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Donald Trump Surprises Dr. Oz with Medical Info; Clinton Returns to Campaign Trail Today; Trump Jr.: Tax Returns Would Detract From Message; Race Tightens in New Battleground State Polls. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 15, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We are finally learning some of the results from Donald Trump's physical. This amid growing calls for more transparency from both camps. Here's what Trump told Dr. Oz on his show just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's two letters, one is the report and the other is from Lenox Hill Hospital.

MEHMET OZ, DR. OZ SHOW HOST: May I see them?

TRUMP: Yeah. Sure.

OZ: So -- these are the reports -

TRUMP: These are all the tests that were just done last week.

OZ: September 13th, 2016. It's again, from -- Dr. Bornstein says -- I must say, this is -- first of all, thank u for sharing this. This is a pretty comprehensive -- can I read it to you? Real quickly, I will try to quickly interpret it. Cholesterols -- weighs 6' 3", 236 pounds. Cholesterol is 169, the HDL, which is the healthy cholesterol, 63. The lousy LDL cholesterol is 94. Those are good numbers. Triglycerides are 61, the amount of fat in your blood. The PSA like the other letter that was published earlier, .15, which is very low. Blood pressure is 116 over 70 - Blood sugar 99.

TRUMP: That's good, 116 over, 70?

OZ: Yeah. I mean -

TRUMP: I have always -- been lucky with blood pressure. I have always had very good blood pressure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Let's bring in CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. You also have a physical copy -- of Donald Trump's doctor's letter in your hands.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

COSTELLO: So do a Dr. Oz, well -- no, do a Dr. Sanjay for us.

GUPTA: Well, you know it's interesting, they -- first of all, I just got to tell you Carol, the tone of the letter is completely different. It sort of ends with Mr. Trump is in excellent physical health.

COSTELLO: Because Trump is using the same doctor, Dr. Bornstein, right? --

GUPTA: The same doctor, Dr. Harold Bornstein. So this letter that Dr. Bornstein wrote September 13th, just yesterday, it says Mr. Trump is in excellent physical health as compared to before where it says that he would unequivocally be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency. It also, to be fair, has much more objective data in here now. It's still a single page letter. Here it is. I think we have a full screen of this where you can take a look. But it talks about a lot of these lab results, in particular really focusing on the heart which I think is what -- Oz is obviously a heart surgeon but also, that's one of the, biggest concerns, certainly, for anybody of Mr. Trump's age, how is your heart health. And it has a fairly detailed sort of at least test results of the heart. The only thing, -- you know, I have talked about this. This is an interpretation by somebody of a summary of test results. This is not -- these are not medical records. It's how someone is interpreting the medical records and presenting them as a summary. -

COSTELLO: And again, is it still just a snapshot of Donald Trump's health today?

GUPTA: That's right. It's a snapshot in time. -- Again, that becomes important, you know if you are trying to look back over time, figure out how someone's health has been over time as opposed to just now. But it looks like this letter certainly suggests that he is healthy man for his age.

COSTELLO: OK. I want to play a bit more of "Dr. Oz Show" with Mr. Trump for our viewers so they can understand because he talked about a lot. He talked about a colonoscopy, talked about his testosterone levels and you say the audience cheered when he said they were high.

GUPTA: The audience cheered about the testosterone levels.

COSTELLO: OK. So let's play a bit about -- you wanted to know more about the cholesterol levels. So let's play that bit for our audience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OZ: You had a colonoscopy performed July 10, 2013 which was normal, no polyps. Calcium score in your heart, in 2013 also was low at 98. My goodness, EKG, chest x-ray on April 14th was normal. Normal echocardiogram was done two years ago. And your testosterone is 441 which is actually good. (LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So maybe Hillary Clinton will release her levels of estrogen. -

GUPTA: Did you ever think Carol, as part of presidential campaign coverage, you would hear about testosterone levels? -

COSTELLO: No. But here's the thing, Hillary Clinton released part of her medical records yesterday. Supposedly she's going to release more today. She had a CT scan on her lungs back in March. She had a CT scan on her brain. -

GUPTA: That's right.

