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Trump & Clinton Present Different Visions To VotersFather Of Muslim American War Hero Blasts Trump; Muslim Vet's Dad To Trump: "Have You Even Read the Constitution"; Ad Wars Heat Up After Conventions. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 29, 2016 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:31:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: All the pomp and circumstance of both conventions is officially over which means today is the first day of the rest of our lives.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: How many days?

CAMEROTA: I mean, the rest of the campaign season.

CUOMO: How many days?

CAMEROTA: One hundred and one days left.

CUOMO: Holy cow.

CAMEROTA: I know. I know you're crossing them off with x's on your calendar. Hillary Clinton told voters it takes a village, while Trump said that he, alone, could fix America's issues, so two different messages. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people who cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I, alone, can fix it.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He's forgetting every last one of us. Americans don't say I, alone, can fix it, we say we'll fix it together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, which message resonates more? Let's debate that with our CNN panel. We have political commentator and vice chair of the New York State Democratic Party, Christine Quinn, and CNN political commentator and KABC talk radio host, John Phillips. Great to have both of you.

JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, TALK RADIO HOST, KABC, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: John, better together, I alone? PHILLIPS: Yes, well, Hillary Clinton represents the party in power and if you're the party in power you talk in terms of "we". Donald Trump is the insurgent. He's the guy that's going in there saying he's going to shake things up and he's doing it in a climate where 69 percent of the people don't like the direction the country's going in.

People have lost faith in a lot of the institutions that used to matter. They've lost faith in Congress -- Congress has a horrible approval rating -- corporations, even some of the people in the news media. So, Donald Trump is going out with the Rolling Stones scandal and, you know, with all of that --

CAMEROTA: Yes, of course.

PHILLIPS: -- business people. People look at them differently now than they used to. So, Donald's going in saying I'm the guy that can go ahead and shake this up.

CHRISTINE QUINN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, VICE CHAIR, NY DEMOCRATIC PARTY, CLINTON SUPPORTER: You know, I don't think this is about sentence diagramming and picking pronouns. I think these different statements speak to a very distinct core vision of how this country should move forward.

I mean, Donald Trump sees everything, in my opinion, about how it can benefit his pocketbook and his bottom line. He says when he's speaking on the stump we're going to make America great again. But as we heard one of the speakers say last night, why doesn't he start by making things in America? All of his products are made elsewhere.

The "I" for him isn't about who's in power or not, it's about how he sees the world -- something to kind of be manipulated and played with to make his pocketbook and his bank account bigger. Beyond that, I think Hillary has always seen what the best elected officials and best leaders see, that nobody knows everything and the strongest skill somebody can have is to know what they don't know and bring in somebody who can help.

CUOMO: But these two individuals are speaking to something that is certainly bigger than they are. The number that John cites, the 69 percent not happy, this is about the mood of the country. This is the definition of who we are. I wonder -- I want your take on this -- if the Pakistani parents last night -- do we have a short bite of who they were last night and what they said?

Pakistani parents lost their son, war hero in Iraq, speaking directly to Trump, wanting to be seen as what they believe they are as Americans who sacrificed for this country, not an enemy in waiting. Watch this. Oh, we don't have it. OK, so they say what I just said.

[07:35:00] PHILLIPS: Right.

CUOMO: He takes from his breast -- the father, Mr. Khan -- his Constitution. He says to Trump, have you read this? Look for equal protection and look that we're all equal under this. He says you have sacrificed nothing. We have sacrificed everything because we lost a son. That's what this election is about. I feel like that was a big moment.

QUINN: Huge.

PHILLIPS: Very dramatic.

CUOMO: How did -- how did you take it?

PHILLIPS: It was dramatic. And look, this is going to be a very nasty election and it's going to be an election where you see two very different worlds. And those two very different worlds represented by each party have different heroes and villains.

If you go to the Republican Convention, they spent a lot of time talking about law enforcement officers who were killed in the line of duty. They talked about people who were killed by illegal immigrants. You go to the Democratic Party, you saw people who were killed by law enforcement. You saw this man who has certainly suffered in his family's contribution to keeping us safe in our liberty.

So those two different worlds are going to collide through this campaign. And really, I think both conventions missed the opportunity to try to combine both of them and tie a neat bow around the top. And I think that if they did that there was certainly risked involved but it would have paid off.

QUINN: You know, you can't tie a bow around a Muslim family who feels like Donald Trump would never have wanted them to be here. Doesn't view their hero son as an American. There's no bow you can tie around that. In their time of greatest loss they're hearing one of the nominees for President of the United States say they're not worthy to be Americans, their son isn't worthy to be American.

Whether Donald Trump wins or loses, and I hope he loses, forever, those people on top of their grief will know that Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, thinks they are less than and he's never even met them and never knew anything about their son. That's not what this country is about.

