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New Day
Trump Officially Becomes Republican Nominee; Republican Speakers Make Case Against Clinton; Trump's Children Get Personal About Their Dad. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired July 20, 2016 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Four years of Hillary Clinton will bring all the failures of the Obama years with less charm and more lies.
[05:59:24] GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R), ARKANSAS: Deception and dishonesty are all second nature to Hillary.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: Hillary Clinton will say anything, do anything, and be anything to get elected president.
TIFFANY TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF DONALD TRUMP: Donald Trump has never done anything halfway.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We are going to make America great again.
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The Clinton years are way over. 2016 is the year America moves on.
DONALD TRUMP JR., SON OF DONALD TRUMP:: A president who will unleash the greatness in our nation. That president can only be my father, Donald Trump.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY that you're watching, and Chris and I are live here in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention.
All sorts of excitement and all sorts of news being made here. Donald Trump is officially now the Republican nominee for president. GOP crowning Trump 13 months after he began his improbable White House run, or at least that's what people thought 13 months ago. Last night it was Trump's children making the case to voters about their dad.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Now, one of the interesting aspects was that the theme of the night was making America work again. But most of the primetime speeches didn't focus on that. It was really about just hammering Hillary Clinton. Thousands repeatedly chanting "lock her up" from the convention floor last night.
We have every angle of what happened covered. Let's begin this hour with CNN's Phil Mattingly inside the convention center -- Phil.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.
Turning the page. That's how one Trump adviser in the wake of a turbulent first 24 hours of the convention described what Tuesday night was all about; and helping the Trump campaign do just that, Donald Trump's children, the unquestioned stars of the night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
D. TRUMP JR.: It is my honor to be able to throw Donald Trump over the top in the delegate count tonight. Congratulations, Dad. We love you.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Donald Trump formally clinching the Republican nomination.
D. TRUMP: I'm so proud to be your nominee for president of the United States.
MATTINGLY: Trump's children stealing the spotlight with emotional speeches about their father.
T. TRUMP: Donald Trump has never done anything halfway, least of all as a parent.
MATTINGLY: His 22-year-old daughter, Tiffany, getting personal.
T. TRUMP: I still keep all of my report cards, some dating back to kindergarten, because I like to look back and see the sweet notes he wrote on each and every one of them. Contrary to what you might expect from someone who places an emphasis on results.
MATTINGLY: Eldest son Donald Trump Jr. calling his father his mentor and best friend, casting him as the blue-collar billionaire.
D. TRUMP JR.: I was there with him by his side on job sites, in conference rooms from the time I could walk. He didn't hide out behind some desk in an executive suite. He spent his career with regular Americans. He hung out with the guys on construction sites, pouring concrete and hanging sheet rock.
MATTINGLY: Trump's children from different marriages delivering powerful testimonials of their dad.
D. TRUMP JR.: For my father, impossible is just the starting point. That's how he approaches business projects. That's how he approaches life.
MATTINGLY: Twenty-four hours earlier, Trump's wife Melania's well- received speech overshadowed by charges of plagiarism.
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: You work hard for what you want in life.
MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: That you work hard for what you want in life.
OBAMA: That your word is your bond, that you do what you say you're going to do.
M. TRUMP: That your word is your bond.
MATTINGLY: the campaign repeatedly denied wrongdoing. First on NEW DAY...
PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama's words is crazy. This is once again an example of, when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and -- and take her down.
MATTINGLY: Then hours later in a press conference.
MANAFORT: The American people did focus on what her message was. You all are focusing on trying to destroy that message.
MATTINGLY: The campaign dismissing calls to fire or discipline someone over the speech controversy.
COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Whoever was the staff person who wrote this speech should be held accountable and should be fired it. I know accountability in the Trump campaign. I know what it's like to be fired from the Trump campaign.
MANAFORT: We think that Melania Trump's speech was a great speech.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: The Trump campaign, Chris, not giving an inch, even in the face of Republicans here in Cleveland and really across the country who are extremely frustrated and, frankly, watching what happened on Monday night in disbelief.
But this is a deliberate strategy from the Trump campaign. We've seen it deployed multiple times over the course of this candidacy. And it's not going to change any time soon. They are acknowledging nothing, and they are certainly not apologizing for anything -- Chris.
