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Melania Trump Delivers Plagiarized Speech; Republicans Unite to Attack Clinton at Convention. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired July 19, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We'd like our viewers in the United States and around the world. You're watching NEW DAY. It is 5:00 in the East. Chris and I are live here in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention as we will be all week.

Up first, Donald Trump's campaign facing some tough questions about his wife's speech last night. Two passages from Melania Trump's well- received convention speech appear to be plagiarized from Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic convention.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Appear to be because they were the same. But as is often the case, the political crime is not the story, but the initial response from the campaign that certainly is in the crosshairs this morning.

Now, this story is taking some energy from what was the tour de force for the GOP and Team Trump dropping the hammer on Hillary Clinton all night long.

[05:00:00] We have every angle covered. Let's begin with CNN's Phil Mattingly live inside the Q arena -- Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Chris, it was supposed to be the crown jewel of the first night of Donald Trump's convention. Melania Trump in primetime painting a clear, compassionate picture of her husband. It became clear after she finished her remarks, the campaign had a major headache on their hands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): The similarities are startling.

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: You work hard for what you want in life.

MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: That you work hard for what you want in life.

MICHELLE OBAMA: What your word is your bond. That you do what you say you're going to do.

MELANIA TRUMP: Your word is your bond and do you what you say and keep your promise.

MATTINGLY: Melania Trump's big moment on the national stage overshadowed by an unexpected moment. Trump delivering a speech with plagiarized passages from Michelle Obama's speech from the 2008 Democratic national convention.

MICHELLE OBAMA: We want our children and all children in the nation to know.

MELANIA TRUMP: Because we want our children in this nation to know.

MICHELLE OBAMA: That the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and willingness to work hard for them.

MELANIA TRUMP: That the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

MATTINGLY: And that's not all.

MICHELLE OBAMA: That you treat people with dignity and respect even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them.

MELANIA TRUMP: That you treat people with respect.

MATTINGLY: Under a firestorm of criticism online, the Trump campaign issuing this statement overnight. Saying quote, "Melania's team of writers took notes on her life's inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking."

But the statement doesn't acknowledge the allegations of plagiarism, mentioned who help Mrs. Trump write a speech, or explain where those fragments came from. In a moment before her speech, Melania seems to take most of the credit for the content of her remark.

MELANIA TRUMP: I wrote it and with a little bit of help as possible.

MATTINGLY: Donald Trump's introduction of his wife on stage, yet another moment that has everyone talking about the unconventional convention.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Chris, it is important to know why last night was considered such a big moment for Melania Trump. She is rarely seen on the campaign trail. You never hear from her on the campaign trail, but she was also expected to really provide a fuller picture of her husband. Part of a strategy the campaign has been pushing all week, as we're expected to hear from just about everybody in the Trump family. But that it appears or looks very likely that the remarks were plagiarized and also plagiarized from Michelle Obama, the woman that has been, and the president that has been attacked over and over again by the Trump campaign. Again, stepping all over the message of what was expected to be a very big first night for Donald Trump's convention -- Chris.

CUOMO: Michelle Obama is certainly not a name you want to quote in the Q Center last night. That's for sure. Well, we'll see how this plays out.

Phil, thank you very much.

Now, no question, this is a big show for the GOP. But not all Republicans support the presumptive nominee Donald Trump. The one thing that does unite everybody who is here in Cleveland for the GOP is attacking Hillary Clinton. There were some convention speakers going as far as to call for Clinton to be jailed on the floor last night.

CNN senior political reporter Manu Raju joins us now with more highlights of last night's convention speeches -- Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, Chris.

Now, actually, yesterday started up with some disruption on the convention floor when a bunch of never Trump delegates tried to disrupt the proceedings on the convention floor. It ended in controversy over Melania Trump's speech. But in between was a unified message over one issue: stopping Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: Hillary Clinton's experience is the basis for her campaign. Hillary Clinton's experience is exactly the reason she should not be president of the United States.

