Interview with Timothy O'Brien on Mike Bloomberg Campaign.
MARQUARDT: There are no do-overs, but after what was widely seen as a disastrous debate debut in front of a record-setting 28 million viewers, the former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg will get a second chance this Tuesday in South Carolina to put his mouth where his money is. He'll be on that debate stage in South Carolina. A reminder that he is still not on that ballot, nor was he over the weekend in Nevada. And so he is not going to be tested at the polls until Super Tuesday which is just after South Carolina. That's on March 3rd. So with that to contend with, and the current surge by Senator Bernie Sanders, how does Mayor Bloomberg immediately get back his momentum before it's too late? So to answer that question and more is senior Bloomberg presidential campaign adviser Tim O'Brien. Tim, thanks so much for coming in. TIMOTHY O'BRIEN, SENIOR ADVISER, Michael</s>BLOOMBERG PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Sure thing, Alex.</s>MARQUARDT: You probably just heard Mayor de Blasio there talking about what he considered to be a real failure in terms of the stop and frisk policy. This is what we saw the other Democratic candidates go after him for at that -- on that debate stage in Las Vegas. So how does Mayor Bloomberg change the narrative in South Carolina, again, on another debate stage on Tuesday?</s>O'BRIEN: Well, I think we're going do what we continue to do on stop and frisk. Mike has apologized for stop and frisk. It was a mistake. He stood by it for too long. But it doesn't define the totality of his time as mayor. If it did, we wouldn't have legions of current and former mayors of color this campaign supporting Mike. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus supporting Mike. I think voters of color know that stop and frisk doesn't define the entirety of his time as mayor. Nonetheless, he has to continue to apologize for it. The reality also on the electoral stage is that only 4 percent of the delegates are in play in these first four states. There is a lot of horserace coverage of these states. But when the candidates come out of these states, they're going to discover that we have a campaign that is up and running in 45 states and territories. We have 2100 people on the ground. We know in a very intimate way how we're polling in all of the Super Tuesday states and we're more than highly competitive there. And I think voters will weigh in with their opinion on all of this when that time comes.</s>MARQUARDT: Have you guys worked with him on a new answer to the stop and frisk question which he is going to get repeatedly on Tuesday night? And what other tweaks have you made in the wake of that performance?</s>O'BRIEN: Well, I don't think it's a new answer. It's an answer he's been saying for a while. Again we will apologize for stop and frisk, but stop and frisk doesn't define the totality of his mayoralty. The idea that Mike Bloomberg was a white racist mayor shoving white cops down the throats of black people is just not the reality of what his entire time as mayor was. We've also been focusing on the bread-and-butter issues voters care about. Access to high quality public health, access to high quality public education, the climate crisis, and gun violence. The reality is Bernie Sanders has a horrible record on gun control. Bernie Sanders has a horrible record himself on criminal justice. He backed the 1994 Crime Bill, and that's gotten far less attention than Mike Bloomberg on stop and frisk. Mike Bloomberg cares about every progressive issue that Bernie Sanders cares about. The difference with Mike Bloomberg is he wants the math to add up. He wants to be transparent with taxpayers about how you fund these programs. Right now all Bernie Sanders is offering voters is seashells and balloons in terms of how you finance these things.</s>MARQUARDT: You guys got into this race. Mayor Bloomberg got into this race essentially to be a counter to the other end of the spectrum in Bernie Sanders. But what we've seen --</s>O'BRIEN: No, no, no, no.</s>MARQUARDT: Well --</s>O'BRIEN: No, no, Mike got into this race to defeat Donald Trump. We have said repeatedly that in giant electoral machine we're building is in the service of the Democratic Party. And in any of the candidates who are running, including Bernie Sanders, we've said that repeatedly. So that's just entirely wrong. We got into this race because there is a five-alarm fire in the White House.</s>MARQUARDT: Right.</s>O'BRIEN: And Mike Bloomberg is the most qualified candidate to take to it Donald Trump in November. If any of Bernie's supporters think that he is going to beat Donald Trump in a general election, they're going to be shocked when that doesn't come to pass in the fall.</s>MARQUARDT: Right.</s>O'BRIEN: And down-ballot Democrats across the country -- I've been in 12 states now, Mike's been in 24, they are petrified of a Bernie Sanders candidacy. For pragmatic, progressive Democrats and liberal Democrats don't want Bernie Sanders at the top of the ticket.</s>MARQUARDT: But at the end of the day, he is a counter to Bernie Sanders. But what we've seen take place is a fracturing of the moderate vote.</s>O'BRIEN: Right. Right.</s>MARQUARDT: Which has allowed Bernie Sanders to essentially waltz straight to the head of the pack.</s>O'BRIEN: Well, I think, you know, if you were to add up all of the different, you know, voting tallies that the moderates have had so far, it would outweigh where Bernie has been. That's totally true. And I think Democratic voters have to get very serious and put their thinking caps on about who they think they can get behind that, one, has a track record of actually governing and delivering real policy solutions to voters. There is no one who is competing right now who has Mike Bloomberg's track record and who can actually go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump in November and win. That is not Bernie Sanders.</s>MARQUARDT: So what are you hoping? What are you expecting to take place on that debate stage on Tuesday? Do you think the other Democrats are going to go after the former mayor as they did in Las Vegas? Are you expecting them to focus instead on the frontrunner in Bernie Sanders?</s>O'BRIEN: Well, I would hope that they'd focus on Bernie if they want to progress themselves politically. They didn't do it in the last campaign -- in the last debate. I think nonetheless, the burden is on Mike to do much better in the next debate than he did in the last one.</s>MARQUARDT: Right.</s>O'BRIEN: He owes that to his supporters and voters. We're optimistic that's the Mike Bloomberg that you're going to see. We're confident that's the Mike Bloomberg you're going to see. We're also confident that we are in the very early stages of this contest, and people are going to be very surprised when Super Tuesday rolls around and you see where Mike Bloomberg is.</s>MARQUARDT: Super Tuesday coming just a few days after the South Carolina primary on Saturday.</s>O'BRIEN: Right.</s>MARQUARDT: Thank you, Tim O'Brien.</s>O'BRIEN: Thanks, Alex, good to be here.</s>MARQUARDT: All right, well, the intelligence community agrees. Russia is actively trying to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, but claims by the top U.S. election security official about who exactly Russian operatives are trying to help are now being walked back. We have new reporting. That's coming up.