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Clinton Formally Introduces Kaine As VP Pick; Wikileaks Releases Some 20,000 Emails Sent, Received By DNC Staff; Police: Teen Gunman Was "Bullied," Mentally Troubled; NY Mag: Pilot Flew Suicide Route on Home Simulator; Trump Dubs Clinton VP Pick "Corrupt Kaine". Aired 4-5p ET
Aired July 23, 2016 - 16:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:01] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Delegates were flocking to the city's best restaurant. What they may have realized is that at one of those restaurants all of the servers and the cooks were ex-convicts. Their boss is this week's CNN Hero, an elite chef who is helping his employees get their lives back on track.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coming home from prison after someone has done their time. Everyone deserves that fair and equal second choice. My left hand moves, my right hand follows. I see that opportunity that someone deserves. I can see it and I can feel it. And I've been given the gifts to fight to make sure that that door does get opened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: All right. Top of the hour. Hi, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow live for you in Philadelphia. You are watching CNN's special live coverage of the Democratic National Convention.
In just three days, history will be made right here as Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman ever to be formally to be nominated for president by a major party.
Today, we now know who will be alongside her for the wild ride that will take to us November. It is Senator Tim Kaine. Just hours ago the two made their national debut. They walked out hand in hand on stage there in Miami Beach, Florida, to Marvin Gaye's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough."
Kaine is from the key battleground state of Virginia. He IS known for his expertise on national security and foreign policy. He is fluent in Spanish, and he showcased that today.
(VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: To talk about this pick and everything this week could bring, we have our all-star panel here. With me Mark Preston, executive editor for CNN Politics, Ryan Noble, national correspond for CNN Newsource, who covered Kaine in Virginia. Michael Nutter, former mayor of Philadelphia and Scottie Nell Hughes, a national political commentator for USA Radio Networks and a Trump support. Mayor Nutter is a Clinton supporter. Thank you all for being here.
Mark Preston, to you first. What is the number one thing that you believe the Clinton camp gets from the Kaine pick? What makes him different? What makes him special?
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: You know, I don't think there really is one specific thing. I think there are several different things that kind of come together that forms one thing. You mentioned Virginia, 13 electoral votes, a battleground state, a state be that will be very, very difficult for the Trump campaign to win.
HARLOW: But it's not what state that the Republicans took last time around.
PRESTON: No, it isn't, but it is a state that before Barack Obama won it in 2008 and 2012. The last time the Democrats have won it was 1964 when Lyndon Johnson beat Barry Goldwater so that's one.
He is also fluent in Spanish. He can go into communities now and really easily campaign and not appear as if he is pandering. Frankly, the third thing is Hillary Clinton's biggest deficit right now is with white male voters. If you look at Tim Kaine, he is a white male. So the question is, can he help Hillary Clinton with that?
HARLOW: The question is how much of the campaign made the calculus that they needed the white male voters more than the far left liberal wing that wanted someone like Elizabeth Warren, for example, or even more of a Corey Booker. Ryan, listen to this, how he went after Donald Trump today. Let's roll it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR TIM KAINE (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We've seen again and again that when Donald Trump says he has your back, you better watch out. From Atlantic City to his so-called university, he leaves a trail of broken promises and wrecked lives wherever he goes. We can't afford to let him do the same thing to our country and folks, we don't have to because Hillary Clinton is the direct opposite of Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: So to those who believe that Hillary Clinton, Ryan, missed an opportunity in not tapping Elizabeth Warren because she clearly is an attack dog against Donald Trump. Look at her Twitter feed to prove that out. Do you think Tim Kaine just proved to us today that he can be and will be that attack dog?
RYAN NOBLES, CNN NEWSOURCE NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, I want to tell you about a moment when I covered Tim Kaine in the 2012 Senate race that reminded me of what we saw today. A debate with him and George Allen, who is, of course, a Virginia titan when it comes to politics.
George Allen had taken a lot of criticism for what some perceived as a racial slur during the campaign trail when he lost in 2006. And I asked George Allen about that question, did he need to apologize about that.
The question wasn't directed to Tim Kaine, but during his rebuttal, he went on a major attack on George Allen about that specific incident.