COSTELLO: We know a lot about her past health issues. So what Mr. Trump is doing and what Mrs. Clinton is doing, -- is it on an equal playing field?

GUPTA: Yes. I mean, you know, I would still say Secretary Clinton has released more information overall. It's more in depth. It's talking about going back a little further in her health history. So you're getting a little more of the past as well. Here again, you have a very, very sort of current snapshot, an important snapshot but a snapshot in time. With regard to Secretary Clinton she had a CT scan of the brain that was done earlier this year. Very relevant, right, because back in 2012 she hit her head after she fainted. There was concern, is there a persistent problem, persistent brain injury. There's no indication of that. They released again the summary of those findings and showed no abnormalities in CT of the brain. She had a CT scan of the heart as well that showed no evidence of heart disease. So these things are important as well.

[10:05:16] COSTELLO: Donald Trump also talked about how he takes care of himself, right? He says he eats a lot of fast food. He probably needs to lose a few pounds, right? Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OZ: If elected at age 70, you would be the oldest person to ever enter the oval office. Why do you think you have the stamina for the job?

TRUMP: Just about the same age as Ronald Reagan, and Hillary's a year behind me. I would say just based on my life. -- I mean - I have had -- I actually, I don't know if this makes sense, I feel as good today as I did when I was 30. And you mentioned golf because I have been a good golfer over the years. I have won a lot of club championships and things. And that's a good mentality because to win a club championship you have to be very strong up here. When I play golf, I feel that I'm maybe a better golfer today than I was 15, 20 years ago. I don't know what it is. I hit the ball as far. Maybe the equipment's a little bit better. I would say the equipment's better. The muscles are a little bit worse. But whatever it is. I mean I hit the ball as far, hit the ball better. I putt just as well. You know, that has to do with the hands. You can't have problems with hand movement if you're going to be a good putter. But you know, just as an indication, I think I'm a better player today than I was 15, 20, 30 years ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. Does that say anything at all about his overall health that he plays golf well?

GUPTA: No. I mean -- he's talking about his forms of exercise saying he doesn't really exercise much, golf is his exercise and campaigning is his exercise, getting up there and giving speeches. You know, look, it is grueling to be doing 18 months of campaigning, flying all around the country, getting up there and giving speeches. I don't know that it's a form of exercise, necessarily, but it is a way for voters to look at a candidate and see how they are performing physically and also cognitively.

COSTELLO: I want to ask about this, too. Because last night, at a campaign rally, Donald Trump said in Canton, Ohio, he was standing at a room that was 122 degrees, it probably wasn't quite that hot but I'm sure it was warm. And he said that he had the stamina and he asked the audience whether Hillary Clinton would have the stamina to do that same thing. Would she?

GUPTA: Yes. And she has. I mean, you know, -- I saw that as well and it was one of those strange sort of, I don't know if she could do a rally like this. She's done plenty of -- they have both been campaigning for you know a year and a half now. And so she's done plenty of events like that. -- I think it's sort of a strange way to -- question someone's health. They both have been at this for some time. It's a rigorous, it's demanding, no question. I don't know how hot it was in the room but these events are challenging and they both done them.

COSTELLO: -- So bottom line, Donald Trump's vitals appear to be fine but there is one slight problem and that would be his weight. Because didn't they mention BMI, too?

GUPTA: Yes. So I think they say, here it says he's 6'3" tall and weighs 236 pounds. If you calculate the BMI on that, it's just 29.5. 30 is considered obese. So he's definitely overweight and he talked about the fact that he needs to lose weight. Probably needs to stop eating the fast food. All those things I'm sure he's been counseled on, maybe challenging to do when you're running for president. -- That was probably one of the biggest red flags. He's on a cholesterol lowering medication. His father lived into his 90s, her mother into her late 80s, died in an accident, he said. So pretty good genes, he points out, as well.

COSTELLO: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.

GUPTA: You got it, thank you.

COSTELLO: All right. So Hillary Clinton hits the campaign trail for the first time since pneumonia sidelined her, leaving the airport near her home en route to North Carolina. Jeff Zeleny is in White Plains. Good morning.

