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El Chapo Guzman Transferred to Prison in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; More Firefighters and Equipment Headed to Ft. McMurray, Alberta; Many Prominent Republicans Will Not Support Donald Trump as Nominee; Donald Trump Attacks Elizabeth Warren. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired May 07, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:00:19] PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Pamela Brown in this weekend for Poppy Harlow. Great to have you along with us.

And take a look here. Let's take a look at these live pictures from Spokane, Washington, where Donald Trump is set to take the mic any moment now. We will take you there as soon as it starts.

But first, we have some breaking news right now on CNN. And it's about the man blamed for moving more deadly drugs into and around the United States than any single king pin in history. We are talking about the Mexican cartel leader they call El Chapo. Joaquin Guzman, convicted in Mexico, wanted in the U.S. And right now, we are hearing his extradition might happen sooner rather than later.

CNN's Nick Valencia joins us now by phone.

So Nick, why was he moved? Does it have anything to do with his extradition to the U.S.?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on the phone): We're told by a senior Mexican law enforcement official that it does. That he was moved from the Altiplano penitentiary just outside of Mexico City where he has been held for the last several months since he was capture in January to another penitentiary in Ciudad, Juarez, Mexico. That was happened at about 2:00 a.m. local time.

What we find pretty interesting about this is that the Altiplano penitentiary is the most secure prison in all of Mexico. Now, one can only assume that he is in a penitentiary that's not as secure. Of course they are taking were we're told, added precautions, the highest security measures to ensure that he does not escape again.

Officially from the office of government, they say that this has to do with renovation in the Altiplano penitentiary, security measures to reinforce that penitentiary there in (INAUDIBLE). Right now as we understand in a penitentiary hundreds of miles north in ciudad, Juarez. What the real reason is, well officially, we have this one side of the Mexican government saying it has to do with renovation. We have another source in the Mexican government saying this is another step towards that extradition. The time line of that extradition, Pamela, is unclear at this point.

We have been hearing from sources, Evan Perez saying that this extradition will happen -- he will eventually go to a courtroom in Brooklyn. When that time line is set to be, we just don't know.

BROWN: And this is a man, Nick, obviously who has escaped from prison several times in Mexico. Is there any indication from your source that he was planning yet another escape? I imagine that the Mexican government wants to hand him over soon to the U.S. to prevent another huge embarrassment for them.

VALENCIA: Well, just in contest with our viewers, this is a man with incredible influence, incredible authority and power, the sort of de facto leader of Mexico thought to be trusted by many people in Mexico more than the official government. We can only assume that he was doing as much as he could to get out of the situation that he was in. That's what precedent has told us about this individual.

The security measures that was under way and taking place, he was being shuffled around from cell to cell there in the Altiplano penitentiary. He was under 24/7 watch. He was being heavily guarded. The condition he was in were so severe according to El Chapo's attorney that he was being denied the basic human rights. In fact, he wrote an open letter couple of months ago talking about El Chapo being put out essentially by the conditions he was being put under.

It has to be a scary situation for the U.S. officials who are very anxious to get him on U.S. soil where they can ensure that he will be held, where they can he ensure as much as they can that he will not escape.

What I find really interesting in all of this, Pamela, is that he is being sent to a region of Mexico where he has operatives, where he is known to have operated in the past. The Sinaloa cartel has incredible influence there in ciudad, Juarez. And that I'm sure the Mexican government is well aware, they have to be taking the added precautions because of the violent nature of that city. At one time, it was the world's deadliest city. And El Chapo had a huge involvement in the violent nature of what was happening there in ciudad, Juarez. So they must be taken those added precautions to make sure that nothing happens while he is being held.

How long he is being held there in Ciudad, Juarez, we just don't know that. That's not being told to us. And the time line of whether he will go back to Altiplano because of these renovations or whether not he will eventually make his way to the United States, that's what we're waiting to see.

BROWN: All right, very important context from our Nick Valencia. Thanks so much, Nick. We do appreciate it.

VALENCIA: You got it.

