hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington, 6:00 p.m. in london, 8:00 p.m. in damascus, syria. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we begin with breaking news gepting new images of donald trump who just wrapped up a taping of the dr. oz show surprising the doctor and the audience by prying a one-page

summary of his recent physical. the motorcade leaving moments ago. the show airs tomorrow. both donald trump and hillary clinton under pressure to release more records. hillary clinton recovering from a bout of pneumonia and a wobble hillary clinton leaving the 9/11 ceremony. she expected back on the campaign trail tomorrow. trump talked about some of his medical records with dr. oz during this taping today. what have we learned? what are we learning about this taping and what trump said? >> reporter: we'll still only get a few details. while he shared this one-page summary with dr. oz he has not shared it with reporters who cover him or with the general public or vote easy. it's supposed to come out tomorrow when the show actually

airs but he released a summary to dr. oz and apparently expressed to the audience he would look to lose some weight. apparently dr. oz was very impressed by the results of this physical, although we don't actually have nem front of us and it's worth noting, wolf, part of the reason there's so much pressure on donald trump and hillary clinton to make more records public is because they haven't met the standard of a number of previous nominees. looking at two nominees of major parties who be much older than some nominees in the past, and we really don't have detailed medical histories on either of them in the way we have had from previous nominees. >> so is this, what he released to dr. oz, is that the extent of what the trump campaign is going to release on his health? or can we anticipate for details? >> reporter: an excellent question. i think the last couple days the trump campaign said this is what they would put out, what donald trump was talking about when he previously said he would put out more details about his health. he got this physical a week or

so ago and they're saying this is what they would offer in terms of additional medical information. the campaign hasn't given any signal they're willing to put out a lengthier medical history as we've seen from past presidential nominees like john mccain, for instance. >> the physical was conducted by his longtime physician dr. harold bornstein, affiliated with the lenox hill hospital in new york. will he be made available to reporters, medical reporters specifically, for some interviews? >> reporter: that's a great question, and we have caught up with him on occasion at cnn. he's not really been out there very publicly and has gotten a lot of attention for the initial doctor's note he wrought for donald trump because it looks so different from what we would expect to see from a doctor's note's in it he twleet donald trump would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency. so there is a certain sort of showmanship not only in that doctor's letter but in donald trump showing up at the "dr. oz show" surprising the host with

results of the physical. no surprise you're dealing with a candidate who is a former reality tv star, wolf. >> stand by, sara. sanj sanjay, talk about what we know. he dave dr. oz a one-page summery from the physical he took last week. according to the show, dr. oz took trump through a few review of his health including nervous systems, head and neck, hormone levels and a whole lot more. i have the list over here. cardiovascular, health and related medications, respiratory health, gas fro intestinal, bladder, dermatological health. you get the history of cancer. if you get all of that information, sanjay, that would be impressive. wouldn't it? >> well, first of all, wolf, i've never seen anything like this before. it's an interesti ing thing, as dr. oz noted, something typically done in a doctor's office not on a television show. having said that, review of

symptoms is just that. a conversation between doctor and patient asking questions. have you had a history of heart problems? have you had a history of cancer? all of those things you just had on the list, dermatological problems, the list goes on. it's than an exam. a physical exam. sounds like what sara was talking about was that donald trump had this physical exam done by his own doctor and then provides some of those results maybe in the form of what the exam showed what some of the blood tests showed and dr. oz was asking him these other questions. it's a snapshot in time, and it's very much predicated on what the patient is telling, in this case dr. oz, on camera. so i -- again, i've never seen anything like this. it's hard to know what to make of it, but it's -- it gives you a snapshot, i guess in time, this time right now, about what he's revealing in this case donald trump is revealing about his own health. >> and when you go through a

physical in a doctor's office, you can get an ekg nap can provide some information. certainly blood work. you can, you know, learn about your, i guess more about what's going on with a patient out there, but you're not going to get the full review. what you're saying. right? >> right. i mean i think there's -- there's many things which i think are perfectly reasonable to be kept private. that's your private health information, but things that are relevant to conducting the duties of president over say the next eight years, if someone gets elected twice are the things that very much top that list. cognitive function, heart function, lung fuvgz overall. history of cancers on the list. risk factors for that or things like dementia, anything that can be incapacitating. what medications is a person on? are they in anyway staedating? not suggesting anybody has any of that. either candidate.

