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DNC Chair Resigns As Party Aims To Unify At Convention; Leaked Emails Show Party Leaders Favored Clinton; Trump Says He is Expanding His Muslim Travel Ban; Trump Backer Apologizes For Anti-Semitic Retweet; Trump: Kaine Pick "Slap In The Face To Bernie Sanders" Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired July 25, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:02] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Monday, July 25th, 5:00 in the east. Chris and I are coming to you live from Philadelphia where the Democratic National Convention begins today.

Hillary Clinton hoping to unite the Democrats, but the convention is off to a rocky start because of these leaked e-mail controversy.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Wikileaks may be striking again. What does it mean? And the big question for the campaign is how do they handle it? Are they going to own it or they are going to go in denial mode? We know how that worked out last week.

Of course, the good news for Clinton is the Tim Kaine effect. What does it mean coming into this week? We will discuss that. We have every angle covered.

Let's start this morning with CNN correspondent, Manu Raju -- Manu.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL), DNC CHAIRWOMAN: I'm with her.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER (voice-over): Democratic Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz forced to resign amid a massive e- mail leak showing DNC staffers favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary.

More than 1,000 Sanders supporters marching in Philadelphia in protest. Sanders himself who has been calling for Wasserman Schultz's resignation for months telling CNN that he is not surprised that the DNC was working against him.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: It is an outrage and sad that you would have people in important positions in the DNC trying to undermine my campaign.

RAJU: Clinton's campaign manager pointing his finger at Russian hackers suggesting they had a hand in the leaks.

ROBBY MOOK, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Experts are now saying that the Russians are releasing these e-mails for the purpose of actually helping Donald Trump.

RAJU: Trump's campaign chairman flatly denying the suggestion.

PAUL MANAFORT, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: It is just absurd. I don't know what you're talking about. It is crazy.

RAJU: On Capitol Hill, Debbie Wasserman Schultz had few defenders. Sources tell CNN that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid was pushing for weeks to replace her including at one point floating his number two, Dick Durbin as a replacement.

The interim chair will now be Donna Brazile, Al Gore's former campaign manager and a CNN political analyst. Brazile has tie was Clinton and Sanders, warned Democrats last night that Friday's leak may just be the tip of the iceberg.

DONNA BRAZILE, INTERIM DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIR: More e- mails are coming. I don't know the substance, but I know there are lots of stuff that we might have to apologize for.

RAJU: Trump quick to pounce on the political turmoil. Posting this tweet, "The Democrats are in a total meltdown, but the biased media will say how great they are doing. E-mails say the rigged system is alive and well."

This scandal threatening to shatter the uneasy truth between Sanders progressive base and the party establishment. Ahead of today's convention themed united together where Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Michelle Obama will headline the first night.

The controversy also over shadowing Clinton's big introduction of her vice presidential pick, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. The newly minted Democratic ticket sitting down for their first interview together keeping their focus squarely on the Republicans.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't know what their convention was about other than criticizing me. I seemed to be the only unifying theme that they had.

RAJU: Kaine showing he is ready to defend his running mate on the campaign trail.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: When I see this crooked Hillary or lock her up, it is just ridiculous. Look, most of us stopped the name calling thing in the fifth grade.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: All right, let's discuss as we start off this week of the big Democratic National Convention. If you hear weird and ugly noises behind us, it's not me. There's a rain storm. There's thunder. There's lots of stuff going on. That's what you are hearing. We're fine.

So let's get to the panel. We have David Gregory. Our favorite analyst, but also, of course, the host of the "David Gregory Show Podcast."

We have CNN correspondent, Phil Mattingly and CNN national reporter, Maeve Reston. It's great to have you all. I'm glad you're all dry. We all snuck in under the wire.

All right, A.C. was just battling with about what our priority of headline is today. Do you see it as you got Debbie Wasserman Schultz being out because of the Wikileaks, right?

And then you have what Hillary said in "60 Minutes" what she believes is there are artificial Hillary standard when it comes to truth and character. Where do you see this in terms of the priority of headlines today?

[05:05:04] DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think just like we came into Cleveland, there is a big question about party unity here. I think what Hillary Clinton has done that Trump has not done is to consolidate the Democratic Party rather fast.

