Preparations are now underway. Good morning, jim. Reporter good morning, carol. Im inciside the wynn hotel on e las vegas strip, where the debate set is already ready to go. You can see the five paid yum behind me. Clinton, the front runner, has the middle podium. To her right will be sanders. He has been the insurgent candidate, firing up the liberal base of the Democratic Party. These new polls show, as you mentioned, carol, that clinton has a Comfortable Lead in the battleground states, including nevada. Well put that on screen, according to the new cnn orc poll. Clinton has 50 with sanders, 34 and the undeclared joe biden at 12 . If you take biden out, it helps clinton. She rises to a bigger lead. 58 for Hillary Clinton. 36 for Bernie Sanders. We want to throw this in, as well. South carolina is an interesting state if joe biden jumps into this race. He has a lot of support in south carolina. He vaults ahead of Bernie Sanders in that poll. Hillary clinton with 49 . Biden, 24 . Sanders, 18 . That is the x factor in this race. What will Vice President joe biden do . The chair of the Democratic Party, Debbie Wassermann schultz was asked that question. What if joe biden decides to show up on tuesday night . We do know that he has been carefully considering whether he wants to run for president of the United States. Of course, in the democratic primary, we would always have room and welcome the sitting Vice President. Now, the indications at this point is that we wont be seeing Vice PresidentBiden Joining us on tuesday night. Hes been in delaware all weekend. Was scheduled to be there today, huddled with advisers to try to make this decision. Hes also spending time with family, as well. Getting back to the candidates who were definitely going to be on the stage tuesday night. Carol, potential flash points, i think, to look forward to. On the iraq war, Bernie Sanders has been reminding voters that he voted against the iraq war in 2002 and Hillary Clinton voted in favor of it. Those are ek kochoes of 2008 an obama and clinton. He went after clinton, making gains inside the liberal base of the Democratic Party because of that key vote. Well be looking for other flash points. Bernie sanders is more moderate on gun control. Martin omalley could go after sanders on that issue. A lot to watch more coming up on tuesday night, carol . Well get back to you. Jim acosta from las vegas. The republicans arent just sitting back to enjoy the show. The Republican National committee has an ad, attacking Hillary Clintons use of a private email account when she was secretary of state. I did not email any classified material no anyone. There was classified information. Did, in fact, contain classified information. Total lack of accountability. Its like, my problems have nothing to do with me. They have to do with the republicans. Theyre playing it up as if it was a partisan witch hunt. Now you have the fbi, the New York Times facing this story. Those are not partisan organizations. You think the American Public is that stupid . Its something president obama addressed on 60 minutes. She made a mistake. Shes acknowledged it. I do think that the way its been ginned up is, in part, because of politics, and i think shed be the first to acknowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly. Whats your reaction when you found out about it . You know, this is one of those issues that, i think, is legitimate, but the fact that for the last three months, this is all thats been spoken about, is an indication that were in president ial political season. But those emails are not only causing problems for secretary clinton, but oddly, for republicans, too. There are explosive allegations that clinton and her emails have become the primary focus of the republicanled benghazi hearings. Those are supposed to be investigating why ambassador Chris Stevens and three other americans were killed at the american consulate in libya. Chris has more. A former staffer with the House Committee investigating the ben ga zghazi attacks says panels probe has become a politically motivated search targeting clinton. Its a charge as clinton runs for president. Air force reserve Intelligence Officer says after news broke earlier that clinton used the email server, the republicancontrolled committee set its sights almost exclusively on clinton. He says he was fired as a Committee Investigator because he resisted the pressure to focus on clinton and because he took military leave. He says he plans to file a lawsuit over his firing and ask a court to give him back his job with back pay. A selfdescribed conservative tells jake tapper in an exclusive Television Interview that what started as a broad probe into the attacks on the u. S. Consulate in benghazi became a, quote, partisan investigation. Lets take a listen. What do you say to any viewers out there who think that you might have an ax to grind, youre only talking because you were fired . I have a conscience. Theres wrong doing here, and i think it needs to stop. I do not want the investigation to end. I want it to be refocused back to its original purpose. The victims families are youed t owed the truth. Clinton has explaining to do. We didnt need to deemphasize and drop the investigation on different agencies, organizations and individuals. Republican Committee Chairman trey gowdy said he never instructed him to focus on clinton. He said that he has, quote, demanded money from the committee, and committee refused to pay him, and hes now run to the press with his new allegations about secretary clinton. A spokesperson for the Committee Said in a statement that the claims are transparentally fals. The statement said, quote, thus directly contrary to his brandnew assertion, the employee actually was terminated, in part, because he himself manifested improper parrially and animus in his investigative work. Wow. Keep in mind, the houseled Benghazi Committee has been investigating benghazi for 17 months now. Thats a month longer than the watergate investigation. Taxpayers dolled out more than 4. 6 million and counting. Lets talk about this and the debate. A former manager of Hillary Clintons 2008 campaign and tara, a former Communications Director for republican congressman dana worbacher. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Is it possible this benghazi issue may be neutralized because of the whistleblowers allegations . First, hes not a whistleblower. A whistleblower is someone who is still employed and decides to actually have a conscience and say, what i see is wrong and im going to get protection so i dont get retribution so i can expose whats happening. He is a disgruntled employee who was fired for a number of reasons, and the committee started to come out and explain what the reasons are. Hes now using the politically expedient opportunity here to say, wait, its all political. This is his way of getting back at the committee. I mean, i think were beginning to find out more and more that the credibility of this employee, terminated employee, is coming more into question. With that, squared that away, but unfortunately, the Political Part of this is damaging. We didnt square this away. Patty, do you agree . Is this guy a disgruntled employee, spewing nonsense . Look, we dont need the co socalled disgruntled employee. I dont believe thats what he is. We have it from kevin mccarthy, who said this committee was designed exclusively to damage Hillary Clintons political motive or objective. We dont need him. We know this is a political witch hunt. We know theyre using taxpayers money to do it. I really think its time for this committee to pack up and go home. On the other hand, tara, youre right, hilalary clinton has this trustworthiness problem. 