All in texas, all threw their support behind joe biden. He is somebody of such extraordinary grace and kindness and empathy. He will bring the exact kind of empathy that is so badly lacking in this white house. Joe biden has dedicated his life to fighting for people. And build that coalition of our firedup democratic base, and it is fired up, as well as independents and moderate republicans. Ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow, march 3rd, 2020, i will be casting my ballot for joe biden. Just a few days ago, the press and the pundits declared this campaign dead. But South Carolina had something to say about it. The great state of texas, lets not forget, home to 29 million americans is a big challenge for joe biden. Bernie sanders, for that matter, is a big challenge for joe biden, who knows there is one endorsement out there unlike all the others. Tonight nbc news reports that people close to former president barack obama say, quote, the signal has been sent in the past 36 hours that he sees biden as the candidate to back, and they dont need obama to say it publicly or privately. Nbc news also reports a new group of moderate democrats who are part of whats now called the big tent project trying to stop Bernie Sanders from winning the president ial nomination. Theyre putting up almost 4 million for ads in selected super tuesday states. New york city mayor Mike Bloomberg will be on the ballot tomorrow for the First Time Since he entered this race. Tonight during a town hall on fox news, he also weighed in on the prospect of Bernie Sanders at the top of the ticket for the democrats. I dont 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 wont even keep all the moderates in the democratic side. Some will go over to trump. Sanders, for his part, spent much of the evening making closing arguments to super tuesday voters in st. Paul, minnesota. Earlier he was asked about the efforts to keep him from going up against trump. From day one we have been taking on the establishment. It is no surprise they do not want me to become president. A new Morning Consult poll is showing sanders still in the lead going into tomorrows contest. However, biden has managed to move into a close second. Hes up seven points since his win in South Carolina. Meanwhile, President Trump spent this evening in North Carolina where voters will be voting tomorrow. White house spent the weekend dealing with the spread of the coronavirus. Theres a few more numbers for you. There have now been six deaths in the u. S. There are now just over 100 active cases. All of the deaths thus far have been in washington state. The president says hes asking Drug Companies who were at the white house today for a previously scheduled event, to speed up the process of making a vaccine. Theyre going to have vaccines, i think, relatively soon. And theyre going to have something that makes you better. I actually told the pharmaceutical companies, you have to do a little bit better job on that vaccine. While the stock market was able to mount a monday bounceback, one question late today to Vice President pence brought into focus the reallife concerns that families in our country have about this illness. Families across the country are worried about spring break. Theyre worried about spring break and wondering if they should book travel or cancel their travel. Two parts. What is the Expert Opinion from the task force on spring break travel and even Domestic Travel . And secondly, would you yourself feel comfortable bringing your family right now, including your grandchildren and their partners on a weeklong trip to disney world . Well, i can say theres been no recommendation about any limitations on travel within the United States of america. I travel across this country all the time. My kids live all over the country. Look, this is a time to use common sense. Its a good time to wash your hands. So what did we learn there . Good time to be on an air force aircraft, and Ashley Parker asked the question that mirrored the conversation in millions of american homes. Here for our leadoff discussion on a monday night, two of the very best from the new york times. Peter baker, chief white house correspondent, and carolyn ryan, assistant managing editor for the new york times. Also with us, Donna Edwards, former democratic member of congress from maryland and to keep it fair, a columnist for the Washington Post. Good evening and welcome to you all. Carolyn, im going to choose management and go first with you. Joe biden wins every county in South Carolina, from the hills to the sea. Colossal victory in the first representative state. Is this the second day of the rest of his political life . Well, it certainly feels that way. I mean look at the last 48 hours. You have money, which he hasnt had. Yeah. You have endorsements. You have people on the hill rallying around him. Theres a russian expression i think peter might know it. Success has its own aroma, that when you start winning, that something happens that theres sort of an aura. People wanted to see him win. Its not just that he won. He won really big, and the proportion of the africanamerican vote, the way he dominated that constituency, which is