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CNN Live Event/Special
Trump Speaks at Final Night of RNC; Undecided Voters Respond to Trump's Speech. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired July 19, 2024 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: -- acceptable. We must instead take that energy and use it to realize our country's true potential and write our own thrilling chapter of the American story. We can do it together. We will unite. We are going to come together, and success will bring us together.
[00:00:22]
It is a story of love, sacrifice, and so many other things. And remember the word -- devotion. It's unmatched devotion. It's unmatched devotion.
Our American ancestors crossed the Delaware, survived the icy winter at Valley Forge, and defeated a mighty empire to establish our cherished republic.
They fought so hard, they lost so many. They pushed thousands and thousands of miles across a dangerous frontier, taming the wilderness to build a life and a magnificent home for their family. They packed their families into covered wagons, trekked across hazardous trails, scaled towering mountains, and braved rivers and rapids to stake their claim on the wide open, new, and very beautiful frontier.
When our way of life was threatened, American patriots marched onto the battlefield, raced into enemy strongholds, and stared down death, and stared down those enemies, to keep alive the flame of freedom. At Yorktown, Gettysburg, and Midway, they joined the roll call of immortal heroes. So many whole -- just so many heroes, so many great, great people. And we have to cherish those people. We can't forget those people. We have to cherish those people.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And building monuments to those great people is a good thing, not a bad thing.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They saved our country. No challenge was too much. No hardship was too great. No enemy was too fierce. Together these patriots soldiered on and endured, and they prevailed because they had faith in each other, faith in their country, and above all, they had faith in their God.
(APPLAUSE) TRUMP: Just like our ancestors, we must now come together, rise above past differences. Any disagreements have to be put aside and go forward, united as one people, one nation, pledging allegiance to one great, beautiful -- I think it's so beautiful -- American flag.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Tonight I ask for your partnership, for your support, and I am humbly asking for your vote. I want your vote.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: It's going to make our country great again. Every day I will strive to honor the trust you have placed in me, and I will never, ever let you down. I promise that. I will never let you down.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: To all of the forgotten men and women who have been neglected, abandoned, and left behind, you will be forgotten no longer. We will press forward, and together we will win, win, win.
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD: Win! Win! win!
TRUMP: Win, win, win, win, win, win, win.
CROWD: Win! Win! win!
TRUMP: Nothing will sway us, nothing will slow us, and no one will ever stop us.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: No matter what dangers come our way, no matter what obstacles lie in our path, we will keep striving toward our shared and glorious destiny, and we will not fail. We will not fail.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Together we will save this country, we will restore the republic, and we will usher in the rich and wonderful tomorrows that our people so truly deserve.
America's future will be bigger, better, bolder, brighter, happier, stronger, freer, greater, and more united than ever before.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: And quite simply put, we will very quickly make America great again.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Wisconsin. God bless you. God bless you, Wisconsin. And God bless the United States of America, our great country. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(MUSIC: SAM AND DAVE, "HOLD ON I'M COMING")
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump, accepting his party's nomination for president, joined on the stage here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by his wife, Melania; his children, their spouses and partners; and also some grandkids, I think, are in there, as well as also joined by J.D. Vance, the senator from Ohio, and his wife, Usha. J.D. Vance, his new running mate, been in the Senate for about a year and a half, already on quite the fast track.
President Trump spoke for one hour and 32 minutes, which I'm told is the longest speech for a nomination acceptance by a major party figure in modern American political history.
For those wondering, his 2016 speech was an hour, 15 minutes. 2020 was an hour, ten minutes. This one, one-hour, 32 minutes.
It started off with what we were told was the new tone of unity, and he relayed his harrowing experience during the assassination attempt in Butler Township, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
But then -- and I hope this doesn't sound harsh -- but then it pretty much he became the kind of speech we generally hear from Donald Trump at rallies where he went off-script and riffed and adlibbed.
We were told he wasn't going to even mention President Biden's name. He mentioned it at least twice. Very much the same Donald Trump that we are used to.
And I will -- just one word before I throw it to you, Dana, to get your thoughts. Senator Marco Rubio told us earlier that Donald Trump had told him this was the biggest balloon drop in the history of balloons.
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: It's a lot of balloons.
TAPPER: He said something like 18,000 of them. I -- maybe I heard that figure wrong.
BASH: No, he did say that.
TAPPER: And Daniel Dale, I hope, will be able to fact check this, if not tonight then maybe tomorrow, although I guess nobody really cares that much about whether or not it's the biggest balloon drop.
But that is what's going on. We have some giant gold balls also, beach balls.
Anyway, Dana Bash, back to the content of the speech. It was, except for the top of it, pretty -- pretty -- pretty much Donald Trump, greatest hits.
BASH: Yes.
TAPPER: And if you like it, which all the people in this room do, then you're happy, and if you don't, then you've heard it before already.
BASH: So Republicans, some of whom I've been texting with who are here at the convention, are taking solace in the fact that, because it is so late at night, East Coast and even Midwest, that the majority of people likely paid attention to do and tuned into the beginning of the speech, where he did call for discord and division of the society to be healed.
[00:10:08]
And then, as you said, gave in a detailed way, the narrative and the story of what happened, the harrowing moment that he was almost killed on Saturday night.
And of course, the tribute to the gentleman who was killed and two who were severely injured.
