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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Speaker Ryan Can't Support Trump Just Yet; FBI Interviews Clinton Aides About E-mails; Wildfire Raging Out of Control in Alberta, Canada; Cancer Patient Asks for Home Run; Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 06, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: So, Mr. Speaker, you have said throughout this process that you will support the Republican presidential nominee. Now you have a presumptive nominee. Donald Trump. Will you support him?

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Well, to be perfectly candid with you, Jake, I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now. And I hope to, though, and I want to, but I think what is required we unify this party. And I think the bulk of the burden on unifying the party will have to come from our presumptive nominee.

TAPPER: Do you're saying you can't -- you can't support or endorse him right now?

RYAN: Yes, I am basically saying that. Look, I'm -- that's -- you know, I thought about this two days ago. I thought actually this thing was going to go to June 7th at the very least. Probably to a convention. And so this is all pretty new for us. But at this point, I think that he needs to do more to unify this party. To bring all wings of the Republican Party together.

I think conservatives want to know does he share our values and our principles., unlimited government, the proper role of the executive, adherence to the Constitution. There are lots of questions that conservatives I think are going to want answers to, myself included.

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MARQUEZ: Trump responding with this statement. "I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan's agenda. Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people. They have been treated so badly for so long that it's about time for politicians to put them first."

Trump on the campaign trail in West Virginia late last night. He did not talk about his standoff with Paul Ryan and the Republican elite. But he did take aim at Hillary Clinton in very personal terms.

CNN's Sara Murray was there with the latest. SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, Miguel and

Christine. Donald Trump arrived in West Virginia ready to test out some of his attack lines for the general election and he started off with a doozy, appearing to make an allusion to the Monica Lewinsky- Bill Clinton scandal.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me tell you something. The Clinton administration of which Hillary was definitely a part -- she was a part of almost everything, almost, I say, not everything. Almost. Terrible, terrible. I didn't think the people of West Virginia thought like that. That's terrible. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Terrible, terrible people.

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MURRAY: Now it's clear Trump is ready to ramp up his attacks against Clinton, but first he still has some work to do to unite the Republican Party. House Speaker Paul Ryan is the latest conservative voice to come out and say he's not quite ready to support Donald Trump.

Now the Trump campaign was sort of shrugging that aside last night. Trump did not talk about it on the stump but his campaign manager told CNN it was hardly a slap in the face.

Back to you, guys.

ROMANS: Stay tuned. Sara Murray, what an interesting story.

All right. First on CNN, the FBI probe into Hillary Clinton's e-mails one step closer to completion now that federal investigators have interviewed several of Clinton's closest aides. Some more than once. Officials tell CNN that so far nothing has turned up that would lead to federal charges.

The latest now from justice reporter Evan Perez.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Miguel. The FBI has now reached into Hillary Clinton's inner circle as part of the investigation of her private e-mail server. In recent weeks several of her aides, including Huma Abedin, one of Clinton's closest and longest-serving advisers, have sat down for questions at an FBI building just a few blocks from where I'm sitting.

This is an important stage of this probe because it signals that the investigation could soon be completed. Now one major step still left is for the FBI to interview Secretary Clinton and that is expected to happen in the next couple of weeks. But so far, U.S. officials tell us that investigators haven't found evidence showing that Clinton willfully violated the law.

Now it's clear investigators believe that the private server Clinton set up was not a proper way to store sensitive government information, but it doesn't meet the threshold for bringing charges, these officials tell us.

It's important to add that this is still an ongoing investigation and once the FBI has done its work they'll turn over their findings to the Justice Department, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch will have final say on whether to bring charges in this case -- Christine, Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Thank you to Evan.

Helping us to break down and understand all these political action this morning, CNN's politics reporter Tal Kopan live in our Washington bureau.

ROMANS: Hi, Tal.

MARQUEZ: Thank you for getting up early and thank you for trying to help us make sense of all of this. We thought some of the bombshell moments were over and then Paul Ryan came along and said that --

ROMANS: I didn't think the bombshells were over.

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MARQUEZ: I thought there would be more. But we didn't think it would be this quite so quickly. Give us a sense of the play out there this morning. How does this right itself? How does the Republican -- Party get to a place where they can actually run a campaign in November?

