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Don Lemon Tonight

Trump Accept Party's Nomination; Examining Speeches of Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired July 22, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:14] DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: The Republican Convention ends with fireworks and confetti, don't forget the balloons. Donald Trump speaks for an hour and 15 minutes.

This is a special CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon. I'm so glad you could join us here live in Cleveland at the CNN Grill. And we get a lot to talk about tonight.

Four hundred days into his campaign, Donald Trump accepts the GOP presidential nomination with a speech to a party and a country divided.

My political dream team is here. David Chalian, Kayleigh McEnany, Bakari Sellers, Amanda Carpenter. Can we get a shot of Andy Dean's feet?

ANDY DEAN, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: All right.

LEMON: And once again ...

DEAN: Two right socks.

LEMON: Andy, are those the same socks?

DEAN: They are the same socks. I have not done laundry.

LEMON: You haven't changed your socks?

DEAN: No or my underwear. Hey, when you're in the middle of no heating, no change to anything like this.

(OFF-MIC)

LEMON: That is called TMI. And that we hope you're joking.

DEAN: It's just the truth.

(OFF-MIC)

LEMON: I want to bring in CNN's Manu Raju on the convention floor. He's got a lot more of course.

Lot of people are saying the speech was harsh, Manu, but I want to play one clip and what I thought was an interesting moment at Donald Trump's speech and then we'll discuss this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: 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.

And I have to say, as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So Manu was actually not in that empty convention hall where we saw them on -- we saw them popping the balloons tonight exactly he's on the outside.

He brought up the LGBT community but he added there a letter Q. We never really heard a Republican at a Republican convention, only as a part of a conversation on terror though he brought it up. What was the reaction on the floor?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yeah, it was received very positively, Don. And that's a key point you made and that's an important context to keep in mind here that when Donald Trump was talking about rights for the LGBT community, he was talking about it in the context of national security and the context of terrorism and the context of the deadly massacre at that Orlando night club.

There was not any talk about the Republican Party platform, which calls for overturning the Supreme Court ruling, legalizing same-sex marriage. And there was not real talk about domestic rights for folks in the LGBT community.

So, in a shrewd way, he tied it to the national security context, something that's much more comfortable for a lot of Republican voters, and that's why he got a positive response. And one way that Trump and Trump supporters believe they can reach out to that community, which, of course, votes overwhelmingly Democratic, Don.

LEMON: So, was there in any part of his speech, you think, that got the biggest reaction?

RAJU: Well, anytime he talked about Hillary Clinton or attack Hillary Clinton, you're revving up this crowd. It's really, Don, the unofficial theme of this convention has been, "Lock her up," the chants of the delegates have, well, they have issued whenever we talk about Hillary. They were talking about Hillary Clinton and the concerns about her classified e-mail servers and sending her own classified intelligence.

So, take a listen to one time here when Donald Trump really laid in to Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: America is far less safe and the world is far less stable, then when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy. Let's defeat her in November, OK?

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: That was very interesting of Donald Trump to say, let's defeat her in November rather than joining in those cheers about locking her up and not even calling her "Crooked Hillary."

[02:05:03] In a similar note, Don, I actually had a chance to talk to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell today and I asked him, "What do you think about the "Lock her up" chants, do you think that Hillary Clinton should be behind bars?" And he said, "No." So, clearly, not just Donald Trump, but Republican leaders think that that chant may have gone a little too far, focused on beating her instead of locking her up.

LEMON: All right, Manu Raju, thank you very much. Appreciate that. I want to bring back in my political dream team now.

It's interesting, because I hear, David, that -- let's talk about this LGBTQ, which I mentioned was an interesting part of his speech and got big applause. I understand it's trending now.

BARAKI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It's number one right now.

LEMON: It's number one, followed by Ivanka Trump, right?

SELLERS: I heard.

LEMON: That's pretty amazing for -- considering it's at a, you know, Republican convention. I don't know if it's positive or negative what the comments are, but that should -- that means he should get credit for that, don't you think?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well listen, man, I mean, I think, you know, as we were talking just a little bit ago, he put it in a national security context. So he wasn't sort of doing a larger point about gay rights over all as much as he was doing the inclusive point that he was trying to say, "It doesn't matter what you are, I want to keep everyone safe," the sort of the point he was trying to make.

But then he did mention that we, and I do think this does go with also inviting Peter Thiel earlier into the program, he took that extra beat to say, "I want to thank the Republican convention for the party." It was clearly, throughout the whole evening, he just looked at it and attempt for Donald Trump, who is -- his record is to be friendly on gay rights, despite what's in the platform and the Republican Party he's running on, to appear more tolerant.

And this is not about him getting the Republican Party to a different place in their platform and policies. This is about appealing to independent suburbanites who don't want to rule him out, because he seems socially intolerant ... LEMON: Yeah.

CHALIAN: ... and he's not, in this way, and I think he wanted to make sure to check that box.

LEMON: By the way, I hate that word, tolerant. I don't want anybody to tolerate me. It's like, no, we'll tolerate you. It's like, really, I don't like that. But I think you should -- no, no, but you kind of mean that. You know what I mean. Well you use that word a lot.

