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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
House Speaker Paul Ryan "Not Ready" To Back Trump; FBI Interviews Clinton Aides About E-mails; Wildfire Raging Out Of Control In Alberta, Canada; North Korea Holds Secretive Congress. Aired 5:30- 6a ET
Aired May 06, 2016 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:31:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: The Republican resistance to Donald Trump. Speaker Paul Ryan refusing to back the presumptive presidential nominee. He's not ready to go there yet. How he says Trump can earn his endorsement.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN HOST: And, Hillary Clinton's inner circle interviewed by the FBI. What we're learning about her e-mail use while serving as Secretary of State. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Miguel Marquez.
ROMANS: So nice to see you this Friday morning.
MARQUEZ: Good to be here.
ROMANS: Lots of news today. I'm Christine Romans. It's 31 minutes past the hour. Breaking overnight, the chairman of the Republican Party says a meeting is now set between Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REINCE PRIEBUS, REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIRMAN: Both Donald Trump and Paul Ryan are meeting next week to talk about these things. I think it's going to work out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Republicans shaken Thursday after Ryan, the party's highest- ranking elected official, told CNN that right now, at this moment, he cannot support Trump for president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: 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 is that 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: So, you're saying you can't support or endorse him right now?
RYAN: Yes, I am, basically, saying that. Look, I thought about this two days ago. I thought, actually, this thing was going to go to June 7, at the very least, probably to a convention, and so this is all pretty new for us. But at this point, Ithink 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 on limited government, the proper role of the executive, adheres to the constitution? There are lots of questions that conservatives, I think, are going to want answers to, myself included.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Trump responding with this stinging 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 is about time for politicians to put them first!"
Trump on the campaign trail in West Virginia late last night. He didn't talk about his stand-off 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. She brings us the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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. (APPLAUSE) 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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. (END VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUEZ: The hardworking Sara Murray for us. Thank you very much. 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.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: 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.
[05:35:00] 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 Sec. 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, thanks so much for that, Evan. Helping us to break down all the political action this morning, CNN politics reporter Tal Kopan, live in our Washington bureau. There is something and -- I've got to tell you just this rift, this soul-searching in the Republican Party is getting so much attention this morning.
You have Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House, the highest-ranking elected person in the Republican Party. He will be the chairman of the convention, which is happening in just weeks, and he is not ready yet to say I'm behind Donald Trump. He's not ready yet to say that Donald Trump has the policies to be the standard-bearer of the Republican Party.He's given cover, actually --
MARQUEZ: Extraordinary.
ROMANS: It is extraordinary. He's giving cover, really, to a lot of people who are also not ready to back Trump. I mean, when you look at, for example, Gov. Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas. He endorsed Donald Trump. This is his endorsement, Tal. This is what amounts to an endorsement in the Republican Party.
"He is not a perfect man. But what I do believe is that he loves this country and he will surround himself with capable, experienced people and he will listen to them. He wasn't my first choice, wasn't my second choice, but he is the people's choice."
And that is an endorsement. He's not perfect and he wasn't my first or second choice. That's what is happening. That is the DNA of the Republican Party right now.
TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: That is not entirely unique, either. That is sort of the reluctant endorsement we are seeing all over the place with Donald Trump, and I'm surprised that one didn't mention Hillary Clinton, but a lot of them say well, at least -- at least he's better than Hillary Clinton, we think. That's sort of the sense that I'm getting from some of the folks that are coming around.
But look, this whole primary has really been the culmination of several years of a debate within the Republican Party of where the party should go. And there's a populous -- a real "from the people" sense of a different trajectory that they would like to see from the Republican Party.
And it cannot be denied that Donald Trump has won the primary, essentially. He is the presumptive nominee, and so the party has to sort of, in some ways, come around to him as much as he has to come around to them.
But, Paul Ryan is signaling look, even though you've won all these primary elections, we still have a party here that you, also, need to come to. So it's sort of a you need to meet me halfway kind of signal and gives coverage to the Republicans who are in really tough races that feel like they cannot support Donald Trump and need to run against him. It sort of gives those people a signal that they can go ahead and do that if they feel that they need to.
