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Democratic Party Prepares for Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia; Hillary Clinton Picks Tim Kaine as Vice Presidential Running Mate; Dozens Killed or Wounded by Shooter in Germany; ISIS Claims Responsibility for Suicide Bombings in Afghanistan; Donald Trump Continues Criticism of Ted Cruz; CNN Hero Provides Jobs for Ex- Convicts; Actress Impersonates Melania Trump. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired July 23, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:00] MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: -- not passing out in the heat? You've got a full suit and tie on. Are you wearing shorts? No. I am wearing khakis. I have a fan. It's the crew you should worry about because it's nearly 100 degrees.

Have a great week in Philly, Democrats. I'll see you back here next week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A shooting rampage at a McDonnell's in Munich. Nine dead, at least 10 wounded.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People are very confused and running and screaming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The events of yesterday, of this night, makes us sad and speechless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary Clinton naming Virginia senator and former governor Tim Kaine as her running mate.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to be sure that whoever I pick could be president immediately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want a "you're fired" president or a "you're hired" president, right?

(APPLAUSE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton's legacy does not have to be America's legacy.

CLINTON: Donald told us I am your voice. I don't think he speaks for most Americans, do you?

CROWD: No!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, we appreciate you being with us this morning. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. CNN Newsroom begins right now.

PAUL: Yes, and in just a couple of hours Hillary Clinton and her new running mate are going to be at a rally in Miami. That's where she'll introduce her vice presidential pick to voters officially. The clock counts down towards the Democratic National Convention which starts on Monday.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Senator Tim Kaine is well-known in Washington. He is one of only 20 people in American history who have served as a mayor and a governor, and of course we know he's a senator. He speaks fluent Spanish which will appeal to his Hispanic audience at the rally, we know. Let's go to Jeff Zeleny in Miami. Jeff, what else do we know about Senator Kaine?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, we certainly know that Tim Kaine has that experience at the state level. He's an executive. Of course he has been in the Senate. He's really over the last eight years or so when he was first considered to be Barack Obama's running mate, he was on that short list as well. He has really beefed up his foreign policy chops. He's taken on some national security interests in the Senate. That of course is such a key element of this election here.

But first and foremost I am told by advisors to Secretary Clinton that she had a comfort level with him. She knows more than most other presidential candidates how closely she will have to work with him should she be elected in the White House here, so she picked someone that she wants to see at the end of every day. She picked someone that she wants to have around the table advising her. And frankly, they get along at least to this point.

There are some concerns from some liberal Democrats that he may not be progressive or liberal enough. We'll hear those litigated next week at the Democratic convention. But no question that Barack Obama, President Obama issued a statement just a few moments ago praising Tim Kaine as a true progressive and as a good man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM KAINE, (D) VIRGINIA: Are we ready for Hillary.

ZELENY: Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. New partners on the Democratic ticket.

KAINE: Do you want a "you're fired" president or a "you're hired president"?

ZELENY: It may be an anti-establishment year, but Clinton's running mate is an insider, a U.S. senator from Virginia and a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

KAINE: And if I have anything to do with it, we'll win again.

ZELENY: By selecting Kaine, Clinton is betting that experience in government, not sizzle, is the best way to defeat Donald Trump.

KAINE: Elections are just the beginning. The real work starts tomorrow.

ZELENY: He's neither flashy or a showboat, a seemingly safe pick and steady hand, just what Clinton told Anderson Cooper she's looking for in a vice president.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to be sure that whoever I pick could be president immediately if something were to happen. That's the most important qualification.

KAINE: I'm Tim Kaine.

ZELENY: So who is Timothy Michael Kaine? A decade ago as governor of Virginia he introduced himself in the Democratic response to President Bush's state of the union address.

KAINE: I worked as a missionary when I was a young man, and I learned to measure my life by the difference I can make in someone else's life.

ZELENY: It was that stint as a Jesuit missionary in Honduras that shaped and now distinguishes him. He learned fluent Spanish and still speaks it today, which makes him a different kind of attack dog against Trump.

KAINE: If you're a Latino, he's going to trash talk you.

ZELENY: Born in Minnesota and raised in Kansas.

