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Trump: We're Going To Build Up Military And Beat ISIS; Poll: More Voters Favor Clinton As Commander-In-Chief; Ryan's Challenger Seeks To Oust House Speaker. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired August 6, 2016 - 11:00   ET

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


[11:00:01] FREDERIKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Earlier this week Trump said he was not quite there yet when asked if he would endorse Ryan at the time. His decision, last night coming after a rough campaign stretch where he has seen his poll numbers falling. And his fellow Republicans calling on him to stay on message and do more to unite the party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: in our shared mission to make America great again. I support and endorse our Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, CNN's Scott McLean joining us now from Washington. So, what are the reasons that we understand behind his sudden endorsement now, Paul Ryan and John McCain?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. That's right, Frederika. This was all about a party unity. Trump talked about how he wants to grow the tent of the party. And he even quoted Former President Ronald Reagan to make his point. And as you mentioned not only did he endorsed Paul Ryan but also New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte and Arizona senator John McCain as well.

But even this week, Donald Trump had said he's never been a big fan of John McCain because he doesn't think he's done enough for veterans. Not to mention the fact that you remember about a year ago he said McCain wasn't a war hero because he was captured in Vietnam.

So, those comments plus Trump's refusal, his initial refusal to endorse this top name Republicans has angered a lot of people within the party. This surprise endorsement was very scripted and also a very big 180.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I hold in the highest esteem Senator John McCain for his service to our country in uniform and in public office. And I fully support and endorse his reelection. Very important. We'll work together.

I also fully support and endorse Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: Another big reason to smooth things over with the party. And that's -- notice that none of the big name Republicans from Wisconsin were at Trump's rally in Green Bay yesterday, like Governor Scott Walker or Paul Ryan himself. And with Trump trailing in the polls he might need their help looking toward November.

Now, as you mentioned, Fredirika. A lot of Republicans have said that Trump should just stay on message. Try not to get diverted and focus on Hillary Clinton. Last night he seemed to do that, upping his rhetoric calling her the queen of corruption. Tonight, he's going to take that same message to New Hampshire. A lot of people will be listening to see what he said if anything about Kelly Ayotte, because she is one of the most endangered Republicans who is up for reelection this fall. And right now, both her and Donald Trump are trailing in the polls in New Hampshire.

WHITFIELD: All right. Scott Mclean, thanks so much. Appreciate that.

All right. Let's talk more about this with our panel, Ford O'connell is a Republican strategist, Maria Cardona is a CNN political contributor and a Democratic strategist, also with me is CNN political a Commentator John Philips. Hello to all of you.

FORD O'CONNELL, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good to be here, Fred. Good morning.

WHITFIELD: All right. So, let me begin with you, how genuine was that coming from John -- coming from Donald Trump about John McCain and Paul Ryan?

O'CONNELL: Well, I'm sure we could hear him pick -- nitpick at this, but I'm going to say this, this is the single smartest thing Donald Trump has done since he's accepted the GOP Nomination. He recognizes that basically if he's going to win the White House in 2016, it's going to be a team effort. Understand that right now, only 78 percent of registered Republicans support Trump. If he's going to win the White House he needs 92 percent, 93 percent particularly in swing states like Wisconsin. When you've got folks like Paul Ryan as your surrogate lobbying and fighting for you in their state, you have a much better shot to win. So, it's all about ready.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, you said it sounds smart, it sounds like it's a smartest thing. But it comes after his poll numbers has dipped and so is this a knee-jerk reaction recovery. If you will.

O'CONNELL: Well, I would say this going it alone was not going to win it for Donald Trump. He is the head of the party. He is the quarterback of the team. But sometimes you had basically have to pat the back side of the lineman like Paul Ryan and John McCain out in Arizona where Hillary Clinton is nipping at his heels.

So, overall this is about unity and Donald Trump has finally made the right choice going forward.

WHITFIELD: All right, and John, this was Donald Trump reading from a script. We don't see it too often. You know something behind his being authentic is that he's off the cuff. So is that what makes this, you know, seem a little less genuine and more of the camp behind him saying this is what you need to do?