[05:05:06] TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, in some ways this was a pretty savvy move from Paul Ryan who was of course the consummate politician. You know, it gives the Republican Party some cover and it gives them a little bit of leverage. You know, Paul Ryan was very careful in how he stated this. He did not say I cannot support Trump. He said he wants to, but right now he is not there yet.

And so what it does is it gives him a little bit of leverage to say all right, if you want to be the party's standard bearer, you have to come around a little bit to some of our positions as well and not just us coming around to you. And so it puts a little bit on Donald Trump in order to sort of court the party's elites. And, you know, it gives Paul Ryan the cover to say at the end of this, it looks like Donald Trump might lose or is going to sink down other Republicans, it gives those Republicans a little bit of cover to distance themselves.

So he's sort of trying to play it very carefully here, give the party room to adopt Trump, but also give them room to abandon him if they feel that there's a need.

ROMANS: It's just remarkable, though. I mean, he is the highest ranking elected Republican in Washington. He will be the chairman of the convention that happens in just a few weeks, that he is not ready to embrace, you know, Donald Trump as the standard bearer of his party. And the response from Donald Trump I think is so fascinating, too. He's not ready to embrace Paul Ryan. How do you get these two guys together for the good of the party? MARQUEZ: Doing this in public, it just seems as well. But Paul Ryan

doing this in public with Donald Trump who is just -- has proven that he can sort of rule the day on these sort of public, sort of incidents.

KOPAN: Yes, and you know, that statement from Donald Trump, I was actually a little surprised it was so subdued. There were no personal shots in there. I mean, perhaps it was a signal that he's ready to be a little bit political about some of these things. And, you know, there was a suggestion of a beer summit on Twitter. Paul Ryan's spokesperson suggested perhaps that might come to pass. We shall see.

You know, like I said, it gives Paul Ryan some cover here to kind of, you know, negotiate the situation as he sees fit. And you know there is a possibility that at the end of this thing, that Republicans are going to be a little bit more concerned about the House and the Senate than they are about the top of the ticket.

ROMANS: Yes.

KOPAN: I actually wrote a story this week. Already some of the GOP donor base that really did not warm to Donald Trump ever, some of them are saying you know what, I'm just not going to invest in the presidential and I'm going to put my money elsewhere where I think it'll be of more use.

And keep in mind also that Paul Ryan spoke very forcefully against some of the things Donald Trump has said so far especially the Muslim ban, some of the idea he threw out there. And it already looks a little bad for some of these Republicans who have said Trump is the worst. Never Trump. Trump is so horrible, but yes, I'm going to vote for him. Paul Ryan isn't quite doing that. And so it also looks a little bit more authentic for him to sort of stand by the things he said all along. He could not abide by and give Donald Trump some time to kind of back off those positions a little bit.

ROMANS: And Senator John McCain and others, though, have also talked about, you know, Donald Trump's stance on illegal immigration -- illegal immigrants, illegal workers in this country and what he has said. That's going to hurt -- they think it's going to hurt all the Republicans as they are running in here when you have, you know, so many people who are so angry about things that Donald Trump has said.

Recently John McCain, he -- we've got him speaking to CNN from his car, actually, talking about the down ballot issues. Listen.

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SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: There will be a lot of people just vote straight ticket. We know that from past history. But also -- and that is going to make -- do this in an even more difficult election campaign for me.

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ROMANS: What do you make of that? I mean, it's going to make it a more difficult campaign for Senator McCain.

MARQUEZ: Something like him, yes.

ROMANS: There must be others who are concerned, too.

KOPAN: Yes. First of all, you've got to love Manu, getting in that car with John McCain.

ROMANS: I love it.

KOPAN: But -- but yes, I mean, this is a very real concern. You know, I have another story coming out today that looks at the Illinois Senate race. This is a concern in about 10 to 12 Senate races all over the country where you have these Republicans who have been moderates or at least semi moderates who run in blue or purple states, who all of a sudden, as I say, have a new running mate whether they like it or not. And they have to deal with it. And all of their Democratic challengers, the Democrats are practically salivating to take over the Senate. They only need to flip five seats. And they have these sort of 10 to 12 races that they've targeted.

