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Ryan: Trump Must Do More To Unify the GOP; Clinton Spokesman: "Nothing Inappropriate Took Place"; Clinton & Sanders Attack Trump on the Stump; FBI to Question Hillary Clinton in Email Probe; Clinton: We Can't Let Trump Become Our Next President; CNN Poll: Obama Approval Rating at 51 Percent; 85,000 Evacuated from Raging Wildfire. Aired 6- 6:30

Aired May 06, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CO-ANCHOR, CNN: Here with us in New York. Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Good morning, John. We've all seen it. Behind the scenes, Donald Trump's advisors 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'd been doing early on in the campaign.

But in one moment yesterday, a jarring moment, it became crystal clear that they have a lot more work to do, so much so that the chairman of the RNC stepping in to try and mend fences in the Republican Party.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: And they're both committed to sitting down and working and actually talking this out.

MATTINGLY: RNC chairman Reince Priebus in the middle of the fight to unite, confirming Donald Trump and House speaker Paul Ryan will meet face-to-face next week.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), WI, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I'm just not ready to do that.

MATTINGLY: Only hours after Ryan told CNN's Jake Tapper that he's not ready to back Trump.

PRIEBUS: And what he's saying is, look, I want to get there. I think I will get there, but I want to talk to Donald Trump, and I want to work with him.

MATTINGLY: Priebus, trying to explain why Ryan and some in the Republican Party are so reluctant to back their new standard bearer.

PRIEBUS: For some people, an endorsement is a full embrace, and so for some people, it takes a little bit of time to get to a full embrace.

MATTINGLY: The chairman, not promising 100 percent of the party will fall in line, but optimistic that there won't be a contested convention come July.

PRIEBUS: The platform of our party will be written in Cleveland, and I think you're going to get another very conservative platform out of our party.

MATTINGLY: But not so fast. Trump firing back at Ryan in a statement saying, quote, "I'm 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."

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know that thing, "Never Trump"? You know why it's "Never Trump"? Because I'm going to stop the gravy train for all of these consultants and all of these people.

MATTINGLY: Ryan making clear that his focus is on one thing, protecting the party's House majority, something some analysts predict could be in jeopardy with a Trump nomination.

RYAN: My focus this fall, is, has been and will be the House majority.

MATTINGLY: And warning the fight for unity rests mostly on the shoulders of the nominee.

RYAN: I think what is necessary to make this work, for this to unify, is to actually take our principles and advance them, and that's what we want to see. Saying we're unified doesn't in and of itself unify us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And guys, Trump's advisors were caught completely off guard by this. They weren't given a heads up by Ryan's team. And the main problem that this presents, and there no shortages of problems as they try and unify the party, is this is no longer a Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton issue. All eyes will also now be on Donald Trump and Paul Ryan.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CO-HOST, NEW DAY: OK, Phil, stick around. We have more questions for you. We also want to bring in CNN political commentator and political anchor for Time Warner Cable News, Errol Lewis and Washington Bureau chief for "The Daily Beast" Jackie Kucinich.

Errol, this is different than what Paul Ryan had said in the past. In the past, he had said that yes, I would get behind whoever the nominee is, so let's remind people of what he said then.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If Trump is the nominee (inaudible).

RYAN: I'm going to support whoever the Republican nominee is, and I'm going to stand up for what I believe in as I do that.

We're going to be able to present a unified front. That's my anticipation, whoever the nominee's going to be.

We're going to be able to work with whoever our nominee is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: OK, that was from a couple of months ago. What's happened?

ERROL LEWIS, POLITICAL ANCHOR, TIME WARNER CABLE NEWS: Well, for one thing, he shaved his beard. Well, look, he's -- now it's real. Right? Now we've got to put our cards on the table. It feels exactly right.

I mean, he's got a 30-seat majority. And while that might seem like it's insurmountable, the reality is he's got a lot of marginal seats. He's got some in Florida. He's got some in California. He's got some in Texas. He's got some in upstate New York. And he's hearing from those folks.

And so it would be irresponsible -- and this is a bit of a negotiation -- it would be irresponsible for him just to simply say, OK, I'm all aboard with Trump. He can say whatever he wants, even if it trims my majority or even puts it in danger. It's not going to be quite that simple.

