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Ryan Sets Meeting with Trump Next Week; Trump Speaking After Bush & Graham Refuse to Vote for Him; Trump Holds Rallies as GOP Divide Grows; President Obama Weighs in on 2016 Presidential Race; Shooting Spree in Washington Suburb. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired May 06, 2016 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now:

Breaking news, growing rift. After a stunning refusal to back his party's presumptive nominee, the House Speaker Paul Ryan schedules a meeting with Donald Trump. But other key Republicans are piling on. Will Trump retaliate? We're standing by for a Trump rally.

Not a reality show. President Obama says the election is serious business, not show business and says Donald Trump's record needs to be examined. Is the president jumping into the campaign?

Shooting rampage. Three separate shootings within 24 hours at a high school, a shopping mall, and a supermarket, lead to lockdowns, alerts and a manhunt in the D.C. suburbs. Three people are dead. The suspect, a federal police officer.

And city evacuated. Convoys of vehicles carry evacuees away from their homes as a massive fire forces the abandonment of an entire city. Eighty-eight thousand people are forced to flee. How many are still stranded?

I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

The breaking news: more bombshells in the feud between Donald Trump and the Republican establishment. Just a day after House Speaker Paul Ryan said he's not ready to endorse his party's presumptive nominee, he's now invited Trump to meet with him and House Republican leaders next week. But a Trump spokeswoman says if Ryan can come around, he's no longer fit to be speaker of the house.

Meantime, more stunners. Two former Republican presidential candidates, Jeb Bush and Senator Lindsey Graham say they won't vote for Trump, but former Vice President Dick Cheney says he will.

And President Obama is jumping in, saying voters must scrutinize Trump's record, warning the election is, quote, "not a reality show."

We're standing by to hear from Donald Trump himself. He's due to speak at a rally shortly in Omaha, Nebraska. Our correspondents, analysts and guests, they will have full coverage

of all the day's top stories.

We begin with a Republican family feud. Our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is joining us. He's in Oregon right now where Trump will hold a rally later tonight.

Jim, it looks like Trump has a major Republican problem.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf, and even though he is all but clinched the GOP nomination, Donald Trump is still campaigning in places like Eugene, Oregon, where we are now, where he will be later on this evening. But Donald Trump still has plenty of work to do behind the scenes to win over the so-called "Never Trumps" and the folks you might call the "not right now Trumps".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(CHEERS)

ACOSTA (voice-over): Donald Trump is ready to bring on the battle ahead.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, it's between me and crooked Hillary.

ACOSTA: But even as the presumptive GOP nominee sets his sights on Hillary Clinton, he still needs to watch his back. Not only are top Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan publicly sharing their doubts --

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, to be perfectly candid with you, Jake, I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now.

ACOSTA: The list of other GOP leaders who won't vote for Trump is growing. The latest, Senator Lindsey Graham.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I just don't believe Donald Trump is a reliable conservative Republican. Good luck with Paul Ryan trying to find a conservative agenda with this guy, and I don't think he has the temperament and judgment to be commander in chief. Lot of my colleagues will vote for him enthusiastically, some will hold their nose. I just can't go there with Donald.

ACOSTA: Now, all eyes are on how Trump handles the pressure.

While Trump was measured in his response to Ryan --

TRUMP: I was really surprised by it, and it's fine. He can do whatever he wants to do, it's fine.

ACOSTA: One of his top aides said his comments are an insult to Americans who voted for Trump. And a Trump spokesperson questioned whether Ryan should continue as speaker. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think that Paul Ryan is still fit to be speaker?

KATRINA PIERSON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESWOMAN: No, because this is about the party.

ACOSTA: Trump has hammered the never Trump movement as nothing more than beltway belly aching.

TRUMP: You know that thing, never Trump. You know why it's never Trump, because I'm going to stop the gravy train for all these consultants and all --

ACOSTA: But Trump's GOP critics say they're getting heartburn for good reason, pointing to his tweet about his love for Hispanics and taco bowls.

REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIRMAN: He's trying. Honestly, he's trying.

