Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Hillary Clinton Under Fire; Clinton and Trump to Release Medical Records. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 12, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:03]

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And they will take whatever that they can get, whether it's a few hours, a few days, or something longer.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You have talked to them. You would know. We know you're watching in the coming hours and days. And thank you for the candid assessment there, Arwa Damon along the border of Turkey and Syria. Thank you.

Hour two. You're watching CNN on this Monday afternoon. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton calling out sick from the campaign trail. And her critics are calling her out for a lack of transparency. Why didn't her campaign tell voters she was ill when she was first diagnosed with pneumonia Friday?

Instead, her doctor revealed Secretary Clinton's condition two days later, after this video of her sort of stumbling into this van, getting a little bit of help, actually came out, a passerby recording this with staffers helping her into that SUV. This was Sunday morning.

We know she had to cut her appearance short. This was an event commemorating September 11. And we're also now learning that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be releasing more medical records this week.

In the meantime, Donald Trump is sending Secretary Clinton well- wishes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I hope she gets well soon. I don't know what's going on. I'm -- like you, I just -- I see what I see. The coughing fit was a week ago, so I assume that was pneumonia also. I mean, I think it would have been, so something's going on. But I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail and we will be seeing her at the debate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me bring in Kristina Schake. She's deputy communications director of Hillary for America.

Kristina, thank you for joining me.

KRISTINA SCHAKE, DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Obviously, all well-wishes to Secretary Clinton, but the sort of key question is, we know that the campaign knew she was sick, specifically that she had pneumonia Friday. Why did it take you all 48 hours to tell the public?

SCHAKE: Well, you know, Brooke, she just wanted to power through. She knew she had pneumonia on Friday, but she had a really important schedule. She had a meeting here in New York City on Friday with leading national security experts to talk about solutions to global terrorism. She did a press conference and she had an event that night. And, you know, on Sunday, it was very important to her to attend the 9/11 memorial.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I appreciate all of her desire to power through. But the issue is, and I know you -- it's transparency. Right? Initially, you al said, oh, she overheated, when in actuality the truth is she has pneumonia. Why not just say pneumonia from the get?

SCHAKE: Well, Brooke, this is really on us. It was very important for her to attend the memorial on Sunday morning. She was out in the sun for an hour-and-a-half. She felt overheated and so she wanted to leave. As soon as she got in the car in the air conditioning and had some water, she felt better immediately.

But that was really on us, on the campaign. It took us about 90 minutes to inform people. She wanted to go to her daughter's house and play with her granddaughter. And that was our mistake for taking too long to inform people.

But as soon as -- we wanted to make sure she was OK and we wanted to get in touch with her doctor and have her talk to her and meet with her that afternoon, and then we released a statement from her doctor as soon as that happened.

BALDWIN: The issue that obviously critics and folks who are still trying to decide in these waning weeks is, it's the trust issue. Right? Like, how can we trust Hillary Clinton? Here she's caught sort of fainting and stumbling into this SUV.

And the question on some voters' minds is, had that video not been released, would we have known at all? How would you respond to those critics?

SCHAKE: Well, honestly, she just wanted to power through her schedule. She wanted to get it all done. And she got a little overheated and a little dizzy, but felt better immediately, and then we put that statement out.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Forgive me, but was there a concern because of all these crazy conspiracies, right, these concerns floating out there, a concern to not disclose, to withhold until you absolutely had to say something?

SCHAKE: No, no.

I can say, Brooke, I was involved in all of this yesterday. And, honestly, our first concern was just to make sure she was OK and talk to her doctor and make sure she was able to see her doctor on Sunday.

We always intended to put out that information. And we did as soon as she -- as soon as she met with that doctor. But I do have to say, this is in real stark contrast to Donald Trump, who, as you know, has not put out a complete medical history, not released his taxes.

The comparison between these two candidates and how transparent they have been is quite stark.

BALDWIN: Trust me, I think many people would love and deserve to see his tax returns. And that's something the media will continue demanding of him.

SCHAKE: Yes.

BALDWIN: And we also both know that both of your campaigns are apparently releasing more medical records later this week.

SCHAKE: Yes.

BALDWIN: But let me ask you, though, because we know she's having to sit out, at least for the next 48 hours, will you all send Bill Clinton at all into any of the fund-raising in California that she will be message?