And that man is -- I mean, think of how hard it is to talk after you've lost someone and he's standing there at the Democratic National Convention. He's not just an American, he's fighting to be an American.

You know, the "we"-"I" question -- don't we all want that man's strength as part of our movement forward? Don't we want his pain and his experience to formulate our -- help our -- guide our principle about immigration? We do.

CAMEROTA: John, when you watched the Democratic National Convention as somebody on the other side of the aisle, did you feel they were coopting some of the Republican themes? Parents of fallen soldiers, patriotism, Hillary Clinton, commander in chief. What did you think about how they had sort of taken on some of that message that historically was the Republicans'?

PHILLIPS: Well, I think it was political jujutsu. Donald Trump is critical of the American government right now. He thinks the government is not working for the people. They tried to turn it around say Donald Trump isn't critical to government, Donald Trump is critical of the country, which is not what he was saying. It's good politics for them but it's not an accurate portrayal of reality.

QUINN: See, I think the question there, really, is more who are his people? When Donald Trump says the government isn't helping the people who is he thinking about? He's not thinking about those Muslims. He's not thinking about me, as a lesbian American. He's not thinking about poor people. The real question these is who is he trying to make American great again for? That's a dog --

CUOMO: John, button it up, we've got to go.

PHILLIPS: How about Jamiel Shaw? Jamiel Shaw's son was killed by an illegal alien gang member who should have been deported, but wasn't. What policy change is Hillary Clinton proposing that would prevent future deaths like that to happen?

CUOMO: That's a big question, it's a formative question. Who's the Ameri-can, who's the Ameri-can't? Tweet us, give us your take on that. Hillary Clinton is certainly trying, in her big moment last night, to broaden her appeal, right? That was the job of that speech. The first obstacle for her is in-house -- Sanders' supporters. Do the Democrats think that she made the case to them? We're going to ask her campaign, next.

[07:38:55] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:42:20]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Well, 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: So, did Hillary make the case to you if you're in one of these groups, you're not just a diehard Democrat, that she is the better candidate? She is the better president?

Let's discuss with somebody who is in the business of convincing you of exactly that, Kristina Schake, the Clinton campaign's deputy communications director and former aid to first lady, Michelle Obama. Always good to have you on the show. Appreciate you being with us, Kristina.

KRISTINA SCHAKE, DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Thank you. A little tired but very happy to be here.

CUOMO: Oh, I feel your pain, to smack Clintonesque. Do you -- please tell us why, if you're a Sanders supporter -- let's start there -- Hillary Clinton should have won you over in this convention? SCHAKE: Well, you know, she really spoke to Sanders' supporters last night and we are so grateful to Sen. Sanders that he made such an enthusiastic endorsement of her. You know, we had a few people in the crowd last night who were Sanders supporters who aren't convinced yet, but the vast majority are. And we've worked really hard with our two campaigns to bring our teams together, to bring our supporters together. I feel really confident we have.

You know, we agree on 99 percent of the issues and Hillary really spoke to them last night out of respect for them and said together we wrote the boldest, most progressive platform, and together let's get out there and get it done.

CUOMO: If you are at home right now watching and you hear noises like pops and bangs behind Kristina, they are taking down the convention center. That's what you hear, so don't be alarmed.

So, Kristina, the big obstacle is status quo versus change. You have constant poll numbers that just about three out of four people think the country needs a new direction, it's going the wrong way. Hillary Clinton, for many of those people, is seen as the status quo. How does she get past that?

SCHAKE: Well, first of all, last night was a historic night. We had the first woman ever to become the nominee for President of the United States, so that will be a change, in and of itself. But, you know, all week, Chris, we heard speaker after speaker talk about how Hillary has been a change-maker her entire life.

You know, President Clinton made a really personal case for her on Tuesday, talking about how he met her in 1971 and she is the greatest change-maker he has ever seen in his life. You know, speaker after speaker got up there and talked about the fights of her life because she's always fought on behalf of America's vulnerable children and how she's always made change.

[07:45:00] You know, when she was first lady she led the fight for universal health care. She didn't succeed and she came right back and kept fighting and eight million American kids have health insurance today because of her leadership.

CUOMO: A big message through this convention was also definitional in terms of who the country is. Who are the Ameri-cans and who are the Ameri-cant's. That's a fundamental question in this election. You had this group of parents last night, this set of parents, the Kahn family. A mother and father talking about their captain son who was lost during the Iraq War.

