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New Day

Millions Brace for Potentially Historic Snowstorm; CNN Poll: Trump Holds 20-Point Lead in New Hampshire. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 21, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Experiencing hair loss, weight loss. Loss of appetite.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would be beside myself if my kids' health could be at risk.

(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.

A potentially historic snowstorm is taking aim at the East Coast. More than 76 million Americans are now under blizzard and winter storm watches and warnings. The snowfall could smash records. The bull's- eye of this storm could see totals as high as 3 feet by the weekend.

CUOMO: Before the big snow arrives, ice and light snow already wreaking havoc in our nation's capital. Hundreds of car accidents, literally hundreds, in the D.C. area, making it very difficult for officials to treat the roads. The big question now is, how bad will it get?

We have complete coverage. Let's start with Rene marsh, live in Arlington, Virginia.

Rene, not bad yet. It was bad last night and maybe even worse to come.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You are absolutely right. You know, I was just talking with my photographer here. I mean, it took us hours to get home. We're not the only ones. Lots of people driving in the D.C. area, they were stuck in traffic for hours. This morning, we saw people with gas cans. They had to abandon their vehicles, because they simply ran out of gas. And as you mentioned, Chris, that was just the preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH (voice-over): A crippling evening commute causing a gridlock nightmare in the D.C. metro area. People stuck behind the wheel for hours.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was pretty rough driving home, and it took a while. It took him an hour to get four miles.

MARSH: As the snow on slick, untreated roads turned to ice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It usually takes me about 20 to 25 minutes. I've been on the road close to five hours now.

MARSH: Causing more than 160 crashes, including one fatality in Virginia. Only one inch of snow wreaking havoc, and it's only a preview of the potentially historic blizzard to come. The nation's capital could be in the bull's-eye for a record-breaking 30 inches of snow by Sunday.

This traffic app showing the accidents inside and outside of the D.C. Beltway. An absolute mess, crashes snarling traffic for hours, forcing drivers to abandon their cars.

Pedestrians not spared from the hellish conditions, including President Obama, nearly slipping as he exited Air Force One. The commander in chief's motorcade slipping and sliding on snow-glazed streets, taking motorcade drivers more than an hour to get back to the White House.

Snow crews in nearby Virginia and Maryland scrambling overnight, piling up salt and positioning plows to prepare for the wintry onslaught.

he expected blizzard dredging up memories of D.C.'s "Carmageddon" in January 2011, when heavy snow fell fast across the region, knocking down trees and cutting power to hundreds of thousands along the East Coast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still better than New York. I was living in New York this time last year. And it was already pretty bad up there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: All right. Well, we are not far from Reagan National Airport. We are seeing flights take off and land here. Not seeing a whole lot of cancellations. But of course, all of that could change within a matter of hours because of what airlines want to do is pre-cancel those flights ahead of the storm. Because what they don't want is aircraft stuck, and they also don't want the passengers stuck -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Yes. And I can see that you're adding layers each time you do a hit with us. The cold is coming; it's on its way. Rene, thank you so much for that. Great advice that we need to heed if we're traveling.

How much snow is going to fall and when? Let's talk about timing with our meteorologist Chad Myers, who's crunching the forecast models for us.

And look, it's real. It's coming.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. It's absolutely coming. We've known about this storm now for three days. I am really surprised at how well the models have reacted to this and how consistent they've been for three solid days.

Two feet for D.C. Two feet for Baltimore; 18 inches probably around Philadelphia, and then maybe 6 to New York City. Now, is that slides a little bit farther to the north, New York City is going to get a lot more. Right now, they're on the top edge.

But we have ice and snow all the way from almost Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi all the way into Virginia and into North Carolina. This is where the ice storm will be. Power lines coming down. Trees coming down. A lot of people without power in that area.