But just going back to that line, which is -- is very early on, according to the teleprompter, like the fourth line in the speech, that discord and division in our society must be healed he was then vintage Donald Trump, going after Nancy Pelosi, talking about cheating on elections, saying that people used COVID to cheat. Even though he had said that he wasn't going to, or at least his people said he wasn't going to use Biden's name, talked about Joe Biden by name, talked about the immigrant invasion, weaponize -- weaponized Justice Department and so on and so forth.
So, so much of the preview of what we got was this is a changed man. This is somebody who's going to be different.
TAPPER: His tone was a little bit more subdued.
BASH: Well, he said it. It was.
TAPPER: A little bit more subdued, but -- but --
BASH: It was subdued. It was. But -- and certainly, we have all seen rallies of Donald Trump where he has given, in his words, a more rip- roaring speech. But there was a lot of that in there.
CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: You know, there's something -- a phenomenon in this campaign called Trump amnesia.
And that's the idea that a lot of people have forgotten what they either liked or loathed about Trump during his four years as president. And over the course of this hour and a half, you were reminded of what you liked or loathed about Donald Trump.
And you're -- you're exactly right, Dana. What -- part of the -- I have to say, for me, disappointment in this speech is because the Trump campaign had talked so much about how we were going to see a softer, more reflective Donald Trump. And he had a line early on. He said, I'm going to be president for all Americans, because there's no victory in winning for half of Americans. And I thought, well, we're off to the races here, and this is really going to be a different Donald Trump.
As you say, he then went in, in very reflective, somber, un-Trump-like detail of talking about how God saved him, saved his life, and -- and seemed genuinely reflective.
But then, for all of that, it seemed as if he couldn't keep up the act. And so, we started hearing about "Crazy Nancy Pelosi" and cheating on elections, and talking about Biden.
Frankly, it was a long speech. It was a rambling speech. It was a speech by an older man. And I couldn't help but think that the people that are going to be happiest tonight are not the people at Trump headquarters, but the people -- the Democrats, maybe at Biden headquarters, maybe at the headquarters of other people who think they're going to replace Joe Biden.
But Jake, we have ourselves a presidential campaign again.
TAPPER: Yes.
Anderson Cooper, just a note. The average film is one-hour and 31 minutes long. This was one hour and 32 minutes long. This speech was longer than the average movie -- Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: By Donald Trump's standards, this was the longest GOP convention speech he has given, Jake, as you pointed out.
I just want to get some quick tapes -- takes from the panel. David Urban, was this the speech you expected?
DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I know. Look, its it started out incredibly strong. I thought in terms of the president's emotional journey when he got shot, you heard from him a lot of really interesting things. And a little subdued to begin with.
I think the crowd was expecting a lot more. And so, I think he did what he had to do here, delivered -- delivered red meat to those who wanted red meat; delivered a little, you know -- there's a lot -- this convention was about love. A lot of love in the room. Before, we've never had a unified party like this. And so, the party is unified behind a lot of love in the room.
COOPER: David Axelrod.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So, my friend Scott Jennings --
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Come on. Come on.
AXELROD: -- was hop -- hop -- hopping out of his seat before the speech, because he held up the excerpts and said, this -- you wondered whether he could rise to the moment. Well, he's going to rise to the moment.
It just turns out that he only -- he read the words on these pages and then spent probably an hour, in aggregate, riffing. And so, people, I'm sure, responded very positively to his appeals to unity that were written on the teleprompter. And then he just riffed the bejesus out of everybody that he was -- all his political enemies and so on.
[00:15:02]
I have to tell you, you know, Chris Wallace said this. This was the first good thing that's happened to Democrats in the last three weeks. I mean, this -- this really reminded everyone why Donald Trump is fundamentally unpopular outside this room.
COOPER: Kaitlan.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: You know what's interesting, is that a lot of people have not been to a Trump rally. They've never seen what a Trump rally is like.
I've been to dozens of them. This is what a Trump rally is like.
And what, obviously, this was billed as was a totally rewritten speech focused on unity. There's no denying the beginning was certainly compelling. He recounted in detail what it was like to be on stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night. And he spent about ten to 15 minutes doing that.
Then we got to the middle, and it sounded like a normal, typical Trump rally that would have happened before Saturday. He called Nancy Pelosi "Crazy Nancy Pelosi." He talked about "They are trying to destroy our country." He called the 2020 election "ridiculous."
COOPER: He talked about cheating on elections, using COVID to cheat on elections.
COLLINS: He exemplified Hungary's authoritarian strongman leader, who has, you know, scaled back democratic norms in that country.
And a lot of that was exactly as a typical Trump speech is.
What's interesting is a lot of people don't normally watch that. They all did tonight.
COOPER: Abby.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: I got a lot of messages from people saying, this is a great reminder of why a lot of people were exhausted by the end of the first Trump presidency and will be having second thoughts about whether they want to go through that again.
I mean, it was a Trump rally, as Kaitlan said. The American people -- it's after midnight on the East Coast. People are asleep. They are tired. It was a long, rambling speech.
And the meat and potatoes of it were all the lines in between the unifying excerpts, the part where he ad-libbed what he really wanted to say. And all of those were things that were filled with lies, misleading statements.
And -- and -- and honestly, it was not compelling. His delivery was very problematic. That is what he sounds like in a lot of his rallies. But you easily could get lost in just the monotone nature of what he was saying.
In this moment, when he could have lifted this very energetic room up in a really rousing, short, tight speech, that was not what this was tonight.
COOPER: Van.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, that was a mess. That was just a big mess. Trump dodged a bullet on Saturday, and Democrats dodged a bullet tonight.
He had the whole world in his hand. He -- if he had just stayed with that unity message, he might have caused some problems. But he just could not help himself.
