rachel maddow show starts now. today was a weird day in the news. it was -- today was a weird one. i searched out weird, i like weirdness in the news, a lot of days seem weird to me, today was really weird. the article did come out in "newsweek," of donald trump's business interests abroad, business interest and financial linkages that could be a real mess in terms of conflicts of interests. whether or not he suffers formally from the business empire that is his name. if donald trump is elected is that they'll separate him from the company, but he'll just hand the whole thing over to his children. that of course would not help with the conflicts of interest issue. if the trump family is still

operating the trump organization, a president trump could take actions as president that would finally benefit the trump organization and his children who would be running it, he could also take actions that would benefit himself and his organization after his presidency. so, yeah, we were first to report last night the bare bones of this bombshell cover story from "newsweek" magazine, it is now official out, and that's a big deal. the main response from the trump campaign so far is the line about how he's only benefiting his children. they have also taken a bunch of swipes at the reporter himself. this story is a big one, we're going to have more during the course of this hour. that happened today. also today, in pure political gossip terms, today hackers released two years of e-mails from colin powell, now we well now, in private correspondent, general powell has unbelievably even profanely

critical things to say about a lot of other bald faced names in politics, everybody from donald trump to hillary clinton, to bill clinton to donald rumsfeld, to paul wolfowitz, to trump advisor general michael flynn. boy, does he have a thing about him. he also goes on about dick cheney, but also dick cheney's daughter liz, he calls dick and liz cheney, quote, idiotings and a spent force. it's those five words that are out, idiots and a spent force. i mean, name calling that potent is fun in any context, but when it is freaking colin powell, until recently, a perennial presidential contender, he's one of most eldest and respected statesmen in recent history. calling people f'ing liars, and racist and sleazy and a disaster.

yeah, that's a weird news day. today also got even weirder when we had this remarkable moment in flint, michigan this afternoon. donald trump flew into flint for a photo-op as that city struggles through the lead crisis, through no fault of their own, through the actions of the state government. although they said that donald trump would be distracting city workers from their jobs, donald trump did show up anyway, and he got a tour of the now shuttered water treatment plant at one point involved him awkwardly squeezing through a tight spot. mr. donald trump went on, thereafter to give remarks at a local church and there was just this moment. there's donald trump, republican nominee, speaking to a stonily

silent, mostly empty room in flint, at this flint church that's been distributing water and healthy food. and donald trump is there, he's basically trying to limp through his speech with this stone faced sparse audience, in the meantime, the pastor of the church gets up on stage, puts up her hands and stops him. stop right there. i watched this live when it happened. it's just an incredible moment. >> hillary failed on the economy. just like she's 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 have done for you, not to give a political speech. >> okay. okay. okay. >> so that happened this afternoon in flint, what happened right after that was even kind of more amazing, it's

interesting, donald trump being stopped in his tracks, we have actually got flint's mayor, who's going to be a special guest tonight to talk about that visit, to talk about how the trump campaign basically snubbed her, we'll talk about why his reception in flint was a few degrees frosty. and we'll talk about the ongoing lead disaster in flint. it's just been a crazy day, a fast moving day, a weird day of news, we got news today, just for example, that a dead guy just won his election, the local republican party just told voters that they preferred the dead guy to his living challenger and it was such a republican district that those republican leaders, the dead guy beat a live guy. we also got news today that the dnc has gotten more of its documents hacked and released apparently by russian government hackers. it's just been a weird day. because of how weird our presidential race is,

specifically right now, even on a day with news that strange, news that outlandish and surprising, today was also the day when we had to learn that virginia senator and democratic vice presidential contender tim kaine, he's got a cyst about like right here somewhere. i think right here. it's like two centimeters by four centimeters, i think it is in this general area, i was looking at the anatomical maps, it's a subcutaneous cyst, two september meters by four centimeters, apparently nothing to worry about. tim kaine we now know he once twisted his shoulder. tim kaine takes no medication, but his vitamin d is low. the good news senator karen,

vitamin d comes in gummies, it's the highlight of my day. now i know he used to have plantar fascitis, but it's now feeling better. the reason we know all this intimate disturbing detail is because we got a lot of medical information on tim kaine, turns out he's fine. he's a little bit husky, he's 5'11" and 207 pounds, a little on the stocky side, but he's fine. we also got health status reports on joe biden and paul ryan, on sarah palin. on tim kaine, we expect one soon on mike pence. we got a second release of health information about hillary clinton's health.