so important in a democratic primary, sent an incredibly powerful message to people who had been wavering about him. Peter baker, i recall donald trump using bidens name a time or two in the past. Have you any evidence about how the president is processing the Biden Victory in South Carolina and really what it may mean for the rest of the race . Yeah. Look, i think we know that the president would rather see Bernie Sanders hes kind of telegraphed that as his opponent. You know, candidates are notoriously bad at picking their opposition. They may not always have the right decision on that, but he sees the contrast between a socialist and his version of capitalism as an advantageous choice for the flaw. Tonight apt the rally you heard him go after biden in pretty harsh terms. He mocked him as a feeble minded kind of hasbeen. He ridiculed the Vice President for his verbal gaffes lately, confusing names, saying tomorrow is going to be super thursday instead of tuesday, that kind of thing, and he seemed to relish. At the same time, hes trying to stir the pot. Hes trying to get the sanders supporters upset at whatever happens if he were to lose. If he were to lose, the president is saying its because it was a coup. That was the word he used only twitter because he wants to say the establishment is stealing it from Bernie Sanders. So in his view, he wins either way. He either gets the candidate he wants in Bernie Sanders and a stark choice or he gets a moderate or a democrat to face but makes the left or tries to get the left anyway upset because Bernie Sanders didnt get what he says is his fair due. Congresswoman, its hard to imagine and fast forward through the history of the Democratic Party to a time where theres been one colossal consensus figure in the Democratic Party. Coming off his historic twoterm presidency, he and the former first lady are often at the very top of opinion polls for most admired man, most admired woman. Talk about the barack obama effect potentially on this election. Well, i think its a significant effect, and i dont think it just rests with former president obama. I think, you know, when you look at people who were central to the Obama Administration now coming out in support of joe biden, that is in some ways telegraphing where the obamas are. And so this shouldnt be a surprise. I mean in some ways, it would be kind of odd obviously if Vice President biden didnt get support of these allies of president obamas. Wed be all over that. Exactly. I do know susan rice endorsed today among others. Well, she did, and i think that, you know, when you look at the range of endorsers, especially today from susan rice and, you know, shoring up the foreign policy, you know, sort of backing joe biden on, you know, domestically, to have beto orourke stand there along with buttigieg or with klobuchar, that makes a huge difference. Those are big signals. Sometimes endorsements dont matter at all in a campaign and we overestimate that, but these were big. Carolyn, id like to read from you the work of Jonathan Martin and alex burns over at your outfit. Very simply, the headline tells the story. Frozen in anxiety how Democratic Leaders struggled to confront Bernie Sanders. What does this story mean for the future potentially of the Democratic Party . Well, i mean i think it means a couple things. One, if you look at that story, part of the reason that they had a difficult time building consensus at that point around biden is because the campaign was really bad. The candidate was not reaching out to people as obvious as harry reid. The money was not coming in. Joe biden was running in a very, i think, oldfashioned way. He didnt have the base of, say, small donors. What that story gets at and i think everyone should read it is really the tension that might erupt if the democrats are successful in kind of building up biden as the antibernie and prevailing. Do they risk alienating some of the young people, especially young men who have gotten excited about Bernie Sanders. To your first point, sometimes people just like to be asked. Harry reid came out in the last 24 hours and endorsed, but as they say, that would have been nice. Lovely before the primary in his state. But actually youre raising a good point because today, i dont know if you heard bidens remarks. He asked for peoples help. He asked for their support. So somebody is sort of getting that message to him. And, Donna Edwards, a blatantly political question. What do you do about the split in the party . What do you do if you arrive at your convention youll be there and Bernie Sanders has slightly more of the delegates, and that is a group that wants to nominate joe biden . Well, first of all, i hope that we actually dont get to that point because i think it is a really difficult one. And i would urge democrats to stop running the antibernie campaign. They can run a campaign that elevates joe biden where support coalesces around joe biden without, you know, sort of putting a knife in the Bernie Sanders supporters. I think that would be wrong for our party, and it certainly will not help us coming out of the convention to have a fully united party. I mean bernie has said that hes committed to that, and