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Christie Talks Melania Trump Speech Controversy; Clinton Campaign Response to Claim Clinton Responsible for Melanie Trump Speech Controversy; New Details on Baton Rouge Shooter, Obama Open Letter to Police. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 19, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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


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[13:33:50] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. We're live at the CNN Grill.

Chris Christie will take the stage tonight at the Quicken Loans Arena. CNN's special correspondent, Jamie Gangel spoke to Christie about the prime-time speech and about being a vice presidential finalist, but he started with the take on the controversy surrounding Melania Trump's speech and whether chunks of it were plagiarized.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R), NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: Well, first off, you know, 93 percent of the speech is absolutely words that were different from Michelle's speech eight years ago, and they were not ground breaking thoughts, that people were raised in the country to work hard, to go for what they want, to make sure their kids reach their dreams, and so I just don't see it. If we're talking about 7 percent of a speech that was really universally considered to be a good performance by Melania, I know her. There's no way that Melania Trump was plagiarizing the speech.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: There are phrases that are strikingly similar.

CHRISTIE: Listen, if you look at plagiarism, and I remember this from back in school, you know, you're talking about much broader than what we saw last night, how people were copying and lifting from speeches. One, I know her, I don't believe she would do that, and I don't believe that last night sounds like anything other than Melania Trump. I was not sitting there, saying, wow, that sounds like Michelle Obama to me, but it sounded like Melania Trump to me.

[13:35:19] GANGEL: She had helped with the speech, though. Do you think by accident phrases were left behind in putting it together?

CHRISTIE: Who knows first off, but I'll tell you this, if it was by accident, we're not talking about plagiarism. Plagiarism is an intentional act of stealing someone else's work and passing it off as your own. That's what plagiarism is. If it was, that's an accident. There's certain thoughts and phrases, go back in all first lady speeches or potential first lady speeches and what they say, and that was last night.

GANGEL: Paul said it was ridiculous, they are common words and values, and he then went on to blame Hillary Clinton. He said, "This is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she tries, seeks out to demean her and take her down. It's not going to work." Really? Is this Hillary Clinton's fault?

CHRISTIE: I'll let Paul speak for himself.

GANGEL: There is this sense that whether it's Donald Trump or the campaign, no one is ever willing to admit they made a mistake. Isn't that a little silly?

CHRISTIE: Donald certainly is not one of the mea culpa, right, forgive me forgive me. That's not his style. And the American people had enough of that, want a president willing to stand by the decisions he makes, and that's what they get in Donald.

GANGEL: OK. Talk about Chris Christie.

CHRISTIE: OK.

GANGEL: Last night, when Donald Trump walked out, a big moment, you're going to give your speech tonight, what are you walking out to?

CHRISTIE: I have no idea.

(LAUGHTER)

I have no idea. They have not told me yet. I'm going through the walk-through later. I don't know what they are doing whether there's any kind of special music.

GANGEL: I know you're going to give me a copy of the speech ahead of time as a preview, but until I have a chance to read it, what is the message?

CHRISTIE: I think what you'll see tonight is someone who is drawn upon their entire career to bring a message of the delegates tonight as to what I think we need and don't need in a president of the United States in 2017, and so I'll be drawing on my experience as a candidate myself, drawing on my experience as a governor, and drawing on my experience as a federal probation report, and, you know, probably with a 14-year relationship with Donald Trump's.

GANGEL: You got criticism because you endorsed him so quickly, and you have been so loyal to him that you've taken a lot of hits. You've become punch lines for some jokes, do you have any regrets about how you've handled the endorsement?

CHRISTIE: You know what, the media hates Donald Trump. They just do. So if you wind up being a friend of his and speaking out forcefully for him, endorse him before other establishment figure do, they are going to take off after you, and try to mock you. That's the way it goes. I got broad shoulders, and so I don't really care. GANGEL: Talk to me a little bit about the vice president. You

were one of the finalists. I know you well enough to know you were disappointed.

CHRISTIE: Sure.

GANGEL: Did you think he was going to pick you?

CHRISTIE: No. I never had a feeling I knew I was close, but I didn't think I was there. You know, like you said, I don't like when people come on a show like this and say, oh, no, no, I didn't care in the least. Come on. No one believes that. I'm a competitive person. When it was clear that Donald wanted me to compete for this job and to be considered, I wanted to win. Of course you do. It's not, like, my lifetime dream was to be vice president of the United States. And so I'm disappointed, no doubt, I was disappointed, but I'm over it. If I'm over the presidential race, I'm certainly over the vice presidential vetting.

GANGEL: Between us, are you interested in the attorney general?

CHRISTIE: Really just between us, Jamie?

GANGEL: Just between us.

CHRISTIE: No, I'm not telling you.

(LAUGHTER)

GANGEL: You know many Republicans are MIA at this convention. There's no Bushs, there's no Romney, no McCain, 18 GOP Senators are not here, and the governor of the great state of Ohio won't come in to this convention hall, John Kasich. Do you feel you need them for Donald Trump to win in November?

