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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 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 25, 2016 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:31:14] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The Clinton coronation begins. Democrats gathering here in Philadelphia for the party convention. The Democrats are dealing with a brand new little e-mail mess. But it's not so little. And it's threatening the image of party unity. How will this all play out before millions of Americans this week?

Welcome back to EARLY START at the Democratic convention. We are here in Philadelphia. I am Christine Romans.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Berman. Very nice to see you. About 30 minutes past the hour. We are live inside the CNN Grill. Climate controlled thankfully because it's like 100 outside right now.

So this is the city of brotherly love. Home of Rocky Balboa. But as we sit here this morning, the question is, will the entire party be dancing on the steps of the art museum together or will they be a divided party dancing on those steps? It's a strange metaphor, but stay with me because as they head in to this convention that's supposed to be about unity, there is disunity.

The party chair forced out, stepping down after an embarrassing e-mail leak. Debbie Wasserman Schultz gone, or going, I should say.

CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us now with the very latest -- Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just to clarify, there will be dancing on the steps no matter what.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTINGLY: Look, on its face, it was a full-proof plan. Unity on the first day of the Democratic convention. You've got Bernie Sanders set to speak. First Lady Michelle Obama set to speak. Senator Elizabeth Warren set to speak.

This was how it was supposed to all come together until WikiLeaks released 20,000 e-mails hacked from top DNC officials. And those e- mails contain a lot of things that Bernie Sanders have been -- has been alleging for months. That the DNC essentially had its thumb on the scale for Hillary Clinton throughout that divisive primary process. Included in those e-mails, one e-mail suggesting that the DNC pitch stories about what a mess Bernie Sanders campaign was. Another e-mail from a top DNC official suggesting somebody get a

reporter to ask Bernie Sanders about his faith, thinking that would negatively impact his ratings in places like West Virginia and Kentucky.

What this underscores here is what Sanders fans, what his supporters have been talking about for months. That this is a, quote, "rigged system." This gives fuel to that fire. And that's problematic. As we all noted, this is supposed to be the time to unify. This is exactly what Hillary Clinton's campaign did not want to have happen.

But what some Democrats have wanted to have happened, including Bernie Sanders, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the DNC stepping down. Now that is going to happen, this won't happen until Thursday. That's raising concern among some Democrats who are worried what type of scene will be created if she speaks. Will there be booing? Will there be chanting? Will there be more ammunition for Bernie Sanders supporters to be outraged?

Still, the Clinton campaign including Hillary Clinton herself try to focus a little more on the raucous nature of the last convention in Cleveland. Take a listen to what she had to say 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: Christine, you see Hillary Clinton right there trying to lay out a format going forward. A more optimistic message is what the Democrats hope for. One big problem, Bernie Sanders supporters. You've got to get them in line.

ROMANS: Yes. Absolutely. Phil Mattingly, thanks so much for that.

And now, you know, in the primary process, the party is supposed to be like Switzerland. So this is -- this is the issue here, right? A lot of people saying, well, come on, look, I mean, Bernie Sanders isn't even a Democrat. So the Democratic Party running the primary system, you know, I mean, maybe they were going to -- you know, they were trying to favor their candidate Hillary Clinton after all. But the point is here that they can't do that.

[04:35:01] BERMAN: No, no. To use another metaphor, if it's a game, if it's the Super Bowl, they're the refs. I mean, they're supposed to be the refs.

ROMANS: Right.

BERMAN: So the refs can't be wearing Hillary Clinton shirts here. That's the issue. ROMANS: You're right. We got our whole panel here to talk about

this. CNN political commentator John Philips, talk radio host at KABC, and a Trump supporter, CNN political analyst, Josh Rogin, he's a columnist for the "Washington Post," and two of our finest CNN political commentators, Angela Rye, former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, and of course Democratic strategist, Bob Beckel.

All right. So this was supposed to be literally united together today was the theme. Ouch.

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, so we're united together now behind an interim chair.

(LAUGHTER)

RYE: And thankfully to all of us, CNN shout-out to Donna Brazile, who -- her contract is suspended while she's interim chair. We really need Donna back. So you can only borrow for a little her bit, Democrats. But I think the good thing is Donna is going to be fantastic as an interim chair. The convention chair is none other than Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, and hopefully we can turn the page and not talk about DWS tomorrow.

