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Review of Day Three of the Democratic Convention; Examining President Obama's Speech. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 28, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:00:00] BARACK OBAMA, UNITED States: Great.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The Democratic

OBAMA: All proud of you, you will do great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: The Democratic Party's biggest stars also took time to slam Donald Trump's message that they characterized as one of fear, the stage now set for Clinton's acceptance speech what will she say tonight? We have it all covered CNN's Michelle Kosinski is live inside the convention hall with the latest, hi Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Alisyn. Yeah, a lot of work went into that speech last night. Weeks of writing, six drafts, the White House says that when President Obama saw the first lady's speech on Monday, he stayed up until 3:30 in the morning working on it.

His task was how do you make this different, new, how do you make it resonate? How do you top your own speech from exactly 12 years prior? Well, he just may have done it. He presented this as kind of a second chapter to that first speech, building on it with a lot of emotion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: You could almost see the weight of this moment and of America's choice on President Obama's face as he tried to connect past with present, with future.

OBAMA: While this nation has been tested by war and it's been tested by recession, and all manner of challenges. I stand before you again tonight after almost two terms as your president to tell you I am more pptimistic about the future of America.

KOSINSKI: Optimism the focus, in the speech the president delivered with an almost constant smile, even as he ripped into Republicans, laying out a stark contrast.

OBAMA: But what we heard in Cleveland last week wasn't particularly Republican, and it sure wasn't conservative. What we heard was a deeply pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other and turn away from the rest of the world. There were no serious solutions to pressing problems, just the fanning of resentment and blame, and anger, and hate. And that is not the America I know. The America I know is full of courage and optimism and ingenuity. The America I know is decent and generous.

KOSINSKI: And this time President Obama didn't hold back. Yes, saying the name.

OBAMA: And then there's Donald Trump. Don't boo, vote. The Donald is not really a plans guy. He's not really a facts guy either. The choice isn't even close. There has never been a man or a woman, not me, not Bill, nobody, more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America.

We're not a fragile people. We're not a frightful people. Our power doesn't come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order as long as we do things his way. We don't look to be ruled. And the American dream is something no wall will ever contain.

KOSINSKI: And making the point that unity and democracy work, not to be overlooked.

OBAMA: We all need to be as vocal and as organized and as persistent as Bernie Sanders supporters have been during this election.

KOSINSKI: He urged this crowd to vote and for gun control advocates to be as vocal as the gun lobby, becoming emotional as he started to tell some real stories of American struggle, compassion, and perseverance.

OBAMA: And I'll tell you what's picked me back up every single time. It's been you. The American people. It's the painting I keep in my private office. A big-eyed, green owl with blue wings made by a 7- year-old girl who was taken from us in Newtown, given to me by her parents so i wouldn't forget. Time and again you've picked me up, and I hope sometimes I picked you up too.

And tonight I ask you to do for Hillary Clinton what you did for me. I'm asking you to join me to reject cynicism and reject fear. And to summon what is best in us to elect Hillary Clinton as the next president of the United State and show the world we still believe in the promise of this great nation. Thank you for this incredible journey. Let's keep it going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: So Hillary Clinton's e-mail. It was interesting how he broached that subject, saying she has her critics, this is what happens when you're under the microscope for 40 years, everybody makes mistakes, at least she puts herself out there. You know softening her responsibility.

[06:05:08] He also said that really between these two candidates, it's not even close as a choice. But the fact is, it is close. And the President

knows that but you know it's obvious that many people out there are not willing to see Hilary Clinton the way the President is portraying her. Alisyn and Chris?

CAMEROTA: You're right, Michelle. It's very close in all of the latest polls. So let's talk about what was effective and what wasn't last night. Thank you very much.

We want to bring in our panel, CNN political analyst and Washington Bureau Chief in the Daily Beast, Jackie Kucinich. CNN's political analyst and host of the David Gregory Show podcast, it's Gregory and CNN senior political analyst and senior editor of The Atlantic, Ron Brownstein. Great to have all of you here.

