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Don Lemon Tonight

Hillary Clinton Names Tim Kaine VP Choice; President Obama and Bill Clinton Reportedly Approved of Kaine Choice; New Developments in Mystery of Missing Malaysian Airliner; Latest on Munich Mall Shooting. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired July 22, 2016 - 22:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:00:00] ANDERSON COOPER, AC360 SHOW HOST: That does it for us. Thanks for watching. CNN Tonight with Don Lemon starts now.

DON LEMON, CNN TONIGHT SHOW HOST: Our breaking news, that's the ticket. Hillary Clinton announces her running mate.

This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon.

Hillary Clinton makes it official her vice presidential pick Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. The running mate is expected to appear side by side tomorrow in Miami. Just ahead of the opening of the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia on Monday.

Democratic close to the campaign say Senator Kaine got a stamp of approval from President Barack Obama and from former President Bill Clinton. Two presidents approval.

Let's get right to Mark Preston and Jeff Zeleny. Jeff, I'm going to start with you on this Friday evening because you got the scoop. Tell us how the pick came about.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, the pick came about really in a series of conversations between of the secretary and the senator. Of course they've known each other for a long time but they really got to know each other more intimately in some private meetings.

And they actually were, you know, for all the secrecy about this, they were actually auditioning in plain sight. Last Thursday in Annandale, Virginia, just outside Washington, they had a campaign rally. And you could see the sparkle in Secretary Clinton's eyes when Tim Kaine was sort of singing her praises, particularly in Spanish.

That's one of the big attributes she likes so much about him, it's why they're doing the announcement here in Miami tomorrow at Florida International University where 60 percent of the student body is actually Hispanic.

But she believes that he is a governing choice. Above all as she look though all of the candidates, she thought that he has, you know, quality experience as a governor, as a senator and actually all the way back to the mayor of Richmond and city hall.

She believes he appeals to that for white working class voters. She's had a bit of trouble with, but above all, it was a governing choice more than an electoral choice. And he didn't get the call tonight, Don, till 7.32 p.m. Eastern Time.

He had a -- he was feeling somewhat confident but he did not know for sure until just about half an hour before it was announce publicly.

LEMON: OK. So, but this was sort of the least surprising thing, don't you think, Mark Preston. I think everyone pretty much thought it was.

I mean, last night, we heard rumblings that it was going to be Tim Kaine and then now it's Tim Kaine today. There was lots of high drama today. But didn't he pretty much notice, wasn't this a foregone conclusion.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Well, I mean, not just foregone, especially when they're considering who are they going to pick for a vice president. You have to look at so many different things.

And as Jeff had outlined them there. He has a lot of the building blocks that Hillary Clinton is looking for, not only for the governing aspect but also for the electoral aspect. The fact is that he does speak Spanish.

He's the first senator to ever deliver a speech, a full speech on the Senate floor in a different language. He did that in Spanish. He's from the Midwest, even though he was born in -- even though he lives in Virginia, he was born in Minnesota.

And he also could be helpful to Hillary Clinton when it comes to white men, which we do know that she's having a lot of difficulty with right now in trying to have them support her. So, Tim Kaine, in many ways, you're going to hear tomorrow and in the coming days that he was the safe pick and perhaps that is true.

But I do think that Hillary Clinton looked at Tim Kaine and saw him as a loyal pick and somebody who had the experience that she could work with.

LEMON: Hey, Jeff, shortly after the announcement Tim Kaine tweeted this, he said just "Got off the phone with Hillary, I'm honored to be her running mate, can't wait to hit the trail tomorrow in Miami." What do you know of her covering all this years in politics that you've covered -- that you've been covering?

ZELENY: Look, I think that Tm Kaine as Mark just said, his biography is so interesting. I think the most interesting thing about it is when his time he spent in Honduras when he was in his 20s, he went to a Jesuit missionary there and that's where he learned to speak Spanish.

And he didn't just leave it at that, he has gone on to continue to sort of live those principles. So, Tim kaine is you see him the halls of the Senate you hear the word always not very flash reporting but he's actually very funny. He as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

He was very, you know, popular in things. He plays the harmonica an interesting fun fact on this Friday night in a lot of some blues bands and things. But the thing about Tim Kaine I think is his easy demeanor.

Hillary Clinton knows that she can sort of work with him. But, Don, what this does tonight, I think it completes the circle of the Obama/Clinton relationship. Tim Kaine was the first person out of gate back in 2007 to endorse Barack Obama, the first governor anywhere.

And now he was also one of the early people on board with Hillary Clinton, he endorsed her a year before she actually announced the second time around back in 2014. But that shows she has trust in him.

She's been skeptical of early Obama people. But to me, this sort of completes the circle.

[22:05:00] One of the reasons that president Obama and President Clinton because of all those Virginia connections also supported him as well. But if she wasn't comfortable with him, she wouldn't have picked him.