BROWN: And any minute now, he who stands alone among Republicans running for president, Donald Trump is due to take the stage at a rally in Spokane, Washington. And this is his first campaign event in Washington State. He is still hitting all the upcoming primary even though everyone of his GOP rivals has left the race. Washington's primary isn't for two more weeks and Trump was just in Nebraska ahead of that state's primary on Tuesday. But it is clear that becoming the presumptive nominee hasn't forced Trump to become entirely presidential. Not yet above the cheap shots and childish Nicknames that have marked his candidacy. In fact last night, he wrapped an old wound mixing it up with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. Take a look this tweet right here. I hope corrupt Hillary Clinton chooses goofy Elizabeth Warren has her running mate. I will defeat them both.

The Massachusetts senator fired back saying, for a guy with the best words, that's a pretty lame Nickname. Weak!

The two then went back and forth with Warren shooting off 11 tweets in about 20 minutes. It is certainly not the first time they have slugged it out online.

Let's bring in Jim Acosta in Spokane, Washington.

Jim, amazing to look at this back and forth between Elizabeth Warren and Donald Trump. This seems to be old school, the nasty names, online bickering. I know it's tough for you to hear there at that rally there in Spokane. But which Trump are we expecting to take the stage in a few minutes, the statesman Trump or nickname-calling Trump or both?

[15:06:08] JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Pam, I think if there are any expectations, if one ever existed that this would be a much more restrained general election campaign from Donald Trump, I think that's been put to rest in terms of what we saw last night in Eugene, Oregon. He went right after Hillary Clinton at one point calling her an unbelievably nasty enabler of her husband's Bill Clinton's indiscretions.

And as you were just saying a moment ago, he went right after Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts who is very popular in her party. Has been talked about as a potential running mate for Hillary Clinton, calling her a fraud, and at one point, duffus, calling her goofy. He was throwing just about everything but the kitchen sink at Elizabeth Warren. So I think that's just an indication that Donald Trump is going to run this general election campaign the same way he ran his campaign during the preliminary process. He does not mind getting his hands dirty. He does not mind punching below the belt. And he is going to do that in this general election campaign.

The question becomes what does Hillary Clinton do? Is she going to hit back and go sort of an insult for insult? I have to tell you, Pam, watching this GOP primary process unfold, just about every Republican candidate who tried to do that match insult for insult with Donald Trump ended up exiting the scene. So I'm not sure that the Clinton campaign is thinking that's what they want to do.

Now, Elizabeth Warren, as you mentioned, she went on a terror on twitter and was going right back at Donald Trump repeatedly last night. And so, I assume that means that we're going to hear more of the same from Donald Trump when he comes out here in a few minutes from now.

But what is interesting about this dust-up between Donald Trump and the Democratic side of the equation heading into the general election campaign, it sort of taken all of us away from the conversation that was being had in the last 48 hours which is about Paul Ryan not endorse Donald Trump, about Lindsey Graham and Jeb Bush, you know, not supporting Donald Trump, not wanting to vote for Donald Trump. And the way that Donald Trump reacted to that. He was very tough on Lindsey Graham, very tough on Jeb Bush. He was a bit more restrained when it came to Paul Ryan. They have their meeting coming up on Thursday. And so when you ask the question what do we expect from Donald Trump? I mean, that is the question of this election cycle.

BROWN: Yes.

ACOSTA: Just about every one of these -- before every one of these campaign rallies. And so, I think we'll have to wait and see what he decides to unleash here in just a few minutes, Pam.

BROWN: I think the key line is expect the unexpected with Donald Trump.

Jim Acosta, thanks so much for bringing us the latest here from Spokane, Washington.

And Donald Trump is targeting big-name Republicans who refuse to support him as the GOP presumptive nominee. In fact right now, that list includes house speaker Paul Ryan and the entire Bush family. And one of Trump's harshest critics, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham who said this, this week, Trump has quote "conned the entire Republican party. And lacks the strength of character to be commander in chief." The snubs sparked scathing response from Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He fails with his campaign horribly. He then endorses somebody else and then he endorses Bush, then he endorses everybody. He like bad luck. As soon as he endorses the people, they drop out.

The Paul Ryan, I don't know what happened. I don't know. He called me two, three weeks ago, was a very nice conversation. He was congratulating me, this was before we had the ultimate victory but he was congratulating me in doing so well. I figured routinely he would be behind it. The other day, was a big surprise because I've had so many endorsements, Bob Dole came in, Dick Cheney came in, many congressmen came in. Now, I'm not surprised with the Bush family. In all fairness because I've been very critical of what happened during their term. So I'm not surprised.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right. Let's talk it over with conservative radio host Ben Ferguson, Donald Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord and former political director for Reagan White House and CNN politics reporter Tom Lobianco. Thank you, gentlemen, for coming on. We do appreciate it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good afternoon.