And then we'll talk about the snow. Because the snow develops as the low gets off the coast. So snow for Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, into D.C., Baltimore. That's where I believe the bull's-eye to be. That would be the middle of the target of an archery ring. That would be the middle: Baltimore and into D.C. Gaithersburg, Rockville. All the way up the Rockville Pike. That's where the big snows will be and the big wind. We're going to have wind of 45 miles per hour. So even if you get two feet of snow, you'll never see it, because it's just going to blow around and be an eight-foot drift.

[07:05:05] So you just have to understand, today is the day to get gas. Obviously, you're going to try to get food. But gas in the car, in case you're going to try to -- and if you ever do get stuck, you're going to need that gas for at least a little bit of reprieve from the cold.

Here you go, New York City, the weather models now, 6 inches for you. Farther down in Philadelphia, 9 and 12, especially out towards King of Prussia, maybe higher than that. D.C. will go all the way to 19 to 13 [SIC]. Those are the official outputs from the models. And they have. They have looked like this for days, which is truly amazing for this big of an epic storm.

So right over Charlottesville, right over D.C., probably mixing into Richmond and Fredericksburg. But still, very heavy rainfall in D.C. And I'm on my way up to New York City to help cover it up there. And we will have coverage all up and down the East Coast on this historic storm.

CAMEROTA: Put on your parka, Chad.

MYERS: I brought it.

CAMEROTA: And we look forward to seeing you here. Thanks so much.

MYERS: Sure.

CAMEROTA: All right. Donald Trump and his new-minted rogue warrior. And the new CNN/WMUR poll shows Trump with a 34 percent lead in New Hampshire. In second place, Ted Cruz is looking to get back on track after a couple of rough days.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is live in Manchester, New Hampshire, with more. What's the latest, Sunlen?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Well, it sure has been a rough 48-hour stretch for Ted Cruz. While he's really trying to fight for traction here in New Hampshire, the center of attention is focused squarely on Donald Trump and Sarah Palin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY (voice-over): Sarah Palin wasting no time rallying Trump supporters in Oklahoma, the two packing a double dose of star power, taking aim at the GOP establishment.

SARAH PALIN, FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Our candidate is ballsy enough to get out there and put those issues on the table.

SERFATY: Palin serving up red meat for the conservative crowd.

PALIN: We've got a redhead from the big Red Apple running for president. And yet, the GOP machine, all of a sudden, they're saying we're not red enough. We're not conservative enough.

SERFATY: And talking about her 26-year-old son's arrest on domestic violence charges, taking a jab at the president in the process.

PALIN: I can certainly relate with other families who kind of feel these ramifications of some PTSD. It is now or never, for the sake of America's finest, that we have that commander in chief who will respect them and honor them.

SERFATY: Those comments making headlines on the heels of her major Trump endorsement.

TRUMP: Every one of the candidates wanted her endorsement, and in particular Ted Cruz, who right now is having tremendous difficulty.

SERFATY: In New Hampshire, Ted Cruz fighting to regain momentum after Palin made the case that Trump's the one with the conservative cred.

PALIN: Are you ready to stump for Trump?

SERFATY: And the latest slams from former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, warning of, quote, "cataclysmic" and "wholesale losses" for the GOP, if Cruz prevails.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mr. Trump is welcoming the support of the Washington establishment. Indeed, Mr. Trump said that they should support him, because he said, "Ted won't go along to get along. He won't make deals with the Democrats."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And that was Ted Cruz there, really trying to reshape the narrative around his campaign right now. Trying to pin the establishment level right on Donald Trump and present himself in contrast as the true anti-establishment candidate, Chris.

CUOMO: "Establishment," the new dirty word. Sunlen, thank you very much.

So Donald Trump is not holding back against Democratic rivals, especially Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Don Lemon asked him about polling that shows he'd lose against both of them in New Hampshire.

Trump also passing the blame on his Bible gaffe.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: There are other polls out now, and it's matchups between Hillary Clinton and the other candidates. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. And again, this is survey is of New Hampshire voters, Mr. Trump.

TRUMP: Right.

