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Trump Jr. Refers to 'Gas Chamber' in Slam on Media; Hillary Clinton Back on Campaign Trail. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 15, 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]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIDA ORANGE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MLK MARCH COMMITTEE: This generation, we have got to come together, they have got to come together with a platform. Whether you're for Hillary or Trump, when we present them with a platform, this is where we stand, this is what we want, then that -- it ain't going to be easy just to give a few dollars to here and there. Don't let them pick our leaders. The leaders will come from the bottom.

TAJ ANWAR BAOLL, URBAN FARMER: If a local is strong, don't really matter who is in office, because at the end of the day they're just a symbol, they're just a puppet. They're doing what they're told, you understand? They're doing what the money is telling them do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want us to listen to Taj.

MICHAEL "KILLER MIKE" RENDER, RAPPER, ACTIVIST: When I talk to people, I tell them there are three rules for black people. This is all I want you to do. Learn to fight. Learn to fight.

Yes, don't be asking me to do no celebrity stop bullying campaigns, and you don't know how to fight, because, when you know how to fight, you don't react scared. When you know you know how to fight, and the policeman says hold on, you don't look nervous and run, you don't attack.

I'm not saying it's your fault, but if you know how to fight, you know how to defend yourself. Learn how to fight, learn how to shoot, learn how to grow something.

And the other thing, organize outside of political parties. Organize in your PTA meetings. Organize at the church. But decide locally what you want to do and be active. That's it.

No politician is ever going to save us. I personally don't think anybody is coming out of the clouds to save us, but I know we have saved ourselves time and time again. Our vote is for option or sale only.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you all so much. And thanks for having me, finally.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. Absolutely.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me.

Here she is. He is the plane officially touched down, Greensboro, North Carolina, Hillary Clinton hopping in that car and away she goes. This is significant, because, as you know, she has been recouping the last couple days off the trail from her pneumonia.

No stumble getting on and off that plane as she is in the battleground state of North Carolina. We did hear from Secretary Clinton talking to reporters saying she's doing well. No sign that all the criticism about delaying the revolution that she was ill was getting to her. In fact, she talked about her favorite television shows to the traveling press.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: "Madam Secretary," however, is coming back. So, that's something to look forward to.

QUESTION: Is that that odd to watch that?

CLINTON: No, I actually get a big kick out of it.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... play you.

CLINTON: Yes, I watched it with a little bit of skepticism at first, but I got so into it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, joining me now, the deputy communications of Hillary for America, Kristina Schake.

It's nice to see you.

KRISTINA SCHAKE, DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Hi. Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: I'm sure it's nice for you to see her out and about after the last couple days. How is she doing? What have the doctors said?

SCHAKE: Well, first of all, thank you for being here.

She is doing great. We released more information from her doctor yesterday, who said she's recovering nicely from this. And, as you can see, she's very happy to be back on the trail. If she had her way, she certainly would never have even taken a break, but she took her doctor's advice and took a few days to recover.

BALDWIN: To part of the news of the day and Donald Trump. He was out earlier. He giving a pretty major economic address and he promised 25 million jobs if elected, 4 percent economic growth. He dedicated a lot of time to his child care policy, saying families will be able to deduct their state's average cost of child care and the low income will feel its benefits, which has been a complaint. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Low-income households will benefit from both an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit in the form of child care rebates and a matching $500 contribution for their savings account.

A married couple earning $50,000 per year with two children and $8,000 in child care expenses will save 35 percent from their current tax bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that is -- I wanted to just focus on the child care issue because I know there are a lot of moms watching right now. Tell me why you think Hillary Clinton's child care policy is better.

SCHAKE: Well, Hillary put out a child care policy over a year ago, being actually before Donald Trump even started running for president, because this is an issue she's cared about for many, many years.

She started her career fighting for children and families. It's what got her into public service. It's one of the main reasons she's running for president. It's one of the passions of her life. And she put out a really comprehensive policy.

Well, we saw what Donald Trump put out yesterday. He has very few plans. He has very few policies that affect working families. And he put out one yesterday on child care that was really half-baked and kind of out of date.

Analysts who have looked at it have said it primarily benefits wealthy families, which is par for the course. That is what most of Trump's policies that he's actually put out do. And it really wouldn't help many working families.

