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Letter About Trump's Health; Leslie Jones' Website Hacked. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 25, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's just - it would be an irresponsible way to run a campaign.

I do think that something that Kellyanne said really rang true to me when she said that he's been traveling with immigration experts a trying to figure out how to articulate this policy. It is incredible to me. It is absolutely flabbergasting to me that a guy who has based so much of his campaign on attacking immigrants, on attacking Hispanics, on the immigration issue, it has been a pillar - the build the wall thing has been a pillar of his campaign from day one and 75 days out, he's still trying to figure out the policy. I mean that's just, you know, mind-blowing. And I do think what he's trying to do is figure out how to articulate it in a way so he doesn't antagonize that base that he won with the build the wall chant, but at the same time try to somehow persuade folks who may still be persuadable, and it is not a very big universe, that he is not a racist who wants to round everybody up and deport them all at once.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: An important debate. I wish we had more time. Thank you all. John, Ana, and Angela Rye, thank you.

All right, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we have to keep our eye on what's going on in Italy. That powerful earthquake just rocked communities there. Take a look at your screen right now. Do you know how difficult it's going to be to repair, just to get access and who knows what will be found in all that rubble. We have a new look for you of the situation in real time, when NEW DAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:26] HARLOW: The death toll from that powerful earthquake in central Italy has been amended to 241 people killed. Officials now say some of the victims were counted twice. Still, though, a huge loss of life. This area still getting rattled by aftershocks. Three towns in that region completely leveled by the earthquake. One incredible moment we want to show you, though, right here. Cameras spotted those rescue workers digging through the ruble of a collapsed building. Cheers erupting as they pulled out a little girl alive. She's believed to be just eight years old.

CUOMO: Hope for a lot more moments like that.

All right, let's turn to the war right now. At least 20 Turkish tanks have crossed the border into northern Syria in a bid to wipe out ISIS and prevent Kurdish fighters from gaining territory. Secretary of State John Kerry told Turkey's foreign minister, Syrian Kurdish forces were retreating to the east of the Euphrates River, a red line for Turkey. Military forces took control of this border town, known as Jarablus, Wednesday, one of the militant's last strongholds on the Turkish-Syrian border.

HARLOW: And we know this morning 13 people, including at least seven Sunnis, were killed in that siege at American University in Kabul, Afghanistan. Gunmen stormed the campus. They sent terrified students and staff into hiding for hours on end. The rampage did ended when the two attackers were killed in a police operation just this morning. A third attacker killed when he detonated his car, which was packed with explosives. Thirty students were injured in that siege.

CUOMO: Pharmaceutical company Mylan announcing plans to boost access to its EpiPens following charges of price gouging. It is reducing the cost of EpiPens through the use of a savings card covering up to $300. Plus, patients who were previously paying the full price will have their out-of-pocket cost cut by half. The price of the EpiPen increased more than 400 percent in the past decade.

HARLOW: All right, we know little about Donald Trump's health, but a letter his doctor wrote last year is now raising a number of questions. Why one doctor who read the letter calls it concerning, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:41:33] CUOMO: All right, so there's this letter that was put out by Trump's gastroenterologist last year, and now it's under scrutiny. One doctor has recently written in "The Huffington Post" about what she finds most concern about this letter. That doctor is Dr. Jennifer Gunter, an OB/GYN, and she joins us now.

Hey, doc.

DR. JENNIFER GUNTER, OB/GYN: Hi.

CUOMO: So, what don't you like about the letter?

GUNTER: I guess everything, if I could say that. It's pretty much -

CUOMO: But is it just a style point? You know, I talked about this with Sanjay yesterday, and I het why the letter doesn't seem right. It has some grammatical errors and stuff like that but don't seem like what you would usually see according to this, but what's in there that should really bother a voter?

GUNTER: Well, it' hard to believe that a - for me to believe that a doctor would write something like that. I mean the language is really important. When doctors write letters, we try to be accurate. We really stick to objective findings. We don't say things like astonishingly excellent or make those kinds of statements. So, you know, apart from grammar aside, when we write a letter, we stick to really salient facts. So it's missing that. And there also isn't really any health information in it. I mean we don't know why. CUOMO: Well, let's put up some of this stuff that's in there so people

can get a feel for this.

GUNTER: OK.

CUOMO: Put it up on the screen and I'll read it, please, if you would.

GUNTER: OK.

CUOMO: Not you, doc, the control room. You can only control so much.

All right, here we go. "His blood pressure, 110/65." That's amazing. "Laboratory test results were astonishingly excellent. His cardiovascular status is excellent. He has no history of ever using alcohol or tobacco products. If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

What do you got?

