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Obama to Meet with Bernie Sanders Today; Republicans Try to Rein in Donald Trump; Four Killed in Tel Aviv Terror Attack; Clinton Responds to Trump's Accusations about Foundation. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 09, 2016 - 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: Bernie Sanders meets with President Obama at the White House.

[05:58:31] BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bernie Sanders brought tremendous energy and made Hillary a better candidate.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really believe a lot of Senator Sanders's supporters will join us.

OBAMA: You want the Republican nominee to be somebody who could do the job if they win.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: He needs to begin to act like a presidential candidate.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hamas is praising the deadly terror attack in Tel Aviv that killed four people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The two suspects are Palestinians from the West Bank.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: This is a savage crime done by criminal terrorists who don't value human life.

NANCY GRACE, HLN ANCHOR: Just a slap on the wrist for raping an unconscious co-ed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was really disgusted. Six months is way too short.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has shown no remorse.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, June 9, 6 a.m. in the east, and we are going to talk more about this Stanford rape case decision. A lot of people are saying, well, the judge decided. But it doesn't make sense to so many people. It's worth a deeper look. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We have two Stanford students on with us

who are very upset about that sentence, and they'll us what they want the school to do.

CUOMO: Also, we're just hours away from President Obama meeting with Bernie Sanders at the White House this morning. What's the message going to be? Is it going to be unity? How do they have to temper it? We're going to get you inside what we believe that conversation to be about. Obviously, the party wants to move towards Clinton.

CAMEROTA: We'll be a fly on the wall for that this morning.

This as Republicans try to rein in Donald Trump after a firestorm of criticism for his attacks on that federal judge. Will his measured tone last?

We have the 2016 race covered the way only CNN can. So let's begin with Athena Jones. She's live in Washington.

Good morning, Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. It would be awesome to be a fly on the wall in that meeting.

Look, the president said last night the Democrats have, quote, "just ended or sort of ended our primary season." That's an acknowledgment that there's still a week to go before the voting is over. And Senator Sanders hasn't yet bowed out.

Still, the effort to unite the party has already begun. And today's meeting at the White House will be a key step along that road to unity.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (voice-over): This morning, President Obama meeting with Bernie Sanders.

OBAMA: My hope is, is that over the next couple of weeks, we're able to pull things together.

JONES: Increasing pressure on the Vermont senator to end his primary fight, now that Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee.

OBAMA: Bernie Sanders brought enormous energy and new ideas, and he pushed the party and challenged them. I thought it made Hillary a better candidate.

JONES: The president is expected to congratulate Sanders but also discuss his role as a unifying figure who can mobilize enthusiasm behind Clinton as they look to take on Donald Trump.

OBAMA: The main role I'm going to be playing in this process is to remind the American people that this is a serious job. You know, this is not reality TV. SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The struggle

continues.

JONES: As Sanders and his team vow to continue fighting.

JEFF WEAVER, CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR BERNIE SANDERS: No one is the nominee. The nominee is -- the nominee is elected at the convention.

JONES: The White House stressing patience with Sanders, consciously trying not to alienate his voters.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's clear we know who the nominee is going to be, but I think we should be a little graceful and give him the opportunity to decide on his own.

JONES: The president's endorsement of Clinton could come as early as today, but Clinton is already going on a celebratory media blitz, trying to rally Sanders supporters.

CLINTON: I really believe a lot of Senator Sanders' supporters will join us in making sure Donald Trump doesn't get anywhere near the White House.

JONES: Clinton also addressing the prospect of two women on the ticket.

CLINTON: I'm looking at the most qualified people, and that includes women, of course, because I want to be sure that whoever I pick could be president immediately.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: Now, Democrats see the timing of these endorsements as strategic. They want to extract as much political gain as they can from having popular Democrats like the president and vice president come out and publicly back Clinton. For that reason, we're likely to see the endorsements come out over a rollout period to keep the momentum going, rather than having it happen all at once.

