[Costello:] The Republican National Committee is wrapping up its three-day meeting in Florida today where Donald Trump's top adviser Paul Manafort is working overtime trying to convince GOP insiders that the frontrunner is more than bombast and headlines. Listen to this audio of a closed-door meeting obtained by CNN.
[Paul Manafort, Trump Campaign Convention Manager:] Trump is an outsider and that's why many of you don't know him, but when he's sitting in a room, he's talking business, he's talking politics in a private room, it's a different persona. When he's out on the stage, when he's talking about the kinds of things when he's out on the stump, he's projecting an image that's for that purpose. The part that he's been playing is evolving into the part that now you've been expecting but he wasn't ready for.
[Costello:] CNN's Phil Mattingly is live in Hollywood, Florida for the final day of that meeting between RNC members. Good morning, Phil.
[Phil Mattingly, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning, Carol. Donald Trump has made a series of changes at the top of his campaign over the last couple of weeks, and those changes were represented down here in Hollywood, Florida, not just in the personal attendance of those new advisers but also in their message, a message that Donald Trump is starting to shift, is willing to pivot and isn't necessarily the candidate that you see on stage every day at his rallies. Now this best may not play well with the general electorate but it does play well with the members that were here. 168 RNC committee members. Members that have largely been under attack by Donald Trump over the last couple of weeks. Members that are not only skeptical of his candidacy but also downright angered by it. Even that was an area that Paul Manafort tried to assuage. Take a listen.
[Manafort:] Is Donald Trump running against the Republican National Committee? The answer is he is not. He is concerned about what he considers to be the transparency issue where the voters are voting for something and the rules might be something else regarding the selection of delegates. He's not trying to change the rules in this process. He's winning. He's not interested in changing the rules. But he believes that starting the conversation is good to do in this timeframe because this is when we're all facing the issue.
[Mattingly:] Now, Carol, Paul Manafort making clear that while Donald Trump probably isn't going to stop attacking the system or even the RNC in the near future, his comments are related to the next election cycle. Now I spoke to a number of RNC officials and members that were in this meeting and a lot of them came away intrigued by what the campaign was offering. They said it was a data-driven presentation, a presentation that was more about the general election than what it was about winning the primary. But mending the ties between the Trump campaign, the candidate, Donald Trump, and the RNC is extremely important if Donald Trump does lock up that nomination and here is why, Carol. The RNC has become the data center for the Republican Party. They have the contact information. They have the digital information. They have everything really built inside that any candidate would need to run a general election against Democrats and over the last couple cycles have largely dominated the data game and debate. If Donald Trump wants to incorporate that infrastructure, an infrastructure he absolutely will need to win in a general election he needs the RNC on board. That's why you heard his advisers work very hard to not only tell the 168 RNC members here that Donald Trump wants to play a role in the future with them but also talk to RNC officials, make very clear that even what he says on the stump might be offensive, don't worry, when it comes to the general election he seriously wants to work with everybody here Carol.
[Costello:] All righty then. Phil Mattingly reporting live from Hollywood, Florida, this morning. Let's talk about all of this with CNN senior political analyst and senior editor of the "Atlantic," Ron Brownstein. Welcome, Ron.
[Ron Brownstein, Cnn Senior Political Analyst:] Good morning, Carol.
[Costello:] OK. So Paul Manafort told me the members of the establishment that Donald Donald Trump's personality was one thing but his character was another and there are two Donald Trumps and down the line we're going to hear more of the other Donald Trump.
[Brownstein:] Yes. Yes. Well, look, it's a question Republicans have been asking from the beginning and really been asking on two fronts, both policy and persona. How much of this is real and how much of this is basically filling a market niche or an audience that he thought was out there for an agenda and a style? And I think on both fronts the answer has to be somewhat mixed. I mean, there are issues where he has been consistent for many years. For example his skepticism about free trade. On others, you know, he is a long way from where he was in 2000 when he was considering running for the Reform Party nominee on a much more liberal agenda. And as for style, I mean, you've got to think that this is a little amped up, but he has been someone who throughout his career at least on the public stage has been willing to really push the envelope. Certainly how did he come to, you know, attention in the last decade before this was pushing the birther argument. So the idea that there's a completely different Donald Trump I think is not really going to hold up, but the thought that he could dial back what we have seen somewhat, sure. If he is the nominee, and you've got to think he's going to be a little different.