LEMON: Hey, Mark, what's the significance of Miami tomorrow, is there any that they're starting off there?

PRESTON: Well, there is. Yes. I mean, no question. I mean, look, if you look at the electoral map right now and all our viewers know that when you're looking at running and trying to win the presidency, you kind of have to win Florida.

And the fact that you can go down to Florida with Tim Kaine and he'll be able to speak in Spanish in a state that has a high population of Hispanics, that says a lot and that can be very helpful to Hillary Clinton.

So, when you see him on the campaign trail, you'll see him perhaps in states such as Florida, you also see him in states out in the Midwest because he does have that, as Jeff says, kind of that easy, approachable Midwest sensibility to him.

So, you can see him out there, and then if you look at Virginia in and of itself, there are 13 electoral votes on the table. Barack Obama won Virginia back in 2008 and he won it again in 2012. But it was always has been a republican state going back to 1964 when democrats the last time they won it was when Lyndon Johnson did that year.

LEMON: Clinton referred to him as a relentless optimist. I wonder if that's the point a difference, you know, the point at the republican ticket that some peopel say wasn't so optimistic the other night.

Thank you very much. The last night, I should say. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Jeff and Mark.

Now I want to bring in Tim Kaine's Senate colleague and friend, Amy Klobuchar. She's a democrat of Minnesota. Thank you so much for joining us this evening to talk about your friend.

AMY KLOBUCHAR, MINNESOTA STATE SENATOR: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: You know him personally. And then tweeted, you said, "Congrats to my good friend Tim Kaine on being Hillary Clinton's running mate. Long time fighter for middle class families and born in St. Paul." So, tell us more about your friend. Why do you think he's the man for the job?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, I think it's an excellent choice. I sit next to Tim at our caucus lunch so you really get to know someone. When you see how they act when the cameras aren't on, when the reporters aren't in the room you see how he interacts and how he stands up for what he believes in.

Whether it was his fierce belief that Congress shouldn't just defer to the executive branch every single time about whether or not we should go to war or whether or not we should mount more forces in the Mideast. He believed that Congress should actually make those decision itself.

He's someone that takes responsibility for things, he saw that when he was mayor when he was governor. And he's actually was pointed out by Jeff and others, he's a lot of fun. You know, not that many senators play the harmonica I know we're not that. It's an exciting bunch.

And I would end by the fact that he was in St. Paul and no one knows vice presidents better than Minnesota.

LEMON: Yes.

KLOBUCHAR: We are the home of Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey and moms in our state bounce their little kids and babies on their knees and say one day you can grow up to vice president.

LEMON: Yes.

KLOBUCHAR: So, now we have someone else to claim as a Minnesotan.

LEMON: So, you're saying boring and safe, that's not necessarily bad.

KLOBUCHAR: No.

LEMON: Yes. And it depends on your definition of boring, right?

(CROSSTALK)

KLOBUCHAR: I don't see him the -- no. Thank you. I guess it's all relative. But, no. As was pointed out earlier, he's actually a lot of fun. He's someone that was able to appeal to people across the country when he was head of the Democratic National Committee.

He is a good speaker. He's someone that most important for our country, he's someone that governs only 20 people in the history of America, has served as mayor, governor and senator. And I think right now when we see what happened today across the

world, when we have an economy that's stable as the presidents point out and growing, we want someone that has that kind of experience that's ready to do the job.

LEMON: Someone asked I think it was Jeff Blake who tweeted like -- you know, I'm paraphrasing, I forget to find, we'll find the tweet, like, you know, I'm trying to think of a bad thing about him and I can't.

You know, usually when these things happen you go through people's resumes, you go to their histories and you start to sort of look at, you know, sort of the bad things that they've done. You're having -- people are having a hard time doing that with Tim Kaine.

KLOBUCHAR: I think that's true. He's just someone that republicans have a lot of respect for him. I talked to a lot of my colleagues about that. He's the real deal. He has been someone that took on hard things like discrimination in housing.

He's someone that has taken on some tough fights in the Senate and he's just going to be -- I love, I guess what I love the most about him in these troubled times and after seeing the Republican Convention night after night, is just his optimism, right.

Hubert Humphrey was known as the happy warrior. And Tim Kaine is someone of just close. And I think that his relationship with President Obama, the fact he knows how to govern, and he has a good manner and a positive outlook about our country and our world is something that we read -- need in American politics.

LEMON: So, I think -- this is Jeff Flake. He said, "Trying to count the ways I hate Tim Kaine. And then he says drawing a blank. "Congrats to a good man and a good friend."

[22:10:03] Donald Trump is tweeting that he's, you know, too much of an insider, and two of them together, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, "Too much of the establishment." Is he too establishment for the progressive wing of the party?

KLOBUCHAR: I sure don't think so. This is a guy that decided to take a year off and served as a missionary, right? This is a guy that learned and made sure he learned Spanish fluently. This is guy that he is going to be able to reach out to independents and has shown independence in a number of things and issues he's taken on in the Senate. So, I just don't buy that at all. No.

