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Trump Meeting At D.C. Law Firm; Ryan States Trump Meeting Was Productive And Encouraging; Trump Wrapping Up Capitol Hill Meetings; Dan Quayle Talks Trump. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired May 12, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Talk to Donald Trump. That was the order of the day for Republicans here in Washington. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee made the rounds. He met with House leadership this morning. He left his meeting with the Senate leadership just a few minutes ago. And he also had a few more meetings before he leaves Washington.

But the big meeting everyone was anticipating was the first meeting of the day for him. That was the meeting with the House speaker, Paul Ryan. The pair released a joint statement saying, among other things, this. There is a great opportunity to unify our party and win this fall and we are totally committed to working together to achieve that goal.

Later the speaker, Paul Ryan, addressed the media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), U.S. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: 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 these 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 as 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)

BLITZER: Trump also met with the entire House Republican leadership team. Later, he sat down with Senate Republicans to talk policy and politics. He's at a Washington, D.C. law firm right now having yet more meetings before he heads back, presumably, to New York.

Let's talk about all the day's events so far, the impact they could have on the presidential race and the impact on Republicans, in general. Jim Acosta is our Senior White House Correspondent. Dana Bash is our Chief Political Correspondent. Manu Raju is our Senior Political Reporter.

Dana, you know Capitol Hill obviously very well. Unity seems to be the message of the day the Republicans are pushing. But then, again, I didn't hear a formal endorsement from Paul Ryan of Donald Trump.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You didn't hear it because there wasn't an endorsement. That was abundantly clear that Paul Ryan was not ready to do that.

But unity is the word of the day and I think you have to really not be listening at all to get that because it's some form of that word, unite or unify, has been coming out of the mouth of everybody across the board. But, still, Paul Ryan's office at least just sent out an interesting tweet with the photo of him with school girls and the caption said, my most important meeting of the day.

Now, the first -- at first blush, it's -- was he throwing some shade Donald Trump's way? You know, I haven't heard back from his office, but, you know, sort of knowing Paul Ryan and maybe his team, I think they are trying to have a little bit of fun with us that there was, obviously, a big spectacle around his meeting with Donald Trump, and he's trying to kind of put things in perspective.

But about that meeting, the -- to me, one of the most interesting parts of it was the very first hour at the Republican National Committee with Paul Ryan, the House Speaker, with Reince Priebus, the RNC Chair, and with Donald Trump. The three of them just met, no staff, no one else in the room, I'm told. And afterwards, I spoke to the RNC chair, asked him about it. Here is part of our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIR, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: 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 to describe it.

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

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Good chemistry, Wolf. You know that both men -- you've interviewed them both. I can't imagine two more different individuals. Still, I am told, by sources familiar with the first meeting and more importantly perhaps the second meeting of the day which was not just Ryan but also other members of his House Republican leadership team, that Ryan made clear in a non-combative, sort of very congenial tone that Ryan believes that it is up to Trump, as the presumptive nominee, to help unite the party. That it is not united. That even though he did get millions of voters and votes, a lot of people voted against him. And that -- you just heard Paul Ryan in that sound bite, talking about the fact that he won't explain what the specifics were but that they did talk specifics.

[13:05:03] My understanding is that one of those issues was something very near and dear to Paul Ryan's heart which is the budget. Had to figure out how to begin to balance the budget. And, you know, Ryan's whole M.O. since he has really been here has been to deal with Medicare and Social Security, something that Donald Trump has been a little bit more standoffish on. I'm told that that was part of the conversation of specifics -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Dana, stand by.

Jim Acosta, what are you hearing from the Senate side on their meeting with Donald Trump, Senate Republican leaders?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, keep in mind, Wolf, as Dana was just talking about, you know, the bridge to cross for Donald Trump with these Senate leaders is not as far and as wide as it is with Paul Ryan. Mitch McConnell is, at this point, endorsing Donald Trump. It's a muted endorsement. It's a soft endorsement. It's an endorsement nonetheless.

And so, you know, Donald Trump does not have the same problems over on the Senate side as he does on the House. But I will tell you, from talking to people inside the Trump campaign, they're pretty pleased about how this meeting went with Paul Ryan. I just talked to a Trump aid a few moments ago who said, you know what? We did not expect Paul Ryan to be on board with an endorsement today. And in the words of one aid, we think we're going to get him.

And they feel like, hey, Paul Ryan is not the type of leader who is just going to jump on board on day one. But, in the words of this one aid, that's what makes Paul Ryan a good speaker.

So, Wolf, when you're hearing all of the right things being said around something as contentious, potentially, as this, it has to lead you to conclude that they're going to get there eventually. What Speaker Ryan had to say, during that press conference, had to have been very, very promising to the ears of Donald Trump and the Trump campaign. This is a speaker who wants to unify the party.

