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New Poll: Clinton Dips Below 50% for First Time; Another Democrat Opposes Iran Nuclear Deal; Police: Bangkok Bomber Did Not Act Alone; Accuser Takes Stand in Prep School Rape Trial. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired August 19, 2015 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton is still the candidate to beat.

[05:58:44] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's struggling to fend off a campaign controversy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you wipe the server?

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What, like with a cloth or something?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a criminal problem.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: This is a serious political problem for her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This agreement or war? Is that the choice?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama is losing some more Democratic support.

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D), NEW JERSEY: If Iran is to acquire a nuclear bomb, it will not have my name on it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nineteen-year-old Owen Labrie pleading not guilty to allegations of rape.

CATHERINE RUFFLE, DEPUTY MERRIMACK COUNTY ATTORNEY: He was going to have sex with her. This was not a consensual act.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, August 19, 6 a.m. in the East. And here's our headline.

Hillary Clinton has strong numbers, but she now has a race on her hands, both against Democrats and GOP rivals. For the first time in the race, support for the Democratic front-runner falls below 50 percent in the new CNN/ORC poll out just this morning. Questions about her email use and her trustworthiness are clearly weighing on her numbers.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And also for the first time, the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, poses a serious threat to Clinton. The new numbers show the Donald is within striking distance of the Democratic frontrunner.

CNN's senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny is here to break it all down for us. Tell us about these new polls.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Within striking distance indeed. For weeks now, Democrats have been watching Trump surge with a smile. But out new poll shows a new reason for Democrats to take his candidacy more seriously. Let's take a look at these numbers.

Clinton is now leading Donald Trump by only six points. This is a dramatic tightening since July, when there was a 16-point gap and June when the spread was 24 points. The reason is this: his standing has increased among Republicans, Republican-leaning independents and white voters.

Now among Democrats, Clinton is still driving this race, leading Bernie Sanders by 18 points. But our poll shows reverse trend lines for Clinton and Sanders. Take a look at this. Since July, Clinton has fallen nine points while Sanders has climbed 10 points. This is the first poll that has Clinton just under 50 percent. So the Sanders surge is real, climbing from 19 points back in July to 29 points now.

Now the idea of Vice President Joe Biden jumping into this presidential campaign is very real in the minds of a majority of Democrats. Take a look at this. Fifty-three percent of Democratic voters say Biden should launch a presidential candidacy, while 45 percent say no. He is strongly considering it. and I'm told by aides will make his decision within the next month.

Even Clinton supporters say they want Biden in, a sign they're hungry for a competitive race, and they may want to hedge their bets.

Now hanging over all of this is this: Positive impressions of Clinton continue to fade. Our new poll shows 44 percent hold a favorable view of her, while 53 percent have an unfavorable one. This is essentially reversed since she announced her candidacy back in March, which explains why the Clinton campaign is out with a brand-new ad this morning in New Hampshire and Iowa, those two key early voting states.

She's talking about her pledge to reshuffle the deck for everyday Americans. She's talking about her childhood, showing those black and white pictures there and her desire to build an economy, quote, "so being middle class means something again." All part of her introduction here, her reintroduction to voters and trying to focus on her economic message.

But this campaign is becoming increasingly competitive again -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Jeff. Thanks for breaking some of those out for us. There's a lot more in that poll, so stay with us.

And let's bring in CNN politics executive editor, Mr. Mark Preston.

Let's go back to that number that Jeff just showed us of the favorable/unfavorable flipping since the announcement in March. That's probably the biggest one that's going to get some wide eyes from the Clinton folks this morning. What do you think is going to be the play on that, Preston?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Well, I mean, listen, Chris, at this point, you would expect her to be dropping in the polls. She's now a politician again. She's no longer a non- partisan secretary of state.

But clearly, the controversies that have gone through over the past six months are starting to weigh on her at the same time where you see Bernie Sanders is traveling the country and getting crowds upwards of 10,000 people. This is certainly troubling for Hillary Clinton, not at -- not only at this point. But let's talk about six months from now. If this is a trend that continues, then she could be in trouble.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let's look at that poll, Jeff. The one that shows now versus July, just last month, and how Bernie Sanders has definitely gained. He's at 29 percent. Just a month ago, he was at 19 percent, whereas you see Hillary Clinton's numbers have gone down by almost as much. She was 56 percent, now 47 percent. Jeff, how big of a threat is Bernie Sanders?

