As mayor here in new york city. And in a move to perhaps get ahead of those attack, his Campaign Just released a new criminal Justice Reform proposal. Lets go to las vegas, thats where we find again this hour our arlette signs. Tie take us through all the numbers and what they tell us. Reporter this new National Poll is bringing a new face to the debate stage, with Michael Bloomberg now qualifying to appear in his first debate against his democratic rival. But the poll is also showing us major gains for both Michael Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders. If you look at where the democratic field stands now, according to this poll on the national level, Bernie Sanders is at the top of the pack. Hes gone up nine points since this poll in december, showing hes far and away the leader right now of this democratic field. Now, right behind him is Michael Bloomberg. Hes actually up 15 points from december. That is the biggest gain in this poll. And then joe biden has dropped quite a bit, nine points to third place. You also see drops for warren and buttigieg, klobuchar has climbed a little bit. But while Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg are leading the democratic pack now, when you take a look at the head to head matchups, between these democrats and President Trump, this poll shows that people believe that joe biden is the one who has the best chance of defeating President Trump. He is leading in the head to head matchups, 50 to the president s 44. Hes followed by Michael Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders. So this new poll gives us a bit of a snapshot of the race after those first two contests, and as Michael Bloomberg is now going to face his democratic rivals for first time on the debate stage. He has come under a lot of criticism, were going to see how much incoming fire he might be getting on that debate stage and some cnn president ial town halls taking place here in las vegas this evening for Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar. Well see if they decide to take aim at Michael Bloomberg as well. Well see. Arlette, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Minutes ago, bloomberg released a new criminal Justice Reform plan. Lets go to abby phillip who has some of the details. These plans are always important when they come from candidates, but i think the timing of this coming right now, when hes been under a lot of scrutiny for his stop and frisk policy and just recent apology about it in new york city and then about his comments on red lining, et cetera, what does this plan include . Thats absolutely right. The subtext here matters quite a bit. You know, bloomberg is under fire for these comments he made about stop and frisk, a policy that exploded under his tenure as mayor. And he in an old video seemed to imply that the point was to in fact target minority use, but now with this criminal Justice Reform plan, you see bloomberg really aligning himself with where the Democratic Party is, virtually all of the other candidates proposed similar proposals, were talking about broadly reshaping the way the criminal Justice System addresses these racial disparities, in terms of sentencing, and in terms of the prison population. And also in terms of policing. His proposal addresses the use of force and proposes raising the standard for the use of force across the country. He proposes, you know, mandating implicit bias training for police, and also decriminalizing marijuana use and possession. That is a big thing for virtually all of the president ial candidates. And it really has specific resonance for bloomberg, especially as someone who was a mayor of a major city. It also aims to cut the prison population by half, by 2030, and Reforms Police forces with a history of abuse and then he also ties a lot of this back to president obama trying to reinvigorate an Obama Era Program called my brothers keeper. The purpose of that being to address the sort of things that will prevent young minority youth from entering into the criminal Justice System in the first place. But as you pointed out, poppy, a lot of this is about the Bloomberg Campaign trying to get ahead of what is likely to be a lot of attacks coming from his democratic rivals on his history with the issue of criminal justice. And some of these proposals just put bloomberg in line with his democratic rivals and also it is a form of a repudiation of the stop and Frisk Program that he defended up until very recently, poppy. Very recently. Abby, stay right there. Lets bring in cnn editor at large chris cillizza. Thank you for being here. Lets take a minute to listen to this. Sanders has not been afraid to attack democrats throughout the process. Bloomberg not afraid to fight back. Here is a clip of this ad. For people just listening, it talks about the bernie bros, the tactics of some Bernie Sanders supporters. How do you see this unfolding on stage between senator sanders and now number two in the polls, Michael Bloomberg . Yeah, poppy, it is kind of amazing the whole bernie Online Community hasnt become an issue until now. Candidly in 2016, Hillary Clinton sought to make it an issue. This was part of the race then. It is a big part of the race now. Yeah, i think bloomberg will say, look, bernie, these are the people who support you. What do you say to them . Sanders has not had the answer to those questions yet. That said, i would rather be bernie in this race with his issues than bloomberg. Solely because to abbys point, the reason we get a criminal justice plan today is because Michael Bloomberg tomorrow can say, i have this plan, so all the past things i said about stop and frisk and red lining and various other things, those all pale in comparis tonigon to new plan. Im interested to see how bloomberg approaches the debate tomorrow night. I think some of it will be dictated. Does he become the center of attacks . We have seen Elizabeth Warren be that person at times, joe biden be that person at times, Pete Buttigieg be that person at times. Not really seen Bernie Sanders see that person. We havent seen Michael Bloomberg. Who gets the incoming is really important. Molly what is fascinating not only is the 9 point drop that biden suffered in this new National Poll, but the africanamerican support in the quinnipiac polling about a week ago that has declined for biden by 20 points, and the increase in africanamerican support nationally, molly that bloomberg has seen, despite all the questions about stop and frisk et cetera. What do you make of that . Well, look, africanamerican voters were democratic voters like everybody else. Theyre just asphyxiated on electability as the rest of the democratic primary electorate. Perhaps more so. I think, you know if youre an africanamerican voter for a long time you havent had the luxury of waiting for a candidate who is perfect on all of your issues. You want a candidate who can win, you want a candidate who represents what you see as the mainstream of the Democratic Party. So fundamentally i think we just see africanamerican voters making the same calculation with regard to joe biden as the other democratic voters were making in iowa, new hampshire, looking at bidens performance, having doubts about whether he would be able to be on the debate stage with donald trump and win the election, despite, you know, those head to Head National matchup numbers saying im not sure about