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Trump Uses Vulgar Term to Attack Clinton; Sanders Campaign Pushes for Audit of DNC Voter Data System; Grand Jury: No Indictments in Sandra Bland's Death; Afghan Forces in Standoff with Taliban in Helmand; Driver Faces Murder, Child Abuse Charges; American Troops Killed in Afghanistan Suicide Attack. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 22, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary Clinton will not be apologizing.

[07:00:03] TRUMP: When you see Hillary, did you watch that? What happened to her? The last person that she wants to run against is me.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The largest number of American casualties in Afghanistan in well over a year.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The suicide bomber on a motorcycle.

GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Whenever you lose a soldier near the holidays, it's especially difficult.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two and a half years ago, crashed and killed four people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He went missing, and his mom went missing, too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hundreds and hundreds of leads. Those leads continue to pour in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY. Michaela is off this morning.

An ugly twist in the rhetoric from Donald Trump towards Hillary Clinton. Trump launching a vulgar attack at Clinton, calling her bathroom break during Saturday's debate, quote, "disgusting" and taunting her with a vulgar term for her 2008 loss to Obama.

CUOMO: And yet, new poll numbers this morning will show no negative change. Trump growing a percentage point but maintaining a healthy lead among all GOP candidates. Ted Cruz an emerging story, taking from Ben Carson, popping as well. The question, where will this lead?

CNN senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns, with the latest on the race. Good morning, Joe. JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Even compared to some of the language Donald Trump has used to describe other candidates in this race, these latest comments, made in a public forum and directed at Hillary Clinton, are surprisingly personal. And they're only adding more fuel to the feud between the two candidates sitting at the top of the polls in the race for their party's respective nominations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: And you see Hillary. I mean, did you watch that -- what happened to her? She's terrible.

JOHNS: Donald Trump unleashing yet another tirade against Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton at a rally in Michigan.

TRUMP: Hillary, that's not a president.

JOHNS: The billionaire coming under fire for using an R-rated derogatory term when referring to her 2008 defeat by Barack Obama.

TRUMP: She was favored to win, and she got shlonged. She lost. I mean, she lost.

JOHNS: And weighing in on her much-discussed bathroom break from Saturday's debate.

TRUMP: I know where she went. It's disgusting. I don't want to talk about it. No, it's too disgusting. Don't say it. It's disgusting.

JOHNS: Trump then going after Clinton's claim that ISIS is propagandizing the GOP frontrunner.

TRUMP: "Donald Trump is on video, and ISIS is using him on the video to recruit." And it turned out to be a lie. She's a liar.

JOHNS: Clinton's press secretary doubling down.

BRIAN FALLON, PRESS SECRETARY FOR HILLARY CLINTON: It is a confirmed fact that the footage of Donald Trump making those hateful comments earlier this month was played all across the Middle East.

JOHNS: Trump also discussing the controversy over Vladimir Putin's praise and allegations that the Russian president has ordered the killing of journalists.

TRUMP: They said, "Oh, Trump should have been much nastier." That's terrible. And then they said, you know, he's killed reporters. And I don't like that. I'm totally against that.

JOHNS: The GOP frontrunner then reconsidering.

TRUMP: I would never kill them. I would never do that. Ah, let's see. No, I wouldn't. But I do hate them. And some of them are such lying, disgusting people. JOHNS: Trump continues leading in the latest national poll, but Texas

Senator Ted Cruz is closing in. The rest of the GOP field making the rounds in the battleground state of New Hampshire, where Trump rival Jeb Bush again went on the attack.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is not a serious man that has serious plans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: As has happened at some other Trump events during this campaign, last night the candidates' remarks were repeatedly interrupted by protesters, who were removed from the venue by security guards. Trump responding at one point by calling them a bunch of losers -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Joe, let's talk about the Democrats, because this new Quinnipiac poll shows Hillary Clinton dominating the race. She has a more than 2-1 advantage over Bernie Sanders nationally. Sixty-one to his 30 percent.

