Transcripts For BLOOMBERG With All Due Respect 20160512

The tension between the two Top Republicans has been toned down somewhat. A story by the New York Times, trump is defiant in an interview about walking into their meetings. In a pregame capitol hill press conference, ryan was more conciliatory, saying he wanted to find Common Ground with his partys presumptive nominee. Speaker ryan to pretend we are unifying without unifying, we are going at half strength. We need a real unification of our party. After a tough primary, that will take effort. We are committed to putting effort in. I want to be a part of the unifying process so that we are at full strength this fall so that we can win the election. This is a big tent party. There is plenty of room for policy disputes. We come from different wings of the party. The goal is to unify various wings around common principles. Mark obviously no matter how well the meetings go tomorrow, trump and ryan will have differences. What are the areas where they can come together and show a unified front . John well, i think they can probably unify around the common goal of beating Hillary Clinton. Let me see, what else . On policy, no. If you believe where donald trump is now, if ryan and trump have something in common on social policy. Not on immigration. They might have Common Ground on foreign policy. When it comes to fiscal policy, i dont see a lot of overlap. Mark i agree. The main thing they say can say they must do everything to beat Hillary Clinton to get republicans reelected, and to raise money for republicans. The main thing they can agree on tomorrow is to come out saying, they are working together. I dont think it will be ever easy for ryan to endorse trump in a full throated way. If he can convince ryan that he can win, i think that will put more pressure on ryan to endorse. You are seeing a lot more republican members of congress saying, this is our nominee, deal with it. All the controversy that has been swirling about Donald Trumps unreleased tax returns has swirled even more in the last 24 hours since an interview in which he said he doesnt expect to release his tax returns before the november election. Then mitt romney to facebook, again called on trump to release his tax returns, warning the nation that there is a bombshell in there. Trump used his preferred social media megaphone, twitter, and said in interview, i told ap that my taxes are under routine audit. I will releas them when audit is complete, not after election john, will trump pay a price if he doesnt release his taxes before election day . John one thing, the Clinton Campaign will try really hard to make donald trump pay a price for not releasing his tax returns. The other is that it is our job, your job, my job, our job in the press to make sure that trump does pay a price. It is obscene given the president that he would not have something close to full Financial Disclosure for the voters to determine what is in there. We all need to keep the pressure on him. This is something that matters a lot. Mark there is a rule in washington, when something is famous for not being released, eventually the person not releasing it must release it. Donald trumps tax returns are about to get famous. She can say all you want about the audit. The pressure will be unrelenting. The conventional wisdom has been, democratic and critics of romney if the democratic and republican critics of romney a great, that puts pressure on him. I think the Trump Coalition looks at the politicians on both parties. Trump is the outsider running up the middle. I am not sure that criticism is going to hurt. John i think he meant the critics of trump. Look, this is our job. I know the bell is going off, but when they divert from standard practice, we must be the ones who hold his feet to the fire. Not let him talk about the audit. The audit has nothing to do with this. He should release his taxes. We should keep pushing him to do that until he finally does. Every day we learn a bit more about how Donald Trumps campaign is likely to operate. Trump as on a handful of interviews with newspapers and tv outlets. The presumptive gop nominee does not plan to invest in the kind of sophisticated voter data operation that barack obama and other candidates have done over the past campaign cycles. Trump told the Associated Press, i always felt it was overrated. Trump went on and said i think the same is going to be true of me. He said he will rely on the buzz made by his massive rallies. Told the New York Times in a broadway theater, the best is called wordofmouth. Its better than if you write a good review. Wordofmouth is the number one thing. Wordofmouth at my rallies is like, you have to go see it. Mark, here is the real question. Is donald trump a mad genius, or is he just plain mad . Mark its not an either or choice. If you are the smart campaign, you would do both. You would have big rallies also have a grand operation. I am not sure the Trump Campaign could build the kind of datadriven thing they needed to build. I think the rnc has done some of that. Trump is