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Melania Trump Delivers Plagiarized Speech; GOP Slams Clinton at Republican Convention. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 19, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: Donald is an amazing leader. Now he will go to work for you.

[07:00:40] RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: It's time to make America one again, one America!

PATRICIA SMITH, MOTHER OF BENGHAZI VICTIM: If Hillary Clinton can't give us the truth, why should we give her the presidency? She deserves to be in stripes.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Oh, we're going to win.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump is not only my hero, he's my life- saver.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wake up, America. You cannot sit this one out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time to take back our country and make America safe again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY, with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, welcome to your NEW DAY. We are live here in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention. So much excitement here, and we'll get to all of that.

Melania Trump left the stage last night to rave reviews, but this morning some people are asking how portions of her remarks were plagiarized from Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic convention.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Although I don't even think that's the story anymore. The story has changed in just, like, the last 15 minutes. Trump campaign's chairman, Paul Manafort, came on and said not only was there no cribbing of the speech from Michelle Obama -- and I've got to tell you, not an easy case to make -- but that what's really going on is that Hillary Clinton is going after Melania Trump for being a strong woman. That's going to reverberate.

We have all the angles covered. Let's begin with CNN's Phil Mattingly live inside the Q Arena -- Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

You spoke to Paul Manafort. I spoke to Paul Manafort shortly before he talked to you. They're not backing down on this defense. But one of the interesting elements here, guys, is last night was supposed to be Melania Trump's moment. Today was supposed to be the moment where all we talked about was Melania Trump's speech.

Well, that -- that's true, just not necessarily in the way the Trump campaign would like.

(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.

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

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

M. TRUMP: That your word is your bond, and you do 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 of Michelle Obama's speech from the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

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

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

OBAMA: ... that the only limits to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them.

M. 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.

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.

M. TRUMP: That you treat people with respect.

MATTINGLY: Under a fire storm 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, mention who helped Mrs. Trump write her speech or explain where those fragments came from.

In an interview shot before her big speech, Melania seems to take most of the credit for the content of her remarks.

M. TRUMP: I wrote it with as little help as possible.

OBAMA: Donald Trump's "Apprentice"-like entrance to introduce his wife on stage, yet another moment that has everyone talking about this unconventional convention.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And guys, as Alisyn pointed, the speech was well-received inside the convention hall, a big moment for the Trump campaign, a big moment for Melania Trump, who doesn't really attend many events on the campaign trail and certainly doesn't speak.

But interesting e-mail I just got a few minutes ago, as Paul Manafort's comments to you guys were starting to spread around, some Republican official said this: "Look, if you're expecting them to apologize, you haven't been paying attention over the last year. That's not the campaign's M.O. That's not how they operate. They don't apologize. They attack."

[07:05:16] And guys, that's exactly what you saw firsthand from Paul Manafort just last hour.

CAMEROTA: Look, there's a difference, Phil, between apologizing -- apologizing and acknowledging, and he didn't even want to do that. So Phil, thank you very much, and right now we do want to take a closer look, because all this has come up with Paul Manafort.

So we want to compare Melania Trump's speech to Michelle Obama's speech for you. And then we'll show you the reaction that Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, gave us here on NEW DAY. So watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

M. TRUMP: From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values...

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

M. 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.

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

PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: There's no cribbing of Michelle Obama's speech. These were common words and values that s cares about her family, 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, so this is once again an example of, when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and -- and take her down. It's not going to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. Joining us now to discuss this is Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy. He spoke last night at the Republican National Convention, as well, and we'll show you a portion of that, too.

Congressman, thanks so much for being here.

REP. SEAN DUFFY (R), WISCONSIN: Thanks for having me. It's good to be here. You have good coffee here, that's great.

CAMEROTA: Yes, we also have bacon.

DUFFY: Bacon and coffee, hearty breakfast.

CAMEROTA: That's why you're here.

DUFFY: That's right.

CAMEROTA: So that was just a small sample of the things that seemed eerily similar to Melania Trump's speech and Michelle Obama's speech. It went on. The words -- it didn't seem like it was -- could just be a coincidence, "My word is my bond." "This is what my parents taught me." "This is what we're telling our children."