BAKARI SELLERS: There's no offense on ...

(OFF-MIC)

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I tolerate you Andy.

LEMON: But we do tolerate it. No, but, Andy, you brought it up here ...

DEAN: Yeah.

LEMON: I said let's stick to the speeches because we're talking specifically about the speech. But he did invite Peter Thiel to come tonight. Peter Thiel, is a very conservative gay man and in gay circle.

DEAN: And there's something wrong with that.

LEMON: A very controversial gay man.

DEAN: Well, at first he's an incredible businessman, gay, straight, whatever. Peter Thiel is a genius co-founder of PayPal, first investor of Facebook. If Peter Thiel said something very interesting in his speech about transgender bathrooms and that the focus, and all the hoopla, he said, "Who cares?" But then the reaction of the crowd ...

(OFF-MIC)

DEAN: OK, OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER THIEL, PAYPAY CO-FOUNDER: Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?

Of course, every American has a unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American.

I don't pretend to agree with every plank in our party's platform, but fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline. And nobody in this race is being honest about it, except Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: We have had this conversation about conservatives, and I think many of the conservatives on this panel would agree that conservatives need to get away from the social issue because it only hurts them or at least involve a bit more on social issues

But the fact is, Peter Thiel, as much as, you know, I respect him for coming and doing this, a lot of people care, especially transgender people care about which bathroom and so they wanted to go to jail or they won't be ostracized for being frenzy. They want to be able to have the right, and a written right to go to the bathroom.

DEAN: Right. And that's why Donald Trump was clear on it, you know, at Trump Tower, you can use whatever bathroom that you want. I knew when I'm in Trump Tower I do use the women's restroom because it's much fresher.

CARPENTER: One point on what Donald Trump, as the head of the Republican Party has done.

LEMON: We have to tolerate Andy Dean.

CARPENTER: We do. And I say this in all seriousness, I think that his nomination represents a complete collapse with the religious right.

What Peter Thiel said about fighting fake culture wars has a lot of truth in it. If people, social interviews and a lot of commentary on this on the right, the social conservatives ended up endorsing Donald Trump knowing that it could be -- they'll do the same gay marriage who say that this is going to be the end of civilization, but then go along with it in the end. That kind of proves it was fake all along.

I agree with Peter Thiel. And so that's an important moment.

Donald Trump is fighting a culture war. It's not in a way that we recognize it previously, the divorce and same sex marriage. It's more focused on identity politics. And so, that's reshaping, rescrambling of the map that's very transformational.

[02:10:11] SELLERS: But there's one other thing before we get away because there is a hit of hypocrisy. Because Peter Theil actually, I think explained to Ted Cruz tonight in the amount of courage shown, whether or not you agree what Ted Cruz said or not about that was very courageous for him to come in the line (ph). But Peter Thiel came out and expressed to the world who he was in an environment that before his speech, I literally thought he was going to get booed.

You know, we were talking about back in 2000, I believe, whenever there's a gay speaker, the Texas delegation took their hat off -- heart and turn around. So, in that sense, the Republican Party's more away

And you were talking about earlier the fact that Donald Trump chose Peter Thiel. But the fact to the matter is Donald Trump also chose Jerry Falwell to begin today. And he also chose Governor Mike Pence, who had some of the most retrogressive LGBT laws and policies in the entire United States of America.

And while we're talking about this LGBT community, especially transgender, today the NBA literally took away the all-star game from a Republican Governor Pat McCrory because of HB2.

So what I'm saying is that I appreciate, with all my heart, that Donald Trump made the effort to invite Peter Thiel. I appreciate Peter Thiel's speech tonight. But if the issues are more pervasive and the Democratic ...

LEMON: Just ...

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I appreciate ...

(OFF-MIC)

LEMON: Let me say this. We -- this is from our correspondents and producers on the floor, Peter Thiel got a huge applause from New Jersey delegation, but the Virginia, the Nebraska and the Utah delegates has set fire place in their seat.

MCENANY: Well I -- Bakari, appreciate Peter Thiel, I do too. I also appreciate the Bakari Sellers because he just made the case for unity. Because Donald Trump stood on that stage, he spoke to the Evangelical Community, who are not wrong, and they're not a hateful community, and they have a right to their opinion. If they want to -- if believe in traditional marriage, that's not necessarily a hateful position.

He also made the case for Peter Thiel and for the LGBTQ community. We saw unity. I haven't ...

LEMON: It's not hateful, but it's discriminatory.

MCENANY: I have not seen Hillary Clinton ...

SELLERS: Yeah.

LEMON: Hold on, hold on.

MCENANY: I have not seen Hillary Clinton ...

LEMON: Hang on, hang on.

MCENANY: ... bring together the community ...

LEMON: Let's get to this one point. Kayleigh, let me talk. I'm the moderator here.

It is not hateful, but it is discriminatory to say that you believe in traditional marriage.

MCENANY: It's not discriminatory.

LEMON: This is discriminatory.

MCENANY: No, Don, it's not discriminatory. LEMON: Under the constitution, everybody in America deserves to have ...

