JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening. I'm Judy Woodruff
On this Super Tuesday, Joe Biden is showing early momentum tonight,
with projected wins in Virginia, and North Carolina.
And Bernie Sanders takes his home state of Vermont, with many more states still to come.
Then, As the death toll from coronavirus in the U.S. continues to
climb, the Federal Reserve reacts with the most significant emergency action since the
financial collapse.
Then: We are on the ground all across the country, bringing you the latest Democratic
primary updates, as ballots are cast on Super Tuesday.
Plus, an epicenter of the outbreak -- a report from Iran, where cases of COVID-19 are skyrocketing,
and distrust of leaders mounts, as government officials come down with the virus.
AMIR PARVANDAR, Retiree (through translator): This is the result of the chronic weakness
of the management of our country.
When you lose people's trust, even when you tell the truth, people won't believe you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: On this Super Tuesday, it is just after 9:00 p.m. on the East Coast, and
the polls in 12 of the 14 states voting today are now closed.
And with a third of all Democratic delegates up for grabs, today is the biggest voting
day of the primary season.
Here are the results so far.
Joe Biden, the projected winner in Virginia, in North Carolina, and in Alabama.
Bernie Sanders, projected winner in his home state of Vermont and just moments ago in the
state of Colorado.
We do not yet have projected winners in these following states, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma,
Tennessee, Arkansas, Minnesota, and Texas.
And, again, all the polls have closed in those states, but we're waiting for the results
to come in.
We have much more to look for this evening.
But, as of right now, Joe Biden has for the first time taken the lead in the all-important
delegate count.
We do have a host of "NewsHour" correspondents and public media reporters who are spread
out in Super Tuesday states across the country, from California, to Minnesota, to North Carolina,
Massachusetts, and Virginia.
But we start with Texas.
It is the second biggest delegate prize of the night, 228 delegates at stake.
And that's where "NewsHour"s political reporter, Dan Bush, is now.
And he joins me from Houston.
So, Dan, clearly, the polls just closing there.
We don't have a call yet, but this is a state where Bernie Sanders had been doing well.
Mike Bloomberg had put some money in.
It's also the state where Joe Biden had some very big endorsements last night.
DANIEL BUSH: That's right, Judy.
Biden is surging here, seemingly.
And, yes, we don't have results yet.
It's a big state, some of the biggest cities in the country.
It will take a while.
Texans are used to that.
It might be a long night here.
But, already, Democrats here in the state are saying that they're breathing a sigh of
relief, as one source told me.
These are moderate Democrats who see a very good night cropping up for Joe Biden elsewhere.
A senior Biden official just told me that, looking at these other states, two things
are clear, the Biden campaign is arguing.
Number one, Mike Bloomberg invested a lot of money in states like North Carolina and
Virginia, might not win delegates there.
And, number two, the Biden campaign says, Bernie Sanders' electability argument is not
holding up.
Now, here in Texas, we're going to have to wait and see.
As you said, two of the biggest delegate prizes are still up for grabs, Texas and California.
Biden is doing well here.
Sanders has made a lot of inroads here, Judy, in recent weeks, especially with Latino voters.
So we're waiting to see how those sort of key voting groups play out here in Texas.
And one more thing, Judy.
The Bloomberg campaign is saying, wait a second, let's slow down a little bit.
One senior adviser texted me, said: "Nothing surprising here so far."
But they invested a lot of money in Texas.
So, they may not have won the other states.
They do need to do well here, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you're right.
They did invest a lot of money there, as they have in a number of other states, Texas a
state that we don't expect to have an early projection in, but we will see.
Dan Bush, thanks very much, joining us from Houston.
And now, from Minneapolis, Mary Lahammer of Twin Cities PBS.
Mary, this is Amy Klobuchar's home state, but it's a state that she knew she was going
to have a tough time in.
You have been talking to voters in the last hours who are big supporters of Bernie Sanders.
Tell us about that.
MARY LAHAMMER, Twin Cities PBS: Yes, I talked to three different Sanders voters.
And two of them are young men.
And they both said the issue that they are backing Sanders on is Medicare for all, and,
also, they want a change in politics.
They said they didn't want to go back, and I think perceive Biden as going back to politics
as usual, old Washington.
They want change.
And they said Trump changed everything, and Bernie works to that change.
Now, that is also borne out in some of the early exit polls.
The Associated Press is showing the number one issue in Minnesota is health care.
And the number two issue is the environment.
So, that definitely is in line with some of those younger Bernie voters who are feeling
the Bern.
Now, the interesting thing, this third Sanders voter I talked to is a Republican.
It was a Republican who was going to vote for Amy Klobuchar, didn't think he was going
to vote, at the last minute, decided to jump in the Democratic presidential primary here
in order to create mischief.
He said he voted for Sanders because he thinks that's the best for Trump and the worst for
Democrats.
He doesn't think that will help Democrats down-ballot here.
So a lot of interesting things happening with the Sanders voters, as we're waiting for our
results to come in here pretty soon.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, just quickly, Mary, you were telling us that health care, big issue
for the voters there in Minnesota?
MARY LAHAMMER: Absolutely.
We are home to many, many large medical companies.
We have the world famous Mayo Clinic, one of the largest medical institutions in the
world, and also things like Medtronic, one of the largest medical device companies.
So, definitely, health care is an issue that voters not just care about, but are really
smart and are educated.
And it pays their paychecks around here.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All right, Mary Lahammer reporting for us, Twin Cities PBS in Minneapolis, Minnesota,
tonight.
And we are able to share a projection now.
And that is, in the state of Oklahoma, Joe Biden projected by the Associated Press to
pick up that state.
That would make, by my count, four states where Biden has been projected to win, in
Virginia, in North Carolina, in Alabama, and now in the state of Oklahoma.
So, we will continue to look as the numbers come in from there.
In the meantime, let's skip over to Virginia, where our Lisa Desjardins has spent the day.
