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Bill Clinton Delivers Impassioned Speech; Second Night of Convention Shows Hillary Clinton's Softer Side. Aired 6-6:30a ET.

Aired July 27, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Now one for the history books. No matter what your political strike, she is the first woman to win a major party's nomination.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So, hours after his wife put that crack in the glass ceiling, as she phrased it, Former President Bill Clinton delivered a very impassioned speech about their relationship. He highlighted their love story and her commitment to serving others. So we have it all covered for you (inaudible) again with CNN's Michelle Kosinski, she's live inside the convention hall. Michelle?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn. Right, history was made here last night. Not only was this floor full of emotion, there was all kinds of emotion, right. I mean, you had those votes that won Hillary Clinton the nomination. You had the passion of Bernie Sanders' supporters. And then you had Former President Bill Clinton delivering his own historic speech. This wasn't the Bill Clinton we usually see, talking about the issues. This was him telling a story about his wife for his wife, her public service. And he ran through virtually her entire life, starting with the moment they met.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: In the spring of 1971, I met a girl.

KOSINSKI: And that's how it began, Bill Clinton's speech and his lifelong admiration for Hillary. On her night, that has shaped American history, sealing the democratic nomination. Sanders supporters still passionate about their candidate but amid the walkouts and upset, he called for it to end, just as she did for Barack Obama in 2008.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (D), FORMER US PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States.

KOSINSKI: But Bill Clinton's job here was to take everyone back, way back to how they first met.

B. CLINTON: She walked the whole length of the library, came up to me, and said, "Look, if you're going to keep staring at me and now I'm staring back, we at least ought to know each other's name. I'm Hillary Rodham. Who are you?" KOSINSKI: With humor and moments, the emotion seen in the eyes of daughter Chelsea, Clinton spoke of their life together, the three times he addressed Hillary to marry him.

B. CLINTON: When I said, you know how she like. She said, yeah. I said, "While you were gone, I bought it. You have to marry me now." The third time was the charm.

KOSINSKI: This address that was far different from how we've seen him on the trail, when the times he's tangled with protesters.

B. CLINTON: You are defending the people who killed the lives you say matter.

KOSINSKI: This centered on the things about Hillary Clinton's life that many may have forgotten in the heat.

CROWDS: This is what democracy looks like.

KOSINSKI: The controversy.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I should have used two different e-mail accounts. And I've said that that was a mistake. I'm sorry.

KOSINSKI: The endless battles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lying, crooked Hillary.

KOSINSKI: Of this campaign season like no other. Bill Clinton, whose favorability rating is generally higher than his wife's, came to remind them.

B. CLINTON: She is still the best darn change maker I have ever known.

KOSINSKI: Telling the crowd it was Hillary who inspired him to public service, Hillary who encouraged him to run for office again after he was voted out as governor. But he also told the story of Hillary the determined mother, the working mother who kept fighting to do things her own mother could have only dreamed.

B. CLINTON: This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything.

KOSINSKI: And then he took on the contrast between Clinton the candidate and her opponent Donald Trump, who's gone after both Clintons.

B. CLINTON: What's the difference in what I told you and what they said? How do you square it? You can't. A real change maker represents a real threat. Your only option is to create a cartoon, a cartoon alternative. Then run against the cartoon. Good for you because earlier today you nominated the real woman.

KOSINSKI: Her response to it all came at the end via satellite from New York.

H. CLINTON: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: So tonight President Obama has a task of following not only his wife but Bill Clinton. And we know he's going to focus on unity, not just democratic unity, but national unity, and he's going to try to counter what he sees as the dark message put forward by Republicans, Chris and Alisyn?

CUOMO: All right, Michelle. This was the biggest moment of the convention so far, the effort to make Hillary something more than her negatives.

[06:05:00] And who did it, maybe one of the best case makers in chief, Bill Clinton. The question is how effective was he?

Let's bring in CNN political analyst and Washington Bureau Chief of "The daily Beast", Jackie Kucinich. And CNN political analyst and editor-in-chief of "The Daily Beast" John Avlon, and CNN political analyst and a Senior editor and the beast of his own right when working in "The Atlantic", the professor, Ron Brownstein.

