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CNN Live Event/Special
Coverage of the Republican Convention. Aired 10-11p ET.
Aired July 21, 2016 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00] DAVID CLARKE, MILWAUKEE COUNTY SHERIFF: And that's for I'm getting in right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is the one candidate, the nonpolitician who can fix our broken economy and get America working again.
LARRY KUDLOW, THE KUDLOW REPORT SHOW HOST: Trump is a guy brand new, comes in, shakes up Washington, changes policies on taxes and regulations and helps businesses and middle-income wage earners will get a raise for the first time in 15 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald will stand up for America.
JEFF SESSIONS, ALABAMA STATE SENATOR: Donald Trump understands negotiation. There's just no doubt about it. It's one of his great strengths and we have been taken to the cleaners in world trade. We are losing jobs every year, every day as a result of bad trade policies and bad trade agreements.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While some politicians say our best days are past, Donald believes our best days are yet to come.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ronald Reagan was a cheer leader for America. He would talk about what a great country this is, how important it is to work. That gives incentive to people. It makes -- it makes working hopeful. I think what Donald Trump can do, he can give us hope again, he can give us pride in being an American again, he can make us feel like what we should feel like. We're exceptionally lucky people living in this country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump is a leader, not a politician. He will be honest with the American people. He will stop wasteful government spending of our tax dollars. He will cut our taxes and create jobs and will rebuild our broken economy.
He will lead this country, not apologize to the world for our success. He will always put America's best interests first, whether it's a trade deal with China or standing up to radical Islamic terrorists.
As he has done so many times before, he will stand up for the brave men and women who defend our country and who protect us here at home. He will bring about the change this country so desperately needs and get the job done.
It's been a long time since we had a president like that. Donald Trump, it's time to make America great again. (END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies and gentlemen, please give a very warm welcome to Ivanka Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
IVANKA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S DAUGHTER: Good evening. Thank you. One year ago, I introduced my father when he declared his candidacy. In his own way and through his own sheer force of will, he sacrificed greatly to enter the political arena as an outsider and he prevailed against a field of 16 very talented competitors.
(APPLAUSE)
For more than a year, Donald Trump has been the people's champion, and tonight, he is the people's nominee.
(APPLAUSE)
Like many of my fellow millennials, I do not consider myself categorically republican or democrat. More than party affiliation, I vote base on what I believe is right for my family and for my country.
Sometimes it's a tough choice. That is not the case this time.
(APPLAUSE)
As the proud daughter of your nominee, I am here to tell you that this is the moment and Donald Trump is the person to make America great again!
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
Real change, the kind we have not seen in decades, is only going to come from outside the system, and it's only going to come from a man who has spent his entire life doing what others said could not be done.
My father is a fighter. When the primaries got tough, and they were tough, he did what any great leader does. He dug deeper, worked harder, got better, and became stronger.
(APPLAUSE)
I have seen him fight for his family, I have seen him fight for his employees, I have seen him fight for his company, and now I am seeing him fight for our country.
(APPLAUSE)
It's been the story of his life and more recently the spirit of his campaign. [22:05:03] It's also a prelude to reaching the goal that unites us all
when this party and better still this country knows what it is like to win again.
(APPLAUSE)
If it's possible to be famous and yet not really well known, that describes the father who raised me. In the same office in Trump Tower where we now work together, I remember playing on the floor by my father's desk, constructing miniature buildings with Legos and erector sets while he did the same with concrete, steel and glass.
My father taught my siblings and me the importance of positive values and a strong ethical compass. He showed us how to be resilient, ho to deal with challenges and how to strive for excellence in all that we do.
He taught us there is nothing we cannot accomplish if we marry vision and passion with an enduring work ethic.
(APPLAUSE)
One of my father's greatest talents is his ability to see potential in people before they see it in themselves. It was like that for us, too, growing up. He taught us that potential vanishes into nothing without effort and that like him, we each had a responsibility to work not just for ourselves but for the betterment of the world around us.
(APPLAUSE)
Over the years, on too many occasions to count, I saw my father tear stories out of the newspaper about people whom he had never met who were facing some injustice or hardship. He'd write a note to his assistant in a signature black felt tip pen and request that person be found and invited to Trump Tower to meet with them.
