Question now, can anyone stop sanders . My guests this morning jim clyburn of South Carolina, where joe biden will be making a doordie stand. Plus are you trying to say im dumb . Fear and loathing in las vegas. None of them accused me of doing anything other than except maybe they didnt like a joke i told. The candidates democrats saw as the answer to sanders flat lines in wednesdays debate. I hope you heard what his defense was, i have been nice to some women. Can Michael Bloombergs money buy his way out of that performance . And President Trump dismisses as democratic propaganda and Intelligence Report from his own administration that the russians are again trying to help him win. Its disinformation. Thats the only thing they are good at. As a result he dismisses his intelligence chief. Ill talk to marc short of the white house. Joining me for insight and analysis are hugh hewitt, kimberly atkins, senior Washington News correspondent for wbur in boston, dan pfeiffer, co host of the pod save america podcast, and Betsy Woodruff swan of the daily beast. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. Announcer from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. If there was any question about who the democratic frontrunner is, Bernie Sanders has put that to rest. He won a smashing victory in the nevada caucuses, lapping the competition, with more votes still to be counted, heres where the nevada caucus stands right now, with sanders more than doubling the competition. This powerful showing in a diverse state will give sanders huge momentum as the race moves to South Carolina on saturday, and then to the super tuesday states in just nine days. Sanders was already thinking ahead last night in the super tuesday state of texas. In nevada, we have just put together a multigenerational, multiracial coalition, which is going to not only win in nevada. Its going to sweep this country. Sanders, indeed, won a smashing across the board victory. According to our entrance poll, he won among men and women, College Graduates and nonCollege Graduates. Liberals and moderates conservatives, union and nonunion members. People who decided early and people who decided late. In short, sanders crushed it. In doing so, he may have crushed the hopes of the democratic establishment desperate to stop him. Enthusiasm among sanders supporters is matched by trepidation among other democrats who fears sanders will not only lose to President Trump but will take down the House Majority and any chance of winning back the senate as well. While the two sides of the party disagree on the merits of a sanders nomination, they agree on this, Bernie Sanders is now the oddson favorite to be the democratic nominee. Joining me now is jon ralston, editor of the nevada independent, our goto guy for nevada politics. Since we dont have all the vote in, we begin with you. Look, lets start with how big sanders win was. Where y want to put up key groups. He was powered by young groups, hispanic voters and those who favor medicare for all, but i want to focus specifically on latino voeders because he made huge inroads there. He didnt just make huge inroads there, remember, the Culinary Union, which is the Largest Force in the Democratic Party and is made up of at least half hispanics was very antibernie in its messaging. They didnt endorse anybody. Bernie sanders went into all of those Culinary Union strongholds in the casinos. And he won almost every one, showing that he went beyond their messaging, made his pitch about what you saw him say in texas to multiracial coalition, and he won in most of the casinos, chuck, where you have all of these hispanic workers. What does that say, either about the power of the Union Leadership, or was this a reminder why they decided not to endorse essentially against sanders, another candidate, for fear their endorsement might be hollow . Yeah, i think its both, actually, chuck. I think theres always, not always, but often a disconnect between what Union Leadership does and how the rank and file feel. Its not just with the Culinary Union. And Bernie Sanders campaign had already made incursions into the Culinary Union. But the Culinary Union leaders are not dumb. They saw what was happening in the state. They had nice words for joe biden, but they saw what happened in new hampshire. They saw his campaign wasnt as organized as Bernie Sanders was. They were not going to get onboard the titanic after it hit the iceberg. Ouch. Im going to put up from our entrance poll among moderate and conservative voters in nevada, and here, sanders and biden essentially were tied among moderates and conservatives. A lot of the nonwhite voters didnt call themselves liberal, called themselves moderate conservative, and they still ended up supporting Bernie Sanders. Listen, i think that moderates and slightly to the right of Center Democrats are still flailing about, right, chuck . They dont know which of these nonbernie candidates to choose, so that splits up that vote and that allows