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Trump Declares America in Crisis & He'll Fix It; Ivanka Trump Introduces Father as 'People's Nominee'; Clinton to Announce Running Mate Soon. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 22, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

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

[07:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY, live from the Republican convention in Cleveland.

Donald Trump had his big night. He declared only he can fix the issues facing America. The Republican nominee painting a sobering picture of a nation in crisis as he accepted his party's nomination last night.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Trump also slamming his Democratic rival and making waves with his 75-minute-long address. The speech drawing a mix of opinions, from strong to overly bleak.

CNN's coverage this morning begins with Phil Mattingly. Phil, tell us what everyone heard last night.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. The themes, they weren't different. The delivery, that was. Ominous with equal parts big-picture promises and major concerns about the future of the country. Donald Trump, there was nothing subtle about his message last night.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): In the biggest speech of his life, Donald Trump declaring America's in crisis.

D. TRUMP: Not only have our citizens endured domestic disaster, but they've lived through one international humiliation after another.

MATTINGLY: At times painting an exceedingly dark picture of the state of the country.

D. TRUMP: The attacks on our police and the terrorism of our cities threaten our very way of life.

MATTINGLY: The Republican nominee speaking ominously about the dangers of illegal immigration.

D. TRUMP: Where was the sanctuary for all of the other Americans who have been so brutally murdered and who have suffered so, so horribly?

MATTINGLY: And portraying America as a broken nation that he is uniquely qualified to bring together.

D. TRUMP: Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.

MATTINGLY: Trump's message for the public: "I'm with you."

D. TRUMP: People who work hard but no longer have a voice, I am your voice.

MATTINGLY: Rejecting globalism, Trump insisting America first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA, USA.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA, USA.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA, USA.

D. TRUMP: USA, USA.

MATTINGLY: His key theme: restoring law and order to a country he says has been overwhelmed with crime and violence.

D. TRUMP: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon -- and I mean very soon -- come to an end.

MATTINGLY: Trump blaming America's ills on his rival, Hillary Clinton, and the Obama administration.

D. TRUMP: This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton. Death, destruction, terrorism, and weakness.

MATTINGLY: Casting Clinton as a politician controlled by donors.

D. TRUMP: She is their puppet, and they pull the strings.

MATTINGLY: And the Republicans as the party of truth.

D. TRUMP: If you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully crafted lies, and the media myths, the Democrats are holding their convention next week. Go there.

MATTINGLY: His attacks revving up the Cleveland crowd, but the nominee showed signs of restraint, quieting calls to send Clinton to jail, instead focusing on the fight ahead.

D. TRUMP: Let's defeat her in November.

MATTINGLY: And avoiding using his popular moniker, Crooked Hillary, a stark difference from his boisterous rallies. In the longest acceptance speech in 40 years, Trump reinforced the key promises of his campaign.

D. TRUMP: We are going to build a great border wall. MATTINGLY: While dialing back on others, like his proposed ban on all

Muslims entering the U.S.

D. TRUMP: We must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism.

Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

MATTINGLY: The Republican nominee challenging conservative orthodoxy by sharply criticizing America's trade deals and denouncing the foreign policy of both Democratic and Republican administrations.

D. TRUMP: After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before.

MATTINGLY: Trump making history as the first Republican nominee to embrace the LGBTQ community at a convention.

D. TRUMP: I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.

[07:05:06] MATTINGLY: The New York billionaire completing his improbable takeover of the Republican Party, though it hasn't been smooth sailing this week, with Ted Cruz's endorsement snub and the plagiarism controversies involving his wife.

Trump and his running mate trying to project a united front and hoping Cleveland gives them a boost heading into November.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And Alisyn, it's worth noting that while last night was a huge moment for Donald Trump, it was also a very strategic calculation by Trump and his team. They have made clear throughout the Republican Party and so far into the general election they're reaching out to a very specific subset of people, the people that have been disenfranchised, the people who haven't felt the economic recovery. That was exactly who Trump was targeting once again last night. Not necessarily trying to broaden that message, trying to make sure that message that he's been using so far hits home.

The main question now, going forward, the question Donald Trump's advisers don't even have the question to, is that a big enough piece of the electorate to win in November? We are certainly going to see. They are not shifting off that message any time soon -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes, of course, broadening the tent is the challenge to bring in more voters. Phil, thank you for that.

