty good cast of delegates from the state. >> bloomberg is papering everybody's house in texas with extraordinary number of mail pieces. i am curious if that investment of millions on direct mail in texas gets him above threshold. >> it is going to be really interesting tonight. thanks to all of you. here in texas, the last poll closes 9:00 p.m. eastern time. we will follow closely super tuesday voting through the hour, keeping our eye on live polling

places. up next, a second case of coronavirus confirmed in new york, outside the nation's most populated city. it is unclear how the person contracted it. ahead, we ask governor cuomo about plans for containing the outbreak. first, a tornado ripping through tennessee, killing at least 22 people. plus, how damage could effect voter turnout in that super tuesday state. you're watching msnbc live. woman: the deadly corona virus officially hitting the us. 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. there has never been to have a favorite food. with new grubhub plus you get unlimited free delivery and cashback rewards for ordering noodles,

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we are back live in austin, texas. today, the scope of the disaster in and around nashville, tennessee continues to grow. officials now say at least 22 are dead after a tornado struck parts of nashville and central tennessee overnight. president trump just announcing he will visit that state friday. 50,000 homes and businesses were left without power after the tornado battered dozens of homes and businesses on the eve of super tuesday. state officials are scrambling to make sure polling sites are

available after some were damaged. davidson county is saying they expect lighter turnout. some polling locations opened lalt with alternate polling locations in some places. the mayor addressed shaken, heartbroken residents. >> last night was reminder of how fragile life is, that at any moment an event can show up and make us all too painfully aware of this. this morning's tornado devastated our community. >> there's a good possibility there may be more because of the number of folks we know that are missing and haven't been reported, and it is early yet. >> nbc news correspondent katie beck has more from nashville for us. how extensive is the damage on the ground you're seeing? >> reporter: good afternoon, chris. to give you an idea, we had a neighbor walk up a minute ago,

say this is an apocalypse here. i have never seen anything like it. lots of neighbors in this neighborhood are going door to door to offer water, any help to people doing cleanup. lots of chain saws going as people try to take down trees blocking entry ways to homes. this neighborhood is demolished. we heard incredible stories of surviving this morning, people who heard that thundering train coming, grabbed their children, went down a flight of stairs. one gentleman said as he was going down the flight of stairs with the seven-year-old, the roof was sucked into the sky in front of his eyes. lots of people today are feeling grateful that they're alive and able to salvage what's left. but frankly in the area where we are, there isn't much left. there are homes, most of them missing the roofs on this street where we are. some are missing more than that. some are completely leveled. so this is an area obviously where there's massive power

outages, and as you mentioned, today is super tuesday. they made accommodations, a lot of polling places opened an hour late. so far, they're saying they have alternative in place for people that want to vote if their polling location was demolished. we heard less than 10% of polling locations were destroyed, but homes here, people here, the mood is strangely positive. they're so happy they made it out alive that they're able to breathe air today, that they're able to clean up, try to salvage what they can, that they honestly are feeling grateful more than anything else. >> understandably so, given the fact that 22 people did not survive. katie beck, thank you for the update. appreciate it. we're following other breaking news from washington. in response to coronavirus threat to the economy, the federal reserve made a surprise move and announced an emergency rate cut of a half percentage point. the first cut of its kind since

the 2008 financial crisis. >> we lek threcognize it won't broken supply chain, we get that, we don't think we have the answers, we believe our action will provide meaningful boost to the economy. >> joining me, nbc news senior business correspondent, msnbc anchor stephanie ruhle. stephanie, first of all, what does this mean for consumers, how are the markets responding. >> let's talk about what it means for consumers. over the last three years, the thing that's been driving the economy has not been business investment or profitability, it has been consumer confidence and spending. you know what the outbreak of corona, we're seeing consumers lose confidence. advice we're given is don't take that unnecessary trip, you may not want to go to a sporting event, venue with a lot of people. a lot of companies are taking precautions to send employees home. a rate cut normally is about

incentivizing business and people to spend, refinance the house, buy something. you're not going to see the rate cut create that in a situation where what we're doing in preparation for corona is hunkering down. >> so president trump as you know well has been vocal about his frustrations with chairman powell over interest rates. i want to play something trump said a little earlier today. >> the federal reserve cut rates today finally, finally, finally. finally. do it more, do it a little bit more. so the fed rate is too high, it is simple, it is too high. >> but steph, powell is now facing questions about whether this was done over political considerations. what does he say about that? >> he's saying that's not the case. and let's just take a minute. it is not just the united states. we saw a cut in australia. we could likely see this around the world. we could be facing or on the precipice of a global recession

because of the impact of corona, because of the supply chain disruption, because of what it is doing to earnings. yes, the president is putting all sorts of pressure on jay powell to cut rates, but it is a bridge too far to say jay powell did this because the president told him to. we are facing a serious situation. this is what the fed does. the fed uses their levers to cut rates when they need to. it is not to say it is going to work this time. if you wanted to be critical, look at it over the last year. were we in a position to maybe sneak in rate hikes when things were going better? the president railed against jay powell. i would like you to remember when it comes to the president before he was in office when obama was in office, the president said the opposite, he was talking about how low rates were hurting savers, it was unfair to put people on fixed incomes, to push them into the stock market. the president cares overwhelmingly about the performance of the stock market.

jay powell cares about the stock market, but jay powell needs to care about the overall economy, and that's what he is looking at here. >> stephanie ruhle, great to get your insights. thank you so much. coming up, president trump's claims of coronavirus vaccine coming soon, but again, that's at odds with what everyone else in the administration is saying. and health experts around the country as well. later, we ask two of the experts where we are fighting coronavirus in the u.s. first, there are now two cases of coronavirus confirmed in new york and two local schools are closed. we are asking government officials what they're doing to combat the spread. new york governor andrew cuomo talks us live to talk strategy. don't go anywhere. you're watching msnbc live. we are live in austin, texas.

welcome back. a big election day question is whether coronavirus will keep people from the polls. the number of states expanded to 15, a second confirmed today in new york. officials from westchester county announced 12 other individuals are quarantined as precaution. today, governor andrew cuomo signed a $40 million emergency

aid package to address coronavirus in new york as the number of confirmed cases in the u.s. tops 100, and infections worldwide surpassed 90,000. at a rally, president trump assured the crowd a vaccine is coming soon, contradicting his own administration. >> we're moving aggressively to accelerate the process of developing a vaccine. a lot of good things are happening, and they're happening very fast. i said do me a favor, speed it up, speed it up, and they will. >> the nature of trials as experts explained to us is that the vaccine might yet not be available until late this year or early next. >> that entire process will take at least a year and a year and a half. so when you hear talk about a vaccine will be ready in a couple of months, it won't be ready for being deployed. it will take awhile. >> joining me, new york governor andrew cuomo. so many questions i want to ask

you, governor. this is not the first time the president contradicted his experts, but how often, how closely are you in touch with members of the coronavirus taskforce, cdc, other federal officials, and how confident are you in what they're doing right now? >> well, chris, thanks for having me. i spoke to the federal officials, i speak to vice president pence, i speak to the hhs personnel, dhs personnel, alphabet soup of personnel, but i get my information from medical professionals. i would rather speak with world health organization, cdc, my own health team to make sure we're getting medical information and not political information. and then the way this is actually working is the states are on the ground, and the states have to put together the system that actually addresses this, so i get the best medical information i can, put the politics aside, we develop a system on the state level to address the problem.

>> give us a sense of what you think new york might be dealing with, when you look at the individual states, it gives a sense of what to expect. i remember you when you had the first case in new york a couple of days ago, you said it was a deep breath moment. is there solid scientific projections of what the city and state should expect now that we have two cases? how does a city as big as new york begin to calculate, notify people patients may have come into contact with? >> yeah, you're exactly right, chris. i think part of the issue here is we have been unrealistic in the expectation, right? we have a daily revelation, there's a new case here, new case here, community spread case. i've said from day one, you look at the numbers, you look at the math, we're going to have dozens and dozens and dozens of cases in new york, that's my expectation. look how many we had coming back from countries that we now have on the watch list.