nobody is saying that, but i think those are the types of questions. did doesn't mean you have to have every single medical record. some of that probably isn't relevant and it's perfectly appropriate to be kept private but i think if the question is, is this person fit to lead from a health standpoint? what are the questions that should be asked a that point, the results, the data i think the public's entitled to. look, i think that maybe some of that came out of this. i don't know still. we'll see when the show finally airs, but it's hard to get the complete picture i think we're talking about here. >> at a minimum i assume his blood pressure, cholesterol levels, stuff like that. >> right. >> his height, his weight. and the analysis from his doctor, dr. bornstein. sanjay, stand by. sara, stand by as well. questions about trump and clinton's medical records point to a broader concern about a lack of transparency by the campaigns and the candidates. let's discuss that and more with our political analyst david gregory, author of "how's your

faith" an important book just out in paperback right now. also joining us, carol lee, white house reporter for the "wall street journal." cnn political commentator ryan lizza, he's the washington kornt for the "new yorker" magazine. david, talk a little about what we anticipated. earlier this morning, weren't going to get much during the "dr. oz show" getting. listening to dr. gupta, not what john mccain did when he let medical correspondents including dr. gupta spend hours with his record and talking to physicians? >> an extraordinary circumstance because he had cancer, melanoma and allowed a thorough review. something specific to cancer which could end his life and that made sense. there's a basic foundation of transparency required of any presidential candidate that both candidates ought to adhere to. a reality show nature, which we've come to expect of donald trump, in terms of these kinds

of slow reveals. i think some of it is just silly. you know, there should be a thorough scrubbing of this kind of information. the public has a right to know. it is also true of hillary clinton, who should be more transparent about her records, and about leveling with her press corps if she gets diagnosed with something like pneumonia. >> yes. and, carol, the campaign manager for donald trump, kellyanne conway, she said this, i'm quoting. i don't know why we need such extensive medical reporting when we all have a right to privacy. so when you hear that, when i hear that, as reporters, as journalists we say, if you're running for president you don't necessarily have that complete right to privacy. >> it's a completely different standard. if you're returning for president you have, you don't have a right to privacy on certain issues. there are things that traditionally the public has a right to know. they need to know about your health. they traditionally know about your taxes. and what we've seen in this election cycle is, an erosion of these longtime norms on both

sides. whether health records or taxes or press access. and it's not clear that if it continues in this way, that you're ever going to really get that back. >> because as you know, ryan, you want a right to privacy, don't run for president of the united states. >> i was literally going to say that exact same thing. >> all of us, private citizens have a right to privacy. if you want to be the leader of the free world, the most important position in the world, the american public has a right to know if you're healthy, no the healthy, taxes, all that. >> you value privacy, running for president is not the business to be in. shouldn't be in the public eye at all, shouldn't have your own reality tv show. i'm a little surprised she said that. i think at the minimum, trump needs to match what clinton has revealed. she put out a two-page letter last year. not the most thorough document in the world, but it had all of the medications she's taking. 2 had the history of her blood clot and her concussion and seasonal allergies and gave us --

>> history of deep vein thrombosis in her legs. >> yes. exactly. and the most recent physical. trump hasn't done some similar. we know what happened on dr. oz today. sounds a little more from the report like a reality tv publicity stunt than a serious medical evaluation with lots of detailed information. we'll have to see. >> the point is, you want data. right? you want to have -- cnn would like this information. have dr. gupta to say what does it tell you about risk factors and other things about history that would be relevant whether he could serve capably at president. >> this pair is the oldest pair of presidential candidates -- >> he's 70, next month she'll be 69. >> right. this isn't like, a couple of spring chickens. >> no. one of the other things -- >> makes this much more important. >> one of the things that's concerning, you talked about. clinton released last year and trump will match that.