CUOMO: And as you know being on the floor, Phil, that's all people were talking about. It wasn't about Melania's giving the speech. Everybody thought she did a good job. It was how this aspect was handled by the campaign. Appreciate the reporting.
Now, Hillary Clinton had a tough time in the convention last night. She was seemingly on trial throughout the night, almost literally when Chris Christie was speaking. Donald Trump's coronation really just seems as much to be a Clinton prosecution. The governor of New Jersey basically conducting a mock trial that certainly fired up the crowd.
CNN senior political reporter Manu Raju joins us now with more. You heard it and its great effect.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Chris. Actually, Chris Christie, passed up to be Donald Trump's running mate, really leading that prosecution against Hillary Clinton.
This convention has really become an anti-Clinton convention just as much, if not more, than being a pro-Donald Trump convention. But what we heard was that anti-Clinton message really galvanizing convention goers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lock her up! Lock her up!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lock her up! Lock her up!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lock her up! Lock her up!
[06:05:20] RAJU (voice-over): A second night of stinging attacks against Hillary Clinton, becoming the rallying cry of the Republican National Convention.
CHRISTIE: Hillary Clinton lying to the American people about her selfish, awful judgment in making our secrets vulnerable. What's your verdict? Guilty or not guilty?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty!
RAJU: For 15 minutes, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie prosecuting Clinton in a mock trial before a national audience.
CHRISTIE: In Libya and Nigeria, guilty. In China and Syria...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty!
CHRISTIE: In Iran and Russia and Cuba...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty!
CHRISTIE: And here at home for risking America's secrets to keep her own and lying to cover it all up...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty!
RAJU: Christie's prosecutorial takedown drawing sharp criticism from both sides of the aisle.
The Clinton campaign tweeting soon after, "If you think Chris Christie can lecture anyone on ethics, we have a bridge to sell you."
Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake also tweeting, "Clinton now belongs in prison? Come on, we can make the case that she shouldn't be elected without jumping the shark."
Trump's other former rival, Dr. Ben Carson, going as far as to link Clinton to Lucifer.
DR. BEN CARSON (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: One of her heroes, her mentors was Saul Alinsky. He wrote a book called "Rules for Radicals." On the dedication page, it acknowledges Lucifer. So are we willing to elect someone as president who has, as their role model, somebody who acknowledges Lucifer? Think about that.
RAJU: Speaker after speaker linking Clinton's e-mail and Benghazi controversies to a lack of trust.
MCCONNELL: She lied about her e-mails. She lied about her server. She lied about Benghazi. She even lied about sniper fire.
Why in the world would Democrats put forward such a candidate?
GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R), ARKANSAS: A Hillary Clinton presidency will endanger our national security.
LESLIE RUTLEDGE, ARKANSAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: Deception and dishonesty are all second nature to Hillary.
MICHAEL MUKASEY, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: No way, Hillary. No way on earth.
RAJU: And House Speaker Paul Ryan scarcely mentioning Trump, focusing his attention on the risk of electing Clinton.
RYAN: Watch the Democratic Party convention next week. That four-day infomercial of politically correct moralizing. You can get through four days of it with a little help from the mute button, but four more years of it? Not a chance.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU: Now, expect more of that anti-Clinton messaging tonight when Mike Pence, Donald Trump's running mate, will address the convention, as well as Newt Gingrich, another man who was passed over for -- to be Donald Trump's running mate. Interestingly, we'll also see Ted Cruz, Donald Trump's chief rival, address the crowd. We're not expecting an endorsement, Chris and Alisyn, but we are expecting more attacks on Hillary Clinton. CAMEROTA: OK, Manu. Thank you very much for that. Did I already
lose my bet?
CUOMO: Just saying.
CAMEROTA: That we made at 5 a.m.
CUOMO: We made a wager in the 5 a.m. As you know, NEW DAY is at 5 a.m. all week here in Cleveland and will be, as well, in Philadelphia. Alisyn will be doing the first hour by herself.
CAMEROTA: That wasn't our bet.
CUOMO: I think that's ambitious of both. Congratulations.
CAMEROTA: That wasn't out bet.
