Good evening. We're just an hour away from the first of three CNN town halls tonight.

Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and Tom Steyer taking questions from voters in South Carolina.

Michael Bloomberg postponed his appearance tonight, opting instead to prep more for tomorrow night's debate,

which could be crucial given his performance his first time out in reports that he appears to be

positioning himself to try and focus his attacks at the debate on Bernie Sanders. Then there's Joe Biden

trying to make South Carolina the spark that revives his campaign. He's reportedly about to earn

the endorsement of one of the state's most influential Democrats, Congressman James Clyburn.

We'll talk about all of that, plus new reporting on Russian interference, which a senior FBI

official today said was driven by a desire to quote, watch us tear ourselves apart. Russian

dissident and chess master, grandmaster, Gary Kasparov joins us with his thoughts on the subject.

And along those lines reporting from CNN and elsewhere that the White House and White House

allies have been making lists of government officials to be purged because they're perceived

to be disloyal to the president. It's the kind of thing that used to happen. A lot of the Kremlin

happening here and now first, though, the Democratic race, new insights from the results in Nevada,

and what I might say about South Carolina, let's begin with our political director, David Chalene,

who's in Charleston tonight. So David, is there a sense of whether the Nevada results have shifted

the dynamic in South Carolina, particularly for Senator Sanders and former vice president Biden?

Yeah, well, Anderson, it's shifted the entire race because what we have now

after Senator Sanders' commanding victory in Nevada over the weekend is a clear dominant front

runner for the Democratic nomination in this race. And that is Bernie Sanders, the Senator from Vermont.

You are right to note the new dynamic. And trust me, Senator Sanders must be aware of it today too,

because with being the front runner, Anderson, of course, comes all that scrutiny. I mean, he has

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