Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Trump and Ryan Meeting; Trump and McConnell Meeting; Pressure on Ryan. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 12, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me.

Donald Trump goes to Washington on a huge day for the future of the Republican Party.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jake Tapper. I'm live on Capitol Hill. Today has been, quote, "productive," quote, "encouraging," quote, "a good start," but still no endorsement for Donald Trump from House Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump and Ryan met today for a highly anticipated conversation about how they might be able to come together, how the Republican Party can unite for the one objective they all can actually agree on, defeating Hillary Clinton and taking back the White House. Now, Speaker Ryan did not exactly reveal what, if anything, was resolved today, but he did say they need some more time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: The process of unifying the Republican Party, which just finished a primary about a week ago, perhaps one of the most divisive primaries in memory, takes some time. Look, there are people who are for Donald Trump, who are for Ted Cruz, who are for John Kasich, who are for Marco Rubio and everybody else. And it's very important that we don't fake unifying. We don't pretend unification. That we truly and actually unify so that we are full strength in the fall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Let's bring in CNN's chief political correspondent Dana Bash.

Dana, this meeting was quick. Just 45 minutes. What possibly could have been accomplished in that time, less than an hour?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: More than you would think when you're talking about two men who really didn't know each other and what they knew of each other was a lot of back and forth publicly that we have not seen very often from two Republican leaders. But, you know, the first meeting was just the three men, Paul Ryan, Reince Priebus and Donald Trump. That was the most important meeting. One that Reince Priebus, I'm told, worked very hard to prepare for, talked to Donald Trump every day this past week, maybe multiple times a day, not just about this but about, you know, uniting everything and getting all their systems go - ready to go. And also talked to his old friend Paul Ryan to make sure that they were on the same page after -

TAPPER: Priebus and Ryan both old friends from Wisconsin.

BASH: Priebus and Ryan, old friends from Wisconsin.

TAPPER: And what did - what did Priebus have to say because you interviewed him right after the meeting and the RNC executive director is clearly in a - in a - or chairman, rather, is clearly in a very tough position. What did he have to say about the meeting?

BASH: Well, as you said, there was one word that we heard over and over again, and that was unity. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I think the headline is, positive first step toward unifying our party. It was a great meeting and that's the only way it can be described.

BASH: That doesn't tell us a lot.

PRIEBUS: It doesn't, but that's because, you know, it was a private meeting in my office and I'm not going to talk about the specifics, other than to say things were discussed that were specific. It was a cooperative meeting. It was mutually, I think, cooperative and positive. And that's the only way you can describe it.

BASH: My understanding is that you have spent a lot of time over the past week on the phone with Donald Trump, talking to him almost every day, sometimes multiple times a day. You talked a lot to your old friend Paul Ryan. You guys have known each other since way back, from Wisconsin Republican politics, to be the bridge builder here. Is that how you feel?

PRIEBUS: Well, I think it's an important role for the party. I mean unifying the party should be no surprise to anyone that that's one of the jobs of being chairman of the Republican Party. And it's important to be unified. It's important to remember that -

BASH: But it's not usually this hard.

PRIEBUS: Well, you know what, this was not a usual election. I mean it was a very contentious, tough primary. And, obviously, no one can deny that. It's something that a lot of us haven't been through.

BASH: Do you feel like a couple's therapist?

PRIEBUS: No. You know what, you wouldn't say that if you were in the room. It was very - it was - it was great. And I think the - it had very good chemistry between the two of them.

BASH: You expect an endorsement soon from Paul Ryan now?

PRIEBUS: You know, look, like I said, it was a great first step toward unifying the party and I think if you read both of the statements that came out of speaker's office and Donald Trump's campaign, they echo the same feeling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So no endorsement, in fact, at all yet from Paul Ryan. He made clear that he's not doing that because this is just the beginning. And, truthfully, politically, you know, Jake, it would be quite hard for him to tell you one week that he's not going to endorse and then, you know, turn on a dime, as you said, just after a 45-minute meeting.

But a couple of things that I've - that's the public stance. A couple of things that I've heard from sources about what happened privately in that meeting and in the broader meeting with other House Republican leaders is that it wasn't contentious. That Trump did a lot of listening. That he said the right things. And that Paul Ryan, you know, was pretty clear with him, that he feels that it is up to Trump to unify the party. A lot of people voted for him. A lot of people voted against him.

