President Trump Plays Old Campaign Tricks; Orlando Sentinel Excludes Trump; Wrong Speculations On Race Resurface; Hope Hicks To Testify Behind Closed Doors About Her Time Working For Trump Campaign; Business Leaders Warn Of Economic Disaster If Trump Increases Tariffs.
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.</s>MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: The President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.</s>LEMON: President Trump kicking off his 2020 campaign at a rally tonight in Orlando. Trump's campaign branded the event as a blockbuster reelection launch, but as soon as the president took the stage, his message sounded very, very familiar. The president talked to immigration is the same for the media and even took potshots at Hillary Clinton. So, with 2020 on the horizon, can the president keep the spotlight on himself, and can he win the presidency for a second time? There are lots to discuss here. And I want to bring in Maeve Reston, Douglas Brinkley and Amanda Carpenter to do it. Amanda is the author of "Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies To Us." Good evening, everyone.</s>AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good evening.</s>DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Good evening.</s>LEMON: Why don't we start with Amanda Carpenter. Amanda, President Trump was back -- I sound like a game show host, Amanda, President Trump was back with his us versus them rhetoric at his campaign kickoff tonight. Here's what he said about Democrats.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They went after my family, my business, my finances, my employees, almost every one that I have ever known or worked with, but they are really going after you. That's what it's all about. Not about us, it's about you. They tried to erase your vote. Erase your legacy of the greatest campaign and the greatest election probably in the history of our country.</s>LEMON: So, the president is very good at keeping his supporters invested in him personally, and you really see it there, don't you?</s>CARPENTER: Yes. I mean, Trump is an expert at creating a bond with his base. It is unbreakable. But there's something useful that Democrats can learn here. People want to be involved in this process. Donald Trump did not win by a huge margin, he won by 80,000 votes in three states. And so, I just don't think that this is that complicated. Democrats need to create a bond with their voters. Teach them that they matter. The biggest demographic in America, the most coveted one are the people that don't vote. Animate those voters and let them know that they matter. One of the biggest reasons that Trump won in 2016 is because people thought it couldn't happen. They thought that someone else would take care of it, this couldn't happen here. Well, it did. And so, how is the Democratic candidate going to create that kind of bond with their base? We'll see, but I do know they have to do that if they are going to win in 2020.</s>LEMON: You -- I know that you are a conservative, but you sound like a Democratic strategist right there that was great at --</s>CARPENTER: It's just good advice in politics.</s>LEMON: Doug, I want to bring you in now -- bring you in now and talk about Peter Baker as a new piece in "The New York Times" and it's titled "Four years ago, Trump was seen as a side show, now he is the show." And here's what he writes, in part he said, "The coming election is shaping up as a test not just of the man but of his country. Was Mr. Trump's victory the last time around a historical fluke or a genuine reflection of America in the modern age? Will the populist surge that lifted him to the White House -- to the White House run its course or will it further transform a nation and its capital in ways that we -- that we'll outlast his presidency." Sorry, I can't see that. Do you see that playing out?</s>BRINKLEY: I love the Peter Baker article because it sets up 2020 perfectly. Donald Trump is either going to be seen as an asterisk president, this weird fluke who just barely won, and you know, Hillary Clinton beat him by three million votes, he won a few thousands in Michigan and Pennsylvania or he wouldn't have been president. And people did a reset. They realized that having a businessperson with no experience in politics isn't worth it, and they are rejecting him or if he wins, conversely, it's a revolution. Trump is a revolutionist, and a redefinition of the -- what is the Republican Party.</s>LEMON: Yes. Listen, Maeve, a lot of people have been saying, I've watch, I shouldn't say a lot of people have been saying, I've heard people say that it was sort of an electoral fluke last time, right, that Donald Trump won. But Baker asks a really good I think, is Trump the cause of America's polarization or is he the result of it? As someone who has been out there on the trail, what do you think?</s>MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: I mean, I think he is the result of it. We saw this every presidential campaign that I've covered, you sort of saw it come in inches with Obama, the way that they talked about President Obama's race, people were using coded language back then to talk about their grievances, you know, about immigration. And what's different now is just that Trump has made it, made people feel comfortable saying whatever they want no matter how politically incorrect it is, you know, in other people's minds. And I think what you see out there, what was so interesting about the rally tonight to Amanda's point, is that you did really see the way in which he connects with his audience, how he does it, and how he stokes that fire. That's really there, and I have been out with, you know, all of the Democratic candidates over the last four or five months, and nobody has that kind of rock star quality that you see with Donald Trump tonight. Nobody has been camping out before the rallies. And right now, Democrats are really, I think, confused about who they want the nominee to be, because they have so many choices. And so, it's fascinating to see him sort of step back into this spotlight and reset the race once again.</s>LEMON: You know, Amanda, he has a rock star status with his base, but he has never expanded that group, he's never had a majority of support. How big of a problem will that be for 2020, if do you think it will be a problem at all?