that's why at xfinity we're hard at work, building new apps like this one that lets you choose a time for us to call you. so instead of waiting on hold, we'll call you when things are just as wonderful... [phone ringing] but a little less crazy. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around. it is 3:00 p.m. where john berman is in las vegas. i'm poppy harlow in new york. >> reporter: as poppy just leaked, i am john berman in las vegas on the las vegas strip.

just two days away from the very first democratic presidential debate. the candidates faceoff for the first time right behind me. >> a new poll out "today", cbs poll gives hillary clinton quite a lead over her democratic rivals. clinton has 46%. joe biden, 16%. no word whether he will get into this race. >> reporter: interesting the 19-point lead seems very, very strong. we see that 19-point edge, which is exactly the same in this same poll as it was one month ago. no matter what e-mail stories have coming on. no matter what joe biden trial balloon.

>> yeah. i think the story for hillary clinton all summer has been sanders inching into the lead. climbing up in the polls. he hasn't been able to break the 30%. he's been 24% in others. biden hasn't even been able to get a quarter yet. he was at 16%. i think he's at 20%. if you're hillary clinton, you have to feel pretty good. she has a plan. that is that firewall that goes after those two primary caucus state in iowa and new hampshire in south carolina, right? and even in nevada. she feels the obama strategy and the voters in 2008, that is her strategy now. sanders's strategy is to try to eat enter into her lead. so far we haven't been able to see him do that. >> another poll number she might not like is when it comes to being honest and trust worthy. we asked voters to rank

candidates in terms of being honest and trustworthy. look where hillary clinton is on this list. among registered voters, 35% say she is honest and trustworthy. 65% say no. that is among registered voters, not democrats. not a high number. >> not a high number. it is down there with donald trump. that is not how democrats feel about hillary clinton. she's running for the trat democ nomination. you don't go on snl and "ellen" to appeal to a younger demographic. you know those clips will be on newscasts everywhere and you want to enhance your image. you want the likability factor up that will combat that honest and trustworthiness. it is not the issue that is immediately before that. >> there is a clintonian

phenomenon. bill clinton wasn't always considered honest and trustworthy but he kept winning. >> hillary clinton is not bill clinton. politically speaking for better or worse for her. still, it has happened before. i want to talk about some of the issues. in one of them hillary clinton tried to put some space in the last few weeks with this white house. one is this big trade deal with specific nations. a trade deal she once supported. she now says she opposes. let me play sound from her past to show how supportive she has been about this. >> that means finalizing the trans pacific partnership, raise labor and environmental standards, and drive growth. >> the trans pacific partnership is exploring ways to expand opportunities is critical.

and apex and osion are two or organizations where we have worked together. >> the trans pacific partnership to find common ground with a former adversary in vietnam. and the list goes on. >> so then she was supportive of it. now she is against it. mitt romney did things like that. it was called flip-flopping. does it hurt her here? >> i think it puts her in line with democratic voters. there are 45 times she came out and said she was supportive of it. she called it the gold standard. guess what, when she came out against it, you had big labor come out and praise her for that. that's where she needs to be. as david mentioned, her immediate concern is this democratic primary in this insurgent candidate by the name of bernie sanders who has some labor support. so i think it was smart politically. ultimately in in ways clinton has a problem in terms of people thinking she has sort of a

center in a principled stand on things. so here it sort of doesn't hurt her because people think that anyway. so she has union support i think. >> in gay marriage, or the keystone pop line or what have you, she's going to the left of obama. not on gay marriage obviously. court the grassroots base. say she is going further even on gun control or what have you. that is good for politics at the present time >> you have to get through the primary before you worry about anything else. great to have you here with us. behind me in the wynn las vegas there has been a flurry of activity. the ballroom transformed into a debate arena. we have been watching all of the meticulous preparations. jim? >> reporter: here we are inside the wynn hotel two days and counting. the first democratic debate of this cycle. the stage is just about set.

