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CNN Live Event/Special
Republican National Convention Kicks Off Its Final Night; Donald Trump Accepts GOP Nomination from the White House South Lawn; Crowd of 2,000 Attends the Event. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired August 27, 2020 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:00]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, and that's a record in the history of our country.
(APPLAUSE)
Unfortunately, from the beginning, our opponents have shown themselves capable of nothing but a partisan ability to criticize.
When I took bold action to issue a travel ban on China very early, indeed, Joe Biden called it hysterical and xenophobic. And then I introduced a ban on Europe very early again.
If we had listened to Joe, hundreds of thousands more Americans would have died. Instead of following the science, Joe Biden wants to inflict a painful shutdown on the entire country. His shutdown would inflict unthinkable and lasting harm on our nation's children, families, and citizens of all backgrounds.
The cost of the Biden shutdown would be measured in increased drug overdoses, depression, alcohol addiction, suicides, heart attacks, economic devastation, job loss, and much more.
Joe Biden's plan is not a solution to the virus, but, rather, it's a surrender to the virus.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: My administration has a very different approach.
To save as many lives as possible, we are focusing on the science, the facts, and the data. We are aggressively sheltering those at highest risk, especially the elderly, while allowing lower-risk Americans to safely return to work and to school.
And we want to see so many of those great states be open by Democrats. We want them to be open. They have to be open. They have to get back to work.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They have to get back to work, and they have to get back to school.
Most importantly, we are marshaling America's scientific genius to produce a vaccine in record time. Under Operation Warp Speed, we have three different vaccines in the final stage of trials right now, years ahead of what has been achieved before. Nobody thought it could ever be done this fast.
Normally, it would be years, and we did it in a matter of a few months. We're producing them in advance, so that hundreds of millions of doses will be quickly available. We will have a safe and effective vaccine this year. And, together, we will crush the virus.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: At the Democrat Convention, you barely heard a word about their agenda, but that's not because they don't have one. It's because their agenda is the most extreme set of proposals ever put forward by a major-party nominee.
Joe Biden may claim he is an ally of the light, but when it comes to his agenda, Biden wants to keep us completely in the dark.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: He doesn't have a clue.
He has pledged a $4 trillion tax hike on almost all American families, which will totally collapse our rapidly improving economy. And, once again, record stock markets that we have right now will also collapse. That means your 401(k)s. That's means all of the stocks that you have.
On the other hand, just as I did in my first term, I will cut taxes even further for hardworking moms and dads. I will not raise taxes. I will cut them, and very substantially.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And we will also provide tax credits to bring jobs out of China back to America. And we will impose tariffs on any company that leaves America to produce jobs overseas.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We will make sure our companies and jobs stay in our country, as I have already been doing for quite some time, if you have noticed.
Joe Biden's agenda is made in China. My agenda is made in the USA.
(APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE CHANTING: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
TRUMP: Biden has promised to abolish the production of American oil, coal, shale, and natural gas, laying waste to the economies of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico, destroying those states, absolutely destroying those states, and others.
[23:05:00]
Millions of jobs will be lost and energy prices will soar.
These same policies lead to crippling power outages in California just last week. Everybody saw that. Tremendous power outage. Nobody has seen anything like it, but we saw that last week in California.
How can Joe Biden claim to be an ally of the light when his own party can't even keep the lights on?
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
Joe Biden's campaign has even published a 110-page policy platform -- you can't get away from this -- co-authored with far-left senator, Crazy Bernie Sanders.
The Biden-Bernie manifesto calls for suspending all removals of illegal aliens, implementing nationwide catch-and-release, and providing illegal aliens with free taxpayer-funded lawyers. Everybody gets a lawyer.
Come over to our country, everybody has a lawyer. We have a lawyer for you. That's all we need is more lawyers.
(LAUGHTER)
Joe Biden recently raised his hand on the debate stage and promised that your -- give away -- he was going to give it away, your healthcare dollars, to illegal immigrants, which is going to bring massive number of immigrants into our country, massive numbers will pour into our country in order to get all the goodies that they want to give -- education, health care, everything.
He also supports deadly sanctuary cities that protect criminal aliens. He promised to end national security travel bans from jihadist nations, and he pledged to increase refugee admissions by 700 percent. This is in the manifesto.
The Biden plan would eliminate America's borders in the middle of a global pandemic, and he is even talking about taking the wall down. How about that?
(BOOS)
Biden also vowed to oppose school choice and close all charter schools, ripping away the ladder of opportunity for black and Hispanic children.
