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Don Lemon Tonight

Dramatic Open To GOP Convention; Giuliani: Americans 'Fear For Our Police Officers'; Plagiarism In Melania Trump's Speech. Aired 1-2a ET.

Aired July 19, 2016 - 01:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:16] DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: There is some breaking news tonight from the Republican Convention here in Cleveland. Melania Trump speech causing a lot of controversy.

This is a special CNN tonight. I'm Don Lemon. Thank you so much for joining us and staying up so late.

On the night that Donald Trump makes his dramatic entrance, Melania Trump makes a big speech, a speech that sounds that lot like one made by Michelle Obama eight years ago. We're going to discuss all of that.

So, let's get straight to my political dream team, Mark Preston, Kayleigh McEnany, Bakari Sellers, Amanda Carpenter and Andy Dean who did a heck of a job flying over here. That's a long walk, Andy, out of breath?

ANDY DEAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. You're right.

LEMON: Let's talk about this controversy tonight about part of Melania Trump's speech and comparisons between that and Michelle Obama back in 2008.

I want you to listen to side by side comparisons of the two speeches.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values like, you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond, that you do what you say you're going to do.

MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF U.S. PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE DONALD TRUMP: My parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise.

OBAMA: That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them.

TRUMP: That you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son. And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow.

OBAMA: And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values and to pass them on to the next generation because we want our children and all children in this nation to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and you willingness to work hard for them.

TRUMP: Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Kayleigh, what's your reaction?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, it looks as there is someone who helps her with the speech, used a portion of Michelle Obama's speech. That's not good. That's inexcusable. And I can understand why Democrats want to make this the headline of the night because tonight with phenomenal night for Donald Trump, not only that, we saw someone who is an immigrant to this country who achieved the American dream who came from Slovenia as a poor girl and made it here. That is what we saw tonight. It was a phenomenal night for her. She had grace, she had strength, something happened with the speech writer. Ever person who give the speech, has a speech writer with the exception of possibly, Donald Trump. Put have the use of teleprompter, someone with this mess -- someone to misled her, that's what it appears to happen and I can understand why Democrats, want to make this the headline because tonight was a phenomenal night for Donald Trump.

LEMON: This, do you think a speech writer set her up? I mean, I don't know, Andy, what do you -- Andy, you're making an odd face over there, what?

DEAN: I mean, they're kind of close, but I mean it's, look, I'll tell you this, Melania Trump ...

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Switch that ...

DEAN: Melania Trump us an amazing businesswoman. She's extremely smart. I know her personally. I spend a lot of time with her. She's extremely clever and anytime a first law -- you can be future first lady is giving a speech about children and ...

LEMON: Andy, as you're saying that ...

DEAN: ... achievement.

LEMON: You're saying that the ...

DEAN: ... I mean.

LEMON: The words are up there on the screen. DEAN: OK, so maybe this will help. I haven't done side-by-side word comparisons.

LEMON: Yeah.

DEAN: So this may help.

LEMON: Yeah.

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: As a former speech writer, I mean, this is just mismanagement, someone must had trap. Clearly, if you're going to look at writing speech from Melania tonight, you would look at what Michelle Obama said previously. She give a really good speech of course but ...

SELLERS: Of course she's look back over great speeches, right?

CARPENTER: Yeah and you look at it maybe somebody looked on her draft but somewhere along the way, someone has to catch this. This is on Melania, isn't on just one speech writer. This is reflection of mismanagement of the convention, I would say. This wasn't the only error tonight. This is an error that will drown out other ones, including speakers going far too late into prime time. And I think this plays into the idea that Donald Trump doesn't know what he's doing on the national stage.

LEMON: Bakari, you actually, you know, we were sitting there and you were like, wait a minute.

SELLERS: We kind of noticed we're both of the same time say and said, that speech sounds is a little bit familiar, right, as we were watching it. You know, in rehashing this, it did because I think that there was a great deal of pride, it came that came along with Michelle Obama's speech in 2008 and so there was certain tones and familiarities that a lot of people ...

[01:05:11] LEMON: You picked up on it first?

SELLERS: Well, I mean, there were people in the Twittersphere that did as well. But I will tell you that, you know, this is plagiarism. You know, you could say whatever you want to say, but you're responsible for the words that come out of your mouth. At the end of the day, you are responsible for the words that come out of your mouth. It's not like Joe Biden when he got out of the race when he was identified to be -- when he was identified to be to be a plagiarizer said, that "Oh my god, my speech writer did it."

But, I mean, I just sit back and I just, you know, this is a moment in which I said that Melania Trump gave a speech tonight that she didn't really invoke anything personal, no.

MCENANY: Yeah.

