who would you bet on? watch the first democratic presidential debate tomorrow night at 8:30 eastern right here on cnn. thank you so much for watching. "wolf" starts right now. have a great day. this is a people's campaign and you, brothers and sisters, are part of a political revolution. >> this say big deal, people. a really big deal about this election. we have to win. we don't have any alternative. >> i don't think there's any politician at a national level that has not thought about being the president. >> of course the "x" factor coming up on tuesday night is going to be vice president joe biden. does vice president biden somehow join this debate at the last minute? >> level of intensity on that stage always is, i don't know if it comes through necessarily all the time through the television when you're watching at home but there's really nothing like it.

i'm wolf blitzer. it's 10:00 a.m. here in las vegas. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington, 6:00 p.m. in london. 8:30 p.m. in tehran, wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. up first is the democratic nomination in the cards for hillary clinton? will any of her rivals hit the jackpot? here in las vegas, we're just a day away from the first democratic debate of this, the 2016 presidential primary. our new polls out today show hillary clinton firmly in first place. here in nevada, the new cnn/orc poll shows clinton at 50% among likely caucusgoers ahead of her closest rival, bernie sanders, at 34%. clinton leads in another early voting state, south carolina. she holds an even larger edge against bernie sanders there, 49% to 24%. hillary clinton will be front and center on the debate stage tomorrow night here in las vegas. our senior white house

correspondent jim acosta is inside the debate hall here at the wynn hotel. walk us through the debate setup. >> reporter: you got it, wolf. and to continue the gambling parlance you would say, hillary clinton is holding the best cards right now if you're looking at the poll numbers. that explains why. i'll show you what the debate stage looks like right now. she has the center position. as you can see, those aren't the candidates up on the stage. those are some fill-ins standing at those podiums as our cnn crews go through the motions of getting this debate stage ready for tuesday night. you can see it from my right to left, lincoln chafee on the end, martin o'malley, the former governor of maryland, hthen hillary clinton is in the center position, the front-runner, then to her right, bernie sanders, the self-described socialist. he's been capturing the imagination of the democratic party. he's doing very well and former virginia senator, jim webb will be on the other end.

but, wolf, i'm here for the last 24 hours off and on. this room is really starting to fill in. all of the chairs are in place. the crews in their camera positions, the jib cameras, the sound technicians, the lighting technicians have been har at work over the last 24 to 48 hours getting the debate ready for tuesday night. in terms of the candidates and what we'll be seeing, i think tomorrow night, wolf, it will be interesting to watch. this is hillary clinton's first debate since the 2008 campaign when she was tangling with barack obama. already there are echos of that debate starting to play out. over the last 24 hours bernie sanders has been talking about to his supporters, hillary clinton was in favor of the iraq war in 2002. senator sanders reminding supporters he was against the iraq war. sounds like how barack obama campaigned for the vote in 2008. on the issue of trade, hillary clinton when she was secretary of state supported the transpacific trade deal, the deal that the president is trying to get through congress right now. now she's against it. bernie sanders will obviously

call attention to that. on gun control, even though bernie sanders is seen as a big-time progressive, he's more moderate on gun control than some of the candidates on stage. perhaps a martin o'malley looking for a breakthrough moment might go after bernie sanders on the issue of gun control. martin o'malley much more in favor of gun control than bernie sanders. wolf, a lot of potential battle lines, flash points we might see coming up on tuesday night. it's going to be fascinating political television to watch. vice president joe biden we should mention, he's not definitively said one way or another whether he will be here tuesday night. that's one more shoe to drop as well. we haven't got that detail in terms of tuesday night completely nailed down yet. but for now, we have five podiums on stage and it should be fascinating political television to watch. wolf? >> all right. jim acosta, thanks very much. for more on the debate strategy, what to expect when the five candidates square off tomorrow night, let's bring in michael smerconish, also our chief

