The issue of gun control saying this, quote, bernie has been weak on gun safety his entire career. Hes voted against background checks. He voted to give gun makers immunity. Hes received help from the nra. This is not the record of someone who will save our country from gun violence. But cnn has learned thats not the only attack Team Bloomberg is rolling out tonight at the democratic debate in South Carolina. So for that lets go to charleston to our cnn business and politics correspondent cristina alesci. Tell us what to expect. Reporter well, the Bloomberg Team has been rolling out attack after attack as you mentioned, on Bernie Sanders, and i just came from a press conference where the campaign essentially lined up five black lawmakers and thought leaders, current mayors, former mayors, a congressperson all basically saying no one on that stage has a perfect track record when it comes to the issues that africanamericans care about in this country, but they made the case that Michael Bloomberg was the best suited to take that on. They also hit Bernie Sanders particularly hard suggesting that hes failed the constituents in his state, the africanamerican constituents in his state, and they hit him for his support of the 1994 crime bill. Listen. Bernie sanders voted for the crime bill, joe biden coauthored the crime bill. Again, so if were going to talk about every candidates record, lets talk about their record on criminal justice issues in their totality. The crime bill along with several other votes in the 80s ushered in this period of mass incarceration. Every candidate needs to own that. Thats just a fact, and if, in fact, were going to take on donald trump in the fall, every candidate needs to make sure it has their proper vetting, and thats what were talking about. Reporter now, brooke, ive spoken to several Bloomberg Campaign aide who is had said its great that they are getting some traction on, you know, these attacks on Bernie Sanders, but and the big but here is that Michael Bloomberg has to bring that fight to the debate stage. People at home are not watching a press conference, you know, with the five democratic lawmakers and thought leaders. Theyre going to be watching the debate tonight, and Michael Bloomberg has to recover from that terrible performance last week that really undercuts the argument that he is in the best position to defeat donald trump and can take him on on the debate stage and this whole argument of electability really comes into play here. Now, what happens if Michael Bloomberg has a bad night tonight . Well, i heard from one source who said, you know, they took a little bit of a hit in the polls, but its not a total end game for them if they if he performs poorly tonight, brooke, but were going to have to wait and see. A lot of people are going to be focused on how bloomberg does tonight. So many eyes on him, so many eyes and also ire from folks on the stage again, senator Bernie Sanders, kristina, thank you. A chief argument against senator sanders is that he will be a disaster for democrats down ballot if he, indeed, is the partys nominee, but didnt people say that about trump in 2016 . Cnn senior political analyst john avlon takes a look. Donald trump was a populist outsider who broke all the rules, the gop establishment warned hed be a disastrous nominee. Now people see a mere image of that script with Bernie Sanders. This outsider has built a populist movement, his supporters are passionate and quick to condemn the democratic establishment. Sanders is the front runner after trailing joe biden for most of the campaign. He has momentum, but can bernie win . Thats the 270 electoral vote question. Now, the most theologically extreme candidate is usually worst positioned to win over swing voters, Barry Goldwater and George Mcgovern are examples, both lost in landslides. What if this time its different. Instead of asking if sanders is unelectable, what is sanders is actually the most electable democrat . This may sound like magical thinking. In the age of trump, hyper partisanship, institutional distrust and social media sanders could be examined as a candidate custom built to go head to hoed with trump. Theres plenty to suggest his views play better in a polarized primary than a general election. Lets look at Democratic Party divisions. Only 15 of democrats identify as very liberal. 32 liberal, 38 moderate and 14 as some flavor of conservative. The overall american electorate, 27 of americans identify as democrats, 30 republican, 42 independent. America remains a center right nation with 37 calling themselves conservative, 35 mooed rm mooed moderate and 24 liberal. Bernies argument echoes trump. Hell drive turnout by connecting with working class voters who have been alienated by the establishment. The label socialism, under which democratic socialism lives is really not popular. Now, you can say americans vote on authenticity, not ideology but the center right center of fwrafty is tougher to argue against. Democrats need to understand why reagan and nixon won reelection why clinton and obama had fight for their second term. Running up margins in new york and california aint enough. You cant write off florida or ignore swing district indicates warning against sanders. But bottom line, could bernie win . Sure. Anything is possible. Donald trump is an unpopular president despite the Strong Economy to date. Top tier democrats beat trump by different margins in head to head polls like this. Same is true for pennsylvania and michigan, better gauges of who might actually win the white house. Bernie sanders has built a movement. He has momentum, but