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At This Hour

1st Donald Trump Speech after Winning GOP Nomination. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired July 22, 2016 - 11:00   ET

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


[11:00:00]

TRUMP: So, here's the story. The press takes that, and they say, "Donald Trump and his conspiracy theories; he went out and said his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald, and he assassinated the president." What did I do?

So two things. Those were the two points. So in those two points, he said about the endorsement -- and I just had it cleared up. I think I'm doing the right thing in doing it, but I have to do it. Number one, the Heidi thing you understand now. Number two, I know nothing about his father. I know nothing about Lee Harvey Oswald. But there was a picture on the front page of the National Inquirer, which does have credibility, and they're not going to do pictures like that because they get sued for a lot of money if things are wrong, OK, a lot of money.

And there was a picture. And that's the only thing I know. So now, they use the two things as the reason he won't support. Let me tell you something. We, if for no other reason, if people really dislike me, and I don't think they do any more after the four days. Hey look, if I have kids that like me that much, how bad can I be, right, right?

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

And they love their daddy. I was a good father. But I have smart children and good children. And I'm getting a lot of credit. I think they were the star of the convention. Mike, I think they saved us. I think they saved us, Mike. But no, my children were really -- and they're saying, people are saying that, they were the star -- the real stars of the convention. Everyone of them -- they were -- I was so proud of them. I mean, it was such a great thing.

But to finish, this was an amazing period of time. This was an amazing convention. I just heard a number -- is Dan Scavino there? Come up, Dan, for a second. I just -- Dan Scavino. You might have seen him on Twitter and Facebook. You know what he is? He's a Facebook, Twitter junky. This guy -- that was the first time I've seen him look up in seven months. He's always looking down.

(LAUGHTER)

Nobody knows Facebook and Twitter and that stuff better than Dan. Why don't you give just a quick report because I hear the numbers are astronomical. Where do you hear these -- you know, we're dealing in a modern age. I hate to do this. A lot of people saying what's Facebook, what's -- unfortunately, we're dealing in a modern age.

How about giving a quick -- you want to hear this? Wait until you hear the numbers. You won't even believe them. Go ahead.

SCAVINO: Thank you, President Trump. This -- this is...

(APPLAUSE)

I've got to -- I have to tell you, #trumptrain. Is everybody out there? The Trump train is all here, right?

(APPLAUSE)

This is surreal for everybody that's part of the campaign. Twitter last night exploded. Facebook exploded. Instagram exploded. Did everybody see the videos on Mr. Trump's Twitter account, Instagram account, Facebook account? I mean, tens of millions of views. We had over 85 million views on just those videos in a four to five-day period, all right?

Almost half a million new followers on Facebook. Mr. Trump hit 10 million followers on Twitter.

TRUMP: Ten million.

(APPLAUSE)

SCAVINO: This -- this will never be done again. It's impossible to be done again with this man right here. It's absolutely impossible with his platforms. A total of 22.5 million followers between Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, 22.5 million.

(APPLAUSE)

I don't know how you do this every day. This is insane. Impressions on Twitter per month, over one billion impressions on Twitter.

(APPLAUSE)

And similar, the numbers are going to come out for Facebook, they're going to be probably in the billions. It's absolutely unheard of. So when Mr. Trump wants to get a message out, we get those videos out and things aren't necessarily working out with CNN or somebody, we can put it on his platform and get more views just on one of those social media accounts that Mr. Trump has, which is @realDonaldtrump on Twitter, Donald J. Trump on Facebook, RealDonaldTrump on Instagram.

And our next vice president of the United States is @mike_pence, OK? So please follow him as well. He has a governor account, but he's still the governor of Indiana so let's just try and follow him there, all right, give him some engagements. We're going to be pushing out a lot of messages for the campaign. There's a lot of people behind me. It's not only me; Brad Parscale, Justin McConney. This is -- there's a whole team. So we -- we love you. This is absolutely awesome to come out and talk to the #trumptrain. Let's make America great again. Thank you.

