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Hillary Clinton Wins Historic Nomination; Bill Clinton Champions His Wife. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired July 27, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: I move that Hillary Clinton be the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States. Hillary, because Hillary has always, always been with us!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm with Hillary because Hillary has always, always been with us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have seen her fight and win for our country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This isn't about being politically correct. This is about saving our children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary Clinton isn't afraid to say that black lives matter.

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: She's the best darn change-maker I ever met in my entire life!

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. You're watching NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, July 27th. Chris and I are live here in Philadelphia at the Democratic National Convention where there's lots of excitement.

Lots of news we want to get to this morning because history was made, Hillary Clinton becoming the first woman to win a major party nomination. Clinton declaring that her supporters have put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And one of the big voices last night was her husband, former President Bill Clinton embracing the role of political spouse for the first time. This is our first look at how he would be as Hillary's second. And he gave an impassioned speech calling her a change-maker who can be trusted after decades in the political spotlight. [05:00:02] How did it work? Where do we go from here? We've got it

all covered.

Let's begin with CNN's Michelle Kosinski in the convention hall.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Chris.

An historic night, that was full of emotion. And really all kinds of emotion, right? I mean, you had the votes that won Hillary Clinton the nomination. You had the continued passion of Bernie Sanders supporters.

And then you had former President Bill Clinton delivering his speech. This wasn't Bill Clinton talking about the issues, this is him telling a story about his wife for his wife, her public service. Running through virtually her entire life and starting with the moment they met.

I mean, he talked about they were in college together, in law school. That it took him three tries to get her to marry him. And he wanted to get it across to the crowd how much time they had spent and the extraordinary length she has gone throughout her life to try to help other people.

Some of those moments in her life that many here and outside of this convention may have forgotten, given what this campaign has been so far with the endless battles, the controversies and everything else that has gone along with it.

Here's part of what he said last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON: If you love this country, you're working hard, you're paying taxing and you're obeying the law and you'd like to become a citizen, you should choose immigration reform over somebody who wants to send you back.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

If you're a -- if you're a Muslim, if you're a Muslim and you love America and freedom and you hate terror, stay here and help us win and make a future together. We want you.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

If you're a young African-American disillusioned and afraid, we saw in Dallas how great our police officers can be. Help us build a future where nobody is afraid to walk outside, including the people that wear blue to protect our future.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

Hillary will make us stronger together. You know it because she spent a lot of time doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: And Bill Clinton told a lot of anecdotes, how she spent an extra year in law school to help children. How she tried to improve school standards while they were in Arkansas. And he also wanted to portray Hillary Clinton as the determined mother, the working mother who kept trying to do things that her own mother would have been only able to dream about.

Of course, tonight, we will see President Obama out here. This is the 12th anniversary that he really came on to the national stage at the Democratic convention back in 2004. So, he's going to touch on that. He's going to talk up unity and try to counter what he views as the dire and dark nature of what was said during the Republican convention -- Alisyn and Chris.

CAMEROTA: OK, Michelle, thanks so much for laying all of that out for us.

Let's discuss the second night of the DNC and Bill Clinton's speech with our panel. Joining us is CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast", John Avlon, and CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief of "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich.

Great to have you, guys, here this morning.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, guys.

CAMEROTA: Jackie, how do you feel Bill Clinton made the case for his wife?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Like President Obama, Bill Clinton really tells Hillary Clinton stories better than she did. You got to respect the love story, through law school and all of that, as we were talking about, Bill Clinton really does make the case for Hillary Clinton, talking about her background, talking about how she used it to help children. We expected a little bit about that, but no one does it like Bill Clinton.

AVLON: He's the big dog in politics. Don't underestimate what a powerful surrogate he's been for Barack Obama and John Kerry. He gets brought out in different ones.

But this is obviously a totally different relationship than we've ever seen in modern American politics. And he had to big missions last night in a speech, and I think he hits both of them.

One, he had to humanize Hillary Clinton. That sounds odd given that she's been such a big figure in American political life. The way he began, in 1971, I met a girl. He told a story of their relationship in very human terms that revealed her character, not his. That's also a significant step for him revolutionarily.

Second thing he gave was, presenting her as a change-maker. That's an enormously strategic phrase, because the biggest hit on Hillary Clinton in this political environment of populist anger is that if you want to upend the system, you're angry with special interests and big money, how can you vote for Hillary Clinton who seems synonymous with those things.

CUOMO: She checks every box at the status quo for those.

AVLON: Exactly.

CUOMO: But the change-maker thing is a good point. We had some of the --

CAMEROTA: Yes, he called her a change-maker and her opponent a cartoon. So, listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON: A real change-maker represents a real threat. So, your only option is to create a cartoon. A cartoon alternative. Then run against a cartoon. Cartoons are two-dimensional. They're easy to absorb.

