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Poll: Trump & Carson Surge, Clinton Losing Ground; Migrant Boat Capsizes, Killing Dozens Off Greece; Dramatic Finishes in NFL's 'First Sunday'. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 14, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The stage is set. The podiums are up, and the candidates are getting ready.

[05:57:58] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via phone): I'm a deal maker. I'll make great deals for this country. Ben can't do that.

BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not taking the bait. I'm not going there. Next question.

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump is an entertainer. I am a leader.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary Clinton is sliding in the polls. Bernie Sanders is surging.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe I've got a determination to get us back on the right track.

BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are you guys ready to make a political revolution?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes!

SANDERS: You've come to the right place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outright tackling him, you know, seemingly without basis.

COMMISSIONER BILL BRATTON, NYPD: Mr. Blake was inappropriately arrested and detained. It should not have happened.

JAMES BLAKE, FORMER TENNIS STAR: You've got that badge. And you're supposed to treat that with respect. I don't think he deserves to ever have that badge again.

(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 Monday, September 14, 6 a.m. in the east.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Happy new year to everyone celebrating.

CUOMO: Today, the political day of reckoning is just two days from now. Cheap shots? Forget it. Enough of that. It's time to get it on. The Republican debate right here on CNN. It is time for the rest of the field to shine. There's a new poll out this morning has Donald Trump and Ben Carson pulling away, accounting for more than half of the Republican votes in the latest "Washington Post"/ABC News poll.

CAMEROTA: Now on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton's lead continues to erode. A hypothetical Clinton-Trump match-up now a statistical tie. So a lot is at stake two days before the big debate.

Let's begin our team coverage with CNN's Athena Jones. She's live from the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Good morning, Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

The countdown to the big night has begun in Simi Valley. As you mentioned, that new national poll out today has Trump still in the lead and posting his biggest number yet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: Winning in Iowa. winning in New Hampshire. Winning every place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go Trump! Let's go Trump! Let's go Trump!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go Trump! Let's go Trump! Let's go Trump!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go Trump! Let's go Trump! Let's go Trump!

JONES (voice-over): Donald Trump's lead reaching new heights above the still-crowded GOP field. This morning, a new "Washington Post"/ABC News poll shows Trump with 33 percent, his highest lead yet. Trump's closest competitor, Ben Carson, coming in 13 points behind.

TRUMP: People don't have energy. I don't think Ben has the energy.

JONES: Collectively, the two Washington outsiders hold more than 50 percent of the potential vote, both making their case on the Sunday shows.

TRUMP (via phone): I'll make great deals for this country. Ben can't do that.

CARSON: I have plenty of energy.

It's ridiculous to think that the only thing that I can do is neurosurgery.

JONES: And Carly Fiorina hitting Trump: the back and forth heating up, with the CNN GOP debate just two days away.

FIORINA: Donald Trump is an entertainer. And I think I am a leader. What I do is talk to the American people about the issues they care about.

JONES: A new CNN/ORC poll revealing that issues like gun control, abortion and illegal immigration are more important to voters this election season than in 2012.

TRUMP: They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime.

JONES: Should he win the nomination, Trump's push to deport undocumented immigrants could come back to bite him in the general election if he can't clinch the Latino vote.

The latest MSNBC/Telemundo/Marist poll says immigration is the second most important issue in deciding their vote. Seventy percent of Latinos viewing Trump negatively.

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, teaming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace.

JONES: This as a pro-immigration reform group is now up with a new ad, hitting Republicans for their rhetoric on immigration.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I say we should end birthright citizenship.

JONES: The head of the Republican National Committee warning the contenders about their tone.

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, RNC: Each candidate is going to be accountable for their own words and their own mouth. And so they should proceed with caution.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: Proceed with caution. Interesting words of warning from the RNC chief there.

Meanwhile, guys, the stage is set; the podiums are up. The candidates are getting ready, and we are all looking forward to Wednesday night -- Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Stand by in Simi Valley. We're looking forward to that, Athena.

Hillary Clinton's support, meanwhile, dropping below 50 percent. According to the new "Washington post"/ABC News poll, she still leads the Democratic field with 42 percent, but she has lost significant ground. Bernie Sanders now has 24 percent. Vice President Joe Biden, who still has not declared his candidacy, has 21 percent. We want to bring in Maeve Reston. She is watching it all for us live

from Los Angeles bright and early there.

