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Chelsea Clinton to Introduce Her Mother Tonight; Broadway Stars United for Emotional DNC Performance; Interview with Actress Rosie Perez. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 28, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:02] SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: But Clinton campaign, they have been very clear that tonight's address by Chelsea Clinton will not be policy focused. They say she's going to be -- talk about being raised under the spotlight and the values that her mom gave to her.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY (voice-over): From a shy teenager growing up in the glare of the political spotlight, to hesitant campaigner in 2008, Chelsea Clinton is now fully embracing her pivotal role in her mother's path to the White House.

CHELSEA CLINTON, HILLARY CLINTON'S DAUGHTER: I couldn't imagine a better grandmother for my children than my mom. But I couldn't imagine a better president for any of our children or grandchildren than my mom.

SERFATY: The 36-year-old mother of two will play a starring role tonight introducing her mother moments before she officially accepts the nomination.

CLINTON: Well, I hope to convey even just a small sense of why I am so proud and grateful to be her daughter.

SERFATY: Aides to Chelsea tell CNN she's taking this speech more seriously than any speech she's given before, spending weeks writing it with her mother's speech writer an rehearsing it with her husband.

CLINTON: I'm going to talk as her daughter. I' an only child and that's a unique position I'm in. I hope people understand a little bit more when I'm done than when I started about why I love her so much and I admire her so much.

SERFATY: Tonight's speech, the latest sign that Chelsea's taking on a more visible role in the campaign.

CLINTON: This is the most important presidential election in my lifetime.

SERFATY: Having crisscrossed the country during the primary. CLINTON: What matters most to me now as a mom myself is that my mom

has been fighting for, making progress on issues that really matter to me.

SERFATY: And as she makes the case for her mother, she's also gone on the offensive.

CLINTON: I think it is important that Mr. Trump's rhetoric of sexism and racism and Islamophobia and anti-immigrant hatred and stance has no place in our country.

SERFATY: And challenging her friend Ivanka Trump to defend her father's positions.

IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF DONALD TRUMP: He will fight for equal pay for equal work.

CLINTON: How would your father do that? Given it's not something he's spoken about. There are no policies on any of those fronts that you just mentioned on his website. Not last week. Not this week.

SERFATY: Even as she stay focused on her mother's campaign, questions persist about her own potential political future.

CLINTON: I understand why people ask me that question. My last name's Clinton. My dad was president, as you remember. My mom is running to be president.

SERFATY: Not shutting the door on that possibility.

CLINTON: I then would have to think, could I make a real difference here, is this something I should do. But for now, I'm well- represented and I love what I do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Sunlen's going to stay with us.

And let me bring in Carl Bernstein, CNN political commentator and author of "A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Carl, to you first. I mean, you wrote the book on Hillary Clinton. Is there anyone better to introduce her than her daughter?

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: In this appropriate scene, Chelsea Clinton is the right person. I also think we are overdo this idea of children of candidates introducing their parents. I'm not sure of how lasting of an impact it has, and we can't expect either the Trump children or Chelsea to come out and savage their parents.

So, I think let's get on with it.

BALDWIN: All right. So, we're getting --

BERNSTEIN: At the risk of being cynical. BALDWIN: But to get on with it, if I m ay, let's all remember back to

a younger, maybe a tad more awkward Chelsea Clinton who we watched grow up. We were just talking as I was watching her piece about -- I mean, once upon a time, Chelsea Clinton, there was a kiddie scholastic reporter who's trying to get Chelsea Clinton to talk years ago.

BERNSTEIN: The story behind that is that Hillary, before she went into the White House and sat down with Jackie Kennedy. And Jackie Kennedy said, "I have one piece of advice for you." It's in the book. "And that is to protect your daughter from the press, to protect her from the bubble, and she have as ordinary a life as possible. And she took that advice and Hillary's very successful at saying to the press, look, this is off-limits."

And at school, and it's been a precedent, really it was established in New York when Jackie Kennedy went back with her own children and the president did give her --

BALDWIN: I hear you. Yes. I mean, you have to protect your children but you know the story. Tell the story of when this kid reporter is approaching Chelsea.

SERFATY: Right. This was in 2000, I think it was a 12-year-old reporter who just asked Chelsea a question, she said, you know, typically I don't take questions from press. You know, the undertone of -- it was probably this softball question from a young inspired journalist. And she could have just had a little bantering with him, but that didn't happen. That's something from the 2008 campaign trail when I was out, I observed, of course, from Chelsea, too.