He would talk to them and then draw upon his expensive network to find them a job or get them a break, and they would leave his office his people so often do after having been with Donald Trump feeling that life could be great again.
(APPLAUSE)
Throughout my entire life I have witnessed his empathy and generosity towards others, especially those who are suffering. It is just his way of being in your corner when you're down. My father not only has the strength and ability necessary to be our next president, but also the kindness and compassion that will enable him to be the leader that this country needs.
(APPLAUSE)
My father has a sense of fairness that touches every conviction he's hold. I've worked alongside of him for more than a decade now at the Trump organization and I've seen how he operates as a leader, making important decisions that shape careers and that change lives. I've learned a lot about the world from walking construction jobs by
his side. When run properly, construction sites are true meritocracies. Confidence in the building trade is easy to spot and incompetence is impossible to hide.
(APPLAUSE)
These sites are also incredible melting pots gathering people from all walks of life and uniting them to work towards a single mission. There have always been men of all background and ethnicities on my father's job sites and long before it was common place, you also saw women.
(APPLAUSE)
My father values talent. He recognizes real knowledge and skill when he finds it. He is color blind and gender neutral.
(APPLAUSE)
He hires the best person for the job. Period. Words and promises, no matter how visionary they sound will only get so far. In our business, you're not a builder unless you've got a building to show for it. Or in my father's case, city skylines.
(APPLAUSE)
Most people strive their entire lives to achieve great success in a single industry. My father has succeeded in many on the highest level and on a global scale. One of reasons he has thrived as an entrepreneur is because he listens to everyone.
Billionaire executives don't usually ask that people doing the work for their opinion of the work. My father is an exception. On every one of his projects you'll see him talking to the super, the painter, the engineers, the electricians.
[22:09:59] He'll ask them for their feedback. If they think something should be done differently or could be done better. When Donald Trump is in charge, all that counts is ability, effort and excellence.
(APPLAUSE)
This has long been the philosophy at the Trump organization. At my father's company, there are more female than male executives.
(APPLAUSE)
Women are paid equally for the work that we do and when a woman becomes a mother she is supported, not shut out.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
Women represent 46 percent of total U.S. labor force and 40 percent of American households have female primary bread winners. In 2014, women made 83 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Single women without children earned 94 cent for each dollar earned by a man, whereas married mothers made only 77 cents.
As researchers have noted, gender is no longer the factor creating the greatest wage discrepancy in this country, motherhood is. As president, my father will change the labor laws that were put in place at a time when women were not a significant portion of the workforce.
And he will focus on making quality child care affordable and accessible for all.
(APPLAUSE)
As a mother myself of three young children, I know how hard it is to work while raising a family, and I also know that I'm far more fortunate than most.
American families need relief. Policies that allow women with children to thrive should not be novelties, they should be the norm. Politicians talk about wage equality, but my father has made it a practice at his company throughout his entire career.
(APPLAUSE)
He will fight for equal pay, for equal work and I will fight for this, too, right alongside of him.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
Americans today need an economy that permits people to rise again. A Trump presidency will turn the economy around and restore the great American tradition of giving each new generation hope for brighter opportunities than those of the generation that came before.
In Donald Trump, you have a candidate who knows the difference between wanting something done and making it happen.
(APPLAUSE)
When my father says that he will build a tower, keep an eye on the skyline. Floor by floor a soaring structure will appear, usually record setting in its height and iconic in its design. Real people are hired to do real work. Vision becomes reality.
When my father says that he will make America great again, he will deliver.
(APPLAUSE)
We have a chance this year to reclaim our heritage as a country that dreams big and makes the impossible happen. Fortunately, Donald Trump is incapable of thinking small.
When I was a child, my father always told me, "Ivanka, if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big."
(APPLAUSE)
As president, my father will take on the bold and worthy fights. He will be unafraid to set lofty goals and he will be relentless in his determination to achieve them.
To people all over America, I say when you have my father in your corner, you will never again have to worry about being let down. He will fight for you all the time, all the way, every time.
(APPLAUSE)
Maybe it's the developer in him, but Donald Trump cannot stand to see empty main streets and boarded up factories. He can't bear the injustice of college graduates who are crippled by student debt and mothers who can't afford the cost of the child care required to return to work to better the lives of their families.
