When its now. We have breaking news in the race for president. We are here and here feels like Bernie Sanders. The vermont senator, he just released new fund raising numbers. 34. 5 million in the fourth quarter. And youre going to remember this quarter for him started with a heart attack three months ago. That is an impressive number. We have a couple other numbers in at this point. You can see former south bend mayor Pete Buttigieg raised about 24. 7 million. Businessman andrew yang, 16. 5 million. We want to also note, this is a little bit different, little apples and oranges right now. The president s Campaign Announced 46 million for the last quarter. Back to the democrats, though, that is whats important this morning. The Iowa Caucuses just one month away. We could hear from the warren and biden campaigns soon on their numbers. Also we want to bring you these dramatic, remarkable, troubling images of the extent of the damage at the u. S. Embassy in baghdad. The iranbacked militia have withdrawn from protesting at that compound. Theyve had two days of clashing with Security Forces there. Still the tension between u. S. And iran remains high as highlighted by these images. Well bring you to baghdad for a live report from arwa damon in a moment. But joining us here, lets begin with those numbers. Cnn washington correspondent ryan nobles, alex burns. Lets walk through these numbers. 34. 5 million bucks for sanders. He began the quarter with people questioning if he could even keep running after the heart attack. Even people that supported Bernie Sanders wondered whether or not he would have staying pa you are. Theres no doubt weve seen a reinvigorated campaign since the heart attack. These numbers show us just how strong his support remains with the core group of people that have been with him from the beginning. Couple things i want to point out about the way hes raising this money. This is all online small dollar donations average about 18 bucks a donation. 99. 9 of the people that have donated to the campaign have the ability to continue donating. They havent come anywhere near that 2800 threshold. Get this, guys. He raised 18 million just in the month of december. That shows his momentum is growing. There is beginning to be more of a realization that he could actually win the iowa caucus. And thats exactly the position you need to be on on january 2nd when we are now just about a month away from voters actually heading to those caucus sites. As we see those numbers for Bernie Sanders and you think about the possibility that maybe he will or could win in iowa. What does that mean for the campaign . What does that mean for the democrats . Where are we headed . Well, i think thats a thats certainly a question that will be answered in the coming weeks, but theres no doubt that Bernie Sanders has enjoyed the momentum right now. And in terms of what it means for the campaign, one interesting i do namic is while Bernie Sanders has had that durability kind of throughout the campaign season, he hasnt been attacked so viciously by the other candidates as perhaps some of the other candidates have gotten in the race. Youve seen obviously the former Vice President joe biden. Senator Elizabeth Warren. Now former south bend mayor Pete Buttigieg all kind of take their turns being having the arrows thrown at them as a front runner. Now that Bernie Sanders is really has really solidified himself as a front runner in the race, itll be interesting to see how the other campaigns respond now in terms of what this may mean for the Broader Campaign while obviously senator sanders has this popularity, has durability with democratic voters. Republicans are very eager to seize on his positions. Among the more progressive positions on health care or Climate Change and whatnot in the democratic race which could be the appealing part to the democratic voters. Eager to make that contract should he become the nominee. Alex, the way that Bernie Sanders has raised this money will small dollar donations is very notable. They can keep giving more. Most havent reached a threshold. Also akin to the way that Elizabeth Warren has raised money. No wine caves for either of them. But her numbers, theyll come out at some point. Could be in the next few minutes. Could be in the next few hours. And her team a week ago trying to set expectations that doesnt look like theyre going to be as strong as last quarter. Maybe the number the sort of number to beat for them was 20 million which would be less than she raised last quarter. More than the quarter before that. I think joe biden is expected to sort of cross the 20 million mark but certainly not hit 35 million or not near 35 million. Look, these are all campaigns that are going to have the resources. When you look at somebody like buttigieg, like warren, like yang, youre looking at people who have the money to make it to south carolina. The question is do they have the fund raising muscle to compete beyond that. Bernie sanders has a fund raising operation that can do that for him. Its far from clear that anybody else in the raise does. Lets give a sense of people give people a sense, rather, of where this race stands this morning. The National Poll from a couple weeks ago has joe biden out in front at 26 , sanders 20 , warren 16 , buttigieg 8 , bloomberg at 5 . Thats the National Poll. We dont have really good recent polling from iowa, some of the more recent stuff we