And Donald Trump, even though he spent a good portion of primary process breaking the Republican Party into several different pieces, they -- I think they understand, inside the Trump campaign, that they have to start putting those pieces together.

And today, this Capitol Hill primary, Paul Ryan primary, whatever you want to call it, was a crucial part of it. But at this point, Wolf, they are feeling very good inside the Trump campaign about how this day has gone so far -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, so far, it looks like both sides really stressing the positive. Manu, we saw some protesters earlier this morning when Trump first arrived here in Washington with the speaker. He spoke about be -- this being the beginning of the process. How many more meetings should we anticipate before the speaker of the House, the Republican leader there, backs Donald Trump formally, endorses him?

MANU RAJU, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, I think there's going to be a lot of conversations but I'm not sure how many more face-to-face meetings that we can expect. But this is what the speaker just described as a beginning of the process. That's something that he told House Republicans yesterday, too, that today's meeting certainly would not end things. It would just start to begin the discussion.

And why that's significant is because the speaker is actually crafting an election year agenda, something that he wants House Republicans to campaign on as they face potentially tough reelection races. As we know, 30 seats need to flip for the Democrats to keep control or to retake control of the House. Speaker Ryan wants to give something for those guys to run on. But the problem is that a number of those key policy items actually conflict with Donald Trump.

And Donald -- and they discussed those issues, as Dana mentioned earlier, in that -- in this meeting. But Paul Ryan wanted to down play the fact that there actually a disagreement among -- over some key, key issues. What was interesting was that these discussions are going to continue to take place, Wolf, are going to be about policy, about the agenda. So, we can see, perhaps, some Trump influence in this House Republican agenda that their members will eventually campaign on -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And, Manu, we just heard the Republican -- the majority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, say it was a very constructive, positive -- very good, very constructive meeting. Not a surprise. Mitch McConnell, he's on board more so than the speaker of the House, right?

RAJU: That's right. He actually said earlier this week that he thinks that Trump could be very competitive in swing states. So, clearly, that poll, the Quinnipiac poll, we saw earlier this week as sort of competitive in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, that went a long way to alleviate concerns among Senate Republican leaders -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And you see reporters on the sidewalks here in Washington, D.C. outside the law firm. Donald Trump is inside. They're, obviously, hoping when he comes outside to that van, he will maybe stop and talk. We'll, of course, have coverage of that if that happens. Guys, stand by.

Productive and encouraging, that's how Paul Ryan describes his meeting with Donald Trump. But he's also saying uniting the party is process that will take time. Let's discuss what's going on. Joining us now, our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger and CNN Politics Executive Editor Mark Preston.

Gloria, what is this effort by Trump and Ryan to find common ground mean for the future of the Republican Party? How crucial is it for the party to unify right now?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, I think it's very crucial and it's in both of their self-interests, honestly. I think Donald Trump doesn't want to get in a big fight with Paul Ryan or the Republican leaders. It's not as if his supporters really care very much about what the establishment thinks on Capitol Hill. But it's in his own self-interest to work with them, not only on raising money but it's also in his interest to work with them because he wants to keep Republican control of the Congress if he were to get elected.

So, what Paul Ryan is looking for is -- and he kept referring it today over and over again was this notion of common ground, core principles. Right? Because, as he pointed out, he and Donald Trump have an awful lot of differences when it comes to specific issues. But core principles, which he pointed out, limited government, OK? They all agree on that. The Constitution. I guess they all agree on that. Separation of powers. They all agree that they believe Barack Obama has overused his executive authority, particularly when it comes to the issue of immigration, for example.

They are all pro-life, he says. So, he's trying to find a way, Wolf, to get to yes with Donald Trump. And if it's got to be broad areas of agreement, then it'll be broad areas of agreement. But you want to give your party something that they can all run on and say, look, this is where we all agree as a party, and then seem united at least in the broad sense.

BLITZER: And, Mark, the stakes for both of these men, Paul Ryan, Donald Trump, obviously enormous right now. But from Paul Ryan's perspective, he's got to worry. Obviously he wants to make sure that there's a Republican president, but he also wants to make sure that there's a Republican majority in the --

BORGER: Sure.

BLITZER: -- House of Representatives.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Right. And that's his number one job. And, you know, a couple of things here, Wolf. First of all, you know, the bottom line is that Paul Ryan became the speaker of the House on his own terms. He was drafted into it, grudgingly. He didn't seem to necessarily want the job, perhaps, because he, himself, wants to run for president in 2020 and that's a pretty difficult position to run for president from.

