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CNN NEWSROOM

Sarah Palin Blasting Paul Ryan; Donald Trump as the Presumptive Presidential Nominee; Firefighters Battling A Dangerous and Unpredictable Fire in Canada; McCain Says GOP Should Listen To The Voters; "El Chapo" Guzman Moved To Prison Along U.S. Border; North Korea Says It Is Ready To Use Nukes If Provoked. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired May 8, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:00:13] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Happening now in the NEWSROOM,

SARAH PALIN, FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: I think Paul Ryan is soon to be cantored as in Eric Cantor, his political career is over.

WHITFIELD: Sarah Palin blasting Paul Ryan telling CNN today she will campaign against the house speaker in his August re-election.

PALIN: Because he is so disrespected the will of the people. Paul Ryan and his ilk, their problem is they have become so disconnected from the people whom they are elected to represent.

WHITFIELD: And John McCain saying it's foolish to ignore the will of the voters.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: You have to listen to people that have chosen the nominee of our Republican party. I don't think it would be foolish to ignore them.

WHITFIELD: Plus, --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ground zero for devastating Alberta fires is Fort McMurray.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've met more heroes in this experience than I ever thought existed.

WHITFIELD: NEWSROOM starts now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Hello, everyone, this is the CNN NEWSROOM. Happy mother's day. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The deepening rift in the Republican Party over Donald Trump as the presumptive presidential nominee just got bigger. It's now an all-out civil war as former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin announces she will work to end speaker Paul Ryan's political career. Palin dropping the bombshells on CNN this morning. In an exclusive interview with Jake Tapper on "State Of The Union" the former governor says speaker Ryan has committed political suicide by not supporting Trump's candidacy and took it one step further, saying she will work to defeat speaker Ryan by supporting his primary opponent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Governor, as you know, speaker Ryan told me on Thursday that he is not ready to support Donald Trump. One spokesperson said he should not be speaker of the house if he does not back Trump. What do you think?

PALIN: I think Paul Ryan is soon to be cantored, as in Eric Cantor, his political career is over but for a miracle because he's so disrespected the will of the people. And yes, as the leader of the GOP, the convention certainly he is to remain neutral and for him to already come out and say who he will not support was not a wise decision of his.

You know, I think why Paul Ryan is doing this, Jake, is it kind of screws his chances for the 2020 presidential bid that he is gunning for if the GOP were to win now, that wouldn't bode well for his chances in 2020. And that's what he is shooting for. So a lot of people with their never Trump or not right now Trump mantra going on, they have their different reasons, I think that one is Paul Ryan's reason.

TAPPER: Specifically, when you talk about him being Eric Cantor, Eric Cantor was the house majority leader who was challenged in the primary by a conservative candidate who got a lot of grassroots support and that was a big surprise. Paul Ryan is facing a challenge in the Republican primary in Wisconsin. The primary is coming up. It is August 9th. The candidate is, I believe his name is Paul Nehlen. Are you planning to support his challenger?

PALIN: That's a good question. I haven't gotten to call him and tell him that I'm supporting him. But yes, I will do whatever I can for Paul Nehlen. This man is a hard working guy, so in touch with the people.

Paul Ryan and his ilk, their problem is they have become so disconnected from the people whom they are elected to represent as evidenced by the refusal to support the GOP front-runner that we just said he is our man. And what Paul Ryan and his ilk and their problem is they feel so threatened at this point that their power, their prestige, their purse will be affected by the changing that is coming with Trump and with someone like Paul Nehlen that they are not thinking straight right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Let's bring in CNN politics reporter Eric Bradner.

All right, Eric. So what kind of impact will these statements by Palin have potentially on the Republican Party divide as we see it?

ERIC BRANDER, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes. This is a big development in this civil war in the Republican Party that we are seeing because this is the first time we have seen a very direct, explicit sort of threat against the Republican who has resisted joining team Trump since he clenched the party's nomination.

Now, it's important to remember this comes a few days ahead of a big meeting between Paul Ryan and Donald Trump on Capitol Hill where the hope is at least from the Republican national committee's perspective that these two towering figures within the GOP right now can sort of bridge their divide and start working together.