ACOSTA: RNC chairman Reince Priebus says he knows Trump is trying because he took a call from the real estate tycoon after Ryan's comments.

PRIEBUS: He wasn't like furious or anything. It was like, you know, what do I need to do? My view is, just relax and be gracious.

ACOSTA: That's not how Trump remembers the call with Priebus, telling "The Washington Post" "I told Reince I thought it was totally inappropriate what Paul Ryan said. But Reince feels and I'm OK with that, that we should meet before we go our separate ways."

Democrats are crossing their fingers the GOP's Trump reality show never gets canceled.

[17:05:05] BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is no doubt that there is a debate that's taken place inside the Republican Party about who they are and what they represent. Their standard bearer at the moment is Donald Trump.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: But the divide over Donald Trump inside the Republican party is growing. Earlier today, Dick Cheney, the former vice president, announced he will support Donald Trump but Jeb Bush in just the last hour released a statement saying he won't vote for Trump.

As for what's happening with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump did schedule a meeting with the speaker later on next Thursday, Wolf, and as I heard from a Trump aide earlier today, and the view of this one aide, he feels that Trump and Paul Ryan will be old friends as he put it, by the end of next week. That's a pretty optimistic view. We'll have to wait and see, Wolf.

BLITZER: We certainly will. Jim Acosta reporting for us, thank you.

Donald Trump is about to speak at a rally in Omaha, Nebraska. There you see him over there.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is on the scene for us as well.

So, Jeff, what type is tone likely to take in the middle of this major feud with the party establishment?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that is something everyone is watching here. He has been slightly more diplomatic, more presidential but we got him in a tweet he sent to Paul Ryan. Let's take a look at this.

He said, "Paul Ryan said I inherited something very special, the Republican Party. Wrong, I didn't inherit it. I won it with millions of voters."

And, Wolf, you can hear Donald Trump behind me right now, this crowd is excited to hear him.

BLITZER: It's a big crowd indeed as usual.

You know what? Let me listen for a few minutes. Here's Donald Trump.

TRUMP: They dropped out. And I said, I don't know.

So, we called up West Virginia last night, we had 35,000 people. We had -- the place was packed. This one, we have 10,000 or 11,000, and we have people still pouring in.

So I said, let me ask you, with West Virginia, was it done? I mean, people like they're expecting to go? Yes. I said then we have to go. I said, what about Nebraska? I love Nebraska, what about Nebraska? Right?

And I said is it like, are the people expecting me to be there? They said yes. I said, we're going! We got to go, right? We're going to have a little fun. We're going to have a little fun.

Be like Pete said, we have to go on Tuesday and vote, because we're looking to break the all-time record. We passed Eisenhower, we passed Nixon. We passed almost everybody, we're just about ready to pass Ronald Reagan, who we love. We're just about ready to pass -- we just passed everybody and we have a lot of states to go.

But we want to create such a record like they haven't had before. So, if you can on Tuesday, takes two minutes, go in, vote. We have more votes than anybody and don't forget I started out with 17 people, and one by one, it was a beautiful thing to watch.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

So we had a good time. It's been an amazing experience for me. I've never done this before. I've been a politician for ten months, and these guys have been politicians for 30 years in some cases, right?

How am I doing? Am I doing a good job?

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

But we have a message. You know, we have the right message. We're tired of being dopes. We're tired of being the stupid people.

We're tired of having these leaders, leaders down the drain, that's what they're doing. We're going to have great trade deals.

You know, in Nebraska, and I just learned, I said how is it doing business like with Japan? You send business to Japan. You don't send business to China, because China doesn't take your business. We take their business. They don't take our business, right?

You know that. Do you know that? They won't take our business.

So, we send -- we take all of their stuff, we don't tax them, they send everything in, everything's beautiful, but when Nebraska wants to send their product and they have great product, great agricultural product, which is important.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

But when you want to send your product to China, they don't take it. No, we don't want it, right?

Now, when you send it to Japan, where they send the cars in, no tax, very little tax, practically nothing, they send the cars in. When you send your beautiful agriculture, the best in the world, you send your agricultural product in, what happens? Thirty-eight percent tax, right? Thirty-eight percent tax in to Japan.

