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Trump Will Not Disclose Physical Results on Dr. Oz; Colin Powell: Trump "An International Pariah". Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 14, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Any day now, supposedly, we could learn the results from Donald Trump's recent physical. The Trump camp now telling reporters some medical information is expected to be released this week, but not during that highly anticipated interview with Dr. Oz. Let me take you out to the Upper West Side of New York live. These are pictures outside of Dr. Oz's studios, where Trump could arrive at any minute now for his sit-down with Dr. Oz. That interview which airs tomorrow will now focus on Trump's overall health, exercise and the Trump family. We are covering all of this with our team of political reporters. But let's begin with CNN's senior media correspondent and host of "Reliable Sources," Brian Stelter, because you have been digging deep this morning.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Once again Carol, I hope - to campaign's spokeswoman just telling me on the phone here, that there will be a release of some records later this week. The campaign now exactly figuring out what time, what day those records will be released. Remember, he had a physical last week. This was around the time Hillary Clinton was having a coughing issue out on the campaign trail. It was before her diagnosis of pneumonia. So Trump undergoing a physical to show how strong he is, how fit he is to serve as president. There was an impression this would be shared on the "Dr. Oz Show," a taping today, airing tomorrow. Now, yesterday, on the radio, Dr. Oz and Fox News host, Brian Kilmeade, strongly suggested we would be hearing about it on "Dr. Oz Show." Here's what they said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS HOST: Then we would have the release of the Donald Trump records. He's already taken the exam last week. And you are going to go over the results with him live on television? -- Or taped on television? --

DR. MEHMET OZ, TV PERSONALITY: Well, we haven't taped the show yet. We are going to tape it on Wednesday to air on Thursday. And it's really his decision. It's his personal records. I want to ask him pointed questions about his health.

KILMEADE: What if there are some embarrassing things on there?

OZ: I bet he won't release them. - KILMEADE: It's still going to be his decision? --

OZ: It's his decision. You know, -- look, the metaphor for me is this is a doctor's office, the studio. So I'm not going to ask him questions he doesn't want to have answered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: So based on what Dr. Oz said to Brian Kilmeade there Carol, there was this interpretation on Fox News and then in the rest of the media that we would be seeing records on the "Dr. Oz Show," there would be this dramatic made for TV moment. Well, the campaign says they are not flip-flopping, it's the media that's flip-flopping, that there was never a finalized decision to share the records on Dr. Oz. The reason why this matters is we are now even more curious -

COSTELLO: Was Dr. Oz lying?

STELTER: I think maybe Dr. Oz was hoping for some sort of reveal on the show. Maybe it was his intention to be handed the document from Trump and to be able to reveal it on the air but those plans were never finalized according to the campaign. -

COSTELLO: It's hard to believe that Dr. Oz could have pulled that out of the air and then said that on a national broadcast? -

STELTER: You know, I have been asking the show's people, what was the plan? What's the plan? They haven't really shared the details. I guess they were waiting to tape it here at this hour before they confirm it. It is curious, though, just makes it all more interested in what Trump's physician found last week. You know, we don't even know what doctor saw Trump last week. Was it the same doctor who said he is going to be the most healthy president ever to serve in office? That man has been caricatured and joked about quite a bit. So we don't know a lot about this physical. But hopefully we will by the end of the week.

COSTELLO: All right. Brian Stelter, you stay right there. I want to head to the Upper West Side of New York now to check in with MJ Lee. She is awaiting Mr. Trump's arrival. Set the scene.

MJ LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Well Carol, this is another example of Donald Trump conducting things exactly under his own terms. As Brian reported, there were widespread expectations that Donald Trump would be at least in part talking about the results of his physical last week, but the campaign telling CNN now that that is not the expectation and will certainly not be the focus of this interview today. We don't believe Donald Trump has actually arrived at the studio yet behind me as the garage door where we expect his motorcade to roll in any minute. Of course, health has been such a big issue on the campaign trail all of last week, especially after it was revealed that Hillary Clinton has been diagnosed with pneumonia. And there were some questions, remember Carol, as to why when she knew about the pneumonia diagnosis on Friday, the campaign waited until Sunday to actually share that information with the public. This could be the kind of situation where Donald Trump will face similar questions now because there were expectations that he would be talking about his physical on the Dr. Oz show and now we know that he probably will not be. Carol?

