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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Donald Trump Officially Crowned GOP's 2016 Nominee for President; Theme: Make America Work Again; Fox News' Roger Ailes On His Way Out?. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired July 20, 2016 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump officially crowned the GOP's 2016 nominee for president. But at day two of the republican national convention, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton dominated the conversation.
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to EARLY START. We are live this morning, live from the republican national convention in Cleveland here at the CNN Grill. I am Christine Romans.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I am John Berman. It is Wednesday, July 20th. Happy anniversary to my wife. It is 3 a.m. in the east. Welcome to the CNN Grill. Full of the aroma of stale beer and fresh opportunity.
It is a good morning to be Donald Trump. A bad word to be the word presumptive. A bad morning to be the word presumptive just a few hours ago, at long last, Donald Trump shed that moniker, presumptive, it is now the official republican nominee.
Trump thanked the delegates and touted his running mate in a video speech beamed in from Trump Tower in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm so proud to be your nominee for president of the United States. I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you on Thursday night on how we build a brighter and more hopeful future for all Americans.
It's an honor to run on a ticket with Governor Mike Pence, who is an incredible man and who will make a great, great vice president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right. The official theme for the evening was "Make America work again." But unless your job was to throw Hillary Clinton in prison, didn't talk as much about jobs as talking about Hillary Clinton. The delegates chanted "lock her up" repeatedly. You're seeing it there.
Senior political reporter Manu Raju joins us now. Manu, day two in the books.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, that's right. Actually, "lock her up" could actually be the unofficial theme of this convention. There's a big anti-Hillary sentiment in the crowd for a second straight day.
But in addition to that, John, actually there is an effort by congressional leaders to show a new sign of unity behind Donald Trump and also Donald Trump's children trying to show their father in a different light.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP JR., DONALD TRUMP'S SON: If Hillary Clinton were elected, she'd be the first president who couldn't pass a basic background check.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: We cannot promote someone to commander-in-chief who has made the world a more violent and dangerous place with every bad judgment she's made.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), U.S. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: She lied about her e-mail, she lied about her server, she lied about Benghazi. She even lied about sniper fire.
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), U.S. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: What does the Democratic Party establishment offer? What is their idea of a clean break? They are offering a third Obama term brought to you by another Clinton.
(CROWD BOOING)
And you're supposed to be excited about that.
CHRIS COX, NRA CHIEF: A Hillary Clinton Supreme Court means your right to own a firearm is gone.
BEN CARSON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model, somebody who acknowledges Lucifer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: John and Christine, really the attacks over Hillary Clinton uniting this party. It's interesting to hear Paul Ryan for one downplaying his divisions with Donald Trump actually saying that it was a sign of a party, the sign of the party actually has some life.
Now tonight, we head into a new day and one interesting aspect will be Ted Cruz speaking to the convention delegate. It's been the first time he's laying out his view in depth since he dropped out of the race and after that very contentious primary with Donald Trump.
Reassuring that he will not offer an endorsement of Donald Trump. But will try to call or probably attack Hillary Clinton, the sign of that predicament that he's in, that he tried to sympathize with those anti- Trump folks, but also tries to pledge unity behind his party's nominee. John and Christine?
ROMANS: All right. Manu Raju, thank you so much for that. Another exciting night and another one ahead. Let's break it all down.
Joining us here at the CNN Grill to discuss all of this, CNN political analyst Josh Rogin, he's a columnist for the Washington Post. Also, we've got three of our CNN political commentators here. A team here.
Democratic strategist, Maria Cardona, Amanda Carpenter, the former communications director for Ted Cruz, and KABC talk radio host, John Phillips, the Donald Trump supporter.
[03:05:05] So, let's talk about last night first before we look ahead here. I want to talk about last night. I want to look some of the most popular words and phrases said last night.
Because, you know, it was built as "Make America work again. But it really was put Hillary Clinton in jail. Again Hillary Clinton or Clinton mentioned 79 times. Trump, 61 times. Business, 35. Women, 33. You can see here. Jobs just 21 times, and Benghazi made four more appearances there on the right.
