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EARLY START

GOP Convention Reviewed; Cruz Refuses to Endorse Trump. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired July 21, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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


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[03:00:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROWD SHOUTING)

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CHRISTINE ROMANS, EARLY START SHOW HOST: Amazing. Chaos in Cleveland. Boos erupting inside the erupting inside the Republican National Convention as Ted Cruz refuses to endorse Donald Trump for president.

JOHN BERMAN, EARLY START SHOW HOST: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Early Start live from the CNN Grill at the Republican National Convention. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Thursday, July 21st, it is 3 a.m. in the East here at the CNN Grill in Cleveland, 3 a.m. and we're still talking about what happened just a few hours ago.

BERMAN: I've got to say, ladies and gentlemen, we have discord. A once in a lifetime moment of convention strife. The kind of thing that leaves people booing and cheering and gasping all at the same time.

Yes, something funny happened had on the way to party unity here at the republican convention. That something funny rhymes with Ted Cruz. Not Mike Pence. That's Mike Pence. The runner up to Donald Trump in the primaries got a prime speaking slot. How did he use it? Not to support Donald Trump. No, no, no. Not an endorsement.

And with what did he get for his non-endorsement? No love. In fact, he got some outrage.

Our senior political reporter, Manu Raju, live on location right outside the windows in front of us right now. Manu, this is quite a night.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: It really was, John. You know, this crowd in the convention hall was waiting for that endorsement. And when Ted Cruz really only mentioned Donald Trump at the beginning of his speech when he congratulated Donald Trump for winning, and that endorsement just did not come.

And as Ted Cruz started launching into a stump speech talking about republican values and conservative values, the crowd grew more and more impatient started booing him, started heckling him, started calling him 'lying Ted, which of course, was a nickname that Ted -- that Donald Trump gave Ted Cruz during the very bitter primary fight.

And when Ted Cruz said it's time for voters to vote their conscience this November, the crowd did not hold back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TED CRUZ, TEXAS STATE SENATOR: Stand and speak and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.

(CROWD BOOING)

We must make the most of our moment, to fight for freedom, to protect our God-given rights. Even of those with whom we don't agree. We will unite the party; we will unite the country by standing together for shared values by standing for liberty.

God bless each and every one of you and God bless with the United States of America.

(CROWD BOOING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, immediately after that, Heidi Cruz's, Ted Cruz's wife was standing right by us on the convention floor and security personnel went up to her and escorted her out of the convention hall because of concerns over her safety.

She, too, was getting heckled by Trump supporters. And Ted Cruz afterwards tried to meet with the billionaire Sheldon Adelson, the big donor. He had planned to go talk to him after the speech. Adelson would not even see him because of concerns of the way Ted Cruz withheld that endorsement.

Now Cruz, reporters did catch up with Ted Cruz afterwards and I'll read to you what he told them. He said when he was asked about, he said, "I laid out a very simple standard. We need a president that will defend liberty and be faithful to the Constitution."

And then even later, Ted Cruz issued a fund raising solicitation to raise money off of his speech. So, clearly, he's showing no signs of backing down, guys, even if the blow back may only just be beginning.

ROMANS: All right. What a night. Manu Raju, thanks for breaking it down for us. Let's discuss this here at the CNN Grill because there is so much to talk about here.

We have CNN political analyst Josh Rogin, columnist for the Washington Post, and our trio of CNN political commentators, former Ted Cruz communications director Amanda Carpenter, democratic strategist, Maria Cardona, and KABC talk radio host, John Phillips, a Donald Trump supporter. Good morning -- or good evening or o-m-g-w-t-t or short to say, what

the Trump. What is going on here, Amanda. I mean, does he win in the short-term, lose in the long-term, lose in the short-term ask win in the long-term? What is the strategy for Ted Cruz?

[03:05:04] AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The strategy is to make a statement. Listen, there are so many republicans who publicly endorse, support, Donald Trump. Privately, they will you at how worried they are. They don't know what they're going to do.

Ted Cruz said, I'm going to use this platform and I'm going to go there and speak to these people. The Republican Party is in crisis under Donald Trump. The message "vote your conscience" really shouldn't be controversial.

But that tests people because people are really having a hard time keeping true to -- truth, integrity, character in supporting Donald Trump.

BERMAN: But you know that vote your conscience and Ted Cruz knows that phrase vote your conscience was the rallying cry for the never Trump movement. That was the never Trump rallying cry. So, Ted Cruz said that out loud tonight and it meant something and it didn't go over well. Where some of the people...

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CARPENTER: I don't think he thought it would.