LEMON: You were rumored to be on the short list. Are you disappointed?

KLOBUCHAR: I am so happy today that we have someone as good as Tim Kaine getting this job. And I love my job in the Senate and there's a lot to do. And hey, we just opened the new Viking Stadium today, Don, in the Twin City, so how can you be unhappy. You have to come and visit.

LEMON: You got that good plug in. That was very good. Very good, Senator.

KLOBUCHAR: There you go.

LEMON: How do you think, you know, after coming off of a week of the Republican National Convention the republicans really getting all of the spotlight this week and now we're talking about, you know, the democratic ticket, how will he help Hillary Clinton defeat the Trump/Pence ticket?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, I think, first of all, he is a good messenger. He's going to be able to show that difference. As you saw in their appearance last week in Virginia, he's going to be very good at showing the difference between the two candidates and Hillary's experience and vision between what you saw just last night.

I think I tweeted out this morning that, you know, the first republican President, Abraham Lincoln, gave a very famous speech where he talked about our better angels, and Donald Trump basically delivered a 76-minute rebuttal last night.

It was a much darker vision of America. So, I think you're going to see that in the next few months, you're going to see his appeal in States like Virginia. He grew up of course in Kansas City. He spent a lot of time in the Midwest and different parts of our country.

And I think that's going to be helpful as well, the geographic reach that he has and of course, the reach he'll have being the governor of a State and Senator from Virginia along with my good friend Mark Warner.

I think that you have someone who knows that really knows how to talk to people that aren't just hard core democrats and people that really want to find solutions to our problems and the problems facing the middle class.

LEMON: Senator, congratulations on the new stadium and on Tim Kaine.

KLOBUCHAR: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: Thank you. Have a great weekend and I'll see you at the convention next week. Thank you very much.

KLOBUCHAR: I look forward to it.

LEMON: We're going to be right back with much more on our breaking news. Hillary Clinton chooses Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate with just days to go until the Democratic Convention.

[22:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: And they're off. Just days before the Democratic Convention opens in Philadelphia Hillary Clinton picks Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate.

Here to discuss, CNN political commentator Bob Beckel, Hilary Rosen, a Clinton supporter, republican strategist Charmaine Yoest, and political commentator Lanhee Chen, the former policy director for Mitt Romney.

I didn't think we'd be talking this much politics on a Friday night that we get a little break in before the two conventions, but guess what? The best laid plans, right.

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Here we are.

LEMON: Of mice and men. OK. Hilary, I'm going to start with you. You're a Clinton supporter. Are you happy with this Kaine, with Kaine on the ticket?

ROSEN: I am. You know, look, I'm OK with a little bit of boring right now. This week in Cleveland was frightening, and I think that Hillary Clinton represents a steady hand on the till. I feel good about where Tim Kaine is on his progressive history in Virginia.

There's some talk about he's not progressive enough. I think he's made it clear to Secretary Clinton and to democrats that he has a good progressive record, that he's pledged to support the things that she supports.

So, I'm happy. I feel like we've got a ticket we can take all across the country, we can take the battleground state and purple states and win with.

LEMON: What made him the top choice, Hilary, that she was looking for?

ROSEN: It's a good question. I think it's too simple to say he was the safe choice. I think that they have a good chemistry together, which is extremely important. He is from a state that has been a purple state, so he understands kind of moderate and independent voters and how to address those kinds of kitchen table concerns.

And he is somebody who has proven himself to be a good campaigner. You know, there's a lot of stress on people when they go through these campaigns that having some proven entity like this is actually pretty important when you think about the intensity that we're going to experience in this campaign over the next several months.

LEMON: Bob Beckel, do you think they're going to be a lot of unhappy progressives out there, people who wanted someone like Elizabeth Warren, especially the, you know, so-called Bernie bros and the Bernie supporters who wanted someone a little bit more progressive than Tim Kaine.

BOB BECKEL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, being a progressive, we're all upset, it doesn't matter who you pick. But the fast answer is the fast answer is Donald Trump will bring those people around and they will support Hillary Clinton.

But there's a couple of things to keep in mind here. Let's remember that Kaine has the most powerful supporter in Terry McAuliffe, the Governor who is the biggest contributor of the Clinton campaign, number one. Number two, he's been vetted twice and he did campaigns very well.

Three, the Spanish speaking is important because Northern Virginia now has a heavy Spanish number of voters up there, but the vice presidents don't get you votes.

The history of that, now we've looked at it carefully, it is they can get you in trouble and Tim Kaine will not get her in trouble.

LEMON: So, Lanhee, to you now. He's religious, he speaks Spanish, and he's a while male, a group that Hillary Clinton campaign needs to do much better with according to our, you know, Mark Preston and Jeff Zeleny who were on just a short time ago. Do you think this pick helps with that?