MARQUEZ: But we are on uncharted waters here. You have Paul Ryan saying, publicly,I can't endorse him right now. Trump, then taking to Twitter and saying I can't get behind Paul Ryan. Do you want to do this publicly?
Reince Priebus has said there's going to be a meeting next week. How do they get -- how does it even work? How do they even get to the point where they can start talking and figure out how they -- what their differences are and how they can either paper over them or resolve them?
KOPAN: Well, you're talking about the man behind "Art of the Deal" and negotiations.
ROMANS: Yes.
KOPAN: I'm sure he'd tell you he'll get in the room and he'll close the deal with Paul Ryan and walk out with an endorsement. We will stay tuned and see if that's the case. But look, in some ways this has to happen publicly. Every single vulnerable senator, I guarantee you, woke up on Wednesday
morning -- I sent some of these e-mails. But, woke up on Wednesday morning with a request to their press secretary, where do you stand on Donald Trump?
Paul Ryan -- I'm sure his inbox was flooded with questions. You said you wouldn't support this, this, and this, now he's the presumptive nominee. Where do you stand? I don't see how this could not have sort of been worked out publicly, and in some ways it's more powerful.
If Paul Ryan is looking for leverage over Donald Trump -- if he is trying to get Donald Trump to kowtow a bit to the party leadership and signal that is willing to work with them and back off from his most objectionablepositions, Paul Ryan needs to do this publicly because he needs that leverage that Donald Trump doesn't want the embarrassment of having him stay out his corner.And to be honest, I think Donald Trump could've swung back a lot harder.
ROMANS: Yes.
KOPAN: That was one of the most subdued statements I've ever seen from him. So, I think we're getting some of it in public but there's still plenty that will be worked out behind the scenes.
ROMANS: Well, I mean, the Republican Party, you know, leadership. I mean, banning Muslims, not popular. Certainly it's not something that Paul Ryan supports -- the House Speakers supports. Alienating Latino immigrants and Hispanics, not something -- they have been working for years to try to bring Latinos into the tent with the Republicans and have -- they think suffered a big setback here.
[05:40:00] Listen to what Paul Ryan said that what he needs to see from Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN: I want to see a verification that our conservative principles will be championed, will be run on, will be represented, and will be brought to the public and the country in a way that's appealing for us to be successful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Do you think that Donald Trump, or -- do political minds think that Donald Trump has the discipline to now turn himself into a different candidate and start to reflect those core conservative values?
KOPAN: I'm not -- that's a big question. In terms of discipline, Donald Trump has promised us many times that he can be sort of presidential moving forward, and yet we see him continue to sort of lose that discipline and go after shiny objects on the trail and insult people that maybe he probably shouldn't have.
At the same time, we have seen a bit of an evolution begin with him to a certain extent. He did do a foreign policy speech off a teleprompter. That was definitely something we had not seen from him before. It's unclear whether he will really carry the party's message and carry water for the sort of Paul Ryan agenda, as he put it.
And, you know, Donald Trump is in a bit of difficult spot here. A lot of the things that excited his base and really propelled him to where we are are some of the things the Republican Party wants him to move away from, and he has to figure out if there is even a path that he can do that.
That he can moderate. That he can move away from some of his positions without actually alienating some of the people that really supported him and carried him this far. Who he's going to need starting in a quite substantial polling hole against the Democrats.
ROMANS: So interesting, you know. Paul Ryan sort of made a name for himself as the debt and deficit guy, the budget guy. A guy who knows how it works and how the money is spent, and how you have to really get some discipline and control in Washington. It's something he's talked about for years. Then you've got a Donald Trump presidency, which is maintaining social security --
MARQUEZ: It is.
ROMANS: -- maintaining Medicare. Which is building up the military, spending more money, tax cuts for everyone.
MARQUEZ: Public -- a very public --
ROMANS: Yes.
MARQUEZ: -- and high-intensity dance.
ROMANS: Tal Kopan, thank you. Nice to see you this morning.
MARQUEZ: Thank you.
KOPAN: Thank you.
ROMANS: All right, happening now, thousands of people being evacuated by air as a monster wildfire approaches. Details, next.
