that's the power of targeted tv advertising. it's smart. it grabs people's attention. then they come to my store. buy that sofa. and leave happy it's easy, and it's effective. and it's why comcast spotlight is changing its name to effectv. because being effective means getting results. hi there i'm brooke baldwin, you're watching cnn. thank you for being with me. the clock is ticking and the knives are out. tonight the 2020 democratic field will once again take the debate stage, but this time a fresh face will be among them, billionaire and former new york city mayor michael bloomberg. he has been in the race for fewer than three months, has no delegates, isn't even competing

in this weekend's nevada cauc caucus caucuses, and that's precisely why bloomberg's rivals say it is too soon to make the case that he should be the party's presidential nominee. >> all of the candidates, we did town meetings. we're talking to thousands and thousands of people working hard. he said i don't have to do that. i'm worth $60 billion. i have more wealth than the bottom 125 million americans. i'll buy the presidency. >> do you think michael bloomberg is trying to buy the democratic nomination for president? >> yes. yes. i mean, what else do you call it? what else do you call it when you dip into your endless reserves of millions and billions? >> i don't think you should just be able to buy your way to the presidency. >> cnn chief political correspondent dana bash is with me. there's this new cnn poll showing bloomberg in third place. senator bernie sanders is firming up his front runner status after the early contests

both, of course, in iowa and new hampshire. talk about senator saturdnders g into this evening. >> reporter: brooke, it's kind of easy for people to discount bernie sanders because he has been a constant around since 2016 but even, you know, especially in this race, but that poll of polls, which obviously incorporates some of the new polls we've seen just today and in the recent past is a reminder that bernie sanders cannot be discounted. he is the front runner right now, and this snapshot in time, a very important point in time. he is the front runner. that is a national would have a that matter that much before iowa, i and other people who have covered politics for a long time might have said not as much because what really matters are these individual races. well, now, after we get past nevada and south carolina, it is almost going to be a national race because super tuesday is very close behind, and it is so vast, so many states, so

delegate rich that national number matters big time, and bernie sanders has a healthy lead. >> he has a healthy lead. high stakes tonight for several of these candidates. let's talk michael bloomberg, dana. you know, he's mostly just been seen and heard in campaign ads. how make or break is this moment for him? >> huge, it's absolutely huge. like you said, he has been able to control, to craft his message with millions and millions and millions of dollars behind it in a way that we have never seen before in political history really, and now it's going to be a situation where he's going to get questions not just from the moderators but you can bet from his competitors on the stage. the dynamic for so many of these debates, brooke, and you know this, has been the candidates have been kind of cautious to go after each other because voters have been, you know, not wanting a lot of these candidates to -- >> the circular firing squad.

>> yeah, to do a circular firing squad. they wanted them to save that for the president. well, we're not there anymore, and you've seen it from afar, and tonight you're going to see it on stage, and he hasn't debated in over a decade, and it's going to be very telling to see how he is on the stage with people who have debated just even in this cycle eight times before. >> yeah. we'll come back to michael bloomberg in just a second, dana. thank you so much for the setup ahead of the debate tonight. let's talk about this, remember when senator bernie sanders promised last september to release, quote, comprehensive medical records ahead of the presidential primary season? >> i think it's the right thing to do. the american people have a right to know whether the person they're going to be voting for for president is healthy, and we will certainly release our medical records before the primary -- certainly before the first votes are cast. >> so that was before his heart attack in october. he still hasn't released, by the way, those comprehensive medical

records. last night at cnn's town hall in las vegas, anderson cooper pressed him on it. >> we have released, i think, anderson quite as much as any other candidate has. you think i'm not in good health, come on out with me on the campaign trail, and i'll let you introduce me to the three or four rallies a day that we do. how's that? >> just to be clear, you don't plan to release anymore records? >> i don't, i don't think we will, no. >> cnn's cristina alesci is with me on this ang m. they did release these three doctor letters, two from cardiologists and one from a primary care physician. why do people say on the campaign, the letters are enough? why? >> well, look, what we're seeing right now is bernie sanders and his team change their tune. before the heart attack they promised full transparency, the actual medical records, and now what they're saying and we've heard several times is look, we're going to do what the other

