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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Democratic National Convention Begins; Hillary Clinton Picks Senator Tim Kaine as VP; Suicide Bomber Injures 12 in Germany. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired July 25, 2016 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:46] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Here come the Democrats. Philadelphia now grease the Democratic National Convention. See the sights here. But before it all begins, there is new trouble. A day about to be about unity, now ripe with disunity. How will this affect the race? We'll discuss right now.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. At the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. I'm John Berman.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, July 25th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East. It is not 100 degrees yet but it will be at some point today. And it's not just the politics that's ahead that are hot. It is the temperature, too.
We're here are at the CNN Grill this morning, and this is the city of brotherly love, folks. But so far brotherly interaction is of the Cain and Abel variety. We're not talking about Tim Kaine. Just hours before the Democratic convention is set to gavel in, the Democratic National chair has checked out.
That's right. Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepping down after an embarrassing e-mail leak. CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us now with the very latest -- Phil.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Well, this day was supposed to be about so much unity that it was actually the title of the theme of the day. "United Together." And there were serious names behind it. Senator Bernie Sanders scheduled to speak. Elizabeth Warren scheduled to speak. First Lady Michelle Obama scheduled to speak.
Democrats trying to put together the idea that after a divisive primary, a raucous primary, that everybody is starting to come together as one until WikiLeaks happened. WikiLeaks obviously releasing hacked e-mail from top DNC officials that make it look an awful lot what Bernie Sanders was alleging throughout the primary process that the DNC had their thumb on the scales for the Hillary Clinton was actually true.
There's an e-mail of one top official pitching a negative story about Bernie Sanders' campaign being a mess. Another DNC official saying that somebody needs to get someone to ask Bernie Sanders about his religion because that might hurt him in Kentucky and West Virginia. Now Bernie Sanders has, for a long time, said Debbie Wasserman
Schultz, the DNC chair, needs to step down. Well, now he's getting his wish. At least at this convention by Thursday night, Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced she will step down. Before then, though, she's expected to speak today and Democrats I've been talking to over the last 24 hours slightly weary of what that might create on the floor. They don't want a big Cleveland-esque, if you will, demonstration of boos and just anger which we might see.
As for Hillary Clinton, she's making clear that she's not willing to look past what happened in Cleveland and that the Democrats are in a much better position. Take a listen to what she said on "60 Minutes" in her first joint interview with her new running mate Tim Kaine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't know what they're convention was about other than criticizing me. I seem to be the only unifying theme that they had. There was no positive agenda. It was a very dark, divisive campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: And guys, you can expect Democrats to try and move quickly on from this if they can. A group of people who might not, Bernie Sanders supporters. Already thousands demonstrating here. Clearly not willing to move on. And this really only adding fuel to that fire. Some work to do for Bernie Sanders as he speaks today in Philadelphia -- John.
BERMAN: All right. Phil Mattingly, thank you so much.
And indeed, you know, Romans, as we arrived in Philadelphia yesterday, there are protesters. There were Bernie Sanders people on the streets.
ROMANS: That's right.
BERMAN: A thousand of them, way more than we ever saw in a single protest in Cleveland. You know, this was more of a march. I mean, this was a festival. It wasn't anything violent, but they're here. The people who support Bernie Sanders and say they might not support Hillary Clinton. They are here in the city.
Joining us to discuss, CNN political commentator John Philips, a talk radio host on KABC and a Donald Trump supporter. CNN political analyst Josh Rogin, a columnist for the "Washington Post" is with us. Also here to CNN, political commentators Angela Rye, the former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, and just wiring up right now, Democratic strategist Bob Beckel.
ROMANS: Good morning, everybody.
BERMAN: Nice to see you one and all.
Angela Rye, this is just how you planned it. The day about unit. The thing is, this is so much unity it almost hurts, isn't it?
ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: John, I need you to be honest, with the people this early, this is not at all how we planned it.
(LAUGHTER)
[04:05:00] RYE: And actually I am feeling so sorry for my friends who worked both on the convention and are at the DNC. This is a lot to kind of handle at once. I think that we are just hoping for a nice Kumbaya with Bernie Sanders and his supporters and Hillary Clinton and her supporters. I think now the challenge is Bernie is totally bought in and he's continued to say that. But Bernie bros are not.