Life in the real world is complicated, and real change is hard. And a lot of people even think it's boring. Good for you, because earlier today, you nominated the real woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. Sorry, I misinterpreted that. In reading it I thought he was comparing her to her opponent. But he's saying the critics have turned her into a cartoon of two-dimension. What did you think of that argument?

KUCINICH: One of the things that she's struggled with during the primary and the general, she's a pragmatist. It's not so much about upending the system. What Bill Clinton is saying, yeah, true, it could be boring, but she gets things done. I mean, the bottom line was she was saying that she gets things done.

CUOMO: Hold on. First of all, you were never wrong. This is a twofer.

He was certainly trying to depict, excuse the analogy, but he's trying to depict Trump as the cartoon, as well as saying they're trying to make her two-dimensional. So, you were right, as usual.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

CUOMO: Second, let's put a little water on the success of this. Of course, they're trying to paint her in their way, this is their convention. No mention of why she's at 68 percent untrustworthiness in the latest CNN poll. That's not about two-dimension, that's about emails, OK? No mention of it.

AVLON: Among other things.

CUOMO: No mention of the fact that, hey, you know why she gets so much scrutiny, because of the position I put her in. What is the meaning of that absence? AVLON: Well, look, I mean, it's a little bit much to expect that he's going to get into, let's talk about why you know my wife for so long so well and so many don't trust her. You're going to answer that implicitly, not explicitly.

CUOMO: Is that the right move?

AVLON: Look, that's asking a little too much of a politician.

CUOMO: Exactly, but the biggest factor in her assessment.

AVLON: But I think overall, what the speech attempted to do is answer critics by showing not telling, right? By implicitly, look, the other motif of these speech, as a former speechwriter, is that he set up the story of her life, as someone her doing things for other people, rather than Donald Trump doing things for himself.

CAMEROTA: And, further, and one of the interesting things, he turned the narrative. Everybody thinks, oh, well, he dragged her into public service. He dragged her into politics. He switched it saying she was already into public service. When she met she was working for Marion Wright Edelman, and Children's Defense Fund and that she sort of inspired him. And we hadn't heard that before.

KUCINICH: Yes, absolutely. But to your point, part of this is to turn those numbers around, right, to make her more trustworthy, to make her more likable, to fill her out as a human being, as you said, as her background, going in, before she met Bill Clinton. I mean, she was in what "Life" magazine I think. Before she even met Bill Clinton she was a celebrity on her campus as this woman's leader well before.

ALVON: And her convention address for the first African-American senator as being radical.

CUOMO: I'm saying now, true as it maybe, it's like 100 years ago, and what she's being hit over the head with right now was largely not mentioned last night and that was juxtaposed to her husband's version of her as a change-maker, here's that sound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: She's insatiable curious. She's a natural leader. She's a good organizer. She's the best darn change-maker I ever met in my entire life.

This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything. She always wants to move the ball forward. That is just so she is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: How effective was Bill Clinton in offsetting the negatives of Hillary Clinton.

AVLON: I think very effectively. Look, he is a great surrogate. This was a personal speech, as well as I think a speech about what she can do for you. He is a political thoroughbred. She is much more of a professional in terms of her approach to policy and governing. He is a man who glories in campaigning and I think last night was effective.

CAMEROTA: Jackie, is it at all dicey when he talks about their courtship and love life because we know -- I mean, it's hard to divorce the -- what we know about Bill Clinton's checkered past women and their marriage.

[05:10:07] KUCINICH: Hillary Clinton has managed to turn that into a strength in a way, and whether it works or not is another thing entirely. But she cast as this as she stood up for her marriage. She got through that.

And you don't expect Bill Clinton to be like, yes, we had some dark stuff. Like you're not going to see that in the convention.

CAMEROTA: Did you say we've been through heart break, and we tried together, I felt that that was an allusion to let's not pretend that it was all glossy and good.

CUOMO: But the question becomes, is it still too much of a pretension? Did he do enough? Because you're right, Hillary Clinton has tried to turn into his strength, but it's worked for him.

Put up the graph of their favorability, and you'll see overtime, Bill Clinton, yes, he was president, there's no question about it, you're going to get a pop for that. But he's more popular than she is.

KUCINICH: It always is when you're running for office.

When you're asking the voters to vote for you, when she was secretary of state, remember, she had sky high approval ratings, but the minute she got into this race, the minute she's asking voters for something, your approval ratings go down. That's what happens.

AVLON: But particularly true for Hillary Clinton.

CAMEROTA: But you still, you responded to the let me tell you the story of our love affair. That works for everybody and you can sort of put, you can compartmentalize the rest of it?

