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RNC Kicks Off Monday Night; Scary Picture Presented by Trump Loyalists; Trump's Prepared Excuse if He Lose; Cutting Corners Jeopardizes Efficacy and Safety; Second Night of Protest After Black Man Shot by Police; Couple Who Waved Guns at Protesters Support Trump; Mike Pompeo to Address RNC while Abroad; RNC Opening Speakers Blast Biden, Pitch to Trump's Base; Convention Follows Week of Bad News for Trump; U.S. Gulf Coast Braces for Second Strong Storm in Days; California Wildfires Hit Historic Levels and Still Growing. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 25, 2020 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom. And I'm Rosemary Church.

Republicans are kicking off their national convention with red meat for Donald Trump's base and attacks on Joe Biden as a puppet of the radical left.

President Trump made two appearances on opening night first with a group of coronavirus frontline workers. A number of convention speakers brag about the president's response to the pandemic despite the U.S. death toll approaching 180,000.

Mr. Trump also welcomed six Americans freed from captivity in other countries. His son Donald Junior was one of the night's keynote speakers who launched a blistering attack on Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, JR., DONALD TRUMP'S SON: He's pledged to repeal the Trump tax cuts which were the biggest in our country. After eight years of Obama and Biden slow growth, Trump's policies have been like rocket fuel to the economy, and especially to the middle class. Biden has promised to take that money back out of your pocket and keep it in the swamp.

That makes sense, though, considering Joe Biden is basically the Loch Ness monster of the swamp. For the past half century, he has been lurking around in there. He sticks his head up every now and then to run for president. Then he disappears, and doesn't do much in between.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley praised Donald Trump's foreign policies, citing his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, and his phase one trade agreement with China. But she also took aim at Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Last time, Joe's boss was Obama. This time it would be Pelosi, Sanders, and the squad. Their vision for America is socialism. And we know that socialism has failed everywhere. They want to tell Americans how to live, what to think. They want a government takeover of healthcare. They want to ban fracking, and kill millions of jobs. They want massive tax hikes on working families. Joe Biden, the socialist left, would be a disaster for our economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And one of the stranger moments of the night came from the Trump campaign's Kimberly Guilfoyle, who quite literally turned up the volume on Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, NATIONAL CHAIR, TRUMP VICTORY FINANCE COMMITTEE: Don't let the Democrats take you for granted. Don't let them step on you. Don't let them destroy your families, your lives, and your future. Don't let them kill future generations because they told you and brainwashed you, and fed you lies that you aren't good enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's senior political analyst Mark Preston joins us now from Washington. Good to see you.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: How did the first night of the RNC go? How did it compare to the DNC last year?

PRESTON: Well, it certainly was a success in terms of reaching out to Donald Trump's base. If you look at the themes tonight, fear, the idea of the suburbs being taken over, this whole sense of Donald Trump being one who can protect you. So, for the base, it worked well. I think that for folks in the middle, I think that they were probably a little bit scared from some of the speeches that were could take people back.

I do think though there were some very big speeches, including Tim Scott. And I know we'll talk about that shortly. That actually resonated and did very well. So, if you're Donald Trump, I think that he feels very good about how his convention went. But I only think that it's going to become even more and more amped up heading into tonight, heading into tomorrow, heading into the final night. CHURCH: Yes, because, Mark, you know, most of the speakers tried to

paint a pretty bleak, dark, and scary future of American life under a possible Biden presidency, even after promising to deliver a more optimistic and hopeful convention. So how did that go over? And which speakers do you think stood out?

[03:04:56]

PRESTON: Well, I mean there is no doubt, let's go with the highs first for Donald Trump. I think that Tim Scott did a really good job about, talking about opportunity, and trying to compare and contrast what he thinks is a better way for African-Americans to pull themselves out of poverty through the Donald Trump Republican policies as opposed to the Joe Biden Democratic policies.

So, he was the anchor tonight. He did a very good job. I think Nikki Haley did a very good job. Every established herself here in the United, specifically amongst Republicans all across the nation that she is still in the game. And she is loyal enough to Donald Trump. But don't count her out for the future.

