Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Newt Gingrich and Others Weigh in on Melania Trump's Speech; Roger Ailes in Talks To Leave Fox After Sexual Harassment Allegations; Hillary Clinton's Shortlist Getting Shorter as VP Announcement Nears; Why Are Some Donors And Big Deal Republicans Sitting Out The Convention? Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 20, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:50]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Monday night there was this controversy because there were these strikingly similar lines ...

NEWT GINGRICH (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yeah.

GANGEL: ... plagiarism in Melania's speech from Michelle Obama's speech. Do you think that's a problem?

GINGRICH: No. I think at this -- I'm actually disgusted with the news media. Because she gives a long speech, OK?

GANGEL: Wait a minute. Why is it the media's fault?

GINGRICH: Because the Vice President of the United States stole entire speeches from Neil Kinnock. Barack Obama lifted entire sections of a speech from the governor of Massachusetts. But after all, they're liberal Democrats. Nobody said it was -- nobody said Joe Biden ought to step down because he's a plagiarist.

GANGEL: But in fairness, those other politicians have gotten called out too. But is it a problem for Donald Trump ...

GINGRICH: to -- no.

GANGEL: ... that this happened and no one is willing to say, "you know what? There was a mistake."

GINGRICH: Who cares? Who cares? The fact is, Melania gave a good speech. She was -- she is stunningly attractive, she's stunningly articulate. Most of the people criticizing her can't speak five languages. She's a bright person, she introduced herself in a way that's attractive. She's obviously very passionate about America. And she introduced her husband.

And then instead of saying -- in the middle of an extraordinarily triumphant moment there's a glitch. The glitch becomes a story. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN, HOST "NEWSROOM": All right, Newt Gingrich with his thoughts on Melania Trump's speech. Jamie Gangel joins me now with more. Because Newt Gingrich said a lot more interesting stuff.

GANGEL: But at least he did say it was a glitch. That's the closest admission we've had that there was, there was a ...

COSTELLO: It was a glitch but it's -- it's just unimportant in Newt Gingrich's mind. I was just talking to Jan Brewer. Arizona governor, she's the Trump surrogate, right? She was talking about how disappointed she was to -- in the lack of proposing unity at this convention. And we talk a little bit about Senator Cruz. And she was hoping that Ted Cruz would come out with an endorsement for Donald Trump tonight. What does Newt Gingrich say about that?

GANGEL: So she -- her wish may come true. We are going to show the rest of the interview as the day goes on. Newt Gingrich predicts that Ted Cruz probably will endorse Donald Trump tonight ...

COSTELLO: Really?

GANGEL: ... and that he says the RNC, he does not think has seen Cruz's speech yet. But he thinks that's where it's going to go. And he predicts the place will go crazy, so.

COSTELLO: Interesting. OK so is Newt Gingrich disappointed he didn't get the VP spot? And does he want the role in a Trump cabinet?

GANGEL: Well you know, he claims he's not disappointed. He has this line about Donald Trump didn't need two pirates (ph), two big personalities. Up until today he has said, "No, no, no. I'm very busy, my plate is full." But today he changed his tune. But he does not want a cabinet position, a traditional one. He wants to be in charge of fixing the government. The government czar.

All new position. Not sure he's discussed it with Donald Trump yet. So word to Donald Trump, if you win, you have a government czar in waiting.

COSTELLO: Well that's interesting because he has been critical of Donald Trump, right? Of his campaign. And some of the things that he says that don't sound so presidential. So maybe he just wants to help Donald Trump hit it.

GANGEL: Right. So unlike some of the others who've been much more loyal, Newt Gingrich has never minced words. And he doesn't -- just a couple of weeks ago he called Donald Trump a gifted amateur. And then I asked him whether he's now gone from amateur to professional. Can he be president?

And he said that he really thinks he's gifted. He stressed that word. But he said, Trump still needs to pivot. To reach out to women, to Hispanics, in order to close the deal.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Well I look forward to hearing the rest of your interview ...

GANGEL: Thank you ...

COSTELLO: ... on CNN ...

GANGEL: Thanks.

COSTELLO: ... later this afternoon. Jamie Gangel, thank you so much. All right you heard Newt Gingrich sidestep the question about Melania's speech. Although he did say it was a glitch. Right Jamie? He did say it was a glitch. But Trump's campaign chairman still playing defense. Listen to him spar with Chris Cuomo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: It's about the truth. And that's all it's about. The language came from Michelle Obama's ...

PAUL MANAFORT, CAMPAIGN CHAIR FOR DONALD TRUMP: And the truth, the truth ...

CUOMO: ... speech.

MANAFORT: The truth is the words -- the truth is the feelings that were expressed by Melania Trump that night -- which you don't want to focus on. It was the message that she was communicating. That's the truth. And that message reflected her heart ...