this guy. We see, you know, the air coming out of his balloon with every Demographic Group in which he was previously strong, thats what happened to him in iowa, new hampshire. And the big danger for him because he has regarded that loyalty with africanamerican voters, which he has earned, which is very deep, comes from his history on civil rights as well as his partnership with barack obama, but if those voters start to conclude they dont think he can win, thats a big flashing red danger sign for joe biden. Abby, you spent time not only have you reported on mayor Pete Buttigiegs president ial bid, but you spent a lot of time in south bend doing actual reporting on his impact on his term there in office, on the town, on factories, on jobs, et cetera. What do you make of the fact if we have the polling, lets pull it up. Stunning to see, now hes coming in at 8 in this National Poll after two incredibly impressive turns in iowa and new hampshire. Do we know why . Well, it raises some real questions about the underlying strategy that the Buttigieg Campaign has been relying on, which is that they believed that if they performed really well in iowa and new hampshire, that voters broadly would give them a second look. That argument was often deployed when they were answering questions about their lack of minority support. But it was actually a pretty broad argument for the entire democratic electorate, especially as we approach super tuesday when the race becomes more nationalized. The drop youre seeing there is really calling into question whether that strategy actually will work for him. And also whether or not they factored in the possibility that bloomberg would suddenly take a lot of this air out of the balloon. I think for a lot of these candidates, bloomberg is kind of out of left field factor here that is undermined their broader strategy from the beginning, and it is going to make it really difficult because, you know, buttigieg needs to not only do well in nevada, in South Carolina, he needs to haverolli hill type of momentum going into super tuesday and it is hard to see that happening given where his numbers stand at the moment. He needs snowball momentum and in a good sense of the phrase. Cillizza, you wrote about this in your column last night. It is not just bloomberg with all that money and all those ads in the airwaves, tom steyer pulling a double digit in nevada and in South Carolina. Yep. What that means for the likes of buttigieg. It is easy to get lost in the i think over 400 million in ad spending of bloomberg, a massive sum of money, but second place by a long shot is tom steyer, a billionaire who spent lots of time and money in nevada and South Carolina. Most polling done before iowa and new hampshire, so we havent had that much data in nevada and South Carolina since. But before, hes in theed my double digits in both places. Now that the race turned to these states, steyer was nowhere in iowa or new hampshire, does his support stay, is it just people who saw his ad or it people who are really with him. If it goes, i think some of it will go if it goes, where does it go . Is it buttigieg, is it warren, is it sanders . It is hard to take steyers appeal is not easily put in a package. It is hard to say it will transfer over to this one he is someone with if youre talking about the most combined support in South Carolina and nevada, it is sanders, biden and steyer right now at least. Well see what happens. We got four or five days left before the caucuses. He is a real factor, no matter what. Yeah. So when you couple all that together, finally, molly, Amy Klobuchar, up in this poll to 9 , she has that klomentum if you will as it has been dubbed after the last debate. She has to perform well in this debate tomorrow night. But, again, bloomberg eats away at any sort of klobuchar gains, doesnt he, in terms of the more moderate lane . It seems like it. What Amy Klobuchar doesnt have is hundreds of millions of dollars to get her message out and raise her visibility with those same kind of voters who might find her appeal to the same kind of qualities, effectiveness, moderation, pragmatism, thats her message as well. She clearly is getting crowded out on the airwaves. We have seen her be a very effective debater when it comes to sort of landing zingers on the other candidates. So i have to think she is going to be looking to maximize. And she has said, she welcomes bloomberg being on that debate stage because she wants to have the opportunity to take him on. So i would definitely watch her on tomorrow night. Okay. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks, poppy. Also, in addition to the debate, join cnn for a series of live town halls with several of the top 2020 democrats. This is all taking place in las vegas, ahead of this weekends nevada caucuses. The twonight event starts tonight, continues on thursday, 8 00 eastern only right here on cnn. Ahead for us, soon the judge in the roger stone case is set to hear from the defense and the Justice Department after a pretty wild week of back and forth over this sentencing. A week that saw the president accuse the judge of bias and several prosecutors completely quit the case. Well tell you whats ahead on that. Also, the director of a hospital in wuhan, china, the city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak died as a result of the virus. It marks a tragic first in the ep epidemic. The boy scouts of america file for bankruptcy. What does this mean for victims. Now, we know the trump strategy try to win by attacking, distorting, dividing. Mr. President it. Wont. Work. Newspapers report bloomberg is the democrat trump fears most. As president , universal healthcare that lets people keep their coverage if they like it. A record on job creation. A doable plan to combat climate change. I led a complex, diverse city through 911 and i have common sense plans to move america away from chaos to progress im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. Hey there im lonnie from lonnies lumber. If you need lumber wood, lonnies is better than good. We got oak, cherry, walnut, and more. And we also have the best selection of plywood clattering in the state. Hey highpitched laughter man dang woodchucks wood clattering stop chuckin that wood with geico, the savings keep on going. 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In the face of attorney general bill barr asking him to pull back on his tweets, and criticism that is the president , President Trump is not stopping. Hes stepping that up. This morning, not content just to tear into the stone sentencing guidelines, but also arguing that the whole case should be thrown out and there should be another trial. Lets go to our Political Correspondent sara murray who joins me. They will have a Conference Call with the doj, with the defense for roger stone. This as the president calls for a completely new trial. Reporter well, the president is not just calling for a new trial, roger stone has filed a motion with the judge, under seal, asking for a new trial. We dont know exactly what his reasoning is there. And this is the first time that amy Roman Jackson will have a chance to talk to both after the four prosecutors who were originally on this case withdrew. It is supposed to be a scheduling call, so you would think they would have a discussion about the sentencing, that is set for thursday and whether it is possible