michelle kaczynski knows that, traveling and live in philadelphia on the campaign trail and cnn presidentialennis brinkley knows a lot about that. michelle, first to you with the reporting. first campaign stop since july and only the second. remind me. that doesn't seem like a lot of campaigning when we're only 56 days until the electi? >> reporter: yeah, in fact we expected to see more, too. remember, the first scheduled event where the they were going to be together was delayed because of the orlando shootings. then they had that event in charlotte in july, and since then the president's schedule has been so busy. he's had a lot of overseas trips he really hasn't had the time to get out on the trail a lot. this is the point now where we expect to see more. even though this month, too, will be busy. remember, we just got back from a trip to asia, then he has the u.n. general assembly coming up. so october is going to be the month. i mean, that's really kind of late in the game, but that's the perfect timing as the white house sees it to really get him out there actively. so even though we h

michelle kaczynski, thank you. and jason carroll with donald trump expected to speak momentarily. thank you to you as well. trading blows over whose campaign is less transparent. in an interview with cnn's rndson cooper, hillary clinton tried to turntab the tables on trump. >> you've got a medical report on me that meets the same standard at mitt romney and barack obama. donald trump's doctor said he'd be the healthiest president in history. that's just not even serious. and i've released nearly 40 years of tax returns. he hasn't released one. this is a man with unknown numbers of partners and investors who says he's doing 120 foreign deals. the american people deserve to know what he's up to and what he is hiding. >> let's bring in our panel, our senior political reporter with us, "time" magazine political reporter zeke miller and "washington post" reporter ed o'keefe. thanks for joining us. is this an effective strategy we saw her display last night in the phone interview with anderson cooper? >> i think so. we obviously know she has transparency problems and they show up in tru

>> cnn white house correspondent michelle kaczynski is in fort lee, virginia, at the site of tonight'sdential town hall. michelle what are you hearing? >> reporter: he's got to say something. say something looking forward to the next administration and the administration he wants to have in office. you know it's going to factor in. he's going to take questions from these military members and other people connected to the military. so it is bound to come up. the thing is here, though, it is going to be a much tougher and different crowd than he's used to speaking in front of. there was a poll done at the beginning of this year by military times of active duty service members, and they supported donald trump over hillary clinton 2-1. but even beyond that, one-fifth of those who responded said if it ended up a matchup between trump and clinton, they didn't want to vote at all. so i think that's where president obama -- a message we've heard from him a lot lately. at least get out and vote. he's going to say how he wants you to vote. i think that's going to be one of his main points out he

let's get more from michelle kaczynski traveling with the president live in laos. michelle? >> yeah. how do you overstate how bizarre this situation is? i mean, any world leader tries to put the best face on these kinds of meetings, especially in this setting, even when there are glaring differences. now you have another world leader, the president of the philippines, on what would have been his first meeting with president obama, who is a treaty ally calling obama a son of a whore to reporters and promising to curse him if he brought up the vigilante killings of thousands of people just over the last few months during the philippines drug war. so listen to durtete's comments and how president obama responded in a press conference. >> who is he? i am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony. i do not have any -- nobody but nobody. >> i just heard about some of this, but i have seen some of those colorful statements in the past, and so clearly he is a colorful guy. >> white house of course cancelled that meeting and they told me today after pres

cnn white house correspondent michelle kaczynski has more from laos. official? >> right, how do you overstate how unusual really shocking this is. the new president of the philippines on the eve of what would have been his first meeting with president obama, a treaty ally, calling him a son of a whore to reporters and threatening to curse him further if president obama so much as brought up the vigilante style killings of thousands of people in the philippines over the last couple f o months during the drug war there. listen to president duterte and then president obama who responded to all of this in a press conference yesterday. >> who is he? i do not have any master except the filipino people. nobody but nobody. >> i just heard about some of this, but i have seen some of those colorful statements in the past. and so clearly he is a colorful guy. >> those comments were enough today for the white house to say, you know, there was no way that this was going to be a constructive meeting. went a step further, saying it would have been a disservice to the filipino

let's bring in cnn white house correspondent michelle kaczynski.rning. >> reporter: yeah, this will be a unique venue for the president to speak directly to troops. he's coming here to thank them for their service, then he's going to participate in this town hall so in the crowd we will have active service members, veterans, maybe special guests like world war ii veterans, family members of those who served in the military, even people who have lost loved ones to war. you can imagine the array of questions and likely tough questions that he's going to get. is this a tough crowd for the president? well, you might say that. especially when you consider that while president obama's popularity numbers, his approval ratings have been going up over the last year, to the point that it's made headlines, that it's over 50%, his numbers among members of the military are considerably lower. one survey, it was an unscientific poll but it showed that among u.s. troops, his approval rating was around 15% two years ago. there's low morale in the military. one sur