BARAKI: That actually ...

LEMON: ... the same pride.

MCENANY: I agree with you.

LEMON: That is discriminatory.

MCENANY: Here's thing. I totally agree with you. I actually adopt Alan Dershowitz's position which he professed about 5 to 10 years ago, which is that everyone deserves to be with who they love in this country, in the eyes of government they deserve to be equal. But Muslims, Jews and Christians have a specific view about marriage. That doesn't make them hateful. I don't think we should hate the term.

LEMON: I didn't say hateful. I said discriminatory.

MCENANY: I don't think we should take the term out of the mosque, out of the church. That term should stay there. We can come up with something else that's all has different union.

LEMON: What term is it? What term?

MCENANY: When I get united with my fiance, let's call that a civil union. But then anyone gets united with anyone else, all ...

SELLERS: But why can't ...

LEMON: Why do you change that?

SELLERS: Why can't gay Americans get married, be -- and then let it be recognized as marriage? I mean in the Republican platform, not only do you have the fact that they want to prevent two people that -- what you just said ...

MCENANY: Because ...

SELLERS: ... they want to ...

MCENANY: No, no, no, no, no. Bakari, this isn't about that. And this is what they left us, they try to make it about hate and divisiveness. But the mosque ...

(CROSSTALK)

... the synagogue and the church own the term marriage. And I respect them. I respect the right of the mosque ...

SELLERS: We're talking about them. We're talking about in the eyes of government. We're talking about ...

MCENANY: Yes, but in the eyes of government, everyone ... SELLERS: But it's in your platform.

MCENANY: ... should be equal in their union.

SELLERS: It's in your platform and conversion is all -- conversion therapy's also in your platform.

CARPENTER: But the platform is still meaningless to Donald Trump.

SELLERS: Well ...

CARPENTERS: It's the best kind of the whole issue here.

(OFF-MIC)

LEMON: Every Americans have the same right and if you don't want to get gay married, don't marry a gay person. I mean ...

MCENANY: I think we could all be equal but we should also not take the term marriage from the religious community, the mosque, the synagogue ...

LEMON: They don't own marriage.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Nobody owns the term marriage.

MCENANY: You know that it traditionally was developed in those communities. It should stay there.

LEMON: That's enough.

SELLERS: That's insane.

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: It quite brings a lot insane. I don't think you think Alan Dershowitz was a liberal who supports their candidate's insane, but maybe you do.

SELLERS: But we can disagree. I mean, I don't disagree with Alan Dershowitz.

(OFF-MIC)

LEMON: I don't think anybody owns the term marriage, basically, but this is an issue -- listen -- oh, I've got go. I'm sorry. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:18:18] LEMON: And we're back. Donald Trump accepting his party's nomination, giving his speech and touch on his favorite theme and harshly attacking Hillary Clinton.

CNN Tom Foreman here with the "Reality Check" on what Trump said about Clinton. Hey, Tom.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don. You know, one of the things he went after here really is a potential problem for Hillary Clinton out there. It has been for quite some time, her e-mail problem. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Just a few weeks ago, after much investigation, the head of the FBI came out and, yeah, he shredded many of the defenses that Hillary Clinton has been raising for months about this whole affair out there. She said that she never exposed any classified messages, never sent and received classified messages. He said, "Oh, yes you did do that."

She said she never endangered national security. He said, "Yes she did." And on and on it went. He just tore apart her entire case on this.

Donald Trump, however, seems to have made a tactical mistake in the way he approached it. He focused on the idea of these 33,000 that were deleted, and he specifically said she was doing it to hide a crime.

[02:20:04] Now the FBI looked very carefully at that, a forensic analysis, and that part they do not back him up on. They say they did not believe she was hiding a crime. You may believe it. You may not trust her at all and voters may not. But, the FBI said we have no evidence of that. So, the claim that she deleted all that to hide a crime, we have to say, that is false.

And again, you can find many, many more of these. If you want to see some of the other things that you're curious about, go to our website, cnn.com/realitycheck. We have a terrific team that goes through many, many claims. As I said earlier, Don, some false, some true, and awful lot, somewhere in between.

LEMON: Tom Foreman, actually Tom Foreman is joining us here from the Grill, the CNN Grill. Tom, let's see, I would say, get a drink but we still got a little bit to go before we can all do that. So thank you, Tom.

But back with me now, my political dream team. David, I want to bring you in on this because, as Tom said, the whole e-mail thing that he talked about tonight in his speech, false. But does that did go anywhere from helping her with this, you know, untrustworthy moniker that she is at?

CHALIAN: No, this is now hatred. This is with her. This is a negative that's going to be with her all the way through the November.

There's nothing she's going to be able to do to erase this. I mean, Comey was pretty damaging in that way of solidifying what was, you know, a whole year's worth of calling her honesty and trustworthiness into question.

And so, now, what she's got to be doing in her convention, try to get as many validators about not to try to convince Americans that she is honest and trustworthy, but try to hit areas of her character and her experience that they deem positive. I really think, no matter how Donald Trump talks about it, this could be a rallying cry for his troops, it will remind independents why they're wary of Hillary Clinton and it's going to be an effective weapon for him all the way through November.