KAINE: The best decision I ever made was moving to Richmond to marry my wife Anne 26 years ago.

ZELENY: He built his political career in Virginia, rising from city councilman and mayor of Richmond to lieutenant governor and governor.

KAINE: Thank you all so very much.

ZELENY: He's 58, 10 years younger than Clinton, known well inside the party but not beyond.

KAINE: I'm not the one with the biggest profile. I'm not the one that's the best known.

ZELENY: He signed on with Clinton this time around, endorsing her in 2014 more than a year before she declared her candidacy.

[10:05:05] For an original Barack Obama supporter, it was a chance to make up for lost time.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Give it up for Tim Kaine!

ZELENY: His politics are more moderate than the liberal strain driving today's Democratic Party. He's Catholic, outwardly moved by Pope Francis's visit to Capitol Hill last year. His views on abortion are far more conservative than most Democrats as he explained in this interview.

KAINE: I'm personally opposed to abortion and the death penalty, and I've lived my life that way. Law is what it is and I'm going to carry out the law and I'm going to protect women's legal rights to make their own reproductive decisions.

ZELENY: He's also spoken out forcefully against the administration for failing to seek congressional approval to fight the Islamic State.

KAINE: The war against ISIL is just, it's necessary. It's noble, but it's illegal. There's been no congressional authorization for this war.

ZELENY: It's an open question whether Kaine fits the mold of today's red hot politics. Yet his selection could help soften Clinton's partisan edges.

KAINE: When it comes to our leadership in the world, trash-talking isn't enough. We need a bridge builder, and we've got a bridge builder in Hillary Clinton.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: And we are here at Florida International University where there's going to be their first rally here in just a short time. We are also getting a look at their first logo here, Clinton-Kaine. They simply added Tim Kaine's last night to the existing Clinton banner. Interestingly they did not do those until overnight after the pick was already made so the secret would not get out. Victor and Christi?

BLACKWELL: Crafty, crafty. All right, Jeff Zeleny for us there in Miami, thanks so much.

PAUL: You know Donald Trump has something to say about all this. His campaign calling Clinton's V.P. pick ethically challenged. CNN correspondent Chris Frates is following that end of the story. Hi, Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christi. You're exactly right. The Trump campaign already has a nickname for Hillary Clinton's running mate. They're tagging Tim Kaine "corrupt Kaine." And Trump is trying to make an issue out of about $160,000 in gifts that Kaine received when he was lieutenant governor and governor of Virginia. He accepted things like clothes, travel, even a vacation. But those gifts were legal in Virginia as long as any gift over $50 was publicly disclosed.

Here's what Trump tweeted about it last night. He says "Is it the same Tim Kaine that took hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts while governor of Virginia? And did he get indicted while Bob M did?" It seems that Trump's referring to former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell who was convicted of federal corruption charges after being accused of accepting gifts from a businessman in exchange for promoting that person's company.

The Supreme Court overturned McDonnell's conviction last month. But while Trump is trying to tie Kaine and McDonnell, there are really big differences here. Number one, Kaine disclosed his gifts. McDonnell didn't make all of his gifts public. Number two, Kaine's been accused of -- Kaine's never been accused of promising any kind of state actions in exchange for gifts.

Now, Kaine spokesman Amy Dudley responded to these charges. I reached out to her, and she told me this, "During his eight years as lieutenant governor and governor, Senator Kaine went beyond the requirements of Virginia law, promptly disclosing any and all gifts received, including those beneath the reporting threshold of all disclosure information, the vast majority of which was for work related travel expenses rather than gifts, has been publicly available for years and never once raised any concerns of impropriety."

Democrats are sure to continue emphasizing that last part, that Kaine did nothing wrong, he did nothing illegal. But by tagging them both "crooked Hillary" and "corrupt Kaine," Trump is really trying to paint the Democrats as the beneficiaries of what he likes to call this rigged system that enriches politicians at the expense of the people. That's really a line of attack you're probably going to hear a lot more of, Christi.