LANHEE CHEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Don, I think clearly this is a general election sort of pick, right. I mean, she knows that he gets her some attributes on the ticket that she would not have otherwise. And she -- Tim Kaine gives her this crossover appeal.

You know, I think they saw the Republican Convention this week. I think they saw that Donald Trump was making a bid to solidify his base. And they figure, look, we're going to have a pick that might actually attract some center right folks to vote for us.

[22:20:05] So, you know, we'll see if that's the case. But clearly, they're not concerned about progressives. You know, they realize that the strongest form of unity is Donald Trump on the other side of that debate stage come September or October.

LEMON: All right. Let's get Charmaine in here. Trump sent out this tweet, this text to supporters. He says "Tim Kaine is Hillary Clinton's -- is Hillary's V.P. -- V.P. pick. The ultimate insiders, Obama, Hillary, and Kaine don't let Obama have a third term contribute." So, Mike Pence is also an insider as well.

CHARMAINE YOEST, FORMER HUCKABEE ADVISOR: Well, this is the thing about Tim Kaine. He is a mild -- he is being packaged as a mild mannered kind of middle of the road pick, and yet his record is extreme. And it's right in line with Hillary Clinton's radicalism.

He's got a zero percent rating from the NRA so he doesn't help her at all with the accusation that got a huge roar of approval in the arena this week about Hillary wanting to talk our guns away and then he's got a 100 percent rating from Planned Parenthood.

Even though everybody likes to talk about the fact that he's personally opposed to abortion. So, he's one of those politicians who like to have it try in and have it both ways. But that's not really going to set very well with the American people

when he's running with someone who already has a problem with being called crooked and trying to twist the truth.

And who is being married to someone who said it depends on, you know, it depends on what the definition of is, is. You know, when he starts trying to do that kind of thing of splitting the difference on public policy, that's not going to go over well. It is going to make him look like a classic insider.

LEMON: That's a whole lot to unpack. Yes, go ahead, Hilary.

ROSEN: Don, this is purposeful. If the republican start to attack Tim Kaine and being just as liberal as Hillary Clinton, that's going to energize their base, they're going to do our work for us.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: Yes, but she know...

ROSEN: We're not going to have to convince people he's progressive enough, they're going to say he is.

LEMON: Bob?

BECKEL: It's another thing here which is...

YOEST: Well, it's not the base that you need.

BECKEL: Pence is not...

YOEST: It's the middle of the road independents that Donald is really gaining ground with.

BECKEL: Oh, yes. You know, I tell you.

YOEST: You know, Bob, I really respect you but I have to disagree with your...

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: The ultimate insider is Pence. Now when Pence (AUDIO GAP) debate, (AUDIO GAP) in this country. There are going to be -- this is not two people that lighted up. Trump needed somebody to light it up and he went to Pence? Are you kidding me?

A state he is probably going to win with the guy who, yes, he's had some background and history. But he's not exactly. I mean, Tim Kaine looks like Bill Clinton compared to -- I mean, interestingly boring.

YOEST: Hey, Bob. Bob, Donald Trump is not the one who needs somebody to light things up, Hillary Clinton is. So, she's put -- she's put a ticket together that doesn't have a spark anywhere. You know, Donald Trump has more than enough spark for one ticket.

BECKEL: Really?

YOEST: So, I think they're in pretty good shape on that side and I think its...

(CROSSTALK)

CHEN: I actually think the, you know -- I was just going to say I think -- I think the Pence pick makes a lot of sense for Donald Trump because the one thing he was really missing was governing experience. And so, he needed somebody who could get him that.

I think that Pence pick to me is very logical and makes a lot of sense.

ROSEN: That's true.

CHEN: The problem with the Kaine pick is that, you know, no one is really excited about Hillary Clinton. No one is really excited on the democratic side -- simply not with senator, right, folks.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Who should have been?

CHEN: I'm sorry, Don?

LEMON: Who should have been?

ROSEN: That's not true.

LEMON: Who do you think have been -- who have gotten more excited?

(CROSSTALK)

CHEN: Well, you know, I think, yes, any number that people that they were considering. The admiral was interesting, I think is they gone with de Castro, that would have been interesting. I think that there would be a lot of things that would have made that ticket more dynamic. I think the problem with Kaine is that there's no dynamism there.

BECKEL: Hey can I tell you one thing?

LEMON: Go ahead, Bob.

BECKEL: The pick should have been Collin Powell, number one. That was my candidate and I think it would have blown everybody away if he had done that and he wouldn't have gotten her in trouble either.

But Pence doesn't, I mean, you're talking sparks. You're right. Donald Trump doesn't need any more sparks for the guy is going to take off into the heavens. But the fact is that Pence doesn't agree with him on a lot of things. They're going to have to get through that every time Pence says something on the trail that counters what Trump says, that's going to dominate the news.

