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Hillary Clinton Diagnosed with Pneumonia; Clinton on 9/11: The Closest Thing to Hell I've Seen; Remembering 9/11: Fifteen Years Later; New State Polls Show Extreme Tight Race; Remembering Peter C. Alderman. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired September 11, 2016 - 19:00   ET

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


[18:59:48] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Let me begin this hour with our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, what we know at this hour, not a lot of details. We know from her team she overheated this morning. And we know from her doctor now saying that she was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday. Interestingly, though, they didn't tell the public or the press about this pneumonia diagnoses. We've just found out about it now. What do you make of all this?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I think it's exactly as you said, we're still getting bits of information. It's coming in sporadically trying to piece it together. And obviously, all sort of stimulated by this video of her getting into the van and having the difficulty getting into the van seeming to stumble and having difficulty just even holding herself up with her balance. You know, I think that, you know, in medicine, common things are common. So the idea that someone is feeling out of sorts, unbalanced, just having the difficulty walking, getting into the van, like we see in this video could be explained by something as simple as dehydration.

When you become profoundly dehydrated, you can drop your blood pressure, you don't feel well. It's harder to simply get around and have these sorts of problems. What was interesting I think Poppy in your alluding to is that first we hear that she was overheated and that's sort of what caused these symptoms. And then just recently we hear that she has pneumonia, and it sounds like bacterial pneumonia and that it was diagnosed two days ago.

And so either she's been powering through the schedule just trying to make it work with pneumonia or even against the advice of the doctor who said, you know, you need to get rest, you need to be rehydrated. So, we're hearing bits and pieces of information but still trying to piece it all together -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Does it make sense Sanjay to you that with this pneumonia diagnosis which she had on Friday that she would go out in public so much, go to this 9/11 ceremony, then go over to Chelsea's apartment after she had that stumble getting into the van. We can pull that up and show you that as well, this morning having to leave this ceremony early. And her team said that she played with her grandchildren at the apartment. I mean, with pneumonia, is it contagious? Does that all make sense to you?

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's -- not every bit of it makes sense or not every bit of it sort of seems to fit, but it's all possible. You know, bacterial pneumonia, there are varieties of it depending on what type it is, that are going to be more contagious than others. When someone has started therapy with antibiotics, you may reduce your contagiousness. Your doctor probably would say that you know, you probably shouldn't play with young children, or you might put them at more risk.

You know? I don't know. We don't know how serious this pneumonia is, does it involve the entire lung or a single lobe of the lung. We don't even know how exactly it was diagnosed. It was diagnosed on Friday. She had a chest x-ray. That would be very typical to get a chest x-ray. I don't think he can really make a conclusive diagnosis of pneumonia without it. You get blood work. So again there's a lot of unknowns here still. Still, I think the idea that she was playing with the grandchildren is another question mark. But it's all possible that it could fit, but we don't have all the pieces to make it all fit together.

HARLOW: You know, the context that this comes in, Sanjay, is the context of, you know, some Trump, big Trump surrogates and Trump himself sort of questioning her health, her physical capacity to be president, and a lot of these questions are not grounded in any fact, but the reality is that we do not have the health records of Secretary Clinton or Donald Trump in all of this. Does this really drive home the point that perhaps both of them should release their medical records in totality?

GUPTA: I think so. You know, look, I've been reporting on this sort of issue for a long time, several elections. And, you know, we're not hearing much from either candidate. To be candid in terms of their health, we got this summaries of their health overall. Given, you know, I think an episode like this, there might be more of a push to get the health records. I'm not sure that we're going to see them, especially not this close to the election. But I think that, you know, whether it's releasing the medical records publicly or whether it's releasing them to an independent board of doctors who have no particular relationship to the candidate and who can make an independent sort of assessment of those medical records.

One of those things, I mean, the public doesn't necessarily clamor for this sort of information. They haven't always clamored for it in elections past, but I think there is a greater desire with this particular election to see the health records. And again, I think from what's happened today, that interest, that desire may increase even more.

HARLOW: Dr. Sanjay Gupta with us tonight. Thank you so much. And stay with me as we bring in our CNN Politics producer Dan Merica, he is right outside of the home in Chappaqua there where Hillary Clinton went today. MJ Lee, our politics reporter is in New York outside of Chelsea Clinton's apartment.

