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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Hillary Clinton Wins Historic Nomination; Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Endorses Clinton. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 27, 2016 - 04:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:31:27] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: There it is -- subtlety at play at the Democratic National Convention. Wait, I'm not sure I get it. Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman ever to be the nominee of a major political party, shattering the glass ceiling. I think that's what they were going after there.

Does it work? Will it move those undecided voters? Democrats certainly tried last night.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. We are live at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. I'm John Berman.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 31, almost 32 minutes past the hour. We are here again at the CNN Grill in Philly.

And Hillary Clinton presumptive no more. It is officially historic or historically official, depending on your taste. She is now the first woman to be the nominee of a major political party. She marked the honor by beaming in by video 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 that glass ceiling 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: It was a Clinton fest last night, because the other Clinton, the one who was already president was the headline speaker of the night, it was Bill Clinton's job to introduce the real Hillary Clinton to America. It's a notable task. Well, she's already been in the spotlight some 25 years. But he did with his classic political touch and meticulous detail.

For instance, if you've been wondering where Hillary Clinton was on the afternoon of June 23rd, 1974, you pretty much know now and every minute afterwards.

In fact, CNN's Phil Mattingly, for about 20 minutes they were in the early 1970s, am I right?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just to get into the decade of the '80s. So, it's a lot of (INAUDIBLE) to where Bill Clinton was there.

But look, there's no question, there was a lot of focus on the historic nature of last night. But there's also a very strategically important night for the Clinton campaign and Bill Clinton was really responsible for headlining that. It was all about not only just humanizing the candidate, but also in an election cycle that is all about anti-establishment, all about change, trying to paint the ultimate insider as just that. And this is how Bill Clinton finished those remarks which clocked in at around 47 minutes.

(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)

[04:35:08] Hillary will make us stronger together. You know it because she spent a lot of time doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Guys, Bill Clinton once again putting on display why many think that he's probably the premiere political speaker of his time. But, look, he had a steep goal to climb when it came to the goals of the evening. Hillary Clinton's unfavorable ratings, clocking at 68 percent right now, that would be historic in any psych that didn't include Donald Trump.

The campaign recognizing there are a lot of voters who are either unenthused about her candidacy or independent voters who just aren't sure they're willing to come over. Bill Clinton sticking very closely to the idea that he's going to reintroduce the full picture of Hillary Clinton, somebody that anecdotally he described as helping throughout her career both in private and public service, somebody who the Clinton campaign hopes will start to connect to by the end of this convention.

It's a story you're going to hear about today, Vice President Joe Biden, President Barack Obama both headlining this evening. Expect them to talk about Hillary Clinton's experience in government, her experience in somebody who does create change, and Hillary Clinton as a person, somebody that a lot of Democrats inside the Clinton campaign believed has been caricatured and overlooked for much of the last, I don't know, 10 to 12 months -- guys.

ROMANS: All right. Phil Mattingly for us, outside the grill -- thanks for that, Phil.

OK. Let's discuss the second night of the Democratic National Convention and the performance of Bill Clinton.

We have CNN political analyst, Josh Rogin, a columnist for "The Washington Post", and we've got three of our best CNN political commentators. Angela Rye is here, the former executive director for the Congressional Black Caucus, also John Phillips, he's a talk radio host, a Trump supporter, of KABC, and Democratic strategist Bob Beckel.

So, way back in 1971, Bill Clinton met a girl. That's one of the big takeaways from the speech last night. He used this journey to try to paint a picture of a Hillary Clinton the public may not know. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: In the spring of 1971, I met a girl. The first time I saw her, we were appropriately enough in a class on political and civil rights. She had thick blond hair, big glasses, wore no makeup. And she exuded this sense of strength and self-possession that I found magnetic. After the class, I followed her out, intending to introduce myself.

I got close enough to touch her back, but I couldn't do it. Somehow I knew this would not just be another tap on the shoulder. That I might be starting something I couldn't stop.

(END VIDE OCLIP)

ROMANS: Bob Beckel, this walk down memory lane, did it introduce a new Hillary Clinton? We've known -- they're together 40 years. We sort of know their story. What new do we learn here?

BOB BECKEL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: First of all, I'm not a woman myself and it didn't work out.

(LAUGHTER) BECKEL: I think it does fill in a story. I think politicians in this day and age, there's so much negative campaigning going on. The idea of having some personal side to this thing is very important. The other thing I want to point out here, we're seeing more and more of the women's side of this argument is coming out.

Donald Trump has been playing the men's card from the very beginning of this race. He's been playing it every place he goes, now, it's costing him women. But his constituency is male. But Hillary Clinton has not played the, quote, "woman's card". But now, we're starting to see that coming.

I'll tell you, that's the difference that this race. You cannot take 52 percent of the American electorate who are female and expect there's not some who normally vote Republican who won't come over and vote for women.

BERMAN: OK. Now, one of everybody's lines and says, if I'm accused of playing the woman's card, deal me in.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. So, again, talking to Clinton aides, they think back to 2008, and they regret that they didn't hone in on the woman issue more. They think it sort of cost them the campaign against Barack Obama. They think it plays on numbers. They think it plays on Donald Trump's negatives. And so, this is what the campaign strategy is.