Bernie Sanders to even do well in that cohort. Is it going to be mayor pete, is it going to be Elizabeth Warren even Amy Klobuchar. They all split up that vote. Thats part of the reason beyond his phenomenal organization and messaging to young people that Bernie Sanders is now the clear frontrunner in the race. Joe biden said he joe bidens campaign is calling their performance a strong second place finish. Not all the votes are counted. Is it possible buttigieg passes him for second place . Well, let me tell you, chuck. I think its too close to call right now. I dont know what the Democratic Party is doing. I gave them the benefit of the doubt. This isnt a Little League game where it looks like someone is so far ahead, you stop playing. We really dont know. I tell you this, my reporter megan has obtained a letter from the buttigieg campaign. They have sent a letter to the state Democratic Party alleging all kinds of errors and inconsistencies, which of course, you would expect in a caucus, but they want to position themselves, obviously, as having finished in second place so they can say its them and bernie because thats how its been in the first three states. Listen, are you going to brag . Are you joe biden or Pete Buttigieg, going to brag about finishing more than two to one to Bernie Sanders. That rings hollow to most human beings. I dont think this is 1984 where gary hart can lose and declare victory as he did one time. Jon ralston, thanks for coming on. Much appreciate it. As i said before, its getting very late very early for democrats who want to stop Bernie Sanders from running away with the nomination, with a National Primary day just nine days away. We are going to win across the country. Sanders now leads in National Polls by double digits. And is ahead in super tuesday states like california. Which will award 415 pledged delegates on march 3rd. And he only narrowly trailed biden in a new South Carolina poll. I think we got a shot to win in South Carolina, which i would not have told you a month ago. With the rise of sanders, his opponents are beginning to take him on. Senator sanders believes in an inflexible idealogical revolution that leaves out most democrats. Not to mention most americans. Some believe that the way to beat donald trump is to be just as polarizing. I aint a socialist, im a democrat. Bernie says were going to keep the filibuster. I say Mitch Mcconnell is not going to get a vito over what we want to do. We may very well be on the way to nominating someone who cannot win in november. Buttigieg is on the air in South Carolina attacking sanders by name. Bernie sanders medicare for all would completely eliminate private insurance, forcing 150 million americans off their current plans. Sanders is already being eagerly named by Congressional Republicans in campaign ads like this one from arizona senator marthae mcsally. Kelly says he would support Bernie Sanders. 60 trillion in new spending, Taxpayer Funded Health Care for illegal immigrants. I love the idea of a sanders candidacy. It gets me excited about the down ballot. I fell like we would have a pretty good shot at the house. Still in wednesdays debate, sanders opponents left him largely unscathed. Attacking Michael Bloomberg instead. Mr. Mayor, are you willing to release all of those women from the nondisclosure agreements. He has stop and frisk, throwing close to 5 million young black men up against the wall. Its not just about how much money youve got. Its what you stand for. Now with the prospect that sanders could build an insurmountable delegate lead on super tuesday, all of the opponents to sanders say no candidate should get the nomination without a majority of delegates. You cant have somebody with 32 of the vote think theyre going to be the nominee. What about the other 68 . If youre going to be the nominee, play by the rules. Get a majority. And joining me now is the democratic congressman from South Carolina, jim clyburn. Hes also the House Majority whip. Congressman clyburn, welcome back to meet the press, sir. Thank you for having me. Bernie sanders, democratic frontrunner at this point. Do you accept the fact that hes right now the oddson favorite to be the democratic nominee . Well, i would accept the fact that hes the frontrunner. I want South Carolina to have its say before i talk about who would be the oddson favorite. Lets talk about South Carolina. I want to throw up an entrance poll graphic of africanamerican voters in nevada, and just because africanamerican voters vote one way in nevada doesnt mean they wont vote another way. Biden at 39 , warren at 10 . It felt like a reasonable South Carolina poll going in with a week to go. Is that how you would see the spread right now in South Carolina . I dont know if i have spent enough time trying to figure out exactly who has how much. But all these candidates will get some africanamerican votes. No question about that. I do believe, however, that if we were having the election tomorrow, that joe biden would have