SELLERS: No personal anecdotes about Donald Trump, you know, I get that. But at the end of the day, she was absolutely stunning. She was beautiful, she delivered a great speech, you know, at the end of the day, it's good.

But then I -- after reviewing it and seeing what we saw, I say that, you know, I was wondering why there was no red meat in the speech because it was full of bloomy.

LEMON: I just, Bakari and I was been there watching the speech and he say -- he said, I'm not bowled over by the speech, but she looks stunned -- good tonight.

SELLERS: He has me.

LEMON: She is fine as hell.

CARPENTER: But you know, it is unfortunate, largely because she can be well spoken. She is impressive. This was an opportunity for Donald Trump to look good by presenting his wife and she should have been able to explain what kind of woman she is to the public. And you can't do that when you take Michelle Obama's words.

LEMON: I want Mark in the way on this and I let you guys finish, she spoke before she -- before the speech, she spoke tonight about her speech. Let's listen in and then you now discuss this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has she gone over the speech with you? Did you practice it on the plane?

TRUMP: I had read once over it and that's all because I have wrote it and with a little help as possible, so ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: OK. So ...

LEMON: A lot of work goes into these speeches.

PRESTON: Let's do a couple things. Let's go back one hour. One hour ago, we all walked out of that convention center and said they had a good convention tonight. By and large, there must have been some errors they could have gone over. She gave a good speech, a low bar because people didn't think she was going to do well. She did fantastic. OK?

Here we are now, an hour later. It appears to be plagiarism and this is something that's going to over-shadow all day tomorrow what was a fairly successful night for the Trumps. I know you don't agree with me, Kayleigh, but that's the fact of the matter.

MCENANY: I don't. That's a rather cryptic vision of what happened because what happened is we had 24, you know, 12 hours rather of a really good day. And nothing can take away from this woman who stood there and was strong and was confident and did something none of us could do in front of 20,000 people.

SELLERS: But I can ... (CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: OK, but there is something to take away from it.

MCENANY: There was a mistake with the speech writer.

SELLERS: There's not a mistake. She plagiarized.

MCENANY: No.

SELLERS: Let me take, let me take it back.

MCENANY: How do you know that she did that? That she personally plagiarized because you ...

SELLERS: Because you are responsible for the words but even more important, this is the most important part of this, the number one character witness tonight for this whole convention for Donald Trump is his wife, Melania. And I could have come in here with very sharp criticism about the fact that she had no personal anecdotes about when they person that ...

LEMON: Or have it by the way.

SELLERS: But I did. I had it here. But even more importantly, if that is your wife, if that is your number character witness, why can't she say good things about you without actually repeating words that Michelle Obama said directly about her husband?

MCENANY: What I love so much Rudy Giuliani predicted what we just heard from you. Rudy Giuliani said in the media, there are people out to assassinate Donald Trump's character. And we just heard you presume.

SELLERS: She plagiarized.

MCENANY: You just--

CARPENTER: You don't assassinate in that one character.

MCENANY: She herself wrote those words.

SELLERS: We are both lawyers.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Kayleigh, Amanda makes a very good point, this isn't character assassination. This is pointing out that if you're the spouse of -- if you're someone's spouse, shouldn't you be able to tell a personal anecdote? And wasn't her hope ...

MCENANY: I think she has.

LEMON: ... just soften him. When I met Donald Trump, he was whatever.

MCENANY: And she has.

LEMON: He proved me, he -- whatever and it's ...

MCENANY: And she has Anderson Cooper just been on air one hour ago, many of the things she said the stage, she said personally to me in interviews. She's told the anecdote, those fame words that she said in that speech, she's echoed to me personally in interview.

PRESTON: Can we do this? Let's just go to where we are in the world of reality here, OK?

This is going to cloud the night. That's an absolutism. It is a fatal error for the campaign. Absolutely not are people going to look at Melania Trump and think any worse of her?

LEMON: No.

PRESTON: No, absolutely not but is it going to cloud what was a successful night tomorrow? Absolutely. There's no question about this.

LEMON: And there is still no reaction from the Trump campaign tonight. What should the Trump campaign do moving forward?

CARPENTER: I think she put her out for some more interviews so she can speak in an authentic voice and actually reveal some more of her personality. Reveal true anecdotes, they're going to have to plow over this. Put her out there a little more. I realize she may be resistant to that because this is her first big opportunity. But the only way to get her over it is throw out there more.

[01:10:02] LEMON: I can't help but look. Andy, I mean, what is that look on your face?

CARPENTER: You don't want her to talk?

SELLERS: I know, but she has no answers.

DEAN: Look, look. The word plagiarism is a little strong. If she started the speech with four score and seven years ago and then you could say, "OK, she's lifting things."