In a second term, I will expand charter schools and provide school choice for every family in America.
(APPLAUSE) And we will always treat our teachers with the tremendous respect that they deserve.
(APPLAUSE)
Great people. Great, great people.
Joe Biden claims he has empathy for the vulnerable, yet the party he leads supports the extreme late-term abortion of defenseless babies, right up until the moment of birth. Democrat leaders talk about moral decency, but they have no problem with stopping a baby's beating heart in the ninth month of pregnancy. Democrat politicians refused to protect innocent life, and then they lecture us about morality and saving America's soul.
Tonight, we proudly declare that all children born and unborn have a God-given right to life.
(APPLAUSE)
During the Democrat convention, the words "under God" were removed from the pledge of allegiance.
(BOOS)
Not once, but twice.
We will never do that.
(APPLAUSE)
But the fact is, this is where they are coming from. Like it or not, this is where they are coming from.
If the left gains power, they will demolish the suburbs, confiscate your guns, and appoint justices who will wipe away your Second Amendment and other constitutional freedoms. Biden is a Trojan horse for socialism.
If Joe Biden doesn't have the strength to stand up to wild-eyed Marxists like Bernie Sanders and his fellow radicals, and there are many -- they are many, many. We see 'em all the time. It's incredible, actually. Then how is he ever going to stand up for you? He's not.
The most dangerous aspect of the Biden platform is the attack on public safety.
[23:10:00]
The Biden-Bernie manifesto calls for abolishing cash bail, immediately releasing 400,000 criminals onto the streets and into your neighborhoods.
When asked if he supports cutting police funding, Joe Biden replied, "Yes, absolutely." When Congresswoman Ilhan Omar called the Minneapolis Police Department a cancer that is rotten to the root, Biden wouldn't disavow her support and reject her endorsement. He proudly displayed it shortly later on his Web site, displayed it in big letters.
Make no mistake, if you give power to Joe Biden, the radical left will defund police departments all across America. They will pass federal legislation to reduce law enforcement nationwide. They will make every city look like Democrat-run Portland, Oregon.
No one will be safe in Biden's America. My administration will always stand with the men and women of law enforcement.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Every day, police officers risk their lives to keep us safe, and, every year, many sacrifice their lives in the line of duty.
One of these incredible Americans was Detective Miosotis Familia. She was part of a team of American heroes called the NYPD, or New York's finest, who I was very, very proud to get their endorsement just the other day. Great people. Great, great people.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: If they were allowed to do their job, you would have no crime in New York. Rudy Giuliani knows that better than anybody.
Thank you, Rudy.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Three years ago, on the Fourth of July weekend, Detective Familia was on duty in her vehicle, when she was ambushed just after midnight and murdered by a monster who hated her purely for wearing the badge.
Detective Familia was a single mom. She recently asked for the night shift so she could spend more time with her kids. Two years ago, I stood in front of the U.S. Capitol alongside those beautiful children and held their grandmother's hand as they mourned their terrible loss, and we honored Detective Familia's extraordinary life. It was extraordinary.
Detective Familia's three children are with us this evening.
Genesis, Peter, Delilah, we are so grateful to have you here tonight. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you very much.
I promise you that we will treasure your mom in our memories forever. We must remember that the overwhelming majority of police officers in this country -- and that's the overwhelming majority -- are noble, courageous, and honorable.
We have to give law enforcement, our police, back their power.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They are afraid to act. They are afraid to lose their pension. They are afraid to lose their jobs.
And by being afraid, they are not able to do the job that they so desperately want to do for you. And those who suffer most are the great people who they protect and who they want to protect at an even higher level.
When there is police misconduct, the justice system must hold wrongdoers fully and completely accountable. And it will. But when -- we can never have a situation where things are going on as they are today. We must never allow mob rule. We can never allow mob rule.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: In the strongest possible terms, the Republican Party condemns the rioting, looting, arson, and violence we have seen, in Democrat- run cities all, like Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago, and New York, and many others, Democrat-run.
[23:15:00]
There is violence and danger in the streets of many Democrat-run cities throughout America. This problem could easily be fixed if they wanted to.
Just call. We're ready to go in. We will take care of your problem in a matter of hours.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Just call. We have to wait for the call. It's too bad we have to, but we have to wait for the call.
We must always have law and order. All federal crimes are being investigated, prosecuted, and punished to the fullest extent of the law. When the anarchists started ripping down our statues and monuments right outside, I signed an order immediately, 10 years in prison. And it was a miracle. It all stopped. No more statues.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They said, that's just too long, as they looked at a statue. I think we will rip it down. Then they said, 10 years in prison, I think that's too long. Let's go home.
