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CNN Live Event/Special
Coverage of the Democratic National Convention; Diversity Represented at Democratic Convention; Spotlighting Cory Booker; Elizabeth Warren Slams Donald Trump; Previewing Tomorrow's Speakers. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired July 26, 2016 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[23:59:46] MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: I want someone with the proven strength to persevere. Someone who knows this job and takes it seriously. Someone who understands that the issues the President faces are not black and white and cannot be boiled down to 140 characters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Obvious reference to Donald Trump. But I think it was interesting that her kind of recasting Hillary Clinton as somebody who never gives up, somebody who never back down.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that is one of Hillary Clinton's great comparative -- that's one of her assets. Whatever else people think about her they think of her as tenacious and that tenacity, you know, presented the right way is exactly what people would want in a president.
So, you know, in politics what you try and do in messaging is seize on your assets, your comparative advantages and run with it. So, you know, the flip side of some of the things that people don't like about her is that she's indefatigable, she's tenacious and she's strong. And they know that, and this is what Michelle was trying to --
COOPER: It also gives a nod even to the personal issues she's had in her marriage --
AXELROD: Right. Of course.
COOPER: -- without actually referencing it.
AXELROD: Right.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Right. And I think she also -- I mean she said at some point she doesn't quit, she doesn't buckle under pressure. And then she said she had the guts and grace to keep putting cracks in the glass ceiling. So I thought it was interesting the way she was able to make that case that this was an historic candidacy.
AXELROD: I want to pick up on that for one second --
HENDERSON: Yes.
AXELROD: -- just because I want to give a shout out to a young woman who has been writing speeches for Michelle Obama now for eight years. They've got a great collaboration. Sarah Hurwitz who was in the Hillary Clinton campaign and wrote that speech about the 18 million cracks back in 2008.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.
HENDERSON: Fabulous.
AXELROD: And so there's a certain roundness to the fact that she came back tonight with Michelle --
COOPER: So she left the Clinton campaign when the Clinton campaign ended back in 2008?
AXELROD: And to the Obama campaign and she started writing speeches for Michelle Obama. And she's been writing them ever since.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: The other thing that was remarkable, I thought, about Michelle Obama's speech was just sort of coming out there and saying, don't let anybody tell you this country is not great.
And, you know, the Democrats, you know, there's this thing called American exceptionalism -- right. And the Republicans always have charged historically that the Democrats don't think America is great. And so you had the first lady saying, America is great, and you have the Republican presidential candidate saying you need to make it great again, because it's terrible right now.
JEFFREY LORD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, you know --
BORGER: So it's a flip.
COOPER: In fact, Donald Trump in the interview he gave with the "New York Times" just saying that the United States shouldn't be lecturing to other countries or telling other country because of the problems here which is a real reversal of Republican stances.
LORD: But, you know, historically speaking candidates, the out party makes this argument. I mean this was -- this was John F. Kennedy's famous argument against the Eisenhower-Nixon years. And when he was chastised for it he said I downgrade the country, Mr. Nixon, I downgrade the leadership the country's getting which is what Donald Trump is saying here. He's saying almost exactly the same thing.
So there's plenty of precedent for this. This is -- I mean Barack Obama spent all of 2008 castigating the Bush administration. This is what candidates do.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What I think is remarkable though is that there is I think you're seeing born here, what I would just call a deeper patriotism. I felt that the patriotism that I saw from the Republicans last week was a kind of a cheaper patriotism. Sort of it didn't have that uplifting quality, didn't feel affirming. It felt like bad people are out there, we have to get together.
This deeper patriotism, and I think Michelle Obama's speech is going to go down as a corner stone in an attempt to say, listen, we love this country so much even those of us who suffer here, even those of us who maybe didn't fit in before, we're coming together and saying there is an America that includes us and that is great.
And so the exceptionalism then comes from a Dr. King. The exceptionalism then comes from Susan B. Anthony. The exceptionalism comes from a Stonewall. But it is a view of American exceptionalism.
LORD: You know, one of the things, now that you mention this, that I did not notice on the floor and maybe I missed it -- you know, at the Republican convention, lots of flags. I didn't see those here, and that sends its own message.
COOPER: And you also didn't have --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: -- I think you also didn't have -- pretty much at the Republican convention, I remember, pretty much everyone ended their speech with God bless America.
LORD: "God bless America" -- that's right.
COOPER: I may be wrong, but I don't think we heard --
PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: You have a fair amount of that. But I think that's part -- again what made Mrs. Obama's speech so important for reasons that Van states but also because she has not been a partisan first lady. She's not been polarizing.
You know, I worked for President Clinton and Hillary was a trail blazer of the sort that was a Roosevelt -- and very polarizing. Mrs. Obama is a unifying figure. And she is seen as deeply patriotic.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: Right. She has focused on things that we all agree on and we all care about, especially those military families. And so when she stands up -- I'm sorry -- when she stands up and says I trust her -- this person who is polarizing and partisan and a politician -- she says I trust her with my children. This is really, really powerful.
