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New Day

Hillary Clinton Accepts Democratic Presidential Nomination; Interview with Senators Chris Coons and Tammy Baldwin. Father of Muslim American War Hero Blasts Trump; Clinton Appeals to Republican & Independent Voters. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 29, 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] HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will work to fight terrorism.

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

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: America's destiny is ours to choose. Let's be stronger together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Friday, July 29th, 8:00 in the east. Chris and I are back in New York this morning, but it was an historic night in Philadelphia. Hillary Clinton accepting the Democratic nomination, the first woman to lead a major party ticket. She shared more of her personal story than many people had heard, and she presented a sharp contrast.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: You see the full ticket there together, the Clintons and Kaines, the speech filled with stronger together symbolism and attacks on Donald Trump. Her main angle was temperament, that he isn't fit to be president, to rebuke his "I alone" message and say this is a moment of reckoning where we must come together instead.

In just a few minutes, as alisyn said, we're going to talk to her running mate, vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine, but let's begin our coverage with Joe Johns. He is still in the convention hall, in Philadelphia, the site of a big night. Joe?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's for sure, Chris. She reintroduced herself. She retold her story. She drew a direct line between her life's work as well as her campaign theme, leaning on the history of the moment and going out hard against Donald Trump.

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

(APPLAUSE)

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

CLINTON: Don't believe anyone who says "I alone can fix it." 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 is 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.

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 is betting that the perils of today's world will blind us to its unlimited promise. He has taken the Republican Party a long way from morning in America to midnight in America.

JOHNS: Questioning his judgment.

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.

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.

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: 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.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: 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.

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

(APPLAUSE)

JOHNS: Hoping to broaden her base with all voters. 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.

(APPLAUSE)

JOHNS: Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, introducing her mother.

CHELSEA CLINTON, HILLARY CLINTON'S DAUGHTER: People ask me all the time how does, she do it?

[08:05:00] How does she keep going amid the sound and fury of politics? Here is how. It's because she never, ever forgets who she is fighting for.

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

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.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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 is more important at this stage is readiness for the job and competence. Alisyn and Chris?

CAMEROTA: Joe, thank you.

CUOMO: All right, we were just discussing what's going on with the show here.

CAMEROTA: It's going well.

CUOMO: It's going very well, better than expected.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Let's bring in two men who want to make the case for Clinton, Democratic Senator from Delaware Chris Coons, and Democratic Senator from Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin. One of them is certainly not a man.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: We'll make that correction at the end of the show.

CAMEROTA: Like I said, it's going really well.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Senators, it's good to have you both. Senator Coons, I know that you're losing your voice. Thank you for muscling up and coming on the show anyway. Senator Baldwin, I therefore address the first question to you. What do you believe the main challenge is for Hillary Clinton in this election? And what do you believe she did to advance the ball on that last night?

SEN. TAMMY BALDWIN, (D) WISCONSIN: Well, you know, I think the reintroduction of herself to the American people after excruciating attacks that seem baseless and unfair in many regards. But, nevertheless, she has been enduring that for her whole career. And she had a refreshing speech last night that really helped America know her again.

You know, when she exited as secretary of state, she was the most popular woman around the globe. And her leadership earned her that. We're going to see her now as the nominee. And she is going to continue to make that case. But it was a remarkable speech on the part of Secretary Clinton last night.

CAMEROTA: Senator Coons, what did voters learn that was new about Hillary Clinton?

SEN. CHRIS COONS, (D) DELAWARE: Well, voters learned two things. First, they were reminded of her remarkable lifetime of service, of all the peoples whose lives she has touched and helped. And they were reminded that she is the most seasoned and capable and experienced candidate ever to accept the nomination of a major party.

And we heard a full throated-defense from General Allen, from the father of a fallen Muslim soldier, that reminded us that at this moment when the world is genuinely unstable and insecure, that she is the right leader to bring us forward. This was a remarkably positive and powerful convention.

CUOMO: Tammy, the counterargument is that, yes, you're right. The world is unstable, it's dangerous, and it is your fault. You were secretary of state. You were part of the Obama administration, and that's why we need change. How does Hillary Clinton overcome that?

BALDWIN: You know, I just think nothing could be further from the truth, and we're going to see that. Her relationships with the leaders of our allied nations, her detailed understanding of the conflicts around this globe really make her such a strong candidate. In fact, as President Obama himself had said in his full throated endorsement of Hillary Clinton, she is one of the best prepared, intelligent, you know, she is ready to be commander in chief. She is ready to lead this nation.

CAMEROTA: Senator Coons, now that the convention is over, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine will have to explain more about exactly where they are on positions. Particularly, the issues on where they appear to have changed positions. First, for instance, TPP. They seem to be for it, and then were against it. Does the work of that begin today? COONS: Well, part of the work of this convention was laying out their

policy vision going forward, both about how to make us safer and how to make us stronger. I do think we have work to do. Campaigning across the country, engaging with working Americans and persuading them that we're going to fight for them and we're going to make sure that anything we do in international trade, we do to grow jobs in America and we do to defend American workers.

