Transcripts For WCAU NBC News 2016 Republican Convention 201

WCAU NBC News 2016 Republican Convention July 20, 2016

Good evening from the quicken loans arena in cleveland where we witnessed a moment few could have predicted a year ago. Donald trump, Real Estate Developer turned real estate star who barrelled through 17 primary opponents on a wave of populist anger was officially nominated as a republican partys candidate for president. The new york delegation led by his son, donald trump, jr. , putting himself over the top, and trump, himself made an appearance by video at the convention for the second night in a row. All of it coming on what should have been a crowded moment for the now official gop nominee, but marred by controversy swirling around him, and well hear from two of Donald Trumps children headliners tonight, and here on the panel is chuck todd, Savannah Guthrie and nicole wallace. Who thought wed be here . I dont think anyone. Indiana primary, i fully believed this moment was going to happen. It has happened, and as we said, 17, we started with 17. Talk about the tone weve seen tonight already. Yesterday, it was make america safe again. Tonight was make america work again. But we heard, seems to me, savannah, more about Hillary Clinton than we heard about the economy. You look through the speeches that were given tonight, it was far more about a prosecution of Hillary Clinton than it was a building up of donald trump, and i used that word prosecution advisedly. We had two former federal prosecutors, three if you count the governor of arkansas, making the case against Hillary Clinton. The crowd went wild. The crowd loved it. We heard chants of lock her up, but can donald trump make up the real deficit he faces right now with the American People . Whats the case for him, not against Hillary Clinton, but whats the affirmative case for donald trump. Thats what were waiting to see. My partner in crime, mark murray is tracks protrump to anticlinton, 15 speeches, ten an anticlinton, five protrump. Thats actually an improvement from last night. When it comes to testimonials. We want to go to the podium right now donald trump, jr. Is walking out, about to miss remarks for the evening. Good evening, im donald trump, jr. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. Thank you. Im the father of five Young Children from 2yearold chloe to ky who just turned 9, husband to vanessa, amazing wife and mother, and son of a great man. Im an american, and tonight, i want to talk to you about the country we live in. The country our children will grow up in. For my generation, this is the most important election of our lifetime. One that will determine the future of our country, and in turn, the future of the world. For too long, the world ignored problems, punting them down the road for future generations to deal with. In business, i was trained by my father to make tough investments in Business Today to ensure a Brighter Future tomorrow. Weve actually started to believe that solving our great problems is an impossible task. Thats why we need to elect a man with a track record of accomplishing the impossible. [ applause ] for the first time, parents no longer think their kids will be as well off as we were. Weve lost the confidence in our leaders and the faith in our institution. Remember one thing, were still americans. Were still one country. Were going to get it all back. [ applause ] were going to get it back better than ever before. I know well get it back because i know my father. I know that when people tell him it cant be done, that guarantees that he gets it done. [ applause ] i know that when someone tells him that something is impossible, thats what triggers him into action. When people told him it was impossible for a boy from queens to go to manhattan and take on developers in the big city, rather than give up, he changed the skyline of new york. [ applause ] ive seen it time and time again, that look in his eyes when someone says it cant be done. I sauna look over a year ago when he was told he couldnt possibly succeed in politics. Huh, i guess he did. For my father, impossible is just the starting point. Thats how he approaches business projects. Thats how he approaches life. Whether its teaching his granddaughter how to swing a golf club or tackling the toughest negotiations, hes always fully committed. Thats why the person who would never run for office before stood on the stage 11 months ago in this very arena with 16 professional politicians, and this week, that same man will stand before you as our partys nominee for the president of the United States of america [ applause ] as a proud son and family member, it was one of the great honors of my life to be able to put him over the top in the delegate count earlier today. [ applause ] his unrelenting determination is why hes going to become our next president and why i know when my father says he can fix the country, he means it. You want to know what kind of president hell be . Let me tell you how he ran his businesses, and i know because i was there with him by his side on job sites in Conference Rooms by the time i could walk. He didnt hide out behind the desk in an executive suite. He spent his career with regular americans. He hung out with the guys on construction sites, pouring sheet rock and hanging pouring concrete and hanging sheet rock. He listened to them and vamed their opinions as much, and often more than the guys from harvard and wardon locked in offices away from the real work. He has the talent and drive that all americans have, promoting people based on character, street smarts, and their work ethic, not paper credentials. To this day, many of the top executives in our company are individuals that started out in positions that were blue collar, but he saw something in them, and he pushed them to succeed. His true gift as a leader is that he sees the potential in people that they dont even see in themselves. [ applause ] the potential that other executives