Getting Bernie Sanders in the fold and supporters in the fold. These Wikileaks certainly do not help. I think the party acted swiftly and with political expedience forcing Debbie Wassermann Schultz out. But there is still the bitter after taste --

CUOMO: Do we all buy it by the way, do you think it's legit like the e-mails that are coming out? Do you think that they are the real deal?

CAMEROTA: Yes. They sound authentic. It is hard to manufacture those.

GREGORY: Nobody said that they were not authentic. It can only goes to his argument that vindicated that there was more coordination and that, you know, you had a party apparatus that was still going to favor Hillary Clinton, which by the way, is not a big surprise. We know that the system is rigged to keep outsiders out on both sides in both parties.

CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, therein lies the crux of the issue. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is not a household name per se. However, the idea that the system is rigged is and this seems to be Exhibit A.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly it. One of the interesting things yesterday when I was talking to Democrats is the point was nobody knows what the DNC stands for and nobody know who Debbie Wasserman Schultz is in terms of the broader --

CUOMO: Democratic National Committee, tell them all.

MATTINGLY: That's good. I'm transcribing. But the idea of this being exactly what Bernie Sanders was talking about the entire campaign and just so happens to be what Donald Trump is talking about and tweeting about regularly. That resonates.

And it's coming -- today is supposed to be the title of the day is together united. Unity as David was pointing out. This under cuts that by really ripping open a lot of wounds that existed.

This is going to be detrimental in the long term with the Democratic Party. Very unlikely they've unified a lot quicker than anybody else has, but the rigged system resonates.

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: It's so interesting. Yesterday, I went to talk to Bernie Sanders supporters at some of the demonstrations downtown. You would ask about the e-mails and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

They are like, yes, we told you the whole time, you know, like, duh. This is not a surprise and it sort of just it reinforces everything that they have been saying for months and months.

A lot of the supporters that I talked to yesterday said this is exactly why I'm going to vote for Jill Stein or write in Bernie Sanders. It is reopening up that line of debate just when Hillary Clinton was sort of beginning to make some strides.

The other thing that was really interesting was the reaction to Kaine among that crowd, which was just utter distaste, particularly on trade.

They feel like that that kick was a betrayal to everything that Bernie stood for even though Bernie Sanders has said nice things about Kaine. So it will be interesting to watch that dynamic.

GREGORY: It is kind of incredible. Here's Hillary Clinton talking to Scott Pelley on "60 Minutes" last night and her first -- her top points about what she wants to get done are really Bernie Sanders' points, about the economic unfairness in this system, about free college tuition.

So she has absorbed as much of the progressive agenda as she possibly can. She is a centrist Democrat. She is not going to be able to do some results to the left and be credible. She already has a credibility problem.

CUOMO: Look, I think the headline from "60 Minutes" last night is what she said about this Hillary standard. The Russians, we can't forget about the Russians. The idea that the Russians hacked the DNC and now CNN is reporting that.

We believe what the government is telling us. They've traced it to. What does that mean to you? That this is Russia doing this. Doesn't mean that they want Trump to win? Doesn't mean they were just unsuccessful getting the RNC hack done so they only had the DNC available?

GREGORY: Look, I think that a reasonable reading of this is that, yes, the Russians would like to meddle in the U.S. election. I don't think there is any question that Vladimir Putin as an autocrat, as someone who has sought to put into power or help people in power who are sympathetic to him.

He looks at somebody like Donald Trump just objectively. You look at what Donald Trump has said, he has been sympathetic to Putin and he certainly stands for things like rolling back NATO. There would be an invitation for Putin to attack NATO countries. I don't think there's any question about that.

I think that's a bit of a sub-plot and a fascinating one that has nothing to do with the fact that DNC was acting in a really irresponsible way.

CAMEROTA: John Grisham is paying attention.

RESTON: And Paul Manafort last night told Erin Burnett like this is craziness. This is an absurd. That there is some kind of a plot out there. Show me the proof, et cetera.

GREGORY: Manafort did work for Ushenko (ph), who was a puppet of Putin.

MATTINGLY: I will say Robby Mook, yesterday, the campaign manager for the Clinton campaign going on every Sunday show and explicitly pointing this out was one of those oh, wow. A campaign manager is not going to go out and talk about this unless they feel pretty reasonably safe that there are very real connections. The hack has been identified.

GREGORY: Or that they wanted to create a side show.

MATTINGLY: Their willingness to go all in on that is either a nice little ball fake on place or the other or they are pretty confident in that and in talking to the Clinton campaign over the course of the last day, they are pretty confident in that.

