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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Donald Trump Accepts Republican Nomination; Ivanka Trump Appeals to Women in Speech. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired July 22, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: ISIS has spread. Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Refugee crisis threatens the West.

IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF DONALD TRUMP: When my father says he will make America great again, he will deliver.

DONALD TRUMP: USA! USA!

Attacks on our police and terrorism on our cities threaten our very way of life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our country is divided. Our people are afraid.

REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIRMAN: I have a message to America: Hold on. Help is coming.

DONALD TRUMP: On January 20th of 2017, safety will be restored.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is "NEW DAY" live from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Last night was the big night and Donald Trump certainly went big in accepting the party nomination -- big and bad -- painting a picture of desperation and crisis in America, insisting only he can make us safe and prosperous.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Trump blasting Hillary Clinton and blaming her for making America less safe.

[05:00:04] This morning, some voters described his speech as the best of his career. Others call it overly dark.

So, we have every angle covered for you.

Let's begin with Phil Mattingly who's been covering this all week.

Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn.

Well, the message, the themes, they weren't necessarily different. But the tone, ominous with big bold promises, it made very clear that Donald Trump is not subtle at all about his intentions for the next four months.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): In the biggest speech of his life, Donald Trump declaring America's in crisis.

TRUMP: Not only have our citizens endured domestic disaster, but they lived through one international humiliation after another.

MATTINGLY: At times painting an exceedingly dark picture of the state of the country.

TRUMP: The attacks on the police and terrorism of our cities threaten our very way of life.

MATTINGLY: The Republican nominee speaking ominously about the dangers of illegal immigration.

TRUMP: Where was the sanction for all of the other Americans who have been so brutally murdered and who have suffered so, so horribly.

MATTINGLY: And portraying America as a broken nation that he is uniquely qualified to bring together.

TRUMP: Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.

MATTINGLY: Trump's message for the public: I'm with you.

TRUMP: People who work hard, but no longer have a voice. I am your voice.

MATTINGLY: Rejecting globalism, Trump insisting America first.

TRUMP: USA! USA!

MATTINGLY: His key theme, restoring law and order to a country he says has been overwhelmed with crime and violence.

TRUMP: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon and I mean very soon, come to an end.

MATTINGLY: Trump blaming America's ails on his rival Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration.

TRUMP: This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.

MATTINGLY: Casting Clinton as a politician controlled by donors.

TRUMP: She is their puppet, and they pull the strings.

MATTINGLY: And the Republicans as the party of truth.

TRUMP: If you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully crafted lies and the media myths, the Democrats are holding their convention next week. Go there.

MATTINGLY: His attacks revving up the Cleveland crowd, but the nominee showed signs of restraint, quieting calls to send Clinton to jail, instead focusing on the fight ahead.

TRUMP: Let's defeat her in November.

MATTINGLY: And avoided his popular moniker crooked Hillary, a stark difference from his boisterous rallies.

In the longest acceptance speech in 40 years, Trump reinforced the key promises of his campaign.

TRUMP: We are going to build a great border wall.

MATTINGLY: While dialing back on others like his proposed ban on all Muslims entering the U.S.

TRUMP: We must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism.

Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims from entering the United States.

MATTINGLY: The Republican nominee sharply criticizing America's trade deals and denouncing foreign policy of both Democratic and Republican administrations.

TRUMP: After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before.

MATTINGLY: Trump making history as the first Republican nominee to embrace the LGBTQ community at a convention.

TRUMP: I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.

MATTINGLY: The New York billionaire completing his improbable takeover of the Republican Party, though it hasn't been smooth sailing this week.

[05:05:00] With Ted Cruz's endorsement snub and the plagiarism controversies involving his wife. Trump and his running mate trying to project the united front and hoping Cleveland gives him a boost heading into November. (END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And, guys, Trump advisors made no secret. They are seeking to tap into their unease, the restlessness in the country that we are seeing in polling. Last night in the rawest of terms was Donald Trump doing just that. The big question now is, has he reached those voters? A number of whom they are targeting right here in Ohio. That's what we're going to have to see in the weeks and months ahead -- Chris and Alisyn.

CUOMO: You know, in the immediate quick take, Phil, is he did. In the CNN immediate polling that he did, he had over, what, 55 percent of those said a favorable reaction to the speech. We've got a focus group. They had a favorable reaction to the speech.

So, let's discuss what worked and where there is work to do. We have CNN political analyst and host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast, David Gregory. We have CNN national political reporter, Maeve Reston, and CNN senior political analyst and senior editor of "The Atlantic", professor Ron Brownstein.

David, let me start with you. So, what do you think stood out and what do you think the plus/minus is going forward off this speech?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, I keep thinking of a couple of phrases. "I am your voice" and "I alone". I don't think there is any question this is probably the best speech crystallizing the notion that he is the voice, the section of the electorate. That he rallied in unprecedented fashion during the Republican primaries.

