has it spreads to more countries impacting economic markets, causing a state of alarm around the world. >> it is scary and the fact that it pops up and you don't know where it might be, it's scary. >> we're just washing our hands -- >> you have to be careful. take care of yourself. and fire wall, joe biden hoping he can hold on to, south carolina, as polls show bernie sanders cutting into his lead. south carolina is a state biden must win. >> you are likely to determine who the next president will be and it all starts here in south carolina. it starts here. for real. ♪ and good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president trump is flying back from india wrapping up that visit with one of his significant press conferences. the political targets today including hillary clinton, michelle obama and two women who sit on the supreme court. the president also delivering another dismissal of any russian interference on his behalf after accusing democratic lawmakers about leaking stories about bernie sanders. >> the intelligence community believes that russia is trying to meddle in the 2020 election. do you agree with their assessment? >> what i'm reading and i've been over here for the last couple of days, but they went to see bernie and they told bernie about something having to do with they want bernie to win. frankly i think it's disgraceful and i think it was leaked from the intelligence committee, house, house version. they don't want him. so they put out a thing that russia is backing him. this is what they do. i've gone through it for a long time. i get it. i get the game better than anybody. >> can you pledge to the american people that you will not accept any foreign assistance in the upcoming election? >> i want no help from any country and i haven't been given help from any country. >> nbc white house correspondent peter alexander in new delhi, jeff mason here on the white house lawn, david jolly and mieke eoyang, vice president of national security for third way and a former staff member of house intelligence. first to you, peter alexander. there is a satellite day, but bring us up to date on the news conference and what you saw as the highlights having been there. >> reporter: what was most striking is the president came out feeling good about this experience at that rally that took place yesterday. he got to visit the taj mahal and he started the news conference by saying he doesn't want to overshadow that by saying anything controversial and he said a series of things that many will view as controversial. he attacked adam schiff, accusing him of leaking information. as for that intelligence, he described it as exaggerated and he also disputed, dismissed the idea that there was interference, in fact, by russia in the 2016 election. you played that key sound bite where he said that he doesn't want any help from russia and that he never got any help from russia. that goes against what we all know to be true, which is the assessment of the intelligence community, their findings that russia did interfere in 2016 in an effort to help president trump. what also struck me here on this sort of post impeachment tour, the president's first trip overseas, is how he did feel sort of good about his present standing. not just from what he experienced here, but his position in the polls. the increasing likelihood that he might face bernie sanders going forward. you'll remember in the past during interviews, when asked about information from foreign governments, he said to abc news, yeah, he would take a look around it. suggesting now he doesn't need that. the sense that he's emboldened now, but also feeling good, i think, about his position at this time. andrea? >> and, jeff mason, at that news conference in helsinki more than a year ago, you asked president putin if he wanted trump to win and the response and the president's responses to that were so startling. why don't you remind everyone out there what happened then and what is still happening today? >> reporter: sure. during that press conference i asked the president if he blamed anyone aside from democrats and u.s. officials for the decrease or the sort of decrease in the relationship between russia and the united states and he basically said there was blame on both sides. when i asked president putin if he had wanted trump to win in 2016, the president of russia said yes. i thought it was striking today that president trump says he doesn't need help from any country. i think that actually goes to the heart of what irritated him about the mueller probe and any suggestion about russia's interferences, that he wants to take credit for his big win. and he wants to win again, obviously, in 2020 and he doesn't like anything that suggests that that might be illegitimate. it is difficult to imagine that congressman schiff and lawmakers on the hill would have better intelligence than the white house. so i thought that was also an interesting comment for him to make. but in general, you can see how it gets under his skin, any suggestion that he's not responsible for a big victory. >> and the president was asked about joe maguire, the head of national intelligence, who was unceremoniously kicked out before his end date which would have been march 12th, and he could have been nominated as the permanent head of national intelligence. he was the previous head of the counterterrorism center. he's a three-star retired admiral, highly regarded, and here is what the president had to say. >> i think the -- yes, fin fact we're talking to five different people right now. i think all people you know. joe maguire is an excellent man and his time was march 11th where he would have had -- >> was he forced out because he wasn't sufficiently loyal to you? >> not at all. he was pushed out because frankly -- he wouldn't pushed out. on march 