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Trump & Clinton Battle Over Transparency; Broncos Linebacker Meets with Denver Police; PolitiFact: Five Big Falsehoods of the 2016 Race. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 15, 2016 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:07] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for the five things to know for your NEW DAY.

Number one, Hillary Clinton returns campaigning today as her doctor gives more details about her pneumonia. There was a two-page letter put out that doctor says Clinton is fit for office. Meanwhile, Donald Trump talks about his weight and cholesterol on today's "Dr. Oz Show."

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton has events in North Carolina and D.C. Donald Trump will speak about the economy at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel before appearing on "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon.

CUOMO: "The New Hampshire Union Leader" endorsing libertarian candidate Gary Johnson for president. It is the first time in 100 years that the paper hasn't backed a Republican. The publisher calling Donald Trump a liar, a bully, a buffoon and that was not Gary Johnson.

CAMEROTA: That was not.

Now to a very serious story. A 13-year-old boy shot and killed by Columbus police overnight. Authorities say Tyree King pulled a weapon on officers when he was being questioned last night about an armed robbery. He was shot multiple times but his weapon turned out to be a BB gun.

CUOMO: One person dead, dozens more hurt after Typhoon Meranti walloped eastern China, with winds clocking at more than 100 miles an hour. Heavy rain cut power to nearly 2 million homes, dumped more than 20 inches of rain in Taiwan. Of course, extensive flooding.

CAMEROTA: Wow, look at those winds.

All right. Well, for more on the five things to know, you can go to NewdayCNN.com for all the latest.

CUOMO: All right. So, you got Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are struggling with issues of transparency. How much the voters deserve to know. Will either play to advantage here? Will either do something different? We're going to debate it next on NEW DAY.

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[06:35:45] CAMEROTA: The 2016 race has turned into this battle over transparency. On one side, you have Donald Trump refusing to release his tax returns, any charitable giving records or medical records. On the other side, you have Hillary Clinton who didn't want to disclose her pneumonia.

So, who is more transparent and are both candidates held in the same standard?

Let's debate this. We have to discuss CNN political commentator and senior writer for "Te Federalist", Mary Katharine Ham, and CNN political analyst and "USA Today" columnist Kirsten Powers.

Ladies, great to have you here.

MARY KATHARINE HAM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Mary Katharine, are voters entitled to see explicit medical records from the candidates?

HAM: Yes.

CAMEROTA: I mean, there's no law.

HAM: No -- I think they are some of the older candidates we've had. There's perfect reason to ask for these things. There's a precedent with McCain having done it in the past, and Dole as well. And I would like them to is go full McCain and have information for folks.

And the fact is both of them, because they have a pattern of sort of hiding things and evading leads people to think, well, what is there here? I think Hillary on the health question more than Trump because he hasn't had public episodes that we've seen.

CAMEROTA: Yes, she has disclosed more. I mean, if you consider these two pages of fairly specific details about blood pressure and cholesterol and recent checks and lab results. So, do you think they're both as opaque or is she more transparent than he?

HAM: I think she's released more but it's less risky for him to keep asking for hers because she has had a history with the clot, with the brain injury concussion, with the collapse, which are all three large things. So, people have questions about her.

With him, although some of his stats don't look super great, there hasn't been some glaring event. So, I think, politically, it's less risky for him than it is for her.

CAMEROTA: Kirsten, do you want to see more from them in terms of medical records?

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. So, I think, look, what needs to happen is what happened with John McCain, where you have journalists that can come in and look at the medical records. Do they have to release them out so we can all pore over them? I don't think so.

But I think you have to some medical journalists be able to look at them and analyze the records, not rely on it as Sanjay Gupta has talked a lot, on these doctors who are chummy with these candidates. You need to have some sort of outside independent source to look at them.

They are older. Frankly, even if they were young, I think they should do it. But because of their ages, I think they both should let their medical records be pored over by at least a handful of medical journalists.