And then I think that if you go back into the first hour of the convention, where you had a father who lost a daughter during the terrible shooting down in Parkland in Florida back in 2018. I thought that was very effective. now the scary ones, the McCloskey family, this is the couple of St. Louis, Missouri who were seen brandishing weapons as a Black Lives Matter protest, was protesting and marching up their street. They certainly sent a message of fear.

So did Kimberly Guilfoyle, as did her boyfriend, Donald Trump, Jr., I think as well. So, there was a little taste of everything. But I do think that the discussion for the next few hours, heading into tonight, is going to be all about fear, and how Donald Trump is trying to rile his base up.

CHURCH: Yes, it was interesting. Donald Trump, Jr. was the one speaker who had the opportunity to humanize his father, the President of the United States of America, but he didn't do that, did he? He was more like a political speaker.

PRESTON: In many ways, he was ramping up for his own father speech which we're anticipating on Thursday, which obviously, it will be written out, and it will be prepared. But we do know he tends to go off in a rift. What I think we saw in Donald Trump, Jr. is what Donald Trump wanted to hear his son say as he was preparing for his own, perhaps biggest speech to his lifetime on Thursday.

CHURCH: Right. And President Trump has already raised hopes across America, promising a COVID-19 vaccine will come very soon, in his words. But we're also told to expect surprises this week during the convention. Any idea what that might be, and what the rest of the RNC might offer?

PRESTON: I don't know if you saw what this happened this past evening, where he had hostages that were repatriated back to the United States freed, I suppose from their captivity from some of these nations. I think that was a pretty good moment for Donald Trump. I think they could have produced it entirely different and could have really humanized him.

I don't think they necessarily did as I do think that Donald Trump was surrounded by folks giving him adulation. But I think let's look for those kinds of moments when they talk about presidential surprises over the next couple nights. This is not your ordinary convention, Rosemary.

CHURCH: We will be watching, Mark Preston, many thanks.

PRESTON: Many thanks.

CHURCH: And speaker after speaker sounded an alarm about what would happen to the country if Biden were elected. They predicted America would enter into an era of radical socialism. That prisons would be emptied, civilians' guns would be taken away, and neighborhoods would not be safe. All messages that fire up the president's base.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): Look at what's happening in American cities. Cities all run by Democrats. Crime, violence, and mob rule. Democrats refused to denounce the mob, and their response to the chaos is defund the police, defund border patrol, and defund our military. And while they're doing all of this, they are also trying to take away your guns.

Look at the positions they have taken up in the past few months. Democrats won't let you go to church, but they let you protest. Democrats won't let you go to work, but the let you riot. Democrats won't let you go to school, but they'll let you go loot. President Trump has fought against each of their crazy ideas.

GUILFOYLE: Biden, Harris, and the rest of the socialists, will fundamentally change this nation. They want open borders, closed schools, dangerous amnesty, and will selfishly send your jobs back to China while they get rich.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, Donald Trump won just 8 percent of the black vote in 2016. And current polls show a vast majority of black voter's support Biden in this election. There was a concerted effort to appeal to them Monday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): Joe Biden said if a black man didn't vote for him, he wasn't truly black. Joe Biden said that black people are a monolithic community. It was Joe Biden who said that poor kids can be just as smart as white kids.

And while his words are one thing, his actions take it to a whole new level. In 1994, Biden led the charge on a crime bill that put millions of black Americans behind bars. [03:10:03]

President Trump's criminal justice reform law fixed many of the disparities Biden created, and made our system more fair and just for all Americans.

VERNON JONES (D), GEORGIA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: This is no time for sleeping in the basement. Joe Biden has had 47 years to produce results. But he has been all talk and no action. Just like so many of the Democrats who have been making promises to the black voters for decades.

