Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Day Three of Dem Convention Reviewed; Day Four Previewed. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 28, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00] LEON PANETTA, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR, DEFENSE SECRETARY: ... he asked the Russians to interfere in American politics. Think about that. Think about that for a moment. Donald Trump, who wants to be president of the United States, is asking one of our adversaries to engage in hacking or intelligence efforts against the United States of America to affect an election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Now, let's show you the statement at issue. That's Leon Panetta there, the former defense secretary, CIA director. At issue was this Trump talking yesterday about the hacking and the leak of Democratic Party e-mails. And then Mr. Trump decides to add in the e-mails Hillary Clinton deleted, from her private server.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, today on Fox News, Mr. Trump took issue with his critics in the Clinton campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You have to be kidding. His client, his person deleted 33,000 e-mails illegally, you look at that. And when I'm being sarcastic ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you being sarcastic?

TRUMP: Of course I'm being sarcastic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: He says he's only being sarcastic.

JULIE PACE, ASSOCIATED PRESS: It was a joke. This is the problem with Donald Trump's rhetoric if you envision him being president. You've covered the White House.

KING: You can move financial markets.

PACE: You can move financial market. KING: And the truth.

PACE: It was allies to take actions quickly, everything you say as president has consequences. You can't be sarcastic and say that 12 hours later. I don't know if voters right now care about that. But that is hugely consequential if you imagine him in the Oval Office.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, NEW YORK TIMES: Also I mean if everybody who was at the press conference did not believe that that was sarcasm. Now it's possible that it just was incredibly straight-faced sarcasm. But it did not play that way either in the room or on T.V. to your point, absolutely, there's an enormity to the weight of the words when you're president.

But there's also an on going theme here where, you know, I don't know that her deleting the e-mails was illegal, but certainly she did delete a lot of e-mails. There are people who are concerned about that. This e-mail controversy is not good for her just on the basic facts.

And so we see this pattern with Trump over and over where he tries to direct attention to something and that is what he was doing. He was trying to get up there to call attention to the DNC leak and then bring it back to her e-mails and he goes off on this side car, and it takes it in a totally different direction. And then his campaign spends a lot of time angry at the press that they're covering that.

KING: But they also spent a lot of time cleaning it up.

HABERMAN: Both.

KING: First Trump went on Twitter.

HABERMAN: Yeah.

KING: He wrote this or somebody wrote it for him saying I meant Putin, if he has them, should give them to the FBI when she was asked repeatedly about Russia at that press conference. She never mentioned the FBI.

PACE: Right.

KING: Never. Not once. But then he did there and then Mike Pence, his running mate almost right after Donald Trump finished speaking, the campaign put out a statement in the name of Governor Pence, saying "If it is Russia and they're interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences."

HABERMAN: Yes.

KING: Donald Trump, he think it was like yeah, the precious got it, let's have him, let's see him.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINTONG CORRESPONDENT: Now we see what Michael Pence's role is going to be here. HABERMAN: Yeah.

ZELENY: It's like a cleanup in aisle three. I mean for the next three plus months ...

HABERMAN: Not the first time.

ZELENY: It's now it's not the first time. We're going to lose track of how many times he does it, that's why we should clean this, but the issue is -- but he also drew attention to this. So a lot of Democrats are sort of happy the he, you know, stepped in it, but anywhere else is still talking about her e-mails.

HABERMAN: Yeah, it's a ...

ZELENY: The Clinton campaign is acknowledging that there could be a National Security problem with those in there, so not entirely a win for Democrats.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Right. The Clinton e-mails are a serious issue. And she's trying to say about his temperament, and his ability to be presidential to respect the sovereignty of the United States. He was essentially saying, "Hey, if you're a foreign actor, you've got these e-mails, let's have them."

ED O'KEEFE, WASHINTON POST: And he was making an incredibly smart point until he did that which is the Democrats are trying to divert from the content of those messages which are probably packed with all sorts of things that are going to embarrass them for the next few months. And then went off and did what he did.

PACE: Yeah but ...

O'KEEFE: And that was an incredibly effective counter point. That was true that a campaign is more concern about who hack them, than about what's in it.

(CROSSTALK)

O'KEEFE: And there's a lot more coming.

