i know's jeff zeleny joins us live from raleigh, north carolina, where bloomberg is set to speak in a few minutes. it's inescapable, jeff, that there's a connection between biden and bloomberg. >> reporter: john, there's no question. michael bloomberg is always seen as the insurance policy for joe biden if things didn't go well in iowa or new hampshire. now some democrats are wondering if it's time to cash in on that policy. you can see the crowd behind me gathering here in the raleigh train station. a few hundred people or so. and they are eagerly anticipating the former new york city mayor. this is his third stop of the day here in north carolina. he doesn't just happen to be in the neighborhood, john. he's here today because early voting is starting in north carolina. of course, north carolina one of those 14 critical super tuesday states. but there's already considerable back and forth between joe biden and michael bloomberg. just this morning on "the view" a short time ago, joe biden was essentially saying that, look, he's been vetted and it's time for others to be vetted, as wel

>> jeff zeleny, thanks so much. well, a full field of 2020 democratic contenders blanketing the new hampshire state. former vice president joe biden says he expected to do better in iowa. he also gave a passionate answer when asked by a voter who asked something biden has struggled with in the past. >> vice president biden what advice would you give a college student who has struggled with stuttering since he was a young child? >> you know, stuttering when you think about it is the only handicap that people still laugh about. when i was a kid talked like that and some of you smile. if i said as a kid i had a cleft pallet and people made fun of me, no one would smile. >> my mom actually stuttered and even at 95, the last year of her life she still had a stutter from time to time when she got tired as you said. how were you actually able to overcome that? >> what i did was i didn't have professional help, but i had three things going for me. i had a mother who had a backbone and she'd look and she'd go joey look at me

if he wouldn't win that would be certainly an issue for him going forward. >> and, jeff zeleny, also, we played earlier the question, the pointed question you had for joe biden, about the direct attacks that are now going on between candidates like biden and buttigieg. but when you ask biden about this kind of back and forth, what do you make of his response? >> i did ask the former vice president about that, because, look, he's the one who really aggressively was going after the experience of pete buttigieg. just reminded me of exactly the argument that was happening here 12 years ago when hillary clinton was aggressively questioning barack obama's experience and joe biden doing that in the earlier stages of the 2008 campaign. and he is the one who said, look, he's not a barack obama. that wasn't suggesting the question that he was. i think that joe biden is desperately trying to make the argument that his experience matters. he's desperately trying to convince voters this is a different moment, this is a different time because of the trump presidency that experience absolutely matte

>> jeff zeleny, thank you so much. and a full field of 2020 democratic contenders blanketing new hampshire ahead of the state's primary on tuesday. last night four of the top candidates were on stage for a series of cnn town halls. after admitting he took a gut punch in iowa former vp joe biden is trying to look forward. >> okay, let's put this into perspective, there are a total of what 44 delegates going to come out of that and looks like it's going to break down somewhere between 7 and 15 between the top four of us. i expected to do better and i expected our organization would perform better. but the fact is i'm happy to be here in new hampshire. >> biden also trying to slow bernie sanders' momentum. the former vice president says he worries about a democratic socialist label being pinned on the broader democratic party. >> but if senator sanders is a nominee for the party, every democrat in america from blue states, red states, purple states, in easy districts and competitive ones, every democrat will have to carry

i want to go immediately back to jeff zeleny who is in des moines, iowa. cratic party is trying to explain to the campaigns where they are in the process. jeff, what are we learning? >> reporter: john, we're learning the chair jack price telling campaigns and other democratic officials on the call that they plan to release the results at 4:00 p.m. central time here in des moines, 5:00 p.m. in the east, but he said they planned to release the majority of the results. we do not know what majority of the results means. that's 50 plus 1. the issue here, the expectations would be that it's more than that, of course, but he said they would release the majority of the results which indicates there is still some work being done to try to reach some of those precinct leaders and captains here as well as to reconcile the difference in the data. but as of now just a few moments ago on a conference call, the chairman of the democratic party jack price saying the majority of the results will be released by 5:00 p.m. in the east, just a few hours before the "state of the

jeff zeleny is back with us. also joining us cnn correspondent ryan nobles who's been covering the sanders campaign in iowa. amy klobuchar is in a very interesting position. she may be helped by the fact that there are no official results yet. there's a sense that her campaign was doing maybe better than expected but we don't know for sure because we haven't seen official numbersch so she was able to land in new hampshire this morning when i was there and say hey we've got the wind at our backs. >> no question then she did something very smart. she was the first candidate to come out and she was seizing victory whether she has a victory or not. reminded me of the florida scenario, you know, 20 years ago in 2000. never mind what the results are, you just seize victory. but we do know antidotally from precincts around the state senator klobuchar was having a strong night. so we do know some results, we just don't know the scope of them. in many places where cnn was and others, she was having a strong evening in the

we will go to jeff zeleny in des moines right now, and what are you hearing first of all about the results that we are about to get within the hour? >> wolf, we are one hour away from some of the results and likely not all of the results finally from the iowa caucuses last night. we are getting a sense in the media filing system that they were doing a sound check omoments ago, and the votes will be coming in through the online system as they were yesterday, but it is a sense of deja vu here and so much has happened since then, and controversy throughout the day. and in this very building, democratic party officials who have spent the early morning hours to this moment going through the preference cards that we saw yesterday. they are trying to reconcile all of the numbers here, but it is unclear if the results are going to be a full snapshot of the state or the small picture, and that is what is worrying some campaigns, and talki advisers from every campaign today i have talked to, they have said to a person they have lost faith in the democratic party, and will it be a fair and equitable

