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CNN Live Event/Special

More Than 4,000 Coronavirus Deaths Worldwide; Biden Expanding Delegate Lead Over Sanders With 4 Wins So Far Tonight. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired March 11, 2020 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our special coverage on CNN. I'm Don Lemon live in Washington.

There are now at least 1,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States. That number has been rising throughout the night here and now at least 31 people in the U.S. are dead.

This as brand new reporting from "The New York Times" comes out, saying the failure of the federal government to allow for widespread testing back in January may have contributed to a wide spread of the virus, a wider spread of the virus.

CNN's Erica Hill takes a closer look at the emergency measures happening all across the country to try to contain the coronavirus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just north of New York City, Governor Andrew Cuomo announcing new containment measures.

ANDREW CUOMO (D), GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK: Yes, it is a dramatic action but it is the largest cluster in the country. And this is literally a matter of life and death.

HILL (voice-over): A one-mile containment radius in New Rochelle, around the center of that outbreak. Schools and houses of worship closed through March 25th.

At a Seattle-area nursing home, where 19 deaths have been linked to the coronavirus, more than half of the residents have now tested positive.

And in Oakland, California, disembarkation and medical testing underway for hundreds of passengers from the Grand Princess, many of whom will go into quarantine for the next two weeks. On board the massive ship, confusion and frustration.

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CAPT. JOHN SMITH, GRAND PRINCESS CRUISE: We have not been receiving timely nor accurate information from the government agencies, who have developed and are managing the disembarkation plan, making it virtually impossible for me to prepare and you guide you on their processes.

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ARCHIE DILL, GRAND PRINCESS PASSENGER: They had us doing this walk- around on the deck where we had to maintain six feet of distance from everyone. And they kept telling us, six feet, six feet. And then to exit the boat, they have us standing, you know, next to each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL (voice-over): As the number of confirmed cases rises, some communities working to limit interaction. In San Jose, slap shots silenced. Santa Clara County, home to the NHL Sharks, banning gatherings of more than 1,000 people.

Across the U.S., some schools and colleges moving classes online, canceling events or simply closing.

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: As a nation we can't be doing the kinds of things we were doing a few months ago, that it doesn't matter if you're in a state that has no cases or one case.

You have to start taking seriously what you can do now that, if and when the infections will come -- and they will come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL (voice-over): As for who can be tested and where, confusion remains.

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ALEX AZAR, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Just because I as a person say, oh, I'd like to be tested for the novel coronavirus, I should be going to a minute clinic or some other facility and just walking in and saying, give me my test, please.

That's not how diagnostic testing works in the United States or, frankly, almost anywhere in the world.

QUESTION: You said on Friday anyone who wants to get tested can get tested.

(CROSSTALK)

AZAR: If their doctor -- we've always been clear. If their doctor or public health physician believes they should be tested. It needs to always be clinically indicated to receive a test. So it's a false premise, go to your doctor if you -- first, actually, don't go to your doctor. Call your doctor's office if you believe you may have the novel coronavirus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's talk about a state getting hit hard and that's California. I'm joined now by the lieutenant governor of California, Eleni Kounalakis.

Lieutenant Governor, thank you very much for joining us. I know this is a serious issue and we're glad you could join us. Let's get some of the current information and talk about some of the reporting.

Currently more than 100 cases in your home state of California, three deaths reported. State of emergency has been declared statewide. The University of California's system canceling in-person classes.

What can you tell us about the efforts to contain the disease in your state?

LT. GOV. ELENI KOUNALAKIS (D-CA): Well, thank you very much.

And why don't we start with the figures?

It's actually 157 confirmed cases. Three deaths, as you mentioned, including one just today here in Sacramento.

So we have had a very robust, a very -- response to this that has been at the emergency level and we are putting protocols in place at the state level.

But also really working very closely with local officials to help to make sure that the protocols that are put in place in those local jurisdictions are really crafted by the representatives and the officials of those jurisdictions themselves.