political analyst, gloria borger. hillary clinton is doing great against bernie sanders in nevada, south carolina. >> right. >> it's much closer in new hampshire and iowa, the first two contests. >> yes. she knows she's got troubles. she's behind in new hampshire, very close in iowa. i think the clinton campaign, our polls today are good news for them. what they're trying to do is establish a fire wall just in case they lose iowa and new hampshire. that wouldn't be good news. doing well in a state like nevada, lots of hispanics, she's been talking about immigration, doing well in the south. she's very popular with african-american voters. bernie sanders is less of a well known quantity. he's got a lot of work to do on his national i.d. and to present himself as somebody who is electable. that's what he'll try and do here tomorrow night. >> speaking about african-american voters, michael, 59% of black voters in our new poll back clinton compared to 27% for vice

president biden. 4% for bernie sanders. this is in south carolina. where there are a lot of democrats who are african-american. he's not doing well among african-americans there. >> i don't think it's necessarily that he's unpopular with african-americans, i think bernie sanders lacks a very important credential that is possessed by both secretary clinton and vice president biden. and that is service to and a tie toward barack obama. she served as his secretary of state. joe biden has been his very loyal vice president for nearly eight years. what does bernie sanders have to show for that in terms of his appeal to the african-american community? i think that's very, very important for both of them. >> david axelrod, one of our cnn political commentators writes this in an open said, what the candidates need to do tomorrow night. there has been a strange disconnect between clinton and democratic voters this year and a sense of resignation rather than excitement about her candidacy. how does she get people excited? >> it's very difficult for her,

because she's been in public life for decades. it's not as if she's this new candidate, just coming on the scene. she excites people like barack obama did in 2008. she's got to get people excited in a different way about her competency and also she has to show a little bit of her humanity, her staff likes to say she's the most famous person you don't know. and people have seen her for decades but they have a sense they don't really know who she is. i think she needs to show a little bit of that tomorrow. >> axelrod says of bernie sanders, he says the debate is an opportunity for sanders to present a more empathetic, less grumpy old man and more caring advocate. >> what's wrong with grumpy old man? i like grumpy old -- sorry. >> i think their coverage documented how less than 400 american families have contributed more than 50% of all of the donations for the 2016 presidential race so far. i wouldn't be surprised if he goes to that tomorrow. >> hold on for a moment. because certainly tomorrow night

hillary clinton is about to face serious questions about benghazi, the latest accusations about the select committee, the house select committee investigation, the clinton campaign saying i told you so. a fired staffer says the committee is pursuing a partisan investigation targeting clinton. here's what he told our jake tapper. >> what do you say to any viewers out there who think that you might have an ax to grind that you're only talking because you were fired? >> as i said earlier, i have a conscience. there's wrongdoing here. i think it needs to stop. i do not want the investigation to end. i want the investigation to be refocused back to its original purpose. the victims' families are owed the truth. hillary clinton has a lot of explaining to do. we, however, do not need to shift resources to hyperfocus on hillary clinton. we didn't need to de-emphasize and in some cases drop the investigation on different organizations, agencies and individuals. >> a spokesperson for the committee denied the allegation

saying, quote, we are confident that the facts and evidence give no support to the wild imagination, fueling these and future allegations and the committee will vigorously defend itself against such allegations. the committee will not be blackmailed into a monetary settlement for a false allegation made by a properly terminated former employee. this employee podliska, does plan to sue over his term nalgs and in another development, president obama weighs in on politics and hillary clinton's use of that private e-mail serv server. here's what he said on cbs's "60 minutes." >> she made a mistake. she's acknowledged it. i do think that the way it's been ginned up, is, in part, because of politics and i think she'd be the first to acknowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly. >> what was your reaction when you found out about it? >> this is one of those issues that i think is legitimate, but

the fact that for the last three months this is all that's been spoken about is an indication that we're in presidential political season. >> michael, as you know, the clinton campaign called these latest allegations by this fired staffer explosive. the issue is going to clearly come up tomorrow night. how does he handle it? >> it comes up tomorrow night because i'm sure one of the questions from cnn will bring it up. but who goes there? does martin o'malley go there? bernie sanders doesn't go there. i personally tried to ask him about this subject. does jim webb go there? if you do go there, you're alienating the risk the very democrats you need to win primaries and caucuses. this is percei-- >> he said yes, it was a mistake. hillary clinton herself has said. i think the more that this committee looks like it's imploding, you know, that it

