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CNN Live Event/Special
Clinton to Sanders Supporters: You're Cause is Our Cause; Majority Viewed Clinton Speech to be Positive. Aired Midnight-1a ET
Aired July 29, 2016 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:00:03] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia.
Coming up, the results of our instant poll. We questioned people who watched this debate -- this convention tonight, the Hillary Clinton speech, to give us their reaction. Stand by. We're going to get to the results, the first results from this instant poll that's coming up.
One of the points that Hillary Clinton repeatedly went on was that the country needs to work together and she went after Donald Trump. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Now, you didn't hear any of this, did you, from Donald Trump, at his convention? He spoke for 70-odd minutes, and I do mean odd, and he offered zero solutions.
But we already know he doesn't believe these things. No wonder he doesn't like talking about his plans. You might have noticed I love talking about mine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Jake -- she repeatedly went after Donald Trump, made fun of him on all sorts of issues.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Last week we heard the Republicans really go after Hillary Clinton and her character. Lock her up, lock her up was a chant.
We've heard speakers here really go after Donald Trump. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City suggested that he's not sane. We heard a speaker earlier tonight refer to Donald Trump as dangerously unbalanced. Now the most that Hillary Clinton said was that he's odd and doesn't have the temperament to be president.
But this is definitely part of the Democratic campaign to paint a picture of Donald Trump as just a risk that Americans cannot take and "odd" feeds into him.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A risk that the Americans can't take but also somebody who is just very shallow and surface level when it comes to policy and what it takes to actually govern.
I thought that when she talked about the fact that she does sweat the small stuff. She does like policy, and she needs to know about water levels and lead levels, excuse me, in Flint's water and things like that, she was trying to very not so subtly but with specific examples, signal to the American people that governing is really hard and you need to know the specifics in order to help people which is obviously her theme.
BLITZER: And listen to Hillary Clinton speaking about Donald Trump and ISIS.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Now Donald Trump -- Donald Trump says, and this is a quote, "I know more about ISIS and than the generals do." No, Donald, you don't.
What worried President Kennedy during that very dangerous time was that a war might be started not by big men with self control and restraint, but by little men, the ones moved by fear and pride.
He also talks a big game about putting America first. Well, please explain what part of America first leads him to make Trump ties in China not Colorado, Trump suits in Mexico not Michigan, Trump furniture in Turkey, not Ohio.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: She also -- she was very specific in that line. She said this is -- the country needs big men with self-control and restraint, not little men.
TAPPER: Yes. I mean, it was a very forceful attack on Donald Trump, feeding into the negative caricature, the negative portrayal that we've seen Democrats do throughout the week.
I have to say, though, I thought that there was going to be more of her trying to acknowledge that there are voters out there that have concerns about her and a way of explaining. The only thing -- now correct me if I'm wrong -- the only thing I heard was her saying I know that there's some people out there who don't get me. And then she just basically explained she's a wonk --
BASH: She told the story of her life.
TAPPER: -- yes the story of her life and she's a wonk, and she loves policy and these details are important to her. But that doesn't really at all get into those issues. And I mean, I just -- that possibly could be seen as a missed opportunity.
You know, you've heard her say before, we've all heard her say before, one of the reasons that people have these negative views is because she's been in the public life and there's been this attack machine, the right-wing conspiracy, all that.
It just seems like a wasted opportunity to not try to explain to people why there are these negative impressions and negative attacks.
BASH: Absolutely. I actually think you're right about that. The other thing that I thought that maybe she would do more of is go after the trust issue and the honesty issue.
[00:05:04] But I think that the way that they thought that they were doing it was turning it on its head, talking about why Donald Trump shouldn't be trusted in the sound bite you just played about the fact that he doesn't really make any of his stuff in America. He makes it all overseas and about the fact that, you know, he basically talks a good game and you can't believe him.
TAPPER: And this is the thing. Both candidates are banking on this election being a referendum on the other candidate. And so they spend a lot of their time talking about -- they both talk about what they're going to do, Hillary Clinton clearly with much more detail, but they talk about what they're going to do. But then they just attack the character of the other one so strongly, and they're both making the gamble that when people go into the voting it's going to be I can't vote for x, I'll go for y.
BASH: But getting to the fundamental question of do you want this guy to be your commander in chief. I thought the strongest and most cogent line was he's a man you can bait with a tweet. Do you really want him to have his -- basically finger on the button of the nuclear codes?
