Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Colin Powell: Trump Is a 'National Disgrace'; Trump Releases One-Page Medical Summary; Trump Visits Flint; Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 14, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:02]

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: The technology streamlines guests requests, so they never get lost or missed by hotel staff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. Good afternoon. (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey there. I wanted to get an extra towel sent up to my room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. We will send this right away.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Anyone who works at the hotel can enter a request into ALICE. Then another hotel employee can choose to accept it from anywhere in the hotel on their phone. The request is tracked and monitored to completion.

ALEX SHASHOU, CO-FOUNDER, ALICE: So think about asking for your room to be cleaned. You normally ask the front desk. They have to communicate that. That will be the housekeeping operator, who then needs to contact the housekeeper who is actually going to clean your room.

No one, not the guest, not the front desk, actually knows when the room is cleaned, nor that the request was made in the first place.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Alice isn't just for hotel staff. Guests can interact with it, too.

SHASHOU: With ALICE, the guests can see the state of the request as it gets completed, similar to how you might track a FedEx package. You get to plan your day. You get to be more efficient than you were, which is what we crave today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you so much for being with me on this Wednesday. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Donald Trump, who has a pattern of keeping secrets, shed a little bit of light on his health today, but not before even giving political observers a proverbial cape of whiplash.

Let me back up. First, it was hailed that Trump would make this big reveal on "The Dr. Oz Show," which, by the way, taped just this morning here in New York. And then just a couple hours Mr. Trump was set to appear, the campaign said actually, no, there would be no disclosure of the physical that he underwent last week.

Then, suddenly reversal, of course, here, Trump presenting the campaign, saying -- a one-page summary of his physical exam results to Dr. Oz.

So what exactly did the results, what did the paperwork show?

Let's begin with our national political reporter, M.J. Lee, here in New York.

You talked to some folks in the audience. What did Trump tell them today?

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, remember, this is the candidate whose doctor claims would be the healthiest person ever elected president.

It sounds like Dr. Oz's takeaway today was, indeed, that Trump is in very good health. Let's start by listening to a couple of the things audience that some of the members told us after the taping.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most of the time, he didn't really answer the questions directly, so it was probably flattering for him, although I don't think if you're paying attention he really answered anything.

QUESTION: Did he share details from the physical that he said he took last week?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, he was -- Dr. Oz read that out loud, a letter.

QUESTION: So, what information was in that letter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That it said that was in great shape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to Dr. Oz, everything seemed normal.

QUESTION: That's a quote he used to you, normal?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes. There were no surprises, except, again, that Donald Trump says he's on a statin, cholesterol-lowering drug, and that's basically it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: The statin, of course, is a drug you take to manage your cholesterol level. Trump seemed to say his cholesterol level used to be high, but then confirmed that as of right now it's on a very good level.

Some other interesting information that we got from the audience members, and I want to stress again that this is audience members coming out of the taping paraphrasing what they thought they heard -- Trump would like to lose some weight, at least 15 pounds. Multiple audience members told us Trump does not exercise, but he does want to play more golf and one audience member said that he said he's good enough at golf to play in the PGA.

Now, one topic, Brooke, that didn't really come is up Hillary Clinton. Multiple audience members telling us that Trump simply wished her well, but didn't really delve into politics. Of course, Hillary Clinton has been resting at home in Chappaqua, New York, and taking a couple days off the campaign trail ever since it was revealed over the weekend that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia.

Both candidates right now feeling a lot of pressure to share more information about their medical histories and their medical records -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: It's about transparency. They want to be the leaders of the free world. M.J. Lee, thank you so much.

M.J. talked to members of the audience. We did as well. I talked to Kelly Platt last hour. She's a pharmacy intern who was sitting in that audience in the Dr. Oz studio. She told me she learned Trump tries to eat healthy foods. Here's Kelly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY PLATT, AUDIENCE MEMBER: He is in the epitome of health, and I believe him on that. And you can actually see it. He looks it.

You can see he's a very healthy man. And Dr. Oz agreed with him after Dr. Oz even read the letters from his physician. He said he does not exercise, but just going to all these functions where he's meeting with 35,000 people, 45,000 people, and you're sitting there walking through everyone, that's exercise. To me, that is exercise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:05:00]

BALDWIN: Let me bring in our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN political commentator Mary Katharine Ham, who is a senior writer for "The Federalist," and CNN senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin.

So, the good doctor, let's begin with you. Before we get into your assessment -- and we will be crystal-clear that you have never examined Donald Trump in your life. You talked to Dr. Oz at some point this morning about all this. What did he share?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

He told me that it was interesting. He said they weren't sure even I think when the show started that they were going to get any of Trump's medical records.

BALDWIN: Oh, wow, as early as this morning.

GUPTA: They weren't sure at that point.