would overlook because their resumes dont include the names of fancy colleges and degrees. I know he values workers and quality in people because those are the individuals he had my siblings and me work under when we started out. That he would trust his own childrens formative years to these men and women is all you need to know about donald trump. [ applause ] we didnt learn from mbas. We learned from people who had doctorates in common sense. [ applause ] guys like vinny who taught us how to drive heavy equipment to operate tractors and chain saws, who worked his way through the ranks to become a trusted adviser of my father, and only children of billionaire who are as comfortable in a caterpillar as we are in our own cars. [ applause ] my father knew those were the guys and gals who would teach us dignity of hard work from a very young age. He knows the heart of the American Dream is the idea that whoever we are, wherever were from, we can get ahead, where everyone can prosper together. [ applause ] the other party also tells us they believe in the American Dream. They say we should worry about economic inequality and immobility. You know what . They are right. They dont tell you it was their policies that caused the problem. It was their policies that have no accountability. [ applause ] they gave us the worst immigration system in the world. One that imports immobility, one that drives down employment and wages for hispanicamericans, for africanamericans, for everyone. An immigration system that favors illegals over those tries to go through the process legally. And at times, even over lawabiding citizens. It was Bernie Sanders himself who warned a large tide of new workers keep wages low and poverty high. The other party gave us Public Schools that far too often fail our students, else those who have no options. Growing up, my siblings and i, we were truly fortunate to have choices, and options that others dont have. We want all americans to have those same opportunities. [ applause ] our schools used to be an elevator to the middle class. Now they are stalled on the ground floor. They are like soviet Era Department stores run for the benefit of the clerks, not the customers. For the teachers and the ad min straiters and note the students. Why do other countries do better in k12 . They let parents choose where to send their own children to school. [ applause ] thats called competition. Its called the free market. And its what the other party fears. [ applause ] they fear it because they are more concerned with protecting tenure teachers than serving the students in need of a good education. [ applause ] they want to run everything topdown from washington. They tell us theyre the experts and they know whats best. The other party dpagave us a regulatory state on steroids. Doddfrank was a thousand pages long and already spun off 22,000 pages in regulations. Imagine trying to digest all that before you even open your doors for business. That doesnt help consumers. What it does is destroy Small Business in favor of big businesses who can afford the vast number of lawyers and accountants needed to comply. Doddfrank is Consumer Protection for billionaires. We produced the thickest network of patronage and influence of any country at any time in world history. Its composed of the selfsfi selfsatisfied people at the top. The new aristocrats. We cant live that way any longer. Its too risky. Let me talk a little bit about risks. The other party is party of risk. Ive spent many time with many great americans who have served this country in the military, and they know whats at stake. When we have weak leaders in positions of power, americans risking their lives for our freedoms are less safe. Now almost daily i get a call or text from a real american hero. His name is mark, proud to call him a friend. He was part of a Security Team at the annex on the grounds of the conflict of benghazi, mark, one of the men who received frantic calls from his buddies at the compound, calls he and his team tried to answer. Calls that didnt save all his friends because secretary Clintons State Department ignored request for help both on the night in question and even in the weeks and months leading up to the attack. It was a tragedy and one that would be repeated were she to win the election. Ask mark who is fit to lead. Who has the judgment to lead . Who will take that call at 3 00 in the morning . Or better yet, ask yourselves if youre in mark shoes that night, who would you rather call . If Hillary Clinton is elected, shes the first president who couldnt pass a basic background check. Its incredible. Hillary clinton is a risk we cant afford to take. Executive orders to take away americans guns, appoint judges to abolish the second amendment. Just look how effective the laws have been in inner city chicago. City with the toughest gun laws in the nation, 70 people murdered last month alone, and where over 3400 american lives have been lost since this Administration Took Office in 2009. You know why the laws fail . Because criminals by definition dont follow laws. [ applause ] rather than prosecute real criminals, she strips hard working lawabiding citizens to protect themselves and their families. Shell throw every possible obstacle in the path of safe, Reliable Affordable Energy produced in america by americans for american businesses and families rather than being energy independent. Our country will be forced to remain beholding to our buddies in the middle east. Those are risks we cant afford to take. And when we win, were not going to have to. Theres so much work to do. We will not accept the current state of our country because its too hard to change. Thats not the america i know. Were going to unleash the creativity of all americans, making our schools the best in the world for every single american of every single ethnicity and background. [ applause ] were going to put americans first. All americans. Not a special class of crony elites at the top of the