i actually believe him on that point. And i dont think hes going to be used as a pawn by donald trump should he not get the nomination. But exits and the kind of exit is really important, and so we have to figure that out. And i dont know yet whether bernie might, you know, have enough to go into the convention and, you know, consolidate support and get the nomination. That could still happen. I do think for all you viewers, watch texas. If joe biden does really well there, i think, and bernie does well on super tuesday but joe biden has enough momentum to really challenge him in a number of places, i think theres a really good shot that we go and im not just saying this because ive dreamed about it as a reporter forever, but that we go to a convention and have a contested convention. So you guys are on different teams just temporarily. Just because the anxiety and requirement for i get it. Zantac sales will spike. Ive got a tweet from aaron blake at the Washington Post to keep things fair. Republican members of congress havent sent one tweet or press release mentioning burisma or hunter biden since february 7 per legistorm. One day after biden wins South Carolina, senator johnson of wisconsin sends this letter on a sunday, no less. Sometimes, peter, the republicans are direct and never ironic. Well, look, burisma wasnt necessary in the republican playbook when biden was down and out. He was a fourth place, fifth place finisher in the early primary states, and they had bigger fish to fry. At that point it was Michael Bloomberg on the rise, Bernie Sanders on the rise. They were focused on them. Now biden of course is resurgent, youre going to hear a lot more about burisma and hunter biden. Thats something democrats have to take into consideration as they pick their nominee because it is a subject theyre going to have to address in the fall if joe biden is their nominee. How theyre going to answer it, how theyre going to defend against it, how theyre going to explain it. Some of these things can be dismissed as President Trump is exaggerating, but there are some things that are troubles, even democrats who have been disturbed by some of what theyve seen. So this is a big factor in a way the republicans are trying to stir the pot here before super tuesday. But its a reminder that were playing were not playing bean ball, and that is going to be a big contest come the fall whoever is the nominee. Peter, you were around to cover the obama white house. Youre among the former president s biographers. When people ask you what you saw of the relationship between president and Vice President , how easy was the relationship, that kind of thing, how do you answer . Thats a good question. It didnt start off that easy. In fact, these are two very different kinds of personalities. They came from different generations, different backgrounds, different experience levels, different, you know, introvert extrovert kind of ways of dealing with people. But over the eight years they were together, they really did bond in a pretty significant way. I think certainly you saw that by the time beau biden died and barack obama gave the eulogy at the funeral. That was about as close a bonding moment as you could imagine between two political figures. That doesnt necessarily mean that he thought that joe biden was necessarily the best candidate to run this year. I think that barack obama had his concerns. But now that were facing a choice between Bernie Sanders and one other candidate, you could sort of see, as you put it, as carol lee and her colleagues wrote, the subtle hand of obama kind of coming into play here in which theyre clearing the field to some extent of the other moderate alternatives so that it is a biden versus sanders kind of contest. Everybody strap in. Super tuesday starts in hours. Our great thanks to peter baker, to carolyn ryan, to Donna Edwards for starting us off on manic monday, i guess. Coming up, well have more on the coronavirus, the administrations response to it thus far. An expert on pandemics and the person who led the obama response to ebola among our guests. And later, a retired u. S. Fourstar army general weighs in on trumps peace deal with the taliban. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a busy consequential monday night. We went out. Were doing everything in our power to keep the sick and infected people from coming into our country. Were working on that very hard. Trump on the coronavirus tonight as were getting an inside look from the Washington Post of his administrations response to the virus thus far. And this gets your attention. Quote, interviews with nearly two dozen administration officials, former white house aides, Public Health experts, and lawmakers many speaking on the condition of anonymity, portray a white house scrambling to gain control of a rudderless response defined by bureaucratic infighting, confusion, and misinformation. Its complete chaos, a Senior Administration official said. Everyone is just trying to get a handle on what the expletive, use your imagination is going on. Meanwhile, officials in georgia have just since weve been on the air announced two new cases of coronavirus. With us for more, dr. Irwin