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CNN Projects: Bernie Sanders Wins Nevada Caucuses; Rivals Say Sanders Will Win If No One Drops Out Of Race; Russian Election Interference, The Sequel; Rivals Hammer Bloomberg In His Presidential Debate Debut. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired February 23, 2020 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:21]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN HOST (voice-over): Nevada Democrats make a big bet.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we stand together, we will transform this country and create a government and an economy that works for all of us.

KING: Plus, on to South Carolina -- a crossroads for Joe Biden, and a second debate chance for Michael Bloomberg.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have a very few nondisclosure agreements.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How many is that?

BLOOMBERG: Let me finish.

WARREN: How many is that?

KING: And the president's anger boils over, a purge of the aides seen as disloyal and unprecedented meddling in the cases.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country.

KING: INSIDE POLITICS, the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters, now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS.

I'm John King.

To our viewers in the United States and around the world, thank you for sharing your Sunday.

We begin the hour with Bernie Sanders and his now decisive early momentum in the 2020 Democratic presidential race. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: We are bringing our people together black and white and Latino, Native American, Asian-American, gay and straight. We are bringing our people together around an agenda that works for the working people of this country. Not the 1 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That Sanders celebration in Texas after this big Saturday win in Nevada. We are still counting the results. But you see Senator Sanders getting nearly 56 percent of the delegates. Joe Biden is second. Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 15 percent. Senator Warren, you see the other candidates are struggling down here in single digits.

Let's pop this back up here. This is the Nevada race that Sanders wanted to win and he won pretty big. You see some Buttigieg green in the rural areas, but Sanders is winning big in Clark County. Most of the population in Nevada lives here. You see, he's getting about half of the delegates here.

Also winning up in the northwest corner of the state, Washoe County, up here, the other big population center. Senator Sanders running it up big here.

A very impressive win for Senator Sanders there, if you look, come out to the full map, he's also leading so far, we're still allocating Nevada delegates, but he has a lead in the delegate race and yes, the critics are correct to say only three states Iowa, New Hampshire and now Nevada have voted so far. Yes, they are right to say, even this big margin in Nevada, demonstrates more than half of the Democratic Party prefers someone else, but senator Sanders has clear momentum now as the race moves to South Carolina.

Another win there is not out of the question, in part because while Senator Sanders has a very firm grip on the Democrats' liberal wing, no one candidate has emerged as the leading moderate alternative.

Joe Biden vows that will be him after South Carolina, but Buttigieg among those arguing he's the one best suited one to stop the Sanders surge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You all did it for me. You all did it. Now we're going on to South Carolina and win and then we're going to take this back.

PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Before we rush to nominate Senator Sanders in our one shot to take on this president, let us take a sober look at what it is at stake. Senator Sanders believes in an inflexible, ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats. Not to mention most Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: With us this Sunday to share their reporting and their insights, Julie Pace of "The Associated Press", Paul Kane at "The Washington Post", Tamara Keith of NPR, CNN's Abby Phillip, and from Las Vegas, very early out there, "Politico's" Laura Barron-Lopez.

Laura, I appreciate you getting up so early for us.

I want to start with you and this. If you look at the Sanders win, we're still counting votes. We're still allocating delegates in Nevada. But if you look at the depth and the breadth of it, Sanders winning the white vote, 29 percent in the Nevada polls. Joe Biden wins the black vote, but Senator Sanders is contesting among African- Americans, with 27 percent of the vote. Among Latino voters critical in Nevada and in many contests as we move on. Wow, 51 percent for senator Sanders.

The critics, Laura, have been that Senator Sanders has this limited constituency. At least in Nevada, yes, it's a more liberal electorate than we will in other states, but in Nevada, he made a pretty powerful statement.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right, John. He was the candidate that won in the first diverse state to vote. And so that eats away a bit at Joe Biden's argument this entire time about electability, which is that after losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, Biden had been saying, I'm the candidate that can win in the diverse states.

[08:05:03]

I'm the candidate that can win in Nevada, that can win in South Carolina, and Sanders has taken a big chunk out of that argument for Biden.

And this week, since I've been out here, I really took a close look at what he did to win over Latinos. His campaign said they spent millions alone on Latino outreach. They did community events. Even without Sanders held some 35 Spanish events. They made sure that they were on Spanish language TV for a long time and Joe Biden actually did not go up on Spanish language TV in the last week.

