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Michelle Obama Electrifies Democratic Convention; Sanders Calls on Supporters to Back Clinton; Interview with Bill Richardson. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired July 26, 2016 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:12] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, and thank you so much for joining me. We are live outside the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Hi, I'm Carol Costello. Hillary Clinton may be the guest of honor, but it is Michelle Obama, who stole the show. The first lady sending a surge of electricity through day one, pumping up the party faithful and painting a contrast between hope and hate. She never mentioned Donald Trump by name, but everybody knew who she meant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF UNITED STATES: When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don't stoop to their level. No, our motto is when they go low, we go high.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Democrats hope Mrs. Obama's calls for unity will snuff out the last embers of the Bernie or bust movement. The last diehards fighting back tears as Sanders called on them to accept defeat and rally behind Clinton as their nominee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Based on her ideas and leadership, Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Day two now just hours away. On tap, the former president Bill Clinton, he'll deliver the headline speech just after the Democrats officially make his wife the first female nominee of a major party.
Can he feel the momentum of a boisterous opening night?
We are covering all the angles this morning and all the developments with our correspondents and our experts. But let's begin with senior political reporter, Manu Raju.
Good morning, Manu. MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
now party officials were going very concerned about the convention yesterday, and that Sanders supporters could disrupt the proceedings. It prompted a series of phone calls and private meetings between the Sanders campaign and the Clinton campaign to figure out a way to rein in some of those supporters.
Now on the floor yesterday, it didn't quite work. We heard about -- we heard outbursts, we heard interruptions of speakers. But one speaker was not interrupted, and that's Michelle Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OBAMA: Don't let anyone ever tell you that this country isn't great.
RAJU (voice-over): Michelle Obama bringing down the house on night one of the Democratic convention.
OBAMA: This, right now, is the greatest country on earth.
RAJU: The first lady leading a powerful list of headliners, including Hillary's Democratic rival, Senator Bernie Sanders.
SANDERS: Thank you.
RAJU: After a hard-fought primary, Sanders welcomed to the stage amid deafening cheers and a three-minute standing ovation, before delivering a full-throated endorsement of his former rival and the most important political moment of the night.
SANDERS: Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her tonight.
RAJU: Sanders emphasizing the stakes of this election.
SANDERS: If you think you can sit it out, take a moment to think about the Supreme Court justices that Donald Trump would nominate.
RAJU: While comforting disappointed supporters, many getting emotional during his remarks.
SANDERS: We have begun a political revolution to transform America and that revolution, our revolution, continues.
RAJU: The speeches aimed at uniting a party still simmering over the primary fight. The division on display throughout the day both inside and outside the convention hall, as Sanders' delegates shouted in favor of their nominee, and interrupted speeches with loud anti- Clinton boos, despite efforts by Clinton and Sanders' officials to quiet the outbursts.
This protest drawing an unscripted rebuke from Sanders' supporter and comedian, Sarah Silverman.
SARAH SILVERMAN, COMEDIAN: To the Bernie-or-bust people, you're being ridiculous. RAJU: But the discord quieting as Michelle Obama took the stage.
OBAMA: In this election, I'm with her.
RAJU: The first lady casting the presidential race as the decision about who'd create the best future for America's children, while delivering resounding praise for her husband's former rival.
OBAMA: In this election, there is only one person who I trust with that responsibility. Only one person who I believe is truly qualified to be president of the United States and that is our friend, Hillary Clinton.
RAJU: Mrs. Obama choking up while touching on the historical significance of Clinton's nomination.
OBAMA: Because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.
[09:05:03] RAJU: In highlighting the challenges overcome throughout history that brought her to the stage.
OBAMA: Generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done, so that today I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.
RAJU: The first lady making an unusual foray into partisan politics, to knock Donald Trump without mentioning him by name.
OBAMA: The issues a president faces are not black and white. It cannot be boiled down to 140 characters. When you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military in your command, you can't make snap decisions. You can't have a thin skin or a tendency to lash out.
RAJU: Candidly talking about the lessons, she has tried to instill in her daughters.
OBAMA: We urge them to ignore those who question their father's citizenship or faith.
RAJU: And criticizing Trump's rhetoric.
OBAMA: We insist that the hateful language they hear from public figures on TV does not represent the true spirit of this country. Our motto is, when they go low, we go high.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU: Now Bernie Sanders just spoke with reporters and predicted that an overwhelming majority of his supporters will vote for Hillary Clinton this fall. But before that, today, Democratic convention will actually nominate Hillary Clinton to be the party's nominee for president. The questions, what will Sanders supporters do here on the floor. He said his message to supporters is vote for me -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Manu Raju, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.
