All in texas, all threw their support behind joe biden. He is somebody of such extraordinary grace and kindness and empathy. He will bring the exact kind of empathy that is so badly lacking in this white house. Joe biden has dedicated his life to fighting for people. And build that coalition of our firedup democratic base, and it is fired up, as well as independents and moderate republicans. Ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow, march 3rd, 2020, i will be casting my ballot for joe biden. Just a few days ago, the press and the pundits declared this campaign dead. But South Carolina had something to say about it. The great state of texas, lets not forget, home to 29 million americans is a big challenge for joe biden. Bernie sanders, for that matter, is a big challenge for joe biden, who knows there is one endorsement out there unlike all the others. Tonight nbc news reports that people close to former president barack obama say, quote, the signal has been sent in the past 36 hours that he sees biden as the candidate to back, and they dont need obama to say it publicly or privately. Nbc news also reports a new group of moderate democrats who are part of whats now called the big tent project trying to stop Bernie Sanders from winning the president ial nomination. Theyre putting up almost 4 million for ads in selected super tuesday states. New york city mayor Mike Bloomberg will be on the ballot tomorrow for the First Time Since he entered this race. Tonight during a town hall on fox news, he also weighed in on the prospect of Bernie Sanders at the top of the ticket for the democrats. I dont think the country wants revolutionary change. I think the country wants evolutionary change. And sanders is a very revolutionary kind of guy. He cannot bring over moderates from the other side. He wont even keep all the moderates in the democratic side. Some will go over to trump. Sanders, for his part, spent much of the evening making closing arguments to super tuesday voters in st. Paul, minnesota. Earlier he was asked about the efforts to keep him from going up against trump. From day one we have been taking on the establishment. It is no surprise they do not want me to become president. A new Morning Consult poll is showing sanders still in the lead going into tomorrows contest. However, biden has managed to move into a close second. Hes up seven points since his win in South Carolina. Meanwhile, President Trump spent this evening in North Carolina where voters will be voting tomorrow. White house spent the weekend dealing with the spread of the coronavirus. Theres a few more numbers for you. There have now been six deaths in the u. S. There are now just over 100 active cases. All of the deaths thus far have been in washington state. The president says hes asking Drug Companies who were at the white house today for a previously scheduled event, to speed up the process of making a vaccine. Theyre going to have vaccines, i think, relatively soon. And theyre going to have something that makes you better. I actually told the pharmaceutical companies, you have to do a little bit better job on that vaccine. While the stock market was able to mount a monday bounceback, one question late today to Vice President pence brought into focus the reallife concerns that families in our country have about this illness. Families across the country are worried about spring break. Theyre worried about spring break and wondering if they should book travel or cancel their travel. Two parts. What is the Expert Opinion from the task force on spring break travel and even Domestic Travel . And secondly, would you yourself feel comfortable bringing your family right now, including your grandchildren and their partners on a weeklong trip to disney world . Well, i can say theres been no recommendation about any limitations on travel within the United States of america. I travel across this country all the time. My kids live all over the country. Look, this is a time to use common sense. Its a good time to wash your hands. So what did we learn there . Good time to be on an air force aircraft, and Ashley Parker asked the question that mirrored the conversation in millions of american homes. Here for our leadoff discussion on a monday night, two of the very best from the new york times. Peter baker, chief white house correspondent, and carolyn ryan, assistant managing editor for the new york times. Also with us, Donna Edwards, former democratic member of congress from maryland and to keep it fair, a columnist for the Washington Post. Good evening and welcome to you all. Carolyn, im going to choose management and go first with you. Joe biden wins every county in South Carolina, from the hills to the sea. Colossal victory in the first representative state. Is this the second day of the rest of his political life . Well, it certainly feels that way. I mean look at the last 48 hours. You have money, which he hasnt had. Yeah. You have endorsements. You have people on the hill rallying around him. Theres a russian expression i think peter might know it. Success has its own aroma, that when you start winning, that something happens that theres sort of an aura. People wanted to see him win. Its not just that he won. He won really big, and the proportion of the africanamerican vote, the way he dominated that constituency, which is so important in a democratic primary, sent an incredibly powerful message to people who had been wavering about him. Peter baker, i recall donald trump using bidens name a time or two in the past. Have you