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Don Lemon Tonight

Hillary Clinton Announces Tim Kaine As Her Running Mate; Does Donald Trump's Brand Of Politics Unify The Democratic Party?; Gunman In Munich Killings Believed To Be Lone-Wolf Attacker; MH-370 Pilot Blieved To Have Conducted Flight Path Of Fatal Trip On Home Computer Simulator Within One Month Of Crash. Aired 11p-12a

Aired July 22, 2016 - 23:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:00:010] DON LEMON, CNN HOST: So the breaking news tonight is that Hillary Clinton announces her running mate as the Democrats take the spotlight, just days ahead of their convention. This is "CNN tonight." I'm Don Lemon; and it's officially the Clinton/Kaine ticket as of now.

Hillary Clinton chooses Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate. Democrats close to the campaign say he got the stamp of approval from President Obama and from former President Bill Clinton as well. Now, with days to go until the Democratic Convention opens in Philadelphia on Monday, will Kaine be a shot in the arm for the Clinton campaign? Let's get right to CNN's Mark Preston and Jeff Zeleny.

Jeff Zeleny, I'm going to start with you. First question, why 8:15 on a Friday night, a spot that's usually reserved for document dumps or

something you really don't want to get that much media attention; what happened?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: One of the reasons was, Don, if you look at the events of the day today, the shooting and the outburst, once again, on a Friday, in a different part of the world, today in Munich, that certainly slowed events down as they were -- as the Clinton campaign was watching and weighting what was happening in Munich. That was part of it, but also this was a campaign that they wanted to release it to their own supporters, people who had signed up by a text message; that was the whole point of this. People would find out on their own; so it didn't matter if they were in front of a television set or what not. I mean, it was something that was supposed to happen more organically.

Look, the other reality is they were running out of time. There was a joint appearance tomorrow at a rally here, in Miami, in advance of the Democratic Convention next week. So this wasn't something that they necessarily wanted to do this morning, because that would have -- and we might have moved on to something else. We have such a short attention span now, so they're trying to drive coverage into next week and seize attention from the Republicans, who have gotten so much in Cleveland, of course.

But there is no doubt that the events in Munich today slowed thing down, just in terms of how they were going to react. It would look too political to release something on a day such as today.

LEMON: This was a tightly held secret, unlike the Republican slate of possible VPs, but, I mean, was it - was it - was anybody really surprised by this Jeff?

ZELLENY: There was surprise, in a sense, you know, because some of the reporting that we've been doing over the past several days, this wasn't us just doing deskwork, Don. This was us doing a lot of reporting, talking to a lot of Democratic Senators, people in the White House, you know, doing a lot of leg work and all signs were pointing to Tim Kaine. Some other electoral things were coming into play here as well.

She had a very small list of people, at the end of day here, who actually fit her criteria of a governing criteria. Yes, she would have looked, maybe more carefully, at some other senators, like Sherrod Brown, for example, of Ohio, who is much more comfortable with the left wing of the party. The problem with Sherrod Brown is his Governor of the State of Ohio is a Republican. So Hillary Clinton, if she wins the White House, she wants to try and win control of the Senate as well. So she was not willing to give up the seat. Same with Elizabeth Warren; same with Corey Booker. So this is sort of what was narrowing down here, but she liked Tim Kaine, what she saw. He was a governor. He was a senator, but, now doubt about it; there will be some discord coming up in the next week at the Democratic Convention.

A lot of liberal groups already are saying that he's far too mainstream, too moderate. So you know, there will be some cantankerous moments here next week; but the reality is, Donald Trump, he unifies this Democratic Party more than anyone else.

LEMON: One more, Jeff, before I get to Mark here; Tim Kaine had the support of President Obama and President Clinton. How important was that?

ZELENY: Look, I think it's very important. He was one of - I mean, President Obama very much liked him and he liked Tom Vilsack, his Agriculture Secretary, as well, but he had the seal of approval from that. And President Clinton really likes Tim Kaine because he believes he can help deliver Virginia. 13 key electoral votes in the Southern State, so important.

The circle around Tim Kaine in Virginia, so many connections with the Clinton campaign. Time Kaine's wife, for example, Ann Holten is the Secretary of Education for Governor Terry McAuliffe, in Virginia. Terry McAuliffe, of course, is one of the closest people to the Clintons here. So he had the Clinton stamp of approval, and the Obama stamp of approval but he had to be comfortable with Hillary Clinton and she, in the end, decided she was.

Don, interesting, she's been a political partner before. She's been a spouse, of course, a very active first lady. This is the first time she got her pick. She was picking a partner, and if she was not comfortable with him she wouldn't have picked him, regardless of what Obama or President Clinton said.

