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Russia and the Presidential Election; Trump Speaks in Roanoke Virginia; Discussion of the Election Campaign. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 25, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, HOST: Let's get straight to it, Russia, and you know based upon the changed language in the Republican platform last week, more sort of pro-Putin and then what Trump said to the New York Times about NATO and you know not quite sure if perhaps an eastern bloc nation were to be attacked would the U.S. go in and defend. I mean do you think with that language Mr. Trump is giving Russia, giving Putin the green light?

RICK SANTORUM, FORMER REPUBLICAN U.S. SENATOR: Look I think Donald Trump -- if you think Donald Trump isn't going to be tough in defending U.S. interests and the interests of our allies, you're just completely wrong. This is a pretty tough character. What he said with NATO was a shot across the bow and saying look it's time for everybody to start ante up we've got some serious national security -- .

BALDWIN: Do you agree with what he said?

SANTORUM: I agree that there are NATO allies who are not pulling - you know not doing what they said they would do which is to keep up their defense (inaudible) and be a part of this alliance. But interestingly enough, the ones who are in Eastern Europe which are the ones who are most directly threatened by the Russians.

BALDWIN: But we have seen what Russia has done, you know Joe was just talking about Ukraine and would your fear be under a Trump presidency if Putin were to go meddling in those nations that that would -- that Putin would feel free to do that because of the language from Mr. Trump?

SANTORUM: I think if there's anybody that he'd feel free to do that it's administration - it's the follow on administration of the administration that allowed them to do it. I mean if you think about it -- who was the - who was the person who argued eight years ago for the Russian reset? That was Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton was saying we can deal with Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANTORUM: And now all of a sudden Donald Trump is the weak one on Putin. If you look at this administration they've allowed him to do whatever he wants to do in Ukraine with absolutely no consequences, he's been threatening Eastern Europe, again with no consequences. He's entered himself into Syria, again with no consequences. And if you look at any administration since the second world war that has allowed Russia to spread its wings and increase its influence in the world, it's been Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANTORUM: I'm thinking if you're the Russians you actually like what you know is a very soft presidency as opposed to one --

BALDWIN: I think the Democrats would take issue with that given you know the U.S. allegiance with what happened in Ukraine.

SANTORUM: But we did nothing. We did nothing. Let's just be honest. We did nothing. Putin has solidified his gains. He has the territory that he took and we did nothing. It's --

BALDWIN: It's just fears that that would be more of a green light with what he said with regard to NATO. I'm telling you that's what Democrats would say. Then on top of that --

SANTORUM: Sure that's what Democrats but look at the reality of what's going on.

BALDWIN: But senator, let me - let me - let me ask you though about - you know we've heard Mr. Trump and what he said about you know this Muslim ban and now actually I have the sound byte, I want you to hear what he said because he expanded who he wouldn't allow in in this country. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't think it's a pullback. In fact you could say it's an expansion. I'm looking now at (inaudible) -- people were so upset when I use the word "Muslim." Oh, you can't use the word Muslim. Remember this -- and I'm OK with it because I'm talking Territorium instead of Muslim.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So if you have terrorism - essentially paraphrasing in your country, not allowed in the U.S. Reaction? You support that?

SANTORUM: In fact that was the position I took during the campaign. It's a position I think almost every Republican candidate took a position, not all of them but most Republican candidates took the position that if you are in a state that cannot -- that's a Muslim state that is heavily influenced by and has other heavy presence of radical elements then we're not going to - we're not going to allow Muslims from that area of the world to come in. And the reason is because number one, we can't properly vet them. Syria is a good example. How can you vet someone from Syria it's impossible. Same thing with Iraq and Iran. They are places because of the geopolitics of that country, proper vetting is literally impossible and if you have a high proportion of radical elements you won't open that opportunity to this country.

