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AT THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA

General Election Begins, Trump, Clinton Hit Trail; FBI Probes New Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Hack; Officials Confirm Zika Transmission in Florida. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired July 29, 2016 - 11:30   ET

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


[11:30:00:] MARY KATHARINE HAM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: In the past, we've seen when you just make the argument against somebody, see Mitt Romney and Obama in '12, it didn't work out. So there's a risk here.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm also interested in the audience, who, really, the audiences were last night. I mean, it was no -- she made no secret, Hillary Clinton, last night, of going after Trump. There was always some question which speaker was going to say Donald Trump's name. She had no problem doing that.

At one point, Tracy, actually, multiple points, she almost seemed to mock Trump. When he spoke for 70-odd moments and I do mean odd. She paused on it like that. When she presents it like that, an attack on Trump like that, is that completely throwing in the towel of any attempt to try to win over voters leaning towards Trump? Is that going to turn them off?

TRACY SEFL, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I don't think so, Kate. I also -- I listened to Jeremy say the thing that Trump does best is stoke people's fears. I think what Hillary was attempting to do was show that he can stoke people's fears but he fails on what Michael Bloomberg said is the sanity and incompetency test. Hillary's right to call attention to that. That can't be the sum total of her argument against him. But for last night and for the people in the Wells Fargo Center and the million of people watching at home, she knows that that sanity and competency argument is exactly what gets under his skin.

I'm highly amused that he's really focusing on Michael Bloomberg as the, you know, the attack. It's clearly gotten under his skin, and why? Sanity, incompetency. That's a pretty stark way to boil down the election --

(CROSSTALK)

Hold on a second, Boris.

John, an interesting thought, do you think one of the goals last night was to get under Donald Trump's skin or do you think it was to attack him and second a message to voters?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think both. I mean, the reason the Bloomberg attack seems to be driving Trump crazy is Bloomberg went after his success as a businessman and that sort of goes straight at one of his big breaking points. You have battle of the billionaires here, which is in itself sort of surreal. The reason it drives him crazy is because he went after his business success, which is his whole claim to fame, which is questionable, not that he's been a success but to what extent he's been a success.

You asked an important question, is she alienating her ability to go after Trump voters? She's not going to win over Trump voters. What she's trying to win over is Republicans. A lot of neo-conservatives support her candidacy because she's very much a hawk on national security. You know, the speech last night definitely made a lot of appeals to white working class voters. She's not giving up on them. She's going to know we need to win over the reasonable edge of the opposition. Elections in America are won by the candidate that wins over moderates and the middle class, swing voters and swing states. Trump has a very strong base. It's a question of whether he can build out beyond it. And Hillary Clinton's definitely aiming to do that beyond her base.

BERMAN: Bob Beckel, one of the weakness for Clinton was the issue of trust. Like 68 percent of Americans, very high percentage of Americans, said they didn't trust her. Is there anything in that speech last night that addressed that head on, Bob?

BOB BECKEL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Not really. I'll tell you, it's a tough one to do. You going to say, you going to trust me now? She did a little of that.

BOLDUAN: Isn't that one theory, take it head on?

BECKEL: Well, she did take it head on. Remember, she said, I have to prove myself. Of people, you know, we did focus groups in Ohio and even though they switched to Hillary, they stitch didn't come away feeling any more secure about whether she was, in fact, somebody to trust. Didn't trust Donald Trump at all. So that's -- in a way, having her daughter there, the rest of this, probably did a little bit.

You know, it's interesting, about national security, the general you have up here, if you took a vote at the Pentagon among lieutenants and above, who would win this vote, and Clinton would win overwhelmingly.

BORIS EPSHTEYN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: We don't know that.

BOLDUAN: We don't know that.

EPHSTEYN: That's a complete opinion. There are plenty of generals who is extremely accomplished and knows national security inside and out who are backing Donald Trump and spoke at our convention.

Here's a couple points --

(CROSSTALK)

EPHSTEYN: All right. On trade and on Wall Street and on democracy, she is dishonest. She said democracy's broken. Well, she helped break it. On trade, she said, well, NAFTA. That's a new position. Her husband put NAFTA in place. And on Wall Street. Wall Street won't dominate Main Street. She's taken millions from Wall Street. The American people see right through that veneer. It's absolutely thin. She was being dishonest. And driving those dishonesty numbers up, not down.

BERMAN: Tracy, last word from you.

SEFL: I think it's worth remembering retired Admiral Michelle Hudson who said he is not fit to polish John McCain's boots. Let's keep that in mind when we talk about national security.

(CROSSTALK)

HAM: I think she should just say believe me over and over again, Trump's playbook.

BOLDUAN: Maybe everyone should stay away drop the impressions. I don't know how well that land on the convention stage.

Thank you, guys, very, very much. Thanks for joining us.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: We have some breaking news. The FBI is now investigating a cyber hack and another big Democratic target. We'll have new details ahead.

[11:35:21] BERMAN: Plus, Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine, holding a rally in Philadelphia, fresh off Clinton's speech at the convention. Where does the campaign go from here? We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:40:00] BOLDUAN: New this morning, a source telling CNN the FBI is now investigating a cyberattack at the Democratic National Campaign Committee. A new cyberattack we're talking about here.

BERMAN: This revelation comes a week after WikiLeaks released thousands of Democratic National Committee e-mails that ultimately led to the resignation of party chair, former chair, officially, as of today, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Let's bring in CNN senior political reporter, Manu Raju.

