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Trump: Clinton Lacks "Physical Stamina" to Fight ISIS; Russia, U.S. Moscow Negotiations on Syria; Trump Wants Extreme Vetting of Immigrants. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 16, 2016 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:01:04] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We begin this hour with what could be a radical shift in America's alliances and the global war on ISIS. Russia's defense minister now says Moscow and Washington are in very active negotiations on how to wage a joint fight against the terror group in Syria.

CNN's Matthew Chance joins us now live from Moscow with more on this. Hi, Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, thank so much. That's right. Well, negotiations, in fact, have been going on for some time now between the United States military and their Russian counterparts trying to find what common ground there might be between these two countries in their conflicting kind of objectives over Syria.

Of course Russia is engaged in a brutal air war backing up the forces of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Currently the battle is for the Syrian second city of Aleppo. And it's about Aleppo that these latest comments have been made to the Russian state news agency tasked by Sergey Shoygu. He's the Russian Defense minister saying that the negotiations between the United States and Russia are very active at the moment as they try to find this common ground.

We are step by step approaching an alternative. And he says he's talking only about Aleppo that will help us find some points in common to actually start a joint fight to establish peace in the region. So if this is agreed and it's some way off at the moment, then you're right, it could be a major departure from the situation before it.

COSTELLO: OK. So two questions. Why just Aleppo and not all of Syria and how long have these negotiations been ongoing?

CHANCE: Well, they've been going on for several months, in fact, on and off. There's been a lot of contact between the various militaries over the past several months to try and establish what common ground there might be. It's part of an engagement policy to make sure that Russia and the United States, for instance, coordinate their airstrikes over Syria, and don't run into each other in any kind of confrontational way.

As to why it's just Aleppo, I think that stands to the fact that the objectives of both the United States and Russia in Syria are very different. Russia, of course a strong backer of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president. The United States categorically opposed to him continuing in power. And so it's only in these localized areas that they are it going to be able to find any common ground, if they're going to be able to find any common ground at all. They are still on opposite sides of the conflict.

COSTELLO: All right. Matthew Chance, reporting live from Moscow this morning. Thank you.

All of this on the heels of Donald Trump's big speech on foreign policy and protecting the United States from radical Islam.

CNN's Athena Jones live in Washington with that. Good morning, Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Donald Trump is usually unscripted, but he was on script and on message yesterday in Ohio, talking about what he would do to defeat terrorism. And he made a change or a turn in his speech after repeatedly questioning the value of the NATO alliance some weeks ago. You'll remember. He's vowing to work with partners to fight terrorism and with Clinton and her allies raising questions about his temperament, he's now trying to raise doubts about her judgment and fitness for office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I call it extreme, extreme vetting.

JONES (voice-over): Donald Trump delivering a fiery speech on his ideas for fighting radical Islamic terrorism, proposing a different kind of admission tests for people entering the United States.

TRUMP: In addition to screening out all members of the sympathizers of terrorist groups, we must also screen out any who have hostile attitudes toward our country or its principles or who believe that Sharia law should supplant American law.

Those who do not believe in our constitution or who support bigotry and hatred will not be admitted for immigration into our country.

[09:05:02] JONES: Trump calling for bans on immigration from countries with ties to terror.

TRUMP: We will have to temporarily suspend immigration from some of the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism.

JONES: And simultaneously trashing Hillary Clinton's capabilities.

TRUMP: With one episode of bad judgment after another, Hillary Clinton's policies launched ISIS on to the world stage. She also lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS.

JONES: The Democratic trifecta, President Obama, Vice President Biden, and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, hitting Trump on all fronts. At a DNC fundraising event Monday night, President Obama refusing to mention Trump by name, but quipping, "I don't have to make the case against her opponent because every time he talks, he makes the case against his own candidacy."

Clinton and Biden together in Biden's hometown of Scranton launching their preemptive attack.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Friends should not let friends vote for Trump.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This guy doesn't care about the middle class. And I don't even blame him in a sense because he doesn't understand it. He doesn't have a clue. This man is totally, thoroughly unqualified to be president of the United States of America.

JONES: Biden slamming Trump as a threat to national security.

BIDEN: There's a guy that follows me right back here who has the nuclear codes. So God forbid anything happened to the president and I had to make a decision. The codes are with me. He is not qualified to know the code. He can't be trusted.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: So Trump holds a rally and town hall in Wisconsin today. Clinton will be in Pennsylvania attending a voter registration event in Philadelphia. And meanwhile in a sign of confidence, Priorities USA, the super PAC supporting Clinton now says it's not going to air any local ads in Virginia, Colorado or Pennsylvania through most of September, saying in a statement, "We know at the moment these are tough states for Donald Trump and there isn't as much of a need for us to air ads there," Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Athena Jones, reporting live from Washington. Thank you.