O'CONNELL: Oh no, this is good news and it's long overdue. The reality show primary is long over. So it's time to stop throwing the shard nay in people's faces and get in that general election mode.

[11:05:07] And that's what he did right here, because look, the primary is over, all these battles that he's been having with these various Republicans and CNN need to stop because they aren't his opponent in November. Their names won't be appearing on the ballot. The name that will be appearing on the ballot is Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton had one of the worst weeks of her campaign this last week getting four Pinocchio's from her interview with Chris Wallace on Fox saying that she would raise taxes on the middle class, having President Obama release all of those criminals. But she skated. She went under the radar because Trump spent so much time warring with all of these other people. Now that he's focusing on Hillary Clinton, I expect those poll numbers to bounce back up.

WHITFIELD: So then Maria, put the two together while Hillary Clinton may have shot herself in the foot a couple of times, you know, this week. Donald Trump is he looking like he is nervous or even scared?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, of course. And let's be very clear. He went to that podium to endorse Paul Ryan and John McCain kicking and screaming after a huge Republican intervention because the party was absolutely panicked from the last two weeks, that was nothing but a Donald Trump train derailment and debacle starting after the Democratic convention ended.

This is a man who cannot help himself. So he read from a script and that is a good day for Donald Trump. That is just a sad referendum on where the GOP nominee is and where the party is. But I completely understand. Because, you know, and by the way I need to correct John, Hillary Clinton did not say that she wanted to raise taxes on the middle class.

O'CONNELL: But I said she had four Pinnochios.

CARDONA: She said in fact completely the opposite.

O'CONNELL: But she had four Pinocchios.

CARDONA: I contend to you that ...

O'CONNELL: But Maria she also said that Jim Comey ...

CARDONA: Hey, hey I did not interrupt you. So, please don't interrupt me. So she did not say that she wanted raise taxes on the middle class. She said exactly the opposite and in fact that's what her platform puts out. So let's just put that to rest. And then secondly, yes, she doesn't give the greatest e-mail

explanation. But guess what, the issue about the e-mails is baked into the Clinton cake, if you like her that's not going to change your mind. If you don't like her you're going to try to continue to use that.

(CROSSTALK)

O'CONNELL: I guessed. I agree with you.

WHITFIELD: Why does she keep commenting on it and the laying which is kind of tripping on the words. I mean, it undermines any kind of advances she may have made according to polling.

CARDONA: Well, not according to polling.

WHITFIELD: I mean, in terms of the polling that we're seeing that she is --

CARDONA: She actually eight to ten points ahead.

WHIHTFIELD: Yeah. She's points ahead. But--

CARDONA: And in all --

WHITFIELD: Based on that polling she's now undermining herself, right? Is she not on...

CARDONA: Well, right. Exactly what I think ...

WHITFIELD: ... tripping on her words?

CARDONA: So, I think and I hope and I think what with the point that she's going to continue to make is, is that she regrets having made that decision. She's going to continue to apologize which is what she should focus on.

But what she was trying to say is that actually Jim Comey did say that there was absolutely no evidence that she lied to the FBI, number one. He also said in congressional testimony that those three e-mails that were classified, only three out of 30,000 were not marked correctly. And that anybody even specializing in classification could have overlooked that. So we could presume that she thought that those were not classified.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: So for -- there's no wonder why Donald Trump and his camp would jump on it. Because...

CARDONA: Sure.

WHITFIELD: ... why not just let Comey say what Comey said is stop trying to paraphrase or, you know, interpret what he said. And that's where, you know, Hillary Clinton keeps getting into trouble. Of course Donald Trump is going to, I would imagine, you tell me is his camp planning to, you know, just get more mileage out of it.

O'CONNELL: Well, you have to understand that right now Hillary Clinton has successfully made this election a referendum on Donald Trump's fitness to be president.

WHITFIELD: Yeah.

O'CONNELL: If Donald Trump's going to win. He has to make a referendum on Hillary Clinton. And Hillary Clinton can't help herself from lying. Here's what she tried to do with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. She basically said that Jim Comey said, I didn't lie in my public statements. You see that she's trying to muddy the waters for that potentially unaffiliated independent voter who may have to pull the lever for Donald Trump.