John, I thought this was on "Make America work again."
JOHN PHILLIPS, KABC TALK RADIO HOST: Well, my worry about the Trump convention without Trump is that it was going to be boring. Because let's face it. Trump convention without Trump is like the Jackson 5 without Michael. It's just a bunch of kiddos that are out there.
BERMAN: Wow.
PHILLIPS: But they provided a lot of material for us. This day at the convention was about the Ted Cruz people. You said "lock them up" was the theme. The convention, the nomination was locked up for Donald Trump earlier in the day.
They gave a spoonful of sugar to all the Ted Cruz supporters by going after Hillary Clinton. Nothing unites a party like having a common enemy. And that was the theme.
ROMANS: It's their enemy (ph) sharp attack.
BERMAN: I know, and first of all, Marlon Jackson is mad right now. He's calling in the room (Ph) right now. Julie Andrews is pissed off by the spoon full of sugar comment. So you offended a lot of people all at once here.
You know, Amanda, too much about Hillary Clinton, not enough about Donald Trump and jobs.
AMANDA CARPENTER, FORMER TED CRUZ COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I mean, it's good to go after Hillary Clinton. But at time it was a little on head. There is a thing that pushing a little bit too far. It plays great in the audience. People, it felt good to chant "lock her up, lock her up, lock her up." But you are just handing the democrats tons of footage to use against
you later. So, we'll see how that plays in the democratic convention. But someone has to make the case for Donald Trump. The case cannot be to former Cruz people. Well, she's Satan. So, vote for Satan-light. That this isn't going to work...
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: Lucifer. I think it's the first convention mention of Lucifer in American history as far as I know. I don't know of, you know -- I don't know.
ROMANS: Sound like means to warm them up.
CARPENTER: Yes.
ROMANS: Chris, I don't know. She takes this vitriol and use it to her advantage next week.
MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Absolutely. And I think what it demonstrated is that up until now they have nothing else to offer the American people. Yes, that kind of chant and we saw it yesterday too. Or the day before. I can't remember now. Day one, and day two, right.
But it really worked for that arena. And it really worked for Trump supporters. It does nothing to broaden the appeal. And we've been saying up until now, oh, yes. He's about to pivot. He's about to start talking to a broader swath of voters.
He got 13 million votes during the primary. He needs at least 65 million votes to win the general election. Where is that appeal? Where is the appeal to multicultural communities? Where is the appeal to women?
He has a huge gender gap. He's losing, or he's even with Hillary Clinton right now with college educated white voters. Mitt Romney won college educated white voters by 14 points and lost the election.
BERMAN: Josh Rogin, it is about rallying the base, though, to some extent. Conventions do try to rally the base while reaching out to TV to everyone else. The base is being rallied here. They were chanting "lock her up." They did seem to love it.
Paul Ryan was talking about unity. Making a plea for unity. I think we have a little bit of sound here. We can play some Paul Ryan talking about how important it is for the party to come together. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN: What do you say that we unify this party at this crucial moment when unity is everything?
(CROWD CHEERING)
Let's take our fight our fight to our opponents with better ideas. Let's get on the offensive and let's (TECHNICAL PROBLEM).
[03:10:00] (TECHNICAL PROBLEM)
ROMANS: ... are earning rave reviews for their speeches. Donald Jr., sounding more like a politician even than his father. We're going to bring you that next.
[03:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. Several hours after last call in the CNN Grill. Donald Trump's children they were center stage at the convention in day two. Tiffany Trump spoke. She was talking about her father's more personal side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIFFANY TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S DAUGHTER: He's always helped me be the best version of myself. By encouragement and by example. He motivates me to work my hardest and to always stay true to who I am and what I believe.
That's what he does. He draws out the talent and drive in people so that they can achieve their full potential. That's a great quality to have in a father and better yet, in the president of the United States.
TRUMP JR: I've seen it time and time again that look in his eyes when someone says it can't be done. I saw that look a little over a year ago when he was told he couldn't possibly succeed in politics. Yes, he did.