[15:10:04] BROWN: Good afternoon to you.

Tom, I'm going to start with you here because there has been all this talk that some Republicans want to draft a third party candidate to oppose Trump. So what it Mitt Romney who is the leading candidate among some Republicans to take that role, what if he decides to run as an independent? Does that effectively end any chance Trump has against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton?

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, it's clear he would cut into support on the right if he did it. You know, I think what's interesting about that, there's hurdles involved here. I mean, it's not so easy to get on the ballot everywhere. If you're going to run as an independent, you have state laws that you must clear.

This was some of what was going on, this talk that was happening before Trump even secured the nomination, secured the presumptive nomination. It's a hard thing to do. And you know, you have to remember, too, that people weren't locked into one candidate. Romney was the guy who was out front fighting Trump as part of the anti-Trump movement that's out there. But you know, you still have people who still want Ben Sasse in there, Nebraska senator Ben Sasse who penned a letter this week. It's hard to find unity there. And that's kind of what you need. That's what they were suffering from before. And they're still suffering from now.

BROWN: Right. They want a white knight. And speaking of unity, that's a big theme right now.

Ben, you're a conservative who supported Ted Cruz. You were very critical of Trump. But now, you say you're ready to support Trump. This is someone who has effectively divided many people in the Republican Party. How concerning is that to you? Do you think he will be able to unify the Republican Party?

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think this is part of what one of the miscalculations of Donald Trump's campaign and his staff, is that when you know, that when he went after each one of the candidates, he did everything he could to literally torch their entire career. It's very hard to get that person then to come out and endorse you and support you after you trash them in a low, personal level. I think that's part of what Paul Ryan's message was of saying I'm not ready to endorse. I think ultimately he's going to endorse and he should endorse. But I think his point was, look, 24 hours before Paul Ryan was talking about this, you had Donald Trump quoting the "National Enquirer" implying Ted Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of JFK. It's the most insane thing I have heard in all of politics at the presidential level. And I've seen a lot that's happened.

So, I think what you're seeing now is Paul Ryan is reminding Donald Trump it's time for you to start acting presidential. If you want people to come around you, you need to start acting like it and not quoting the "National Enquirer" to destroy someone's candidacy and/or their family. It was a really dumb move by Donald Trump to do that. I ultimately have said this. I'm going to support the nominee. I do not want a third party person coming in here. I'm a never Hillary person. And it's time to move on. But Donald Trump has to take that lead.

S BROWN: o are you supporting Donald Trump more because you don't want to support Hillary then?

FERGUSON: No. Look, I said I would support the Republican nominee from the very beginning whoever that was because I do think that Hillary Clinton is a huge risk for this country, specifically on the issue of national security. I do not trust her after Benghazi. I do not trust her after the way she held herself at the state department and I don't trust her with classified documents because of her e-mail server. So it easy for me to be able to say I will get behind Donald Trump.

I'm also going to be critical of him, though. I'm not going to sit here and carry water for him when he screws up or his campaign screws up. I will be critical but I think is going to be much better leaders than Hillary Clinton would ever be.

BROWN: Well, you were just critical of him talking about, you know, the fact that he brings up the "National Enquirer," all these other things.

Let's bring in another Trump supporter, Jeffrey Lord. And talk about that because Paul Ryan said right now I am not ready to support Donald Trump. Clearly sending a strong message to him. We know the two will meet next week. Ryan seems to have leverage as one of the most powerful Republicans in Washington. Is Trump prepared to do anything to bring Ryan to his camp? Do you think he will tone down that rhetoric that people like Ryan, the Republican Party simply don't like?

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, Pamela. Let me thank my friend, Ben Ferguson. Like Ben, I was pledged to support whomever the nominee would be. And it turns out to be Donald Trump. Welcome aboard, Ben.

I like Paul Ryan. But Paul Ryan and I worked for Jack Kemp at different stages of jack's career. I think he is terrific. I have to say, though, as speaker of the house and Newt Gingrich said this very well the other day, when you're speaker of the house you have to support the party nominee. I mean, it's an automatic thing. Paul Ryan is the leader of the House of Representatives on the Republican side. So I do expect him to have a good conversation with Donald Trump. It sounds to me like they're going to get there. I don't think they're that far apart. But I expect him to do it.

