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Trump & Ryan to Meet Today to United Party; Clinton Slams Trump for Not Releasing Taxes; Three Iraqi Police Officers Killed in Suicide Bombing. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 12, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We have an obligation to merge and unify.

[05:58:57] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will see how it goes. And I think it will go well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just getting started.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would hope that all Republicans would get behind him.

TRUMP: A tax return, you learn very little. Hopefully before the election, I'll release them.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump's tax plan was written by a billionaire for billionaires.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is a little bit weird that Secretary Clinton received 400 super delegates 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: This is the No. 1 cause of preventable death in America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have an overprescribing problem in the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is manmade. It's been preventable all along.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to NEW DAY. It is Thursday, May 12, 6 a.m. in the East. John Berman is here with us. Great to have you.

John, 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?

CUOMO: Could this be a clue? Ryan reportedly has concerns about the divisive talk coming out of Trump, and then just last night Trump appears to soften his stance on one of his key issues. He now claims his proposed ban on Muslims entering the country was only, quote, "a suggestion."

The self-described billionaire is also drawing fire for the reasons why he says he cannot release his tax returns. We have the 2016 race covered only the way CNN can.

Let's begin with CNN senior political reporter Manu Raju, live outside RNC headquarters in Washington -- Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Chris.

Now, Paul Ryan has as much riding on today's meeting as Donald Trump. Paul Ryan, of course, needs to protect that beleaguered House majority some fear could be at risk with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, in addition making sure that his election-year agenda, Ryan's election-year agenda, can go forward and won't be undermined by Donald Trump, who disagrees with some of Ryan's key policy platforms.

But the big key today is whether the two can end up singing from the same song sheet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN: To pretend we're unified without actually unifying, then we go into the fall at half strength.

RAJU (voice-over): The presumptive Republican nominee to meet this morning with House Speaker Paul Ryan and the head of the RNC.

TRUMP: I think it will go well. Paul is a good person. I don't know Paul well.

RAJU: All eyes on whether they will emerge with a united front.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's important for the leader of our party right now who is the speaker to get together with the presumptive nominee to actually work together.

RAJU: Several close allies tell CNN that for Ryan to embrace or endorse Trump, he would need to align with the party's core principles. As of now, the differences are deep on multiple issues, like taxes, trade, entitlements, and military alliances.

But it's becoming more challenging to know exactly where Trump stands on key issues. In the last 24 hours, Trump appears to be softening on his controversial plan to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. TRUMP (via phone): It's a temporary ban, Bryan (ph), and we're going

to look at it; and we're going to study a problem. We have a problem. Now, if you don't want to discuss the problem, then we're never going to solve the problem.

RAJU: Then claiming it is merely a suggestion later in the day.

TRUMP: It hasn't been called for yet. Nobody's done it. This is just a suggestion until we find out what's going on.

RAJU: And later, when asked if the ban could go on forever, he says...

TRUMP (on camera): No, it 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.

RAJU: And that's not the only issue Trump is under scrutiny for. The billionaire under pressure to release his tax returns, which he says is impossible because they're being audited.

TRUMP: You don't learn anything from them. A tax return, you learn very, very little.

RAJU: Mitt Romney calling his refusal disqualifying and even his supporters saying he should release them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he should, and I think he will. You know, Wolf, there's no law; there's a tradition.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now, Donald Trump says he won't release his tax returns, but it turns out that, actually, when he has been under audit in the past, he has released some of those tax returns. And that deals with, actually, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, being subject of an audit, he did release those tax returns because he was seeking casino gambling license -- Chris.

BERMAN: I'll take it, Manu. Manu, there is no law, but there is a tradition dating back a long, long time. Every candidate since 1976 has done so.

Hillary Clinton hammering Donald Trump for refusing to release these tax returns. And while she focuses on Trump and the general election, Bernie Sanders, his campaign, at least, continues to go after her. In a fundraising e-mail, it said that she would be a disaster for the Democratic Party. It would be a disaster, said that e-mail, if Hillary Clinton captures the nomination.

CNN's Brianna Keilar is live in Washington with more.

Good morning, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John, good morning to you. Hillary Clinton wasn't actually planning on addressing Trump's tax

returns. That is what her spokesman told CNN. But she was criticizing Donald Trump for not having detailed information on policies, including his tax plan when she was in New Jersey yesterday when a man in her audience yelled out "What about his tax returns?" and here's how she responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: My husband and I have released 33 years of tax returns. We've got eight years on our website right now. So you've got to ask yourself, why doesn't he want to release them?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Meanwhile, Clinton, as you mentioned, still has this primary battle on her hands. Bernie Sanders has been hitting her hard on a number of issues, from trade to the environment to her ties to corporations.