But it's getting tougher and tougher to see. This morning, Trump was on some of the morning shows and said that he opposes -- actually is in favor of increasing the minimum wage. That's a break from conservative orthodoxy --

WHITFIELD: Although, he still said it would be left up to the states.

BRADNER: Right, that's true. That's true. But even sort of opening the door to it was big. And he also said he is willing to increase taxes on the wealthy. He said he would sort of bargain away the cuts on the wealthy that he proposed earlier in the campaign in exchange for a deal.

[14:05:54] WHITFIELD: And so how does Donald Trump - how does he respond to this kind of modification of certain policies when he has been on record of saying one thing just a few months, if not a few years ago and then today, he changes it. While there's some in the Republican Party who say, OK, maybe we could work with him and we can shape him, versus the sentiment of others who say, we would call that flip flopping.

BRADNER: Right. Trump seems immune to this idea of flip flopping. His argument is, look, I wrote "the art of the deal." And of course, you have to be able to make a deal. His entire criticism of Ted Cruz was that the guy was unwilling to bend at all in order to get something done.

It's fascinating to see the Republican Party, which has been so intent on ideological purity, at least on Capitol Hill, on stopping President Obama on everything. All of a sudden being led by a candidate who is in fact very open to the idea of negotiating and compromising and says it's essential to getting anything done.

WHITFIELD: All right. Eric Bradner, thanks so much. Good talking to you.

All right. Let's talk more about these exclusive comments from Sarah Palin and the growing divide of Republican Party over Donald Trump.

Joining me right now is CNN political commentator Tara Setmayer. Also with me is Brian Morgenstern who is a Republican political strategist.

All right. Good to see both of you.

OK, Brian, let me begin with you because, you know, we were talking about the meeting this week between Donald Trump and Mr. Ryan, how what might Sarah Palin has said today, how might that influence kind of the mood of that meeting?

BRIAN MORGENSTERN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It's not exactly an olive branch, is it, you know? It's a shot across the barrel. And I think team Trump's thinking is that this gives them leverage, they can go to the meeting and say, hey, you know, it would be ashamed if something were to happen to you in the primary, so why don't you just get on board. The problem is I don't know how much weight that threat really carries. Paul Ryan is kind of a rock star in Wisconsin, Trump is not. He lost big in Wisconsin.

And Ryan is not exactly like Eric cantor. He goes home every weekend. He stays in-touch. He does town halls regularly. Cantor had become a bit of a preacher of Washington and kind of, you know, lost sight of his flank. Ryan has not.

So I'm not sure that it carries much weight but understand the reason for doing it. I just think it's a terrible idea because Ryan is one of the few good spokespeople for conservatism left and he is the only glue housing the House of Representatives together. So, you know, this is kind of an endorsement of chaos by Palin. But you know, team Trump is trying to steam roll everybody.

WHITFIELD: So Tara, is it an endorsement of chaos, or did Sarah Palin just reveal something else about the conversations that are taking place within the Republican party as to whether at this point, you didn't like Donald Trump for a while, he is the presumptive nominee, you might as well accept it?

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I agree with my good friend Brian that Sarah Palin represents chaos in general. I don't know -- she's unrecognizable from the vice presidential candidate that we all supported in 2008. I don't know what Sarah Palin is doing. I mean, she has been rather shrill and incoherent and just more of the caricature in her support for Donald Trump recently. It's given her relevance again. She was pretty much fading off into the sunset of politics for a while. She herself became a reality show person. And so, I don't really think that what Sarah Palin has to say against Paul Ryan, who's a serious conservative, who has achievements through and through his entire adult life in working with conservatism, we can agree on some of the his policy prescriptions. But for the most part he is a thinker, he is an intellectual and his goal in life was to be ways and means chairman so he could rewrite tax policy and entitlement policy.

I mean, we are comparing Sarah Palin and what she has to say to someone like Paul Ryan, I take it with a grain of salt. And she really thinks that Paul Ryan, she is going to -- her words are going to threaten Paul Ryan. He has won every single congressional election he has ever run in. And has never lost by any more than 54 percent is the lowest he's ever gotten. He won 63 percent of the vote last time. Good luck with that in Wisconsin.

[14:10:09] WHITFIELD: OK. And the issue of relevance, even she, you know, Sarah Palin is being asked whether she would accept the role of vice president if Trump were to ask.

SETMAYER: She's crazy.

