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Report: Trump Gives Dr. Oz One-Page Health Report; Clinton and Trump Prep for Debates; Trump Speaks in Flint, Michigan; Hazing and Suicide of Muslim Marine Recruit
Aired September 14, 2016 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: David Graham, thank you so much with "The Atlantic". As we have talked about quite a bit today we just turned around the clip, this is the first time we are seeing this, we know that Donald Trump much ado about his medical records, he had a physical last week.
As there should be about transparency in this election and getting more information on both these candidates. Taped today and surprise revealed a one sheet result of his physical. Here was that moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. OZ, TV HOST: If your health is as strong as it seems to, why not share your medical records. Why not?
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I have really no problem in doing it, should I do it I don't care? It is two letters one is the report and the other is from Lennox Hill Hospital.
DR. OZ: May I see them?
TRUMP: Yes, sure.
DR. OZ: This is from?
TRUMP: Those are all the tests that were just done last week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff felony just sat down, Gloria Borger with me, interestingly a side note, Sanjay Gupta was just sitting in your chair. And as of this morning Oz didn't know this revealing what would
happen.
GLORIA BORGER. CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: A reveal in a presidential campaign.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump trying to do something on morning television, big shocker here.
BALDWIN: What do you think of it?
BORGER: I think it's a little strange. I think it's Donald Trump, obviously.
BALDWIN: It might work.
BORGER: And I think he pulls this is out of his pocket. The doctor hasn't seen it. He had to analyze one sheet pretty quickly, we haven't seen the rest of it. It is a way of saying I've done it, here it is on television.
ZELENY: But it should be noted, we've talked about, this is not the standard that some candidates like John McCain did in 2008. These are the oldest candidates running in a race. He's 70, Hillary Clinton is 68, turning 69 and one letter out of his pocket on Dr. Oz doesn't mean the standard people think should be met in terms of which one of these can be president. The Clinton campaign is saying we're still going to release some types of new documents sometime today possibly tomorrow. We have not seen those yet, either.
BALDWIN: Here is Bill Clinton speaking moments ago about his wife's health.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, (D) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: First I'm glad to have a chance to stand in for Hillary today. She did for me for a long time, it's about time I showed up and did it for here. But I just talked to her. She's feeling great and I think she'll be back out there tomorrow. So it's crazy time we live in when people think there's 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: So saying she will be back out tomorrow, she's been recouping, trying to minimalize, listen, everyone gets the flu, no big deal. But is it?
BORGER: Well, look, these are two candidates, 68, 70 years old as Jeff was saying, she has a complicated medical history. What occurred to her in 2012 was not a small thing. The question I think we have to ask -- I think once you become a presidential candidate there aren't any secrets. People have to know. But the question -- the larger question here is not so much is this just about health but about transparency.
BALDWIN: Totally, 100 percent, for both of them.
BORGER: Right, for both of them because if you look at both of them they're perfectly functioning. Hillary did have her issue last week but they're obviously up and functioning people in a marathon which is what a presidential race is.
ZELENY: Right.
BORGER: The question is how much do we need to know about lots of things? Whether it's health, tax returns. I think those are legitimate questions to ask. ZELENY: And clearly Donald Trump by doing that rather dramatic move
with Dr. Oz is trying to show he's transparent, these are not equal situations. The Clinton campaign has released 40 years of taxes, he's released zero. She's released a longer letter from her doctor. But still not probably enough but Bill Clinton's spokesman a short time after that corrected him and said he meant to say pneumonia. She doesn't have the flu, she has pneumonia. Not the biggest deal.
BALDWIN: You mentioned McCain a second ago and said wait. That's my segue to you. A documentary about those who wanted to be president. Let's talk about those who wanted to be in the oval office and didn't quite make it. Here's a clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORGER: Do you know when you mess up?
JOHN MCCAIN, (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, yes. You get in the car and your staff is like, oh, my god. Uh-huh. Yes.
BORGER: McCain believes he understands what his biggest mistake was, there is a tug a candidate shares between being yourself and sticking to a carefully calibrated message.
JOHN MCCAIN, (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You can't become almost totally scripted so that there is no mistake.
[15:35:00] And as you know my great strength is extemporaneous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So what's the premise of all of tonight?
BORGER: Well, it started with me over three years ago when I watched Mitt and Ann Romney after he lost the election at the Costco loading their car up with groceries.
BALDWIN: Wow.
BORGER: Like a week or so after the election, I forget when it was and I thought, wow, you've been to this mountain top and now you've lost the secret service, you've lost the adulation, you've lost the crowds. You've lost the public and suddenly you're there in the Costco so for me it's as much of a human story as it is a political story. We remind people about their races but we also really talk about what it feels like to fail on this spectacularly large stage.
BALDWIN: Were they candid?
BORGER: They were. Because to me losers are more candid and more reflective, politicians are not generally reflective.
ZELENY: They've had time to reflect on it too, one of the best things. John McCain has thought so much about it as your interview showed. BORGER: And they never stopped thinking about it. It's always on
their minds and not something you get over. There's no bronze medal or silver medal.
BALDWIN: Back at the Costco.