[14:05:02] And that he also brought up an issue that is near and dear to Ryan's heart, which is balancing the budget, but doing so with his conservative principles. And for him that means drastically reforming Medicare and Social Security, which we know from covering Trump for months and months, talking to him at debates, he doesn't want to touch those things. So they did start to discuss those policy differences.

TAPPER: Ryan also had a lot of nice things to say about Donald Trump personally.

BASH: He did.

TAPPER: He was very -

BASH: Because they didn't know each other.

TAPPER: Right.

BASH: Yes.

TAPPER: But said some very - called him warm and engaging or something like that.

BASH: Yes, that's right.

TAPPER: Very interesting. Dana Bash, thank you.

Remember, this is the same Donald Trump who ran his campaign on a very clear anti-establishment, anti-politician, anti-Washington platform. So this is not an apology tour, but Trump was likely on his best behavior while trying to meet up with the establishment and get congressional support.

Following his meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee met with Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. So let's go to CNN's senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

Jim, much like Speaker Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has expressed disappointment with Donald Trump on occasion, especially perhaps that moment when he seemed reluctant to disavow the support he's getting from white supremacists and the KKK and former KKK leader David Duke. Were any of those issues resolved today?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: To our knowledge, not at this point yet. We don't know that - whether or not that occurred, Jake. But we can say that, you know, Donald Trump has already won the Mitch McConnell primary, if you will. He already has the endorsement of the Senate majority leader.

But we are getting some tidbits in terms of what was talked about in this meeting, not as discipline sounding as Reince Priebus was making the conversation between Paul Ryan and Donald Trump sound. According to senators who were there and talking to our colleagues up on Capitol Hill, John Cornyn, the Republican from Texas, talked to Donald Trump about the tone that he's used during the course of this campaign. He said to Donald Trump, according to our colleagues up on Capitol Hill, that he said to Donald Trump that there are ways to talk about immigration without alienating Hispanics. So, obviously, there is a concern inside the Senate Republican leadership that Donald Trump maybe has gone too far on occasions and talking about some of these issues.

Now, according to Jeff Sessions, who was very much on team Trump, who was also at this meeting, they did talk about the issue of illegal immigration. Obviously, Jeff Sessions probably doesn't have much of a problem with the way Donald Trump has talked about that issue of immigration.

But I will tell you, Jake, from talking to people inside the Trump campaign, they're pretty pleased about how things went today up on Capitol Hill. They did not expect Donald Trump to get an endorsement today from House Speaker Paul Ryan. They had no expectation of that according to one aide. But according to another aide that I talked to, they believe that Paul Ryan will come on board fairly quickly. They say that they did not expect him to jump on board right away. He has some members to appease in his caucus. But in the words of this one aide, that's what makes Paul Ryan a good speaker.

So, Jake, as you're probably noticing, a lot of the right things are being said between these two camps right now and that does seem to indicate, at least at this early stage, that things are trending in a positive direction for Donald Trump to land this endorsement from Paul Ryan.

Jake.

TAPPER: Absolutely, Jim Acosta. It certainly could have gone worse, I think we all can imagine that.

ACOSTA: That's true. TAPPER: One step closer, facing pressure from his rank and file on both sides, in a meeting with House Republicans, Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, was pressed to get on the proverbial Trump train, if for no other reason than to unite to defeat the presumptive - well, not yet, but possible Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton come November, or Bernie Sanders if he ends up pulling that off.

Joining me now is one of the Republican pro-Trump congressman, Scott DesJarlais from Tennessee.

Thanks so much for being here. We sure appreciate it.

And we should point out, you were the third member of the House to endorse Donald Trump?

REP. SCOTT DESJARLAIS (R), TENNESSEE: Right.

TAPPER: So you're not a Johnny come lately. You were with him right before the Tennessee primary.

DESJARLAIS: Correct.

TAPPER: So did what happened today with Donald Trump and Speaker Ryan, was that enough for you or do you really want him to come out, the speaker, full throatedly and endorse Donald Trump as soon as possible?

DESJARLAIS: You know, I think he needs to as soon as possible. He's our nominee. It all happened rather fast and a lot of the media that's happening is because of you, quite frankly, and your question last week. It kind of set off this firestorm. I think that -

TAPPER: You're not blaming the - you're crediting me. You're crediting me.

