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Trump's Recent Speech Compared To Others; Trump Speaks at the Westin Hotel. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 22, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:32:45] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello near the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. It's a steamy day but beautiful still. Thank you so much for joining me.

We are expecting Mr. Trump to speak at any moment now at the Westin Hotel. He's expected to thank volunteers for the fabulous job they've done here in Cleveland during his convention. When Mr. Trump begins speaking, of course we'll take you back to the Westin, live.

Donald Trump told Americans that he alone can fix the problems facing our country, last night. Some say the speech was an ominous one but it fired up the crowd in that arena. Including one big supporter I talked with on the convention floor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP SUPPORTER: This is the most awesome moment of my life.

COSTELLO: Really?

TRUMP SUPPORTER: Really! I mean it's been on my bucket list for, forever. Since 1976 when I watched this, something like this with my dad. And seen Ronald Reagan almost there. But my dad said, "that man will be president someday." I watched this guy from the beginning. And I said, "that will -- that man will be president someday." This is awesome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: He was so excited. He was holding his camera up because the balloons kept dropping from the ceiling. And it was such an awesome site. The people were taking pictures of the balloons coming down. He was very excited. And he did compare Trump's speech to Ronald Reagan. But others say Trump's speech seemed to be much more like Nixon's than Reagan's.

For more on the historical context of Trump's speech, I'm joined by presidential historian, and distinguished professor at American University, Allan Lichtman. Welcome, Allan.

ALLAN LICHTMAN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN, PROFESSOR, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: Thank you. COSTELLO: Hi, thanks for being with me. So what do you say? Did Trump's speech echo Nixon or Reagan?

LICHTMAN: It certainly didn't come close to echoing Ronald Reagan. Whatever you may think of Ronald Reagan's policies, his speeches are always soaring. They were always optimistic. They always appealed to our better nature. Certainly he was channeling more of Richard Nixon.

But I urge you to read Richard Nixon's 1968 acceptance speech. It reads like "Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm," compared to Donald Trump's. Richard Nixon was much more positive, believe it or not, than Donald Trump. I've been watching politics since the Kennedy administration. And this is the most foreboding, the most polarizing speech I have ever heard.

Look, if you believe America is being preyed upon then you ...

COSTELLO: Allan, Allan, Allan, Allan, it's funny you should mention Nixon's speech from 1968 because we do have a bit of that to show to our viewers. And you remember, take you back to '68, it was a time of war, and racial tension, and economic worry. So let's listen to part of Nixon's speech from 1968.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD NIXON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As we look at America we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame. We hear sirens in the night. We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad. We see Americans hating each other, fighting each other, killing each other at home.

And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in anguish, "did we come all this way for this?" And this great group of Americans, the forgotten Americans and others, know that the great question Americans must answer by their votes in November is this, "whether we shall continue for four more years, the policies of the last five years."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK so you get the gist of that. But the thing I find curious, Allan, is when I talked to delegates on the floor of the convention, all of them mentioned Reagan. None of them said, "wow, Donald Trump sounded a lot like Richard Nixon."

LICHTMAN: Yeah, that's actually remarkable. Look, Reagan is the Republican icon. Every Republican candidate since his time has evoked Ronald Reagan. But Donald Trump is a very different political figure from Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Reagan, when he ran from --

COSTELLO: Hey Allan, Allan ... Allan I'm sorry to interrupt you, but stick around, stay with me because I want to bring our viewers to the Westin where Donald Trump is now thanking volunteers. DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Thank you very much. We had

an amazing convention. That was one of the best. I think it was one of the best ever.

In terms -- in terms of enthusiasm, in terms of I think what it represents, getting our word out. Ivanka was incredible last night. She did an incredible job.

(APPLAUSE)

And so many of the speakers were so amazing and ground-setting. I mean, really ground-setting. We were -- it was just something very, very special. We're even getting good marks on television. Can you believe this?

(APPLAUSE)

Hard to believe. Oh, they'll change. Don't worry.

(LAUGHTER)

But it has been -- it has been just an incredible four days. I want to thank the people of Cleveland and the people of Ohio.

(APPLAUSE)

Because it's -- I mean, what -- what they've done. You know, we read two, three weeks ago, "this is going to be horrible; we're going to have riots; we're going to have problems." Everything was a problem, a problem. This was probably one of the most peaceful, one of the most beautiful, one of the most love-filled conventions in the history of conventions.

