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Bill Clinton Speaks at Democratic National Convention; Interview with Senators Dick Durbin and Ben Cardin; Do Voters Trust Hillary Clinton?; Clinton's VP Pick Tim Kaine Speaks Tonight; Trump & Pence Blast Dems For Avoiding Talk Of Terror. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 27, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Poor kids, kids who live in poverty, kids who need homes, you've got a champion.

BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, July 27th, 8:00 in the east, Alisyn and I are situated on tough chairs in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention. I mean, really, they're terrible.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: So last night was one for the history books. Doesn't matter what your political stripe, history was made. Hillary Clinton is now the first woman to win a major party's nomination for president.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Former president Bill Clinton delivering an impassioned speech for his wife, highlighting their love story and her commitment to serving others. Did it sway voters? Let's begin with CNN's Michelle Kosinski. She's live inside the convention hall. Tell us about last night, Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's maybe one thing that can't be disputed, that this was history. At least we know that. So it was Hillary's night, but Bill Clinton also made history. The former president here in the role of her husband. And we all know whenever Hillary Clinton is parodied, she is always this robotic political machine, right, driven by ambition. She herself has participated in that joke and laughed at it. But Clinton wanted to tell the story of Hillary Clinton the woman, the mother, driven by public service. He told a series of anecdotes that spanned virtually her entire life, beginning with that moment when they met.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: In the spring of 1971, I met a girl.

(LAUGHTER)

KOSINSKI: And that's how it began, Bill Clinton's speech and his lifelong admiration for Hillary on her night, that has shaped American history, sealing the Democratic nomination. Sanders supporters, still passionate about their candidate. But amid the walkouts and upset, he called for it to end, just as she did for Barack Obama in 2008.

BERNIE SANDERS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

KOSINSKI: But Bill Clinton's job here was to take everyone back, way back to how they first met.

BILL CLINTON: She walked the whole length of the library, came up to me and said, look, if you're going to keep staring at me --

(LAUGHTER)

BILL CLINTON: and now I'm staring back, we at least ought to know each other's names. I'm Hillary Rodham. Who are you?

KOSINSKI: With humor and moments, the emotion seen in the eyes of daughter, Chelsea, Clinton spoke of their life together, the three times he had to ask Hillary to marry him.

BILL CLINTON: I said, you remember that house you like. She said, yes. I said, while you were gone I bought it. You have marry me now.

(LAUGHTER)

BILL CLINTON: The third time was the charm.

KOSINSKI: This address was far different from how we've seen him on the trail when at times he has tangled with protesters.

BILL CLINTON: You are defending the people who killed the lives you say matter.

KOSINSKI: This centered on the things about Hillary Clinton's life that many may have forgotten, in the heat --

CROWD: This is what democracy looks like.

KOSINSKI: The controversy.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I should have used two different e-mails accounts, and I've said that that was a mistake. I'm sorry.

KOSINSKI: The endless battles.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Lying crooked Hillary.

KOSINSKI: Of this campaign season, like no other.

Bill Clinton, whose factorability rating is generally higher than his wife, came to remind them --

BILL CLINTON: She is still the best darn change maker I have ever known.

(APPLAUSE)

KOSINSKI: Telling the crowd it was Hillary who inspired him to public service, Hillary who encouraged him to run for office again after he was voted out as governor. But he also told the story of Hillary the determined mother, the working mother, who kept fighting to do things her own mother could have only dreamed.

BILL CLINTON: This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything.

KOSINSKI: Then, he took on the contrast between Clinton, the candidate, and her opponent, Donald Trump, who has gone after both Clintons.

BILL CLINTON: How does this square with the things that you heard at the Republican convention? What is the difference in what I told you and what they said? How do you square it? You can't. One is real. The other is made up.

Good for you, because earlier today, you nominated the real one.

(APPLAUSE)

KOSINSKI: Her response to it at all came at the end, via satellite from New York.

CLINTON: If there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say, I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:05:09] KOSINSKI: Tonight we'll hear from President Obama. The White House says he is well aware of how important his speech could be tonight. No pressure there, right. Plus now he has to follow his wife and Bill Clinton. And the White House says he has been working on the speech for weeks, Alisyn and Chris.

CUOMO: Legacy concerns. Michelle Kosinski, thank you very much. Certainly legacy concerns for the president coming into this, among other pressures. So let's discuss Hillary Clinton's historic achievement and Bill Clinton's speech with Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. He serves as assistant Democratic leader, the second highest ranking position in the Senate for the Democratic caucus, and Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Both senators were early supporters of Hillary Clinton, and it will be interesting to hear what your take is, senator, on how deep Russia's ties go to what we just saw with the hacking of the DNC e-mails.