ROMANS: Listen to what Bernie Sanders said about Debbie Wasserman Schultz. You know, he was asked about this and he said he wanted her gone a long time ago. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I asked and demanded Debbie Wasserman Schultz's resignation many, many months ago and I state that again. I don't think she is qualified to be the chair of the DNC. Not only for these awful e-mails, which reveal the prejudice of the DNC, but also because we need a party that reaches out to working people and young people, and I don't think her leadership style is doing that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Bob, he had been complaining about what he saw as tip of the scales against him for months. And now he looks vindicated. He thinks he's vindicated. He wanted her out. She's out. Is this over?
BOB BECKEL, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think it's pretty much over. Look, he's got a point. I mean, the debate schedules were set up was not exactly in Bernie's advantage. But you know the one thing about Bernie supporters is if you look at the polls now, his supporters are lining up behind Hillary Clinton in larger numbers than most second place finishers do in conventions like this. But here's the difference. Are they going to go out and work the way they work for Bernie Sanders? Right now I don't think that they are. But the one thing that get them rallied and the one encouraging point is Donald Trump.
BERMAN: It's interesting, Bob Beckel, Josh Rogin, was speaking about one of the big needs of Hillary Clinton at this convention is to deal with this issue of honesty and trust worthiness where she's been slipping in the polls. I mean, slipping if that's possible because you can't go much lower than like, wicked, wicked low.
JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.
BERMAN: She got her work cut out for her. And overnight on "60 Minutes" she talked a little bit about that. She talked about something which she calls sort of the Hillary standard. Let's listen to what she had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I often feel like there's the Hillary standard and then the standard for everybody else.
SCOTT PELLEY, CBS "60 MINUTES": What's the Hillary standard?
CLINTON: Well, it is -- you know, a lot of as you saw through the Republican convention, unfounded, inaccurate, mean-spirited attacks with no basis in truth. Reality which take on a life of their own. And for whatever reasons, and I don't want to try to analyze the reasons, I see it, I understand it. People are very willing to say things about me, to make accusations about me that are -- I don't get upset about them anymore, but they are very regrettable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: She sure seems to be saying it's not my fault.
ROGIN: Right. This is not exactly building her trustworthiness with the voters, right? This is the opposite. This is her being defensive. Playing the victim. It's exactly what voters don't like and exactly how not to handle one of these things. I mean. the e-mail scandal is what it is. It's not some conspiracy of Donald Trump. It was an actual investigation. James Comey said she was actually extremely careless. She actually did --
BERMAN: We're talking about the State Department e-mails, by the way.
ROGIN: Yes.
BERMAN: Not the DNC e-mails.
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: It's a totally different thing.
ROMANS: The last thing you want to be talking about is more e-mails.
ROGIN: And her explanations have changed over time. They've been sometimes misleading, sometimes lies. I mean, that's -- these are facts. Right? So she's not quite there where she can just admit to the facts, say she's sorry and move on. This is sort of a flaw of her messaging over time and it's preventing --
ROMANS: John Philips, this is something, as a Trump supporter, something I think that's going to be interesting about this week. I think this will be the first convention in history, convention cycle in history, where you can have one of the candidates live tweeting the event. I mean, imagine how he can use as he has used this forum to get his own message out there. You think we're going to be hearing from him?
JOHN PHILIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I think he's going to get carpal tunnel from all the exclamation points. So we'll see. BERMAN: All caps sad.
PHILIPS: But you know the big problem here for the Democrats is they didn't have to do this. She had all the endorsements, she had all the money, she had all of the name identification. Every possible advantage that you could have had. She could have beat him clean without the DNC shaving points. But because they did that, this has turned out to be a huge scandal here. And if you want to talk about voter disenfranchisement which is what Democrats spent a lot of time talking about, that's exactly what happened here because the party are in control of the primary, not the government. The parties. And the party was behind one candidate and that wasn't Bernie Sanders.
BERMAN: And if you read Twitter, Donald Trump is very concerned about the Democratic Party's disenfranchisement.
ROMANS: Yes.
BERMAN: Angela?
RYE: So it's just really rich to me to hear Republicans talking about voter disenfranchisement when since 2011 they've introduced literally hundreds of bills at state legislatures to ensure that voters who look like me and other people of color and low-income folks, elderly folks can't go to the polls.
[04:10:02] So I think going through a party process that is not designed necessarily to level the playing field, is designed to pick a candidate that will win in the general I think is really, really rich.
