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EgyptAir Investigation; Trump Clinches Republican Nomination. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 26, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:03]

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That they can distance themselves from Donald Trump if they think they have to, and then he goes and he trashes Susana Martinez a couple of days ago, who was distancing herself from him.

So, I think that this -- this press conference kind of put even more questions into whether anybody besides Donald Trump can speak for Donald Trump, because he is such a unique and unconventional political figure.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, very good point there. Dana, Nia, David, thank you, guys.

Top of the hour now. Let's get started.

Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar.

Donald Trump says he will debate Bernie Sanders for $10 million to go to a charity. That is just one headline today of many, this day that so many Republican leaders said would never come. Donald Trump has now clinched the number of delegates he needs to win the Republican nomination for president.

And this happened after some unbound delegates announced today they were joining the Trump train. Trump spoke just moments ago about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, the thing I think I'm most proud of, not the fact that I'm watching Hillary, instead of Hillary watching me.

You know, we were supposed to be going in to July, and a lot of people said it wouldn't be even solved during that convention. There's going to be a new convention in August. And here I am watching Hillary fight, and she can't close the deal. And that should be such an easy deal to close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, Trump also declined the call for Hillary Clinton -- I should say actually this. A State Department audit has just found that Clinton insecurely handled her e-mails. He would not call for her to get out of the race because of that, but this finding was that she did not cooperate in the department's investigation. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Actually, I sort of like her in the race. I want to run against her. Look, she has bad judgment. This was all bad judgment. Probably illegal. We will have to find out what the FBI says about it, but certainly it was bad judgment. I just read the report.

It's devastating, the report. It is devastating. And there's no reason for it. It's just, you know, skirting on the edge all the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And our Jeremy Diamond is in Billings, Montana.

This, Jeremy, is where Donald Trump will be headed. I'm sure that you were listening certainly to some of the things he said, but this is a big moment for Donald Trump to seize on and make even more headlines than he normally does, capitalizing on this key moment.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It was a really interesting press conference, a really newsworthy press conference as well.

One of the really interesting top lines is that I asked Donald Trump repeatedly whether he still stood by his call to temporarily ban foreign Muslims from entering the United States, and Donald Trump repeatedly dodged my questions, actually. He would not say whether he stood by that position, saying simply that we need a lot of vigilance and saying that there's definitely a problem with radical Islam in the world.

This comes right after his new campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, told The Huffington Post that Donald Trump would be moderating his views on certain issues, especially on the issue of the Muslim ban, for example.

So, certainly some interesting lines there as well. As well, Donald Trump also went after Hillary Clinton, again slamming her judgment, particularly in light of this new State Department I.G. report about her use of a personal e-mail server.

So Donald Trump going after her on that. That comes after yesterday during a rally. Donald Trump actually sort of held back. You know, he brought this report up, but he did not actually go after her on it. He didn't really slam her in the way that he did today when he called into question her judgment.

Of course, Donald Trump also went after Senator Elizabeth Warren today. They have been warring on Twitter and kind of having some back and forth here. Donald Trump again talking about her Native American heritage, saying that -- calling her Pocahontas actually, this as Donald Trump criticizing Elizabeth Warren, saying that "She is as Native American as I am."

There were several other top lines, of course, certainly a very newsworthy pressure conference today that Donald Trump gave to reporters, just after he finally clinched the 1,237 delegates necessary for him to officially become the Republican nominee.

KEILAR: All right, Jeremy Diamond. And I said you were in Billings, Montana, which, unless you teleported very quickly to the next event, you are not.

DIAMOND: Here in North Dakota.

KEILAR: You are there in Bismarck, North Dakota, asking questions of Donald Trump. Thanks so much, Jeremy.

And I want to go now to CNN political commentator Matt Lewis and Donna Brazile, and CNN political commentator Doug Heye, who used to be the communications director for the Republican National Committee.

OK. So, I want to start with what Sanders said about -- or what he said about debating Bernie Sanders for $10 million.

Donna, your reaction?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, I like a good debate. And I think this would be probably one of the most interesting and consequential debates, because I believe Bernie Sanders will demolish Donald Trump.

[15:05:00]

And, likewise, Hillary Clinton will do that this fall once she is the nomination of the Democratic Party. And the reason why I think Bernie Sanders will demolish Donald Trump is because he is a senator of substance.