And Sanders' campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, says Sanders -- and this is his line; and they're continuing with this. They say Sanders is fighting to narrow Clinton's pledged delegate lead. And if he does, he will try to convince super delegates to support him, to support Sanders.

[06:05:08] And Weaver actually said in an e-mail to supporters the party will have to decide if they go with Sanders or if they, quote, "court disaster simply to protect the status quo for the political and financial establishment of this country."

Chris and Alisyn, it doesn't sound like someone who's giving up the fight right now.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. Brianna, thanks so much for all of that background.

Let's discuss it. We have a lot to talk about this morning. Joining us is CNN political analyst and presidential campaign correspondent for "The New York Times," Maggie Haberman; CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston; and CNN political commentator and political anchor for Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis. Great to have all of you here with us on this important day.

Maggie, how big of a deal is this mano-a-mano meeting today?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's a pretty big deal. I mean, in the realm of things that we have seen as a major moment, this is a major moment.

Both sides have made conciliatory tones. You talked about what rump has said. His language did sound softer before. I think Paul Ryan was very clear in a lot of what he has said in the last week. "I could get there. I hope to get there. I'm just not ready to do it yet." There are serious policy divides between these two, and Paul Ryan has

been, for many years, seen as sort of the intellectual leader of the conservative movement. I think that's not a position he is going to move away from very easily. What will be interesting to see is what they say about this meeting afterwards, and then, as always with Trump, what he says a few days later after this meeting.

CAMEROTA: And what he tweets.

HABERMAN: Right.

CUOMO: I guess we could see this as kind of the wave of vetting that hasn't really happened in this election yet is now happening on all levels, including the political.

One of the things that Ryan supposedly is worried about is what was coming out of his mouth, whether it was the statements about David Duke, or the non-statements about David Duke, the stuff about Muslims, and then last night with Greta Van Susteren over at FOX, seemed like Trump took a half step back. Is that a fair assessment when it comes to the Muslim ban, saying it's a suggestion? Is that a move?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Yes. But we're not surprised by it. Right? I mean, I don't think that anything...

CUOMO: Why not? It was a very hardline position that really worked with his base. He said it was uncompromising and it had to happen.

PRESTON: You're thinking in conventional terms, right? I'm thinking in Donald Trump terms, where basically, no matter what he says you have to expect that he's going to move off what he says.

You know, this is very important for Donald Trump today, as it is for Paul Ryan. We all forget that Paul Ryan became speaker on his own terms. Paul Ryan drew a line in the sand, and he said, "If I'm going to become speaker, then you have to do it the way I want to do it."

Had Paul Ryan capitulated and immediately embraced Donald Trump, given his concerns about not necessarily on policy positions but, you know, the flippant remarks, the harsh criticism, the stuff that is really outside the spectrum of politics but really personal attacks, that wouldn't be good for Paul Ryan, long-term. This is good for Paul Ryan right now, as it is for Donald Trump, who looks like he's continuing to fight Washington.

They're going to come out of this meeting today, probably not together. They're going to say they made some great progress. And they have the ultimate goal of defeating Hillary Clinton come November. And by the way, in the end, Paul Ryan is going to endorse Donald Trump for president.

CAMEROTA: Errol, how are they going to make progress? They are -- they do differ on all sorts of very important signature policy. Who's going to give? How are they going to ever find some middle ground here? LOUIS: Well, I mean, the entire negotiation, I think, is going to

result in some choreography, if it's at all successful. In other words, put some things on the back burner. That, I think, explains why you see him sort of saying, "Well, this Muslim ban that somebody suggested" -- of course, it was him -- Donald Trump now says, "Maybe we'll get to that later." I think that's probably the best outcome that could probably come out of it, which is to say, "We have a whole bunch of difference son fiscal policy, on foreign policy, on a number of different issues, but if we can find some common ground, focus on that, and run on those issues and those issues alone going into November, perhaps we don't have to have a civil war in front of the whole nation."

Now, is it likely that they're going to do that? I can't think of the handful of tiny little issues where they might do it. But they take the most controversial stuff and sort of say, "Well, we're going to get to that in a year or two. We're going to get to that after we see the composition of the new Congress. We're going to get to that after we put it before the people." You know, there are any number of ways where they can sort of forestall some of these issues.