BLITZER: She ridiculed him for suggesting when he said I alone can fix these problems.
BASH: Right.
BLITZER: Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Don't let anyone tell you that our country is weak. We're not. Don't let anyone tell you we don't have what it takes. We do. And most of all, don't believe anyone who says "I, alone, can fix it."
Yes. Those were actually Donald Trump's words in Cleveland. And they should set off alarm bells for all us. Really? I alone can fix it? Isn't he forgetting troops on the front lines, police officers and firefighters who run toward danger -- doctors and nurses who care for us, teachers who change lives, entrepreneurs who see possibilities in every problem, mothers who lost children to violence, and are building a movement to keep other kids safe?
He's forgetting every last one of us. Americans don't say I alone can fix it. We say we'll fix it together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: That was a very powerful passage that was written directly going after Donald Trump when he said I alone can fix it.
TAPPER: I was talking to somebody from the Obama administration who said he wondered if the speech -- this is yesterday -- he wondered if Hillary Clinton's speech would be an appeal to the center of America. That the campaigns that win are the ones that go after the center whether it's Barack Obama in 2008, George W. Bush in 2000, Bill Clinton in 1992, et cetera.
I didn't hear a policy address to the center this evening. I heard a progressive or liberal policy address. And the first thing she's going to do is a big spending program to create jobs in America and Wall Street and rich people are going to pay for it.
What I did hear was a thematic appeal to the center of the country or even to conservatives as well which is this is what America is.
BASH: Right. It's the Reaganesque model.
TAPPER: Yes. This is what the nation -- invocations of our founding fathers and police officers, invocations of troops and veterans. And that, I think, was aimed at the center, but it will be interesting to see what the impact of the speech will be because policy wise it wasn't.
BLITZER: Dana -- you heard a lot of Bernie Sanders influence.
TAPPER: Absolutely.
BASH: Oh, yes. I mean explicitly. Explicitly saying that she really looks forward to putting together, for example, the education, affordable education plan that they worked on together as part of the deal for him to endorse her.
But it's funny you say that. I had the exact same feeling. It was almost state of the union-esque. A laundry list of here's what I want to do -- boom, boom, boom.
TAPPER: Here's how I'm going to pay for it.
BASH: And sort of liberal policies. She's a Democrat. I mean you would expect that. But I was thinking, you know, on the one hand she's talking about why she doesn't think that Donald Trump should be president and all of the reasons that he doesn't have the temperament, which is an appeal to the moderates and some Republicans who don't like him. On the other hand, the policies didn't really have that same appeal.
BLITZER: Momentarily we're going to get the results of our first instant poll on people who watched this speech tonight. How they reacted.
In the meantime, let's go back to Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes. Wolf -- thanks very much.
[00:09:57] Another of the extraordinary moments that occurred before Clinton actually took the stage was the father of Captain Khan who was killed in Afghanistan by a suicide bomber. I want to play the moment that has gotten probably the most attention online certainly where he pulled out a copy of the U.S. Constitution. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KHAZI KHAN, FATHER OF DECEASED MUSLIM U.S. SOLDIER: Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims. He disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own party leadership. He loves to build walls and ban us from this country.
Donald Trump, you're asking Americans to trust you with their future. Let me ask you, have you even read the United States constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's powerful.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I thought that was one of the most powerful moments. You see these grieving parents talking about their son, the hero, and pulling out that copy of the constitution and asking Donald Trump about sacrifice.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That was even more searing, which is you've made no sacrifice and you've lost no one. That line struck me like Joseph Welch that the army McCarthy --
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: -- saying have you -- at long last have you no shame?
BORGER: It was more personal because it was about their son, and, you know, you sit here and you watch that, and you think these people have suffered such pain and they feel fearful now.
JEFFREY LORD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: But the one thing, the line about, of course, they've lost their son who is a hero, but they asked that question. You can ask the same question of Hillary Clinton, what has she sacrificed? She just had a nice long career in government and public policy. That's not a sacrifice in the sense that their son.
COOPER: Well, actually I mean you would make the argument that as a public servant -- all public servants, you know, are not being paid highly.
PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: But you missed the point. The point is defending his family, his religion, his honor, his patriotism -- all of which has been questioned by Donald Trump.