So the president could do a build-up of an endorsement for Clinton, possibly something on social media for something softer, before we see a big campaign-style event. That kind of big event is not likely to happen until after the final primary process -- contest here in Washington next Tuesday.

Now, Biden will want to speak with both Clinton and Sanders himself before endorsing, and no word yet on whether those conversations have happened -- Alisyn, Chris.

CAMEROTA: OK, Athena. Thanks so much for all of that reporting.

Let's discuss what's going to happen today and beyond with our CNN panel. We have political commentator and political anchor for Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis; also CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston; and the Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich. Great to have all of you here. Jackie and I are wearing very similar outfits, I see.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "THE DAILY BEAST": True. You got the memo.

CAMEROTA: Great minds.

CUOMO: Distractingly attractive.

CAMEROTA: OK. Gentlemen here in the studio, let me start with you. What's going to happen today in this Bernie Sanders/President Obama meeting, Errol?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think the president is going to gently -- he's not an arm twister; he's not LBJ, right? He's not going to sort of demand that he get out of the race. And in any event that wouldn't work, necessarily, with Bernie Sanders. But I think he's going to sort of, you know, make clear to him, "Your time is coming to an end." And -- and give him some possible options.

CAMEROTA: Like what? What's he going to offer him?

LOUIS: Well, there's plenty that you can offer. I mean, you know, who knows what, you know, dams or water projects or other things might be going on in Vermont, you know, at a minimum. Right?

But then there's also, you know, the issue of the platform, the policies.

But you know, the thing I suspect they're going to really have to talk about -- and it may or may not come up, obviously -- but where they cannot find common ground is on TPP, on the trade deal. It's a signature issue for Obama. It's really important to him, and Bernie Sanders has just spent the last six months campaigning against it.

And so even to sort of to try and compromise, to start picking it apart, maybe change this, change that, the whole thing collapses. So I think, you know, it's possible the president may say to him, "Look, do whatever you want, whenever you want, but leave my TPP alone."

CUOMO: Well, that's always the best compromise, right, which is nothing. You know, "You don't like it, I like it, so let's leave that alone. There's plenty of other things to talk about."

Let's get a little sense of how you think this conversation goes. Do you think President Obama gives Sanders the hard sell that it's time? And if so, what do you think the Sanders response is?

[06:05:03] MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: So a couple things. One is I spoke to somebody who's very close to Senator Sanders and said, going into this meeting, that Senator Sanders owes nothing to President Barack Obama, owes nothing to him. Never had a relationship with him in the Senate, or in Congress, for that matter, never had a relationship with him in the White House, and always knew that he was on Hillary Clinton's side. So...

CUOMO: You could say the same thing about Clinton, same thing about the party in terms of Sanders distancing himself...

PRESTON: You can say that about Sanders.

CUOMO: He doesn't owe anybody anything.

PRESTON: Correct.

Now, let's draw the parallels between these two candidates. They were both anti-establishment candidates. Barack Obama ran against the establishment. Barack Obama created his own political organization.

CUOMO: So what do you think he's going to say: "Bernie, I'm you?"

PRESTON: I think what he's going to say is, "Listen, for the good of the party, you've run a great campaign. But at some point, you have to think about what's best for the nation, what's best for the future." But as we saw, you know, in the clip, he's not going to try to force Bernie Sanders out. Not should he try to force him.

CAMEROTA: So Jackie, what is Bernie Sanders's end game? What does he want to walk out of there with today?

KUCINICH: You know, Bernie -- I mean, I don't know that he's going to walk out with anything, but I think he is going to walk out with a whole bunch of promises from President Obama as the head of the Democratic Party right now.

Bernie Sanders wants his platform as a part of the Democratic platform. That's very important for him in order to keep his movement alive. I also wonder if the president might offer him a little bit of advice keeping that organization going. You know, the president established OFA when he was a candidate, and he was an incumbent, but that stayed in place during mid-terms. So I wonder if also that will be part of that conversation.

