Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Clinton: I Didn't Think Illness was 'That Big a Deal'; Trump Blasts Clinton Over 'Basket of Deplorables'. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 13, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

[05:58:12] BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She's doing fine. You've just got to be hydrated.

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 NOMINEE: My opponent slanders you as deplorable and irredeemable.

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

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: When David Duke is doing robocalls, saying, "Vote for Donald Trump," we do need to call it out.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Donald Trump had denounced David Duke repeatedly. We don't want his support.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Would you call him a deplorable?

PENCE: No. I'm not in the name calling business.

B. CLINTON: Nobody ever got anything from State Department because they supported the Clinton Foundation.

TRUMP: Hillary believes she's above the law. So far, she's turned out to be.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, September 13, 6 a.m. in the East, and we start with Hillary Clinton speaking out for the first time, calling into CNN to discuss her pneumonia, saying, quote, she didn't think it was going to be that big a deal. We now know Clinton kept this diagnosis from most of her staff.

Transparency looms large. A major issue in this campaign. What do voters have the right to know about both candidates?

CLINTON: Meanwhile, Donald Trump is slamming Clinton's "basket of deplorables" comment as, quote, "the biggest mistake of the political season."

We are just 56 days from election day, ten days from early voting and 13 days from the first debate. So we have this race covered for you. Let's begin with senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

Jeff, what is the latest?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Hillary Clinton is acknowledging that she and her staff could have been more forthcoming about her pneumonia diagnosis. Few people on her campaign staff actually knew about it, which made it more difficult for them to react after she became ill at that 9/11 ceremony.

The campaign has been trying to walk a fine line, avoiding feeding the conspiracy theories about her health but sharing critical information with voters that they would surely understand. But she explained her decision like this to Anderson Cooper last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON (via phone): Well, I just didn't think it was going to be that big a deal.

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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Now, former president Bill Clinton, who is filling in for her on the campaign trail today at fundraisers in California, said this has happened before. He sat down with Charlie Rose.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

B. CLINTON: Rarely, but on more than one occasion over the last many, many years, the same sort of things happen to her, when she just got severely dehydrated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: And she did acknowledge that, as well. She said it has happened occasionally, and she can try to usually avoid it.

But the Clinton campaign is out this morning with a new television ad. They're hoping to go back on the offense against Trump and trying to turn the page here. The ad shows how Trump has insulted and demeaned the American people, trying to move beyond that controversial "deplorable" comment over the weekend here. That is the Clinton campaign's goal.

She remains off the campaign trail again today. She'll be back tomorrow or maybe Thursday. Meantime, both she and Trump have promised more medical records -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Jeff. Thank you very much.

There's no question that there are real questions about this Clinton illness, but there are even bigger issues about how the campaign handles transparency. And Anderson Cooper asked those questions. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

H. CLINTON (via phone): 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'd 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.

COOPER: You know, a lot of people have obviously seen the video of you being helped into the van. Did you actually faint? Did you actually pass out or lose consciousness?

H. CLINTON: No, I didn't. I felt dizzy, and I did lose my balance for a minute, but once I got in, once I could sit down, once I could cool off, once I had some water, I immediately started feeling better.

COOPER: A lot has been made over the course of the last week or so about the cough you've been struggling with. You blamed it on allergies, joked at one point you were allergic to Donald Trump. Was that cough actually pneumonia-related and not, in fact, allergy- related?

H. CLINTON: Well, it sure seemed like it was an allergy, because I've had allergies, seasonal allergies off and on. And it does come with a cough. You know, I've got lots of examples of, you know, in the spring and in the fall getting a bit of a coughing fit. And then it dissipates.

What happened this time, though, was it didn't dissipate. And that's why when I got off the road on Friday, I did go to see my doctor. And that's when I was diagnosed with pneumonia.

And the funniest thing that happened to me on Sunday, wasn't a funny day after all, but this was kind of humorous. I got to the memorial. I saw my friend and former colleague, Chuck Schumer. And the first thing he says 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: Yes.