[22:15:02] (APPLAUSE)
Other politicians see these hardships, see the unfairness of it all and they say I feel for you. Only my father will say I'll fight for you.
(APPLAUSE)
The hardworking men and women of this country identify with my father. He is tough and he is persevering. He is honest and he is real. He's an optimist and he's a relentless believer in America and all of her potential.
He loves his family and he loves his country with his heart and his soul. Politicians ask to be judged by their promises, not their results. I ask you to judge my father by his results. Judge his values by those he's instilled in his children. Judge his competency by the towers he's built, the companies he's founded and the tens of thousands of jobs he's created.
He's the single most qualified person to serve as chief executive of an $18 trillion economy.
(APPLAUSE)
My father will call upon the best and brightest people from all spheres of industry and both side of the aisle, a new set of thinkers to face our country's existing and future problems with fresh perspective and brave new solutions.
Come January '17, all things will be possible again. We can hope and dream and think big again. No one has more faith in the American people than my father. He will be your greatest, your truest and your most loyal champion.
(APPLAUSE) This is the fighter, the doer that you have chosen as your nominee. In ways no one expected, this moment in the life of our country has defined a mission and given it to an extraordinary man.
He's ready to see it all the way through to speak to every man and every woman of every background in every part of this great country, to earn your trust and to earn your vote.
He earned that and much more from me a long time ago. I've loved and respected him my entire life, and I could not be more proud tonight to present to you and to all of America my father and our next president, Donald J. Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. Thank you.
(CROWD CHANTING)
Thank you. Thank you very much. Friends, delegates, and fellow Americans, I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
[22:20:00] (CROWD CHANTING)
USA. USA. USA. USA. USA.
Who would have believed that when we started this journey on June 16th last year, we, and I say we, because we are a team, would have received almost 14 million votes, the most in the history of the Republican Party and that the Republican Party would get 60 percent more votes than it received eight years ago.
Who would have believed this? Who would have believed this?
(APPLAUSE)
The democrats on the other hand received 20 percent fewer votes than they got four years ago. Not so good. Not so good.
(APPLAUSE)
Together we will lead our party back to the White House and we will lead our country back to safety, prosperity and peace.
(APPLAUSE)
We will be a country of generosity and warmth, but we will also be a country of law and order.
(APPLAUSE) Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police and the terrorism of our cities threaten our very way of life.
Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.
(APPLAUSE)
Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities. Many have witnessed this violence personally. Some have even been its victims.
I have a message for all of you that crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon and I mean, very soon come to an end.
(APPLAUSE)
Beginning on January 20th of 2017, safety will be restored.
(APPLAUSE)
The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead. It is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the state of our nation.
(APPLAUSE)
I will present the facts plainly and honestly. We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.
(APPLAUSE)
So, if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully crafted lies and the media myths, the democrats are holding their convention next week. Go there.
(APPLAUSE)
[22:24:57] But here at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth and nothing else.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
These are the facts. Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this administration's rollback of criminal enforcement. Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in America's 50 largest cities. That's the largest increase in 25 years.
(CROWD BOOING)
In our nation's capital, killings have risen by 50 percent. They're up nearly 60 percent in nearby Baltimore. In the president's hometown of Chicago, more than 2,000 people have been the victim of shootings this year alone. And almost 4,000 have been killed in the Chicago area since he took office.
(CROWD BOOING)
The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50 percent compared to this point last year. Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records ordered deported from our country are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens.
(CROWD BOOING)
The number of new illegal immigrant families who have crossed the border so far this year already exceeds the entire total from 2015. They are being released by the tens of thousands into our communities with no regard for the impact on public safety or resources.
(CROWD BOOING)
(CROWD CHANTING)
One such border crosser was released and made his way to Nebraska. There, he ended the life of an innocent young girl named Sarah Root. She was 21 years old and was killed the day after graduating from college with a 4.0 grade point average, number one in her class. Her killer was then released a second time and he is now a fugitive from the law.
I've met Sarah's beautiful family, but to this administration, their amazing daughter was just one more American life that wasn't worth protecting. No more.