But you know, Mark's right. Bernie Sanders doesn't owe President Obama anything. So they -- the White House and Vice President Biden and Hillary Clinton have to tread a little lightly here if they're going to want that momentum that Bernie Sanders generated with his supporters to continue for her.

CUOMO: Here's your problem, Errol. Sanders isn't looking for peas and carrots. He's looking for steak. So when you have this meeting, my suggestion would be I don't know why they're doing this. I guess it works for Clinton, but I don't know why they're doing this. Anything that you do like this is provocative to the Berners, to the people who believe in Sanders. By definition, it's provocative.

LOUIS: Well, even more provocative would be to offer him nothing. To not even meet with him.

CUOMO: Why not?

LOUIS: To not even...

CUOMO: Say, let's see what happens at the convention. Let's see what Sanders does. Let's see what his disposition is. Let him come to you.

LOUIS: Well, I mean, there's also -- by the way, there's a lot of sort of practical stuff here. We know that Bernie Sanders has not wanted to go into debt. He does not want to come out of this with a big financial obligation.

If you're talking about raising money, if you're talking about what happens to his people -- will they get jobs, will they be involved in the campaign -- that's also a conversation you want to have with the president of the United States.

CAMEROTA: Hillary Clinton talked about Sanders supporters last night, and she talked about how she sympathizes, even empathizes with them. She relates to how they feel. So listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I know how it feels to have waged a hard-fought campaign and to fall short. Senator Sanders's supporters were passionate. I really totally respect their feelings.

I'm looking forward to working with him to achieve our common goal. As we reach out and we talk about what's at stake in this election, I really believe a lot of Senator Sanders's supporters will join us in making sure Donald Trump doesn't get anywhere near the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So Mark, reach out. What does that look like from the Hillary Clinton campaign to the supporters?

PRESTON: Well, you know, a couple things. One is I think if you go back about three weeks ago, the Clinton campaign was really doing a wrong thing and the supporters were. They were really trying to force Bernie Sanders out, right?

And then as they got closer, you know, to Chris's point, they seem to have backed off a little bit.

I think that this meeting with President Obama this morning is actually ill-timed. I don't think it's smart. The District of Columbia hasn't even voted yet. Barack Obama lives in the District of Columbia right now. He probably still votes back in Illinois. And it's also a city that has a large African-American votership.

So the idea that you're disenfranchising voters right now who still want to participate in the process, I don't think it's a good thing for democracy or good for the Democratic Party at this point.

This meeting should happen next week. And I think, as far as Hillary Clinton goes, she is saying all the right things right now. Her campaign has backed up. And in the end, the Sanders people are going to go behind her candidacy.

CUOMO: You just don't want to create a problem, because as we'll talk about a little bit later in the show, her real problem is not going to be Bernie Sanders. It's going to be Donald Trump and what he's bringing her way. And now we have a new indication of what his line of attack will be, so we'll talk about that in a little bit.

CAMEROTA: That's right. Stand by.

CUOMO: All right. Donald Trump, his softer side, that's what supposedly people were pushing him to show; try to appease these GOP leaders who are worried about their presumptive nominee. You have House Speaker Paul Ryan, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus are starting to retreat, it seems -- not retreat, but they're going to have a retreat with Mitt Romney in Utah today. Why? Because there's talk about revolt.

So how will this party come together? That's just as important as the Democratic side.

CNN's Chris Frates is live in Washington with more. Mr. Frates, what do you have?

[06:10:09] CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Chris.

Well, you know many Republicans have long feared that Donald Trump's divisive rhetoric would derail his campaign, and now with some Republicans calling his recent comments about a federal judge downright racist, they're sounding the alarm that, if he doesn't tone it down, he's only helping to put Hillary Clinton in the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: He won't be in the White House if he continues to make these kind of statements.

