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Bill Clinton to Speak at DNC Tonight; Mothers of the Movement to Make Case for Clinton as President. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 26, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:47] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Thousands and thousands converging upon Philadelphia this week here. Pictures outside of the Wells Fargo Arena where all the action is happening the week.

Welcome back. It is day number two. Special coverage of the Democratic National Convention. I'm Brooke Baldwin. So nice to be with you.

We are in the second day here. The DNC is about to get under way. But the big speech we are looking to this evening is President Bill Clinton, one of the most anticipated moments of the week here. Tonight, when he takes the podium, the former president will make history as he makes the case for his wife's election to the White House, talking about how she will be a change maker.

Bill Clinton is certainly no stranger to delivering major speeches over the years at the DNC, since in 1988. Most of them well received, others, not so much.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Harry Truman would be so proud tonight that his party and Walter Mondale are leading the way and giving a great woman the opportunity to run for vice president.

(APPLAUSE)

BILL CLINTON: Michael Dukakis will never, never, never forget it. In closing --

(CHEERING)

BILL CLINTON: Well, I ran for president this year for one reason, and one reason only. I wanted to come back to this convention and finish that speech I started four years ago.

(LAUGHTER)

BILL CLINTON: Thank you for your nomination.

(CHEERING)

BILL CLINTON: I don't know if I can find a fancy way to say this, but I accept.

(LAUGHTER)

(CHEERING)

BILL CLINTON: She's been a great first lady. She's always been there for our family. And she'll always be there for the families of New York and America.

Now, my hair's a little greyer, my wrinkles are a little deeper.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:34:54] BALDWIN: Got a panel standing by. We'll talk about what Bill Clinton needs to do tonight, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Let's talk Bill Clinton's past, present and future. Tonight, taking the stage in primetime to vouch for his wife.

Brad Woodhouse is with me, former communications director for the DNC; Jackie Kucinich is here, the Washington bureau chief of "The daily Beast"; and David Gergen, CNN's senior political analyst and former adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bill Clinton.

(LAUGHTER)

You get to begin.

2012, Bill Clinton basically like ad-libbed half the speech.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure did.

BALDWIN: What does he need to do tonight?

GERGEN: I think this is his eighth convention speech. I don't think anybody in history -- even FDR only had five. He started out, he gave a terrible speech.

(CROSSTALK)

[14:40:05] BALDWIN: Rousing applause, "in closing."

GERGEN: "In closing, thank you."

(LAUGHTER)

But last time he gave the best convention speech. His capacity is to tell someone's story better than they can do it. He told Barack Obama's story better than Barack Obama could. I think he tells Hillary Clinton's story better than she does. Question is, can he compress it and keep it down. There is such a big difference between what he'd like to say tonight and what he can say tonight. BALDWIN: And what he can say tonight.

This is his first mega speech as a spouse.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE DAILY BEAST: Yeah. This is why it is going to be so personal tonight. I'm sure we're going to hear the story about how the two of them met in the Yale Law Library. You'll hear pieces of Hillary that will make her a person and I'm sure they'll get into the politician. But I think this is going to be a speech to get to know her through the eyes of someone who knows her best.

BALDWIN: How does he respond -- I was talking to a couple of great Bernie supporters and they would say they would never boo a person. But you might hear some Bernie chants. We saw how Bill Clinton responded to some protesters this past year, off script, not in a great way. How would he respond, do you think?

BRAD WOODHOUSE, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I think if I had that opportunity, I would look at them and say look, Bernie's with her, and we're with you, and we're all in this together.

BALDWIN: President Clinton, are you watching?

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

WOODHOUSE: We're all in this together. Now it could be that if it is not very audible, you could do what Elizabeth Warren did last night and ignore it. There might be a way to bring them in. Certainly the way he did it before, you wouldn't want to see it. Either ignore it or bring them in, in a nice soft way. You don't want the story of his speech, the story he's trying to tell about Hillary Clinton, to be drowned out with a confrontation with a few people.