redlener, a pediatric physician, cofounder of the Childrens Health fund, now a clinical professor with the school of Public Health at Columbia University and the director of columbias National Center for Disaster Preparedness with an expertise in pandemic influenza. His Business Card is seven inches long. Ron klain, a political veteran now and formerly advising the Biden Campaign. Among his many roles in the white house over the years, working with dr. Redlener. He oversaw the response to the Ebola Outbreak during the obama presidency. Ron happens to be the cohost of a new podcast about the coronavirus called epidemic. Ron, since you guys are colleagues, im going to start with you but ask you both in order to answer the same question. What do you see out there that needs doing, thats not being done . Whats perhaps being done wrong . Yeah. So i think were seeing a crisis of both confidence and competence at the trump white house. The confidence crisis comes from the fact that the president keeps on saying things that arent true, and hes finally run into an opponent he cannot tweet into submission. The coronavirus is not going to be impressed by trumps tweets. So he keeps on misrepresenting the state of the disease. He keeps on misrepresenting the state of progress on things like the vaccine. That erodes the power of his communications on this. On the competence side, the administration put in place travel restrictions to slow the spread of the virus to the United States but didnt use the time that bought to get this testing problem sorted out, to get our hospitals ready. Theyre just not moving with pace and speed to put the response into place. So a lot of bad communications and a lot of failure to really execute on the response that should be going on now. Doctor, same question. Its pretty much the same basic answer, and ill tell you the miscommunication issues are extraordinary. What we witnessed in that press conference just a few days ago was donald trump saying everything is under control. Fictional numbers of patients. It was just absolutely absurd. Then like five seconds later, his Health Expert is saying its just a matter of when, not if were going to get a massive deterioration of the situation. And he was trump was promising Rapid Development of a vaccine, which is completely absurd. Thats going to be 12 to 18 months if were lucky away. So everything about it totally undermines the publics confidence in messages coming from leaders. You know, what a good leader should be doing is finding that middle ground between telling people what were doing and what we are worried about and, on the other hand, not creating panic. Trump seems not to have that particular inherent skill that we would like to see in our politicians. And im telling you, when the postmortem is written about this whole episode, the incompetencies throughout the federal government have been extraordinary, and i think people would be shocked to see how many errors in judgment and mismanagement and so on. And i think ron mentioned the issue of the testing. Yeah. That was an unbelievable failure of a competence we should be having without question. Were so far behind other countries in terms of figuring out how to screen people in large numbers, and theres just no no forgiving this. Let me ask you a question people ask me. Being a new yorker its probably helpful because as a Public Health specialist, you good et to work in this laboratory every day. How long do you reckon until we really have to change our public behavior. First of all, we actually have been in a pandemic for some period of time. This is a pandemic. So pussyfooting around that is not helping anyone. Were going to have to change behavior as soon as we hit some trigger point which have to do with number of the cases in a particular area. Those methods will be very draconian and disruptive for people. Like . Like closing schools, like shutting down athletic events, like closing down theaters on broadway. These are things that may have to happen if we have to keep people separated so that we dont increase the transmission of this contagious illness. And when are those going to happen . Its a day by day situation, brian. We dont know. Tomorrow we may get news that theres been a massive increase in the number of cases reported around the country and well start to see Health Departments saying, listen, were going to have to close some schools for a while, which has tremendous effects on families. A lot of parents cannot afford to stay out of work so that they can stay home and watch their children. I dont know how were going to deal with that because families incomes are dependent on them working. And the economic consequences in their community and beyond are just absolutely awful. We have virtually no imagination when it comes to trying to figure out what were going to do about these secondary and cascading consequences. Ron klain, to your point, let me play a bit more of the president in North Carolina tonight. There are fringe globalists who would rather keep our borders open than keep out infection. Think of it. Keep all of the infection, let it come in. So, ron, just to repeat, fringe globalists want to keep the country open