Trump Meeting At D.C. Law Firm; Ryan States Trump Meeting Was Productive And Encouraging; Trump Wrapping Up Capitol Hill Meetings; Dan Quayle Talks Trump.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. Talk to Donald Trump. That was the order of the day for Republicans here in Washington. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee made the rounds. He met with House leadership this morning. He left his meeting with the Senate leadership just a few minutes ago. And he also had a few more meetings before he leaves Washington. But the big meeting everyone was anticipating was the first meeting of the day for him. That was the meeting with the House speaker, Paul Ryan. The pair released a joint statement saying, among other things, this. There is a great opportunity to unify our party and win this fall and we are totally committed to working together to achieve that goal. Later the speaker, Paul Ryan, addressed the media.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN (R), U.S. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I was very encouraged with what I heard from Donald Trump today. I do believe that we are now planting the seeds to get ourselves unified, to bridge the gaps and differences. And so, 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 are operating off these same core principles. And so, yes, I am -- this is our first meeting. I was very encouraged with this meeting. But this is a process. It takes as little time. You don't put it together in 45 minutes. So, that is why we had, like I said, a very good start to a process on how we unify.</s>BLITZER: Trump also met with the entire House Republican leadership team. Later, he sat down with Senate Republicans to talk policy and politics. He's at a Washington, D.C. law firm right now having yet more meetings before he heads back, presumably, to New York. Let's talk about all the day's events so far, the impact they could have on the presidential race and the impact on Republicans, in general. Jim Acosta is our Senior White House Correspondent. Dana Bash is our Chief Political Correspondent. Manu Raju is our Senior Political Reporter. Dana, you know Capitol Hill obviously very well. Unity seems to be the message of the day the Republicans are pushing. But then, again, I didn't hear a formal endorsement from Paul Ryan of Donald Trump.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You didn't hear it because there wasn't an endorsement. That was abundantly clear that Paul Ryan was not ready to do that. But unity is the word of the day and I think you have to really not be listening at all to get that because it's some form of that word, unite or unify, has been coming out of the mouth of everybody across the board. But, still, Paul Ryan's office at least just sent out an interesting tweet with the photo of him with school girls and the caption said, my most important meeting of the day. Now, the first -- at first blush, it's -- was he throwing some shade Donald Trump's way? You know, I haven't heard back from his office, but, you know, sort of knowing Paul Ryan and maybe his team, I think they are trying to have a little bit of fun with us that there was, obviously, a big spectacle around his meeting with Donald Trump, and he's trying to kind of put things in perspective. But about that meeting, the -- to me, one of the most interesting parts of it was the very first hour at the Republican National Committee with Paul Ryan, the House Speaker, with Reince Priebus, the RNC Chair, and with Donald Trump. The three of them just met, no staff, no one else in the room, I'm told. And afterwards, I spoke to the RNC chair, asked him about it. Here is part of our conversation.</s>REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIR, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: It was a private meeting in my office. And I'm not going to talk about the specifics other than to say things were discussed that were specific. It was a cooperative meeting. It was mutually, I think, cooperative and positive. And that's the only way to describe it.</s>BASH: Do you feel like a couple's therapist?</s>PRIEBUS: No. You know what? You wouldn't say that you were in the room. It was very -- it was great. And I think that it had very good chemistry between the two of them.</s>BASH: Good chemistry, Wolf. You know that both men -- you've interviewed them both. I can't imagine two more different individuals. Still, I am told, by sources familiar with the first meeting and more importantly perhaps the second meeting of the day which was not just Ryan but also other members of his House Republican leadership team, that Ryan made clear in a non-combative, sort of very congenial tone that Ryan believes that it is up to Trump, as the presumptive nominee, to help unite the party. That it is not united. That even though he did get millions of voters and votes, a lot of people voted against him. And that -- you just heard Paul Ryan in that sound bite, talking about the fact that he won't explain what the specifics were but that they did talk specifics. My understanding is that one of those issues was something very near and dear to Paul Ryan's heart which is the budget. Had to figure out how to begin to balance the budget. And, you know, Ryan's whole M.O. since he has really been here has been to deal with Medicare and Social Security, something that Donald Trump has been a little bit more standoffish on. I'm told that that was part of the conversation of specifics -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, Dana, stand by. Jim Acosta, what are you hearing from the Senate side on their meeting with Donald Trump, Senate Republican leaders?