BALDWIN: David Gergen, if she is elected, what role do you think he'll play?

GERGEN: As first lad?

BALDWIN: First lad, first gentleman.

GERGEN: First gentleman, whatever we want to call it. I think once they settle in, she has to be careful to make sure her cabinet officers are the ones entrusted with real power. But I do think that he can play a very constructive role once she gets settled in as a special envoy, say, to the Middle East or to some of these really tough situations, where a secretary of state, if you go in the Middle East, you get so mired there that you can't do anything else. I think there are useful roles he can play on that. And he can also be -- do a lot of outreach to the developing world, which he cares about. I think he has to decide what he does with his foundation. That's going to be a tough question if she is elected. There is going to be a lot of pressure to shut that down. BALDWIN: Final question to you, Brad. The Bill Clinton on the trail

in 2008 versus the Bill Clinton on the trail in 2016, what's the biggest difference?

WOODHOUSE: I think the biggest difference is he's tried to advocate for her and not get into a contrast back and forth with her primary opponent, for example. I think the most effective thing he can do tonight is what David said, and that is to tell her story. Plenty of people will talk about Donald Trump and plenty of people, including her, will talk about what she wants to do as president. I think the thing he can do most effectively is tell her story as someone who's been grounded in children and families her entire life.

BALDWIN: Library. I'll be thinking of you, Jackie.

(LAUGHTER)

Guys, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Looking ahead to Bill Clinton this evening.

Coming up next though, let's talk about Michelle Obama's candid, powerful comments, specifically on race and her daughters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.

(CHEERING)

MICHELLE OBAMA: And I watch my daughters, two beautiful intelligent black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[14:47:53] BALDWIN: Welcome back. We're live in Philadelphia. I'm Brooke Baldwin. It is so wonderful to be here.

It is day number two at the Democratic National Convention. Today is the day Hillary Clinton will be making history as the first woman to become a major party's presidential nominee.

And tonight, Mothers of the Movement, mothers whose unarmed black children have either been killed by police or gun violence, will make their case for Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUCIA MCBATH, MOTHER OF JORDAN DAVIS: We know Secretary Clinton even as Senator Clinton has been dealing with these kinds of violence, gun violence prevention, mass incarceration, criminalization, poverty. She's been dealing with these kinds of systemic issues all along so her record speaks for itself. She didn't just join the game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That comes on the heels of an electrifying and emotionally charged speech last night by First Lady Michelle Obama, words on race, on slavery, and her own two daughters. Here she was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA: Leaders like Hillary Clinton, who has the guts and the grace to keep coming back and putting those cracks in that highest and hardest glass ceiling until she finally breaks through --

(CHEERING)

MICHELLE OBAMA: -- lifting all of us along with her. That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of segregation but who kept up striving so that, today, I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.

(CHEERING)

MICHELLE OBAMA: And I watch my daughters, two beautiful intelligent black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.

And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters, and all our sons and daughters, now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:40:14] BALDWIN: Joining me now, cultural critic and writer, McKayla Angela Davis; and former NAACP president, a supporter of Bernie Sanders in the primaries, Ben Jealous.

It is so wonderful to see both of you.

How are you?

(CROSSTALK)

MCKAYLA ANGELA DAVIS, CULTURAL CRITIC & WRITER: I just love hearing that speech! I can't hear it enough.

BALDWIN: Were you in the hall?

DAVIS: I was. I was in the hall with the people. I wasn't in box. It was as moving as she thought it would be. As much as she got into that little time that she had. I felt like it was like self-made American aristocracy. It was the closest thing to that full dignity as an American dignitary. Li it was moving. It was smart. It was --

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: She let people know whether it was the people jeering or -- she let people know. This is what struggle really is. Saying that she woke up in a house built by slaves and she's watching her children play with dogs on the White House lawn. Like so much was packed into that. Like the American process and the American promise was built on backs that you don't understand. So calm down, get together, strategize. Like you don't know what struggle is in this beautiful eloquent, elegant, emotional way. It was 100 percent.