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KOUNALAKIS: So the example that you gave of Santa Clara is one of the more extreme cases, based on the number of cases that they have there. But then in other parts of the state, there are different protocols.

LEMON: Lieutenant Governor, even with that, even with those protocols in place, you still expect, as across the country, those numbers to go up, meaning the number of people infected and the number of deaths sadly as well, correct?

KOUNALAKIS: You know, Don, one of the things that I know we've been hearing a lot about is the delay in getting testing done. And there is a very steep ramping up right now of the number of people who are going to be tested.

And it's just, you know, natural that we're going to see a very large increase in the numbers of cases that are diagnosed because, though there are people even in hospitals right now that officials think may have contracted the virus, until we test them and get those results back, we don't have an official count.

So I think the general public really needs to be prepared for a pretty sharp increase over the next few weeks of the number of cases that are reported.

But what officials are really trying to do at this point is what they call flattening the curve. So by using these very basic protocols of minimizing the number of non-essential gatherings, particularly large non-essential gatherings, we should be able to flatten the curve in such a way that we actually, through our ordinary day-to-day actions, can minimize the number of people who get infected.

And that's why it's so important to continue to spread the word to people across the country, certainly across our state, that these very basic precautions of washing our hands, not touching one another, being careful about being in public places in close proximity to other people, especially if you are part of a vulnerable population, these things will almost certainly make an impact on how far and wide the virus --

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LEMON: Listen, I think every little bit helps. And, listen, we had a couple of former mayors on earlier. One of them happens to be sitting next to me. And I agree with him, that I think state and local governments should be commended in what they're doing to help fight the spread and actually get accurate information out.

But I want to talk about this reporting that is in "The New York Times" tonight, detailing the failures of the federal government, that they have repeatedly -- to get ahead of this virus and ensure more widespread testing was available, including blocking a Seattle flu lab from testing samples that later tested positive for coronavirus.

Give me your reaction to this reporting.

KOUNALAKIS: I have to really be very clear that the experience of state officials, all the way up to the governor, working with the federal government, has been very productive and very positive.

We believe very strongly that we don't want to see this devolve into a political situation; that the most important thing is that officials from the federal government, the state government and local officials, are working together. And we have a lot of very positive stories to tell right now about that cooperation. So it's important to us to --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I think you're right. It shouldn't be political.

But what I want to know is, are you getting the support that you need from the federal government?

KOUNALAKIS: The support that we are getting is the support that we are working with. And the critical element right now is ramping up the testing. So that's being done both in cooperation with the CDC and the federal government in getting more test kits.

But it's also in work we're doing here, including with the private sector. So now there are private labs that are helping us to add onto some of these kits that don't have everything they need in order to be able to conduct a test.

We're working with the University of California; the UC Medical Center hospitals right now are developing their own tests to be able increase the number of people who we can test. So around the issue with the cruise ship, we're working collaboratively. They're taking the lead.

But, again, we're finding that cooperation is going very smoothly and productively and that's really what we're trying to focus on.

LEMON: OK. Again, you say the support you need is the support you're getting.

Are you getting the support that you need from the federal government?

I'm not sure what that means, the support that you need is the support you're getting.

KOUNALAKIS: So what I'm hearing from state officials is that the collaboration is very positive. I think that's really all I can say about it. Obviously, we want to continue to increase cooperation at every level.

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KOUNALAKIS: Because what we are facing is a very serious threat to public safety and the public is relying on us to work together as collaboratively and effectively as we can.

LEMON: The numbers are clear that the U.S. is well behind other countries in its testing capacities.

What does the continued lack of testing mean for the spread of disease in your state?

KOUNALAKIS: Well, if we had been able to test more people earlier, I think that that would have been something that would have been a good thing.

But where we are right now is -- and I think the University of California really is a bright spot, their medical centers have been developing their own ability to test. And in the next few days, we're going to see a lot more people tested as a result of those efforts.

So I don't want to in any way suggest that had we had more earlier it would have been better, of course. But we're seeing a very rapid increase in our capacity to test and that is going to be very helpful as we try minimize the impact of the spread of the virus.

