carl bernstein is standing by to talk about tuesday's debate. let's start with the next debate. the gop matchup coming to cnbc later this month. did the network and the republican party get strong armed by two of its leading k d candidates. it says neither mr. trump or dr. carson will participate in the debate if it's longer than 120 minutes and does not include opening and closing statements. in other words, nice little debate you have here. be a shame if something happened to it. i'll talk about how this all went down. the communications director and chief strategist for the republican national economy. good to see you this morning. let's get into the debate. there's a debate playing out on sunday morning tv. amazingly it's over the topic of 9/11. here is what we heard this morning from jeb bush and donald trump on the sunday morning shows. >> does anybody blame my brother for the attacks on 9/11? if they do they are totally marginalizing our society. >> i'm not blaming him but i don't want jeb bush to say my brother kept us safe. >> 14 years after that terrible day, did you e

i want to go back to the panel, carl bernstein, david gergen and jeff toobin and gloria. i want to play an exchange and have you talk about this as well. >> can you answer to dday, what were the search terms? >> the search terms were everything that you can imagine that might be related to anything, but they went through every single e-mail. >> but that is not answering the question. what were the search terms, mean means terms, and what terms did you use and what the were the date parameters and the end date and the e-mails in between that we are going to be looking at? >> well, congressman, i asked my attorneys to oversee the process, and i did not look over their shoulder and i did not dictate how they were going to do it, and i did not ask how they were doing it. >> so you tont know? is you don't know which terms they used to determine which were your e-mails and which were the state departments and they would get? >> the state department had 95% of those work-related on the system. >> and the chairman trey gowdy is speaking, and let's listen in. >> i don't draw concl

by the way -- >> watergate was a criminal conspiracy, though, carl bernstein is saying. >> that's correctracy here? >> well, sir, we have an active fbi investigation still ongoing, trying to determine the scope of the risk to national security that was presented by what was potentially classified information not contained in a classified space. the fbi doesn't investigate things and spend resources without it being a very serious matter. >> so all eyes now tomorrow on capitol hill, on you, on the committee, on hillary clinton. what exactly -- if you had only one question for her, what's the one question you want answered? >> ma'am, i can't boil it down to one question. we've got a lot of information that we want to get. she was the senior diplomat for the united states when our first ambassador was killed since 1979. we have a lot of things that we need to learn. she has unique information, and i am optimistic that we'll get those facts tomorrow. >> so the committee does have a perception problem. and we've seen the chairman now trying to battle that perception problem over the last few d

resign when he really look at it by the republicans who were -- as barry goldwater once told carl bernstein and myself. too many lies, too many crimes. that's what it was. >> dickerson: he was in tight circle that knew these tapes existed. kissinger didn't know, right, that the recordings existed. and so he knew that it would nail the president. why did he give them up? >> there's a long section in the book about this odyssey that he took. his ex-wife wanted to tell, butter field denies that. subconsciously maybe i did. ultimately our business we try to figure out why people do things and this gets to the answer bit you see this is story about power. this is about nixon's power and butter field, who had that place, office right next to the oval office for three years was witness, front row seat and when i started talking to butter field realized he had thousands of documents, some originals that he had taken out of the white house, some of this stuff for somebody who spent years looking at nixon is shocking. >> dickerson: that's what's so amazing. you covered watergate, found someone taking

also joining us david gergen former presidential adviser for ford, reagan, clinton, carl bernstein and nia-malika henderson, cnn politics correspondent and gloria borger cnn chief political analyst all here at table. david, we haven't heard from you so far tonight. who stood out? >> first of all, i think the debate may have given some heart to the republicans. after the benghazi hearings carl and i were on the air. she sees a clear path to the nomination, she has to be the front-runner for the white house. this showed that they have arguments in another area, in the economy, that if they push and weren't well developed arguments tonight, i think gave the republicans some sense we're still in this race in terms of who stood out. marco rubio. >> and it's interesting because he actually hit hillary clinton on her benghazi testimony saying as far as he was concerned it pointed her out to be a liar. >> and that's right, and he -- he's the smoothest out there. we've now seen, had seven hours of debates and we've seen this is not jeb bush's medium, i agree with ana. by far and await most qual

. >> reporter: reporter bob woodward along with carl bernstein famously exposed the machinations of thete house, tried and failed to interview butterfield. he passed the name on to the committee. >> do you think the tapes had ever been revealed had it not been for butterfield? >> probably would not have. >> reporter: turned out butterfield was sitting on a lot more secrets. 20 boxes full of them. >> this is the year, 1971. and each of these is a month. >> reporter: two years ago he turned over to woodward. >> reporter: did you ever, in your wildest dreams, think that you would one day collaborating with bob woodward of all people? >> no, not at all. >> reporter: what did you think when you walked into his apartment and you see the 20 boxes? >> i thought -- wow. let's start looking. >> reporter: the result is the last of the president's men, published by simon and schuster, a division of cbs. in adiagnosis to the documents. woodward spent 40 hours interviewing butterfield who for three years occupied the office next to the president's. >> first one to see hem every day. last one to see h