[16:05:04]And then he laid out a long list of other examples that people could perceive as George Allen not necessarily being welcome to people from all different spheres.
And I thought it was a pretty interesting example of how Kaine had this perception of being mild mannered and not someone that was willing to go on the attack.
But as we saw today, when he needs to, when he needs to make that pivot and show people the difference between someone he's supporting or himself, he is willing to do it.
HARLOW: You know what's interesting, Scottie Nell, to you. Tim Kaine was also the first Senate ever in American history to give a speech in Spanish on the Senate floor. It is all about comprehensive immigration reform.
Your candidate, Donald Trump, has said consistently he will win the Latino vote. That's not at all what the polling shows thus far. Does Tim Kaine worry you on that front? That he can pull in more and more Latino voters and excite them and get them out to the polls and not to stay at home.
SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: When we talk about Donald Trump having a women problem, the Republican Party has a female problem, has a Hispanic problem. It doesn't matter who the candidates. I think it's unrealistic if we are going to sit there --
HARLOW: Does he make it worse for you?
HUGHES: I don't know necessarily either way if it works, but what I think what it does is does make us make sure is that we focus on issues that unite the party and unite us as Americans.
Going forward, I think you're going to see Mr. Trump going to do urban outreach, work with this groups and find out what they need, which is education, faith.
And he has always said -- I think this is where a lot of people misconceive him, we want to take everybody who is illegal, sends them home and open up a big door and bring them back. Everybody is for simplifying our immigration system.
They think it's crazy that we have as intricate of a system that we have. Let's make it simple that those who want to become Americans become Americans.
HARLOW: One party is talking about building a wall and one party that's not, that's a clear division.
HUGHES: But the question is that we want to take care of America first and then we want to open our doors. We want to know exactly who is in our country. You can't say with the securities concerns that we are seeing around the world -- I can't go into Mexico without letting them know I'm going to Mexico. Why shouldn't the standard be the same here?
HARLOW: Let me get Mayor Nutter here. Kaine used the word progressive causes today. Clinton used it in introducing him. It was the second line of her Facebook post about him, clearly trying to s this is a progressive guy, speaking to the Bernie Sanders -- looking and saying I'm talking to you, Bernie Sanders supporters, right.
So she is trying to convince them that this is their guy. But at the same time they are dealing with a big headache. That is the Wikileaks e-mail dump today that seems to show collusion among some at the DNC for Clinton against Sanders. How do they energize those far left liberal voters that they need given those two things?
MICHAEL NUTTER, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, I think some of these things are separate and apart from each other. There were caucuses, there were primaries all across the United States of America. The DNC is a national organization that functioning primarily in Washington and works for states. Real people actually voted in those elections.
Notwithstanding what some individuals may have felt back in Washington, D.C. People in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania went to the polls and voted no matter what was happening in Washington. Hillary Clinton got more popular vote, more delegate vote, more super delegates, and won the election fair and square.
HARLOW: Some were criticizing when were the debates held? Did they have as high viewership as they could? Were the cards stacked against Hillary Clinton?
NUTTER: Any night you hold debate someone is going to complain I'm working, that's not my might. The fact of the matter is I believe the ratings were higher for those debates even though they were on the weekends, people watch them, and paid attention.
There is always complaining about these types of issues. Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders probably need to have some more conversation about all of that, but we are about moving forward, win an election in November.
HARLOW: Do you believe tapping Kaine and not a more liberal pick like an Elizabeth Warren coupled with the Wikileaks dump, does that hurt getting those voters out that she wants.
NUTTER: If Secretary Clinton had picked Elizabeth Warren, there would be another cohort of folks in the Democrats complaining about that or talking about (inaudible). So there is no perfect candidate. She picked who she picked. The person she picked is the one she has to work with each and every day in governing the United States of America. It is her choice. HARLOW: All right, Mayor Nutter, it is her choice. Thank you. We now know who the choice is. We heard from him for a long time today. Thank you all. We appreciate it very much.
