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Hillary Clinton Discusses Pneumonia Diagnosis; Donald Trump Criticizes Hillary Clinton's Negative Comments on his Supporters; Interview with Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway; Lack of Transparency in 2016 Race. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 13, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] DAVID FAHRENTHOLD, REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": So that's the reflection here on Trump.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: David Fahrenthold, "Washington Post," thank you for joining us on NEW DAY.

FAHRENTHOLD: Thank you.

CUOMO: All right, there's a lot of news going on. This call for transparency, what do you deserve to know? We have the latest. Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Obviously I should have gotten some rest sooner. I thought I could keep going forward and power through it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's doing fine, just got dehydrated.

CLINTON: Compare everything you know about me with my opponent. The information is out there. You can't say the same thing about Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My opponent slanders you as deplorable and irredeemable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It wasn't a gaffe. She said it before.

TRUMP: She talks about people like they're objects, not human beings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David Duke is doing robo-calls saying vote for Donald Trump. We do need to call it out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump has denounced David Duke repeatedly. We don't want his support.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You called him a deplorable?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'm not in the name-calling business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Up first, a CNN exclusive. Hillary Clinton speaking out the first time about her pneumonia, saying she didn't think it was going to be that big a deal. Transparency is the issue for both campaigns. What do you have the right to know about these two people?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, Donald Trump seizing on the Clinton "basket of deplorables" comment, claiming it's the, quote, "biggest mistake of the political season." We are just 56 days from election day, 10 days away from early voting in some states, and only 13 days from the first debate between Trump and Clinton. So we have this high stakes race covered for you. Let's begin with senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny. Good morning, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Hillary Clinton is off the campaign trail but she could return as early as tomorrow perhaps with a speech in Philadelphia if she's up for it. But now she's acknowledging she could have been more forthcoming to avoid some suggestions she was hiding something about her health. Few people on her staff actually knew she had pneumonia which made it more difficult for them to react. But now they are reacting. And she bluntly told CNN last night the American people deserve to know what Trump is up to and what he's hiding.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm feeling so much better. And obviously I should have gotten some rest sooner.

ZELENY: Hillary Clinton speaking to CNN from her home after days of trying to recover from pneumonia.

CLINTON: I just thought I could keep going forward and power through it.

ZELENY: The Democratic nominee responding to critics who have slammed her campaign for not disclosing her diagnosis sooner.

CLINTON: I just didn't think it was going to be that big a deal.

ZELENY: She's trying to turn the transparency spotlight on Donald Trump who's yet to release his tax returns or medical records.

CLINTON: Compare everything you know about me with my opponent. I think it's time he met the same level of disclosure that I have for years.

ZELENY: Clinton pledging to return to the campaign trail this week, texting her supporters that she's feeling fine and getting better, and calling in to the San Francisco fundraiser she was forced to miss.

CLINTON: I wish so much I could be there.

ZELENY: Clinton tells CNN she never lost consciousness when she lost her balance while leaving Sunday's 9/11 memorial service. CLINTON: I felt overheated. I decided that I did need to leave. And

as soon as I got into the air conditioned van I cooled off, I got some water, and very quickly I felt better.

ZELENY: Her husband, Bill Clinton, says this isn't the first time she's had such an incident.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Rarely but on more than one occasion over the last many, many years the same sort of thing has happen to her when she just go severely dehydrated.

CLINTON: I think really only twice that I can recall. It is something that has occurred a few times over the course of my life.

ZELENY: Back in 2012 Clinton fainted at her home, suffering a concussion, which her husband said took her six months to recover from. At the time the State Department downplayed it as a stomach virus and dehydration. Trump on the campaign trail unusually quiet about Clinton's health as both candidates vow to release more medical information this week.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'll be releasing very, very specific numbers.

CLINTON: We'll have more information, but I've already released information about my health in this campaign as well as nearly 40 years of tax returns. We've already met a high standard of transparency, and we know the least about Donald Trump of any candidate in recent American history.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: Now, this morning the clip ton campaign is trying to go back on the offensive and turn the page and talk about what Trump has not released -- his tax returns or his medical records. The Clinton campaign is also out with a new ad. You can see it right here showing how they believe Trump has insulted and demeaned some Americans.