JEFF ZELENY, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. Hillary Clinton is going to leave her home in Chappaqua today in just a couple hours or so, and return to the campaign trail as you said. You can see her airplane is here behind me here on the tarmac. She's eager to get back to campaigning, of course, because the campaign and the race frankly have tightened since she left this campaigning. It's been a week since she's been in a battleground state. Of course, we know her diagnosis on pneumonia came last Friday and then she revealed it on Sunday. But really, they are trying to get beyond this and get back to campaigning, but so much to talk about medicine this morning, so much to talk about medical records and disclosure. Secretary Clinton was on the Tom Joyner radio program that aired this morning in an interview with CNN's Don Lemon. She's trying to move beyond the medical records to transparency of a different kind with tax returns. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think I have worked very, very hard to be more transparent than not just my opponent, but really in a comparison to anybody who has run. You know, those -- the medical information I have put out and we are going to put out more, meets and exceeds the standard that other presidential candidates, including President Obama, Mitt Romney and others have met.

[10:10:16] My tax returns are out there, 40 years of transparency about my tax returns. So I think that the real questions need to be directed toward Donald Trump and his failure to even meet the most minimalistic standards that we expect of someone being the nominee of one of our two major parties.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So we have heard this fight back and forth Carol. As you know, over the last several days, as we have been talking about who is more transparent. Dr. Gupta is right in the sense that she has released more medical information and certainly more tax information.

I'm told by her advisors she's not going to get in a tit for tat with Donald Trump over who has released - more medical information but they do plan to push the tax returns as a way of disclosure here. But quite frankly, Carol, the Clinton campaign knows it has some ground to make up after she's been off the road for a couple days.

So she'll be going to Greensboro, North Carolina, one of those key battleground states, and on to Washington D.C. for a speech tonight. But Carol that first debate, some 11 days away, the top priority for the Clinton campaign, I'm told, is to keep their candidate healthy for that night, for that first debate. Carol?

COSTELLO: Jeff Zeleny reporting live from White Plains, New York. Thank you. So let's talk about that angle. With me now, CNN's politics executive editor Mark Preston, columnist for "The Daily Beast" and "Roll Call," Patricia Murphy and Christopher Rowland, he's the Washington bureau chief for the Boston Globe. Welcome to all of you.

So let's talk about tax returns, because Donald Trump Jr. told the "Tribune-Review" in Pennsylvania something very interesting about why Donald will not release his tax returns. He said that Donald Trump doesn't want to release his tax returns because they are 12,000 pages and they would make financial auditors out of every person in the country and Donald Trump Jr. says that would only detract from his dad's message. Thoughts, Christopher?

CHRISTOPHER ROWLAND, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF BOSTON GLOBE: Well, I mean, I think perfectly the financial press and the American media and the public is perfectly capable of weeding through the 12,000 pages and understanding what the bottom line is on Donald Trump's taxes. It's clear that he probably pays a very low level and I think that that's been widely reported based on his real estate dealings and you know, Hillary Clinton wins on transparency when it comes to taxes. She has released all her taxes and he has not. So it's clear why this morning she wants to change the subject from health records to tax records, because that's where she does have more transparency -- than the candidate who has problems with transparency. -

COSTELLO: Going back to this statement from Donald Trump Jr. Because I'm trying to understand what he means by this Patricia. Does he mean -- that voters couldn't look at those taxes and understand anything so why release them anyway?

PATRICIA MURPHY, COLUMNIST "THE DAILY BEAST" and "ROLL CALL": Well I think - first of all, it's important to note this is the first time we have heard anybody from the Trump camp say this. And I think this is probably why he hasn't released his tax returns. They have been saying he's not releasing his tax returns because he's under a routine audit. There's no reason not to release your tax returns, there's nothing that the IRS is telling him that you can't release it because it's under audit. I think this is the real reason and it's because they don't want people going through his tax returns. But that is how transparency works. You know he's saying we don't want the American people to go through and start to pick apart our tax returns. They're not going to understand the tax law. But again, that's what it means to be open and to disclose the information that's pertinent to this campaign. Within -- first of all, nobody is going to go through -- most people are not going through 12,000 pages but they can see the relevant information. They can see to whom and how much he has given to charity. They can certainly see his tax rate. They can see who he's doing business with. It's very, very important information and I think to write it off and just say oh, those are just my tax returns. Really it's a window into his entire financial situation right now that's critically important. -