[00:05:03] LORD: But, you know, Pat Smith trusted her son to Mrs. Clinton's care -- Secretary Clinton's care in Benghazi and she didn't take care of him.
BEGALA: That's a cheap shot.
LORD: You know.
BEGALA: Come on.
How many embassies and consulates were attacked when Bush was president?
LORD: I don't know the answer. Do you?
BEGALA: 20 -- 66 people were killed. How many congressional investigations? Zero. How many front page stories? Zero. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes me crazy.
That was a terrible tragedy, it's been investigated at the Hill. She was cleared even by the partisan super PAC of the Republican House of Representatives and even they cleared her.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: All I wanted to do was I just want to make a quick point about the America that was represented here which is a diverse, you know, more progressive -- I mean it speaks to the election we're going through here. They're very distinct constituencies -- very distinct world views that were reflected in Cleveland and reflected here.
You know, these guys articulated how they see the world view that was reflected. But there was much more diversity on the stage, there was a celebration of that diversity. This is what has become known as the Obama coalition. That was what was represented on that stage and what's going to be tested in this election is whether that could be --
COOPER: John -- is there any risk in that in your view?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In the sense -- I get it, (inaudible) two presidential elections. In this climate now when Donald Trump is making such a big deal about immigration and we're in this state, and I think the American people are going to have a very clear choice here. That's what you want in politics.
But you know, when you have the dreamer girl and the undocumented mother, there will conservatives out there saying you had illegal people in your hall and you were celebrating.
COOPER: And not -- I think I was looking at some of the tweeting. Someone was doing conservative who was saying I think he's voting for Hillary. (inaudible) was saying not much talk about legal immigration as opposed to undocumented immigrants coming into this country, and essentially sort of raising the same point I think David Frum tweeted out about is -- is it all the same and there was no real talk about legal immigration.
BORGER: That's true.
AXELROD: Yes, but one of the things that -- you know, one of the things I was struck by in this discussion and as I listened to the speeches is that when you look at polling, a majority of Americans support comprehensive immigration reform just as a majority of Americans support, you know, background checks on guns and so on. So, you know, if you were just looking at the cold hard politics of this, I didn't see things happening on this stage that put this party in opposition to a majority of Americans whereas last week I did.
PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: -- politicize this issue I mean we humanized it earlier. If we're going to politicize it, now -- I mean Van and I were talking about this earlier. We see more Hispanics registering to vote right now. We see more people who are eligible to become citizens actually taking that extra step and becoming citizens so that they can vote against Donald Trump. And that is a very, very big deal. And I think only positive for this election.
AXELROD: The question Patti is --
BORGER: It's about bringing out your base, and you want to get your base registered.
I just want to say one thing about Hillary Clinton here because it's like a tale of two Hillarys -- right. If you watched the Republican convention last week, Hillary Clinton was a criminal. You ought to lock her up. She's responsible for Benghazi as Jeffrey --
LORD: Those were the Bernie rallies too.
BORGER: Right. But you know, so you have this career politician, self-interested, and all the rest.
Tonight was the counter to that. Hillary Clinton was not the career politician. She was the public servant. She's someone Michelle Obama trusts with her children and the future of her children. She is someone who brought future -- a future to the dreamers. So she -- it's two different people --
LORD: That's why --
BORGER: -- that we are portraying here. And the point is, if you don't like Hillary, you're going to believe last week. If you like Hillary --
LORD: Although, this is why --
BORGER: You're going to believe tonight.
AXELROD: -- this is why polling in between conventions is careless. We're really not going to know how these conventions impacted on people until they both settle in and people have a chance to absorb all of these arguments.
LORD: Right.
COOPER: So you're saying not for weeks?
AXELROD: Yes. I think it is sometime in August.
JONES: August. Yes, then we'll know -- AXELROD: We'll get a sense of where this race truly is.
KING: It's important though that Trump did get a bounce. I agree that it could --
JONES: No doubt.
KING: -- it could be completely fake and temporary. But you'd rather have one than not have one. But Labor Day is when we look at this. We'll have the Olympics. After the Olympics look at it, then you have a better --
[00:09:50] JONES: I think that, you know, John is trying to raise something that I don't think the Democrats have wrestled all the way through. You said is there a danger? Can you go too far? Can you overshoot your skis here so that you wind up looking like you're a party that only cares about a certain set of group and doesn't care about those Trump voters.
And I think that there is a danger. I think that there's -- there's still pain out there, you were talking about those union guys. They're out there. They have economic pain.
They also have the pain of I worked hard to send my kid to college. Then my kid comes home and calls me a bigot. I don't know where I fit in anymore. I'm not even respected in my own house and my paycheck doesn't look right. And I cut all the TV and I'm no longer sure if I fit in America anymore.