to increase the infection level here in the United States. You combine that with his use of the word hoax at the end of last week, with his use of fictional numbers of patients, and whats the danger . Well, first of all, everything he said was untrue, so i dont know anyone whos for open borders on the one hand. On the other hand, it also should be said that the Trump Administrations travel restrictions have always been uneven. You can check right now. There are any number of planes landing in san francisco, new york from china. Theres no restrictions at all on chinese crews. So the Trump Administrations travel restrictions have been more bandaid than travel ban. Its a big p. R. Campaign by the president. And the reality, brian, is that this virus is here. It has arrived in the United States. We are over 100 cases. The number grows every single day. And so what the purpose of the minimal travel restrictions the Trump Administration put on was to buy time for him to competently execute the response to get the testing fixed, to get our hospitals ready. People should ask in their communities, are there hospitals ready for 100, 200, 300, 400 extra cases of coronavirus . They are not. Thats what the federal government should be doing now, and it is not meeting its responsibility. This is what we did in the ebola response. We rapidly ramped up our capacities. Here in the u. S. And around the world to fight that disease. Instead there seems to be just a bunch of infighting and press release issuing going on at the white house right now. Dr. Irwin redlener, thank you very much. Will you please come back and keep us posted . Of course. Thank you. We have prevailed upon ron klain to stick around for a political conversation were having in just a bit. But our thanks to the doctor for coming by. When we come back, well take a look at this dynamic that people are saying may be a fundamental change under way in the democratic race. And two markers to look for tomorrow night when were in here talking about returns. Can my side be firm . And mine super soft . With the sleep number 360 smart bed, you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. But can it help keep me asleep . Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. And snoring . No problem. And done. So, ill wake up ready for anything . Oh, weve got your back. So, you can really promise better sleep . Not promise. Prove. Its our leap year special, save up to 600 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. Plus, 0 interest for 4years on all smart beds. Ends monday. Vo untrue attacks againstve, Mike Bloomberg. Bloomberg has been praised by president obama. Obama hes been a leader throughout the country for the past twelve years. Mr. Michael bloomberg is here. Vo mike worked with president obama to combat gun violence and improve public education. As president , hell work to combat inequality by launching a new initiative to spur African American and latino homeownership and Small Business growth. And hell beat the divider in chief. Bloomberg im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. I dont think ive ever done this before, but he reminds me of my son beau, and i know that may not mean much to most people, but to me its the highest compliment i could give any man or woman. If he had been around another six years, i wouldnt be standing here. Pete would be standing here. Id be endorsing pete. Make no mistake, a big night for joe biden in texas. And if youre going to have a moment in politics, this is a good moment for that on the eve of the super tuesday vote. We thought we should discuss this with some paid professionals. So joining us tonight are mike murphy, republican strategist, codirector of the center for political future at the university of southern california, who also happens to be cohost of hacks on tap podcast. And rejoining our conversation, you know his bona fides by heart, is ron klain. Mike, id like to begin with you. To paraphrase how we started, politicians arent usually handed a wrapped gift. Starting with maybe the most emotional endorsement in politics since ted kennedys endorsement of obama, congressman clyburn, one of the last true kingmakers in american politics. So tell us what the Biden Campaign needs to do as they open this beautifully wrapped gift. Well, youre totally right about jim clyburn. Endorsements are generally overrated except when theyre not. And he restarted an entire president ial campaign. That plus bidens long roots in history in the africanamerican community. So now we actually get to real delegates. And with super tuesday where you have contests from california to massachusetts, texas, up to minnesota, you know, tremendous amount of delegates at stake. And the question for biden is without a lot of money and without a lot of infrastructure, are we going back to the old model, which had worked for a long time where winning creates a wave of free press and hes sure gotten a lot of good free press, including these endorsements today that will move the numbers in those states where he hasnt had the time or money to build an organization or to have bloombergstyle advertising. And my guess is it is going to happen for biden. He is surging. He