right to continue to emphasize the reality that if hes going to win, it will be with a different kind of campaign. Man, if he loses a close race, and the clinton people are able to build this, it will cost the republicans the white house. John you are in the vicinity of the truth on this. I think he is making a virtue out of a necessity. There is no way he could build Barack Obamas data machine, which is the most sophisticated thing anyone has done in politics. He is trying to make a virtue out of necessity. He will be at a pronounced disadvantage without that kind of data operation. That will leave him disadvantaged against Hillary Clinton. Mark if you go to single women and hispanics, where he has to improve his standing, those voters need to be targeted. They need to find issues where they have Common Ground. If youre not targeting, you are going to find them. John you have to target them and turn them out. Data is key to that. Trump will be way behind on this, however he spends it. Coming up, is Hillary Clinton winning the argument that a losing streak isnt going to hurt her campaign . More on that after a word from our sponsors. John last night Bernie Sanders clobbered Hillary Clinton in the West Virginia primary, winning the state 51 to 35 . Even before the polls closed, in dissipating defeat, Clintons Campaign manager sent out an email to campaign donors. That was obtained by bloomberg politics. The email reassured them there is practically nothing that could stop Hillary Clinton from winning the nomination. It said although a number of contests in may structurally favorite Bernie Sanders, the outcomes will not change the directory of the primary. Even if sanders wins 9 of the rating states by 30 points, and redundant will have earned the majority of popular vote and pledged delegates. Mark we have said, and i believe correctly, that clinton can fight a two front war. Did West Virginia change the reality of what a possible losing streak can do . Mark i think it doesnt change it fundamentally now. If the exit polls continue to include data that is not helpful in fronting her support for the general election. It is past time when the campaign can say that it is structurally at that state. She is the frontrunner. She is the certain nominee by almost every account. But she got lost in a state that she beat barack obama in badly eight years ago. It wasnt a great night for her symbolically. It is not a problem as long as she gets the Circuit Breaker going and wins decently in california and new jersey in june. John in the end, its probably doesnt matter that much. One way it matters, she is clearly getting pulled to the left, as we have seen on health care. As he continues to have strength, she continues to feel that tug. Setting contrast with these polls that show trump doing well against her in battleground states, it heightens sanders determination to stay in. It would be a lot better for her to put this thing away. To shut it down, win some contests and tell him to stop and claim the nomination. Mark its time, again, to Start Talking about Hillary Clintons damn email. The fbis investigation into the handling of lesser five materials has made more headlines. The state Department Said it was having trouble finding emails from the staffer that set up clintons home server. An aide abruptly left an fbi interview after investigators asked about a topic that they agreed would be offlimits. The fbi investigation is expected to be wrapped up in the next month. Cindy blumenthal, the longtime clinton out light, and a frequent user of email, defended the former secretary on cable news. My understanding is that this is a security review. It is not a criminal investigation. It is an investigation. It is an inquiry into whether someone intentionally put classified information where it shouldnt be. I am sure that the department of justice is not a political investigation at all. It wants to resolve this as quickly as possible. When they do, they will issue a statement. Mark that phrase, security inquiry, has been used not just by blumenthal, but by a lot of the Clinton Campaign officials. The head of the fbi is now saying that he is not even familiar with that term. John, knitting all these strands together, where do you think it stands now with Hillary Clinton and her darn emails . John seeing Cindy Blumenthal on television is giving me a heavy 1990s lsd flashback. The clinton email scandal is going to be a lot like benghazi. I know i will make people go crazy by saying that. People on the right that will never vote for clinton anyway will seize on this. They will always claim the investigation is never complete. No matter where we end up, they will call her crooked hillary. For most voters, it wont matter when it comes down to the fall campaign. Mark most people i have talked to about the investigation are confident that she will not be charged with a crime. No one will probably be charged with a crime. There might not even be a grand jury. But that what is dangerous is that the investigation leading beyond the email server, or perhaps fbi agents