H. CLINTON: And I've since been contacted by, you know, a number of people who have told me they have had it, they've gotten over it.

COOPER: Well, let me -- let me ask you about that.

H. CLINTON: Right.

COOPER: Because 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 for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?"

Why not just say on Friday, as you said to, apparently, Senator Schumer on Sunday, you know, "I have pneumonia, folks. I'm going to power through it"? Why keep it a secret?

H. 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 and your campaign's -- you know, the refusal to acknowledge what happened until, really, after that video was circulated, confirmed the suspicion of some voters that you're not transparent or trustworthy?

H. 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 doctor 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.

[06:05:21] So if we weren't -- if we weren't fast enough, you know, I've talked to my staff. We, you know, take responsibility for that, but the information is out there. You can't say the same thing about Donald Trump.

COOPER: Brian Fallon from your campaign said that your campaign is going to release more of your records. As you know, probably, Donald Trump has said he's now had a physical, I believe on Friday, and that he's going to release that soon. Will you be releasing more details about your medical history? And do you know, you know, how detailed it's going to be, how far it's going to go back? Is it going to be more about what happened in 2012 when you -- when you fell and hit your head? Do you know how far it'll go?

H. CLINTON: Well, we're going to be releasing more information, and I think it's fair to say we've already met the standard of disclosure of past presidential candidates like Mitt Romney and President Obama. 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. Know virtually nothing about his business entanglements, his foreign investors. You know, it's really past time for him to be held to the same standard not just as me but of everybody else who has sought this job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: OK. So we're going to be talking a lot about transparency this morning, because Donald Trump has released, you know, four paragraphs on his medical records. She's released two pages. Is this enough? What do voters...

CUOMO: Well, they didn't come from Trump. They came from the doctor.

CAMEROTA: The doctor. That's right, who said he's in astonishing health. But we'll get into all of that.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, taking it easy on Clinton's health, but he is pouncing on her "basket of deplorables" comment, saying she has contempt for voters, while Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, refuses to call former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke "deplorable."

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is live in Washington with more. Catch us up, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Well, the Trump campaign there trying to keep the spotlight focused squarely on Hillary Clinton's gaffe. Trump elevating this really one step farther last night at his rally. He called up a group of supporters on the stage to give testimonials as to why they think they are not deplorable. Here's Trump last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: 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: Now, the Trump campaign tries to go on the offensive on this. His running mate, Mike Pence, is really causing them to have to play some defense.

Pence getting a little heat for his interview yesterday on CNN, when he was asked about some of the support their campaign has attracted from white nationalists, including from David Duke, a former KKK leader. Well, Pence disavowed David Duke's support, but he refused to call him deplorable. Here's what he told Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PENCE: I'm not really 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 like him.

BLITZER: So you would call him a deplorable? You would call him that?

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 has pounced right on that, tweeting out, quote, "If you won't say the KKK is deplorable, you have no business running this country." So the Clinton campaign there, Alisyn and Chris, clearly sensing some small opening.

CAMEROTA: OK, Sunlen. Thanks so much for all of that.

Let's discuss it with our panel. We have CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic," Ron Brownstein; CNN political analyst and "New York Times" political correspondent Patrick Healy; and CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich. Great to have all of you here.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: So Ron, what do voters have the right to know? Do they have the right to know if one of the candidates is suffering from pneumonia? Or can they keep that private?

BROWNSTEIN: I think they have the right to know more than they know. I mean, that they have been provided so far. I think it's an extraordinary decision by Hillary Clinton to decide on Friday, after diagnosis of pneumonia, that that did not meet the standard of something that the public should know. I think the public clearly should have known that.

But as always, on many fronts in this campaign, her best defense is the comparison with Donald Trump, who has provided us with really less information, both about his health and, even more egregiously, about his taxes than any presidential candidates before.

CAMEROTA: Ever.

