The state of play in South Carolina. All this as Michael Bloomberg rises and new reporting focuses on his long public history, from stop and frisk to accusations of sexism. But first the story goes like this. President s longtime friend gets convicted of crimes and prosecutors recommend a sentence. Justice department overrules its own prosecutors and reduces sentence. Now more than 1100 federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials, along with nine Democratic Senators are calling on attorney general william barr to resign after he intervened in the roger stone case. And while barr claims the president s comments had no impact on his decision, he did convene the way things unfolded was problematic. The question is now what do i do . And do you go forward with what you think is the right decision or pull back because of the tweet . And that illustrates how disruptive these tweets can be. After that interview aired we waited and waited for tweets from the president probably lambasting his attorney general. But those never came. And simply the president asserted his, quote, legal right to intervene in criminal cases if he wants to. And Stephanie Grisham said the president wasnt at all bothered by barrs comments. After all, whats one tv interview compared to all of this . It was relentless speculation in the news media about the president s personal culpability, yet, as he said from the beginning, there was, in fact, no collusion. I think spying on a Political Campaign is a big deal. Yes, yes, i think spying did occur. There are scores of parallel investigations to an avalanche of subpoenas is plainly designed to incapacitate the executive branch. It is the left that is engaged in the systematic shredding of norms and undermining the rule of law. Wow. And as this week came to a close, we learned barr has now assigned an outside prosecutor to scrutinize the case against michael flynn. And the moderator of Washington Week on pbs, robert costa, nbc news correspondent covering National News and intelligence, and Michael Steele and former Deputy Attorney general under ingeorge h. W. Bush administration, donald aire. I want to talk about the comments youve had on the attorney general. Bob, let me start with you and get the big picture from a pl political perspective. He literally seemed to take a victory lap around the racetrack. And some of the things hes been doing seem especially problematic to a lot of americans. Based on my reporting the president is still in a pretty decent spot with the attorney general. He called the attorney general in recent days to express frustration about the lack of pursuit of new charges for figures from the russia investigation. Mccabe another decided not to charge . Right. And your program laid out why its been sustained personally, legally is because hes seen inside this white house as a loyal person. Time and time again hes clearly done and said what the president has asked. You told politico quote, with bill barr, on an amazing number ofications, you can assume theres something improper going on. What did you mean by that . I think one of the things that is true is you keep getting new news that crowds the other news out. And so there, certainly they go back before the initial whitewashing of the mueller report. Theres all sorts of things that he has done that seem very fishy at the time and really its important to find the time to put the pieces together and they add up to something. And i think what they add up to and you can find him saying this in so many words and in the speech he recently gave, he does not believe in the basic feature of our system predicated on the idea no person is above the law. So, can you just what are you basing that on . I think clearly weve got a lot of examples where he seems to be right up there with the president. At the same time, he was respected lawyer, he worked for george h. W. Bush. Hes not necessarily a new guy. He seems to have played by the rules for some period of his career. And throughout his whole career hes been an advocate of a very powerful chief executive. And he did go through two years as the attorney general under george h. W. Bush. Well, george h. W. Bush had no asspration to be an autocratic president. Donald trump does and donald trump, i think, is a critical foil for bill barr to carry out what is, in his mind, a priority. And that is a government unchecked. I can go through events hes done in the Justice Department that are, in effect, ways of accomplishing that objective. There are opinions theyve written stonewalling conerous. This situation with the department intervening to get results in criminal cases. Criminal cases are the most sensitive of all. Mr. Steele, and noting nine Democratic Senators signed a letter and there has been a lot of silence from republicans, frankly, on this topic. Why . Again. Republicans dont want to be sideways with the president , number one. They do have much more of an affinity for barr and has staked out the positions he has. And again, i think its one of the situations where a lot of t uglies behind them and like the president tonight a lot of republicans want to take the victory lap and move on. They have their campaigns coming up, primaries are starting to come into focus. So, they dont want this additional microphone in their face to talk about these types of things. And Everybody Knows the dirty secret is theres very little daylight between President Trump