President Trump Denies Reports He Disparaged U.S. Military Members; President Trump Criticizes Late Senator John McCain; President Trump Mocks Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden For Wearing A Mask.
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello, thanks so much for joining me. You are watching a special Labor Day weekend edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. And as you celebrate this weekend, please keep in mind this sobering projection. A key model predicts more than 410,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths by January 1st, reaching nearly 3,000 deaths a day by December, just an unprecedented number. But human behavior, your actions, could make a difference. Health experts are urging do not be part of any potential super spreader events this weekend. Do not let your guard down for any Labor Day events. Meantime, with the country struggling to get control of this deadly virus, the president is trying to get control of something else -- a report from "The Atlantic" magazine. President Trump has vehemently denied the magazine's reporting that he skipped a 2018 visit to a cemetery near Paris to honor U.S. troops killed in World War I because he was concerned rain would dishevel his hair. The report also alleges the president disparaged America's fallen soldiers, calling them suckers and losers. CNN has not independently verified "The Atlantic's" report. President Trump told reporters that he, quote, called home to speak to his wife Melania, disappointed that he couldn't visit the cemetery that day. But if he had called home, she wouldn't have answered, because Melania was with him in France on that trip. Trump angrily denied the report during a press conference yesterday, using language that may sound familiar.</s>DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's just a continuation of the witch hunt so that it can hopefully affect the election. These people have gone after me more than any president of the United States in history.</s>CABRERA: Trump continues to defend himself on Twitter today, and he is saying he's worked so hard for the military, while also taking a swipe at late senator John McCain, a war hero whose funeral is also addressed in "The Atlantic" article. And MCcain isn't the only veteran the president is attacking. Trump also slammed his former chief of staff, John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general whose son died in Afghanistan. Have a listen.</s>DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know John Kelly. He was with me. Didn't do a good job, had no temperament, and ultimately, he was petered out. He was exhausted. This man was totally exhausted. He wasn't even able to function in the last number of months.</s>CABRERA: General Kelly has not commented on "The Atlantic's" report, which also claims the president questioned why anyone would enter military service as he stood alongside Kelly at Kelly's son's grave in Arlington National Cemetery in 2017. Jeremy Diamond is at the White House for us. Jeremy, the president has questioned why Americans serve in the military before. What do we know?</s>JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Ana. A source who has heard the president make these remarks is now telling CNN that the president has repeatedly questioned why veterans of the Vietnam War ever went to war and served in the first place, suggesting in those conversations that Vietnam veterans didn't know how to exploit the system to avoid being drafted and to avoid serving in that war. The president himself, of course, did not serve in the Vietnam War or in the military at all. Instead, he received multiple deferments to avoid the draft, including one medical deferment citing bone spurs as something that was not allowing him to be able to serve in the military. This person also said that the president has questioned why veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars also went on to serve in those wars, questioning what did they get out of it, according to that source. Now, the president, of course, has been denying all of these types of comments, insisting that he is a great supporter of the military and of veterans, claiming that nobody has done more for veterans than he has himself. But of course, we know that the president's public record on veterans, some veterans in particular, is mixed, including, of course, the president repeatedly denigrating former Senator John McCain, a Vietnam veteran who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for several years and who endured torture during that time. The president in 2015 famously, of course, denigrating John McCain's service, arguing that he was not a hero because he was captured. The president yesterday was asked about those comments. Listen to his response.</s>DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I say what I say, and I never got along with John McCain. I disagreed with John McCain. You know that better than anybody, frankly. I wasn't a fan.</s>DIAMOND: And so you can see there the president saying no regrets as far as his comments denigrating John McCain's service. The president also went on to claim that he does respect John McCain, which is hard to believe given the fact that not only he denigrated McCain's service, but he has also criticized McCain repeatedly, even after he passed away. Ana?</s>CABRERA: Yes, and over the course of years, like you said, repeatedly. Thank you, Jeremy Diamond, at the White House. I want to get someone who has more than a passing interest in this issue, a 38-year career U.S. military officer, retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. General, first and foremost, thank you for your service. We can't say that enough to our service members. You do sacrifice so much. You work so hard. Voices like yours are so important to hear when we try to interpret the president's attitudes toward the military. Active duty men and women really can't make their true feelings publicly known, but you have never shied away from speaking freely. So tell us how you process this latest reporting, these allegations that the president spoke so disparagingly of fallen U.S. troops? LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING</s>CNN MILITARY ANALYST: First, Ana, let me point out that I can speak freely because I am now a citizen with a lot of experience in the military. And I see what's happening. It's interesting, because like many other of my colleagues, both retired and active, they're trying to figure out the president as well as understanding he's trying to figure out them. What I would say, having studied leadership for a very long time, the president goes into the office with a transactional approach. It's I win, you lose, I gain, you are detracted from. So it is a win at any cost kind of scenario. The military teaches transformational, not transactional leadership. Let's pull together as a team, let's help the society, let's grow as an organization, let's contribute to others. So there's a disconnect there between transactional leadership versus transformational leadership when you study both of those as approaches. So that's what --</s>CABRERA: So do you think he doesn't understand the military then?