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Wrap-Up of Democratic Convention; Examining Hillary Clinton's Acceptance Speech. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 29, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:08] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Hillary Clinton making history as the first woman to accept a major party's nomination. She gave a speech, arguably the most important of her life. The big question now is, did what she said make a difference in a tight election?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton, of course, took aim at Donald Trump during her nearly hour-long speech, criticizing him for saying that he alone can fix the nation's problems. Her message was, "We are stronger together."

We have it all covered for you. So, let's begin with Joe Johns, he's live inside the convention hall in Philadelphia.

Give us the highlights, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, Hillary Clinton hit all the notes. She reintroduced herself, even though she's been in public life for 20 years. She touched on her motivations of running for office. She drew a line from her 1996 book "It Takes a Village" straight up to the campaign theme of stronger together and she hit Donald Trump hard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: that is with humility, determination, and boundless confidence in America's promise that I accept your nominations for president of the United States.

JOHNS: Hillary Clinton drawing a sharp contrast with Donald Trump's vision for America.

HILLARY CLINTON: Don't believe anyone who says, "I alone can fix this." Those were actually Donald Trump's words in Cleveland. And they should set off alarm bells for all of us.

Really? I alone can fix it? He's forgetting, every last one of us. Americans don't say, "I alone can fix it." We say, "We'll fix it together."

JOHNS: Repeatedly slamming Trump.

HILLARY CLINTON: We heard Donald Trump's answer last week at his convention. He wants to divide us from the rest of the world and from each other. He's betting that the perils of today's world will blind us to its unlimited promise. He's taken the Republican Party a long way from morning in America to midnight's in America.

JOHNS: Questioning his judgment.

HILLARY CLINTON: Imagine if you dare, imagine, imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis. A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.

JOHNS: Knocking Trump's understanding of the issues.

HILLARY CLINTON: Now Donald Trump, Donald Trump says, and this is a quote, "I know more about ISIS than the generals do."

No, Donald, you don't. You didn't hear any of this, did you, from Donald Trump at his convention? He spoke for 70-odd minutes, and I do mean odd. And he offered zero solutions. But we already know he doesn't believe these things. No wonder he doesn't like talking about his plans. You might have noticed I love talking about mine.

JOHNS: Clinton also using her speech to praise Bernie Sanders and reach out to his supporters.

HILLARY CLINTON: I want you to know. I've heard you. Your cause is our cause.

JOHNS: Hoping to broaden her base with all voters.

HILLARY CLINTON: I will be a president for Democrats, Republicans, Independents, for the struggling, the striving, the successful, for all those who vote for me and for those who don't, for all Americans together.

JOHNS: Clinton's daughter Chelsea introducing her mother.

CHELSEA CLINTON, DAUGHTER OF HILLARY AND BILL CLINTON: People ask me all the time, how does she do it? How does she keep going amid the sound and the fury of politics? Here's how. It's because she never, ever forgets who she's fighting for.

JOHNS: The nominee herself acknowledging the history of the moment.

HILLARY CLINTON: Standing here as my mother's daughter and my daughter's mother. I'm so happy this day has come. I'm happy for grandmothers and little girls and everyone in between. I'm happy for boys and men. Because when any barrier falls in America, it clears the way for everyone.

After all, when there are no ceilings, the sky is the limit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:05:14] JOHNS: One thing Hillary Clinton did not address head on was the issue of voter trust, which has dogged her throughout the primaries. But she seemed to be making the case for herself that what's more important at this date is readiness for the job and confidence.

Alisyn and Chris?

CAMEROTA: Joe, thanks so much for laying all that out for us. Let's discuss it now with Hillary Clinton's former press secretary Jennifer Hanley and Miami Beach Mayor and Clinton's Surrogate Philip Levine. Thanks to both of you for being here.

Mr. Mayor, I'll start with you. What did we learn new about Hillary Clinton last night?

PHILIP LEVINE, (D) MIAMI BEACH: I think a lot of things. But I think mostly, you know, she explained to the folks out there that who she is, why she's running for office, and of course she said, you know, when it comes to public service, she said, you know, I'm not so great at the public part, I'm really good at the service part.

And I think that comes to the fact that Secretary Clinton, you know, she says, you know, I'm not a great candidate, I'm not maybe be great in an interview, but I'm really going to be great at the job. I think the history of Secretary Clinton shows that once she's on the job, she does an amazing job. And I think that's most important.