there are rational reasons to think nominating a democratic soci socialist is a real risk that could reelect donald trump. Thank you. With me now, South Carolina state senator marlin kibson, he has endorsed joe biden. Senator, welcome. Good to be with you. So i know that you call the South Carolina primaries the first real 2020 contest that reflects the Democratic Party in the country, and obviously we know that you think the former Vice President will do well in a new nbc marist poll shows that he is still the top choice among likely primary voters. My question to you is who are you most concerned could prevent biden from winning South Carolina . Well, at this point as youve and all of the commentators have suggested, Bernie Sanders. Obviously hes done well in the first three states, and our argument is simple. The first three states do not reflect the soul or the largest demographic of the Democratic Party. Thats just a fact, and so we will be drawing contrasts to the independent vermont senator Bernie Sanders. You know, i am the senator of charleston. We had the massacre at mother emmanuel, gun reform and closing the charleston loophole is a significant issue. You cannot waffle on gun reform, and so he will have to answer for his record for five times not supporting the brady bill, and being backed i tby the nra. We have a clear contrast on that issue and a number of other issues when we make the case in South Carolina. I have been in that church. I have been in that room. I have spoken with the sole survivor. Well look for that certainly to come up this evening at the debate. You bring up Bernie Sanders, and im curious, we have joe biden releasing this new ad saying that senator sanders wanted to primary president obama during his 2012 reelection bid. Sanders has denied it, but then there was a clip of him saying it twice. Watch this. My suggestion is i think, you know, and i think one of the reasons the president has been able to move so far to the right is that there is no primary opposition to him. I think it would be a good idea if president obama faced some primary opposition. Senator, do you think sanders denial and the tape add up . Its just like his medicare for all plan. It doesnt make sense, and im hoping that the commentators tonight not only ask him that question, but there are others on this stage who have not supported president barack obama. When faced with the most the most important decision of launching his campaign, he chose Vice President biden. The Affordable Care act is very popular in South Carolina. All of the South Carolina democrats have been fighting to expand the aca and expand medicaid under the aca. These issues do not comport with South Carolina voters the fact that he is for medicare for all and the fact that we have either independent or just converted democrats on the stage tonight is a subject of should be a subject of great inquiry. Where did you stand with the most Popular Democratic president in our history . President barack obama, were you for him or were you against him, and im hoping that distinction will be drawn tonight, and i know that theres one person that can say that unequivocally without fear of contradiction, and thats joe biden. I know that joe biden is really relying on this South Carolina win. He said it himself. Senator, what if he doesnt come out on top . Will that mean game over . Well, it certainly would present a very significant challenge for the Vice President because he is he said that himself. But fortunately as your polls show, he is the front runner here. He has been consistent in that status and actually, nationally when you take a look at all the average of polls, hes still the front runner and the most electable in this state. What we have is we have a number of moderates who have no chance of winning a national election, for example, tom steyer, a vote for all of these candidates who are a vote for all of these candidates that are not polling high in my view is a vote for Bernie Sanders. I say that with all due respect. At some point were going to have to consolidate the moderates in this race and really Start Talking about electability zb electability. Yeah, im hearing it. You hear it already from so many voters thinking of who best can beat donald trump. Well see how it shakes out this weekend. I think its so important how you characterize it is really South Carolina represents the soul of this country just demographically speaking. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time, sir. Thank you for having. Thank you. Coming up next, President Trump says he doesnt want foreign help in 2020. He is still refusing to acknowledge intelligence reports that russia is trying to interfere again. Well get reaction from democratic senator Tammy Duckworth skpnch duckworth. And minutes after the judge in the roger stone case blasted the president s attacks against the juror, guess what, he is now doing just that again on twitter. Stand by. People, our sales now apply to only 10 frames. A new low at visionworks, our sales are good on all of our frames. Why are you so weird . Use your tax return and get 50 off any pair. Visionworks. See the difference. Its got all my favorite shows turn oright there. Boom, i wish my Trading Platform worked like that. Well have you tried thinkorswim . This is totally customizable, so you focus only on what you want. Okay, its got screeners and watchlists. And you can even see how your predictions might affect the value of the stocks youre interested in. Now this is what im talking about. Yeah, itll free up more time for your. Uh, true crime shows . British baking