If Biden had given a speech that incoherent, that rambling, that undisciplined, Democrats would have hit Biden with a tranquilizer dart and drug him off.
So, we're now back into a normal campaign dynamic, where you -- Trump took what was the most energetic convention, and he was boring. He took the most disciplined convention. He was undisciplined. He basically was the worst part of his own convention.
And so that actually is the first good thing that's happened to Democrats.
The other thing I'll say is this. Ten minutes of unity talk off the teleprompter, followed by rabid attacks on Nancy Pelosi, on Joe Biden, and talking about Hannibal Lecter, that is not a new Trump.
They made a big mistake by -- by -- by overselling this transformation. There has been no transformation. This is Donald Trump, and welcome back to the campaign now.
COOPER: Scott, it was a review of some of the -- the stuff we got used to hearing during the White House years. The love for Kim Jong-un, Viktor Orban, and others.
JENNINGS: Yes, some of it was the old greatest hits. But the most compelling part was the new part, the part at the top. When he told the story about being shot at, you could have heard a pin drop in this place. It was extremely riveting.
I mean, look, Axeman, it was a long speech, no doubt. He used the prepared remarks. And he also used the unprepared remarks. The part that mattered most, though, he nailed. And that's the part that I think people are going to remember. I think the message and tone are basically fine. He hit the issues
he's got to hit on inflation and immigration. That's over the target. The national unity stuff was -- the campaign tells me, quote, "We got what we wanted." They're fine with it.
The convention served its purpose. The vibe was good in here. The vibe is good right now. The Republican Party, after one week, Van, is still the party of fun.
And the party of democracy is down the street, plotting a political coup against the sitting president of the United States.
There's a lot of Trump-skeptical Republicans who came into this week going, I don't know if I want to do this again. And I think they're going to leave this week thinking, you know what? It's going to be fine.
I think this was mission accomplished for the convention week.
COOPER: John.
JONES: The convention -- the convention was great, and the candidate was not.
COOPER: John.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: But it -- it was foolish for anybody to think that one speech was going to vault Donald Trump into this blowout in an election.
[00:20:02]
No. 1, we don't live in a country that will have a blowout election. That's not the way the election is divided.
No. 2, there is not majority support in the country for Trump or for Trumpism. There simply isn't. All the data says that.
However -- however, he doesn't need majorities. He needs to get 46, 47, 48 percent in the swing states. He'll get over 50 percent in the red states.
Look down on that floor. Was it a great speech? Of course not. They love it, and they love him. They're unified, and they're going home.
The money is flowing into the Republican Party. They're leading in the polls in all the key states. Democratic donors are saying no more money to President Biden right now.
Now, we'll see if that holds. It's a month to go before the Democratic convention. They get a month to plan their rebuttal. But we're not even positive if the president will be their candidate.
So, he didn't help himself. There is not one line in here that is going to get him new voters. No new voters.
COOPER: To me, the most successful parts of this entire week were real people --
JENNINGS: Yes.
COOPER: -- talking about -- I mean, those Gold Star families.
JONES: Oh, my God.
COOPER: And everybody in this room saying the names of those Gold Star family members who were killed in Afghanistan.
And even tonight, I mean, Hulk Hogan of all people, probably reached an audience which hasn't paid a lot of attention, hasn't listened to Trump's speeches before, and did it in an extraordinarily compelling way. I mean, I'm not a devotee like Scott, of WrestleMania.
AXELROD: A few people are.
JENNINGS: But look, but you just hit the nail on the head. It's a whole week of stuff. And in totality this week, it was well-produced. The real people were compelling. The Hulka -- the Hulkster did run wild in Milwaukee.
But so did all kinds of other folks who had messages about inflation and immigration. All in, this was a good convention.
And the Democrats can't even have one right now.
AXELROD: Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott.
PHILLIP: I would also say --
AXELROD: Just -- there's no doubt that this has been, in fact, what the whole campaign has been. It's been a very disciplined campaign and a very undisciplined candidate. And that's what we saw again.
And the reality is that it's the undisciplined candidate who is unpopular and who has driven people away.
John may be right. I mean, this may be enough that, if he just motivates the base, there's -- you know, I don't question that, that he may have accomplished some of that.
KING: He's not -- he's not popular. But the president is more unpopular.
AXELROD: But they were -- they were calling for something else tonight. They were going to something else tonight with this unity appeal. They were trying to say he's learned; he's grown, he's not going to be the guy who you --
JONES: They oversold that.
AXELROD: -- feared last time.
And then he -- he read the lines off the prompter, and then threw the whole concept away. COLLINS: That's why it's always important to watch Donald Trump. Covering him, it's not just what people tell you he's going to do. You have to watch what he actually does. Because I think those of us who have covered him for a long time were skeptical of that.
But you know what they also had? Is several days of stories saying that Donald Trump was changed by this, and it would be a unifying speech. And it was, with the exception of the beginning, of course, as we've noted, typical of what you see.
The question is, what do people see who weren't necessarily watching tonight? What's going to be the highlight and packaged is what he did say at the beginning, which was the recounting of his assassination.
PHILLIP: But the question also with Donald Trump is what is he going to do? It is very easy to diagnose the problem of the Biden administration, as seen through the eyes of Republicans, but -- but Trump is not running as some kind of fresh face on the political scene.
He is basically an incumbent. So -- so he's coming in with people already knowing what he's like as a leader, what he's done in his presidency.
And he has to -- he does have to answer the question, what is he going to do? This speech didn't really answer that question. At least not --
COOPER: Well, he said he's going to end the wars immediately.