(CROWD BOOING)
One more child to sacrifice on the order and on the altar of open borders. What about our economy? Again, I will tell you the plain facts that have been edited out of your nightly news and your morning newspaper.
Nearly 4 in 10 African-American children are living in poverty while 58 percent of African-American youth are now not employed. Two million more Latinos are in poverty today than when President Obama took his oath of office less than eight years ago.
(CROWD BOOING)
Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely. Household incomes are down more $4,000 since the year 2000. That's 16 years ago. Our trade deficit in goods reached nearly -- think of this, think of this. Our trade deficit is $800 billion -- think of that, $800 billion last year alone. We're going to fix that.
[22:30:07] (APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING) The budget is no better. President Obama has almost doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion and growing. And yet, what do we have to show for it? Our roads and bridges are falling apart. Our airports are third world condition, and 43 million Americans are on food stamps.
Now, let us consider the state of affairs abroad. Not only have our citizens endured domestic disaster, but they've lived through one international humiliation after another, one after another!
We all remember the images of our sailors being forced to their knees by their Iranian captors at gun point.
(CROWD BOOING)
This was just prior to the signing of the Iran deal, which back to Iran $150 billion and gave us absolutely nothing.
(CROWD BOOING)
It will go down in history as one of the worst deals ever negotiated. Another humiliation came when President Obama drew a red line in Syria and the whole world knew it meant absolutely nothing.
In Libya, our consulate, the symbol of America prestige around the globe was brought down in flames. America is far less safe and the world is far less stable than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy.
(CROWD BOOING & CHANTING)
Let's defeat her in November, OK.
(APPLAUSE)
I am certain that it was a decision that President Obama truly regrets. Her bad instincts and her bad judgment, something pointed out by Bernie Sanders, are what caused so many of the disasters unfolding today. Let's review the record.
(APPLAUSE)
In 2009, pre-Hillary, ISIS was not even on the map, Libya was stable, Egypt was peaceful, Iraq was seeing and big, big reduction in violence, Iran was being choked by sanctions, Syria was somewhat under control.
After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region and the entire world. Libya is in ruins and our ambassador and his staffs were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers.
Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos. Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is in engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis now threatens the west. After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars
spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before.
[22:35:08] This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton. Death, destruction, terrorism, and weakness.
(APPLAUSE)
But Hillary Clinton's legacy does not have to be America's legacy. The problems we face now, poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them in the first place.
(APPLAUSE)
A change in leadership is required to produce a change in outcomes.
(APPLAUSE)
Tonight, I will share with you my plan for action for America, the most important difference between our plan and that of our opponent is that our plan will put Americans first.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo as long as we are led by politicians who will not put America first, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect, the respect that we deserve.
(APPLAUSE)
The American people will come first once again. My plan will begin with safety at home, which means safe neighborhoods, secure borders and protection from terrorism. There can be no prosperity without law and order.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
On the economy, I will outline reforms to add millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth that can be used to rebuild America. A number of these reforms that I will outline tonight will be opposed by some of our nation's most powerful special interests.
That's because these interests have rigged our political and economic system for their exclusive benefit. Believe me, it's for their benefit.
(APPLAUSE)
Big business, elite media and major donors are ling up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place.
(CROWD BOOING)
They are throwing money at her because they have total control over every single thing she does. She is their puppet and they pull the strings.
(APPLAUSE)
That is why Hillary Clinton's message is that things will never change, never ever. My message is that things have to change and they have to change right now.
[22:40:00] (CROWD CHEERING)
Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation that have been ignored, neglected and abandoned. I have visited the laid off factory workers and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals.
These are the forgotten men and women of our country, and they are forgotten but they're not going to be forgotten long.
(APPLAUSE)
These are people who work hard but no longer have a voice. I am your voice.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
I have embraced crying mothers who have lost their children because our politicians put their personal agendas before the national good. I have no patience for injustice.
(CROWD CHANTING)
How great are our police and how great is Cleveland!
(CROWD CHEERING)
Thank you.
I have no patience for injustice, no tolerance for government incompetence, of which there is so much. No sympathy for leaders who fail their citizens.
When innocent people suffer because our political system lacks the will or the courage or the basic decency to enforce our laws or still worse has sold out to some corporate lobbyist for cash, I am not able to look the other way and I won't look the other way.