DESJARLAIS: I'm not - I'm crediting you. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you today. So, anyways, you know, it's a news cycle. It did create a news cycle. I think that everyone thought this was probably going to go further. I think Cruz dropping out took a lot of people by surprise.

You know, there's a certain distance between now and the Republican Convention in July where we kind of put these things together, but we've kind of been forced in a sense to fast forward the process. And, honestly, Trump really hasn't had a chance to meet a lot of the lawmakers. And as he does that, as I think you mentioned earlier with Dana, you know, Paul Ryan found Trump to be very engaging, very congenial and that was my experience when I met him and I think a lot of people are going to find the same thing.

TAPPER: Is there more pressure on Speaker Ryan within the House Republican caucus to endorse Donald Trump or to not endorse Donald Trump, or - or is - or is the general sentiment, do what you feel like you need to do?

[14:10:14] DESJARLAIS: I would think, you know, he's the leader of the Republicans in the House and I think it doesn't make sense for him not to endorse our presidential nominee. I think that -

TAPPER: But are most people agree - do must people agree with you?

DESJARLAIS: I think that you're seeing most Republicans come around. It was a hard fought primary, as we all know, and there was a lot of hurt feelings and disappointment. And, you know, that's starting to pass and, you know, he was on the ticket with Romney. There was people who chose other candidates. So I think, again, that - I think everybody will get in line with this process. Our party is more unified I think than the Democratic Party right now. And there's always been factions within the Republican - the House. There's the Freedom Caucus. There's other groups that are, you know, not as united as we'd like to be. But I think that diversity is what makes us great. And so I think that there - there will be, you know, some pressure on Paul Ryan to do this and I think ultimately he will and I think wants to and I think today was a first step in - in moving that forward.

TAPPER: Now, I don't doubt that Donald Trump will win Tennessee.

DESJARLAIS: Right.

TAPPER: In November. Safe Republican state. Even Al Gore lost it in 2000. But what do you say to the people like Congressman Charlie Dent, who's from a swing-ish district in the battleground state of Pennsylvania and other who are - I don't want to put words in Charlie Dent's mouth, but other members of Congress who are maybe concerned that he might play great with the red states, but with the blue and purple, he could really hurt the Republican majority? What do you say to them?

DESJARLAIS: Well, I would say that take a look at when's happening across the country. There's clearly a momentum that's building, that started with New York and I think it's going to carry all the way to California. People are very upset with Washington. They're upset with Democrats. They're upset with Republicans. They're upset with the establishment. So I think that what people need to do is embrace the movement that the people have started and they - it's really, as we see on both sides of the aisle. So I think that Trump will help carry people as opposed to be a hindrance and they just have to accept that, you know, if we all get together and unite with a message that's going to help move the country in the right direction, I think that he is going to actually help people much more than he would hurt them.

TAPPER: I could probably point to ten moments in the last year that Donald Trump running, ten moments that if he hadn't done those ten things -

DESJARLAIS: Yes.

TAPPER: He would be a lot less controversial and Speaker Ryan would have endorsed him.

DESJARLAIS: Yes.

TAPPER: I'm sure you could name those ten moments as well. Do you ever convey to the campaign or do you ever wish - let's avoid moments like that, but keep up the general message, but you don't have to do that kind of thing?

DESJARLAIS: I'm surprised you say only ten because I can probably think of 20. You know, he's always saying something. But, for some reason, that resonates with a lot of people. It upsets some people, but the thing is he's strait forward. What -

TAPPER: I'm talking about the things that might upset you, though, a rock red Republican from Tennessee.

DESJARLAIS: Right. Yes. Oh, no, I mean certainly I don't think there's any of us that haven't cringed a little bit but in a way that's part of his charm, if you want to call it charm. Maybe that's not the best word.

TAPPER: Style.

DESJARLAIS: But he speaks his mind. And it's different. You know, he has - he has all the courage of Reagan, but, you know, not as much of the finesse. And I think that people are rallying behind his message. We know he's going to be different. They want something different in Washington. And so, you know, it's really hard to criticize somebody who navigated such a difficult, talented field in a primary and came out so well.

TAPPER: As he said I believe to "The New York Times" or maybe somebody else, he won the pennant, why would he change his strategy going into the World Series?

