Transcripts For CNNW Americas Choice 2016 Republican National Convention 20160719

Before. But my belief in this country and my faith in jesus christ have compelled me to speak now. Thats right. Im concerned about our countrys future. Im concerned about my childrens future. And i believe we need donald trump. Who shares, thats right, who shares my beliefs and my faith, to get our country back on track. In the past eight years, failed policies have caused our country to deteriorate. Our rights have been trampled and our security, threatened. We are weaker by almost every measure. We are on the wrong path. It is clear even to someone who was not even born here. I came to the United States from rome, italy, in 1985. Thats right. I followed all the rules and finally became a naturalized citizen in 1996. Thats right. Others who want to come to the u. S. To live and work should follow the same rules. Thats right. We are a nation of laws for a reason. There should be no shortcuts for those who dont want to pay or wait. You know, my mother was born in a communist prague, escaped the Czech Republic and met my dad in italy. I know what socialism looks like. I dont want that for my children. Not at all. But thats the path, that is the path were headed down with a leader weve had and the candidate he endorses. Barack obama and Hillary Clinton promote division. Dont be fooled. But donald trump is for unity. Donald trump believes in one america with liberty and justice for all. Having secure borders, protecting our citizens, none of this is hateful. This is the responsibility of the government. Thats right. And its the right thing to do. Donald trump will get it done and put us back on the right track. People know this and thats why they have voted as they have. We can no longer afford to be silent. Our country needs donald trump to make us great again. God bless you and god bless the United States of america. The actor Antonio Sabato speaking very passionately about his support for donald trump. We are awaiting the stars of this Opening Night, donald and Melania Trump, the republicans choice for president is due to speak in the next hour and he will introduce his wife. This is donald trump so we expect he will have plenty more to say. Stand by for that. Melania trump is taking a more high profile role in the campaign than shes had so far. As the headline speaker tonight. Before the trumps take the stage, republicans are sharpening their focus on the theme of the night, americas security. We have mike pence, the republican presumptive Vice President ial nominee, there you see him right there, mike pence, the indiana governor. Hes in the hall right now. He will be speaking wednesday night. We are standing by also to hear from the new york city mayor Rudy Giuliani. He was the mayor during 9 11. He will speak this hour. Want to go to pamela brown up on the podium covering all of this for us. Thats where all of the speakers walk right by you, pam. Reporter thats right, wolf. While much of tonight has been about security so far and Hillary Clintons failures as secretary of state, we are told Melania Trumps speech will be very different. Its going to have a different focus. It will be emotional in a different way than we have seen so far tonight. As you point out, shes been an enigma. Shes been really under the radar and this is seen as her big unveiling and shes expected to show a more personal side of her husband similar to what ann romney did at the last Republican Convention. Shes expected to talk about her husband as a family man, as a father, the relationship they have with the kids and also his charitable contributions, how they havent been in the public spotlight but that he has a big heart. Also, the campaign told me its very important for her to be the headliner tonight and to be the first of trumps family members to speak because the campaign feels like that she is an effective character witness, that she will help him bridge the gap with women and also its a chance for her to have the American Public feel comfortable with her as a potential first lady. Back to you. Pamela, stand by. You have more on what we expect to hear tonight, sara murray. What are you hearing . Reporter thats right. They are aware that people have a problem with Donald Trumps temperament and hope to do something with that tonight with Melania Trumps speech. They know this is acute with women between the ages of 35 and 54. Melania trumps speech tonight is a step toward fixing this. Its not the solution. The Campaign Says they will try to do more oneonone interviews with donald trump, more town halls, more local news interviews, settings that can soften a candidates edges. The first step tonight is one they are taking very seriously and Melania Trump has been working with a speech writer, we are told by a trump adviser, and has been working on this speech for five to six weeks, really trying to hit the right tone to set up this convention and kick things off for the rest of the week. Shes a major attraction tonight. Want to go to jim acosta, who is getting more information on what we can expect to hear. What are you learning . Its unusual to hear from donald trump tonight, to hear from the presumptive nominee but hes introducing his wife within the hour, within the hour and a half, perhaps, from now. Im told by a couple of sources inside the campaign that there are some mixed feelings about all of this. I talked to one adviser to the campaign who said hold on a second, this is Donald Trumps wife, of course its natural for him to come out and introduce her. But we are told by a Campaign Adviser that donald trump is expected to do much more than just introduce his wife here to these delegates gathered here in cleveland, and that is probably why im hearing from another source inside trump world tonight who is saying i just hope donald trump introduces melania and gets off the stage. There are people inside the campaign who are concerned about a repeat of what we saw on saturday. He was supposed to introduce mike pence. Instead that introduction went on for 28 minutes. They bracing for the impact of this introduction. Thats expected to happen just a little while from now. Pretty soon we will hear from donald trump and Melania Trump. Meantime, back to anderson. Up coming speakers we will bring to you live, congressman mike mccaul, sheriff dick clarke, sean duffy and his wife rachel. All of that and mayor Rudy Giuliani, senator sessions will speak to the crowd as well. All of that leading up to Melania Trump in the 10 0011 00 hour as well. Senator joni ernst. It does seem like in this hour, the focus is kind of shifting more to illegal immigration and National Security issues. I think what we see here is 8 00 to 10 00 are the base hours and i think they are making base arguments to a Republican Base that will unify the Republican Base. I think 10 00 is about presenting a different face of donald trump to the larger audience that is going to [ inaudible ] who may not be inclined his way. As a trump supporter, how important do you think it is to show, is it possible to show a different side . Do you think there are people in the American Public who dont have a fully formed idea of who donald trump is . Yes, i do. We all know very well that donald trump is a successful businessman. Hes built a 10 billion brand. The one side we havent seen of donald trump is donald trump, the father. We have seen very little of that. Donald trump, the husband. Tonight we will hear from melania, we will see his wife, we will hear from his children who have helped him build his business. They are going to speak on behalf of their father tonight going through the week. Yes, this is crucial that people realize donald trump the family man is as important as donald trump the businessman. Not only that, Donald Trumps children speak very well and speak very well of him. They are incredibly impressive. Just to go back a beat, i think whats remarkable about tonight so far is that its been very boilerplate. To talk about benghazi, hillary, this is all safe space for republicans. I have not heard, what i have been listening to, build a wall, ban the muslims. I havent heard the controversial trump talking points being hammered out here. Its been very safe and cautious. Im wondering if we are seeing an intentional pivot. Of course, that could all explode at 10 00 when donald trump takes the stage. I guess we will find out then. Is that intentional, you think . I dont know whether its intentional or not. I certainly think they are doing the right thing here. Absolutely, appealing to people and being positive and upbeat. Donald trump himself is a positive person. I know this will drive some of my reagan friends crazy but i think hes reaganesque in the sense that he can be very upbeat, very visionary, very forwardlooking. At these conventions, as i started to say earlier, like the obama convention, president ial nominees are putting their stamp on the party and the convention and presumably the presidency at some point. The presidency is a very personal office. It centers around the personality of the occupant. So this is the night to get all of these things out there so that people get to seriously adjust to the idea of do you see donald trump as reaganesque in his optimism . Not as much so. I feel that whats happening right now is the opposite of positive. What youre hearing in the background, talking about people who lost their lives because someone came into the country without papers and killed them. This is becoming the center point of their argument about undocumented people in this country. I think taking that approach is very very dangerous because what it does is it takes a whole group of people who statistics show commit fewer crimes and associates them with their very worst element. That is the definition of bigotry. You do not want to do that. Im shocked to see this happening behind us right now. I think for people across the country, if you are a latino, if you are an immigrant, if you are somehow able to hear whats going on right now, i think you would be very, very disturbed by this. Its turning into what i can only call some kind of borderline hatefest against undocumented immigrants based on killings of a small by a small number much people. Thats wrong. Over the last eight years we heard the terms benghazi and 50 and furious, the gunrunning thing that went horribly wrong and killed a u. S. Border agent. We heard these scandals marginalized by democrats time and time again. Whats happening now is the republicans are putting a human face on these scandals. We are hearing from the mother who lost her son in benghazi. We are hearing from brian terrys parents who lost him at the gunrunning scheme. What can be more uplifting and positive than that . You are also hearing a very positive image of what it means to be an american and love your country. To call this is a hatefest is overstated. Everyone remembers Cindy Sheehan who went to conventions to help people get elected. This is what happens when serious issues are being discussed and debated. And when people are trying to convince voters to move in a certain direction. This has not been a hatefest. We get back to the basic point of this, no one has the right to come into this country or any other country illegally. If you do so in mexico, they will put you in jail. That is a very good argument. Its an argument that does not require demonizing [ inaudible ]. What i will say is this. Up until now, up until just a moment ago, i was not saying borderline hatefest. Congressman mike mccaul. Lets listen in. Chairman of the Homeland Security committee. Im a fourth generation texan. Born and raised in dallas rgs texas. Let us remember tonight the dallas and Louisiana Police officers who tragically lost their lives. America stands with my hometown and we will never forget. To Law Enforcement officers across this nation, we are with you and we will always support you. tonight, we heard powerful testimony from people who have been devastated by obamas reckless immigration policies. Havent we had enough . Now Hillary Clinton is promising more of the same. Open borders, executive amnesty and the surge of Syrian Refugees. This is a dangerous liberal agenda and its time for a change. Its time to take back our country and make america safe again. [ crowd chanting ] usa. Usa. We need to end sanctuary cities. Keep dangerous people out of our country. And secure our borders once and for all. Our countrys National Security is at risk. President reagan once reminded us that america was a shining city upon a hill, a beacon of hope to the world, but after eight years of weak leadership, our city on a hill is now a city under siege. Today, our allies no longer trust us. Our adversaries no longer fear us. And our enemies are plotting against us. This did not happen by accident. It happened by design. It is the work of barack obama and the architect of his failed Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton. For years, they presided over americas retreat and the consequence is clear. Leading from behind has led us into danger. When hillary stopped talking about the war on terror, our enemies noticed. When she helped withdraw our forces from iraq, creating a power vacuum, she paved the way for isis to rear its ugly head and our enemies noticed. When four americans were murdered in benghazi, burned, burned, she blames it on a video and our enemies noticed. And when she stood on the sidelines while terror hot spots erupted across the globe, our enemies noticed. We have all witnessed the recent attacks in nice, paris, brussels and istanbul. But now, we are in the crosshairs. Our own city streets have become the battleground. Fort hood, boston, chattanooga, San Bernardino and orlando. But instead of protecting americans, the Obama Administration turned a blind eye to the danger. So lets cut through the suffocating Political Correctness. And call the threat what it really is. The enemy is radical islam. These fanatics have radicalized a religion into a weapon targeting our way of life. President reagan once asked are you better off than you were four years ago. But tonight, let me ask you this question. Are you safer than you were eight years ago . No. Is our military stronger . Is america still respected . Over and over, obama and hillary apologized for america and allowed jihadists to spread like wildfire. We cannot afford hillary in the white house again. We need someone who can repair the damage shes done, take the fight to the enemy and put america first. That man is donald trump. Im proud to serve as a member of his National Security team and i can tell you this. I can tell you this. Donald will never apologize for american greatness. He will promote it. Its time to unify as a party. It is time to unify as a party. He will never bow down to our enemies. He will stand up to them. And donald will never allow terrorists to gain ground against america. He will shake the ground they walk on. My father was a bombardier in world war ii and participated in the dday invasion against the nazis. His generation often defined as the greatness defeated fascism and communism, handing down a better and safer america to my generation. Now, we are in a struggle against the forces of radical islam and terror which must be defeated for our children and our grandchildren. A Trump Administration will take on this fight and send a clear message to the islamist terrorists. You may have fired the first shot but rest assured america will fire the last. Thank you. May god bless america. And god bless the next president of the United States, donald trump. Please welcome Milwaukee County sheriff, david a. Clarke jr. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, i would like to make something very clear. Blue lives matter in america. I stand before you tonight with a heavy heart as the Law Enforcement community prepares to bury three of baton rouge, louisianas finest but there is some good news out of baltimore, maryland, as lieutenant brian rice was acquitted on all charges in the malicious prosecution of activist states attorney marilyn molsby. I want to talk to you about something important. Indeed, a concept that five Law Enforcement officers were murdered and nine more were wounded for earlier this month and for which three more were murdered two days ago in baton rouge, louisiana, and that is the importance of making america safe again. You see, i believe that this Noble Mission is not just a requirement but a prerequisite for achieving this campaigns goal of making America Great again. We simply cannot be great if we do not feel safe in our homes, on our streets and in our schools. I see this every day at street level, where Many Americans increasingly have an uneasiness about the ability of their families to live safely in these troubling times. This transcends race, religion, ethnicity, gender, age and lifestyle. If you dont believe it, a recent gallup poll confirms it. In more than half of all americans now worry a great deal about crime and violence, up consistently and dramatically from just a few years ago and for africanamericans, that number is 70 . Sadly, for a growing number of communities, the sense of safety that many of us once took for granted has been shattered. Americans dont always feel safe, no matter if they are working in a big city, living in a suburb or rural areas all around this great country. I often tell residents of milwaukee in the city and towns that i visit that safety is a shared endeavor. It starts with the willing acceptance of people to play by societys rules, a code, a code if you will where we collectively agree upon that ensures stability, fairness and respect. It is built on a foundation of trust in each other and in the people who administer and enforce societys rules which at its foundation is the rule of law. In 1963, dr. Martin luther king jr. Wrote passionately about the interrelatedness of all communities and states and about our Inescapable Network of mutuality tying us in a single garment of destiny. He spoke of the basic morality of the rule of law provided that it is applied equally to both the wealthy and the impoverished, both men and women and yes, the majority and the minority. What we witnessed in ferguson, baltimore, baton rouge, was a collapse of the social order. So many of the actions of the occupy movement and black lives matter transcends peaceful protest and violates the code of conduct we