Trump Increases GOP Lead, Favorability UP
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: "The Face of Evil" airs tonight at 9:00 eastern on CNN. Thanks for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. AT THIS HOUR with Berman and Bolduan starts right now.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump says he loves women, and apparently Republican women now love him back. The surprising new poll results as the billionaire pulls away from the pack. First, a pipe bomb, now a grenade hitting a major tourist hub. Who is behind the attacks? A manhunt under way for the person in this video. And then, is one of America's most elite prep schools hiding a sick game, a sex competition that includes score boards, virginity, and rape? The new allegations of a dark secret. Hello. I'm John Berman. Kate Bolduan is off today. I'm in Washington today where the question this morning is whether Donald Trump should be getting ready to move to Washington for about four years or so. Maybe they can put an addition on the White House to make him more comfortable. A brand new CNN/ORC poll shows Donald Trump not just ahead in the polls but now ahead by 11 points, a margin that is growing. His support over the last month has jumped more than any other candidate despite a debate performance that was controversial to say the least. But that doesn't even begin to tell the big story in our new poll. He is blowing away the competition on almost every issue, issues that these other guys have spent careers working on. CNN's senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, has all the inside stories on the inside numbers -- Jeff?</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Well, Donald Trump now we can say has gone from summer fling to maybe fall front-runner. He is entering this next phase of this campaign locked in first place, at least for now. So these numbers provide a glimpse into what is happening at this moment of this Republican presidential campaign. Donald Trump is supported by a quarter of all Republican voters, and the rest of the field as we just saw is really so far behind him. A couple of the things I was struck by in the polls, let's go through the numbers here sort of one by one. I was struck by the fact that Donald Trump across the board has a stronger command on who voters think can handle some issues. Let's take a look at this, the economy. 45 percent of voters say that Donald Trump is the best person to handle the economy. Illegal immigration, 44 percent. Handling ISIS and foreign policy, 32 percent. Even social issues like abortion, 19 percent. Now that is perhaps his Achilles' heel in this Republican field, but moving on interestingly as you said in the open, the gender split. 60 percent of Republican women in our national poll say that they have a favorable opinion of Donald Trump. About the same as men, 57 percent. That's within the margin of error but that's six in 10 women. Now, moving forward here, this is a fascinating number. 58 percent of Republicans say their chances are better without Donald Trump. 40 percent say with. You ask, why is that? Well, that's because there are so many other Republicans in the field. That number makes up all the 60 percent. So this is why Republican leaders, party leaders, are worried about sort of his long-term viability. Finally, let's take a look at this. On this education divide here we have this in front of us, non-college graduates, that's where he gets his biggest support from. 28 percent of non-college graduates say they support him. College graduates are much less likely to support him, John. So these are the outlines of Donald Trump's support here. He's getting strong support from women, non-college graduates, and we see he has command of the issues. The question is when will some of the other Republicans in the field start taking him on. Is it going to work or not? I believe that, you know, looking at those top 10 in the field, we saw that Chris Christie has dropped out of the top 10, but for Jeb Bush, he's at 13 percent. That's a good number for him at this point.</s>BERMAN: Yeah. 13 percent, although slipping compared to Donald Trump who is clearly --</s>ZELENY: Slipping a bit.</s>BERMAN: -- winning across the board. Jeff Zeleny, great to have you here with us. I want to talk more about the Trump trajectory. I want to bring in Doug Heye, former communications director for the Republican National Committee. Doug, let me go over some of these numbers for you. Donald Trump is leading on immigration despite the fact he has a plan that violates the 14th amendment. He's leading on the economy although he has no solid plan at all. He's leading on the battle against ISIS despite the fact he says he gets his advice from people on TV talk shows. What's going on here?