. >> john ralston of the nevada independent. john's going to be moderating next week's democratic debate in los angeles. that debate's going to take place next wednesday night 9:00 p.m. eastern time. >>> it is not over yet. paep pae passengers aboard a quarantined cruise ship will finally be able to return to the united states. that doesn't mean they'll be able to go home, at least not immediately. the recommendation the state department is using to make sure the coronavirus doesn't spread more. discover. accepted at over 95% of places in the u.s. discover. (burke) we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even a "gold medal grizzly." (sports announcer) what an unlikely field in this final heat. (burke) not exactly a skinny dipper, but we covered it.

a lot of it the life's work of of this guy next to me, john ralston. are you committing journalism from the phone here? and, and/or what's the lead story for the independent right now? how have you summed up this caucus thus far? >> first of all, i do appreciate the kind words from you, brian. i really do appreciate it. i'm always committing journalism from my phone which is impaired many a relationship. however, i am doing it. my team is out there.

with us tonight, donna edwards, john ralston and jonathan allen. so, donna, our mutual friend jason johnson was on with our mutual friend nicole wallace this afternoon. i'm going to play for you to explain some unreferenced michael bloomberg mentions he has picked up in life. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> the story that i am hearing, it's not just from older people is, if joe biden fall, if he stumbles, black voters are desperate to get donald trump out of office. that is the number one driving force and many of them are saying i will support mike bloomberg because they want to see trump out of there. i don't think mayor pete or bernie sanders have managed to convince anybody that they can win a general election. >> okay, congresswoman. your thoughts? >> i agree with jason. i've been saying from the beginning a year ago that, you know, the democratic base is black voters, particularly black women, and the candidates started off with this idea that they were going to reach out to black voters. it quickly disappeared from iowa and new ham

joining us now is john ralston. be one of the moderator's of wednesday's democratic debate here on msnbc. i'm struck by all those numbers including 56% first time nevada caucus voters? that says to me the polling might not be very reliable this time. if there's a bunch of first time caucus voters who weren't sure the caucus voters would show up. >> it's been pretty good. >> remember she had a 25 point lead, though, and she almost lost. listen, i think -- you can throw polling out the window pretty much, for a couple reasons, one is that statistic, which is a remarkable statistic, as you point out that 56% are early voters, but also, that massive turnout in early voting, there were huge lines again today, and i would guess with more sights tomorrow, the final day, that will be even bigger, but what does that really mean? how much of that is cannibalizing the actual attendance at the caucus, people don't want to go to a caucus, they want to go early vote, fill out the ballot. they don't want to go anything that may be

john ralston, natalia salgado, thank you very much. still to come on this presidents day, a look at one of the most important decisions a candidate has to make, picking their running mate. that is next. (sensei) a live bookkeeper is helping customize quickbooks for me. (live bookkeeper) okay, you're all set up. (sensei) thanks! that was my business gi, this one's casual. (vo) get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks. >>> today is presidents day, of course. it's a day that some states originally use to honor america's first president george washington and our 16th president abraham lincoln. both of whom were born in february and both of whom are frequently ranked as two of our greatest presidents. being a great president has a lot of components. it's about the tone they set for the country. it's about projecting american leadership around the world. most importantly, however, it's about the decisions -- the decisions that presidents make that make a great president. in a year where we are once again picking a presi

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he can get into second place here. >> the suspense could not be greater in nevada, because even john ralstonen. thank you very much for joining us tonight. really appreciate it. >> you bet. >>> when we come back, john bolton tonight said that two of the most important areas of trump foreign policy are a failure and a mistake. that's next. -meg! there you are. did you take a picture of the cake to put on our website? i mean i would have but i'm a commercial vehicle so i don't have hands... or a camera...or a website. should we franchise? is the market ready for that? can we franchise? how do you do that? meg! oh meg! we should do that thing where you put the business cards in the fishbowl and somebody wins something. -meg: hi. i'm here for... i'm here for the evans' wedding. -we've got the cake in the back, so, yeah. -meg: thank you. -progressive knows small business makes big demands. -you're not gonna make it, you're not gonna make it! ask her if we can do her next wedding too! -so we'll design the insurance solution that fits your business. -on second thought, don't...ask that. that fits y