During their convention, Joe Biden and his supporters remained completely silent about the rioters and criminals spreading mayhem in Democrat-run cities. They never even mentioned it during their entire convention, never once mentioned.
Now they're starting to mention it, because their poll numbers are going down like a rock in water.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: It's too late, Joe.
In the face of left-wing anarchy and mayhem in Minneapolis, Chicago, and other cities, Joe Biden's campaign did not condemn it. They donated to it. At least 13 members of Joe Biden's campaign staff donated to a fund to bail out vandals, arsonists, anarchists, looters, and rioters from jail.
Here tonight is the grieving family of retired police Captain David Dorn, a 38-year veteran of the Saint Louis Police Department, a great man and a highly respected man by all. In June, Captain Dorn was shot and killed as he tried to protect his store from rioters and looters, or, as the Democrats would call them, peaceful protesters.
They call them peaceful protesters.
We're honored to be joined tonight by his wonderful wife, Ann, and beloved family members Brian and Kielen.
To each of you, we will never forget the heroic legacy of Captain David Dorn.
Thank you very much for being here. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Great man. Great man.
As long as I am president, we will defend the absolute right of every American citizen to live in security, dignity, and peace.
If the Democrat Party wants to stand with anarchists, agitators, rioters, looters, and flag burners, that is up to them. But I, as your president, will not be a part of it.
The Republican Party will remain the voice of the patriotic heroes who keep America safe and salute the American flag.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Last year, over 1,000 African Americans were murdered as a result of violent crime in just four Democrat-run cities.
The top 10 most dangerous cities in the country are run by Democrats and have been for many decades. Thousands more African Americans are victim and victims of violent crime in these communities.
Joe Biden and the left ignore these American victims. I never will. If the radical left takes power, they will apply their disastrous policies to every city, town, and suburb in America.
Just imagine if the so-called peaceful demonstrators in the streets were in charge of every lever of power in the U.S. government. Just think of that.
Liberal politicians claim to be concerned about the strength of American institutions, but who exactly is attacking them? Who is hiring the radical professors, judges, and prosecutors? Who is trying to abolish immigration enforcement and establish speech codes designed to muzzle dissent?
[23:20:00]
In every case, the attacks on American institution are being waged by radical left. Always remember, they are coming after me because I am fighting for you. That's what's happening.
(APPLAUSE)
And it's been going on from before I even got elected.
(APPLAUSE)
And remember this, they spied on my campaign and they got caught. Let's see now what happens.
(APPLAUSE)
We must reclaim our independence from the left's repressive mandates. Americans are exhausted, trying to keep up with the latest lists of approved words and phrases, and the ever more restrictive political decrees. Many things have a different name now, and the rules are constantly changing.
The goal of cancel culture is to make decent Americans live in fear of being fired, expelled, shamed, humiliated, and driven from society as we know it. The far left wants to coerce you into saying what you know to be false and scare you out of saying what you know to be true. It's very sad.
But on November 3rd, you can send them a very thundering message they will never forget.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you.
AUDIENCE CHANTING: Four more years.
TRUMP: Thank you very much.
Joe Biden is weak. He takes his marching orders from liberal hypocrites who drive their cities into the ground while fleeing from the scene of the wreckage. The same liberals want to eliminate school choice while they enroll their children into the finest private schools in the land.
They want to open the borders while living in Waldorf compounds and communities and the best neighborhoods in the world. They want to defund the police while they have armed guards for themselves. This November, we must turn the page forever on this failed political class. The fact is, I'm here.
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What's the name of that building?
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But I'll say it differently -- the fact is, we are here and they are not.
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To me, one of the most beautiful buildings anywhere in the world that is not a building, it's a home, as far as I'm concerned. Not even a house, it's a home. It's a wonderful place with an incredible history. But it's all because of you.
Together, we will write the next chapter of the great American story. Over the next four years, we will make America into the manufacturing superpower of the world.
We will expand opportunity zones. Thank you, Tim Scott.
Bring home our medical supply chains, and we will end our reliance (ph) for bad things, we will go right after China. We will not rely on them one bit. We're taking our business out of China. We are bringing it home. We want our business to come home.
(APPLAUSE)
We will continue to reduce taxes and regulations at levels not seen before. We will create 10 million jobs in the next 10 months. And it will be higher than that.
We will hire more police, increase penalties for assaults on law enforcement, and surge federal prosecutors into high crime communities.