KING: That's a very interesting point as we go forward, as we bring the conversation, Laura, stand by, we bring the conversation to the table as well, and just look more at this again, among younger voters, 17-29 in the entrance polls, hard to argue with that, 65 percent, that's a wow number, Bernie Sanders has the young energy in the Democratic party.

Among 30 to 44, he gets half. In a crowded field, you're getting half, that's, again, that is a wow. He has his unique lane and then he's competitive in the other lanes. Joe Biden won the 65 and older, but again Sanders it's a more disappointing performance for him there. But he's getting to 11.

So that's a weakness you might say with older voters but if you're looking at growth stocks, expanding coalitions -- Sanders. JULIE PACE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: He's

building a coalition and that's how you win in a primary. You have to be able to draw ultimately from a diverse array of voters.

And Sanders' problem in 2016 was that his numbers really fell off just dramatically with black voters in particular. He spent a lot of time over the last four years trying to get those numbers back up, but if he can continue to have this real stranglehold on young voters, a really strength with Latinos, and a really respectable showing with black voters, that's the Democratic party right there.

TAMARA KEITH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NPR: I was talking to one of his campaign advisers who say early on, at the very beginning of this second campaign for Sanders, he came to him and he said I want to expand my base. I know we do well with young people and with white voters. Bernie Sanders said he wanted to expand beyond that, to have real strength among Latino voters and black voters. And creep into older voters.

And that's what they have shown that they can do. A sign of their confidence here is that he's adding events in South Carolina. If they didn't think he had a chance in South Carolina, he wouldn't be adding events in South Carolina.

KING: Right. To your point and to the point that Laura made, you have to give -- whether you like him or not, Bernie Sanders has worked really hard. Learning lessons in 2016 when he came pretty close against Hillary Clinton, and learning the lessons going back -- building support -- he had good Latino support he has made it better. It had not so good African-American support then, he has made it better.

To your point about South Carolina, the challenge here, if you look at the generational, Sanders gets the younger vote, if we have this divide, he has a chance. If he can keep the younger voters even if the older ones are loyal and stick with Biden.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, I think Sanders has staked a lot of his campaign on younger voters but it's starting to pay off because what younger voters have done for him is they have given him a really solid base. He has overwhelming support with younger voters and they're rock solid in his favor and what it has allowed him to do is spent more time trying to pick away at the other constituencies.

I think in South Carolina a similar thing is going to happen for Sanders. He has a chance to make inroads with younger voters and he can spend more time especially in the last week kind of picking away at the support that Biden has with voters who are over the age of 35, maybe even those younger than 65. He doesn't necessarily need to take away support from 65 and older, but if he can get those sort of middle aged black women to give him a second look that's a really important constituency that will go a long way to his credibility argument in South Carolina.

KING: And part of the give of having momentum is that you can say, well, they say I can't beat Trump, I'm beating them. And plus, you get to focus more and more as Senator Sanders has tried to do, smart politician, electability at the beginning was a giant weakness, we're going to talk more about this later on the program. But Sanders now when he talks look straight in the camera and says, I can beat Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: We are going to win across the country because the American people are sick and tired of a president who lies all of the time. The American people are sick and tired of a government which is based on greed, corruption and lies. They want an administration which is based on the principles of justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's interesting as we go forward. Biden gets a life line out of Nevada now he goes into South Carolina and he has to prove it. He has to prove it.

And so, you see Senator Sanders there, a candidate with energy, a candidate with optimism and talking about his agenda. More often than not, Joe Biden is saying things like this, I'm not them.

[08:10:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I'm a Democrat for a simple reason. I ain't a socialist, I'm not a plutocrat, I'm a Democrat.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

And I'm proud of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: He gets a life line, but is that enough? I'm not a socialist, meaning I'm not Bernie. I'm not a plutocrat, I'm not Bloomberg.

But who is Joe Biden? What does Joe Biden want? Isn't that one of the reasons he's slipped so much in this race?

PAUL KANE, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: He's at his best when he's trying to talk about what comes next, you know, trying to give some sort of forward leaning agenda as opposed to hey, come back to the old days with me.

