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Speakers Blast Biden, Try to Appeal to Trump's Base; Nikki Haley Defends Trump's Foreign Policy; Speakers Share Personal Stories of the American Dream; Trump Meets with Coronavirus Frontline Workers; Sources: White House Considering Fast-Tracking Coronavirus Vaccine. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 25, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

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 he Rosemary Church.

Donald Trump promised a positive and optimistic Republican National Convention, but on night one of the RNC, speaker after speaker painted a dark and ominous picture of America if Mr. Trump doesn't get another four years in the White House. The U.S. President made two taped appearances alongside frontline workers and former American hostages freed during his administration. He looked to cast himself as an empathetic leader as other Republicans slammed his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Obama and Biden let North Korea threaten America. President Trump rejected that weakness and we passed the toughest sanctions on North Korea in history. Obama and Biden let Iran get away with murder and literally sent them a plane full of cash. President Trump did the right thing and ripped up the Iran nuclear deal. Obama and Biden led the United nations to denounce our friend and ally, Israel. President Trump moved our embassy to Jerusalem, and when the U.N. tried to condemn us, I was proud to cast the American veto.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The night's Speakers, which included the President's son, tried to fire up the base. This as they praised Mr. Trump and offered a negative view of Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, NATIONAL CHAIR, TRUMP VICTORY FINANCE COMMITTEE: They want to destroy this country and everything that we have fought for and hold dear. They want to steal your liberty, your freedom. They want to control what you see and think and believe so that they can control how you live. They want to enslave you to the weak, dependent, liberal victim ideology to the point that you will not recognize this country or yourself.

DONALD TRUMP JR., PRESIDENT FROM SON: In order to improve in the future, we must learn from our past, not erase it. So, we're not going to tear down monuments and forget the people who built our great nation. Instead, we will learn from our past so we don't repeat any mistakes and we will work tirelessly to improve the lives of all- Americans. Joe Biden and the radical left are now coming for our freedom of speech. They want to bully us into submission. If they get their way, it will no longer be the silent majority, it will be the silenced majority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: But in the midst of that harsh rhetoric came several speakers discussing the American dream on a night that looked to focus on the United States being the land of promise.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HALEY: I am the proud daughter of Indian emigrants. They came to America and settled in a small southern town. My father wore a turban. My mother wore a sari. I was a brown girl in a black and white world and the people of South Carolina chose me as their first minority and first female governor.

MAXIMO ALVAREZ, FLORIDA BUSINESSMAN: I may be a Cuban born but I am 100 percent American. This is the greatest country in the world. And I said this before, if I gave away everything that I have today, it would not equal 1 percent of what I was given when I came to this great country of ours, the gift of freedom. Right now, it is up to us to decide our fate and to choose freedom over oppression.

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): Our family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime, and that's why I believe the next American century can be better than the last. There are millions of families just like mine all across this nation full of potential seeking to live the American dream. And I'm here tonight to tell you that supporting the Republican ticket gives you the best chance of making that dream a reality.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

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

CHURCH: So, how did the first night of the RNC go?

[04:05:00]

And how did it compare to the DNC last week?

PRESTON: Well, it certainly was a success in terms of reaching out to Donald Trump's base. If you looked 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 for folks in the middle, I think that they were probably a little bit scared from some of the speeches that could take some people back.

I do think though there were some very big speeches, including Tim Scott's and I know we'll talk a little bit about that shortly. That actually resonated and did very well. 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 those Speakers tried to paint a pretty bleak, dark, and scary picture 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?

PRESTON: Well I mean, there's no doubt. Let's go with the highs first for Donald Trump. I think that Tim Scott did a really good job 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 Hailey did a very good job at establishing herself here in the United States, specifically amongst Republicans all across the nation that she's still in the game and she's loyal enough to Donald Trump but don't count her out for the future.

All 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 at Parkland in Florida back in 2018, I thought that was very effective.

Now the scary ones, the McCloskey family. This is the couple in 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 all be about fear and how Donald Trump is trying to rile his base up.

CHURCH: Mark Preston, many thanks.

PRESTON: Many thanks.