[08:10:00] Many of us are going out to campaign beginning today, inspired by this convention and inspired by what we saw about how we already are great because of our diversity and because of the strong policy platform that was adopted by this convention.

CUOMO: Senator Baldwin, this is a definitional election. People are angry, they're upset, they're afraid. You choose to put these Muslim parents on television last night, these Pakistanis who lost their son, who was posthumously awarded two different medals of honor for his service in stopping an explosion, an attack, and saving other people while losing his own life. What do you want people to take from that? It was very powerful and painful. What is the message?

BALDWIN: You know, the message is that is America. Our country is built on immigrants, waves of immigrants who have come to our nation because of the American dream. Remember that America is at once a country and an idea, an idea that if you come here, you work really hard, you can get ahead, your children can see a better life. And generation after generation have seen that fulfilled. This family is so loyal to the United States despite their incredible sacrifice was so eloquent in sharing that story and making us realize that that's who we are and that we have to fight to protect the American dream. It is, you know, the perfect union, and forming a more perfect union is a work in progress. And we always have to apply ourselves to that.

CAMEROTA: Senator Coons, you said that you recognize that you have work to do, particularly bringing around the 69 percent of the country that don't think that America is sort of on the right track, people who may have lost jobs or who are not fulfilling their ambition or dream somehow. So what do you say to them?

COONS: We say to them that the sort of steady, seasoned, passionate leadership that Tim Kaine and Hillary Clinton offer for the American people is just the kind of leadership that we need in this moment, and that the sort of bullying, boasting, tweet-driven leadership that's being offered as the alternative by Donald Trump is exactly the wrong path for us at this time.

Part of the point of having Mr. Kahn on last night and speak to us about the sacrifice of his son was to remind us about how divisive Donald Trump's call for banning Muslims from this country is, how irresponsible and how, frankly, un-American it is. And part of the point of having those who have served with Secretary Clinton, like General Allen, saying how capable she is of being a strong leader is to remind them that these are the sorts of steady hands we need on the wheel at this difficult time.

CAMEROTA: Senators Coons and Baldwin, thank you very much for being with us.

Coming up in just moments, we will speak exclusively with Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine.

CUOMO: As we discussed many times this morning, because it warrants it, this moment, these Muslim American parents from Pakistan, Americans now, of course. The men and woman on your screen, they lost their son fighting for your rights in Iraq. How big a moment was this? Why did it make such an impact? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:07] CUOMO: What was the moment of the night? Well, you're going to assume it was Hillary Clinton. She made history, taking the nomination from the Democratic Party, the first major party to nominate a woman as president of the United States.

But maybe you're wrong. Maybe the biggest moment of the night came from two parents who are mourning the loss of their son, who served this country, fought for your freedom in Iraq and died doing just that. Their name is Kahn, father's name is Khizr Khan. He wound up doing the talking last night for them.

We want to discuss this moment about their son, Humayun Khan, who died and what they mean as Americans. Let's play it and we're going to talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHIZR KHAN, FATHER OF DECEASED MUSLIM U.S. SOLDIER: 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 -- I will gladly lend you my copy.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Muslim American speaking directly to Donald Trump, a copy of the U.S. Constitution in the pocket above his heart. He then went on to say to Donald Trump, you don't know me. You have sacrificed nothing. You have lost nothing because of the sacrifice they obviously have made for this country.

Now, what is the impact of this moment? How might it shape what is to come?

Let's discuss with CNN political analyst and host of the "David Gregory Podcast", we have him. And we have Errol Louis, anchor of Time Warner Cable News, and, of course, political analyst.

Good to have you both with us.

First of all, am I getting it wrong? David, was this not such a powerful moment last night, something that happened to catch me? DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, I think it resonated with a

lot of people. Conventions are defined by political theater. This was high political theater, because it resonated on so many different levels.

I mean, here were parents who have sacrificed a son because of their commitment to the country and love of the country. They captured new immigrant experience, about our founding documents and founding story. As Muslim Americans, hey speak loudly and proudly about how many millions of Muslim Americans are part of our country and are patriotic and part of the fabric out of the country.

All of that is true, and it can be true that Islam, particularly radical Islam in parts of the world is a huge problem for the faith and because there are so many militant radical Islamic terrorists. All these things, but they were speaking about such a sharp rebuke to a religious test that Donald Trump is talking about, anti-immigrant stance he has taking. It is the most compelling argument Hillary Clinton could make about that and to Donald Trump.

[08:20:04] CUOMO: Errol, Ann Coulter often channels the inner Donald Trump. You know, what they're speaking to in their own party.

She tweeted out last night during or right after this, that's what the Democratic convention is about, angry Muslims with a thick accent.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, and I saw a response from a number of people to her as a matter of fact. It was an ugly sentiment that she intruded in, but this is partly why I think the Democrats and really anybody have to be careful about using a family's grief to sort of make a political point, even an important fundamental political point, because it invites counterattacks. If you want to play politics at the main stage at the convention, you're going to have to deal with some of the fire.

