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CNN Live Event/Special

Vice President Joe Biden Addresses Convention; Biden: Trump "Doesn't Have A Clue About The Middle Class"; Bloomberg: Trump Is A Risky, Reckless And Radical Choice; Bloomberg: Clinton Understands This Is Not Reality TV, This Is Reality; Bloomberg: "The Richest Thing About Trump Is His Hypocrisy"; Bloomberg On Trump: "I Know A Con When I See One." Aired 9-10p ET

Aired July 27, 2016 - 21:00   ET

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

[21:00:02] JILL BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN'S WIFE: ... principles and compassionate. He was authentic long before it became a buzz word in politics. He understands that working people are the backbone of this nation, and he has tremendous empathy for those in need. He knows, as I do, that education is the great equalizer, and that community colleges are America's best kept secret. And he believes, as I do, that we have a special obligation to our military and their families.

He has a deep commitment to justice and he has spent his whole career standing up to the abuse of power. He knows at its best, politics is always a matter of the heart. And he remains today even after all he's been through, the most optimistic person I know.

He loves his family. He loves this country. He's your vice president and my husband, Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, UNITED STATES VICE PRESIDENT: But you know my dad used to have an expression. He said a lucky person gets up in the morning and puts both feet on the floor. He knows what he was about to do and he thinks it still matters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For over 40 years, Joe Biden has had the courage to speak out and lead on the toughest issues facing America.

BIDEN: When I wrote the violence kids woman act back in 1989, I think people, although they cared about it, thought maybe there was not much we can do about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But he saw an injustice too great to ignore. Violence against women was a moral stain on the conscience of a nation.

BIDEN: We created the civil cause of action to empower women who are abused in this country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For millions of women, the violence against women act has provided protection, support and the ability to rebuild their lives. Apartheid in South Africa offended everything we stood for as a nation, but America was slow to act.

BIDEN: I'm ashamed of the lack of moral backbone to this policy. These people are dying. You feel frustration, they're dying. They're being shot, of lined up they're shooting children.

Our loyalty is not to South Africa, it's to South Africans.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Genocide in Bosnia challenged the world. Joe Biden spoke out.

BIDEN: What's going on is an atrocity. This guy is a thug, a war criminal. It's truly a shame what we're allowing to happen. We're acting collectively as a free world like cowards.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the 1990s, the NRA threatened to anyone who crossed them. Joe Biden took them on.

BIDEN: We will not step back from the commitment we have made to the American people to give them safe streets, safe homes and safe schools. That's why we fought the gun lobby and passed a ban on assault weapons.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's the kind of courage we need today in Congress to stand up to the NRA.

When the freedom to love who you choose, was being denied by our own government, Joe Biden said no more.

BIDEN: And what this is all about is a simple proposition, who do you love? Who do you love? And will you be loyal to the person you love? And that's what people are finding out is what all marriages at their root are about, whether they're marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's over. The long constitutional debate over whether gay couples have a constitutional right to marry is over and the answer is yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For Joe Biden, the one sacred obligation of a nation is to those who have served.

BIDEN: The veterans of America are not only the heart and soul, but you are the very spine of this nation who have served and sacrificed for all of us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And for those military families who have lost loved ones, who have sacrificed the most, he's offered hope.

BIDEN: There will come a day when the thought of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It will happen.

[21:05:07] My prayer for you is that day will come sooner or later, but the only thing I have more experience than you in is this, I'm telling you, it will come.

I believe we need a moonshot in this country to cure cancer. It's personal.

Like many of you, I've experienced in my family the dreaded C word. Every year around the world, 14 million people are diagnosed with cancer.

We are going to fundamentally change the face of cancer.

BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: And because he's gone to the mat for all of us on so many issues over the past 40 years, I'm putting Joe in charge of mission control.

BIDEN: In the last 22 years, violence against women is dropped 64 percent and more people are reporting. But the one place it hasn't change is on college campuses.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today he's leading a movement to end sex abuse on college campuses.

BIDEN: Unfortunately, one in five women will be the victim of sexual assault while a student. And that's why we launched the "It's on us" campaign. It says one, I promise to intervene when I see something. Two, I promise to create an environment where sexual assault is unacceptable. And three, no consent means no.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A gut-wrenching story that has gone viral.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vice President Joe Biden has written a heart fed letter to a survivor.

