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Trump Introduces Governor Mike Pence As VP Pick; Pence Speaks For First Time As Trump's VP Pick. Aired 11a-Noon ET

Aired July 16, 2016 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:00:02] BLITZER: Welcome back. I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

We're continuing our special live coverage of the Republican choice for vice president of the United States.

Any moment now Donald Trump will formally introduce Indiana Governor Mark Pence as his running mate. We're also following the minute by minute very dramatic developments in Turkey that are unfolding right now.

President Obama has called a meeting of his top security advisors, they're meeting in the White House situation room right now. Overnight and into the morning a military coup was unsuccessful in taking over the Turkish government, but left hundreds of people dead and wounded in both Ankara, the capital in Istanbul, the largest city. We'll have updates from Turkey coming in.

Also from Nice in France, the deranged truck driver who killed 84 people on Bastille Day and injured so many more, ISIS is now claiming he is a, quote, "soldier for its cause." We're learning more about the investigation. Stand by, we'll have live reports on that.

All of this taking place as Donald Trump gets ready to introduce Mike Pence as his vice presidential running mate. I want to bring back our political panel. They're standing by for the big announcement. This hour, momentarily, we are told Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

Gloria Borger, how do they finesse all the significant differences, public significant differences that they've had?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I think we've already started to hear that. You know, Pence had an interview on Fox last night with Sean Hannity in of fudged everything, including the Muslim ban in which he said that Trump has revised it, which is true.

And that now he can live with a ban on regions as opposed to religion which he had called offensive and unconstitutional. I do think what it does is it gives the Clinton campaign an opportunity to say to Donald Trump, well, look, your running mate was for the war in Iraq, supported it strongly, and you were actively opposed to the war in Iraq. On trade, for example, Pence has supported TPP which Trump campaigns against. TARP, he was for the Wall Street bailout, all kinds of things. So I think that Judge Curiel, he criticized Donald Trump on Judge Curiel.

BLITZER: Who was born in Indiana.

BORGER: Who was born in Indiana so, look, I think they are going to have through it. This isn't the first vice presidential candidate in history who's had to work through these things before.

The importance of Pence to Donald Trump is that he is everything that Donald Trump is not. He is conventional. He has a conservative record and he is disciplined.

The one question I would ask right now and he brings along conservatives is, how will he be under the glare of the national spotlight? There are those people who have criticized him when he had the religious liberty issue in his state, it was quite controversial.

There are people who say he wilted under that spotlight. That he did not do well. There are conservatives who also say, you know what, he compromised too much on that issue.

So these are things that people want to see in a vice presidential candidate because day in and day out you'll have the national media following you.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The one thing I will say about that, and it was at this point an infamous interview that will go down in history as one of the worst I think a politician has given in trying to -- and failing to defend a very controversial policy in their state.

However, right after that happened, Mike Pence brought in his old team, the team that I actually worked with here in Washington, when he was the House conference chair. So a member of the House leadership and particularly the communications team and try to turn things around.

They argue inside Pence world this is proof that when he falls he figures out how to get himself back up, you know, which I think is a fair thing to say. But the fact is, and I can't stop thinking about this, he is as kind of white bread wholesome, you know, Middle America as you could possibly be.

There's not one thing that I can think of that is sort of -- that makes the two men similar, just in terms of their persona and their personality. They could not be more different.

BLITZER: Nia, stand by for a moment. You see people gathering right now. Jim Acosta, you're there. You're in the room over at the New York Hilton. I understand that we're just a few moments away from the start of this?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We are, Wolf. We believe we're just a few minutes away. I can tell you a few moments ago we saw some more -- some of the key supporters for Donald Trump and Mark Pence walk into the room.

We believe that some of Governor Pence's closest associates from Indiana have come ALL this way to New York City to be a part of the announcement as well.

Just to talk about what you just discussing there with Gloria and Dana, there is a lot of balancing that Governor Mike Pence brings to this ticket.

[11:05:09]And that is something that has people inside the Trump campaign feeling very satisfied about this selection of the Indiana governor.

You were just talking about his foreign policy experience. He was on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. There are some areas where Donald Trump and Mike Pence do mesh on things.

When Mike Pence was on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he was very much in favor of those enhanced interrogation techniques that were used during the Bush administration to elicit information in the war on terrorism, much criticized, controversial.

Donald Trump has advocated for that and then some out on the campaign trail. So while we have talked about some of the differences between these two candidates, some of the issues, there are areas they do mesh.

But when you talk to Republican sources, I've been talking to the sources over the last 24 to 48 hours about this pick. What you're hearing time and again from people -- and yes, there are going to be people that's never going to be satisfied with Donald Trump.

Mark Pence doesn't do a whole lot from them. But what you do hear from Republicans who were kind of wavering on the fence, not feeling so good about Donald Trump, when they see Mike Pence, they say this is someone I know from his 12 years of office in the House when he was governor of Indiana.

That this is somebody that they can do business with, Wolf, and that is why you're seeing a lot of calming of the waters inside the Republican Party with the selection of Mike Pence -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, momentarily, they are going to be walking out on that stage. I assume Donald Trump will speak first, is that right?