the campaign says the letter they released from hillary clinton's doctor last summer was intended to be an overview of her total health history and status. that letter paid special attention and gave specific detail about what the campaign described as the one significant health issue hillary clinton has had as an adult, which is that concussion she suffered in 2012. in that updated letter they released today, they described as basically an update on her health status since that last letter last summer. they say the only significant health issue she has had as an adult is that concussion back in 2012, and that new release gave quite a lot of detail and chronology about that episode that she had this weekend that caused so much concern, when she fell ill at the 9/11 memorial service. now it's single spaced and it's a lot of detail.

it feels weird that we're allowed to know this about another person, outside of ourselves or our immediate family members, but presidential candidates are the one group of persons that don't get the same privacy on these matters as every other american does, we are allowed to know, and we expect to know, this is part of how we make our decision on who we feel comfortable voting for. now we know in january of this year, hillary clinton got sinusitis, and she got an ear infection, antibiotics and steroids did not al leigh this problem. it showed that the sinusitis, is mild, but it's chronic, it's not really going away, other than that, all is well, her brain is fine, no abnormaliies of the brain. good that we can all brag on the same feature.

fast forward to this month, to the friday before the 9/11 event, not two days before the 9/11 event, some nine days before 9/11, she went to see her doctor, she had fatigue, she had con guestation. this was around the time that her campaign manager was hospitalized with an upper respiratory infection as well. after that september 2 visit to her daughter, she apparently took a short-term course of antibiotics which did not help, she came back and that's when the doctor did a noncontrast chest ct scan, which is apparently one step up from a chest x ray and it revealed, quote, mild, noncontagious bacterial pneumonia, the doctor says that hillary clinton at

that point was advised to rest. we now know that she did not. we went back and looked at our nbc coverage calendar, from that day that she was diagnosed with pneumonia, that same day, hillary clinton did a fund-raiser in manhattan, she held a press conference, she did multiple media interviews, she did another fund-raiser, followed by another fund raiser and she went to another memorial service on sunday and that was when she had that episode that frequented everybody out. secretary clinton continues to improve, she's been off the campaign trail resting since sunday, but she's due back on the campaign trail tomorrow in north carolina. the new letter from clinton's doctor concludes as follows, quote, my overall impression that is that mrs. clinton has remained healthy and has not developed new medical conditions

this year other than a sinus infection and an ear infection other than her current status of pneumonia, and she continues to be healthy and fit to serve as president of the united states. they basically now consider this done, they have now released in their estimation much more detailed health information than other healthy presidential candidates did, people like barack obama or mitt romney. they say they are not planning what some people call a full mccain, a universal release of hundreds if not thousands of pages, every health related document that's ever been produced over the course of hillary clinton's lifetime, they said that kind of release is not warranted. essentially because hillary clinton's health history is nothing like john mccain's health history, not least because of his multiple and recurring battles with cancer, which she has nothing near.

so as far as they're concerned they're done. on the other side, naturally it's now utter and complete chaos. and the difficult part of this for me is that i think part of it might be my fault. and that's next.