CUOMO: That Ted Cruz will say, "I endorse Donald Trump" tonight. I say I don't think he will. Camerota, doing what seems reasonable, is taking the other side.
CAMEROTA: But I was very tired at 5 a.m. I don't think I was thinking clearly. But anyway, we'll circle back to that.
CUOMO: You're betting on my being wrong, which usually serves you well.
CAMEROTA: We have a lot -- that's true. We have a lot to talk about. We want to bring in Jennifer Granholm. She's the former governor of Michigan and senior adviser to Correct the Record. And CNN political commentator Corey Lewandowski, former Trump campaign manager, who is still receiving severance from the Trump campaign, and he's chair of the New Hampshire delegation at the Republican convention. Welcome...
JENNIFER GRANHOLM, SENIOR ADVISOR, CORRECT THE RECORD: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: ... to both of you.
Governor, how much attention is the Hillary Clinton campaign or Hillary Clinton herself paying to what's being said here at the RNC?
GRANHOLM: They're paying attention, for sure. I mean, the -- certainly, Correct the Record was putting out all sorts of rebuttals all night long.
And a lot of it was around the issues of -- you know, this is just a hint. If you are helping to put a convention together, and you are writing people's speeches or checking them, you should check to see whether fact checkers have already determined that that thing you are saying is a total lie.
[06:10:05] And the number of lies, as determined by objective fact checkers last night, was astonishing.
CAMEROTA: Meaning the stuff that Chris Christie was saying? Give us an example. GRANHOLM: Chris Christie. I mean, so here's an example.
So Chris Christie talks about Boko Haram, blaming Hillary Clinton, essentially, for the rise of Boko Haram. She put the leaders of Boko Haram on the terrorist watch list. He says, basically, that she caused the response to be a hashtag Twitter campaign: #BringBackOurGirls. Well, the attack by Boko Haram occurred after she left office. That Twitter hashtag campaign occurred in 2014, and she left in 2013.
Bottom line, I mean, there's simple things like that.
The stuff about her wanting to abolish the Second Amendment, take your guns away. Fact checkers repeatedly saying that is a lie. They continue to allow those stuff -- that stuff to happen.
And not just that. The other hint is, if you have a theme for the night, a theme, like "Make America work again"...
CAMEROTA: Yes.
GRANHOLM: ... have people talk about the theme.
CUOMO: Well, here's the thing. When it comes to court, you only know what you show. When it comes to politics, it is real if you make people feel.
And in that room last night, people feel that Hillary Clinton represents everything that's wrong with government. Is that the aim: to go heavy on her and that will, as a by-product, make Trump the choice of this party?
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, look, Donald Trump is the choice of the party. Last night he secured the nomination after 13 months of running his first time. It's been an historic rise; it's a movement. And what you know last night is, if you were to poll that room, there's not one person in that room, not one delegate who's voting for Hillary Clinton come November.
The party is clearly unified here. Donald Trump is the Republican nominee. He is the best candidate. He's a candidate who's actually going to fundamentally change Washington. And the difference is the American people want a change.
The American people are fed up. Thirty years of Republicans and Democrats failing to create jobs and to get things done in Washington have helped lead to the rise of Donald Trump and this brand of take back America, put America first, remember that we're the greatest country in the world. And that is what is driving this narrative, and those people last night in that convention hall are completely unified in making sure that Hillary Clinton is not the president of the United States.
GRANHOLM: But the rest of the Republican Party is not.
LEWANDOWSKI: That's not true. That's not true. GRANHOLM: All this leadership that was not there.
LEWANDOWSKI: I don't think there's one Republican elected office holder in this country that's voting for Hillary Clinton. Not one.
GRANHOLM: Well, last night, it is true that it was a fantastic case of serious Clinton Derangement Syndrome. There is no doubt that people were all about hating Hillary Clinton. A hundred and 15 mentions of Hillary Clinton, 65 mentions of Donald Trump. Thirteen speeches against Hillary Clinton, six speeches in favor of Donald Trump.
But that's not the economic platform, and there was nothing.
CAMEROTA: What about that, Corey? I mean, what about that? That they do seem to -- it is the anti- -- last night was the anti-Hillary convention rather than the jobs plan.
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, so we're going to have the pro-Trump convention next week? Do we think the Democrats' is going to be any different? Next week is going to be the pro-Trump rally in Philadelphia?