</s>HERTLING: Yes, I guarantee you he doesn't understand. And here's why. Every time he talks about how he helps the military, it's usually related to transactional events. I've given them more pay. I've given them more money for their budget. All of which is true, but there's some things you can debate in each one of those things. I'm getting military forces out of countries because they're not paying enough. It all has to do with monetary transactions. What the military is interested in is national security. How do we contribute to peace so we don't have to fight? How do we ensure we take care of each other, not guarantee a monetary return, but care for one another. So there's a lack of understanding him to the military, the military to him. And I'm going to stand by that.</s>CABRERA: General, I just want to remind our viewers of that now infamous comment made by then-candidate Donald Trump in 2015. He was talking about Senator John McCain at the time.</s>DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I supported him. He lost. He let us down. But he lost, so I never liked him as much after that, because I don't like losers.</s>TRUMP: But, frank, let he get to him he hit me --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a war hero.</s>TRUMP: He's not a war hero.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a war hero.</s>TRUMP: He's a war hero.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five and a half years.</s>TRUMP: He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, OK, I hate to tell you.</s>HERTLING: This week the president tweeted he never called John McCain a loser. But it's there on tape. He even brought up the late senator again in a tweet today. Can you even begin to explain why the president would continue to disparage this bona fide American war hero?</s>CABRERA: I don't use the word "hero" a lot, Ana, but what I will say is certainly Senator McCain, formerly Captain McCain, certainly did sacrifice quite a bit for a greater good. I think that may be part of this. I'm not a psychologist. I can't figure this out. But I think part of this is that the president sees in other people who contribute to a greater good, who sacrifice for others, he just perhaps doesn't really understand that psyche. If he's not gaining something from an event -- it goes back to the transactional. If he's not gaining, then he must be losing. That's not the way the military looks at it. They look at how do we contribute to the greater good, and that's what certainly John McCain did when he was a prisoner of war for almost five years under some really dire and horrible conditions. He is a hero to most in the military, because not only did he live up to his duty, but he lived up to his oath of office in terms of protecting the Constitution. The president could probably learn a lot from Senator McCain if he would quit slamming him.</s>CABRERA: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, thank you for speaking out, and thank you, again, for your service.</s>HERTLING: Always a pleasure. Thank you, Ana.</s>CABRERA: Let's broaden the conversation with CNN political commentator and former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and former Republican strategist and co-founder of the Lincoln Project Rick Wilson. He's also the author of "Running Against the Devil." Rick, if President Trump is in one breath trying to project a more respectful view of the military, but then in the next breath is slamming a four-star marine general and a late prisoner of war, how concerned do you think the campaign is about his standing now with veterans and military families?</s>RICK WILSON, FORMER REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Ana, I think the campaign has spent the last 24 hours in a state of rising panic. This story isn't going away. These sources are, while they are off the record and anonymous, they're not unknown to the reporters who are covering it. They're reporting it as a credible story, including on the network that Donald Trump really cares about, which is FOX. And so they have had a sense, as I said, of rising panic about this story. They recognize how deeply corrosive it is, and that it reveals the thing about Donald Trump that those of us who studied him closely understand -- he has contempt for everyone not named Donald Trump. And so I think the revelations that Donald Trump believes that our troops who served and sacrificed are babies and dopes and suckers and idiots and all these things, I think that's been a very, very deadly moment for this campaign. And while it may not end Donald Trump's campaign, he can't afford to lose anyone in any demographic group right now in order to win this fall. And if he starts to lose military families, I wouldn't be surprised.</s>CABRERA: Governor, former secretary of defense Chuck Hagel urged the sources who gave that story to "The Atlantic" to come forward, because if they didn't, he fears Trump would get through this scandal and possibly win reelection. So a little bit of a different view than what we're hearing from Rick here. What do you think?</s>JENNIFER GRANHOLM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, clearly, it would be helpful if those who were reporting to "The Atlantic" came forward. But honestly, you don't need them to come forward. He has been scamming us, Trump has been scamming us about his so-called love for the military for years. Now we have the receipts. When he denies -- just this past 24 hours, he denies calling John McCain a loser. We have the tape. When he says he respects the military, we now have witnesses who are coming forward to show us how he truly thinks. But don't look at his words. Look at his actions. He has called vets suckers and losers over time. He doesn't want wounded vets in parades. Nobody wants to see that. He won't protect our soldiers from Putin's bounties. He won't even raise the subject with Putin. A top -- he blasted top military generals as a bunch of dopes and babies. He attacks the Gold Star Khan family. Obviously, he's been attacking McCain. He's abandoned our military allies like the Kurds against the advice of military experts, not to mention his slavish devotion to dictators that have historically been our enemies, like Putin and Kim Jong-un. He cuts the "Stars and Stripes" but immediately turns around and reinstates it because of the backlash. He's pardoning people who have been convicted war generals against the generals' advice. He's using the military as props for political stunts. We could go on and on. This is why "Military Times" poll last week before all of this had Biden up 41 to 37 against Trump among active duty personnel. People are seeing the con.</s>CABRERA: So much more to discuss. Governor Granholm, Rick Wilson, please stay with me. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's late son Beau served in the military and received a Bronze Star, and now Joe Biden is reacting. Stay with us.