LEMON: You lose to both of them, though. And you really lose to Hillary Clinton. I'm sure you don't like that much. What's your reaction to that?

TRUMP (via phone): Well, in the FOX poll, I beat her very easily by a lot. And you know, it's -- that came out a couple weeks ago in the FOX poll. And in a couple of other polls I beat her. I haven't even focused on them yet, Don. What I'm focusing on -- and Bernie Sanders, I mean, the guy's a wacko. I think that Bernie Sanders would be very easy to beat. I can't even imagine that he wins. And I'm not sure that she's going to be allowed to run, because, based on all that's going on with the e-mails and everything that's happened, especially over the last couple of weeks.

LEMON: Hillary Clinton's e-mails are in the news again today, because today you said that she is trying to avoid the clink. Now, that was your comment. You also called Bernie Sanders, you just said a wacko or a whack-job.

CNN is going to host this Democratic town hall on Monday night. What would you ask Sanders and Clinton?

TRUMP: Well, I think I'd really talk to Clinton about her e-mails and say, "How would you be so stupid to have done such a thing? This shows such bad judgment. How can a person running for president and wanting to be president show this kind of judgment?"

[07:10:14] And historically, she's had this judgment, whether it's Whitewater or, you know, it's always something. It's always something traumatic, and that's bad judgment.

I think with Bernie Sanders, I'd say did you make a mistake when you so easily, in order to get a good sound bite, gave up on the e-mails? Because he really did, in my opinion, made a very serious mistake. I mean, really a big one.

LEMON: You think there's some "there" there with the e-mails? You think that there's something that's prosecutable?

TRUMP: I think most people do. Oh, I think most people do. I think that she frankly is far more guilty than Petraeus and all of these people that have had their lives. I hope they leave Petraeus alone. I hope they're not going to damage him any more than he's damaged. They're talking about reducing his status, reducing his rank.

LEMON: Demoting him.

TRUMP: I really think, Don, that he's really had enough and he's suffered enough without having to do more to him. He's gone through the mill.

LEMON: You've gotten a lot of guff for this, and I've had plenty of your supporters who defend you and other people who are saying, "Oh, my gosh, it's a screw up."

Monday at Liberty University, you said "Two Corinthians" instead of "Second Corinthians," and you also said, "Hell," which is a violation of the student -- the university student code of conduct. What happened? What do you think of this whole controversy?

TRUMP: Well, I think it's OK. I think it was fine. You know, we've had a number of people, and my mother was from Scotland and in Europe and in the U.K., they say -- they actually say, "Two." They say, "Two Corinthians." And a number of people have pointed this out. And it was not a big deal. I'm surprised you're even asking the question. It's a very small deal. A lot of people in different sections of the world say, "Two." And I've had many, many people say that to me.

And my mother, as you know, was from Scotland. And they would have said, "Two." And frankly, Tony Perkins wrote that out for me, because Tony thought it would be great.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: All right. Let's talk about all of this with Trump's national campaign co-chairman and policy adviser, Sam Clovis. Morning, Sam.

SAM CLOVIS, TRUMP NATIONAL CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIRMAN: How are you doing, Alisyn? Good to see you.

CAMEROTA: Great to see you, as well. So let's talk about Ted Cruz. Let's start there, because he is Donald Trump's closest rival until Iowa. At the moment, Ted Cruz is beating Donald Trump in Iowa.

Now, in the past, he has called -- Trump has called Cruz likable. He likes him. He respects him. But in the past few days he's begun calling Ted Cruz a nasty guy. Which one is it? Does he think that Ted Cruz is respectable or nasty?

CLOVIS: Well, I think the interaction between Mr. Trump and Senator Cruz is -- is still there. I think that the interaction -- there is a level of respect. But Mr. Trump is passing on what other people are saying about Ted Cruz.

These aren't coming from -- you know, and I would never put words in Mr. Trump's mouth and -- but what he is saying is what other people are saying and how people relate to Ted Cruz. And we see this oftentimes in the way people react. The inside the beltway stuff is -- I think is really fascinating when you start to see the interactions inside the United States Senate. And who is able to get along and who is not.