KIM KLACIK (R-MA), CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Sally (Ph), the same cycle of decay exists in many of America's Democrats-run cities. And yet the Democrats still assume that black people will vote for them, no matter how much they let us down and take us for granted. We're sick of it. We're not going to take it anymore. The days of blindly supporting the Democrats are coming to an end.

HERSCHEL WALKER, FORMER PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER: Just because someone love and respect the flag, our national anthem and our country, it doesn't mean they don't care about social justice. I care about all those things. So does Donald Trump. He showed how much he cared about social justice in the black community through his actions. And his actions speak louder than stickers or slogans on a jersey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Evan Siegfried is a Republican strategist, and the author of "GOP GPS." He joins me now from New York. Good to have you with us.

EVAN SIEGFRIED, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST & COMMENTATOR: Thank you for having me with you.

CHURCH: So, what was your overall assessment of this first night of the Republican National Convention compared to the DNC? And what did the lineup of speakers reveal about where the GOP is heading, and what it stands for?

SIEGFRIED: Well, with the exception of Tim Scott and Nikki Haley speeches, I found the GOP convention was just speaking to the base. It wasn't trying to broaden the appeal of the Republican Party and Donald Trump. It was trying to defend Donald Trump, and also say that he was the greatest president ever.

And that is something they really can't afford to be doing right now when they need to be bringing in new voters into the fold.

CHURCH: And as Republican strategist I have to ask you, where did all the hope and optimism go that the GOP promised? Instead we heard messages of fear and division. How successful are negative messages like that? Do they work?

SIEGFRIED: They worked for certain audiences. But the problem that the Trump campaign faces right now, the audience it works for is already going to be voting for him. They are going to use this as proof positive to say, see, we already have this enthusiasm from this exact night, and what has been happening.

But it's not going to reach out to the suburban housewives who have been fleeing the GOP or white college educated voters, or even older Americans who are 65 years and older who have been fleeing the party much more so over the past three and a half years.

CHURCH: Right.

SIEGFRIED: So, if I'm the Trump campaign, I don't know why they are doing this. I think they need to change course fast. But they won't.

CHURCH: Well, President Trump, again, repeated Monday that the only way he can lose the election is if it's rigged. He continued his false claims about mail-in voting, and grim warnings about stealing elections. So, what is the president trying to do there, do you think?

SIEGFRIED: He is delegitimizing the election within the eyes of his own followers. That if he doesn't win, it's somehow cheated. And he's also saving up to his legacy of he is not a loser, he was cheated. He doesn't like to be seen as a loser. It's embarrassing to him and it's the ultimate insult. So, even though he might not contest an election, he says, I was cheated. It allows him to do a P.R. strategy.

CHURCH: Ad the GOP and President Trump had initially struggled to settle on one attack message for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Did they find it during the first night of the RNC, do you think?

SIEGFRIED: No, they haven't found it at all. In fact, they are offering conflicting messages. They say that Joe Biden is weak and senile and is completely a puppet. But at the same time, he's got an intricate plan to introduce Marxism and socialism into the country.

Either he's competent or he's not. And it just cancels one another out. I don't understand what the line of attack is, and the coherent message that the Republicans are putting out there. We talk about how we need to have, in a race, have a lot of candidates going out and giving signal, not noise. We're hearing a lot of noise and no real signal and coherence.

CHURCH: Right. And just hours before the RNC kicked off, President Trump said there would be a vaccine for COVID-19 very soon. He said, and his campaign told us to expect surprises during the RNC. What do you think this means? And did they deftly avoid talking about the 177,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19 so far?

SIEGFRIED: First of all, the president has to address COVID-19. But he is absolutely not doing it the right way. They had a revisionist history video play. Saying that he had this amazing response. A 177,000 Americans are dead because of the bad response of this administration had.

[03:15:04]

And at the same time, they trotted out a doctor who was a surgeon. To say, Donald Trump did everything right. But if you go and you look at this doctor's credentials, he's a dentist. So that's the best my party could do? I'm not an anti-dent but I'm absolutely offended. And then with the vaccine, I'm very worried that they will trot out a vaccine before it's ready.