any evidence about how the president is processing the Biden Victory in South Carolina and really what it may mean for the rest of the race . Yeah. Look, i think we know that the president would rather see Bernie Sanders hes kind of telegraphed that as his opponent. You know, candidates are notoriously bad at picking their opposition. They may not always have the right decision on that, but he sees the contrast between a socialist and his version of capitalism as an advantageous choice for the flaw. Tonight apt the rally you heard him go after biden in pretty harsh terms. He mocked him as a feeble minded kind of hasbeen. He ridiculed the Vice President for his verbal gaffes lately, confusing names, saying tomorrow is going to be super thursday instead of tuesday, that kind of thing, and he seemed to relish. At the same time, hes trying to stir the pot. Hes trying to get the sanders supporters upset at whatever happens if he were to lose. If he were to lose, the president is saying its because it was a coup. That was the word he used only twitter because he wants to say the establishment is stealing it from Bernie Sanders. So in his view, he wins either way. He either gets the candidate he wants in Bernie Sanders and a stark choice or he gets a moderate or a democrat to face but makes the left or tries to get the left anyway upset because Bernie Sanders didnt get what he says is his fair due. Congresswoman, its hard to imagine and fast forward through the history of the Democratic Party to a time where theres been one colossal consensus figure in the Democratic Party. Coming off his historic twoterm presidency, he and the former first lady are often at the very top of opinion polls for most admired man, most admired woman. Talk about the barack obama effect potentially on this election. Well, i think its a significant effect, and i dont think it just rests with former president obama. I think, you know, when you look at people who were central to the Obama Administration now coming out in support of joe biden, that is in some ways telegraphing where the obamas are. And so this shouldnt be a surprise. I mean in some ways, it would be kind of odd obviously if Vice President biden didnt get support of these allies of president obamas. Wed be all over that. Exactly. I do know susan rice endorsed today among others. Well, she did, and i think that, you know, when you look at the range of endorsers, especially today from susan rice and, you know, shoring up the foreign policy, you know, sort of backing joe biden on, you know, domestically, to have beto orourke stand there along with buttigieg or with klobuchar, that makes a huge difference. Those are big signals. Sometimes endorsements dont matter at all in a campaign and we overestimate that, but these were big. Carolyn, id like to read from you the work of Jonathan Martin and alex burns over at your outfit. Very simply, the headline tells the story. Frozen in anxiety how Democratic Leaders struggled to confront Bernie Sanders. What does this story mean for the future potentially of the Democratic Party . Well, i mean i think it means a couple things. One, if you look at that story, part of the reason that they had a difficult time building consensus at that point around biden is because the campaign was really bad. The candidate was not reaching out to people as obvious as harry reid. The money was not coming in. Joe biden was running in a very, i think, oldfashioned way. He didnt have the base of, say, small donors. What that story gets at and i think everyone should read it is really the tension that might erupt if the democrats are successful in kind of building up biden as the antibernie and prevailing. Do they risk alienating some of the young people, especially young men who have gotten excited about Bernie Sanders. To your first point, sometimes people just like to be asked. Harry reid came out in the last 24 hours and endorsed, but as they say, that would have been nice. Lovely before the primary in his state. But actually youre raising a good point because today, i dont know if you heard bidens remarks. He asked for peoples help. He asked for their support. So somebody is sort of getting that message to him. And, Donna Edwards, a blatantly political question. What do you do about the split in the party . What do you do if you arrive at your convention youll be there and Bernie Sanders has slightly more of the delegates, and that is a group that wants to nominate joe biden . Well, first of all, i hope that we actually dont get to that point because i think it is a really difficult one. And i would urge democrats to stop running the antibernie campaign. They can run a campaign that elevates joe biden where support coalesces around joe biden without, you know, sort of putting a knife in the Bernie Sanders supporters. I think that would be wrong for our party, and it certainly will not help us coming out of the convention to have a fully united party. I mean bernie has said that hes committed to that, and i actually believe him on that point. And i dont think hes going to be used as a pawn by donald trump should he not get the nomination. But exits and the kind of exit is really important, and so we have to figure that out. And i dont know yet whether bernie might, you know, have enough to go into the convention and, you know, consolidate support and get the nomination. That could still happen. I do think for all you viewers, watch texas. If joe biden does really well there, i think, and bernie does well on super tuesday but joe biden has enough