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CNN Live Event/Special
Trump Gives Nomination Acceptance Speech; Discussion of Trump's Speech. Aired 11p-Midnight ET
Aired July 21, 2016 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:11] DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Think of this, this is not believable but this is what's happening. A 550-percent increase in Syrian refugees, on top of the existing massive refugee flows coming into our country already under the leadership of President Obama.
[Booing]
TRUMP: She proposes this, despite the fact that there's no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from. I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people!
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never, ever will be.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers. We are going to have an immigration system that works, but one that works for the American people.
On Monday we heard from three parents whose children were killed by illegal immigrants: Mary Ann Mendoza, Sabine Durden, and my friend Jamiel Shaw. They're just three brave representatives of many thousands who have suffered so gravely. Of all my travels in this country, nothing has affected me more, nothing even close I have to tell you, than the time I have spent with the mothers and fathers who have lost their children to violence spilling across our borders; which we can solve. we have to solve it.
[Cheering and Applause]
[Chanting "Build That Wall"]
TRUMP: These families have no special interests to represent them. There are no demonstrators to protect them, and certainly none to protest on their behalf. My opponent will never meet with them or share in their pain, believe me. Instead my opponent wants sanctuary cities -
[Booing]
TRUMP: -- but where was the sanctuary for Kate Steinle? Where was the sanctuary for the children of Mary Ann and Sabine and Jamiel? Where was the sanctuary for all of the -- oh, it's so sad to even be talking about it because we can solve this problem so quickly. Where was the sanctuary for all of the other Americans who have been so brutally murdered and who have suffered so, so horribly?
These wounded American families have been alone, but they are not alone any longer.
[Cheering]
TRUMP: Tonight this candidate and the whole nation stand in their corner to support them, to send them our love and to pledge, in their honor, that we [23:05:02] will save countless more families from suffering and the same awful fate.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities!
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: I have been honored to receive the endorsement of America's Border Patrol Agents --
[Applause]
TRUMP: -- and will work directly with them to protect the integrity of our lawful, lawful, lawful immigration system; lawful.
[Applause]
TRUMP: By ending catch and release on the border, we will end the cycle of human smuggling and violence. Illegal border crossings will go down. We will stop it. It won't be happening very much anymore, believe me.
{Applause]
TRUMP: Peace will be restored by enforcing the rules for millions who overstay their visas. Our laws will finally receive the respect that they deserve.
[Applause]
TRUMP: Tonight I want every American whose demands for immigration security have been denied, and every politician who has denied them, to listen very, very closely to the words I am about to say: on January 20th of 2017, the day I take the oath of office, --
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: -- Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced.
[Applause]
TRUMP: We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone, but my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens.
[Cheering and Applause]
[Chanting USA, USA, USA]
TRUMP: My plan is the exact opposite of the radical and dangerous immigration policy of Hillary Clinton. Americans want relief from uncontrolled immigration, which is what we have now. Communities want relief, yet Hillary Clinton is proposing mass amnesty, mass immigration and mass lawlessness.
[Booing]
TRUMP: Her plan will overwhelm your schools and hospitals, further reduce your jobs and wages and make it harder for recent immigrants to escape the tremendous cycle of poverty that they're going through right now and make it almost impossible for them to join the middle- class.
I have a different vision for our workers: it begins with a new fair trade policy that protects our jobs and stands up to countries that cheat,
of which there are many.
[Applause]
[23:10:04] TRUMP: It's been a signature message of my campaign from Day One, and it will be a signature feature of my presidency from the moment I take the oath of office.
[Applause]
TRUMP: I have made billions of dollars in business making deals. Now I'm going to make our country rich again.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: Using the greatest businesspeople in the world, which our country has, I am going to turn our bad trade agreements into great trade agreements.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: America has lost nearly one third of its manufacturing jobs sense 1997, following the enactment of disastrous trade deals supported by Bill and Hillary Clinton.
[Booing]
TRUMP: Remember, it was Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA, one of the worst economic deals ever made by our country or, frankly, any other country; never, ever again.
