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Interview with Paul Manafort of the Trump Campaign; Interview with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of the DNC. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 19, 2016 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:40] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Did you see the big speech last night at the convention? No? Oh, don't worry about it. We have all the big moments for you, none bigger than when Melania Trump took the stage. Huge national audience, big test for her. Went up there to make the case for her husband on the first night of the convention.

But, there's a but. There were good reviews of the speech, but then there were charges of plagiarism that what Melania said bore striking resemblance to what Michelle Obama said in 2008. Listen for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values.

MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values --

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

TRUMP: -- that you work hard for what you want in life.

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

TRUMP: That your work is your bond and you do what you say, and keep your promise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Joining us now for his take on the first night of the convention and all that followed, Paul Manafort, chairman for the Trump campaign. Good to see you, Mr. Manafort. How do you feel the first night went and was the smoke machine and the song from Queen your idea?

PAUL MANAFORT, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: Well, first of all, I think the night went great. Our goal last night was the theme -- to talk about the theme "Make America Safe Again". I think the speakers that we used last night to make that message were communicated very clearly and very well. The goal of the program last night was to show people who've been

affected by the policies of the Clinton-Obama administration in ways that would show what the difference of failed leadership makes in ordinary Americans and all American's lives. We achieved that last night.

I thought Mayor Giuliani was a little understated but I think he communicated his points, as well, that Sec. Clinton was a failure as Secretary of State, that the problems in the world today are more acute as a result of the failed leadership of Obama and Clinton.

And then I thought Melania Trump hit it out of the park when she talked about her love of family, the feelings of an immigrant that comes to this country and succeeds. And I thought that the feelings she has towards her husband and her depiction of the real Donald Trump came through loud and clear.

CUOMO: Who takes the fall for cribbing Michelle Obama's speech in 2008? Whose fault is that?

MANAFORT: Well, there's no cribbing of Michelle Obama's speech. These were common words and values that she cares about her family and things like that. I mean, she was speaking in front of 35 million people last night, she knew that. To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama's words is crazy. I mean, it's so -- I mean, this is, once again, an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and take her down. It's not going to work.

CUOMO: All I'm saying is the language is strikingly similar. I'm not making a big deal of it. I know everybody's talking about it this morning, but I don't think it's an allegation.

[06:35:00] It's not some suggestion without proof. I think it happened. I don't understand why the campaign doesn't just own it and say people borrow phrases, that's what happened, and move on.

That's what, ironically, Obama did in 2008 when Clinton said that he cribbed from Deval Patrick. He said yes, you're right, I did it.

MANAFORT: No, I -- he did do it, that's correct. But in this particular case --

CUOMO: But -- but, Melania didn't --

MANAFORT: You know, there was certainly a collaboration -- certainly there's no feeling on her part that she did it, you know. What she did was use words that are common words and just expect her to -- to think that she would do something like that, knowing how scrutinized her speech was going to be last night, is just really absurd.

CUOMO: Right, but again, that's assuming that it was Melania. I'm sure there were writers involved, but if that's the way you want to explain it, that's up to you. Let me ask you about something else. John Kasich -- this is his state, he's popular here. You're coming in on a high, you want this to be positive. Why go after Kasich? You did it personally, Trump did it personally. Why not just leave it alone?

MANAFORT: You know, my point was that the governor of the state, whether it's the Democratic Convention or the Republican Convention, should address the convention. That was the only point I made last night.

CUOMO: Well, you said that what he was doing was dumb and that he's doing it because he thinks it gives him a better chance --

MANAFORT: No, no.

CUOMO: -- to be president again.

MANAFORT: I didn't -- I didn't say any of those things. I said that it was embarrassing for the state that the governor would not address a national party coming to his state to talk about the -- to bring their political convention.

CUOMO: Right, but you were quoted as saying if he thinks that not embracing Donald Trump helps him be president again, that's dumb -- that helps him to be president in the future, that's dumb, dumb, dumb, and maybe a fourth dumb. I'm just asking you why you went that way when he's popular and you won.

MANAFORT: Look, we did win and it's Gov. Kasich that hasn't recognized that, but it's up the governor. I mean, it's truly his decision. We're not -- we invited him to come, he chose not to and we're disappointed. But that was his decision.