let's get right to jeff zeleny, he is live at the iowa democratic party headquarters in des moines with all the breaking details. jeff, you know iowa better than anybody and none of us have ever seen anything like this. >> john, we haven't and the reality here is that even when this is all investigated and unspooled the tarnish that this has put on the iowa caucuses almost certainly threatens its future. let's talk about the here and now. what led to this series of confusing events throughout the evening into the early morning hours into that phone call where the state party chairman was saying they're trying to uphold the integrity of this was apparently a reporting error through a new app. the state party had an app for the county officials in all of these 1700 spots across iowa and we were hearing throughout the day yesterday that it just simply wasn't working for some people. so there was a phone number where they could call in the results, that was simply overwhelmed. so the frustration from the top campaign leaders really boiled over overnight there was a call around 1:00 a.m. or

cnn's jeff zeleny is with the bernie sanders campaign, so jeff, is he feeling confident? >> reporter: fred, there is no question that bernie sanders is closing this new hampshire campaign with an air of confidence. of course, he is very much aware of the lead he has in the poll, but he also is keeping an eye on his competitor who is just behind him, and that is pete buttigieg. senator sanders went throughout the last year rarely mentioning any of his rivals, but since iowa, and since friday, in fact, senator sanders mentions pete buttigieg at every campaign stop. he reminds voters in new hampshire that buttigieg raises money the old-fashioned way, from millionaires and even billionaires, he says. take a look at what senator sanders said just a few minutes ago. >> i'm running against some guys, pete buttigieg, among others, who have raised campaign funds from over 40 billionaires. 40 billionaires, hence, large corporations, ceos in the pharmaceutical industry, people on wall street. our campaign is a very different campaign, and i am enormously proud to tell you that we ha

. >> senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny is with me now. ave three days until the primary. joe biden is currently leading several polls in the state. what does this cliburn endorsement mean? what's the impact? >> there's no question it was a poignant moment there. i was sitting a few feet away from the congressman when he was giving that endorsement, was talking about his late wife. he's a fixture in south carolina politics, so joe biden has been expecting this endorsement. it was his to lose but he won it. the question is what is the strength and the value of an endorsement, certainly among undecided voters and perhaps some older african-american voters, they do look to the congressman for perhaps a clue for what he's thinking. not necessarily true among the voters of all ages or younger voters. there's no question joe biden is trying to drive home his strength here. he had one of the strongest debate performances last evening here in charleston, and he also was making the point why the south carolina primary is so important to him going fo

he's never walked in like this much of a front-runner. >> jeff zeleny in charleston. thanks.t a cnn town hall last night the democratic front-runner again applauded castro's literacy program as a good thing despite the fact the cuban leader also killed and imprisoned dissidents. sanders' comments triggered bipartisan criticism including from florida democrats. >> there's a lot of folks in cuba at that point who are illiterate and he formed the literacy brigade and they helped people learn to read and write. you know what, i think teaching people to read and write is a good thing. and by the way, all of those congress people that you mentioned just so happen to be supporting other candidates, just accidently no doubt. >> that explanation did little to satisfy sanders' democratic rival pete buttigieg. >> as a democrat i don't want to be explaining why our nominee is encouraging people to look on the bright side of the castro regime when we're going into the election of our lives. of course literacy is a good thing, but why are we spotlighting the literacy programs of a brutal d

the candidates are swarming, and in iowa, cnn's own jeff zeleny who is live for us in des moines. jeff, who stands to make the biggest impact potentially in these final hours before the caucuses begin? >> reporter: well, fredricka, the closing arguments have begun with all these candidates and something else. a beautiful winter day here in des moines. i'm outside a rally for pete buttigieg. he was in eastern iowa earlier. he's coming back here to lincoln high school in des moines. you can see several dozen, maybe hundreds, of people are lining up here to get another chance to see pete buttigieg. they have seen the former south bend, indiana mayor many times this year. he is making a standout here. but bernie sanders and elizabeth warren are making their case on the progressive side of the aisle. they are urging a revolution. senator warren is saying she can unify both sides where joe biden is urging a more moderate approach, really approaching electability, and amy klobuchar is saying to focus on november. she is saying find the candidate who can beat president trump in november. a

joining us, senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny. morning, jeff. >> reporter: good morning. no question what a bruising night. today at least, joe biden is expecting to receive shortly the endorsement from congressman james clyburn. of course, the number three democrat in the house of representatives. the highest ranking african-american elected official. he is counting on that endorsement here to propel him through into the south carolina primary on saturday. but, boy, back to that debate last night, all the knives were out for bernie sanders coming from every single direction as his rivals tried to slow the momentum that senator sanders has coming into the south carolina primary and into super tuesday next week. but sanders stood tall through all of it. take a listen. >> i think i would make a better president than bernie. >> imagine spending the better part of 2020 with bernie sanders versus donald trump. >> bernie, in fact, hasn't passed much of anything. >> i do not think this is the best person to lead the ticket. >> you know,