So to talk about all of this including Trump's anti-ISIS strategy and the talks between Washington and Moscow, I want to bring in Peter Hoekstra, he's a Trump surrogate and former Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

Welcome, sir.

PETER HOEKSTRA, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Hey, thank you. Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. Can you respond to Vice President Joe Biden saying that Mr. Trump should not have access to the button?

HOEKSTRA: I can respond to it and say it's a totally inappropriate comment. Donald Trump clearly has the skills necessary to make those kinds of judgment. He laid out a very, very good strategy yesterday to confront the threat that we face from radical Islam. His strategy is much better than the strategy that this president and this vice president and their secretary of state have implemented over the last seven and a half years.

It's probably the best indication that Donald Trump has the capability to -- and the capacity to deal with those codes because he actually has a strategy that can work.

COSTELLO: Some observers say that his strategy is very similar to President Obama's. And I'll give you an example of that this morning.

Matthew Chance at the top of our show said that Russia -- Russia is saying that the Obama administration is negotiating with Russia to find common ground in Aleppo, Syria. Just Aleppo. So the Russians and the Americans are talking and negotiating. This has been going on for a few months. Would Mr. Trump approve?

HOEKSTRA: Absolutely, Mr. Trump would approve, but what Mr. Trump would also say is that the only reason that Obama is negotiating with the Russians today is that the strategy that he's had in place for the last number of years has put America into a place where we have to go and negotiate. America's actions in Iraq, in Egypt, in Syria created a vacuum that's been filled by the Russians and has given the Russians new opportunities to increase their influence and we'd never be in the situation that we are in today if the Obama administration had not aligned with radical jihadists to overthrow the Egyptian government of Mubarak to overthrow Libya and overthrow Assad in Syria.

COSTELLO: So you're saying the Obama administration aligned itself with jihadist forces?

HOEKSTRA: In Egypt, they aligned themselves with the Muslim Brotherhood. In Libya, they aligned themselves to the Muslim Brotherhood.

COSTELLO: Didn't Egypt have a democratically held election?

HOEKSTRA: They facilitated -- in Egypt they sent a clear signal that it was time for Mubarak to go. In Libya they allied and they trained, equipped the people that overthrow -- overthrew Gadhafi.

[09:10:09] Gadhafi had been an ally and Libya had been an island of stability in Northern Africa for eight and a half years and Secretary Clinton and the president decided to align themselves with radical groups to get rid of Gadhafi and it's been a disaster.

COSTELLO: OK, so, Mr. Trump.

HOEKSTRA: Ever since. And they did the same thing in Syria.

COSTELLO: Mr. Trump would be in favor of having kept Muammar Gadhafi in power.

Let's talk about Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president. Because as you know the United States is at odds with the Syrian president. And now the U.S. and Russia are negotiating over the city of Aleppo. As you e know, Bashar al-Assad, by all accounts, is guilty of using chemical weapons against his own people, which is why the United States is not so much a fan of him. So would Mr. Trump be in favor of keeping Bashar al-Assad in power in Syria?

HOEKSTRA: I don't know whether Mr. Trump would be in favor of keeping Assad in power at this point, but what he would have been in favor of is he would never have articulated and implemented a half-baked idea that says we're going to get -- we're going to support the groups that are going to overthrow Assad, And then go into that effort half- hearted, draw red lines and never execute a strategy. And like in Libya, hey never even got to the point about thinking --

COSTELLO: Well, I'm trying -- I'm trying to figure out, sir, and I apologize for interrupting. I'm trying to figure out what exactly Mr. Trump would do because these are complicated matters.

HOEKSTRA: They are very complicated.

COSTELLO: So would he say to the Russians -- would he say to the Russians, you know what, We cannot support Bashar al-Assad because he uses chemical weapons on his own people. How would Trump negotiate that?

HOEKSTRA: Well, number one, like I said, Mr. Trump would never have gotten the United States --

COSTELLO: But we're here now. I just want to know how he would go forward.

HOEKSTRA: Well, what he would do is that he's made it clear that he would negotiate with the Russians to defeat the radical jihadists ISIS in Syria and other places in the Middle East and once we defeated ISIS then we would decide where we would go with the regimes that would be impacted by that.

COSTELLO: No, no, I get that. It's just that Russia has other interests within Syria and one of those interests is keeping Bashar al-Assad in power. Not necessarily to defeat ISIS. They're 100 percent, you know, for that. So how would Mr. Trump finesse that?