There's a reason why we have trials and that this has to go through a process and we're moving at very fast speed in general. And there is no doctor trying to put the brakes on a vaccine saying let's kill more Americans and keep people at risk throughout the world just so we can stop Donald Trump.

The president said over the weekend that there's a deep state conspiracy against him, and this is absolutely reckless, dangerous, and irresponsible because if we get a vaccine out there that isn't proven and it turns out there's serious health side effects or even its efficacy isn't at what it was supposed to be, we're set back even further and it's just not appropriate.

CHURCH: Evan Siegfried, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

SIEGFRIED: Thank you.

CHURCH: And still to come, a nurse says she is in awe of how Mr. Trump is handling COVID-19, this despite so many deaths across the country. And we will hear what else his supporters had to say about the pandemic.

We're back in just a moment.

[03:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: These are the incredible work that helped us so much with the COVID. We can call it many different things from China virus. I don't want to go through all the names because some people may get insulted but that's the way it is. These are great, great people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: OK. So, Donald Trump there in his first appearance of the evening meeting with essential workers in the coronavirus pandemic. Now they don't appear to be sufficiently socially distanced there and you can see they're not wearing masks.

The virus which has taken the lives of 177,000 Americans was one of the key issues Monday night. One by one supporters applauded how Mr. Trump has handled the crisis. Let's hear what some healthcare workers had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMY FORD, REGISTERED NURSE: As a health care professional, I can tell you without hesitation Donald Trump's quick action and leadership saved thousands of lives during COVID-19 and the benefits of that response extend far beyond coronavirus. G.E. GHALI, SURGEON WHO HAD COVID-19: As a physician, I've seen

firsthand how these breakthroughs have saved countless lives. As a patient, I've benefitted from the expedited therapies made possible by the swift action of this administration. President Trump truly moved mountains to save lives and he deserves credit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a nursing supervisor, I am so in awe of your leadership. Honestly, I know many people have said often interesting things, but it takes a true leader to be able to ignore all of that stuff and do what is right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: For more, I'm joined now by Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He is a CNN medical analyst and a professor of medicine at George Washington University.

Good to have you with us.

JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: My pleasure.

CHURCH: Now just hours before the Republican National Convention kicked off, President Trump said he believed a vaccine would be announced very soon. And sources tell CNN that White House officials raise the possibility of emergency use authorization of a vaccine before phase three human trials are completed.

How concerned are you about the possibility of this happening to help the president's re-election prospects?

REINER: I'm more concerned about a vaccine that is not ready for public use being released to the public. You know, from the beginning I think the administration has set the wrong tone by calling this Operation Warp Speed. What the administration really should have been calling this is operation, you know, safety, operation safe speed, emphasizing safety.

There's a lot of vaccine distrust in the American public and I think the notion that we might be rushing a vaccine into use does much to -- does not do a lot to reassure the public.

In our best year we barely vaccinate 60 percent of the public for the flu. We have an anti-cancer vaccine for HPV and only about half of our adolescents get that. So, we have a really long way to go to educate the public about the efficacy and safety of the vaccine. And the possibility that this administration might license it for use using an emergency use authorization before we have adequate safety and efficacy data is terrifying.

CHURCH: But presumably the president thinks it's worthwhile going in this direction because he appears to be doing it purely for his election prospects but as you say, it's just only half of the American population that say they would take a vaccine like this without cutting corners.

REINER: Right. A lot of the president's motivations appear to be solely focused on re-election, his reluctance to wear a mask. His acknowledgment that testing was making him look bad in his desire to slow testing down, his desire to open states early. All this is really, all this policy is being made with an irresolvable conflict of interest, which is that he is running for re-election.

So, the inescapable conflict is what happens when a vaccine is not quite ready but the president demands its release. You know, we saw yesterday with the Sunday night release of the emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma. We saw how willing the leadership of the FDA is to be coerced by the president. So, I am concerned.