Because on the ones where they have to go to war on issues like taxation...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

LOUIS: ... I don't think it's going to be in anybody's interest to come out and say, "You know what? We agree to disagree on," for example, whether or not to raise the minimum wage. I don't know if there's...

CUOMO: Trump can check the box of flexibility on that stuff.

CAMEROTA: He is already.

(CROSSTALK)

PRESTON: Which has been what he's done the whole campaign. Two things we're going to know. One is that Paul Ryan can't have Donald Trump at the top of the ticket and not have Donald Trump successful at least in key states, because having said that, if you leave Donald Trump out there alone and the Republican establishment doesn't back him, then all those down-ballot races, all those House races, all those Senate races are more vulnerable to losing in November.

So there is a vested interest for congressional Republicans to get behind Donald Trump.

[06:10:06] CAMEROTA: Let's talk about his taxes. Donald Trump doesn't want to -- has refused to release...

CUOMO: Doesn't want. You can say "doesn't want."

CAMEROTA: Well, I don't know, because he says, "I do want, but I'm being audited. I can't release them in the middle of an audit."

CUOMO: If he wanted to -- if he wanted to, he could.

CAMEROTA: And that's what the IRS has said: "You can release them. We don't have any problem with it." In fact, we now know he did release them in the past when he was in the middle of an audit, when it served his business interests because he was interested in getting casino licenses.

So how big of a problem is this for a presidential candidate not to release the taxes?

HABERMAN: Historically, it's what has been done. You saw Mitt Romney was hammered by the Obama team in 2012 for not releasing his taxes until it was very late in the process. It was September.

CUOMO: And it was only a couple of years. Right?

HABERMAN: And it showed -- yes, it was a bare minimum number. But it was a big issue. And what it showed, at that point, that was the focal point of the Democrats' argument, was he paid a relatively low effective tax rate. And it just fed into this larger image of Mitt Romney as rich, disconnected and so forth.

This could potentially become a big issue for Trump. It isn't yet. It is one that he is going to keep getting asked about. It is a legitimate thing to ask him why he isn't doing it. It is a legitimate thing to wonder. Will his tax attorneys come forward and say that themselves, that this is what they counseled?

CAMEROTA: And what's in them is a legitimate thing? Right?

HABERMAN: Or he could also release the years, say, prior to whatever is being audited, which would not be out of the norm. And it's something that Mitt Romney did himself, I think in January of 2012.

So we will see how this plays out. I think some of this is going to matter on how the Democrats address this issue and a bunch of issues. You know, the news media is asking questions what we do, but at the end of the day, the reason this was such a potent issue in 2012 is the Obama team drove it every day.

The Democrats have seemed -- and I think in part because Trump is such a target-rich environment in their minds that they don't quite know exactly what to go at, they seem to be having trouble coming up with a very consistent frame for him.

CUOMO: Is it because they're worried, the Clinton team, that every time you say, "Reveal the taxes," he'll say, "Reveal the speeches"? Or do you think that's apples and oranges and legitimate?

HABERMAN: I think they're expecting that that's going to happen anyway. I think that they haven't decided exactly how frontally and viscerally they want to go at him for a couple of reasons. He has shown he is willing to cross all kinds of lines that we have not seen crossed in the past.

CUOMO: The taxes, the presumption is you're going to see what he's worth if you get his taxes.

CAMEROTA: Well, that's one of them. They also think there might be a smoking gun.

CUOMO: But that's -- I like the first one the best, if I'm Trump, because nobody -- you don't know someone's net worth from their taxes. It's an income statement.

HABERMAN: Well, that's what -- and that's what he argues.

CUOMO: But you would see cash flow. You would see ownership interests. You would see donations.

HABERMAN: You would see the effective tax rate. You would see what they pay in taxes, which is ultimately what this comes down to.

CAMEROTA: All right, panel. Hold your thoughts. Stick around. We have many more questions.

Also it's important to note that NEW DAY has asked all of the House and Senate Republican leadership if they think that Donald Trump should release his tax returns. So far, none of them has answered the question. But we will keep asking and keep reporting when they do.

CUOMO: Coming up on NEW DAY, CNN's Jamie Gangel goes one on one with former Republican vice president Dan Quayle. Now, what does he think about the 2016 race and Trump and his party's -- as his new party standard bearer? What does he think of that? Is this the right choice? Eight o'clock hour.