PAUL: Trump is also keeping attacks up on fellow Republicans. I mean, he revived this conspiracy theory about the death of JFK and Ted Cruz's father. Let's listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just point out the fact on the cover of the "National Enquirer" there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast. Ted never denied that it was his father. Instead he said Donald Trump, he had nothing to do with it. This was a magazine that, frankly, in many respects, should be very respected. They got O.J., they got Edwards, they got this. I mean, if that was "The New York Times" they would have gotten Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Why take the time to attack a rival who is not named Hillary Clinton at this point in the game?

FRATES: Christi, that's what a lot of Republicans are asking themselves. Trump was at a unity thank you event when he went on the attack against Ted Cruz here, essentially saying, look, if he does endorse me now I don't want his endorsement.

[10:10:00] If he runs for White House again I'm going to set up a super PAC against him. He really had a lot of Republicans scratching their heads and wondering why he turned the attention back on Ted Cruz. They really want him to stay on Hillary Clinton, Christi.

PAUL: Chris Frates, appreciate it so much, thank you. FRATES: You're welcome.

BLACKWELL: As you saw there, Trump has come out swinging against Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. Here's the question, does the Tim Kaine pick bring new voters into the Clinton camp? Our panel will weigh in in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: All right, we're counting down to Hillary Clinton's rally in Miami where she will be introducing Tim Kaine for the first time since announcing him as her running mate. Let's talk more about the Clinton-Kaine ticket versus the Trump-Pence ticket with Boris Epshteyn, Republican strategist and Trump surrogate, and Nayyera Haq, former Obama White House senior director and former State Department senior adviser for public affairs. Good to have both of you this morning.

BORIS EPSHTEYN, DONALD TRUMP SURROGATE: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: Boris, I want to start with you. It's Tim Kaine, he's the pick, senator from a swing state, as we look live at the room where Secretary Clinton will introduce him as her running mate. He's never lost an election. Are you nervous?

EPSHTEYN: First of all, I almost took a nap during the first 10 minutes there just hearing about Tim Kaine. What a boring pick.

BLACKWELL: Never take a nap during our show.

EPSHTEYN: It will do absolutely nothing for the Democrats except hurt them. Tim Kaine has a lifelong history of taking money from special interests. And contrary to what the, quote-unquote, "reporting" said about him in the previous segment it is a huge problem. He took money from special interest that do business, like Dominion Power, Taylor Pharmaceuticals, entities that do business in Virginia. And if you think about that, those companies give money to the governor of Virginia just because they like him and want to be friendly? You're kidding yourself. We're not children. We know what's going on. Both the Clintons and Tim Kaine have a lifelong history of taking money from a special interest and being bought by those special interests. And the American people do not want somebody who needs $5,000 worth of clothes and pedals interest in return for those clothes.

[10:15:01] BLACKWELL: OK, well, in the conversation of income, should Donald Trump release his taxes so we can know exactly how much money he took in?

EPSHTEYN: You don't find how much someone takes in from special interests from tax returns.

BLACKWELL: Whatever income.

EPSHTEYN: Hold on. He's not been an elected official and has not been in the influence to pedal power as an elected official. It's completely different, Victor, and you know that. Donald Trump has been a private person, a businessman?

BLACKWELL: But should he not release the tax returns so we can determine his level of income over the last five, 10 years.

EPSHTEYN: You already have the financial statement. As you well know, Victor, from your own tax returns I'm sure you cannot tell how much income someone has from tax returns.

BLACKWELL: But tax returns is clearly different than a financial statement.

But let me go to Nayyera about the concerns that Boris just introduced there. Are you concerned that this will be a talking point that will resonate for the Republicans?

NAYYERA HAQ, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE SENIOR DIRECTOR: Absolutely not, because part of the challenge here with the Republican Party right now is it's all negative all the time, and there's a lot of smoke and mirror confusion. A Donald Trump tweet from the other night, he actually confused Governor Kaine with the current administration that had been in trouble, Governor McDonnell.

EPSHTEYN: Now he did not. He compared the two. He didn't confuse them.

HAQ: Check the tweet.