I was at a couple of his events on Friday in Las Vegas. They were goodish. They were OK. There was more energy than I thought actually some of my colleagues have been expecting.

But he needs to go in to South Carolina and have a real big win. Bernie only needs to be in the mix. If he's a close second that's almost another win for him. Because Super Tuesday, the states look a whole lot more like Nevada than they do Iowa or New Hampshire and South Carolina. So, if he keeps repeating that coalition across the Super Tuesday

states, he'll --

PHILLIP: And also, Biden needs to decide whether he actually wants to take on Bernie Sanders or not.

KANE: Yes.

PHILLIP: I mean, that argument that he made was pretty thin. It was one that Hillary Clinton tried. It didn't really work against Sanders in the primary in 2016. And if Biden is going to actually say, OK, this guy is the front-runner, I'm the person who is more qualified than him to beat Trump the argument has to get more clearer than that. It has to get more sharp than that, because Bernie Sanders is, you know, 20 points ahead of Biden in Nevada. That's not a close race. So --

KING: That's not a close race.

Hold that thought. We're going to come back to all of this because we have a debate on Tuesday night. We have questions about Senator Sanders, we have questions about where the other candidates go as well, and that's what we pick up next.

A closer look at the road ahead for the 2020 Democrats and why those who oppose Senator Sanders are getting more than a little worried.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:16:27]

KING: After Nevada, the warnings are about to get only louder. Go something like this. Bernie Sanders can't sell Democratic socialism in a general election. Trump will coast to the second term. Republicans will gain seats in the Senate. Maybe even retake the House.

That is the message of Bernie Sanders' opponents and of much of the Democratic establishment. But -- it's an important but -- Democratic voters across America pick the nominee and they see things very differently.

Let's take a look at some of the numbers. NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll asked, who are you most enthusiastic or comfortable about when it comes to the nominee? Bernie Sanders leads with 65 percent. Two out of three Democrats say they wound comfortable or enthusiastic if Bernie Sanders were atop of the ticket. Senator Warren, Vice President Biden, you see the other candidates, Bernie Sanders on top. Democratic voters despite all of the warnings feel comfortable about Bernie Sanders.

The next contest is in South Carolina. This is just one poll. Don't invest in any one poll, but this one from the University of Mass- Lowell last week showed Senator Sanders quite competitive in South Carolina. Abby was just talking, he's going there this week, he's making investment, he's competitive in the next contest. Then the two biggest prizes on Super Tuesday, California and Texas.

Sanders on top, it's competitive, but on top in California. Yes it's competitive, yes, in play in Texas. Bernie is playing and playing strong everywhere.

Let's take a little look at what comes ahead. South Carolina is Saturday. That is alone, that's a primary. Then Super Tuesday, the first big blur, 14 states plus America Samoa, plus Democrats abroad voting in one big sweep.

Sanders has the organization, Sanders has resources. Sanders thinks he has momentum. And whether you like him or not, Sanders tells you straight up, elect me, here's what I'll do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: We are going to raise the federal minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour. We are going to create millions of good-paying union jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. We are going to have high quality, affordable universal child care and we're going to make public colleges and universities tuition free. We're going to cancel all student debt in this country. We will significantly expand funding for Planned Parenthood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Laura Barron-Lopez, I want to start with you out in Vegas, Sanders' critics have tried this, maybe not successfully, maybe they got too focused on Michael Bloomberg in the last couple of days, but they've tried to make the case, you can't sell this, you can't sell this, but we saw it even there in Nevada where the Culinary Union leadership said don't be for Bernie Sanders. He'll take away your health care and we say pictures of all the caucuses where union hotel workers were lining up for Bernie Sanders.

BARRON-LOPEZ: That's right. I mean, the fact that the culinary didn't endorse seemed to really helped Sanders because it didn't direct any of the workers towards another candidate. When I was there in January, one thing I heard from Biden supporters or those leaning Biden but kind of looking around was that there was an interest in Sanders. They seemed to like his policies. They liked the policies of Elizabeth Warren, but they were skeptical about whether or not he could win.

And that was before Iowa had happened, that New Hampshire happened and now, Nevada. So, I think it will be interesting to see whether or not these strong finishes in the first three states actually sway voters in South Carolina. There's no doubt it's an uphill climb for him when it comes to older African-Americans who are very much still loyal to Biden.