BORGER: Yes.
BALDWIN: We will be watching "Almost President" tonight 9:00 eastern and pacific on CNN. Gloria and Jeff, thank you very much. And we are a mere 12 days away from the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. My next guest argues the stakes have never been higher. We'll break down where each candidate has an advantage with a former presidential speech writer.
[15:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
We are just 12 days away from the first debate of the general election and the optics of a presidential debate haven't seemed this important since --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD K. SMITH, CBS NEWS: The candidates need no introduction. The Republican candidate, vice president Richard M. Nixon and the Democratic candidate, senator John F. Kennedy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Historians argue that these images of an anxious and sweating Richard Nixon in the end gave the edge to JFK. My next guest penned an absolutely fascinating piece for "The Atlantic." he writes when it comes to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump the stakes have never been higher. I'll quote him. "These debates would be must watch TV because they would be the most extreme contrast of personal, intellectual and political styles in America's democratic history. Right brain versus left brain, gut versus any portion of the brain at all. Impulse versus calculation. Id vs Super ego, and of course, man versus woman."
I hear him laughing, he wrote these words. He is James Fallows, national correspondent for "The Atlantic" and president Jimmy Carter's chief speech writer. Thank you so much for coming on. I was fascinated by this.
JAMES FALLOWS, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE ATLANTIC": My pleasure.
BALDWIN: One of my biggest takeaways is how you wrote the most accurate way to predict reactions of who'd win is to watch the debate with the sound turned off. Do you do that?
FALLOWS: I don't do that the first time because I'm too curious to hear what they say but if you want to predict what people on CNN or elsewhere will be saying that night or the next morning about who came off more strongly, you can do best to watch how people behave. How they hold themselves, do they wince in reaction, how do they look confident or shaken and it seems to be historically what registers with people. It's disappointing for logicians but seems to be the actual truth.
BALDWIN: We pulled sound. These are Trumps highlights and lowlights. Improvised insults from him during the primaries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You are all talk and no action. What I have seen up here, first of all this guy is a joke artist and this guy is a liar.
JEB BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a tough business to run for president.
TRUMP: You're a tough guy, Jeb, I know.
BUSH: We need to have a leader --
TRUMP: You're real tough.
BUSH: You're never going to be get your way to the presidency by insulting people.
TRUMP: I'm at 42 and you're at 3. So far I'm doing better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FALLOWS: His visceral response to attack people on their appearance, short, tall, fat, ugly, my goodness, that happened in junior high, are we not way above that? Wouldn't be worried to have someone like that in charge of the nuclear arsenal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I never attacked him on his look and believe me there's plenty of subject matter right there, that I can tell you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So we know he won, he was the last man standing, how would, how should Hillary Clinton respond to how -- what may happen at Hofstra?
FALLOWS: Well, I think that one crucial difference for viewers to bear in mind is that Donald Trump, who was so effective that way in the primary debates when there were eight or ten or six other people on the stage with him, it's going to be a much different situation in the general election debates in two ways. There will only be one person there with him and Donald Trump in his life has never had this kind of one-on-one debate experience.
[15:45:00] The other thing the person on stage will be a woman as is obvious. As I try to point out in the piece, Donald Trump has been taken aback when he is confronted by a woman who will stand up to him. And I'm sure the Hillary Clinton debate team is thinking -- finding ways she will be tough as she was with the Benghazi commission and trying to bat this down without getting into a slug fest with him. Because that is one way she could lose if she tries to get into an insult contest with somebody who is king of the insults.
BALDWIN: Do you think the bar is so low for Donald Trump that if he performs just a smidge above the outcome that it could be perceived as a win. This is what Scott Adams said to me today, the creator of Dilbert and someone who studied behavior in psychology.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT ADAMS, CARTOONIST: Expectations for his debate performance will be low in terms of how much command of the details he has so if she shows up knowing more than people expected they will be impressed and say, hey, you must be heading in the right direction, things are going in the right direction for somebody trying to be president. Whereas Clinton has to be perfect and then maybe a little extra because we already expect that she knows the details and policies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: What do you think about that?
FALLOWS: Yes, I do think that will be part of the factor, especially for the first debate. There will be three, the beginning and ending ones, the middle one is a town hall and very much as Scott was saying, there's a sense that Hillary Clinton is so much in her area of strength and I think that in the first debate that may be part of the reaction to it.
By the time there have been three of these, it's a lot of time for people to be on stage, lots of times to answer questions on foreign policy and how to deal with taxes and immigration so it's something I will have in mind for the first debate of how Hillary Clinton will play that expectations imbalance for her.
BALDWIN: We will be watching and then we will watch again with the sound down because Jim Fallows told us to. Jim, come back, please, sir, appreciate you very much, fascinating stuff.
Coming up next, absolutely horrifying allegations of abuse at a Marine training center, including a Muslim recruit being put into a dryer.
[15:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A Marine drill instructor is reportedly accused of running an industrial clothes dryer with a Muslim recruit locked inside. That instructor also accused of asking the same recruit, quote, "are you a terrorist?" The recruit, 20-year-old Raheel Siddiqui died after leaping from a stairwell nearly 40 feet high back in March. His death ruled a suicide but his grieving parents strongly doubt he killed himself.