[08:05:02] Once again, they're trying to use Trump's own words against him. You can see it right there. And they're trying to use really the whole campaign, everything he said, play it back for him. And that ad is playing in a battleground state near you.

CAMEROTA: Jeff, thanks so much for all of that.

Well, let's get more now of Anderson Cooper's exclusive with Hillary Clinton. The former secretary of state speaking out for the first time since falling ill with pneumonia. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: There's a lot of folks who are very worried about you. How are you feeling?

CLINTON: Oh, thank you, Anderson. I'm feeling so much better. And obviously I should have gotten some rest sooner. I probably would have been better off if I had just pulled down my schedule on Friday. But like a lot of people, I just thought I could keep going forward and power through it, and obviously that didn't work out so well.

I got to the memorial. I saw my friend and former colleague, Chuck Schumer, and the first thing he said to me is "I've had pneumonia and I've been resting for five days." And I looked at him and I said, "You know, that's so funny, I've just been told I have pneumonia." So apparently there's something to this that's going around.

COOPER: David Axelrod was very critical of the way that you and your campaign handled sharing your diagnosis with the public. He tweeted "Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant that privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?" Why not just say on Friday, as you said apparently to Senator Schumer on Sunday, you know, I have pneumonia, folks. I'm going to power through it. Why keep it a secret?

CLINTON: Well, I just didn't think it was going to be that big a deal. You know, I know Chuck said today he didn't tell anybody. It's just the kind of thing that if it happens to you and you're a busy, active person, you keep moving forward.

COOPER: But doesn't your handling of this in your campaigns, the refusal to acknowledge what happened until after that video was circulated, confirm suspicion to some voters that you're not transparent or trustworthy?

CLINTON: Oh, my goodness, Anderson. You know, compare everything you know about me with my opponent. I think it's time he met the same level of disclosure that I have for years. You know, you've got a medical report on me that meets the same standard as Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. Donald Trump's doctors said he'd be the healthiest president in history. That's just not even serious.

And I've released nearly 40 years of tax returns. He hasn't released one. This is a man with unknown numbers of partners and investors who says he's doing 120 foreign deals. The American people deserve to know what he's up to and what he is hiding. So if we weren't -- if we weren't fast enough, I've talked to my staff. We -- we, you know, take responsibility for that, but the information is out there. You can't say the same thing about Donald Trump.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Donald Trump for his part is trying to capitalize on Clinton's, quote, "basket of deplorables" comment. He is claiming that she has contempt for everyday Americans. His running mate, Mike Pence, is making headlines of his own for refusing to call former KKK leader David Duke deplorable. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has that for us in Washington. Sunlen?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Chris. The Trump campaign, they are trying to keep the spotlight very focused on Hillary Clinton's gaffe. Trump elevating this one step farther last night at his rally where he called up a group of supporters onto the stage to give something of testimonials as to why they think they are not deplorables. Here's Trump last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: After months of hiding from the press, Hillary Clinton came out and finally told the world how she feels about the people of this country. She said tens of millions of patriotic Americans are a "basket of deplorables." How can you be president -- how can you be president for so many people? She talks about people like they're objects, not human beings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And as Trump campaign tries to keep up the offensive on this, his running mate, Mike Pence, he's causing them to play some defense. Pence getting some heat for his interview on CNN when he was asked about some of the support that the Trump campaign has attracted from white nationalists, including from David Duke, a former KKK leader. Pence disavowed his support but he refused to call him deplorable. Here's what he told Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not sure why the media keeps dropping David Duke's name. Donald Trump has denounced David Duke repeatedly. We don't want his support and we don't want the support of people who think --

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Would you call him a deplorable?

PENCE: No. I'm not in the name-calling business, Wolf. You know me better than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And the Clinton campaign, they have pounced right on that, tweeting out, quote, "If you won't say the KKK is deplorable, you have no business running the country."