This notion of him alone as being able to fix some of the problems he describes also shed some of the humility he might have wanted to bring to the speech last night. This was a speech that consolidated the crowd here, consolidated the primary base.

I just don't think he did much to reach beyond where he was already, to really speak to those doubters and naysayers who think he is not qualified and those who think he has an overly dark vision for the country and its future.

CAMEROTA: Maeve, your impression?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: I mean, I think that that's absolutely right. Talking to voters this week, you know, here in Ohio, a lot of them have talked about this dark tone Trump has taken before and said that they are still waiting to hear from him what the actual plans are to keep the country safe.

I don't think he laid out a lot of that last night. It was very dark, scary and certainly we would all react to that kind of fear. I don't know if he is proving yet how he can actually help people in that sense.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I thought it was successful of a strong leader, a can-do leader. I would be surprised if his numbers don't go up. There were some really unexpected and nice grace notes, like what you

showed about the Hillary Clinton. But the core of the message was dark and it was confrontational and it was divisive on street crime, on undocumented immigration, on terrorism. And in that way, I think it did more to consolidate and double down and the voters who are already with him who tend to view America as in crisis.

I think what he didn't do is reach out beyond that to those suburban white collar white voters who are without question, if you look at the polling, the biggest obstacle, because anyone who was worried that he was too divisive before the speech, I don't think it made it better and it may have made it worse.

CUOMO: There may be some exemptions there. First of all, the sound that you hear behind us, the breaking down the location right now. It is amazing the work that's going on right now. If you hear things that sound like a machine gun. They're not.

CAMEROTA: They're staple guns.

CUOMO: They're taking things apart, that's what you hear there right now, just to put people at ease.

Now, in terms of whether or not, there were some different inflection points. Last night, they started chanting "lock her up", he stops them and says let's defeat her. Let me just show you this again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUDIENCE: Lock her up! Lock her up!

TRUMP: Let's defeat her in November.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: So, David, he stops them there. He won't call her crooked Hillary. And after his -- you know, what seemed to be common sentiments about LGBTQ in this country right now, he looks out at the crowd and says "thank you" for an applauding for that.

GREGORY: That was a nice grace note, although what he was saying is, he'll protect gays and lesbians from foreign terrorism. It's not like -- I mean, he's got a party that's harshest on gays and lesbians in the history of the party. So, it's not it was a big step out to support gay rights moving forward.

CUOMO: It was a nod on Orlando.

GREGORY: There's no question about it. This whole week has been a kind of roman coliseum-esque call to imprison Hillary Clinton. So, one of him saying, well, let's defeat her, let's not throw her in jail. There was the effect of the entire week, but there was definitely an attempt in that moment for him to try the idea of the pivot is so cliche and I don't think that's what that was. [05:10:06] But again, I think it was the best of his speeches crystallizing his overall world view. But what it lacked was a sense of who he is, a sense of his biography and a sense of getting beyond the notion of strong man. There is chaos. I am strong man. I will fix it. Really? Well, how? Because there are lot of discerning people who are going to wonder, thinking how you would --

BROWNSTEIN: There was probably less biography that in any campaign speech. It really only came in at the end.

There is question whether it will resonate with people as actually where we are. For his voters, there's no question, you look at polling, his voters, Trump supporters are more likely to believe they will be the victim of terrorism. More likely to believe they'll be a victim of violent crime.

But you know, in 1968 for Nixon, we were in the middle of the period which the violent crime rate actually doubled from 1960 to 1970. Since 1991, even with the uptick in murders in some cities in the last year, the violent crime rate is half of what it was in 1991 to today.

You think of how often people are killed by undocumented immigrants, I mean, the fact the two of the three examples they had were car accidents, kind of give you a sense --

GREGORY: Not violent crimes.

BROWNSTEIN: I think, again, for his core constituency, I think there is a sense of America in crisis.

What he needs -- the piece missing is the white collar white voters. He is under performing relative to Republicans in the past. I think that for many of them, this will not alleviate and may either reinforce their concern that he could be too divisive as president, which is one of the biggest problems he faces with him.

CAMEROTA: Maeve, there were things that were a cry out for some explanation. So, he talked about his Muslim ban, which is, of course, he becomes so notorious for. Immediately suspend immigration from any nation compromised by terrorism.

CUOMO: He actually didn't say Muslim last night, which was interesting. He just said immigration ban period.

CAMEROTA: What does it mean? Compromise by terrorism? France? Belgium?

RESTON: We don't have any sense of what exactly this policy means. He has been in so many different places at different times during this campaign. At one point, geography and moving around.

But, clearly, that issue for him, he's trying to sort of parse out a position that sounds more acceptable, except I think that would leave a broad net what he talked about last night.