(BOOS)

Think of it. They call it a tariff, you know, a tariff. It sounds a little bit better, a tariff, but the whole thing -- we're not going to do this stuff anymore, folks. We're not going to play games anymore. We're going to level it out.

And you want to see -- you want to see a trade imbalance? You want to see trade -- look at Japan. Millions of cars come pouring in.

[17:10:00] You go to Los Angeles, the biggest ships you've ever seen loaded up with cars, right? And you look at what we have. We send beef. Beef is very important, but it's not quite as big a product, do we agree? OK? Do we agree?

Sometimes they send it back because they don't want it, because their farmers don't want it, they send it back and then we send it back. It goes back and forth, back and forth and they charge you much more, called it Kobe beef, it's old, it's old. It's old! It's old. Who the hell wants it? And they charge you much more money.

But here's the thing, look. There's a 38 percent tariff when you send your product. There's practically no tariff or tax when they send theirs. Tell me, folks, who is making these deals?

I can tell you people wouldn't be making that deal on a federal, on a federal level, it's ridiculous. We're being out-dealt, we're being outplayed, and we can't have it anymore.

Now, you've been watching all of the elections that have been taking place and really, I mean I really have. I've had, I've gotten to know this country so well, and you know, it started with New Hampshire, where my first victory, I'll always forget that -- I mean there's nothing like it.

These beautiful, these beautiful valleys, these beautiful streams, and what's their big problem? Heroin. I said, what do you mean heroin? What are you talking about, heroin? It pours in from the southern border and I said, you know what? If I win --

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Build the wall!

TRUMP: Oh we'll build the wall. Build the wall. Build the wall. You have the same problem. We'll build the wall.

BLITZER: All right. We're going to continue to monitor Donald Trump and see what he says, if anything, about this growing rift within the Republican Party.

Several major Republicans now saying they're not ready at this point to support Donald Trump.

Let's bring in a major Trump supporter. Scottie Nell Hughes is joining us.

Scottie, as we continue to monitor what Donald Trump is saying, as you know, a lot of supporters have said Republicans should find -- at least some of the Trump supporters have said maybe they should find a new speaker after Speaker Ryan said he wasn't ready to support Trump. Are you among those who say maybe he should not be speaker?

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I'm one of those -- I was never really a huge fan of Paul Ryan being speaker of the House in the first place, but I'm going to leave those to the Republicans and Democrats in Congress right now when they go and they vote for a new speaker. And more importantly, I'm going to leave it to the voters of Wisconsin when Speaker Ryan goes up for re-election --

BLITZER: All right. Scottie, hold on, he's talking about some other Republicans right now.

TRUMP: He leaves a disgrace. He can't represent the people of South Carolina well. He goes on television -- I've never seen a guy on television knocking me all the time. It's hard to believe I win everything in a landslide.

This guy goes on television and talks about "I know more about the military than Trump. I've been dealing with it for years." Yes, for years, that's why we can't beat is, for years they deal for years. We need new thinking.

So, he fails with his campaign horribly. He then endorses somebody else, and then he endorses Bush, and then he endorses everybody. He's like bad luck. As soon as he endorses the people, they drop out. And then I see him on television knocking me. You know, we're

supposed to be coming together. Paul Ryan, I don't know what happened.

(BOOS)

I don't know. He called me two, three weeks ago. It was a very nice conversation. He was congratulating me. This was before we had the ultimate victory but he was congratulating me on doing so well. I figured routinely he'd be behind it.

And he -- the other day in a big surprise, I've had so many endorsements. I mean, today a lot of them, Bob Dole came in, Dick Cheney came in, many congressmen came in, many senators come in, and we've had tremendous endorsements from a lot of people, both current and people that were here and highly respected people.

And you know, Rick Perry, as an example. He came in, and I've always liked him, but he's a tough competitor, and he fought hard, and he was rough on me, right? He got up -- remember he went to Washington and made a speech for half an hour about Donald Trump. He said I'm a cancer on the Republican Party.