(APPLAUSE)

And when they talk about unity, I want to tell you, that was unity. That was unity. Right? I saw you last night. That was unity. That was amazing.

And the party has just come together. The party has come together. And the few people that aren't there, it's OK. You know. You've got to understand. I ran as an outsider. I didn't want anybody. Now, I have guys like Mike Pence. I mean, this isn't supposed to happen. (APPLAUSE)

See, now if I don't win, I'm going to blame Mike, right? We have to blame Mike.

(LAUGHTER)

But we want to thank a number of people because, in particular, and we're going to leave out some because that always happens and it's very sad. The set -- I'm a real estate guy -- I build buildings. I build things. I want to tell you, that was the most beautiful set I think I've ever seen, not only for conventions, but for anything. (APPLAUSE)

And the folks that worked on that, especially the carpenters, the electricians. You know, we forget about -- we forget about this stuff. Those sheet-rockers were up there. They did a heck of a job. I said, "You're going to wrap that sheet rock?" And he said, "Yeah, Mr. Trump, we just cut it." I said, "I know what you do, but you don't see it very much."

We have our chairman from New York I see right over there -- my man, my leader. Right? We're going to win New York. We're going to try and win New York.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, if we win New York, it's over. Right? It's over.

Thank you, Chairman. I really appreciate it.

[10:40:00]

TRUMP: So, a few of the people. Harold Hamm is here. Where is Harold? He's around here -- look at Harold here. Oh, boy. You talk about money. Oy, yoy, yoy. You know, Barry Switzer, the great football coach, won a Super Bowl, won a national championship. And I guess he's Harold's best friend, or one of them.

So he came up to my office and he's sitting there and says, "You know Mr. Trump, Harold is one of the great energy tycoons, but more importantly from our standpoint, one of the people that really understands energy better than anybody else."

You know we hired these consultants, they don't know what they're doing. If they were any good, they'd be worth $10 billion, OK? But Harold is one of the really knowledgeable people in energy. And Barry Switzer -- and he's a tough cookie and a good guy, but a tough cookie. He said, "You know Mr. Trump, that Harold Hamm, he's my friend, but these other companies they go out and they spend millions of dollars looking for oil. That guy takes a straw, puts in the ground and oil pours out of it."

That's the kind of a guy we want telling us about energy, right?

(APPLAUSE)

Harold, and you made a great speech the other night, great to have you. We want the real players right? We don't want the consultants, we don't want the guys that he hires, we want him.

So, Harold, great that you're here, I didn't know you'd be here. I appreciate it. And your speech was terrific, by the way.

We also have, and I think very important, Jeff Sessions, who may or may not be here, still but I want to tell you he was the first one.

(APPLAUSE) Mike, he was right at the beginning. And he's so highly respected and honestly Ted Cruz has so much respect for Jeff Sessions, and everybody knew that Jeff Sessions was going to be with Ted Cruz during the campaign.

And Jeff said, "You know, I've never seen anything like what's happening. You've got a movement going on." And he was really the first big, big player -- U.S. senator, highly respected by everybody, one of the really smart people and low key. I like that, everyone once and a while, you know that low key genius. (LAUGHTER)

"Well, Donald, I don't know if I'd do it that way, why don't you try doing it this way?" I say that's genius.

(LAUGHTER)

Every once and a while we have people like that right? But Jeff Sessions was there right at the beginning, and it was a huge upset, because when Jeff came on, everybody thought he was going to just routinely be with Ted. And frankly he's never endorsed anybody before. You know, he's not an endorser. This is -- he's called a tough endorsement.

And he went out and he endorsed me, and that was a fantastic thing. And he's been a great help ever since. So Jeff Sessions, I appreciate it.

(APPLAUSE)

Jeff Larson's around here someplace -- where's Jeff Larson? He's around here someplace. What a job Jeff did. Reince, of course, where's my superstar?

(APPLAUSE)

I think he's probably on a plane flying to our next meeting. This guy works so hard. You know I said yesterday in front of a small group, because we're raising money like it's crazy what's going on -- and you know the nice thing? First of all, I put in over $60 million. Last month, I think I put in $3.8 million. But we're raising money also for the Republican Party, which is very important.

(APPLAUSE)

And -- and the beautiful thing -- I can't guarantee these figures, but I heard yesterday alone was like $3.5 million from small donors. The average donation was just over $50. And we're raising tremendous amount of money from the small donors. To me, that's more important in a sense.