Jackie, what were your impressions? What made the biggest impact last night?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, Obama was in his element last night. He is so good at that kind of speech. And it's right, this was about rallying the Obama coalition and making sure that they get out to vote for Hillary Clinton, to continue his legacy. I mean, he even said at one point, she's more qualified than I was when I was running.

CAMEROTA: And Bill?

KUCINICH: And Bill. And then he, you know, apologized to Bill, who's having a great time last night. The camera kept going to him. But no, that's what this was about last night. And, you know, whether he was successful, we'll have to see, but that was certainly a step in the right direction if you are in the Democratic Party.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Looking at the different speeches and the themes they laid out, what do you think the strategy is?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well I think very clearly on the plus side for them, they're trying to say that this is not a contest, you heard it from the President. This is not a left-right election. This is not a battle between Democrats and Republicans. The battle between Hillary Clinton as uber qualified candidate, and a total outlier from the Republican Party, someone who is uniquely demagogic and unqualified for the job

So let's not talk about her negatives let's just talk about whether if she is qualified and whether she'll fight for you. I think on the negative side I think there is so much talk about the optimism in America. Did they fail to really reach out to those people who are gun supporters or maybe independents? Who feel so disinfective by the political system ...

CAMEROTA: Right.

GREGORY: ... and from the political system. Did they do a good enough job really speaking to that among the electorate (ph).

RON BROWNESTIEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. I thought overall, and I've covered every covered every convention since '84, I thought this was the best single night for a party at either party's convention since Bill Clinton's acceptance speech (inaudible) which generated a huge bumps in the polls.

And I thought that for two reasons, one just a shear quality of the big speeches. There was a sag with Tim Kaine when they kind of made him into the mayor of Mayberry, than as mayor of Richmond.

But, other than that, the Biden, Bloomberg, and Obama speeches were all extremely effective. And I disagree a little bit because I think a lot of the campaign was -- although the night was about going beyond the Obama coalition, particularly with Bloomberg and giving Republican, because they made an important strategic choice to separate Trump from the Republican Party rather than tie Trump to the Republican Party.

But I thought the night was so effective not only because the speeches were good, but because there was extraordinary message discipline. I mean, they built it on a series of contrasts over and over in which they identified, they accused Trump of a weakness and attributed the offsetting strength to Clinton, you know, top-down versus bottom-up. Optimistic versus pessimistic. Unifier versus divider. Fights for you, versus looks out for himself, there was a series and they keep coming back through the speeches.

Now, we'll see how much it matters because ultimately it is on the nominee. But, you know, it's Geoff Garin, who was her chief strategist in 2008, tweeted yesterday, "If the goal of the convention is to frame the choice for voters, they have done that about as well as they can do leading up to her."

GREGORY: And micro targeting the ability to deploy a Joe Biden and Tim Kaine to reach working class white voters or Bill Clinton, and then of course the President, Michelle Obama to target their coalition in 2008 and '12 has run ways about the coalition of the (inaudible) and the Democratic Party. I mean, that's a lot of resources at their disposal.

KUCINICH: Well and to your point I think that he -- when you listen to Tim Kaine's speech, he reached out to Bernie voters and Republicans within a couple, you know, a couple of paragraphs of each other.

GREGORY: Yeah.

CUOMO: What about what they didn't talk about? They -- President Obama, I guess went the farthest, ironically, right he was supposed to be the cleanest last night, you know, as the most positive. She's made mistakes, we all make mistakes.

CAMEROTA: Do you want to hear that moment? Her negatives? Let's listen how he framed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Look. Hillary's got her share of critics. She has been caricatured by the right and by some on the left. She has been accused of everything you can imagine and some things that you cannot. But she knows that's what happens when you're under a microscope for 40 years. She knows that sometimes during those 40 years she's made mistakes just like I have, just like we all do. That's what happens when we try.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: When I try to punctuate this proposition with a good use of the man in the arena from Teddy Roosevelt, saying she's been in there, she's been fighting, she's not one of the timid souls, as Teddy Roosevelt said, referring obviously to Trump.