Unity, many Bernie Sanders supporters aren't there yet. Not by a long shot but there appears to be a split between those who feel the Bern. Proof? Sarah Silverman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SILVERMAN: I will vote for Hillary with gusto. As I -- as I continue to be inspired and moved to action by the ideals set forth by Bernie. I am proud to be a part of Bernie's movement, and a vital part of that movement is making absolutely sure that Hillary Clinton is our next president of the United States.
Can I just say, to the Bernie or bust people, you're being ridiculous?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: With me now to talk about all of this, Larry Sabato, he's the director for the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia, Lily Eskeleen Garcia, she's a Clinton supporter and Democratic superdelegate, CNN political commentator and Trump supporter, John Philips, and Norman Solomon of the Bernie Delegate Network.
Welcome to all of you.
So, Lily, I think the "Huff Post" had the best headline about Michelle Obama's speech because that was the speech of the night. It read this -- it read, "FLOTUS Like a Butterfly and Stung Like a Bee."
LILY ESKELEEN GARCIA, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: It's very powerful. It was very emotional. I think the whole day was emotional. From disappointments to inspirations to tears to laughter. You know, it just ran the whole gamut. Because I think the people in that room, no matter where they are on the political spectrum, they all understand how important this is. They all understand that who becomes the next president is a life and death thing. It's not a game. And they're taking it very seriously.
COSTELLO: And, Norman, the Bernie supporters in the crowd, they didn't chant, Bernie, they didn't boo when Hillary Clinton's name was mentioned, at least during Michelle Obama's speech. Why was that?
NORMAN SOLOMON, BERNIE DELEGATE NETWORK: Well, it was such a powerful speech. But I think more broadly, even though there were some delegates who occasionally booed and so forth, there is a common understanding that we have the same adversary. And his name is Donald Trump. And I've talked with hundreds and hundreds of Bernie delegates here, many thousands of supporters in the last several months around the country, who have worked their hearts out, who voted for, who volunteered for Bernie, and now understand that even though we're not exactly on the same page with Hillary Clinton, and in some ways, we think she is really on the wrong page, we understand that we've got to stop Donald Trump, and especially in swing states, that means you've got to vote for Hillary Clinton.
COSTELLO: But what is interesting, because Michelle Obama, you know, she got in her subtle digs and she got in subtle digs to Bernie supporters, too. Listen to this example.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: When she didn't win the nomination eight years ago, she didn't get angry or disillusioned.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
[09:10:05] OBAMA: She -- Hillary did not -- Hillary did not pack up and go home. Because as a true public servant, Hillary knows that this is so much bigger than her own desires and disappointment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: All right. We're going to talk about what Michelle Obama said in just a minute but we understand that Bernie Sanders is speaking at a breakfast full of Wisconsin delegates. So let's go to that now and listen to what he has to say.
SANDERS: Minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. In fact, he supports the rights of states to lower the minimum wage. All right. We need pay equity for women. No excuse. Hillary Clinton believes that Donald Trump does not.
I'm the ranking member in the Senate on the Budget Committee, so I deal with a lot of these issues. We deal with a Senate budget a couple of years ago. Republicans pushed through a budget that would eliminate Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act. Throw 20 million people off health insurance.
And I asked, as the ranking member I have the right to do this. Tell me, Mr. Chairman, what happens to the 20 million people who are thrown off of health insurance? By the way, how many of them will die? Oh, well, we don't know anything about that. We don't know. No comment on that. That's the reality.
We need as a nation not to be throwing 20 million people off of health insurance. We need to be moving in my view to a Medicare for all health care system that guarantees health care for all people.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: Hillary Clinton is running and this really, you know, all of us have Republican friends, and we have conservative friends, and we like them and we disagree on policy. Nothing wrong with that. It's called democracy. But where it becomes embarrassing -- you know, and Tom Harken knows this, because he was in the Senate, and Tammy Baldwin, I see, where's Tammy? Tammy knows this.
How do you make judgments about public policy? You've got to go to experts, you've got to go to scientists. That's what you do. You can't do public policy without having factual, scientific information in front of you.
Virtually the entire scientific community is in agreement. Unanimous agreement. Climate change is real. It is caused by human activity. And it is already, not tomorrow, today, as all of you know, doing devastating harm to our country and countries all over the world. What about the forest fires, they're raging right now. In California, the drought.