PACE: There's a lot of concern actually among National Security officials, you know, Donald Trump is about to start getting classified ...

O'KEEFE: Yes.

PACE: And his style is so off-the-cuff that you can envision him saying something in a press conference like this where he leaks out something like that, a lot of concern that we're going to start to look at that.

KING: This is an issue, and Jeff just talked about it. What is Mike Pence's roll, because he's the vice presidential candidate or the Editor in Chief of the Trump campaign. It's not the first time, it is not first time but just on the issues of Vladimir Putin. Listen here to Donald Trump who has many times said I want to get along with Russia and ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have nothing to do with Russia. I said that Putin has much better leadership qualities than Obama, but who doesn't know that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:35:05] KING: That's Donald Trump on Vladimir Putin. Here is Mike Pence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE PENCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The aggression we've seen from Russia in recent years is all evidence of the failed policies of this administration. And I'm going to take that ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because you're not that real.

PENCE: Leadership that will -- we will push back ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to take that ...

PENCE: We'll push back on Putin and we'll stand up for America's interest in that part of the world, I'll promise you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: If you're confused at home. One of those is a conservative Republican and one of those is Donald Trump. It's just striking the difference between Trump does not follow Republican orthodoxy on this and many other issues and Pence seems to be trying to clean it up all the time.

HABERMAN: The 2012 Republican nominee described Russia as our greatest geopolitical threat, OK.

KING: Yup.

HABERMAN: And one of the things that had happened in the last couple months is you've actually had a lot of Republicans and some Democrats who criticized him for that at a time saying, you know what, he was right.

I do want to say one thing though in terms of just the content of the DNC e-mails. It's absolutely true, that there's a very fair criticism that if you had a Republican official who had -- made a joke about somebody's religion ...

KING: Right.

HABERMAN: ... or just of using it, there would be an enormous outcry. There was an apology made and I think that hasten the end of it. But that is a really, really damning thing in that e-mail.

However, it is understandable white people would be concerned that Russia is hacking into a Democratic Party.

(OFF-MIC)

KING: The statement you just made sort of reinforces the maybe the smartness of the 20 percent that don't like them both. People are having a hard time with both of these choices. Everybody sit tight.

Next, it's not just about attacking Trump. Just who are the big speakers here talking to?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM KAINE, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We all should feel the burn and we all should not want to get burned by the other guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And as we go to break, let's look live inside the Convention Hall, Julie Pace's favorite singer, Katy Perry, care for her rehearsal. She is sporting a track suit HRC hat and then "I'm with her" pin I think. Sticker is that a sticker? There you go "I'm with her".

Tonight Katy Perry she performs just before Hillary Clinton. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:41:24] KING: Live at the CNN Grill. This is an indisputable fact. It's tough to be on the undercard when President Obama is in the arena. But three others big names here last night had big rolls in the Democratic case against Donald Trump, Vice President Joe Biden, the former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg who's an independent and Clinton's running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAINE: You know who don't trust? I wonder, Donald Trump. Donald Trump. Trump is a guy who promises a lot, but you might have noticed, he's got a way of saying the same two words every time he makes his biggest, hugest promises. Believe me. It's going to be great.

Believe me. We're going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, believe me. We're going to destroy ISIS so fast, believe me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now for many Americans that was their introduction to Senator Tim Kaine. He also said I trust Hillary Clinton. He went through his small town up bringing his dad, had an iron shop. He's worked with his hands. How did he do?

PACE: Kaine is one of those speeches that I'd like to have a little better understanding of how it played on T.V., how audience received it because he is not the kind of speaker that can command an arena in the way that a Barack Obama or Joe Biden or Bill Clinton can.

And so, there were moments where he didn't really have the crowd with him, we hasn't kind of in command in that room.

KING: Also some skeptics about him in that crowd.

(CROSSTALK)

PACE: But I do think that he brings this real folksy authenticity that is such a contrast to everybody else that we have seen on the stage and I think that for some people, that could be really appealing.

HABERMAN: Yeah. And I agree with that. I thought that of the night's speakers, I actually in the hall anyway, thought that he was the least memorable. I mean he certainly made the case, and that was what he was trying to do, but it was a really sort of striking lineup of speakers. I don't know how much of it that he suffered by comparison, he was better I thought in their kickoff event in Florida.