BIDEN: I do not know your name, but your words are forever seared in my soul. Your words will help people you have never met. You have given them the strength they need to fight. I do not know your name, but I will never forget you.

Let's change the culture so that no abused woman or man ever feel they have to ask themselves what did I do. They did nothing wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was the great battles over civil rights and the Vietnam War that brought Joe Biden to public life. And he hasn't flinched or walked away from the great battles that have driven and defined this nation ever since. His, has been a career defined by honesty, passion and conviction. And throughout it all, when it mattered most, he's forced us all to look deep in our souls and ask, is this who we are as a nation? And perhaps more importantly, is this who we want to be?

BIDEN: I am more optimistic about America's chances today than I have been my entire life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden.

BIDEN: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I love you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you. Ladies and gentlemen, eight years ago I stood on a stage in Denver and I accepted your nomination to be vice president of the United States. And every single day since then has been the honor of our lives for Jill and me. Everyday we've been grateful to Barack and Michelle for asking them to join us in this -- join them in that incredible journey.

[21:10:00] A journey that can only happen in America. But we not only have worked together, as it become pretty obvious, we become friends. We're now family. We're family.

Folks, you've all seen over the last eight years what President Obama means to this country. He's the embodiment -- he is the embodiment of honor, resolve and character. One of the finest presidents we have ever had. That's right.

This is a man of character. And he's become a brother to Jill and me. And Michelle, I don't know where you are, kid, but you're incredible. You are incredible.

When I was talking to Barack today, it's no longer who's going to give the best speech. We already know who did that. You were incredible Monday night. To the Delaware delegation as they say in Southern Delaware, Barack and I married way up. Way up.

Folks, as I stand here tonight, I see so many friends and colleagues like my buddy Chris Dodd and the Connecticut delegation. So many people are here. I see the faces of those who have placed their belief in Barack and me, so many faces, but one. This is kind of a bittersweet moment for Jill and me and our family.

In 2008, when he was about to deploy to Iraq and again in 2012 our son Beau introduced me to the country and placed my name in nomination. You got a glimpse. I know I sound like a dab (ph), but you got a glimpse of what an incredibly fine young man Beau was. Thank you. Thank you.

His wife Hallie and his two kids are here tonight. But as Ernest Hemingway once wrote, the world breaks everyone, and afterwards, many are strong at the broken places. I've been made strong at the broken places by my love Jill, by my heart, my son Hunter and the love of my life, my Ashley. And by all of you, and I mean this sincerely, those you've been through this, you know what I mean what I say.

By all of you, your love, your prayers, your support, but you know what, we talk about -- we think about the countless thousands of other people who suffered so much more than we have with so much less support. So much less reason to go on, but they get up every morning, everyday. They put one foot in front of the other. They keep going. That's the unbreakable spirit of the people of America. That's who we are.

That's who we are. Don't forget it. Like the people in the neighborhood that Jill and I grew up in. She will have grove and me down in Wilmington in Claymont. The kid in Claymont with the most courage always jumped in when you were double teamed or your back was against the wall, who became a cop because he always wanted to help people. The middle daughter of three daughters who always made her mother smile, who was a hero to her sisters, now a major in the United States Marine Corps because Mr. Vice President, I wanted to serve my country.

[21:15:09] The teachers who Jill knows and so many of you know who take money out of their own pockets to buy pencils and notebooks for their students who can't afford them. Why? Why? Because being a teacher is not what they do. It's who they are.

You know what I know. For real, these are the people who are the heart and soul of this country. It's the America that I know, the America that Hillary knows and Tim Kaine knows. You know, I've known Hillary for well over 30 years. Before she was first lady of the United States, when she became first lady, we served together in the United States Senate and during her years as secretary of state once a week we had breakfast in my home, the vice president's residence.

Everybody knows she's smart. Everybody knows she's tough, but I know what she's passionate about. I know Hillary. Hillary understands. Hillary gets it. Hillary understands that the college loan is about a lot more than getting a qualified student education.

It's about saving the mom and the dad from the indignity of having to look at their talented child and saying sonny (ph), honey, I'm so sorry. The bank wouldn't lend me the money. I can't help you to get to school.

