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CNN Live Event/Special

Kamala Harris Accepts Historic Democratic Nomination At DNC; Donald Trump Blasts Kamala Harris Over DNC Speech; Day 4 of the Democratic National Convention; Interview with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM); Interview with Actress and Activist Sophia Bush. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired August 23, 2024 - 01:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:30]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I accept your nomination for the United States of America.

I promise to be a president for all Americans. You can always trust me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody over here say Kama.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody over here say La.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kamala.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tonight, I'm here to tell you Yes She Can so we're going to say, she said with it. She said, with it.

ADAM KINZINGER, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: I want to let my fellow Republicans in on the secret. The Democrats are as patriotic as us. We stand united as veterans, Democrats and patriots.

HARRIS: Together let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: History on the fourth and final night here in Chicago, as Democrats officially enter the Harris era. I'm Laura Coates inside the United Center with CNN special late night coverage of the DNC.

Look, allow her to reintroduce herself. Her name is Kamala and she is officially the Democratic nominee for president. There were tears in the audience as the moment fully took shape for so many this evening, Kamala Harris tonight using the five words she uttered as a prosecutor to give her a closing argument for the Democratic National Convention that no one saw coming even a month ago, Kamala Harris, for the people.

Now Democrats spent the week trying to widen their tent, and tonight, she aimed to bring more voters into the fold. Speaking of her journey as a child of immigrants, the lesson she learned from her dear mother, who told her to never complain about injustice, but to do something detailing her path from prosecutor to the Vice President and now the presidential nominee, and making her pitch, she tried to appeal beyond the democratic faithful here in Chicago, promising to be a president for all Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Our nation, with this election, has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past, a chance to chart a new way forward.

Not, not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans. And let me say, I know there are people of various political views watching tonight, and I want you to know I promise to be a president for all Americans. You can always trust me to put country above party and self.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Quite the split screen to what others have characterized the Trump campaign to look like. And though the balloons they dropped here in the Windy City Democrats looking to keep the energy and the party going all the way through November, the election that Harris knows is tight.

And if you're wondering whether Kamala would address the man that Governor Whitmer called that man from Mar-a-Lago. Well, she offered her exhibits into evidence of why she's not going back to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Fellow Americans, this election is not only the most important of our lives, it is one of the most important in the life of our nation. In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences, but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:05:04]

COATES: Joining me now CNN political commentators Shermichael Singleton, Jamal Simmons, Karen Finney and senior political correspondent for Puck, Tara Palmeri. All right, we often talk about history being made, an historic run, an historic moment. The balloons are continuing to pop behind us right now, as history --

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It got scary at all.

COATES: -- it's time like history asking us what's popping. Well, what's popping today has been that there is an official nominee, and this was a moment to behold, to see a woman of color now securing the Democratic nominee. Karen, take us back to how you felt the moment she accepted it officially.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Almost in tears, because, I mean, I'm sorry for the long pause, there was a small group of black women back in 2019, 2020, who we initially made the case to then-Vice President Biden to say, you said you'd do a woman -- you'd bring a woman. We wanted to be a black woman, and we laid out the case.

And then as it got -- as he got closer to making the decision, we said, and we met with him directly, we wanted to be Kamala Harris, and here's why. So that's what I was reflecting on, was, you know, making the case to Joe Biden, because we believed in her, and she did not disappoint tonight, that is the woman that I always knew could lead this country and would be ready to step in if, God forbid the worst ever happened, and that she would be a governing partner to this President.

COATES: Many people wondered, with the truncated schedule, the fact that I keep talking about a month ago, she was not the top of the ticket. It was the Biden-Harris ticket. And yet many people in the audience were talking about and you could hear this murmur of her having risen to the occasion and leading her own election campaign in this way. What could you make of her performance tonight?

