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Don Lemon Tonight

Former Rivals Coming To Support Joe Biden; Interview With Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Presidential Candidate; Interview With Michael Bloomberg (D), Presidential Candidate. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired March 02, 2020 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[22:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: A special edition of CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.

Coming to you live from Washington, D.C. We have been covering live from Dallas. Really the former vice president having a moment in Dallas. He has been getting endorsements from his former rivals in the campaign. Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg endorsing him this evening and he's still speaking on stage.

But he still has one more trick up his sleeve. And we're going to discuss and talk about that. But until that happens, we're going to take -- but until that happens, I want to get to my folks here who are in the studio.

Joining me now we have David Chalian who is our political director. We have Nia-Malika Henderson with here as well. We have Mr. David Axelrod here with us. And what's happening?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: What's happening, well --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: How are you doing, Gloria Borger?

Thank you all for joining. So, we have been watching. We've been watching this. David Axelrod, this is really a moment for the vice president. Amy Klobuchar came on with tremendous energy endorsing her former rival here, really working the crowd up.

It has been a long day for the former Vice President Joe Biden here. What is this, what is this moment mean for him? Can this catapult him into a really, a good, really a good showing tomorrow for Super Tuesday?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's been a long day, Don. But it's been a very good day. He's had some pretty bad days on this campaign. And he's had several really good days. And the fact that he had Pete Buttigieg at his side just a few hours ago endorsing him. Now Amy Klobuchar. He's got another endorsement coming here. Those are all momentum builders. Joe Biden needs to get ahead steam up

going into Super Tuesday. He doesn't have advertising to speak of around the country. They're getting in late. He's coming from behind in many places.

He's hoping that he can take advantage of some of the voters who are going to vote for these candidates. But it also sends a signal that he is the guy to get behind. That he is a winner here. If you are in that center left lane, he's the person to consolidate behind. And, you know, this is important because his next big mission among these consolidations is get the guy with $60 billion to consolidate behind.

LEMON: Is this, yes, is this a big enough moment though to out shadow Bloomberg?

AXELROD: Well, we'll see.

LEMON: Let's listen in to the former vice president now in Dallas.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- idea. We've never fully lived up to it but we've never before walked away from it like this President has. I believe with every fiber in my being what we've done in every generation is further open the aperture for conclusion and making sure the people have a shot.

Look, I want to recognize three people who have dedicated their careers to fighting for more perfect union.

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Colin Allred, he flipped this district, helped take back the House in 2016. He did what I only dreamed of doing, playing in the NFL. What a hell of an athlete, what a great, great congressman.

And we need to make sure that he holds that seat in November. And Mark Veasey, God love him. He's done incredible work to help lead the fight against the erosion of voting (ph) rights act, against the erosion of voting in this nation. Half the country -- half the nations in this -- half the states in this nation have put up barriers.

It's the new Jim Crow (ph) all over again. And Eddie Bernice Johnson is a legend. A legend of whom I'm honored to share this stage. She's a woman who knows how to get things done for the people of Dallas and she leaves nobody behind. Look, the days of Donald Trump's divisiveness will soon be over.

I guarantee you, we can build a more perfect union because the American people have now seen the alternative. Folks, there's two way people get inspired, they get inspired by great leaders like Lincoln and Roosevelt and Kennedy and Obama. Well, thank you, but, but they also get inspired by very bad leaders. No, I really mean it, I really mean it.

This President has sort of ripped the band-aid off, exposed just how venial he's become. And how he has literally, literally strangled the life out of the Republican party. So folks, we got a shot. This is bigger than whether a Democrat wins. This is about restoring the character of the America, not a joke, because we've been damaged all over the world, we've been damaged badly.

His embrace of thugs and dictators, his way he treats our military and talks about them, the way he demeans people. Ladies and gentleman and at home, he's never done anything other than, other than seek division. So folks, it's time to get back up. We're decent, we're brave, we're resilient people, and we can believe again.

We are better than this moment, we are better than this President and so get up, let's take back this country. We're the United States of America and there's not a single thing we cannot do we do it together. God bless you all and may God protect our troops. Folks, thank you. I gotta wait one more minute, folks.