The paradigm shift here cannot be overstated. Tonight because of General Allen, because of Mr. Khan, because of the Florence Grover the Medal of Honor recipient, the paradigm has shifted and now in a subtle way, Donald Trump is the unpatriotic choice. That never happens with Democrats against Republicans. And now voting for Trump is the unpatriotic move. VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And I also just want to say
that part of my great pain and discomfort with last week's convention with the Republicans, it wasn't that some tough things were said about Muslim terrorists or undocumented people. It was that there was not one kind thing said about the incredible contribution that six million Muslims are making to America every single day. You're a doctor, you're a dentist, you're a cab driver. These are our neighbors. These are our friends.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: You can do your thing in a minute. You're professors. And what can happen with a demagogue is that you start saying Muslim, Muslim -- and people actually forget that it happened in other countries -- Jews, Jews. And you forget, my neighbor, my friend.
And so it wasn't just good for Democrats. It was good for the country to correct that and to have a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar come out. To have a grieving family come out to remind people we're one country. And the Republicans could have done that and still made their point and they failed to. And that's a shame on them.
KING: It's an interesting contrast in the sense that you heard more about God and more about the military at the Democratic convention than you did in the Republican convention.
COOPER: -- which is an extraordinary switch.
KING: In my 30 years doing this, that this hasn't happened, I don't think, before.
BORGER: And you know, can I get back to Jeffrey's point from before where you talked about the poll in the military times, and you're 100 percent right that by a two to one margin those who participated prefer Donald Trump. But if you look further down in the poll here, and this was pointed out to me by Elise Labbott of CNN, that a strong majority of respondents also said that they were wholly unimpressed by both of these candidates. So it's not a love story.
LORD: Well, you know, right. Abraham Lincoln got 40 --
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: There's a monument to him on the mall. I mean you can that in every presidential election, frankly.
BORGER: But both of these candidates are viewed unfavorably by the American public and that is also the way it is.
[00:15:01] LORD: But this is as that famous phrase says a binary choice.
BORGER: Well, it is.
KING: You make an interesting point when you say that though. I do think it is very possible in this election, and Paul went through this with President Clinton who never got above 50 percent, won the first election at 43 percent.
There's not a Ross Perot here. These third party candidates are not going to get 19 million votes. But I do think that it has a potential that we're going to have -- you know, somebody is going to win maybe with 46 or 47 -- under 50 percent which makes -- when you start going through battle ground states, that makes the math a little bit differently.
And also to Gloria's point, you know, a clear goal of the convention -- one was to change her image a little bit and make people more comfortable with her, not maybe make her more likable, more trustable. Just make them more comfortable, understand what she is and makes her tick, but to disqualify Donald Trump.
BORGER: Yes.
KING: And I thought it's interesting, you know, he's changed the Republican Party from morning in America to mourning in America. And essentially keeps saying -- it's midnight in America -- I'm sorry.
BORGER: It is midnight in America.
JONES: At least on the East Coast.
KING: But to just repeatedly try to disqualify him that you may not like me, but I'm going to make you not like him more. Or you may not like me but I'm going to make him unacceptable.
NIA-MALIA HENDERSON: And also to deny him the ability to evolve -- right. They want to freeze frame him in primary era Donald Trump and not allow him to evolve into somebody that Americans think is presidential.
There was this line in here after she recalled what he said about John McCain. She said but here's the sad truth, there's no other Donald Trump. This is it. If you look at their ad campaign, that's what they're trying to do, they're constantly rerunning his words from the primary.
LORD: One thing for Van. Sajid Tarar, who is the founder of American Muslims for Trump closed the second day of the convention -- so there was Muslim representation.
BEGALA: And was heckled.
AXELROD: Can I make another point? On the Hillary project, I think she was helped greatly by this convention in terms of repositioning her and giving a deeper sense of who she was, even if she didn't do it, you know, all that effectively in this speech.
I actually thought the film, the Shonda Rhimes film, was incredibly helpful to her, and she talked about herself and her family and her upbringing and her mother and all of that in that film in a way that you rarely hear her talk. And I actually think that may have helped her on the positive side as much as anything. JONES: I agree with you Axe because we're saying she was trying to
disqualify him. But I think for a lot of people even in this hall she was still having to qualify herself. And I think -- I thought Chelsea did a beautiful job.
The Trump kids were amazing and impressive but they were attack dogs and they had a policy agenda. She just walked out there and talked about her mom.