So Clinton's e-mail controversy, we know it keeps taking its toll. Look at this poll, 34 percent of those polled believed she honestly disclosed the facts. How does she reverse this steady decline in the polls?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, she's been trying to reverse that decline in the polls over the last couple of months. And she's just in the barrel of bad story after bad story.

You do see a clear opening here for Joe Biden. You see him rising in this new "Washington Post"/ABC poll. Obviously, Sanders has been doing well, as well. And it's causing a lot of consternation within the Democratic party, particularly among donors, is -- thinking is Hillary Clinton the strongest person that we have to go up against the Republican side?

Particularly Biden, it's very interesting that you see people talk about how he might be a better foil for Trump, that kind blunt, plainspoken talk. And so she's really got to get her game back here. She's trying with some humor and to shift the attention to her policies.

But so far, it hasn't been working so well. This is the first time that we've seen her sliding below 50 percent in the "Washington Post"/ABC poll.

So back to you guys.

CUOMO: Maeve, I don't know how busy you are, but can you stay with us for a couple of minutes so we can talk about this? Let's bring in...

RESTON: I can.

CUOMO: Thanks, Maeve, I appreciate it. Let's bring in CNN political commentator and political anchor at New York One, Errol Louis.

Errol, let's jump the gun. Shall we? Anyone who is to the left in terms of political reckoning are going to look at Hillary's numbers, and they're going to say, "This is what we wanted. We wanted a robust thing. Nobody stays in the 60s. This was inevitable."

What's the other side of the analysis?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the other side of the analysis is that, if you have too turbulent of a sort of a primary season on the Democratic side, it can leave her weakened. And I think that's what some of the numbers really reflect.

I mean, what you want is for her to sort of import a lot of what's being told. To a certain extent, the Clinton campaign is an empty vessel at this point. She's put out a couple of different sort of important policy procedures, but she hasn't debated Sanders. She hasn't said, "He's wrong about that $15 an hour minimum wage. I want to do something different." She hasn't talked with him about tax policy.

And to the extent that she doesn't do that, it's a real opportunity for people to come here and say, "Look, this is what you should do. If you want your numbers go up, if you want your excitement to rise, you've got to sort of get connected with some social movement, with some political sort of excitement, some activity. It's an opportunity for her team. I know the team enough to know that they're probably not going to do any of this, but I think that's what they probably ought to.

CAMEROTA: Maeve, let's look at the GOP side, because there is this new poll, "Washington Post"/ABC News poll out just at midnight. So let's look at some of the headlines from this. Trump and Carson now way ahead of the pack, 34 percent and 18 percent.

[06:05:10] And Maeve, tell us what you think the next headline is. Is it how low everybody else who was supposed to be winning is?

RESTON: Yes, it's a little -- it's kind of almost like people are dropping off the stage already, right? I think what we're seeing, there's a lot of enthusiasm, actually, out here in California, of all places, for Ben Carson last week.

Carson more directly took on Trump for the first time, questioning the authenticity of his faith, then walking that back a little bit. But clearly, Carson is getting a lot of attention out there, particularly among voters who are uneasy with Trump's past positions, particularly some of his economic positions. We're expecting to see a big ad buy going up today and this week, taking on Trump directly on some of those issues.

So we may see Carson just begin to eclipse Trump a little bit, at least for a while. And the other contenders are just going to have to have their moment on Wednesday night to see if they can kind of shake up this race a little bit.

CUOMO: Dr. Carson, Maeve, also showing an ability to learn from the past, right? I mean, he took his hits over gay being a choice of what happens in prison. And now this time, when he's being baited into a situation to stand by what he said, he said, "No, no, no, not this time. I'm going to stay the message."

So let's flip over to Donald Trump and some of the message he's put out about Latinos. Last week his people were trumpeting a poll that shows that he is up with Latinos. He's up with blacks. And now we look at these new polls that come out here, which is P-17 for you in the control room.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Just out this morning, 6 a.m.

CUOMO: Very somewhat positive, 13. Very somewhat negative, 70 percent. Errol, usually pollsters would tell you, you never want a division of more than 30 points between the biggest plus and biggest minus here, a yawning gap. What does it say?

LOUIS: Yes. It says that Donald Trump is making history. He is generating some of the biggest, most profound negative numbers. There are also little sort of anecdotal things. You know, you go around town, and you can see murals on the wall, which is not normally a part of how politics gets done, at least in New York.

