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Trump & Ryan Tout 'Positive Step' Toward Unity; Petraeus Warns Against Anti-Muslim Bigotry; Sanders Presses on in Democratic Race. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 13, 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: I was very encouraged.

[05:59:01] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I thought it was a great meeting. I think Paul felt the same way.

REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIR: I don't think it could have turned out any better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are now planting the seeds to get ourselves unified.

PRIEBUS: I think the headline is positive first step toward unifying our party.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am not here to say that Hillary Clinton can't defeat Donald Trump.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I certainly want to be delivering on the challenges that still lie ahead of us.

SANDERS: It is our campaign which will result in a Democratic victory in November.

REP. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: When Hillary wins the nomination, I believe everybody will endorse her and embrace her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reality is, who's going to be the next president of the United States? Hillary Clinton has that experience and that capability, and Trump does not. You want to take a gamble with the future?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: You've got the wide eyes there, J.B. We'll find out why. Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Friday. Friday the 13th of May, but it means nothing here. Six o'clock.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: What could possibly go wrong?

CUOMO: Well, Alisyn Camerota recovering from poker night. Brianna Keilar on one side, John Berman on the other. Can you feel the love? So can the GOP. That's what Donald Trump and party leaders are saying after yesterday's highly anticipated summit between the presumptive nominee, House Speaker Paul Ryan and RNC chair Reince Priebus.

The word: Ryan is totally committed to working together but holding back on endorsing Trump just yet. So while Trump waits on the speaker, he gets a big endorsement from what speaks loudest in politics: money. GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson says he is for Trump.

BERMAN: As for the Democrats, congressional leaders hope that tying Trump to the Republican establishment will pay dividends for them and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November. Though you were beginning to see them sweat, at least a little bit.

And then there's Bernie Sanders. He still insists that he is the best candidate to take on Trump, and he points to polls that say the same.

We are all over the story this Friday morning. Let's begin with CNN senior political reporter Manu Raju, live in Washington this morning.

Manu, you have to still be recovering from quite a day in the Capitol.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A wild day it was, John, on Capitol Hill yesterday. Republicans in the House and the Senate told me they were ready to move past the party's divisive primary and begin to unite in their shared purpose of defeating Hillary Clinton.

But really, what has swayed concerns over Donald Trump were his promises that he would uphold key GOP principles, namely over judges, taxes, and abortion. And as lawmakers told me yesterday, Donald Trump spent a lot of time listening.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: I thought it was a great meeting. We had a -- we discussed a lot of things.

RAJU (voice-over): No endorsements but a more united front in the GOP following Thursday's critical meeting between Republican leaders and their presumptive nominee.

TRUMP: For the most part we agree on a lot of different items, and we're getting there. I don't mind doing through a little bit of a slow process. It's a very big subject. I mean, we have a lot of things.

RAJU: House Speaker Paul Ryan using the meeting as an opportunity to get better acquainted with Trump before giving his full endorsement.

RYAN: This is a first very encouraging meeting. But again, in 45 minutes, you don't litigate all of the processes and all the issues and the principles that we -- that we are talking about.

RAJU: RNC Chairman Reince Priebus confident that the party can present a united front come this fall. PRIEBUS: Positive first step toward unifying our party. It was a

great meeting, and that's the only way it can be described. I think that it had very good chemistry between the two of them.

RAJU: After the meeting, I asked Trump's former rival, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, about the rest of the party falling in line.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Parties usually work things out and get to unity. I think we'll get there.

RAJU: South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham among Trump's most strident critics, saying this back in December.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to Hell.

RAJU: Changing his tone, Graham said in a statement, "I had a cordial, pleasant phone conversation with Trump. I congratulated him on winning the Republican nomination for president."

Now all eyes will be on the party's next steps and what endorsements, if any, will follow.

RYAN: From here, we're going to go deeper into the policy areas to see where that common ground is and how we can make sure that we're operating off the same core principles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now, one reason why Paul Ryan has withheld that endorsement is because House Republicans are crafting an election-year agenda that the House speaker actually does not want Donald Trump to trample all over. So the Trump and Ryan camps will continue to talk about that before Ryan makes his backing official.

And some news this morning on the endorsement front: as Chris said earlier, Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino executive and one of the GOP's biggest donors announcing his support for Trump, a sign that not only is the party consolidating behind him, but outside money could play a big role for Trump in the general election, after he complained so bitterly about special interest spending in the primary -- guys.

CUOMO: The primary, the general. Two totally different words, Manu. Two totally different words.

