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At This Hour

Trump Supporters Push Debunked Clinton Health Claims; Colin Powell Responds to Clinton Campaign on Email Controversy; ISIS Using Kid Suicide Bombers to Launch Attacks; More Storms Threaten Louisiana. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired August 22, 2016 - 11:30   ET

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


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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[11:33:04] AMY KREMER, CO-CHAIR, WOMEN VOTE TRUMP: The NFL has had major lawsuits from players having concussions years ago. It is a serious issue and the people want it answered. Why not just release the medical records?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hold on. Are you comparing Hillary Clinton's health -- the

KREMER: No, you said that was a long time ago.

HARLOW: -- state of her brain to an NFL player who has a serious concussion after multiple hits?

KREMER: No, you said that was a long time ago and I'm saying, yes, NFL players have --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: So you are making the comparison.

KREMER: My point is it doesn't matter how long ago, Poppy. Just release the medical records.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, you can see it right there, Donald Trump supporters raising questions about Hillary Clinton's health. Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, says, go on the Internet, that's where all the truth is. Of course, there is no documented proof that there's any issue with Hillary Clinton's health.

But let's discuss it more. Here with me now is Amy Kremer, the co- chair of Women Vote Trump, who you heard in that clip there. Also back with us, Susan Del Percio, Angela Rye, and Jackie Kucinich, Washington bureau chief of "The Daily Beast; and a CNN political commentator.

I want to start with you, Amy, because we just heard from you in that clip right there. You say you were trafficking in rumors and innuendos about Hillary Clinton's health, no?

KREMER: No, that's not what I was doing, John. Thanks for having me. But when Poppy said, when I said that Hillary Clinton had two incidents, a concussion and a blood clot, previously, and that's why we want the medical records, Poppy's response was, but that was a long time ago. The bottom line is just release the medical records. That's what it comes down to. Let the American people see. They have a right to know about what kind of mental or physical condition our commander-in-chief is in. That's all there is to it. Just release them

BERMAN: Donald Trump hasn't released his medical records either, nor his tax records are. Are you for Donald Trump releasing them also?

KREMER: I don't have a problem with either. I think we deserve to know what kind of physical health our commander-in-chief is in, absolutely.

BERMAN: I mean, we're all for transparency.

Susan Del Percio, your former boss, Rudy Giuliani, was on the show and he was saying the media's hiding truth about Hillary Clinton's health.

[11:35:] SUSAN DEL PERCIO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think the mayor was a fantastic prosecutor, a great mayor, a great leader. Of all of his skill sets, I do not believe doctor is one of them. I'm not going to judge whether Hillary Clinton is in good health or not. She has met -- you know, she had the letter done of -- like Donald Trump did, stating she's in fine physical health. That should be enough. We go on the Internet, I'm sure Rudy Giuliani does not believe everything he sees on the Internet about him, so that's probably not the best source --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Then, why is the mayor raising this? I'm going to take Amy at her word. What she's asking for is transparency in the election.

DEL PERCIO: I'm not sure why he's bringing it up but maybe he'll get back on to the campaign schedule. I did hear Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump's campaign manager, say on Thursday that she didn't believe that we should be talking about things like this issues. My guess is we'll see all the surrogates back on talking about the issues.

BERMAN: Because it's on the Internet, it's nothing short of rumors and innuendo. Look at this video. It proves something's wrong here. It doesn't. I mean, it's not true.

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's interesting you bring up Sean Hannity because, as we know, Donald Trump brought into his campaign as his campaign chairperson one of the biggest pushers and peddlers of conspiracy theories with Mr. Bannon. So now you have "Breitbart." That's what you see Giuliani doing, what you see Amy doing. I would suggest, frankly, some of the Trump surrogate supporters and maybe the candidate himself get their heads checked because this is the kind of thing you don't need in a campaign. This is horrible. This is the type of thing you saw -- I mean, for laughs, for our laughs. I think it was "The Daily Show" who put out a clip of this woman saying that Hillary Clinton shouldn't have access to nuclear weapons because she had hormones, right. I mean, like, her hormones would be out of control. This is laughable. Maybe save this for "Saturday Night Live," Amy, it doesn't belong on at --

(CROSSTALK)

DEL PERCIO: Plus, talking about the issues that Donald Trump really wants to talk about today.

RYE: We all know what those are.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Go ahead, Amy.

KREMER: I mean, what I'll say is, look, when Hillary Clinton is only campaigning 11 days out of this month so far, where is she? Why isn't she out on the campaign trail? That does --

(CROSSTALK)

RYE: Watching you all mess up. Watching you do stuff like this, Amy. That's what she's doing. She's watching you make a fool out of yourself and your candidate.

