Republican National Convention Day Three.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: What an extraordinary afternoon it has been here in Cleveland. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin here in the great state of Ohio. We are coming to you live from CNN's special coverage of the Republican National Convention, live pictures outside of the Q, the Quicken Loans Arena, where everything is happening each and every night, today, number three. And minutes ago, the city witnessed we will call a first-of-its- kind arrival by the newly minted Republican presidential nominee. Mr. Donald Trump emerge from the skies initially in his Trump plane, and then hopping that helicopter emblazoned with his name. He then landed and was greeted by this mega-crowd, including his own family and also the man he's chosen to be on his ticket, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, his family as well. Here was part of that moment, if you missed it.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, everybody. This is really an honor. And we're going to win Ohio. Right?</s>TRUMP: We're going to win Ohio. We're going to win it all. We're going to make America great again. That's what we want to do. But the last time, I got accused of speaking a little bit too long, so this time I'm going to speak a lot short. But I just want to introduce a man who's become a friend of mine, somebody who's going to make an unbelievable vice president of the United States, Governor Mike Pence.</s>GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's hear it for the next president of the United States of America, Donald Trump!</s>PENCE: It is such an honor to join your family and to welcome you to Cleveland. We're excited to hear you address the nation tomorrow night. It's been exciting to hear from your family. More to come tonight. And I'm convinced what begins in Cleveland will end in the White House.</s>BALDWIN: All right, so you had that mega-entrance minutes ago here in Cleveland not too far from where I'm sitting. You saw the whole family minus this woman, minus Mrs. Trump. Hours ago, the speechwriter who says, yes, indeed, she is the one responsible for the packages in Melania's speech Monday night revealed her identity and explained how it happened, and even offered to resign. So, let's start there with my friend and chief political correspondent, Dana Bash. Dana, did she say?</s>DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, she said just that. She gave an explanation, that her friend -- and that's really what Melania Trump is, but also the person that she was working with -- called her and gave her some ideas, talked about the fact that she had been very much in admiration of what Michelle Obama said in 2008, and that when this woman, Meredith McIver, was writing things down, she jotted the down the phrases, and that ended up as a large part of the speech. And in the statement, she said that she regrets doing that, she regrets not checking it and that she did, as you said, offer to resign. And Donald Trump said no. This is a woman who has been involved in the Trump Organization for quite some time. She helped Donald Trump work on some books. So this is not someone who was kind of brought in as a political figure to help Melania Trump. It is somebody who they had known and have worked with and sort of a trusted figure in Trump world. But, still, I think we should note that this -- I think, when you hear this, when I hear this, you think, OK, that's a plausible explanation. You get it. The question is, why wasn't this the explanation that we all heard two days ago, before this became so entrenched and ingrained in the narrative and the discussion all around the streets and inside the hall of this convention? But the good news for the Trump campaign, Brooke, is that I think this kind of puts a button on it, makes people say, OK, and now they can move on to the kinds of pictures and the story that you were just playing with the nominee now and his vice presidential pick.</s>BALDWIN: Yes. We will get to the plane and the chopper in just a second with my panel here. But let me also just follow up. This is a huge news day. We also got a bit of back-and-forth from some aides on this conversation between the Ohio governor, John Kasich, and Mr. Trump some months ago, when he was trying to determine who could be on his ticket. Tell me about that.