What do you make of this?

DUFFY: I think those are common words and phrases. But it's too common. It's important that, if you're the campaign, we know someone wrote that speech for them, right? I mean, they have speech writers who put it together. Blame it on a speech writer. Apologize and move on, and let's talk about Hillary Clinton. Let's talk about the economy. Let's talk about ISIS.

Let's talk about what's happening to our cops, but if you don't acknowledge at least something is there, this ends up being not just a one-hour story, it's a one-day, two-day, it's a convention story. And that's the problem.

CUOMO: Look, we're living it right now. Right? That's the weird thing about this business, is that you wind up commenting on your own creations. We're supposed to be talking to you about how ridiculously more appealing and really comporting themselves for political office your wife is...

DUFFY: Exactly. CUOMO: What an amazing thing for you and your wife and for your kids

to be able to see mom and dad do. That was an awesome night for you, Duffy.

But now, here is where you are, because it is not the crime. Melania, who cares whether or not she cribbed from Michelle Obama? She's not running for anything. She did a good job.

Manafort's the campaign chairman. He comes out and denies it's cribbed when the evidence is all the other way. He then blames Hillary Clinton. He then denies what he said about John Kasich when I read his own quote. That's what he's basically saying.

CAMEROTA: That's the scam.

CUOMO: That Clinton planted this. And we're laughing, but that's where it's not so funny anymore if you were running against somebody doing this.

So I'm I just telling you that this is your quote and you say, no, I didn't say it. OK. I then say -- I ask you why was Donald Trump calling into a television show when Pat Smith was talking last night? And he says, well, he loved the speech. How? How could he have seen it when he was on TV at the same time?

This convention is supposed to be about the truth and wanting somebody who tells the truth and is not Hillary Clinton according to the GOP. How does this help that case?

DUFFY: So I think that's important if we're going to talk about the crime, these were a few phrases that we're talking about. It wasn't -- it wasn't sentences and paragraphs. So it's really not that big of a deal. We should be able to move on and acknowledge there were a couple phrases that are similar. We'll go back and talk to the speech writer and see what happened, and let's -- let's go beyond that.

In regard to Donald Trump commenting on the speeches, listen, whether it's called TiVo or I pause my TV all the time and continue watching shows. So I'm sure...

CUOMO: It was live at the same time Pat Smith was giving her speech on TV.

DUFFY: You pause it and replay it.

CUOMO: And you watch it later?

DUFFY: There's new technology that does that, Chris. You can actually pause TV.

CUOMO: I know, those are new facts that you're injecting into the conversation. We don't know that he did that.

DUFFY: We don't know that he didn't. But do I think that Donald watched the speech? I'm sure he did.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but I mean, the point is without acknowledging it, what does that say about the campaign and their tactics?

DUFFY: First of all, I don't think he should have called in during the speech. This is a big -- this is a big moment. It's an important story. And, you know, it would have been nice for the FOX viewers at that point to have a chance to hear it instead of hearing from Mr. Trump.

But I don't think that was the best call, you know, to take the limelight away of from them off the stage, but that doesn't mean he didn't watch it, in my opinion.

CUOMO: But it's a pattern, though. Melania is not a big deal, but then you basically lie about it. OK? I mean, that's what it comes down to. This is the same set of phrases. You're right: it does happen a lot in politics. Explain it that way. It's not what happened.

John Kasich, the Trump campaign decided to go after the popular governor of Ohio. I get what the beef is, but it's an odd play. So I ask about it. It's denied, even though I read the quote to Manafort about what he said. He says, "I didn't go after Kasich."

He said, "If he thinks not supporting Trump will help him be president that is dumb, dumb, dumb." There may have been a fourth "dumb." That's the quote. He said, "I didn't see it."

Why do these things this way? You know, it makes the story worse.

DUFFY: I don't think it helps the campaign. But I will tell you this: I'm sitting on the side. We have the Google searches that people are looking up during the convention. In the end, we are going to move behind the phrase scandal between Melania Trump and Mrs. Clinton. Or Mrs. Obama.

CUOMO: Look at you forwarding the narrative just like that, Duffy.