KUCINICH: It just feels them I think. It feels them out as people. It feels -- does it work? Again, we'll have to see how things come out when we see the polling. But --

AVLON: Look, it was uncommonly personal for a president to give that story of a love story about potentially of the first female president. That's noteworthy. And it has added of being true.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, panel. Stick around. We're going to need you.

The second half of the Democratic Convention featured back to back speeches from every day Americans and it was designed, of course, to humanize. The mothers who lost children to gun violence or police encounters were unifying and they made an emotional appeal to voters.

CNN's Manu Raju has more on the other speeches of the night, besides Bill Clinton's.

Good morning, Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Yes, these are all part of that same effort to show a different side of Hillary Clinton, something that's not particularly easy for the campaign, given that Clinton has nearly universal name ID and not many voters trust her. Nearly seven in 10 voters view her as not honest or not trustworthy. That according to our new CNN/ORC poll.

So, what we saw last night was speaker after speaker, trying to softer side of Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAP)

GENEVA REED-VEAL, MOTHER OF SANDRA BLAND: She knows that when a young black life is cut short, it's not just a loss. It's a personal loss. It's a national loss. What a blessing tonight to be standing here so that Sandy can still speak through her mama.

(APPLAUSE)

RAJU (voice-over): The "Mothers of the Movement" uniting to endorse Hillary Clinton on the national stage, nine mothers showing strength in numbers after losing heir sons and daughters to gun violence and racial injustices, each of them recalling details of a private meeting they had with Clinton after their lives changed forever.

LUCIA MCBATH MOTHER OF JORDAN DAVIS: Hillary Clinton isn't afraid to say that Black Lives Matter. She isn't afraid to sit at a stable with grieving mothers and bear the full force of our anguish. She doesn't build walls around her heart.

RAJU: Framing Clinton as a criminal justice reformer.

SYBRINA FULTON, MOTHER OF TRAYVON MARTIN: This isn't about being politically correct. This is about saving our children.

(APPLAUSE)

That's why we're here tonight with Hillary Clinton.

(SINGING)

RAJU: First responder 9/11 survivor talking about personal commitment after the attacks.

LAUREN MANNING, 9/11 SURVIVOR: Hillary showed up, she walked into my hospital room and she took my bandaged hand into her own. For years, she visited, called and continues to check in because Hillary cares.

When I needed her, she was there. She was there for me. And that's why I'm with her.

RAJU: California Senator Barbara Boxer opening up about Clinton as a devoted family member and friend of more than 20 years. SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: I know her as the loving aunt who

helped plan my grandson's birthday parties when he was just a little toddler. And I saw her rush over after a busy day at the State Department to cheer him on at high school football games.

[05:15:01] RAJU: A night of testimonials aimed at humanizing the Democratic nominee, and quelling the tensions from Bernie Sanders supporters on the second day of the convention.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look, they work hard. We will show a little class and let them be frustrated for a while. It's OK. We're all going to end up voting for her. Do you think any of these guys are going to walk in and vote for Trump?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now, that message also in sharp contrast from what we heard from the Republicans and Donald Trump who last night was asked about the "Mothers of the Movement", and he said, he emphasized law and order and protecting our police. Much different from what we heard at the Democratic convention last night, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. I mean, it's been pointed out, that maybe those things don't need to be mutually exclusive. But we'll get into that later in the program.

Thanks so much, Manu.

So, will all of these personal stories about Hillary Clinton sway the voters who do have trouble trusting her?

Our political panel discusses that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:20:11] CUOMO: So, if you didn't watch last night, the real theme of it was, this is who Hillary is, dot, dot, dot -- testimonials from everyday Americans, mothers who have lost their children to gun violence, 9/11 survivors, first responders. Here's what they did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE SWEENEY, NYPD DETECTIVE ON 9/11: I'm proud of every day that I serve my city and my country. But I'm especially proud that I served on our worst day, when we needed someone to speak for us, to stand with us, to fight on our behalf, Hillary Clinton was there every step of the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: This was a very interesting play last night. This was Hillary Clinton is who was there for us. That's how it worked. Now, how much sway will that have, in terms of favorability, trust?

Let's discuss.

We have John Avlon, Jackie Kucinich, , two beasts from "The Daily Beast", and CNN correspondent Phil Mattingly.

Phil, while you absorb that insult, really just identification.

AVLON: I love it.

KUCINICH: Bring it.

CUOMO: What do you think the plus/minus was for last night, in terms what was tried and what was succeeded?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a traditional playbook, right? I think we looked aft week in Cleveland, you expected a lot of anecdotes of Donald Trump of a person, why the person we didn't see on the campaign trail was such a great choice for that. We've seen all of that. Yesterday was kind of a clinic on exactly that, speaker after speaker, personal anecdote after personal anecdote from every stage of her life, first lady, Senate, secretary of state.

Before, how much of an impact is it going to have? How quickly can you change decades of people reaching conclusions about somebody?