</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, keep in mind, Wolf, as Dana was just talking about, you know, the bridge to cross for Donald Trump with these Senate leaders is not as far and as wide as it is with Paul Ryan. Mitch McConnell is, at this point, endorsing Donald Trump. It's a muted endorsement. It's a soft endorsement. It's an endorsement nonetheless. And so, you know, Donald Trump does not have the same problems over on the Senate side as he does on the House. But I will tell you, from talking to people inside the Trump campaign, they're pretty pleased about how this meeting went with Paul Ryan. I just talked to a Trump aid a few moments ago who said, you know what? We did not expect Paul Ryan to be on board with an endorsement today. And in the words of one aid, we think we're going to get him. And they feel like, hey, Paul Ryan is not the type of leader who is just going to jump on board on day one. But, in the words of this one aid, that's what makes Paul Ryan a good speaker. So, Wolf, when you're hearing all of the right things being said around something as contentious, potentially, as this, it has to lead you to conclude that they're going to get there eventually. What Speaker Ryan had to say, during that press conference, had to have been very, very promising to the ears of Donald Trump and the Trump campaign. This is a speaker who wants to unify the party. And Donald Trump, even though he spent a good portion of primary process breaking the Republican Party into several different pieces, they -- I think they understand, inside the Trump campaign, that they have to start putting those pieces together. And today, this Capitol Hill primary, Paul Ryan primary, whatever you want to call it, was a crucial part of it. But at this point, Wolf, they are feeling very good inside the Trump campaign about how this day has gone so far -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes, so far, it looks like both sides really stressing the positive. Manu, we saw some protesters earlier this morning when Trump first arrived here in Washington with the speaker. He spoke about be -- this being the beginning of the process. How many more meetings should we anticipate before the speaker of the House, the Republican leader there, backs Donald Trump formally, endorses him?</s>MANU RAJU, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, I think there's going to be a lot of conversations but I'm not sure how many more face-to-face meetings that we can expect. But this is what the speaker just described as a beginning of the process. That's something that he told House Republicans yesterday, too, that today's meeting certainly would not end things. It would just start to begin the discussion. And why that's significant is because the speaker is actually crafting an election year agenda, something that he wants House Republicans to campaign on as they face potentially tough reelection races. As we know, 30 seats need to flip for the Democrats to keep control or to retake control of the House. Speaker Ryan wants to give something for those guys to run on. But the problem is that a number of those key policy items actually conflict with Donald Trump. And Donald -- and they discussed those issues, as Dana mentioned earlier, in that -- in this meeting. But Paul Ryan wanted to down play the fact that there actually a disagreement among -- over some key, key issues. What was interesting was that these discussions are going to continue to take place, Wolf, are going to be about policy, about the agenda. So, we can see, perhaps, some Trump influence in this House Republican agenda that their members will eventually campaign on -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: And, Manu, we just heard the Republican -- the majority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, say it was a very constructive, positive -- very good, very constructive meeting. Not a surprise. Mitch McConnell, he's on board more so than the speaker of the House, right?</s>RAJU: That's right. He actually said earlier this week that he thinks that Trump could be very competitive in swing states. So, clearly, that poll, the Quinnipiac poll, we saw earlier this week as sort of competitive in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, that went a long way to alleviate concerns among Senate Republican leaders -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: And you see reporters on the sidewalks here in Washington, D.C. outside the law firm. Donald Trump is inside. They're, obviously, hoping when he comes outside to that van, he will maybe stop and talk. We'll, of course, have coverage of that if that happens. Guys, stand by. Productive and encouraging, that's how Paul Ryan describes his meeting with Donald Trump. But he's also saying uniting the party is process that will take time. Let's discuss what's going on. Joining us now, our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger and CNN Politics Executive Editor Mark Preston. Gloria, what is this effort by Trump and Ryan to find common ground mean for the future of the Republican Party? How crucial is it for the party to unify right now?