SIMMONS: Oh, her performance was just spectacular. I mean, if you looked at from the presentation to the articulation, to the strength, to the compassion, so the things, when we're looking for a president, we look for a few things. We're thinking about hope. We're thinking about fear, who's somebody who can keep us safe, who's somebody who can help us get the things that we dream of. She addressed both of those things, who's somebody who's exceptional, but they're also accessible, right, exceptional and accessible, somebody who we know she is some she's got high intellect, she knows how to reason through problems, but she also is thinking about a middle class.

She told her life story. My mom was an immigrant. My mom and my dad were immigrants. They split up when I was young. That was tough, but we had to move on. She talked about how she went to college at HBCU, and she sort of kept going in her career, and she pulled together all of her family.

So she talked a lot about herself in the middle class context. And then she went to the commander-in-chief argument, and that's the tough part. And we heard her really make the case about why she could also be tough. And then finally, she did make the case about us as an American society, and how as Americans, it's the best thing to be and as Americans, we can all achieve together. I think it was a masterful address.

COATES: Shermichael, there were so many moments I think that you could and I think the electorate talks about the split screens they often see. You know, it is a comparison campaign and election sees as much as anything else. And what you saw of this full week has been really past presidents, number one, trying to demonstrate a deep roster or bench among the future Democratic Party. But you also saw this idea of broadening the base, or trying to

broaden the base. You're a strategist. You know the importance at a time like this to broaden the tent. Do you think that they made the effective case by having people like Adam Kinzinger and other Republicans as well join the fold?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, on the Republican front, we'll see. I mean, President Biden received 6 percent of registered Republicans nationally in 2020. Can vice president Harris received the same numbers. I'm not sure yet. I think time will tell.

I think her objective, or at least her singular objective from my perspective as a strategist, was to tell her story. I think around 67 percent of the American populists said we know her, but we don't really know her. And so if I'm writing that speech, I'm going to focus on the first half of that speech being on how was she raised. Talk a little bit about her mom, about her siblings, about her upbringing.

Because what you need to be able to do is crystallize sort of that empathy, that empathetic portion of our human experience that you want people to buy into, because if you can achieve that goal, it makes it a lot easier to shift to policies.

And so I think she did that quite well. To be frank, she looked great. I think they'll draw that contrast. And I've heard some of my Democratic friends saying, well now we have the younger person and look at the candidate on the Republican side.

[01:10:00]

It's a historic moment. A lot of women are excited. You could feel that jubilation here, and it's palpable. I get it, but I think Republicans have some work to do here, Laura, some serious work. The momentum is shifting, and if Donald Trump doesn't get serious about this race, the momentum will shift in such a way where the race will not be as competitive as it currently still is.

COATES: I mean, Tara, the phrase unserious man, is going to be probably on the tip of the tongue for so many people. And Harris was trying to paint a very searing picture of what another Trump term would actually look like. I mean, the idea of January 6 and setting parental defendants free jailing political opponents. I mean, listen to how she laid out what a sequel to quote President Obama would look like. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails, and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States, not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had, himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Now remember, she built off a theme that President Obama, earlier in the week spoke about the idea of having seen this movie before, you know, the sequel could be all the more worse and thinking about it. Did she make an effective case in terms of trying to create, in that moment, the split screen that she wants voters to see?

TARA PALMERI, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Yes, I mean, she is a future candidate, right? She's like, where the path forward? Which is interesting, because she is sort of the incumbent, right? They're both in this very weird situation where they're both trying to pin the other person is the incumbent. He's already been in the White House. She's already been in the White House. Whoever defines the other person as the incumbent first basically wins this race.

And I think she was like -- I think she was pretty effective in laying out, OK, this is what you had, but the future with me is going to be very different. It's going to be a bit of a struggle when she starts to have to answer to the Biden administration, which she was a part of, how much -- how involved was she?

Now, we know as journalists that she wasn't always there all the time, but how is she going to answer those questions, and especially when it comes to the idea of, well, he was obviously not ready, or the party didn't feel that he was ready to be president again, or fit enough to be president again, she'll have to answer to that.