candidates are doing, which is release these records. but there have been questions about whether or not that's sufficient given the fact that bernie sanders has had a heart attack and, of course, there's also this discussion about the advanced age, and we're seeing this play out, and we're going to see more of this to come, brooke. >> earlier today on cnn, a sanders campaign spokeswoman appeared and she called the request for more information on sanders' health a quote, smear campaign, and then she inserted this big falsehood about michael bloomberg. here she was. >> i think the american people deserve to know exactly as much as every other candidate has released in this race currently and historically. it's really telling given that none of the same concern is being demonstrated for michael bloomberg, who's the same age adas bernie sanders who has suffered heart attacks in the past. what we're seeing is a kind of smear campaign. >> so the problem is for her that michael bloomberg has never had a heart attack, and now that

aide is backtracking, what is she saying? >> the bernie sanders campaign was in full damage control after those statements, and shortly after that, that same spokesperson issued a statement via twitter saying i misspoke when i said bloomberg had a heart attack. rather he underwent the same sti stend procedure as bernie. let me give you the facts here, according to our own reporting there's no evidence that michael bloomberg underwent or suffered a heart attack and as this statement notes, he did undergo a stent placement in 2000 after a routine medical test showed that he had artery blockage. that's not the same thing as a heart attack, and the bloomberg campaign, obviously, politicized this moment. they took it as an opportunity.

they called it an absolute lie, and again, this is against the backdrop of bernie sanders really opening himself up to criticism that he's not doing enough to curb some of his supporters who are online using very aggressive tactics. so the bloomberg campaign sees as an opportunity to sort of hay light that fact and say, look, he's using some of the same tactics as trump uses, and this is not where the bernie sanders campaign wants to be on debate day taking on michael bloomberg for the first time live and unfiltered. >> wouldn't be surprise first-degree that point makes it on air tonight at the debate. we'll be watching, kristina, thank you. >> thank you. >> in addition to the controversial stop and frisk policy that michael bloomberg championed as mayor, he is also likely to face tough questions regarding his business career including cnn has learned allegations of sexist or misogynistic behavior at the company that he owns. those allegations were the focus

of two lawsuits filed by former bloomberg employees and examined by mj lee. one of those lawsuits was later settled and the other was dismissed after the plaintiff missed a filing deadline. in a statement, the chairwoman of the bloomberg campaign says in part, quote quoin any large organization there are going to be complaints, but mike has never tolerated any kind of discrimination or harassment. with me now kate andersen bro r brower, a cnn contributor and author of three books about the white house, including "first in line, presidents, vice presidents, and the pursuit of power." always a pleasure to see you. you wrote this whole opinion piece in which you write, quote, bloomberg didn't make the cut to be obama's vp. here's why and why it matters now. so you start your column talking about when you were doing research for your book, this was back in 2008, and barack obama was trying to determine who would be on his short list as vice presidential contenders,

and michael bloomberg made that list until, as you point out, he was abruptly dropped from the list, and it was because of allegations of workplace culture at his company. and full disclosure, you worked at bloomberg, and you know, you said you left on good terms. tell me more, kate. >> well, so when i was reporting my book, i interviewed vetters who do vetting for vp candidates, and the person i talked to who had done the vetting works with the team of vetters for president obama, said initially on this very long list of about 20 other candidates bloomberg was one of them, and he brought these binders of publicly available material to obama at the time, and obama said where -- you left one off the table. you didn't bring one, and it turned out to be michael bloomberg because it was decided that there was no point in including him on a shorter list. there were just too many allegations that he really fostered a hostile working environment. and i think the broader question is here we are historically

choosing tweeping between a sit president with allegations of sexual assault, which he denies, and then a potential democratic nominee who's also facing not allegations of sexual assault, and that's very important to draw the line there, but saying things that are inappropriate to women and fostering this climate at his business for years. >> let me jump to that quote and loop back around to trump and where we are in police. you where if the billionaire businessman does become the democratic nominee, voters will be forced to choose between a sitting president who has been accused of sexual assault and harassment, accusations which he denies, and a democratic candidate who not long ago was considered too controversial to be a running mate, in part because of accusations he fostered a hostile workplace environment for female employees. bloomberg's campaign said through a spokesperson that mike simply does not tolerate any kind of discrimination or harassment. in the #metoo era, we should be demanding for from our leaders.