more of the vote. How much more, i dont know yet. I think the debate on tuesday night will have an impact. And i think that some activity after that might have an impact as well. Are you concerned look, joe biden believes youre going to endorse him. A lot of people believe you want to endorse joe biden. You have said you know who youre going to vote for at this point, but you want to wait until after the debate. But has joe biden done enough to assuage any concerns in South Carolina about his electability yet . Well, i think that what has happened here is that in the first two contests, people from South Carolina, like around the country, were looking at this. And i have heard from a lot of people that they thought that joe biden could have done more to engage on doing the debates. Thought he could have done more to say why he would be deserving. And so i think he suffered from that because he didnt do enough. But i do believe that a lot of that had to do with other candidates. I think that at that time, he had, what, 17 or 18 people on the stage. Kamala harris, i think, unnerved him a little bit with her question. So all of this changes when you only have six people. So the dynamics on tuesday night will be totally different from what they were on those two contests. What did you learn from the last debate . Do you think candidates spent too much time on bloomberg or too much time attacking each other . What was your takeaway from the debate . I think they spent too much time on bloomberg. I think that theres enough going on out there to leave it up to you guys to talk about his record. But i thought that Elizabeth Warren did herself a lot of good. She demonstrated to the viewing public that she has tenacity, and she was not unwilling to engage. She did herself a lot of good. I think at one point, you and others believed that the winner of the South Carolina primary would be the democratic nominee. Do you believe that now . Well, i still believe that South Carolinas record you know, im a history guy. And you know im informed about history. And on both sides of the coin. I remember john mccain coming in to South Carolina, large unfavorite. He left South Carolina in bad shape. We had barack obama to win South Carolina and be launched all the way to the presidency. Hillary clinton won South Carolina and became the oddson favorite, and she won the nomination. So South Carolina has the demographic that lends itself well to democratic voters especially. So i think that if you can win South Carolina decisively, i think youll set the stage for super tuesday. And you will become the oddson favorite. Let me ask you about the likelihood of sanders as the nominee. One of your democratic colleagues in the state of South Carolina, joe cunningham, appears to be quite nuvs about this. He said south carolinians dont want socialism. We want to know how youre going to get things done and how youre going to pay for them. Bernies proposal to raise taxes on everyone is not something Everyone Wants and not something i would ever support. This is one of those trump districts you guys successfully flipped in 20 quanti18. Do you concur with your colleague . Well, i concur with his conclusions. I dont know that all that should apply to Bernie Sanders. I have worked very closely with Bernie Sanders on many issues. Community health centers, we have been working on that together for 15 years. And so i do believe that Community Health centers, as well as other initiatives in rural america, i think that Bernie Sanders brings a lot to the table for people to consider. So i know why hes nervous like that. Anybody who refers to themselves as a democratic socialist, that word has always had really dire consequences throughout South Carolina. Is there a chance you decide not to endorse publicly before the primary . I say that because maybe youre not comfortable with where a certain candidacy is headed. Theres no chance that i wont endorse. I will endorse wednesday morning. I have just gotten there. I just believe it would be would not be good for me to hold myself out as a person who has been in South Carolina politics for as long as i have been and not say to people who have been asking me who are you going to support. Who im for, so im going to tell everybody who im going to vote for. Im just not going to do it today. Jim clyburn, democratic House Majority whip, democratic the dean of the democratic delegation down there in South Carolina. Thanks for coming on and sharing your views. When we come back, looking ahead to South Carolina and super tuesday. Do skeptical democrats have just nine days to come up with a plan to stop Bernie Sanders . Panel is next. You drive safely. But allstate helps you. With drivewise. Feedback that helps you drive safer. And that can lower your cost now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . Thouwhich is Breast Cancer metastthat has spreadcer, to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. 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