And so when somebody says I'm going to make America great again, there's a medicine --
AXELROD: Right.
BORGER: Right.
JONES: -- that they're giving those people, and I think we have to do a better job as Democrats of identifying with that pain and dislocation.
We're asking people across the West to do something very difficult which is to absorb a lot of change in a short period of time. And people need more help than they're getting from the Republicans or the Democrats.
COOPER: When then somebody tuning to the opening of this dimension and hearing Spanish spoken a lot or in the first 15 minutes -- was that a danger?
JONES: I am proud that we did that, because that's America. But I think that if there's some rug burn there and somebody doesn't feel comfortable with it, I think before we rush and say well, your discomfort makes you a bigot, I think we have to --
(CROSSTALK) AXELROD: I think we'd better wait and see when the whole rug is laid out because this is the first night of this convention. And the question is what portrait do people take away from it at the end of four nights of this convention? Because they were very self-conscious about how they dealt with tonight. His point is right.
HENDERSON: I agree.
BEGALA: If you want to heal those wounds, I think there are real divisions in America, and all three of the last three presidents came in to say I want to heal. I want to heal -- right.
Bill Clinton was sworn in with his hand on the Prophet Isaiah saying "Thou shalt be called healer of the breach". Bush was a uniter, not a divider. Obama, no red states, blue states.
Trump is taking a different approach. He's deepening and widening divides that are there on race, on religion. The Democrats are saying stronger together. What they did that I think was really smart, they didn't say you're a bigot if you don't like that we speak Spanish. They put really appealing people up to represent it the same way that the most homophobic person stops being a homophobe when he realized that his daughter's gay. He can't hate his own daughter so when you put a human face on it, it's much harder to hate.
LORD: When you saw Peter Thiel at the Republican convention, where was the pro-life Democrat who was on this platform tonight? Or will it be --
BEGALA: Bob Casey -- Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: But he didn't speak about that.
BEGALA: I'll go talk to his speech writer. He gave a speech about economic populism which is his most important issue.
BORGER: So I think what Van is saying and maybe you're saying this Jeffrey too, is that at some point during this convention, somebody has to come up and say to the voters, and maybe some of them are Independents, I don't know. Maybe they're not gettable but we understand your anger. We understand why you're so upset, and this is what we're going to do to help you.
JONES: And what I'm saying is this is a very tough leadership challenge because it's across the west. In other words, I am proud -- I wish not only am I glad that they spoke Spanish, I wish we had more Muslims, and maybe we'll hear them and let them be able to Allah which they weren't able to say at the Republican convention. I want to see the full diversity, I'm very comfortable with that.
But I also know how hard it is for people to deal with change. And if you want change and you want to push it, and I want to push it, you also have to be able to figure out a way to hold those people who need a little bit more support and love in the process. And sometimes we don't do that.
LORD: It's not hard to deal with change. It's hard to deal with what direction the change is going to take the country. There's always going to be change. I mean from Carter to Reagan was change; from bush to Obama was change. You know, from Truman to Eisenhower it was change. So it's just, you know, which direction are we going? And that's the question.
JONES: On this demographic change point which we've struggled about so hard over these past many months, I sometimes feel that we don't do a good job of understanding some of the just discomfort but maybe I'm wrong.
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: No, no, I think there's sort of a quiet fury out there. I mean when I talk to folks, you know, when I'm at home or when I, you know, go to Cleveland and they stop me and talk, they really are upset here. They really feel that America is being divided into all kinds of different parts, and in essence we're reversing out of what is it -- out of many one, and making it out of one many and bulkanizing the whole country and they really are upset about that.
AXELROD: But you know, this is what -- when you say it's a question of which direction we go, isn't that what elections are for?
LORD: Yes. I mean -- it is.
AXELROD: And what is incumbent on the Democratic Party and this convention is to leave people with a clear sense of where they want to lead --
LORD: I agree.
AXELROD: -- and then that's what the context which gets back to that --
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: -- which gets back to that "Washington Post/ABC poll and the 68 percent that think the country is going in the wrong direction and one of Trump's nicknames for her is the secretary of the status quo.
[00:15:07] BORGER: Right, well --- but to this group and tonight what they were saying is, and Bernie Sanders was the one to point it out, well, ok, look at what it was before Barack Obama took office seven and a half years ago. Look at how bad it was -- right.
And what Hillary has to do is say I'm not going to be the status quo. Here's where we are. Here's how I'm going to make it better. And here's how I understand the pain and the dislocation you feel because you feel like you haven't had a raise in 15 years.
LORD: Right.
AXELROD: Let's not forget, the most important speech of this week is Thursday night.
JONES: That's right.
AXELROD: Everybody else can do her a lot of good but the most important speech is Thursday night.