literally hundreds. there will be a lot of cases. i think the public, the calibration is off, expectation is off. there are going to be many, many cases. every case you track down to limit exposure the best you can, testing capacity, trying to get testing capacity up to 1,000 per day, hospital capacity for those people that have to be hospitalized, but also the bottom line realization that 80% of people will self cure, self resolve the virus and the target problem, 1.2% mortality is senior citizens and people with compromised immune systems. that's what we are focusing on. i think part of the hysteria and fear is people don't believe the information they're getting or they have an overhyped belief of

the danger of the virus. >> let me give awe chance to maybe calm some fears and reality check. i'm thinking i have been home the last couple days to new york city, westchester, for people that don't know this lady is from, is near manhattan. thousands come into the city for work every day. add to that, new york is one of the top tourist destinations, population density is enormous, larger than 40 of 50 states. what unique challenges does that pose for you as government and what are you doing working onto deal with it, governor. >> look, first of all, we expect to have a large number of people who test positive for the coronavirus. we expect that. you look at the way the virus is transmitted, look at the experience in china, we expect that. you're right, you have all the people coming to new york, nature of who we are. to stop this manic obsession on

one case, one case, one case, we're going to have dozens and dozens of cases. that's going to happen. don't be surprised. and then have the testing capacity, track down each case, have the necessary hospitalization capacity, and communicate with people honestly on the facts and reduce the fear factor which is frankly the biggest single issue that we have now. i believe people are more afraid of this than they need to be. it has been politicized. they don't know who to believe. it sounds like coronavirus is a death sentence. we went through obesitebola, mue deadly than this. and this coronavirus having twice the mortality rate of regular flu is not good, but this is a manageable situation. that's where we are. we have 15,000 people in

hospitals today in new york with the flu. 15,000. so this is going to be a large number of people who are infected by it. they'll go through a period, 80% will self resolve, and we have to be very careful about senior citizen populations, nursing homes, people who are immune compromised or have an underlying illness, especially respiratory illness in the first place. that's where we have to pay attention. >> so understanding that self care is a big thing, certainly anybody that's gone into stores in new york judging by pictures on twitter know that new yorkers and people around the country are heeding warnings, buying anti-bacterial wipes and sprays and so on. i'm sure people are reminded to wash their hands. but this is so fluid. there's so much you don't know. you talked about the mortality rate. we have been using a figure

around 2% as you said, not that much more than for the flu. now just in the last hour or so, governor, the world health organization bumped the global rate to 3.4%. is it going to get worse in terms of that before it gets better, and how confident are you about the medical professionals from testing to the equipment they need will be ready if and when it escalates. >> yeah. the variable, 2% as you said, chris, correctly so. .6% is mortality rate for the usual flu. this is about 2%. world health organization says it can go as high as 3 and change. that's depending on sophistication of the health care system of that country. in china, it was about 2%. when china got better dealing with it, had better facilities, it went down from 2% to 1 and

1.4, 1.5. we have the best health care system on the globe in the united states and we have a highly sophisticated health care system in new york. if it is 2% in china and that went down, cdc said about 1.2, 1.4%. and i think that's where we're going to be. it is not great news. it's double the normal flu rate, but it's not as bad as the hysteria would suggest that it is. and that's as governor, i am putting systems in place, testing, hospitalization, et cetera, but it is a communication challenge to get people's expectations in line with reality, and we have much more anxiety than this situation actually merits. i think part of it is people don't know who to believe.

you have democrats blaming republicans for not doing enough, republicans say democrats are hyping it, and it is that political filter that says to people i don't know who to believe and i don't even know how bad this is, and that's what generates fear, it's the unknown. and it is a damning commentary frankly on where we are as a country that people can't even believe the information they're getting from government when it's a public health emergency and that's a bigger problem, frankly. >> new york governor andrew cuomo, we thank you for spending so much time with us, answering the important questions. we appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up, super tuesday isn't just about the race for the white house, it is about congressional races, too. in alabama, former attorney general jeff sessions wants to win back his old senate seat. can he rally support? first, the race for testing. the federal government promising thousands of new coronavirus

tests will be ready by end of the week. but is it too little, too late? stay with us. you're watching msnbc live. to present to you today. [son]: who are you talking to? [son]: that guy's scary. the first item on the list is selecting a chairman for the... for the advisory board what's this? as well as use the remaining... child care options run out. lifetime retirement income from tiaa doesn't. guaranteed monthly income for life.

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get way more. shop everything home at wayfair.com we're following breaking news about the rapidly spreading coronavirus this hour. "new york times" is reporting while the federal government has promised that thousands if not millions of tests for the virus could be performed soon, public and private labs say they aren't even close to that. the news comes as the number of u.s. cases is increasing, including a second confirmed case in new york. i want to check in with the medical team, two medical contributors, clinical professor of rheumatology at nyu, natalie azar, and specialist in infectious diseases, joseph fair. the u.s. could ramp up efforts to a million tests by end of the week, the "new york times" says that includes orders for tests

not approved yet. what are you hearing, what are you experiencing, how much problem is lack of testing ability? >> that's probably the key problem. we know once we do more testing, we will find more cases, i can tell you with near certainty, once tests are rolled out, we'll see more cases indeed. >> so dr. azar, the cdc is replacing the botched test. i wonder has damage already been done? why haven't they -- why have they removed the number of tests conducted from their website. there are all kinds of questions circling around the issue of even testing. >> right. i think for me as a doctor, i see the issue as twofold. one is actually more from a public health perspective, to be able to do the testing is so important, so we can get an accurate number of background rate of infection or what the incidence is. at some point we'll be able to

do antibody testing on the population to see who is exposed, right now, we don't know what the denominator is, how many in the community are infected with the virus. second thing has to do with what we now are learning about the natural evolution of the disease in folks. we see people have mild symptoms early, but shortness of breath and progression to respiratory failure appears to happen later on, day five, six, seven, beyond. that's important. if you have people that are vulnerable to having a bad outcome from the disease, we talk about this, underlying medical problems, et cetera, if you can diagnose people earlier, that's a window of opportunity to intervene and hopefully take care of folks that may end up having a bad outcome. >> dr. fair, we got a lot of sort of big picture federal and state questions answered by dr. cuomo, but i'm sure as a doctor,

tim particularly one with your specialty, i wonder if you can answer some of the questions on air. everyone has heard by now, be careful, wash your hands, be thorough. but beyond that, what are the kind beyond that what are the kind of myths you would like to put aside or things that people aren't asking that you think is important? >> first of all, what can your average person do to protect themselves? you already said the main one. hand washing. little things like putting a barrier between yourself and pushing elevator buttons, handling handrails, wiping down your airplane seat and tray table with a disinfectant wipe, et cetera, that will help keep your own self safe. recognizing you may have a normal cold or flu is important. if you have the ability to do o so, stay home. if you can't, that's not always going to be feasible. do your best to keep other people from getting sick as well. i would say, you know, the vaccine question is a big one. and when we are going to have a

vaccine? your average vaccine takes anywhere from 5 to 20 years to usually develop. new technologies in molecular biology and unprecedented effort, we're hoping to get a vaccine out within a year. what does that mean? that usually means we'll have a clinical trial of that vaccine within a year. the first rule of medicine, and in full disclosure i'm not a physicalition. the first rule of medicine is do no harm. if we put a vaccine into someone and see adverse effects, we could see much more harm than we do good. we have to be very careful in rolling out vaccines and that's why we have the vigorous process of testing vaccines before they're put into humans. >> one of the things we hear during flu season often, frankly, natalie, is keep your eye on elderly neighbors. there's a case now in florida. something like 20% of people who live there are over 65. is it also just keeping an eye out for people who might be vulnerable? >> absolutely. chris, a lot of questions i've

been getting on twitter are i have somebody's bar mitzvah to go to. should i go? should we be canceling public events? it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. i'm waiting for bigger medical -- i can't think of the word. say it. not departments but organizations to give guidance on these things. what i've been telling people is, you know, each situation is individual. you have to think about the local activity in your area. it's so important for folks to be able to contact their local health department to find out where the activity -- as this outbreak increases, where there is activity and always reach out to your health care provider as a first line of defense, because a lot of patients, as we know, millions of them probably, on medicines that suppress the immune system, biologics, chemotherapy. these are very relevant things that are happening in real time. patients wondering if they should even continue their

medicines. so, yes, certainly, chris, to your point, people over the age of 65 and certainly with underlying medical conditions but we're talking about patients all across the age spectrum who this potentially impacts. so far, we don't have any formal guidance for them other than our professional experience. >> if i could add one note to that, i'll go back to that earlier point. >> really quick. >> if you're sick, don't go. >> do it virtually or call your doctor. we don't want to storm emergency rooms and doctors' offices with mild symptoms. >> dr. natalie azar, dr. joseph fair, thank you. appreciate it. tracking the contentious race for the white house, there's also those important down ballot races around the country. what you need to know next. you're watching msnbc live. no. uh uh, no way. ♪ come on. no. no. n... ni ni, no no!

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super tuesday voters in five states are also deciding on down ballot races. alabama senate primary race has u.s. attorney general jeff sessions up against alabama's controversial supreme court chief justice roy moore among others. meanwhile, voters in california's 25th district are deciding who they'll nominate, seat vie kated by katie hill. plus voting who they want to run against republican senator jon cornyn. some are concerned who will leave the tlead the top of the ticket and how that will affect down ballot races. >> only joe biden can help lift those down ballot races. i've been listening to state house reps. they want biden at the top of the ticket. >> joining us now, nbc's geoff bennett at a polling location in falls church, virginia, and

tremaine lee in alabama. i know you're looking at a whole range of races in the south. talk about the down ballot tonight and what you're going to keep your eye on particularly closely. >> chris, perhaps the most interesting down ballot race is for current senator doug jones, democrat, his race here in alabama. first of all it used to be the seat held by jeff sessions, who vacated that when he became attorney general. jeff sessions wants that seat back. he's going up against pretty stiff competition in bradley burn, former auburn university head football coach. that's only the republicans. on the democratic side to get doug jones into that seat, defeat roy moore it took a huge organizational effort led by black women here in alabama. it was a massive operation and was actually successful. that one. all the consequences hanging in the balance. returning that seat back to a republican. perhaps jeff sessions. it's a big deal. but another layer to this, jeff

