>> i mark halperin. >> i'm john heilemann. you're not the only one whose name gets misspelled every now and again. >> this is a bloomberg politics special report. hillary clinton. what did she know and when did she know she would know it? who is eric -- how do you pronounce his name? and more tonight on "with all due respect." >> happy personal e-mail day sports fans. it means we are doing something different tonight. we're not turning into tmz but devoting an entire episode of

our show to a single topic. hillary clinton, delighting republicans and giving democrats the heebie-jeebies and living the media into a lawn foaming frenzy. speaking of tmz, yesterday, the reporter hounded hillary at the airport and blasted out this video that contains exactly zero relevance, substance, or news value. >> how're are you doing hillary? was that just a generalization gap or can it be corrected? any chance it will be corrected? have a good day. >> part of why this controversy is coming on the heels of other recent controversies related to the clinton family foundation and why it resonates so powerfully in the political world as it contains the dna of

every clinton scandal since we started covering hillary and bill. the environment today is exactly different. the question is whether you think the scandal is, in some ways, actually more dangerous to hillary than anything she has ever seen before? >> even assuming the worst, this is not white water. this is not lewinsky. this is dangerous because of twitter, social media, and the ability of conservatives to whip things up. it's dangerous because of the timing and it's dangerous because she has less infrastructure now than she has for years. >> it's also dangerous because of the dna we are talking about. a lot of people admire the clintons and the democratic party. there are things that make them uneasy. secrecy, paranoia, playing by their own rules, not having an organized staff or people to tell them to do the right thing. a lot of democrats are nervous about having her as the nominee. >> she is going into battle at a

time when she is rusty. she's never been great at dealing with this and it will be hard for her husband to defend her on these matters. >> it is the end of a very bad time. she left the state department and everything that has happened since then has not been good. there have been things that is -- have been quite bad. the book tour did not go well and did not sell well. she's not had a great run for more than a year. you hear it and a lot of democrats that really respect and love her. they are not 100% confident she is a deadlock to win this election. >> going into the announcement you want to be on an upswing and it is difficult to see how she announces with this in not hanging over her head at a time

when the elite world of politics is focused on this intently. the press dynamic is horrible for her. if you missed her tweet that went out at 11:35 p.m. eastern time, we will give it the old tv rt. "i want the public to see my e-mail. i asked the state to release them and they will be reviewed as soon as possible." it has been retweeted over 7000 times and counting. kicking off, what the you think the current hillary clinton strategy is to deal with these current problems she faces on e-mails and the foundation? >> it is surprising. we rarely see the clintons back down in any way so this notion that she held she had to give some ground -- >> to release documents without being absolutely compelled. >> it is striking.

she is buying time and hoping that this all just subsides. the clintons have seen their share of flaps and a lot of them do blow over relatively quickly. heart of her thinks if she can buy some time, this will fade from view and not be threatening. >> she has already lawyered up. i predict based on one conversation i had today that she is going to, as she builds her campaign team, a pretty quick focus on who can be in the war room. who can be a master of disaster like others were for her husband. who can figure out a way to lead the classic clinton defense. legal, communications, everything else. >> here is the question. 1992, the war room was the model. what we found in 2008 is that she tried to build a war room and did not build one. one of the things about that campaign was the structure of

it. is she able to build that war room? >> i will tell you the tea leaves. one of the reasons this controversy on the e-mail and the foundation are so problematic is it is weird. it there is no reply. a tweet at 11:35 p.m. where her staff has nothing meaningful to say, not coordinated very well. it just makes the press and her enemies say, what going on here? >> as much as i criticized the 2008 campaign, there were strong voices. right now, with all due respect to the people who represent her, there is no strong voice. who is the voice of hillary right now? she is silent and they are

largely -- >> if you are somebody like us who respects her and believes that she is a great public servant, there is nowhere to go to tell that story because nobody is talking. i know we've got to move on. hillary clinton is going to have to have a strategy. a tweet is not a strategy. >> and there was one of those strong voices from the past. the white house is defending hillary, kind of, sort of. if you ask fellow democrats, they say, i don't know. i've been too busy rearranging my sock drawer to pay attention to this. this is current secretary of state john kerry's response when the question was posed earlier today in saudi arabia. >> all the ones that are appropriate and in purview with the department. let me check on that when i have time to pay attention to such an important issue.