I just want to make two points about tonight. I thought that the close was very, very strong. I thought Bernie did very, very well for Hillary Clinton. The one thing that he didn't do that probably would have been helpful is to say that she was legitimately the winner.
And -- because I think the thing that is bouncing around this hall is this notion that somehow she is not legitimately the winner, which really, and I think -- you know, I have deep admiration for Bernie Sanders. I think he ran a fantastic campaign, but I said on a set like this about six or eight weeks ago when he was very much questioning the legitimacy of the process that he was playing a dangerous game, because you're sending a message to your supporters that is hard to reel back. It would have been good if he closed the chapter on that here.
JONES: I see it differently. First of all, had he done that, I think you would have had an eruption because I don't think that people are there yet. Listen, I think that she won. But it's hard to say she won fair and square because of the -- there were so many complaints all along.
It's not like because of the e-mails now.
COOPER: Wouldn't that have sort of evoked the whole e-mail issue?
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: Let me -- I get mad about the e-mails.
AXELROD: Because of the e-mails it was even more important to -- I don't think you had to be self-conscious about it, but some statement to it may have been helpful.
JONES: I see it differently and I'll tell you why. First of all there were there were missed opportunities on the part of both the DNC, frankly the White House, and the Clinton campaign as this (inaudible) to come up long.
I'm not mad about the e-mails. I'm mad that months ago people were saying they felt like the process was unfair and nobody did anything. They felt that there were voting irregularities and nobody did anything.
These things were starting to build. So then the e-mails -- that's just the last straw. And so because those opportunities -- I would have loved for Hillary Clinton to come out arm in arm with Debbie and with Bernie and have said three months or four months ago, if you see any voting irregularities, call this number. We don't want that. We want a --
BORGER: You think Bernie would have --
AXELROD: You think, Van -- you think that he lost the nomination because of voting irregularities?
JONES: No. No, no, no, no. I don't think that. I don't think that. But what I do think is that when your kids are playing a game, even if your team wins by 19 points, if you feel like the referee was unfair or they're getting away with cheating --
AXELROD: Right.
JONES: Nobody feels --
BEGALA: The DNC isn't the referee, the voters are.
JONES: The DNC is the referee.
BEGALA: Nonsense. They're apparatchiks. And they had private opinions that were odious in many cases. I'm really embarrassed. And I think the new chair, Donna Brazile rightly apologized. But they didn't rig anything. They said some really awful things in private but Bernie just lost.
AXELROD: There were times during the campaign that the scheduling of debates -- you know.
BEGALA: I'm totally with you on that. And I said it at the time.
COOPER: Saturday night, fightnight?
BEGALA: That's indefensible.
COOPER: Let's take a quick break.
Coming up, he evoked memories of Barack Obama with a speech that put the then future president in the national spotlight. We'll hear some of Senator Cory Booker's convention remarks -- next.
[00:18:58] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: The Democratic national convention in Philadelphia. Cory booker, the senator from New Jersey, he spoke at length tonight. Listen to what he said about Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D), NEW JERSEY: Trump -- our children, our daughters, our nieces and grand kids have watched Donald Trump and heard him calling women degrading and demeaning names -- dogs, fat pig, disgusting animal. It is a twisted hypocrisy when he treats women in a manner he would never ever accept from another man speaking about his daughters or his wife.
In this great nation where our founders put a fundamental principle forward of religious freedom, he says ban all Muslims. Don't let certain people into our America because of how they pray. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: He kept referring to Donald Trump by name, not simply with veiled innuendo, if you will.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: This is a very strong case that the Democrats are making is that Donald Trump is not a nice person and says a lot of mean things about a lot of different people, that he is a divisive figure. It is part of their case, their prosecution.
I actually thought though that that was not the strongest part of Senator Booker's speech. I thought the more positive part of the speech about what America can be, where he kind of in many ways evoked then state Senator Obama's speech about there not being one blue America and red America, just the United States of America.
That got the crowd on their feet in a way that I haven't seen a non first lady's speech get people on their feet. I say that because obviously the first lady's speech was the biggest crowd pleaser of the night.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes. For sure. But Cory Booker's was the first crowd pleaser of the night that really got people to pay attention on their feet.
[00:25:01] And I think, you know, for people who don't know that much about him, maybe sort of vaguely know his name, got a very big window into the kind of politician that he's tried to be since he was actually very young as mayor of Newark, New Jersey, trying to be positive. Talking about the declaration of interdependence and talking about how people need to be dependent on one another. That is definitely very much the kind of message that resonated here and probably he hopes will continue to keep his profile up.
BLITZER: I'll play that clip. We have it right now when he speaks about America will rise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOOKER: This is our history. This is our history -- escaped slaves, knowing that liberty is not secure for some until it's secure for all. Sometimes hungry, often hunted, in dark woods and deep swamps, they looked up to the North Star and said with a determined whisper, "America, we will rise".