And I think this is where those comments come from. People who work with Senator Cruz inside the Senate. And those who are -- that's the word that gets out on the street. And all Mr. Trump is doing is passing on what other people are saying about Ted Cruz.

CAMEROTA: Well, it's not what Rush Limbaugh is saying. And in fact, Rush Limbaugh is saying that Donald Trump is wrong to be calling Ted Cruz nasty. Listen to what Rush Limbaugh just said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, TALK RADIO SHOW: I think Trump going after Cruz is quite normal. It's understandable. But I think he's making a tactical error the way he's doing it. Whatever you want to say, Cruz is not a nasty guy. When you get into criticism, it better be believable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Is Rush Limbaugh wrong?

CLOVIS: No, I think that Rush Limbaugh has a job to do, as well. I mean, I have a little bit of experience in talk radio. I kind of know how that works. Rush Limbaugh is the absolute master of that. Rush Limbaugh has 20 million people who listen to him. And he carries a lot of -- of sway in the Republican Party and the conservative movement in America.

So what he's doing is he's out there defending a person he considers to be a -- you know, a puritanical, orthodox conservative. I'm an orthodox conservative. I get where Rush is coming from.

But the whole issue here is that Rush is defending someone that he happens to think a lot of. Now, what he was saying is, this is from a political perspective, it was a tactical error.

Now what does that mean? To go after, all again, Mr. Trump is doing is passing on what other people inside the Washington Beltway say about Ted Cruz.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I want to say, I'm going to talk about something that Donald Trump revealed in his interview with Don Lemon that is very revealing. He talks about how it was that he made his faux pas about "Two Corinthians" versus "Second Corinthians." And you just heard a little snippet of there, and I'll just read what

he said. He said, "Tony Perkins wrote that out for me, because Tony thought it would be great. He knew I was going to Liberty. To Liberty. And Tony Perkins is a good guy. He actually wrote that out for me."

Basically, Sam, he's admitting that he had a cheat sheet. Does that not explain what everybody is saying, that Donald Trump is not familiar with the Bible, and he can't quote passages from the Bible; and he was pandering there.

CLOVIS: I want to -- I want you to give me some time on this. Because I think it's really important what I'm going to say. Donald Trump is a person who is -- and I want to address this to everybody who has this notion that he's not a person of faith.

I work with him. I'm around him. I spend a lot of time with him. He's a person of deep faith. He's just not a person that puts it on his sleeve and enunciates that. He reminds me a lot of my father. My father, who -- a person who fought in two wars. A person who was probably --had the deepest faith of any person I know.

Donald Trump -- and spiritual life is a journey. It's not a destination. Spiritual life is about coming to grips with things. And it comes over time. And I think, as Donald Trump has transitioned from being so deeply involved in his business to the fact that he has grown children who are successful, he has grandchildren that are -- that are now coming into the world. He has seen the world differently. And I think this spiritual journey is one where he is internalizing this as he goes forward.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CLOVIS: I'm very confident that Donald Trump is a person of faith. And I love being around him. In fact, a couple of us there, we often sit down and talk about these very issues with Mr. Trump. I'm not in any doubt about the depth of Donald Trump's faith.

CAMEROTA: Sam, I don't want to question anybody's internal faith. Obviously, everybody has their...

CLOVIS: You brought it up, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Well, because he's admitting that he used a cheat sheet from Tony Perkins who wrote out those words, which is why it didn't sound authentic.

CLOVIS: Oh, my God. Oh, my God, a politician taking a sheet of paper up onto the stage with notes on it.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CLOVIS: Oh, that is so revealing about everything.

CAMEROTA: It is revealing, Sam. It's revealing, because you're calling him a politician, No. 1, which he doesn't like to be called. But No. 2, it's about authenticity, not about his faith. But he's trying to sound as though he knows the Bible, that -- that brand of faith that evangelicals respond to.