This is a state that was called, as we said, for Joe Biden just as the polls closed at
7:00.
Lisa, this is a big win for the senator.
It was a state that Bloomberg was contesting.
And you have got some -- you're trying to get some sense of why it went so big for Biden.
LISA DESJARDINS: We have a lot of sense of that.
One reason, Judy, is the area I'm standing in.
This is Alexandria.
This is Northern Virginia.
This is the most blue part of Virginia.
And this area saw huge turnout, Judy.
And it looks like a lot of that turnout went for Joe Biden.
Also, Judy, in the last day, we know those who made the decision just in the last day,
overwhelmingly, some 54 percent, according to voter surveys, went for Joe Biden.
That's 40 points more than any other candidate in the last few days.
That is the effect of South Carolina and, of course, the endorsements we have seen Pete
Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar over the last few days.
But I also want to drill down on another topic that's important to Democrats: race.
Let's look at how voters in Virginia, when they identified their race, how they voted.
If you look at first black voters, some 54 percent of them voted for Joe Biden.
We saw, of course, that strength in South Carolina, but he also won with white voters,
with 40 percent of them voting for Joe Biden.
So this is a sign, the Biden camp is saying, that he can reach across different parts of
the core Democratic base.
And, Judy, I just was speaking to the Biden campaign.
And similar to what Dan Bush is reporting, they say that the win in Virginia is important.
It shows Biden can win in a swing state, and they're questioning whether Bernie Sanders
can do that as well.
Clearly, they see it as a matchup between those two men.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Interesting, so much -- and so interesting in Virginia, Lisa, that late-deciders,
who made up a big chunk of the electorate in Virginia, went very heavily for Joe Biden.
Sorry about the wind.
It looks like we may -- do we have you?
Lisa Desjardins, are you there?
(LAUGHTER)
LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.
We're still here.
JUDY WOODRUFF: OK, we will come back to you, Lisa.
LISA DESJARDINS: It was very dramatic, wasn't it?
JUDY WOODRUFF: It looks like it's raining and windy, and we're going to let her pull
all that together and come back.
Meantime, let's skip one state south of where Lisa is, from Virginia down to North Carolina,
where Yamiche Alcindor spent a number of days.
She's got more on Vice President Joe Biden's victory there.
Yamiche, this was another early call.
As soon as the polls closed in North Carolina, the projection was made that Biden would win.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That's right, Judy.
And North Carolina is seen as a crucial state when it comes to candidates and electability.
While it has the third most delegates there, with about -- with 110 delegates, what you
see is in this state Democrats really wanting to wrestle it back from Republicans.
So, in 2020, in November, that's when Democrats are really going to be trying to put in work
to try to wrestle it back from Republicans, who won it in 2016, with President Trump winning
this state by about 3 percent.
But looking at who -- what voters cared about, Joe Biden -- if we can put it up for viewers,
Joe Biden won something like 46 percent of people who describe themselves as moderates
here.
Mike Bloomberg won about 17 percent, Bernie Sanders 16 percent, Elizabeth Warren, who
was seen as someone who was really struggling in this rate, at 8 percent, and Pete Buttigieg,
who, of course, dropped out, got 6 percent.
It's also important to note that voters here, as they did, apparently, in Minnesota, in
other parts of the state -- in other parts of the country, rather, they said that health
care was their number one issue.
And when you look at voters who thought health care was the most important issue, Joe Biden
was the one who won those voters.
Also, if you looked at voters who were thinking about race relations as their top issue, he
also won those voters.
And if you are a voter who was deciding late, guess what?
You also went for Joe Biden.
So, the Joe Biden campaign is saying, look, not only is North Carolina a good win for
us.
It also shows that we are the most electable candidate and we're the candidate who can
beat Donald Trump.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, very quickly, Yamiche -- and sorry about that interruption a minute
ago while you were talking.
But looking at the survey of voters as they went to the polls in North Carolina, health
care far and away their most important issue.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That's right, Judy.
And it's an interesting issue, because Democrats and Republicans have really been fighting
over the issue of health care.
Now, Bernie Sanders has been pushing Medicare for all.
He's been saying, I wrote the blank bill.
And he's been saying, I'm the one who came up with that idea.
But Joe Biden has said, hold on, wait a minute.
The Affordable Care Act was something that I knew about very intricately as vice president
to President Obama, and I know how to tweak it to be able to make it so that health care
is better for voters across this country.
And in North Carolina, voters who thought health care should be tweaked, rather than
completely upended, meant that they wanted to go for Joe Biden.
And, as a result, voters who cared most about health care voted for Joe Biden in large numbers.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All right, Yamiche Alcindor joining us tonight from Raleigh, North Carolina,
a state that has been called, projected for Joe Biden.
Now let's move up to New England, to Massachusetts.
I'm joined by WGBH's Adam Reilly in Boston.
Adam, this is a Elizabeth Warren's home state.
She's the senator representing Massachusetts, of course.
But Bernie Sanders was giving her a run for the money.
She's already come out and talked with supporters.
I think it was in Detroit.
We saw her over an hour ago.
ADAM REILLY, WGBH-TV: Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What do you make of all that?
ADAM REILLY: You know, it's -- I guess, reasonable, when you think about it from her campaign's
perspective, that she would move on to Michigan, the next big contest, if she thinks she's
not going to have a terrific night this evening.
I think it raised some eyebrows when she chose not to stick around her home state.
Also raising eyebrows is that the watch parties that her campaign put together for people
to take in the results as they came in, they were actually closed to the press, which is
unusual.
I haven't encountered something like that before.
So, you get the impression that she is girding for a poorer-than-expected or anticipated
night.
I went back and looked at the memo that her campaign manager circulated on the day of
the New Hampshire primary, making their case for a path to victory.
And it's interesting to note that, in that memo, they said that Warren was on pace for
a top two finish in eight of the 14 Super Tuesday states.
And, at this point, I don't believe that she's hit that in any of the races that we have
had called.