KING: More moderate, more conservative, you might argue, climate.

[08:20:01]

But some -- it's a test of how much momentum. We have a very liberal Nevada electorate. Move on to South Carolina. The interesting thing is to watch the other candidates react to this.

He's solidified the left wing of the party. Everyone else is tripping over each other, trying to solidify the I'm not Bernie, call it the centrist or the moderate wing, call it what you will, in the wake of last night Bloomberg campaign memo, if Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar remain in the race, they will propel Sanders to a seemingly insurmountable delegate lead by siphoning votes away from Bloomberg. That's the Bloomberg campaign there.

The Buttigieg campaign says, if Bloomberg remains in the race, despite showing he can't offer a viable alternative to Sanders, he will propel to a seemingly insurmountable delegate lead, siphoning votes away from Pete.

PACE: It's a hilarious thing going on, the non-Sanders candidates acknowledge the reality. As far as the field is crowded, Sanders' path to the nomination is much easier. All of them think the other guy or gal should be the one to get out of the race, and nobody wants to blink first. And the Bloomberg statements are kind of funny whether he talks about the fragmented field. He's making it more fragmented by getting on the ballot in Super Tuesday.

So, we live this story in 2016, we watched this happen with the Republicans in 2016. Everyone acknowledges that, but there's no effort really underway to try to change a similar outcome.

KANE: Warren's collapse is sort of underappreciated because it allowed Sanders to completely own this lane. She's getting 10 percent in all of the states or less.

And so everyone thought Warren and Sanders were going to fight in this lane almost to the draw which would allow someone like Biden or a Buttigieg to soar. It hadn't happened. Her collapse has allowed him to really solidify those ranks and it's just going to keep going straight through Super Tuesday.

KING: And be careful about anyone who tells you they know how this is going to end. We don't, we don't. And we should remember 2016, and we should remember 2008, Barack Obama beating Hillary Clinton. These things are unpredictable, people in Washington often try to write the last chapter of the book when we're in an early chapter. Let's let this play out.

However, one of the things that came up in the debate, the other candidates are saying, hmm, Sanders may get ahead in the delegates, may be impossible to catch, but may be impossible for him to catch the majority. If we get to that point, what do we do?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MODERATOR: You want the convention to work as well?

BLOOMBERG: Yes.

MODERATOR: Senator Warren?

WARREN: But convention working as well means that the people have the delegates pledged to them and they keep those delegates until the --

(CROSSTALK)

MODERATOR: Yes or no. Leading person with the delegates, should they be the nominee or not?

BIDEN: No, let the process works its way out.

MODERATOR: Mayor Buttigieg?

BUTTIGIEG: Not necessarily. Not --

MODERATOR: Senator Klobuchar?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let the process work.

SANDERS: I think the will of the people should prevail, yes.

MODERATOR: Thank you, guys.

SANDERS: Those who get the most votes should become the nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's yet another issue where it's Bernie versus them.

KEITH: Well, but there's a reason why Bernie Sanders feels this way because he feels that he is likely to have a plurality of the delegates when you get to the convention, though maybe not necessarily a pure majority based on all of these other people in their bumper cars unwilling to get out of the other lane to make room for someone to rise up.

And, you know, the thing is we really did live this story and maybe it will change but it is shaping up much the way 2016 shaped up on the Republican side, where there was one candidate who a lot of people said was unpalatable but had a titanium piece of the pie. And when others dropped, some of the supporters went to the person with a titanium piece of the pie. And he's the president of the United States.

KING: That's the key point. He's the president of the United States.

Now, you had the winner-take-all on the Republican side, you don't on the Democratic side, which makes it more interesting, but that's the fighting forward.

So here we are today. Julie Pace, someone who might be at this table wrote this. Burn it down candidate is topping a splintered field of more moderate contenders and setting the party's establishment wing on edge. It how is Donald Trump began his unlikely march in 2016 and it's how Senator Bernie Sanders has cemented himself as the front-runner.

And so, Democrats have this conundrum. Democratic voters as I just show, two-thirds of them are OK with Bernie Sanders. The establishment is freaked out and here's why -- same NBC News/"Wall Street Journal," what don't you like? 57 percent say they have worries about a candidate who had a heart attack in the past year. More than half candidate older than 75.

