joining me now, howard dean, former vermont governor, dnc chair, david plouffe, former obama campaigner and now an msnbc political analyst. governor dean, let me start with you. i'm going to save the iowa discussion for the second half here. we spent a lot of time on that. how important is it for the party to get clarity over the next couple of weeks? >> it's not critical. we've had races that -- the obama/clinton race in 2008 went right to the end, so it's -- sometimes it's better to have your nominee earlier. democrats are peculiar people. we'll get there and then we'll get cold feet an somebody else will jump in at the very ending so i'm very laid back about this process. i think the democrats are doing fine and i'm not even close to panic. >> david plouffe, it does feel as if there's panic, there's some panic maybe in the acela corridor over biden. there's panic over uncertainty of -- if it's buttigieg, then what? then it's bloomberg. that's the anxiety i'm sensing right now. it's less that there's indecision about the pragmatists, it's more fear that either bloomberg or buttigieg

she remains undecided and called the debate in her words, discouraging at best. >> david plouffe, i want to show you the front page of tomorrow's new york daily news. your picture newspaper. bloom goes the dynamite, about the former mayor's performance. and david, ab made the point that the vote in nevada is still on the move. it is still a fluid thing, and let's not let them entirely off the hook. let's remember the national party chairman said today, we may or may not do results on the actual day of the vote. they're going to do of these three rounds of data just like iowa. so this could be another interesting weekend. and sooner or later, there may be questions about this party's ability to hold elections. >> well, caucuses. >> caucuses. >> we talked about this as it relates to iowa. i understand the motivation. i think the original sin behind what happened in iowa is the three sets of data. caucuses are not primaries. if you want a primary, have a primary. that's probably where we're headed in future cycles. you know, my guess is -- my hope is what they were doing was a little cya. t

still with me here, donna edwards, sam seder and david plouffe.t's hard to kind of -- normally at this time of night we would be here what the numbers are and we'll look the entrance polls. we don't have any of that we have a rough sense of who feels they did well and who feels they did not do well. in that i would say that the klobuchar campaign was the first to come pout out. they didn't think they won the whole thing. you can give the big speech. but they also think they did well. and i'm curious what you think of the trajectory. >> i think that she was sort of the surprise in the night, at least to the extent we know any data. but i think she feels that way. it propels her into new hampshire in a way she might not have been. tonight could have been the end for her, but i think she feels resilient. she came off a lot of energy and a strong debate performance, raises a ton of money, goes back to the states and even though we all thought that her campaign would be dead in the water with the impeachment hearings because she was the one candidate w

thank you, david plouffe. by the way, obama's numbers were pretty good at the ending too. l beschloss, thank you, gentlemen. by the way, enjoy san francisco, david, love that city. >>> still ahead, the biden campaign is hoping to bounce back in upcoming primaries as they move into states with more diverse voters. that's coming up next here on "hardball." we made usaa insurance for members like kate. a former army medic, made of the flexibility to handle whatever monday has in store and tackle four things at once. so when her car got hit, she didn't worry. she simply filed a claim on her usaa app and said... i got this. usaa insurance is made the way kate needs it - easy. she can even pick her payment plan so it's easy on her budget and her life. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa try eucerin advanced repair and switch. it doubles your skin's moisture and repairs dry skin over time. so tomorrow can be a different story. eucerin - recommended and used by dermatologists. 1 in 3 deaths is caused by cardiovascular disease. eucerin - millions of patients are treated

joining me here in manchester is david plouffe, managed president obama's 2008 campaign. and msnbc political analyst, thankfully. great to see you, david. looking at the field right now, who is in the most trouble among the front runners? >> i think the question is -- you just spent time talking to amy klobuchar, there is a battle going on for third. and those in fourth and fifth may be struggling to raise the resources. i think bernie sanders is in the cat bird seat right now. if he did not win new hampshire, that's a blow. he has ability financially, known across the country, to go the distance. i managed an underdog campaign. we barely recovered from new hampshire. if it's amy klobuchar or pete, you have to keep exceeding expectations. i think bernie sanders is the most advantaged. >> probably the most threatenned is joe biden. take a look at joe biden and bernie sanders mixing it up over the weekend. >> he's a great guy. a great mayor. guess what? he's a mayor. this guy is not a barack obama. barack obama was a united states senator in a really large state. >> he says,