>> the barn door on this story is open. where does this story go next? >> the six ring circus. the state department and others reporting that it might take months to go through the e-mails and decide which to release. investigations on capitol hill. the new normal is the press will be sympathetic to benghazi investigations. that was not true one week ago. and i think the clintons have to decide what to do. can she walk past cameras, continue to not speak out and rely on occasional talking points? they have been helping her some. a little bit. but they are not invested. >> we talked a lot about how important it was that hillary

clinton is bringing in obama to the campaign. the truth is, deep down, there is still distrust and bitterness. there are people that feel as though she has screwed them over. >> who are the officers at the state department? who fulfill the requests? and what do they do now? aggressively trying to get responses not through administrative appeal but through litigation. those decisions, if that stuff starts to come out, the path that would have been seen as a big story is going to be a colossal story.

because hillary clinton will not say anything other than that one tweet, nothing about the foundation. the job of defending her falls to people like david brock who we had on yesterday and hillary clinton's other allies. there are groups like america rising. run by mitt romney's old campaign manager. john boehner's office doing a lot of excellent work from their point of view of going after hillary clinton. the proxy war between the defenders and those going on the offense, who is winning? >> the republican side is winning and pretty dramatically. you talked yesterday about how you quoted a quote back -- it was true back when david brock said it in the early 1990's. they have some defenders. the republicans are much more -- they have been building for

weeks and months. building energy, she is public enemy number one. they have been waiting for this moment and pouncing on it. >> republicans have no one else to investigate. you look at these republican groups. the democrats put out something to say that republicans have their own e-mail problems. the fact is, the stuff being put out by john boehner's office america rising, it is high-quality because it is based more than the normal spin documents in fact with really smart explanation of what are the unanswered questions? >> and it is well coordinated. they are working in tandem right now. the dnc, as a party, has kind of withered. it does not a lot of

coordination between the dnc snd the clinton campaign. >> these republican groups have done a great job but they have a lot to work with and it makes their job easier. >> we have discussed this hillary show so much that if it were marijuana, we would be smoking it in seth rogen's office. there is a dinosaur question that matters the most. will this scandal materially affect her ability to be the nominee for the president of the united states? >> yes. i don't want to be hyperbolic and i think she is still the most likely person to be elected president but her chances go down. not just because of the problems like the foundation -- and this e-mail thing where the unanswered questions are a lot bigger. but because of what it says about her readiness to do this and the difficulty she will have launching a presidential campaign.

her speech was not the kind of speech that is going to distract people. she might have some controversy but she is an awesome candidate. >> you and i both know the 2008 race well. a lot of democrats were nervous about her and thought she was too polarizing. that she could not carry red and purple states. none of those things exploded but they had an alternative and barack obama. democrats are worried in different ways about hillary clinton now. this has now exploded. for a bunch of democrats that previously thought there is no use standing in the way of an oncoming train, they can say i have a pretext to get in this race. people like elizabeth warren. they can say this is my pretext for getting in. i'm not predicting they will

but they can. >> we have not heard a word from the best strategist of the democratic party, bill clinton. a democrat said she is going to die by 1000 cuts on these controversies. the former chair of the south carolina party coming up next. ♪

>> our guest tonight is definitely somebody who is not ready for hillary. the chairman of the democratic party from south carolina. he supports joe biden now, a big supporter of barack obama. as we said, not a big hillary clinton backer. these twin controversies. the e-mails and the foundation taking money from foreign governments. do you think she has been poorly

served by her staff and made bad judgments or do you think she fundamentally doesn't have the character you would like to see as a candidate? >> fundamentally, she has deferred the running of her campaign to a bunch of folks that don't have good judgment. even she conceded that a few weeks ago when she had john come in to run the campaign clinton folks saying that he would be the adult in the room. what does that say about the rest of the folks in the room? >> she is a bad person or bad judgment? >> i don't think she's a bad person. i think she is uniquely unqualified to run a campaign. this e-mail issue is such an unforced error that it boggles the mind. >> is this a tactical error or