And she might not even hit in Massachusetts, which would be, I think, a real blow in terms
of perception.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Massachusetts still not called.
The polls close there at 8:00 Eastern.
Adam, what is your thinking about that?
ADAM REILLY: Well, I think there's no question that the exodus of candidates that we saw
has changed the landscape here.
I mean, it looked like it was going to be Warren and Sanders.
Sanders seemed to have a slight edge for a long time.
He came to the state over the course of the weekend, held this great big rally in Boston.
There's a lot of Sanders enthusiasm here.
He almost beat Hillary Clinton back in 2016 in the primary.
But to have all those moderates consolidate around Joe Biden, I think, probably hurt Warren's
chances of a strong finish here, a one or a two.
We will see how she does.
It's worth noting, just for viewers at home who might not be familiar with Massachusetts
politics, the state has this stereotype as a liberal bastion, but the Democratic Party
here contains multitudes.
And they range from people to the left of Elizabeth Warren to very moderate Democrats
in the legislature who are basically ideologically just like our Republican governor, Charlie
Baker.
So there's a market for that kind of Democratic politics.
And I think we're seeing Biden tap into it tonight.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You are right, a lot of stereotypes going around, and often they are not on the
money there.
We need to rethink a lot of those stereotypes.
ADAM REILLY: It's true.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All right, Adam Reilly, thank you very much, WGBH in Boston.
So, all the way to the West Coast now and to California, the biggest prize for this
evening, 415 delegates up for grabs.
Our Amna Nawaz is in San Francisco.
Amna, the polls don't close there until 11:00 Eastern, 8:00 your time.
But what is so interesting about this state is, clearly, it's the biggest treasure trove
of delegates.
But the candidates have to be so strategic in how they think about what they want to
pick up.
AMNA NAWAZ: That's absolutely right, Judy.
It is the big kahuna, we have heard it called, the gold rush of delegates here.
And there's still a long way to go before we know where those delegates will be going.
It's worth pointing out we're standing here in San Francisco outside of City Hall, which
is both a polling location, meaning people can show up and fill out the ballots and cast
them, as we see happen in other parts of the country.
It's also, if you can see the tent over my shoulder here, a drop-off ballot location,
because we know mail-in voting is so huge in California.
And I should know that, just over the last couple of hours, as offices have closed, as
people are getting off of work, we have seen a significant increase in the number of people
coming up to drop off their ballots there, walk away with their little "I Voted" stickers,
and come in and out of this building to cast their ballot.
So there's still a lot of activity happening right here in San Francisco, more lines here.
Also, we're getting reports from other parts of California, specifically around Los Angeles
County, of hour- or two-hour waits to vote.
Los Angeles, we should mention, the mayor there, Eric Garcetti, of course, endorsed
to Joe Biden, so we don't know exactly what that means.
We should also point out that Joe Biden picked up a late endorsement from California's Central
Valley.
You talked about those many individual congressional races here.
California has those 53 distinct congressional districts.
That's where all the candidates are fighting to pick up those delegates.
And an endorsement from a congressman in the Central Valley for Joe Biden means that that
area, where Senator Sanders had been putting in some effort, where Mayor Buttigieg, before
he dropped out, had been putting in some effort, will be likely breaking for Joe Biden there
as well.
So, we're looking at those individual districts.
We don't have results to share just yet.
But, of course, we know there were a lot of late voters here.
Of the 16 million ballots that were sent out to Californians weeks ago, just a fraction
so far have been returned, just over four million, just over a quarter of those ballots.
We don't know where those late-deciders were going to go.
Maybe many of them, like the voters we spoke to in the Central Valley, were waiting to
see how Joe Biden or some other moderate candidates were doing.
That's -- some of the voters we talked to were telling us exactly that.
So maybe they're waiting until the last minute to cast their ballots.
It's still a very long way to go here in California.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, you're -- in effect, you're telling us to brace ourselves, because
it is going to take some time.
It's such a -- people salivate to think -- the candidates do, the campaigns do, to think
about the number of delegates available in California, but it's going to be a while before
we know how it all shakes out.
Amna...
AMNA NAWAZ: It will be a while.
We should mention -- yes, that's right, Judy.
It will be a while.
We should also just mention that Senator Sanders has been leading in the polls.
His campaign says they remain optimistic, as the whole contest moves West, he will continue
to perform strongly.
But we wait and we watch.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Amna Nawaz reporting from San Francisco, thank you.
Thank you, Amna.
And we want to share with you right now, one of the candidates has come out and spoken
to his supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, Mike Bloomberg.
Here's what he had to say just a little over half-an-hour ago.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, Presidential Candidate: My fellow candidates spent a whole year focusing
on the first four states.
I was out campaigning against Donald Trump in the states where the election will actually
be decided, like Wisconsin, and Michigan, and Pittsburgh, and Ohio, and North Carolina,
and, of course, Florida.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: President Obama proved that a Democrat can win all of those states.
But, in 2016, we lost them all.
Well, I'm running to win them back.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
JUDY WOODRUFF: That was Mike Bloomberg speaking to supporters in Palm Beach, Florida, just
a short time ago.
At this point, Bloomberg is projected the winner in only one of the places voting on
this Super Tuesday.
That is American Samoa, the U.S. territory out in the -- out in the Pacific.
And we do have a race to call.
And that is in the state of Tennessee.
The projected winner, based on early results and interviews with voters as they were heading
out or into the polling places today, Joe Biden, in the state of -- in the state of
Tennessee.
So, that is racking up another win.
I think, by my count, that's five states where Joe Biden has been projected the winner on
this Super Tuesday.
Joining me now in our "NewsHour" studio for some more analysis, Stu Rothenberg, senior
editor of Inside Elections.
Good to have you with us again, Stu.
STUART ROTHENBERG, Inside Elections: Thanks, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, the projections are starting to come in.
It's looking like a really good night for Joe Biden.
We have a way to go.