But first, to history. Let's play a moment here. We see Hillary Clinton breaking through that glass ceiling. Not a scratch on her after it. But there was about a love story for Bill Clinton tonight. He was not case maker in chief when he was doing this last night. Let's play a little bit and see what the reaction is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON: The first time I saw her, we were, appropriately enough, in a class on political and civil rights. She had thick, blond hair, big glasses, wore no makeup. And she exuded this sense of strength and self-possession that I found magnetic. After the class, I followed her out, intending to introduce myself. I got close enough to touch her back, but I couldn't do it. Somehow, I knew this would not be just another tap on the shoulder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: So you two softies --

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: How did that hit you, hearing it on that level? Not the policy, not the political genius that often comes out of Bill Clinton, but the simple romantic about him meeting a girl in 1971, senator?

SEN. DICK DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: Well, of course what Bill Clinton was doing and no one else could do is to tell the story about who she really is. The image that many people have is robotic, mechanical, contriving, conspiring, and all the rest of those things. He made her a person, and then told stories about her as a young woman, about her emergence as his wife, a mother, their devotion to their daughter. He humanized her and told stories that only Bill Clinton could tell.

CAMEROTA: So Senator, what did you learn about Hillary Clinton that you didn't know before?

SEN. BEN CARDIN, (D) MARYLAND: I obviously I knew her as the first lady, I knew her as a United States senator, I knew her as secretary of state. I worked with her in all those capacities, and her incredible talent, her incredible opportunity to get things done.

But last night we heard about Hillary Clinton as a mother, as a wife, as a person who helped her husband, as a person who fought for children, who fought for civil rights, who took her life to help other people. So I think we really did learn a lot more about Hillary Clinton, the person.

CUOMO: All right, so it was a good night for Hillary Clinton, right? They were trying to present the best face, your party is, for their candidate. And it comes in the context of a bad start, right. This WikiLeaks thing came out and it reaffirmed for the Sanders supporters that the party, the system was against them. And then, we hear this explanation that, you no owe, it is Russia hacking this. To many, that's a distraction. Democrats don't want to talk the little hate parade that's going on inside their party and they're blaming Russia. Then the president of the United States comes out and puts meat on the bones this way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the FBI is still investigating what happened. I know that experts have attributed there to the Russians. What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems. Not just government systems, but private systems. But, you know, what the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that, I can't say directly. What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Anything is possible when the president was asked about whether or not Russia could be trying to influence the election. You're on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Do you believe there is any there there, that Russia hacked this and there's a describing of motive to affect the campaign to help Trump.

DURBIN: I'm not sitting on the intelligence committee so I don't know any detail, and I wouldn't tell if I did. But weeks ago when the story came out about hacking into the Democratic National Committee, that was the first suspicion, that it was the Russians who were behind it. I can't tell you anything more than the president said.

[08:10:01] But let's get to the bottom of it. When the e-mails came out, there was this uncertainty about the DNC. Hillary Clinton made a decision, we're moving forward with Donna Brazile. Did you see the reaction, Donna Brazile in the hall last night?

CAMEROTA: Her dance moves?

CUOMO: She is a star, Donna Brazile is a star in your party. That's an easy sell.

DURBIN: It's an easy sell, but we got balance back and moved forward quickly. We moved forward with Bernie Sanders yesterday. What an amazing thing for him to do, to wait and to affirm the endorsement of Hillary Clinton as president. So we started off with some challenges. We've answered those challenges. We're moving forward in a positive way.

CAMEROTA: Senator, do you think Russia is trying to influence the U.S. presidential election?

CARDIN: I think Russia wants to be very active in hacking our e- mails. I think Russia and Donald Trump both, Putin and Donald Trump both want to see NATO in a different light. I think there is a concern about our engagement internationally. But Secretary Clinton clearly believes that the United States has a critical role in international events and we have to work with our coalition partners. Donald Trump wants us to reevaluate that and do more alone. That's consistent with what Mr. Putin wants.

So there are clearly issues here that are going to come up in the campaign. But I agree with Senator Durbin. We came out of this convention united. This party has different views, but we are united behind Hillary Clinton.

CAMEROTA: You think Bernie Sanders supporters are now on board? After all the turmoil on Monday where they were expressing frustration, understandable, and they were, you know, sort of vocal about it, you sense a change as of today?

CARDIN: Understand the Democratic Party has a broad tent. Understand that there are different views among Sanders supporters, but the Sanders supporters as a group will clearly be for Hillary Clinton.