Coming up next, we'll get a response from the Clinton camp to that Wikileaks document dump coming up ahead this hour. Do not miss CNN's special live coverage of the Democratic National Convention. It all kicks off officially right here in Philadelphia, 4:00 p.m. Eastern on Monday for that primetime coverage.
Coming up next, we'll have a representative from the Clinton camp and a lot more ahead this hour life from Philadelphia. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:18:20]
HARLOW: All right. Welcome back. We're live here in Philadelphia where the Democrats are set to make history nominating the first female to a major party ticket, Hillary Clinton, as their candidate for president of the United States.
Lots ahead and lots going on right now in the Clinton campaign. From her brand-new VP choice who she unveiled to the world this afternoon in Miami to a major e-mail document dump from Wikileaks that points to arguably collusion among some staff members in the DNC to favor Clinton over her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders during the campaign.
A lot to get to. Let's discuss it with all Kristina Schake. She joins me now. She's a deputy communications director with the Clinton camp. Thank you for being here.
KRISTINA SCHAKE, DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN: I was going to say such a pleasure to be here. It's so beautiful and so windy.
HARLOW: It's really cool, isn't it?
SCHAKE: It's great.
HARLOW: Not 100 degrees. It is a beautiful day and thanks to our entire staff who has been out there for hours making this live show possible.
Look, let's talk about the Kaine pick. Was this a "do no harm pick" or was this a "this is a man that can excite the voters aren't already on board with Clinton"?
SCHAKE: Absolutely, that's what it was. You know, this was an enthusiastic pick by Hillary. You know, she said from the beginning she was looking for somebody who could do the job on day one, somebody who could be a governing partner for her. She found that in Tim Kaine.
I mean, you saw today how excited she was, how happy she was to be sharing the stage with him. This is someone who she really, really respects.
HARLOW: What does she get from him that she doesn't have herself? What does he bring with the ticket?
SCHAKE: What she was really, really drawn to with is he is somebody who is a progressive, gets things done. You know, she respects the fact that he has always delivered for American families. He has done that throughout his entire career.
[16:15:04]I mean, this is a man who spent 17 years as a civil rights attorney representing minorities and disabled Americans, and housing discrimination cases. He was an extraordinary governor.
You know, under his leadership Virginia was rated the best state for business and also for raising a family. She was really drawn to that.
HARLOW: So you say the word progressive. He said progressive many times. She said it introducing him. That's because clearly you were speaking to the Sanders supporters and those who would have liked to see Elizabeth Warren tap someone more to the left and they look at Tim Kaine on trade and supporting TPP and they looked at him on some environmental issues, on clean coal, and they say that's not progressive in our eyes. You say?
SCHAKE: What we would say to that is look who came out and enthusiastically supported him immediately. We have statements from --
HARLOW: You mean labor unions.
SCHAKE: -- Planned Parenthood, AFLCIO, League of Conservation Voters, The Sierra Club, The Human Rights Campaign, all of these groups, all of these leaders came out and said he is an excellent choice. We feel really confident and again look at his record.
HARLOW: Can he be the attack dog that Elizabeth Warren has been on Twitter against Trump? We heard a little bit of it from him today. Is he going to be that attack dog against Trump?
SCHAKE: We have been so pleased and so proud to have her out there campaigning for Hillary and really making the case about Donald Trump not delivering for American families. You saw Tim Kaine start to do that today, too.
HARLOW: Was that the beginning of much more elevated rhetoric?
SCHAKE: There is a real case to be made against Trump. As he said, watch out, he doesn't deliver for you. This is a man who's left just a trail of bankruptcies and unpaid bills. He says over and over, believe me, I'm going to deliver for you, but he really never has and so you know --
HARLOW: So is that a yes.
SCHAKE: -- Hillary and her campaign are going to be making that case. There is a strong case to be made against Donald Trump. HARLOW: So I want to talk about the Wikileaks document dump. Just in the last few hours, Wikileaks has released 20,000 e-mails that CNN cannot independently confirm and validate ourselves.
But these e-mail show a number of communications among DNC staffers that appear to be collusion supporting your candidate, Hillary Clinton, and not supporting Bernie Sanders when they were in the heat of the race.
