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AT THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA

Trump Will Not Disclose Physical Results on Dr. Oz; Colin Powell's Thoughts on Candidates Leaked Following Hack; Columnist Raises Questions About Trump's Global Deals. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired September 14, 2016 - 11:00   ET

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


[11:00:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I would stay away from that kid all together. Little guys were brave.

Thanks so much.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

AT THIS HOUR with Berman and Bolduan starts now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman.

Oz might be great and powerful but that doesn't mean he automatically gets Donald Trump's health information. If you woke up this morning thinking that this would be the day Donald Trump would release the result of his physical, give us test results, disclose his health records, and that he would do it all on a tv show hosted by Dr. Oz, well, if you thought that, you might be disappointed. Apparently, Dr. Oz thought that would happen before the taping that is going on as we speak, but, no.

BOLDUAN: Two Trump officials now tell CNN that information isn't on the show after all. Team Trump says they do expect still that the results of his physical of last week will be public at some point this week. So just keep waiting.

Keep in mind this. We are now 55 days from the election. Some states are starting early voting in just over a week so voters are making their decision on who they will support and they are deciding now.

CNN national politics reporter, M.J. Lee, is outside Dr. Oz's studio in New York.

M.J., what do we know, what are you seeing, what can you tell us?

M.J. LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Well, Kate, Donald Trump's motorcade did roll into the studio just a little while ago. He gave a big thumbs-up to the press but he did not answer any questions that I yelled in his direction about his physical last week.

What we know is that it's not clear how much new information we are going to get about his medical records or his physical last week, for that matter. The campaign said, as you noted, that we will not be actually talking a lot about the physical during this interview, even though that was the expectation.

Of course, at this point in the campaign, the issue of the health and medical records of both candidates, both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, have really been center stage, especially after it was revealed over the weekend that Hillary Clinton, has been diagnosed with pneumonia.

We will see when this interview is over -- we expect it to be around two hours or so -- we will see if Donald Trump shares any new information about his health. So far, we don't have a lot to go on. You know about this letter from his long-time physician, which basically just stated that he's in very good health and, if elected, he would be the healthiest president ever elected -- Kate?

BOLDUAN: Ever. Ever. Not an understatement, I'm sure that doctor will say.

M.J., great to see you. We will stick close to M.J. as we get more information coming out of that taping.

Let us discuss the state of medical transparency. CNN politics commentator and senior adviser of the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA Action, Paul Begala, is here; New York City councilman and Trump supporter, Joseph Boreli, is here; as well as CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

Joseph Boreli, making it into the seat by the skin of your teeth.

JOSEPH BORELI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Just got here.

BOLDUAN: Just scooted in.

It seems that everyone thought one thing about what we were going to learn from what was going to be happening on Dr. Oz's show today, including Dr. Oz, now it is something else. When are we going to learn about this physical last week as the Trump campaign talked so much about? What do you know?

BORELI: I think they have said they will release periodic medical records when they become available after a physical. You go to the doctor, you get your results down the road. I think Dr. Oz's interview that's happening as we speak, I think, will actually be somewhat transparent, revealing, and there will be an open discussion of Trump's health. If you are going to talk about transparency, obviously the issue really is for Hillary Clinton, though.

BERMAN: Why?

BOLDUAN: Why?

BERMAN: We are talking about health because we got that one-page letter from Donald Trump's doctor who said he's going to be the healthiest person.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: We don't have health transparency on either candidate.

BORELI: You have sort of these general statements from both physicians, for both candidates --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: More general by Donald Trump.

BORELI: But you also have more probably error-prone from Hillary Clinton's. I don't want to speculate on Hillary's health but it's clear she does perhaps have some health problems.

(CROSSTALK)

BORELI: But, again, her doctor said she was fine and that may not be the case. Speaking for the campaign --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: I don't know. I don't know. I'm just going to throw things out there and say I don't know. What?

BORELI: We want to beat her fair and square. We hope she recovers but you can't say her campaign has been very transparent.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, but you can say it's been more transparent. She needs to put out more health records. If you want to be my president, you have no right to medical or financial privacy. I'm sorry, I don't. She has to do more. I don't work for her campaign. In fact, it's illegal for me to coordinate with the campaign.