ACOSTA: That's right. And I think we're going to hear from Governor Pence as well. Wolf, you know, a lot has happened over the last 48 hours. We've heard Donald Trump make some comments and phone interviews and that sort of thing about what unfolded in Nice. We had an attempted coup in Turkey last night.

Trump has not commented on that as well. It does not appear he's going to take questions because of the way that the media is positioned in here. Donald Trump tweeted this was going to be a news conference.

The rows for reporters are actually behind barricades, these bike rack barricades and you have rows of supporters in front of that. So it's not clear unless we can shout question and he decides to answer them whether or not he'll take questions on these sorts of things.

Just to show you, you know, what is going through Donald Trump's mind this morning you can look tweets. He did talk about Mike Pence being his first choice. That is to go to some of that talk about second guessing and wavering in his pick of Mike Pence.

But he is also been on a tweet storm over the last couple of hours about Hillary Clinton going back to calling her lying Crooked Hillary Clinton. So I suspect when we hear from Donald Trump in a few minutes, Wolf, he'll go back to that campaign message that this election is about Hillary Clinton.

That they're trying to make this a referendum on Hillary Clinton. They're feeling pretty good about where this campaign is right now, Wolf. The polls are moving in their direction. A lot of that is coinciding with the questions regarding Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal.

When they do internal polling inside the campaign, and they're doing this a lot more than they did during the primaries, what they are seeing, what they are hearing when they're doing this polling, Wolf, is that there is a lot of reluctance on the part of the American people right now.

People are feeling very uneasy especially among modern independents about what they heard about Hillary Clinton's e-mail practices and how that all unfolded with the FBI. So they feel like the polls are moving in their direction. The selection of Mike Pence will solidify that -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I'll be interested to hear if either one of them addresses the apparently failed coup in Turkey as well as now ISIS claiming responsibility for that horrible terror attack in Nice, France, that killed 84 people. We'll see if either one of them addresses those issues.

Stand by, as soon as Donald Trump, Mike Pence walk in, we'll go there. But Nia, I want to get your analysis of this because Donald Trump, like Bernie Sanders, has been critical of Hillary Clinton for voting in favor of going to war against Saddam Hussein in Iraq back in 2003, voting for that legislation.

And Donald Trump has repeatedly said that Hillary Clinton has shown bad judgment and she shouldn't be president of the United States. Well, the man he has selected to be his vice presidential running mate, a heartbeat away from the presidency, the man he believes is most qualified to be president if something were to happen to him.

He voted like Hillary Clinton did in favor of the authorization to go to war against Saddam Hussein in Iraq, which Trump believes was a horrible, horrible vote. NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Exactly. As you said, demonstrates Hillary Clinton's bad judgment. It's the same on the Tpp. That's something --

BLITZER: The Transpacific Partnership -- a trade agreement.

HENDERSON: A trade agreement that also Mike Pence also backed. I mean, the thing about Mike Pence he is a standard issue Republican, right. He follows pretty closely to the GOP orthodoxy as would almost any of the Republicans that would have joined Donald Trump's ticket.

I think what you have in Mike Pence is somebody who adds a record, and you're going to have Democrats really pick that apart. I think you will see particular in debates Hillary Clinton have that line, well, look, your vice presidential pick also voted for the Iraq war.

[11:10:07]Your vice presidential pick also backed TPP. I think for Mike Pence the thing that he's going to help this ticket with is those rust belt states, right.

I mean, here's a guy who is Midwestern nice, folksiness about him. I think a question is whether or not people that sort of phony because in some ways he does come across as a little wooden on air.

I think that will interesting to see how that's received by people. In those states, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, those are the states I think you're going to see him out in campaigning for this ticket.

BORGER: There's an issue that they disagreed on and I may have misstated it earlier which could actually help Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton and that is the Wall Street bailout. Because at the time of the bailout, Donald Trump told you, Wolf, that, well, it's worth a shot.

The bailout was worth a shot and Pence being a conservative, was an out spoken opponent of the Wall Street bailout. Voted against it. So it does sort of give Trump an added heft on that issue saying it's with the middle class and his running mate was against the bailout.

BASH: As I'm listening to you both I'm thinking something is crystallizing in my mind, which is it is Donald Trump who is not the traditional Republican, right. Not Mike Pence. In picking Mike Pence, Trump is bringing back the more standard conservative on to the ticket because for the most part Republicans we have been covering for decades have been pro-free trade.

BORGER: Conventional.

BASH: Yes. Have been for that. Have been for -- I mean that's George W. Bush covering his White House. I mean, he try to get every free trade deal he possibly could.

BLITZER: Nafta too.

BASH: So I think that that is what we have to keep in mind here is that Donald Trump is doing -- did so well because he appealed to the Republican base that felt forgotten by the standard conservatives in Washington. You felt like he still needed that.

