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Clinton Campaign Talks "Basket of Deplorables," Medical Issues, Tax Returns. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired September 12, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] BRIAN FELLOW, PRESS SECRETARY, HILLARY FOR AMERICA PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: We'll continue to reach out to those voters. The vast majority of those we continue to compete for, people that want to see the economy improve. But undeniable there's an element Donald Trump promotes and continue to condone with a wink and nod, these white nationalist sentiments, these hate-filled elements of his campaign. He should reject them. He refuses to do so.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about her health. How is she feeling today?

FALLON: She's resting comfortably, Wolf. If she had her druthers, she'd be own a plane to California today. At her doctor's advice she changed her schedule, taking a couple days to rest, and the staff prevailed upon her to do that. But I think by the middle of the week, she'll be out there campaigning as aggressively as ever.

This is Hillary Clinton's style and natural impulse, even in the face of diagnosis like she got Friday that she has pneumonia to press on, keep her schedule. That changed yesterday leaving the 9/11 ceremony early. If it was up to her, she would have pressed on. That's the Hillary Clinton that people saw as secretary of state in terms of traveling the country at a break-neck pace representing us abroad. She fits more into it than most Americans.

BLITZER: She was told Friday she had pneumonia. I assume the doctor said you're over 65 years old, pneumonia could be serious. Take a few days off, rest, drink plenty of water, and stop the campaigning. But she went on Friday and she did interviews. She went ahead and did a rally. Why did she do that?

FALLON: That's just who she is. It's her natural impulse, Wolf. She is always trying to squeeze more into a day. She's very indefatigable in that way.

(CROSSTALK)

FALLON: And, yes, she went right from the doctor's office on Friday and convened a national security summit with leaders from across the ideological spectrum, supporting our campaign and believes Hillary Clinton is the one to make the most important decisions as commander- in-chief. So we had individuals like former DHS Secretary Chertoff and former General David Petraeus participate in the summit. She answered questions from the media after that and she participated in an evening event, kept up a full day of work, meetings, non-public, on Saturday --

(CROSSTALK)

FALLON: -- and then stood more than an hour at the 9/11 ceremony Sunday morning before eventually having to depart.

BLITZER: Do you think she would have been better on Friday if she or you or someone from the campaign would have told the American public she has pneumonia?

FALLON: Well, look, Wolf, I think it was her intent to press on. And not let --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Don't you think the American public, Brian, had a right to know she had pneumonia?

FALLON: Well, as soon as yesterday happened, Wolf, and her doctor visited her again and confirmed that what caused her to have to leave the event early on Sunday was related to the pneumonia and dehydration. At that point, we did make the decision to change the schedule. And we put out a statement, in the doctor's name, indicating the condition she was in, and was fully disclosing the nature of the pneumonia diagnosed with.

But as of Friday when she was diagnosed with it, again, she was treating it -- she had been dealing with allergies several days before that, and had kept up a campaign schedule even as she had been prone to having a couple occasions coughing during speeches. She was pressing on even then. It was her intent Friday to treat it the same and continue to press on. On Sunday, obviously, that situation changed and now she's taking a couple of days off the trail.

BLITZER: Would it have changed if we hadn't seen that dramatic video of her getting into the van after leaving the 9/11 event early and nearly, you know, falling down, almost completely? I don't know if she fainted. Did she faint at that moment?

FALLON: No. I think what you saw there was - first of all, when she was at the site, she made the decision. She was feeling a little hot and decided to get out of that crowd of people and try to find a place where she could get cool, find shade, and maybe get a drink of water. So she left the ceremony site on her own accord. In the course of walking to the vehicle with some staff, at that point, began to feel a bit dizzy and was helped into the vehicle. At that point, got into the cool inside of the vehicle and had water and said she was fine right away, and actually placed calls to staff from the car. And when she was able to get to her daughter Chelsea's apartment in Manhattan, soon after arriving there, she was playing with her own grandchildren, running around Chelsea's apartment and was fine. And the public had an opportunity to see that for themselves when she left the apartment.

BLITZER: Here's the question, Brian. If we'd have never seen that video, would you have told the American public that she had pneumonia? FALLON: I think, Wolf, the video was not necessary to providing that

information, because, as it was, she left the event early. We were already being pressed to explain why she left early. And it took us a bit to get that information together to release a statement. And in retrospect, we should have provided more information more quickly. But, yes, regardless of whether the video surfaced or not, in the aftermath of that event, we would have made the same decision to have a rest these next couple days and disclose she was diagnosed with pneumonia Friday.