CUOMO: It actually doesn't work as well. It sounds nicer in a way, but it doesn't work as well because it raises more questions than it answers.

CAMEROTA: Certainly.

CUOMO: Now you want to ban all immigration from anything that has been compromised. You argue we have been compromised by terrorism.

BROWNSTEIN: Catholics from France. Will Catholic from France be banned under that definition? Or only Muslims from countries that have been compromised?

RESTON: The campaign cannot answer the question when you ask for exactly the parameters are and which countries and the limits.

CAMEROTA: Right. They are likely to get intentionally vague, open to interpretation.

Panel, thank you very much. We have much more to talk about.

Ivanka Trump getting good reviews for her speech last night, ushering her father on the stage as a champion of women's rights. And Trump's outreach as we've been talking about to the LGBTQ community also playing big last night.

CNN's Jason Carroll joins us now with more.

Hi, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning.

You know, without question, it was definitely one of the highlights of the night. What she did was told personal stories about her father and what it was like growing up with him. She described her father as being gender neutral and color blind, all of this in an effort to reach out to women and communities of color.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVANKA TRUMP: Like many of my fellow millennials, I do not consider myself categorically Republican or Democrat. More than party affiliation, I vote based on what I believe is right for my family and for my country.

CARROLL (voice-over): Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka trying to broaden her father's appeal, branding him the people's nominee.

IVANKA TRUMP: My father values talents. He recognizes real knowledge and skill when he finds it. He is color blind and gender neutral. He hires the best person for the job, period.

CARROLL: Ivanka Trump making the case to female voters.

IVANKA TRUMP: At my father's company, there are more female than male executives. Women are paid equally for the work that we do and when a woman becomes a mother, she is supported, not shut out. He will fight for equal pay for equal work. I will fight for this, too, right alongside with him. CARROLL: Her speech caps four days of personal testimonies from

Trump's children and his wife Melania.

IVANKA TRUMP: In the same office in Trump Tower where we now work together, I remember playing on the floor by my father's desk, constructing miniature buildings with LEGOs and erector sets, while he did the same with concrete, steel and glass.

[05:15:13] My father taught my siblings and me the important of positive values and a strong ethical compass.

CARROLL: It wasn't just a family affair. Trump's business partner and personal friend of 40 years, Tom Barrack, touting a side of Trump many may not know.

TOM BARRACK, REAL ESTATE INVESTOR: He has the beautiful habits. He shows up on time. He believes that punctuality is the courtesy of kings. He doesn't confuse efforts with results. He befriends the bewildered.

CARROLL: And in an historic moment, openly gay tech billionaire Peter Thiel receiving a rousing response after making this statement.

PETER THIEL, INVESTOR AND INTEPRENEUER: Every American has unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American.

CARROLL: Thiel insisting conservatives are focused on the wrong social issues.

THIEL: Now we are toll that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?

CARROLL: His comments come as the Republican Party is facing criticism for passing an anti-LGBT platform which stands in sharp contrast to Trump's view on gays.

DONALD TRUMP: I will do everything within my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: So Trump supporters say, clearly, these were bright spots during the convention -- a convention that was marked by allegations of plagiarism and party unity. One delegate from Ohio telling me that despite all that has happened this week, nothing could be criticized by what Ivanka Trump had to say last night -- Chris.

CUOMO: Jason Carroll, thank you very much.

So, we have been talking about the softer side of the Trump family which is certainly Donald Trump's kids, right, last night, embodied in the daughter Ivanka, leading the charge to reach out to women voters. How did she help her father last night? No question people liked the speech. What will it mean? The panel, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:21:39] CAMEROTA: Donald Trump officially accepting his party's nomination last night. But many people this morning are also talking about his daughter Ivanka Trump's speech. She offered a more hopeful version of Trump's vision for America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVANKA TRUMP: Come January 17, all things will be possible again. We can hope and dream and think big again. No one has more faith in the American people than my father. He will be your greatest, your truest and most loyal champion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Back with us is our panel, CNN political analyst David Gregory, CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston, and CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein.

Ron, I want to start with you.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: You're not the only person to make this contrast, this comparison. But you have an interesting take on it. Her speech was so different than Donald Trump's and you see something in that.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I thought her speech was the al alternative reality version of what the Donald Trump campaign could have been. There has been a debate about what would have happened if Trump had simply run as the can-do outsider business executive, who will take his private sector smarts and shake up the political system and make your life better without the harsh tone on immigration, on Black Lives Matter and other racially divisive issues? Would he be in a stronger position today?

She gave him that campaign. Her speech last night was that alternate road. There was a debate among political professionals. Could he have won with that? Could he have won the nomination? I think in a stronger position today for the general if he had won the nomination on that kind of argument.