Anti-Trump murals in his own hometown. This is -- this is extraordinary. He is -- look, the horse is out of the barn. He said what he said; he believes what he believes. His consultants, to the extent that they try and clean it up, all they can say is it's going to turn around. I've seen no evidence that it's ever going to turn around.

CAMEROTA: And Maeve, here's the bigger problem, is that what all of this does to the Republican Party, because this new poll, NBC poll this morning at 6 a.m., seems to say that what he's saying is coloring the entire GOP party among Latinos.

Look at this: Is it helping or hurting the image of the Republican Party? Only 13 percent say he's helping; 65 percent say he's hurting. So what does the RNC do about this?

RESTON: Well, I mean, there's -- there's really not much they can do. Because as we know, Trump has completely been controlling the debate in this campaign recently. He's getting all the attention. Some of the other candidates have tried to break in and attack his tone and say that this is not what we think about Latinos, Mexicans, immigrants.

But that message hasn't necessarily been breaking through for them. And so this was the great fear that the party had over the long term, is that these comments now really will come back to haunt them in states like Colorado, Nevada next year. And all of this branding that they have been trying to do, the Republican Party as a more welcoming party, perhaps just could be a thing of the past if Trump stays on top.

CUOMO: Maeve, Errol, are you hearing the same thing we are from GOP types? They're saying, "You know what? It's all Trump, though. It's not us. That stink's not on us."

RESTON: Right.

CUOMO: And there's an interesting number in that poll. Is insulting and offensive, 70 percent. Is it tell it like it is? Twenty-six percent. Obviously, this is among Latino voters.

Now Errol, does that help the GOP say this is what Donald Trump owns within this race? It's not going to cast a shadow onto all of us?

LOUIS: Well, that's predicated on some big, dramatic moment in which the party -- and what is the party? Right? I mean, it's got state chairs. It's got political leadership. It's got elective leadership. It's got candidates that are now running.

Somebody is going to have to step forward who is unquestionably the voice of the Republican Party and say, "Enough is enough. We repudiate this. We're not part of it." I don't get the sense that Reince Priebus is going to be that man. He's not that voice.

CAMEROTA: Maybe that's going to happen at the debate on Wednesday night. Do you think that somebody is poised to say, "Shut it down, Donald Trump"?

LOUIS: Well, look, I think they can try.

But one thing that he's done that is really sort of new is that he goes to this sort of level of sort of schoolyard insults. And that's where it stops. And so you can't get into a question of, like, you're being divisive; you're being hurtful to the party. Because he'll say you're low energy. You're ugly. You're low in the polls. You've never negotiated a deal." All kinds of stuff that is -- you know, it's bait for the viewers, for the media, frankly. But where's the conversation go after that?

CAMEROTA: Go ahead, Maeve.

RESTON: Well, although you have seen someone like Ben Carson be maybe the most effective at this. He's got that quiet tone about him. He's got a really interesting personality contrast to Donald Trump.

[06:10:11] And so there may be a moment for someone like Carson to really take on Trump in this debate. And certainly, I think his supporters have been waiting for that moment. There's a lot of them who do not want Trump, a lot of them I talked to last week.

CUOMO: Well, when we -- we'll be together out in Simi Valley. So my nonalcoholic bet with you on this is that Kasich -- Kasich, John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, is going to step up; and he is going to make a claim to try and get into this race in a positive way. We'll see who else follows suit, but that's my...

CAMEROTA: I like it. Is there money on that?

CUOMO: Yes. Let's talk about that during the break. The silver kind of money, not the green.

CAMEROTA: All right. Errol, Maeve, thanks so much for breaking all this down with us.

CUOMO: All right. Now that's the GOP poll. We have equally incisive numbers on the Democratic side. We're going to get into that in just a few minutes.

But we do want to remind you: The second Republican debate couldn't come at a better time. It is time to clear the field and see who wants to be on top. It's here on CNN, Wednesday, the opportunity so nice you can watch twice. You start at 6 p.m. Eastern, and then we have the primetime event with 11 candidates on stage. And that's at 8 Eastern. Final preps are under way at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley for this high-stakes debate, Mick.

PEREIRA: They move quickly in Los Angeles. See how quickly they're putting it together.

CAMEROTA: Wow!

CUOMO: Busy bees.

PEREIRA: Very busy.

All right. We turn now to Europe's escalating migrant crisis. The death toll is rising after a boat carrying migrants off the coast of a Greek island capsizes.