strategists james carville and david plouffe. analysts lawrence o'donnell and al sharpton and reporters. kasie hunt and the ap's jonathan lemire along with joe, willie and me, msnbc contributor mike barnicle. msnbc national affairs analyst and co-host of showtime the "the circus" and editor of the recount, john heilemann and former director of strategic communications for hillary clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, adrienne elrod is here with us. so -- >> all right. >> one day left. >> one day left, mika, and obviously still a lot of movement going on. whether it's bernie, you've got, of course, at the top right now you've got bernie and mayor people fighting each other. >> yeah. >> of course, you've got sort of second here, if you believe the polls, joe biden and elizabeth warren battles out there but somewhere in the middle amy klobuchar. >> something's happening. >> if you look at some polls, willie that have come out, man, it's -- she has made a late move. >> she has. we've got amy klobuchar on the show this morning. look a

we know david plouffe, remember him from obama? you get the picture. then the ceo of that company, the one who ran the app. she is married to pete buttigieg's campaign advisor. conflict of interest, don't you think? it's almost like in venezuela where hugh go sh -- where hugo chavez owns the voting machines. the buttigieg campaign gave $42,500 to her election app. for a party that claims we are on the verge of being hacked by the russians. >> now the russians are at it again. the russians are at it as we speak. trish: you think they might sort of care given all their concern about election security. they ought to care about their own election security. america's election security. the dems running the shadow election, they never tested the app. homeland security told us that. >> we offer services to both political parties. in this case they did offer a number of services, they took us up on some services, but testing the app, they declined that service. trish: what kinds of shop are they running at the dnc? how could anybody trust them to run our gover

of acronyms board members is david plouffe who was not a former hillary staffer but happens to be obama's former campaign manager and there's nothing wrong with the good judge campaign donating over $40000.00 to shadow ink so that they could create a totally awesome app that would turn bernie sanders iowa victory into an utter bastard phase. there is nothing fishy about booted judge declaring victory without any results and then 62 percent of the results being reported a day later yet the rest mysteriously taken days longer and yet prove that bernie would have won if everything had been counted accurately why are people acting like this is i guess. i. was going to tell you the only thing that seems strange to me the democratic machine have not . blame the russians yet what. are you waiting for how could something be without it being the russians ok i do not understand rachel maddow well yes we. seriously though them not one of the russians is terrified. i mean well what must the d.n.c. have planned for the months to come if they haven't yet blame to the russians. for more on what just wen

i had the sense of talking to david plouffe it was more wide open.think that has anything to do with the fact these numbers are coming in slowly. >> i hope not because i like to be right in my predictions. that's my hunch. i have a hunch it's going to be very predictable. i won't go over my numbers right now but i think it's going to be what we expected. it will be interesting so you haven't seen anything, folks, out there. the big excitement will build from now till super tuesday a month from tonight when we have big casino, when california, you know, goes up and i see bernie out there as a real threat to win california. a real chance to win it. i see bernie winning perhaps a number of big states but mike bloomberg's money will come into play there and all leading toward that. normally i'd say based upon my podcast, for example, it's the first rule. win iowa because 9 out of 11 presidential candidates would won iowa won the nomination. the only people that didn't were the local guy tom harkin and the neighbor dick gephardt so it's been a good leadin

m s n b c which is booted judge and biden central you heard one pundit after another including david plouffe who is a board member of the dark money nonprofit behind this mysterious voter app try to get him eyes iowa was importance the importance of the iowa caucuses and to confuse voters about the results and so 24 hours later nobody knows who the winner is and the same people who've been claiming russia was going to destroy our elections integrity have done just that another line just coming out here just to get your thoughts it's actually happening right now. we're hearing the british judge leads some to a 2nd with those 62 percent of the results that's the indiana seeing votes with 26.9 percent but the church has it 60 percent come to c.n.n. also stating that that's what 2 thirds roughly put a judge leads do you think that's going to change. you know i haven't heard anything about this poll i followed the exit polls closely sanders was winning among every demographic bernie sanders campaign released its own exit polls i think 60 percent of them which showed that he was the clear winner a

we know david plouffe, remember him from obama? you get the picture. then the ceo of that company, the one who ran the app. she is married to pete buttigieg's campaign advisor. conflict of interest, don't you think? it's almost like in venezuela where hugh go sh -- where hugo chavez owns the voting machines. the buttigieg campaign gave $42,500 to her election app. for a party that claims we are on the verge of being hacked by the russians. >> now the russians are at it again. the russians are at it as we speak. trish: you think they might sort of care given all their concern about election security. they ought to care about their own election security. america's election security. the dems running the shadow election, they never tested the app. homeland security told us that. >> we offer services to both political parties. in this case they did offer a number of services, they took us up on some services, but testing the app, they declined that service. trish: what kinds of shop are they running at the dnc? how could anybody trust them to run our gover