CAMEROTA: I don't know. On the flip side, this is a new demand from journalists and voters, Mary Katharine. I mean, yes, John McCain broke the mold when he released 1,700 pages of his medical records but there was also in recent history, we didn't know a lot about presidents' health, even when they were in the White House. Famously JFK, famously FDR, when I look at these letters and I read about a breast exam and an ultrasound --

HAM: Are you telling me you don't want to know about Trump's colonoscopy?

CAMEROTA: Trump's colonoscopy, I mean, are we going a little bit overboard here, ladies?

HAM: I actually don't think we are. I think we should have known more in the past and if we don't, then the voters actually need to know this information to make a decision about who's going to run the free world for possibly eight years. It's a long period of time.

CAMEROTA: Kirsten, do you see them as equally transparent or equally untransparent?

POWERS: Well, at this point, I would say they're not equally transparent. I mean, clearly, if you look at the taxes, you know, she released almost 40 years of taxes and he's released none. So, right there, we can see that one person is being a lot more transparent with something that I think is very important and Trump keeps saying the stuff about how, you know, he can't release them because the audit, but he's not under audit for the last 40 years, you know? I mean, which is about what she's released.

So, he could release other taxes so that we could look at, you know, at least that, assuming that he's -- he's allowed to release them under audit but he doesn't want to.

CAMEROTA: To interrupt you for one second as we pointed out on the show. We don't have proof that he's under audit. Taking his word for it. We haven't seen the IRS letter.

POWERS: Which brings me to the next point. They are taking a very, very hostile attitude about anyone who asks them questions.

[06:40:04] As Kellyanne did with you and the campaign with other people accusing people of badgering them for asking for basic information. This is a real problem. So, they also said this with "The Washington Post" when they asked them for questions about the foundation.

So, it's now an offense against the Trump campaign to ask them questions. You know, when people have a right to know some basic facts, I mean, why can't they just release the letter from his accountant saying he's under audit? They want us to not badger him, but we're supposed to be badgering Hillary Clinton about everything. We're supposed to ask questions.

CAMEROTA: At least information. What we want is the letter from the IRS. But furthermore, as you point out --

POWERS: That's what I meant, the IRS.

CAMEROTA: Right. But even that, he can still release his taxes. The IRS said we have no problem with seeing the taxes publicly while under audit, if he is in fact under audit. So, he is clearly less transparent than she on tax records.

HAM: Certainly on the tax.

CAMEROTA: Do we have a right to see his tax records?

HAM: Yes, I think that's obvious. They're plenty prickly about people asking questions about anything.

But Hillary Clinton is running into what all the Republican candidates ran into, which is this guy is so unconventional and so different that many journalists and the whole political apparatus doesn't know how to treat him in getting him to the point ask asking him for the same things is just a struggle, because there is no basic campaign surrounding him in the same way we have known in the past. You don't know who to go to, you don't know who to get answers from, you don't know who his communication people are and who might respond. And so, it is a very difficult thing and it's very frustrating for people who go up against him, as we saw in the primaries.

CAMEROTA: It is a challenge but we are going to continue to do it. Mary Katharine, Kirsten, thank you very much.

Chris?

CUOMO: All right. Are you ready for some Twitter football? The Jets and Bills set to kick off week two with first for the NFL. What's that first? We'll tell you next.

Go Jets!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:33] CUOMO: Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall lost two endorsement deals after kneeling during the national anthem. It is not stopping him from trying to make a difference.

We have the news for you with Andy Scholes in this morning's "Bleacher Report".

Tell us about it, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey. Good morning, Chris.

Brandon Marshall says he's going to donate $300 for every tackle he makes this season to organizations in the Denver community. Now, this comes after he lost those two endorsements for joining his college teammate Colin Kaepernick during his protest of kneeling during the national anthem over social injustice. Marshall said his intent was not to offend anyone but rather to simply raise awareness and create some dialogue towards affecting positive change in our communities and earlier this week he met with Denver police chief to discuss his protest:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANDON MARSHALL, BRONCOS LINEBACKER: You know, the more understanding of what they go through and the different, you know, trials and tests it is and he got my side of the spiel as well. And, you know, how some people are feeling as well. So, I think it was a good meeting.