GUNTER: Right, so I'm - well, his blood pressure's fine. You know, I think that being able to unequivocally state that somebody would be the healthiest individual is just not a factual statement, right? You would have to have examined every other president to be able to say that. So that's incorrect. Lab results aren't reported as being astonishingly excellent or not. We give lab values or positive or negative. And then there's the fact that he says that, you know, all of Mr. Trump's results are, you know, are positive, which, of course, would be a bad thing. I mean when I tell someone they have gonorrhea, when they have a positive test for gonorrhea, they're not happy about that. That's not astonishingly excellent.

CUOMO: Nope, I would guess they would not be, doc. Interesting example you give there.

So is what bothers you just the style of this ultimately, or, you know, is it the substance? Again, from the voter's perspective, I get why doctors won't like how the letter is written. It doesn't meet the professional standards that some of you subscribe to. But who cares at the end of the day if you're voter. The guy says he's healthy. There's nothing else in there that says he isn't healthy. Why should they care?

GUNTER: Well, I think, first of all, it's far less information than Hillary Clinton has released in her letters. So I think that if we're going to compare candidates, we should have parody and we should have the same information to compare. We don't know why Donald Trump lost 15 pounds. He says he likes to eat KFC a lot, so that's a concern.

CUOMO: Wouldn't it be great if eating KFC made you lose 15 pounds?

GUNTER: I don't think that would still make me want to get -

CUOMO: That would be -that would be the best part of this letter. But I know that's not true. GUNTER: So - but, you know, so that's really important. You can't put

a piece of medical information out there and not follow it up. And then there's the issues about, you know, there's some issues about how his signature was, basically how he described which division or a section he was in, which the doctor isn't. So when you have a letter that actually -

[08:45:08] CUOMO: So, doc, are you hinting - are you hinting that maybe the doctor didn't write this? Are you one of those people? Are you in the camp that maybe Trump wrote his own letter? Is that what you're suggesting?

GUNTER: No, I'm not in any camp. I'm pointing out that there's a lot of inaccuracies. And I think that the doctor should explain why he wrote it that way. Because I think that way - I mean if that's his letter and that's how he writes, what's the big deal about saying, this is me and, gosh, I made a mistake in saying which section that doesn't exist at Lennox Hospital that - that I thought I was in.

So I think there's a lot of inconsistencies. And when you have a document that is this important, it should be accurate. I want my health information to be accurate. I want the information I write about someone else to be accurate. And I guess we all wonder, if this part's inaccurate, what else is inaccurate too?

CUOMO: Well, so, you know, obviously, there is no requirement for a presidential candidate to put forth health information. It's more of a tradition. But it raises an interesting question. I wonder if we should have a more objective standard for this, that when you get into the race, you know, you do get a physical. Health matters. You know, these people aren't old, but they're not that young either.

But, doctor, appreciate it. Dr. Gunter, thank you very much for giving us your take on this. Happy to have you on NEW DAY.

GUNTER: Thanks so much.

CUOMO: Pop.

HARLOW: All right, coming up, "Saturday Night Live" star Leslie Jones, the target of just disgusting online hate. Her personal website filled now with racist images. Why did hackers take aim at her? We dig deeper, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:11] HARLOW: Well, "Saturday Night Live" and "Ghostbuster" star Leslie Jones once again a target of hate online. Hackers posting personal information and nude photos of the star on her own website. This comes after she dealt with hate-filled Twitter comments last month.

With me now to discuss it is "Entertainment Tonight" host, CNN contributor and my very good friend, Nischelle Turner. Looking bright and beautiful this early, early morning.

Thank you for being with me

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hello. Of course.

HARLOW: Good morning.

Look, this is disgusting. And every time we see it happen to our friends, to our family members, to Hollywood stars, it's disgusting. This level of hate really seems to bring it to a new level.

TURNER: Yes, it does, and it feels like there's been this calculated takedown of Leslie Jones -

HARLOW: Yes.

TURNER: For no other reason than she starred in a movie that people were upset that she was cast in, which is "Ghostbusters." You know, it is very troubling. We saw this kind of widespread yesterday love for Leslie Jones after this news came out that here website had been hacked, that they put nude photos up. It's a violation, definitely.

The website is down now, Poppy, and, you know, we haven't heard from Leslie Jones. We reached out to her numerous times to get a comment. NBC isn't saying anything. She isn't saying anything right now.

But the last time we saw this, you know, she did say she was taking a social media break when we saw people like really coming after her, after the "Ghostbusters" thing. Then she came back and said, you can't keep me down, but she did say she was heartbroken by it. So I can only imagine how she feels now.

What surprises me is that in 2016, in this day and age, we are still going after people based on their color -

HARLOW: Yes.

TURNER: Based on their race, just because. And I think that one of the most troubling things for me is - is the picture that they put up of Harambe, the gorilla that was killed in the Cincinnati Zoo -

HARLOW: Yes.