There's one more person I want to thank whom a man who electrified this state and nation, one of the most incredible runs in the United States senate we have ever seen here in this state, a man who demonstrated enormous compassion and courage in the wake of the shooting in El Paso, a man with unlimited future, a man who will be changing this nation for the better for many years to come.

Ladies and gentleman, Beto O'Rourke and his wife, Amy. Come on, Beto and Amy. Amy, watch your step here. God loves you, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

BETO O'ROURKE: Mr. Vice President.

BIDEN: All yours, man.

O'ROURKE: Dallas. Can you hear me? Dallas. Tarrant (ph) County, Denton, Collin, anybody from the Rio Grande Valley? Far west Texas and El Paso? Lubbock, Amarillo, and the Panhandle? Longview, Texarkana and east Texas? On behalf of everyone of the 254 counties of this great state, we welcome Dr. Jill Biden and Vice President Joe Biden [speaking Spanish].

Ladies and gentleman, tomorrow March 3rd, 2020, I will be casting my ballot for Joe Biden. It's the right thing to do. And let me tell you why. We need somebody who can beat Donald Trump. The man in the White House today poses an existential threat to this country, to our democracy, to free and fair elections. And we need somebody who can beat him.

And in Joe Biden, we have that man, we have someone, who in fact, is the antithesis of Donald Trump. Joe Biden is decent. He's kind. He's caring. He's empathetic. I don't know if you saw this last week, the Vice President was at a town hall in South Carolina.

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And Dr. Reverend Anthony Thompson came up to the microphone and talked about losing his wife at Mother Emmanual AME in South Carolina in 2015.

And Joe Biden listened to him. In fact, with his eyes closed so that he could concentrate on every single word that that man said. And then he spoke back to him and to all of us from his heart filled with compassion and love and the power to heal. He wanted to heal that man, he wanted to hear -- heal Charleston, South Carolina.

But as someone who lives in El Paso, Texas, which saw another white nationalist rampage where 22 people were killed solely based on their ethnicity, on the color of their skin, on their country of national origin, I felt Joe Biden healing us at a time that this country is so polarized, so deeply divided, we need somebody who can bring us together and heal us.

We need somebody who can reestablish the moral authority of the United States. We need somebody who will fight for democracy here and abroad because democracy is under attack here and abroad. We need Joe Biden.

LEMON: A surprise endorsement from former Congressman Beto O'Orourke. A surprise appearance, as well. And also an endorsement coming from former mayor south of Indiana and presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. And also from Senator Amy Klobuchar, we still have to hear from two presidential candidates tonight. We're gonna hear from the former mayor of New York City, Mayor Bloomberg, Mike Bloomberg. And we're also gonna hear from Senator Elizabeth Warren, she's live, coming up right after the break.

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LEMON: We are back with our special edition of CNN TONIGHT, "Countdown to Super Tuesday."

Joining me now is Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Welcome, Senator. I want to get your reaction--

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you.

LEMON: -- to Mayor Buttigieg, Senator Klobuchar and Beto O'Rourke. They're all out endorsing Vice President Joe Biden. How could their endorsements change the dynamics of this race and your place in it?

WARREN: Well, look, I think that they see the world in many ways the same way that the vice president does. So I understand that. I think it makes some sense. But what really has changed is the field has now narrowed sharply. And this is going to be a race that really puts it to people about what kind of a leader we want for the Democratic Party, but also what kind of a leader we want for our country.

And I think that what we've seen so far is that the Democratic Party is a progressive party. Progressive ideas are popular. And we need someone who's going to get those progressive ideas done. And that's the reason I'm in this race.

LEMON: Well, let's talk about one reason you're here, really, is because we're on the eve of Super Tuesday, Senator.

WARREN: Sure.

LEMON: And Senator Sanders is saying--

WARREN: Yes.

LEMON: -- that he is going to win your home state of Massachusetts. What's the one thing you want voters there and across the country to know before they cast their vote?

WARREN: You know, 10 years ago I was still a classroom teacher. I'm not one of those people who looked in the mirror, you know, when I was 14 years old and said: Oh, you're going to be president of the United States.

I was somebody who looked in the mirror and said I'm going to be a public schoolteacher. And from there, I ultimately became a college professor and spent my life fighting for hardworking families, working through why it was that so many people who work so hard just keep falling further and further behind.