Now, will that change overall perceptions and drive down Hillary Clinton's negatives? Probably not, right? The people who dislike her have this well-formed view of her since the '90s, that's not going to change. But by really focusing on the women stuff, the numbers show that it can be effective.

ROMANS: But not among young people. I mean, the young women, you know, I have an 18-year-old niece who is not going to vote for Hillary Clinton because she's a woman. You know, she's just not going to.

Talk to me about that.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Exactly. When you look at -- when you look at the video of the shattering glass ceiling, right? And you see the cutaway shots, and it's women who are maybe baby boomer women who are crying. But for the younger women, it's not resonated as much, the fact that it would be the first female president.

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I think for some women, this is a campaign about a first, about making history, or even (INAUDIBLE) say her story. For other women, the campaign about the issues. And for some of them, they don't feel like their priorities align with theirs. During the primary debate season, you heard Hillary Clinton start tapping into I'm a progressive who gets things done. Thankfully, tonight, you saw her husband Bill Clinton kind of hone in on that. And so, he went through several decades, several states, and that goes

through this history to demonstrate just how much she's done that, that she's not someone who's OK with maintaining the status quo and she always trying to move the ball --

BERMAN: I was laughing because he was almost going day by day. But it was fascinating --

BECKEL: Were you in '71, John --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: I wasn't the process of being --

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: It was a rhetorical project and it was fascinating to watch. It really was.

And it all came together for me at one point -- you know, it really as about 25, 30 minutes in. He had gotten intense by the graphical detail. And then he did this, and it all came together. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIIP)

BILL CLINTON: How does this square -- how does this square with the things that you heard at the Republican convention? What's the difference in what I told you and what they said? How do you square it? You can't. One is real. The other is made up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And then he went beyond that. And to me, it was, again, just as a rhetorical project, I thought it was fascinating and perhaps only as effective as it was because he has gone into that detail before.

JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. Bill Clinton stock has gone up since he left the White House. When you're fighting with Bill Clinton, you hate his guts because he plays the game really well. But when there's a little bit of daylight in between the fight now, you can't help but to like him because he's a likable person.

His wife is not. The number you were giving out earlier, 69 percent of people don't like his wife. There's also another aspect of the speech that I thought was interesting. There was almost one win one for the Gipper quality to it.

In the end, he referenced his own mortality, where he said there are some that have more behind us than in front of us. And I almost got the impression that it was, you know, this could be the last ride, win one for the Gipper.

BECKEL: I could have said that one myself.

But, you know, let me go back to what you said about young women. Young women are exactly the people that needed to hear what Bill Clinton was talking, because tens of millions of them do not know Hillary Clinton outside the exposures of the Republicans have given her.

So, I think that's really important. I mean, they need to understand that. And a matter of fact, more than tens of millions. So --

ROMANS: Bill Clinton giving the millennial view of Hillary Clinton almost?

ROGIN: I hesitate to weigh into this, I married a young millennial woman very successful and she explained it to me this way. You women want to succeed on their merit. They don't want to vote for women because they're women. They recognize they're succeeding because of the generation before them, yet, they feel they have to turn the page.

BECKEL: Josh, your wife has done a lot better than you could.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: It cuts both ways, though, because we've seen women running for executive offices with all the money, all the endorsements, just like Hillary and come up short. It happened to Christine Quinn in New York. It happened to Wendy Greuel of Los Angeles. It happened to Martha Coakley in Massachusetts.

So, you have to be careful with that argument.

BERMAN: All right. Guys, a lot more discuss on that front. As we said, history was made. Hillary Clinton is the first woman to be the nominee of a major political party. Also, the first candidate in the general election to ever receive the endorsement from the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. What changed? Why? That's next.

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[04:48:38] ROMANS: Democrats have now officially picked their presidential candidate and for the first time ever so has the country's largest Latino business group, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.

Javier Palomarez is the president and CEO of the chamber. He joins us here at the CNN grill.

This is a departure for you. This is a departure because you endorse people in the primaries but you don't endorse in the general. And the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce this time choosing Hillary Clinton. Why?

JAVIER PALOMAREZ, PRESIDENT & CEO, U.S. HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: You know, this is an historic move for us in our 38-year history. We've never done these before, but these are extraordinary times and call for extraordinary measures. So, we chose to look at both candidates quite frankly.

And we're not alone here. American businesses have spoken up on behalf of Hillary Clinton. There was recently a list of over prolific business leaders that included names like Michael Bloomberg and Warren Buffett that spoke up on behalf of Hillary, thinking and saying that she would be great for the American economy and we join the list.

ROMANS: When you think about the relationship between business and candidates of the Democratic Party. In particular, though, a business, they worry about regulation. They worry about higher minimum wage, something that Hillary Clinton wants. They worry about higher costs with more paid leave and more stuff like that.

You're not concerned that some of their proposals would add costs -- higher business costs for your members?