heap. [ applause ] were going to elect a president who works with everyone to pass legislation that will make our country great again. A president who gives us a tax code that frees the American Economy and special loopholes for the wealthy, a president who gives us an Immigration Law that protects american citizens and gives them jobs. [ applause ] a president who will repeal and replace obamacare without leaving our most vulnerable citizens without health care and who will do it without destroying medicare for seniors as Hillary Clinton proposed. A president who knows we cant simply delete our problems, but that we have to tackle them head on. [ applause ] a president who wont allow pc culture to put our children and loved ones at stake, a president who does not bow to nations that shudder at the thought of americas existence. A president more concerned with the safety and comfort of his fellow americans than the feelings of those hostile nations abroad who, if given the option, would wipe america off the face of this earth. [ applause ] a president who is not beholding to special interests, foreign and domestic, and one who funded his entire primary run out of his own pocket just to prove it. [ applause ] a president who will secure and defend the borders of the United States and will appoint judges who believe freedom requires a limited government. A president who wont use the highest office in the land as a path to personal enrichment. [ applause ] a president whos actually create the real jobs, whos actually signed the front of a paycheck, and who does not just talk about it in theory. A president who has real people families and livelihoods dependent on his success and the success of his company for decades. A president who speaks his mind and not just when it behooves him to do so, doesnt run a focus group or Data Analytics in order to form a simple opinion. [ applause ] says what needs to be said and not just what you want to hear. A president who will unleash the greatness in our nation and in all of us who will give the hard working men and women who built this great country a voice once again. That president can only be my mentor, my best friend, my father, donald trump. [ applause ] and when we elect him, well have done all that, well have made America Great again, greater than ever before. [ applause ] thank you and god bless. [ applause ] donald trump, jr. Making what began as the affirmative chase for his father and evolved into a policy speech and echoes many of the things weve heard tonight, which is really a take down of Hillary Clinton. Ill have to say, though, very helpful in the beginning. I was surprised how negative he went at clinton. We were all talking about this. We all were because the family is sort of the positive optimistic, and they have been this whole campaign, three kids involved in the campaign, eric trump, don, jr. , have been more of the light, and hes been the cans in the heap, hes been the light, and don, jr. Came with heat. You know interesting, too, all the controversies that attack themselves to the candidates, donald trump or anyone else, really never attach themselves to family. The familys sort of this nogo zone, immune from political, viewed as less partisan for a reason. It was a risk for him to make attacks to clinton, but the language a little more than his father would use. And hearing about the Chris Christie speech and this speech from donald trump, jr. Than any other speech tonight. It was effective, but not without risk for donald trump, jr. Candidates family members talk policy, but as you mentioned, he effectively made the case. How did it go on the floor . Halle jackson with the new york dell nation. How did everybody seef receive it . I had one man say to me, whats better than his son to explain how his father is feeling. That seemed to be the theme of donald trump jr. s speech and Tiffany Trumps speech as well. The idea that the children are helping to make donald trump, himself, more relatable. One woman met Tiffany Trump back when she was a baby, 21 years ago in a casino at a trump event, a sign of just how long the children have been in the spot lights just like their father. Their message, aspirational, the idea of the campaign trying to personalize donald trump, show that theres more to him than public often sees on stage, and at least for the delegates out on the floor tonight, savannah. A lot of delegates have said they think those children are such a credit to donald trump, and they are performing the task of character witness tonight. Peter alexander on the floor in the vip booth and a lot are watching. Donald trump, jr. Got a standing ovation from the siblings. They just ran out, mike pence there as well. As soon as juniors speech was done, looked at the siblings, gave a thumbs up, wow, and i two of the siblings looked at me giving thumbs up, confident it was the welldelivered speech, the speech they hoped meliania would have given, and whats striking its a pageant about a family and personality. Six trumps speaking this week, just four nights of the convention. All right, a lot of real estate in the convention, peter alexander, thank you. The convention trying to get back on message, and that leads us to the story that hung over the place like a cloud all day, the plagiarism controversy over melanias trump wellreceived speech last night, watching in los angeles, he noticed something in that speech sounded like something heard before in obamas 2008 convention speech. He tweets out, the rest is history. It blew up here in a matter of minutes, before discussing more, take a look at two key portions of the speeches side by side. We were raised with so many of the same values. Like that you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond, that you do what you say youre going to do. That you treat people with dignity and respect because we want our children to know that its only limited to the height of your achieve

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