DUFFY: We are going to go to the issues of the campaign. Because if you look at the cop killings that are happening in America, people care about that. They care that Hillary is a supporter of Black Lives Matter, and that's the movement that's inspiring some of this violence.

They care about ISIS that's inspiring killers across the country. They care about the economy.

And so, maybe this is your point: why in the hell are we talking about, you know, lifting language when we should be talking about that at the Republican convention? I think there's a lesson that the campaign can learn.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

DUFFY: You can engage with the media a little more effectively if there might be a little more honesty and, you know, truth telling. But Donald Trump has been successful throughout his campaign by actually pushing back and being a bulldog. And frankly, Americans want a bulldog in the White House to go fight for them.

CUOMO: That will also tell us the truth, though.

DUFFY: He could have pushed pause, Chris. He could have still watched the show. Come on.

CUOMO: All right. I'm holding out on that one. There are other instances, by the way.

CAMEROTA: Should we watch the moment with Sean Duffy...

CUOMO: Sean Duffy had a great night with his wife last night. Here's a little taste.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have some pretty simple rules in our house. Clean your room.

DUFFY: No teenage boys in your bedroom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No waking Mom and Dad up on Saturday mornings.

DUFFY: No private servers in the basement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And no lying.

DUFFY: Especially to the FBI.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So how long did you guys take to come up with your shtick?

DUFFY: We wrote that speech. No one wrote that for us. Listen, we worked on it for a couple days. We wanted to have fun. It was going to be, we know, a heavier night with -- you know, with all the safety stuff, the ISIS, Benghazi, some of the things that are happening with the law enforcement. We wanted to have fun with the crowd. Talk about the aspirational part of America and take a few jabs at Mrs. Clinton.

So we had fun, and the crowd was great to engage with and you could tell my wife is very attractive and did a great job, and we had a good time. I have to tell you -- we do have a 6-week-old baby, and my 14- year-old son for an hour was downstairs taking care of the baby. He's a rock star. He did great.

CAMEROTA: He's a good brother.

DUFFY: He was a champ. So, he gets the rest of the convention off.

CAMEROTA: That's great.

Congratulations on that. Thanks so much for being here.

CUOMO: That's 14 years. I'm 16 from my oldest, 13 years from Andrew, my oldest sibling, and it worked out great.

DUFFY: You turned out well.

CAMEROTA: They took care of you sort of.

CUOMO: Not because of their fault. That's what I'm trying to say. Great to have you, Congressman.

DUFFY: Thank you for having me on.

CUOMO: All right. So Donald Trump has a history of being unapologetic. We just heard that. Congressman Duffy making the same point. But was this the right time to push back and go on the attack over Melania's speech? So, what does this mean about how the campaign handles crisis? We discuss next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:18:32] CAMEROTA: We want to talk about what has just happened here on NEW DAY when Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, campaign chair manager Paul Manafort denied moments ago on our program portions of Melania Trump's speech last night were lifted from Michelle Obama's. It contained phrases strikingly similar to Michelle Obama's speech in 2008. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: There's no cribbing of Michelle Obama's speech. These were common words and values that she cares about her family, that -- 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, so 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 is talking about it this morning, but I don't think it's an allegation. 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. He did do it. That's correct. But in this particular case there was...

CUOMO: But Melania didn't? MANAFORT: ... certainly a collaboration. Certainly, there's no

feeling by -- by her part that she did it. You know, what she did was use words that are common words. To expect her to think that she would do something like that, knowing how scrutinized her speech was going to be last night is just really absurd.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[07:20:22] CAMEROTA: All right. Let's discuss this with our panel: CNN political commentator and talk radio host for KABC, John Phillips. He's a Donald Trump supporter. Margaret Hoover, CNN political commentator and a Republican consultant. And CNN political analyst, host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast, David Gregory.

OK. Are you surprised by Paul Manafort's response to when we showed the juxtaposition of Michelle Obama's 2008 speech and then last night, Melania's speech? It seems as though there were verbatim repeats.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And as we keep scrutinizing this as the morning wears on and digest it, I think a couple of things are true. Nobody's going to believe that those portions were not lifted from Michelle Obama.