So their first move this year is always going to be to tie that candidate to Donald Trump. And I think those candidates have a right to be a little afraid of what the effects of that might be. We don't really know at this point what turnout is going to look like.

MARQUEZ: And remind us, it's not just the Senate, but the Democrats are expected to pick up seats in the House. There's a lot of Republicans who are retiring or just not really in it this year. Yes?

KOPAN: Yes. They probably -- it might be difficult to pick up a majority in the House. That's quite a big hurdle to climb. But they could definitely narrow the majority the Republicans have gained in the wave elections since 2010. And that's a big concern for Republicans as well.

[05:10:04] ROMANS: Quick on the Democratic side. Let's talk about Hillary Clinton. You know, we know that the FBI has been asking questions to people who work for her. They're probably going to interview her very soon. Is this e-mail-gate about to be behind her? Can she put that behind her?

KOPAN: I think short of a massive revelation on either side, either a sort of all clear or a finding of wrongdoing is not going to change a lot of minds. In some ways, we're sort of going into an election with the least unknowns in a lot of ways than maybe we've ever seen. These two candidates are very well known by the public. A lot of the public has made up their minds on them. And so for folks who think that this e-mail issue is a big concern, even in a sort of no charges kind of finding still gives her enemies the ammunition of well, the FBI investigated her and her server.

It's sort of a talking point that really doesn't go away unless there is sort of an absolutely no finding of wrongdoing, all clear. And the Justice Department doesn't tend to speak in that sort of unequivocal terms. So unless they find something really, really damaging. ROMANS: Right.

KOPAN: You probably also not going to change the minds of her supporters who believe that she didn't do anything wrong.

ROMANS: Yes. All right. Interesting. Tal Kopan, we'll talk to you again in a few minutes. Happy Friday, Tal.

MARQUEZ: Thank you.

ROMANS: Thank you.

KOPAN: Happy Friday.

ROMANS: It is Friday. It is jobs day in America. The government releases its April employment report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. 197,000 new jobs. That's what the economists surveyed, CNN Money expects. 215,000 jobs created in March. The unemployment rate forecast remained at 5 percent. Wage growth forecast at 2.3 percent.

Gosh, you want to see 3 percent to 3.5 percent in a good economy.

Strength of the economy and jobs is central to this political season. There's this disconnect between what with employers and economists say and what politicians and working class voters feel or at least think is happening. 14 million jobs created since 2010. 5.4 million job openings right now. This week four governors from both parties say they've got loads of jobs, but they lack qualified workers to fill them.

Many of the jobs being filled are lower wage positions. That's at the heart of the discontent with voters and we've seen that in exit polls on both sides in nearly every primary.

You know, it's so interesting. It's almost as if American voters are suffering from low economic self-esteem. You look at some of the numbers, you know, when asked in exit polls, how do you feel right now about things, people say I feel fine. Then ask how do you feel about the future, they're terrified.

MARQUEZ: Such is the future. And --

ROMANS: So where is the economic cheer leader?

MARQUEZ: And pay has not gone up --

ROMANS: Right.

MARQUEZ: I mean, there's just a sense of things aren't quite right.

ROMANS: Right. Exactly right.

MARQUEZ: Happening now. Thousands of people trapped as a monster wildfire burns down their city. They are now being evacuated by air. Details coming right up.

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[05:16:52] ROMANS: A devastating wildfire has now burned over 300 square miles of Alberta, Canada. And hot dry conditions this weekend could make a widening crisis even worse. A state of emergency is in place for Fort McMurray or what's left -- look at those pictures, Miguel.

MARQUEZ: It's unbelievable.

ROMANS: More than 85,000 people evacuated, hundreds of structures destroyed. Reception centers for a growing number of evacuees now being set up in Edmonton.

And that's where we find CNN's Dan Simon.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Miguel, we are in the town of Conklin. This is one of the areas that has taken in evacuees. People who, right now, are in an indefinite holding pattern because the fire seems to be showing no signs of abating.

The weather on the fire line remains terrible. We're talking about windy, dry conditions, so firefighters are going to have their hands full for quite some time. In terms of the numbers, they remain staggering. Canada has never seen anything like this before. Eighty- eight thousand people evacuated, 1600 homes and businesses destroyed, and 200,000 acres charred.