And I thought it was a beautiful testament and a statement. And then that film that Shonda Rhimes did, I thought really gave you a way to like her. Listen, if you don't want to like her, nothing you can do. But there were people on the bubble and I think it worked.
COOPER: We're going to have more to talk about ahead. We just got to take a quick break.
Coming up, our instant poll results. how did Hillary Clinton's speech play with viewers at home? Did it affect their votes? We'll take a look ahead.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[00:22:23] CLINTON: And so, my friends it is with humility, determination and boundless confidence in America's promise that I accept your nomination for president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: One of the moments many people here in the hall were waiting for. I want to play also another sound bite in which she was talking about urging people to, in her words, join us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: If you believe that every man, woman, and child in America has the right to affordable health care, join us. If you believe that we should say no to unfair trade deals, that we should stand up to China, that we should support our steel workers and autoworkers and homegrown manufacturers, then join us.
If you believe we should expand social security and protect a woman's right to make her own health care decision, then join us. And yes, yes, if you believe that your working mother, wife, sister, or daughter deserves equal pay, join us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: You know, if you think about -- I mean Jeffrey, what both campaigns hope to do with their conventions, I think both have got to feel pretty good coming out of their conventions. I mean I think Donald Trump did, you know, with the questions about Ted Cruz going into that convention, the drama of Ted Cruz on that stage not supporting Donald Trump, and yet coming out of it feeling unified, feeling strong, feeling certainly Donald Trump felt very good about -- he gave a very strong speech, whether you agree with it or not, defining himself as a law and order candidate, you know, reaffirming the make America great and he got a bump going out of the conventions. I think the Democrats probably feel very good going out of this one.
LORD: As you may remember, when he called in that night he said to tell us that he had a stupendous convention. And I think he was right.
[00:25:00] AXELROD: As opposed to when he calls in to say I don't think I did very well.
LORD: And I would say I'm sure that a lot of Democrats feel the same way here. The serious question here, and I don't know the answer to it is, based on my interactions with Bernie supporters here, are they going to do what? Are they going to go home and not vote for Hillary? I mean some of them may vote for Donald Trump. Some of them may just stay away. What is the size of that? And where geographically is that located?
COOPER: And the flipside of that, of course, too is the Republicans who were on the stage tonight making appeals to Republicans, your friend from the -- who worked with you in the Reagan White House.
LORD: I have a burlap bag for him, by the way.
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: He's going with Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
COOPER: I mean how many Republicans are actually out there, how many Independents did Michael Bloomberg actually reach out to? Again -- we don't know.
BEGALA: This is the whole key. It is a decathlon. Axe is right. We were talking about this during the break, right.
The primaries for Donald Trump were miraculous. He beat a constellation of candidates that had over 200 years of experience in elected office in his first race.
COOPER: And spent hundreds of millions of dollars with staff.
BEGALA: I can't say enough about how spectacularly impressive that is, honestly. That was the first event. The first event is the javelin. And he threw that javelin farther down the field than I've seen.
The second event is the pole vault. And so far he's throwing the pole vault too. It doesn't work. What got him 13 million votes from angry old white guys cannot get him the 65 million he needs to be our president.
COOPER: I'm so bad at sports it took me a second to even remember what a pole vault is. No, I'm with you. I got it. You go with the thing. I get it. I get it.
BEGALA: You jump up and over --
JONES: The Olympics are coming up.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: But I think what they tried to do at this convention in terms of the Bernie Sanders voters here, you're all talking about, is outline the stakes, you know, whether it was General John Allen or whether it was any other speaker that we saw. And by the way, this convention I have to say was so well choreographed.
AXELROD: It was excellent.
BORGER: It was really, really well done. But building the case -- say you don't like Hillary Clinton. Ok, they're going to give you that. You might not like her any more tonight after this speech. But if you're considering, and you're a Bernie Sanders supporter, and there were a lot of them in this room tonight, or if you're an Independent and you listen to Mike Bloomberg, consider the stakes of this election. And what they tried to do is disqualify Donald Trump because the stakes are so high.
AXELROD: That's part of what they did and that was part of her speech. I think she's going to get a lot of credit for the positive nature of her message, the aspirational aspect of her message, the celebration of diversity and the sense that we all -- the stronger together message came through clearly in this convention. And I think that's going to find an audience.