sessions doesn't get 50% of the vote they go to a march 31st run-off. right now it's neck and neck between the three and doesn't look like anyone will get that 50%. it's extraordinarily interesting here in alabama. >> meantime, jeff, although there are no down ballot races in alabama, i'm curious to hear if you're hearing what i'm hearing from voters, that a surprising number of them are considering what the impact the top of the ticket will be in their communities, in their states, in their local races. what are you hearing? >> reporter: in many ways, a case study of what democrats can do, kind of electoral success they can have when they combine a motivated electorate, qualified, competitive candidates, lately here that's meant moderate democrats. in this region of virginia, and then money. in the case of michael bloomberg, setting apart his own campaign, he spent the last

decade spending over $10 million, funneling money into virginia's political wars. that's one of the reasons why democrats in the last election cycle were able to not only keep control of the governor's mansion but also win control of the state legislature, turning this entire state blue. that's something democrats would like to replicate on a national level. centrist democrats showing up here to vote today say it matters who is at the top of the ticket. northern virginia suburbs, it's centrist democrat central. you've seen michael bloomberg, joe biden, spending time and money here, making the case to voters. biden has really won the endorsement race here, picking up key endorsements from senator tim kaine, hillary clinton's running mate in 2016, and terry mcauliffe, former governor, firmer dnc chair. we certainly shouldn't count out bernie sanders. he has also been making a run for virginia votes. not in this region but further

south, he held a rally in virginia beach not too long ago. 99 delegates up for grabs. hotly contested, chris. >> thank you so much, geoff bennett and tremaine lee. two of the folks who will be out tonight. we'll be across all 14 super tuesday states. we'll start getting results in here to msnbc the minute those polls close. i will be here in texas, austin at a polling place. i'll see you later on tonight. that will do it for this hour. i'm chris jansing. thank you so much for watching this hour of msnbc live. right now, katy tur picks up our coverage from santa monica, california. >> thanks, chris. good afternoon. i'm katy tur. it is 2:00 p.m. out east and 11:00 a.m. here in santa monica, california. tonight we'll find out if everything has changed in this race or not. right now, across the country and here in california, people are voting and with long lines across 14 states, there are high

hopes for a big turnout. since saturday, everything has been lining up for joe biden. a win in south carolina that propelled him to second in the delegate count. an enviable fund-raising hall. now public endorsements from three of his former rivals. >> i'm looking for a leader. i'm looking for a president who will draw out what is best in each of us. and i'm encouraging everybody who is part of my campaign to join me because we have found that leader in vice president, soon to be president joe biden. >> 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. >> 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. >> the question, do those endorsements change the vote? did you make your decision in the past couple of days? >> yeah, yeah. i was -- i love buttigieg, klobuchar i liked a lot of people. at this point, obviously, we've got to figure out a solution so biden feels like the solution. >> all the polling shows bernie sanders in the lead here in california. and we're wondering, do things stay that way or does joe biden eat into his margin? and then there are the wild cards. michael bloomberg has spent $198 million on super tuesday states. will his cash equal votes? and will a narrowed field help elizabeth warren? can she keep sanders from a lock on the party's progressive base?

tonight we'll define what could be the last stage of the race. who will survive? we've got a lot of questions. joining me now from vermont, where she's covering the sanders' campaign, kasie hunt. sorry you're up there in the cold while i'm here in the warmth. have to make it up to you later. >> it's still beautiful here. >> i know but you get fish tonight, or at least half a fish at the sanders' campaign so i'm a little bit jealous myself. how are they feeling going into super tuesday after all the conversation? there's been so much about joe biden for the past few days. >> reporter: certainly, joe biden has had probably the best, you know, 48 hours of his campaign over the last couple of days, coming out of that big win in south carolina, but the reality is that for bernie sanders' campaign, it doesn't necessarily change the fundamentals of what they have been planning and trying to do all the way along.

there are still some factors that they think could impact biden's campaign. notably, mike bloomberg, who has still decided he's going to stay in this race, and some questions about whether or not biden is going to be able to hit the thresholds he needs to, namely in california. but also in texas. those are two of the big states on the board tonight where the bernie sanders campaign has really bet everything. they've been organized and focused on those states from the very beginning, some of his top advisers have been in california, leading all the way up to this primary and, you know, if they can do what they need to do in those places, that's where you're potentially going to see a delegate lead that would help carry bernie sanders into the convention in the strongest position. and just because some of the rest of the field has coalesced doesn't necessarily change that calculus. now that said, it does potentially make his 25 to 35% of the support we've seen him

get in the party not necessarily stack up. so, certainly this is a tougher position for the sanders' campaign to be in at this point, but again it doesn't necessarily affect their fundamental strategy. so, katy, i think a lot of the nerves that were -- we were seeing in the democratic party throughout the early states, you know, biden managed to put those to rest. i think the question really is going to come down to whether or not the democratic establishment got it together too late to really make a difference. bernie sanders has been in utah, in minnesota, in boston, in california, rallying thousands of people. in some cases over 10,000 people at a time. you know, that level of energy is simply dramatically different, even from the rally that we saw with joe biden in dallas where all of those other candidates showed up. still a much smaller crowd than your average bernie sanders

event in one of these super tuesday states. again they're counting on a lot of young turnout and they have, frankly, everything on the line here on super tuesday, katy. >> kasie hunt, stick with us. let's bring in mike memaly following the biden campaign. mike, joe biden will be here later tonight. he is currently polling in second place here in california. he's hoping to get enough delegates to slow down bernie's momentum that he has been building in the earlier states. somebody described this vote between the two men like this, between joe biden as a restoration and bernie sanders as a revolution. mike? >> reporter: yeah, katy. that's exactly how joe biden has been framing this race over the last few weeks. he has wanted, for the entire campaign really, to boil this down as quickly as possible to bernie sanders versus joe biden in terms of the vision of the democratic party. you heard him say that in south carolina the other night, that this campaign is about which

vision of the democratic party you want to see take place. they think they can capitalize not just on the momentum we've seen in the last 48 hours, kasie is right, the best 48 hours of his campaign, but the delegate mass strategy that the campaign has deployed since the very beginning. we've been talking about it, that this is a front-runner from the start of the campaign, but somebody who also expected this was going to be a long slog. it was such a big field. you're rightly focused on some of the statewide outcomes, whether or not joe biden can hit 15% statewide in california. the way the delegates are awarded here, katy, more of the delegates are awarded on a congressional district basis than on a statewide basis. more than 800 out of the 1300 are awarded in individual congressional districts. joe biden is starting his day in the bay area of california, in oakland, specifically. that's where the most delegate rich congressional district in the entire state happens to be. he wants to run up the score in

districts that look a lot like south carolina where the african-american vote will be squarely behind him. >> mike memoli and kasie hunt, guy guys, thank you very much. have fun tonight. joining me here in santa monica, democratic strategist bob shrum, director of the political future and chair of republican party and state senator. thank you for joining me in california or i should say thank you for having me in california. >> thank you for coming home. >> it's nice to be back. in all the polling bernie sanders seems to have a lead, is it fair to say or fair to expect that bernie sanders is going to take california tonight? >> well, i think he probably will take california. and he will look like he's taken it by a much bigger margin tonight than by the time the counting is finished in two or three weeks because people are just sending in their ballots now. the thing that's happened, and i've never seen this in my whole

life in politics. this 48 hours transformed everything. bernie sanders was planning on coming out of super tuesday with a so-called insurmountable lead in delegates, 300 to 350. when it's all totaled up i think it will be somewhere between 0 and 80 r 90 which means biden can easily make that up. california itself, i think biden will make threshold everywhere in this state and statewide, i think, he will be between 22 and 25%. >> michael steele, a former staffer, say iing they're able do what democrats weren't able to do in 2016. >> that single candidate, donald trump, happened to be elected president. let me amplify on what bob said. bernie is more than likely going to win today. california is leaning left. the leftist candidate is going

to win. we have about 20 million voters, about 4 million of them have voted as of this morning. there's a lot of votes out. the biden bump, which didn't show up until sunday here in california, will not show up in tonight's results. a week ago, there was a three percentage gap. as of this morning 28% of republicans have turned out, 20% of democrats have turned out. establishment democrats decided to wait and see what happened in south carolina. so, bernie is going to have a higher margin tonight because votes that were cast on sunday, monday and today, you know, in california, you have 30 days to count the votes. i think tonight will be bernie's high water mark. and any biden bump will start showing up wednesday, thursday, friday, as the absentees, late absentees are counted.

