Coronavirus Prompts New U.S. Travel Restrictions
ROMANS: All right, good morning. Americans are in for three days unlike anything seen in the U.S. for a long, long time. Democrats voting today in Iowa -- a fractured party struggling to coalesce around a nominee. A fractured party that needs to heal to face President Trump who will be cleared by the Senate this week as well.</s>JARRETT: Joining us from Des Moines this morning, "Washington Post" White House correspondent Toluse Olorunnipa, a CNN political analyst as well.</s>ROMANS: Good morning.</s>JARRETT: Thanks so much for getting up with us this morning. So --</s>TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: Good morning.</s>JARRETT: Good morning. So, who needs a big standout performance tonight? Really -- you know, obviously, we don't have a poll right now to reference one that would sort of guide us on this, but who really -- who really needs a big night tonight?</s>OLORUNNIPA: Well, there are several candidates that are looking to have a win of some kind out of Iowa even if they don't --</s>JARRETT: Sure.</s>OLORUNNIPA: -- come away with all the delegates or come away leading. There are people like Amy Klobuchar, the senator, who has been trying to have a spark for the last several months. This is her best state so far and if she does not have a great night it may be difficult for her to build a case for her candidacy. Similar to Mayor Pete Buttigieg. This is his best state so far when it comes to polling --</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>OLORUNNIPA: -- and he needs a strong showing tonight to be able to show that he can compete in places like New Hampshire. Joe Biden has also kind of gone up and down in the polls. He is someone who is looking to have a solid showing tonight to be able to say that he can continue on to New Hampshire and get to South Carolina, which is seen as his best state. And there are other people who have been organizing her for several months, including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and they're both vying for the top spot so they can claim a victory out of Iowa and sort of launch into New Hampshire with a lot of momentum.</s>ROMANS: You know, Iowa really matters for Democrats. I mean, maybe even more so than it does for Republicans.</s>JARRETT: Sure.</s>ROMANS: You know, I mean, when you look at who wins Iowa in recent history -- except with a couple of exceptions for Tom Harkin and Dick Gephardt -- that person tends to go on to be the nominee. What is so interesting about what happens in those polls -- in those caucus sites --</s>JARRETT: Those church basements.</s>ROMANS: -- those church basements and school gyms, is these are Iowans who will convince each other how to line up with a candidate as well. So, it just feels so undecided today heading into these caucuses.</s>OLORUNNIPA: That's exactly right. There are a lot of undecided voters who are going to decide tonight who to vote for. And maybe if they vote for someone who doesn't show they're viable and doesn't meet that 15 percent threshold, they're going to have to choose a second choice. There's going to be a lot of convincing going on at the last minute with the various candidates and campaigns trying to convince people that maybe I wasn't your first choice, but vote for me on the second ballot. And that's why it is so undecided. That's why we may have multiple winners out of this.</s>JARRETT: Yes.</s>OLORUNNIPA: Someone who says I won on the first ballot or I had a great showing on the first ballot but the second ballot did not do -- I didn't do as well on the second ballot. So, we could see a lot of spin coming out of tonight with different candidates showing ways to say that they were victorious or that they did well, in part, because there is so much uncertainty and there are going to be multiple different results out of tonight, not just the one top winner.</s>ROMANS: Sure.</s>JARRETT: Toluse, you're on the ground there. Have you noticed -- is there a wedge issue of sorts that really is separating folks?</s>OLORUNNIPA: Well, there are a few different wedge issues and there's a lot of tension right now within the party. You had a congressman, a supporter of Bernie Sanders, boo Hillary Clinton. So, there's a lot of angst over the last election and this divide between sort of the moderates and the insurgent wing -- the Bernie Sanders, the Warren wing of the party. Health care is the biggest argument and in that front, people who say Medicare for All is the only way to go and others who say that that would hurt the economy, hurt the insurance industry. Make it hard for people to keep their private insurance. That's probably the biggest wedge issue within the party. But there's a lot of residual concern and angst since 2016. Some of those wounds have not healed since Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton had a very difficult primary that went longer than expected and that left a lot of sore feelings within the party. And we're seeing some of that bubble up and it could continue in 2020 as well.</s>JARRETT: Yes. Obviously, we've seen the sore feelings continue --</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>JARRETT: -- between the two of them -- trading barbs in the press as well.</s>ROMANS: You're going to have some good weather -- 36 degrees, 21 low tonight. That's great -- that's a heatwave by Iowa in February standards, so that should be good for turnout.</s>ROMANS: Toluse, nice to see you.</s>JARRETT: Thanks so much for getting up with us. See you soon.</s>OLORUNNIPA: All right, thank you.</s>ROMANS: All right, 44 -- almost 45 minutes past the hour. Chinese stocks having their worst day in years. Investors finally have a chance to react to the coronavirus. Shanghai stocks plunged almost eight percent on the first day of trading an extended Lunar New Year holiday. That's the worst day since August 2015. Now there's an escalating back-and-forth between the U.S. and China over the response. CNN's David Culver is in Beijing. And, the United States enforcing some travel restrictions now and China saying wait, you're overreacting.</s>DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, it seems that China is quite frustrated with this, Christine. And they came out through their Foreign Ministry today and they essentially said look, China -- by doing this travel restriction, the U.S. has set a precedent, OK. They've got other countries now following suit and China is becoming increasingly isolated. It's hurting here and that's what the country is pushing back against. But at the same time, they also point out that other countries have stepped in to help, namely Japan and South Korea, for example. When they bring their flights in to evacuate their citizens, they are also bringing in medical supplies. And then, the citizens get on those planes and go back to their home countries. In the case of the first flight with the U.S., it appears that didn't happen. And we're now hearing that there's a holdup for this second flight. You've got hundreds of Americans still within the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of all of this, who are trying to get out. And they were telling me over the past several hours that they were supposed to leave today, it's been delayed. They're not sure what's going on. And it's possible that it's this back-and-forth between the two governments right now. Now, we asked the Chinese Foreign Ministry is this punishment for the U.S. issuing this travel restriction against China? They didn't comment directly but they did say that they need to keep room at the Wuhan airport for aircraft that bring in enough supplies, which they are in dire need of. So, it seems to suggest that they're looking for that goodwill exchange, Christine.</s>ROMANS: All right, David Culver for us in Beijing this morning. Thank you, David. We'll be right back.