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CNN NEWSROOM

Trump to Rally in New Hampshire; Unarmed 18-year-old Shot by Police After Car Chase; Clinton, Trump Wage Critical Battle for Ohio; No Ransom Paid to Iran; Rio's Hospitals Ready for the Olympics? Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 6, 2016 - 18:00   ET

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


[18:00:09] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, 6:00 p.m. Eastern. 3:00 out West. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. So glad you're with us.

We begin tonight in a state that could be a key decider in the presidential election. I'm talking about New Hampshire. In just two hours, Donald Trump is set to kick off a campaign event there, make remarks live there tonight. This comes as the swing state is seriously swinging towards Hillary Clinton. The latest polling out of the Granite State showing her with a 15-point lead over Trump.

This poll and the dive that Trump takes comes after a rocky week for the candidate that ended with him endorsing, finally, Speaker Paul Ryan, as well as Arizona Senator John McCain and New Hampshire senator, Kelly Ayotte. Those three Republicans he has been at odds with through the election, saying earlier this week that he wasn't quite there yet in endorsing them.

Our White House producer Kristen Holmes is in Wyndham, New Hampshire, where the event is set to get under way. Look, I mean, you know, New Hampshire is not a shoo-in for Hillary Clinton. Yes, the latest polling there is in her favor. What will Trump say on stage tonight to try to swing more folks into his camp?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, look, Poppy. What everyone is hoping today, Republicans are hoping today, is that he will stay on message. That he will make sure that he does what he's supposed to be doing. They are hoping that in New Hampshire, you know, he says that he is going against Hillary Clinton. He doesn't stray from that message.

Now if we look at his social media today, he has stayed on that message of unity. We have seen that he has said that he would be talking about Hillary Clinton here tonight. He also released a campaign video that was slamming Hillary for her remarks this week, saying that she short-circuited during an interview with Chris Wallace when he asked her about his e-mails -- her e-mails, excuse me.

And so we think that that's what he's going to do. That's what Republicans are hoping he's going to do. But, of course, this is what they had been hoping he was going to do the entire last week. You know, this was a week that he really could have spent hitting Hillary Clinton, and instead he spent cleaning up unforced errors, as one campaign source put it to me. You know, he said that -- as you mentioned, wasn't ready to endorse Paul Ryan, he spent half of the week feuding with a Gold Star family.

So it's a lot of questioning here. There are no teleprompters and as we know that that means that it's possible that he will go off-script. But I think Republicans are certainly hoping he does not, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right, Kristen Holmes, live for us in New Hampshire, thank you so much.

I also want to -- before I bring in my panel of political contributors here, I want to play for you a new ad. This is a new ad from the Trump camp going after Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAPHICS: Is Robot Hillary melting down?

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I hope you will compare what I'm proposing to what my opponent is talking about. I'm telling you right now we are going to raise taxes on the middle class. So I may have short-circuited.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. There is the ad. Let's bring in our panel, weighing in on this. Washington correspondent for the "New Yorker," Ryan Lizza, Democratic strategist and Hillary Clinton supporter, Maria Cardona, former Reagan White House political director and Trump supporter, Jeffrey Lord.

Ryan, to you, so obviously they are capitalizing, the Trump camp, on Hillary Clinton, trying once again to explain her e-mails and the situation and how she explained it to the FBI and the American people. She said yesterday, I may have short-circuited in my response. My response could have been better and more clear.

How effective is this for Trump to portray her as a robot when he obviously is capitalizing on what others see as a weakness of his on the temperament front, right? He says she's a robot. You know what you're going to get. With me not so much.

RYAN LIZZA, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORKER: Yes. I mean, look, both candidates have some pretty well-known and serious vulnerabilities, right? For the Democrats and the Republicans, these are the two candidates with the highest disapproval ratings that either party has nominated.

HARLOW: Yes.

LIZZA: And so, you know, when Trump is not stepping in it himself, he's got some things to work with here. And I think an ad like this, I doubt they're going -- this is more to play and for us to talk about. So it's effective in the fact that it catches our attention, and, you know, for a moment people are talking about her mistakes and what she said about the e-mails and her missteps rather than Trump's. That's the sort of thing that a typical political campaign does, with, you know, mixed success and the kind of thing that just the Trump campaign has, you know, not been able to just change the subject when they want.