FRATES (voice-over): Warnings of a loss in November are coming from Donald Trump's own party.

MCCONNELL: And if he wants to win the election, he needs to quit these gratuitous attacks on various Americans.

FRATES: The presumptive GOP nominee is enraging and dividing the GOP after days of his attacks on federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel's Mexican heritage.

TRUMP: He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico.

FRATES: Trump's toned-down speech earlier this week...

TRUMP: I understand the responsibility of carrying the mantle.

FRATES: ... was a step in the right direction for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

MCCONNELL: Maybe using a prepared text and not attacking any other Americans was a good start.

FRATES: But congressional Republicans are divided. Some are supporting the presumptive nominee.

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I think he's done a good job in the last 24 hours of realizing the impact of those comments.

FRATES: Some are riding the "never Trump" train.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His comments over the weekend are authenticating what I believe is the man's core character.

FRATES: And still others are holding out for a kinder, gentler real- estate billionaire.

SEN. ADAM KINZINGER (R), ILLINOIS: He needs to begin to sound presidential.

SEN. BILL FLORES (R), TEXAS: I've got to see that he's going to start addressing the issues of the country instead of bashing judges.

FRATES: House Speaker Paul Ryan is trying to keep the party unified behind their new standard bearer, reiterating his support for Trump in a closed-door meeting Wednesday, asking his colleagues to unite, even after he strongly criticized Trump's comments.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Claiming a person can't do the job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment.

FRATES: Meanwhile, Democrats are uniting behind Hillary Clinton.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: What does Trump do?

FRATES: Senator Elizabeth Warren set to attack Trump with her harshest language yet in a speech later today, saying "Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and serves nobody but himself. And that is just one of the many reasons why he will never be president of the United States."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRATES: In an interview with "TIME" magazine, Trump said he was disappointed and surprised by the backlash from Republican leaders to his comments about that federal judge hearing a lawsuit against him. But Trump says Republicans have to say what they have to say, noting that he's a big boy who can take the criticism, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Thanks so much for all of that.

We'll talk more about the Republican race in a moment, but first we have to tell you about the new developments out of Israel, where four people were killed in a terror attack in a popular market. The gunfire and people then running for their lives was caught on video.

CNN's Oren Lieberman is live in Tel Aviv with the latest. What do you know, Oren?

OREN LIEBERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, the Israeli response has been swift, freezing 83,000 Palestinian permits to travel from the West Bank to Israel. And we just learned from the Israeli military they will send two extra battalions in the West Bank, they say, for security reasons.

Let's show you surveillance video from this terror attack last night. This is from inside the restaurant where this started. You see the two shooters, Israeli police say Palestinians from the West Bank, standing there dressed as Hasidic, dressed as ultra-orthodox Jews, when they pulled out automatic weapons and opened fire at point-blank range at a number of people who were out here dining in this popular market that would have been very busy last night when this happened.

They keep shooting, then move into the store next door, another restaurant, and continue shooting before they run away from here, splitting up. Israeli police shot and captured one. They captured the other without gunfire. That was where the police and other Israeli authorities trying to answer the question of how did automatic weapons get from the West Bank into Israel? That's part of the question they have to answer. Is security tight enough at the Sarona Market? That's another question they have to answer here.

In the meantime, we've learned about the victims here, two women, two men, all Israelis, all from the area of right around Tel Aviv, those funerals set to start later this afternoon -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Oren, we'll stay on that.

We also have some lighter news for you this morning from the sports world. You know, some named Cuomo thought the Cleveland Cavaliers were done in the NBA finals...

CAMEROTA: What is he talking about?

CUOMO: ... and they were wrong. LeBron James and the Cavs, a 120-90 blowout of the Golden State Warriors in game 3 of the finals last night in Cleveland. That mattered. The home crowd certainly helped this team.