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joining me meghan meserly and john ralston who will be co-hosting wednesday's democratic debate. john, some of the headlines haven't been great, frankly, including "the washington post" reporting that campaign officials and democratic officials are alarmed that the debacle that happened in iowa may repeat in nevada. what are you seeing and hearing? when you and i talked thursday or friday, and i asked you point-blank is nevada going to be able to avoid what happened in iowa, you wouldn't commit to that. >> i remain in the uncommitted category. i have to tell you what garrett is picking up there habit the long lines is certainly true. and there were long lines on saturday and sunday and today. and people are getting frustrated. many people are waiting in line for two hours and reporting to us or on social media that it was worth the wait. they interacted with people in line. listen, the democratic party clearly did not anticipate the kind of turnout that is occurring. 18,50 0 on the first day. probably about half as many yesterday. i'd have to guess. but that's different than havin

joining us right now, john ralston, editor of the nevada independent. to our conversation, john, you and i have talked many a time about the recent elections over the last decade or so. what's different this time, voting now starting today? >> well, early voting has never existed before, richard, for the caucus. i mean, it's antithetical to a caucus. >> sounds like it, yeah. >> yeah. where you go in and you -- and there is a whole bunch of people. and then you -- you separate and there's viability. but the -- the dnc, the democratic national committee, insisted on making caucuses more accessible. so one of the ways the party here came up with to do that was to have early voting. so essentially, you have a hybrid going on now, right? people are voting today and the next three days afterwards. they're just going in and they're filling out paper ballots. and then those results are going to be mixed in on caucus day a week from today. they have to be put in the exact precincts to determine viability. it's not a normal ballot, though. you're not just voting f

i want to bring our two experts in here, john ralston and chris matthews, who is outside on the stripg this coverage that should be spliend explained as woe e go along the way. >> there's no better data guy than steve kornacki. every single metric you measure this by looks pretty good by bernie sanders. most of the other campaigns have privately conceded that bernie sanders is going to win nevada. that is to some extent playing an expectations game. the margin is going to be important, and the margin indicated by these entrance polls looks like it could be large. i don't think the turnout today is going to be so robust that it's going to change much of what happened with those 75,000 early voters, and there's a lot of implications if bernie sanders does end up winning by a two to one margin, which is not impossible. i don't want to do rank speculation here, brian, i'll save that for twitter. but the bottom line is that the entrance polls so far really, really do look strong for bernie sanders. and i think even though joe biden really wants to finish in second here, maybe needs to, if

our moderators lester holt, hallie jackson, chuck todd, vanessa and john ralston to put them to the test days ahead of the las vegas caucuses. watch here on msnbc. >>> despite michael bloomberg being in the news for less than positive news, the former new york mayor sees a climb in the polls and growing support from black voters. according to the latest economist/ugov poll of the must win voting bloc of african-americans, bloomberg in third place trailing by two points and as the candidacy moves into the spotlight he has to answer about his record with black communities. joining me now is pastor reverend a.r. bernard from new york, the ccc is a mega church with more than 45,000 active members so what this gentleman tells me is like a poll because you have your pulse on this. it was in your church that michael bloomberg said that he regrets stop and frisk. >> that's correct. >> tell me about this. >> look. he called me and he's been working through a process deciding to do this. i know that the timing is suspect. but be that as it may, people will interpret it however they want but the re