KING: Yes.

ZELENY: Right, he was better. In Miami he seemed more comfortable. Because she was sitting next to him and they were together, he seemed a little alone on that stage.

But look, I'm still -- we say it a lot and I know that you may disagree with me on this. But his Spanish-speaking, maybe voters don't care about it. But how he effortlessly ro1ls it into the speech, someone didn't write out the line and he said ...

KING: Don't step on my notebook item. We'll get to that.

ZELENY: That was an effective "but thing" in the arena and other times. She's very effortless.

KING: This came up earlier in the show. As much as this is the end of an era for President Obama, it also is the end of an era for the Vice President Joe Biden.

He calls himself the crappy kid from Scranton. He's key in this election as he was to President Obama. For Obama it was a race issue, for Hillary Clinton it's a relatability issue.

They have problems with the same voters, white guys, blue collar guys, hard working cops, firefighters, union autoworkers. Joe Biden, trying to speak directly to them last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: His cynicism is unbounded. His lack of empathy and compassion can be summed up in a phrase I suspect he's most proud of having made famous, "You're fired."

This guy doesn't have a clue about the middle class, not a clue. He has no clue about what makes America great. Actually he has no clue, period. But folks let me -- you got it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:45:03] KING: Yeah, he's controversial at times, he steps on his tongue from time to time or the tongue gets out ahead of the brain, but whatever you think of Joe Biden, he does have credibility in a union hall and at a fire station and that could help Hillary Clinton or not?

PACE: And he said this week that he's going to be in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Those are the states where she is going to need him to rally some of these folks who are drawn to Donald Trump but may be skeptical of whether Trump can follow through.

O'KEEFE: And I think in our increasingly narrow-casted world, when people get their hands on what he said last night and on what Bloomberg said. And the various people that they appeal to hear what they said.

Those two messages will end up being more effective than the president, than Tim Kaine, even perhaps on the first lady because that's the 20 percent that don't like her or the small sliver of people who are still undecided.

Those two guys and I have a feeling they may be ...

HABERMAN: I don't know about more effective, than the president. The president's is going to be pretty important for turning out African- Americans.

O'KEEFE: No, but they're baked in. I'm talking about the undecided man ...

(CROSSTALK)

HABEMAN: But they might like her but then they might want to ...

KING: But then each -- to your point, they each do have a slice. That everyone has a slice. Last night was about appealing to the different pieces of the electorate they need. And so you have an independent.

He was once a Republican, but now he seems once a Democrat I think too. Now he's an independent.

Michael Bloomberg, he was the former mayor of New York City, everybody knows him. He's big on gun control. He didn't push out control last night. Instead, he made a case against Donald Trump. He's actually saying I'm a businessman. The guy who is asking for your vote is a fraud.

(BEGIN VIDO CLIP)

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: Through his career Donald Trump has left behind a well-documented record of bankruptcies, and thousands of lawsuits, and angry stockholders, and contractors who feel cheated and disillusioned customers who feel they've been ripped off.

Trump says he wants to run the nation like he's running his business? God help us.

I'm a New Yorker and I know a con when I see one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It is rare to have an independent get a big prime time spot like that. What was the hope?

HABERMAN: I mean look, he's literally beholding to no one because he's so wealthy. This was his selling point in New York City. To be clear, he was never really a Republican. He was a Democrat who borrowed the Republican line so that he could run for mayor in 2001 and he won in probably. But, he was seen as largely a successful mayor.

They were trying to basically sell the message. This is not somebody who has not always agreed with Hillary Clinton. There are policy issues that they diverge on. But he made a pretty convincing case, you know, I'm not just up there as somebody who is a member of the Democratic Party. I'm not here doing this for party line and I'm not doing this for loyalty to the Clinton.

What I was very struck by in his speech was a line that was not the embargar remarks where he said something about this toward the very end about let's vote for a sane, competent person.

O'KEEFE: Right.

HAMBERMAN: That my jaw dropped when he said that.

KING: Essentially he's saying Donald Trump is not that.

HABERMAN: Yes, I mean ..

ZELENY: And that is something that he feels in his gut, in his heart that these guys go a way back.