[Applause]
TRUMP: I am going to bring back our jobs to Ohio and Pennsylvania and New York and Michigan and all of America, and I am not going to let companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way without consequence; not going to happen anymore.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: My opponent on the other hand has supported virtually every trade agreement that has been destroying our middle-class. She supported NAFTA and she supported China's entrance into the World Trade Organization, another one of her husband's colossal mistakes and disasters. She supported the job-killing trade deal with South Korea. She supported the Transpacific Partnership, which will not only destroy our manufacturing, but it will make America subject to the rulings of foreign governments, and it's not going to happen. [Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: I pledge to never sign any trade agreement that hurts our workers or that diminishes our freedom and our independence. We will never, ever sign bad trade deals. America first again; America first.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: Instead I will make individual deals with individual countries.
No longer will we enter into these massive transactions with many countries that are thousands of pages long and which no one from our country even reads or understands. We are going to enforce all trade violations against any country that cheats.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: This includes stopping China's outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their illegal product dumping and their devastating currency manipulation. They are the greatest that ever came about; they are the greatest currency manipulators ever!
[Booing]
TRUMP: Our horrible trade agreements with China, and many others, will be totally renegotiated. That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better [23:15:01] deal for America and we'll walk away if we don't get that kind of a deal!
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: Our country is going to start building and making things again. [Cheering]
TRUMP: Next comes the reform of our tax laws, regulations and energy rules. While Hillary Clinton plans a massive, and I mean massive tax increase, I have proposed the largest tax reduction of any candidate who has run for president this year, Democrat or Republican.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: Middle-income Americans and businesses will experience profound relief and taxes will be greatly simplified for everyone; I mean everyone.
[Cheering]
TRUMP: America is one of the highest taxed nations in the world. Reducing taxes will cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into our country. Believe me, it will happen and it will happen fast.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: Then we're going to deal with the issue of regulation, one of the greatest job killers of them all. Excessive regulation is costing our country as much as $2 trillion a year, and we will end it very, very quickly.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: We are going to lift the restrictions on the production of American energy.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: This will produce more than $20 trillion in job creating economic activity over the next four decades.
My opponent, on the other hand, wants to put the great miners and the great steel workers of our country out of work and out of business. That will never happen with Donald J. Trump as President. Our steel workers and our miners are going back to work again.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: With these new economic policies, trillions and trillions of dollars will start flowing into our country. This new wealth will improve the quality of life for all Americans. We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of tomorrow. This in turn will create millions of more jobs.
[Applause]
TRUMP: We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice.
[Cheering and Applause] TRUMP: My opponent would rather protect bureaucrats than serve American children, and that's what she's doing, and that's what she's done.
We will repeal and replace disastrous Obamacare!
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: You will be able to choose your own doctor again.
And we will fix TSA at the airports, which is a total disaster.
[Cheering and Applause]
[Chanting USA! USA! USA!]
[23:20:01] TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you. We're going to work with all of our students, who are drowning in debt, to take the pressure off these young people just starting out in their adult lives. Tremendous problem.
we will completely rebuild our depleted military.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: And the countries that we are protecting at a massive cost to us, will be asked to pay their fair share!
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: We will take care of our great veterans, like they have never been taken care of before.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: My just released Ten-Point Plan has received tremendous veteran support. We will guarantee those who serve this country will be able to visit the doctor or hospital, of their choice, without waiting five days on the line and dying.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: My opponent dismissed the V.A. scandal; one more sign of how out of touch she really is.
We are going to ask every department head in government to provide a list of wasteful spending, on projects that we can eliminate in my First 100 Days.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: The politicians have talked about this for years, but I'm going to do it.
[Cheering and Applause]
[Chanting "Yes You Will"
TRUMP: We are going to appoint justices of the United States Supreme Court who will uphold our laws and our Constitution!
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: The replacement of our beloved Justice Scalia will be a person of similar views, principles and judicial philosophies, very important.
[Applause]
TRUMP: This will be one of the most important issues decided by this election. My opponent wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment.
[Booing]
TRUMP: I, on the other hand, received the early and strong endorsement of the National Rifle Association and will protect the right of all Americans to keep their families safe.
[Applause]
TRUMP: At this moment I would like to thank the evangelical and religious community because I'll tell you what, the support that they've given me, and I'm not sure I totally deserve it, has been so amazing and has had such a big reason for me being here tonight.