COSTELLO: All right. MJ lee, we will get back to you when Mr. Trump arrives at the studios for his taping of the "Dr. Oz Show." With me now to talk about all of this, CNN's senior political analyst and senior editor of "The Atlantic," Ron Brownstein, historian and professor at Princeton University, Julian Zelizer, I'm sure they'll pop up soon and CNN's chief political analyst Gloria Borger. Welcome to all of you. OK. So, you know, it's -- just hard to know what to make of this Gloria.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANAYLYST: Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that somebody had a change of heart. I think that maybe Dr. Oz was hyping this just a little bit for his television show. That's not unheard of in American history, and I think that he might have been saying well, you know, you're going to get all this new information and then maybe the Trump campaign let it hang out there until they decided not to let it hang out there anymore. So they can blame Dr. Oz or they can blame the media.

[10:05:16] But it did hang out there for a while and I think that now, it is going to draw more attention to where are the medical records, what's really in them, is just -- one doctor checkup enough and it will start the whole transparency argument all over again.

COSTELLO: Well, Kellyanne Conway was on Fox this morning Ron and she said you know there could be private stuff in that report from Donald Trump's doctor -

BORGER: Really? -

COSTELLO: You know he has a hangnail that the public needs to know, that sort of thing. So that sounds reasonable.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I think -- the general trajectory though has been -- we have two candidates who are among the oldest ever to run for president. One would be 70 on inauguration day. One would be 69 on inauguration day. And we have an extraordinary paucity of information about their health situation. Even less, really, about Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton, and Hillary Clinton as their campaign I think acknowledged, clearly I think made a misstep by not sharing the diagnosis with the public sooner. I mean when the presidential candidate is diagnosed with something as significant as pneumonia, I think the public does have a right to know. It will be interesting to see how much we get from either of them going forward but I think the inexorable result of her pneumonia episode is that we are going to get more.

COSTELLO: So Julian, -- I know that Donald Trump's camp said that his medical -- the results of his physical would be released sometime this week, but do you believe that will really happen?

JULIAN ZELIZER, HISTORIAN AND PROFESSOR PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: I doubt it. I think what we see is a pattern that Donald Trump has followed from day one of the primary. First it's just to create constant intrigue about what he is going to do and when he is going to do it. And we see that again and the result is that he gets a lot of attention and we are focused on ins and outs of his campaign, and the second is he turns the agenda to issues that at least in his mind will harm Hillary Clinton. And so the issue of health right now is one that is not working in Hillary Clinton's favor, fair or not, but by keeping the discussion on this topic, he keeps it away from other issues that might have been more difficult for his campaign.

BORGER: I think he will, actually, release something. -- I don't think it's going to be long and detailed but he has said he's going to release this -- results of this physical so I think we will see it. The question I have is what is Hillary Clinton going to do? Is she going to do a full McCain which was you know in 2008, he let journalists who are doctors in to take a look at his medical records because he was 71 and a cancer survivor, or is she going to do something close to that and in comparison, we will see what we would get from Donald Trump. Then she can make the issue well, I disclosed my health, I disclosed my taxes going back three decades, and what have you done?

COSTELLO: Ron? Do you think--

BROWNSTEIN: -- Look, I'm skeptical, given -- the fact that we have two candidates who would be approaching the presidency, you know, at this advanced age, I don't think -- their relative health situation in the end is going to be nearly as big a factor in this race as many others. The judgment is at their qualifications. The issue debate that has been almost completely gone from either side and what will likely return at the first debate. But I do think the question of transparency is where this may have actually more bite. And you know, the fact, -- I mean the biggest fact on that front is that we don't have Donald Trump's tax returns. That is just an extraordinary departure from the norms of previous presidential campaigns. And also, we have in Hillary Clinton a candidate whose first instinct too often is to kind of pull back, pull up the bars rather than disclosing as on Friday, and I think that is a legitimate reason for concern. But the biggest issue is we don't have Donald Trump's tax returns. -- It's worth noting -

COSTELLO: I want to get to one more point before I run out of time for this panel. And Gloria, I will pose this to you. I just find it kind of odd that Ivanka Trump is going to appear with Donald Trump on the Dr. Oz show to talk about Donald Trump's health. Usually that's a wife's role. So I'm just wondering why isn't Melania on Dr. Oz with Trump instead of -