>> so what about warren? what about bloomberg? bloomberg has spent an ungodly amount of money on this state alone, trying to get his name out there. i spoke to a voter who said she believe he's the only lodgical candidate to go up against donald trump. that being said there are a lot of voters who resent all the money he has been putting in. and offer on the other hand there is elizabeth warren hork is not getting out of this race and wants to see how well she'll do here. santa monica, west l.a., seems to be prime warren territory. >> yes, but i think she's going to finish no better than third here. in the data i've seen it's about 17%. i would caution this, by the way. most of the polls that are there don't take account of the south carolina effect. and the south carolina effect is clearly real. all you have to do is look at the last couple of days, watch what's happened on television, watch what's happened in the field. bloomberg made a bet and the bet

came half true. the wet bet was bernie sanders will emerge. the other half of the bet was joe biden will fall apart. that didn't happen. and after super tuesday bloomberg will have to think about what he will do. i'm told he has reserved no television time after super tuesday. >> does bloomberg pose more of a threat to biden than sanders? >> i don't think so. bernie has true believers. true believers trenlg through the snow. we saw this on the republican side. >> yeah. >> the people that were for donald trump were for donald trump. if you even looked at him askance, you were the enemy. i believe bernie could be a very strong candidate against donald trump. >> very interesting, james brulte and bob shrum. thank you for coming on and

experien sharing your california expertise with us. the polls are open another nine hours, count them nine hours. no snow, no rain, no reason for people to skip voting, especially when you consider the polls have been open here for about a month. also ahead, what does $198 million get you? michael bloomberg is about to find out. first new york city reports its second case of coronavirus and there is still not easy access to a test for it. why is that? stay with us. hot! hot! no no no no no, there's no space there! maybe over here? oven mitts! oven mitts! everything's stuck in the drawers! i'm sorry! oh, jeez. hi. kelly clarkson. try wayfair! oh, ok. it's going to help you, with all of... this! yeah, here you go. thank you! oh, i like that one! [ laugh ] that's a lot of storage! perfect. you're welcome! i love it. how did you do all this? wayfair! speaking of dinner, what're we eating, guys? you try to stay ahead of the mess.

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a newly confirmed case of coronavirus in new york state is the first known instance of community spread in the new york city area. in total there are now 111 confirmed cases in the u.s., and that number is still rising. joining me now from the bronx in new york, nbc news correspondent ron allen. so, ron, what can you tell me about this latest case?

>> it's a 50-year-old man, an attorney who works for a small law firm in manhattan, who commutes from westchester county into the city. in rather serious condition we're told by the mayor. he has an under dlying conditio as well. the big mystery is where did he contract this disease? it's unknown. he didn't travel to any of the suspect countries. now he and his family are essentially quarantined while he is in the hospital, his family is trying to stay together. the school behind me is closed because one of his sons goes to this school. that son is not symptomatic. another son who attends a college in manhattan and he is symptomatic. as part of this containment strategy, new york city is trying to reach out to everybody who might have had prolonged contact with the family, with the individuals who try and contain the spread of the virus. now, that's doable when you have one or two cases, but here, of

course, mobilizing and thinking and planning for the possibility of hundreds of cases or more. no one knows whether that's going to happen or not but they're trying to get ahead of this, do more aggressive testing. once they start testing people who have symptoms, some will have the flu. some will have the other things but some, in fact, will have coronavirus because, as they say, in 80% of these cases, the virus, the disease, the illness passes and you may not even know it. bottom line, though, a concern because it's unclear where this person got the disease and that is an indication that it's out here in the community and, of course, it could be spreading. katy? >> nbc's ron allen in the bronx. ron, thank you very much for joining us. and joining me now is dr. armand dorian, chief medical officer at usc. thank you for joining us. the fact this disease is so

communicate communicable, and now there's a man in new york city who may have used public transport, who knows who he came into contact wi with, his kids are in public school. people will think oh, my gosh, should i leave my house? >> great question. it is communicable. it is going to cause a significant amount of panic. coronavirus is out there in the united states already. it is no different than the flu. matter of fact, its legality is so much less that we need to take a break, realize we need to start identifying those individuals, isolating them and informing our public health to do its best job of trying to quarantine them. having said that, in this circumstance, you can see that's a pretty extensive job. having tests to be able to identify them early is really important. >> so there's not a test that's easily available right now. some folks are pointing to the cdc and saying this is not okay. people on twitter say i have all the symptoms. i tried to get tested. i think i could have gotten it

from so-and-so and the cdc or the hospital will say you don't meet the requirements and we don't want you to come in. that's causing people to point to the cdc and say i don't think you guys are doing a very good job trying to contain this. >> it's easy to point fingers and blame the cdc. we have to understand the gravity of this illness. it's difficult to have a test for a novel virus ready. in order to ramp that up and have an adequate test that really identifies positive patients -- remember, we could put out tests but what if they're faulty, which is the case initially. if we tell people they don't have it and they're out walking around, that could be worse. if you think you have symptoms, stay at home first and communicate that via phone, text, to somebody who can help you get that test done. >> it may not be dangerous for someone like me, who is in her 30s, who has no underlying health issues but it is dangerous for somebody who might have an underlying health issue,

respiratory issue, and people on the older side of the spectrum. what do you do when you are -- i mean, i worry about shaking hands with with people, not because of -- god forbid i have something and i just don't know it. how do you operate in an environment where you're worried about hurting another human being? >> katy, it's amazing that you're saying that. it's the way we should have been before coronavirus. the flu kills half a million people a year. we're at 3,000 with coronavirus. put those in perspective. it's the same concept. we need to be washing our hands. we need to be coughing into our elbow. we need to not touch our face. we touch our face about 30 times an hour. the most important part, if you're sick, stay home. that's the quickest way to save a life. you may infect a worker who goes home and infects somebody who has underlying medical conditions and end up dying and you never end up hearing about it. >> if you do have paid sick

lea leave, please do stay home. armand dorian, thank you for coming on. appreciate your expertise and fist bump. that's how you do it out here. thanks for coming on. here in california, bernie sanders is poised to win big among latino voters tonight. but first money cannot buy you love but can it buy you votes? will michael bloomberg play the spoiler tonight? that and more when we come back live from santa monica.

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transitions light under control. ♪ upbeat music transitions signature gen 8, available now in 4 new style colors. transitions. we choose to go to the and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. president kennedy knew settling for half-measures wasn't good enough. so when candidates say we can't guarantee health care for all,

make college affordable for all, combat climate change, or create a world at peace, remember that america is best when we strive to do big things, even when it's hard. i'm bernie sanders and i approve this message.

other moderates in the race dropped out to clear a path for joe biden. >> and if joe dropped out -- joe's taking votes away from me. and i think that is true. and hopefully -- >> you're also taking votes away from joe biden. >> it goes in both directions. have you asked joe whether he's going to drop out? i have no intention of dropping out. we're in it to win it. >> michael bloomberg today is the very first test for what most considered his long-shot strategy. he skipped the first four

contests and sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into super tuesday states. today is the first time the former new york city mayor's name will appear on ballots. after joe biden's decisive win in south carolina and a slate of sudden endorsements, including three from former presidential candidates, bloomberg's already nontraditional path to the nomination seems more uncertain now than ever. joining me now from new york, senior national spokesperson for the bloomberg campaign, sabrina sang. thank you for joining us. i want to get a sense of what your expectations are for tonight after all the momentum we've seen behind joe biden and after the delegate count that bernie sanders already has. >> well, thanks so much for having me. i know you're in california, my home state, which is voting now. look, we feel good about tonight. this is mike's first time that he will be on the ballot. as you mentioned we did not compete in the early states because we did not have enough time to lay the groundwork in those states.

mike only got in in november. we feel good and confident about heading into tonight. some of the states we're moni r monitoring closely are arkansas, oklahoma, colorado, utah. states that mike has been crisscrossing the country for. the map continues to get better and better for mike, which is why we started our day in florida and will be ending with a campaign rally there, because florida is one of the states where we know is a big battleground to not only defeat donald trump but the next wave of votes coming next week. >> but you don't have any ad buys set for anything past super tuesday, if i'm correct. tell me if i'm wrong about that. >> that is actually wrong. >> are you waiting to see what happens tonight to decide -- that's wrong? >> yeah. we actually do have ad buys placed beyond, i think, at least until friday. we've been doing this periodically, we do every three days we're placing ad buys. we are actually up. and i think that we'll continue to be up after tonight, a long

way forward into next week as well. >> this morning, a candidate said that his path is through a contested convention. there are democrats out there who say that that's not so great for the democratic party. what does the bloomberg campaign say? >> you know, i think that what we are really focused on is getting the delegates that we need tonight. i think a contested convention, while an option out there, is certainly one that we would try to avoid. we definitely want to see if we can secure the delegates that we need to not only take on donald trump but bernie sanders if it does need to go to the convention floor. >> part of the reason for getting into this race for bloomberg was that joe biden was faltering. he wasn't doing so well. joe biden doesn't seem to be faltering any longer. are you guys going to take that into consideration or is that no longer a reason for being in this race? >> well, look, i mean, joe biden

did do exceptionally well on saturday in south carolina. that is just one state that he has won. and voters were already starting to vote in california and other places back when iowa caucusgoers were actually caucusing. we have to remember that there's still been a lot of early votes cast already. and while joe biden did win south carolina, we feel very confident about our chances moving forward for tonight and onward to next week as well. >> sabrina, just really quick. i heard from your campaign, a number of different states they're looking at winning tonight. you mentioned a couple i hadn't heard. colorado, utah. i also heard virginia, north carolina, in addition to oklahoma and arkansas. are you looking at basically every super tuesday state, maybe not california, as one that you guys can win? >> i think we've certainly laid the groundwork in every super tuesday state. we have some of the biggest operations in those states with deep infrastructures. of course we're looking at every single super tuesday state there is. the ones i mentioned are the