And so what you have with Tim Kaine, what's really great and exciting for the Democratic Party, is Hillary brings experience. She brings together an appeal to all sorts of demographics that are important on Election Day -- women, minorities. But Tim Kaine, himself a Spanish language speaker, is a guy's guy from a rural state, a swing state. And that's going to be important for the Democrats going forward, particularly in the message of standing together and unity. You really don't have the unity message on the Republican side. And you certainly don't have the organized effort of two people at the top of the ticket who know how to turn out voters and are appealing to a broad section of the American public.

BLACKWELL: You talk about unity. Some of the progressive members of the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders voters, seem to be underwhelmed by this choice. Is this enough to excite them? They may not go to the Trump camp, but maybe they'll stay home?

HAQ: Bernie himself has said that this -- folks need to come out and his voters need to turn out and vote for the Hillary ticket. In fact it's surprising to many people as they learn more and more about Tim Kaine how progressive he actually has been in his policies, and you can be a governor and senator from a state like Virginia and also be progressive. Again, he has the early days of the Obama connection. So even in that sense in helping Bernie supporters feel comfortable with Hillary, he's a great pick to help move the ticket forward. And certainly nothing that Trump or Pence have to say appeals to on the message front or in the tonal front and certainly not on the policy front would appeal to a Bernie voter to go out and vote for them.

BLACKWELL: Boris?

EPSHTEYN: That's specifically incorrect. As far as Bernie Sanders voters, my phone, my inbox is flooded with Bernie Sanders supporters, high profile ones, who are completely disappointed in this pick. And the specific issue they're most disappointed in is trade. Tim Kaine has been a lifelong supporter of free trade and bad trade, stupid trade, stupid trade like NAFTA that's cost 700,000 jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in deficit in trade with Mexico, $300 billion a year of deficit in trade with China. Tim Kaine is absolutely a turnoff for those voters because they see trade as a huge issue in this election. Donald Trump is right on trade. He's for negotiating NAFTA. He's against the TPP while both Clinton and Kaine are in favor the TPP.

HAQ: And unfortunately, Donald Trump and Pence are wrong on every other issue.

EPSHTEYN: Let me finish. Before this pick, before this pick, 45 percent of Bernie Sanders voters said they were not going to support Hillary Clinton. About half of those would support Donald Trump. I will predict the number is only going to go up because Tim Kaine is turning off those Bernie Sanders supporters. Hillary Clinton did not listen to the movement that's Bernie Sanders and it's going to lose her the election along with a strong policy on national security, immigration, and economy from Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

BLACKWELL: You have 15 seconds, Nayyera, to finish it up.

HAQ: I think it's completely wrong what he's saying, because if you look at what happened in 2008, plenty of Hillary people were not in favor of Obama --

EPSHTEYN: It's not the same and you know it.

HAQ: And it absolutely turned out and won overwhelmingly. And Donald Trump simply does not have the broad-based appeal or the turnout operation to be winning --

EPSHTEYN: The polls show different. It's much easier --

BLACKWELL: Boris Epshteyn, Nayyera Haq, I enjoy these conversations. Thanks so much for being with us. Unfortunately we have to wrap it there. Christi?

PAUL: All right, still ahead, a large peaceful demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, ripped apart by a pair of suicide bombings. We have an update for you on what's happening as well as a claim of responsibility.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:23:25] PAUL: ISIS says its fighters were responsible for a devastating suicide attack today in Kabul, Afghanistan. This is a blast that killed more than 60 people and wounded more than 200 others. The terror group claiming in an online statement that two of its attackers blew themselves up during a large demonstration near Kabul University. What you're looking at is some of the aftermath of the video we have coming in. There is one witness describing bodies just lying in blood all around her. At the time of the attack, hundreds of demonstrators were calling on the government to run power lines to a western province. But again, this hour, what is new, ISIS says it is responsible for that.

BLACKWELL: New this morning, police in Germany say the gunman behind a shooting rampage that left nine people dead in Munich acted alone, and added that he was, quote, "bullied by his peer group." So far there is no indication of any link to ISIS.

This morning, police are also investigating whether the gunman posted a fake ad on Facebook possibly to lure victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNSHOTS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: This is amateur video. You see the man dressed in black appears to be a man holding a gun. It's not clear if this is the shooter in question. But police say of the nine people killed, seven of them were teenagers. CNN's Will Ripley is live in Munich. And Will, we've learned a lot throughout the day about this shooter, the connections that they are finding and connections they are not finding. What have you learned?