Paul Manafort also said that that's not what she thought she was doing. I don't think anybody is laying this on Melania, even though she claimed to have written this speech. There's obviously a staff in place that's helping her prepare to give a major address of tens to millions of people.

But what do we learn about campaigns in these moments? I mean, that's to me what's the bigger issue here. Is when they're under stress, when they face scrutiny, how do they respond? To launch into Hillary Clinton, that this is a sexist thing, you know, that they're going to launch against her, this is what happens when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton?

CUOMO: It's really the only issue.

GREGORY: Blame the media if you want.

CUOMO: I'll tell you what. You're not blaming the media for this one. What happened with this speech happened. Period. How you deal with it matters.

And this isn't just about Melania, you know. If we're going to be straight about it, let's be straight about it. He definitely didn't want to acknowledge what happened with the speech. OK. But how he did it was to go after Clinton. That's style points.

He definitely went after Governor John Kasich. I read him his own quote. He denied it. Donald Trump was definitely on television while Pat Smith was speaking last night, so he was not watching the speech at the same time. This was about how you handle it. And if your campaign is about the truth and Hillary Clinton is a liar, don't you have to kind of toe the line and at least try to tell the truth? MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What Donald Trump to do,

yes, and what he should do is just play to his brand. He is the guy who fires people. Find somebody, some head to roll, and say, "Look, we all know what happened is that a staff member lifted parts of Michelle Obama's speech, put it in Melania's speech and embarrassed her."

Donald Trump was on the stage introducing her last night, in this massively unprecedented move to come on the first day of the campaign. He needs to find who's responsible, make them responsible, say, "You're fired," and move on. That would show ownership of a mistake. It should show that he's on top of his campaign. It would play to his brand. Everybody would accept it. Nobody blames Melania for this, and this is potentially very embarrassing for her.

CUOMO: They got rid of Caputo for less.

CAMEROTA: Their social media guy.

CUOMO: That's right. He tweeted making fun of Corey Lewandowski and got rid of him.

CAMEROTA: Are you surprised by Corey -- by Paul Manafort's response, nothing to see here?

JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, if I was him, I would just say, "Look, part of the goal of this convention is to make Donald Trump and Melania look presidential, and she was just channeling her inner Joe Biden" and just move on from there.

But look, I think Margaret is 100 percent right.

CAMEROTA: Running for vice president, he had his own plagiarism snafu, as we all remember.

PHILLIPS: That's right. They need to spend more money on speech writers. So far, this has been a campaign that's operated on a shoestring budget. But now he's the nominee. Now he's transitioning to this next phase. You need to spend money on professional speechwriters so mistakes like this don't happen.

GREGORY: This is also about how qualified they are, how competent they are about the campaign and what that says about how they would govern. This is an extraordinary moment, the fact that Trump is in this position as the nominee, they put this together and at the end of this convention they may be in a better place than they've been up to now.

But they have also not put in place all the traditional pieces of a campaign, including their speechwriters to avoid these kinds of mistakes.

HOOVER: By the way, this is not just sort of tactics of a campaign, well maybe he's untraditional, OK. Lot of supporters would say that's fine. This is about running a country, running the largest country in the world. The reason it's important to have important and well- qualified speechwriters there is because words matter around the world. It's matters is she wrote that.

You don't need to be a pro to tell the truth. What I'm saying is here is the case I heard on the floor last night, which after this will be decidedly more difficult place to walk around tonight, but that's the job. She lies. She lied about the e-mail. She lied about Benghazi. She's a liar. I don't trust her. We're not going to do it. He may not be a politician. May not be polished or presidential, but I believe him. OK. That's what this is.

If John Allen is talking to Joel Benenson, OK, the functional equivalent of Paul Manafort within the Clinton organization, and he not just denies what was said in the speech, but he then denies two other things that you know are absolutely true, how do you handle it, as a little wink and a nod, or do you think the campaign has a real problem that they need to clear up ASAP?

[07:25:21] PHILLIPS: Look, nontraditional candidates have certain allowances from the electorate that professional politicians don't have. We saw that in California with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. When he was running, he made a lot of mistakes. He had many snafus on the campaign trail. And voters said, "You know what? This is a guy who comes from the private sector. He comes from Hollywood. He's not a professional politician. They do not hold them to the same standards.