DESJARLAIS: Right. And, you know, that's - there's probably some logic to that.

TAPPER: All right, congressman, good to see you, as always.

DESJARLAIS: Thank you.

TAPPER: Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Brooke, back to you.

BALDWIN: All right, Tapper, thank you. We'll heading back to Washington in a moment.

So what about the folks who cannot stand Donald Trump? We will hear from them coming up.

Also ahead, former Vice President Dan Quayle breaking his silence, telling CNN what he thinks of the party and Trump's rise.

And new concerns today about a link between Saudi officials and the 9/11 hijackers. The curious new remarks from a member of the 9/11 Commission. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:55] BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. And you always know where Donald Trump is because you can spy that

Donald Trump plane. I saw it just yesterday in New York. And, here you go, he has come and just about gone from our nation's capital, from Washington, D.C. So our eyes are on that picture as presumably he heads back home northward to New York.

But the read to Republican unity, let's talk about that, Donald Trump and Paul Ryan taking the first steps today after their one-on-one. Earlier this morning in Washington, both feeling, you know, the word we got "encouraged," but House Speaker Paul Ryan not encouraged enough yet to officially, whole heartedly endorse. Why is that? Well, the speaker of the House says unity takes time. Can't fake it. It is a process.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I was very encouraged with what I heard from Donald Trump today. I do believe that we are now planting the seeds to get ourselves unified, to bridge the gaps and differences. And so, from here, we're going to go deeper into the policy areas to see where that common ground is and how we can make sure that we are operating off the same core principles. And so, yes, I am - this is our first meeting. I was very encouraged with this meeting. But this is a process. It takes a little time. You don't put it together in 45 minutes. So that is why we had, like I said, a very good start to a process on how we unify.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So much to discuss here. With me now, Barry Bennett, senior advisor for the Trump campaign, and CNN political commentators S.E. Cupp and Bill Press.

Welcome to all of you.

BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hi, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And, out of the gate - hi, guys - Barry Bennett, my first question to you is this. You know, yes, we've heard publicly from Paul Ryan. You know, we caught a glimpse of Donald Trump, you know, waving outside of the buildings on The Hill before heading toward his plane. I mean can you tell us, have you heard anything, how did he feel about the meeting? How positive was he?

BARRY BENNETT, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Yes, I asked, you know, was it productive? And the response I got back was, very. So I think it went really well. And I think the two of them really had never met, other than a brief encounter four years ago. And I think they kind of liked each other.

You know, this is a process. It's not a light switch. But I think they had a very good start today.

[14:20:01] BALDWIN: You know, knowing Mr. Trump as you do, and we heard the word - this is - we heard the phrase this is a process as well from Speaker Ryan. How long do you think this process will take before potentially we get a "yes" from the speaker of the House?

BENNETT: Well, we're not putting pressure on anybody. But, you know, it - we've got a convention in eight weeks, so it's not going to take that long.

BALDWIN: OK, sorry, just had a voice in my ear. And as we're talking about Trump, I was just told that he just tweeted as the plane has been taxiing, so let's all look at the tweet together. "Great day in D.C. with Speaker Ryan and Republican leadership. Things working out really well."

So on that note, S.E. Cupp, really well, I want to talk about Speaker Ryan because this is - this is the kind of man who, he balances budgets, he deals in math and numbers. I imagine he's meticulous and measured and, you know, he mentioned that he'd only really met Mr. Trump for like 30 seconds in 2012. So the fact that they met for 45 minutes and he's being very careful, it seems to me, and cautious about this, does that surprise you?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. As you said, I mean, you know, Paul Ryan, the Paul Ryan I know, is very contemplative, thoughtful, careful, cautious. He's serious. He's also a fun guy, but he - he takes this stuff very seriously. This is his life. He is, above all, a committed public servant. And he has ashooed (ph) celebrity at every turn to really stay committed to public service. And so I think a lot of the Trump campaign has been really sort of anasama (ph) to everything that Paul Ryan has done over the, you know, the past decade, two decades of his career. So that's why you hear that kind of caution. You know, we're - we're planting the seeds to bridge the gap to get closer to being unified.

Paul Ryan's job, first and foremost, is to protect the health of the House. And so I'm sure during that meeting he, you know, he sat down with Donald Trump. And I can picture him very clearly saying, look, I get it, you're doing what you got to do. It's been very successful. Congratulations. But let me explain to you some of the challenges that we're having in the House. And to, you know, to sort of educate, to educate Donald Trump, because he doesn't have a lot of political experience. Any, actually.