RAJU (voice-over): The Republican Party uniting on day one of the Cleveland convention behind one goal -- taking down Hillary Clinton.

MICHAEL FLYNN, RET. LT. GENERAL: If I did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today. So, crooked Hillary Clinton, leave this race now.

RAJU: At least three speakers explicitly calling for the presumptive Democratic nominee to be jailed for using a private e-mail server when she was secretary of state.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She loves her pant suits. But we should send her an e-mail and tell her she deserves a bright orange jump suit.

RAJU: Including the mother of Sean Smith, one of Americans killed in Benghazi attack.

PAT SMITH, MOTHER OF SEAN SMITH: I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son. Hillary for prison. She deserves to be in stripes.

RAJU: One after another, painting Clinton as someone who can't be trusted.

GIULIANI: Clinton and the Obama administration for political reasons lied about the purpose of the attacks, including Hillary Clinton lying directly to the families of the people who were killed right to their face.

RAJU: GOP leaders, TV stars past and present and rising stars of the Republican Party jumped at the chance to discredit Clinton.

SEN. TOM COTTON (R), ARKANSAS: It would be nice to have a commander in chief who can be trusted to handle classified information.

RAJU: The opening night of the convention coming one day after a second deadly ambush on police in less than two weeks.

MILWAUKEE SHERIFF: I would like to make something very clear -- blue lives matter in America!

RAJU: With the nation on edge, the divide with police and black community, playing out on the convention floor.

GIULIANI: When they come to save your life, they don't ask if you are black or white. They just come to save you.

RAJU: Including former presidential candidate and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani who delivered a fiery speech on behalf of his long-time friend Donald Trump.

GIULIANI: What happened to there's no black America, there's no white America, there is just America?! What happened to it? Where did it go?! How has it flown away?!

RAJU: Trump himself drawing attention away from his convention by calling in for an interview on FOX News, blaming Black Lives Matter for instigating the recent police killings.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: When you are calling death to police and kill the police essentially, which is what they said, that's a real problem, Bill. That's a real big problem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now, some interesting story lines playing out today as well. Not only will the delegates vote to give Donald Trump the nomination, but some of those never Trump delegates may try to disrupt those proceedings as well, possibly even putting Ted Cruz's name up for nomination during that vote. In addition, some interesting speakers tonight, including people who have not embraced Donald Trump, including House Speaker Paul Ryan scheduled to speak, and as well as the man who was passed over for vice presidential nod, Chris Christie, we'll see what he has to say about Mike Pence tonight, Chris and Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. That will all be interesting to watch, Manu. Thanks so much for the preview. Joining us now to discuss the speeches and plagiarism is our panel, CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis, CNN politics editor Juana Summers, and CNN political analyst and host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast, David Gregory.

Great to have all of you here extra early this morning.

Let's start with Melania's speech. Let's just one more time play it for the viewers so you can see juxtaposed with Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic convention speech. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

MICHELLE OBAMA: Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values.

MELANIA TRUMP: My parents impressed on me the value.

MICHELLE OBAMA: You work hard for what you want in life.

MELANIA TRUMP: That you work hard for what you want in life.

MICHELLE OBAMA: That your word is your bond. You do what you say you're going to do.

MELANIA TRUMP: That your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise.

MICHELLE OBAMA: That you treat people with dignity and respect even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them.

MELANIA TRUMP: That you treat people with respect.

MICHELLE OBAMA: Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values and pass them on to the next generation.

MELANIA TRUMP: And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow.

MICHELLE OBAMA: And because we want our children and all children in the nation to know.

MELANIA TRUMP: Because we want our children in this nation to know.

MICHELLE OBAMA: That the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and willingness to work hard for them.

MELANIA TRUMP: That the only limits to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

CAMEROTA: OK. David Gregory. It is hard to deny that those are verbatim. There is nothing worse than parroting the Obama message. [05:10:05] DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, imitation is

the sincerest form of flattery. And they made a little room for flattery for the dignity of that speech.