RAJU: Right.

All right. Let's discuss implications of these meetings yesterday. CNN Politics executive editor joins us, Mr. Mark Preston; CNN political analyst and host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast, the man himself; and Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich.

All right. Preston, here's your opportunity to do what you like most, which is telling me I'm wrong. I felt that this meeting yesterday was -- ah, we're puffing it up a little bit. Nothing big's going to come out of it. What's the reality?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: The reality is, is that what happened yesterday is exactly what we expected to happen. They came out; they said something nice.

I think the most interesting thing that came out of it -- and John and I were on when the statement came out -- is that they put out a joint statement. OK? They actually came to grips that they could actually put the same type of language on one piece of paper and issue it.

Now, did we expect Paul Ryan to come out and endorse Donald Trump right away? No. Because that's not the way how these things work. But I would think over the next couple of weeks we will see Paul Ryan endorse Donald Trump. And we're starting to see more and more establishment Republicans get behind Trump's candidacy.

[06:05:05] BERMAN: I would suggest, except for the word "endorse," he already did. Because David Gregory, if you say you are totally committed to working together, if you say it was a positive meeting, if you say you share all the same core principles, who cares if you use the "E" word? Paul Ryan essentially said, "We're in this together right now," and that is all that Donald Trump needs. Discuss?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I have a slightly different view. I'm almost there with you but not all the way, because there is this process that they keep hanging out there. It's quite clear that Ryan is negotiating the terms of his influence. That's very important to Paul Ryan. It's very important to other conservatives who have tried to impact and influence Trump before and haven't been able to do it.

Ryan is in a unique position to get Trump to sign onto key elements of the GOP agenda in the House and, therefore, for the country. That's good for Ryan. It's good for conservatives. It's good for Ryan's political future and also his attempt to kind of dial back Donald Trump. That's the thing I think he's trying to do, and I think he believes that he'll get closer to there over the weeks of negotiation, because he knows he's got a standard bearer for the party who has said himself that he's flexible on some of these big issues.

KEILAR: Jackie, what -- what are you hearing from sources about what this was like behind the scenes? And do you think this is going to last, this kind of Kumbaya, or do you think we'll be seeing some acrimony here in the future?

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "THE DAILY BEAST": Well, here's the thing, Brianna. The -- Trump's never -- his problem is never in front of these people in suits and these leaders behind closed doors. He's always described as genial, as someone who's agreeable, as someone who listens.

His problem is, once he gets in front of a crowd, once he gets in front of maybe some of his supporters, then he just sort of lets it rip. And so that sort of discipline is something that we haven't seen yet from Donald Trump and we'll be watching for. Because yesterday there was this sense of the Republican establishment sort of talking themselves into Trump, because what other option do they have?

CUOMO: Well, listen, we knew that temperament was going to be an issue for Paul Ryan, even the Adelson endorsement: "Do I agree with everything No. You know, the tone? No." Usually, you don't read that kind of verbiage in an endorsement: "I'm with you. It's unqualified. And let's just move from there."

The question is, will we see any change in Trump after this meeting, after whatever was being discussed? Here's him with Sean Hannity last night, discussing the implications. You judge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I thought it was a great meeting. We had a -- we discussed a lot of things, a lot of very important things; and I thought it was really a very, very good meeting. I think Paul felt the same way and everybody else did also.

I don't mind going through a little bit of a slow process. It's a very big subject. I mean, we have a lot of things. And I think, for the most part, we agree on a lot of different items. and we're getting there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Conciliatory, wanting to get along, that tone. Preston, what do you read?

PRESTON: A couple things. What I think is lost on people is that Donald Trump got on his airplane, and he flew to Washington, D.C., and he held these meetings on the Republican establishment's turf. That says a lot, first of all.

Second of all -- Berman's laughing, thinking, like, "Oh, my God, that's a big deal." It is a big deal for Donald Trump.

And by the way, when it comes to the problems for Republicans with Trump is not so much where he is on the positions on trade and what have you. Because we know that Donald Trump will flip just like that. He will pivot to where he needs to go to make things work.

It's what Jackie just said. It's when he gets in front of a crowd, and he becomes unhinged; and he starts to say things that could potentially be embarrassing to other candidates and to the Republicans who have endorsed him. And I would say, for the last 72 hours, Donald Trump has started to look a little presidential.

KEILAR: I wonder, looking at what David Petraeus is saying this morning in "The Washington Post." This is really -- he's raising the alarm when it comes to some of Donald Trump's language about Muslims and also about how this may hurt how the U.S. fights the war on terror.