BALDWIN: He's actually speaking now. We heard Hillary Clinton really sort of being strong and tough against him this morning -- perhaps he'll react to her. Here he is, he's got Mike Pence with him in Roanoke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And then you see the e-mails. Can you imagine? They talk about religion. They talk about religion, can you imagine if that was me? I would right now be on the front page of every newspaper, it would be horrible. And they're trying to play it down, well, that wasn't so bad. That wasn't so bad. No but can you imagine? Seriously there's such a different standard.

So here's the story, here's the story. So Debbie was totally loyal to Hillary and Hillary threw her under a bus and it didn't take her more than five minutes to make that decision. Man, I don't want her covering my back, I'll tell you right now. It's true. [ cheers and applause ] It's true.

Now, the other thing I'm surprised at, you know it's nice when you're not reading speeches, isn't it, really? Because I can talk about current events. This stuff happened 10 minutes ago.

[15:35:00]

TRUMP: You know if you're reading speeches -- I see these guys, I dealt with a lot of them. I've actually been a very political person all my life, I've always been on the other side but now for 14 months I've been doing this and I like this side in a certain way better because we can do things better.

They used to love me when I was just a contributor. I'd give millions of dollars. I was a contributor. Yes, I know, I like this better. [ cheers and applause ] I like it. I like being non-establishment better.

But with Bernie when you look at what happened the thing that surprises me most is how he folded. He folded. I thought he was really hanging out tough, tough, tough. Then they find these horrible e-mails talking about his religion and is he Jewish and is he an atheist and what and that's not going to play well. Man, that's rough. And that's not as bad as some of the other ones.

And I said there's no way that Bernie Sanders shows up to make a speech. There's no way that he can ever endorse Crooked Hillary Clinton anymore. Right? There's no way. And today I see him trying to make the case and his own people are out there booing. OK? They're out there booing. So it's pretty bad.

Then I'll tell you, Hillary Clinton, and I've been saying this for a long time and I got it from Bernie Sanders because he said she suffers from bad judgment. Right? Bad judgment. She suffers from very bad judgment. Her instincts are bad. They're no good. Her instincts are defective. Her instincts are defective. But she's got -- she's low energy, she actually is low energy. She'll go home, she'll take a nap for four or five hours then she'll come back. No naps for Trump. No nap. I don't take naps. We don't have time. We don't time.

You ever see Hillary where she comes out and she'll read a tell prompter for a little while and then she'll go home and you don't see her for three, four days, then she comes back. And then they used to - I remember in Iowa, they'd put like three or four people, really nice people in they're sitting around a little table and everyone saying I'd like that ask her a question, no, no, no, you're too tough. This is what we have.

How do you think ISIS is going to react? I don't think so right, I don't think so. Not going to be good. No we have tough enemies out there. We have tough mean vicious horrible, horrible people. These are horrible, horrible human beings. We need toughness, folks, it's about time. We need strength, we need toughness, we need smarts, we need warmth, we need compassion, we need everything. We need everything. But we don't need somebody that goes home and takes naps, we don't need naps.

But what did surprise me was that Bernie was so soft on this. I was amazed because I watched his speech, you know, "we must vote for Hillary Clinton." I mean, the hatred he's got, but why would he do that? He looks better if he didn't do it. To me. Hey, what do I have to do with it? I don't care. Whatever he wants to do.

But could you imagine if what's taking place now with the Democrats took place in Cleveland and, by the way, I have to tell you, Cleveland did an amazing job. Thank you, Ohio, thank you, Cleveland. What a job. [applause]

I spoke to the police chief, Calvin, did a phenomenal job up there but what we had and the secret service, working with the secret service, what a job they did. But Cleveland's a beautiful place. I mean really, I was so happy, we had no problems. They were trying to show -- I know they showed this one square it was this big square and it had a few people, and they would bring the cameras in close, you know really close, because they don't want to show all that beautiful grass with no people on it.