LEMON: False but still effective. Andy?

DEAN: Look, I think, in a way, again, he's nit-picking with the "Reality Check." But, I will say this about Hillary Clinton's e- mails. OK, there are certain types ...

LEMON: What do you mean by nit-picking?

DEAN: Well, there are certain types of e-mails, and I just want to get very specific about this. Top secret, special access program e- mails that were on her bathtub server, these specific e-mails have operational details that people like Donnie Brasco, who's in the field risking his life.

It would make you the most special, if this is information discussed in the White House. Also in these e-mails, the operations are in capital letters. The names are in capital letters of this human being, and the operations are in capital letters.

So the idea that Hillary Clinton didn't know that these were special e-mails, she didn't know that they were confidential is just not possible.

LEMON: So what about -- hang on, what about the truth here from the "Reality Check" and all the investigations that ...

DEAN: Well, James Comey said that because she didn't have the intent to deceive, that there wasn't enough weight to prosecute, that was his opinion. Whereas, Chris Christie, who's a prosecutor, said was something similar, "I would prosecute."

LEMON: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Let David ...

DEAN: Yeah.

CHALIAN: Let's say that James Comey, the FBI Director, did say is that it's -- he could -- he saw it as a reasonable position that she may not have known ...

DEAN: But my position ...

CHALIAN: ... that those markings on the ...

DEAN: But my position is there were capital letters in the e-mails.

SELLERS: How many e-mails are we talking about? Because, yes, we're talking about two and those two actually, out of these 100,000 e- mails, were actually misclassified. They were actually ...

DEAN: She deleted and lied.

(OFF-MIC)

SELLERS: So, but I'm just saying ...

DEAN: She deleted and lied.

SELLERS: I mean, you said -- because you said facts and she deleted all of the -- out of all of these investigations, out of all these e- mail, we're talking about how many again? Tell me, I didn't hear you through the crowd.

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: But we already know what they are, though.

CARPENTER: Yeah, one of the best line, the best anti-Hillary lines of the convention, I totally forget which speaker said it. He said we don't have to read the e-mails to know Hillary Clinton is incompetent. To me, you don't have to prosecute her, lock her up. Everybody knows it was a terrible mistake for her to setup the server. That's the crime, the end. You don't have to go any further than that.

I feel like tonight that it's a ...

SELLERS: It's all running together.

CARPENTER: That was good framing that's on good ties ...

(CROSSTALK)

CARPENTER: You don't have to over put ...

DEAN: But it was bad judgment not like, you know, like a little instance, like you say something off ...

LEMON: Andy, let me say that she's right. It's almost as if everyone has come to the agreement that it was terrible ...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: She's right. Why are you overplaying it? Why is it going into this?

(OFF-MIC)

DEAN: The reason I want to beat a dead horse is that bad judgment, for instance, like, if you get in your car and drink and drive, that's horrible judgment, right? But if you're doing that everyday for four years, there's something horribly beyond bad judgment.

(OFF-MIC)

DEAN: She had bad judgment for a four-year period, not just one day, which shows that she just had bad judgment.

LEMON: Andy, that has been said, at the -- still to her point.

(CROSSTALK)

[02:25:01] DEAN: What are we beating?

SELLERS: Hillary Clinton had actually come out and said that ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was terrible, it's awful, it's wrong.

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: And it's agreed upon by the whole people in the country. Yeah.

DEAN: Keep doing until she lose them.

MCENANY: But, Bakari, you say that she come out and apologize for it but the one thing she hasn't apologized for ...

LEMON: I cannot hear you. What are you saying?

DEAN: They're saying Andy's right.

LEMON: OK, I need to listen to this from the Clinton campaign

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

SELLERS: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton, I think, is a terrific woman. Well, first of all, I know her very well, and I know her husband very well, and I like them both. They are, you know, just really terrific people. She really works hard. And I think she does a good job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK, his own words saying how great Hillary Clinton is.

MCENANY: But I have to say, Hillary Clinton was right when she went to his wedding and endorsed him as a friend. But I just wanted to point out that Bakari point that she lied to the American people on four things and she hasn't apologized for it. (CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: I don't know. I'm just thinking after a week of dismantling Hillary Clinton and a lot of that rhetoric around her, they just wanted to get this out here just to remind people that Donald Trump was not always in this position and try to muddy the waters a little bit. I'm not sure that's going to be all that effective. I think what would be more effective was the case that result ...

(OFF-MIC)

LEMON: All right, we'll be right back, everyone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:30:03] LEMON: Ivanka Trump making a primetime convention speech and appealing directly to women to vote for her father, Donald Trump.

Back with me now, my political dream team, Amanda Carpenter. Let's play some of Ivanka's speech, and then you and I will have a chat.

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: OK, (inaudible).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF DONALD TRUMP: 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, how to deal with challenges and how to strive for excellence in all that we do. He taught us that there's nothing we cannot accomplish, if we marry vision and passion with an enduring work ethic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So did Ivanka's personal stories make her father more likable and down to earth just like every other dad?