So there are things about Bernie Sanders that the general electorate might not like. But we're in a primary process and Democratic voters don't consult their independent friends when they're in a passion fight.

PHILLIP: But I mean, I think this is the part completely up tested about the Sanders narrative, which is that we don't know how this is going to play in the general election. That's the best argument that the so-called moderates have in their favor but at the same time, I think the lesson we can learn from Donald Trump is that the party will come to the nominee.

If Bernie Sanders is the nominee, you better believe that the establishment types will realize he's the horse that's leaving the barn and they have to go with him or not go at all. And a lot of this hand wringing is going to fall by the wayside.

[08:25:03]

I would be very, very skeptical of all of this talk of superdelegates suddenly, you know, overturning the will of the people. That is extremely controversial. And I think Democrats know that. And there's a lot of talk about it right now but I think there's going to be some real soul searching about whether they want to burn the party down in the effort to sort of change the outcome at the convention.

KING: They should focus on South Carolina and Super Tuesday. A lot of people are putting their cart out in front. It's what happens and it's one of the reasons that Trump is president and Sanders is doing well, people are obsessed the things, they should focus at the challenge at hand.

Laura Barron-Lopez, I appreciate you getting up early. If you come back to Washington to get some sleep or going straight to South Carolina?

BARRON-LOPEZ: I'm going to come back to D.C., thankfully, to get a little rest.

KING: Appreciate you getting early for us. Everyone else is going to stay.

Up next, the inconvenient truth causing the president to lash out at his own intelligence team.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:20]

KING: Welcome to Russian election interference, the sequel.

Trump is again angry, again in denial and again undermining his own intelligence agencies. The acting director of National Intelligence forced out this past week after the President learned his deputies had briefed Congress on new Russian meddling.

In that briefing, the officials said it was also clear the Kremlin again is acting to help President Trump. Officials familiar with the intelligence say it is crystal clear. But the President got heated in an Oval Office meeting that he doesn't believe it, once again, taking Vladimir Putin's word over detailed U.S. intelligence assessment.

This is the new twist. Bernie Sanders now confirms his campaign was briefed by intelligence officials and told there's evidence Russia is also working to boost his campaign.

Here's the contrast. Senator Sanders issued a statement Friday criticizing Putin and harshly condemning any Kremlin meddling. President Trump in contrast calls it all a Democratic hoax.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After three years of ridiculous witch-hunts and partisan Democrat crusades -- by the way, I think they're starting another one. Did you see that?

I see these phonies, these -- the do-nothing Democrats. They said today that Putin wants to be sure that Trump gets elected. Here we go again.

It's disinformation. That's the only thing they're good at. These people are crazy. That's all they think about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: But the disinformation there was from the President of the United States, which is a tough thing to say -- happens to be a true thing to say. This is not the Democrats.

His own people went to Capitol Hill. Said Russia is again actively interfering in the 2020 election. Russia is again expressing and voicing and using its interference to show a preference for President Trump.

When he finds out about this he gets mad. In an Oval Office meeting he denies it. Says I don't believe it and runs the Director of the National Intelligence out of his job.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think that's what's different about this whole scenario is that for the first three years, the Trump administration basically had to say we agree with the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump. They had to say that because that was the assessment that existed at the time.

Now Trump is in a position where he's controlling who is the intelligence community. He is basically saying if you believe that, I'm going to put you out. And that's the difference between what we're experiencing now -- KING: If you believe or speak the truth you can't hold your job.

PHILLIP: Yes. He is changing the players and changing what the actual government is saying about what the intelligence says which is a completely different scenario. We can no longer fall back on, well, this is what the intelligence community says because we can't be sure that Trump, you know -- Trump's actors are going to stand by what the intelligence is actually --

(CROSSTALKING)

KING: And to that point, his national security adviser, Robert O'Brien will be on ABC later today. They released part of the interview transcript.

There are these reports that they want Bernie Sanders to get elected president. That's no surprise. He honeymooned in Moscow. I haven't seen any intelligence that Russia is doing anything to attempt to get President Trump re-elected. I think that's the same old story we have heard before. We have been very tough on Russia. We've been great on election security so I think it's a nonstory."

