i don't know if i believe him on that, dan pfeiffer. i believe he studied both of their positions very closely and i believe he knows now who he would support and i believe he's choosing his words very, very carefully. >> he's choosing his words very carefully. he's president of the united states, leader of the democratic party. i would say he has a lot on his plate that probably stems beyond reading what is on the clinton and sanders campaign websites. he clearly knows who he supports here. he clearly goes out of his way to say, i know hillary really well. i support a lot of things that she supports. and maybe supports things that bernie does, too, but i don't know. >> the point is, what he's trying to do is -- and this is very important for any president in a primary, to not put their thumb on the scale. let the voters decide and we'll see where it goes. he has focused intently on doing his job and ensuring that we have a democratic president succeed him because that's so important to build on what he has accomplished in the last seve

dan pfeiffer, i saved the man on top for you. i've been hearing if donald trump wins south carolina and if he wins convincingly, and some polls suggest he might, this is one of those moments, this is a clarifying moment in this campaign that sets the stage not just for what goes fwasorward i the campaign but the party as a whole. >> i think if donald trump has a big win on saturday, he was going to have a lot of momentum heading into the primary, and in the bigger states, it's going to be really hard for these other candidates to catch up because they come right after each other. they won't have time to campaign there. once you get to the larger state primaries later in march, it's about momentum and name recognition. there won't be the chance to meet every voter like you can do in iowa, new hampshire and even south carolina, and so if he heads into the contests with a head of steam and the field is still split, it's hard to see how he's not the nominee. >> in some way, the campaign catches up to his earned media. that's donald t

cnn political commentator dan pfeiffer, a key advisor to senator barack obama back in 2008 when he won here. dan, thanks so much. our question to you. six or seven hours before caucus time, when do you know -- when did you know this was breaking your way? >> caucus day is the weirdest of all election days. it doesn't start until nighttime. normal election day, you see turnout models. you can tell which precincts that matter to you, how high turnout or low turnout you can do things. robo calls or do media to try to amp up, turn out where you are down. caucus day, you just wait all day long for it to actually happen. it's the hardest of all election days. in 2008 maybe we were naive, but we were incredibly confident going in because we knew we had this incredible operation. we had run the numbers. we checked them. we had well surpassed our internal numbers, benchmarks. we knew we needed to get to win. we were very confident. you know, when we lost new hampshire a few weeks later, iowa was the last time i was ever confident on election day. in this case you won't actually know until the r

i want to go back to dan pfeiffer. if you were counseling bernie sanders. would you suggest he wait until later hours, or that he come down now and give a speech in sort of prime time. >> i think he should come down now and give his speech. he has to win new hampshire to keep going, he should feel good about what he did in iowa. he really -- what would have been better would have been a decisive win, he would have had a ton of momentum. this is going to be a tie. >> we have to take a quick break. when we come back, we believe bernie sanders will be ready to speak. you can fly across welcome town in minutes16, or across the globe in under an hour. whole communities are living on mars and solar satellites provide earth with unlimited clean power. in less than a century, boeing took the world from seaplanes to space planes, across the universe and beyond. and if you thought that was amazing, you just wait. ♪ text mom. i'll be right back. be good. boys have been really good today. send. let's get mark his own cell phone. nice. send. brad could use a new bike.

he did really try to stay out of it though dan pfeiffer, i believe -- so, jay carney, former press secretary, last week, saying it was clear that president obama supported hillary clinton. president obama trying to not give that impression today. maybe he suggested he knew hillary better, maybe he agreed with her more but tried to stay out of. boy, did he enter the republican primary contest. >> went after donald trump by name and said this is not entertainment. this is someone who has access to the nuclear code, can send 21-year-olds off to war, protect friendly countries andic maing the point he didn't think donald trump had those characteristics. >> not only thatten you have to know who these people are, he said the conference for asian pacific world leaders, you have to know who these people are, know what the issues are, and he was suggesting that the donald trump doesn't. >> he was making that very, very clear. he was stepping right into that republican frame. also saying it's hard for him to believe, and people ail over the world to believe, they don't believe in climb change, they do