rely on. I call it anarchy. You see, american Law Enforcement officers understand that race is and has been a heated issue in our country. Most appreciate the vital need for thoroughness and transparency in pursuit of the greater good in their actions and in their investigations. These are truths that are selfevident to me and which i practice, and they are the truths that donald trump understands and supports. Donald trump is the steadfast leader our nation needs. He has spoken passionately to me of his belief in our american system of justice and he speaks to the values that are at the foundation of our social contract. Throughout his campaign and over the many years before he has consistently and constantly raised his voice not only in defense of the character of the American Police officer, but the need for all people to feel that they are being treated fairly and respectfully by Law Enforcement. You see, donald trump understands that what can make our nation safe again is a recommitment to a system of justice in which no government official, not even those who have fought their whiay to the marble and granite halls of washington, no private citizen, no elected official, even Hillary Clinton, and no group of people despite the fervor with which they press forward their grievances, can claim privilege above the law. It cannot happen in the United States. The tradition of the primacy of the rule of law in america is strong. It is in those simple facts and in our acts we will move forward toward making america safe again. God bless you and may god continue to bless these United States of america. Sheriff david clarke of Milwaukee County, elected, reelected several times since 2002. Don lemon is with us now. You had a very Heated Exchange and interview with the sheriff last night. First, i want to get your reaction to what he just said. I wasnt surprised he came out with Blue Lives Matter in america immediately but sitting here, i wasnt sure how well received it was in this crowd. I think that scott baio probably got more applause than he did. Hes a very respected member of Law Enforcement and very liked and very popular in this crowd, but nothing in his speech surprised me. I actually thought he would go further. Last night in your interview he said black lives matter, he called them purveyors of hate and blamed several of the Police Shootings in dallas and baton rouge on what he called antipolice rhetoric sweeping the country. Yeah. He did criticize black lives matter tonight but much more vaguely than last night. Yeah, he did. But which was interesting to me, because he somehow last night tried to link me to black lives matter. If you watch cnn, if you have your information right, i have been more critical than black lives matter maybe than any other person on this network. I dont know. I dont get to see the lead every minute of the week. Thats what we are supposed to do. We are supposed to take people to task and thats what i have done with black lives matter. He seemed to insinuate somehow that i as an africanamerican anchor was somehow supporting black lives matter which is indeed not the case. Lets talk about the substance of the speech, if we could. He asked me about im not criticizing you. Im interested to know what you think about what he was saying bus he was selling a real law and order message and blaming groups like black lives matter. Ill get to that. Wolf asked me about last night. Last night, i will answer your question, but what he said was theres no statistics he said to me that proves that black people are treated differently by Law Enforcement than whites. Thats simply not true. So thats what i was trying to get from him. He was simply spewing platitudes and i wanted him to i wanted to get him to give me some facts. The substance of his speech, jake, i didnt i wasnt sure if there was any substance there. If you watch fox news, he says the same thing over and over and over, black lives matter purveyors of hate, black lives matter causes this. Im not sure black lives matter bears a direct connection to hatred among Police Officers and violence among Police Officers. I dont see the direct connection. Thats all i wanted he did get a standing ovation when he was introduced tonight. Let me go back to anderson for more. Want to get our panels take on it. I did think actually his Blue Lives Matter statement probably got one of the most rousing applause lines that did come up. If don was sitting in a place he couldnt hear as well as we could, but i havent heard applause tonight like i heard for sheriff david clarke. Hes a real hero to a lot of conservatives. I heard a lot of substance in what he talked about. He talked about the primacy of law and order and following a society following the rules and no one being above the rules. Thats a political statement, thats a cultural statement and i think it resonated huge in this room and will resonate huge with conservatives. He talked about respect for our Police Officers. There has been an undeniable lack of respect for officers in this country. The officer who died in baton rouge two days earlier said he felt disrespected. He talked about Martin Luther king and being an Inescapable Network of mutuality. Van . First of all i think it was a remarkable speech. I thoughts it was powerful and thought he was actually offering something the country needs which is a sense of strength and order. Heres where i thought he fell short. He did mention dr. King, in the same speech he quotes dr. King, dr. King says this, the negro can never be satisfied as long as he is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. When he says no one should be above the law, he actually is speaking to the pain that some people feel that too many bad police see themselves as above the law. In other words, we are talking past each other. This desire for order is a desire for lawful policing, that the police should obey the law, too. Part of what is inciting people is not a chant here or there. Its a sense that all the videos you have seen, no Police Officer has yet gone to jail. That is inciting as much as anything else. So i think we have to have a more powerful conversation. I will say this. He is actually i think a potential bridge. Very quickly, with had some speakers talk about a return to an america of the past, im wondering how that how White America hears that and how black america hears that. Because for many in black america, return to the past is now a halcyon past where things were great. Its really a slip, when you say make America Great again, for many, that was not a good time. Coming up, Rudy Giuliani on threats to American Security and his personal relationship with donald trump. Trump is in the building getting ready to make a very unusual debut at this convention to introduce his wife melania. Well be right back. I love my shop, but my back pain was making it hard to sleep and open up on time. Then i found aleve pm. The only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. Now im back. Aleve pm for a better am. Welcome back to the Republican National convention in cleveland. We are still waiting for donald trump. Hes going to be speaking fairly soon. He will introduce his wife, Melania Trump. Those will be the highlights of tonight. Thats coming up. Tom cotton, the senator from arkansas, is coming up next. Hes a very impressive guy, jake. Went to harvard undergraduate, harvard law school, was a lawyer. Then he joined the u. S. Army, served in iraq, became a member of the u. S. House of representatives and now is the youngest senator serving in washington. Thats right. Two tours in iraq, one in afghanistan. He was mentioned as a possible Vice President ial nominee for donald trump but didnt ultimate make the short list. Hes on the Senate Armed Services committee and has been a very very vocal critic of president obamas Foreign Policy. Hes very, very outspoken on a whole range of National Security issues that has really become his focus. In fact, if our viewers remember, during the period when so Many Republican senators signed a letter condemning the iran deal, he was one of the leaders of that Movement Really coming forward and saying that the iran deal was a mistake and in fact, as recently as this afternoon, he was criticizing the iran deal, saying that the iranians were already violating it. Presumably he will speak on this theme make america safe again. Then Rudy Giuliani. Used to call him americas mayor during 9 11. The former mayor of new york. We will be hearing from him as well. I suspect he will get into that same issue. We have heard a lot of law and order figures speaking. We just heard from the milwaukee sheriff, sheriff clarke, talking about National Security issues and we have heard a lot of expressions of support for the police, sheriff clarke starting his speech saying Blue Lives Matter. I imagine Rudy Giuliani, who was very proud of being tough on crime and a supporter of the police, i imagine we will hear similar sentiments from him. We will be hearing later from Melania Trump. Tiffany trump is sitting in the audience, she just graduated from the university of pennsylvania. She will be speaking, her older sister will be speaking, the two brothers will be speaking. Every night they will have family members speaking out about the kids speaking out about their dad. You see don jr. Right there on his iphone which is one of his favorite activities. Knowing don jr. A little bit. You saw tiffany not long ago, who just finished at the university of pennsylvania. The only child of Donald Trumps second marriage to marla maples. I think shes speaking tomorrow night. Ivanka will speak i believe thursday night. She will introduce her dad. And the two brothers will speak as well i believe on wednesday night. The family will be well represented. One of the things that donald trump is very proud of is his family. Hes very proud of those children. And they are playing huge, huge roles in the campaign in a way that i cant hold on a second. The senator from arkansas, tom cotton, is about to speak. Im interesting in hearing what he has to say. Thank you. For eight years, we have seen what happens when america leads from behind. Leading from behind. Thats not what the army taught me. And to everyone who agrees that america ought to lead the way, i have a message to deliver and let me say it loud and clear. Help is on the way. Let me tell you a story about an arkansas farm boy who became a soldier. When america was at war, he was away at school and then in a comfortable professional job exempt from service. But he sacrificed that comfort against the wishes of his family, against the wishes of his father, who himself had served. He volunteered for the army. He became an infantryman. That farm boy was my dad. He went to vietnam in 1969. 35 years later, because of 9 11, i did the same. Against the wishes of my family, i gave up my legal career and i volunteered for the army, and i became an infantryman and i went to iraq and afghanistan. My dad said he felt like god was punishing him for what he did to his dad, but god wasnt punishing him. God had called us to serve, just as he calls so many of you to serve as well. My family isnt extraordinary. In fact, we are very ordinary. From the farms of arkansas to the fire stations in new york, so many families could tell the same story. The defense of this country is always a Family Affair and these families shoulder more than their share of the task. We dont fight because we hate our enemies but because we love our country. We love its freedom and we love that we as americans are born equal and live free and that no one can boss us around or rule us without our consent. We know, we know these things are worth fighting for and dying for because they make life worth living for. Our warriors and their families dont ask for much. We are blessed to serve and we are grateful for the generosity of our fellow citizens. But there are a few things wed like. Wed like a commander in chief who speaks of winning wars and not merely ending wars. Wed like a commander in chief who calls the enemy by its name. A commander in chief who draws red lines cautiously but enforces them ruthlessly. And it would be nice to have a commander in chief who can be trusted to handle classified information. And wed like politicians who treat our common events as the chief responsibility of the federal government, not just another government program. This isnt much to ask for. But eight years without it is more than enough and another four years is unthinkable. So let me quote the last republican Vice President about the consequences of the last time a clinton was in the white house and let me say again, this time directly to our troops in a Trump Pence Administration and with a republican congress, help is on the way. Now, now believe me. Believe me. No man wants more war if hes seen the face of war. Ive planned Memorial Services for fallen comrades in the mountains of afghanistan. Ive carried their flagdraped caskets of a plane. Ive buried them at Arlington National cemetery. But the wisdom of the ages affirms the counsel of our first president to be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. The purpose of our common defense, after all, is to protect the American People and preserve our independence so that we can enjoy the blessings of peace. Faith, freedom, family, prosperity. My father and his father were willing to fight so that their children and grandchildren might live in peace. Sadly, that wasnt to be. But my generation is fighting, has fought, and will fight so that our children, my infant son, gabriel, and the christmas baby my wife and i are expecting, might one day live in peace. And for that cause, i speak tonight not only to republicans, but to the millions of independents and democrats who share that dream and who wish to make america safe again. Thank you. And god bless you. Senator tom cotton of arkansas. Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran. Making the case for donald trump and against Hillary Clinton. Were quickly going to go to dana bash. Shes out there on the Convention Floor with a special guest, chris christie. Reporter im not the only one interested in speaking with chris christie. Were live now. How are you . Im great. Reporter how does it feel to be here, is it bittersweet . God, no. Im a kid from new jersey whos in the front row at the Republican National convention. Youre from jersey, you know what thats like. Reporter i do know what thats like. Obviously this has been an interesting week, and it i think is no secret that you were under consideration. Can you just describe what its like to be here sitting here . Youre basically in the front row watching. And obviously youre a delegate and you are still very much going to work to get donald trump elected, but its kind of different than being on the ticket. Well, sure, its different. You know, the fact is that i feel really comfortable and confident with my role and always did even before the Vice President ial consideration. And so, you know, i know its monday, so its important for you guys to ask me all these questions, but by tomorrow, the focus is going to be on exclusively on my role as chairman of the transition. Mikes role as the Vice President ial nominee. And donalds role as our president ial nominee in the race against Hillary Clinton and whoever she picks in the fall. And so the way im going tie proeto approach this is the way i always approach it, my job is to help hem get elected. More importantly at this point, to me, is making sure this administration is ready for him to make decisions about it beginning on november 9th. Reporter and you are going to have a very public role in doing that right here in the convention. Youre going to give us a speech. Tell us a little bit about what you hope to put across in that speech. I hope to be charming tomorrow night, dana. Charming and absolutely disarming. Intelligent and witty. I hope to be all those things. You can tell me tomorrow night if i achieved it or not. Reporter what are you going to be discussing . Heck, i want you to show up, dana. I dont want you to go out to dinner during my speech. If you show up, that will make it more exciting. Bring kelly, too. Its going to be a party. Reporter before i toss back to wolf, you just said you did talk to donald trump on friday after he said that he was going to go with mike pence. Can you tell us a little bit about that conversation . We had a conversation that is typical of our relationship for the last 14 years. Reporter which is . Which means it was free wheeling and rollicking and private. Reporter thank you, governor. Thank you, guys. Reporter back to you, wolf. All right, dana. Thank you. Were getting closer and closer to tonights big moment. Donald trumps entrance here at the Republican Convention setting the stage for his wife, melania. First, were going to hear from former new york city mayor, Rudy Giuliani. Its all coming up. Are those made with allbeef, karen . Yeah, theyre hebrew national. But unlike yours, theyre also kosher. Only certain cuts of kosher beef meet their strict standards. Theyre all ruined. Help yourself oh no, we couldn. Okay thanks, hebrew national. A hot dog you can trust. And welcome back. Live to the Republican National convention from cleveland, ohio. Were coming up to the 10 00 hour. The primetime hour. Melania trump, no doubt the highlight for many in this room in watching probably around the country, to hear her making, perhaps, the, well, without a doubt, the most important speech she has ever made and probably the largest public appearance on a National Stage that she has had so far. Donald trump is actually going to be introducing his wife. Also expecting just in a couple minutes fa s former mayor of ne york, Rudy Giuliani. Issues focusing on right now National Security and it has moved in sort of the last several speeches sort of more conventional political speeches probably starting along with tom cotton. Right, right. Tom cotton, ive already gotten some email people thinking, well now, theres a future president here. I mean, hes an outstanding guy with a record of harvard law school, record in the army. Hes a quite impressive guy. So, you know, all these conventions, as, again, david would well know from 2004, theyre about the present but also spintroduce the future. I think thats what youre seeing mere asee ing and the people who are going to be making those arguments. Tom cotton is the first