CHURCH: Right. And as you mentioned, it isn't only the vaccine. On Saturday, President Trump accused the FDA of trying to hurt him politically by slow-walking approval for the COVID convalescent treatment or therapy. And then the very next day Mr. Trump commended the FDA and announced it had approved this treatment for emergency use when days before the FDA had made it very clear it wasn't ready for approval. What does that signal to you?

[03:25:09]

REINER: It signals shameful political pressure on the part of this administration for only one purpose, that is to elect the president. Look, I hope convalescent plasma works. The problem is that we don't have a randomized clinical trial anywhere that shows that it does. The largest study, which is not yet even in print, never compared plasma to placebo, compared it to -- essentially it was a registry comparing it to nothing. So, we don't really have compelling data.

The criteria that the FDA uses for emergency use authorization literally says may be effective. Well, yes, it might be effective. We have no confidence that it works.

CHURCH: And doctor, during the first night of the RNC we saw very few masks and not a lot of social distancing.

REINER: Right.

CHURCH: In stark contrast to what the DNC was doing last week. So, what is your reaction to that message being sent to the voting public?

REINER: Well, first of all, the stark difference is that there are actually people in Charlotte. What is the necessity for this? You know, North Carolina is still in the midst of rather vigorous viral transmission. You're bringing people from all over -- from the country -- from all over the country to Charlotte, you know, for the convention. A ton of people unmasked. I don't get the burning urgency to do this other than to create essentially props for the president.

CHURCH: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.

REINER: My pleasure.

CHURCH: And still to come, a second night of protests in a Wisconsin city anger erupts after an unarmed black man is shot by police in front of his children.

And remember the couple who waived guns at protestors outside this St. Louis mansion? Well they have a political message for America as the Republicans kick off their convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICIA MCCLOSKEY, BRANDISHED GUNS AT BLM PROTESTERS: Make no mistake, no matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: In Kenosha, Wisconsin, police and protesters have clashed for a second night in a row after police there shot an unarmed black man in front of his children.

Right now, Jacob Blake is in stable condition after being shot multiple times by police. His situation has sparked anger and at times violence in Kenosha.

Some demonstrators were seen shooting fireworks at officers dressed in riot gear near the Kenosha County courthouse. Bottles were thrown at police. At one point gas was sent into a crowd of protesters and people were heard having difficulty breathing. At least, three buildings were burning and protesters reignited a dump truck that had been lit on fire the night before.

Well, CNN's Omar Jimenez is in Kenosha with more on how the events unfolded. And we must warn you, some of the video is disturbing to watch.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is what parts of Kenosha have become on a second night after Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by a police officer.

These images come in stark contrast to what has largely been peaceful demonstrations over the course of the afternoon and into the evening. It was in the nighttime when projectiles were going back and forth, that things began to take a turn but all of it coming as expressions of pain over what has become an all too familiar story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: Two police officers with guns drawn in Kenosha, Wisconsin closely follow a black man, Jacob Blake, as he tries to get into the driver's side door of his car. One officer grabs Blake's tank top and then --

(GUNSHOTS FIRED)

Seven shots are fired as Blake is hit multiple times in the back. (BEEP)

Three of his children ages three, five, and eight were in the car as Blake goes limp. Shortly afterwards officers can be seen giving some sort of aid to Blake who was later flown to a nearby hospital and is in serious condition. Police say they were responding to a domestic incident call but it remains unclear what sparked the shooting. And the video doesn't show the events leading up to it.

There's no way to hear what's being said as the events unfolds. But Blake's family attorney, Benjamin Crump says that Blake was leaving the scene after breaking up a fight between two women. It's not clear from the video if both officers opened fire. Neither have been identified.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice's division of criminal investigation which is leading the probe into the incident says both are on administrative leave. All officers are cooperating, the department said.

And in a statement to CNN, the Kenosha Professional Police Association says as always, the video currently circulating does not capture all of the intricacies of a highly dynamic incident. We ask that you withhold from passing judgment until all the facts are known and released.