But we're beginning to see the outlines of something here.
STU ROTHENBERG: I'm tempted to introduce you to my friend Mr. Mo', Momentum.
(LAUGHTER)
STU ROTHENBERG: If you think back, it was just a few weeks that Joe Biden had no field
operation, he had no money, he had no organization.
He wasn't in a good place in many of the states.
And, suddenly, things have changed.
Obviously, candidates have dropped out.
He won South Carolina.
He won it big.
But much of this, seems to me, momentum.
I mean, he is competitive in Massachusetts now...
JUDY WOODRUFF: Which was not expected.
STU ROTHENBERG: So, we weren't -- we were expecting that to be a Warren-Sanders fight,
with Biden not in the race.
So, Bloomberg seems to be viable in a handful of states, Texas, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
Just the numbers I saw, he was in the low 20s.
So he might be viable, and that could keep him going.
He seems to want to keep going.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What was the other state?
Texas?
Oklahoma?
STU ROTHENBERG: Texas, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
I showed him around 20 percent.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Although Biden has now been projected the winner in Tennessee.
STU ROTHENBERG: Right.
Right.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But you're saying he may have picked up...
STU ROTHENBERG: But I'm just talking about viability, more than 15 percent of the vote.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Picked up some delegates.
STU ROTHENBERG: Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And we haven't been talking a lot about delegates tonight, but that is
going to be part of the equation.
STU ROTHENBERG: Right.
And we're waiting for Texas and California to see.
California could change the entire narrative.
If Senator Sanders has a big night in California, that will change things.
But, at the moment, I think you have to say that former Vice President Biden is holding
the South.
He is showing muscle in places we weren't sure he was going to hold.
He's holding senior citizens very well.
Older voters 65 and over, he's winning overwhelmingly.
And he's doing great among African-Americans.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And among young voters, Bernie Sanders still...
STU ROTHENBERG: Bernie Sanders still clobbering the field with younger voters.
It's just that there aren't as many of them as there are voters 65 and over in most states
-- in all states.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I believe, Stu Rothenberg, we have a graphic right now we can share with
our audience.
This is what it -- what the delegate count looks like at this point.
It's still early.
But here you see -- I mean, Joe Biden started out before Super Tuesday, Stu, not way out
in the lead.
But look at that, 174.
Again, it's early.
There's still...
(CROSSTALK)
STU ROTHENBERG: And he's winning some states that Hillary Clinton won against Bernie Sanders.
So, some of the states, he should win and he needs to win.
But there is a -- kind of the subtext, there is an undercurrent of overperformance for
Joe Biden.
And, again, it wasn't long ago that people were saying, can Bernie Sanders be stopped?
Maybe not.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, exactly.
I mean, the conversation you were hearing coming into Super Tuesday was, Bernie Sanders
could come out of this big delegate-rich day with such a lead that it would be very difficult.
(CROSSTALK)
STU ROTHENBERG: Hundreds of delegates.
Hundreds of delegates.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Right, 300 -- even 500-delegate lead.
STU ROTHENBERG: Yes, hundreds of delegates.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But it looks like Joe Biden has, I don't want to say risen from the dead,
but...
STU ROTHENBERG: I would say there's more pressure on the Sanders campaign now to perform late
in the evening and overnight and tomorrow, when they count in California -- when California
finishes counting, whenever that is, more pressure on him to show that we didn't overestimate
his strength.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But I want to drill down, Stu, in just the minute or so we have left on how
this happened, because his campaign did not expect that he would do so poorly in Iowa
and New Hampshire and Nevada.
But they came -- they spent, what, a week.
They lived -- he lived in South Carolina for about a week and came out of that state with
an enormous 30-some-point advantage.
And that has made all the difference for him.
STU ROTHENBERG: Well, Judy, all along, Joe Biden and his campaign said, I'll do well
among a diverse electorate.
And we kind of -- oh, yes, OK.
We pooh-poohed.
And he didn't do anything in Iowa, didn't do anything in New Hampshire.
I mean, finishing fourth and fifth is terrible.
And although he finished second in Nevada, I think it was with 19 percent of the vote
-- 19 percent of caucus participants.
So, it was a poor showing.
But he turned out to be right.
The firewall held.
The more diverse states, he's piling up wins.
And now he appears to be the -- kind of the pragmatic alternative, although Mike Bloomberg
is still in the race and may do well enough tonight to continue.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It'll be very interesting to see, in those surveys done with voters...
STU ROTHENBERG: Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: ... today, what they say about whether they think Biden is best positioned
to defeat Donald Trump, because that has been -- that electability question has been hanging
over this entire election.
STU ROTHENBERG: I think you might see a change in those numbers, because, in most national
polls, equal numbers of people said that Biden and Sanders -- they would vote for Biden and
Sanders over Donald Trump.
You might -- you -- with these victories goes a sense of inevitability and a so-called bandwagon
effect.
And that's a problem for Bernie Sanders, if Joe Biden looks as if he's taking a commanding
lead.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But, right now, we do have a projected win for Bernie Sanders in the
state of -- of his home state of Vermont.
But, beyond that, Joe -- it's a good night for Joe Biden.
STU ROTHENBERG: Well, I think we also have him in Colorado, too, in an early call in
Colorado...
JUDY WOODRUFF: That's right.
We have him in Colorado as well.
STU ROTHENBERG: ... which is important for him.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Very important.
All right, Stu Rothenberg, thank you.
STU ROTHENBERG: Sure.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And please join us right back here tonight at 11:00 p.m. Eastern -- that's
10:00 Central -- for our Vote 2020 "PBS NewsHour" Super Tuesday election special.
The coronavirus outbreak has claimed more American lives and more American wealth.
The death toll reached nine today, with more than 100 diagnosed cases nationwide.
And as economic damage spread, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced that the Central
Bank is cutting a key interest rate by half-a-point.
JEROME POWELL, Federal Reserve Chairman: The virus and measures being taken to contain
it will surely weigh on economic activity both here and abroad for quite some time.