And despite dismissing it at the debate, the issue over the Sanders campaign data breach is not going away. The Sanders campaign asking the Clinton campaign to join his call for an independent audit of the DNC's voter data system. Sanders campaign suing the DNC -- Chris.

CUOMO: Let's bring in Senator Bernie Sanders surrogate Jonathan Tasini. He's the author of the new book, "The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America."

It's good to have you here for us, and our best to the senator. I have the book here. Thank you. Not signed. A little bit of a cheap gif, but I'll take it.

JONATHAN TASINI, AUTHOR, "THE ESSENTIAL BERNIE SANDERS AND HIS VISION FOR AMERICA": We'll arrange that. We'll take care of that.

CUOMO: There is no chapter in here -- maybe it will be volume two -- about what's going on right now. What is your understanding and your take about what the Sanders campaign did, in terms of pilfering information from Hillary Clinton and now, in a strange twist, is somehow asking for her help in going after the DNC. What is this?

[07:05:03] TASINI: Well, I think Senator Sanders has been very clear. He fired one of his employers and suspended two people to look -- as this came about.

But I think the most important thing is to realize is that this is not the first time it happened. There was a data breach before.

And what Bernie Sanders wants to do, the honest man that he is, he wants to get to the bottom of this. And I think one of his concerns is, if there's a data breach, there could be a data breach beyond just these two campaigns. One of the things I'm interested in knowing is: were there outside forces that were able to access the data? For example, Republicans. Who had access to the data that could damage all Democrats' prospects?

And I think what Bernie wants to do is ask the Clinton campaign to have an independent audit, an independent investigation, to know firmly what happened.

CUOMO: It seems like a smoke screen to people: that he did something wrong, and the campaign now is trying to blow it into something bigger to mitigate what they did. Why doesn't that begin and end with Bernie?

TASINI: First of all, he didn't do it. There were some low-level...

CUOMO: The campaign.

TASINI: Well, that's very important. Because I think that goes to Bernie Sanders' authenticity and honesty. Something happened in the campaign. He wants to get to the bottom of it. And he wants this to be open, thorough, have an independent audit. And he wanted the Clinton campaign to take part in that so everybody's on board; everybody sees what's happening; everybody has equal information.

CUOMO: Nobody thinks that Senator Sanders was behind the keyboard, finding a way to hack into the system. But you do have to own the actions of your campaign, obviously.

TASINI: As he did. He did. He fired someone and suspended two people immediately, unlike, I think, a lot of campaigns that try to cover things up and move on.

CUOMO: All right. So we'll see what happens with that. Now that gets us to the book. His vision for America.

Let's put up some polls. Very interesting here. If you look at how he's doing against, Hillary, he's got a lot of road to hoe. She's basically 2-1 on him.

But when you look at them in a vacuum, Bernie versus potential rival Donald Trump, he does better against Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton does against Donald Trump, even though she is besting the senator 2-1. How do you explain it?

TASINI: I think when the general electorate looks at the campaign, they are drawn, and the reason you see tens of thousands of people come to Bernie's campaign.

CUOMO: Two million contributors.

TASINI: You took the words right out of my mouth. He's done better than Barack Obama, who was the standard for grassroots campaigns. Bernie has enormous support. And I think that's reflected in the electorate. And I have argued that he will win the nomination. When he does, the general election will not be close, particularly if the Republicans nominate someone like Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.

CUOMO: How does he beat Hillary Clinton when he's down 2-1? TASINI: Well, that's a national poll. Let's start with Iowa and New Hampshire. He's going to win New Hampshire, and he's going to win Iowa, also. I've been out there to all the early four states, and the energy there is unbelievable.

And your point, 2 million contributors, tens of thousands of people coming out. The grassroots energy is unbelievable.

And as you quite well know, in Iowa, the turnout is quite important. Some of the polls are already closing. And I think his people are really energized and excited about electing someone who really has a different vision for America, who wants a political revolution and wants to kick the status quo to the curb.