CUOMO: But lying -- but lying is not about being a pro. That's why I made the analogy.

GREGORY: What is the criticism of Hillary Clinton, right? Is that she's often too cute by half at the very least, if not outright being untruthful.

In this case, you're talking about not how to get to his core supporters who are going to look beyond this, but how to really start getting to a place where he can speak to think who think he's unqualified, questions about his temperament, how he approached the job, whether he's a disciplined person. All of these things go to that, whether you can trust in him and his team, by the way. It's not just about him. It's the people who are around him.

HOOVER: This is the guy who only hires the smartest people, right? He's good because he can identify the right deputies to be in...

CUOMO: Manafort is a smart guy. He saved his bacon with this convention. You know, we are largely here today, because Paul Manafort swinging things around for the Trump campaign. I'm just saying that if lying and telling the truth is going to be the balance of power in this election, they need to clear this up and fast.

PHILLIPS: On that point, there is an opportunity here for him to say, look, a mistake was made. We fired someone. The situation is resolved and then go back to attacking Manafort.

CUOMO: Right now it's Paul Manafort. Right now, if Paul Manafort fires the speechwriter. PHILLIPS: I mean, that's the person to go after. But if he transitions and says, "Look, I'm going to fix this problem, because this is unacceptable," and then goes after Hillary's story line that she's the one that's the adult in the room, then I think it could be effective.

CAMEROTA: See, David, Trump supporters think that we work ourselves up in a lather about all this stuff that they just don't think is important. They will think, "Plagiarizing, who cares? So she lifted a couple of lines. He can fight ISIS. He says he has a plan to fight ISIS. He says that he's going to restore order between the police and communities."

I mean, they just think that we talk about all this stuff, and it doesn't resonate with them in their heart.

GREGORY: And that's true, but both things can be true. I mean, people can believe that. And there's other people who are going to see this as more of a knock on him and something that they want to be concerned about. And maybe there's people who just kind of, you know, forget about it, but it becomes part of the public opinion about him.

And more than anything else is the point I made earlier, which is this is his convention. They've got total control, and they have totally botched this so far.

On the first night, big primetime speech. It has emerged that part of the speech was cribbed from Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama of all people, it's not like they're here to celebrate the Obamas. That part of it is just an error.

CAMEROTA: I mean, cribbing from Nancy Reagan would be different than Michelle Obama.

GREGORY: Cribbing. Look, by the way, there's nothing not to respect about the theme of what she was saying, the sentiments, whether it's from Michelle Obama.

CUOMO: A good speech. She did a good job. This was a good night for your party, Margaret. They came out strong out of the box with what they believe the theory of the case is to win, laid out most passionately by Rudy Giuliani, who literally made the case.

But lying matters. If you lie small, you'll lie big in politics. You know, you look back in the Iraq war that Donald Trump is such a big fan of. What happened with the yellow cake, it was about lying. Weapons of mass destruction was about lying. You're banging on the e- mail situation, not because classified information got sent, because it didn't in any real way.

And we all know that, but it's about lying. How is that not communicated by this situation?

HOOVER: Well, and that doesn't square with the major allegation about Hillary's credibility and Hillary's honesty, right?

CUOMO: That's the big ax you were swinging last night. She can't be believed.

HOOVER: Well, first of all, I want you to know, and I want everybody to know that there are 52 percent -- 52 percent of Republicans are unsatisfied with Donald Trump as the nominee. I am one of them. We all know that this party is not unified.

What concerns me is that all of the Trump supporters who are here who are delegates in this convention hall will absolutely say, "This is unfortunate, Melania was great," and they'll move on.

CUOMO: It's not about Melania.

HOOVER: The challenge is the majority of Republicans and the majority of voters who vote every four years in presidential elections, and that's it are just beginning to turn on their televisions and hone in on who are the candidates, and who am I going to vote for? And this is the first story they hear.

Panel, thank you very much. Great to have you here with us this morning.

All right. Republican Senator Susan Collins, she is making it clear that she is not very pleased with Donald Trump. Will she vote for the presumptive GOP nominee, or would she go for Hillary Clinton? Her thoughts in a one-on-one interview next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)