[18:05:01] And so I think the big thing that we're seeing in the last couple of days is like creeping signs of professionalization in the Trump campaign. But, look, Trump is Trump. And I -- you know, Jeffrey is laughing, but, look, Jeffrey, this is an unusual campaign that is not -- look, they aren't even spending ads in the swing states. We're just learning today from reporting that they're just now asking for ad rates for the fall. That is highly unusual. Other campaigns bought -- you know, would have bought ads months ago.

So I wouldn't say that this is a game-changing ad or anything like this. But we do see the Trump campaign effectively trying to put the focus back on his opponent's vulnerabilities.

HARLOW: And Jeffrey Lord, as a Trump supporter, I think -- well, there's two factors here when you look at two states, right? Let's look at these Georgia numbers, "Atlanta Journal Constitution" poll shows Clinton ahead by four points. In Georgia, a typically red state, a state that hasn't gone blue since '92 and when her husband won. And then you have an interesting dynamic at play in Pennsylvania. A state where the battleground polls show that Trump -- that Clinton, rather, is ahead of Trump by 13 points in Pennsylvania.

And you've got Senator Pat Toomey there, the incumbent running for his seat again, basically saying to people voting for me and voting for Donald Trump is separate. According to the "New York Times," he said Donald Trump is in a category unto himself and he said people will make a, quote, "completely separate decision," between the top of the ticket, Trump, and Toomey. Seemingly distancing himself from the presidential candidate. Are you concerned?

JEFFREY LORD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: No. Poppy, I'll tell you. As a Pennsylvanian who has been around the block here, number one, I spoke to Dr. Terry Madonna, who is the director of the Franklin Marshal College poll, which is a very respected Pennsylvania poll, and the latest had Hillary Clinton up by nine points. And he assures me he's nonpartisan in this that certainly the state is very winnable for Donald Trump.

And I can say -- I can tell you a couple of things. Number one, having worked for Ronald Reagan, he couldn't buy Arlen Specter, who was the very liberal Republican senator from here. But yet came into Pennsylvania, raised money for him, did a commercial for him, kept a challenger from a primary out and helped carry him to re-election victory in 1986. And to go further back, I was the press secretary for then Senator John Hines, who was running for re-election when Reagan was president in 1982, and there was a recession, et cetera. John Hines did exactly what Pat Toomey is doing.

He drew a little distance between himself and Reagan but he never sort of abandoned the field here. He won re-election and Reagan, of course, four -- two years later was in here to campaign for John Hines and raised money for him. So that's just sort of normal stuff, if you will.

HARLOW: Maria Cardona, look, you like these poll numbers, there's no question about that.

MARIA CARDONA, CLINTON SUPPORTER: Yes.

HARLOW: At the same time, your candidate being portrayed in that Web ad from Donald Trump as robotic is the criticism she's come under time and time again. Her honest and truth worthy numbers are not strong, only 34 percent of Americans feel like they can trust her. And you know, what is attractive to Trump supporters about their candidate is that he's -- they don't know what he's going to say. And they feel like with Hillary Clinton, they know exactly what she's going to say. How effective is an ad like that portraying her in that way?

CARDONA: Oh, I don't think it's effective at all in terms of drawing in additional supporters, which is exactly what Donald Trump desperately needs to do if he wants to have a credible pathway to the White House. And look, I think that the decision before voters this November is very clear. And yes, Hillary Clinton has trust issues, but so does Donald $ Trump. And so if you take that off the table, and by the way, his unfavorables are way higher than hers.

But if you take off the table, voters are going to go into that voting booth, and they're going to pull the lever from their gut temperament to be president of the United States, who do they trust, mind you, so there actually is a trust issue when it comes to her versus him. Who do they trust to keep them safe? Who do they trust on foreign policy, who do they trust has the knowledge and the experience. --

HARLOW: Well, and Trump --

CARDONA: -- to guide this country.

LORD: Poppy?

