You dont see him campaigning in tampa, going through the i4 corridor. That could change. He has a boost. He has the numbers. This is still clintons race to lose. Gop. This is giving fuel to the trump fire. Why are you people saying im on the way down . Theres now and august. Trump up in florida. Look at rubio and bush in their home state. Ohio, trump on top, now and do we have a comparison . Up again. This is why he was getting so inflamed about people saying when are you getting ready to drop out . You see, look, other people have moved more. Theyve moved more down. Look at kasich in his own state. When you see these numbers, what do they mean to you, maggie. As you say, donald trump is not going to be going anywhere for a while. He sees no reason to go anywhere for a while. Theres been a remarkable staying power to trump in a lot of the polls. Political watchers who have been looking at races for years, most of them thought by now his numbers would have started coming down, based on all of the factors, his fights in debates, the comments hes made, issues as hes gotten involved in. His base is very, very solid for now. That could change. But for now, he is sucking all the oxygen out of this race that is clearly going to continue well into next month. We have one more debate at the end of the month. He says the reason people say hes going to get out is because theres bias against him. The onw significance, what is t significance of having a high builtin negative . Its a high builtin negative, like 60 with these unfavorable views. Another way to look at the polls, yes, hes holding firm in the 20 range. Hes not going up. How can you have such high, unfavorable numbers and both of them, i dont know if we can pull up clintons, pennsylvania 54 . Both of them are leading the polls, maggie. It defies logic in my brain. It is unusual except if you look at what happened in the midterms last year. You had a lot of candidates in senate races and gubernatorial races where they had higher unfavorable ratings than they had approval ratings. I think the toxicity in terms of the conversation, in terms of politics right now is very high. And it is sort of bringing down all boats for lack of a better way of putting it. In terms of clinton and trump, those are the two people who get the most media coverage. Sure. Thats just the way it is. Theres been obviously extensive coverage of Hillary Clintons email use. She had builtin negatives coming in. With trump were learning. Theres an evolution of him as a candidate and what he means to the process. This was always the gamble with hillary, shed have a big base support, women would be potentially energized in the democrat and independent spaces like never before. Shes a clinton, that means things that are often negative for people. She was not upsite down. This is since she got into the race. Outside the race and inside the race are always different. Sure. Even with joe biden, his numbers will change rapidly if he gets in. Yes, being a candidate is very different from not being a candidate. To errols point, these are not states where youve seen other candidates organizing yet. The later states in primaries tend to follow what happened in the earlier states. We are a few days out from the election, obviously. Yes. These numbers could change drastically. Dramatically. Weve seen that happen before. Our business is to crunch through them, each poll that comes out. Thats an important thing to consider at this point. Absolutely. List, its about when youre asked in a poll, if the election were held today, which of these candidates would you vote for . If the list gets smaller and smaller, peoples calculations change. Just because people have an unfavorable view of Hillary Clinton, if youre a diehard democrat, if you go into the booth, thats one of two or three names you have to pick from, maybe you hold your nose and cast that vote. The other thing to keep in mind, this goes to your interview yesterday with donald trump. If youre at 20 , 25 , 28 , what it also means is that 7 out of 10 republicans dont want you. Thats what it proves. There may be a builtin ceiling for him. Sure. Thats the objective criterion of challenge for him. Polls, we keep saying it on the show, we like fresh numbers. You do, too. Theyre just a moment in time. They are a moment in time. They are. Look at that moment in time, not what it means dispositively but right now. They can create momentum. Especially if youre low. They mean less this far out. Were going to see sure. Theyll mean much closer to the iowa caucuses. That mean more for the people having trump staying in. Theyll have to get to the bottom of why people think clinton is untrustworthy. They can because it is the clinton style. Whats easier to fix, clintons builtin negative or trumps builtin negative. Clintons. Easier to fix . Absolutely. Even with all the years and the exposure . Shes first of all, she doesnt have 12 people coming at after her. She has a lot of experience and a big track record that she can sort of call on allies. She has her husband whos one of the best campaigners in the business. Shes got a lot of different ways to change this. Ben carson asked about the shooting in oregon and we have sound that we can play. Im curious your reaction on what you hear. I guess theres an implication that youre saying that the students didnt do enough to save themselves . I just said nothing about them. I said what i would do. Can you say what you would do . I would ask everybody to attack the gunman. He can only shoot one at a time. That way we dont all wind up dead. He was on the view and said i wouldnt have sat there and let him shoot me, at least we all wound up dead and laughed and that caused great consternation and the twittersphere erupted. This is not something you tend to hear allot from candidates. I think the republican field in general has struggled with how to react to these Mass Shootings. Weve sean a bunch offer the summer. I think the oregon one seems to