Sen. Sanders Knocks Joe Biden's Record; Warren Releases Plan to Strip Down 2005 Bankruptcy Bill
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And to get turnout, you need energy and excitement. And I just don't think that that kind of record is going to bring forth the energy that we need.</s>JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Remember that. We're going to come back to that sound bite. Remember that. But with the votes now just 27 days away, the former vice president Joe Biden could have even more incoming from the left. Senator Elizabeth Warren today has a new proposal to strip down that 2005 bankruptcy law that she and Biden went toe to toe on almost two decades ago. This is what happens, you get closer to the voting and the candidates get chippy.</s>TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I don't normally see Bernie Sanders who can be a little curmudgeonly go directly after his Democratic rivals by names so aggressively. It does appear that, you know, with less than 30 days before the Iowa caucuses and Joe Biden continuing to lead in a number of these early states and lead a national lead, it shows that there's a sense that Bernie Sanders and some of the other candidates want to knock him down a couple pegs to make this race a little more competitive.</s>LISA LERER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And I think the Sanders, you know, Sanders supporters and the liberals in the party see this is a really strong contrast for Bernie Sanders that he can position himself as sort of the anti-war, left-leaning, foreign policy candidate. They think there's an audience for that in the party, and there is. And, you know -- but at the same time, Biden sees it as a strong contrast for him, it allows him to highlight his experience. He really is the standard-bearer in a lot of ways of Democratic foreign policy over the past 20 or 30 years. So this is a fight that we could see play out and I suspect we will see play out in interesting ways during the debate.</s>KING: And it's a fight Sanders did not with the nomination in 2016 but he did a lot more damage to Hillary Clinton and he lasted a lot longer in the race than anybody thought he could. And he built this network that he's using now not only to raise money but to maintain his support. Other people have gone up and down, Sanders has been like this. I asked people to remember that sound bite because we have seen this movie before.</s>SANDERS: Let us talk about the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country. I led the opposition to that war. Secretary Clinton voted for that war. The American people might wonder about your qualifications, Madam Secretary, when you voted for the war in Iraq, the most disastrous foreign policy blunder in the modern history of America.</s>KING: He is remarkably consistent. He also made the point that her husband was the president who passed NAFTA and he made the point about energy turnout against Secretary Clinton, saying he was worried the base wouldn't turn out for her.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And the irony here is that those sentences could have been spoken by Candidate Trump as well. And here we are with -- because they're sort of populist, you know, isolationist for lack of a better way to say it, sensibilities are very similar, sort of where the two polls meet. Having said that, the fact that Bernie Sanders was so ready last night with Anderson Cooper to go, as you said, to go so specifically against Joe Biden tells you that he does see what happened in Iran as an opening, and he does see it as a potential to use against him in a very, very aggressive way. And it's not a sneak attack politically because we have seen the rise of Bernie Sanders, but this is more evidence that he sees it, and they see something real, especially in Iowa where he has a history of doing very well.</s>KING: And indirectly, it's also a way to try to peel off -- he's attacking Joe Biden but he's trying to peel voters off of Elizabeth Warren as well. As this moment trying to get out the progressives to say Bernie is the true anti-war guy, Bernie has been there from the beginning, let's go to Bernie at this key moment. Warren has an interesting moment. She owned the summer, she's plateau and even dipped since. And now she has this new plan on bankruptcy, clearly, there's a debate coming up next week, she's looking to mix it up with Joe Biden as well. And she's on television a lot more than she normally is including the Sunday shows, trying to get back into the conversation. She was on "The View" today. She has had several different answers when asked about General Soleimani, who he is, whether it was justified, whether he's a terrorist. This, today.</s>SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This doesn't change the truth. The question is what is the response that the president of the United States should make? He's part of a group that has been --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But is he a terrorist?</s>WARREN: He's part of a group that's been designated --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So he's not a terrorist?</s>WARREN: Of course he is. He is part --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.</s>WARREN: -- of a group that our federal government has designated as a terrorist.</s>KING: It is an odd answer in the sense that he's a terrorist because he's part of a group that the federal government has designated as terrorist as opposed to saying, yes, he is.</s>OLIVIER KNOX, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, SIRIUSXM: Yes. I mean, it's -- we should talk about how steady this race has been for and how long it's been steadying. And you are seeing this effort by Bernie to say -- finally stand and say, I am the standard-bearer. Don't look at these other people, I'm the standard-bearer. She started out early on in her campaign by giving a foreign policy speech, if I remember correctly. And what struck me about it was a lot of her messaging was maybe the president's goals are right but the tactics are wrong. And it's been interesting to watch the Dems manage this one as well.</s>LERER: You know what strikes -- part of what's striking to me about this interview that Senator Warren did is, you know, this is someone who, you know, her and her team really serve to stay in the Washington trappings. They don't do Sunday shows, they don't like to do -- be in that whole mix of like Washington things. And now I think over the weekend, she was on two Sunday shows, she's going on "The View", so you can see that this is a campaign that's feeling like they need to get their message out, they need to sort of get her back up in the running. And I think the race has been set but it's been dynamic, right? You have these four or five candidates who have been sort of switching and swapping places and, you know, we're still a month away, a lot could happen.</s>KNOX: It's at the top, right?</s>KING: Right.</s>LERER: Well, how do you assess the top, right? Are you looking at Iowa, are you looking at New Hampshire, are you looking at national, you know?</s>KNOX: All of it. All of it. I mean, it's been pretty steady and I think they're seeing -- I think some of these other candidates are seeing time take away, and if they want to change the dynamic of the dynamic, to borrow your word, then they've got to take -- they've got to step up now and do it I think.</s>LERER: Yes, we're running -- they're running out of time.</s>KING: Well, Iowa always has a surprise. We don't know what it will be, but Iowa always has a surprise. Coming up, Puerto Rico's governor declares a state of emergency after earthquakes. We'll have the latest in just a moment.