CARPENTER: My word has moved on.

DEAN: Look, I'd like to look at text side by side, the entire speech. If it's four or five lines in a gigantic speech, you could say it was inspired by and ...

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: I don't know.

CARPENTER: OK. At least, you should come out and said, listen, Michelle Obama gave a great speech.

(CROSSTALK) SELLERS: But you know what Donald Trump should do first? What Donald Trump does very well.

PRESTON: He should defend his wife right now is what he should do. He should fire someone else.

LEMON: We want you to listen. Here it is. Look, listen, I'll play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values like, you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond, that you do what you say you're going to do.

TRUMP: My parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise.

OBAMA: That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them.

TRUMP: That you treat people with respect. They taught ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Pause. Pause, Andy?

DEAN: So I've officially switched my position to no comment.

CARPENTER: OK. Come on, I will throw her one. She's a political reeve, I mean go back to the Donald Trump Playbook. I shouldn't have to cover for this better than you, come on, Andy. She's a rookie. She was reviewing possibly Michelle Obama's speech. It was a great speech and something got left on the draft. Just be with honest about what happened. I find that possible.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Let Andy respond to that. Go ahead, Andy.

DEAN: No, I thought she did a nice job. I think there will be a little bit of attack, the media for nitpicking and that it's close, but it's not so, you know, OK, it is kind of close.

MCENANY: More so for the audience to gone there stand how this works. It's not as if when someone gives a speech, they write it themselves. There are speech writers which is the presidential campaign, there are people who pour over that. I agree with Amanda, it should have been caught but this is not something we can attribute to Melania Trump that she plagiarize ...

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: It's all by the fact that she's pulled and ...

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: No, she did not.

SELLERS: Yes, she did!

MCENANY: Again, taking it out of context, she said I wrote this with as little help as possible.

SELLERS: Except the part that was plagiarized. Yeah.

MCENANY: That's difference in saying she's wrote ...

SELLERS: The problem with this whole conversation is that Donald Trump and his campaign have set the bar so low that now all of a sudden plagiarism is, oh my god, that was a mistake.

LEMON: I -- let's talk about ...

SELLERS: No.

LEMON: No, let's -- I want to talk about that setting the bar so low because as I was sitting there watching the speeches, right, and people like "Oh, the speech was great," I'm like it wasn't feeling the speeches were all that great. I thought there were some moments. I thought Rudy Giuliani ruled the night. You may not have liked his speech. He had the crowd with him. He had great big with applause, everybody else, I think, paled in comparison to Rudy Giuliani. But the bar was so low. I was sitting there, my colleagues were like, "Oh yeah, that they were great, they are great, they are great," and now we're talking about Melania. I didn't think the speeches were that great. Maybe I'm the only one. We'll discuss that and we'll also to continue the controversy around what appears to be certain sections of the speech that were lifted from another speech.

We'll be right back, right after this. Don't go anywhere. This is -- can we call at CNN after dark or CNN tonight or CNN this morning?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:17:33] LEMON: And we are back now live at the CNN Grill. A big speech from Melania Trump tonight at Cleveland, a speech that plagiarize Michelle Obama in 2008 at least that what it appears to have done.

Back with me now, Mark Preston, CNN Politics Editor, Executive Editor, Keileigh Mcenany, a Donald Trump supporter, Bakari Sellers, a Hillary Clinton supporter, Amanda Carpenter, a former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz and Andy Dean who's not sure tonight. He's on the fence guys. He's a Trump supporter.

I want to talk about -- let's continue to discuss this. I want to play Melania Trump in that -- this speech. The part that appears to be lifted, and then we'll discuss. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: My parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise that you'll treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life.

That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son. And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So Kayleigh, first to you. Not only existed. It appears to be lifted, and you admit, you know, she's a speech writer, you know, that she's enough. As you give you that, I think you're correct on that. But I also give Bakari, at the end of the day, the words do come out of your mouth and you are responsible for those words.

When you -- But Donald Trump, I mean, Barack Obama is the enemy, he talks about him constantly, his values. She is touting the same values of the people that they despise of the values that they -- of the people that they despise. They despise those values and now they're touting the same values in a very similar speech.

MCENANY: Well, the values that she's touting are those that you would expect any loving wife to have for her husband. The same values and she would people ...

LEMON: But of all people?

MCENANY: ... have when they love humanity and love their neighbors. So, I think for their all values, we hope both people in humanity have.

[01:20:07] Now, looking to the content of this, do any of us on this panel thinks Melania Trump sat there and said I'm going to read Michelle Obama's speech because that will help my husband?