becomes crass and partisan, it's all good news for hillary clinton. she's already done an ad on it. this helps her as she heads before that committee on october 22nd. it makes her look like she can go before the committee and say, let's find out what happened in benghazi. this isn't the about me. this is about the people who died. so gives her an opportunity either tomorrow night or next week. >> that was quite a gift that kevin mccarthy, majority leader in the house gave hillary clinton in advance of this debate. >> former speaker mccarthy. absolutely. >> not exactly. thanks very much. remember, it's your first chance to see the democratic presidential candidates together all on one stage. don't miss the cnn/facebook democratic debate, tomorrow night, 8:30 p.m. eastern. much more coverage coming up here on tomorrow's debate. up next, i'll ask the mayor of las vegas who's an independent, what it's like hosting the democratic debate in her hometown. and later this hour, finally, a verdict for jason

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welcome to las vegas, everyone. and the wynn hotel, one of the great hotels here on the las vegas strip. this is going to be home to the cnn/facebook democratic debate. you know what's different and interesting about this debate? you get to it be a part of it. you get to submit your questions to the candidates and guess what, they will answer them on television. not all of them, some of them. so it's going to happen here. i'm going to show you around. let's see right now what may be on some voters' minds. what question would you ask the democratic candidate. >> how would they improve the economy? >> that's the most important issue to you. >> i think so. >> if you had a chance to ask

any of the democratic candidates a question, what would you ask. >> hillary clinton. why would she allow her e-mails go to a private server? >> this is like the oscars. this is what's called the spin booth. after the debate, they'll come in here, the spin room and they'll try to spin what's happening. up there on the stage you'll see wolf and all of our political experts and our correspondents and anchors. they'll be talking about what happened at the debate. this is a loumnge, the facebook lounge. we'll be in here before and after the debate. we'll have a bunch of monitors and computers where we can see the conversations you're talking about, what interests you, what you think is important. that will happen before and after the debate. >> thank you very much, don lemon we're back outside here at the beautiful wynn hotel on las

vegas boulevard, nevada. certainly has become an important swing state in the race for president of the united states. back in 2012, president obama beat mitt romney 52% to 42%. the state voted for the winner in almost every presidential election going back to 1912. i want to bring in the mayor of las vegas, carolyn goodman. you're an independent. >> no, i'm a nonpartisan. i'm not part of a party. >> you're not a democrat, you're not a republican. >> nor an independent. >> so you're a nonpartisan like your husband, oscar goodman. >> we want to reach across the aisle and be able to talk with both democrats and republicans and pull things together for the people. >> for the people of las vegas, who's the best right now of these democratic candidates who are going to be here at the debate tomorrow night? >> i think it's premature. obviously hillary has a huge advantage here but i think we're waiting to see. i think the democrats that i've been speaking to want to hear

what's going to happen with the vice president, if he's going to file. they want to hear this whole process work its way through. >> do you want the vice president to run? >> he's a very nice man. i've ridden with him. the president has been out here probably seven or eight times since i first took office. and you know, he's obviously been in office, the vice president, it's very important i think to foreign affairs. there are so many issues with which we're dealing nationally. obviously we have terrible -- huge concerns about our veteran population and the backlog there, about the infrastructure in this country. i think there are so many issues. we want to hear positives. the one thing i hear from the population in las vegas, stop bashing everybody. let's just get out there. how are you going to reach across the aisle and get that pull together. >> just the democrats you like so far? >> i'm not really convinced that i have a passion there. because i just spent some time

on the phone with one of the candidates and actually had former governor o'malley and met with him. i think what we really need to do is get the ideas where there can be action and most importantly, to see who they're going to pull into their cabinet, because you need brains. you need people who really have the experience and know what they're doing and know how to interface and so much of this in the economy. we have water issues here. certainly in south carolina, they have water issues. so what's going to be planned for the public dollar? what are we going to do about taxes? i mean, there are just so many issues that affects all of us with boots on the ground. >> immigration is a big issue here in las vegas, too. >> yes. we want to see a positive pathway to citizenship. we're all immigrants for heavens sake. your family, i don't know where you originated from. >> except for the native