[10:25:04] WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've learned, Victor, as you've said, that bullying and extensive research about shooting rampages are the two leads that investigators have to go on right now. That's evidence that they seized from the home where he lived with his parents. But what they have not found is any indication of radicalization, no ISIS propaganda or any other terrorist propaganda.

We're hearing also, of course, as the crime scene remains closed off by German authorities who want people to feel comfortable to go about their daily lives even as this largest shopping mall in Munich remains an active crime scene, the German chancellor Angela Merkel after waiting many hours and getting a lot of criticism from people for perhaps not speaking up as quickly as some would have liked her to, she was trying to offer words of comfort as these spontaneous memorials appear, and she also told the people of Germany she promised that the government will get to the bottom of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR, (via translator): Ladies and gentlemen, we will find out what exactly happened, what happened behind this act in Munich. We also want to know what exactly happened, why the perpetrator in Wurzburg radicalized themselves. We, the country and the people, will do everything to protect the people in Germany in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP) RIPLEY: The hard question that's being asked here is how can this country protect against the lone wolf, an 18-year-old armed with a single gun who was able to shot down the city essentially of more than one-and-a-half million people for seven hours yesterday. The video from that McDonald's shows where the shooting attack began. And there was that fake Facebook that police are investigators, they think it might have been an attempt to lure children and young people to this location, promising them free food before the shooting happened around dinner time. Victor and Christi?

BLACKWELL: Will Ripley there for us in Munich. Will, thanks so much.

PAUL: All right, well, it is the Democrat's turn now. Their convention just two days away. And our friend Fredricka Whitfield is on the ground there in Philly. Fred, what's caught your eye thus far?

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: So much. I wish you all were here. It's hot and steamy. I know how you guys like it hot. Thousands of people are going to fill the Wells Fargo center in just a matter of days. The anticipation, the excitement, all of that building. When we come back I'm going to show you how and where.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:36] PAUL: Good to have your company here in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.

PAUL: In less than a couple hours now, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine will be addressing a rally in Miami. There's a live shot as they wait. She's introducing her new running mate to voters officially for the first time as they look ahead to the Democratic National Convention, which of course starts Monday.

BLACKWELL: Senator Kaine is well-known in Washington. He is one of only 20 people in American history to serve as mayor, governor, and senator. He's also the co-sponsor of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.

All right, time to pack up and move to Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love, the city where the nation was founded, now the center of the political world for the next week.

PAUL: As I said, Democratic National Convention kicking off Monday. Of course CNN will be bringing you wall to wall coverage of all the events there. Our Fredricka Whitfield in fact is live in Philly right now for a look at what to expect. We were in Cleveland last week and I know the weather is not that different there. It's brutal isn't it?

WHITFIELD: It is. Victor, you said it, it is hot. I mean, they are threatening, you know, triple digit temperatures today. It is hot, it is humid. It feels like, you know, we are in Miami, which is where a lot of the action is going to be later on today. But you know what, instead right now this is our gorgeous sister city's park location in center city, Philadelphia. We're three to six miles away from the Wells Fargo Center where the DNC will be held in just two days. Democrats are gathering to nominate their candidates for president and vice president.

The ticket of Hillary Clinton and Governor Tim Kaine with the two appearing today in Miami ahead of their arrival here in Philly, so we're just 48 hours away from the start of all the festivities here. An estimated $85 million show, 50,000 people expected to attend. This means the thousands of delegates, the alternates and, of course, the media. Another 17,000 volunteers are on site. And all of this expected to bring in around $350 million to this city.

We're also getting a look at the lineup of the speakers at the convention. President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama along with Vice President Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders and, of course, the Clintons as a family. So Monday we understand Michelle Obama will be speaking and then Chelsea Clinton will also be a part of the lineup. So with such a high profile list of speakers at the convention, security of course is very right. In fact this is considered a national special security event, which means U.S. Secret Service is leading security at the convention site. Secret Service and various police jurisdictions are on high alert, especially after recent mass shootings and worldwide terrorist attacks. And this city is also expecting thousands of protesters.