[15:35:01] I think this is a challenge of her role, if she's out campaigning for her mother, that this -- she is going to have to take some questions. We've seen her grow into that role now in this campaign in 2016. She held a press gaggle in Indianapolis, something we would never see her do before. And to me, the most remarkable evolution of Chelsea Clinton is seeing her really go and attack Donald Trump by name. Not just be there softening her mom's image.

CARLSTEIN: Maybe her mother will have a press conference.

SERFATY: Right.

(LAUGHTER)

SERFATY: Not just softening her mom's image, but also going one step farther and becoming somewhat of an attack dog.

BALDWIN: What is the moment that you think Chelsea Clinton will highlight as she introduces her mother?

CARLSTEIN: I don't know. I think she's going to talk about her mother in terms of being this hands-on parent who has nurtured and developed her daughter. But let's wait and see.

BALDWIN: What about -- I think of Ivanka Trump who did a bang-up job I thought in her speech last week. People were saying she almost sounds like she's at the DNC, not the RNC. She is a phenomenal young woman. A lot of people are looking to her as, all right, that's Trump's beautiful daughter. Do you think it is possible that some of the kids though could outshine?

BERNSTEIN: No. Again, I don't want to be cynical, but I also think --

BALDWIN: You're a journalist, Carl! You can be cynical.

BERNSTEIN: No, I'm not a cynical journalist. I think we can make too much of these moments with the children. I think there is a scorched earth campaign going on, as I've compared it to Gettysburg. It is the seminal battle in the culture wars and whoever wins, this country will be affected until for the next part -- maybe the end of the century, 100 years. Who knows?

What we've seen at this convention is happily for Hillary Clinton that finally the mythology of Donald Trump established in Cleveland has been deconstructed, partly by Mike Bloomberg. There is a pivotal moment in this convention and that is when a Republican mayor of New York City who has known Donald Trump for a quarter century gets up and questions his sanity, we have never had a candidate for president of the United States about whom there has been a question raised about sanity.

And it is the undercurrent of a lot of what has been going on and said in both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. So, we need to look at where we are and we also have this distrust factor about Hillary Clinton with an even greater distrust factor that's developing about Donald Trump.

Hillary Clinton, if she gets up tonight, she's had the greatest surrogates, a great convention. Her husband, Cory Booker, Michelle Obama, if she can get up today and plead her own case, including with some humility about her mistakes, particularly regarding national security and the server. But it is a big order and she's still got a lot of flak being thrown at her because of the server. But Trump has indeed stepped into something with the server, obviously, to undermine him completely.

BALDWIN: Yes, it is anyone's guess who could win this in November.

Carl and Sunlen, thank you so much. No one knows how the story will end.

Jut in to CNN, though, let me tell you this -- the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, telling CNN's Jim Sciutto he is not willing to place blame on who is behind the DNC e-mail hack. So, you have that. Keep in mind, a number of U.S. officials have already been putting the blame on Russia. Clapper says the reaction to the incident is actually somewhat overblown. So, we have more on that coming up.

Next, it was a powerful moment on the DNC stage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA), PRESUMPTIVE VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Si se puede. Si se puede. Si se puede.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The presumptive vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine using Spanish to make the case to Latino voters. Could it work come November? Let's talk to actress Rosie Perez, who is also on the big stage last night. She'll join me live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

[15:44:02] BALDWIN: One of the highlights from night number three of the Democratic National Convention, more than 40 stars spanning decades of Broadway shows coming together on the DNC stage to sing "What the World Needs Now is Love." One of those lovely ladies joins me now, you just saw her big smile, beautiful red dress, she is actress Rosie Perez, best know for her film, "Do the Right Thing" and "White Men Can't Jump", and most recently starred in Larry David's Broadway show, "Fish in the Dark."

Hello.

ROSIE PEREZ, ACTRESS & ACTRESS: Hello.

BALDWIN: Nice to meet you.

PEREZ: Thank you. Nice to meet you, too.

BALDWIN: So, you totally just said you didn't make it to the rehearsal. So, how nervous were you?

PEREZ: I was so nervous. I didn't know what was going on. I didn't make it to the rehearsal. And then they had me as the last singer. I am the worst Broadway singer ever in the history of Broadway.

I went over, after my performance, I went down to the New York delegates and I went over to the council speaker Melissa and public advocate Tish James (ph) and Mayor de Blasio was there. He said, Rosie, you did so well.

[15:45:02] You were beautiful. You sang beautifully. And I said, I sang like a Puerto Rican Bugs Bunny, stop it right now, Mayor.

BALDWIN: But you wanted to be part of it. And what was that moment? I mean, I was in the arena. People were on their feet. It was a moment. It was a moment.