We will ban deadly sanctuary cities and ensure that federal health care is protected for American citizens, not for illegal aliens.
(APPLAUSE)
[23:25:00]
We will have strong borders. And I've said for years, without borders, we don't have a country. We don't have a country.
Strike down terrorists who threaten our people and keep America out of endless and costly foreign wars.
(APPLAUSE)
We will appoint prosecutors, judges, justices who believe in enforcing the law, not enforcing their own political agenda -- which is illegal.
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We will ensure equal justice for citizens of every race, religion, color, and creed.
We will uphold your religious liberty and defend your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
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And if we don't win, your Second Amendment doesn't have a chance, I can tell you that. I have totally protected it.
We will protect Medicare and Social Security. We will always and very strongly protect patients with pre-existing conditions, and that is a pledge from the entire Republican Party. Thank you, Kevin.
(APPLAUSE)
We will end surprise medical billing, require price transparency, and further reduce the cost of prescription drugs and health insurance premiums. They are coming way down.
We will greatly expand energy development, continuing to remain the number one in the world, and keep America energy independent.
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And for those of you that still drive a car, look how low your gasoline bill is. You haven't seen that in a long time.
(APPLAUSE)
We will win the race to 5G and build the world's best cyber and missile defense, already under construction.
We will fully restore patriotic education to our schools and always protect -- we will always, always protect free speech on college campuses.
(APPLAUSE)
And we put a very big penalty in if they do anything having to do with your free speech. Colleges have to pay a tremendous, tremendous financial penalty.
And again, it's amazing how open they've been lately.
We will launch a new age of American ambition in space. America will land the first woman on the moon, and the United States will be the first nation to plant its beautiful flag on Mars.
(APPLAUSE)
This is the unifying national agenda that will bring our country together. So tonight, I say to all Americans, this is the most important election in the history of our country. There has never been such a difference between two parties or two individuals in ideology, philosophy, or vision than there is right now.
Our opponents believe that America is a depraved nation. We want our sons and daughters to know the truths. America is the greatest and most exceptional nation in the history of the world.
(APPLAUSE)
Our country wasn't built by cancel culture, speech codes, and soul- crushing conformity. We are not a nation of timid spirits. We are a nation of fierce, proud, and independent American patriots. We're a nation of pilgrims, pioneers, adventurers, explorers, and trailblazers who refuse to be tied down, held back, or in any way reined in.
Americans have steel in their spines, grit in their souls, and fire in their hearts. There is no one like us on Earth.
I want every child in America to know that you are part of the most exciting and incredible adventure in human history.
[23:30:00]
No matter where your family comes from, no matter your background in America, anyone can rise. With hard work, devotion, and drive, you can reach any goal and achieve every ambition.
Our American ancestors sailed across the perilous ocean to build a new life on a new continent. They braved the freezing winters, crossed the raging rivers, scaled the rocky peaks, trekked the dangerous forests, and worked from dawn till dusk.
These pioneers didn't have money. They didn't have fame. But they had each other.
They loved their families, they loved their country, and they loved their God.
When opportunity beckoned, they picked up their Bibles, packed up their belongings, climbed into their covered wagons, and set out West for the next adventure -- ranchers and miners, cowboys and sheriffs, farmers and settlers. They pressed on past the Mississippi to stake a claim in the Wild Frontier.
Legends were born -- Wyatt Earp, Annie Oakley, Davey Crockett, and Buffalo Bill. Americans built their homesteads on the open range. Soon, they had churches and communities, then towns, and with time great centers of industry and commerce.
That is who they were. Americans build their future. We don't tear down our past.
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We are the nation that won a revolution, toppled tyranny and fascism, and delivered millions into freedom. We laid down the railroads, built the great ships, raised up the skyscrapers, revolutionized industry, and sparked a new age of scientific discovery. We set the trends in art and music, radio and film, sport and literature. And we did it all with style and confidence and flair because that is who we are.
Whenever our way of life was threatened, our heroes answered the call. From Yorktown to Gettysburg, from Normandy to Iwo Jima, American patriots raced into cannon blasts, bullets, and bayonets to rescue American liberty. They had no fear.
But America didn't stop there. We looked into the sky and kept pressing onward. We built a 6-million-pound rocket and launched it thousands of miles into space. We did it so that two brave patriots could stand tall and salute our wondrous American flag planted on the face of the moon.
For America, nothing is impossible. Over the next four years, we will prove worthy of this magnificent legacy. We will reach stunning new heights, and we will show that the world, for America, there is a dream, and it is not beyond your reach.