And Trump's speech last night, I have to give him a credit. It was a good speech but it sounded like the Encyclopedia Britannica near the end. But I mean, the fact is that the guy covered ground fairly well.

But when you get back at the trail Pence and Trump, I mean, I just -- I don't get the Pence actually made some adversary (Ph).

LEMON: Go ahead, Charmaine, do you want to respond to that?

ROSEN: Well, look, what they -- you know I'll just say... (CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Yes, go ahead, Hilary.

ROSEN: This is an election really between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. What both of these candidates have done in my view, and I'll give them both credit for this, is they have both picked people that they believe can be president on day one should something happen to them.

Will be a partner for them complementing their governing and in many respects, they both took very much the same tact. Yes, was it safe? Yes. Was it dynamic and huge and risk taking? No. But, you know, that's what Hillary Clinton is looking for...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: It seems like that's what she wanted because Clinton referred to him as a relentless optimist.

ROSEN: ... herself says safety has the responsibility. Right.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: She referred to him as...

ROSEN: I know.

YOEST: I think -- I think this whole idea that somehow the debate between these two men is going to be boring doesn't do justice to either one of them.

[22:25:04] I think it will be a very interesting debate and both of them have shown flashes of personality that they'll be able to bring a real aggressive defense of their respective position positions.

And frankly, you know, these two tickets have a very, very wide chasm between them in terms of public policy. And so, I think that you will see...

ROSEN: That's true.

YOEST: ... people really paying attention as we get further down the stretch as these two help to get the tickets articulate those huge, huge differences.

BECKEL: Don't you think that Pence makes Dan Quayle -- Pence makes Dan Quayle look like a towering intellect?

LEMON: What do you mean by that, Bob?

(CROSSTALK)

CHEN: I don't think that's fair at all.

BECKEL: I mean, he was -- he was a terrific pick. YOEST: No. He was the leader of the republican study committee, Bob.

BECKEL: Oh, that's important.

YOEST: He was a member of leadership in the House, he's been a governor. This is -- where you're getting that I really don't know.

LEMON: Go ahead, Lanhee.

(CROSSTALK)

ROSE: Well, Pence has been a pretty unpopular governor.

CHEN: Yes, I think -- I think Mike Pence has some real policy accomplishments.

LEMON: Let Lanhee get in on this. Go ahead, Lanhee.

CHEN: Mike, you know, Mike Pence has spent really policy accomplishments. He's actually spent time on a lot of these issues. I don't think it's fair to criticize his intellect. People can criticize his record but I think his record is actually quite strong.

I think the problem with Kaine is going to be that his record as governor was really weak. And so, if they try to post up on record as governors what you're going to find is that Mike Pence has a whole heck a lot to say, whole lot more to say than Tim Kaine does. I think that's going to be his biggest problem when he gets on that stage.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: You tell me...

LEMON: All right. Stand by, Bob. Stand by. I got to get to a break. So, stick around. Lots more to come as we count down to the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. We'll be right back. We'll continue our conversation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:30:00] LEMON: Hillary Clinton picking Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate.

Back with me now, Bob Beckel, Hilary Rosen, Charmaine Yoest, and Lanhee Chen.

OK. So, Charmaine, you know, everyone has an Achilles's heel. He is being somewhat made out to be, you know, a choir boy here. But there some difference between them. He supports and praise the TPP just a couple of days ago. Maybe even yesterday and Hillary Clinton opposes it.

CHARMAINE YOEST, FORMER HUCKABEE ADVISOR: Well, yes. I mean, there are going to be differences. But, you know, this is an interesting dynamics because it reflects the differences in policy between Donald Trump and Mike Pence as well. So, that's why I'm saying that I think that the vice presidential

debates will be really interesting. There's going to be in this general election more debate over public policy than you've typically seen.

You know, looking back at this last week with the GOP at the convention, one of the things that people kept saying was that this is so different from Tampa, which was the last Republican Convention because there was just more conversation, more debate, more going on.

And I think you're going to see the same thing with this general election as you have -- you have conversations going on between the nominees and their vice presidents as well.

LEMON: Yes. Well, a debate over public policy.

(CROSSTALK)

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, my God. A wishful thinking.

LEMON: Yes. I think the public would welcome that Lahnee Chen.

LANHEE CHEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

ROSEN: Right.

LEMON: Especially considering what, you know, what we have been dealing with here and talking about.

CHEN: No, Don, that's absolutely right. Look, I think the biggest challenge for the Republican Convention which just wrapped up is that you had a convention that was largely devoid of policy solutions. And I wish that there had been more discussions of that.

I wish Mr. Trump on the last night during his speech would have told us a little bit about how he plans to keep America safe because it's not entirely clear.

So, if we do have a public policy debate, great, I'm all for it. But I don't see ne right now.

LEMON: Let's just be honest. So, I mean, do you think that either of these V.P. picks will make a difference? Because people don't typically vote for the second person on the ticket, vote for the vice president. Bob?