>> jeff zeleny, thanks so much for that. >>> well, emboldened and not afraid to show it. president trump took a venomous victory lap to celebrate his acquittal in the impeachment trial. it all started at the yearly national prayer breakfast with house speaker nancy pelosi looking on. >> i don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. nor do i like people who say i pray for you when they know that that's not so. >> yep, that's the prayer breakfast. you might recall speaker pelosi has repeatedly told reporters she prays for the president and mitt romney says it was his faith that drove him to convict the president. >> he also said at that event thee didn't agree with the central premise of the prayer which was love your neighbors, love your enemies which a teaching of jesus christ. the president of the united states rejecting the central premise of christianitya at the prayer breakfast. later he made this remark about his legal team. >> in the beginning they said, sir, you have nothing to worry about. all of the facts are on your

the next six days, so critical for joe biden. >> jeff zeleny. from one side of the country to the other, let's go over to abby philip. you're one step ahead of jeff there in terms of calendar. you're in virginia, which is a super tuesday state, and that's where pete buttigieg, the former mayor of south bend, indiana, is rallying his supporters. he's saying he's not ready to put nevada behind him just yet. why is that? >> reporter: hey, alex, i'm here in northern virginia. pete buttigieg is having one of his largest rallies we've seen. a pretty full football field here. at the same time, his campaign is still contesting these nevada results, more than a day after that contest. we know the clear winner, but who is second and third place is a lot less clear. n now, the buttigieg campaign says they have some problems with the early vote and how that was integrated in the in-person precincts. the early vote was new to the nevada caucuses this year and a lot of campaigns had a lot of nervousness about how that would play into how all of the final resul

jeff zeleny, thank you so much. dan pfeiffer is a former senior adviser to president obama. dan, thanks so much for joining me. first, i want to get your impressions about what jeff was just saying there in terms of south carolina being a make or break state for joe biden. what does it look like for him in your eyes? >> i agree with jeff, he absolutely has to win. and to be able to be pushed forward and have success on super tuesday where he's trailing bernie sanders in a lot of states, he needs to win. it's do or die. >> the title of your book, "un-trumping america," i want to ask you, bernie sanders is the most popular democratic candidate, and he is also polarizing. do you think that he is the answer to un-trumping america, given that he would likely turn away anti-trump republicans, d moderates, independents who might otherwise come out for another democrat to beat trump? >> i'm not prepared to -- i'm not prepared to know that bernie sanders would definitely push those voters out. he's actually in some polling the most popular democrat among the obama/trump voters who hel

. >> and our jeff zeleny is still in iowa, which is very bizarre, jeff zeleny. the democratic party there in iowa setting two new deadlines for candidates. tell us about this. >> reporter: they are, brianna. just a short time ago, the iowa democratic party told campaigns they're going to have a little bit more time to request a canvass or a recount. and this is what they're asking. yes, there are inconsistencies in some of these many precincts across the state of iowa, so they're telling campaigns, look, if you see anything that you think is not accurate based on your own reporting from that evening, show us evidence of this by tomorrow at noon here, central time. and by monday at noon, request a recanvass or a recount. those are the two new deadlines. they extended that deadline, of course, because the final counting just came in last evening. the final reporting gives mayor buttigieg a slight edge over bernie sanders, just a very slight edge of .1 of 1 percentage points. it's up to the candidates if they want to request this recount or not. both candidates hig

>> jeff zeleny, thanks so much for hat.antime moderate voters may have another reason to bypass bern bernie sanders. offering a partial defense of fidel castro's cuban revolution. sanders was asked on "60 minutes" on something he said back in the 1980s that the cuban people didn't rise up against castro because he gave them education and health care. >> we're very opposed to the authoritarian nature of cuba but it's unfwar to simply say everything is bad. you know, when fidel castro came into office you know what he did? he had a massive literacy program. is that a bad thing even though fidel castro did it? >> sanders responded we condemn that. >>> ahead of the south carolina primary cnn will host town hall events with all the leading candidates. a two night evnent starts tonight, tonight 9:00 eastern only on cnn. >>> the president stepping up efforts to weed out officials we views as disroyal. aides tell axios the president has crossed a psychological line involving the so-called deep state ever since his acquittal. they s

joining me, jeff zeleny and senior political analyst keith preston.ncies district by district. how serious were those discrepancies, and does it call into question the key question, right, of who actually came out ahead here? >> jim, good morning. the reality is there are some discrepancies. small discrepancies as we see them in how the math is formulated for the state delegate equivalents. there is no sense that it would affect the overall outcome of this. as you said, so close between pete buttigieg and bernie sanders. 0.1 percentage point. that's with 100% of precincts counted. now we're waiting to see if the iowa democratic party is going to recanvas. that would only come if it's requested by a campaign. the chairman of the democratic committee asked for one yesterday but the rules only allow that to happen if it comes from a campaign. and both bernie sanders and pete buttigieg suggested they were ready to move on. but this is what chairman perez said this morning on "new day." >> this was unacceptable. and that's why we had people -- we still hav

cnn's jeff zeleny has more from the campaign trail in charleston. >> reporter: christine and laura, it's debate night number 10, but when bernie sanders takes the stage tonight in charleston, south carolina, he is facing an entirely different moment. yes, he's been in the spotlight before, he's been in the center of the stage before but he's never been a clear and convincing commanding front-runner. after winning the nevada caucuses over the weekend and of course new hampshire and that very strong showing in iowa, it is bernie sanders race to lose at this point. that is why candidates are already stepping up their attacks and their criticisms. they are sounding the alarm about the potential electoral risk of electing a democratic socialist. aides to former mayor michael bloomberg saying they're going to make this campaign, this debate about bernie sanders. of course they are because mayor bloomberg had a disappointing last week in vegas. so he will be judged on the stage tonight. but this is the last best opportunity for these democratic rivals to raise questions about senator sanders. t