americans, ware all children of immigrants. >> absolutely. right. we're all poaching in this land. so for my great grandparents to be able to come into this country, everybody who wants to have a better life should have the opportunity but there should be a presented a pathway to citizenship. that's what we're about and really hold the employer accountable. we want to hear the positives from these candidates and stop bashing everybody else and complaining about everybody else. get this country back on its feet. we have so many issues here. we have 42 million tourists every single year who are coming here now. and we have concerns about safety. >> you must know donald trump. >> absolutely. >> he has a huge hotel. >> i have to tell you, oscar and donald trump, the three of us met in his office, in donald's office on central park south, wherever the building is, it was just -- oh, my gosh. it was a ping-pong. donald trump ego, oscar goodman ego.

back to donald trump. i'm sit tlk goiting there going gosh, i'm getting a headache. but it was such fun. whether or not he can put into action. i know he talks about his wealth and employment and everything else. i'm really, i think the people of nevada and southern nevada certainly want to see what exactly are you going to do. how are you going to move? how are you going to handle the infrastructure which is rated at a "d" minus in this country. they're bringing radioactive material to yucca mountain just outside of las vegas. that radioactive material is traveling across this country with infrastructure that hasn't been fixed in decades. what are they going to do about that? what are they going to do about the gun violence. i would assume most of the people have mental issues.

when i was a little girl, there were sanitariums where people could hopefully go and get treatment. now there's medication. >> you'll be sitting in the audience tomorrow night. you'll be here, right? >> i will be here. >> oscar will be here. >> oscar will be here, too, after his martinis. after 5:00 he likes his bombay save fire. >> oscar goodman, the current mayor, carolyn goodman, we'll see you tomorrow night. >> i look at you an i see oscar. i mean, you're twins of sorts. >> thank you. >> thank you. much more ahead on the stakes for tomorrow's debate. lots of news coming up, including a panel of campaign veterans. they're standing by to join us. we'll talk about what bernie sanders needs to do to set himself apart from hillary clinton. stay with us. we're in las vegas. if you're on medicare,

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it takes a long time to prepare because you've got to go through all the candidates, know where they stand on the various issues. it takes an enormous amount of research. >> what does it take to prepare? a lot of home work. >> by the time you get to debates, it means that the campaign has been up and running for a while. there are a lot of issues and statements and the records to go through. >> there's a whole team at cnn working on this. >> we have an unbelievable research team here at cnn. i'll give them a plug. >> i try to know as much as i can and be armed with as many facts and as much information as possible. >> you're ready with smart questions, ready to fact check on your feet if necessary. also, don't overdo it. >> you want to be into a debate as the moderator knowing where all of these candidates stand on the most important issues. >> speaking of social security,

you've said in the past it's a ponzi scheme. >> i like to take a look at some of the best moments in previous debates, learn from my colleagues, see how they handled it. i think that's a useful experience. >> a lot of that stuff gets changed at the last second or even during the debate, the ebb and flow of it you can never really quite predict. that's what makes it exciting. >> your goal is to help make the voter out there a little bit smarter on where these candidates stand. >> your preparations should include almost memorization. prepare but don't become hostage to your preparations. it will be a full house here in las vegas for tomorrow night's democratic presidential debate. anderson cooper will be dealing the questions on the stage to the five candidates from left to right. the former virginia senator jim webb, the vermont senator, bernie sanders, the early front-runner, hillary clinton, the former maryland governor,

martin o'malley and the former rhode island governor and senator, lincoln chafee. each will have a specific challenge ahead in the debate. let's talk about the strategies now with our panel. our cnn political commentators, kevin madden, dan jones, anna navarro and dan pfeiffer. what's the biggest challenge hillary clinton faces tomorrow night? >> i think her ultimate goal in this debate is not to lay out what she would do as president, why she's the right person. connect her very extensive policy experience and agenda with the larger mission of the campaign. if she can do that, this will be a successful debate. >> everyone watching basically knows hillary clinton but everyone does not essentially know bernie sanders. >> i think he's introducing himself to the nation. hillary clinton has to talk policy and get the policy right. she's known as a policy person. but she also has a likability issue. the biggest problem she's got right know is trustworthiness.