WHITFIELD: No, we can't forget. He did ask her to come on board his campaign a few months ago. Well today, Trump was asked and had a very interesting reaction. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Donald Trump is turning his attention he says to picking a running mate, are you willing to be vetted for that job?

PALIN: I think I'm pretty much as vetted as anybody in the country could be vetted already. So I think there are so many other great people out there in America that can serve in this position. I think if someone wanted to choose me, they already know who I am and what I stand for. They wouldn't be in for any surprises.

TAPPER: So, if he wanted to talk to you about the gig, you're phone is right there?

PALIN: Well, I want to help and not hurt. And I'm such a realist that I realize there are a whole lot of people out there who would say, anybody but Palin. I wouldn't want to be a burden on the ticket. And I recognize that in many, many eyes I would be that burden. So you know, I just want the guy to win. I want America to win. And I don't know if I would be the person that would be able to help him win, Jake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Interesting.

All right. So that was s her response if Donald Trump were to ask. But nobody has actually done anything like that.

So Brian, what do you say to that when she says she doesn't want to be a burden on anyone's ticket?

MORGENSTERN: That is the most self-awareness I have seen displayed by Sarah Palin in my entire life since she came on the scene in the 2008 election. That was an amazing thing. And I agree 100 percent that she would be a huge burden on the ticket --

WHITFIELD: At the same time, she clearly knows she gets a lot of attention. I mean, look, we are talking about her today. And everything that she said today has, you know, has raised some eyebrows.

SETMAYER: That's what it's about for her, Fredricka. I mean, it is about getting attention. Let's think about Sarah Palin's career trajectory since they lost the presidency in 2008. Has she done anything to become a serious player, policy person in Washington? No, she became a reality TV person. And she has done all kinds of things that are just more about entertainment and she, you know, a lot of people liked her but as they saw that how superficial and there wasn't much depth there as things went, you know, progressed, she has fallen off. And Donald Trump paraded her back out from Alaska to come out and put on a show. And that's what she has done. I mean, she fits right in with Donald Trump, two reality show characters on the presidential ticket. We might as well go for it 100 percent. But he would be crazy to pick her.

WHITFIELD: Go, Brian.

MORGENSTERN: I was going to say, the one thing I disagree with, her reason for being a burden, I think was the mirror image, it was actually opposite because she said something about surprises. The reason that she would be a burden is because nobody knows what the heck is going to come out of her mouth next.

SETMAYER: That's true.

MORGENSTERN: It's all about surprises with her, which is the very reason why she shouldn't be on the ticket.

WHITFIELD: OK, Tara, Brian, we have a lot more to talk about coming up.

Also straight ahead in a CNN exclusive, we now know Senator Ted Cruz wanted Senator Marco Rubio to join his ticket but Rubio refused and the Cruz camp is blaming Rubio now for not stepping up to help stop Trump.

Wow, what a soap opera. More straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:17] WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. So now that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee, many in the Republican Party are wondering if there is anything that could have been done to stop him. And this image of what might have been is a powerful picture of what some were calling a dream unity ticket, Cruz/Rubio, 2016. CNN has learned that top officials at the Cruz campaign are convinced if Rubio would have agreed to be Ted Cruz's running mate, the presidential race would be very different today. The Cruz campaign even poll tested a Cruz/Rubio tickets in five states - Illinois, Arizona, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Missouri and the result according to a Cruz source, blowout. Cruz/Rubio, 65 percent, Trump 35 percent. Representatives from the Cruz camp were sent to feel it out but Rubio never expressed any interest.

So let's bring back our panel, Brian Morgenstern and Tara Setmayer.

All right, so Tara, what is your response to all of this? Water under the bridge, doesn't matter or does this, you know, kind of underscore a real bubbling up of concern.

SETMAYER: Well, I think when you start going through the autopsy of campaigns there's a whole lot of things that people wish would have happen or done differently. I mean, if you look at the Marco Rubio campaign, I'm sure if there are if we had done this or done that differently, this would be a different result.