CUOMO: So Jen, the trade is performance over personality. And then part of personality becomes trust, character. What do you believe voters heard last night that should make them think differently about the penumbra of scandals that is hanging over her head?

JENNIFER HANLEY, FORMER PRESS SECRETARY FOR NY SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I think what's important to focus on is that she is dedicated to the issues that so many Americans care about, and she's a fighter. And she has made that so clear time and time again, but especially last night. I think as part of this narrative that has been unfolding over the last several days and hopefully for those who have been paying attention, months, about what kind of a person she is, especially when it comes to fighting for what she believes in. And I think what people get and are taking away from this is that she's extraordinarily talented. She's competent, she takes nothing for granted and she gets right back up, and she keeps fighting for what she believes in, especially the people she represents.

CAMEROTA: You know I don't know that many voters know about her mother's challenging childhood. And she talked about that last night.

So, let's play a moment of that and then we'll talk on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON: My mother Dorothy was abandoned by her parents as a young girl. She ended up by her own at 14 working as a house maid. She was saved by the kindness of others. Her first grade teacher saw, she had nothing to eat at lunch and brought extra food to share the entire year. The lesson she passed on to me years later stuck with me. No one gets through life alone. We have to look out for each other and lift each other up.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: Mr. Mayor was that the moment where she sort of tried to telegraph to voters, "Yes, I may be very successful, I may have been the first lady and secretary of state, but I can relate to your problems."

LEVINE: There's no question about it. I think what else she telecast was that, you know, you can knock her down, you can push her over, but she will always come up. She will always fight for the people. And that's kind of what she's demonstrated her entire life.

And, you know, what she said, you know, you don't do it alone. And of course, Donald Trump said, "I alone can fix the problem," and Secretary Clinton made it very clear that, "No, Donald, you can't."

You know, it takes a village. It's all the Americans working together. And I think that was very much a part of her message. I always say she's like a Timex watch. She takes a licking and she keeps on ticking. That's Secretary Clinton.

CUOMO: Just in case people are wondering, the sounds behind the mayor are them breaking down the convention center. I know they sound scary. He's OK.

(CROSSTALK)

LEVINE: Party's over here.

CUOMO: I know, they pack up quickly.

CAMEROTA: Right a way.

CUOMO: Part of the process. Jen, is there a case to be made that the biggest moment of the night that helped Hillary Clinton didn't come out of her own mouth, it came out of the mouth of a father who lost his son in Iraq, he and his wife Muslim-Americans, speaking directly to Donald Trump about them being Americans, about their constitution, and their sacrifice.

How big do you think that moment was? Some are saying it was like the McCarthy moment of you have no decency, sir.

HANLEY: Well, and I'm, you know, I'm glad you pointed it out. And there's no doubt that last night and the last several nights, there was a real effort to unfold who this person is in terms of Donald Trump and what he stands for and contrast that against not just Hillary but the entire Democratic Party. And their words were so powerful. I mean, I think in general the people who they had speaking at the convention yesterday and throughout the week really helped to tell the story of what their America looks like, what their perspective is on this election and how important this.

[07:10:16] And I think time and time again, the same things kept coming out. We have to come together. Hate cannot win. Love Trump's hate, obviously something we heard over and over.

But I think also, there were so many people who were touched directly by Hillary over the years, and she's known for this because it's who she is. I mean, it's authentic to her. She cares deeply about people and how their lives are impacted, and she believes that she can help people. She believes we can all help each other as the mayor said. You know, it's working together. It's not working individually. That's how she operates. And I think all of the speakers really kept going back to that in who she is and what she is as a leader.

CAMEROTA: Yeah, Mr. Mayor, you know, the DNC got off to a bumpy start on Monday where it looked for a while there as though the Bernie Sanders supporters were not going to get on board. They were going to revolt. They were very loud and rough.

And so last night she said to them, I want you to know, I've heard you. Do you think that that was enough of a message or an olive branch that they will now come on board?

LEVINE: Well, I think that it wasn't just last night. I think throughout the entire week, a lot of those speakers made it very clear that we owe a big -- of gratitude to Senator Sanders. He's done so much for this entire campaign.