>> all right, jeff zeleny, thanks so much. >>> well, emboldened and certainly not sorry. president trump took a venomous victory lap to celebrate his acquittal in the senate impeachment trial. it all started at the yearly national prayer breakfast with house speaker nancy pelosi looking on. >> i don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. nor do i like people who say i pray for you when they know that that's not so. >> you might recall house speaker pelosi has repeatedly told reporters praise for the president and senator mitt romney says it was his faith that drove him to convict the president. >> later at the white house the president heaped praise on everyone in the room. it wasn't long before the president turned the heat up going scorched earth on his opponents. >> we first went through russia, russia, russia. it was all bull [ bleep ]. it was evil. it was corrupt. it was dirty cops. it was leakers and liars. say hello to the people of utah and tell them i'm sorry about mitt romney, i'm sorry, okay? if i didn't fire james

i want to go straight to jeff zeleny. he's got breaking news from iowa on what you're hearing, jeff, from the iowa democratic party. give us that news. >> well, john, i wish i could report the iowa party has results but that is not the case. i talked to a variety of officials from presidential campaigns this morning. they say they are still in the dark. they have not heard any updates overnight from the iowa democratic party. they do not know the timing or the scope of the release of these results. the last word they heard from them was in a conference call a short, intense conference call shortly after midnight. so since then, they've not been updating them. we do not know if they've been counting throughout the evening. we do not know if -- exactly what the state of play is. we're in the room, the building where the democratic party's war room was. so far we've not seen any democratic officials here. so we're, frankly, in a waiting game as well. but it's the presidential campaigns and candidates themselves that are spinn

let's bring in jeff zeleny, at an erin burnett for samy klobuchar in salem, new hampshire. jeff spent more time in iowa than expected but now with us in new hampshire. based on what faiz shakir told me, even though iowa would like this to be over, it it is not over yet. >> reporter: it is not, ryan. and t and the reality is there is the deadline tomorrow for any campaign to request a recanvass. and as bernie sanders campaign manager told you just a little bit earlier, they do plan to do that. now the iowa democratic party officials i've been speaking with, they've been expecting this. they didn't know if the campaigns would be because the candidates themselves, both pete buttigieg and bernie sanders have said publicly they want to move on and sort of leave iowa behind. but the reality is the delegates patter. if this is going to be a protracted democratic nominating fight which is most certainly is, every delegate is going to matter. so this is a complicated process here in terms of national delegates. you wonder why do two delegates matter, if it is a fight in milwaukee th

let's begin our coverage with jeff zeleny sitting right beside me about the final push here in iowa. >> hey, john. good morning. the candidates have done their jobs. now it's up to the campaigns to get those voters out to the polls. all elections are about turnout, no question. caucus is so much different. less than 12 hours now to make the final pitch, voters are still undecided. >> if the turnout is high, we're going to win. so our job together is to create the highest turnout in the history of the iowa caucus. thank you, all, very much. >> reporter: bernie sanders and his democratic rivals making one final lap around iowa. >> we got the whole group here. you ready? >> reporter: rallying the faithful and working to convert the undecided in theiro voters. >> you let only a certain bunch of us out ofou know, it really matters. it really matters what you do. >> reporter: joe biden down beg tonight in the democratic nominating contest. on an unseasonably warm winter day, voters lining up to get one last glimpse of the candidates as they throw their sales pitches on electability. >> we'

. >> jeff zeleny is in des moines watching this unfold for us. they say, jeff, that more than 50% of all results will be released around 5:00 p.m. eastern, what's the thinking behind that? why not 100%? >> reporter: that's a big question, and there was a big divide in that, if they thought they could wait several days or if they thought they needed to get something out. i talked to a democratic official earlier who said, we've waited this long, perhaps we need to wait and get it right. there was pressure from the potentially winning campaigns who wanted these numbers out. it's not going to solve any questions, because as david said earlier, we do not know where these are come from. it's surely not a representative sample of 50% from the state. as dana was saying, the paper trail, that was significant. it was bernie sanders who drove that change four years ago. he left iowa four years ago just narrowly losing to hillary clinton, and he thought he was robbed. he talked to them about enforcing these rules. so there's a paper trail, but also some con