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: But, John, she has said she will put out more, and she should. What she has put out so far is by far, by order of magnitude, more detailed than the charming but insubstantial letter that that Dr. Bornstein put out on behalf of Mr. Trump.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: She said the other night to Anderson Cooper she put out as much as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, and that's true, because they put out almost nothing. And I think we, in the media, kind of failed on that one, because we saw this sort of young, vigorous Barack Obama and --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: You believe --

(CROSSTALK)

[11:05:14] BORGER: We were like OK, that's fine. Then Mitt Romney, very vigorous, too, although he was 65, and he put out some doctor's letter, which is essentially what Hillary Clinton has put out, a little more detailed. I believe it's three or four pages long. But it isn't enough. So that precedent that Hillary Clinton cites is not a really good enough precedent.

However, I agree with Paul, she's put out a lot more than Donald Trump. They both need to put out more. They both need to be transparent. These -- this is a big important job, and one of them is 70 years old, and Hillary, I believe --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: -- is 68 years old, with a complex medical history.

BERMAN: Gloria, and both candidates said they were going to do it this week.

BORGER: Yeah.

BERMAN: Donald Trump, the Trump campaign said they would do it. They haven't done it yet. We thought it would happen on Dr. Oz. Apparently, that's not happening. The Clinton campaign said they would release more health information. It hasn't happened yet.

BORGER: It takes time. Look, it takes time. I will go back to 2008 --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: I'm very impatient.

BOLDUAN: Clearly.

BORGER: Now I call it the Full McCain. McCain in 2008 sent in Dr. Sanjay Gupta, among other medical reporters, to look at a stack of 1100 documents and said, have at it. Maybe that's what Hillary Clinton is thinking she'll do.

BEGALA: I think that's the preferable way to it. In other words, get journalists like Sanjay, who are M.D., sit down with a doc and let him or her go through them with your own doctor. I suspect you will see more of that. You have to have that kind of medical transparency.

You also have to have financial transparency. Hillary put out 30 years of tax returns. Has she ever gotten a single editorial praising her for that? No, sheen hasn't. No, she hasn't.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: On medical transparency, Joseph I want you to respond. Paul Begala said if you want to be my president you need medical and financial transparency. He wants to know and he thinks voters have a right to know the medical history of the person they are elected to the highest office in the land. Know who disagrees? Donald Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who just said this yesterday, she said that, "I don't think we need such extensive medical reporting when we all have a right to privacy." Do you agree with her?

BORELI: I agree you see more transparency and maybe there are certain things you might not make public. To Gloria's point earlier -- (CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: What certain things wouldn't you make public? Where is the line?

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: I think it matters where the line is.

BORELI: If Donald Trump has some disease, that would be the headline for the next day. I'm not going to speculate on what specific --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Isn't that the point? We are not qualified to say where the line is. Don't voters deserve to know?

(CROSSTALK)

BORELI: In 2008, when you had both men the same age, it wasn't just McCain, it was Biden also, there were all these calls for medical records. When you hit a certain age, there ought to be some transparency.

BOLDUAN: Does it bother you that Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump's campaign manager, says she doesn't think so?

BORELI: It doesn't bother me. You have Donald Trump doing an interview about his health records, talking about them.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: That's not true.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: We don't believe that to be true.

BORELI: He's not going to talk about the weather though.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: We don't know that.

BOLDUAN: We don't know. That's why it's a little surprising.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Some aides came out before the interview and said, look, we are not releasing the medical information here. They will talk about his health in broad terms, talk about health and wellness.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: That's stretching. Stretching is very important.

(CROSSTALK)

BORELI: If Dr. Oz reviewed the medical records, that meets Paul's test of having a journalist/doctor review some records --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: It doesn't appear that he is going to do that.

BORELI: I don't know the answer to the question. I'm just saying we shouldn't speculate the opposite way.

BORGER: Also, is a physical enough?