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Maria, Trump does better nationally in polling when asked who can protect us more from ISIS, specifically.

CARDONA: But she does better in terms of terrorism, in terms of foreign policy, and, again and importantly, and you showed this earlier, she blows him out of the water in terms of who has the temperament to be president of the United States.

LORD: Poppy?

HARLOW: Right.

CARDONA: And so when you go into -- when you into the general election, and into these battle ground states, that is the argument that Hillary Clinton will be making. When you have Republicans coming out every single day, saying that they don't trust him to keep America safe.

HARLOW: I got to leave it there.

CARDONA: That he's actually a danger to the republic.

HARLOW: You're back with me in just a few moments, and Jeffrey Lord, you will get the first word. Stay with us. A lot to get to this hour.

Ahead, dramatic video of a deadly officer involved shooting in Chicago. We will tell you the key piece of video evidence that is missing.

[18:10:06] Also North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, we're taking an in-depth look at the fight for battleground states. Georgia certainly in play right now as of the latest polling. This hour we'll take you to the buckeye state of Ohio.

And later, Secretary of State John Kerry doubling down on the president's claim that ransom was not paid in exchange for American hostages. We will discuss the optics of this $400 million cash being delivered being to Iran the same day that the hostages were set free.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Shocking and disturbing. That is how the head of Chicago's police oversight board describes video of the deadly officer-involved shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old.

Officers opening fire, this all happened last week after a high-speed chase. Police feverishly trying to take down a suspect. But there's one key piece of video that's missing. It's the body camera video from the officer who fired the fatal shot. Protesters organized a so- called die-in, in Chicago, accusing the department of a cover-up.

Our Rosa Flores has the latest developments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Newly released dash and body camera videos show the dramatic moments leading up to a deadly police shooting in Chicago. The suspect, 18-year-old Paul O'Neal, was fleeing from police in a black Jaguar reported stolen. As he drives towards a police car two officers jump out.

[18:15:03] Firing at the Jaguar as it speeds by, one officer even pointing his gun in the direction of his partner as he turns around. Seconds later, O'Neal slams head on into a police SUV. The violent collision covering the SUV's dash cam with smoke as O'Neal takes off running. Body cameras show officers chasing him and moments later, the sound of gunfire. O'Neal was shot in the backyard of a home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your hands behind your back.

FLORES: The county medical examiner says O'Neal, who was unarmed, died of a gunshot wound to the back. The officer who fired the fatal shot was wearing a body camera, but it was not recording. The investigators are trying to figure out why. O'Neal's family watched the videos before they were released to the public.

BRIANA ADAMS, PAUL O'NEAL'S SISTER: I'm very hurt. Words can't describe how I feel at this moment, and how I felt when it happened. But I really want everybody to know that Paul was loved by my mother, his family, me.

FLORES: The family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the department and the officers involved. Family members say some of the most disturbing moments are what the officers say after the shooting while O'Neal is still bleeding and handcuffed on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) man. I am going to be on a desk for 30 (EXPLETIVE DELETED) days now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have the gun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He shot back, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He almost hit him.

FLORES: This shooting happening in what has been deemed a new era of transparency and accountability in Chicago.

EDDIE JOHNSON, CHICAGO POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: As it appears right now, departmental policies may have been violated.

FLORES: The new police superintendent took swift action, taking the police powers away from the three officers who fired their weapon. It also only took eight days for officials to release the video, a move that at times has taken more than a year.

Rosa Flores, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Rosa, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Coming up, you've heard the slogan, the road to the White House runs through Ohio. So why is Trump barely spending a dime in the state? Does he need to? Hillary Clinton's camp committing millions there. Will it make a difference? We'll take you inside the state and a closer look at both strategies, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:21:14] HARLOW: The presidential election this year will likely come down to just a few states. You should still go out and vote, everyone. But the battleground states are really critical. Perhaps none more important than the swing state of Ohio. Both Clinton and Trump have been campaigning hard there, no question.

Our Jessica Schneider explains what is at stake in Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do believe that my vote matters. I want it to matter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So goes Ohio, so goes the country, yes.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the voters Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump hope to capture. No Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio. The last time a Democrat took the White House without the state, John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Both campaigns are fighting hard for the battleground. Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine traveled by bus through the state as part of their post- convention push.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We're going to be back. We'll be in the Mahoning Valley. We'll be all over Ohio.