Of course, the ultimate solutions to this challenge will come from others, particularly
health professionals.
We can and will do our part, however, to keep the U.S. economy strong as we meet this challenge.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The Fed's emergency move failed to reassure Wall Street, however.
Instead, the market mired itself in doubts about whether this rate cut will help, and
stocks gave up much of Monday's record rally.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost nearly 786 points today to close at 25917.
The Nasdaq fell 268 points, and the S&P 500 dropped 86.
All of this came amid mounting questions about whether federal agencies are ready and nimble
enough to confront the outbreak.
William Brangham has that part of the story.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Concern is mounting across the U.S. today, as the novel coronavirus,
known as COVID-19, emerges in a growing number of states.
Top U.S. health officials took center stage before a Senate panel in Washington today
to face a barrage of criticism and to defend their response.
Democratic Senator Patty Murray represents Washington state, where the first American
deaths were reported.
SEN.
PATTY MURRAY (D-WA): The administration has had months to prepare for this, and it is
unacceptable that people in my state and nationwide can't even get an answer as to whether or
not they are infected.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Stephen Hahn, said
more testing kits will be made available later this week.
STEPHEN HAHN, Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration: Our expectation in talking
to the company that's scaling this up is that we should have the capacity by the end of
the week to have kits available to the laboratories to perform about a million tests.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But other officials later walked back that number, saying the number
of tests might be much lower.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney voiced concern about the lack of protective equipment for
health workers.
SEN.
MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): What percentage of what we would need for our medical professionals
is in the strategic national stockpile?
DR.
ROBERT KADLEC, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services: Right now, if it
were to be a severe event, we would need 3.5 billion N95 respirators.
We have about 35 million.
SEN.
MITT ROMNEY: So, about 10 percent.
It strikes me that we should have substantially more than 10 percent, what would be needed
for a substantial pandemic that.
We should have that in stock.
I can't believe that we, Congress -- I'm not blaming the administration.
This is Congress and appropriating.
And it's prior administrations as well.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Congress is working to pass an emergency spending measure of potentially
up to $8.5 billion to help bolster the U.S. response.
Overseas, the virus continues to spread through more communities.
Italy, the epicenter of Europe's outbreak, now has the highest number of virus-related
deaths outside China, 79.
Iran's death toll also rose today to at least 77 people.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, drive-through testing centers were set up across Seoul to minimize
as much human contact as possible.
The country reported its largest daily increase in official cases, more than 850 new infections.
Elsewhere in the capital, troops fanned out to spray streets and alleys with disinfectant.
President Trump today said he'd consider cutting off travel from other nations with large outbreaks.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We're watching Italy very closely, South Korea
very closely, even Japan very closely.
And we will make the right determination at the right time.
We have cut it off, as you know, with numerous other countries.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In China, where the virus originated, the number of new cases today
fell to 125 people.
China's ambassador to the U.N. celebrated that news in New York.
ZHANG JUN, Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations: China's fight against the coronavirus
is indeed making huge progress.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Thousands of patients in China have recovered and have been released
from the hospital.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We will take a look at the toll of coronavirus in Iran later in the program.
At least 24 people were killed in Central Tennessee early today when tornadoes tore
through the area.
The storms blasted downtown Nashville, damaged or destroyed at least 140 homes and other
buildings, and forced the state to extend Super Tuesday voting hours.
Stephanie Sy has our report.
WOMAN: We have been through lots of tornado warnings, and never thought that this would
happen.
STEPHANIE SY: Nashville is in shock today.
Residents emerged from a night of deadly tornadoes that ravaged neighborhoods.
The tornadoes were part of a band of storms that stretched across four states late Monday
night into Tuesday morning.
More than 40 buildings were damaged in Nashville alone, some beyond repair, as a tornado cut
through the heart of the city.
Four Tennessee counties reported storm-related deaths, and Nashville hospitals treated dozens
of people for injuries.
Bill Lee is the governor.
GOV.
BILL LEE (R-TN): Let me just acknowledge tragedy.
It is heartbreaking.
We have had loss of life all across the state.
There are a number of people that are missing in different areas, many that are injured
and being transported.
STEPHANIE SY: In the hardest-hit areas, which included some of the most expensive neighborhoods
in Nashville, the tornado reduced homes and other structures to a debris field.
Search-and-rescue teams went door to door overnight, looking for trapped or injured
people in damaged buildings, as road and power crews worked to clear downed lines.
Still, the closure of more than a dozen polling stations didn't stop many voters from lining
up at alternate sites to cast their ballots.
President Trump is planning to visit Tennessee on Friday.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: President Trump spoke by phone today with a top Taliban leader in a first
for a sitting American president.
It followed Saturday's signing of an agreement for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Mr. Trump said that today's conversation was -- quote -- "a very good talk."
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waited for final election results to see if
he had eked out a majority in Parliament.
Netanyahu celebrated last night, but exit polls indicated that his political bloc fell
two seats short.
That could prevent his forming a government.
The prime minister also faces a criminal trial on corruption charges.
U.N. inspectors report that Iran has almost tripled its stockpile of enriched uranium
since November.
They also said today that Tehran will not answer questions about three possible nuclear
sites.
Iran has slowly violated the 2015 nuclear accord since the U.S. under President Trump
pulled out and reimposed sanctions.
The military confrontation between Turkey and Syria intensified again today in Syria's
Idlib province.
A Turkish soldier was killed overnight.
And, today, the Turks shot down a Syrian fighter yet, the third since Thursday.
U.S. special envoy James Jeffrey visited the Turkish-Syrian border today and offered military
equipment for the Turkish military.
JAMES JEFFREY, U.S. Special Representative for Syria Engagement: Turkey has asked for
help from NATO.
They have asked for help from us.
As the president said recently, we will provide supplies and other things to Turkey.