[15:05:02]

It's basically a tax cut that would primarily help wealthy families.

Hillary, on the other hand, has a really comprehensive plan. She believes that affordable quality child care is something that we must provide America's working families, and she will work very hard in the Oval Office to finally achieve it.

BALDWIN: Donald Trump has said he is working for working families and he would help them. But I understand the slight from you, two different camps and two different perspectives. I want to get to Hillary Clinton and I want to get the Colin Powell e- mails, because I know she was on Tom Joyner, the radio show, and she was asked about the recent hacking into Colin Powell's e-mails.

And she sort of unequivocally pointed her fingers at Russia. And I'm wondering, does she have evidence? How does she know that?

SCHAKE: Well, most experts who have taken a look at this believe that Russian hackers are behind these hacks on the DNC and others.

BALDWIN: But this particular hack.

SCHAKE: As she has said on this that she has great respect for General Powell, and she has real sympathy for people whose e-mails are hacked.

So she didn't want to speak to that. But what she really thinks is important here is, we're seeing time and again Russian influence on American elections.

BALDWIN: But does she know something we don't know?

SCHAKE: Well, it appears from what we understand from experts that that's who did in and who released this information. It's really, really troubling.

We have had Republicans and Democrat alike say that these kind of foreign influences, particularly from Russia, are a real concern that they're trying to affect America's elections. She think that's really problematic. Donald Trump of course has encouraged this kind of hacking. And that's a real problem.

BALDWIN: The other piece of what's come out in General Powell's e- mails is how he has felt about Trump. I think it was international pariah was how he referred to him.

But he also said this about Hillary Clinton -- quote -- "Everything Hillary Clinton touches, she kind of screws up with hubris."

Care to respond?

SCHAKE: We are just not going to respond about hacked e-mails. We just don't think that's appropriate. They should not have been released and she has real sympathy for the fact that his private e- mails were hacked and released to the public. And we're just not going to comment.

BALDWIN: How he talked about how he threw a temper tantrum in the Hamptons to try to get the attention of the Clinton folks?

SCHAKE: No, we're not. We have real sympathy that this happened to him. And it's really, again, not right that what appears to be Russian hackers are attempting to influence an American election.

BALDWIN: OK.

Let's talk about the polls, which I know we like to do.

SCHAKE: Yes.

BALDWIN: A string of national and battleground polls consistently show this tighter race. Latest one from Ohio found Trump leading Hillary Clinton by three points among likely voters. And I know -- we talked before. And when it's looking good, you tout the polls. And so how do you explain how they are so close?

SCHAKE: You know, Brooke, actually, we don't really tout the polls. Others do.

But we have believed from day one, Hillary has believed this is going to be an incredibly close election, is that the last -- modern American elections are very close. Even before we know the candidates, they're usually pretty divided. So she has prepared from day for this to be incredibly close.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: How is it so close? Because when you listen to her, as we do, and she called him xenophobic and racist and points to his dark policies and the alt-right speech she gave, if you take Hillary Clinton's words and how it speaks about his character, shouldn't she be mowing him over in the polls?

SCHAKE: Well, you know what? We're a divided country, and she knew that going into this and has been saying from the beginning this is going to be close. A lot of people didn't hear that when we said that, but we built an organization to prepare for that.

She's really proud we have got 300 Hillary for America offices in our battleground states. We have 50 between Ohio and Florida alone. We have hundreds of thousands of volunteers out there registering our voters. We're preparing for a very tight election.

But we really need our supporters to get out there. We need to get our people registered. We got to get our people to the polls because this is going to be tight and we're taking it seriously. She's never taken this for granted.

BALDWIN: The debate 12 days away. Kristina Schake, I'm sure she's been prepping as she's been recouping.

SCHAKE: Yes.

BALDWIN: We will see everyone at Hofstra. Thank you so much, Kristina Schake, here from the Hillary Clinton camp.

SCHAKE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Donald Trump, meantime, today did release the results of his recent physical with his doctor in a way that Donald Trump would.

He did it on TV with Dr. Oz for Dr. Oz's syndicated hour-long TV show. It was taped at the studio yesterday. It airs today across the country and Donald Trump discussed his health plan and the results of his most recent physical. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MEHMET OZ, "THE DR. OZ SHOW": You had a colonoscopy performed July 10, 2013, which is normal, with no polyps. Calcium score in your heart in 2013 also was low at 98.