If the President's campaign manager said that, that's one thing. This is veering into the danger zone in the sense that that is supposed to be an apolitical job. That's supposed to be somebody we trust if there's a terrorist attack, if there's an ebola or something like that.

Number one, to go after Bernie Sanders, the National Security Adviser going after Bernie Sanders.

Number two, to me even more important, I haven't seen any intelligence that Russia is doing anything. So is he lying or is he not doing his homework in reading the reports from the intelligence community when it's his job to be the President's right hand man?

PACE: It's a really extraordinary set of statements from O'Brien to not condemn a foreign government interfering in an election. Even if he accepts that it's only for Bernie Sanders which is, again the opposite of what the intelligence community is saying, to not condemn a foreign government interfering in the election because it's in favor of a political opponent is really extraordinary.

I mean think about the message that that sends to foreign governments. Essentially the message from the White House, from the U.S. government right now is feel free as long as it helps out the President. That's really what they're saying here.

KEITH: Yes, I wish we could diagram that sentence because he is saying he hasn't seen any evidence on the Trump side of things. But he's seen some news reports on the Sanders side of things so he's totally willing to believe that.

It's a pretty remarkable like -- he seems to be parsing those words very carefully to avoid upsetting the President of the United States. And as you say, adding a blatantly political hit on now what is the President's key opponent.

[08:35:01]

KING: And as this plays out -- you touched on this -- just some headlines from CNN and "The New York Times". "The President's new personnel head tells agencies to look out for disloyal staffers. Trump's efforts to remove disloyal heightens unease across the administration."

You have a purge going on. The President has brought back in a trusted deputy. Put him in charge of the White House personnel office who's on the phone saying where's the deep state? Where's anybody who said anything bad about the President?

KANE: This is going to be a test for the Republicans. They've been away, they come back Monday night. Congress has been away for a ten- day break. They have been saying we'll be tough on Moscow. We'll be tough on election security.

The Moscow Mitch hash tag of last fall really infuriated McConnell. This is a test for them to see if they have any ability, any guardrails at all. McConnell seems to be the only one in the last few months who's been able to sort of influence Trump at all. He has to try to figure out some way to keep the President reined in.

KING: In the sense that -- good luck --

KANE: Good luck, yes.

KING: -- in the sense that you see this in the intelligence community. There are normally some sacred places in the government, every president is political. Every president wants to protect himself for reelection.

We've never seen anything like this -- it's on steroids. So you see now the intelligence community ignoring facts, firing people who speak the truth. Do their jobs. Your job is to brief congress, you do your job, you get -- the boss gets fired.

And now the meddling in criminal cases. Roger Stone was sentenced to prison -- 40 months in prison. The President in a rally saying not ready to pardon him -- but kind of get the "yet" here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm not going to do anything in terms of the great powers bestowed upon a President of the United States. I want the process to play out. I think that's the best thing to do. Because I'd love to see Roger exonerated. But Roger Stone and everybody has to be treated fairly. And this has not been a fair process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Roger Stone was convicted by a jury of seven different crimes -- Lying to congress, tampering with a witness. The judge sentenced him to 40 months in prison. The President says just hang on -- you read that. Translation, I'm going to wait for the appeals process to play out but, you know, I have this pen. I can take care of this.

KEITH: Two non-coincidental pieces of timing -- all of this is happening after he was acquitted in the Senate in impeachment. And also that President Trump was doling out pardons and clemency in a week that Roger Stone, you know, is getting sentenced, also probably not a complete coincidence.

KING: To your point, it will be interesting. We'll see if anyone in the Senate wants to stand up in an election year and they're worried about making him mad at them.

When we come back, back to 2020 -- two giant Tuesdays ahead for Michael Bloomberg. One of them a chance for a debate redo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'd like to talk about who we're running against -- a billionaire who calls women "fat broads" and "horse-faced lesbians". And no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:38:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Michael Bloomberg gets a chance this week to rebound from a disastrous first debate. Bloomberg was pummeled by his rivals who were looking to damage his brand before the former New York mayor's unorthodox strategy gets put to the real test.

Bloomberg is not on the ballot until March 3rd, that's Super Tuesday. But he is spending an overwhelming amount in those states, hoping to make a giant splash.