[06:10:09] But does it work? Well does it work?

BROWNSTEIN: I think, look, that is not really the central argument that everybody makes mistakes. The central argument, very clearly, is you can trust her to fight for you on the things that matter in your life.

Now, whether that's going to work, in other words, trust is not whether you can believe every sentence and every clause that she said on the e-mail. Trust is whether she has spent her life fighting for the kinds of things that you care about. That is as exactly what they did with Bill Clinton in 1996 as I mentioned yesterday in the exit poll on the day that he was re-elected, a majority of American said you could not trust it and yet enough voted for him anyway because they said he was fighting for the things that matter to them.

That's what they're trying to do again. She has a bigger, maybe in a bigger trust deficit. I don't know if it's going to work, but that's pretty clearly the strategy.

GREGORY: If you care about people like me that I think is whole question. I think they spent so much time saying about Trump and his business record, that he has a record of not caring about people through his business dealings and that you may not completely trust her, but she's going to fight for you more than that guy. It goes back to this permission to vote for her even if you don't like her because he's not a real choice, that argument.

KUCINICH: It's true, but I do need -- I do think they need to address the issue that, you know, the rules don't apply to the Clintons. And that is one of the chief criticisms of her and her husband for that matter.

BROWSTEIN: And that may be something only she can address.

GREGORY: Yeah

KUCINICH: Exactly.

BROWNSTEIN: I mean, you know, but so far the signals they have been putting out basically as we see tonight because the signals from the campaign has been she is not going to address this head on. So we'll see what happens tonight.

CAMEROTA: But I mean also the, we all make mistakes, does that go far enough to the rules don't apply to the Clinton? I mean ... KUCINICH: We don't make mistakes like that.

GREGORY: I don't think that -- it's an acknowledgment of her flaws. It's an acknowledgment that -- it's a way to offset, you know, all the baggage, all of the opinions about her that are baked in saying this is what happens when you're in the arena. And she's -- and she keeps plugging away despite how hard she gets hit. A certain amount of sympathy, and a certain amount of grudging respect that they can chin that up a little bit. Think about Mike Bloomberg trying to reach those figures (ph).

BROWNSTEIN: And that was Bloomberg, right. It was the other side. It's not that you -- you may not respect her on every point, you may not agree with her in every point, but when you look at this contrast, he's arguing there is no choice.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much. Great to talk to you.

CUOMO: All right, so as we saw last night and as we're hearing from the panel, people had specific missions last night. The vice president as well as the vice presidential nominee were out there to take very specific swings at Donald Trump. In fact, the most intense attacks we've seen from the Democrats against Trump so far with only 102 days until Election Day. That's right, 102 days to go.

CNN's Manu Raju joins us now with more. We're going to set up a graphic Manu where you can watch my hairline move as we get closer to the end of the election.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Not a bad idea, Chris. And remember, this convention actually started off in disarray. There was that sudden resignation of the Democratic Party chairwoman. There were all these outburst by Bernie Sanders supporters. But last night we saw this party unite against a common foe. That's Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, UNITED STATES VICE-PRESIDENT: He has no clue about what makes America great. Actually, he has no clue, period.

RAJU: The Democratic Party unleashing, launching their most blistering attacks to date.

SEN. TIM KAINE, (D), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You cannot believe one word that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth.

LEON PANETTA, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: In an unstable world, we cannot afford unstable leadership.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: I'm a New Yorker, and I know a con when I see one.

RAJU: Deploying both the party's high-profile stars and independent billionaire businessman, Michael Bloomberg to deliver weathering multi-tiered attacks on Trump's readiness to be president.

BIDEN: How can there be pleasure in saying you're fired?

RAJU: Vice President Biden, using his blue-collar background to question Trump's dedication to the working class.

BIDEN: He's trying to tell us he cares about the middle class. Give me a break. That's a bunch of malarkey.