five bo five podiums up there. hillary clinton. to her right, senator bernie sanders. he has been given hillary clinton a run for her money in the polls. it will be interesting to watch them go head to head. the other two will try to have a breakout moment. martin o'malley, chaffee, jim webb. they will be looking for break-out moments on tuesday night. the potential flash points between hillary clinton and bernie sanders, one of those will be on the iraq war. in the last 24 hours, sanders has been reminding supporters he voted against the iraq war and hillary clinton voted for the iraq war. the battle royale between hillary clinton and barack obama back in 2008. that cost her in 2008 with the democratic party. "the x factor" is vice president joe biden, does he join this debate tuesday night? i noticed off stage here in las vegas, here inside the wynn

hotel there is an extra podium just in case vice president biden decides to join this debate. if he does, it will make for fascinating political television. >> all right. he's welcome if he wants to get on the stage. jim acosta, thank you so much. do not miss the first democratic presidential debate right here on cnn this tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. eastern time. poppy? i cannot wait, john. thank you very much. we will return live to las vegas in just a moment. i want to let you know there is finally a verdict in a controversial trial from washington to tehran. "washington post" reporter jason rezaian accused of espionage finally learns his fate. we have that next with the late breaking details. that's where at&t can help. at at&t we monitor our network traffic

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reports tonight from iran say say verdict has been handed down in the espionage trial in the "washington post" journalist

jason rezaian. what that verdict is or possible sentence has not been publicly released. and the lack of detail has added frustration and pain to his family, the u.s. government, and to his paper, the "washington post", who all pushed for his release since his arrest in july of last year. host of cnn's reliable sources has been covering this story from the beginning. what is the "washington post" saying? what is his family saying? >> they say they are not at all surprised by this strange mysterious announcement today. they feel they have been mistreated and jason rezaian has been treated wrong all along. there has been a lot of time about rezaian being a geo-political pawn. iran is using him to gain leverage over the nuclear deal struck back in august. or other reasons. last month, christian amanpour suggested a prisoner swap was in order. they are busy in the newsroom

working on the paper for tomorrow. he said although the administration here in the u.s. has been doing a lot of work, he wants to make sure they do even more to try to free jason. here's what he said. >> i think it's important that this case remain very much in the public sphere. we think it is important that the president, the secretary of state and others repeat put in the public sphere that jason has been held uncon shunably wrong. >> others have been held. jon stewart made a movie called "rosewater." he is under the impression maybe an announcement will be tomorrow. each monday is when the hearings in the rezaian trials have been in the past. the reality is no one knows what the verdict might be. >> is and he was held and tried to espionage charges.

it took months to find out why he was being held. this just goes to the important point that journalists around the world off times face so much danger like he's in. >> by many statistics, by many counts, a worsening situation for journalists in many countries. not just iran, but other countries as well. they are being treated as combatants, as active participants as opposed to passive observers who should be able to report on what's going on. that is a crucial part of this. other journalists are being held in other countries. other americans. we have heard about them. especially in the context of the nuclear deal struck over the summer. president obama was being challenged at that press conference about what he is doing to try to secure their fate. the iranian president raised the idea of a prisoner swap. we vice president heard about that in the last couple of weeks. the bottom line, no one knows what this verdict has been in the rezaian case. it's just so disturbing to think about the family members who have been waiting 15 months for

an answer. now it feels like it is closer than ever and not there yet. >> just more confusion and pain for them. thank you so much. next, a former congressional staffer has peeled back the curtain on the house benghazi select committee and added the feeling among some democrats that this is a political witch-hunt to try to take down hillary clinton. what he is saying and what the committee is firing back with next. some cash back cards love to overcomplicate things. like limiting where you earn bonus cash back. why put up with that?