i was wondering to your point, because of president trump's existence, do you think it's making it easier for others facing similar accusations to have an easier time? to be more successful in politics? >> it's a great question. it's amazing how much has changed. look at 2016, the first time we had a female nominee for a major political party, and now we are looking at these two men potentially pitted against each other, and i think maybe our standards have changed, and it's bizarre because here's the backdrop. >> changed as in lowered? >> yes, and the backdrop of the #metoo era where you would expect the complete opposite, that you wouldn't tolerate any of this, but yet we might tolerate it in the highest position in the land, and so it's just a bizarre moment in history that i think is worth thinking about. >> i do want to point out a bloomberg spokesperson told "the washington post," mike openly admits that his words have not always aligned with his values, that some of what he has said is disrespectful and wrong.

quickly, is that answer good enough for you? >> no. >> no? >> we should expect more. >> thank you very much for coming in and for writing that for us. the dysfunction is ramping up at the justice department, a source telling cnn that attorney general bill barr has threat tothreatened to quit over the president's tweet over ongoing cases and the president won't stop tweeting. and the backlash growing over the president's pardon spree, why critics say the president is using this awesome power in all the wrong ways. and the president's post-impeachment purge claims a new victim, and it's a pentagon official who raised concerns over the delay in military aid for ukraine. i'm brooke baldwin, you are watching cnn. we'll be right back. managing type 2 diabetes? dimitri's on it. eating right... ...and getting those steps in? on it! dimitri thinks he's doing all he can to manage his type 2 diabetes and heart disease,

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today! we're back, you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. as the president continues to twee tweet about the justice department, his attorney general has threatened to walk off the job. that's according to a source close to the situation who says bill barr has told people he's considered resigning over the president's interference with the justice department, especially because of his tweets. outcry over the president's interference reached a fever pitch after those four career prosecutors withdrew from the case of the president's long-time friend roger stone. their sentencing recommendation from stone had been rescinded after the president sent a tweet opposing it. now, thunderstorm not cleit's nr is serious about resigning, but what is clear is barr is frustrated with the president's use of twitter. >> 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 and to assure the courts and the prosecutors and the department that we're doing our work with integrity. >> that was thursday. the president has been tweeting on multiple federal cases ever since, but he did offer this one concession to his attorney general. >> i have total confidence in my attorney general. i do make his job harder. i do agree with that. i think that's true. he's a very straight shooter. we have a great attorney general, and he's working very hard. >> kaitlan collins is at the white house for us, and ariane de vogue is here with me. the doj spokeswoman says that barr, quote, unquote, has no plans to resign, but what are

you hearing? how serious is this threat? >> reporter: i'm not sure the justice department spokesperson would come out and say the attorney general did have plans to resign, he would likely just resign. but essentially, it's a pretty nuanced situation where the attorney general genuinely is irritated with the president and these public tweets which clearly the president has been ignoring. of course the question skeptics have is he just trying to send a message to the president? we've seen aides do this in the past, threaten to resign after they've had a disagreement with the president, in hopes of convincing the president that they're serious about what that disagreement is over. now, the question of course is going to be is the president going to stop tweeting about this? it's not likely, so is bill barr actually going to resign over the president's tweets on this matter? and that doesn't seem to be something that has been cleared up just yet. >> and so arian, to you, why of all of the things the president has tweeted about, why do you think this is the thing that really seems to be crossing the line for the attorney general?