So now that Trump is the nominee, his challenge is to broaden his appeal. And his daughter Ivanka tried to help by introducing her father as a fighter for women's rights.

CNN's Jason Carroll joins us now with more of that story -- Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you know, she's one of Trump's closest advisers. And last night Ivanka Trump took to the stage, telling the crowd her father instilled in her values and a strong ethical compass. She told personal stories about growing up with him, all while making a special pitch to women voters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF DONALD TRUMP: Like many of my fellow millennials, I do not consider myself categorically Republican or Democrat. More than party affiliation, I vote based on what I believe is right for my family and for my country.

CARROLL (voice-over): Donald Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka, trying to broaden her father's appeal, branding him the people's nominee.

I. TRUMP: My father values talent. He recognizes real knowledge and skill when he finds it. He is color blind and gender neutral. He hires the best person for the job, period.

CARROLL: Ivanka Trump making the case to female voters.

I. TRUMP: At my father's company, there are more female than male executives. Women are paid equally for the work that we do, and when a woman becomes a mother, she is supported, not shut out. He will fight for equal pay for equal work, and I will fight for this, too, right alongside of him.

CARROLL: Her speech caps four days of personal testimonies from Trump's children and his wife, Melania.

I. TRUMP: In the same office in Trump Tower where we now work together, I remember playing on the floor by my father's desk, constructing miniature buildings with LEGOs and Erector Sets while he did the same with concrete, steel, and glass. My father taught my siblings and me the importance of positive values and a strong ethical compass.

CARROLL: It wasn't just a family affair. Trump's business partner and personal friend of 40 years, Tom Barrack, touting a side of Trump many may not know.

TOM BARRACK, BUSINESS PARTNER AND FRIEND OF TRUMP: He has relentless habits, these relentless beautiful habits. He shows up on time. He believes that punctuality is the courtesy of kings. He doesn't confuse efforts with results. He befriends the bewildered.

CARROLL: And in a historic moment, openly-gay tech billionaire Peter Thiel receiving a rousing response after making this statement.

PETER THIEL, INVESTOR AND ENTREPRENEUR: Of course every American has a unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American.

CARROLL: Thiel insisting conservatives are focused on the wrong social issues.

THIEL: Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?

CARROLL: His comments come as the Republican Party is facing criticism for passing an anti-LGBT platform, which stands in sharp contrast to Trump's views on gays.

D. TRUMP: I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: Trump supporters say, while Trump, his daughter and Thiel all had different speeches in terms of content, many felt as though they hit the right tone for what the party needed, what was, by many accounts, a very rocky week -- Chris, Alisyn.

[07:10:07] CAMEROTA: Thank you, Jason.

CUOMO: All right. Let's discuss. We have Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy, one of the stars of this convention in primetime. He was with his wife at the Republican National Convention. It's great to see you.

REP. SEAN DUFFY (R), WISCONSIN: You too.

CUOMO: You said that you are happy about last night. We have numbers from the CNN instant poll. Those who watched. So, you know, these numbers are going to be a little skewed. It's got to be people who watched, not all Americans. And these numbers tend to skew in favor of the party that we're talking about. So there are more Republicans, 41 percent Republicans, 23 percent Democrat, the rest undecided.

Seventy-five percent viewed the speech positively or very positively. Why, in your estimation?

DUFFY: Because I think he reflected the view of the American people. He laid out the problem that America faces and, I think, in a very common-sense way. I'm from Wisconsin. In a way that most of my constituents see the way the country is going.

And then he offered his vantage point and viewpoint on how you fix it, but he's not sugarcoating anything. And I think what a lot of people want, the greatest line of the speech was when he pointed at the camera and said, "I'm going to fight for you."

There are so many people who feel like they've been left aside. And this might be inappropriate to say, but there's a viewpoint that says, "I can fight for minorities, and I can fight for women." If you get that, you make up a vast majority of the voting block and you win.

And white males have been left aside a little bit in the politics of who speaks to them, not in regard to the culture and the economy but whoever speaks to them politically.

Donald Trump is, I think, speaking across a wide breadth of people in a way that I think you're going to see these numbers pop.

