[Blitzer:] Before Huma Abedin was dragged into her husband, Anthony Weiner's, scandal, she was best known as a long-time aide to Hillary Clinton. The Clinton connection is, of course, of interest to a lot of folks, especially given the intense speculation about a possible Hillary Clinton run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. Our foreign affairs correspondent, Jill Dougherty, is joining us. She's got a little bit more on what's going on. What are you seeing out there, Jill?
[Jill Dougherty, Cnn Foreign Affairs Correspondent:] Wolf, Huma Abedin played a crucial role behind the scenes at the State Department for Hillary Clinton. But she's been out front during her husband's scandal. So is it helping or hurting?
[Dougherty:] Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's elegant right-hand woman, profiled in magazines like "Harper's Bazaar." President Bill Clinton officiated at her wedding to Anthony Weiner. Hillary Clinton said, "If I had a second daughter, it would be Huma." Now, a stunning parallel: Abedin standing by her man...
[Huma Abedin, Anthony Weiner's Wife:] But I do very strongly believe that that is between us and our marriage.
[Dougherty:] ... just as Hillary Clinton stood by Bill Clinton 15 years ago.
[Hillary Clinton, Former Secretary Of State:] I'm not sitting here some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette.
[Dougherty:] Could this deja-vu scandal hurt Hillary Clinton's prospects for a presidential run in 2016? Questions already are brewing about the job Huma Abedin got at the State Department after she came back from maternity leave, returning as a special government employee. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is accusing Abedin of "being paid by private investors to gather information from government employees." The State Department says she followed government rules. Their careers aligned, and there are now painful parallels in their personal lives. with the media replaying mirror images of Huma and Hillary.
[David Gergen, Cnn Political Analyst:] Clearly, people around Hillary would like this to go away quickly. So if he dropped out of the race and would disappear from headlines, that would be in their interests. But I think the I think the bigger question is this. One of the issues in a campaign that she launches is who is she going to be surrounded by?
[Dougherty:] Now, Gergen does think the scandal could end up hurting Huma Abedin's chance to take a major role in any Clinton campaign. Meanwhile, a source close to Hillary Clinton and to Huma Abedin tells CNN "Our concern and caring is entirely about Huma's personal well-being, nothing else" Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Gloria [SIC], thanks very much. Let's discuss a little bit what's going on with our chief political correspondent, Candy Crowley, also seen on our "STATE OF THE UNION," and our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger. What do you think, Candy? Could this Anthony Weiner affair impact Hillary Clinton's potential run for the Democratic presidential nomination?
[Candy Crowley, Cnn Chief Political Correspondent/anchor:] You know, possibly but there's so much there's such a body of knowledge and paper trails and everything else about Hillary Clinton that this seems to me kind of a minor thing along the trail. Could it, as David suggests, hurt her, should Huma come on? Maybe. But I think she's much more hurt by what's surrounding her job as sort of a freelancer at the State Department than anything her husband did. I think, you know, in the end, I still think society is pretty much able to look at this and go, this isn't her fault, for heaven's sake; it's his.
[Blitzer:] It's not Huma's fault; it's Anthony Weiner's fault.
[Crowley:] Right.
[Blitzer:] That's what you're saying. It's certainly not Hillary Clinton's fault.
[Crowley:] Right.
[Blitzer:] You agree?
[Gloria Borger, Cnn Chief Political Analyst:] I do agree. And you know, obviously, as David points out, the pictures are out there. And nobody wants to go back decades ago to the old to those old pictures. But this isn't about Hillary Clinton.
[Blitzer:] Let's talk about a little political battle that has developed between the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, and Rand Paul, the senator from Kentucky. Chris Christie, he was out in Aspen, Colorado, this week and speaking on national security. Clearly doesn't like some of the things that Rand Paul has been saying. Listen to this.
[Gov. Chris Christie , New Jersey:] This strain of libertarianism that's going through both parties right now, and making big headlines, I think is a very dangerous thought. I love all these esoteric debates that people are getting in.
[Unidentified Male:] Like Rand Paul, for example?
[Christie:] Listen, you can name any number of people. He's one of them. I mean, these esoteric intellectual debates. I want them to come to New Jersey and sit across from the widows and the orphans and have that conversation, and they won't. Because that's a much tougher conversation to have.
[Blitzer:] To which an aide, top adviser to Rand Paul, said this: "If Governor Christie believes the constitutional rights and the privacy of all Americans is esoteric, he either needs a new dictionary or he needs to talk to more Americans, because a great number of them are concerned about the dramatic overreach of our government in recent years." What's really going on here, Candy?
[Crowley:] This is skirmishes. You can look toward 2016. When you have a party leader, when for instance, your guy is in the White House, President Obama has lots of folks who say lots of different things in the Democratic Party that he doesn't agree with. But he defines what the Democratic Party is right now. Right now, no one defines what the Republican Party is.
[Borger:] On anything.
[Crowley:] On anything. On anything. So you're going to see, it's not just about surveillance which we saw play up, by the way, on the House floor on both sides of the aisle. But we saw Republicans on that. We're going to see it on the debt ceiling and how far to go on that. We're going to see it on the budget and how far to go on that. So this is this is certainly a party in search of itself. And it won't find itself until it finds a nominee.
[Borger:] But I do think that Rand Paul is making a real calculation here looking towards 2016. And that is that the public is tired of two wars. They're skeptical about big government and about Big Brother, NSA surveillance and drones. And what Chris Christie is doing is taking the more traditional, hawkish John McCain, if you will, side of the Republican ledger there. And I do believe that you're going to see a real foreign policy fight play out in the Republican Party. We started to see it with Ron Paul in the last campaign during those debates. And I think you're going to see a continuation of it with his son.
[Crowley:] And that argument will be interesting, if Hillary Clinton should jump in the race, because what we have seen, in this century anyway, is Republicans losing their edge about who's tough on national security.
[Borger:] Right.
[Crowley:] Who's tough on defense. And certainly, Chris Christie is in the muscular side about wait a second. You know, we're going to do what we can to stop these guys. Get Hillary Clinton in there. She's no slouch in the Defense Department. And she is going to be sort of a force to be reckoned with on that score. So clearly, again, another split in the Republican Party. They're going to have to figure it out.
[Blitzer:] If Rand Paul and Chris Christie run for the Republican presidential nomination, I'm looking forward to moderating the debate between these two guys.
[Borger:] I tend to say there will be one.
[Blitzer:] That would be lively. Candy, I know you've got Jack Lew, the treasury secretary, on "STATE OF THE UNION" Sunday morning at 9 a.m. We'll be watching. Up next, President Obama has a big job to fill with huge importance to the economy. Is it turning, though, into a battle of the sexes?