11st he would have had to leave. >> that was a slip. he was pushed out, no, he had to get out. he was pushed out, that's my reporting on multiple sources and it was done in such a really disconcerting way. to the career people, his deputy was also forced out. ric grenell was appointed, someone with zero intelligence experience. the republican senators are saying, oh, well, he had intelligence experience because he was the ambassador to germany. does the ambassador to germany or any other state see the intelligence that goes to the head of national intelligence who delivers the presidential daily brief often to the president himself? >> no. the president's remarks don't pass the laugh test. it's very clear, joe maguire could have stayed until that person was confirmed. there was no urgency in pushing him out. he tried to be on the president's team by holding back the whistle-blower complaint. but when you pick someone like ric grenell who's known as a press person who doesn't have a lot of experience to intelligence to this job, you're undermining the role of the director of national intelligence whose job it is to referee fights between the different intelligence agencies and trying to come up with a cohesive picture of what's going onto present the president with. and grenell is not up for this job. >> and a cohesive picture without political impact, straight annulus, and it's subjective. they're deciding, is it more than 50%, more than 60% likely. it's a matter of judgment. but that requires experience and the real problem i'm told is cash patel who is the devin nunes right-hand man. >> right. >> and he's the person who is the red line for a lot of those professionals at dni. >> that's right. and people who are following impeachment, he was the one at the national security council who they tried to put in the place of lieutenant colonel vindman. they said stop coming to these briefing, we're going to have this other person come in. he's been somebody who has been politicizing intelligence. there's concern he's been the conduit between nunes and some of the activities that he's been doing and the white house. he's really a very troubling person and a very partisan person coming into this space. it's a big concern for the career professionals. >> david jolly, you're a former republican and you look at these republican senators today, one after another, not just lindsey graham, but people who -- richard burr, saying that he might be comfortable with ric grenell and brushing off any questions. they haven't been questions about some of the underlying problems there, but they're ready to go ahead with this. and there was no reason why the president could not have nominated joe maguire, highly regarded for the permanent position. >> it's a perfect example, andrea, of how trumpism has infected the republican party. the question of whether to seek knowledge or affirmation, most of trump's predecessors would prefer to seek knowledge. donald trump seeks affirmation from critical roles within the united states government, particularly the position of dni and our intelligence agencies. donald trump wants affirmation of his suspicions or in the case that the victory was his own with no help of russia. he doesn't want the knowledge that the intel officers can provide him. the persistent denial of russia's -- the persistent lack of acceptance by donald trump of russia's engagement on his behalf is the president's fatal consent. when asked about russia's interference, he pivots to suggest that the greater threat to american democracy comes from democrats on capitol hill, from adam schiff and even those intelligence committee members, democrats, they are a greater threat to destabilize the united states than the bad actor that is russia. and in the end, destablization is what russia wants. sure, they get an actor in donald trump that is sympathetic to what russia wants on the world stage. but more importantly, what russia gets is the destablization of our democracy as american voters begin to lack confidence in the november election. it is exactly that instability that russia wants. even perhaps more so than an actor in donald trump that might look favorably towards russia's geopolitical interests. >> and also picking up on the -- another big issue that came up was the coronavirus. peter, you've questioned and pressed the president about the response to coronavirus letting 20 americans come back into the country when he was critical of the previous administration under ebola. it was a confusing response. >> reporter: you're exactly right. the president back in 2014 during the heart of the ebola crisis said when they were bringing back a doctor to the united states to treat him, he was treated and left the hospital well, the president at the time called the obama administration incompetent and said those people should stay there. so i asked him what's the difference between that and what's happening now. he said they're very different situations. he said that ebola is 100% deadly. in fact, that's not the case as i tried to push back on him. all of the americans who came back in the case of ebola were able to recover. they recuperated in hospitals despite what is such a terrible illness, a disease they were dealing with at the time. and specifically on coronavirus over this course of this day and visit, he's tried to downplay it suggesting all the people who have come back in the united states under his watch are getting better, saying it will disappear by the summer and saying he feels like it's a good time to take a look at the stock market in spite of 1,000-point loss yesterday alone. >> it sounds he's more concerned about keeping the markets up and reassuring people economically than the actual facts. he said that ebola had never been heard of before which is not the case. safe travels. we all