BERMAN: And if you looked at Chris Christie in the audience there, you know, it was clear it didn't go over well with him. Listen to what Chris Christie told Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: I think it was awful. And quite frankly, I think it was selfish. And he signed a pledge and it's his job to keep his word. And Donald Trump gave him the opportunity to speak here at this convention tonight, and I think it was too cute.

And I think you saw by the end of the speech that the crowd was waiting for him to do the right thing. And realized that once again he wasn't going to do it. And I think the performance you saw up there is why Ted has so, so richly deserved the reputation that he's developed on Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, that's Chris Christie, sounding disappointed, John, but is he disappointed or is he what, is he mad?

JOHN PHILLIPS, KABC TALK RADIO HOST: Well, I mean, look what happened. I didn't get booed that badly when I did a Natalie Wood joke at a fund-raiser for legal adoption. I mean, it just sustained and long and went on forever. And it reminds me of being a child in California. I grew up an Angels fan in the 1980s and '90s when they could not win to save their lives. And I couldn't look at the newspaper or watch the news when they would lose because it would ruin the rest of my day. I just couldn't handle losing.

And then at a certain point, I said to myself, you know what? Life is much easier if you're not sore loser. I guess it takes some people a lot longer to learn that lesson than others.

ROMANS: You know, it's interesting to me because, you know, he was given this prime speaking slot and maybe the team had seen Paul Manafort and the Trump team had seen this feature ahead of time and let him go on because maybe it turned out to be a good thing for Donald Trump.

Donald Trump was able to walk through the crowd afterwards, get a lot of support. But, you know, Trump has tweeted a little bit after this speech saying "I saw this," I think we have the tweet we can put it up. He saw it, he's read it, there we go, Donald J. Trump, "While Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didn't honor the pledge. I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak anyway. No big deal." Was it a mistake to let him go on or was it calculated to let him go on?

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I don't know. And...

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: You don't care because you're a democrat.

CARDONA: It's all -- it's all good for me.

ROMANS: Yes.

CARDONA: But if there's one thing that we've learned is that Donald Trump is completely unconventional. So, who knows if he even knows whether this was calculated or not. But the way that it turned out, it is sort of a Trump at his best reality show wise, right?

But here is what I would say. Why are we surprised that Ted Cruz did this? I mean, this is vintage Ted Cruz. He doesn't care that the party is mad at him. This is how he operated on Capitol Hill. And I actually believe -- and I am not a Ted Cruz fan. But I actually believe that he is standing on principal.

Because let's remember at the very end of this campaign, Donald Trump insulted his wife, insulted his father, and I'm not saying that he did this for revenge...

ROMANS: Yes.

CARDONA: ... but he signed a pledge at the beginning of this campaign when he didn't know exactly the kind of character that Donald Trump had.

ROMANS: Josh. CARDONA: I think...

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Josh looks like he smelled something terrible. It was like rolling his eyes.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Let's entertain the possibility that this wasn't a purely values based decision for Ted Cruz, right? We all know he wants to run in 2020. He's setting the stage for the that.

CARPENTER: Sure he is.

ROGIN: He's betting on Trump losing. And he's saying, OK, I'm the alternative to this. I'm going to go in a different direction.

ROMANS: Right.

ROGIN: Here is the problem, right? In 2020, you're still going to have this entire wing of the party that's pro-Trump and he just rained on their parade. He just need the chair...

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: By the way...

ROMANS: What if Trump loses?

BERMAN: You could have a president Trump.

ROGIN: Right. And all of those people are now going to hate ted Cruz forever. And he can't rely on his establishment backing because we know the establishment hates Ted Cruz, too. So, that's why I think this whole gambit was too clever by half. He's managed to make more enemies than friends. And either way you look at it in 2020, this is not going to help him.

CARPENTER: I don't think he cares. The future of the Republican Party is up for grabs.

ROMANS: Right.

CARPENTER: I mean, we had 17 people running. It's because there is no leader. Someone who is going to fight for leadership. And I, you know, I don't know how this is going to play in four years because the world will change in ways that we cannot anticipate.

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: No one knows.

[03:10:05] CARPENTER: But the fact that he is the only republican that is publicly willing to go in front of an audience like that, and say vote your conscience, support freedom. We don't know what's happening with the candidates or party. But being can say true to this thing, that's important and that's timeless.

BERMAN: It was striking, right? There was the Marco Rubio video.

CARPENTER: Yes.

BERMAN: Just before. You're smiling because you know Cruz role that must have played really well. Marco Rubio has a video out and he actually talks about Donald Trump. He says why you should vote for Donald Trump. It was not the most enthusiastic endorsement in the world, but it was an endorsement.