And you know why? I'll tell you why, because people like our message, people like our message. They really like it and if you look at Philadelphia, I went to school in Philadelphia. I love Philadelphia, if you look at Philadelphia, what they're going through right now, looks like a lot of people, it's 100 degrees there. And speaking of that, by the way, I don't know if you saw -- did you know I went to the other room? So you have a second room and then outside you have over a thousand people and it's 104 degrees out. [ applause ] No think of it. And it's the first time I ever did it. I said let's go - let's go to the second room first that's the anti-room, but let's go because it's the overflow room. I said - so I went in there, we surprised them, we were nice. But you know and we love these people.

But you know what I also like, I don't have to do it later. [ applause ] And outside we have a lot of people and I wish they'd let them in, the fire department won't let them in because of the fire regulation which is very sad because they're outside, we have speakers out there, I think the speakers are burning up, folks. It is hot. I wish the fire marshal, where is the fire marshal? Is he around here? Come on, fire marshal. If they could get in fire marshal. You know you have doors that go right out to the outside, I promise there's nothing like you don't have a problem.

[15:40:15]

TRUMP: I feel badly. We have those people, we have people standing outside. You can get a few more people inside, if they could, let them in. So that's the way a builder would talk OK? That's the way a builder would talk.

So you had the firing of the head of the DNC and that was a vicious firing. A lot of things happened. You had her firing. Hillary Clinton's total disloyalty was at play. It really was, people don't say that, they won't say that in the media. Oh, if I did something with Reince -- can you imagine if I fired Reince? I wouldn't do that, because Reince has done such a great job. Reince Priebus. What a job he has done. And I always used to say for months now I've been saying I'll take Reince over Debbie. And everyone said oh, but Debbie is a superstar. I said so is Reince, then it turned out that Debbie flamed out and she's gone but the disloyalty was incredible.

And I really mean that, because honestly whether you like her or not she worked very hard to rig the system so that Hillary got it -- it's true, right? It's true. No, it's true. She worked very, very hard to rig the system. Little did she know that China, Russia, one of our many, many friends came in and hacked the hell out of us. Can you imagine? Can you imagine what they're hacking? I guarantee we'll find the 33,000 e-mails. [ cheers and applause ]

Why did Hillary get rid of her middle name? Huh? Hillary? No, but why did she get rid of it? Hillary Rotten Clinton. Hillary Rotten Clinton, right? Maybe that's why, it's too, no, no, it's too close, it's too close. You think Mike Pence would say this? I don't think so.

By the way, did I do a good job with Mike Pence, [ cheers and applause ] him and his family. What a high-quality person. You have to vet people and we vetted Mike and they came back -- and these are killers, they came back with many pages on certain people. OK, many pages, ooh I'd like to write a book. [ laughter ] many, many pages, with Mike they came back with like nothing. He's like the most perfect human being this guy.

I said, mike, did you ever do anything wrong in your whole life? No, I don't think so. [ laughter ] He is -- where is he? He's the best guy, that guy is great. I love this guy. I love him I love him. But you know what I really like about Mike? So listen to this. To me a very important thing is her bad judgment. Now whether you like her choice, Tim Kaine, nobody even knows who he is. [ boos ] No. he's done a terrible job for Virginia. I assumed -- they said, oh, he got picked because of Virginia. Because Virginia's very important and I'm doing very well here. [ cheers and applause ] Hey, hey, I'm employing a lot of people here and they don't employ anybody. I spent a lot of money in Potomac Falls, Sterling, that area, I mean I spend a lot of money. We have great, great things happening. Next year we have the Senior PGA Championship coming, thousands and thousands of people will come into Virginia and spend a lot of money. Thank you, I love you, too, darling. But just think of it. So Hillary Clinton has almost a 50% of the

people want a progressive. OK, we don't have to like that, but that's OK, that's where they are. They want to give everything away and raise your taxes. That's what happens. No, no, she will have a tax raise. By the way, I have the largest tax cut of anybody running for office, Republican or Democrat OK. [ cheers and applause ].

But Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton will have a tax cut that is not there, it's going to be a tax cut times 20 in reverse like a rocket ship. We have the biggest tax cut -- proposed I guess in the last four years and we're going to get it through, at least we're going to get most of it through. I tell you what, I'm going to try to get all of it through. But we have -- and it's policy, it's you know put out there. That doesn't mean there's not a little negotiation because we're going to have to negotiate. But we're going to have it go.

[15:45:00]

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton is going to have one of the biggest tax increases in the history of our country because what she's proposing you're going to have to pay for. Very simple. Very simple. Now maybe she'll - you know after she gets rid of Bernie get rid of all this stuff, because it doesn't help you, by the way. But what she's proposing she needs to have a massive, massive tax increase, nobody ever talks about that, you notice she never talks about who's going to pay for it and how they're going pay? But just statistically she's going to need a very major tax cut.

But here's something to me that's interesting 50% of that party is Bernie Sanders almost and they're very passionate. And that's the much more passionate side. Her people they fall asleep. OK, they fall asleep, they're watching -- with Bernie's people they're really out there. Say what you want about Bernie Sanders, he got it on free trade. He got it.

Free trade now I'm totally -- I'm a free trader, I believe in free trade, you know they get it all wrong because they just don't say it properly but I want smart trade. I want to trade with other countries but I don't want to use $500 billion a year with China. Thank you, China, we love you very much but we're not going to lose $500 billion.

And I don't want to have a trade imbalance with Japan where they send us millions of cars and we send them some beef and then they send it back right, and then we send some wheat. They send cars, we send wheat. Sounds like we've got to send a lot of wheat, right? The trade imbalance is massive.

And with Mexico we have an unbelievably big trade amount. So they kill us at the border, they kill us, they're killing us at the border and we have one of the biggest trade imbalances and what happens?

BALDWIN: All right, so let's pull away for a second. But we've been listening to Donald Trump for a while here. And listen, we may be in Philadelphia but he's got a whole plan to speak and have rallies all week long and we'll make sure we take those just on balance but essentially it sounds like we may have a new nickname for Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Hillary Rotten Clinton. Donald Trump also just sort of saying that he thought Bernie Sanders sold out a little too soon. That he was soft, that he sold out and jumped out of the race too soon. And obviously perhaps maybe even stoking some of the flames as we've seen a lot of Sanders supporters here in Philadelphia irked that it's not their guy at the top of the ticket.

So beginning with some of those themes I am lucky enough to have Brad Woodhouse with me, former communications director for the DNC. CNN Political Director David Chalian and CNN political commentators, Paul Bernstein and Scottie Nell Hughes.

So first, just on Trump, David Chalian, in case people thought he'd go away for the week, that's not happening.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: No, that wouldn't be his style.

BALDWIN: No.

CHALIAN: So yes, this actually has been a tradition that's sort of fallen apart in the last several cycles of the other side not giving the full week clean. Hillary Clinton held a couple events last week at the beginning of the Republican convention. But I do think the line about Bernie Sanders that he gave up too soon. Bernie Sanders went all the way through to the California Primary. I don't know what else -- I don't know how he could have gotten out any later than he did after every vote was counted. Maybe he means in these negotiations around the platform or what have you. But as you know, Donald Trump is making a really big play for Sanders supporters and I think that's mission critical for Bernie Sanders on the stage tonight because I think his mission as now a Hillary Clinton surrogate is to try to speak to his supporters and explain why Donald Trump should not be a viable option for them.

BALDWIN: OK. What about also just on Bernie this evening, Brad, you know he got the boos this morning, booing his saying you know we need to support Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. Now obviously it's a different crowd in here than was in that room this afternoon but still but what does he need to say tonight to the millions of eyeballs on the screen?

BRAD WOODHOUSE, FORMER DNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well I think very similar to what he said when he appeared with her in New Hampshire about what the stakes are and about the fact that this is now a binary choice. I mean it's either Donald Trump is going to be President and all that means or Hillary Clinton is going to be President and all that means. And I think he needs to go beyond that and give her a healthy and hearty endorsement.