CHRISTIE: I don't know, but here's my concern and focus is on folks like Jeb and others, who signed a pledge. If you sign that pledge and you're not supporting Donald Trump, you broke your word to our party, you broke your word to the American people.

[13:30:08] GANGEL: Jeb Bush says he will not vote for Donald Trump. You say to Jeb Bush?

CHRISTIE: It's a binary choice, buddy. If you're Republican and not voting for Trump, you're voting for Hillary Clinton.

GANGEL: Do you think Jeb Bush, Kasich are sore losers, bitter about it, or do you think they have just such a feeling that Donald Trump is not presidential material, doesn't have the judgment, doesn't have the temperament?

CHRISTIE: If they feel that, I think they are wrong. I disagree with them. I'm not going to get into name calling. They are both friends of mine --

GANGEL: But? CHRISTIE: No but. There's only two choices. The next president

of the United States, the 45th, is either going to be Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. If you're not for him, you're for her.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And Jamie is with us now.

Jamie, sounds like Christie is being very loyal to Donald Trump on the plagiarism allegations.

GANGEL: Absolutely, and let's just clarify one thing. Plagiarism is plagiarism whether it is on purpose or accidental. It's, you know, he's going with the campaign's line that these were just common words and doesn't believe it, but I will say this, I think the thing that Chris Christie said about there's not a lot of mea culpas in Donald Trump's life is really what's going on here. They are clearly behind the scenes, very upset about it, but no one's going to admit this was a mistake.

BLITZER: Donald Trump does not like to admit mistakes or apologize.

Jamie, good work.

GANGEL: Thank you.

BLITZER: Thanks very work. Jamie Gangel reporting for us.

Up next, Donald Trump's campaign chairman blaming Hillary Clinton for the controversy surrounding Melania Trump's speech, claiming the Democratic candidate launched a, quote, "demean her and take her down." Hillary Clinton's senior adviser is here with us, the campaign's response, and much more when we come back.

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[13:46:29] BLITZER: Republican convention speakers last night unloaded on Hillary Clinton. One by one, blasted her over her e-mail controversy, the deadly terrorist attack in Benghazi.

Karen Finney, senior spokeswoman for the Clinton campaign, with me right now.

The speakers went after Hillary Clinton on many points, three of them saying she belongs in jail. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT SMITH, MOTHER OF BENGHAZI VICTIM SEAN SMITH: That's right. Hillary for prison.

(CHEERING)

SMITH: She deserves to be in stripes.

DARYL GLENN, (R), COLORADO U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: We all know she loves her pantsuits. Yes, you know it's coming.

(LAUGHTER)

But we should send her an e-mail saying she deserves a bright orange jump suit.

LT. GEN. MICHAEL FLYNN, U.S. ARMY RETIRED: If I did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today.

(CHEERING)

FLYNN: So, so crooked Hillary Clinton leave this race now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. So those were tough words. Have you ever heard the opposition to a president -- not just criticize a nominee, but say that person belongs in jail.

KAREN FINNEY, SENIOR SPOKESWOMAN, CLINTON FOR AMERICA CAMPAIGN: It was pretty ugly actually, Wolf. They spent more time talking about Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump. I heard more anger, you know, bigotry and insults than I heard ideas, and I think that's their choice, if that's one how they want to spend their time, but the convention is supposed to be about telling a story about what your party stands for and what vision for the future is, and I think in a point, people are tired of attacks and how do you help me send my kid to college or keep our community safe?

BLITZER: By, Karen, we'll hear attacks on Donald Trump next week in Philadelphia at the Democratic convention as well. Hillary Clinton keeps saying he is dangerous, he is reckless, would be a disaster.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: You hear those kinds of attack from the Democrats on the Republican side.

FINNEY: Certainly the kind of divisive attacks seen and language seen from Donald Trump, you know, talking about our allies, talking about demeaning Muslims, how do you then go and build an alliance with the Muslim country? That is dangerous. That is dangerous to the national security and dangerous when you lean into such division and hatred and scapegoating of different people. That doesn't make communities safer. What you will hear next week, though, is a vision about where Hillary Clinton wants to take the country and hear out what e has done throughout her life to get results for people, whether it is health care for kids, the CHIP program, a neonatal clinic in Arkansas, and tonight hearing about Donald Trump and his business career, we won't hear about all the people he's taken advantage of to make money on their hard work.

BLITZER: We're hearing hear attacks on Donald Trump next week in Philadelphia as well from the podium.

FINNEY: I think you're going to hear a lot more about what we want to do because we think that it's important. Sure, we're going to draw a contrast. No question. What we saw last night was completely out of the ordinary.

BLITZER: Their point is the world is a more dangerous place today, eight years into the Obama administration, part, because of what Hillary Clinton did as secretary of state, and they make the point about Libya, Iraq, and Syria, and all the disasters internationally that have unfolded.