COSTELLO: All right. We're going to break away, but you get the gist of what Bernie Sanders is telling Wisconsin delegates. He's outlining his own policies, and is kind of talking about Hillary Clinton, Larry.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Did he do enough to sway those supporters who still support Bernie Sanders? To at least not boo the speakers who mention Hillary Clinton's name?
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, Carol, this is my 20th national convention. Ten in each party. I've never been to one that didn't have some disruptions. And there is one thing I know for sure. In every single one of them, every single TV camera and reporter goes to the 10 delegates causing a problem, making it appear bigger than it is. 80 percent to 90 percent of the Bernie Sanders supporters have already coalesced behind Hillary Clinton. And I predict flatly by November 8th, it will be higher than that.
They're not going to vote for Donald Trump. And the vast majority aren't going to sit home. And that's what people miss watching a convention in mid-July. The election is in November.
COSTELLO: So, John, certainly Mr. Trump isn't hoping that that's true.
JOHN PHILIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the threat just isn't that they're going to vote for Donald Trump. The threat is that they might stay home. They might vote for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate. They might vote for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. We've seen many polls where the two of them, the Libertarian Party candidate, the Green Party candidate, polling double digits combined. If that --
COSTELLO: I actually have a poll, so, OK. So this is the latest CNN poll.
PHILIPS: Sure.
COSTELLO: It was taken after the GOP convention. 64 percent of Bernie supporters say they'll vote for Clinton. 14 percent, I believe, if you can put -- there's the graphic. 14 percent, though, say they'll vote for Gary Johnson and 11 percent say they'll vote for Trump and 6 percent will vote for the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein. So --
PHILIPS: That means you can win with a plurality. COSTELLO: Norman, you're a Bernie Sanders -- you're a big time Bernie
Sanders supporter.
SOLOMON: Yes. Well, I think what we need to really emphasize at this stage is that the onus for unity is on Hillary Clinton. She has the power.
[09:15:01] She has now quickly appointed as honorary chairperson the disgraced Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who's just been booted out belatedly as head of the Democratic National Committee. So what sort of unity drive is that?
At the same time, Tim Kaine as the vice-presidential appointee, picked by Hillary Clinton, is no progressive. So in what way is that a unity drive? There's no olive branch. There's no -- as a matter of fact, if Hillary Clinton has reached out towards us, Bernie Sanders delegates and supporters, she's done it to put her triangulating thumbs in our eyes, politically speaking. So she has a lot of work to do to earn the unity that we need --
COSTELLO: So --
SOLOMON: -- to defeat Donald Trump.
COSTELLO: So, Norman, when we talked before, there was some sort of plan that when Tim Kaine talks, that some Bernie Sanders delegates would turn their backs. Is that still a possibility?
SOLOMON: Well, almost anything is a possibility. And our Bernie Delegates Network never tells anybody what to do. We do some surveys and polling to find out through straw polls where people are at, what they're thinking. So I would say as the saying goes, stay tuned. I think nonviolence is the essence. We do have a long tradition of nonviolent protests in this country. And it can raise issues. And one of the thing, really quickly --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: So -- I just want to bring in Lily into this conversation because if that --
GARCIA: When people find out what Tim Kaine has spent his life doing, in terms of social justice, in terms of fighting people like landowners -- landlords like Donald Trump, who would turn their back on someone who has actually stepped up and done things that Bernie Sanders has talked about and has advocated what we see as action in Tim Kaine.
I am so excited about him as -- you know, he'll talk about. I'm not the most exciting candidate when you hear his life story and what he's done, I get excited about that.
SOLOMON: Yes, well, you know, that's the spin. But he voted last year just to --
GARCIA: There's no spin. SOLOMON: This is a fact. He's one of only a dozen Senate Democrats
to vote to fast track TPP, which even now Hillary Clinton says she is opposed, and yet she put somebody on the ticket who has a record of trying to move it on through. And that is symptomatic of the closeness to Wall Street.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Wait. Wait.
SABATO: I get it. But sure -- on this table, I've known Tim Kaine by far the longest and his whole family on his wife's side going back to the '60s. Let me tell you something. Tim Kaine is very progressive. And you're cherry picking individual votes and circumstances, and I don't think you understand Virginia. This was tough for Tim Kaine being as liberal as he was to get elected to all the offices he did in Virginia.
SOLOMON: I think I understand progressive.
SABATO: He is a progressive.