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the republican-led house committee investigating benghazi, accused of targeting hillary clinton and firing a staffer who tried to shed light on the situation. that is according to that staffer. the committee is supposed to be investigating the deadly 2012 attack on benghazi in libya. now fired staffer, major bradley podliska, went forward with claims that he said is biased and targeting clinton instead of figuring out what went wrong in benghazi. he spoke exclusively to our jake tapper. >> what do you say to any viewers out there who think you might have an axe to grind but you are only talking because you were fired? >> as i said earlier, i have a conscious. there is wrongdoing here, and i think it needs to stop.

i want the investigation to be refocused back to its regular purpose. hillary clinton has a lot of explaining to do. we, however, do not need to shift resources to hyper focus on hillary clinton and in some cases drop the investigation on different organizations and different individuals. >> chairman trey dowdy vehemently denies this and said the staffer was fired for good reason. they issued a statement saying, the record makes it clear not only did he mishandle classified information, he himself was focused on clinton improperly and was instructed to stop, and issues with his conduct were noted on the record as far back as april. this already playing into the campaign, the debate that will take place behind us at the wynn las vegas. joining me now ben pfeiffer, former top aide to president president and a friend of marco

rubio. dan pfeiffer, already we were hearing from hillary clinton. a much different tone on benghazi the last weeks. after kevin mccarthy that made that statement that made it seem the benghazi committee was political. she sort of went on the attack. i imagine this will only heighten that. >> kevin mccarthy's statement, this report, are all a gift to hillary clinton. they lay out what is obviously true. you can decide if it is a legitimate issue or not. it is clear this is a partisan investigation. kevin mccarthy said it himself. >> right. but trey gowdy says he's trying to find out the facts what happened in benghazi. ana, what does he do or what do republicans have to do to fix the perception problem they have now? >> i think it will sort itself out. it turns out they have been in mediation now for weeks. apparently this gentleman had never brought up secretary clinton as a reason for his

firing. i'm told the mediation is supposed to occur on tuesday, the same day as the debate. so, you know, we will see what the mediation lays out. look, there's two sides to every story. and in this story in particular there's no very different sides. the committee will tell you that this man had been in counseling for deficient performance, that he had mishandled classified information. so we don't know whether this guy is a nut case trying to get some money, or whether there is voracity to his claim. now if you're hillary clinton you want to present him as joan of ark. >> she is calling these allegations explosive. i think we can all agree the next biggest moment is here behind us at the wynn las vegas, the debate tuesday night. >> right. >> but another big night for hillary clinton a week after where she will testify before this benghazi select committee.

what does she have to do there? >> i think that is her last best chance to put the e-mail situation behind her. and i think she has to have a good explanation. she has to lay out what she did and why did did it. if they lay out false facts, she has to push back on that. she has been before congress before and handled it well. i think it's a very important moment. >> i think it is important not to confuse benghazi and the e-mail situation. one is being done by the fbi and federal agents, which is the e-mail. benghazi, there is a select committee. it is my hope that as a republican is and an american that this committee investigates this annan honest, transparent way focusing on what went wrong. we all know things went wrong that night at benghazi. we owe it to the people who lost their lives and those still risking their lives serving our

country to find out what happened. >> great to have you here in las vegas where it is all happening the next several days. >> what happens in vegas won't stay in vegas. >> not for a lot of these candidates. they need to do well to move on at all. that debate is tuesday night, 8:30 p.m. here on cnn. poppy? >> certainly hope everyone is talking about their night in vegas come the next morning, that is for sure. for those three that hadn't been so much in the spotlight. we will take you back to vegas in just a few moments. but coming up next, some democrats see bernie sanders as their liberal hero. but his record on gun control could be his achilles' heel in the primary. you can bet it will come up tuesday night. a major supporter of sanders since me live next. retirement, and start planning your own. more data means more freedom to do..whatever.