and mr. Barr, period. You can stop the pretense that barr did something dramatic by saying what he said the other day. What happened there . Did he actually break with the president . Like we said at the top, you might expected an angry tweet from the president if the attorney general, in fact, did something to anger him. On the substance, what was so frustrating about the abc news interview was he didnt answer the question of why, of all the sentencing decision, why did he pick that case to intervene on . And we dont know why. All you have to do is listen to what he said. He gave this incendiary speech from too the federal society and talked about the resistance, theyre the ones shredding the constitution, not donald trump. And said the fbi was justified in launching the russia investigation and issued a statement saying the fbi launched an investigationen the thinnest of suspicions and took steps he didnt think was appropriate. So, he doesnt think the russia investigation was legitimate or any of the prosecutions that flowed from were legitimate, otherwise, why would he appoint a prosecutor to take a look at flynn . Its pretty clear. Hes out in the open. The reactions most people probably had to the president s statement, i think it was today or yesterday, that he can intervene if we wants to, but he hasnt done it yet. Guess where he got that . From bill barr. You can read the memo bill barr submitted when i guess he was auditioning to be attorney general. One of the things he says is that the president has complete control over all investigations in the Justice Department and he could even supervise and terminate an investigation of himself. And thats literally what he said in that memo. So, the president is a better student than we think. Hes listening to bill barr and what hes saying is exactly what bill barr told him. To speak further to the president and his advisors state of mind. You talked about how bannon is feeling after the acquittal. They wasted three years on a witchhunt. Now he understands how to use the full powers of the presidency. Is that essentially what were seeing here . A president unincomeboard because the worst thing democrats could throw at him, they did and it didnt stick. Steve bannons quote underscores this moment. Its a threeyear project that began with President Trumps election. And don mcgahn, the former white House Counsel were involved in what they call the deconstruction of theed administrative state. A conservative take over of the judiciary, working closely with majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell and an assertion of executive power. And President Trump and attorney general barr are entirely on the same page in believing in a powerful executive. Part of this that i think is going to test the country is the dismantling that involves the assertion of something i dont think theyre comfortable with and that is this is a country of a powerful person. The principal i think most people would like to think is true, that no person is above the law. Bill barrs acting on a goal to destroy that. Can you crystallize for us, as we sit here sunday night ahead of the week and reflecting on whats happened. In a story where every story is huge and incendiary and a little insane, why does this one and what bill barr has done here why is it of special import . Why should people pay extra attention to it . Because the power of a federal prosecutor is an awesome power. So, when youre talking about political meddling in a political investigation, thats Banana Republic territory. So, people are very sensitive about this. There were talks of a walkout in the Justice Department. And then cooler heads prevailed because no one wants to put a target on their heads as someone protesting trumps actions. Mccabe, trump wants him charged criminally. That shows the line is holding in some parts of the government. Very quickly, what tims talking about, the possible walkout, as the attorney general is looking into the origins of the russia investigation. Theres a spotlight not only from the attorney general, but you have the ag personally supervising other reviews, probes of internal Justice Department matters and that has created deep divisions within the department and as the Washington Post reports, the attorney general leaves the department but hes isolated within it. For sure. Thank you very much for your insight tonight. We have so much more to come tonight. Maxine waters is going to be here and with senator Elizabeth Warren as she ramps up her attacks. But first, House Majority whip, James Cliburn is standing by ahead of the primary in his home state of South Carolina. The congressman says he knows who hes endorsing but not quite ready to reveal his choice. They get that no two people are alike and customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Almost done. What do you think . I dont see it. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Plike. Zelle. To conveniently makesend money sier, to your babysitter. For overtime. Or pinacle, to tap into your organization in the office, on the go, or in the stopandgo. Pnc make today the day. Do you recall, not long ago we would walk on the sidewalk all around the wind blows we would only hold on to let go blow a kiss into the sun we need someone to lean on blow a kiss into the sun all we needed somebody to lean on the new xc90 plugin hybrid electric. Xc90. Recharged. South carolina is it, isnt it . Well, i think i have to do really well in it. Is there such a thing as winning and thought doing well . I think so. But march 4th we end up going into all the states with the polling data showing me doing incredibly well. Whether its North Carolina or georgia or texas or any of these other places. So, look, its not an app comparison but bill clinton lost his first eight, nine, ten primaries and caucus businessfore he won one. Admitting he has to do well in South Carolina but stopped short of saying he has to win and remember joe biden has never actually won a president ial primary contest. The best finish he had was third in his home state of delaware back in 1998. By that point in the race, he had already dropped out. For months weve been told South Carolina is his firewall and its worth remembering the point of a firewall is to prevent the spread of a fire from getting bigger. Joining me is someone who know as thing or two about South Carolina. Cliburn. So, youvr rr been coy about whether or who you might endorse . Have you decided to make it public at some point before the vote . Well, as you know, South Carolina is the first in the south primary. When we first developed this primary, i made a deal with the National Party that i would do nothing to undercut the impact of the primary. I also met with cbs news who will be televising our debate and i promised them i would not get out in front of the debate. So, what im going to to is wait until after the debate is over before saying anything publicly. So, we may not hear from you before the prime pare . Thats still a possibility, yes. Have you spoke within the former mayor of new york city, Michael Bloomberg, recently . Yes, i have spoken with him within the last several days. And what is his pitch to you . Well, as you know, hes not competed in South Carolina. He just told me that he was going to compete in the socalled super tuesday states. And we had a conversation. But ive known bloomberg for a long time. He has not asked me for my vote because hes not going to be on the ballot. Do you have concerns about his stop and frisk policy or would you be open to support him if, in fact, he does emerge in front after super tuesday . Look, we have no perfect candidates. There are people who will find some fault with joe biden, some fault with Amy Klobuchar. No matter who the candidate is, year going to find some warp. I think what we have to do is take the totality of peoples records, of their proposals, of their backgrounds, and see whether or not more positives are there than negatives. You will find something negative about everybody. And so, im not going to get overly concerned about anyone. Stop and frisk is a problem for me, yes. Okay. Stop and frisk is a problem for you. But besides that, you think that he would be hes answered your other questions along these lines . Well, i have not asked him any other questions. There are other things coming out. In fact, earlier this afternoon someone sent me an email a position he took on food stamp recipients thats also a problem for me. So, im going to look at the entire record of all the candidates. But once i vote for somebody on the 29th of february, that person i will stay with for as long as that person is in the race irrespective of whoever else may get in. Can you help us understand, sir, tom steyer, the other very wealthy candidate in this race, he has spent more money than anyone else and perhaps thats what explains it in South Carolina. But his popularity with africanamerican voters caught my notice and interest. What is it about tom steyer has people in your Community Taking notice . I dont know. I have met him, ive met his wife. Theyre both pleasant people. Theyve hired a pretty big staff. Theyve spent a lot of money. Frrt and when you deal with primaries in any kind of campaign, youre dealing with name recognition as well. If you have enough money to get your message out, then people will take it under consideration. I wouldnt worry a whole lot about what the polls are showing right now. I think when nevada is over, people will begin to firm up their thoughts about South Carolina. And so, i think it will be pretty wide open after nevada next saturday. Do you think its still possible, yes or no, for joe biden to win South Carolina . Sure its possible for joe biden to win. If the election were held tomorrow, he would win. But, as i said we have no idea what would happen after saturday. All right. Congressman jim clyburn, im sure well all be headed your way next week. And bloombergs campaign has spent millions of dollars. Now theyre leaning on his past as mayor and businessman. Sometimes, the pressures of todays world can make it tough to take care of yourself. But natures bounty has innovative ways to help you maintain balance and help keep you active and wellrested. Because hey, tomorrows coming up fast. Natures bounty. Because youre better off healthy. Itso chantix can help you quit naturslow turkey. Along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. 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Now with 25 more concentrated power. Nothing works faster for powerful cold relief. Oh, what a relief it is so fast he is not on the ballot in nevada or South Carolina. He wasnt on the ballot in New Hampshire or iowa either. But Michael Bloomberg has ascended in polls. This week more questions about how stop and frisk policy was carried out while he was mayor of new york and pointed remarks he once b