The question is if he won the nomination. That speech last night, that was like the man in the high castle. It's one of the alternative histories, that is what the Donald Trump campaign could have been. And instead, his speech which had elements of that, but darker thread running through it.

CUOMO: The constant concern. We know what it is. If you don't go strong in the primary about what's wrong and give the red meat to your party, you can't get out. It is balancing doing that with leaving you an opening for the general.

But what she said there, nobody has more faith in the American people. That's going to be a tough one to justify and the basis of his speech last night, because he expressed almost no faith in the American people, right? We are in crisis. Only he can fix it. That's what he kept saying, fights it, you know?

RESTON: And not only that, it seems as though his speech was sort of stuck in speaking to the Republican primary voter where she was doing all of the things he needs to do. I mean, she was playing up her credentials as an independent voter.

CUOMO: Maybe by design. You think it gave her that piece of the puzzle like you take care of that part?

RESTON: I don't know that the campaign has been well enough run to be that coordinated. But I mean, she was the one who was really reaching out to those independent women. A lot of them who have concerns about his temperament and talking about, you know, pay equity. We have not heard any of that from the Donald Trump campaign.

I ran into a policy adviser in the hallway last night. I said what is the policy behind that? Of course, they would not answer questions about it. She laid it out in broad strokes, but did what he did not do.

GREGORY: I pick up on what Ron is saying, the alternate, the alternative reality. It is a reality that's not real.

[05:25:00] I mean, what they're talking about is not what their father has done. It's like when his son said, you know, with Ted Cruz, we decided to be the bigger people. Really you trashed his wife and called her ugly, you said that his father was part of the JFK assassination plot. How is that part of the bigger people?

I mean, there is -- you know, these adult children are saying things about their father that may be true in their experience, but not true in terms of how he has run in this particular race.

CUOMO: That is always the trick. These kids, they're not kids. They're adults. That's the trick. When you put the kid out there, you put them out there to say herowize (ph) the candidate. They can say, he is the best, the most, the this, the that.

It's all the trick when you're 35 years old and you're coming out and saying daddy is perfect, you know?

BROWNSTEIN: One consistent theme with all of the kids. I'm thinking about, what is Donald Trump's coalition, you know? The core of his coalition are white voters without a college education who feel economically and culturally marginalize. Each of them in various ways said he learned more from a guy out on the girders than he did in the MBAs in the boardroom. And he even touched on that last night.

The funny thing about that is, right now, his bigger problem is with the MBA in the boardroom strangely enough. He's doing great with the guy laying sheetrock and hanging dry wall. But he's struggling with those better educated voters and in some ways, it is an odd mix. They are dissing the people he most needs to get at. GREGORY: And it's interesting. In the primary, it wasn't typical red

meat for the conservatives because a lot of those conservatives, who, you know, he was talking to people who felt betrayed by the Republican orthodoxy, betrayed by the Republican establishment. So, he created this angry populist Republican who is out of sync with the white collar Republican voters. That is who he became a champion of, that's he says that "I am your voice".

BROWNSTEIN: It is the flip side. For those people, he is doing really well. He could do even better. State like Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania, he's going to be really strong.

The question is, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, places that are defined by diversity and kind of the white collar economy, where people are not necessarily feeling as much left behind. The changes remaking America are a positive in their life. Not a negative. Not Monessen.

CAMEROTA: LGBT rights. How far did Peter Thiel's speech when he said, "I'm gay, I'm proud to be gay and I'm proud to be American"? How far will that go in changing the impression of Trump on that?

RESTON: His ad libbed remarks thanking the crowd for applauding what he had just said, when Donald Trump talked about --

CAMEROTA: He'll protect gay folks from terrorists.

RESTON: Right, exactly. You know, that was an interesting moment. I think I was on the floor when Peter Thiel was speaking. It was a very mixed response to that speech. I mean, the New Jersey delegation jumped up and, you know, applauding.

Then behind them, Virginia, a lot of the people were stone faced in the crowd. I think that Donald Trump seems to be trying to argue that he would be doing a lot more for that community than any other recent Republican nominee. He hasn't shown how exactly. That will be a divisive thing in his party.

CUOMO: He just picked a guy to be his vice president who does not send that message in any way. When Peter Thiel was saying, who cares about bathrooms, Mike Pence was waving his hand, I care.

BROWNSTEIN: Just a reminder of how much he is redirecting the agenda on so many fronts, whether it's entitlements or trade, or immigration on the one hand, or this and other, he's got this Trumpism, and that's what of brand of the party now, it's very different from where they have been in a lot of different fronts.

CAMEROTA: All right. Panel, thank you very much. We will check back with you obviously throughout the program.

Donald Trump taking aim, of course, at Hillary Clinton in his speech last night, blasting her record as secretary of state. So, how will she respond next week when the Democrats nominate her? We'll discuss that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)