He says, "I've grown increasingly concerned about inflammatory political discourse that has become far too common, both at home and abroad, against Muslims and Islam." And he says, "The ramifications of such rhetoric could be very harmful. Rather than making our country safer, they will compound the already grave terrorist danger to our citizens."

David, what kind of effect does that have? And also how do you see this, perhaps, impacting how Donald Trump is already tempering his rhetoric on this?

GREGORY: Well, this is a very different matter than what we're discussing. This is about how Donald Trump sees the world, and this is about the power that would be vested in him as the commander in chief are and whether he would take the kind of temperamental or policy mistake that could get Americans or other allies killed. And that is the foreign policy power of any president.

And so I think that is a huge warning flag, especially from someone like General Petraeus, who has the kind of support on both sides of the aisle that should be paid attention to.

And I think it is interesting to watch to see how Trump allows himself to become a student of foreign policy or even moderate his views. And that's not just on foreign policy, but it's also domestic.

[06:10:07] I think a key thing to keep in mind here is that Donald Trump wants to win the room he's in. He has won the room of the Republican Party in these -- in these nominating primaries and caucuses. He is now the presumptive nominee.

I do believe he wants to win the establishment in Washington to be able to get things done here. And I don't think he worries that he's going to be seen as some kind of sellout to the establishment among his supporters, because part of his appeal is to say, "Look, I'm going to get things done." And that's what -- that's what Republicans and Democrats want.

BERMAN: Based on yesterday, he did seem to win them.

CUOMO: But let's see if...

KEILAR: How do you walk back from that? That's the thing.

CUOMO: That's the right question. If...

KEILAR: If you've sort of pivoted toward him, you can't quite pivot away from him, can you?

CUOMO: And on something like this issue specifically. Same dynamic. You move back off what was very inflammatory, very aggressive with Muslims that helped you early on. Now you're backing off? What will be the price for that change?

BERMAN: We will see. We will discuss.

CUOMO: That was the segue. Kind of like...

KEILAR: I got it. Thank you. We'll see. David, Jackie, Mark, thank you guys so much. Got to thank them, you know. CUOMO: Never. Never thank them.

KEILAR: Now, on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders is refusing to concede anything. He says he is fighting for the soul of the Democratic Party, this after his campaign manager warned of a disaster if Hillary Clinton secures the nomination.

CNN's Chris Frates has the latest for us this morning from Washington.

Tell us about this, Chris. There's certainly some acrimony on the Democratic side.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, still some acrimony indeed, Brianna. In fact, you know, Bernie Sanders took his long-shot campaign to South Dakota, even stopping at Mount Rushmore yesterday and firing up the faithful with some reasons to believe that he can still beat Hillary Clinton.

Now, it's mathematically impossible for Sanders to win enough delegates in these remaining contests to clinch the nomination. So Sanders is arguing that he could still win more pledged delegates than Clinton when all the primaries end next month. But even that's a pretty high bar.

Sanders would need to win 67 percent of the remaining pledged delegates to beat Clinton by just one delegate. And even then, Sanders would need super delegates. Those are the party big shots who also get a vote at the convention. He would need them to flip their support from Clinton to Sanders in order to win, and that is very, very unlikely.

Now, Sanders says he's still the candidate best positioned to take on and beat Donald Trump, but when he was pressed yesterday, he acknowledged that Clinton could also defeat the presumptive GOP nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: I am not here to say that Hillary Clinton can't defeat Donald Trump. I absolutely believe that she can, but I believe quite honestly that Bernie Sanders is the stronger candidate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Now, Clinton has maintained a lower profile than Sanders. Her own event yesterday a meeting with AIDS activists at her Brooklyn headquarters, and doesn't have any scheduled events today.

Sanders, meanwhile, well, he's going to be in Bismarck and Fargo, North Dakota today, John.

BERMAN: All right. Far away. Chris Frates, thanks so much.

Breaking news overnight: the Obama administration diving head-first in the debate over transgender bathrooms. Letters go out to every public school district in the country today, telling them to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. The administration says that is the law.

This directive comes as the Justice Department is locked in a legal war with the state of North Carolina. A new law there requires transgender people to use the public bathroom that matches the gender on their birth certificate. North Carolina and the Justice Department sued each other this week over that issue. A lot more on this coming up.

CUOMO: A tough turn to tell you about here. A young man featured in the 2014 CNN documentary "Chicagoland" has been shot and killed. Lee McCollum was making an effort to emerge from gang culture. He went on to graduate high school. He got honors in school, all while his family was still homeless.