</s>CARPENTER: I mean it's just, it really coming down to that, I mean, I hate this phrase binary choice, but who he has matched up against. And here's where I think would Democrats could be wrong to play it safe.</s>LEMON: You go with great advice. I know where you're going with this. I know where I you're going with this, but go on.</s>CARPENTER: You know where I'm going to go. OK. This is where I get on where I don't think Joe Biden is going to be the best matchup with Trump. Right? People are playing it safe. Safe choices do not win usually. Ask Mitt Romney, ask Hillary Clinton. People want to have a clear contrast, a choice. This is where I think Democrats are wrong to shy away from impeachment. You really have to draw a difference between right and wrong, happy and angry, racist and not racist, right? And so, when people say, well, I think Joe Biden is the best because they appeal to the same voter as Donald Trump. OK. But what's the tradeoff there? What voters are you possibly leaving on the table? Because if Donald Trump and Joe Biden matchup, there is going to be angry election tailor-made to older white male voters, I think that depresses female and minority turnout leaves them on the table. And so, I just -- people don't play it safe. You have to take big risks. And I'll tell you, the only person I see playing big ball right now is Elizabeth Warren and drawing the contrasts with her fellow candidates.</s>LEMON: Wow.</s>RESTON: And Don, can I just say one thing about --</s>LEMON: And good night, everybody. I'm going to go home.</s>RESTON: Can I just say one point about that?</s>LEMON: Yes, go ahead, Maeve.</s>RESTON: Which is that so many of the voters that you talked to out there also, I mean, literally parking lot voters, not the people that are showing up at the rallies. So many voters have just completely tuned out this election. They're not listening to every little thing that Trump says. And you know, to that point, who can really excite and motivate the middle, right where Donald Trump was in Orlando tonight so many independent voters down there, you -- to your point, you heard nothing from him that really speaks to those voters, and so who is going to be able to reactivate the people in the middle that just say this is too polarized. I don't believe in socialism, I don't believe in Trump, and I'm out.</s>LEMON: Yes. Douglas, I want to get your response. But let me bring this question in and then you -- I'll give you all the time you need to respond. Because hours before his reelection kickoff in Orlando, as we know, the Orlando Sentinel put out a 2020 endorsement for any presidential candidate other than Trump. And in part here's what it says. "Some readers will wonder how we could possibly eliminate a candidate so far before an election and before knowing the identity of his opponent because there is no point pretending we would ever recommend that readers vote for Trump." An endorsement without an opponent, I mean, this is coming from, you know, a paper known to endorse Republicans. What does say to you about the anger in this country over Donald Trump?</s>BRINKLEY: And we're going to stay Orlando papers is just the beginning. I mean, it's stunning that a newspaper would get out in front this early and denounce Trump in such a vigorous fashion when he is coming to their hometown to kick off his 2020 campaign. But you know, I think the real problem as I'm looking at this is Donald Trump ran as an outsider before and now, he is the inside. He ran about draining the swamp, he is the swamp. The last outsider that was president was Jimmy Carter and he was a one-termer because he can't run as the outsider in the second time, and you know, the problem if the Democrats go too left, it's what George McGovern said of 1972. If you go with Elizabeth Warren, you have to be careful that Donald Trump doesn't turn it into that the fact that my opponent is a socialist versus me the real American. So I don't think, you know, I think Biden has got a pretty good path right now, and the Democrats, you know, why Pelosi is being so cautious about the impeachment is you've got to be careful of how the read the tea leaves of how the beat Trump. The one uniting factor is to get rid of Trump, because he got two Supreme Court justices that are conservatives and if you re-elect him, you could very easily have a third and it will be a Trump court for generations to come. I think this a fight for the soul of the nation right now going on between Donald Trump and whoever his opponent is, and whatever the Democrat is, they will fill stadiums, you know, come next spring.</s>LEMON: Amanda, listen, I want to give you the final thought here, but I mean, it is interesting. The Democrats have one heck of a -- not one heck of a choice, they have a lot of tough choices to make.</s>CARPENTER: Yes, they do. But playing it safe is just a bad strategy. Do what's right. Look at the editorial in the Orlando Sentinel. It's essentially a never Trump editorial. Because there is the uniting factor that something has gone wrong here. And so, if Democrats can make an argument that we will somehow correct the course while still maybe paying attention, yes, to the issues that the Trump voter cares about. I don't think that the Democrats can continue to, you know, cover their ears and put their heads in the sand over the immigration crisis that it continues to unfold at the border. But what they can say is that we are not a country that puts kids in cages, we are not going to leave people to suffer and sleep under bridge. Yes, Donald Trump identified the problem but he doesn't have a plan to fix it, we can do better than this. Let's listen to the problems, listen to the concerns, don't demonize those Republican voters and just invite them to the party. Look at those Trump voters, they are having fun. You may not like them, you might not like what they stand for in that arena, but they are having fun, and people who have fun win.</s>LEMON: Yes. Maeve, if one of the candidates calls you, you need to answer the phone, I think they'd pay you a lot of money after that.</s>RESTON: I like money, but you know, I do like to help, too.</s>LEMON: Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. See you next time.</s>BRINKLEY: But you know what?</s>LEMON: I got to go. I'm sorry. I'll see you next time. Thank you, Douglas. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell taking a major position tonight on the question of paying reparations for slavery. We're going to talk about it next.