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Trump & Speaker Paul Ryan To Meet; Trump Won't Release Tax Returns Before IRS Completes Audit; Macy's Shares Fall 15%; Brazil's President Impeached; Hyperloop Test Hits 165 MPH. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired May 12, 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 ANCHOR: Will Republicans rally around Donald Trump? A high-stakes meeting in just hours set to unite that party.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton blasting Donald Trump for not releasing his tax returns. Look, she is not the only one. He's clucking history here, folks.
ROMANS: Breaking overnight, George Zimmerman auctions off the gun he used to kill Trayvon Martin. The acquitted killer in his own words. Wait until you hear what he wants to do with the money.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Thirty-one minutes past the hour right now. A big, big day in Washington. Big, big day for Donald Trump. And yes, a big, big day for the future of the Republican Party. Just hours from now Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, will try to convince the country's highest elected Republican official that Trump should be president.
He meets with House Speaker Paul Ryan. This, one week after Ryan told CNN that he refused to endorse Donald Trump yet. But now, many Republicans are pushing Ryan to fall in line behind Trump or risk fracturing the party heading into the general election.
Let's get the latest from CNN politics reporter, Sara Murray.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine. Will there be party unity in the GOP or not so much? Today might be the day that finally gives us our best indication so far. This is the day when Donald Trump is going to be traveling to Washington to meet face-to-face with House Speaker Paul Ryan.
That's after the House Speaker said he wasn't quite ready to fall in line and endorse Donald Trump. Now, he's said since then that the two just kind of need to get to know each other a little bit. Today will be an opportunity for them to do that in D.C.
And what we've already seen is some of Trump's supporters have already begun laying the groundwork. Some of his supporters on the hill have been reaching out to Paul Ryan. Ben Carson, who is a big supporter of Donald Trump, has spoken to Paul Ryan. And Donald Trump has been saying and tweeting more optimistic things about this upcoming meeting.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think he's a good man, and I really think probably we'll come out with something that's going to be good, I hope. Otherwise, I'll just continue on the path that I continue on.
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), HOUSE SPEAKER:I don't really know him. I met him once in person in 2012. We had a very good conversation in March on the phone. We just need to get to know each other and we, as a leadership team, are enjoying the fact that we have a chance to meet with him.
MURRAY: All of this could be laying the groundwork for the two coming out of this saying look, there is some common ground. We both want to reduce the deficit -- the debt. We both want to cut taxes on middle class families.
Of course, with Donald Trump, there is always a possibility that it could end on a rockier fashion. That it could end in fireworks, and we should get a better sense of that in just a few hours. Back to you guys.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right, Sara Murray, thank you. Donald Trump under fire this morning for refusing to promise that he will release his tax returns before the November election, though he has done so in the past. Earlier last year Trump did promise to release those returns, even before that.
Since then, though, he has said his returns, since 2009, are being audited by the IRS and he will not release them until that audit is complete. Now, the IRS says Trump is free to release his returns if he wants. It's up to Trump. There's no law that says he can't, but Trump says his lawyers are telling not to and he doesn't plan on pushing them to change that decision before November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: If you were my client and you were under audit, I'd say don't release them.
TRUMP: Yes.
VAN SUSTEREN: But I just think there's some years outside the audit that might be released, at least to get rid of the --
TRUMP: First of all, if there are, they're meaningless, OK?
VAN SUSTEREN: All right.
TRUMP: It doesn't matter because they're so far back. But, at the right time I will release them. I hope to release them. I'd like to release them, but when I'm under audit I can't do that. VAN SUSTEREN: All right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: When I'm under audit they can't do that. The only standing in the way of Donald Trump releasing his taxes, though, is Donald Trump. Back in February, when Trump first said he wouldn't release his taxes because he is being audited, the IRS told us nothing prevents him from doing so.
Here's the statement from the IRS. "Federal privacy rules prohibit the IRS from discussing individual tax matters. Nothing prevents individuals from sharing their own tax information."
Every presidential candidate, since 1976, has released their taxes. Richard Nixon did it while he was being audited. This is the biggest job interview in the world. A tax return is seen as one of those things that people who are hiring you want to look over.
[05:35:00] Tax returns show how much a person makes from investments and business income -- how much of that is taxable. It shows what deductions they take, how much they donate to charity, what their effective tax rate is. That's how much of their income they are paying to the government.
BERMAN: If they make an income, what that income is, how much money they make, how much they pay? Questions that do surround Donald Trump. Let us discuss that. Let us discuss the big Paul Ryan meeting and other subjects, as well.We're joined by CNN politics digital managing, Zach Wolf. Zach, thank you.
ROMANS: Good morning.