ZELENY: Bernie Sanders is definitely a threat among liberal Democrats, among some progressives who love what he's hearing [SIC]. He's going out there, as Mark said, doing these rallies across the country and talking about these traditional liberal progressive values.

This poll does validate one thing. It shows that Bernie Sanders's strategy to have these big rallies in the West Coast, in the East Coast, in college towns is really helping his numbers across the country in these national polls here. So he is taking some out of her hide, no question about that here.

She still, though, is in a comfortable position, 18 points. Any Republican, I can tell you, Alisyn, would take that in a heartbeat, given how competitive their race is. It's important to keep it in perspective here. But they had reverse trend lines. She fell ten points; he climbed ten points in the last month. So it's something that her campaign is definitely, definitely...

CUOMO: They usually go together, though. I mean, you talk to Democrats, and they say they're comfortable with her numbers in terms of the cushion she has on Bernie, that she probably agrees with a lot of what he says, but it's the practicality of getting those types of things done that is going to make -- you know, is going to be a prohibition on Bernie's -- Bernie Sanders's ability to move forward.

However, Mark, then you look at how she's doing against the GOP rivals. And that probably tells the story of what's happening with the e-mail, how people are reading, how she deals with it, the trustworthy number. What does it mean that they're closing the gap?

PRESTON: Well, I mean, a couple things. I think it says a lot about Donald Trump, first of all, and how, for all his, quote unquote, "gaffes" and mistakes that he's made over the past couple weeks, haven't hurt him. So we've seen him increase on the Republican side.

[06:05:01] But for Hillary Clinton, and we saw this last night in Las Vegas, she doesn't seem to be handling the e-mail situation all too well. In fact, she seems very agitated when she has to answer questions. And it's -- I think to the American people, it's not so much that she used the private e-mail, but I really think it's how they're handling it now and how she seems frustrated and agitated by it at this point instead of being just contrite about it.

CAMEROTA: Let's listen to a moment of this at a campaign stop where she was asked by a reporter about the server that she handed over and how she makes light of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: My personal e-mails are my personal business, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But did you try to wipe the whole server?

CLINTON: I'm -- I have no idea. That's why we turned it over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were in charge of it. You were the official in charge. Did you wipe the server?

CLINTON: What, like with a cloth or something?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. You know how it works, digitally. Did you try to wipe the whole server?

CLINTON: I don't know how it works digitally at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Jeff, what was that response?

ZELENY: Look, I think she's trying to -- I think that was a actually very honest and genuine response. It's clear that she's not very savvy.

CAMEROTA: Technically savvy.

ZELENY: We've seen a lot of those e-mails, you know, where she's unable to use her fax machine and things. So she's saying she's wiping the server.

This is a little bit of a part of their strategy to show that, look, "This is not a huge deal. We have this. You know, don't worry about this, Democrats. This is part of the same old -- old partisan game."

But this poll shows that even Democrats are concerned about this and are worried about this. I think Mark is right. The private server aside, just the fact that this has come out in a drip, drip, drip fashion. She said she wouldn't turn over that private server. Five months later she did turn over that private server.

So the challenge for the Clinton campaign is, now we have multiple investigations, Congressional hearings unfolding at the time of this campaign over the next few months.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

ZELENY: So it's hard to imagine that things will get much better for her. But still, important to keep in mind, she is in the driver's seat of this race.

CAMEROTA: You know...

ZELENY: She's beating all of the other Republicans. You know, this is going to be a tight election. Right? She's ahead of Jeb Bush by nine points. Pretty tight election here, so not terrible, terrible findings for her.

CAMEROTA: But here is a telling piece of the poll, I think. And that's how Democrats view this whole e-mail scandal versus Republicans.

ZELENY: Right.

CAMEROTA: Let me put this up. So was Clinton wrong to use personal e-mail? Eighty-two percent of Republicans say yes. Fifty- eight percent of independents say yes. Only 31 percent of Democrats, Mark. So in other words, it's not as big a deal to the people that she needs in the primary.

PRESTON: Right. And I think Jeff, you know, is correct when he's saying that right now she's up 18 points over Bernie Sanders and is in the driver's seat. But this is just as much about a general election issue as it is going to be a primary issue, in the sense that it's not going to be that much of an issue in the primary. We'll continue probably to see Bernie Sanders to climb the polls a little bit.