MJ, you were with Secretary Clinton on Friday, you were at that press conference that she held. She then sat down for an interview with our Chris Cuomo. You know, at some point on Friday, we now know from the campaign they knew she had this pneumonia diagnose. Is it atypical that they would not tell the public that until this happened this morning that caused her to leave the 9/11 commemoration early?

MJ LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Well, I think that's certainly one of the big questions right now, Poppy. Why it is that Clinton's doctor diagnosed Hillary Clinton with pneumonia on Friday, but we're really only learning about this diagnosis today on Sunday, two days later. And I think Sanjay was making the point a little bit earlier that perhaps we wouldn't have even found out about this diagnosis had she not had this stumble at the 9/11 memorial. We saw that video of her stumbling as she got into the van.

[19:05:26] She had to be helped as she was getting inside the car. And law enforcement officials have told CNN that she did appear to faint. To be clear, this is not information that's coming from the campaign. This is information that's coming from law enforcement officials. But clearly as her doctor stated herself, Hillary Clinton was overheated, dehydrated and she had to be treated for that. And on top of that on Friday, she learned that she has been diagnosed with pneumonia. On Friday she had a very busy schedule.

She had a meeting with national security advisers and experts in the morning, then held a press conference, then headed off to a fund- raiser after sitting down with CNN's Chris Cuomo. So that's a very packed day. And as Jeff Zeleny reported earlier, some questions are starting to come up within the campaign as to why she didn't clear up her schedule more and why she had such a packed schedule when she knew that these were sort of concerns that were out there about her health.

HARLOW: So, Dan Merica, you're in Chappaqua. The last statement that we got from the Clinton camp outside of this doctor statement, her personal doctor statement, was Nick Merrill hours ago this morning, about 90 minutes after she left the 9/11 commemoration ceremony saying she overheated, she went to her daughter's apartment, she's feeling much better. Have we heard anything from the Clinton camp or have you seen anything there in Chappaqua, her coming out of her home, et cetera, anything since then?

DAN MERICA, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: It's pretty much business as usual here. The Secret Service are positioned outside of her home, as they always are. Clinton came in earlier this afternoon. Has not left since. At some point her doctor came to the house, checked her out and then the statement came out. And the statement came out from the doctor. But the Clinton campaign is, as Jeff Zeleny and as we've been reporting all afternoon, is gauging whether Hillary Clinton has been overscheduled, whether she's doing too much.

A diagnosis of pneumonia on Friday. She continued with her day. Multiple fund-raisers, a big national security meeting. And, you know, she's a candidate who has to appear at fund-raisers to raise big money. She appeared at almost 40 fund-raisers in August. And while that was a heavy month for her, it allowed her to raise a ton of money. This is somebody who, you know, it's a time crunch -- it's a lot of time for her to commit to fund-raising and a lot of energy. So no, no change here. It looks just like it always does. She's in her house.

We're told she's not moving for the rest of the day, but they're still toying with whether they'll going to cancel a big week or part of a big week of events. Next week, she's supposed to fly to California, her and her press pool on her new plane are supposed to fly to California. That's in question. Does she go to L.A. for Tuesday where she has two fund-raisers and a speech? That's in question. You know, she has a full week ahead of her. And, you know, she didn't take necessarily the pneumonia diagnosis seriously on Friday because she continued with her schedule. What happened now, what happened at the 9/11 memorial seems to have elevated things and they're taking this a little bit more seriously now.

HARLOW: MJ, also to you. You know, Jeff Zeleny was reporting last hour, you know, that the team is making a serious evaluation of her, her travel schedule going forward. But I think he made a really important point when he compared what we know and don't know about these candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's health history compared to previous presidential candidates. He pointed out that, you know, one of the older candidates in races, John McCain. We knew a lot more about John McCain's health than we do about these two candidates who are the oldest to run.

LEE: That's right. And the health of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have become political issues this campaign cycle especially because they are older candidates. That is just the truth. And I think both Donald Trump and the fact that he and his surrogates have been pushing Hillary Clinton to release more information have in turn put pressure on the Clinton campaign to be aggressive about asking Donald Trump's campaign to release more information. And I think it is fair to say that at this point we have a little bit more information about Hillary Clinton's recent state of health than Donald Trump.

The only thing that we've gotten so far from Donald Trump's campaign is this letter that his doctor acknowledged afterwards, took him five minutes to write. There was a car waiting outside. And some of the language in that letter, of course, has come into question. For example, the doctor stated that he could state unequivocally that Donald Trump would be the healthiest president to have ever existed in the history of this country. So, I think for both campaigns, there's going to be pressure to release more information.