We are also looking at other requests that Turkey has made either to us or to NATO, as
this conflict goes on.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Turkey intervened in Idlib to stop a Syrian offensive that has driven
almost a million people to the Turkish border.
Refugees already in Turkey are now trying to cross into Greece with Turkey's support.
So far, though, Greek authorities have blocked most of the attempts.
Back in this country, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed today to let states prosecute immigrants
who use fake Social Security numbers to get a job.
In a 5-4 decision, the court's conservatives said nothing in the law prevents such action.
The Kansas Supreme Court had barred state action.
President Trump's reelection campaign has filed another defamation lawsuit, this time
against The Washington Post.
It accuses the newspaper of falsely reporting as fact that the 2016 Trump campaign conspired
with Russia.
The organization already filed a similar suit against The New York Times.
And a passing to note: Former CNN anchor Bobbie Battista has died after a long battle with
cervical cancer.
She joined CNN Headline News as one of its original anchors in 1981 and remained with
the company for 20 years.
Bobbie Battista
was 67 years old.
As the coronavirus spreads globally, few places have been as hard-hit as Iran.
Twenty-three members of the Parliament are sick.
The director of emergency services is infected.
And a third Iranian government official died from the virus today.
Special correspondent Reza Sayah tells us from Tehran how the country is handling it,
and whom they blame for their travails.
REZA SAYAH: At a popular gym in the heart of Tehran, workout music blares, but the weight
room is nearly empty.
MUSTAFA, Gym Manager (through translator): People are a little scared.
Attendance has definitely dropped.
We have seen at least a 50 percent drop.
REZA SAYAH: On Tehran's Iran's usually bustling streets, the bumper-to-bumper traffic has
suddenly vanished.
Everywhere you look, surgical masks and reminders of personal hygiene.
At offices throughout the capital, desk after desk empty.
MEHRAB KABOLI, Mechanical Engineer (through translator): Tehran is frozen.
It's like we're stunned.
REZA SAYAH: What stunned this megacity and much of Iran is the coronavirus.
The outbreak hit here two weeks ago.
The numbers of people infected and the death toll have climbed ever since.
Today, Iran is one of the global epicenters of the virus.
Iran's Ministry of Health confirms more than 2,300 cases in all but four of Iran's 30 provinces.
The death toll remains the highest outside of China.
Everywhere you look, people are trying to figure out how to contain the virus.
All right, we're entering maybe the most posh shopping center here in Tehran.
And, as you can see, you have volunteers taking everyone's temperature here in their indoor
parking complex.
So, my temperature reading is 35.5.
Centigrade, which is normal.
Up until a few weeks ago, Mohammad Reza Vakiyan was a parking toll collector here at the Palladium
Shopping Center.
Never did he think he'd be wearing a lab coat and taking temperatures.
MOHAMMAD REZA VAKIYAN, Shopping Mall Employee (through translator): Hopefully, this will
soon past, and no one else faces any problems.
FAEZEH KHORASANI, English Teacher: I sometimes even have nightmares about corona.
REZA SAYAH: Faezeh Khorasani is an English teacher.
FAEZEH KHORASANI: Welcome to the class.
Happy to see you.
REZA SAYAH: She teaches her students online from home these days, because, like the rest
of Tehran's schools, hers is shut down.
FAEZEH KHORASANI: I feel a bit worried, and I can say scared.
You came here, you put the key chains on the counter.
I was thinking, oh, my God, I should remember to disinfect that.
REZA SAYAH: Amir Parvandar doesn't have much trust either.
He's looking for protective masks for his family, but he can't find a pharmacy that
has them in stock.
AMIR PARVANDAR, Retiree (through translator): This is the result of the chronic weakness
of the management of our country.
Unfortunately, when officials come and speak on television, it seems as if everything is
great, but that's not the case.
When you lose people's trust, even when you tell the truth, people won't believe you.
REZA SAYAH: Many here wanted to believe Iran's deputy health minister when he appeared on
television.
In a heavy sweat, he said the outbreak was under control.
One day later, he was diagnosed with coronavirus, one of several government officials who've
tested positive.
The growing number of cases have led some to question if the government is hiding the
spread of the virus.
It didn't help that,just two months ago, it took the government three days before acknowledging
it shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 167 on board.
But many Iranians say, in the struggle to contain the coronavirus, their government
is not solely to blame.
They say crippling U.S. sanctions against Iran have put severe pressure on the country's
public health sector.
The Trump administration insists sanctions don't target humanitarian trade.
But human rights groups say banking restrictions limit Iran's ability to buy humanitarian goods.
Tehran pharmacist Ali Mazlomi says sanctions have made it impossible to purchase vital
medical products.
MOHAMMAD ALI MAZLOMI, Pharmacist (through translator): The sanctions put in place by
America, without a doubt, it's the people who are paying the price.
They are the most vulnerable.
REZA SAYAH: Last week, the U.S. Treasury eased some humanitarian trade restrictions against
Iran.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington was ready to help Iran fight the outbreak.
In his weekly press conference streamed online due to the coronavirus, the Iranian Foreign
Ministry spokesman's picture was fuzzy, but his message to Washington was clear.
SEYYED ABBAS MOUSAVI, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman (through translator): We have doubts
about the United States' intention, and we do not count on its help.
REZA SAYAH: Many Iranians feel the same.
A couple of days ago, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, we care about the Iranian
people.
We want to help them.
What was your reaction when you heard that?
FAEZEH KHORASANI: B.S.
REZA SAYAH: B.S.?
FAEZEH KHORASANI: Exactly.
MEHRAB KABOLI: America is one of the root causes of this problem.
I have no expectations at all that America will help solve problems that America itself
played a key role in creating.
No, I don't have any expectations.
REZA SAYAH: Tehran-based economic analyst Saeed Laylaz says U.S. sanctions are proof
that the Trump administration doesn't care about the Iranian people.
Mike Pompeo said, we're worried about the Iranian people.
Why are you laughing?