You know, you've heard it from all the various scenes, you heard it from President Clinton, President Obama, Michelle Obama. You heard it from all of them. And they all said that Senator Sanders, you know, we owe you. You were able to better and make our platform that much more relevant to the American people. And Secretary Clinton said it last night.

And, you know, you could feel the people coming together. You felt it in the arena. And I'm going to tell you something, last night when she walked out on that stage, there wasn't a dry eye in this entire arena. People felt emotionally excited, charged. Everyone felt the connection to Secretary Clinton. And I think that was across America and then probably Donald Trump probably had a tear in his eye because he knew we're coming for him.

CAMEROTA: All right. Thank you both for sharing your impressions. I'm sure, we will hear from Donald Trump on that very note. Mayor Philip Levine, Jennifer Hanley, thank you.

Coming up in our next hour, I'll speak exclusively with Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine. What did he think the best moment of the night was? What did he think the worse was? We'll ask him all those questions.

CUOMO: It's a big deal, you know. He's still dealing with having got on the nomination. He's coming out, facing the questions. That's going to be good one, I think, I'll stay awake.

CAMEROTA: Fantastic.

CUOMO: And then we'll see.

As we mentioned, what a moment happened last night here. These parents, talking about their son, an Iraq vet killed in action, holding up the constitution and asking Donald Trump to read it, asking Donald Trump to see them as Muslim-Americans, very powerful. We'll show it to you next.

(CMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:17:04] CUOMO: Donald Trump obviously in the cross hairs for the Democrats this week at their convention. However, you could say that the moment of the night, if not the week, came from not Hillary, not some big-time politician, but from a regular person mourning a loss of their son and asking to be seen for who he is and who his wife is and who his son was, as Americans.

Take a look and listen to these Muslim parents talking about their son and speaking to Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHIZR KHAN, FATHER OF FALLEN MUSLIM, U.S SOLODIER: Our son, in my own head, dreams too of being a military lawyer, but he put those dreams aside the day he sacrificed his life to save the lives of his fellow soldiers.

Hillary Clinton was right when she called my son, "the best of America." If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America. Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims. He disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own party leadership. He vows to build walls and ban us from this country.

Donald Trump, you're asking Americans to trust you with their future. Let me ask you, have you even read the United States constitution?

I will gladly lend you my copy.

In this document, look for the words. Look for the words liberty and equal protection of law. Have you ever been to a Arlington Cemetery? Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending United States of America.

[07:20:08] You will see all fates, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Well, let me tell you, it was, a huge moment because of what they represent as human beings, right, parents who lost someone but also, having the constitution as a Muslim-American against his own breast, such a different image than what we often hear about Muslim- Americans in this country.

Let's discuss the impact of that. CNN political analyst and host of "The David Gregory Show" pod cast, David Gregory. Josh Rogin, CNN political analyst and columnist for "The Washington Post." And CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis.

Errol, starting with you. Good to have you this morning.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. CUOMO: Let's put up the picture of who they were talking about, their son, a vet, died in Iraq, posthumously, giving two different medals of honor. He was walking toward a car that they believed was going to be an IED situation, and he kept walking toward it to slow it down and create a barrier between them and other innocents and wind up being detonated and killed.

That's who they were talking about last night. But what was the impact?

LOUIS: Look, it's extraordinary and let me take sort of a bit of a dissenting view at both the Republican and Democratic conventions. There were the parents of people who have been killed, whether they were service members, whether they were police officers, the mothers of the movement, these people who were killed by police under controversial circumstances and so forth. I get a little uncomfortable with that, in part because I think we know and we know that there are political strategists who are scripting every word of that, who are scripting the image, telling them what to wear, what color to wear, how to say it and why to say it.

CAMEROTA: It feels so exploitive to you?

LOUIS: It feels extremely exploitive because the parents themselves are just lost in grief. You know, I mean it's -- to me it's not, if there was anybody who could be left out of the political scrum, I would hope that it would be parents like that.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Here's the thing. Muslim-Americans, not very well represented either in Congress, in public life. They don't organize politically for some pretty obvious reasons, right. This is a rare opportunity to take a look at this community, and we all know that is patriotic, that does serve our country, that does die for our country.