And a Trump campaign official tells me Trump will keep up the attacks on Hillary Clinton over all of this today at his event in Iowa.

[08:10:01] And later we will see his daughter, Ivanka Trump, return to the campaign trail with him in Pennsylvania. This will be one of the first big appearances since her convention speech in August. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Sunlen, thank you very much for all of that.

Joining us now is Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway. Kellyanne, great to have you here.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Who's been more transparent about their health, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? CONWAY: As we know from this past weekend, clearly Donald Trump. We

saw Hillary Clinton with our own two eyes struggling the other day. We certainly hope and Mr. Trump and our entire campaign certainly hope that she is well.

CAMEROTA: And she has said now that she was suffering from pneumonia. She got the diagnosis on Friday.

This is all Mr. Trump has released about his health. Four paragraphs, as you know, from his gastroenterologist who says that Mr. Trump, his health is astonishingly excellent. It also says that all of his latest medical examinations and tests were only positive results, which of course is because that means something is wrong, but that's not what he meant. So how can this be considered transparent.

CONWAY: Wow. You can laugh all you want at the medical report, but as far as I can see, there are two major party candidates running for president and only one of them has pneumonia and lied about it, especially to the press, because she always treats you all like second class citizens. She won't have a press conference and when she pretends to have a press avail. I'm going to be uplifting and aspirational, then goes on to attack tens of millions of Americans the very next day.

CAMEROTA: But about health. This is not a medical report.

CONWAY: But Alisyn, this is what I expect from the Clinton campaign. I really don't expect it from journalists. We're talking about Hillary Clinton and her pneumonia and what happened on 9/11 which we all saw with our own two eyes, and it takes us about 10 words to get to Donald Trump. He had a physical last week.

CAMEROTA: Yes. And will you be releasing the results of that?

CONWAY: Yes. He said he'll release them this week or whenever the doctor has the report prepared.

CAMEROTA: What exactly will he be releasing, his entire medical history or just the results of the last checkup?

CONWAY: I don't know, but I'll tell you what he won't be releasing. He won't be releasing the fact that had pneumonia for two days and lied about it.

CAMEROTA: Lied or didn't disclose?

CONWAY: I guess if we're talking about Hillary Clinton, lying and didn't disclose is so different, right? It's always parsing the words. I mean, excuse me, respectfully, one person is off the campaign trail right now. We wish her well. We're glad she told Anderson Cooper last night that she's feeling better, that she expects to rejoin the campaign trail. We'll see her at the debates. But the idea that we shift immediately to the person who is keeping the most punishing schedule of any presidential candidate, it's unbelievable. He'll be in seven or eight swing states this week, five rallies. Just yesterday he was in Baltimore and Nashville. Today he's on his way to Iowa and then Pennsylvania. Tomorrow is Ohio and another state.

So, in other words -- Ohio, Michigan tomorrow. In other words, we can talk about that. But let's talk about stamina and energy. Let's talk about who is actually taking the case directly to voters and whose not. The idea that she did not have the worst 48 hours of her campaign that people would cover up for her, I think it's frankly astonishing.

CAMEROTA: You're his campaign manager, which is why we're asking questions about Donald Trump. We have people on from the Clinton camp and her surrogates and they asked about her.

CONWAY: They talk about Donald Trump.

CAMEROTA: Look, for stamina. In terms if you're comparing stamina, they both keep up a punishing --

CONWAY: No, talking about his. No, no, I'm sorry. Look at their public schedule. That is simply not true. She attends many fundraisers. In fact, that's why she was going to California. The minute Donald Trump dares to step in a state, Alisyn, that's either overly red or overly blue, the media, including CNN, run all these ridiculous stores about why is he in a non-swing state? Is he really running for president? She goes to California to Hollywood to raise money. She did it twice and is supposed to be there now in San Francisco, did it a couple of weeks ago, then she went to Hamptons, then she went to Martha's Vineyard, none of which is are swing states. But that's OK. Is she taking the case to the voters? Where are her rallies? Pensacola, Florida, last Friday, 12,500 people inside, about 8,000, maybe 10,000 people waiting outside just to get in.