BORGER: When you talk to Donald Trump's friends. They will say to you, this is a perfect example of how he would govern. That actually he listened to his advisors. He listened to conservatives. He met with Pence whom he did not know, I mean, his gut as Dana has been saying, his gut has been with someone like Chris Christie.

He brought people in and he made a decision that everybody could live with. I spoke to one of his very close friends who said to me, you should look at this and say this is how Donald Trump will run the country. He will listen to people.

And they say it will go over all the differences, but the importance here is the Donald Trump is not so far one way or another that he can't cut deals with people.

BLITZER: All right, stand by, I want to bring in CNN commentator and Donald Trump supporter, Kayleigh McEnany, who is joining us from Cleveland.

Kayleigh, I'm Donald Trump is going to be asked about the Mike Pence vote in favor of the war in Iraq, the same kind of vote that Hillary Clinton voted for. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump kept saying that showed bad judgment on the part of Hillary Clinton.

I assume you believe it showed bad judgment on the part of Mike Pence. And Donald Trump has suggested Hillary Clinton shouldn't be qualified to be president because in part of that vote. How is he going to explain that he decided Mike Pence is qualified to be president of the United States if something were to happen to him?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think that Hillary Clinton's vote is emblematic of a broader philosophy on her part. Yes, it was not the right vote. Donald Trump has said that. Pence did vote that way.

But with Hillary Clinton, it is part of a broader philosophy. That is to say, invading Libya, which is now overrun with ISIS. The idea that we should expand the refugee program by 500 percent despite the FBI director, the CIA director, the director of National Intelligence saying we don't have --

BLITZER: I'm going to interrupt you because Donald Trump is walking out to the stage right now with Mike Pence -- I assume that's Mike Pence walking out right behind him but there is Donald Trump. Let's listen in.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, everybody. Great honor. Great honor, thank you. This is a wonderful day. On a Saturday morning yet. Isn't that nice? Thank you, all. And we're going to have an incredible convention. It's really going well. We're going to have an incredible convention. And we're going to get things solved, and we're going to do lots of wonderful things for our country, most importantly. So I'm here today to introduce the man who will be my partner in this campaign, and the White House, to fix our rigged system -- we are in a rigged, rigged system --

[11:15:10]And to make America safe again and to make America great again.

I want to also address the Islamic terror attack in France. We've witnessed horror beyond belief, no matter where you look and now it's happening more and more. And it's never going to stop.

We need new leadership. We need new thinking. We need strength. We need in our country law and order. And if I'm elected president, that will happen.

I want to express our unyielding support for the people of France, and we mourn their loss as a nation. And as far as Turkey is concerned, so many friends in Turkey, great people, amazing people. We wish them well. It looks like they're resolving the difficulty, but we wish them well. A lot -- a lot of anguish last night, but hopefully it'll all work out.

Now, as, hopefully, the next president of the United States, I want to refer back to what's happened over the years. The Middle East today is more unstable than ever before. Never been like this. Out of control.

After four years of Clinton, who really led the way and led Obama down a horrible path, because I don't even think he could have made these decisions so badly, she led him right down a horrible path. He didn't know what he was doing.

Iraq, Syria, all into chaos, and Iran is on a path to nuclear weapons. And on top of that, we gave them back $150 billion, and we didn't get our hostages until the end.

Now we're seeing unrest in Turkey, a further demonstration of the failures of Obama-Clinton. You just have to look, every single thing they touched has turned to horrible, horrible, death-defying problems.

We also need to bring back in this country -- because we see what happened -- our industry, our manufacturing, our jobs, they've been taken away, like we're babies. Taken away and we're going to bring them back.

I found the leader who will help us deliver a safe society and a prosperous -- really prosperous society for all Americans. Indiana Governor Mike Pence was my first choice. I've admired the work he's done, especially in the state of Indiana. And I'm going to go over some of those accomplishments in just a minute.

But I also admire the fact that he fights for the people, and he's going to fight for you. He is a solid, solid person. Governor Pence served Indiana with distinction in Congress. He rose to leadership and served as the chairman of the entire House Republican Conference. Number one. He's really got the skills of a highly talented executive, leading the state of Indiana to jobs, growth, and opportunity, in spite of the relentless obstacles put in his way and every state's way by the Obama administration. It's horrible out there. High taxes and regulations and it's out of control.

Mike Pence is a man of honor, character, and honesty. We know that. Hillary Clinton is the embodiment of corruption. She's a corrupt person. What she's done with her e-mails, what she's done with so many things, and I see the ads up all the time, the ads. She's totally bought and paid for by Wall Street, the special interests, the lobbyists, 100 percent. She's crooked Hillary.

And I think that, while she got away with murder, in fact, I think it might be her greatest accomplishment, escaping the recent scandal, and her lies, and the loss of 33,000 e-mails -- but it wasn't a loss, she discarded -- that in itself is a major crime.

[11:20:11]Other people have been paying tremendous prices for what they've done, which is peanuts compared to what happened with Hillary Clinton.

Thirty-three thousand e-mails are missing, and that's OK? Didn't give them to the FBI? Didn't give them to the attorney general, and that's OK? Wipes her server clean, that's OK? These are crimes. These are crimes. And how she got away with it, I think I understand it, but I think a lot of people don't.

