john:, good evening sports fans i am john heilemann. kansas city royals champions-- we can't tolerate the idea of a canadian baseball team in the world series. we will be interviewing ben carson, heading to iowa for a jampacked weekend of presidential politics. first, it's hillary clinton on the hill day. we have a big benghazi-heavy. lineup since 10:00 a.m., the secretary of state gave her

secretary to trey gowdy committee. the republicans were by and large familiar, but the gop try to break new vulnerability. three other american officials were killed in 2012. on a narrative crafted by clinton and the obama emigration why the attack happened. we also saw a somewhat new approach involving clinton's longtime friend and former advisor, cindy blumenthal. republicans say clinton was more attention -- more attentive to blumenthal then ambassador stevens when asking for security and mentality. -- security in benghazi. >> you said that mr. blumenthal was a friend of yours and had your personal e-mail address. you say chris stevens was a friend of yours. times forumerous extra protection. did he have your personal e-mail? sec. clinton: congressman, i do not believe that he had my

personal e-mail. he had the e-mail and the direct line to everybody that he worked with for years. john: that was congressman-- tip, republicans have hours and poke and prod at hillary clinton. did they report or charged anything that was genuinely or relevantly new about benghazi today? mark: a little bit, something that no american i know cares about, which is her relationship with cindy blumenthal. beforeevents in benghazi security in olivia, during the evening of september 11 that year and afterward, they plowed a lot of familiar ground. on the e-mails, they also largely plowed familiar ground. there is some a nuanced new stuff, but nothing that will breakthrough for the american people as a smoking gun, brand-new information that we're

hungry to know more about. john: i have to say, the obsession with cindy blumenthal, for people like us who have known her and her relationship with him, have talked about that for a long time. it's an interesting relationship. he's an interesting dark figure in her life. fascinating stuff. you might even put in a book about residential elections. to the millions of americans for supposed to care about this on the matter of benghazi, whether her e-mail system exposed classified information to the world, those people don't care about cindy blumenthal et al.. we have a couple tidbits about things she said to the egyptian prime minister about the source of the attack, but these are small things impaired to what they have claimed. mark: the hearings will continue into the evening. as of now, on the substance, on the back-and-forth of the facts and questions, trying to trip her up, the democrats and clinton folks are happy. the republican critics are

disappointed because they have not brought to the fore the kind of new information this committee said they would have based on access to e-mails. john: trey gowdy spent months writing about how they had all this new information -- writing about how they had all this new information. hillary clinton and her defenders will be able to say 8at nothing, the 7 or previous investigations have covered this ground thoroughly already. mark: that's the substance of the hearing. but it's also important in a congressional hearing to deal with style. at no surprise, given the nature of this conversation, some emotions boiled over the pot. secretary clinton appeared clearly and visibly annoyed at times. telltale sign was when she rested her head in her hand. more than once, republicans stopped clinton midsentence, and insisted she read the notes the staff handed to her. john, on the important question of style and political theater, who won the day so far?

john: i think hillary clinton one-a-day, and i will tell you one. it's never a good look from publicans when republican men are interrupting -- are interrupting democratic women. i don't like that look of hers. it's not perfect by any means. she was interrupted constantly. that interrupting, being lectured to doesn't help republicans either in the context of this hearing or the broader politics of gender. mark: she was strong, confident, appealing to people's concerns over the families of the four americans who lost their lives. she did not lose her cool. she stood up to them when she needed to. just like with the debate, she was totally prepared. she knew what she wanted to. there was nothing that came up that she was not prepared for. on the essence of relationship with cindy blumenthal, which is still a mystery, why the white house and secretary clinton, when they thought it was a terrorist attack, said publicly--

issues, shestantive handled herself okay. she did not create a bad moment, even though on the merits or those two issues, she was weaker. john: hillary clinton has a lot of flaws, but she is a diligent preparer, and when she is prepared and has experience, she almost always comes out at a minimum okay, at worst okay, and often better than ok. mark: she sat with david kendall, her lawyer and other smart people. i have no idea what the republicans did to prepare. they did not watch episodes on netflix of perry mason. because none of them knew how asked the question in a way to actually put her on the spot, which is part of what they are trying to do. john: one things we know from a journalism is that when we do a that interview, it's where we don't have a strategy. we do a good interview, it's when we do have a strategy. they often didn't seem to have any kind of strategy except trying to score tiny mini points inside the beltway. mark: right.