BLITZER: And as you well know, it is sometimes suggested that we don't cover the senator the same way we cover Hillary Clinton.

TASINI: It's not just suggested. It is true just by the facts.

CUOMO: I will tell you this. I'll give you some facts, my friend, Mr. Tasini.

TASINI: OK. Yes.

CUOMO: If you were to ask the campaign -- we ask for the senator all the time. He has gotten very busy out on the hustings, too busy for TV time. If you look back when he was just plain old Senator Sanders, not even in the race yet, CNN was very doggedly saying, "If your voice matters so much, get in the race." So I think you've got to be careful what you say.

TASINI: Now, since you invited me into your house, I'm not going to soil this house. But here's some actual facts.

CUOMO: Yes.

TASINI: Another network, its news program devoted...

CUOMO: I only hear about this one.

TASINI: ... 81 minutes to Donald Trump, 20 seconds to Bernie Sanders the entire year.

CUOMO: Not CNN. Not NEW DAY.

TASINI: I know. I'm not going to get into the...

CUOMO: Don't bring me your stilted stats. Let me ask you this: Is there a chapter in this book that says one word away from being president? Is the word "socialist" insurmountable in a society like America?

TASINI: No, absolutely not. And Bernie is very, very proud that he's a Democratic socialist. And what he does is he says, "Here's what I'm for: health care for everyone, from cradle to grave, expanding Social Security, breaking up the big banks. Against bad trade agreements, which Hillary Clinton has traditionally supported. Against the Iraq War, which Hillary Clinton voted for.

Those are the kinds of things that represent what he stands for. And those principals and the authenticity are going to bring victory.

CUOMO: But we are about, at our worst, labels, bombast, propaganda, quick slogans in politicking. And when you say "socialist," all that rings into people's heads is "Free, free, free, free, free, free, for everybody. My taxes are going to jump."

TASINI: Well, first of all, let's say democratic socialist. And when you say to someone, and I've seen this all across the country when I travel. You say to someone, "Free health care from cradle to grave, and that's going to lower your cost by thousands and thousands of dollars," people say, "Where can I sign up?"

Students, if you tell students, "We're going to have free tuition, and we're going to tax Wall Street to make sure that happens," every Young person will say, "Where can I sign up for that?"

CUOMO: But Mr. Tasini, you know that the implication is that the taxes have to go up. How are you going to pay for this?

TASINI: Well, first of all, Bernie pays for everything. Just pointing out college tuition, free tuition, it's not going to be taxes on the regular people. Wall Street speculation tax, financial transaction tax.

[07:10:09] CUOMO: They don't count as regular people?

TASINI: Well...

CUOMO: Because they're successful and on Wall Street, they're not regular?

TASINI: Well, let's put it -- let me put it this way. They've made a ton of money. We bailed them out when they came to us when they screwed up the economy. Now Bernie is saying he wants the banks and Wall Street to pay for the middle class and for everybody to have the chance to go to college.

CUOMO: Jonathan Tasini. The book is called "The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America."

Thank you for being here.

TASINI: A pleasure.

CUOMO: Best for Christmas. Say hello to the senator. He is always welcome here.

TASINI: And I'll get him a signed -- I'll get a signed copy for you.

CUOMO: Well, you could sign it.

TASINI: I'll sign that for you, but you really need Sanders. He's going to be the next president. That's what you want. CUOMO: No, I like the regular people, like you.

Alisyn, to you.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris.

We do have some breaking news out of Texas. Tensions are high there after a grand jury refuses to indict in the death of Sandra Bland. She was found hanging in her jail cell three days after her arrest. CNN correspondent Boris Sanchez is live now with the very latest. What have you learned, Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, the grand jury deciding not to indict anyone in connection with the death of Sandra Bland.

The 28-year-old African-American woman was found dead in her cell this past July, three days after she was arrested for allegedly failing to use her turn signal in Waller County, Texas.