real political star weve seen tonight. His theme from washington, let me put it that way. And between congressman mccaul, tom cotton, what we heard was Hillary Clintons theme turned on its head, that she is dangerous, not donald trump. Shes been talking about the danger of having Donald Trumps finger on the right. Proverbial button. And all of them seem to there seems to be some concerted effort here to say theres a dangerous liberal agenda and yet Hillary Clinton cant be trusted with the armed forces and that donald trump is a credible commander in chief. Kayleigh, why do you think they chose to have Melania Trump in primetime on the first night before any of his kids . In terms, obviously, his kids have probably had more experience in front of the cameras in the town hall. They probably spoke more than melania did. I interviewed melania. Shes done a number of interviews. We havent heard much from her in terms of making a big speech. Its a tough thing to do in a room like this. It is a tough thing. One of the reasons she chose her for tonight, shes an immigrant, herself, came to this countkuco legally. My husband is proimmigrant, he wants me to come into this country, i came here the right way. I expect well hear her soften him as a person, talk about him has a family man, and someone who is proimmigration and im evidence of that. To your point, anderson, this is new for her. Weve all seen it, don jr. And eric deliver very eloquent speeches and really command a room. This is probably going to be a little tough for her and i think very smartly the Trump Campaign figures, okay, if it doesnt go as well as we want, weve gotten it out of the way. At the same time, it also does build up a certain amount of excitement because it is so new, because we havent really heard much from her. Unconventional. I tell you what, it is hard to do what shes about to do. I mean, most people most americans they say they would rather almost eat anything than give a public speech even at their church, even its a protester in the crowd which is the first protest weve seen actually in the crowd. Small, just one person there. It looks like theyre being removed. Finish. Its very, very hard to speak to a group this big. Forget the people at home. Forget the tv. Forget the millions of people. Just to address a crowd this large. You walk out there, you feel so little. So shes showing tremendous courage and trump is actually showing tremendous confidence in her. So if shes able to pull this off, i think, you know, listen, shes beautiful, shes rich, but shes going to be a very vulnerable human being walking out there. Well, i was going to say, even if somebody doesnt make a great speech, its their first time, you get the crowd on your side. They want her to do well. And it humanizes even if she doesnt i dont really see a bad ending to however this goes for her tonight. Shes either going to have a great moment where she becomes a star the question is does donald trump. Or is not going to does donald trump stay on script with a short introduction for his wife . That is the question, jeffrey lord. Then, again, this is his wife. So i think hell be careful. Uhhuh. But, or does he choose to i mean, look here we go, Rudy Giuliani, mayor of new york, being introduced. Lets listen in. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, new york. For a new yorker, for once, on the ticket. Donald trump. Im here to speak to you about a very serious subject. How to make america safe. The vast majority of americans today do not feel safe. They fear for their children. They fear for themselves. They fear for our Police Officers who are being targeted with a target on their back. We pray for our Police Officers in dallas and baton rouge and their families. [ applause ] and we say thank you to the Cleveland Police department for protecting us. Thank you. [ applause ] rudy rudy we know we know the risk youre taking. And we say thank you to every Police Officer and Law Enforcement agent whos out tonight protecting us, black, white, latino. Of every race, every color, every creed, every sexual orientation. When they come to save your life, they dont ask if you are black or white. They just come to save you [ cheers and applause ] we also we also reach out, we reach out our arms with understanding and compassion to those who have lost loved ones because of Police Shootings. Some justified. Some unjustified. Those that are unjustified must be punished. Those that are justified, we must apologize to. Its time to make america safe again. Its time to make america one again. One america. What happened what happened to what happened to theres no black america, theres no White America, there is just america . What happened to it . Where did it go . How has it flown away . I know i know we can change it because i did it by changing new york city from the crime capital of america to the safest large city in the United States. What i did for new york, donald trump will do for america. [ applause ] i have known donald trump for almost 30 years and he has created and accomplished great things. In my city and all over the world. But beyond that, this is a man with a big heart. Every time new york suffered a tragedy, donald trump was there to help. Hes not going to like my telling you this, but he did it anonymously when Police Officers were shot, when firefighters were hurt, when people were in trouble, he came forward and he helped and he asked not to be mentioned. Well, i am going to break my promise to him. I am going to mention it. This is a man with a big heart who loves people. All people. From the top to the bottom, from the middle to the side. [ applause ] i am telling you this because i am sick and tired of the defamation of donald trump by the media and by the Clinton Campaign. I am sick and tired of it. This is a good man. And america should be sick and tired of the vicious, nasty campaign. You deserve to know this about your next president. Hes been a great father, fatherinlaw, grandfather, and friend to me, my wife, judith, and my family, for now almost 30 years. I know him personally, and this is a very good and decent man and he will be a great president. [ applause ] in the last seven months, there have been five major islamic terrorist attacks on us and our allies. We must not be afraid to define our enemy. It is islamic extremist terrorism. I i, for the purposes of the media, i did not say all of islam. I did not say most of islam. I said islamic extremist terrorism. You know who you are. And were coming to get you. [ applause ] failing to identify them failing to identify them properly maligns all those good muslims around the world who are being killed by them. They are killing more muslims than anyone else. It also sets up a fear of being politically incorrect that can have serious consequences. It did in San Bernardino. It did with major nidal. He was yelling allah akbar. The only person who couldnt figure out this was an islamic terrorist extremist attack was barack obama. Who called it workplace violence. This is why our enemies see us as weak and vulnerable. Donald trump has said the first step in defeating our enemies is to identify them properly and see the connections between them so we can find them and catch them. To defeat islamic extremist terrorists, we must put them on defense. If they are at war against us, which they have declared, we must commit ourselves to unconditional victory against them. [ applause ] this includes undoing one of the worst deals america ever made, obamas Nuclear Agreement with iran that will eventually that will eventually let them become a Nuclear Power and is putting billions of dollars back into a country thats the Worlds Largest supporter of terrorism. We are actually giving them the money to fund the terrorists who are killing us and our allies. We are giving them the money. Are we crazy . Donald trump will make sure that any agreement with iran meets the original goals of the u. N. And our allies. A nonnuclear iran. Donald trump is a leader. He will reassert americas position as the nation with the best values to lead the world. It was Hillary Clinton who advocated for the overthrow of gadhafi in libya. Now libya is in chaos. Hillary clinton is accountable for this and much more. Her dereliction of duty and failure to keep her people safe played a major role, as you heard tonight, in the horrific islamic terrorism murders on september 11th and 12th, 2012, in benghazi which claimed the lives of four brave americans. Ambassador Jay Christopher stevens, u. S. Foreign Service Officer sean smith, and cia agent glen doherty. May they rest in peace. And clinton and the Obama Administration for political reasons lied about the purpose of the attacks. Including Hillary Clinton lying directly to the families of the people who were killed right to their face. Hillary clintons answer to congress about the death of these four brave americans because of her gross failures as secretary of state was, quote, what difference at this point does it make . What difference does it make . Watch the video, yourself, and see the arrogant disregard for american lives lost unnecessarily because of her and then make up your own mind. Anyone who usa usa usa it means were getting to them. It means were getting to them. It means were getting to them. Anyone who can say that it makes no difference how or why people serving america are killed should not be entrusted be the awesome responsibility to protect them and us and should not be allowed to be our commander in chief. Who would trust Hillary Clinton to protect them . I wouldnt. Would you . Donald trump will change all of that and more. In short, he will lead by leading, not by following. You know donald trump will secure all borders. His opponent has had her chance to do this and she has failed. Hillary clinton is for open borders. She is she is in favor of even taking Syrian Refugees even though the Islamic State has told us theyre going to put their operatives in with the Syrian Refugees. Operatives who are terrorists who are going to come to western europe and come here and kill us. Theyve told us that and she still wants to take in these syrians. We cant afford to repeat the mistakes of the past. Hillary clintons Hillary Clintons experience is the basis for her campaign. Hillary clintons experience is exactly the reason she should not be president of the United States. Theres theres no next election. This is it. Theres no more time for us left to revive our great country. No more time to repeat our mistakes of the Clinton Obama years. Washington needs a complete turnaround, and donald trump is the agent of change and he will be the leader of the change we need. He will make america once again like the president i worked for, Ronald Reagan. The shining city on the hill. Vote for donald trump for a safer america and for an american headed in a different direction. Great ne greatness. God bless our next president , donald trump, and god bless the United States of america. Usa clearly the most rousing speech of the night so far. Donald trump is coming up next, then Melania Trump. Jake, this he clearly got the biggest applause lines of the night. Thats right. In favor of police, against islamic terrorists, and attesting to the character of donald trump. He said that he gave to charities anonymously, he had promised trump he wouldnt tell the story, but he was breaking the promise. I have to say, though, the energy and the red meat that he threw to the republicans in the crowd was quite something. I covered Rudy Giulianis president ial race in 2008, and he never gave a speech like that about himself as vociferously as he just did for donald trump. And, boy, did he come at Hillary Clinton. I think this is the speech back in 2000 when it was supposed to be a rudy Hillary Senate race, we thought that that kind of passion would come out 16 years ago. Theres mike pence, the presumptive Vice President ial nominee with bob dole who once ran for president , himself. The former senator from kansas. 19966 president ial nominee and world war ii war hero. Hold on a second. Lets watch this. Well keep on fighting until the end we are the champions we are the champions we are the champions of the world thank you, everybody. Thank you. We love you. Thank you very much. Oh, were going to win. Were going to win so big. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. [ cheers and applause ] thank you very much. Thank you. Were going to win so big. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Were going to win so big. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor to present the next first lady of the United States, my wife, an amazing mother, an incredible woman, Melania Trump. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. We are the champions my friend well keep on fighting to the end we are the champions thank you. Thank you very much. You have all been very kind to donald and me, to our young son, baron, and to our whole family. Its a very nice welcome and we are excited to be with you at this historic convention. [ applause ] im so proud of your choice for president of the United States, my husband, donald j. Trump. And i can assure you hes moved by this great honor. The 2016 republican primaries were fierce and started with many candidates, 17 to be exact. And i know that donald agrees with me when i mention how talented all of them are. They deserve their respect and gratitude from all of us. [ applause ] however, when it comes to my husband, i will say that im definitely biased and for a good reason. I have been with donald for 18 years and i have been aware of his love for this country since we first met. He never had an agenda when it comes to his favoritism, because like me, he loves this country very much. [ applause ] i was born in slovenia, a small, beautiful, and then communist country in central europe. My sister, whos an incredible woman and a friend, and i were raised by my wonderful parents. My elegant and hardworking mother, emalia, introduced me to fashion and beauty. My father, victor, instilled in me a passion for business and travel. Their integrity, compassion and intelligence reflects to this day on me and for my love of family and america. From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life. That your work is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise. That you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life. That is a lesson that i continue to pass along to our son, and we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow because [ applause ] because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them. Im fortunate for my heritage, but also where it brought me today. I traveled the world while working hard in the incredible arena of fashion. After leaving and working in milan and paris, i arrived in new york city 20 years ago and i saw both the joys and hardships of daily life. On july 28th, 2006, i was very proud to become citizen of the United States. The greatest privilege on planet earth. [ applause ] i cannot, or will not take the freedoms this country offers for granted, but these freedoms have come with a price so many times. The sacrifices made by our veterans are reminders to us of this. I would like to take a moment to recognize an amazing veteran, the great senator, bob dole. [ applause ] and let us thank all of our veterans in the arena today and those across our great country. [ applause ] we are all truly blessed to be here. That will never change. I can tell you with certainty that my husband has been concerned about our country for as long as i have known him. With all of my heart, i know that he will make a great and lasting difference. Donald has a great and deep and unbonding determination and a nevergiveup attitude. I have seen him fight for years to get a project done or even start it, and he does not give up. If you want someone to fight for you and your country, i can assure you hes the guy. He will never, ever give up, and most importantly, he will never, ever let you down. Donald is, and always has been, an amazing leader. Now, he will go to work for you. His achievements speaks for themselves and his performance throughout the primary campaign proved that he knows how to win. He also knows how to remain focused on improving our country, on keeping it safe and secure. Hes tough when he has to be, but hes also kind and fair and caring. This kindness is not always noted, but it is there for all to see. That is one reason i fell in love with him to begin with. Donald is intensely loyal to family, friends, employees, country. He has the utmost respect for his parents, mary and fred, to his sister, mary ann and elizabeth, to his brother, robert, and to the memory of his late brother, fred. His children have been cared for and mentored to the extent that even his advisories admit, theyre an amazing testament to who he is as a man and a father. There is a great deal of love in the trump family. That is our bond and that is our strength. Yes, donald thinks big, which is especially important when considering the presidency of the United States. No room for small thinking. No room for small results. Donald gets things done. Our country is underperforming and needs new leadership. Leadership is also what the world needs. Donald wants our country to move forward in the most positive of ways. Everyone wants change. Donald is the only one that can deliver it. We should not be satisfied with stagnation. Donald wants prosperity for all americans. We need new programs to help the poor and opportunities to challenge the young. There has to be a path for growth. Only then will fairness result. My husbands experience exemplifies growth and ccessful passage of opportunity to the next generation. His success indicates inclusion rather than division. My husband offers a new direction, welcoming change, prosperity, and greater Cooperation Among peoples and nations. Donald intends to represent all the people, not just some of the people. That includes christians and jews and muslims. It includes hispanics and africanamericans and asians and the poor and the middle class. [ applause ] throughout his career, donald has successfully worked with people of many faiths and with many nations. Like no one else, i have seen the talent, the energy, the resourceful mind and the simple goodness of the heart that god gave to donald trump. Now is the time to use those gifts as never before for purposes far greater than ever. And he will do this better than anyone else can, and it wont even be close. [ applause ] everything depends on it for our cause and for our country. People are counting on him. All the millions of you who have touched us so much with your kindness and your confidence. You have turned this unlikely campaign into a movement that is still gaining in strength and number. The primary season and its toughness is behind us. Lets all come together in a National Campaign like no other. The race will be hard fought all the way to november. There will be good times and hard times and unexpected turns. It will not be a trump contest without excitement and drama. But throughout it all, my husband will remain focused on only one thing, this beautiful country that he loves so much. [ applause ] if im honored to serve as first lady, i will use that wonderful privilege to try to help people in our country who need it the most. One of the many causes dear to my heart is helping children and women. You judge society by how it treats its citizens. We must do our best to ensure that every child can live in comfort and security with the best possible education. [ applause ] as the citizens of this great nation, it is kindness, love and compassion for each other that will bring us together and keep us together. These are the values donald and i will bring to the white house. My husband is ready to lead this great nation. Hes ready to fight every day to give our children the Better Future they deserve. Ladies and gentlemen, donald j. Trump is ready to serve and lead this country as the next president of the United States. Thank you. God bless you. And god bless america. We are the champions, my friend well keep on fighting to the end [ applause ] we are the champions of the world donald trump donald trump thanking his wife, melania, for a speech she has been working on, were told, for weeks. Kayleigh, whatd you think . I thought that was an incredible speech. She humanized her husband and talked about the kindness he has, the compassion he has, but the overwhelming thing to me was his love for this country. Shes witnessed it, herself, for 16 years. She came across strong and bold. Like a confident woman. She was an absolute hit. At the very end when he pointed to her, he was saying, this is my girl, my wife, and im proud of her. Jeffrey . 