LEMON: Listen, I think you alluded to this earlier, and correct me if I'm wrong, in one of your answers to the questions, that the CDC director told "Politico" today that a shortage in lab materials may threaten to delay coronavirus test results and may lead to an undercount of those with the virus.

How worried does that make you?

KOUNALAKIS: So, again, this gets pretty technical but the test kits that have been sent are not entirely complete. They need additional materials in order to be able to have the full capability of testing.

And so again, that's where the partnership comes in with the quest labs, with the University of California to be able to make sure that we can maximize the capacity of those kits.

LEMON: What do you -- the kits are not exactly accurate?

Is that what you're saying?

KOUNALAKIS: Well, it's not that they're not accurate. It's that a kit requires additional materials in order to be able to complete the full test. And I'm not a doctor but this is just my understanding.

And so part of it has been increasing that additional capacity on the side of the hospitals. And again, the private labs that are helping us here to be able to ensure that each of those kits can actually be fully utilized.

LEMON: Lieutenant Governor, thank you for -- go on. Finish your thought.

KOUNALAKIS: I was just going to say that I think the really big story here isn't just the kits that are being sent to us by the CDC but also the ability of the University of California hospitals and our partnership with private labs to be able to significantly ramp up our ability to test people.

And, Don, if I could just say one more thing because I said it but I just really want to underscore this.

With all of the health professionals that I've been talking to, they talk about the empowerment of communities to be able to minimize the spread by really taking those precautions that we talk about, of not shaking each other's hands, not -- you know, I'm Greek.

We do a lot of hugging and kissing. It's not the time for that right now. We can take these precautions and we can minimize the spread. And that's something that I hope will make people feel empowered and is really important right now.

LEMON: Let's hope that that is enough. Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis of California, we really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

KOUNALAKIS: Thank you.

LEMON: All right, Chris, as you can see, testing, testing, testing. That's what we need. We need the information from those tests to figure out exactly how many people may have come in contact with this virus, how many people are sick and so on and so forth. And until we get that we don't know. CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: The more data you have the more you can

target, the better, what you need to do and where and that's why we've been pushing for it. And the question is why it didn't happen sooner.

All right, D-Lemon, let me switch over to someone talking about the emergency medical resources that they have in California. We've got a perfect follow-up guest. Dr. Lisa Dabby. She's an emergency medicine physician for UCLA Health.

It's good to have you, Doc.

DR. LISA DABBY, UCLA HEALTH: Thank you for having me.

C. CUOMO: So let's go to the individual level of this for a second. OK?

And people have questions. Like for instance, I have a high fever and I feel something in my chest, I'm really sick. I should self- quarantine.

What does that mean?

How do you self-quarantine for how long and how do you survive during that time at home?

What's your advice?

DABBY: So that's a great question. The idea of self-quarantine is to separate yourself as much as possible from others in your family and your community. My advice would be to stay at home as much as you can.

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DABBY: If you can have neighbors or family members bring you food so don't have to go to the market, that would be ideal. If you can minimize any interaction with anybody else, that's the idea of self- quarantine.

If you live in a house with multiple family members, maybe you go stay in one bedroom with its own bathroom. So you're the only one using the sink, the towel in that room, so you're not touching common surfaces and common handles that anybody else in the house is touching.

And then that way you're just minimizing the spread of the virus to anybody else aside from yourself.

C. CUOMO: How do we protect the elderly?

DABBY: That's a great question.

(CROSSTALK)

DABBY: It's the only kind I ask. What have you got, Doc?

(LAUGHTER) DABBY: Protection first starts by everything everybody else has been saying, washing your hands. Not touching other people. Not kissing other people. Not touching your eyes, your nose, your mouth before washing your hands. Not feeding yourself before washing your hands.

Very basic hygiene is very important here. Wiping down surfaces.

We're not sure; people are estimating this virus could live up to nine days on surfaces. So disinfecting commonly touched surfaces, whether that be computer screens, keyboards, kitchen surfaces, toilet handles, door handles. Everything should be disinfected as much as possible to kill any virus that may be sitting on any surfaces.