CUOMO: Another thing that happened last night that I wanted to ask you about is you had Pat Smith come out and she is so emotional. And it really seemed that that was the hub or that was the real pivot point of the night. That the galvanizing effect of the outrage at Benghazi and, obviously, Pat Smith being the mother of Sean Smith, one of the four Americans to die there, very powerful. How important is that theme and that argument for you and your campaign?

MANAFORT: Well look, Benghazi was a tragedy. Libya is a tragedy. What's going in Syria is a tragedy. The rise of ISIS is a result of Obama and Clinton making a decision to pull our troops out without preparing Iraq is a colossal mistake. You know, these are the issues we were talking about last night and Pat Smith's tragedy is even more personal as a result of these failed policies.

Last night we wanted to talk about the failed leadership and how it does impact people's lives. That particular segment of the program dealt with the problems that are caused by failures in foreign policy. But we also spoke about the failures in America -- in the United States, as well, and the impact and the lawlessness that's resulted from failed leadership.

So, we think the whole program last night correctly depicted a key point that Donald Trump has been making and one of the reasons why Americans want change and are demanding change. And why, frankly, Hillary Clinton, who owns all of these problems and has been part of the establishment for 25 years, is not going to be able to get away from it.

CUOMO: Well, you were certainly preaching to the converted on that point last night. I mean, I think I heard Hillary Clinton's name mentioned more, actually, than Trump for most of the program last night. And, of course, it was almost exclusively in the negative.

One of the interesting things, when Pat Smith was speaking did you know that Donald Trump was going to call into FOX News and do an interview during her comments? I've never heard of that before.

MANAFORT: I did not know that, no.

CUOMO: What do you think of that move?

MANAFORT: Mr. Trump felt it was important to do it, so he did it. I mean, he was moved by her speech, too.

CUOMO: What's your take on that?

MANAFORT: He was moved by her speech, too. I mean, last night was a very emotional night and --

CUOMO: But, how was he moved by it when he was on T.V. at the same time she was giving it?

MANAFORT: Because he had the T.V. on and he was watching it. And, you know, we were not preaching just to the converted last night, we were talking to America -- American voters throughout the country, many of whom were listening in to understanding one of the -- some of the themes that we're going to be talking about in this election, and they heard a very clear message.

CUOMO: Oh, no, I meant on the floor.

[06:40:00] There's no questions that you had tens of millions watching last night. It was a huge night. Huge stage for Melania Trump also, and by all accounts, she handled it very well so you have to be happy with that.

Now, the family's going to factor in largely in what you're doing and that makes sense. Tonight, you have Donald Jr. coming up. I think there's also Tiffany Trump coming on. What can you tell us about what to expect?

MANAFORT: Well, I think you're going to see a continuation of the people who know Donald Trump the best and talking about the Donald Trump they know. And, certainly, the family is an integral part of it because in the campaign you've seen the candidate Donald Trump but you haven't seen the man.

And what we're trying to do in this convention is to explore all facets of his personality and make sure the American people understand his compassion, understand his generosity, understand his success as a businessman, and how he has done things in business that people said were impossible. And that's going to be the basis for our belief that we'll be able to communicate to the American people that he can do the same thing as president.

CUOMO: As we all know in politics, there's no better case for the candidate than their family, so we'll see and look forward to that tonight. Paul Manafort, you're at the convention. Many thought this moment would never happen. You were brought in to make it happen. I'm sure there's no small measure of satisfaction for you in what's been going on here and what is to come. Thank you for being on NEW DAY. See you today.

MANAFORT: Thank you. Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. So, covering events around the world, terrifying moments on a train, an axe wielding man goes on the attack. What we're learning about the attacker and a possible motive next.

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[06:45:41] CUOMO: All right. You're going to be hearing about this interview today, so let's give you the first cut at it.

Paul Manafort is the Trump campaign chairman. You know, to give him his due, this convention was never supposed to happen. Manafort was brought in to make sure Trump could win, could get the party under control and they've done just that and here we are now in Cleveland.

But he just said some things that are going to raise a lot of eyebrows. Let's bring in David Gregory and, of course, Brian Stelter, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES" with us here.