Overnight violent protests erupted with angry demonstrators setting fire to vehicles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He held his shirt and shot that man.

JIMENEZ: That anger spilling over into early Monday morning as dozens from the community confronted sheriff's deputies at the scene. In a statement to CNN, Blake's uncle said the shooting is outrageous. Who was he threatening? He had a tank top and shorts on. He had no weapon. He was going back to the car because the children needed to be checked on. Police were called for a domestic disturbance. But Jacob had nothing to do with the fight. This has got to stop.

Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes echoing that anger.

MANDELA BARNES, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, WISCONSIN: Let me be clear, this was not an accident. This wasn't bad police work. This felt like some sort of vendetta being taken out on a member of our community.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: There had been a curfew in place starting at 8 p.m. Local Time into the overnight hours towards the early mornings but it didn't stop demonstrators from coming out and making their voices heard. And while there's still a lot that we don't know about what led up to the shooting, what we do know is that there is a lot of pain in this community over how this unfolded. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Thanks so much for that report, Omar. Well, the St. Louis couple who gained worldwide attention after

pointing their guns at protestors outside their mansion are supporting President Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention.

[03:35:07]

Mark and Patricia McCloskey said they armed themselves back in June because they feared for their lives and their home as the protesters marched through their neighborhood. The couple who are attorneys accused Democratic leaders of encouraging chaos on America's streets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK MCCLOSKEY, HOMEOWNER WHO BRANDISHED GUN AT PROTESTERS: Whether it's the defunding of police, ending cash bails or criminals can be release back out on the streets the same day to riot again or encouraging anarchy and chaos on our streets, it seems as if the Democrats no longer view the government's job as protecting honest citizens from criminals. But rather protecting criminals from honest citizens.

Not a single person in the out of control mob you saw at our house was charged with a crime, but you know who was? We were. They've actually charged us with felonies for daring to defend our home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And still to come, they say the night celebrated a land of promise. After the break, we look at why the other speakers of the Republican convention say America needs four more years of President Donald Trump.

And U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is breaking with tradition to talk domestic politics while abroad when CNN Newsroom returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP JR., OLDEST SON OF DONALD TRUMP: It starts by rejecting radicals who want to drags us into the dark and embracing the man who represents a bright and beautiful future for all. It starts by re- electing Donald J. Trump president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Keynote speaker, Donald Trump Jr. there on the opening night of the Republican National Convention. Only a handful of the speeches were actually live as the coronavirus pandemic kept cheering delegates in their home states. Speakers made the case for Donald Trump on the economy and foreign policy and blasted Democrat Joe Biden as a puppet of the radical left.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins has more.

[03:40:21] (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, in the days leading up to the first night of the Republican convention you saw the president's aides saying it was going to be as optimistic look at the future at 2020 and what that was going to look like going forward if Donald Trump was re-elected.

But what you got when you first saw the speakers emerge was a dark, at times bleak picture of where the United States is and where they think it will be if Joe Biden is elected as president.

Though they did try to get back to that optimistic place later in the evening with speeches from people like Nikki Halley and Senator Tim Scott compared to the president's son, Donald Trump Jr.

One thing that they did also try to do during this first night was really rewrite the president's response to the coronavirus pandemic casting it in this aggressive, vigorous terms even though we know in reality the president was slow to address the pandemic and even denied it at times as he dismissed it along the way for several months. Never really starting to take it seriously until some experts said it was truly too late.

Another thing that the Trump campaign and the Republican Party tried to highlight during this first night was the president's relationship with black voters. They had several people come out and testify to the president's character. Herschel Walker saying he's personally insulted when the president is referred to as a racist given that they are friends for so long.

And the question is whether or not those three speeches from several prominent figures actually can change any voter's minds. But certainly what the campaign was trying to do was put out this effort to actually have voices of color representing and speaking on behalf of the president. Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Joining us now from Long Island, New York, via Skype is Michael D' Antonio, he is a CNN contributor and the author of The truth about Trump. Thank you so much for being with us.

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Great to be with you.