But I think for right now, you know, she's saying the path forward is going to be better with me. It's going to be different than it was in the Biden-Harris administration and she's going to have to lay out the way it was four years ago. And some people don't remember it. I know it's crazy, but four years ago is a long time ago. The economy was doing well, and people still have some nostalgia, just for that economy, maybe not for the man, so it's smart to lean into his character, but they have nostalgia for their pocketbooks and the prices at the time.

FINNEY: But a lot of this, at the end of the day, is about feeling, right, and that is part of what when we're talking about joy, it's an effective message, because it's a contrast. It's about your -- it's about a feeling, a gut feeling, and it's about the future. And that's part of why she said you can trust me, because we know that if voters trust you, they're more likely to vote for you.

And with Donald Trump, that's part of this message has been, you can't trust this man. He's not out for you. He's out for himself. He's out for the billionaires. And that feeling that people had that sickening in our stomachs when we were governed by tweet, that's part of what she was hearkening, in addition to the sickening images from January 6.

PALMERI: The drama.

FINNEY: But it was sickening.

PALMERI: Right.

FINNEY: It was sickening to watch people scaling the walls of the Capitol, to see people being beaten, and to know he could have stopped it and he didn't.

COATES: Well, you know, I for the audience if you're hearing it all the bombs bursting. I couldn't script it better soundtrack by me. I mean, how many balloons dropped tonight? There are -- we're doing a show here, people. But you know what? It's actually probably pretty apropos for our conversation coming up next because we've been in a kind of a bubble here at the Democratic National Convention, and Democrats were hoping to expand their base and make sure the momentum carries on.

If the bubble bursts before November, what are they going to do about it? How do they keep it inflated and continuing? See what I did there. More on all this in a moment.

Donald Trump also, surprise, surprise, commenting on Kamala Harris's speech in real time on Truth Social, and he gave an interview directly after she finished. How's that for counter programming? We'll tell you what he's thinking, next.

PALMERI: He can. I'm sure he loves it.

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[01:18:11]

COATES: Donald Trump giving his rapid response to the acceptance speech from Vice President Kamala Harris at the DNC on their final night. Now, if you go by his Truth Social feed, Trump was watching intently, sharing an avalanche of posts attacking Harris and others.

And you know what He immediately called into Fox News after Harris finished speaking.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The biggest reaction is, why didn't she do the things that she's complaining about, all of these things that she talked about, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, we're going to do everything, but she didn't do any of it. She could have done it three and a half years ago.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COATES: You'll have to be quite specific on what he thinks she did not do. My panel is back with me right now. First of all, it's not surprising that he was going to react, although he has revealed himself to have been watching, again, probably no surprise. All week long, they've been going at him.

Does his response or the what the steps to go forward, what actually should they be Shermichael?

SINGLETON: I mean, look again. I want to acknowledge again, the moment for the vice president. History was made. First woman of color potentially can become president. There's a lot of black women in this country who are excited, a lot of women of every race as you are excited. And I certainly acknowledge that point.

However, I think cost is still a big deal. That's why this race is still very close, and I think that's what the former president is alluding to. Yes, people are excited and having a good time. But does excitement address the fact that a credit card defaults are up? Does it address the fact that people can't pay their car loans, that people are struggling to pay their mortgages, that people who are struggling to pay their rent, they can't guarantee whether or not they will be able to get rental assistance before they get evicted.

And so Trump needs to stay on that message if this race is to stay competitive, talk about those details and remind people, yes, you're excited, but you need to have an adult in the room.

[01:20:07]

Now, whether or not he can do that, it's up for debate.

COATES: Now, I wish you know what to say about that guys, because they're painting him as somebody who is the ineffective and wrong messenger for things like you're talking about. So if you're talking about the grocery store, you're talking about the pricing of things. They're trying to paint him as somebody who this is as foreign to him as anything else. Even heard what Governor Gretchen would say his first word was, what chauffeur.

I mean, they're really going toe to toe --

SIMMONS: It's the rich and rich --

COATES: Yes, it is.

PALMERI: Right. Yes.