He hasn't sat around Washington, D.C., looking at the clock, like some politicians. Instead, he's fought for veterans, as we all know with his campaign, from income inequality, to making sure that our kids can afford to go to school.

I would love to hear what substance Donald Trump -- one thing that Donald Trump will -- I think we need to just come up with a dictionary of what I call the insults, the litany of insults. Today, he became the nominee of the Republican Party.

And this is -- this is a very important accomplishment, so hats off. Congratulations to Donald Trump and his team and his family for becoming the nominee. But you know what? Most Americans are still looking for substance.

And I think a debate, if that happens -- I have heard from Jeff Weaver today on one -- another television. He said that they would like to see it happen. But if it happens, I believe Bernie Sanders will demolish him. And, by the way, if Bernie Sanders is not available, Elizabeth Warren will demolish him. We will just try to help Donald Trump get up to speed, up to date before he debates Hillary Clinton this fall.

KEILAR: OK.

And, you know, I wonder what you think, Matt, about the Paul Ryan stuff. We haven't talked about that yet. But, of course, Donald Trump and Paul Ryan have been talking. They had a meeting. Paul Ryan has not jumped on the Donald Trump train at this point in time, but he was asked about it.

And he said that they had been having a very good conversation and he said it's moving along. He was asked to clarify that and he said let's just see what happens. He seems to be indicating that Paul Ryan is going to come around to support him. Of course, he also said that New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, who right now there's very bad blood with, would support him as well.

So, what do you make about this, what he said about Paul Ryan?

MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it is really interesting.

Yesterday, yesterday, or the day before, there was a story that seemed to suggest that Paul Ryan was about to come out with an endorsement. And some -- a lot of people think that was leaked from the Trump campaign, maybe as a way to urge Ryan to do it, and Ryan pushed back against it.

I think that Paul Ryan and, you know, a lot of Republicans have a difficult choice here to make. And it's unclear what -- let's say Donald Trump loses in six months. Are you better off having sort of gone down with your candidate, your nominee? Or are you better off kind of distancing yourself from him?

And Paul Ryan's wearing many hats here as a -- he's a speaker of the House, but he's also in a sense the head of the conservative movement in exile. And I think there is a danger that if he buddies up too much with Donald Trump and some of Trump's, you know, negative comments about Mexicans, about women could tarnish the conservative brand.

And so that's something that Ryan is going to have to seriously consider if and when he decides to actually endorse the now I think clearly presumptive Republican nominee. He's as 1,237 as of today.

KEILAR: OK.

And I also want to bring in now a New York councilman who supports Donald Trump, Joseph Borelli. He is with us. And we have Republican strategist Doug Heye with us as well.

Joseph, what did you think about this feud that we're seeing between Donald Trump and President Obama? Donald Trump saying that President Obama shouldn't be saying these things basically when he's on foreign soil and trying to change this and saying that this -- you know, President Obama has a failed foreign policy.

But, you know, it's certainly -- I think people's ears perk up when the president of the United States says that a number of foreign leaders are telling him that they're rattled, that the world is concerned about Donald Trump and his grasp of some of the issues.

JOSEPH BORELLI, CO-CHAIR, DONALD TRUMP NEW YORK CAMPAIGN: Sure.

Well, right now, Donald Trump is speaking to the voters as a candidate in a race, and he is not by any accounts the first candidate to speak in a different tone and a different rhetoric to the voters than he would, say, on a diplomatic stage.

That said, he wouldn't have the fodder to tweet out -- he wouldn't have the fodder to attack the current foreign policy of the United States, but not for the failed policies of Secretary Clinton and Barack Obama.

They're the ones feeding all of this reaction from Donald Trump. And if they don't like it, well, then maybe they should have adopted foreign policy that the public seems to like.

KEILAR: So, you are saying that -- what I hear you saying is he's talking to voters, but the way he handles some of how he would talk about foreign policy may change when he is instead talking to foreign leaders?

BORELLI: Yes. I mean, again, he's not the first presidential candidate to talk tough on foreign policy. And then when he is actually in the setting where he has to deal with world leaders on a regular basis, he has to come to -- with a more diplomatic approach.

That's why we have this -- the whole State Department to deal with that. That said, you know, he's speaking in a way that is calling out the administration's failed foreign policy.