CUOMO: Of course I want to focus on it. We say she gave a good speech. We say it was compelling ...

MANAFORT: But then move on, move on ...

CUOMO: The words were the same that Michelle Obama -- but I can't move on. Because you keep lying about it so I can't move on from it. Because I have to talk about what is ...

MANAFORT: Chris I'm not lying about anything.

CUOMO: ... true.

MANAFORT: I'm not lying about anything.

CUOMO: Did the language -- did a portion of the language of that speech come from Michelle Obama's speech, yes or no.

MANAFORT: As far as we're concerned, there are similar words that were used. We've said that. But the feelings of those words, and the commonality of those words do not create a situation which we feel we have to agree with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK so here is what we're learning about Melania's speech today. Multiple sources are telling us that the writing process started last month. When Trump's son-in-law enlisted two speech writers to start crafting Melania Trump's message. They handed over a draft to the Trump campaign. One that did not contain any parallels whatsoever to Michelle Obama's 2008 speech. We're told that speech was very well received by the Trump campaign. But then they were never contacted again by Melania Trump.

What happened next is something of a mystery. The speech Melania Trump delivered was entirely different from that original draft. It is still unclear who exactly was responsible for that. With me now to talk more about this is Jackie Kucinich, Washington Bureau Chief for The Daily Beast. And Patrick Healy, CNN Political Commentator, and New York Times Political Correspondent. Jackie, you're also a CNN Political Analyst.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Indeed.

COSTELLO: Welcome aboard.

KUCINICH: Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: All right, so we keep talking about this. Because we're curious as journalists, it's like, how did this happen, right?

KUCINICH: Right. [10:36:00]

COSTELLO: So we know Jared Kushner, who's been running things with the Trump campaign, he hired or reached out to two professional speech writers. And they wrote a speech, gave it to Melania Trump. And then who knows what happened from there? Do you know anything?

KUCINICH: You know you can just say, when you're talking to speech writers, when someone isn't fired when a candidate or someone in the candidate's immediate circle makes a mistake, that usually means it was the principal's fault that whatever offending language ended up in there. So we don't ...

COSTELLO: i.e. Melania Trump.

KUCINICH: i.e. Melania Trump. So we don't know that for sure, but it certainly seems to be the case at this point.

COSTELLO: And you can't fire Melania Trump.

PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No you can't fire her. And you go all out to defend her. I mean they're really trying to create this argument that it's about feelings not about words. That words don't really matter. Now what we have reported, and what I've learned is that she spent quite a lot of time on this speech, going over it. But that only parts of it were either minimally -- were written by her, where that she was just adapting.

But no one has yet to draw some line between her being on the internet, taking off language and somehow rewriting that. There's no thought that that, that that may have occurred. That it was -- that there were some multiple advisors, multiple hands on the speech. COSTELLO: Well I think it's fine that Melania Trump did that because

you want speeches to be in your own words, and reflective of what you really feel. But the curious thing is why didn't anyone vett it before she delivered it? Or did they?

KUCINICH: I mean, I don't -- there isn't a whole lot of -- it seems like there are a lot of things in flux with this convention, still. So that's not unusual for the environment that we're in right now. But I think the bottom line, and one of the most fascinating parts about this, if the Trump campaign had come out and said, "this was a mistake, this was in there, we're sorry, move on," we probably wouldn't still be talking about it two days later.

But this is constant with the Trump campaign. They deny, deny, deny, double down, double down, double down. And it creates this long story that probably could have gone away fairly easily.

HEALY: And Mr. Trump has made it very clear internally that all of the responses are designed to protect Melania Trump. That he will not have her hung out to dry in any way. And that's why you see Paul Manafort and the others refusing to go there. The problem, as Jackie's getting at, is just it keeps the story alive. There's no willingness to concede the mistake was made.

COSTELLO: But when you put it that way, that he's protecting his wife, doesn't want to hang her out to dry, that would resonate with me as a voter.

KUCINICH: Absolutely.

HEALY: That would resonate, absolutely. And I think that they're (ph) -- the concern there, too, is that the campaign is still so small bones. Unlike Hillary who's got this whole speech writing staff. And research and vetting that goes on within speeches. In this instance they're working on Don Jr.'s speech, Eric Trump's, Ivanka's, Melania's and they've been -- to be frank, rushing through a lot of this.

But it is interesting they don't want to admit -- and this has been a struggle for Donald Trump from the getgo -- mistakes. They don't want to acknowledge that, "OK, something may have gone wrong with the perfect spouse."

COSTELLO: So will this go away after tomorrow, you think? I mean we're going to hear probably another powerful speech from Eric Trump. Because Donald Trump Jr.'s speech was frankly quite good, right? So and Ivanka Trump is going to introduce her father. And we expect her speech to be terrific as well.