Together, we are unstoppable. Together, we are unbeatable, because together, we are the proud citizens of the United States of America.
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On November 3rd, we will make America safer. We will make America stronger. We will make America prouder. And we will make America greater than ever before.
I'm very, very proud to be the nominee of the Republican Party. I love you all. God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you very much.
(APPLAUSE)
[23:34:58]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: A blistering attack on the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, by the president of the United States. No one will be safe in Biden's America. President Trump just said, repeating that theme, over and over and over again.
He clearly had the advantage of being the incumbent president of the United States, being able to deliver his acceptance speech at the Republican convention on the south lawn of the White House, with about 2,000 invited guests applauding and interrupting repeatedly.
There he is on the stage right now with his family. The fireworks are beginning to go off. Look at the advantage that an incumbent president has here in Washington. The fireworks over the Washington monument, right now, right across from the White House.
There you see. An impressive scene indeed. The Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, clearly could not do this. He did not have a crowd when he spoke. He spoke, by the way, Biden, for about 24 minutes. And now, the president spoke for over an hour. No one will be safe, he said, Jake, in Biden's America. That was the
theme of his acceptance speech as he also went on to outline what he plans on doing if he is re-elected over the next four years.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: The president spoke for 70 minutes 11 seconds. Not as much as his 75 minute speech four years ago, but still, these are the two longest acceptance speeches in decades.
For those wondering, Joe Biden spoke for under 25 minutes when he accepted the Democratic nomination. And you mentioned how this is something that Joe Biden does not have. He does not have the ability to speak at the White House or have the fireworks over the nation's capital like this.
We should also point out, no American president has ever accepted the nomination of his party from the White House. It was thought to be inappropriate, a violation perhaps even of the Hatch Act to have White House individuals working on such an event, clearly marked for political events.
But once again, President Trump, shattering norms, standards, perhaps, even laws by holding such an event. You saw this evening and the last four nights, the view of the world from planet Trump. The view of the world as the president wishes it were.
He talked about tonight how 9 million jobs had been created in three months without mentioning, of course, that in the previous two months before that, 22 million had been lost in the recession caused by the pandemic.
He has talked about the world and the pandemic as if almost it is over in terms of the event and how he is holding this event. A pandemic event. Nobody was social distancing with a crowd of 1,500, 2,000 individuals, very few masks, no mass testing. It was as if we are not in the middle of a deadly pandemic, which is, of course, what the president wishes were the case.
But, it is not the case. And that is one of the points that I think is important about the speech and I think is important about the last four days. There has been a completely filtered President Trump. We have seen the world through his eyes and through the eyes of his advisers.
He has not really spoken extemporaneously. There were some ad libs this evening in a speech, but he pretty much he kept to the teleprompter. The other times we have seen him during this week, he has been on tape or he has been quiet when it came to the speeches of Vice President Pence, and First Lady Melania Trump.
That is the Trump that White House officials and campaign officials wish they had all the time, one who is not sending tweets that upset people, one who is not making comments that upset people when he ad libs. And I think it's important to note that I do expect that there might be some sort of narrowing in the polls after this unfiltered -- after this rather filtered week. But we still have many days to go and we'll see if the president is able to stay as disciplined, Dana. DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Discipline is a good
word for it. I mean, what we saw and what we heard from this president was teleprompter Trump. It was the kind of speech not necessarily in content, but in delivery, that we see at a state of the union.
He is doing what he has to do not what he wants to do when it comes to what he is saying. He delivered the kind of speech that his advisers have been desperate for him to be doing when it comes to the strategy for him to win re-election, and, more importantly, to do that by really throwing the toughest punches as he possibly can, rhetorically, against Joe Biden.
[23:40:00]
We saw the strongest, and most robust attempt by the president, or frankly, anybody in his campaign to define Joe Biden the way that a lot of advisers that I have talked to and I'm sure my colleagues here also talk to, have been really desperate for him to do.
To craft Joe Biden's potential role as something that is not what those voters who are on the fence want despite maybe the fact that they are not completely in love with the idea of a second Trump term. Over and over on a whole host of issues, we saw and we heard the president do that.
But one thing that I did notice though, back to kind of the delivery, there were only a few moments where he went off script that you saw the Trump that enjoys this kind of political theater where he has talked about, pointed to the White House behind him and he talked about the fact that, you know, he lives there and they don't.
