josh letterman joins us with the late e josh, he has sunk millions in ads we're going to see if theyoff >> reporter: not a minute too soon, frances, because this morning the tied is turning on mike bloomberg with democratic party heavy hitters lining up one by one behind joe biden. but the bloomberg campaign says he has spent upwards of half a billion dollars of his personal fortune at this point on a strategy based largely around super tuesday. he's built an army of some 2400 staffers around the country. they say he does not see that joe biden has proven anything other than his ability to win one state, south carolina. mike bloomberg going hard after bernie sanders as he closed out his campaign yesterday take a listen to what he told a town hall in virginia. >> i don't think the country wants revolutionary change i think the country wants evolutionary change. and sanders is a very revolutionary kind of guy. he cannot bring over moderates from the other side. he won't even keep all the moderates in the democratic side some will go over to trump >> reporter: but in the short term, the

for the latest right now kelley o'donnell is at the white house, josh letterman on capitol hill, shannon is in d.c., stephanie ruhle, and natalie azar will join me as well. to you, kelly, first of all. what do we expect today, and we have not yet, however, the president said, see you tomorrow that of course is a vice president leading it. other top officials who have now become very familiar to the american people here over the last few hours at the white house. so they've been doing meetings behind the scenes, preparing the latest information, and then we would expect the scheduled time now for this public briefing is now 12:30. we've been 208d to expect updates on areas like testing, and how u.s. manufacturers are taking part in some of the needed supplies. those are, of course, key topics on everyone's minds as governors around the country are saying they're having a hard time locating masks and ventilators, gowns and other equipment needed for medical personnel. in addition, we'll be asking questions about where things stand with the rampup of testing that's occurred over the last ma

joining us, anchor and senior business correspondent stephanie ruhle, political reporter josh letterman who's been covering the bloomberg campaign. and host of democracy-ish podcast. josh, i'm going to start with you. give us a behind the scenes as you're there. >> reporter: yeah. this is an irony here in that this is the most raucous crowd for michael bloomberg throughout the entire campaign and it is coming as he's actually withdrawing from the race. the room here midtown manhattan is packed with a lot of supporters and his campaign staff from his headquarters who came here to see him off. to see him endorse joe biden. a really strong call from michael bloomberg for the party to get behind joe biden describing him as someone that worked for the middle class his whole life and best positioned to lead the party to defeat president donald trump. the big question on everyone's minds, what does michael bloomberg do to help the next democratic nominee get elected? michael bloomberg said he commits this organization he's built to electing that democratic nominee and a lot of specifics to be

. >> joining us now is political reporter josh letterman, in washington. the bloomberg campaign. josh, let's just talk about what has happened here tonight. the buttigieg announcing he's going to suspend his campaign. we're waiting for him to speak live. the expectation that at some point he's going to throw his support behind joe biden. this is kind of a tough spot for michael bloomberg head iing int super tuesday. he didn't really want to engage with this question about whether he spent half a billion dollars to elect bernie sanders as the democratic nominee, but do you think we're heading that way? how do they see super tuesday? >> obviously, the conversation around blomichael bloomberg has changed dramatically just in the last 48 hours or so. first, with the will victory for joe biden bringing him back to the forefront as the supposed moderate alternative who can stand a chance of sanders. and now with pete buttigieg dropping out. and the party clearly moving in the direction of wanting to consolidate sooner than later and that meaning before tuesday a

joining me from washington, d.c., nbc news national political reporter josh letterman, josh, lots tot here. lots that we don't know. the bill doesn't seem to be close, according to nancy pelosi to being passed. we don't seem to have an alternative to it. it seems to be around $4 trillion right now. it is not as i was just discussing with senator chris coons addressing some of the basic things that democrats needed. >> reporter: that's right, alex. a remarkable failure by the senate today to pull it together, find some way to move forward on what both parties agree the an urgent need to get something out the door. what was so interesting about the way that this played out throughout the day today, was how similar it was to all of the other political fights that we typically see in washington. you had democrats saying that republicans had pulled a bait and switch and changed the bill at the last mant after they agreed to things. republicans saying it was democrats trying to infuse additional unrelated issues into the bill that set their idea logical agenda, that kind of finger pointing