SCHAKE: Well, you know, if Hillary had her way, she would of course been a plane today. She always just wants to get to work and power through it.

[15:05:00]

We really encouraged her to take the advice of her doctor and take some time to recover. She has allergies, as she always has, with the changes of seasons. And that has resulted in this cough. And then she has pneumonia. And so we're going to give her a few days off.

We're taking it as kind of day at a time.

BALDWIN: So will Bill Clinton hop a plane instead?

SCHAKE: You know what, we are working out those details as we speak.

BALDWIN: OK. OK. OK. OK. One of the questions I think are -- I think someone was on with me last hour and said, why doesn't she just do the full McCain, right, what John McCain did in 2008, releasing all of his medical records and allow journalists like our chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta to sit, to pore through them? Kristina, there's a precedent for that.

SCHAKE: You know, Brooke, we all -- she already put out a year ago, unlike Donald Trump, a comprehensive medical history.

We're talking to her doctor. We're going to put out very -- much more soon. We just want to put aside any lingering concerns about this. She's very strong and very healthy. This is unrelated to her to what happened in 2012, which she fully recovered from. And this is the only condition that she has.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHAKE: But we're going to put out more from her doctor.

BALDWIN: OK, good. We will be looking for it.

And final question on her health, you have seen Donald Trump essentially saying, listen, he was asked about, saying, I don't really know anything about it and I wish her well. Do you, does the campaign give him any credit for taking the classy route on this one?

SCHAKE: You know what? We appreciate that he wishes her well. You know, she's going to be right back out on the campaign trail, I expect, in the next few days, because the stakes in this election are so high. She's going to be out there talking about why she's the right choice to be our president and commander in chief, because she has real plans to make a difference in people's lives.

BALDWIN: Let me move on to the comment she made Friday at a fund- raiser in New York.

SCHAKE: Yes.

BALDWIN: First, let me just play the comments and then this is Donald Trump's response today. Here we go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables, right, the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.

TRUMP: I was thus deeply shocked and alarmed this Friday to hear my opponent attack, slander, smear, demean these wonderful, amazing people who are supporting our campaign.

It was, perhaps, the most explicit attack on the American voter ever spoken by a major party presidential nominee. Total disrespect for the people of our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, on Secretary Clinton, we know, Kristina, over the weekend, you know, she expressed her regrets, but, from you, I just want to understand specifically what is it that she regrets?

SCHAKE: Well, she made this clear. What she said is she regrets saying half. That was certainly too generalistic.

That's not what she meant. And on Saturday morning, she wanted to correct that immediately and apologize, because that's who Hillary is. She takes responsibility and apologizes when something like this happens. She just wanted to say, she didn't intend half.

But the larger point she stands by, which is many of his supporters say deplorable things. She believes that he should denounce the support of the former leader of the KKK, who supports him. I mean, let's keep in mind that Donald Trump is someone who has encouraged these kind of what used to be fringe extremists. He's given them a real platform. And she believes their values are un-American.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: But he has denounced David Duke. Just so we're all on the same page, he has denounced David Duke. And you know this. She's running to be the president of all of the United States of America. And so whether they're Trump supporters or not, should she not insult them?

SCHAKE: This is what she's saying. They are trafficking in hatred and bigotry.

He is retweeting white supremacists. David Duke said himself that the white nationalist movement is growing because of Donald Trump -- because he's an important part of that growth. So, that is really problematic to Hillary. She doesn't believe that that reflects American values and she's going to stand by calling out just incredible hatred and bigotry. She doesn't think that's right.

BALDWIN: OK, Kristina Schake, thank you so much.

SCHAKE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

With me now to discuss, I have CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar, and CNN political analyst Jackie Kucinich, who is Washington bureau chief for The Daily Beast.

So, Brianna, since you have been covering Hillary Clinton for really since the beginning of all this...

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Before the beginning.

BALDWIN: Before the beginning of all this. Was there anything that Kristina said that surprised you?

KEILAR: No.