have presented people with the hardest. You saw jeb bush struggle last week with answering it. While people argue his stuff happens, quote, was taken out of context, he was making the broader point that he thinks there should not be changes in gun laws. When you hear what ben carson is saying, that is not something you typically hear a politician say or, you know, or an elected official say in response to i amass shooting. Its also what he represents that many people are attracted to. It is. This is where a lot of peoples common sense brains take them. If someone is going to try to kill you, do what you can at the moment. The laugh at the ended is what hes getting beaten up for. Is a little bit of that trying to diffuse the situation and move on. It could be a nervous tick, trying to diffuse the issue. This is a core policy difference between the rains and the democrats in this race, is that this whole notion we should be arming Kindergarten Teachers because theyll have a shootout over their 5yearolds. It sounds crazy because it sounds like this is coming from people who have never met a Kindergarten Teacher this is just not a realistic way to solve a very important public problem. I think republicans are sort of giving away a lot of issues with that kind of callous talk. Its cringe worthy. It doesnt sound like my mother is a Kindergarten Teacher you changed my whole image with that one thought. I met your mother. She would not need a gun. Raised eyebrows. Absolutely. Its worked with many years for me. Maggie, errol, always a pleasure. New numbers, we love to have them. We do. The polls are only as good as the input data from the people being polled. That comes from debates. Guess what, were just six days away from the first democratic debate. Better bank some sleep, fellow. I know, right . Hosted by cnn and facebook. Its in vegas. I have my skinny jeans and velvet smoking jacket ready. Dont it the hate. Tuesday, 8 30 p. M. Eastern right here on cnn. Its all about you. If you have a question youd like to ask, head over to cnns Facebook Page or record a short video for instagram. Using the demdebate. I dont need to hate. Vegas will handle you. Dont hate, dem debate. All right. Other news, growing tensions over russias military escalation in syria. Breaking overnight, moscow says its open to cooperating with the u. S. On air strikes in syria. This comes as russias air assault continues where new strikes this morning, hitting several towns in western syria. Cnns arwa damon is live in istanbul, turkey. Arwa . Reporter good morning, michaela. Dramatic video being posted by activists purporting to show the strikes taking place. No confirmation just yet if the video is in fact that of russian aircraft and exactly what sort of artillery may have been used. But what we are hearing being reported from the syrian observatory for human rights is that Syrian Regime forces are taking advantage of these air strikes and that in some of these areas where the strikes took place, the fiercest clashes are taking place on the ground between Regime Forces and antiassad rebel groups. This is quite interesting, especially given the fact that you were mentioning, russia has said it is willing to coordinate with the United States when it comes to air strikes but america and russia are on two opposite sides of this conflict, with russia saying its strikes are, yes, against isis but also against other groups that the Syrian Government deems to be terrorist organizations. The United States only wants to see russia itself being targeted. Nato also speaking out about the russian buildup in inside syria, saying that the russian deployment of significant forces in syria is of great concern. Nato also bringing up at least two violations of turkish air space that took place over the weekend. The turks and the russians getting together, coming out and saying that, yes, it was a mistake but turkish preside president erpresident saying not to push his country any further. The foreign minister speaking out saying without a doubt, russia will win this race. Thats a direct comment and perhaps a challenge to the u. S. Led coalition, chris. Arwa, as you have continued to remind the politics, the military action, all adds to the stress of those trying to live their life on the ground. Well be watching that as a byproduct of all of this. Thank you for the reporting. The head of u. S. Forces in afghanistan, related to whats going on in syria, because isis and al qaeda are also there. He says theyre getting stronger. As a result hes adjusting his recommendation for the number of troops needed there. Cnn International Diplomatic editor Nic Robertson live in kabul, afghanistan with more. How many more . What do we know . And what is the situation on the ground that theyre so worried about, nic . Reporter sure. I mean you have the taliban in the tens of thousand, getting stronger across the country. A challenge to the Afghan National army here. U. S. Is supporting it, helping train it, helping it get battle ready. But add into that mix now, you have al qaeda in a growing strength again, you have thousands of isis fighters here now. You have other insurgents crossing over from pakistan and for that reason, the general in charge here, campbell, says hell have to change his recommendation or give president obama different options than pretty much drawing all those forces down by the end of next year. This is what he said. Based on conditions on the ground, based on the transitions ive talked about, i do believe that we have to provide our Senior Leadership options different than the current plan that were going with. Reporter of course, in the news, the kunduz hospital, the u. S. Air strike there, Doctors Without Borders, frustrated that they dont think theyre going to get the investigation they want. I was talking to people from kunduz, people forced out by the taliban, i said, look, hows the army doing . Do you need u. S. Support . They said, absolutely. Our army isnt strong