Then so he did what's called a review of systems, which basically means I ask you questions, have you had problems with X, Y, Z, and that's you sort of getting a medical history. He pushed Trump for more transparency and at that point, he said is when this one-page letter was revealed, the page letter that you saw just heard described by some of those guests, gave numbers about cholesterol and blood pressure and things like that.

That's sort of the way it went down. So it wasn't an examine of any sort there and it sounds like it was pretty cursory even in terms of what was provided. But even up until it sounds like this morning, when this was all being planned, they weren't sure exactly what if any medical records would be released.

BALDWIN: But this one page, this was based upon the physical from last week, correct?

GUPTA: That's right.

BALDWIN: So based upon what we have seen and also just hearing he says he wants to lose 15 to 20 pounds, he used to have high cholesterol, took some meds to help with that, just your overall assessment?

GUPTA: You know, it's kind of hard to make an overall assessment. There's nothing that obviously is a red flag there.

It's just -- but you this is all so strange. You're just...

BALDWIN: It's OK. We can take a moment to say that out loud. It's strange.

GUPTA: To somehow make this more than what it is, is hard to do, because you're seeing exactly what someone wants you to see.

It's being done in a format that is highly unusual. And, you know, there's no patient-physician relationship here whatsoever. So I just don't think you can make anything of it good or bad. It's hard to speculate in one direction or another with this.

BALDWIN: By the way, as we're talking about him, these are live pictures on the screen right now. He's touring a water plant in Flint, Michigan. You know about the water. We have been covering it for months and months.

So Trump, surprise, has hopped a plane, is now in Flint, Michigan. We're going to talk about that actually a little later.

Mary Katharine, the fact he went on "Dr. Oz," are you surprised? Is this like another chalk it up to 2016?

MARY KATHARINE HAM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I'm frequently Trump critical, but I would say this is sort of an interesting move. Oz reaches a bunch of people who are...

BALDWIN: A lot of women.

HAM: A lot of women voters, not a bad move, interesting cultural move.

What I thought was a bad move was when they started hinted that they weren't going to give anything, because you want to do is have a contrast and be more transparent than they feel like Hillary has been, because I think that's the key, is to be very transparent, as two of the older individuals running for president in the history of the United States.

But then this sort of rope-a-dope where he did give stuff, not a bad little news cycle for him, I think. Even if it's not that much information, the political sort of theater isn't bad here.

BALDWIN: Not bad. Not bad. And then in terms of...

HAM: Ridiculous in the 2016 sense, but not bad.

BALDWIN: Ridiculous, that's like a relative term in so many senses with both of these candidates.

To you. You talked to Dr. Harold Bornstein, his physician, Mr. Trump's physician, who as M.J. started the whole thing off. He is the one who said -- what was the line? He's the healthiest...

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Unequivocally going to be the healthiest president ever, ever, in the history of the world or something.

BALDWIN: You chased him down. I want to play a piece of that interview, Dr. Harold Bornstein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: And you fully -- whatever you wrote in that letter, you fully believe Mr. Trump is capable of being president physically?

DR. HAROLD BORNSTEIN, TRUMP PERSONAL PHYSICIAN: Oh, absolutely. There's no question.

GRIFFIN: Why did you write that letter? Was it a joke? The words you chose, the way you wrote it?

BORNSTEIN: I was just rushed. I had people to see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Tell me more about him.

GRIFFIN: I mean, that's Trump's doctor, OK? So he's been his doctor for three decades, he said.

He is a doctor. He graduated from Tufts. He worked with his father, who was a Harvard Medical Grad. They together operated this practice for years on the Upper East Side. He didn't give much more explanation out of that interview, because it was abruptly ended by his wife, who was sick of all the media attention.

But he seems like a perfectly nice guy. I don't have any idea what his medical credentials are. He wouldn't share anything with me about Trump's...

BALDWIN: But he's the one who gave Trump the physical last week.

GRIFFIN: He is the one who wrote the letter back a year ago, and he is the one now, we understand, who provided by this checkup, physical, whatever you want to call it, within the last week that was shared with Dr. Oz, or at least the results were shared with Dr. Oz.

Here's the problem in all of this, from my perspective. We have the political perspective. We have the medical perspective. From an investigative reporter's perspective, we continue to be played by the Trump campaign.

[15:10:01]

I don't know if deliberately or not deliberately. But the records exist. You can release the records. If you are healthy, release them. What is the big deal? He could end this. There seems to be a choice being made not to end this.

BALDWIN: Because there are much bigger issues, as we have discussed, for questions over actually both foundations, et cetera.