And so once all of that happens, won't this just go away?

KUCINICH: It could. But again, I think it's the broader problem with the Trump campaign. And as Patrick said, they will not admit fault, they will not admit any sort of -- that anything went wrong here. And until they do something like that, this is just going to keep playing out in another form. HEALY: And next week at the Democratic Convention, there'll be a lot

of comparisons between what they think will be this perfectly rolled out convention with all these big speakers, versus the Republican ups and downs, mistakes -- like this becomes like a data point for that kinds of stories.

COSTELLO: Right, interesting. All right, so we'll look forward to Philadelphia for that. Jackie, Patrick, thank you for stopping by. Still to come in the Newsroom, a major shakeup -- a major shakeup coming to FOX News. We'll have the bombshell report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:44:30]

COSTELLO: The top fox at FOX News could soon be on his way out. CEO Roger Ailes is in talks to leave the network after damning allegations of sexual harassment from his female staff. Including of course, Gretchen Carlson. Joining me now, Senior Media Correspondent, Brian Stelter. So what's the latest with this?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Never thought we'd be saying this, Carol, but Roger Ailes, who founded FOX News will be leaving in the coming days. It's all now down to the negotiations over what the press release says.

COSTELLO: So it's definitely true ...

STELTER: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... he's on his way out.

STELTER: Yes. Sources close to the Murdoch family, which owns 21st Century Fox, say to me he's definitely leaving. It's just a matter of how and when. It could be today, could be tomorrow, could even be next week. He may get a face-to-face with Rupert Murdoch, the real ultimate boss of Fox, before all is said and done.

We can show you what Ails' attorney, Susan Estrich is saying. She has told our colleague Dylan Byers that, right now there's no agreement yet for Ails to leave. It's in talks. When there is an agreement it'll be announced by 21st Century Fox.

This is so significant, especially during the Republican National Convention. Because before Ails changed television -- for better or worse, depending on how you feel -- he changed politics. He was a campaign strategist for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Then he founded Fox News and created this conservative media powerhouse. And everyone wonders what it'll be like without him.

COSTELLO: Well actually maybe it's better for Fox that this is happening now. Because people are focused on the convention, not what ...

STELTER: That's interesting, I heard from an anchor there this morning that they're kind of distracted by the story of the Donald Trump nomination and they won't really process what's happening with their boss until they get back to New York.

COSTELLO: So what was the thing that made the upper echelon want to get rid of Roger Ailes? What was the thing?

STELTER: I would say there's two factors. One are the sexual harassment allegations. Not just from Gretchen Carlson who's suing. But also from other women who have been interviewed by a law firm that's investigating the allegations. These have piled up. And at the same time, the Murdochs are ready for a change.

The sons, who are taking power in the company, they're not as much as big fans of Roger Ailes as their father, Rupert Murdoch. They don't necessarily agree with his conservative brand of politics. Some people believe that Fox News has hurt the United States over the past 20 years by further dividing people, by polarizing the country.

Of course there's lots of fans of Fox, too. But the sons might want a slightly more moderate Fox News. We'll see how it changes in the future.

COSTELLO: Interesting.

STELTER: Yeah.

COSTELLO: Brian Stelter, thanks so much.

STELTER: Thanks. Still to come in the Newsroom, high profile donors with deep pockets are skipping out on the GOP convention and Donald Trump. But my next -- but my next guest is not. He'll tell you why, next.

[10:47:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:51:10]

COSTELLO: We're now just days away from knowing who Hillary Clinton's running mate will be. Right now Clinton is holed up behind these gates inside her New York home in Chappaqua, New York. She's expected to announce her VP pick sometime by the end of this week as she campaigns in Florida.

Here's a look at her shortlist. But two names are flying high above the rest. You see them there in the one and two spots. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, and Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack. She's expected to make a decision maybe by the end of the week. Of course we'll keep you posted.

Many top conservative donors and businesses are skipping out on the Republican National Convention and refusing to back the nominee, Donald Trump. And that includes the wealthy Koch brothers, hedge fund manager Phil Singer, or Paul Singer, rather. And a number of businesses from Apple to Wells Fargo. They're scaling back their sponsorships.

Billionaire donor Foster Friess joins me now to talk about this and more. Welcome, sir.

FOSTER FRIESS, FOUNDER, FRIESS ASSOCIATES: Well it's an honor ...

COSTELLO: We're glad to have you here.

FRIESS: It's an honor to be here, Carol. This is pretty exciting. Man, those speeches last night and Rudy Giuliani's speech -- I texted him, I said, "Rudy, you have a gift at communications." But now if we can only interject a little enthusiasm into his delivery.

COSTELLO: I know, I think that's an understatement.

FRIESS: Yeah he was wonderful ...