[13:35:12] BLITZER: Did you personally know she had pneumonia Friday?

FALLON: The senior staff was aware Friday and word spread in the campaign after that. But, look, it was her decision to want to press on. That is her impulse. And that's the type of president she would be working her heart out but, after yesterday's incident, everybody agreed she should take a couple days off the trail.

BLITZER: Whose decision Friday was it not to tell the American public she was suffering from pneumonia?

FALLON: Again, Wolf, that was a situation where from her standpoint and from the campaign standpoint she felt, or thought she felt well enough to press on and continue to keep her schedule as-is. It was only on Sunday that it was clear that she needed to take time off the trail and rest, get hydrated. That's what she's doing now.

BLITZER: Do you believe the American people deserve a complete medical record of Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump, for that matter as well, that all of her medical information out there should be made available to the news media?

FALLON: I'm glad you raised that, Wolf, because the fact of the matter is the letter she released over a year ago completely meets the standard set four years ago by Mitt Romney and President Obama in terms of the level of detail provided and the comprehensive portrait of her medical condition provided in that letter signed by her doctor more than a year ago. It is Donald Trump who has not met that standard based on the four paragraphs released subsequent to our disclosure more than a year ago.

That said, with the disclosure we've already done, based on the letter released a year ago, we're taking the added step of releasing additional information. We were in touch with Hillary Clinton's physician today getting that together and releasing if not today in the next couple of days. And at that point have gone far and beyond having met the standard a year ago, we'll go further.

It will be interesting to see what Donald Trump discloses. At various points, he has made a lot of big promises of what he would release, and then when he actually discloses, turns out to be far less. If you look across the board, from health records to e-mails to her schedules as secretary to tax, returns on issue after issues, there's more information out on Hillary Clinton than any nominee in modern presidential campaign history. Donald Trump continues to fail to meet the bare minimum standard. He

has hundreds of deals with foreign entities. Who are those partners? Who does he owe money to? We don't know the full picture of his financial holdings because he refuses to disclose them. And on taxes, and he continues to shun the precedent shown for decades on releasing tax returns. If Hillary Clinton had not released her tax returns that would be a subject on cable news every day and probably be on the front page of every paper until she released the returns. She has 38 years of returns released. Donald Trump has released zero. The reason? I don't know. The American public deserves to see it. Donald Trump continues to flout that precedent. And it's about time we stop having a conversation dwelling on further things Hillary Clinton could release and start to have a conversation why Donald Trump continues to fail to meet the bare minimum standard.

BLITZER: Will you make her physician available to experts, for example, our own Dr. Gupta, to have a conversation about her health in the coming days?

FALLON: Again, Wolf, she has already, in what she's released, met the standard for previous presidential nominees. We are taking the added step of getting additional material together in light of yesterday's incident. The reality is that the pneumonia is the extent of what she has been diagnosed with. No other undisclosed conditions. There is nothing that happened yesterday that was caused by or related to what happened in 2012. But we are taking that added step. At that point, it should resolve outstanding questions. To the extent questions remain after that, we'll be happy to answer them, too. We want to be as transparent at possible on this. But at some point, people need to ask the same set of questions of Donald Trump.

BLITZER: Donald Trump, earlier this morning, he said he did have a physical checkup last week and that later this week he'd be releasing all of the key numbers related to that physical checkup. I assume you want more information, just more than what he's -- at least the physical, the numbers of this test results?

FALLON: The proof will be in the pudding, Wolf. At one point, he's promised to release tax returns and he famously went back on that commitment. Let's see what he actually releases. It you look at the four-paragraph excuse of a letter he released and proclaimed himself having met the standard several months back, it fell short in a number of regards. Nothing in there about his family medical history or certain data points, like blood pressure, key things the American public deserves to know of the potential next president of the United States. All of that information is already contained in the letter that Hillary Clinton released. We'll go further. This week, let's see if Donald Trump matches her about the disclosure on his health.

[13:40:12] BLITZER: I know you have to run. I ask one final quick question. Type of pneumonia, is it contagious? I ask because you have been suffering from symptoms over the past few days, similar, Robby Mook, the campaign manager suffering from some symptom. Is this a contagious form of pneumonia?

FALLON: She is not contagious, her doctors told her. She was playing with her grand kids because she's not contagious. What I have is a very mild case of -- I don't even think it's pneumonia, Wolf. I'm just fine and happy to be here at work.