SCHNEIDER: Donald Trump rallied in Columbus Monday.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'll be back so much you'll be sick of me. But November 8th, you have to go and vote.

SCHNEIDER: 7.6 million voters are up for grabs. But there's a push and pull over registering even more. Federal judges have struck down voter I.D. laws and those reducing early voting time as unconstitutional and now the state's purge of voters who haven't cast a ballot in six years is under review by the courts.

JOHN GREEN, DIRECTOR, BLISS INSTITUTE OF APPLIED POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF AKRON: The ground really matters. Particularly in a year where both of the major candidates have a lot of negatives.

SCHNEIDER: Clinton's team has field offices sprouting up around the state. Her camp counting on courting suburban women.

AARON PICKEREL, SENIOR ADVISER, HILLARY FOR OHIO CAMPAIGN: I think that there are a lot of people in -- especially in suburban Ohio, who may have voted for Mitt Romney last time, they're going to be turned off by the toxic rhetoric of Donald Trump. They're going to -- they're going to look this way and they're going to take a strong look at the two candidates, and I think they're going to come our way at the end of the day.

SCHNEIDER: Ohio GOP officials say Trump's field offices will start opening next week, insisting Trump's tactics mean they haven't lost any ground.

ROB FROST, CUYAHOGA COUNTY GOP CHAIR: You take the Clinton operation, I think they're trying to do a lot to compensate for a weak candidate. What we've got with Donald Trump is a candidate who is taking his message right to the people through his rallies, through Twitter, through the media.

SCHNEIDER: But Trump is in an ongoing feud with the top Republican in the state. Governor John Kasich refused to appear at the Cleveland convention after taking on Trump during the primary season.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: You nominate the wrong Republican candidate, who divides the country, we'll lose the United States Senate as well as the White House. They will not win Ohio.

FROST: I know the Trump team isn't happy. And it looks like neither side is happy right now. But while the bridge wasn't crossed, it also wasn't burned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not sure about Trump. I'm not sure about Hillary. And I don't know -- I think I'm going to make my decision that day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: I think I'll make my decision that day. You heard that voter there. They are playing hard for those undecideds, especially in Ohio.

Coming up, no Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio. How important is the support of the state's governor for Donald Trump? Kasich sat down exclusively with our Jake Tapper. You'll hear more live in the CNN NEWSROOM, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:28:06] HARLOW: Ohio. A crucial battleground state for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The last time a Democratic presidential candidate won the White House without winning Ohio, well, go back to John F. Kennedy's victory in 1960.

As for Republican candidates, no Republican has of ever won the White House without winning Ohio. And the state's governor, John Kasich, as of now, he is still not getting behind his party's candidate. In a brand new fascinating interview with Kasich, our Jake Tapper asked him if he will get behind Trump ever and why he did not go to the RNC in his own home state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: Look, Jake, here's the thing. All throughout this, anybody can say, OK, you know, Trump said this, you say that. Why don't you slug him over the head? Look, my actions have spoken louder than any words.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Your refusal to endorse him.

KASICH: And think about this. I want to know when anybody had a convention in their state when they were the governor who didn't go in the convention hall. I mean, some people are really furious with me about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Let's bring in our panel, Democratic strategist, Hillary Clinton supporter, Maria Cardona. Also former Reagan White House political director, Jeffrey Lord, a Donald Trump supporter, and Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for the "New Yorker."

Ryan, Kayleigh McEnany, a big Trump supporter, said in our air yesterday that she thinks that Donald Trump really needs this endorsement from Kasich. He -- this is one of the important ones. Do you think it's critical?

LIZZA: Yes, look. He's already finally patched things up with John McCain in Arizona. Obviously McCain is a pretty popular Republican there. Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, similarly a popular Republican. And the most popular Republican in Wisconsin, Paul Ryan. So I would find it amazing if he did not find a way to reach out to Kasich and figure out how they could reach some kind of accommodation.