HOEKSTRA: Well, Mr. Trump has made it very clear. We are not going to take our eyes off the ball like the Obama administration did in Egypt, Libya and Syria. Our focus, number one, is going to defeat ISIS. And once ISIS and radical jihadists have been contained, then we will move on to those other issues. But the most important thing is today is to eliminate the caliphate that ISIS has in Syria and in Iraq because it's created a refugee crisis throughout Europe. Keep our eye on the ball. Our eye has to be focused on defeating ISIS.

COSTELLO: All right. Congressman Peter Hoekstra, thanks so much for joining me this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, forget strategy. Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton doesn't have the physical stamina to defeat is. What exactly does that mean? We'll talk about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:37] COSTELLO: Members of Congress could soon receive notes from Hillary Clinton interview with the FBI about her private e-mail server. The FBI, which said it does not have a complete transcript of the interview, is responding to a request from several Republican lawmakers.

They asked to see the notes after FBI Director James Comey called Clinton extremely careless in the handling of classified information during congressional testimony. We'll keep you posted.

Instead of focusing on Clinton's private e-mail controversy, Mr. Trump used that word to disparage Hillary Clinton, that word "stamina". He insisted on a national stage that Clinton not only lacks the physical stamina to fight ISIS, but her mental state might not be up to the task either.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Importantly, she also lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS and all of the many adversaries we face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Some observers predicted this kind of strategy. Rumors of Clinton's allegedly failing health have been featured on the cover of "The National Enquirer", a paper Mr. Trump says he respects. We should also note, "The Enquirer" is published by one of his closest friends.

The Drudge Report, a conservative blog, is asking this morning whether Clinton needs to rest on weekends.

And on FOX News, Sean Hannity, a Trump supporter, has done entire programs questioning Clinton's health, never mind the fact there is no evidence Mrs. Clinton is suffering from anything.

On the other hand, more than a few observers have questioned Trump's sanity, including Clinton, Michael Bloomberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: As an independent, I am asking you to join with me not out of party loyalty, but out of love of country. And together -- and together, let's select a sane, competent person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. So let's talk about this. With me now, Amy Kremer, co-chair of Women Vote Trump, and Kurt Eichenwald, a senior writer and columnist for "Newsweek".

Welcome to you both. Good morning.

So, Amy, are these comments out of line?

AMY KREMER, WOMEN VOTE TRUMP: Well, Carol, I think that he is just echoing something that we're hearing from people all across the country right now that they are concerned about Hillary Clinton's mental or not mental but physical health.

[09:20:00] And is she -- does she have what it takes? And that's simply because she's had some injuries. She did suffer concussion and then following that, a blood clot.

And as we have seen from Huma Abedin's e-mails, you know, she's written in January of 2013, she wrote she was easily confused. I think there's concern. I do think that her medical record should be released. I think that it probably what Mr. Trump is referring to.

COSTELLO: So, it doesn't matter that Hillary Clinton's personal physician released a letter proclaiming her, quote, and I do think we do have that letter, if we could bring it up, that would be nice. The letter, it proclaimed, "a healthy female with hyperthyroidism and seasonal allergies."

The doctor went on, her name is Dr. Lisa Bardack, that Hillary Clinton is in excellent physical condition and after Hillary Clinton suffered that concussion, she went on to testify before a committee on Benghazi.

So, why are people still wondering about Hillary Clinton's physical health, Amy?

KREMER: Well, I am not a medical professional and I don't proclaim to be one. But from my understanding, a concussion can cause injuries that it may not show up on a regular CT scan or MRI. It's something that all Americans should be concerned.

I think that -- I mean, look, if you go back to Dole and McCain, they produced all their medical records because their health and physical well-being was called into question too. Were they physically fit to serve this office?

So I don't think it's anything unusual. I think that it's something that Americans should be concerned about. We want to know what kind of physical health our commander-in-chief is in.

COSTELLO: So, Kurt, some comments that Sean Hannity made on his show inspired you to write a column for "Newsweek". I want to play some of Hannity's remarks so people can understand. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Let me go back to this video, Dr. Siegel, on the screen now. We'll put it up again. I mean, it's a violent, violent, repetitive jerking of the head here. You can see it's uncontrollable. Watch the reporter like pull back. The reporter got scared and she keeps doing it. What is that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So, Kurt, you are watching that and? KURT EICHENWALD SENIOR WRITER & COLUMNIST, NEWSWEEK: It's nothing. I

mean, Sean Hannity tried to say that it was seizures. I have seizures. And I got to tell you, it was incredibly offensive that Sean Hannity took something that no confident would ever say was a seizure. It was Hillary Clinton goofing around. And try to make it into a medical case.

And I also want to talk about your other guest just said which is, you know, people are saying, this is the Trump garbage approach, which is you get all the conspiracy theorists online talking about something. You get Sean Hannity talking about something, and then they say, well, people want to know.