Immigrants risking their lives in times of sweat shops and child labor, they organize labor unions and devoted themselves to lifting the tired, the poor and the huddled masses. With fiercest of the grit they shouted so all could hear, "America, we will rise".
King pointed to the mountain top. Kennedy pointed to the moon from Seneca Falls to those who stood at Stonewall in giants before us said in a chorus of conviction, "America, we will rise".
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: That was a very strong, well written part of his speech.
TAPPER: I don't know who wrote it. Maybe he did, maybe he has some aides working with them but it was a very beautifully written speech.
BASH: It really was. You know, beforehand I was talking to some people who had seen his speech or were working at the conventions and said that it was very, very emotional but he was going to blow the doors off. That was a pretty high expectation. He did well.
And actually, you were talking about then state Senator Barack Obama. It's a reminder that these platforms at these conventions really do shine a light on the people who party officials believe and hope will be part of the next generation. People who, you might not have heard of but, you know, remember they spoke way back when.
Bill Clinton spoke in 1988 -- maybe didn't have the kind of impact that he wanted to.
TAPPER: That was not a positive.
BLITZER: That was the longest speech.
BASH: Exactly, exactly. It's the longest keynoter introduction. But in any event, it's a reminder of how important this stage is.
BLITZER: Bill Clinton's speech in 1988 -- it was very long. It was criticized. But you know what happened in 1992? He got the Democratic presidential nomination and became president of the United States.
TAPPER: Senator Cory Booker is -- I think he's about 47 years old. It's interesting. He is such a part of the Democratic establishment right now as a young, up and coming star as you saw highlighted here.
It's interesting to remember that he got his start as a total outsider running against a corrupt Democratic machine in Newark, New Jersey. Ran against Mayor Sharp in Newark, lost, ran again as a city councilman. Ultimately (inaudible) it was a totally corrupt Democratic system -- the kind of thing that really gives the Democratic Party a bad name. Since then he served as a mayor in Newark, and then ran for the U.S. Senate.
BLITZER: I have another clip from the Senator Cory Booker speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOOKER: Love. Love knows that every American has worth and value that no matter what their background, no matter what their race or religion or sexual orientation, love, love recognizes that we need each other, that we as a nation are better together, what when we are divided we are weak. We decline, yet when we are united, we are strong. When we are indivisible, we are invincible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: And he got a huge amount of cheers when he said love trumps hate.
TAPPER: One of the reasons, might I observe -- one of the reasons I think why this speech was so well received is that it kind of came out of nowhere. Cory Booker, he's known for a lot of great things and charisma and energy, but I've never heard him really referred to as like one of the great orders of the Democratic Party.
But all of a sudden he was stirring people. You saw at the beginning of the speech, Bill Clinton was kind of -- they cut away to him, he's sitting there like this. By the end of it he was clapping. He was excited. And that happened for the entire room.
BLITZER: And you saw him sweating. He kept taking out the handkerchief to wipe the sweat off his brow -- we're talking about Cory Booker. He got into it passionately in delivering that speech.
BASH: No question. And the "love trumps hate" phrase was something that was obviously kind of carefully planned, part of the idea that's been woven through the entire first night including with signs all over the floor.
[00:30:08] TAPPER: Right. That was one of the themes, obviously.
BASH: Exactly.
TAPPER: ... that was part of it but, yeah, I mean, I think it's fair to say that, you know, Hillary Clinton, he was on the shortlist to be vice president.
BLITZER: Was he actually ever vetted?
TAPPER: I believe he was. He was then -- he was one of the last three -- it was him and Vilsack and then obviously Tim Kaine and -- no, he got the call saying I'm sorry that you weren't picked. I mean he was in that group. He wasn't -- But what's interesting is the thought about him, I think widely held is that, you know, he's great but there isn't -- he's not seasoned enough.
BASH: Exactly. No. He's very new to the senate.
TAPPER: He's only been there and for a three or so years but still I think he really -- I think he really wowed a lot of Democrats.
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: Exactly.
(OFF-MIC)
BASH: They passed away, he came to the senate and then he ran again for and one for a full-term but he also made his name by working very hard with Republican in New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie against the teacher's unions ...
TAPPER: Right.
BASH: ... which is not something that would, you know, endear him to most Democratic.
BLITZER: And clearly he's seen as a rising star.
BASH: No question.
BLITZER: That's why they gave him this prime time platform tonight. They gave him plenty of time.
Some people thought he used too much of that time.
BASH: Yeah. I love Bill Clinton.
BLITZER: They're getting plenty of times to make his case.
TAPPER: But Donna is right. That is one of the "strikes" against him.
BASH: Right.
TAPPER: Is that the Democratic teachers unions are not huge fans of his because he's really going against a lot of their wishes working with Chris Christie in New Jersey. Not always to unheralded acclaim.