BROWNSTEIN: Ever, really.

I mean, so look, we have two of the -- these are two of the oldest candidates that have ever run for president. There should be more rather than less disclosure. John McCain, dealing with issues like that, bent over backwards to provide medical records in 2008. And I think there's going to be, unquestionably, pressure for them to give us more than they have so far, but it probably won't be as much as many are hoping.

[06:10:16] CUOMO: The excuse is the system. Right? There are no rules that compel anything more than they want to do, we can pressure them to do. I hope the American people are realizing that, when they say, "Yes, I want to know more," that's what empowers the media. There's this fiction right now that somehow the media has its own independent power. We're only as good as what the people want.

Now, in your reporting, what have you encountered in terms of trying to get disclosure on issues from Hillary Clinton, let's say, about the foundation? You know, the pushback to her point is "Nobody's been more transparent than me." Yes, but you always have to be investigated for the transparency to come out.

PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Right.

CUOMO: And now what we're seeing with Clinton -- with Trump, what has been your experience?

HEALY: They're trying to focus so much on how Donald Trump isn't putting out information, rather than hitting a standard that other previous presidents and presidential candidates have met.

One of the big debates that they've had in the campaign is whether to put her doctor on the phone with reporters, whether to put out all of the sort of medical records, the pages that, you know, John McCain, John Kerry, you know, Al Gore, George W. Bush put out and sort of create, sort of give -- give voters a sense of the physical health of the candidate.

And what they're coming back against, I think, is her desire for privacy, for putting out as little information as possible, you know, which is -- has been a pattern of Secretary Clinton's going back to the '90s.

CUOMO: Zeleny reported that her own staff, some of them didn't know she had pneumonia.

HEALY: Didn't know. And we kind of did kind of a tick-tock (ph) this morning, going back and looking at the decision making. She found out Friday morning that she had this diagnosis of pneumonia; and she decided to keep the information to a really tight circle of family members, closest aides, people who, for years and decades, in some cases, have kind of reinforced her instinct for privacy, for hunkering down because of the belief that information can so easily be manipulated by conspiracy theorists, people who have always been against her.

CAMEROTA: I mean, this is also just her personality. She doesn't overshare. She doesn't even share as much as other people would. She said in that interview with Anderson, "I thought I would just muscle through it." I mean, that's sort of, you know, a metaphor for how she's handled a lot of things in her life.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, this -- it's not a big deal, it wasn't a big deal to have another device when she had her e-mails. It wasn't a big deal not to tell people that she had pneumonia until they get caught, until there becomes a compelling reason for these things to be out there.

And that's why there is this trust deficit with Hillary Clinton. And this -- this whole incident, all the health concerns aside, just made people remember that again, why they might not -- they might not think they can trust Hillary Clinton. It just exacerbates that problem for the campaign.

CUOMO: Let's switch over to Trump here. Do we have the sound of Trump talking about what Clinton said about voters?

CAMEROTA: I think we do. Let's play that.

CUOMO: I ask you, because you know.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She called these Americans every name in the book. Racist, sexist, xenophobic, Islamophobic. She said they were not even American. Right. Anybody xenophobic? I don't think so. I don't think so.

Never in history has a major party presidential candidate so viciously demonized the American voter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Ron, except for him.

BROWNSTEIN: Except for him, right.

CUOMO: What is going on here right now? Sometimes it's just like something screams out B.S. alert.

BROWNSTEIN: Right, right.

CUOMO: And you've got to call it as for what it is.

BROWNSTEIN: This is where Donald Trump kind of challenges conventional journalism. Because when you say something that is just simply that, you know, separated from the fact -- this is a candidate who came down the escalator and talked about undocumented immigrants as rapists, who said that a U.S.-born federal judge could not do his job, precisely because of his ethnic heritage. I mean, it is extraordinary for him to be saying that, you know, she's -- she is the uniquely demonizing large group of Americans.