(BOOS)

No, that's the bad news. Let me tell you the good news. So yesterday he endorsed me.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

And I like him. I do like him. I forgot about the one hour where he went wild.

But he said, one of the most talented or brilliant or something candidates ever to run for the presidency in the history of the presidency, so you have that statement and then you have this statement. This is a big difference, that's a big gap. But I appreciate it, and I like Rick Perry, and he's a good man, and I appreciate that he did that.

But the one that we're surprised at -- I'm not surprised at the Bush family in all fairness, because I'm very critical of what happened during the term. So I'm not surprised.

[17:15:01] And Jeb we hit hard. Do we agree? But what people don't say is that he hit me hard. He spent $14 million on negative ads.

So, people will say, you weren't nice to the Bush family. The guy spent $14 million in negative ads. I didn't spend anything on negative ads on him.

It really -- it really tells you when somebody can spend $14 million on negative ads, it sort of says like do ads have any power? I would go up to New Hampshire before the vote. The best was Florida. They spent I think $28 million on negative ads. They spent thousands and thousands. Do you know the total negative ads, have you seen it on television? Sixty-six thousand negative ads. I want to see Pete get 66,000 negative ads.

Pete, you wouldn't be standing. You'd say I'm going home. I'm leaving. I'm going home.

Pete, 66,000 negative ads, over $100 million and I'm leading by a lot, it was a landslide. In fact, it's over, so I don't know what it means.

But I tell the story, I'm in Florida and I had a tough race against Marco and I like Marco. I like everybody once it's over. I like people, but Marco was very popular in Florida, and is very popular, and I was down and I know Trump National Doral.

And they're having the big golf tournament and Adam Scott from Australia, one of the top couple of golfers in the world, phenomenal, long, straight, everything, does everything. He ends up winning with a phenomenal chip shot, almost goes into the water, 18th hole at Doral is the hardest on the PGA tour. It's considered the toughest hole, it averages like 4.8, which is impossible for a par 4, right?

So, Adam Scott hits a good drive, hits a shot and goes left, almost goes in the water. He hits this unbelievable chip shot, a flop shot, four or five feet from the pin, sinks the putt, and he wins the tournament. And all week long, I'm watching these horrible negative ads about myself, and we have hundreds of televisions all around green, we have all these televisions, it's called the Cadillac World Championship, it's a big, big tournament, and thousands and thousands -- tens of thousands of people and I said to myself, oh, wait a minute, I forgot about this. I'm supposed to go out on the green, hand the trophy to Adam and all the people there, Tim Fincham, the PGA Tour.

I said, wait a minute, what happens if they have negative ads? They said and now Adam Scott but before we get to Adam, we'll have a few commercials, thank you very much. And I said, oh, this is terrible. I said turn the -- told my people, get the televisions turned off! Turn them off but there were hundreds, they were all over the place.

BLITZER: All right. We're going to continue once again to monitor Donald Trump. He's in Omaha, Nebraska, at the this rally.

Scottie is still with us, Scottie Hughes, Trump supporter. Several Republicans saying they're not going to support Donald Trump. Jeb Bush, he put out a statement a while ago, Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament or strength of character. He has not displayed respect for the Constitution and not a consistent conservative, these are all reasons why I cannot support his candidacy.

You just heard the reaction not only to him, but to Lindsey Graham and Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House. All of this back -- is this really going to unify the Republican party going into a general election? HUGHES: Well, first of all, I think people like Jeb and Lindsey

Graham need to go back and look at youth sports. They're not setting a good sportsmanship type of example for the youth right now of any of the Republican Party, but I actually think it's interesting we're focusing on them. As Mr. Trump pointed out I'm celebrating endorsements like Dick Cheney, I'm celebrating other endorsements and getting somebody like Governor Rick Perry, who was very much on the campaign trail for Senator Ted Cruz.

When he's saying that he wants to put the party above it and he realizes that anybody fighting against the nominee is actually going for Hillary, I think that shows a type of maturity and those are the folks I think are going to be the ones that are going to unify the party and give me optimism, those are much louder voice than two guys who were beat by the predominant candidate right now.