I know that about Hillary. Hillary understood that for years. Millions of people went to bed staring at the ceiling thinking oh, my God, what if I get breast cancer or he has a heart attack. I will lose everything. What will we do then? I know about Hillary Clinton.

Ladies and gentlemen, we all understand what it will mean for our daughters and granddaughters when Hillary Clinton walks into the Oval Office as president of the United States of America. It will change their lives. My daughters and granddaughters can do anything any son or grandson can do, and she will prove it, Mr. Mayor.

So let me say as clearly as I can, if you live in the neighborhoods like the one Jill and I grew up in, if you worry about your job and getting a decent pay, if you worry about your children's education, if you're taking care of an elderly parent and there's only one -- only one person in this election who will help you. There's only one person in this race who will be there, who's always been there for you and that's Hillary Clinton's life story.

It's not just who she is. It's her life story. She's always there. She's always been there and so has Tim Kaine.

Ladies and gentlemen, to state the obvious and I'm not trying to be a wise guy here. I really mean it. That's not Donald Trump's story. Just listen to me a second without booing or cheering. I mean this sincerely. We should really think about this. His cynicism is unbounded. His lack of empathy and compassion can be summed up in a phrase I suspect he's most proud of having made famous, you're fired. I mean really. I'm not joking. Think about that. Think about that.

Think about everything you learned as a child no matter where you were raised. How can there be pleasure in saying you're fired? He's trying to tell us he cares about the middle class. Give me a break. That's a bunch of malarkey.

[21:20:01] I tell you -- folks -- whatever he thinks, whatever he thinks, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, I know I'm called middle-class Joe in Washington that's not meant as a compliment. It means you're not sophisticated, but I know why we're strong. I know why we have held together. I know why we are united, it's because there's always been a growing middle class. This guy doesn't have a clue about the middle class. Not a clue.

Because, folks, when the middle class does well -- when the middle class does well, the rich do very well and the poor have hope. They have a way up. He has no clue about what makes America great. Actually he has no clue, period. But folks -- let me. You got it. Let me ...

OK. But folks, let me -- let me say something that has nothing to do with politics. Let me talk about something that I'm deadly serious about. This is a complicated and uncertain world we live in. The threats are too great. The times are too uncertain to elect Donald Trump as president of the United States.

Now let me finish. No major party, no major party nominee in the history of this nation has ever known less or has been less prepared to deal with our national security. We cannot elect the man who exploits our fears of ISIS and other terrorists, who has no plan whatsoever to make us safer. A man who embraces the tactics of our enemies, torture, religious intolerance, you all know, all the Republicans know, that's not who we are. It betrays our values. It alienates those who we need in the fight against ISIS.

Donald Trump with all his rhetoric would literally make us less safe. We cannot elect a man who belittles our closest allies while embracing dictators like Vladimir Putin. No, I mean it. A man who seeks to sow division in America for his own gain and disorder around the world. A man who confuses bluster with strength, we simply cannot let that happen as Americans. Period.

Folks -- I have -- no one ever -- no one ever doubts on me when I say, this is sometimes I say all that I mean, but folks, let me tell you what I literally tell every world leader I've met with, and I've met them all. It's never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America. We have the finest fighting force in the world. Not only -- not -- not only -- not only do we have the largest economy in the world. We have the strongest economy in the world. We have the most productive workers in the world. And given a fair shot, given a fair chance, Americans have never, ever, ever, ever let their country down! Never! Never! [21:25:11] Ordinary people like us we do extraordinary things! We've

had candidates before who attempted to get elected by appealing to our fears, but they'd never succeeded because we do not scare easily. We never bow. We never bend. We never break when confronted with crisis.

No, we endure. We overcome. And we always, always, always move forward. That's why -- that's why I can say with absolute conviction, I am more optimistic about our chances today than when I was elected as a 29-year-old kid to the Senate. The 21st century is going to be the American century because we lead not only by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.

That is the history of the journey of America, and God willing, God willing, Hillary Clinton will write the next chapter in that journey. We are America, second to none and we own the finish line. Don't forget it.

God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. Come on. We're America. Thank you.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The Vvice president of the United States, Joe Biden delivering a blistering attack on Donald Trump. He doesn't have a clue about the middle class, Biden said, not a clue. And then everyone started chanting, not a clue, not a clue. He also said, Jake, no major nominee has ever known less about national security.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: It was a very -- it was a rebuttal to Donald Trump's speech. He was talking about how Americans together can achieve and America is great. We endure, we overcome and we always move forward. And also, we've talked this week about how there hasn't been much in terms of appealing directly to the white middle class voters and the blue-collar workers that Donald Trump has attracted so far.