BOB BECKER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Does anybody think John needed this story? The -- never mind. You know, here's the bottom line. How many people are going to stand up for Debbie Wasserman Schultz? She does not have a big base in the Democratic Party. So I don't suspect to be -- the Bernie Sanders won't get a boo. Everybody cheering. And who's going to cry? Maybe her husband. I don't know.

BERMAN: No. He -- look, right. I mean, and Bob Beckel, you brought up the point that, you know, Americans, you know, aren't shouting across their breakfast table this morning, saying, you know, hey, Martha, you hear what happened to Debbie Wasserman Schultz? I mean, they just don't care about that.

But, Josh Rogin, you know, people do. Insiders do. And it gets to the issue of organization and it gets to the issue of, is there genuine unity or is it a fake unity?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And what we saw last week at the Republican National Convention was disarray, dysfunction. It was a mess. Every day there was another disaster. The plagiarism, the lying about the plagiarism. Ted Cruz coming out against the party's candidate in his speech, right? And the Democrats want to project confidence. Right? Their message here is that Donald Trump isn't confident. He doesn't have what it takes.

So this attacks that message. Now that doesn't mean it will be the whole week of this. If they can turn the page, there are no more e- mails, if they can get back on message, then one day out of five is not going to not sink them. But it's not a good start so they really need to make tonight count.

ROMANS: They haven't even gaveled in yet, by the way. So it's not even a start.

ROGIN: Yes.

ROMANS: Does it have to be more than confidence, though? Because you've had four days, four days of lock her up, lock her up, lock her up. I mean, she's got to be -- she's got to show reliability, she's got to show strength. I don't know what that sound -- is it raining out there? Whoa. OK. So, I mean, what do you think?

JOHN PHILIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sounds like hail. I think they've lost control of the narrative. It's 11:00 at the hotel. It's time for Debbie Wasserman Schultz to check out. But she's not leaving for four more days. That means you've got this pariah walking around the convention hall who everyone seems to hate right now but she's still in charge.

BERMAN: It'll be interesting to see how that plays out. First of all, will you keep on looking up because --

ROMANS: I don't know if you can hear it, but it's really raining hard in Philadelphia.

BECKEL: Is that rain?

BERMAN: Yes. That is rain.

ROMANS: That's rain.

BERMAN: It's either a train pulling through the CNN Grill right now or that's rainstorm right now outside which is not --

ROMANS: It's really remarkable.

RYE: Now we have a chair resignation and a hail storm.

BERMAN: Let's hope Chris Cuomo has an umbrella on his way here.

RYE: Climate change.

BERMAN: For "NEW DAY." I want to talk about last week and this week, how Hillary Clinton wants to make the transition. Last week, we heard lock her up. Last week, we heard a lot of, you know, very direct attacks, political attacks on Hillary Clinton. She was asked if she was going to respond in-kind, if she will respond in kind to the "Crooked Hillary" charges. Listen to what she said to "60 Minutes."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT PELLEY, CBS "60 MINUTES": He calls you "Crooked Hillary." What do you call him.

CLINTON: I don't call him anything. And I'm not going to engage in that kind of insult-fest that he seems to thrive on. So whatever he says about me he's perfectly free to use up his own airtime and his own space to do. I'm going to talk about what he's done. How he has hurt people in business time after time after time. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Bob Beckel, you know, every four years candidates -- and Democrats learn this lesson for a long time. They said we learned we had to respond to attacks and they didn't do quite as much as they should have or could have for a long time. How do you think that the Clinton campaign, the Democrats need to respond to the Trump convention?

BECKEL: My biggest problem right now is I don't have an umbrella. The -- I think the way they do that is they have other people attack Trump and there's plenty of stuff to do that with. She's still got to deal with -- you know, go back to that -- the FBI statement. Comey's statement about her problems with e-mails. There's a lot of stuff in there the Republicans are going to use.