Three million Muslim-Americans in the United States, by 2015, 8 million Muslim-Americans, do you think any of them are going to vote for Republicans after what we've seen in this cycle? This is not only a nod to those people who have been othered or demonized by Donald Trump, but also a recognition that they play a role in our society, an important role and the reason that we don't have more terrorism from Muslim-Americans is because they haven't been disadvantaged in some of the ways they have been earned.

CUOMO: And did it speak to something a little more subtle?

I know was, you know, being the grandchild of immigrants to this country, there was such a pride in coming to America and becoming American, Italian-American. You know, they were so proud to say it. It's the same for Muslims. These guys are Pakistani, but this family that came here and that's what I took from it that they give their son a service, it gets killed. And now they have people looking at them like a problem, like somehow they're less than? That was what I thought made it so akin to the have you no decency moment with McCarthy where someone finally looked at him, and said, do you know what you're doing to this country. DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's so powerful in different ways, I have a slightly different view that are on this way that I too, insensitive to exploitation, but anybody is going through that kind of grief does look for a way to elevate their loss. And if it is through the political process, I would imagine they'd find that elevating.

CUOMO: Especially when they're being blamed as part of the problem that they surrendered what mattered most to them. They sacrificed their son to fight against.

GREGORY: You know, we're living at a time when our founding documents and our founding fathers are particularly celebrated, in no small part because of Hamilton the musical. And what is one of the great lines of that show is immigrants know how to get things done.

And this was really a celebration of immigrants and then on top of that, Muslim-Americans. But the zeal of new immigrants who love America, who are probably more familiar with our founding documents than most Americans are and to brandish that constitution is to say that I am in love with this country and I hold it dear, so much so that I would give the most important thing in my life to it. That's a powerful argument.

ROGIN: I haven't seen the play "Hamilton," but here's what this moment means to me. For the first time that I can remember, the Republicans have yielded the national security high ground to the Democrats. Can we remember when is the last time that happened?

You had Donald Trump talking about how we should be able to water board terrorists. And the same time, Captain Khan's father is telling the tragic story of his son's death, OK, it's a total flip in the discussion. Usually they can put up the big of crime on national security, this year they own that ground ...

[07:25:00] CUOMO: And you're making an assumption there though. Who says that -- look, I was very moved by this. I think a lot of people were moved by this. But there are just as many people moved by a need to be tougher. And the idea of being nice and sympathetic to the enemy isn't washing with people who support Trump.

They say you got to get tougher. You're getting your butt kicked all over the world because you're soft.

LOUIS: Close the borders. Bomb whatever you have to bomb that sort of thing.

GREGORY: But even Republicans, Chris, to that point, Republicans and we've been at war in this aggressive posture for 16 years. So that's why there's a lot of Republicans who don't speak with one voice about what it means to be tough in the rest of the world. Then I think that's what's striking. And it wasn't just National Security denotes around faith, about care for the veterans, around love of country, about love of the founding principles of America. A lot of themes that you would not automatically associate with the Democrats in years time. ROGIN: And we'll have to see if voters that ultimately decide that torture, murdering innocent families of people who maybe terrorists, does that really make us tough? Or is it tough to uphold our values and uphold our morals in the face of these threats, in the face of these challenges. That's the difference.

CAMEROTA: I mean, let me ask you another politically calculating question given you're feeling that some instances could be exploitive.

A lot of people didn't tune in to the convention. They've got high ratings. Not everybody, not all voters. So, should the campaign take that dad out on the campaign trail to expose more people and more voters to the values that we're talking about here?

LUOIS: Honestly, I think if it's -- it'll help them push, you know, pick up a few points in Michigan and that's exactly what they will do.

Now, should they do it? I don't know, I mean the family -- I mean, you know, David's point I think is well taken. If this is how they want to sort of redeem the sacrifice of their son, by going out and speaking about this principle, you know, we have seen people come from grief to political leadership. And if that's what's going to happen, I hope it will happen organically and on their own steam for their own reasons and not because it's going to help somebody get a couple points and you know, dearborn mission.

GREGORY: One critical note, whether it's Libya, whether it's Syria, there are foreign policy decisions that are going to have to be defended. And Hillary Clinton was going to have to own that and she's going to be criticized by a lot of people who think America is weaker during these Obama years.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much for all of your points. Hillary Clinton is reaching out to Bernie Sanders supporters. She tried last night. She's trying to appeal to Republican and independent voters as well. So did she move the needle? Let's talk to her campaign next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)