CARPENTER: I mean, the part where she talked about playing at his desk that was very endearing. The part where I think she got in trouble is where she begins to act as a campaign surrogate and operative.

Later in the speech she proposed policies that I think we hadn't heard of on behalf of Donald campaign, that he was going to be involved in paid childcare or paid leave, assistance for childcare.

This is very controversial territory. These are traditionally liberal issues. These are things that Hillary Clinton is campaigning on. And so, this was kind of a curve ball. And we've witnessed the transformation of Ivanka Trump from a political daughter into a political operative. And I sincerely believe she should be treated like one. She should be asked about these policies and the campaign really needs to be flushing out, so we know what we're getting.

LEMON: Kayleigh?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I thought for her to be treated as a campaign operative because if I know anything about Ivanka Trump, that she can handle herself quite brilliantly and articulately. But not only that, I think it's unfair to call them liberal policies. I don't think Republicans are anti-women having, you know, childcare. It depends how that policies helps. Perhaps she ...

CARPENTER: But she definitely has in the role of government and conservative circles.

MCENANY: You don't know the details but perhaps she means giving tax incentives for businesses to provide childcare.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Hang on, one at a time. Go ahead, Amanda? Say again, Amanda?

CARPENTER: The Wall Street Journal members, the Wall Street Journal editorial board were ripping Ivanka in Twitter for using misleading statistics. And I don't know what they're looking at. So -- But just know that she is going to be subject to a lot of scrutiny. The softball interviews should be over, as for other members of the Trump family, who are his inner circle.

And I think this is going to wear a very thin because people going to talk and find it kind of disturbing that only members of the family are allowed in the inner circle.

You know, I watched this and I sort of wondered, are we electing Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, or is this the new royal family? Because that's kind of how this is beginning to look like.

LEMON: Well, I'm going to speak to someone later who says these are the new Kennedys. I don't know if you guys agree with that but that's ...

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's amazing. If they're the new Kennedys, they really need to find a John F. Kennedy. But that's fascinating, you know, there -- I think ...

ANDY DEAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I hope not a Ted, though -- I mean, in all fairness. But ...

LEMON: Don't speak ill of the dead.

DEAN: I will ...

LEMON: Yeah ...

DEAN: ... you know, he drove a woman off a bridge.

LEMON: Go ahead.

DEAN: I mean, I'm just saying. Sorry. I'm just -- we're in a bar, I had to say it.

LEMON: Andy.

SELLERS: OK. So back to the point ...

DEAN: I couldn't believe it when I read that in high school.

SELLERS: Back ...

DEAN: Drove a woman off a bridge. Sorry.

SELLERS: Back to the point. I think that Ivanka's speech enact (ph) was very good. I think that she hit on points. I do know there are bills that are sitting in the House of Representatives that Paul Ryan and Republican Congress will not pass the deal with equal pay for equal work, to deal with everything she's talking about right now. I mean, those are issues that Democrats are fighting for right now.

It was the second Democratic speech that we've heard at this convention. The first was Melania Trump's and Michelle Obama's speech and then this one, with Hillary Clinton ...

MCENANY: And that makes to plagiarized from a liberal too.

SELLERS: That's right.

MCENANY: No -- I mean, and that's what feel interesting to me, is everybody assumed these are all liberal policies and that's -- that's really quiet frankly than the problem with the Republican Party is that they haven't spoken on these issues. And there are conservative ways to address them. Paul Ryan, for instance, proposed tax breaks for families which I think is a good policy.

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: Passion and for businesses who do have ...

LEMON: Is he going to pass equal pay for equal work?

MCENANY: It happens and for businesses who do have ...

LEMON: But traditionally, though, these are -- this is what you do here at a Democratic ...

CARPENTER: So -- hold on, you don't -- hold on, really quickly. You don't just drop new policy bombs at your convention and then make everyone wonder what's going on.

MCENANY: And that's the double standards where ...

(CROSSTALK) LEMON: Go ahead Andy.

MCENANY: I've heard all (inaudible) the same people say that there were too many details in the speech but yet not enough.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: I always get upset when I think Democrats feel that compassion is like their monopoly. It's their thing. And that's just not the case. We just go about compassion in a different manner.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Hang on.

DEAN: OK.

LEMON: A speech like that you typically hear at a Democratic and if you don't hear to the Republicans.

DEAN: OK. That's a fair point.

LEMON: Yeah.

DEAN: I grant you that.

CARPENTER: Yeah ...

(CROSSTALK)

CARPENTER: Hold on. That was an interesting moment. He stood at the Republican convention ...

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: He doesn't registers as a Republican ...

CARPENTER: Oh yeah ...

(OFF-MIC)

(CROSSTALK)

CARPENTER: But that's kind of shocking to say among a bunch of Republicans and say, well sometimes I vote Democrat, whereas, you know -- by the way, Ted Cruz was smeared for saying vote your conscience.

[02:35:04] That's exactly what Ivanka Trump said that she does on a regular basis.

SELLERS: But also -- I think it's interesting, because I do know that there was one new policy prescription in Donald Trump's speech in which we about how repealing some of the things that Lyndon Baines Johnson did.