>> because there's been an escalation. there's been an escalation with morale in the department and judges because keep in mind, bill barr thinks about two things. a, he wants to bring cases. he's got prosecutors across the country trying to win cases, and this doesn't help that, and secondly, it's the judges, right? these prosecutors are appearing before judges and the president then is going to go ahead and criticize them. it just doesn't make his life easier. i mean, attacks on judges have happened forever, but trump's different. he weaponizes social media. he picks out certain judges and then he goes at issues where he has this personal stake. that's why it makes it so impossible for barr. >> speaking of judges, there is this federal judge's association holding an emergency meeting today. what do you know about the group, and just how much influence do they actually have? >> right, so it's 14 federal judges. it's a little known group. they're not speaking for the entire judiciary, but they've called this emergency meeting because they're concerned about

this. they're worried about it, and that may not make a big difference. it's just 14, not the entire judiciary, right? but -- and trump may not pay a lot of attention to that, the rule of law, but barr will because if this keeps growing, if more judges come forward, that's a snowball effect. it hurts them in court. it hurts his reputation, and it hurts the morale at the department, so we'll see what they say after the meeting. >> thank you very much. over at the white house. meantime, the president's pardon spree is in full swing, and critics say trump is doing it all wrong. why my next guest says the president is showing his contempt for the law. plus, another official who raised the red flag about the delay in military aid to ukraine, he is now forced out. who is he? what's happened? we have those details next.

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president trump shocked and in some cases delighted the criminal justice community by granting clemency to 11 convicted men and women. most of them were found guilty of white collar crimes, and perhaps the most famous among them was former democratic illinois governor rod blagojevich who held a news conference today where he described his time in prison and praised president trump for cutting his sentence short by four years. >> we want to express our most profound and ever lasting gratitude to president trump.

how do you properly thank someone who's given you back the agree d freedom that was stolen from you. he didn't have to do this. he's a republican president. i was a democratic governor, and doing this does nothing to help his politics. he turned an injustice into a justice. >> cnn crime and justice correspondent shimon prokupecz is here with me in washington. you were with me doing a lot of talking on analyzing a lot of people on the list of this list from the white house on who was pardoned or granted clemency this time yesterday, but talk to me about the actual crimes being forgiven here. >> so it's exactly as you said, brooke. would you expect anything else? i just want to know there from blagojevich, wouldm him but to hold a press conference as he did today is th? it's really just interesting. the charges are very serious, you know, you have everything from like as you said, the white collar crime. you have corruption, obstruction of justice, tax evasion, lying

to white house officials, medicare fraud, extortion, and these are really white collar crimes. people who have been -- who were charged, convicted, in some cases pleaded guilty to a whole host of crimes really just essentially gaming the system, and then when you look at some of the people, obviously you have blagojevich who really is the epitome when you think of it of corruption. this is a guy who was charged, convicted by a jury for essentially selling a seat. it was the senator's seat, then senator barack obama, when he became president his seat opened up, and then rod blagojevich decided he was going to try to profit off of that essentially saying -- he was caught on a wiretap saying i'm not just giving it up for nothing. i'm going to do it, and i can always use it. and then of course, the former police commissioner, the new york police commissioner, bernard kerik. that was a stunning fall from grace. this stemmed from when he tried

to become homeland security, the head of homeland security, then president bush nominated him, and then it set off a whole host of investigations where he all the t-- ultimately would plead guilty to tax fraud, lying to white house officials and then of course there's michael milken, the so-called junk bond king, and he of course was convicted of securities fraud, conspiracy. he served about 22 months in prison. he actually cooperated in a lot of the -- in other investigations that ultimately the federal government used them on. but obviously all of these very controversial because of the types of crimes here that they were either convicted of or pleaded guilty to, brooke. >> all right, shimon, thank you. let's talk bigger picture of these acts of clemency. my next guest penned a cnn opinion piece with the headline trump's pardons show his con at the present time for t-- contemr the law. the joke practically writes itselves trump, the man who are still not denounce the

conviction and years of imprisonment for the so-called central park five, the name given to the young men who were wrongly convicted of raping a jogger in 1989, and exonerated in 2002, a political analyst who was once a fellow at the institute of politics at the university of chicago in columbia university. elsie always a pleasure, welcome. >> you argue that the president is using his powers of clemency for entirely different reasons of presidents past. how do you mean? >> well, when i began writing this piece the first thing i wanted to do is just understand the exact spirit of the pardon that the forefathers wanted a president to have and the arguments that were being made. and one of the things that struck me was that when george washington who issued the first pardon talked about it, he said that the people who were convicted had turned away from their sins. when you listen to president