may not catch bernie in delegates, but he is a world stronger than he was just five or six days ago. Ron klain, there is an issue under the category what my dad used to call rich peoples problems. Its a bit like a transatlantic phone call in 1955. Theres a delay. The glow of that you feel instantly, but the money, while its coming in hand over fist sometimes, takes a while. You say this pro wants to come for you. You say you have a better media adviser on the hook. You say theres a Television Buy you should make. Its got to enter the pipeline, get processed, and going out, correct . All true, brian. And i think we will get some of the benefits of the success the Biden Campaign has had the past week tomorrow on super tuesday, and more will build. Obviously a phenomenal 24 hours for Vice President biden and his campaign today. And some of that will show up on the board tomorrow on super tuesday and some of that will show up on the board down the line. But lets remember he got outspent 401 in South Carolina by tom steyer, okay . While the Trump Campaign was running ads in South Carolina, untrue ads, the trump pac attacking him. So the Vice President has shown hes resilient. Hes shown he has a lot of support among a lot of different wings of the Democratic Party. I think the support hes gained from his former opponents in the past 24 hours is evidence of that. Harry reid endorsing him is evidence of that. And so i think this is just going to keep building and building. A week ago, the Sanders Campaign was telling everyone they would finish off joe biden on super tuesday, and whatever happens tomorrow, we know thats not going to happen. Mike, what would have happened if South Carolina had been first in the nation . Oh, i think biden would have been what he was, the early frontrunner, and then he would have assuming clyburn would still be with him, he would have done quite well and might have been able to run the table. My guess is hell get less delegates on super tuesday than bernie, but hes got to hold that margin down. I would caution our observers at home. Dont believe a lot of this polling thats a week old because everything is moving right now. Its moving faster than we can cover it. Biden cant spend that much money. Its happening too soon. But this earned media wave hes getting and the fact that while his candidacy was weak at the beginning joes was the idea of a unified notbernie, that position is worth a lot in the Democratic Party and biden is walking into it at high speed now. That is a huge asset to have going forward. And, ron, how do you process the vote thats already in . Thats a tough one in a democracy. California was voting at the same time as iowa. Yeah. You know, look, as someone whos been involved in Voting Rights disputes, i think early voting is a great thing. It does let people vote. It does increase number of votes. But obviously were seeing one problem with it. A lot of people voted in california for candidates who are no longer even running. And so, you know, thats a shame. Thats a consequence of it. But, look, this race is now a marathon, not a sprint. And i think Vice President , my candidate is going to have a really good day tomorrow. But were going to keep on going after that and after that. This is going to go on for a while. And so, you know, i think over the course of this race, peoples voices will be heard. We heard from the first diverse electorate in South Carolina. That was a new input. Were going to hear from a lot of parts of the country tomorrow, and well keep going from there. Ron klain, miles to go before he sleeps, thank you for sticking around for an extra segment with us tonight. Mike murphy, we have a few more for you, so you cant move. Coming up, mike will talk to us about something he knows a lot about. Thats california politics. Look whos in the political game this year, the state thats home to 40 million americans. Theres a company thats talked to even more real people than me jd power. 448,134 to be exact. They answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. And when they were done, chevy earned more j. D. Power quality awards across cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand over the last four years. So on behalf of chevrolet, i want to say thank you, real people. Youre welcome. Were gonna need a bigger room. Now, as you all know, you cant miss it if you turn on the tv. The establishment in this country, the Economic Establishment and the political establishment are becoming very nervous. My god, theyre shaking in their boots. More than 1,300 delegates will be allocated tomorrow. 