But he actually had the same number of policy prescriptions in his hour, in 60-minute speech that Ivanka Trump had. And I just thought that that was amazing because what Donald Trump's speech lacked in substance, actually made Ivanka Trump's speech stand out that much more.

She looked like the one who was actually running for office. She looked like the one who could identify a problem, tell a personal story and apply a policy solution. We still don't know how law and orders going to fit in ...

LEMON: David?

CHALIAN: I just -- I am not of the mind that a convention acceptance speech is supposed to be like a state of the union policy speech. I think it's a different venue, and I think to expect detail policy for many candidate on the last night of the convention. It's not a real ...

MCENANY: And also he referred to -- he referred to a 10-point plans for better and he referred to a lot of policies but -- and if you applied the same exacting standard to Hillary Clinton speeches where she reportedly is doing out her economic plan but then uses the entire speech to be fame, Donald Trump's business record, she would not meet the exacting standard ...

SELLERS: But David, really quickly, how many speeches have you heard, because you listen to these speeches all the time, where Donald Trump has actually had any policy prescriptions?

CHALIAN: You know, obviously, he -- and he spoken about this. He's a part of this. He's made a calculation that voters are not all that interested in listening to detailed policy proposals and then he want to sort of set more a course of where he wanted ...

LEMON: And that's my -- and that's my ...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: That's my only point. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Oh, boy, here we go.

[02:40:00] We're live from Cleveland, the final night of the Republican Convention that featured a diverse pool of politicians, entrepreneurs, celebrity speakers. Here to discuss that, Bruce LeVell, Executive Director of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, and also my political dream team here.

So, we heard from this week, we heard from Pastor Mark Burns, who was on Pastor Darrell Scott who was on, Sheriff Clarke who was on, Ben Carson did not come on. Here's what The New York Times is reporting.

Oh my god, look at this man. He was working up a sweat tonight. New York Times reporting this and ran (ph) a headline that says, Black Republicans See a White Convention Heavy on Lectures. What's your reaction to that? BRUCE LEVELL, NATIONAL DIVERSITY COALITION FOR TRUMP: Well, you know, look -- I thought everything was awesome. I think, you know, Don, it was very impressive, you know, it was a lot of passion and this is just the beginning of what you're about to see as we go on into November.

LEMON: Yeah.

LEVELL: They're going to see a lot more across the country, not just these gentlemen, but many, many more gentlemen. They're going to be strong advocates for Donald Trump.

LEMON: But your specific reaction to this.

LEVELL: It was awesome.

LEMON: No, to this headline.

LEVELL: I mean, New York Times, who are they? Is that the one ...

LEMON: Well -- but -- I mean, you look at -- come on, let's just be honest. When you look at it? What is it, 17 delegates out of 2,000?

SELLERS: Not to be exactly ...

LEMON: But you understand why that happens, correct?

LEVELL: Seventeen delegates. OK, hold. Can I explain why that happens?

LEMON: Sure.

LEVELL: OK. Here's the deal. Now some of us are members of parties. I don't know everyone's political affiliation here. Oh I know this gentleman down here. I notice him, him and her. But it takes a lot of process to become a delegate. You know, for example, the gentlemen that you mentioned there were Democrats, they voted for President Obama. Now a lot of these folks are in the Trump camp.

If you go on my website, our website, nbctrump.com, you'll see -- there's thousand of people who are over there with the Trump camp who voted for President Obama. So, when they go into their precincts and try to go through the process to become a delegate, they're going to be denied out because they have no long-term longevity in that which is ...

LEMON: So how do you fix that? So how do you fix that? And how does the Republican ...

LEVELL: Well, in 2020, when we have a reelection for Donald Trump, you'll see a total difference in that auditorium.

SELLERS: But that also that -- I mean, that argument falls flat when you look at that the fact that George W. Bush had 135 African-American delegates at his convention. And so, when you look at the fact and now we have the fewest delegates that we've had in over 100 years. That means that --- I mean, that they had to go -- I mean, they were coming from ...

LEVELL: We're talking about 2016. We're not talking about that.

SELLERS: But you said, your reasoning was because they were coming over from Barack Obama and I'm just saying, George W. Bush had 135 and they weren't coming over from Barack Obama. In my argument, my retort is that I believe that reason is because -- and that argument falls flat and the reason is because Donald Trump is making the party smaller.

LEVELL: Well, remember now, what makes Donald Trump where he is now is because all the systems are infective. Both sides of the parties have failed miserably, so they quit, they gave up. And Donald Trump ...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: But does (inaudible) this argument that is he's making party smaller. No?

LEVELL: No, because that was part of the old system at establishment.

LEMON: So you -- this is a reincarnation or a reboot of the party, so you ...

LEVELL: This is a revolution.

LEMON: OK.

LEVELL: This is bigger than that, Don.

LEMON: So you said to me earlier that you're going to do a lot of African-American outreach.

LEVELL: We're not going to outreach.

LEMON: Outreach, every called outreach.

LEVELL: For that outreach.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: How important? Because if you look at the demographics of the country now ...

LEVELL: Right.