And it is a system that Donald Trump has called rigged. And he pointed to Bernie Sanders in his remarks on Thursday night on that. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders. He never had a chance. Never had a chance, but his supporters will join our movement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Now, Sanders was tweeting during that on Thursday night saying, you know, that's not the case. Don't get on board with Donald Trump. But does this concern you that this plays right into the narrative that concerns people that the Clintons play by different rules? Does it play into that narrative?
SCHAKE: No. No. We're really proud of the campaign we ran and Hillary has said many times she is really proud of the extraordinary campaign that Senator Sanders ran. They ran a campaign of ideas. They had a really spirited contest against each other.
We're also really, really proud they have come together as a party. As Bernie Sanders has said -- you saw him tweeting against Donald Trump when he was giving his acceptance speech. He is going to campaign from coast to coast to make sure that Hillary is elected president.
HARLOW: I hear that, but I want to know what you make of those emails that were released.
SCHAKE: You know, we're going to let the DNC speak to that. We haven't ourselves seen many of them. We're going to let them speak to it. We expect that they are going to do a review and act accordingly.
HARLOW: Does it concern you at all that it might affect the remarks that Sanders makes on stage here on Monday night because obviously your team wants a full-throated endorsement of Hillary Clinton, as much as he can push his supporters into your camp. Do you expect that this will affect that negatively?
SCHAKE: You know, he already gave her a full throated endorsement. As we said, they ran a spirited campaign against each other. He has already come out and endorsed her. This actually didn't go to the convention. We are a united party coming into this. As he said, the stakes are so high in this election. We cannot allow Donald Trump to become president of the United States. He doesn't have the temperament. He doesn't have the knowledge and he certainly doesn't have the skill set to be an effective commander-in-chief.
And so we expect to be a very enthusiastic campaigner he said he is going to be and I think what we are really going to see here this week is a united energized Democratic Party in stark contrast to what we saw last week in Cleveland.
HARLOW: Final question, you are the deputy communications director. If you could write the opening line for Sanders' remarks on Monday night, what would it be?
SCHAKE: Well, I think what we are going to see is what he's already said which is he enthusiastically supports Hillary Clinton for president. She is the right choice in this election.
HARLOW: Kristina Schake, thanks for joining me. Nice to have you in person.
SCHAKE: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: We appreciate it.
[16:20:00]Coming up, a stunning new report on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-370. Did the pilot practice a suicide route on his home simulator? You have to hear this. Our Richard Quest live with me ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Welcome back. CNN has now confirmed the name, and we have a photograph, of the man who opened fire and killed nine people in Munich yesterday. This is the image that we've just received. His photo coming from a German newspaper, Ali Sanbaly, 18 years old.
Officials say that he is a dual citizen of Germany and Iran. On Friday, German police say that the 18-year-old pulled a handgun out and started shooting at a McDonald's there in Central Munich, then moved into a large shopping mall and continued -- continued fire.
People poured out of that mall as police moved in trying to rescue anyone they could. When it was all over, nine people were dead, most of them teenagers themselves. The shooter, 18 years old, also killed himself.
Also, police are learning more and more about the killer, the 18-year- old, especially about his backgrounds, his interests and his possible motivations.
I want to talk to Bob Baer, our intelligence and security analyst, former CIA operative about all of this. Bob, thank you for being with me.
[16:25:01]It is early hours in terms of this investigation. Yet another attack, taking place in Europe. Police have come out and said quickly that they believe he has zero connection to terror groups like ISIS. They ruled that out.
They said that he was obsessed with mass shootings and researched "rampage" and that he was bullied. What's your take on what we have learned so far?
ROBERT BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Poppy, I agree with the German police. He was probably deranged. Number one, he is an Iranian, they are not engaging in terrorism these days, an 18 years old, with a pistol, who shoots himself. He doesn't fit the profile of an ISIS terrorist at all.
And you know, you look at the filming of this, of the iPhones and he was clearly out of his mind, raving about Turks. So I don't think this was an act of terrorism. I think he was a simple psychopath.
