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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Hillary Clinton's Historic Nomination; Is Russia Trying to Help Donald Trump Win? Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired July 27, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to EARLY START at the Democratic National Convention. We are here again in Philadelphia, bright and early this morning, or late last night.

I'm not sure which it is, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A little bit of both.

I'm John Berman. It is Wednesday, July 27th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East. We are live at the CNN Grill.

And welcome to the official lead point of the Democratic National Convention. All that happened last night was a little history. Hillary Clinton became the first women to become the official nominee of a major party, which is convenient because the word "presumptive" is awfully cumbersome. She calls out the night by this very subtle video beamed in from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: What an incredible honor you have given me. And I can't believe we have just put the biggest crack in the yet. Thanks to you and to everyone who fought so hard to make this possible. This is really your victory. This is really your night.

And if there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say, I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next.

Thank you all. I can't wait to join you in Philadelphia. Thank you!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I kept thinking she was going to say if there's any little girls who stayed up to watch, you should go to bed right now. It's going to be bad for kids in the morning.

The unquestioned headliner of the night was William Jefferson Clinton. You might know him as Bill, the 42nd president of the United States. He began by saying, that in the spring of 1971, I met a girl and he then proceeded to give us a minute-by-minute account of that relationship since then, hitting sort of. I mean, it was a remarkable personal testimony designed to paint Hillary Clinton as a change- maker.

CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us with more.

Phil, outside of CNN, the aftermath of Bill.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, I'll tell you, when we were at the 25-minute mark, and only at about 1979, 1980, I was getting a little bit worried. But Bill Clinton making the case last night, guys, of not only is Hillary Clinton as a change agent, but trying to introduce her. And how do you introduce a woman who's got near 100 percent name ID, who's written not one but two memoirs, who's been on the receiving end of the withering Republican attacks for decades.

That is really the key question the Clinton campaign has been grappling with, as they look at near record high negatives for Hillary Clinton over the course of the last couple months. Bill Clinton is taking that head on last night, actually, a series of speakers doing just that.

Clinton, as you noted, John, taking kind f the full arc of their marriage and using it to dip in anecdotally into specific moments of Hillary's life that they believe will really kind of paint more of a three-dimensional picture of her. Bill Clinton mocking the cartoonish, as he said, attacks on Clinton as kind of a two- dimensional person who is not actually fleshed out and really finishing his remarks with a full rhetorical flourish. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT: If you love this country, you're working hard and paying taxes and you're obeying the law, and you'd like to become a citizen, you should choose immigration reform over somebody who wants to send you back.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

If you're a -- if you're a Muslim, if you're a Muslim and you love America and freedom and you hate terror, stay here and help us win and make a future together. We want you.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

If you're a young African-American disillusioned and afraid, we saw in Dallas how great our police officers can be. Help us build a future where nobody is afraid to walk outside, including the people that wear blue to protect our future.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

Hillary will make us stronger together. You know it because she spent a lot of time doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: Now, John, you mentioned a second but no less important element of Bill Clinton's efforts last night to paint his wife as an agent of change, the best darn agent of change, according to Bill Clinton, that he's ever seen.

Now, again, as somebody who's been in the public eye for as long as Hillary Clinton, has been in government and part of the Washington establishment for as long as Hillary has, that's a small task, but in a cycle that has been so anti-establishment dominated by Donald Trump, dominated by Bernie Sanders, the Clinton campaign sees this as very, very important. Bill Clinton noting that while Hillary Clinton is absolutely establishment, while in the establishment, she's able to make things happen, to sort of get around gridlock.

This painting her as an agent of change, certainly a steep hill to climb, given her experience, but it's one Bill Clinton was certainly putting a lot of effort into tonight. That's something you're also going to hear again tonight, guys. Joe Biden, the vice president, and President Barack Obama keynoting the evening, both expected to make a very similar case for Hillary Clinton, guys.

ROMANS: All right. Phil Mattingly, thank you so much.

So, let's discuss this second night of the Democratic convention and the performance by Bill Clinton. Our panel is back.

I want to listen a little bit more. You know, you already from him said that, you know, the opposition paints Hillary Clinton assort of a cartoon character. This is that sound bite, that moment. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON: If you win elections on the theory that government is always bad and will mess up a two-car parade, a real change-maker represents a real threat. So, your only option is to create a cartoon. A cartoon alternative. Then, run against a cartoon.

Cartoons are two-dimensional. They're easy to absorb. Life in the real world is complicated and real change is hard. And a lot of people even think it's boring.

Good for you, because earlier today, you nominated the real woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Amanda Carpenter, former speechwriter, communication director for Ted Cruz. How effective was he in making her of less than a cartoon and more of a change maker?