ones where we seem to think that we will see a good amount of support coming out for mike. that said, you have to keep your eye on the prize on all the states that are voting tonight. >> sabrina singh thank you for joining us. good luck out there tonight. >> thank you. with me here in santa monica is los angeles times reporter seema mehta and eli sokel. good to see you in "new york times" territory. mike bloomberg is making a huge bet with his wallet in a number of super tuesday states, including this one. what are you making out from his ad spends? >> we've never seen like this before. can he hit that 15% threshold and get some delegates? if he can't, this will be an enormous waste of money. >> he's hovering around 15, 16% right now. >> right. if he does not rake in a number of delegates, i know the campaign is saying that they'll

move on no matter what, but traes got to be a threshold across super tuesday states to proceed to be a pragmatic choice to stay in this race. >> he's a businessman and has made millions of dollars and knows a losing bet once he sees one. he saw an opportunity here. whether it pays off, we don't know. if he was in the race two states ago when biden really was faltering, maybe it would have been a different story. but biden has rebounded now. and anecdotally, they're going with biden. bloomberg is a safety net that doesn't seem like they need him anymore. florida makes sense for him to be there. great state for mike bloomberg but will he be viable when the race gets there? that's the big question. >> he has all this money. he's not just going up against trump or biden but up against sanders. what happens if there is a contested convention? >> something i've never seen in

my lifetime. >> no. >> i'm eager to see, because i've never seen this. the question is, does it tear the party apart more so than when 2016 was torn apart in 2016, you didn't have a contested convention but a bitter fight between bernie sanders and hillary clinton, which some argued hillary clinton hurt her ability to unify the party. potential seems like it could be worse. >> potentially further dividing the party. i talk to bernie sanders voters, some say that they wouldn't vote for anybody else. but then when i talk to anti-bernie sanders voters they say there's no way they're going to vote for sanders. that doesn't sound like a recipe for success in november. >> there's so much daylight between bernie sanders and mike bloomberg. a lot of candidates said bloomberg isn't a democrat. a lot of people look at sanders and say bernie's not a democrat. he's a socialist. bringing them together will be difficult and that's what you see brmp trying to play on, when

he's tweeting, talking at rallies, perpetuating this idea that bernecy getting screwed here. bernie sanders, a lot of his supporters are driven by the same grievance politics that you see donald trump using on the conservative side. do they come back into the fold or do they start to -- bernie has dismissed a lot of that stuff from trump. the president is out there, pushing those buttons, because he knows there's still some soreness and sensitivity from 2016 and certainly the way the establishment is coalescing around biden right now, that's more fodder for trump and the bernie folks who see something nefarious happening and see him not getting a fair shot. >> donald trump is always going to put salt in the wound when he can. >> no doubt. no doubt. >> i was talking to a bloomberg voter who walked in because she said she believed bloomberg was the most logical choice to go against trump. when i asked if she would vote for any democrat she said of course, i'm anti-donald trump, but then she paused and said

maybe not bernie sanders. seema mehta, eli stokols, thank you for joining me. people across 14 states are voting today. we'll check in at our polling stations coast to coast. latino voters in california are expected to turn out big for bernie sanders. i went to east l.a. to find out why. that, when our coverage continues from santa monica. >> tech: don't wait for a chip like this to crack your whole windshield. th sa, you get a strong repair that you can trust. plus, with most insurance a safelite repair is no cost to you. >> customer: really?! >> singers: safelite repair, safelite replace. that's unnecessarily complicated. make ice. making ice. but you're not because you have e*trade which isn't complicated. their tools make trading quicker and simpler so you can take on the markets with confidence. don't get mad get e*trade.

the democrats love latino voters and given the number of latino voters there are, there's always this frustration that given how big the electorate is, not that many of them show up. >> part of loving the vote isn't just loving it the week before election. >> roadway. >> it's loving it the whole way through. it's bringing in candidates that speak to the community, the issues. it's not about coming a week before and eating a taco with a local elected official either.

it's about coming to community meetings, building trust. when people go out to vote they remember you not just because you came a week before but they know they can trust you. >> no one wants a johnny come lately? >> exactly. >> as you heard right there, the latino community, it's all about building a relationship with the voters. if you do that, that relationship can really pay off. latinos are the fastest growing population in america. according to pew, 32 million are eligible to vote. that is why the sanders campaign has invested not just money but time and resources in places like east los angeles. yesterday, community organizers told me bernie's team has been strengthening their relationship with latino voters since 2015. they say his campaign never left and never just showed up to eat a taco with a local official. with me now here in santa monica, "new york times" politico reporter and executive director of the league of women voters of los angeles. ladies, thank you so much for being here. jennifer, you had a podcast on

the daily, an interview on the daily about latino voters in east los angeles. and you really showed the divide between the younger latino voters and older latino voters. this was just a few weeks ago. >> older people who weren't sanders' voters and now think they will be or are going to be. there's still a generational divide between older latinos who are looking at biden or bloomberg. >> you look a certain way, you vote a certain way. tell me what we can understand about that voting bloc, though. >> what we do know is that they care about everyday issues. so the latino population, most of them are less likely to have health care coverage. that's a big issue.

additionally, issues of the economy. so, how much money they're bringing home. how much do they get to keep, hourly wages. the economy is really important, because it impacts their daily liv lives. along with gun safety control because unfortunately the latino population due to guns in our communities. so, as a result, you have a lot of candidates speaking with those issues, you can see it working for some candidates. >> i went to east l.a. last night and walked around with some canvassers, get out the vote workers, talking to voters and here is a little bit of what we were able to find. is it between bernie sanders and joe biden? >> bernie sanders. >> bernie sanders? [ speaking foreign language ]

>> they're going to be supporting him. >> does your daughter, is it your daughter leading the charge? >> translator: oh, wow! >> your daughter is going to vote for donald trump? >> the economy. >> the economy? >> yeah. >> you don't see that too much but it's fascinating. the latino community you're seeing that there's still this stubborn 10 to 15% of the population who pulls in favor of donald trump. >> why do you think that is? >> at least in my family, i don't know, some folks are members of law enforcement, some folk folks, you know, just really focus on the economy.

i don't know what the exact reasons are. that seems to be the fight within the latino community. >> when i talked to members of the community, a lot of the families are mixed status. some members of the family can't vote, others can. but it's a family decision, deciding who they want to vote for. the family will come together and say we have this one vote or these two votes and this is the candidate we want. >> voters who have lively whatsapp, 50 members of a family on one group text and one person was leading the charge for sanders and managed to convince 50 of his relatives to do the same. i do think you see that. >> sanders, as one of the organizers was telling me, has been here since 2015 and they've been building relationships, they have spanish speakers. they have local community members and elected officials who go out and preach the gospel of bernie sanders to latino

voters, they hand out life-size posters. the other campaigns have not seemed to match that dedication. am i wrong? >> there's some -- you're correct. i think we, in california, have seen a benefit because the primary has been moved up to march from june. we've seen a will the more infrastructure, a lot more rallies in the last couple of weeks that have definitely brought a lot of voters in person with some of the candidates, a lot of the canvassing. it's also important, the hubs, that's where a lot of inroads have been made by the bernie campaign. they haven't left those campuses. and today universities of california have vote centers on their campuses, so college campuses are a hub for information. >> thank you so much for joining

us. we appreciate it. next up, we're whipping around the country to see how things are going at polling places in texas and virginia. two other states with a lot of delegates up for grab. we are live from santa monica pier right after a very quick break. k... a lot will happen in your life. wrinkles just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's fastest retinol formula works so fast. it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. making wrinkles look so last week. rapid wrinkle repair® pair with retinol oil for 2 times the wrinkle fighting power. neutrogena® it's velveeta shells & cheese versus the other guys. ♪ clearly, velveeta melts creamier.

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three of the states are very large, california, texas and virginia have a combined total of 742 delegates in play. and we have reporters in all three of the states. so first to houston and msnbc's garrett haake. what are you finding? >> i'm in harris county, that's the houston area, the beating heart of the democratic party in texas. this county alone will have more people vote than live in iowa and new hampshire combined. the line has never gotten shorter than about an hour and a half or two hours. i'm finding as you would expect in the whole foods area i'm standing in now, some good anecdotal news for joe biden. a lot of voters who wanted to pull the lever for pete buttigieg. pull him out and endorsing joe biden. they're going to come out and

vote for the former vice president. they were waiting to see, texas has a robust early voting program, they were waiting to cast their votes today, to make sure the former vice president was still in the game, not just on the ballot, still a force will presence in this race. the harris county is a county to watch here tonight. nobody's going to win this state without it. it's something we're going to continue to watch in december. they expect a robust turnout here. in part by the races by the signs you see around you, katie. >> tons of signs, garrett. i bet there's one in there for you as well. garrett haake, for close to his hometown. thanks very much. >> jeff, what do you find?