PHILLIP: At least not truthfully.
COOPER: He's going to lower inflation immediately.
PHILLIP: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: And on the seventh day, he'll rest.
PHILLIP: -- this week was an attempt, in a lot of ways, to paper over what their agenda is going to be for the Trump presidency.
JENNINGS: Abby.
PHILLIP: And the problem -- the problem for the Trump campaign --
JENNINGS: Abby.
PHILLIP: Scott, the problem with the Trump campaign is that the speech as written was the version that they wanted the American people to hear.
But Donald Trump stood there, and he ad libbed about 30 percent of his speech. And he added in -- he filled in all the blanks.
JENNINGS: As it relates to the agenda -- PHILLIP: He filled in the blanks in a way that I think was not helpful to his campaign.
JENNINGS: OK. But it's not true that he didn't lay out issues. And it's also not true that the convention didn't produce a very clear and concise policy agenda. It came out at the beginning of the week.
And so, coming out of this, it's obvious what they're running on. And it's not all that complicated: immigration, inflation, crime, and national security.
COOPER: Go.
URBAN: What the president -- just real quickly. What the president -- the former president needs to do, shove (ph) the damn rallies. You go to rallies, like Kaitlan says, you go to a rallies, they're too long.
The people at the end of the rally, they're leaving for the exits, because it's like a football game where the score's run up. They want to get back to their car and get out before the crowd leaves.
Donald Trump needs to cut down about 30, 40 minutes. Go back to the old days. That's the big critique of this speech. Too long.
JENNINGS: But a big chunk of it was the shooting. A big chunk of it was the addition of the shooting.
[00:25:02]
URBAN: The shooting was great. No one -- no one.
JONES: Nobody's mad about that.
JENNINGS: It's new. It's new.
JONES: Can I just say something?
URBAN: You could condense the other stuff. If it could have been condensed, it would have been a home run.
JONES: Look, right -- right now, you've got three generations of Trump on that stage. And the convention was good. The speech was terrible. The candidate is -- it remains to be seen.
But this is a remarkable moment, that this family has somehow managed to survive a whole bunch of stuff, including a near death experience, to be at the center of American life.
What they -- what they do with that, I'm terrified; some people are hopeful. But you know, I think that what we saw with the convention itself, with the elements of something that goes beyond the campaign, what you begin to see, it looks like more of a movement.
It reminds me of what 2008, where you started having cultural elements. You know, Will.i.am came out were with you guys, Axe, and suddenly there was a cultural element of the Obama campaign. You saw a bunch of cultural elements here, with mixed martial arts,
and rock and country. There was a spiritual dimension to the Obama campaign that was very, very present. You hear a lot of evangelical Christianity, kind of spiritual stuff.
And then this -- this nationalist political agenda. You start putting together spiritual stuff, cultural stuff, political stuff, it starts to feel more like a movement. Movements are harder to beat.
And that's, I think, what Democrats have to look at. This thing -- Trump just -- I don't know what he's doing today, but he's got the elements now. The Democrats need to get serious.
Stopping a movement is not the same as stopping a candidate. And we've got to --
AXELROD: But -- but Vance, he is the apex of the movement. And if he's -- if he is defective --
JONES: Yes.
AXELROD: Now, and he may motivate the base, but the problem tonight is he -- he's showed the qualities that Americans --
JONES: Can't stand.
AXELROD: -- are weary -- grew weary of.
COOPER: I want to go back to -- to Jake on floor -- Jake.
TAPPER: Thanks so much, Anderson.
And the party is still going on here in the arena. Delegates are starting to leave, and the family is obviously starting to leave, as well.
Let's go and check in with our correspondents and anchors throughout the arena who can give us a take on what's going on.
First of all, Phil Mattingly. So, the longest nomination acceptance speech in modern American history. One hour, 32 minutes. How did the delegates take that?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: I think the best way to capture it was, as I was walking back up over here to get ready for the balloon drop -- and to confirm, there are a lot of balloons on the floor -- was a delegate who said, It was a good speech. It was just really, really long.
And while that sounds somewhat simplistic, I think the reality is, is when you talk to Trump supporters, they knew this was such a good convention in their eyes. The unity was so total and real. And there was a build to this moment. They were hanging on every word as the president described a first-person account of the attempted assassination, an awful, traumatic event.
And then I think people just tried to follow along.
There were several delegations that stood the entire time. There's no question about that. Wisconsin, Florida, Texas, every member of their delegation was standing throughout.
But there are several more, actually, that were seated, kind of waiting for the moment to get riled up, to get excited, to be like they are oftentimes at his rallies. There's no question, at his rallies, the dedication and devout nature of his supporters is, in large part, channeled through the former president himself. And there weren't many moments for that.
I could also say, you know, I was watching the teleprompter throughout. And while this is not a shock that the former president would go off teleprompter, it was quite obvious when he left the teleprompter and quite obvious when he went back on.
You can know for sure, because I was watching the prompter, that the stories about Kim Jong-un, the stories about cheating in the election, things like that were not in the script in any way, shape, or form.
But it seemed to be kind toggling back and forth, trying to figure out a way to connect with the crowd, but also give the speech that he knew he should give, and his advisers wanted him to give, Jake.
TAPPER: Yes. And that desire to riff instead of being disciplined and sticking with the speech written for him. We know who won that -- that struggle internally.
I want to bring in our CNN fact checker, senior reporter Daniel Dale.