CUOMO: Xenophobia, by definition, is fear of outsiders.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. And by the way...

CUOMO: That practically is engendered when it comes to the...

BROWNSTEIN: ... in polling, there is no question that the Donald Trump coalition is much more hostile to the impact -- sees a much more negative impact of immigrants on American society than other voters.

But having said that, always a mistake for a candidate to attack the motivations of people for voting.

CAMEROTA: Right.

BROWNSTEIN: Because there are lots of reasons why people are not voting for Hillary Clinton or not voting for her. It's wrong to, you know, simply attribute it to kind of, you know, bad motives.

But it is noteworthy that, for this modern Democratic coalition, diversity, tolerance, inclusion are core values. And in this dispute, she is portraying herself as someone who will stand up for that. And in the same way that this motivates the Trump coalition, I think it also motivates the Clinton coalition.

HEALY: This is also the place that we're hoping to get the Trump/Pence ticket into, which -- which was not focus on the half the voters but on the deplorables so they have to end up defending or look like they're defending people like David Duke.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

[06:15:11] HEALY: I mean, this was sort of the idea of like, OK, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, stand up for the voters who are supporting you. Defend what they say, what they do.

CAMEROTA: I mean, the problem with it is that the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton want to cast a big tent for all comers, except Republicans, who -- I mean, who she says half of which are -- you know, the millions of people voting for Donald Trump are deplorables.

I mean, that was -- here's my question. Was that intentional, or did she misspeak? Because there's a big debate about whether that is the message that she's trying to send out to everyone: "We don't even want them. We don't like them." Or was that just she just went overboard?

KUCINICH: It seems like she doesn't want people to feel like they're associated with the deplorables. She doesn't want people to be like -- to want to be part of that club.

Now, I would disagree that she doesn't want Republicans. Because they've actually tried to recruit, particularly establishment Republicans, who have been raging against Trump this entire time.

CAMEROTA: And I guess my point is, is that the way to do it? To call half of Donald Trump's supporters...

KUCINICH: No, because this you know who this -- you know who this could affect? This could affect the blue-collar workers that Joe Biden and her husband, Bill Clinton, have been working so hard to recruit in places like Pennsylvania, in Ohio, in the Rust Belt. So if they hear this out of context, they could -- they could be listening to Trump and thinking that he's actually telling the truth.

BROWNSTEIN: As Jackie noted, the flipside is that, you know, in reality, their surer path to victory is more through those white- collar white suburbs. And I think that, you know -- I think she went too far, and she phrased it in a way that is unnecessarily polarizing and offensive to voters.

But I do think, as Jackie was suggesting, they want those voters to question whether this is a pool you really want to jump in. Is this where you see yourself culturally, as part of this movement, or do you feel alienated from it? Because in fact, as you know, in polling, today she's ahead among college-educated white voters, which no Democratic presidential candidate has ever won in the history of polling.

CUOMO: And we also know the answer to your question is, yes, it was intentional, because she had said this before about the nature and character of some of his supporters.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CUOMO: The 50 percent was new.

KUCINICH: Exactly.

CUOMO: That was the mistake. She overreached, and now she's in the catch.

CAMEROTA: Panel, stick around. Thank you very much.

CUOMO: All right. So Bill Clinton and Mike Pence coming to their candidate's defense. But how effective are they, and how could they help with transparency issues? A closer look on NEW DAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:21:23] CUOMO: Bill Clinton talking about his wife's health to PBS' Charlie Rose last night. He was revealing that she has suffered from severe dehydration in the past. Hillary Clinton also called into CNN last night to describe these past health scares. Here's a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

B. CLINTON: Rarely, but on more than one occasion over the last many, many years, the same sort of thing's happened to her when she just got severely dehydrated.

COOPER: How often has this happened? H. CLINTON (via phone): I think really only twice that I can recall.

You know, it is something that has occurred a few times over the course of my life. And I'm aware of it and usually can avoid it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right. Let's bring back our panel: Ron Brownstein, Jackie Kucinich and Patrick Healy.