This was intentional on her part. She was trying to pull a fast one. She got caught. But we're not talking about it because Donald Trump had a terrible two weeks.

WHITFIELD: John?

JOHN PHILIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. Look, I want to clear something up. She did get four Pinocchios from "The Washington Post" over what she said with Chris Wallace.

WHITFIELD: Over the e-mails issue.

PHILIPS: And she did say she's going to raise taxes on the middle class. Yeah. We can go ahead and play that tape if you have it around because she said it in plain English.

CARDONA: No, she didn't.

O'CONNELL: Well, let's play the tape. Because that's what I heard.

CARDONA: She did not say that. And in fact I will send you the fact check from "The Washington Post" since you like those so much. But the bottom line is yes, she should...

PHILIPS: There was four Pinnochios.

CARDONA: ... not focus on the explanation of the e-mails. But here's the problem with the Donald Trump camp. This is the only thing they can focus on because every single day you have high level Republican national security officials coming out and either not supporting Donald Trump or saying that they're going to support Hillary Clinton because they say that Donald Trump is a dangerous option.

[11:10:10] A danger to the Republic if he becomes commander in chief, I think that is going to be much more impactful to a voter going into November who votes on their gut about who they can trust with our national security. Right now that person is Hillary Clinton.

WHITFIELD: All right. We're going to leave it right there for now. Maria Cardona, Ford O'Connell, and John Philips thanks so much to all of you. CARDONA: Thank you so much.

PHILIPS: Thank you.

O'CONNELL: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Appreciate it. We'll talk again next half hour.

All right. Under fire, Chicago police say an officer violated protocol in the shooting of an unarmed teen. Video capturing very disturbing incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Next, what's ahead in that investigation. Also coming up, a former CIA chief endorsing Clinton and calling Trump as you just heard, a bit of it in our conversation, a threat to national security, what impact could this have on the election? Less than now, 94 days away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:14:56] WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. Chicago police are admitting that their video of a deadly shooting incident shows their officers not following protocol.

The criticism comes after police just released footage of how suspected car thief Paul O'neal was killed. He was not armed. The clips from July 28th show O'neal crashing into an officer's patrol car head on as you saw right there, the 18-year-old van running off with officers following him, firing at him. Police cannot legally shoot fleeing suspects unless they pose a threat to an officer or substantial danger to the public. You'll see in the police body cam footage officers firing on the car, O'Neal allegedly stole. And, we want to warn you that the video is indeed, disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put your hands behind your back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired by police.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You shoot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He shot at us too, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I shot at the car after it almost hit you.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: CNN's Miguel Marquez joins me now. So, Miguel a minutes of body cam footage and then, you know, we don't see the actual shooting of Paul O'Neal. And there is some discrepancies about body cams that were working not working. What's the explanation?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. There are three issues here that police in Chicago are dealing with. One is that, he was running away from the police officer who was shooting at him. He was not armed despite what police on the scene said. And that the body cam video of the police officer who fired the fatal shot, it had either -- was either disabled, not working, or it ceased working when the Jaguar that Mr. O'Neal was in hit that police car. Here's a little bit of how the police officer reacted, just moments after the shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENIFIED MALE: I'm going to be on a desk duty for 30 days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, he shot back right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He almost hit my partner, so I shot at him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: So the video that the Chicago police have released, that is the body cam video, there were several officers who responded to this. It runs about 10 minutes in total, just a little over 10 minutes. And you heard it in the earlier video you showed and the video we just showed where police say he shot at us, right. He was shooting at us. I shot him because he was shooting at my partner. Oh, you know, oh God I'm going to spend, you know, 30 days on the desk now. Creating a situation or a narrative basically that they were being shot at.

Police now say the investigators so far say that is not the case at all. He was unarmed. He did not have a gun. There was never a threat to police officers, yet they were firing. That is raging huge concerns in the community. The lawyer for Mr. O'Neal's family says that the police acted as judge, jury, and executioner on that day. The police superintendent in Chicago tried to come out in front of police headquarters there and give a press conference. Here's how that went.

(BGEIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no need for him to say anything. There's no need for him to say anything, though. There's no need for him to say anything (inaudible)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then we have a superintendent who believes that it's classified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Eddie Johnson trying to speak to reporters there. He was intercepted by Black Lives Matter protesters or protesters from some group there in Chicago. He was forced back inside the police department.

All of this leading to Chicago P.D. releasing a bulletin, an extraordinary bulletin to all police departments across the country saying that the footage of the recent officer involved shooting was determined to violate their department policy. The footage will show an unarmed African-American male who had engaged police with his vehicle and he was shot in the back at some point during the encounter. It goes on to say that they expect some civil unrest from all of this.

But clearly, given the history of Chicago with Laquan McDonald in 2014, took over a year for that video to come out. This one took about a week. So, they are being much more active in investigating and getting information out there, but also very much on alert about what might happen. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: And did we ever get to hear an explanation from the police commissioner or the police department about the body cam? Why it was working, why it wasn't working at one point, anything about that?

MARQUEZ: They don't know. The video that you showed off the top of this show is what I believe is the dash cam of that police car. And you can see it goes to white basically and it goes out.

[11:20:07] WHITFIELD: After the crash.

MARQUEZ: The body camera video of that officer, that is under investigation. The police department saying two things really, we're not waiting to learn things, we're going to make changes right now and we're going to be very aggressive on this. But, we're also investigating as to what exactly, I mean they've said it violated department policy. Clearly, somebody running away that was unarmed that violates department policy. But, were there other issues with the officers shooting at the car, almost at each other if you look at the video and then into the street during broad day light. They could have injured other people and firing off about 15 rounds. And then, that video itself of the officer who fired the fatal shot, why was that camera not working?

WHITFIELD: All right. Miguel Marquez, thank you so much, appreciate that.

All right, still ahead the summer Olympic Games, they're underway. Has tensions and turmoil run high in Rio. We'll take you live there next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:25:12] WHITFIELD: All right, on the first full day of the summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the U.S. has already chalked up its first medal. Ginny Thrasher won gold in the 10 meter air riffle.

However, off the field, riot police used tear gas to break up protesters near the stadium where the opening ceremonies took place. And they are protesting the billions of dollars spent on the Olympic Games. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Rio and says he has confidence the games are safe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I have never seen as much security, and as much coordinated effort, they have gone all out. We've been working with them. Our security people are very, very tightly inclined with them. So, I think they've done a tremendous job of getting ready in a very complicated world. And I feel very confident personally but we live in a, you know, complicated place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Senior International Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh joins me now from Rio. So, Nick, how widespread are these protests?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CROORESPONDENT: Well, they were pretty around here yesterday, pretty evident then but, today so far quieter. The major issue yesterday was just before the opening ceremony. How a group of about two or three thousand younger protesters tried to march towards the opening ceremony stadium itself, Maracana.

Now, they were blocked along the way by riot police at times using Calvary. And then a small group of them ended up in a square and a confrontation with those riot police. They then burned the Brazilian flag. One of them wrapping that around a card board pole to some degree and then run off screaming, "this was his own torch." Down the street, he was then pursued by riot police. A bit of a confrontation occurred there. And we saw some tear gas being used to disperse the crowd.

Hardly the scene Brazil wants to show the outside world. But, I have to say, you know, this look like a pretty young dedicated bunch of individuals who'd be looking that similar trouble most Friday night. But, that was -- came off at the issues we saw down here in Copacabana readied on the day. A much larger, more political protest in nature, furious on how the billions have been spent here on making this city glitter and shine for the games rather than on a nation in crisis on its hospitals, on its security here, the police sometimes running out of fuel to run their cars, on education as well.

The feeling that the billions are being dispersed amongst the elite here which they accuse of corruption to further enrich themselves rather than being put upon a people currently experiencing a recession here.