COSTELLO: The other thought I had Mark is I know our taxes might not be as complicated as Donald Trump's but every American does taxes and there are a good number of people who spend a lot of time doing their taxes and they make sure they understand what they're doing because after all, you know, it's their money. MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Yes. I mean look, what it comes down to Carol on this is that I don't think Donald Trump ever planned on releasing his taxes. While he said that he is under audit, I guess we will take him at his word, he could release his taxes. We understand that. We know that. But clearly he wants to keep his business private, his business dealings private. So you know, to the point of what we heard his son say today, that's probably the most honest answer we have gotten so far. Bottom line, they don't want the campaign -- to be distracted from the way that Donald Trump is trying to win this election. And if he puts out those 12,000 pages of tax returns, then quite frankly, there's no doubt they will give political ammunition to the Hillary Clinton campaign for something.

[10:15:16] They will be able to extract something out of that. So that's why we haven't seen them and will likely not see them.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Mark Preston, Patricia Murphy, Christopher Rowland, thanks to all of you. Handing out supplies to flood victims, crossing the border for a sit-down with a foreign leader. Could Team Trump push for these kinds of moments be pushing him into the lead? Let's talk about that next.

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COSTELLO: Donald Trump due to deliver a big speech this morning with running mate Mike Pence by his side. Trump is expected to give more details into clarify his policies. He's doing pretty well in the polls right now, actually. CNN polls show him building a lead in some key battleground states. CNN's Sara Murray and the rest of the media have now been ushered into the room where Trump will deliver that speech I just mentioned so she joins us by phone. Hi Sara.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, Carol. Yes, we are just waiting on Donald Trump at this point. We're expecting him here in about a half hour. He's not going to be laying out brand new policy necessarily but he is going to give a better sense of sort of what his economic vision is, tying together some of the policies, he's revealed over the last few weeks. And then, sort of giving his campaign's estimate to what this will do to the economy. They are going to give an estimate on what this will do for economic growth. And what this will do for job creation.

[10:20:16] And all of this is coming against a pretty positive backdrop right now for Donald Trump. A CNN/ORC poll in Ohio, for instance, shows Donald Trump in the lead, he is at 46 percent, if you look at the four-way race. And Hillary Clinton's at 41 percent. Obviously the rust belt strategy is key for Donald Trump's path to victory in November so those are certainly numbers the campaign is reacting to very positively.

And then we move over to Florida, you see that this is essentially a dead heat, Trump is at 47 percent, Clinton at 44 percent. Again, this is in a four-way race. But that's within the margin of error. They are essentially tied there. Certainly a turn-around from where Donald Trump's numbers were a few weeks ago and a positive one in the view of his campaign. Carol? COSTELLO: All right. Sara Murray reporting, we will let you get back to it. Thanks so much. The polls are tightening and Trump's presidential moments might be driving the numbers. At least that's what his campaign hopes. They have convinced Mr. Trump to take a break from his big rallies to create these presidential moments to show how much he cares. That's why Mr. Trump visited Louisiana flooding victims, why he met with the Mexican president, why he visited that Detroit church, why he wore his hat to the Canfield, Ohio State Fair and most recently dropped by a Flint, Michigan African- American church. A presidential moment that did not go as planned though.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Hillary failed on the economy, just like she has failed on foreign policy. Everything she touched didn't work out, nothing. Now Hillary Clinton -- Mr. Trump, I invited you here to thank us for what we did, not give a political speech. OK. OK, that's good. And I'm going to go back. -- OK.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Also at times Mr. Trump was heckled inside of that church. Donald Trump gave his side of that awkward moment on Fox News this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When she got up to introduce me she was so nervous, she was shaking and I said wow, this is sort of strange. And then she came up. -- So she had that in mind, there's no question about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bother you? Does it bother you? You seem like you didn't. -

TRUMP: No. It doesn't bother me. No. I mean, everyone plays their games. It doesn't bother me. I'll tell you what really made me feel good, the audience was saying let him speak, let him speak. The audience was so great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. Again, the pastor said that she invited Mr. Trump to her church to talk about the Flint water crisis and his ideas of making sure that that never happens again to their community. So now you have both sides of the story. With me to talk about the poll numbers and more, Patrick Murray, Director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute and Andy Smith, Director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Welcome to both of you. Patrick, I want to -

ANDY SMITH, DIRECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE SURVEY CENTER: Good morning. COSTELLO: Good morning. Patrick I want to talk about these presidential moments that Trump's campaign is creating. Is that in part what's driving Trump's poll numbers, you think?