So, what did he try to do last night? She is the best because of what she does and because of who she is. Let's start with that. Here is Former President Bill Clinton talking about Hillary Clinton in a way he almost never does, personally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

B.CLINTON: 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 make up. And she exuded the sense of strength in 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 be just another tap on the shoulder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Now, they obviously spent a lot of time figuring out how to storytell of this Jackie, its impact emotionally and politically?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: There was talk - It was going to be a very personal speech that Bill Clinton is giving and it was about her. It wasn't about Bill Clinton at all. But this shows that, you know, Hillary Clinton have this humble beginnings and is a human who fell in love and, you know, that they really - their love story is a critical part of her narrative. And he really felt - he loved to know her a little better through that speech, through the eye of Bill Clinton.

CAMEROTA: John, how did Bill Clinton do in his first rollout as sort of first spouse if that were to happen?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He succeeded in making it not all about him, which is difficult for Bill Clinton. And this was an uncommonly personal and even at times poetic reminiscence like, in the spring of 1971, I met a girl. That is not your typical convention speech beginning. And so that mission was humanize Hillary, right. And then the second mission of the speech was show, for folks who are angry at the status quo that Hillary Clinton can be your champion, that's the more difficult to-do-list. And that's why that phrase change maker was so heated Bill Clinton.

CUOMO: There's another box though professor...

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah.

CUOMO: ... which is her negatives, OK. We're going to play the sound of Bill making the case that she's a change maker, but let's not forget the other box because he didn't mention it.

AVLON: No

CUOMO: Her negatives, 68 percent say she can't be trusted. The e- mail scandal is at the top of the list for why. No mention of it at this convention so far. And I get it. The conventional wisdom that you don't talk about it, you only do the best case. But what's the reality?

BROWNSTEIN: He has another reason, which is if they think the antidote to that is not necessarily head on attacking honesty and integrity, you know, Bill Clinton was re-elected in 1996, on the day he was re-elected in the exit poll, a majority of the public said they did not believe he was honest and trustworthy. And the reason he won comfortably nonetheless is because they believed he cared about people like them. They believed he was in politics for the right reason.

And last night I thought the hall was great into some of the parts. There was no individual speech that was nearly as compelling as Michelle Obama's on Monday night but there was extraordinary messaged discipline for three hours essentially around those six words. "She cares about people like you". That was the summary of the whole night. And that is what they consider the antidote to the trustworthy numbers, which are very hard to change. But if people believe that she's in this because she wants to make a difference in their lives, maybe they cut you a slacker on the other front.

AVLON: And the deep fundamental contrast with Donald Trump as they're creating it. She has fought for people like you her whole life. He has looked out for himself his whole life. That's the flow through of the message discipline and contrast.

CAMEROTA: OK, so let's listen to Bill Clinton try to make the case that she is the change maker in this race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

B. CLINTON: She's insatiably curious. She's a natural leader. She's a good organizer and she is the best darn change maker I ever met in my entire life. This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything. She always wants to move the ball forward. That is just who she is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So, Jackie, how did he do at to proving that she's actually the sort of renegade in this race, not the status quo?

KUCINICH: Well, one of the struggles that Hillary Clinton had throughout the primary was that she's a pragmatist, but she does - that she takes little incremental, so she'll take a deal. She will work with other people. So it is - and so this is kind of a bigger way of saying that. And you're absolutely right though, that's been a struggle that she's not the revolutionary he's going to throw it out, all out.

[06:10:06] But, you know, so yeah, Bill Clinton definitely made that case. Whether or not it resonated, we'll have to see.

CUOMO: But it's not just about predisposition. It's about reality. She has been there during this war that brought us ISIS. She was there, the Iran deal. She was there, the Russian Reset. She was there at Benghazi, she was there. The e-mails are hers. That's what they have to try to diffuse.

AVLON: Yeah, they've got to try to diffuse that, but they're going to try to do it by making a positive case for her engagement in the major fights of our times. Education, health care, Hillary was there. Yes, the fight from 2008, that deep campaign against Barack Obama, but also as Secretary of State as Senator 9/11, the Arm Service Committee by stitching together that narrative and saying look, in the major fights of our times, Hillary Clinton was there. She is not perfect, but she cares and she's in this for the right reasons. That's the argument they've got advantage.