[18:30:09] HARLOW: Do you think that's possible, listening to Kasich? Do you think that's possible?

LIZZA: I mean, Trump says he's one of the greatest deal-makers in history. He should be able to figure out a way to get the endorsement of arguably the most important Republican governor in the country for his electoral future. Right? If you are running for president and you want to win and the one state you have to win is Ohio, and the most important Republican in that state is John Kasich, you would think as great deal-maker you would figure out how to earn it.

You can't do it on your own. He needs his party behind him. And he took one -- you know, took a couple of small steps this week in learning that and reaching out to some key Republicans. But as you point out, Poppy, Kasich has -- you know, some very, very significant differences with Trump, and he'd have to do some real negotiating to get that endorsement.

HARLOW: Yes, and the --

(CROSSTALK)

LIZZA: He hasn't --

HARLOW: Go ahead.

LIZZA: He still holds out the possibility that he will do it. I mean, a lot of these people who say they won't vote for Trump as of right now, they're holding out the possibility of changing their mind if he changes.

HARLOW: So, Jeffrey Lord, Trump supporter, jump in here. I mean, right? Best deal-maker on the planet, right? That's what Donald Trump talked about, "The Art of the Deal." Can he make this deal?

LORD: Well, sure. But you've got to have a willing partner to negotiate. You know, the thing that --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: But it's just -- let me just jump in there. It's not incumbent on Kasich, right? It's Trump that needs Kasich.

LORD: Well, no, it is. It is.

HARLOW: Not Kasich that needs Trump.

LORD: No. No, no, no. He is the leader of the party in Ohio. That's your job. And when he talks about going down the path of light and the path of darkness, when you stand up in front of an audience in Cleveland, Ohio, for a debate, as John Kasich did, and raise your hand and say that you will support -- you pledge to support the Republican nominee, and then it isn't you and it's somebody that you -- that defeated you, that's going -- and therefore not going to support them, you're going down the dark path.

Poppy, I want to go back to one thing here on that temperament issue. I made a list of descriptions of Hillary Clinton from a new book on her -- from Secret Service agent and other books from people, including former staff members, who have dealt with her. And in terms of temperament, they say she yells, she threw a vase at her husband, she hollers curses, has volcanic eruptions, screams, paranoid, held grudges, unleashes obscenity, feel tirades, belittles staff in front of other people, et cetera.

If we're going to have temperamental discussions about temperament, then I think we should bring it on and I think Donald Trump should address these, absolutely.

HARLOW: Well, I'm -- I hear you. I'm addressing the polling. Maybe we can throw it up on the screen. New FOX News poll shows that I believe it's 67 percent of Americans think Hillary Clinton has the temperament to be president compared with 30-odd percent for Donald Trump. I'm sorry we don't have that to pull up. But let me ask you this. Let me ask you this, Maria. When you look at Ohio -- that's what we're talking about, this critical battleground state, when you look at Mahoning County, the Mahoning Valley, which Clinton has talked a lot about, Youngstown, old steel mills, et cetera, obviously a lot of pain there when it comes to jobs. 6,171 Democrats in the primary switched their party affiliation to Republican to vote for Donald Trump. Only two -- fewer than 200 Republicans switched their party affiliation to vote for Hillary Clinton. Concerning numbers.

CARDONA: Well, we don't know why those Democrats switched. It might be because they wanted Trump to win to see Hillary beat him. I mean, that's a merit --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Maria, we're talking about 6,000 to 200.

CARDONA: We don't know. We don't know, Poppy.

LORD: That's a good primary. I like that.

CARDONA: I mean, you know what, it's been talked about. So -- but the issue is this, Poppy. That, you know, Hillary is doing really well in these national polls, really well in these battle ground state polls. Ohio is absolutely critical. But unlike for Republicans, it is not a must-win for her. She has a myriad of paths in terms of electoral votes to the White House. She has many more pathways than Donald Trump. She starts with, you know, a much bigger share of electoral votes than Donald Trump does. I mean, that's essentially what Democrats have started --

HARLOW: You mean the blue wall. Blue wall.