And a big part of this is because there's a government that's not on their side. It's a government that's on the side of billionaires and giant corporations. So a decade ago, that's the fight I was still in. I was in the fight to try to get a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I was in the fight in the middle of the financial crisis.

And, you know -- and then, when I couldn't stay and run the financial -- the CFPB, because the Republicans wouldn't let me, I came back to Massachusetts, and -- and people said to me, you should run for this Senate seat, against this very popular incumbent Republican.

I had never run for public office before. And I said I just -- I don't know how to do this. I just -- I know how to fight, but that's all I know how to do. I know how to fight for families.

And the people of Massachusetts said, get in here and we'll help you out. And they did. They volunteered; they pitched in money. They set up offices. They went out and knocked on doors.

I started that race down 17 points. And I ended up beating this very popular incumbent Republican by seven and a half points.

So more than anything else, I say to the people of Massachusetts, I am deeply grateful to you for putting me in this fight. And I hope I make you proud every day in it. Because I'm out there fighting for your family and for millions of families across this country who need someone to lift up their voice and someone to be effective on their behalf.

LEMON: Listen, you have said that you and Senator Sanders are friends.

WARREN: Uh-huh.

LEMON: But you are now drawing sharp contrast between you and Senator Sanders. And you're saying--

WARREN: Yes.

LEMON: -- quote: I get real stuff done. I don't want to be president just to yell at people.

Are you suggesting that Senator Sanders wouldn't be an effective president?

WARREN: Look, I'm -- I'm here to make the case for why I think I would be the best president for our country.

And maybe the best example -- I'll just pick up from where we were talking about. You know, I had warned and warned and warned about the financial crash. And there were a lot of progressives who really wanted to rein in Wall Street. But I was the one who got in there. I did the hard work. I dug in. I took on Wall Street. I took on the big banks.

They were spending, at one point, more than a million dollars a day to fight against us. I helped build the coalitions both on the inside and on the outside. And in 2010, President Obama was able to sign that agency into law. And -- and that is a government agency that has now forced the banks to return more than $12 billion directly to people they cheated.

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This is -- is the proof we can make government work for the people. But it takes a lot of hard work to get this kind of progressive agenda passed. And I've got a track record for that.

LEMON: If you look at all the people who have dropped out and all the people who are endorsing other folks, you can see that this -- this election is narrowing. You say that your campaign is built for the long haul and that you're going to take this fight all the way to the convention.

So how many states do you need to win tomorrow to continue to do that?

WARREN: So look, I said when I got into this race, I wasn't going to do polls and I wasn't going to do predictions. But I will tell you this, this is a grassroots operation from all across this country.

One of the consequences of making the decision early on that I wasn't going to spend 70 percent of my time out raising money from billionaires and corporate executives and lobbyists is that I had a lot of -- lot of time to go to a lot of places.

So I've been to 30 states and Puerto Rico. We now are set up in every one of the Super Tuesday states. We have volunteers all across this country. More than a million and a quarter people have donated to our campaign, have come in and volunteered and helped out on our campaign.

During the month of February, we had -- we raised $29 million from people who just said, I'm in this fight with you. And we raised it in $5 and $25 contributions. And by the way, I should say, if you think that's the right way to run a campaign, I hope anybody watching this will go to elizabethwarren.com and pitch in that $25 or $5.

Because, for me, this is about both beating Donald Trump and about delivering real change in January 2021. You know, we can't march everybody up this hill and not actually come away with some big important changes. And that's -- there's a lot of hard work in that.

That's why I've laid out all of these plans in such detail and shown how we can pay for it, how we can build alliances, how we can actually get it done. I'm -- I'm in this fight to win and to make real change.

LEMON: Let's move on from the race and talk about the -- the coronavirus--

WARREN: Sure.

LEMON: -- crisis. And the numbers are updated every so often--

WARREN: Yeah.

LEMON: -- but, as of now -- as of now, as we're speaking, six Americans have died from the virus. And the cases are now surfacing here on the East Coast where I am. If you were president, what actions would you take to contain the virus?

WARREN: So, actually, I've been putting out plans about this for a while now. And the key plans right now is, first of all, we need to make testing for the virus free. And as soon as we get a vaccine, we need to guarantee everyone that it will also be available free.