I really do think that at this point transparency is a key word. And especially for the Clinton campaign. They understand very well that the issue of transparency and then the separate issue of honesty and trustworthiness, all of these issues are potential vulnerabilities for her. And I think the fact that she was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and then for whatever reason chose not to disclose that information, that could potentially raise some questions.

[19:10:28] HARLOW: Dan Merica, MJ Lee, reporting for us. Thank you so much. Also our thanks to Dr. Sanjay Gupta. We're going to take a quick break and we have much more ahead on this breaking news. Hillary Clinton again diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday. We just learned about it. The public has just learned about it today. And now the campaign aides saying that they're evaluating whether or not she will continue on this planned trip to California. She was set to leave for Los Angeles tomorrow. What does it all mean 58 days out from the election? You're live from the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:13:36] HARLOW: So far Donald Trump has not said anything about Hillary Clinton today being diagnosed with pneumonia and leaving -- leaving the 9/11 commemoration ceremony earlier today. He has not tweeted. His campaign has not released a statement at all. This despite the fact that for several months some Trump top surrogates and even himself have questioned her health and her stamina. So let's talk about all this and the optics and the campaign.

CNN senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES" Brian Stelter is with me. Also CNN political commentator Lanhee Chen is with me. Lanhee is the former public policy director for Mitt Romney. So nice to have you both with us.

And Brian, let me begin with you. As the media expert in all of this, how does this play? What are the headlines tomorrow morning? When are we going to hear from Donald Trump?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": I'm really interested in why Trump hasn't weighed in. Frankly, politically it makes a lot of sense though. Why would he? There's nothing he needs to stay right now. This is all being driven by the Clinton campaign and by their various disclosures as this day has gone on. It will also be driven tomorrow about whether Clinton makes that fund-raising trip or not. You know, we're talking about one of the most famous people in the world here. One of the most scrutinized people in the world.

Hillary Clinton sometimes resents that scrutiny. Sometimes she tries to hold things back. That causes reporters to get more curious, more frustrated, then she gets more resentful. There's a vicious cycle at play in situations like today where we don't feel like in the media we're getting enough information from the campaign. In turn, the campaign feels like they're under fire from the media. And of course, I think Clinton supporters watching this right now are very frustrated by all of that. So, there's a lot of important subtext to all this. Other than this one image we've seen, we haven't seen Clinton and reporters are going to continue to ask legitimate questions.

HARLOW: Well, there's this image and then guys, let's also bring up the other image shop by, you know, someone in the crowd of her sort of stumbling, helped by Secret Service into the van. And that's more -- that's the troubling image for the campaign. Lanhee, let me ask you this. I mean, you worked on Mitt Romney's team. You worked on issues like this and you know how important optics are especially 58 days out. Clinton's doctor just came out with a statement and said in a statement that Hillary Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday, and we were not told about it until today. It raises the question of whether the public would have been told about it at all or if they should have been. If this hadn't happened. Is this problematic for the campaign, that the diagnosis came two days ago. LANHEE CHEN, FORMER MITT ROMNEY PUBLIC POLICY DIRECTOR: Yes, Poppy, I

think this is one of those situations where, as you might say, the cover-up is worse than the crime. I mean, look, the reality is that these are normal health situations. These presidential candidates work extremely hard having seen this up close and personal with Governor Romney, how hard he worked on the campaign trail. Of course, in 2012 health wasn't the issue because both Governor Romney and President Obama were in superb health. This time around obviously the age of candidates has become an issue.

I think for Hillary Clinton their campaign needs to air on the side of transparency. Now as Brian was saying going forward to avoid further questions. I think the Donald Trump campaign by the way is doing exactly the right thing. They don't need to fuel this any more than the media and the Clinton campaign themselves are already fueling it.

STELTER: Right.

CHEN: So, I think Trump just sits back and continues to drive his message. He doesn't even need to say anything about this, frankly. By the way, this would be a great time for him to release medical records to say, look, I'm putting my medical records out there. Hillary Clinton, the ball is in your court.

STELTER: Or for him it just take the high road. I think we should be honest about the subtext to a lot of this today.

HARLOW: Yes.