I mean, look...
GRANHOLM: We're not saying pro.
LEWANDOWSKI: Here's the difference. Right? What you have is you're talking to the Republican base right now, and you're talking to the American audience. And what you saw last night was the case laid out by Donald Trump Jr. and by Tiffany about the type of person that their father is that most of the American people don't understand because of the relationship that they had. That's a very positive message. They have great surrogates.
Chris Christie laid out a very clear message of why Hillary Clinton is not right for our country moving forward, based on her past performance. Not anything she may do in the future, but her past performance. And that's very indicative of future performance.
So I think what you saw last night was a message of "Here's the father that I know. Here's the person that I know. Here's the relationship that I've built that many Americans don't know." And Chris Christie laid out that message of, "Here is her job performance in the past and why she should not be elevated moving forward."
GRANHOLM: But why -- why not, though, use the opportunity last night to put forward some specifics about an economic plan? There was not one mention of Manufacturing last night. There was not one mention of training.
LEWANDOWSKI: I don't -- I don't think the Clinton campaign wants to talk about TPP and the number of times she's changed her position on this. I think everyone was very clear...
GRANHOLM: I'm asking about last night, Trump's positions. There was nothing about his policy. LEWANDOWSKI: So let's wait until Thursday night...
GRANHOLM: OK.
LEWANDOWSKI: ... when Donald Trump gets up and makes his speech. And my guess is Hillary Clinton will not be speaking Monday night at her convention and Tuesday night at her convention.
CUOMO: You guys aren't putting out a ton of policy ads either, though, Governor.
GRANHOLM: We -- go to the website, hon.
CUOMO: No, but who goes to the website?
GRANHOLM: I'm saying that you've got to have...
CUOMO: The commercials that you put out and what Clinton says on the stump and when she does interviews...
GRANHOLM: Absolutely not.
CUOMO: ... Trump is dangerous; Trump can't be president.
GRANHOLM: No, no.
CUOMO: I mean, negative works very well. That's why you do it.
GRANHOLM: She has a huge number of very specific policies on how to create jobs. You just had the head of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on, because she has put out very specific policies.
CUOMO: He couldn't give me one thing that she's done in the past that justifies the endorsement. He said, "She listened to us. She was born in a small business." And then all the other things he said was, "I don't like what Trump says about Hispanics." Now, he says it wasn't based on that, but that's all he talked about.
GRANHOLM: Well...
[06:15:06] LEWANDOWSKI: The bottom line is Hillary Clinton has never created a job in the private sector. We know that. She's never created one job in the private sector. She's had her entire career...
GRANHOLM: OK, all right...
LEWANDOWSKI: ... in the public sector. And you can't say that about Donald Trump. He's created tens of thousands of jobs, including employing thousands of Hispanics at his business today.
GRANHOLM: And what we do know about Donald Trump's plans, as they are, Moody's Analytics has said that they would cost 3.5 million jobs in America. It would put us into a recession.
So I mean, hers on the other hand, her specifics about small business, about creating access to capital, about providing incentives for small businesses to come into urban areas, her specifics about creating clean-energy jobs, very specific plans.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
GRANHOLM: For poor Donald Trump, there just doesn't appear to be anything there.
CAMEROTA: Corey...
LEWANDOWSKI: The difference is you're being bought and paid for by Wall Street, so you're going to go and take the $40 million that they've given to the Clinton campaign and say, "Hey, look, we'll put that into play."
GRANHOLM: That is so ridiculous.
CAMEROTA: I do want to just touch on one thing that happened yesterday about Melania, possibly her speech seemed to be plagiarized from Michelle Obama's. You said on our air that whoever was responsible should be fired for that.
Donald Trump responded to your comments. So let me play these for you and our viewers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP JR.: There's a reason Paul is in the position that he is today and Corey's not. And it's not because Paul is amateur hour. It has nothing to do with that.
I mean, listen, I understand, he's not here anymore. You want to try to maintain relevance. You want to be on TV. You want to do these things. I think that this point, you know, that's not a service to the campaign. I think it's nonsense. I've heard that other people ask, "Oh, is the family on the outs with Paul?" Total nonsense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: OK, sorry. That was Donald Trump Jr.