CUOMO: But also, you know, the hard political facts are Sanders supporters should not be your problem. You should get at least three quarters if not 90 percent of them.

CARDIN: And we will.

CUOMO: That's the suggestion. It is in the middle group, it's the actual undecided where the trust issue is so big. What is your best case, senator, for when people say she lies, and she lies to suit her own needs, and that's what the Clintons do, and I can't get past it.

DURBIN: I can tell you the negative publicity on Hillary Clinton has been going on for a long, long time.

CUOMO: With or without cause?

DURBIN: Well, I can tell you, some of the evidence there was investigated, and cleared her, for example, on the key issues.

But here is the bottom line. Take a look at the image of the convention. What was the image of Cleveland? Anger, fear, hate, name-calling. Pick an image of what happens here in Philadelphia. It is totally different. It is positive. It is hopeful. It is moving forward to address the issues that families care about. How much is it going to cost to send your kid to college? Democrats care about that. We're going speak about that and we're going to work with Hillary Clinton to deal with that.

What did you hear from the other side? Be afraid. Be very afraid. I don't think that is a vision. That's not morning in America. That's midnight in America. That's what we're receiving from the Republicans. Quite a contrast to Philadelphia.

CAMEROTA: Gentlemen, thank you. Great to have you both on NEW DAY. Thanks.

CUOMO: All right, so tonight is a big night. We keep saying that, but that's because each night is so important for the Democrats in making their case. And tonight you have the most powerful men in the country, if not the world, they're going to speak on the stage tonight, and they're on your screen right now. President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, what are they going to say tonight? How do they present the world and present Hillary Clinton in a way that will sway these voters who are undecided? Former White House press secretary Jay Carney gives us the inside, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

**

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:19] CAMEROTA: Former president, Bill Clinton, seeming to embrace the role of a candidate's spouse last night, and he tried to reintroduce his wife, Hillary Clinton, as a, quote, change maker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She's insatiably curious, she's a natural leader, she's a good organizer. And she's the best darn change maker I ever met in my entire life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, so was he able to effectively make that case that she is not the establishment, in fact, she represents change? Let's discuss with former White House press secretary, Jay Carney.

Hey Jay, great to have you here.

JAY CARNEY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: What did you think of Bill Clinton's attempt to cast her as the change agent?

CARNEY: Look, I think it's always hard when you have a candidate, a nominee like Hillary Clinton, who has been on the national stage for as long as she has been on the stage. People get tired of the politicians they know. We've seen that -- we saw that with Al Gore in the 2000 race. It was like, he's been around too long, we want something new and different. So that was always going to be a challenge. And I think President Clinton has effectively spoke about where Hillary Clinton has made change, and she has done it in small rooms. She is not a speech maker the way Bill Clinton is, or President Obama, but she is a deal maker. And to me, having served in the Obama administration, where dealing with Congress has been so difficult, one of the biggest selling points that Hillary Clinton has, that's really untold, is the success that she had in the Senate and as secretary of state, dealing with the opposition.

Funny story -- back in September of 2006, I was bureau chief for "Time Magazine" in Washington. We had a new editor coming in. I had a party for him in D.C., we did, at our house, and it was like you had to bring the A-list. So I got then-Senator Obama to come, I got Senator Clinton to come, Karl Rove came, and Tom Delay was there, remember, had been Bill Clinton's biggest enemy in the House of Representatives, had led the charge to impeach President Clinton. Hillary Clinton walks in our house, sees Tom Delay, and says, as I live and breathe, it's Tom Delay, and they hugged. OK, because they had worked together on this legislation to make it easier to adopt children out of foster care. And that's a story about Hillary Clinton that people don't know, is that when she's getting down to business, she puts posturing aside. She just gets it done. She may not be the big hall speaker, she's not the glad handing politician, but she is effective.

CUOMO: So, let's deal with the obvious negative here, which is that 68 percent that popped up in the latest CNN poll that people don't trust her. Every time I ask somebody this question, they immediately -- a Democrat -- they immediately move to a positive suggestion about what she is despite that. Is that a winning strategy here? Don't they have to take it on at some point?

[08:20:03] CARNEY: Yes, I think they do. And you can't -- these engrained impressions are hard to change in an instant.

CUOMO: Especially when you don't own them, though.

CARNEY: I think you're right. You have to own them, and I think we've seen some of that, like even President Clinton talked about, and she's trustworthy -- where they have others testifying to her character and her trustworthiness to at least fill out that picture. You can't -- again, when you've been on that stage for as long as she has been on that stage, there are hardened impressions that are really hard to change dramatically. But to win an election, you need to change them in the margin. You're not going to win over the whole populous. You have to make sure you get to 51 percent.