BERMAN: Well, it strikes me that either he didn't mean when he said that he would support the nominee, whoever it is, when he said it, as recently as the end of February, or he didn't really think deep down inside it was going to be Donald Trump, which may be the more likely thing here. His aides, I know have been telling Phil all along, they thought it was going to a contested convention.

Jackie, I don't understand how this ends for Paul Ryan. They're meeting next week. What can Trump do to win the Paul Ryan primary? All of a sudden, not back the ban on Muslims entering the country? That just doesn't seem likely to me.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE DAILY BEAST: Well, it's interesting. I've heard this from several establishment Republicans that I've been talking to over the last couple of days. There is this thought that, you know, hey didn't run for Trump's nomination. Trump ran for the Republican nomination.

And so they need to -- he needs to start meeting them -- I mean it's Trump, so probably not half way, but somewhere. And right now, there is some pushback within that party saying that Trump really hasn't done that. He hasn't reached back at all. He's just taken.

And so Ryan, it seems, is kind of establishing that -- those negotiations.

CAMEROTA: So, Phil, you're in touch with the Ryan people. What pound of flesh are they trying to extract? What deal what negotiation do they want?

MATTINGLY: They haven't been that specific yet, but I do think that the key issue here is, this is point of leverage for Paul Ryan. And think about where Paul Ryan's coming from here. He is the ideological standard bearer of the party. Everything he has run for the last -- everything he's presented for the last decade, Donald Trump has undercut, whether it's entitlements, whether it's elements of tax reform.

Donald Trump is running on the opposite agenda of Paul Ryan. So what Paul Ryan is saying here is, look, we need to meet somewhere, as Jackie said, maybe not in the middle. That would be quite a reach for Donald Trump, but give me something. Give us something as party to run on.

You have to protect all of these seats that are currently up for re- election. Paul Ryan yesterday not only giving cover to the Republican agenda, giving cover to Republican officials that are up for re- election in November.

BERMAN: Errol, 10 million Republican voters, more than that at this point, have gone to the polls, more than have ever voted for a Republican primary nominee. What is the senior elected Republican official telling them that he doesn't like their choice saying to them right now?

LEWIS: Well, I don't -- I don't know if -- I don't know if it's they don't like his choice. I think it's more like he's sort of playing a different kind of a game where it's district by district. So if tons and tons of people come out in an overwhelmingly red district, well, you know, you don't want to alienate those people, but --

BERMAN: But Bill Bennett -- Phil Bennett, who in some ways is a mentor type figure to Paul Ryan, essentially said this is a slap in the face to voters, what Paul Ryan just did.

LEWIS: Well, look, this is -- we all anticipated, John, that we were going to see a contested convention, that it was going to be noisy. There was even talk about, well, there might be violence. There might be demonstrations. It's playing out a little differently.

First of all, the other candidates sort of went away. So it's not going to be a contested convention, but it is going to be a contested process, and this is what it looks like. You've got to tell 10 million people your choice is somebody we think has to change, or else we're all going to go down to defeat in November.

CAMEROTA: So, Jackie, there are these different camps now emerging, including people who say that they're not going to go to the convention. Notable people. Mitt Romney, obviously.

BERMAN: Sort of notable.

CAMEROTA: Notable. Bush 41 and 43 say that they're sitting it out. That obviously sends --

BERMAN: John McCain.

CAMEROTA: -- a message. John McCain. But there are people who have now gotten aboard the Trump train, including former governor and candidate Rick Perry. Sheldon Adelson, who, of course, is, you know, a huge donor.

I'll just read to you what Rick Perry has said in his tepid endorsement. He says, "He's 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 will listen to them. He wasn't my first choice, wasn't my second choice, but he was the people's choice. "

So how's this all going to shake out at the convention?

KUCINICH: It's really fascinating. Isn't it? I mean the convention is usually a party for the party and is a show of unity. And we're just not going to see that this year. There's going to be absences.

And so -- and that's going to be very notable as we're going forward, and we'll see how many kind of -- how much this settles in and some people change their mind. But, you know, when you talk about the two living Republican presidents saying, thanks, but no thanks -- and it's true. I mean, Jeb Bush did run and lose, and Trump was brutal to him. But, still, it really is. It's remarkable on this whole process to see these divisions play out, and it will be interesting to see how hard they continue to be.