And I would remind people if they're going out to the market, if they're getting on the bus, if they're going anywhere in public, when they get home, the first thing they should do is wash their hands.

C. CUOMO: Absolutely. Wash your hands, just like your mother told you. Wash your hands, wash your hands.

You know what's something we've been hearing, at first it didn't make sense to me but now it does in context. We talk about the vulnerable, the elderly and infants. This virus is a little weird. It doesn't seem to be attacking infants the same way, thank God. That's great.

But everybody else can get it too, Doc, right?

It's not like, you know, if you're young and healthy, you should go running around and do whatever you want. You can get it. It's just you're not as vulnerable to the worst implications of it.

DABBY: That's exactly correct. What we're seeing right now is that, under age 10, there's been zero mortality, which is fabulous. Kids seem to be having a very mild, if any symptoms, which is great as well. But it's not clear if they're transmitting the virus or not. I would assume they are. It would be hard to believe they weren't transmitting the virus.

As people get older, we're seeing a very steep increase in mortality with patients over 60, really increasing at 70 and 80 where it's getting to 10-15 percent mortality in that age group.

We are worried about the elderly population. We're also very worried as you said about the people with co-morbidities, people with heart disease, people with lung disease, people who are immunocompromised, diabetics.

My recommendation is anybody who meets these criteria of co- morbidities or elderly age really avoid public areas because these are the people I'm most worried about. You and I, helpfully we don't get the viruses. Chances are high that I will get the virus at some point. But hopefully the risk of us having any morbidity or mortality is very low.

We're talking -- you know, we're not sure. Maybe somewhere between 0.6 percent and 3 percent depend on which data look at. But when you look at a mortality of 15 percent, that's a scary number to me.

C. CUOMO: The testing is the key. And it must be frustrating for you guys. We've known about this for a while. States were asking to test. Sophisticated centers like your own as California was starting to see it for obvious reasons, even if it is seasonably sensitive. You had so much influx coming from places where they were affected. And you weren't allowed to do it.

That was meaningful, wasn't it?

DABBY: It's very meaningful. And to be honest, the testing is still limited. As -- we are working really hard, they're ramping up. The universities are creating their own tests, which is fabulous and I think we'll catch up in the next few weeks.

But it's meaningful only in the sense that I can't diagnose the people who are the walking well. People who are coming in, I'm diagnosing them with a viral syndrome, it looks like the flu, it's not the flu, it could be coronavirus but I don't know for sure because I can't test them, it's hard.

It's hard to send these people back in the community and not tell them to quarantine themselves for two weeks because I think it's really affecting the spread. Right?

To not diagnose the walking well and to send them back out potentially increases transmission in our community.

I do agree with -- the CDC is managing this very well. We have limited resources and we are using that for our critically ill. And that's where we should be using it.

If we had to use it on anyone, we want to use it on the sickest people who are in the ICU, who are dying because those are the people we really need to know if they have it. We don't really need to know if the healthy people have it. It would just help us mitigate the spread if we knew the healthy people had it.

C. CUOMO: Absolutely. But in a time when -- this is not your business. You're in the business of keeping people healthy. You're the best of us.

But in a time we're assessing our leadership, it doesn't make sense that the CDC was able to help China figure out what they were dealing with but we weren't able to ramp up and prepare for ourselves.

That's not your problem. You are part of the solution. Doctor, I hope you stay healthy.

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C. CUOMO: I hope that this gets better soon. And I appreciate you for your efforts.

DABBY: Thank you so much. All right. Dr. Lisa Dabby. You know, thank God we have the angels

among us. We're going to have more on our coronavirus coverage coming up next from our CNN reporters all around the world because if you understand this in one place, you need to understand it everywhere -- next.

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C. CUOMO: Welcome back to our CNN special coverage. We're tracking cases but we're going to stop tracking them as close as we are in these incremental moves because we're going to make each other crazy. The case numbers are going to go up. OK?

