Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast

After two March shellackings, the Sanders campaign appears to have lost its path to the nomination. With Biden's lead poised to widening enough to avert a brokered convention, the question for the Democrats going forward is decreasingly, "Who?" and increasingly, "How?" How should Biden try to bring Sanders supporters on board? And will Sanders do a better job than in 2016 of uniting his base behind the party's candidate?  On Today's Show:Gabriel Debenedetti, national correspondent for New York Magazine, breaks down yesterday’s primaries, the first contest after Super Tuesday narrowed the field, and the second of three major contest days in March.

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders face off again today in primary elections in six states, as the last two men standing in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Biden is trying to cement the delegate lead he established on Super Tuesday. Sanders needs to reverse what for him was a disappointing performance — winning a delegate majority in just three of 14 states — and show that he’s still a contender. And though six states are voting, one state is considered the big prize: Michigan, which Sanders won in the 2016 primary, and which recent polls show Biden leading by a hair. Holly Bailey, Washington Post national political reporter, and Stephen Henderson, host of Detroit Today, preview what’s at stake in the six presidential primaries today, including the key contest in Michigan between Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders.

Since Super Tuesday, some things have changed. Former Democratic nomination hopefuls Sens. Kamala Harris and Corey Booker endorsed Joe Biden over the weekend. The Rev. Jesse Jackson endorsed Sanders, a coda back to the 1988 democratic primary, in which Sanders endorsed Jackson, who was at the time, largely seen as a spoiler against Mike Dukakis. With Biden picking up more mainstream Democratic endorsements, the pressure is on the Sanders campaign to show strong numbers in Tuesday's contests, particularly in Michigan and Washington state, which he won in 2016, but appears to be falling behind in the polls this time around.  Elena Schneider, national political reporter at Politico, where she covers the 2020 Democratic presidential primary and general election, previews this week’s primaries and caucuses and discusses the latest developments in the campaigns.

The day after Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the race, we asked her supporters to share what her campaign, meant to them, how they feel now that it's over, and who gets their votes now. 

On Today's Show: Laura Barron-Lopez, national political reporter at Politico covering the 2020 election, and Marisa Franco, director and co-founder of Mijente a grass-roots organization that mobilizes Latinx and Chicanx voters, takes calls, talks about how the Democratic Socialist has attracted Latino voters, and what the nation's largest ethnic minority is looking for in a candidate. 

On today's show, we take a look at whether the U.S.'s healthcare system, which is often criticized for being too expensive, too complex, too disjointed and not patient-centric, is also hindering public health officials' efforts to track and contain the spread of Coronavirus.  Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives at Community Service Society, and co-founder of Healthcare for All New York, talks about how the coronavirus crisis highlights the disparity of healthcare coverage in this country, and if the government is up to the task of protecting, and paying for coronavirus testing and treatment for all Americans. 

After Joe Biden's success on Super Tuesday, and the relatively poor showings from Bloomberg and Warren, the race looks like it will boil down to a face-off between Barack Obama's moderate Vice President and the progressive Senator from Vermont. Bloomberg, who showered Super Tuesday states with a $400 million ad-buy, walked away with a measly 9 delegates, causing him to re-consider whether further investing in the race would be fruitful. Warren too is strapped for cash heading into the late-March contests that are now, for a candidate who has not placed above third in any race, including in her home state, not looking good. On Today's Show:Rolling Stone senior writer Jamil Smith and politics staff writer Tessa Stuart talk about the state of the 2020 race after Super Tuesday.

The Democratic primary field is now down to five. Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg, Warren and Gabbard. The two most recent dropouts, Klobuchar and Buttigieg, stepped back after South Carolina to throw their support behind Biden, who is now the establishment standard-bearer for the moderate lane of the party. Polls have long showed Sanders leading in most of the Super Tuesday states, but Biden's strong showing in South Carolina appears to have moved the needle in his favor, particularly in Virginia, where he had trailed Sanders by five points, but now leads by 20 in the most recent polling.  On Today's Show:David Plouffe, campaign manager for President Obama and the author of  A Citizen's Guide to Beating Donald Trump (Viking, March 3, 2020), previews Super Tuesday and talks about his new book.

After their less-than-stellar performances in Saturday's South Carolina primary, Tom Steyer and Pete Buttigieg have dropped out of the race as Joe Biden won the state, an crucial first for the former vice president, with nearly 50 percent support. Going into Super Tuesday, polls suggest that Bernie Sanders will win California, the state with the most delegates in play by far. But unlike other states, candidates will need to earn more than 15 percent support before winning any delegates. Sanders is also winning in Texas, the second largest state to vote on Tuesday. With a brokered convention looking increasingly like the most probable outcome, Democrats in congress, who would, in that case, weigh in as superdelegates on a second convention ballot, are strategizing messaging for if they have to run down-ticket races with a socialist at the top of the ticket.  On Today's Show: Amy Walter, national editor of the Cook Political Report, host of Politics with Amy Walter on WNYC’s The Takeaway, and now the host of the “micro-podcast” How to Vote in America

Super Tuesday will mark the beginning of the end for some candidates. For those who do garner enough support, it will likely be the beginning of a new conversation: How, if it comes down to it, should the party navigate a brokered convention? In the wake of outrage over what his supporters considered the outsized power of superdelegates (elected Democrats and party elders) to decide the nomination in 2016, Sanders successfully lobbied to remove them from the first convention ballot. Now, with the strong lead he's gained, he's arguing that the nomination should go to whichever candidate goes into the convention with the most delegates, even if it's not the majority needed to clinch the candidacy in the first round of voting. If Sanders does enter the convention in Milwaukee with a leading plurality, but not a majority, the congressional Democrats, acting as superdelegates would be put in a sticky position: put some someone at the top of the ticket that they fear could hurt their odds to keep their House majority, not to mention their own seats; or, vote against the candidate that has proven most popular, albeit polarizing, among their party's voters. On Today's Show:Michelle Goldberg, op-ed columnist for The New York Times, talks about the Trump administration's response to the corona virus, and the latest news in the 2020 presidential campaign.