No. A speech writer did this. She trusted the speech writer, she read the words. It should've been caught, yes, but nothing will take away from the amazing story she told tonight of coming from Slovenia, admiring the American dream, harnessing it and then ...

LEMON: You said that she is had a great moment ...

MCENANY: And I will say that over and over again because nothing can take away from that.

LEMON: And she looked amazing and she had a great moment. And that is a very -- that's a tough thing to do. But, again, you don't think it's your ...

SELLERS: No, I mean, I think that's worth a spin. I mean, I've done it before. I mean, when you have a candidate that you support that sometimes backs you into a corner, I mean we all have to admit that. I mean, we're commentators, we're pundits sometimes. But this is ...

LEMON: Can I give you another scenario? That Melania Trump, actually as she said, wrote most of the speech and maybe she saw Michelle Obama's speech and didn't think much of it and said, you know what? What she says is ...

SELLERS: If Michelle Obama gave that speech in 2008 and lifted Nancy Reagan, then the world would be on fire. I mean, we all know that.

I mean, she -- the problem with the Donald Trump campaign is that Donald Trump's campaign is built on one thing. And you do it better than anybody else. And it's authenticity. Authenticity, you are who you are. I mean that is why people gravitate towards the Donald Trump campaign because of authenticity.

As a journalist, you have authenticity. You have your voice. What is the number one thing that underscores and will undercut that authenticity any time?

Plagiarism. She lifted the words from Michelle Obama.

You know what, I appreciate it because I always thought Michelle Obama was a bad woman and I'm glad Melania Trump think so ...

MCENANY: Bakari ...

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: No, no, I just want to get it for the audience.

MCENANY: I can't let you get away from that. Because we're talking about force into that speech that the candidate's spouse said, that the candidate's spouse said. And that is very rich coming from someone whose candidate lied and was contradicted by the FBI on four different points.

SELLERS: Can we talk about your candidate?

MCENACY: So if you want to talk about ...

(CROSSTALK)

MCENACY: No, I'm talking about the FBI director contradicting your candidate on four different points and basically she lied. There's no way around this.

So if I'm going to talk about character and who do talk ...

SELLERS: So you admit right now that Melania Trump lied?

MCENANY: No. What I am admitting is those lines, yes, they were taken from Michelle Obama's speech.

SELLERS: She plagiarize?

MCENANY: No. SELLERS: But you just said they were taken from the speech ...

MCENANY: Were you in the room with her when she wrote the speech?

SELLERS: Did she plagiarize or not?

MCENANY: Were you in the room with her when she wrote the speech?

SELLERS: I know who gave the speech.

MCENANY: Were you in the room when she gave wrote speech?

SELLERS: I know who gave the -- Who gave the speech?

MCENANY: She gave the speech.

SELLERS: Perfect. So ...

MCENANY: You don't know how many people were involved in writing that speech. You don't know if the speech writer gave her those lines.

SELLERS: You know what's amazing? There were people who put Brian Williams' words in a teleprompter. But Brian Williams had to be responsible for lying. I mean when we talk about ...

MCENANY: Brian Williams told ...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Let's bring this back for those guys.

CARPENTER: I'm a Republican. I want to see a good convention happen, but this is why it feels like we're living in an alternate universe. Very clearly, she plagiarized. Just own up to it and move on. Be honest about it. Put her out there, have her give some real, authentic anecdotes and move on.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: OK, Amanda, that is the frustration with many -- I shouldn't say with many. With this campaign, so to speak, is the lack of owning up and taking ...

CARPENTER: Yes. You cannot believe anything that comes out of the mouths of the Trump campaign, many times. I mean, even the floor action we saw, you know, Paul Manafort coming out from talking to Republicans and saying Jeff Lake never stood up to him. And Jeff Lake then confirming to reporters, "Yes, I did stand up to Trump admitting." Do you literally cannot believe anything they say? With the fact check everything including Melania's speech.

LEMON: OK, so then how do you explain that? That's a local media. Se then, what is -- then how do you explain Melania Trump if they can't blame that on the liberal media? Then what is it?

CARPENTER: I'm not the liberal media. I'm a conservative. But for -- gosh sakes, can we call a fact a fact a fact?

MCENANY: No one here is ...

CARPENTER: And the fact is that she lifted words from Michelle Obama.

MCEANY: No one in this panel ...

(CROSSTALK)

CARPENTER: It's going to blame down the liberal media when Melania did it herself.

MCENANY: I haven't done that, first of all, but no one on this panel ...

CARPENTER: Ultimate reality.

MCENANY: No, no, OK, Amanda, you want to deal in facts. You want to deal on facts. No one on this panel is denying that those words were lifted.

CARPENTER: OK.