CHEN: Yes. No, I don't think it will make much of a difference at all.

LEMON: Bob?

BOB BECKEL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, there have been a number of studies that...

(CROSSTALK) YOEST: Can I jump in here, Don? We haven't mention the fact...

LEMON: Yes, go ahead.

YOEST: We haven't mentioned the fact that I think the tipping point for Tim Kaine was the fact that he is from Virginia. And so, the fact that Virginia is such a purple state and that he was a very popular governor, I think that was the tipping point and I think that that, you know, that electoral calculus is going to in the end be much more important than the policy considerations.

LEMON: Bob, you were saying?

BECKEL: Well, you go back to Lindsey Johnson who were supposed to be the guy who protects us and there's no evidence, absolutely none that the vice president can carry states or votes in his own state.

I will say this that Kaine is -- or excuse me, Pence is way to the right on Donald Trump on policy issues, I mean, whether it's gay issues or whether it's abortion, I mean, they have some fundamental differences with each other.

And if you consider policy coming out of that convention, the only policy was fighting over the rules of the Republican National Committee. You have not heard one single thing out of that convention that you can say was a substantive policy initiative. And that's the problem.

LEMON: Well, I think Charmaine, I'm going to give you the chance to respond to that. Did you -- what were the specific policy outline or any specific policies that you heard during the convention?

YOEST: Well, you know, the pre-convention stuff where you're putting the platform together is where you're really doing your policy negotiation. This republican platform was the most pro-life platform that the GOP had ever put together. But I think on the democratic side on...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: But I meant at the convention, did Donald Trump mention any policy or did any policy or did any of the folks speakers mention any specific policy?

YOEST: Well, here's what I would argue to you, Don, is that the the platform is...

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: Donald Trump ran away from the platform all week.

LEMON: Hilary, let her finish.

YOEST: ... being hashed out, but the speeches are meant to be -- they're meant to bring together as we talked about all unity, to energize your base, to get people excited about the ticket, to set your broad themes.

LEMON: OK.

YOEST: You know, if you're standing up there giving speeches that are footnotes and laundry list of policy, you're going to bore people to death and put them to sleep.

LEMON: Hilary, go ahead.

YOEST: Where you get into policy is with the debates and we've got those coming up really soon.

LEMON: Go ahead, Hilary.

ROSEN: I think we did see a very robust policy conversation earlier on in the republican platform and we came out with the most conservative platform they've ever had. And, in fact, Donald Trump didn't endorse any of it in his speech.

His daughter in the introduction actually talked about four or five things that were the complete opposite of what was in the republican platform.

[22:34:58] What you're going to see this week and I think why the Tim Kaine appointment matters, is you're going to see a very unified Democratic Party with a platform that represents truly the issues that Hillary Clinton is running on.

That she and Bernie Sanders and the left wing and the moderate wing of the Democratic Party have come together and agreed on, you're going to see speakers talking about solutions for the future. You're going to have a convention and a leader that people are going to walk out really enthusiastic about. That I think starts with today's appointment of Tim Kaine.

LEMON: That's going to have to be the last word, Bob.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: Hilary, just very quickly. The one thing that we did come out...

LEMON: Bob, I got to go. I'm sorry. Thank you.

BECKEL: Come on, man. The 12-foot fence on (Inaudible) He's going to build a 12-foot fence and I'm going to be the first one to invest in a 13-foot ladder.

LEMON: Thank you, Bob. I heard you say that before, though.

BECKEL: You did?

LEMON: Yes.

BECKEL: All right. Why did you blow it in the middle of my line for? LEMON: All right. Thank you. When we come right back, hitting the

reset button, what to expect as the political spotlight shifts from the GOP to the dem?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Our breaking news tonight. The democratic ticket is set. Hillary Clinton chooses Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate.

[22:40:01] Bob Beckel is back with me. And joining us now, John Fredericks, a syndicated talk radio host and a Trump supporter, and Eric Metaxas who is the host of the Eric Metaxas show and author of "If You Can Keep It, The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty." That is very interesting. And he's got a book here on the desk. And I want one of them as soon as you leave.

So, John, Clinton is going to introduce her running mate at a campaign event. It's going to be in Miami tomorrow. You are a Trump supporter. What do you think about the pick and the location of this big announcement?

JOHN FREDERICKS, SYNDICATED TALK RADIO HOST: Well, Don, first of all, thanks for having me again. It's always good to be on your show. It was a great pick for Hillary Clinton and a great pick for Donald Trump if that is possible. It's a great pick for Hillary Clinton because Tim Kaine is very popular in Virginia, he's extremely affable, he's a Catholic, he has -- he comes over to many people as more moderate.

I think he brings an element of personality to her campaign that maybe Secretary Clinton isn't always on top of. So it's a good pick for her, especially in the fact that it puts Virginia, it makes it that much more difficult for Trump to win and of course, without Virginia, the needle for Trump getting to 270 electoral votes definitely narrows down.