CAMEROTA: He was also reality check, Bill Clinton was afterwards by CNN because he tried to make the case that she was there on some of these fights that are so important, for instance, LGBT and she wasn't. In 2008, she was against gay marriage. So some of the things that you just said ...

AVLON: No, she trailed Rob Portman from Ohio, Republican. He was out in favor of marriage equality before she was.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, but look, I mean, I think John's point from before is, and that's right and I -- but I think John's point from before is very important which is that if you look at the personal attributes where Donald Trump is consistently had the biggest lead over Hillary Clinton on, is on bringing change to Washington. I mean, she leads on things like qualifications, reflects your values but on bringing change, she has struggled. And Bill Clinton tried to make the point that not only is she committed to change but she's effective at bringing change. She knows how to make the system work because certainly I think the -- at the core of the sense of the country being on the wrong track, a big part of it is that the political system simply is not capable of dealing with the problems that we face.

And so that was a big, you know, it was -- we shouldn't underestimate how much of the personal information as well was new to people, right? And that is one of the striking things about the convention, just simply the engagement with individuals. For example, the 9/11 survivor who I thought was the single best speech of the night. The sustained engagement in her life, that's a facet of Hillary Clinton that I think most people would have been surprised to learn.

CAMEROTA: We are going to play some of that sound in our next segment but one of the things that kept coming out, that people kept mentioning, and I hadn't heard this before either and thought it was effective. Jackie, I want to get your take is people kept saying and when the cameras weren't around and she came alone, she came by herself, and she comforted me. And I think

that they were trying to telegraph like, you know, so many people think she is calculating and she does things for political expediency all the time. And so they kept having this message. No, she's one on one with people.

KUCINICH: When you hear that from the campaign. We talked about this little earlier with (inaudible) you hear this from the campaign all the time, you just don't know her. You don't know what she's like behind closed doors. You don't know what she's like when she's just in a hospital room with someone. She needs to show that to the voters. It's not their -- people are telling us this over and over again until she shows that, it's going to be hard for the voter to believe that and that's the bottom line.

CUOMO: Sometimes politics echoes real life. And when it does is in the measure of who somebody is. Somebody has to own what they do wrong in order for you to believe that they can do right. That's the way we work as people. That has not happened in this convention yet. We're seeing the best version of Hillary Clinton put out there and it can be very compelling, but do they need to address why her negatives are so high in a more real way? That's one of the challenges.

CAMEROTA: Marinate on that, the panel. We'll be back with you.

CUOMO: Discuss.

AVLON: Yeah.

CAMEROTA: The second night of the convention featured speeches from all sorts of people. And they we're meant to show Hillary Clinton's softer side, as we've been talking about, including powerful words from the mothers who lost children to gun violence and confrontations with police. CNN's Manu Raju joins us now with more on that, Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this is all part of that effort to sort of reintroduce Hillary Clinton to the American voters a challenge given how well known she is. And the fact that polls show that voters simply don't trust her, it's always seven in 10 viewer as not trustworthy with her according to that new CNN ORC poll but they also wanted to show her as someone who has been responsive and impacted when times got tough. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENEVA REED-VEAL, MOTHER OF SANDRA BLAND: She knows that when a young Black life is cut short, it's not just a loss. It's a personal loss. It's a national loss. What a blessing tonight to be standing here so that Sandy can still speak through her mama.

RAJU: The Mothers of the Movement uniting to endorse Hillary Clinton on the national stage. Nine mothers showing strength in numbers after losing their sons and daughters to gun violence and racial injustice, each of them recalling details of a private meeting they had with Clinton after their lives changed forever.

[06:15:02] LUCIA MCBATH, MOTHER OF JORDAN DAVIS: 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 heart.

RAJU: Framing Clinton as a criminal justice reformer.

SYBRINA FULTON: This isn't about being politically correct. This is about saving our children. That's why we are here tonight with Hillary Clinton.

RAJU: First responders and this 9/11 survivor talking about Clinton's personal commitment after the attacks.