BERMAN: All right. We have breaking news. Less than four months for the summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, has been impeached. The majority of senators voted this morning to suspend her following a marathon debate. Rousseff's vice president will take over for up to six months while her impeachment trial takes place. This is a huge deal with a big economy, the Olympics, battling the Zika virus. She's accused of illegally cooking the books to hide a growing budget deficit.

CAMEROTA: Also overnight, two suicide bombers blowing themselves up at a Baghdad police station, killing three officers and wounding ten others. The attacks coming one day after three separate suicide bombings killed more than 90 people in the Iraqi capital. CNN's Arwa Damon is live in Istanbul with the very latest.

Arwa, what have you learned?

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, that attack that happened this morning in Baghdad that you were mentioning there, with two suicide bombers attempting to breach a police station actually west of the capital in the very historically volatile neighborhood of Abu Ghraib.

And yes, this does come less than a day after three separate attacks took place in the capital. The deadliest of those happening in one of Baghdad's most impoverished Shia slums, where a car bomb exploded in a busy marketplace. Many of the victims there women and children, mothers who had just decided to go out and do their daily grocery shopping.

You can just imagine the psychological impact that this has on the entire population, not to mention the devastating impact that this has on those who lost their loved ones.

ISIS claiming responsibility for all of this violence and in fact, we have been seeing an uptick in attacks that ISIS is claiming responsibility for, especially attacks against these so-called soft targets, deliberately going after the civilian population.

[06:15:14] CUOMO: Arwa Damon, thank you very much for bringing into sharp focus one of the reasons that this election in the U.S. matters so much. The problems are real.

So we've been talking about Donald Trump, his big meeting, his big questions that he's facing. What about Hillary Clinton? She's taking fire on two fronts. Donald Trump calling her a desperate candidate right before Bernie Sanders' camp went on the attack, too. Should Clinton be more focused on beating her Democratic rival and don't worry about Trump just yet? Next.

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[06:19:52] CUOMO: Hillary Clinton keeping her focus almost entirely on Donald Trump, blasting him about his tax plan, even getting in a shot about his tax returns.

Meantime, a broadside from the Sanders' campaign. He's not going away, and he's saying Clinton's nomination could spell disaster for Democrats. Let's discuss the state of play in the Democratic side. Maggie Haberman, Mark Preston, Errol Louis joining us once again.

Maggie, it is often referred to as a presumption: the math isn't in Sanders' favor, doesn't matter what happens. Hillary made the same push at the end in 2008. And yet, Bernie Sanders has a ton of momentum, not as much money flow but the big crowds and the big buzz. What's your take?

HABERMAN: I think Bernie Sanders represents a wing of the Democratic Party that is at odds with President Obama's agenda and is at odds right now with what Hillary Clinton is saying and so for the foreseeable future, it is certainly true that there is not a clear mathematical path. It's hard to see how this gets there.

But it is going to be very hard when he is going in front of these rallies to your point. He sees these huge crowds coming out. He feels like he's been saying these things for decades now, and people are showing up and listening. So to him, there's not a great incentive to get out. The incentive, though, for the Democratic Party is you are looking at a Republican nomination that is wrapped up, and they are still fighting.

CAMEROTA: Well, there you go. And so when Sanders sends out a fundraising e-mail calling Hillary Clinton a disaster for the country, what's he doing?

PRESTON: Well, what he's doing is he's -- he is playing to the base of people that Maggie says is absolutely right. That are unhappy.

CAMEROTA: Well, what's the end game?

PRESTON: It's to be relevant after the convention. Here's the problem for Bernie Sanders, and we've talked a little bit about this in the past few weeks.

Bernie Sanders, once he exits this race, there is a possibility he is going to cede control of this movement that he has helped to cultivate with the likes of Elizabeth Warren. Bernie Sanders has got to make sure that he's able to keep control and still be the titular head of this movement that is outside of the Democratic Party as we know it right now.

CAMEROTA: By alienating the front-runner?

PERINO: Well, listen, there's something you talked about Bernie. You talked a lot about the infighting in the Republican Party, but there's been a lot of infighting in the Democratic Party that has been overshadowed by Donald Trump. Right?

But there are issues within the Democratic Party. And there is something to be said that Bernie Sanders has been able to push Hillary Clinton far over to the left, farther than she has ever wanted to be.

CUOMO: The knock on Sanders for doing this is the people within the party saying, "See, we told you he wasn't a real Democrat." But is that fair? 2008, Hillary Clinton didn't get out until June. She wound up taking 23 contests. He has 19. She got out, but not right now.