LEMON: Mark Preston, what else does she bring to this ticket -- or does he bring to this ticket because she needs help with a certain demographics?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Sure; well, certainly, white men, where she's had trouble over the primary season and as we're continuing to see in these general election poll matchups. You know, Tim Kaine, while [23:05:01] he's from Virginia, which is extremely important, and those 13 electoral votes, as Jeff notes, are very, very important in the South, he's actually from the Midwest. He was born in Minnesota, and he has this Midwest way about him.

Some people call him boring. He jokes about the fact that he is boring; but the fact of the matter is he does bring a wealth of experience to the ticket. You know, once a bridesmaid, now the bride. When Barack Obama was

looking at running mate's in 2008, eventually settling on Joe Biden, he looked at Tim Kaine and, of course, while Tim Kaine did not got that, Tim Kaine did become the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, a very high-profile post.

Now a lot of Americans don't know much about Tim Kaine. He is known within Democratic circles, and right behind me, likely on that Wednesday night, before Hillary Clinton comes in on Thursday, Tim Kaine will be introduced to the world; and we'll see how he does and how he delivers. But, he's definitely a skilled politician, just not one that is very outwardly partisan or somebody who is very boisterous.

LEMON: All right; thank you Mark Preston. Thank you Jeff Zeleny. I appreciate that. I want to bring in Neera Tanden, a former policy adviser to Hillary Clinton. Neera, thank you for joining us. I want to start by playing just a short clip that the Hillary Clinton campaign sent out with the announcement. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM KAINE (D-VA), DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Do you want a "me first" president or a "kids and families first" president? Do you want a "trash-talker" president or "bridge-builder" president? What leaders do is walk right out into the challenges and embrace them and bring people together. That's what the best leaders have done in this country since we started.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So then why Tim Kaine, Neera? Because is he anti-Trump?

NEERA TANDEN, FORMER POLICY ADVISER, HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I think she picked Tim Kaine because, as she said throughout this process, the most important thing, really the top criteria, is who could actually be president; and Tim Kaine has a great record as a Senator, as a Governor, as a Mayor and I think she felt comfortable with that. He's also taken on some pretty important fights. Fighting the NRA in

Virginia and winning; investing in kids, investing in pre-k.

He also has a similar kind of trajectory. He left law school and became an advocate, a civil rights lawyer. He could have done a lot of different things but actually devoted his time and career for decades in fighting for civil rights and fighting housing discrimination; and then entered public life, a little bit like Hillary herself, who was an advocate for several years and then entered public life as a senator, much later on.

LEMON: Let's talk strategy here Neera, because he is fluent in Spanish and it looks like the official announcement is going to be made tomorrow in Miami, when they're both together, which we know Florida is a key battleground state.

NEERA: Mm-hmm.

LEMON: Is the campaign hoping Tim Kaine will help seal the deal when it comes to Hispanics there?

NEERA: I think that it's really his long record and the kind of work he's done. Again, he went to law school and then also took a year off to be a missionary in Latin America; and he's really devoted his life to real fights around social justice, working with immigrants, on housing and other issues, civil rights.

He was Mayor in Richmond, and really worked hard on civil rights for all people in that city, invested in the schools in a time when that was a new thing. a lot of schools have been disinvested from. He's been a progressive leader in a southern state.

I think he combines that vision with the practicality of trying to get people to the table who don't always agree with you and I think that's -- there's a lot of similarities between him and Hillary in that.

LEMON: Okay; this is from Jason Miller, I want to put this up, from Senior Communications Adviser of the Trump campaign. "It is only fitting that Hillary Clinton would select an ethically challenged insider like Tim Kaine, who has personally benefited from the rigged system. While serving in government Kaine has taken tens of thousands of dollars of freebies, more than $160,000 in fact, on freebie vacations, free clothes, free tickets. If you think Crooked Hillary and Corrupt Kaine are going to change anything in Washington, it's just the opposite. They do well by the current system, while the rest of America gets left behind. The choice has never been clearer. Donald Trump calls on us to believe in America, while the status quo ticked of Clinton/Kaine wants us to believe in a rigged system that enriches them at your expense."

Here we go; it's started. How do you respond?

TANDEN: It's projection. I mean, that is - that's projection if you really see what happened in the Republican Convention this week.

I'm really looking forward to the Democratic Convention. I'm looking forward to people seeing Tim Kaine, hearing from Tim Kaine. I think Republicans and Democrats alike will tell you that Tim Kaine is a decent, honorable

man. In [23:10:02] fact, Senator Flake, a Republican from Arizona, has already stated today that - tonight after the news, that Tim Kaine is a decent, honorable man and he couldn't see much wrong in the pick. In fact, he thought it was a good pick.