[15:15:00] BROWN: And just very quickly, Tom, I mean, put this in perspective, it's extremely rare for the speaker of the house to not pledge support behind the party's nominee, right? LOBIANCO: I mean, this is remarkable. You know, we have never seen

anything like this before, I mean, at least not in modern times. When they have this meeting, I think they want to try to bring people together. They know that unified as a party is the only way they're going to stop Clinton. So there's this sort of Meta sense where they know they have to get there. But as Ben pointed out earlier, it's really hard to get there after you've posted Lindsey Graham's cell phone number and said, hey, everyone, call him up. You know, that's a hard thing to come back from. That's the least of it.

LORD: Hey, Pam?

BROWN: Yes, quickly.

LORD: One thing about Lindsey Graham, I had a personal conversation with Lindsey Graham when we were at the Las Vegas GOP debate. And he told me at that time he could never support Ted Cruz. He would be happy to support Donald Trump. That Donald Trump he thought was the better of the two choices. Somewhere along the line, between what he told me in December of last year and where he is now is a whole lot different.

BROWN: All right. We'll leave it there.

Jeffrey Lord, thank you very much. Ben Ferguson, Tom Lobianco, we appreciate you coming on.

LORD: Thank you.

BROWN: Stay right there. We got lot more to discuss.

Tomorrow morning, you don't want to miss John McCain and Sarah Palin on "STATE OF THE UNION." They were once running mate, but will Trump pull them apart? Join Jake Tapper tomorrow morning, 9:00 right here on CNN.

And just ahead this hour, it's being described as hell on earth. An unpredictable wildfire engulfing everything in its path. We will go live to the fire zone.

Plus, the inferno is so enormous, it's creating its own lightning. Our CNN severe weather team shows you how.

And then later, the race to 270. How Donald Trump plans to use the electoral map to his own advantage. CNN's John King shows us Trump's possible path for November.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. We will be right back.

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[15:20:02] BROWN: Welcome back to the NEWSROOM. We want to turn now to a situation that's been called hell on earth. Massive wildfires have left more than 88,000 people homeless. Imagine that. And we are hearing it could get much worse. These fires burning across an area as big as Hong Kong are expected to double in size today. Let's bring in CNN's Dan Simon. He is right new Ft. McMurray in

Alberta.

Is there an end in sight, Dan?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There really isn't, Pamela. Perhaps you could see some of that smoke behind me. This fire is still burning out of control, still lots of smoke and flame. It's not clear when any of this is going to subside as thousands still continue the race towards safety.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON (voice-over): Flames and smoke filling the sky as the convoy of desperate residents flee the danger zone.

What have these last few days been like?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hell on earth. Just like hell.

SIMON: And the scenes are hellish. The fire that started five days ago is still out of control. And for the displaced, it's gone from bad to worse. Because food and water is running low, Canadian authorities moving some 25,000 people from camps, a double evacuation.

What was it like being in the camp?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hard. They rationed food. Low water. People were upset because they don't know what's going on.

SIMON: The fire has burned nearly 250,000 acres, more than ten times the size of Manhattan. In one of the more remarkable surveillance videos ever captured, a homeowner could watching his own house go down in flames only 20 minutes after evacuating.

Sixteen hundred structures, including homes and businesses destroyed. The heaviest damage in Ft. McMurray. A resident films his burned out neighborhood after seeing it for the first time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my house. It was my house. Ashes are cool now. Nothing left. It's gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God! Sarah, our house is going to burn down.

SIMON: In another video, we hear a woman's desperation as she drives by the flames destroying her community. As weary residents clear the area, they are greeted by fuel trucks with gas stations either destroyed or down due to power outages. Fuel is a precious commodity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Makes a guy feel good to help these people because they've been through so much loss and devastation lately.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: Well, this is really an unprecedented situation in Canada. They have never seen anything like this. You might be wondering where some of these 88,000 people are staying. Where are they going? A lot of them are staying with friends and family as you might expect. But if hat option is not available, thousands of people, at some of the area shelters. Of course, some people are also staying at hotels. It's basically impossible to get a hotel room in the area, Pamela and it's just a nightmare situation. Everybody is worried and terrified and they just want to be able to go home if they have a home left. At this point many people don't even know if their homes are still standing -- Pamela.