Our Miguel Marquez joins me now from not far from the Wells Fargo Center. We know there is going to be a big security sweep later on. So, Miguel, give me an idea of how authorities are planning to keep the convention hall and everything around it secure and safe?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's not only wall to wall coverage we're going to have. We're going to have barrier to barrier coverage as well but it is locked down here.

Let me give you an idea of exactly where we are. We're on Broad Street, Philadelphia's famous Broad Street. We went right that way you hit Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed and part of the American Revolution history some 200 years ago. It all comes here now this week across these barriers, beyond those trees, and then another couple of sets of barriers and then lots of other barriers is the actual location where the DNC will set up.

The question for security here is keeping both the delegates safe and the demonstrators safe and protect their ability to actually demonstrate. If you are a demonstrator, they're expecting up to 50,000 demonstrators throughout the city every single day during the DNC. This is pretty much what you'll see, this barrier right here, another one there, several more on the other side. The Wells Fargo Center is actually on the other side of those trees, so it will be very hard to see it. That's what has a lot of demonstrators very upset with all of this.

[10:00:35] Philadelphia police bringing in 6,000 people. As you said, it's also a Secret Service operation here. Thousands of law enforcement from across the country descending here to keep this area safe, not quite the security we saw in Philadelphia for the Pope, but very, very high security. Even I-95, which is just down here, that will be closed off starting

today at noon in about an hour to any commercial traffic, vehicles over five tons, an incredible security apparatus trying to keep everyone safe, both the delegates and demonstrators, but allow people to get out there and demonstrate. We will see demonstrations not only here, but across the city in terms of rallies and marches and everything else. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: We will, indeed. In fact when I got on the plane last night I ran into a number of Bernie Sanders supporters, and they, too, said that they were going to be involved in some of the demonstrations, but to what degree they wouldn't share those kinds of details. But, yes, Miguel, a lot of folks have come to town for a lot of different reasons here in Philadelphia. Thanks so much.

Hey, Miguel, real quick. I know I'll be speaking for you and everybody else when you think of Philadelphia, of course, your mind goes straight to the liberty bell, the Declaration of Independence, Philly cheesesteaks, but that's just for starters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And when in Philly, the city of brotherly love, I can hear the music already. Sylvester Stallone.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: I didn't count the steps, but let me tell you, it was fun. And I wasn't the only one. It's why people really like to go to the Philadelphia Art Museum there because of the steps, they think of "Rocky," Sylvester Stallone. So I did it for you.

PAUL: Good for you.

BLACKWELL: I feel like if you go to the museum there you've got to run up the step and hum along.

PAUL: It must be done.

BLACKWELL: You got to do it.

WHITFIELD: Yes you got to do it. I just didn't do all of this, you know, but I was feeling it.

PAUL: That's all right. You've got it. You've got it. Fred, thank you so much.

WHITFIELD: We're going to be here all day long. We'll be braving the heat, doing this to the heat.

PAUL: Bless your heart, girl.

BLACKWELL: Enjoy it.

PAUL: No doubt about it. Thank you. Thanks, Fred.

So the other big story today, one of the other big stories a lot of people are talking about is Tim Kaine, who is he? So we've got this panel of people coming up, one in particular who might have some stories about Tim Kaine that nobody's heard before.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:41:21] BLACKWELL: All right, just in to CNN, new video out of Afghanistan that shows the moment that two suicide attackers blew themselves up. Now I've not yet seen the video but I've been advised by our producer that it's not of a graphic nature. But this happened during a peaceful rally there in Kabul. Here's that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Not graphic but disturbing nonetheless. The latest numbers we have now, 61 people confirmed dead after this blast, more than 200 people wounded. The rally had been organized by the Shiite minority group seeking to get power lines to a western province. You see people here just running, the chaos here after those explosions. ISIS says it was two of its fighters who carried out those attacks. As we get more we of course will pass that on to you.

PAUL: But right now we do want to get back to the political arena here, because it's official, the presumptive Democratic ticket has been formed. And in just a little more than an hour we are going to see Hillary Clinton for the first time take the stage with her now running mate Virginia Senator Tim Kaine since he has been named such.

