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CNN NEWSROOM

Paul Ryan Not Ready to Support Trump; Fewest Jobs Added in Seven Months; FBI to Interview Clinton on E-mails Within Weeks. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 6, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:00] PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are you're going to be so happy? You're going to be so happy. They said you're now the nominee.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: You have the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump. Will you support him?

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), HOUSE SPEAKER: I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now.

TRUMP: You don't have to vote any more. Save your vote for the general election, OK. Forget this one. The primary is gone.

RYAN: I think that he needs to do more to unify this party, to bring all wings of the Republican Party together.

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: They're both committed to sitting down and actually talking this out.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can't have a loose cannon in the Oval Office.

RYAN: No Republican should ever think about supporting Hillary Clinton. Let me make that clear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning, happy Friday. I'm Pamela Brown, in for Carol Costello. Thanks so much for being here with me.

A political bombshell and a party at odds. We are learning House Speaker Paul Ryan and Donald Trump will meet next week behind closed doors after Ryan tells CNN he is not ready to back Trump. And Trump punched back saying he is not ready to back Ryan's agenda in Congress. Even the unflappable Trump caught off guard by Ryan's stiff arm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I was really surprised by it, and it's fine. He could do whatever he wants to do. It's fine. But I was surprised by it. And by the way, many other people were surprised by it. And some were really surprised by it and not happy about it. I will tell you, I have many endorsements from yesterday. They're coming in left and right. He is one of the only ones that really was surprising.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And the head of the Republican National Committee says the Trump-Ryan meeting was already planned. And Reince Priebus downplays the spat as just a bump in the road to victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRIEBUS: We're prepared to keep the Senate, keep the House and win the White House. And if you look at Hillary Clinton, look, I would rather take a few elbows being thrown than, you know, the director of the FBI interviewing your top aides and potentially the Democrat nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Well, the bickering between Trump and Ryan underscores a somewhat uneasy alliance between the party and a standard bearer who has often criticized its leaders.

Let's bring CNN's Phil Mattingly in New York. A lot of developments here, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question about it, Pam. Look, there have been a lot of endorsements, even some that were unexpected even if they were a little bit tepid. You have Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, coming out yesterday, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, saying he would support the nominee. But Paul Ryan, deciding to break at least for the moment, with Donald Trump and his candidacy, causing major problems, not just for Donald Trump, but for the party on the whole.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRIEBUS: They're both committed to sitting down and work -- and actually talking this out.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): RNC chairman Reince Priebus in the middle of the fight to unite, confirming Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan will meet face-to-face next week.

RYAN: I'm just not ready to do that.

MATTINGLY: Only hours after Ryan told CNN's Jake Tapper that he's not ready to back Trump.

PRIEBUS: And what he's saying is, look, I want to get there. I think I will get there, but I want to talk to Donald Trump and I want to work with him.

MATTINGLY: Priebus, trying to explain why Ryan and some in the Republican Party are so reluctant to back their new standard bearer.

PRIEBUS: For some people, an endorsement is a full embrace, and so for some people, it takes a little bit of time to get to a full embrace.

MATTINGLY: The chairman, not promising 100 percent of the party will fall in line, but optimistic that there won't be a contested convention come July.

PRIEBUS: The platform of our party will be written in Cleveland, and I think you're going to get another very conservative platform out of our party.

MATTINGLY: But not so fast. Trump firing back at Ryan in a statement saying, quote, "I'm not ready to support Speaker Ryan's agenda. Perhaps in the future, we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people."

TRUMP: You know that thing, never Trump? You know why it's never Trump? Because I'm going to stop the gravy train for all these consultants and all of these people.

MATTINGLY: Ryan making clear that his focus is on one thing, protecting the party's House majority, something some analysts predict could be in jeopardy with a Trump nomination.

RYAN: My focus this fall is, has been and will be the House majority.

MATTINGLY: And warning the fight for unity rests mostly on the shoulders of the nominee.

RYAN: I think what is necessary to make this work, for this to unify, is to actually take our principles and advance them, and that's what we want to see. Saying we're unified doesn't in it of itself unify us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And Pam, Donald Trump saying this morning on FOX that he expected the meeting would be on Wednesday between he and Speaker Ryan. A Ryan aide telling me that the general outlines of the meeting have been agreed to. The specific logistics are still being worked on right now but what we all know and what we're seeing right now is this underscores that between the party and their presumptive nominee, there are still major issues to work out before they can focus solely on whoever their Democratic challenger will be, Pam.