HARLOW: When you look an attacks like this, though, Bob, it raises the question -- and you compare to it what happened in 2011 and that tragedy with Anders Brevick (ph) and the mass shooting in Norway five years ago to the day of this attack taking place.
This is someone who searched "rampage" on line, who clearly was looking for information about other mass shootings. Outside of wide surveillance, what can the authorities do to look at someone like this and try to find him before he carries out something like this when there was no criminal connection and he had no record otherwise?
BAER: Well, precisely. He didn't -- Poppy, he didn't belong to a group. He was looking at these shootings. It's not something that German intelligence would pick up on. He hadn't committed a crime. Yes, he had been in an institute for psychological problems.
But at the end of the day, there is nothing to attach to him to haul him in and question him. The big problem, of course, is in Germany is that weapons are being -- they are coming in from the Balkans mainly, but they are all over Europe and they are easy to get.
This is something entirely new in Europe. We are used to -- it was impossible to buy a pistol or an automatic weapon and this is going to be a real problem because these groups that are affiliating with the Islamic State can easily get ahold of weapons.
And that's what's making the Europeans nervous and that's what made the Germans in a sense overreact to this shooting because they were expecting an attack from the Islamic State.
HARLOW: Bob Baer, thank you very much for the analysis. Again early hours but again authorities are saying it doesn't look like any connection to terrorism, but a deranged individual opening fire taking the lives of a number of other -- nine other individuals, including a number of teenagers. Bob, thank you very much.
I want to get to this. Shocking new headlines, shocking news about the pilot of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. An FBI forensic examination obtained by "New York" magazine shows the pilot flew what they are deeming a suicide route of sorts in that simulator -- in that flight simulator in his home and the route very closely matches the suspected route of the missing Boeing 777.
Richard Quest, our CNN aviation correspondent, host of" "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS"" is with me. Richard, you know this inside and out. You wrote an entire book on it. You're the author of "The Vanishing of Flight MH-370: The True Story of the Hunt for the Missing Malaysian Plane."
What do you make of this revelation that this document shows he apparently flew a suicide route in his home simulator and why are we finding out about it now?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think we need to ratchet down the idea of sort of suicide routes and all that sort of thing. This has been known about -- or at least the rumor has been known about.
In fact in the book, I do actually mention that right at the beginning we knew the FBI had taken hard drives to be analyzed and the rumor was that on these hard drives there were practice routes or at least routes showing flights down to the Southern Indian Ocean.
But nobody ever confirmed it and nobody would ever comment on it. Now "New York Magazine" has managed to get the document and it does indeed I believe show that there are so-called way points -- if you look at the red line there are way points, but my understanding it's not one route.
There are numerous way points, which can be led to assume there is a route that shows the same direction as that which took MH-370, but Poppy, it's circumstantial. There is no evidence to show why used.
And we have not yet had a word from the Malaysians which is the true perhaps scandal in all of this to ask why they have never mentioned it until now. Everybody has known about this for the last two years, it's only leaked now.
[16:30:00] HARLOW: But, Richard, you know, put yourself -- right, if we put ourselves in the shoes of these families that all they want is answers to why their loved ones are gone, vanished --
QUEST: Yes.
HARLOW: -- why was this not included in that lengthy investigation report that came out on the first anniversary?
QUEST: Well, the Malaysians will say -- I am a not defending them here. The Malaysians will say that that report was a factual report about known information, not jumping -- not coming to any conclusions. How old was the pilot, how many flight hours had he done? How old was the aircraft? Totally factual information. Now you can argue -- and it's a strong one, factual information, there
was evidence or there is simulator data showing similarities in runs. There's no real answer as to why the Malaysians wouldn't have done it. They have chosen not to in several reports raise it.
The FBI -- the FBI leaked it originally back two years ago. Then denied it two years ago. Then said there was nothing untoward on the simulator. So we have plenty of rumor and gossip about this. It is merely another piece in a very sad and sordid affair where there has been a complete lack of real information so people can make judgments.
HARLOW: The pilot's mental state, Richard, any concerns about his mental states until they saw document?