CARDONA: Exactly. Exactly. But having said that, she's not taking anything for granted. I have said time and again, Poppy, even with these polls as good as they look today for Hillary Clinton, she should wake up every single day, pretending like she's 10 points behind everywhere, with her back against the wall. Because regardless of how temperamentally unfit Americans believe Donald Trump is, this is going to be a very close election.

We are a very polarized and divided country, and as many Republicans have come out against Donald Trump and many of them have said they're going to vote for Hillary Clinton, there is a lot of time left between now and Election Day and a day is a lifetime in politics, though I will say, we are in an era where, you know, people really are focused on -- they have seen Donald Trump in this -- you know, Trump train derailment and this debacle for the last three weeks or more and everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie.

[18:35:23] They really are concerned about what kind of temperament this man has. And I think in that sense Hillary Clinton is going to win every time.

HARLOW: Don't forget, as Donald Trump points out, he won, you know what, 14 million odd votes in the primary. So look --

(CROSSTALK)

LORD: They weren't odd, they were normal.

(LAUGHTER)

LIZZA: One quick -- Jeffrey.

HARLOW: You know what I mean.

LIZZA: One quick point.

CARDONA: And she won hers.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Ryan, you have 30 seconds.

LIZZA: I just wanted to address Jeffrey that old story about Hillary Clinton throwing the vase at Bill.

HARLOW: Right.

LIZZA: And I think we can all agree, if the worst thing that Hillary ever did to Bill was throw a vase, after all that happened in that marriage, he got off pretty easy. (CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: They're out of coffee cup, by the way.

HARLOW: No one at home, do not throw vases at each other. I've got to get a break in.

Maria Cardona, Jeffrey Lord, Ryan Lizza, thank you very much.

Tomorrow morning, you will not want to miss CNN's exclusive interview with Ohio governor, John Kasich. "STATE OF THE UNION" tomorrow morning, 9:00 a.m. Eastern only right here on CNN.

When we come back, news of a money transferred to Iran the same day that U.S. prisoners were released. The president is pushing back, saying you knew about this before. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We announced these payments in January. Many months ago. There wasn't a secret.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. But the optics of this, a major question. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:22] HARLOW: The Obama administration insisting it did not pay ransom for the release of four U.S. prisoners in Iran last year. The White House knows they announced the money payment back in January. Secretary of State John Kerry this morning weighing in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is politics. This is a political season, we understand that. But the facts make it absolutely clear, we don't pay ransom. We will not pay ransom. We never have and we're not going to in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. Our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, reports that the optics of this money transfer and the prisoner release certainly putting the White House on the defensive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

A (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A pallet loaded with what Iranian state television claims is cash sent by the U.S. The narrator says to pay back Iran's money after 35 years.

This video, which CNN cannot authenticate, aired in Iran just days after the release of four American prisoners. At the Pentagon Thursday, President Obama dismissed any connection between the cash payment which he acknowledged and the prisoners' release, saying negotiations were entirely separate.

OBAMA: We announced these payments in January. This wasn't some nefarious deal, and at the time, we explained that Iran had pressed a claim before an international tribunal about them recovering money of theirs that we had frozen.

SCIUTTO: Until today, Donald Trump repeatedly claimed to have seen what he called secret video of cash being unloaded in Iran just as those American prisoners were freed.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The tape was made, right? You saw that with the airplane coming in. Nice plane. And the airplane coming in and the money coming off, I guess, right? That was given to us, has to be, by the Iranians, and you know why the tape was given to us? Because they want to embarrass our country.

SCIUTTO: And Mr. Trump withdrew that claim, tweeting this reversal, quote, "The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran."

Trump apparently referring to this entirely differently video, showing the plane that had carried the freed Americans. However, the timing of the two transactions, U.S. prisoners going out, hundreds of millions of dollars going in, still raises the question of whether the Americans' release was conditional on the payment of money.

CNN asked a U.S. State Department official whether Iran would have freed the prisoners without that payment. This official told CNN, it is, quote, "unknowable."

(On camera): A senior State Department official tells me that it was not an American plane that carried this money into Iran, although the president has acknowledged the money was sent in in cash form. To be clear, the video that Donald Trump had claimed to see of money going into the country is not the same as this Iranian state TV video. In fact, Donald Trump now says that he saw no video of money going to Iran. He saw video of those American prisoners coming out.