CHURCH: Now, you watched the first night of the RNC and listened to the various speakers including Donald Trump. What did you think overall?

D'ANTONIO: Well, I thought that they were sounding many of the themes that candidate Trump sounded when he ran into 2015 and 2016, and it was very much a return to, I imagine, the 1960s when young Donald Trump was frightened by the protests in the American streets and the civil rights movement because he was right back at the law and order theme trying to scare the day lights out of Americans suggesting as George Wallace, the infamous racist did in the 1960s. That somehow the lives of Americans in the suburbs, and by that he

indicated white Americans in the suburbs, were somehow in danger. And so that came through loud and clear to me was that he wanted his base to be excited and frightened and thereby motivated to somehow save themselves and save the country from this specter of Joe Biden.

CHURCH: Yes, there was certainly a lot of language of fear, wasn't there, after the promise of hope and optimism. I did want to ask you because more people have died in the U.S. from COVID-19 than anywhere else in the world.

It's the biggest issue in this presidential race although the RNC side stepped the issue. How likely is it that President Trump can turn his fortunes around with the sudden approval of COVID plasma therapy on Sunday and Mr. Trump promising a vaccine will come very soon, perhaps before the November election?

D'ANTONIO: Well, he certainly is trying to turn things around, and even the FDA's approval of plasma therapy for people in the first stages of coronavirus disease, it's important to remember that people must be given this within three days of having symptoms or it really doesn't work is a bit of a sleight of hand because that therapy has been available.

70,000 Americans have received it, but President Trump loves nothing more than a good show and I think he timed this announcement to advertise this so-called new therapy in hopes that it would give him some momentum. And the vaccine issue is similar.

[03:45:00]

Ironically he's following Vladimir Putin down that trail with promoting a vaccine that may or may not be available and the Russian people are not exactly flocking to receive the one in Russia that's been tested in such a limited way. So he's obviously keenly aware of his difficulty in facing re-election. He's putting the power of the government behind this effort and then his very significant skills as a promoter.

CHURCH: And of course, that plasma therapy announcement came in the same weekend that secret tapes were released of President Trump's sister calling him a liar and cruel and someone without any principles.

It came after his former advisor, Steve Bannon, was arrested, and the announcement of the imminent departure of his top adviser Kellyanne Conway. A lot of bad news for the president along with his handling of the pandemic of course. So, how might all of these negative situations impact Donald Trump's chance of re-election?

D'ANTONIO: Well, it's a stunning thing for us to observe that no matter what happens in Donald Trump's administration, no matter what is said by the people who know him well, his base of support only declines slightly. You know, he's someone who relies on the solid 40 percent, 40 to 43 percent that won't leave his camp. And that's how he functioned as a businessman as well. He never thought he should sell to everyone, he just wanted a devoted core of customers. So, this week has just been terrible for him, but he's had many, many terrible weeks.

CHURCH: Michael D'Antonio, thank you so much. Pleasure to talk with you.

D'ANTONIO: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will address the Republican National Convention Tuesday night in a pre-recorded message. Pompeo filmed his address in Jerusalem where he's been meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Just last month, Pompeo stressed to State Department employees they should not engage in campaign politics. But apparently it's OK for him to do so because the State Department says he'll make the remarks in his personal capacity at no cost to taxpayers.

Oren Liebermann joins me now from Jerusalem with more. Good to see you, Oren. So, apparently it's do as I say, not as I do. What more are you learning about Mike Pompeo's pre-tape address to the convention?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORESPONDENT: Rosemary, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recorded his speech from the roof of the King David hotel with the old city of Jerusalem behind him. We saw him as he recorded that speech. He had a mic and a teleprompter and setup with of course, the old city as his background.

In terms of what he'll say, no real surprises there. What he'll show is what we consider a highlight of President Donald Trump's foreign policy. That includes being tough on China despite President Donald Trump's positive rhetoric towards China at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Of course, Jerusalem will feature heavily there as well the normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. For Jerusalem it will be moving the embassy, recognizing Israel in sovereignty in the Golan Heights and more.