CLOVIS: So you're saying he's being deceptive.

CAMEROTA: You tell me. You tell me.

CLOVIS: He's not. It's just that's ridiculous. I can't even -- I can't even fathom that. So it's -- the whole issue here, if the question is is he a person of faith, he's a person of deep faith.

CAMEROTA: And the question is, if he knows his Bible well. Maybe not..

CLOVIS: The question is whether or not a person who goes up on stage to give a speech is allowed to take notes, then I think that's probably it. Let's talk about notes, and let's talk about people who can't go up on stage without a teleprompter. We'll talk about that.

CAMEROTA: Oh, Sam, I hear you. All right. We've run out the clock, Sam.

CLOVIS: That's OK, that's fine, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: You hate when that happens.

All right, Sam Clovis, thanks so much.

CLOVIS: I love talking to you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. You, too.

CLOVIS: Thanks, we'll see you.

CAMEROTA: All right. We want to let you know about a very big event coming up this Monday night in Iowa. Exactly one week before Iowa chooses, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley will go face-to-face with the voters in Iowa. This is a CNN town hall. It's live from Des Moines. Chris will be moderating it. So it's next Monday night, 9 p.m. Eastern live, only here on CNN -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. Stock futures are pointing to a slightly lower open after another brutal day on Wall Street. The Dow closing down 249 points Wednesday. A relative rebound after plummeting 565 points earlier in the day. Partially fueled by dropping oil prices. Market watchers are hoping U.S. markets can steady the ship after Asian markets took another dive overnight. European markets, meanwhile, slightly up at this hour. We'll keep an eye on it.

CUOMO: Attorney General Loretta Lynch standing behind the president's recent executive actions on gun control. Lynch telling a Senate appropriations hearing on Wednesday that calls to strengthen background checks are consistent with the Constitution. Under questioning, she said the administration is not, quote, "chipping away at the Second Amendment." CAMEROTA: Well, the Buffalo Bills making NFL history, hiring Kathryn

Smith as the league's first full-time female coach. Smith was named the Bills' special team's quality control coach. She joined Rex Ryan's staff this season after spending the last 12 with the New York Jets, where she also worked under Ryan.

PEREIRA: See this happening. Congratulations to her.

CUOMO: That's good. And this is even more trail-blazing, because there is no real football for women, right? So it's not like you come out -- like you see the assistant coach for the Spurs. She's awesome. But she was an awesome basketball player. And so this takes more of a leap. But she did work for the Jets.

PEREIRA: Oh, yes.

CUOMO: And she earned her cred. And I think more diversity, it always makes everything better if it's done for the right purpose.

CAMEROTA: Glass ceiling breaking.

CUOMO: We are heading into the homestretch: 11 days until the Iowa caucus. Hillary Clinton locked in a tight race with Senator Sanders. Sanders expected to easily take New Hampshire, but nothing is a given. Is Iowa a must-win for Clinton? We're going to ask President Obama's former adviser, the Ax, senior advisor David Axelrod. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: The countdown to the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary well under way. In New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton does trail Senator Bernie Sanders, no matter what poll you look at. So many are saying, therefore, Iowa is a must-win for her campaign.

Let's discuss with senior political commentator, former senior adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod. Good to see you, as always, my friend.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Great to be here.

CUOMO: Let's tee this up. The poll number that, in my mind, is most troubling for the campaign right now is the least honest one, right? Which is a nice way to put the question if you think about it, assumes everybody is honest.

You have Secretary Clinton's numbers have been going the wrong way for a while. You then match that up with the latest reckoning about what was in the e-mails. And you have what the secretary had to say about it out on the stump. Here's what she said about the recents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:25:05] HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This seems to me to be, you know, another effort to inject this into the campaign. It's another leak. I'm just going to leave it up to the professionals at the Justice Department. Because nothing that this says changes the fact that I never sent or received material marked "classified."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: That is the word that you will hear from the entire team. They'll say there is no indictment. You show us the "there" there, in terms of anything that was done that was wrong. But it does seem to be affecting the credibility polls, doesn't it?