Look, these were clearly cribbed from Michelle Obama's speech. The thing is you are in control if you're the campaign. This is a few days that you can control what happens, especially in primetime, tens of millions of people watching around the world.

This was what we call an unforced error. It was not what they want everyone talking about the next morning. This mistake that they made and instead of some of the major themes, a lot of the emotion that they were able to talk about last night.

CUOMO: So, put on your professor hats, Juana and Errol. Do you care about this? Does this count as plagiarizing? Is this worthy of the scrutiny that we usually put? Like Hillary Clinton did with Barack Obama with the Deval Patrick's words? Although Obama did something very unusual, he admitted and said Deval Patrick of mine, I borrow his words.

How much do you care? Do you care? Anybody?

JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: You know, I think there is a little bit difference in that instance because you are talking about Melania Trump. She is not a candidate.

CUOMO: True.

SUMMERS: That said, I think that for a lot of establishment Republicans, this issue, as David actually knows, is exactly what they were worried about. These unforced errors.

CUOMO: But is it an unforced error? I mean, a lot of these phrases are cliches that we're talking about here. Many people have said them.

I'm providing a little bit of a defense.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: My word is my bond. I think, I have it.

CUOMO: I have.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: I'm just saying, I can't tell you how many times I heard my father's words come out of people's mouths. He enjoyed it. There are common expressions in politics that people say. I'm making the defense case here for.

And, again, you know, Juana may have provided the best defense, she ain't running for anything, Errol.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What I came away from before I realized this issue was out there. This broke late at night. What I came away from was a series of angry speeches, some excerpts of which you played, hers was actually the most sort of sedate, and it kind of balance out a lot of the rest of the night. It was the emotional highlight of it. I think they probably should have ended the evening's proceedings right there and then.

There were a number of speakers who had to watch a lot of people walk out of the arena. But without that balance there, because now it is tainted. There is some sort of question hovering over it. What we have is a night of angry speeches that were supposed to be balanced by the candidate's wife, instead is now balanced by the mess over here.

So, it is a stage managing question, but also a question of what this convention and what this party stands for. If they can't get it on track on day two, if there is some demonstration on the floor, you have to start to wonder, is this message of unity we are hearing from everybody. Is it real?

GREGORY: It's not just a message of unity, but also when there are so many people who think Trump is not qualified to be president. Do they have their act together? This I think that contributes to it.

CAMEROTA: Juana, she said she wrote the speech primarily by herself with the help of a couple of speechwriters. Do we know the backstory? Do we know who these speechwriters were?

SUMMERS: We don't have a lot of information on that yet. And that's what makes it really interesting and why we're trying to really careful about how we describe this. She delivered a speech that has evidence of plagiarized. It's not clear how much she actually wrote it herself. I have seen some reports at CNN saying she works with a team of speechwriters. She said she wrote most of it herself.

So, I think that is the most important stories. It is getting to the question that Chris asked. How much does this matter and what does this do for the campaign going forward?

The most important thing, though, is, instead of seeing headlines about how Democrats or Republicans rather came together to stop Hillary Clinton, what we are seeing is headlines of chaos in the convention floor, of drama, of plagiarism. This is not what the Republicans want or need at this stage.

CUOMO: Right. But what will be said, it also isn't true about the night. That it was about coming after Hillary Clinton. There wasn't a lot of discord. They did a good job of crushing that roll call, didn't you think, when it came out?

GREGORY: Right.

CUOMO: I mean, that could have gotten out of hand easily. It was on a rules platform. There could have been a case made that they wanted to do a delegation by delegation call on the rules. They did a good job tamping it down.

GREGORY: I mean, look, it was a disruption. It is not what they wanted on the first day. But it's also kind of vague, kind of difficult to understand exactly what they were doing. All of the various calls to order was not exactly this huge grassroots movement. They are over that.