she needs to be able to connect with the audience, not only in the room but also through the tv set, which is a totally different challenge. bernie sanders needs to prove that he is more than just 74-year-old socialist from vermont. >> should he attack her tomorrow night? should he be sort of quiet about the differences they have? what should be his strategy? >> first of all, he's got to make a big switch. he's been doing 90-minute sweechs sweech s -- speeches in front of 20,000 fans. how do you go from 90-minute speeches to 20-second answers? he has to realize i have people out there against me. i have to learn how to debate. then he has to make a decision. can he draw a contrast without looking like the dedz ignisigna hillary hater. >> he's a debater, trust me. i've known bernie sanders. he's not a shy guy. he can debate.

i sense if the going gets tough, he'll get tough. >> i think it's -- it will be less about him being tough and going after hillary. i don't think that's probably what's going to score him many points in a democratic debate. i think he has to stay this stump speech, this populous stump speech and introduce it to, as anna said, to a whole new bunch of voters that don't live in iowa or new hampshire. this is a real chance for him to shine on that stage and offer what -- i think, this implied contrast that what you have is unauthentic, you reliable in hillary clinton. and i am the answer to your dreeps and aspirations that you have for the party. on some of the big issues like taking on wall street, like changing the national security posture of the democratic party. things like that. >> i think that unlike in the republican party where we've had outsiders who have never debated on a stage like this before, all of these folks are seasoned

veterans, seasoned politicians. some of them are former senators. god knows all they do is debate. i think we're going to see seasoned debaters there. >> she was secretary of state for four years, hillary clinton. you think that when it comes to national security, foreign policy, international affairs she might have an advantage but bernie sanders, like barack obama, eight years ago, is going after her pretty bluntly pointing out she voted to go to war against iraq. he opposed that decision. which he now says was a mistake on her part. >> i think hillary clinton is beyond just being secretary of state, she's a phenomenal debater. she was excellent in the two dozen debates we did in 2007, 2008. >> when you were working for the president. >> when we were working for president obama. what i think the challenge for her is going to be is to be able to not just give policy answers but latch those policies to a larger rationale of her candidacy. foreign policy will be a challenging one. where she's broke within the president on more intervention

in syria is an unpopular and probably in the country. the only place it would work -- >> hillary clinton needs one or two moments where she's just human. if she just -- we know she's going to just kill everybody on the policy points. she's taken a more hawkish position. she can defend herself on that. you have to find a moment where you just tell a story. the rationale point you're making is correct but it's got to be put in a human context. listen, my mom went through hell to raise me. i get it. >> it has to not look scripted. >> they're going to go after her for supposedly flip-flopping in recent weeks and months on sensitive issues. >> that's the core vulnerability she has. it goes to the point, which is on points she wins in these debates but doesn't have big moments of strength. when she's calculating as a politician, she takes the right positions that are right with

her base. but does she show a moment of heart, a moment of strength? that's going to be what's really tough for her. >> we'll see if she does. she's been practicing, rehearsing. let's see what happens tomorrow night. don't go too far away, guys. a lot more coming up two candidates get most of the headlines. guess what, there are five people who will be on that stage tomorrow night. they're dreaming of winning the white house. can the three lesser known candidates break through the noise, become the threat to the top two? much more right after this. you fifteen percent or more on huh, fiftcar insurance.uld save yeah, everybody knows that. well, did you know that playing cards with kenny rogers gets old pretty fast? ♪ you got to know when to hold'em. ♪ ♪ know when to fold 'em. ♪ know when to walk away. ♪ know when to run. ♪ you never count your money, ♪ when you're sitting at the ta...♪ what? you get it?