So the series is now two games to one. James had 32 and 11, 11 rebounds, led the Cavs. Game four is again in Cleveland Friday night, and they need it very badly.

CAMEROTA: All right. Donald Trump taking aim at Hillary Clinton. He claims that she's using her family's charitable foundation to enrich herself. Will that line of attack work? We will hear how Clinton is responding to CNN about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:19:09] CAMEROTA: Donald Trump has begun going after the Clinton Foundation. He claims the Clintons are using their foundation to enrich themselves. Hillary Clinton responded to that with CNN's Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CLINTON: Let me just try to set the record straight. We had absolutely overwhelming disclosure. Were there are one or two instances that slipped through the cracks? Yes, but was the overwhelming amount of anything that anybody gave the foundation disclosed? Absolutely.

And I'm proud of the foundation. I'm proud of the work that it has done. Nine million people have lower cost HIV/AIDS medicine because of the work of the Clinton Foundation and my husband. We have women across the country, from Latin America and Africa, across the world, I mean, getting good jobs and being able to support themselves for the first time here in our country. We have better food and nutrition that is helping young kids in America be healthier and not fight obesity.

We have so much that we're proud of, and I will put that up against any of the innuendo and accusation coming from Donald Trump.

People give lots of money to presidential campaigns, don't they? They give lots of money to political parties, as well. So, you know, that is money that goes directly to support political activities of candidates.

Money that has been given to the foundation goes to support humanitarian work. And if people want to influence anybody in office, I think they would choose the political route. And indeed, the work of the foundation really speaks for itself.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: All right. So there is Hillary Clinton, talking to our man Anderson Cooper, kind of laying out her side of the Clinton Global Initiative and what its work is.

Let's discuss with the panel: Errol Louis, Mark Preston, Jackie Kucinich back with us now.

Errol, let's listen to what the line of attack is coming from Trump, and then we can test it, because it's not about the general work of the foundation. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton turned the State Department into a private hedge fund. The Russians, the Saudis, the Chinese, all gave money to Bill and Hillary and got favorable treatment in return.

The Clintons have turned the politics of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right. Let's take the rhetoric out of it. The Russian uranium deal, the foreign and bad actor foreign nations that gave money while Clinton was in the State Department, is there a legitimate line of questioning about what went on in the CGI and its appropriateness?

LOUIS: There is an absolute legitimate question there. I've written about this last year, as a matter of fact. A lot of people were talking about some of it.

It doesn't look as if voters really picked that up. The polls don't suggest that voters have really reacted to it, but it is important. If during her time in the State Department she was taking money from these disreputable characters and organizations around the world...

CUOMO: She'll say, "It wasn't me. It was the CGI."

LOUIS: You know, and her husband has actually stepped forward and raises an interesting kind of moral question. It's like, can we take this money and use it for good, or should we just remain morally pure, not get the money and let people starve or not have water or not have jobs in different corners of the world? It's an interesting and legitimate question.

But if there's any sign, if there's any kind of a sort of a time line that shows the money came...

CUOMO: Quid pro quo.

LOUIS: ... and the favors were granted, that is a problem, and that is absolutely a legitimate issue for Donald Trump or anybody else to bring up.

CAMEROTA: Jackie, is there a thread between money coming in and policy being directed?

KUCINICH: You know, one of the things about this is, even if there isn't, the -- if it looks like there's a thread, that could be just -- just the appearance of impropriety is bad for the Clintons, especially when you have her trust numbers so low.

Things like the Clinton Foundation, they undermine her attempts to try to get the voters, Bernie Sanders voters, maybe not the people who love her the most, but these independents and these folks who haven't signed up for the Clinton campaign, aren't necessarily ready for her. They're still looking at all of this, and this is, when there aren't absolute transparency, it undermines her.

CUOMO: So transparency is an issue. OK. I would argue for a higher bar here, Preston, because look at what we have. We have an FBI investigation going on that involves one candidate. You've got an act of fraud case by an attorney general against the other one. So this isn't just about insinuation. This is about a high bar.