a race to the bottom, i'll do the minimum, i'll do the minimum. traditionally it's information that's always been given to the public. >> how much damp wage was done her in the delay of releasing the news she had pneumonia? >> a problem. much more defining than the basket of deplorables comment. this is the fundamental criticism of her. a penchant for secrecy, maybe deception she's too secretive about. she reinforces it time after time. there's no reason for it. she says compare me to my alternative. that's not the right alternative. donald trump not releasing taxes is totally unacceptable, but the comparison is is reasonable, precedent, historic. they should both be held to this. i agree with you, carol. members of the press. we want ultimate access. the public should get as much access as possible because knowledge is important here. >> carol, when we get the criticism, as we do when we

press for these details and want if right away, her supporters come, say, big issues out there. why aren't you focusing on on those? why focus on the few hours, delay in the release of the word "pneumonia"? >> these things matter top what you're saying about her, the r perception are here adhering to secrecy and on donald trump side you see polls are showing voters do care about releasing your tax returns. i think what's going to matter is whether the candidates pay at the polls for the approach they've taken, and that's not clear they will. >> the polls coming-- >> overwhelming. >> show donald trump really catching up pretty dramatically. there's a new bloomberg poll that just came out in ohio. the key battleground state of ohio. look at this. trump at 44%. clinton, 39%. five-point lead and then you get into gary johnson, the libertarian candidate, and jill stein. this is -- in ohio, and then a

monmouth university poll in nevada right now. trump is winning there 44% to 42%. these are numbers that clearly are disturbing to the clinton campaign. >> yeah. look, these battlegrounds like iowa, nevada and ohio, demographically a little better for trump tightened quite a bit. the overall picture, nine-point lead for clinton down to a 4.5 lead, depending on the poll you look at. that's concerning. he's doing something right over this last month. maybe it's the traditional postconvention bounce dissipating and this race is settling into a slim but comfortable lead for hillary, but they need to be a little bit worried by the, not just the national polls now but now these important swing states, you and i, we've all covered -- national polls are important. interesting. the key battleground states, ohio, florida, some of these other key battlegrounds states, whether virginia, north

carolina, pennsylvania. that's where this battle is going to be won and lost. >> particularly if you look, his bread and butter, male voters. voters, white voters without a college degree. he's, he has a huge advantage over hillary clinton among those voters who are going to be in states like ohio. that rust belt is really where he's going to make his gains if he's going to do it and also political malpractice on her part. she has lost some of that advantage when he's gotten a bit more disciplined on the trail, she's made mistakes and self-inflicted wounds and we see it tightening. can't deny it and a lot of democrats are worried, how did this guess so close, pointing to their candidate and her team. >> final thoughts? >> if you in terms of the map, they believe pennsylvania is necessarily the firewall, trump can pick up a bunch of states and she has to hold pennsylvania. you've seen bill clinton there, joe bliden. >> the president of the united states in pennsylvania, of all places, should be a relatively easy lock for the democratic candidate but they consider it problematic right now.

guys, thanks very, very much. coming up, donald trump and the charity that bears his name. it's now under investigation in one state. we'll tell you the latest. plus, an international pariah and a national disgrace. colin powell's private thoughts about donald trump made public after hackers publish his e-mail. reaction from the former cia director under president bill clinton, james woolsey. he's here with my live. we'll discuss that and a whole lot more. ry? a dry mouth can cause cavities and bad breath. over 400 medications can cause a dry mouth. that's why there's biotene. biotene can provide soothing dry mouth relief. and it keeps your mouth refreshed too. remember while your medication is doing you good, a dry mouth isn't. biotene, for people who suffer from dry mouth symptoms.