Listen to his exchange from the documentary between McCollum and his high school principal. Really tells you about this kid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we all have to think of what's the long- term plan, you know, for your life and who you want to be as a man.

LEE MCCOLLUM, FORMER CHICAGO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: Beyond this year, I actually don't have a plan.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you think about maybe in January what do you think about going away, to college or to a trade school?

MCCOLLUM: I wouldn't mind going away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Give me your word, and we'll meet up at some point next week. You know me, I keep it 100 percent real. You know how I am. I don't want to be hearing something bad happened to you. I don't want to be going to your funeral.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Hmm. Police are still investigating the shooting. We'll tell you more when we know more.

KEILAR: A second website says it is pulling the plug on George Zimmerman's attempt to sell the handgun that he used to kill Trayvon Martin back in 2012. This comes just hours after the first listing was pulled from another auction site.

United Gun Group is releasing a statement, saying, "Our mission is to esteem the Second Amendment and provide a safe and secure platform for firearm enthusiasts and law-abiding citizens. Our association with Mr. Zimmerman does not help us achieve that objective."

[06:15:03] Well, despite that statement, Zimmerman's auction page is still on the website. Next hour we will get reaction from Benjamin Crump. He is the attorney for Trayvon Martin's family.

BERMAN: You've spoken to George Zimmerman. You have a unique insight into what makes this guy tick. CUOMO: I mean, look, this is something from the outside that benefits

nobody. Right? I would argue not even Zimmerman. But to understand, as we were talking about yesterday, why would he do something like this?

He sees himself as a victim, and somehow that, in his mind, has become a righteous cause for him, that somehow by throwing this in the face of people he's somehow justifying that what he did all along was OK. And now he's seeing what happens when he does something...

BERMAN: It's interesting. Not many signing up to that cause.

CUOMO: No.

BERMAN: All right. Bernie Sanders not budging. He is vowing to stay in the race. He says he's fighting for the soul of the Democratic Party. What does this mean for Hillary Clinton? How does she handle this as Donald Trump has started to handle her? That's next.

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[06:20:03] CUOMO: All right. So we've got Donald Trump getting his party together. Got a very different dynamic on the Democratic side. You have Bernie Sanders, who's saying his campaign for president is not over. It's about winning, and it is a movement, a revolution. Now he says he is fighting for the very soul of the Democratic Party.

Let's talk about the implications of Sanders and what the path is forward for that party. Bringing the panel back. Mark Preston, David Gregory, Jackie Kucinich.

Mr. Preston, let me play you a little piece of sound from Bernie Sanders talking about super delegates. Do we have that or should I read it?

BERMAN: Can you read it?

CUOMO: Ooh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: I say to those super delegates in the states where we won landslide victories, listen to the people of your state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Now what is his point? His point is, "I've won bigger percentages than that percentage of super delegates from the states that I have received." How compelling will this be to the types of people who are super delegates?

PRESTON: It's falling on deaf ears. The super delegates right now that are supporting Hillary Clinton are going to stay with Hillary Clinton.

And Bernie Sanders is at this very interesting point in his career. He is somebody who always thought of himself, and quite frankly, was outside of the Democratic establishment, even though he aligned himself politically inside Congress. However, he has really harnessed the energy of movement, of this political revolution.

The question is, does he -- will he take it a step too far, where his desire to retain control and have influence at this time in the campaign, could that hurt Hillary Clinton in November? Or does he become a team player and take this movement in a different direction?

KEILAR: Bill Clinton weighed in on this idea of unifying the Democratic Party. Here's what he said in Kentucky yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She needs to go into that convention not just with the popular vote lead, not just with the delegate lead, with the wind at her back so we can unify our party and make this case to the American people. They're going to have to decide whether they're going to take a ride to the future that we're all a part of, or whether we're going to try to go back to the past and just make the best deal with whatever's going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So Jackie, I mean, you listen to Bill Clinton making this case. It seems like everyone's case is sort of falling on deaf ears, I guess. But do you think this is something that -- how many people sort of are behind this idea where Bill Clinton says there has to be a unification? Especially when Hillary Clinton took this into June eight years ago?

KUCINICH: I don't think the Bernie Sanders people are listening at this point. Because, you know, you've seen this over and over again, Bernie Sanders saying, "Well, why doesn't she join our campaign?"

There is this sort of -- there isn't a willingness. And he has no reason. We talked about this before. He has no reason to go anywhere right now. He's still fund-raising. He's still drawing these huge crowds.