Manu, what have you learned?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, that's right, guys. Now we're learning this hack could potentially be much broader than initially thought.

Just this morning, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the political arm of House Democrats, has confirmed they have been the subject of a cyberattack. They're actually saying that it is similar to the DNC hack that prompted all that turmoil on the eve of the convention this week. I'll read you part of the statement from Meredith Kelly, the

spokeswoman for the DCCC. It said, "Upon discovery the issue, we immediately took action and engaged with a leading forensics investigator to assist us in addressing the incident. The investigation is ongoing."

Based on the information we have to date, we've been advised by investigators that this is similar to recent incidents including the DNC breach. If this plays out in the same way the DNC leak played out, it could provoke a bunch of similar revelations that could be possibly embarrassing to Democrats and the eve of the elections. And what we know now is the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the political arm for the Senate Democrats, told us they have not been the subject of a hack.

This hack is now affecting House Democrats. We don't know what these hackers have obtained and whether they will leak it, but a possible political problem for Democrats going forward -- guys?

BERMAN: Indeed. Donna Brazile, the new chair, the temporary chair at DNC, has made clear she thinks there very well could be more embarrassing e-mails out there.

BOLDUAN: Manu, this may be beyond where the investigation is at this point. Are the -- is there any word if their e-mail servers are linked? Is this the same hack but we're just learning about the DCCC now or is this two cyberattacks?

RAJU: It's not entirely clear. What they're saying is this is similar to the DNC. That really tells us a lot. Just for the fact they're saying that suggests that this could be the same group of hackers possibly. So we don't know exactly. They're being vague in their wording. The investigation is still ongoing. Possibly linked to that same group. We know federal investigators believe this could be Russian hackers even if the Russians deny their involvement now.

BERMAN: Manu Raju, thank you.

RAJU: Thanks, guys.

BOLDUAN: He teleported. That's how fast he got there.

BERMAN: It was impressive.

BOLDUAN: Coming up, any moment, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, live pictures from Philadelphia, holding their first rally since the big moment since officially becoming the top of the Democratic ticket.

BERMAN: Also, we have significant news about Zika. Health officials are confirming the first locally transmitted cases of Zika in the United States. This is important. We'll have those details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:47:39] BOLDUAN: New this morning, officials are saying that four people in Florida have been infected with the Zika Virus. These are the first known cases of the virus being transmitted by mosquitoes in the United States.

BERMAN: That makes it significant.

We want to bring in CNN's Polo Sandoval to explain what this means going forward and what officials are doing about it.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, John and Kate, exactly as you said. This is significant, but as we've heard from health officials, this is something that was expected to happen, because, yes, it is something that happened in other places, not necessarily the United States.

The headline is authorities have been expecting it and now can confirm individuals in the United States have been bit by mosquitoes carrying that Zika Virus. Four of them bit in Florida, just north of downtown Miami. I want to show you the area suspected of being the location where these people were essentially infected, which is just north of Miami. This is three men, one woman, tested positive in the last several weeks. None of them have traveled outside the U.S. And also essential transmission is not being expected in this case. So that's what lead authorities to believe they were essentially bit by mosquitoes carrying the Zika Virus in the United States. It's the area highlighted, the art district north of downtown. It's a former warehouse area, manufacturing district, retail shops. Authorities are focusing on that area, collecting specimens.

Governor Rick Scott saying none of them have actually tested positive for Zika Virus, but all these factors, that leads authorities to conclude what they feared has now happened, that these mosquitoes that are infected with Zika Virus are now in the United States. That testing does continue.

The way this is affecting some of the people right now though AS we have heard from the FDA, essentially banning some of these blood donations in that particular region. We also know that health authorities at the state and federal level are encouraging people to get tested as well and there's simple steps they say can get rid of that standing water -- John and Kate?

BERMAN: That's important. It's also no small thing.

Polo Sandoval, thank you very much. Important information. Appreciate it.

[11:50:00] BOLDUAN: We are keeping our eye on Philadelphia as we're awaiting a campaign rally between Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. They are getting fired up. They must have had more sleep than we did. The rally will kick off across the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. We'll bring it to you when it begins.

BERMAN: Five minutes would put them over the top.

BOLDUAN: Not complaining.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: When a baby is intensive care, the last thing families want or need to worry about is money. This week's "CNN Hero" is working make sure families facing tough times can afford to be together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN HERO: These babies are in the NICU not for days but months at a time. You think about the medical expenses or thing of that nature but when you end up with the reality that this parking is going to cost you so much money, it's not something that people expect. It's definitely a significant burden on families and there are a lot of babies who are alone a lot of the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:54:53] BERMAN: For more on this story, go to CNNheroes.com. Nominate someone that you think should be a 2016 "CNN Hero."

Any minute now, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine will hold their first rally after the convention. They are in Philadelphia. They are about to embark on a bus tour through swing states. We will head to Philadelphia, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to this special edition of "Inside Politics." I'm John King.

Campaign 2016 turns an important new page today. The conventions are over and 58 days until the first scheduled debate and in 102 days from now, America, that means you, picks new president.

Here's a live look at the launch point for the Democrats' post- convention bus tour. Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine about to head west through several battleground states. We'll go back there live to see if the candidates have anything to say before they hit the road in Pennsylvania. Pretty festive scene there in the morning after for the Democrats.

Let's flash back --