QUEST: Well, the factual report released on the first anniversary specifically says -- I went back and read it because I knew you were going to ask me this question. It says the pilot was able -- the captain was able to handle stress. There were no known personal problems in his life. He was in good health. There was no change in personal circumstances. There was nothing untoward.
Now, this is being taken as evidence to suggest his marriage wasn't failing as some people had been putting forward, that he wasn't about to be -- to leave his wife, that he wasn't having a nervous breakdown, and arguably, Poppy, that he hadn't been doing practice runs on so- called suicide missions. Because, Poppy, if this evidence is true, then the Malaysian report on March, 2015, frankly, you might as well go and light a bonfire with it because it's worthless. They, de facto, give everybody a clean bill of health.
Now, I'm not saying for a moment it was the captain or it wasn't. What I am saying is that the Malaysians have a certain amount of explaining to do about what they've told us so far.
HARLOW: No question about it. And, Richard Quest, let's hope they come on and talk to you about all of it and answer all of those questions. Because this is incredibly damning and the families deserve answers.
Richard Quest, thank you very much.
Coming up, Trump weighs on Hillary Clinton's newly minted running mate. She presented him to the world on stage today in Miami. So Donald Trump has a new nickname, not all that different from the one that he gave to Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Crooked Hillary takes tens of millions of dollars into her foundation, foundation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:36:48] HARLOW: (AUDIO GAP) officially naming her running mate, Tim Kaine. The two of them made an appearance together just a few hours ago. Her new partner in this race is Senator Tim Kaine. Well, you -- he admitted on stage -- he said, you might not know might about me, but then he introduced himself to the world. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TIM KAINE (D), PRESUMPTIVE VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Now, I know for a lot of you this might be the first time you are hearing me speak. And hey, let me be honest, for many of you this is the first time you have even heard my name. But that's okay because I'm excited for us to get to know one another.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: He is a senator from Virginia, previously the state's governor. He is considered to be an expert on foreign policy. And he is already earned a nickname from Donald Trump.
Our Chris Frates is with us in Washington on this.
Chris, so Trump has already come out and given him a nickname. But you have to dig into this a little bit. When he look at the nickname, he is calling him "Corrupt Kaine" and he is pointing to $160,000 in gifts that Kaine took while he was governor. But there is an important nuance to this. Dig in to it for us.
CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. He is calling Tim Kaine "Corrupt Kaine". That goes along with Trump's "Crooked Hillary" moniker. As you point out, that's in part because he is trying to make an issue out of the $160,000 in gifts.
And, you know, Kaine got those gifts when he was lieutenant governor and the governor of Virginia. He accepted things like clothes, travel, even a Caribbean vacation. It's important to point out here -- all those gifts were legal in Virginia as long as any gift over 50 bucks was publicly disclosed.
Now, Trump tweeted this last night, he said, "Is it the same Kaine that took hundreds of thousands of dollars of gifts while governor of Virginia and didn't get indicted, while Bob M. did?"
Now, Trump seems to be referring to former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. Remember, he was convicted of federal corruption charges and to being accused of accepting gifts from a businessman in exchange for promoting that man's company. Now, the Supreme Court overturned McDonnell's convention last month.
And, you know, Trump is really trying to tie Kaine to McDonnell here. And there is like three -- I would say two big differences here, Poppy. Number one, Kaine disclosed his gifts. He publicly disclosed them as the law requires. McDonnell didn't make all of his gifts public. And two, Kaine has never been accused of promising state action in exchange for any of these gifts.
Now, I reached out to Kaine's camp and his spokesman Amy Dudley responded by telling me that she said, "During his eight years as lieutenant governor and governor, Senator Kaine went beyond the requirements of Virginia law, promptly disclosing any and all gifts received even those beneath the reporting threshold. All disclosure information, the vast majority of which were work-related travel expenses, rather than gifts, has been publicly available for years and never once raised any concerns of impropriety."
So, Democrats are sure to continue emphasizing that last part, that Kaine did nothing wrong. But remember, Poppy, by tagging them "Crooked Hillary" and "Corrupt Kaine", Trump is trying to paint the Democrats as, you know, beneficiaries of this rigged system that enriches politicians that's unethical.