I mean Harold can write his checks but Harold's only one vote, right? These other people give you $50, but they vote by the millions, that's what we want. To hell with Harold, right?

(APPLAUSE) But -- but we have, you know, just tremendous numbers of people coming in, and we're really building up a war chest that's going to be great. And I'm continuing to fund my campaign, large portions of it. And in fact, I thought I gave $2 million last month, and they said "No, you actually gave $3.8." I said "Oh." It's always good when you don't even know what you gave, and it doesn't matter.

(LAUGHTER)

You know it's nice when they say you gave $3.8 instead of two, and I don't even get angry at anybody, right?

(LAUGHTER)

But I'm over $60 million, because I said I was going to fund the primaries. And I didn't know this was going to happen, so I guess we just keep going along, right? But I'll tell you, it's an honor, it's an honor.

And I -- and I've said this, a lot of the television people have come up to me, and a lot of the -- actually, one very highly respected writer called up and I've told this story a few times, but I said -- he said, "What you've done is incredible." And this was actually in September. They called it the "summer of Trump."

And he said, "What you've done is incredible." I said "Nothing's incredible unless I win."

[10:45:00]

And I wasn't talking about the primaries. He said "No, no, no. what you've done is incredible. It's been the summer of Trump, it's down in the history books, there's never been anything like it." Bill O'Reilly said it's the greatest single political phenomena he's ever seen in his life. A couple of weeks ago, did you see that?

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Yeah. And Brit Hume said it, and I'm not so sure if Brit Hume likes me, but he said it. So -- but I like him.

So what happened is they said that. I said no, no, no, you don't understand. I don't care. I don't do anything unless I win, and I'm not talking about the primaries. I mean, the whole thing -- because otherwise, what have we done? What have we done? Then I got a call from somebody else a month ago saying the same thing. But now, it was the summer of Trump. It was the autumn of Trump. It was the Christmas of Trump. It was everything.

And it's really of you because it's a movement. What we have going is a movement. I was just on the cover of Time again this week. Time Magazine's like, eh, OK.

(LAUGHTER) You know, I think I was on the cover of Time Magazine twice in my life and like six times in the last number of months. So you tell me, which is more important, real estate or politic, OK? That's -- that's the way -- is that true, Harold? Because I have six for politics and I have two for real estate or whatever they put me on for.

But it's been -- it's been amazing. But I said, look, it really to me matters. They said no, no, no, believe me, what you've done is in the history books. There's never been anything like it. Then I won the primaries. They said the same thing. This is crazy, now you're really in the history -- I said no, it doesn't matter. unless we beat Hillary Clinton, and I mean beat her badly.

(APPLAUSE)

I will consider it -- and I shouldn't say this, because you know what? If it doesn't work out, I could say, well, I did a good job. So I'm hurting myself by saying this. If I don't win, meaning that final stage, beat 17 people -- because actually 17 including, but it was actually 17 because there was one that we don't even talk about who joined who left very quickly. One statement, he was gone, OK?

(LAUGHTER)

And then don't forget Hillary had a couple of guys who dropped out and Bernie was tough, Bernie was tough. We're going to get a lot of the Bernie voters, by the way. (APPLAUSE)

Because they didn't treat Bernie right. They didn't treat him right. I mean, I don't know Bernie. I don't -- you know, I don't know him, I've never met him. But they didn't treat him right, honestly. And what happened -- he ran a very, very good campaign. And Hillary's people just swamped him. You're looking at Debra Wasserman Schultz. I'll take (inaudible) Reince over her any day in terms of competence. Forget it.

(APPLAUSE)

Not for being nice or any of those things. Who cares? I will take Reince in terms of competence over her -- believe me -- any day. Any day. You see what she's done to that party.

So I will tell you that I think we're going to get a lot of his voters because of the trade issue. Because they understand, but because of the trade issue. I think we're going to get a lot of their voters.

So I have to thank Reince. I want to thank Steve King. Where's Steve King? That's our local -- where's Steve? Where? Thank you, Steve. I want to thank some of our security guys. First of all, the Secret Service is unbelievable. Unbelievable.

(APPLAUSE)

They've been hit a little bit over the last couple of years. Let me tell you, these guys are fantastic. I'm the best thing that ever happened to the Secret Service.

(LAUGHTER)

Because I go around, Mark and all these guys, I go around saying how great they are. They are great. These are great, great people, OK?