BROWN: Just horrific to think what they're going through. What about the weather conditions? Obviously that always has a big impact on situations like this. Do we know what they'll be in the coming days?

SIMON: The weather conditions have not been ideal for battling this wildfire. The humidity is low and the winds continue to pick up. Right now, they're subsiding a little bit. But overnight, the winds are pretty fierce. And so, the concern is that the winds could change in any direction and push the fire more towards the community. Right now it's burning away from the community fortunately. But the winds can basically change direction at any minute.

We know that there is a chance for rain in the forecast tomorrow which would certainly help. But it's presumed that this fire will burn for several more weeks, Pamela.

BROWN: Yes. We hope for the rain, though. Any little bit helps at this point.

Dan Simon, thank you for that report.

And the sheer size of this monster fire creating a whole new set of challenges for firefighters and evacuees as Dan was talking about.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar explains how this fire is creating its own weather, sparking its own bolts of lightning and why the smoke is being seen as far away as Florida - Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The interesting thing to know is the trajectory the smoke from those fires is actually taking. It rode along the jet stream in portions of Canada but was then pulled down into the United States. So you can see the skinny, narrow line right here. That's the plume of smoke going down towards Cincinnati, Atlanta and towards the Kennedy space center.

Now, in Alberta because there's numerous fires up there, almost the entire province is in the red color indicating extreme fire danger. But once we go into Sunday, and especially Monday, that threat decreases significantly, which is excellent news. The main reason for that, we have a front that will be moving through. Albeit small, we do have rain chances both days. Winds will be calming back down and the temperatures decreasing significantly over the next couple of days.

But another big threat that we have is something called Pyrocumulus (ph) clouds, ok. These were created by these type of events. You start off with basically this, incredibly dry brush which we've had. That catches fire just as the ones in Alberta have done. The heat rises from those flames and creates this huge, very tall cloud tops. And lightning can form inside of them. The downfall with that is, when the lightning strikes it can end up creating brand new fires, especially in addition to downdrafts that can come down through the clouds and spread and expand the flames that are already on the ground, Pamela.

BROWN: So interesting. I had no idea that happens.

Allison Chinchar, thank you very much for that.

And by the way, we are keeping an eye on Spokane, Washington, that's where Donald Trump is expected to speak at any moment now.

But winning the nomination is one thing. Winning the White House is quite another. And for that, only a few states really matter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's early. We're having this conversation in May but inside bot campaigns they're studying this map.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN's John King does the math for us, explaining where each candidate has to win if they want to claim victory on November 8th.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:04] BROWN: Welcome back. We are watching some live pictures here as Donald Trump is set to speak at a rally in Spokane, Washington. Trump as we know, now the presumptive Republican nominee for president and with Hillary Clinton running far ahead of her rival Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination, attention is shifting to the general election. There, 270 becomes the magic number as the candidates vie to win a majority of electoral votes and the presidency.

CNN chief national correspondent and anchor of "INSIDE POLITICS" John King looks at the path to an Electoral College win - John.

KING: Pam, both campaigns assuming Hillary Clinton was the Democratic nomination and Donald Trump the presumptive Republican nominee, we're looking at this map. This is the Obama-Romney map from 2012. Relatively close in the popular vote but an Electoral College landslide for Obama. So, if you are Hillary Clinton, your big goal is keep this the same or as close to the same as you can.

And early on, she has some encouraging results. In our brand new poll, look at this. Here's the Obama coalition. This is Election Day 2012 from exit polls. President Obama among men, Hillary Clinton is doing a little better right now. President Obama among women, Hillary Clinton is doing better right now. The same with independents. She does a little better. White voters she does a little better. In the suburbs, she does a little better. So Hillary Clinton enters the poll campaign thinking I have got a pretty good chance, at least right now, to defend this map and win the White House.

But Donald Trump has an advantage on the issue that matters most, Pam. Look at this here. The economy is the number one issue to voters and not only does Donald Trump have a narrow lead nationally in our poll, look at this, a huge lead, a huge lead in the Midwest. The industrial Midwest where Donald Trump has been selling his trade message saying Hillary Clinton supports free trade deals. Don't believe her when she's skeptical. I will be against NAFTA. I will be against the transpacific partnership.