My goodness, EKG chest X-ray on April 14 was normal. A normal echocardiogram was done two years ago. And your testosterone is 441, which is actually it's good.

(LAUGHTER)

OZ: Your BMI is high. It's probably close to 30, which is sort of the barrier for most people.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes. Yes.

OZ: Your doctors or your family ever give you a hard time about your weight?

TRUMP: Yes, I think I could lose a little weight. I have always been a little bit this way.

I have sort of always been that.

(LAUGHTER)

[15:10:01]

TRUMP: I was probably a good swimmer. But I have always been this way.

I think that, yes, if I had one thing, I would like to lose weight. It's tough because of the way I live. But the one thing I would like to do is be able to drop 15, 20 pounds. It would be good.

OZ: When you look into the mirror, how old is the person you're looking at? What do you see?

TRUMP: I would say a see a person that's 35 years old.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: No, I feel the same. I feel the...

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I mean, you know, Tom Brady is a friend of mine. We play golf together, the great quarterback. He's a phenomenal guy, great athlete. And I'm with him, and I feel the same age as him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The campaign also released a note from Trump's doctor who says Donald Trump is in -- quote, unquote -- "excellent physical health."

So we have an M.D. standing by. Ford Vox is with us. He's also a CNN.com opinion contributor to go through what he learned from the letter and also from watching Trump on this show. Also with me, CNN's senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," Brian Stelter.

But, Dr. Vox, let me just begin with you just from your medical perspective. You have looked at the letter from Trump's doctor. Tell me about it, what stands out for you.

DR. FORD VOX, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, he's learned something.

Clearly, Dr. Bornstein has reflected on the criticism that he has received to some extent. He has toned down this letter significantly. He's not using those very unusual superlatives that he did in that first letter that made this something of a foreign document that we saw last year.

He's listing some actual useful preventative medicine type tests that we would typically get on somebody Trump's age. This is a letter that speaks to me in a little bit more real terms. It's still kind of thin. It's very light on past medical history.

I have had to imagine that he's had the odd mole checked and so forth. He doesn't really explain why...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Do we need to know about moles checked? I'm just being real.

VOX: Yes.

Well, if you're going to offer in some level of detail, like Hillary Clinton's doctor, Dr. Bardack, has done, you might explain some of the past medical history the patient has had.

But he got an echocardiogram. Was it purely for preventative reasons? Did he have some symptoms for that? The statin that he's taking, is that because he's trying to manage a hypercholesterolemia, or is it entirely for prevention? Neither of those are standard recommended preventative medicine techniques. There might be something that Dr. Bornstein thinks is reasonable and I certainly think is within the realm of normal medical practice.

BALDWIN: OK. Ford Vox, I'm going to come back to you.

But, Brian Stelter, just on the -- sort of this show that is Dr. Oz and the show within the show and how he reached in and grabbed the -- you want to see my medical records? Listen, he's a TV guy. He wants to get us talking about it and he succeeded.

You say it's a good joke, but...

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Oh, I think it's been a very effective joke. In some ways, this has been preposterous, to go on "Dr. Oz" acting like he's going to the doctor.

But it's been very effective, because the message, the intended message is that Trump has nothing to hide. And by going on daytime TV for an hour talking about his health and by making sure it's seen by viewers all across the country here on CNN and elsewhere...

BALDWIN: And a lot of women, which he needs.

STELTER: And a lot of women, his target demo for this message.

He's accomplishing his goal of saying I, Donald Trump, have nothing to hide. There's also an implicit message of course to Hillary Clinton, even though he didn't talk about Clinton in detail, there's an implicit message about Clinton in this as well.

BALDWIN: Let me get to sound just quickly. This is also from Trump. This is from today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When you're running for president, I think you have an obligation to be healthy. I just don't think you can do the work if you're not healthy. I don't think you can represent the country properly if you're not a healthy person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, just quickly, Stelter, to you, obviously a not-so-veiled dig. He went off prompter a bit yesterday as well.

STELTER: Right. That's the one moment sort of where Donald Trump takes a veiled shot at Clinton.