The rest of it was almost -- he was trying to be solemn and he was trying to be presidential. But it also came across as a little bit of a downer compared to the way we are used to seeing Donald Trump at rallies. And it is obvious that he was told or he felt that rally Trump is not going to play in this kind of setting that he chose to accept the nomination.
But it felt a little bit discordant from the Donald Trump that we know. He really enjoys when it comes to being a politician. The one thing I just want to say, Abby, about the Joe Biden contrast is that last week, Joe Biden certainly talked about Donald Trump, but he didn't mention him by name. We knew what he was saying.
That is not the case tonight. Donald Trump mentioned Joe Biden's name more than 40 times to make that point, to hit home, how bad he thinks, Abby, that Joe Biden will be as an alternative to him.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And it, of course, really highlights the job that the president believed he had tonight which is defining Joe Biden. As we are watching this, this is an opera singer performing outside of the White House.
I do want to note quickly that as President Trump was speaking, you could literally hear in the background the protests that are happening just outside of the White House. You know, hundreds probably of people who gathered in Black Lives
Matter Plaza, right above Lafayette Square and near the White House to protest and it was audible from the south lawn where all of these festivities are going on.
One of the lines in President Trump's speech was about this stark divide and he really leaned into that tonight. That was a core part of the speech and, you know, it is all about trying to clarify to the American public who they want them to think Joe Biden is.
I do think the Trump campaign worries that Americans think they know Joe Biden. And so they've had to try to redefine him. And then some of the ways that the president has redefined him, he said, that Joe Biden is weak. They called him a Trojan a horse for socialism.
The idea being, and I think Ivanka literally used these words, they called him an empty vessel, someone who is absent of his own beliefs and who can be filled with, in their words, radical, socialist, beliefs. So, Dana, as you were saying, the president sounded kind of almost down.
It's a pretty negative picture that they were painting of the Democratic nominee, even as the president tried to talk in optimistic terms about the United States. He had to paint a very negative picture of the United States under a Joe Biden presidency.
And it is interesting and notable that it relies on not saying that Joe Biden is radical, but rather that he is surrounded by radicals. Jake, I thought that that was, you know, a theme, not just of President Trump's speech, but really of a lot of the speeches that we saw over the course of the last several days.
TAPPER: Yes, I agree. Can we just take one minute to acknowledge how untraditional to use one word for it, the scene that we are witnessing right now is? The president has just accepted the nomination of his party from the White House, which has never been done before.
And now, we are not hearing happy days are here again. We are hearing an opera singer sing hallelujah.
[23:44:59]
Once again, I think demonstrating the degree to which President Trump considers himself a showman, whether it is reality television or president. This is certainly not the typical convention. And while, of course, because of the pandemic, that is generally the case.
PHILLIP: Jake, can I just mention that this is exactly what you would hear at the end of a Trump rally if you are at a Trump rally. They would be playing this song.
BASH: He loves that.
PHILLIP: He loves it. It is a Trump rally staple, Dana.
BASH: Yes. No, it absolutely is. You know, some of the songs that he chooses on his playlist, which he curates, don't really match in terms of the content and the lyrics to what necessarily you would think a politician would want to put forward.
This, I believe, was actually sung Kate McKinnon in an "SNL" skit after Hillary lost.
TAPPER: Right.
BASH: So, there is some odd irony and, you know, kind of bookends there of some sort. I'm not sure what or I'm not sure that the president obviously even knew or even thought that through.
BLITZER: I don't think we have ever seen a political rally like this on the south lawn of the White House. I've spent a lot of years covering the presidents over these many decades and it's fair to say that I have never seen anything like this before.
The acceptance speech on the south lawn of the White House, 2,000 invited guests, sitting very close together by the way, most of them not wearing masks even in the midst of a pandemic. And as I said, a blistering attack.
At one point, the president said if Joe Biden is elected, your vote will decide whether we protect law-abiding Americans or whether we give free reign to violent anarchists, agitators, and criminals, who threaten our citizens.
And then he said, and this election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.
Jake, he is suggesting that if Biden is elected, this country will turn into a disaster. It will be a socialist, if not a Marxist country. The economy will collapse and everything we know about America will go away.
TAPPER: Right. It's kind of preposterous, although I should note that the economy has collapsed. It collapsed a few months ago because of the pandemic and we are still clawing our way out of it, which is one of the huge complications that President Trump has when he is making this pitch.
Four years ago, he promised that as of his inauguration, violence in the cities was going to end. Now, he is making the same basic argument four years later having been president. There are advantages to being an incumbent. There are also disadvantages.