. >> reporter: reporter bob woodward along with carl bernstein famously exposed the machinations of thehite house, tried and failed to interview butterfield. he passed the name on to the committee. >> do you think the tapes had ever been revealed had it not been for butterfield? >> probably would not have. >> reporter: turned out butterfield was sitting on a lot more secrets. 20 boxes full of them. >> this is the year, 1971. and each of these is a month. >> reporter: two years ago he turned over to woodward. >> reporter: did you ever, in your wildest dreams, think that you would one day collaborating with bob woodward of all people? >> no, not at all. >> reporter: what did you think when you walked into his apartment and you see the 20 boxes? >> i thought -- wow. let's start looking. >> reporter: the result is the last of the president's men, published by simon and schuster, a division of cbs. in adiagnosis to the documents. woodward spent 40 hours interviewing butterfield who for three years occupied the office next to the president's. >> first one to see hem every day. last one to see

carl bernstein is standing by to talk about tuesday's debate. let's start with the next debate.

so let's go straight to commentator carl bernstein. we were just sitting here last week post gaming the las vegas debate. i asked you exactly about that. enemy sound byte from hillary clinton. we thought down the road republicans are going to use it against her. did we think that joe biden would be doing this? what is his strategy? >> as you know, i thought so, i thought joe biden was going to get into this. but he would have done better to get in before that debate. she was masterful in the debate. he's up against the hillary clinton of that debate. >> what about we're look iing ahead to hillary clinton publicly testifying ahead of the benghazi committee this week. i'm wondering, what would be best for him? to declare prior to her testimony? or after wards? >> i would say probably before. get it out of the way. get in there. but i'm not sure it makes too much difference. >> because i've heard other people saying if he does it after the fact it could be reactionary and less on him. >> we have to stop micromanaging every aspect. the imp

. >> reporter bob woodward, and carl bernstein who exposed the machinations of the nixon whitehouse tried and failed to interview butterfield. so he passed the name on to the watergate committee. >> do you think the tapes would be revealed if not for butterfield? have. >> turns out he was siting on more. ni. 1971, and each of these is a month. >> two years ago he turned over to woodward. >> did you ever, in your wildest dreams think that you would one day be collaborating with bob woodward of all people? >> not at all. >> what did you think when you walk into his apartment, and you see those 20 boxes? >> i thought, wow. let's start looking. >> the result is the last of the president's men published by simon schuster, a division of cbs. in addition to the documents, woodward spent 40 hours interviewing butterfield who for three years occupied the office next to the president. >> every day, and the last person you see every night. attending to all the immediate needs. >> when butterfield left, he took his files with him. >> some of those documents are how did you just walk away with them fr

. >> and joining us is gloria borger and carl bernstein and david bgergen and does she come out this >> yes, and a very good thespian as well. and we were talking about hillary clinton and the failure of the campaign and whether she could finish almost. she is now in the catbird seat. she has appeared presidential. we have a look at her as she would be as president, steely, competent, informed and not giving in an h inch and in all things tonight, trying to rise above the cultural wars. i never thought that i would see it, but benghazi is a center piece of the cultural wars and the republicans were crazy to take it up that way, because it is a complex event, a nd we wil see why ooh it is complexk and she rose above and showed the complexity and they kept trying to oversimplify it and make it an article of faith that she had been the terrible person and the worst thing they could have done. >> and david gergen, it is like a rorschach test, because people can see into it depending what side of the aisle they are on or what they think of hillary clinton? >> is very true, anderson, and i

commentator and author of "a woman in charge: the life of hillary rodham clint hillary rodham clinton," carl bernsteindurance test, she survived that hearing for sure. >> she did much better than survived. they teed it up for her to look like the president of the united states hillary clinton, what she would look like as the president. >> they sure weren't trying to. >> well, actually, that's what they did. we got a look. it was very impressive. she was in command throughout the whole hearing. she was nuanced. she was in command of the facts. she knew what had happened in benghazi. she gave the best account of it that was possible. she was empathetic. that is not to say some of the things she said aren't subject to some truth-testing, which of course is her problem throughout this campaign. but she has moved way past where she was in terms of what this distrust issue was two weeks ago. >> it's interesting. in soccer terms we call these set pieces, right? the debate and the hearing, something you can study for where you know the opposition. you can game out the questions that will come your way. people