[15:10:00]

I think that is what we have been hearing from the campaign. One of the things that I noted that she said and we also heard Brian Fallon say earlier is to say that pneumonia is the one thing that is afflicting Hillary Clinton, where you see the campaign in this position of pushing back on some of these unfounded assertions by Donald Trump surrogates that there's a bigger issue to Hillary Clinton's health, in perhaps the fact that she had a concussion in 2012, she hasn't fully recovered from that, something that, of course, those in the Clinton circle say is definitely not true.

And so, you know, they found themselves in this position where they have had to come out and say Hillary Clinton has pneumonia two days after she actually got the diagnosis and they're trying to be very clear now that that's it.

BALDWIN: Sanjay Gupta, what are your unanswered questions on her health?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, sort of regarding this pneumonia, it's interesting.

As everyone knows now, we got the information a couple of days after she was diagnosed, which was good to get the information, but pneumonia is still a very big term. We don't know specifically what kind of pneumonia. We know she's on antibiotics. But we don't know if this is bacterial or viral or something else? We don't know what medication she's getting.

If she had a chest X-ray, we don't know what that showed. And you may say, look, these are very specific questions, very important medical questions, but how relevant? The relevancy is, you know, when people say, how long is it going to take for her to recover, when is she going to be back on her feet, I think it's very hard for people to answer that question without knowing some of those basic things.

Did she have a chest X-ray? And, if she did, what did it show? Those are important details to know.

BALDWIN: Just everything I have read, if you're north of 65, this is serious. You need to take a week off. And then you throw in her insane travel schedule. She's taking two days, according to the campaign, so far. What's your assessment of that?

GUPTA: Well, you know, again, I would -- I will preface by saying, I still don't feel like I have enough information to answer that.

Look, there are people who can be in a hospital in an ICU with pneumonia and there are people who have the more colloquial walking pneumonia who seem to be getting around OK.

I'm not sure where she really falls in that. BALDWIN: Got it.

GUPTA: And, again, there is a notion that some of that is important, not just because those are medical details. I realize some of that seems inside baseball, but it is relevant in terms of determining how she's going to do, how she's going to feel, what her travel schedule should be like.

I think most doctors would not recommend travel, not necessarily because the pneumonia would get worse, but because the symptoms would get worse. She just wouldn't feel well. She might have more difficulty with coughing or difficulty with shortness of breath. So, things like that, those are relevant details.

BALDWIN: All right, so, as far as, Jackie Kucinich, the sort of political assessment or the political repercussions of her not being on the trail at least for the next two days.

I kept trying to ask Kristina, will her husband fill her shoes? And I got a sort of, well, we're working on her schedule sort of answer. But what's the political impact of her being off the trail for at least two days?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's not only her being off the trail for two days. It's the fact that this whole controversy reminded people why they don't like Hillary Clinton, the secrecy, not looking like they were telling the truth at first, the changing story, her walking out and waving to the crowd knowing that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia 48 hours earlier.

That in and of itself isn't great for the Clinton campaign. Now, her being off the trail, they have a lot of high-powered surrogates that are going to -- were already planning to go on the trail. Someone like President Obama will be in Philadelphia for her. Tim Kaine obviously is continuing on the trail. Michelle Obama is going to be on the trail for her.

She has got a lot of people picking up the pieces. I don't know these two days will make a huge difference in terms of what people think of her, but it's the scandal itself and the fact they weren't up front with the press and by that, the American people, about what her actual condition was.

BALDWIN: What about Trump, Brianna? What about Trump and the Trump camp saying he will release results of his physical later this week?

KEILAR: Well, that's right. And to be clear, both of these candidates have not released a ton of information, but Hillary Clinton has much more out there than Donald Trump when it comes to health and certainly when it comes to tax returns and financial information.

So, that's the issue for Hillary Clinton is now because of this, she finds herself in this place where she's on the defense, even though Donald Trump hasn't put much out there. He said he had a physical last week. We don't know which doctor did it, if it was the doctor who put out that letter, which instead of -- and, Sanjay, you can certainly attest to this -- instead of some sort of medical characterizations, had really...

GUPTA: Yes, we talked about this.

KEILAR: ... a lot of hyperbole, said, what was it, he will be the healthiest president ever.

BALDWIN: Admitting he was influenced by Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

GUPTA: Spectacular.

KEILAR: That's right.

BALDWIN: Yes. Yes.