But in the end, Hillary Clinton is right now the odds-on favorite to win the Democratic primary.

CUOMO: Right.

PRESTON: It's this drip, drip, nibble, nibble at Hillary Clinton that's going to hurt her. But it's when you get into August, Mick, this time next year. That's when it's very problematic.

CUOMO: Here's the thing, guys. We're talking -- to use your metaphor, it's the nibble, nibble, drip, drip. What that really is is the media's feelings about this in light of the investigation. I don't think that that's the right metaphor for the numbers.

I think it's -- right now, there are at least two, if not three other shows on television right now treating this like they caught her with bags of cocaine in her house. That that's the way they're looking at this investigation. They're using the word "criminal" very loosely. The campaign hasn't been good or quick to dispel what's criminal about it, what isn't. You know, they're using it to show that Clinton sense of entitlement.

This situation is being used, Mark, as a metaphor on what's wrong with her, well above and beyond what the potential facts are of the situation. How do you handle that part of it? Because right now, that's happening on TV and other places, where they're saying, "Oh, Donald Trump is saying, 'Oh, well, this is criminal.' Chris Christie is saying, "Oh, when I was USA, I would have had a criminal investigation in no time.'" That's the risk.

PRESTON: Right, right, Chris. Look, there's no doubt there's political agendas out there in the media, certainly when you're looking at Hillary Clinton, certainly when you're looking at Donald Trump or any of these candidates.

But I think we can't discount the fact that the Department of Justice decided to look into this, and we have Congressional hearings that will continue for months and months and months and months and months. Whether anything comes up of that, who knows? But it's still going to be in the spotlight, and I think that's her biggest problem.

CAMEROTA: On a lighter note, Jeff, at a campaign stop, it appears that there was a little girl who took a page from our agenda of asking the candidates about equal pay and where they stand on that. So here is Hillary Clinton's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think when you are president, you'll be paid as much as if you were a male?

CLINTON: Oh, my goodness. Well, this is one of the jobs where they have to pay you the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:10:06] CAMEROTA: It's so cute that a little girl is interested in, you know, gender equity, as well.

ZELENY: Sometimes the best questions at campaign rallies or the most memorable ones come from young voters or voters -- certainly, that was a great moment yesterday in Nevada. And of course, it allowed the secretary to pivot to her message for a pay equality and gender equity and pay equity. So that was a very, very, very funny moment.

That's why you act -- that's why when you're running for president, you want to campaign with people, because it puts all these e-mail questions aside and gets good, real moments like that one.

CUOMO: Also, it's an interesting distinction. If it stays true, Hillary said yesterday that "I'm only hearing about this from you guys."

CAMEROTA: From the media.

CUOMO: If that stays -- yes, if that stays true, then it will change the discourse, Jeff, in terms of what the media asks.

ZELENY: Right. But that's actually not entirely true, Chris. I can tell you, I've talked to voters. And we sent our producer and a camera outside the line before that event and talked to several voters. Several voters said -- Democratic voters who went to see her said they do, in fact, have questions about this, and they were hoping she would bring it up.

I was at the Iowa State Fair over the weekend at a Democratic event, as well. Democrats say they are curious about this. So perhaps not as hungry and ravenous as conservatives are, but Democrats also want to know if there's any worry in their future. Should they be worried about her viability in a general election year?

So she's not completely right about that, that it's only reporters asking questions. I can tell you voter after voter after voter bringing this up, just wondering, wondering if there's anything out there.

CAMEROTA: Yes. All right. Well, thanks for that good scoop. Jeff, Mark, thanks so much.

CUOMO: Of course, it's always a battle for that middle third. Right? You have a third of the people will not vote for you. A third of the people will probably definitely do it.

CAMEROTA: Right.

CUOMO: But 58 percent of independents who were worried about it...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: That's the number they have to touch.

CAMEROTA: That is the rule.

CUOMO: All right. So later this morning, I'm going to sit down with a man known as Donald Trump. You may know him as the Republican frontrunner. You may know him as the man who's closing the gap with Hillary Clinton. I know him as the guy I'm going to be standing next to at about 11 a.m. this morning. We're going to have a very wide- ranging interview, because he's got proposals on the table. He's got plans that he says he wants to discuss. And he has a tape on why this campaign is going the way it is and what it will mean for him personally.

CAMEROTA: That will be fascinating.