100 pure class. I thought she was terrific. This was an absolute home run for her. I have to say, the entrance of donald trump tonight, i mean how lengthy that introduction was . Lets just see again. I love it. We are the champions. Thats what we call swaggerific. So good. I thought that melania did a i think she said a lot of nice things about her husband. I dont actually think she humanized him. She didnt talk about him as a husband. She talked about him as a great business leader. She talked about him has a good person. And all of those were good notes to hit, but i wanted to hear about donald trump the husband. Donald trump the father of my child. And that didnt really come out. Mike . Yeah, i thought she spoke with terrific poise and great class and a delivery that made me wonder where was she before . Maybe he felt he didnt need to use her sooner in the campaign. To s. E. s point, theres no doubt there were opportunities there which she could have said, look, i know he says some things every once in a while that were way outside the box which, by the way, she has said in interviews a number of times. Anderson, i want to say this. I think on balance, this is a very good night for the republicans. I think if there were concerns as to whether this thing was all buttoned down, the speeches went well, they had a coherent message. You can disagree with the message, but they were well delivered speeches. Rudys remarks in the 10 00 hour i think will be subject to debate as to tonality, but a good night. Jeffrey . I think its important that we not nitpick her presentation to death here. I mean, that was just well done. It was great. Again, a hall like this, to make a speech like that, i mean, its ive done this for years and i can tell you, its really, really hard. Remarkably, she talked about what she would do as first lady, what she would focus on if he were elected. Shed focus on kids and women. I thought that was an amazing sort of acknowledgement that she is not just the woman behind the man. She did what she was she did what she was there to do which was to present a kinder, gentler donald trump, to use words about inclusiveness, to talk about children, to talk about families, to talk about all different faiths. I mean, these are all things that have been absent from Donald Trumps presentation by in large throughout this campaign and thats what she was here to do. Its interesting, though, you have Rudy Giuliani who i agree, i think, if im the planners of this convention, i planned a couple of conventions, i would say i did not want Rudy Giuliani slipping into the 10 00 hour in his overcaffeinated way and scaring a lot of americans out of their whits. It was supposed to be the 10 00 hour. He was pushed to the end of the 9 00. I think their goal was to get her in the 10 00 hour to do exactly what she did. It was kind of a speech in front of a red meat crowd. She talked about taking care of our children and people politely applauded. Rudy had them leaping out of their seats. People who were watching at the 10 00 are not the people who the Trump Campaign those are the people the Trump Campaign wanted her to address. I must say, though she expands his base. I watched the room while she was speaking and often in these speech what you dont see on tv is theres a lot of people Milling Around going out to the bathroom, getting sodas, whatever it is. There werent a lot of people walking around. Everyone was standing wherever they were listening. She was the big draw. Talking to delegates before the campaign, they all talked about Melania Trump. They didnt know Melania Trump very well. This was very much her unveiling. Thats what one of trumps aides called it. She talked about herself a lot in the beginning of it and introduced herself. I did think it was a missed opportunity in some places. Typically you have speeches like this that draw on personal stories and anecdotes. She didnt do that much. She basically kind of talked in slogans. Donald trump is a leader, donald trump is loyal, donald trump is patriotic. So, you know, well see. Well see if they use her more in talking in the campaign. They wanted to see how this went to see if Going Forward they would use her in a different way in the campaign. I have a couple of first of all, what was stunning to me was how deferential donald trump was to melania. He had one sentence then introduced her. We have never heard that. Jeffrey, we talked about is he going to go on, going to ad lib . Wives rank above Vice President ial nominees. He doesnt go home to mike pence every night. Thats right. One differential, number two she didnt tell the anecdotes ann romney told about her m. S. And how caring he was, but ann romney was on the campaign trail every single day and out there campaigning. This was difficult for melania. And i think what she did in talking to women, in particular, with whom he has a real problem, she talked about how he was strong, he was warm, he was loving, he was inclusive, he was a leader, he doesnt give up, and hes compassionate. That checked just about every single box. David, you know, i hadnt remembered that Michelle Obama spoke on the Opening Night just the same spot in 2008. So explain the planning behind that. Why well, first of all, she spoke because she could speak about him in a way and with an intimacy that no one else could and she did it, i have to say, im biassed in this regard, but i think tshe did it very, very movingly because she did use more personal stories about him and his story. But i will say this to the point of how hard it is. You know, these unless youre a political spouse all your life and your husbands been running for office and so on, this is very uncomfortable regardless of the size. And, you know, Michelle Obama, she had her speech written also four, five weeks in advance and she practiced and she practiced and she practiced. So i think this is not unusual and lets go back to wolf right below us. Wolf . All right, anderson. Thanks very much. Jake and dana are with us as well. That was the shortest speech donald trump ever did. He said were going to win, were going to win so big then he said the next first lady of the United States. The production, the stagecraft was very impressive. Yeah. Former obama aide was on twitter griping about the heat they took for their greek columns at the 2008 convention in denver when republicans were attacking obama as too much of a celebrity and with too big of a sense of self. I guess were in a different era now. Thats fair to say. I will say that i thought melanias speech was absolutely fine and to trump fans who love her for who she is and what she represents, she did what she needed to do. But i did think that there would be at least one anecdote, one story about how she met donald, one story about donald who he is, because the job of the spouse in a speech like this is to truly humanize him and make him relatable and make him seem sweet and kind and as David Axelrod was noting, the millions of people watching at home right now, many of whom are skeptical of both clinton and trump and are going to spend the next four or five months bouncing back and forth trying to figure out which one to go with, i think there are probably some out there who thought she hit it out of the park, she did a great job, and probably a few who thought i really would have liked to have heard some sort of soft, sweet, story about how donald trump romanced her or how he first asked her out on a date or something, the first time he changed the babys diaper, whatever, something that brought him down to earth a little bit. She did practice that speech. I thought she did a fine, fine job. Perfect job. She did. She did. I agree with what youre saying on the content, but my understanding in talking to sources is that she was incredibly, incredibly nervous. And that didnt come across. I mean, it really didnt. No. Maybe because she practiced so much, because she was so focused on it. I mean, as anderson just said, i mean, i cant even imagine giving a speech like that. Never mind giving it in your, what is it, english her third, fourth, fifth language . Its not easy. Its not easy to do especially since she has not shes not been a political wife like many of her predecessors in this role. I will just tell you coming from the floor being sort of in the sea of delegates, back to donald trump, watching that moment, i mean, it is true that barack obama got a lot of, you know, guff for having those columns. Greek columns, yeah. But he was a traditional politician. This is the razzmatazz the people expect. Sure. From donald trump. Hold on one second. Donald trump is walking out. You see him heading toward the motorcade right there. With some members of his family. Did you jake, did you see if melania is there with donald trump right there . I did not, but i also know i wouldnt be surprised all right. Hes getting ready to leave the Convention Center over here. You know, were going to hear now from the former head of the Defense Intelligence agency, retired lieutenant geraneral Michael Flynn. He has a very important speech he has prepared for this primetime moment in favor of donald trump and clearly against Hillary Clinton. Hes got some strong views about these issues. Here he is right now. We must recognize, we must recognize that america has enemies in our homeland and abroad, and our military needs to be capable of protecting the nation by finding and capturing our enemies. The president must have the tools to deal with all threats to this country and must have the guts to put them into action whenever necessary. And donald trump is that leader. Im going to say that again. Donald trump is that leader. [ applause ] we must regain our ability to truly crush or eneur enemies. And our soldiers, our soldiers deserve to hear from their leaders with clarity and precision. Too often, way too often, our troops are, instead, are distracted by trivial matters, trivial matters about what words to use, what terminology is politically correct, and what bathroom door to open up. My god, my god, war is not about bathrooms. War is not about Political Correctness or words that are meaningless. War is about winning. War is about winning. There is no substitute, there is no such thing as a runnerup, and there are no consolation prizes. A commander in chief does not draw red lines and then retreat. America america does not back down from anyone or anything. Usa usa get thats right. Usa usa you got it right, baby. Thats exactly right. Get fired up. This is about this country. Its about our country. We are tired of obamas empty speeches and his misguided rhetoric. This this has caused the world to have no respect for americas word, nor does it fear our might. Let me be clear, coddling and displays of empathy toward terrorists is not a strategy for defeating these murderers as obama and Hillary Clinton would like us to believe. And releasing and listen to what im about to say. And releasing terrorists will not end this war. On the contrary, it simply emboldens the terrorists and it prolongs the war. Under barack obama, we have no coherent strategy to protect our citizens, and under Hillary Clinton, it will be more of the same. You got it right. I i am infuriated when our president bends criticism of our enemies. I am certain, i am deadly certain that we cannot win this war unless we are free to call our enemies by name. Radical islamists and failed tyrants. Because because of obamas illadvised actions, the world has lost faith in american leadership. And the threats are mounting. Radical islam metastasizing throughout the world. Lack, a complete lack of American Military readiness to face multiple fronts, untold cyber threats, demoralized allies around the world, a struggling a struggling United States economy unable to compete with a burgeoning chinese economy. Growing Nuclear Capabilities of china, russia, and north korea. And loss of respect and confidence around the globe. We have become the best enemies and the worst friends. Im going to say that again. We have become the best enemies and the worst friends. And that has to change. These next four years, these next four years will be consumed by the perils that we now face, and the socalled relidlines or reset buttons were utter failures and the Obama Clinton failed Foreign Policy list goes on and on and on. We need a commander in chief who understands these challenges and is willing to do whatever it takes to meet them headon. Our adversaries must never again mock american willpower and we must never give them a reason to doubt our resolve to win. [ applause ] thank you. The most damaging example, the most damaging example of the president s failure to understand the consequences of putting political expediency ahead of National Security is the emergence of isis. We cannot continue down this path. More lives are at stake. Our very life, our way of life, is in jeopardy. Our very existence is threatened. What keeps me up at night . What keeps me up at night is the sobering realization that evil exists. The radicalization of islam and its barbaric cause that uses modernity to influence potentially millions around the world to join their cause should keep us all up at night. We must, we must take seriously the possibility that these enemies have weapons of mass destruction and intend to use them. That is a very serious issue. We must unctiderstand and defin our enemies if we intend to defeat them. America and americans deserve no less. Because obama chose to conceal because obama chose to conceal the actions of terrorists like Osama Bin Laden and groups like isis and the role of iran and the rise of radical islam, americans are at a loss to fully understand the enormous threat that they pose against us. Now is the time for a leader that is honest and strong. A leader [ applause ] thats exactly right. A leader who will stand up for america and make yeah, you go. And make absolutely clear, and make absolutely clear that if you cross her path, you will pay the price. [ applause ] you got it. We do not need a weak, spineless president who is more concerned about issuing apologies than in protecting americans. We we do not need a reckless president who believes she is above the law. Lock her up lock her up thats right. Lock her up. Thats right. Lock her up. Im going to tell you what, its unbelievable, its unbelievable. Lock her up lock her up yeah. I use i use neverhillary. Thats what i use. I have called on Hillary Clinton, i have called on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race because she, she put our nations security at extremely high risk with her careless use of a private email server. Lock her up. Lock her up. Lock her up lock her up lock her up you guys are good. Damn right. Exactly right. Theres nothing wrong with that. Lock her up lock her up lock her up and you know why . You know why . You know why were saying that . Were saying that because if i, a guy who knows this business, if i did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, i would be in jail today. So so, crooked Hillary Clinton, leave this race now. [ applause ] lock her up lock her up lock her up she needs to go. Before before i end, before i end, i will repeat my belief that american exceptionalism is very real. Let let us not fear what we know to be true. Let us not fear what we know to be true. Instead, we should always remember that our country, our country, was built upon judeochristian values and principles. And instead, and instead, let us remember the sacrifices of those who have gone before us. America is unique. America is the greatest country in the history of the world. So [ applause ] youre darn right. So get ready, america. Get ready. Now is the time to elect fresh, bold, leadership. Trump trump lets go. Come on. Trump trump get it going. Trump trump trump we are just beginning. I promise you, i promise you that donald trump, donald trump knows that the primary role of the president is to keep us safe. He recognizes he recognizes the threats we face and is not afraid to call them what they are. Donald trumps leadership, decisionmaking and problemsolving abilities will restore