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That was really a performance and reframing the whole debate. You know, forget the scandals of the last 20 years, it all had brand names with one word you can recognize, like Whitewater or Benghazi, or private server, or, you know, the list goes on.

BERMAN: Private server is two words.

(CROSSTALK)

CARPENTER: Brands known exclusively to Hillary and Bill Clinton.

So, listen, this whole week is a giant performance exercise in trying to convince the public that Hillary Clinton is trustworthy. You're going see the speakers throughout the week. And Bill Clinton had to really do a lost work to fill in the gaps in her public record, because the reason we of these things about Hillary Clinton is because she's been involved in so many scandals that dominated the headlines for the past few decades.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, talking to Clinton aides this week, what they see is a convention that presents a view of reality that they don't think is accurate, OK? That's why we come away with what a lot of Democrats called doom and gloom, a lot of Republicans said was a positive message, right?

The country is so divided. And we're watching different news outlets, we're talking in different forums, and all of a sudden -- except, everybody is watching CNN, of course. In the end, people come away with two different perceptions that don't match. And this is what Bill Clinton is talking about.

So, the entire convention is structured and organized to present a new vision of reality. They have the second say, the last say and to say to Americans, this is really the real world. This is what's going on. And if you believe that other world, you're going to be disappointed if you find out the truth. That's what they're doing.

There's also a high degree of coordination here. Remember the Trump convention, nobody really knew what was going on and all the speakers passed each other, they forgot to vet all the speeches. As soon as Bill Clinton said change maker, and I was in the hall, the whip operation, they had signs everywhere, change maker signs. Everybody has the change maker sign.

I'm like, what, is she going to give me quarters for the parking meter. I didn't understand what was going on.

BERMAN: A phrase that nobody has ever used in normal life.

ROGIN: It's very weird. That phrase is awkward. I don't think it's going to stick. But it just shows you that this was not Bill Clinton coming up with something. This is the campaign making a major messaging and doing it in a very robust --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Angela?

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So, a couple things. One is, I think change maker is effective and it's needed for her and here's why. That is not something that you often hear about Hillary Clinton. He is trying to demonstrate that even though she's been around a long time, at each point she continues to reinvent herself in a positive way and created change for the people she touches.

Again, we talked earlier about him going state by state, decade by decade, the first 30 years he talked about, talk about a scandal, and seriously, because he thinks whether it's Children's Defense Fund or Arkansas, whatever it was, I'm sorry, it's early. He touched on every single aspect of her career and being a public servant even before she was ever sworn into office.

BERMAN: It was stunning to see Bill Clinton do this speech, and do it the way he did. Normally, Bill Clinton talks a lot about himself. He talks a lot about his presidency. He talks a lot about the '90s in America. He didn't talk about it all.

It was all Hillary Clinton. It was all biographical. And then it changed it flipped. And he went on that cartoon riff. He went into the change maker thing and it brought people to their feet. Rely -- Josh was saying, it was a high level of difficulty, this speech.

JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know what it reminded me of, it reminded me of a wedding toast when your cousin is marrying somebody six months ago in Senor Frog's in Cabo.

[04:10:03] And no one knows who she is, so he's got to tell stories so you know who's now joining the family --

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: I don't recommend 40-minute wedding toast.

CARPENTER: My favorite color --

PHILLIPS: This is someone that's been on the public scene since 1992, but her negatives are so high he almost had to reintroduce her to the public. This is the reinvention convention.

ROMANS: Let's listen to what -- you know, I've heard this about Hillary Clinton for years, that she has this core group of friends growing up in Illinois, from Arkansas, this core group of friends, and you heard last night, Bill Clinton talk about their own expense. They're traveling around the country pushing for her.

Listen to him talk about, again, trying to reinvent Hillary Clinton, let people who she is behind that public persona.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON: The real one had done more positive change making before she was a30 than any public officials do in a lifetime in office. The real one, if you saw her friend Betsy Ebeling vote for Illinois today has friends from childhood through Arkansas, where she has not lived in more than 20 years, who have gone all across America at their own expense to fight for the person they know.

(APPLAUSE)

The real one has earned the loyalty, the respect and the fervent support of people who have worked with her in every stage of her life, including leaders around the world who know her to be able, straightforward and completely trustworthy.

The real one calls you when you're sick, when your kid's in trouble or when there's a death in the family.

The real one repeatedly drew praise from prominent Republicans when she was a senator and secretary of state.

Earlier today, you nominated the real one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Angela Rye, she's not a cold ambitious climber. She's got friends from childhood. That's what he's trying to say.

RYE: And I don't think he's just saying friends from childhood. I think what he did is he put on front street, as we like to say colloquially, what Republicans have been doing with a bogeyman strategy for Hillary Clinton. This is the caricature. This is the real one. I'm giving you state by state, decade by decade, grandmother, mother, and my wife. This is who she is. This is the real one.