But I do believe, while she didn't pay the price she should have paid, she's going to pay that price when November 8th rolls around. She's going to pay it at the polls. I believe that.

On top of everything else, Hillary made $21.6 million giving speeches to special interests in a short period of time. She's totally owned by Wall Street. We believe in Americanism; she believes in globalism. And it's not that she believes in it. The people that give her all of this money believe in it and she'll believe in whatever they want her to believe. Believe me. That's it.

What a difference between crooked Hillary Clinton and Mike Pence. Mike Pence will never be afraid to speak the name of our enemy, radical Islam, radical Islamic terrorism. You saw it the other day with the truck screaming out the window. You heard what he was screaming out the window.

You saw it in San Bernardino. You saw it at the World Trade Center. You saw it in Orlando. How horrible was that? You saw it in Paris. You see it all over.

And Hillary is a weak person. We are the law and order candidates, and we're the law and order party. We're going to change things around. There's going to be respect again for law and order.

Hillary Clinton's foreign policy helped launch ISIS. You know, she's talking -- I see the ads she puts on. If I make one statement, which is fine, she'll take that statement and put on a totally dishonest ad, because she's got a lot of money because it's given to her by the lobbyists and by the special interests. Got a lot of money.

But I see the ads on foreign policy. She's talking about Donald Trump doesn't have foreign policy experience. Of course not. I've been a very, very, very successful businessperson. I mean -- but -- but if you look at my calls, I said, don't go into Iraq. Nobody cared, because I was a businessperson. I was a civilian. Take the oil. Many, many calls I've made.

You take a look. I said that in Scotland and in the U.K., that was going to happen. I was the one that predicted it. And everybody said, he's wrong, he's wrong.

President Obama said, if it happens, they're going to get to the back of the line, which probably is one of the reasons they lost, because I consider it a win. I think it was a win for them, actually, because they don't want to be told what to do.

And they don't want to be told that when people pour into the country, they have to take them even if they're not qualified, even if they don't have paperwork, even if they have no idea where they come from.

And I said that Brexit's going to happen. I said that they are going to break away. And everybody laughed at me. And the odds were 20 percent. And then when it happened, she took an ad saying, oh, Donald Trump said this or that, but I'm the one that said it was going to happen. And some of the more fair reporters -- about 30 percent of them -- said he was right. I appreciate that. Seventy percent didn't, so that's OK.

So Mike Pence will never be afraid to speak the name of our enemy. So important. Now, I think if you look at one of the big reasons that I chose Mike -- and one of the reasons is party unity, I have to be honest. So many people have said party unity because I'm an outsider.

I want to be an outsider. I think it's one of the reasons I won in landslides. I won in landslides. This wasn't close. This wasn't close.

[11:25:10]Now, this wasn't close. This was -- in the history of the Republican Party, history, with 17 people running, you have to understand, other people ran against one, two, and three. There were 17. We got -- I say we, because I'm the messenger, I'm a messenger -- I'm doing a good job, but I'm a messenger -- we got almost 14 million votes. That's more than any other person in the history of the Republican Party in the primary system running for president.

Think of it. That's more than Ronald Reagan, who we love. That's more than Richard Nixon. It's more than Dwight D. Eisenhower. You know, he won the Second World War, in all fairness. Pretty good. It's more than the Bushes.

But I mean by a lot. I don't mean by a little. But that's with 17 people. People don't over-say that. That means our message is unbelievable. And I want to thank all of the loyal people -- because I have such loyal, unbelievable people, and they displayed that just yesterday in Cleveland, where it's going to be so amazing. But they displayed it. It was on display, where we had this group of people, who -- many of whom I've known, and I won't say, because for party unity, I'll say they're wonderful people, OK? Never Trump, they said, never Trump, never Trump. Oh, we're going to win. They got crushed. And they got crushed immediately, because people want what we're saying to happen.

They're tired of a country that has horrible trade deals, that has no borders, that has taxes that are through the roof, highest taxed nation just about in the world, that has regulations that don't allow you to start a business and destroy your business if you do start -- and, by the way, speaking of destroying businesses, we're going to take care of the miners and we're going to take care of the steelworkers. We're going to put them back to work.

So they're very tired of it. But I want to thank all of those people that -- delegates that were on the different committees, because, boy, was that something. Did we show them something?

And unfortunately, the vote was very late. But essentially, we had 112-12. This was the vote that was going to put it onto the floor and we're going to have a big fight. We're not going to have a fight. People agree with what we've -- they want the wall. They want the borders. They want these things to happen.

And what we're doing -- and what we're doing that I'm so proud of, so proud -- and nobody else would even think about doing it -- I fought very hard for it. We'll call it the Johnson amendment, where he took away from the evangelicals -- and I want to thank the evangelicals, because without the evangelicals, I could not have won this nomination. The evangelicals have been unbelievable.

I dominated with the evangelicals. A lot of people were surprised. They say he's not perfect. But you know what? They know I'm going to get the job done, and they're really smart.