BALDWIN: Who do you - who do you think needs - need who more? Bill, and I promise I'm coming to you, but, S.E., is it more of like a Paul Ryan, you know, needs Trump or a Trump needs Paul Ryan?

CUPP: They both really need each other. Donald Trump has the support of about 40 percent of the party. And that really isn't going to be enough to win in a general election. Whoever he faces, whether that's Hillary or Bernie. So he needs - he needs the rest of the party, whether he wants to admit it or not. And Paul Ryan needs to keep the House Republican and knows that a dis-unified and unified party is a problem, not only for the White House, but for those down ballot races in the House and the Senate. So they need each other.

BALDWIN: So, you know, S.E. points out, Bill Press, all this sort of cautious, optimistic language. You know, you have the Hillary Clinton camp jumping on with their Twitter fingers today, you know, tweeting essentially a quote from Donald Trump saying, you know, we want to bring unity to the Republican Party and then Hillary Clinton's few words are "good luck with that." And embedded in the tweet is this mash-up of this video, right, between - of Paul Ryan essentially stopping short of endorsing the party's presumptive nominee. I have to imagine the Clinton camp is eating this up.

PRESS: Well, I've got to tell you, I'm not as impressed with this - all this positive talk and all this unity and this encouragement as most people seem to be. I mean, look, this should not be a process. What are they talking about? I mean Donald Trump ran against the establishment. He went through the primaries and he won. And I find for the speaker of the House to say, listen, it's going to take me some time and this is the way it normally is. That's baloney. I mean he's the nominee of the party. He ought to get the support of the party's leaders. And now they - and also, as an anti-establishment candidate, how much time is he going to spend sucking up to Paul Ryan? I don't get it.

Plus, I have to point out, you know -

BALDWIN: Yes.

PRESS: Even if he gets Paul Ryan's endorsement, it's not going to be a united party because you've got former President George W., former president H - George H.W., you've got Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham, who say they will - and others, they will never support. Is he going to have a meeting and a process with every one of them? I mean where does this lead?

BALDWIN: Barry Bennett - Barry Bennett, talking bologna and sucking up. Respond to that.

BENNETT: Well, I mean, if you look at the polling that's happened in the last ten days, unification is already happening. I mean the last three national polls we've seen, Rasmussen, the Quinnipiac and Reuters all have the race nationally tied. I mean so, you know, this notion that Mr. Trump only has 40 percent of the Republican Party, I mean that's just not true. And so, you know, the party (INAUDIBLE) - shouldn't be surprised -

BALDWIN: But what about Bill's point about it taking - it being a process?

BENNETT: Let me talk, S.E. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that America sees it before Washington does.

BALDWIN: It's actually Brooke.

BENNETT: I'm sorry. But, I mean, you should - I mean America sees it -

BALDWIN: It's actually Brooke. I mean I was following up on the point about the process.

[14:25:02] BENNETT: Yes, I mean, well, the process, I mean whatever - the process is whatever it takes for the speaker to come around to the idea that America has chosen if - I mean, I can't - I can't make him do it any faster and I'm not going to make him do it any slower. Whatever - I mean, this's his process. But America, the process for America has already happened.

PRESS: Well, I just have to caution, the -

BALDWIN: What do we know, Barry - go ahead. Go ahead.

PRESS: I was just going to say, the - I would not confuse the Republican primary with the process for America. Donald Trump has about 50 million people to convince yet. He may have convinced there would be Republican voters in the primary, but that's far from the general election. I'd just be - caution you there.

BENNETT: Well, the general election polls right now, Bill, is 42-41.

BALDWIN: Quickly, Barry, do we know of a second meeting yet or is it too soon to call?

BENNETT: You know, I think that next - subsequent meetings are probably staff meetings.

BALDWIN: OK. Barry, S.E. Cupp and Bill Press, thank you all so much.

PRESS: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up next - thank you - reaction is coming in from Trump's meeting this morning with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and also met with Senate Republican leaders. What rank and file Republicans are telling our correspondent on The Hill, Manu Raju. What they're saying behind the scenes about this unification process regarding Donald Trump. You're watching CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)