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house democrats are calling for a fro investigation into the donald trump charitable foundation and a political donation made to the campaign of the florida attorney general. >> when there is a whiff of the potential for bribery to have occurred, and there is way more than a whiff here, there is a stink rotting in the attorney general's office in florida, and the only way that we're going to be able to snuff it out and make sure that that stench goes away is if the department of justice launches an investigation and gets to the bottom. >> that same donation by the way is being investigated by new york's attorney general, an

investigation the trump campaign says is nothing more than another left wing hit job designed to distract from crooked hillary clinton's disastrous week. our senior investigative poernt drew given joins from now new york. what are they looking for, drew? >> reporter: this stems back to august of 2013, wolf when donald trump wanted to give pam bondi, the attorney general of florida, a $25,000 donation to her political pact. that pact called and justice for all. you need to remember that. what happened, according to trump's side, is that donald trump directed his staff to make the donation. the staff errorerrored saying i a charitable foundation because there is one called and justice for all not related with pam bondy and took money out of the trump face account and sent a $25,000 check. that by rule is not allowed.

the irs does not allow you to take charitable contributions and use them for political circumstances. so when donald trump learned about this in a news report, i think it was back in march, he self-reported to the irs. he rewrote a $25,000 personal check and sent it to the pact that we're talking about in florida, and he paid a penalty. a 10% penalty of $2,500 to the irs. now, since then the new york's attorney general has been writing letters back and forth to the trump foundation and the trump organization trying to get clarity on this. this all looked like a settled matter according to the documents i read back in june, but it has resurfaced again now. >> what about the allegations related to the timing of the attorney general's decision? >> well, this -- the attorney general's decision in florida, wolf, or the -- >> the attorney general's decision in florida not to investigate trump university? >> yeah.

and this relates to what you just had on with the house democrats. this is a separate issue. this is whether or not pam bondi in 2013 soliciting a donation from donald trump decided to drop any kind of investigation against trump university. her office at the time, her staff at the time, i should be clear, was looking into a complaint that was made in the state of florida about trump university. and those staffers were trying to decide if they joined the new york attorney general's lawsuit against trump university or not. it was decided based on reviewing the case that the one case that they had in florida complaining about this could easily be revolved if that person in florida or anyone else in florida would just join the new york attorney's lawsuit. the problem is all of this happened at the exact same time that this donation was made, which is why the house democrats are asking for the department of justice, i guess, to see if pam bondi is basically selling favors down in florida.

>> drew griffin. thank you very much. and a national disgrace, what colin powell is calling donald trump. also an international pariah. quoting now. a powell aide would only say that the content of the hacked he mail is accurate. here with me is the newest member of the donald trump campaign, the former cia director james wolsey, now a senior adviser to the trump campaign. ambassador wolsey, thanks for joining us. >> good to be with you. >> were the cia director with bill clinton in the '90s. why are you supporting donald trump? >> i've worked for four administration, two republican and two democratic. reagan, george h.w. bush, clinton and carter. and i don't make decisions about whether to help a president based on his political party. i think generally as a citizen.

if a presidential candidate asks for advice, one ought to be, it's something know something about and what i focus on here is national security issues. how one should be prepared to advise the potential president. >> and you hope that will be donald trump. you heard what colin powell wrote in that e-mail about donald trump, former secretary of state, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. you know colin powell well. that was a very dire assessment of donald trump. >> i think he also called hillary clinton dumb in one of the e-mails. there are -- a lot of people say a lot of things and write a lot of things in e-mails that are -- somewhat intemperate, and the difference, of course, between, you know, between a diamond and an e-mail? an e-mail is forever. once you write an e-mail you're likely to have it turn up in

circumstances and in ways that are surprising. >> called him an international pariah. very strong words but i'm sure you respect general colin powell? >> sure. lots of able people use imtemperate words from time to time. >> talk about russia. right in the middle of all this campaigning. do you believe the russians are, in fact, hacking these various institutions to score political points? >> i think there's a very good chance the russians are hacking institutions and the one i'm really worried about is they would hack our voting machines in early november. >> is that possible, do you think? >> i think it is. we have about a quarter of the american voting machines, or a quarter of the states, have voting machines that are touch screen only, and produce no paper. so there's almost no way to do a recount. about three quarters have paper backups so you could do a recount, were put it you remember the mess in florida in 2000. we could be headed towards

another mess if the russians do get into our voting machines. >> clearly, a lot of u.s. officials believe they hacked the democratic national committee. hacking general powell's e-mails. that's the allegations out there. you don't trust the russians at all. do you? >> no. >> why does your candidate say such nice things about putin? >> well, you can work closely with people that you don't trust. we were close allies for three years and eight months in world war ii. with a man who at that time was history's greatest murderer. josef stalin and roosevelt hucked him, called him uncle joe and we needed him, defeated the nazis and went on with a great rivalry with the cold war between us. things like that happen in foreign affairs. it's a tactic to make progress in relations with russia.