momentum to really challenge him in a number of places, i think theres a really good shot that we go and im not just saying this because ive dreamed about it as a reporter forever, but that we go to a convention and have a contested convention. So you guys are on different teams just temporarily. Just because the anxiety and requirement for i get it. Zantac sales will spike. Ive got a tweet from aaron blake at the Washington Post to keep things fair. Republican members of congress havent sent one tweet or press release mentioning burisma or hunter biden since february 7 per legistorm. One day after biden wins South Carolina, senator johnson of wisconsin sends this letter on a sunday, no less. Sometimes, peter, the republicans are direct and never ironic. Well, look, burisma wasnt necessary in the republican playbook when biden was down and out. He was a fourth place, fifth place finisher in the early primary states, and they had bigger fish to fry. At that point it was Michael Bloomberg on the rise, Bernie Sanders on the rise. They were focused on them. Now biden of course is resurgent, youre going to hear a lot more about burisma and hunter biden. Thats something democrats have to take into consideration as they pick their nominee because it is a subject theyre going to have to address in the fall if joe biden is their nominee. How theyre going to answer it, how theyre going to defend against it, how theyre going to explain it. Some of these things can be dismissed as President Trump is exaggerating, but there are some things that are troubles, even democrats who have been disturbed by some of what theyve seen. So this is a big factor in a way the republicans are trying to stir the pot here before super tuesday. But its a reminder that were playing were not playing bean ball, and that is going to be a big contest come the fall whoever is the nominee. Peter, you were around to cover the obama white house. Youre among the former president s biographers. When people ask you what you saw of the relationship between president and Vice President , how easy was the relationship, that kind of thing, how do you answer . Thats a good question. It didnt start off that easy. In fact, these are two very different kinds of personalities. They came from different generations, different backgrounds, different experience levels, different, you know, introvert extrovert kind of ways of dealing with people. But over the eight years they were together, they really did bond in a pretty significant way. I think certainly you saw that by the time beau biden died and barack obama gave the eulogy at the funeral. That was about as close a bonding moment as you could imagine between two political figures. That doesnt necessarily mean that he thought that joe biden was necessarily the best candidate to run this year. I think that barack obama had his concerns. But now that were facing a choice between Bernie Sanders and one other candidate, you could sort of see, as you put it, as carol lee and her colleagues wrote, the subtle hand of obama kind of coming into play here in which theyre clearing the field to some extent of the other moderate alternatives so that it is a biden versus sanders kind of contest. Everybody strap in. Super tuesday starts in hours. Our great thanks to peter baker, to carolyn ryan, to Donna Edwards for starting us off on manic monday, i guess. Coming up, well have more on the coronavirus, the administrations response to it thus far. An expert on pandemics and the person who led the obama response to ebola among our guests. And later, a retired u. S. Fourstar army general weighs in on trumps peace deal with the taliban. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a busy consequential monday night. We went out. Were doing everything in our power to keep the sick and infected people from coming into our country. Were working on that very hard. Trump on the coronavirus tonight as were getting an inside look from the Washington Post of his administrations response to the virus thus far. And this gets your attention. Quote, interviews with nearly two dozen administration officials, former white house aides, Public Health experts, and lawmakers many speaking on the condition of anonymity, portray a white house scrambling to gain control of a rudderless response defined by bureaucratic infighting, confusion, and misinformation. Its complete chaos, a Senior Administration official said. Everyone is just trying to get a handle on what the expletive, use your imagination is going on. Meanwhile, officials in georgia have just since weve been on the air announced two new cases of coronavirus. With us for more, dr. Irwin redlener, a pediatric physician, cofounder of the Childrens Health fund, now a clinical professor with the school of Public Health at Columbia University and the director of columbias National Center for Disaster Preparedness with an expertise in pandemic influenza. His Business Card is seven inches long. Ron klain, a political veteran now and formerly advising the Biden Campaign. Among his many roles in the white house over the years, working with dr. Redlener. He oversaw the response to the Ebola Outbreak during the obama presidency. Ron happens to be the cohost of a new podcast about the coronavirus called epidemic. Ron, since you guys are colleagues, im going to start with you but ask you both in order to answer the same question. What do you see out there that needs doing, thats not being done . Whats perhaps being done wrong . Yeah. So i think were seeing a crisis of both confidenc