Bland's death sparked international outrage. Investigators determined that she committed suicide inside her cell using a plastic bag. Her family, though, disputes that. They also strongly question the jury's decision yesterday, calling the process secretive and demanding the testimony to be released to the public. This is what her sister had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHARON COOPER, SANDRA BLAND'S SISTER: We feel that the grand jury process and the secretiveness of it is reflective of our experience with Waller County officials to date in terms of what has been furnished to us. The fact that five months after Sandy's passing, we don't have that report, that gives us cause for concern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Darrell Jordan was the special prosecutor in charge of the case. He held a press briefing after the indictment where he addressed the family's concerns. Here's sound from that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARRELL JORDAN, SPECIAL PROSECUTOR: We have left no rock unturned. And the grand jury, anything that they've asked for, we've done our best to give it to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Jordan also says that the case is still open, and the grand jury will reconvene in January to consider other indictments and other possible concerns -- Chris.

CUOMO: We will stay on that, Boris. Thank you very much.

So the Baltimore officer whose trial in the death of Freddie Gray ended in mistrial, he's going to go before a judge today. William Porter is expected to be retried as early as June. He was the first of six officers to be tried in connection with Gray's death.

Porter is accused of not buckling Gray into the police van, which may have led to the 25-year-old's deadly spinal injury.

CAMEROTA: Well, we now know the name of one of the six Americans killed in that terrorist attack in Afghanistan, as the country there grapples with how to beat back the Taliban. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is live, giving us all of the latest.

What have you learned, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Well, one of those who perished in this motorcycle bomb attack in Afghanistan was a New York City police detective, and the NYPD commissioner, William Bratton, issued a statement discussing the man who served that department and served his country. Let me read part of it.

"Detective Joseph Lemm epitomized the selflessness we can only strive for, putting his country and city first. Detective Lemm not only served New Yorkers as a member of this department but served his country as a member of the U.S. Air National Guard."

Detective Lemm was a 15-year veteran of the NYPD, promoted to detective in January of last year, and he served in a Bronx warrant squad.

One of the six. We expect to learn, of course, the names and about the lives of the other five who perished in the coming hours when the Pentagon makes the formal announcement of their names.

All of this very difficult, of course, for the families, coming at the holidays. Two other service members and a contractor wounded in this attack -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Oh, boy. And just seeing that video of him with a child there is also really touching. Barbara, there's more developing news. Can you tell us about what's under way right now, the operation going on in Ramadi?

STARR: Yes. In Ramadi, Iraq, the Iraqis have announced that a major operation is under way to retake the center of the city.

They have assembled over the last many weeks about 10,000 Iraqi troops encircling Ramadi. There's about 500 or so, they believe, ISIS fighters still inside the city.

The Iraqis have many times before said they're ready to retake Ramadi. The U.S., you know, hopes that this time it's all going to work. The U.S. had offered help, and the Iraqis said, "No, we're fine. We don't need it."

So we will see in the coming days how the fight for Ramadi in Iraq goes. Let me turn back to Afghanistan, though, for one minute. In southern

Afghanistan right now, a very desperate fight going on in Sangin province -- in Sangin, in Helmand province in the south. Afghan fighters there are really up against it. The Taliban are making some serious advances. The U.S. Watching that situation, southern Afghanistan, hour by hour -- Alisyn.

CUOMO: All right, Barbara. Thank you very much for the reporting. Appreciate it.

We all want to go now to the search for answers after a woman allegedly intentionally mows down pedestrians on the Vegas strip, killing a mother of three, injuring 37 others.

The suspect is a 24-year-old woman. She's facing multiple charges, including murder. Now what we still don't know is exactly why. Why did she do this?

CNN's Ryan Young is live in Vegas for us with the latest. How close are we to getting that big answer?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Chris.

A lot of people want to know the answer to that. What we do know right now is this woman was homeless for about a week in the Las Vegas area. And from what the sheriff tells us, is she was trying to get sleep at several different properties when security guards kept booting her out of those locations. And then she came down here to the Las Vegas Strip and then started hitting people on the sidewalk. Dozens of people were witnessing this. In fact, three people are still in critical. Of course, you talked about the mother who died out here. They tried to stop her from doing this. All this going on while her child was actually in the car.