This is spreading. We're behind the ball with testing. So expect them to go up and listen for the outcomes. And you're going to see, overwhelmingly, people are asymptomatic, meaning they don't even know they have it or they get over it just like the flu. So, yes, 1,000 confirmed cases in the United States.

[02:25:00]

C. CUOMO: In just a few hours you have two more governors have declared states of emergency. It doesn't mean they're overwhelmed. It means they need more resources to prepare. That's what a state of emergency is. Elizabeth Cohen is in Atlanta.

Elizabeth, "The Times" is reporting, "The New York Times," that the Trump administration missed key chances, OK, with the coronavirus months ago. We have to understand the past so we can do better in the present.

What do you take from the reporting?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So Chris, this is really terrific reporting by "The New York Times." And to summarize it, basically on February 10th, doctors in Seattle said, hey, we're testing lots of -- thousands of people for the flu.

Why don't we also test them for the coronavirus?

We have the samples right here, thousands of them. Let's do it. And the federal government said no, don't do it.

Well, the doctors in Seattle were quite brave. They defied the federal government. And they found that there was, in fact, a high school boy who had coronavirus and they got him as he was entering his school and said, no, you're not going to school.

So because they defied the government, they may have stopped an outbreak at that school. It took another couple of days for the federal government to say, yes, go ahead and do that testing. And they found more cases of coronavirus. So on February 10th, when they asked, can we test, if they had been

told yes they could have prevented some of the spread that was happening in the Seattle area.

And you know, why they were told no is up for discussion. But they were told, look, you're not certified to do this kind of testing because you can't. But what emergency preparedness doctors tell me is, that's ridiculous. When you're in an emergency you change the rules, you don't do business as usual.

C. CUOMO: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much. Important reporting. Important perspective.

All right. Now let's go to China, Shanghai, David Culver.

David Culver, it's great to have you. Checking in with you once again. President Xi went to Wuhan. That is an obvious show of strength and confidence.

How did it play?

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. It's more than just symbolic. It is incredibly significant because, the reality is, Chris, he wouldn't have gone there had it not been under control healthwise within that region, within the epicenter of all of this.

And in fact, early on, what we had seen was really a lack of appearance from the leadership here. We hadn't seen President Xi for several days when this started. And there were a lot of questions swirling as to where he was.

So now to see him coming out in front suggests that they do believe that things are under control, that they have a grip on this and they believe it's mostly contained.

However, they're not growing too complacent. The World Health Organization has stressed that the biggest danger here is thinking you've got this beat. And it's for that reason, Chris, that they're continuing to expand hospital capacity, not the field hospitals.

All 14 of those have closed, which is an indication that things are getting better numberwise as far as the number of infected people. But they're increasing hospital capacity within hospitals that already exist.

That is to say, they're ready for some of these lockdown zones to ease a little bit and they're going to do it in phases. But when that happens you start to have people moving around again. And when they're moving around, the chance of exposure goes up, the chance of the number of people getting infected goes up.

So they're really mindful of that. And they're concerned, too.

C. CUOMO: If you were to isolate one thing you that think they just do more/better than what you understand about the response here in the United States, what is it? CULVER: I guess it depends on if you think this is a good thing. I mean, it's big data. And they do big data and they do it really well. But it's also this compromise of privacy versus health security, if you will.

But here they do it to an extreme because you've got 1.4 billion people plus those of us who aren't from here but are living and working here. Because we would apply for this, too.

This has to do with how they track things because containment has two parts. It's sealing some of these areas that are considered the most affected areas -- so Wuhan, for example -- sealing it off, keeping people in their homes which they've done now for nearly seven weeks, 50 days some of these folks have been in their homes, which has been anxiety and causing mental health issues for some folks we spoke with.

But it's also about tracking the people. When I mentioned starting to ease some of these restrictions now, people start moving, they want to track us. They want to know where we're going.

For example, nearly seven weeks ago we were in Wuhan. They now know where we were, know we did our quarantine back in Beijing. They know we were there for a total of three weeks. They know we came here to Shanghai and they know where we are in Shanghai.