BLITZER: We're happy you're OK. How's Robby Mook?

FALLON: Better, too. He's downstairs hard at work on our battleground strategy. And even when he was very sick, he was in here every day. He was probably contagious at a couple points but the rest of us just have to deal with that. He's the boss.

BLITZER: Brian Fallon, thanks very much for joining us and for the time.

He's the press secretary for the Hillary for America campaign.

Appreciate it.

FALLON: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: We have a lot to assess. We'll take a quick break. Much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:45:08] BLITZER: Lots to assess right now. Joining us, chief political analyst, Gloria Borger; CNN political director, David Chalian; CNN political analyst, Kirsten Powers; as well as Dr. Sanjay Gupta is with us. There you see him right there.

That's not Sanjay Gupta, but Sanjay is with us.

(LAUGHTER)

Sanjay, let me get your analysis. You're our chief medical correspondent and a neurosurgeon. Your reaction to what we just heard about Hillary Clinton's health from her press secretary, Brian Fallon?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDIAL CORRESPONDENT: Brian Fallon is painting a picture of Hillary Clinton as someone who gets this diagnosis on Friday of pneumonia, sort of wants to power through things. Not clear how sick they thought that she was, how serious this pneumonia was, but wanted to sort of get through it. And by Sunday, when we saw this video, just the impact that the pneumonia, probably in combination with other things like the weather outside, maybe medications taking, when it all came to a head, then it was all of a sudden a wake-up call that this was pretty serious for her. It was having an impact on her. To be fair, she seems to -- it was short-lived, this episode. Within an hour to two hours, she was back outside smiling, talking to reporters.

What is interesting, we still don't know a lot of things. Pneumonia is a serious diagnosis, more serious, as you said in the interview, in someone over the age of 65. We don't know what's causing the pneumonia bacteria is causing this. If she got a chest x-ray for this, if so, how much of her lungs are involved in this? They may sound like specific questions but speak to how long will it take for her to recover? How serious is this? Some people need to be hospitalized and take weeks and weeks to recover. Some people have more of the colloquial walking pneumonia and don't take that long. Maybe that's what she has, but we just don't know. There's still -- there was information that was slow to come and there's still a lack of it -- Wolf?

BLITZER: At least we know it's not the contagious form of pneumonia, because I read a lot about pneumonia last night, and the contagious form can be spread if you're coughing a lot. We did see in the last week a couple of really significant moments when she was coughing a lot during public presentations.

GUPTA: Well, you know, and that's a good question and a good point you raised. Here's what typically is the story around contagious pneumonia is that pneumonia can be contagious, bacteria can be contagious, as can viral. The point Brian was making, and this is what he heard, after you are treated with antibiotics, within a day or so, you're not as contagious, maybe a little, not a lot.

But earlier, prior to the diagnosis, certainly prior to starting medications, it's a good chance she was contagious. May have gotten it from somebody in the office or given it to somebody in the office. You brought up the point. Some people in the office were sick. One person pretty sick. Maybe spread it around. The source, we don't know. But probably contagious, at least at one point.

BLITZER: Remind our viewers, Sanjay, you're an experienced journalist in addition to being a neurosurgeon. Eight years ago, when John McCain was running for president, also at the time I think he was around 70 years old, he released an enormous amount of information. And you were invited to go speak to his physicians and really press and get a lot more information. So far, neither of these two candidates this time around has been willing to do that.

GUPTA: Yeah. Wolf. In 2008, Senator McCain was much more forthcoming at that point. I'm sure it was because of some of the pressure about releasing medical records. What he did was, the campaign did was an interesting tactic. They brought in a few reporters, I think four or five of us. We flew to Arizona. We were taken to this area that was a private sort of room within a hotel and then in that room there were a few stacks of medical records. They were big stacks of medical records. He was very thorough in what was released, a foot tall probably. They said we'll give you a few hours to look through the medical records. Couldn't take in cameras or recording devices, just a book, and make your notes to the extent you wanted to go through it. That's what we did several hours, came out, and was able to report on it. It wasn't enough time, frankly, to go through that many medicals records but an opportunity to look how that physical health, mental health, a history of melanoma, all in there. It was a transparent release. We could have used more time but a fairly transparent release of medical records at the time.

[13:49:59] BLITZER: All of us would like a similar opportunity this time around. I'd love for you, for example to speak with the physicians for both of these presidential candidates. Hillary Clinton next month will be 69 years old. Donald Trump is already 70 years old.