and our jeff zeleny is there. rst round ends and as the sort of toing and froing has begun, really aggressively, to bring the people who supported candidates who were not viable. they didn't get 15% over toll other candidates. what does it look like now? >> reporter: dana, this is a fascinating caucus 101, if you will. i'm standing next to gabe, who is a student at drake university, who was just getting the hard sell from a bernie sanders volunteer. gabe came here tonight to caucus for pete buttigieg. he was not viable, so that makes gabe's vote up for grabs. so gabe, what was the sales pitch that you were just getting moments ago from the sanders official? >> he was going after the -- i'm more moderate, and going after the very liberal aspects of sanders. >> what questions did you have for him? >> i really didn't have any. i'm more trying to convince other people to go here. >> and you told me you're not likely to go top sanders? >> i'm probably going to go to warren if pete can't be viable. >> i would really like

cnn's jeff zeleny has more. >> it's good to see you. >> reporter: barack obama is staying on the sidelinesdemocratic primary fight, though you might not know it from all those campaign ads. >> a great president and an effective mayor, leadership that makes a difference. >> reporter: in michael bloomberg's unprecedented barrage of advertising, the former president is playing a starring role. >> he's been a leader throughout the country for the past 12 years, mr. michael bloomberg is here. >> reporter: on that day in 2013, the president was actually giving a nod to bloomberg's tenure as mayor a point the bloomberg presidential campaign left out. >> i want to give a shoutout to a man who's been an extraordinary mayor for this city, he's been a leader throughout the country for the past 12 years. mr. michael bloomberg is here. >> reporter: a week before super tuesday when bloomberg faces voters for the first time in this presidential race, the obama ads are playing all day every day and on many channels at once. they've certainly drawn attention, including from obama's actual partner in the wh

let's go to cnn's jeff zeleny with new information joining us from des moines right now. jeff, what are you learning? >> reporter: wolf, good morning. as the candidates have moved to new hampshire, the controversy stayed here behind in iowa. i am told in the next hour at the top of the next hour at noon eastern, 11:00 central, here in iowa, there is going to be another conference call with officials at the iowa democratic party and members of the presidential campaigns. they're going to go through and update what they have. so that may give us more of an indication of where things are leading here. in terms of the ultimate question, will the results be released at some point today? that is still a question. separate question, will all of them be released at one time or will they be released sort of half of them and then keep working on the rest? that is an unknown certain thing at this point. we're talking to a lot of chairs of these caucuses. saw them last night play out across iowa. people who are democratic activists, officials who are in charge of organizing these even

. >> cnn's jeff zeleny is in charlton, south carolina. jeff, first the endorsement. this do for joe biden? >> reporter: kate, i think there's no question, this is the endorsement joe biden has been waiting for. there's no one who is more well known and has supporters looking to him for guidance here. if you consider about half of the voters in south carolina, the democratic voters have told pollsters that they are still open to changing their minds. an endorsement from congressman clyburn certainly could be beneficial. i was just at their endorsement event just a short time ago this morning. i was struck that he said we not only know joe biden, joe biden knows us. listen to how the former vice president accepted that endorsement, talking about a revolution. take a listen. >> today people are talking about a revolution. what the country is looking for are results. what they're looking for is security. what they're looking for is being able to sustain and maintain their dignity. >> reporter: so no question joe biden's central argument here in the final days of the sout

let's go to the senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny joining us from charleston, and it coulda rough night for the frontrunner senator bernie sanders, right? >> wolf, the spotlight is burning bright on bernie sanders, and no question about that. and he taking the incoming from all sides of the democratic rivals from the price tag of the progressive policies to the old record on guns and even to the potential ramifications of the label democratic socialist, and none of it is very new, and he has heard it for more than a year as he has been running, but the new moment is that time is running out for the rivals to slow his momentum. >> it is little bit funny to find myself as the so-called frontrunner. >> reporter: tonight, that is exactly where senator bernie sanders finds himself at the front of the democratic primary fight, and at the center of urgent scrutiny. it is the 10th democratic debate, but the rivals are scrambling to shine a new light on sanders' long record and including the partial backlash from the defense of the cuban leader fidel castro. >> as part of the brigad

it looks like jeff zeleny in iowa. the nebraska kid goes over to iowa in jeff zeleny's case. i'm letting the cat out of the bag a little bit. it shows bernie sanders with a pretty healthy lead in texas and california. we'll show you the numbers in a moment. it just emphasizes how important this is for joe biden if you want to make the case that somebody needs to stop bernie sanders, and that somebody is me, you have to come out of south carolina with an oomph, especially since you don't have a ton of money. you need to convince donors, send it and send it now. >> when you look at the list of delegates that are up for grabs in all of the states including the early stage and then heading into super tuesday, it is such an important reminder of how miniscule the number of delegates up for grabs in the four early states are compared to what we have coming up on super tuesday. i mean, just between california and texas, you have 600-plus delegates and that is the reminder about how if bernie sanders does as well as polling has so far indicated, that is when it will sink in with peop

first let's go to cnn's jeff zeleny, he's in des moines, for us. jeff, what is the latest? what are you learning? >> reporter: wolf, good morning. i'm told at this hour the chair of the iowa democratic party and some of the other top officials there will be briefing campaign officials, presidential advisers shortly. giving them an update on the progress overnight that is going to eventually lead to some results. we believe at some point later this afternoon perhaps. the timing is still uncertain. we are getting a new statement a short time ago from the chairman of the iowa democratic party and walking through these inconsistencies that we have been reporting and really for the last 12 hours or more or so it became clear something was indeed wrong here in iowa with those counts. the statement walks through talking about the integrity of the process, it does not say anything about the results. but it does say this, wolf, let's look at this and read this together here, it says because of the required paper documentation, we have been able to verify the data recorded in the app