BASH: OK.
BLITZER: Are the Democrats more united tonight?
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: After the speeches are the Democrats more united tonight?
BASH: It appears that they are but, you know what, appearances are one thing and we'll see what happens tomorrow with the roll call vote.
I think that's going to be very, very telling. Because they're going to do a 50 state roll call and we're going to see and hear from the Bernie Sanders people. They're going to be able to get a voice which Bernie Sanders made sure to tell them in his speech tonight.
BLITZER: He's always looking forward to that roll call. Do you think they're more united tonight?
TAPPER: It appears that way and again, I'd like to see polling in maybe a week or two and Bernie Sanders supporters because a lot of them -- and I want to harp (ph) on it but a lot of them we're still very skeptical of the Democratic machine.
You heard Sarah Silverman, Bernie Sanders supporter, who is going to switch to Hillary Clinton. And, you know, when I asked her why she switched originally from Clinton to Bernie also and she started, it was like she was thinking about like the man with whom she'd fallen in love.
And, you know, I remember he came and was still pure and he didn't take money from Super PACs, and I just thought that, you know, and then back to reality, he's not your nominee.
So we'll see. We'll see.
BLITZER: Guys standby, up next Elizabeth Warren's argument against Donald Trump's vision for America and their claims about what he do to the economy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:36:52] COOPER: And welcome back to our continuing coverage. And the hall is pretty much empty now. Obviously most folks are going home. But hey, we're still here.
Let's talk about Elizabeth Warren. I want to share some of what she had to say -- let's play this first and then we'll talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D) MASSACHUSETTES: Here's the really ugly under side to his pitch. Trump thinks he can win votes by fanning the flames of fear and hatred by turning neighbor against neighbor, by persuading you that the real problem in America is your fellow Americans. People who don't look like you or don't talk like you or don't worship like you.
He even picked a vice president famous for trying to make it legal to openly discriminate against gays and lesbians.
That's Donald Trump's America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I think a lot of people, perhaps even in this hall, expected a more firry Elizabeth Warren. And we've certainly seen her go after Donald Trump, you know, incredibly aggressive ways using humor but also, you know, with some memorable lines.
She really didn't do that at all tonight. Was this, do you think, because it was such a, you know, a big venue, such a big audience watching at home? She wanted to moderate the message?
KING: It would be interesting to ask her. Because at the beginning of the day, the Clinton campaign apparently and said we're going to go after Trump some but we're more on the Trump policy contrast, we don't want it to be so personal.
She has fun with it if you on when she campaigned with Secretary Clinton. She gets great joy, and the Clinton campaign loves her because she gets under Trump's skin. A lot of people say things about Donald Trump and nothing happens.
When she speaks, you get the Pocahontas' twits and you get all the other stuff in and she's part -- part of what they're trying to do is disqualify Donald Trump. They're trying to say it's too risky to be your commander in chief and he's too divisive. Think about your children. Think about your neighbor. You don't want this guy as your president, that she's key to that in the campaign trail but you're exactly right. She dialed it back of it in this hall. BORGER: She also came after Michelle Obama who had this kind of uplifting speech. It's a hard act to follow and I think that with this audience, they probably told her to hold back anyway but she was just as critical of Donald Trump.
I mean, one of the things I wrote down here was she called him a man who has never sacrificed anything for anyone period, and he never lifted a finger to help working people. That's part of her ...
JEFF LORD: Except, of course, provide, you know, thousands and thousands of jobs.
Elizabeth Warren, with all due respect has never created a single job in her life, and neither for that matter has Hillary Clinton.
So, you know, when they going to go out and make that case, I don't think it's going to go very hard.
BEGALA: He's created thousands of jobs in Bangladesh and China. But what -- I think what Senator Warren was trying to get at with less personal and more populous, something Hillary's campaign needs. A populous economic critique.
They're running against the billionaire for crying out loud. And yet they haven't had the populous edge that I think the country is calling for in her party's. Trump has a lot of that in his own.
COOPER: Let's play some of what she said about Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN: We believe we don't need weaker rules on Wall Street. We need stronger rules, and when big banks get too risky, break them up.
[00:40:05] Hillary Clinton will fight to hold big banks accountable, and we're with her. And we believe that the United States should never, never sign trade deals that help giant corporations but leave workers in the dirt.
Hillary will fight for American workers, and we're with her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AXELROD: Say something about the style of what she said, because I'm not sure that she didn't do the right thing. The material was very strong. I mean, she was leveling strong attacks. I don't think that she needed to lean in to those attacks, and for the people at home, it may not have played as well in the hall. I think for the people at home, it probably played pretty well, and by the same token I know there was a lot of enthusiasm for Senator Booker's speech.
I was less enthusiastic about that speech, because I don't -- I think he was at the same sort of decibel level the whole speech. It was ...