We see her back on the trail today, so maybe the implicit message of her campaign trip is today that she's all well and good as well. But I do think Trump was effective here, even though it came across as a TV stunt.

BALDWIN: OK. Ford Vox, Brian Stelter, thank you both very much. We will be seeing Hillary Clinton giving that speech in Greensboro momentarily.

Meantime, Donald Trump Jr. making a joke about gas chambers when talking about the media coverage of his father. Now the Trump campaign is blaming -- you guessed it -- the media for the backlash of that. We will discuss that.

And Ivanka Trump cuts off an interview after it gets a little heated. We will talk about the question that got her agitated next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:18:36]

BALDWIN: And we're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Donald Trump Jr. is really unhappy with how the media has treated his

father's presidential campaign, so much so that he went as far as using a Holocaust reference in describing how he believes the media is protecting Hillary Clinton. Here he is on talk radio in Philadelphia.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP JR., SON OF DONALD TRUMP: The media has been her number one surrogate in this. Without the media, this wouldn't even be a contest, but the media has built her up. They have let her slide on every indiscrepancy (sic), on every lie, on every DNC game crying to get Bernie Sanders out of the thing.

If Republicans were doing that, they'd be warming up the gas chamber right now.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's begin there.

Matt Schlapp is standing by, the former political director for George W. Bush, also the chairman of the American Conservative Union supporting -- he's supporting Donald Trump. Nomiki Konst, she is a Democratic strategist and host of "The Filter" on SiriusXM. And Brian Stelter sticking around with us here for this segment as well.

We will get to the campaign's response and the ADL in just a second.

But, Matt Schlapp, what was he thinking?

MATT SCHLAPP, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS: Well, I think we have all been there, where you're doing a bunch of press and something slips that's inartful.

BALDWIN: But I got to -- I'm just going to stop you right there. Something slips? There are a lot of insults you can choose from, but, seriously, the gas chamber?

[15:20:05]

SCHLAPP: But, Brooke, you know that his brother-in-law is Jewish. The last thing he would try to do is try to cheapen the experience of the Holocaust. And I don't think that's what he intended to do it all.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: So you think it's his fault, not the media's?

SCHLAPP: Look, I think it's not a great metaphor.

The one thing I always tell candidates I work with, Brooke, just don't even use metaphors. Just say what you think. And what he was saying is, the media is biased. Just stick to that.

BALDWIN: OK. Brian Stelter, what's the -- the ADL has responded. The campaign has

responded.

STELTER: Yes, the Anti-Defamation League weighing in with a Twitter message, and the campaign also responding.

I think we can put on screen the comment from the ADL which came very quickly. They were weighing in, saying this was inappropriate. And that's partly why the Trump campaign then had to respond, putting out a statement saying Donald Trump Jr. -- and here's the tweet from the ADL.

You can see there. "We hope you understand the sensitivity and hurt of making Holocaust jokes. We hope you retract."

Now, other people, when they heard this comment, thought it was not about the Holocaust, thought it was about capital punishment. You can see here Jason Miller, Trump campaign spokesman, saying: "The liberal dishonest media is so quick to attack one of the Trumps that they never let the truth get in the way of a good smear. Donald Jr. was clearly referring to capital punishment to make the case that the media continues to take his words out of context in order to serve Hillary Clinton's campaign."

The argument from the Trump side, that this was about capital punishment, not about the Holocaust. However, we should just point out the gas chamber idea almost never used in America anymore. That was many decades ago that gas chambers were used as a form of capital punishment, just for what it's worth.

BALDWIN: OK.

Let's move on.

And, Nomiki, I want to bring you into this. Ivanka Trump, so, Ivanka Trump, she took seriously issue with a question. This is with "Cosmopolitan" magazine about this controversial comment from her father. This was back in 2004.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Pregnancy is never -- it's a wonderful thing for the woman, it's a wonderful thing for the husband. It's certainly an inconvenience for a business. And whether people want to say that or not, the fact is, it is an inconvenience for a person that is running a business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was 2004. This is Ivanka's -- this is the quote from the "Cosmo" interview.

"So I think that you have a lot of negativity in these questions. And I think my father has put forth a very comprehensive and really revolutionary plan to deal with a lot of issues, so I don't know how useful it is to spend too much time with you on this if you're going to make a comment like that," referring back to what her own father said in 2004.