Middle class Joe from Scranton and his wife Jill, this was a direct appeal to middle class voters saying, Donald Trump does not care about the middle class. My nickname in Washington was middle class Joe.

I know it wasn't meant as a compliment. They were saying I wasn't sophisticated. But I am pushing for the middle class. I'm fighting for the middle class. And Hillary Clinton will fight for the middle class too. It was a testimony to her sharing his values as middle- class Joe.

BLITZER: This was the vice president you and I have covered for so many years, passionate, explosive, not mincing any words at all.

TAPPER: Many Bidenisms that we recognize were used, talking about how, you know, oh, come on, everybody, let's get serious for a second. Let's get serious. I mean this seriously, speaking off-the-cuff. We were told that the speech would be 12 minutes long. I don't think any of us expected actually that it would only be 12 minutes long.

He was very passionate. And let's remember also, I mean, this could be the last speech he ever gives to a Democratic Convention. I mean, nobody really knows what Joe Biden is going to do next. So, this was in many way, his swan song. He may never have an audience like he just did. And boy, did the people in this arena love him. They love Joe Biden.

BLITZER: They certainly do. And the tribute to his son Beau Biden who passed away was so moving to so many of us who knew Beau as well.

TAPPER: Beau was a great guy. I knew him personally. And I mean, it's also a reminder that Joe Biden has suffered more tragedies in his life than anyone deserves, having lost his wife and daughter early in his career and then, of course, his son beau not long ago to brain cancer.

And he had a message for those individuals out there who also have suffered and lost loved ones that life goes on and there will be a time when you will -- the memory of your lost loved one will bring a smile more than a tear.

BLITZER: Powerful speech from the vice president. Anderson, over to you.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, coming up, Michael Bloomberg momentarily, then of course vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine and then of course President Barack Obama.

An extraordinary speech certainly that in this hall reverberated loudly.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, the word vintage is really appropriate. That was vintage Joe Biden. And he did exactly what I'm sure Hillary Clinton wanted him to do because no one has more of a connection with working class America, with the middle class than Joe Biden.

He's made a career of it. He grew up in Scranton. We all know the story. And he brought that all to bear in taking aim at Donald Trump.

[21:30:02] GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, using language that everybody gets, it's sort of like, he says, Trump says, he cares about the middle class, give me a break, it's a bunch of malarkey as Joe Biden would said. But also on foreign policy, continuing the commander in chief theme, he made the case that Donald Trump would make us less safe and

he said no major party nominee has ever known less or been less prepared.

COOPER: Also using Donald Trump's perhaps his most famous line "you're fired" ...

AXELROD: You're fired.

BORGER: Yes, yes.

COOPER: ... using it against him in a very you know in way ...

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well essentially saying it's heartless. Who would cheer that kind of a line, who would want that as their brand, their shtick, their moniker? The only thing I disagree with Joe Biden on tonight is when he gave up so easily to Michelle Obama, by saying nobody is going to equal that speech because he came pretty damn close.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yeah, and there was a righteous ...

AXELROD: I'm not sure he meant that.

HENDERSON: ... there was sort of righteous ...

AXELROD: And I think he knew was there to do a job.

HENDERSON: Yeah, I think because of righteous indeed nation and anger there was almost like he was a coach on the field rousing the folks in this audience, rousing the Americans, essentially saying you're great, Americans have never let America down and America owned the finish line. I thought it was fantastic and it was really his moment and you can imagine he won't get a moment like this again.

COOPER: I also thought, Paul, about your comment about Bill Clinton last night saying that he doesn't call them speeches. He calls them talks and to me, that was a Joe Biden talk also.

PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Very conversational except it's shorter than most Joe Biden talks. Very disciplined, he knew exactly what he wanted to do and it was tough and it was strong. I got to tell you (inaudible) I was rolling my eyes while they're singing "What the world needs now is love, sweet love.", no.

What the Democrats need now it's soon to end toughness. We know they have a heart twice as they have spine, Joe Biden just put a steel spine in my party, and I couldn't be happier to see him up there.