You now have a record that you have to run on. And this record, when it comes to a lot of the things he pitched then and are pitching now, it's not good.
BASH: Jake -- Jake, I think what you're saying is so true. It's bizarre to be having this conversation as we're listening to an opera singer saying Ave Maria on the south lawn of the White House.
I mean, this is remarkable in every sense of the word. But as you were saying, there were so many things in the speech, and I know Daniel Dale and on our team, what they're going to go through and fact check.
It was very long and there were a lot of things that were just not true, and not right about not just about what his record is, but about what he accused Joe Biden of being and of doing. One of the things when it comes to the coronavirus, you know, we didn't see or hear a lot of sympathy or empathy.
We did hear a nod from the president for and to the people who have been suffering, the people who are mourning those loss. He didn't dwell on that, but he did mention it.
But then again, on this, Abby, he warned in very stark terms, that if Joe Biden were elected and would shut down his terms, the economy, again, there would be drug overdoses, depression, alcohol addiction, suicide, I mean, that is unbelievable rhetoric even from somebody who we're used to hearing over the top rhetoric from.
PHILLIP: And a lot of the rhetoric on the coronavirus was simply false, we just have to say that. It was an exaggeration in some cases. In some cases, it was entirely false. There is a lot to say about that, but you know, before we go forward, I mean, we are watching what seems to be maybe the finale of this concert unfolding at the White House.
[02:49:55]
God bless America being played with the entire Trump family, which, I should say, we rarely see the entire Trump family altogether at the White House. They are all at the podium. This is the president putting on a big show for the country in a way that a lot of people will say, and we should acknowledge, is unethical.
The use of the White House in this way for a completely political event. And, you know, I don't know that we'll ever -- just Jake likes to say, I don't know that we'll ever come back from this. This is a norm that has been broken. I think future presidents might look at the White House very differently in terms of how it can be used.
But back to the coronavirus issue, Dana, I was really struck by the way in which the president, the vice president yesterday, and Ivanka Trump tonight glossed over some key parts of how this really went for the country.
The president's delay in using the Defense Production Act early on in this crisis. The fact that the New York outbreak came, was ceded from Europe. And that the China, you know, travel ban as he likes to call it, was not enough to stop the virus from spreading.
The president, tonight, promised a vaccine before the end of the year. He suggested it might be even earlier than that. And then he talked about convalescent plasma almost as a panacea for this virus when we know based on what medical experts have said, it is the not proven to be any kind of cure.
BLIITZER: Yes. PHILLIP: So there is a lot there, Wolf, and I think that it bears pointing out because this is the most important thing in the lives of Americans right now. And it's not -- it would not be responsible for us to allow these kinds of, you know, misrepresentations.
TAPPER: No, obviously, it's a complete misrepresentation especially when it comes to coronavirus. But I have to say, look, every political convention is propaganda, but I don't know that we've ever been fed a staple of propaganda like this.
And what's so interesting about the last four days, Abby, is that they are asking the American people to not believe what they already think, according to polls. They are saying they had individual after individual say, I wish you could see what he's really like behind the scenes.
I wish you could see it as if that would change the perceptions that the American people have, a majority disapproving of the president. So many Americans think he's racist -- oh no, he's not. You need to believe, he likes black people.
So many Americans think he is a sexist or a misogynist. He's not, he's done so many things for women. So many people think that he's xenophobic and he hates immigrants. Oh no, he's not. Here is at a naturalization ceremony.
And so many Americans and this is why he's so vulnerable, even if the race does tighten a little, so many Americans disapprove of the job he has done with the coronavirus because they see the evidence before their eyes as to how the administration response has not been adequate.
They see it and the message has been, oh no, he did a really good job. They're asking you to disbelieve what you already think, Wolf.
BLITZER: The president and the first lady and their family now heading back into the White House. The vice president and the second lady walking back into the White House as well. This Republican National Convention is now over.
Anderson, the president was very confident that the coronavirus pandemic seems to be moving in the right direction. Let's not forget that more than a thousand Americans are dying almost every single day, continuing this crisis, this pandemic, is by no means over.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: I think it's clear that this president has done everything possible to make you forget that over the course of the last several nights, no real representation of the tremendous loss that has gone on, a loss which is unparalleled in the world in advanced countries.
We are an outlier in the way we have responded to this pandemic or the way this administration, I should say, has responded to this pandemic. Gloria Borger, I mean, it went on as long as the wedding scene in "The Godfather."
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: And then some.
COOPER: And sadly, there were some other parallels to those scenes as well. What do you make of this event and also just how this week has gone?