>> a high concentration of african-american voters, a ton to use the technical term, a ton of moderate voters here, this is really home to the d.c. establishment, the white house, capitol hill, pentagon, about a half hour's drive from here, one of the reasons joe biden has won the endorsement sweepstakes in virginia, is because you have so many of those lawmakers who know him, who worked with him. there are a lot of voters here when joe biden talks about restoration, not revolution, that's an argument that resonates with people. >> he's hoping sort of the centrist focus will boost his campaign bid as well. >> you have 99 delegates up at stake. >> jeff bennett, thank you very much. standing by for us in orange county, california, joeling

kent. >> we are at the orange county registrar, this is where a lot of action is going to be. these drives are going to be handed off through this gate to the orange county register. they look like usb drives, they are secure and will be carrying all the votes. perhaps you're familiar with a tube that looks like it belongs in an old drive up bank. the idea is to stick these votes into this tube. put them in here and hit that button. i'm not going to do that right now. this will get transported to a cold voting tally section. but until that happens, which is later tonight, we're receiving a pretty strong turnout from mail in votes. 23% of voters have already

voighted either in person or by male. these are all being sorted by precinct. you can see here, they're getting sorted in these vfls. thousands of votes right here. then people who are working here today are going to sort the envelopes, and organize those ballots. then we're going to bring you back here to the scanning center. and they will be scanned inside here. so the votes will be scanned, we'll find out exactly who's getting supported, and then they will be transported to that cold storage tally room where we will find out who is getting supported here, now, of course, katie, we do know that orange county is a very important place for possibly a moderate candidate like joe biden. this is an area where it was very red and has flipped to blue. we'll be watching how sanders does and maybe a little elizabeth warren action as well.

>> it was a big focus in 2018. as part of the aren't house turned blue, in 2018 as well, so a lot of concern about down ballot candidates in orange county, 415 delegates in this state alone, joeling kent, thank you very much, our coverage of super tuesday continues from the santa morningic ka pier after a very quick break. do you have concerns about mild memory loss related to aging? prevagen is the number one pharmacist-recommended memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

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don't forget to tune in to our special live coverage of super tuesday results. i'll be in east los angeles at a polling place out there. it all begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern, 4:00 p.m. pacific right here on msnbc. thank you for joining us from santa monica, here's ali velshi in new york. tuning in as katie said for our special coverage of super tuesday tonight. i'll be here through the course of the night. what i want to tell you about what's going on in the markets. right now we're off 2 and 3/4% on the new york stock exchange. what you see here is at the beginning, half hour after

marketings started. the fed cut rates by half a%. the sugar rush didn't last long. wall street wasn't thrilled by the move. and it's showing that with a huge drop in the markets. the market is struggling to come up 685 points. 2 1/2%. you can see that those losses are across the board, i want to invite my good friend sue herera over from krng nbc to tell us what happened. it isn't often the federal reserve cuts rates between its regularly scheduled meetings, which are about six weeks apart, it's not typical it cuts it by 50 basis points. that happens when things are quite serious, it did it, why such a tepid reaction from the markets or what seems to be a negative reaction? >> a negative reaction, because it was so unexpected as as you mentioned, it was bigger than the market would see. we've only really seen the fed come in and do an emergency rate

cut which is what this is. a couple times in history. one was with lehman brothers, the other was in 2008 financial crisis. and the analyst and traders i've talked to basically said, we must be facing a considerable risk from the corona virus that the fed would come in unexpectedly and do an emergency cut of half a%. they don't have all that much ammunition. interest rates are new record lows anyway. the 10-year note dipped below 1% for the first time in history. i think the bond market is letting us know the pain isn't over, and the fed is worried about the corona virus impact on the economy. >> even with that rate cut, which is meant to make interest bearing things less attractive. people went into bonds driving those rates lower. the president had been talking and tweeting about the federal reserve cutting rates for a while, typically the federal reserve is is not supposed to

take its direction from the president. >> it was interesting, because the fed basically has said over and over again they're not list thing to what the president has to say about lowering interest rates. they're focusing on the economy and the data, when the fed chief held his news conference about 11:00 a.m. eastern time jerome powell was stern when asked that question, is the fed paying attention to what the president is asking them to do. he said, no, we're trading interestly, i'm not sure the traders on wall street, i think they suspect he's getting a lot of pressure, jerome powell is getting a lot of pressure from the feds. >> that's a proven matter. we often talk about it, with respect to things like law enforcement or the justice department.

it's meant to be an independent buy. >> absolutely. it functions that way certainly, right after the fed did this emergency cut the president tweeted the fed needs to cut more. if you look at the impact of negative rates of the countries that now hold negative rates like japan and italy. those countries are not doing well economically at all. how much pressure is the fed going to be under with the president once again with the fed asking to cut interest rates. >> now to our other top story of the day, the super tuesday voting. >> voters in 14 states and american samoa are getting a choice to choose which democrat they want. the dynamics of this race

changed considerably overnight. pete buttigieg and amy klobuchar dropping out of the race and throwing their support behind joe biden. vermont senator bernie sanders hopes to hold on to his front-runner status and build up a huge lead in the delegate count. despite sanders front-runner status, elizabeth warren is taking aim at biden, as she tries to stay in the race. voting for biden is a big risk for the democratic party and the country. and former new york city mayor michael bloomberg, hopes to get a return on the hundreds of millions of dollars he's poured into this campaign. this is the first time in the race he's been on the ballot. >> he wasn't there for iowa, new hampshire, nevada or south carolina. the road warriors are out in full force across super tuesday's states. two of them join us right now. he joins us from los angeles, gabe gutierrez is covering the

bloomberg campaign. he joins us from a campaign office in west palm beach, florida for biden, because of bernie sander's lead in the polling that's led up to now, there was a danger in some places. if you didn't get 15% of the vote, he doesn't get any delegates. with buttigieg out and klobuchar out that risk seems to be diminished. what does success seem for the biden campaign tonight. >> i interviewed the vice president yesterday, and asked him about the potential of appearing with some of these other candidates who had just dropped out of the race, this is before their endorsements came, he said, i hope so, everything is happening so fast, sure enough, six hours later, a few miles down the road, we were in dallas, first at a chicken restaurant the with pete buttigieg and then at a big rally with amy klobuchar and beto o'rourke. the momentum is building for the biden campaign, is all this happening too fast for him to capitalize today. one endorsement is be getting

more endorse 789s. i liked how they referred to joe biden winning the sweep stakes. jim comey tweeted when he went to the polls in virginia, he voted for what the klobuchar message was, someone who cares about americans and would rezpoer decency to the white house. that of course was joe bind for him. amy klobuchar endorsement focusing into a biden ad buy, using her own words in her home state to endorse joe biden. encourage those voters in minneapolis and minnesota all of this comes down to a delegate strategy. we talk about whether he's going to hit the viability numbers statewide. most of the delegates that are awarded tonight are going to come from congressional delegates. more than 800 of the delegates at stake tonight will be awarded

in additional districts. the biden campaign is investing them into the biggest delegate hall -- where they had the ad go up today. >> florida is an interesting place to be right now, one of the arguments that mike bloomberg makes is that someone like him can win florida. democrats continue to worry about wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania. but the idea is, places like texas or florida were to go for a democratic candidate, that could be the whole ball game. >> that's exactly right. bloomberg is banking on states like florida. this is one of his campaign offices, one of 16 campaign offices that have sprung up around the state. bloomberg has not only put in half a million dollars on campaign spending, he's hired 160 plus paid staffers here in florida. and he continues to make the case that he is best positioned to win florida in november. this morning at a campaign

office in miami, blasted bernie sanders saying sanders recent comments about fidel castro make it impossible for sanders to win florida. and keeps insisting that he is best positioned to win the state. i caught up with bloomberg and asked them about this changing race. take a listen on what he had to say. >> why not vote around biden. >> we're here to win it. ask everybody else how long they're going to stay. >> nothing's change in the last few days. >> nothing's change in the last few days. >> we've had four elections so far. four primaries. three different -- >> all right, guys. >> bloomberg remains defiant, insisting he's not dropping out of the race. another interesting thing is, this morning, he also said for

the first time that he basically says there's no way he can win without a contested convention. he's been stressing the zell gatt count over the last couple days. bloomberg admitting that without a contests convention, there's no path to victory for him. that's opening him up to some criticism for other democrats. >> they're trying to prevent this from becoming a two person race. >> we're going to be talking about that through the course of the night. the degree to which anybody looks like they're going to get enough delegates to not end up with a contested convention. thanks to both of you. mike and gabe. >> bernie sanders cast his primary ballot this morning in his hometown of burlington vermont. joining me now is ari raven hoft. previously served as an aide to harry reid. thank you for joining us. this is an interesting question.

we just left it with gabe about the idea of -- about a third of all the delegates you need tonight are available. what do you need to happen tonight. what does bernie sanders need to happen in order to cement his position as a front-runner and look like the person who when people drop out or people want to endorse, go to bernie sanders. >> look, it's a very good map for us. we're pleased with our operation. nearly more than 5 million downers has given us the resources to fight across the country. the contributions has enabled us to compete across this map. colorado, vermont, maine. i'm standing here on lake champlain. we think this will be a great night for us.