So, a troubled country certainly, we saw a lot of that on the streets. That's the picture of Brazil the organizers didn't want people to see and it did became to come to the surface yesterday. In terms of security, well as John Kerry said, it's everywhere here. There are some floors we've been seeing how the company hired to run the xX-ray and security machines of the venues was swiftly fired. Some of those X-ray machines aren't apparently working today. So some questions there but on the whole, the sun is certainly out here. Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nick Paton Walsh, thanks so much in Rio. All right, up next, sharpening their attacks, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump trade jabs over national security, this as a U.S. payment to Iran.

[11:28:18] And Russian President Vlademir Putin become a focal point in the race for the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Donald Trump is delivering a very pointed message on national security last night insisting that he is the candidate to keep America safe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maps came out yesterday. They said ISIS is far bigger. It's all over the place. It's all over the place. We're going to get rid of it, folks. Our military is depleted. We're going to build up our military. We're going to get others with us. Believe me we're going to get plenty of others with us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, the new polls show Hillary Clinton is ahead on several key national security issues. Half of all registered voters in a McClatchy-Marist poll say they trust the former secretary of state to better handle the war against terrorism compared to 42 percent for Donald Trump.

And in an NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll 46 percent of voters say they thought Clinton would be a better commander-in-chief, 35 percent thought Trump would be better, 15 percent didn't think either would be good.

Joining me right now Republican strategist, Ford O'Connell back with us, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist, Maria Cardona, and CNN political commentator and Trump supporter, John Philips.

OK, welcome back. So keeping America safe, a staple of Trump's stump speeches. So Ford, you know, these polling results seem to think the opposite about his readiness to be commander-in-chief.

FORD O'CONNELL, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, as long as we're talking about terrorism particularly ISIS, Trump is on the upswing. The reason why the polls have gone against him, if you look at previous polls he was doing very, very well on terrorism and ISIS is because he's gotten off message.

He's chased shiny objects down rabbit holes. When he is talking about ISIS, he is doing very, very well particularly when he explains over and over that when Obama and Clinton started ISIS was only in two countries, Iraq and Syria. Now they basically have 32 affiliates across 24 countries. Trust me, every time we talk about ISIS, the Clinton campaign wants to sweep it under the rug. National security is a strength for Donald Trump as long as he stays on message.

WHITFIELD: Maria?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But listen to that, you are saying so long as he stays on message. Who wants a commander-in-chief who every time he opens his mouth and every time he wakes up the American people will be nervous about either whether he stays on message or whether he keeps his fingers off the nuclear codes because somebody pissed him off.

[11:35:12]This is exactly the point. You cannot trust this man. He cannot help himself. This is something that he has shown the American people he suffers from political psychosis. This is not somebody who has a steady hand. He has zero knowledge about national security.

He has zero knowledge about the world stage. He talks about wanting to give nuclear weapons to other countries. He talks about asking his advisors three times, why is it again that we can't use nuclear weapons?

This is somebody who is getting close to Putin and is dissing our NATO allies. This is somebody who is dangerous as commander-in-chief, which is why you have people like Mike Morell, a former CIA director who has worked for both Democrats and Republicans who has never before come out to say who he supports as president saying he supports Hillary Clinton.

WHITFIELD: In fact he said specifically, "In sharp contrast to Mrs. Clinton Mr. Trump has no experience on national security even more important the character traits he has exhibited during the primary season suggests he would be a poor even dangerous commander-in-chief.

These traits include his obvious need for self-aggrandizement, his overreaction to perceived slights, his tendency to make decisions based on intuition, his refusal to change his views based on new information, his routine carelessness with that fact, his unwillingness to listen to others and his lack of respect for the rule of law."

That from the former acting CIA chief, Michael Morell. So John, those are some tough words.

JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The Democratic establishment hates Trump, the Republican establishment hates Trump.

WHITFIELD: That's not an establishment kind of response. We're talking about a former CIA --

PHILLIPS: Yes, but --

WHITFIELD: Usually CIA, FBI --

PHILLIPS: Fred, Fred, he's a guy who has been in the government for a long time.