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SCHOLES: All right, the Jets and Bills will hit the field tonight and the first ever Thursday night game streamed live on Twitter. And you don't even have to have a Twitter account to watch the game on the site or app. Just download the app and you're all set or watch the game by going to tnf.twitter.com on your desktop, computer or iPad.

So, Chris, when you're in your jammies tonight going to bed, you can watch the game on your phone and tweet about the Jets at the exact same time.

CAMEROTA: Thank you for that, Andy.

CUOMO: The Jets are going to win, right, Andy?

SCHOLES: Hey, they're a point and a half favorite.

CUOMO: When did you become a politician? The Jets are going to win.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Andy. Great to talk to you.

Well, the 2016 campaign forcing fact checkers to work overtime. What are the five biggest falsehoods in this race so far? PolitiFact is here next with their list.

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[06:51:36] CUOMO: Transparency, accountability, testing. That's what you should be asking for from the media. And an easy way for you to ask that is, hey, what they say true? Is what they say true? That's hard for us, but that's the job.

So, when you look at this campaign and both candidates, what have been the five things that show really glaring errors when it comes to having a relationship with the truth?

We've got answers for you.

Joining us right now to go over what the candidates are saying and what's true -- PolitiFact editor Angie Holan.

It's great to have you with us this morning.

So, you've given us your top five and you could have top 55, but let's do 5 and we'll start with Donald Trump and Mexico. Donald Trump says the Mexican government, they send the bad ones over. That's what he says. That claim, how did you judge it?

ANGIE HOLAN, POLITIFACT EDITOR: We rated this one pants on fire. That means, inaccurate and ridiculous. There's no evidence to support this.

Most of the people who have come over from Mexico are looking for jobs and work. And that's why we saw illegal immigration drop precipitously during the recession.

So, we talked to a lot of experts who study the border and migration patterns and criminal justice and they said this is a myth. So, pants on fire.

CUOMO: And it also ignores the context that many of the people who are here illegally overstay visas after flown to the country. Not all running across this border that allegedly needs a wall.

So, now, Hillary Clinton. FBI Director Comey called her comments about e-mail "truthful". Did he?

HOLAN: We rated this one pants on fire. Comey was very careful to steer away from any endorsement like that. In fact, he said her actions were careless. So, this one, not true. We rated it pants on fire.

CUOMO: Now, the confusion we get into and I'm sure you do, too, on this, is when people will say, she did something illegal. It was illegal. She broke the law.

How do you handle that claim?

HOLAN: You know, she has not been -- the FBI declined to bring any case against her. So, as far as the legal system goes, that's not, that's not right now. And, you know, there's some other sense that the experts we talked to said this was bad for archiving purposes. It was bad for transparency purposes.

But illegal, the government prosecutors didn't make that case.

CUOMO: All right, back to Donald Trump. Trump says he opposed the Iraq war. As you know, this has been a big one on this show. I offer people a NEW DAY mug which is a coveted item, if they can show us any proof that Trump was against the war before it actually was well under way. How do you rate it?

HOLAN: We rated this false. It's not accurate. He keeps saying it. We've been fact checking this one along with all the other fact checkers for months. He points to an "Esquire" article that was published well after the war started.

So, this one is just wrong, too.

CUOMO: He has that transcript that his supporters refer to that does not help his cause.

All right. So, Hillary Clinton said she never sent or received classified info via e-mail. What do you have?

HOLAN: We rated this one false. There was classified information in her e-mail and some of it was marked.

[06:55:00] Now, the Clinton team will argue it wasn't marked properly with headers and that's fine. But there was classified information in the e-mail and Comey's report said she should have realized this.

CUOMO: OK. And then Trump on tax returns. Donald Trump says his financial disclosures more than make up for lack of releasing tax returns. What do you say?

HOLAN: Totally false. He says he has all this disclosure.