COOPER: Van?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look I thought it was extraordinary. You know, you felt that connection. When he talked about the indignity of having turn to your kid and say I can't help you go to school. I mean, that's what so many parents are going through, I mean right now this summer, that's real for so many Americans. I know America and that's real and so he spoke directly in to the hearts of people.

COOPER: Jeffrey Lord, Trump supporter.

JEFFREY LORD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well that surprisingly, I disagree. You know what all of this reminds me tonight so far and last night. In 1984 there was an Apple commercial that they played during the Olympics, of you know, everybody was like a robot and everything and they were listening ...

COOPER: It was the 1984 Orwellian commercial.

LORD: Right, right, right and somebody comes along and color and throws a sledgehammer. Donald Trump is the sledgehammer and the message that is going out here to people at home is more of the same, more of the same, more of the same.

COOPER: And Mike Bloomberg now, former mayor of New York is being introduced, consider the presidential run decided not to, as a third- party candidate. Let's listen.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, (I) FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: Thank you. Thank you.

Kasim, thank you for that kind introduction and let me thank all of you for welcoming an outsider here to deliver what -- an outsider to deliver what would be an unconventional convention speech. Now I am not here as a member of any party or to endorse any party platform. I am here for one reason, to explain why I believed it is imperative that we elect Hillary Clinton as the next president of the United States.

And to ask you to join with me in supporting her this November. You know, when the founding fathers arrived here in Philadelphia to forge a new nation they didn't come as Democrats or Republicans or to nominate a presidential candidate. They came as patriots who feared party politics, and I know how they felt. I've been a Democrat, I've been a Republican, and I eventually became an Independent because I don't believe that either party has a monopoly on good ideas or strong leadership.

When I entered the voting booth each time I look at the candidate, not the party label. I have supported elected officials from both sides of the aisle and probably not many people in this room can say that, but I know there are many watching at home who can, and now they are carefully weighing their choices.

[21:35:02] I understand their dilemma. I know what it's like to have neither party fully represent my views or values. Too many Republicans blame immigrants for problems and they stand in one way, in the way of action on climate change and gun violence.

Meanwhile, many Democrats, I think, wrongly, blame the private sector for our problems and they stand in the way of action on education and deficit reduction. There are times when I disagree with Hillary Clinton, but let me tell you, whatever our disagreements maybe, I've come here to say we must put them aside for the good of our country.

And we must unite around the candidate who can defeat a dangerous demagogue. I believe it's the duty of all American citizens to make our voices heard by voting in this election and if you're not yet registered to vote go online and do it now. This is just too important to set out.

Now we've heard a lot of talk in this campaign about needing a leader who understands business. I couldn't agree more. I built a business, and I didn't start it with a million dollar check from my father.

Because of my success in the private sector I had the chance to run America's largest city for 12 years, governing in the wake of its greatest tragedy. Today as an independent and an entrepreneur and a former mayor, I believe we need a president who is a problem solver and not a bomb thrower. Someone, who can bring members of Congress together to get big things done, and I know Hillary can do that because I saw it first hand.

I was elected mayor two months after 9/11 as a Republican, and I saw how Hillary Clinton worked with Republicans in Washington to ensure that New York got the help it needed to recover and rebuild throughout her time in the Senate -- yes.

Throughout her time in the Senate we didn't always agree, but Hillary Clinton always listened, and that's the kind of approach we need in Washington today, and it just has to start in the White House.

Given my background, I've often encouraged business leaders to run for office because many of them share the same pragmatic approach to building consensus, but not all. Most of us who have created a business know they were only as good as the way our employees, clients and partners view us.

Most of us don't pretend that we're smart enough to make every decision by ourselves, and most of us who have our names on the door, know that we are only as good as our word, but not Donald Trump.

Through his career Donald Trump has left behind a well-documented record of bankruptcies and thousands of lawsuits and angry stockholders and contractors who feel cheated and disillusioned customers who feel they've been ripped off. Trump says he wants to run the nation like he's running his business? God help us. I'm a New Yorker, and I know a con when I see one.

Trump says he'll punish manufacturers that move to Mexico or China, but the clothes he sells are made overseas in low-wage factories. He says he wants to put Americans back to work, but he games the U.S. Visa system so he can hire temporary foreign workers at low wages.