CHURCH: And Donald Trump has been working to court black voters as polls show a majority support Joe Biden ahead of November's election. And on night one of the convention, several Republican speakers laid out their case as to why those voters should, instead, back Mr. Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SCOTT: In 1994 Biden led the charge on the crime Bill that put millions of black Americans behind bars. 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-GA) STATE REPRESENTATIVE: This is no time for sleeping in the basement. Joe Biden has had 47 years to produce results, but he's 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, U.S. REPUBLICAN HOUSE CANDIDATE: Sadly, the same cycle of decay exists in many of American's Democrat 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 loves and respect the flag, our national anthem, and our country doesn't mean they don't care about social justice. I care about all of those things. So does Donald Trump. He shows how much he cares about social justice in the black community through his actions and his actions speaks louder than stickers or slogans on a jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

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

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 tell you about where the GOP is heading and what it stands for?

With the exception of Tim Scott and Nikki Haley's speeches, I found the GOP convention was just speaking to the base. It wasn't trying to broaden the appeal of the Republican Party in Donald Trump.

[04:10:00]

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 in the fold.

CHURCH: And as a 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 work 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're 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 3 1/2 years. So, if I'm the Trump campaign, I don't know why they're doing this, and 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 stolen elections. So, what is the President trying to do there, do you think?

SIEGFRIED: He's delegitimizing the election within the eyes of his own followers. If he doesn't win, it's somehow cheated. And he's also saving up to his legacy of he's 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, oh, I was cheated. It allows him to do a PR strategy.

CHURCH: And the GOP and President Trump has 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're offering conflicting messages. They say Joe Biden is weak and senile and is completely a puppet. But at the same time, he has 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. And 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 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 deathly avoid talking about the 177,000 Americans who had die 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 he had this amazing response. 177,000 Americans are dead because of a bad response that this administration had. 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 look at this doctor's credentials, he's a dentist. So, that's the best my party could do? I'm not an anti-dentate, 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 are serious health side effects or even its efficacy isn't it 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. Appreciate it.

SIEGFRIED: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, the Republicans saluted America's health care workers Monday night but ignored the coronavirus death toll as the country nears 180,000 killed by the virus. Still, praise for the President. Just ahead.

[04:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To every frontline worker, I offer the salute of a nation that is forever in your debt. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: On the first night of the Republican National Convention, President Trump saluted the nation's frontline workers battling the coronavirus pandemic. But the party glossed over the administration's failures. It never mentioned the virus has now killed nearly 180,000 people in the U.S. and it misrepresented Mr. Trump's handling of the pandemic. Instead, Mr. Trump appeared at the White House to chat with a group of health care workers, some of them praised the President for his response to the crisis as did some speakers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMY JOHNSON FORD, 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.

DR. G. E. GHALI, LOUISIANA SURGEON: As a physician, I've seen firsthand how these break throughs 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:20:00]

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. DR. 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 3 human trials are completed. How concerned are you about the possibility of it happening to help the President's re-election prospects?

REINER: Well, 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 the 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 people for the flu. We have an anti-cancer vaccine for HPV and only about half of our adolescence get that. So, we have really a 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 with it 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 and his desire to slow testing down. His desire to open states early. All of 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?

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. But 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 an 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 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 bring people 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. Appreciate it.

REINER: My pleasure.

[04:25:00]

CHURCH: And the first night of the Republican convention wrapped up just hours ago, and it was heavy on speaking -- speakers slamming Democrats and Joe Biden while making their case to keep Donald Trump in office for another four years. The details ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD CHANTING: Four more years.

CROWD CHANTING: Four more years.

CROWD CHANTING: Four more years.

CROWD CHANTING: Four more years.

CROWD CHANTING: Four more years.

CROWD CHANTING: Four more years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Protesters defied curfew Monday night in Wisconsin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROTESTERS SHOUT: Don't shoot. Don't shoot. Don't shoot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: They're demanding justice for Jacob Blake, the black man police shot in the back several times on Sunday, and this was the scene outside the Kenosha County Courthouse just a few hours ago.

Police lined up in riot gear to protect government buildings. The protesters set off fireworks and threw bottles. Several city vehicles and at least three buildings were seen burning. Police used tear gas to break up the crowds.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN 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. Two police officers with guns drawn in Kenosha, Wisconsin, closely follow a black man, Jacob Blake, as he tries to get --

END