BALDWIN: But he has.

WOODHOUSE: Well, but I mean I think he really needs to that in Spades tonight. I think it's really important to kick off the week, to get beyond this controversy that we've seen at the beginning of the week.

And I'm convinced he'll do it. You know he was - you know he didn't flinch on the Sunday shows yesterday. He said I don't care about these e-mails, I'm with Hillary Clinton and I'm going to be with Hillary Clinton. So I think that's what's really important tonight.

CHALIAN: I just want to make sure you heard what he just said, binary choice. We heard the same language at the Republican convention last week in Cleveland around the whole Ted Cruz.

WOODHOUSE: Don't compare our convention to theirs. Please.

CHALIAN: Just to get to the state of this race and these unpopular nominees, each side has to say the words binary choice to make sure that they're getting their partisans around the notion that the other one is worse.

BALDWIN: I hear you - I hear you David Chalian. Carl Bernstein, what do you think?

[15:50:00]

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's more than a binary choice. This is Gettysburg, this is the future of the country for the next 40, 50, 60 years. This is the definitive battle of the cultural wars of the last 30 years in America. And this party is going to be united. After all -- after Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is an asterisk, we're going to see tonight these people come out here. Michelle Obama is going to come out. We're going to hear Bloomberg. This is going to go -- and we're going to hear Bernie Sanders and they are going to bring the rafters down because they believe with some real facts on their side that their opponent is a very dangerous man for the world that's where this is going.

BALDWIN: (Inaudible).

BERNSTEIN: But that's where this is going. This is about whether or not he is a danger to the fabric of America and to the world and they are going to make their case and they are going to unite. You know, there's a pew survey out recently, it shows 90% of Sanders supporters will support Hillary.

BALDWIN: But I have to imagine some folks, including you, Scottie, are enjoying a little bit of the untethered lack of appearance, lack of unity with the boos today.

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is nice to be on offense, I'll be honest with you, I've got a long really well with the panels today. And the parallels between the two conventions are just uncanny that they would be this way.

But let me say this about the Bernies here because I would imagine the grassroots of the left are a lot like the grassroots of the right. They don't care about who the head person is, they actually care about each other. So if you're going to recruit the Bernie Sanders folks it has got to come from the under swell and rise up. Not someone being their leader. Bernie Sanders they might have united him behind Bernie Sanders. But he is replaceable. So it's really going to take leaders within that own grass roots community saying guys we really do need to motivate for Hillary Clinton.

That's our problem with conservatives right now. That's why we had the bump. I think it's because some of those conservatives saw what Ted Cruz did, saw him as a sore loser, and within the grassroots we've got to get behind Donald Trump. That same thing is going to have to happen if you want to recruit those Bernie -

BALDWIN: We keep talking about Bernie Sanders, folks but let me just pivot - let me just pivot to Senator Elizabeth Warren, known as the darling of the left. She is seen as this progressive, she too is taking to the stage, David Chalian and Brad to speak out and say the direction of this country should be Hillary Clinton.

CHALIAN: Yes, and interestingly, until this morning, the Clinton campaign and DNC was not using the word keynote and then pointing out that there's a keynote speaker. But this morning it became clear that Elizabeth Warren is the keynote speaker.

BALDWIN: Why does that matter? Why do you think that matters?

CHALIAN: With all of the, you know obviously the Democrats have a lot of star power in their -- on their side with the President sitting, vice President -

BALDWIN: First lady -

CHALIAN: Former President, the spouse, all of those things, but it was not clear that there was going to be somebody that said let's prominently call this person the keynote --

BALDWIN: And now that's what they are saying --

CHALIAN: And now they are and that's a -

HUGHES: Do you think that's kind of a back hand against Michelle Obama? I would think she would be the draw especially for the Independents. She was the one who got record engagement in 2008/2012, there was the Obamas. I think that's kind of a back hand to President Obama.