KEILAR: Dr. Harold Bornstein, who said, yes, he was in a rush and his limo was waiting for him or whatnot, just kind of very bizarre.

But Donald Trump says he's got his physical information. That will come out when the numbers are out. So, I guess we will learn EKG, blood pressure, cholesterol, hopefully all of those things, which we have already seen from Hillary Clinton. And so, we're waiting for that.

[15:15:05]

BALDWIN: Yes.

Brianna and Jackie and Sanjay, I'm sure we will loop back and talk then once we get all the details. Thank you all so much.

And make sure, just reminder to all of you, tune in 5:00 Eastern, when presidential vice president candidate Mike Pence sits down with Wolf Blitzer live in "THE SITUATION ROOM," Donald Trump's running mate.

Coming up next: Is Clinton's basket remark from Friday night, is it at all comparable to Mitt Romney's 47 percent gaffe from 2012? We will look into that.

Also ahead, Hillary Clinton tells CNN that she's willing to work with Vladimir Putin, but, as one expert says, Putin can't stand her -- how the relationship went so awry.

And two weeks from tonight, the two nominees square off in the very first presidential debate, and now Trump is floating the idea of not having a moderator at all. We will discuss that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:13]

BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin. This is CNN.

Just a short time ago, Donald Trump blasted his rival, Hillary Clinton, at the National Guard Conference in Baltimore for saying half of his supporters are part of -- quote -- "basket of deplorables."

And Trump now is pouncing on her comments, calling her divisive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have the support of cops and soldiers, carpenters and welders, the young and the old, and millions of working-class families who just want a better future and a good job.

These were the people Hillary Clinton so viciously demonized. These were among the countless Americans that Hillary Clinton called deplorable, irredeemable and un-American. Nobody's heard anything like this. She called these patriotic men and women every vile name in the book.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Secretary Clinton has since said she regrets saying half of Trump's supporters are deplorable, but also says she won't stop calling out bigotry and racism.

Let me bring in two voices here, Gregory Cheadle, a Republican congressional candidate in California. You may also recognize him as the man who Trump referred to some time ago at a rally as -- quote -- "my African-American."

Also with me, Marc Lamont Hill, CNN political commentator and a professor at Morehouse College.

So, Gentlemen, thank you so much for being on with me.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Pleasure.

BALDWIN: And, Gregory, to you first. You attended that one Trump rally. The last time we talked just a couple weeks ago, you told me, I'm 90 percent in support of Donald Trump, which I want to loop back with on that in a moment.

But what do you think of Hillary Clinton's comments?

GREGORY CHEADLE (R), REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Unfortunately, I think it's typical of politicians to see the voters as being unimportant. The only people who get the attention of politicians are donors. They tend not to care about the voters.

BALDWIN: And so what are you saying about Hillary Clinton specifically? Are you just saying this is typical of any politician? You're not surprised?

CHEADLE: I'm not surprised.

People tend to speak what they feel. And, you know, she said what she said and I believe that she meant it. The problem is, again, when politicians have an elitist view of themselves and see the rest of us as deplorable, that's a problem. The people need to take back the power, instead of giving it to government and these politicians. BALDWIN: Does it matter that she has said not all of the Trump

supporters are deplorable, but just those who espouse the xenophobic, racist rhetoric?

CHEADLE: Well, I mean, the same could be said about people who are in favor of her. There's enough racism, there's enough xenophobia to go around with both parties.

It's unfair to just say what she said, half. So 49 percent is better? No. You know, she should not have said it. And the American people need to wake up and say, this is the type of person we want to represent us? No.

BALDWIN: Mark, do you agree with that?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I don't agree with that.

I think -- look, I'm a Green Party supporter. I'm a Jill Stein supporter, so I don't typically go on TV and defend Hillary Clinton. But I think Hillary Clinton was actually correct this time. I think she is right to talk about the way in which Clinton -- excuse me -- the way in which Trump's supporters traffic oftentimes in racism and xenophobia, et cetera.

To say half is a pretty extravagant number. It's an extraordinary number, but at the very least, people who are supporting Trump are willing to support a candidate who often traffics in racism, who often traffics xenophobia and Islamophobia, and often has people like David Duke feeling empowered by his candidacy.