have includes the cbs poll from iowa which basically showed a threeway tie, fourway tie close to the top there. So, ryan, where do you see this race . You dont have to call it the 2020 race. Its the now race. Where is it . The Sanders Campaign would look at those numbers and make the argument that they have the advantage because of those resources they have at their disposal. And because the iowa caucus requires so much effort to bring people out for four hours on a random tuesday night. Could be very cold and windy in iowa. Youve got to have the organization on the ground to make that happen. Remember, Bernie Sanders almost won the iowa caucus four years ago without those Organizational Resources at his disposal. And now he has this. And the other argument they would make is that the volume of his donors, hes had somewhere in the range of 5 million individual contributions. People that have donated individually. They would argue that shows that theres a level of support for him thats not necessarily reflected in the polls. And they believe that a lot of his support reers are people no necessarily participating in the process before. So they would love to be able to go into iowa with a tie because they think that theyve got the skin in the game and on the ground to overcome that tie and then, you know, coast to victory. One of the most consistent features of the polling in the early states as ryan certainly knows is the candidate who supporters are least likely to say they are open to i think chaing their mind is Bernie Sanders. When you look at those numbers in iowa were buttigieg, warren, between the three other candidates at the top of the pack in iowa and new hampshire. You can see a lot of movement. Buttigieg to biden, biden to warren, et cetera. Those sanders folks are really very unlikely to go anywhere else. And the biggest problem had been growing that base of support. If he starts adding people and they get locked in, you stick with him. So the idea that hes growing, they feel is a very good sign. On top of all of that, m. J. Lee smartly brought this up last hour, the fact that Bernie Sanders is not holding the big dollar fund raisers. Nothing in wine caves, et cetera. And he has been able to surpass by a long shot here by 10 million bucks Pete Buttigieg who is doing that. And likely others who are about to give numbers. How significant is that alone . I think its significant in a number of ways. Obviously shows he will continue to have the you can continue to reach out to these sources of funding and have the resources for the long run. But also just gives him a good message in the democratic primary as the issue of Campaign Finance has become so important to democratic voters and sort of that purity, if you will, of not doing high dollar fund raisers or not taking donations from certain sources. We saw how contentious of an issue that became in the last several weeks. Especially in the last democratic primary. There was a big spat between mayor pete and senator warren over the wine cave issue. So i think sanders being able to kind of rise above that saying im able to raise this amount of money without having to do those spending time with these high dollar donors. Especially as we noted earlier, the Trump Campaign really seeing sizable numbers this morning. Bernie can point to that saying i could be able to match the fund raising prowess of President Trump. And i think thats an Important Message to get across for senator sanders. All right. There is some breaking news out of iowa. Which is that congresswoman abby finkenhour is the second youngest member of congress besides alexandria ocasiocortez is endorsing joe biden for president. So there are three Democratic House members in iowa. Only one has endorsed so far and it just came this morning. Abby finkenhour endorsing joe biden. I dont know whether one endorsement means much or not. But were waiting for bidens fund raising numbers. Were expecting better than last quarter which were poor for him. Where does he sit this morning . Look, i think abbys endorsement is important for a couple different reasons. I think it shows where a lot of those vulnerable first term democrats are inclined to go in this primary. That she was just elected last year. Shes got a tough reelection fight ahead of her. And for joe biden in this last month to be able to crisscross iowa with her by his side and make the case that he does actually have appeal across the generations, he does actually have appeal to folks who are rising leaders in the party, not just the leaders of yesterday. And to say, look. Bernie sanders and Elizabeth Warren have some of these prominent democrats like aoc, like ayanna pressley, here i am campaigning alongside a 31yearold freshman democratic woman member of the house who actually has a tough election in front of her. Thats something none of the others can claim. And she worked for him, volunteered for his campaign in 2008. Right. He needs to perform well on the campaign trail in a way he hasnt always in the past. But if he closes strong, i think you are going to hear more voices from those folks who see him as the safest guy at the top o the ticket. Hes still been pretty durable. Hes still leading the National Polls. If we write his obituary, hes still in a strong position heading into iowa. Thank you to all three of you. Now to shocking new images of the damage done to the u. S. Embassy in baghdad. Take a