There are two theories of the case here, that's what elections are about. You know, I think I said it before, I felt a little last week in Cleveland like I was in Gotham City and he was Batman and he was going to save us. It was very dark.
This was a different cut on what the country is --
LORD: -- and this is really dark.
COOPER: You can also point out Batman was like some of the biggest grossing films.
BORGER: So you would say unrealistic, right? You would say this is an unrealistic aspirational view?
LORD: What I would say is that this is standard Democratic and left talk and they're never somehow accountable. They come in and they create the mess and have five more government solutions about how to deal with the mess they created. And then when that's solved then they got even more of them. This Wall Street-to-Main Street thing is a perfect example.
You go back and --
BEGALA: Who is the last party to balance the budget? It's a Democrat. When did that happen?
LORD: Stop right there. That happened when, who was elected to be Speaker of the House? Well -- Newt Gingrich.
BEGALA: This didn't happen overnight. Newt -- this happened because first George Bush Senior raised taxes to his credit in 1989, then Bill Clinton did in 1993. But wait a minute. You raised the debt before. I worked on this. We worked our hearts out and you get no credit for raising taxes and cutting spending. It's not hard to do mathematically. It's just difficult to do politically.
And Republicans came in and squandered it. Now the Republicans are whining about the debt. They are like the arsonist complaining about the Fire Department.
JONES: Well, believe it or not Paul --
LORD: I agree with you in terms of Bush --
JONES: Hold on. Hold on a second.
BEGALA: He did.
LORD: I do think that's --
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: Go ahead.
JONES: I just want to talk about the past four days, if I could just -- conventions aren't just the speeches. Conventions aren't just what you see on the stage. The conventions are also what's happening in the halls and what's happening with the whips.
[00:30:01] And I have to say this, Donna Brazile coming in when she came in, is why you had only a few outbursts here.
BORGER: Right.
JONES: There was a need for real leadership from the DNC. Debbie had done all that she could do in a positive sense. She had done maybe too much in a negative sense.
There were some decisions that were made that I think are invisible from the stage, but actually need to be lifted up. One is the people who put this together from the very beginning had a design that actually made sense.
They started off giving the left an awful lot, because they knew they were going to have to calm the left down. Because that first day, I was biting my nails. It was very smart. They calmed the left down. They gave a lot of red meat to the left.
But then they were able to then build from there and you said from the first act to get to tonight, where you went from strong, red meat on progressivism to a strong red meat on patriotism and they did not lose much of this coalition. And that would have been impossible without a great design, which was before Debbie left and without great leadership with Donna afterwards.
(CROSSTALK)
JEFFREY LORD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: You may have given credit to the wrong woman.
JONES: What?
LORD: You may have given credit to the wrong woman -- Donna.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Let's play some of Hillary Clinton trying to reaching out directly to Bernie Sanders supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I want to thank Bernie Sanders.
(APPLAUSE)
Bernie, Bernie, your campaign inspired millions of Americans, particularly the young people who threw their hearts and souls into our primary. You put economic and social justice issues front and center where they belong. And to all of your supporters here and around the country, I want you to know, I heard you. Your cause is our cause.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's very smart. I mean, David mentioned earlier about the bets, the two bets the parties make. And, again, I don't think this is a Democrat-Republican race. This is a Hillary Clinton and the Democrats versus Donald Trump, who is not a traditional Republican.
And so that raises questions in the 102 days left about the infrastructure, going through the phase of campaign now, where it's not just the candidates, it's the mechanics a matter, as you try to turn out votes, identify your votes, pick your battleground states. Where do you spend your TV money and all that?
Those are decisions that get -- you can make a mistake in the summertime. If you make a mistake now, it can cost you an election.
But the Sanders part is the one missing piece of the Obama coalition, if you will. In that the young voters who go with then Senator Obama, now they are 24, they are 26. If they decided they're Democrats, they're staying. But what about the 18, the 19, the 20 and the 21s who haven't voted before, who are with Bernie Sanders. Will they stay?
You mentioned earlier, you know, will they go to Donald Trump? I was talking to Peter Hart, one of the greatest in the business, Democratic pollster by email during the speech about this very point.
He said, coming into this convention, 81 percent of Sanders voters don't like Donald Trump. That means 19 percent -- I'm not saying they like him, but 19 percent are available, if you will.
So that's what you're doing. You're trying to reach out to the other ones who might still be mad, still be on the fence to, A, pay tribute to Sanders and then say, I want you, I need you. I need you.
PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, FORMER HILLARY CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN MANAGER: (INAUDIBLE) is not the only one who did it. Biden did it, Obama did it, Kaine did it. Every speaker up there was --
(CROSSTALK)
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Again, I go back to the stakes. I mean, they're saying to people, don't sit on your hands because this is too important.
COOPER: That's what's interesting. It's that both sides are painting this essentially as an existential threat to the future of America.
I mean, that, you know, Mike pence says Hillary Clinton, you know, the fact that she, in his opinion, lied to the mother of Sean Smith who was killed in Benghazi, she cannot be allowed to be president. She is not qualified. She can't -- we can't allow this to happen. It can never happen.
Hillary Clinton painted also an equally frightening picture of Donald Trump.
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: I think each side believes this to their core.
COOPER: But, I mean, past elections, I mean, are they painted in quite --
(CROSSTALK)
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You haven't had two candidates go into an election each of whom have negatives over 50 percent. I mean, that necessitates a certain -- that dictates a certain kind of --
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: You can say that if you want to. Look, you have the presidency on the line. You have the House on the line. You have the Senate on the line. And you have the Supreme Court on the line in one day in November. It does not get more high stakes than that.
BORGER: And you have a --
(CROSSTALK)
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He told the California delegation this morning, who a lot of Bernie people in California, and he said you do not want to look your children and grandchildren in the eye and say that you did anything to help Donald Trump become president.
[00:35:03] COOPER: We've got to take another quick break. Again, we're waiting to get quick reaction to the speech. Did Hillary Clinton win or lose any votes tonight? Speech watchers and our instant poll, ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The Democratic National Convention is now history. It's over.
We just got the results of the instant poll we conducted.
David Chalian, our political director is here.
Very interesting numbers.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Indeed.
So let's put a few cautionary notes out there like we did last week. Remember that this is a poll of speech watchers. This is not reflective of the American people, overall. This is not the state of the race. This is a poll of speech watchers. That's caution one.
Caution two. We know that speech watchers tonight are overwhelmingly Democratic, overwhelmingly pro-Hillary Clinton. Just like last week, the audience speech watchers was more Republican, more in favor of Donald Trump. So that being said, here's what speech watchers said about the speech tonight.
The overall reaction to Hillary Clinton's speech, very positive. 71 percent called it very positive. 15 percent somewhat positive. 12 percent negative.
[00:40:05] How did Clinton speech affect your vote? 60 percent say they are more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton after watching the speech than they were. 6 percent, only 6 percent say they are less likely. A third, 33 percent say not much effect at all.
And Clinton's policies, will they move the country in the right or the wrong direction? Amongst speech watchers tonight, 82 percent said watching the speech, they believe her policies will move the country in the right direction, 16 percent say the wrong direction.
BLITZER: So how do these numbers of this instant poll compare to the numbers that we got last Thursday after the Republican convention? CHALIAN: She scored better than Donald Trump across most of these categories. And the audience who watched her speech tonight was more pro-Hillary than the audience last week was pro-Trump.
So take a look at this. Very positive reaction to the speech you saw before. Hillary Clinton, 71 percent said they had a very positive reaction. That compares to Donald Trump's 57 percent very positive reaction.
And then looking at that question about policies, will they move the country in the right direction? 82 percent of speech watchers tonight said Hillary Clinton's policies will move the country in the right direction. 73 percent said that about Donald Trump a week ago.
BLITZER: So this, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, these numbers should be encouraging to the Democrats.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: I would think so, absolutely. And one reaction that I'm noticing online is conservatives really liked it. People who do not like Hillary Clinton, people who do not agree with her.
Jonah Goldberg, who writes for the "National Review" and not a Trump fan. He wrote, "Why this convention is better? It's about loving America. The Republican convention was about loving Trump. If you didn't love Trump, it offered nothing."
And then I got a private message from a conservative who shall remain nameless, a prominent writer who said, "I agree with zero percent of Hillary's policies, but I strongly believe that she is more right about what America is as a country or at least ought to be. She said a lot of things that appeal to people like me tonight."
These are people who I have never heard say anything nice about Hillary Clinton or Bill Clinton, or any of their extended family before. And they are just identifying more with the America presented by the Democrats. And I just, I'm stunned.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean, just to add to that. Rich Galen, who worked for Newt Gingrich and is a Republican, tweeted that he said, "He was sitting in his kitchen crying watching the speeches here." And he said, "What happened to my G.O.P.?"