Sanjay, stand by for a moment.

I want to get political analysis to what we just heard from Brian Fallon.

Gloria, did he make a good case. We spoke earlier about the "basket of deplorables" and the Hillary Clinton health.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: He had a bit of a tough time answering questions what happened Friday and whether they would have disclosed the fact that Hillary Clinton had pneumonia, had she not had to leave the 9/11 service or had to soldier on, discount the pneumonia and continue with her, you know, with her travels and her, you know, schedule. And I think when you have a candidate who has been, you know, whose health has been an issue, not only her previous health, Donald Trump made it an issue, it seemed natural to me to say, guess what, we found what was going on, it's pneumonia, that's why she's coughing. She's taking a day off the trail and will be back. And it could have put all the conspiracy theories to rest. For whatever reason, they did not do that until they absolutely had to.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Just having the conversation with Sanjay about it is, so important about looking at the full medical records and able to assess them. I'm not sure there's a standard for every presidential candidate to inform the press and public if they have pneumonia or not. I don't know that -- but the reason that this now has been raised to a different level is because neither candidate has been open with us about their medical history. They're two of the oldest nominees in our history. And if we had a full understanding of their medical histories and their current assessment from their physicians, then I don't think we would be expecting to hear every, you know -- every ailment they might have on a given day. But because they haven't been open in that way, and granted we have a little bit more information from Hillary Clinton than we do from Donald Trump, I think it puts an extra burden on them.

BORGER: They're two of the least trusted candidates. If you put that together with the fact that they've been secretive about their health issues, and already a disposition among many voters not to trust them, you put that together and it's toxic. It raises questions of why it wasn't disclosed.

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, but I think Hillary has more of a transparency issue than Trump doe, frankly. I think this is something that dogs her, specifically because of what happened with the e-mails. So the way they've handled -- I mean, Brian Fallon did the best job he could do trying to defend what they did. We have seen a "People" magazine article saying half a dozen staffers had pneumonia. Why was that given to "People" magazine? Why wasn't that disclosed? Why did they not say, when they gave the first statement, which took them 00 minutes, why did they not at that point note she has pneumonia, we've all had pneumonia? It seems they kind of making the story up as it goes along. I'm not saying it's not true but they're withholding information until they have to give it out, right?

BORGER: I would argue Trump also has a huge transparency issue.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: No, no, he has a problem but in terms of the voters --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: But he does with voters, too, because he hasn't released his tax returns. We have this letter from one of his physicians saying his lab work would be astonishing and now he's --

(CROSSTALK)

POWERS: I don't know that's an issue with voters in terms of looking at him.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He said he had a physical last week. He'll release the results later this week.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: We'll see how many of those results he releases, actually.

Would we have known she had pneumonia if we had never seen that dramatic video of her getting into the van?

CHALIAN: No. And I think that this is part of what Kirsten is saying, is that -- what is astonishing to me is that a presidential candidate left an event early, does not take the press with them, and then we have radio silence, no answers, despite the fact that clearly in your conversation with Brian Fallon, senior staff, was aware of the diagnosis on Friday. Was aware she decided to soldier on. Yet, radio silence when we were asking, what happened? Clearly some of them had some information and they were not sharing. I don't think it's just the video, because she was seen, whether or not the video emerged, leaving this event unexpectedly and emerging from his daughter's apartment. I think we would have gotten this story eventually, but the video made matters from a public relations point of view much more urgent.

BORGER: They knew they had to say something because they left. The video made it that much more compelling and they had to tell you what was going on. I think this sort of penchant for secrecy, which you were talking about, is a problem. It's a problem because of the e- mails, the pre-existing conditions, if you will.

CHALIAN: Pre-existing to the '90s.

[13:55:16] BORGER: To the '90s.

For, Donald Trump, they'll say he needs to be less secretive as well. I would argue that the McCain standard, as we now call it, which is for older candidates or people who do have medical conditions, may apply to both of these candidates. BLITZER: I think even younger candidates. If you want to be

president of the United States, this is the information the American public deserves, whether it's on your taxes or your health. This is most important job in the world. We have the right to know what is going on.

BORGER: We let Barack Obama off the hook with that because he was young. We let Mitt Romney off the hook --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Guys, stand by. We have a lot more coming up.

That's it for me.

Right now, for our international viewers, "Amanpour" is coming up.

Next up for our viewers in North America, NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin starts right after this.

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