415 of them will come from the great state of california alone. It is the first time california lets say again for emphasis, a state of 40 Million People has been a part of the super tuesday contest. Latest poll shows Bernie Sanders leading in that state, doubledigit lead still. Joe biden third behind elizabeth warren. But that was before bidens decisive South Carolina victory. Complicating factor, a ton of early vote is already in. Mike murphy is still with us. Hey, mike, congrats on your state getting in the game. I am told while its no iowa, it may take a good, long while before we have the full california result, correct . Right. You wont know tomorrow night because over 70 of the vote is by mail. Now, as of yesterday, 22 of those ballots were in but a bunch are in mailbags. That said, this year, which is often the case in hot candidate races, people get their absentee ballot early but they hang on to it. You can walk it in on election day as long as its postmarked on election day. So youre going to see massive voting today and massive voting over the weekend, and i predict in joe bidens life, votes that were turned in maybe the first 25 that were turned in before South Carolina are going to be not so good for him with the big hurdle being can he get to 15 . Under 15 , bupkis, no delegates. But the vote coming in afterward, probably over twothirds of it, at least 60 is going to be pretty good for biden. And i have no doubt that overall i have some doubt but very little doubt he will get over that 15 to get in the delegate hunt. I think were going to see a surge for him. In our closing 30 seconds, you see a Bright Future for joe biden after South Carolina . Hes back in the race, and hes got a shot if tomorrow works out for him. Mike murphy, it is always such a pleasure having you on. Thanks for hanging out with us tonight. Coming up for us just ahead, when referring to todays afghanistan, our next guest, who happens to be a retired u. S. Army fourstar general, uses terms like endless civil war and implosion. Hell explain those when we come back. These folks, they dont have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps. Com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the Amazing Services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again we choose to go to the and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. President kennedy knew settling for halfmeasures wasnt good enough. So when candidates say we cant guarantee health care for all, make College Affordable for all, combat climate change, or create a world at peace, remember that america is best when we strive to do big things, even when its hard. Im Bernie Sanders and i approve this message. Officially hitting the us. Virus man the markets are plunging for a second straight day. Vo Health Experts warn the us is underprepared. Managing a crisis is what Mike Bloomberg does. In the aftermath of 911, he steadied and rebuilt americas largest city. Oversaw Emergency Response to natural disasters. Upgraded hospital preparedness to manage health crises. And hes funding Cutting Edge Research to contain epidemics. Tested. Ready. Mike im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. Two days ago the United States signed a deal with the taliban so that after 19 years of conflict and very close to 20, we can finally begin to bring our amazing troops back home. Weve wiped out terrorists. Weve done so much. And you know what . Were 8,000 miles away. You got a lot of big countries surrounding afghanistan. Youve got afghanistan itself. 48 hours after that deal with the taliban, the pact may be falling apart. On saturday, the u. S. Agreed to a 14month time line to withdraw all american troops from afghanistan. In return, the taliban agreed to take part in official peace talks with the Afghan Government beginning march 10th. Saturdays deal also called for the Afghan Government, which was not part of these negotiations, to release as many as 5,000 taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 afghan detainees. Fewer than 24 hours later, afghanistans president publicly rejected the prisoner release commitment. And fewer than 24 hours after that, a taliban spokesman told reuters they plan to resume attacks on Afghan Forces and would not participate in peace talks until the prisoners are released. Yet today our defense secretary, that man, mark esper, announced hes approved the process to begin pulling u. S. Troops out of afghanistan. If its not a mess, it will do till the mess gets here. Back with us again tonight, retired fourstar u. S. Army general barry mccaffrey, decorated combat veteran of vietnam, a former battlefield commander in the persian gulf. Former drug czar for this country. Also happens to be among our military analysts. General, go ahead. Have at it. How do you react to any of what we just said . Well, you know, brian, i think it is definitely a viable political strategy for mr. Trump to unilaterally pull u. S. Forces out of afghanistan. We certainly shouldnt call it a peace treaty. We should understand that we are essentially cutting our losses, deciding that the Afghan Government, which is corrupt and incompetent and weve now got two potentially selfproclaimed president s of the Afghan Government, two different administrations. We could say, look, this is a mess. Were cutting and running. I think thats the upshot of it is. There does not seem to me to be any incentive nor consequences that would lead the taliban to end up negotiating in good faith with the Afghan Government. You know, as you sort of back off this and say whats going on, prior to the election the president says were coming home. The afghan situation is likely to implode. You know, women are going to go back into slavery. Millions will run for the borders. Its really a sad outcome. But three