SAEED LAYLAZ, Economic Analyst: Because he make joke.
I don't -- I know that he's lying.
He's a big liar.
Mr. Pompeo doesn't like Iranian nation.
REZA SAYAH: Laylaz says the Trump administration's maximum pressure campaign has escalated tensions
between Washington and Iran, crippled Iran's economy, and led to a sweeping victory by
anti-U.S. hard-liners in Iran's recent parliamentary elections.
SAEED LAYLAZ: This current radicalism which you are seeing in Iran, radicals who are governing
the country, who are occupying Parliament, next coming Parliament and so on, directly
is a fruit or consequence of United States' sanction against Iran.
REZA SAYAH: But, somehow, many Iranians remain hopeful for better days.
AMIR PARVANDAR (through translator): I hope, one day, these two countries can be friends.
This is our wish.
I am serious.
Life, after all, is for happiness and peace.
REZA SAYAH: With challenges mounting, amid what could be a deadly pandemic, happiness
and peace for many Iranians will have to wait.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Reza Sayah in Tehran.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And we will be back shortly with a Brief But Spectacular take on how forests
reveal the beauty of the natural world.
But, first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station.
It's a chance to offer your support, which helps to keep programs like ours on the air.
A groundbreaking career in dance has led to an innovative approach to health and aging.
Jeffrey Brown went to the American Ballet Theatre to stay in step with Twyla Tharp.
This encore look is part of our ongoing arts and culture coverage, Canvas.
TWYLA THARP, Choreographer: Sternum up.
Breathe deep.
Shoulders back.
Now we stride.
JEFFREY BROWN: A lesson from Twyla Tharp in allowing our bodies to take up space, even
as we grow older, what she refers to as amplitude.
TWYLA THARP: Amplitude, moving out, constantly feeling that you can move out.
As age becomes reality, I think we start to retreat, we retract, we become protective,
we become secluded, and we begin to ossify.
JEFFREY BROWN: But the body becoming smaller.
In a way, it is becoming smaller.
TWYLA THARP: Well, that's its problem.
Let's just get on with it, shall we?
JEFFREY BROWN: Tharp is one of the great choreographers of our age, and, at 78, she's got a new dance
-- we met at a rehearsal at the American Ballet Theatre -- and a new book, "Keep It Moving:
Lessons For the Rest of Your Life."
TWYLA THARP: I wrote this to help others believe that constantly you can be evolving, that
you don't accept the rumor that, as the body ages, it becomes less.
It becomes different, hopefully more.
JEFFREY BROWN: So do you think of this as a self-help book?
TWYLA THARP: I look at it as a self-survival book.
JEFFREY BROWN: As a girl, Tharp took dance and music lessons of all kinds.
In the 1960s, she was dancing and choreographing as part of an important experimental modern
dance scene.
And by the '70s, she was creating groundbreaking works like "Deuce Coupe" for the Joffrey Ballet.
Set to music by the Beach Boys, it brought together elements of both ballet and modern
dance.
She made "Push Comes to Shove" for Mikhail Baryshnikov, part of an acclaimed partnership
that included the award-winning PBS special "Baryshnikov By Tharp" in 1984, dance after
dance combining rigor and boundless energy.
She also choreographed films, including "Hair" and "Amadeus," and the Broadway hit "Movin'
Out" to the music of Billy Joel.
Tharp has been recipient of pretty much every prestigious artistic award, including a Kennedy
Center Honor in 2008.
In her new book, she provides a series of exercises, and says age is not the enemy;
stagnation is the enemy.
TWYLA THARP: We all have that laid on us by our culture.
Being squirmy is not really -- you can't do this at dinner parties, but this is how you
keep your system, your metabolic system rolling by going -- you don't do it like this.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.
But you can't -- I'm going to -- you can't do this even in the way we're talking about.
But you want me to?
You want us to?
TWYLA THARP: Yes, because, if you keep doing this, chances are your body is going to be
more productive in the moment, and you will have something left in the evening, particularly
as you become older, and you buy into this reality that older folks can do less.
OK, prove it.
JEFFREY BROWN: Her own physical regime is legendary.
We watched an early morning workout at her home studio, breathing and stretching, cycling,
and various kinds of strength and resistance exercises.
TWYLA THARP: I could bench my body weight for three, and I dead-lifted 227 pounds to
the waist...
JEFFREY BROWN: Wow.
TWYLA THARP: ... which was twice my body weight, OK?
So -- but I developed core strength that the classical dancer doesn't have.
Now, in making a piece of this sort for a classical dancer, I can bring that kind of
physical intelligence to them and say, try it this way.
JEFFREY BROWN: In fact, her new dance, notated over three months in intricate detail, directly
addresses aging.
Titled "A Gathering of Ghosts," it's made for dancer Herman Cornejo, now 38, who's being
honored this season for 20 years at the ABT.
Beyond talent, Tharp says the quality she most looks for in a dancer is optimism.
TWYLA THARP: Have a sense that you can do it, and if you don't, you will fix it, you
will make it work, and you're going to laugh this time.
No, you haven't failed.
You turn it into comedy.
JEFFREY BROWN: You have had, of course, great success.
But you have also experienced failure, which...
TWYLA THARP: Really?
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.
I'm...
TWYLA THARP: Are you kidding?
(LAUGHTER)
JEFFREY BROWN: I'm sorry to tell you.
But you advise us in this book to accept those failures, right, to take risks.
TWYLA THARP: They're not failures.
JEFFREY BROWN: What are they?
TWYLA THARP: They're adventures of a different kind.
You may not have gotten what you set out to get, but there is something to be learned
from everything.
JEFFREY BROWN: There was a profile in The Times that says -- I'm quoting -- "Ms. Tharp
remains among the very few female choreographers..."
TWYLA THARP: Oh, please.
Give me a break.
JEFFREY BROWN: "... to have had a lasting influence on ballet."
TWYLA THARP: And why don't they say, one of the few short choreographers to have an influence
on the ballet?