STELTER: We're talking about the first female nominee of a major party in American history. We're talking about a campaign that's been predicated on strength. Donald Trump trying to show his strength. Hillary Clinton also trying to show her strength. If she had pneumonia and she went to the 9/11 ceremony this morning, that's a very strong, bold thing to do. Also knowing that Trump was going to be there. We should be honest about the double standards that women sometimes face with regards to their health.

With the idea that women's portrayed as being weaker than men. How they have to work harder to show they're as strong as men especially in workplaces, especially in politics. I think we should be honest with ourselves about some of the subtext here even as we rightly scrutinize her health today.

HARLOW: And given the context Brian, I got to leave it there but given the context that she is coming off of weeks and weeks of Donald Trump and his supporters saying where is Hillary Clinton? Where is she?

STELTER: And she doesn't have the stamina to be president.

HARLOW: And she doesn't have the stamina. Exactly. Lanhee Chen -- wish we had more time. Brian Stelter, thank you both so much.

CHEN: Thank you. [19:18:07] HARLOW: Ahead of today which of course marks 15 years since this nation was attacked on 9/11. Hillary Clinton did sit down with our Chris Cuomo for an extended interview on Friday. And she spoke about what that day, what 9/11 means to her and what her experience was like in the days after the attack. You will watch that interview only right here, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:21:39] HARLOW: All right. Now to a CNN exclusive. Our Chris Cuomo sat down on Friday with Hillary Clinton, ahead of the 9/11 anniversary, and on this day 15 years ago when those planes struck the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan, Clinton was a junior senator here in New York. Now, the Democratic presidential candidate is looking back on that day, and she describes what she calls the sickening experience of 9/11.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Remind people where you were on 9/11 and what you earliest memory is of that day.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I got to the Senate, and by the time I got there the Senate was being evacuated, the Senate buildings, the capital itself. So I gathered up my senior staff, and we were just looking at each other with such total pain and confusion. And we then, of course, learned about the second plane. We learned about what was happening in New York. Got to TVs as quickly as possible to begin monitoring it. It was just a sickening experience, Chris. And I went the next day, Chuck Schumer and I, we were one of the very few planes on the sky that day, the 12th.

And we landed at LaGuardia. We were on a FEMA plane. And we took a helicopter, and we went over circled the burning pile. And when we landed, we met up with the Governor and the Mayor and went walking toward ground zero. And as we moved farther south, then we saw this curtain of black smoke that was stretched across the island basically. Occasionally it would be broken by a firefighter coming out. I remember one image so indelibly dragging his ax. And it was as close to a depiction of hell that I've ever personally seen.

There was a lot that I remember from those early days and from all the days after because, as an elected official, I felt such a responsibility to reach out and help everyone who had been affected by this terrible attack. There weren't that many survivors, the ones who did survive were grievously injured. The loss of life was overwhelming. I went, like so many others, to the armory and the piers looking to see what was happening, how people were reacting. But it was also, you know, my job and the job of other elected officials to get our city and our state and our country what we needed.

So I went back that night, and Chuck and I had been at a big meeting with all the local, state, federal officials. When we got word just shockingly that the White House had sent up a request for $20 billion because, of course, the Pentagon had been hit. We were going to have to immediately start hardening our security. And there wasn't one penny for New York. And Chuck was trying to find his family. He hadn't seen his wife and children. I got the last train out of Penn Station and got to Washington in the early morning and went immediately home, changed, showered, got to the Senate, where I began talking with my colleagues about what I had seen and what we were going to need in order to rebuild.

And then later that day, Chuck and I went with the two senators from Virginia to the White House, and it was just the four of us, plus President Bush and his top officials, and we were describing what we had seen. This was the day before he himself went. And President Bush said, what do you need? And we said, we need $20 billion. He said, you got it. And he meant it, and there were a lot of efforts to undo that pledge starting almost immediately, but we were able to count on him, and it meant a lot to help the families, the victims, the downtown, everything that needed to be rebuilt and give people hope again. It did become very personal for me.

I saw so many problems that others weren't yet aware of because I was listening and watching, and one of the things was what was happening to, you know, the people in the neighborhoods and particularly the people working on the pile because it was clear they were being affected by this toxic brew of what had been bombed by the planes and was in the air. And unfortunately, the administration kept saying, no, there's no evidence of that. Well, you could see the evidence. You could smell it. You could taste the evidence.

So, I became so passionate about helping everyone whose own health was going to be damaged because they had put themselves out to help. And when I met the families of the injured, you know, profoundly burned, in comas, induced comas for months, the whole bottom half of a young woman's body pulverized by being hit with some piece from the plane. Recently engaged. Looking forward to somehow figuring out how she could walk at her wedding.