john: right now in that benghazi hearing, they are taking questions about-- one question is whether the aquatic front runner has finally succeeded in putting this matter to bed politically, or will there be more investigating down the line? anywhere, doif republicans believe they scored points today? mark: so far, none. you see on social media and on the web, the democrats are gleeful, the republicans are being critical of the committee. although we haven't seen too many specifics. this doesn't get her out of the woods yet. it does strengthen her hand. she's never coming back to this committee. i suspect other committees in the house and senate wanting to investigate e-mails are going to have a heckuva time getting her back. she said, i went to the committee that discovered my e-mails, i'm done. john: and i gave them all the time in the world and stayed until they shut the lights out. i look at my inbox, we both look

at our inboxes. when republicans think they are making ground, i get a lot of e-mails making the claim, today i was shocked about the dearth of e-mail i got, from any republican conservative groups. it just wasn't there, the volume was not there. i was not even getting specious e-mails today, whereas my inbox was flooded with democrats claiming victory. mark: this could be a stretch from the debate to joe biden's decision last one, to what is shaping up to be a strong performance politically, substantively on most issues. this is shaping up to be the week where clinton reasserts herself. however, bernie sanders continues to be strong. the fbi investigation continues. you imagine how this week could have gone. john: remember eight years ago this month, her campaign which had been cruising, suddenly turned in the opposite direction and barack obama surged and took control of the campaign. this time, mirror image.

are going to have more on the benghazi hearings and go more in depth in the hearing room after this word from our sponsors. ♪

♪ joining us from our washington bureau, al hunt to talk about more what happened today. we're going to look at some expert -- excerpts of the hearing from hillary clinton's appearance. here is ohio colleague jim jordan. >> where did the false narrative start? at 10:08, with no evidence, before the attack is over, at two are still on the roof of the index fighting for

their lives, the official state department blames a video. sec. clinton: if you look at the statement i made, i clearly said it was attack. i also said some try to justify on the basis of the video, congressman. >> calling an attack is like saying the sky is blue. of course it was an attack. sec. clinton: we were in a position to make sense of incoming operation -- incoming information, and watching the way the intelligence community made of it. >> there was not conflicting information the day of the attack. your press secretary said, there is no connection between cairo and benghazi. you are the ones that muddied it up, not the information. here's what i think is going on. here's what i think is going on. al, thanks for joining us. republicans came in her than they would have thanks to kevin mccarthy's comments.

overall, dvand republicans on the committee play there had well or not? al: no, it was a mess. republicans made at the cubs look good. thingg with -- the only that we learned about where clinton was that she had too many e-mails with cindy blumenthal. questions about her judgment had nothing to do with benghazi. basically the secretary of state is in charge of policy. not in charge of security at consulates. during the reagan years, there wasn't a hearing three years later and tens of millions of dollars. if the secretary of state had been leon panetta or john kerry, do you think those hearings would have been held today? al.: clearly you do not, [laughter] let me ask you -- let me play another piece of video for you on a different topic.

hillary also had a chance to address the e-mails that have been getting so much political attention, much of it negative in these past months. let's take a listen to her discussion on that. i did not conduct most the business that i did on behalf of our country on e-mail. i conducted it in meetings, i read massive amounts of memos, a great deal of classified information, i made a lot of secure phone calls. i was in and out of the white house all the time. there were a lot of things that happened that i was aware of and that i was reacting to. if you were to be in my office in the state department, i did not have a computer. i did not do the vast majority of my work on e-mail. al, the political discussion for the past several months, all we have heard about is e-mail, e-mail, e-mail. expected to be a big focus on this hearing. how do you think she handled the questions regarding her

electronic communication systems? al: john, there is no justification for what she did with e-mail. as mark noted earlier, the fbi is still investigating. she paid a real place -- she paid a real price. what new did we learn about it after today's hearing? aidesess what? her wanted to make her look good. boy, is that a shocker. i don't know why the republicans, when they said this was about the tragedy involving the three americans, why they got so carried away with the e-mails that had almost nothing to do with what happened. blame ofs any of the this hearing go to the republican leadership? should they have been a delegate district chairman, where should they have been looking at this for the reporting party and the house? al: they should not have had this kind of hearing. a perfectly legitimate hearing would have been on the be in policy. -- on libyan policy.

one congress meant address to that. but that's not what this hearing is all about. the libyan policy with a disaster, but you cannot say hillary quentin was responsible for what happened on the timber 11th, 2012. the responsibly of secretary of state. they made it worse. jim jordan was foaming at the mouth. and that poor fellow from kansas who had slain to talk by andrew mitchell on television last week and had to watch it again. it was a bad hand, and they played poorly. mark: what other big subplot was the democrats on the committee played in helping hillary clinton at every turn. let's look at an exchange between the chairman, trey gowdy, and the ranking democrat from maryland, elijah cummings. >> would've the chairman of yield? >> i would be happy to, but you need to make sure the record-- >> and that's exactly what i

want to do. >> then go ahead. >> i move that we put into the record the entire transcript of sidney blumenthal. we're going to release the e-mails in the transcript, that way the world can see it. we are not going to take that uppity hearing. -- take that up at the hearing. >> we have a right to record recorded vote on that motion. we want the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, that is what we want to have. let's let the world see it. >> why is it that you only want mr. blumenthal's transcripts? >> i would like to have all of them released! >> the survivors, even their names? you want at least? >-- you want that released? mark: al, could the democrats have done anymore to help hillary clinton than they did in the room so far today? al: no, they were every bit as partisan as the republicans. and that played to her advantage.