maybe trump has something in mind. i don't know. >> do you think the praise giving putin, being a great leader. does he really believe that. >> i think there are circumstances in which one can and like uncle joe to stalin. >> makes you uncomfortable to hear him glowing about putin? >> i haven't had a chance to talk to him about this particular issue and i don't know do the degree he's thinking of a tactic or what. i think in diplomacy in international affairs things like this it's much more important what you do than what nuance you put on describing somebody. all sorts of possibilities. >> your decision to go ahead and become an adviser to donald trump, was that based on stuff he said? conversations, or direct conversations you had with the -- did you meet with him? did you talk to him about the most sensitive national security issues facing the country right now? >> i met with him last friday. >> first time and only time? >> first and only time i met him. >> just the two of you, one on one?

>> a few other people but mainly him and me, and it was a good discussion. and i am glad to try to help out a po tertential president and h done that a number of time in my life and career. really important issues in a need to be dealt with. i think we have to do a much better job than we are now at protecting our infrastructure, and the grid is very, very vulnerable. that's a national security question, of first order. >> and your fear could be hacked by whom? >> hacked -- well, russians, the -- al qaeda and isis and the -- >> you think al qaeda and isis have that hacking capability? >> best is the russians, chinese to some extent, but i think there are lots of vulnerabilities to our grid and we have to deal with those and we also, i think, have an opportunity to work together

with china on some ways to move away from reliance on oil, and to move towards renewable fuels and i think particularly waste to transportation fuels and do that in a way that doesn't require china to, in its own eyes, to push its weight around in the south china sea positive protect its communications. >> one final question before i let you go. you know hillary clinton. >> slightly. >> former secretary of state, former u.s. secretary. a lot more international, international foreign affairs experience than donald trump. what's the gel biggest reason you decided that she should not be the president that trump should be the president? >> her extraordinarily bad maintenance of her duties as head of the state department, and part of those responsibilities was to ensure security of information for the state department, and the way in which she has treated this

information, the way in which the e-mails and all the rest have turned up internationally, access to them by terrorists access. axed to them by russians, chinese, et cetera. i think it is as bad a performance with respect to security as we've seen from a cabinet member in the united states in decades. >> when the cia -- the phifbi director james comey said no hard evidence the chinese or russians hacked into her private e-mail server, why are you saying that they probably did? >> i think you're going to find if you talk to people with experience in this area, you're going to find that it is sufficiently easy given the way she did it, given the way she set it up with a separate server, et cetera, and available to the public. not just to the russians. it's all sorts of folks could get into it. i think it was extraordinarily irresponsible. >> that disqualifies her from

your perspective? >> i don't qualify and disqualify presidential candidates. you asked what was in my mind with respect to her. that one is front and center. >> james woolsey, the former cia corrector, thanks for coming in. >> good to be with you. coming up, colin powell also ripping into hillary clinton in the leaked e-mails. we'll talk about that. and plus clinton is set to get back on the campaign trail tomorrow. standing by we'll discuss that and a whole lot more when we come back. (vo) stank face. a universal expression of disgust, often caused by inadequate cat litter. if you or your a loved one suffers from stank face, the cure is tidy cats. it's new and improved with guaranteed tidylock protection that locks away odors. so you don't have to face one more stank face. tidy cats. every home, every cat. there's a tidy cats for that.