Ron, her health...

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CUOMO: ... is only a cursory aspect, a surface aspect of what we're really talking about here. This is transparency. This is what this campaign decides to say and under what pressure.

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

CUOMO: And similarly, what Trump ignores and throws back on the media as an unreasonable request. Isn't that fair?

BROWNSTEIN: That's paradox of this campaign. I think if we would somehow measure the total amount of words spoken and written about this campaign, versus, say, '92 or 1984, it would probably be, like, 10,000 to 1. And yet, we don't have so much of the basic information that we've had on previous presidential candidates.

And I think I agree. I think you can look at this episode as a microcosm of the way Clinton often deals with difficult choices. The first instinct is to hold information tightly around a narrow circle of advisers, even within the campaign, and they only disclose, often, what they have to disclose. And, you know, whether that would work -- you know, you would have to think about the question of not only what it means for the campaign but what it means for governing.

And similarly with Trump and the lack of transparency and disclosure from him, if either of them win, would these be the attitudes they carry into the presidency?

CAMEROTA: So is Bill Clinton the antidote to that? I mean, he's the person who's told us she's been severely dehydrated before. And that these things happen when she's severely dehydrated.

HEALY: It's a little strange. In the 1990s, we knew a lot about Bill Clinton's health back then. I mean, he was a guy you could ask questions, and he would sort of overshare and over-reveal and sometimes be a little bit too much. But -- but he was someone -- he was in his -- he was in his mid-40s, I think...

BROWNSTEIN: Forties.

HEALY: ... when he was putting all of this information out.

BROWNSTEIN: Forty-six. HEALY: Hillary Clinton has been, you know, working such a, you know, grueling sort of right out of -- she's such a hard worker in terms of her campaign schedule.

But, you know, the decision, at least right now, not to put out more information than you need to, you know, to sort of cut that bare minimum, I just think it sort of reinforces or plays into these questions about, OK, how straightforward are you? How honest are you, especially if we have these questions?

KUCINICH: And they're right in that Donald Trump should release more of his medical records. He should release his tax returns.

CAMEROTA: He says he's going to this week. I mean...

CUOMO: Not his taxes. His medical records.

CAMEROTA: No, no, his medical records. This week both campaigns say that we're going to get more information this week.

CUOMO: Right. But he had a chance to do it, and he blew it with that silly doctor letter that was, you know, basically a slap in the face at the request of information. That's what it was. It was like, "Oh, yes, I'll give you a doctor's letter" that, you know, didn't meet anybody's criteria for anything.

KUCINICH: That he wrote in five minutes, we found out later.

CUOMO: The question is, is that enough for the voters?

CAMEROTA: Under pressure.

CUOMO: Because we know it's not enough for us. You know, you can only ask for the taxes so many times until voters decide, "Oh, yes, this does matter to me. We want to know." That's what they respond to, not just us.

KUCINICH: And until you faint in public. I mean, Hillary Clinton probably wouldn't have had to release any more medical records. She probably could have still been saying, "Well, look at Donald Trump" and using that as her defense, to Ron's point. But because she fainted or fell or whatever happened there.

[06:25:07] CAMEROTA: OK. Speaking of transparency, obviously there are lots of questions about the Clinton Foundation and how it does business. So Bill Clinton was asked about this and particularly the accusations of the pay-to-play or pay for access. Listen to his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

B. CLINTON: If you think nobody should ever call somebody they know and say, "Well, so and so would like a meeting," that fits the way the national government works.

I can say that, to the best of my knowledge, I know for a fact only from the people I read in the paper that the people that they accused or implied gave money to the foundation just so they could have some in with Hillary, did not do that. That was simply not true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: What do you think of that response, Ron?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. You know, look, I mean, I think that, after all we've talked about how much coverage there was in this campaign, it's entirely possible that voter turnout could be lower than it was in 2012. And part of the reason is that each of them have had so many flaws exposed.

