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Questions Swirl Around Melania Trump's Convention Speech; Day 2 of RNC, Make America Work Again; Baton Rouge Targeted and Assassinated Cops; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 19, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:48] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello live at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Thank you so much for joining me. The Trump campaign now in turmoil. Sources telling CNN Donald Trump is furious after controversy erupts over Melania Trump's convention speech. Her remarks now appearing to be plagiarized from a 2008 speech given by Michelle Obama.

(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.

MELANIE TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: 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.

M. TRUMP: That you treat people with respect. They taught me 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 limits at the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them.

M. TRUMP: Because -- 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)

COSTELLO: Sources also telling CNN that the top aide to Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman, is the man who oversaw Melania Trump's speech. Earlier today Manafort denied parts of the speech was lifted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Who takes the fall for cribbing Michelle Obama's speech in 2008? Whose fault is that?

PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CAMPAIGN CONVENTION MANAGER: Well, there's no cribbing of Michelle Obama's speech. These were common words and values, that she cares about her family, that -- things like that. I mean, she was speaking in front of 35 million people last night. She knew that. To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama's words is crazy.

It's I mean, this is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she would try to seek out her demeanor and take her down. It's not going to work.

CUOMO: All I'm saying is the language is strikingly similar. I'm not making a big deal of it. I know everybody's talking about it this morning, but I don't think it's an allegation. It's not some suggestion without proof. I think it happened. I don't understand why the campaign doesn't just own it and say, people borrow phrases, that's what happened and move on. That's what ironically Obama did in 2008 when Clinton said that he cribbed from Duvall Patrick. He said, yes, you're right, I did it.

MANAFORT: Yes -- no, I -- he did do it. That's correct. But in this particular case --

CUOMO: But Melania didn't --

MANAFORT: You know, there's a process certainly and collaboration -- certainly there's no feeling on her part that she did it. You know, what she did was used words that are common words. And to expect her -- to think that she would do something like that knowing how scrutinized her speech was going to be last night is just really absurd.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. We're covering all of the latest political fallout. So let's head live to Phil Mattingly right now, he's been talking to his sources.

What are you hearing this morning, Phil?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, inside the Trump campaign, there's a different message than what we're hearing from Paul Manafort outside. It's worth noting, Paul Manafort has said repeatedly this morning including just now at a press conference that this was not in any way Melania Trump's fault.

[10:05:04] In fact, there was nothing to apologize or acknowledge here. There was no cribbing, there was no plagiarism. That has been the public stance. Inside the campaign there's a bit of a different picture playing out here. There's frustration about what happened, there's a lot of questions about what happened. And now they're getting some pressure from the Republican National Committee in the form of Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman, saying in a Bloomberg Politics breakfast this morning that he would probably -- quote, "probably fire" whoever was responsible for writing Melania Trump's speech last night based on what he had seen.

Carol, the problem here is a couple-fold, if you will. One, these steps on what was supposed to be a very important moment for the Trump campaign. You don't hear a lot from Melania Trump on the campaign trail. You rarely see her on the campaign trail as well. Her role last night was as headliner and also to vouch for Donald Trump, to help provide a fuller picture for Donald Trump.

Instead the campaign is dealing with this headache this morning, and it's not one that's likely to go away any time soon. Again, while they are stating publicly that there was no plagiarism and that she was not cribbing in any way, shape or form from Michelle Obama's 2008 speech, we are hearing that inside the campaign they are attempting to identify how this happened, trying to track down who specifically was responsible for that. Those questions still unanswered. Something to keep a very close eye on going forward -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly reporting live for us. Thanks so much.

With me now, Rebecca Berg, who's a national political reporter for Real Clear Politics, Joseph Borelli is also with me. He's a New York City councilman and a Trump supporter. Actually he is the co-chair of Donald Trump's New York campaign. And Tara Setmayer, she's a CNN political commentator.

Joseph, I will start with you. Turmoil inside the Trump campaign over this. Are you hearing that?

JOSEPH BORELLI, TRUMP SUPPORTER: No. I'm not hearing turmoil. I think a bit more is being made of this than actually happened. Again this is something we've seen from other campaigns in the past. Biden, Obama --

COSTELLO: You heard what Phil Mattingly just reported.