FINNEY: But we don't even have to, quote, unquote paint him that way. He consistently can't stay on his own message and consistently on this air. In fact, we've heard Republicans saying, if only he would stay on message, if only he would stop talking about this or that, or, you know, and getting distracted.

COATES: Not just the message, though, Karen, I mean, the actual substitute.

FINNEY: Specific issues. Yes.

COATES: Can he -- if the issue for people and American voters right now is relatability, the authenticity, and I can see myself in you, and you are the authentic person who can solve a problem. If I think you've never experienced what I've experienced --

FINNEY: That's right.

COATES: -- can and I trust you.

FINNEY: And that's the point, right? You can trust me because I came from the middle class. You can trust me because I'm going to be a president for all Americans. That, in and of itself, is a critique, is a contrast point. And what you saw on the stage after her speech, I would argue, was a stage full of family that looked a lot like America in terms of the diversity old and young and different backgrounds.

And so again, yes, when was the last time he was ever at a grocery store? Ever had to buy a gallon of milk? Ever had to work a couple of hours to be able to pay for that gallon of milk? Ever?

COATES: Well, I don't know.

SINGLETON: A lot of rich people here. So I guess that question could be begged --

COATES: Where?

SINGLETON: -- the people --

COATES: At this table?

SINGLETON: I'm just saying. That question could be begged for a lot of the attendees here. The race is still closed. We cannot --

SIMMONS: This is Democratic convention, by the way. Not a Republican.

SINGLETON: But we can't -- we can't deny that fact. And when you look at an aggregate of all of the polling in terms of the battleground states, the guys point two points up. When you look at where Hillary Clinton was and President Biden was at this point, they were ahead by seven points, by six points. The Vice President still has a lot of room to grow if she wants to win this thing.

SIMMONS: Well, here's the question I'm asking. He's calling in the shows in the middle of the night, like Elvis, right?

(CROSSTALK)

SIMMMONS: I mean, (INAUDIBLE) like sitting around like, kind of -- he's overweight Elvis sitting around like calling the shows, yelling at the at the announcers. I don't understand what Donald Trump has been doing. Right? Are we going to see him with people? Are we going to see him going to places that are battlegrounds? He was recently in Howell, Michigan, just the other day.

Howell, Michigan for those of us who grew up in Michigan, is like the place where the Ku Klux Klan is sort of resided. It's a place where they just recently even had Ku Klux Klan rallies. It's one of the most racist parts of the state, so that's where he chose to do one of his counter events.

SINGLETON: Yes, but Joe Biden -- Joe Biden was also there a year ago, Jamal, we need to be honest with our viewers. President was also there a year ago.

SIMMONS: But Joe Biden associating himself with people, you know, both sides.

SINGLETON: I understand point, but the only one to go there for our viewers that the sitting president also visited Howell, Michigan.

SIMMONS: OK, nobody -- none of them should be campaigning with these people, as far as I'm concerned. So the other question, then, is, because he goes out to Montana, right? Why isn't he in Wisconsin? Why isn't he doing more events in the other parts of Michigan? The other parts are the battleground.

He's not doing that many events ---

SINGLETON: That's true.

SIMMONS: And it's -- I think it's showing that there's something else that's going on with Donald Trump that's not effective. We all ask questions about Joe Biden and how often he was campaigning, and now we're looking at Donald Trump, and he's not doing anything like he charged Joe Biden to do.

PALMERI: No, he wasn't. He is starting to. And I thought it was really interesting that he was in North Carolina to speak. I mean, that is a state that the Democrats have not won since 2008 so clearly they are feeling very anxious about North Carolina, or they wouldn't be there. He was in Arizona today. He went to Michigan. And yes, that audience is perhaps a sign that he is digging into his audience, which he believes are men over 50. He's white males, rural voters who don't come out, low propensity voters.

And I think it's just a sign that he's doubling down on his base of J.D. Vance wasn't a sign of that enough and he is starting to pick, I agree with you, the Montana thing was weird. I thought, you know, Chris -- Steve Daines was the head of the NRSC. It's a tight Senate race, frankly. So maybe they convinced him to go to Montana, but that was after nine days off.