He says he wants to deport 11 million undocumented people, but he seems to have no problem in hiring them. What did I miss here?

[21:39:59] Truth be told, the richest thing about Donald Trump is his hypocrisy. He wants you to believe that we can solve our biggest problems by deporting Mexicans and shutting out Muslims. He wants you to believe that erecting trade barriers will bring back good jobs. He's wrong on both counts. We can only solve our biggest problems if we come together and embrace the freedoms that our founding fathers established right here in Philadelphia which permitted our ancestors to create the Great American exceptionalism that all of us now enjoy.

Donald Trump doesn't understand that. Hillary Clinton does. And we can only create good jobs if we make smarter investments in infrastructure and do more to support small businesses, is not stiff them. Donald Trump doesn't understand that.

Hillary Clinton does. I understand the appeal of a businessman president, but Trump's business plan is a disaster in the making. He would make it harder for small businesses to compete, do great damage to our economy, threaten the retirement savings of millions of Americans, lead to greater debt and more unemployment, erode our influence around the world and make our communities less safe. The bottom-line is Trump is a risky, reckless and radical choice, and we can't afford to make that choice.

Now I know Hillary Clinton is not flawless. No candidate is, but she is the right choice and the responsible choice in this election. And no matter what you may think about her politics or her record, Hillary Clinton understands that this is not reality television, this is reality.

She understands the job of president. It involves finding solutions, not pointing fingers and offering hope not stoking fear. Over the course of our country's proud history, we have faced our share of grave challenges, but we have never retreated in fear. Never. Not here in Philadelphia in 1776, not here at Gettysburg in 1863. Not through two World Wars and A Great Depression, not at Selma or Stonewall and not after 9/11 and we must not start now!

America is the greatest country on earth, and when people vote with their feet, they come here. The presidency of the United States is the most powerful office in the world.

So I say to my fellow Independents, your votes matter now. Your vote will determine the future of your job, your business and our future together as a country.

To me, this election is not a choice between a Democrat and a Republican. It is a choice between who is better to lead our country right now better for our economy, better for our security, better for our freedom and better for our future. There is no doubt in my mind that Hillary Clinton is the right choice this November.

So tonight, as an independent, I am asking you to join with me not out of party loyalty, but out of love of country, and together -- and together, let's elect a sane, competent person with international experience, a unifier who is mature enough to reach out for advice, to build consensus and to recognize that we all have something to contribute.

So let's elect Hillary Clinton as the next president of the greatest country in the world, the United States of America. Thank you!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[21:45:21] GENE SPERLING, FMR DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Hi I'm Gene Sperling, former director of the National Economic Council.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R) KENTUCKY: And I'm Senator Mitch McConnell.

SPERLING: Today we are here to discuss debt.

MCCONNELL: Debt.

SPERLING: Let's start with something Donald said. MCCONNELL: Something Donald said.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm the king of debt. I'm great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me. I've made a fortune by using debt.

MCCONNELL: It sounds like he is great with debt.

SPERLING: You see, Donald's love affair with debt has been good for Donald. It wouldn't be good for America at all. People can't agree on much these days.

MCCONNELL: I disagree.

SPERLING: Except you. But across the political spectrum, virtually everyone agrees Trump's policies would tank the economy. Trump's budget plan would spend $7 trillion on tax cuts for millionaires like himself.

MCCONNELL: That seems like a lot.

SPERLING: Add another 5 trillion of tax cuts for corporations like his. Add it all up and we'll be tacking on 30 ...

MCCONNELL: Less 30.

SPERLING: $34 trillion.

MCCONNELL: $34 trillion.

SPERLING: With a "T" dollars of debt to our economy over the next 20 years.

MCCONNELL: It's 20 years.

SPERLING: Yes, in economic terms we would call this a ...

MCCONNELL: (Inaudible) show.

SPERLING: A little cleaner perhaps for ...

MCCONNELL: (Inaudible) show.

SPERLING: How about an unsustainable debt burden? Donald's plan would add more than $100,000 of debt for every man, woman and child in America. Donald says he might just pay of the new debt by printing money.

MCCONNELL: You can do that?

SPERLING: No, in economic terms we would describe this as a ...

MCCONNELL: Bad thing.