O'CONNELL: No, but --

PHILLIPS: Those guys don't like Trump. Here's something that's important. Donald Trump needs to ask the question, are you safer now, do you feel safer now than you did eight years ago? That's the question that Ronald Reagan asked in 1980 and asked again in 1984.

The fact of the matter is that people don't feel safe. People don't feel safe going to sporting events or at the airport. They don't feel safe at their company Christmas parties and that is the reality of this election.

WHITFIELD: Are you also devaluing them these words from Morell?

O'CONNELL: I'm devaluing because he is a Clinton shield. He edited the Benghazi talking points to take out previous warnings and the mention of al Qaeda to help the Obama-Clinton regime --

WHITFIELD: He's not a registered Democrat. He's not a registered Republican.

O'CONNELL: It doesn't matter if he's a Democrat or Republican he's a Clinton shield. Once he stepped down from the CIA, he went to work with Philippe Reinus (ph), a Clinton gatekeeper and getting paid to go back in the government. The worse secret in Washington is if Hillary Clinton gets back in the White House, Mike Morell is going to be a senior defense personnel. Come on, guys.

CARDONA: So what about the more than 100 other national security high level officials from the Bush administration and Reagan administration that have come out in support of Hillary Clinton? Are they Clinton shields as well?

This is an issue that voters understand that Donald Trump is not somebody that can be trusted with the nuclear codes and with the security of our nation because he doesn't understand even U.S. law.

He's out talking about how he would go to -- about water boarding. He doesn't understand. He doesn't care. It's all about him and voters are understanding that.

WHITFIELD: So following Morell's op-ed, there was a statement coming from the Trump camp saying this in part, "It should come as no surprise that her campaign would push out another Obama Clinton pawn who is not independent to try to change the subject in a week when Clinton's role is putting Iran on the path to nuclear weapons.

And this administration being called out for sending $400 million in cash to the world's largest state sponsor on terrorism is on every front page of the country and so forth."

I realize you're in step with that similar sentiment except the issue is not being addressed. The comments of Mr. Morell have not been an anomaly. There have been a lot of concerns from people within the Republican Party worrying about whether he's trustworthy as it pertains to national security.

O'CONNELL: There's no question about it. There's a lot of axes to grind even among the Bush national security people. And I do agree with you, it is opt to Donald Trump to display the temperament it takes to be commander-in-chief.

WHITFIELD: So then when is he going to do that is the question --

O'CONNELL: If he doesn't do it, he's not going to be the next president of the United States. It's up to him. This is his election to win and Hillary Clinton's numbers are basically set in stone. There's no event that can help her. There is nothing she can say. The only question is, whether or not Trump lights himself on fire over the next 94 days.

CARDONA: Which is exactly what he's doing now. That's why she's ahead.

PHILLIPS: Here's the other thing. We have emails that Julian Assange says that he has on Hillary Clinton that have yet to come out. Now he said that before the Democratic convention everyone said the guy is probably bluffing.

[11:40:08]He took Debbie Wassermann Schultz out. She had to resign as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He said he has more e- mails about Hillary Clinton that will prove she's unfit for office in the national security realm. I think Hillary is pretty nervous --

WHITFIELD: So now Julian Assange gets to pick the president of the United States.

CARDONA: Exactly. You know what, if that is what the Trump campaign is banking on in order to beat Hillary, I don't think anything else needs to be said about how desperate they are because they know --

PHILLIPS: We don't have to bank on that. We've got Benghazi. We've got her vote for the Iraq war. We've got taking Gaddafi out and the chaos that happened there. We've got $400 million going to Iran. We got a lot of material.

CARDONA: By the way, the $400 million was Iran's money to begin with.

O'CONNELL: You're going to really back Iran?

CARDONA: Those were two completely separate settlements.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: That reporting we heard that explanation, but that was back in January that's now been revisited again.

CARDONA: The president talked about this already. This is ridiculous --

O'CONNELL: No, it is not a separate situation.

CARDONA: And again, it's desperation, desperation --

O'CONNELL: (Inaudible) basically said that he sat on the tarmac and then another plane came --

CARDONA: They got nothing else.