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so much going on in the news right now, there's so much going on even just in the political campaign. but the trump campaign has basically created a circus around the issue of their candidate's health. and i'm sorry to say, i don't know if i'm sorry, but i feel like i should at least fess up to the fact that the first tent of that circus, the first ring of that three-ring circus may have been put up by me here on this show. to mr. trump personally, and members of the campaign have repeatedly now raised this concern of secretary clinton's health. now the only testimony we have

of mr. trump's health is this letter from his gastrointerologist saying that he was healthy, mr. trump i can state unequivocally that mr. trump will be the healthiest person ever elected to the presidency. as a doctor's letter, it's a nonserious later, it's full of typos, it's unprofessional. most of the letter has no medical meaning, it links to a website that doesn't economist. if elected donald trump would be the oldest person ever to be sworn in as president. whether or not he's going to try to make hillary's health an issue, doesn't he wrote the american people a more accurate medical report, a more complete statement? >> perhaps. but i want to say something about hillary clinton's health, it's not something i want to comment on, i'm not a doctor, and she not a patient. but i don't see someone who

really enjoys campaigning the way he does. >> hillary clinton released a normal doctor statement, what we have got from mr. trump, that really is absurd. a gastrointerologist is a digestional doctor. >> as the campaign manager, could i please make a request of you? could we get a more substantial medical -- >> i will pass on the request. and i assure you that he has doctors and physicians. >> he has doctors and physicians, both kinds. that was august 24th. kellyanne conway was telling me, yes, perhaps, donald trump should release more complete medical information. that was august 24th. two days later, august 26th, nbc news scored an interview with that doctor who had released a

letter. in that interview, donald trump's gastrointerologist said that he wrote that letter in about five minutes while a donald trump staffer stood outside and waited for it. he said some of the more over the top statements in that letter, the astonishingly healthy lab results, that was meant as a joke. two days after that, donald trump tweeted that he agreed, he should release more detailed medical records. and then a week later, donald trump told abc news that he would release further information on his health whether or not hillary did as well.

>> do you think hillary clinton deserves to hear more about you. >> i would love to give specifics, as far as i'm concerned and if she wants to go first -- >> why don't you go first? >> now that you ask, i these i will do that. >> now that you ask -- by the end of that week, which is last week, we got this announcement from this daytime tv show, the dr. oz show announcing that donald trump would be appearing on that daytime tv show with that tv doctor to talk about mr. donald trump's health. yesterday the host of that daytime talk show dr. oz went on fox news radio and said trump would be actually handing over his medical records to dr. oz, to the host of that tv show live on tv. the medical records would be revealed on tv. then interestingly this morning that was off. trump telling reporters they had basically changed their mind, they would not be handing over their medical records over on your tv show.

>> john roberts just reported a little while ago that he's going to go on dr. oz today, but that he is not going to release the results of his physical, why is that? >> on a tv show? i don't think that -- >> that was the original plan, wasn't it? >> uh, no. >> uh, yes. >> the trump campaign followed that up today, that appearance by the campaign manager this morning on fox, no, that was never the plan, we were never going to do that, following up by insisting to reporters that in no uncertain terms that trump was not going to release his medical records or the results of his lab tests on that tv show, never. and today went on that tv talk show, and surprise, with a flourish, he handed over what he said were his medical records, or at least the description of how he did at his recent physical. i don't know what they were. no reporters were at it the taping, nothing has been released publicly, we're told that what he handed over on tv

was a one pages medical summary from our old friend dr. bornstein. i'm not sure if there are jokes in this one too. we can report that the host of the tv show, dr. oz had never seen that document, what was it was before donald trump handed it to him. so it's not like he did a lot of reading about what he had found. in their view the whole spectacle donald trump has created arrange this whole issue is in that words ridiculous. according to the clinton campaign, donald trump is, quote, making a mockery of this. and so, ultimately, bottom line, we have still got nothing. and maybe we shouldn't care. but the donald trump campaign remains the only presidential campaign in u.s. history to have made such a hash and such a bizarre spectacle out of what is usually a totally run of the

mill part of the presidential campaign. and there's all these serious concerns swirling around the trump foundation and how truthful trump and his campaign have been about that foundation and whose money that foundation is giving away anyway. and with this new damming document situation, unless he drastically served himself from his life eels work and his business interests, today basically getting the hook and getting yanked off stage in flint, michigan tonight by that pastor, if you're good at being a showman, you can distract from all that, by showing a showman's service. a real showman can -- there's been no release of information about donald trump's health. nobody other than that guy on tv has seen anything new about donald trump's health today, even though a lot of people have convinced themselves that he's made some new disclosure about

