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Ivanka On Growing Up Trump; Ted Cruz's Gamble: Refuses To Endorse Trump; Adelsons Rebuff Cruz After Not Endorsing Trump; VP Nominee Pence Overshadowed By Cruz & Trump. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired July 21, 2016 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:32:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We're getting a closer look this morning at Donald Trump, the father. CNN chief's political analyst, Gloria Borger, sat down with the Republican nominee's daughter, Ivanka, before Ivanka's big speech tonight, to talk about what it was like to grow up Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: How would you describe your father, as a parent, growing up?

IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF DONALD TRUMP: He was funny, sometimes wickedly so. Great sense of humor. He was demanding of us. He had very high expectations for us because he knew what we had the potentials to accomplish and he saw the potential in us before we saw it in ourselves. And I think that he encouraged us to pursue our passions.

He wanted us to find meaning and purpose in our lives but was very careful not to push us into real estate, and I think that's partially because his excitement -- his passion for real estate and everything that he did, he brought home. And so, I think we inherited a little bit of that excitement and perhaps it's in the blood.

But, he always said to us you have to do what you love and you'll never succeed, you'll never be able to compete at the highest level if you don't deeply love what it is that you do.

BORGER: So, when you were young, was your dad sort of the kind of a dad who would play games with you, read you bedtime stories, or different than that?

TRUMP: No, he was different. He was not really the type of -- he wasn't long on diaper changing and things like that. But, you know, he -- I think maybe he was a little bit more traditional in that regard. But he was very accessible and very available. And, you know, I think one of the things that I think about so often is that I never questioned that my siblings and I were his top priority. He wasn't always physically present but he was always available.

Actually, as a little girl -- a friend of mine reminded me about this recently, that she used to hang out with me in a janitor's closet where there was a pay phone at school, and on recess I'd go there and I'd call collect to his office. I was probably, you know, 10 years old, and I'd call collect to The Trump Organization, which is hilarious, but --

[05:35:00] BORGER: Did you say hi, this is Ivanka?

TRUMP: I'm calling collect from the Chapin School and he would pick up the phone every single time, and he'd put me on speakerphone. It wouldn't be a long conversation. He'd introduce me to whoever was in his office.

But only in retrospect I laugh now, but it didn't matter who was there. It was colleagues, it was titans of industry, it was heads of countries. He'd always take my call and he'd always tell everyone in the room how great a daughter I was and say cute things and, you know, ask me about I test I took. But, you know, I think that's really telling of him as a person and a parent. We always came first.

BORGER: And let me move on now to the campaign a little bit. Your father has said that you and Melania have wanted him to be more "presidential" is the word that he uses. Tell me about that because do you believe that the nicknames he used for some people or the name- calling was a mistake? Is that what you're talking about when you say more presidential?

TRUMP: Well, you would -- you know, my conversations with my father are really between us but, you know, obviously I'm his child and I've also been his colleague. I've worked alongside of him for the past decade here at The Trump Organization. And part of the reason we have such a good relationship is because he respects me and because I'm candid in my opinions and I share them, solicited or otherwise.

BORGER: So -- but, to that question, I mean, do you think those were -- did you tell him those were a mistake or you don't?

TRUMP: Well, once in a while he'll say things and I'll tell him he could probably do with ratcheting it back.

BORGER: And he listens?

TRUMP: Sometimes, and sometimes he doesn't, or sometimes he listens for limited periods of times.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: I think that's interesting to hear about what he was like as a father, particularly that anecdote about how she would call him every day and regardless of what he was in the middle of he would take her call and introduce her on the speakerphone to who was in the room.

I have seen that side of him. When he's -- he can multitask in that way and he is always focused on his kids, even if you're meeting with him and trying to talk or negotiate, and that's -- there's a lesson in there, I think, that she valued it so much.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: I think it was Mike Pence, last night, who said you can't fake good kids.

CAMEROTA: I like that saying.

CUOMO: And, obviously, everybody's very impressed with the Trump scions so far in this convention. Now, however, there has not been such a favorable impression of others who took to the stage here.

Let's put in the spotlight Mr. Ted Cruz. He came into that place with a mission last night and he left to a chorus of boos. Why would he come to the Trump convention and not endorse the party's nominee? You know why, and our conservative pundits are going to weigh in on whether it worked for Cruz, next.

[05:37:55] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:42:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Please, don't stay home in November. If you love our country and love your children as much as I know that you do, stand and speak and vote your conscience. Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the constitution.