. >>> david plouffe, campaign manager for barack obama's 2008 bid. and he's here with us tonight.re's two way to look at these nominating processes. one is there's a domino effect. 2004 is the one where it was competitive and before you knew it everyone was like i guess this is the nomination. and then 2008 being the most intense of the delegate battles. how are you thinking about the delegate battle if, in fact, this looks like a long road? >> nerd out? >> yeah. >> it's not about big states. 2004 carey it ended pretty quickly. our race went to the end and 16 went deep. i think that's the question. i think right now the only candidate i could see with a pathway to see the delegate lead they may not give up early is bernie sanders because he'll be viable on super tuesday, viable state wide. and so the question is the race changes so much in the next 18 days. some of the candidates that will be on the balled, some woentd you got bloomberg looming out there. and it's by congressional district. if you win, you get an extra delegate. that's how we're going to decide our nomination if i

david plouffe, who managed barack obama's 2008 campaign, says 2020 may be end of the line for iowa. >> this was already under threat. and this is just going to add to that. >> reporter: the iowa democratic party says the results here will come out later today. there were a series of phone calls last night between the party and the campaigns. particularly frustrated by the failure was the bernie sanders campaign. these campaigns rely on a big moment here for momentum and money here as they head to new hampshire. the primary there, exactly one week from today. and pouncing on all of it, the president of the united states, donald trump on twitter describing it as an unmitigated disaster for the democrats. back to you in new york. >> thank you. let's turn to chuck todd and cynthia mcfadden, who has been up all night, looking into what happened here. what did you find out? >> the headline is, it wasn't the russians in this case. the democrats did it to themselves. the democrats wanted to get the a new app to get faster results from the 1,700 caucuses and thought it would be more transparen

and i guess, david plouffe, that's the question for one of the key questions in this race. all of his money, recover from last night? and if so, what would you recommend that a candidate in his position do today, tomorrow and throughout the next week? >> first of all, most of the people are going to vote on super tuesday and later in states like missouri and florida and arizona. all of the spinning that he's doing, is still reaching people. he has to have a really good debate next week. almost every incumbent president bombs their first debate. in part, because they've been ascribed the world. they haven't been challenged like that, from an opponent. >> you know bloomberg has not debated in ten years. he's ascribed his world. and i don't think he's used to being challenged. he has six days to turn this around, in terms of his debate performance. i would do a tremendous amount of interviews. one of the ways it got off the mat is, keep fighting. he had to do a lot of debate prep and has to do a lot of interviews. >> i was rusty. i will be better next week. i think the money h

david plouffe was to join us tonight and yet the studio we had booked for him in san francisco painfullylose to silicon valley, basically the originators of information dissemination, we couldn't technically get that together. we had a failure. our friends came along. to jason johnson, to julia ioffe, thank you for terrific effort and a great conversation tonight. >>> coming up for us, as bernie sanders climbs in the polls we have just laid out for you tonight, a look at a key component behind his momentum. >>> everybody knows half the u.s. senate's run by republicans. it will be half run by republicans next time, and it takes 60 votes to get any of this stuff through. and yet nobody just says the obvious. bernie, you're full of it. none of this is going to get passed. you're going to be a miserable president, frustrated from the first day because you're not going to get medicare for all. you're not going to get free college tuition for public universities. you're not going to get payoffs of all student loans. none of this is going to happen. >> chris matthews spoke his own truth on the

this is david plouffe who was jeern a senior adviser to barack obama. it was a narrow victory in iowa, but barack obama used that as a springboard for the presidency. iowa is about the momentum you gain or lose with the delegates. those who do poorly do not pay the full price. it is what it is, but it could materially affect the race. that's the interesting part there. buttigieg, if he came in first or second, would he have gotten more? would biden be paying more of a price today if he was fourth? >> the day after the iowa caucuses is really this sorting that happens with the field. you see some candidates having to consider dropping out. certainly i remember that '08 race and the obama campaign came out of there with a head of steam. we're just frozen right now. there is no movement in the field because no one actually knows what happened last night. >> and the anger last night. i was expecting after an hour or so, you get some results, later you get more results. now they'll dump it all at once. hopefully we'll get more information on that call. will