And I said -- and I said for the evangelicals, that we're going to do something that nobody's even tried to do. You have the Johnson amendment passed by Lyndon Johnson and his group. And he was a powerful president. He knew how to get things done. He got bogged down in a war that was a disaster and it destroyed him. But he was a powerful president.

And we call it the Johnson amendment, where you are just absolutely shunned if you're evangelical, if you want to talk religion, you lose your tax-exempt status. We put into the platform, we're going to get rid of that horrible Johnson amendment. And we're going to let evangelicals, we're going to let Christians and Jews and people of religion talk without being afraid to talk.

I saw this. I had so many great leaders so many times up to my office, the top -- the absolute top evangelical leaders, Christian leaders, Jewish leaders, believe it or not, some Muslim leaders -- people are going to be surprised to hear that -- I had the top leaders up to my office, and I said, why is it that you're so powerful as an individual, and yet when you get out there, you're sort of timid? And they didn't know how to answer the question. And it took two, three meetings before I figured it out. One great, great gentleman that everybody knows, but whose name I will not reveal, said, Mr. Trump, we live in fear in our churches and our synagogues. We live in fear that we're going to lose our tax-exempt status if we say anything that's even slightly political.

[11:30:04]And I looked out the window. I was in Trump Tower, and I pointed to people walking down the street. I said, well, they have the right to speak, but you don't. That means they're more powerful than you are. We have to do something about it. How did it start? How did it start?

And they said, it started because of Lyndon Johnson. And he actually had a problem in Texas with a certain religious leader. And he did this, and he got it done.

And we're going to undo it, so that religious leaders in this country, and those unbelievable people, and not because they backed me in such large numbers, but so that religion can again have a voice, because religion's voice has been taken away. And we're going to change that. OK? All right.

Back to Mike Pence. So one of the primary reasons I chose Mike was I looked at Indiana, and I won Indiana big. Remember, Indiana was going to be the firewall. That's where Trump was going to -- they agreed I'd win New York, I'd win Pennsylvania, I'd win all these places. But Indiana was going to be the firewall.

So I got to study Indiana, and I got to study New York and a lot of other places, and I saw how NAFTA, signed by Bill Clinton, has drained our manufacturing jobs, just drained us like we've never been drained before. NAFTA, again, signed by Bill Clinton. NAFTA is the worst economic deal in the history of our country. Manufacturing down in some states 55 percent, 60 percent. It's a horror show, moving to Mexico, moving to other places.

I have a friend who's a great builder. What he builds is plants. That's all he does, is build plants. He doesn't build buildings. He doesn't -- he builds plants. It's the biggest in the world, from what I hear.

I said, how's business? I was with him the other day. How's business? He goes unbelievable. I said, really, wow, I'm surprised. Why is it unbelievable? Because I think of him as building in this country. He says, Donald, what we're doing in Mexico, you won't believe. I said, what do you mean? He said, we're building plants in Mexico the likes of which we've never seen.

I said, what about this country? Not much. Not much. That's the expression. He said exactly that. Not much. I said, but Mexico? He said, you've never seen anything like it. It's incredible.

Folks, that's going to stop. We're going to go reverse it. We're going to bring our jobs back to this country. We can't be the stupid people anymore. OK? And he was better than a pollster. He's better than a consultant. I would say, how are we doing? And you get a big report that costs you millions of dollars. Doesn't cost me millions. Me, I give them $10,000, OK?

It costs other people millions. It costs other campaigns millions to get a report. Every time they get a report, it's millions. But I'll tell you what, a guy like this is better than anybody you can hire to do a report. And he said it. He didn't say it from the standpoint of he's upset about it. Just fact. How are we doing? Unbelievable in Mexico. In fact, he actually said, I've never, ever seen anything like it.

And if you look, Ford is building massive plants there instead of Michigan. We want them to build them in Michigan. They're going to build them in Michigan. And you know that I know how to do that. So easy. So easy.

But they're not going to do and they're not going to take advantage of us without retribution. There are consequences when you fire thousands of people and move to another country and then think you're going to your product and sell it in here. There are consequences.

And those consequences are going to keep companies in our country. It's very simple. And everybody here knows what the consequences are, but I won't say that because I'm much more interested right now in Mike.

Indiana's unemployment rate -- and this is the primary reason I wanted Mike, other than he looks very good, other than he's got an incredible family, incredible wife and family -- Karen is amazing.

Incredible family. Highly respected. Expected to go for another four years. He would have won, I think, very easily in Indiana. Indiana, their unemployment rate has fallen, when he was there, when he started, 8.4 percent when he was governor, when he took over, to less than 5 percent in May of 2016.

Since January 2013, Indiana's labor force has increased by more than 186,000 jobs. You have to understand, I've gone around to all these states. I've gone to all of them. And every time, I have statisticians. I say give me the stats on a state.

[11:35:09]And it's always bad, down, down, down. Down 40 percent, 50 percent, 60 percent in some cases. Here's somebody where it's gone up. Private sector job growth is up by more than 147,000 jobs since 2013. That's like very unusual.