[11:05:00]

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: So one of my really good choices in life, although I'll confirm that in about three and a half months from now, but I believe truly it will be one of my really great decisions is picking Mike Pence to run along with me and to run for you (ph).

And so I'd like to ask Governor Pence from the great state of Indiana, and we love Indiana and Bobby Knight, who I love and Lou Holtz and you're wonderful -- you know, Gene from Purdue -- we have them all -- and Digger. We've got a lot of coaches out there. But these guys are great people and they love Mike and maybe Mike can say a few words. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

PENCE: We are so humbled and so grateful. Grateful to all of you, the volunteers, the people wearing the blue shirts, the people that brought about the most exciting political convention of my entire lifetime. Thank you for your extraordinary work, your tireless hours.

To all of those that did the work, that did the setup, that are doing the tear down now, thank you so much. Thank you so much for creating a place where we could celebrate the kind of leadership that America is embracing more and more every hour as we move toward the November election. But I just -- I just wanted to express a word of appreciation to all of you. All of you who came here, all of you who came alongside this good man and his family from early on in this campaign.

We're -- we're so excited to be a part of this team. My wonderful wife, Karen Pence, is with us today and we are hitting the campaign trail together.

(APPLAUSE)

And I can just tell you -- I can just tell you having spent time with this man and his family, having seen his ability to connect and speak for the American people, I say with absolute confidence if we work with all of our hearts for every day between now and election day, we will make Donald Trump the 45th president of the United States of America and we will make America great again.

Thank you and God bless you and let's go get it done.

(APPLAUSE) TRUMP: Thank you.

Just one thing I wanted to leave you with: Supreme Court justices.

(APPLAUSE) No matter how much you like or dislike, no matter what your feelings, whether you're the governor of Ohio, whether you're a senator from Texas or any of the other people that I beat so easily and so badly, you have no choice, you've got to go for Trump. Supreme Court justices. If Hillary Clinton gets it, she is going to replace -- and last night I called him our beloved Justice Scalia, he was great.

(APPLAUSE)

And we're going to get somebody as close to him and his views and philosophy as possible. Conservative, all the things you want, the things we stand for as a party. And I promise you that, and that's why I issued 11 names because being an outsider, they said oh, well we don't know, supposing you put up liberal judges. I say I have an idea, it's never been done before, you know we have a lot of ideas that people don't normally have, right?

I said I have an idea. In order to -- because I really just have no problem. They didn't know if they believed me, well we don't know what happens if we elect him and then he puts up liberal judges. By the way, our conservative Republican presidents haven't done so well with the judges, have they?

OK. I mean, we have Obamacare, should have been knocked out twice because of an appointment.

(APPLAUSE)

So we'll do better, we'll do much better. That's why I put out a list of 11 judges. But no matter what you think of Donald Trump, as a Republican, if that's what your philosophy is, if you're a great, great believer in the Constitution, you have no choice. Hate to say it.

[11:10:00]

Whether you're a hater or a lover, and by the way, last night I don't think there was one hater in that room. And that was packed.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: That was packed. There were no seats and those seats were selling for a lot of money on eBay. They were going for big numbers. In fact, I was thinking about taking 10 or 12 tickets and saying, "Let's go."

But they were selling for a lot of money. And it was amazing. So, just remember, Supreme Court justices.

I want to finish by this -- we've had some incredible support, because when I started everyone said, you know, some of these pundits that now say, "Oh, well, you can't do that, you can't" -- these were the same people that say, "well, if he runs -- but he won't run." I ran.

Then they said, "Oh," then they go, "But he won't win." Then I started off at 6 percent, which is pretty high because I was only there about two days. People forgot. So that was only two days, I didn't get the full backing.

Then it went to like 12, and then to 18. And every week they said, "Well, that's his ceiling. And he can't do more than that."