Do you think that there are facts out there that show that the money that was supposed to go to the Haiti hospital never went there, that there was a quid pro quo? Because that's the bar. It's not just insinuation.

PRESTON: Well, a couple things. One, Errol's exactly right, and we should be questioning it; we should be following the money. We should try to find out why these donations were made. We should try to find out if there was a link to it.

I do think it's important to note, though, when we talk about personal enrichment, I don't think we're talking about personal financial enrichment. And the reason why I say that is President Clinton can go out and give a speech anywhere he wants and make a lot of money. Hillary Clinton can do the same thing. She's a much sought after person. She served a lot of time in the Senate. She was secretary of state. They can go out and make money. They don't need CGI to put money in their back pockets.

However, it is a judgment question, you know? Do they take money from -- from despot rulers to try to use it to, you know, for help elsewhere? Some would argue that, no, because there are people in those countries that are really suffering, and all you're doing is legitimizing these rulers, where here in the United States these are principles that we don't agree with.

CAMEROTA: All right. Let's talk about the judge that Donald Trump went after, who said he was Mexican. In fact, he's American. Donald Trump obviously trying to turn the page away from that, but that story has legs, and that story continues to reverberate.

[06:25:11] Now that judge's legal association, the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association, has finally put out a statement. They had been silent for a long time while Donald Trump was going after him, and the judge himself cannot actually go back after him. But his association has written a statement.

Let me read it to you: "Contrary to what Trump has stated, we are not affiliated with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). That is a wholly independent civil rights and advocacy non-profit organization. The San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association has not been involved in organizing any Trump protests, nor do we work in conjunction with the other La Raza."

They felt it was important to say that because all of Trump's surrogates continue to come on our air and elsewhere and say, "Well, they're an advocacy group. Well, they are for illegal immigration."

Errol, does this put this to rest?

LOUIS: It won't put it to rest, because people who don't want to understand it won't understand it. Right? I mean, but -- but yes, there are any number of, basically, ethnic affiliated groups. I mean, it starts in law school, frankly. You know, you have the, you know, the Black Bar Association and the Columbian Association for the Italian lawyers.

CUOMO: A great organization, by the way.

CAMEROTA: And by the way, they were set up to try to counter discrimination that these lawyers were feeling, that they were being denied judgeships.

LOUIS: Right. I mean, it's partly networking. And it is partly... CUOMO: Why rationalize their existence? Isn't the end -- isn't the point here that you're making that they're wrong? This isn't the group that you think you're talking about.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

CUOMO: And "he gave a scholarship to an illegal immigrant." That's not true. The kid was a child when he came and he was illegal, but when he was a law student...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: ... 20 years later -- it wasn't like they just grabbed someone out of the weeds trying to sneak across from Tijuana and gave him a scholarship.

CAMEROTA: No, but he still was undocumented, but he didn't disclose that he was undocumented. There are a lot of nuances here.

PRESTON: Why are you allowing the facts to get in the way of a good story or a good political? I mean, that's what this is, isn't it? I mean, it's -- it's Donald Trump being fast and loose with the facts.

CUOMO: But it's one thing if it's Jeffrey Lord or a surrogate coming on. Their job is to make the case in the most impressive way they can.

I think that you have to do the same thing with Clinton and Trump. You can't exaggerate to the point of the absurd of factual inaccuracy about the other side. The bar should be higher for them.

PRESTON: It should be higher. But as Errol says, if you don't want to believe it, you are not going to believe it. I mean, that's the bottom line.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much. Great to talk to all of you.

CUOMO: All right. So what could be the deciding factor in the race for the White House? How about gender? Is the first woman going to be a compelling enough cause? Haven't seen it in the polls yet. What about men? White men specifically. Loving Trump, hating Clinton. Could that be the insurmountable factor here? We discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)