And Erick Erickson, who is no fan of Donald Trump. I'm going to say that upfront, at all. He wrote in his blog just now that "The Democratic convention was a convention of patriotism this year. He said Democrats were for you. If you want to be free, the G.O.P. was doom and gloom."
So again, policies aside, just the overall feeling and the overall kind of appeal that the notion and the themes of this convention set forward for people who are looking for that, it was there for them.
TAPPER: And Erick Erickson also said that the speech by Khizr Kahn, who lost his son, an American-Muslim in the army in Iraq, (INAUDIBLE), was the most effective part of the two weeks that he had watched.
So this is entirely unscientific. But these are just some interesting reactions.
BLITZER: David, so we're going to do another "CNN/ORC" real poll just like we did after the Republican convention.
Donald Trump got a nice little bump out of that Republican convention, and we'll see what happens after this Democratic convention.
CHALIAN: We'll see. But looking at the numbers of the instapoll reaction amongst speech watcher, you could imagine that Hillary Clinton is probably should expect that she'll get a little bump, too.
I would say we'll measure that right after the convention now. I would say wait two weeks, and then when the polls come out in the middle of August, that's going to be the race as it's set heading into Labor Day, heading into those fall debates.
So once both conventions sink into people's minds and the race settles down, I think we'll know in a couple of weeks where we go.
BASH: And that's something that we can't emphasize enough. It's early.
TAPPER: Very.
BASH: It's July. And in recent history, we're used to this being very, very close to Labor Day. I know we've said it through the week, but it bears repeating, that there is still, how many --
TAPPER: 102.
BASH: 102 days. That's a long time.
TAPPER: And Donald Trump and the Republicans have really not started to bombard the air waves at all with the negative TV ads that we anticipate. We will see.
CHALIAN: They're just getting underway.
TAPPER: Right. And the Clinton campaign has spent, and their Super PACs have spent tens of millions of dollars doing that to Donald Trump. So who knows what impact any of that will have?
BLITZER: And as important as these conventions are, they really are important. Those three presidential debates in September and October, the one vice presidential debate, that will shape a lot of people's minds, as well.
[00:45:03] CHALIAN: Yes, we've seen the debates have real impact where you can really see the election take a turn. The conventions tend not to do that.
I think the conventions are a little bit -- you know, if things don't go wildly bad, you tend to do yourself good. And I think both candidates probably did at their conventions.
But you're right, those debates, because it gets so close to the voting. In fact, in many states, early voting will already be under way when we are in those debates. So it has real impact in the moment.
BLITZER: I got to say that Democrats, I wonder if you, guys, agree, production value -- the music, the artists, the whole nature of this convention compared to last week, they seem to have done a better job from the showbiz stand point.
TAPPER: Obviously, Democrats generally have more connections to show business.
BLITZER: But Donald Trump said he wanted his to have a lot of showbiz.
TAPPER: Well, he had Scott Baio, which was popular with Dana.
BASH: It was. Catchy. Catchy.
TAPPER: And Antonio Sabato, Jr.
I mean, celebrities tend to be more liberal, and look, I mean, this is -- this was a more traditional convention. She also had a real "A" list of Democratic stars, the president, the vice president, the first lady, whereas so many top Republicans, quote, unquote, "stars" kept away from the Trump convention.
BASH: At which Trump really tried to embrace as the outsider.
BLITZER: Coming up, the final takeaways from this convention. Much more when we come back.
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[00:50:27] COOPER: And welcome back. The final night at the Democratic National Convention.
Gloria, you were discussing?
BORGER: Well, I've just gotten some more details about sort of putting the finishing touches on this speech.
You know, you were talking about it Patti. So there was a meeting apparently Wednesday night in her suite that went on until 2:00 in the morning. You're nodding knowingly. And then they stayed -- her staff stayed up the rest of the night making revisions.
And then at 9:00 a.m. the next morning, she met with people for a couple more hours, and then edits were made until about 9:00 this evening.
SOLIS: Yes. And I want to do a shout out, I want to do a shout out to Lissa Muscatine, who wrote her woman's right -- the human rights speech. She's written all of her other convention speeches. The part that was genuinely Hillary in this speech was Lissa and Hillary sort of working on it, and I'm a big fan.