BLITZER: All right. Scottie, stand by.

We're going to continue to monitor Donald Trump. We'll go back there once he starts talking about the current crisis in the Republican Party. And it is a crisis right now. We'll see what happens.

Much more of our coverage right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:23:48] BLITZER: Let's get back to breaking news.

Amid the growing feud between Donald Trump and the Republican establishment, at least major portions of the Republican establishment, the House Speaker Paul Ryan schedules a meeting with the presumptive Republican nominee but Jeb Bush joins several others in saying he won't vote for Donald Trump.

We're back with the key Trump supporter, Scottie Nell Hughes.

Scottie, the speaker -- Speaker Ryan says Trump has to run what he calls a principled campaign that Republicans can be proud of. They're scheduled to meet next week right here in Washington.

Do you think Trump will change the tone of his campaign?

HUGHES: I think he's going to continue to have the tone that's attracted more than 10 million voters and obviously made him the nominee of the GOP. I'm very optimistic and I'm very happy Speaker Ryan invited and that Chairman Priebus is the one that's kind of brokering this meeting next week. I'm very optimistic what will come out of it.

But let's remember, Mr. Trump did not base his campaign to keep politicians in power and carves it based on what they want. He's made his campaign based on what the people want and what they're saying. He's being honest in the words he's saying, whether you like him or not. People trust what he's saying is what he's going to say and not going to change based on politicians.

I think the problem we're having now with Speaker Ryan is that you got this power pull right now.

[17:25:02] It's almost like those in Congress are very afraid of what's going to come in with somebody who doesn't owe any allegiance. That he's not necessarily going to pick up their phone call when they call. He might put them through voice mail, especially if he's sitting there and talking to a voter over the politician, because those are the people that put him into power.

So, I think, you know, as soon as they get on the common ground and I'm optimistic that Speaker Ryan who might have had a couple issues yesterday but it's obvious he realizes that the people want Mr. Trump, that the majority of people right now are coming around and they're realizing that it's better to unify than help Hillary Clinton.

BLITZER: Scottie, President Obama weighed in on the whole Republican race today, saying this is not entertainment. This is not a reality show. I want to get your reaction to the president's, it was not even thinly veiled. It is pretty blistering criticism of Donald Trump.

HUGHES: Yes, this is coming from the celebrity-in-chief that we saw back in 2008, that he's brought out every single celebrity he can and toted them when he was running for president. So, I think it's interesting that he's calling Mr. Trump kind of a reality show.

But, you know, all this does is once again help Mr. Trump the same thing as people like Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham and Hillary Clinton, all of those guys uniting actually once again shows that politicians just want to keep each other in power and really don't care what the people want.

And so, you know what, President Obama, I welcome you to sit there and criticize Mr. Trump's race, because I can assure you, the only person who ever challenged your numbers and voter turnout is Mr. Trump and what we're seeing.

BLITZER: Scottie Hughes, thanks very much for joining us.

HUGHES: Thank you.

BLITZER: Still ahead, three shooting incidents in less than 24 hours lead to school lockdowns here in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. We'll update you on that.

Also, we're getting some incredible pictures from a monster wildfire that's forced the evacuation of an entire city.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:31:12] BLITZER: We're keeping an eye on Donald Trump's rally right now in Omaha, Nebraska. You're looking at live pictures. He's speaking about the growing split in the Republican Party, made already some pretty strong statements today. Trump's former contenders Senator Lindsey Graham, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, they join the list of party leaders including the House Speaker Paul Ryan who say they cannot support Trump at least not now. Ryan says, at least not now. The others say they're going to be able to support Donald Trump at all.

Joining us now are CNN political commentators Ana Navarro and Kevin Madden, also our CNN political director David Chalian.

Ana, is the burden really on Donald Trump to unite, try to unify the Republican Party as Paul Ryan says or should the party apparatus rally around the new leader, in effect, of the Republican Party?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, the party apparatus is rallying around the nominee, the presumptive nominee. The party apparatus is the RNC and they've got a structure in place, and they are going to be supporting Donald Trump.