BERMAN: Over the last 30 years. Look, you have a choice. He had a choice of what kind of speech he was going to give. It's fascinating that he chose this one.

ROGIN: The genius of Bill Clinton, he gives sort of a rocking chair, story telling, you know, low-key personal from the heart rendition but it's actually super coordinated and super planned out.

You know, let me give you a statistic here, over the entire night last night, Donald Trump's name was mentioned 38 times. The previous night, Monday night, 138 times.

This is not just Bill Clinton. The word went out. This was organized. To make this about Hillary Clinton, not to focus on Donald Trump. That is -- yes, it's amazing that Bill Clinton sort of convinced everybody this is what he wanted to say last night, but this is the campaign strategy.

BERMAN: Along those lines, guys, we heard these intimate stories, these personal stories from a lot of people who knew Hillary Clinton. We heard Bill. But there are other folks who had their own stories to tell. What difference will they make? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:17:40] BERMAN: Last night, it was sort of a reintroduction of Hillary Clinton to the country now as the official Democratic nominee. We've heard a lot of stories by people who had personal connections to Hillary Clinton. There's former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright right there. Joe Crowley, congressman from New York who told stories.

One of the moments that got a lot of attention was when on the stage, the mothers of the movement, mothers who have lost sons to not just police violence, by the way, gun violence. There was one mother who lost her son to gaining violence in Chicago. They spoke about their meeting with Hillary Clinton and their relationship with Hillary Clinton.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I am here today for my son Trayvon Martin who is in heaven.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am still Jordan Davis' mother. His life ended the day that he was shot and killed for playing loud music.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I watched as my daughter Sandra Bland was lowered into the ground in a coffin.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary Clinton isn't afraid to say that black lives matter. She isn't afraid to sit at a table with grieving mothers and bear the full force of our anguish. She doesn't build walls around her house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is about saving our children. That's why we're here, tonight, with Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BERMAN: I said mothers who have lost sons, sons and daughters.

ROMANS: Right.

BERMAN: Let's bring back the panel to discuss this.

Angela Rye, this did two things. On one hand, those who had personal experience with Hillary Clinton, how Hillary Clinton had touched their lives but they ever the overall theme of what they were talking about, too, which was interesting to see on the convention stage.

RYE: I think that's absolutely right. The thing that I loved most about this, this was an educational opportunity and hopefully one that would tear down the walls around people's hearts who have may have been frustrated. Maybe they lost someone in Dallas, or Orlando or Baton Rouge. It could have been a police officer getting shot or it could have been the police officer shooting or not one at all. So I thought it was really, really powerful.

[04:20:01] Also, Sabrina Fulton who has been an amazing trail blazer in this particular movement, losing her son Trayvon Martin and seeing her say this is about losing our children, an inclusive conversation that isn't just about a black child or a white child. It's about American children.

ROMANS: Amanda Carpenter, last week, on the stage, you had Rudy Giuliani was talking about why are we dividing ourselves by race, why are we dividing ourselves by, you know, blue lives matter, black lives matter, the whole all lives matter thing -- very, very different views between last weekend and this week?

CARPENTER: Yes. And I've been sort of afraid watching the conventions. Are we picking sides in this, between we're going to support police officers or are we going to support mothers? And a lot of this gets tied up with black lives matter which really isn't associated with people who are on that stage.

So, I think how they did it last night, everyone can empathize with that. But I do wish that both conventions, both Democrats and Republicans wouldn't ever be in a position of choosing who we emphasize with. There's no reason to pick sides. And so, I think watching that gives us a way to go forward and doing that.

BERMAN: All right. There's a lot more to discuss, including what about Russia? What's Russia doing right now in this presidential election? Are they trying to influence? Are they trying to tip the scales toward Donald Trump?

Hear what President Obama has to say about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:25:44] BERMAN: President Obama refusing to rule out the possibility that the Russians are behind the e-mail hack that cost Debbie Wasserman Schultz her job as DNC chair. The president says the breach has all the characteristics of Russian government behavior.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we do know is that, the Russians hacked our systems. Not just government systems, but private systems. But, you know, what the motives were in terms of leaks, all that, I can't say directly. What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.

INTERVIEWER: Is it possible in your mind that the Russians would try to influence the U.S. election?

OBAMA: Anything's possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Anything's possible, he says.

The Donald Trump campaign calls the allegations of Russian tampering absurd, claiming Democrats are just trying to distract the voters from the content of the DNC e-mails.

ROMANS: All right. Hillary Clinton making history, becoming the first woman to ever to represent a major U.S. political party in the race for presidents. Hear that, that's the sound of glass shattering. Her husband, her biggest advocate last night, did he do enough?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)