But what's keeping Trump alive is Hillary Clinton. And what's keeping Hillary Clinton alive is Donald Trump. That's where you've got two people who have high negatives. I think she's got the ability to get rid of some of her negatives. I don't think he does.

ROMANS: You said before that you thought she has to have like an authentic likeable moment.

BECKEL: Yes.

ROMANS: There's got to be something that shows her in that kind of light.

[04:40:00] BECKEL: Yes. And I think -- I think it's very smart to have her daughter introduce her, number one. And I think that there has got to be from her standpoint to show the human side of Hillary Clinton. She's done a lot of things for a lot of people. A lot of women. I mean, kids -- go on back. I think that story needs to be told. My guess is, what I have seen so far of this convention film it's got a lot of that in there.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Planned spontaneity. Planned spontaneity.

BECKEL: Right.

BERMAN: A genuine authenticity.

ROGIN: And which she's got a problem, right? She's trying to take the moral high road and be positive, and then every other sentence, she's got to portray Donald Trump as dangerous and a threat to democracy and is going to invite Vladimir Putin to run our government. Right? So she's got to make both of those messages. So they're kind of contradicting.

BERMAN: What do we think -- any guesses from anyone? John, anyone else? Like who here this week will take the lead in going after Donald Trump? Will it be President Obama? Will it be Bill Clinton? Will it be Bernie Sanders? PHILIPS: I think it's going to be Bernie. I think Bernie is the

attack dog that she's going to use because that will prove two different things. That will prove not only that he is out there being the voice of Democratic Party going after Donald Trump. But he and her have made up. He is out being her attack dog, doing her dirty work for her.

ROGIN: I think it's going to be Bill.

RYE: I think it's Elizabeth Warren.

ROGIN: I think it's Bill.

RYE: I think it's Elizabeth Warren. She's been very effective and she's been very, very good at getting under Donald Trump's skin. That is why the only thing he can come back at her with, which is something that's very derogatory is Pocahontas. Right?

ROMANS: Right.

RYE: I mean, he's been very threatened by it.

BECKEL: I couldn't agree with you more. Now one thing about Trump is, people have underestimated him. He does have a very thin skin. And I think if I were Hillary Clinton during the first debate, I'd look at him and say, man up, Don. I think it'd drive him crazy.

RYE: He would die. He'd pass out right there.

ROMANS: You know, his kids were a real asset to him last week. Do you think Chelsea and Bill Clinton will be as -- I mean, as good weapons for her?

ROGIN: Well, listen, Chelsea is not as polished as Ivanka, right? But she does --

ROMANS: They are friends, ironically.

ROGIN: They are friends and they have similar life experiences. But she does soften Hillary Clinton. She shows her in another life. But she's running as the grandmother you want have run the country. So it can only help her.

BERMAN: All right. Guys, there's a lot more to discuss coming up. We have Tim Kaine to talk about. We've got a whole bunch of things. And of course this convention as we were saying before.

ROMANS: Right.

BERMAN: You know, comes on the heels of what happened in Cleveland with the Republicans. How will the two compare and might one of the candidates get a bounce? We'll discuss next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:46:35] BERMAN: John Berman here with Christine Romans. We are live in Philadelphia at the CNN Grill. Why? Because today's the beginning of the Democratic National Convention. It's a big party. It's all happening right here. There will be inevitable comparisons between what happens here in Philadelphia and what happened in Cleveland last week. How smoothly will it run, how effective will the message be?

ROMANS: The tone.

BERMAN: Will there be bounce here? Yes. What about the tone?

Let us discuss with our panel right now.

Bob Beckel, you looked at the Republican convention last week and you said it has a dark tone. Particularly Donald Trump's speech. Doesn't mean it wasn't effective, but it was dark. What do you expect to hear here?

BECKEL: Well, first of all go back and ask yourself how many candidates for president have given bad convention speeches. Very few. They work on it very, very hard. I go back to the convention in '68, I was on the outside, facing the horses in Chicago. But nonetheless nothing more scarier than a horse in front of you. But you know, besides that one, I can't think -- McGovern, I guess. But I can't think of one who's done a bad speech. And these are just so choreographed. Even Trump could choreographed, which is amazing. And Trump gave a good speech. I'd give him credit for that. I mean, it was dark, but -- and I wouldn't want to live where he lives, which is why I'm going to Belize if he wins.