>> what will do you make of the delegate -- the endorsement lottery that we've been talking about. so many people over the last 24 hours have come out and gathered behind joe biden. >> frankly, i think we've won the endorsement lottery. andrea ocasio-cortez, we were in minnesota, keith ellison has endorsed this campaign. we picked up the endorsement yesterday at democracy for america. the nation magazine i think we won the endorsement lottery, quite frankly. >> the argument that will bernie sanders opponents are making is that you're going to have to do more than that to win the election he talks about how it's going to be the election of the

century. >> the american people want to stop being mired in student debt, bernie sanders is the candidate who has a plan to get them out of it. bernie sanders is the one candidate -- >> i'll interrupt you, i hear you, i that's not -- different question. i get the policies and i get why the people who really like bernie sanders really like his policies. >> people think it's too much, you can't pay for it, i'm not looking for that kind of revolution. what do you do for all those voters, there are a lot of working class americans who voted for donald trump in the last election. they may do so again. >> those working class americans

have opposed the trade deals that bernie sanders has opposed. republican, independent, democrat, support the $15 an hour minimum wage that bernie sanders has championed. those working class voters who may have voted for other candidates support those policies. these policies are only radical in the odd confines of washington, d.c.. out in america, these are the policies people want over and over and over again. on the other hand, this is very important. donald trump is going to wage a vicious negative campaigning against any candidate. i trulg believe if you put up a candidate that voted for those trade deals and continue to back them as they decimate jobs across the midwest, you're going to have problems in wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania. that is a simple fact that joe

biden supported those trade deals, and that will create a big problem. we're going to have a problem with people facing medical bankruptcicy. >> you're on lake champlain -- >> because of the bill joe wrote. >> you're on lake champlain. you can probably see canada from there. there's nothing radical about $15 minimum wages, everybody in the country getting universal health care. i hear you, i hear what you're saying, i also watched as you did, where people maybe didn't vote in their best interests and voted for a narrative and a story that -- work out for them. weirdly, we continue to see support for that. bernie sanders has got to pull a bunch of people over, who don't think they would support bernie sanders, except that he has policies they would support. how does that happen? i'm just asking how it gets done. i hear the arguments and i know the arguments really well. >> we have to tell the story to the american people. the reason our grassroots

campaign is so important, and the money we raised is so important, we will have the resources to wage that vigorous campaign that says to the american people we're giving you a choice of policies that benefit you. you have donald trump over here, the worst president in the history of the country offering lies and distortions, and bernie sanders offering real solutions. when people are presented with that choice, he will win. when you look at our opponent in this primary, you have to look at the fact that he supported things like the bankruptcy bill. people are struggling with credit card debt, where as bernie sanders has a plan to cap credit card interest rates. those things will matter to people in the general election. >> thank you for joining me. a deputy campaign manager for bernie sanders. a lot at stake on super

tuesday, i want to take a look at this. the candidates are competing for the majority of the 3,979 totaling pledge delegates that will be at the delegation in july. if you don't western the nomination on the first ballot a lot of nonpledge delegates come in, it gets messier. of the total, 1344 pledge del flats are up for grabs today in 14 states and american issamoa. in order to western a delegate will need to get at least 15% of the vote, either 15% of the total vote cast statewide or 15% of the vote in a congressional district. the two biggest prices tonight by far, there are others that are interesting for symbolic reasons, california and texas are the two biggest. they account for as you can see, almost half of all the delegates that are up for grabs today. california itself has 415 pledge

delegates, just over 10% of the total that will be at the convention. texas has 228. joining me now to talk about what's happening in california is the chair of the texas democratic party, and secretary of state alex padilla in california. thank you to both of you for being here. let he start with you, in texas. there's sort of a ground swell in texas of latino vote that is showing signs of real change in the way texas votes on a federal level and state level. what is happening with that population in terms of encouraging them to come out and vote today. >> the democratic party has been pushing really high turnout, at the time of the primary. and we believe that that's something that will show a high turnout in november as well. we've been spending a lot of

time messaging, trying to get our voters out, and we also have some hotly contested elections in this state right now, there's 7 congressional districts that have been targeted by the dccc. we're targeting 22 seats in the texas house as well. that we're working toward flipping the texas house. we need nine more to flip the texas house. all that activity has resulted in the largest turnout in primary turnout that i've ever seen. we're hitting a million. doubling what we've had in 2018 and to 16. i believe this kind of a turnout is a good sign for the future of where texas is at. with respect to the democratic party. we came within a few points of electing beto "rourke the united

states senator, he was short 225,000 votes. in this state that's a fraction. we think that any presidential candidate gets the nomination, stands a good chance of winning texas, given the large growth we've had in the suburbs. you know in the state of texas today, 75% of the people who live in this state live in counties controlled by democrats. it's quickly moving in that direction. the primary turnout with democrats is a sign of that. >> a huge suburb outside of harris county, housten. a huge suburb right outside of austin. those suburbs have doubled since

2018. we are hopeful texas is moving in the direction it needs to be moving in. i don't know who the votes are going to, but i know a lot of candidates for president are really competing for those primary votes that are coming out of texas. >> we've been reporting on how los angeles county spent the last 10 years creating the voting system of the future. $300 million fleet of cutting edge machines. built from scratch for voting. how do you think this is going to play out? >> i think that's been working well. i think the california is leading the nation not just when it comes to election security. but also accessibility. we just talked for a minute here about the growth of the population in texas, look at the growth of the voter roles in

california. we're coming into this presidential primary with 27 million voters on the roles. that's 3 million voters more than we were four years ago, and new machines to make it not just secure from an election administration standpoint, but more accessible. and frankly 15 counties throughout the state of where they can cast their ballot not just on election day over the course of 12e days of voting, and that's for folks who didn't vote by male to begin with. between -- making it easier to register, easier to vote and raw excitement and energy out there, predicting a big turnout today. 3.8 million have been returned, what happens to those people who voted for candidates who are no longer in the race.

do they have any -- >> all your down ballot votes still matter, your vote for congress, legislator, local candidates and measures. with 4 million ballots in, that means there's 12 million ballots that are still out there. and 27 million voters on the rolls. we expect post an today. vote by male ballots. that are postmarked on or before election day, we give it until friday to arrive and still be counted. all that being said, we'll have a good sense of most contests tonight. it's going to take a few weeks to final official results. >> alberto hinojosa is the chairman of the party. look forward to watching the results with you tonight, gentlemen. coming up next, with the

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just minutes ago, president trump said he's not strongly considering closing the southern border or increasing travel restrictions amid the corona virus outbreak. >> we'll make that decision with these professionals, we made an early decision based on a little bit of luck, i suspect. that was the original decision on china itself. and china in all fairness to them, they never blamed us, it was a tough decision for them, they fully understood, they were reasonable about it. but that was a hard decision to make. i guess we would have had a lot more people with difficulty if we didn't make that decision very early on. we'll be making additional decisions as they arise i guess. >> great, highly specific information. this comes after washington state confirms its ninth death

from the virus, most of them are in king county. one in snohomish county. all near seattle. 122 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the united states. which includes people who have recovered from the disease. robin, thank you for joining us. >> let's just understand the testing issue here. >> we say 122 confirmed cases, 122 people have been tested, and that's what we found. there seems to be a testing issue, that everybody who might have corona virus can't get a test right now. >> that's certainly the case. unfortunately, we did have that problem with the first set of test kits. as far as i know, it's been several thousand people tested in the united states, and obviously, as we start testing more and more. we're going to find more cases. we find it a corn -- certain

way. do you think, should everybody be tested, everybody who coughs and sneezes be tested? >> we won't have capacity for that. i think now, however we are moving to a next phase, and that phase is personal preparedness, workplace preparedness and community preparedness, right now we can start doing a little more, ramp it up a bit of a notch. >> this is important. and i don't know where government preparedness comes into that. opinional workplace and community. in fact it strikes me the best preparedness in this country is at a community level, that's where it executes, right? >> absolutely. absolutely. that personal protection that we can enforce on our own and certainly stuff that we can do at the workplace at the worksite. and furthermore, what we can do at the community level. i was thinking a few minutes ago, what about soup kitchens, are we prepared to be able to host food kitchens if we don't

have staff? anyone with disabilities, but in the home setting, there is certainly a number of things we can do to keep ourselves healthy, that's primarily our major goal at this stage. certainly to keep ourselves as safe as we can, without getting panicky. >> what are the basic things people should do on their own. >> first of all, for the general public we don't have enough masks. for ourselves, we're all hearing about increased hand washing that's certainly number one. we can certainly cover our coughs, use respiratory etiquette as much as we can. try to isolate ourselves a little bit from other people. i notice it happening on the subways already. one thing i got a message just before i came here and that was from the nyu president. he's now asking all of the nyu family to not travel

internationally for the next 60 days. >> i see florida has issued that, google. a number of major companies. >> we're a huge university, 11 campuses overseas. that was a little surprising for me, but i think prudent at this stage. >> be prudent, do necessary things don't panic. >> get the thermometer, get the cans, the stuff that you may need if you do have symptoms certainly, so you don't have to go out. i have a question whether some place like fresh direct or whole foods, will they deliver for people who are kooped up for 14 days? >> thank you for joining us at the nyu department of epidemiology and global public health. elizabeth warren scores a big endorsement from emily's list. a record breaking number of women elected to congress during the 2018 midterms. is this enough to give warren the boost she needs tonight to stay in the race?