[09:05:09] BROWN: That's right. And a lot of anticipation for this meeting next week.

Phil Mattingly, thank you very for that.

And meantime, Donald Trump also questions Ryan's call for unity as we just heard in Phil's report. The billionaire says he has been uniting the party actually with an energy that was sadly lacking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He talks about unity, but what is this about unity? And you know, with millions of people coming into the party, obviously I'm saying the right thing. And you know, the party was stayed, it had a lot of problems, whether it was the right or the wrong thing, whatever they were saying, wasn't doing it. And now the Republican Party is the talk of the world because there is no place and no party that is, you know, increasing its scope like we have.

It is a big story. Millions and millions of people have come into the party. I mean, when you're looking for unity, unity is winning, too. We have to win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So let's bring in our guests to discuss. John Avalon is the editor in chief of the "Daily Beast" and a CNN political analyst, and Jeff DeWit is a Trump supporter and Arizona state treasurer.

Thank you both for coming on. So much to discuss here. And Jeff, I'm going to start with you here on this notion that Trump is saying, look, he is revitalized the party and that right there is unity as we heard him say. But how can there be unity if rank and file Republicans, including the speaker of the House, aren't throwing their support behind him?

JEFF DEWIT, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, as everyone is shocked by this news that he would not throw his support, which is why we're all talking about it, it makes no sense. Here, Donald Trump is bringing millions more voters and you have the speaker of the House saying he is not sure he's going to get behind him. And then, you know, other people saying, well, they're not sure that he is going to help or hurt the down ballot races.

Donald Trump is going to bring so many more Republicans over the line, and for them to say that he won't help the down ballot races is like saying, you know, we're going to invite millions of people to our birthday party but we're not sure if we're going to get more gifts. This is going to be the greatest thing that happened to the party. And Paul Ryan, you know, the only thing -- that Paul Ryan is doing is fueling the speculation that he might still be considering a run at the nomination himself because he was the one that was rumored they were going to parachute in at the convention.

Now that there's not a contested convention, it obviously is going to fuel speculation that he's trying still some games like that. And -- it's going to cause a rift in the party unless he gets on board. He is the speaker of the House. Everybody is looking to his leadership, and it's time for him to get behind Donald Trump so we can move forward and beat Hillary.

BROWN: And obviously, John, Donald Trump has not needed Ryan's support to win the primary. He is the presumptive Republican nominee, but what about the general election? How much does Donald Trump need the support of rank-and-file Republicans, particularly Paul Ryan, in the general? JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, it's a totally symbiotic

relationship. Donald Trump, it's incumbent upon him to try to unite the Republican Party which has been in warlord status for some time. But of course the problem is that Donald Trump's deep negatives with huge swaths of demographics in America not named white men, let's be real about that, presents a real problem for the Republicans holding on to the Senate and the House.

Now the rigged system of redistricting means that the House is probably pretty safe. But for a party or a person like Paul Ryan who believes deeply into the conservative philosophy and principle, right, the catechism that "National Review" and other folks have stood for, they really need to understand a little bit more how Donald Trump and what he has proposed lines up with the constitutional conservatism they believe in and limited government because it largely doesn't.

This is -- these are policies that are largely based on bluster, many of which are deeply expensive, and invasive. So Donald Trump needs to assure those folks that he could be their standard bearer come the fall and not be political kryptonite when it comes to swing voters and swing states, which right now he is. That's just the reality.

BROWN: So with that point in mind, Jeff, we have this meeting next week between Trump and Paul Ryan. Will Trump be willing to bend at all on any of these issues that John discusses in order to garner support from Ryan? One in particular, we know that Ryan has come out condemning Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from coming to the United States? Is Trump willing to bend at all?

DEWIT: Well, again, everybody is behind the Trump policies, and so, you know, what everyone is not behind are the --

BROWN: Well, that's not -- that's not true, Jeff. That's not true, Jeff.

DEWIT: -- Omnibus voting bill that Paul Ryan pushed through.

BROWN: Paul Ryan has come out condemning that particular proposal about --

DEWIT: Oh, no, I'm saying -- let me clarify.

BROWN: Go ahead.