[04:50:02] PALOMAREZ: You know, we've had the concerns that business always had. But at a macro level, what you're seeing in terms of a campaign, is one campaign that has been bombastic, that has shown no direction whatsoever and has not engaged in American small business.

Contrast that to Hillary's campaign, they have continuously reached out to, not only the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, but the U.S. Black Chamber, the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber, the Women's Chamber and the list goes on.

BERMAN: Well, I think people will look at this and say, the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce endorsing Hillary Clinton, is this because of Donald Trump's positions or controversial stances or mix- ups with the Latino community, or what he said about that, or is it purely about business?

If you take everything he has said about Latinos, the Mexican judge and whatnot, if you remove that, are you just saying that Hillary Clinton is better for business?

PALOMAREZ: No, no, listen, what we said, to be clear, we're a business organization. We've looked at their track records. We've looked at their willingness to engage small business. Clearly one candidate has. The other has not.

And again, let's go back to the list. We're not alone here. There was also a list that came out recently of over 100 technology sector leaders that basically said that, I, quote, "Donald Trump would be disastrous for American innovation." We're not alone here. The breadth of American business has spoken up and they've chosen Hillary Clinton.

ROMANS: Let's talk about what the polls say about Donald Trump. The public seems to think when asked who would be a better steward of the economy. You know, the polls show, the perception is that Donald Trump would be better. That's what people think.

Why are those polls wrong? Fifty-four percent, who would better handle the economy among registered voters? Fifty-four percent say Donald Trump.

PALOMAREZ: Yes, I think that is a perception. And I think Donald's done a great job of kind of trying to live up to that perception. Here's the reality. I can tell you wt we're seeing on the ground. We have yet to hear from Donald Trump on anything substantive in terms of growing the economy and reaching out to America's small business.

To date, even as early -- as recently as last night, we heard from Hillary's campaign I was talking to Tim Kaine last night, and they are engaging small business to include the U.S. agency, but the breadth of business. The fact of the matter is, that on the ground, American business is basically working with Hillary Clinton. She continues to engage us. That's what I can tell you.

BERMAN: Where are you guys on the TPP?

PALOMAREZ: You know, we're pro-TPP. We do not agree with Hillary on that front. But there again is a willingness for her to sit down and talk to us about where do we move from here, how do we work together?

BERMAN: So, Terry McAuliffe, you know, who a good friend of Hillary Clinton, governor of Virginia, campaign or something or rather for Hillary -- I don't know if he's the chair, he was the chair eight years ago, I can't remember anymore. But he said he thinks Hillary in the White House and she'll flip back on TPP and end up supporting it.

Do you think that she'll end up supporting and if she wins the presidency?

PALOMAREZ: Here's what I know: that Hillary Clinton will continue to work with the American business, including the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to hear our concerns, about a breadth of things to include the Trans Pacific Partnership.

ROMANS: Now, Donald Trump's response to sort of organization's endorsement of Hillary Clinton has been that, you know, something like sour grapes. He -- you wanted money from him to be a member of the U.S. Chamber.

(LAUGHTER)

PALOMAREZ: He's claimed that before, yes.

ROMANS: Is that true? He said you're trying to leverage media attention?

PALOMAREZ: You know, if anybody's leveraged media attention, I think it's Donald Trump. When I met with Donald Trump he offered to become a member of the United States Chamber of Commerce, we heard him out. I said that given the way the conversation was going, it probably not advisable.

We continue to leave the door open to come talk to our constituency, to date. He has taken us up on that, again, in sharp contrast to Hillary Clinton and her campaign. They continue to reach out. That's all I can say.

ROMANS: Javier Palomarez, so nice to see you today.

PALOMAREZ: Thank you guys for having me.

ROMANS: Thank you for getting up so early for us. (LAUGHTER)

PALOMAREZ: Thank you.

ROMANS: Or up all night.

BERMAN: Business never sleeps.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: All right. Thanks so much.

PALOMAREZ: Thank you, guys.

BERMAN: All right. History made here in Philadelphia overnight. Hillary Clinton is now the first woman to ever be the official nominee of a major political party.

"NEW DAY" will tell you all about it -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:58:26] SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: I move that Hillary Clinton be the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States. Hillary, because Hillary has always, always been with us!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm with Hillary because Hillary has always, always been with us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have seen her fight and win for our country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This isn't about being politically correct. This is about saving our children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary Clinton isn't afraid to say that black lives matter.

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: She's the best darn change-maker I ever met in my entire life!

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. You're watching NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, July 27th. Chris and I are live here in Philadelphia at the Democratic National Convention where there's lots of excitement. Lots of news we want to get to this morning because history was made, Hillary Clinton becoming the first woman to win a major party nomination.

Clinton declaring that her supporters have put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And one of the big voices last night was her husband, former President Bill Clinton embracing the role of political spouse for the first time. This is our first look at how he would be as Hillary's second. And he gave an impassioned speech calling her a change-maker who can be trusted after decades in the political spotlight.

How did it work? Where do we go from here?