his health. a great showman can pick any one thing and be so ridiculous about it that everybody stops whatever they were paying attention to before and pays attention to that ridiculous circus instead, and not only do we pay for the privilege of paying attention to it. that's what showmanship is, it's a con, but it's very compelling. this is a weird day in the news, but a lot of what happened in today's news make me feel like i need to wash. we'll be right back. >> why not share your medical records? why not -- >> i have no real problem in doing it. i have it right here? should i do it? i don't care.

if elected at age 70, you will be the oldest person to ever enter the oval office. >> just about the same age as ronald reagan and hillary's a year behind me. just based on this stage of my life. i feel as good today as i did when i was 30. >> oh, well, that's totally resolved then, done and dusted, how do you feel? i feel great. really how great do you feel? donald trump appearing on a daytime tv show, earlier taped today, it's due to air tomorrow. during that taping mr. donald trump handed over what he said were some kind of medical record prepared by his doctor who he says gave him a physical exam last week. joining us now is our medical

news contributor. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> did we actually learn any substantive medical information about donald trump today or are we sort of waiting for a document? >> we're still waiting to actually visualize the document that dr. oz himself saw today. what i still didn't hear is a list of medical problems. it's just -- we like to be systematic about these things, what we know are the medicines that he takes, and from that you can infer what medical problems he has. but i think what was in the letter today were some results of previous ekgs, chest x ray, colonoscopy, labs from last week, which were reportedly normal. he was examined last week and according to the impression from dr. oz, there was nothing untoward about his physical exam.

we did hear about his weight and to paraphrase from dr. oz, that he was a little bit overweight. there was some discrepancy in the reporting about how much he weighed, so we can't calculate a bmi, but never theless, it was slightly elevated. so in sum, we do have more information, we do have what i would call some more legitimate communication about his health history, meaning in language that we can all understand. >> in the sense that, if what's in the document is what we think is in the document, it has been conveyed essentially doctor to doctor in a way that made sense to the doctor who was reading it. >> without the superlatives, white house the hyperbole, we think. it's interesting because you would think you would go from the letter eight months ago, ten months ago which we have now read multiple times.

>> i can quote it from memory. >> i and i'm sure a lot of doctors in this country can't wait to get their eyes on this one. but to give everybody the benefit of the doubt, based on what we heard from the interview with oz today, he's a relatively healthy man, we know that he's on a statin, so he's being treated for a high cholesterol level, he's on a baby aspirin, that's also to reduce cardiovascular risk, i'm not suggesting that there's a competition between cardiovascular risk profiles between the two candidates, but if you're talking about presidential fitness and presidential health and who's going to be the healthiest for the next eight years, we know cardiovascular disease is the most serious disease in this country, hillary clinton is doing reasonably well, she's not being treated for any of those conditions, and donald trump is being treated for those conditions, which is good, because that lowers his risk.

but on balance-- >> she's healthier than he is cardiovascularly speaking. >> exactly. >> the type of scan that she got in which her pneumonia was being diagnosed is one step up from a chest x ray? >> definitely, it's more conclusive. >> was there anything in that letter from her doctor today that you found concerning or particularly interesting from a medical point of view? >> actually i found it reassuring, i wasn't aware, i don't know that we were all aware that a week before 9/11 she was already treated for an infection with an antibiotic, which just tells me that she was really sick for a while and still going out there and doing everything. but it sounds like her doctor was on it. to get a ct scan that night,

they're not wasting any time, you're still not feeling good, you still have a cough, i want to rule out pneumonia, and they also did a calcium score on the ct scan. it's a score that reviews, to see how much calcium has built up in the coronary arteries and the heart and her score was zero. so i have to tell you, i was hoping not to be prove on wrong from her talk on monday night, there was absolutely nothing that was revealed in the letter today that was at all unusual or shocking or novel, quite honestly. it was much adieu about nothing, quite obviously, the sinusitis and the infections, which is quite normal. >> you have made lots of layman's sense about this. thank you for helping us. really appreciate it. lots more ahead tonight, stay with us. gaine® foam.