For my father, impossible is just the starting point. That's how he approached his business projects, that's how he approaches life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: It was Donald Trump Jr. along with Tiffany Trump. Both kids talking about their father.
How did they do last night? We are back with our panel right now. Josh Rogin, let me start with you. Donald Trump, Jr. there. You know, he delivered a tough speech, a difficult speech to deliver. Covered a lot of ground there and he looked very, very comfortable up there.
ROGIN: Not only it was delivered good. He had a lot of policy in his speech, more policy than most of the senators and congressman that have spoken over the course of the week.
He gave a compelling argument about why Dodd-Frank was a bend -- a boondoggle for billionaires now said a side of fact that actually help (TECHNICAL PROBLEM).
[03:20:00] (TECHNICAL PROBLEM)
ROMANS: ... Walker, Wisconsin, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz we talked about. Tonight is "Make America first again." How do you think they'll do? PHILLIPS: I think they'll do fine. But on the point of the kids I
think there's a very important point here. That the kids are a huge asset for Donald Trump. Because when you're a rich person, when you're a celebrity and Donald Trump has both of these kids grew up with both, it's easy for those children to become entitled brats, weirdoes.
And I think people kind of have that in the back of their head. I wonder if his kids are normal. And when they go out we're going to see tonight with Eric Trump, I think is going to reinforce what we saw with the daughter and with Donald Trump Jr. that these are normal, well-adjusted people and he was very involved within their life and helped produce these kids to be who they are today.
CARDONA: It's actually the opposite. They look at the kids as being normal and the Donald Trump being the entitled weirdo.
BERMAN: All right.
CARDONA: Blasted.
BERMAN: We'll have a lot more time to talk to discuss that. You guys will get a chance to respond. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right. One line in the Republican Party platform getting a lot of attention this morning from Wall Street. It sounds more like a Bernie Sanders than any republican lawmaker in recent times.
Here's what it is that line. "We support reinstating the Glass- Steagall Act of 1933 which prohibits commercial banks from engaging in high-risk investment."
Three-twenty-two a.m. and we're talking about Glass-Steagall. I love it.
BERMAN: It must be a party.
ROMANS: Trump pushed the committee to add that line during the very last round of negotiations. Of course, Glass-Steagall was passed in the wake of the Great Depression. It prohibits the banks from engaging serving both Wall Street and Main Street.
The law was repealed by President Bill Clinton in 1999. And it brought on an era of huge big mega banks. If the law is brought back, they have to turn their commercial banking and investment operations and to separate companies essentially braking up the banks.
The Trump campaign want that to happen would repeal Dodd-Frank legislation as well. Those are the regulations that were impose after the recession, also wants to get rid of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Is it those rules contribute to what the campaign called a rigged financial system. But getting a lot of attention this morning because not only breaking up the banks but also get ridding -- getting rid of the regulation as supposed to help consumers. A lot of people kind of scratching their head. BERMAN: I like how you get choked up talking about Glass-Steagall.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: I have to get to -- there is nothing more...
BERMAN: There's not much that makes Christine Romans emotional by Glass-Steagall and, you know.
ROMANS: It just show how unpopular Wall Street is. And it is the republicans who have tapped into that.
BERMAN: When we start talking about -- when we start talking about derivatives, sobs.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: You're making fun of me.
BERMAN: All right. The head of Fox News could be on his way out. Possible new allegations. New allegation of sexual harassment against Roger Ailes. This story just getting bigger and bigger. We'll be right back.
[03:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Roger Ailes, his days as chairman of Fox News days could be numbered. Sources with direct knowledge of the talks tell CNN that Ailes and 21st Century Fox are in the advanced stages of negotiations leading to his departure from the network.
Ailes is facing a sexual harassment suit filed by former Fox anchor, Gretchen Carlson. Carlson claimed she was fired from a weekday show after refusing sexual advances from Roger Ailes.
ROMANS: All right. Donald Trump officially named the republican nominee for president. But speakers in day two of the party's convention, all they want to talk about was someone -- who could it be? Someone else. We've got that next.