MCENANY: We are saying did she herself take those words or, as we know, all speeches are written, with the exception of Donald Trump who doesn't use a teleprompter for the most part, did a speech writer take those words and ...

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: She denied at the speech guide. I want to do some more analysis.

LEMON: Oh, my God, I'm sorry.

DEAN: I do.

LEMON: I like that.

DEAN: Thank you.

LEMON: This is the first time I've seen you this contrite, Andy. But go ahead. Mark.

PRESTON: This is the moment, by the way.

LEMON: This is a moment by the way.

PRESTON: He's just sitting there.

[01:25:03] Let us just say what has happened, where we are and where we're going, OK? Because that's the bottom line. We will continue and talk about it all night, and we will. It will be interesting. It will be fun. And we'll laugh at it all day tomorrow and some which they perform.

Melania Trump is not a politician, OK?

LEMON: Yeah.

PRESTON: So she's not going to be held to the same standard as Donald Trump or any other politician. She's the wife of a politician. She will be given a little bit of grace because of this.

Yes, there will be blame put on a speech writer, as there should be. OK. What is bad for Melania Trump is that she just, hours earlier, said that she, "I read once over it and that's all because I wrote it with a little help as possible." OK?

CARPENTER: As little help as possible.

PRESTON: That is problematic for her. Is it fatal? Absolutely not. It's just distracting to a convention that by all accounts they'll ask you a very good start tonight. Absolutely. And this will be the discussion tomorrow.

LEMON: OK, OK. That's it. That's it. What if she did write most of it herself and what if she did take some of it from Michelle Obama's speech and what if she owns up to it and says, I thought the first lady gave a great speech tonight. So, you know, it's just part of it. What's the big deal?

SELLERS: Usually when you do stuff like, you start the senate with saying as Michelle Obama say this ...

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: ... about Barack Obama, that my values are your values and our values go together ...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: It's called attribution.

SELERS: It's called attribution. If you don't have attribution, then most people call it the plagiarism.

CARPENTER: It's not the act, it's always the cover up the. Just own up to it and ...

MCENANY: We don't know that she's going to cover it up. We need to wait hear from her to explain this.

LEMON: Some of the greatest moments of tonight. That was awesome. If you like WWE ...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I know that was awesome.

PRESTON: That was awesome.

LEMON: That was awesome. More awesomeness from the RNC Convention in Cleveland.

This is CNN tonight this morning after dark from Cleveland. We'll be right back. There it is.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:31:01] LEMON: We're back in Cleveland at the CNN Grill on the first night of the GOP convention here. Back with me now, my dream team, come on. The next time, tomorrow's show opening, I want it to be just like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You should do it

LEMON: I should do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about next commercial?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll get a smoke machine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't have the smoke machine.

LEMON: Show of hands, how awesome was that? That was pretty awesome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who was surprised by it. I think everybody was like, oh, my, what is going on?

LEMON: That was pretty awesome. What did you think?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That was incredible. He told us he knows how to put on a show and keep it entertaining, and that definitely showed tonight with that dramatic entrance, everyone, roaring applause, all of the --

ANDY DEAN, FORMER PRESIDENT, TRUMP PRODUCTIONS: Can you imagine what happened (ph) during the rose garden ceremony -- (laughter)

MCENANY: Yes, that would be awesome.

LEMON: He did promise, he promised showbiz.

DEAN: That was actually plagiarized from a Teddy Roosevelt speech.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He plagiarized from Hulk Hogan.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: -- if you think about it, because he had to make up for Scott Baio and Antonio Sabato. That entrance was like A+, and you have Scott Baio and Antonio Sabato, like C-list celebrities, so that negative -- I know, that was negative.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was very negative.

LEMON: I call it like I see it. I like to give credit where credit is due. That was --

SELLERS: That was phenomenal. LEMON: Magnifico. OK, back to the controversy now, because as

always, we talk about, there are, I don't know if it's missed opportunities -- something great happens and then the Trump campaign will step on it, right? So there was a chance that that would be leading our conversation and now we're talking about Michelle Obama's speech and the former lady's speech. So, you had an interview with David Trump Jr. What happened?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Yes, so I was able to talk to Donald Trump Jr. as he was walking off the floor after she had delivered the speech, and he was kind enough to stop, and I asked him, what did you think of her speech? How do you think she did? And this is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: Hey, Don, how do you think things went tonight? How do you think Melania did?

DONALD TRUMP JUNIOR, SON OF DONALD TRUMP: I think she did amazingly. That's not an easy thing to get up and do, right? So I think she did incredibly. Really proud to be there, to be a part of the process, and just as proud Americans, I think, parents -- I'm one of -- I'm a father of five, and to see the lifestyle that's going on, what's going on with this country right now, it's really sad. I think we want to make sure that this country is better when we leave it than the way we got it, and my father can do that.