So we go from six -- right? These -- I saw them in the audience, those two. So we go from six, to 12 to 18 and every week they go, "Well, that's the ceiling." Charles Krauthammer, "They will not run, he will not run. And if he runs, he will just be doing it for fun."

This is not fun. This is a lot of work. OK. This is a lot of work, folks.

I didn't need this. This wasn't in exactly the schedule. But I saw how badly our country is doing and how easy it will be to bring back. Trade deals alone will make an impact like you won't believe. Money will come in. Jobs will come in.

And then you look at the military where it's so depleted, but we're taking care of other nations. And I want to continue to take care of other nations, there are a lot of good things about that, but they have to pay us. They have to pay us.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, I remember years ago, and I've always said, "Wow, I never quite understood it, " because they said, "The United States spends ten times the money on its military than anybody else in the world." I said -- I said, "Well, China has a big military, all these places. That's surprising." But, you know, I was building buildings and things, I never really gave it too much thought.

And then I realized, I remember -- I always remember, we spend so much more than anybody else. I said, how can that be? We're protecting everybody in the world. I mean, we're protecting all these nations, and these are rich nations and they're great nations.

Japan, they send their cars, they make a fortune, and then they don't pay us the amount that it costs. I don't want to make a profit. I want costs, pay us what it costs.

Maybe we can't get it. And if we can't -- see, you have to be prepared to walk. You have to. If you're not prepared to walk.

Hillary Clinton came out when she heard what I said about Japan. Japan is a very rich nation. Those cars are flowing in. They're rich because of us, if you think about it. OK. Those cars -- you go to Los Angeles, you see these massive ships. It looks like NASCAR.

By the way, thank you Brian France, owner of NASCAR. He endorsed Donald Trump. I love NASCAR! Richard Petty endorsed me. All -- a lot of the great drivers endorsed me. King Richard. But they -- it's like -- it's like these guys driving -- it's like Richard Petty driving -- they're coming out of the boats, these massive ships. And they don't pay us.

And then the general gets up and the general says, "Mr. Trump is wrong, doesn't he understand that Japan pays us 50 percent of the cost of defending them?"

Oh, great. They say, "Mr. Trump, could we have a comment?" I said, "Yeah, why aren't they paying 100 percent," Right?

And Germany and South Korea, we have 28,000 soldiers. And think of this one, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia wouldn't be there for one week if we pulled out. They have nothing but money. Nothing but money. They have so much money, they -- they don't know what to do with it, OK. They don't know what to do with it.

Who's -- who is making our deals for us? One deal like that has a massive impact on our budgets, on our economics as a country. We're up to $19 trillion. We're very soon going to be $21 trillion. Trillion. Nobody even knows what -- if I could take -- I could take the great Harold Hamm, I could say, "Tell me what a trillion dollars is?" Although, he's worth almost a trillion, so he may know. He may know.

(LAUGHTER)

But, you know, honestly, most people don't even know what the hell it -- it's so much. They even know. They wouldn't know how to define it.

So here's the story. We are going to do something really special, and our message caught on. When I started this, we had all these pundits saying, it won't happen. And I had a little staff -- Corey Lewandowski was great. I have to tell you.

(APPLAUSE)

[11:15:00]

TRUMP: And he's been very loyal and he's been on CNN, and he's really been fighting for me, which is very nice. And I -- I respect that a lot.

(APPLAUSE)

Hope Hicks. Where's Hope? Come here, Hope. Come here, Hope. Get up here, Hope. Hope Hicks, the legendary Hope Hicks. Come on up here, Hope. Come. Come. Come. She's shy. Get her up here. Come on, Hope. Come on, Hope.

We had a very small, but tough team. We had a small -- here's Hope Hicks. They're not going to lift you over that barricade probably. Look at her. She's very shy. She's actually -- she's a very shy person, but she's a great person. She's done an amazing job.

And we had a staff of between George -- where's our George? Come on over here. Come on. Fellows, get over here. Just stand over here someplace. Get up. Get up on the dais. Come on. I'd get Hope up, but she can't get through the Secret Service people there.