RAJU: New York City's former mayor challenging Trump's record as a businessman.

BLOOMBERG: Trump says he wants to run the nation like he's running his business? God help us.

RAJU: Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta taking on Trump's foreign policy credentials.

PANETTA: Donald Trump says he gets his foreign policy experience from watching T.V. and running the Miss Universe pageant. If only it were funny. But it is deadly serious.

RAJU: And condemning Trump's challenge to Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's e-mails.

DONALD TRUMP, (R), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.

PANETTA: It is inconceivable to me that any presidential candidate would be that irresponsible.

RAJU: Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine stepping into the attack dog role, mocking the Republican opponent.

[06:15:01] KAINE: He's got a way of saying the same two words every time he makes his biggest, hugest promises, "Believe me. It's going to be great, believe me."

RAJU: While painting Trump as untrustworthy, inciting his refusal to release his tax returns as proof.

KAINE: Hey, Donald. What are you hiding?

RAJU: The Virginia senator also extending an olive branch to Republican's disenchanted with their party's nominee.

KAINE: If any of you are looking for that party of Lincoln, we've got a home for you right here in the Democratic Party.

RAJU: An effort echoed by Bloomberg. Who went off script to question Trump's mental clarity.

BLOOMBERG: As an independent, I am asking you to join with me. Together let's select a sane, competent person.

(END VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: Now, Donald Trump's campaign responded forcefully last night releasing a statement saying this, "Tonight the Democrats offered only more rewards for the rich, powerful, and well-connected and more angry, demeaning, sniping attacks against all decent Americans who want change for their families.| So clearly, Aliysn, this is an effort by the Trump campaign to paint themselves as the outsiders going against the political class.

CAMEROTA: OK, Manu. Thank you. We'll talk about all of that in our next segment. So how effective will those attacks against Donald Trump and his attacks against her be now? Our panel breaks that down next.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:20:40] BIDEN: His cynicism is unbounded. His lack of empathy and compassion can be summed up in a phrase I suspect he's most proud of having made famous, "You're fired." How can there be pleasure in saying you're fired? He is trying to tell us he cares about the middle class. Give me a break! That's a bunch of malarkey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Tonight is Hillary Clinton, but last night was the night that the case was made against Donald Trump. That's the vice president obviously, Joe Biden. He was leading the charge against Trump in Philadelphia. How effective were the Democrats? Is this the way for them to go?

Let's bring back the panel. David Gregory, Ron Brownstein, Jackie Kucinich. The negative works in politics we see it as an -- and a beautiful example in the GOP nominee. He has used it to his advantage. They're trying to return the favor. Did it work?

KUCINICH: They're even trying to define Donald Trump by going after his business record. You heard that from Mayor Bloomberg. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, it's all the way through. So, did it work, we'll have to see. We'll have to see what the polls say after the fact. But it was consistent, and they said the key, he doesn't care about you. He cares about himself. Over and over again we heard it last night and we heard it the night before. And I'm sure we'll hear about it tonight as well.

GREGORY: You know, I think the theme of -- and the argument that Trump is dangerous, that he's uniquely unqualified, that he's outside the major political experience, that he's not even a part of the Republican Party, those were really powerful arguments and it just you watching Joe Biden in that clip, the vice president, you can understand why there were so many people in the Democratic Party who thought he should run for the presidency, why he should be the nominee. His plain spokenness, his ability to take the fight to the opposition, and to speak in a way that could appeal to the very voters that Trump has really rolled up. BROWNSTEIN: The biggest blind spot, this has been a very effective convention but the biggest blind spot is having speakers and messages aimed at those white working class voters over the core of the Trump support. And I thought Joe Biden did the best job by far of any speaker of tying the diverse polychromatic, really, modern Democratic Party back to it's working class roots and showing a bridge between the two.

And I would differ a little bit, Chris, in that I thought that what made this unusual last night was that every time they identified a weakness in Clinton -- in Trump, they tried to define it against an offsetting strength in Clinton. So they, you know, they kept saying, he's unprepared, she's the most qualified ever. He's talking down America, she's optimistic. He has been looking out for himself, she will fight for you.