But when it comes to Donald Trump, by not capitulating, Paul Ryan is setting the tone for his leadership for the House of Representatives. You know, we're focusing a lot on Donald Trump and how Trump is setting the tone. Well, Paul Ryan is doing the exact same thing.

Now, talking to senior Trump advisers, they knew, too, coming out of today, there would be no endorsement. And, in many ways, this works to both Paul Ryan --

BORGER: Right. ' PRESTON: -- and Donald Trump's advantage. And the reason being is that Donald Trump still looks like he's not part of the establishment, OK, even though he is. He's -- he will be the nominee. And Paul Ryan is able to show that he is not going to fall over for Donald Trump or for anyone else, at the same time, creating a safe haven for those candidates that are Republicans that are afraid to align themselves with Donald Trump. And while there are going to be differences on policy issues, Wolf, there certainly will be, they're not going to agree on all issues, I think Paul Ryan's biggest concern is Donald Trump going out and saying something outrageous that Paul Ryan just cannot accept and, perhaps, morally doesn't even agree with and has to take a step back. (INAUDIBLE.)

BORGER: Wolf, what was also interesting to me today was you didn't see an orchestrated joint photo-op, right, with Trump and Ryan together. They each went their separate ways. Trump had a separate meeting over in the Senate side. Ryan held his press conference. I'm sure we'll hear from Trump at some point. But, you know, they didn't go out of their way to, kind of, come out with their hands up together and say how we're all unified. Because I don't think it would have been believable, at this point. And, perhaps, not in either of their self-interests, at this point. They have to show that this is a real trying to come together around some core principles. So, I don't think they were ready to do that photo-op today. Maybe sometime down in the future, --

BLITZER: Yes.

BORGER: -- but it didn't happen today.

BLITZER: We'll see if they, eventually, release a photograph from inside that meeting, --

BORGER: Yes.

BLITZER: -- not only Trump and Paul Ryan, but Reince Priebus, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee who helped put that meeting together.

All right, guys, stand by.

I want to show our viewers some live pictures we're getting in from Washington right now. This is outside the law firm where Donald Trump is continuing some meetings inside. He's at a series of (INAUDIBLE) meetings with Republican leaders in the Senate and the House, top party officials.

We know the House speaker, Paul Ryan, says he had a, quote, "great conversation with Donald Trump." But several Republicans up on Capitol Hill, they're still refusing to line up behind him. Our CNN team chased them down to ask them some questions. Much more on all of that when we come back.

[13:14:47]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [13:18:36] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, just a couple of minutes ago, Donald Trump wrapped up his meetings here at a Washington, D.C. law firm, got into a motorcade and left that building. I think we've got some video of that. We'll show it to you once it comes in.

Trump, as you know, has been meeting all day with Republican leaders of the House and Senate. There you see his vehicle leaving that law office building here in Washington. Trump's been very, very busy since he arrived early this morning meeting with the House speaker, Paul Ryan. He's been trying to search for some common ground. Rank and file Republicans in Congress are also doing a lot of soul searching right now. Many are dealing with a very important dilemma, fall in line behind Donald Trump or risk potentially alienating his supporters.

Our senior political reporter, Manu Raju, is back with us once again.

Manu, I know this has been a difficult choice for a lot of these lawmakers who are in tough re-election battles. You had a chance to catch up with some of them.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right. I actually spent the last couple of days trying to pin down members of Congress on where they are on their party's presumptive nominee. And, Wolf, what I found is that the party is all over the map.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU (voice-over): Donald Trump is on the verge of becoming the GOP presidential nominee, but many Republicans on Capitol Hill seem to think it's all a bad dream.

RAJU (on camera): Are you supporting Trump?

REP. CHRIS STEWART (R), UTAH: You know what, I'm in kind of a hurry.

RAJU: You don't want to comment one way or another?

[13:20:00] STEWART: Yes. Yes.

RAJU: Any reason for that?

STEWART: Well, I'm just trying to wrap my head around it right now. Still.

RAJU: OK.

STEWART: It's just a big change for a lot of us. It takes - I think it will take a little while for the party to kind of actually wrap their head around it.

RAJU (voice-over): As Trump met with GOP leaders today, many in the rank and file are still struggling to get behind him. They disagree with some of his key positions. They worry his divisive rhetoric will hurt GOP chances of holding a majority in Congress. And some in tough re-election bids like Illinois Senator Mark Kirk have little interest in discussing their party's standard bearer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think we're doing any Trump questions this week.

RAJU: Still, Republicans are in a dilemma. Many need Trump's legions of supporters to help them in November, but they don't want to be tied too closely to the real estate mogul and potentially turn off swing voters.

RAJU (on camera): Do you think that he will be good for your party, Donald Trump?