trump talk about the people that he's pardoned over the years since he's been elected, he phrases it as if they never should have been convicted in the first place. that's why i wrote the piece. the difference is instead of saying the individual has paid their debt to society, he challenges the justice system by saying they should have never been convicted in the first place. that's a disturbing trend. >> in addition to your point, what message do you think it sends all the prosecutors, the law enforcement officers who spent years and years on these cases? >> well, it's just par for the course for some of the rhetoric that we've heard. for whatever reasons, he doesn't necessarily respect the separate branches of government, and he constantly whether you're talking about rhetoric or even policies he tried to shove through, he's constantly second guessing the judicial system, and even though he likes to tout himself as someone who's sort of a champ uniion of criminal just reform, time and time again, particularly with these pardons, you see him question whether or not a person should have been

convicted and he holds himself as the proper judge of someone's innocence or guilt as if he's the ultimate moral authority. >> now, i know when we've been having conversations about this list of pardons or clemencies, you know, a lot of focus is on rod blagojevich or bernie kerik or mike milken, but there are at least two non-violent drug offenders on this list, and my question to you is does the president deserve some credit there? >> listen, every single president in modern times has pardoned someone who's controversial, whether you're talking about ford with nixon, whether you're talking about bill clinton with peters. you're not going to be happy with it. there are going to be people that you are going to be happy that are released and people you're not going to be happy with. so yes, the president certainly deserves credit for pardoning individuals for non-violent drug-related charges. president obama's done it, george h.w. bush has done it. the issue isn't that. the issue is does he do it because he believes it's the right thing or is it a smoke

screen for the more nefariouses a pel-- aspects of the pardons s trying to cover up for. >> thanks. good to see you. >> you as well, thank you. back to 2020, senator bernie sanders is breaking from one of his biggest supporters on a very big issue. why he says he disagrees with congress congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez. and the awkward moment senator amy klobuchar just had while speaking to minority voters. ♪ applebee's new irresist-a-bowls now starting at $7.99. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

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in a sign we might be seeing the first democratic cracks in senator bernie sanders medicare for all push, it happened during last night's cnn town hall. he pushed back on comments made by one of the most outspoken advocates for him and his plan, new york congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez. she said ed supporters had to be realistic about the change in the health system.

this is what she said, a president can't waive a magic wand and pass any legislation they want. the worst-case scenario we compromise deeply and end up getting a public option. is that a nightmare? i don't think so. when the senator was asked about this last night, this is what he said. >> well, i love representative alexandria ocasio-cortez. she has done more in her first year in congress to transform politics, to get young people involved than any freshman member of congress i can remember. but my view is that medicare for all, the bill that we wrote is in a sense already a compromise. >> a cnn political reporter, and what did you make of his response? she was basically kind of conceding defeat. >> yeah, she was also living in reality based america. she's a congressperson. she knows how that works, and at some point she said she was speaking as a congressperson,

not necessarily as a bernie sanders supporter. the idea of compromise is a dirty word in many ways in sanders' world, right? they essentially attacked warren because she seemed to be waffling on her support for medicare for all. this was a really interesting back and forth. you know, i think if you're a democrat in the establishment, and you're looking at sanders, you're worried about what it would mean for him to run on medicare for all, what it would mean for him to run on, you know, the green jobs plan, and you're hoping that maybe he would be willing to compromise and sound like aoc sounded in that, but no, that's not who he is. >> this is bernie sanders. >> exactly, and that's why his supporters like him so much. he's been so unwilling to compromise and so consistent. >> i want to ask you, too, just about, of course, caucuses, nevada this coming saturday really is more of a microcosm in terms of diversity. let me just set this up, one group that specifically a lot of o'these candidates are targeting working class voters, and often