BORELLI: Right, right. And I think --

COSTELLO: Said there's turmoil in the campaign. They're very upset. They're trying to find out what went wrong.

BORELLI: As they should. Something did go wrong. Obviously. I mean, there's no question about that. There are similarities.

COSTELLO: So you think it was plagiarism?

BORELLI: I don't know if it was -- look, my wife is equally as an amateur as Melania Trump in writing a speech. If someone asked her to write a speech about me and give a speech, she probably would Google the last thing said about just similar situations. I don't think that's an ill-intentioned thing. I think the campaign needs to address and move on. Go back to Hillary Clinton, go back to where they're talking about jobs.

COSTELLO: What would you like to see the campaign do, as a supporter of Donald Trump?

BORELLI: I don't speak for Melania. If she borrowed something from someone else, she should just fess up to it. If she didn't then she should continue to deny it or the campaign should continue to deny it. Either way come forward and say it. You know, it does distract from the argument that we've been making over the past day about Hillary Clinton.

I will take issue with one thing, though. You know, this morning, one of the other anchors tried to make a -- sort of an analogy that this somehow undermines the credibility of our attacks on Secretary Clinton. There's no moral equivalent between Melania Trump, you know, maybe borrowing something off the campaign and Hillary Clinton lying about Benghazi, lying about --

COSTELLO: Well, I don't think that's exactly what he said.

BORELLI: Well, that's one thing --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: No, no. I mean, I'm not saying it. I'm just trying -- it wasn't me. But I'm just saying that the parallel he was trying to make, if Hillary Clinton lied about something that a very strong surrogate of hers gave in a speech, then she would be --

BORELLI: You can't say there's any moral equivalent, though.

COSTELLO: Heavily chastised for that.

BORELLI: Between, you know, borrowing a speech and lying to the families of Benghazi, lying when you're in the highest echelon of our government.

COSTELLO: It's not Melania Trump, it's more that the Trump campaign isn't owning up to it and saying, yes, there was plagiarism here and we're going to do something about it and we're going to fire whoever was responsible.

BORELLI: And if that is the case, which it may or may not be, then they should do that and they should move on. Move on to something different. Move on to Secretary Clinton's spouse's lies in the past which got him impeached.

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Here's the problem. How many times have we sat here through the entirety of this campaign with Trump surrogates saying, well, they should have, well, they should have, because they continue to make these unforced errors. And it just reminds people that this is an amateurish campaign. He's running for the presidency of the United States. These are things that are avoidable.

The convention is an opportunity to show, to present the candidate, what it would be like potentially with this person as the president of the United States. And it's almost the first introduction for a lot of people. There was a lot of anticipation for the Melania Trump speech. Right? Just like last time in Tampa, there was a lot of anticipation for Anne Romney's speech. The wives are there to humanize the candidate.

BORELLI: It was otherwise good.

SETMAYER: Yes, for the most part, sure. But we're not talking about that because they plagiarized the speech, they won't own up to it which is what their M.O. is. Let's not forget, Donald Trump's mentor was Roy Comb, who was a brutal ruthless lawyer in New York who said never apologize. And it's so obvious when you look at the side by side, I mean, it's like -- it's insulting almost to say that this is -- couldn't possibly be -- you know, come on. It's insulting. And that's what frightens people because something as simple of this, they could have turned it around very easily and said, you know what, Melania was inspired by Michelle Obama. Despite how conservatives feel, Michelle Obama is still very popular.

[10:10:02] She could have just said, I was inspired by her and she -- you know, the first family represents the American dream as the first black family. There's so many other ways they could have done it.

COSTELLO: Well --

SETMAYER: Instead of just doubling down on something that's so obvious.

COSTELLO: So, Rebecca, put this in perspective for us. Why does this matter?

REBECCA BERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the question really is whether it will matter. What we've seen with the Trump campaign time and again is they've faced problems with the campaign, they've faced these mini scandals and controversies, and they just sort of wash over him like it didn't matter at all for many of his supporters.