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Donald Trump said he would take a physical. That's great. But that's not the same as health records. I think that it's a snapshot in time. And hopefully Donald Trump is well and hopefully Hillary Clinton is well. But I do think when you are running for president, you have to get your arms wrapped around the fact that nothing is private anymore.

BEGALA: Here's why it's easy to be a strategist against Donald Trump. Seriously, Councilman. He projects. That is, it's a psychological phenomenon you put upon the fears you have about yourself. He says, for example, Dr. Ben Carson is not a good Christian. Whoa. He's a wonderful Christian. Maybe Trump is worried about his own appeal to evangelicals. That's a tell. So when he says, oh, Hillary is sick. Oh, what does that tell me? He needs to be more transparent about his medical records.

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: When he says Hillary's corrupt, why isn't he releasing his tax returns? It's a tell. I'm telling you. Tony Schwartz, who co- wrote Trump's book with Trump, has said that. He said he projects. Everything he worries about himself, he accuses you of.

(CROSSTALK)

BORELI: You said about corruption and health the evidence seems to indicate Hillary Clinton may be those things where Donald Trump may not be.

BEGALA: John McCain set the gold standard for medical disclosure. Hillary Clinton has set the gold standard for financial disclosure and I will say it a second time, got no credit from the media. No credit whatsoever.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: It's not about credit.

[11:10:01] BEGALA: Of course, it is.

(CROSSTALK) BEGALA: Because you bang on her when she doesn't disclose something but you don't reward her when she does. We should be awarding politicians like Senator McCain when he disclosed medical records or Hillary who released 30 years of tax returns.

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: We are setting up the wrong set of incentives.

BERMAN: We talk about the fact Donald Trump hasn't released his tax returns every day here.

BEGALA: I think he's getting away with that.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: She becomes her own worst enemy in a way because then you have the whole pneumonia story and why didn't they inform the media she was sick and that she had pneumonia, so that was a mistake. You can make the transparency argument, and rightly so, that she's been more transparent. Then you take a step back when you have the whole problem with pneumonia, which was a mistake.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: How about this? How about this? Save that thought. We have more time and much more to discuss.

Namely, Colin Powell, tell us what you really think. His e-mails hacked. He calls Donald Trump a "national disgrace." And as for Hillary Clinton, wait until you hear what he says about her. She may not like it.

BOLDUAN: So many compliments.

Plus, a new report raising new questions about the role of Donald Trump's business empire if he wins the White House. Will Trump act in the interests of the United States or his bottom line, his wallet? The new report points to a national security nightmare of conflict of interest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:15:21] BOLDUAN: A "national disgrace" and an "international pariah," that's just a bit of how former Secretary of State Colin Powell really feels, it appears, about Donald Trump, as revealed in a series of e-mails hacked from his personal account. In one, he says that Trump, in his words, "appeals to the worst angels of the GOP, nature, and poor white folks."

BOLDUAN: The leaked e-mails also reveal criticism for Hillary Clinton. Powell writes, "Everything HRC touches, she kind of screws up with hubris."

Back with us now, Paul Begala, Joseph Boreli, Gloria Borger. And joining the fun, "CNN Politics" executive editor, Mark Preston. Paul, let me start with you.

Colin Powell calls Donald Trump a "national disgrace" and "an international pariah." This is a guy who endorsed Barack Obama twice. It sort of speaks volumes that given the fact he thinks the Republican is a disgrace and a pariah, that he hasn't endorsed Hillary Clinton yet.

BEGALA: He has a right to his private views. He said that in private. I think the story here is that General Powell has been hacked. Look, I'm big for Hillary, I don't like Trump, that's fine. There are dozens of Republican national security officials who have publicly endorsed Hillary, from General Brent Scowcroft all the way down. That's fine as a political matter.

This man is a national icon and hero, and he's been hacked. The other hacks, our intelligence agencies are telling us, are coming from the Russians. Donald Trump in July stood up and invited the Russians to hack more. That to me is the big story here rather than -- I know General Powell didn't like Trump. He had criticisms of Hillary in private, that's fine. What the hell's going on in our electoral system when apparently foreign powers are hacking in to try to influence an election? So far, all of it has been to try to influence the election in favor of Donald Trump.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Hacking is one big story. But on the political front, this Colin Powell did not -- I mean, you can't paint a rosy picture, Joseph Boreli, a "national disgrace" and "international pariah." If I thought that privately, why not come out publicly and support --

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: You should ask General Powell.