European Union leaders, meanwhile, are vowing to take tougher measures against human traffickers. Our CNN senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson, is on the border of Macedonia and Greece. And he joins us now -- Ivan.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Michaela.

Let's just set the scene here. We're at this transit center, where migrants and refugees, they come through shortly after crossing the border from Greece to Macedonia. And then they buy tickets, 25 euros a piece, to get on this train and go to the next stop on this migrant trail into Central Europe.

Now, the European leaders have just announced a decision to try to crack down on some of this movement on the Mediterranean Sea. They've said that they're going to use military force to try to stop smuggling vessels from getting across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

But it's not entirely clear whether that will apply to these people here. Because almost everybody I've talked to, they have crossed a different body of water, the Aegean Sea, on little rafts from Turkey to Greek islands.

And that's where tragedy struck on Sunday in the early predawn hours, where a wooden vessel capsized. Greek Coast Guard saying that 34 people of the more than 100 who were on board tragically drowned. And among them, 15 children, including four infants.

There are thousands and thousands of people crossing the Aegean Sea on board these tiny rafts every day. In fact, you can see this little boy still wearing a life jacket, presumably from having crossed that same body of sea. And there's no sign that that traffic is going to let up -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Ivan, 15 children and four of them infants. It's just so tragic when you think of each of those lives.

Thank you for the reporting. And of course, we'll check back with you.

Back here at home, breaking overnight, a major California wildfire being blamed for one death. Officials say the Valley Fire has burned more than 50,000 acres in northern California. The fire destroying hundreds of homes, forcing thousands of people to evacuate. Four firefighters injured battling this blaze. Governor Jerry Brown declaring a state of emergency in two northern California counties. PEREIRA: Some breaking news out of southwestern Kentucky. Police

there are frantically searching for a gunman who shot and killed a state trooper during a traffic stop. That shooting happened on Interstate 24 in Lyon County.

Police say the suspect, Joseph Johnson-Shanks, fired multiple times into officer Joseph Ponder's car, killing him. People in the area are being told to stay inside, lock their doors and to call police if they see anything suspicious.

CUOMO: The first Sunday of the NFL regular seasons is in the books. The Jets have begun their march to San Francisco. How did your favorite team do yesterday?

Coy Wire has all the details in this morning's "Bleacher Report." J- E-T-S, you know you love them. look at that smile.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: What a great start to the NFL season. The games left some fans overly delusional about their teams, like Chris Cuomo. Other fans were ready to hit the panic button. Let's start with last night's primetime game, the Cowboys hosting the Giants.

Last good news for Dallas, Dez Bryant streaking across the field. The Turf Monster gets him. He's escorted to the locker room. He broke his foot. He's out four to six weeks.

Not good news for the G-men either. Dallas trails by six. Ten seconds to go, touchdown toss, Tony Romo to his tight end, Jason Witten. The Cowboys beat the Giants, 27-26.

Now the Jets hosting the Browns. First quarter, Browns' Josh McCown. Stunt doubles in the off season as a helicopter. Check it out: Ball's out, ball's on the ground. McCown leaves the game with a concussion. We have to see this again. My goodness.

Johnny Football time. That's what this means. Manziel, on the second pass of the game, finds Travis Benjamin for a 54-yard strike. But the Jets and new quarterback, a Harvard grad, Ryan Fitzpatrick, with too much for Cleveland to handle. Fitzpatrick throws two touchdowns. The Jets go on to win 31-10.

Finally in tennis, Novak Djokovic, give that man another Grand Slam title. The best player in the world defeated perhaps the best player of all time, Roger Federer, in four sets to win the U.S. Open men's final last night. It's his second U.S. Open title and tenth career Grand Slam tournament victory. The two have faced each other 42 times. They've split now, 21 and 21. What a great match it was.

But guys, I have to know, Chris Cuomo's favorite team is the Jets. How is he going to cheer for a quarterback who's a Harvard grad when Chris went to Yale?

PEREIRA: It's so confounding, isn't it?

CAMEROTA: It's confusing for Chris.

PEREIRA: A mess.

CUOMO: You know, Coy, despite your large body and muscles, intelligence and good looks, you are way off on this. Because a Jets fan can never be too delusional. There is no ceiling to it. I don't care. Even Harvard is OK, because he's all green now.

PEREIRA: Gotcha.

CAMEROTA: There you go.

CUOMO: Don't take my moment in the sun, Coy, because we know which way it goes.