How do they know that?

I wanted to show you this. This is one of the forms, Chris, they have these outside hotels, in the lobby, in shopping malls, in certain restaurants as well.

And when you scan this with your phone, what comes up for me and for most people is this little green tag. And you've got one of three colors. And the green implies you're good to go around. You can continue moving around freely.

[02:30:00]

If you get yellow or red, it suggests you've been flagged for some reason. Perhaps you're on a train with somebody who was infected, and therefore you have been exposed and could transmit that to somebody else.

It's fascinating to see how this works. It's concerning for some people who think OK, now they're just tracking you more and more. But at the same time, it's also a relief for people who are really concerned about how quickly this can spread.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: It reeks of Big Brother and I don't know that it would ever fly here, but another thing they're doing is they've been testing earlier on much bigger scale. And they've been doing it much more efficiently. But it's also an autocracy there where they could do whatever they want, whenever they want.

David Culver, you're on the ground, experiential reporting is invaluable. Stay safe. Keep the team safe, and thank you. CULVER: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, be well, brother. All right, the latest on the election results. Joe Biden wins another four states. What does this mean for Bernie Sanders? I think the biggest message from him tonight was that he gave us no message at all. Next.

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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: So I think it's fair to say that the former Vice President Joe Biden has been on a roll lately when it comes to delegates, but especially when it comes to endorsements. One of them tonight happening here on CNN, Andrew Yang, the former Democratic presidential hopeful. Watch this.

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ANDREW YANG (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe that Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee. And I've always said I'm going to support whoever the nominee is. So I hereby endorsing Joe Biden to be not just the nominee for the Democratic Party, but the next president of the United States.

And I say this, having supported Bernie Sanders in 2016. Bernie was an inspiration for me. He inspired my run. But the math says Joe is our prohibitive nominee. We need to bring the party together. We need to start working on defeating Donald Trump in the fall. I've had many personal conversations with Joe about the impact of the fourth industrial revolution on the middle class. I believe that he's the right man for the job to help us not just defeat Donald Trump but govern the country in the years ahead.

He has to show that look, we know that this economy is not working for many, many Americans, millions of Americans who feel left behind, and you can't just say we're going to swing the pendulum back to the Obama-Biden years. We have to actually start doing the work that activated people to vote for Donald Trump, that activated people to get out for Bernie Sanders.

I believe Joe is open to that message. His heart is in the right place. He's a really, really patriotic, public servant, decent man. He wants to do right by the American people. To me, a lot of it's about getting real solutions in place that more and more Americans feel like will actually improve their day to day lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you had ever -- have you had conversations with the Biden campaign about an endorsement?

YANG: I have. Joe called me last week. You know, we had a really great conversation. And it was hard to say no to Joe at that time, but I have such admiration and respect for Bernie what he's meant to so many Americans. I think Bernie has called out the real problems in a very powerful and necessary way. So I wanted to let the democratic process play out, and I believe it

has. At this point, you can see very clearly that Biden is building a delegate lead that's only going to grow in the days ahead. And so we need to come together as a party-starting tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right, so let's bring it to the table now. So Andrew is our colleague now. I love Andrew. He's going to kill me, but -- so I'm going to say Better late than never. He knows math. He saw the math. Mayor?

ANDREW GILLUM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I love the way he brought math in. You know, he said he did the math on it. But you know what? The Vice President continues to consolidate support of his former rivals, which, you know, again, the more we can bring to the party, the better.

Ultimately, in my opinion, we're going to need the force of every single one of them including whoever the vice president chooses -- the vice president chooses as his V.P. on the ticket.

LEMON: If he is indeed the --

GILLUM: If he is -- if he is indeed the nominee to help us bring this over. We cannot understate the power in the force of Donald Trump's constituency. For everything that we add, assume that he's going to add as much. I'm from the state of Florida. The last several elections for president, the last five races for governor have all been decided by less than one percent.

I believe we will continue to be a one percent state. And that means we need the full force of every single piece of this coalition to come together to win.