Joining me, CNN political commentator Carl Bernstein. He's also the author of "A Woman in Charge, The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton." National Correspondent Ryan Nobles is with us as well as Tim Kaine's former roommate at Harvard, David Miles. David, I want to start with you, David. We chuckled a little bit because we thought I don't know if everybody wants to know what everybody did in college all the time --

BLACKWELL: Don't talk to my college roommates.

PAUL: However, wondering if you can tell us something about Tim Kaine that maybe we just don't know about him.

DAVID MILES, SEN. TIM KAINE'S FRIEND AND COLLEGE ROOMMATE: Sure. I'm happy to and I'm delighted to be here this morning. This is a great day for all of us who have known Tim for a long time. And I've known him for 37 years. So we met in the fall of 1979, two Midwestern guys showing up in Boston, or Cambridge, to be precise. And we formed a fast friendship out of that. He's just a tremendous guy. And every year my respect for him grows more. PAUL: All right, I apologize, I don't think we have sound. I'm

having a hard time hearing you. OK, apparently we do have sound so I apologize. Maybe it's something with our mics.

But I want to, Carl, go to you now, because there have been a lot of people who are questioning this appointment or this choice for vice president. The head of Democracy for America, Charles Chamberlain, in fact, says, quote, "Making Senator Tim Kaine our vice presidential candidate could be potentially disastrous for our efforts to defeat Donald Trump in the fall." Of course Kaine's been blasted for voting for the TPP, pushing for bank deregulation. Do you believe that he is the smartest choice for Hillary Clinton?

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it's a very wise choice. All you have to do, and let me put on my hat as the former chief Virginia correspondent of "The Washington Post" who stayed in touch with my old home base in Richmond, Virginia and knows something about Tim Kaine. He is universally respected in the Senate of the United States both for his temperament and for his accomplishment. Very few senators are as highly regarded.

[10:45:12] But what he really brings to this is a mathematical ability to help win his own state of Virginia, to help win in Florida, to help win in Ohio. It is absolutely, as Bill Clinton has recognized, the best possible choice. The fact that he will disagree in some of his votes about some trade questions I think will make no difference whatever. I think unquestionably if Hillary Clinton was not going to go outside of the mainstream and toward a generals or someone outside of politics, Tim Kaine is by far the most helpful choice she could have come up with.

PAUL: Carl, let me ask you real quickly, too, on that note, this is an insider. And this is the year where we see so much support for outsiders. How do you think that might play into this year's election specifically? Carl? OK, I'm sorry I don't think he can hear us now. Let me ask Ryan. Ryan can you hear me?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I can hear you, yes.

PAUL: Can you answer that question for us? You've covered Senator Kaine for many, many years. And as I was just saying, this is the year it seems that a lot of people are pushing for an outer. What do you make of the choice?

NOBLES: Right, I think one of the big things to keep in mind about Senator Kaine is that even though he appears to be a traditional politician, he's done a lot of things that are outside the realm of what normal politicians do. He served as a missionary in Honduras. When he first got to Richmond he served as a civil rights attorney and represented people on death row. He worked with black law students at the University of Richmond as a lecturer there.

So he has deep roots in the civil rights community. He lives in the same house on Richmond's north side from when he and his wife first got married and has a lot of the same friends in the area. A lot of them remain his close political associates. And so, the idea that, you know, he has forged this long political career by being an insider is not necessarily accurate because he really did it at the lowest levels. He was a city councilman who then became mayor in a predominately African-American city.

So I think it's true that he's connected to some big names, like Terry McAuliffe, the governor of Virginia who is someone that advocated on his behalf. But he is actually a close personal friend of Barack Obama. But I think that the Clinton campaign realizes that he had the opportunity to speak to a broad base of people across the political spectrum, and that's one of the reasons that they decided to tap him.

PAUL: Carl, I wanted to ask you real quickly, this is also a year that seems very unusual in this respect. We have two candidates who both have unfavorable ratings above 50 percent. With that said, how pivotal are their V.P. picks this time around?

