Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Paul Ryan Tells House Republicans to Get Behind Trump; Hillary Clinton Makes History as First Female Presumptive Nominee of a Major U.S. Party; Former Mayor of L.A. Launches Anti-Trump Campaign Aimed at Latino popuLations; 81-year Old Pilot Nails Emergency Landing on Glacier; Video of Friendly Panther Goes Viral, Critics Question Petting Zoo. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired June 08, 2016 - 10:29   ET

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


[10:29:50] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST: All right, Manu Raju reporting live from Capitol Hill. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello thank you so much for joining me. Another word on that breaking news from Capitol Hill. Paul Ryan meeting with House Republicans, of course Paul Ryan is the House Speaker. Essentially he told House Republicans to get behind Donald Trump because the voters have spoken. But some House Republicans are not so willing to get behind Donald Trump because they're angry over Donald Trump's attacks on Judge Curiel.

And the speech that Donald Trump gave last night, it didn't do it for them. So we're going to talk about that, and we're going to talk about the historic nature of the Democratic Primary. With me now to talk about both topics, Presidential Historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin. Hi Doris, thanks for being here.

[10:35:15]

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Hi I'm glad to be with you.

COSTELLO: I just want to get into what's happening on Capitol Hill with the House Republicans. And the Republican Party in disarray over Donald Trump. Can you put that into historical perspective for us?

GOODWIN: Well history doesn't look kindly on such disarray. I mean, in 1912 you had a split between the progressives supporting Teddy Roosevelt through the Primaries, and the conservatives more supporting William Howard Taft who had the delegates. When they couldn't come together, Teddy walked off and formed a third party, the Bull Moose Party, and the Republican Party split in two and of course the Democrat won that election.

In 1964 you had a split between the conservatives and the progressives again with Nelson Rockefeller the liberal, being booed on the floor. Barry Goldwater wins, loses the election hugely. So it's a really tough bind I think, that Republicans are in now. The difference is it's not just a conservative-progressive split. It seems to be a temperament problem that many Republicans have with the Republican nominee. So it's of a very different nature and it makes the sort of, the bigger and the vitality of the split seem even greater to people.

COSTELLO: Yes, and it's difficult to see how the Republicans coalesce behind Donald Trump because he gave that speech and he used a teleprompter, and he tamped down his message and toned things down. But you know that's not going to last.

GOODWIN: Yes, they keep waiting for this presidential moment to happen. When we thought it was going to happen a month ago, six weeks ago, when it looked like he was going to win. And would then turn toward trying to unite the Party. It's much harder for them to unite it unless he's the one that has to lead the way. So but many of them feel that the Party's future itself might be better off by not supporting him. So we're seeing something that's very unusual in Party politics right now.

COSTELLO: So on one side you have Democrats who say Donald Trump is a racist. On the other side you say, "oh, they have a candidate who's crooked, crooked Hillary." Again, historical perspective?

GOODWIN: Well I think the language that's being used in this race is probably coarse. We've had troubles before, we've had people with guns at the heads of people during campaigns, hitting each other over the heads with banners and signs. So it's not as if we've had all sweetness and light in the past. But I think because of 24/7 news right now, because of the way the debates unfolded on both sides, it took a real personal look this time.

If you called somebody a liar or crooked on the House or the Senate floor in the old days, you'd be censured actually, be formally censured. But our language has become coarsened in general. And it's a pretty low thing when you really want the debate to be about issues. And you want people to be arguing about the role of government, and the role of economy and globalization. And when they're talking about liars and crooked people that's not helping anybody along the way.

COSTELLO: All right, let's talk about Hillary Clinton and history. Because she certainly marked her place in American history last night. She embraced her daughter as she embraced victory and became the first ever female presumptive presidential nominee. Put that into historical perspective for us.

GOODWIN: Well all I can say historically, it's been a long time coming. When you think about it, there's been more than 200 years of our Republic. You've had more than 100 nominees, you've had 100 years when women have had their right to vote. And yet this is the very first time that we're finally having a woman who's the major party nominee.

Other countries have done this long before us. And I think the problem has been over time that we just don't have enough women in the pipeline as governors, as Congressmen, as Senators. We're still only 10, 20 percent, 16 percent Mayors of big cities. So that as those figures keep getting stronger and stronger, and more women going to college, more women going to law school, this may be the beginning. Maybe 20 years, 100 years from now people are going to say, "where is that man nominee?" But I think we're a long way from that.

COSTELLO: Yes. Young women don't really think this is a big deal. But you know, I'm trying to rack my brains, could another woman win a Democratic or a Republican Primary, that's living today, besides Hillary Clinton, who has name recognition. I mean she has a lot of baggage, but she does have name recognition, people know her. And she served as Secretary of State, she served at the Senate, she was First Lady, etcetera, etcetera. Is there another woman like that in America?