Governor Pence balanced the budget. Can you imagine a balanced budget? Our budget's so out of whack in this country, we don't know what we're doing. We're going to owe very soon $21 trillion. He balanced the budget. They don't know what that means. Governor Pence balanced the budget, produced a surplus, and maintains a $2 billion reserve fund in the state of Indiana.

It's also rated AAA, their bonds are rated AAA. Very few states have that. AAA. The best. That's as good as you can get, whether you're a company, a state, AAA.

Indiana was recently recognized by Chief Executive Magazine as the number-one state in the Midwest for business. Number one. And it's not even close. There are approximately 34,000 fewer Hoosiers on unemployment insurance now than there were when Mike Pence took office. So you have fewer Hoosiers, fewer people from Indiana.

And besides that, Bobby Knight, my friend, who really did help me. I mean, if you want a reference, Bobby Knight in Indiana, we love Bobby Knight. But he agrees with everything I'm saying. He loves the governor.

Indiana has the second-lowest unemployment rate in the nation, for veterans, where nobody's fighting for the veterans like I'm fighting for the veterans, the veterans have been left behind.

If you remember a few months ago, Hillary Clinton said really -- they're doing much better, the V.A. is much better. They're doing a much better job than people give it credit for. People are dying on line waiting for five, six days for doctors. People are dying on -- they can't even see a doctor. It's a scandal.

Take a look at what's happening with the V.A. in Arizona. Take a look at what's happening with -- you know, just the Veterans Administration hospitals. It's a scandal. It's corrupt. It's incompetent. It's a scandal. And Hillary Clinton thought it was just fine. And, boy, am I going to win big with the veterans. I mean, we know that for a fact.

So it's now 2.4 percent for veterans. In 2013, when Mike Pence took office, the rate for veterans was 6.7 percent. It was 31st in the nation, one of the bad ones, and now it's almost the best. Got them jobs. Got them jobs.

Indianapolis is ranked second in top 10 metro areas for young college graduates. That's a great thing. They're going to stay there. That's a great thing. And Mike worked hard on that. He was telling me that was not easy.

Under Governor Pence's leadership, Indiana enacted the largest K-12 education funding increase in the state's history. So you're balancing budgets, and yet you're giving more money to education. Isn't that a great thing?

Indiana has just about the largest school choice program in America. School choice is where it's at, folks. You want to get your schools better, you better get rid of Common Core fast.

Governor Pence enacted the largest income tax cut in the state's history. Think of that. We're cutting taxes and balancing budgets. And along with corporate tax reform, just about number one in the country. CNBC ranked Indiana first in the nation for its infrastructure.

So with all of these cuts and all of these balancing budgets, we're spending more money on education, and the infrastructure is kept up. That had so much -- look, as a builder, nobody in the history of this country has ever known so much about infrastructure as Donald Trump. I build infrastructure. Do I know how to build a wall? Do I know how to build infrastructure?

You know, it's very interesting. We're building -- we're building -- I won the -- which is pretty amazing with the Obama administration, but I won the right to have the old post office building on Pennsylvania Avenue, right near the White House.

And it's an amazing -- probably the best location, one of the most sought after projects in the history of the GSA, General Services. And I really like what's happened. We're going to have an opening very soon. Ivanka and Eric and Don did a fantastic job on it.

[11:40:11]But I thought the other day, I was going over the numbers, we're under budget and about a year -- actually more than a year -- we're a year ahead of schedule, and we're under budget substantially. And the quality of the work is even better than we originally were going to do.

And when I explained to a government representative that we're under budget and ahead of schedule, they almost fell off, because they've never heard those words before. They've never heard them.

So when I see what happened to Indiana, which was having tremendous problems, when I see what happened to Indiana under Mike's work -- also his predecessor did a great job, by the way, great job, who's now at Duke -- who's now at Purdue -- when I see what happened with respect to the numbers, the state, and everything else, that, to me, was probably the single most important point because it's something that hasn't happened -- almost has not happened in this whole country.

The turnaround and the strength of Indiana has been incredible and I learned that when I campaigned there. And I learned that when I won that state in a landslide.

And I learned that when Governor Pence, under tremendous pressure from establishment people, endorsed somebody else, but it was more of an endorsement for me, if you remember.

He talked about Trump, then he talked about Ted -- who's a good guy, by the way, who's going to be speaking at the convention, Ted Cruz, good guy -- but he talked about Trump, Ted, then he went back to Trump. I said, who did he endorse?

So even though he was under pressure, because I'm so, you know, outside of the establishment, it was the single greatest non- endorsement I've ever had in my life, OK? I will tell you.

So with that, I would like to introduce a man who I truly believe will be outstanding in every way and will be the next vice president of the United States, Governor Mike Pence. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

GOVERNOR MIKE PENCE (R), PRESUMPTIVE VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: On behalf of my family here and looking on, would you join me in thanking Donald Trump, Melania, and his entire family for the sacrifices that they are making to make America great again?