RNC DELEGATES: (Booing).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, that background din that you hear was the delegates booing Ted Cruz after he refused to endorse Donald Trump last night. Was Cruz sabotaging party unity and he was upstaging Mike Pence, or was he setting the stage for his next run?

For all the above, joining us now, CNN political commentator and talk radio host for KABC, John Phillips, and Alice Stewart, CNN political commentator and former communications director for Ted Cruz. Great to have both of you. OK, you know Ted Cruz, Alice, so well.

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I do.

CAMEROTA: So, what was he doing last night?

STEWART: He was giving a speech calling for the voters out there and the people in the convention to vote their conscience.

CAMEROTA: Even if they -- even if that means not Donald Trump?

STEWART: He was calling on them to vote their conscience -- vote up and down the ticket. Encouraging people to get out. It was an indictment on --

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump?

STEWART: It was an indictment on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and it was a call for people to come out and vote and look at their principles, and it was a call for freedom. I mean, repeatedly throughout the speech we heard him talk about how important it is to fight for our freedom, fight for the constitution, and those are important values that --

CAMEROTA: But it wasn't party unity. I mean, that's not what he was looking for last night.

STEWART: The way we achieve party unity is we unite behind our shared principles and that's exactly what he was calling for. And look, this was a speech about bringing people together and encouraging them to go out and vote their conscience.

CUOMO: Alice --

STEWART: Yes.

CUOMO: -- you have to learn how to wear different hats now as a contributor. You know, look, let's just call it what it is, OK? He is obviously trying to preserve himself and not get stained by Trump in his own estimation. That's what's going on here. That's why he didn't do what you always do when you take that stage, which is endorse the man who brought you there.

He gave him a primetime slot and they knew they weren't getting an endorsement, but do you think Cruz went too far in not even mentioning the man's name in a meaningful way?

STEWART: Well, let me give you a little historical perspective. Go back to '76, Reagan giving a speech at the convention for Gerald Ford. He didn't give a full sort of endorsement, he called for people at the convention to come together and unify and defeat the Democrats.

CUOMO: He did refer to him as the nominee. I thought you were going to do that. He did refer to him as the nominee and he did say that he should be voted for. Ted Cruz did not do that last night.

STEWART: He called for people to vote their conscience. Here's the thing, all of the conversation about this say look, truthfully, when they had the initial invitation for Ted to speak there was never any conversation about in exchange for a full endorsement you can speak.

[05:45:00] They talked just the other day. There was never any conversation or an agreement that there needed to be an endorsement as part of this. The Trump campaign had the speech two hours before it was given and no one said -- nothing was said about that. So, now the concerns about it, it just doesn't make sense.

CAMEROTA: John, you're enjoying this tennis match, now dive in here.

JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I've got a kink in my neck. Ronald Reagan is Ted Cruz's political idol. If you play the drinking game every time Ted Cruz says Ronald Reagan you'd be blowing a .2, 20 minutes in.

In 1976, he showed up to the convention, he endorsed the nominee, he campaigned for the nominee. He didn't go the convention and pull a Kanye West and hijack someone else's party. He was there for Gerald Ford. Ted Cruz didn't do that. Ted Cruz was selfish last night and I think it's going to have consequences.

CAMEROTA: OK, you --

PHILLIPS: Long-term consequences.

CAMEROTA: -- call it selfish. What about standing on your principles? He doesn't believe in everything that Donald Trump says and does, so why should he pretend to?

PHILLIPS: He took an oath at the beginning of the campaign that he would endorse the Republican Party nominee. He broke that oath last night and he did it on live television.

CUOMO: What was the word? Support. The pledge was will you support the party's nominee at the end of this? Ironically, it was Trump who was waffling. You remember?

PHILLIPS: Very well.

CUOMO: He was first because it should be me, of course, it now is. The play is for 2020.

STEWART: Right.

CUOMO: What is the plus-minus here? We understand what the plus is. What he's preserving, his individuality, representing the core and pure of conservativism within that party's reckoning, but what is the negative?

STEWART: Well, from his standpoint, Ted has always stood for his principles, stood hard to fight for freedom and the constitution, and the negative would not be standing firm on those. And look, here's the --

CUOMO: No, no, no, I'm saying the perceptual negative, like Adelson not letting him into his suite last night. Like having those people who have long memories, even in Texas, booing him last night. The people who had Cruz stickers on in the delegation saying yes, I love Ted Cruz, but he's got to support the guy right now.

STEWART: Right, I totally get that. And look, I completely understand someone like Sheldon Adelson and others who understandably had concerns that there was not a full endorsement. I get Adelson understood the optics of having Ted Cruz in his box last night, completely understandable, and Ted understood there was going to be some pushback for that. But at the end of the day, he wanted to stand firm on his principles and he was willing -- he's willing to take the backlash.