BERMAN: You know, is this a schism, Phil, or is this a chasm now between, you know, the Trump forces and the --

MATTINGLY: And the public school, right?

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: In my (inaudible), they teach chasm versus schism 101. No, but, you know, it strikes me as interesting now. Paul Ryan, one of the things he said is, you know, one of the things we know about this election is we don't know anything. You know, what's the evidence right now? What's the feeling deep down inside about whether Trump will hurt the down ballot folks?

MATTINGLY: I think across the -- if you talk to top party officials, if you talk to the party committees either at the NRSC, at the RNC, at the NRCC, all three of them, if you talk to them and they're being candid, they're all very concerned right now. They believe, not unlike John McCain, when you look at the states where even members that weren't considered vulnerable before this process, they now are expanding the map.

Democrats are expanding the map. The DCCC is looking at the map and giving each other high fives right now. And that, I think, drives what Paul Ryan did, maybe, more than even his gut feeling that he wanted Republicans to come his way or he wanted Donald Trump to come his way. It's protect their majorities.

You look at what they've done over the last six years. They've 31 governor seats from 20. The 30-plus state legislators.

During the Obama years, the Republican Party has advanced in a huge way everywhere except for the White House. The concern across the party right now is Donald Trump's candidacy threatens not just losing the White House once again but races up and down the ballot.

CAMEROTA: All right, panel, we need to talk about what's going on with Hillary Clinton as well. So stick around for that, please.

BERMAN: Yes, CNN has learned that the FBI is likely to interview Hillary Clinton in the next few weeks, this as it wraps up the nine- month investigation into her use of a private e-mail server when she was secretary of State.

Now, some of Hillary Clinton's aides have already been questioned. CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown live from Washington with the latest.

Good morning, Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, good morning to you, John. That's right. The interview -- the investigation has been ramping up, focused on the interview.

Several people, in fact, in Clinton's inner circle have been brought in quietly to a room in the FBI's Washington-filled office for those interviews. In fact, Clinton's longtime confidant, Huma Abedin is said to be one of those people, and she is cooperating, according to officials we've been speaking with with knowledge of the investigation.

Now, the interviews we're told are focused on whether classified information was mishandled and the security of the server. But so far, officials tell us, no, there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing at this point in the investigation, but, again, the investigation is not over.

Although investigators we've been speaking with, saying this should have never happened, and even Hillary Clinton herself admitted it was a mistake to have a private server with her State Department e-mails.

But one of the most anticipated steps hasn't even taken place yet. Of course, that is the interview with Hillary Clinton, and that is expected in the coming weeks. The Clinton campaign released a statement saying, "From the start, Hillary Clinton has offered to answer any questions that would help the Justice Department complete its review, and we hope and expect that anyone else who is asked would do the same. We are confident the review will conclude that nothing inappropriate happened.

Now, there are some logistical challenges of privately doing an interview with someone who is a potential presidential nominee, who is surrounded by Secret Service and the press corps. But John and Alisyn, we do expect the investigation to be wrapped up in the coming weeks. Back to you.

CAMEROTA: Yes, all eyes on that Clinton interview. Thanks so much, Pamela.

Well, meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders laying off attacks on each other. Instead, they're unleashing on Donald Trump. CNN's senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns is live in Washington with more.

Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigning on opposite sides of the country, but appearing to ease off a bit from the attacks on each other, directing attention to the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

The Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton in California, accusing Trump of doubling down on anti-immigrant rhetoric, casting doubt on his ability to moderate his positions on immigrants as he seeks to move closer to the center in anticipation of the general election. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to recognize that the kind of language coming from Donald Trump is hateful, and we need to repudiate it.

BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think that a Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster for this country, and I intend to do everything that I can to see that that does not happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Bernie Sanders, by the way, was campaigning in coal country in McDowell County, West Virginia, highlighting his plans to alleviate poverty and help communities that have been hurt by policy shifts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Also worth noting, protests at the Hillary Clinton rally in California were more vigorous than we've seen of late. She appeared to cut her remarks short just a bit. She also attended a couple fund-raisers out on the West coast, and she is expected to attend a campaign rally in Oakland, California, today. John?