I wonder whether this will matter, though, to the persuadable voters. We're in the general election now. These are the voters that both sides are going after. And the whole reason that we're having convention for Republicans this week is so Donald Trump can begin to make an impression with these persuadable, impressionable voters who haven't made up their minds yet.

And in most campaigns, and of course this has not been most campaigns in any sense, but in most campaigns a plagiarism scandal would be a defining moment. I mean, you think about Joe Biden's primary when he was running for president and he was forced to drop out over the plagiarism scandal that was years ago when he was a student. And this is something interestingly that last year Donald Trump attacked Joe Biden for, sort of laying out the case why he would be able to take on Joe Biden if Joe Biden were to run for president. He said the plagiarism scanned would be disqualifying for him.

So in any other campaign this would be a huge moment. But Donald Trump is not any candidate. And this is not any other campaign.

COSTELLO: And the fact, Joseph, that it was Michelle Obama's speech, I mean, how do you think Democrats are reacting this morning?

BORELLI: Well, they should be upset because we're being reminded, right? Let's assume that Melania and Michelle Obama said essentially the same thing, since Michelle Obama uttered those words, six million more Americans are in poverty. That was a speech given eight years ago when we were promised to be uplifted and united, and here eight years later we're united and no better off.

COSTELLO: That's a good spin.

(CROSSTALK)

SETMAYER: They're going to have to do. There's no other way around this.

BORELLI: But in (INAUDIBLE) to what Rebecca was saying about why it doesn't matter or it matters less than the actual meat and potatoes are what we're talking about. Today's theme, make America work again. We're going to talk about how we address the problems that Michelle Obama couldn't live up to and what she said in 2008.

SETMAYER: But see, this is -- last night was a very -- there were very powerful moments last night. And all of that is being overshadowed because of this unforced error again. And even with Donald Trump calling in to another network while the mother of one of the Benghazi victims was giving her very heartfelt, heart-wrenching speech about how her son died in her opinion at the hands of Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump is calling into another network.

That is just such a thin ear and just so self-absorbed that he couldn't even just let other people have the night. It has to be all about him all the time. And these are things that are character issues that people are concerned about. But instead of focusing on those very powerful images from the victims of illegal immigration, I know (INAUDIBLE), I worked with his family. I mean, these are all very tragic --

BORELLI: And Sheriff Clarke. Sheriff Clarke.

SETMAYER: Yes, David Clarke. There were some great speeches. And all of that is overshadowed now because here we are with another campaign scandal that they just can't -- you know, I said they need to admit it, move on, fire whoever did it and move forward. But here we are, this is dominating the news cycle again.

COSTELLO: All right. I've got to leave it there. Rebecca Berg, Joseph Borelli, Tara Setmayer. Thanks to all of you.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM, make America work again. You heard Joseph say it. That's the theme here at the RNC today. It's one of the top issues for voters. So what do Americans want to hear?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:17:48] COSTELLO: It is the reason Republicans came to Cleveland, the formal process of nominating Donald Trump and Mike Pence. It's due to kick off in just a matter of hours, this as the convention pivots from security to the economy.

Today's theme, "Make America Work Again." Speakers include Trump's children, Tiffany and Donald Trump Jr., he's the general manager of the Trump Winery. Also speaking tonight, New York Senator Shelley Moore Capito, and Trump's former rival Dr. Ben Carson. Also speaking soap actress Kimberlin Brown. I know and love her as Sheila on "The Young and the Restless." She'll also be speaking at the convention later today.

Joining me now, though, to discuss today's focus is our chief business correspondent Christine Romans.

Good morning, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, the focus, make America work again. What you're going to hear from Republicans and you started to hear it a little bit last night how the economy isn't working for everyone. And under this Obama economy, there's a lack of opportunity and a lack of upward mobility. But when you look at the numbers, sort of the mile markers of the economy that you feel, Carol, we do know the unemployment rate has dropped dramatically since the last time the Republicans were meeting in Tampa four years ago.

The unemployment rate now just 4.9 percent down from 8.1 percent. But you will hear Republicans say that there are too many people who have been left out of that statistics, who aren't working or would like to be getting a raise. In fact last night I think you heard a foreshadowing of that from Senator Jeff Sessions who pointed out that the American working family is bringing home less money. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)