joining us now from las vegas the editor of the nevada independent and msnbc political analyst john ralston. i'm messing this all up. john and allison is a member of she the people. thank you for being here this morning. >> hi, ali. >> john, let's talk about this. a lot of energy and excitement that goes into coverage of the caucus in iowa. the primaries in new hampshire and now the caucus in nevada. what actually do you think the nevada caucus is going to tell us? when you and i are talking when we're in las vegas a week from now, what are we going to know that we don't know today? >> well, it's a good question, ali. it is a caucus, as you know, it will not be the same as iowa. still a lot of ex-factors out there because early voting started yesterday and they never had early voting before. we don't know what the overall turnout is going to be. having said that, i think the two main questions are, can bernie sanders who has a formidable organization here continue the momentum that he's built in iowa and new hampshire and who will emerge as the anti-bernie candidate. joe biden at the event

let's bring in john ralston and johnathan allen and reset. lk about what we're seeing in nevada and what we can expect tomorrow with the democrats. they are going out making their last-minute case. but john, so many voters here have caucused, made their decisions, regardless of this last-minute pitch, regardless of what happens on the debate stage. >> right, 77,000 of them locked in. all of these campaigns are doing everything they can to get those last caucusgoers out, trying to get people energized. we've seen with various campaigns the ability and inability to do that. bernie sanders good at ramping up at the end of a campaign. we saw that in 2016. he's been doing that again, not outperforming but performing towards the kind of numbers he wants. pete buttigieg good at outpolling. are joe biden and elizabeth warren be able to get people out at the end? and will the debate have any effect? >> john, what are you watching on the big eve of the day? >> you alluded to the biggest question out there, which is what the turnout is going to be tomorr

. >> i'm going to bring in john ralston, editor of the nevada independent and one of the five moderatorst the debate. moments ago you tweeted you have big news about nevada. i want you to break that right here. >> of course i saved it for you, stephanie. the news is yesterday, the last day of early voting in nevada, there's four days and the caucus is on saturday, 33,000 or so turned out. not all the ballots are counted yet. let me put that in perspective. that's almost as many as turned out in the first three days combined, meaning about 70,000 have turned out, only about 80,000 turned out total in 2016 on caucus day. so there's going to be huge turnout in nevada. maybe a sign of enthusiasm. >> who is the enthusiasm by? is it by centrists who maybe for years and years never felt like they needed to participate in a primary, or is it by a whole new crop of voters who are saying i'm done with this system, i'm ready for a change? >> that's a great question. let me say a couple things about that, stephanie. first of all, the data that's been extracted so far that i know of, shows that more

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. >>> joining me is raymond buckley, mark lebovic, and john ralston. mark, i'm back from new hampshire. i was with you in new hampshire. give me your big picture. how has this reshaped the race? >> well, it seems like only yesterday we were in '08. we were. o amy klobuchar is a bigger picture today than yesterday. she can clear the next hurdle, but it's not easy when you have a running start -- it's easier when you have a running start, and she as he said hasn't had any really anything on the ground going in nevada or south carolina to this point. i think it remains the key figures remain sanders. joe biden to some degree because south carolina is such a make or break for him. obviously pete buttigieg and can someone like amy klobuchar really sneak in to really the top three and sort of go forward with her momentum that she got last night in new hampshire. as of five days ago, it's a huge surprise. >> i think the way people tend to frame the things is it the prodepressiv progressives versus the moderates. your paper claimed it it was bad for the establ

all my colleagues up there are going to be asking questions, plus john ralston, 9:00 pm eastern on msnbc> ahead, attorney general bill barr will appear before the house next month. we'll ask congresswoman sheila jackson lee about some of the questions that barr might face and what she thinks good answers might be. fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely. but allstate helps you. with drivewise. feedback that helps you drive safer. and that can lower your cost now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? are you currently using a whitening toothpaste, but not seeing results? try crest 3d whitestrips. its enamel-safe formula lifts and removes stains to provide 100% noticeably whiter teeth or your money back. try crest 3d whitestrips. still fresh... ♪ unstopables in-wash scent booster ♪ ♪ downy unstopables >>> one of the major stories coming out of the new hampshire primary besides bernie sanders' predictable victory was the rise of amy klobuchar and the fall of elizabeth warren. klobuchar finished in a surprising third place with nearly 20% of the vote and snagged s