(LAUGHTER)

RYE: It's the longest speech for decades. I don't know that I was --

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Do you think she'll have a shorter speech? Will she have a more upbeat tone? She's going to try to talk about -- I know this week they are going to be rolling out people from all walks of life, real people, who Hillary has helped during her career?

RYE: I think that her speech will be good. I don't think it will be one of the best. I don't think it will be that long. She is not trying to filibuster the floor on the last day. I think she wants to -- to Bob's point, remain likeable or at least get her likeability up.

ROMANS: We're going to hear from Michael Bloomberg this week. And I think that's really interesting. A billionaire who's not for the other billionaire but a billionaire philanthropist who is for Hillary Clinton.

ROGIN: And a Republican, by the way. Right?

PHILIPS: Former Republican.

BERMAN: He was a Democrat who became a Republican who became an independent. He's now an independent. ROGIN: Well, let's say that he represents what we call the radical

center. Right? So these are the people who are not really Hillary fans, they're not really Trump fans. But being put to a decision. And we can see that as sort of a bellwether for those types of people. And what they're thinking is, am I more horrified by what a Hillary presidency would mean or by what a Trump presidency would mean? And increasingly they're saying the Trump presidency is more horrifying and by default that points them towards Hillary.

BERMAN: But, John Philips, does Michael Bloomberg really represent the radical center? I mean, how many people are there in the Bloomberg camp?

PHILIPS: He represents Rockefeller Republicans and most of them are dead.

RYE: Ouch.

PHILIPS: That's a wing of the party which just doesn't exist anymore.

BECKEL: It's harsh, man.

PHILIPS: Well, it's true. I mean, they just -- they don't exist. We had a realignment of the parties. Now -- but to get back to a point that Bob made about what Hillary has to address in this speech, I think the e-mails and ethics have to be first and foremost because Donald's line on her is that she's crooked. And snow she's going to give this speech in the shadow of this e-mail scandal that makes it looked like the primary was rigged. If she doesn't address that, if she doesn't take that head on --

(CROSSTALK)

ROGIN: What is she going to say? What can she say? What is she supposed to say about this?

RYE: No. She's going to talk about it.

BERMAN: You have a little bit of experience with brutal honesty that sometimes has, you know, mixed results and it gets messy. You know, 1984, Walter Mondale said, you know, he's raising taxes. He's not going to tell you why he just did, then Hillary Clinton get up there and say, yes, I blew the e-mails, I'm really sorry.

BECKEL: Let me tell you the answer is no. You know, it's something that you have to be very careful about. Mea culpa is dangerous, some probably will say good if they're handled right. If they're not handled right, they can be very, very dangerous. And we -- you know, in '84 we had a -- saw a lot of mea culpas. We're against Ronald Reagan.

[04:50:06] I was thinking, a Romanov against (INAUDIBLE). And by the way, I want to go on record to being the first guy who got sued here. Donald Trump is not a billionaire. He's not.

RYE: So, meanwhile, just going back -- (CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: But, you know, we have two billionaires. It's interesting, you have two billionaires that are sort of talked about in this campaign. I wonder if Bloomberg being on this stage, he gives away millions of dollars, right? He tries to, you know, fix major problems around the world. He tries to use his money, he would say, for -- you know, all this philanthropy.

Donald Trump won't release his taxes. Do you think that there's an optic thing there that is advantage to Hillary Clinton, Josh?

ROGIN: I do actually. I think Michael Bloomberg is seen by people as someone who's socially liberal, fiscally conservative. I think there are a lot of people out there that self-identify that way. Whether or not they identify with billionaire Bloomberg, probably not. But I think there are people who respect him and saw him as a potential presidential candidate. He was polling in double-digits before he decided not to run. He made the decision that he couldn't win so he wasn't going to run, but he still has people out there who agree with him.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: If Michael Bloomberg had a national constituency he would be running for president right now.