Now, did Melania Trump's speech echo, copy Michelle Obama, the answer is yes. Paul Manafort says the answer is no. Common language is used in politics all the time. This is about when a strong woman goes against Hillary Clinton. That's his defense.

Does it work?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Oh, I don't think so. It's just too cute by half. Obviously, Melania who took credit for writing this speech obviously got help from staff that either deliberately did this or I don't know or they looked at common things you want to say about family and lessons in life, but they had some recent first lady speeches to draw on. And Michelle Obama's from 2008 came up.

Again, I don't know that this is the kind of thing that has a lasting impact, but it speaks to a campaign that's moved very quickly, that's been organized really behind the eight ball. Mistakes like this can happen. Then you have a situation when they really wanted everyone to be focused on the themes that Melania spoke about her husband, rounding out her husband Donald Trump.

Instead, we're talking about this misstep by the campaign compounded by the fact that Paul Manafort takes it to the level that this is Hillary Clinton taking on someone who is challenging her? I mean, this was in the wilds of the Internet as far as I could tell. Maybe the allegation is that they tipped off this guy who was a fashion reporter or something started unearthing this, look, anything is possible.

All I'm saying is they don't want this conversation this morning and I don't think they're putting it to bed very easily.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK. So, here is exactly what Paul Manafort said. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANAFORT: There's no cribbing of Michelle Obama's speech. These were common words and values that she cares about her family and things like that. I mean, she was speaking in front of 35 million people last night, she knew that. To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama's words is crazy.

I mean, it's so -- I mean, this is, once again, an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and take her down. It's not going to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So, Brian, he said it's crazy that anybody would think this speech was plagiarized. Does this also speak to what the campaign does when caught in something that has been misrepresented or something that doesn't jive or some hypocrisy? They say no, nothing to see here.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I was sitting across from the bar when Chris was speaking with Manafort. And that's what struck me as important about his comments. There's a criticism of the Trump campaign that goes like this, when confronted by factual inaccuracies, when confronted by mistakes or misstatements, the campaign goes back on its heels, on the defensive and denies reality. We've seen that from time to time. This feels like one of those moments.

Now, maybe conservative media bubbles will support the Trump campaign. We'll try to paper over this story, but I think that video you all have shown all over Twitter and Facebook tells the story really effectively, showing Michelle Obama and Melania Trump side by side. People, you know, you can't deny that kind of video. And so I'm a little bit surprised that Manafort would go to the basic stance of it's not the reality.

CUOMO: I feel what's going to happen here. Why do you keep making a big deal of what Melania Trump's speech is about? It's not.

Because it is not the crime, right, to use that word loosely, it's the cover up. If the campaign responds to something so insignificant as this this way, what happens when it is real? Another example that got Brian Stelter at the bar at 6:30 attention's interview Donald Trump was on the phone with FOX News last night during Pat Smith's speech. I'm not saying it was right or wrong, it was.

CAMEROTA: The mother of one of the four Americans killed in Benghazi.

CUOMO: Yes, Sean Smith, one of the four who died there.

Manafort says he loved the speech, Trump loved it. How when he was on doing an interview at the time?

STELTER: He was on the phone.

[06:50:01] CUOMO: Those are the kinds of things where it makes you suspicious of answers when you don't need to be.

STELTER: It might make it harder for someone who's on the fence, an independent or a moderate, someone who's thinking about who to vote for in the fall, when they hear time and time and time again about cases where it doesn't seem like the campaign is being truthful. We don't want to put it all at Trump's feet, but it is strange time and time and time again they'll go to unusual responses to stories and it doesn't ring true to the journalists who cover the campaign, or a lot of folks who see the video at their own eyes.

GREGORY: I was walking around the hall yesterday talking to Republicans. What they worry about with Trump is a lack of discipline, a lack of message discipline, calling into FOX when you have one of your stars for the convention delivering that kind of message. They worried about him getting distracted, not just here but later on.

Here as I keep saying all morning, this is what the campaign can absolutely control. When you cannot control you're in a controlled environment, you get into the wilds of the campaign, anything can happen. That's what Republicans most worry about.

CAMEROTA: Gentlemen, thank you. Thanks for the instant analysis.