So, you know, I think you're going to see divisive rhetoric from the Trump campaign because that's what they do, that's what they specialize in. That's why this pick is so important. I think you'll see from Tim Kaine, just like you're seeing from Hillary, that these are two people who are going to fight the rhetoric hate and division that we've seen from the Republican Party over the last week and over the last several months. It's what they believe in their core, that's what they fought for their whole life and both of them will take this challenge, take this rhetoric, and take it to Donald Trump himself.

LEMON: Yes; I'm being told that our reporting is that the money, this is over eight years, that the money was legal -

TANDEN: Absolutely.

LEMON: So they're making accusations -

TANDEN: And there's never been any accusations against Tim Kaine doing anything dishonorable. Everything they're attacking is something that was completely legal and those laws will maybe change in the future but they were absolutely legal.

LEMON: Neera, you know, we just came off the Republican Convention. Some have said -- there's been some criticism that the tone was dark; Republicans, many Republicans and Trump supporters say it wasn't dark, that's just the reality of the country. What can we expect next week from Democrats?

TANDEN: I think you're going to see a very different message, much more hopeful message about the direction of the country. Sure, we have challenges but what's great about America is that we can solve these challenges. It will be much more optimistic. It will be, obviously, much more inclusive. The message of the Democratic Party is we have to fight the kind of intolerance and hatefulness that we saw at the Republican Convention. I think you'll see a really clear vision of that, and not only the ideas of how we're going to make change in the country but how Democrats are actually going to accomplish those differences; and I think you'll see a lot more unity in the Democrats than the kind of division you saw amongst Republicans last week.

LEMON: Neera Tanden, President of The Center for American Progress; thank you so much, appreciate it.

TANDEN: Thank you.

LEMON: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [23:15:54] LEMON: Our breaking news, Hillary Clinton picks Virginia Senator Tim Kaine to be her running mate. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is back with a look at the man and what he brings to the Democratic ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAINE: Are we ready for Hillary?

ZELENY: Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, new partners on the Democratic ticket.

KAINE: Do you want a "you're fired president" or a "you're hired president"?

ZELENY: It may be an anti-establishment year but Clinton's running mate is an insider, a U.S. Senator from Virginia and a former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

KAINE: And, if I have anything to do with it, we'll win again -

ZELENY: By selecting Kaine, Clinton is betting that experience in government, not sizzle, is the best way to defeat Donald Trump.

KAINE: Elections are just the beginning. The real work starts tomorrow.

ZELENY: He's neither flashy nor showboat, a seemingly safe pick and steady hand, just what Clinton told Anderson Cooper she's looking for in a vice president.

HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY) DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to be sure that whoever I pick could be president immediately if something were to happen. That's the most important qualification.

KAINE: I'm Tim Kaine.

ZELENY: So who is Timothy Michael Kaine? A decade ago, as Governor of Virginia, he introduced himself in the Democratic response to President Bush's State of the Union Address.

KAINE: I worked as a missionary as a young man and I learned to measure my life by the difference I can make in someone else's life.

ZELENY: It was that stint as a Jesuit Missionary in Honduras that shaped, and now distinguishes, him.

KAINE: [Speaking Spanish]

ZELENY: He learned fluent Spanish and still speaks it today, which makes him a different kind of attack dog against Trump.

KAINE: If you're a Latino, he's going to trash talk you.

ZELENY: Born in Minnesota, and raised in Kansas.

KAINE: The best decision I ever made was moving to Richmond to marry my wife, Anne, 26 years ago.

ZELENY: He built his political career in Virginia, rising from City Councilman and Mayor of Richmond, to Lieutenant Governor then Governor.

KAINE: Thank you all so very much.

ZELENY: He's 58, ten years younger than Clinton, known well inside the party but not beyond.

KAINE: I'm not the one with the biggest profile. I'm not the one that's a best known.

ZELENY: He signed on with Clinton early, this time around endorsing her in 2014, more than a year before she declared her candidacy. For an original Barack Obama supporter, it was a chance to make up for lost time.

BARACK OBAMA: Give it up for Tim Kaine.

ZELENY: His politics are more moderate than the liberal strain driving todays Democratic party. He's Catholic, outwardly moved by Pope Francis's visit to Capitol Hill last year. His views on abortion are far more conservative than most Democrats, as he explained in this interview.

KAINE: I'm personally opposed to abortion and the death penalty, and I've lived my life that way. The law is what it is, and I'm going to carry out the law. I'm going to protect women's legal rights to make their own reproductive decisions.