BORGER: Well, you know, Melania has made a clear decision for whatever reason not to be out there an awful lot on the campaign. And I think -- what Ivanka is probably going to want to talk about is healthy living, her issues. I wouldn't be surprised if they get involved in a discussion of child care, -- the issue she was talking about last night, maternity leave, health for women, and I think this is kind of in her wheelhouse right now. So I presume that's why she's there. But -- in a more general way, Melania Trump - has not been in sort of the typical spousal surrogate

[10:10:16] that we've gotten used to on a campaign trail over the years. -

COSTELLO: I mean, when did we last see her Julian? Do you remember? Was it the convention?

ZELIZER: I think we last saw her at the convention. I'm sure there have been some other media appearances but she served the role of trying to humanize Donald Trump so it's not that much of a surprise that she would be brought out. I just wanted to add, we have had many very successful presidents with all sorts of health problems, much more serious than anything we know of either of these candidates. FDR, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, who are still considered some of the great presidents. So I think as we wait for this information, we should also have a good gauge of what we are looking for. Because until recently, this is not even something we really paid much attention to.

BORGER: Well, we paid attention to it, though, because Donald Trump has made it an issue. -

ZELIZER: Right. --

BORGER: In the campaign, about Hillary Clinton's health and whether she has the so-called stamina to run. So if you are going to make it an issue, you know, live by the sword, die by the sword. -

BROWNSTEIN: It's a fair issue. - Yes. I think whether voters are making an issue to the extent that we are -

BORGER: is another question -

BROWNSTEIN: Is another question. - And that's just not a broader question, the dialogue about the campaign and the way voters are deciding on the campaign may be more divergent than we like to think.

COSTELLO: All right. We have to leave it there. Ron Brownstein, Julian Zelizer, Gloria Borger, thanks to all of you. Be sure to watch CNN for Gloria's "Special Report: Almost President, the Agony of Defeat." She talks to the men who survived the most spectacular public failure in American life, that airs tonight, 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. Still to come in the "Newsroom," Colin Powell's private thoughts made public after hackers published his e-mails. Why Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton might not be too happy about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Colin Powell taking aim at Donald Trump in scathing e-mails that were hacked and posted online. In an aide to the former Secretary of State tells CNN, the documents are "accurate." One e- mail from June captures Powell telling a former aide that the Republican nominee is, in his words, "a national disgrace and an international pariah." But Powell does not stop there, -- offering some sharp criticism of Hillary Clinton as well. CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us now with more. He is in Flint, Michigan, where Mr. Trump is scheduled to tour the city's water plant later today. Good morning Phil. PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. And you are right. Colin Powell is not mincing words in those private e-mails. It's worth noting the e-mails were hacked and then released by a group called DC Leaks, a group the U.S. officials believe have ties to the Russian government. But nonetheless Powell, as you noted, has confirmed that these e-mails are real and his sharpest criticism is no doubt directed at Donald Trump. He says at one point in his e-mails the Democrats shouldn't even attack him anymore because he will implode on his own. But as you noted as well, he also had some sharp words for Hillary Clinton and it almost entirely had to do with that private e-mail server she set up. Now Powell appears to be very frustrated in a number of these e-mails about what he feels is the Clinton campaigns or the Clinton team's efforts to try and tag him with what Hillary Clinton had decided to do with her private server. At one point, telling a business partner that essentially, everything Hillary Clinton touches, she ends up in some way, shape or form, kind of screwing up Carol. So it was an interesting critique of Hillary Clinton, an interesting critique of her e-mail practices which the campaign have tied to compare to Colin Powell's at his time -- at the State Department as well. But also, as I noted at the beginning Carol, definitely the sharpest criticism directed at Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly reporting live from Flint, Michigan, thanks so much. So let's talk about this with Bernard Whitman, a former Clinton pollster and author of "52 Reasons to Vote for Hillary" and Boris Epshteyn, a senior advisor to Mr. Trump. Good morning to both of you. --

BORIS EPSHTEYN, SENIOR ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being with me. So let's talk about these e- mails, Boris, because it was a pretty sharp rebuke from Secretary Powell who had another hacked email, blasted Trump for his role in the birther controversy surrounding President Obama.