TURNER: To liken it to her. As a woman, and as a black woman -

HARLOW: Yes.

TURNER: It breaks my heart.

HARLOW: It -

TURNER: It breaks my heart.

HARLOW: It's heartbreaking. It's disgusting. It's unforgiveable. And the only positive thing we're seeing is the reaction. The "I stand with Leslie" hashtag, right?

TURNER: Right. Yes. HARLOW: And you're seeing that from huge superstars.

TURNER: Yes.

HARLOW: Katy Perry. I mean, you name it, coming out and backing her on this.

TURNER: Well, there's really no other side to this, right?

HARLOW: Of course. Of course.

TURNER: You know, exactly. But, yes, we have seen a lot of Hollywood stepping up and stepping out and saying, you guys, you know what, at the end of the day, it's just not OK in way, shape or form. And we also saw lots of celebrities that came out and said, you know what, also the release of the nude photos was something that was very troubling. I know Alyssa Milano said yesterday, why don't we release these other images. And people were putting out smiling images of her on the red carpet and her in movies. Let's release these photos. These are the photos that we should be looking at. You know, I'm - and I think there is an investigation into that as well because of the photos that were released.

HARLOW: I was going to ask you about the investigation. And it just seems like - do you get the sense that - that authorities are taking this attack, you know, extremely seriously? Because what they've done to her is unbelievable. And I think until there are really serious repercussions for who carries this out, it will continue to happen to more and more people.

TURNER: Sure. Well, I believe so, because not only did they do that, hacked the website, released nude photos -

HARLOW: Yes.

TURNER: They also released her personal information.

HARLOW: Yes.

TURNER: So they had driver's license photos, passport photos, all of her personal information. So, yes, I think there is.

When we checked yesterday afternoon with the NYPD and also with the LAPD, there had not been any criminal complaints filed as of yet, but I do think this is going to a higher level just because of the vitriolic takedown.

HARLOW: Yes.

TURNER: And, you know, it is a crime against her. I feel for her. You know, Leslie Jones is a 48-year-old woman who has been in this game for a very long time. She's a funny comedian. One of the funniest people that I've ever met and ever listened to. And she was really enjoying well-deserved success.

HARLOW: Yes. TURNER: We saw her so happy and exuberant at the Olympics, draped in the American flag, having the time of her life.

HARLOW: Yes.

TURNER: And now this. For what? Because she was in "Ghostbusters" and people didn't like a black woman there.

HARLOW: It's unbelievable. Look, you brought up the Olympics. Before I let you go, because you know all things entertainment, and if anyone will knows this, it's you. "USA Today" sports this morning reporting that Ryan Lochte, after his whole - losing all his - all these sponsors, et cetera, after the lie in Rio, now inking a deal potentially with "Dancing with the Stars." Is this the next phase for him?

TURNER: It would not surprise me. I think Ryan Lochte does love the limelight. I know that the folks over at "Dancing with the Stars," the word is that we have heard so far is that they've been having a little trouble casting this year. They do want to make a big splash. No pun intended or maybe pun intended. And we know that Ryan Lochte would like to do "Dancing with the Stars." I think there's a little bit of, I don't know, because of the situation that he was just in, and seemingly told a lot of untruths or lies about, you know, the issue in Rio. So I'm not sure if ABC wants to take on that. But, you know -

[08:55:14] HARLOW: We'll see.

TURNER: It would - it would be water cooler talk, definitely. So -

HARLOW: Yes, we know - we know he's - we know he's had his own reality series, et cetera.

TURNER: Yes.

HARLOW: All right, Nischelle, nice to see you. Thank you so much.

TURNER: Absolutely.

HARLOW: We appreciate it.

TURNER: Bye.

HARLOW: "The Good Stuff" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Oh, this is going to get you. This one is going to get you, Harlow. Today's "Good Stuff" comes from Los Angeles, California. World War II veteran Earnest Thompson (ph). Now he has visited the USS Iowa battleship regularly until recent health problems. So word got out that he couldn't visit anymore. So what did they do? A very special surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EARNEST THOMPSON, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: It was quite impressive. Yes, I - I enjoyed it very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Look at this. Those are the chief selects from the fleet antisubmarine warfare training center. They showed up at his door, singing the Navy's march song, and each one proceeded to shake his hand, thank him for his service and gave him a plaque made with the wood from the battleship. He told his grandson, it was one of the best days of his life.

[09:00:02] HARLOW: I can only imagine. They brought it to him. And look at that smile. "The Good Stuff," important.

CUOMO: So, so much, so much. Favorite part of the show.

HARLOW: I like that one.

All right, good to be with you, my friend.

CUOMO: Always.

HARLOW: I'm going on vacation.

CUOMO: Good for you. Well deserved.

HARLOW: You show up at work tomorrow morning.

CUOMO: I will.