americas role as the undeniable and unquestioned world leader. He will lead from the front, not from behind. He will lead with courage. Never vacillating when facing our enemies or our competitors. And he knows, he knows that the advantage, donald trump knows that the advantage in life, in busine business, and in wartime goes to the competitor that does not flinch and does not broadcast his game plan. Hey. Donald trump will execute the fundamental tenet of peace through strength and there will be, and there will be no apologies for our american exceptionalism or leadership standing around the world. So once again, once again, wake up, america. You cannot sit this one out. You cannot sit this election out. Get out of your houses and get out there and vote. And instead, elect donald trump as the next president of the United States of america. Thank you very much, and god bless america. Usa usa usa usa. Keep it going. Usa usa retired u. S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, former director of the Defense Intelligence agency, saying Hillary Clinton should be in jail. Lock her up, lock her up, thats right, he said, the second speaker of the night to suggest, jake, that Hillary Clinton should be in jail. Mother of benghazi victim, sean smith, says i blame Hillary Clinton for the death of my son, she deserves to be in stripes. In february, general flynn was on my show. He comes on my show a few times. He said in february that if he did what Hillary Clinton was accused to have done with her private email server, he would probably be in jail. For him, i do sense that there is something of a personal identification with the idea of keeping National Security secrets under lock and key. But i have to say, just my first reaction to this knowing the general a little bit is can you imagine feeling what he feels about barack obama and Hillary Clinton as he just enunciated in a very, very strong way, and being president obamas director of the Defense Intelligence agency . I mean, he must have been, like, as tight as a drum locking all that in. He has made the point repeatedly during all the years he was the head of the dia, he never had an opportunity to even meet with the president of the United States. Which is remarkable, actually, when you think about it. Yeah. But look, just kind of big picture, listening to this, listening to several speeches tonight, of course, Rudy Giuliani was the most rousing, sean smiths mother was the most emotional. The very clear thread is it goes to what republicans have been telling us for months and months and months, that they believe that their best shot at getting the white house is by making it about Hillary Clinton. Thats what happened tonight. All right. Theyre announcing three veterans now. U. S. Senator joni ernst of iowa. Jason beardsley, and ryan zinke. They are going to speak on National Security issues and veterans issues. Previously recognized by mrs. Trump. Senator joni ernst. Distinguished delegates, republicans, and millions of my fellow americans watching around the country, especially those in iowa, its a [ cheering ] thank you, iowa. Its an honor to be with you in cleveland and to be on this stage with fellow veterans. Among them, our special operations Master Sergeant jason beardsly and my colleague, congressman and navy s. E. A. L. , ryan zinke, who youll hear from shortly. I never would have imagined a farm girl like me from Montgomery County would have the opportunity to serve as the first woman elected to federal office from iowa. However, my parents always said to my brother, sister, and me, that if we worked hard, anything was possible. Growing up, we didnt have much, but what we didnt have in money, my parents, particularly my mother, made up for with tenacity. She really encouraged us. You never hear her say, no, you cant do this. Instead, if something was challenging, shed say, joni, well figure out a way. If this is what you want, lets make it happen. Well figure it out together. Thats a trait i carry with me today. And its something i teach my own daughter. In our household and in the homes of many of those in the military, including those up here tonight, giving up, quitting, or accepting failure are not options. That resilience is not unique to our house. That cando attitude has served as the foundation of our country for 240 years. It continues tonight here in ohio, in iowa, and all around our great nation. In between my freshman and sophomore years of college, i went on an Agricultural Exchange to the soviet union. At night, the ukrainians didnt talk about farming. Rather, they wanted to know what it was like to live in a country where they could experience freedom. They wanted to know, yes, beautiful freedom. They wanted to know about our country. A place where anything was possible. When i came home, i realized it wasnt enough to simply enjoy freedom and liberty. I had to do my part to protect and preserve it. So i joined the military which is tremendously Important Institution that defends the freedoms that americans cherish. [ applause ] thank you. Ive had the great privilege of serving my state and our country while working alongside some of our nations finest soldiers. For 14 month, i served as a Company Commander during Operation Iraqi freedom where my unit was tasked with running convoys through kuwait and southern iraq. Last november, after more than 23 years of service, i retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Iowa Army National guard. [ applause ] as i travel across iowa and around our great country, i hear from folks who are worried america is no longer leading but rather following from behind. Those concerns are echoed by our allies around the world and rightfully so. The question i hear time and time again is, where is americas leadership . Theres a void in the world. A deficit that cannot be filled by others. Our country and the world of which we are a part simply cannot afford four more years of this lack of leadership under Hillary Clinton. Our allies see us shrinking from our place as a leader in the world as we have failed time and again to address threats. They are looking for american leaders, leaders who are willing to stand up and say, enough is enough. [ applause ] unfortunately, Hillary Clinton cannot be trusted. Her judgment and character are not suited to be sitting in the most powerful office in the world. She has already failed us too many times before. Hillary clinton has failed to stop the expansion of terrorism. Her policies in libya, afghanistan, iraq, and syria have created more safe havens for terrorism. Shockingly, she continues to support a policy that brings captured terrorists into our backyards. All of us up here believe thats unacceptable. Unacceptable. Hillary clinton has failed to support our allies. Her decision to back the Iran Nuclear Deal puts in peril our longtime friends and allies in the region. Especially israel. They have continued to threaten to destroy israel, both directly and indirectly, through its terrorist proxies such as hezbollah. They remain the top sponsor of terrorism which endangers not just israel, but europe and the United States. And look, just take a look, folks, at the pathetic track record she and obama have in the war on isis. This administration has called them Junior Varsity adversaries, ignoring some of the best advice they were given. They represent a threat that is not limited to the middle east and is spreading rapidly. In fact, according to the fbi, isis is present in all 50 states. Think about it for a moment. Terrorists from isis are in every one of our 50 states. They will use yes, boo they will use whatever weapons they have. Guns, trucks, knives, poisons, and bombs to kill innocent people. Under this current administrations wayward policies, isis continues to spread while the president fails to put forward a comprehensive strategy to defeat and destroy them. [ applause ] donald trump will not hesitate to call radical islamic terrorism by its name. And he will not hesitate to destroy those that wish to harm our great nation. Usa usa usa usa god bless you. Yet, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton has failed to protect our National Security in other ways. She jeopardized our safety by deciding our laws dont apply to her. Setting up her own private email server and then lying, lying to the American People about how it was used. Lock her up lock her up thats right. Our men and women of the Armed Services, and let me say this clearly, our men and women of the Armed Services do not fail us. They cannot fail us. The veterans here with me did not fail us. [ applause ] they did not fail us. They, too, are individuals of the highest integrity. Our president s cannot fail us, either. How can we accept Hillary Clinton when she has failed them . Failed us. And cannot be trusted. She has proven time and time again that she is entirely unfit to serve as our nations commander in chief. [ applause ] for too long, americans have felt abandoned and their warnings unheard. Donald trump has heard these voices loud and clear. We cannot afford four more years of the same failed policies. If that is not enough, the Veterans Administration has been failing those who have served alongside those of us here on the stage with scandal after scandal at the highest levels. Inferior care, long wait times, extraordinary inefficiency, and a bureaucracy that has gone wild, still continues. We need a commander in chief who will stand up to our enemies, support our allies, and have our veterans backs. We need [ applause ] thank you. We need a leader who will ensure america remains a strong, stabilizing force around the globe and who will keep us safe here at home. Our country cannot take another four years like the eight weve just had. Its time to stand up and fight for the security of our children. Our grandchildren. And ourselves. [ applause ] with Hillary Clinton, its always about her. It should be about you. Donald trump is focused on you. He gave a voice to a movement of millions of americans who are tired of politics as usual. I know as president , he will work tirelessly to keep our nation safe. Now is the time to make america safe again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And may god bless all of you. The wonderful state of iowa. The brave men and women in uniform. And these great United States of america. God bless you. God bless you. Thank you. Senator joni ernst talking to a greatly reduced crowd, we should say. Seems like a lot of people are starting to filter out. Started to happen probably through started after Melania Trump finished speaking, frankly. We want to show you some of the highlights from tonight. We compiled a compilation of that. We want to show that to you then were going to hear from our panel. Take a look. We are the champions we are the champions it is my great honor to present the next first lady of the United States, my wife, an amazing mother, an incredible woman, Melania Trump. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. My husband has been concerned about our country for as long as i have known him. With all of my heart, i know that he will make a great and lasting difference. Donald has a great and deep and enbonding determination and a nevergiveup attitude. I have seen him fight for years to get a project done or even start it, and he does not give up. And we say thank you to every Police Officer and Law Enforcement agent whos out tonight protecting us, black, white, latino. Of every race, every color, every creed, every sexual orientation. When they come to save your life, they dont ask if you are black or white. They just come to save you. For all of this loss, for all of this grief, for all of the citizens of the tragedy in benghazi has brought upon america, i blame Hillary Clinton. I blame Hillary Clinton, personally, for the death of my son. Thats personally. Donald trump will always, always tell you the truth as he sees it. And thats why we can trust him to make America Great again as our next president. Thank you. God bless you. Some of the moments that we saw tonight. Andy dean, youre joining us, trump supporter. To you, what stood out probably as the highlight, or several of the highlights tonight . I thought the good parts, donalds intro walking in to queen, you cant go wrong with that. I thought the most even van jones, i got to say, was smiling during that. It was good. Thats how van is always introduced. That intro was bold. That was pretty cool. It was cool. I thought the most heartfelt moment actually came from sean smith, you know, benghazi, the mom, it felt very unscripted. Very from the heart. And i think that we need to see a little bit more of that tonight. I think a lot of appointmepeopl addicted to the teleprompter which is dangerous because the message gets repetitive. Think thats why the crowd is smaller this late. It seems early on, phil robertson, Marcus Luttrell who went off prompter, one or two early on, that was very effective. Thats the trump thing, right . Straight from the heart. The American People want a nononsense, in cleveland, a plain zedealer, if you will. Thats what trump is all about. I think the focus on Hillary Clinton was important. I would have liked to seen a little bit more of the specifics. We know her bad judgment of benghazi, but maybe we got the American Publics attention for three hours. Why not explain a little bit more about, in detail, this email server . Not everybody watched congressional hearings. Explain exactly what poor judgment she showed by having tsap emails on her server. Top secret special access programs. Peoples lives are on the line. Id like to see a little more specifics. We very well might see that in the coming days marl s part on the email thing. Jeffrey, clearly for this audience, high water mark, Melania Trump. Certainly something that was anticipated. Does it go on too long . Theyre still making speeches. This room has really cleared out. General flynn, you know, for all his extraordinary record, went very, very long. Gently put, i think they should have when the trumps walked off the stage. That should have been the that was the high point, et cetera. The speeches that have followed, i mean, these are substantive speeches by substantive people. I just think at this stage here, this is just not a helpful thing. And i think people start to the late congressman was the youngest man the least senior person on a committee once and finally got to him to question and he said, everything that needs to be said has been said but not everybody has had a chance to say it. Thats what were experiencing now. This, to me, you know, i actually thought the first half from the standpoint of the republican message was probably very effective. Yeah. But this thing has gone off the rails in terms of planning. As someone whos been involved in convention planning, first of all, you go through speeches so that youre not repeating the same points over and over again. Secondly, you end on time. Thirdly, you dont end you dont take your most emotional piece and then keep on going. We had Michelle Obama when i worked for president obama, and senator obama, she came on at 10 30, in both conventions, and after she spoke, the convention ended for the night. And i really dont understand to that point, it was interesting because general flynn introduced the idea of using the term, you know, radical islam or the specific term he used. When already Rudy Giuliani got the entire auditorium right. Electrified by saying that exact same thing. I mean, david is absolutely right. And i dont know what the story is here, but in past conventions, they had folks who went through these things lineally line. Thats been addressed already. I think they mistimed it. They clearly mistimed it. You had a couple guys going on for really too long so they ended on a whimper. All of this said you guys, you realize they havent ended, right . All of this said, i dont know that this makes any difference in terms of how it comes out in the wash. Its just, you know makes a difference, though, for im watching twitter, im watching social media and im looking at the difference between the way the democrats responding to this and the Republican Base. Republican base loves this stuff. Still loves all this stuff. But i think this is actually a its cumulating now a sense of unease in the part of people who are watching this, that there seems to be so much vitreal, so much fear mongering. Really, its almost they erased what they did with melania, for the people who are watching the whole night. Melania, i actually was surprised. Democrats there were some snarky things about, well, loyalty to the third wife. Theres some snarky stuff bult n general you saw democrats giving her a break. The response this now is so much fear mongering, theyre doing themselves harm. Im not sure how engaged the Republican Base can be at this hour. If you know anything about the Republican Base, this is way past their bedtime. Look, i frankly think i just want to point out you are a republican. Just for viewers who think yet another democrat on this panel. I think we saw a lot of things tonight. What we didnt see was diversity. It is very disappointing to me they couldnt find one hispanic to speak on the Opening Night. They did have one italian, good looking enough to maybe claim him as hispanic and i think he played a hispanic on tv once, but, you know, it would be nice if they would think of the fact that if plan places like florid they need to win that state and need to appeal to hispanics. Rnc so white, trending right now. I reached out to the campaign and asked them why not end on melania, donald trump . They said they thought it was better to end hard and have more sort of attack sound bites for the morning shows. Thats clearly what theyre doing. I do think a missed opportunity in not putting joni ernst in sort of the first half of the show. You know, there was a lot of anger, lot of male kind of testosterone i thought in that first half hour or two hours or so. I think she was sort of midwestern nice and she was female. I thought she could have been switched out. John king . You have to make choices. People who have done this before. The theme, they wanted to do make america safe again. That created a lot of harshness, a lot of darkness, things are bad, things are horrible. There are a lot of veteran reporters who understand that because of the breaking news, because of Current Events why you would put that