GOODWIN: Well I think there will be. As, that's what I was really saying. There will be more and more women like that with more and more experience. She certainly has had much more experience than many other men who were running for this office. Not only having been around the White House when her husband was there, but being the Senator from New York, being Secretary of State, having served to unify Obama's campaign. And then have Obama's coalition helping her right now.

So there's a lot that made this possible for her. But I think it is just the beginning of something. And I do think -- I was traveling today, coming to Cleveland. And people would stop in the airport to say, "this is history isn't it?" There's an awareness that something has changed today. I remember when Geraldine Ferraro was nominated. At the first I didn't think it was such a big thing. The next morning I woke up and I thought, "Oh my God, there's a woman who's a Vice Presidential nominee."

So these history moments strike you emotionally at certain points. And young women may not feel it as much because they haven't fought as hard as older women had to do. But I have a feeling there'll be a sense of this being a big issue in the campaign. And I think Hillary will make it so. And I think rightly so. I think she'll win more than lose by doing that.

[10:40:35]

COSTELLO: Doris Kearns Goodwin, thank you so much for stopping by. Still to come in the Newsroom, a Democrat and a key Latino leader taking on Donald Trump. I'll talk to the former L.A. Mayor about what he's doing to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Donald Trump has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration. He called Mexican immigrants rapists, and criminals, and most recently of course, he attacked Judge Curiel. There is already growing concern amongst top Republicans and donors about Donald Trump. And the Party's ability to win over Latino votes. Now the former Mayor of Los Angeles, a key Latino leader, is launching an anti-Trump campaign focusing on key states with large Latino populations. Antonio Villaraigosa joins me now. I knew I would mess up your name and I apologize for that.

[10:45:45]

ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, FORMER MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES: Not a problem, Carol. Just don't call me late for dinner.

COSTELLO: I won't do that, thank you so much for being with me this morning. You know, Paul Ryan said, what Donald Trump said about Judge Curiel was racist. But he doesn't believe Donald Trump is racist in his heart. Is that possible in your mind?

VILLARAIGOSA: Well I'm not in his heart, I can't speculate about that. Clearly what he said was racist. And Ryan's not the only Republican who's said that. So did Jeb Bush, said he ought to retract his statements instead of defend them. So has Senator Sasso, so has virtually everyone who's appined (ph) on this issue and yet he continues to double down. Continues to try to defend what is clearly racist remarks.

And then he adds insult to injury by including Muslims and virtually everyone else. That's unfortunately what we've seen from Donald Trump, a man who doubles down on the kind of remarks that most of us find reprehensible, and that have no place in our civic discourse, or in our body politic, frankly.

COSTELLO: So you're going to focus all of your efforts from now until November in stopping Trump. How are you going to do that?

VILLARAIGOSA: Well look, we're focusing on new Americans of whatever ethnicity. California is the epicenter of immigrants. The Golden State was built by the Chinese, by Mexicans, by people from all over the world who came here with a dream. L.A. is another epicenter, and so we're going to focus on California, new Americans, Latinos. Get them to register to vote, get them to understand that they got to go to the polls. And then to activate them. Get them to contribute. And talk to similarly situated voters in Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Florida. So we're going to connect these people to one another to ...

COSTELLO: So ...

VILLARAIGOSA: ... stop a candidacy that is a threat, I think, to human values ...

COSTELLO: So Mayor, ...

VILLARAIGOSA: ... and values that we know as Americans.

COSTELLO: Mayor, getting Latinos to turn out to vote will be difficult. Because if you look back to the electorate in 2012, just 10 percent of Hispanics turned out to vote. So how do you energize them?

VILLARAIGOSA: Well I'll tell you. For one, we've got to educate voters. We're making it easier to register to vote here in California. We've got to engage, and really serious civic education about the importance of voting. What I've said to people, "look, Trump speaks this way about Latinos, and specifically Mexicans, because we're not going to the polls. We're not becoming citizens in the numbers that we need to. So we need to register to vote, we need to go to the polls, we're going to work hard. That's why we're focusing on this part of the electorate." Very, very important to get them involved in our civic discourse, and voting this November.

COSTELLO: Antonio Villaraigosa, thanks so much for being with me this morning. I'll be right back.

VILLARAIGOSA: You did that right this time.

COSTELLO: I ...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:53:00]

COSTELLO: An 81-year old pilot is credited with pulling off a near perfect emergency landing on a snowy mountain glacier. The man and his two passengers were taking a day trip North of Vancouver on Sunday when they made a wrong turn into a valley. Couldn't get enough power to climb over the rock so they landed safely and they were rescued the next day.

A man poses with his back turned to a black panther. And that's when the panther does something unexpected. More now from Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)