Inference in the Justice Department. The president s pardon spree, as seen on tv. Hear who helped inspire President Trump to flex his muscle for a crew of fraudsters. First up, the bloomberg factor, for the very first time, the billionaire accused of buying his way into the race will be on the democratic debate stage in a way we and the other candidates have yet to see. How will they react especially considering bloomberg isnt even running in nevada or south carolina, the next two states that have contests. We have senior correspondent, jeff, live for us. With bloomberg having a seat at the table, what are we expecting tonight . Reporter theres no question we have seen so many president ial debates. This will be ninth overall. The story is different now. The political world is different, since Mike Bloomberg joined this campaign three month or so ago, the first time he has come out facetoface with his rivals with 300 million in Television Advertising to show his record and why hes running for president. This is going to be an entirely different dynamic. If Mike Bloomberg was not in the race we would be talking about Bernie Sanders alone, the clear frontrunner. Lets look at the poll of polls, National Average polls. Bernie sanders has a commanding lead in this. 28 in his poll of polls, followed by joe biden at 16 . Bloomberg, 16 , elaborate warren, 13 and Pete Buttigieg at 10 and Amy Klobuchar at 7 . This sets the debate for the national polls. No question Bernie Sanders has telegraphed he plans to directly confront Michael Bloomberg on his record and other matters and several other candidates as well. The question, will Bernie Sanders get a free pass on his own policies if so much attention is focused on Mike Bloomberg. Those are the dynamics shaping up on what is a fascinating debate. Will these other candidates in the bottom tier get squeezed out in the conversation. We should point out, Mike Bloomberg is not running in the nevada caucuses and not on the ballot until next tuesday. What happens tonight determines how much strength he will have going into the race. Is it going to shape the race or cement it . If bloomberg gets a reprieve from attacks tonight, he will have Bernie Sanders to thank, thats because he is the frontrunner. The fellow 78yearold no longer plans to release his medical records despite promising to do so. Heres what sanders said before suffering a heart attack on the campaign trail last fall. I think its the right thing to do. The American People have a right to know whether the person theyre voting for, for president is healthy. We will certainly release our medical records before the primary, certainly before the first votes are cast. Since then, sanders has released letters, not records, letters from three physicians attesting to his good health. He hasnt turned over those actual medical documents. Last night, at cnns town hall he argued he didnt need to. I think we have released a detailed report. Im comfortable with what we have done. By the way, you think im not in good health, come on out with me on the campaign trail and ill let you introduce me to the three or four rally as day that we do. Hows that . [ applause ] just to be clear, you dont plan to release any more records . I dont. I dont think we will, no. Lets talk to dr. John sotus, a cardiologist and colonel in the Florida National guard where he is a flight surgeon, and he disagrees with sanders. Thank you for coming on. Thank you, breanna. He says, you say these letters dont serve the public well. Clearly, Bernie Sanders says they do. You say they leave out incredibly Important Information. What kind of information do you think these leave out . Before i start, let me say im serving as a military member but im here in a private capacity, and the opinions i have are wholly my own and not those of any military enterprise. Sure. In the air force, we have some standards for military members who want to get back on duty after a heart attack. Those standards lay out the information that should be released as part of that effort to get back on duty. So, for a heart attack, that includes things like the full extent of the coronary anatomy. There are three arteries in the heart. The air force needs to know how much artherosclerosis, how much disease is in each of those three arteries. From senator sanders letters, we know only about one of the arteries, and there, only partial information. The air force would also require a full description of the electrocardiogram, which we dont have, and full reports on a treadmill test although we have summary results on a treadmill test. There is a lot of missing information. What one of sanders physicians wrote was your heart muscle strength has improved. You have never had symptoms of congest stiff heart failure. The Heart Chamber sizes wall thickness and estimated pressure and heart valves are normal. Several recordings indicated no arrhythmic heart normality. And a test where his performance quote rated above average compared to a reference population of the same age. What stands out to you . What stands out to me is the reference population of the same age because he is older. What stands out to you . If i may say one subtleties about the reference population that sentence refers to is a population of people entering cardiac rehabilitation after a heart attack or bypass or similar cardiac event. Its not