BALDWIN: What did you think?

BEN JEALOUS, FORMER NAACP PRESIDENT: I'm not so into, like, aristocracy.

DAVIS: I said self-made.

JEALOUS: Yeah, but that doesn't matter. Aristocracy, that's not what we need more of in this country.

With that said, we need more of her. I mean, we need more of Mrs. Obama being herself and speaking out. We need to hear her voice more. It should be very powerful on the campaign trail putting this -- just making the choice clear. The reality is that Donald Trump is a huge threat to everything that most people in this country hold dear. And she helps to make that clear in a way I think that's very persuasive and that goes deep with people. That's a powerful thing.

BALDWIN: What about these other women? I wanted to ask you about the mothers in the movement. I know you've been involved with them. We heard Allison talking to some of them this morning. What will their message be, A? And, B, it is also important -- I was talking to a delegate who is a police officer. He said are we going to see police officers on the stage as well, talking about police lives?

DAVIS: It was interesting. I was talking to Ben off the stage. It was because the Mothers of the Movement and other black women that work with Hillary that got me involved, because I organically am with black women. Right? And so when I found out Sybrina Fulton, Gwen, Lucia, Maria, all of them were with Hillary, I wanted to know why. Literally, I sat down with them at the annual gathering of the Mothers of the Movement. Be clear, there were also mothers from sandy hook there. They weren't just -- I mean they're primarily black mothers with black children, but it's all these mothers that are losing children. Right? So they were telling -- and Gwen kind of summed it up. She said I endorse Hillary because Hillary endorsed me first. Nicole bell also let me know that two days after her fiance, Sean Bell, was killed, Hillary called her two days after, as the Senator, and said, what can I do to help. They all have stories like that. Hillary was the one that got them together, without press, and really helped them sort of become this coalition. That was how she was saying that she was with me. When I saw them at the dinner, Hillary came and gave a very organic, personable speech. And it was clear to me that she had a relationship with these women. They had inside jokes. She didn't just come and speak and leave. She was with them. And they had very clear policy on the table. It is about guns for them. So it is not that she's perfect queen -- we all have a complicated relationship with the Clintons in general, but they are on the side of their issue, which is gun reform.

BALDWIN: As a Sanders supporter, do you agree with that? How major do you think this moment could be tonight hearing these mothers on stage? Where are you on the spectrum of support?

JEALOUS: Look, I'm first and foremost a civil rights organizer. That's what I've been my entire life. The reality is that these women come forward in the tradition of Mamie Till, who said look at what the world has done to my son. It's really -- at the same time I certainly understand the concerns of folks in law enforcement, especially their families who are very -- my grandfather was in law enforcement for 30 years. I spent all my summers in a community of black law enforcement.

BALDWIN: Yes, yes.

[14:55:03] JEALOUS: To be warriors with Nina Turner on Sanders campaign, her son puts on a uniform every day and goes out as a cop. Her husband was a cop as well. But there is a difference between somebody who signs up to take a risk as part of their job, and somebody who was born into a world where they should be just as safe as everybody so we need to absolutely value our first responders, make sure they are as safe as possible. But we can never equate the risk one takes as an officer and say the same as just somebody walking down the street. Because the whole reason that you took that risk, was those people walking down the street could do so safely. And I just want to be clear that there is a difference here. Why these women have so much power is that people who swore to respect and protect every life took their son's life.

BALDWIN: Understand.

They'll be speaking this evening. I should mention, the police chief in Pittsburgh will be one actually introducing these Mothers of the Movement.

Ben and McKayla, thank you so much, both of your voices.

DAVIS: Thank you.

BALDWIN: I appreciate it. I appreciate it here in Philadelphia.

Just a reminder, just a short time from now, history will be made. Hillary Clinton will be the very first woman nominated at the top a major political party ticket. Who will nominate her? We have the scoop.

We are live in Philadelphia. We'll be right back.

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