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NY Mag: FOX News Boss Roger Ailes Given Deadline to Resign; Journalist Jarrett Hill Sounded Alarm on Melania Speech; Former Trump Rival Ben Carson to Speak at RNC. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 19, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00] GABRIEL SHERMAN, NATIONAL AFFAIRS EDITOR, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: They've gone to him with this ultimatum. This is where the state of play stands.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: We are talking about a GOP kingmaker, a man who ran campaigns for Republicans decades ago, now a television legend. He built FOX News from nothing into the powerhouse it is today. If he is to step down or be fired in the weeks to come it means a lot for the future of FOX. It also means something for women who have experienced this in the workplace who may want to come forward.

He is denying all the allegations of sexual harassment. But the striking report on the report from Megyn Kelly, I've been calling she and her husband's personal cell phone number. They're saying nothing.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: That means they're not denying the story. If they wanted to deny the report, they'd have done so by now.

SHERMAN: I reached out to her agent before publication and they did not call me back. Again they are not doing anything to actively shoot this down.

STELTER: Ailes is at work today. He's running the channel today on a very big week for all the cable news channels. I think it is worth noting as recently as April, in the press, Megyn Kelly has been supportive of Ailes, praising Ailes. saying is a great boss to work for and thanking him for helping her rise to where she is in television today.

(CROSSTALK)

SHERMAN: We should also point out one thing that this investigation is really blowing the lid off is the culture of silence that Roger Ailes has built at FOX News. Women are terrified about speaking out because they signed these non-disclosure agreements, these contracts that Roger Ailes and the FOX News lawyer, Diane Brandy, have insisted upon them signing are very powerful contracts. The lawyers doing this investigation for Rupert Murdoch has said they will waive the nondisclosure part of this contract for women to come forward to speak, because women are terrified that they could be sued for speaking out. Now the lawyers say we will not use these NDAs to cover up what is essentially against the law or against corporate policy. So the NDAs are already gone.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: Already, this afternoon, I spoke to a woman reach out to me who wants to speak to Paul White. She read Gabe's story, was a former employee at FOX and wants to speak to the law firm now.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Perhaps as more women are able to speak.

STELTER: That's the question.

BALDWIN: Part of your reporting is Roger Ailes getting advice from Trump?

SHERMAN: Yes. So he has not -- not the specific story but in the last -- since Gretchen Carlson filed her lawsuit, Donald Trump has reached out to Roger Ailes. He has publicly praised Roger Ailes.

STELTER: They've been friends for decades.

SHERMAN: Trump has been advising him behind the scenes. I know in this most recent case, Rudy Giuliani, of all people, a long-time Ailes friend, is also part of his kitchen cabinet of advisors, working with his lawyers to try to strategize how to get o of this mess.

STELTER: We should never underestimate Roger Ailes. There's no video or audio recordings. We can't underestimate Roger Ailes. But it seems the Murdoch family has him in an extremely difficult situation.

SHERMAN: We should lastly point out that the "Drudge Report," one of the most powerful voices in conservative media, played this story big just now and "Drudge" is being seen as a barometer for the fact that he's willing to give this play, his sources might be saying this is Ailes' time.

STELTER: Checking my e-mail because the Murdoch -- The 21st Century FOX folks still have not commented this afternoon. Their silence is kind of story now.

SHERMAN: Wow. Wow.

BALDWIN: All right. Gabe Sherman and Brian Stelter -- it is a big, big deal.

STELTER: We are talk being about a rival of FOX. But it is shocking even if you step back, 30,000-foot view, folks in this building, folks that watch FOX News, I think they're shocked, too.

BALDWIN: Gentlemen, thank you very much.

SHERMAN: Thank you.

BALDWIN: We'll obviously stay on that story. Meantime, back here in Cleveland, Republicans did not want day

two of the Republican National Convention dominated by all this talk of whether Mrs. Trump, whether Melania Trump, cribbed her speech last night from First Lady Michelle Obama. We'll talk to a journalist who is one of the first to actually spot the similarities between these two speeches and also a former speech writer for President Obama about how this could possibly happen.