SIMMONS: But what would call generous.

PALMERI: But that was after nine days off. But he was probably just going through some psychological reset, having to deal with the fact that he was no liar.

COATES: I love the psychoanalysis of Donald Trump. Whereas campaign, they told him where to go, he went there. But you know what? Speaking of Michigan, Michigan is a place where -- when it was the Biden-Harris campaign, they were really shaking in their boots about the uncommitted votes.

SINGLETON: Yes.

COATES: One of the huge elephants in the room besides, you know how the GOP might respond to this has been about the Israel-Hamas war, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

[01:25:10]

And people wondering how vice president Harris now nominee Harris would address it. Listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on October 7.

President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure. The hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Now, we were in that room when she gave that speech, and you could hear at different points of her saying that there were reactions from the crowd. You couldn't quite understand what they were saying, but it seemed pretty clear that they were waiting for her to get to the other part of the Israel alliance. What did you make of her total discussion?

FINNEY: I thought she did it beautifully because she did something that progressives have actually, I think failed to do, which is it's a false choice to say that you can't be pro the Israeli people and pro the Palestinian people. We've been -- we've let ourselves be caught up in sort of this argument without saying, no, no, it's about the people.

We're trying to make sure that the Israeli people live in safety and security and that the Palestinian people have an opportunity to do the same thing and realize their own -- and realize their own country. And so I thought she did that quite deftly. And you could hear in the room, I mean, I was with a group of people, a couple of them were kind of she going to say, she got saying, hold on, you know, and then she did, and there was just real joy and appreciation for the fact that she acknowledged both sides of what has been obviously a very tortured, difficult, complex.

COATES: Tara, this has been a fear and concern in terms of how it would be addressed, and what this would mean in the march towards the election.

PALMERI: Absolutely. I mean, when I was listening to her, I'm thinking, OK, when are there going to be booze? When are people going to just like, drop some flags? People are going to start screaming? I mean, I know you can't control that. I felt like that. We would have been the one moment in the speech when she would have maybe had some friction with the crowd. They went with it. They went with her.

It feels like the protests have been minimal here. There are maybe 2,000 undeclared delegates. There was 50 people doing a silent protest. I actually think there were more protesters at the RNC, from what I saw, but it was a pretty peaceful event, I would think. But that doesn't mean that she's not going to go out onto the campaign trail and fail a lot of friction in Michigan, right?

And I don't think that this is something that's just been sewn up. And maybe there's a way for her to continue to create distance from Joe Biden. I mean, that is going to be her goal for the next, I guess, 70 days, is to have distance from the administration as he tries to work out this situation as part of his legacy.

FINNEY: But I think she's going to be very mindful of and hurry her remarks tonight, where there's a deal that they're trying to strike, and you do not want to be in the position of endangering lives and the possibility of an agreement.

So how you -- and we -- I think we have to give her that grace and so how you talk about that without putting that in danger is really critical.

COATES: It will be a conversation to go forward. Obviously, this is one of the things of being the incumbent administration, and what Biden is doing, what she's doing. And of course, voters still, they're going to leave this convention and they're going to want the meat on the bone.

My next guest says that Harris addressed both sides of the Israel-Gaza issue, head on New Mexico governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:32:25]

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: Well, right after the newly-minted Democratic nominee for president finished up her speech I took candid thoughts from none other than New Mexico's Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. Here's our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COATES: Well, I'm here with the governor.

How exciting, governor, on a night like this history was literally made and there was a theme tonight OF not only joy, but not going back. but also this is your suit and homage to, I think, something pretty special this evening. What is it?

GOV. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM (D-NM): Well, you know, we've been -- it's been time for gender equality and a woman in the White House for decades.

And it's not the first time I've worn a white suit in anticipation. But it is the first time where I have as much confidence in America and American voters. This suit made it all happen with the right candidate and the right woman at the right time.

COATES: Well, we saw such palpable enthusiasm throughout this entire week, culminating in this address by vice president, now official nominee, Harris.