And so, you have that for Marco Rubio. Scott Walker who previously said he was never going to vote for Trump out of the stage endorsing Donald Trump.

ROMANS: And Donald Trump thanked him only tweeted to a different Scott Walker.

BERMAN: But you have Paul Ryan now, you know, endorsing Donald Trump. But Ted Cruz has staked out this territory very much in opposition to these other young guns.

PHILLIPS: You know, Ted Cruz claims that Ronald Reagan is his hero. Well, he should good back and read Lou Canyon's book on Ronald Reagan. Because in 1976, when he lost to Gerry Ford in the primary, he went to the convention, he have a great speech and he got behind the nominee. You don't win people by being the sore loser.

CARPENTER: And there is something to sore loser. I mean, there are so many republicans who have deep, sincere reservations about Donald Trump. He is speaking to that end.

Of course, it wasn't audience in that room. There were just people that just nominated Donald Trump. And there's a lot of republicans that did not show up to the convention.

(CROSSTALK)

ROGIN: But those republicans...

ROMANS: But Ted Cruz had a rally today of more than a 1,000 people so hes's not alone in that.

ROGIN: Well, if I look at how people like Rubio and people like Ryan are playing this, they realize that they have to speak to the Trump voters. They may hate Trump, but they can't hate the Trump voters.

ROMANS: Yes.

ROGIN: And what Ted Cruz did is keep this off and hated on all of the Trump voters and he got them to hate him back and that's a problem. So, although he can say, oh, I was brave and I stood on principle on this and that, in the end, what Rubio did was smarter because he preserve the option of bringing those people along in 2020. And for Cruz that's not an option.

CARPENTER: Yes. I wil say that was the calculated play.

ROGIN: Yes.

CARPENTER: I mean, there were a lot of republicans that said I'm just not going to go. I'm going to sit this out, I'm going to wait and see what happens...

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: That's Cruz should have done.

BERMAN: Right.

CARPENTER: Who would know Cruz had the guts to go there.

BERMAN: That would have been smarter.

ROMANS: And take down of Ted Cruz, when he was asked he did not go out and endorse Donald Trump. Let's listen to that sound. Ted Cruz explaining himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator, why did you decided not to endorse Donald Trump in the end?

CRUZ: I laid out a very simple standard. We need a president who (Inaudible) and be faithful to the Constitution. I hope very much that is -- that is who the next president will be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I can say Ted Cruz welcome to the next several months of your life.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Yes. That is what it's going to be like.

CARDONA: And you know what else? We're sitting here talking about Ted Cruz. We're not talking about pence, we're not talking about Eric Trump who, you know, supposedly was going to be -- those were going to be the two star speeches of the night, right? And Donald Trump tonight, or today tweeted that if you believe any press is good press...

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CARDONA: We're talking about Ted Cruz.

ROGIN: Yes. That's not actually true. Any press is not good press. There is bad press.

ROMANS: But three nights in a row, they're trying to have a message. Don have a message. They're trying to...

BERMAN: Yes.

ROMANS: You know, team Trump, the party of Trump now. Trump is the candidate. This is the convention where the messaging from the message master himself has been completely off message three nights in a row.

BERMAN: I got to say, we're all political jockeys, anyway. We all sort of sometimes wish we were there when other whacky things that happened in convention iterations pass them now. We were here, you know, we can talk about it all night. And the good thing is, we're going to be here all night and we'll talk about it, coming up.

ROMANS: I know. And we will talk about Mike Pence.

BERMAN: Yes.

ROMANS: And we will talk about all the other ones, too, including Eric Trump last night. And we also now know how Melania Trump ended up delivering a plagiarized speech. Passages directly stolen from Michelle Obama's 2008 address. Who is taking the blame now and what Donald Trump is saying about speech gate, next.

[03:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. New information this morning on Melania Trump's speech that she delivered on the first night of the convention. And those passages listed out of a speech from Michelle Obama of the 2008 convention.

How did it get there? A writer from the Trump organization says it was her fault. Let me read you the full screen of what she says. She says, "We discussed" -- this is from Meredith McIlver, a Trump organization staff writer.

"We discuss many people who inspired her, a person she has always liked is Michelle Obama. Over the phone, she reads me some passages from Mrs. Obama's speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech. I apologize for the confusion and hysteria my mistake has caused."

Meredith McIlver, Trump organization staffer falling on her sword or keyboard on behalf of the Trump campaign. Few questions. A few notable things here.

PHILLIPS: Sure.

BERMAN: Number one, Michelle Obama, someone I've always admired.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

BERMAN: Interesting to hear from Mrs. Trump, a.