In terms of how this fire started, right now we don't know that, of course, but there's a lot of curiosity. But the operating theory is that it was in a forested area and that it was caused by a lightning strike, but authorities still have to investigate.

In terms of where people are now, a lot of people have gone to shelters, they've gone to high school gymnasiums, things of that nature. The Red Cross is here. They're providing food and water to these folks. But so much agony because this fire continues to rage and nobody knows when they'll be able to go home, and people are still waiting to find out if they'll have a home to go back to -- Christine and Miguel.

ROMANS: And dry conditions expected for this weekend could make it worse. You were looking at these pictures, Miguel, and telling me that you've been to a lot of fires.

MARQUEZ: I've covered so many fires in California. And this clearly caught them by complete surprise. And you see even the pictures of the traffic moving normally along highways with these massive flames. I mean, this fire jumped that road. It is -- the winds must be so intense. It is unbelievable that more people haven't died. The last time we saw fires like this, Australia, I think, 2010 or 2011.

ROMANS: Right.

MARQUEZ: Dozens of people killed as the fire just -- it is amazing that these cars did not burst into flames. You have whole families going up here. Just very lucky. ROMANS: 88,000 people evacuated. And this thing is still happening.

This is still an ongoing situation.

MARQUEZ: Unbelievable.

ROMANS: All right.

MARQUEZ: Dry and lots of fuel and fire. That's all it needs. And that wind. And it just whips along.

Houston Astros star Jose Altuve taking a chapter out of Babe Ruth's book. A young terminally ill fan asked him to hit a home run last night and guess what? Andy Scholes has it. There's the handsome devil. He will have it coming up next.

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ROMANS: Astros second baseman Jose Altuve has nine home runs this season, but the one he hit last night in the first inning that was extra special for a young fan.

MARQUEZ: This is really cool. Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

Hello there, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys. You know, Jose Altuve may only be 5'6", but he gave us his best Babe Ruth impression last night. Now before the game Altuve met with a young Astros fan named Dylan. Now Dylan has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. And he asked Altuve to hit a home run for him in the game. Altuve told him, hey, you know I hit one on Wednesday, so I didn't want to make any promises. Well, Dylan said, you know what, you'll make it happen.

And sure enough in Altuve's first attack he crushed one to left. It was the sixth lead-off homer of the year. And Altuve said as he was rounding second base, he thought about how Dylan told him he was going to hit a home run. Pretty cool.

For the second straight game, the Raptors and Heat meeting overtime to decide the outcome. Check this out, in the second quarter, DeMar DeRozan hits Goran Dragic with an elbow. Ouch. Not only did Dragic ended up needing eight stitches, he was called for the foul on the play. Dragic would come back with a huge three to send the game into overtime.

[05:25:04] But in the extra period, the Raptors would prevail. They win the game 96-92 to even the series at a game apiece.

All right. The Stanley Cup playoff, the Predators and Sharks giving fans some extra hockey last night. They needed three overtimes to decide game four. Nashville's Mike Fisher, also known as the husband of country singer Carrie Underwood, he scored the game winner in the longest game in Predators franchise history. After the game, Carrie Underwood tweeted simply, "My husband."

All right. Dust off your Giant hat. Tomorrow is the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby. Will any horse be able to match the incredible Triple Crown run by American Pharaoh last year? Well, Nyquist, who is undefeated, is the favorite. His owner Paul Reddam, a big Detroit Red Wings fan. He actually named the horse after Red Wings player Gustav Nyquist.

And guys, I'll tell you what, I was at the Belmont last year when American Pharaoh completed the Triple Crown. And I have to say, still the greatest sports moment I've ever been to in my life.

ROMANS: Really?

MARQUEZ: After how many --

SCHOLES: It was so awesome.

MARQUEZ: After how many mint juleps?

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: He was on duty. He was on duty.

MARQUEZ: And a charming bonnet. You're amazing.

ROMANS: All right, thanks, Andy.

MARQUEZ: Thank you, Andy.

SCHOLES: All right, guys.

ROMANS: Donald Trump versus the Republican Party. Speaker Paul Ryan refusing to back the presumptive presidential nominee. What he says Trump needs to do first to get his support.

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