And I thank Donald Trump, the confidence you've placed in us, and I accept your invitation to run and serve as vice president of the United States of America.

You know, I come to this moment deeply humbled, but with a grateful heart. Grateful to God for his amazing grace. Grateful to my wonderful wife, Karen, and our three incredible kids, Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey, and grateful to this builder, this fighter, this patriotic American who has set aside a legendary career in business to build a stronger America, Donald J. Trump.

And let me say, having had the privilege to spend time with this man and his family out of the limelight, I know what all of America will soon know even better: These are good people. Donald Trump is a good man, and he will make a great president of the United States of America.

Donald Trump understands the frustrations and the hopes of the American people like no leader since Ronald Reagan. The American people are tired. We're tired of being told. We're tired of being told that this is as good as it gets. We're tired of having politicians in both parties in Washington, D.C., tell us we'll get to those problems tomorrow.

[11:45:07]And as Ronald Reagan said, we're tired of being told that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capital can plan our lives better for us than we can plan them for ourselves. Donald Trump gets it. And he understands the American people.

I truly am deeply humbled to be at his side today. And when I got this call last Wednesday, I could only think of that ancient question: Who am I, oh, Lord, and who is my family that you have brought us this far?

So let me try and answer that question for a few minutes. Now, people who know me well know I'm a pretty basic guy. I'm a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.

And while I'm currently -- I currently have the privilege of serving the state that I love, I'm really -- I'm really just a small-town boy who grew up in southern Indiana with a big family and a cornfield in the backyard. Like Donald Trump, my grandfather immigrated to this country, and in many ways, I grew up with a front row seat to the American dream.

I watched my mom and dad build everything that matters: A family, a business, and a good name. The heroes of my youth were John F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I actually started in politics in the other party. But when I came of age, I was inspired by the ideals and the eloquence of our 40th president, and I became a Republican.

The most important thing in my life was when 31 years ago I married the girl of my dreams, Karen Pence, who will make a great second lady of the United States of America. And while this office is an extraordinary office to which to aspire, the highest role I will ever play is D-A-D. And I'm a proud father of a college student, a graduate turned writer, and a United States Marine.

You know, my career, I ran for Congress before the Republican revolution, led by Newt Gingrich in 1994. I wasn't successful. By the time I got elected to Washington, D.C., sometimes I felt like I was elected after it was over.

From almost my first day in Congress, I found myself battling the big spenders in both political parties, whether opposing No Child Left Behind, the prescription entitlement, or the Wall Street bailout, I fought every single day for taxpayers and fiscal responsibility when I was a member of the Congress of the United States.

And after the Republicans lost the Congress in 2006, I was actually unanimously elected to serve in leadership, and we fought back against the Nancy Pelosi Congress. We opposed Obamacare. We opposed their tax increases. We opposed their cap-and-trade. And I was part of the team that won the Congress back from Democrat control in 2010.

And all that happened before I went back home again to Indiana. But I want to say I answered this call for two reasons, first, because I know from firsthand experience that strong Republican leadership can bring about real change, just like we've seen in the Hoosier state, and, secondly, because Hillary Clinton must never become president of the United States of America.

Now, on the first point, I know what I'm talking about. You know, in Indiana, we prove every day you can build a growing economy on balanced budgets, low taxes, even while making record investments in education, roads, and health care. We like to say Indiana is a state that works, and it does.

Indiana works because Republican principles work every time you put them into practice. Today, we have a $2 billion surplus and the highest credit rating in the nation. And since I became governor, Hoosier businesses large and small have created nearly 150,000 net new jobs.

[11:50:11]And we have more Hoosiers going to work than ever before in the 200-year history of the great state of Indiana. That's what Republican leadership gets you.

And let me say from my heart, that's what the no-nonsense leadership of Donald J. Trump will bring to Washington, D.C. But elections are about choices. Elections are about choices.

And I also joined this ticket because the choice could not be more clear, the stakes could not be higher. Americans can choose a leader who will fight to make America safe and prosperous again and bring real change, or we can elect someone who literally personifies the failed establishment in Washington, D.C.

Seven-and-a-half years of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's policies have weakened America's place in the world and stifled our nation's economy. Terrorist attacks at home and abroad, grim and heartbreaking scenes from France just a few short days ago, the attempted coup in Turkey all attest to a world spinning apart.

History teaches us that weakness arouses evil. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's foreign policy of leading from behind, moving red lines, feigning resets with a resurgent Russia and the rise of ISIS is a testament to this truth of history, and we must bring a change to America's stand in the world.

We cannot have four more years apologizing to our enemies and abandoning our friends. America needs to be strong for the world to be safe. On the world stage, Donald Trump will lead from strength. He will rebuild the arsenal of democracy, stand with our -- our allies, and hunt down and destroy the enemies of our freedom.

And at home -- and at home, the choice is just as clear. Where Donald Trump wants to cut taxes, Hillary Clinton plans to raise taxes, on working families, small businesses, and family farms. Where Donald Trump is committed to repeal Obamacare, lock, stock and barrel.