[Applause]
[23:25:03] TRUMP: True. So true. They have much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits. An amendment pushed by Lyndon Johnson many years ago threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax exempt status if they openly advocate their political views; their voice has been taken away. I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and to protect free speech for all Americans.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: We can accomplish these great things and so much more. All we need to do is start believing in ourselves and in our country again; start believing.
[Applause]
TRUMP: It is time to show the whole world that America is back, bigger and better and stronger than ever before!
{Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: In this journey I'm so lucky to have at my side my wife, Melania, and my wonderful children: Don, Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany and Barron. You will always be my greatest source of pride and joy; and, by the way, Melania and Ivanka, did they do a job? [Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: My dad, Fred Trump, was the smartest and hardest working man I ever knew. I wonder sometimes what he'd say if he were here to see this and to see me tonight.
[Applause]
TRUMP: It's because of him that I learned from my youngest age to respect the dignity of work and the dignity of working people. He was a guy most comfortable in the company of bricklayers and carpenters and electricians and I have a lot of that in me also. I love those people.
[Applause]
TRUMP: Then there's my mother, Mary. She was strong but also warm and fair-minded. She was a truly great mother. She was also one of the most honest and charitable people that I have ever known, and a great, great judge of character. She could pick 'em out from anywhere.
To my sisters, Mary Ann and Elizabeth, my brother, Robert, and my late brother, Fred; I will always give you my love. You are most special to me.
[Applause]
TRUMP: I have had a truly great life in business, but now my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country, to go to work for you. It's time to deliver a victory for the American people. We don't win anymore, but we are going to start winning again!
[Cheers and Applause]
[12:30:09] But to do that, we must break free from the petty politics of the past. America is a nation of believers, dreamers and strivers that is being led by a group of censors, critics and cynics.
Remember, all of the people telling you you can't have the country you want are the same people that wouldn't stand -- I mean, they said Trump doesn't have a chance of being here tonight; not a chance. The same people -- oh, we love defeating those people, don't we? Don't we love defeating those people?
[Cheering]
TRUMP: Love it; love it; love it. No longer can we rely on those same peopled, in the media and politics, who will say anything to keep our rigged system in place. Instead, we must choose to believe in America. History is watching us now. We don't have much time, but history is watching. It's waiting to see if we will rise to the occasion and if we will show the whole world that America is still free and independent and strong.
[Cheering and Applause] TRUMP: I am asking for your support tonight so that I can be your champion in the White House; and I will be your champion.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: My opponent asks her supporters to recite a three-word loyalty pledge. It reads "I'm WITH Her." I choose to recite a different pledge. My pledge reads, "I'm with you, the American people."
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: I am your voice. So to every parent who dreams for their child and every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight: I am with you; I will fight for you; and I will win for you.
[Cheering and Applause]
TRUMP: To all Americans tonight, in all of our cities and in all of our towns, I make this promise: we will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again. God bless you and good night! I love you!
[Cheering and Applause]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: There you have it; Donald Trump speaking for an hour and 15 minutes. This is the longest convention acceptance speech in, what, about 40 years. Bill Clinton spoke in 1996 for an hour and ten minutes, George H. W. Bush, in 1992 spoke, for an hour and eight minutes. This is the longest speech that we have seen at any of these conventions in either party. Melanie -- Melania Trump out on the stage. The children are now walking out. There's Barron, their 10-year-old son. Barron is there; it's the first time we've seen him out there at this convention. He came with Melania today.
[23:35:03] A lot of familiar themes delivered by the Republican Presidential Nominee, as other members of his family are about to walk out on the stage. Lots of discussion of law and order, American nationalism, America first. He kept repeating that. Lots of attacks on Hillary Clinton.
Jake, the family is coming out. Pretty soon we'll see the Vice Presidential Nominee, Mike Pence and his family coming out, and then there will be the confetti and the balloons. Jake, what did you think of the speech?
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for those who have been not following the primaries, this is the man who won the primaries. This was the Trump speech.
There he is; he's joined by his Vice Presidential Candidate, Governor Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence. They have three adult children, Michael, Charlotte and Audrey.
So the speech was, I would say this is how Donald Trump won. He painted a dark and a frightening picture of America, talked about a people being attacked by criminals, attacked by terrorists, betrayed by their leaders, that the game is fixed; and he said he would be their voice, almost echoes of Richard Nixon's silent majority, especially in some of the issues he's discussed.