CAMEROTA: Let talk about Donald Trump's tax records. When can we expect to see them?

CONWAY: When his lawyers and his accountants tell him that he should release them, when he's no longer under audit. He's made that very clear.

CAMEROTA: Has Donald Trump or will he release anything from the IRS, a letter from the IRS, proving that he's under audit?

CONWAY: I'm sorry?

CAMEROTA: Will Donald Trump release anything from the IRS proving that he's under audit?

CONWAY: I don't know. Why? Are you calling him a liar?

CAMEROTA: We're taking his word for it.

CONWAY: Are you calling him a liar? And we're taking Hillary Clinton's word for it that she was overheated and didn't have pneumonia or that she's going to be aspirational or uplifting or she's going to start talking to the press again. Seriously, we're running against a Clinton and we're going to challenge someone's veracity? CAMEROTA: The Founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, is offering to give

veterans groups $5 million is Donald Trump releases his tax returns. That's sounds like a great deal for veterans. That's obviously a cause close to Mr. Trump's heart. Will this be an impetus for him, despite we know what his lawyers have said. But the IRS said he can release it. They will not punish him. Lots of tax attorneys said he can release it. He will not be punished. Will he release it now given this motivation?

[08:15:00] CONWAY: No. But I hope that that man thinks so much of the veterans that he would give them $5 million whether or not Mr. Trump defies the advice of his lawyer and his accountant and releases his taxes.

And I also would love to tell you, Alisyn, and I've looked at CNN polling, everybody's polling, our own polling, I just can't find where this is a burning issue to most of the Americans. It goes back to what Hillary Clinton said. To be so dismissive of tens of millions of Americans also means that people -- people around here and elsewhere think that somehow the issues that are vexing Americans are not economy, jobs, terrorism, health care, immigration, education. Exactly what we tell the CNN pollsters. Exactly what we hear in our own polling.

Why don't we have a discussion about that? We want to talk about taxes? What will our tax burden be under President Donald Trump? He actually is going out and given a 4 or 5 point middle class tax relief plan.

We'll be talking more about tax reform in Pennsylvania, very -- actually, a very exciting aspect of it. Then he'll be at the Economic Club here in New York --

CAMEROTA: I think the issue goes to transparency. Look, the issue goes to transparency and if voters can bank on what they are voting on and knowing your candidate. For instance, Mike Pence, VP nominee, said yesterday that Donald Trump has given away tens of millions of dollars to charity, but investigations can't find his personal money that has -- is in the tens of millions. Do you stand by tens of millions number?

CONWAY: Donald Trump has been incredibly generous over the course of his own life.

CAMEROTA: With his own money?

CONWAY: With his own money and his foundation's money, which is his money.

CAMEROTA: No, the foundation's money are other people's.

CONWAY: OK. He's been incredibly generous. I mean, are we going to actually question -- Hillary Clinton and her husband made almost a quarter of a billion dollars and we're supposed to just question -- and that's OK. It's OK that --

CAMEROTA: But why isn't he a billionaire. Since Donald Trump has touted it, too. Why is that a short coming?

CONWAY: Excuse me? It's not a short coming. I'm a capitalist.

I just wish she would respect the hard working men and women of this country who she thinks are uneducated rubes coming down from the hills with no teeth and long fingernails and just -- you know, they need to be schooled by this precious woman in New York at Cipriani talking to people who are laughing at Americans.

Do we really want a president of the United States who laughs at Americans? I don't. I find it disgraceful.

I grew up around labors and I respect the hard work today and I think her insulting tens of millions of Americans just because they don't have a Yale Law degree like she does, just because their husband doesn't make a half million dollars to give some speech for 45 minutes somewhere, just because they can't give mineral rights to their friends in far away countries when they are secretary of state.