She did not pull any punches when it came to either defining herself on her own terms or her thoughts on former President Trump. Were you expecting her to be so direct?

LUJAN GRISHAM: I actually expected the first part of that speech, right I'm like you, I am you, I'm middle class. This is my story. This is my family. It was compassionate and empathetic, but also strong about what we need to do moving forward.

Then laying out the issues from health care to voting rights to income security and equality. I'm expecting all of that. These are things we need to hear.

If there was ever a doubt for anyone, anywhere on the globe that a woman can and should be the commander in chief who's a proud American, who's tough and fierce and will be someone to be reckoned with. If she's protecting the globe and this country, that was made abundantly clear.

And I thought it's exactly what people needed to hear. And I thought her tone was frankly perfect to me.

[01:34:44]

COATES: She spoke about everything from as a veteran, I mean veterans and commanders in chief, talked about foreign diplomacy.

She talked about particularly an area that many were wondering how would this particular ticket address the Israel-Hamas war? The humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

She spoke about it from both perspectives. An alliance with Israel and the right to defend itself, and also a solution to the humanitarian crisis and a right to dignity and self-determination. Did she strike the right tone?

LUJAN GRISHAM: She did because she didn't navigate. She addressed head on both sides of that issue. She also did it in the entire speech.

I want someone who cares about me. I want someone who cares about America. I want empathy and compassion but I want strength and decisiveness. I want someone who understands the power of that position. I want someone who will take on the tough issues. They are not all mutually exclusive.

She's been the first candidate in this kind of a context in my lifetime that did not choose or try to navigate or circumvent. She took them all on and showed us tonight what leadership really looks like.

COATES: You know, we heard from another governor as well today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer. You, of course, as a governor, know very well the role that the head of the executive branch at the state level plays.

Talk to me a little bit about how impactful it will be for any administration going forward to consider what governors on the front lines of issues of reproductive rights and beyond must face. LUJAN GRISHAM: Well, listen were -- we know that the road is all

uphill and its storming on your way up and you're pushing a giant boulder. But the fact that she's got Tim Walz as a running mate, that she leans into the women governors.

I mean for goodness' sakes, she married me and all those women governors were my bridesmaids. She knows a powerful group when she sees one.

We're demonstrating on the ground the things that she committed to: protecting women's rights to reproductive freedom, expanding health care, investing in education. New Mexico, right, we have universal constitutional right to childcare, free college.

It's happening in states. She knows she can do it because she's already leaned into the policies that have made us successful for the citizens that we represent directly in our states.

It's bold. It's courageous, and it's proven. And as Gretchen Whitmer said tonight, it is a little GSD (ph) and I'm just going to say it. We get (EXPLETIVE DELETED) done.

COATES: Governor, thank you for being here tonight. It was important to hear your insight. Thank you.

LUJAN GRISHAM: Thank you very much for having me Laura.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COATES: Back to you, Laura.

Oh, back to me. Thank you so much.

Republicans were out in force at the DNC telling others from the Grand Old Party to vote for Harris.

Former congressman Adam Kinzinger message after this.

[01:37:55]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: Well, we're back here in Chicago where Kamala Harris accepted the Democrat nomination for president just hours ago.

Let's bring my panel back in. Listen, we heard from a number of Republicans as well during this Democrat National Convention, not the least of which is former Congressman Adam Kinzinger.

Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM KINZINGER, FORMER REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN: I've learned something about my party too. Something I couldn't ignore. The Republican party is no longer conservative. It has switched its allegiance from the principles that gave it purpose to a man whose only purpose is himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: This was a moment even though we've heard him oftentimes speak about his disdain for the way in which the GOP has morphed into what he believes a party that's just in favor of Trump.

But to have him on this stage, talking about this on the backdrop of patriotism, and to suggest that he felt at home among the Democrats and they could have policy disputes that was very poignant.

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It was poignant. And, you know, were all old enough -- many of us are old enough. I don't know, maybe I'm old enough.

I'm old enough a little bit I'm --

(CROSSTALKING)

COATES: Keep talking. Keep talking.