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: And the end was great. But in order to facilitate that kind of ending, a little bit of modulation would have been good.
HENDERSON: Yeah, for booker, I felt like there wasn't much sort of an emotional center to his speech there.
If you look at Obama's speech from 2004, he kind of began small, he began personal. He began with his father, his parents and his unlikely journey. And I thought Booker sort of began too big and he sort of stayed there. He sort of didn't realize for instance that the microphone works. So he was yelling the entire time.
JONES: Let me say something though about what had to happen today. We started the day in chaos. I mean, it was as bad as bad that gets. I mean, listen, I saw you, you were smiling, and that was frightening to me, sir.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: But think about that. Because this morning we were in total chaos. Jeff, you were the happiest I've seen you, and it was bad.
And it is very difficult in any relationship when things get that far off the rails. Think about, you know, any relationship. It's hard to get it back.
What she saw was a Democratic Party that was able to layer the speeches in a way, the first person that came out that got universal applause was Cory Booker. He came out -- also you heard Cory, Cory. It wasn't Bernie, Bernie. It was Cory, Cory. I agree with you. I think he started off a little bit flat. He saved himself at the end. But you had one successful speech.
OK. Then you come on with the next and the next. And the real healing happened. Sometimes when miracles happen, we just ignore them. This morning I thought it was going to take a miracle for us to be here and to see you smiling and happy, it was not clear this morning that you were going to be happy.
(CROSSTALK)
DOYLE: I was a little nervous. I was a little nervous.
AXELROD: Go ahead.
DOYLE: Now, I was going to say, no you're absolutely right. It was a rocky start of the day. It was a rocky day yesterday, for sure. And we saw sort of the pillars of the Democratic Party come together tonight, each giving great speeches.
You know, I think Elizabeth Warren was victim of bad scheduling. She was sandwiched between powerful speakers. But she's going to be fantastic on the road. And I'm with you. Like it was a good night, it was a very good night.
AXELROD: I'm not sure, by the way, that I would have arranged the program quite this way because I might have ended on Michelle Obama on that emotional high. But, you know, I do think that we make a lot of -- you're right, Van. This morning the story was chaos. And yesterday the story was Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Part of that is you got 3,000 reporters here who have nothing to write about until the convention starts. And once the convention starts, then the campaigns have the ability to take control of the story. And they did a nice job of taking control of the story tonight.
LORD: I'd love to know where Debbie Wasserman Schultz was. Was she down there on that floor?
HENDERSON: I don't think so. We would've ...
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Compare this to what happened at the Republican convention because this started out in a really bad way. It was chaotic. Then it kind of ended up fine with Bernie and unity and see how long that last.
JONES: Bridge over troubled water?
BORGER: With Cruz everyone was really hopeful that there might be some unexpected -- this little endorsement in there, and it never came, and he was booed at the end and then Trump came out. So people went away angry that night.
And here they might be going away happy.
COOPER: Although the campaign, that actually unified the ...
BORGER: So it might have helped Trump.
LORD: Well I think it may have, and you know, to my surprise because I thought Ted Cruz might do something good. I was with him 99 percent of the way, and then he kind of went off the rails.
COOPER: Maybe he's watching with Debbie Wasserman Schultz tonight.
Let's take a look and get a reality check with Tom Foreman. Tom.
[00:45:12] TOM FOREMAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah Anderson, all of these speeches, no matter how good have to survive this kind of scrutiny in the end. And Elizabeth Warren really went after Donald Trump on this idea that he really is an uncaring opportunist who doesn't have any care for anyone else, especially when it comes to the housing crisis.
Listen to what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN: Donald Trump said he was excited for the 2008 housing crash that devastated millions of American families because he thought it would help him scoop up more real estate on the cheap.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FOREMAN: As a popular phrase for people who don't like him out there and indeed in 2006 he said, "I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy."
He was asked about the idea of a bursting of the housing bubble at that time. Then in 2007 he was going to ask about the same idea and he said "I'm excited if it's about the burst, the bubble. I've always made more money in bad markets than in good markets."
If you look at it in this context and you know what's going to happen in 2008, it looks very damning.
But the truth is, he didn't know what was going to happen in 2008. Nobody did. It was simply a hypothetical question he was answering and indeed even when he was answering hypothetically, he thought it would be a more moderate bursting out there. And he subsequently also said he always worried about the people who lose in these circumstances.
This was all hypothetical. She painted it like it was a real reaction to 2008, in the end we to say our verdict on this is false. He wasn't talking about that. She took it all out of context. You can find out a whole lot more about all of these inspiring speeches and how they match up to reality at cnn.com/realitycheck. Anderson.
COOPER: All right Tom. Thanks very much. Coming up, we're going to look ahead to tomorrow's convention headliners, former President Bill Clinton and the night's focus on race and justice in America.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:51:16] COOPER: Welcome back to our coverage of the Democratic National Convention, the end of day two -- day one tomorrow, of Bill Clinton probably the biggest speaker of all. And that had talked the sort of the theme race and justice in America.