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they have a term here in las vegas at the poker tables, it is called dead money. it refers to players who have little or no chance at winning. that may be how some view the candidates in tomorrow's democratic debate, not named clinton or sanders. we're talking about martin o'malley, the former mayor of baltimore, former governor of merrill. also jim webb, a former virginia senator in the 1980s. he served as assistant secretary of defense. he later served as u.s. secretary of the navy. then there's rhode island's lincoln chafee. he serve as a republican senator, an independent governor and now he's a democrat. let's bring back our panel, kevin madden, van jones, anna navarro an dan pfeiffer. what do they have to do, how hard do they go at attacking bernie sanders or hillary clinton? >> the first thing they have to do is show up. that will to be their advantage. so many millions of democratic

voters who have only heard about them now get to hear them in their living rooms for the first time. they need to connect with them on a couple core issues, incoming inequality, economic tune. for bernie sanders, we saw earlier numbers today. he's doing very poorly with african-american voters. hillary clinton is dominating amongst that key voting bloc inside democratic primaries. he needs to make inroads with them. this is an enormous opportunity. half the job is showing up and tomorrow night they'll have a great opportunity because of that. >> are you surprised how well bernie sanders is doing compared to the other three former governor of maryland, former senator from virginia? governor from rhode island, they're registering one or two or 3% if that. >> sometimes they're getting beat by the margin of error. the marger erin of error is tw they're getting beat by that. something is happening in this country. bernie sanders has tapped into it. there's a real populous. if elizabeth warren had come

into this field, she would probably be 50%. there is something happening. i think that we may be underestimating how much of an appeal he can make. if you put this guy, unlike hillary clinton who you might love, the more you see of bernie sanders, the higher his numbers go. he could break out tomorrow night. he really could. >> you agree bernie sanders could break out tomorrow night? >> i think bernie sanders has a great opportunity here. the other three, they have to prove they're not just here to try to sell a book or get a position in "dancing with the stars." if they are, i mao en, i don't know what to advise them, come out in an elvis suit, do an impersonation, blue suede shoes. if it wasn't because there's such a few number of candidates these guys who are at polling at 1% or asterisk wouldn't be on that stage. >> they are very smart guys. >> i think we should separate

martin o'malley from the other two. martin o'malley is, on paper, a legitimate contender for the democratic nomination. he looks the part. he is very good. he has a great progressive record as governor of maryland. he's the first person i've seen, the more they campaigned for president, their name recognition has gone down. >> why is that? >> donald trump sucked up a huge portion of the oxygen here in political coverage generally. bernie sanders has done an amazing job consolidating the anti-clinton vote. but all the polls that include the vice president show there is some number of democrats who could move away from hillary and are not for bernie sanders. if martin o'malley has a good night and the vice president does not run, he could have a shot at that. that's not enough to bin but it's a start. >> the one person who has a great opportunity here is martin o'malley. if you're looking for something new, as far as the candidates used to say, viga in tomorrow's debate, he can offer that. >> watch for fireworks between him and hillary.

he was what she was on immigration before that. he is where she is now on gay marriage before she was. he can say i was before you evolved. >> the toughest thing about these debates is managing expectations. when you're at 1% and you're martin o'malley, that's very easy. he has nowhere to go but up. so i think this opportunity to be in the homes of millions of people, to talk directly to them about the issues they care about, he cares about, this is a moment for him. >> go ahead. >> nobody has been able to figure out the black and latino vote. hillary clinton gets it by default. the clintons get that by default. he has problems on that stuff because he was such a tough law and order guy. if he can figure out how to connect with younger voters who right now don't feel anybody speaking to their issues from a racial justice perspective. >> that's a good analogy. >> you will be with us throughout all of our coverage. thanks very much. it's your first chance to see the democratic presidential

candidates together on one stage. don't miss the cnn/fshz democratic presidential debate tomorrow night, 8:30 p.m. eastern. an enigma in iran. will jason rezaian be sentenced to spend even more time in one of iran's most notorious prisons? i'll ask his brother. we'll get his reaction to this verdict in iran. stay with us. that's next.

