Roger Stone to be Sentenced Today; Democrat Face Off in Fiery Debate Ahead of Nevada Caucuses; Trump Ally Roger Stone Sentenced Amid Political Firestorm
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: All four prosecutors then quit the case.</s>POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And this could to the controversy this morning. The president signaling in a tweet a possible pardon for Stone. We're on top of all those breaking developments.</s>SCIUTTO: It's truly remarkable. Also this morning an ugly Vegas hangover after Democrats' fiercest debate yet. Candidates pulling no punches as former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg made his debate debut. Who is taking a victory lap this morning?</s>HARLOW: Obviously a lot to get to this morning but first to the Stone case. Sara Murray is outside the courthouse in D.C. All eyes are on the judge, frankly, that Stone attacked in the middle of all this, Judge Amy Berman Jackson.</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right. And she is going to be the one who has the final say over what Stone's punishment should be for those crimes he's been convicted of, as you mentioned. Obstruction, lying to Congress, witness tampering. He was found guilty on all seven charges. Now Stone has just arrived at court here today. The sentencing is going to get under way around 10:00 a.m. Stone and his attorneys have said he does not deserve any jailtime for this. Prosecutors originally asked for seven to nine years before this extraordinary set of circumstances that happened where Barr intervened in the case, called that sentencing excessive and they asked for a shorter duration of time. Now obviously, we've also seen President Trump repeatedly intervene in this case. We saw him do it again overnight. He posted this tweet, it's from a FOX News host, saying, something like this should never happen again to anyone in our country about Roger Stone. Presumably meaning, I guess that you should never be sentenced for the crimes you're convicted of by a jury? We've seen the president say over and over again that Roger Stone has been treated unfairly, that this judge is biased. That Stone deserves a new trial. So, of course, the other thing that we're all on high alert for today and the coming days is the possibility of a pardon from the president. The other thing that we should remember is that no matter what the judge decides today, Amy Berman Jackson, even if she decides that Roger Stone deserves jailtime, he is not going to be detained today. Stone has asked for a new trial and the judge said she will consider that request before he begins serving out any sentence. Back to you, guys.</s>SCIUTTO: Remarkable events to follow. Sara Murray at the courthouse, thanks very much. Michael Bloomberg got hit hard and often in his first Democratic debate last night.</s>HARLOW: Arlette Saenz joins us from Las Vegas. We knew that he was going to face incoming. The question was, how was he going to deal with it. Bernie Sanders is leading most polls. Bloomberg, though, got the front-runner treatment last night.</s>ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he sure did. It was basically a Michael Bloomberg pile-on last night. And one candidate who appears to have benefited a bit from last night's performance is Elizabeth Warren. Her campaign saying they raised more than $2 million on debate day. All of the Democratic contenders came ready to fight last night in what was the most fiery and contentious debate yet.</s>SAENZ (voice-over): The Democrats were ready to rumble in their first chance to debate against Michael Bloomberg.</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The mayor says that he has a great record, that he's done these wonderful things. Well, the fact of the matter is, he has not managed his city very, very well when he was there.</s>SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think you look at Donald Trump and say, we need someone richer in the White House.</s>SAENZ: Front-runner Bernie Sanders delivering the first blow.</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In order to beat Donald Trump, we're going to need the largest voter turnout in the history of the United States. Mr. Bloomberg had policies in New York City of stop and frisk. That is not a way you're going to grow voter turnout.</s>SAENZ: Bloomberg firing back at Sanders throughout the night.</s>MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think there's any chance of the senator beating President Trump. What a wonderful country we have. The best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses. What did I miss here?</s>SAENZ: Elizabeth Warren was ready to strike, zeroing in on the former New York City mayor's alleged treatment of women.</s>SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'd like to talk about who we're running against. A billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians and, no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg. But understand this. Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.</s>SAENZ: Fighting to keep her campaign alive, Warren delivered attack after attack against Bloomberg.</s>WARREN: He has gotten some number of women, dozens, who knows, to sign nondisclosure agreements both for sexual harassment and for gender discrimination in the workplace. So, Mr. Mayor, are you willing to release all of those women from those nondisclosure agreements so we can hear their side of the story?</s>BLOOMBERG: We have a very few nondisclosure agreements.</s>WARREN: How many is that?</s>BLOOMBERG: Let me finish.</s>WARREN: How many is that?</s>BLOOMBERG: None of them accuse me of doing anything other than maybe they didn't like the joke I told. They decided, when they made an agreement, that they wanted to keep it quiet for everybody's interest.</s>WARREN: No.</s>BIDEN: Come on.</s>BLOOMBERG: They signed the agreements, and that's what we're going to live with.</s>WARREN: I'm sorry. This is also a question about electability. We are not going to beat Donald Trump with a man who has who knows how many nondisclosure agreements and the drip, drip, drip of stories of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against.</s>SAENZ: Pete Buttigieg made sure Bloomberg wasn't the only candidate on stage with a target on his back.</s>PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Most Americans don't see where they fit if they've got to choose between a socialist who thinks that capitalism is the root of all evil and a billionaire who thinks that money ought to be the root of all power. Let's put forward somebody who is actually a Democrat.</s>SAENZ: And a midwestern melee igniting when Buttigieg called out Amy Klobuchar for not remembering the name of Mexico's president in her recent interview.</s>KLOBUCHAR: I wish everyone was as perfect as you, Pete. Yes, that's right. And I said that I made an error. I think having a president that maybe is humble and is able to admit that here and there maybe wouldn't be a bad thing.