So do you still believe that Paul Manafort was -- should be responsible for overseeing that?
LEWANDOWSKI: Here's what I've said, and I want to be very clear about this. If the staff makes a mistake, and it is unfortunate that that mistake was made, whether it was a writer or whoever put this speech together, those final touches, I think that person should be held accountable. And at the end of the day, someone should be held accountable.
And I think Melania gave an amazing speech two nights ago. She delivered it. She looked stunning. She's so smart; she's so articulate. And the fact that, unfortunately, there was some type of small controversy around it is disappointing to me, because Melania, that was her first opportunity to be introduced to the American public. And I think they fell in love with her, and she's going to make an amazing first lady. And so all I said was, if a staffer made that mistake and should have
caught that, they should have been held accountable for that.
CAMEROTA: Got it. Paul, Governor, thank you.
GRANHOLM: Great. Thanks.
CAMEROTA: I mean, Corey.
LEWANDOWSKI: You can call me Paul.
CAMEROTA: It's too early.
CUOMO: No Danish for you.
CAMEROTA: I need a Danish. Blood sugar.
Coming up in our next hour, we'll talk with Dr. Ben Carson about his speech last night. He said lots of interesting things. He'll be here.
CUOMO: Let's take a little break. We need some blood sugar. You just heard it.
We know the brashness of Donald Trump, but his children presented a different side of him. If you say, "Oh, well, they are his kids," yes, but who is your legacy in this life if you're a parent? Your children. How much did they help? The panel weighs in next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:22:01] CUOMO: Family, very potent in politics, and the Trump family affair continues here in Cleveland. You have Donald Trump's son, Eric, taking the podium. Last night, Trump's oldest son and youngest daughter took center stage. The question is, how did they help in terms of softening the image of their father? Let's discuss.
We have CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic," professor Ron Brownstein; CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis; and CNN political analyst and host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast, David Gregory.
Let's bounce to the other side. Professor, you're new to the panel today.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.
CUOMO: What do you think, Ron? Family matters, the kids count in politics. They are -- he is uniquely blessed with children, Donald Trump. How much did they help him last night?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, the character witness aspect is important. But I thought Donald Trump Jr.'s speech was more than that. It, in effect, was the closest thing to a keynote speech that we have gotten and are likely to get at this convention. And the most interesting -- I thought it was the most interesting
speech of the convention so far, with its very conscious class signaling, you know, talking about how he learned more from people at the bottom of the pyramid than people at the top, more about street smarts than book smarts. This is for a candidate whose base is blue- collar white America, who on the other hand is struggling with white- collar white America.
I would say, though, it is also informative that it was his son who had to, in effect, deliver the keynote speech; and the fact there was no other prominent Republican they could put in that role is revealing at -- revealing, as well.
Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan each spoke last night without endorsing any specific element, signature element of Donald Trump's program that he ran on.
DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Ron and I, as we were walking the convention hall the other day, were talking to Republicans who were making the point that the Republican leadership in Congress wants to make very clear they have a policy agenda for America that is their agenda in Congress that is separate from what a President Trump might actually do. They want to hold onto those reins of power and hold onto that responsibility.
And I think the point about Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., giving this kind of keynote address, it is -- you know, what did he call him, the blue-collar billionaire?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
GREGORY: So much of this convention so far has been about tearing down Hillary Clinton, a way to achieve party unity, but he has got to, meaning Donald Trump, he has got to build himself up in the minds of voters who have a lot of questions about his -- his competency, his temperament, the level of risk he represents in high office. And again, I thought Donald Trump Jr. did a lot to answer some of that.
CAMEROTA: Errol, your impressions?
ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he managed to do that, but without talking about something like trade. I mean, how much have we heard about trade from Donald Trump? From the moment he came down the escalator and announced a year ago, it was always about the wall and Mexico and we're getting beat, we're getting treated like children or dogs or whatever the metaphor he used is, by China, Mexico, by this country, by that country. Nobody last night got up, not even his son, got up and really sort of explained what's going to happen.
[06:25:06] And normally, when you're arguing for a policy, you say, "Well, it was done in the '50s" or "It was done in the '60s" or "It was done in this place or that place, and we've seen it in microcosm, and we know that it will work." Nobody seems to understand where Trump's coming from on these...