BORGER: Well, first of all, let me start following my colleagues about what they've been saying about the picture of this event. Without masks, without distancing, and somehow you're sitting at home and you know what your life is like every day.
You can't go out without a mask. You are worried about whether your children can go to school. You may have lost your job. And with this occurring at the White House, as if it were an alternate universe, you have to sort of say doesn't this make people feel like their sacrifices have been for nothing? Are people worried that there is going to be some superspreader event at the White House perhaps?
[23:55:05]
COOPER: You know the response from many Republicans and people who say this is, well, there were huge massive protests across the country over the course of summer and people weren't wearing masks or even if they were.
BORGER: This is on the lawn -- this is on the lawn of the White House. And we can go over the question whether it should have been there or should not have been there, but this is on the lawn of the White House.
This is a president and a vice president who have a coronavirus task force which was not consulted about this event as our reporting shows. So, you know, you have to have that picture. And then you go on to the rest of it.
And I will let my colleagues talk about this, but this whole question of softening Donald Trump. I was listening to speaker after speaker tonight. His daughter saying, you know, I wish Americans could see him with his grandchildren.
And other people saying, I wish everyone could just see the deep empathy of this man. And that's another thing I think people might be scratching their heads about. You know, you didn't hear him say Sleepy Joe tonight, called him a lot of other names, but it seems that they've finally arrived on the Trojan a horse for the radical left.
But I think this kind of redrawing over the last four days of who Donald Trump really is, the question that I have is when he steps on the stage and he's not in front of a prompter, is he going to just blow it up all over again by being Donald Trump or tweeting something?
COOPER: David?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The answer is yes. Okay, let's (inaudible).
BORGER: That was rhetorical, right. AXELROD: That's an easy one to answer. In fact, tomorrow morning, Donald Trump is going to wake up, he's going to look at his iPhone --
BORGER: Or his ratings.
AXELROD: -- and he's going to do what Donald Trump does, he going to start tweeting and we'll be off to the races again. Look, he came into this week, they came into this week in a country where 180,000 people have now died, in a country that has 10 percent unemployment, in a country where two-thirds of the voters believe we are headed in the wrong direction, in a country that where 40 percent, a little more than 40 percent of the people give him a positive approval rating.
And so they needed a reality show. They couldn't deal with reality. They needed to change the reality and they did in two ways. One is the way you said, which is to try and humanize him, make it more socially acceptable for some of their own supporters to embrace him and say he's not a racist, he's not a misogynist.
But there was another vein that ran straight through this and this is one we're going to see, and that is the vote for Biden and you will not be safe. Vote for Biden and marauding rioters will roll up at your door. That was the theme that ran right through this convention.
It was helped, frankly, by the events in Kenosha, and they seized on that as well. But you heard Giuliani's speech tonight, the police chief and the president himself. So, if there is lesson that we've learned from this, it is that is going to be a major theme of this election. And they accomplished that theme. They got everybody talking about it and that's what they wanted to do.
COOPER: It's so interesting though -- it's so interesting though, David, because, you know, the portrait that the president is painting is, you know, police are afraid, give police back their power. You know, police officers saying they have never seen anything like this.
This is happening Donald Trump is the president. So, he is overseeing a country where he says police are afraid, give them back their power. Okay, so he can do that. If he has the power to do that with whatever magic fairy dust he has, he can do that right now, but he is portraying it as if he is just observing this and somehow once he's reelected, then somehow that will occur.
AXELROD: Yes, but there is another more insidious message to this as, Anderson. I think Nia can speak to this as well, but what are you saying is all these protesters, all these marchers, they are handcuffing our police. They are trying to stop the police from doing what they need to do.
And if you like Joe Biden, that's going to be the policy that prevails here. That is really, that's what you really heard from the police union leader we heard from (inaudible), from Giuliani and from the others. And there is a not too subtle racial component to this message as well. I mean, it is not --
COOPER: Right. This is a black mob, this is not a -- AXELROD: Exactly. Look, we started with that couple from St. Louis
and they set the tone for the week.
COOPER: Nia?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, they -- I think that's right. They set the tone for the week. You had sort of in and out African-American people like Ben Carson, people like Ja'Ron Ssmith to be there to say Donald Trump is great. He's not a racist. Almost all of the black people had to testify and be Donald Trump's black friend tonight and throughout I think this whole convention.
[23:59:58]
And we will see what that does for white moderates, what it does for African-Americans. Two, I thought what was so interesting about tonight was how boring Donald Trump was, how low energy he was.