leaked e-mails from former

secretary of state general colin powell not only shared his privs thoughts about donald trump, also about hillary clinton as well. powell apparently vented frustration about being called to hillary the defense on her e-mail practices. in one february e-mail, quoting, i didn't tell hillary to have a private server at home. the criticism comes as polls show the president's choice with donald trump damatically tightening. to discuss that and much more, bringing in the former michigan governor jennifer granholm, senior adviser to correct the record. the only super pack quart coordinated with the clinton campaign and a super pac coordinated because you don't give money ---ants don't spend money on advertising unlike the other super packs that take out ads in the -- >> a super pack note supposed to be coordinated? >> some can. >> who spend money? >> we do research and free media. >> look at the hacked e-mails that general powell, former

secretary of state, put out. some of them not very kind to hillary clinton. obviously a very blistering attack on donald trump. saying he wasn't very happy her folks were trying to pin the blame on him for the e-mail serv server. >> i don't think her folks were trying to pin any blame. >> he was irritated. >> because he didn't tell her to have a server at home as opposed to using her private e-mail. >> she had already worked out that server even before they were exchanges e-mails. she knew she'd have a private server. >> it been there. bill clinton had been using it. i think they have a close relationship and they will have a close relationship going forward. >> you think he's going to endorse her? >> i don't know if he will or not. >> endorsed president barack obama in 2008. >> did that closer to the election. i think he sees what's at stake, wolf. you see this, this story this morning, which was so, you know, everybody's talking about

transparency and health records, all of that pales to the "newsweek" story this morning that said that donald trump's 500 enterprises part of the trump organization are in countries all around the world, including in russia. his business dealings with russian al agaugs. >> does business around the world and is sort of proud of that, he's made a lot of money not just in the united states but in countries around the world. nothing wrong with making money dealing with other countries? >> running for country you have to show you're above conflict. >> you want the transparency is. >> it's more than transparency, absolutely, but you had ambassador woolsey sitting here. everybody who works inside of an administration has to sign documents and get rid of anything they even has the appearance of a conflict of interest of self-dealing. when you have a president making decisions that will benefit his

family, now you are talking about potentially selling foreign policy. that, to me, is a blockbuster story. >> he has said if he's president he will leave the business, his daughter, two sons, they're take charge irng charge. >> i get it. ethics on conflict of interests and tell you, you can't put into a blind trust stuff you already know and can't put into a blind trust things your children will be handling because your children are in your stead. >> you want him to sell -- >> sell it. if he wants to be president, it's one of the things you have to take on is you have to guarantee the people of the country that you are in it for them and not in it for yourself. if you're pamaking foreign poli decisions with adversaries or allies in a way that will affect your business interests you cannot be president. you cannot tell people you are in it for them. >> you know he's not going to do that. >> so he's going to require all of his cabinet members to have

no conflict but what applies to them what apply to them? what applies to them and every other president and every other -- >> even a cabinet secretary you put your personal businesses in blind trusts. you don't necessarily have to sell your business, but your children, if your children are managing your business, and you know where your investments are, you can't -- it's like somebody, analogized it to taking a big diamond ring putting it in a shoebox in the closet as if you don't know what's in the shoe box. of course you know. experts are clear. you have to server the tie seve free of conflict. >> polls are tight. nervous? >> we knew it would hatppen? >> knew would be close. nobody has left their foot off the gas. nobody assumed anything. pedal to the metal. i hope people look carefully at the potential dangers and potential benefits of these two candidates. >> jennifer granholm, former

governor of michigan. great to see you. coming up, live inside syria where the people are desperate for help now. aide workers still can't get to them, as concerns grow about a cease-fire not even three days old. we go live to our man in damascus now, fred pleitgen. he's standing by.

it's been 48 hours since the start of the cease-fire in syria, but aid hasn't reached hundreds of thousands of civilians desperately in need of that aid. the united nations says it has trucks packed, ready to go, but waiting for approval from the syrian government and assurance of safe passage from all parties. our senior international correspondent fred pleitgen is

in damascus joining us on the phone. fred, one of the few western journalists in damascus now. a russian official is telling the tass news agency, they're ready to pull out. what is the significance if that happens? >> reporter: supposedly very significant, wolf. this road, ka steal costello ro known. the eastern part of allele -da h aleppo. the russians for their part has said as part of the cease-fire they were willing to secure the road and make it a humanitarian corridor to enter the east part of alope oh. many are skepticing ap ining a. it would make it easier to get aid into the eastern part of aleppo, which is, under siege a