So there had been talk about the unity ticket asked by the things when it wasn't going so well for Rubio. But, you know, Marco Rubio at the time we're talking March, nobody really knew that Donald Trump would have been able to wrap this thing up so early. I mean, a lot of us were surprised that Ted Cruz's campaign collapsed so quickly. I think people were looking forward to a contested convention which is what Rubio's spokes said. Potentially, he is also looking at his own future in 2020. He still has a great political future ahead of his. And something else he express was he thought that the nominee should be able to pick their -- not their vice presidential candidate by the convention not necessarily be stuck with someone prior to that. So there are a lot of variables involved.

WHITFIELD: So Brian, you had supported Marco Rubio, right? Would this have been a serious consideration for him? If so, if not, why.

MORGENSTERN: At the time I remember the conversations floating around but there wasn't evidence there that, you know, either Cruz or Rubio were going to flame out the way they did. And so, you know, hindsight 20/20 of course. But there are also at the time would have been a serious discussion about who should be the top of the ticket because, you know, one -- in early March, we're talking, you know, one hadn't really clearly established who should be -- who should be the number one guy.

The other thing is that these two guys teaming up -- sure, it may be that polling data holds true but after Trump won Florida on the 15th of March, there's no evidence to suggest that it would have necessarily turned out the way they predicted. I mean, Cruz won Wisconsin anyway. So one of the states they polled, you know, doesn't necessarily change the map. If you're going to tell me a Cruz/Rubio ticket would have taken Arizona away from Trump, you know, I think I have got a bridge I would like to sell you. I'm not convinced that their expectations actually would have panned out this way.

[14:20:38] WHITFIELD: All right. Meantime, part of the strategy for Donald Trump as he moves towards the general election, continues to hammer away at the establishment, all the headlines this morning highlighting the rift in the GOP. And when asked about unifying the party on ABC this morning, this is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We want to bring the party together, does the party have to be together? Does it has to be unified? I'm very different than everybody else perhaps that has ever run for office. I actually don't think so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: What does it mean by that, Tara?

SETMAYER: Well, I think he's ego is so large he thinks he is bigger than everything. He is bigger than party loyalty. He is bigger than, you know, 200 years of tradition. I mean, this is just part of who he is. And I think that it's audacious --

WHITFIELD: And his response to Paul Ryan, he didn't inherit, you know, the Republican Party. He said he won it, period.

SETMAYER: Right. I mean, this is the fact that he doesn't even revere what the Republican Party platform is and what the tradition of conservatism and what has made the Republican Party. The Republican Party goes to show you why so many of us have a problem with Donald Trump being the standard there, including Paul Ryan. The fact that he is unwilling to extend an olive branch and say that, you know what, there is 60 percent of the Republican Party that did not vote for him and maybe we should -- if we're going to have a platform, which they have to come together and agree upon before the election, how does he plan on doing this? He's basically saying the hell with the Republican Party. I can do it myself. It is all about him. And that kind of narcissism is part of the problem.

WHITFIELD: Isn't that working? And that's working for him though, isn't it?

MORGENSTERN: It seems to be for the time being, it's working on two fronts, it seems that the Trump supporters are becoming more and more seduced and hypnotized and loyal to him the more ridiculous he gets. But the more the rest of the country hates him because the negatives, you know, the more he solidifies the Trump people, the more his negatives go through the roof. So I guess it's -- the leverage or whatever showing the party elites as he likes to call them that he doesn't care about them and he's for the people or whatever. OK. Fine, when we get into the general election, he'll have reckoning to do.

WHITFIELD: I'm now fixated on the hypnotism.

SETMAYER: That's a good word.

WHITFIELD: All right. Brian Morgenstern and Tara Setmayer, that's so much.

Thanks so much. Good to see you guys.

MORGENSTERN: Thank you.

SETMAYER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, coming up, firefighters battling a dangerous and unpredictable fire in Canada. CNN's Paul Vercammen is in Edmonton where thousands of evacuees are headed.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well a fire is still going here through Alberta. Winds still blowing but we have a glitter of hope. We'll explain doming up in a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:27:11] WHITFIELD: Some good news this afternoon about massive wildfires raging in Canada. The fires did not grow as large as firefighters feared they would. The burn area is now larger however than New York City. And smoke is billowing as far away as Florida. CNN's Paul Vercammen is live for us in Edmonton, Alberta dis live in

Edmonton, where we're expected to get an update. But Paul, people on the ground are describing this as an Armageddon.