ZELENY: He's also spoken out forcefully against the administration for failing to seek congressional approval to fight the Islamic State.

KAINE: The war against ISIL is just, it's necessary, it's noble, but it's illegal. There's been no congressional authorization for this war.

ZELENY: It's an open question whether Kaine fits the mold of today's red hot politics, yet his selection could help soften Clinton's partisan edges.

KAINE: When it comes to our leadership in the world, trash-talking ain't enough. We need a bridge-builder, and we've got a bridge- builder in Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That was Jeff Zeleny reporting. Joining me now on the phone, is CNN Producer Betsy Klein, who has been on the road with Senator Kaine for the past few days, as Hillary Clinton made her final decision. So, Betsy, tell us what the last few days have been like, keeping track of Tim Kaine?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN PRODUCER: Hey, Don; so Tim Kaine has been at the top while now, but in the last 48 hours, I will tell you, he has things have become really slippery. So my job, since Wednesday, has been to know where he is and where he is going around the clock. He didn't make it easy. And unlike Mike Pence, who already had a security team, Kaine didn't have any security, which made it easier for him to slip in and out of places.

So, yesterday after an event, we really didn't have any sense of what he was doing next. So I just (inaudible). I followed Kaine and his aide in a white sedan for almost an hour in a giant circle around Northern Virginia, we're [23:20:02] speeding, on highways and through neighborhood and Senator Kaine finally got out of the car. He (inaudible) in an office building about 13 miles from where we started.

So that for me was my white Ford Bronco/OJ Simpson high speed chase moment. I knew at that point that if it weren't him, there would be no way we'd be going on this wild goose chase.

LEMON: My gosh, sounds like you were stalking him a little bit, Betsy.

KLEIN: A little --

LEMON: A little bit of stalking there. I hear that he may have ended up in California, did you hear that?

KLEIN: California? No, I saw him at the airport this morning. We knew he was scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Boston this afternoon. My colleague saw him leaving his apartment this morning just before 8:00. So I actually flew to Boston last night, and this morning I bought a ticket for some random flight. I went through security and I waited at the gate until I caught him coming off the plane. He told me had no news to report.

[Laughter]

LEMON: Betsy, you have quite the job there. So we hear - I can imagine what your frequent flyer miles are like. We hear he's traveling to Miami tomorrow. Do you think they're both going to head out together on the road?

KLEIN: Yes; absolutely, and I'm going to be embedded full time, man- to-man with him, through this election in November. So I can hope it only gets better after this. I actually saw him right before the announcement that he makes, I saw him chatting both at a fundraiser in Newport, Rhode Island, at 7:26 p.m., that was minutes before he got the call from Secretary Clinton at 7:32 and we don't know how he left the fundraiser but a guy walking by jokingly said I think he took a boat out of Newport. After all this, I would not be surprised.

[Laughter]

LEMON: All right, Betsy Klein. Thank you very much for that very interesting report. Have a great weekend; thank you so much.

Up next, if you think Donald Trump has forgiven Ted Cruz for failing to endorse him, think again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:25:52] LEMON: The day after the close of the Republican Convention, Donald Trump publicly snubs Senator Ted Cruz. I want to bring in now CNN Correspondent Sunlen Serfaty.

It didn't take long, Sunlen. Donald Trump basking in his glow from last night, spoke out this morning at a press conference and definitely had some choice words about Ted Cruz. What can you tell us about this morning's events?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON D.C. CORRESPONDENT: He sure did, Don. You know, this really, to be quite frank, should have been a very simple event for Donald Trump and his new running mate, Mike Pence. They appeared at a small campaign event in Cleveland, to thank campaign staff and volunteers who had worked on the convention this past week, something more of a celebratory affair after the weeklong convention, and there what we saw was really vintage Donald Trump.

He really veered way off script and really went after his former rival Ted Cruz. It was a scathing indictment, I should say, of Ted Cruz. Here's just a small part of what Donald Trump had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Somebody got booed the hell out of a place by thousands and thousands of people. There wasn't one person in the room -

[Cheering]

TRUMP: -- not one, and then they say there may not be unity. Unity? There wasn't one person in the room, including the Texas Delegation, right?

[Cheering]

TRUMP: Honestly he may have ruined his political career. I feel so badly; I feel so bad. And, you know, he'll come and endorse over the next little while. He'll come and endorse, because he has no choice. but I don't want his endorsement. What difference does it make? I don't want his endorsement. I have such great - I don't want his endorsement. Just, -- Ted, stay home. Relax; enjoy yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: So you see there, Donald Trump really rehashing all the drama that played out at the convention this week and really seemed to bring a tone of bitterness to it as well. I should also say that he went one step farther as well, not only going after Ted Cruz but specifically, again, bringing up the baseless attacks against Ted Cruz's father that surfaced during the primary. I have to say, it felt a lot more like we were in the Republican primary than on the general election. LEMON: You know, he was originally, Sunlen, supposed to have a

campaign event at the University of Akron this morning but that had to be cancelled. Why was it cancelled and what did he do today in its place?

SERFATY: That's right; he was anticipated to have a big rally, we believe, at the University of Akron, with potentially hundreds of people there. The local paper reporting that was abruptly cancelled by the Trump campaign. Really what took its place and filled the oxygen of Trumps day today was that morning event where he blasted Ted Cruz. So that really was the narrative that came off of the convention for Donald Trump; not some sort of big rally as we typically see the running mates do, hit the road and campaign together, really drum up a lot of momentum.

This is primetime for the ticket, to really get the reward from a convention, and really get a bounce, potentially, from that convention. It seems that sort of the attention being focused on these attacks, again, on Ted Cruz, really regurgitating a lot of those former - you know, that feud between them really seems to deviate off- message today, certainly, for the Donald Trump-Mike Pence ticket.

LEMON: Sunlen, thank you very much. Here to discuss all of this is CNN Political Commentator Bob Beckel, Hilary Rose, a Hillary Clinton Supporter, Republican Strategist Charmaine Yoest and Political Contributor Lahnee Chen, a former policy director for Mitt Romney.

So, Lanhee, what do you think about Trump's attacks on Ted Cruz today?

LAHNEE CHEN, FORMER POLICY DIRECTOR, MITT ROMNEY: Talk about veering off-course Don, I mean, look, this was supposed to be the day when Donald Trump solidified a message coming out of his convention. If you look back at past national conventions, candidates routinely do this the day after the convention. They have a huge rally, where they bring together the presidential and vice presidential nominee to talk about the message of the campaign, but also to begin to drive contrasts with their opponents.

Today, instead, he's out there attacking Ted Cruz who, by all measure for Donald Trump, should be an irrelevant character. Why is he spending time attacking him? This is the problem Republicans are going to face going into [23:30:01] the Fall is, you have a guy at the top of the ticket who can't seem to keep on message.

LEMON: Charmaine, as Sunlen reported, Trump's time in Ohio today was different than other nominees the days after their Convention speech. Do you think it's smart and being different and what's gotten him here or was that a missed opportunity in such critical state?

CHARAMAINE YOEST, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: You know, Don, I think that's the exact right question to be asking because in time, time is going to tell. It is really fascinating to watch how his mind works. he really kind of approaches this from a totally different perspective. He's looking at this as a marketer instead of a classic politician and he really talks to a different audience than we're used to. He goes into a presser on the day after the convention and I think he's looking at it as theater and telling a story instead of, you know, I'm going to address questions to the press. He's kind of talking over their heads.

The interesting thing about how the Cruz thing is playing out really, again, goes to a different audience entirely. I can tell you, don, from having been in the arena, it was almost like the entire arena was holding its breath as Ted Cruz got towards the end of his speech; and really and truly, if he had come to the place where he had endorsed Donald Trump, the place would have absolutely gone crazy. But as it was, with the fact that he didn't,

it really kind of - it generated a real sympathy for Donald Trump and actually brought more cohesion ultimately than I think Cruz really expected as he kind of worked things out in his mind.

LEMON: Well the expressions on Hilary and Bob's face -

YOEST: So really Donald Trump won in both ways.

LEMON: Hilary, go ahead.

HILARY ROSE, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Well, I think Charmaine might be right on the point that it did engendered some sympathy for Donald Trump, but, you know, the point that Donald Trump just doesn't seem to get, is that, really, elections are about the people. They're about what you're going to do for America, not what America is going to do for you. I just - I'm consistently amazed that time after time Donald Trump goes before the camera, talks about his own poll numbers, his own fabulousness. It's like he's - he's like from the "Housewives of Beverly Hills", only he's actually running for president.

He can't seem to get out of his own way. He didn't just criticize Ted Cruz, that might have been one thing. He went after John Kasich again, the Governor of Ohio; a state he actually needs to win. This guy just cannot seem to find in his heart, or in his head, some sort of normal semblance of communicating to the people what he's going to do for them. It all becomes about what people are doing for him.

LEMON: Bob Beckel, I want you to get in before Charmaine responds.

BOB BECKLE, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I mean, listen. You talk about a waste of time. If this guy - presidential politics, when the convention ends, it's the day to start the next convention, for the general election. He chose to do what he normally does, which is to go back and try to make things - attack people who had attacked him. This was the wrong place.