(CROSSTALK)

KREMER: Angela, I sorry, but Donald Trump hasn't done nearly as much as --

(CROSSTALK)

KREMER: I'm going to be more respectful to you --

(CROSSTALK)

RYE: That's fine. Truth.

KREMER: -- out on the campaign trail and talking to voters. The reason she thinks she's doing so good is because she's not out there, inaccessible, and she hasn't had a press conference --

(CROSSTALK)

RYE: Look at those polls, Amy --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: You know, guys, can I interject here.

Jackie, go ahead.

(CROSSTALK) JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Donald Trump supporters talking about press conference, it's true, Donald Trump takes questions. Donald Trump also has a black list of reporters of which "The Daily Beast" is on. It's laughable to me to have them talk about Hillary Clinton at a press conference. She absolutely should have some, but they're on --

(CROSSTALK)

KREMER: Jackie, if she's not answering any questions, then the whole media is on her list. At least Donald Trump is answering some questions, seriously. At least he's available, at least he's available.

(CROSSTALK)

KREMER: At least he's available.

KUCINICH: Those answers change, so his availability doesn't matter much.

BERMAN: Let me get one more subject in. I don't think I'm on any of our black lists yet.

(LAUGHTER)

Colin Powell, we talked about it in the last block with Mark Preston and David Chalian. Colin Powell essentially says the Clinton campaign has been trying to pin the e-mail thing on him for some time. Now, we don't know the tone with which he spoke. I don't know if he was angry. I don't know if he's just saying, you know what, I'm not going to talk about this anymore. But it is a little notable, Angela and Susan and Jackie. You guys have said a lot.

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BERMAN: Jackie, let me go with you here.

It is notable that Colin Powell is trying to place some distance between his version of events and Hillary Clinton's.

KUCINICH: Colin Powell doesn't want to this. He had one of his surrogates say he didn't remember this conversation. And, you know, we saw what he said to "People" magazine. It's peculiar why they would bring Colin Powell into this in the first place, because he's someone who could potential endorse Hillary Clinton. A lot of people around him have. He's shown a willingness to endorse Democrats in the past, despite the fact he's a Republican. It really, it's sort of curious why they would bring him in.

BERMAN: Angela, last word?

RYE: I agree with Jackie.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Leave him out of it? Leave Colin Powell out of it?

RYE: I think that's exactly right. This is the type of situation where the campaign continues to have challenges. I think they've made a series of missteps open the e-mails and this is just an issue that they can't win on. It's too convoluted and far too challenging to get people up to speed. Even if they are right.

[11:40:05] DEL PERCIO: And they don't even need another e-mail story.

BERMAN: Susan Del Percio, Angela Rye, Amy Kremer and Jackie Kucinich, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it, guys.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: President Obama now preparing to visit Baton Rouge. This, after Donald Trump went and slammed the president for not being there, for staying on vacation, instead of visiting the site of the disaster. Coming up, why the Louisiana governor says he is glad the president didn't visit sooner.

Plus, the horrifying ISIS tactic now, children as young as 12 years old wearing suicide vests. How officials say the terrorists are brainwashing these children to carry out attacks.

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[11:45:03] BERMAN: Officials in Turkey say 22 victims of a suicide bomb we're children. They also say the bomber was a child as well, between 12 and 14 years old. The attack targeted a Kurdish wedding celebration, a city about 60 miles north Aleppo in Syria. Turkey's president says he suspects ISIS is responsible for this attack. So far, no claim of responsibility.

But ISIS has used children in other attacks in the region. In Iraq, security guards stopped another child apparently trying to carry out a different bombing. The governor says a 15-year-old boy was caught and stripped of a suicide vest before he reached his intended target, which was a Shia mosque. Officials say the boy was trained and brainwashed, told he would get everything he wanted and go to heaven for carrying out this attack.

My next guest says terror groups are turning children even younger than the Kirkuk suspect.

Joining me now is Bob Baer, a CNN intelligence and security analyst, former CIA operative.

Bob, sadly, this is not foreign to you, the idea that kids are being used as suicide attackers.

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: John, not at all. I mean, in the second intifada, Hamas was using the al AQSA brigades. They were using teenagers. And a year and a half ago, a doctor's group came to me and said they were seeing traumatized children coming to their clinics in Raqqa claiming they were being indoctrinated to carry out suicide bombers and some kids were 8 and 9 years old. The fact that the Islamic State has turned them loose against their enemies isn't much of a surprise.