LOUIS: Well, that's right. That's right. And look, Bernie Sanders has every right. I mean, the Clinton campaign, they said this, actually, early on, that she's going to be the last person to tell somebody to drop out of a race based on what happened in 2008.

CUOMO: But they have been saying more and more but it's about how he campaigns. Do you believe that he's campaigning more harshly against Clinton than Clinton did against Obama at this point in the race?

LOUIS: No, no. I think what's going on is you have -- it's like having two armies on a border, right? And you get a little skirmish or a little shooting incident across the fence line, and that's what happens. You get, like, one -- literally, one word out of place, somebody says oh, disaster.

CUOMO: She's not qualified?

LOUIS: Or disaster. Right.

But this is probably -- this is probably why you want to wrap it up in an orderly way to prevent those things from happening, because there can be a lot of hard feelings. And then it does start to swallow up a news cycle. And every dollar is precious if you are trying to get ready for what is probably going to be the biggest election in the country. A hundred and forty million people could come out to vote in November. You've got to get ready for that. You can't waste a lot of time on who said what word in what piece of e-mail.

PRESTON: And what's worth noting is Bernie Sanders has won 19 contests. There are 11 contests left. Bernie Sanders has a really good chance of winning five of them, and that does not include California, OK, where he has a very powerful union working on his behalf.

Why would Bernie Sanders get out when he does have rallies of 14, 15,000 people, you know, coming out to hear him talk about what he thinks about what the Democratic agenda should be.

CAMEROTA: Clinton's press secretary, Bryan Fallon, has begun to say it's going to be a very tough general election. So all of you Democrats who are laughing off Trump, who say that America is going to come to their senses, like Nancy Pelosi seems to be suggesting, it's going to be a very tough fight.

So what's he doing there? He's lowering expectations. He's preparing the country for what's going to happen.

HABERMAN: He's telling people don't believe polls that show that Hillary Clinton is up 12 points, honestly, or 15 points or 17 points. They're saying this is a closer race than people think, that Donald Trump has -- look, we just watched 16 Republicans -- take out Jeb, so 15 Republicans basically not run a campaign against Donald Trump.

I mean, Lindsey Graham, 14, whatever. But you watch people basically wait until, essentially, it was too -- literally too late. Trump had already won his first contest, but by the time people started realizing this is serious. He was not going anywhere. His supporters were incredibly committed, and they had been for months and months.

And we are in a strange, in both primaries, non-ideological moment, or less ideological than we have seen. These lines have not broken down the way people have seen them in the past. And I think what Bryan Fallon is trying to say to people is don't get complacent, certainly to her supporters, but I do think some of that is also aimed at folks like us, who are watching the horse race, and trying to suggest don't -- don't report everything as a massive gap.

[06:25:21] CUOMO: You know, Carl Bernstein said something the other day on this show, which at first I just took as a journalism critique. But then I started thinking, I wonder who he's talking to?

And then I get a phone call from a Clintonista (ph), and they said you know, this race has worked in reverse. Usually, you get into a race, and they vet the heck out of you personally. Here's who Camerota is. Here's where she went to school. Here's who she's married to and here are all the problems she's had in her life. And -- or none in your case. However, that hasn't happened here, and the suggestion was, but it's going to happen right now. Are you hearing the same thing, that this is going to be a big "Let's

not forget this about Trump and that about Trump, and here he was 15 years ago and 20 years ago"?

HABERMAN: It is, but I guess I do reject the criticism that nobody vetted Trump over the last year or so. That is -- that's just not true. Whether voters cared was a different issue. They are suggesting that there's a different group of voters who will care.

But Trump is an incredibly gifted speaker and communicator and politician. And people who underestimate him, as I certainly did last year, do so -- do so at a risk.

I do think it's going to be an incredibly ugly, nasty race on both sides.

CAMEROTA: On that note, panel, thank you very much. Always great to talk to all of you.

You can keep up with the latest political news and the state of the race by downloading our new CNN Politics app. It's available now in the app store for free. You'll see more on Hillary Clinton's path to the nomination. You can see that there. Plus details on Trump breaking a 40-year precedent of releasing taxes.

CUOMO: Is that why the "40" is there?

CAMEROTA: That is exactly what that means. That's what that means right there.

BERMAN: All right. A story I think that surprised a lot of people this morning. George Zimmerman putting the gun that killed Trayvon Martin up for auction. This happening in just hours. So what does the former Neighborhood Watch captain plan to do with these proceeds? Details next on NEW DAY.

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