Talk about Ted Cruz; I feel for Ted Cruz. This is a guy, Trump attacked his wife and attacked his father for killing Kennedy. I mean, what do you expect? Also, it's Ted Cruz, I might add. So, you know, I think Trump does not understand the pace of a presidential election and how difficult it is to give up a day, a full news cycle, to go back and fight a battle that's offer.

LEMON: All right; stay with me everyone. Up next, what Hillary Clinton's Veep pick does to the electoral map. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:37:39] LEMON: Back with me now, Bob Beckel, Hilary Rose, Charmaine Yoest and Lahnee Chen. Okay, Donald Trump tweeted this about the pick of Tim Kaine today. so here it is -- do we have it up? Okay.

He said, "Trump: Is it the same Kaine that took hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts while Governor of Virginia and didn't get indicted while Bob M. did?"

LEMON: So, here's our reporting on this, before everyone responds: So, according to the Virginia public records - Public Access Project, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign finance in the Commonwealth, Kaine received $160,000 in gifts from various sources; among the gifts was use of James B. Murray, Jr.'s vacation home in the Caribbean valued at $18,000. Murray is a former business partner of Kaine's Senate colleague, Mark Warner. He offered up the house, Kaine won his gubernatorial - after Kaine won his gubernatorial race in 2005.

Here's the big difference they say, is that between - as my phone went to something else. The big difference between the McDonnell and Kaine is that there's no accusation that Kaine helped any of his gift-givers through his official capacity of governor; Kaine also meticulously reported anything that could be considered a gift, including political travels, something McDonnell failed to do. So he reported all the gifts and McDonnell didn't do that.

So, Republicans are looking at this as an opening, Charmaine. Is it a real opening? Will they try to use this to their advantage?

YOEST: Well, the fact that they're out of the gate so quickly, apparently they let this drop even before Hillary's text got out to her supporters. So they were ready for this and they're loaded for bear. Certainly it's a narrative Hillary can't want given her track record on ethical issues. So, you know, the Kaine pick could bring with it some really interesting conversations that she really doesn't want to have.

LEMON: Do you agree with that, Hilary?

ROSE: No, I -- no. First of all, I think you said it, Don, in your analysis and reporting, which is that he did not do anything wrong. He reported everything he did and that there was no actual allegations that he took any gifts for political favors.

[23:40:01] Donald Trump has like 350 lawsuits against him by people challenging his business ethics, day after day, where he goes back on his word, where he doesn't pay workers, where he defrauded people who signed up for Trump University. I just -- if he starts going on ethical challenges, that's going to be quite of an interesting conversation, I think, (inaudible) --

LEMON: But it does create an opening, as the Washing -

ROSE: take that on any day.

LEMON: As the "Washington Post" says, it does create an opening for Republican, Bob Beckel.

BECKEL: Well, a minor one. Let's remember that in McDonnell's case, there were contractors, friends of his, lobbyists who benefited financially from this. He steered contracts in their direction. I will say this, Hillary has got a huge obstacle in front of her, which is the likability factor. This speech by her, on Thursday night, is the biggest speech of her lift. She's going to have to look the American people in the eye, and I think she needs to do a some mea culpa over the emails, and I think she needs, as she did last week, to begin to say I know I do not have everybody out there with me and I have work to do and I'm going to do that.

LEMON: Lanhee?

CHEN: I think legality isn't really going to be the central issue here. The problem is that Kaine is joining a ticket that already seems to be ethically challenged. So while there is the question of whether all of this is legal, the bigger issue is should he have done it. Let's remember, Donald Trump has been very good - on of the things he's been very good at is branding other people, and so -

BECKEL: Trump's not ethically challenged?

CHEN: -- the "Crooked Hillary", the "Corrupt Kaine" thing, that could actually stick. It doesn't really matter whether Donald Trump is ethically challenged or not because -

BECKEL: It doesn't?

CHEN: -- the issue is that he is pressing forward with this line of attack. We can make out own judgments about Donald Trump and I --

BECKEL: Well, you wait a week and we'll solve that.

CHEN: That's not the point. The point is, what's he going to do with Kaine.

[Cross Talk]

YOEST: You put these ethical questions alongside his policy flip flops, I mean, Tim Kaine was a very, very solid pro-lifer as recently as 2005. Now he continues to describe himself as being pro-life, even in the roll-out you hear him saying -

BECKEL: So does Donald Trump.