(CROSSTALK)
RYE: I'm not supporting the e-mail.
PHILIPS: Didn't they rig it against Bernie in these e-mails?
RYE: I think that the e-mails are damning. And I'm not going to defend the e-mails. What I will tell you is that I find it very hard to believe that Bernie Sanders could have ever won this election. They did not need to do this.
PHILIPS: I think you're right.
(CROSSTALK)
BECKEL: In all the campaigns I did these guys are doing very well. I rigged through against you. But, listen, you know, the idea of a huge scandal. By huge, I would say it, too. But right now, it's not about the scandals. This woman has gone on the defensive for her entire political career. And she's been one thing after another. She's taken her husband's water on, on top of everything else. What she really needs to do is sort of re-create that moment.
You remember New Hampshire when she was in that lunch counter?
ROMANS: Yes. BECKEL: And she was behind. She got beat by Barack Obama in Iowa.
And she teared up a little bit but she was very persona. and it worked. And she won. I think -- I'm not suggesting she should get up there and cry. I'm not sure people want to see the president of the United States cry. But I think she needs to humanize herself. Not about politics.
ROMANS: An authentic moment. An authentic moment.
RYE: The Hillary standard is a valid thing to bring up. It just can't come from Hillary Clinton.
BERMAN: Someone else --
RYE: Yes.
BERMAN: Tim Kaine.
ROMANS: All right.
BERMAN: That's what he's there for.
RYE: There you go.
ROMANS: All right, guys.
BERMAN: To segue.
ROMANS: The speculation was loud, but Tim Kaine -- Tim Kaine was the choice. He'll tell you he is the quiet type of politician, though, and he and Hillary Clinton sat down for their first interview as running mates. We've got some of their answers next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:15:47] ROMANS: The Clinton campaign is showing off its newly minted vice presidential candidate. Last night Hillary Clinton and Senator Tim Kaine, they sat down for a joint interview on "60 Minutes." And Kaine says he is ready to be president if the need ever arises.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TIM KAINE (D), PRESUMPTIVE VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm ready to lead. I'm ready first to be a supportive vice president so that the presidency of Hillary Clinton is a fantastic one, but if something were to put that in my path as much as any human being would be ready, I would be ready.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: All right. You heard it. Our panel is back here. Let's talk a little bit about what this -- what this pick does for Hillary Clinton.
You know, he's non-confrontational. He fills out a lot of the boxes for her. But Bernie Sanders -- Bernie Sanders says he's a little conservative for me. Listen to what Bernie Sanders said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: Tim is a very, very smart guy. He is a very nice guy. His political views are not my political views. He is more conservative than I am. And would I have preferred to see somebody like an Elizabeth Warren selected by Secretary Clinton? Yes, I would have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Angela, what do you think?
RYE: I agree with Bernie Sanders on the Elizabeth Warren pick. I thought it was a long shot. And here's why. She's just too risky. It was a risky pick for Hillary Clinton. And I think she wanted to be safe and assured based on what the database says, right? The data says that they have challenges with young women and that they have challengers with blue-collar workers. And so they needed to try to fill those gaps and I don't think they thought it was important and would do that.
BERMAN: Josh?
ROGIN: Yes, I just think this shows that the Hillary Clinton team is not going to do what Bernie Sanders said. There's still a lot of bad blood leftover. They gave him some things in the platform which doesn't really mean anything. The delegate thing will play out. It probably won't mean anything anyway. But at the end of the day, Hillary Clinton won. She doesn't feel she owes Bernie anything. She's not going to appoint Tulsi Gabbard to secretary of defense. She's not going to appoint, you know, Elizabeth Warren to be the -- as secretary of the treasury. It's not just going to happen, right? She won. She's going to direct the party the way that she wants to direct it and after the election there won't be anything that Bernie can do about it.
BERMAN: It was interesting. This is months in the making on both sides, right? I mean, the progressives and Bernie Sanders supporters saying don't pick Tim Kaine, don't pick Tim Kaine. And the Hillary people had been working on that for a month beforehand, like trying to get him on board. And I think they had actually gone a long way to doing that before the whole DNC e-mail thing happened and to have the Tim Kaine pick and e-mail thing happen all at once, you know, it creates some sort of unhappiness here.
Bob Beckel, though, talk to me about the strengths of Tim Kaine because you've seen them firsthand.