leaking things that dont amount to crimes, but political problems. That would fall far short of what the republicans who are banking on this are counting on. John coming up, what a trump or Clinton Administration would mean for the world as we know it. David sanger from the New York Times joins us right after this. John this morning we were in washington where we hosted a discussion with former president ial candidate Lindsey Graham. He has been one of trumps toughest critics. Tonight he said some not100 mean things about the donald. That is not to say that he laid off totally. To start off, we have graham warming to trump on a specific issue, raising the minimum wage. Sen. Graham i think trump is onto something. Raising the minimum wage would be bad now for the economy because it is pretty shaky. It is hard to do business. The concept of raising the minimum wage i would put on the table as part of the bigger deal. I would tell any democrat that if you get a yes on raising the minimum wage in a rational and logical way i think donald is onto something talking about minimum wage differently. He is onto something saying that it should be ordinary income versus Capital Gains rates. The goal for the republicans to say that i am for the working man, not just for the rich man woman, working woman. I think he is instinctively onto something, trying to broaden the partys appeal to working folks. John those may be the nicest words you have used about donald trump, at least in my memory. Sen. Graham yeah, and you got a long memory. John what you think about this . Mark it is an indicator of a guy that is just dealing with the reality. If he wins, lets have him win and govern the right way. Graham is looking for opportunities to identify areas where he agrees with trump. John i also think Lindsey Graham there are not many republicans that are as acute as Lindsey Graham, that raising the minimum wage is a political winner. More republicans would be smart if they embraced it. Graham was notably more pointed when talking about trumps standing with hispanic voters. John what is more dangerous to the future of your party, donald trump winning or losing . Sen. Graham it depends on how he loses, and what he did if he won. The demographic problems we have in 2012, he has made worse. We did an analysis of the 2012 campaign. How did obama win, when every indicator was that he should lose . We did well with young white women, with hispanics. What happened . When you ask hispanics, what dont you like about the Republican Party . Its not conservatism, its just this illogical impractical solution to immigration. If you told me in 2013 that 2016 would be running on forced deportation, weve got problems. To this hispanic community, i get it why you dont like us. Who is going to vote for someone that is going to deport your grandmother . Mark i think this is the area that paul ryan will certainly raise as well. They must change trumps tone to have a fighting chance to win the election and to not set the partys image back against nonwhite voters. John Lindsey Graham has been on this issue for a long time. He is mortified by the turn that the party has taken. I am not sure that damage is fixable, given the tone trump has taken. Forced deportation, which is still trumps policy posture, is a huge political killer for the Republican Party. One more piece of tape here. We were surprised that Lindsey Graham took a page from Donald Trumps playbook and gave him a nickname. Mark if you took the party labels off the candidates and looked at their records, which do you think would be more likely to bring about more robust Economic Growth . Sen. Graham i think donald trump would think outside the box. Hillary clinton is more of a traditional politician. Donald trump can look at old problems anew, to talk about the minimum wage being on the table. Taxing people at higher rates in hedge funds. Things that most republicans would be reluctant to talk about. The energy about taking the system and turning it upside down its the moment. That is what i think. Crazy loses to crooked. If hes new and different, i think he can win. New in different is better than being crazy, if that makes sense. That is his challenge. To show that he is capable of handling the stress. And her challenge is to show that shes got leadership skills. John the formulation that crooked hillary beats crazy donald. But a possibility that trump can change himself from crazy donald to new and different donald. Mark to put this in the context of what we talked about, Lindsey Graham spent as much time as any other republican trying to strategize. Is there a way to stop donald trump from being the nominee . He has switched his political thinking to, how can trump win in a way that will be good for the Republican Party . That is the apparent shift of one man. But not an insignificant player in the party, both as an actor that was dead set against trump, but also representative of a lot of republicans he might not be our choice, but he is our nominee. John we talked to him for about 2025 minutes. It was interesting. He said some