FINNEY: But it's convenient to forget that when Barack Obama became president, our standing in the world was as low as it had ever been. Most of our relationships around the world had been frayed. Secretary Clinton did in all of her e those alliances, restore those relationships. That was critical to a number of the things that the president got done, like a nuclear treaty with Russia. Do we really think that Donald Trump is going to be able to hold Putin accountable and get him to the table for a nuclear agreement?

[13:50:19] BLITZER: Let's talk a little bit about the vice presidential selection Hillary Clinton has to make. I take it, it will be announced this coming Friday.

FINNEY: I expect that's about right.

BLITZER: Then she'll do "60 Minutes" with her vice presidential running mate the way Donald Trump and Mike Pence did.

FINNEY: That's usually the way it's done. I don't want to spoil the surprise for you.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: That's the expectation. Is it down to two or three finalists or has she already made up her mind?

FINNEY: You know what, Wolf? I'm not going to do anything in spoiling the surprise of who the vice presidential nominee is going to be. That person is going to be revealed to the country in due time. You'll also get to learn about that person next week at our convention.

BLITZER: What's your reaction to the whole uproar over Melania Trump's speech last night?

FINNEY: Well, I have to tell you, I surprised to see Paul Manafort come out and blame Hillary Clinton. Somehow that really seems to be the way they've run this campaign and the way Donald Trump tends to run his business, which is to shame and blame other people and point fingers. We thought that it was more important to talk about what we heard last night, not her speech so much as again the divisive, angry language that we heard over and over again but no new ideas.

BLITZER: At what point did people in the Clinton campaign realize that there were these awkward similarities between Melania Trump's speech, three passages, from Michelle Obama's speech eight years ago. When did you guys realize that that was going on?

FINNEY: I think we all learned about it at the same time when we started to see it come up on Twitter. We'd actually left the hall, myself, when I started to see some Twitter traffic going on about it. We learned about it just like everybody else.

BLITZER: So this was not instigated by the Clinton campaign as the allegations --

FINNEY: No, no, no.

BLITZER: -- that you created it and fed it to a friendly news media?

FINNEY: Wolf, the accusation is one of the more outlandish ones I've heard, almost there with the alien space baby that Hillary Clinton supposedly had in the '90s.

BLITZER: Karen Finney, thanks very much for joining us.

FINNEY: You're welcome.

BLITZER: Look forward to Friday when the Hillary Clinton announcement will take place.

There is another major story we're following right now. Want to quickly go to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We're getting new details on the gunman who killed those three police officers. Police now say 29- year-old Gavin Long was stalking police officers right before the attack and at one point even having his rifle ready to shoot. President Obama has been meeting with the FBI director, James Comey, and the attorney general, Loretta Lynch. They'll be meeting with them later today for an update on the investigation. He also is offering support to police across the country, saying in an open letter that, quote, "We have your back," and adding this, quote, "Some are trying to use divide police and communities you serve. I reject those efforts for they do not reflect the reality of our nation."

Brian Todd is on the scene for us in Baton Rouge.

Brian, what's the latest you're learning from talking to witnesses of the attack?

TODD: Wolf, more than 48 hours after the attacks here, this area where the attack occurred, still a crime scene. State police detectives and evidence technicians have been here processing some evidence. They won't tell us what evidence they've been processing but they have been here for a couple of hours with detectives and evidence technicians gathering something from the scene of the car wash here. This is where part of the attack played out on Sunday morning.

We're also getting some riveting detail from the state police about the shooter's movements that Sunday morning, saying he basically did some recon in this area in front of the Be Quick Mart and car wash here, then encountered police behind that beauty supply store there. That's where three officers were gunned down.

Also we're told by a witness that I talked to just a few hours ago, Martel Brown, he was right over here at the car wash when all the shooting took place. The killer we're told by police went around these buildings behind them. Martel Brown told me what happened when he was over here and he saw two officers right at this spot approach the shooter's vehicle. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Don't see the killer but you see an officer approaching this spot. What happens?

MARTEL BROWN, WITNESS: He takes a head shot.

TODD: Right here?

BROWN: Right here. Before he gets to the vehicle. Before he gets to it, he's shot. Then obviously right here alongside this building where the Bush is at, he's taking cover. He's shot also. He was responding to let his partners know that he's been hit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Brown says at that point the officer who he relayed that information to told him to get down, then get out of the area. Brown says that officer then fired at the suspect. We are told a SWAT team member hit the suspect over there from about 100 yards away, killing that suspect.

[13:55:17] Wolf, at this hour, what police are telling us is they are piecing together the shooter's movements in the days leading up to this attack, trying to find out anybody who he might have been in contact with. That's the state of the investigation right now -- Wolf?

BLITZER: We'll stay very close touch with you.

Brian Todd, reporting for us from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

That's it for me. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room." We'll be here all night to bring you the latest from the floor of the Republican National Convention.

Our special coverage continues right after this short break.

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