CAMEROTA: President Obama this morning was on another morning show, for some reason, and he talked about Donald Trump --

CARNEY: If I had still been there, that wouldn't have happened.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, Jay. We know that.

CUOMO: -- tells it different.

CAMEROTA: (laughter) He talked about Donald Trump. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think. if you listen to any press conference he has given, or listen to any of those debates, basic knowledge about the world, or what a nuclear triad is, or where various countries are, or the difference between Sunni and Shia in the Muslim world -- those are things that he doesn't know and hasn't seemed to spent a lot of time trying to find out about.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: OK, so when we hear from President Obama tonight, is that the case he's going to make against Donald Trump, or for Hillary Clinton?

CARNEY: I think you'll have some of both. I think, as president, he won't go deep into anti-Trump territory, but he will be able to testify to the contrast between Hillary Clinton's seriousness, the breadth of her knowledge and experience, and the absence of that on the other side, and why it matters. Why it matters to have somebody in the room, in the situation room or in the Oval Office, who knows what she's talking about, who has been there, who knows the leaders, who knows the countries, who knows the difference between Shia and Sunni in the Muslim world. This is not reality television. The decisions are hard. And when you're sitting in the Oval Office and you have all your advisors around you and they disagree -- all the advisors, we get to leave the room, and then the President has to make the decision. And they're always the worst, hardest decisions, the 51/49 decisions, and you want to have somebody in that room who understands the complexities that go into making that decision.

CUOMO: How do you deal with the trick of making the case that Hillary Clinton -- as President Obama will have to -- that she knows, she was there with me, she knows how this gets done, with allowing Hillary Clinton some separation from the status quo that scares many people, whether it's ISIS, whether it's domestic terrorism, whatever it is. People are afraid, and they blame the administration for that fear. Hillary Clinton, you know, that's a little delicate balance. It's a little bit of a trick.

CARNEY: It is hard. I think Secretary Clinton has recognized that she can't separate herself from this administration. She served in it, she's a Democrat, and she has the advantage of a president who is as popular as he's been in a long time right now, with the public, and who is getting pretty strong approval ratings.

CUOMO: He's certainly more popular than the two candidates, which is very unusual when a president is going out.

CARNEY: So there's that advantage. Interestingly, on foreign policy, where the President will testify to how he turned to her for advice, her wisdom and knowledge and her success as secretary of state, I think she is perceived rightly as being more hawkish than the President. She certainly played that role inside the situation room. I know that secretary of defense, Bob Gates, General Patraeus, and others, saw in her an ally on the sort of right side of the foreign policy debates, and that may be helpful to her. Even though it may not warm the hearts of liberal Democrats, it might be helpful for her in terms of winning the argument about how we go after ISIS.

CAMEROTA: We've had so many Democratic headliners here thus far, and tonight, we have forgotten to talk about Tim Kaine, VP pick. What does he need to say tonight?

CARNEY: I think he needs to reassure people that he's ready to be president, that he is -- he can understand basically, you know, the concerns of -- for lack of a better phrase, white males out there who see nothing but change, and sometimes change that is scary and threatening to them, and you know, Tim Kaine is an extraordinary politician. Becaue in a state like Virginia that's really purple and it's a tough place to win statewide, he has done nothing but win statewide. And he is really incredibly popular and beloved there. And it is hard to find anyone in Virginia or in Washington who has a bad word to say about him. He is just fundamentally decent and he's experienced, but the nation doesn't know him. He needs to convey that and make it clear that the reflection on her is positive, that she had the wisdom to choose him. That he is that kind of solid, responsible person you want as vice-president.

[08:25:13] CAMEROTA: Jay Carney, thanks so much. Great to get your insight.

CARNEY: Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much for being here.

Many issues in the spotlight at the Democratic National Convention. Some critics, though, say that terrorism is not getting enough attention. So why haven't the Democrats talked more about ISIS? We'll ask two Democratic lawmakers, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: The Democrats are happy. So you know what that means? Donald Trump is not. He is criticizing them at their convention for not talking enough about terrorism here during these first couple of days. Why? Why isn't there more talk about ISIS? Are we going to hear more? Is this some kind of reflection of the party not being aware of the threat? Let's discuss with two elected officials who will be speaking at the convention this week, California Congressman, Xavier Becerra, and Atlanta Mayor, Kasim Reed. Mayor Reed is introducing former New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, tonight. Now that's a very interesting contrast. Let's just talk a little politics first about that.