Jim Sciutto, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Jim, thank you very much. Let's talk it over with CNN political analyst, "Washington Post" columnist, Josh Rogin.

Josh, I think, you know, when you get past the semantics and I probably shouldn't say semantics, these are really important words, was it ransom or not. But what I'm saying is, when you get past what words you choose, the fact that President Obama's own Justice Department wasn't comfortable with the optics of a plane flying one way with cash on board and a plane flying the other way at the same time with the prisoners, the ultimate importance here is the safety of Americans, right?

And since that happened, you have two Americans who have been taken prisoner in Iran. And Senator Tom Cotton came out this week and let me read you what he said. He said, "This break with long-standing U.S. policy put a price on the head of Americans, and has led Iran to continue its illegal seizures of Americans."

The question is, does this endanger more Americans, Josh?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Well, the U.S. has a stated policy of not paying ransoms for a very good reason. It's the reason that you and just quoted Tom Cotton is illuminating, is that it encourages more hostage-taking. That's totally true. At the same time, we have a long history of paying ransoms and call it whatever you want, call it a coincidence, call it a payment that we owed them that just happened to arrive right as the plane was leaving. Whatever they want to call it.

Let's remember here, when the original Iranian hostages were released in 1980, the Reagan administration released billions of dollars of funds.

HARLOW: Three.

[18:45:03] ROGIN: When we wanted to do -- exactly. When we wanted to do deals with North Korea, we coincidentally gave them a bunch of money and food on the very exact same day.

This is how diplomacy works. We do one thing and we say another thing. The problem is that when you try to explain that, it doesn't really make any sense. So they're both right. This is the way diplomacy works and it also encourages more hostage-taking, and this is what the Iranians do. They take people as bargaining chips and then sell them. That's exactly how it goes.

HARLOW: Look, the president in that press conference on Thursday also touted the Iran nuclear deal. He says it works. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: There were all these horror stories about how Iran was going to cheat and this wasn't going to work and Iran was going to get $150 billion to finance terrorism, and all -- these kinds of scenarios. And none of them have come to pass. Some of these folks who have said the sky is falling, suddenly said, you know what, we were wrong. And we are glad that Iran no longer has the capacity to break out in short-term and develop a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Josh, it's important to note, we're only a year into the deal, right?

ROGIN: Exactly.

HARLOW: Is it too early -- is it too early to claim success like he did?

ROGIN: Well, that's exactly right. It is too early. And first of all, the Israelis came out and said that Obama portrayed their view incorrectly. He said that they agreed with him that it was working. I mean, what we can say is, it hasn't failed yet and that's a good thing. That's fine. You know, the Iranians don have the bomb as far as we know. We should all thank, you know, everyone involved for that state of affairs.

The problem with the Iran deal, according to its critics, is not what happens today or tomorrow but what happens in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years when the inspections expire and when Iran then has no restriction, they can do whatever they want and there's nothing we can do about it. We have left tools in the tool box.

So, you know, this Iran deal, as you -- as has been mentioned, which has been so heavily politicized, they're never going to agree on whether it's working or not. But, you know, as sort of a semi objective view here, let me tell you, it's working now. But the question is, will it really prevent Iran from getting a bomb? That remains to be seen.

HARLOW: Yes. Only a year and a long way to go.

ROGIN: Exactly.

HARLOW: Josh, thank you. Important perspective.

Coming up next, as the Summer Olympic Games kick off in Rio de Janeiro, it all started last night, people there living, worried they might not be the priority if they get sick. We're going to take you inside the Brazilian hospital system with our Dr. Sanjay Gupta next, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:51:09] HARLOW: For many Brazilians, medical care can be hard to get. But as the Olympics kick off in Rio for athletes and tourists, excellent medical care is available.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Rio, taking a closer look at the state of medical care there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The images increasingly disturbing, overcrowding in Rio's public hospitals. Wait times here measured not in minutes, not even hours, but days. And this horrifying situation. A patient passed away, lying in a body bag, and also waiting.