And as much as might be written about Melania Trump and the speech, the truth is this was about who was watching on television in primetime, reaching millions of people with a message of resentment and message of fear and anxiety and a pro-Trump message taking down Hillary Clinton. This was getting some party unity in that first couple of hours and trying to round out Trump.

So, whatever is written after the fact, the primary goal is reaching all of those potential voters, which they did last night.

CAMEROTA: And to the bigger question of, do voters care about plagiarizing or fighting ISIS? So, Donald Trump still stands for, you know, according to all of the people who came out to speak for him, law and order, fighting ISIS, staying strong.

[05:15:07] LOUIS: Except for the case that is built against him that Hillary Clinton has been trying to hammer home is when you look at Trump University, you look at Trump mortgage, you look at some of the deals he has had and impact of some of his bankruptcies on small vendors and so forth, it starts to build a case that there is something not quite right here. That is where the plagiarizing does start to stick and it does start to matter, because yes, there is not copyright. Michelle Obama is not going to sue her or speechwriters or anything like that. But it does to a storyline that I know that the Trump campaign does not want to see further, and again, an unforced error.

CUOMO: I'm not sure who, but it is not the crime. It is the cover up. The campaign came out with a statement that did not say, yes, yes. She looked at her speech. She took stuff from it. What's the big deal?

They didn't do that and that's a big reason we're talking about it right now.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you. We'll be back with you momentarily.

CUOMO: I'm providing defense with you. However, in the next hour, we will ask these questions about what this means and why it happened and how it was dealt with by the campaign from the campaign chairman Paul Manafort. What does he say about this and what the night was about for him?

CAMEROTA: All right. So, one common theme on the opening night of the GOP convention was attacking Hillary Clinton.

Up next, our political panel will weigh in on the other big speeches of the night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:20:26] CUOMO: Oh, I got nervous there for a second. I didn't see my credentials around my neck. You get nowhere -- you get nowhere at the convention without your credentials. This is day two. You have to swap out.

CAMEROTA: You can't get in here. It's very tight security.

CUOMO: Cleveland is a lock box if you don't have credentials, and that's the reality of today.

And there will be two big questions to answer on day two of the convention. Will Trump get a smooth vote from delegates when they declare nominee tonight and, two, will the attacks on Hillary Clinton continue like they did last night? Our panel is back.

David Gregory, Errol Louis and Juana Summers.

So, D.G., I give it to you. When they had the roll call on the rules yesterday, yes, nobody wants to see anything, but we knew there was going to be friction. My submission is they handled it well.

How do you think the nomination goes today?

GREGORY: Well, I think certainly there is an option for them and high likelihood they try to create more disruption and gets the attention. I mean, this is a divided party. There's no question about it.

The goal of Trump is unite the party during these four days. This is the time for him to do it. He has gone a long way toward that within the first couple hours last night. But I think there is potential for disruption.

There is part of a larger theme here of what the House Speaker Paul Ryan talked about, a kind of politics resentment, and that's I mean he is worried about. He's going to be a speaker tonight. Part of the theme.

But some of that resentment Trump is tapping into is felt in other quarters of the party, resenting the fact he is taking the party in a direction a lot don't want to go.

CAMEROTA: Juana, let's talk about some of the other speakers. Rudy Giuliani, it is fair to say, was on fire last night. I mean, he spoke with sort of an intensity that some people say wasn't seen for his own presidential campaign. So let's play a moment of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUILIANI: What happened to there's no black America, there's no white America, there is just America?! What happened to it? Where did it go?! How has it flown away?!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Your thoughts?

SUMMERS: Oh, that was certainly unexpected from Rudy Giuliani, one of the more intense speeches of the night. And also important to note, the context in which that speech comes right, after the shootings in Baton Rouge and Minnesota of blacks and officer-involved shootings, after the shootings of police officers in Dallas and Louisiana.