We need to set aside federal money so anyone who is quarantined is -- actually still gets paid for work. And the reason for that is that we want to make sure that everybody gets tested, gets vaccines, stays home if they're sick. Because that's going to help make all of us safer.

We need to be supporting all of our public health infrastructure, but we need to be taking concrete steps right now.

The second part that we need to acknowledge about this virus is it has -- it has terrible public health implications, but it also has economic implications. The fact that supply lines are now being disrupted, say, from China, where manufacturers in the United States can't get parts, can't get materials to make certain drugs, this is going to have effects in the U.S. that's going to echo over to Europe and back again. People could be laid off. We could see a lot of economic dislocation.

So I think this is the time that we put the money aside for a stimulus. We reassure the markets the money's going to be there. And we call on the Fed to open the window for lending to corporations, to businesses that suffer disruptions during the virus if they will agree not to lay people off.

This is -- this is -- you've got to act now. Because this thing is gaining steam. Look, we should have acted weeks ago, months ago, on this. But this thing is gaining steam. And we need to get ahead of it, both on the public health front and on the economic front.

That's what leadership is about. And that's what being governed by science is about, about good planning, instead of a president who just seems to be engaged in magical thinking. And I'm very worried right now for our country.

LEMON: You just said -- you just said economic--

WARREN: We need to get started.

LEMON: You just said economic dislocation. But you have said that you were worried that the -- it might cause economic -- an economic crisis.

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Are you worried that people will lose jobs?

WARREN: Yes. Yes. I am very worried about this. Look, our economy already was showing real cracks. I was talking about this six, eight months ago. We were seeing small business lending defaults go up, a lot of problems within the economy itself. And I said at the time, a few minor shocks could cause the economy to start to break apart -- or one major shock. Well, the coronavirus looks like it is going to be the major shock. The--

LEMON: So what do you do to prevent job loss?

WARREN: We have to be -- well, part of what we can do is what I just said. You do this by doing stimulus, so there's other business going on in the United States. You put more money into circulation.

And the other part is to do what we did during the 2008 crisis, when the Fed very quietly opened the lending window so that, at very low interest rates, banks could borrow money in order to keep money in circulation and to support themselves. We need to do that for businesses that are counting on those supply chains. And those supply chains are now badly disrupted. And they can't work. We don't want to see those businesses suddenly contracting and laying people off.

We have economic tools. We don't have as many as we should have because the Trump administration has already lowered interest rates, has already done a big, big tax cut. And that's -- that's, kind of, backed us up to the wall. But we need to use the economic tools we have and we need to start now, before this crisis gets out of hand, both as a public health crisis and as an economic crisis.

LEMON: Let's do some more comparing and contrasting of your plans.

WARREN: Sure.

LEMON: Senator Bernie Sanders recently released a plan to pay for his sweeping proposals on health care, the climate crisis, free four-year college and more.

You have released your own ways to cover those costs. Is what Senator Sanders released good enough for you?

WARREN: Look, I just don't see it the same way. Bernie thinks that we should raise taxes on middle-class families to pay for health care. And I've shown that we don't actually have to do that.

I think a much better way to do it is to raise taxes on the top one percent, to make giant corporations, like Amazon and Eli Lilly, that report billions of dollars in profits and pay nothing in taxes -- I think cracking down harder on them makes sense -- and my personal favorite, hiring more IRS agents to go after the richest tax cheats.

It turns out we can generate a lot of money from that. And by generating money from this thin slice at the top, we make the health care proposals not only affordable, but we make them progressive. That is, we help level the playing field a little bit for families right now that are struggling to pay for health care, struggling to pay for health insurance, think they're doing fine right up until somebody gets sick and they discover that the copays and the deductibles and the uncovered expenses are enough to sink them.

Look, health care is a basic human right. And I believe in universal health care coverage. I want to get as much help to as many people as quickly as possible. I show how I can do that on the first day, to use tools available to the president to lower the price of commonly used prescription drugs like insulin and EpiPens and HIV/AIDS drugs and mental health drugs. I want to support the Affordable Care Act in the interim.

But I also show how we can pay for health care without raising taxes on middle-class families one thin dime. My view is middle-class families have taken it on the chin long enough. It's time to ask those at the top to pay a little more. And it's time to help -- help reduce some of the squeeze on hardworking families across this country. That's been the fight I have been in for pretty much all my grown-up life.