CAMEROTA: How can Mike Pence get any oxygen in that room after that?

PHILLIPS: Who?

(Laughter) CAMEROTA: I mean, was he upstaged horribly?

PHILLIPS: I think Mike Pence had to go out there and throw the fastball, which is exactly what he did. He had to talk about his credentials. He's a former congressman, he's a governor, he comes from the Midwest where states are going to decide the election -- the states of Ohio, where we're sitting right now, Michigan, Pennsylvania.

And I think like he looked like a credible choice. It looked like Donald Trump went out there and picked a serious person to be his running mate. He didn't light the building on fire but that wasn't his job.

CUOMO: Pence is going to take some hits, you know. He's got plenty there for the Democrats to come at him, but he showed something about himself last night. He could be a corrector in chief, that man. He can right the ship. He can say hold on, here's what he means by NATO, and I think that's going to be helpful. We're going to talk about that more. Thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, Alice.

STEWART: Thank you.

CUOMO: Welcome to the team.

STEWART: Thank you very much.

CUOMO: Good to have you.

STEWART: Thank you.

CUOMO: All right, so Donnie and Marie -- we remember them. You were a little bit -- you were a little bit rock and roll. I guess I'd have to be country.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: Hmm.

CAMEROTA: I like that.

CUOMO: Donnie and Marie had it and Mike may not. What are we talking about? Chemistry, chemistry. (Video playing) After this moment -- all right, so here they come.

CAMEROTA: Oh, boy.

CUOMO: I'm going to put it on --

CAMEROTA: Oh, God.

CUOMO: No, you're not. No, you're not. What happened there? This is being called the moment and metaphor of the night, next.

CAMEROTA: Oh. CUOMO: You did that to me once.

[05:48:55] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:53:10] CUOMO: Politics is about moments. Moments as metaphor and meaning. I think we had one last night.

CAMEROTA: I can't wait to hear your analogy of what this was.

CUOMO: It was a kiss. It was a kiss that everybody's talking about.

CAMEROTA: An attempt at a kiss.

(Video playing)

CUOMO: Donald Trump reaching over to plant one on his running mate, Mike Pence, and this happening.

CAMEROTA: Oh.

CUOMO: Pence gave him the iron elbow. What does it mean, Alisyn Camerota?

CAMEROTA: All right, well, I have been familiar with the Heisman which, I believe, he affected with the elbow. So, you know, I think that what New York men do for kissing each other is different than what Indiana men feel about kissing each other. So, Donald Trump is a kisser --

CUOMO: Was he rebuffed?

CAMEROTA: Yes, he was rebuffed. Look at that, oh.

CUOMO: He gave him the stiff shoulder and elbow there.

CAMEROTA: The stiff shoulder. Now, as you know, conventions also have notoriously offered kisses, even when they land. May I remind everyone of the Al Gore-Tipper Gore kiss? (Video playing) That one did connect, too much. This is -- OK, all right -- OK --

CUOMO: That's it, that's it, get in there.

CAMEROTA: All right. Oh, wow.

CUOMO: That's what I'm talking about.

CAMEROTA: OK. Now, she thought he was going to just give her a peck --

CUOMO: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- but then -- that was a make-out session.

CUOMO: It did, it did. Oh, there's another one.

CAMEROTA: Oh, that was a peck. That's what she was hoping for at first.

CUOMO: Yes.

CAMEROTA: I don't know. Convention kisses -- they can be awkward. Ted Cruz was booed after refusing to endorse Donald Trump last night, so what does that mean for party unity? Our panel debates it, ahead.

[05:54:40] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:58:50]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: There is a better vision for our future. Vote your conscience.

RNC DELEGATES: (Booing).

LAURA INGRAHAM, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: All you boys with bruised egos, you must honor your pledge.

GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: This isn't just another Clinton scandal.

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Every American should be terrified at the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency.

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: Who better to let the politicians know you're fired than Donald Trump?

ERIC TRUMP, SON OF DONALD TRUMP: Vote for the one candidate who does not need this job.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: That man is ready. This team is ready. Our party is ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CUOMO: To our viewers in the United States and around the world, welcome to NEW DAY. We are live at the Republican Convention in Cleveland, and another night and another wow. Ted Cruz booed and heckled after refusing to endorse Donald Trump at the convention last night. Instead, he told people to vote their conscience.

CAMEROTA: So, this political drama overshadowing even the vice presidential nominee, Mike Pence, and his speech.