PEREZ: It was a grand moment. Regardless that I sounded like I was tone-deaf, I will never forget that experience. I will never regret that experience. That was a tremendous moment of coming together with love in the spirit of love and for all the victims of Orlando and their families and all the victims of people who have died because of these senseless gun shootings, and that's what really it was about. My heart was in tune.

BALDWIN: How did a gal who grew up in Brooklyn, in Bushwick, who had a tough childhood. You've written about it. Not a ton of money. Abused.

Here you are. And with so involved, so active politically. How did that happen?

PEREZ: Well, first of all, it use I have a tenacity that was just is just innate in me. I had a big, big heart and I had such a motivation to make it in life. Not just to be a celebrity, or this or that, but to have a home and security and to be well-off so I never had to suffer again. And that's why I fight in the political arena because policy affected my life from day one. From day one, I was a ward of the state and I had no say so about that. That was terrible for me. And it's terrible for a lot of kids right now in the foster care system.

And also, coming from abject poverty when I came out of it, I went from the frying pan into the fire, the poor schools, going to school hungry, going to school with holes in my shoes. A child should never have to endure that.

And what made my life better -- I'm dating myself -- was, you know, we had a president in the office that had programs for young people like CETA. I was able to get a job that was subsidized by the government. So at 12 years old -- and policy affected my life in a negative way, and policy affected my life in a positive way. It all came down to who was in office at the time, who was the governor of the state that I was living in, who was the mayor of the city that I was living in and all on down.

BALDWIN: So if somebody was sitting here and watching our conversation from a 30,000-foot perspective, we hear your story. It is incredible what you've done. I'm honored to be sitting next to you.

You look at someone like Hillary Clinton, who -- I mean, I was talking to one of my reporters a second ago, said she hasn't had to drive a car since 1996. She's been in the spotlight. Her husband has been the president two times over. And, you know, she's sort of critics would say she's up on a pedestal, like, you know, the rules don't apply to the Clintons.

Why do you -- why choose her?

PEREZ: Why choose her? Because she stepped down from her pedestal and went into the trenches, when she was part of the children's fund. Listen, she didn't have to be a public servant. She chose to be a public servant. She met people. She met children who were suffering with disabilities.

She went and met women who were suffering from sexual abuse, domestic abuse, part of the sex trade. So, yes, she grew up differently, completely differently from me. But she has empathy for me and sympathy for me on a level that is -- it just swells my heart. It really does.

Is Hillary Clinton perfect? Like Bloomberg said last night, who was wonderful and I have issues with him and I stood up and applauded him. He was fantastic. And like President Obama said, she's not perfect. But she is a hard worker and she is ready for day one. And she cares about people. She cares.

Just because you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth doesn't mean you don't have empathy for people, you know? Most of us -- but there is someone out there that has no empathy that I will not be voting for. You know what I mean?

And so, she is that candidate and I will be voting for her.

BALDWIN: Where can I see you next? What are you up to? The Broadway show is done. Where is Rosie Perez off to next?

PEREZ: I have a movie, an independent movie 's coming out August 5th, it's called "Five Nights in Maine." It stars Dianne Wiest, and David Oyelowo (ph), OK, I messed up his name, he's going to kill.

BALDWIN: OK.

PEREZ: The guy in the "Selma".

BALDWIN: David Oyelowo.

PEREZ: Then I'm doing a guest starring role on the TBS, TNT Channel called "Search Party." I will be recurring guest there.

BALDWIN: Awesome. So nice to see you.

PEREZ: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thanks for swinging by the grill. I appreciate it.

PEREZ: Thank you. And I love you.

BALDWIN: I love you!

PEREZ: I love you.

BALDWIN: Oh my gosh!

Coming up, more on Hillary Clinton, her convention speeches we're going to take a look through the years. We'll be right back from Philadelphia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:53:56] BALDWIN: All right. We're all looking ahead to tonight. How will it go?

Hillary Clinton giving arguably the biggest speech of her life. Here is a look back starting with a 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I know and you know that Chicago is my kind of town.

Another friend advised me that I should cut my hair and color it orange and then change my name to Hillary Rodman Clinton. I decided to do tonight to do what I've been doing for more than 25 years, I want to talk about what matters most in our lives and in our nation, children and families.

I wish --

(APPLAUSE)

Bill and I are closing one chapter of our lives and soon will be starting a new one.

[15:55:00] For me, it will be up to the people of New York to decide whether I'll have the privilege of serving them in the United States Senate.

I am -- I am practically speechless.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

I visited Ground Zero the day after we were attacked. And I felt like I was standing at the gates of hell. And yet that tragedy both changed and challenged us. I know it did for me.

To my supporters, to my champions, to my sisterhood of the traveling pant suits --

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)