CUOMO: Her fiance refusing to leave. Her begging him not to marry her and move on with his life and him refusing to leave.

CLINTON: When I went to visit her the first time at the hospital. She was at the old St. Vincent's hospital originally. She was so profoundly injured. Beautiful face. Long hair. Managed even through all the pain to display it, a whimsical humorous personality. And she desperately wanted to go on with her life, but she feared that she couldn't. Well, you know, I did everything I could to help her because I keep thinking, what are we here for? Not just what are we here if you're in public service? What are we here on this earth for? What is the purpose? And I just feel so strongly. And part is to, you know, do whatever we can with whatever skills and resources we have to help others.

And the need was so great and so present and every place we went people hunting for their relatives, you know, I was working hard to set up the victims' compensation fund and worked closely with Kent Feinberg. And sometimes, Chris, we would have to -- I'd have to send one of my staffers to go knock on a widow's door as she still after six months could not get out of bed. And I would meet these shattered lives of people where they were broken, but I saw so many of them strengthen and show such resilience.

So I felt privileged. You know, whatever I could do was an honor. But it gave me an insight into the human spirit and I like to think the spirit of New York and America that I wish every American could understand because it's what makes us who we are and how lucky, blessed we are to face terrible tragedies but to recover, to move forward, to keep thinking about the future.

HARLOW: Coming up, how Americans are paying their respects to those lives lost in the worst terror in U.S. history.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:33:48] HARLOW: Across the nation people paused today to remember the 15th anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

(BELL TOLLS)

HARLOW: In New York, people gathered at Ground Zero where the tolling of a bell followed by a moment of silence marked key moments of the attacks. Family members and friends read aloud the names of all of the 2,977 people who lost their lives in New York at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. At the Pentagon, President Obama laid a wreath as he paid tribute to the 184 victims killed there. And in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, friends and relatives gathered to remember the lives lost on United Airlines Flight 93.

Passengers aboard that plane fought to regain control from the hijackers who had taken over and crashed it into a rural field likely saving countless lives. Many of you may be thinking about where you were on 9/11, how you felt, what you saw, who you lost. Let's listen to what some public officials said today as they marked the day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: I looked out my office window on sixth and 51st Street. The first thing I saw was the smoke billowing out of the first tower against the backdrop of that beautiful blue sky. And then at some point I looked up and I saw the explosion, the second plane hitting. I was going back and forth between watching it visually out the window and looking at it on TV. And then the thing I'll never forget was to watch that first tower collapse. For those of us in New York, the Twin Towers had been a permanent fixture on the skyscraper, the landscape for almost 40 years then.

REV. JOHN DELENDICK, CHAPLAIN, NEW YORK FIRE DEPARTMENT: When we first saw it, it was so high. I really didn't comprehend it yet. I thought it was debris at first. Then I saw arms and legs waving. I said, oh, man, those are people. You know?

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: And it was a horrific scene. I had seen a man jump from the 101st floor. I had seen people killed by debris, maybe 200 yards from me. The police with me didn't want me to go down because they thought it was too dangerous to go down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were right.

GIULIANI: But I had to get an assessment. Because people think about the attack, they forget the fact that I had to protect the rest of the city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you see that first tower collapse, it was almost a moment where my mind could not believe what my eyes were seeing. I kept wanting to see that tower emerge from the smoke and the dust. And, of course, that never happened. And it's a memory, frankly, that's burned into my mind. I'll never forget it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Going on the boat was quite a thing. They were very -- I don't want to say upbeat when they were going. A lot of them were talking about how resourceful their husbands, their fathers were, that they had a lot of rescue things in their pockets. They said, they'll get out of this. And when we got to the site, we gathered on the corner of liberty and West Street, and they just looked at the rubble, the immensity of it. That realization hit them that their loved ones were lost.

GIULIANI: We felt alone. Then all of a sudden the whole country rallied around us. You know, Florida sent us people, Chicago sent us people. President Bush had FEMA up here within two hours. Joe Alba, who is one of the unsung heroes of September 11. All of a sudden by the end of the day we felt embraced by the whole country. You can't believe how important that was to giving me personal confidence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

GIULIANI: And my people personal confidence that we could get through it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:41:14] HARLOW: Fifty days and counting until Election Day. And right now the race is incredibly tight in a number of key states. Let's take a look at Florida, for example. Trump and Clinton, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll tied a dead heat in Florida. And while Clinton is giving Trump a run for his money in the normally solid red state of Georgia, Trump is actually leading in Nevada. That's a state that went for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. What is going on 50 days out?