CUOMO: You know why Mr. Kahn was there, they were looking side to side, they're looking at teleprompter, they have two panels on either side, looking back and forth. Not him. He was staring right into the camera for the majority of the time. These are his words, these are his feelings, that he is being blamed for a problem that is not just unfair, but that he sacrificed what mattered most, his son he and his wife to fight this problem.

That's where that's coming from.

GREGORY: There is also a different point. No question. And he represents a lot of Americana and lifting up of immigrants. I was talking earlier about the great musical "Hamilton," where one of the great lines is, "immigrants knows how to get things done." So, it's so fundamental part of the American story.

The other side of this is that America does face significant threats from terrorism. There is a lot of Americans, many of whom support Donald Trump who are incredibly anxious about this. And Hillary Clinton does have to be accountable for her record that for the president that she served and she served as secretary of state, whether she has done enough. Whether she will do enough and do so effectively to counter this threat.

It is a national security problem, it's a question of her record and accomplishments or lack thereof, and it's a fundamental challenge moving forward.

CUOMO: McCarthy with Welch, Welch looks at him, have you no decency, sir? What do we use that moment for? We use that as the moment that McCarthy was collectively rebuked by the voice of one man. Do you think this compares to that?

LOUIS: I think it's comparable. It goes down the same path I think part of why both in the army hearings in the 1950s and this moment, what is important is that there is no response. We've seen from Trump over the last year to know that. Neither he nor his campaign will apologize for anything at any time.

So, they're not going to walk anything back. You know, the Muslim ban, they've sort of tried to shape it and tried to recast it. But it is still on the website that he wants to have a complete and total shut down on Muslim immigration into the United States.

GREGORY: She is also lifting up themes, whether it is care for the veteran or it's national security or immigration. And so much of this convention was an argument to Republicans who are turned off by Trump that you have place to go.

You know, you may not like Hillary Clinton, you may not totally trust her, is she competent enough to be president, and is she speaking to you, a wavering Republican in ways that you can identify. It wasn't just this couple last night, as powerful as they were. It was the attack on the Judge Curiel in Indiana, of Mexican heritage, who Trump said should be disqualified. Those kinds of attacks I think smack a lot of voters --

CUOMO: People forgive those if they support Donald Trump. And I think one of the big misconceptions in this election so far is the media gives him a pass. We know as sure as hell isn't true on this show. I'm blacklisted right now by Donald Trump and by his whole campaign. They won't come on because of how we conduct our interviews.

But that's a self-serving point, is that I don't care what he says. I get it, it is wrong, I wouldn't like it if were my brother or my father, I would talk to him about it. But I'm angry. My country is screwed up, he gets it. She is the reason it is screwed up. So, I will forgive his imperfections because he represents --

GREGORY: Or they don't believe what he says. We talk about politicians not being believed when they promise to do good things. Donald Trump benefits from something else. For a lot of people, they don't believe him when he says bad things. They don't believe he'll actually do that.

CUOMO: Isn't it because they want what he represents? They don't want to own his ideas, some of them, but they do want to own the mandate for change and that's what he is, as the presumptive and now chosen nominee of the party.

LOUIS: The anger, mandate for change, attack on the status quo, even sort of blind fury of the status quo that doesn't include a well- thought out planned for an alternative to the status quo, that's where a lot of people are.

CUOMO: But the bar is a lot lower than it is for Clinton because you have been there, when the problems were created. People believe that ISIS is unique. That it isn't an outgrowth in Iraq and Afghanistan, that Obama did this. He went soft. He tried to be everybody's friend and now look at it us, they're attacking us at home and everywhere else, and she was there and she has to own it.

LOUIS: I mean, look, that is -- right and over simplistic version of what actually went on there.

[08:25:00] And if you cut -- look, if you cut down the facts too simply, then yes, the loudest voice will always win. The angriest guy will always seem to be the most reasonable guy, and the task that the Democrats have tried to do in the last four days in particular is try to turn the conversation to add some facts, to add some nuances.

GREGORY: But she does have to own that. I agree with you that that is overly simplistic. You know, the breakdown of Iraq was part of the rise of ISIS. I do think she has to own that as part of the record.

This desire for change -- look, Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, former RNC official, an establishment Republican, said to me recently, look, I will take Trump any day of the week over Clinton. And he has got to be viewed as a little more moderate than others who believe that more strongly.

CUOMO: Well, sometimes, it all comes together on a show. We're talking about how Hillary Clinton has to own these problems and move forward. We're going do that now.

We've got her running mate, Tim Kaine coming up on the show. Gentlemen, you want to listen along with me, I'm sure. Her number two, vice-presidential nominee, Tim Kaine, from Virginia, joins us. Alisyn will give him the questions of how this campaign can make it work, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)