she was the one that rise above it for most of the hearing. what elijah cummings did very shrewdly was he got trey gowdy to lose his cool. that's something that the chairman can ill afford to do. i think the democrats were totally partisan. some of those questions were softballs, like you and i have never seen before. that was the purpose. thought gaudi started very strong in tone, and as you saw in that clip, the democrats got under his skin and he resorted to the kind of partisanship and yelling and attention that he did not want in this ring. -- want in this hearing. -- he kept in syria thing kept insisting this is not about hillary clinton. hours could watch the 7-8 that place and not say this was about hillary clinton. washington,t in thanks so much for joining us. when we come back, we check on today's political news, including exciting stuff about

iowa polls after this word from our sponsors. ♪

♪ back.welcome little bit earlier in the show, i guess my eyesight is terrible and we are halfway across the iuntry in kansas city, mistook a congressman. my bad. we will see whether these benghazi hearings shook the poll numbers in the democratic race to the presidential nomination. but in the meantime, we have a new des moines iowa registrable. with that shows is hillary clinton leading bernie sanders in the hawkeye state 48-41%. do you believe those poll numbers, what events are driving these poll numbers? mark: if you look at the poll,

the gun issue. i bet before the debate, not too many i would -- too many iowans cared about guns. democrats in iowa are bothered by his record in the past about opposing some gun-control measures. they are less bothered by the fact that he is a socialist. they are fine with that. it shows you the power of hillary clinton's opposition research team, her ability to take that research and play it. i thought it would be hard to go negative on bernie sanders. her instinct are right. this is one issue where she can drive numbers and get away with it. john: she not only did it effectively in the debate, which is the big stage for it, she did it earlier when people are paying attention. she did it in a powerful, respectful way. she did it in a contrasting way to make yourself look good and more liberal. and she was, as you pointed out over and over again, woefully ill-prepared for what should have been an expected attack. he had really bad answers to that question. all of that combines to a problem for him, especially for liberal iowans.

mark: sanders and clinton are close in both states. the reality is that, piggybacking off her strong week and ten-day period, it hillary clinton it can break bernie sanders's back in iowa and new hampshire, she will be the democratic nominee. john: those of the states he can win. mark: she has to be competent. -- confident. if they have these gun issues, and she drives it effectively in the debates, she can put this thing away. john: this is why this jefferson jackson thing is coming up on saturday. i mentioned 2008 a couple times. that was a big night for barack obama when he began to turn the tide. john kerry in 2004 had a very big-- mark: my hunch is that mrs. preparation will come into the dinner with a prepared speech. john: people expect this is a big member -- big moment for bernie sanders. if clinton has a big night on saturday, that could be huge.

mark: tomorrow morning, 6:00 a.m., bloomberg politics.com, we have the last batch of our iowa poll, this time the republican president will race. and on "with all due respect," reactions from two republicans, ben carson, and ted cruz, later in the day. for now, let's close by dipping into the congressional news on capitol hill besides hillary clinton hearings. paul ryan appears he has sufficient support under the terms he set to be the speaker of the house. it's been fun watching them go "yes" in the likely speaker. what would a ryan speakership be like for him, for the republicans on capitol hill, and for america? john: let's first acknowledge one thing, which is that republicans proved this week that they are not wholly suicidal. by being able to get it together enough to make the kinds of confessions and pull together an offer that unifies support for paul ryan. they showed they are not going

harikiri. i don't know we will see differences in terms of the problems reported to have. they were better today than they were seven days ago. mark: ryan will not turn the floor over to nancy pelosi. john boehner my to do it before he goes on the debt ceiling. how ryan deals with the continuing resolution to keep them being a government shutdown. i think ryan may try to start strong and establish himself by getting the president's negotiation, even if it might seem like two separate deals. sage republicans, let's get a continuing resolution. but i will get some thing in return for it and show my side that i can stand on principle and stop barack obama. john: he's still a political guy. the way in which is been , theking from the right attacks on him being this harry reid's favorite laquon --

favorite republican, the guy that wants to make deals with barack obama. he still has a right flank that he has to cover. he can't look like he's going to do what john boehner does and go to pelosi right off the bat. mark: reid said something nice before him after he got the job. now he attacks them today. john: public enemy number one. mark: he's going to have a difficult time. it would be nice if john boehner could take more of his plate. if you get through these initial months, next year could be interesting. especially how he interacts with president of candidates. john: we will be right back here from kansas city. with an absolutely grotesquely shameless plug after this. ♪

>> we have said this at least twice. tomorrow, we will interview ben carson and ted cruz. >> that will be big. we usually closed the show by telling you we are on for 30 soon, one hour. think you from watching, sayonara.

emily: amazon shares surging after posting surprise earnings. i'm emily chang in this is "bloomberg west." that with -- alpha the third quarter win. microsoft on cloud nine, they'd the things to rising demand for cloud services. apple let the