Even right now, with this trip that Barack Obama is on, he's essentially -- it's been reported that the Chinese are upset. He's undermining our diplomatic relationship with them. He's in another country right now that has very shady human rights issues.

[15:10:04]

And he's lending his credibility as the American president. So, there's tons of stuff that Donald Trump can and does attack American policy and occasionally he attacks other world leaders.

KEILAR: Doug, as someone who has played an important role in the past in the RNC, when you're talking about, for instance, this Paul Manafort interview that he did with The Huffington Post, and he is saying in this interview that he thinks the nominee isn't going to be a woman, isn't going to be a minority, he's saying that Donald Trump may not release his tax returns, he wouldn't advise him to do it, and then Donald Trump comes out to the lectern and he says that Manafort may have been misquoted.

I mean, what does that sort of tell you? It's really extraordinary, the daylight between Donald Trump and one of his top advisers.

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, absolutely, Brianna.

We hear so much about a Republican Party that's divided, obviously, a Democratic Party that's divided as well. What we see is that the Trump campaign is also very divided. They just let go one of their real rock star staffers who joined on a few weeks ago, Rick Wiley, who used to work at the RNC.

The campaign says something one day. Trump says something the next. And it's not just taxes. It is not just other issues that you mentioned. Also, a good example is Susana Martinez. Paul Manafort has gone and told members of Congress and United States senators he's going to be more presidential, and if you need to distance yourself from Donald Trump, feel free to do what you need to do as a campaign.

And then we saw Donald Trump attack the very popular governor of New Mexico, also the only Latina governor in the country. So, at a time when he's hurting with female voters and Latino voters, maybe attacking a popular female Hispanic governor is not the smart thing to do.

KEILAR: And, Matt, he seemed to say he thought she would join the club in a way. What do you think?

(LAUGHTER)

LEWIS: Well, look, I think that this is problematic.

If you -- if Paul Manafort, the top guy on the campaign, cannot negotiate in good faith and cannot make promises and expect his candidate to keep them, then you're essentially disempowered as a negotiator for your candidate.

So, this is really problematic. And I think that Donald Trump is sending a message that, you know -- that, no, you can't have any daylight. You have to bow down, basically. I mean, this is -- it is my way or the highway.

And, look, if you're a Republican running this cycle -- think of Rob Portman in Ohio, Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania. Do you dare distance yourself from Trump? Does he come into Pennsylvania or Ohio in October and attack you publicly? This is really a wild card and the implications could be very damaging down-ballot.

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: Brianna, I just one to say one thing, because I think we have to say this. This is the 21st century.

There's more than enough if -- when I say enough, hundreds of Americans of -- who are women, who are minorities, who are more than qualified to be president and vice president of the United States.

So I just want it out there for young kids to hear this. If you're a woman, you are a minority, you are qualified. Go out there, work hard and guess what? One day you can, too, be president of the United States.

This notion that it's pandering by simply picking qualified people regardless of what they look like or whatever, that is just stupid, nonsense. So I'm glad that Mr. Trump did distance him from Mr. Manafort's comments regarding women and minorities and not seeking them on the list.

They should be on every list, a short list, a long list and every other list in between.

KEILAR: Joseph, I want to ask you about Elizabeth Warren, because one of the big concerns on the Democratic side right now is, how do you unify these two wings of the party?

The Hillary Clinton side, even though she has pivoted to the left, has traditionally been a little more moderate. Bernie Sanders is to her left. A lot of his folks aren't for Hillary Clinton. But if Donald Trump is attacking Elizabeth Warren, he is calling her Pocahontas, he's saying that she's been ineffective other than she has a big mouth, and this is someone who is a darling of the Bernie Sanders set, isn't he just delivering unity for the Democratic Party?

BRAZILE: Yes.

BORELLI: Well, I don't think so. I don't think so at all.

KEILAR: How is he not?

BORELLI: Well, first of all, start here.

If Elizabeth Warren attacks Donald Trump, she is doing it just to get a rise out of him.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: But isn't he sort of like going down the rabbit hole with her?

BORELLI: No, but, look, it can't be a double standard.

You can't have a situation where a woman, albeit a senator or whoever, gets to attack the Republican nominee, and he can't attack her back without being called a sexist. It is fair. It's open. She knows what she's going to get when she attacks Donald Trump and she gets it in reverse.