long time. suffering from massive shortages and many many people are on the brink of almost starving there in that area. now, the russians say that the rebels would have to do the same thing also withdraw from the corridor, and as you said at this point in time, there's about 20 to 40 humanitarian trucks packed ready to go on the syrian border. they need approval in the syrian government, security guarantees from the government and rebel faction to make sure they could come through. the syrian forces, withdrawal from that road, a significant first step and certainly a lot more than has been achieved on the humanitarian side of things in a very long time. >> fred pleitgen in damascus for us. we'll continue to check in with him for the very, very latest. fred, thank you very much. coming up, the political story you haven't heard about the most spectacular public failure in american life. our own gloria borger gives a sneak peek at the cnn special

report "almost president: the agony of defeat." and and more, when we come back. you wouldn't put up with part of a pizza. um. something wrong? so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? you want the whole thing? yes, yes! live whole. not part. aleve.

less than 55 days away from the presidential election here in the united states and while everyone anticipates the winner, people often forget about the candidate who loses, a new cnn special report looks into what life is like for the loser when they leave the spotlight. here's a preview of john mccain talking about the downfalls of the election of 2008. >> do you know when you mess up? >> oh, yeah. >> like you get in the car and your staff is like -- >> uh-huh. yes. >> -- oh, my god. >> and do you sit around blaming yourself? >> unfortunately, that's my -- one of my character flaws is that i do sometimes sit around and say, oh, my god, why did i do that? >> reporter: mccain believes he understand what is his biggest mistake was. there's a tug-of-war every candidate shares between being yourself and sticking to a carefully calibrated message. >> thank you. you can't become almost totally

scripted so that there's no mistake and as you know my greatest strength is extemporaneous. joining us now is our chief political analyst, the host of the cnn special report "almost president, the agony of defeat" that would be gloria borger. terrific work, was there anything that shocked you from that interview you had with senator john mccain? >> it wasn't so much shocking as it was the fact that people who lose like senator john mccain tend to be a little bit more candid and a little bit more reflective. politicians are not known to be the most reflective people in the world and it's -- it was clear to me from senator john mccain, from governor romney, even former vice president mondale that they thought an awful lot about their loss and the mistakes that they made and mccain was particularly honest about how he always used to second guess himself after debates. how worried he got about these

thing, about finding that balance between being yourself and not messing up. i mean we see that candidates are always afraid of making that one mistake that's going to get them in trouble and become magnified over and over again. and mccain has a constant struggle with that because his train mark was "i'm the maverick, i'm the honest truth teller in this campaign" and he found that quite difficult. is mitt romney said to me, look, people demand you become the perfect candidate. the truth is there is no such thing as perfection when you're running a presidential campaign that is as long and arduous as these things are. these are tough jobs and when you lose, wolf, it's really tough for these people. >> it certainly is. what interested you the most from the interviews you had with these former candidates?

what struck . >> what zrstruck me is all of tm said they would do it again, that it was the greatest experience of their lives and what struck me is someone like walter mondale, 88 years old, great guy, remembers every single minute of it. i asked him. i said, "do you ever get over it?" and his way of explaining his answer was, "i called george mcgovern and i asked him when you get over it and he said to me, when i figure it out, i'll let you know." >> an amazing documentary and excellent work, a lot of great interviews, gloria, thanks so much for doing it. >> thanks a lot. >> you can catch gloria's special report later tonight, "almost president, the agony of defeat." that airs at 9:00 p.m. eastern and pacific for that matter right here on cnn. that's it for me, thanks very much for warming. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. east american the situation room.

for our international viewers, amanpour is coming up next, for our viewers in north america, "newsroom" with brooke baldwin will start right after a quick break.

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. i'm brooke baldwin, thank you so much for being with me. this is cnn, 55 days until the presidential election and many of you have concerns. you will be casting ballots in the dark. both candidates here famous but not necessarily well known and both still keeping key details about themselves out of public eye. now donald trump is responding to the growing chorus of demands releasing more details today on his own personal health. the whole episode giving political observers a proverbial case of whiplash. first, this was hailed trump would make t