LEMON: And Laura said that it was tongue in cheek but I do have to say for someone who says that Bernie Sanders inspired him to get into the presidential race, that is a big deal for him to do that.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It is. And also, Yang was talking about it earlier, but saying that a decent amount of his supporters overlaps more with Bernie Sanders supporters. So it'll also be interesting to see whether or not Yang supporters follow his lead and decide that they also want to support Biden or not. And how Biden maybe potentially with the new endorsement tries to reach out to pass Yang supporters.

LEMON: Yes. Which is the same thing that happened with Warren. They're finding in the polling that Warren supporters are overlapping as well with Biden supporters.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, you know, a couple of things. One is, I think that Andrew Yang -- I don't want to betray trust here, but I watched Andrew Yang and Joe Biden have these conversations off to the side during timeouts during the debate, during commercial breaks, and you can see this affinity that the vice president had for Andrew Yang.

It was really interesting. At times, I'd have to go up and break them up just so I could get them to get some makeup on and get back in front of the -- of the podium. It would be interesting to see though, if Andrew Yang is brought into the Biden fold rather quickly. If I was about, you know, part of the Biden campaign, I would try to do that. He's very smart. He's very likable. He just endorsed a couple of hours ago. He did it in such a non-flashy way. So listen, I'm -- you know, I'm behind him now. I think he can be a huge asset.

[02:40:08]

LEMON: Does that come on during a question because I must -- maybe I was getting --

PRESTON: No, no, they just -- they come out of break and he did it. But here's something we haven't talked about tonight. Bernie Sanders had the worst night tonight, but who had the second-worst night? Come on?

LEMON: Who had the second-worst night?

PRESTON: Julian Castro. You remember Julian Castro went right after Joe Biden very viciously a few times, went on and endorsed Elizabeth Warren. He hasn't endorsed yet. I got to wonder if there is a -- if there's a red carpet that's going to roll out of the Biden campaign for Julian Castro or would they let him come in but, you know, maybe through a window.

LEMON: Interesting. What do you think of the endorsement?

JEN PSAKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Going ahead.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Please. No, no, no. I think they want to hear you.

PSAKI: I think he's -- you said, Don, it's different from the past endorsement of other -- of other candidates because he said Bernie Sanders inspired him.

LEMON: He's the closest to Sanders, right?

PSAKI: Exactly, inspired him. And to Mark's point, I hope the Biden team is not only inviting him in, that they're using him as an important bridge. And if --

DON: I think they will.

PSAKI: I think they will. And as we -- as we move toward a period of time where we're working to kind of coalesce the sides together, I think there are other -- some other really significant important bridges. You know, I was looking at what AOC said tonight, and what -- there's a lot of Twitter kind of energy around it.

And she wasn't obviously endorsing Biden. She's a strong Bernie Sanders supporter, but she kind of was sending a message to some of the supporters about the fact that they can keep up the fight on these important policy issues, that there's a place for that, and a voice for that. She could be a bridge too. I think there are others who could serve that role.

JENNINGS: So here's some real talk about what the Republicans are watching. All this conversation about how Joe Biden is going to capture these Sanders people. Yang was one of them. You said earlier, Mark, you know, will the Sanders movement live on, can he make it live on, Andrew. You talk about some of the Sanders stuff, making it into the platform at the convention this summer.

How much -- here's what Republicans want to know. How much does Biden have to give in to the Sanders coalition here to try to capture all those folks and get him to come over? And for everyone who wants to call Joe Biden to moderate, that gets chipped away at every time they make a concession here to the Bernie people.

So given what he's already said in the primary, and given what he may have to give up to recapture all these folks, Republicans will use this to say, see, there are no moderates and, you know, they're all the same. They're all the same. So that's how the Republicans will view this Biden-Sanders dance over the next couple of weeks.

LEMON: Interesting. We shall see. We got a while. But then it'll be November. We'll say, wow, it's there. And it'll be 3:00 in the morning.

PRESTON: And it'll be 3:00 in the morning.