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gun control will come up in tuesday's democratic debate. bernie sanders could find himself playing defense to appeal to some of the democratic primary voters. sanders proudly proclaims he has a d-minus rating from the nra. he supported universal background checks, ban on assault weapons, closing the so-called gun show loophole. he voted to allow guns in national parks and on amtrak. he opposed a five-day waiting period for gun purchases. he voted back in 2005 to shield gun manufacturers for liable for shoots. he opposed the 1983 brady bill, which established mandatory background checks. his opponent, martin o'malley, is targeting him with ads like this. >> bernie sanders voted against the brady bill. >> and bernie sanders voted to give gun manufacturers protection from victim lawsuits. >> the nra even paid for ads attacking the sanders opponent.

>> bernie sanders is no progressive when it comes to guns. >> politifact found that to be mostly true. he is not exactly popular with gun control advocates with comments like this he did in july with jake tapper. >> i come from a state that has virtually no gun control. but the people in my state understand i think pretty clearly that guns in vermont are not the same thing as guns in chicago or guns in los angeles. in our state, they are used for hunting. in chicago, they are for gangs or kids shooting other kids, or shooting down innocent people. >> what will this mean what he stands on the stage with clinton, o'malley and the others. offer of the essential bernie sanders and his vision for america." thank you for being with me. >> pleasure to be here, poppy. >> we have certainly seen a shift in sanders's strategy in

recent days when it comes to gun control. he talked a lot about it in arizona. he talked about it a lot in colorado yesterday. does he see this as his achilles' heel heading into tuesday in. >> i don't think so at all. i think bernie has been clear that, number one, he's been supportive of trying to ban assault weapons. he's clearly said what he wants to do is get rid of guns that have been slaughtering children and citizens call across america. i don't think that in the context of all the issues that are out there his fight against banks, wall street, opposition to the iraq war, that this will play a role. he has a broad position on guns. he is where the majority of people stand in america. >> but the majority of people in this country at this point in time support universal background checks. he voted against the brady bill back in '93. today i want you to listen to what he said on "meet the press" when pushed on this.

>> one of the things that i think some of your democratic opponents might hit you on is the vote you did to protect manufacturers from liability. why single them out for full protection? >> that was a complicated vote, and i'm willing to see changes in that provision. here's the reason why i voted the way i wanted. if you are a gun shop owner in vermont, that person flips out and kills somebody, i don't think it's fair to hold that person responsible, the gun shop owner. on the other hand, where there is a problem, there is evidence that gun shop manufacturers do know they are selling a whole lot of guns in an area that should not be buying that many guns. many of the guns are going to other areas probably for criminal purposes. can we take another look at that liability issue? yes. >> it seems like we are seeing a

new page of bernie sanders on this issue. is this a change in his stance that we will see going forward? >> well, i think if we just replayed exactly what he said, you would have the answer, which is he opposed that particular part because he was concerned that it would affect the individual gun shop owners. he thought that was unfair to hold an individual gun shop owner liable for something that happened where someone baltimore a gun, flipped out, and then committed a mass murder or shot somebody. but he at the same time said i want to look at that and rethink this. i think that shows the openness of the man, a man who stands with his principles, but understands that sometimes things evolve. and he himself said on "meet the press", i would like to take another look at this. and he is willing to be open to that. i think it shows a lot of growth on his part. >> so you have governor o'malley coming down hard on gun legislation saying he wants to fingerprint everyone who buys a gun in this country. for example, you have secretary

clinton coming this week and saying that she would like to use, if president, executive action on guns because congress hasn't gotten anything through. would we see executive action from bernie sanders on this? >> the first thing, with secretary clinton you never know what she is going to say on any given day. there are new positions whether it be tpp. once she was for saying marriage was only between a man and woman. now it is a new position. >> right. but you said bernie sanders progressed on guns. >> martin o'malley is trying to find traction in a primary where he has no traction. both secretary clinton and martin o'malley are looking at this incredible surge on the part of bernie sanders throughout the country where he is drawing tens of thousands of people in rallies. in massachusetts, he drew more people than barack obama drew when barack obama first ran. he has gone from being