as promised, david plouffe is here with us.ake of carville's comments today that if the party doesn't come together, come to grips with the fact that they have a front-runner, that many of them might find limiting, in his words, he doesn't know the party. >> well, what is the party? the party is voters these days. there's no smoky back room where these decisions are made. so, ultimately, if bernie sanders is not going to be the nominee, it's up to one of the candidates to build the kind of campaign, excitement, show the kind of growth, to be the number one contestant. so, first of all, yeah, so, somebody who is a 79-year-old democratic socialist on election day might not be in the screenplay of how you beat donald trump. we don't know yet if bernie sanders will be a terrible nominee or a good nominee. that's what campaigns are for. the two concerns i think the campaign should address, one is, in a presidential campaign, the electoral college chess board is so important. how many states are you putting in play? i worry that sand

. >> i had david plouffe on the phone the other night.urality of delegates, say 50 to 100, going into the convention the party as a political and moral matter has to give the nomination to the person with the plurality of delegates going to the convention. i'm curious if you agree now from the veil of ignorance as a principle, would you agree that whoever goss in would say a plurality of delegates, 50 or 100, that should be the nominee? >> i think in general what plouffe said is right. you have to take a look at the nature of the campaign and a whole lot of factors in the campaign we don't know yet. in general i think it is a fair statement to say it would be very divisive, the convention would have to explain to the american people, hey, candidate x kind of got the most votes and won the most delegates in the primary process but we're not going to give him or her the nomination. i thisnk that would be a very divisive moment for the democratic party. >> finally, business on capitol hill today, the budget committee c chair in the senate sa

but people, including one of your former colleagues, david plouffe said someone came up to him and asked. >> discloerk you are to the audience. i'm about to say something not technically true. he said of all the people, why is obama backing bloomberg? because the ads, form point, let me show the facts. when you look at the 2020 ads, this is where the race is once you get out of the early states where you can do grass routes. take a look. they have spent $5 million or more. warr warren, buttigieg, sanders. take look at mr. steyer who has over 100 ms. now look at mr. bloomberg. already $318 million. >> the big money does not belong in politics. that's a thing we know. this is not a conversation about obama's legacy. none of these people is an heir to obama's legacy. i have great almost for president obama. the idea that he was really a boone for african-americans who were the people i care most about, certainly, i don't know that we can make kind of argument. part of what i think is that bloomberg is playing on african-american fear. >> by saying time guy who can handle it. >> no. he's pla

. >> david plouffe, look at what's happening. amy klobuchar has chosen to take advantage of free television time and come out and say something. we've also been told multiple sources, there there's a conference call under way between the heads of all the respective campaigns and the democratic party in iowa. >> you probably heard we don't know the results. but i did not want to let another minute go by without thanking all of you. we know there's delays but we know one thing. we are punching above our waist. -- weight. my heart is full tonight, one, because i have my great chair here. thank you, andy mcguire. two, because i have this fantastic staff that has been with us all the time. and, three, because my husband and daughter are here with me tonight. and i want to thank them. i want to thank our tireless field organizers, the unstoppable volunteers who would never give up, and we are feeling so good tonight. and i cannot wait. somehow, some way, i'm going to get on a plane tonight to new hampshire. we are bringing this ticket

. >> james, you're about to hear from david plouffe and others. >> james, good to see you. i want to go to the gentle election. i share your concern. you know the electoral college exceedingly well. best case scenario for us, what states are in play and do you fear in sanders is our nominee, we're kind of down the a nor margin for error race? >> okay, david. so sanders is our nominee. i'm going on vote for him. the speaker holds on to the house. of course we don't pick up the senate. 18% elects 52% of the senate. i have to remind him of. . do you know what will change? nothing. the majority leader, the republicans controlled the federal courts. come organizatin, people. we've got a big election here. we should be able to take back the senate. we have to get relevant. this is all something that is not working the way that it needs to work. on they have to develop some skill. i don't criticize other consultants, some of the stuff they come one is insane. i don't know who thinks about this. >> i'm going to play devil's advocate for bernie sanders being the nominee. a lot of pe