SIMMONS: But you remember when Joe Lieberman stood on stage at the John McCain RNC convention in 2008? And what that did for John McCain to sort of show that he was somebody who was a little different. He was a maverick, and it gave people this different sense about him.

And so having people from the other party here as a Democrat and having Republicans here is something that kind of feels like, ok, we're really showing you how different we are.

And it's not just him. We've got people who are here from January 6th, some of the police officers who were here. We've got people who are talking about real tragedy in their lives. It's just a broad breadth of Americans.

And if you think about who the vice president is, it's not just that she's a woman and a woman of color. She's a very different kind of presidential candidate than we've seen in a long time.

We haven't had a candidate from California since Ronald Reagan. Right. And she's really the face of what America is becoming, not the face of what America was.

It's more educated women leaders. It's about people who are from the Sun Belt. It's about people who have just a very different face of what America -- she's biracial -- so it's a very different face of what America is becoming.

And I think that picture and as Karen mentioned earlier, the family members who were on that stage said something about the future.

COATES: I think a lot of people also bring a certain level of if it's not bias, it's questioning about how a woman would be viewed on the world stage and America more broadly. If they chose a woman.

She talked about America's standing, though, and the idea of dictatorship and autocracies. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump, who are rooting for Trump. Because, you know, they know. They know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors. They know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: She was strong on this point, wanted to make sure and make very clear about how she viewed America, not just from the patriotism within, but how it would be viewed without.

TARA PALMERI, SENIOR POLITICS CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Exactly. I mean, she's up against a man who claims to be a strong man, right? And that is appealing to some people. They like to think that he's a leader.

[01:44:52]

PALMERI: Granted, he has never served in the army. He actually tried to get out of it. but the point is, she needed someone like Adam Kinzinger to sort of say like this and to talk about military families. I mean she spoke about military families and how she would protect them.

And I think a lot of people just wonder, like, well, we are in foreign entanglements right now. How would she lead? And there's just a perception that women are not, you know, prone to violence or interested in war and she has to sort of say, I am with America. I do not think of me as any different than a man.

If I need to go to the nuclear football, it's exactly the same way. And I think that was her way of showing it. I think she did an effective job.

But again, there's always going to be the bias and I do think like she didn't talk about the glass ceiling, right. She -- it was -- she never mentioned her gender. She really didn't mention her race either except when explaining her life story.

But it is the elephant in the room so she's got to talk to people who worry about what a woman would be like in those situations.

KARA FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But I think the way you do that as she said, show don't tell.

So she showed strength and she talked about what her vision of a strong America looks like and being strong on the world stage looks like.

And she did remember, reference her credentials as a law enforcement officer which I think also credentialed her as someone who the rule of law matters to and who will follow that.

And we are learning more and more about the role she has played behind the scenes on some of these foreign policy issues.

COATES: Really important. Thank you so much, everyone. The Democratic National Convention coming to a close with an official nominee.

And ahead in a convention that was packed with stars from John Legend to Eva Longoria, we've got one more to hear from. Actress Sophia Bush joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sing it, sing. Turn out for what? Turn out for what?

[01:49:52]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you all to sing it with me. Come on, people.

People, you see people lining.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want what's best for Indiana and that means electing Kamala Harris the first woman president of the United States of America.

(MUSIC)

EVA LONGORIA, ACTRESS: When somebody asks, is she going to be the first female president of the United States?

We're going to say, "Si, se puede."

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we fight --

Are you ready for Kamala Harris to win?

OPRAH WINFREY, TV PERSONALITY: Let's all choose Kamala Harris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: It was certainly a DNC full of star power and the celebrities could be found just as much off stage as on stage.

I caught up with actress and activist Sophia Bush of "One Tree Hill" and her podcast "Work in Progress" about what this convention means for her. Here's our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COATES: I'm here with Sophia Bush. So glad to run into you. This is an exciting moment in history.

This convention is coming to a close today. The roster has been deep. There has been so many significant moments. It's the time for Democrats to have the largest tent possible. How do you feel about how it's gone?