I think what's interesting is this -- this convention was not the smoothest, as you mentioned, Alisyn. And I mean, from the plagiarism at the start, Ted Cruz coming out and not endorsing. Some might even say a little bit of a disaster. Until Donald Trump gets on stage.

This whole campaign is a force of personality of Donald Trump. He drives everything on stage. The man is strong. I mean, he's stepping back from the podium with his -- with his tough stance. You know, the point -- applauding his own lines. I thought it was great.

CAMEROTA: Did he give enough specifics? That's the rap on him. I mean, critics say, "Yes, anybody can say I'm going to fix it, I'm going to defeat ISIS, and I'm going to do it quickly." Where are the specifics?

So this speech -- this is not a policy speech. They never are. But I think what's key is do you understand the problem? Can you recognize a problem exists? Because you can't fix it unless you acknowledge it. He acknowledged the problem.

CUOMO: Do you think the world is as bleak a place as he laid out last night? Do you think crime is really on the rise here? Do you think that illegal immigrants are really running around, killing people at the rate that he said? Because there's no question that the numbers suggest otherwise.

But I'm just saying perceptually, do you think the world is as messed up as Donald Trump says?

DUFFY: I look at -- I look at the rallies that taking place for Black Lives Matter in our streets. That's bad. I look at...

CAMEROTA: But why is that? Why is it bad to protest? That is what this country was built on. Why?

DUFFY: That's not bad. What is bad, though, is when protests and the violent rhetoric that comes from that protest ends in policemen and women being targeted and shot by those who are siding with the protesters. That's a problem. That's new right now.

CUOMO: That's important to do, to contextualize. Right? It's new right now.

This -- we're having a bad year going after cops, whether it's your mouth or with violence. It's bad right now. It's up about 70 percent from the same time last year.

But if you look at it compared to when we really had trouble in the '60s, which is what I feel like Trump keeps likening us to, is the '60s. Sixty-eight, you know, we're at this kind of cultural black/white crossroads. We were talking about hundreds. You know, 100, 120, 130 cops. Things have gotten better, but not from that speech last night. It's

like we're in the worst crisis we've ever been in ever.

DUFFY: Not the worst crisis ever, but there are crises in all different spaces of our world. There's an economic crisis in the sense that, yes, the economy is growing, but not fast enough after the downturn.

We have this internal strife, you know, cops versus, you know, Black Lives Matter. Cops are getting shot. We see the crisis overseas, the rise of ISIS, and China and Russia. And weak leadership in America.

I think all I disagree with some of the stats you laid out earlier. I was watching my phone on the way over, you guys talking about the border. The catch and release. Basically, the open border policy from this administration allowing folks in. I think that is frustrating folks. And you take that all together, there's a lot of anxiety and angst, I think, across the country that Donald Trump tapped into.

And I believe that they want a strong person, a strong personality to go out there and fight for them and win for them. And that's a speech that Donald Trump delivered last night.

[07:15:03] CAMEROTA: Donald Trump is getting kudos for mentioning the LGBT community and saying that he would protect them from this foreign hateful ideology. Is that a bold position? "I'm going to protect you from terrorism"?

DUFFY: Well, I think -- I think the community wants him to say, "I'm going to protect you."

CAMEROTA: But they also want to hear, and domestically, "I'm going to help you get the rights that you deserve."

DUFFY: Yes. I don't know if he was trying to walk a line there or what he was doing, but if you -- did you hear the response from the crowd?

CUOMO: Yes.

DUFFY: Some will say the Republicans are anti-gay. If you listen to the crowd last night, these are hardcore Republicans. And that was one of the loudest applauses that Donald Trump got.

CUOMO: But did they take it as a terror line or as a gay rights line? I mean, look at who he picked as his VP.

DUFFY: I don't know.

CUOMO: Governor Pence is no friend to the LGBT community.

DUFFY: Well, I don't think that's true. I don't think he believes in -- he believes in traditional marriage, not gay marriage.

CUOMO: He doesn't want to have transgender bathrooms. He believes in funding conversion therapy, which in that community is one of the most dangerous things there is.

DUFFY: We can spend the whole next hour talking about...

CUOMO: Wouldn't be good for you, Duffy, not on this issue.