1 3 of the voters in the latest cbs poll shows voters dont trust her. Again, with representative mccarthy saying what he did, and this whistle i know you dont call him a whistleblower. Hes not a whistleblower. Former employee of the Benghazi Committee coming out and saying these things, doesnt that help Hillary Clinton . Absolutely. I actually wrote a piece about this, that Kevin Mccarthys political blunder, it was a huge gaffe and damaging to the credibility of the committee, unfortunately. Because despite all the work theyve done, despite the fact its been bipartisan, despite the fact theyve uncovered new information, theyve interviewed 40 plus new individuals and witnesses that the other investigations did not have access to, despite the fact theyve been able to get documents that the clintons and state department have held all these months, despite all the work, now its like political a ma manna from heaven for the democrats. See, its a witch hunt. There are still questions not answered. Why did clinton tell the families that this was a video and that it was a spontaneous demonstration that led to this attack, when they knew it was preplanned . They had dia reports. They had reports from the Intel Community relatively quickly after the attacks that said this was premedicated, al qaedainspired organization that did this and, yet i will only they say its a video. Ill say this caveat. A republicanled investigation found none of that to be really true. We didnt know what happened yet because the Benghazi Committee hearings arent over yet. Patty, do you think any of this will be brought up by Hillary Clintons rivals at the debate . You know, the big difference between the democratic debate and the republican debates that have happened thus far is that the democratic debate is going to be substantive. Theyre going to talk about policies. Theyre going to talk about issues that affect the american people. Theyll talk about college affordability, the economy, health care, education. I dont think theyre going to stoop to the level of politicizing benghazi or the emails, for that matter. Yeah, but doesnt Hillary Clinton have a duty to answer these questions for all voters, and shouldnt her rivals bring it up, patti . She is going to answer these questions on october 22nd in front of the Benghazi Committee. I just want to say this, you know, prior to Kevin Mccarthys revelation, that this is indeed a political witch hunt, and prior to the whistleblower, it was on clinton to be as transparent as she can in the hearing, and she will be. Now the owness is on tray gown add tray gown adey gowdy. He needs to prove work is being done and not a witch hunt. I have to leave it there. Thanks to both of you. I appreciate it. Still to come, gun control is a topic thats divided our nation. What will the candidates say on stage tomorrow . Well talk about that next. Just might be the one. To clean the oceans, to start a movement, or lead a country. It may not be obvious yet, but one of these kids is going to change the world. We just need to make sure she has what she needs. Welcome to windows 10. The future starts now for all of us. I built my business with passion. But i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. 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Comfort us. From first loves to new beginnings. Wherever life takes you, guns, were here to stay. Okay. Seriously though, there are some differences between the candidates, the Democratic Candidates, when it comes to gun control. In addition to closing the gun show loophole, Hillary Clinton threatened to use executive action if congress will not act. She also wants to prohibit domestic abusers from being able to buy guns and allow victims to sue gun manufacturers. Compare that to Bernie Sanders. Hes voted to allow guns in National Parks and on amtrak trains. Hes taken a controversial vote in 2005 to protect gun manufacturers from lawsuits. Should point out over the weekend, sanders said he is willing to take another look at the issue. Lets talk about that with cnn political commentator sally and democratic strategist. Welcome to you both. Welcome, carol. I ran into sally in the make upro makeup room, and shes excited about the debate. Many dont think that. I think its going to be, first of all, substantive, which im excited about, unlike the republican debates, which have been a clown show of personal attacks and personalities. I think were going to get into some of the substance on where the candidates disagree with each other and with republicans and side with the american people. Number one. Number two, this is between, especially between, bernie and hillary, you know, they both have a lot at stake in this debate. Bernie has to introduce himself to the americans who dont know him and dont yet love him, and hillary has to gain ground with people shes losing. Its going to be hot, guys. Mentioning the other three people on stage. Theyre going to try to trump it up. Hes struck by your comments. I can see from the monitor i think youre throwing it my way. I think sally nailed it. Itll be a tremendous debate. I think its going to be very different from what weve seen on the republican side. Itll be a highminded debate on policy. I do think hillary goes into the debate as the presumptive favorite for the nomination. I think shell walk off the stage as the presumptive favorite. Theyre playing on her home turf here. She is the best debater on the stage. Shes the most experienced debater on the stage. I think shes, you know barring some kind of body blow that she suffers or some kind of mistake, i think she comes off the stage again being the presumptive favorite here. Dont you think Martin Omalley thats a lot to predict. Dont you think omalley will throw bombs . He has to stand out. Sanders said he wont abuse her. On the democratic side, you have the reagan doctrine, where you dont attack the same party in the president ial primary. The reagan doctrine. Do you hold the democrats to those standards . Its not popular. Democratic voters dont like that. You wont see a lot of attacks. What if you have well, i think youre going to see sharp policy difference. I think youll see them go after each other on policy. And they should. Hillarys strongest point with democratic voters, progressive leaning toward sanders is to go to gun control. Bernie and the others have a lot to go after hillary on. In terms of her coziness with wall street. The fact that now shes embracing all of these economic populus positions, but just doing it now. Who knows what shes do in office. I disagree with that. Theres a lot of substance i think they can and should nail each other on. That should make it a good debate for democracy. I agree and disagree. I think gun control is a major issue that hillary can go oon the on the attack on with sanders. Its a major liability. I think her central theme will be that Bern