And ahead, Donald Trump once said Ben Carson has a "pathological temper." Now Ben Carson gets to speak about Donald Trump tonight. We'll look back at what he said before these two joined forces.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:38:44] BALDWIN: Back here in Cleveland, Ohio, I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

It is day two for the Republican National Convention. I know, I know, lot of people still talking about night number-one here at the RNC. Melania Trump's speech, which sounded a heck of a lot like Michelle Obama's speech back in 2008 at the Democratic National Convention. So, yes, the campaign says Mrs. Trump's speech was not plagiarized. They say no one will be fired, no one will be disciplined, end of story.

This might not have been a story at all had it not been for Jarrett Hill. He is a freelance journalist and actually is a former CNN intern who apparently had a raging case of deja vu as he listened to the speech last night, was one of the first people who sound the alarm. Last night, he took to Twitter and said, "Melania must have like Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech because she plagiarized it." Less than two hours later, Jarrett tweeted, "Um, this is becoming a thing," which could be an understatement of the week. Then 14 minutes later simply -- "OMG."

Jarrett Hill joins me from Los Angeles. Also joining the conversation, David Litt, a former speech writer for President Obama and he's head writer for the hilarious site "Funny or Die," out of D.C.

Gentlemen, welcome.

Jarrett, let me just rip the Band-Aid off and rip the question off, were you at all paid by Hillary Clinton campaign, are you plant? Because that is what Paul Manafort in the Trump camp had alleged first thing this morning.

[14:40:22] JARRETT HILL, JOURNALIST: Brooke, I wish I was on someone's payroll at the Clinton campaign.

(LAUGHTER)

But, unfortunately, that is not the case. I've gotten so many tweets that suggested that I must be, direct messages that said, he's a plant, like how did he possibly know that. I would accept that check. But, no, I'm not a part of the Clinton campaign. BALDWIN: So, all right. That said, how did you figure this out?

HILL: The way that I've been explaining it the best has been, you know when you're watching a movie that you've seen before and you're kind of reciting the lines back to the screen as they are he a happening? Melania say this piece about the extent of -- the power of your dreams and all this piece. The word "willingness" started coming out of my mouth when she said "the willingness to work for it." Then immediately afterward I said that to the screen, I thought to myself that's kind of weird. Then I thought that's really r6 weird. And then I started Googling. The reporter had kind of went on. I started Googling Michelle's speeches. I originally thought it was from 2012. Then I realized it was from 2008. I guess the rest was kind of history from there.

BALDWIN: Wow. So you got on Google and you got retweeted like a gazillion times.

David, let me bring you in.

From the speech-writer perspective, when you're talking about millions of eyes on the screen, watching night one how many people, from your experience, look through, let's say, a potential first lady's speech?

DAVID LITT, LEAD WRITER, FUNNY OR DIE & FORMER OBAMA SPEECH WRITER: I mean, there's all sorts of people looking through a speech like that, not just speech writers but also you have fact checkers, you have policy teams, you have -- I mean in this case it sounded like senior advisor -- or at least someone close to the senior advisor on the campaign was doing --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Well, they're denying that, by the way.

LITT: Well, so maybe in this case they didn't have enough people. I know the way that we've done it in the past is you have people speaking a look so that maybe some of them have that exact same kind of -- what's going on here moment that Jarrett just talked about and they solve this problem before it reaches to millions of people on the screen.

BALDWIN: What if -- let's take Melania Trump at her word. She told NBC that she really wrote the majority of the speech, and that perhaps she watched Michelle Obama's '08 speech as inspiration. She is apparently a fan of Michelle Obama? We don't know who might have looked at the speech. English is like her third, fourth or fifth language. The campaign, David says they will not discipline or fire anyone. Do you think they should?

LITT: Yeah --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You can't fire Melania Trump. LITT: You cannot fire Melania Trump. I think, as a speech

writer, if I had done something this egregious, I would have expected to be fired. I think that would make a lot of sense. At the same time, if Melania Trump says she wrote the speech and she is the one who wrote it, you can't fire your future first lady. So I do think she can apologize. I think that sometimes, let's say this is just a mistake, then say we made a mistake and we'll make sure it doesn't happen again. That's what I would have expected.

BALDWIN: Jarrett?