Now the question is, individual leaders, individually elected officials, individual activists and donors, and I do think the burden is on Donald Trump, number one, because he's the winner, because he won the nomination. He's the presumptive nominee. It is up to him to be the gracious winner and reach out to those people that do not feel included in his movement right now.

And number two, because he wants to win in November and the only way you win in November is if you can get to 50 percent plus one in the different states, and only way you do that is if you aggregate people, not exclude people. Right now what he's doing and saying to people, I don't need you. Drop dead. Drop off that cliff.

Well, you know what? Fine. You don't need us? We won't go out and vote for you. We'll go out and vote down ballots and then good luck trying to win, Donald Trump. You're going to have to make up those numbers somewhere.

BLITZER: David, Trump released a statement after Lindsey Graham said he couldn't vote him. He said, "While I will unify the party Lindsey Graham has shown himself to be beyond rehabilitation and like the voters who rejected him, so will I."

That doesn't sound like a Donald Trump who is shifting his tone, reacting to criticism at all.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Right, I think it's going to depend on who is coming at him as to whether or not his tone shifts. Remember, yesterday in West Virginia he decided not to take on Paul Ryan while he was up on stage at all because that's somebody he really sees the need to work something out with. Lindsey Graham I think is a different story. I don't think he ever thought Lindsey Graham was ever going to be in this camp. Notice, though, that he gave Jeb Bush a pass. Jeb Bush also came out in the very same position as Lindsey Graham, a little low energy jab but basically said, I can understand the Bushes. I was really tough on them. So --

BLITZER: Including his brother, President George W. Bush.

CHALIAN: That's right. So I think he has a different standard depending who it is.

This is a long battle with Lindsey Graham starting last summer and clearly the two were never going to be close.

BLITZER: Look at this, Kevin. Take a look at this tweet that Donald Trump put out earlier today, obviously feeling a little slighted by Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House. He wrote, "Paul Ryan said that I inherited something very special, the Republican Party. Wrong. I didn't inherit it. I won it with millions of voters."

So he's responding to Paul Ryan's stunning statement yesterday.

KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, that statement is not accurate either. You won't don't win a party. You become the titular head of a party but in that role you have a unique responsibility in trying to bring the party together, and one of the things that I think has happened right now is that Donald Trump and his supporters, they seem like they're very -- they're content with a lonely victory. They are going at all their critics with -- inside the party with the same vigor that they did when they were in the -- caught up in the primary process and this is a time where you would think that the strategy would be to try to unite everybody against the common opposition and that would be Hillary Clinton.

[17:35:15] But that is not happening right now, and a lot of what you see with Speaker Ryan, Lindsey Graham, Jeb Bush and others, it is emblematic of what's taking place inside the party overall which is that there are very raw, open nerves, there are a lot of people who are principled conservatives who don't believe that Donald Trump is right on the issues. They don't believe he's right on character, they don't believe he's right on temperament and so they become essentially conscientious objectors.

That number is pretty large right now. If Donald Trump were to try to run with 28 percent -- believing 28 percent of the Republican vote right now he'd have a very hard time winning. He has to narrow that down and has to try and convince some of those voters that he is the right person to lead the party against Hillary Clinton. It's going to be very difficult.

BLITZER: He makes it clear, though, and he said it to me this week, and he makes it clear all the time, you punch him, he's a good counter-puncher. In fact he prefers counter-punching.

Here's the question, David. Is Paul Ryan, the statement he made yesterday, opening up the door to other Republicans to follow suit?

CHALIAN: Well, it certainly gives cover to certain Republicans who are running on the ballot who are concerned about Trump's impact on them on the ballot to not immediately pick up the mantle and rally around the presumptive nominee.

Listen, anybody that watched this nomination process for the last year who thought that the day after somebody emerged with the nomination that this party was going to be completely healed and rallied by the nominee wasn't watching the contest properly.