And what happened -- so we had a small staff. And I got criticized for it. They'd say, "So and so" -- I won't use names because I don't want to embarrass anybody -- "so and so has spent many times what Trump has spent and has a much bigger staff," and then we win. I don't get any credit. You're supposed to get credit if you have smaller staff, less payroll, and you win. But in politics, you don't get credit.

So anyway, so I want to thank my entire group. Then we beefed it up because we're really now in the final stretch -- three-and-a-half months. And Paul Manafort has done an amazing job. He's here someplace. Where's Paul?

(APPLAUSE)

Paul Manafort -- oh, good. You made it. Paul Manafort has done a fantastic (inaudible). And all of Paul's people Paul brought on the staff. And we really do. We have a great staff of talented people, a great staff. And most of them are right here. And John and everybody -- my man right here; and Michael. You have to be -- Michael, come on up, Michael. Get up here, Michael. Come on. Get a little TV time. Look at him.

(LAUGHTER)

I don't know (inaudible) hired for Hollywood. I tend to doubt it, but you never know. Come on up, Rick.

So we have a great group of people. And we have a group of people that really wants to win, and I think knows how to win. And we've all sort of been winning all our lives. This group of people in front of me, I know so many of you, we've been winning all our lives. We've got exactly three months and three weeks.

I am going to be working so hard. I'm not going to, like last time where they disappeared for the last month-and-a-half. What happened? Where is everybody? What happened?

And give Obama credit. He was on every television show. He was all over the place. We're not going to disappear. So we have a really great chance of taking our country back, of change, and of getting great Supreme Court justices.

(APPLAUSE)

So, I want to thank everybody. I love you folks. This has been such an incredible movement. I love you. I know so many of you. We're going to go all the way. And I'll tell you what, when we get there, we will indeed make America great again.

I love you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

[11:18:29] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, John Berman, here in Cleveland.

You were listening to Donald Trump in his first appearance since accepting his party's nomination here in Cleveland. The message from Donald Trump, he will not leave Cleveland quietly. Normally, the day after a candidate accepts his party nomination he looks forward to the general election. He brings a message of unity. He pushes forward to gather voters from his party and others. That is not what Donald Trump just did. Instead of looking to the future, he danced all over the past, obsessing almost over Ted Cruz and Ted Cruz's non- endorsement. Donald Trump said he would not accept Ted Cruz's endorsement. He doesn't want Ted Cruz's endorsement. One day, he might even found a super PAC to defeat Ted Cruz. Even more than that, Donald Trump brought up the "National Enquirer" photo, that purports to show Ted Cruz's father with Lee Harvey Oswald. There's absolutely no evidence that Rafael Cruz was with Lee Harvey Oswald. Once again, Donald Trump peddled in that photo, discussing it at length. Fascinating to see. Highly unusual.

Jason Carroll outside the hotel where it just happened -- Jason?

[11:19:53] JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have to tell you, you know, speaking to a delegate from Ohio, one of the things this person told me and one of the things he liked so much about Donald Trump last night is that he stayed on message. He said he appealed to the base by sticking to his issues that the base really cares about, despite what the critics said about his speech last night. Today, just what we just heard, a very different story. As you said there, he covered a number of topics. Not just about Ted Cruz going into the past, talking about all of what has been hashed out over the primaries. Bu he did talk about unity.