According to the "Washington Post", the Michigan man was running away from the same drill instructor who stuffed him in the dryer at the marine training facility in Parris island. Thank you for joining me, congresswoman. You have been in touch with the parents. That's where I want to begin. How are they holding up?
DEBBIE DINGELL, (D), CONGRESSPERSON, MICHIGAN: How can any mother get over the death of their son? I think that the thing that's the most difficult for me, I have known from the beginning that something was wrong, and I meet with the parents regularly, and I can never bring their son back to them. So -- and I can never bring them the comfort that they need. The one thing I am committed to is that his death cannot be in vain and we must bring something good out of this awful situation.
BALDWIN: Let's talk about that piece. You visited Parris Island last week and met with the Marine Corps leader, General Robert Neller. What needs to be done so this never happens again?
DINGELL: The Marine Corps commander himself met with me last Thursday and I went to Parris Island this past weekend. I do believe that the top leadership of the Marines is taking this very seriously. I think they were stunned to see the culture that had developed there and this particular platoon as to what was happening.
I believe they're committed to ensuring that if a young mother or father brings -- sends their child into the Marines that they'll be treated with respect. Yes, if you are in the military you have to be taught to be tough. But you cannot be -- we'll never know. You can't be abusive. And we'll never know what happened that morning, but clearly things happened that led him to what happened.
BALDWIN: Tell me about your bill.
DINGELL: Well, what we are trying to do is to make sure that there is accountability in hazing and that it is anti-hazing. I think going forward we've got the Marines stating they are looking at their military court, looking at 20 marines right now. We need to make sure that it does go forward. I don't want to say anything that hurts those fair-process treatments, but I need to make sure that people are responsible for what's happened and are held accountable.
BALDWIN: You hit on this a second ago, though. It's like a fine line between, you know, instilling in someone real discipline and flat-out abuse. Where do you draw the line? What was the sense you got when you were in Parris Island?
DINGELL: The general that is the commander down there was actually the one, in the job that he was in before this, got as -- it is a Marine that's currently on active service that completed boot camp and told them of wasn't once he was put in the dryer, several times. And that his skin was actually burnt. He couldn't believe that it was true.
It is so horrifying. But they investigated and found out that it was true. For one thing, any drill sergeant that has an allegation placed against them will immediately be put on leave. The same drill sergeant that was there on the other Muslim story I just told you about was still in place for this recruit, Siddiqui, from my district who is no longer with us. I believe they're real about this. I just want to cry. I know you can't cry when you're talking about the marines but this is a young man --
BALDWIN: Yes, you can it is based upon everything that has come out. I read about this a while ago. But reading this piece today in the "Washington Post" and the details, you know, you want these men and women to be treated with dignity and respect. And when you read this, it's unreal.
DINGELL: There is one thing I want to say. As I have gotten to know this family. This was a class valedictorian. We talk about freedom of religion --
BALDWIN: Excellent student.
[15:55:00] DINGELL: He went into the Marines because he felt so lucky to have that freedom of religion. He wanted to defend it. And that very love and that not taking it for granted may have been what has caused him to no longer be with us. That's wrong. We cannot target people in this country because of religion or nationality. Our strength is our diversity.
BALDWIN: Congress woman Debbie Dingell.
DINGELL: I'm sorry.
BALDWIN: Do not apologize. Thank you and we'll follow up with you on your bill. I'd love to talk to the parents as well.
We'll take a break but we will come back. Donald Trump speaking at this church in Flint, Michigan. We'll take it in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: It's live in Flint. Donald Trump speaking at this church.
TRUMP: It's an honor to be in Flint. Armstrong is amazing. I had to compete with Armstrong and Ben Carson. Boy, that was not easy. That was not pleasant. They were tough and smart, right?
It was -- it was some little time we had. I gained such respect for Ben Carson and for Armstrong Williams, I guess that's why we're all here together. And I appreciate you being here, Armstrong. I wrote out a few things and I thought I would mention one of them that I thought about and I've seen around a little bit. And I said, did anybody else ever think of this because it's very interesting.
But it used to be cars were made in Flint and you couldn't drink the water in Mexico. Now the cars are made in Mexico and you can't drink the water in Flint. That's not good. That's not good. That's terrible. Flint is the birthplace of General Motors and once boasted the largest General Motors plant world, by far the largest. In 1970 general motors employed 82,000 workers. 82,000. And they were located in Flint.
That's a tremendous workforce. Now there are less than 8,000, and 40 percent of the city's residents are living in poverty. The 8,000 is dwindling. And that will be changed like everything else. More bad news for Michigan today. And I saw this today first thing when I was reading the papers. It was announced that Ford -- and I've been talking about this. I think the reason I am doing well in Michigan is I've been talking about this for four and five years to Michigan because I've had a great relationship with Michigan.
It was just announced that Ford is moving all small car production -- all of it, 100 percent -- to Mexico. Over the next two to three years. This just happened. We shouldn't allow it to happen. Shouldn't allow it to happen.