MADDEN: Right. CHALIAN: This is a party in division right now and it is going to

take some time. I would say even if -- you know, even if somebody else emerged with the nomination, a lot of the Trump supporters would have a hard time coming around and rallying around that person. So yes, I agree that the burden is on Trump to reach out, but I don't think anyone should have expected that this was going to go very smoothly the day after he became the presumptive nominee.

BLITZER: All right, guys. Everyone stand by. The president of the United States, he came out, he weighed in on the Donald Trump phenomenon today and the words from Donald Trump's perspective not very pretty at all. We'll have that and much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:46:45] BLITZER: You're watching new developments in the Democratic presidential race. Without taking sides between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, President Obama did both of them a favor today by lobbing some very, very pointed criticism at Donald Trump.

Let's bring in our senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns who is watching all of this. He didn't mince, the president, any words at all.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's for sure, Wolf, and it was the first time the president has weighed in on the Republican race since the last of Donald Trump's opponents threw in the towel. The president called for exacting standards and genuine scrutiny of all the candidates, but directed some of his toughest words yet at the Trump campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): President Obama lending Hillary Clinton a hand today, challenging Donald Trump's seriousness to be commander-in- chief.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are in serious times and this is a really serious job. This is not entertainment. This is not a reality show.

JOHNS: That as Clinton runs on a pledge to protect his legacy.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We cannot let Barack Obama's legacy fall into Donald Trump's hands. I'm running to build on the progress that President Obama has made. I am proud of that progress.

JOHNS: It's an embrace that could benefit Clinton come November, if the president's poll numbers hold. A new CNN/ORC poll showing 51 percent of registered voters approve of the job the president is doing, while 46 percent disapprove.

Clinton is shifting her focus to the general election, repeatedly targeting the GOP frontrunner in the days since he became the party's presumptive nominee, taking aim at his views on immigration. CLINTON: Now every election is a choice and just yesterday Donald

Trump doubled down on his plan to create a deportation force to round up millions of people. That's actually what he said.

JOHNS: But Clinton has not sealed the nomination just yet. Bernie Sanders remains in the race despite the long odds against him.

OBAMA: I think everybody knows what that math is. And I know that at some point, there's going to be a conversation between Secretary Clinton and Bernie Sanders about how we move towards the convention.

JOHNS: A long-time Clinton ally Paul Begala penning a column for CNN saying Sanders should actually stay in the race to help Clinton attack Trump, writing, "You are in a uniquely powerful position. You can either force Hillary to fight a two-front war or force Trump to. I am urging you to choose Trump as your target."

JOHNS: Clinton also has yet to get past her e-mail controversy, from her use of a private server while secretary of state. CNN has learned that top Clinton aides, including Huma Abedin, have been interviewed by the FBI. Clinton herself is expected to be interviewed in the coming weeks.

The investigation is still ongoing, but so far investigators have not found any evidence to prove Clinton intentionally broke the law.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Even as Hillary Clinton continued to zero in on Donald Trump, her Democratic opponent today was saying not so fast, and threatening a floor fight over the rules at the Democratic national convention.

[17:45:04] Bernie Sanders warned the party chair in a letter today not to stack the deck against him and his supporters in Philadelphia this summer, though it is clear this growing urgency on the Democratic side to unite and put the focus on the Republicans.

BLITZER: Very strongly worded letter to Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the DNC, by Bernie Sanders.

Joe Johns, thanks very much.

So will Bernie Sanders take the fight all the way to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia? My interview with Senator Sanders coming up in the next hour, right here in THE SITUATION ROOM. Please join us for that.

Meanwhile coming up, now a series of deadly shootings in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. Police say they may be related and the suspect is a federal law enforcement officer.

Also, incredible pictures from a devastating wildfire, it's forced the entire population of one city to flee.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:50:22] BLITZER: Schools and recreation centers were in lockdown in a D.C. suburb today after shootings in a shopping mall and a grocery store in Montgomery County left two people dead and two others in critical condition. Police are linking the incidence to another fatal shooting a day earlier in the neighboring county. The suspected gunman is now in custody.