In last week's Nevada debate, Bloomberg was often on the defensive including when Elizabeth Warren pushed him about nondisclosure agreements signed by women who had settled workplace complaints against Bloomberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They signed the agreements and that's what we're going to live with.

WARREN: I'm sorry. The question here are there women bound by muzzled by you. And you could release them from that immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Bloomberg relented, at least partially several days later on Friday, saying he had identified three NDAs that deals with complaints quote, "about comments they said I had mad. If any of them wants to be released from their NDAs so that they can talk about these allegations, they should contact the company and they'll be given release."

Again, Bloomberg is not on the South Carolina primary ballot Saturday but he is one of six Democrats qualified for Tuesday night's debate in Charleston.

My question is number one -- huge stakes for him, to prove he can have better footing on the debate stage.

But number two, is he still the pinata or do most of the other candidates now realize, we have to get Bernie Sanders first. Is it a dual challenge? What do we got?

KANE: They have to figure this out because the more that they target Bloomberg, they're trying to own that lane of the establishment lane. But if they're not hitting at the front-runner he's just going to keep cruising.

They have to go after Sanders in some way, shape or form. And, you know, Bloomberg's got his millions and billions, it's going to be tough to let that slide but maybe let Elizabeth Warren do that job for them while the others go after Bernie.

PACE: Yes. I think you're going to see a bit of a mixed strategy here for Warren. She not only got momentum from her attacks on Bloomberg, she got a lot of money. And money that she really needed and you saw last night after the Nevada results, her keeping up the quite personal and biting attacks on Bloomberg.

Buttigieg is the one who's trying to do both things at once. He's both saying, you know, we can't let the party be taken over by this billionaire who is trying to buy his way in but we also can't let the party be taken over by a Democratic socialist. He's trying to make both arguments at the same time.

I think Biden will be really fascinating to see where he goes with this because Bloomberg is most narrowly in his own way. But he's the other one. You know, he was second in Nevada, but by a big distance. You do have to close that gap.

KING: And so we did get a bit of a flavor of that. Listen to the former vice president here, Mayor Buttigieg here trying to take a shot at Bloomberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a guy who wouldn't endorse Barack, number one, when we ran the first time. This is a guy who when we passed our signature piece of legislation, Obamacare, he said it was a disaster.

PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think that what we should ask ourselves as Democrats is do we really want to spend the next few months debating which billionaire had a more hostile work environment?

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: The question is can they make it stick in the sense that I just want to put this up on the screen, you know, Bloomberg is not on the ballot Saturday. He is on the debate stage.

Look at the spending in South Carolina and Super Tuesday states. Bloomberg, $160 million. Just look at the -- you don't need to look at the numbers. Just look at where he is. It is mind blowing.

[08:45:00]

PHILLIP: Yes. But last night proved that the Democrats are fracturing their non-Bernie Sanders support all by themselves. Bloomberg was not on the ballot last night and they were completely and totally fractured to the point that Bernie Sanders had a blowout.

So it does seem like it would be a bit of a mistake to train all of this attention on Michael Bloomberg especially when it's proven to be such an easy target. He has a lot of things that you can go after him on. And when it comes to -- there are two things here.

One is about whether or not they're blunting the momentum of the actual front-runner but the second thing is -- and what Elizabeth Warren successfully proved was that you have to show voters that you have the toughness to take on Trump. And I don't think at this point with Michael Bloomberg kind of on his back -- on his heels that that's actually going to be effective.

I mean, people know that he's been able to be taken down. They want to see that some of the other candidates have what it takes to actually put up some fight on that debate stage. And I think it's going to be have to be against Bernie Sanders because he's the guy right now who's the one to beat.

KING: And Warren landed those punches, got viral moments, raised a lot of money but it did not translate into votes in Nevada.

KEITH: Well, there's a complicating factor there because 70,000 people had already early caucused before that debate ever went on the air.

KING: That's what we'll see -- we'll see if there's a carryover effect. If she's right, that's the start of something -- we shall see.

Our reporters share from their notebooks next, including a new effort to end America's longest war.

[08:46:25]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Let's head one last time around the INSIDE POLITICS table and ask our great reporters to share a little something from their notebooks to help get you out ahead of the big political news just around the corner.