BERNSTEIN: I think they're consequential in this sense -- the real issue in this campaign is the temperament of Donald Trump and his record. And if the Clinton people can somehow get the voters to get off the focus on her e-mails, her servers, on to her record as a public servant, and Tim Kaine brings a lot to that.

And the real issue in this campaign, as I say, I think is whether Donald Trump is qualified to be president of the United States. And there is an awfully strong case to be made on many, many grounds, including his record as a businessman, that he is not qualified or even shouldn't be seriously considered given that record, given the amount of fraud, the amount of con, the amount of false information put out there, whether he really is of serious presidential stature. That's the real issue here.

And it ought to be brought to bear on whether Hillary Clinton is as well. And I think then people get some sense of whether there should be equivalency between the two candidates or whether or not we're talking about two very different kinds of people with different kinds of records. And we're way outside the mainstream and our history here when we talk about Donald Trump and whether he is qualified to be the president. That's the real issue in this campaign.

PAUL: Carl Bernstein, Ryan Nobles, David Miles, we appreciate all of you, thank you.

BLACKWELL: A Broadway star gets a breakout role by air kissing her way into the mainstream, impersonating Melania Trump on the late night stage. Jeanne Moos has a look coming up next.

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[10:53:43] I want to introduce you to a very special man here. In Cleveland this past week conventioners and politicians flocked to the city's best restaurants. One of them though, they may not have realized their servers and their cooks were all ex-offenders. The restaurant owner, Brandon Chrostowski, is this week's CNN hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRANDON CHROSTOWSKI, CNN HERO: Coming home from prison after someone has done their time, everyone deserves that fair and equal second chance. I see that opportunity that someone deserves. I can see it. I can feel it. And I've been given the gifts to fight to make sure that door does get opened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: And that's something. Watch Brandon's full story at CNNHeroes.com. And while you're there, nominate someone you think should be a 2016 CNN hero. We'd love to meet them.

BLACKWELL: A star is born on the RNC stage. Unfortunately for Melania Trump, it was at her expense. Jeanne Moos has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When Melania Trump kissed her husband after his big speech it was her first appearance on stage since the brouhaha over her speech.

TRUMP: Melania and Ivanka did they do a job?

MOOS: Actually Melania created a job, ironically, her plagiarism problems.

[10:55:00] MELANIA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: Your word is your bond.

MOOS: Have spawned a copycat.

LAURA BENANTI, ACTOR: My fellow Americans.

(LAUGHTER)

MOOS: She may have exaggerated Melania's gestures by, let's say, eight sheet kisses to Melania's one. But Laura Benanti's skit on "The Late Show" won her rave reviews -- sublime," "it's perfect," "up there with Tina Fey's Sarah Palin." This RNC speech was pretty much the first time.

MELANIA TRUMP: There would be good times and hard times.

MOOS: That Benanti heard Melania speak.

BENANTI: This is truly the best of times.

MOOS: "The Late Show" writers took famous lines and had Benanti plagiarize.

BENANTI: In West Philadelphia, born and raised.

(LAUGHTER)

BENANTI: Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar.

MOOS: Normally she's a Broadway singer and actor, but back in March, Steven Colbert pointed out the resemblance.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": Here is Mrs. Trump, right there.

BENANTI: My favorite thing that she does. Yes.

MOOS: What's the key to impersonating the Donald's wife?

BENANTI: For sure her squinty eye and pouty mouth. I took liberties with the fact that she used to be model with some of my posing and such.

MOOS: As for Melania's husband.

COLBERT: Do you want him to win?

(LAUGHTER)

MOOS: The skit that shot her to impersonator fame ended like this.

BENANTI: And one more thing, live from New York, it's Saturday --

COLBERT: No!

MOOS: She said if Colbert didn't mind she'd do SNL in a heartbeat. Maybe Laura Benanti can follow in the primping and posing footsteps of Tina Fey.

(LAUGHTER)

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Nobody is safe.

BLACKWELL: Nobody.

PAUL: Nobody is safe.

Thank you so much for spending your time with us.

BLACKWELL: There is much more ahead next hour of CNN Newsroom with Fredricka Whitfield in Philadelphia this morning. It starts right after a break.

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