joining me now is dave wasserman and david plouffe. also a msnbc contributor.eve been doing iowa caucuses i think since '88. >> '92. >> '92 was the first one, fair enough. welcome to you both. first, mr. plouffe, let's start with you. you've been in this moment before. 2008, at this moment in time, we knew there were three candidates and we -- it felt like there were three different possibilities. and we didn't quite know where it was going and then all of a sudden one candidate did get momentum. it was yours. what do you expect to watch tonight? >> it's fascinating, chuck. in part, we didn't get the last des moines register poll. i agree with you. the only number that counts is the state delegate equivalence. ultimately i want to be looking for that. and so, i think there's a bunch of different scenarios here. we could have four candidates bunched up, maybe even five within five or six. maybe somebody opens up a lead like we did in 2008 so i just don't think we know. and i do think ground game's going to be important here because there's a lot of candidates wh

plus joy reid, former obama campaign manager, david plouffe, former white house press secretary robert gibbs, south carolina native eugene robinson. msnbc's special coverage starts now. ♪ >> exactly one hour to go until polls close across south carolina. the first southern state to vote. the first state where the majority of the voters will be african-american today and tonight. today's vote just three days from super tuesday. meaning the outcome here tonight has the potential to scramble the leaderboard in this race. >> south carolina, of course, is unique among early voting states, not only first in the south but the electorate here tends to be older and ideologically more moderate and democratic voter turnout in south carolina tends to skew even more female than the three other states that have gone so far. south carolina democrats also have a history of picking the eventual nominee. barack obama beat hillary clinton in south carolina in 2008 by almost 30 points. hillary clinton beat bernie sanders here in 2016 by almost 50 points. tonight senator sanders comes into this race as the

former campaign manager david plouffe. special coverage starts now. >> live from nbc news election headquarters in manchester, new hampshire. here now, brian williams. >> with nicole wallace who also we shalls you a hearty good evening. rachel maddow will be joining our coverage shortly as viewers go to the polls to cast their ballots in the first primary. actual vote. think of that. of the 2020 presidential campaign. voting has been going on 18 hours in some places. as is tradition, the first votes were cast at the stroke of midnight. all of it playing out with the confusion of iowa fresh in voters' minds and a partial recanvassing still underway. >> that's to say nothing of the fallout for the president's acquit in the senate's impeachment trial. the president on the war path against anyone who dared testify against him or vote to convict him. this is trump unleashed. last night, everythinging on supporters, encouraging them on make mischief. now breaking news we're following out of the justice department on the roger st

the paris theater on the las vegas strip, we are joined by barack obama's 2008, campaign manager david plouffesday. as we've learned from our correspondents certain facts, certain observations, i've looked over at you, and i've seen a raised eyebrow. what has your interest from what was just reported in the last round? >> i think it shows bernie sanders showing real strength in the latino community, what's going to matter in states like texas where a lot of people are already voting that occurs on super tuesday and in the african-american community. so both in iowa and new hampshire, sanders won in the mid-20s. we'll see where things end up today, but if he's into the 30s, much less the mid-30s, i think he'll gain some delegate out of here and not an insignificant number. what does that mean for california and texas and north carolina and so he's showing strength here, and the difference between a front runner like bernie sanders, it's not 50, but mid-30s versus mid-20s could not be more important from a delegate standpoint. he's showing real strength. the other thing that's interesting from a

plus joy reid, former obama campaign manager, david plouffe, former white house press secretary roberte across south carolina. the first southern state to vote. the first state where the majority of the voters will be african-american today and tonight. today's vote just three days from super tuesday. meaning the outcome here tonight has the potential to scramble the leaderboard in this race. >> south carolina, of course, is unique among early voting states, not only first in the south but the

david plouffe ran the campaign for president obama in 2008 said this last night. "we may be witnessing the last iowa caucus." it's bad on its face. if you're just waking up, went to bed early, we have no idea who won, no results until because of inconsistencies. >> incredible. >> but worse because of the context you put around it, which is in 2016 we know russians and others interfered in our election. there's already now a blanket of suspicion that's over all of our elections. and this feeds that, and i will. how about counting them by hand? >> the trump campaign last night already put out a tweet where he suggested the process was rigged, and now they will go on and say the entire process, the entire process by which this nominee has chosen is rigged, because of what happened last night in iowa, i got to say, first of all -- >> who cares? >> it's pure. >> just saying they'll say it all through. >> pure insanity. probably focus on teaching the president of the united states to do this. >> pledge of allegiance. >> while the national anthem is going on. probably ke