LEMON. ... if you look at what happened with Romney, the polls were the same sort of, you know, they were close evens had Romney winning, and then on election night, it was like, whoa, what happened. So, how do you reach out to more minorities now in order to put Donald Trump into the White House?

LEVELL: The difference is that we're going to maintain our message. The message of jobs, the message of the accountability and a system that both sides, Democrats and Republicans historically have failed. I mean, Don, look what has happened. You know, 16 candidates, senators, governors, Donald Trump beat all of them with $45 million from last year-to-date, with Jeb Bush spending $60 million just on one attack.

LEMON: But he still needs certain demographics in order to get into the White House.

LEVELL: That message has strong jobs and illegal immigration will resignate as we go on to November and that will solidify those ...

SELLERS: What happened to the last year in a month since he's been in the race? Why is the outreach starting now? I mean, I think that they ...

LEVELL: It's been going on ...

SELLERS: But I think -- but ...

LEVELL: I've been doing this since last year.

SELLERS: But-- I mean it -- but the result show that you had -- if you've been doing this since last year, you still only have 17 delegates here and the fact that we see on the poll ...

LEVELL: I've already explained to you why ...

SELLERS: I get that, I get that but I'm saying -- and we've seen the polls in Pennsylvania and Ohio where Donald Trump doesn't get 1 percent of the African-American vote.

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: He got zero percent of the African-American vote in Pennsylvania and Ohio in the recent polls.

LEVELL: Yeah. I disagree with that.

LEMON: OK. Let's move on. Let's move on.

DEAN: But we can only improve ...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Let's talk. You said to me earlier that as we were on the floor, by the way, watching Ivanka's and Donald Trump's speech tonight.

LEVELL: Right. Right.

LEMON: You said they're the new Kennedy's, you told me that.

LEVELL: Well, you know, because of -- look at the family, Don.

[02:45:02] I mean, Donald Trump has done a magnificent job raising his kids. I mean, just to see the passion from Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump, from Ivanka Trump. LEMON: Donald Jr.

LEVELL: Donald Jr, and in terms of their -- that passion that just flows over into their family -- I mean, I would vote for Ivanka. I would vote for Donald Trump Jr. I would vote -- because I know that that passion has fallen into that ...

DEMON: From one speech you could think vote for them. ? LEVELL: No, just because I know them. I mean, just their character and their personalities. You know, I think that this is the beginning of a Trump dynasty. I really believe that ...

SELLERS: That's scary.

LEVELL: No, it's not. That's a good thing.

CARPENTER: That's kind of uncomfortable. I have to say if someone for people who don't come from families like that, to see that a family is so much political power, invested only within their own family, I think is worrisome.

SELLERS: Authoritarian?

CARPENTER: We don't call -- kind of authoritarian. But like the dynasty idea, you know, our nation's been ruled by the Bushs, the Clintons, and now we're going to go to another family like this? How do people who aren't related to the Trumps get into that inner circle and get to the adviser that you need?

LEVELL: I didn't say that but ....

CARPENTER: Right.

LEMON: Kayleigh, go ahead.

MCENANY: Great. And -- I mean, you can't laugh at the dynasty comment when you're advocating for Hillary Clinton who have been Bill Clinton, he used to be a president and I don't ...

SELLERS: It's not a dynasty.

(CROSSTALK)

CARPENTER: It isn't any advisory role.

MCENANY: And what the plan is -- only to only in the media can we come up with the theory -- only in the media can we come up with this theory that their kids are too articulate, too good, too qualified.

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: Nobody is saying that.

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: It's not earlier tonight I said that all the kids were the best part of the ...

LEMON: No, no ...

MCENANY: What are your negative spin on ...

SELLERS: Nobody is saying that.

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: You're uncomfortable with the fact that they're qualified ...

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: Miss Kayleigh, let me just -- let me go back so we're very clear. I thought the highlight of the convention, the best speakers of the convention were the children. I thought Ivanka, I thought it builds up every night. Don, Eric, Ivanka was the best one of them all. I just thought ...

(OFF-MIC)

SELLERS: I mean -- I thought -- I mean, Ivanka was shorter as well, but I just think that that was amazing. I was just going to his point about the Kennedy's and the dynasty and -- I mean, the simple fact of the matters is that that John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy's did a lot of bringing and unifying and policy ...

MCENANY: And you were uncomfortable with them because they'll all happen to be ...

SELLERS: Well, they became a dynasty after a long ...

MCENANY: You were uncomfortable with them, I assume.

SELLERS: Well, I mean ...

MCENANY: And you're uncomfortable at your candidate who comes from the Clinton dynasty ...

(CROSSTALK)

CARPENTER: Hold on a second. One of the ...

SELLERS: Chelsea Clinton is not running for president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

CARPENTER: Sees (ph), does the Trump family has so much political power in they're featured every night is because there weren't many other people willing to be featured speakers.

MCENANY: That's not true.

CARPENTER: Donald Trump is not taking advice from a broad swath of people. He needs to find more people to guide him and it's his only been guided by ...

MCENANY: You don't know that ...

CARPENTER: ... his own children.