YOEST: -- I'm a Democrat, and yet he has a 100-percent rating - but he has 100-percent rating from Planned Parenthood; so you kind of put this whole new picture in mind of someone who really kind of wants to trim his sails and have it both ways. That kind of hypocrisy, alongside of Hillary Clinton's track record, is really going to be a challenge for them.

[Cross Talk]

BECKEL: Doesn't that sound exactly like Donald Trump? LEMON: Wasn't Donald Trump pro-choice and now he's pro-life?

ROSE: First of all, Donald Trump's been all over the place on this issue.

LEMON: Let her finish. Hilary, let her respond.

YOEST: Donald Trump does not describe to describe himself as one thing. You know, Tim Kaine's problem is he describes himself as pro- life while he votes 100-percent of the time with Planned Parenthood.

LEMON: Go ahead, Hilary.

ROSE: He is not - he is not an -- Tim Kaine, Senator Kaine, repeatedly, he has never suggested that people should vote for him based on a pro-life position. He has consistently said, as a matter of public policy, as a matter of other people's choices that he is pro-choice. How he feels personally is a different issue. So the -- this notion that somehow you've got the kind of inconsistencies in Senator Kaine that we have seen repeatedly with Donald Trump just isn't true.

YOEST: He tries -

ROSE: Elections are about -

YOEST: He does describe himself as pro-life.

ROSE: No, he doesn't. He's not asking for your support as a pro-life candidate.

YOEST: There's a lot of confusion out there. People are tweeting asking, is this guy really pro-life; and the answer is, no, he is not.

LEMON: The thing is -

ROSE: He's not asking for your support as a pro-life candidate. He's asking for your support as a pro-Planned Parenthood candidate. He is already clear about that.

BECKEL: Trump is asking for your support for pro-life -

YOEST: He's confusing people.

BECKEL: Trump is asking for pro-life support.

LEMON: One at a time, please.

BECKEL: Well, let me just say this, Trump went in front of the evangelicals and said I'm pro-life, I want your support; when two years ago definitely he had good things to say about Planned Parenthood. He contributed to them and he was pro-choice. Now, come on.

CHEN: I think there will be lots -

ROSE: What he's saying -

CHEN: -- of inconsistencies, regardless. The issue for Kaine is this, they're going to try, the Trump campaign is going to try to paint Kaine as a typical politician and the receipt of gifts in this way makes him look like a typical politician, as will be the case when they begin to look at the Kaine record on issues like trade, abortion, the environment, off-shore oil drilling, whatever it might be.

ROSE: Exactly.

CHEN: All of those issues there are inconsistencies that I think are going to be problematic for Kaine and I think that is part of the bigger issue, and part of what Trump is trying to do in framing the pick of Kaine (inaudible).

BECKEL: But Trump is Mr. Inconsistent, that's the point. He's been inconsistent on every single issue.

[Cross Talk]

LEMON: Listen, before we get to the break - we've got to get to the break, I want to put this up. This is the tweet; and, by the way, it is Bob McDonnell, D-O-N-N-E-L-L, not Donald. That could be just an auto correct but just for the record, it's Bob McDonnell, not Bob McDonald.

YOEST: You know -

LEMON: I got to go.

YOEST: -- the one thing that's important here -

LEMON: When we come back, breaking news on the Munich attack today and [23:45:02] shocking developments in the mystery of Flight 370. we'll

be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:48:55] LEMON: Breaking news on two stories tonight: the deadly attack on a mall and a McDonald's in Munich, Germany and the mystery of Flight MH-370. I want to discuss it now with Juliette Kayyem, the author of "Security Mom" and Mary Schiavo, the former Inspector General for the Department of Transportation. She's now an attorney for victims of transportation accidents. Juliette, this latest attack in Munich, nine victims are dead, 21 others hurt. What happened?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, AUTHOR, "SECURITY MOM": Well, a total tragedy; and what we know happened now is not what we thought was happening several hours ago. It ends up being a lone gunman of what we know now is of German-Iranian descent, citizenship of both countries, passports. He had a gun, which is hard to get in Germany and started shooting near a McDonald's, outside a McDonald's in a shopping mall.

Because of the tensions in Europe right now, let alone Germany, which suffered the attack on the train two days ago, the response was aggressive to say the least. They essentially locked down the city, they closed all mass [23:50:01] transit. They communicated to people not to -- to essentially shelter in place until they could figure out what was going on. He ultimately - he appears to have committed suicide and the investigation is now ongoing to determine whether others were involved, whether this was a lone-wolf acting, you know, sort of inspired by ISIS or another organization.

I will say, the Iranian - most people know the Iranian, Shi'as - ISIS is Sunni, but we don't know his specific background, and so that's where the investigation will lead now. It just shows the high intentions of something like this, was a closed - it closed a city, a major European city.