COSTELLO: He was very enthusiastic.

FRIESS: Wonderful man.

COSTELLO: Yeah. So let's talk about these big donors sitting on the sidelines. Why are they're still unsure about Donald Trump?

FRIESS: Well I don't think they're unsure about Donald Trump. I think they're unsure about the machinations that could've occurred yesterday on the floor of the convention. And now that's been resolved I think there's going to be a huge movement. And John Kasich, for example, he's not here but he's still young. So he'll grow out of this. You know, I think ...

COSTELLO: I like that guy.

FRIESS: ... here you talk about American heroes and John McCain who went through torture -- or refusing early release. Think of what a real American that guy is. Because as much as he was abused by Donald Trump, he's still saying he's going to endorse ...

COSTELLO: He's his supporter.

FRIESS: ... he's going to support the candidate. Well it's -- I don't know if he's going to ...

COSTELLO: But he's not here. He's not physically here. John Kasich won't physically appear at the convention.

FRIESS: Yeah, right. But I think the fact that McCain sets an example for what a true American patriot is. He rides for the brand. And that's what all of us have to do.

COSTELLO: See don't you think though, Donald Trump needs to say that about John McCain? Wouldn't that repair the damage between the two men?

FRIESS: Well I think the damage was that -- the McCain people might stay home. But the damage has been repaired by the fact that John McCain says, "look, what's best for America?" And a lot of the things that people have said about Trump is what he said. The things they're upset about Hillary Clinton is what she did. And I think when this campaign comes out and brings out the Clinton

Foundation -- You know, can you -- Charles Krauthammer wrote this unbelievable article -- you -- I couldn't believe it. The money goes into the Canadian foundation where you don't have to release the donors, it's anonymous. They take the money, according to Charles Krauthammer, send it to Clinton Foundation. And then the Clinton Foundation, I don't know what they did with it.

Somehow the Clintons have a $200 million net worth from being broke in '99. But then Hillary Clinton approves -- what, 20 percent of our uranium deposits get sold to the Russians because State Department approval? I mean ...

COSTELLO: Yeah, I haven't vetted any of that. So ...

FRIESS: Yeah.

COSTELLO: ... If that's what's in his column, that's what he's writing ...

FRIESS: Yeah, yeah.

COSTELLO: ... that's what's put forth publicly. But I think that the Republican base already dislikes Hillary Clinton and thinks she's a criminal. That's pretty clear, right? Now it's got ...

FRIESS: Well not ...

COSTELLO: ... Now the Party has to move on though and unify and coalesce behind this candidate.

FRIESS: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... And make sure they get their constituents out there to vote ...

FRIESS: You're absolutely right.

COSTELLO: And that's the important part.

FRIESS: You're absolutely ...

COSTELLO: So you have John Kasich not showing up ...

FRIESS: Yes, yes.

COSTELLO: Senator Ted Cruz is going to speak. He may or may not endorse Donald Trump.

FRIESS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Newt Gingrich sort of intimated he might. But we don't know that.

FRIESS: Yes.

COSTELLO: How important is a Ted Cruz endorsement for Donald Trump tonight?

FRIESS: Well I think, Carol, what's more important is all the people Donald Trump is bringing to the Party. Plumbers, electricians, welders, farmers. Is the -- the Republican Party is going back to what it originally should be. Looking after the little guy.

I grew up in a little town of 5,000 people. Came out of there with $800 accumulative leave pay. So I've been the underdog most of my life. And I love that underdog spirit.

COSTELLO: But see, you're describing John Kasich, for example. He's an underdog himself. And those things should attract him to Donald Trump, but he's not attracted to Donald Trump.

FRIESS: OK, well I don't think it's so much not a -- a lot of these people, Kuchinelli, Mike Lee, someone told me that they have a different agenda. They are more interested in trying to get a conservative, ie. Ted Cruz, in future years. So the way they think they have to position themselves is by getting these rule changes so the Republican Party has to have only closed Primaries. So that's ...

COSTELLO: So is that part of John Kasich's strategy? Not exactly that, but ...

FRIESS: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... if he's going to run for president, he can't really put ...

FRIESS: Well if John Kasich wants to run for president, there is no way that can possibly happen, in my book, when he's alienated -- I was visiting with Ohio residents. They're embarrassed. You know his constituency is embarrassed. I mean he -- this is his home state. And why isn't he riding for the brand? Not the Trump brand, not the Republican, but the American brand. America's future is at stake in this election. We've got to -- we've got to make it happen.

COSTELLO: Foster Friess, always a pleasure to have you here.

FRIESS: Carol, I'm just so thrilled to be here. Thank you so much, God bless you.

COSTELLO: God bless you back. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. AT THIS HOUR with Berman and Bolduan starts right after a break.

[10:56:30]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)