PRESTON: What do you think the high point was for Melania's speech tonight?

TRUMP: I think she hit all sorts of notes, right. Talk about my father as a man, as a human, as a husband, as a father, I think that's different. I think that's a side that people don't often see of him, and so, I think that's incredible.

PRESTON: What speech tonight really caught you, really lit things on fire?

TRUMP: Giuliani I think did a great job. Sheriff Clarke did a great job. I'm friends with Mark Geist. I know the story. I've sat around with him as a buddy, hearing the story about Benghazi. So when you see that, you realize what this is really all about and, you know, I'm just excited to go tomorrow.

PRESTON: Terrific. Thank you very much.

TRUMP: Thank you very much, guys. Be well.

PRESTON: Appreciate it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: And there you have Donald Trump Jr. literally, just moments after Melania Trump gave the speech, and as you can see, they were leaving the arena very happy with how things had unfolded. Of course, they ran into this road block, or at least this speed bump right now which is controversy over plagiarism.

LEMON: Let's go through -- we said that the entrance -- let's go through some of the moments tonight. I thought the entrance was great. I thought Rudy Giuliani, when he got up there, I was like, well that is how you give a speech at a convention, right? Whether you agree with him or not, that's how you give a speech. He talked about supporting police. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[01:34:47] RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: The vast majority of Americans today do not feel safe. They fear for their children. They fear for themselves. They fear for our police officers who are being targeted with a target on their back. We pray for our police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge and their families.

When they come to save your life, they don't ask if you're black or white. They just come to save you!

It's time to make America safe again. It's time to make America one again. One America! What happened -- what happened to -- what happened to, there's no black America, there's no white America, there is just America? What happened to it? Where did it go? How has it flown away?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Come on, how much caffeine did he have? That was great. But you know when I was watching that just now, there is no black America, there is no white America, there is the United States of America, do you know where that was from?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh yes, definitely.

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think everybody knew he was ripping on Obama there.

LEMON: But again, you have to give a moment, that's how you give a speech. Was there a comparison to anybody else this evening?

MCENANY: No. Hands down, he got the applause. And where I commend him, is he did a very balanced approach when he talked about the police issue. He said, look, there are incidences that are unjustified when there are police killings, there are incidences that are justified, and those that are unjustified should be punished. And that beautiful line, there's no black America, there's no white America, there's one America -- got rousing applause --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't write that, either, though.

(CROSSTALK)

CARPENTER: Everyone knew he was talking about Obama.

MCENANY: It was great. It was a great moment, and hands down --

LEMON: That one was OK to lift, right? Because --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it also wasn't --

LEMON: But let's talk about the moment. How did that play on the floor?

DEAN: It was hugely popular on floor. Rudy Giuliani is beloved, with his work in New York after September 11, but I actually was very curious to see how he felt about the latest controversy, Black Lives Matter, because he instituted Com Stat in New York City, brought the crime rate way down through the use of technology and tough policing, and for him to feel so strongly that blue lives matter, we've got to stop talking about -- well, obviously there are bad cops, but this -- what I would say is just a lie that's out there, that one segment -- let's just be honest, that black people are under attack by our police, I think is insulting to our police, and I think he takes that personally, and he was very clear about that and I really liked it.

LEMON: OK, we'll discuss that. Sheriff David Clarke gave a speech tonight. And also, we're going to talk about what moments, what speeches, who was number one, number two, number three, number four, number five, and on and on. You may be surprised, but I think we pretty much got it right on this panel, at least Bakari and I. We'll discuss all of that, more moments from the convention tonight, live from the CNN Grill here in Cleveland.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:41:25] And we are back, live at the CNN Grill here in Cleveland on day one of the GOP convention. Here with me, Mark Preston, Kayleigh McEnany, Bakari Sellers, Amanda Carpenter, and Andy Dean. OK. We were talking about moments. You were talking about Back Lives Matter, Blue lives Matter, and on and on, what Giuliani --

DEAN: I just think Giuliani is such a great authority force to comment on that because he's lived it. And I think if black lives matters to anybody, it's Rudy Giuliani. I am very serious, because he brought down the murder rate in New York by double digits. That's very serious.

SELLERS: Will you also admit that the violent crime rate in this country has gone down exponentially since Reagan? Will you also admit that the number of officers who have been assaulted in the line of duty has gone down exponentially since Reagan? So -- but, wait a minute, but, that's the problem --

MCENANY: Well, there are things you need to admit, too, like the fact that in 2015, more --

SELLERS: Let me finish what I'm about to say, because what --

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: You can run on a campaign with that.

(CROSSTALK) LEMON: It wasn't a cesspool.