</s>BASH: I will just tell you, this all goes under the headline of not everybody is unified, and especially Donald Trump and the governor of this state where we are right now, John Kasich, Trump's former competitor. What we are reporting, myself, Sara Murray, and others, was that confirmation of a "New York Times" story that back in April or May, as part of a series of conversations that the Trump campaign had in trying to convince John Kasich, the Ohio governor, to be on Donald Trump's ticket, that Don Jr., Trump's son, even went so far as to call John Weaver, an aide to John Kasich, to say, well what if he would be in charge of all domestic and foreign policy, which is everything, kind of what the president does. And we were told by Kasich sources that the answer was, kind of, are you kidding me, that Weaver went to Kasich and they kind of couldn't believe that that was the offer, but never took it seriously or any other overture that they got. But we should tell you this in the context. The reason why I started by talking about the disagreement, the context of the fact that Kasich has not only not endorsed Trump. He is refusing to come inside this hall in the convention of his own party in his own state. And the back-and-forth has gotten so intense that Donald Trump just put out a tweet. I will read it to you, in response to this story. "John Kasich was never asked by me to be V.P. Just arrived in Cleveland. Will be a great two days." So the fact that he feels the need to respond just shows how the animus and animosity that is going on between the two of them that is now playing out in public, in the press.</s>BALDWIN: OK. So you have the Melania speechwriter news. You have the Kasich/Trump news. You have -- Dana Bash, thank you very much. You also have Ted Cruz speaking tonight prime time. Will he endorse? Amid everything, the chopper, the plane, there was also this remarkable moment of timing. Watch what happened when Ted Cruz, he was out here in Cleveland just a couple of minutes ago speaking to a crowd just as the Trump plane flew right on over.</s>SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: Our party now has a nominee. And I don't know...</s>CRUZ: All right. That was pretty well-orchestrated. Jeff, did you e-mail them to fly the plane right when I said that?</s>BALDWIN: That just happened. For the record, no Cruz endorsement of Trump, at least this afternoon. We will see about tonight when Ted Cruz goes before this prime-time audience here at the Q. So much to get into. I have a mega-panel to bring in. I hope I don't run out of breath. Thank you all so much for being with me. Republican strategist Boris Epshteyn, conservative commentator Christine O'Donnell, CNN political commentator Van Jones, CNN senior political analyst David Gergen, Harmeet Dhillon, vice chairman of the California Republican National Convention, who delivered a Sikh prayer here at the convention, and former George W. Bush speechwriter Ned Ryun. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all being here. This is so fun. I just love this. I love being in Cleveland. I love just everything we get to talk to today. Ned, let me, actually, just speaking with you on what we just saw with Ted Cruz, I don't think the big question is doe he endorse him tonight, but that was a pretty fun moment.</s>BALDWIN: He sort of buzzed Cruz.</s>NED RYUN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN MAJORITY: Very nice timing by Trump. No, I think the thing that a lot of Republicans like Cruz and others are going through the stages of denial and grief. And I think -- I hope at some point they will get to acceptance.</s>BALDWIN: Acceptance, yes.</s>RYUN: Then once they get to acceptance, that they will realize in October there is a big issue with judges and things like that, will help reach some clarity on who they are going to be supporting and voting for in November. My hope is some of these people that are still a bit ambivalent where Trump is at will realize it is a binary choice. It's one or the other. There are no other choices. Figure out who you want to go with. And there is a lot at stake in the November election. But, again, talking with people just this week, the judge is the big issue for them. And as Trump released that list of judges, he selected Mike Pence, I think those two things are really helping some people get off the fence going toward Trump. I hope coming out of this convention, they will start working on some of the fundamentals, ground game, fund-raising. Really do some of those things. Trump will stay disciplined on message and really, really start to give people a reason to be more confident.</s>BALDWIN: Let me explain to our Trump surrogate on the other end in Boris. Do you think Cruz will finally endorse your guy?</s>BORIS EPSHTEYN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: For the life of a Trump surrogate, I just ran from over there to over here.</s>BALDWIN: Thank you so much.</s>EPSHTEYN: I'm not sweating because I'm nervous, Brooke. I'm not nervous.</s>BALDWIN: I have that effect on people. Come on.