[Costello:] Well, I got to tell you that Ben Carson had a hard time explaining the two Donald Trumps. He had as hard a time as I did in my first question to you.
[Brownstein:] Yes.
[Costello:] Ben Carson was on Trevor Noah the other night and Trevor asked Carson why people were so captivated by Trump's persona rather than the real Trump, that other Donald Trump. And this is what Ben Carson said.
[Dr. Ben Carson, , Former Presidential Candidate:] Just like the Roman Empire, you know, their societies crumbling down around them. Where do they want to be? At the coliseum watching lions rip people's heads off.
[Costello:] So there you have it.
[Brownstein:] Bread and circuses. Look, you know, the other thing that's different here, you know, that Paul Manafort talks about Ronald Reagan having high negatives in 1980. Certainly Bill Clinton emerged from the 1992 primaries with the highest negatives at that point and was able to substantially reduced them and of course go on to win the general election. There are several things that are different here. The biggest one is just the sheer amount of media attention is so much greater. Donald Trump has been tattooed to a much greater extent than earlier candidates by his comments, by the things he has said and done to activate the portion of the Republican coalition that passionately supports him. The things he has done to get that support have really raised a lot of deep concerns in other groups, African-Americans, Hispanics, millennials, socially liberal whites. It is going to be I think virtually impossible to completely erase those. You know, those things don't go away. He can try to change the message and modulate the persona if he becomes the nominee and he may not be facing the kind of negatives that he is today.
[Costello:] Well
[Brownstein:] But the idea you can wipe all of this off like an Etch-a- Sketch isn't real.
[Costello:] Right. Right. And I think I think Paul Manafort realizes that because listen to what he said about Hillary Clinton's negatives.
[Brownstein:] Yes.
[Manafort:] Clinton's negatives are serious because they're character negatives. People don't trust her. They don't like her. They think she's a liar. They think she just think only for her interest. The Clinton corporation. All of the issues that go to character. Trump's negatives deal with his personality. People don't know yet what to make of him. Some of the stump speeches he's given. Some of the style he has. Some of the ways in which he's presented the issues. But it's his personality that people have trouble with.
[Costello:] So can Trump go on the stump and say hey, you know, that was just an act, I didn't really mean those things? And if Hillary Clinton said the same thing she couldn't get away with that because it's her character?
[Brownstein:] It's an interesting Yes, it's an interesting argument, but it may be a distinction without a difference, right? I mean, you know, Donald Trump, it's not just the style, it is that voters are concerned that the ones who don't like him are concerned that he's simply just too erratic to be president. You just don't know what he's going to do from day to day. Doesn't seem to operate with boundaries and it isn't only style that is his problem. It is what he has said and what he embodies. I mean, there are many Americans who view him as simply embodying values that are antithetical to what they believe the country is. Now there are those who support him. The problem he's got is I think that, you know, what he's done to activate his portion of the Republican coalition has alienated at this point voters who are a clear majority of the country, and so he's got a big hole to climb out of at a time when I think the oppressions are more deeply formed than they were for earlier candidates like Clinton and Reagan. Not that he can't improve it, but he's shown himself to be a very agile, political operators, but the idea that he can simply make all of this go away, the Etch-a-Sketch, that Eric Fehrnstrom talked around in 2012, I just don't think that is a plausible notion.
[Costello:] Ron Brownstein, thanks so much.
[Brownstein:] Thank you.
[Costello:] Still to come you're welcome. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Mick, Paul, and Elton remember Prince. We'll take you live to London next.