SPERLING: More like a (inaudible) that would really (inaudible) this economy for decades to come. MCCONNELL: I've never been more attracted to you than right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Coming up, we will talk about Michael Bloomberg's criticism of Donald Trump and speeches by vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine that in a moment and President Barack Obama.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:51:07] BLITZER: Welcome back. We just heard Michael Bloomberg the former mayor of New York delivering what is probably the most blistering attack on Donald Trump so far during this Democratic Convention calling him a dangerous demagogue. He said I am a New Yorker, I know a con when I see one. He is risky, reckless as radical. The American people cannot afford he said to see Donald Trump become president of the United States.

TAPPER: Not to mention the comments at the end of the speech. Which were not in the prepared remarks but he said that they needed to -- the nation needs to elect a sane, competent person, the clear implication that Donald Trump is neither sane nor competent. This was a speech not for the people in this arena.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No.

TAPPER: This was a speech for people at home for Independents. He said he understood people who are wavering, he understood that. He even at one point said no matter what you may think about her politics or her record, Hillary Clinton understands this is not reality television, this is reality.

He was saying to Independents and even Republicans out there you can't vote for Donald Trump, that this has nothing to do with politics even. And he was talking about temperament, he was talking about the ability to reach out and listen to people and work with people. He criticized -- he got boos when he criticized Democrats standing in the way of education reform, standing in the way of deficit reduction and blaming private industry, but he was saying that aside ...

BASH: Yup.

TAPPER: There's only one sane candidate in this election, Hillary Clinton.

BASH: And it was as much about the messenger as it was the message, that -- Michael Bloomberg is not just somebody who made billions and billions and billions as he said, on his own, not with a loan from his father but also somebody who ran New York City. You know, well enough that he got elected three times which is not so easy in New York City. So ...

TAPPER: He has to take the laws to do so.

BASH: Well that's a whole different story.

TAPPER: Right.

BASH: But the point is that he's speaking as somebody who has real experience on the business side and on the governing side.

TAPPER: And not only that, he's speaking as somebody who a few months ago was talking about running for president as an Independent against Hillary Clinton.

DASH: Yes, that's right.

TAPPER: His team was seriously looking at it, looking at what they would have to do in order to get on the ballot in all the 50 states. And ultimately he decided he couldn't do it because he might have a hand in electing Donald Trump. That's why he did not do it all.

BLITZER: Hillary is the same competent person and Donald Trump he said is not, very strong words. Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Yeah, Tim Kaine is the speaker coming up. But some -- just a minutes on Mike Bloomberg. I mean there are very few people other than Michael Bloomberg who could have given this kind of message to Independents not in this hall.

AXELROD: No, and I think -- when you consider the dynamics of this election, that was a very important speech. I think Michael Smerconish can speak to this in this paper for example in Pennsylvania. Hillary Clinton has to do very well in the suburb of Philadelphia. Michael Bloomberg speaks to that voter ...

SMERCONISH: No doubt about it.

AXELROD: ... who may make the decision about who carries this ...

COOPER: Michael?

SMERCONISH: That message plays in the Philadelphia suburbs. My neighbors, when I'm in a back to school night, when I'm pumping gas, when I'm just interactive with members of the public, they're not (inaudible) they're not all left, they're not all right. For them the issues are a mixed bag. They're liberal on some things, usually social issues, conservative on other matter, usually the economic matters, having sat through everything in Cleveland and halfway through here in Philadelphia, that's the first speech that reached out for someone like me, just one of the 42 percent in this country who are independent not Republican and not Democrat.

COOPER: I also -- I kept thinking about Donald Trump watching Mike Bloomberg, you know. That's got to hurt.

BORGER: There's nobody else who could have done it in quite that way. First of all, he's another New York billionaire ...

JONES: But a big (inaudible). [21:55:01] BORGER: ... and he's not a Democrat, OK? And so, he could take him down on his business act him and the way he run his business and when he said Trump says he wants to run the nation like he runs his business and he goes "God help us." That has residents so you'll had neither class Jew and then you had billionaire Bloomberg, right?

JONES: Right look that there ...

HENDERSON: Any I -- so will give us the idea of Donald Trump like (inaudible) a blue color of billionaire and you think Democrat try to make the argument that shift, you know, he shift (inaudible) exposure made over too, but I think that Michael, Bloomberg is the one, I think that it can make that occasional with that (inaudible).