Now to get a better idea of who this woman is, overnight we've confirmed Holloway was in a video in 2012 from a Portland opportunities industrialization center, a place that helps at-risk youth with education and career training. Here's that sound from then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAKEISHA HOLLOWAY, ARRESTED FOR MURDER, CHILD ABUSE: My mom always tried to do what was best for my sister and I. As a single parent with an eighth grade education, it was all a struggle for her. And later down the line, it became all too hard for her. She drank more and cared less.

I've never held any of those hits and misses against her. But as a result of things becoming too hard for her, I became homeless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: And Alisyn, you've got to think about the fear for all the people out here on the Vegas Strip, who were just walking along when all of a sudden, this car comes off the road and onto the sidewalk with her child on the inside.

We do know that she drove the car down about a mile down the road, stopped and told a security guard what she did. Right now, they don't believe that she was under the influence of alcohol. But they're still trying to figure out exactly what may have set her off.

CAMEROTA: Gosh, Ryan, it's just so striking to see that woman giving the testimonial about trying to get ahead in her life.

YOUNG: And you see that, and you have to ask that question, what possibly could have happened from the time she was booted from the lot, where she was obviously homeless and staying in that car with her child right next to her, and then doing all of this?

CAMEROTA: All right, Ryan, thanks so much for updating us on that story.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control investigating another outbreak of E. coli linked to Chipotle. The outbreak last month was in Kansas, North Dakota and Oklahoma, three states not included in an earlier outbreak that included nine states. About 140 people got sick after a norovirus episode at a Chipotle in Boston. Chipotle has already started implementing new food safety measures.

CUOMO: Bill Cosby hitting another one of his accusers with a defamation lawsuit. This time, the comedian is targeting supermodel Beverly Johnson. Cosby said he never drugged and tried to rape her at his New York home in the mid-1980s. The lawsuit says Johnson made accusations against him to promote her career and sell her memoir.

Johnson fired back at Cosby, saying abusers always try to weaken their victims and, quote, "force them to stop fighting."

CAMEROTA: All right. Well, the Taliban appearing to be regaining strength in Afghanistan. So how should the U.S. tackle the terror group while also fighting ISIS? We'll explore that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:22:44] CAMEROTA: The Taliban taking responsibility for a suicide attack in Afghanistan that killed six American troops. But as ISIS continues to grow in Afghanistan, how will the U.S. battle both groups?

Let's bring in CNN military analyst and former commanding general for Europe and the 7th Army, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling; and CNN contributor and author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," Michael Weiss.

Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here to walk us through all this.

Michael, let me start with you in terms of what happened here to these six American troops. It sounds like the Taliban laid a trap.

MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: They did. Yes, we reported the "Daily Beast" yesterday and citing a Taliban figure. Essentially, they came to an area near where the U.S. base was, and they set something ablaze. They essentially created an illumination, knowing that a U.S. patrol would go out, and as they put it, they sent an angel of death there who then had -- exploded a motorcycle bomb or something.

It's a spectacular attack. They're calling it a, quote, "brilliant Christmas gift for the occupiers." And of course, hitting an American or killing American soldiers ranks for them No. 1. The second order ranking would be killing Afghan security forces.

CAMEROTA: So sickening.

General, this happened near Bagram Air Base. Obviously, our servicemen and women have to be on guard for ambushes and attacks like this. What -- what went wrong?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it's combat, Alisyn. And this happens sometimes. And what you have to be careful of all the time is any kind of suicide attacks in any of the provinces you're working in.

But truthfully, in Bagram, that's a relatively secure province outside the Air Force base that sees all kinds of activities. You don't see this kind of action. So that's really a special blow to not only the United States but also the Afghan government, because they consider that area secure. Very different than what's going on in the south in Helmand.