LAUREN MANNING, 9/11 SURVIVOR: Hillary showed up. She walked into my hospital room, and she took my bandaged hand into her own. For years she visited, called, and continues to check in because Hillary cares. When I needed her, she was there. She was there for me, and that's why I'm with her.

RAJU: California Senator Barbara Boxer opening up about Clinton as a devoted family member and friend of more than 20 years.

SEN. BARBARA BOXER, (D), CALIFORNIA: I know her as the loving aunt who helped plan my grandson's birthday parties when he was so just a little toddler. And I saw her rush over after a busy day at the state department to cheer him on at his high school football games.

RAJU: A night of testimonials aimed at humanizing the Democratic nominee and quelling the tensions from Bernie Sanders supporters on the second day of the convention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, they worked hard. We got to show a little class and let them be frustrated for a while. It's OK. They're all going to end up voting for Hillary. You think any of these guys are going to walk in and vote for Trump?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, this comes in sharp contrast to the Republican convention where Donald Trump really emphasized the fact that he would be the, "law and order candidate" that's something that he emphasized last night also in an interview. And Donald Trump as he just tweeted about the Democratic convention, saying the Democratic convention has paid zero respect to the great police and law enforcement professionals of our country, no recognition, sad. Chris?

CUOMO: All right. Donald Trump will not be silenced. He wants to weigh in this week and what kind of points he will make. Manu Raju, thank you very much.

Let's take a little break. When we come back, we'll take a little bit of a closer look at the high points of emotion that were here. That's very powerful for people. That's how we connect just through emotion. So, were the speakers able to move the needle for Hillary Clinton on an emotional level? We'll dig deeper.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:01] CAMEROTA: There were emotional moments at the DNC last night. Mothers who lost their children to gun violence as well as 9/11 survivors and also First Responders, they explained why they are all supporting Hillary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE SWEENEY, NYPD DETECTIVE ON 9/11: I'm proud of every day that I serve my city and my country. But I'm especially proud that I served on our worst day. When we needed someone to speak for us, to stand with us, to fight on our behalf, Hillary Clinton was there every step of the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right. Let's bring back our panel to discuss this. We have Jackie Kucinich, Ron Brownstein, also joining us CNN correspondent Phil Mattingly. Ron what did you think about that moment? Was that designed to say Hillary Clinton supports the victims but she also supports the police.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, no, I think it was. I mean, that was one of the better moments of the night. I think, you know, that they've had a lot of messaged discipline. I mean, Monday night was unity, bringing the left back in, kind of making them feel welcome. And when we glossed over that, how that continued on Tuesday, with Bernie Sanders in a very emotional movement, moving by acclamation.

Tuesday night has been about Hillary Clinton cares about people like you. But I think, you know, the core of the two days have really been more about inclusion and opportunity. I mean, if you are watching this, you would think that the primary priority of the Democratic Party is kind of building an America in which all are welcome. There's been much less talk about making the economy work for average people, hardly any. I mean, that's something that's kind of out there for the last 48 hours. And I think what you saw there, in addition to kind of standing with the police was a guy who kind of a blue-collar affect. You know, there really not been a lot of that.

There was one point on Monday night where Cory Booker, Stanford, Yale gave way to Michelle Obama, you know, Princeton, Harvard who gave way to Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Law School. And, you know, part of the challenge that Democrats face obviously in your own polling for example that with Republican commission all of the movement was among blue-collar whites away from Hillary Clinton, for Donald Trump. They don't have to win in blue-collar whites but they can't get annihilated with them. And I think finding way to kind of talk about them in the context of this diverse Democratic Party is something that's still on the table for the last 48 hours.

CUOMO: One of the reasons, it wasn't a coincidence that right before Cory Booker was the memorial of pop, my father, who is, you know, is obviously is blue-collar Democrat as you get.

Now Phil, there's a plus-minus to what they're trying to do with Hillary Clinton. The plus is she's not just what you say about her, she's what she has done. The minus is that part of the opposition on her is what has she ever done? She's been in government so far but what has she done. So how did it play out last night?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORREPSONDENT: Bill Clinton taking that head on in terms of calling her the best darn agent of change that he's ever seen. It's a difficult argument to make. And it was kind of a very new way of doing, right? She is a change maker because she was able to force change or still take change inside the government, which is always gridlocked and never seems to work.