joining us now, bill press, and dan pfeiffer. great to see both of you. bill, we thought we'd play point counterpoint throughout this. bill, sell us on the point that it's a win even if it's not a win for bernie sanders. >> wait a minute. you're asking somebody who has been around politics a long time to do the impossible. i'm not going to spin it that way. it was a close win. in politics, it's not like horseshoes. close doesn't count. a win is a win is a win. and if it's even 2%, i have to say that hillary clinton's the winner in iowa. even though i'd be first to say that sanders put up a great show. >> so, dan, let's continue on that theme. we've been hearing a lot over the last 12 hours how bernie won a moral victory. we've looked. clear about that. among first time caucus foers. sanders crushing hillary among young voters y. crushing on the issue on who is most trustworthy. he wins it by a ton here. given all these three things and the gaping chasms here, how did she not lose or maybe prevail by the time the -- >> look, i think bernie sanders needed,

even in his first term, the administration launched a we can't wait initiative with senior aid dan pfeiffer explaining, quote, when congress won't act, this president is will. and when the reelected obama announced his second term agenda, he announced i will not let grid lock get in our way. that flies in the face of one of the biggest political changes that's occurred roughly starting at the end of the bush years. that is, lawmakers and citizens no longer consider simply whether a given bill or policy proposal is a good idea, but whether it's constitutional. where does the government, where does the president get the power to do that? is a common rallying cry on both the occupy left and the tea party right. that's a healthy development. for too long even in those rare moments when politicians were faced with constitutional concerns, they've had the attitude of nancy pelosi. you'll recall that when asked about the authority for obamacare's individual mandate, she replied, "are you serious?" no good policy arguments to make. so it's a good thing that americans are taking their founding docum

dan pfeiffer, one of the former senior adviser, tweeted, i'm now questioning my view rubio is the gop-er dems should fear the most. he could easily melt. >> well, think dan know, he and i worked together on the 2008 campaign, this is a, you know, a process where candidates get better if they're going to be good candidates. where they start often as candidates is not where they end up in the general election. it's one of hillary clinton's i think great advantages she has in this, that she's done this before. so marco rubio i believe is a very strong candidate. the fact that he had his brain freeze or whatever it was during the debate doesn't mean that he couldn't be a very strong candidate in the general. i think democrats need to not take things for granted about any of these candidates. it's going to be a very contested election. and it's one of the reasons why i think the democratic process is an important one to go through to really make sure the candidate we nominate is electable because the stakes are very high for the democratic agenda. >> they are high with the brain freeze moment

dan pfeiffer, michael bloomberg, the former mayor of new york, he says he's seriously considering a run for the presidency as a third party candidate. he's got, according to "forbes" magazine, $36 billion plus. would he really hurt the democrats, whoever the democratic nominee is if he were to run? >> one, i think it's very hard in our two-party system for a third party to win. it's important for people to remember that if he was able to gain traction and win some states, if no candidate gets to 270 then the republican house would pick our president. in that sense if he gains traction in a three-way race he would help the republicans because he has the potential to tip it to the house. >> what do you think, gloria? first of all, do you think he's going to run? apparently people close to him have said he's very frustrated hillary clinton is not doing well, she might not win and he's got some issues with her on substantive issues as well. >> he does. i think when you have billions of dollars, and, dan, he doesn't need a gofundme account to run, he can do this all himself. i think when you

joined by dan pfeiffer, democratic strategist hilary rosen. you were part of the obama team that beat hillary clinton back in 2008 in iowa. she came back in new hampshire as we all know. what does she need to do now to continue the momentum she got from a narrow but important win in iowa? >> she doesn't have to win new hampshire she has to beat expectations. bernie sanders has very high expectations because the polls have been in his favor and he's seen as having momentum. get in more favorable territory in nevada, south carolina there, win decisively, she'll be on the path to nomination. >> hold on. we're getting more information coming in. we're also standing by for this donald trump news conference, the first news conference he's had second the second place finish in iowa. a quick break. you both have a perfect driving record. >>perfect. no tickets. no accidents... >>that is until one of you clips a food truck, ruining your perfect record. >>yup... now, you would think your insurance company would cut you some slack, right? >>no. your insur