nbc's josh letterman has the update. li, senators meeting again this morning in the rush to try to get electi legislation for millions of americans struggling. mitch mcconnell set a deadline for the deal to be reached so congress could work on it over the weekend setting up a vote on monday. senators left the capitol without having reached a deal. still being several sticking points with republicans and democrats. they are back at it today trying to hammer out those issues. we don't know if they will resolve it in time to keep that deadline and schedule of setting up a vote on monday. we do know they are working through some really key issues. chief among them, cash payments to americans that we have been talking about. the initial proposal from republicans created a situation where if you didn't make a lot of money, someone who is on social security or disability might not have a lot of income you pay taxes on, you would have gotten a small amount. roughly $600. senators wanted to add more money to that part as well as a

that is where my colleague josh letterman has some breaking news. what do you have, josh?appointing news. we learned that senator rand paul of kentucky has tested positive for coronavirus. the senator's office putting on twitter that he tested positive for covid-19 and his office saying that potential paul is feeling fine and is in quarantine and that he is aso many tom -- is asystematic because of the events held recently and he was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person. but obviously very concerning news. this is the first member of the u.s. senate to have been tested positive for coronavirus. we know that two members of the house of representatives at this point have also tested positive for coronavirus. but obviously this is an illness that is not sparing people of any part of society, alex. >> josh, do we know if every member of the house and/or senate are able to get tests if they want them. because the point you're making about senator rand paul who didn't knowingly come into contact with someone but does travel as so you described it out of an ab

josh letterman has been covering the bloomberg campaign, stephanie ruhle at one point worked for the bloomberg folks there, also covering the campaign very closely and we're also joined by two campaign veterans, former campaign manager for cory booker and the press secretary for kamala harris's campaign. we just heard from mr. biden via twitter, this is the tweet, michael bloomberg, i can't thank you enough for your support and for your tireless work on everything from gun safety reform to climate change. this race is bigger than candidates, bigger than politics, it's about defeating donald trump and with your help we are going to do it. what else have you learned about mr. bloomberg's thinking and his support now for joe biden and what that might look like? >> well, we know, craig, this decision was not made for a final way until just this morning. bloomberg obviously saw some of what was coming last night but decided that he wanted to wait until more information came in, until he was able to really take a solid look at all of the math that was coming in and see if there was a viabl

. >> that's nbc josh letterman on capitol hill. thank you. ron is going stoic around. now we would like to get to some of kroyour questions about how s pandemic could affect you, starting with your finances. please remember, our guests are going to give you their best answers based on their expertise and on what we know right now. what we know can and will change and nothing that anyone on this program says can substitute for the guidance of your financial adviser or your doctor on your specific vasituation. having that said is cnbc personal finance correspondent sharon epperson. >> thank you. >> debra asked is our money safe in the bank right now? are the big banks safer than the smaller banks? how would you respond to debra? >> the first is you have to make sure it's in an fdic insured bank. it's the corporation that's going to keep your money safe. your savings account, checking account, money market deposit account and your cds. yes, big banks have this fdic insurance for these accounts but some smaller banks do as well. you need to go to fdic.gov. go to the bank f

joining my, my colleague, nbc news political reporter josh letterman. he has a great piece out on nbcnews.com. josh, walk us through these direct cash payments. who they go to, how they get there. >> yeah, stephanie, this has been a little hard to follow over the last few weeks because it's changed so many times. like anything to do with the irs and taxes, it's very complicated. basically what people should expect that if you are an american or if you are someone in the u.s. that has a social security number, you, by and large, are going to be eligible for a payment of $1200 per person or $2400 if you are a couple that files your taxes jointly. in addition to that, there's an additional $500 that the government is going to send out per child that you claim as a dependent on your taxes. but there are some limits here. they don't want to give this money to people who make so much money they don't really need this help. and so once you hit $75,000 worth of income, that number is going to start to go down. if you are an individual you make up to $75,000, you

josh letterman is joining us on capitol hill. welcome to you. are you on capitol hill? it looks like you're indoors as well you should be. and speaker pelosi gave a scathing critique of the president. what more did she say. >> reporter: that is right. speaker pelosi saying as trump is fiddling, people are dying going after the president for what she said was a act of quick action on what she needed to be done with a lack of testing, lack of preparation and supplies like ventilators and personal protective equipment. but we know that there is no love lost between the president and pelosi. they haven't been speaking for several months. and just today in response to the pelosi comments we saw donald trump re-tweet the chairman of the republican party who accused of mrs. trying to rewrite history saying in january when this was starting to bubble up that democrats were consumed with the impeachment saga instead of focusing on the country's health and well being. >> we have to do more. i think this bill was just a down payment. we have a house bill $200 billion, the final bi