Dan -- Daniel, you've listened to quite a few Trump speeches. And I know that the challenge of being a fact checker in this modern era, especially with President Trump, is one, he tells so many -- says so many things that are not accurate within a short period of time.
But two, it's quite frequently, you say, the same lies or misstatements over and over and over. How did tonight's speech match up?
DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It was a remarkably long acceptance speech, Jake, and a remarkably dishonest acceptance speech.
I counted at least 22 false claims from Donald Trump on first listen.
Let's start with one of the wildest claims he made. Listen to what he said about the state of the world when he was president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The world was at peace.
Our opponents inherited a world at peace and turned it into a planet of war. We're in a planet of war. The whole world was at peace. And now the world is blowing up around us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[00:30:05]
DALE: This is false. Trump did not achieve world peace when he was president; certainly wasn't at peace when he left office. There were active wars or armed conflicts in dozens of nations in 2020, 51 by one research institution's count.
And then 51 again in 2021. Trump handed President Biden ongoing civil wars in Yemen and Syria. Of course, an unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli-Iranian conflict, a war in Ethiopia.
I could go on for a while, but I don't have time, because there were so many other false claims. So, let's address some of those. Not even all of them.
He repeated his usual lie about Democrats having cheated in the 2020 election. It's nonsense.
He said crime is going up. The opposite is true. It's gone sharply down in 2023 and early 2024; is now lower than it was under Trump in 2020.
He said we have the worst inflation we've ever had. Again, not even close. It is 3 percent right now. The U.S. record is 23.7 percent.
He said there was no inflation under him. It was low, of course, but not nonexistent. It was 8 percent total for his presidency, 1.4 percent year over year in the month he left office.
He said the price of groceries is up 57 percent under Biden. It's actually 21 percent.
He said Democrats are proposing to quadruple people's taxes. That is imaginary.
He said his tax cut was the largest in American history. Not even close, again.
He said the Biden administration does nothing to stop migrants. Well, the administration tried to get Congress to pass a bill to tighten the border. And after Trump himself helped to kill that bill, Biden took executive action to tighten the border.
Trump said he stopped human trafficking. Again, not true.
He said China stopped buying oil from Iran under him. Also did not happen.
He said foreign governments are deliberately sending criminals and mental health patients to the U.S. as migrants. His own campaign has been unable to provide proof for that. I certainly haven't found any myself.
He said we defeated ISIS, 100 percent of ISIS, in a couple of months. In fact, the ISIS caliphate was declared fully liberated more than two years into his presidency.
And there were other exaggerations about trade with China, about North Korean missile launches, about gas prices, about IRS agents. So, it just went on and on and on in terms of falsehood, just like the speech went on and on and on itself -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Daniel Dale, thanks so much.
And you can read more of CNN's fact checks at CNN.com/factsfirst. Quite a -- quite a lot for Mr. Dale to handle there.
Dana Bash, as you see the crowd, they're still enjoying the balloons. I have to say that this was, first of all -- one thing that -- that former President Trump said that I think is accurate, is that a lot of media organizations, including people at CNN, have said this is one of the best managed and most enthusiastic crowds we've ever seen at a political convention.
I don't know that you can say that every news organization believes that as a matter of fact. But it's certainly true. This was the most enthusiastic, best-run convention I've seen since Obama's in 2008.
Not ever, but -- but certainly it's up there.
The discipline that Trump's team showed in putting this -- in putting this convention together as well as they did, was kind of offset by the -- by the lack of discipline that the president showed when he gave his speech.
I don't know that it would have been a great speech by anyone's measure if he had just delivered it as written. But all the riffing -- I know he loves it, but this is a nomination speech, especially this one, in this moment in history with Biden where he is, with Trump where he is. This moment in history, because of the horrible thing that happened to Trump and his supporters on Saturday.
This was a moment and opportunity where, you know, this -- we were sold this idea that he was going to -- it was going to be a big national call for unity. And he was going to rise to this moment. He was a changed man.
And again, first 20 minutes or so, OK, sure. Totally met -- met the -- met the promise. But after that, it was -- it was not disciplined. And it was -- it was a -- it was a campaign rally speech.
BASH: Yes, and that's sort of Politics 101. And the people around him know this, that if you set expectations, you should set them lower, not higher.
TAPPER: Right.
BASH: Because --
TAPPER: Right. He's had a traumatic week, et cetera, et cetera.
BASH: Right. Which is -- which would make perfect sense. But the expectation --
TAPPER: The convention just -- the convention just gaveled out; the Republican National Convention 2024 is officially over. Sorry.
BASH: And he actually said in the speech at some point during the off- script moments that, when he was talking about the fact that the networks were saying how -- how great the convention is then, that he doesn't want to be the one to screw it up.
Oops. I mean, that's -- that's definitely the story line.
Not to say that there are people who don't love him and who are going to say, oh, this has been vintage Trump, and I love him. But that's not the point of this convention.
The point of the convention and a speech like this is to continue to expand his reach. And I'm not sure that he did anything to convince people that he is different from the person that we've seen.
[00:35:14]
And the word that you used, Jake, "discipline," that is a word -- How many times have we heard over the past eight years his people who have come in and out of his orbit say, Well, he's going to be disciplined this time. You watch.
TAPPER: Right.
BASH: He's going to be disciplined.
The only time I really remember that happening was for a small window in the fall of 2016, as it got closer to the election, which he ended up winning. You certainly didn't see it on display here.
WALLACE: You know, it was -- it was a good convention. And I think the people -- the -- the delegates, the Trump supporters who came to this convention go away energized and -- and very much believing that they're on the right side of the issues, that they're going to win this election.