(APPLAUSE)

So I want to thank the Secret Service. I want to thank the police of Cleveland, the Cleveland Police Department. The mayor, I want to thank. I want to thank your police chief. He is amazing. I don't know if he's here. But boy, he has done some job working -- working with all of the folks from law enforcement. And you heard last night, we're going to be protecting the law enforcement. They are doing some job. So we're going to be protecting them.

I want to thank Eddie Dick (ph). Where's Eddie? Is Eddied here? I want to thank Kevin Schroeder (ph), Keith Schiller. Become famous. He's becoming more famous than me. I have to thank -- and again, your police chief has done a fantastic job in Cleveland, done a fantastic -- and we have (inaudible).

(APPLAUSE) In terms of some of the folks, David Gilbert. Where's David? David around some place? Joe Roman (ph), Chris Conner (ph), Chris Kelly. These people are all here. Don't bother, you don't have to come up and speak.

(LAUGHTER)

Beth Mooney (ph). Where's Brian Jack? Brian Jack. Boy, Brian. Brian. What a job you did, Brian.

[10:50:08]

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: OK. That's all. Now, you can leave, go to the next location, Brian.

(APPLAUSE)

Go to the next location.

Hillary's trying the to pick her vice president as fast as possible, because she wants to take away a little of the success that we had at this convention. This convention has been a success. You know, people, if you turn on television, you turn on some of the dishonest media, you'll see that oh, wow, this happened and that happened. What happened?

You know, somebody got booed the hell out of a place by thousands and thousands of people.

(APPLAUSE)

There wasn't one person in the room -- not one. And then they said, "There may not be unity." Unity? There wasn't one person in the room who was -- including the Texas delegation, right?

Honestly, he may have ruined his political career. I feel so badly. I feel so badly.

(APPLAUSE)

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 endorse -- I don't want his endorsement.

Just -- Ted, stay home, relax, enjoy yourself.

(LAUGHTER)

Just a couple of things. I knew his speech, they gave me his speech, I saw exactly what his speech was, because when you go up to speak, you have to give your speech, you know? We don't want surprises, right?

So they gave it. They came to me and said "It's a boring speech, Mr. Trump. Nothing good, nothing bad. He congratulates you on the victory, and here's the speech." Well, he got up, and of the first two sentences, he added a sentence.

In other words, he got up and he added a sentence, which could have been viewed as a nasty thing in terms of what he said, because he was implying something which is wrong, but that's OK. So he took his speech -- and you're bound by the speech, just like you're bound by the pledge, right?

(APPLAUSE)

You're bound by the pledge. So Ted Cruz took his speech that was done, was on the teleprompter, said hello, then made a statement that wasn't on the speech, and then went back to his speech. See, to me, that's dishonorable. To me, not signing a pledge is dishonorable.

OK? It's dishonorable, but not a nice thing to do. And I talk this way, because we're all together. We created one of the most successful conventions in the history of conventions.

(APPLAUSE)

And the television ratings for this convention were through the roof. I get a kick out of CNN. "I don't know if this is a successful convention. I don't know." In the meantime, all they talk about is Trump and the convention, are right?

And I have to tell you, Melania did a great job. What a great speech. What a great speech. (APPLAUSE)

What a great speech. And the presentation is still being talked about. What a beautiful speech.

Ivanka last night, unbelievable, unbelievable.

(APPLAUSE)

Unbelievable, to have that kind of an introduction. And Tiffany, who's never done it, the biggest group she's ever been in front of is probably 22 people in a classroom.

(LAUGHTER)

Tiffany was amazing. And Eric and Don.

(APPLAUSE)

I just don't want them running for political office, because somebody's got to stay behind and run the business. I mean, you know, we can't go crazy.

(LAUGHTER)

But I get a kick, because the ratings on television are through the roof. And nobody's going to watch -- look, I'll -- this has nothing to do with politics, but maybe it has a little to do. Nobody's going to watch this next convention coming.

Who the -- who's going to -- I'm going to have a hard time watching her final speech. Number one, I know her too well. Number two, boring, it's boring.

(LAUGHTER)

Very boring. Oh, how about that final speech? And our final speech, our final speech.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, it wasn't my fault, but I think it went like an hour and 25 minutes, and the networks didn't know what to do, because they had all of their programming, big programming -- the local news is a very big factor on television.

You never, ever move your local news. They all moved it.

(LAUGHTER)

They said, the heck with the local news, Mike, they said we're moving it.