BECKEL: Well, first of all, let me just say. Josh, you're doing some mega reporting on this thing. It's exactly right. Tad Devine who I brought into politics years ago, who was -- a substantial adviser to Bernie Sanders says it's a pull of trying to get these people behind him -- behind her has been very difficult. And Tad is a pragmatic politician. But now on Tim Kaine, the landscape is littered with the bodies of people this guy has beaten. I mean, he's never lost a race.
BERMAN: Never?
BECKEL: Never. And I've been out -- I have seen him on the trail many times. And this is not a soft spoken guy. When he gets angry, he gets angry. And so I would be a little -- fine. If they want to underplay and say he's boring and all that, fine. You (INAUDIBLE) with Pence, that's going to be very interesting. Very interesting.
ROMANS: Donald Trump weighing in on the VP pick because he's so interested in what's going on in the internal politics of the Democratic Party. The "Crooked Hillary VP choice is very disrespectful," John Philips, "to Bernie Sanders and all of his supporters. Just another case of bad judgment by H."
PHILIPS: He left out sad?
ROMANS: He left out sad. Lots of --
BERMAN: It's implied. It's implied.
ROMANS: He put an extra "E" in judgment.
PHILIPS: OK.
BECKEL: Can't you bring up another word than crooked? I mean, it's a little boring now.
RYE: He's intending to repeat it. He hoped that it gets buried into the psyche of the American people.
PHILIPS: This is the risk adverse choice from Hillary Clinton. It was a safe choice. It was a choice that she thought wouldn't rock the boat. And I think the Bernie people have a hard time swallowing it. But I also in the grand scheme of things don't think the vice presidential picks really sway states or regions anymore.
We read the same newspapers, we all watch CNN. And it used to be that the northeast and the south were like two different planets. I don't think that's the case anymore. I think what Tim Kaine does in her opinion is reinforced the product that she is selling which is what candidates do now.
[04:20:05] BECKEL: You know, there's a study. A study that showed the vice presidents do not deliver states. Even Lyndon Johnson or Kennedy in Texas.
PHILIPS: Well, look at John Edwards lost North Carolina. Jack Kemp lost New York. Paul Ryan didn't bring Wisconsin.
BECKEL: And Pence is going to lose Indiana so there you go.
ROMANS: All right.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: There where we go. We have a lot more from Philadelphia in just a few minutes. It is 21
minutes past the hour now but first another violent attack rocks Germany and who police say is behind it is raising some eyebrows. We've got a live report from Germany next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:25:01] ROMANS: Welcome back to EARLY START. New attack overnight in Germany. The third in a week. Last night in the city of Ansbach about 120 miles north of Munich, a suicide bomber blew himself up after being refused entry to a music festival. Authorities described this man as a 27-year-old Syrian refugee.
Want to get the very latest from CNN's Fred Pleitgen. He's joining us this morning from Ansbach, Germany. And authorities say, Fred, that he had a backpack full of nails and screws and sharp objects. They think the damage here could have been much, much worse.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they certainly do. They say it could have been much worse if in fact he would have gotten into the place that he wanted to get into. What he tried to do is he -- there was a music festival going on here in the small town of Ansbach. And he went into one of the checkpoints at the entry point to that music festival. And they didn't let him in because he didn't have a ticket. And they also said that he was acting suspiciously.
He then loitered around the area for a while and then this explosion went off. And as you mentioned there were 12 people who were wounded in the vicinity. But he was the only person to get killed. And they believe that the main reason for that is because he was not let into that venue because as you say, the bomb that he had on him was laced with sharp metal objects including screws and nails. And so therefore it was definitely meant to cause a lot more carnage than it actually did.
The people here of course very concerned after you had an attack in the town of Wurzburg just at the beginning of last week. You then had one in Munich where of course nine people were killed. And then shooter of that attack killed himself.
And one of the things about this town in Ansbach here is that this is also a very, very big U.S. military contingent that is here in this town. There's about 5,000 U.S. military personnel that are stationed here -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Frederik Pleitgen for us this morning. Thanks, Fred.
BERMAN: All right. Back here in Philadelphia, the sight of the Democratic convention. The Democrats pushing for unity, but they're pushing out a top party official. In fact the top party official hours before the convention begins. Can they get their act together before they gavel in later today?
EARLY START live from Philadelphia returns in just a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