miss you. jeff mason, david jolly, mieke eoyang, thanks to all. and that coronavirus spreading across asia and europe with new cases from spain to south korea fueling concerns over the effort to contain this outbreak. and a shocking number of fatal cases in iran. the problems continue on wall street. the dow with another big drop, you heard from peter about that thousand-point drop yesterday. after monday's meltdown, you can see it's a little bit more stable, but it's still pretty much down. 292, almost 300 points. molly hunter is in milan. people in italy are concerned, molly. >> reporter: that's right. people are really concerned, especially in the north of the country where we are. i want to show you, milan is actually not that nervous. let's take a look, this is an aware in front of milan's most famous cathedral. it's closed to tourists. that's one of the measures they've taken to try to stop huge groups of people from gathering. you look around, and not that many people are wearing masks. about an hour from here is the red zone. 50,000 people are fenced in about a dozen towns. we spoke with a woman today and she said they could move freely within the red zone. they could wait in line at the supermarket about 20 people in at a time. they had to wear face masks and gloves. now the big news in italy, it spread to sicily and florence. it's already spreading and the european concern is that it will spread beyond these borders. you can take a train to paris from milan without showing your passport. it's about coordination. who's responsibility is it to try to contain this and where do you check people on that route, andrea? >> it really looks -- it looks like a growing crisis when it's in italy, sicily, when it's spreading around europe and i'm not sure that the world health organization or american officials in particular know what to do about this. it really is very frightening. molly hunter, i know you were in hong kong as well. quick question, molly, you were saying yesterday that you came from hong kong to europe and nobody stopped you and asked you for -- you know, to be tested or take your temperature? >> reporter: yeah. i flew via london. i was flying from london to milan yesterday. when we arrived in milan, of course, i had hong kong stamps on my passport, i had been to tokyo as well. but no one asked about any travel history and no one took my temperature. one of my colleagues, they did take her temperature. but there was some inconsistencies. no one asked my my tlafl histra history so i was able to travel here to italy without anyone asking me that many detailed questions about where i had machine and that's the big worry is that i can travel from here back to london, to paris, to frankfort. most places in europe without getting stopped. that's what european officials will have to grapple with in coming days. >> molly hunter in that absolutely beautiful square in milan. thank you for being with us today. coming up, south carolina or bust, can joe biden count on the african-american vote in south carolina to push him to a much-needed victory? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us right here on msnbc. so you can bring 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is closing in on joe biden in south carolina ahead of tonight's critical debate and saturday's primary in a state that biden has to win in order to revive his campaign. a new poll shows biden only four points ahead of sanders among likely democratic primary voters. that is within the margin of error. and sanders has made big inroads with african-american voters critical to any biden victory. biden is also losing african-american support to tom steyer. joe biden now trying to shore up his african-american base with a new digital ad accusing sanders of considering a primary challenge to president obama back in 2012. >> i think it would be a good idea if president obama faced some primary opposition. >> bernie sanders was seriously thinking about challenging our first african-american president in a primary. >> sanders denied that last night on cnn. >> i'm a strong supporter of all that barack obama has accomplished. it did not give any consideration of running for president of the united states until 2015. >> joining me now are errin haines and jen palmieri communications director for hillary clinton's 2016 campaign. how do you see the biden/sanders race? it looks to us it's tightening and sanders has made important inroads. >> it absolutely is tightening and former vice president biden is looking to shore up that black support which i think he even acknowledges now is no longer a fire wall. so i think with this election, this primary being one that's going to be won on the margins, he's doing everything he can to shore up that african-american support and onto super tuesday. he took some time out to meet with the national newspaper publishers association this morning, that's the black press, over 200 newspapers across the country representing 20 million readers to make his case to black america about why he's still the most electable which is a priority for a lot of black voters. and so i think that combined with the expected endorsement tomorrow from jim clyburn could give him the shot in the arm he needs to make it through this weekend and possibly in super tuesday states that also have a large number of black voters. >> and hillary clinton had a huge majority of the black vote against bernie sanders. he was in single digits. and now look at him. he's about 15% behind joe biden. that's -- that is a gap that can be navigated and that shows a lot of improvement in his standing, plus you've got steyer in this race. i'm not sure why he got on the debate stage. and he's just pouring money at it. >> yeah. biden is -- bernie is coming into south carolina at full strength. biden did get -- i think