To better understand what is happening here, we went along with Rio's First Emergency Response Battalion to see them in action.

(On camera): Another problem. It's been 20 minutes now, roughly, since we left and we're lost. We're not exactly sure where the patient is that needs our assistance.

(Voice-over): We finally arrive. A man has collapsed.

(On camera): What they're going to try and do is administer as much care as they can in the ambulance and not take him to a hospital if they don't have to.

(Voice-over): But turns out, he needs a hospital. The next goal, find a bed for him. Any bed. And that is typically not very easy here.

DR. NELSON NAHON, VICE PRESIDENT, CREMER (Through Translator): In the state of Rio de Janeiro, we lack 150 intensive care beds every day.

GUPTA: Dr. Nelson Nahon is the vice president at the Cremer, the Regional Council of Medicine.

NAHON (Through Translator): It is an absurd situation.

GUPTA: And now according to Dr. Nahon, in order to make room for the hundreds of thousands of Olympic tourists, things may have just become even worse for the local residents. All elective operations at nearby public hospitals have been postponed for the duration of the Olympics.

For the residents of the Olympic Village, however, a different story. This polyclinic will be the first stop for any Olympic athlete, coach or family member. Able to handle 60 patients with CT and MRI scanners, even dental care.

For many athletes, from the poorest countries, this is even an opportunity for typically hard to access basic health care. And if necessary, they will likely arrive here, America's Medical City.

Dr. Antonio Marttos is in charge of emergency services and disaster response for Rio 2016. He is giving us a rare look inside the facility.

DR. ANTONIO MARTTOS, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI HEALTH SYSTEM: For people inside the venues, if they need, we're going to be ready to take care.

GUPTA: For nearly three years, they've been planning for these three weeks. Here in the city's command center, director of emergency services, Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Sinas, tells me the biggest concern is not Zika, not illness from the water, but a mass casualty incident from a terrorist attack. And that will bring into view for all to see a tale of two hospitals, one a world away from the other. On this day, our unknown patient is finally wheeled into the emergency room of that other world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: Poppy, if it seems like there's a little bit of whitewashing going on around Rio, your perception is probably accurate. And I think that's happened in other cities before the Olympics as well. They want to make the city look good. So cancelling elective operations for the local citizens who already have a hard enough time getting care in order to make room for the hundreds of thousands of tourists, you can imagine that doesn't sit very well with them.

They are already having a hard enough time getting care. And now it's going to get even worse. So that's the reality. We're going to see what actually happens. Hopefully those extra beds that are being created won't be necessary.

HARLOW: Right.

GUPTA: But you get a sense of what the public hospital system is like.

HARLOW: And obviously a huge expense for them to get fully prepared and geared up for the Olympics, to have those extra beds, to have everything ready.

GUPTA: Yes.

HARLOW: What happens in a few weeks, Sanjay, when the games are over? I mean, what happens to all of the equipment? What happens to all the resources they've poured in?

[18:55:06] GUPTA: Well, I'll preface by saying, Poppy, as you well know as a journalist, we'll see it when it actually happens.

HARLOW: Yes.

GUPTA: What they say is going to happen is that a lot of the equipment, the CT scans, the MRI scans you just saw, will be donated to the city of Rio, will be donated to these public hospitals to try and give them some relief, give them some of the equipment that they actually need. That's the promise. But there have been a lot of broken promises here in Rio. So we'll keep up on that story, Poppy, and report back to you.

HARLOW: Yes, no question you will. I hope that that promise becomes reality for all those people that need it the most.

Sanjay in Rio for us, thank you so much.

GUPTA: Yes: Thank you.

HARLOW: All right. Quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: 7:00 here in New York, 4:00 p.m. out West. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. And you're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

What a week in politics it has been, Donald Trump last night taking the stage, mending fences with GOP leaders, ending speculation whether or not he would endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator John McCain and Kelly Ayotte.

Trump is holding a rally in Senator Ayotte's home state of New Hampshire in just an hour from now. This as new polling shows that Trump is trailing by a pretty wide margin Hillary Clinton in the Granite State, 15 points behind her. That's a new survey done by WBUR.