If noted Democratic strategist and campaign veteran Bob Shrum was invited into the Hillary Clinton campaign war room, he would offer up some sage advice: “Get on with it!”

With the latest polls showing the Democratic front-runner’s unfavorable ratings up to 50% and an increasing number of voters telling pollsters that she is not honest and trustworthy, Shrum told a special live edition of TRAIL TALK (@TrailTalkPod) that “a lot of people thought that Hillary Clinton was vaccinated against scandal stories – that voters after 23 years of these things just didn’t care and wouldn’t pay attention. Well, it looks like they might care and they are paying attention. I think that was compounded by the fact that the soft launch of her campaign, which I thought was smart, went on way too long and left a vacuum. And in that vacuum, we talked about emails and we talked about the Clinton Foundation. What she has to do right now is set out a vision for the future, a vision for the country, and she has to energize herself and energize voters.”

Also featured on the live podcast, held at Georgetown’s Dog Tag Bakery to celebrate the official launch last month of TRAIL TALK by former TV Producers Tammy Haddad and Betsy Fischer Martin, Republican strategist and former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee Rob Collins agreed and noted that Hillary Clinton’s lack of accessibility could prove to be problematic when compared to the largely talkative Republican field. “I can’t identify a candidate on our side who has a desire to not talk to press the way we see with Hillary, closing her bubble around her tight.”

Shrum and Collins also weighed in on the impact of Bill Clinton, the growing controversy over the Republican Presidential debate process, the role of Super PACs, and whether a high-profile political figure could throw his/her hat into the ring to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

Download the full broadcast on AudioBoom or iTunes.

Rob Collins, former NRSC Executive Director, and Bob Shrum, former Democratic presidential campaign manager, will be the special guests for tonight’s launch party of the Trail Talk Podcast at Dog Tag Bakery.

Trail Talk was created by veteran TV producers Tammy Haddad and Betsy Fischer Martin to feature up close news from the 2016 presidential campaign trail. Futures episodes will highlight strategists, journalists, lawmakers, pollsters and the candidates themselves, exploring what it takes to get elected, how policy decisions are made, and why it matters.

Look for a live stream of the podcast from tonight’s party at 7 pm ET on whcinsider.com.

For Episode 2 of Trail Talk, Tammy Haddad and Betsy Fischer Martin spoke with presidential candidate Carly Fiorina. Following are excerpts of the interview where she discusses RNC debates, Hillary Clinton, her departure from HP, and being underestimated. Download the podcast on AudioBoom or iTunes.

ON BEING INCLUDED/EXCLUDED IN THE RNC DEBATES
MS. FISCHER MARTIN: Do you expect to be in the debates?
MS. FIORINA: I do.
MS. FISCHER MARTIN: And have you talked to the RNC about that, and what do you think the criteria, if anything, should be?
MS. FIORINA: I have not had a specific conversation with the RNC about that. It’s not something they’re prepared to talk to candidates about. They need to go through that, their decision-making process. But, I know what it feels like on the ground, and I know that we are, look, I’m not a professional politician, so a lot of people don’t even know who I am yet [chuckles].
MS. FISCHER MARTIN: Right, which is going to be hard when you’re polling with 15, 16 other people in a poll, there naturally is going to be a large group of people who are polling at 1 or 2 percent.
MS. FIORINA: That’s right.
MS. FISCHER MARTIN: And, if the RNC says, “We are going to cut it off at 5 percent,” how do you make the case or what do you do if you’re not included?
MS. FIORINA: Well, it’s May and my candidacy is ten days old.
MS. FISCHER MARTIN: So you expect to be higher in the polls by August.
MS. FIORINA: Of course.

ON HILLARY CLINTON AS A FORMIDABLE CANDIDATE
She’s a formidable woman, and she’ll be a formidable candidate. She will raise more money than anybody. She will have a great ground game, which the Democrat Party has built up over two election cycles. She’s hard working. She’s very smart.

ON HILLARY CLINTON AND TRUSTWORTHINESS
She has peddled fiction…the story about the server in her basement; I mean nobody believes that that was anything other than a purposeful attempt to shield her communications from people she didn’t think deserved to look at them. It’s inconceivable to most people that she didn’t consider it a conflict of interest when foreign governments are providing millions of dollars to her family’s foundation and paying her husband huge speaking fees while she is serving as Secretary of State. And despite an agreement to disclose all this, she did not disclose any of it. I mean people understand that that indicates a lack of transparency and trustworthiness.

ON BEING FIRED FROM HP
When you challenge the status quo, you make enemies. But leaders challenge the status quo. It’s their job. Managers operate within the status quo. Managers do the best they can within the existing system. And I would argue we got lots of politicians who are managers.

ON BEING UNDERESTIMATED
MS. HADDAD: Any lessons along the way you want to share?
MS. FIORINA: Well, actually I was a scared goody-two shoes, shy middle child. And [chuckles], you know, I started out as a secretary. And perhaps one of the things I’ve learned along the — I mean I’ve been underestimated all my life, starting as a secretary and ultimately becoming a chief executive of the largest technology company in the world, lots of people underestimated me along the way.

For Episode 2 of the Trail Talk Podcast, we spoke to Republican Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina from the campaign trail.

In a crowded field of candidates, Fiorina says she fully expects to be included in the first GOP debate later this summer and she defends her role as one of the sharpest critics of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. More personally, Fiorina talks about the leadership lessons that she learned from her rocky tenure as the CEO of HP and how she grew up from a “scared goody-two shoes, shy middle child” into a confident woman.

You can download Episode 2 on iTunes or AudioBoom and subscribe to future episodes via the Washington Insider Channel on iTunes or AudioBoom. If you missed our first episode with Sen. Lindsey Graham and the creator of House of Cards, Beau Willimon you can listen here.

Follow us on Twitter @TrailTalkPod!