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GOP Furious Trump Won't Endorse Paul Ryan?; Speculation Swirls Donald Trump Might Drop Out; McCain Gets Grilled for Trump Support; D.C. Transit Cop Charged With Aiding ISIS; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 03, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:01] KELLY WALLACE, HOST, CNN'S "DRIVING WHILE DISTRACTED": I can't help but turn around. The same is the case with that phone rings, you can't help but check it out.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I can't wait to see your special.

WALLACE: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Because I think it's an important topic.

WALLACE: It is. Thank you so much.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Kelly.

Kelly's special, by the way, "DRIVING WHILE DISTRACTED," airs Saturday afternoon, 2:30 Eastern only on CNN.

The next hour of NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, disarray.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump lurching from one controversy to another.

KHIZR KHAN, FATHER OF FALLEN MUSLIM AMERICAN SOLDIER: This person is not fit for the office he is seeking.

COSTELLO: Trump's top aides concerned he is way off message.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Donald Trump has been the ultimate disrupter in this political campaign but now he seems to be moving into the area of self-sabotage.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think my whole life has been about handling pressure. I think I have a great temperament for winning because I know how to win.

COSTELLO: How does he get back on track?

Let's talk, live at the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Donald Trump facing new fury today. It comes from the very top of his own party. It comes just hours after Trump refused to endorse two party leaders, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator John McCain. Today we're learning RNC chair Reince Priebus is furious, especially at the snub of Ryan, the top Republican in Congress and a close personal friend.

Dana Bash broke the story -- broke the Priebus story. She joins us now to tell us more.

Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Good morning, Carol, and that's right. It's one thing according to the source close to Reince Priebus for Donald Trump to, you know, lash out at various Republican figures even at Priebus himself in the past, but the feeling inside the RNC, and specifically Reince Priebus, is that this was a bridge too far. And when I say this, it was Donald Trump actively declining in an

interview with "The Washington Post" yesterday to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan in his Republican primary for his congressional district which takes place next week.

And as you said, the reason is multilayered but most importantly that it's really, really personal for Reince Priebus. Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus are both from Wisconsin. They grew up together in politics. Priebus was the chairman of Paul Ryan's very first race for Congress. And I'm told that he just feels that after all that Priebus has tried to do to try to kind of maintain as much of the calm within the party and try to kind of push things along and help Donald Trump, that this was, again, a bridge too far, too much for him to take, and he has expressed his frustration and disappointment to the Trump campaign about Trump's refusal to endorse Ryan.

COSTELLO: The other thing hanging out there this morning, Dana, we all know because Donald Trump has said so that he hates to lose. There are some speculation that Donald Trump may actually drop out of the race. Is that real?

BASH: Who knows. I think the answer to that right now is no, it is not real. However, I was just talking to an official from the Republican National Committee who on his own is working on the what ifs because this official told me that he believes Donald Trump is so mercurial, you know, who knows, maybe by him talking more and more in the past few days about a system being rigged, even attacking the media more than before, perhaps he is laying the groundwork to withdraw from the race.

So what this official who I talked to said he is doing is trying to figure out what the rules are if that happens, with the Republican National Committee rules are to replace a vacancy. Now this is a lot of what ifs, a lot of speculation, and we'd have to underscore really, really firmly that this is not based on any hard reporting that Donald Trump is considering doing this at all.

This is just Republican officials seeing what's going on, getting more and more worried about the unpredictability of the race and of the candidate at the top of their ticket and just trying to prepare, kind of do their due diligence to prepare the what if scenario.

COSTELLO: All right, Dana Bash, thanks for your fine reporting as always. I appreciate it.

So let's break this all down with our panel, CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, Democratic strategist and Hillary Clinton supporter Robert Zimmerman, and CNN political commentator and Donald Trump supporter, Kayleigh McEnany.

Thanks to all of you for being with me this morning.

So, Kayleigh, I want to jump right into this, you know, the speculation that Donald Trump may drop out of the race, and here's why people kind of think that's possible. Remember when Donald Trump said this, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If I don't beat crooked Hillary Clinton -- she is as crooked as the $3 bill. If I don't beat crooked Hillary Clinton, I will consider this a tremendous waste of time, energy and money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:05:12] COSTELLO: So, Kayleigh, the polls came out and of course Hillary Clinton got that bounce after her convention. Is it possible that Donald Trump could drop out?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, it's not possible. That seems like a farfetched conspiracy theory. When you look at national polls, he's trailing Hillary Clinton, despite this bounce, just trailing her by five to seven points. And that is in light of her post-convention bounce which very much could go down. So there's that. And you look at state by state, he's within striking distance in Pennsylvania and Michigan in state polls.