WIRE: Trainer, Dick Cuomo (ph), he's been hit in the head, I think.

CUOMO: Again.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Coy.

PEREIRA: Love it.

CAMEROTA: All right. So there are new details emerging in the Hillary Clinton e-mail debacle. The tech company that managed her private server says there is no indication that anyone wiped the server clean. Does that mean the deleted e-mails can be retrieved? We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:21:28] CAMEROTA: Troubling news for Hillary Clinton, as a new "Washington Post"/ABC News poll shows her lead continuing to slip in the Democratic race.

Here to break it all down are CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast," John Avlon; and CNN political commentator and Republican consultant Margaret Hoover. Great to see you guys this morning.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Let's look at these hot-off-the-presses polls, just released midnight. This shows Clinton, Sanders and Biden, if Biden is in the race, Hillary Clinton had 63 percent at the height of the summer. Now she has 42 percent. Bernie Sanders has gone up 10 percent to 24, and Joe Biden has 21 percent -- John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, tough summer for Hillary Clinton. No way to spin that. The camp needs to know that, you know, she's lost 20 points over the course of the summer. Bernie, really surfing away the support for the activist base. And that "X" factor of Joe Biden really skewing these numbers, as well. Who does he (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

However, reality check, Hillary Clinton still almost a 20-point lead over the Democratic field. In any other Democratic race that would be considered a significant monster factor. CUOMO: Don't answer the phone in your house, Margaret, because it's

going to be Lanny Davis. And he's going to be very angry about what John is saying right now, because...

AVLON: Oh, Lanny.

CUOMO: ... he's going to say, "This is -- two things, this is natural contraction, right?" Nobody ever stays the prohibitive favorite.

CAMEROTA: Fair enough.

CUOMO: Bernie Sanders being a legitimate proxy for the left voice much the party and Biden being a proxy, because he's not even in the race. People don't know his positions. And it's just showing what we always thought it would be. She's still got a huge margin, 42 plus percent. There's no problem. What do you say to Lanny?

HOOVER: I say, well, look, Lanny -- Lanny's also on a different point (ph) than me, and we know that, and that's why we love Lanny. But the truth is, this is significant softening. I mean, it's really a significant softening. And, you know, even the Democratic activists, you know, they're -- they think they're going to fall in line, but they're not happy about it. There isn't the enthusiasm or the energy. I mean, that's what you really see when you read these...

CUOMO: Look at you biting Trump's lines. He doesn't have the energy?

HOOVER: She's sort of slow. Kind of a dead fish. But truly, that's what you see in the numbers. I mean, you see the enthusiasm gap. You don't see the energy.

And then you see Bernie Sanders doing really extraordinary things like going to Liberty University and speaking to the heart of the southern evangelical electorate on the Christian conservative side, making cases which -- by the way, there is common ground. There's morality, poverty. How are we going to care for our fellow neighbors?

And there's a, you know, great article in "The Atlantic" today from a Liberty University kid who's actually supporting Bernie Sanders. His message is going to carry on some level there.

AVLON: I'm pretty sure -- I'm pretty sure there's going to be an arena full of Sanders supporters there.

Look, there should be overlap among people who care about poverty and religious issues between the right and the left, but good for Bernie for going there in the lion's den, though, because that's the kind of outreach you need to see.

CAMEROTA: OK. But let's talk about what could be a game changer in terms of this whole e-mail scandal. And that is that the tech company that took control of her -- Hillary's e-mail server says there is no evidence whatsoever that anybody wiped the server clean. So the deleted e-mails can be retrieved. Is this a game changer?

HOOVER: Well, this is always what we suspected, which is why people from the beginning who were listening to Hillary said you will never know whether those were deleted or not unless you can see the server. And this is why she was also presumably reluctant to give over the server from the beginning and then finally acquiesced once the drip, drip, drip got too much.

AVLON: Yes, but over and over we've seen, look, the Hillary Clinton has made serious mistakes. One of the core sins in politics is failures of perception. But what we know now is that the server seems not to have been wiped. The e-mails were deleted. That's a significant distinction, because it means the e-mails can be retrieved. It also makes the...

CAMEROTA: She should have always been saying that "They can be retrieved, people."

AVLON: Let's get real here, people. We're not talking about a computer whiz here. We're not talking about somebody who's got great insight into technology. But it also means the more nefarious explanations for this whole scandal start to wither a little bit.