Michael Bloomberg's speech may have been one of the most important living room speeches. It's certainly also maybe an important advertising speech. You can bet we're going to see that speech again and again, targeting those voters in the middle who may not like either of them.

KING: Interesting to see if his role is one speech or this involved the poll campaign as well because as you can said, the Clinton campaign philosophy is on hands on deck against Donald Trump.

HABERMAN: His bank account will be, I'm not sure.

KING: Bank account, OK.

That doesn't hurt, a little could change. Our reporters giving a sneak peek into their notebooks next including how some Sanders supporters just might continue their revolution on their own. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:52:40] KING: Welcome back. Let's close, as we always do, asking our great reporters to get you out ahead of the political news around the corner. Julie Pace?

PACE: You're starting to hear some talk among Bernie Sanders supporters about ways that they could keep this movement that he's sparks going coming out of this convention.

And one of the options is to create something akin to organizing for America which was an outgrowth of President Obama's political campaigns. But always stays focused exclusively on issue campaigns.

They don't go after individual candidates supporting or apposing them and raise this. And Sanders supporters aren't going to be content with that. They really feel like it's their mission to not just push issues, but to also try to push people out being part of the political establishment. That is a lot more difficult to do but it's also potentially much more disruptive to the Democratic Party.

KING: First task, the Debbie Wasserman Schultz primary in the state of Florida.

O'KEEFE: So following up on the Espanol that Tim Kaine, talking to some smart Democrats yesterday. They say keep an eye on how he's campaigning in English because you'll see some overt appeals or subtle appeals to Hispanics. The idea that he is, you know, a family guy, that he was a missionary in Honduras, that he's catholic, all of those things relate. They point out that he was not only was a missionary, but a Jesuit at missionary, well so is Pope Francis of course is very popular among Latinos giving to his from Argentina.

They say, you know, the idea that you have get another white politician speaking Spanish, you know, we've heard that before. There's been some skepticism about it. But they believe as Hispanic voters learn about his background, his faith and his work on social justice issues, that that's the kind of thing will make them realize they'll have our back in the White House if he's the next president.

KING: Virginia, Florida, Florida. Colorado, Florida, Maggie?

HABERMAN: What we're all talking about Donald Trump and the criticism from Democrats and some Republican who think that he aired yesterday.

Donald Trump himself I'm told was quite happy with the press conference. And then it's always important to remember that at the end of the day, the Trump campaign and how it reacts to thing is about one person.

He has many, many advisers. There had been some change since there was a shift in the management structure on the last couple weeks. But in reality he is still the person running his own campaign.

KING: Without a doubt, important point. Jeff? ZELENY: We've heard so much talk over the years and Hillary Clinton's line, it takes a village. Well, she has a village and she needs it. Never before that I can think of a presidential candidate has this many people around her.

A former president, her husband, our current president, the vice president, she has all these people of the first lady.

[12:55:05] But her -- the signs on the whole stronger together makes clear that she has a huge cavalry here. The question is she stronger together than Donald Trump is alone? We'll find with that out with that village might surround her.

KING: That's a test of traditional campaign metrics. We'll see on that.

I'll close with this, tomorrow starts a new phase in this campaign. So, 102-day sprint to Election Day, not that we're counting. And so far the Trump campaign is getting help from some Super Pac friends but has not spent one dime on any general election T.V. adds itself. But I'm told that's about to change.

Trump insiders say the ads will start within the next ten days. Change for the better is a sub-theme they're kicking around inside the Trump campaign. Change for the better. They want to frame the effort that way. And the debate now inside is how many states go on the initial target list.

You can be sure of the predictable big battle grounds like Florida, Ohio, right here in Pennsylvania are included. But Trump aides say there are some surprises under consideration. For example, they say Trump is down just four points in Oregon right now. So do you make a play or do you just assume it's just a temporary convention bounce and Oregon will go back to being blue?

Those final decisions being debated this week, decisions next week once the impact of this convention, the Democratic convention becomes clear.

That's it for "Inside Politics." We'll see you tonight from the Convention Hall. Please com back. It's a big night. And we hope to see you right here at the same time tomorrow.

Big day ahead, our coverage continues in just a moment with Wolf.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)