EPSHTEYN: Well, no surprise there, Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama in 2008. He has been endorsing Democrats since then so he's a private citizen. He's free to say - and vote who he wants.

COSTELLO: or might one of the reasons be the birther controversy? -

EPSHTEYN: In 2008? No. That wasn't the reason. The reason he endorsed Barack Obama was because he thought that in 2008 Barack Obama was the better candidate. Colin Powell was wrong. John McCain was the better candidate. Having said that, the more interesting, the more pertinent part of those e-mails is Colin Powell blasting Secretary Clinton - for using him in the e-mails. --

COSTELLO: So let's talk about Donald Trump first, trust me, I am going to get to that. But I want to concentrate on what Colin Powell said about Donald Trump first. He said the Birther Movement was racist and when Mr. Trump couldn't keep that up, he wanted to find out whether President Obama was a Muslim. He found that despicable. If that's true - if all of that is true, that's what Colin Powell is thinking, -- shouldn't Mr. Trump come out and say you know what, that birther thing was wrong, I apologize? EPSHTEYN: So we've talked about it all last week. A leaked e-mail from a private individual shouldn't matter. -

COSTELLO: He's the former Secretary of State. -

EPSHTEYN: Here's the story. The story is that Hillary Clinton and her campaign started the Birther Movement. It was in a memo from Mark Penn, her chief strategist.

COSTELLO: Come on - investigators trying to find out --

BERNARD WHITMAN, FORMER CLINTON POLLSTER AND AUTHOR OF "52 REASONS TO VOTE FOR HILLARY": Come on, Boris.

EPSHTEYN: Let me finish.

COSTELLO: No. No. Please don't.

EPSHTEYN: She couldn't get an answer, she couldn't get an answer. Mr. Trump did get an answer for the American people that Barack Obama was born in the U.S. - This was put to bed. What's not put to bed is the e-mail. --

COSTELLO: -- Have the words of I don't believe President Obama was born in the United States ever come out of the mouth of Hillary Clinton?

EPSHTEYN: Out of the mouth of Hillary Clinton, no. Out of her chief strategist, he said - Barack Obama did not - American roots. --

WHITMAN: Chief strategist isn't running for president.

EPSHTEYN: Mark Penn said she didn't have American roots. -

COSTELLO: OK. It came out of Donald Trump's mouth. He sent investigators to Hawaii to find out whether the president was born in the United States -

EPSHTEYN: And now he's moved on. --

WHITMAN: He hasn't moved on. --

EPSHTEYN: The media will obviously pick any - hold on - the media is obviously - will take any -

COSTELLO: He's trying to reach out to African-American voters. Obviously this affects them. They are affected. -

[10:20:16] EPSHTEYN: And he's doing very well with it. He's polling 26 percent of African-American sector -

COSTELLO: Says who?

EPSHTEYN: A poll that was just done at South Carolina.

COSTELLO: Well, nationally, he's not doing so well. EPSHTEYN: Nationally, he's at eight percent. Mitt Romney was at six. John McCain was at two.

COSTELLO: What national poll are you citing?

EPSHTEYN: The NBC poll. The NBC poll and then the YouGov poll, he is at eight percent as well. So that's eight percent of the African- American -

WHITMAN: And 92 percent -

COSTELLO: 92 percent -

EPSHTEYN: Hillary Clinton's - favorality is falling with African- Americans, from 70 to 63 in the gulf. Now can we talk about the e- mails?

COSTELLO: OK. So who cares about Colin Powell says about that. - No. no. no. I want to talk about one more thing that Colin Powell said about Donald - and trust me, I will get to you and I will be as just hard on him. Don't worry. Mike pence refused to call David Duke deplorable, two days ago and also yesterday. Some Republicans are upset about that, they said Mike Pence should have said yes, David Duke is deplorable because he was the former grand wizard of the KKK. In an e-mail, Colin Powell writes Trump appeals to the worst angels of the GOP nature and poor white folks. That's what Colin Powell said. And that's why these Republicans were upset that Mike Pence didn't come out and call David Duke deplorable because there are some bad angels in the GOP, -- that they want to get rid of.