essentially 3% in the national polls to 27%. both o'malley and secretary clinton are trying to figure out a little angle to wedge in on the debate. bernie sanders clearly has great progressive positions. >> do you think we would see executive action from him on guns? >> i do not know that. i assume that when he becomes president he would certainly consider that. but, again, looks look -- your point was, let's look at what's happening in the context of the debate. why is this coming up? people from all across all walks of life in many cities are part of this political revolution that bernie is part of and has ignited. the iraq war that he opposed. hillary clinton supported that. breaking up big banks. hillary clinton does not have a position that. sanders wants to expand social security. all of those issues, the broad arena of all the issues that democratic voters are surging towards bernie sanders's campaign, both o'malley and

clinton are figuring out how to stop that. that's the issue i think this gun thing is coming up. >> he voted on the iraq war 13 years ago yesterday no. putting out his speech from the floor to remind everyone of the way that he voted. jonathan, one thing for sure, it will be an exciting night tuesday to watch. thank you, sir. >> okay, poppy. >> we hear a lot about special op soldiers and what they sacrifice, the ones carrying out the mission that are crucial. but no one can talk about. cnn has spoken to the man in charge of special ops. you don't want to miss this barbara starr report next. that were just totally pitch black. those things had to change. we wanted to restore our lighting system in the city. you can have the greatest dreams in the world, but unless you can finance those dreams, it doesn't happen. at the time that the bankruptcy filing was done,

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america's special operations forces are the best of the best, called in to hunt terrorists and rescue hostages. they off operate in the shadows, which is why it is so rare to sit down with a man in charge. cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr did that at fort bragg in north carolina. here is her interview with the head of special u.s. operations command. >> poppy, the general in charge of training u.s. special operations forces knows exactly how tough it is. special operations forces go to the most dangerous corners of the world to rescue hostages and take out terror cells.

nobody may know more than general joe votel about what it takes to face down the terrorists. >> we recognize that the american people expect us to be able to do these types of mission. >> one, two, three. >> votel, head of u.s. special operations command previously led a secretive organization. army delta force, s.e.a.l. team six, and other covert military teams that secretly gather intelligence for raids is and hostage rescues. >> we want to take those great people that we have and we want to give them the very best capabilities. they can operate at the edge. >> that edge means he focusing on giving troops the best training and the most advanced weapons, high rate of fire rifles, drones, and stealth helicopters. the general took us inside the training for his troops at fort bragg, north carolina as they learned to patch wounds under combat. he has walked the line between

success and disaster doing exactly what he asks his students to do, go where death may be one step away. >> it is about the mission that the nation asks to do. >> twice he parachuted into combat in panama and afghanistan. >> it is both scary and exhilarating. >> he commanded army rangers in iraq in 2003 to rescue captured army soldier jessica lynch. >> one of the big things we learned out of that was our level of readiness, our level of training. it really allowed us to adapt to the particular situation that we found ourselves in there. just to really step into that situation and do it. >> now the next step, sending drones overseer ya to track and kill top isis operatives. but more than drones are at work. >> a lot of our intelligence comes from talk to go people on the ground and understanding what their perspective is on things and getting their view.

>> can you take americans behind the scenes and tell them what one of these missions in reality is like. if they think it is a hollywood movie, what's the reality? >> the reality is this. is that our operations are built on a solid foundation of intelligence. there's a lot of training and rehearsing that goes into these operations. >> is there a mission in history that has stood out in your mind? >> well, i'll take you back to the whole reason the organization exists. the failure to recover our hostages in iran back in 1980. we recognize that we could not allow our country to fall into that situation again. so you brought up the bin laden raid. in many regard, that is a very difficult active example of just how far we've come. >> sometimes it still all goes wrong. >> what was the toughest day you ever had?