Actually, the tax returns are huge area where we don't have any transparency. The tax returns would show which of his assets produced income. They would show some of his financial ties. And they would show how much he gives to charity. That's become an issue in recent weeks.

The tax returns are not released, so there are all these things that we don't know about Donald Trump's finances that we usually know about the major candidates.

CUOMO: What is your take on how difficult the climate is right now? You have Clinton gives out 40 years of taxes and Trump won't give out any because he's under proof of audit. He won't show us proof of audit, and he won't go back -- he could go back 30 years in taxes, if he wanted, right? Because his opponent went 40. He won't do it.

They control the information, especially on his side with the private organization, so you can't get the information unless he gives it to you. How hard is it to fact check?

HOLAN: It's challenging, but there is some things we know about Trump's financial records. Some things we know about his background, that sort of thing is being revealed. I mean, I would expect Donald Trump to be challenged on this during the debates, because the presidential candidates releasing their tax returns, it's not that they are required to, but they always do. It's like a cultural norm. So, he's breaking with this.

Now, sometimes the candidates decide to do things differently, the climate changes, but this is a big thing. This is significant information that's not available to the public.

CUOMO: You know, I don't think this should be an issue, about Trump's wife. Bill Clinton was different, he was president of the United States. But she gives her immigration information to an immigration lawyer. He puts out a letter vetting it, but that is not helpful to us because he can only judge as a lawyer, not as some independent body what he gave her. So, this has got little tricky because you're dealing with a private citizen.

HOLAN: Yes, at PolitiFact, we always want to be able to independently verify information and we want to be able to look at it ourselves. Our fact-checking reports, we list all the sources. If the information is online, we link to it. I think not just journalists, but the public. They don't want to take people's word for it. They want to see the evidence and the documentation for themselves.

CUOMO: Now we have this issue with Trump and his business dealings not to suggest that they are bad, but he does so much international business, we should show what it is. Of course, that information is largely under his own control. As it becomes public we know you'll be on it and you'll be vetting and we look forward to having you back on the show.

Thanks for being with us.

If people want to join more of this discussion and learn, go to politifact.com and read for yourself.

All right. There's a lot of news including a big focus on health of the presidential candidates. There's new information out there and what does it mean? Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM KAINE (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It seems like something from "Wizard of Oz."

That's not giving the people the answer they're entitled to.

DR. MEHMET OZ, THE DR. OZ SHOW: If you're health is as strong as it seems, why not share your medical records?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, I have really no problem in doing that.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The American people deserve to know what he's up to and what he is hiding.

TRUMP: In all fairness, she's lying in bed getting her better and we want her better and we want her back on the trail.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT: Feeling great and I think she'll be back out there tomorrow.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America's got a lot of businessmen and women who succeeded without hiding their tax returns.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't hear a lot of people talking about tax returns.

TRUMP: I think people don't care.

REP. MIKE MCCAUL (R), TEXAS: In terms of being transparent, she has very little credibility after everything she did with respect to her e-mails.

HILLARY CLINTON: We already met a high standard of transparency.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

First up, a picture of health in the campaign. Hillary Clinton will get back on the trail today after being sidelined for three days by pneumonia. Clinton releasing a letter to the public from her doctor declaring she is, quote, "fit to serve as president."

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump reportedly offering some details about his health on a daytime talk show. Trump acknowledging that he is overweight and teasing a full report from his recent physical will come out soon.

It's 54 days until the election day, early voting just eight days away and 11 days until the first debate.

We have it all covered for you, so let's begin with senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

Jeff, what's the latest?

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

Hillary Clinton is heading back to the campaign trail and going to North Carolina later today. It's her first stop since Sunday. She, of course, has been sidelined here at home in Chappaqua with that diagnose of pneumonia.

Now, she has released new medical details and calling on Donald Trump to do the same as transparency becomes front and center in this presidential campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REPORTER: Secretary Clinton, how are you feeling?

ZELENY (voice-over): Hillary Clinton's campaign releasing a two-page letter from her physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack, shedding more light on Clinton's pneumonia diagnoses.