HILL: Brooke, I would just offer that, were I a student in college and I turned in a paper with 22 out of 29 words matching and these kinds of things, we would not be having the same conversation about my college career. So it's just kind of interesting to me that this happens in this way and it is like, oh, well -- the way that they're framing it is like, oh, she -- it just kind of happened that way. It's like, when does it ever just kind of happen this way? It's kind of ridiculous.

BALDWIN: I don't know. I don't know. Are you going to be watching as closely tonight, Jarrett Hill?

HILL: Are you kidding? Of course. And I will be live tweeting it. & is going to be something to watch, I'm sure.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: David Litt, finally, just from your "Funny or Die" comedic perspective, this is comedic gold, yes?

LITT: Yes. I mean I think there is -- I think Twitter has been all over this from the beginning and I think -- I said earlier to someone, the Trump campaign really is the gift that keeps on giving to comedians. We will keep taking it.

BALDWIN: All right, David Litt, Jarrett Hill, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

[14:44:36] BALDWIN: Coming up next, looking ahead to this evening and speakers. Donald Trump once compared this man to a child molester who can't be cured, but tonight, Dr. Ben Carson will be speaking up on that massive stage on Trump's behalf. We'll take a look back at these two, their memorable moments of the past, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Dr. Ben Carson gets his chance at the convention this evening here in Cleveland. He will speak in prime time. Dr. Carson endorsed Mr. Trump after leaving the race earlier this year, but I think it is fair to say that these two men really had an interesting relationship during the campaign both saying they liked the other, but it has not always been so friendly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: He took a knife and he went after a friend, and he lunged -- he lunged that knife into the stomach of his friends. But lo and behold, it hit the belt. It hit the belt. And the knife broke. Give me a break. Give me a break. Give me a break. The knife broke. Give me a break. Give me a break. The knife broke.

Let me tell you, I'm pretty good at this stuff. So I have a belt. Somebody hits me with a belt, it's going in because the belt moves this way. It moves this way.

(LAUGHTER)

It moves that way!

(LAUGHTER)

Anybody have a knife? Want to try it on me?

(LAUGHTER)

He said he's pathological. Others said he said in the book -- I haven't seen it but I know it's in the book -- that he's got a pathological temper or temperament. That's a big problem because you don't cure that. That's like -- I could say -- they'd say you don't cure -- as an example, child molester. You don't cure these people. You don't cure a child molester. There's no cure for it. Pathological, there's no cure for that.

[14:50:31] DR. BEN CARSON, (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & RETIRED NEUROSURGEON (voice-over): Even if Donald Trump turns out not to be such a great president, which I don't think is the case. I think he is going to surround himself with really good people. But even if he didn't, we're only looking at four years. As opposed to multiple generations and perhaps the loss of the American dream forever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That's the past. As we mentioned, Dr. Carson speaking tonight in prime time here at the RNC. Not the only Republican who's had some differences with Mr. Trump.

Joining me now, one of those political leaders who has been a big critic of Trump, now supports the presumptive Republican nominee. He is Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of the great state of Texas.

Nice to see you again.

DAN PATRICK, TEXAS LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: Great to see you again, Brooke. You get combat pay here. The lights are hot.

BALDWIN: I need shades. I need shades.

So how is it that politicians, including yourself, can go from one end of the spectrum to the other and say we like him now?

PATRICK: Did ever work for a network and switch to another network and suddenly they became the best?

BALDWIN: Are you giving me credit? I'll take it.

(LAUGHTER)

PATRICK: My point is ball players, trade teams, we're you're on the field of battle, and politics is a battle, you go all out to win. Then you get traded or you switch networks or you now support another candidate.

BALDWIN: Isn't that part of job function versus character. One's character doesn't change. Mr. Trump is Mr. Trump is Mr. Trump.

PATRICK: I think when it comes to politics, people say things in the heat of the battle that afterwards they can sit down and say. look --

(CROSSTALK)

PATRICK: Pardon?

BALDWIN: Do you regret being --

(CROSSTALK)

PATRICK: The last negative I said about Donald Trump was back in August of last year. I stayed out of that. I was the chair of Ted's campaign in Texas and worked for him around the country. I was supportive of Ted, not egging him toward anyone. I had a lot of friends in the race, a lot of Texas people. I've gotten to know Donald Trump. What I think it is a testament to people -- you see it in the other party, too. Bernie and Hillary, too.