>> the toughest day i ever had is when we lost a helicopter. >> 37 souls lost when a helicopter was shot down in afghanistan. >> it was devastating for me. it was devastating for obviously the units that were involved. and i think it was pretty significant for the nation to lose that many will people in such a short span of time. >> votel keeping a sharp eye on all threats around the world to make sure his troops are ready. poppy? >> wow, barbara starr, excellent reporting. thank you so much for that. coming up next, to politics we go. who has the most to gain examine to lose on tuesday night in the big debate? our lightning round next. 0. and get 300 dollars credit for every line you switch to at&t. he can not see through doors. his speed, anything but superhuman. but when it comes to health care options, george found helpful information

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who will make headlines the day after the democratic debate this week? it is time for our lightning round.

a professor at moore house college and cnn contributor. ben ferguson, host of the ben ferguson show. they agree on some things but not much. 30 seconds. gentlemen, do not go long. i will cut you off. ben, first question to you. can clinton flip the script and put a stop to bernie sanders's recent momentum? >> look, i hope that she comes with everything she's got. there's nothing here for bernie sanders to lose. he has absolutely the biggest opportunity on this stage. and i think he'll come after her. the question is, is she going to make america like her again or make herself more likable? she doesn't seem trustworthy. people don't think she's trustworthy. if i'm bernie sanders, i come after her. she has a tough nut ahead of her. it will be interesting to see gets beaten up more than she already has by bernie sanders. >> mark, can she flip the script? >> she has to stay as the

front-runner and act like she's above the fray. it is bernie sanders's game to step up. he focuses on the issues, on economic justice. i think that he absolutely is not going to do anything. and i don't think it's about hillary clinton being likable or not. you don't have to like her. al gore wasn't likable. he didn't lose the democratic primary, ben. he actually won the democratic primary and ran for president against george w. bush. >> you're out of time. number two, can sanders do enough to take control? there's still a 19-point gap in the latest poll numbers, mark. >> taking control is not the issue. he right now -- ben is a dallas cowboys fan. they lose a lot. he gets this. sometimes you wait for the other team to make a mistake. he is waiting for hillary clinton to make a mistake, a big lie, a gaffe. or someone coming in to take a key amount of her base.

it is not chaffee. it is people in the cheap seats who have nothing to lose. they're going tore broke because they have 1%. >> ben, do you agree with that? >> it is you got nothing to lose. no one really expects h him to win. >> do you believe the touchdown -- >> what did you say? >> go for the touchdown, right? >> forthe hail mary, go for the touchdown. air it out the entire night. no one expects the backup to win. bernie sanders is the backup to hillary clinton and he's doing a really good job being the backup. if he walks out there and is able to throw the hail mary -- [ buzzer ] >> -- and people like it, it's going to be a fun game to watch. >> third question, is it going to get nasty? because we know bernie sanders has said he will not attack anyone. he's never run a negative campaign ad. is it going to get nasty or is he going to play nice, ben? >> have you ever seen hillary clinton be nice during a debate? no. she's going to get her feelings

hurt quickly. she's going to get agitated and angry quickly so it's going to be a throwdown fight and everyone on stage has something to gain by going after her. so i cannot imagine that this is going to be a let's shake hands and sing kumbaya and talk about how democrats are amazing. three again one are all try to topple hillary clinton. she's going to have to be blunt and big. and so i cannot imagine this isn't going to be a rough night. [ buzzer ] >> i just have this image of them holding hands and swaying back and forth on the stage and singing kumbaya. anyway, mark, your thoughts? >> i disagree with ben 100%. i think hillary clinton is not the old hillary clinton. she is a warmer fuzzier hillary clinton. she is a grandmother now. >> a grandma. >> she wants to look like the presumptive nominee. she was in a dog fight with barack obama. she's not really in that intense of a match right now with bernie sanders according to the numbers. again, bernie is mounting a great campaign. i'm taking nothing away from him. she wants to look like he's above the fray. she's not going to do that.