</s>EPSHTEYN: Do I think Cruz will endorse? That's up to Senator Cruz. The party is absolutely unifying behind Donald Trump. You saw Mitch McConnell speak. You saw Paul Ryan speak, Governor Christie speak. Of course it's still a concentration of a few apples who are not here, who are not concentrating on the 14 million voters who did come out for Donald Trump, more than ever in the history of the Republican Party. More than for Reagan. More than for Eisenhower. And a lot of the establishment Republicans -- Haley Barbour is here, who is a friend. It was great to see Governor Barbour. There a huge amount, overwhelming amount of establishment Republicans who are here. We are bringing the party together between those establishment Republicans, those disaffected voters who want a new leader and a lot of Blue Dog Democrats and independents. I think it's a great couple days, and it will be a good two days going forward.</s>BALDWIN: Do we think, though, on the bit that Dana was just reporting about Governor Kasich -- and, again, Trump folks vehemently deny. You just even saw Mr. Trump's tweet, that, no, I never officially offered Governor Kasich to be on my ticket, although the Kasich folks -- or however this leak is happening, on the day that is the Governor Pence day, that is the V.P. day, it is his time to talk tonight. What do you make of the timing in all of this, Van Jones?</s>VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is all very interesting to me. First of all, you have this interesting situation where I think that part of the people who have not come around -- you have done a great job of getting some people to come around. But those who haven't, it's not just about policy. It's about character. And you just saw a character test failed by this candidate for the past 36 hours. Why did he have his people out there defending what was obviously a little mistake? It was not that big a deal. He had some of the best people in the world, including Newt Gingrich, out there defending something that later on he has to come back and say, guess what? It was an oopsie.</s>BALDWIN: You're talking about Melania's speech.</s>JONES: I'm talking about Melania Trump's speech. If you can't -- if you're going to burn through 36 hours of your convention on an oopsie because you just can't say, we made a mistake, that's failing a character test. I think it makes harder for people..</s>EPSHTEYN: That's a process story. Right? That's process.</s>JONES: If your kid did that, you would have that kid in time- out.</s>EPSHTEYN: Well, hold on. To be fair, everybody on TV spoke vehemency that Melania Trump did not do X, Y, Z. Now we have the news that that's exactly what happened. She did not do this, it was not meant for her to do this. It was a mess-up by somebody who admitted to a mistake. Let's put that to the side. I will tell you, what's ridiculous, somebody said -- Kasich said it was ridiculous that he was offered this. It ridiculous to say that somebody who won one out of 50 states and barely won his own home state was offered anything. And I will tell you, I know from personal experience, that team behind Kasich is very well known for these kind of leaks. And they're only doing is for their own betterment, and not the Republican...</s>BALDWIN: Go ahead.</s>CHRISTINE O'DONNELL, CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST: If I can just comment on the Melania Trump thing.</s>BALDWIN: Please.</s>O'DONNELL: I think the explanation that they gave is actually kind of endearing, because you can picture this woman who has been thrust into the spotlight.</s>BALDWIN: Never done anything like this in her life.</s>O'DONNELL: Right. You can almost see her at home behind the computer researching first lady speeches. You know, and then she gives this thing that she was inspired by to her...</s>BALDWIN: She was a role model. Michelle Obama was a role model.</s>O'DONNELL: Right. To her speechwriter, who also has no political experience.</s>BALDWIN: Let her finish. Let her finish.</s>O'DONNELL: That is the whole reason why the party needs to get behind her now. We don't have time to lick our wounds, because now the guns are blazing from the Democrats. It's time for the whole party, the never- Trumpers that I once was, the establishment to get behind him.</s>BALDWIN: This is the kindest, for the record, I have ever heard you be on Donald Trump.</s>O'DONNELL: Well, that's my point. Brooke, you of all people know how I worked so hard to get the message out there that I did not like his character.</s>BALDWIN: Where are you right now?</s>O'DONNELL: I'm trying to get behind him.</s>BALDWIN: There you go. There you go.</s>O'DONNELL: Because my point is, getting behind him now doesn't mean I suddenly don't have the same concerns. It means, between Hillary and Trump, our party just adopted an amazing, very constitutional platform. Which party is going to get...</s>O'DONNELL: Which party is going to help get the senators elected, help restore respect to Congress? Hopefully...</s>BALDWIN: Down-ballot, we know Paul Ryan...</s>DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: With due respect, listen. I think we should salute Ms. McIver for coming forward. I think she deserves credit for doing that.</s>BALDWIN: This is the speechwriter.