It's absurd to suggest Donald Trump will jump out. Voters put him there and he, you know, respects the voters who put him there. He would never drop out. I think this is the never Trump movement floating rumors that they'd like to see happen but are in fact not going to happen.

COSTELLO: So, Robert, Dana Bash said this came from a source of hers who is a Republican. But Democrats may be out there floating it, too, because it would be kind of a delicious rumor for them.

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, I'll bet my money on Dana Bash's sources more than even Democratic sources or certainly Republican sources. So I would -- I think obviously it's something that people have to be speculating on. But I think it's very telling about the state of the Republican Party that it wasn't the fact that Donald Trump attacked a Gold Star family that was the tipping point.

It wasn't the fact that Donald Trump offended veterans and prisoners of wars, and demeaned people who were disable or insulted women that was the tipping point. What finally seemed to move the needle for Republicans was the idea that now he's actually criticizing Paul Ryan and attacking Paul Ryan.

And it speaks to me about how politically and morally bankrupt the Republican Party has become. And they've cowered in front of Donald Trump despite all of the obscene and hateful and racist rhetoric. But now because it's the internal politics of Paul Ryan, you see the Republicans now saying let's rethink this.

COSTELLO: OK.

ZIMMERMAN: It says a lot about what the Republican Party is about.

COSTELLO: Douglas -- Douglas, I'm going to get to you but I want Kayleigh to respond to Robert.

MCENANY: Well, with Paul Ryan, I respect him. I think Donald Trump respects him. But who Donald Trump respects more than Paul Ryan are the voters. And forever we have seen Republican voters be sidelined for the interest of the establishment. We saw when Trump got to 1237 which we were told is the rule and the magic number. There was an effort to change the rules.

We saw when he became the nominee with more votes than any Republican nominee in presidential history. Paul Ryan refused to endorse him and not only that undermined him every single step of the way. That is a tremendous act of disrespect to the voters who make up this party. Without Republican voters, the Republican Party does not exist. And it's fine if Paul Ryan wants to differ from the nominee --

ZIMMERMAN: And Kayleigh, without -- without independent voters, no candidate is going to be a credible candidate for president. Donald Trump succeeded in a Republican Party where 44 percent think the president is a secret Muslim. To that voter, that dynasty is the think tank.

Donald Trump still won't even recognize that President Obama is an American citizen. So it says to me -- so it tells you a great deal about just how bankrupt Donald Trump is ethically and morally and also how dysfunctional and how extreme the Republican Party has become. That's real issue here.

MCENANY: I think that's completely insulting to half of Americans who profess conservative values. You can try to undermine the party all you like --

ZIMMERMAN: It's not about conservative values.

MCENANY: The Republican voters, but I --

ZIMMERMAN: It's about the hateful (INAUDIBLE) that Donald Trump is espousing. COSTELLO: OK, so -- so I'm going to stop this argument for just a

second because I do want Douglas to come in. He's a presidential historian.

As you sit back, you know, I've asked you this before, Douglas. As you sit back and watch this election unfold, this is unprecedented in American presidential history, isn't it?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, look, Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee. I mean, he is now and he's going to be running in the fall. We're going to watch him debate Hillary Clinton. He's not quitting. He's not going anywhere. So I think this rumor is something from the anybody but Trump movement, and it has no value.

Yes, we've never had a candidate who seems to want to be so unhinged as Donald Trump, who wants to -- if you want to call it speak his mind or speak his gut, but there seems not to be a filter there. And often when we think of somebody who's president, we think of them being a diplomat, and having to do with world affairs and having to kind of filter their thoughts often and Donald Trump's refusing to do that. In that way, he's an incendiary kind of revolutionary figure.

This isn't about Paul Ryan. It's about making a brand new Republican Party based on economic populism. If Trump's able to win in November, it will be almost a -- almost a revolution that occurred in America. And he wouldn't mind me saying that.

COSTELLO: I want to get into, too, Kayleigh, that Donald Trump, he keeps saying the election might be rigged, the election is rigged. He said judges in Wisconsin, Texas, North Carolina and Kansas who threw out restrictive voter I.D. laws would lead to widespread voter fraud.

[10:10:09] Does he have evidence of that?

MCENANY: CBS just reported, I believe it was a few months ago, that there are hundreds of dead people on the rolls to vote in Los Angeles. I mean, this happens every single election. Elections that can come down to a few hundred votes as we saw in Florida with Gore and Bush. This is really important. Not only that, we've seen Democratic institutions who are purportedly unbiased like the Democratic National Committee come out and not be nonpartisan. In fact, was advocating for a personal candidate and using another candidate's religion, Bernie Sanders, to try to malign him. That's completely wrong.

And when you see that and you start to question Democratic institutions, I think Trump has every right to put the spotlight on this election to ensure that it is fair and it is free.

COSTELLO: OK. And just to clarify because in my mind facts do matter, the 2014 study by Justin Levitt at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles found just 31 cases of voter fraud in 14 years.

So, Kayleigh, I'll just follow up, why keep pounding this? Voter fraud has never been a big problem in the United States.

MCENANY: It has been a problem. You point to those incidences just in Los Angeles.

COSTELLO: It hasn't.

MCENANY: It has happened across the United States. Has it tipped an election? No, probably not. Can it tip an election? Yes, it certainly can. And definitely in an age where you don't have to have a piece of identification in order to vote, basically anyone can show up and vote.

COSTELLO: Go ahead, Robert.

ZIMMERMAN: Kayleigh's response is just typical of the Trump campaign and ultimately it demeans our entire democratic process because she's living in a fact-free world, void of fact, documentation or any -- or any intelligent analysis. And the reality -- the result of that is we have world leaders who look at the Trump candidacy and wonder about the state of our country when he's advocating dismantling NATO. We have -- or he advocates other countries like Saudi Arabia getting nuclear weapons, or, we have in fact in our own country, we have this --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Robert, Kayleigh -- Kayleigh does have a point about the DNC, right, because more people have been fired over those leaked e- mails and what was going on and --

ZIMMERMAN: Absolutely. But --

COSTELLO: Right? So that's not a good thing.

ZIMMERMAN: It's a terrible thing and they should have been fired. But here's the point, Carol, there's absolutely no evidence that's come forward, even remotely. Even Bernie Sanders has not said that the materials come forward shows that the election was rigged or, in fact, he would have won were it not for these e-mails. These are just ventings by employees that were inappropriate. So it's important to put this in the proper perspective here and I just want to add, I'm such an admirer of Doug Brinkley, and Professor Brinkley makes the point about the fact that leadership --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: I was just going to ask Douglas Brinkley, as a capper to this discussion, to put everything into perspective for us. Will we make it to November intact, Douglas?

BRINKLEY: Yes, Donald Trump's going to be there on the ballot and people are going to vote for him or not vote for him. I think a key thing to focus on is voter registration. Can Hillary Clinton get some enthusiasm with young people in, say, a state like Ohio, you know, young people at Ohio State or Kent State, Bowling Green, Oberlin -- you know, can there be a massive voter registration drive with young people with Hillary Clinton?

Right now, it's tepid. They're not that excited. The Sanders people might stay home. I do think you're going to see the Libertarian and Green Party get some voters this cycle because people are sick of both the Democratic nominee and the Republican. Meaning Ross Perot got 19 percent back in 1992. And I wouldn't be surprised if you see third- party candidates getting 10 percent, 7 percent, maybe even up to 15 percent. So that could be a factor coming in the fall. Where those voters coming from that are voting third party.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there. Douglas Brinkley, Robert Zimmerman, Kayleigh McEnany, thanks to all of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, calls to dump Trump get louder. Why some lawmakers are taking a backlash for supporting the Republican nominee.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:18:16] COSTELLO: Donald Trump gives the cold shoulder to Senator John McCain while his running mate Mike Pence huddles with the Arizona senator. Pens says he and McCain shared a very friendly meeting. All of this after McCain issued a scathing statement about Trump and his ongoing feud with the Gold Star family, the Khans. In it, McCain accuses Trump of disdaining the fallen soldier's father and says Trump does not represent the Republican Party. That's why McCain was grilled at a town hall this week on why he's still backing Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I support the nominee of the party and, I tell you what, when -- any time from now on when that question was asked, if I change my mind, I'll let you know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What would you say to the families of service men and women --

MCCAIN: I already --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do they --

(CROSSTALK)

MCCAIN: That's what I said in my statement. That's exactly what I -- that's exactly what I said in my statement. Did you not read my statement?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did.

MCCAIN: Did you not? Then that's my position.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I talked to several veterans today and they're wondering, you know, they were very upset about this and they think the --

MCCAIN: I was upset about it, too. That's why I made the statement that I did.

(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- kind of using this whole issue to hammer you and saying that you should push back and denounce Mr. Trump and his comments. I mean, she's saying -- she's using that against you, saying that you are weak and that you should do that and it's the right thing to do. Do you denounce Trump?

MCCAIN: I will leave that to the judgment of the voters. I've been called a lot of things. Weak not one of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right, so let's talk about this. Senior writer for the "Daily Caller" Jamie Weinstein is with me, online editor for the "Weekly Standard," Michael Warren joins me, too, and Andre Bauer, he's a Trump supporter and the former lieutenant governor of South Carolina.

[10:20:05] Welcome to all of you.

Andre, I'll start with you. Donald Trump says he can't support or can't endorse John McCain, why?

ANDRE BAUER, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, you know, some parties actually have -- some state parties have prohibitions. I don't know what the law is in Arizona. But I'm not sure it's healthy in a Republican primary for a presidential candidate to be endorsing. He doesn't want to alienate part of the Republican Party in that state. And so it's probably in his best interest to stay out of that fight within the family.

COSTELLO: Really? So it has nothing to do about unity? He just doesn't want to interfere in a local or state election?

BAUER: Well, it's not unity across party lines, it's unity within a party. And so I don't know how you're unifying if you have another Republican that may be a great individual.

COSTELLO: But --

BAUER: I don't know him. I'm sorry, go ahead.

COSTELLO: But Donald Trump has said great things about Nehlen. Is that different?

BAUER: Well, you know, he may like both candidates in the race. And so to take a side, he's going to alienate part of his base within the Republican Party, and so it's probably in his best interest to stay out of any Republican Party primaries while he's in this election.

COSTELLO: Michael, does that make sense to you?

MICHAEL WARREN, ONLINE EDITOR, "WEEKLY STANDARD": No, I mean, the idea that Donald Trump is sort of observing some convention of political decorum by not getting involved in a Republican primary is kind of ludicrous, given all the things that he said over the last year and a half that have and antagonized fellow Republicans. Look, I think that both with refusing to endorse John McCain and

refusing to endorse Paul Ryan. And if you look at that "Washington Post" interview, he goes out of his way, Trump does, to make this point. He's trying I think to antagonize. The question is, is why? And I think ultimately he's trying to send a message that, look, nobody in this party owns me, I have no loyalty to the party. And that's kind of his prerogative.

He doesn't really have any reason to be loyal to the Republican Party except for the fact that they gave him his nomination. The question really is, why do these other Republicans, John McCain, Paul Ryan, and others who've supported him, that Trump continues to denigrate or slough off, continues to support him as well? It makes no sense from their perspective? What are they getting out of it?

COSTELLO: Jamie, what are they getting out of it, if anything?

JAMIE WEINSTEIN, SENIOR WRITER, DAILY CALLER: Well, I don't know. Look, this is the reality. Donald Trump is not an expert in policy. What he is an expert in is stealing people's dignity. We saw that with Chris Christie when he endorsed him. Now reportedly, according to the "New Yorker," he fetches burgers for Chris Christie.

Finally you get Donald -- you get John McCain and Paul Ryan who reluctantly get behind Donald Trump. I think for institutional and political reasons. And once they get behind him, what does Trump do? The first time or the second time they don't exactly stand with him on an issue, in this case not attacking the mother of a fallen veteran? He goes out there and takes their dignity even further by refusing to get behind them.

You know, this is like a national dumpster fire. There is no protocol that a presidential candidate doesn't get involved in a primary. George W. Bush got involved in primaries that he thought were important. Of course Donald Trump you would think would get behind the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, and John McCain, the sitting senator from Arizona, who have both endorsed him.

This is a deliberate slap in the face of them. And it really only further humiliates them. You saw that video of John McCain. That is a man who seems like Donald Trump has taken a piece of his dignity there. You know he doesn't want to stand there and -- stand behind Donald Trump but he almost seems forced to and by -- and Donald Trump is not helping in the situation.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: But then why doesn't John McCain just say, I un-endorse or don't support Donald Trump?

WEINSTEIN: Well, I think he should, but I think the reason he doesn't is he feels that he has to stand behind -- stand with Trump in the Republican primary. Donald Trump, remember, won the Republican primary in Arizona. John McCain is in a Republican primary right now. He probably feels he has to do it for political reasons.

COSTELLO: So --

WEINSTEIN: I think he should be a maverick and un-endorse Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Andre, Dana Bash is reporting a source close to Reince Priebus is incredibly upset with Donald Trump for refusing to endorse the House Speaker Paul Ryan. Because Reince Priebus has been publicly supportive of Donald Trump. He's trying to unify his party. And now Donald Trump comes out and says, you know, I'm not sure about Paul Ryan. Is Reince Priebus right to be upset?

BAUER: But I'm not sure you're unifying a party when you get involved in a -- I'm sorry to step to over you. In a family fight, I'm not sure you're unifying the party. Look, I ran for re-election as lieutenant governor and my governor in the same party endorsed my opponent in a primary. It happens. Republicans are independent thinkers. And they don't always sing kumbaya before primaries are over with. And so these are fights within a family and we'll prevail in the end. But a lot of times the leader of the party doesn't endorse the person --

(CROSSTALK)

[10:25:01] COSTELLO: But, Andre, didn't Paul Ryan -- didn't Paul Ryan -- you know, to him it was a really difficult choice to come out and support Donald Trump like he did.

BAUER: But he didn't endorse him in a primary. Well, Paul Ryan didn't endorse him in the Republican primary.

COSTELLO: But he's supportive of Donald Trump now. He spoke at the convention.

BAUER: Well, he's supporting him now because he's the nominee.

COSTELLO: But he didn't have to.

BAUER: I'm sure he'll support Paul Ryan when he's the Republican nominee.

WARREN: Carol, this is really interesting. This is sort of the way that Trump and I think those around Trump and who support Trump view politics, that it's all kind of tit-for-tat. I'll help you if you help me. Scratch my back and you -- if I scratch yours. And I think there's something that's quite revealing about Trump's world view of politics.

The real issue here is, he's the leader of the Republican Party now and it's sort of the duty of a leader to help those who are supposed to be helping him. Paul Ryan is the speaker of the House. If he wins, the House remains in Republican hands, he'll be the speaker in Donald Trump's presidency. It would be in Donald Trump's interest to have somebody --

WEINSTEIN: But I would argue what if his opponent wins? Let's be very clear -- WARREN: Well, Paul Nehlen is not going to be the House speaker, I

tell you that.

WEINSTEIN: Let's be very clear here. Donald Trump is not staying out of this because he doesn't want to get involved in an inter-Republican fight. He is not getting behind Paul Ryan and John McCain because they criticized him and when someone criticizes Donald Trump, he can't stand that. So he is making a point saying unless you get behind me 100 percent, even stand with me when I'm criticizing the mother of a fallen U.S. soldier, you're not going to get my support.

So that's what he's saying here. He's not trying to observe some protocol here or trying to, you know, maintain unity within the Republican Party.

COSTELLO: So Andre --

WEINSTEIN: He's hitting back for being criticized.

COSTELLO: So, Andre, is it personal?

BAUER: I don't know if it's personal or not, but if I had somebody that I thought wasn't treating me fair, I'm not sure I'd run out and get involved in a Republican primary to help that individual either. And of course I'm speaking purely from Andre Bauer's behalf. But again, these fights happen within the party all the time. There may be a lot of his core supporters supporting their opponents within a Republican primary so why would you engage in that fight? I don't know there's an upside there.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there. Jamie Weinstein, Michael Warren, Andre Bauer, thanks to all of you.

All right, I have to get right now to a breaking news out of the nation's capital where a D.C. Transit cop has been arrested for allegedly trying to help ISIS.

Justice correspondent Evan Perez broke this -- is going to break this information with more.

Hi, Evan. Take it away.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This is the first U.S. police officer that has been arrested and charged with supporting ISIS. This is an arrest that was made this morning by the FBI after more than a year of investigation. His name is Nicholas Young and he worked for the Washington Metro Police, the transit police here in Washington.

And according to the investigation, according to investigators, that he has been trying to provide material support, money, to ISIS overseas. According to the investigators, there's been no plot or no threat to the metro transit system here in Washington. This is all focused overseas.

This police officer, Nicholas Young, again is his name, was apparently trying to send money to ISIS. Again, this has been under investigation for over a year. And now he's been arrested early this morning. We expect him to appear before a federal judge in his first appearance in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, this afternoon -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Do we know anything more about Nicholas Young?

PEREZ: We just know that he is a police officer with the transit police. We're trying to get a little bit more background on him right now, Carol. Again this is the first time in the United States we've now had over 100 arrests of ISIS supporters in this country. It's the first time we found one that was an active -- a real police officer with the transit police here in Washington. Again we're trying to dig up more information about him and his background.

COSTELLO: OK, so I'll let you get to it.

Evan Perez, reporting our breaking news this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the CNN NEWSROOM, campaign chaos. A closer look into what Trump campaign insiders say is fueling frustrations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)