Bernie Sanders denounces Russia's reported efforts to aid his campaign – as it happened

That does it for me here on the west coast as we close out the blog after a busy afternoon. Let’s take a quick look back at some of the day’s biggest news items:

• News of the day goes to the revelation that both Trump and Sen. Sanders have been the apparent beneficiaries of Russian interference. But while Trump has continued to minimize and downplay whatever impact Russian trolls may have played in the 2016 election as well as the campaign for re-election in 2020, Sanders has made clear he’s no friend of Vladimir Putin.

“He is an autocratic thug,” Sanders said of the Russian leader.

Check out my colleagues Joan’s latest story to read more.

• Days after Sen. Elizabeth Warren eviscerated Mike Bloomberg onstage at the democratic debate, she again blasted the former NYC mayor for releasing only three accusers from non-disclosure agreements that hav until now bound them to silence. Warren called Bloomberg to issue a blanket release of all accusers if he’s serious about transparency.

• And as Trump capped a 4-day visit to the western US, he took the opportunity to mock his foes at a mid-day rally. That included more taking more shots at the Oscars and mocking former VP Joe Biden for a lifelong speech impediment that has been widely reported on.

Today Trump wrapped a four-day visit to the western US with a rally in Las Vegas, doubling down on his mockery of the Oscars and Joe Biden’s speech impediment as he called on his base to help defeat the “radical socialist Democrats” in November.

The ridicule of Biden’s stutter isn’t new. This January the Atlantic focused on Biden’s speech, and the lengths he’s gone to in order to overcome it, in a profile. That didn’t stop Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former White House press secretary, from taking to Twitter to mock Biden’s performance in a debate. And it provoked a response by Biden, himself.

Huckabee Sanders was roundly criticized for making the joke, but that didn’t mean it was off limits for Trump, apparently.

Talking to the crowd, Trump cracked wise the former vice president’s speech.

Democrats in Nevada have once again changed plans for how votes will be tracked in the caucuses, the day before voters cast their ballots.

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After announcing results would be relayed online via Google form last week, Democrats have seemingly reversed course and decided instead to instruct precinct leaders to call and text votes in to a dedicated hotline, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The change was announced through a memo sent by Alana Mounce, the state party’s executive director, to the presidential campaigns.

“The hotline report will be the primary source of the precinct caucus results reported on Caucus Day,” Ms. Mounce wrote. The email made no mention of the Google document forms initially slated to be used for the caucuses.

Nevada Democrats initially planned to use the app used in the Iowa caucuses but abandoned those plans after the first state’s caucus went terribly wrong due to technological issues.

Nevada, like Iowa, adopted new rules from the Democratic National Committee this year requiring states to report three sets of numbers from the caucuses: the initial vote number, the number of votes a candidate receives after “realignment” – when voters choose new candidates if their top choice fails to receive enough support – and the number of state delegates ultimately awarded to candidates.

In order to report these numbers, volunteers are expected to use a caucus “tool” on iPads distributed by the Democratic party to precinct chairs. This is meant to help avoid some of the technical difficulties experienced in Iowa by chairs unable to download the app.

Nevada Democrats were reportedly consulting with Google on best practices for using the document forms, but Google did not confirm. Nevada Democrats did not respond to request for comment regarding the change.

Cash-strapped democratic candidates are relying more and more on super PACs, which can raise unlimited money.

That’s one takeaway from a new report from Politico, which says it got its first look this week at how the start of the presidential primaries are shaping the money chase.

Other takeaways include:

• The Democratic Party’s biggest donors are getting in on the action.

“Priorities USA, the main Democratic super PAC preparing to back the party’s nominee against Trump, took in $5 million from hedge fund magnate Donald Sussman in January — more than double the biggest check Sussman cut in 2019. The super PAC also raised $2 million from financier and philanthropist George Soros’ Democracy PAC, which didn’t give to any big Democratic PACs in 2019. And it raised $1 million from real estate broker George Marcus, who only donated big money to downballot causes in 2019,” Politico reports.

• Big differences in cash will lead to big differences in airtime.

Sanders, Bloomberg and financier Tom Steyer have all dropped big money on TV ads and bought more than $2m of upcoming airtime. Bloomberg has earmarked $10m for ads in coming days. Joe Biden and ex-South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, meanwhile, don’t have any television airtime currently reserved in Super-Tuesday states.

• Klobuchar’s third-place finish in New Hampshire primary was preceded by January fundraising bump

She took in $5.5m in January — close to Buttigieg’s $6.6 million but well shy of Biden’s $8.9 m.

• Trump’s cash dwarfs the rest of the field’s. Except Bloomberg’s.

Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee have netted $452 million since January 2019. Bloomberg, meanwhile, has said he may spend $1 billion to defeat Trump this year. The former NYC mayor has nearly outspending every other candidate after spending $409 million through January, according to Politico.

Mike Bloomberg said Friday that three women who made complaints against him and until now have been covered by non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, can be released from the agreements and speak openly about their experiences.

CNN has publicly identified a woman behind one of those NDAs, reporting: “A senior Bloomberg adviser tells CNN that the woman behind one of the three NDAs is Sekiko Garrison, who accused Bloomberg in the 1990s of repeatedly saying crass things in the workplace. Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser has said that Bloomberg “did not make any of the statements alleged in the Sekiko Garrison case.”

But Elizabeth Warren, who took Bloomberg to the woodshed on live TV during this week’s debate, quickly called out the former New York mayor, saying that the situation calls for a blanket release of all accusers.

Here’s a dispatch from our west coast political reporter Maanvi Singh from Nevada, where she’s on the ground keeping an eye on the lead up to tomorrow’s caucus:

Another group that 2020 hopefuls are hoping to win over are senior citizens. Several campaigns have stopped by the MLK senior center in North Las Vegas.