Why does that matter for Donald Trump? Let's flip maps and I will show you why he thinks this is a big deal. Again, here is that map, Donald Trump thinks there were Reagan Democrats in the '80s. I'm going to create Trump Democrats in Michigan. I know a Republican can't win without Ohio. I think I can go into this battle ground Midwest industrial state and sell my economic message.

He also thinks, it's a tougher lift, he thinks he can do it in Pennsylvania. He thinks he can change a state that hasn't voted Republican since the 1980s to be battleground red for him. We'll see if that plays out. But even if he won those three, Pam, he's still a little short. Donald Trump then thinks, boom, Palm Beach. It is my second home. I have a resort and a golf course there. They love me in Florida, right? They supported me in the primary. Donald Trump thinks he can change those four states and be the next president of the United States.

Now, Secretary Clinton, she has her own plan, trust me. She concedes none of this, especially this, she thinks she will keep Pennsylvania. She also thinks they can keep this. But let's say for the sake of argument she loses all two or three of these. Under this scenario, reporters dream, unlikely to happen. That's an Electoral College tie right there.

But if something like this will playing out heading into the final each of the campaign, where would Hillary Clinton look to change a red state? Well, if there's a third party candidate, she thinks rising Latino population in Arizona. Some conservatives might vote for a third party conservative. Maybe I can switch that one. It is hypothetical for now, but something Clinton is studying.

Another one, if there's a conservative candidate in Georgia, can some conservatives are never Trump. They stay home, get good African- American turnout, maybe I can change Georgia.

So again, it is early. We are having this conversation in May but inside both campaigns, they are studying this map. And if you are Trump, what's blue from the Obama map that I can turn red. And if you're Clinton, keep the Obama coalition together, defend every blue you can and look for one or two reds to just possibly might be able to flip - Pam.

BROWN: Fascinating look there. John King, thanks so much for that.

And be sure to watch "INSIDE POLITICS" every Sunday morning. That's at 8:00 eastern right here on CNN.

And we are keeping an eye on Spokane, Washington, where Donald Trump is expected to speak at any moment now. Will he tone down the style that has helped him seize control of the nomination? We'll find out soon. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:37:00] BROWN: Welcome back. There you see, Donald Trump on Spokane, Washington. He has just arrived at that rally. And he will be speaking to the excited crowd there now that he is the presumptive Republican nominee. He is giving a thumbs up to the crowd. Of course, we will take a bit of that live after we talk to our political panel who joins us now. Ben Ferguson, a conservative radio host. Jeffrey Lord, a Donald Trump supporter and former political director of the Reagan White House also joining us. CNN politics reporter Tom Lobianco.

I think a lot of people are going to wait to hear what Donald Trump says, Ben, about Paul Ryan. Up to this time he is really been measured and sort of calmer in response to Paul Ryan saying, look, I'm not ready to back him. Do you think in a way he is sending a signal that he is getting serious about trying to unite the Republican Party? He recognizes that he needs Ryan on his side?

FERGUSON: Yes, I think he should be. And I think this is a perfect time and a moment where he can become more presidential. And say look, I'm going to meet with him. I'm going to assure him that we are going to do things the right way. That we are going to run an honorable campaign.

There's other battles and I'm really OK with Donald Trump having. A great example of that is Lindsey Graham. Most conservatives are not fans of Lindsey Graham. They don't like him. That's why he did so poorly in the presidential election. So if he want to have a word, you just have to pick the right person. If you want to keep the narrative alive that you're anti-establishment and that we are the outsiders and we're going to change Washington, then attack Lindsey Graham. I'll support you in that.

But you really don't want to go to war with speaker of the house Paul Ryan. I think it's a bad decision and I think he needs to take the lead because he is the presumptive nominee. Say we are going to have a meeting. We are going to fix this. We are going to make it right. We are going to do and we are going to assure everybody at the RNC. We are going to run a campaign that is on a higher level than what it's been during the primaries.

BROWN: All right. Let's listen in because he is talking about Hillary Clinton right now.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So - but it wasn't supposed to happen because after we won, which was a little unexpected to do it that quickly, but we had such great, incredible victories, those last victories, New York landslide. Won everything. Landslide. And that's with three candidates, almost 62 percent. But that's with three candidates.