even against a normal population. In answer to your question, what stands out to me about those sentences, that its not a complete are all positive and indicate a good prognosis, but without a complete description, theres still the opportunity for other information that is just as important to alter the prognosis. It was interesting to hear you say, look, if you have a heart issue in the military or specifically in the air force, these are the things you have to give information on to get back in. Thats potentially a very stressful job, being in the air force, but the presidency can be incredibly stressful. Can you give us insight into how the stress that would come along with the presidency is something that could Impact Heart Health . When i think about a stress test for the presidency, i think about the cuban missile crisis that lasted 13 days in 1962. President kennedy was 43 years old. This was a very taxing two weeks for him. His brother, who was the attorney general and 36 years old, was also worn out by the two weeks of this crisis. I think of Something Like that, where theres no sleep, theres constant worry, thats probably as much fiscphysical and mental stress as a president could reasonably be forecast to undergo. Dr. John sotos, thank you. This was very enlightening. Rod blagojevich is a free man after the president stepped in and commuted his sentence after being found guilty in a corruption scandal. He tried to essentially sell president obamas vacant seat, among other things, and blagojevich, holding a News Conference a short time ago, to express his thanks to the president for his early release. The obvious i want to state and speak for patty and annie and me. We express our profound love for President Trump. How do you expression a thank you to someone, he doesnt have to do this. I was democratic governor and he didnt have to do this. I have 10,000 reasons to be thankful to President Trump. Im obviously thankful to be home and have my freedom back and be able to hold my wifes hand. Most of all, im thankful to you, mr. President , for giving my daughters their father back. In the history of our country right now, no one has done more or working to do more to fix this broken and racist criminal Justice System than President Trump and jared kushner. Joining me now from chicago is National Correspondent for politico, and also the author of only in chicago, how the Rod Blagojevich scandal engulfed illinois and the nation. Thanks for coming on. This blagojevich case is the corruption in chicago and he s was what do you think of how the president stepped in to free him. It was the same. Of course this was the way the story was going to end, at least develop. I dont know if the blagojevich story will ever end. Almost from the moment that donald trump was elected president , a lot of us speculated that this could happen. Trump had some affection for blagojevich. Of course, he had him on his show, the celebrity apprentice, even after blagojevich had been indicted and showed some affection for him at the time. We had a few false starts. We thought blagojevich trump would do this earlier but he ended up pulling back. Here we are. We should note that blagojevich did serve eight years of his sentence. It was a 14 year sentence, but realistically under federal guidelines, he probably would have gotten out in 11 1 2 years and he did serve a substantial portion of that. And you think about it maybe being 3 1 2 more years, thats a considerable amount of time. Certainly, he is grateful to not have to spend in jail. You covered him so much. You wrote this book about the case. I want to ask you this. Hes calling himself now a trumpocrat. What do you think of that . I think Rod Blagojevich long had this skill of redefining himself and spinning things. Hes taking this moment and letting it wash over him. Here he is leaving prison in a very different political climate. Now, he has the most powerful ally in the country, the president of the United States. When he left illinois and went to prison, he was completely alienated here. He was a pariah of illinois politics. No one liked him. He wasnt even going to his job everyday as governor as those tapes revealed, he was in the basement of his home, working out. We would hear him at home. His staff had to track him down when he was getting haircuts, to sign bills or veto bills. It was really crazy toward the end. He comes out now in this very different position, i think, is remarkable and i think we will be seeing a lot of him in the weeks and months to come. Really . In what capacity . Look at the if you just panned over the media at his home, thats just the beginning. He will keep spinning this. We will see lots of interviews, and now that he is becoming this big trump defender, i think he will really have a microphone and a megaphone to, you know, to get his message out, pardon, its not a shortened. We will keep our eyes open. Natasha. Thank you so much. Thank you. If the attorney general thought about resigning over the president s behavior, why is he only considering it now. Plus, why tv personalities played a role in the president s pardon spree. And why Michael Bloomberg keeps using president obama in his ads but their relationship isnt all that warm and fuzzy. Thats ahead. They help restore my natural barrier, so i can lock in moisture. Weve got to have each others backs. Cerave. Now the 1 dermatologist recommended skincare brand. Our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition. For strength and energy whoohoo greattasting ensure. With nine grams of protein and twentyseven vitamins and minerals. Ensure, for strength and energy. 