I mean, those types of things are questionable. Even if you don't identify as a racist, and even if I would not identify you as a racist, the fact that you're willing to support a campaign that's a safe haven, a rest haven even, for racists is troublesome.

And I think that was Hillary Clinton's point. Whether it's 51 percent or 49 percent or 32 percent is to me not the point. And finally I don't think it's an elitist position to say, I don't like racists, I don't like bigots, I don't like homophobes, I don't like misogynists. I don't think it's an elitist position. I think it's a humanist position.

BALDWIN: So, whether it's 49, 50, 51, her camp is saying, all right, she made a mistake in quantifying it.

But let's just say, which I think is what I'm hearing from you, that the premise is accurate. Still, don't you think it's a mistake politically to insult any voter, as she will be the president of all of the United States, if she wins?

HILL: Well, no.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Marc.

HILL: That's a -- to me, that would be a bizarre logic.

There are American rapists. There are American molesters. There are American serial killers. Yes, they're still Americans and I'm their president, but I have a right to say I don't like them. Similarly, I can say, hey, yes, I'm the president of all Americans, but the one who are racists, yes, I'm not big on them. I think that's OK.

[15:25:03]

BALDWIN: OK. OK.

We heard from the vice president moments ago jumping to her defense. Let me just read what he told reporters -- quote -- "I have known Hillary for a long, long, long time. She gets a bum rap. For every time she will say something where she says, well, maybe I should have said something different, think if they held Trump to that standard. He'd be in trouble. He is in trouble."

I would say, we do take on many, many things that Mr. Trump has said through the past 16 months and dissected them often, but, that said, Marc, do you think that there is a double standard?

HILL: There is a double standard.

I think we have normalized Donald Trump's racism. It's like, you know what, that's just the Donald, he says crazy things, he says racist things, he says misogynist things, and so we don't have time to unpack everything he says, so we just accept it.

We accept the fact that it's almost, what, one out of four statements he says is untrue. I mean, when all of these things happen, we just say -- we normalize it.

But with Hillary Clinton, we scrutinize it. Some of that is because Donald Trump has been so bizarrely and extravagantly offensive. And some of it, I think, is gender. I think we have a different level of scrutiny attached to Hillary Clinton purely because of gender politics.

BALDWIN: Gregory, how would you respond to that?

(CROSSTALK)

CHEADLE: Well, Hillary has no room to talk about someone else being a racist, when she supported all these policies that resulted in the mass incarceration primarily of people of color.

Look at the crack cocaine issue. Look at taking food stamps away, taking housing away, taking the Pell Grants away if you have a record. We have -- we imprison 2.3 million people in the United States; 25 percent of the world's prison population resides here.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Do you care that she has since said she regrets her comments? CHEADLE: No, because saying something and not doing anything to

counteract what she's done makes no difference to me whatsoever. You can say whatever you want to say, but when you are responsible for the mass incarceration of people and color, saying you're sorry side does absolutely nothing and means

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: I'm sorry, Gregory, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

But you realize that's a logical fallacy, right? It's possible for both things can be true simultaneously. Even if I conceded your point about Hillary Clinton in support of troublesome policies in the' 90s, that doesn't negate the fact that Donald Trump could also be racist. Right? They could both simultaneously be true, right?

CHEADLE: It could be true.

But look who is -- if you're saying that both people are racists, which racist has done the most damage to the country? And that's clearly Hillary Clinton.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Is that where we are, gentlemen?

HILL: That's where we are.

BALDWIN: Is that where we are?

HILL: Clinton is uber-racist.

Yes, I might be racist, but not as racist as her. She's super racist.

BALDWIN: Can I just quickly ask Gregory, and then I have to let you all go, that final 10 percent of hesitation on Donald Trump, are you there? Are you supporting him? Are you voting for him?

CHEADLE: In all likelihood, he will get my vote. Hillary is sinking more and more each day.

BALDWIN: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

HILL: You are officially his African-American.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Marc Lamont Hill.

Marc Lamont Hill and Gregory Cheadle, thank you.

CHEADLE: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you. We are officially two weeks away from the first presidential debate

and Donald Trump just said he thinks the event would actually be best if there were no moderator. And my next two guests agree with him.

Hear why they say Matt Lauer's performance at that forum a couple nights ago proves their point.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)