GREGORY: Yes. LOUIS: ... this key cluster of issues, enough to take a chance on standing and explaining it.
GREGORY: It's an incredible blank slate, right? It's like there's all these things wrong. This guy can fix these things. But whether it's foreign affairs or whether it's trade, it's just, well, we're not exactly sure what's...
BROWNSTEIN: And last night -- last night was jobs night, right? And we really got through the entire evening without any kind of extended conversation about what he was going to do.
CUOMO: Isn't there an instruction in the obvious? Why didn't he have to make the case, and he in the collective sense. Why didn't those who are supporting him here at the convention have to make the case for what to do about jobs? Because their case is she won't. She won't, dot, dot, dot, is their case about every single issue.
BROWNSTEIN: The trajectory we're on is that there will be ten times as many private sector jobs created in the eight years of Obama as in the eight years of George W. Bush. Ten to one.
CUOMO: Nobody believes it.
BROWNSTEIN: That's -- that's literally true.
CUOMO: But nobody believes it.
BROWNSTEIN: OK. Donald -- if Donald Trump -- Donald Trump is, you know -- so far in the convention, what they have tried to do is kind of bolster him personally, which makes sense, right, because he is facing historically high unfavorables. Sixty percent in the latest ABC/"Washington Post," they don't consider him qualified to be president. What they have not done, as David said, is give any kind of sense of his agenda.
And in fact, when you have McConnell and Ryan speak without embracing any of the signature plans. Not a single speaker has yet spoken, as far as I know, from the podium and said, "Donald Trump is promising to deport 12 million -- 11 million undocumented immigrants." Even Jeff Sessions didn't bring that up.
So there's a lot in his agenda that they seem to not feel that they can put under the footlights -- you know, under the head -- in the spotlight, and it will be interesting to see in these last 48 hours whether they get more of the policies...
CAMEROTA: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: ... that he ran on.
CAMEROTA: Let's talk about what's going to happen tonight. We do have the roster of speakers. Maybe we can pull that up for everybody. In particular, we know that Mike Pence, vice-presidential choice, will be speaking. What does he have to do? GREGORY: Well, I think, you know, Pence has to somehow send a message
to conservatives that this guy is OK, that Donald Trump is OK. More subtly, he has to try to say to the country that still doesn't know him on a national level that he's prepared to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. I think that part is true.
And I think, to Ron's point, he's got to be somebody who can actually stand up and say, "This is an agenda worth voting for," not just against somebody else, but that Trump is worth voting for.
What we've seen so far from Pence is just such a big divide between what he actually believes and stands for, whether it's on trade or supporting the Iraq War, and where Donald Trump is.
CUOMO: But how much, Errol, can he run away from the obvious currency here? Which is, you know, obviously, Ron is right when he say what jobs have been created, but people don't believe it. And that's the currency here.
She did knowingly send e-mails that were classified to people who were uncleared. That's what they believe in there. The economy stinks. Everybody hates us. The country is about to be attacked. That's the mood in this country beyond the convention hall. Does he have to echo that?
LOUIS: Well, if that's the mood that he's going to try and strike, he has to get it right. I mean, you know, some of what we've seen over the last couple days has been very loud, very angry.
They've actually staged this in such a way that Pence is going to be the final speaker. So he is the culmination of the entire night. There's going to be a lot of what you just described leading up to him. He's going to have to make a decision. Does he go and sort of try to be the angriest guy in an already angry room? Or does he try and achieve something a little bit higher, something a little bit broader, something that's going to sort of carry out to...
GREGORY: Remember who's watching. I mean, sext week we're going to be in Pennsylvania. There's a lot of, you know, white-collar Republicans who are now kind of evenly split between Trump and Clinton.
LOUIS: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: Real quick, I think it's a very clear yardstick for this convention. And it is that poll number that the ABC/"Washington Post" and others had. Sixty percent say they do not think he is qualified to be president. You can drive Hillary Clinton's negatives up to 120 percent this week, but if you can't change that number, it's hard to call this week a success.
CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you.
All right. Well, Donald Trump is now officially the GOP nominee of his party, but after a long struggle to unite, is the Republican Party really standing together? Ahead, we have former presidential candidate Rick Santorum to join us with his thoughts.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