LEMON: Senator, I have about 30 seconds left. A third of the delegates--

WARREN: Sure.

LEMON: -- up for tomorrow. What will make Super Tuesday super for you?

(LAUGHTER)

WARREN: You know, I'm out there fighting for every possible delegate I can get. No, that's what I'm doing. I'm here right now in East Los Angeles. We're about to do a big rally. And I'm really excited about this opportunity.

I just see 2020 as a chance not just to get rid of Donald Trump -- that's important -- but a chance to actually pass a progressive agenda and really make change in people's lives, the kind of things, like child care and canceling student loan debt and raising Social Security payments, that could be life-changing for millions of people -- the chance to get a little justice into our system, economic justice and racial justice and social justice and environmental justice.

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We have such opportunities in 2020. I just -- I just want to see us take advantage of them. I think we can do this.

LEMON: Good luck, Senator. Thank you so much.

WARREN: Thank you so much.

LEMON: Senator Elizabeth Warren.

And coming up, my interview with Mike Bloomberg. Back after the break.

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LEMON: We are back with a special edition of CNN Tonight countdown to Super-Tuesday. We're hearing from all the major Democratic presidential candidates tonight. Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren had joined us so far. Now it's Michael Bloomberg's turn.

Mayor Bloomberg, thank you for doing this. I appreciate it.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you for having me.

LEMON: We're in the eve of Super Tuesday.

BLOOMBERG: Yes.

LEMON: The stakes are high for you.

BLOOMBERG: Yes.

LEMON: Tomorrow night, you're going to have to convince voters that you're the guy.

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So how do you convince them that you are the one? What do you say to them?

BLOOMBERG: Two things -- I can beat Donald Trump and I don't know that of the other Democratic candidates can. And, two, that I am ready for the job, and I don't think any of the others are.

LEMON: Yes. Listen, there's been a lot of discussion in this campaign about being a Democrat. Senator Sanders, for example, is a -- is an independent who is running as a Democratic Socialist.

BLOOMBERG: Yes.

LEMON: OK. You were a member of the Republican Party --

BLOOMBERG: Well, I was a member of the Democratic Party for all the time I lived in Massachusetts.

LEMON: Right.

BLOOMBERG: And then all the time I lived in New York until I ran for mayor. And they wouldn't --

LEMON: (Inaudible.)

BLOOMBERG: -- let me on the ballot.

LEMON: Right.

BLOOMBERG: Then I changed, because it was the only way -- so I could get on the ballot. But I won three elections in New York City in the most populous --

LEMON: Yes.

BLOOMBERG: -- big city in the country. And the Democrats voted for me.

LEMON: But then you were -- you were -- you only became a member of a Democratic Party. You were an independent for a while, but then you became --

BLOOMBERG: Yes.

LEMON: -- a member a Democratic Party only in December of 2018, right? In the Democratic Party. In 2018, I should say. So, why is being a Democrat where your heart truly lies?

BLOOMBERG: Well, I think you've got to ask what are my values. I'm -- most of the things that the Democrats support, whether it's getting guns out of the hands of criminals, whether it's providing social services to people that need it, whether it's reducing incarceration in jail, and you can go right down the list. I think my actions are as Democratic as you can possibly be.

What's more, incidentally, I have supported Democrats. I gave money for gun background checks, which turned Virginia into -- from red to blue, both their legislative and executive branch. I supported 24 Democratic candidates for the Senate, 21 of whom won and won only by a small amount, so I really had an impact on that. That flipped the House, and made Nancy Pelosi the speaker, and started the impeachment process.

And you go right down the list of the things that I have done for the Democratic Party, and the values that I have which are consistent with what Democrats do. I think that makes me more of a Democrat than any of the others who talk about doing things and don't do anything.

LEMON: We're going to get back to Super Tuesday in a moment, but I want to talk about the coronavirus. Cases are on the rise in the United States right now.

BLOOMBERG: Yes.

LEMON: If you were in the White House right now, what exactly would you do to stop its spread? And I want you to be specific. Give me --

BLOOMBERG: OK.

LEMON: -- specifics.