i am running to defeat donald trump. >> our thanks to jeff zeleny for that report. >>> so the attorney general bill barr says he won't be bullied by anyone. so does this count as standing up to the president? a member of the senate judiciary committee joins us next. begin to tell you... how bright you shine. how strong you are. how brilliant... unique... how you're... my rock. my diamond. for the diamond in your life, there's only one diamond store. it's the valentine's day sale. get 25% off everything. including these special deals. at zales, the diamond store. >>> to have public statements and tweets made about the department, about the people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we have cases make it impossible for me to do my job. >> that's the attorney general william barr speaking out about president trump. or at least speaking out about his tweets. joining me now to talk about this is democratic senator richard blumenthal from connecticut who serves on the judiciary committee. i think we woke up yesterday,

our senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny is in south carolina for us. where is the next democratic primary is this coming saturday, and so what is the latest and what are you hearing? >> wolf, there is no question that south carolina primary on saturday and the super tuesday contest just three days of that are the most important stretch of the democratic primary campaign. bernie sanders is coming into south carolina as the clear frontrunner. after that commanding victory in the nevada caucuses over the weekend. that is why his rivals are doing everything they can to slow his rise. they have eight days to try and do so, or it may be too late. >> they say, you know, bernie can't beat trump. so let's look at some of the polls out today. >> reporter: bernie sanders is on a roll, and driven by the winning momentum and the campaign movement. >> and the key battleground states, michigan and wisconsin and pennsylvania -- >> reporter: a trumpian move, and calling out his own poll numbers. >> general elections, sanders 47 and trump 44. >> reporter: it is setting u

jeff zeleny, thank you.ay, has learned that pete buttigieg's campaign is about to announce that it raised $2.7 million in just the days following his strong performance in iowa, and it seems some of his rivals are now perceiving him as really this growing threat into new hampshire, whether in name or policy. we heard repeated criticism against the former south bend, indiana, mayor. >> i have great republican respe -- respect for mayor pete in the service of this nation, but i do believe it's a risk for this party to nominate someone who's never held an office higher than mayor of down of 100,000 people in indiana. >> i can put together the kind of diverse coalition that we need to have to beat trump, and that's something if you look at the people running for president, they're people who are struggling to do that like pete buttigieg. >> i think candidate who is say we should abolish the electoral college, one, it would require literally like a dozen states to shoot themselves in the foot and say they don't w

cnn's jeff zeleny just spoke with him. south carolina's state, joe biden has repeatedly said he could win. what's his message going into the state now? >> now it's a state he needs to win. south carolina primary in six days' time is critical for joe biden going forward after a disappointing start to his campaign in iowa and new hampshire. he's hoping that south carolina can be a turnaround for his candidacy, largely because of the makeup of his electorate here. 60% of the electorate expected to be african-american. he really believes that will change his path. he said this about his chances here in south carolina. >> so, finally, south carolina. >> finally. >> this is what you've been waiting for. >> yes. >> reporter: is this state still your firewall, sir? >> i think it's the state i'm going to do well in. i think, you know, it has 60% of the vote is the african-american vote. they have an opportunity to basically choose who the nominee is, depending what they do. if they do it strongly, i think it's a real -- look, the i

jeff zeleny explains that he is expecting much more incoming. >> we are a democracy and not an ole gar won't buy this election. >> reporter: and bernie sanders is laying out the debate format for mr. bloomberg. >> we say to mr. bloomberg, you are certainly not going to win when you have a record in new york that included racist policies like stop and frisk. >> reporter: sanders is establishing himself as the candidate to beat in the democratic primary fight, and taking a commanding lead over bloomberg in a national poll, and with the long-time frontrunner joe biden falling behind. >> and if trying to figure out all kinds of ways of how do we stop bernie and the movement. but they are not going to succeed. >> reporter: bloomberg will get the first face-to-face opportunity wednesday. after qualifying to join the democratic rivals on stage for the first time. the former new york city mayor who is spending more than $400 million in ads alone in hopes of making a super tuesday splash has been tangling with sanders. his campaign is using and online video to accuse sanders of failing to contr

jeff zeleny, cnn, charleston, south carolina. >> another story we're following, the israeli military says it launched a series of strikes targeting militant group islamic jihad in gaza and syria. >> that's right. it says that in response to militants firing more than 20 rockets into israel, tensions then escalated on sunday. israeli soldiers opened fire on two men they say were laying an explosive device along the gaza border fence. >> the exchange came hours after they were scraping the body of a dead man off the ground went viral. we are going to show you that video, but we must warn you first, it is graphic, along with what israel says was that foiled attempt to plot an explosive device. so for more we are joined now by oren liebermann in jerusalem. oren, talk to us about that attempt to set an explosive device and this graphic video that followed and went viral. >> reporter: so, rosemary, this all starts on sunday morning when the israeli military says two militants approached the gaza fence and they provided it by the military. it attempted to plant an explosive on the border fe