[05:10:10]CUOMO: All right, that's fine, but you know, let's take them at their word. The government is confident. It is a bit of a duck, though, Maeve, because as David says, it doesn't matter who did the hacking. That's a whole other conversation.

Should we release the e-mails or is that for another day? It goes to what she said on "60 Minutes" the Hillary standard. This is someone doing something to her. It is not her having what Carl Bernstein calls a difficult relationship with the truth. What do you think of the Hillary standard?

RESTON: I agree with you that that was really the headline coming out of the "60 Minutes" interview. It is so baffling to me that the problem that voters have with her is that they think she lives under another system.

The Clintons live under a different system. That they get special treatment. She would go out and kind of acts like the injured party talking about the Hillary standard. Maybe there is one.

But as a candidate, I just don't know how it is smart to talk about that if you are trying to pull in all the people who think that you operate by different rules and have trust issues with you. It sounds like an object of pity kind of thing to say. GREGORY: You know there are a number of things that can all be true at the same time. People go after the Clintons irrationally. They do say certain things that are not true and the Clintons also bring these things on themselves.

I mean, you know, the idea that there's a Clinton standard and yet she knows this and has known it for 25 years and she creates a private serve or she destroys e-mails that were supposed to be turned over.

I should point out whenever I mention e-mails that my wife represented her top aides in this email investigation. She still decided to do those things despite the fact she knows she say target for the criticism. Whatever standards against them, they also do bring it on themselves.

CAMEROTA: All right, panel, stick around. We have more to talk about. Also very interesting, in 45 minutes, we are getting our first look at the snapshot at the effect of the Republican National Convention. The first CNN polls that will be out at 6:00 a.m. They are very revealing.

CUOMO: What was the bounce? Was there a bounce? What does it mean for this week? All of this is going around the Trump effect on the election. He is at it again. Fresh from the convention. He had picked a new target. He is talking again, loud and proud. You won't believe who it is about.

Jason Carroll is covering that part of the story. What Donald Trump had to say on "Meet the Press" -- Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. Donald Trump taking direct aim at Tim Kaine by holding a town hall right here in Roanoke, in his home state. He is also standing firm on a number of controversial comments he made about banning Muslims and NATO.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: Extreme vetting. If a person can't prove what they have to be able to prove, they are not coming into the country.

CARROLL: Donald Trump offering clarification on his ever evolving immigration stance moving away from the blanket Muslim ban he proposed this past December.

TRUMP: A total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

CARROLL: To omitting the word Muslim entirely during his speech at the Republican National Convention.

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

CARROLL: Trump now insisting he's not pulling back on the ban. TRUMP: I actually don't think it is a pull back. In fact, you could say it's an expansion. People were so upset when I used the word Muslim. You can't use the word Muslim. Remember this, and I'm OK with that because I'm talking territory.

CARROLL: The Republican nominee even refusing to rule out banning immigration from top U.S. allies including France and Germany and threatening to abandon the World Trade Organization if it doesn't approve of his plan to tax American goods produced in foreign countries.

TRUMP: We are going to renegotiate or we are going to pull out. World Trade Organization is a disaster.

CARROLL: Ahead of tonight's Democratic National Convention kickoff, Trump attempting a divide and conquer strategy slamming Hillary Clinton for naming Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her VP pick.

TRUMP: What happened with the choice of Tim Kaine was a slap in the face to Bernie Sanders and everybody. I was shocked.

SANDERS: On his worst, worst day, Tim Kaine is 100 times better than Donald Trump will ever be.

CARROLL: This as prominent Trump supporter, Lt. General Michael Flynn stirs new controversy for the campaign. Retweeting a CNN link to an interview with Clinton's campaign manager with an anti-Semitic comment attached. Amid online backlash the retweet was removed.

Flynn writing "All, this is what is meant to be retweeted. The earlier tweet was a mistake. My sincerest apologies." This is the latest Twitter flub from Trump's team with a tweet from Trump's own account being called anti-Semitic earlier this year that included what critics say was a Star of David.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And Chris, Donald Trump also doubling down on comments he made about NATO nations suggesting he would not come to the aid of NATO nations that do not pay their own way.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying that was a rookie mistake making that type of comment to which Trump said he is 100 percent wrong calling Mitch McConnell's comment sad -- Chris.