first, but theyre thinking maybe by the time you get closer to november, you wish that tomorrow night making america work again. Very little talk of the economy and jobs today. Very little upbeat talk about what donald trump would do as president. And without a doubt, the trump team will tell you their number one priority, make people like donald trump more. Melania trump was fabulous tonight. Whatever your politics, we dont know much about her. We havent heard from her in three months. Shes been quiet on the campaign trail. It was riveting. Why not end there . She was a pleasing presence in a kind of angry white guy sandwich. Yeah. You know, i was at lunch today, paul ryan has not been a huge fan of Donald Trumps. He said his one worry was the party would be too divisive, right, what people will take away is a party thats divisive. And when you look at tonight, the sort of Richard Nixon 1968 model of law and order and americas unsafe, this is a dangerous world, were all worried about our safety domestically as well as abroad. I think that that was what this was about tonight with a little bit of melania in there saying, he is compassionate as well to kind of balance that out. But this was their clear theme tonight. I want to go to the floor, our sara murray is standing by with news. Sara . Reporter thats right, anderson. Donald trump can just not stay away from his own convention. Were hearing even though hes going to go back to new york, hes going to be in new york tomorrow, he will be back in cleveland on wednesday. Were expecting him to show up here. Not here at his convention, but rather elsewhere in cleveland to hold an event for supporters, for his family members. This will not be a big rally. This will be more of a smaller event to really thank the people who have helped him get this far. Were also expecting him to show up on stage before he introduces mike pence. Maybe gave a little wave. With donald trump, you never know if hell say a couple words. Thats always a possibility. Of course, hell be back here on thursday to give his own speech then take a tour of the q. We may be getting many days of donald trump. A very unconventional candidate taking a very unconventional approach to his own convention, anderson. Sara murray, thank you very much. One of the things, earlier called into bill oreillys show on fox while speakers were on the stage at his own convention. I dont think a candidate countr convention. A moment they wanted to see. It was during the mothers speech. Im going to speculate. I dont know if theres any data on this, that more republicans watch fox news. Making a guess there. For donald trump to call in at that moment is an interesting moment. To sarahs point, he wants to be unconventional, be at the attention. He showed remarkable discipline there. His own staff during the day said we dont know what hes going to say when he walks out, we want to be short, sweet. We just want that moment. The entrance. They didnt know if hed stick to it. He did. David, is there a concern if you have the candidate too present during the week that it doesnt build up a Certain Energy and excitement to when they finally come out . You know, im less concerned about that. As long as hes not making speeches. You know, we beamed barack obama into the convention from various locations as he made his way to the convention because it was exciting to people to see him. He came on after he was beamed in from kansas after Michelle Obama gave her speech in 2008 and the kids were on stage with her and he was waving to them. And it was a touching moment. So i think there are theatrics that you can pull off here. If donald trump is as disciplined as he was tonight and comes out, does what he did and if hes just giving people a taste, thats one thing, but, you know, if he does a mike pence type deal the other question is, you know, there was a lot of talk would Melania Trump sort of try to humanize donald trump in a way that we hadnt seen before . One of the things Paul Manafort said to me last night and said to others is by the end of the week, we want people to know the donald trump they havent seen, in private time with his family, things like that. I guess the question is will his kids be trying to give, kind of fill in some of the details of with stories that we havent heard . I wouldnt limit this just to family. I mean, Rudy Giuliani is a longtime friend. I think he helped him a great deal talking about the fact that he gives money to charities anonymously and all of this sort of thing. I mean, i think that was very helpful here because he came from it came from a friend whos not a family member, whos had a lot of experience with him and whom everybody knows. I think what the kids do, and ive talked to them, as have you, is talk about the values of donald trump rather than stories, per se, because when you talk to them about growing up trump, theyll tell you about coming over to the office and being invited by their dad to the office all the time while he was working, and so it was a different kind of childhood. But what they will talk about and speak to is the importance of family, as melania did tonight, and that the fact that he always had time for them. Even if it was on his turf, he always said, okay, come over, this is important, no matter what he was doing, he would stop doing it. And so thats the part of trump that we havent seen, but as for these anecdotes and stories about donald trump this, i mean, youre smiling, but there arent that many of them. Andy one at a time. One at a time. I think it might have been a i think it might have been a mistake to have melania on today when the theme was keep america safe. Because she needed to have some sort of reason of what was going on before and after her and it was all gloom and doom, the martians are coming, its independence day, get under your mattress because the world is coming to an end. And so it is very hard within that context for her to be the snuggly bear, warm and fuzzy person giving anecdotes. I almost think it would have made more sense to have a day that was all about humanizing donald trump and having the American People get to know him better. We dont know donald trump much better after tonight than we did before tonight and really the only insight that came about him was from Rudy Giuliani. Andy, you were going to i was going to say to glorias point of mushy donald trump, you know, i think his kids will do a good job, especially ivanka, who really humanizes him. I think with donald in this election, people know donald trump. Hes had 99 name recognition. I think its a little different. I think mike pence has a big job on wednesday for the American People to get to know him. Donald trump is running on a law and order domestically and internationally. You dont want to come off too soft, as a human, not a robot. He wants to come off tough. I think law and order tonight, david clarke, Blue Lives Matter, is a huge theme and internationally. When we starts talking about benghazi, when he talks about barack obama and Hillary Clinton in their failure in the middle east, i think internationally and domestically, hes the law and order candidate so god forbid if theres more and more Security Problems like tonight there was another terror attack in germany, this is becoming almost a daily incident. If that starts to happen over the next couple months, if people want law and order, donald trump needs to prepare himself to be that law and order president. A war president. I think the question is how this cuts because we do have these recurrent incidents and do people turn to the strong man, the trump character, or do they recoil because they feel hes not temperamentally suited for the job that these are serious times . I honestly dont know the answer to that. I think its going to be one of the interesting questions of this election. I think the people when it comes to danger, they want simplicity. Donald trump talks very simple. We will destroy isis, we will crush them. Barack obama is very academic, one could say, in he refuseses to say radical islamic terror. When people want to win a war, they want destruction and donald trump will deliver that and i mean that with all seriousness. They want to destroy isis. Raqqah is still standing. Why is raqqah standing . He will destroy it. It was interesting, though, to hear a number of the speakers tonight talk about peoples feelings, like people fear crime, people feel things are more dangerous than ever before. You can argue stats, actually crime is down, you know, nationwide, its been going down ever since Rudy Giuliani was mayor. Its been on a downward and yet we heard time and time again people feel this way. What democrats are going to have to do, this is basically a factfree night. For instance, you would think that the United States government is not droning and bombing the heck out of isis. Isis is losing territory by the mile. I mean, its unbelievable. Theyve knocked out, like, half of the leadership or more. Thats never talked about. So the democrats, i think, have failed to let the American People know how aggressively isis is being contained. Part of what youre seeing now, because theyre losing land and territory, theyre doing these reverting back to al qaedatype tactics. Democrats have been having very tough times because you are correct, there is a fear. There is a sense that thing are out of control. What they cant let the republicans get away with it is saying, well, were going to do something about it but never say what because its very hard to say what more you could do against isis than whats being done right now. What you heard tonight is a continuation of what we heard for the last year from donald trump. This is what got him here. Tapping into the angst and to the frustration and to the fears of the American People of the Republican Base. The question is, did he grow that base at all tonight . And i think that the answer to that is no. I think you saw the same donald trump that got him here, i think his formula is lets not fix whats not broken. You know, the thing about this process is it gets more difficult as the stages go on. Hes going to have to go into president ial debates that may be the most watched debates that weve seen in a very long time. And to vans point, hes not going to be able to issue tough bromides. Hes going to be asked, how would you have stopped the incident in nice, how would you have stopped these other incidents, lone wolf or small cells that result as van says from isis wanting to strike out because theyre losing ground . Hes going to have to answer those questions. If he cant answer those questions, i dont think hes going to resolve peoples concerns. The problem, though, david, hes going to be there opposite Hillary Clinton who has a very long record and talks about her experience and for a lot of people, that experience has not paid off. That, you know, one mistake after another has been made. So i understand what youre saying, but i really im making a clinical point which is the world the eyes of the country are going to be on him and she is very fluent in these issues. The flip side of what youre saying is shes very comfortable dealing with these issues. Shes very comfortable debating. Although ill just argue just to play devils advocate here, a lot of, you know, donald trump can say, well, im just thinking specifically to the nice attacks. On that night, he called in to bill o rireillyoreilly, so di clinton. She also called into my program. Donald trump said when oreilly prompted him, i would go to congress for a declaration of war, then oreilly said, well also, what specifically would you do . He talked about the borders and not allowing in Syrian Refugees. Again, not necessarily specific about nice. I dont know how that would have stopped nice. No, right, it wouldnt have. Secretary clinton, when i prommed her about a declaration of war, she said, we are at war, its a different kind of war. She talked about an intelligence surge which im not quite sure what that is, and using nato. He answered your question, but she didnt. I think that shes going to have to be better prepared as well not to get balled up in these kinds of bureaucratic answers to questions. Right. People sitting at home, oh, okay, declaration of war sounds more definitive than working with our nato partners. I was listening to your interview with her that night and i thought, thats a word salad. I mean, its a word salad. What does it mean . I mean, intelligence surge and all this stuff. This is the way people talk in government in washington, d. C. Shes not communicating to the American People. We got to take a quick break. Coming up, donald trump jr. Talks to cnn about his dad and the convention kickoff. Plus a reality check on some of the nights toughest attacks on Hillary Clinton. Well be right back. See me. See me. Dont stare at me. See me. See me. See me to know that psoriasis is just something that i have. Im not contagious. See me to know that. I wont stop until i find what works. 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You know, just as proud americans, im one of five, and to see whats going on in this country right now is really sad. We want to make sure that this country is better, and my father can do it. What do you think the high point was for melanias speech . She talked about my father as a husband, as a man. So i think thats incredible. What speech tonight really caught you . Sheriff clarke did a great job, Rudy Giuliani did a great job. You know, im just excited to go tomorrow. Terrific. Thank you very much, guys. Well hear a lot more from Donald Trumps children over the next three nights of this convention. Tom foreman is with us. Youve been doing a reality check on the references to benghazi. Weve been hearing a lot about that from the republicans. Tonight, it was a major theme. We heard speaker after speaker raise this idea that they should be talking about this more, and what they had to say was that on the issue of benghazi, you need to listen to them, particularly the mother of one of these four victims. Listen. I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son. Had she done her job that night, had she done her job that night, we wouldnt have had to compromise the annex. Ty, glenn, shawn, and ambassador stevens would be alive today. And even before the final american deaths occurred, secretary clinton sent out a statement claiming it on a spontaneous protest about a video. Well, privately, telling others it was a terrorist attack. So is Hillary Clinton to blame for all of this . There have been nine separate investigations into the benghazi attacks. Seven of them nonpartisan, one by the republicans, one by the state department itself. Not a single one of these has drawn a direct line of responsibility to secretary clinton. Yes, there were problems in the state department. Yes, there were concerns about security there. Yes, some things were not handled properly. But she says she never directly saw those concerns, and of these nine investigations, again, not one of them said that she directly bore blame for this. You can say she came to take the blame as the head of the agency, but these investigations say no. So our first verdict is false, no, it wasnt her fault. But the question how she handled it afterwards, the question whether she blamed it on a videotape to hide it was a terrorist attack. She said she made statements in the fog of the moment. We have competing accounts from people who heard the same conversations saying different things. The bottom line is, people will say what they say. So that part of it is simply complicated. Sit a big issue, as you know, wolf, for Many Republicans out there and will remain a big issue. But on the basic claims, was it her fault . No, theres no proof of that. The larger victim i think is that she was head of the state department and the security was inadequate. And thats a complaint you could make, in the same sense you could take it to the president and say he was the president , he was in charge of her at the state department and he should have known. These investigations did not find enough of a chain to make that link. One other final note, which is, libya was her baby, right . She and susan rice, the national securitiedy ed adviser, they pu president obama to get involved with france and england. So should she not have paid more attention perhaps to libya, even when it comes to security . I think there are plenty of people who will privately say this was not a finest moment, this was not a great handling of things. The question is, can you blame somebody for this actual, terrible event, four people dying. Again, all these investigations have said no. Well be doing more of these reality checks. Still ahead, well have more reality checks on some of the toughest speeches of the night, and an interview with senator joni ernst, one of the nights headliners. Much more right after this. Tha. I think its important for everyone to know that there is so much more to memory support than the stigmas you hearabout. That these residents still have lives and their lives still matter and that they are still living their lives. That theyre not locked away and that they still have a lot to live for, you know, that they have people that care about them and they have people that love them and i love them, so laughs . Call now to find out how we can put our 30 years of understanding to work for your loved one today. click whistle tracfone 90day plans start at twenty bucks, with no contract. And give you talk, text and data with unlimited carryover. It was amazing thats ninety days of nothingbutnet buzzer for less. Americas largest and most dependable 4g lte networks. 