KEILAR: But that's not what I'm asking. I'm not asking -- I mean, whatever. He can say whatever he wants. That's very clear and that's his prerogative.

But is it wise politically when he might actually be taking some Bernie Sanders supporters who are not really feeling Hillary Clinton so much, and she seems to be headed towards the nomination, and he is giving them something to get aggravated about that could motivate them to vote for Hillary Clinton? Why is he doing that?

[15:15:08]

BORELLI: Look, I think a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters are going to come over to him primarily because they don't like who Hillary Clinton is as a person, not only who she is as an elected official.

I also think...

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: So you're saying that Bernie supporters will go over to Donald Trump. But if he's trying to do that...

(CROSSTALK)

BORELLI: Well, they're saying that. They're saying that in the polling. They're saying that in the polling.

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: Give us time.

KEILAR: Yes, why would he hit Elizabeth Warren? That's someone that a lot of people -- if they like Bernie Sanders, they tend to like Elizabeth Warren.

BORELLI: Look, he is going after Elizabeth Warren because she is going after him.

Is it a little bit foolish? Yes, I think they both should tone down the rhetoric a little bit and maybe focus a little bit more on issues. But to accuse one person of this, of doing this, and not the other is in my mind a double standard.

BRAZILE: She's gone after his policy. And you know what? She was the creator and founder of the Consumer Financial Protection Board, which helps consumers against these mortgage companies and lenders that really hurt us during the great recession.

She sponsored 36 bills, trade bills, financial bills, again, to protect consumers. So, yes, go after her if you want to. But before you call her an insulting name, which I don't think Pocahontas...

(CROSSTALK)

BORELLI: But she can call him a loser, she can call him small, she can call him that without any repercussions.

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: She also said that -- he also said that she hasn't accomplished nothing.

All I'm saying is read the record before you comment on what she has and has not accomplished. She's accomplished a lot. And she would do a lot more if she, I'm sure, can get the Senate back in the Democratic hands. KEILAR: Doug, final word.

HEYE: Yes. I would just say, you know, to something that Joseph said, focus on the issues.

We see yet again Donald Trump insulting people, whether it's Susana Martinez or Elizabeth Warren. Focus on the issues. That is not happening. And that's why it should be no surprise that Paul Ryan is putting forth a legislative agenda so that House Republicans have something positive they can campaign on, because they can't campaign positively with Donald Trump.

KEILAR: All right, guys. I'm going to leave it there. Doug, Joseph, Matt, Donna, thanks to all of you being with us on that.

BRAZILE: Thank you.

HEYE: Thank you.

BORELLI: Thank you.

LEWIS: Thank you.

KEILAR: We have much more on this breaking news, including Donald Trump's response to President Obama. He said world -- or pardon me. President Obama said that world leaders are rattled by Trump's rise. We have more in CNN's special coverage.

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[15:21:22]

KEILAR: President Obama is issuing a warning to Donald Trump and his supporters, telling reporters at the G7 Summit in Japan that world leaders are unnerved by Trump's policies and his attitude.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of the proposals that he's made display either ignorance of world affairs or a cavalier attitude or an interest in getting tweets and headlines, instead of actually thinking through what it is that is required to keep America safe and secure and prosperous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, moments ago, Donald Trump responded to that and he turned Obama's comment sort of on its head.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When you rattle someone, that's good, because many of the world -- as you know, many of our -- the countries in our world, our beautiful world, have been absolutely abusing us and taking advantage of us. So, if they're rattled in a friendly way, we are going to have great relationships with these countries. But if they're rattled in a friendly way, that's a good thing, John,

not a bad thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, joining me, we have CNN senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward, and we have David Rohde, CNN global affairs analyst and national security investigations editor from Reuters.

Clarissa, what do you make of this feud that we're seeing over foreign policy between President Obama and between Donald Trump?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, I think it is no secret that Donald Trump has been ruffling feathers overseas with some of his more controversial policy ideas, and certainly his meteoric ascent has been a subject of fascination across the world.

I have to say, from jihadis in Syria to politicians in Paris, everyone is always asking me about Trump, but there is definitely widespread concern in all the places that I travel to and all the people that I speak to, and apparently the people that President Obama has been speaking to, too, at the G7 in Japan, about this perceived ignorance when it comes to world affairs.