[05:42:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:46:00] MARQUEZ: 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. (Video playing) Incredible pictures here.
A state of emergency is in place for Fort McMurray, or what's left of it, with more than 85,000 people evacuating, clearly in a hurry.Hundreds of structures destroyed. Reception centers for a growing number of evacuees now being set up in Edmonton. That's where we find CNN's Dan Simon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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, 1,600 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, Dan Simons. Thanks, Dan. The April jobs report due out this morning in just a few hours. Jobs are central to voters. Here's some context for you. There are a near-record 5.4 million jobs open in the U.S. right now. About 8 million people are looking for work so why can't these positions be filled?
Well, companies say they can't find skilled workers. So, LinkedIn analyzed the most popular skills mentioned in job postings. The top five in the U.S. are all in the STEM field, science, technology, engineering, and math.
Cloud computing is number one -- I have zero skills for that particular category -- followed by data mining and mobile development. Yes, none there either. Then network security and software integration. Maybe you could do that job.
MARQUEZ: You better hang onto your job here.
ROMANS: The mismatch of available jobs and workers skills, it's not something that can fix itself. It's going to take a national strategy, better education, more job training programs. And experts tell us workers need to take action to add skills and retrain themselves throughout their careers. It's something, maybe, that Congress should look into? Perhaps a national strategy for --
MARQUEZ: It's amazing. The jobs are here and the people who need them are here.
ROMANS: Yes, they really are. And the anxiety on the campaign trail is so, so clear about it.
MARQUEZ: Amazing.
ROMANS: All right, let's take a look at what's coming up on NEW DAY. Alisyn Camerota joins us now. Hey, Alisyn.
MARQUEZ: Hello there, Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Hey, guys, good morning. Great to see you. So, it does not seem like the Republican Party has achieved that unity yet. House Speaker Paul Ryan telling CNN he is not ready to support Trump. So we will break down how Republicans are reacting to this divide in their party.
Meanwhile, the FBI interviewing top Hillary aides for the investigation into her e-mails. What have they found? We will explore that.
We'll also have a live report on those devastating wildfires in Western Canada. Just an incredible scene out there, so we'll tell you what's happening and if firefighters are getting their arms around it. So, we'll see you in about 11 minutes.
ROMANS: Thanks, Alisyn. We really feel for those people in Fort McMurray. Just unbelievable.
MARQUEZ: Those fires are spectacular. Unbelievable.
ROMANS: Thanks, Alisyn.
MARQUEZ: Thank you.
ROMANS: All right, the April jobs report is due this morning. We're going to tell you why a bad reading could be good for the stock market. Don't you love how Wall Street works?
[05:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:54:00] MARQUEZ: It is a once in a generation political gathering happening now in the capital of North Korea. The secretivecommunist nation convening the first party congress in 36 years. The carefully staged event expected to cement leader Kim Jong Un's grip on power. It comes as the North, facing stepped-up sanctions over its nuclear program.
Now with the latest, live, CNN's internationalcorrespondent Will Ripley, in Pyongyang. Will, why now?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, because supreme leader Kim Jong Un has reshuffled the party. He has rumored to have purged many of the former elite leaders who didn't agree with his philosophy of developing the nation's nuclear program aggressively. And at the same time, also trying to develop the economy, despite international sanctions. We expected to see the new party lineup unveiled today. Perhaps a speech from the supreme leader, talking about his strategy for the country moving forward, economically and militarily. But even though we, and other news outlets, were invited into the country to cover this event, we had to stand across the street -- across a major intersection.
[05:55:00] We could only shoot video of the outside of the building where it was happening. The evening news here in Pyongyang has come and gone and there was not a single mention of this historic workers' party congress, the first since 1980, even though people here in the capital city and across the country have been working without a day off for the last 70 days to get ready for this event, starting at 5:30 every morning and going late into the evening to clean up the city and make it ready for this event. But now they, and we, wait to learn exactly what is happening inside that building.
Now, back in 1980, the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung, appointed his son, Kim Jong-il as his heir and successor. This time around his grandson, who wasn't even alive during that previous congress -- well, we just don't know what he's going to do. We think maybe he'll talk about the nuclear program or the economy, Miguel, but we just have to wait for the state media to tell us, just like everyone else here.