DEWIT: I mean, the millions of voters that are voting for Donald Trump are fine with his policy. And so that's what I mean by that.

AVLON: So that's not everybody.

DEWIT: And so yes, Paul Ryan --

BROWN: That's not everybody.

AVLON: A little early in the morning for Kool-Aid.

DEWIT: Look, Donald Trump has promised to reduce the national debt. Paul Ryan passed the Omnibus budget. They have differences of opinion and it's just where you place the importance of that. I know for myself, as a treasurer, I'm very concerned about the national debt and I'd prefer to see us lower it. So, you know, I think Paul Ryan needs to give on some things here. I don't think at all it's incumbent on Donald Trump.

You know, and for the other guest, keep in mind that, Donald Trump beat Ted Cruz in every demographic, including Hispanics, even though Ted Cruz is obviously of Hispanic heritage.

[09:10:08] Donald Trump wins with all those groups. And so to say that he is not going to do well with groups, that ignores all the math and the data and the exit polls that we have from all the way --

AVLON: Well, Jeff, no -- no, it doesn't, Jeff. Hold on. Jeff, this is actually really important for folks to understand. Donald Trump did incredibly well with the low turnout base of the Republican primary voters. That does not translate to the general electorate, which the general election is now on. So if we're going to talk about the fact he is underwater by 70 percent, 80 percent with Hispanics or African-Americans or women, you've got to deal with that and not just hide behind the rhetoric of bringing millions of people into the process.

You've got to deal with the larger electorate now. And look, you know, Paul Ryan's commitment to fiscal discipline has been very well- detailed in his VP run and other things. The problem is the devil is in the details. You know, Trump can say that he wants to reduce the deficit. As a treasurer, I'm sure you'll appreciate the question is how. How does it line up with the various plans that had been in place?

The reality is the Republican Party is divided into two broad camps right now. The grandstanders and those who are interested in governing. And Donald Trump is going to have to try to figure out how to become a little more interested in governing and less in grandstanding to unite the party.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: But, John, I have to ask --

DEWIT: Well, again, let's correct the low turnout claim --

BROWN: Go ahead, Jeff.

DEWIT: The low turnout claim because he -- you know, to correct the low turnout claim because Donald Trump has brought the biggest turnout we've ever seen in history to the Republican Party and has more votes than any --

AVLON: A low percentage of the electorate.

DEWIT: It's not a low turnout.

AVLON: It doesn't even represent a majority of Republicans. BROWN: But the bottom line is, John, that the voters did make their

voices heard.

AVLON: Yes.

BROWN: That now Trump is the presumptive nominee. And some may question whether Ryan made a tactical mistake here by airing his concerns in light of the fact that these voters, you know, supported Donald Trump to get him to where he is now. Do you think that the two of them should met quietly with little fanfare before he came out to say he is not ready to endorse Trump?

AVLON: Look, I think Paul Ryan is a man of principle and he was saying what he felt was right. I mean, Mitch McConnell realizes the deep drag that Trump potentially is on a lot of swing state senators as they try to hold on to the Senate. But I think Paul Ryan was laying out a marker. He is simply on the opposite end of the spectrum from Donald Trump when it comes to conservative philosophy -- you know, policy and ideas.

Now they may be able to triangulate that problem away behind closed doors, but it's perfectly reasonable to air concerns in public based on the very public nature of this entire campaign and I think Paul Ryan was motivated at least as much by principled politics when he made the statement yesterday.

BROWN: All right, John Avlon, Jeff DeWit, thank you very much for that.

DEWIT: Thanks, Pamela.

AVLON: Thank you.

BROWN: And we're following some breaking news right now on the economy. A little rough patch in the recovery. Take a look, 160,000 jobs were added last month. That is the lowest number reported in the last seven months and well below estimates as well.

Christine Romans is here to break down these numbers -- Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Pamela. Well, as you know, job creation has been gunning around 200,000 plus every month for the past five years on average, so this is a pause here in that trend. 160,000 net new jobs created in April.

The jobless rate held steady near that seven or eight-year low of 5 percent, however, and wage growth ticked up a little bit to 2.5 percent. You still want to see that number even higher. A lot of anger in the American electorate because they're not feeling a pay raise anywhere. 2.5 percent you'd like to see that get a little bit better but that has been picking up.