He talked about law and order, talked about stopping illegal immigration. He started talking about fair trade deals and bringing jobs back. He was going to revitalize the mining and steel industries he said; and it sounds as though he promised an end to U.S. interventions abroad. He also, of course, touched on some other issues, including veterans. Very few details; promises along the lines of we will fix the TSA, but no details how he'll do that.
We can get into it later, but obviously some of the things he said about foreign policy, he said different things at the time, including dealing with Gadhafi or Mubarak; but we can do that later when we do more fact checking of the speech.
Remarkable speech in how many Republican orthodoxies it deviated from. Not any major discussion of god; not any major discussion of what faith has meant to him; and reference to the LGBTQ Community, I'm sure that's a first mention at a Republican convention; not promising anything other than to protect them from being killed by terrorists, but still a mention of them, and a thanks to the audience for not booing him.
We saw there are some fireworks over Lake Erie. In addition, we had a Republican Convention booing trade deals. This has been part of Republican party dogma for decades. And we had not a talk about the United States as a shining city on the hill, American exceptionalism, how we are going to try to reshape the world. It was very much a nationalistic speech, inward looking, talking about fixing the United States; not about the United States a beacon around the world. A talk of changes and fixing the United States.
A Bush, a George H. W. Bush speech writer describing, on Twitter, describing the United States that Donald Trump described as a dark and frightening place, and it was a real deviation from the Ivanka Trump speech right before it, Wolf.
BLITZER: And there were almost nonstop criticisms, very sharp attacks on Hillary Clinton, and it was only just beginning. We're going to be hearing a lot more about that. Anderson, a very, very forceful speech delivered by this Republican Presidential Nominee.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: With a remarkable number of promises, unclear exactly how he would do this, he said safety will be restored; we're going to defeat ISIS and fast; I will restore law and order, believe me. He talked about appointing the best prosecutors and law enforcement personnel to get the job done. Everyone will get treated equally, he said. Again, unclear how he will make that happen. Said Hillary Clinton wants to abolish -- essentially abolish the Second Amendment; John King?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Interesting; we talked before the speech, it's not just what you say but how I say it. I've been in touch with a bunch of veteran Republicans during the speech who are saying they see quite a deal of merit. They say he made a pretty effective change case. The "I'll fight for you" was a good message on the economy and they believe the safety and security, both national and personal security was a good message for Donald Trump to deliver, but they were concerned deeply about the tone. They said it was dark, the language was harsh and it seemed negative.
There were nuggets in there, what we talked about before, of what you could call, as Nia said before, a new brand of compassionate conservatism, I want [23:40:00] to get into the inner-city; I want to help African-Americans and Latino-Americans who don't have job; but those were quick references and then it became more of we're in trouble, we're under siege. These, again, the strategists saw a lot of merits in the themes, they very, very worried about the tone.
COOPER: Gloria?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Anderson, this was more Richard Nixon than Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was all about morning in America, and while at the end of the speech there was some hope and optimism should he be elected, what I think Donald Trump was doing was appealing to disenchanted people who feel left out; and in doing so talked about a very dark America and the state of affairs in this country as an indictment Hillary Clinton saying her legacy was death, destruction, terrorism and weakness. Now, he did appeal to these people by saying, these voters, I am your voice, but I am not sure that he is broadening the base that he needs to get if he's going to win.
COOPER: Let's hear from some Trump supporters; Jeffrey Lord?
JEFFREY LORD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: To be honest, this reminded me of Franklin Roosevelt. In 1932 Franklin Roosevelt gave a speech called "The Forgotten Man Speech" in which he went through a list of people in America that had been left out, that no one paid attention to. He even cited the banks
and sort of things that Donald Trump cited here. It sounded to me, very much like that. FDR said we need to get back to commonsense and business sense. Last night you heard Don Trump Jr. talk about having a doctorate of commonsense. Donald Trump, of course, is business sense. This is the newest Trump project, to do for America here, as a builder, what he has done for himself.
COOPER: Corey Lewandowski, first of all, just personally what is it like for you to hear that speech, to see this night, to be - to witness -- I mean, you worked on this for a long, long time, to make this happen.