I think that the problem is that it could have been so much a better convention when you think of how Trump came into this convention, two days after this near death experience and the extraordinary display of bravery, guts, whatever you want to call it when he put up is fist and said, "Fight, fight."
I mean, he really came in as a kind of icon, as a kind -- a martyr. And the excitement of this crowd when he walked into the family box, appeared for the first time on Monday night, it seemed to me -- and I think his people thought that, if they played this convention right and if he gave the right speech tonight, they could have put this election away, that he could have expanded his base, gotten a lot of the 6 percent of undecided voters in a lot of the state -- of the swing states and really solidified them.
He didn't do that. And I think that's probably the disappointment of this convention, that -- that he didn't -- I mean, one of the things I've always thought about Donald Trump is he keeps winning the same voters over and over again.
BASH: Right.
WALLACE: He doesn't expand and get more voters. And I frankly think he leaves this convention in a somewhat weaker position, politically, than he did when he walked up the steps here, arriving on the first night.
BASH: Even though he did add a lot of things that he wasn't supposed to add to the speech, one thing he didn't add, which I think it's important to note, is any discussion of Roe v. Wade and taking credit for getting rid of Roe v. Wade.
Abortion is something that he understands is going to potentially hurt him in some of those areas where he's trying to expand his vote.
TAPPER: We're getting the first reaction to former President Trump's speech from some of the people who matter most -- most: the undecided voters here in battleground state Wisconsin. We're going to hear from them next.
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[00:41:51]
COOPER: And welcome back to Milwaukee. As you can see, people leaving the convention site where Donald Trump just capped the final night of the Republican National Convention with a lengthy and sometimes off- script -- often off-script -- speech, accepting his third GOP nomination.
The former president playing to a devoted crowd in the hall, but the question, of course, is how did he play with undecided voters who may still be skeptical about sending him back to the White House?
CNN's Gary Tuchman watched the speech with some of those undecided voters here in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin. Gary joins us now.
So, what did you hear, Gary?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, we're in the city of Waukesha, about 20 miles West of you in Milwaukee. The battleground state of Wisconsin with battleground voters. Thirteen Wisconsinites we watched the convention speech of Donald Trump with.
I want to tell you, they're very nice people. And they're also very interesting people, because of this group, 11 of the 13 still haven't decided who they're going to vote for for president in November.
Two of them have decided. This gentleman right here, Kevin, for Donald Trump. He knows that already. This woman here, Paula, for Joe Biden, or the Democrat who might eventually take his place. She knows that already. But what I want to ask you all first at this point, all 13 of you,
what you thought of the speech. Not a yes or no answer if you thought it was good or not good. I want you to give a letter grade to it like you're in school.
So, I'm going to start here with you. What letter grade do you give that speech?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "B."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "C."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "B."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "C."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "D."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "B."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "A."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "C."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "B."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "B."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "C."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "A."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "B."
TUCHMAN: So "B" and "C" seem to be the most prevalent grades.
I'm going to start with you, Kevin and Dawn, married couple right here. You are both still undecided about who you will vote for. Tell me what the most important thing you thought about when you watched the speech.
KEVIN, WISCONSIN VOTER: I was listening to his tone of voice, to his -- his way of speaking and encouraging us and bringing unity to the country and those individuals that might be outside of the Republican Party.
TUCHMAN: And what grade did you give it, again?
KEVIN: B.
TUCHMAN: Dawn, what grade did you give it again?
DAWN, WISCONSIN VOTER: I gave it a C.
TUCHMAN: And what did you think of the speech? DAWN: I thought the beginning was really good. I was looking for unity, speaking outside of the Republican Party. And I thought I heard "we" a lot and not so much about himself.
TUCHMAN: Kevin, you're supporting Donald Trump. You've already said that. You gave the grade of--
KEVIN 2: A "B."
TUCHMAN: What do you think of the speech?
KEVIN 2: I thought it was too long. I think it started off slow, but as it progressed, I believe it got a lot better.
TUCHMAN: Lena (ph), you gave what grade?
LENA (ph), WISCONSIN VOTER: A "C."
TUCHMAN: A "C." And Lena (ph) and Rich are also married right here.
LENA (ph): Yes.
TUCHMAN: Why did you give it a "C"?
LENA (ph): Because his rhetoric hasn't changed about the election, 2020 election. And I'm really concerned that we're going to have another issue, depending on who wins.
So, you know, I'm just really praying that, if Trump wins, that the guardrails of democracy will hold.
TUCHMAN: Rich, what grade did you give it?
RICH, WISCONSIN VOTER: So, I gave the speech a "D."
TUCHMAN: Tell me why.
RICH: It started out great. But then he went into mistruths and grievances and attacks. And it just totally contradicted itself in terms of what he wanted to achieve with unity.
TUCHMAN: Paula, the grade you gave it?
PAULA, WISCONSIN VOTER: "D."
[00:45:01]
TUCHMAN: And you're supporting Biden?
PAULA: Yes.
TUCHMAN: Or whoever takes his place, if that happens.
PAULA: Yes.
TUCHMAN: What did you think about it? PAULA: I think -- I do believe he started off with a pretty good tone
for him. I thought it was -- was good, but then he lapsed back into the Donald Trump of old.
TUCHMAN: OK. Up there in the corner, Robin (ph) and Kirsten (ph), mother and daughter. The grade you gave it?
ROBIN (ph), WISCONSIN VOTER: I gave it an "A."
TUCHMAN: And why did you give it an "A"?