Duffy: Maybe not on your show. There's -- there's a sense that says, listen, do you want to sideline a group of folks? Should we actually reach out and talk to them? Is there a way that we come together and agree on a set of policies that they can satisfy, you know, the morality on the right and the needs, you know, of a community? Could I be the bridge that makes that happen? Absolutely. And the start of that is actually saying it on a stage like that.

CUOMO: No question.

DUFFY: Which is what Donald did. I think you -- I think you're going to see it pop. And I'm interested -- and you and I were talking about this before coming on. How many people tuned into this speech last night? And Donald Trump had the opportunity to bring his message, you know, not with our commentary but directly into the homes of the American people with such a broad, I think, appeal of issues.

CUOMO: When I get the numbers, I'll send them to you by e-mail. Congressman Duffy, congratulations on how it went with your wife here.

DUFFY: Thank you.

CUOMO: And thank you for being on NEW DAY, as always. Always a pleasure.

So we have Donald Trump's case against Clinton to America last night. Now we have Hillary Clinton's chance to counter.

The first thing she may do may be a political move. Is she going to announce who her running mate is going to be this afternoon to try to blunt a little of the effect of the Trump effect last night?

CNN's senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns live in Orlando where the Clinton campaign is keeping us on the string about this.

Joe, if you had to read the tea leaves, what do they tell you?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in the final approach, Chris, to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, I've got to tell you, most of the people, with the exception of cabinet secretaries who have been forbidden by President Obama to speak, most of the people who have been mentioned as possible vice-presidential picks for Hillary Clinton are actually expected to speak at the Democratic National Convention.

At the top of that list, of course, is Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. This is a person who is very connected to the Democratic National Committee. He ran it a few years back. He's also a former governor. He has a lot going for him, including the fact that he's already been vetted. Eight years ago he was in the top tier of individuals President Obama considered before he settled on Joe Biden. Another name that's out there in the top list for Hillary Clinton is

Tom Vilsack. That is the agriculture secretary at this time, also a former governor of a very important state. That would be Iowa. He would be able to reach out to rural voters, people in small towns, and that would be very useful to this campaign.

Many other people certainly listed, including New Jersey Senator Corey Booker; Elizabeth Warren, the left of center senator from Massachusetts, and others. But they're keeping us waiting for sure, Chris. We're here in Orlando expecting to see Hillary Clinton, where she'll start her day speaking to the mayor and others, talking about the massacre at The Pulse nightclub.

Back to you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Joe. Keep us posted when you get any information out of them today.

Well, the goal of Donald Trump's big acceptance speech was to unite the party. Did he succeed? We will ask a former speech writer for George W. Bush how the speech went.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:23:16] D. TRUMP: Nobody knows the system better than me. Which is why I alone can fix it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump's goal was to unite the Republican Party, though this morning some Republicans still heard division in his convention speech.

Here to discuss is our stellar panel: CNN political analyst David Gregory; CNN political commentator Matt Lewis; and senior editor of "The Atlantic" and former speech writer for George Bush, David Frum. Great to have all of you here with us this morning.

David, people are likening his speech -- they say it's Nixonian.

DAVID FRUM, FORMER SPEECHWRITER FOR GEORGE BUSH: I call it Nixon without the optimism. That's not a joke. If you go back and reread all of Richard Nixon's 1968 acceptance speeches, yes, you see a lot of references to crime and mayhem and rioting, but the bottom two-thirds of that speech is a statement of optimism.

America was about to put a man on the moon in 1968. And society is pulsing with the possible. And President Nixon makes a series of commitments, and it's also where he talks again about building bridges to America's various communities and bringing us together. That was also part of his message.

None of that optimism was on display here last night. CUOMO: And also, remember the context. The reason that the Trump

campaign likes the Nixon comparisons is part of the context of the times.

FRUM: Yes.

CUOMO: It is beneficial to them to say we're in, like, another 1968 period. Remember how bad that was?

FRUM: Right.

CUOMO: But what was Nixon's choice? His choice was to paint an optimistic -- to recognize the problems, but to say this can be better; people will be OK. Did Trump do that last night?

MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, no. I mean, 99 percent of it was negative. Look, I think that any time you're running as a change agent, you're running against the status quo, you need to tell people how bad things are, right?

[07:25:08] We talk about it's morning again in America. That was Reagan's re-election. He had to talk in 1980 about how bad the malaise was with Jimmy Carter.