JENNINGS: And we'll all be Skyping in because we won't be allowed to be here.

LEMON: With our hand sanitizers and the masks on. So just how steep is Bernie Sanders uphill battle? CNN's resident -- I guess we'll call him oddsmaker, Harry Enten joins us next.

[02:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: CNN's Harry Enten AKA The Wizard of Odds joins me now. Harry, by all accounts, you got to say it's a good night for Joe Biden. Tell me what does it mean going forward?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: Well, let me just say, Christopher, that is an excellent question, one of the finest you've ever asked me. and what does it mean going forward? Let's take a look at the March projections. Look, I think in the states that are remaining in March, Joe Biden is going to sweep the board in Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, Florida. I just don't really see a path for Bernie Sanders winning any of the states.

But let's just jump forward to the polls and give you an idea of how strong Joe Biden standing really is. So take a look four years ago compared to now where Joe Biden is in the polls versus Hillary Clinton four years ago. Look at this. Biden has a 16 point lead in our most recent poll, Clinton was only seven points ahead at this point. So Biden's running well ahead of her pace.

But in all honesty, I think that underestimates Biden's position. Why take a look at our latest national poll, but take -- focus in on the states that haven't voted yet. And look at this lead for Joe Biden. That lead jumps up to 31 percentage points. So we haven't seen nothing yet when it comes to Joe Biden's lead. If anything, the upcoming states are going to be even better for him.

But we can also take a look and put this in a historic context and look at where Joe Biden is compared to Democratic nominee since 88 when Super Tuesday got its real start. Look at them. All of the people, all the candidates who are leading at this point went on to win the nomination. So for Joe Biden, he has the odds on favorite right now. If I were doing odds, I'd say 99.5 out of 100. He's just in a fantastic position at this point, Christopher.

CUOMO: What are the odds that Bernie Sanders go goes to the debate and goes through the next Super Tuesday.

ENTEN: You know, that's up to him. But I think he has a real question that he has to ask himself. Because if you look at the map tonight, you really just see that Biden just did well, everywhere. He does well, among all the groups except for the very young and Latinos. Joe Biden does well among the white working class, white college graduates, African Americans, crushes with older voters. He's just winning everywhere.

Bernie Sanders at this point, if he's being honest with himself, I'm just not sure where I see the pathway for him to win this nomination.

CUOMO: Unless he truly believes that what's happening now is about what he calls the establishment closing in on him and consolidating, and it won't redound to the general. But maybe the most important message we got from Bernie Sanders tonight is that he gave us no message at all. Harry Enten, you're very wise and I appreciate you taking us through the numbers.

ENTEN: Shalom, my friend. I love you, buddy.

CUOMO: Love you, too. We call him the Wizard of Odds and for good reason. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we have more of our special coverage here at CNN. Stay with us.

[02:50:00]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Many of the pundits declared that this candidacy was dead. Now we're very much alive. And although there's a way to go, it looks like we're going to have another good night. We have victories in Mississippi, Missouri, Michigan, and we're going to hear from North Dakota, Idaho, and Washington State.

As I said from the beginning this election is one that has character on the ballot. The character of the candidates, the character of the nation is on the ballot. It's more than a comeback in my view, our campaign. It's a comeback for the soul of this nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[02:55:15]

LEMON: Talking about a comeback, just maybe a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, a lot of people have written Joe Biden off, now he is a comeback kid. By the way, giving that speech in Pennsylvania in Philadelphia without a crowd because of this coronavirus outbreak, this pandemic, really just his supporters and members of his staff there in the hall cheering him on.

A very good night for him, as he said, winning Mississippi, Missouri, Michigan, and Idaho. Two states left Washington State and North Dakota. The votes still being counted. But a very good night for him. Also canceling -- him and Bernie Sanders canceling two big events tonight. The President of the United States though announcing that he is going to go on with a big campaign event in Milwaukee coming up in a week or so.

Our live CNN coverage continues now with John Vause and Rosemary Church. I'm Don Lemon. Thanks so much for watching.

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