Julie Pace. PACE: At the end of this week, the U.S. is poised to sign a peace deal with the Taliban. It's a really significant step toward ending America's longest war in Afghanistan, but this is going to be an anxious week. As part of essentially a confidence-building measure, the U.S. and the Taliban agreed to have a seven-day reduction in violence before they sign this agreement.

And there are a lot of concerns that violence could erupt and derail progress here. Even if the peace deal does go forward there are also big questions about how the U.S. does end this war. The Afghan government is in total disarray. And then there's the big question, how fast do American troops that have been in this country for 18 years start to come home.

KING: Fascinating to watch. Fascinating to watch. Fingers crossed.

P.K.

KANE: Thursday, I was in Las Vegas and went to visit Harry Reid, the former senate majority leader. And he told me something, I was stunned. I know politics make strange bedfellows but he says that he and Mitt Romney have kind of calmed things down.

In 2012, Harry Reid was on the senate floor almost everyday accusing Romney of never paying taxes. He went -- he said it for a 10-year period Romney had never paid taxes. It was not true. And the feelings were very hard.

But Harry Reid after Romney lost reached out to Mike Leavitt, the Utah governor and health secretary under Bush. And there is a family connection there. They are all part of the Mormon Church. And they sat down and talked.

And he says that it was a good talk and that Romney is a very nice man. And after watching his impeachment vote, he sent him a letter congratulating him.

KING: There are new chapters in life even after the harsh chapters in life.

Tamara.

KEITH: Yes, President Trump is headed to India where he will be welcomed with a rally in the world's largest cricket stadium. It holds 100,000 people.

This trip doesn't have a big trade deal to be announced. It doesn't have a lot going on. What it has is very large crowds. And Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to make sure that President Trump sees those crowds. And you know, it's sort of a relationship-building trip is what it comes down to.

Though President Trump has already been inflating the crowd size saying that there will be millions and millions. I mean there will be millions and millions of people in India but the stadium only holds 100,000 which is still huge. KING: Huge is right. So we've moved on from "Howdy, Modi" to "Namaste

Trump" in India.

All right. I'm looking forward to that.

Abby.

PHILLIP: Well last night, a lot of Democratic strategists and campaign advisers were eyeing the bottom of the list of the results in Nevada at Tom Steyer. He spent $15 million in that state over the last several months, and he landed in fifth place on the first ballot and then lost support on the second ballot.

So the question for Democrats right now is what does money and name ID buy you and how durable is that support? That's a question not just for Tom Steyer as we go into South Carolina but also for Mike Bloomberg.

For Steyer also, big question is whether he makes the South Carolina debate. He needs one more poll in order to do that. He staked virtually his the entire campaign on that state of South Carolina.

KING: Interesting to watch. He spent a lot of money. He has risen in the polls. You're right, we'll see if all that money and even those poll numbers turn into votes on primary day.

I will close with this. Freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has quickly proven her star power emerging as the top star for Bernie Sanders. And she's now using a political action committee to support like-minded progressives in congressional races.

Her critics though think they just might now have a chance to complicate her 2020. AOC, as she is known in the shorthand, has a new primary challenger, long-time CNBC anchor and contributor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera.

Caruso-Cabrera is the author of a book that promotes smaller government and capitalism. She is no fan of the Democratic socialism favored by Ocasio Cortez and Senator Sanders. Now this is a very uphill primary fight.

But watch her fundraisers and endorsements. Now that she is in the race, one potential wild card is Wall Street money and Caruso-Cabrera is now getting feelers from groups like the chamber of Commerce and other groups that generally back Republican candidates. But they would welcome a chance to make life more difficult for Ocasio-Cortez -- one of the many races down ballot, not just the presidency in 2020.

[08:55:06]

KING: That's it for INSIDE POLITICS. Hope you can check us week days as well. We will be here at noon Eastern.

Don't go anywhere. Busy "STATE OF THE UNION" just ahead with Jake Tapper. His guests include the former Democratic Party chairman and presidential hopeful Howard Dean, plus Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday. Have a great day.

[08:55:23]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:04]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Bernie blowout. Senator Bernie Sanders wins with a broad coalition in Nevada.