KING: It's a very important issue for Democrats at this convention, number one because it's so important to them in their campaign but number two, because of what Donald Trump said in Cleveland that appears to have given Donald Trump some momentum. The tough talk about law and order, the tough talk about security.
You heard a little bit of it tonight, Elijah Cummings and Congressman Gutierrez from Chicago, talked about violence in there neighborhoods, talked about discrimination in their neighborhoods including by police. But also both of them struck a balance defending the law and saying we have to stand with law enforcement. It's critical here because you'll going to have leaders from the Black Lives Matter Movement.
You're going to have Bill Clinton, who in this term he's suspect to some of the liberals but he signed that 94 crime there, even though he's a hero and the party, there are some issues on which he's a little suspect.
So the balance that you where talking about this a little bit earlier, you were talking about you have people who disagree with you, don't just say you're an idiot or bigot, try to respect their views. The balance the Democrats strike on the tone on law and order and security is critic the key.
COOPER: And on police as well.
KING: Right.
AXELROD: Yes.
COOPER: That their treatment of police, what they say about police?
AXELROD: My guess is that there along the course of the week there's going to be a balancing of the scales here. I don't think this is just going to be a discussion of people who've the victims of police violence, but also the role that police have to -- that police play but I also believe that tomorrow is going to be a very much a personal sort of tour of Hillary Clinton's life, and that Bill Clinton is going to cap that discussion.
I don't think the whole night is going to be about criminal justice issues and criminal justice reform. I think it's going to be about the fights that Hillary Clinton has made because one of the important goals of this convention has to be to give people a richer sense of her history and her motivation which a lot of people don't have.
BORGER: You know, Bill Clinton gave I think, arguably the best speech at the last Democratic convention.
AXELROD: I would absolutely then.
BORGER: And he explained the rationale for Barack Obama's reelection, I think, better than the president than Obama himself, he may just disagree with me.
JONES: I think Obama said that.
AXELROD: I'm not going to -- I don't disagreeing with you.
BORGER: OK, and the question is whether he can do it for his wife, you know ...
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: There is that issue there.
KING: He's always had issues there because it gets to -- the people say he gets too personally. If they will do it for Obama, they can do it for Hillary, yes, yes.
BORGER: It does and that's and, you know, is it, you know, is it too personal?
AXELROD: I think it's a mistake for him to try to play that role for her.
BORGER: Right. AXELROD: What she really needs is for people to get a richer sense from him about who she is, about the fights of her life, about what motivates her. He knows those things better than anybody. He's been there for those past 40 years.
BORGER: And he can say, you know, she perseveres, she doesn't give up, she doesn't give in. She's loyal, right?
HENDERSON: Yeah.
BORGER: I mean, all of those at time and attributes that he can talk about also in terms of racial justice.
JONES: That's right.
BORGER: He can be nuanced about that.
HENDERSON: And I think the people he's talking to are people and to the people ...
BORGER: And that was change.
HENDERSON: Yeah and I think the people he'd be talking are people in Pennsylvania, the working class white voters. He went to Pennsylvania I think 18 times during that primary fight he's very a well liked among older whites and older African-Americans as well, so he's got a real audience and a real story, I think that needs to be told about Hillary Clinton.
JONES: For the younger voters, you have a whole set of African- American voters and their allies who do have a suspicion.
If you look at Michelle Alexander's book, "The New Jim Crow" which has become almost the bible for the Black Lives Matter Movement, she is very tough on Bill Clinton. And so you have a whole generation of people that's really all they know about him because they came of age with Trayvon Martin and they came with age with Ferguson, they came of age with Baltimore and so for them, they need to hear from him.
Did they hear his heart because he, he himself, has said that and so has Newt Gingrich, that they overshot the runway a little bit but I think he have got an opportunity, I think he may over estimate how well-known and he is with the younger folks.
[00:55:16] And that Bill Clinton charm can breakthrough, but I think he should do that, I think that in addition to humanizing her, he has also got a humanize himself a little bit.
BEGALA: The use of her, use of her, he's got one mission when has his wife. He's the spouse.
This is very difficult case, also former president did actually have the job. So, the speech that Axe is talking about and Gloria is talking about, is not the speech I want to hear tomorrow night. I'd had the job, it's a really hard, she can do it. OK, that's what he said about the president last time because he was speaking as a former president. Hillary and her friends say this s also -- and she's have the least known famous person you've ever met. Take us behind that she show us the person Patti and I've known for 25 years.
That's the only thing. I don't want to fix for the crime bill. I don't want to ...
BORGER: Do you think he'll do that? He's a guy.
COOPER: And we're going to take a break here. Our coverage continues with Don Lemon at the CNN Grill right after this. Stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