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i'm here in las vegas. we're getting ready for the cnn democratic presidential debate tomorrow night. much more coverage of that coming up throughout the day on cnn. there's another important story we're following, several stories. we've learned that u.s. military cargo planes delivered 50 tons of ammunition to syrian rebel groups overnight. a u.s. official confirms to cnn

the cargo planes were accompanied by u.s. fighter jets as they made the drops into northern syria. small arms, am anythings and other items such as hand grenades were among the items delivered. meanwhi meanwhile, the russian military says it con ducked another 55 air strikes inside syria. president obama criticized russian leader vladimir putin's strategy in syria. >> mr. putin now is devoting his own troop, his own military just to barely hold together by a thread his sole ally. >> he's challenging your leadership, mr. president. he's challenging your leadership. >> i got to tell you, if you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we have a different definition of leadership.

>> russia claims the overnight attacks were on isis targets. thousands gathered today for the funerals of some of the turkish bomb victims. at least 97 people were killed in two blasts in turkey's capital on saturday. there's no claim of responsibility for these terror attacks which happened at a peace rally. the turkish prime minister says investigators are now focusing on isis as the most likely suspect. a verdict has been issued in the trial of "the washington post" journalist. that according to iranian state media. the report didn't give details on the verdict or the sentence, but it did say there was a possibility of appeal. he's a duel u.s. and iranian citizen held in iran for 448 days. his brother is now joining us from washington. thank you for joining us. how much, first of all, are you learning about this conviction

itself and the sentencing by iran's revolutionary court? >> you know, we don't have much more information. we asked jason's lawyer to talk to the judge and they rejected giving her any information about the verdict. so right now we're still waiting. they made some claims that they needed to have a translator present to pass on the judgment, but we're still waiting and it's similar to what we have been doing the last six months. >> have you been talking with state department officials? if you have, what are they telling you? >> we spoke to them on and off throughout the entire process. what they have always said is they always brought it up during the negotiations and what we also know is this is a topic they talk about after the nuclear deal was over. it's hopeful they continue to talk about it at a diplomatic level, but there hasn't been

much to see for it sbp. >> there's been media speculation, some iranian officials have even spoken of this so-called strategy that it releasing these americans as part of some prisoner swap. there are iranians being held in american prisons. what do you know about that? >> you'd have to talk to the government about that. jason is innocent. the idea he should be held in prison because of something somebody else did here in the united states when he was over in iran just doing his job as a journalist is offensive to me and should be offense to everybody. i can't believe the iranian government would suggest that. he shouldn't be held because of somebody else and what they did. >> do you and your family ever have a chance to speak with jason? >> i haven't been able to speak with jason, but my mom, who is in iran right now, and his wife are able to see him once a week and speak to him on the phone

for about five minutes once or twice a week. but those are really the only two people able to see him other than the guards. >> has he been made aware of his conviction? >> he heard about it on iranian tv. >> so that's how he was told about it. how is he doing, his spirits and health, if you will? >> he's really depressed. these things keep coming up. there are all these milestones whether it's the u.n. general assembly or nuclear deal. . all these things come and he gets his hopes up that something is going to happen and nothing happens. now he's finding out tallahassee conviction on tv. he still doesn't know what it is. it's cruel and just inhumane the way they are treating him mentally. it's just taking a huge toll on him. he's very depressed and i'm really worried. for him. >> we all are. is there anything viewers here in the united states or around the world right now can do to help? >> right now, it would be great

if people go to chan change.org/freejason. they can sign the petition there. half a million people have signed it. we have been speaking with countries who want to help and reach out and the more people around the world and the u.s. that sign that, the more serious the politicians get about it. >> it's been long enough. let's hope he's released. good luck to you and your family. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. there are other americans who are being detained in iran right now or who have gone missing. a christian pastor has been detained since 2012. . and robert levinson, a form rer fbi agent and contractor for the c can ia, he was reported missing after a visit to iran back in march of 2007. that's it for me. thank you for watching.

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we're live, great to be with you on this it monday. i'm brooke baldwin live in las vegas on a beautiful monday morning here. you're watching cnn's special coverage ahead of the big and. first democratic presidential debate. it's just one day away. and as you know, it's vegas, baby. this is a city known for