BALDWIN: Absolutely.

PATRICK: But Ben Carson is a wonderful guy. Donald Trump's a wonderful guy. It is interesting when you meet him, as I have recently started working with him --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Who, him? Mr. Carson?

PATRICK: No. Mr. Trump. Instantly liked him. Instantly listens. Not the guy you see on the stage a little bit. When that spotlight comes on, he gets fired up. But the fact that he's reached out to Cruz, and Ted Cruz has a prime time speaking spot, healing that relationship, the Carson relationship. That's a part of politics. We as Republicans are all on the same team and we want Trump to win just like the Democrats are all supporting the person we're going to defeat in November.

BALDWIN: Democrats would say otherwise but I appreciate that. Let me move on to what's so pertinent in the news, these police

officers killed in Dallas and, of course, in Baton Rouge. We know that you've been Black Lives Matter. Mr. Trump was on FOX saying if he were elected president of the United States, he would have the attorney general investigate that movement for any kind of criminality. Would you support that? Having the A.G. investigate them?

PATRICK: Absolutely. I was with the president last week and had a chance to ask him direct questions at a town hall at another network. Much of it was pre-taped. What I said to the president multiple times, we can have unity but not until the chance of killing cops is removed from our streets. Not until the hateful rhetoric is removed. Not until we stop killing cops. We know we have a distrust in the black community of police. We know that there are some police officers who need to be replaced. And police forces want to remove those people as well. But before we can sit down at a table and have unity, we have to stop having protesters chanting kill the cops.

BALDWIN: Which happened in 2014 which the Black Lives Matter movement, they have condemned that kind of language.

PATRICK: It happened in Dallas. I know it was generally a peaceful protest but that rally started with BLM leaders saying "G.D. white America," "F white America." So it continues.

BALDWIN: I can't speak to which specific groups -- I want in Dallas to be able to say -- but what is it you think the current president has not done enough?

PATRICK: Well, first of all, it would be nice to light the White House in blue lights, which I asked him to do. Police have asked him to do it. But when you have eight police officers, Brooke, get murdered on the street for only being police officers and the president who has lit up the White House for other groups won't put blue lights on the White House? What does that send a message? I said to the president last week, I said, Mr. President, we know you believe in law enforcement, but in their heart, the police officers in this country don't think you have their back and are doing everything to protect them.

[14:55:23] BALDWIN: He's also getting criticism on the other side for going to Dallas and giving the eulogy and not going --

(CROSSTALK)

PATRICK: He needs to stand up to the other side and say, you need to quiet down. We don't yell fire in the movie theater. We have first amendment rights but you can't do things that hurt people. You have a right to protest but you have to get a permit if you're going to have a march. Part of that is if you are walking down the street saying what do we want, we want to kill cops now? The president has to speak out against that and the president inviting people to the White House who say they want to kill cops.

BALDWIN: OK. PATRICK: That's what the president needs to do.

BALDWIN: In the movement, they absolutely condemn that language. It is a huge conversation that needs to be had.

PATRICK: And Donald Trump would do that. Donald Trump would have had blue lights at the White House the day after Dallas.

BALDWIN: I understand. I don't know if lights would fix this whole thing --

(CROSSTALK)

PATRICK: But let me tell you what. Lights don't fix it but it sends a message to the police that I'm with you. There are some symbolic things. Today is my 41st wedding anniversary. I sent flowers to my wife. It is symbolic. There are certain things you do to express your faith, your support, your love. But secondly, the president needs to quit indicting policemen on video before he has the facts and he needs to stop the hateful rhetoric in the street. Donald Trump will do all of those things. Donald Trump will not convict police when he sees videos. Donald Trump will let them know they have his undying report and they'll know that.

BALDWIN: Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, thank you so much.

PATRICK: Thank you, Brooke. All right.

BALDWIN: Appreciate it very much.

Everyone has a different perspective.

It is important to have this conversation in this country, indeed.

Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, speaking this evening, says Melania Trump's speech says was 93 percent her own while the Republican communications chief defended his speech by referencing "My Little Pony."

Folks, it is just day two here at the RANK in Cleveland. We've got it all covered for you.

Stay with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)