ROBIN (ph): The thing I was looking for was a change. And I felt I heard that change in his voice. I was looking for his discussion on getting unity together in the country, as well as the border control and inflation.
TUCHMAN: Kirsten (ph), what grade did you give it?
KIRSTEN (ph), WISCONSIN VOTER: "C."
TUCHMAN: And why?
KIRSTEN (ph): It started off strong, just like some other people have said, but the same old thing. It went from him probably just reading the teleprompter and actually reciting the speech to -- into his whole song and dance of just putting his own spin on things. And that's where I feel like a lot of his points get lost.
TUCHMAN: Gary and Nancy, you're a married couple, too.
NANCY, WISCONSIN VOTER: Yes.
TUCHMAN: You gave it what grade, Gary.
GARY, WISCONSIN VOTER: I gave it to a "B."
TUCHMAN: A good first name, by the way, Gary. Why "B"?
GARY: He went into some negativity. I was -- I was expecting much more negativity, but he did go a little bit negativity and also some exaggerated statistics and exaggerated goals of getting this to No. 1 in the world as far as schools go and stuff. Those are just unrealistic.
TUCHMAN: And Nancy? What grade did you give it?
NANCY: I gave it a "B." I thought it was not negative on women, which I was sort of expecting. I thought his tone was pleasant and something that, as a leader, that maybe I would be proud to have him as a leader with his more relaxed tone.
TUCHMAN: Susan, what grade did you give it?
SUSAN, WISCONSIN VOTER: A "C."
TUCHMAN: And why did you say "C"? SUSAN: Well, I was led to believe that there would be a change in his
approach to people. And I don't -- I don't feel that he met those expectations. Like others, I thought he started out strong and then went downhill.
TUCHMAN: Ray and Barb, you're a married couple, too. Ray, you give it what grade?
RAY, WISCONSIN VOTER: I gave it an "A."
TUCHMAN: And why did you give it an "A"?
RAY: Because it's Donald Trump. He was who he always has been. And even though, with the incident that happened Saturday, he still came out as himself.
TUCHMAN: Barb, what do you -- what grade did you give it?
BARB, WISCONSIN VOTER: I gave it a "B."
TUCHMAN: And why did you give it a "B"?
BARB: I gave it a "B," because like so many people said, he started out good: strong, grateful, thankful. And then into bragging.
TUCHMAN: Have any of you changed your mind? Eleven of you were undecided. Any of those 11 made a decision based on this speech, or is it still the same?
NANCY: I think I'm more decided.
TUCHMAN: And what have you decided?
NANCY: I decided that I will support Trump.
TUCHMAN: Anyone else make a decision yet?
ROBIN (ph): I have. I've made a decision to support him.
TUCHMAN: So, two of our eleven. Anyone else? The two of you?
BARB: Trump.
TUCHMAN: Trump. So, four of our 11. You going to watch Biden in five weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes.
TUCHMAN: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
TUCHMAN: It's a pleasure talking to all of you.
I will tell you that we're in good company here with these very nice people. Anderson, back to you.
COOPER: Gary, thank you. And thank all of them for -- for participating.
David Axelrod, I mean, it's always interesting to hear -- hear those focus groups.
AXELROD: Look, I think what it vindicates is the eagerness of the campaign to build this unity theme into the front and back of the speech, which he read off a teleprompter, and which people reacted positively to.
But as you heard in the group, when he veered into vintage Trump, I think he suffered from that.
And the question is, for the duration of this campaign, which Trump are they going to see? The guy who's reading the word "unity" off a teleprompter, or the guy who doesn't practice it regularly in his everyday life.
URBAN: I was just going to say, let's not forget: the way this speech is going to be consumed for the rest of the week is not anyone's going to watch it. They're going to get -- you're going to see tomorrow, Dave Portnoy. Everybody on social media is going to get the Hulkster ripping it off. It's going to be the Trump-Vance shirt. It's going to be consumed in snippets on social media. And it's going to look really cool.
OK, that's what -- that's what you're going to see. You're not going to see the boring part in the middle.
JENNINGS: Yes.
URBAN: You're going to see the great snippets, the highlights. That's what's going be pushed out. Nobody sitting around like us eating popcorn and watching the speech.
COLLINS: You know what?
URBAN: Only the people with Gary Tuchman.
COOPER: We have some new reporting on how Democrats are viewing Donald Trump's convention speech, amid the turmoil in the Biden campaign.
Jeff Zeleny has that.
Jeff, what are you -- what are you learning?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, Democrats were watching this convention speech with a bit of glee, as well.
We're just moments ago getting a new statement in from the campaign chair of the Biden campaign, Jen O'Malley Dillon. Let me just read you a small part of that. She said that "Donald Trump rambled on for well over an hour and a
half and failed to mention Project 2025 even once." She said, "He sought to find problems with America, not to provide solutions."
Of course, unsaid in that statement is whether the Biden campaign will be able to draw the contrast that they would like to from this.
[00:50:02]
Talking to Wisconsin Democrats throughout the speech that I've been in -- in touch with, they were also happy to see that but also wondering what the state of their party is.
So that, of course, is the question heading out of this convention into the Democratic convention one month from now. Can Democrats capitalize on this? And who will their candidate be to try and do so.
COOPER: Yes. Jeff Zeleny. Jeff, thanks very much.
I want to go to John King, who's at the Magic Wall for us -- John.
KING: Anderson, first just a quick point about where Gary was and why it matters. He was in the city of Waukesha, which is in Waukesha County, which is just to our West.