BERMAN: Again, I want to get Ryan and taxes in a second, but there's something else that happened overnight that people could look at and say there's a big shift going on here. Donald Trump's proposed Muslim ban -- when he first proposed it in the wake of what happened in Paris last fall.
You know, it was a complete ban. He was going to ban Muslims from entering this country, period, end. That shifted a little bit then and last night it seemed to shift a whole, whole lot. Listen to this very new language from Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAN SUSTEREN: Have you decided whether you'll back-off on the ban, and I realize there's a ban -- it was a temporary ban, but with an unlimited temporary period could go on forever the way --
TRUMP ("ON THE RECORD", FOX NEWS): No, I was never meant to be -- I mean, that's why it was temporary. Sure, I'd back off on it. I'd like to back off as soon as possible because, frankly, I would like to see something happen, but we have to be vigilant.
TRUMP (via telephone on "KILMEADE & FRIENDS" RADIO SHOW): We have a serious problem. It's a temporary ban and it hasn't been called for yet. Nobody's done it. This is just a suggestion until we find out what's going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Suggestion.
BERMAN: Well, yes. I mean, he went from total ban to temporary ban. That happened pretty quickly. Then overnight, it went to just being a suggestion. That's a pretty staggering shift overnight, Zach.
ZACHARY WOLF, CNN POLITICS DIGITAL, MANAGING EDITOR: Yes, he said there nobody had called for it. He called for it back in December. This is kind of the latest thing. We've seen it on this, on the minimum wage, on some other things where Donald Trump is clearly pivoting very quickly to change his position on a lot of things.
You know, he has always said that he's a negotiator, that everything is negotiable. It just seems that some of these things that he put out such a hard marker on during the primary are quickly becoming a lot more negotiable than we might have thought.
ROMANS: I mean, if you look at those primary voters they overwhelmingly, by 60 and 70 percent margins in some of these states, say that they agree with a ban on Muslims coming into the United States. This was one of those policies that really put him on the map with these Trump supporters. I wonder --
BERMAN: Paul Ryan, though, doesn't agree.
ROMANS: No, Paul Ryan doesn't agree. But I wonder if Donald Trump risks alienating the people who support him? Or, if it's that the confidence or the cult of personality that's Donald Trump, it won't matter that he's changing his positions.
WOLF: Well, the people who voted for Donald Trump and gave him the Republican nomination -- there's not enough of them to make him president, so he's going to have to find a larger group of people to appeal to in a general election.
And, you know, calling for a complete Muslim ban, you wouldn't think that that's the -- it wasn't just Paul Ryan. It was -- most of the Republican establishment was totally against the Muslim ban, and the country, generally.
ROMANS: Right.
WOLF: So, he's just appealing to a different group now.
BERMAN: All right, let's talk about taxes, Zach Wolf, because --
ROMANS: Oh, I love to talk about taxes at 5:00 in the morning.
BERMAN: You know, Donald Trump's position there has changed, as well. He says he will now not release his returns until the audit is complete. He's said that for a while. He now says he's not going to do it, or not going to push to do it, before the November election.
And what's more, he says you know what? There's nothing to learn from them, which is actually not true. You can learn a great deal from someone's tax returns, including how much you make and how much you in taxes, how much you give to charity. And those three issues have been central to the Donald Trump candidacy.
ROMANS: Well, let's listen to him in how own words because you'll hear how this language has changed over the years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I have a great company. I've done a great job, which if I run you'll see what a great job because I'll do a full disclosure of finances. I will tell you --
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC HOST, "THIS WEEK": Including your tax returns?
TRUMP: We'll look at that. Maybe I'm going to do the tax returns when Obama does his birth certificate.
TRUMP: I have no objection to certainly showing tax returns.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you getting any closer to releasing your tax returns?
TRUMP: Well, I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about maybe when we find out the true story on Hillary's emails.
TRUMP: I can't do it until the audit is finished, obviously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Well, IRS says you can release them. Other have released them. Is that a valid excuse, do you think?
WOLF: No, it's not a valid excuse, but Donald Trump -- it doesn't matter for him because he seems to play by a totally different set of rules. It seems like people would demand, at some point, to see his tax returns.
Part of his political story is that he's really rich. He likes to point out that he's a successful businessman. That he makes a lot of money. We won't know exactly how much money he makes, as a person, until he releases his tax returns. On the other hand, he has shown time and again that the rules don't apply to him.
BERMAN: Paul Ryan sitting down in a room with Donald Trump today. Paul Ryan, last week, said he is not ready to endorse Donald Trump yet. It will be curious to see how far Paul Ryan moves after this meeting because, Zach, he is facing a lot of pressure from his own party.