DEAN: A crime cesspool.

SELLERS: How about this -- all I'm trying to get Andy to understand -- we had this discussion earlier, and Kayleigh, is that this Black Lives Matter, it kind of skips over everybody, and the fact of the matter is that Rudy Giuliani's speech tonight was rousing. It was. It's the definition of rousing. But it was also the definition of divisive. It was -- he spoke to the choir. You know when you with preach to the choir, that's what Rudy Giuliani --

LEMON: But that's what they're here for.

SELLERS: That's fine. But what people have to understand is, when you say black lives matter, it doesn't mean that blue lives don't matter. It doesn't mean that Mark's life doesn't matter. It means black lives matters, too, because we have a question in this country about the value of black lives, and that's all we're saying.

LEMON: Why is that so hard to understand?

MCENANY: Well, first of all --

LEMON: Answer the question. Why is it so hard to understand?

MCENANY: Well, really quickly, first of all --

DEAN: It's offensive. I still don't understand how you can't recognize that it's offensive. Like I understand the horrible atrocities that were committed 60 years ago or 150 years ago were horrible on African-Americans, but you have to understand that when you say black lives matter --

SELLERS: Was Eric Garner horrible? Was Tamir Rice horrible? Was Walter Scott horrible?

DEAN: Well let's talk about Ferguson, Missouri. He attacked a cop. And so when you say, oh, well, you just lump that in. You can't --

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: But that's not the question I asked.

DEAN: These are all individual circumstances. So when you look at Ferguson, what I see is a bully. Michael Brown bullied a shopkeeper, and then beat up a cop.

SELLERS: You should really -- you should have respect for somebody who literally died and should not. Let me tell you what --

DEAN: He punched the guy's orbital socket out.

LEMON: Bakari, the Department of Justice found that --

DEAN: I get that. You've already litigated that. And I'm litigating that. But what I am telling Andy, is that the fact of the matter is, African-Americans in this country, many of us, who do not agree with the fact that law enforcement officers have been slain, have been assaulted, have been ambushed tragically in this country, but we do understand that African-Americans in this country are not getting the benefits of their humanity, because I want give you the perfect example.

For example, Walter Scott had a taillight out, got pulled over, got shot in the back and the law enforcement officer actually lied on the police report. But Dillon Ruth killed nine people in a church. The police knew he was strapped, they pulled him over, he got arrested and, is alive --

MCENANY: Let me give you two facts. Let's step back and look at the macro picture here. First of all, in 2015, more white people died because of cop shootings than black people did.

LEMON: In numbers, but not by percentage.

[01:45:03] MCENANY: That is a fact from "The Washington Post", and you can look --

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: Second of all, Roland Fryer, Harvard Law professor, Roland Fryer, an African-American male, was very angry at what he was seeing in the news. He set out to study this issue. He put out a study this week. He said it was --

LEMON: Last week. It was last week.

MCENANY: -- the most startling finding of his career -- of his career --

SELLERS: It was last week.

MCENANY: -- and he said, in fact, that when it comes to lethal violence, there is no racial disparities in what he found.

SELLERS: What did he say about assault?

MCENANY: -- and he said --

SELLERS: What did he say about assault?

MCENANY: Here's where you have a point. He said nonlethal force, yes, there is a racial dispute.

SELLERS: Thank you. That's called humanity and dignity.

MCENANY: -- and we need to look at that, and we need to make sure that --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: -- from my interview with Sheriff Clarke. And we'll get to, talk about that in a minute, and show him, but he would not even look at those numbers. So people don't want to look at the numbers when you look at how African-Americans are treated, not lethal force, but also with that, just as we talk about polls and flawed polling and all of that. And for the town hall that we had argued that we have that study in that town hall. But what fact checkers say, it is a small sampling of police departments around the country. It's ten police departments. So when you're discussing the fact of the findings on of that, you also must put into that that it is a small finding and that they believe that this study may be flawed.

MCENANY: But here's where -- I agree with you guys that there is -- when I hear you say that you're pulled over more than a white male, I believe that. My criminal law professor at Harvard Law School told me the same thing. Tim Scott served on the Senate floor, a Republican, and said, I've been pulled over seven times just in a short period of time. So I absolutely believe there are things that need to be looked at. But when it gets to the point where an entire profession is demonized, which is what Andy is saying, and he's right, and we have police being slaughtered because there is such distrust, unmerited trust of the police --

LEMON: But we don't know if that's the cause of that, though. I understand what you're saying and I think that people should -- Bakari, hold on. I think people should watch their language and their rhetoric, but we don't have a 100 percent connection between what's being said and officers being slaughtered, especially when the numbers show that officers being killed is down. It's not --

MCENANY: But we know that President Obama has rushed to judgment in Ferguson, in Baltimore, and now we are seeing, now, at this point in this country's history, police are being slaughtered on the streets after he has actively demonized officers who were found innocent --

LEMON: I've got to get to a break. Sadly, police officers are killed all the time in the line of duty. Police officers were being killed before this happened, before Michael Brown, before Trayvon Martin, before Black Lives Matter --

MCENANY: Not in this way.