VERCAMMEN: Absolutely devastating. And the focus of it, Fort McMurray, that's the oil sands city that endured so much. Scenes of utter devastation, entire neighborhoods gone and commercial buildings disappeared. Many of the evacuees came down here to Edmonton seek shelter overnight.

Firefighters up against one heck of a fight. But as you pointed out, Pam, better news today. The fires slowing down a little bit burning in these large pine forests to the west. They thought it might reach the border and it has not yet. And the firefighters being applauded for the hard work they are doing. Let's take a listen.

We hope to hear from somebody about that. We'll tell you what they were celebrating the firefighters for. They have basically been at it around the clock, nonstop, driving it as one firefighter put it and he said that they indeed will have to get some sort of relief later and later in the week we understand firefighters will come in from Quebec and New Brunswick. That would be a big help. And also, they look to Mother Nature to help out. I smile as it's now a little clear and little cooler. The cool temperatures could help a lot, Pam.

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's hope it does. All right. Thanks so much, Paul Vercammen. Appreciate it.

All right for more information on how to help evacuees, go to CNN.com/impact.

All right, still ahead, John McCain isn't a huge Donald Trump fan but he's criticizing Republican leaders for not listening to the millions of voters who want Trump to be their nominee. That interview next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCAIN: I think that he could be a capable leader. I think it's obvious that there has to be outreach on his part.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:31:03] WHITFIELD: All right, now that Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, there's a rift in the party. Support for Trump is weighing back and forth.

But Trump has a handful of top Republicans in his corner including Senator John McCain and McCain says other Republican leaders would be foolish not to listen to the will of the voters.

CNN's Manu Raju caught up with the 2008 GOP presidential nominee on the campaign trail in Arizona.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Your closest friend, Lindsey Graham, just said that he's not going to support Trump or Hillary Clinton. Why are you ready to support Trump?

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I've said all along that I would support the nominee of the party. I believe that a Hillary Clinton presidency will cause the economy to continue to stumble along and put us in the economic malaise that basically we've had for eight years.

RAJU: Sometimes I wonder if you think that the party leadership is sort of disconnected to what the base or party wants. Millions of supporters are getting behind Donald Trump, but the leadership is not. Are you worried that there's a disconnect?

MCCAIN: You have to draw the conclusion that there is some distance if not a disconnect between party leadership and members of Congress and the many of the voters who have selected Donald Trump to be the nominee of the party.

We could go down the list but a lot of it is older, white blue collar workers who see no prospect of a job ever again. We see dissatisfied young people who are carrying student debts into the first job for many years.

There's -- and of course, the perception which is largely reality, not totally, that there's gridlock in Washington. And that's given rise to Trump and Sanders and that's something that we in the Republican Party are going to have to look at very carefully.

RAJU: And should your leadership listen to those folks a little better?

MCCAIN: You have to listen to people that have chosen the nominee our Republican Party. I don't think -- I think it would be foolish to ignore them.

RAJU: Is there anything specific in Donald Trump's national security profile that is better than Hillary Clinton's that you like about what he said about foreign policy?

MCCAIN: I think American leadership, he emphasizes that and I think that's important. This president doesn't want to lead.

[14:35:04]Hillary Clinton was secretary of state for four years, tell me one accomplishment that she can point to besides the fact she flew more miles than any other secretary of state in history.

I believe that the Republican Party must maintain its viability as a party and I'm a Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan Republican. I will do everything that I can to continue to steer the Republican Party along those lines and that direction.

I believe that the greatest president of the 20th Century was Ronald Reagan. I will continue to try to move our party of those principles primarily peace through strength.

RAJU: Do you have confidence that Trump can be like Reagan?

MCCAIN: I think that he could be a capable leader. I think it's obvious that there has to be outreach on his part and to heal many of the wounds. There's always wounds in spirited campaigns, but frankly I have never seen the personalization of a campaign like this one, where people's integrity and character are questioned.

RAJU: And that bothers you.

MCCAIN: That bothers me a lot. It bothers me a lot because you can violently almost disagree with someone on an issue, but to attack their character and integrity then those wounds would take a long time to heal.

RAJU: Would you appear on the same stage with Donald Trump?

MCCAIN: I think it would have to be a lot of things would have to happen. I think it's important for Donald Trump to express his appreciation for veterans, not John McCain but veterans who were incarcerated as prisoners of war.