MARQUEZ: Fascinating politics playing out there. Thanks for keeping track of it, Will Ripley.
ROMANS: Fifty-six minutes past the hour and time for an early start on your money. Stock markets falling around the world. Stock futures in the U.S. slightly lower ahead of that jobs report two and one-half hours from now.
A weak jobs report could send stocks higher because investors think that could help the Federal Reserve keep interest rates from hiking next month. Oil is down. Stock markets in Europe and Asia -- they're lower right now, too.
Speaking of the Federal Reserve, Donald Trump says he would most likely replace Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen at the end of her term. Of course, that's if he's elected president. Trump told CNBC that she's not a Republican so he feels removing her would be appropriate.
But he also said he agrees with the Fed's stance of keeping interest low, saying America would be hit even harder by trade deals if interest rates were higher and that it would make it much harder for the government to service its growing debt obligations.
Yellen was appointed by President Obama after Ben Bernanke stepped down from the post in January 2014. Her term ends in February of 2018.
All right, shoppers in New York City, you will soon be paying to carry your groceries home if you don't bring your own bags. This new measure requires stores to charge at least five cents per paper or plastic bag, but this is going to start in October. The city says New Yorker's -- look at this. They use 9.4 billion bags
each year, yet most of those don't get recycled. The pay is an estimated $12.5 million a year to transport 91,000 tons of paper and plastic bags to landfills.
Now, here's what's exempted. Take-out or delivery orders, food stamps -- food stamp purchases, rather -- produce, prescriptions. Those are all excluded from the requirement. Some opponents say it places an unfair burden on the city's poorest residents. The supporters see it as a crucial step toward reducing excess waste.
And you know -- you live in New York. You see that. You turn -- everywhere you turn there are nasty plastic bags in the trees, on the sidewalks --
MARQUEZ: I find it very romantic in the fall when the wind kicks up and the bags sort of circle up into --
ROMANS: It is not romantic.
MARQUEZ: It's so lovely.
ROMANS: Tell that to the fish in the Hudson River.
MARQUEZ: Absolutely. The Republican resistance to Donald Trump reaching new heights. NEW DAY starts now.
(BEING VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Everybody's out and I'm the only one left. That's OK, right?
RYAN: I hope to support our nominee, I'm just not there right now.
TRUMP: You know why it's #NeverTrump? Because I'm going to stop the gravy train.
RYAN: So, for some people it takes a little bit of time to get to a full embrace.The future of America is on the line.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can only tell you what the facts were. I followed the law.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The investigation is ending. That's a good thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One major step that is left to investigate is to interview Sec. Clinton.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At best, this is incompetence. At worst, this is criminal behavior.
SIMON: Nearly an entire town engulfed in flames. The people here are devastated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those flames, they're bright, they're big.
SIMON: The fire seems to be showing no signs of abating.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your new day. It is Friday, May 6th, 6:00 in the east. Chris is on assignment this morning. John Berman joins me. Happy Friday.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Good morning.
CAMEROTA: Great to have you here. So, up first, the nation's highest-ranking elected Republican says he is not ready to back Donald Trump. House Speaker Paul Ryan questioning Trump's commitment to conservative principles and whether Trump can unite the party.
Trump firing back, saying he's not ready to support Ryan's agenda. The two men set to meet next week in Washington to try to clear the air.
BERMAN: All this, as the last two Republican presidents and the last two Republican nominees say they are skipping the convention. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is hoping to put the e-mail controversy to rest.
CNN has learned that several of her former State Department aides have now been questioned by the FBI about whether classified material was on her private e-mail server. So far, CNN is told there is no evidence that Sec. Clinton willfully broke the law.
We're all over these developments this morning. Let's being with Phil Mattingly, here with us in New York. Good morning, Phil.
PHIL MATTINGLY CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. We've all seen it. Behind the scenes, Donald Trump's advisers really ramping up, in a major way, their efforts to secure their support on Capitol Hill, something that was much of a change from what they've been doing early on in the campaign.