JONES: I think we got a second opinion. OK, he had a billionaire, from its all the country that everything fell believed and make it better. It turns out he's a quack doctor, the second opinion says Donald Trump is a quack.

AXELROD: Can I this to pushes poll for a second, yeah, Jeffrey, you deserve rebuttal time. I just want to say one thing before, because I think there that the one potential for a discordant note tonight is I think about to come up and we'll see if there is any kind of protest to Tim Kaine's ...

HENDERSON: Right.

AXELROD: ... speech because there are people in this room and Van knows them.

COOPER: Yup.

AXELROD: Who were unhappy about this nominee.

HENDERSON: And we already saw some of that discord with Leon Panetta, you know, she speaks with the working girl and all that Sanders supporters who were protesting.

BEGALA: This is the challenge of running a great political -- much political party in this country, right that if you want to take care of your base and you want to keep your base happy but you don't want your base insulting your candidate for vice presidential or your former secretary defense or retired admiral like we saw it tonight, which you also want recap the independence, are like as whole, Hillary is losing independence by 18 points.

BORGER: Yeah.

BEGALA: And the president loss but only by five, she's get up to where President Obama was with independents, Michael Bloomberg helped her enormously.

COOPER: I got to say Jeffrey that what during Michael Bloomberg.

LORD: Yeah. COOPER: A story came up on Twitter, Donald Trump it just in revealed has requested an additional visa waiver for 76 servers, house keepers and cooks for Mar-a-Lago and other of his properties in Florida saying, he can't get Americans to actually fill those jobs.

LORD: Right, look, the basic method ...

(CROSSTALK)

LORD: The basic method, that basic methods that he delivering (ph), this is the mayor of New York by the way, lets just remember, who, who after The Time Square bomber attempt, said that the guy was probably all about ObamaCare, not about domestic, not about, you know, Islamic terrorism, in other words, his judgment has been all over the place as at it first to Republican, he is a Democrat, then he was Republican and now it's an Independent.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: I got to just jump in, Donald Trump is been all over the map ...

BORGER: Yeah.

COOPER: ... but you don't seem to have an issue with that.

BORGER: Let's say that.

LORD: I don't because his message has been consistent. His message here is, all right, all right, all right.

BORGER: Van.

COOPER: I mean.

LORD: You see what I have to deal with.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: I just, I just factually, I am ...

LORD: Yeah.

COOPER: ... surprised you would argue.

LORD: What I'm saying to you the message that he has been delivering around this country for the last couple of years is steady, it is consistent. And the American people -- the American people understand that message. They get that message.

JONES: Let me ask you a question.

LORD: And why, and it just fall a lot why is Hillary Clinton step far behind with Independents?

BEGALA: What? Because she's just been hammered. It's a poll we took at the end of the Republican Convention. It's the low water mark. I find that useful actually for analytical purposes, right.

But what's -- what's the answer when Mike Bloomberg, he visits (ph) Donald Trump for gaming the visa system and now Anderson reports, he's asking to game the visa system and to bring more foreign workers into America to take American jobs, what's the answer?

LORD: The answer is change the system so that people here will do the jobs.

BEGALA: So that people like me won't manipulate the system anymore?

LORD: So yes ...

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: I do want to ask a question. Part of that your admiration for Donald Trump is that he does come out of the private sector, he does represent a certain kind of change and yet if this his fellow billionaire, frankly the big billionaire that Donald Trump a little billionaire compared to Bloomberg, he is the big billionaire, he says your guy is a quack. Doesn't that hurt you in terms of your argument with in that?

BEGAL: No, it doesn't.

COOPER: Let me just introduce -- we're going to our next, Congressman Bob Scott is coming out to introduce the vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine.

REP. BOBBY SCOTT, (D) VIRGINIA: My fellow Democrats, I first met Tim Kaine during and his amazing wife during in his first campaign for city council in Richmond, Virginia, that was a more a years ago than I want to admit. But I saw in him then what I see in him now, a person of substance, a person of passion, principle, integrity, a great convener who brings people together, and I can't wait for the rest of the country to know the Tim Kaine that I know and that Virginia knows.

[22:00:06] Even at it was in Virginia hall, to the governors mention, to the hold of the U.S Capital, I still see in Tim Kaine the same sense of purpose.