BLOOMBERG: You first have to have somebody in charge that is a doctor or a scientist with a reputation for dealing with pandemics worldwide. It is not Michael Pence, who, I think he said something about, there's no connection between smoking and cancer. That is not the kind of person you have.

And if you don't have somebody at the top, it doesn't have to be the president, but he's got to delegate to somebody and then stay away. The president cannot interfere with the scientists and the doctors. If you go to a doctor, you don't care what party they're a member of. You want to know, do they know the science and can they take care of you? That's what we need.

LEMON: But we're in the midst of this crisis right now --

BLOOMBERG: Right.

LEMON: And I know it's about --

BLOOMBERG: We should have had these people in place earlier, but we didn't. So, you asked me, what do you do right now?

Today, the president could appoint somebody --

LEMON: Right.

BLOOMBERG: -- who really is independent of the political process. He could make a public commitment to leave him alone, and he's got to honor that commitment. And then turn things over to somebody who can pull together states' health agencies. You want to try to get back as many of the 1,600 scientists that Trump drove out of office --

LEMON: But besides personnel --

BLOOMBERG: -- refund (inaudible).

LEMON: --to stop the spread right now, what would you do?

BLOOMBERG: Well, there's nothing you can do to stop it. You have to be able to react. You want to be able to track it. You want to know where it's striking. You want to know -- the -- we don't need -- every state has a different ways (ph) of keeping track. That's -- you can't run a railroad that way.

Is there any cure at the moment? No, there is not. People are working on vaccines, but even if we had a vaccine, how do you -- how do you distribute the vaccine to the -- virtually the whole world overnight? You just can't do that.

We're going to have this around for a while. Nobody knows how fast or how far it's going to spread. But every time there's one case, chances are there's a very good chance there'll be more cases, and more cases, and more deaths.

LEMON: The companies are now restricting their travel. And in full transparency, our parent --

BLOOMBERG: Well, my company -- we've split, in our big offices in London and New York, we are splitting our people between two different buildings. So, if there is an outbreak in one of them, the others won't catch it.

LEMON: Our parent company, WarnerMedia, is doing it as well. They're restricting travel. And there's talk of closing schools. They're canceling conventions. They're keeping --

BLOOMBERG: Yes.

LEMON: -- fans out of stands at sporting events. If the outbreak worsens, what do you think of that?

BLOOMBERG: Well, you have to first worry about your employees, their health. And then you want to worry about your business, so you've got to find some ways to stay in business, because everybody doesn't want to lose their jobs. But the first thing the management of a company has to do, their first responsibility is do what's best for their employees.

And so, we have a lot of people working from home.

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An enormous percentage of our company is right now working from home every single day. Because we think contact with one another will spread the disease if it appears, and nobody knows when it's going to appear.

LEMON: It's not just managing the spread of the virus. It's also managing fear because, as you know, fear is contagious. What we need to do --

BLOOMBERG: People will get over fear if they think there's an adult in charge who has the record of being competent and where the government lets the science work.

LEMON: All right.

BLOOMBERG: And unfortunately, we have no confidence that Trump won't interfere. I mean, he called this a Democratic hoax the other day. Nobody's going to believe anything he says and the people that he puts in charge. Pence is -- seems like a nice guy. I met him once, I think.

But he's not -- doesn't have the credentials to do this. And so, the people worry about it.

LEMON: Let's get -- let's get back to the campaign now. You joined this race because you said that you didn't see a viable option to defeat Donald Trump. Vice President Biden just had a huge blowout victory in South Carolina.

BLOOMBERG: That -- he did. And it was a small state.

LEMON: Is he a viable candidate now?

BLOOMBERG: Well, he certainly has some momentum going with him. There's no question about that. And he did very well. But I think he's won one state primary in three elections, and --

LEMON: But you said earlier in this interview that you didn't -- that you were ready for the job.

BLOOMBERG: Yes.

LEMON: Joe Biden, who was Barack Obama's vice-president --

BLOOMBERG: He is a --

LEMON: -- you don't think he's ready for the job?

BLOOMBERG: He is a legislator. And the job requires a manager and executive. And I feel very strongly about that.

LEMON: He was the vice president. Obama thought he was ready. You don't think he's ready?

BLOOMBERG: Obama thought he was ready for what?

LEMON: To -- he -- he was his vice president. He was ready to be president. That's the next job.