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Ask your doctor about vascepa. Wild thing, you make my heart sing. You make everything. Groovy. Done yet . Yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry. You sure . Hmm. Mmm. Come on, come on, wild thing. If you ride, you get it. Geico motorcycle. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. A book that youre ready to share with the world . Get published now, call for your free publisher kit today cnn has learned attorney general bill barr has told people hes considered resigning over the president s inference with Justice Department matters, yet in the one year barr has held the ag position, this is the first time he has spoken up about the obstacles created by the president. The question here, is this possible threat of resignation by barr legitimate . Just last week, barr expressed his frustrations about the president s tweets. To have public statements and tweets made about the department, about people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department and about judges before whom we have cases make it impossible for me to do my job. That statement did nothing to stop the president from tweeting about cases. Trump told reporters yesterday he does make it harder for barr to do his job but he consisteul resist a chance to remind everyone. Just so you understand i am able to be involved, i can be totally involved. I am i guess the chief Law Enforcement officer of the country and involved. Joining us is former prosecutor and former assistant attorney general. You heard strong words about what you heard the president say there. Technically, is he correct . Yes, the president is the chief Law Enforcement officer if you live in saudi arabia. Literally, yes, the president runs the executive branch the Justice Department is in. He appoints the attorney general to be the chief Law Enforcement officer. You dont want to create a scenario where the president of the United States is settling scores through Law Enforcement. Yes, technically hes in charge of the whole enterprise. Thats silly and he knew exactly what he was saying when he said that. When you see this about barr saying he has considered resigning because he is making this too difficult. This is happening as there is a crisis of confidence about his leadership among rank and file and federal judges as well. Hoodoo you see that he was considering resigning. Too little too late, i signed a letter i know you reported on this show 2500 federal prosecutors have signed. For me, it was far more about the president of the United States than william barr. William barr is, i think, the symptom, not the problem. The problem is a president that wants to weaponize Law Enforcement to his own personal aims. You look at the kinds of cases he talks about, talking about the Andrew Mccabe case and concerns about Andrew Mccabe and concerns about other cases in which he had a personal stake, where the john dur man investigation, we can talk about further, cases the president feels aggrieved. You dont hear him talking about rank and file extortion prosecutions, only things where hes involved. Eliot, stand by for me if you will, im joined by politics reporter at large, chris. Barr had many chances to stand up to the president. Take us through some of those. This is selective memory by bill barr picking and choosing. Some of the time hes waded into investigations on trials. Lets go to michael cohen, former donald trump fixer. Michael cohen makes up stories. He was involved in a proceeding. Paul manafort, former campaign chief charged in ukraine, Donald Trumps chairman in 2016, he called manafort a brave man and supported him. Manafort was one of the few people who did not flip on donald trump. Michael flynn, National Security advisor, war hero. He sent that when there were rumors flynn would cooperate with the Mueller Investigation which he did. This is eddie gallagher, we have been talking about pardons of late, former navy seal. The process should move quickly with eddie gallagher, talking about the president of the United States wading directly into a military proceeding. We could put 100 of the department of justice and fbi. Donald trump said, remember at that celebration press event that he had after he was acquitted, he called them top scum. Theres Maria Yovanovitch. Everywhere Maria Yovanovitch went turned bad. No evidence of that. This is bill barr appears to be taking a spot here. Im not wellversed enough to question his motive. I will say, when you look at the totality bill barr has chosen to take a pass on donald trump wading into these matters, more than a little interesting he chose now to say, enough is enough. The timing is certainly interesting. Eliot, lets talk about today. Hes not heeding about the president making his life difficult. It gets back to why i signed that letter. I actually believe it is impossible for any individual to serve this president in good faith in the role of attorney general. We saw it with jeff sessions, pushed out and seeing it with bill barr. At a certain point, if barr loves the department and independence of