Let me put it in perspective. It is the weakest job creation since last September, but you can see, the trend has been pretty friendly for job creation overall and even at 160,000 net new jobs, it's still enough to absorb all the new entrance into the labor market. Here is where there were job gains, business and information professional services, that was 65,000 new jobs there. Health care, Pamela, every month for years, we've been seeing health care jobs. Everything from home health aides to pediatric nurses, to surgeons, a lot of demand in health care.

Mining, however, lost 7,000 jobs. Manufacturing was pretty flat. That mining number is almost certainly because of the crash in oil prices.

Here is where the politics come in. You've been hearing a lot about how so few people are actually participating in the labor market. You will hear conservatives say that the job market is really much weaker than expected. They're talking about the labor force participation rate. It dipped a little bit lower, meaning there are millions of people who are not even in the labor market.

Millions of people who are not even in the labor market, those are people who are discouraged. There's also stay-at-home mom, retirees, that number is something you'd like to see improve as well -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Christine Romans, thank you so much for breaking it down for us. We do appreciate it.

And still ahead right here in the NEWSROOM, Hillary Clinton's e-mail controversy back in the spotlight. Why the FBI is honing in on her inner circle. We'll be back.

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[09:18:40] BROWN: Well, the FBI is expected to sit down with Hillary Clinton within weeks from now. It was part of the investigation into her use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state.

CNN broke the news that members of Clinton's inner circle, including longtime aide Huma Abedin, have already been pulled in for questioning.

Clinton's press secretary Brian Fallon is standing by. And of course, we will talk to him in just a moment. But first, let's get the very latest from CNN justice reporter, Evan Perez.

Evan, this investigation may be the nearing the end, but the most anticipated step hasn't happened yet, right?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Pamela. The most anticipated step is this interview of the former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. We know that the FBI and the Justice Department, which is overseeing this investigation, have been in touch with the Clinton campaign, and they're trying to set up an interview.

Now we expect that that interview is going to take place in the next couple of weeks, and as you mentioned, it does appear that this investigation is close to wrapping up. They have now reached into Clinton's inner circle by interviewing Huma Abedin and other aides. Those folks have been coming in quietly, without much public attention, to an FBI building just a few blocks from where I'm sitting to do those interviews.

And so far, what we're told of the investigation is that the investigators have not found sufficient evidence to prove that Clinton violated -- willfully violated the law.

[09:20:04] Now what this means is that this is likely to remain a political controversy, but perhaps the legal cloud will be lifted from this campaign.

We have a statement that was issued by Brian Fallon, the Clinton press secretary, and I'll read it for you. It says, "From the start, Hillary Clinton has offered to answer any questions that would help the Justice Department complete its review. And we hope that -- and expect that anyone else who is asked will do the same. We are confident that the review will conclude that nothing inappropriate took place."

Obviously everybody is keeping an eye on the calendar, Pamela, because the Democratic convention is just a couple of months away.

BROWN: All right, Evan Perez, I know investigators are very mindful of that. Thank you so much for bringing us the latest there.

So the big question remains, what will the potential fallout be for Hillary Clinton as she tries to capture the Democratic nomination?

Brian Fallon is Hillary Clinton's press secretary. He joins me now.

Brian, thanks for coming on.

BRIAN FALLON, PRESS SECRETARY, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Thanks for having me. It's nice to be with you.

BROWN: So first obvious question, when can we expect this meeting between Hillary Clinton and the FBI to take place?

FALLON: Well, I'm not sure yet, Pamela. I think you heard Hillary Clinton get asked about this earlier this week, and she indicated that she's not yet been contacted for the purposes of setting up an interview. But if you look back, it was actually last August, almost a year ago now, where Hillary Clinton first indicated at the outset of this review undertaken by the Justice Department that she would be happy to sit down with them and answer any questions they have at any point. Obviously they've been going through their process and so we haven't heard from them yet. But we are happy to cooperate in any way possible.

And so I think it's actually a very positive development that we may be nearing the point where they will invite her in because, as you know and as Evan knows, that will probably represent the last stage of this review that they've been undertaking and it probably means they're getting very close to wrapping things up.

BROWN: All right, and I want to play that sound that you just alluded to that Hillary Clinton told MSNBC earlier this week. Let's listen to that. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREA MITCHELL, MSNBC ANCHOR: You know I've got to just ask you whether, since you last mentioned this to my colleague, Chuck Todd, in April, have you been contacted or your representatives been contacted by the FBI to set up an interview?