CUOMO: When that's not been glossed over. When they say it hasn't been wiped, it doesn't just go to retrieval of e-mails. I get that that's where our heads go. It goes to intent.

AVLON: That's right.

CUOMO: They didn't do anything to -- now this is according to the e- mail server company.

Now there's something else that's been a little ignored, before Lanny calls me. The DOJ came out and said, "We don't believe that she -- we're not bringing a case against Hillary Clinton for criminal behavior with respect to the e-mail server." That's been glossed over by the media, certainly by the Republicans. That's a big deal. Because it makes the Trump angle of "I'm not worried about the political,; I'm worried about her going to jail." That does not seem to be a possibility.

AVLON: No, but it will soon be boon day (ph) for bubbas on the campaign trail.

HOOVER: It's not just that, though. I mean, it -- it isn't just that. The fact that she self-selected which ones were professional versus personal, except for that 15 of her e-mails didn't even show up on the State Department...

CUOMO: Which they also say is within the discretion of every employee.

HOOVER: Not -- well, it is with the discretion of the employees. But it calls into question her choices about selection.

CUOMO: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Let's look at the numbers on all of this, because this is interesting, how the voters feel about it. Let's look at: Do you think Clinton has honestly disclosed the facts of her personal e-mail use while secretary of state?

The newest poll that's out this morning shows honestly disclosed, 34 percent; tried to cover up the facts, 54 percent. The fact that the deleted ones can be retrieved might change those numbers. Now let's look at one more...

CUOMO: That wouldn't change "honestly disclosed." That would change ability to prove whether...

CAMEROTA: It does change cover up. If you can -- if you can retrieve them, you didn't wipe the server, where's the cover-up?

CUOMO: Right, but that goes to -- They're saying what do you think she tried to do?

AVLON: Right.

CUOMO: As opposed to whether she was successful.

AVLON: If she tried to do it badly, that might not impact the ...

CAMEROTA: She didn't try to wipe the server.

HOOVER: But she also didn't try to hand over the server from the beginning.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let's look at the next issue. It asks do you think Hillary Clinton's email use is a legitimate campaign issue or not a legitimate campaign issue? Let's look at this. It is basically split. Forty-four percent say legitimate. Not legitimate is higher at 49 percent.

AVLON: This has resonated because it surfs off existing negative perceptions about the Clintons. But the Republicans as usual need to be careful. Because what usually happens in those GOP-Clinton fights is Republicans overreach. They get a little bit too intense with their Clinton hatred, and they start to look like fools. And the more these committees start to look like pure fishing expedition designed to damage a Democratic nominee, the more they will lose credibility.

HOOVER: October 22 is when Hillary's testifying before this committee. I know she wants it to happen tomorrow. But it's not going to be until then.

CAMEROTA: About Benghazi.

HOOVER: About Benghazi. And she has things answered about Benghazi. Because she didn't turn over e-mails that said Blumenthal, her friend and advisor, did turn over.

So you're right; Republicans have to be careful to overreach, but she's also got to be very clear to answer all these question. And I try to get over her instinct to be protective about it. Because that's what fuels this narrative that they're secretive.

AVLON: This is high-stakes political theater, and I'm sure Republicans across the country will be, you know, popping popcorn and not getting out the bunting. But this -- it is about parties, actually.

HOOVER: It's about the country. It's about who cares about the country.

AVLON: When this commission has been in place longer than the Church (ph) Commission, and it's a political fishing expedition. Let's be real about it. But that is high-stakes political theater in the country.

CAMEROTA: John, Margaret, we're going to let you guys (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Thank you, guys.

CUOMO: You always have to watch when John makes points to us and won't look at Margaret. You know he knows he's getting a beating for it.

That's a little bit of inside tell for you.

Here's another little hint you may not have heard yet: Wednesday night, what are you doing? I'll tell you what you're doing.

CAMEROTA: You're popping the popcorn.

CUOMO: That's exactly right. CNN Republican debate, how do we like this line? Enough to say so nice, you getting after it twice. First round -- I'm going to say it all show long. Six p.m. Eastern is the first one, and the primetime event, 8 p.m. Eastern. Please watch. We'll be there -- Mick.

PEREIRA: Hey, pace yourself there. It's a three-hour show. Remember that.

All right. Coming up in the news for us, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis is said to be back at work this morning. Will she abide by a judge's orders or will she once again refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples? We have a live report, straight ahead as NEW DAY continues.

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