[05:40:00] WOLF: He is facing a lot of pressure. You've seen a lot of people -- a lot of Republicans really start to coalesce around this idea of Donald Trump in the last couple of weeks and saying that they would support the party's nominee despite their many policy differences with him.
Paul Ryan, clearly, has a lot of policy differences with Donald Trump. It's hard to imagine all of that getting sewn up during one one-hour meeting on Capitol Hill, but you can also imagine that the tone between the two guys could change a lot. It's already changed quite a bit.
Last week on CNN Paul Ryan was saying I can't support Donald Trump yet because of policy, and then yesterday he was sounding a little bit kinder to him. Donald Trump has sounded a lot nicer about Paul Ryan after saying last week that he rejected his policy agenda. So, you can see these two sort of moving towards each other. It's hard to imagine everything getting solved today.
ROMANS: I wonder if calling the Muslim ban a suggestion -- how he's moving more toward the position of Paul Ryan and the Republican Party, in general, feels. All right, Zach, so nice to see you this morning. Thank you for getting up early for us.
WOLF: Thank you.
ROMANS: All right, 41 minutes past the hour. A shooting that sparked civil rights protests across the country -- that gun is now for sale, up for auction. Why George Zimmerman is auctioning off the gun he used to kill Trayvon Martin, and you won't believe what he wants to do with some of the money.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:46:00] ROMANS: George Zimmerman is selling the gun he used to kill Trayvon Martin -- selling it in an auction. An online auction starts just hours from now. The neighborhood watch volunteer claimed self-defense after shooting the unarmed Trayvon Martin back in 2012. He was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter. Zimmerman wrote a description, calling the 9mm pistol "a piece of American history."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: I thought it was time to move past the firearm, and if I sell it and it sells, I move past it. What I've decided to do is not cower. I'm a free American and I can do what I like with my possessions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Bidding starts at $5,000. Zimmerman says he will use some of the money from that auction to fight "Black Lives Matter, violence against enforcement officers".
Trayvon Martin's family released this statement. "The Trayvon Martin Foundation is committed to its mission of ending senseless gun violence in the United States. This election season we are laser focused on furthering that mission. As such, the foundation has no comment on the actions of that person." A bench trial gets underway this morning for one of six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. That means a judge, not a jury, will decide officer Edward Nero's fate. Nero faces three misdemeanor charges of second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office.
Prosecutors are expected to make the case he had no business apprehending Gray in the first place, an argument that could change the way police make arrests if Nero is found guilty.
The Director of the FBI, once again, blaming a viral video effect for an alarming rise in homicides in several major cities. James Comey believes police officers have become hesitant to confront suspects because they fear winding up in an online video. He says that leads to less aggressive policing, leads to higher crime rates. Now, the Obama administration has disputed Comey's theory in the past. They're not commenting this morning.
All right, 48 minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START on your money. Stock futures higher after the market took a tumble yesterday. Investors concerned about how much consumers are spending, or not spending. That's the problem yesterday in the market. Stock markets in Europe and Asia are mixed. Oil is trading near its highest levels of the year.
So, watch shares of Macy's this morning if you're looking for evidence of that consumer story. The stock plummeted 15 percent yesterday. The retailer had its worst quarter since the great recession. Macy's, one of the worst performing stocks in the S&P 500 last year, as it sort of stabilized more recently. Its performance alone spending concerns about the entire U.S. retail sector.
Macy's says sales are weak, shoppers are spending less at its flagship stores here in New York City and other popular tourist spots. Plans to revamp its clothing lineup include a new deal with Lady Gaga and Elton John, but Macy's cut its forecast for the rest of the year.
The CFO actually saying they're shaking their heads. They're looking at steady job growth. They're looking at an economy that's moving all right. But for some reason, people just aren't spending.
Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY". Alisyn Camerota joins us now. Hi, Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Hi, Christine, great to see you. So, what exactly can we expect from the Donald Trump-Speaker Paul Ryan face-to-face today? This comes amid an uproar over Trump's refusal to release his tax returns, so we will speak with someone who has seen those returns. What is in them?
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton wasting no time attacking Trump over that issue while Bernie Sanders attacks her, saying nominating Clinton would be a "disaster" for Democrats.
We will also follow-up on last night's CNN town hall. We're talking to a doctor about the epidemic of painkiller abuse in America. So, a lot to get to when we see you in 10 minutes.
ROMANS: All right, thanks Alisyn, can't wait. Breaking news this morning. Brazil voting to impeach its president just moments ago. We're taking you there live, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:54:00] ROMANS: Breaking news this morning. Just minutes ago, Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached by the Brazilian Senate. Senators holding a marathon debate overnight ending a vote of 55 in favor of impeachment, 22 against. The president will be suspended for up to six months while she defends herself.