michelle kaczynski. >> thank you. same subject of colorful guys.hat can you tell us about the hour and a half long meeting you had with president putin. the tone of it, any progress made? and do you agree the relationship between our two countries is frozen? on the cyberfront, senator reed cited intelligence briefings when he is addressing his suspicions that russia is trying to meddle in the election and have ties to the campaign. do you think russia is trying to influence the u.s. election through hacking? >> well, president putin's less colorful. but, typically, the tone of our meetings are candid, blunt. business-like. and this one was no different. we had a range of issues that we had to discuss, but the two most important were as has been reported, discussions that have been taking place between secretary kerry and russia's foreign minister about ways in which we can institute a meaningful, serious, verifiable of hostilities in syria. and our capacity to provide some humanitarian relief to families, children, women who are suffering enormousl

michelle kaczynski. >> same subject as the colorful guy. what can you tell us about this 1.5 hour meeting you had with bladder peyton -- glad near -- vladmir putin? and send to read cited intelligence information when suggesting that russia was meddling with our campaign. do you think russia's trying to influence u.s. elections are hacking? --through hacking? pres. obama: president clinton is less -- putin is less colorful. the tone of our meetings are candid, blunt, businesslike. d acseta and russia's foreign minister about ways in which we can institute a meaningful serious, verifiable cessation of hostilities in syria. our capacity to provide humanitarian relief to families, children, women who are suffering enormously under the burdenhat as you will recall, we initiated the cessation of hostilities in a while back. initially, it did lessen some of the pilots. then, slowly -- violence. then, slowly, it unwound. we are back in the situation where the assad regime is bombing with impunity. we think that a strengthening the capacity of nisr

michelle kaczynski. >> thank you. same subject of colorful guys.n you tell us about the hour and a half long meeting you had with president putin. the tone of it and any progress that was made and you agree that the relationship between our two countries is frozen? senator reid recently cited intelligence briefings with his suspicion that russia is trying to meddle in the election and may have direct ties to one of the campaigns. do you think russia is trying to influence the u.s. election through hacking? putinent obama: president , but typicallyl the tone of our meetings are , businesslike and this one was no different. we had a range of issues that we had to discuss but the two most ,mportant as have been reported discussions that have been taking place between secretary foreignd russia's minister about ways in which we can institute a meaningful, serious, verifiable cessation of hostilities in syria and our capacity to provide some humanitarian relief to families, children, women who are suffering an enormously under the burden of the war. , we

we have cnn white house correspondent michelle kaczyn i kaczynski.he has the highlights. >> it was different and unexpected. the talk didn't immediately go to politics. there was not a single question about donald trump or the election. these were tough questions to the president and, at times, extremely emotional. in an intimate, solemn space. members of the military and their families addressed their commander in chief directly. >> are we doing anything now greater to combat islamic jihadists. >> reporter: discussing some of the thorniest challenges of our time. iraq, syria, terrorism. president obama asked this by a gold star mother. >> why do you still refuse to use the term islamic terrorist? >> reporter: one of the most, thorough blunt explanations we heard. >> do i think that if somebody uses the phrase islamic terrorism that it's a huge deal? no. but i don't want to validate what they do. i don't want to -- if you had an organization that was going around killing and blowing people up and said we're on the vanguard of christianity. as a chris

michelle kaczynski. what can you tell us about this hour and a half long meeting you had with resident putin? the tone, any progress? the you agree with him that the relationship between our two countries is frozen? senator reid recently cited intelligence briefings when he talked about his suspicion that russia is meddling in the election and may have direct ties to one of the candidates. do you think russia is trying to influence the u.s. elections through hacking? president obama: president is less colorful. typically, the tone of our etinre cannef sucu kerry and russia's foreign minister avrov, about ways cessationverifiable of hostilities in syria. our capacity to provide some humanitarian relief to families, children,enfering we initiated a cessation of hostilities a while back. initially, it did lessen the violence. unwound, and we are in whichwo a situation the assad regime is bombing with impunity. ist, in turn, we think strengthening the capacity of al nusra to recruit. that is a very dangerous