EPSHTEYN: Donald Trump, Governor Pence in this campaign have denounced David Duke, they rejected his support over and over again. -

WHITMAN: No, they haven't. They said they didn't even know who he is. --

EPSHTEYN: Governor Pence denounced and rejected his support.

COSTELLO: They did denounce him. --

EPSHTEYN: Governor Pence did that on this network and he did it on another network in the same night. And just because Governor Pence doesn't want to involve himself in the name calling that Hillary Clinton wants to do does not mean that support is not -- again, David Duke support is denounced. He is denounced and his support is rejected, and the support of those who think like David Duke.-

COSTELLO: So none of these matters what Colin Powell is saying about Mr. Trump?

EPSHTEYN: That's Colin Powell's view. He's a private individual. We should be talking again about the e-mail server because Hillary Clinton try to blame it on Colin Powell -

COSTELLO: We're going to talk about that right now. -- Let's talk about that right now - So - I'm sorry, I'm getting like oh, my God because I hate debating like this. I truly do. I do. And I apologize. I'm just trying to get answers for the voters so they can make the best decision. So Bernard, I will move on to you. Mr. Powell does not spare your candidate, Hillary Clinton, either. He writes, "Hillary's mafia keeps trying to suck me into the e-mail controversy." It sounds to me like the Clinton camp desperately wanted Powell's help on this and didn't get it but did it anyway.

WHITMAN: You know what I think was most to telling about Colin Powell's remarks regarding Hillary Clinton e-mail server? He said something that I actually agree with, which is two years ago she should have gotten out in front of this, said it was a mistake and completely moved on. But I mean, look, the fact is, Colin Powell criticizes her for the handling of the e-mails -

COSTELLO: But that is what he said. He also went on to say - he also went on to say the reason that - the reason she did not do that is because of hubris. And if you want to know what hubris means, and I'm sure you know what it means. It means excessive pride or arrogance. -

WHITMAN: I would rather be faulted for excessive pride than be called a racist and be accused of being an international pariah. - Colin Powell's judgment speaks to the character of Donald Trump. He's a respected statesman, going back decades, who served under three Republicans and absolutely loathes -- Donald Trump for the person and character that he is. He recognizes this guy is a racist, xenophobe, -- someone that international leaders could never work with and would be a complete embarrassment as a leader for the country. And this is something that millions and millions of -

COSTELLO: -- Stop. So I can ask you this question. Please. So Colin Powell isn't exactly coming out and endorsing Hillary Clinton or helping her in any way. Why is that?

WHITMAN: Because I think he has reservations about Hillary Clinton but he has huge concerns about Donald Trump being the Commander-in- Chief and leader of this country. -- That is incredibly clear. He just said in private with millions of Americans, millions of Republicans, including particularly national security experts, have said privately.

EPSHTEYN: Millions of national security experts?

WHITMAN: Yes, millions of Republicans including national security experts. --

EPSHTEYN: 90% of Republicans are behind Donald Trump. Colin Powell again endorsed Barack Obama in 2008. He has a history of endorsing Democrats. --

WHITMAN: He has good choices when it comes to presidents. -

EPSHTEYN: That's fine for him. That's his choice. He said that Hillary Clinton was dumb in her decision about the e-mails.

COSTELLO: That's right. EPSHTEYN: He said that -- she mocks -- messes everything up. He uses another word which I can't repeat on this network about what they did with the e-mail server.

COSTELLO: I will stop this right here because we are not getting anywhere. -- I understand. I do. I do. But I think it's a good end. --

EPSHTEYN: Thanks Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks very much. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:16]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. It is a place where the U.S. Military makes marines. Now shocking new details of alleged abuse out of Paris Island, South Carolina, where thousands of young marines train each and every year. A Marine Corps drill instructor under investigation amid claims he put a recruit inside of an industrial sized dryer and then turned it on. The recruit suffering burns on his body. This is all according to a new "Washington Post" report. With me now is Dan Lamothe, he is the national security reporter for "The Washington Post," who broke this story. He's also gone on three embed combat assignments with the Infantry Marines in Southern Afghanistan. Welcome. This was such a disturbing read. -- It's just -- I can't even believe this sort of stuff happens. What was this? Was it the hazing ritual? What happened?

DAN LAMOTHE, NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: So there have actually been several investigations under way -