i was with sanders yesterday in rochester similar to the one that jeff zeleny was at now. similar situation where too big of a crowd to contain the sanders folks there. they had to have the overflow -- sanders actually went out and spoke to voters in 25-degree weather and they stuck around for a while to hear from him. i've got a new hampshire perspective and a national perspective. jonathan skall is the author of "stormy weather," and also joined by lisa lerer who is covering the primary and she's also a cnn analyst. there are a lot of tracking polls. it's basically a three-day sample where we get rid of the one from the previous day and add the present day. you see a pete buttigieg surge, but i've noticed in the last 24 hours or so, it seems to have stabilized. should we reflect that these polls will probably tell us what tuesday night is, but can a new hampshire still surprise us? >> i do think that pete has reached a plateau, and now the question is, is anyone else's support out there about to melt further? and so we think about elizabeth warren, for example. is her su

jeff zeleny, cnn, des moines. >> jeff with the reporting, and now let's bring in jacob with context.ob, an associate at lse ideas, the foreign policy think tank at the london school of economics live this hour from lagos, nigeria. good to have you with us. >> good morning. >> looks as though it's going to be a busy week stateside when it comes to u.s. politics. the state of the union, then the president's likely acquittal to follow. republicans are calling this a win, but the way things stack up, mr. trump will not be able to claim that he is free and clear of impeachment when he delivers that state of the union. >> that's right. and i think the -- what you're likely to see will be a repeat of what happened after the mueller report. the mueller report did not exonerate the president. we simply weren't able to within the confines that we had demonstrate conclusive basis of a prosecution. i think what's likely to happen after the very, very likely acquittal vote will be that the democrats will make the case reasonably enough that the trial in which there were no witnesses, in which wit

let's go straight to jeff zeleny in des moines. so i see 75% reporting now. t's a little bit up from what we had before. what's your takeaway from these new numbers, jeff? >> reporter: hey, brooke, basically the ranking has not changed in terms of delegates. we can look at these numbers now. pete buttigieg, the former mayor of south dakobend, indiana is s leading the way in terms of d l delegat delegates, bernie sanders right behind, elizabeth warren 18.2. joe biden 15.6 and then amy klobuchar a little bit behind joe biden, so not getting much more of a picture here than we already had. we started the morning with 71% of the total precincts released, and now we're just at 75. so there was an expectation there would be more. we are told that more are coming, but we don't know exactly how many. one question here, brooke, is why it is taking so long for some of the precincts that are right here in des moines. polk county is the biggest county in the state of iowa. it is right here where i'm standing and we were speaking with county officials, and they said, look,

jeff zeleny, cnn, hanover, new hampshire. >> meanwhile, the results of last week's contest are stilling into focus. the iowa democratic party says u.s. democratic presidential candidate pete buttiegieg has won the most delegates in the iowa caucuses. the updated numbers show the former south bend, indiana, mayor with a very slim lead over senator bernie sanders, but the sanders campaign says it will ask for a partial recanvas of the results on monday. >>> well, sanders and buttigieg also clashed on separate appearances on cnn, taking mild swings at each other and treating the upcoming new hampshire primary as a two-person race. >> i am running against a candidate, pete buttiegieg among others, who has raised contributions for more than 40 billionaires, including the c.e.o.s of some of the largest drug companies in america. so we are independent of our revolution. all these other groups, they are legally able to do what they want. so my message to all of the candidates, let's end all of that stuff. >> bernie is pretty rich. i would happily accept a contribution from him. look, this is

. >> and jeff zeleny is in south carolina and has this update for you. >> because south carolina is thejectory to winning the democratic nomination. >> reporter: joe biden is looking for a south carolina life line today hoping that victory will revive his candidacy. >> this nation isn't looking for a revolution as some of my colleagues talk about, they where loare looking for progress and results. >> reporter: in his fight biden is tying himself closely to former president barack obama. >> this has been a launching pad for barack obama and i believe that this is a launching pad for me. this is a marathon. >> reporter: but bernie sanders is still in command of the race. >> let us go forward tomorrow, let us win the primary here in south carolina, let us win the democratic nomination, let us defeat donald trump. >> and also looking ahead to super tuesday with 14 contests from coast to coast awarding a third of all delegates. >> we are building a movement that cannot be stopped. >> reporter: the next four days are critical for those fighting to stay alive. >> i won't be able to outdivide t

jeff zeleny, appreciate that from the trail. let's bring into the room. we talk, to jeff's point, vice president biden raising questions. audio came out jed of michael bloomberg defending, almost bragging about the stop and frisk policy. saying crimes in minority neighborhoods, what do you do, throw them up against a wall and frisk them. he'll have problems with the democratic base there. the red lining story, associated press reporting, great reporting on how he blamed the fiscal crisis in 2008 on the easing of mortgage lending and other lending policies there. last night, he got heckled on the stop and frisk issue. i want to see, there's a headline of the cnn story that matched the ap reporting there. you judge a candidate sometimes about how they react. a, from questions about his record and "b" when those questions come from voters. >> -- terrorizing inner city youth. stop stop and frisk. >> okay, okay, thank you. that's all right. [ audience reacts ] >> thank you. i just wanted to thank him for making me feel like i was at home. >> now, he's going to