competitions. Hm. Didnt peg you for a crumpet guy. Focus on what matters to you with thinkorswim. Woi felt completely helpless. Hed online. My entire career and business were in jeopardy. I called reputation defender. Vo take control of your online reputation. Get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender. Com. Find out your online reputation today and let the experts help you repair it. Woman they were able to restore my good name. Vo visit reputationdefender. Com or call 18778668555. No no no no no, theres no space there maybe over here . Hot hot oven mitts oven mitts everythings stuck in the drawers im sorry oh, jeez. Hi. Kelly clarkson. Try wayfair oh, ok. Its going to help you, with all of. This yeah, here you go. Thank you oh, i like that one [ laugh ] thats a lot of storage perfect. Youre welcome i love it. How did you do all this . Wayfair speaking of dinner, whatre we eating, guys . You get the freedom of what a 7day return policy. This isnt some dealership test drive around the block. Its better. This is seven days to put your carvana car to the test and see if it fits your life. Load it up with a weeks worth of groceries. Take the kiddos out for ice cream. Check that it has enough wiggle room in your garage. You get the time to make sure you love it. And on the 6th day, well reach out and make sure everythings amazing. If so. Excellent. If not, swap it out for another or return it for a refund. Its that simple. Because at carvana, your car happiness is what makes us happy. Just in to cnn, President Trump attacking the jury forewoman in the roger stone case once again despite the fact that the judge in the case literally warned against doing that moments ago. His tweet attacks the forewoman and the judge, and lets not forget the attorney general has said tweets like that make it impossible for him, the a. G. To do his job. Cnn Political Correspondent sara murray is outside that courthouse in d. C. Where roger stone is asking for a new trial, and sara, i cant imagine this is helpful. Reporter yeah, i dont think its going to be super helpful, and you know, the president is traveling back from india, and its unclear if hes getting news of whats happening inside of court right now, but he did, he tweeted that theres rarely been a juror so tainted as the forewoman in the roger stone case. He alleged that the juror is biased. He alleged that the judge is biased. Hes peddling more falsehoods like roger stone didnt even work on my campaign. That is a lie. This is all happening truly moments after the judge was citing the president s tweets and citing segments on fox news attacking this jury and the foreperson specifically. Thats part of the reason that the rest of this hearing that shes holding today we can only hear the audio of. We cant see any visuals of. Its possible that the judge is going to have jurors in there testifying. We are not going to see them. Shes banned anyone in this courtroom from using their name or referring to their juror number, and she cited potentially substantial threats of harm against members of the jury. Shes condemned tweets like this from the president. Obviously thats not stopping him. No, its not. Sara murray, thank you for that. Now to this, today President Trump would not say whether he believes his own Intelligence Experts conclusion that russia is trying to interfere in the november election. However, the president did say this. Okay, first of all, i want no help from any country, and i havent been given help from any country. But remember the president giving this answer when asked what he would do if a Foreign Government tried to give him information on an election opponent . I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen. I dont theres nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, norway, we have information on your opponent. Oh, i think id want to hear it. You want that kind of interference in our elections . Its not an interference. They have information. I think id take it, if i thought there was something wrong, id go maybe to the fbi. Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth represents the state of illinois and is a member of the Armed Services committee. Senator duckworth a pleasure, welcome. Thanks for having me on. In addition to those comments we just played, the president has refused to acknowledge that russia is currently interfering with the 2020 election. Your reaction, senator duckworth . Well, its just continuing what he does all the time, which is refuses to listen to his own Intelligence Community and Intelligence Experts. The Intelligence Community, independent experts and a Bipartisan Group of senators and congressmen and women have time and again shown that the russians interfered in our 2016 elections. They attempted to interfere in the 2018 elections, and we know that theyre trying to interfere in the 2020 elections. And for the president to deny this means that hes putting our elections in jeopardy busy we need to be preparing ourselves and fighting back against the russians not denying that itner happened. It is happening whether he likes it or not. And then just for americans who are obviously concerned about their votes when they hear this, what are you hearing just as a senator about whats being done to stop this . Because we are just a week away from super tuesday. We are, so let me tell you that in illinois we were the state that the russians attacked first in 2016. They actually download our entire voter file of every voter in the state of illinois, and one of the things that weve done is made sure that every single voting machine has a paper backup. And