And they were speaking directly to Donald Trump. Do we have sound of the family? Good. Let's play a little bit of them. It was, arguably, the heaviest moment and maybe the most powerful moment of the night. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHIZR KHAN, FATHER OF HUMAYUN KAHN, FALLEN MUSLIM U.S. SOLDIER: Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America. You'll see all faiths, genders, and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Many are saying that that was the moment that was the most damaging to Donald Trump's presidency, even more so than anything that came out of Hillary Clinton last night. Why were these people so important for you guys to give them such a prominent place at the convention?

SCHAKE: You know, that was one of the most powerful, emotional moments of this entire convention, and this family means a lot to Hillary. She wanted them on the stage to talk about their experience. Their son was an American hero who sacrificed his life for the other members -- soldiers -- who were serving with him in his infantry unit.

And under Donald Trumps' America, based on his proposals, they wouldn't even be allowed in this country. Those are proud, hardworking immigrants who their son proudly served in the United States military and Hillary thought it was really important for Americans to hear their story.

CUOMO: How do you think Hillary Clinton will deal with the perception that the country is weaker now because of the Obama administration, whether it's Libya, Egypt, Syria, what's going on in Iraq? That the policies, many of which she was there to implement, if not come up as Secretary of State, have made us weaker? How does she justify those calls?

SCHAKE: You know, she gave a really powerful, emotional, personal speech last night, really proud of her record serving as first lady, as a senator from New York, as Secretary of State. And she really laid out what she would do for this country, both to build and economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top, but really a strong America that stands by our allies.

You know, she was so proud to have President Obama speak for her on Wednesday night. She believes that he hasn't gotten the credit that he deserves for being an extraordinary American president. I mean, 20 million Americans have health insurance now because of him. Fifteen million American jobs were created under him. She really believes that he just has an incredible legacy of leadership for this country.

But she has her own plans and her own agenda for what she would do, and you heard her last night. She is a proud policy wonk and she really believes when you run for president you owe it to the American voters to talk about what you would really do as a president to make a real difference in their lives.

So you saw her do that last night, laying out her jobs agenda, talking about how to make college more affordable, and her real proposals of how to make sure that America stays safe --

CUOMO: Right. SCHAKE: -- or how to defeat ISIS. And, you know, she's actually the only candidate in this race with a real plan to defeat ISIS. Trump has said over and over again just believe me, I have a secret plan, and Hillary really rejects that. As she said last night, he wants us all to just believe him at his word -- he, alone, can solve everything and she absolutely doesn't believe that and believes as Americans we are always better when we stand together, we're stronger together.

CUOMO: Well, I get what she wanted to put out first last night, but what she will do is going to be a function for voters of what she has done, and those decisions and the status quo will be something she's going to have to own and justify. We look forward to hearing that. Kristina Schake, thank you very much for being on NEW DAY.

SCHAKE: Thank you.

CUOMO: So, Hillary Clinton, this is now -- it all begins for her and Donald Trump. One hundred and one days and the Clinton campaign is in full effect, hitting the airwaves. Now, what will you start to hear, ad nauseum to the point of making you sick, from these two campaigns? We'll discuss the message war, next.

[07:49:40] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:53:35] CUOMO: Only 101 days until Election Day.

CAMEROTA: Time is flying by.

CUOMO: So, for the next few months you're going to see a lot of the people running for president -- there are going to be a lot of ads like this one released by the Clinton campaign, which drove much of the convention narrative. Take a look and a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(Clinton campaign ad playing with children watching)

TRUMP: And you can tell them to go (bleep) themselves.

I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's like incredible.

When Mexico sends its people, they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists.

You know, could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.

(Mocking disabled reporter) You've got to see this guy. Ah, I don't know what I said, ah. I don't remember. He's going like, I don't remember.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right, so that was a big ad for Hillary Clinton and they have really banked on coming with ads against Donald Trump as a way to move the needle in the election. Has it worked? How will he respond?

Let's bring in CNN senior media correspondent and host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES", Mr. Brian Stelter, and CNN media analyst, Mr. Bill Carter. Good to see you both. Gentlemen, so ads -- ads are everything. You need money so you can have ads. Donald Trump has bucked that trend and not spent like a big nickel on anything yet, it's been all super PACs. So, how do you see the state of play?

BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST, AUTHOR, "The War For Late Night": Well, I think his strategy has been to use the media at his own appearances. I think that's going to run out, you know. He's been limiting his appearances any way. He's not -- he's trying to be only on "FOX NEWS". That's not going to work.

[07:55:00] So he's going to have to counter and I think you're going to see him use Hillary's stuff. You're going to see Comey's comments, for example. That will be what -- in his ads, but it will be relentlessly negative because she may try to do positive stuff about her record and Donald doesn't really have a record like that. So I don't think you're going to see him do a gauzy ad about what he's done for America.

CAMEROTA: Brian, we just had those numbers up. So, Hillary Clinton and the super PACs that support her have spent $60 million.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT, HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Right.