CUOMO: He's got to adjust now also. For all his confidence...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: ... this is real in a way maybe even he, Donald Trump, did not anticipate at this point. So...

CAMEROTA: Fascinating.

CUOMO: ... we're going to turn it for tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern. It's a CNN special report aptly named -- ready? -- "The Donald Trump Interview."

CAMEROTA: Did you come up with that?

CUOMO: Don't you like that?

CAMEROTA: Creative.

CUOMO: It's a little subtle. Some of the insightful and tasty bits we will hold for you on Thursday morning, of course, right here on NEW DAY -- Mick.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We look forward to that very much. All right, Chris.

This morning another top Democrat saying he will vote against the Iran nuclear deal. New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez is the latest to speak out about the historic agreement.

This, while Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he concedes that the deal will likely survive Congress, despite growing opposition.

CNN's Athena Jones is live in Washington with all of the latest for us. Good morning, Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

Senator Menendez is the second Senate Democrat to come out against this deal. This is after New York Senator Chuck Schumer announced his opposition earlier this month. Now Schumer did it in an article online. Menendez is the first to do so in a big speech. Take a listen to what he had to say in New Jersey yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MENENDEZ: I have looked into my own soul, and my devotion to principle may once again lead me to an unpopular course. But if Iran is to acquire a nuclear bomb, it will not have my name on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: "It will not have my name on it." So strong words from the senator in that lengthy speech. So it's important to note he had been vocally opposed to this deal, so this was not entirely unexpected.

But it's significant, because as you mentioned, the White House has to hold onto enough Democrats to keep the Republicans in Congress from blocking this deal. The administration thinks they can still do that. White House spokesman, Eric Schultz, saying, quote, "We remain confident that, ultimately, a majority of Democrats in both the House and the Senate will support the deal" -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much, Athena, for that.

Overnight, breaking news to tell you about. Thai police confirming that the suspect who carried out Monday's deadly bombing in Bangkok did not act alone. This morning, police releasing a sketch of the bombing suspect and a reward for information leading to his capture. This as the shrine where the violent attack occurred reopened.

CNN correspondent Saima Mohsin live with the latest -- Saima.

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that man in that yellow shirt identified on CCTV, Alisyn, arriving here, leaving a backpack underneath a bench, and then leaving. A short while later, that bomb went off.

Now, police asked the court to issue an arrest warrant. They don't have a name; they don't have an identification. But they've also called to issue an arrest warrant for premeditated murder with intent to kill and a second charge, making a bomb.

[06:15:09] They are on the hunt for this man, and they are asking people to submit any photographs, any videos they have throughout the day and during that time when the bomb went off, if they can help.

This is what the police in the Boston bombing did. And the Thai police say they're using that model to try and piece together more about this man and his possible accomplice. They've also released a sketch. They're hoping people can try and identify him, offering 1 million baht -- that's just over $30,000 -- for any information that may lead to his arrest.

Today, the shrine has opened. This morning, some family members of those killed and injured arrived. They're lighting incense and leaving flowers. The United States embassy charge d'affaires, too, coming here, leaving flowers, as well, paying his respects, saying a prayer and saying that the United States stands side by side with Thailand in the spirit of togetherness -- Chris.

CUOMO: Very difficult situation, Saima, because you have Thailand wanting to move forward and showing that it's about what happens next. But for those families, this difficult time is only just beginning. Thank you for the reporting. We also want to tell you about tough testimony that happened from

a student who claimed she was raped as part of a sex competition at an elite New England prep school. The teenager is expected back on the witness stand today at the trial of her alleged attacker. We have CNN's Boris Sanchez following every development for us. Boris, what do we know?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, the allegations are eye opening. The testimony is difficult to listen to. Both sides going back and forth in explicit detail over exactly what happened between those two students. And more of that difficult testimony is expected before the trial wraps up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Just a few miles from the elite St. Paul's High School, 19-year-old Owen Labrie sat in court, listening as his former schoolmate gave her tearful testimony, accusing him of rape, saying in court, quote, "I thought his intentions were really wrong," end quote. The prosecutor arguing Tuesday that when Labrie contacted a then-15-year-old schoolmate last year, he did so with one intention.

RUFFLE: To solicit, lure or entice her to meet with him with a plan to have sex with her.

SANCHEZ: Labrie is pleading not guilty to allegations that he raped her at the elite prep school where they were both students, and further, denying that they had sex days before his graduation last year.