Especially, we have seen that here in the U.K. Earlier this year, we heard British Prime Minister David Cameron, who called Trump's comments about banning Muslims from traveling to the U.S. divisive and stupid and wrong. And today even we heard from the newly elected mayor of London, who himself is a Muslim, Sadiq Khan, who called his views on Islam ignorant.

And, of course, it stretches way beyond that from the Saudis to the Mexicans to the Chinese. Certainly, Trump has been a very polarizing candidate on the international scene, Brianna.

KEILAR: David, what have you been hearing from overseas and who in particular is very concerned about Trump, to sort of, I guess, fact- check what we're hearing from President Obama?

DAVID ROHDE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It's very similar. I mean, Reuters is a massive news organization. We have got 2,000 reporters, over 100 bureaus around the world.

And the countries Clarissa walked through, it's -- what we are hearing, that the Chinese are very concerned about his talk about trade tariffs. Mexicans and Latin Americans are very upset about this wall talk, but a sense of racism toward Hispanics.

Europeans are very worried about this ban on Muslim travelers. They say that that plays exactly into ISIS' narrative that this a religious war and more importantly ISIS' basic message that there's a double standard, that, you know, being bigoted against Muslims is acceptable and it's an extraordinary thing to have a presidential candidate sort of saying this so openly. And it's the unpredictability sort of is, I guess, great fodder for American television, really, it is not rattling, you know, allies. They're not sure what's going to come next. And it's not a positive thing we are hearing from our bureaus.

[15:25:05]

KEILAR: Yes. And we have even heard David Petraeus say that, right, in sort of an open appeal to Donald Trump to stop some of that kind of rhetoric.

It's interesting, Clarissa, when you look and you listen to what Donald Trump is saying. In one breath, he will say that he'd go all in on ISIS and then at other times he sounds very isolationist, and he critiques some of the U.S. involvement, for instance, in Iraq.

That's something that it seems somewhat contradictory. But what is your read on that?

WARD: Well, I don't think yet, Brianna, we have heard a really coherent strategic foreign policy laid out by the presumptive nominee Donald Trump.

I do think that the other thing that's made him such a difficult candidate for the international community is his unpredictability, which he's really thrived on, and also his ability to be so provocative, particularly when he talking about international issues.

I do think there's a sense now that we're going to see a different side of Trump, that we're going to see perhaps a slightly more demure, subdued, serious approach, particularly when talking about these international issues.

And I'm also noticing that we're seeing since he became the presumptive Republican nominee that the rhetoric overseas has definitely softened. There's a realization now that leaders across the world are really grappling with this idea that there is a very real possibility they may have to deal with an actual President Trump.

And so, I think that the sort of soaring rhetoric that we have seen in the media coverage is definitely softening a little bit as people try to think about more productive ways perhaps to engage.

KEILAR: That's really good point, David, because we just heard a surrogate for Donald Trump who said, look, he has been talking to primary voters up until now and as he moves forward and he's talking more to foreign leaders, you are going to see this shift. Do you think that's an adjustment he can make if he does move towards the White House to instill some more confidence in foreign countries, and does he need to do that?

ROHDE: I think he will do it. And that's part of the natural sort of progression, but this has been such an odd campaign, where his positions are so extreme.

The surrogate you just mentioned, you know, throughout the primaries, Trump bashed China. He said Obama should have sent the president of China to McDonald's in Washington, instead of having him at the White House for a steak dinner, and then the surrogate just a few minutes ago was criticizing President Obama for antagonizing the Chinese, saying that President Obama should be nicer to the Chinese.

So can he short of come up with a consistent and coherent policy as a candidate is vital, but it's back to becoming president. Markets move globally based on what the president of the United States says. So it will be interesting the see how this evolves. He will move to the center, but he's coming from such extreme positions, you know, it will be a key dynamic to see whether he succeeds or not.

KEILAR: Yes, how much can really move? We will see.

All right, Clarissa Ward, David Rohde, thanks so much to both of you.

And ahead, we have more on our breaking story, Donald Trump clinching the delegates that he needs for the Republican nomination, what he told a crowd just moments after getting this new.

Plus, breaking news just into CNN. This involves the search for EgyptAir Flight 804 -- what officials say they found below the surface next.

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