First, let's talk about the unity, as you know, there were issues about party unity this week. Not just with Ted Cruz but even on the first day of the convention, you know, people sort of coming forward and trying to change the rules so there was dissension within the party. Donald Trump says no, there wasn't. He says yesterday this is a party that's very much united. He described the convention this way. He said it was peaceful, beautiful, and a love-filled convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: The party is just coming together. The party has come together. And the few people that aren't there, it's OK, you know, you got to understand, ran as an outsider. I didn't want anybody. Now I have guys like Mike Pence. I mean, this isn't supposed to happen.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: See, now, if I don't win, I'm going to blame Mike, right? We have to blame Mike.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: So let's talk a little bit more about Ted Cruz. A day after you're giving an acceptance speech, where you're talking about cities riddled with crime, where you're talking about terrorism, I think there's a lot of people who thought today he would talk about that, but he pivoted and talked about the past, talked about these issues that he's had with Senator Ted Cruz, and his wife, and what he did was he talked about that picture that Melania, that was released from the super PAC that went out to the folks in Utah. It was an odd moment I think a lot of people would say the day after he's given this sort of acceptance speech to go into the past, talking about Ted Cruz. But, as you said, he did.

Listen to what Trump had to say about that issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So he took his speech, and you're bound by that speech, just like you're bound by the pledge. You're bound by the pledge.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP So Ted Cruz took his speech that was done, was on the teleprompter, said hello, then made a statement that wasn't on the speech and then went back to his speech. See, to me, that's dishonorable. To me, not signing a pledge is dishonorable, OK? It's dishonorable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: As you heard there, he talked about Ted Cruz. He felt as though he was being dishonorable. Ted Cruz did submit his speech to the Trump campaign. Trump says he changed that speech at the last minute.

So once again, instead of looking to the future, a pivot to the past for a bit. In terms of the future, there was something. Talked about Bernie Sanders. It is his belief he will get Bernie Sanders voters going forward. Bernie Sanders responding to that, saying that he does not believe his supporters will back Donald Trump. Saying, "Those who voted for me will not support Trump, who has made bigotry and divisiveness the cornerstone of his campaign, #RNCwithBernie" -- John?

BERMAN: All right, Jason Carroll, outside a remarkable event here in Cleveland as Donald Trump finishes up his stay after a really interesting week.

Joining me to discuss, Joseph Boreli, New York City councilman and Donald Trump supporter, co-chair of Donald Trump's New York campaign; David Gregory, CNN political analyst and host of "The David Gregory Show podcast"; CNN senior media correspondent and host of "Reliable Sources," Brian Stelter; and CNN political commentator, Christine Quinn, a Hillary Clinton supporter and former New York City council speaker.

David Gregory, what we just saw, and we said this before about Donald Trump, you have not seen before. A candidate coming out of his convention, all right, and we'll talk about his convention speech last night because a lot of people are talking about that or ^re talking about it. But stepping all over whatever message he wanted to send last night by making a new attack on Ted Cruz.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST & CNN HOST, THE DAVID GREGORY SHOW PODCAST: I think it's a line from "Saving Private Ryan," Tom Hanks, we have stepped into the world of the surreal. We've been there politically with Donald Trump for many months so none of us should be surprised any more. He is not playing by any other playbook beyond his own. He's not allowing his message from last night to carry. We'll probably see more of this. As our colleague, Matt Lewis, was saying, maybe he'll do this every day during the Democratic National Convention. Just kind of have a valedictory speech, just say whatever's on his mind. There's a sloppiness to it. Talking about Ted Cruz, saying he won't take his endorsement. Rehashing these garbage stories about Ted Cruz's father and the controversy over Ted Cruz's wife. This is campaign 101, you shouldn't do this stuff. He keeps doing it. He obviously doesn't care. Because he is banking on the idea that people look up and say, yeah, this guy is anything but normal in politics, let's keep paying attention.

[11:25:06] BERMAN: It was almost as if he gave this speech on teleprompter last night. Was a message the campaign wanted to deliver. Today, he was unrestrained by teleprompter.

Councilman, as a Donald Trump supporter, when you see him going after Ted Cruz -- and I think a lot of people say he can hit him with bare knuckles on not getting the endorsement, that's OK. You can criticize Ted Cruz. You can say I don't want the endorsement. But then to go back and once again bring up that "National Inquirer" photo, which Donald Trump was trafficking in the primaries, which he says, you know, I don't know, it shows Ted Cruz's father with Lee Harvey Oswald. As a Donald Trump supporter, is that the type of thing you like to see?