CUOMO: How long will they keep saying that it is a rookie mistake when someone has been in it for over a year? Jason Carroll, thank you very much. We will get back to politics in a second.

We are following breaking news. This is in Fort Myers, Florida. Police are saying at least two people are dead. A dozen wounded because of a shooting at another nightclub.

We have Boris Sanchez on his way to the location. He is on the phone right now. Boris, if you can hear us, what is the early word that you are understanding from police? BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hey, good morning, Chris. As you can imagine, details are hard to come by right now. As you said, my producer and I are en route to Fort Myers. There are at least two people dead, 14 to 16 people wounded. Some of them with life threatening injuries. All of them in the hospital right now.

From what we understand, this happened at Club Blu. The shooting happening outside of the club very early this morning. There are very few details about any suspects right now. From what we understand a person of interest was apprehended by police in an intersection not far from the club.

There are also multiple scenes here. From what we are hearing from officials, the person of interest apparently was involved in a separate incident at a home where a home and a vehicle were shot at.

There was one minor injury there. Again, that person was apprehended. Shortly after that, the police are still canvassing the area hoping to find any other suspect.

From a brief glimpse at Club Blu's Facebook page, there is a flyer for a party last night, apparently it was a teen night, it was an all ages night where no I.D. was required to get in.

Witnesses tell CNN affiliates that it was a mad house. There were people ducking for cover and people outside the club calling for their friends and their parents to make sure they were OK. Obviously still very fluid scene there -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, Boris, as soon as you get there and get more information, let us know and we will come back to you for that developing story.

Meanwhile, back to politics here in Philadelphia where Chris are for the Democratic National Convention. You know, Donald Trump has sounded fairly supportive of Bernie Sanders throughout this primary season, but now he is calling Sanders pathetic. We'll explain why when NEW DAY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:00]

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump managing to stay in the headlines as the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia gets under way. The Republican nominee, he is both, he says that Bernie Sanders is getting the short end of the stick after Hillary Clinton tapped Tim Kaine as her running mate. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He has been gamed. It is a rigged system against him. And what happened with the choice of Tim Kaine was a slap in the face to Bernie Sanders and everybody. I was shocked. I love it from my standpoint.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right, let's discuss this with our CNN panel. We have political analyst and host of the "David Gregory Show Podcast," David Gregory, CNN correspondent, Phil Mattingly, and CNN national political reporter, Maeve Reston.

Maeve, I'll start with you. So it does look like the system is rigged as Donald Trump has been saying and as we now know from these leaked e-mails. Quickly before we move on to Trump, has the DNC justified what they said in these e-mails? Were they trying to undermine Sanders?

RESTON: Well, I think it's your point earlier. You know, it seems like they were trying to move the story line to the Russian hack as opposed to actually talking about addressing the content.

CUOMO: When in doubt, go with the Russians.

RESTON: But I think, you know, it will to be really interesting to see whether that issue is addressed at all this week and how it is explained to Bernie Sanders supporters. We haven't seen a lot of that yet.

I mean, obviously the Clinton campaign is saying this is very concerning and we want an investigation into this, et cetera. Sanders is saying that he has seen victories this week with reforms to superdelegates and hoping that the next chair will be impartial.

But certainly for Donald Trump, this fits exactly into his argument. He is trying so hard to pick up some of those voters who were attracted to Bernie Sanders' messages particularly in states in the rust belt, which he is going to need a clean sweep.

And particularly on trade where the system is rigged against him. So this is a good argument for Trump.

CUOMO: So you have the situation with Trump where he is kind of taking Bernie's chin. Poor Bernie. Then he gets up and says Bernie's pathetic. Obviously, this is what he does. What is his case, Trump, for why Bernie is once a victim, but at the same time pathetic? Anybody? Go ahead, Phil.

MATTINGLY: I'll take this one. It doesn't really make any sense, right? You would think he has been very blunt in his outreach to Sanders supporters. There has been no kind of, you know, implicit strategy or really working behind the scenes to bring Sanders supporters his way.

Now he is going to criticize him. I was talking to RNC officials about this yesterday. They are attacking Tim Kaine as too conservative. They are almost taking the Sanders track here not necessarily to bring Sanders supporters on board, but suppress the willingness to vote.

What Trump is doing is just kind of going off on his own right now. You talk to opponents and David as a better understanding of this than I do. But Republicans don't actually understand what he is trying to do.