You know, these guys, see the press, all those people back there, world's most dishonest people, they are the worst. I wish they would take the camera. Look at the size of this place. Show them the corner of the room. But there's a lot of people. I don't know how many people are here. This is a lot of people.

They will only show if we have a protester. So I hope we have a couple of protesters today. You know, Hillary, crooked Hillary, yesterday had a protester and what she did is she cut her speech short. She cut it short. It was from 11 to 13 minutes, depending on who is doing the counting. Well, here is the thing. You stood on line. We had people standing in line today for eight hours, always. Always. So they don't have that problem. They just walk up whenever the time is and they go in and they have 250 people and we have close to 10,000 people today.

So what I was going to do, I have to thank -- I tell you what, Brian, Senator Brian Denzel is great. And Don Benton, big Don, they did an incredible job. What I was going to do is say, look, I will take it easy. But I asked one question. I said so in West Virginia where I was going to go first, that was our first stop. We would have -- I think we already would have gotten 95 percent of the vote. In fact, the miners endorsed Donald Trump. The miners endorsed him. And gave me an award. You know, as opposed to Hillary that she wants to have all miners essentially fired.

I don't think she's going to do well in West Virginia in November. And then she went to apologize. You know those apologies don't work because they know how you really feel, right? So I said so let me ask you. So West Virginia, should I go there? They said, well, it has been set up, Mr. Trump. You mean people are getting ready? Yes. I will go. They said but you don't have to, we can cancel it. I said no, you don't understand. I'll go.

Then I said what about Oregon? We had an unbelievable thing. And I said -- they said Oregon has been set up. I said really, it's been set up? Done. I said I'll go. I said what about Nebraska? We have a great governor, Pete Rickets, a great guy. I really like him. His family I don't know about, we will find out. I think I might like the family, too. I'll probably like the family, too.

Like Governor Rickets, a great governor, great guy. He introduced me. I said what about Nebraska? Well, that one has been set up also. Have to go. They said but you don't have to. I said have to go. And then we got out here, the state of Washington. The state of Washington.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

[15:42:10] TRUMP: And I said what about -- what about Washington? They said, well, over there you have two. I said don't tell me that. I said have they been set up? Yes, they've been set up. So I said I'm going to Washington, folks. I'm going to Washington. But you have to promise me something. On May 24th, May 24th you've got to go out and vote. And you've got to sign the back of those envelopes. You have to put the little thing. If you don't sign, your vote is not going to count. Because right now we just about surpassed every presidential nominee, every presidential candidate in the history of the Republican primaries. We have more votes. Millions and millions of votes.

And you know, they went through the whole nation. We still have quite a few left, all right? So we wanted it a little bit early. But we want to win by a big mandate. We want to win by a big, big number. So I really appreciate you being here today especially to have - and look, they are pouring in still. I really appreciate you being here today. But I guarantee I will be back numerous times, because we are going to take the state of Washington. We are.

BROWN: There you hear Donald Trump speaking in Spokane, Washington at a rally. We are going to have more of Donald Trump right after this break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:47:06] BROWN: Welcome back. Donald Trump still speaking in Spokane, Washington. In fact, he just kicked out a protester. He said at the beginning of this rally, I love protesters and then proceed to kick out while saying, again, I love protesters. What would a Trump rally be without a protester, Ben Ferguson?

FERGUSON: It would be a Lindsey Graham event, right? Really boring and dull with no one showing up.

BROWN: There you go.

So we haven't heard him talk about Paul Ryan yet. But that is something that a lot of people are anticipating to hear, again, how he is responding to Paul Ryan in the wake of him saying, Jeffrey, that he is not ready to support Donald Trump. Now, we heard Ben say earlier in the show that, look, Paul Ryan is someone he wants on his side. Does Trump have a specific plan to mend the rift within the Republican party and bring unity before the July GOP convention in Cleveland?

LORD: Well, in this case, I think he's going to sit down with Paul Ryan and with Reince Priebus. It helps I think that chairman Priebus and Congressman Ryan are both from Wisconsin and long-time friends. So I think that will help a lot.

But you know, Donald Trump is very good at this kind of thing when he has to do it. That's how he built his business, bringing people together, getting people focused on a common goal and moving forward. So I have not the slightest doubt that as part of his new duties as head of the party, he will be meeting with people, talking with them on the phone, doing what's needed to bring people together.