LEMON: Mm-hmm. I want to play -- this is an eyewitness. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hear this, Allah (inaudible), Allah (inaudible). I know this because I'm Muslim too. I hear this and I only cry, screaming, and take my children and go out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Do police have any idea the motive here, Juliette?

KAYYEM: No; but obviously, eyewitness accounts - at least they're not saying so. Eyewitnesses like that, and others, who hear him say different things over the course of this massacre, those statements are going to be reviewed. You're obviously going to take a statement like that seriously in this day and age, and determine whether others were involved. They're going to be doing electronic review of what he was saying online, and doing online; his neighbors and others.

The most important thing, you know, right now, is that they have lots of confidence that it was just him and now it's going to get to the motivation of how - what inspired this and mental instability, ISIS- inspired or something else.

LEMON: Okay; I want to turn now to MH-370 because there's some news now about that and I want to get to Mary Schiavo. Mary, we have learned that the pilot of MH-370 conducted a flight simulation on his home computer that closely matched suspected route of the missing plane. What do you know about that?

Okay; Mary? I'm sorry we lost Mary's satellite, but, Juliette, what do you - do you know anything about it?

KAYYEM: Obviously people like me follow this because we simply do not know what hap - planes just don't go missing; you know this. So the New York magazine is reporting, with a very solid reporter, that the pilot of the plane who had been, sort of, cleared in the early investigations was actually doing sort of early trial runs on his computer to essentially see what a suicide air-flight, where it would take him. From the maps that you're showing, or that you had shown earlier, it looks like they have been looking for the plane potentially in the wrong area.

I don't know if Mary's on yet, but as she was saying in the last hour, if true, this puts into question almost everything we've been told about the investigation, which it's just not good from an investigation standpoint. It's obviously just horrifying for the families, if this was, in fact, a pilot suicide mission.

LEMON: I would imagine, Juliette, that it's not common to do tests of suicide runs on their home simulators?

KAYYEM: That's exactly right; and, look, any time a plane goes down, because although it seems to happen a lot it really does not happen, given the number of airplanes we have in the air at any given moment. Pilots are the first people to look at when you don't have another explanation. So those - so early on you'll remember this, these pilots, in fact, the whole crew was essentially cleared. It looks like the FBI, with their investigatory tools, were able to determine that, in fact, not only was he looking at these other data points, but that he hadn't scrubbed them from his computer.

LEMON: Yes.

KAYYEM: It's many years later, and that's the tragedy of this.

LEMON: Mary?

KAYYEM: There's families that are still mourning.

LEMON: Mary, we're sorry about the satellite and the Skype connection there. So I've got to ask you a quick question, and considering, you know, I just asked Juliette, you know, pilots don't usually do suicide runs, it's not common for them to do that. So what can we now conclude, that this was - can we conclude that this was a premeditated act? This was an act of mass suicide, act of mass murder-suicide?

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INVESTIGATOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: Well, I don't think we can conclude that, but we certainly have to go back and look at this huge report that Malaysia issued because there's not one word in it about this information from the FBI, and, of course, they had it at the time. So they have to go back and look at associations. They have to look at the data that was provided by the FBI to Malaysia and then ask why that data has not been made known before. So it really does cast a huge shadow over the whole investigation and they're really going to have to redo large parts of it.

LEMON: Mary Schiavo, Juliette Kayyem, thank you very much. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: In Cleveland this past week, conventioneers and politicians flocked to the City's best restaurants but at one of them they may not have realized that their servers and cooks were all ex-offenders. Restaurant owner, Brandon Chrostowski is this week's CNN Hero, an elite chef who is helping his employees get back onto track. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANDON CHROSTOWSKI, CHEF, EDWINS RESTAURANT: Coming home from prison, after someone's done their time, everyone deserves that fair and equal second chance.

So, my left hand moves, my right hand follows.

I see that opportunity that someone deserves. I can see it. I can feel it. I've been given the gifts to fight to make sure that that door does get opened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Pretty cool; how does he open that door? To find out, make sure you watch Brandon's story. It's at cnnheros.com. While you're there, make sure you nominate someone you think should be the 2016 CNN Hero.

So, I'm so glad you could join us this week, one in the morning, three in the morning. Thanks for watching. I'm going to see you right back here on next week, and we're going to be at a very special time. Again, Sunday night at 10:00, with our preview of the Democratic Convention, and then all of next week we're going to be at the CNN Grill in Philadelphia from 1:00-3:00 a.m. so make sure you get your seat and join us. It is a show that you don't want to miss. It's amazing. Everybody's watching. AC360 starts now.