bernie sanders does not want to look angry. when he looked angry against the black lives matter people, it made him look less presidential. he already -- [ buzzer ] >> ben, who wins? >> who wins this? i think you're going to see bernie sanders come out doing some serious damage to hillary clinton. she can act like she's a grandmother all she wants to, but the reality is the american people are not going to see her as grandma hillary. they're going to see her as hillary clinton and they don't trust her and don't like her very much. we've seen that in the poll numbers. >> marc? >> if bernie can stay on message, not get angry and start sounding like george kastanza's father, he'll be okay. if he looks like he did with the black lives matter protests, he'll have a problem. >> i'll be back in a minute. >> thanks, foppy. ♪ the way i see it, you have two choices; the easy way or the hard way.

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brighter. bigger. it's gotten thinner. even curvier. but what's next? for all binge watchers. movie geeks. sports freaks. x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. will he or won't he run? i'm talking about joe biden, of course. this week sat down with with his friend billionaire to talk 2016. joe biden is a friend of yours. vice president and you're a friend of his. can he win if he jumps in this

race? >> i think you have to ask vice president biden that, but i'm certainly hoping he runs. >> outside of him being your friend, what is it about him that makes you hope that he gets in? >> i think he's a candidate that actually can cross the aisle. i think actually some of my republican friends said they might even consider voting for him. >> really? >> yeah. i think he will appeal to a lot of independents and i think that's an important part of the calculous, but the decision is his. >> looking at this administration, the obama administration, how would you rate how the economy has performed and how they've done with the u.s. economy? >> well, if i was running a campaign in 2016, what i would say -- >> do you want that job? >> -- is -- no chance. if i was running, i would say, okay, let's look where we are. we're going to be pretty much at full employment in 2016. interest rates will be pretty much at multigeneration if not all-time lows. mortgage rates, all-time lows.

gasoline prices are near their lows. corporate profits and stock prices are at or near all-time highs. we are -- we have universal health care. fewer american soldiers are being killed in harm's way than in past administrations. yeah, there's a lot of problems, but this administration has not done a bad job, and i think, you know, it could always be better. we know that. but if we look at where we were when barack obama took office in '09, the world was coming to an end. and the banking system has been healed. i tell my friends in corporate america, what do you have to complain about? i mean, your stock prices are all-time high, corporate profits are all-time highs. tax rates are still at lows. i mean, this has not been a bad eight years in terms of improvement. >> you have isis. a huge outlier. you also have the growing income

gap. you have millions of americans long-term unemployed. >> absolutely. >> you have this widening income gap that makes rising up that escalator so much harder. >> right. >> that's a big problem, is it not? >> there's no doubt about it. there's problems, but we also have 10% deficits. we're almost at zero now. i mean, you know, if you look at the laundry list of issues we have, back in '09, a lot of them have gotten a lot better. income inequality i think is a huge issue going forward. the rise of organizations like isis is a huge global problem. you know, i think we have real issues we need to sit down and talk about in terms of gun control. but having said all that, the strides we made in the last eight years are pretty amazing. >> donald trump really singled you guys out, hedge fund managers out and broadened it out in his tax plan to private equity, et cetera. he said hedge fund managers like you are, quote, getting away with murder. >> his industry is actually affected much more than ours,

that's the fact of the matter because, again, when i trade stocks, it's short-term capital gains. if it's less than a year, most hedge funds trade holding periods less than a year. when the limited partners transfer their fee to me if i'm profitable, it's a short-term gain transfer to a short-term gain and there's no break. >> he also told me that carried interest loopholes should be closed and he should be pay more than 20% in faxtaxes on the mon made that way. that does it for me. thanks for joining me tonight. up next, back-to-back episodes of "anthony bourdain parts unknown." i'm poppy harlow in new york. have a great week. good evening, my fellow citizens. this government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the soviet military buildup on the island of cuba.