Jill Biden didn’t make it to a monthly birthday celebration there today, choosing not to cross a Carpenters Union picket line protesting working conditions at a nearby construction site, according to the Biden campaign. The campaign offered to transport anyone interested to a Biden rally in the evening.

On Thursday, Joaquin Castro dropped by the center. And Tom Steyer visited last week.

At the Friday event — where attendees were happy to eat and dance with or without Biden — Marshall Collins, 90, said he’d already voted early. “I voted for Biden,” he said -- though he’s happy to vote for any Democrats. “I hope things come together in the election. There’s too many Democrats right now.”

Collins’ second choice is Steyer, he said. “All I care” — regardless of who the candidate is — “is if he does what he says he’s going to do,” Collins said.

David Outland, 60, was another Biden supporter. “I like sleepy Joe,” he chuckled. “He probably had more experience than anyone else.”

Outland said he wishes the candidates would reach out more to older Nevadans. “Boots on the ground, like we used to do,” he said.

He’d like to know more about the other candidates, he said. “Right now it’s too confusing.” The former Vice President is the only one he’s familiar with.

Yvette, 62, who said didn’t want to use her full name because she didn’t want Trump supporters to come after her on Facebook, said she’s going to vote for any Democrat.

“I just don’t want to lose my benefits because Trump got pissed,” she said. “Or to have our kids locked up.”

As we blog, pundits on CNN discuss the interesting dynamic between Sanders and Trump that today’s news on Russian interference sets up.

While Sanders has both acknowledged and condemned Russian interference across the board, Donald Trump and his supporters have continued to dismiss and downplay the role Russian actors may have played in getting him elected.

The New York Times reported today that US intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign in an effort to re-elect Trump.

The day after the Feb. 13 briefing to lawmakers, the president berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place, people familiar with the exchange said. Mr. Trump was particularly irritated that Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the leader of the impeachment proceedings, was at the briefing.

During the briefing to the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Trump’s allies challenged the conclusions, arguing that he had been tough on Russia and that he had strengthened European security...

Mr. Trump has long accused the intelligence community’s assessment of Russia’s 2016 interference as the work of a “deep state” conspiracy intent on undermining the validity of his election. Intelligence officials feel burned by their experience after the last election, when their work became a subject of intense political debate and is now a focus of a Justice Department investigation.

Pundits note that it will be interesting to see how Trump responds as he’s potentially pulled between two conflicting impulses: To throw mud at Sanders and his position as a frontrunner versus the desire to protect the legitimacy of his presidency.

Today’s surprise Russian-interference news aside, Sanders’ campaign marches on in their efforts to reach out to Latino voters in often overlooked corners of California.

Sanders emerged early on as a front-runner in California, a position his campaign has attributed to a massive ground game across the Golden State. Young Latino voters in particular have embraced the Vermont senator for his history of supporting unions and taking to the streets in protest.

Reuters has more on the efforts in California:

A record 32 million Latinos are projected to be eligible to vote in the general election, exceeding the number of black eligible voters for the first time, according to the Pew Research Center. About 62% of Latino registered voters identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, while 34% affiliate with or lean to the Republican Party, the organization says...

Across California, and in neighboring Nevada and Texas, the Sanders campaign has also put on soccer matches and house parties, some billed as “Tamales for Tío Bernie,” an affectionate Spanish-language term for “Uncle Bernie.”

The campaign wants to be deeply embedded in Latino communities, said Bianca Recto, communications director for the campaign in Nevada. She said at least half of the 200 paid staff on the ground ahead of the caucuses are people of color, many of them locals.

“It’s Bernie’s message that resonates to the economic hardships of people and not treating constituencies as if they’re a monolith, as if they’re a one-issue voter,” Recto said.

As news trickles out that the Russian government is currently working to aid Sen. Sanders through online disinformation tactics, the Vermont Senator has suggested that a recent dust-up over purported Sanders supporters and culinary workers in Nevada can be traced to Russian bots.

Sanders said in a statement:“In 2016, Russia used Internet propaganda to sow division in our country, and my understanding is that they are doing it again in 2020. Some of the ugly stuff on the Internet attributed to our campaign may well not be coming from real supporters.”

After the culinary union distributed flyers that was critical of Sanders’ health care plan and broadly supportive of Warren’s, members of the union-members said they received threatening messages from who they believed to be Sanders supporters, or so-called Bernie Bros.

So far no evidence has been reported that ties Russian interference to the controversy.

US officials told Bernie Sanders that the Russian government is working to help him secure the Democratic nomination, the Washington Post reported Friday.

And new reports are emerging that Sanders knew a month ago about the interference. Asked why the news is only coming out now, Sanders pointed to the Nevada caucuses and suggested media was to blame.

Unlike Trump, who has repeatedly dismissed the role Russia may have played in the last election, Sanders has acknowledged the meddling, but has worked to distance himself from Russia and Putin.

“I don’t care, frankly, who Putin wants to be president,” Sanders said in a statement to The Washington Post. “My message to Putin is clear: Stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do.

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Mario Koran, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Bernie Sanders has reportedly been briefed on Russian efforts to aid his presidential campaign, which the Vermont senator denounced in a statement.
• Trump dismissed reports of Russia’s preference for him in the 2020 election as “disinformation.”
• Mike Bloomberg said he would release three women who complained about comments he allegedly made from non-disclosure agreements, after Elizabeth Warren criticized his company’s use of the contracts.
• A new poll showed Bloomberg’s favorability dropping by about 20 points after his widely panned debate performance on Wednesday.
• The White House is reportedly trying to identify “Never Trumpers” serving in the administration to block them from promotion.

Mario will have more coming up, so stay tuned.