(CROSSTALK)

BORELI: He watches every day, by the way. He watches every day.

I can probably maybe tell you why. Colin Powell to my knowledge doesn't know Donald Trump personally or all that well. He's sort of pontificating in his own -- you said private e-mails about his own personal opinion. Whoever he picks the lever for, that's fine. He does know Secretary Clinton. He counseled Secretary Clinton. He knows her well. He knows her job performance. And he has determined, as someone who has watched her, that she screws up everything she does. If someone like me said that, you would say it's partisan. If someone who has been sort of on both sides of parties and has been sort of nonpartisan to some degree, he has watched her in the role that he had and he's determined she screws up everything --

(CROSSTALK)

BORELI: With arrogance. With arrogance.

BEGALA: Colin Powell gets to cast the deciding vote for president, I'll take that. (CROSSTALK)

BORELI Seriously?

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Now, Gloria, we see why he has hesitated in coming out to endorse --

BORGER: Oh, yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- when you read some of what he says in the e-mails.

BORGER: When you read it. But let's not forget, according to "Buzzfeed," which got some more hacked e-mails, he also called Benghazi, the controversy over Benghazi -- and I'm quoting here -- "a stupid witch hunt," which would not make a lot of Republicans who have spent an awful lot of time and money in Congress pursuing Benghazi.

BERMAN: But Paul is saying this is all a Russian leak to damage the Democrats. That doesn't exactly damage the Democrats here, Paul.

BEGALA: No. But there's a reason I think they are targeting General Powell, that they targeted the Democratic Party, they targeted I guess a variety of Democrats. And that is --

BORGER: Including Tim Kaine.

BEGALA: Is that right? I didn't know that.

BORGER: Tim Kaine's cell phone number was released along with some other DNC staff.

BEGALA: There's something going on here. I'm not an intelligence person. I just read the papers. The reports the Intel folks are giving to the press say this all points back to Russia. For the first time in my lifetime, we have a major party nominee who is openly pro- Russian and the Russian government not very friendly to America. It's an astonishing development. Excuse me if I think voters will stitch those two things together and be very troubled.

(CROSSTALK)

BORELI: What's more important is this highlights how important security of classified and regular general communications are. When we talk about that issue, you have to go back to Hillary Clinton and how negligent and careless she was when she had the opportunity to protect and safeguard her own e-mails.

BOLDUAN: We don't have hacked e-mails from Hillary Clinton. We have hacked e-mails that point to Russia.

(CROSSTALK)

BORELI: But we have here failure of protecting her own e-mails at home server, which Colin Powell, by the way, told her not to do. BERMAN: Mark Preston, before you talk about this, we want you to talk

about something else. There's a big story in "Newsweek" that goes extensively into the Trump corporation, Trump Inc., and talks about entanglements overseas and what that may mean for the White House. Explain this.

[11:20:05] MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Yes, a very complicated story. Something that we haven't investigated very thoroughly, but in today's "Newsweek" article, we are seeing that the Trump organization has business ties all around the globe with very powerful businessmen. These businessmen, at some times, have -- they are at odds with their government. The question is right now for Donald Trump, who has all of this business with these foreign countries, will foreign leaders now make decisions based upon Donald Trump's wants for his private business hoping to influence U.S. foreign policy, which is a very, very big question.

Also, the question is, when Donald Trump said that he would hand this over in a blind trust to his family, Eichenwald points out, that doesn't matter, the fact of the matter is, if Trump's family is running the company, there is still going to be an effort by these foreign leaders to try to influence U.S. foreign policy on some major decisions, knowing full well his company would benefit financially from it.

What is really troubling is, in the case of Turkey right now, where you have the president of Turkey, who is not very happy with Donald Trump, and Eichenwald says he's been told by Turkish leaders that if Trump is elected president, then, in fact, that could imperil the use of the U.S. air base that is being used right now by U.S. bombers to target ISIS.