CLINTON: No.

MITCHELL: No contact there?

CLINTON: No.

MITCHELL: Any indication that your private server was hacked by foreign hackers?

CLINTON: No, not at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right. So, Brian, you just heard her say that Republicans are using this to say this is another example of her giving misleading answers because clearly, Brian, the FBI has been in touch with the attorneys involved here with Hillary Clinton's attorneys and her aides' attorneys, right?

FALLON: Well, so David Kendall is her top counsel and he has been in touch with the Justice Department throughout this review. We've always been very upfront about that. I think the question Andrea was asking was whether David Kendall or Hillary Clinton herself had been contacted about actually scheduling the date for the interview, and she said no because the honest answer is it hasn't happened yet.

But whenever they do, we'll be happy to accommodate that and make it happen. In fact, as I indicated, we've been offering that since last August. So I think Republicans are trying to create a problem here where no inconsistency exists. We've been very open from the beginning that not only would Secretary Clinton be willing to come in and sit down with anyone that has any questions but we've encouraged every aide and everyone else contacted to do the same. So we've been very open and transparent here throughout this process.

BROWN: Let me just ask you because we know Bryan Pagliano was granted immunity. Have any other aides or associates of Hillary Clinton tied to her being interviewed by the FBI also been granted immunity?

FALLON: I'm not aware of that.

BROWN: OK.

FALLON: And even with respect to Bryan Pagliano, we're disappointed when he sought immunity in the first place, but we were glad when he was ultimately did decide to be cooperative with the Justice Department officials conducting this review. We don't think that Bryan or anybody else has any reason why they shouldn't be willing to answer any questions that the Justice Department has because nobody involved in any of this setup of the e-mail account did anything wrong.

BROWN: And let me just ask you this, Brian. You know full well as a former spokesperson at the Justice Department that interviews and investigations can present a problem for people. How is Clinton preparing for the impending FBI interview?

FALLON: Well, look, you know, the fact of the Justice Department conducting this review has been known to the public throughout this primary contest, and the outcome has been that we see her having a three million vote lead over Bernie Sanders. In the pledged delegates she's got a tremendous lead there as well. She has collected more votes during this process than Donald Trump as well.

So I think that the public has factored this in. They've heard this. The details of this issue almost relentlessly over the last few month and I think they've concluded that what we've maintained is true. That there was no -- nothing inappropriate that took place here. And we're confident indeed that the Justice Department will conclude the same when this process finally wraps up.

BROWN: But even -- but, Brian, even if the legal cloud is lifted, doesn't this still present a political issue for the campaign?

[09:25:06] You know, investigators Evan and I have spoken with have expressed constant frustration that this even needs to be investigated in the first place, that this private server was even set up. It unprecedented for a government official to do such a thing. Doesn't this continue to present political issues?

FALLON: Well, I do expect that Secretary Clinton will continue to get asked about it in interviews, and her answer will be the same, which is she acknowledges that it was not the right choice. And in retrospect, she would not have set up the personal e-mail system. She would have used the state.gov e-mail address. But I think that way too much has been made out of this and Republicans in particular are trying to latch on to it to create a controversy where none really exists.

The reality is while it wasn't the right choice and she would have done it differently if she could do it over again, it was allowed under the rules at the time. And as you and Evan reported yesterday, the Justice Department is looking into this, finds no evidence that anyone was willfully trying to subvert any rules regarding classification.

I do think that the outcome here from the Justice Department will help even further convince the public that there was no underlying wrongdoing here, and as a result, we can all move on and focus on the issues that are most important in this election.

BROWN: All right, Brian Fallon, thank you so much. We'll leave it there. We appreciate you coming on.

FALLON: Thank you very much for having me.

BROWN: Well, the Democratic delegate math adds up to Hillary Clinton, but Bernie Sanders is not giving up. He is making that clear. Will he take the fight all the way to the convention?

Wolf Blitzer talks to Sanders in "THE SITUATION ROOM" today at 5:00 p.m. on CNN.

And still ahead right here in the NEWSROOM, a Canadian wildfire rages out of control, forcing an entire town to abandon their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very stressful. You don't know what's burned and what is not burned, when you can go back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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