</s>DOUG HEYE, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I think this is a classic case of where dump continues to get more attention than he gets scrutiny. Look at Chuck Todd's interview on "Meet the Press." He doesn't really care a whole lot about NATO. He gets advice from TV. He didn't know the name of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Kind of important if you're going to be president. That came out of a hard-hitting, really hitting on specifics interview, what do we talk about more with Donald Trump this weekend? We talked about helicopter rides. And everybody loves helicopter rides, but ultimately helicopter rides, are not really important to the presidency. But he gets more attention than he gets scrutiny. And as long as that continues, Donald Trump is having the conversation that he wants to have and he will do well.</s>BERMAN: But, Doug, I don't want to disagree with you, one, because I like you --</s>HEYE: But you're going to.</s>BERMAN: -- and, two, you're a guest on the show. But that doesn't explain -- helicopter rides don't explain why he's winning on immigration, why he's leading on the economy, why on is, you know, he says he gets his advice from military leaders on</s>TV. HEYE: I think that some of those problems really haven't sunk in. We haven't heard a whole lot about the 14th amendment until just the past 24 or 48 hours. With military advisers, same thing. What have we heard over the past days and weeks and now months? We've heard the conversation that Donald Trump wants to have. So if he says something bombastic and controversial, it gets covered all day long, and that's where if you're somebody like a Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, you're struggling to get your message out.</s>BERMAN: Let's talk about something that has sunk in now, the debate. He had all those issues dealing with women in the debate, Megyn Kelly, and then after the fact. Look, 60 percent of Republican women have a favorable opinion of Donald Trump. Surely those issues have sunk in, Doug, and he seems to be doing fine.</s>HEYE: Well, and I thought he had problems not only with Megyn Kelly's questions but also some other questions from Bret Baier and Chris Wallace. And then we went back to the name calling and the lack of specifics which Trump has thrived on. As long as that continues he's going to do well because he's having the conversation he wants to have with the voters, which is a nonspecific one.</s>BERMAN: I think I know the answer to this question, but 58 percent of Republicans say the party is better off or would be better off without Trump in the race right now. 58 percent say they'd be better off without Donald Trump. What do you say, Doug? Are you among the 58 percent?</s>HEYE: If he wants to run, he's obviously doing well in the polls right now. That's all fine. I think as we dive down into more specifics, as voters pay more attention to issues, I think Trump will really start to wither away but that comes with tough questioning not about Lindsey Graham's cell phone number or name calling of John McCain and all those things that have dominated so much of our time but to continue to dive down into the specifics where we see he has trouble. Those things need to seep in and they haven't done so yet.</s>BERMAN: We will wait and see. Every week that goes by is a week where people do pay some attention. Doug Heye, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.</s>HEYE: Thank you.</s>BERMAN: Donald Trump is a good segue to a tropical depression in the Atlantic right now. I want to bring in Chad Myers because he has new information. Chad, it has been a pretty quiet hurricane season so far but now there's a storm you have your eye on.</s>CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: All the way back to august of 1992 a very slow season until Andrew decided to pop up. Yes, it has been a slow season. We've only had three named storms. This will likely be the fourth. It will likely be Danny. Here it is out in the middle of the Atlantic and this is still days and days away. Please don't start to panic about this, but keep watching it because the forecast center here, hurricane center, says this will be a category 2 hurricane before it finally gets to the Windward Islands and it may be stronger than that. This is how far we are away from anything. We are way out here in the Atlantic. The United States way over here. So this storm is still thousands of mild away from any significant landfall, but at least for now all of the models taking it and moving it right straight toward the West, not turning it on up toward the northeast or away from land or into the Atlantic Ocean, which we call a gutter ball, as it goes between Bermuda and the United States. So far, not happening with this storm, but it's building, it's getting stronger and it will likely be the biggest storm of the year so far.</s>BERMAN: Biggest of the year so far, Chad, which is why you will keep your eye on it. Thank you so much. Breaking today, a new explosion rocks a tourist hub. This time, a grenade, and now police are hunting down the man in this video. The distinctive yellow shirt. What does it mean? Plus, a tradition of sexual scoring at one of the most prestigious prep schools in the country. The allegations, which include a sex competition, and now in the spotlight during a rape trial. And most who start do not make it out. For the first time in history, two women just completed one of the most grueling boot camps in the country. Hear what they had to do to pass Ranger training.