time folks frameworking class voters as white. senators klobuchar and warren took time yesterday to speak to many women of color in a powerful union in nevada. >> i literally stand on the shoulders of immigrants. i also stand on the shoulders of union members because on my dad's side, my grandpa worked as an iron ore miner, and unions saved his life because they made the mines safer. i was just with some of the culinary workers, the housekeepers today, i just left there, a big group of women, and a number of them because they had just gotten off work had their little kids, girls and boys on their lap s, and you look at those kids and you think they could grow up in a different world where maybe they won't even remember when donald trump was president. >> when i was a girl and my mother got that minimum wage job, a minimum wage job in

america would support a family of three. it would cover a mortgage. it would pay the utilities, and it would put food on the table. today a minimum wage job in america full-time will not support a momma and a baby and keep them out of poverty. that is wrong and that is why i am in this fight. >> and you see, you know, so sof the faces, various women of color who they are speaking to, and my question to you is why is it important to change the narrative of who is working class? who is a blue collar voter in america? >> if we don't change the narrative, we actually don't get it right. you know, if you think about the ways in which people talk about democrats and working class voters, essentially that's the problem. democratic voters don't do well with working class voters. they do very well with working class vote. they do very well with black working class voters and la tie know working class voters. hillary clinton won voters who

were on the lower income, on this income scale, so yeah, i mean, i think americans have a hard problem or a problem talking about race, and so when we talk about working class voters, we often sort of erase the whiteness of those voters that we're often talking about, and i think we miss the story if we're not able to talk about these different groups and talk about race and talk about class in nuanced ways and get at the diversity of these different electorat electorates. >> if we don't get it right. >> if we don't get it right. >> absolute right thing to say. when you look at the demographics in nevada, you know that 19% is hispanic, and so obviously these candidates are zigzags nevada, they want the latino vote. >> it's going to be probably 19, 20% latino. >> 19, 20%, so here is senator amy klobuchar. >> my name is amy, and when i was -- took spanish in 4th grade

my name was elena. they gave me the name me llamo alaina because i couldn't roll my r's very well, so it was e-l-e-n-a, and i am just -- first my story is this. i stand on the shoulders of immigrants myself. >> so i appreciate what she's trying to do. >> right. >> yeah. >> and this is what candidates often do. there's sort of cold switching that goes on and they try on different identities based on the audiences they're talking to. obama would kind of shift into a black scent when he was talking in front of african-american audiences and talking about pooky. you saw the woman on the end who kind of grimaced when she said the elena joke. this is sort of amy klobuchar's wheel house, corny jokes that don't land well, and i think that's what that was.

>> thank you for the reminder. made me laugh. a programming note to you about the original series race for the white house, the episode reagan versus carter, a brutal primary, a pushing campaign, and a stolen brief book. that is sunday night 9:00 only here on cnn. coming up, the heads keep rolling. president trump pushing out another official who raised red flags about the delay in ukraine military aid. and the knives are out for the former new york city mayor michael bloomberg as he gets ready to step up on that debate stage for the very first time this evening. how the candidates are preparing for the showdown. when you need the fuel to be your nephew's number one fan. holiday inn express. when youyou spend lessfair, and get way more. so you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one.

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. it has been exactly two weeks since the senate acquitted president trump during his impeachment trial and the revolving door continues to spin among staffers in the administration who played some sort of role in the ukraine saga. the latest person to leave is a pentagon top policy official john rood. his e-mails show he pushed hard against the administration when the president froze millions of dollars in aid to ukraine. mr. president it's my understanding from defense secretary esper that you requested my resignation. as you have requested, i am providing my resignation effective february 28th. and president trump confirmed the resignation through a re-tweet saying that he thanks rood for his service as he forwarded an article that detailed rood faced pressure to resign from some who lost confidence in his ability to carry out the trump agenda. cnn national security correspondent vivian salma has reported extensively on rood's e-mails. nice to see you, by the way.