BLOOMBERG: I don't know. You'd have to talk to President Obama about that. All I know is, we keep putting legislators in the job that requires a manager. That's why mayors do something different. They are very different than legislators. Governors can claim a little bit of management experience, although there's a lot of politics in that, and legislation as well.

But I would want somebody -- would you hire the person, whoever you want to talk about, to run your company? No.

LEMON: So, a sitting senator, and a former sitting senator, and a former vice president, they're not managers? They can't --

BLOOMBERG: They -- if they have some management experience, I'd talk to them. But without that, no, I do not think so. And I think -- just take a look at what this country has done. We again and again and again have a press conference. I'm going to take care of you. I love you. I feel your pain. And here, I've got this bill that is going to take you to the promised land, OK?

And then the bill never-- even if it gets passed, it never gets funded. Nobody implements it. There's nobody that tracks it afterwards to find out whether you actually delivered the services to the people that you said you're going to help.

And, incidentally, if I was wrong, you would not see the income and wealth disparities in this country. You wouldn't see the difference in people's rights and their ability to express themselves, and to vote, and that sort of thing.

No, the country is not doing well. And it's because we have the wrong kind of person. And I couldn't believe it more.

LEMON: Yes. When you sat down, I said it was a big day for you tomorrow. You're going to compete for the first time tomorrow.

BLOOMBERG: Sure.

LEMON: You recently said that you're going to stay in, and I quote here, you said: til the bitter end. What do you need to see tomorrow night to convince you that staying in --

BLOOMBERG: Well, you have to have a decent -- you have to have a decent number of votes --

LEMON: -- that that is the right call?

BLOOMBERG: You have to have a decent number of delegates coming out of it. You're not going to be anywhere (ph) near Sanders and probably not Biden. But --

LEMON: What's a decent number?

BLOOMBERG: I don't know that. I'll have to look and see. Until you see tomorrow how much each of them gets, you can't really tell.

LEMON: But you're a numbers guy. You don't know?

BLOOMBERG: I -- I don't know until I get the data. Sure, I'm a numbers guy. Give me the data, and then I can answer your question. Just because you're a numbers guy doesn't mean you should make up things.

LEMON: So, listen, last night Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped out.

(CROSSTALK)

BLOOMBERG: I called him yesterday and talked to him.

LEMON: What did you guys talk about?

BLOOMBERG: I just said -- it took two minutes. I said: Look, I'm sorry it ended that way for you, and you're a gentleman. And I listened when you were -- to your speeches, and I thought a lot of what you said made sense. And I'd tell you you have a big career going forward.

He went through the Bloomberg Foundation training program for mayors. He was in the first class. So, I have to say nice things about him.

LEMON: He said he did it because he -- he is concerned that staying in the race would help President Trump win. Do you share his concern, or that concern?

BLOOMBERG: Well, I don't-- I, you know, you have to -- everybody's got to make that decision for themselves. I don't think he had that much support in the end, where it would have made a difference. But you can play out every scenario among the Democratic Party and then the Democratic candidate versus a Republican candidate who I assume will be Trump.

[22:45:00]

And nobody knows.

LEMON: But you don't think you're taking support from Biden?

BLOOMBERG: I haven't even been in an election yet. How can I take support from him?

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Well, all right.

We'll be right back with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, right after this.

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LEMON: Welcome back. We're with Michael Bloomberg on the eve of Super Tuesday.

[22:50:00]

And I want to talk about two of the states that you're going to be competing with, and that's North Carolina and Alabama. Yesterday, in an appearance at a historically black church in Selma, Alabama, several of the congregants turned their back to you when you were speaking.

BLOOMBERG: Well, I don't know whether they were congregants who were there or they were people from outside, but --

LEMON: But what's your reaction to that, in a church of all places?

BLOOMBERG: Look, we have a democracy. You don't have to -- you can protest if you want. I don't think you can -- you should disrupt everybody else's rights. But in all fairness, they stood up, had their backs to me. It's not the first time in my life I've been protested, ain't going to be the last.

Generally, my answer, when somebody screams -- and, you know, we have enough of a democracy that that happens occasionally, my answer always is, thank you for making me feel like I'm at home. And that always gets a big laugh. This time I decided not to do that because it was in a church and much too serious an event.