As you know, it's not just the speech itself, it's the decision to give it here despite what appears to be Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's own advice to the contrary.

In a July cable obtain by CNN, Pompeo wrote this. Presidential and political appointee are subject to significant restrictions on their political activity. It may not engage any partisan political activity even on personal time and outside the federal workplace.

That last line is significant. Because when we asked, how is it that Pompeo is giving a speech on an official visit to Jerusalem? His office's answer was this was in his own personal capacity and he wasn't using tax payer dollars in terms of recording the video and sending it back. There are others in the State Department as well who have given

similar advice. For example, Deputy Secretary of State wrote in February that employees of the department must make sure their representation overseas is not perceived as partisan and then in December of last year, legal affairs for the department said that Senate confirmed appointees may not even attend a political party convention or convention-related event. Despite that, Pompeo's speech will aired tonight on the RNC. Rosemary?

CHURCH: And we will be listening. Oren Liebermann joining us live from Jerusalem. Many thanks.

And tune in for our continuing coverage of the Republican National Convention, that's at 7 p.m. Tuesday in New York. Wednesday at midnight in London and 7 a.m. in Hong Kong.

Still to come, parts of the U.S. dealing with two deadly threats. Wildfires in California and storms in the south. One of those storms could reach the coast as a hurricane. We'll take a look. Back in a moment.

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CHURCH: We are keeping our eye on two storms in the U.S. Gulf Coast, Marco is now a tropical depression. It made landfall Monday as a relatively weak tropical storm. But the real threat could be coming later this week. Tropical storm Laura is on track to hit the region as a hurricane. It's already killed at least nine people in the Caribbean.

So let's turn to our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri, he joins us now live. Good to see you, Pedram. So, what is the latest on these two storms?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Rosemary, good news as you noted there with Marco. Really raining itself out. What is left of it here is potentially another say, 50 to 100 millimeters of rainfall right along the Gulf Coast. That's about it, certainly a far cry from what had to potential to be a hurricane as it approached land.

But I want to show you what's happening when it comes to tropical storm Laura, as it sits there on the Western tip of Cuba and forecast there enter the Gulf of Mexico within the next several hours.

And really this is the last land mass that will interact with here across the mountains of western Cuba, once it enters the Gulf of Mexico. The ingredients firmly in place for the system to intensify rather quickly. And in fact water temperatures about 80 degrees or so Fahrenheit near the coast, which is in the upper 20 Celsius while down across the central portion of the gulf there in to the lower 90s, which is around 32 degrees Celsius.

[03:55:03] Unfortunately this particular storm, unlike Laura -- unlike Marco

which took that cooler route and dealt with some wind shear will take a southern trajectory possibly. And that will allow it to strengthen rather quickly. The National Hurricane Center watching this for a potential of rapid intensification sometime late Tuesday into late Wednesday. That's when we think the strongest of the storm system would be observed.

Possibly at this point, we're taking it up to a category two, a strong category two, but the National Hurricane Center really warns this is one of those storms. This is the bottom of their threshold. And the top of the ceiling for this storm could be around the category three or a category four. And that could happen certainly Tuesday into Wednesday, as it approaches land.

We think landfall would be sometime late Wednesday into the early morning hours of Thursday. Again, possibly a major hurricane at this point approaching areas not far from Houston on to state Lake Charles, Louisiana. So we are watching this very carefully in to the next couple of days that could be a major story in this region, Rosemary.

CHURCH: We appreciate you keeping an eye on that. Thanks so much. Pedram Javaheri, there.

Wildfires in California have caused more deaths and destruction so far this year than in all of 2019, but unlike previous years, thousands of evacuees are also trying to protect themselves from the coronavirus.

At last check more than 1.5 million acres have burned so far, seven people have died. More than 14,000 firefighters are battling the flames, and California's Governor says the state is using every resource at its disposal.

Well, thank you so much for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. I'll be back with more news in just a moment. Do stay with us.

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