</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, I think it's very crucial and it's in both of their self-interests, honestly. I think Donald Trump doesn't want to get in a big fight with Paul Ryan or the Republican leaders. It's not as if his supporters really care very much about what the establishment thinks on Capitol Hill. But it's in his own self-interest to work with them, not only on raising money but it's also in his interest to work with them because he wants to keep Republican control of the Congress if he were to get elected. So, what Paul Ryan is looking for is -- and he kept referring it today over and over again was this notion of common ground, core principles. Right? Because, as he pointed out, he and Donald Trump have an awful lot of differences when it comes to specific issues. But core principles, which he pointed out, limited government, OK? They all agree on that. The Constitution. I guess they all agree on that. Separation of powers. They all agree that they believe Barack Obama has overused his executive authority, particularly when it comes to the issue of immigration, for example. They are all pro-life, he says. So, he's trying to find a way, Wolf, to get to yes with Donald Trump. And if it's got to be broad areas of agreement, then it'll be broad areas of agreement. But you want to give your party something that they can all run on and say, look, this is where we all agree as a party, and then seem united at least in the broad sense.</s>BLITZER: And, Mark, the stakes for both of these men, Paul Ryan, Donald Trump, obviously enormous right now. But from Paul Ryan's perspective, he's got to worry. Obviously he wants to make sure that there's a Republican president, but he also wants to make sure that there's a Republican majority in the --</s>BORGER: Sure.</s>BLITZER: -- House of Representatives.</s>MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Right. And that's his number one job. And, you know, a couple of things here, Wolf. First of all, you know, the bottom line is that Paul Ryan became the speaker of the House on his own terms. He was drafted into it, grudgingly. He didn't seem to necessarily want the job, perhaps, because he, himself, wants to run for president in 2020 and that's a pretty difficult position to run for president from. But when it comes to Donald Trump, by not capitulating, Paul Ryan is setting the tone for his leadership for the House of Representatives. You know, we're focusing a lot on Donald Trump and how Trump is setting the tone. Well, Paul Ryan is doing the exact same thing. Now, talking to senior Trump advisers, they knew, too, coming out of today, there would be no endorsement. And, in many ways, this works to both Paul Ryan --</s>BORGER: Right. '</s>PRESTON: -- and Donald Trump's advantage. And the reason being is that Donald Trump still looks like he's not part of the establishment, OK, even though he is. He's -- he will be the nominee. And Paul Ryan is able to show that he is not going to fall over for Donald Trump or for anyone else, at the same time, creating a safe haven for those candidates that are Republicans that are afraid to align themselves with Donald Trump. And while there are going to be differences on policy issues, Wolf, there certainly will be, they're not going to agree on all issues, I think Paul Ryan's biggest concern is Donald Trump going out and saying something outrageous that Paul Ryan just cannot accept and, perhaps, morally doesn't even agree with and has to take a step back. (</s>INAUDIBLE.) BORGER: Wolf, what was also interesting to me today was you didn't see an orchestrated joint photo-op, right, with Trump and Ryan together. They each went their separate ways. Trump had a separate meeting over in the Senate side. Ryan held his press conference. I'm sure we'll hear from Trump at some point. But, you know, they didn't go out of their way to, kind of, come out with their hands up together and say how we're all unified. Because I don't think it would have been believable, at this point. And, perhaps, not in either of their self-interests, at this point. They have to show that this is a real trying to come together around some core principles. So, I don't think they were ready to do that photo-op today. Maybe sometime down in the future, --</s>BLITZER: Yes.</s>BORGER: -- but it didn't happen today.</s>BLITZER: We'll see if they, eventually, release a photograph from inside that meeting, --</s>BORGER: Yes.</s>BLITZER: -- not only Trump and Paul Ryan, but Reince Priebus, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee who helped put that meeting together. All right, guys, stand by. I want to show our viewers some live pictures we're getting in from Washington right now. This is outside the law firm where Donald Trump is continuing some meetings inside. He's at a series of