Philip Bump is with me. He's a political reporter for The Washington Post. Incredibly, incredibly tight race both when you look at the national polling but it's more important the key swing states. Right? So when you look at this, this comes in the context of President Obama has a 58 percent approval rating which would really be helping Clinton. Americans according to the latest CNN poll think that the economy is at the best it's been in nine years. Why is she not doing better? Why is this spread not larger?

PHILIP BUMP, POLITICAL REPORTER, WASHINGTON POST: It's a great question. "The Washington Post" had a story about that yesterday looking at, you know, part of the reason is that Democrats are freaking out about this because Democrats tend to freak out about the campaigns. But there really is this question of why Hillary Clinton hasn't been able to distance herself more particularly because Donald Trump hasn't shown an ability to expand his base. One of the theories that I think is probably the correct one is that we're so polarized these days that essentially any Republican or any Democrat could come into the race, get 40, 45 percent of the vote and then everyone else is fighting over the middle. And I think that's what we're seeing.

HARLOW: One thing that is interesting, if you look at, hopefully we can pull up some of these key states like Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Gary Johnson has a pretty significant percent. Johnson is at nine percent in Pennsylvania, 14 percent in Ohio, 15 percent in North Carolina. Eight percent in Florida. These polls were taken before his Aleppo gaffe this week saying, what is Aleppo. If he loses significantly following that, where does that support go in these states? Does it go to Clinton, does it go to Trump?

BUMP: Well, one of the things, the polls also just completely, 50 states poll report an every single state including all four of the candidates that you just mentioned. And what we found is that with all four on the ballot in a state, it ended up helping Donald Trump overall. So if Gary Johnson loses support, it suggests it might be helpful to Hillary Clinton. It's important to note though that one of the things we've seen, one of the trends is that third party candidates tend to poll better during the summer than they end up doing in the ballot.

HARLOW: Interesting.

BUMP: So, it's worth knowing that those numbers that you saw, they are probably overinflated unless the exception is Ross Perot who ended up on the debate stage. If one of these candidates can pull Ross Perot --

(CROSSTALK)

BUMP: They're trying very hard.

HARLOW: -- Get a 15 percent average across five national polls and they're not there yet.

BUMP: Exactly.

HARLOW: Philip, important stuff. Thank you so much. Nice to have you on the program.

All right. Coming up next, we are marking 9/11 today. Marking a staggering 15 years since this country was attacked on that day. I'm going to introduce you to two extraordinary people, two parents who lost their son Peter on 9/11 who have done something remarkable in his name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE ALDERMAN, LOST SON PETER ON 9/11: Peter is in my mind every day. The work we're doing makes me mindful of Peter because that's why we're doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:47:27] HARLOW: As the country mourns the nearly 3,000 lives lost on 9/11, it is hard to believe that it's been a staggering 15 years since the attacks. I think we all hoped that we would be able to find purpose in despair and meaning in loss, but that is extremely hard to do. Especially when the news cameras are gone and the headlines fade. But in face of the most extraordinary loss, Liz and Steve Alderman have found purpose helping so many others in their son Peter's name. And tonight we wanted you to meet them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: As we sit here, it's hard to believe it's been 15 years since this country was attacked in that way, since Peter and thousands more were lost. When you think back to 15 years ago and where you are today, what do you think of today when you think of Peter?

LIZ ALDERMAN, LOST SON PETER ON 9/11: To me it feels like yesterday. I am not the person that I was when Peter was alive. I'm a different person now. That lady's gone. Okay? And that's okay. Because I think I have grown in a lot of ways. I think that the whole trajectory of my life was changed.

HARLOW: What do you want the world to know about peter?

L. ALDERMAN: Peter was fun. That may sound like a very trite thing to say, but I also believe as a parent you have to have fun raising your kids. He was fun to be with. He so enjoyed life that he made it fun for the people around him.

HARLOW: So one of Peter's friends said to you about him. This. "If life is measured in love, then Peter was an exemplary one. Peter was to be loved by so many because he himself loved." What do those words mean to you?