COREY LEWANDOWSKI: it's interesting being up here and not being down there. it's a different perspective and I can tell you that personally it's very reflective and it really a great honor for me to have been a small piece of what took place down there, but I think the speech tonight is really exactly what Gloria said. He talked about the problems our country has, how he wants to fix
those problems; he's talking about people who don't have a voice anymore and what you've seen from Donald Trump over the last four days, and people who've talked on his behalf are a man who solves problems, whether it's the (inaudible) problem or it's a golf course that needs to be fixed, whether it's a building that can't be done, he's someone who gets it done and he's going to bring that same type of mindset to the federal government and fix the problems that he outlined tonight.
COOPER: Dana Bash is on the floor; we're going to hear more from our panel in just a second. Dana Bash, take it away.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yesterday we talked about the unconventional convention. This is about as conventional as it gets. You see the confetti is coming down and a lot of excitement; a lot of excitement, as you can see here. The reaction here, you can see it on television, now question; but the reaction here has been -- there's a lot of energy. You can very much feel it in the crowd.
One thing I want to say that was kind of surprising. As we were standing here was to see the way these people, who were not sure, many of them, who told me, in person, we're not sure what they're getting with Donald Trump thirteen months ago when they saw that he made this announcement, had signed on to his message. As you can you see by the balloons, by the excitement around here, it's been a very long and very winding thirteen months but they've gotten to the place where they feel comfortable, most of these people with Donald Trump as their nominee.
COOPER: Dana, thanks very much. We'll continue to check in with you. Corey, you've listened to a lot of these speeches, as the campaign manager. Was it much different than the traditional Donald Trump speech?
LEWANDOWSKI: I think it was very much the same speech that he's had throughout this campaign. He's talked about - you know, he's added the notion of judicial appointments now and how important this election is as it relates to judicial appointments, and what that does to the Second Amendment; but if you think about the trade note he's talking about, the budget issues, he's talked about Obamacare, (inaudible), but many of the same themes that he has been talking about for thirteen months, particularly immigration reform and building a wall is something that has brought this campaign to where it is today.
COOPER: And to those who John King talked to, Republicans who said they felt, perhaps, the tone perhaps too dark, what do you think?
LEWANDOWSKI: Look, again, I think Donald Trump coming out of the block, has not changed who he was. We've been talking about these same issues for the last fifteen or twenty years. It's what this campaign has been built on, which is our country's in trouble. I can fix it, that's what he talked about, that's what he instilled in people and that's what people believe right now. So he's trying to fix that. COOPER: It was interesting though, David Axelrod, I mean, going from Obama, where the crowd would chant yes, we can, you had the crown chanting here, yes you will to Donald Trump.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes; it was interesting. Look, I think there were a couple of points on which he probably scored: one [23:45:01] was trade. Ironically, it's an issue that divides this party, but it's an issue that's been a key to his support; and on veterans. I'm sure he did very well with that.
But let be clear; I mean, Jeffrey, I love you brother, but Franklin Roosevelt - Franklin Roosevelt said "we have nothing to fear but fear itself". This speech was be very afraid; that's very, very different.
LORD: David, with all due respect, when you go back and read FDR speeches, he's in essence, in some of these early speeches, in 1932, telling people they ought to be afraid. They ought to be afraid of the banks. They ought to be --
AXELROD: I don't - they were in the midst of the Great Depression, but let me say, this was the most relentlessly negative acceptance speech. I went back and read Ronald Reagan's acceptance speech from 1980, and I was struck by, even as he was making attacks, how uplifting the speech was. There was nothing to this speech like that. This was a relentlessly negative speech.
Now, it may work. It may work, but --
BORGER: I think -
COOPER: Even the citing of crime statistics, I mean, if you look at crime has been declining steadily, according to FBI statistics, since the Nineties. at specific cities, you can look at -- which is how Donald Trump portrayed it but to say that there is this -- that crime is the worst that it's ever been -
AXELROD: The other element of the speech that I thought noteworthy was, you now, they're playing, "You Can't Always Get What You Want", but really, the speech was you can get everything you want and I'll tell you how you're going to get it later. There were very few specifics.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: Ivanka even, at one point, said when he's elected, anything will be possible. I thought, you know, comparing Ivanka's speech and this speech, it really was, I think, two pieces of the same half, an appeal to white women, as she talked about maternity leave; she talked about equal pay, essentially framing herself as ambassador to women in a Trump White House; and even here when he talked about - he name checked Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit and Ferguson. He said every action that he would take, he would ask himself does this make life better for people in those communities? I think that would be news to people in those communities because he hasn't really talked much about it - much about those people. He certainly didn't mention criminal justice, which is what a lot of those folks want to hear people talk about. I also thought, in all of these speeches that we heard tonight,
Ivanka, Donald Trump, he talked about the little guy. Ivanka talked about looking in the newspaper and him finding some random person, bringing him to the office and helping him. It would have been nice to hear from those average people that Donald Trump is so invested in.