BERMAN: Interesting. Skipping the actual states that vote in the next week, heading out to California right now.

Joe Johns, thank you very much.

As we reported, the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server coming to a head. Right now, CNN being told that there are no signs that the former secretary willfully broke any laws. So will this put the controversy to rest once and for all?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, there is word that the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's e-mails is nearly complete. She is due to be interviewed in the coming weeks.

As of now, CNN has been told by officials that there is no evidence that Hillary Clinton willfully broke the law. I want to discuss more with our friends, Jackie Kucinich, Errol Lewis and Phil Mattingly.

Jackie, let me play you what Donald Trump said about the e-mails to our Wolf Blitzer just this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Here's a person under investigation by the FBI. She's only going to get the nomination because it's a rigged deal. And frankly, maybe she won't even be able to run. Now, I think she probably will, because I think the Democrats will work it so that nothing happens to her even though everything happened to other people that did far less.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: So let's dissect that a little bit, Jackie. If the FBI investigation wraps up and there are no charges, does that mean, I ask facetiously, that we will never hear of this again by the Republican Party? Does this issue just go away?

KUCINICH: It's hard to believe that that would happen. I mean listen to Donald Trump. This plays into the message he's been using all along, which is the system is rigged, and this would not happen to a normal person. A normal person would not get off.

So I think you'll hear various versions of that, as we go through. Say, OK, yes, so they cleared Hillary Clinton. Well, that's because the system is rigged.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but Errol, it loses some of its punch if, in fact, the FBI publicly comes out and says we found no indication that she willfully broke the law. Because some people, as you know, Errol, had feared that this would be this never-ending fishing expedition throughout the entire election and it would always be hanging out there. So something definitive would help.

LEWIS: Well, that's right. For the Clinton team, this is good news, the notion they'll actually get past it. For genuinely undecided voters who are open to facts, this is probably also good to sort of let them have some information that they can make a decision based on.

But in the kangaroo courts of right-wing talk radio, for Donald Trump, for the Republican Party, I don't think this makes any difference whatsoever. They have already convicted her. They've already decided that she has -- she has done something criminal, and I don't think they're talking points are going to change one bit based on whatever facts come out it.

BERMAN: And Phil, it is interesting to hear that the Secretary, a nominee who may very well be the Democratic nominee -- she isn't yet -- will have to testify, will have to answer to the FBI. And Pamela was telling us, you know, it's being carefully orchestrated, worked out right now between the Secret Service and the FBI, how it will happen.

CAMEROTA: Right. How does that work? BERMAN: But if it's not a literal spectacle, it will be a political

spectacle even if we don't actually see it.

MATTINGLY: Yes. No, it's no ideal. You don't necessarily want your presidential nominee or your candidate to be interviewed by the FBI in the middle of your campaign. It is what I think most campaign advisors would say --

BERMAN: Not on the bucket list.

MATTINGLY: I do think, though, that for the Clinton campaign and in largely in the numbers you're looking at right now, this is more or less baked in. They've been dealing with this now for 10 months, if not more.

And the question they question they face and the one that I'm always intrigued to see how they answer is, how do you address this publicly? They have tried a number of different ways, whether going out after the convoluted classification system or in public interviews or anything like that.

Do you just let this drop? Because as Errol said, there is a segment of society that is going to think that this is rigged and she's guilty no matter what, and there's a group that just doesn't care no matter what.

How do you address this going forward? And I think in large part, they just tried to push it aside. She doesn't really deal with it anymore. Will that change? Will there be another moment where she officially says, this is over? This is done. Let's all move past it. It's time for people to start trusting me again. Or is she just kind of over it now?

CAMEROTA: Well, that's the problem, Jackie, is that even if she is not found guilty of anything, they have been able to make hay with, look at her judgment. It shows bad judgment. So that doesn't go away.

KUCINICH: Well, right. And because this has sort of been a drip, drip, drip situation, it has just sort of reiterated one of Hillary Clinton's biggest weaknesses. And Phil said it right there. It's the trust issue.