Our Brian Todd is looking into what happened. What are you learning, Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, a lot of fast moving events in this area. We've had three separate shootings, three different locations, leaving three people dead. All of those shootings allegedly committed by a federal law enforcement officer. And we have new details tonight of the dramatic operation which led to the suspect's capture.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Apprehended by tactical teams this afternoon, only 15 miles from downtown Washington, a sworn officer in the Federal Protective Service who was believed armed and dangerous.

ASST. CHIEF DARYL MCSWAN, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE: Mister Eulalio Tordil has been taken into custody just minutes ago. Thankfully it was without incident.

TODD: Officials announcing his arrest say fatal shootings at three locations in less than 24 hours are likely related.

MCSWAN: We do have reason to believe that this incident and the one in Aspen Hill, potentially the one also in Prince George County in I- 4, was in fact related.

TODD: Police put out a bulletin for Officer Eulalio Tordil Thursday wanted for first-degree murder after he allegedly shot dead his estranged wife outside this high school.

From the high school only a dozen miles away, this morning three shots, one fatally at the West Field Mall. And then five miles away another victim shot dead at a supermarket.

With a gunman on the loose children were kept inside under shelter and placed warnings at schools nearby. Police fanned out on a manhunt to find one of their own, a trained law enforcement officer.

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: You're dealing with the worst kind of scenario for responding officer to take down a police officer who's had this type of training.

TODD: Tactical teams located his car, then spotted the suspect in a restaurant across the street from the supermarket shooting site, where reporters were set up to cover the story.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They're telling us to get back.

TODD: But police say they waited until he came out.

CHIEF THOMAS MANGER, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE: They had this individual under surveillance and when the individual walked back to his car, the plainclothes officers were able to take him into custody without incident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm surprised that he didn't get into a shootout with the police.

TODD: The Federal Protective Service which guards federal buildings put Tordil on administrate duties in March after a protective order was issued against him and removed his duty weapon and badge. He was then placed on administrative leave.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Now a key question tonight, who were today's victims and why were they shot? Police say as of now they don't know if the shooter had any connection to the victims who were shot today in this parking lot and in the grocery store parking lot not far away but it is important to remember two of the victims, the two who were shot where I'm standing, two of them survived and police say they want to debrief them as soon as they can -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Brian, you're also picking up new details on the suspect from that restraining order his wife had filed against him. What have you learned?

TODD: That's right, Wolf. Tonight CNN has obtained court documents from that restraining order. Very disturbing details in these documents. According to these court papers, this suspect Eulalio Tordil was ordered to have no contact with his family. That order came through in March of this year. Just a couple of months ago.

According to the court papers, his wife, Gladys, alleged that he subjected his children to intense military like discipline including push-ups and he made them serve some kind of detention in a dark closet. The court order alleges that he slapped his wife so hard at one that her glasses fell off. And that in March of this year Gladys Tordil alleged that he threatened to harm her if she ever left him.

Of course we know that his estranged wife, Gladys Tordil, was shot and killed yesterday afternoon at a high school parking lot, Wolf.

BLITZER: What a horrendous story indeed. Brian Todd over at the Westfield, Montgomery mall in Bethesda, Maryland, outside of Washington. Thank you.

We want to show you right now some incredible video from a devastating wildfire. It's burned a quarter of a million acres since it started Sunday in the western Canadian province of Alberta. 88,000 people including the entire population of the city of Fort McMurray have fled. Dashboard cameras captured these amazing pictures of the towering planes as police escorted convoys of automobiles out of the fire zone. Forty fires are burning the province. The main fire is turning away

from the city but not before destroying at least 1600 homes and businesses. Officials say it may keep burning for weeks.

[17:55:09] Coming up, after a stunning refusal to back his party's presumptive nominee, at least for now, House Speaker Paul Ryan is set to meet with Donald Trump. But other top Republicans are piling on and Trump is striking back.

And it's party time in North Korea. The Workers Party Congress. Kim Jong-un has a new look. Take a look at this, how he is dressed up for the occasion. Will he celebrate with a nuclear test?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Happening now. Breaking news. Grand old implosion. Divisions in the Republican Party deepening tonight as more of its biggest names come out for and against Donald Trump.