Here's what I want to know. You have talked about Hillary Clinton's letter. Here is the letter from Donald Trump's doctor.

And I will say flat out, this is not a real letter, because what you have, number one, it's not from an internist. It's from a doctor who treated digestive problems. Number two, he says that all of Mr. Trump's medical tests are positive. That means that everything he was tested for, he has. No competent or real doctor would write this.

It also says such things Donald Trump will be the healthiest president in the history of the United States. That sounds a lot like Donald Trump. It doesn't have a real letterhead. The letterhead was written on Microsoft Word.

So, they want all of Hillary Clinton's medical records released. Her letter has within it the test results, what tests were done, what the medical history is. None of that Donald Trump has released.

So, if you want to start --

KREMER: Are you a physician? Are you a physician? Because I don't think you're qualified, from my understanding, you're not a physician, and you're not qualified to say what is accurate and what's not with Donald Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: But, Amy, Hillary Clinton released her medical records.

KREMER: I don't think she has.

EICHENWALD: I have not said -- please stop lying.

KREMER: Excuse me?

EICHENWALD: I have not said a word about Donald Trump's health. What I have said is this is not a real letter. Because if you have a doctor who thinks that a test result is positive, that it means you have tested positive for the problem.

That is not something that requires a medical degree. That is something that requires basic, general knowledge. If your doctor is telling you that you are testing positive for every disease he's checking for, then, yes, you do not have a competent doctor.

[09:25:02] This is a gastro interologist. He doesn't have an internist, according to his own letter. He says this is his primary physician, a doctor who treats digestive problems.

Now, I am not putting into question Mr. Trump's health. What I'm saying is, if they want the medical records, then we need an internist a real, a real result of his exams. Give the answers as to what his tests are. Now --

KREMER: How do you --

COSTELLO: Let Amy interject here. I just am wondering if you want Hillary Clinton to release her medical records, all of them, shouldn't Donald Trump do that too?

EICHENWALD: I never said that.

COSTELLO: Not you, I'm saying to Amy.

Shouldn't Donald Trump release them too?

KREMER: You know, I don't have a problem with both of them. I think we should know what our commander-in-chief, what their physical health is. Absolutely I do.

But Donald Trump has not had an injury that can have long-term, lasting effects. As I stated earlier, even her assistant Huma Abedin has said she often gets confused.

COSTELLO: We don't know in what context that e-mail was written. It could have been about something entirely different.

KREMER: I want to say something else. I am not a conspiracy theorist. I don't just follow blindly. I'm capable of thinking for myself.

And, Kurt, I would advise you to get outside of the D.C. and New York media bubble and listen to what the people are saying. At the beginning of August, Rasmussen did a poll, and 59 percent of Americans want to see her medical records.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Amy, let me stop you. Wait, wait, wait.

Amy, do you think those people believe that there's something wrong with Hillary Clinton because conservative media is drumming up these rumors like Sean Hannity, like the Drudge Report, like "The National Enquirer", like Breitbart, with no evidence?

KREMER: Carol, I don't know -- I think there is evidence. ABC News in 2012 reported about her falling and having a concussion. Shortly after that, there was a very serious --

COSTELLO: But her doctor said she recovered and she testified before the Benghazi committee for a very long time after that concussion.

KREMER: And that testimony was delayed after that concussion because of her injury.

EICHENWALD: Can I interject something here?

KREMER: So, I think the American people have a right to be concerned. I think that probably Sean Hannity and others are trying to put the pressure on so that she does release her medical records. Just like the pressure was put on McCain and Dole for them to release their medical records.

COSTELLO: I will say about -- just one second.

I will say when you put on doctors who have not examined the patient, that's not really responsible.

So, Kurt, have your last say.

KREMER: Yes, but Kurt just said that it was nothing. And he's not qualified to say either, Carol.

COSTELLO: Kurt, last word and then I got to go.

EICHENWALD: I absolutely am. Number one, let's go down one quick path. Donald Trump's family has a history of Alzheimer's. Donald Trump has never released a letter from an internist. He's released a letter saying his primary physician is a doctor who treated the digestive system.

If you want to play this game, we can play this game. Or we can simply look at the letters, I encourage people to do it, and reach their conclusions. But if Donald Trump wants to prove he doesn't have Alzheimer's, he should release all of his medical records. See how easy conspiracy theories are.

KREMER: Oh, please?

COSTELLO: I'm going to end it there. I will post both letters on my social media and on my Twitter account. I'll have my production assistants start doing that now.

Thank you for your insight this morning.

KREMER: Thank you, Carol.

EICHENWALD: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Clinton gained ground in the Rust Belt. All eyes on the crucial working class vote, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)