COOPER: Or even one of them.
HENDERSON: Yes; it would have been nice.
COOPER: Ana Navarro? Van Jones?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, if you are a Republican who came to this convention hungry for uplifting, unifying, optimistic, visionary speech, you're going home starving. If you are an American who was hoping to see the Donald Trump from the primary pivot into a more unifying general election candidate, you are sorely disappointed today. I found myself halfway through his speech wishing they would bring Ivanka back.
I have to day, what they did today, on the final night of this convention, putting Joe Arpaio on, in prime time, in the - you know, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who, for Latinos, immigrants, for most of us, that guy is less popular than the Zika carrying mosquito. For them to do that is a slap in the face of Latin-Americans and Hispanics in this country. It just tells me he's not interested in (inaudible).
He can eat all the taco bowls he wants. He did nothing but talk about illegal immigrants in that speech. He couldn't put in one, one damn good story of an illegal immigrant. He couldn't find one positive thing to say about immigrants in America? I think that this speech did nothing to grow his base. It did a lot to energize his base, it did nothing to grow his base.
COOPER: Jeff or Corey, you want to respond to that?
LORD: Yes; I mean, I heard a different speech entirely.
NAVARRO: You always hear a different speech; you and I apparently live in parallel universes.
LORD: Well, --
NAVARRO: I mean, I just don't like living (inaudible).
LORD: Right, but we're now in this universe. We're now in the Trump universe, which is (inaudible) here. Again, Ana, when I keep saying and I've said to Van over the months, et cetera, is, enough of the identity politics. We're all Americans here. There are no -
NAVARRO: It's a really easy thing for you to say as a white man living in America, in Pennsylvania.
LORD: No, no. No, no.
NAVARRO: It's a very difficult to thing to say to a black man, when you see today a man who was shot for trying to save an autistic man from killing himself in my hometown of South Florida.
LORD: Ana, it is very difficult because we keep doing this.
NAVARRO: No, no; it's very difficult because in America there's nothing but fear and division.
COOPER: But there's a lot of people who see this and say this is about white identity politics.
[23:50:01] LORD: Is Sheriff Clarke white? Is Ben Carson white? Is Cheryl Scott White?
COOPER: No, but the vast majority of this crowd is and -
LORD: They're all Americans. I mean, how many people down here, Anderson, are gay? I have no idea.
COOPER: I've seen one, that I can tell, but --
LORD: Peter Thiel; I mean -
COOPER: No, not Peter Thiel; a guy with sequins on the jacket.
LORD: My point - my point is -- my point is, who cares? They're all Americans. That's the problem -- we have been parceled out, vulcanized, everybody is supposed to fight against one another based on their sexual preferences, their race, etcetera.
COOPER: Van?
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I came here tonight with an open heart. I think you saw that. I was prepared to hear him do something extraordinary, and never underestimate the power of a single speech to turn a country around. Ivanka was beautiful. She gave a general election speech. If you have a pulse, if you have a functioning brain stem, you should have been saluting Ivanka Trump. His friend, who tried to humanized him, did beautiful job.
But what Donald Trump did tonight is a disgrace. That was a relentlessly, even for Donald Trump, who at least occasionally breaks up the fearmongering with some jokes, with some asides be, some amusement, he had one funny line in an hour and 15 minutes and the is rest of it was a relentlessly dark speech. He was describing some "Mad Maxx" America.
I work in some of the toughest neighborhoods, in some of the toughest communities in this country and I don't know what he's talking about, when he describes the country he's talking about.