Though on the point, your point, on transparency, we actually just turned around some sound. This is Bill Clinton. As we know, Hillary Clinton is recouping from pneumonia. People have been critical of the Clinton campaign who didn't come out Friday and say this is what the deal is. Her's Bill Clinton on Hillary Clinton's health.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: First, I'm glad to have a chance to stand in for Hillary today. She did it for me for a long time. It's about time I showed up and did it for her.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: But I just talked to her. She's feeling great and I think she will be back out there tomorrow.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: It's a crazy time we live in when people think there's something unusual about getting the flu. Last time I checked, millions of people were getting it every year. But I thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Sanjay, to you just on both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, what are your biggest questions health-wise?

GUPTA: It's a good question.

I think that there are certain things that you want to try and figure out if someone is from a medical and health standpoint fit to lead. It doesn't mean it has to be totally comprehensive, doesn't need to be needlessly embarrassing.

Those types of details that are not relevant, I think, don't need to be released. But there's certain things when it comes to the brain, cognitive function. Is there any questions about cognitive function? Are there any illnesses that could potentially shorten someone's life or require advanced care, other things that are happening with the heart and lungs, two of the organs that obviously sustain life?

Are there medications being taken that could incapacitate somebody or have a disorder such as epilepsy, which could incapacitate? I don't even think that these things are necessarily disqualifying, but I do think some of those things should be disclosed. They're part of -- for this job because of the requirements of the job, the demands of the job, those are the types of things.

But again I don't think it needs to be needlessly embarrassing in some way. That's not the goal, I think, of anybody. But some of those things, I think, are important with respect to what you have to do on a daily basis.

BALDWIN: I'm watching you nod, but also we know that Hillary Clinton is supposed to be releasing some form, I don't know how many years back, of her medical records. She is frustrated. She says she's already done so much, and we don't very much know about Donald Trump. Here we have this one page.

Do you think once they give over X-amount of medical records this goes away and we can move on?

HAM: Well, I think releasing that is welcome. I think their problem is that they acted like Clintons when she had this issue on Sunday. They whisked her away. They evaded the press.

BALDWIN: People screaming cover-up, cover-up.

HAM: And they treat it like you're hiding something. and when you treat things like you're hiding something and you have a history of hiding some things in the past, and she has had some issues that she has then used during the e-mail as excuses and stories for why some of the things in the e-mail controversy happened, yes, people have questions.

It's a perfectly rational thing to have questions. And I'm not sure that you overcome that impulse that the Clintons have, whether or not they're hiding anything, unless you are fully transparent about this. And they're not so good about that.

BALDWIN: All right, Mary Katherine, Drew, Sanjay, thank you all very much on the health piece of all of this. Coming up next here, Colin Powell, former Secretary of State Colin

Powell thinks Donald Trump is a -- and I'm quoting him -- "national disgrace." This is according to leaked e-mails. But the bigger question, who hacked his e-mails and why?

Plus, moments ago, Donald Trump, we showed you those pictures. He is now in Trump -- Flint, Michigan, where, of course, the water crisis has absolutely devastated that community. Why is he in Flint? Why is he there now and who will be there to meet him?

And it will likely be one of the year's biggest television events. One expert just wrote the ultimate pre-game on the Trump-Clinton debate. Hear what he says could happen on that debate stage.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. And this is CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:14]

BALDWIN: All right, let's take you live here, Flint, Michigan. Let's listen in to Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: First of all, I would really like to thank you and your (OFF-MIKE).

I think we have a location where we are going to go, and (OFF-MIKE). And we can do that. I suspect it's going to be right at the next stop. So we will go the same way and I think that will be fine.

And I just want to thank the folks from Flint and some very, very good executives. And I really do appreciate it. And we will see you soon. (OFF-MIKE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Much appreciate it. Thanks your coming.

TRUMP: Thank you, everybody.

BALDWIN: All right, so that was short and sweet.

Let me just -- the headline is, we don't know a heck of a lot about his trip. We know that was Donald Trump. He has just toured this water and treatment plant in Flint, Michigan. We know that he's apparently on his way to a church.

We also know that the Flint mayor is in Washington, D.C., today, so won't be meeting with the mayor. Just a reminder to everyone, too, Hillary Clinton, she was in Flint. It was back in February and stopped at an African-American church.

Listen, you know the story in Flint. This entire city has been devastated by a water supply that was tainted with lead and other toxins. To save money, the city started using the notoriously dirty Flint River as its water supply, but it didn't properly treat that water. So that polluted water just ate through the city's pipe system and leeched lead into homes and businesses.

So, joining me now, LaRee Tibbitts, who lives in Flint, has been directed impacted by this water crisis. Her family is still not drinking or cooking with city water.

LaRee, thank you so much for being with me.

First of all, how is your family doing?

LAREE TIBBITTS FAMILY AFFECTED BY FLINT WATER CRISIS: They're -- we're making it through.

I mean, my daughters, their moods have changed drastically in the past year. Like, they're a lot more ornery and they get agitated a lot.

BALDWIN: Do you think that's a result of the city's water?