But they have a right to say what they want to say. You know, wherever I go, there's Trump supporters outside. One guy, we looked across the street yesterday -- the day before yesterday -- he had an AK-47 over his shoulder, across the street. I didn't walk over and shake his hand, but --

LEMON: You mean, because you're a New Yorker and you have a thick skin. Is that what you mean by --

(CROSSTALK)

BLOOMBERG: Well, I think New Yorkers tend to be thick-skinned, but people in government, they don't survive if they don't have a thick skin.

LEMON: Do you ever think -- do you ever think that's the reason people think that you -- maybe that you're not contrite enough or that you aren't -- or that you're not showing enough contrition, is because of --

BLOOMBERG: Look, I am 78 years old. I am who I am.

LEMON: OK, well, let me ask --

BLOOMBERG: And I'm not going to try to be somebody that I'm not. And I think that's a great strength because I wouldn't want to vote for a phony.

LEMON: OK.

BLOOMBERG: Nobody's going to think I'm a phony.

LEMON: Well, that leads me to this question. Because you've apologized for the stop-and-frisk policy --

BLOOMBERG: Yeah.

LEMON: -- when you were mayor of New York City. And you said that it was a mistake. And this -- a Charlotte, North Carolina, pastor suggested that an apology is not enough. And he told Politico, and I quote here -- he says: He's got to show repentance. It is hard to show forgiveness when there is no repentance.

You need to win these voters over tomorrow night. What would you say to them if they were watching you right now, Mayor?

BLOOMBERG: Look, I inherited a process to keep guns out of the hands of kids -- generally, although not just kids, but that's where the real problem is. And it's a process that every big city uses and continues to use, even in New York. They continue to use stop-and- frisk. And I just noticed in the paper about two weeks ago it was going up -- now, still from a low base, so it's not anywhere near where it was when it got out of control while I was mayor.

We reduced -- we reduced the murder rate by 50 percent from 650 a year down to 300. But what happened during the 12 years that we were using this, it got out of hand. And there were too many stop-and-frisks. When I realized that, I cut it by 95 percent. We thought murder would go up. It didn't. That may be because it never was as effective as we thought. It may be because people just got scared of carrying guns and they got used to not carrying guns, which is the whole idea, and that's great.

But I apologize for --

LEMON: But do you -- do you understand how it affected people's lives?

BLOOMBERG: Yes, I understand. I also understand how somebody getting murdered affects them. And my first instincts were, when I came into office, we've got to stop 650 murders a year, most of which were, unfortunately, young men of color.

LEMON: Yeah. Before you were -- you were political rivals, you and President Trump -- he was Donald Trump then, you know, the real estate guy -- you were friendly with him. What insights --

BLOOMBERG: Yes, I played golf with him twice at a charity tournament.

LEMON: OK.

BLOOMBERG: I said I'd never had dinner with him and an old girlfriend wrote me and said --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: But you have insights on him that the other candidates don't. So what insights do you have that can help defeat --

BLOOMBERG: OK, but they're not -- they're not --

LEMON: -- help you defeat him?

BLOOMBERG: They're not because -- he's a bully. And I watch him on television. I don't have to see him up front and close. I probably haven't seen him up front and close five times in my whole life. But he -- and two of those were those golf tournaments.

He is a bully. He is not constrained by telling the truth. He is not knowledgeable. He's not inquisitive. He doesn't ask. I am told, if you come in to brief him, he'll say, well -- you give him a report, he says, well, read it to me, and then he turns and watches television -- probably not this network, incidentally. He watches television --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: How do you know that?

BLOOMBERG: That's what rumor is. And -- and back here, you're reading and he's looking over here. That's the kind of guy he is. He's not inquisitive. And he just says things. He hears things or sees things on television and he just repeats them as though it's the truth. And whether he really believes it or not, I have no idea.

[22:55:00]

LEMON: Thank you, Mayor.

BLOOMBERG: All the best.

LEMON: I appreciate your time.

BLOOMBERG: Thank you.

LEMON: Thank you. Let's do this again.

BLOOMBERG: Good, happy to do it.

LEMON: That is it for the special edition of CNN TONIGHT. CNN's Super Tuesday coverage begins at 4:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow. Up next, an AC360 Special Report on the coronavirus outbreak.

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