And, you know, you've seen Hillary Clinton start to move left on issues like the Fed. You've seen her start to pick up pieces of Bernie Sanders' platform. So even if this is -- just ends up being a movement, Bernie Sanders has been very successful at pushing Hillary Clinton left, maybe at some points that she doesn't -- didn't necessarily want to go if he hadn't been in this campaign.

BERMAN: You know, it's interesting, because you have to deal with Bernie Sanders on one side, Hillary Clinton does. And then you're starting to hear from Clinton people maybe not inside the campaign but connected to the campaign that, as far as Donald Trump goes, be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

Jay Carson, who was a spokesperson for Hillary Clinton in 2008, he put a post on Instagram last night. It was pretty eyebrow raising. He said, "Here's the bad news. This guy" -- he means Donald Trump -- "this guy can win the general election pretty damn easily." He goes on to say, "I hear my many liberal friends calling him a joke, acting like the general election is in the bag," he says, "which is nuts, because he's dangerous, and he has a path to victory."

You know, David Gregory, he also notes that the -- as he calls them, "the NPR crowd" always thought that George W. Bush was a joke, and George W. Bush ended up beating them twice. You are starting to hear this fretting right now, I think from some people in the Democratic Party who, for one thing, want Hillary Clinton to focus exclusively on Donald Trump and take him very, very seriously.

GREGORY: Yes. I think it's interesting, John. Connect that, what you just read from Jay Carson, to what Brianna read a little bit earlier from General Petraeus, someone who has said Hillary Clinton would be an excellent president. It is the fear factor about Trump.

Trump is the best thing that Hillary Clinton has as an argument to Sanders supporters about this race, which is, "Don't get complacent. There's a very real danger of Trump being president, and Trump being president is dangerous. And, therefore, you've got to come over to my side."

That may be the bridge to those Sanders supporters who -- you know, Sanders is right. He may be fighting for the soul of the party. The truth is, the soul of the Democratic Party, most of the Democrats are with Hillary Clinton. But he's making an argument that the soul should be more progressive in the Democratic Party, and he's going to keep up that independent movement.

Again, the argument here is, you may believe all that, and Hillary Clinton can tack to the left, but you have to be afraid of Trump. You have to organize against Trump. You can't sit this one out, even if you don't love her.

[06:25:05] CUOMO: How about this theory? Feel free to shoot it down, Preston, the rest of you, everybody. Taxes, put out your taxes. Hillary's a little sideways on that. Goes to transparency. What about your speeches? What about what's going on with e-mail? Not a real strong suit.

What Trump just did with the Muslim suggestion -- he's calling it a suggestion now. Could this be an opportunity for her? Because I'm hearing from her people, "Man, if she said something like this, if she backed off and said we shouldn't let Muslims into the country, and then said, 'Well, it's just a suggestion,' you'd crush her for weeks." And I wonder if they were teeing up "We're going to come at him. Because this isn't about just what you say. It's about an ideal; it's what you believe."

Do you think that's an opportunity?

PRESTON: Look, everything is an opportunity, no question. I mean, just look at what happened when Donald Trump had his butler, or his former butler the other day say some really horrific things about President Barack Obama. That was an opportunity for Trump haters to tie Trump to a gentleman who said awful things. Right? CUOMO: Worked for him for, like, 30 years, but he hasn't worked for

him since 2009.

PRESTON: Correct, correct. But, again, everything is an opportunity.

I would suggest, though, flip it on the other side. If I'm a Republican, I like the idea that Donald Trump is willing to flip on a bunch of issues, because there's a lot of issues that they need him to flip on. The Muslim thing being one of them.

CUOMO: But is that just an issue or is that a mentality? Something that goes a little deeper than just how I feel about taxes going up or down?

GREGORY: No, no, Chris, I think you're right. This is a temperamental thing. Right? You don't just shoot from the hip or shoot from the lip and say, "We're going to ban all Muslims until we get, you know, this under control" when there is an existing security apparatus about how refugees come into the country.

KUCINICH: Well, and it's all fun and games until he flips back. Because he's shown that he'll go one way and then the other way. And I feel like some of these Republicans, particularly in Washington, are going to need a spreadsheet to figure out where Trump is, you know, on any given day, because he hasn't really shown that he's willing to stick to a lot of things.

KEILAR: All right. Jackie, Mark, David, thank you to all of you.

One billionaire mocking another. Donald Trump's campaign compared to an iconic show about nothing. Find out who it is, and who he'd like to run with, next.

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