SOLOMON: If I'm cherry picking, there's a lot of cherries on that tree to pick.
COSTELLO: All right.
SABATO: Yes. Whatever.
COSTELLO: I have to end it there. But I'm sure the conversation -- thank you for being here, John, too.
PHILIPS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Larry Sabato, Lily Eskeleen Garcia, Norman Solomon, thanks to all of you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Michelle Obama brought down the house. The pressure is on Bill Clinton to keep the momentum going tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:22:55] COSTELLO: Michelle Obama arguably did more for Hillary Clinton than any other Democratic so far. Although Mrs. Clinton's husband will try to top her tonight. He is scheduled to speak. Bill Clinton, who enthusiastically embraced Michelle Obama's speech last night, will outline Hillary's history as a change maker. But President Clinton has baggage that Donald Trump has exploited.
With me now to talk about that and more is former Democratic governor of New Mexico and Clinton supporter, Bill Richardson.
Welcome, Governor.
BILL RICHARDSON (D), FORMER GOVERNOR OF NEW MEXICO: Thank you, Carol.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Can anyone top Michelle Obama, including Bill Clinton?
RICHARDSON: Michelle was fabulous. But if anybody can, it will be Bill Clinton. He has had classic speeches at Democratic conventions. He is the most popular Democrat in the country. People turn out to see him everywhere. They want to touch him. He is Hillary's biggest asset.
COSTELLO: Well, I think that many people will be curious to hear, because he can't set himself up as, you know, a co-president, and some people think that he might be. So what does he say to assuage people's fears?
RICHARDSON: Well, that he's accepted the fact that he's going to be first spouse, and that he's not going to interfere visibly in her presidency. But I think he will be giving a lot of advice. She said that she's going to use him on economic issues.
I see him as a special envoy, a very hostile situation, foreign policy wise. You send Bill Clinton because he is loved in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. But I don't think he is going to try to eclipse her. I think his role is of a supportive spouse who brings a lot of assets and substance, and good memories from American voters. He left with a 60 plus positive rating.
COSTELLO: Right.
RICHARDSON: To the campaign.
COSTELLO: I was just going to ask you. Do you think he'll decorate the Christmas tree and redecorate the White House? It's just -- it really is hard to wrap your mind around that, right? Like how the role of first gentleman, first man? I'm not even sure we know what to call it.
[09:25:03] RICHARDSON: Well, he's going to be probably the most active first spouse ever, although Hillary Clinton was. I remember when I was in the House of Representatives, she was pushing the health care bill and she was very policy oriented. Very visible. So she had the traditional first lady role. But she had a policy responsibility.
Bill Clinton, you know, you don't hide somebody that can bring enormous experience and policy understanding to so many issues. He is part of the package. And that's a good package.
COSTELLO: The extreme left of the party is not so into Bill Clinton. According to a new CNN/ORC poll, among all Americans right now Bill Clinton's favorability stands at 50 percent, that's a 16 percent drop since last summer. So is that because the extreme left of the party doesn't like his policies or is it because of Donald Trump's attacks on his character?
RICHARDSON: Well, when you're attacked, Carol, I mean, I'm a politician. Unfortunately the way to bring somebody's numbers down is attacking them through TV ads, through accusations. Trump gets a lot of press. He attacks them both. I think he's --
COSTELLO: You know what one of the most popular T-shirts at the Republican National Convention was, it featured Monica Lewinsky.
RICHARDSON: Right.
COSTELLO: Yes. So I mean, I'm talking about that kind of thing. How does -- how does -- like going forward, when we get past these conventions, how does he combat that?
RICHARDSON: Well, I mean, the American people dealt with that issue. The whole impeachment issue. And it is over. I think you have to talk about the future. And this is what Bill will do tonight. And Hillary will do tonight. Working families, national security, the threat from ISIS. But also, bringing the Bernie Sanders agenda, the progressive wing. The income equality issue. National security issue. Student loans, helping working families.
I think that's what you're going to see tonight. I think you're going to see the Sanders supporters, when Bill Clinton gets up there, you're going to see them cheering. Because they'll see somebody that's, you know, been a good president and an asset, a progressive asset to Hillary Clinton's campaign.
COSTELLO: Governor Richardson, thank you for stopping by.
RICHARDSON: Sure, Carol.
COSTELLO: I do appreciate it.
RICHARDSON: Thanks for having me.
COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the reviews are in. Michelle Obama nailed it. But was this impassioned speech enough to unify the party? We'll talk more about that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