AXELROD: Well, it may affect that. The question is whether that's what's driving the numbers or not.

You know, I think that, if they've made a mistake politically, the mistake has been that they didn't set expectations right in the beginning. Iowa, there was a poll last week from "The Des Moines Register" in which 43 percent of Iowans voting in the Democratic caucuses, identified themselves with the word "socialist." This is a good base for Bernie. OK? This is a very liberal electorate there.

So it was always going to be tough. She had a tough time there eight years ago. I always say that Iowa to her is what Chinatown was to Jake Gidus (ph). You know, nothing good happens for her in Iowa.

But -- but -- so it was always going to be tough. I think it's still going to be close. I still think she can win Iowa. But beyond New Hampshire, she still has an advantage. And so they've lost the sort of narrative of the race here.

The e-mail thing is a distraction. I think it's going to be an ongoing distraction. And I think the Republicans will make sure that it's an ongoing distraction. But I don't think it's central to what's going on here.

CAMEROTA: I want to talk about the e-mails a little bit more. Because we had Secretary Clinton's press secretary, Brian Fallon, on yesterday. And he -- he told us something that I hear a thread starting beginning in the campaign. He basically said that the inspector general who's been investigating all of this is in cahoots with the Republicans in Congress.

How do we know that to be true? Do we believe that? And is that the right pushback for them?

AXELROD: Well, it's not unheard of that there are politics in these inspector general reports and in these relationships. And so...

CAMEROTA: But you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) nominee for President Obama in 2011, we should point out. The idea that he's now working in cahoots with the Republicans smacks some of as made up?

AXELROD: I think I've got to stick to the bottom-line point that -- that Hillary Clinton was making, which is did she knowingly transmit information that she knew to be classified.? And I think that's sort of home base for them. Because that's likely to be -- the answer to that is likely to be no.

CUOMO: Right. CAMEROTA: Yes. But I mean, they say that it's never justice (ph).

She should have known that the content was hot.

AXELROD: I think it's fair to say -- and it's been said by her and others that the whole notion of having all your communications on a private e-mail on your own server was not good judgment. I think that's -- that's a fair critique. Whether this is a fair critique, I think, will unfold as she says, as the Justice Department looks at it.

CUOMO: You also have the politics of this, I think. There's no indictment. You have to deal with it through the lens of the political ramifications, right? Because that's just the sum and the substance of it. Until that changes, you do look at it politically.

One of the things that we do see that's a little bit more new now, instead of just the stock line of "I didn't do anything wrong," there is the "I know what it's like to be attacked." It's not new for her team to feel that this is contrived. This is what she said yesterday in terms of what this is like on a personal level.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I know what it's like to be knocked down but not knocked out. I've had a few hard times. I don't know anybody in this audience who hasn't had their own share. But I've learned -- and I give my mom the credit for this -- that it's not whether you get knocked down. It's whether you get back up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Access to her as a person. And how important that is for her voters.

And second of all, how important a credential is that that's often overlooked in a candidate. What you've been through in your life. Because as you know very well, once you get into that office, you will never have seen the hurt that you're going to be dealing with over those four or eight years.

AXELROD: Well, I think tenacity is a really important quality in someone running for president. It's one of her strengths. And she should accentuate that.

I think one of the challenges for her is to make this less about her and more about them. To communicate how her tenacity will actually play benefits to people. The advantage that Bernie has right now from a message standpoint, is that it's simple. It's clear. And it seems more about the experience that people are going through.

She's offering a lot of prescriptions that will speak to people's struggles. But -- but the campaign always seems to come back to her.

The other element is, you know, a wise man once said you campaign in poetry and govern in prose. A wise man you knew very well.

CUOMO: That was my line. AXELROD: That was -- it was a great one.