CHARLIE ROSE (CO-HOST): This didn't have to be if there were a vetting of the speech or, B, if you make a mistake, simply own up early and move on. 

DAN SENOR: Yeah both things are true. Look, most national campaigns have teams of people who literally vet and go over every word, every semicolon and every speech because when you're a candidate, particularly the nominee, you're not responsible for only your words. You're responsible for your spouse's words, every surrogate, everyone who goes on television, everyone who goes up on that podium. You have software, you have teams of people. In the 2012 convention we were reading just about every single speech. 

ROSE: And so that begs the question then, do they have that kind of structure at this convention?

SENOR: They don't have this at the convention, they don't have it in the campaign they don't have it. The whole campaign during the primary was effectively Donald Trump, a Twitter feed, and an advance team. That's it. No infrastructure. And that was when they were competing in a field of 20, 30 million voters nationwide. Now in the national, in the general election you're talking about 120, 130 million voters, plus a national press corps that's just focusing on you or the other nominee rather than 17 candidates. So the scrutiny is intense and they don't have the infrastructure to handle it. 

GAYLE KING (CO-HOST): Dan, why do you think it's so hard to own up to a mistake? They did a search this morning that experts said it's a trillion to one odds that a speech would contain that phrasing that way twice. At one point Republican officials were saying it's the [My] Little Pony defense, that you can get into My Little Pony, “twilight sparkle” or somebody said something like that. They're coming up with all sorts of excuses rather and we're still talking about it. 

SENOR: That's the key point so here we are now, day two of the convention. Actually, last night Donald Jr.,  Donald Trump's son, I thought gave an impressive speech. We should be talking about that. Instead because they can't own up to this, they're prolonging the story. Simply say, “The spirit of Melania Trump's speech is the same today as it was a couple of days when this story broke. There was some stuff we made a mistake” and just explain how the mistake was made and clean it up and move on. 

KING: But is it the media to blame here? I talked to a lot of delegates last night and they don't care. They said, “Leave her alone, give her a break, move on. She did a great job and no one's talking about that.” Is it the media? 

SENOR: Delegates, people in the room may not care but I think there were 30 plus million people watching this speech and we're still talking about how it's plagiarized. I think it's a process story that is bad for them. 

NORAH O'DONNELL (CO-HOST): You've attended, what, six conventions, something like that?

SENOR: Yes.

O'DONNELL: You and I are about the same age. What did you make of -- we were here broadcasting the primetime special of 10 to 11. This was half empty, this hall. And it was something like I've never seen before. 

SENOR: Yeah, I've never seen anything like it. I was on the floor there right there during the roll call vote. So I've been to many conventions. During the roll call vote, the energy and intensity during that moment is palpable. People are swinging from the ceiling because they're so excited about their nominee. You could hear a pin drop. It was muted in here. I just think this is a party that has sort of resigned to this nominee but not excited about him. 

Previously:

ABC's Matthew Dowd: Trump Campaign Has Not Been “Disciplined Enough” To Stay On Message At GOP Convention

“Disastrous,” “Embarrassing”: Media Analyze The GOP Convention’s “Very Bad First Day” 

Here's Who's Defending Melania Trump's Plagiarized Speech And Who's Calling It Out