O'CONNELL: For you to say that's a coincidence is laughable. It's embarrassing --

WHITFIELD: We did hear the White House explain that was revealed in January, but the reporting has been different. This was money that was owed long ago. Bad coincidence or not that's what the White House response has been on this.

All right, let's leave it right there. Ford O'Connell, Maria Cardona, John Phillips, thanks so much.

CARDONA: Thank you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, still to come, he's a Republican candidate challenging the House speaker, Paul Nehlen, at one point was receiving praise from Donald Trump, but now Trump has cast his support for Ryan. We'll speak with the underdog challenger next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:46:33]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I support and endorse our Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That was Donald Trump last night as he finally threw his support behind House Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump's endorsement comes just three days before voters in Wisconsin go to the polls to decide Ryan's fate.

Joining me right now is Paul Nehlen, the Republican challenging Paul Ryan for his congressional seat. Paul, thanks so much for joining me.

PAUL NEHLEN (R), CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE FROM WISCONSIN: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: Let's hear your reaction to Donald Trump this endorsement when you have been praised in the past by Donald Trump. Did you expect that he would be throwing his support behind you?

NEHLEN: No, this is for party unity. Donald Trump showed leadership last night by bringing the party together. Look, Paul Ryan's running scared. We're going to see his FEC reports. He's spending $2 million to $3 million to try to keep his seat in a primary against a guy who has been a businessman his whole life.

People were upset with Paul Ryan's agenda. Paul Ryan had to go on local radio here to reassure people that he still had a soul. Just like Christine O'Donnell had to say she wasn't a witch.

Listen, if you can get the speaker of the House to go on and say you still have a soul when in fact he sold his soul to the Globalists and I called him a soulless Globalist.

WHITFIELD: So then what does this mean to you now that Donald Trump is not, you know, standing by his earlier commitment to you? I mean, yes, you say it's for party unity, but does that make it excusable in your view?

NEHLEN: Donald Trump's message hasn't changed. He is against foreign corporations taking our jobs and Paul Ryan is the biggest open borders, anti-worker, pro-Wall Street member of Congress on either side of the aisle.

Donald Trump is not endorsing Paul Ryan's TPP plan to ship our jobs overseas. Donald Trump is not endorsing Paul Ryan's let's bring in as much cheap labor so that Americans can't have a living wage or food on their tables or their own job, where Paul Ryan is endorsing H1b visas and H2b visas, he quadrupled them.

Paul Ryan sold his soul to Globalists people who put money in his coffers. Donald Trump is not endorsing that. Donald Trump -- Mr. Trump is unifying party and I applaud him for that.

He is a warrior on behalf of American workers. Paul Ryan is warrior on behalf of Wall Street. That's who Paul Ryan is and that who people on this district know him as.

That's why the party apparatus has circled the wagons to try to keep me out of the air waves. They don't want people to know that there is somebody who is going to fight for jobs, all American jobs.

WHITFIELD: OK, except you know, it is debatable in terms of the visa issue that you just brought up with Donald Trump and, you know, his employees or pursuits of employees in Florida. Your facts may not be completely right on that one.

Meantime, yesterday, you received the endorsement of former Republican vice president, Sarah Palin, who tweeted this, "Proud to be standing with Paul Nehlen since May 9th, Wisconsin please vote for this man of the people." How impactful potentially is that for you?

NEHLEN: Well, let's pivot for just a moment over to two extremely endorsements that I got from Phyllis (inaudible) and from Richard Vigory (ph).

[11:50:10]And I'm so grateful to Ms. Palin and to all of the people who have endorsed me, General Valali (ph), the special operations forces, the sheriffs down on the Texas border and their deputies.

All of the groups, the veterans who have endorsed me, the National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans coalition endorsed me. You know, Speaker Ryan is nothing more than a party of Speaker Ryan. He is trying to undermine our party's nominee at every opportunity. He should be reporting in-kind contribution to the Hillary Clinton campaign. That's what Speaker Ryan is trying to do because he thinks he's going to run in 2020.