And that's the biggest question. You know, every time I think all of us have heard this, when you talk to Hillary Clinton's advisers, you don't know the real Hillary. You just don't get it. You don't know the real Hillary. How quickly after decades of this setting in can you reintroduce the new Hillary to somebody? Is it one day? Is it one night? I find that hard to believe.

But to what you guys were talking about earlier, when your unfavorable is 68 percent, you've got some ground to move there. So, it's hard to think that wouldn't have some kind of impact.

CAMEROTA: John, what do you think, effective or not effective last night?

AVLON: I think two things particularly last night. First of all, the use of humor throughout this convention is really interesting and I think very effective. We didn't see a lot of humor during the Republican national convention, particularly the surrogates, you're seeing a lot of humor to actually make political arguments. I think that's the --

CAMEROTA: Like what? What last night did you hear --

AVLON: Elizabeth Banks used partial humor.

CAMEROTA: She came out to a smoke machine. She did a parody of Donald Trump's intro.

AVLON: I think the night before you had a funny or video that of a serious point about Donald Trump, the hyper fans meaning he's not actually made in America if it comes to a lot of his businesses and reference to Trump University, et cetera.

The other thing I thought was a really interesting choice and Chris alluded to it, and it's important, is the repeated references to 9/11. Got to remember that Hillary Clinton is a political carpet bagger who her seat in 2000, never lived in the state.

She was there as one of two sitting senators at 9/11. She did show up. She was enormously effective. And she got high marks. You saw the testimonials last night. That was powerful.

CAMEROTA: We have a moment of that. So, let's play that for our viewers who missed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAUREN MANNING, 9/11 SURVIVOR: She walked into my hospital room and she took my bandaged hand into her own. Our connection wasn't between a senator and a constituent. It was person to person. And as a woman working in business for years, I know you had to be tough. And in that woman is a hell of a tough person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: So, here's the question, we're saying humanize Hillary. As disgusting an idea as that is, right, that what politics is about. There's something debasing about the fact that I have to prove that you're a good person, but that's what politics is.

How does that transfer? The pain of 9/11, we all know it very well. How does that become an obstruction in Hillary Clinton?

KUCINICH: It becomes -- her slogan is "I'm with her". This is she's with you part of that. She was with me in my darkest hour, she held my hand. Those little human things that every day people, even if didn't live through 9/11, in New York City, you can understand that on some level.

You know, another moment that was very small that I thought was interesting, was her childhood best friend reading her name during the roll call in Illinois. She said, you heard her mention her mother. You heard her mention some other folks in Hillary's life. That also, was very small. You might not know this if you haven't read a lot of books about Hillary Clinton like a lot of us have.

[05:25:02] But that was another moment where I find --

CUOMO: The Ernie factor worked for you. For friend Ernie.

KUCINICH: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And also "Mothers of Movement", as they call themselves. These are mothers who have lost their sons and daughters to either excessive police force or gun violence, they were there en masse on the stage, talking about their terribly tragic stories. So, let's listen to a portion of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUCY MCBATH, JORDAN DAVIS' MOTHER: I lived in fear that my son would die like this. I even warned him that because he was a young black man, he would meet people who didn't value him or his life. That is the conversation that no parent should ever have with their child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Her child was the victim of the loud music crime, where he was shot because he was playing music in a car with friends. So, a point has been made, do we have to choose between blue lives matter and black lives matter? You know, I think David Axelrod said may it would have been effective to have some family of police officers gunned down in the line of duty, but how effective, Phil, do you think that moment was last night?

MATTINGLY: I think when you talk to campaign officials their point was this wasn't all police-violence related. Not all the mothers up there were related to police violence. This wasn't an explicit black lives matter moment.

What it was, instead, was it wasn't just them talking about their specific experiences. It was how Hillary Clinton spoke personally with them. This is what I was struck by more than anything, is this wasn't a group of women talking about a very powerful issue and then leaving. This was them connecting Hillary Clinton to that issue and how she had personally helped impacted or affected the group that was standing on stage. I thought the point was very good. Because I think a lot of people said you're leaving an important group out. But the campaign is saying that wasn't the point we we're going for.

CUOMO: That's still an absent test of leadership, right? We haven't seen our leaders or potential leaders find a way to bring people together on that issue. It's still seen asides as you point out there should be no sides.

But we're not there yet in the conversation.

Panel, thank you very much. Always good to have you.

So, let's take a little break. There's a big question going on, everybody talks about WikiLeaks, but now the source of it is very sharply in focus. The FBI is investigating these claims that the Russians were behind the hack at the DNC. This is not political spin. They are on it.

Now, what will they find? Well, President Obama is speaking out about it. Does he believe that Vladimir Putin is trying to influence the 2016 race or even tried to actually help Donald Trump? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)