COOPER: So, I mean, clearly, the battle has been joined.
AXELROD: I mean, both camps are now leaving their conventions. What happens? What should viewers be looking for in the days' ahead?
KING: Part of it to David Chalian's point, let's let this settle. We assume we're going to see a poll next week that shows Secretary Clinton gets a bounce.
The reaction from Democrats here without a doubt I assume she brings some Sanders voters home and her numbers go up some. And they should be happy and encouraged by that because they ran a very good convention.
But just like we saw Donald Trump numbers go up, don't go to Vegas on that. Let the Olympics happen. Let it settle down. We'll see where we are. But I think what we are is to the two narratives of the two competition point that David made, yes, the country faces some pretty big challenges. Some people say crisis. How do you deal with them?
Do you have Donald Trump's, we need a very strong leader, law and order, tough, me, I do this, or do you have the Hillary Clinton, no, you need somebody who is calm and reasonable, but optimistic, who thinks we should still keep our heads up, not be looking down and somebody who is experienced using the levers of government and reaching out and talking to people? It's a different philosophy and a different move.
HENDERSON: And it's also -- I mean, who joins their battles, right? You can see that, obviously, Clinton is betting on that Obama America and she can turn those Obama into Democratic voter and that's what can guarantee her an election.
And then Donald Trump is making a very different bet. A bet that many Republicans haven't made over these last presidential cycles. And that is he can do very well among working-class white workers. And that hasn't worked.
I mean, if you look at Bush, Bush's last election, he barely won those elections. I mean, if Donna were here, she would say he didn't win in 2000 and barely won. You switch a couple of, you know, 100,000 votes to win and in 2004, either.
AXELROD: Can I say that, first of all, I've been involve in several conventions. I never was involved in one as good as this. We had some good conventions when I worked for Barack Obama. This was a great convention.
It wasn't just because they had Broadway stars. In fact, I would argue the stars of this convention were people like Mr. Kahn, people like that incredibly inspiring young woman with disabilities. Every night there were people who just touched your heart.
The families of the -- of gun violence. The families of police officers tonight. I mean, I just think this was a masterful convention. And mostly because I think it did really reflect what many Americans want to feel about their country. And it was an inviting convention in that way.
It was a positive convention. And generally, the positive campaign for President of the United States, the aspirational campaign does prevail. We'll see if that holds in this election.
BORGER: You know, I think the world is upside down in a way. And you hear this from Republicans -- conservative Republicans. Dana was talking about Erick Erickson, that the Democrats use the patriotism theme, you know, because they felt that Republicans had sort of dropped the ball.
LORD: They had to be prodded on the flags, though.
BORGER: But, you know, they picked it up. They picked it up. And you had General Allen. And they are not going to give up on the national security points in this campaign. And Hillary Clinton says that she's got the smarts, the judgment, the resolve to be commander- in-chief and the temperament. And that will continue.
LORD: But, of course, her problem, her problem here is that she does have a record. She was commander-in-chief, if you will, of the State Department. And Benghazi hangs out there heavy as an example of her judgment at work. And that is going to be a problem for her.
COOPER: Jeffrey?
Paul?
[00:55:00] BEGALA: The paradigm shift about having a first woman president. We've talked about that a lot since history. She stood up there tonight, I love her. She was a -- not only was she claiming the mantle of commander-in-chief. That was part of the speech which she was most comfortable. She's saying that the straight, white guy, of which we've had 42, he's the one you can't imagine in the Oval Office.
COOPER: And his hysterical and sort of all the (INAUDIBLE) that might normally have been used against a female candidate in days of old.
JONES: I mean, look, one thing I --
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Or yesterday.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: I was trying to be optimistic.
(LAUGHTER)
JONES: On Monday, it looked like a train wreck, bottom line. And not only were they able to heal this party and land on its feet, they landed the party in a new place. The place where Obama stood, yes, we can. This kind of deeper patriotism, people were saying that's the Obama coalition. Something happened this week where that became the Democratic Party. This deeper patriotism. I think something extraordinarily happened. I don't know how. It plays out electorally. I think that's important.
COOPER: Patti, ten seconds.
DOYLE: It was a great convention. Shout out to Eric Smith (ph) and Jim Margaux (ph).
COOPER: Our coverage continues with Don Lemon at the CNN Grill right after this.
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