There was some schizophrenic psychopathic attempt to pull apart the Obama coalition, but from a political point of view he even botched that. He says he reaches out to the LGBT community and he says, foreign ideologies that hate you, I'm against it. The domestic ideologies that hate you he's apparently for because they're in his platform. He says he's going to reach out to African-Americans and deal with
their economic pain. It's hard, Anderson, to get a job if you're a community that's over-policed and you have a criminal record. Every other leader, on the country on both sides of the aisle have is talked about criminal justice. He didn't.
I am actually -- I've never felt this way in my life. I have read in history, being in moments where there's some big authoritarian movements of some leader that's rising up, and I felt that way tonight and it was terrifying to me. This speech divided the country. You're either inspired by this or you're terrified by it. I'm terrified by it. I'm terrified by it, Anderson.
COOPER: Corey?
LEWANDOWSKI: He reach out to the Bernie Sanders people tonight. he said on many occasions, he used Bernie's name. He wants to make sure he's bringing new people into the fold. What he also talked about, and you heard this earlier in the night, how big of an increase there has been in voter participation in the Republican Party, and how down the Democratic Party process has been. The reason for that is people are fed up with Washington.
You can call it party of identity politics; you can call it what you want. The basic premise is Washington, D.C. is broken. It's been broken for a long time.
JONES: Of course.
LEWANDOWSKI: The people are fed up. They're not fed up because they're white. They're not fed up because they're black.
JONES: I didn't say that.
LEWANDOWSKI: Washington, D.C. is broken. Until we do something -
JONES: You're a legal -
LEWANDOWSKI: -- to fix the government, --
COOPER: Let him finish. Let him finish.
LEWANDOWSKI: -- people are going to be frustrated. What they want is, they want a leader to go to Washington and fundamentally reform it. That means fix our trade policies, reduce our deficit, make our neighborhoods safe, make sure we're not going to wars that we don't belong in. That's what they're asking for and that's what Donald Trump is, as a leader.
JONES: I would have stood up -- if he would have given that speech, I promise you -
LEWANDOWSKI: He did give that speech.
JONES: -- I would have stood up and I would have applauded; that was not the speech he gave. He wasn't tough on Washington D.C. He was tough on Latino immigrants. He was tough on ordinary people.
LORD: He (inaudible) on politicians all the time.
JONES: Am I wrong?
NAVARRO: To me -
KING: I'm just saying the Clinton Campaign is happy tonight. I was going to relay a private conversation with someone first, but they just put up a statement, from the Clinton Campaign, from the Chairman, John Podesta, and he just talks about more fear, more division. He says this proves that Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be President, totally unqualified. He said there's more prejudice and more paranoia.
COOPER: But, I mean, it's obviously, they're going to say that. To Corey's point, this is the speech that he's been giving and this is the speech got him here, and there's a lot of people -
[Cross Talk]
NAVARRO: This reminds me of Donald Trump for the last 14 months.
AXELROD: This is the operative -- this is the operative question: will the things that he did in the primary get him the votes he needs to win a general election and a much broader and more diverse electorate? And he is making a bet that that same message can yield enough votes to win in a very diverse country. I think that's a tough bet.
BORGER: You know, he was making, in almost apocalyptic terms, the need for change, right? I mean, the language, I was circling words as he talked about them: law and order; crisis; danger; terror; disaster; humiliation.
LORD: All true.
[23:55:01] BORGER: Right; but what he's doing is, he's making the case for change in the starkest terms I've ever heard.
LORD: I don't think -
BORGER: But it's not about hope. It's about this --
LORD: But, Gloria, it can't be any more stark when you have dead policemen in the streets of Dallas and Baton Rouge, when you've got dead Americans on the streets of France. That's frightening.
BORGER: Right, and the solution that we heard tonight are not different, as Corey was saying, from what we've heard before. Build a wall, you know, immigration, etcetera, etcetera; but with I found that, you know, I was looking for something, your favorite person, more Reaganesque and I don't - I didn't feel that with Donald Trump at all.
COOPER: John? KING: Look, we've said this -- how any times have we said this? Trump is Trump. He's going to do what he thinks is right. He's going to trust his gut. This is the message he thinks is going to work. We're going to see if he's right or not because he's proven a lot of people wrong in the last year.