I don't think that's a satisfactory answer on kind of the Clinton -- on the Clinton Foundation and its relationship to the State Department while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.

On the other hand, as "The Washington Post" has been reporting, the problems with the Trump Foundation are enormous, including a gift to a state attorney general in Florida at a time when she was investigating Trump University. It's hard to imagine more pay-for-play accusation than that.

CAMEROTA: And they paid a penalty for that.

BROWNSTEIN: And they paid a penalty for it.

So you know, I think you have two candidates about whom many voters have doubts. And that is just -- I think it's likely on election day that a majority of voters will say they have an unfavorable opinion of each candidate.

CUOMO: Well, it also winds up being a tactical decision. Does Trump gain advantage by going after Hillary Clinton for using the word "deplorable" and overreaching in an insulting way, which is like a signature issue of him?

Similarly on the foundation, let's listen to Mike Pence, obviously Trump's running mate, defending the Trump Foundation from these "Washington Post" allegations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PENCE: Anyone who knows about Donald Trump and his career knows that this is a man who's given away tens of millions of dollars to charitable causes.

There simply is no question. You can talk to charities all across the country who have benefitted by the generosity of the Trump family. And -- and I'm very, very proud of their charitable record.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: And Patrick, here's the problem. At a minimum, that, according to what we know, that is a gross exaggeration.

HEALY: Right, right.

CUOMO: We don't know tens of millions.

o now you get into, well, is this just a relative assessment, or do you think "The Washington Post" is angling to blow up this foundation altogether and say he actually doesn't give money, it's even else's money that comes in under a foundation with his name on it?

HEALY: Right. I mean, this is really a stretch. I mean, Donald Trump gave, you know, about $2 million or so in the -- in the 2000s, about a decade ago, to his foundation. But the "Post" report was very, very strong and very tightly reported in terms of how he has used other people's money and steered it to charities, which, you know, you would think would open up huge questions about what Donald Trump was sort of either doing for that money or what he may owe to those people or, frankly, just whether he has any kind of moral claim, which is a part of what philanthropy is supposed to be, you know, towards saying, "I -- you know, I made a commitment to these charities. I wanted to try to sort of do good works."

And the Clinton Foundation has done incredible work overseas with -- with fighting AIDS...

CAMEROTA: Is that the Clintons' own money?

HEALY: ... dealing with poverty. No, it's not the Clintons' own money.

KUCINICH: They do have a family foundation.

HEALY: They do have a family foundation.

CUOMO: But they've also never -- they've also never claimed that they personally give away a lot of money.

Look, I've met a lot of people in and around New York, power brokers, who say Trump gives them money.

The point is this. He doesn't release his taxes. He doesn't release the information that would validate his own claims. This is on him.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about Mike Pence refusing to call David Duke a deplorable. Are we just sort of mincing words here, Jackie, or is this a big deal? He says, "I'm not in the business of name calling." He says, "We've disavowed him. We've disavowed him. We don't like what he stands for. WE don't care about David Duke, but I'm not going to call him an insult."

KUCINICH: This -- it seems like they want Hillary Clinton to own the word "deplorable." It seems like they want that to be her word.

But this looks bad. Of course David Duke is deplorable. He used to be the grand wizard of the KKK. That said, they want that word to be only associated with Hillary Clinton, and they don't want to own it. BROWNSTEIN: I think Mike Pence is under no obligation to use that

word. I mean, I think -- I think he's getting too much of a bad rap for his response. I mean, he said they -- they said they repudiated him. I don't think he has to use the Hillary Clinton word to prove that he doesn't like David Duke.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much. Great to have all of you here.

There were tense moments during a live broadcast of "Dancing with the Stars." Ryan Lochte's debut making headlines, but not for his moves. We'll show you what happened after his dance. It led to an unexpected break. Up next.

CUOMO: Was he held up at gunpoint?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)