TIBBITTS: Yes, I do, because part of the effects of the lead is the psychological, neurological damage. And it messes with your moods and can cause depression. And they said it causes aggression in young kids.

BALDWIN: So, as you have been dealing with this and your kids and the water, there is the health piece of this, but obviously there is also the political piece of this.

Are you happy that Donald Trump is in your town today?

TIBBITTS: Yes and no.

I'm happy that he's here, but I hope that he's true to what he's saying that he's going to help, because we have all heard everybody say they're going to help us, but we don't really see too much of the actual help.

(CROSSTALK)

[15:20:00]

BALDWIN: Oh, forgive me. Please continue.

TIBBITTS: I was going to say, part of me thinks that he might just be here to win votes. But the other part of me hopes that he's really here to help make a difference.

BALDWIN: If you were to meet with Donald Trump today, we know he is there, touring this water treatment plant, going to a church, what would you ask of him?

TIBBITTS: I would ask him to please not let us down. Please stay to your word that you're going to keep to us that you said you were going to help, so please keep your word.

BALDWIN: And the fact that Hillary Clinton came months ago, does that mean any more or any less to you?

TIBBITTS: Not really. Honestly, not really.

I think a whole lot of her was pretty much she was coming when the media was hot, when there was lots of media around. And I think she was coming just to get the media attention.

BALDWIN: So, questioning almost a little bit of both of these visits, which is understandable, in the heat of this political cycle.

As far as your pipes, LaRee, and your home and your water, I understand you're not cooking. Are you drinking it? How are you bathing?

TIBBITTS: No, we will bathe in it, but it's scary. It is.

For my daughters, I use filtered water, and they're small, so I give them baths in the kitchen sink. Like, they don't go in the shower like normal kids or have a normal bath like they want.

BALDWIN: LaRee Tibbitts, thank you for sharing about your family.

We want everything obviously to improve there. And I appreciate your candor on the politics of all of this. LaRee Tibbitts in Flint, thank you so much.

TIBBITTS: Thank you.

BALDWIN: You got it.

Coming up next, leaked personal e-mails give us some insight into what former Secretary of State Colin Powell really thinks of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. My next guest says they prove Powell is the last -- I'm quoting -- "last reasonable man on Earth."

We will ask him to explain why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:20]

BALDWIN: Just about bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Hackers leaving their mark yet again on the race for the White House, the target this time, former Secretary of State Colin Powell. His personal private e-mails have been hacked, revealing some pretty critical words about Donald Trump.

In just one of these e-mails obtained by D.C. Leaks -- this is an organization affiliated with other recent hacks of high-profile figures -- Colin Powell is quoted as writing: "Trump is a national disgrace and an international pariah."

One of his aides confirms the authenticity of said e-mail to CNN, saying -- quote -- "The e-mails are accurate. No further comment at this time."

David Graham is standing by for me. He's a staff writer for "The Atlantic" and penned a piece today called "Colin Powell: The Last Reasonable Man."

So, David, welcome.

DAVID GRAHAM, "THE ATLANTIC": Thank you.

BALDWIN: So, just based upon the e-mails that we have seen, we see a bit more about how Secretary Powell came to his thoughts on Donald Trump. Talk to me about that.

GRAHAM: That's right.

It's a very interesting sort of tour through his personal inbox and a look at this life and a kind of voyeuristic look. We see him talking through his objections to Trump. You see, for example, he says the entire birther movement was racist. He says that Trump's ideas about getting 95 percent of the black vote are delusional and he calls him, as you said, a national disgrace and an international pariah.

So, you see him getting progressively more upset. He also talks about his objections to the media covering Trump so much, saying that by talking about him, we're essentially giving him oxygen and driving his popularity.

BALDWIN: So, he said these things or he wrote these things that he thought would be privately on e-mail. But he's also clearly frustrated with Hillary Clinton and her campaign, writing: "Sad thing is that Hillary Clinton could have killed this two years ago by merely telling everyone honestly what she had done and not tie me into it. I told her staff three times not to try that gambit. I had to throw a mini-tantrum at the Hamptons party to get their attention. She keeps tripping into these character mine fields."

What do you make of that?

GRAHAM: It's very interesting to see the way he talks about Clinton, because, on the one hand, he seems to be collegial.

You see him communicating with her. And also we have heard about him communicating with her. And he makes reference to talking to Madeleine Albright, who e-mailed with Condoleezza Rice. There's kind of a fraternity of secretaries of state going on.

In another e-mail, he says that he admires her, but he would rather not have to vote for her. He says she tends to turn things to trouble. He says, "Everything she touches, she kind of screws up with hubris."

And then on the e-mails specifically, you see him feeling kind of personally sandbagged. His sense seems to be that the Clinton team is trying to draw him into the story, blame him for advising her to use the e-mail, and also being able to point to him and say, well, look, we're just doing what...