I will just tell you, to the point I was making about the Clinton Campaign, we're 115 days out. David knows the mechanics and the math and the machinery better than me. You have to have a voter model by now. You've identified people. You know who is going to vote for you; you know who might vote for you; you know the people who you might want to turn out who might not be terribly enthusiastic for you. That is the Clinton's campaign's biggest worry because they do think there are some of the Africa African-American community, some in the Latino community who are not enthusiastic about her, especially as enthusiastic as they were about Barack Obama; and their big worry tonight was Donald Trump would do something to open some minds and to try to at least get a second look, not win them tonight, but at least get a second look. They don't think he did. Are they right? Who knows, but they don't think he did.
BORGER: I think where was the most effective, honestly, is when he said her slogan is "I'm with her" and my slogan is "I'm with you, the American people." And when he said it, he said it a couple of times in this speech, "I am your voice" I think that's effective. I think that was the most effective part of his speech.
JONES: First of all, he is not my voice and he's not the voice of a lot of people. if you're looking for a politician who struck those kind of tones, don't talk to me about a Ronald Reagan or and FDR. That was George Wallace. That speech sounded, frankly, a lot better when George Wallace gave it because it had a little bit more humor in it when George Wallace gave it. That speech was one of the most relentlessly dark and divisive speeches in the history of this country.
COOPER: This is a tweet sent out by John Weaver, the Kasich camp strategist, he said "Hell, speeches like this are a dime a dozen in Tegucigalpa, Caracas, Asuncion, Donetsk."
LORD: Is that the John Weaver that elected Senator McCain? I'm just curious.
NAVARRO: No, he actually left the McCain campaign before McCain won the nomination.
LEWANDOWSKI: Well he did a great job in John Kasich's campaign.
NAVARRO: The John Weaver who was the campaign manager for the governor of Ohio, that Donald Trump got into a fight with this week.
AXELROD: I want to make a point on immigration, and you'll know this, John, because you're fluent in this. In every exit poll, what struck me was even in the Republican primary, Republicans were not really -- they were not really warming up to Trump's immigration position. I said before, I thought he scored with the trade position and he may
have touched some people with that but there was not great enthusiasm for the wall; there was not great enthusiasm for the deportation; and he's doubled down on it tonight and I'm not sure that helps him at all.
HENDERSON: It played in this room. You heard them chanting, "build the wall, build the wall, build the wall". You also heard them "lock her up".
COOPER: It was interesting when they were chanting "lock her up," I don't know if you could see, he was basically -- with lowered hands, --
GLORIA: He didn't go there.
COOPER: -- he was sort of putting the kibosh on it and he said -
HENDERSON: Let's beat her -
COOPER: -- let's beat her in November.
KING: They worked on that in speech prep.
GLORIA: I'm sure.
COOPER: They did?
KING: Yes; they asked him not to take the bait.
COOPER: Interesting.
LEWINDOWSKY: If you look at who the speech is directed at, say take Ohio, Pennsylvania, states that are absolutely critical for him to win in order to get elected President of the United States, states that are very -- they've been hammered on the trade issue, their jobs have been shipped overseas, they've left their states, people in the - they've traditionally been Democrats, they've been working those mills and those mines, coal miners specifically talked about he wants to put those people back to work; those states are what are going to propel him to the presidency if he's going to be successful in November and that's who this was designed to.
KING: You're exactly right, but is like drawing to an inside straight, in the sense that he has to win Pennsylvania; very tough. It's doable but it's a heavy life. George W. Bush tried twice; so hard to win it, couldn't win it. It's doable, but it's tough.
Has to win Ohio; and then what? If he can't win Florida and his home state -
LEWANDOWSKI: Right.
KING: -- I think is going to be -- I think we can camp out right there, because if he can't get those 29, --
NAVARRO: Tied, please don't.
KING: If he can't get those 29, then where does he get them? You can do Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, game over; he's the next president of the United States. But if he loses the 29 in Florida because of Latinos and immigration or whatever else based are Latinos, where do you get the rest -
JONES: John?
KING: -- that's the issue? Then you have to get with Wisconsin -
JONES: John?
KING: -- and Michigan.
BORGER: Right.
JONES: John, listen, I agree with you 100-percent. The Rust Belt is sitting there for him. It's available to him because of Hillary Clinton's position on trade, and the idea that he could go up there and he could make a good showing for himself, I thought - I said from the very beginning, that is his way, that's his pathway to victory.