he got a boost in nevada. that does help him. it feels that he has stabilized. his theory is upholding to some degree. but sanders has done a lot of work -- i think a couple of things have happened, sanders has done a lot of work in the last four years with hispanic voters and making inroads with african-american voters and things have gotten a lot worse in the last four years, particularly in communities of color. and i think you find them more open to, you know, sanders' message. i do -- i saw that in nevada. you feel that to some degree particularly with younger african-americans here. and then if he's battling steyer on the other side, it is difficult for him. he is still leading in the polls here. it certainly feels it's possible he could win. but it also feels -- neither outcome would surprise me. it may be that this race turns out to be a biden versus sanders race. >> if sanders does win, how does he -- does not win, rather, if sanders wins and biden does not pull this out, how does he go on, jen, to super tuesday. he won't have great financial resources, he's the only candidate who's not been hopscotching around super tuesday states. he's been planted in south carolina because it's so important to him. >> it's very difficult. he's counting on momentum and the sort of -- there's a lot of long-standing love in the democratic party for joe biden. that's a real thing. and he has been counting on that to carry him through on super tuesday. without a win here, that becomes very difficult. bernie sanders -- and even with a win here, sanders remains the -- remains the front-runner that, you know -- tonight you'll see people -- i've seen pete buttigieg has been going after him harder lately, biden has as well. but i think those candidates may find the time to have done that was december, not february. >> and what are you hearing from the community? is there a generational divide in terms of which voters are going to sanders, which african-americans are going to biden? >> yes, when i'm talking to voters this week, there's a generational divide. i'm hearing that particularly among black women who are the majority of black voters in this case. what they are saying, the older black women voters are telling me that they are definitely with joe biden, he's somebody that they feel familiar with. obviously his relationship with the first black president, president barack obama, is something that means a lot to them and they feel that he is the person who is the most electable. but younger voters are open to a senator sanders. but they are open to other candidates as well. there's a lot of undecided voters here which was a pattern in some of the other early states, undecided down to the 11th hour here still open to candidates like a tom steyer, like an elizabeth warren, you know, and like a senator sanders. and so to the extent that this debate will really help kind of close it for some people, i think that we could see some of them possibly making gains with black voters. but this is still joe biden's race to lose here with the black electorate come saturday. errin haines, great to see you, thank you very much. jen palmieri, thank you as well. women's rights, why afghan women might lose the most in the trump administration's proposed deal with the taliban. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ don't get mad. get e*trade, dawg. secretary of state mike pompeo says the u.s. is one step closer to ending the 19-year-long war with afghanistan -- in afghanistan i should say. telling reporters today that the taliban and afghan government are expected to sign an agreement on saturday. i asked the secretary whether the u.s. would insist on protecting hard-won rights for afghan women and he indicated that would be left to the new afghan government, not the u.s. >> are we prepared to withdraw and let the afghan government and the taliban reach conclusions that disadvantage women despite the american commitments under two administrations to the women of afghanistan. >> the united states effort is to let the afghans lead this process and they'll come up with a resolution that is, i'm sure, uniquely theirs just like every nation across the world does. >> in other words, not his job. joining me now, dan de luce who covers national security and global affairs and has been digging through this and writing on the issue for nbcnews.com. dan, we made commitments, we made promises and these women, for the first time, could go to coed schools because of lawyer bush and president bush and condi rice and others and in the hillary clinton state department and john kerry, it was followed through. it's a bipartisan commitment by this government to human rights in afghanistan. but to say they'll do it uniquely, the way the afghans do, like other countries do around the world, i understand war fatigue. but they can establish some red lines. >> i think that's an argument a lot of people are making is understandably it's time for the u.s. to try to get out of the war. but the u.s. has all this leverage. we have thousands of troops there. all the aid that's given and so a lot of afghan women are saying, please, use your leverage and require the taliban to accept the rights that women now have and don't abandon us. and the trump administration won't give a clear answer. they sort of say we're confident that these civil rights will be in place. but a big question mark and a lot of fear right now. >> to rely on the afghans in negotiations with the taliban will not be at the table, we're saying it's up to you guys now. they've got a reduction in violence for seven days which seems like the least you could expect when two parties are going to come and sit together at the peace table and it needs to be negotiated and then the whole issue will be how many troops we leave and that's going to be a big issue. the