SEN. JOHNNY ISAKSON (R), GEORGIA: Now I'm supporting the ticket, but the race I'm fundamentally focusing on is my race.

REP. CHARLIE DENT (R), PENNSYLVANIA: I'm not prepared to endorse him at this time.

RAJU (voice-over): Some Republicans say that a colleague shouldn't fear Trump, including Senator Richard Burr, who faces voters in North Carolina this year.

SEN. RICHARD BURR (R), NORTH CAROLINA: He's brought a level of enthusiasm to the primaries that we haven't seen.

RAJU (on camera): How do you think he impacts your re-election race?

BURR: Well, listen I think anytime you increase the amount of turnout for a general election, the greater the likelihood is you're going to elect the right person, the best person. I hope, in my case, that's me.

RAJU (voice-over): Senate leaders are starting to believe Trump can actually win in November. With a new Quinnipiac poll showing Trump competitive in three key swing states. That's eased some fears on Capitol Hill.

RAJU (on camera): Senator McConnell, you've been - you said repeatedly that you want a nominee who can win in blue states and in purple states. How confident are you that Donald Trump can do that?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: It's a long time till November, but the early indications are that our nominee is likely to be very competitive.

RAJU (voice-over): Speaker Paul Ryan has vowed that his party will be united in the fall campaign, even though he's expressed his own reservations about Trump. But if Ryan refuses to back the likely GOP nominee, some Trump supporters say that will be a problem.

REP. LOU BARLETTA (R), PENNSYLVANIA: The risk of not getting behind the nominee is that the American people will feel what they're already saying is that Washington doesn't get it.

(END VIDEOTAPE) RAJU: Now, Wolf, as a number of Republicans fret about Donald Trump, party leaders are actually saying to their members in tough re- elections, hey, when you want to run for your re-election, don't worry about the national trends, don't worry about the national ticket, focus on the local issue, focus on what you're doing back home for your constituents. They really want to localize this race because they're worried about the national trends, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Manu Raju reporting from Capitol Hill. Manu, a lot of important decisions have to be made up there by these members of Congress.

Once again, you just saw it moments ago, Donald Trump getting into that vehicle, leaving the building, a law office building, where he was continuing his meetings. He's had a series of meetings going all day so far from early in the morning, first with Paul Ryan, then other House Republican leaders, then Senate Republican leaders, now this meeting. So he's got - he's got a busy, busy day. We haven't heard from him. As far as I know he hasn't tweeted yet. No formal comment from Donald Trump on all of these meetings. But, guess what, I'm sure we'll be hearing from him very, very soon.

Coming up, the former vice president of the United States, Dan Quayle, he's now discussing Donald Trump and a big decision on who Trump should pick as his vice presidential running mate. We're going to hear from Dan Quayle when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:27:51] BLITZER: He served in the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and as George H.W. Bush's vice president. So the Indiana Republican, Dan Quayle, clearly qualified to discuss possible running mates for Donald Trump. CNN's special correspondent Jamie Gangel sat down with him to discuss precisely that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you have any advice for him on the kind of person he should pick for vice president?

DAN QUAYLE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Yes, I think that he needs to probably have a younger person and somebody that has - comes from the conservative wing of the party, if you will. There are many people out there.

GANGEL: Any names come to mind?

QUAYLE: Well, the two that would be clearly folks that he should consider, I'm certainly - I'm certain that he will, one would be Marco Rubio from Florida.

GANGEL: He says he doesn't want it.

QUAYLE: Well, they all say that. Let's wait and see. John Kasich from Ohio.

GANGEL: He also says he doesn't want it.

QUAYLE: Yes. You know, they all - they all say that until the phone call comes in.

GANGEL: I know you're past this, but if Donald Trump called you up and said, would you be my vice president, you would be comfortable with that?

QUAYLE: Look, I was young and conservative at one time and that would have been a good choice. But I'm now much older and, quite frankly, I'm not sure how conservative I am these days compared to where the party might be today.

GANGEL: Has it been surreal watching this process?

QUAYLE: It's been really quite unbelievable. And it's interesting. It's entertaining. I travel around the world and people, that's all they want to do, who's going to be the next president? What is going on? So, you know, America's political presidential campaign has got the world's attention more so this time than perhaps any time in our history.

GANGEL: Anybody else on your short list for Donald Trump?

QUAYLE: I think he should pick a person that has political experience. If you want to look at somebody that has stature and really substance that would be a great vice president, it would be Senator Rob Portman from Ohio. He would be an excellent choice.

[13:30:04] Now, there's a couple other senators, a couple other governors. We've got a good governor in the state of Oklahoma and New Mexico. I mean there - there's a - there's a big - bit array of people out there that he could choose from.