So, this is coming at a critical point of the nation. He talked about it and said we have to return to law and order. It is a merit for the speakers to channel that. Rudy Giuliani, frankly, nailed it.

CAMEROTA: How can he take the message way from the black men? Because tell that to Philando Castile's family, Errol? That they're just America? There's no black America, there's no white America. These families think they were pulled over for driving while black.

LOUIS: Well, one part of the speech actually, it wasn't delivered a full volume so it doesn't make the highlight real, but he made a point of saying when people have done the wrong thing, including police, and they killed someone, we have to persecute them, we have to hold them accountable, we have to apologize to their families.

In some ways, I think he was trying to walk back some of the more incendiary comments he made in the past weeks that sort of put him and the values he stands for in very harsh and divisive light. He was trying to build a full case for blue lives matter, for all lives matter, for Trump who can unify and a candidate he is trying to support and unify the country.

And we should give him credit for that. I mean, it was a loud speech. It was an energetic speech. But it wasn't a divisive speech.

CUOMO: They gave him the hardest job last night. Let's not forget, Rudy Giuliani at his core is a prosecutor. He was a damn good one.

He had to make a delicate case. One is, we are all united in this country. We're all the same, kind of read, all lives matter. At the same time, there has to be law and order, which means if the police do the wrong thing, there has to be accountability, which is the same that Sheriff Clarke said last night. That you need transparency and accountability.

They say it really fast and they say it really low. They get back to the big theme, which is someone is taking the country from us, David. That came out loud and clear last night.

The job of the Democrats is to hear what Rudy Giuliani said and make the case against, where did it go? It went the same way the just system went, it went the same way that the education system, and the jobs system, it went to the different set of people and now, you have --

[05:25:04] GREGORY: I think there was a bigger theme. You touched on it -- taking something away from us, right?

That sense that a lot of Americans who are here or are representing voters who are here, who feel that the country is headed in the wrong direction because of the economy, because of activism throughout the country, that has left people behind. And that you have -- whether it is immigration or you have activism around law and order issues, that there is a fear and an anxiety and that people are having things taken from them. Having a way of life taken from them.

There is a lot of nostalgia for an America that doesn't exist anymore that mostly white Americans would like to see. That was on display last night.

I think the danger politically is there is a tearing apart here that we saw that gets people off in two different corners. I think that potentially helps Donald Trump politically and I think that's one of the reasons why he keeps stoking them.

CAMEROTA: There is another powerful moment, many, one of them was when Pat Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, was killed in Benghazi. She is always emotional. She is very angry at Hillary Clinton. She came out and said she holds Hillary Clinton personally responsible.

Wasn't it interesting, Juana, though, that during that powerful moment at the RNC, that Donald Trump decided to call in to FOX in a competing programming moment.

SUMMERS: That was fascinating. More fascinating is that Fox didn't as I recall, take any of the speeches regarding Benghazi. That is a theme that Trump has consistently hammered Hillary Clinton on, saying that she is personally responsible for the death of those four Americans, including Smith, and if they didn't air, this is another unconventional move by Trump in a speech with some of the most compelling television.

CUOMO: It was the biggest moment on the floor. There's no question that you hear the name Clinton more than Trump the convention floor.

And that Benghazi, whether it was Pat Smith or what they had from the video from the Benghazi report, that galvanized that audience. It works.

GREGORY: Easy way to get the crowd riled up and united.

CAMEROTA: Panel, we have to leave it there. Errol, we owe you one. Thanks so much, guys. Great insight.

It is not your typical GOP convention as you saw last night. That is the way Donald Trump wants it, a little showing, mixing with politics.

CUOMO: Smoke machine.

CAMEROTA: I know, to great effect. Chris wants this for his entrance every morning.

CUOMO: Why not?

CAMEROTA: Look at this.

So, we'll take a look inside all of this when NEW DAY returns.

CUOMO: He got his own box.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)