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did you know that lbj, president linden baynes johnson was a millionaire. he was a millionaire mostly because of his wife's wise investments. but yes, he was a millionaire. and that fact, 50 years ago ended up writing the road map for the next big proverbial car crash we're about to have in

ready? set? run. everybody run. run across the lawn of the flint, michigan water treatment

plant. the reason our poor camera crew is in such a hurry running across the lawn with all the other reporters and photographers was because republican candidate donald trump was there. the mayor of flint tried to discourage trump from visiting flint. she put out a statement saying that neither donald trump nor any staff members from the tump campaign have reached out. the city of flint employees are focused on dealing with the continued contamination in the drinking water and cannot afford the last-minute visit. despite those warnings from the mayor, there he is, reviewing the machinery from the plant, machinery that has not been in use since last fall. after that he headed to the bethel united methodist church. that's one of the churches in flint that has worked to get

water and healthy food to the people of flint since the town's water system was poisoned with lead. the pastor put out a statement explaining what this event with trump would be and what it would not be. quote, we pass out water and lead mitigating foot items in response to the flint water crisis and in no way represents an endofrsment of his candidacy. what we pray is that it conveys a fine example of a faithful, intelligent, historically african-american congregation at work, serving and volunteering among the people of flint as we work through this crisis of national impact. i do not know whether mr. trump got that memo from pastor timmons ahead of his visit to her church, but i definitely think he got her message later on, mid speech. watch this.

>> you look at the trade deficit of $500 billion, hillary failed on the economy. just like she's 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 have done, and not for you to make a political speech. >> okay, okay, that's good. >> after pastor timmons got up and stopped him from what he was doing, got him back on track, donald trump ended up wrapping up his remarks in about 90 seconds. some people by that time were heckling mr. trump on this visit.

at the end, she basically ushered him off the stage, which may have been the day's great mercy for him. for all the donald trump putting himself in a position of speechifying people living through a disaster, he may have missed the news of the day. today flipt residents suing to try to get -- they still need very, very kbask relief. you still cannot drink from the tap in flint. the federal court asked the federal government to step in and start bringing water door to door to the people of that city. i know you don't believe that, but it's still not happening, they're still not bringing water door to door in flint right now. congress may be on the verge of doing something to help them. the final vote may happen as soon as tomorrow. the question then is whether the republican controlled house could be persuaded to sign sign water infrastructure hill. the feisty congressman from flint told the press today if donald trump really wants to help flint, he could, quote, pick up the phone and call paul

ryan and tell him to do something about flint. if the senate passed this thing, and if paul ryan could be persuaded that the house should pass it too, that could be millions of dollars for infrastructure in flint and for the health care needs of kids who were poisoned in flint through no fault of their own. millions and millions an millions of dollars for flint at stake. donald trump does not appear to have mentioned that or even understood it was happening either in his photo op at the closed water plant today, or his unintentionally abbreviated remarks at the church. the only once a day product, proven to regrow new hairs up to 48% thicker. revive your va va voom. and save on any rogaine®.

hillary failed on the economy. just like she has fail 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've done in flint. >> oh, okay. >> joining us is the mayor of flint, karen weaver. it's really nice to see you. thank you for being with us tonight. >> thank you. i'm glad to be here. >> you're getting a new burst of national attention in flint for a few different reasons. number one is this federal lawsuit that is going on right now. people testifying from flint today in federal court. we've got the senate bill, which hopefully will become the house bill if the senate passes this thing. on top of that, you had this visit from a presidential candidate today. that it seems like you were a