You see Milwaukee's blue, right? Milwaukee's blue. Waukesha is red. It's a suburban suburb area. But Donald Trump got 60 percent, if you round that up, in 2020.
If you go back to 2016 when he won Wisconsin, he got 61 percent. You might say that's not much. It doesn't take much. Wisconsin was settled in 2020 by 20,000 votes. in 2016, it was settled by 20,000 votes, 22,000 votes.
So small margins matter. Donald Trump doesn't have to gain a ton of voters. Small margins matter.
Now, let's go to where we are as the Republicans leave their convention in the race to 270. And Donald -- this is where we ended last year. And one pet peeve of mine, because I've done this for nearly 40 years, is when Donald Trump, at least twice, said this election was rigged or cheating involved, there was none. Joe Biden won fair and square, and he won big. That's then.
But this is now. This is now. This is President Biden's problem. This is what the Democrats have to figure out what to do in a month, assuming Joe Biden is still the candidate.
Because Donald Trump did not need to gain voters at this convention. He came into it already with a lead and a bigger lead than even our projection shows.
Our projection now says deep red, solid Republican. Light red, leaning Republican. If Donald Trump won nothing else. But what we have shaded red on this map, he would be the next president of the United States. And while we have been here in Milwaukee, we have seen poll after poll
after poll showing President Biden's ditch is even deeper, meaning Donald Trump is leading right here in Pennsylvania in some polls by five points or more.
He is leading here in Michigan -- sorry, I'll keep that one red. And he's leading where we are in Wisconsin. That's the Blue Wall. Donald Trump won those in 2016. He was president.
Joe Biden flipped them back, and he was president.
Joe Biden also flipped Georgia. Donald Trump is leading there. Joe Biden also flipped Arizona. Donald Trump is leading there. Joe Biden won Nevada, and Donald Trump is leading there.
And Donald Trump -- this is Nebraska and Maine, do electoral college votes by congressional district. You'll see this one yellow as a tossup. Biden won it in 2020. At the moment, Donald Trump is getting all of the electoral votes out of Nebraska.
And why Democrats have been -- many Democrats have been saying we're not going to give you any more money, Mr. President. We want you to get out of the race, Mr. President, is that the -- there's also polling showing that Trump is at least competitive, is not a little ahead in Virginia. Competitive if not a little ahead in New Hampshire.
Democrats are worried about Minnesota. Some are worried about Colorado. Some even say a blue state like New Mexico, look where Donald Trump is there. I'm not saying Donald Trump's going to win 330 electoral votes, but he came into this convention at least over the 270 threshold.
And the polling during this convention have shown the president's ditch has gotten even deeper. Why? He's losing in all seven of what we consider the swing states. More than seven in ten Americans say he's too old to be president. Two-thirds of Americans say the country's on the wrong track.
So, Donald Trump leaves here in the lead with money flowing into his campaign. And Democrats, Anderson, are still having a debate even about whether Joe Biden should be their candidate.
Now they've got a month till this conviction -- convention. They have time to fix it. But Donald Trump leaves here, what I would call a substantial and perhaps even commanding lead.
COOPER: Can you just explain to viewers how you can make those projections? Or is that based on polling?
KING: Right. So, the red states and the -- the deep red states and the deep blue states are the traditions, although even some Democrats are worried about some of these states. But let's leave those where they are.
The other state, it's polling. It's our political team led by David Chalian. It's a great group of people. You look at polling. You talk to both campaigns. You talk to people on the ground who know these states, and you do smart reporting.
And I can tell you from my travels, I think this is even -- this is an optimistic map for Joe Biden, based on the travels over the past year. Because like I've said, again, let's just come back to where we are now.
You know, you have Joe Biden. The governor of Maine warned the president to his face, I'm worried about that. The Democrats in New Hampshire worried. The Democrats in Virginia worried. The governor of Minnesota is worried. He's among those saying, at least at the congressional and Senate level in those races, they're worried dramatically.
But they also have polling in more states than this, that the president is in trouble. That doesn't mean there's not time to turn it around.
However, when you look at the swing state polling that has come in over the past week, again, with Trump leading here and Trump leading where we are in Wisconsin, and Trump leading in Pennsylvania, Biden cannot win if he doesn't win the Blue Wall states. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Are there mathematical ways to get there? Yes. But then you're counting on Joe Biden to win some Republican state somewhere. It's not going to happen.
So, our projection is actually, I would say, quite cautious; that if you look at the map -- and we'll see -- we'll see the polling come out after this convention, and we'll adapt as we go through our reporting.
But at the moment, it is easy to draw a path where Donald Trump is well over 270, perhaps as high as 330 or more. And he -- so, imagine -- imagine we're being, you know, too kind to Donald Trump there, Anderson, and he loses a couple of those states. He's still above 270.
[00:55:10]
To get Joe Biden from where he is now, if you come back to the beginning, to get into to 225, he just -- he has to run the board. I mean, he has to run the board here.
And this is interesting. When you look at it, even if he runs the board there, he better win that congressional district and get those electoral votes, because he's still at 269.
So, the president of the United States has one viable path to 270. In a stretch, I could come up with a second one for you. I could give you a six or eight for Donald Trump. He's that -- that's what makes his -- He has many options. And he has a lot of money flowing in.
The president has a very hard path to 270 and, at least for now, donors are saying, prove yourself or no more money.
COOPER: Yes. We may hear a lot more about that in the coming days.
John King, thank you.
Stay with CNN for much more of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump's speech. Laura Coates is at the CNN Grill to break it all down after a short break.
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