LEMON: They were being killed more.

MCENANY: Not in this (inaudible).

LEMON: We're going to take a quick break. We're going to be right back. We'll continue our discussion. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking news. We're talking about Melania Trump's speech tonight, or last night, at the Republican National Convention here in Cleveland, that parts of it may have been plagiarized from Michelle Obama's speech back in 2008. It appears that it was. CNN's Manu Raju has some information now, some information from the Trump campaign, I think they're responding. He's on the convention floor. What do you have, Manu? MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, that's right, Don. Actually this is the first time that they are responding since the revelations came to light about the similarities between Michelle Obama's speech from 2008 and Melania's speech tonight, and this is what Jason Miller, the Senior Communications Adviser is saying, I'll read you his statement. He says that, in writing her beautiful speech, Melania's team took notes on her life's inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking. She said Melania's immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech which made it such a success.

So this is the first time they're addressing this. They're noting here, Don, that they -- there was a team of writers that took notes about her own life's inspirations. They're not acknowledging really at all that this -- that Michelle Obama's speech had anything to do with Melania's speech tonight or that there was passages lifted or anything like that at all. In fact, they are making it very clear that Melania was focusing on her own life's experiences and that's what her team of writers focused on, not any individual one person. So some pushback from the Trump campaign, I think that's one way to interpret it, not in any sort of acknowledgment that there was any plagiarism whatsoever. On the other hand, the campaign is making it very clear that they believe that this is Melania Trump in her own words and her own thinking, and her team putting together a speech that reflected her life's inspirations, Don.

LEMON: Manu Raju live on the convention floor with the breaking news. Back now with my panel, let's discuss now the statement from the Trump campaign on Melania Trump's speech. In writing her beautiful speech, Melania's team of writers took note on her life's inspirations, in some instances including fragments that reflected her own thinking. Melania's immigrant experience and love for America shown through in her speech which made it a success. And that is from Jason Miller, Senior Communications Adviser. No acknowledgment of possible, as Manu said, of possible plagiarism or lifting, just a response on how the speech was drafted.

PRESTON: Just a response of calling it a beautiful speech and what have you. So the next question will be tomorrow morning, because we certainly won't get it at this hour, is, will there be any heads that will roll? Will somebody be fired? What is the next step --

LEMON: Good move, good statement, bad statement?

PRESTON: At this hour, probably fine, but it's not going to close the book on this.

CARPENTER: They just put oxygen on this fire. It's not always the missteps, it's the cover-up. And this plays into Donald Trump never apologizing, never admitting error, never being able to fix a mistake. They are magnifying this character flaw that Trump has, and I think they're going to regret it by tomorrow and they're going to be acknowledging Michelle Obama --

LEMON: As you said, put her out to do more personal interviews, how should they -- CARPENTER: Yes, they should number one say, yes, we looked at

Michelle Obama's speech. Somehow that may have been lifted on a draft. It was a beautiful speech, and now we're going to have Melania do a round of interviews and talk about her relationship with Trump, because she does feel very strongly about it, and just move past it. But you can't hide, you can't deny, everybody can look at the words. They're just making themselves look silly.

[01:55:07] SELLERS: I mean, Michelle Obama is an inspiration to millions of women throughout the world. And Melania Trump is just somebody else that's inspired by Michelle Obama.

PRESTON: I just love how you --

LEMON: I saw his face.

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: I mean, that's what I got from Jason's release right there.

LEMON: You can't read that into it.

SELLERS: No, he said she drew inspiration. That speech that Michelle Obama gave was magnificent. I do think that there is a standard here that we're not talking about. I think that -- I think that Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton as a first lady, even the Bush's as a first lady, are being held to a different standard and we need to acknowledge that. Whether or not it's fair or not fair, but they're held to a different standard than Melania was.

PRESTON: But let's just ignore, just -- again, she's not a politician. She will not be held to the same standard as a politician. But to Amanda's point, you've got to make the acknowledgment and then you move on.

LEMON: I've got five seconds.

MCENANY: I can tell you this, she's crushed right now. This was her big night, she did a great job. She trusted a team of people and she is crushed right now.

LEMON: We'll continue this when we come right back. More highlights from day one of the GOP convention live here at CNN TONIGHT this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)