BERMAN: What is this indoctrination process? How does it work and why?

BAER: Well, some of these kids are -- have learning problems. They really don't understand what's going on. The Islamic State takes a certain part from the Koran, shows it to them, that they'll go to heaven. If they don't know what's going on -- and they are indoctrinated over a long period -- it's easy to do against children. What they do, in a lot of cases, simply put the explosives on them, tell them where to go, then they remote detonate the bomb, which makes it very difficult to fight.

BERMAN: It's exploitation. Of course, if you're on the other side of it, you know, having been with U.S. forces in Iraq, for instance, if it is a child walking towards you, walking towards your police post, walking towards your compound, it creates complications.

BAER: Exactly. If it's a male and he looks menacing, you're allowed to carry out what's called a failure drill and that's two shots in the chest, one in the forehead. If you have an 8-year-old or toward you, anybody has hesitation. You're right, it's awful. It shows the desperation of this group and what it will go to.

BERMAN: Again, just specifically this event in Turkey, which is so horrifying. The pictures are so disturbing. A wedding celebration, a civilian wedding celebration. It just -- it boggles the mind about why target something like that.

BAER: It's mass murder. The more people you can get, they're gathering together. They don't care whether it is children they're murdering or not. In this case, it was Kurds in Turkey. They are the enemy. And the Islamic State is telling its followers, if you do not start killing these people, we're going to collapse and there is no choice. This movement is truly much closer to a cult than religion. But it's very effective in recruiting people like this. I think if we take Mosul, which will happen, a lot more of these people will be driven in to Turkey, and Turkey's going to have a real problem on its hand.

BERMAN: All right, Bob Baer, thanks for being with us. Appreciate your insight.

President Obama is now preparing to visit flood-ravaged Baton Rouge. This follows Donald Trump's visit to that region and a whole lot of criticism the president received for not cutting his vacation short. We're live in Louisiana next.

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[11:53:13] BERMAN: 13 people have now died in the flooding in Louisiana. 60,000 homes damaged or destroyed. The last thing the flood victims need right now could be coming, and that's more rain. President Obama is headed to the region tomorrow. Donald Trump has already been there. Hillary Clinton says she wants to go, but wants to wait until the political process doesn't get in the way there of the relief.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is in Gonzalez, Louisiana, near Baton Rouge.

Polo, what are you seeing?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, we're seeing here is the best of humanity followed by the worst that mother nature dealt in this community here about 25 miles southeast of baton rouge. This is what curbsides look like. People's belongings stacked up. People are coming together, even strangers.

And we're bringing in Mr. Collins. We met a few moments ago.

It's incredible how you and your neighbors are coming together to rebuild, including your home that you see behind us.

UNIDENTIFIED FLOOD SURVIVOR: Right. It is just the out pouring is just tremendous of the love and support that's coming from the community, church, random strangers. People are coming by every day bringing supply, food, water, making sure that we're safe. It's overwhelming to see the love.

SANDOVAL: The president expected to be on the ground here in about 24 hours or so. What is the message that you hope he gets and takes back to Washington at the end of the day.

UNIDENTIFIED FLOOD SURVIVOR: There is no division. Louisiana is all about love. Our culture is about love. People travel from all over the world to eat our food and be here. Some of the things we've seen with the rescues where you had race and color, it just didn't matter. These guys were from all over, spending their own gas, their own money. Black, white, whatever, it doesn't matter.

[11:55:09] SANDOVAL: Finally, Mr. Collins, you shared a story about your son coming from Central America from a deployment. He's a Marine. He was allowed to come home to help.

UNIDENTIFIED FLOOD SURVIVOR: Absolutely. They send him home. They sent him home to take care of his wife. His wife is eight months pregnant and they have three small kids. They sent him home because she was stranded, and lost everything. They had to be rescued. They sent him home to take care of his family. It's amazing.

SANDOVAL: Wish you the best of luck, Mr. Collins.

UNIDENTIFIED FLOOD SURVIVOR: Thank you, sir.

SANDOVAL: Mr. Collins, his home, is one of about 60,000 that you'll find in the region here. People have to start from square one. There are many homes that are covered with flood insurance, but as far as their belongings, everything you see behind me, that still have to be replaced.

BERMAN: It's so hard. Polo Sandoval, thanks so much.

Our thoughts with everyone down there trying to pull through and recover from that. Awful plight.

Coming up, a new report on the death of Prince. Authorities have found that some of the pills seized from his compound were mislabeled. They contained a drug 100 times more potent than morphine.

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