But it's also a great pick for the Trump campaign. Because Tim Kaine has been a very enthusiastic backter -- backer, I'm sorry, of the Trans-Pacific partnership deal. He is an enthusiastic backer of open borders and free trade and NAFAT, which is one of the key elements of the Trump campaign that he is going to have to defend.

Secretary Clinton is going to have to defend. And he's also good because he has been a relentless advocate for passing an AUMF so that the president has to come to Congress and ask for a declaration of war before we send troops. So...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Well, I'm glad you mentioned all those things because that's the first criticism I've heard of him. So far, it's been, he's a great guy, he's a choir boy and I'm like, well, you know, what's going on here.

So, Eric, Tim Kaine definitely a political insider. You heard John sais, John has criticism of him saying it's a great pick but he's got some explaining to do. But democrats are saying he's a safe choice and he's the best choice. What do you think?

ERIC METAXAS, THE ERIC METAXAS SHOW HOST: He seems kind of dull. I think he makes Mike Pence look like Elvis Presley. Is that bad?

LEMON: Look like what?

METAXAS: Elvis Presley.

LEMON: How so? Really?

METAXAS: Frank Sinatra? I'm kidding. I just think that nobody knows anything about him and he seems like a tremendously safe choice. I also think Hillary Clinton is loath to pick somebody who could steal attention from her. I get a sense from her that she thinks that there is something historic about her being the first potential woman president. So, she just wanted somebody to assure people of some kind of stability. That's my guess.

LEMON: Is that why in your estimation it wasn't Elizabeth Warren, which many people in the people in the Democratic Party wanted?

METAXAS: Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. But it's a weird thing though. I mean, they say he's Catholic, he's a missionary. I mean, she has to deal with the fact that at this point, I mean, it's not 1972 or 1980.

The democrats are concerned the party of Planned Parenthood and selling baby parts. Now, that's gruesome. She has to deal with that. So, I think she probably reached to a religious candidate because she realizes that she's going to be attacked on that. I mean, just based on what we've been hearing. I have to guess that that's what's going on.

LEMON: And Planned Parenthood certainly has a very high opinion of Tim Kaine. I heard the, you know, the president of Planned Parenthood saying...

(CROSSTALK)

METAXAS: Right, now that he's out of the womb.

LEMON: Yes. So, OK.

METAXAS: Enough?

LEMON: Yes. Bob, I want to talk about Munich, if you will. President Obama spoke to CBS's Face the Nation and he says that the attack doesn't validate Trump's dark convention message. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN DICKERSON, FACE OF THE NATION MODERATOR: Mr. President, when Donald Trump spoke to his convention he talked the security threats. He talked -- he painted a very dark picture, and now there's been a terrorist attack in Germany. Doesn't that suggest he's right about the darkness? BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PRESIDENT: No, it doesn't.

Terrorism is a real threat. And nobody knows that better than me. One of the best ways of preventing it is making sure that we don't divide our own country, that we don't succumb to fear that we don't sacrifice our values, and that we send a very strong signal to the world and to every American citizen that we're in this together.

DICKERSON: Explain how we would sacrifice our values specifically about being divided.

OBAMA: Well, look, if we start engaging about the kinds of proposals that we heard from Mr. Trump or some of the surrogates like Mr. Gingrich where we start suggesting that we would apply religious tests who could come in here.

[22:45:10] That we are screening Muslims Americans differently than we would others, then we are betraying that very thing that makes America exceptional.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, Bob, what do you -- what do you think of what you're hearing from the president, especially in light of, you know, what Donald Trump said last night?

BECKEL: Well, look, what Donald Trump said sort of went by a lot of people. But he made one of the most outrageous statements in this whole campaign, which was that he was not prepared to assure our NATO allies, a 60-year defense pact that he was willing to come to their aid if they were invaded by Russia. Now that's a big statement. They already...

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: What's your response to the president, though?

BECKEL: Pardon me?

LEMON: What's your response to the president's?

BECKEL: I think the president is exactly right. I mean, look, we need -- we do not need to be divided to fight terrorism. And the other thing about terrorism is we talk about the things that happen. We don't talk about the thing that were thwarted by our intelligence and international intelligence but there's a lot of that.

And you've a lot of people out there who are performing terrorist acts. We know that. And it's only going to probably get worse and that's sad. But the fact is it going to take a united country and united allies and particularly united NATO to handle this.

LEMON: John, I need a quick reaction from you.

FREDERICKS: Look, the president came out today with more mumbo jumbo gobbledygook, that nobody knows exactly what he's talking about. He still can't call the enemy out, Don, for what it is. What Trump said last night is that he is going to call them out and take steps.