RUFFLE: This was not a consensual act.

SANCHEZ: A prosecutor revealing that a nurse observed an abrasion on the accuser's genital area, which she says are, quote, "consistent with a sexual assault."

The encounter occurred, both sides agree, as part of a decades- old tradition at St. Paul's known as the Senior Salute, a competition described as male seniors trying to rack up sexual encounters with younger female students.

Labrie's attorney arguing Tuesday that not all Senior Salutes were sexual, even reading messages in court to illustrate that the accuser willingly participated. "Only if it's our little secret," she wrote.

Labrie replied, "Not a soul needs to know."

On Tuesday, St. Paul's published a statement on the school's website, saying, quote, "Allegations about our culture are not emblematic of our school, or our values, our rules or the people that represent our student body, alumni, faculty and staff."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: This is not a good look for St. Paul's. Six Congressmen, more than a dozen ambassadors and Secretary of State John Kerry all went there. This case has the potential to tarnish the reputation of a highly-esteemed institution.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. It's horrible to hear details. Thanks so much, Boris.

PEREIRA: Breaking overnight, a blast so large it caused a big portion of a Washington state motel to collapse. Officials say the explosion was caused by a gas leak at a Motel 6 outside Seattle. Firefighters were blown back 20 feet in the sudden blast. A gas worker who was checking on the leak was sent to the hospital with second- and third-degree burns. Luckily, the motel was evacuated moments before the explosion.

CAMEROTA: In Syria now, ISIS publicly executing a prominent antiquities scholar in the ancient city of Palmyra. The man's family says he was beheaded Tuesday in the city's public square. The terrorists gained control of Palmyra back in May and have destroyed scores of ancient artifacts and shrines throughout that 2,000-year-old city.

CUOMO: Hackers released the private information of customers on the cheating website Ashley Madison. Some 32 million users' names, logins, e-mail and street addresses, as well as what they are looking for in a cheating partner, all now available. But it's available on the Dark Web. You can't just Google it. So a little discretion shown by the hackers.

They say questionable morals and what they call Ashley Madison's fraudulent business practices are the motive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

[06:20:03] CUOMO: They did. So now, I can't go see the information, per se, but other people who have these Dark Web browser capabilities could get it and do whatever they want with it.

CAMEROTA: Terrorists, in other words. I mean, that's the only other time I've heard of the Dark Web being used.

CUOMO: No, I think that there's probably...

PEREIRA: There's a lot going on on the Dark Web.

CUOMO: ... a 12-year-old in my house who's probably got the capability.

PEREIRA: I really hope not.

CAMEROTA: That's probably true.

All right. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton got a little testy when a reporter pushed her on her e-mail server. We'll show you that exchange. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: My personal e-mails are my personal business, right? That's all I can say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But did you try to wipe the whole server?

CLINTON: I'm -- I have no idea. That's why we turned it over. We...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were in charge of it. You were the official in charge. Did you wipe the server?

CLINTON: What, like with a cloth or something?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. You know how it works, digitally. Did you try to wipe the whole server?

CLINTON: I don't know how it works digitally at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, that was Hillary Clinton, fielding questions about her use of a personal e-mail server while secretary of state. This comes as a new CNN/ORC poll shows Clinton's favorability ratings hitting a 14-year low.

Here to discuss all of this is Richard Socarides. He's a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton.

[06:25:00] Richard, great to see you.

RICHARD SOCARIDES, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Is that the right tone that she's using? You know, "What, did I wipe it with a cloth?" She's joking. But before, when she was asked about the e-mails, she said, "I prefer Snapchat, so that it vanishes right away." I mean, she's really making light of this on the campaign trail. And is that the right way to go?

SOCARIDES: Well, I don't think -- I don't, first of all, think she's making light of it. I mean, I think that you saw in that answer a very genuine response.

CAMEROTA: Meaning she really doesn't know how e-mail works?

SOCARIDES: I think, you know, she -- people know that she's not a technical whiz. You know, she's from that generation before there was e-mail, before there were iPhones. So I think that's a very honest, genuine response. You know, obviously, the reporter is coming at her a little bit.

I think, though, that she's handled this well. I mean, I think she's answered every question. She's certainly taken it seriously. She herself has said that, in retrospect, it was probably not the right thing to do. So I mean, I think she'd like to stay focused on the issues. And if the American people would like to hear about the issues. But I think she's doing she possibly can to be responsive to the legitimate questions that people have about this.