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This kindness is always noted, but it is there for all to see. That is one reason i fell in love with him to begin with. I have known donald trump for almost 30 years. And he has created and accomplished great things. In my city, and all over the world. But beyond that, this is a m mman that can be trusted. Who could trust Hillary Clinton to protect them . I wouldnt. Would you . No donald trump will change all of that. In short, he will lead by leading, not by following. Are you safer than you were eight years ago . No is our military stronger . No is america still respected . No donald trump knows the advantage in life and in wartime goes to the competitor that does not flinch and does not broadcast his game plan. Blue lives matter in america [ applause ] stand up and support those men and women in dallas. Stand up and support those Law Enforcement in louisiana lets make sure that we do that, ladies and gentlemen. Blue lives matter. Yes, thats right, ladies and gentlemen. Theres no stability. Nothing seems right. And all the things that we hold dear are being attacked every single day. We cannot go down this road any more. We need to stop. We need donald trump to fix this. [ applause ] some of the moments from tonight. Lets talk about it with our panel. You know, jeffrey, earlier you talked about Ronald Reagan and this optimistic view. There is some concern, i think, tonight that there was a lot of pessimism here. That there was this sort of dark view of the way nothing feels stable, nothing is right, nothing is going in the right direction. Do you think thats going to continue throughout all these nights or does there also have to be i think it will be some of both. Ronald reagan was never hesitant to point out how bad things were under jimmy carter. She was quiet specific. He would go through the economy, through dealings with the society union. He coupled that, however, with his vision of the city on a shining city on a hill. So you do have to have a mix of both. But certainly when people are seeing on television what weve been seeing in baton rouge and what weve seen in dallas and what weve seen in these other cities. People are upset, understandably. When you add to the events in nice and terrorist attacks around the world, they are upset and concerned and youve got to address that. As we talked about, van, a lot of people in the United States in various groups believe that things are better than they were 30 years ago or 20 years ago for my family, for my race, for whatever it may be. Yeah. I think thats the part of the change that the republicans have. He says hes going to make America Great again. Newt gingrich says make America Great again for all americans. Donald trump talked about that there was a time a couple weeks ago where he said for everyone. I havent heard him say that much lately. Thats not on the baseball cap. But part of the challenge that i think you have is this sense of instability and insecurity isnt there. The question is, do you add crazy to crazy . The concern about donald trump isnt that he isnt tough enough, he may not have the right temperament. He may overreact and make it worse. You have crazy times, do you want a crazy guy to deal with crazy times . So tonight, this level of alarmism i think made it worse for people who were concerned about where this party is going. I think donald trump tapped into this early on. He realized it was there in the Republican Base when many other people, including most of us in the media, did not see the level of angst in the Republican Base. If you like donald trump, if you like that message, you were energized by all the speakers you heard today. If you dont, if you need more than that, you thought, you know, Rudy Giuliani was screaming at kids to get off his lawn. Things got really scary. They particularly got scary after melania. I think there was a premelania, where people were kept on a tight time frame, where people spoke very coherently. And then there was after melania, a. M. , where it just went off the charts. I want to hear from Trump Supporters on that, but first to wolf. Senator joni ernst just spoke. Thank you for coming down here. They were just talking about the speeches after Melania Trump. You did give a very strong speech on what is your expertise, of course, on National Security. You are not just a senator but an iraq war veteran. For people who might not have seen your speech, my first question is, is it frustrating to you . Because you are the kind of person and politician that the republicans should want to showcase, and you kind of bled into the post 11 00 p. M. Eastern time. Well, it was a good message and we hope that message will get out there. So a lot of great folks were on the stage tonight. One congressman ryan zinke of montana, highly decorated navy s. E. A. L. , so great veterans that stood behind us, wanting to express their frustration with the lack of leadership weve seen in the past eight years. I have to ask you, you were discussed as a potential running mate for donald trump. How far did that get . Did he say can we vet you, what was the conversation like . We had a wonderful conversation, and that conversation went no further. It was a great conversation, and i left that afternoon feeling very good about his candidacy. Because as many other people have stated, hes very different when hes in a one on one situation. He expressed to me concerns about education in the United States. Inner city youth, which is two topics you will not hear him talk about out on the trail. Did you say to him why dont you do that more . Yes, i expressed we need to hear more about that. Those things are important to him and you were not so sure about donald trump before you went into that meeting. Well, i have always said it will support the republican nominee. But after hearing his compassion and how passionate he is about many, many topics, one of which is National Security, which is very important to me, i left just feeling energy used and hoping that the American People can see what i saw in that one on one meeting. But im very focused on iowa, i have a lot more than i need to do for the great state of iowa. Senator, if i may just ask you a question. First of all, thank you for your service. You served in iraq. The war in iraq has become a big campaign issue. Donald trump criticizing Hillary Clinton saying she has bad judgment, as evidenced by her war vote. Obviously, his running mate, mike pence, voted for it, as well. I guess the big question for you, is he calls the iraq war a big fat mistake. Thats a quote. You served in iraq. Was it a big fat mistakesome i would they have do the men and women i served with and call it a big fat mistake. Under the intelligence that was provided to our president at that time, we were operating on good faith that that intelligence was correct. And so we cant go back and we cant change the actions that were done at that time. Knowing what we know now, maybe things would be different. But we should never do our Service Members injustice by stating what they did is a waste of time. So i would disagree on that point. But what i do know is that he does believe in our men and women in uniform, and that he does believe our veterans should have a place at the forefront of our society, which is something we have not seen in the last eight years. Senator, we heard two speakers today, including the former head of the Defense Intelligence agency, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn say, Hillary Clinton, lock her up, she longs in jail. Another speaker said she should be wearing stripes. Is that appropriate at this convention, to tell the opposition that the opposition of the other party belongs in jail . As was pointed out in the speech, there are many members if general flynn had done what Hillary Clinton did, he would have been courtmartialed, plain and simple. Weve seen other military members with less action that have been disciplined because of those actions. And yet we have seen no repercussions when it comes to Hillary Clinton with her actions. Now, all of us that serve in the military, we are given those briefings on what is classified, unclassified, secret, top secret, and so forth. Hillary clinton is serving at the very top of our state department should have known that, and has been pointed out by many other people before, maybe she just wasnt intelligent to know the difference. Thats scary to folks like me that have served on the ground overseas, that we could have a commander in chief that is not intelligent enough so you think she belongs in jail . I wouldnt say that. I dont know that. I didnt sit through those hearings. But i do think what she has done, if indicated by the fbi director, as he stated so, if what she has done is that egregious, there should be repercussions. Does that mean jail . I dont know that it does. But there should be some repercussions for Hillary Clinton for having used a private email server at her home and passing classified documents along. Whether she knew they were classified or not, she should have known. Senator, i have to ask, you have been at times throughout the campaign critical of donald trump and the way that he has spoken to and about women. Going forward, what is your recommendation to him for how he can reach out to female voters, especially maybe even republican and independent female voters who might not be attracted to his kind of rhetoric and campaign . It will be important that he stretches out to strong, independent women. Women that are breaking down these barriers. I would look to melania, as well. Should she be out there more . I think she should. We had great reaction from the folks in the audience that listened to her message. His daughter ivanka has been outspoken, as well. Shes a strong business leader. Then going out to other women, whether theyre serving in politics or business, and including them in discussions. But again, going back and talking about those things that hes passionate about, whether its education, those inner city youth. You know, he needs to bring that out and talk about those topics. He needs to talk more about jobs and economy or lack thereof here in the United States. Because i think that is something that he has a real strength at. Thats what women they care about that, too. So we want to know that there are great jobs for us out there. Those are things that he can get women involved in. He can talk to women about those issues. And we would love to see more of that upcome thing faing this fa. Senator, thank you very much. Were going over tonights big speeches and checking the facts. Stand by for another reality check. Thats just ahead. Hey, youre clarence yes, sir. You know, at the model year end clarence event, you can get a great deal on this 2016 passat. Steve. Yeah . Clarence is on a roll. Yeah. I wish theyd name an event after me. Same here. But the model year end becky event . Thats no good. Stevent thats just vandalism. Whatever you want to call it, dont miss the volkswagen model year end event. Hurry in for a onethousand dollar volkswagen reward card and 0 apr on a new 2016 passat. One mortgagefree year for you. Its the quicken loans hole in one sweepstakes and you could be the next winner. Enter today at pgatour. Com quickenloans for your chance to win a years worth of mortgage payments. Are you okay . Yeah, i just got charged for my credit monitoring. Thats how i know its working. Ah. You know you can go on creditkarma. Com and check it out there. Its completely free. Really . Yeah oh, that didnt hurt at all. Yeah, completely painless. Credit karma. Give yourself some credit. Welcome back to the Republican National convention. Day one is now over. Weve got another reality check on some of the speeches we heard tonight. Tom foreman taking a closer look at the sensitive issue of immigration. The democrats have gone after donald trump on this over and over again. Tonight, it was the republicans turn, and they went after Hillary Clinton on this. Listen. Havent we had enough . And now Hillary Clinton is promising more of the same. Open boarders, executive amnesty, and the surge of Syrian Refugees. Is that what shes promising, is that really the promise . Open boarders, no, that is not the case. Shes made it clear that the boarders need to be strong. Every politician says they need to be strong as a practical matter. However, theres other points raised here. Supporting legal status for some undocumented immigrants. Yes, like president obama, she thinks some people should be allowed to work toward legal status, she does want to do that. And she substantially wants to increase the number of Syrian Refugees in particular, even over what president obama wants. That is also true. You can find out a whole lot more about how we reached these verdicts and many other things out there if you go to our website, cnn. Com realitycheck. Tom foreman taking a closer look at these sensitive issues for all of us. Were going to be doing a lot more of the checking, not only what the republicans are saying, but when the democrats have their convention, well be doing more reality checks, as well. Conventions are full of all sorts of claims. Some of them lend themselves to fact checking. I mean, i do wonder, some of them are difficult to fact check. You had a chance to speak earlier to Marcus Latrell. I want to play a little clip from that and discuss what he said. Youre supporting donald trump for president. I know he wasnt your first pick, maybe even not top ten, but can you support somebody that you said youre not sure if hes a conservative . Listen, we all say things in campaigns that, after its over with, and were down to this is the National Championship now. And im picking my team. This is Pretty Simple for me, jake. Hillary clinton, donald trump, Supreme Court nominee. I want donald trump as the next president of the United States. And ive become comfortable with him on the military side of things, on the economic side of things, on the Security Side of things. I mean, what of those do you not support . I can split hairs with anybody. If were down to splitting hairs now, i think youre losing the message here. Marcus, let me ask you, you moved a lot of people to tears with your speech today. That bad . No, its good. People were moved by it. Im going to mess with you the whole time, buddy. I know, but could you see the people with tears in their eyes . Absolutely. Because of what i do for a living, traveling around and speaking, i recognize a lot of them in the audience and its an honor to stand before them again. They know what theyre going to get when i get up there. When they invited me to speak, no one tells me what to say. If you want me to speak, i speak from my heart. Thats just how i am and how i lead my life. Did you scrap your prepared remarks and ad lib it . Yeah, i had to. It has to come from here from me. And he was really well received with his marks. Yeah, hes an american hero, given a navy cross for that horrific, very difficult mission, operation red wing, where he was the quote unquote lone survivor. And rick perry nursed him back to health with his wife and when i asked Marcus Latrell where are you supporting donald trump . Basically, its because rick perry supports donald trump and governor perry did so much for him. Hes behind him no matter what he does. You remember back in the beginning of the primary season, latrell and his brother were kind of flanking perry when he gave his announcements. Twin brother. What a daunting image. And it was. But i was back there in the sort of sea of people, and you talked about with him the emotion. You could feel it on the floor. It was really kind of palpable. I was able to watch him and watch the teleprompter as he said, forget it, im just going to do this on my own and he did his own thing. Then at the end, he got back on script. Yeah. It was a very emotional moment. One other thing, i asked governor perry would you serve in a Trump Administration . And he said, if called to serve, he would. But it would have to be a job that was good enough for him to leave texas. And he mentioned possibly secretary of defense. Rick perry would like to be secretary of defense . He seemed to suggest that, yeah. Hes a veteran, of course. Fourterm governor of texas, as well, as we all know. Were going to take a quick break and continue our special coverage right after this. [ salesman ] congrats on the new car. [ woman ] thanks. The dealership reviews on cars. Com made it easy, but. [ man ] we thought it might be a little more tense. You miss the drama . Yeah. [ technician ] ask him whatever you want. Okay. Do you think my sisters prettier than me . [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] research, price, find. Only cars. Com helps you get the right car without all the drama. And welcome back. We are live here at the Republican National convention, which is finished for the evening. There is what is bubbling up as a potential story that youll see a lot about probably tomorrow. Melania trumps speech was the highlight for many. She was introduced by donald trump, a rare break from tradition to have the candidate come out, introduce his wife on the stage. The speech was well received, certainly here. She was certainly charming and lovely and came off in a speech that she says she or that the campaign she had practiced and worked on for a long time. What seems to be has now been raised as an issue are similarities between several lines, seven or so lines in Melania Trumps speech and Michelle Obamas convention speech. Weve edited together part of Melania Trumps remarks that compare to Michelle Obamas remarks. I dont think weve edited the second part. But first, lets play i think were going to start with Melania Trumps remarks, several lines from it tonight. From my young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life. That your work is your bond, and you do what you say and keep your promise. That you treat people with respect. Barack and i were raised with so many of the same values, like you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond, that you do what you say youre going to do. That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you dont know them and even if you dont agree with them. [ applause ] and barack and i Melania Trump also went on to say about two lines later, we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations that follow because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams, and your willingness to work for them. Michelle obama said, and pass them on to the next generation, because we want our children and all children in this nation to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them. So clearly whoever wrote Melania Trumps speech, there are a numb thats flatout plagiarism. I feel sorry for Melania Trump, because im sure she didnt know lines were being lifted from Michelle Obama. Its so unfair for Melania Trump, whoever wrote this did her a great disservice. What i wonder is, how can anybody be so fundamentally stupid as to believe that you can give a speech like this and no one would know a speechwriter to think that no one would catch this. Exactly. I would not want to be around the Trump