So, you know, will that solve all of her problems? I don't know. They have find Donald Trump negatively. He is polling in the horse race above the share of Americans who see him favorably, which is pretty remarkable, and is a -- is kind of a statement of the challenges she has but I thought last night was a very disciplined way to set a -- create a series of dualities and contrast

between the two of them.

CAMEROTA: It seemed as though everybody had their role last night, every speaker. So Vice President Biden was the attack dog. Then vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine was also an attack teddy bear? But let's listen to his moment at the podium.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAINE: Trump is a guy who promises a lot but you might have noticed he's got a way of saying the same two words every time he makes his

biggest, hugest promises. Believe me. It's going to be great, believe me. We're going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, believe me. We're going to destroy ISIS so fast, believe me. There's nothing suspicious in my tax returns, believe me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Jackie, I know that he's getting a little grief because his impression was not spot on. However, he has a folksy sort of conversational, warm style people will respond to.

KUCINICH: I was going to say folksy, like youth pastor. He has that sort of thing going on. But, you know, when he's best, he's best when he's talking about Hillary Clinton, the woman he knows, the woman he worked with in the Senate. And the attack dog thing it just -- I don't believe it. It isn't -- It doesn't seem like Tim Kaine.

BROWNSTEIN: I thought that was the one dissonant note in the evening because they over ramp the folks. I mean, Tim Kaine is the first relatively big city mayor on a national ticket since Hubert Humphrey in 1968. [06:25:03] His entire career in Virginia has been built around consolidating strength in urban, metropolitan areas, both cities and the suburbs with the party from the way Mark Warner won, the governor showed in 2001. He really embodies the Democratic metropolitan future. And they really as I said they turned him into the mayor of Mayberry RFE last night.

I think he kind of overdid it. That's not who he is. He's a Harvard lawyer, civil rights lawyer, mayor, governor, someone who can speak to kind of that emerging suburban majority ...

CAMEROTA: So when you say they turned him into it, I mean, who -- but did he write his own speech?

BROWNSTEIN: I don't know the answer but whether it was him or the campaign, they dialed up the frame. It's the Saturday speech where he introduced himself was a much better reflection of who he actually is. He's not Andy Griffith.

CUOMO: But Ron's point is that you would be -- any of us are naive to think that anybody goes out there and freelances, you know, especially when the Clintons are involved. They are very methodical in terms of how they do things. The question is whether it works or not? I thought that delivery aside, him using that stick of the taxes on Trump ...

GREGORY: Yeah

CUOMO: ... I thought was unusually effective, because we've been asking for the taxes forever. They say no and it never seems to resonate. But it did in that hall. Why, David? What was it galvanizing for at least the base about Donald Trump's shortcomings?

GREGORY: Yeah, you can't trust him. He's hiding something. He's a con. He's not qualified. He doesn't care about you. It's all an act. You know, it's the reality show element of all of this. And I think that, you know, Kaine has a role to play. I think he's smaller than some of the other Democratic lions, including the President who are around Hillary Clinton. I do think what's important is that Clinton is what I'm saying a moment ago. And that's going to invite criticism of his era and her role as secretary of state. I don't know how much they've really taken that on. I'll be looking for that tonight.

BROWNSTEIN: I bet you on Election Day, over 80 percent of people who say they approve of President Obama will vote for Clinton, over 80 percent of the people who say they disapprove will vote for Trump. That has been the pattern on the last two elections. He's on the ballot whether he goes out of campaigns or not, so he might as well campaign.

CAMEROTA: We're holding you for those numbers.

CUOMO: Alisyn will take that action.

CAMEROTA: All right. Thanks so much, guys. Great to talk to you. Meanwhile, Donald Trump, of course, under fire as we've been talking you about for challenging Russia to hack Hillary Clinton and to find her missing e-mails. His critics call that an act of treason. We have a live report on the latest, next.

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