What he said about me, John McCain, that's fine. I don't require any repair of that. But when he said I don't like people who were captured, then there's a great -- there's a body of American heroes that I would like to see him retract that statement, not about me, but about the others.

RAJU: You are quoted as saying that him at the top of the ticket puts your race in play -- makes it difficult for you. Is he good or bad at the top of the ticket?

MCCAIN: What I was saying is that there is a Hispanic vote, which I have to continue my good relationship with because of the turmoil that exists in this whole national campaign. And so anybody who doesn't agree that there's great turmoil and any incumbent doesn't recognize that and have to campaign as hard as they possibly can is unaware of the passing scene. That's what I was talking about.

RAJU: Would you want him to retract those statements about undocumented Mexican immigrants and called them rapist and criminals, would you want him to retract those statements?

MCCAIN: I don't know. I think that it's important we understand the importance of the Hispanic vote in America. Many states in Arizona more than 50 percent of the kids in school are Hispanic. After the 2012 election as you know, we laid out a blue print and part of it was outreach to the Hispanic community. I think we all recognize that the Republican Party has to do that.

RAJU: And he does too.

MCCAIN: I assume so.

RAJU: We talked about --

MCCAIN: I haven't talked to him. RAJU: We're in the middle of the vice presidential speculation game. What was that like in 2008 for you and how did you end up with Sarah Palin?

MCCAIN: Well, I still believe that contrary to what has become the popular information and opinion is that Sarah Palin energized our ticket. I have polling data that back from them that shows that she did that. She beat Joe Biden in a debate. She energized our base. We went from three points down to about four or five points up.

RAJU: She also made some big mistakes.

MCCAIN: Of course, she made some mistakes. Yes, obviously I made mistakes. I will take full responsibility for failure and I will not put that on Sarah Palin. She energized our campaign and I'm very proud of her.

I don't often make a comment like this but she was treated terribly by what we know of as the mainstream media. And that's the only thing I'll ever resent about my presidential campaign is her treatment by the media. It was disgraceful.

RAJU: What advice would you give Trump as he selects a vice presidential pick?

[14:40:04]MCCAIN: Someone who will unite the party.

RAJU: Joni Ernst was just out here. She's mentioned as a possibility.

MCCAIN: I think Joni Ernst would be tremendous. She is really remarkable. I think there's a number of members of the Senate and Paul Ryan is obviously was helpful to the Romney ticket. I'm not sure he would want to do that again. I think there's a lot of people out there that he could choose from.

RAJU: John McCain?

MCCAIN: No.

RAJU: You've had your time?

MCCAIN: No education in the second kick of a mule.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, that interview with Manu Raju. All right, still ahead the most powerful drug trafficker in the world possibly extradited to the U.S. CNN's Boris Sanchez has more.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred. El Chapo is getting closer and closer to U.S. soil. His attorneys actually say he wants to be extradited to the U.S., but there may be some mixed signals there. We'll explain why next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Right now, notorious Mexican drug kingpin, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is sitting in a new prison cell in Juarez, Mexico putting him just a few miles across the border from El Paso, Texas.

CNN Boris Sanchez is following the story from Miami.

SANCHEZ: Hey, Fred. Yes, El Chapo is getting closer and closer to the United States and though his lawyers have sent mixed signals about how they feel about the possibility of him being extradited to the U.S., it looks like that may be his next move to face an American judge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[14:45:14]SANCHEZ: One of the most notorious criminals in the world on the move this weekend. Authorities transferring Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman going from a prison in Central Mexico to a maximum security lockup in Ciudad Juarez, just a few miles from the United States.

The exact reason for the move is still unclear. But officials on both sides of the border have been laying the groundwork to extradite El Chapo to the United States for months.

MICHAEL BRAUN, FORMER DEA CHIEF OF OPERATIONS: The only way that the government of Mexico is going to ensure absolutely that they don't go through another embarrassing situation, another embarrassing escape is to extradite him to the United States.

SANCHEZ: The drug kingpin had been kept at the Altiplano (ph) prison, the same one he fled last July. His brazen escape allegedly made through a well-designed series of tunnels led to a massive manhunt and drew international attention.

After months on the run, El Chapo was finally caught in January returning to the prison after his recapture. The transfer to Ciudad Juarez comes just one month after Guzman's defense team said he wanted to be transferred to the United States soon as possible.