president obviously wants everybody out and the military would like to see a residual force. >> that's right. it's unclear how long the withdrawal will take. and they never specified what are the conditions? what is the red line where the u.s. would not withdraw. the criticism trump gets, he's throwing away the leverage that he has . if you speak to afghan women, they've come so far in 20 years. they were locked in their homes, you know, flogged in public if they went out of sight of their house without a male escort, barred from going to school, barred from working. there's been incredible progress in 20 years. it was always part of the u.s. rational. this was why we -- partly why we were there. and they were asking for some leverage to be exerted before everything is sort of thrown away in a negotiation. >> as someone who was there under taliban rule when the women were not permitted out of their houses, i could just say we do not want to go back to that medieval society that it was. dan de luce, thank you for staying on this. coming up, supreme injustice. president trump slamming two of the three women on the supreme court while overseas. reaction from senator kirsten gillibrand coming up next. clar'e you doing on our sofa? what're you doing on your sofa? try wayfair. you got this! woah. yeah! let me try! all alright, get it! blow it up! that's what i'm talking about. except that's my seat, so. all right, so maybe after the movie let's talk about that bedroom of yours! when 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(vo) save over 40 hours a month with intuit quickbooks. in india today, president trump unleashed an unprecedented attack on two of the three female supreme court justices calling for sonia sotomayor and ruth bader ginsburg to recuse themselves from any cases involving his administration. >> i always thought that frankly that justice ginsburg should do it because she went wild during the campaign when she was running and justice sotomayor said what she said yesterday. i don't know how they cannot reaccuse themselves for anything having to do with trump or trump-related. the right thing to do -- as a supreme court justice there's a different standard. at the same time i think it's a higher standard. i think she's trying to shame people with perhaps a different view into voting her way. >> recently justice sotomayor who was appointed by president obama wrote in a dissent that the obama administration has become too quick to run to the supreme court. joining me now is kirsten gillibrand. i'm trying to get that image out of my mind of ruth bader ginsburg going wild. the whole notion that these two justices should recuse themselves is a little off? >> i think it's kind of his pattern of trying to silence women, to be perfectly honest. i think both of their statements over the many years have been accurate. i think what sonia sotomayor just said about a bias with his judges and justices is true. just look at the attack on women's rights that you've seen across the country in legislatures and the courts. the fact that he had a litmus test list of justices to appoint and he's already picked two of them who are supporting an attack on women's reproductive freedom. you see it with mitch mcconnell on the senate floor today. >> and i also want to share with you something that happened in india when peter alexander asked the president about the weinstein verdict. and i think we can queue that up. let's see what he had to say about that. >> let's hear what he said. >> what message can you as president deliver to women in america who are still afraid to come forward and share their stories of sexual harassment and assault. >> i don't know the results. i haven't seen too much -- >> aside from this case. >> i think from the standpoint of women, i think it was a great thing. it was a great victory and it sends a strong message, very, very strong message, peter. >> well asked. i'm not sure about the answer. it's an interesting answer, let's put it that way. senator, that case really was a landmark case for a lot of reasons, obviously, a split verdict. but a verdict that does reaffirm that prosecutors should prosecute and you've been such an activist on behalf of women in the military and your role on the armed services committee on behalf of real justice for victims of both genders of sexual assault. >> i believe the case is a landmark case because what it showed is that jurors believed these women and as in many cases of sexual assault, harassment and rape, sometimes there's nuances, sometimes there's part of their testimony that is confusing and the truth is, they believed the women and they believed that harvey weinstein did harass and assault them. he's been held accountable. i think it creates space for people to come forward, to know that the criminal justice system can work for them and i think it will allow more women and men who have been assaulted and harassed the confidence that they can be believed and they will be believed in a court of law. >> let me briefly ask you about something bernie sanders said last night. he said it in the debate last week and again last night on cnn, said that if he has a majority of the delegates, he should get the nomination. the rules require him not to get the nomination, for it to go to a second ballots and you would be able to weigh in. what do you think of his claim? >> i prefer a system where whoever gets the most votes wins. it's why i'm against the electoral college. i think we need to have a reform in our voting system. i'm hopeful that we respect the voters regardless of the outcome at the convention. i think to somehow unwind or try to create a winner would be a big mistake on the democratic party's part. >> he's the front-runner. he might wrap it up by super tuesday. how do you feel about him as the nominee? >> i am. i