STELTER: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: All right. Democrats also gathering here in Cleveland. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is leading the pack. What does she think about everything that happened last night? We're talking to her live momentarily.

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CUOMO: All right. Did Melania Trump crib, take some of the words from Michelle Obama's 2008 speech about her husband? Whether you care or not, you may care more about this. Trump's campaign chairman says that is absolutely not what happened. There was no cribbing. But this is an example of what Hillary Clinton does when a strong woman comes up against her.

We'll play through some of the sound of what the chairman said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANAFORT: There's no cribbing of Michelle Obama's speech. These were common words and values that she cares about her family and things like that. I mean, she was speaking in front of 35 million people last night, she knew that. To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama's words is crazy.

I mean, it's so -- I mean, this is, once again, an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and take her down. It's not going to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: A denial and an attack.

The Democratic National Chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, is leading the effort for the Democrats in Cleveland. She joins us now.

What are you doing in Cleveland?

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL), CHAIR, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I am here to make sure that Americans understand that the rhetoric that they'll hear on the stage this week demonstrates over and over that we should never let Donald Trump anywhere near the White House.

CUOMO: So you're here to counter, and now you've got a good situation. Melania Trump did a good job last night. It was a big stage, this isn't what she does. She did a good job. It sounded good, she seemed authentic. Now, you have this problem with Michelle Obama's speech, seems like that language was borrowed, I don't think that's in dispute.

[06:55:00] Paul Manafort says, no, no, that's not what's going on here. You guys, the Clinton people, are going after Melania Trump because she's a strong woman and you are planting the attacks that she cribbed from Michelle Obama. Did you have anything to do with this?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Certainly, Melania Trump deserves credit for delivering a very nice speech and comported herself well in front of the American people last night. The Trump Organization is going to have to answer for the content of that speech, and the side by side is pretty clear, and the evidence, as you said, really isn't in dispute, and so we'll leave it to them to answer for the similarities between other individuals who have delivered speeches on that.

CUOMO: Did team Clinton bring this to the attention of the media? Did you plant this story?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: As I said, I praise her for giving a very nice speech --

CUOMO: But what do you make of Manafort's suggestion? Manafort's suggestion is, this isn't about what Melania Trump said. This is about, it was too good, so the Clinton people are going to attack it.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: You know, the Trump Organization, whether it's Paul Manafort or anyone, all the way up to Donald Trump himself, anytime they are caught red handed engaging in distortions, inaccuracies, a fact pattern that is clearly not accurate, they blame someone else. And so they should be prepared to be held accountable for the content of anything delivered from the stage of the Republican National Convention.

CUOMO: Odd twist, I'll give you that. Certainly breathes a big does of oxygen onto a very small flame, because, Melania's not running for anything. No, what I'm sure you're more concerned about was, you guys took a beating in that hall last night. Several times, different speakers, and certainly echoed by the GOP audience, said that Hillary Clinton should be in jail. A mother of one of those who lost their lives, murdered at Benghazi, said Clinton lied to her face. How do you rebut that?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, obviously you have a grieving mother, who -- and as a mother myself, I certainly can understand the wrenching heartache that a mother would experience from having lost a son. But this has been evidenced throughout the entire process that the Republicans have engaged in when investigating Benghazi, that their true intent is not to get to the bottom of what happened, because at the end of the day, their investigation revealed that there was no wrong -- insidious wrongdoing, on the contrary, and that Kevin McCarthy, the majority leader of the Republican House, made it very clear on national television that their true intention throughout was, in creating the Benghazi Select Committee, was to drive down Hillary Clinton's poll numbers.

And so, they are completely disingenuous in their intent. There was a commission created by Secretary Clinton to make sure that the facts that led to what happened in Benghazi could never be repeated, and the recommendations of that commission have been fully implemented, and again, there has been nothing that has pointed to, in any investigation that's been done, that points to Hillary Clinton's wrongdoing or any insidious attempt to have this be the result.

CUOMO: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, here for the Democrats in Cleveland, to rebut what happened last night, and you'll probably hear plenty more tonight. Appreciate your being on the show.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

CUOMO: All right. So, we're going to have a lot more who is on the ballot tonight -- not the ballot, who will be speaking for you tonight and what's the fallout now from what's going on with this speech controversy, next.

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