[16:40:10] And that's a line of attack you probably going to hear a lot of going forward here, Poppy.
HARLOW: Yes. But I think we've certainly seen Kaine be an attack dog today against Trump with these remarks on the stage in Miami, saying, you better watch out. And he said Trump has broken promises and wrecked lives.
So, I think proving to people who are wondering if he can be the attack dog against Trump that that is certainly the plan.
Chris Frates in Washington, thank you. Thank you very much.
FRATES: You're welcome.
HARLOW: So, let's talk about Trump, the presidential candidate, also the billionaire businessman. If he is elected president, he wouldn't be the richest ever to hold office. So, who is? And who you would Donald Trump's wealth compare to that and other unusual presidential trivia with the author of "White House Confidential", straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:44:35] HARLOW: Welcome back.
When it comes to the White House, to elections, to presidencies themselves, they always come with a lot of unusual stories, no question. Let's talk about some of the most unusual, and how it comes to the most unusual and how it all plays out into this election this time around.
Gregg Stebben is with me. He's the author of "White House Confidential: The Little Book of Presidential History". It is filled with lesions relevant to this year's campaign.
Thank you for being with me.
GREGG STEBBEN, AUTHOR, WHITE HOUSE CONFIDENTIAL: You bet, Poppy.
HARLOW: Good to be here with you in Philadelphia. A very big week for this city.
[16:45:02] Let's start with Clinton and Trump and the friendship that was. STEBBEN: The friendship that was.
HARLOW: The famous photo of them together with their significant others at Trump's wedding to Melania.
STEBBEN: Yes.
HARLOW: All smiles. Now, such a different story.
This is certainly not the only friendship turned feud in presidential history, is it?
STEBBEN: You are absolutely right. In fact, a very, very famous political battle was between Teddy Roosevelt and his best friend, William Howard Taft. Taft was anointed by Roosevelt to be the president after Roosevelt left. Roosevelt was so upset with the way Taft ran the country, even Teddy came back and started his own party, the Bowman's party and ran against his best friend and let me tell you no matter what Hillary and Donald say about each other, Teddy and Taft exchanged those kinds of insults and worse.
HARLOW: But Twitter wasn't alive then.
STEBBEN: They have their own version of that. So, there were tabloids and newspapers. All of that trash talking went viral, just viral in another time.
HARLOW: Donald Trump made no secret of his wealth. He has talked about his net worth many, many times before. But I think a lot of Americans would be interested to find out, and you know, you discuss this in the book he wouldn't be the richest president ever.
STEBBEN: Oh, he would be in he was elected.
HARLOW: He would --
STEBBEN: Well, let's put it this way, if we saw his tax returns, he would be.
HARLOW: Let's take the $10 billion that he throws out.
STEBBEN: The richest president ever when you adjust for inflation was surprisingly George Washington because something that Donald Trump and George Washington have in common is they were both real estate moguls. Washington was very, very wealthy, the wealthiest president ever. If Donald Trump gets elected and what he tells us shows up to be true on his tax returns, he will far eclipse the Washington wealth because Trump, of course, says he is a billionaire. Washington was a mere millionaire.
HARLOW: Back in those dollars of those days.
STEBBEN: Yes.
HARLOW: Look, the main premise of your book, and you talk about the fact that one of the most important jobs of a president is to entertain us.
STEBBEN: Yes.
HARLOW: They are the commander in chief.
STEBBEN: Also the entertainer in chief.
HARLOW: As you put it, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are auditioning for the job of entertainer in chief.
STEBBEN: Yes.
HARLOW: What do you mean by that?
STEBBEN: Well, if you think to the presidents that stand out we've had a lot of them, right? But we only remember a handful. And the handful we remember are the ones that did things that made them memorable. They were in a sense reality TV stars before there was reality TV and before there was TV.
We know Washington was a famous president. We think he was famous because he was president. But he was actually president because he was famous. He was famous before he was elected.
He never told a lie. He was first in war, first in peace, he didn't cut down the cherry tree. He was a legendary man. Then he got elected president.
