[Cooper:] On the eve of the first Democratic presidential debate here in Las Vegas tomorrow night starting at 8:30, according to reports, Hillary Clinton is facing the imminent release of another batch of e- mails from her private account when she was secretary of state. Now, as you know, her use of that e-mail account has become a focus of attacks by her critics and Republican opponents on the campaign trail. In an interview that aired last night on "60 Minutes" President Obama addressed the attention the e-mail controversy has been getting.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States Of America:] 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.
[Stephen Croft, Cbs Anchor:] Do you agree with what President Clinton has said and Secretary Clinton has said that this is not that big a deal? Do you agree with that?
[Obama:] Well, I'm not going to comment on...
[Croft:] You think that's not that big a deal?
[Obama:] What I think is that it is important for her to answer these questions to the satisfaction of the American public and they can make their own judgment. I can tell you that this is not a situation in which America's national security was endangered.
[Cooper:] President Obama's comments come on the heels of Kevin McCarthy's remarks about Clinton's poll numbers falling as a result of the House select committee's Benghazi investigation. He later admitted his remarks were a factor in bowing out of the race for House speaker. He also said he didn't mean to suggest that the committee was targeting Clinton for partisan reasons. Yesterday, though, a former investigator for the committee dropped a bombshell on CNN "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper, accusing the Republican-led panel of doing just that, turning a fact-finding mission into investigation focused solely on Clinton and the State Department. It's an accusation that committee chairman Trey Gowdy vehemently denies. Here is what Bradley Podliska told Jake Tapper.
[Bradley Podliska:] I have a conscience. There is wrongdoing here, and I think it needs to stop. And I do not want the investigation to end. I want the investigation to be refocused back to its original purpose. The victim's families are owed the truth and as it stands now, they aren't going to get the truth. Hillary Clinton has a lot of explaining to do. We, however, do not need to shift resources to hyper focus on Hillary Clinton. We didn't need to de-emphasize and in some cases drop the investigation on different agencies, different organizations and different individuals.
[Cooper:] Mr. Podliska was fired in June. He says he lost his job in part because he refused to focus his investigative efforts on Clinton and the State Department. Mr. Gowdy says that he never voiced his concerns or objections. Next week for the first time, Hillary Clinton will testify before the committee. There's a lot to talk about their panel. CNN political commentators Kevin Madden joins me and Paul Begala is back with us. Paul is co-chair of a pro-Hillary Clinton super-PAC and advisor to President Clinton in the '90s. We heard President Obama there saying this is something that needs to be addressed, but that national security wasn't violated. How can he say there's not a national security problem if his own Justice Department is still doing investigations?
[Paul Begala, Cnn Commentator:] Well, he certainly has more and better facts than I do, and Hillary needs to send him a bouquet of roses. That was as calm a defense. You know, a lot of Democrats panic, and my people are kind of weak that way, and here is the president of the United States, most beloved Democrat in America, saying everybody calm down, national security was not compromised.
[Cooper:] I don't get how he can say that for sure if there is a department
[Begala:] He's got pretty high security clearance. My guess is he knows.
[Cooper:] But there is an ongoing Department of Justice investigation, and he's what, getting e-mails about it?
[Begala:] I have no idea is the honest answer. But he's the best and most credible person that Hillary could ever hope for to defend her on this, and I thought he did a magnificent job.
[Kevin Madden, Gop Strategist:] But he did say Hillary Clinton has to answer these questions to the satisfaction of the American public, and I think up to this point, she has not. He's not the arbiter here. The ultimate arbiter I think will be the public when they render electoral judgment on Hillary Clinton, but also the investigators. You're right, Anderson. There are investigations going on right now. They will decide whether or not in a non-partisan way whether or not there were violations or there was some wrongdoing here, and that's ultimately where the test will be.
[Cooper:] Do you think at this point, though, the fact that you had this guy coming out saying this, you have the comments that McCarthy made, that now Secretary Clinton is on much safer footing?
[Begala:] Absolutely. It's gone from being a shield to being a sword. This never happens in life. You remember in "Annie Hall," they are waiting in line at the movies and the guy is bloviating about Marshall McLuhan, and
[Cooper:] I happen to have Marshall McLuhan right here.
[Begala:] He says you know nothing of my work. People like me sitting there watching this, saying this is obviously a partisan deal. I've been through a lot and I know and can tell. But now an investigator, a Republican major in the Air Force has stepped forward and said, I was one of the investigators and I'm telling you it was a partisan investigation. That never happens in real life, and it did, and I think this makes this a win for Hillary, not a loss.
[Cooper:] You say she still needs to answer questions. Hasn't she been asked just about every question there is on this subject?
[Madden:] She has, and one of the big problems she's had and the reason that this problem has festered is that every time she gives an answer, subsequently the facts don't add up, and that's why she's continued to have these trustworthiness problems from her campaign. I think these are serious charges that the investigator has made, and there are legitimate questions that have to be asked. I think Trey Gowdy has to continue to make the focus on the fact that, you know, I thin the charge that this has been hyper focused on Hillary Clinton, the State Department [inaudible]. Hillary Clinton as secretary of state has been a big focus of this for a reason, because she was involved with the decision-making that took place with regards to what happened in Benghazi. So I think that the public is not going to reject this the way that Paul has said, that they will want to continue to see these answers.
[Cooper:] You know, much was made, I think it was a Quinnipiac poll, in which 69 percent in a general election said that Hillary Clinton, that she's untrustworthy. When you actually break down the numbers, among Democrats, it's overwhelmingly positive, that I think was like 70 percent or something, I might be wrong a few percentage points, believe she's trustworthy, but among independents, she does seem to have a big issue here. Clearly among Republicans she has an issue but even among independents.
[Begala:] There's clearly work to do. The debate is one opportunity to do that. Again, if I were advising her, I'd say pick up this sword now, and show that this the reason they keep hearing these bad things about you is a partisan investigation is leaking
[Cooper:] But hasn't she done that time and time again? Blame-
[Begala:] Because it's true. I lived through that. Do you think Ken Starr was on the level? Hell no! It was a completely partisan deal. So is this. We have an investigator himself saying it. A Republican investigator on a Republican committee says it's a Republican hatchet job. What the hell? Maybe I believe him.
[Madden:] This is why it will continue to be a problem for Democrats. Democrats keep saying that Hillary Clinton needs a better strategy with answering this, and once she gets a better strategy, she will be fine. The problem for Hillary Clinton is that her story doesn't add up. Time and time again, as there are questions about the e-mails, what she knew, when she knew it, what [inaudible], the answers have been refuted by I'm sorry, her answers have not added up to what she said previously. So that's the problem. Hillary Clinton's story not holding up to the scrutiny.
[Cooper:] You say jump on this, use this.
[Begala:] Yes, because to use a different metaphor, it has jumped the shark. The Republicans as they always do I said this months ago to you hide and wait. The Republicans will overplay their hand. You know, Benghazi is a legitimate issue to not the e-mails, Benghazi to investigate. It's been investigated seven times before this committee. And important findings were made, and Hillary made 29 different changes because of that, because there was clearly a crisis, and now they made it a partisan thing. It's not going to help.
[Cooper:] Paul Begala, thank you. Kevin Madden as well. Just ahead, Donald Trump facing some tough crowds, and some tough questions in New Hampshire today. See how he handled that when we continue from Las Vegas.