why was he -- tell me more about what you've learned about why he was forced out. >> there were a number of issues, of course the ukraine e-mails that i've reported in the last couple of weeks didn't help. he'd really been pushing back against president trump's decision to to ukraine. there were a number of other policy issues as well. rood has expressed skepticism about the administration's efforts to pursue talks with the taliban. we're in the middle of that effort right now. he didn't see eye to eye with a number of officials at the pentagon and the white house and the nsc. it's interesting because he is a career official. he was someone that was appointed by president trump, but he's someone who has also served in a number of different posts previous to that. he served as a pentagon official for arms control. he's also served at the ns are c before that. so someone who has a history of serving in the government in different posts, and someone with a great deal of experience at ta time where a lot of experience comes in handy. >> i was listening to a

conversation david sanger was making this point, essentially the policy of this administration should be speaking up on russia, should be speaking up on china and north korea, et cetera, and you know, the big exception is that president trump is the one who doesn't always go along with his administration's policy. essentially rood is out because he was following what the administration normally would tell him to do? >> one of the e-mails i had published a couple of weeks ago talked about one he sent to secretary esper days after esper took office, and one of the phrases that he had in the email, and we have it right here is he said placing a hold on security assistance at this time would jeopardize this unique window of opportunity, and undermine our defense priorities with a key partner in the strategic competition with russia. so essentially he was telling the secretary directly this is a mistake, and we don't want to blow it with ukraine because ultimately, it has so many other repercussions down the line. and so here we are two weeks later, and rood is out. >> and last day february 28th,

according to -- >> right, right. >> thank you very much. joe biden moments ago hitting michael bloomberg for using former president obama in bloomberg's campaign ads. we'll play that video for you and talk about that. and pete buttigieg firing back after rush limbaugh's homophobic attack on him last week, hear what he has to say and rush limbaugh's non-apology. with some homemade biscuits! >>oh, that's so nice! and a little tip, geico could help you save on homeowners insurance. >>hmm! >>cookies! uhh, biscuits. >>mmmm, is there a little nutmeg in there? oh it's my mum's secret recipe. >>you can tell me. it's a secret. >>is it cinnamon? it's my mum's secret recipe. call geico and see how easy saving on homeowners and condo insurance can be. i'll come back for the plate.

hour two, you are watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being here. michael bloomberg goes from the campaign trail to center stage tonight when he joins the other democrats vying to win back the white house. in the party's latest presidential debate. we have just gotten a little preview of what the former major can expect courtesy of pete buttigieg who along with senators bernie sanders and aamy klobuchar will have their gloves off. here is what they had to say during last night's cnn's town halls. >> i don't think you should just be able to buy your way to the presidency. >> i do think it's a bit obscene that we have somebody who, by the way, chose not to contest in iowa, in nevada, or in south carolina, in new hampshire. he said i don't have to do that. i'm worth $60 billion. >> do you think michael bloomberg is trying to buy the democratic nomination for president? >> yes.

yes. [ applause ] u. >> i mean, what else do you call it? >> that was quite a moment. wolf blitzer, abby phillip with me here in washington. good to be in your town. thank you for having me. >> welcome to washington. >> so you guys were two big moderators of the last cnn debate, so i wanted to go to the pros and just ask first to you, what will you really be looking for tonight? who is going to land the first punch on michael bloomberg? who is going to take that chance and actually do what they've been signaling they want to do for the last several days? this particular field of democrats has been really hesitant to do a lot of o'att k attacking on the debate stage itself. they've been willing to do a little bit of it on the campaign trail. there's a lot of risk involved in attacking each other on the stage, especially with someone like bloomberg who hasn't been on any of the stages to this point. who that person is who takes the first shot is going to be really

interesting to see. and which candidates actually stand back and allow others to get into the fray. there's some candidates like joe biden who might benefit from not being the one to actually take bloomberg on and standing back is another strategy that might be successful for some of the other candidates on that stage. >> i want to come back to something biden has just said. what will you be looking for? >> i'm going to be looking to bloomberg for his reaction. a few of those other candidates are really going to go after him and give him a punch, and i'm curious to see how he reacts. i've interviewed him over the years, many years going way back when he was mayor of new york, and he gets irritated when you go after him, even if you ask specifically in my particular case, a few serious important, but tough questions, you know, he gets -- he gets irritated, and he responds. so i'm curious to see how he will respond to the attacks he's almost certainly going to get from bernie sanders. i'm sure that klobuchar and the others will go after him as well.