And the reality is nobody wants Paul Ryan's policies of giving away American workers' jobs. Nobody wants that. Donald Trump doesn't want it. Nobody wants it.

Paul Ryan wants it because that's what his donors want. That's what they've paid him for and we apparently don't pay well enough here in Wisconsin's first district. Paul Ryan's donors put $10 million in into his campaign coffers.

I have a million dollars. I raised over a million dollars in small donations from around the country plus I put $100,000 in my own money in this. Nobody died and left me money.

I started in a factory at 18 years old. I was on the engineering degree at night 12-year program. I've run that factory and factories all over the U.S. I brought jobs back from Mexico, from Canada, from China.

I was a VP in Fortune 500. I ran Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Paul Ryan has no business whipping the votes for that Transpacific Partnership. He owns that.

WHITFIELD: All right.

NEHLEN: He wants that because his donors want it.

WHITFIELD: Paul Nehlen, thank you so much and good luck to you as you take on Paul Ryan in this congressional race.

NEHLEN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much. We'll have much more straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:56:17]

WHITFIELD: The dangers from distracted drivers is increasing as technology grows and I's not just texting. Now there are all kinds of cell phone apps too. Video recently released from Baltimore police shows a driver plowing into a squad car. Police say that driver was playing the Pokemon go app.

Our Kelly Wallace has more on the dangerous consequences of driving while distracted.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT BOEVE, ANDREA'S HUSBAND: Anna was a perfect mom, she loved kids. I loved kids. We were going to have more kids. It was the high of life. We were settled, loving what we did, raising a family and breaking ground on a new home. In the blink of an eye our world changed.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On June 30th, 2014, Andrea Boeve took her darling girls, then 11 months and 4 years old for a bike ride right near their home in rural Steen, Minnesota. Her husband, Matt, was doing some dangerous work on the family's farm.

BOEVE: I had a two-radio that kept in contact with one of my guys keeping me safe, you know. And all of the sudden over the two-way mom said, Matt, where are you? I could hear it in her voice. She said that Andrea and the girls were in an accident.

DISPATCHER: 911 what is your emergency?

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: There's a girl who I think got hit by a car.

WALLACE (on camera): What was that like when you get to the hospital and you see Claire?

BOEVE: It was something I'll never forget because I was told she was OK and so it was horrible. No parent should have to go through that.

WALLACE: What do you tell the girls?

BOEVE: For any parent to go to their 4-year-old and their 11 month old and say mommy is in heaven is something -- I don't know that's the hardest part.

WALLACE (voice-over): A driver, Chris Weber, a South Dakota National Guardsman and father of two admitted he decided to make a payment on his phone. He said he looked down at his phone and heard a thud. He says he never saw Andrea and the girls.

CHRIS WEBER, DISTRACTED DRIVER: I failed number one because I was on my phone. I was distracted that day.

BOEVE: I just knew he was on his phone. My gut told me that even before I got to the scene I knew it and it's tough. It's so preventable. I mean, we are addicted to our phones. Anything can happen and that anything happened to us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh, CNN a digital correspondent, Kelly Wallace, joining us now. So Kelly, your report is part of a CNN special called "Distracted While Driving" coming up at 2:30 Eastern time today. Tell us more. I mean, this is something that everyone needs reminding about.

WALLACE: It is, Fredricka, and I'm seeing it. It's really resonating with people. I think because all of us, we see it all of the time. Every time I drive I see people looking at their phones instead of looking ahead.

And many people admit doing it themselves. And Fredricka, as we just saw, the dangers are so real. Just looking at your phone to read a text increases your chances of crashing by six times and all for what, for a text.

WHITFIELD: All for what. All right. Thank you so much. Very deadly consequences potentially. Kelly's special comes up later on today, "Driving While Distracted." Thanks so much, Kelly. It airs at 2:30 Eastern only on CNN.

We have so much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM and it all starts right now.

Hello again, everyone and thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Donald Trump has had a change of heart. The Republican presidential candidate now endorsing House Speaker Paul Ryan and he is also throwing his support behind Senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte.

Trump making the announcement last night at a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin.