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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Votes Being Counted In Speaker Ryan Race; Trump: "Second Amendment People" Could Stop Clinton; Speaking Trumpish, In A Phrase; Clinton Vies For Support In Newly-Competitive Red States; CNN Projects: Speaker Ryan Wins GOP Wisconsin Primary; How Safe Are The Rides; 4 New Zika Cases In Florida; California Wildfire; Delta Woes: Day Two; Shifting Sands Reveal Hawaiian Petroglyphs. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired August 09, 2016 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:01:01] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again. Top of the hour now, the polls have just closed in Wisconsin. As you can see, we're waiting to hear from House Speaker Paul Ryan. It is primary night for the highest ranking Republican in the nation. We're going to bring you results live as they come in.
We begin, though, with the man who was already giving Speaker Ryan a permanent ulcer with some of the things he has said, Donald Trump and today he said more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick -- if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although, the Second Amendment people maybe there is. I don't know. But ...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: There it is. You can judge for yourself whether Trump was joking about someone shooting Hillary Clinton if she becomes president or whether as defenders say he was calling for gun rights supporters to vote in November or whether he's changing the message as Clinton supporter Senator Elizabeth Warren put it late today because his campaign is in trouble.
Trump, she tweeted, makes death threats because he's a pathetic coward who can't handle the fact that he's losing to a girl. Rhetoric on all sides tonight pretty heated. That is just some of the reaction.
Donald Trump spoke a short time ago in Fayetteville, North Carolina. CNN's Sara Murray is there. She joins us now.
Sara, some of those campaigns they were made in a stop earlier today in Wilmington, Delaware. There was a whole lot of reaction -- Wilmington, North Carolina, excuse me. In Wilmington, North Carolina, there was a whole lot of reaction after that, just finished up in Fayetteville, North Carolina. What's the latest?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, that's right, John. As soon as Donald Trump made that comment, it immediately raised the eyebrows of many political observers. Of course Hillary Clinton's campaign seized on it immediately saying this was Donald Trump promoting violence, clearly taking this as a threat against Hillary Clinton.
Now, the Trump campaign moved faster than usual to try to clean this up. They put out a statement this afternoon clarifying that Donald Trump was not talking about violence. They said he was just talking about trying to get Second Amendment supporters to coalesce behind (inaudible) shot at (inaudible) voters than Hillary Clinton will in the fall, John.
BERMAN: But Donald Trump himself, he did not address this tonight in Fayetteville, did he?
MURRAY: This was another interesting twist by Donald Trump. Usually after a controversy like this, you would see him come out on the stump at the later event. We would hear him talk about it. Probably hear him slam the media. We did not hear that on the campaign trail this evening, but he did talk about it in an interview with Fox News. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Nobody in that room thought anything other than what you just said. This is a political movement. This is a strong powerful movement, the Second Amendment. You know, Hillary wants to take your guns away. She wants to leave you unprotected in your home.
This is a tremendous political movement. The NRA as you know endorsed me. They're terrific people, Wayne and Chris and all the people over there. And by the way, they've already -- I just saw, they tweeted out basically they agree 100 percent with what I said and there can be no other interpretation. Even reporters have told me. I mean, give me a break.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MURRAY: Now, you see Trump there insisting that this was about political power. It was not about trying to incite violence. But, John, the fact that he talked about it in this interview, but not on the stump here tonight is as good of an indication as any that the campaign wants to get rid of this story. They want to move beyond it, try to refocus on some of the issues they were hoping to talk about this week.
BERMAN: Message control. It is something the Trump campaign has wanted to try to achieve. And of course, yesterday he gave a speech on the economy. That is what they wanted to be talking about this week.
MURRAY: Absolutely. And they were saying that they were going to continue to roll out more specifics about his economic plan. And one thing that's worth remembering is it's moments like this today that really give Republicans and Independents heartburn about whether they can get behind Donald Trump because they feel like they see him saying he's going to stick to a message and it works for a day or so. And then all of the sudden 24 hours later, we're in the middle of the next firestorm.
[21:05:02] Clearly, the Trump campaign is trying to prove at least today that they can put these things to bed and move beyond it. We'll see if that works tomorrow, John.
BERMAN: All right, Sara Murray, thanks so much.
Donald Trump's running mate weighing in, speaking to a Philadelphia television station. This is what Mike Pence said when he was asked if he thought Trump was inciting violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MIKE PENCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Of course not. No. And Donald Trump is urging people around this country to act in a manner consistent with their convictions in the course of this election, and people who cherish the Second Amendment have a very clear choice in this election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right, back now with our panel. Joining us this hour is CNN's Senior Political Analyst, David Gergen. David, you just heard Governor Mike Pence there on the question of whether Donald Trump was inciting violence. That's an extreme view of what Donald Trump said. A middle view which is also a critical is that he was careless in his words, in talking about violence in a way dealing with presidential candidates and some people think you should never get even close to that line.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR TO REAGAN, FORD, CLINTON AND NIXON: I think careless is being a generous description of what he said. But listen, for a great number of years now, what Donald Trump calls the Second Amendment people have argued vociferously to keep away gun control restrictions on guns because I think they ought to pay to have their guns in the event that there's a tyrannical government. They should have the right to bear arms and overthrow that government.
That's been the fundamental argument that you've heard for a lot of years. And now, we -- and along comes, we had candidates -- Republican candidates like the candidate who ran against in, out in the west six years ago, who was running against Harry Reid.
BERMAN: Sharron Angle.
GERGEN: Yeah. She said there are Second Amendment remedies, if the Congress gets out too far in front, if Harry Reid is out there out of control, we have Second Amendment remedies. What she meant by that was to have a right to bear arms against. And what Donald Trump said today was, not that he was rallying people to vote. That's perfectly legitimate. Of course it is.
He said, if we lose the vote, there's nothing we can do. If we lose the vote, there's nothing we can do unless maybe it's the Second Amendment people. That is a dog whistle. Most of us know what dog whistles sound like in politics. It's one of the clearest ones we have ever heard.
He and, you know, frankly, when other people have engaged in this, Jesse Helms did this when Bill Clinton was president. He said if Bill Clinton comes in our state in North Carolina, he ought to bring a bodyguard. Within 24 hours he had to say I made a mistake because people jumped all over him.
You do not do that with the president of the United States. I worked for two presidents, one of whom almost lost his life, Ronald Reagan, at the hands of an assassin. You do not raise the issue in such a way that is open to a reasonable interpretation that you are trying to say if this person gets out of line we will take care of him, the Second Amendment folks, after they get elected.
BERMAN: John Jay LaValle, Donald Trump Supporter, you heard what David Gergen said right there. He called it a dog whistle.
JOHN JAY LAVALLE, TRUMP SURROGATE: Well, I'm going to continue to say that this is a very different candidate. And I understand what Mr. Gergen is saying, but the reality is Donald Trump is someone that's speaking to the average American. He's speaking in their language. It's not the political speak that we used to hearing. It's not political correctness. He's actually moving very much against political correctness.
And I think his explanation immediately thereafter and I love the fact that he's not going to address it anymore because it's a ridiculous situation. We need to start focusing on our economy. We need to start focusing on ISIS and we have to stop nitpicking these little things because we have to choose a commander-in-chief that's going to be able to get this economy going again, make this military strong again, and make America a true presence in this world. And he's ready to do that.
GERGEN: I agree with that basic point. I think when getting the economy, we talked about this before here. But listen, this is a candidate who began by calling her crooked Hillary and he basically had been calling her criminal now for some time. This is a candidate who, one of the rallying cries that he hasn't yet finished is lock her up. And those are the preludes for saying basically dehumanizing somebody, demonizing them and making it possible for some crazy out there and we're talking about crazies. Dog whistles go to crazies.
And that they may feel well, she's so bad we ought to lock her up. Maybe we start to take care of her all together. And that is the issue that's really out here. And it's a shameful. It's a shameful statement to be making as nominee for the president of the United States.
CHRISTINE QUINN, CLINTON SUPPORTER: And John, I think ... RICHARD SOCARIDES, CLINTON SUPPORTER: You know, the point that John -- the point that John was making last segment that I agree with is that the reason why Mr. Trump has attracted as many supporters as he has is that he does bring to the race an authenticity. An authenticity which, you know, is welcome in politics and which I think Hillary sometimes struggles with and has to do better at and I think she will do a lot better with. But the problem that emerges with Mr. Trump is that as he becomes more authentic and in his most authentic moments, we see why he is so scary because this moment today, you know, you say that the campaign was hoping that he would talk about the economic speech.
I don't think he was hoping that he was talking about -- wanted to talk about the economic speech today. I think he talked about exactly what he wanted to talk about today, to get this attention because he is such a narcissist. He loves this attention.
QUINN: John?
SOCARIDES: He loves sucking up all the air. But when he speaks candidly, he says things like this and sometimes he says well it's good for Turnberry that Brexit passed. And he says things it goes against the judge and he goes against the father.
[21:10:20] And so when we see -- when his authenticity emerges with such clarity, we see what the man is really like.
BERMAN: David, I just want to ask you quickly. When Donald Trump says something like this, the media often reports it using his own words, explaining what his own words were, playing his own words were. Do you think the media is wrong to focus on statements like this as much as we sometimes do?
GERGEN: No. I think it's one of the major events of the campaign. I think he deserves to stay. He deserved to clarify that people have the right to be there. I think we ought to hear from them. Absolutely. But I don't think we should just have to have that, you know, come out within equivalence.
You know, with some 50 percent think this and 50 percent think that, let's move on to the next story. Some things are just wrong and this is wrong. It is wrong to raise the issue of violence. It's against the law to threaten any federal official. It is against the law and he's coming right up against the edge of the law.
BERMAN: Alex Burns, you're a political reporter. You cover campaigns everyday. When something like this happens, how difficult is it for you then to go back and focus on the estate tax?
ALEX BURNS, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES: Well, as much as I would like to. It's tricky, John, actually to say what reporters do when something like this happens because something like this never happens. You don't have a presidential candidates walking as close to the line as Trump does certainly on something like this.
But look, over the last few weeks, a really escalating in the Democratic convention and since then, have you have had a really concerted effort on the part of the Clinton campaign. But also there are outside allies who are aligned against Donald Trump to cast him as somebody who is just unacceptable candidate.
Somebody who does not belong in public life, let alone the presidency, as Meg Whitman, the Hewlett-Packard CEO, Former Republican Candidate for governor of California stand by her comments comparing him to Hitler. This is extraordinary stuff, extraordinary effort to cast him as somebody who simply does not belong in the election. Donald Trump when he does something like this, he makes that kind of effort an awful a lot easier at a moment when he badly needs to be appealing to people who are skeptical of his campaign.
BERMAN: Christine Quinn, Corey Lewandowski, 30 second.
QUINN: Yeah and I think John LaValle is saying that this is what American people this is clear speaking to them. And somehow implying they don't understand other type of language which is not true and the American people are smart. And the American people don't want their leaders talking or implying or leaning towards violence. They have seen too much violence in this country. They don't want any more of it which is why the vast majority of gun owners support the type of legislation Secretary Clinton does.
BERMAN: Corey, last word?
COREY LEWANDOWSKI, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: I don't think any gun owners are actually in the country is supporting Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump was endorsed by the NRA, the earliest endorsement they ever made before he was even the actual Republican nominee. You know, what we are not talking about right now are the policies of the Clinton administration which have gotten people killed in Benghazi.
We're not talking about the families and now suing Hillary Clinton for those failed policies because their children were killed in Benghazi. I want to talk about gun violence, that's the gun violence which we should be talking about today.
BERMAN: But again, Alex, the reason that we're not talking about that tonight is?
BURNS: No, this is a classic position heal thyself thing.
QUINN: Right.
BURNS: To say let's get back on track with the economy. Well if Donald Trump would stick to the script, maybe we would be talking about their comment.
BERMAN: All right, we're going to come back and talk about a lot of things including perhaps the economy after the break.
We're also going to talk about a way that Donald Trump gets his ideas across. Many people are saying things about the way he keeps on saying things like many people are saying things. And as soon as the returns start building up in Wisconsin, we're going to take you there live results from House Speaker Paul Ryan in a reelection primary battle. That's next.
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[21:17:19] BERMAN: As we wait to learn Paul Ryan's fate in his primary, we're talking about the latest thing Donald Trump is saying. Saying, we should add with memory still fresh from the lasting, he said. His suggestion and his insinuation that Iranian nuclear scientist who helped the U.S. may have been executed because of Hillary Clinton's e-mail issues.
It came in a tweet and many people are saying it revealed a lot about how Donald Trump operates. More on that from CNN's Chief Political Correspondent, Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It has long been a staple of Trump's speak.
TRUMP: Some people have been saying that.
A lot of people are saying that.
Half of people in this room are saying it.
Some people. I don't know.
BASH: Then this tweet. Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked e-mails.
TRUMP: Let's go.
BASH: That harsh allegation using only many people are saying as his proof has turned the catch phrase into an instant internet sensation. Many people are saying #went viral becoming a forum to mock Trump.
Hillary Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill tweeting, many people are saying that a unicorn is housed in a cage atop Trump tower. The band spoon, many people are saying, our next album will heal the sick and end all war. It's just what many people are saying.
But beneath the sarcasm is a serious question. Why does Donald Trump send conspiracy theories into the ether with only a version of many people are saying to back it up?
TRUMP: Is he a natural born citizen? Some people. I don't know.
BASH: Sometimes it's about knocking an opponent off message like during the primaries, when Trump questioned Canadian-born Ted Cruz's eligibility to be president.
TRUMP: You know, a lot of people think you have to be born here. You have to be born on this land.
BASH: Cruz, who was then gaining on Trump in Iowa, denounced Trump's allegation.
SEN. TED CRUZ, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The legal issue is straightforward. The son of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural born citizen.
BASH: But other times it appears Trump uses it to change the subject when he's getting bad press. Trump's Monday afternoon tweet connecting Clinton to an executed Iranian scientist came a little more than an hour after the New York Times first reported about a letter signed by 50 GOP national security experts warning Trump would be a dangerous commander-in-chief.
TRUMP: A lot of people are very skeptical as to what happened and how he died.
BASH: When Trump started focusing on Clinton after he locked up the GOP nomination, he used his some people say phrase to road test conspiracy theories from the 1990s like questioning whether Clinton aide and friend Vince Foster really committed suicide.
Trump telling "Washington Post", "There are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I don't do that because I don't think it's fair."
[21:20:01] Beyond why Trump does this, the question is, do these people exist and if so, who are they?
One source familiar with how Trump operates tells CNN. Sometimes those people are some of Trump's 10.8 million tweeter followers, many of whom constantly send him ideas and suggestions.
Remember this Trump ammo worked for him in the GOP primaries and even before he ran in 2011, seizing on the Obama birther movement.
TRUMP: A lot of these messages are just really quality people that just want the truth.
BASH: Still, scroll through Trump's Twitter feed and you realize he's relied on the phrase for years, even to promote his businesses. "Many people have commented that my fragrant, success, is the best scent and lasts the longest. Try it and let me know what you think".
Dana Bash, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: It is a great fragrance. All right let's talk about it now.
David Gergen is here, Corey Lewandowski is back and joining us, "Washington Post" Josh Rogin, whose been reporting on their own tweet deciding those many people Josh is also CNN Analyst for us.
Corey Lewandowski, let me ask you this should the bar for a presidential candidate be higher than many people are saying because, I say this partly ingest but many people are saying the moon landing was faked, many people are saying that Bigfoot roams the Pacific Northwest. Should the standard be higher?
LEWANDOWSKI: I think what you have with Donald Trump is he has advice and counsel from a lot of people and he gets advice and counsel from a lot people as opposed to individually naming those people, saying I spoke to General Flynn or Admiral Cubic or who have that may be, he uses the term as a catch-all. Many people have told me this and that's where he receives a lot of that information.
So what happens is as opposed to individually naming each person he's talking to about a specific issue, he uses a general term. That's not uncommon. It happens all the time. I worked for multiple elected officials who would tell me that three people in their district had told them that something was going to occur now, whether or not those three people actually existed for that particular elected official, maybe that's up for debate.
BERMAN: It is often in Donald Trump's case now tied to a questionable or controversial theory. I use that word loosely. David Gergen, you know, briefed for many different places including inside the White House. Would you get away with a phrase like that? Many people are saying?
GERGEN: Not for very long. You may get away with it for awhile. Donald Trump's a very clever man. We think we ought to say that up front and he's discovered ways to talk to the American people that have eluded most political figures.
So, you know, there are a lot of things about him, you have to say look that's worked. But in his cleverness he's found a rhetorical trick, to be able to introduce something saying I'm not saying this, I'm not the one who's putting this out there, other people are putting it out there.
Now let me tell you something just really scurrilous about Hillary Clinton or let me tell you something about Barack Obama, where he was born and you play into conspiracy theories but you have this deniability, oh, I didn't say that I would never say that of course.
Many people think, you know, but, you know, I can tell you, people start using it on him, Hillary people start saying you know Hillary said that, well many people say that Donald Trump is a serial con man, many people say that Donald Trump that hasn't read a serious book in 25 years, many people think Donald Trump is certifiably crazy. Now, a lot of people are saying that but there's no evidence, hard evidence, to support those.
BERMAN: You know, Josh Rogin, you who are an expert on Twitter and social media, you can know that in this world of social media you can say things that get picked up and get an awful lot of mileage and so in a way, the way Donald Trump speaks and the where he's doing it only add to each other.
JOSH ROGIN, WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST: Right. Mark Twain said a lie travels halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on. That's if he didn't even know about Twitter when he wrote that. I mean, you know, the bottom line ...
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: You know, many people say.
ROGIN: I mean the point here is not where Donald Trump is getting the information. The point is that it's wrong and he doesn't seem to have the basic curiosity or rigor of thought to determine that it's wrong before he perpetuates these things and you know, I don't know if Corey's right and he actually believes these things or it's just so irresponsible or that he doesn't check them before he perpetuates them or if he's intentionally misleading his millions of followers in order to create attacks on his political enemies.
Either way it's a really bad practice, OK? It's a pattern and it's an intentional pattern of sort of taking these conspiracy theories or rumors, you know, of giving them enough oxygen and then pointing to that oxygen as confirmation. It's by its nature deceptive and it creates what I call sort of Pakistanization of the media where every sort of crazy theory has enough life to last forever and no one can really unwind any of his conspiracies.
BERMAN: You know, Corey, what is the process when there is a discussion, you know, inside the campaign, how does gets something get from Donald Trump's head to a Twitter account?
LEWANDOWSKI: Look, I think this -- look I can only tell you when I was there the way the campaign functioned. You know, Mr. Trump has the ability to view his own Twitter account. He's got 10.8 million followers on twitter. If you look at the totality of his Facebook page, social media account, there's 20 million people that he interact with directly by bypassing the mainstream media to go in directly.
[21:25:12] So he looked at his Twitter feed, he looks at the people that are posting. You know, you have seen many times where there are very relevant stories that are on those Twitter accounts, whether it's the A.P. or "Washington Post," the "Wall Street Journal" or many other credible news sources, he will re-tweet or repost. That happens on a regular basis.
So, not only does he have access, obviously to look at his Twitter feed and to post to that directly, but he will also assign a staffer, a specific task of posting certain things to his Twitter feed if he deems it appropriate.
GERGEN: I will just tell you this. So, if you get any college professor who has a paper that comes in and cites social media as a source of facts is going to get flunked like that. It is not a reliable source of information. It is not double-checked. That's the whole point of journalism.
Journalism, you know, were like social media, you know, we would be out of business a long time ago. But the fact is there is more as expected. And I just tell, you know, there was a time, and you won't believe this, but in Richard Nixon's White House I ran the research team -- speaker for him for awhile. Before he went out, we had a "Time" magazine method of checking, every single word had to be checked for veracity. Every single word. You have to do a check mark on every single word before a statement would go out. And this was Richard Nixon, who is not exactly the most truthful guy we've ever had in the White House.
LEWANDOSKI: The difference now is you're on the age of social media where the information is instantaneous.
ROGIN: Yes, but ...
LEWANDOSKI: And you're trying to respond to something you have the ability, again, to directly bypass the media and if you want to put something out to your supporters. And look, I know the media has a Twitter feed that follows Donald Trump. And every time he tweets something, they are alerted to it immediately.
BERMAN: Josh, I let you for quick last word?
ROGIN: Yes, Corey is totally missing the point yards. It's not a Twitter problem, OK, it's an honesty problem, OK. You know, the fact that he's putting out these facts that are easily refutable and doesn't seem to care when they are refuted and doesn't apologize is a terrible, you know, indicator of what he would be like as president.
If he's getting information from unreliable sources, failing to check it and failing to even bother to acknowledge it when it's wrong, that's a problem for his credibility, OK? And that's the problem we face if Donald Trump were to actually be elected president.
BERMAN: All right, guys, stick around.
Coming up next, we're going to talk about Hillary Clinton and what many people think was a serious stumble by her campaign. I just said many people believe and that people are serious now about her campaign.
Plus, we're going to head to Wisconsin, where Paul Ryan's primary re- election bid has landed in the national spotlight courtesy largely of Donald Trump. We'll get the latest results from today's voting. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:31:28] BERMAN: All right, numbers just starting to trick in Wisconsin and House Speaker Paul Ryan's primary bid for re-election. We will bring you those results as they come in.
First we're going to speak about Hillary Clinton, her battle her campaign says to turn some red states blue and also what seems to be a big mistake that her campaign made.
Jeff Zeleny has the latest from the Clinton campaign trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hillary Clinton is casting a wider net tonight.
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Thank you for the work you do every day.
ZELENY: Searching for new Republican supporters and newly competitive red states, possibly up for grabs in the wake of Donald Trump.
The Clinton campaign's concerted effort to recruit some of the Republicans peeling off Trump is paying off, at least in small ways. Two prominent Republican environmentalist who ran the EPA during the Nixon, Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, announced their support today for Clinton.
They said Trump has shown a profound ignorance of science, particularly on climate change. Yet not all Republicans coming out against Trump are turning toward Clinton including Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R) MAINE: I have a lot of concerns about Hillary Clinton and I am not going to support her.
ZELENY: CNN has learned that Clinton campaign is also eyeing new investments in Georgia and Arizona, exploring whether Trump's challenges have created a realistic opening in Republican territory. Those are two red states with a high share of Hispanic and black voters. Democrats believe they can flip; it's a delicate dance for Clinton.
In Florida today, blasting GOP congressional leaders for not signing off on Zika funding.
CLINTON: Get a bill passed. Get a bill that is focused on combating Zika passed.
ZELENY: While in South Florida, Clinton also visited ousted DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
CLINTON: So please do everything you can to make sure Debbie has a resounding victory on August 30th.
ZELENY: She's fighting for her seat in congress in a primary this month. It's one of the remaining wars in the Democratic family feud.
Bernie Sanders is supporting Wasserman Schultz's rival.
CLINTON: After you take a few days off, we got to get back to work for November. Right?
ZELENY: All this as Clinton's rally Monday night outside Orlando focusing on Trump.
CLINTON: He wants to roll back regulations on Wall Street.
ZELENY: Suddenly overshadowed by another man. The father of the Pulse Nightclub shooter was sitting just behind Clinton watching as she talked about the nation's deadliest mass shooting, killing 49 people in June.
CLINTON: And I know how many people, family members, loved ones and friends, are still grieving.
ZELENY: He told CNN affiliate WPTV he's a Democrat and wanted to attend the rally. The Clinton campaign said it did not know he was in the audience or selected to be onstage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why they shouldn't be surprised, I love the United States and I have been living here for a long time.
ZELENY: He said he supports Clinton.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right, Jeff Zeleny joins us right now. Jeff what's the Clinton campaign saying about this man's presence at the rally?
ZELENY: Well John, they're saying once again they had no idea that he was in the room, that it was a rally of some 3,000 people and they simply didn't know he was in attendance until after the fact, until after he was interviewed.
And John I was at this rally last night outside Orlando, as we have been to hundreds of rallies over the course of the last year so and I will tell you, some campaigns do set up people directly behind the speaker. You know that just as well as I do from covering campaigns.
[21:35:11] But in other times, they often rush to fill the majority of them in a more haphazard way. People stand in line for a long time, so I am often surprised that these events even come together as they do. It's very chaotic as opposed to being planned from an official White House event.
But the reality is here, it was not a smooth operation. He should not have been in her line of sight. The Clinton campaign is aware of that, they know that. They know they will likely have to disavow his support for her, because of the comments that he has made. Now they are trying to not add fuel to this fire here John, but there no way that this controversy will go away or it's unlikely it will go away until they make that step. We'll see if that happens in the coming days, John.
BERMAN: All right Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much. We do have some breaking news now for you.
In Wisconsin in the primary race for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Manu Raju joins us now from Janesville, Wisconsin. Manu, tell us what happened.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well looks like that Paul Ryan will be the victor of this primary against Paul Nehlen who's a political novice, someone who really was seen as a major underdog here.
Paul Nehlen actually had won this race it would be one of the biggest upsets of the century, or maybe the past two centuries. But this race got into the national spotlight last week when Donald Trump said that he was not going to endorse Paul Ryan initially, then of course a few days later, turned around and said that actually he was going to endorse Paul Ryan.
But that really didn't amount too much it appears like, in this race. One reason why, in the April presidential primary, Ted Cruz took this district and won it pretty overwhelmingly this is not necessarily Donald Trump country and when Donald Trump actually tries to compete here in Wisconsin expects him to spend a lot of time in Southern Wisconsin. That's actually where Mike Pence is going to be later this week as well.
But Paul Ryan and his campaign sort of viewed that flap back and forth with Donald Trump as nothing more than a distraction. Paul Nehlen really didn't it was never able to get much traction in this race even as he tried to align himself with Donald Trump and go after Paul Ryan on the issues of immigration and trade issues, where frankly, Paul Ryan has differed with Donald Trump over. But now that this primary is over, it looks like Paul Ryan's going to win and win by a pretty healthy margin.
Expect him to hit the road, do a lot of campaigning for House Republicans, raising money and trying to save house Republican majority that could be increasingly at risk if Donald Trump's standing in the polls continues to decline, John.
BERMAN: All right, Manu Raju any word on the margin right now? We still waiting too early to tell?
RAJU: We're still waiting. Numbers are still coming in. But it appears it's going to be a pretty big victory and just in a few moments, Paul Ryan will be talking to reporters here. Not one of your typical election night parties. A more subdued approach here but we're taking report of questions talking about this victory and probably talking about Donald Trump's too, John.
BERMAN: All right I can imagine, yes to that. Manu Raju thanks so much. We're going to talk about this with the panel, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:42:09] BERMAN: Primary voters and House Speaker Paul Ryan's district have just delivered him what appears to be a pretty big victory. We are expecting to hear from the speaker shortly.
Back now with the panel. Let's talk about this a little bit. Alex Burns, how did we get here, where Paul Ryan's re-election battle became a question mark, or was it never really a question mark but it was just a strange thing? BURNS: Well, based on the margins we're seeing right now it doesn't really seem like it was ever really in doubt that he would prevail. But I think we still all have this, Eric Cantor hangover right that he was not supposed to lose his primary. He ended up losing it by a pretty decisive margin.
So, you do have to approach these things with caution. But Paul Ryan is a guy who has, despite his climb up the national chain, always has been pretty attentive to his district and always stayed at himself and his own views and the policies he's advancing, pretty close to that mainstream Wisconsin conservative tradition. So there's not a ton of room for somebody to out-flank him on the right with the voters who actually live in his district.
BERMAN: Yeah, you can't outflank him at home. The guy went home all the time, even when he is a chairman. Corey Lewandowski, given that it appears that Paul Ryan won big, was this whole Donald Trump thing worth it? You know, where he's saying I'm not ready to endorse and then ultimately he did, I mean, was it worth that song and dance from Donald Trump?
LEWANDOWSKI: What I think is you've got Donald Trump and Paul Ryan continuing to understand what their relationship's going to be like if Donald Trump is elected president and the way that they will work together. And while they have some fundamental differences ...
BERMAN: Well, if that's the case, it's going to be complicated.
LEWANDOWSKI: Yeah. And some fundamental differences and particularly have a major difference when it comes to TPP and the trade issue. That's something they need to work through if Donald Trump will be elected president to work with the Speaker of the House. But other than that they've a great relationship they sat down and then on multiple occasions. They agree and more things than they disagree with. And so this is a good night for Donald Trump.
BERMAN: Tell me the margins right now? With 28 percent in, Ryan is leading by 70 percent. What does that mean? It's 90/20? Or what -- well, he's up by 70 percent.
David Gergen, what does this do for Paul Ryan going forward in his relationship with Donald Trump?
GERGEN: Well, I think it has two significant applications. One is relationship with Donald Trump, I think this last -- yeah this dust-up between them is going to leave him less enthusiastic obviously about going out and campaigning for Trump. But I also think Paul Ryan is a realist. And he knows it's really, really important if he wants to preserve the House majority that Trump either win or not lose by very much. If Trump loses by 10 points, the House probably goes to the Democrats. So he's got a self-interest in working with Trump.
I think the other issue though is that with the spotlight on Paul Ryan, I think he is now safe and he clearly is going to be -- if Trump were to lose, he's going to be either the single most or one of the three or four most important Republicans in the country to put the party back together. And I think this gives him a safe base from which to do that.
BERMAN: 85/15, I'm hearing right now the margin.
GERGEN: 85/15?
[21:44:58] BERMAN: 85/15. Pretty good win, John, you think of all of this election right. You would take that. But it does, it empower -- does it empower Paul Ryan going forward, you know, to say look, there was this issue, Paul Nehlen, and the guy who ran against me, was supportive of Donald Trump, tried to run under the Trump banner and I just crushed him.
LAVALLE: Well, I never had an 85/15 win so I know he's a happy man right now but I don't think he's going to be the type of person that's going to harp on the past. He is going to look forward, like David Gergen says, we have to maintain the House of Representatives. We have to maintain the United States Senate. It's going to be important that we work together on the issues that we have in common. And that's what he's going to focus on. That is what his mission is right now.
And he's a pretty smart guy. He knows the deal. He came out and said are you going to endorse Donald Trump, not quite there yet. Donald Trump gave it back to him a little bit. But Paul Ryan's a pretty regular guy, too. The guy playing the guitar ...
BERMAN: Richard?
LAVALLE: ... remember running for vice president. He gets this and he's a great leader. He is going to do an awesome job as our, you know, speaker continuing into the next House.
BERMAN: Go ahead.
SOCARIDES: And I think the Republicans are playing a game here, right? Because I think no one really -- no who knows Paul Ryan really believes that he wants Donald Trump to be president but he's in an extremely difficult position. I mean, but he also has an upside as David says either way.
I mean, if Donald Trump loses, he becomes the most important Republican in the country or at least one of the most important Republicans in the country but he can't lose by too much because if he loses by too much, Paul Ryan could lose control of the House.
QUINN: But John, you know what they shows, John LaValle was talking about again, recreationist history here, that interchange between Donald Trump and Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan and Donald Trump, earlier in the campaign when Paul Ryan said he wasn't there yet, that's not what we are talking about right now, we're talking about him endorsing Trump, Trump having him open the Republican National Convention and then seemingly out of nowhere recently, Donald Trump saying, I don't know, I don't like him anymore, used to like him, I don't like him and I may not going to be with him, and then again, Republicans piling on Donald Trump and him for five seconds behaving and endorsing Paul Ryan. And what it shows is again, what we're talking about is a lack of unity in the Republican Party driven by Trump's inability to stay on message or behave in a presidential way. And it keeps the conversation on how he is unfit to be president.
LAVALLE: So we're not seeing, Black Lives Matter either.
BERMAN: Hang on. Hang on.
LAVALLE: ... we got that party either.
BERMAN: All right Alex Burns ...
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: I do think, John that as we go forward, I think Corey is right, we are figuring out the balance in the Trump and Ryan relationship. I think you're going to see a shift toward Ryan as the election comes closer. If Trump stays back in the polls, it's going to be Ryan who Republicans are looking to for signals as to how they ought to run their campaign and Ryan's district just gave them a big vote of confidence to keep doing what he wants to do.
BERMAN: All right guys. Thank you very much.
LEWANDOWSKI: Paul Ryan does not want Hillary Clinton to be the next president of the United States. I can tell you that.
BERMAN: Corey is right. Everyone, thank you all very much. We're all right.
Up next, more people infected with the Zika virus from mosquito bites in Florida and how safe are your children after two serious accidents on two separate carnivals in amusement park rides?
What is being done to ensure these rides are safe? We have some surprising information when "360" continues.
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[21:52:00] BERMAN: Talking about amusement park safety now when your children after two horrible accidents. Rene Marsh reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got three kids that have fell from the Ferris wheel, three kids.
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Monday three girls fell about 45 feet from an amusement park ride in Tennessee, one of them severely injured.
GREGORY LYNTHACUM, WITNESS: One fell and bounced off. The other one fell immediately behind and bouncing off and then hitting the concrete. MARSH: And just one day earlier, 10-year-old Caleb Schwab died from a neck injury after riding this 168 foot tall water slide in Kansas City, Kansas, a foot taller than Niagara Falls. It's dubbed the world's largest water slide.
DEBORAH HERSMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL: What we do know about water parks is there is very little federal oversight or regulations. They're not required to report their injuries. And much of this is handled at the state and local level.
MARSH: There are more than 400 amusement parks in the United States attracting more than 330 million visitors per year. No federal agency is responsible for oversight. It's up to the states to regulate. And some are more strict than others.
But the trade group that represents amusement parks tells CNN, "Serious incidents are extremely rare."
The most recent data from 2014 shows of the millions of visitors to amusement parks in the U.S., there were more than 1,100 reported injuries. But that number does not account for water parks or traveling parks like the Ferris wheel incident in Tennessee. That data is harder to come by. It also doesn't account for close calls like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got you.
MARSH: A Texas father forced to hold his 6-year-old son mid ride after the safety restraint came loose. And fatal incidents like the woman who fell out of a roller coaster car and plummeted to her death at six flags over Texas in 2013.
CARMEN BROWN, WITNESS: She goes up like this. And then when it drops to come down, that's when it released and she just tumbled.
MARSH: All raised questions about why there isn't one standard to ensure the millions of riders are safe.
HERSMAN: They're expecting to have a safe ride. We need to make sure that all of the work on the design, maintenance and oversight and inspection is done so that there is a safe ride for everyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARSH: Well, there is some federal oversight for temporary fairs and carnivals. But 35 years ago, legislation was revised preventing the federal government from regulating amusement parks and water parks.
No Senator Ed Markey blames the revision on lobbying pressure from the amusement park industry. He's been trying since 1999 to restore that federal oversight, but it hasn't happened. John.
BERMAN: A footnote, authorities in Tennessee say mechanical failure caused the Ferris wheel incident at that county fair. There's a lot more we're following tonight.
Amara Walker has a "360" news and business bulletin.
[21:55:04] AMARA WALKER, CNN REPORTER: John, there are four new Zika cases linked to local mosquito bites in Northern Miami. And that brings the total number of to 21. Health officials still believe transmission of the virus is only in the one square mile hot zone known as the Winwood Area of Miami.
A wild fire in the mountain of St. Bernardino County has grown to nearly 7,000 acres and is only 6 percent contained. Mandatory evacuation orders are in effect for some homeowners and several schools are shut down.
Delta canceled 680 additional flights today and 1,500 others were delayed as the airline tries to get back on track after computer problems led to 1,000 flight cancellation with Monday. Delta said the trouble started power outage at its Atlanta hub followed by failed backup power.
And on the island of Oahu, sands shifted by the tide reveal Hawaiian petroglyphs carving edge in stone. The experts believe the day back more than 400 years. The technic couple, later discovery while walking along Waianae coast. The carvings are four to five feet tall. State and army officials are working to protect them.
Back to you John.
BERMAN: Well what a discovery. All right, Amara, thanks so much. We'll be right back.
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[22:00:10] BERMAN: Thanks for watching, time now for "CNN TONIGHT" with Don Lemon.