And the other part of her comment was also offensive. Let's talk about the other half of the half, Alisyn, saying people are, quote, "desperate for change". Boy, do I agree with her. Very desperate for change, feeling left behind economically. But who's been in charge of the economy for almost eight years?

CAMEROTA: Well, Donald Trump, part of why people are calling for him to release his taxes so we do know how much he himself has given to charity. Will you or the campaign release exactly what that number is? And the reason I ask --

CONWAY: I doubt it.

CAMEROTA: Why would you doubt it?

CONWAY: I doubt it, because this is like badgering. In other words, I don't see it as journalism. I see it as badgering.

In other words, we've had this conversation so many different times on so many different networks and yet we're not having conversation about what the middle class tax relief would actually mean for people's wage stagnation, a chronic problem --

CAMEROTA: But we do have that conversation at other times, but how is it badgering to a for the evidence of a claim? If Mike Pence is saying tens of millions of dollars from Donald Trump, shouldn't we see the evidence?

CONWAY: Did anybody ask Hillary Clinton for evidence that she was overheated and dehydrated? Is anybody asking her for evidence of why she thinks she's precious and special that she would have the secret service break protocol at Ground Zero on Sunday, Alisyn, and take her to her daughter's apartment rather than a hospital?

I mean, who are these people that there's always a different set of rules for them, we're always suppose to look at the other way. This network and other networks where presumptively protecting her and saying that she is fine --

CAMEROTA: That's not fair, Kellyanne. I mean --

CONWAY: She was overheated and dehydrated.

CAMEROTA: Anderson Cooper got the exclusive with her last night and press here --

CONWAY: She had to clean up her husband trying --

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: I just don't buy that that claim that is coming from the Trump campaign. We ask a lot of questions of the Clinton campaign but when you're here representing the Trump campaign, we ask these questions because you also can't just keep make claims and expect everyone to just accept it. So the idea that --

CONWAY: I think Donald Trump's a very generous man.

CAMEROTA: Yes, and what's the evidence?

CONWAY: To have employed tens of thousands of people from many different countries, both genders certainly, from all walks of life, over the years.

CAMEROTA: Sure, but that's not charity. Employment is not charity.

CONWAY: It's pretty darn impressive and it isn't the political resume that his opponent has.

I would respectfully say, because we love to play a parlor game at Trump Towers, campaign headquarters, it takes the average Clinton surrogate or campaign staffer ten seconds or ten words to talk about Donald Trump when you ask them a question about Hillary Clinton and I can't blame them. If she were my candidate, I wouldn't want to talk much about her either.

[08:20:02] CAMEROTA: But you are talking a lot about her.

CONWAY: You're darn right. So at least we hear about her today.

Transparency and trustworthiness are her two pillar problems, and she did nothing the whole last week. I think she had a terrible week. But she certainly had a terrible weekend. Not because she's sick.

Let me repeat. We're glad she said she's feeling better. We hope she's fully recovering and she comes back to the campaign trail soon.

But why all the furtiveness? Why the concealment? What's the big deal just to say, I have pneumonia and I'm on antibiotics?

And, by the way, why didn't she tell her running mate. What an embarrassment for him to come out. Tuesday I read, about 2:00 in the afternoon on "The Hill", he was saying, she doesn't need to apologize for her comment. Was she not told that she had pneumonia? She was on -- it's so odd that they can't let the running mate know what's going on. Why is that?

CAMEROTA: Should Donald Trump's running mate Mike Pence have said that David Duke is deplorable?

CONWAY: He should -- sure. So that -- so that he doesn't get headlines saying mike pence will not say Donald Trump is deplorable and people can get satisfied? Can people play the entire clip?

He clearly said on your network and thank you for playing that entire clip.

We don't want to support. We don't like what he stands for or people stand for in the KKK.

But there is -- he's got another point. There is a certain obsession about constantly raising issues and raising people that are not part of our campaign that we have said and Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, has said, we don't want his support. We don't want people like that. It's just unbelievable.