PATRICK MURRAY, DIRECTOR OF THE MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY POLLING INSTITUTE: It seems to be in part. -- What Trump is doing and not doing as well as what's going on with Hillary Clinton. We have seen a big shift towards Trump particularly in the last week, as the news has focused on Hillary Clinton and her health and what she's hidden about her health, and not so much on Donald Trump. And what we are learning here is that whenever the news is focused on one particular candidate, it's bad for that candidate. And in the past, it's been focused a lot on Donald Trump. The more he has small moments rather than big moments and before he can have those little moments like in the church, but without coming back and trying to back pedal what actually happened and just let it go, the more he can let these things go, the better he seems to be doing in the polls. What I'm seeing in polling right now suggests that it's more a sense of well, Donald Trump isn't as much of a buffoon or clown or somebody who is just not fit for office as we have been led to believe. The more he can do that, I think we will see his poll numbers improve.

COSTELLO: Specifically we are talking about the Quinnipiac poll which shows the race tightening but the same poll Andy, shows people are voting against a candidate rather than for a candidate. So will dislike though drive people to the polls?

SMITH: Well, it's certainly a Hobson's choice that the voters are facing here in the election this year. Whether or not that will drive them to the polls I think remains to be seen. It's still a little too early to figure out what turnout's going to look like. But my sense is that it's much more difficult to get people to the polls if there not voting for, positively for someone, than it is to get them to come out and vote against somebody. I don't think that particularly the voting groups that are less likely to show up, in particular younger voters, are going to come out in the numbers we have seen in recent years, mainly because they don't have anybody that they are voting for. They are just voting against.

COSTELLO: Got you. Also, I want to point this out, Patrick, because the polls are one thing. The Electoral College

[10:25:16] is another thing, right? So as of today, the current CNN battleground map gives Hillary Clinton 273 electoral votes from states -- solidly or leaning her direction, to Trump's 191 votes. So if the election were held today despite what the polls show, Hillary Clinton would win and she would win even if Mr. Trump wins Ohio, Florida and Nevada. He kind of has to flip a leaning Democratic state, doesn't he, to get enough electoral votes to win?

MURRAY: Yes. I mean the map is -- has always been stacked against him. But what we are seeing is him building his support in some of those key states like our Nevada poll yesterday showed a flip from what we had a couple months ago where we had Clinton in the lead. Now we have Donald Trump, within the margin of error but still, momentum going in his direction. We have a poll coming out in Iowa today that is going to show something very similar there. If he can continue to build that momentum and have it spread into places like Ohio and then Pennsylvania or even New Hampshire. That could be enough to flip this map.

COSTELLO: So my final question to you, Andy. How much faith should we put in these polls at the moment?

SMITH: As a pollster, I will say the most difficult thing in doing election polling is to figure out who's going to show up on Election Day. We simply don't know yet what that electorate is going to look like. A lot of the people we are seeing in both the Quinnipiac polls and other polls don't like either candidate. As we get closer and closer to the election I think you will see both parties kind of lock down their supporters. It's those less engaged voters, more independent voters that are less likely to show up. If this really devolves into a food fight of a campaign even more than it already is, I think we will see lower turnout and that's going to be hard to predict where we are right now.

COSTELLO: All right. Patrick Murray, Andy Smith, thank you so much for stopping by. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump face off on the same stage in the first presidential debate by the way. We will have live coverage Monday, September 26th right here on CNN. Still to come in the "Newsroom," she was caught in a bomb attack, pulled from the rubble and lived to tell the tale, up next, the young Syrian's heart- wrenching story of survival.

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