El Chapo's attorney say the conditions he was facing at Altiplano were unbearable, making him seriously ill.

JOSE REFUGIO RODRIGUEZ, LAWYER FOR "EL CHAPO" GUZMAN (through translator): At 9:00 at night, they at the jail begin the nightly roll call. The next step is at 1:00 in the morning but between 9:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m., he said if you could only know all the movement there and all of the noise out there. It's impossible to sleep. Then for starters during the day I cannot sleep because there is a roll call every hour.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Now despite his attorneys saying that he wants to be extradited to the United States, last month one of his attorneys told CNN that wasn't exactly the case. They filed paperwork to prevent him from being extradited and the attorney told CNN the whole thing was a ploy to get him moved from that prison and out of those unbearable conditions -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then what about once or if he indeed goes to Brooklyn, what does he face there?

SANCHEZ: The list of charges reads like something out of a horror movie, there's murder and kidnapping and torture and of course, he's accused of importing more than a quarter million pounds of cocaine into the United States -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Boris Sanchez, thank you so much.

All right, homes, businesses, and lives destroyed after a series of tornadoes ripped through Colorado, the latest.

And then North Korea's leader vows not to use nuclear weapons with exceptions and is another North Korean nuclear test imminent? CNN is there with a report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:51:40]

WHITFIELD: All right, checking our top stories, five people were hurt after tornadoes touched down in Colorado. Incredible images right there out of the town of Wray. The tornado was on the ground for six miles damaging homes and buildings. Police there spent part of their evening rounding up cattle left wandering the highway. There have en no reports of any serious injuries. Miraculously, that's incredible.

ISIS claiming responsibility for horrific attack in Egypt. Eight policemen were killed when gunmen open fire on a mini-van filled with plain officers. They were patrolling an area south of Cairo. Authorities say they are still hunting for the killers.

And in North Korea, Kim Jong-Un says he is ready to use nuclear weapons, but added he would only do it if provoked by another nuclear power. He made that statement at the country's Workers Party Congress, the first in decades.

CNN's Will Ripley is covering the story and reports there's still a strong responsibility North Korea will continue a nuclear test to cap off the congress which ends in the next 24 hours. He has more now from Pyongyang.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in the North Korean capital, news coverage is dominated by the seventh Workers Party Congress. Earlier state TV broke in for a three-hour speech from Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un.

Among other things, he talked about North Korea's nuclear arsenal saying his country would only use nuclear weapons if they are provoked.

But around the world there's growing concern about new satellite images that appears to show activity at a North Korean nuclear test site.

The U.S. think tank, 38 North, says what they are seeing in these images could be consistent with preparations for another nuclear test like the one that North Korea conducted in January when they said they detonated an H-bomb.

Since then there's been a satellite launch and last month four attempted missile launches all leading up to the seventh Workers Party Congress, a very important time politically for the North Korean leader.

The timing conducting a nuclear test around this congress at a time when there's international media inside Pyongyang, it could make sense if the country is trying to make a big impression on the world. Will Ripley, CNN, Pyongyang.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much for that report. All right, coming up in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM, we'll take a look at Trump's most memorable moments from his attack on women to his comments about illegal immigrants.

And Sarah Palin supports Trump, but she doesn't sound interested in being his vice president, saying she wants to help not hurt, not be a burden, her words.

Then a memorable moment at President Obama's commencement address at Howard University in the nation's capital. He recognized one student specifically and we'll hear from her and her mother straight ahead on this Mother's Day.

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[14:58:12]

(HEADLINES)

WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. So Sarah Palin is escalating the GOP civil war over Donald Trump as the party grapples with a growing divide over the presumptive presidential nominee.

Today on CNN the former vice presidential candidate dropped several bombshells in an exclusive interview with Jake Tapper on "STATE OF THE UNION." Palin not only says Speaker Paul Ryan's political career is over. She vows to campaign for Ryan's primary opponent when he is up for re-election in August.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN: I think Paul Ryan is soon to be cantored, as in Eric Cantor, his political career is over but for a miracle because he's so disrespected the will of the people. I think why Paul Ryan is doing this, it kind of screws his chances for the 2020 presidential bid that he's gunning for.