think all of our front-runners can beat trump. he's shown that he has a strong base of support that is diverse, dynamic and passionate. if you want to win in red and purple places, the most important thing that you need are people who like you and are willing to fight for you. you need people to ask their friends, parents and colleagues to vote for your candidate. you need passion and what bernie showed so far is that he has a lot of passion in his campaign and that's not a good thing. i'm not worried. i think any of our front-runners can defeat trump. i think all of them have shown strong assets and arguments and we'll have an opportunity to let people vote over the next few weeks and things will become clear. but i don't have a concern that our front-runners can't win. i believe they can. >> very, very briefly. i know you have two anti-abortion votes coming up in the senate today, will they go down, will they be defeated? >> yes, they will be defeated. again, this is part of president trump and mitch mcconnell's all-out assault on women. they're trying to harm women. they're trying to take away their civil rights, human rights, their ability to make the most important decisions of their lives. they're taking away their religious freedom. they're taking away their moral freedom. when these two measures that we're voting on literally changes the landscape of how we treat a baby who is born who cannot survive outside the womb and how those parents want the final moments with their child. it's a horrible, horrible choice by mitch mcconnell to force these votes. i think this is a political ploy to satisfy those who are attending the cpac conference. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. coming up, havana, bernie sanders under fire for his praise of if a defidel castro. you didn't see the sign? that... that wasn't there when i was here earlier. 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ask your rheumatologist about humira. bernie sanders' comments about fidel castro are creating controversy. he told "60 minutes" while he opposed the authoritarian regime, it wasn't fair to say everything was bad about the communist state. >> when fidel castro first came to power, '59? he initiated a major literacy program. there's a lot of folks that are literate. he formed a literacy brigade. they went out, helped people learn to read and write. i think teaching people to read and write is a good thing. >> joining me, "daily beast" columnist maureen carlson. i covered cuba for years, there's a lot of great things to say about their social services, education, health system, but has sanders stepped into something in that it is controversial with voters in florida, a lot of people. >> well, he stepped into losing 29 electoral votes in that state, hurting anybody down ballot. you can say in an offhand way that castro did a lot for literacy and cuba, but you have to immediately acknowledge what awful things he did, forced labor camps, all kinds of repression, killed his own people and there's simply no way to balance the two. except to pivot right to that. it shows just how stubborn senator sanders can be that he dn didn't take the opportunity handed to him last night to do both. >> the other thing, eugene, that's reverberating, the bloomberg campaign's aggressive social media practices, they deleted a bunch of tweets that jumped on sanders about castro, if he likes that dictator, what may he say about putin, completely fabricating joking tweets which crossed a bar. and it echos that fake video they created out of last week's debate, making it look like bloomberg on stage put everyone on the spot when he did not. >> what bloomberg is depending on is moderate voters even never, previous voters that voted for trump not knowing the facts, not knowing the details and nuance of quotes, of the debates and what happened, but who are looking for someone who can beat trump but who isn't as liberal or progressive as sanders, and what sanders is not doing is making statements that help him. he's making statements that help bloomberg, that even help trump. because most of the voters that are listening only to the social media campaign and only the clips of the president aren't paying attention to the nuance, lengthy answer that sanders pride. >> what about the requirement to be accurate in political advertising, that's what we demand of the trump campaign, we complain about the russian bots. should any candidate be using social media this way? 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[ barking ] you did your job better than anybody. >> i did the best i could. >> well, trail blazing nasa mathematician katherine johnson speaking to nbc's rehema ellis, she passed away at the age of 101. when john glen was picked, she was the only african-american and woman in the room on the team. the presidential medal of freedom was awarded to her by president obama in 2015. before her story was made famous in the book and film "hidden figures." that does it for andrea mitchell reports. here is chris jansing in new york. hello, everyone. i am chris jansing. get ready for a showdown. we're hours away from democratic debate number ten. as the stakes continue to escalate, so do the attacks. trip gabriel put it this way. as push comes to shove in the democratic primary, candidates and their surrogates have descended to a level of personal animous that was rare before the era of president trump. expect the night to be particularly sharp for bernie sanders, the leader in delegate count after nevada. the other candidates, fighting to keep their presidential prospects alive. because consider what happened in 2016. six republicans were on the south carolina debate stage. jeb bush was gone a week later, ben carson, marco rubio weren't far behind. tonight's candidates know a further whittling is coming and