Will Hillary Clinton disavow -- does she think Kermit Gosselin is deplorable? Who was killing black babies in Philadelphia? Does she think people saying that -- calling cops pigs in a blanket and asking for their death are deplorable? I sure do.

And you can -- we can go name after name. I'll sit here between now and Election Day. We won't get to the tens of millions of people Hillary Clinton was referring to by calling them deplorable.

She was referring to hard working men and women. It wasn't a gaffe. Please, print journalists, be a little responsible. Stop calling it a gaffe. She was reading it from prepared remarks as she always does. And she had said it before.

CAMEROTA: So, Kellyanne, are you satisfied with the level of transparency from your candidate?

CONWAY: I am. I'm very satisfied with it.

You know what I am satisfied with, that he is out there with voters every single day. They expect it. They deserve it. I travel with him once in a while, Alisyn.

The county fair he and Governor Pence were together in Ohio. It was astonishing to see people eight and ten deep at a county fair just to be able to say, you know what, they don't say may I have your autograph, I love you in "The Apprentice", they say, will you save my country? They say we need jobs in this part of Ohio. The say, "Thank you so much for making the sacrifice of running."

You know what I appreciate? I appreciate that I'm running for a presidential candidate who's not a politician, who did not need to do this. People in politics run for fame, fortune, status, he had all of that. He has all of that.

It's a tremendous sacrifice for he and his family to do that. And I think that's really one of the untold stories this year, it's who thinks they've earned it, and deserved it, and it's their turn. Darn it, you better get behind me. I've got -- I'm qualified.

You know what else is a qualification? Integrity and transparency especially when the press is asking, what's wrong?

CAMEROTA: Yes, we are talking about transparency, a lot this morning, and demanding it from both candidates.

CONWAY: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you for being here.

CONWAY: Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: Let's get over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Let's get the other side. Joining us now is Clinton supporter and former NATO supreme allied commander, General Wesley Clark.

General, always a pleasure.

I do want to talk about the military specifically. But the campaign, you know, we were trying to get them on to counter what's out there right now in the state of play, and we got you so I've got to put two hats on you this morning. Is that OK?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: Fine. I'm not working with the campaign on these issues.

CUOMO: Right.

CLARK: But I'm a very active supporter of Hillary Clinton. I've known her for years. I think she has high integrity. I think she'll be a great president. We have to get her into office.

CUOMO: So, let me get a take from you. Kellyanne Conway just used an interesting word, "furtive", from the Latin, it has to do with theft and robbery, but we used to mean hidden and secretive.

Do you believe that word applies to Hillary Clinton and that we just saw with her health is an example of it?

CLARK: Absolutely not. Look, just because -- I mean, every person when you get up in the morning, is this going to be day, or a bad day, how do you feel? When you're in a political campaign you're usually tired. I mean, maybe Donald Trump isn't tired because he's coming back to New York and taking it easy every night. That's what we hear.

But Hillary Clinton's worked her rear end off for the last year and a half on this campaign and I know I did this for five months. I know how tired I was and I know she's tired. And so she's not going to get up every morning, gee, today, I feel 86 percent tired. Yesterday, I spent 80, 84 percent tired. And she's not going to say those things.

So, of course, she tried to power through this.

CUOMO: But you've maintained military discipline. You're in great shape. Don't you think these candidates should be more forthcoming about their medical history given that they're going to be the most powerful person in the world?

CLARK: She'll release her medical records, but I think Mr. Trump really ought to be more forthcoming about his tax returns and I'll tell you why. This is the biggest issue, because when you're president of the United States the American people want you to have one overriding interest and priority and that's the good of the country.

[08:25:07] And when I ran for office, I've given up all my boards, all my paid engagements, and everything. So, there was absolutely no perception, no chance of a conflict of interest.

Trump's still in business. We don't know what business he's in. We know from reading the records, a lot of those businesses have had Russian money in them apparently.

And maybe the Russians have loaned him money. And if certain Russians have loaned him money and if it's a lot of money, maybe it stays up to Mr. Putin. We don't know what his connections are with Russia.