. >> okay, john ralston, does anyone think bloomberg made a mistake given the delayed entry into theces and reach. did he make a mistake not getting into the game in nevada earlier? >> of course, brian, as you know, it's always a mistake to ignore nevada. whether that's going to be a crippling blow to mike bloomberg, nobody knows. nobody has ever done what mike bloomberg is trying to do. he has had a presence in nevada. before i tell you, brian, he funded a background checks initiative here a couple cycles ago, and his people were on the ground there, and they developed a bit of an infrastructure here that could be helpful to him if he were to become the nominee, but, you know, if i could, brian, just on the point about african-american voters who will come into play here, people talk about the latino vote here a lot. and it's going to be large in the democratic caucus and in the general election. the african-american vote is substantial here, too. but what i think is going to happen, if biden doesn't do well here, doesn't hold up in the polls here, his support among african-american

and john ralston. i'm going to go in reverse order. e whatever went on between sanders' fans and the union could -- how will that in your view impact -- could it impact the race? >> take the first question first, joy. my reporter actually met with a couple of the union leaders and saw the emails and the tweets and some stuff that was posted on the internet. listen, there is a small corner of sanders-land that is nasty and vicious and anyone in the media or other campaigns knows if you say anything remotely negative about bernie sanders they will go on social media and attack you in a very vicious way. i don't think it's the majority of bernie sanders' supporters. as you mentioned, joy, he has condemned it, he has urged his supporters to stand down but the union leaders don't think he's done enough so they're upset with him. to be honest with you, i don't know what more he can do. i don't think he can control the anger of the people that think that the great establishment beast is out to get them and everyone is part of this conspiracy.

and john ralston who has covered nevada politics for more than three decades. the rules are this tonight, candidates will get 1:15 to answer each question, and 45 seconds for follow-ups. now that the stage has narrowed to six candidates, we encourage each of you to directly engage with each other on the issues. let's get to our first question. since the last time you all shared the stage, senator sanders has surged into the lead nationally in the democratic race, and there's a new person on the stage tonight, mayor michael bloomberg, a former republican who spent millions of his own dollars to run in this race. what hasn't changed, a majority of democratic voters still say their top priority is beating president trump. senator sanders, the first question to you, mayor bloomberg is pitching himself as a centrist, who says he's best positioned to win in november. why is your revolution a better bet? >> in order to beat donald trump, we're going to need the largest voter turnout in the history of the united states. mr. bloomberg had policies in new york city of st

joining me john ralston and the editor of the nevada independent.mmunications director for the hillary clinton campaign. thank you for being here. this was much more decisive for bernie sanders than the previous races. and it feels like a lot of the reason for that is the more diverse state and it is proof of concept that he can turn out younger voters of color as well as more liberal white voters. >> the entrance polls showed he is doing very well among hispanic voters and that is a significant part of the electorate, but something you said is really important. passion will beat mechanics almost every time. guess what? sanders last time had only passion when he barely lost a state to hillary clinton. he had passion and mechanics this time. this wasn't a rag tag group of folks running it. these were political pros, folks who worked for harry reid, they had the best organization by far the best field operation and highest number of operatives. you put those two together, no one can compete with it. >> one of the things we missed looking from 30,000 f

. >> john ralston has your cell phone number? >> i know.te, they have to say, i love nevada voters and i want to hear from you. it's an important swing state, but to say -- i mean, early voting seems troublesome. to say, i'm not focused on the results, i'm here because i care about what these voters think. >> i think it would be -- >> pop over to southern california and do a little campaigning over there? >> it would be irresponsible to not protect your candidate at this point. >> i don't mean to cut you off. it's kornacki time. we have the first batch of polls. it's hot off the presses. steve, i'm coming right to you. here we are. >> go right to the board. >> we care about the raw material coming into us. let's get some of the raw material. i know we're going to be limited in what we show you. what have he we learned so far. >> we get an idea of -- they're going to add more samples to this. first of all, what is the age breakdown. we talk so much about how the age differences in this race in terms of how the voters make a difference. take