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump has spent virtually nothing but the super PACs who support him have sent $7 million. But why does he need to spend any money? They're tied in the polls. It working without him having to spend any money.

STELTER: It's worked in the primaries. Will it work, though, in August and September and October? I think that's a giant $100 million question, as those numbers show. We never see a gap like that between two campaigns in a general election.

This morning, one of these Trump PACs is releasing a new ad. They're coming out with an ad that attacks Clinton's record, acknowledges the speech, moves past the speech, brings up Benghazi and other failures, they say, of her -- of her legacy. So we are starting to see some ads from Trump allies. But they are so massively outspent right now, $60 million versus $7 million. If that lasts and that continues through the fall, it's going to be the ultimate test --

CARTER: Real test --

STELTER: -- whether T.V. ads still matter.

CARTER: Yes, there's a theory that they don't matter and that you can oversaturate people with ads and they tune them out, and I think that's a risk. But, you know, the other thing is you don't have to buy ads as much anymore. If you do an outrageous ad it will be picked up everywhere. It will be covered here, it will be on the internet. So, in a way, you might be able to shrewdly avoid spending a lot of money.

CUOMO: But there is a political reality that you can't ignore. The reason you do ads is not to impress the masses. It's not to impress the nation. This election, maybe more than any in our lifetime, is going to come down to several counties --

CARTER: Yes, in a few states.

CUOMO: -- in a few states and their local targeting of things specific to those communities can make a difference, require money, strategy, placement and persistence. That shouldn't be undervalued.

CARTER: No, I think that's right and I think you're going to see a lot of that targeting. I also think you're going to see, particularly on the Clinton side, trying to use surrogates to do this and flooding those areas with Michelle Obama and Joe Biden and try to hit -- get on local news. And that's effective, too, without buying ads.

CAMEROTA: But that ad that we showed in the intro, and maybe we can show some video of it again, is basically showing children watching Donald Trump's words. Chris believes that the Clinton campaign is traumatizing children by forcing them to be in this commercial. (Laughter)

CUOMO: That would be my response if I were Trump. I was like oh, you stick all these kids in front of this harsh television ad.

CARTER: And having to watch me say these things.

CAMEROTA: Right, but do you think that that has been an effective ad for Clinton?

STELTER: I do. I think at this point I know that song by heart. I've heard that ad so many times and they've spent so much money to replay it again and again and again. And because Trump is not out there spending equal amounts of money on counter ads it's sort of a -- it's a unilateral sort of air war right now. It's one-directional. We don't see Trump trying to combat this.

CARTER: And really, that imitation of the disabled reporter is so devastating, especially to me, who knows the guy. Serge is a guy I've worked with. It's really awful and despicable that someone would mock a person's disability. I think that's an effective thing to show.

STELTER: And Trump will keep saying that he was never doing that, of course.

CARTER: Yes.

STELTER: The entire theme, I think, of the Democratic Convention was what we see in the 30-second ad, America versus Trump. That's what the Democrats want this to be, all of America versus Trump. Whether they can say in 30-second ads or not is an interesting thing.

CUOMO: I don't think the kids are as compelling as that Pakistani couple last night. The parents who lost a kid in Iraq, fighting as a Muslim-American for his country, because people know politics is harsh and they know you're going to say hard things. And they forgive Donald Trump a lot of what he says, his supporters, because they're so angry at what Hillary Clinton represents.

But those two parents last night, saying we're Americans first and him having the Constitution in his breast pocket, that was some image.

STELTER: Let's see if it reaches everybody else, though. You know, "FOX NEWS" did not show that speech live the way CNN and other channels did.

CUOMO: Which I think also helps the Clinton campaign, to bring that point up.

CARTER: Yes.

STELTER: Although he is -- Hillary's going on "FOX NEWS" for her first interview after the convention because she's trying to reach out --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

STELTER: -- either to the middle or to conservatives, trying to bring them over to her side this weekend.

CAMEROTA: Gentlemen, thank you very much for your insights.

STELTER: Thanks.

CARTER: It's great to be here.

CAMEROTA: We have much more convention coverage ahead for. In a moment we will be speaking exclusively with the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Tim Kaine, so stick around for that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHELSEA CLINTON, DAUGHTER OF HILLARY CLINTON: My mother, my hero, our next president.

H. CLINTON: We've reached a milestone. I'm so happy this day has come.

DNC DELEGATES (Chanting): Hillary, Hillary.

H. CLINTON: We will not build a wall, we will build an economy. We will not ban a religion, we will work to fight terrorism.

KHAN: Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery, Donald Trump? You have sacrificed nothing and no one.

DNC DELEGATES (Chanting): USA, USA.