</s>BUTTIGIEG: But you're staking your candidacy on your Washington experience.</s>KLOBUCHAR: Are you trying to say that I'm dumb? Are you mocking me here, Pete?</s>BUTTIGIEG: I'm saying you shouldn't trivialize that knowledge.</s>KLOBUCHAR: I said I made an error.</s>SAENZ: Klobuchar trying to shift the focus back on the candidates' real opponents.</s>KLOBUCHAR: We have not been talking enough about Donald Trump and what's -- let's just talk about Donald Trump.</s>SAENZ: Now we are just two days out from the Nevada caucuses, and all of the candidates, except for Michael Bloomberg remain in the state today trying to make their final pitch to voters -- Jim and Poppy.</s>HARLOW: OK. Arlette, quite a debate. Thank you very much. Joining us now to talk all about it, Maria Cardona, Democratic strategist, and Jackie Alemany, author or the "Washington Post's" "Power Up." Jackie, let me start with you. Elizabeth Warren needed last night, and she got it. The question is, is it too late? Is it enough to put her back near or at front-runner status?</s>JACKIE ALEMANY, AUTHOR, THE WASHINGTON POST'S "POWER UP": I think it's definitely too soon to be making any conclusions after one debate performance. I mean, I think that she did have her Amy Klobuchar moment, the moment that we saw Amy have in New Hampshire that really put her over the edge and threw her into the top tier. And I think that's what Warren was gunning for, and what she realized she needed to do to revive a fledgling campaign that has been overshadowed by Mike Bloomberg and the vast amount of money he's spent. And Bernie Sanders pulling away in the polls. That being said, what Warren didn't do, which is the ultimate hurdle to her securing the nomination, is attack Bernie Sanders. The one person who she's, you know, really splitting voters with and, again, who is becoming a potentially formidable front-runner. But, you know, this debate performance, as Arlette pointed out, Elizabeth Warren raised a record amount of money in that first hour. It's clear that she's picked up some energy. She might have that going into the caucuses on Saturday. And that's what she's looking for to translate into South Carolina for the primary the following Saturday.</s>SCIUTTO: Maria, looking at Mike Bloomberg's performance there, he knew going into this that he was going to have an issue with stop and frisk. He got ahead of it. Right? He went out there and apologized, he met with a congregation, et cetera. Owned it in effect. On the issues, for instance, the NDAs from women during his time leading Bloomberg, didn't seem to have a great answer on that. Were you surprised he didn't have a stronger pushback on something he had to -- when he's preparing for these debates, he had to know that he was going to get pushed on that issue?</s>MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I was really surprised. And I think that a lot of people were surprised as well because it was clear that he was going to have the target on his back. You would think that he would have overly prepared for something like this. He has good people around him who should have told him that this issue is undoubtedly going to come up. And that his rivals on that stage were going to be putting that in front of him. And he looked like a deer in the headlights. Not just giving really bad answers to those obvious questions, but also not being able to pivot, which, when you are in a position of not having a great answer to something that is being put in front of you, that is the tactic that you use to pivot. And in that debate, and not just him, but I think all of the candidates really missed the mark on really trying to go after Donald Trump on one key issue, Jim. Here in Nevada with a population that is so critical, and that is Latino voters. I think they really missed the opportunity to push back on Trump's one main talking point about the economy and having record unemployment numbers in the Latino community.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes.</s>CARDONA: And no one really did that. And I think it was a big miss.</s>SCIUTTO: Right. Right. And when you know that voters consistently put beating Donald Trump, Democratic voters, at the top of the list for the qualities they're looking for in the candidate, the Democratic candidate.</s>CARDONA: Yes.</s>HARLOW: Absolutely. So what about this moment? Let me just replay it because it certainly struck me watching last night, ladies. Here was Pete Buttigieg going after Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg.</s>BUTTIGIEG: Most Americans don't see where they fit if they've got to choose between a socialist who thinks that capitalism is the root of all evil and a billionaire who thinks that money ought to be the root of all power. Let's put forward somebody who is actually a Democrat.</s>HARLOW: He did not fare well in the latest national polling as well as he's been doing. Is this what Mayor Buttigieg needed to do last night, Jackie?</s>ALEMANY: Well, look, we do know that the mayor has a problem with voters of color, African-American voters.</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>ALEMANY: He's barely registering in the polls. And I think despite his wins and his success in Iowa and New Hampshire, that might not be enough to potentially put someone who was at zero to a top tier in these more diverse contests. That being said, he does speak to, you know, a real craving and a need amongst voters that we're seeing. Bernie Sanders might have a plurality but not enough voters have coalesced around him. And enough have spread across these other different moderate candidates. People are still really searching for that alternative. I think that's why Mike Bloomberg was such a topic of, you know, ire and fascination amongst voters as well last night because people sort of eyed him as that alternative to Biden. He's been able to really shoot that gap. And what you saw Pete trying to do there was, obviously, exploit that in a pretty smart way and, you know, and try to stake his claim in the race.</s>SCIUTTO: Maria Cardona, Jackie Alemany, probably going to come back to this topic a couple of times before November. Good to have you. Join us tonight for two more town halls ahead of the Nevada caucus. Former vice president Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren live from Las Vegas. Starts at 8:00 Eastern Time only here on</s>CNN. HARLOW: Intervention tension. Less than one hour from now, Trump ally Roger Stone is set to be sentenced after the president lashed out over the prosecutor's sentencing recommendations and the Justice Department intervened. It's a political firestorm. We're all over that. Plus, minutes from now, the jury begins their third day of deliberations in the Harvey Weinstein sex crimes trial. And they've asked a lot of questions. What's going on?</s>SCIUTTO: And will this keep America safe? The president has named a new acting spy chief who does not have any intelligence experience. Why it matters.