aly vitali with me and josh letterman following the bloomberg campaign in washington.o love the fact that every reporter is asking her the same question. are you going to drop out now that more opponents have dropped out. what is the warren campaign saying about the developments today? >> reporter: chuck, you know, i think at this point in the campaign for all of these candidates not named bernie or biden, there's a strategy to control and the strategy you can't. on the strategy you can control front, the campaign said there's the goal to pick up as many delegates at possible on super tuesday and scoop up the delegates across the map. nothing to say of the fact that bernie sanders is nipping at the heels here in home state of massachusetts and hard for her to walk into the convention with however many delegates she has but there's the things you can't control and quite frankly the warren campaign calculus long been that the field needs to winnow for her strategy to be successful and today's news about buttigieg or yesterday's news of buttigieg and today's news of klobu

josh letterman has been covering the bloomberg campaign, stephanie ruhle at one point worked for theks there, also covering the campaign very closely and we're also joi

it was something kevin said at the end of his interview with josh letterman.campaign manager. we wanted to hear nicole wallace on this front. >> his response was, mike bloomberg will be the nominee or the most important person in the country to the person who is the nominee. >>> let me say something about kevin. i've done interviews with you on election night when i wasn't sure how my candidate was going to do. it is a hard job to have. if things don't go bloomberg's way, he does be need thresholds in every state. and if the bloomberg campaign ceases to exist at any point in the near future, that man will be the one who has the job of walking in and telling mike bloomberg, it's time. the point is only true is the nominee is joe biden. >> it would work for any candidate other than joe biden. >> i'll go with that analysis. there will be two people who have a path to the nomination. bernie sanders and joe biden. mike bloomberg only becomes the most important person to the nominee if the nominee is joe biden. i talked to two folks from the biden campaign. a couple

>> let's go to josh letterman in miami with the bloomberg campaign. josh, there's all of this talk the last few days, time for mayor bloomberg to step out. the fact he is not even in a super tuesday state right now, is that not a sign he is in this for the long haul? >> reporter: it is indeed a sign, stephanie. mike bloomberg refusing to bow what is fast intensifying pressure to bow out of the race, make room for joe biden. bloomberg campaign officials we're speaking with say they feel joe biden hasn't plroven anything other than winning one state, south carolina. they feel good about bloomberg's chances in virginia, arkansas, oklahoma, tennessee. they're not exactly saying whether he needs to outright win states, but they expect him to pick up delegates today and be competitive. stephanie, as you point out, even as voters go to the polls in super tuesday states, mike bloomberg is in florida, on his way to his field office opening in miami, he will be campaigning in orlando later, he is trying to send a signal come what may on super tuesday, he is in t

also in cleveland, josh letterman covering that campaign tonight. hey, josh. >> hey, brian.pointment here at the planned rally for bernie sanders in cleveland that is now not going to happen. we have been seeing people exiting the building, packing up boxes. they had been planning to sell stickers and bumper stickers. now that's not going to happen. bernie sanders actually just landed in the last couple of minutes in vermont. he diverted to burlington once he canceled this event. we don't yet know whether we will actually be able to see bernie sanders this evening as these results are coming in. but we did just hear from sanders in a statement expressing concerns about long voting lines, not only in michigan, but also in other parts of the country voting today. bernie sanders calling that, quote, an outrage, and calling on polling officials to keep the polls open longer if necessary to allow more people to vote. here in cleveland, we're hearing concerns from some sanders supporters that given the way bernie sanders tends to campaign with these massive rallies, less retail po

josh letterman is in west palm beach tonight with some reporting on that question. arted the night with bloomberg's campaign manager kevin cheeki, very optimistic telling us they suspected bloomberg would be viable in every single state competing here on super tuesday. obviously things did not turn out that way. michael bloomberg spoke here in west palm beach as the magnitude of joe biden's victory was becoming clear. then he got on a plane and went back to new york city where he lives where campaign aides tell us that tomorrow morning, bloomberg will be huddling with his senior aides to plot a path forward and decide whether or not to stay in this race. we're told that no decisions have been made, but they are no longer standing behind this firm position of he is in it for long haul. he is staying in this race no matter what. i just spoke to a senior bloomberg campaign official just after midnight, chris, who said, look, things were looking really good for them up until a few days ago with their internal polling showing that they were in very strong shape. they say