And I thought the 9/11 aspects of things, such a visceral moment in the country's history is a raw moment still even 16, 17 years later.

[06:25:01] It was kind of one of her premiere moments as somebody who could get something done in the U.S. Senate, for the state of New York, having speakers come up and talk about that, kind of testified to what she was able to do there, was probably one of the more effective moments of the entire night.

But still, making that case that inside government ...

CUOMO: You don't think Hillary when you think 9/11. You think Rudy Giuliani.

BROWNSTEIN: Jabs at Giuliani were no worthy of that. The sound of Giuliani saying the air is safe. All right, twice they had it and she was playing off against him, and almost as he was the antagonist.

KUCINICH: You know, the thing about Hillary Clinton in the Senate, there's two kinds of senators, right? There's kind of the show horse and there's the work horse. Hillary Clinton was known as a work horse in the Senate. She got to put her head down. She wasn't really -- you didn't really see her talking to reporters a lot. So to your point, yet you didn't see Hillary Clinton a lot in 9/11 because that's why you have this First Responder talking about what she did do because she wasn't out there in front and really in front of the cameras. She was with her constituents.

CAMEROTA: Ron, what about the speeches -- the emotional speeches by the moms who had lost their children, either to excessive force by police or to gun violence? You know, this is such a polarizing issue right now. Were their emotional pleas helpful? Or did it somehow suggest that Hillary Clinton emphasized them over blue lives.

BROWNSTEIN: So, I thought they were very powerful, obviously. And, you know, tragedies that any family can relate to and that no parent wants to have to as one mother said, I didn't sign -- I didn't want to enlist for this and I think everyone could relate to that. I think what is different about this than the 1960's and, you know, and the frame that Trump is building of law and order verse this kind of attack on the police is that as compared to the 1960's, I think most Americans don't believe they have to choose a side and don't want to choose a side. They believe both things can be true that you can support the police and the police should treat African-American and other low-income communities with more respect.

And most people, I think, reject the idea of duality. The Republicans clearly, these are one sided. Democrats probably leaned a little too far for the other side last night. But in the end, I think most Americans are looking for a leadership that kind of bring the -- do not believe those two things are incompatible, that you can have public safety and treat all communities with fairness. And in that way, I think it is different than the way Donald Trump is kind of envisioning it in that Richard Nixon frame from 1968, sirens in the night in the Nixon speech where there clearly were two opposing camps. I think most people like rather now would have one camp.

CUOMO: Well then let's discuss the disconnect here because there obviously is one Phil, let's, you know, Ron is right, right? There should be no sides in this. But there are. There are consistently sides. Last week we saw a side, last night we saw a side. And the Democrats aren't going to like that. They're going to say it wasn't a side last night. These are moms saying that she's there for her. It's still a side. So if everybody wants to be no side, how come we keep seeing sides?

MATTINGLY: I think when you look at last week, Donald Trump doesn't believe he needs to apologize for taking a side on this, right? This week what you saw last night was Hillary Clinton's camp trying to thread the needle, trying to hit both and sometimes sitting in that middle ground can only get you in trouble with both sides.

I think it is so enflamed right now and what we see in the look, the political dialogue just in general is inflamed and has been heading more and more in that direction for the better part of the less decade. That trying to thread a needle only seems to get you in trouble. And no one's really been able to figure out how do we exactly do that yet. But I think what David Axelrod said last night was a valid point. Why didn't you put the widows of the police officers up there as well? Maybe that would have --

CUOMO: But I don't like that visual either because then it seems like, well, we brought the two sides together to this.

CAMEROTA: What's wrong with that?

CUOMO: Because there shouldn't be any side. This is about just valuing life and having a justice system that works.

CAMEROTA: OK, well let's get there after bringing two sides together. I mean, you know --

CUOMO: It still means there's sides. That's my confusion on it but I take your point.

CAMEROTA: We're going to figure this out before 9:00 a.m. I guess there's that much. Panel, thank you very much.

So, the release of the hacked DNC e-mails leading to questions of whether Russia is actively trying to affect the outcome of the U.S. presidential race.

[06:28:58] So, what is President Obama saying about this? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)