And the presidents we remember were also people that were legendary. That is their job. It doesn't mean they are funny. Donald Trump has humorous moments. He also has very dramatic moments. Hillary Clinton is entertaining in her own way.
But this is as much a battle about being an entertainer as anything else.
HARLOW: Do you have a call on this election?
STEBBEN: I do. I think one of them will win.
HARLOW: OK, nice call.
By the way, if you haven't seen the book "White House Confidential", you are good at marketing, my friend.
STEBBEN: Thank you.
HARLOW: You had it up there the whole time.
STEBBEN: Thank you. Good to have you on. Great being with us.
Coming up, we're going to have a little bit of fun. A Broadway star gets a breakout role air kissing her way into broadcasting history. Jeanne Moos reports on the Melania Trump impersonator who is making waves.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:57:20]HARLOW: Well, let's -- a star was born on the RNC stage. But we're not talking about the star you may be thinking of.
Jeanne Moos reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When Melania Trump kissed her husband after his big speech it was her first appearance on stage since the brouhaha over her speech.
TRUMP: Melania and Ivanka did they do a job?
MOOS: Actually Melania created a job, ironically, her plagiarism problems.
MELANIA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: Your word is your bond.
MOOS: Have spawned a copycat.
LAURA BENANTI, ACTOR: My fellow Americans.
(LAUGHTER)
MOOS: She may have exaggerated Melania's gestures by, let's say, eight sheet kisses to Melania's one.
But Laura Benanti's skit on "The Late Show" won her rave reviews -- sublime," "it's perfect," up there with Tina Fey's Sarah Palin.
TINA FEY: I can see Russia from my house.
MOOS: This RNC speech was pretty much the first time.
MELANIA TRUMP: There would be good times and hard times.
MOOS: That Benanti heard Melania speak.
BENANTI: This is truly the best of times.
MOOS: "The Late Show" writers took famous lines --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In West Philadelphia, born and raised.
MOOS: -- and had Benanti plagiarize.
BENANTI: In West Philadelphia, born and raised.
(LAUGHTER)
BENANTI: Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar.
MOOS: Normally, she's a Broadway singer and actor, but back in March, Stephen Colbert pointed out the resemblance.
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": Here is Mrs. Trump, right there.
BENANTI: My favorite thing that she does. Yes.
MOOS: What's the key to impersonating the Donald's wife?
BENANTI: Well, for sure her squinty eye and pouty mouth. I took liberties with the fact that she used to be model with some of my posing and such.
MOOS: As for Melania's husband.
COLBERT: Do you want him to win?
(LAUGHTER)
MOOS: The skit that shot her to impersonator fame ended like this.
BENANTI: And one more thing, live from New York, it's Saturday --
COLBERT: No!
MOOS: She said if Colbert didn't mind, she'd do SNL in a heartbeat.
Maybe Laura Benanti can follow in the primping and posing footsteps of Tina Fey.
(LAUGHTER)
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:58:40] HARLOW: All right. Finally this hour, it is man versus horse in this week's "Fit Nation". It's over 600 runners battling 22 miles of hills, rivers, and mud, sounds like fun, hoping to cross the finish line before 60 courses.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us one of the competitors who hopes to win has already faced a much bigger challenge. Look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Man versus horse. A huge competition in a tiny Welsh town. Over 600 runners battle 22 miles of steep and slippery terrain trying to make it to the finish before 60 horses and their riders.
TOM FAIRBROTHER: I would like to win. To tell your grandkids that you beat a horse is very cool.
GUPTA: But to get here, Tom Fairbrother faced a far more serious challenge, a battle with bulimia.
FAIRBROTHER: People think it is a disease that young girls suffer. I wanted to show a guy was equally at risk.
GUPTA: He wanted to raise money and awareness by running more than ten marathons in a year. He wants to go, man versus horse.
FAIRBROTHER: The first horse that came past. I never heard or seen anything like it. You could feel the ground and hear it coming. It seemed like a fitting way to end something that's been a great journey.
ANNOUNCER: Finishing third runner today, Tom Fairbrother.
FAIRBROTHER: I'm really proud. Doing this has shown people that you can recover and be stronger than you are before.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