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warren is aiming to prove she's in the race for the long term. with amy klobuchar campaign's suspension, warren is the lone top ranking female candidate. that's brought in a new endorsement from emily's list, the political powerhouse known for its efforts to elect prochoice women. the president of emily's list, stephanie shrioc joins me now. thank you for being with us. >> tell me why you've decided to endorse eye liz beth warren. >> this has definitely been the most unique situation for emily's list over the last year. we've had four incredible united states senators running, and the truth was, we just couldn't pick one over the other. when senator klobuchar ended her campaign, we were ready to go, and we really think that senator warren has a really incredible

vision and would make a very good president. >> what's your argument to people who don't see that yesterday. the thufenthusiasm, the endorsements. it doesn't seem to play out, it didn't play out in iowa, new hampshire, nevada or south carolina. what's the case you make to the people to whom you speak? >> absolutely. this is just getting started, and the field just shrunk down. we have one woman now really in the top four, that's what's going to be -- folks are going to focus on. elizabeth has wisely built this out for the long hall, she has organized a kpaen that is on the groundworking for these states coming up. this isn't something focused on one state, she's in this for the long hall. she has a muth donor base that continues to drive financial resources to her in a really powerful way. and in fact she raised over $29 million in the month of

february. that's extraordinary for somebody who is not seen by the national polls. gut you start looking at some of these state numbers and she is polling in double-digits. and i think you're going to see, we've expected she's a lot of people's second choice. as this field shrinks down, it's going to be interesting to see how she does tonight. and we think she's going to surprise some people in some states tonight. >> the last three years has shown it's brought in sharp relief rights that women enjoy in this country. it was a distraction until now. now there is legislation around the country that is really a threat to women and their freedoms in this country. what is it about elizabeth warren. if you're a woman in this country you need for that not to happen any more. is she the best chance for that to stop or should women be thinking exclusively about who beats trump? >> i absolutely believe

elizabeth warren can beat trump and we do the work we need to do, this thing is wide open. we have the real shot at making herb the nominee. i've said this a lot. i don't believe beating trump is about one individual person, it's about all of us coming together particularly women voters in this country. the stakes are so high, and what we saw in 2018 were women voters coming out really in historic numbers in midterms to determine that the house needed to be controlled by democrats. and what we believe at emily's list, is that 2020 is going to see a historic turnout with the historic number of women voters joining that. with someone like elizabeth warren who can unify this party, bring both sides together with a vision for the future, we think that's how we win and beat trump. we believe she's the one that can unify this party. >> stephanie, thank you.

coming up, mike bloomberg makes his primary ballot debut tonight. he entered the race late, he has no delegates to his name, he's counting on the hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into some ads to give him a big day today. let me tell you something, i wouldn't be here if i thought reverse mortgages took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse mortgage loan to cover expenses,

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but what i do count on is boost high protein. and now, introducing new boost women... with key nutrients to help support thyroid, bone, hair and skin health. all with great taste. new, boost women. designed just for you. former new york city mayor michael bloomberg is appearing on primary ballots for the first time he's still in it to win it. he's looking way beyond today, counting on a contested convention in milwaukee in july. >> are you expected to win in. >> i don't know. you don't have to wing states, you have to windell gatts. i think what happens here, nobody gets a majority, the best, someone will have a plurality. and then you go to a convention and we'll see what happens in the convention. last question?

>> do you want a contested -- >> well, i don't think i can win any other ways. >> bloomberg again called himself the only candidate that can beat president trump. joining me now, former abc news averager sam donaldson, a volunteer for the bloomberg campaign. thank you for being with us. what makes a guy like you get involved in a political campaign. >> i don't think i would have done so, because i'm retired from the news business. i can do anything part sang i want without selling my reputation. except for donald j. trump he must be defeated. we have one more chance to get the country back on track with the rest of the world. one more chance to stop hurting people in this country unnecessarily, the caged children at the southern border, all that stuff. i can't give money to mike bloomberg, he's financing his

own campaign. i'll come out as an unpaid volunteer and see if i can talk about him. >> let's talk about the role that bloomberg had, he came into this campaign after joe biden had been anointed the leader and got off to a rough start, now with the momentum that joe biden's picking up out of south carolina, in the long term. what is the result for having mike bloomberg still there if joe biden isn't floundering. >> because of the reason we both talked about. i think mike bloomberg is a man to beat donald j. trump. nothing's guaranteed. you know something, before i joined mike bloomberg, before he got into the race, i gave money to joe biden, he's a nice guy. but i think he doesn't have the fire in the belly. i think he doesn't have what it takes to get in a knife fight in the back alley with donald trump taught by roy kohn to win at any cost. no matter you hurt anyone, try

to never concede a point. i don't think joe's the guy. i think mike bloomberg's the guy, and he's proven it in new york city as the mayor of the biggest city in our country. everybody in this race, no one except mike after pete has dropped out, having been the mayor of a small town can say i was an executive who had to deal with all the problems that someone who runs a large entity has to deal with. the others make policy, more power to them. but they haven't hit the road where that rubber is so important mike has. >> you covered some of the crisis that presidents cover, there are a lot of critics about how donald trump has handled these things. mike bloomberg took out a long ad talking about how he would handle corona virus. this is important. the coronavirus thing has added a new layer to the race.

giving americans a sense of these candidates through a lens of what happens, come election day, we're steeped in this global pandemic. what's the argument you have for mike bloomberg. he believes the cdc and other experts say this is bad and it could get far worse, you can't just dismiss it as a hoax, or a plot for the democrats. he blames other people, he surrounds himself with people who do know about science, who do know how to do it, the people who know how to curtail this and he gives them every pool that they need to get the job done. mike is a data man. there's a bag he gives out, it says, in god we trust. all else bring data. trump has no idea what the data are. and if he does, he's got it wrong. i mean, mike gets things done.

can i just take -- i know time is short, if you want someone touchy feely, call bill clinton, he'll come and feel your pain, he cares about you. but when he leaves you'll still have your pain. if you want someone on problems using the data to solve the problem of your pain and get rid of it, don't call solve, call mike. he gets things done. that's the basis, i think, of really saying yes, we all want to feel with our heart. >> sam, it's interesting being on the other side, right? where you don't have an executive producer in your ear telling you you've got to wrap. i do, unfortunately. sam donaldson, a bloomberg campaign volunteer. have a good one, sir. >> thank you. >> sam is also a former abc news anchor. federal reserve announces emergency rate cut in response

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officially hitting the us.virus ♪go your own way 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. >> stocks plummeting this afternoon even though the federal reserve delivered emergency rate cuts just this morning. the cuts came as part of an effort by the federal reserve to ease the potential impact of the

coronavirus outbreak on the economy, but if you look at the market today, at least in the short-term, it doesn't seem to be working. joining me now, an old friend who i sometimes have to lean on when things get this serious. a thomas d. cabot professor at harvard university, former chief economist for the imf. good to see you, ken, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> when things get like this, when they start going pear shaped, i need to hear from ken rogoff what we, mere mortals, are supposed to think. >> i don't know what to think. i'm not a physician. i think the best chance -- there's a panic, there's a kind of shock. frankly, we haven't seen the same kind of thing before. it's not just the demand shock, people are staying home and not buying anything, it's a supply shock. people are staying home and not making anything. >> usually it's one or the

other, and demand slows down, supply still there. we have both of those things happening in concert. how do you think about these? you studied recessions, this could trigger one. maybe it won't. but they're not existential. none of these things are existential. the market never doesn't come back and recessions never don't end but we have a tendency of thinking these things as the worst thing that's going to change how we look at life and some people sell their stocks because of it. how are you given to thinking about the long-term effects, never mind the short-term effects of a few weeks of sell-offs on the markets? >> well, as far as the markets go, i think it's very hard to say which way it's going to go. i think it's a little asymmetric, much more willingli go back up but i don't know what's next. we see 10 year interest rates at rates we've never seen them. people are very scared, obviously, nervous, you know, at the same time, i think china is

going to feel this the worst. i think if there's a global recession, it will be the first time it's coming out of china and the u.s., it's not going to help us but we're still not a certainty at all with the recession. >> are you worried that this is going to fundamentally affect, we are a consumer society. we're the biggest consumer society, more consumery than most people. china more consumery than it used to be, but that's what we do. are we looking at potential behavior change that is have a long-term structural effect on our economy because of the things we're going to do or do you think this too shall pass and we'll get back to buying stuff after some seemingly catastrophic event? >> the one prediction i feel confident, ali, is we'll go back to buying things the way we normally do after this, the panic will pass. and this will, you know, financial crises, crises leek this, you're absolutely right. they're not forever. people cringe, you never know what's coming next, but of

course, this will eventually go away. again, i think the place that's really going to be feeling this for years is actually china. everybody thinks they have their act together, they don't. they're on a declining slope and it's going to hit the whole world. that said, i mean, the united states, there are actions we need to take. and i don't know if we're going to take them. >> good to talk you as always. ken rogoff, former chief economist at the international monetary fund. thank you, sir. we'll be back. you're watching msnbc. as a struggling actor, i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchemel... cut. liberty mu... line? cut. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. cut. liberty m... am i allowed to riff? what if i come out of the water? liberty biberty... cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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markets closing down almost exactly 300 points lower, after the fed cut rate today. be sure to stick with msnbc for today. super tuesday coverage will be on all night, bringing you exit polling and primary results. i'll be back at 2:00 a.m. eastern. thank you for watching. nicole wallace begins now. >> reporter: 4:00 on this super tuesday. hours away from the polls closing on what's likely the biggest night of the democratic primary race so far. with more than a third of the delegates required to win the nomination up for grabs in a race that looks dramatically different today than even one day ago. support for joe biden has skyrocketed in national polling, up 10 points since sunday. a new morning poll, biden reclaiming a s