JOSEPH BORELI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know if I characterize it as a reaffirmation of the Ted Cruz story. I think he was trying to explain it in a way that makes it seem like it's manufactured outrage, just like we saw with the Melania Trump speech thing. It's something that distracted the message for a couple of days. Now we have polling data that show Americans really didn't care. They weren't distracted by some of these sideshows. And --

BERMAN: Do you think it is fair game as a Donald Trump supporter to suggest -- because that's what he's doing -- that his father, Ted Cruz's father, might be in a photo with Lee Harvey Oswald?

BORELI: I don't think we saw him suggesting it, I think we saw him trying to explain it away and give some background --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: He said no one's ever denied it.

(CROSSTALK)

BORELI: He's walking a fine line. I think in some ways he's actually maybe setting up the parameters for a 2020 race wherein perhaps in his mind he's being primaried by Ted Cruz. I think that's something that might actually pan out at some point and he's just essentially setting the stage for that now.

BERMAN: Brian Stelter, CNN media correspondent, this has to do with that "National Enquirer" photo which Donald Trump, mentioned in an interview, bringing it up again, now today, the day after his convention, fascinating.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: I heard more than a dozen factual inaccuracies this event. One of them was about the "National Inquirer." He said the "Inquirer" is respectable. The truth is many of its stories are false. This is an example of one of them. We see a Donald Trump that just never lets it go. Some of his supporters love that about him. Like almost verbal shock and awe, daring you to turn the channel. I bet nobody did. He has an ability to be comedic and provide shtick that we never candidates. He even said next week no one's going to watch the Democratic convention, which, of course, is untrue. Lots of people are going to watch the convention.

Trump is right, he did have high, high ratings for that speech last night. It's just so curious he chose not to reinforce the themes from last night again this morning. I guess once again, with Donald Trump, that is what his fans admire about him, that he says what you're not supposed to say. It's the same thing we found a year ago. What's odd though is he's still doing it in the general election.

BERMAN: Christine Quinn, Hillary Clinton supporter, your reaction?

CHRISTINE QUINN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, for high ratings, mud wrestling has high ratings. That's not a determination --

(LAUGHTER)

-- of who is qualified to be the president of the United States. And, you know, we saw last night, yes, he read from a teleprompter, which we seem to herald him every time he does that. People criticize Barack Obama every time he does that. Again, all it shows is he can read, which is a qualification for third grade.

Last night's speech was dark and an attempt to really in my opinion frighten Americans and further divide us as a country and divide us as a part of the international world. But what we saw that he did today when he was theoretically going to thank his volunteers was classic and I think last night was part of this too but classic mean bully Donald Trump. He said just two or three days ago it was no big deal that Ted Cruz didn't endorse him. And now gain attacking his family in a way that is unnecessary, off message and gives me great confidence that Hillary Clinton is going to win this election.

BERMAN: Joe?

BORELI: I don't know if Christine was watching the same speech because CNN's own instant polling after last night's event had two- thirds of people say this was going to affect their vote in a positive way. Over three-quarters of people who watched, in the poll, said this was a positive message. He addressed issues that are significant to Americans. We had journalists going out in Baton Rouge, Nice, Dallas, Istanbul, all in the past few days, and this is what's front and center on the mind of Americans, and he's speaking to that.

BERMAN: David, quick last word, 15 second. Reince Priebus and Paul Ryan right now, if they watch that news conference, what are they thinking?

GREGORY: They're more conventional. They don't like it. What they're thinking about, and certainly Reince Priebus is thinking about, how does he take what he did last night and expand his support? I think he really played to his core support last night. Did he expand it? We'll find out I think in some of the polling coming out.

David Gregory, Joseph Boreli, Christine Quinn, Brian Stelter --

(CROSSTALK)

QUINN: I don't think this convention did --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: -- thank you so much.

QUINN: -- anything to open him up --

BERMAN: Christine --