SOPHIL BUSH, ACTRESS & ACTIVIST: I am so inspired everyone I have run into, you know, from my incredible friends in the news, like you two folks I've done activism work and advocacy work for nearly 20 years now. People are happy. They are inspired. It feels incredible to be in a space where we really are being reminded that there are enough rights and enough resources in this beautiful country we call America to go around.

And we've got one candidate who unfortunately hates people, and our candidate who loves people, loves this country and loves us. And you can feel it. It's palpable here.

COATES: You know, joy has been a constant theme and quite the split screen that we have certainly seen, as is the theme we're not going back.

BUSH: Yes.

COATES: And you're here with the human rights campaign and part of the conversation has been about the rolling back of rights that are invaluable, that cannot be quantified.

BUSH: Yes.

COATES: Why is it so important for you to get the message out to voters about forward motion, as opposed to rolling back rights of people who deserve to be as equal and free as any American.

BUSH: The entire premise of this country was founded on the idea of equality. We have spent generations working to achieve those founding ideals. And we don't always get it right. But we've never given up on it.

And that is what I think makes America so beautiful. It's the reason that my father came to this country. It's the reason that my mother's mother was brought to this country.

It is why I believe we are all so passionate about an America that is for all of us. And for the first time ever the Supreme Court took rights away from us instead of increasing access to rights for folks like us, for women, for people of color.

They rolled back the rights of women. They have endangered us. We are seeing women die around the country. There is nothing pro-life about killing mothers. There's nothing pro-life about making women carry babies that will not live to term and risking their lives.

It is so unbearably cruel. And so we're not going back to a time where scientific knowledge didn't exist. We're not going back to times where we had less rights than our neighbors, where women have less rights than their husbands.

We should be moving forward and pressing forward into a space where no matter who you love, how you love, and what you need, you get it. Because that's what America is supposed to be. COATES: You know, it has been a trying time as a mother of a daughter

and a son trying to explain the climate --

BUSH: Yes.

COATES: -- and trying to explain to them what has been happening and it feels like at times kind of the (INAUDIBLE) where the rock is going right back down the hill but keeping encouraged.

And, you know, your podcast "Work in Progress" is really synonymous with where we are in our country in so many respects. The mission is never quite done.

What are you hoping will be carried over in the weeks to come? Because as you know Sophia, having a convention is one thing. But then that march to 270 is still a hurdle.

BUSH: Yes it is, and unfortunately, we know that the right is going to weaponize disinformation. They're going to weaponize hate. They're going to do things that we've always wanted to say that's beneath us.

[01:54:48]

BUSH: But if we do not get in the mud and fight to get to 270, we're going to -- we're going to really be putting our progress at risk.

And while the right is hoping we never have another election again, we are all hoping that we are going to continue to defend American democracy. We are going to continue to make sure everyone gets to be heard.

And we can disagree on policy, but what we cannot disagree on is your right to exist as a person in this country.

And so my real goal for us is to harness, yes this joy, because joy is great fuel but to make no mistake about how ugly the other side will be and knock every door, and speak to every voter, and make sure that we remind people what we are voting for.

And that if we give Kamala Harris and Tim Walz the White House, if we give them a Senate, we give them a Congress we will codify our rights, and we won't have to be fighting about whether or not we're going to go back anymore.

We will continue to move forward, and we will do it by the way, with a party that has been fixing Republican messes on rights and even the economy since the 1980s, because we are the job creators, we are the ones who fix the deficit.

We're not the ones adding $8 trillion to it. And so on money, math, morals we are the people for the people. And I need us to communicate that message all the way through the end of November 5th and beyond, when we enact all of these policies.

COATES: It sounds like we are the ones we are waiting for --

BUSH: We sure are.

COATES: And you were worth the wait in the conversation today.

Sophia Bush, always great to see you. Thank you so much.

BUSH: Thanks so much.

COATES: Thanks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COATES: Much more of our special coverage of the Democrat National Convention next.

[01:56:32]

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