L. ALDERMAN: Peter, first of all, cared about life. Peter was one of these kids, even as a kid who took the time to smell the flowers. He could appreciate a beautiful night sky. He stopped to see the beauty around him and to take it in and absorb it.

HARLOW: When you say that, it strikes me because I think it's near the end of life when we all look back and say, I wish I had smelled the roses. I wish I had done that. And even though Peter's life ended far too soon, he was so young. He didn't have to wish he did that. He did that.

L. ALDERMAN: He did. Peter touched more people in his life in his 25 years than I touched in my entire life. More people cared about him because he was so good to them.

HARLOW: This is your first time ever being here at the memorial.

S. ALDERMAN: Yes.

HARLOW: What's it like?

S. ALDERMAN: Well, strange. But it's disconcerting. For me, it rubs my face into something that, while I think about it every day, I'm not directly confronted by it. So it's --

HARLOW: Difficult. It's hard.

S. ALDERMAN: Absolutely. Absolutely.

L. ALDERMAN: I felt as long as I was here, I needed to go and see and touch his name. And that was extraordinarily upsetting. It was like there it was written in stone. I probably will not come again. It is Peter's not here. It is the scene of his death. And I don't need to be here.

HARLOW: The two of you years ago started the Peter C. Alderman Foundation. Now a million and a half dollar a year foundation to help victims of war and extreme trauma throughout the world.

L. ALDERMAN: Peter was killed because of terrorism. There was nothing we could do for Peter. But there are over a billion people on this earth who have directly experienced torture, terrorism or mass violence and 50 to 70 percent of those people can no longer lead functional lives. And if in Peter's name we can return these people to life, there's no better memorial. We couldn't do it for Peter, but if we could do it for others in his name, that's what we are all about.

S. ALDERMAN: Peter is in my mind every day. The work we're doing makes me mindful of Peter because that's why we're doing it.

L. ALDERMAN: It became even bigger than Peter. I mean, this was done to leave a mark that Peter existed and that the world would be a better place because he lived. But it's become -- I mean, we have treated over 100,000 people.

[19:52:42] HARLOW: When was the moment for you when you were able to stop crying, sobbing enough to say now what are we going to do in Peter's name?

L. ALDERMAN: The sorrow and grief are still there, okay? I still cry. But there was almost an immediate reaction when crying to say, I want to leave a mark that Peter was here. I don't care about leaving a mark. My kids were my mark. Peter didn't have the opportunity to make up his mind whether he wanted to do that. And I wanted the world to be a better place because he lived.

HARLOW: A better place because he lived.

L. ALDERMAN: Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think we've accomplished that. My loss is horrendous, but Peter is so much greater than mine. Peter never got to live his life. We go to his friend's weddings. Peter will never have a wedding. We meet their children. Peter will never have children. So my grief is more for what Peter has lost than for what I have lost.

HARLOW: To parents watching who lost a child, to loved ones watching, anything you can say to them, anything that has helped you cope along the way?

L. ALDERMAN: I never thought I would ever feel good about anything ever again after Peter was killed. And I feel good about the work that we're doing.

S. ALDERMAN: If you want to feel better, go help somebody. OK? You don't have to help lots of people. You don't have to do it upscale. Help somebody. Just do it once. And you'll see, you'll do it again and you'll feel better.

HARLOW: Liz, what do you think Peter would say 15 years after he was murdered here looking at the work you're doing in his name?

L. ALDERMAN: I think he would think we were a hoot. I think he would be very proud.

HARLOW: If you can in a word, who was Peter?

L. ALDERMAN: My child.

S. ALDERMAN: Light.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: You can learn more about the work that they are doing at the Peter C. AldermanFoundation.org. And remembering the friend they loved so much 15 years after they lost him. One of Peter's friends recently posted this. "I loved Pete. It was impossible not to. I mean, really, was there ever a person who met him who didn't? He was pure and kind and funny and positive and so, so loving." Another writes, "I would give anything to have him by my side. But I will have to settle with keeping him in my heart for as long as it beats."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:58:51] HARLOW: All right. Thanks so much for being with us tonight. I will be back with you here live at 10:00 Eastern. But coming up next, the film you will not want to miss. A CNN film presents "9/11: 15 years later." This is an updated look of the iconic film with the only known footage from inside of the Twin Towers. Before we go though tonight, I want to leave you with some of the very powerful images from today from memorial services in New York, at the Pentagon and the rural countryside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

I'm Poppy Harlow. I'll see you back here at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. Good night.