The female nomenclature is highly abusive.
It's ghettoizing.
And it's irrelevant to what I have done.
JEFFREY BROWN: You don't want to hear it at all?
TWYLA THARP: I'm not interested.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.
TWYLA THARP: I'm a worker.
I'm an artist.
I make dances, end of story.
Judge me with the best.
Don't judge me with the best women.
JEFFREY BROWN: You wrote in the book that you're always asked, how do you keep working?
And the subtext, you know, as you say, is, at your age.
What's the answer?
How do you keep working?
TWYLA THARP: Day by day, daily.
Do it every day.
It's what you do.
I look at the past to see there what works and let go of what doesn't work, and build
on what does work.
JEFFREY BROWN: In the meantime, the final piece of advice that you give all of us in
this book is, shut up and dance.
TWYLA THARP: That's right, shut up and do what you love.
And be grateful and keep doing it.
And stop second-guessing it.
I'm getting old.
I can't do what I love.
Bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED), in a word.
(LAUGHTER)
TWYLA THARP: It's going to change.
That's all.
It's not going to be the same.
It's going to be different.
JEFFREY BROWN: The dance is "A Gathering of Ghosts."
The book is "Keep It Moving."
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown at the American Ballet Theatre in New York.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And now tonight's Brief But Spectacular explores old growth trees and
the natural history of Wisconsin's Northwoods.
Author and naturalist John Bates takes us there.
He's worked in the area for more than 30 years helping people understand the diversity and
the beauty of nature and our place within it.
Bates' most recent book is titled "Our Living Ancestors."
JOHN BATES, Author, "Our Living Ancestors": My interest in old growth took off in, oh,
about 2003.
I'd been walking in older forests, and found that they were quite rare and wondered why.
Why did we cut so many down?
They're a filter for air.
They're a storage of carbon.
They provide shade to our streams.
I felt humility walking into these sites in a place where trees are 400 or 500 years old.
I found myself feeling a deep gratitude that these trees were resilient enough to still
be here.
My job, as a naturalist, is to help people gain environmental literacy, so that they
have a deeper understanding of place based on this enriched understanding of where they
are.
If you're standing under an old white pine here in Wisconsin that's 400 or 500 years
old, you are standing underneath a tree that Native Americans had stood under.
The trees are living tissue.
They're not hardened amber.
They're not footprints.
They're not stories people have told with all the biases that we have as human beings.
They're travelers through time.
And standing next to them, you can get this feeling of time having taken place.
And you can't find that in any other setting literally in the world.
When you think about the history of Wisconsin, in 1830, we had our first census.
There were 3,000 people.
We became a state in 1848.
And by 1870, there were one million people here.
Every one of those people needed wood.
And so we ended up cutting and then burning all of Northern Wisconsin.
So, 99.8 percent has been cut.
Rare to find a big white pine like this.
This is a crown jewel of the Northwoods.
Most of this land was sold on the dream of land that couldn't support farms.
We have very poor soils, compared to Southern Wisconsin.
We also have this thing called winter, which lasts for five months.
And we had almost no market.
So, even if you could miraculously grow something, who were you going to sell it to?
And so farmers went belly up.
The land became tax-delinquent.
And in the early '20s, 1930s, six million acres of Northern Wisconsin was made into
public land, because we couldn't figure out what else to do with it.
In my old age now, my job, as I understand it now, is to help people fall more deeply
in love with the world.
I can't think what else I'm here for.
My name is John Bates, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on connecting time through
old growth forests.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Such beautiful pictures.
And you can find all of our Brief But Spectacular segments online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.
To recap tonight's results as we know them at this hour in today's Super Tuesday primaries,
of the 14 states voting today, polls have now closed in 12 of them.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is projected the winner in Virginia, in North Carolina,
in Alabama, in Oklahoma, in Tennessee, in Minnesota, and just moments ago in Arkansas.
Senator Bernie Sanders projected to win in his home state of Vermont and in Colorado.
And former Mayor Michael Bloomberg projected to capture most delegates in the U.S. territory
of American Samoa.
Now, it is too early for projected results in the following states.
But here's where the count stands just before 10:00 Eastern in Maine.
With over -- more than a third of the results in, you saw -- it moved too quickly for me
-- Bernie Sanders just barely ahead of Joe Biden.
They are neck and neck.
That's in Maine.
In Massachusetts, Joe Biden ahead with over 33 percent, almost 34 percent of the vote,
Joe Biden backed by about six points.
In the state of Texas, here we are.
With just a little over 8 percent of the vote reporting, and Bernie Sanders is out front.
This is a state he invested a lot of effort in, 28 percent, as you can see, to Joe Biden's
23, Mike Bloomberg's 18 percent, meaning they're all viable.
They all could end up with delegates.
But it's early.
And the polls have yet to close in Utah and in California.
Joining me now from Houston, Texas, is our politics reporter, Dan Bush.
Dan, we're hearing about long lines still at the polls in Texas.
DANIEL BUSH: That's right, Judy.
A lot of long lines.
Here in Houston, I was at one very large precinct, where voters told me they waited for up to
two hours.
That was because the precinct had a set number of voting machines.
They split them in half, so the Democrats got half, the Republicans got half.
But, of course, not a lot of Republicans in this Democratic-leaning voting precinct, so
Republicans could just walk right in, Judy.
Democrats had to wait for up to two hours.
I heard similar things happening out in Austin, the capital of the state.
So, yes, the lines here are pretty long, but, as you said, the results are starting to roll
in.
And we're watching them very closely.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Sad story in democracy, when people can't get to vote.
Dan Bush, joining us from Houston, thanks very much.
Please join us online throughout the night for the latest results on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour,
and on our "NewsHour" YouTube page.
And tune in here on PBS at 11:00 p.m. Eastern, 8:00 Pacific for our "NewsHour" Super Tuesday
special.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
For all of us at the "NewsHour, thank you, and stay with us.