little bit blindsided by him that you didn't know this trump visit was on its way. >> that's exactly right. we were blind side. we got the information. i found out actually yesterday is when i was informed that he would be coming to the city of flint and wanted to do different drive-bys to see what was going on at different locations. so that's what we were talking about. we were saying it was little inconvenient not to be notified earlier about what he wanted to do. and kind of thoughtless. >> in terms of i guess the utility of national attention, you have talked in the past about, europe, the spotlight being helpful, and it being something that does get things moving in flint. how are you feeling right now about the prospects of national assistance, federal assistance? obviously, it's moving right now in the senate. it's not a done deal. but it's been moving. the house is something that seems like much more of an unknown quantity in terms of getting that federal help. >> right. but we're very -- today was a very good day. it's something we've been waiting for a long time. but we are making steps in the

right direction. it was nice to come and meet with the michigan delegation. they've been working tirelessly to get things moving for the city of flint. we see that it's happening in the senate. so really, what we need to have happen now is for things to move in congress. that's what we need. we need that federal assistance. it means a lot to the people of the city of flint when you look at what's in there for infrastructure. and when you look at what is in there for health care and for loan forgiveness. that's really, really vital to what we need in the city of flint. >> congressman kildee made an interesting comment to the free press. he said on this occasion of photo op, if donald trump wants to help with flint, what he should do is one simple thing that is very doable. he should call paul ryan and tell paul ryan he should help. >> that's absolutely right. that's what we were talk. help us that way. if you want to help flint, if you care and you're concerned about the citizens of flint, then talk to your republican colleagues in the house and get this passed there. that's what we need to have happen.

>> i have a feeling actually that advice might not only apply to donald trump. that paul ryan may need to hear from a lot of people on this. mayor karen weaver of flint, michigan, i really appreciate your time tonight. continued good luck to you ma'am. it's nice to see you. >> thank you so much. >> all right. we'll be right back. stay with us. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin®. because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. try zyrtec®. muddle no more®. i just saved thousands on in less than a minute, i found out how much home i can afford. i like how you shop for loans the same way you shop for flights online. i didn't realize that lendingtree you can save money on almost any sort of loan. i consolidated my credit card debt with a personal loan. i found a new credit card with 0% interest for 15 months. you just shop, compare, and save, and it's all free. go to lendingtree right now and start saving.

officially over. it was mostly over a couple of weeks ago. but last night four states did go to the polls, including the great state of new york. and interesting story. that state's 133rd state assembly district. there was a republican primary. republican voters chose the incumbent in that race. he is also the state co-chair for the donald trump campaign. his name is bill nojay and he won his race last night, 61% to 39%. that honestly should not have been much of a surprise except for an important detail is that bill nojay, the state representative from the rochester area, he is dead.

terrible story. he killed himself last week on friday morning. and yet in a truly bizarre turn of events in this otherwise tragic story, local republican leaders in new york urged voters in his district that they should still vote for the dead man, even though he is dead. mr. nojay, the trump co-chair, he did have a republican challenger in that race yesterday. you would think that man would have had an advantage in the race given that his opponent died several days before election day. but the new york state republican party told voters to pick the dead man in that race rather than his live opponent. the voters obliged. the dead man won with 61% of the vote. and now, now that the voters chose the dead guy over the live guy to be their representative, now the same party leaders who pushed for that choice now not incidentally they get to choose mr. nojay's replacement on the early ballot. and early reports sound like they are not going to pick the live guy who actually ran. they're not going to pick the runner-up.

just a truly weird, macabre twist in a deeply republican upstate new york district. we'll let you know how it gets resolved. but the way it got here is scary enough. here is scary enough. "first look" is up next. if your health is as strong as it seems from your review, why not share your medical records? >> well, i have no problem in doing it. i have it right here. should i do it? i don't care. >> donald trump is offering up some new information about his health as hillary clinton prepares to hit the campaign trail once again. plus, new details about the man accused of intentionally running down three police officers in phoenix. and we are 11 days away from the first presidential debate, and new jersey governor chris christie is shedding some light on donald trump's debate prep. ♪