BROWN: But do you think --?

LORD: He's good at it.

BROWN: The consistent complaint among those rank and file Republicans including Paul Ryan has about his tone, is he willing to make concessions and scale back that tone in your view in order to bring them on his side?

LORD: Well, probably not. I mean, I have to say, I listen to this business about tone. I asked Donald Trump about this two years ago when I interviewed him for the "American Spectator." In the context that Republicans at the grassroots level complained their presidential nominees never fight. And he said to me at the time, if I do this, I assure you I will fight. I will get out there every day and I will do this. Well, we now know that's exactly what happened.

And here's the problem. You know, I've gone back and looked Richard Nixon's losing campaign in 1960. There he is getting memos from Barry Goldwater saying exactly that. You have to fight fire with fire. You got to get out there and fight and you're not doing it.

BROWN: But I think beyond just fighting, and Ben may be able to speak more to this is just the concern of bringing up things like "National Enquirer," and that kind of thing. Tom, hold tight for just a second. Ben, go ahead.

FERGUSON: Yes. No, I think this is a two-part thing at this meeting that they are going to have at the RNC with the speaker. And that is we don't mind your tone, as long as it's directed at Hillary Clinton. But don't quote the "National Enquirer." Stop attacking people in our own party. Stop trashing people that aren't endorsing you on our side and be a leader, not a bully. I think that is one of the things that when you get the nomination, you have to take it to a higher level.

There are a lot of conservatives that are very concerned that he might say something, as Donald Trump does, that could actually hurt him and hurt everybody on the ticket on the Republican side. And that is why you see so many people that are elected, that are being cautious around Donald Trump. They have seen what he has done to (INAUDIBLE) his opponents.

There has to be a mending of the fences here. But there also has to be a level of decorum. He is running for president of the United States of America. This is not the apprentice. This is not a reality TV show. And he has to guarantee them that he is going to do it differently. Going after Hillary Clinton, being blunt, being in her face, attacking her On the Record. Those are all things that I will be rooting for him to do. But don't go to the lowest form out there. And don't go the "National Enquirer."

[15:50:56] BROWN: So Tom, I want to bring you in about this. Because not only is Paul Ryan not ready to endorse, two Republican presidents, George W. Bush and his father are skipping the GOP convention in July, so are Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain, the last two presidential nominees. How significant is that? Does it even matter?

LOBIANCO: I mean, that is remarkable. I mean, you have the standard bearers of the party that once who have been selected in this previous contest, they are saying no way. We are just not going to show up. We don't want to be around him.

You know, to tie Ryan in to this is kind of interesting because Ryan has to work with Trump. And Trump has to work with Ryan, you know. And Trump dismisses Graham, dismisses the Bushes. Those are not people who are currently in position of power. If Trump wants to put through a trade measure, if he wins in November and he wants undo some of these trade deals, he can't do that without Congress. And he would have - I mean, he would have an incredible chance with a Republican Congress if they can hold that, you know.

And the same is true of Ryan. They really need to work together. But I mean, when you see the sitting speaker of the house, the man who will preside over the convention where Trump is 99.9 percent certain to be nominated as the Republican nominee, the standard bearer of the party saying he is just not ready yet. I mean, this is incredible. I mean, the latest in a long string of wild, wild events this cycle.

BROWN: Yes. It has been an incredible election cycle. I think we can all agree on that. It has just been truly remarkable every step of the way and it will continue to be no doubt.

Ben Ferguson, Jeffrey Lord, Tom Lobianco, thank you so much for that. We do appreciate it.

And more from Spokane in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:56:20] BROWN: Well, major milestone for the 2013 CNN Hero of the year. Chad Prograki has been planting trees as part of a mission that clean up the nation's water waste and just got to one million.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHAD PROGRAKI, CNN HERO 2013: I started a million trees program just from being out here on the islands of the Mississippi river. We started planting these trees to create more food for wildlife. They hold back the banks of the river. It helps air quality. The roots actually filter the water.

Trees are a great thing and I really like trees.

What I love about it is, it has a lasting impact. One tree is really good but I think a million is even better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So where was that one millionth tree planted? For the answer and a picture, just go to CNNheroes.com. And while you are there, nominate someone you think should be a 2016 CNN hero.

We are back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)