Joining us now with the very latest on this breaking news this morning, CNN's Shasta Darlington. She is in the capital of Brasilia. Bring us up to speed, Shasta.
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Christine. You know, this really caps off months of street protests and heated debate in the Congress. And what we've seen is that these senators have voted, really overwhelmingly, in favor of an impeachment trial.
So that means that Dilma Rousseff is going to be suspended for these 180 days and she is going to be replaced on an interim basis by her vice president. But the challenges ahead are enormous. Not only is Brazil in the middle of a prolonged recession -- the second year of recession -- it's battling the Zika virus pandemic, which has caused birth defects.
But, it's also gearing up for the Olympic Games which, as we all know, are just under three months away and there's been this back and forth who's even going to be in charge of the country when the torch arrives in Rio de Janeiro.
Well, we now know that Rousseff is going to be defending herself in an impeachment trial and will have vice president Michel Temer there. The question is whether or not the country can come together before the games take off.
There's a huge economic crisis, which has made it hard for Brazilians, themselves, to afford tickets. There has also been an issue with, again, the Zika virus, and political corruption. All of these protests out on the streets. So, going ahead, we're likely to see more protests of the supporters of the president and her workers' party even calling strikes.
It's going to be really an era of discontent as we head into the Olympic Games, certainly not the image that we expected back in 2009 when Brazil won its bid as an emerging power on the global stage, Christine.
ROMANS: An emerging power on the global stage with an economy that many people were looking to and saying this is a powerful economy that could lift this middle class, and so many things have changed since then. Any sign, on the economy front at least, the worst is over for Brazil?
DARLINGTON: You know, investors in companies are optimistic that the vice president will bring a change of course. With this deep recession, high inflation, high unemployment, Dilma Rousseff has really got one of the lowest approval ratings in the world and Michel Temer is more market-friendly.
But the first thing we expect to hear from him is who his finance minister is going to be, who his economic team is going be. And he has promised that investors are going to come back. That's he's going to send the signals they want to hear that this is a safe place to put their money. We'll find out pretty quickly, Christine.
ROMANS: We certainly know for so many Brazilian citizens it has been a very tough go here with the bright optimism of the Olympics ahead of them but so much worry and political turmoil. Thank you so much for that, Shasta Darlington.
All right, let's get an early start on your money. Dow futures rebounding right now from that sharp drop yesterday. European stock markets mixed. Asian stock markets closing mostly higher overnight. Oil above 46 a barrel, near the highest for the year.
Bag fees are big money for the airlines and a big pain at the airport. Two senators want airlines to end checked baggage fees to shorten airport security lines this summer. Democrat senators from Connecticut and Massachusetts say there are 27 percent more roller boardcarry-ons at checkpoints for airlines that have fees compared to those that don't.
Dropping the fees, they say, would encourage more people to check bags that would shorten long lines, a problem expected to get worse this summer. It will be a tough sell to airlines. They raked in $3.8 billion in bag fees during 2015. Another $3 billion in reservation change fees.
If air travel is just too slow you, this may soon be an option.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one. (CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: This is the first public test of a high-speed transportation system called Hyperloop One. That metal sled tests the accelerations system. It hit 160 MPH in 1. 9 seconds. This took place about 30 miles from the Las Vegas strip where engineers are building a huge test loop. Hyperloop One has an ambitious plan to start moving cargo by the year 2019 and start carrying passengers by 2021.
All right, will Republicans rally around Donald Trump? A high-stakes meeting in just hours set to unite or divide the party. "NEW DAY" picks up the story now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RYAN: We have an obligation to merge and unify.
TRUMP: We will see how it goes, and I think it will go well.
RYAN: We're just getting started.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would hope that all Republicans would get behind him.
TRUMP: The tax return, you learn very, very little. Hopefully, before the election, I'll release it.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump's tax plan was written by a billionaire for billionaires.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is a little bit weird that Sec. Clinton received 400 superdelegates before anybody else got into the race.
CLINTON: The choice in this campaign could not be clearer.
SANDERS: This is the future of America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the number one cause of preventable death in America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have an over-prescribing problem in the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is man-made. It's been preventable all along.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, May 12th, 6:00 in the east. John Berman is here with us. Great to have you, John.
BERMAN: Good morning.
CAMEROTA: Good morning. So, up first, Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan set to meet just hours from now. Their summit is supposed to be a first step at unity. Some Republicans in the House urging Ryan to get behind Trump. Can these two agree on a vision for the party?
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Could this be a clue?