And as far as NATO is concerned, he's like, look, NATO, they're not paying the majority of those countries, they're not paying their fair share, it has to be reorganized to fight a terrorist battle, it's not set up for that. And he's attacking it because he says it has to get change and he's standing up to it. And I think he's sitting on old...

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: When did the president say that it was mumbo jumbo? What is mumbo jumbo of what's the president said?

LEMON: Bob, I'm out of time, guys. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Sorry about that.

BECKEL: Thank you.

When we come right back, shocking new developments in the mystery of flight MH-370. Evidence that the pilot flew a suicide route on his home simulator less than a month before went missing. We have much more next.

[22:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We have some on two stories tonight. The deadly attack on a mall at McDonald's in Munich, Germany, and the mystery of MH-370.

Here to discuss is Juliette Kayyem, the author of "Security Mom," and Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the Department of Transportation. She's now an attorney for victims of transportation accident.

Thank you for joining me here on this Friday evening. Juliette, you first. Another horrible terror attack. This time in Munich, nine victims are dead, plus the gunman. Tell us what happened. What's the latest?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, through the course of the day, Munich thought it was under a series of attacks by multiple gunmen. What we now know it was one individual gunman that we're hearing he's from German-Iranian descent but he is a German citizen who's a joint citizenship, who got into some argument and was armed.

And here's the, you know, the oddity is that Germany is not a heavily armed society like ours and how he got that gun is going to be irrelevant. But in the end it was a single, lone gunman whose motivation is not known and does not appear to be terrorist motivated.

But what you saw is a city in a country and a continent that is, you know, at high sort of tension about the kinds of attacks we've seen over the course of the last seven or eight months.

And so, you saw a rather large law enforcement and police effort over the course of the day. They shut down the city, they shut down transportation and they told people to shelter in place. LEMON: But one eyewitness did report that the gunman inside the

McDonald's targeted children and yelled "Allah Akbar." Another said that the gunman yelled "I am German." I mean, do you said that there's no -- that it doesn't appear to be terrorist motivations, but if in fact they did that, wouldn't that be a sign of terrorism?

KAYYEM: Yes. So, I always take as you know, Don, I always take the eyewitness accounts, you know, sort of as only one data point. Right now the Germans are -- the Germans have actually not even said who it is.

But the fact that he said I am German is as relevant as the fact that he might have been claiming to do this in the name of God. We do -- we simply just don't know now. The Iranian descent aspect of his background, if true, because this is what we're hearing from reporters, would actually suggest that perhaps he has no affiliation with ISIS or any of the terror groups that we have come to know.

But we simply, the motivation we simply don't know now. The aspect of this that is, you know, relevant for counterterrorism officials is of course the weaponry that is likely coming from either Syria or the Balkans because it's unique for Germany, unlike as I said in the U.S.

And then also the sort of high-alert response that shut down a major European city for essentially the whole -- the whole day. That's the world we're living in now. I don't think six months ago something like this would have had those kinds of sort of sort global consequences including us covering it for most of the day.

LEMON: Mary, I want to turn now to MH-370. Because we have learned that the pilot of that plane conducted a flight simulation on his home computer that closely matches the suspected route of the missing plane. What can you tell us about this?

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER U.S. DOT INSPECTOR GENERAL: Well, it surfaced in an article in a magazine today, it was written by Jeff Weiss, who often appears on CNN, but he has learned and the article have reported that the FBI had additional data points.

And in this FBI data points, which they got off of the pilot's computer allegedly, these data points showed a route very close to the route that the plane was believed to have taken based on the Inmarsat data.

And that was flown on the computer approximately a month before the plane went missing. And of course the problem with that is that was the U.S., the United States FBI that had data.

[22:54:57] There were Americans on the plane, both citizens and green card holders, and if that's the case, then the search for the plane has been going on for two years in a location that may not be the exact location where the pilot had, if this is correct, had thrown that route.

So, it's very disturbing on many levels, not the least of which is I think the family members were owed that information a long time ago. LEMON: How do you characterize in what the pilot did, as a terror

attack or -- how do you characterize this?

SCHIAVO: Well, it's hard to say. You know, the other thing that's very interesting is now it sheds the, you know, a shadow of doubt on other things that persons were told, that families were told that, the world was told in the investigation.

For example, that all of his associations and background were checked and there was no motives, there were no reason that one would want to do this. So, that kind of it really has raised more questions than answers. Because so many of these things now you want to go back and revisit.

Were there any connections, if again these data points are true and this is really on the computer. The other question I have is if the pilot was as clever with computers as he has been credited of being, why didn't he wipe the computer that he did this, and why did he simply overwrite do that?

LEMON: Yes. OK. Thank you, Mary. Thank you, Juliette. I appreciate it.

When we come right back, the secret is out. Hillary Clinton announces her running mate Tim Kaine. What went on behind closed doors as she made her choice?

[23:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So, the breaking news tonight is that Hillary Clinton announces her running mate as the democrats takes the spotlight just days --