CAMEROTA: And yet, it's not going away. It appears to be getting messier, because things keep happening. The inspector general has said that the information on the e-mail was classified at the time that she sent it. She says no. But there's still this discrepancy.

SOCARIDES: The State Department says no. There is -- there is this dispute now...

CAMEROTA: there is.

SOCARIDES: ... between the inspector general and the State Department. The State Department says very clearly that there was no classified information.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but the investigators say that there was.

SOCARIDES: No information was classified at this time.

CAMEROTA: At some point, we need to get to the bottom of this. There is...

SOCARIDES: OK. So there's a -- there is, unfortunately, a dispute between two branches of the government.

CAMEROTA: But furthermore, there's a new wrinkle, and that is that her personal lawyer, David Kendall, also had these thumb drives with all -- thousands of these e-mails on them. The inspector general says that he should -- David Kendall should not have had access to this. And here's why it's important.

Let me show you what's happening on one of the latest polls, just out this morning, about whether or not registered voters believe that she improperly used personal e-mail. Let's put it up on the screen for you. In March, 51 percent of respondents thought yes. Now it's 56 percent. No, it was 47 percent; now it's 39 percent. It's going in the wrong direction.

SOCARIDES: Well, I think they're basically agreeing with what she said. That in retrospect, she probably shouldn't have done this.

But I think, you know, the other numbers from your poll this morning, the CNN poll this morning, shows that, as Jeff Zeleny just said, to quote your own commentator, Hillary Clinton is in the driver's seat in this race.

I mean, despite all the unprecedented attacks that she's had to answer, despite all the Republicans being -- ganging up against her, despite the inaccurate reports in some of the media about this, that she is 18 percent ahead in the primary. She's beating her closets -- she's beating the Republican frontrunner by 6 percent. I mean, it's -- in my view, these poll numbers are very encouraging for her this morning. CAMEROTA: OK. Well, let's look at the poll numbers. Because I

understand what you're saying: She's far out ahead of Bernie Sanders, but he's still gaining on her. I mean, she has 47 percent. He has 29 percent. But that is up from just a month ago, when he had 19 percent. He's jumped 10 percent. She, meanwhile, has fallen from a month ago, 56 to 47 percent.

SOCARIDES: But she's still winning by 18 percent. I mean, look, races -- I think everybody knows, races get competitive, especially once you're in the throes of a political campaign. She has always said that this race would be very competitive. She's going to take her opponents very seriously.

I think Bernie Sanders is raising a lot of important issues. You know, a lot of Democrats really like what he's saying. I think Hillary Clinton likes a lot of what he's saying and -- and would probably enact and will enact, as president, a lot of the things that Bernie Sanders is advocating for.

But look, the fact remains is, she is very much ahead in the Democratic primary. She is beating all the Republican opponents. Yes, her favorability ratings have gone down a bit. But compare her favorability ratings even this morning to the favorability ratings of all her Republican opponents...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

SOCARIDES: ... and most importantly, the Republicans generically. She way out in front.

So in an election, you know, you don't -- it's not like yes or no. You have to -- an election is, is you vote for one person or the other person. I think that she is still doing pretty well.

CAMEROTA: However, Bernie Sanders is attracting huge crowds. He attracted a crowd of 28,000 people this week in Portland. He's exceeded the crowds of Hillary by far, as well as those of Donald Trump. So there is an enthusiasm. I mean, look at this, Richard. Look at the screen. Look at the crowds that he's attracting. What should her strategy be around Bernie Sanders?

SOCARIDES: Her strategy should be to continue to talk about the issues that are important to the American people, like the economy, college affordability, immigration, all -- criminal justice reform, all the important issues that she's been talking about so far.

I mean, I think that she's got a great campaign. She's got a great team. They are trying to stay focused on policy, despite the unprecedented attacks around the e-mail and around everything else. I mean, those of us who have worked with Hillary and Bill Clinton before have seen this playbook. They get everything thrown at them. The media loves...

CAMEROTA: You think it's politics; this isn't a real issue?

SOCARIDES: Well, I think it's a combination of being in the throes of a political campaign. And this is an issue that the media -- that the media loves. I mean, the media loves a contest. Everybody likes a -- likes a contest.