Organization right around now. They have an organization, they have a campaign. Theres such a thing as vetting speeches. I agree with you. I feel terrible for Melania Trump. She was obviously outside of her confident zone. This was her first big speech. She was here for no other reason than to support her husband, and this is a tragedy. This happened to joe biden famously i was in the Reagan White House at the time, and im the one who notified the New York Times that he had been plagiarizing a Robert Kennedy speech that i memorized by heart as a kid. There were other reports by the Dukakis Campaign for which the Campaign Manager got fired. Within a week after i talked to the New York Times, joe biden got out of the race. Now, shes going to be the first lady. Shes not running for president. But clearly, whoever did this, if thats the case, which it seems to be, shouldnt be there. I think the tough thing about it is that the trump brand is about authenticity, whether you like it or not, whether you think its responsible or not. The core, im authentic. She goes out there, people, i think, had the impression that maybe this was a speech she had worked on and maybe she had written or written a big part of. If it turns out they had somebody who was completely irresponsible, who just handed her something and she went out there and read it, its a double problem. Shes not a seasoned political spouse. This is not something thats been married to a senator or a governor or congressman. She was so outside of her confident zone. Lets cut the woman some slack. In all fairness, the speech did echo many things shes said in interviews. I dont think its fair to say this is just something that was handed to it. Clearly these are things she said to me in an interview or things shes said in interviews before. Obviously not in these exact words. To vans point, authenticity is what theyre selling. As you heard tonight, the entire evening was devoted to talking about how inauthentic Hillary Clinton is, what a liar she is, and so on. And this is a very, very awkward end to this evening for them. But its not really about melania, honestly. Its about the campaign, though. Its about the campaign, the organization, about the staff. Its about the work that went into this speech. Youre saying if they had a more conventional, larger staff . I think if they had a different speechwriter. And a speechwriter who was being supervised. When youre writing a speech for melania, a logical place to go would be to look at a Michelle Obama speech any first lady speech. The speechwriter did leave out the part where donald and melania left on the south side of chicago. [ laughter ] donald trump needs to do what he knows how to do very well tonight, he needs to fire somebody. They like to brag inside the Trump Campaign that this is a small band of loyal people, beating this large army. The Clinton Campaign has so many hundreds of people. Well, there are times, im not saying some campaigns dont get too bloated, but there are times when you need more than a small band, especially when youre making a pivotal from the primary season to a competitive general election. This is not her mistake. One at a time. This was a night that was about introducing Melania Trump to a national audience. This is about telling her story, smalltown girl from slovenia, makes it big in the fashion world. And now hanging over this is the fact that some of these words were lifted from Michelle Obamas speech. I agree, its a speech you want to lift from, or at least have guidance from. But i think this reflects very poorly theyve got three more nights to go. Have her come out again and laugh this off, make light of it. Because its a pr disaster. Also, look, many of us are in businesses where we rely on things other people have written. And so this cuts to the core for anybody who is in a position where sometimes you were reading something which somebody else has written, by you havent had time there is a sense of [ overlapping speakers ] you need to have a sense of perspective. This is not benghazi. Hold on a second, here we go. Now, i remember Michelle Obama, when she was running for this very position. There were no kid gloves for Michelle Obama. Theres been no kid gloves for anybody this process. So now were all supposed to say oh, you know, lets be very, very kind. Listen, i like kindness. But i think kindness should be a bipartisan value. And if were going to be the way that weve been all night toward the democrats, then lets make sure the kindness goes both ways. During this campaign, i think rand paul at some point, somebody had lifted ben carson, you know, they came out and apologized and said we didnt know. And it was a mistake. And byebye speechwriter. And that was the end of it. Lets go back to wolf with more on this. Jake and dana, were looking at the words, the similarities, obviously very, very similar words, sentences almost completely identical. What is very awkward is she gave an interview, Melania Trump, to nbc news, which will air tomorrow, which she said something she wrote the speech with as little help as possible from the outside, which suggests she worked on it herself. This is an awkward situation. Lets be honest. Anybody giving a speech here did not write it most people at least did not write it by themselves and not have anybody look over it or edit it. I think the big question for the Trump Campaign right now is how do you respond to this . You heard on the panel two die hard Trump Supporters acknowledge that this is bad. This is apparently plagiarism. And the question is, how does the campaign respond to this . Does the campaign react with transparency . Melania trump worked with a team and in that process pardon me and in that process somebody inadvertently cut and pasted and it became part of the language . Or do they just attack the media . Deny the fact that is we see are what they are. And then just try to move on. I think that i dont know how hes going to respond. Yeah, its a sensitive moment for the campaign right now. No question, and i know other members of our team are trying to get the answer to how are they going to respond . Ive been trying to reach their communications team. This is exactly the opposite of what they wanted, and what anybody would want at the end of their night, especially when her speech was kind of the crown jewel of the first night of this campaign, of the first night of this convention rather. It is going to be very difficult for them to do anything other than, as you said, you both side, be transparent and perhaps do something along the lines of go out there and have her somehow make light of it. I think that could be incredibly endearing. I guaranty what theyre trying to do as we speak and whether or not responding to us is trying to get to the bottom of what the heck happened. The American Public is very forgiving if you say there was a mistake, we apologize, not going to happen again, were going to fix it. The American Public usually accepts that. True, but where on the president ial Campaign Level do we see people acknowledging the mistakes they have made, admitting them and promising to learn from them . I can think of a whole bunch of mistakes that have been made by candidates in this race that situations i think would be much better for them if they just said, you know, i made a mistake with that. Heres how it happened. Im never going to do it again. We are all human and make mistakes. This is not the first incident that weve covered just in this race. We talked about senator rand paul and some columns he wrote, plagiarizing a paper he wrote, he had to drop out of that senate race. So it does happen. It does. I heard van jones earlier saying wait a minute, why are we giving her a pass and people were heard on Michelle Obama. That might be true, but i also think that what youre talking about with rand paul and others, thats the candidate. This is the candidates wife giving a speech, which by all accounts she didnt necessarily want to give. She was incredibly nervous about it, and i heard she even at times because of that understandable trepidation tried to say, wait a minute, maybe i shouldnt be doing this. Its fair point, absolutely. She is not the candidate and for that reason, i dont think that the outcry will be as strong as it would be had it been an actual candidate, without question. Im just saying, and i think we all agree, that this was a we have no idea how this happened, but in all likelihood this was done by a staffer. Often a lot of times people dont have the time to write a first or second draft of the speech, but we dont know. That said, how the campaign reacts will say a lot about it. This is in a lot of ways i wouldnt call it a scandal, but this is a test. How do you react . If the American People want a president when theres a mess up, to say, i messed up, heres how it happened, i promise to learn from it. We are talking about the spouse, we are not talking about the candidate. But still, its a campaign event. Donald trump doesnt like to admit he makes mistakes and he certainly doesnt like to apologize. I dont remember if it was you or anderson asked him during that question during one of cnns town halls, you know, anything that you can think of that you regret or can apologize for, have apologized for . It was very difficult for him to come up with that. This isnt him, this is his wife, and this is a campaign. And you know, its one thing when you are the candidate and its about you, but its another thing when you are talking about putting your spouse out there like this because of a choice you made to run. And then needing to figure out a way to protect and fix things. I think the impulse is going to be, in addition to the fact that the Trump Campaign has spent so much of the campaign railing against the media for bias, real and imagined, for attacking us, i think the impulse is going to be, go after the media on this. Probably. And by the way, the impulse is going to be protect the spouse. An admirable impulse, but i was skeptical when i started hearing this. I thought, hope, love, children, we know its going to be no, this is plagiarism. Both speeches have teaching values, work hard for what you want, your word is your bond, treat people with respect. One, two, three, four. Both of them. And then the next part thats plagiarized, we want our children to know only the i mean, its is exact same construct, the exact same. And words are changed here and there. So whoever did this tried to make it appear as if it was new. Whoever did this, anderson, should come forward, apologize and thats the way to protect her. All of us i think feel bad for Melania Trump. Whoever wrote those words and plagiarized those words should explain, apologize, and move on. Without a doubt. For somebody her first speech on National Stage and on a convention night, its incredibly unfortunate. Again, its two sections, all in the same section of Melania Trumps speech. Its one, two, three, four, five, six, about six lines in a paragraph of two separate parts of it. I want to play the first part what Melania Trump said and the similarity with what Michelle Obama said in 2008 at her convention speech. And then ill read the sect part of it. From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond, and you do what you say and keep your promise. That you treat people with respect. Barack and i were raised with so many of the same values. Like you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond, that you do what you say youre going to do. That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you dont know then about two lines later, Melania Trump said, and we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow, because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them. Michelle obama said, pass them on to the jet stream generation, because we want our children and all children in this nation to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams, and your willingness to work for them. Do you agree, van, with jakes point that the important thing now is how the campaign itself responds . I do, but i just im flabbergasted, because i dont think that Michelle Obama, had she made the same mistake, would be afforded the same generosity. Maybe because shes a lawyer, but all i know is that a standard got created that the first lady was fair game the minute she came on the scene, that you could go after her. Guns blazing. Tonight, you have somebody doing something im not finished. Its not just that she possibly read a plagiarized speech, she also, at least apparently twice, told people she wrote it. Thats bad thats bad. This woman wants to be the first lady. So i just want to make sure we have the same standards for her as we did for Michelle Obama. Let me Say Something here about mrs. Obama. Im not going to attack mrs. Obama. What im going to say to you is, where were you when nancy reagan was being attacked as the queen . No, no, no, on and on and on and on this stuff went, and i would add historically speaking, Andrew Jacksons poor wife was called the w word. So all im saying is lets not single out mrs. Obama and say there was Something Different about her. She was treated exactly the same as a whole lot of other first ladies. What if donald trump comes out and says this wasnt lifted . Its a possibility. He could just double down and say these are, as jake was saying earlier, these are bromides, and he could do that. He could also defend his wife and say im going to fire whoever the speechwriter was, because it was lifted. But knowing donald trump keeping with his character. Thats the way he responds to these things. But just to me this is a side discussion here, what you guys were having. The fact is that this woman came out and gave the speech to the nation and she was really illserved. And youre right, van, she should. Have represented it as something he did on her own. She did say, she wrote as much as possible. One at a time. If youre going to go on tv, youre going to claim to have written as much of it as possible, which is what she did. I do think youre right, that she is probably held to a very different standard than Michelle Obama. Michelle obama is a lawyer. If you plagiarize in law school, you are out. Weve got to the trump team is you know, like keystone cops. Well have more on this breaking news right after this. Ive been blind since birth. I go through periods where its hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. Learn about non24 by calling 8448442424. Or visit my24info. Com. [ tires screech ] flo [ ghost voice ] oooo [ laughs ] jaaaaamie, the name your price tool can show you Coverage Options to fit your budget. Tell me something i dont know oh ohhh she slimed me. Which i probably shouldve seen coming. [ laughs ] just checking my free credit score at credit karma. What the . . . Youre welcome. I just helped you dodge a bullet. But i was just checking my. Shhh. Dont you know that checking your credit score lowers it just be cool. Actually, checking your credit score with credit karma doesnt affect it at all. Are you sure . Positive. So i guess i can just check my credit score then . Oooh check out credit karma today. Credit karma. Give yourself some credit. Sorry about that. Al of interest online about melaniia trumps second speech. Google trends monitored searches for the various Convention Speakers in realtime. You can see Melania Trump ranked number one. Shes been the subject of the most searches all night while interest in other speakers went up and down throughout the night. You know, it was a pretty successful night from the republican perspective from Donald Trumps perspective. Its a pity for them that they have to end it on the this awkward note of plagiarism. It was a night where the trump par Republican Party made a case for donald trump and mike pence against Hillary Clinton. You heard immigration, benghazi, National Security and some veterans speaking. There were emotional moments, there were had moments of excitement and exuberance. But, as you say, the story of the night is going to be this plagiarism and the Trump Campaign is going to have to respond and it is going to be a test for him. Nobody wants this to be the story the first night of the convention. And they were sticking pretty much to make america safe all night. Except for the Melania Trump portion of the night which was kind of the humanizing part. And forgive me looking down because im looking down to see if we have any reaction yet, and we dont. Big picture of being down there on the floor most of the night, you slightly get the sense that these republican res definitely not agreeing totally on donald trump, but they are agreeing completely on their total, frankly, hatred for Hillary Clinton had. And we can get ready for day two tomorrow. Our coverage continues right after a quick break with don lemon. Here here in cleveland at the cnn newsroom. Hello welcome to holiday inn. Running our own business, weve been traveling a lot. A hotel looking to help Small Businesses succeed is incredible. Thank you. Holiday inn is an extension of our team. Book your next journey at holidayinn. Com [ woman ] thanks. The dealership reviews on cars. Com made it easy, but. [ man ] we thought it might be a little more tense. You miss the drama . Yeah. [ technician ] ask him whatever you want. Okay. Do you think my sisters prettier than me . [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] research, price, find. Only cars. Com helps you get the right car without all the drama. Only cars. Com helps you esuthey offer a claimfreece a smarter discount. H saves money. Because safe drivers cost less to insure, which saves money. They let you pay your bill electronically, which saves postage, which saves money. They settle claims quickly, which saves time, which saves money. And they offer home and auto insurance, so you can bundle your policies, which saves money. Esurance was born online and built to save. And when they save, you save. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance, an allstate company. Click or call. There is some breaking news tonight from the Republican Convention here in cleveland. Ma. Lan ya trumps speech causing a lot of controversy. This is a special cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Thank you so muc for joining us and staying up so late. On the night donald trump makes his dramatic entrance, Melania Trump makes a speech, a lot like one made by Michelle Obama eight years ago