CAMEROTA: Michael, we don't talk about the Taliban much. We talk about ISIS. ISIS has gotten a lot of our focus. And there was a feeling that the Taliban had somehow, like, withered on the vine after 9/11 or been beaten back. But now what's happening with the Taliban?

WEISS: No, look, one estimate, "Long War Journal," which studies this stuff very closely, says that the Taliban is in control of about 20 percent of Afghanistan, and they have influence in 50 percent of it.

In Helmand province, I think half of the -- you know, the districts are controlled by the Taliban, and the other half are fiercely contested by them.

So they've come back with a vengeance. You know, one of the difficulties, Alisyn, we talked about this before, with respect to ISIS and al Qaeda in Syria, this division now within the ranks of jihadism or insurgency, where ISIS is seen as the ultraist faction -- a lot of the guys who make up ISIS in Afghanistan are, in fact, defectors from the Taliban, who thought the Taliban was going soft. The Taliban presents itself as the moderate alternative. It's a great recruitment tool. It's a great way to recultivate the constituency that you had once lost.

[07:25:30] CAMEROTA: So General, what to do? I mean, how can the U.S. fight this multipronged battle, now with the Taliban gaining strength and ISIS?

HERTLING: Well, the Taliban is not as strong as I think many would have it be seen. There is, certainly, you know, it was an interesting comment you made.

Truthfully, it has been the primary focus of the forces in Afghanistan, the Taliban has. They have seen a rising of ISIS, especially in Nangarhar province over in the east. And interestingly enough, that was the same province where the U.S. and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia supported the Mujahedeen against the soviets back in the '80s.

So you're seeing different organizations compete to gain superiority in this -- in this country, while the Afghan government is attempting to conduct peace talks with the Taliban.

So you're seeing some folks fall away from the Taliban, join ISIS or support ISIS. You're seeing a little bit of a resurgence of al Qaeda and not much. All the while, the Afghan government is attempting to increase security. They're doing a relatively good job of securing the people, except in some provinces as Michael said.

CAMEROTA: Michael, I know what the general is trying to say, which is that, just because we in the media are not focused on the Taliban, and maybe around dinner tables we don't talk about Taliban as much as we do ISIS. Obviously, the military has stayed focused on them.

WEISS: Of course.

CAMEROTA: Are there different strategies for fighting ISIS and the Taliban?

WEISS: Well, I think to some extent, you know, ISIS has caught everyone by surprise, not least of all in Afghanistan. Right? I mean, this was not a threat that was seen as something that was going to metastasize outside of the so-called caliphate.

Recent reports suggest that the U.S. has taken back -- U.S.-led coalition has taken back about 14 percent of ISIS-held territory in Syria and Iraq. So that's not very much in the last year.

And again, the real problem is that they grow like a cancer. They have reliax (ph) all over the world or all over the region: Yemen, Libya, Sinai and Afghanistan.

And again, this is a similar dynamic that you see in, say, Gaza, where Hamas, you know, people who defect from Hamas, they go off to join Islamic Jihad or some Salafi Jihadi faction. And then Hamas looks like the moderate faction in -- on a relative scale.

I don't know what the U.S. strategy for combatting both is going to be. And as the general pointed out, the Afghan government is in talks with the Taliban.

One of the Taliban strategies, though, and I can tell you this. This is classic insurgency 101. These attacks, they drain the morale. I mean, we interviewed Afghan fighters or Afghan military officers who said, "My guys don't want to fight them anymore. They don't want to take up the cudgel on behalf of what they see as a corrupt and weak central government in this country. And we've been doing this for what, 15 years, 16 years?

So I probably have a more dire prognosis than the general, though we tend to disagree on these things. But this is not an easy -- this is not an easy battle.

CAMEROTA: It sure is not. And I'm sure the general would agree.

We have to leave it there, gentlemen. General Hertling, thank you very much.

Michael Weiss, always great to get your expertise, as well -- Chris.

CUOMO: So Donald Trump is on the attack as never before against Hillary Clinton. It is inherently personal and base. Is this what we're going to see in 2016, and why is it working?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)