So it's definitely a very complicated thing and certainly another issue, major issue, only 55 days before the election.

BOLDUAN: In an uncomplicated way, you said it really well. He continues to point to putting it into a blind trust. His daughter even this morning says, and we would run it. That's kind of an un- blind trust of the blind trust.

BORGER: Right. It seems completely impossible in a way to disentangle yourself, your business, your family, given these international conflicts, from becoming -- from being president of the United States. It very difficult. Now, we have heard Donald Trump talk about shutting down the Clinton Foundation. Shut it down, he well. Well, Democrats can now raise the point shut the Trump organization down, if they want, if more reporting shows, and this is well reported, but if more reporting comes out that there is such a deep entanglement here that how would you possibly take yourself and your foreign policy out of that whole mix?

BOLDUAN: Look, if Trump's saying with the Clinton Foundation, shut it down now, didn't he set himself up for exactly that request?

BORELI: I would venture to say Hillary Clinton would not say shut it down and put whatever the number is thousand people out of business. BOLDUAN: That would put a lot of people out of business if they shut

down the Clinton Foundation.

BORELI: I don't think as much. But actually they said other nonprofits would be in a position to take over some of the good work the Clinton Foundation has done.

BERMAN: But, Councilman, the issue is this. Doesn't the Trump campaign owe it to voters to explain to them how there would be a division between the Trump corporation and the White House?

BORELI: I'm glad you asked that. This is something that came up in the primary as early as I think I want to say January or February. He's always been consistent and said, look, I know, I'm telling you I have an empire of properties all over the world and when I do become president I have to dismantle it --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: That's not dismantled --

(CROSSTALK)

BORELI: -- dismantle it and pass it off to my children and have them run the company. And he has said he's not going to take a role in the company. That has been the position --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: How does that inoculate him? They are his kids and are some of his chief policy advisers right now.

BORELI: I don't think if they would be his chief policy advisers and have a fiduciary duty to the government is he becomes president --

BOLDUAN: Ivanka Trump has said she conceptualized the child care policy.

BORELI: That's different than meaning an officer of the government and having a fiduciary duty to not --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: You don't think there would be conflicts of interest if they ran these companies and are the architects of these policies?

(CROSSTALK)

BORELI: Let's be objective. Trump has been kind of talking about this issue since he got into the election. People already know about it. This is not -- I mean, I guess it's a new news story but this is rehashing something that's been discussed already.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: If there was a clear answer on how it would be dismantled or shut down or divided, the story would be over.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Paul, you going to talk about this?

BEGALA: Oh, yeah. He needs to release his tax returns. This is why it's so important. If you tell me who you owe money to, I will tell you who you are going to be loyal to. We don't know who Trump is in business with. We don't know who is financing him. We don't know. Voters have a right to know. Mr. Trump has decided they don't. That makes this a really important issue. This is a really clear one. Hillary had a brief medical release we talked about. Trump had an even briefer one. OK. Slight win for --

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: She was not required.

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: Charity Watch, an independent group that rates these things, the head of Charity Watch, says this is one of the great foundations of our generation. That's what he said. Not me.

BORELI: But no one is challenging --

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: The Trump organization is fundamentally different. It's for profit, to begin with. It's not transparent.

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: He has to release the taxes. Look, over 60 of Americans -- doesn't matter what I think. I'm not an undecided voter, candidly. 60 percent of voters say he should release his taxes. This is exactly why he has to.

BOLDUAN: This issue is not going away.

Guys --

BERMAN: Thank you very much, one and all.

And thank you, Ohio.

BOLDUAN: Oh, yes.

BERMAN: That's what Donald Trump says, at least. He's saying it this morning after a new poll shows him opening up a little bit of a lead in that state. He's also going there tonight. No coincidence. So what's Hillary Clinton going to do about it? She's calling in, well, a reinforcement, a pretty big one.

BOLDUAN: After rumors swirl about her immigration status, Melania Trump now says she has proof she came to the United States legally. Back story's important here. What's happening today could be he equally important. We have details on that ahead.

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