Hillary Clinton looks at Obamacare as a good start and wants to take Bernie Sanders' path down to single-payer socialized medicine. Where Donald Trump supports an all-of-the-above strategy and will end the war on coal, Hillary Clinton actually promised an energy plan that would close American coal mines and put coal miners out of work.

Where Donald Trump wants to build a wall and temporarily suspend immigration from countries compromised by terrorism, Hillary Clinton plans to ignore the Supreme Court, re-impose executive amnesty, and would increase -- increase -- our refugee program by more than 500 percent.

And where Donald Trump will appoint justices like the late Antonin Scalia, who will uphold our Constitution, Hillary Clinton will appoint Supreme Court justices who will legislate from the bench, abandon the sanctity of life, and rewrite our Second Amendment.

To every American who shares our convictions, I say to you, join us. For the sake of our security, for the sake of our prosperity, for the sake of a Supreme Court that will never turn its back on our God-given liberties, let's come together as a party and a people and a movement to make America great again. And that day begins when Donald Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States of America.

Thank you for the honor. Thank you for your support. And God bless the United States of America.

BLITZER: There they are, the Pence family and Donald Trump out there as well, Donald Trump introducing Mike Pence as his vice presidential running mate. You see some of the Trump children who have come as well. They were very instrumental in this decision to pick Mike Pence.

I don't know if Donald Trump is going to speak any more. There was some suggestion that this was a news conference and he might answer some questions. Doesn't look like that's going happen. The music is playing.

Gloria Borger, Donald Trump spoke for what, almost about 40 minutes or so, making his case, speaking why he should be the next president of the United States and also making the case of why he selected Mike Pence as his running mate.

BORGER: Let me just say, first of all, Wolf, there's nothing conventional about this. We're used to, when you introduce your vice president, huge rallies. The two of them coming out together, hands in the air, the victory signs and all of the rest. This is Donald Trump who took 20 minutes to finally say back to Mike Pence.

BASH: It's 28 minutes.

BORGER: Thank you, Dana Bash. In 28 minutes and Donald Trump gave a speech about himself, his candidacy and why Hillary Clinton needed to be defeated and then finally started talking about Mike Pence and why he chose Mike Pence.

He did, however, talk about -- and he said one of the big reasons that he had picked Mike Pence is because of party unity. He was very honest about that. He said I'm on outsider.

But for the beginning of this speech, Wolf, it seemed as if we all were kind of waiting for a cameo appearance from Mike Pence. Very, very different from the rousing kind of introductions we usually see in campaigns of one candidate with another.

I mean, Donald Trump, did talk about the value of Mike Pence on the ticket and how important he is. And Pence did give a very conventional speech in response, praising Donald Trump.

But this is nothing like any introductions to America that we've seen of vice presidential candidates in the past.

BLITZER: Trump spoke for 28 minutes, Pence spoke for 14, 15 minutes.

BORGER: But he had to say, back to Mike Pence. We were all sort of waiting for him to appear and we're told he was sort of standing off stage waiting for his moment to enter.

BASH: Yes, exactly. But if you sift through the discussions about his properties and about his friends who are builders, you did -- you can find a couple of very, very key comments that Donald Trump made about this decision.

Two things. One is, he said he's a solid, solid person, which is, at his core, what Mike Pence is. But more importantly what the people in Team Trump were looking for. Again as I said, sort of ying to his yang. Someone who is salt of the earth, Middle America. The other thing that he said --

BLITZER: He said, I have to be honest. I'm thinking about party unity.

BASH: I am an outsider. He said explicitly what most candidates would never say. One of the reasons that he chose him was because of party unity because he is an outsider. And the fact that he just laid that out there was really, really interesting to me.

BORGER: It's as if you get to see his internal conversation with himself and his aides laid out publicly for you. He's honest about it. This is why I chose Pence.

HENDERSON: And thought just looking at it, if you're an average American tuning in, looking at Mike Pence for the first time, let's face it, not a lot of Americans know Mike Pence, he looks and sounds like a president.

He looks and sounds like the Republican nominee, almost the top of the ticket and you wonder if some people will look at this and say, well, maybe this guy should be at the top of the ticket. He was more disciplined, made an argument for himself as sort of the Tea Party guy before the Tea Party was cool.

He talked about going up against George Bush on things like no child left behind, on spending. He said he sort of searched his soul and said who am I oh lord, talked about him being a small town boy.

I thought his presentation was quite good, quite a big contrast between Donald Trump's and we'll see how he'll use him. Is he going out independently in the swing states or on a short leash? We'll have to see.

BORGER: The issue differences between them was also clear because Trump spent time talking about trade and how terrible Nafta was, and the man he introduced as his vice president was a large supporter of Nafta, thought Nafta had brought jobs to the state of Indiana. These are the issues people are going to be talking about over this campaign.

BLITZER: I want to go to Jim Acosta. He's there at the New York Hilton Hotel. So the reaction inside, first few rows you said were Trump supporters, right?

ACOSTA: That's right and you know, the lone standing ovation I saw throughout this entire event was --