WOODHOUSE: I don't believe it is a back hand at all. I do believe it is an appropriate choice. I mean, you know, she really does represent the Sanders wing of the party that has moved on to support Hillary Clinton. And she is going to be able to come out and one thing she'll be able to do is to lay it in to Donald Trump. We've seen her do that over and over again. She is one of the most effective surrogates laying into Donald Trump late in the primary after she had come over to support Hillary. So I think it is going to be great tonight to see her unfold.

BALDWIN: A huge night, a lot of speakers. Brad and David and Scottie, and Carl, thank you all so much.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Not a dull moment here either and it is just day number one. We're minutes away from the opening gavel here at the Democratic National Convention. We now know as we've been reporting the person who will be standing up there, with the gavel, will not be the chair of the DNC, it will not be Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. She won't be speaking either. Do not miss a beat we will bring it to you live, special live coverage here from Philadelphia. Back in a flash. ,

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:56:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, HOST: Home sweet home, Philadelphia, you can almost taste the scrapple. Welcome to the first day of the Democratic National Convention, I'm Jake Tapper, this is "The Lead."

Where the first day of what was supposed to be a unifying convention here in South Philadelphia has gotten off to a start that can only be described as rocky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: And not in the good Rocky Balboa way. We're minutes away from the official gaveling in of the convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: It's a truly historic event, a major U.S. party officially nominating a woman, Hillary Clinton, to be President. But in the last- minute surprise you will not see the chair of the Democratic National Committee congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz gavel in the convention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: She is out as DNC Chairwoman as soon as the convention will be gaveled out. Why? Well, 20,000 e-mails published by Wikileaks. Showing what seems to be a coordinated effort within the Democratic National Committee including chairwoman with the very least, at the very least discuss ways to smear Bernie Sanders during his insurgent bid against Clinton. Among many, many other matters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Senator Bernie Sanders will address the convention in prime time this evening. But just a few hours ago, his supporters angrily rejected his discussion of the presumptive nominee.

BERNIE SANDERS, FORMER DEMOCRATIC: We have got to elect Hillary Clinton. [ booing ].

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The focus is now on the DNC podium. We are approaching the gaveling in marking the official start of this convention. Let's go to CNN's Dana Bash.

Dana, we saw a rather chaotic start to the RNC last week with something of a floor fight but my god, this is much, much bigger potentially. Is there any chance of anything like that happening in Philly, even bigger than what we saw at the RNC when the gravel drops in a few minutes?

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell that you the Clinton campaign does not think that will happen. But as you and I both know, the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee didn't think it would happen to the extent that it did last week. So we are certainly waiting to see what the reception is here on the floor and how things go.

One thing that as you said we are waiting for on the stage behind me is to see Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, she is not a household name even for people who cover politics, closely and watch politics closely. But as you said, she is going to be the person to gavel in. Not the chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Because she, for lots of reasons but first and foremost this morning she was speaking to her own delegation, Jake. The Florida delegation, she of course is a congresswoman from Florida, and she was booed. So that is certainly not the kind of start that even and especially she wants to the party that she helped shepherd for so many years as she has.

So that's what we're going to be watching. But also as we go through the night, the big keynote speakers. The big headliners, I should say. Bernie Sanders first and foremost he is going to be the last one to speak. And there are so many Bernie Sanders supporters here on the floor who are very eager to hear that.

Elizabeth Warren who has the same kind of support from the left flank of the Democratic Party and then perhaps the biggest star of the Democratic Party at this point, Michelle Obama. Who four years ago, you remember gave a rousing, rousing speech at her husband's second convention and I probably, I think, we're safe to say will be similar tonight.

TAPPER: Dana Bash, thank you so much. Clearly an attempt on the first night to bring out a lot of progressive voices. Elizabeth warren, Bernie Sanders, to try to appease some very, very, angry progressives and Sanders supporters. A big reason for today's gavel shake-up to avoid another scene like this one as Dana just referred to. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz booed at a breakfast for the Democratic delegation from her own home state of Florida.