look at this. Okay . This is what the reception area of americas largest embassy looks like this morning. Of course this is after proyooimpb protesters vandalized it trying to storm the compound. But the pentagon is still sending hundreds of troops to the region lets go to arwa damon live in baghdad. Good morning, arwa. Reporter good morning, poppy. Yes, this is a situation that is far from resolved. Those protesters who are not ordinary protesters, worth pointing that out once again. Rather members of or supporters of a shia paramilitary unit that is ostensibly under the umbrella of the iraqi Security Forces have withdrawn to another location just across the tigress river. Kataib hezbollah that was the target of the air strikes on sunday put out a statement saying this was done based on an understanding that the Iraqi Parliament would within a week begin working towards legislation, working towards a bill that would address the u. S. Troop presence in iraq. They continue to state that their main goal of ridding iraq of all foreign soldiers, all Foreign Military presence is going to be their main goal. They say there are other steps they can take. There is this growing concern here over what is unfolding not just for the stability of iraq itself but also when it comes to this proxy battle that we have been seeing unfolding for quite some time now, it must be said, between washington and tehran. And there has been rhetoric that has been traded between the trump administration, President Trump himself on twitter, as well as senior members within the Iranian Military and political apparatus. One of the top iranian commanders has effectively told the United States that it should watch its language when it comes to how it is addressing iran and what it is threatening iran with saying that while they are not looking for a war, they are not afraid of one. And also going on to say that they can damage the u. S. A lot more than they already have, john. So you have this extraordinarily tense situation right now in a country that is already very, very fragile. I think both sides waiting to see the next move. Where does it go next . Arwa damon for us in baghdad. Lucky to have you there. Please stay safe. Thank you for being with us. David stern, the longtime commissioner of the nba died after suffering a brain hemorrhage. How some of basketballs biggest stars are remembering him. Ernie johnson from inside the nba joins us next. Robinhood believes now is the time to do money. Without the commission fees. So, you can start investing today wherever you are even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Actions speak louder than words. She was a school teacher. My dad joined the navy and helped prosecute the nazis in nuremberg. Their values are why i walked away from my business, took the giving pledge to give my money to good causes, and why i spent the last ten years fighting corporate insiders who put profits over people. Im tom steyer, and i approve this message. Because, right now, America Needs more than words. We need action. Mostly. You make time. When you can. But sometimes life gets in the way, and that stubborn fat just wont go away. Coolsculpting takes you further. A nonsurgical treatment that targets, freezes, and eliminates treated fat cells for good. 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That was thennba commissioner david stern discussing his retirement in 2014. Stern passed away yesterday from a brain hemorrhage. He was 77 years old. Condolences have come in from far and wide. Joining me now is ernie johnson, host of tnts inside the nba. Thank you for being with us right now. Obviously you knew him. Just tell me about the man. John, thanks for having me on and happy new year to you. He was a character. And he was an innovator. He was a visionary and he was the best to hold the title of commissioner in all of sports. He was driven. And you could tell by those working for him that he demanded a certain measure of excellence in everything that you did. Shoot, ive been at tnt for 30 years doing inside the nba. So he was there that entire time. You know, i interviewed him at the end of his tenure which was exactly 30 years to the day from when he began. The way you see the nba these days, Global Impact of the game, the wnba, the development, the gleague. All of that came from this vision that david stern had. And so i think when you you know, when you marvel at some of the young players, you see like the luka doncics of the world in dallas whos only 20 years old. These are kids who grew up watching david stern shake the hand of a draftee and said i want to be that guy. I want to be on that stage when that commissioner shakes my hand. You know, it was adam silver for doncic, but it was for all those lebron james and the rest. And i think thats been one of the coolest things about the last couple of days. All these players who have postpost ed that picture of draft night, of standing there with david stern and having a dream realized. He was as much an icon in this as anybody who played the game. Michael jordon who is the preeminent icon of anyone who ever played the game said without david stern the nba would not be what it is today. He guided the league through Turbulent Times and grew the league into an International Phenomenon and creating opportunities that for could have imagined before. To give a sense of how the league exploded during this tun year, a