to work out problems, and the final, clark, an investigative reporter before bod woodward and carl bernstein, and he is an interesting case. he convinced president nixon that what the incoming administration needed was an ombudsman. an investigative reporter who could smell out scandal before it blew up in their face, and white not someone who didn't like him, who could be there and warn him. and nixon hired him. and he became special counsel to the president. but then president nixon tired of him because clark had so many opinions on so many things that didn't have anything to do with the topics, and he about to frozen out and he didn't get to see the president as often as clark thought he should. and he blamed john ehrlichman and bob haldeman for cut offering his access, and he leaves in a huff ten months later. goes back to reporting and becomes the fiercest critic of the nixon white house. he happened to be a close friend of judge sirica. so if water gate starts to up wind, this man with the color of inside information, goes and meeting with siric a toll him how he thought things had com

carl bernstein, also the author of "a woman in charge: the life of hillary rodham clintonen."wo is obvious. even i know that. how does mccarthy play into this and how does it move forward. >> he's given her campaign the biggest gift they have had in six months. he's made obvious what's been the case all along. the benghazi investigation is a political witch hunt. it should have been shut down before and at the same time it does not obviate the fact that hillary clinton has a huge problem because she does not tell the truth very very often. >> let's unpack these two. >> well they are very related. >> i understand that. but the elements of it. as the investigative journalist of a generation you say benghazi political, there is nothing there. leave it alone. you can say that with complete assuredness there is nothing worth investigating there. >> we've had many investigations and i think we know what happened at benghazi and people can make up their own minds and did hillary clinton try try to make political points and her and the state department's answer to what happened? yes.

. >> with me now, the author of "a woman in charge: the life of hillary rodham clinton," carl bernsteinling along watching that mash-up. there was some funny moments there last night. but overall the effort mat of hillary clinton. you wrote the book on her. how did she do? >> the conventional wisdom is right. she did great t. was a great night for democrats it's clear sailing if there are no other shoes dropping. >> aka -- >> it could be anything. but right now she as got breathing room. it's very difficult for joe biden to get into the race after what we saw last niest. >> he says he won't be swayed by what he saw last night. >> again, i don't know what that means. but it's difficult for him compared to what it was like a year ago. a week ago. no question about that. >> it was standing ovation the whole bernie sanders enough with the damn e-mails and the handshake with hilary clnten. what did you make of that snf he gave her absolution in terms of the party. there had been a lot of anger in the party because of hillary's lack of being forming coming about the server. as you heard me sa

. >> carl bernstein, thank you so much. don't mean to cut you off. >> no problem. >>> we are just one week away from the democratic debate, tuesday night, october 13th, the cnn facebook democratic debate only on cnn. >>> coming up, what if isis were to get its hands on nuclear materials? new details in to cnn about how the fbi has helped foil a disturbing smuggling effort involving russian gangs and middle eastern extremist groups. >>> plus, breaking news involving the american strike on a hospital in afghanistan. president obama now making a big move. >>> and more breaking news at this hour. an american jet has a close encounter with a russian fighter jet in syria. this as vladimir putin escalates his war. details just ahead. many wrinkle creams come with high hopes, but hope... doesn't work on wrinkles. clinically proven neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair with the fastest retinol formula available, it works on fine lines and even deep wrinkles. you'll see younger looking skin in just one week. stop hoping for results, and s

let's bring in carl bernstein, and matt lewis, a contributor for the daily caller and conservative commentatorid you think of her composure, of her personality? everything that came through? she sort of ran the gamut. there were times she looked sarcastic. let me show you, the different faces of hillary clinton during this yesterday. you can see she looks bored sometimes, disconnected. there are times that she looks a little imperious. there are times she looked emotional. what did you think of how she performed. >> she did more than run the gamut. she ran the show. we got a look at what president hillary clinton would be like. she was in command, she knew the facts as they wanted to recite them. they had real context, she was unflappable. she was competent. she knew the terrain. that's what we would see in a clinton presidency. but the issue of how she bends facts and whether you call that bending or sometimes veering too far from the literal truth, that's going to be an issue in this campaign and continue to be. but she really bought herself an awful lot of room yesterday. it was really impr

no less than carl bernstein wrote a book about her relationship with the truth. hammer. did she check the box of how she deals with the negatives, jeff? bernie gave her the gift last night. >> right. >> did she check the box of being able to inspire people? that's a big thing. >> that is a big thing. that's been one of the central frustrations of her candidacy, she's been unable to spark this enthusiasm for someone who should be out there who's in the best position to be the first woman president. i think she tried to do that last night. we heard her a few times saying she would be different from barack obama because she would be a woman in the white house. there are some moments from the debate last night that are going to live on for her, specifically keystone. that position, republicans are just chomping at the bit to use that against her. she said i didn't give a position on keystone until i gave a position on keystone. that really sounds like it came from the heart. >> it sounds like i was against it until i was for it. >> totally. >> that clinton legalese t