MCENANY: How do you know he's only being guided by his children?

CARPENTER: Because all the reporting from CNN shows, they say that he is guided by his children.

MCENANY: No. No. No. We'll pick this (inaudible).

CARPENTER: You have never been in an inner room with Trump. You don't know who his guides ...

MCENANY: Because I'm not related to him probably.

LEMON: We got to go, we'll be right back.

MCENANY: Oh. Now, I don't think you want never-Trump versus the camp (ph)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, we're back now live in Cleveland in the final night of the Republican Convention. My political dream team joins me now.

This was Trump's biggest night as the Republican nominee with the largest audience yet and he, you know, offered Americans some very clear vision of what his presidency would be like. How did he do, Kayleigh?

MCENANY: He -- this was -- I think will go down as one of the most significant and momentous convention speeches in presidential history. Because I think tonight we saw Donald Trump's transition to general election mode. I think he's going to win this election, perhaps in a landslide, and I think tonight, we will look back and we will say, this was the night everything changed.

LEMON: Andy, he was -- one of his biggest struggles, political struggles have been to appear presidential.

DEAN: Yeah.

LEMON: His daughter, his wife is like -- can you just be more presidential. Did he do that tonight?

DEAN: I thought he did. I thought it was a gutsy speech. Although at the same time, I think, you know, the fact that the American public get to hear him unfiltered is a big deal but to me, this is all going to hinge on the debates coming up in September and October. I think this going to be the most important debates that we've ever seen.

And then Don, the only critique I have in the night was the balloon drop which I kept waiting.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Are you there with me? Yes, you were there. And I was like, where the balloons?

DEAN: The balloons are about a minute late.

LEMON: Yeah.

DEAN: I think the guy was on a smoke break.

LEMON: There is -- that's the balloon drop but we were standing there on the floor going, where are the balloons?

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: Yeah.

LEMON: Was that a technical glitch? Were they waiting for -- I don't know.

DEAN: I don't know. We got to find out. I think it was Melania's speech writer that was in charge of the balloon drop.

LEMON: OK, whatever.

DEAN: All right.

LEMON: OK. So he's still down double digits when it comes to women. Do you think Ivanka helped him bridge that gap?

CARPENTER: I mean, she's a good surrogate for him. I think she should stick to being a character witness for her father. The Trump campaign largely is leaning on the children hard to do a lot of tasks in a way that I do not think is sustainable for them, but we'll have to see.

If Ivanka's going to try to compete with the liberals on their agenda, I think a lot of women are going to choose Hillary Clinton rather than Donald Trump's daughter. But that seems a calculation that they're going to be making and I'll be interested to see how Hillary Clinton brings that up next week.

LEMON: Well, Hillary Clinton tweeted tonight saying, "We are better than this." As a Clinton supporter, what specifically did Trump say tonight that you think helped Democrats?

SELLERS: Well, I think that Donald Trump actually solidified his position in a lot of people's minds that he's a very dangerous candidate. I think that there's going to be a new energy mammoths (ph).

They're going to be Bruce's (ph) ...

LEVELL: Wow.

SELLERS: I mean, we can have this discussion. I'll let ... LEMON: So, this is a Trump family walking off to -- I thought it was an odd song, "You Can't Always Get What You Want." I was like, wow.

MCENANY: But they do that for Pence too.

LEMON: Yeah, why is that ...

MCENANY: Yeah.

LEMON: I mean, it's a dirty song but it's like ...

DEAN: If you need Don and what do you need but ...

LEMON: OK, hold on, hold on, hold on.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Hold on, hold on, hold on.

SELLERS: The most amazing moment of the night before we get too far down, whether Donald Trump or Ivanka, anybody else, the most amazing moment of the night was Heavenly Joy, Rodney Jenkins' daughter ...

DEAN: Yes.

SELLERS: ... who sang at the beginning. She was like this big and she blew the roof off that.

[02:55:04] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

SELLERS: So, shout out the Heavenly Joy.

LEMON: What do we have to look forward to? What's coming up?

LEVELL: A tsunami. We're going to have tsunami all the way in November and you're about to witness the best presidential run in the United States of America.

LEMON: Kayleigh said landslide. We shall see ...

LEVELL: No. No. Tsunami. The word is tsunami.

LEMON: Tsunami landslide, mostly (ph). But I know what? We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: And before we leave you a note on a convention -- on the convention that many feared would erupt into chaos, that fear proved to be unfounded.

And tonight, here's what Cleveland police are -- is tweeting -- are tweeting, "Good night, Cleveland. Get some rest. Thank you for your support and thank you to all our many partners. And we couldn't have this without you."

So, that's Carol Burnett used to say. I'm so glad we had this time together, right? Did you guys enjoy it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: The police did do a wonderful job.

SELLERS: The law enforcement did a great job.

MCENANY: Yeah.

SELLERS: Thank you to all them.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Yeah, they did a great job.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Shout out LeBron James.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

LEMON: Hope you enjoyed the CNN Grill. I'll see you right back here at a moment at 10:00, believe it or not. Early Start with John Berman and Christine Romans right here in Cleveland again right now.