is this some sign of deeper or more fundamental corruption? >> i would not use the word corruption but i would say it's a deeper and fundamental flaw. this lack of transparency is not consistent with wanting to be the president of the united states or any public official. you give up your right to privacy when you become a public official whether it is the senator, secretary of state, or president of the united states. >> if she calls you up and says, i totally appreciate what you are saying. i want to do everything i can to fix the e-mail problem, fix the foundation donation problem, what advice would you give her? what should she do to satisfy you that she gets those problems and fixes them? >> i'm not sure, having known her for 30 years, that they are

fixable. she is seeing this country from 30,000 feet up. i will like to know, hillary when was the last time you went to a grocery store? without an entourage, mingled with folks and ask them about their problems. >> i'm sorry to interrupt but i want to get back to my question. you are saying the e-mail problem is not fixable? >> based on what i heard, she had her own server set up. it wasn't that i got my gmail account and i will use it for this. it's a very deliberate effort on her part to insulate a big segment of her communications from scrutiny. we know some of those had to do with the department of state and official business because she has turned some of them over. i think it is unfixable and something she will have to apologize for. it is symptomatic of this penchant for lack of transparency. having money raised for the

foundation from foreign nationals while she is secretary of state, how do you not see that? >> you were saying that she would die the death of a thousand cuts. you administered some of the cuts that helps kill her and south carolina to both her and her husband. is your view that any democrat would be a better democratic nominee than clinton in 2016? >> it may be a pretty strong statement. i would say there are plenty of other democrats that would be a better nominee in 2016. i don't want to lose the white house. i am convinced every day. you say 1000 cuts, there are one and two and there are plenty more to come. there is kristin, amy klobuchar, elizabeth warren.

joe biden. >> you have known both clintons for a long time. just describe your sense of where hillary clinton's head is at now on the precipice of a presidential run and where bill clinton's head is at? >> her head is that it's her term. that's the major rationale. i've paid my dues and put up with a lot of crap. i've put up with bill. it is my turn. bill says she is my wife and gives me the opportunity to be in the white house again. those were great times. let's do it again. for bill, it's like the rolling stones doing a tour at age 70. he wants to go back on the road. >> if she runs, you want her to be the next president. >> absolutely. whoever the democrat is, i want them to win. >> have you heard from other democrats about what you said?

>> several indicated that she needs to be tested. if she gets through a tough primary and wins, fine. this entitlement, this anointment, this coronation is not good for the party. i had lunch with a woman today that said it's time we had a woman, and you shouldn't be attacking hillary and made it very clear that she thought i ought to back off. she is entitled to her opinion and i'm entitled to mine. >> mr. chairman, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. you take care. >> when we come back, the international man of mystery. the worldwide figure of enigma. the eric hoteham is revealed here next. ♪

>> one big mystery packed into

the e-mail story is a name surfaced because he was linked to the personal e-mail server that she used. that name is eric hoteham. we decided to show his story. >> >> my name is eric hoteham. some people say i don't exist. some people say i'm a pseudonym. some people say i'm a misspelling of a close aide to the clintons after they left the white house. none of this is true. my name is eric hoteham. and this is my story. i was born 16 miles from hope, arkansas in the town of prescott. i graduated a year behind bill and hillary. when the clintons moved to the white house, i was in line to be secretary of agriculture but the job went to mike espy. the clintons kept me around in their inner circle.

why is my name dragged through the mud? without me, so many things would have fallen through the cracks. i'm the guy that organized every photo shoot of socks the cat. on february 27, 1990 three, i inflated all the balloons for chelsea's birthday party by myself. i got her elected by designing these signs that says hillary for u.s. senate. the guy at kinko's designed them but i paid for them. here's a great photo of hillary favoriting one of my tweets. everyone will remember eric hoteham as the guy that set up the e-mail server. but it's just one part of what i call the rich back story. >> we will be back with more projects to look forward to tomorrow. ♪

>> tomorrow morning before you get your coffee and check your e-mail, watch our documentary about the 50th anniversary. it is awesome.

pimm: hello, i'm pimm fox and this is what i'm taking stock of on this thursday, march 5, 2015. all 31 banks subject to the federal reserve's first round of stress tests passed. the federal reserve tested capital levels of the banks to absorb losses because of a potential sharp and prolonged economic downturn. this is the first time since the stress test were instituted that no firm received a failing grade. in europe, the european central bank will begin its $1.2 trillion bond buying program on monday. the president is claiming victory, even before the quantitative easing starts. at a news conference today in cyprus, draghi said the stimulus will help the economic growth in the euro area.