ROGIN: He just doesn't have a party constituency. He could have win either primary. He couldn't win a three-way race. They did the polling. They had tons of internal numbers. They did extensive research. They had -- they vetted vice presidential candidates. It was a real thing. He just decided he couldn't win. That doesn't mean that he doesn't have the --

BECKEL: You know, the first train on Donald Trump, there are stories, stories and stories that haven't been told. I mean, this is guy that cheats his subcontractors on his buildings, who has illegal immigrants come in and help finish his buildings, who's got -- I mean, who could lose money in a casino? I couldn't do that.

BERMAN: But these are stories that Hillary Clinton is going to try to tell some of these stories or make some of these claims this week. The question is --

ROMANS: Will it matter?

BERMAN: Do these stories stick on him more or less than the stories on her?

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Right. Everybody, thanks so much. Nice to see you.

BECKEL: Hey, real pleasure.

ROMANS: It will be a fun week. Real run week. All right. 53 minutes past the hour. We've got some breaking news video to tell you about right now. There's been a shooting at a bar in Ft. Myers, Florida. Officials are saying two people were killed in the shooting apparently outside this Club Blu. Both victims believed to be men. Another 15 to 17 people were injured in this shooting. Police say a manhunt for the shooter or shooters is under way right now. One person of interest is being held. We will bring you more information as it comes to us this morning.

BERMAN: All right. There's a new attack overnight in Germany. The third there 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 him as a 27- year-old Syrian refugee who had been denied asylum.

Want to get right to CNN's Fred Pleitgen who is live for us this morning in Ansbach.

Good morning, Fred.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, good morning, John. Yes, and the police also gave some details as to how exactly all this unfolded. Late last night here in the German town of Ansbach, where shortly after 10:00 p.m. they say this man showed up at an entry point to this music festival. The security people there didn't let him in because he didn't have a ticket but they also say that apparently he was acting suspiciously as well.

He then loitered outside of the festival for a while and then all of a sudden this explosion went off. And the police very quickly saying that the only man who was killed in this incident, that he was the only one killed appears to be the one who was the perpetrator and who set off that explosive device. 12 people were wounded. Police is also saying that the explosive device was apparently laced with sharp metal objects and screws and nails.

And as you've mentioned, this is the third major security incident that happened here in Germany within a week. You had one man on a rampage who apparently was ISIS inspired on a train here last Tuesday. Then you've got that shooting incident in Munich. So certainly here people very concerned.

And another thing about this town in Ansbach, it's also a very, very big U.S. military that is here. There's more than 5,000 U.S. military personnel here in this town.

BERMAN: All right, our Frederik Pleitgen for us in Ansbach in Germany, a nation very much on edge. Fred, keep us posted. OK.

ROMANS: All right. Back to business news this morning. The big corporate story today. Verizon is buying Yahoo. That deal is expected to be announced later today. After months of bidding, people familiar with the sale telling CNN Money the deal is worth $4.8 billion.

Verizon will acquire Yahoo's core Internet businesses and its real estate holdings. It does not include the company's roughly $30 billion stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. The deal would end Yahoo's 21-year run as an independent company. It also could mean that Yahoo! CEO Marissa Myer is out of a job. Her estimated payout $55 million pay package as she walks out.

BERMAN: I would take half that to leave my job. No, I mean, it's like, you know, it's not bad.

All right. A lot going on here in Philadelphia. Leaked e-mails from inside the Democratic Party forced the party chair out of her job on the eve of the party's biggest celebration every four years. What could happen next? The Democratic convention gavels in, in just a few hours.

[04:55:01] "NEW DAY" picks up CNN's coverage right after this wee short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The next vice president, Senator Tim Kaine.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D), PRESUMPTIVE VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: When Donald Trump says he has your back, you better watch out.

CROWD: Hillary. Hillary.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Tim Kaine was a slap in the face to Bernie Sanders.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On his worse, worse, worse day, Tim Kaine is 100 times better than Donald Trump will ever be.

TRUMP: Let's defeat her in November.

CLINTON: I don't know what their convention was about other than criticizing me.

KAINE: Most of us stopped the name calling getting back in fifth grade.

SANDERS: The DNC was not running a fair operation. I'm not shocked.

TRUMP: I'll take our Reince over her any day. Forget it.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)