</s>GERGEN: The speechwriter. And sympathy as well. But you still have to deal with the fact that 36 hours-plus have been squandered here at the convention. And that goes to two things. One is as the staff misplaying this, mishandling this before she spoke, and clearly this team it is just not well enough organized to do that.</s>O'DONNELL: Right.</s>GERGEN: But more importantly was coming out afterwards and basically after telling reporters you're making Richard Nixon, 1968, your role model for your convention, and them you come out an stonewall the next day, which is effectively what they did, as late as this morning, the campaign manager was saying, there's nothing here, we didn't make any mistakes.</s>RYUN: What they should have done, deal with it, move on, let the bigger story be the rest of the convention. I think here's the deal. Donald Trump could get more out of this convention than I think Hillary can get out of her convention. This is his chance to really take a jump, move on. And...</s>BALDWIN: Let Harmeet speak.</s>HARMEET DHILLON, VICE CHAIRMAN, CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY: I was going to say that I was one of the party people who wasn't -- Donald Trump was not my first choice. Our delegation in California is 100 percent unified, and that includes a lot of people who supported Cruz, Kasich, Rubio and others. And there is a lot of sympathy for Melania. Nobody thought she was the blame. The political expedient thing would have been -- all of us know here -- throw the speechwriter under the bus, drive over her, drive back over her, reverse over her and move on. That was not the instinct of the Trump campaign, because they don't think that way. It's a different mind-set. But they need to get behind the mind-set of...</s>EPSHTEYN: Can I point real quick, as the only person who has always been behind Donald Trump? The reason it's a 36-hour story is because the media continues to go with the story. Right. You say, well, we wasted 36 hours. We haven't wasted it. I would love to talk to you about...</s>EPSHTEYN: Hold on. I would love to talk to you about anything else. But we're spending about 10 minutes now talking about Ms. McIver.</s>JONES: First of all, Boris, I know -- getting to know you pretty well. I don't think you would tolerate this in your own organization. Let's just be clear. There is a way to handle these things to let the media move on. Why didn't you handle it in a responsible way? If you want the media to move on, that ball's in your hands.</s>EPSHTEYN: As a business leader, as somebody who owns a business, I will tell you, if this were to happen in my organization, I would not fire somebody within 10 hours.</s>EPSHTEYN: No one lied. Let me finished. No one lies. There was no lies.</s>JONES: They said there was no mistake.</s>O'DONNELL: Wait. I can ask you a question, Van? Using your logic that they should have owned up to it right away and moved on, what's the difference between Hillary saying it was only a video, and then weeks later saying, what's it matter?</s>BALDWIN: Hold on, hold on.</s>BALDWIN: Your question was?</s>GERGEN: Is Hillary your role model?</s>GERGEN: You just said, well, look at Hillary.</s>O'DONNELL: People who are criticizing Trump -- I agree with you. And this is one of the character things that I still...</s>O'DONNELL: The same people who are criticizing, well, he should have come out earlier are giving Hillary a pass for completely...</s>BALDWIN: Hold on, hold on, hold on.</s>BALDWIN: Hold on, hold on. David, Van, commercial break. Go. Sorry. It's just what I have to do. Sorry.</s>GERGEN: Repeatedly in the past in panels this, Hillary Clinton has been hammered, hammered over the e-mails and so forth. It is not a double standard. The same standard is being applied here. And the question is, why did the Trump campaign basically come out and for 36 hours says there was nothing wrong happened here?</s>BALDWIN: Go ahead, Van.</s>JONES: Well, first of all, what I have heard Hillary Clinton do when she makes mistake -- and she has made many mistakes and serious mistakes -- she actually has apologized and said they were mistakes, the e-mail server, for instance.</s>JONES: Hold on a second. What I have yet to hear from Donald Trump is ever the word, I'm sorry.</s>BALDWIN: Stay with me. Hold on. Time-out. Moments ago. We're going to move on. I have so much more for you all. I appreciate everyone playing nicely. Moments ago, let's talk about Newt Gingrich. He actually sat down with CNN. He predicted a mega-surprise today, an endorsement that no one sees coming. We have that for you. Also ahead, new details out of Baton Rouge about the killer who ambushed those police officers down in Louisiana. Sources reveal what he struggled with in recent years. Lots to talk about on this Wednesday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. CNN's live special coverage from Cleveland and beyond continues after this.