enough, it isnt capable. It ran away from the taliban in places, saying kunduz. We want the military support, just dont hit the hospitals and please, no civilian casualties. The u. S. In their assessment still really needed. U. S. Secretary of defense, ash carter, addressed that particular concern directly when he said yesterday the u. S. Military takes the greatest care in our operations to prevent the loss of innocent life and we make and when we make mistakes we will own up to them. Clearly a need here, from the people, certainly John Campbell, the u. S. General in charge here, his assessment, the u. S. Military has a role to play here. Heavy hearts about this one for sure. Nic, thank you. Mean mile we turn to the coast guard zeroing in on their search zones athey look desperately for survivors from that sunker cargo ship, el faro. Family and friends of the 33 crew members holding vigils, agonizing over the fate of the loved ones. The owners say the captain had a plan to deal with, at the time, Tropical Storm joaquin. This is certainly something thats being looked at. Ma what kind of Weather Information was available to the crew and the captain. The coast guard has been out through the night looking for survivors, covering more than 172,000 square miles in the search for the 33 people who were on board that ship that set sail from jacksonville, headed to puerto rico. The owners of the company are under a lot of pressure now to answer questions about why the ship left the port. They are saying they put their trust in the captain to be the decisionmakers, that as recently as last wednesday, they had heard from the captain of that ship who reported that he was aware of the increasingly difficult and dangerous weather conditions but he reported that the ship was still in a favorable position. Still, why wouldnt the owners of this ship have stopped el faro from setting sail, given that the hurricane was emerging and seemed to be in the direction that this ship was heading . Heres how they answered those questions. Given what he had in the way of information about the weather system, his plan was a sound plan that would have enabled him to clearly pass around the storm with a margin of comfort that was adequate in his professional opinion. We all now know what happened by thursday. Thats when the captain of the ship reported to the Parent Company that the ship had become disabled, that it had lost propulsion. Its not clear why the ship became disabled. The captain report there had been some kind of navigational incident. This is what left the ship to become so vulnerable as it headed for a category 4 hurricane which emerged. The ntsb is on scene, they are trying to determine what caused the ship to become disabled but as they look for answers, the coast guard remains tasked with looking for survivors. Yes. And this is something the families are holding out hope for. Alexandra, thank you for the latest. In our next hour, well speak with a friend of the captain of that doomed cargo ship. Hes a mariner himself, to try to get insight on what could have happened. Chris . To South Carolina. Right now, nothing but trouble. Dam breaks, emergency evacuations, rising death tolls, billions in damage, countless families left with nothing. Cnns Boris Sanchez is live in king street, South Carolina. More there. The rain has stopped. That gives the illusion the problem is over. The opposite is the truth. What do you see . Reporter governor nikki haley said yesterday, dont let the sunshine fool you. You shouldnt. The situation still dire here in South Carolina. Ill pain. A picture of whats going on behind me in just a moment, chris. Ill give you numbers that are staggering. There are 11 dams that have failed here in South Carolina since saturday. 35 of them that are being monitored right now because theyre at risk of breaching. Theres about 70 miles of i95 that are shut down in the state. I95 only runs for about 200 miles in South Carolina. Thats a giant chunk of highway that is shut down right now as 5 to 8 bridges are being inspected there. You mention the death toll. There are about 15 dead here in South Carolina, 2 in north carolina. Weve gotten word there have been at least 175 water rescues since this weekend. That number will rise dramatically. Keep in mind a fire chief here in kings street, said theyer with formed 50 water rescues. Inclu including one early this morning. The neighborhood behind me is an area called fools hill. Its completely submerged. There are several feet of water, the water is moving east, covering a highway to the east of us. The situation unfolding far from normal, michaela. Far from normal. So sobering to see those image. Youre talking around seeing it firsthand. We appreciate your reporting. Thank you so much. The biggest mass release of federal inmates in u. S. Prison history begins later this month. Tens of thousands more could soon follow after maximum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders were lowered. The Justice Department says about a third are noncitizens and they would face deportation. These releases come as many cities see a surge in murders and violent crimes. Another scare in the air involving a pilot getting sick midflight. This Time United Airlines copilot passed out about an hour after takeoff. The houston to San Francisco flight forced to divert to new mexico. The copilot left the plane under his own power. Its still unclear what was wrong with him, this just days after an American Airlines pilot died after suffering an apparent midair heart attack. Goodness me. All right. Russia launching new air strikes in syria overnight. All the while talking about cooperating with the United States in future strikes. Could the u. S. And russia cross paths leading to military confrontation . We are going to speak to a former nato ecommander, ahead. Ugh heartburn no one burns on my watch try alkaseltzer heartburn reliefchews. They work fast and dont taste chalky. Mmm. Amazing. I have hear