president s have pursued the war. Nobody built a case for the American People for continuing with a strategy. This is not quite that, but i want to read it to you. This is from democratic congressman Tom Malinowski over in new jersey. Two weeks ago in munich, mike pompeo made a commitment to me and other members of congress. The Afghan Peace Deal would not require the Afghan Government to release taliban prisoners. Todays deal requires them to release 5,000. General, how can that be possible . Well, particularly since the Afghan Government was never part of the negotiations, there were no elected officials, no official representative, no women present in the negotiations. So, look, again i think you get back to the reality of it is by the way, those negotiators from the taliban in doha, dealing with our brilliant u. S. Ambassador, are not necessarily representative of the thinking of the Haqqani Network and the other jihadist forces in afghanistan. So the bottom line is the taliban are going to go back to war. We should expect the u. S. Congress will now back away from resourcing this Afghan Government, their police and their army. Again, i think its likely the thing unravels into intense civil war and brutality again. I have to ask you about your community there in the pacific northwest. It has become, in effect, ground zero for the coronavirus. Whats it like locally, and what do you make of the effort thus far . I always remind people any of the people in our military who have had stars on their shoulders are something of experts on moving large number of men, women, material and dropping it on a dime around the world, say nothing of what you can do with a great command sergeant major. Yeah, for sure. Well, look, bottom line i think in the northwest is weve probably got a serious infection rate out there already. The good news is weve got excellent local political leadership. Theyre very soberminded. Theyre good journalists, aggressively covering the issue. We have an immense amount of medical resources in the northwest. You know, seattle is a citadel of medical research, university of washington. So i think were probably pretty well prepared to deal with it, but its going to have huge social and economic consequences in the short run. Well see whether this peters out by the end of the summer. Your lips to gods ears. General barry mccaffrey, thank you for coming on and taking our questions. Our best to everybody in the state of washington tonight. Coming up for us, the most important numbers for super tuesday, and they just a lot of them came out just tonight. Super tuesday down around the gulf states, eastern texas, the lower mississippi, heavy rain today. Two to five inches expected. More important than that, look out for strong thunderstorms a good possibility. Last thing before we go tonight, the voice of Willard Scott from the today show in 1988. And indeed as long as theres been a super tuesday, there have been tailored weather forecasts for all the states where theyre voting. California, colorado, utah tomorrow will have it the best. But then again, they often do. Maine, massachusetts, vermont, hardy new englanders all, will get a dose of rain, much of it light, and they dont scare easily. Nor do the people of minnesota. Theyll get some snow up north, but its winter after all. Parts of texas including perhaps austin and san antonio, parts of oklahoma will get rainstorms tomorrow. Parts of the american south, however, are going to get more weather than anyone should endure on a day when they have to be out and about. Moving along, a band from arkansas on east through tennessee, on up through North Carolina and virginia, its going to be a rainy and stormy day for most. About 4 million americans will be in the path of the worst of it. That may include high winds, thunder, hail. Tornadoes are possible. But as weve learned in the past, no storm is more powerful than a determined voter. Hows that . That is our broadcast for this monday night. When we next see each other in this very studio, it will be for our live super tuesday coverage. Thank you for being here with us. Good night from our nbc news headquarters in new york. Tonight on all in live from los angeles. The democrats want a nominee who is a democrat. [ cheers and applause ] klobuchar and buttigieg will back biden. We have a clear choice of who is going to lead this party. Tonight, the earthquake in the democratic field ahead of super tuesday. Every vote matters tomorrow. And what it all means for the allimportant delegate map. Plus. We have 43 domestic cases. New cases and new coronavirus deaths. The person who tested positive was only the 32nd test weve done in the state. That is a national scandal. Tonight alarming new reporting about the government response to an ongoing pandemic. A lot of very exciting things are happening and theyre happening very rapidly. Live from stage 20 at Universal Studios hollywood in los angeles when all in starts right now. [ applause ] hello, los angeles. Hello, everybody. How are we doing . Good to see you. Well, california, were here in Universal Studios in los angeles on the very same stage i learned a little while ago a bunch of episodes of murder she wrote