(APPLAUSE) And when a Secretary of State illegally stores her e-mails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so the authorities can't see her crime, puts our country at risk, lies about it in every different form and faces no consequence, I know that corruption has reached a level like never ever before in our country.
(APPLAUSE)
When the FBI director says that the Secretary of State was extremely careless and negligent in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did.
[22:45:01] They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible, terrible crimes.
(APPLAUSE)
In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such egregious crime and getting away with it, especially when others who have done far less have paid so dearly.
(APPLAUSE)
When that same Secretary of State rakes in millions and millions of dollars trading access and favors to special interests and foreign powers, I know the time for action has come.
(APPLAUSE)
I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people who cannot defend themselves.
(APPLAUSE)
Nobody knows the system better than me.
(APPLAUSE)
Which is why I alone can fix it.
(APPLAUSE)
I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders. He never had a chance. Never had a chance. But his supporters will join our movement because we will fix his biggest single issue, trade deals that strip our country of its jobs and strip us of our wealth as a country.
(APPLAUSE)
Millions of democrats will join our movement because we are going to fix the system so it works fairly and justly for each and every American.
(APPLAUSE)
In this cause, I am proud to have at my side the next vice president of the United States, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana!
(APPLAUSE)
And a great guy. We will bring the same economic success to America that Mike brought to Indiana, which is amazing.
(APPLAUSE)
He's a man of character and accomplishment. He is the man for the job. The first task for our new administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threaten our communities.
America was shocked to its core when our police officers in Dallas were so brutally executed. Immediately after Dallas, we've seen continued threats and violence against our law enforcement officials.
Law officers have been shot or killed in recent days in Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan and Tennessee.
(CROWD BOOING)
On Sunday, more police were gunned down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Three were killed and three were very, very badly injured.
[22:50:08] An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans.
(APPLAUSE)
I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police. When I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country.
(APPLAUSE)
Believe me, believe me. I will work with and appoint the best and brightest prosecutors and law enforcement officials to get the job properly done.
(APPLAUSE)
In this race for the White House, I am the law and order candidate.
(APPLAUSE)
The irresponsible rhetoric of our president, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment than frankly, I have ever seen and anybody in this room has ever watched or seen. This administration has failed America's inner cities.
Remember, it has failed America's inner cities.
(APPLAUSE)
It's failed them on education, it's failed them on jobs, it's failed them in crime, and it's failed them in every way and on every single level. When I am president, I will work to ensure that all of our kids are treated equally and protected equally.
(APPLAUSE)
Every action I take I will ask myself, does this make better for young Americans in Baltimore, in Chicago, in Detroit, in Ferguson who have really in every way, folks, the same right to live out their dreams as any other child in America. Any other child.
(APPLAUSE)
To make lives safe for all of our citizens, we must also address the growing threats we face from outside the country. We are going to defeat the barbarians of ISIS, and we're going to defeat them fast.
(APPLAUSE)
Once again, France is the victim of brutal Islamic terrorism. Men, women and children viciously mowed down, lives ruined, families ripped apart, a nation in mourning. The damage and devastation that can be inflicted by Islamic radicals has been proven over and over.
At the World Trade Center, at an office party in San Bernardino, at the Boston marathon, at a military recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and many, many other locations.
Only weeks ago in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist. This time the terrorist targeted LGBTQ community.
[22:55:05] No good and we're going to stop it.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
And I have to say as a republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
To protect us from terrorism, we need to focus on three things. We must have the best, absolutely the best gathering of intelligence anywhere in the world. The best.
(APPLAUSE)
We must abandon the failed policy of nation building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, in Libya, in Egypt and in Syria. Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terrorism and doing it now, doing it quickly, we're going to win, we're going to win fast.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
This includes working with our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel.
(APPLAUSE)
Recently, I have said that NATO was obsolete because it did not properly cover terror. And also that many of the member countries were not paying their fair share.
As usual, the United States has been picking up the cost. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that NATO will be setting up a new program in order to combat terrorism. A true step in the right direction.
(APPLAUSE)
Lastly, and very importantly, we must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place. We don't want them in our country.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
My opponent has called for a radical 550 percent increase in Syrian -- think of this, think of this.