But as someone who served in the military since the 1960s and was there during the Cold War, I was the NATO commander, turned out we had a lot of problems with Russia during the operation to stop Serb ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. What is the connection? Where are Mr. Trump's loyalties and if he wants to clear those up, he needs to release his tax returns.

CUOMO: His campaign says he has the biggest advantage in being president versus Hillary Clinton when it comes to integrity. Do you accept that given the things that you're talking about right now and about Putin being a better leader than Obama? Do you believe that's him being a truth teller? Do you believe that gives him the advantage of integrity?

CLARK: Well, let's look at Mr. Putin first, the facts. This is a guy who jails his opponents, keeps them out of congress. People get killed. Maybe he's worth $200 billion. How do you make $200 billion if you're the leader of a country?

So what kind of integrity is that on the part of Mr. Putin? And then if you're the presidential candidate, he's a great leader but he's certainly not the kind of leader America wants. You believe he's got 82 percent -- if I were in Russia I'd probably say Putin was a great leader, too, because I wouldn't know any better and I'd be afraid.

CUOMO: Now, on the other side, we have --

CLARK: It's about integrity. It's also about judgment and it's about hidden motives. That's fine coming back to the tax issue, because if you won't release your tax returns, Chris, the American people have no way of knowing what are the other polls on you? He should be out of his business.

Mr. Trump should be saying, look, I want to be the president of the United States. Here's my tax returns. Look at them.

CUOMO: And the criticism of Clinton on the same level of transparency is we only know things when Congress investigates, otherwise the campaign or Hillary Clinton herself or the Clintons together won't let you know things that do speak to the integrity of what they're doing in leadership, i.e., an example of what we saw with the foundation, what we saw --

CLARK: Wait a minute, wait a minute. I've been with the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative since it started. I've been to every one of these meetings, I've met all of these people.

It's a wonderful gathering of people who want to do things together to change the world and it's put tens of millions of dollars into things like health care and children's education.

CUOMO: And AIDS treatment for 2/3 who received it.

CLARK: And Bill Clinton is getting (ph) nothing from it.

CUOMO: But there are different arms to it. If you were secretary of state, would you have had that kind of connection to the foundation accepting money from foreign actors the way it was with the Clintons?

CLARK: Well, Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, Bill Clinton was running the foundation. She didn't have anything to do with the foundation other than coming there at the Clinton Global Initiative once or twice or giving a speech.

CUOMO: But you wound up having the same people in both places, right?

(CROSSTALK)

CLARK: Those people were Nobel Prize winners and they weren't doing business with the state department. A lot of people come in and talk to people in the State Department. That "A.P." story you're referring to, Chris, everybody who's looked at that story said the headlines were --

CUOMO: They overreached.

CLARK: They pulled it back.

CUOMO: And how they characterized was wrong. They pulled it back.

Absolutely. It doesn't mean the questions don't exist, that's why I'm asking you, general. Also, the idea of --

CLARK: I think the answer to those questions have been out there. They've been set aside. I mean, it's time to move past those questions. I want to get back to the real issues of the campaign.

As an American, I want to know what the future of the country looks like and what we've had from Mr. Trump is not a real coherent view of foreign policy and the economic program, they just don't make sense.

He talks about tax cuts. Let's talk about tax cuts. When Kennedy cut taxes in 19 -- in the early 1960s, the top marginal tax rate was 91 percent. He cut it to 70. That's a lot different than we are today.

We're already running a budget deficit. We've got our military that the money is sequestered in there. The military needs more funds.

You can't keep cutting taxes, and saying, don't worry, it's magic. The economy is going to grow despite the tax cuts. It doesn't. We disproved that.

Why is Mr. Trump repeating the same old tired formula that we've disproved time and again? It doesn't work. When you take these big tax cuts like President George W. Bush did in 2003 and say, this is your money, I'm giving it back to you, don't worry, your economy will out grow it, and you'll get more tax returns.

Nice theory. It doesn't work. Disproved by all the facts.