She went on to talk about her father's track record and empowering and employing many, many women, giving them equal opportunities.

First, just Nomiki, your response to Ivanka's response. And should she have been sort of more prepped or have a better response to what happened many years ago?

NOMIKI KONST, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, she seems in this interview, which was very detailed at the beginning, until she abruptly cut it off -- she seemed very detailed and knowledgeable about her father's proposals, except for the actual quotes and the positions that her father has had in the past.

It's not acceptable. The program that they're putting fourth puts the burden on the woman. It doesn't factor in men. It doesn't factor in same-sex couples. It doesn't factor taking care of family members who are dealing with health issues.

This is not a realistic plan. She's putting this forth. And she's become the surrogate on behalf of her father. And, quite frankly, I think she's in a really difficult position having to defend comments like this.

But the standard go-to is, it's the press' fault any time reporters pull out exact quotes or exact policy positions. And it's just not their fault. That's called reporting. And he is going to have to deal with that if he becomes president. And any surrogate has to deal with that if they have to go out there and defend his positions.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: But I will say about the Donald Jr. and Ivanka, they are great messengers about the warmth and love of their father.

It's harder for them to be surrogates defending his policy positions. That's what we saw in both these cases. And I wonder if we are going to see less of them talking about policy because of these missteps today.

BALDWIN: Matt, I want you to respond to Nomiki, please.

SCHLAPP: Yes.

No, I think that's incorrect. Basically, Hillary Clinton has put out a mandated 12 weeks of leave, and Donald Trump is coming up with a more flexible six weeks of leave, which allows you to have a savings account where you actually can take care of older folks in your family as well, so there is flexibility here.

I think that's a smart thing to do. And let me tell you, as the father of five children, I think babies are great. Are they inconvenient at times? Hell yes, they are. But they're what make the world go round. And I think this is great that Donald Trump is out there acknowledging the fact that families are what make America strong. KONST: That's not entirely true.

STELTER: We're all pro-baby.

(CROSSTALK)

KONST: Except for overpopulation.

SCHLAPP: Oh, you had to put that in, huh? OK.

(CROSSTALK)

KONST: But his plan does cap it at $2,000 for that savings plan. He also plans to restructure the entire tax code. That does not benefit working mothers and families. It excludes same-sex couples. It excludes men.

SCHLAPP: NO, it doesn't. It doesn't.

(CROSSTALK)

[15:25:03]

KONST: It excludes two men. It excludes two men. It does.

(CROSSTALK)

KONST: And if we want to talk about the economy...

SCHLAPP: Let's start to get this right. The fact is, is this, which is taxes are too high in this country, which is why you have two parents having to work in the work force, because it takes so much just to pay the taxes.

And the fact is, we don't have the same flexibility we had a generation ago, where we actually could make the choice to stay home with our kids. For many families, that just doesn't work anymore.

And the fact is, this plan that Donald Trump puts forward treats same- sex couples like every other plan in the federal government.

(CROSSTALK)

KONST: I think the problem here is, wages are down. And we can have an economic debate, but the bottom line is, the average child -- to take care of children, it costs $12,000 average, about $12,000 per family.

SCHLAPP: Yes, I know.

KONST: That's outrageous. A savings plan of $2,000 a year per family isn't enough to take care of children, especially in rural communities, where it can cost as much a rent. It can cost as much as 24 weeks of groceries.

We're talking about student loans. That shouldn't be the choice, taking care of your child or paying off your student loans.

BALDWIN: OK. I think my biggest takeaway and my favorite line of this entire piece is that we're all pro-baby. We can all agree that we're pro-baby.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: Until there's too much overpopulation.

BALDWIN: That's another -- that's another conversation, Brian Stelter.

Thank you all so much.

Stelter, we will see you Sunday mornings, as always.

Moments from now, we're watching and waiting for Hillary Clinton. This is her first event back on the campaign trail, after her bout with pneumonia. We will take it live.

Also ahead, a UNC college student said she had to take matters into her own hands with regard to the justice system after she says police treated her like the suspect, an alleged attacker here, a UNC football player, now out on bond. My interview with this young woman next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)