You talk to Sanders supporters, yes, they believe it's a movement, but Bernie Sanders is very much the head of that movement --

CUOMO: Do not insult Bernie Sanders if you want to impress --

GREGORY: By the way, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, asked him if he would like the system to be a little bit more rigged on the Republican side. Ask him today if he would like superdelegates, he would say yes, please.

But I think, you know, Trump is just making this (inaudible). I think what's interesting to see is did the Never Trump, the Never Hillary movement in both camps?

I still think it has to be bigger on the Republican side. I think what's interesting about Tim Kaine is the opportunity to consolidate some of the support that she's not getting among white collar voters, typically Republican that maybe he can keep in the fold.

And Trump obviously seeing if he can peel off more working class whites. Again, I think that Sanders himself is indicative of the fact that his votes have fallen in line.

I mean, he said yesterday that the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DNC chair, will promote healing. He is on board. He doesn't want Trump to be president.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about something else that happened this weekend and that is Donald Trump went on "Meet the Press." He explained the new iteration of his Muslim ban. Some people felt that he was trying to make it more narrow. He said it is an expansion of what he first said about a total and complete ban of Muslims coming to the U.S. So listen to how he explained it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I actually don't think it is a pull back. In fact, you could say it's an expansion. I'm looking now. People are upset when I use the word Muslim. Remember this. I'm OK with it. I'm talking territory instead of Muslim. Remember this, our constitution is great. But it doesn't necessarily give us the right to commit suicide, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So now it is about any country compromised by terrorism, which people have pointed out means France, you know, Britain. That means us.

GREGORY: It can mean Germany. Can I just point out a historical fact, during World War II, anti-Semites in the State Department particularly those who were in charge of immigration to the United States specifically told Roosevelt, don't let the Jews come in from Germany. Why? Because Hitler is salting these immigrants with spies and ultimately, the U.S. government prohibited Jews from coming in. Many more Jews were murdered than would have been murdered otherwise.

So it's been -- it's really useful to bear history in mind when we look at existing protocols to screen for immigrants and these kind of extra curves on illegal immigrations.

CUOMO: And also that is what scares some people about the America first logo, right. It makes perfect sense and logic, but within the historical context, that was the native sentiment that led to some of these policies.

But we know what is going on here, this is Donald Trump trying to get away from the word Muslim, but still seemed strong, but what he's done is he overreached, Phil, right?

Now he is saying, it is not just about Muslims, it's anybody and now what he's going to get caught in it is limitless. It could be anyone. It could be us. If we travel abroad, if the U.S. isn't compromised by terror, who is? Can we not return?

MATTINGLY: Yes, I think the bigger issue is less about what the policy actually is right now because he hasn't defined territories. As far as his campaign web site is concerned, it's still the initial Muslim ban is still the only thing on the policy picture of the web site.

The broader issue here is over and over and over again. Top Republican officials have told me and told Maeve, backing up. He is starting to ratchet it back. He is getting in a general election mode.

The pivot is never going to happen. But on this specific issue, Republicans have repeatedly said when you talk to him behind the scenes, he is walking this back a little bit. He very clearly is not.

He is throwing it back in their face. Reince Priebus has talked about it publicly. That he believed they were walking back the Muslim ban.

Now Donald Trump is throwing it right back in his face and kind of an unsolicited manner for very little gain other than Donald Trump doesn't like the idea of you saying that he is walking anything back.

RESTON: And I will say that I am not sure yet how this will play because I was out talking to voters in the Philly suburbs over the weekend. This is an issue that swing voters bring up constantly, refugees and immigration, tying those together.

When you look at the polling on this, I mean, it just gets at the fear that's out there and what he is trying to stoke. So he may have is just made the calculation that he is going to get more people activated and excited by sticking to his guns on this issue than moderate it.

CUOMO: Makes a challenge for Hillary Clinton. This week, she has to make the case about why he is acting all fear and misinformation. If she doesn't do that, if she doesn't capture the mantel of here's the truth about immigration and what is right, what is wrong then this is going to be the best way to go.

RESTON: A lot of happy talk coming out of, you know, the Clinton campaign. It's morning in America and so we will see how those two messages line up.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you. We will see you for the rest of the program.

CUOMO: It is raining too hard for them to go anywhere.

CAMEROTA: That's right. It's a torrential downpour here in Philadelphia.