And Kimmel and Fallon and the shows, they all went back a long way, because they weren't going to miss this convention.

I love that, you know? I love it. I knew I said, oh, wow, I'm supposed to be off. Let's keep going, but it wasn't my fault.

(LAUGHTER)

What happened -- what happened was the applause was so long and so crazy.

(APPLAUSE)

It really was. I mean, if you look, the speech was fine, but the applause were longer than the speech.

[10:55:05]

TRUMP: So it was -- it was amazing. There was great love in that room.

Honestly, that was all about unity. And we may be missing a couple of people. We may be missing just a couple of people.

Two other things, two other things, just to finish with Ted. Because I like Ted. He's fine. Again, I don't want his endorsement. If he gives it, I will not accept it. Just so you understand. If he gives it, I will -- I will not accept. It won't matter.

Honestly, he should have done it because nobody cares. And he would have been in better shape for four years from now if he's going to -- I don't think -- I don't see him winning anyway, frankly. But if he did, it's fine. Although maybe I'll set up a super-PAC if he decides to run.

(APPLAUSE)

Are you allowed to set up a super-PAC, Mike, if you are the president, to fight somebody?

But -- but there were two things that he said yesterday were lies. Ready? I didn't start anything with the wife. A PAC, which he's very friendly with, released a cover story on my wife, who was a tremendously successful and elegant model. And she was on the cover of GQ magazine. I think it was GQ, right? GQ magazine is not exactly Penthouse. But she was on the cover of GQ magazine, an artsy picture. But you know, she was a model, really successful. She didn't need to marry me. She was making a lot of money, believe me.

(LAUGHTER)

In fact, I had to work hard to get her to marry me. It wasn't that easy.

(LAUGHTER)

It's true.

(APPLAUSE)

It's so true. You think I'm kidding.

So -- so they released this picture which was, you know, to the people of the state of Utah. I love Utah. I love the people of Utah. But that's not where you want to necessarily send a risque picture. Everybody in Utah got a picture. And I don't think they showed that it was GQ. I don't even think they showed. They took the GQ off. They just had -- they cut all the stuff out so they didn't see it was a magazine cover from, you know, a reasonably respected magazine. And it was Melania Trump.

Now, and I'm saying this just to clear it up, because that's a -- "he took (inaudible)." I didn't do anything. Then when I saw somebody tweeted a picture of Melania, and a picture of Heidi, who I think, by the way, is a very nice woman and a very beautiful woman. I have to tell you, I think Heidi Cruz is a great person. I think it's the best thing he'd got going, and his kids, if you want to know the truth.

(APPLAUSE)

In a certain way, although he's got good intellect, but he doesn't know how to use it. And he was a good debater, but he didn't do well in the debates against me, according to every poll. I mean, every poll, you know, he's this great debater, except he lost in every single poll and every single debate.

So that takes care of the Heidi thing. Because Heidi's a terrific woman, but they sent out -- now, he said, "That was a PAC; we had nothing to do." Folks, a lot of us are political people, right? We're not babies. His people were on the PAC. So he said, "We had nothing to do; we had..."

Now, probably you could trace it down with e-mails, but they're pretty smart. They don't even send -- probably just phone calls. But look, it was a PAC with many of his friends. It was a Cruz super-PAC. I think he even said, "Well, it wasn't really meant for us." It was a Cruz PAC. It was his people.

OK, so they sent out the first picture. Please remember that.

Number two, his father. I don't know his father. I met him once. I think he's a lovely guy. I think he's a lovely guy. All I did is point out the fact that on the cover of the National Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast. Now, Ted never denied that it was his father. Instead, he said, "Donald Trump" -- I had nothing to do with it.

This was a magazine that, frankly, in many respects, should be very respected. They got O.J. They got Edwards. I mean, if that was the New York Times, they would have gotten Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting. I've always said, why didn't the National Enquirer get the Pulitzer Prize for Edwards and O.J. Simpson and all of these things?

But anyway, so they have a picture, an old picture, having breakfast with Lee Harvey Oswald.

Now, nothing -- I'm not saying anything. They said -- and here's how the press takes that story. So this had nothing to do with me, except I might have pointed it out, but it had nothing to do with me. I have no control over anything. I might have pointed it out. But they never denied. Did anybody ever deny that it was the father? They're not saying, "Oh, that wasn't really my father." It's a little hard to do, because it looks like him.

(LAUGHTER)

[11:00:00]