PHILLIPS: Those New York values.

BERMAN: B, b, "I wrote them down as, you know, as Melania Trump was reading me these passages I wrote them down and that's how they got to the speech." But then isn't it Melania Trump who plagiarized, I mean, shouldn't she know if she read the speechwriter the original text and then actually read them in the speech. Doesn't she bear some of the responsibility?

PHILLIPS: Yes, they totally screwed up. They totally ruin.

(CROSSTALK)

I watched Don Lemon, I realize we're all supposed to scream at each other. But they screwed up.

ROMANS: You made John laugh himself silly. Laughing himself silly here. No. Let's talk about what Donald Trump talk to ABC talk to George Stenopolous. So let's listen to what Donald Trump said about this man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I thought it was terrific the way she came forward and just said, look, it was a mistake that I made. And she thought it was very unfair to Melania. Although interestingly, the press treated Melania very well because they didn't think it was her...

(CROSSTALK)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS CHIEF ANCHOR: How is she handling all this?

TRUMP: It's just a different world. You know, it's a different world. Who would ever think that to this extent. I mean, you know, no matter where you move, no matter where you breathe, it's like a big deal. But she handles it well. She's very -- she's a strong woman, she's a good woman. I thought she made an incredible speech.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:20:05] ROMANS: OK. So, it is a big deal when you're running for president. Just about single thing that you do is a big deal.

CARPENTER: Yes.

ROMANS: A couple of things here about this. This is a staff writer for the Trump organization, not the Trump campaign, which I though was sort of an interesting distinction. It shows you what through goes on in Trump world. But also, why did it take them so long, Amanda, to clean this up?

CARPENTER: I think they were maybe trying to save face, that it was blow over. Couldn't decide on the right excuse before finally arriving at the truth. I mean, that's the truth break.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: No big deal. Because they lied, I mean, actually lied. CARPENTER: I know. And what I think is really devastating is that

they made their supporters lie on their behalf. Like there's always a standard as a staffer. Luckily I never have to encounter that (Inaudible).

We see other staffers that be caught in a place for they are force to lie about something without their knowledge and then they find out later that they lied.

ROMANS: Yes.

CARPENTER: That is a horrible position to be in. No leader of any organization, political or not, should ever put their staff in that position.

BERMAN: Staff of RNC, Sean Spicer is quoting "my little pony."

CARPENTER: Yes, I know.

CARDONA: I know. Here is what I think is jaw dropping about this. First of all, the speechwriter, as you noted, is from the Trump organization and there's most likely campaign finance violation is going on there.

ROMANS: Do you think so?

CARDONA: Yes. Because she was doing work for the campaign. Number two, let's look at and remember what it is that Donald Trump is emphasizing as why he's qualified to be the president. That he is this incredible entrepreneur and businessman that knows how to manage multiply, you know, huge, organization.

They can't even manage this. This was not a big crisis, did not have to be a big communication crisis. And they failed. How is he going to manage the government? How is he going to manage the, you know, the most powerful country in the world?

BERMAN: How is it going to manage NATO? That's a D.T. because that's a big issue all of a sudden now. Three o'clock in the morning. Josh Rogin wants to get a piece of that. We'll talk about that...

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: All right. You're also been talking about NATO that -- we'll also been talking about the secret service investigating -- investigating of this threat quite frankly. One of Donald Trump's advisers after he says Hillary Clinton should be shot, the secret service looking into that. That's next.

[03:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right. Welcome back. The secret service confirming it is investigating one of Donald Trump's advisers for saying Hillary Clinton should be, quote, "shot for treason" on a, quote, "firing line." Al Baldasaro is a New Hampshire State Representative. He is a Trump

delegate at the Republican National Convention here. He also serves on Trump's advisory coalition on veterans. Listen to these comments he made Wednesday afternoon in an interview with the Daily Beast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL BALDASARO, NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Hillary Clinton, to me, is the Jane Fonda of the Vietnam. She is a disgrace for any, the lies that she told those mothers about their children that got killed over there in Benghazi. Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Donald Trump is starting to sue the ghost writer of his bestselling 1987 book "The Art of the Deal." Tony Schwartz received a cease and desist letter from Trump's legal team after telling a national television audience that he is concern about the candidate's impulsive and self-centered character.

Donald Trump is threatening legal action for defamation and is demanding Schwartz return all the royalties he earned from the book.

ROMANS: All right. Sabotage of the Republican National Convention. What in the world happened last night? Ted Cruz refusing to endorse Donald Trump for president. You hear the boos, the new fallout overnight revealing a still deeply divided party.

We are going to break down what the in the world happened last night, next.

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