Bill Clinton ran against a recession, but he also talked about don't stop thinking about tomorrow. So you need to do both. You need the downside. You need the upside. And not just to win a political election. I think it is incumbent upon leaders and their responsibility to be a little bit optimistic. This was depressing, and it's not good for the country.

CAMEROTA: Hold on a second. David, he said we're going to start winning again. We're going to beat ISIS. We're going to beat them quickly. We're going to win so much you get tired of winning.

GREGORY: Well, but there was this overhang of apocalypse and misery and crime and people coming to get you, the subtext being people who don't look like you are coming to get you, and that "I alone can fix it," which is fanciful. I mean, it's one thing to be a strong man and to be a strong leader, but he's facing so much headwind. More than 60 percent of the population saying that he can't -- he's not qualified for the job.

So he doesn't really do anything to assuage those concerns, other than talk so much about the downside, not filling enough of his own biography.

And yes, there's no question that he is speaking as the outsider to a system when so many people think that there's so much going wrong in the country. But again, there's a risk associated with his candidacy that I don't think he did very much to try to tamp down.

CUOMO: You know, the -- one of the themes that came through last night was it's not just that things are bad. It's that Clinton is to blame for them. And that combination seemed to resonate. In our poll afterwards -- and again, this is skewed towards people who wanted to watch the speech, so it's skewed Republican, 41 percent Republican, 23 percent Democrat, the rest presumptively undecided. Seventy-five percent viewed it favorably or very favorably. What does that tell you?

FRUM: Well, the speech was aimed at those at a certain segment of the Republican constituency and at a certain part of the Republican brain. And it hit those points smack on. So, yes, you apply the electrodes to the right part in the cerebellum, and you get the spasm of reaction. How will it continue?

The -- and the attack on Hillary Clinton, that -- if I were the Trump team, it would make me more than a little nervous, and that's what gets the response.

This is a party where, according to the most recent polls, only 38 percent of Republicans are happy with their nominee. There is a lot of division within the party. They can only bring them together, but not by focusing on what candidate Trump is offering, by focusing on the other person.

You need to keep -- the fact that they have to keep saying their scores (ph) over and over again -- Clinton is worse, Clinton is worse, Clinton is worse -- you don't do that when you think you've got something good.

CAMEROTA: And Matt, what about people who are doing well in the country. It -- you know, not everyone has seen their income go down. Some people have seen their income go up. Some people's small businesses are doing well.

LEWIS: Absolutely. And the funny thing is, this is the exact opposite problem the Republicans had four years ago. Do you remember the whole, "You didn't build that" thing? So, you know, the message there was, unless you're an entrepreneur, you're not really part of the solution. You know? So if you're a policeman, you know, a firefighter, you're not really part of the Republican coalition.

Trump has gone the exact opposite way, right? So unless you're like a coal miner or working a steel factory, unless you're, like, working at manufacturing, you're not really a real Republican. It's ironic coming from this, you know, casino magnate billionaire, but that is the message.

And I do think that it's turned off especially opinion leaders. I mean, who are disproportionately. I haven't done anything on the coal industry in years, you know? I was a prison guard, so I get these. I really was an Anchorsville (ph). I get the appeal.

But, you know, you kind of, like, have a message for every sort of part of the coalition. It's very focused on the blue-collar aspect.

CUOMO: David, let me ask you something. Another finding from the poll last night was that before, about six out of ten thought that he was talking about things that could actually happen. Now, it was three out of four. Moved to about 70, 75 percent. Does that equate with him getting a bounce out of this that grows his base? GREGORY: Well, I think it could. I mean, I think there's something very prosaic about his candidacy and about his speech. And that's appropriate, you know? He is projecting himself as a strong leader in troubled times that need fixing. And that he's not only a change agent who tells the truth, but that he can actually do it.

Now, he takes all that to extremes with the kind of messianic flavor that "I alone can do these things." But I think it's possible that he can come out of his convention and out of a speech like that, where he did tone down some areas of his extremism that he's talked about in the months that have followed the past. And people forget. Strong leader with some real potential.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much for being with us here on NEW DAY.

Are Donald Trump and his running mate at odds on foreign policy? One of Trump's policy advisors says not exactly. He's going to join us to explain --