jeff zeleny is live outfront for us. bloomberg is sure to be a big target tonight? >> there's no question that he is, and until now, he's been campaigning in a vook you'll quite literally, on his terms, using his fortune of nearly a half million dollars in television advertising. all of that ends tonight. as he steps on to that debate stage. all of his rivals say one thing is clear, he needs to be vetted. bernie sanders and michael bloomberg, on a collision course tonight in vegas. >> mr. bloomberg has every right in the world to run for president. i don't think he has the right to buy this election. >> it may be the ninth democratic presidential debate, it's a whole new world. sanders is now the clear front-runner in the primary. tonight a new cnn poll of polls, shows sanders with a commanding lead in the race. overtaking joe biden as the long time democratic leader. now, biden, bloomberg and the rest of the field are trailing behind. ordinarily, that would put sanders in the direct line of fire. >> i think you should show how you're going to pay for things. >> riv

lets get right to cnn senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny who is in des moines where we are about to get some of those results theoreticallth. jeff, tell us more. >> jake, the question is how many of those results, where will they be from and one thing we know almost for certain, we will not know the winner of the iowa caucuses 24 hours after they took place. they are going to release a majority, they said, of iowa caucus results, but that is just -- and we don't know what that means. is it 50 plus 1 or is it 75%. the chairman of the iowa democratic party was unable to say with any specificity when he was on a phone call earlier this afternoon with the representatives of each presidential campaign. he said that they do plan to begin releasing it at 5:00 eastern, 4:00 here in des moines. so there's been a variety of conversations here about why this happened. it was a software error it seeped. it was an error because of an app that's on everyone's iphone, ipad, and it apparently was not ever given a test drive if you will. these precinct caucus chairs we're told, we've talked to se

>> cnn's abby phillip and jeff zeleny are in charleston for the debate tonight. abby, let me start with you. what are you looking for? >> reporter: well, we have for the first time now all the candidates on the stage, and last week bloomberg was in the line of fire. we know that sanders is going to be in the line of fire, too. the question is, what is going to be the balance of attacks between these two men? bloomberg is still a threat to all these candidates going into super tuesday, and last week's debate saw pete buttigieg doing these double-barrelled attacks. will he do that again and will others join him? the second thing i'm looking for is how much scrutiny does bernie sanders' foreign policy philosophy come under? this is something we have not talked a whole lot about, and it's gotten more attention as his comments about fidel castro have come up in the last couple of days, but there is more to this. and how deep will we go and how will bernie sanders explain that to the public? then finally, elizabeth warren. this is a big debate for her. last week she ha

jeff zeleny, cnn, hanover, new hampshire. >> and it's worth noting sanders and buttigieg also clashedparate appearances on cnn, taking mild swings at each other and treating the upcoming new hampshire primary as a two-person race. >> i am running against a candidate, pete buttiegieg, among others, who has raised contributions from more than 40 billionaires, including the c.e.o.s of some of the largest drug companies in america. so we are independent of our revolution. all these other groups, they are legally able to do what they want. so my message to all of the candidates, let's end all of that stuff. >> bernie is pretty rich and i would happily accept a contribution from him. look, this is about making sure we bring everybody into the fight at a moment when we're going to be going up against donald trump who, with his allies, are raising -- i think the other day they raised 25 million bucs in one day. this is the fight of our lives. >> not to be outdone, president trump is also headed to new hampshire to fire up his supporters. cnn's kristen holmes has that report. >> reporter: if m

. >> jeff zeleny caught up with some folks who were still on the fence about who they will support. >reporter: finally it is their turn. iowa voters are poised to render the first verdict of the presidential race. >> i have never been not willing to take a chance. and i think this election we maybe need to take a chance. >> reporter: pat mundy is sizing up the feet. field. >> i started first with elizabeth warren and i was very pro elizabeth in the begin. my next candidate was pete. and i have heard him speak twice. joe biden, he is a source of comfort. bernie sanders comes off much more compelling in person than he does on the screen. >> reporter: so monday night whose corner will you be in? >> i have committed to caucus for pete. >> reporter: monday a retimonda retired teacher has taken full advantage of her front row seat. shaking hands with biden, asking questions withyang and coming face-to-face with her top choice. after listening to candidates in speeches and through tv ads, voters are making up their minds. >> this is the year to play it safe and go with a proven candidate. i

. >> jeff zeleny caught up with folks who are still undecided about who they will support. >> reporter: finally, it's their turn. iowa voters are poised to render their first vote of the democratic race. >> i have never been not willing to take a chance, and i think this election we maybe need to take a chance. >> reporter: patmon -- pat monday has been sizing up the field. >> i started with elizabeth warren. i was very pro elizabeth. my next candidate was pete. i've heard him speak twice. joe biden, he is a source of comfort. bernie sanders comes off much more compelling in person than he does on the screen. >> so monday night who's corner will you be in? >> i have committed to caucus for pete. >> monday, a retired teacher, has taken full advantage of her front row seat shaking hands with biden, asking a question of andrew yang and finally coming face to face with her top choice. >> can you sign my book? >> after a year of listening to candidates at town hall meetings -- >> we are going to win this campaign. >> reporter: and through tv ads. >> elizabeth warren is the president this na