And she hasn't really been able to turn those numbers upside-down this entire process. But, you know, as we go into the general, you have to imagine that's going to be a big focus of the campaign.

BERMAN: You know, Errol, just in general right now, what do you think the Clinton campaign reaction is to what's been happen over the last 24 hours on the Republican side of the race with the Paul Ryan news?

Everyone was talking before yesterday afternoon. You know, Donald Trump had cleared the field before Hillary Clinton. Well, now Donald Trump sort of has a new issue in the field, and does that give Hillary Clinton some extra space here?

CAMEROTA: Errol?

LEWIS: You've got some interesting language, I think, coming from Hillary Clinton where if you notice over the last couple of days, they've talked about a risky choice, a risky choice. So they want to make it seem as if Donald Trump is somehow a loose cannon. That's the phrase that she keeps using.

But she -- when she says, "choice," she's talking to -- I hear her talking to undecided voters. I hear her talking to swing voters. I hear her talking to Independents. I hear her already sort of making the rest of that pivot towards the general election trying to think about the map and trying to do some messaging and try to define Donald Trump in the minds of people who haven't made up their minds yet. It's a small and shrinking group, but they're going to be an important group.

CAMEROTA: Phil, let's look at President Obama's approval numbers, because this will have an effect on the election.

BERMAN: These are brand new numbers out just this morning from CNN.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much for making that excellent point.

BERMAN: How do you like that?

CAMEROTA: They're at 51 percent. OK? So one way to look at that is, meh, you know, they're sort of middling. But another way to look at it is that --

BERMAN: Compared to what?

CAMEROTA: -- compared to what? Right. So you look back at President Bush, 28 percent at exactly this same time during this term. Clinton, 59 percent. Ronald Reagan, 50 percent. All interesting contexts to get for how this is going to affect how voters feel going into the polls.

MATTINGLY: And as numbers -- President Obama's numbers have risen, Hillary Clinton has clung more tightly to him every single day. And I think the biggest problem the Clinton team has right now Bernie Sanders staying in the race -- and the math obviously not on Bernie Sanders' side -- it keeps President Obama on the sidelines.

The Clinton campaign is in no way going to run away from him. They're going to embrace every one of his policies at least for the most part. They want him on the campaign trail. Everybody on the Clinton campaign believes that President Obama will be a remarkably effective campaigner for her. Those numbers underscoring that point really, in large part, in the country.

He can't do anything as long as Bernie Sanders is out there right now. They want him on the trail. Bernie Sanders is keeping him from the trail right now, and I think that's a concern.

I think these numbers, though, just underscore the fact that you are going to see a lot of President Obama this fall, as often as the Clinton campaign can get him out there, as often as his schedule allows.

CAMEROTA: Great points. Panel, thank you. Have a great weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You, too.

KUCINICH: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right, we have to tell you about this other story that is developing this week. Canada has never experienced anything quite like this.

There is a raging wildfire spreading out of control. It's destroying homes. People are evacuating by the tens of thousands. Look at how it is wiping out some towns. So why this disaster could get a whole lot worse this weekend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, a desperate battle against the wildfire raging out of control right now in western Canada. Thousands are being airlifted out, and just hours from now, a huge evacuation convoy of cars will roll out of the danger zone. But look at this. The flames getting so close to that highway.

CNN's Paul Vercammen is live in Edmonton with the very latest.

Paul, these pictures are just horrible.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: They're absolutely astonishing, John. Many of the evacuees are going to wind up here at this expo in Edmonton behind me. Fifty fires in all raging right now. Seven of them out of control. The worst of it in Ft. McMurray.

A spoke with Michel Chamberland. He shot dramatic dash cam video as he escaped the inferno.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHEL CHAMBERLAND, ESCAPED WILDFIRE: Driving through hell as those flames were -- they were bright. They were big. The smoke. The embers. Your eyes started to get watery. It's a -- it was a -- I can't describe that scene. It was a lot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERCAMMEN: The weather, a little cooler. That should help, but it's also very dry, and they do have wind gusts. They will attack this blaze with 22 tankers, 1,100 men and a lot of heavy equipment today, John, as they try -- excuse me -- I should say Alisyn -- as they try to get all of this under control. Back to you.

CAMEROTA: OK, Paul. Thanks so much