critical things, and also thanks that were not so critical. His tone is really 180 degrees from where it was, unrelentingly harsh just a few days ago. Our thanks to Lindsey Graham for sitting with us this morning. We will be back with the New York Times news man, david sanger, right after this. [ soft music ] e. T. Phone home. When you find something you love, you can never get enough of it. Change the way you experience tv with xfinity x1. Mark joining us now is New York Times National Security correspondent, david sanger. We are going to talk about two big stories in asia president obamas trip later this month to hiroshima. Most americans will say what does that mean even if they know what happened. Whats the symbolic importance of this visit . David its fascinating because theres different expectations on each side. Americans dont think that much about hiroshima. My father was the flight director on a destroyer at iwo jima and okinawa. The bomb is viewed by his generation as something that saves tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of american lives. In hiroshima, the view is entirely different. They were Walking Around and suddenly out of the sky drops this device that kills 100,000 people, more after the radiation. And that it was an unnecessary brutal use of a new weapon. So the president will have to navigate the minefield of these two completely different narratives. The white house says hes not going to make an apology, and yet at the same time, he has to further what he talked about in the 2008 campaign this vision of a World Without Nuclear Weapons. Something many of his critics have argued he has not made much progress to and may have taken a few steps back. Mark so the message is not that using Nuclear Weapons against the japanese was wrong, but we should show that they should never be used again and thats a message that plays in both countries . David it is. Many veterans groups say this is a continuation of an obama apology tour. Many in japan will view the absence of an apology as a problem. So even for a man of a phenomenal rhetorical skills, this is going to be a hard speech to write. John you mentioned president obamas Nuclear Nonproliferation objective. One area where it seems he failed notably was north korea. I think it is incredibly important it seems like the u. S. Has concluded north korea has the capacity to launch Nuclear Weapons. Tell us about the significance of this moment. David the big success for obama was the iran nuclear agreement. He cap it ran for the next 10 or 15 years from gathering material for a nuclear weapon. The great failure would he north korea, but its a failure that had many fathers, going back to george h. W. Bush, bill clinton, george w. Bush, all of whom view this as too complex to deal with because the North Koreans have had capacity to attack soul and do great damage before they would ultimately lose. As you kick things down the can, they North Koreans gain more capability. And its interesting that you have not heard a word of dissent from the Intelligence Community they now have the capacity to put that weapon on a short range missile which could hit troops in south korea or japan and of course the japanese islands. You have heard that downplayed to some degree. They dont want to panic their populations, understandably. John if your story is correct, it would seem north korean proliferation would be right at the top of the foreignpolicy agenda as they get ready to run for president. Talk about Hillary Clinton and donald trump. Do they have stances on nonproliferation . Do they talk about this particular threat . David mr. Trump in his interview a month and a half ago talks about pulling back from japan and pulling troops back if those countries to. Make a greater contribution to their own defense. Japan probably pays more than anybody for the presence of americans, about 2 billion year. If japan and south korea and that going nuclear, which he said he had no problem with, you could see this arms race taking off. Im not sure that is a fully thought out position yet. When he gave his foreignpolicy speech, he did not repeat that decision about japan and south korea. We have not heard much other than the threat that if they ever used a weapon, they would come to regret it. For secretary clinton, the hard part is the fundamental decision to focus on iran and try what they call strategic patience with the North Koreans. She was very tuned in to the north korean issue, especially as a senator. She was pretty focused on that as secretary of state, shes part of an administration that decided to push the issue off while dealing with a treaty with russia and with the iran issue. Mark thank you very much. Coming up, a republican and democrat and Margaret Talib walk into a tv studio. You wont believe what happened next. John you can listen to us on the radio. We will be right back. Mark do you find yourself confused about the upcoming general election . Do you questions about the candidates in this race . Have you been injured by Donald Trumps comments . Ginsburg and don may sound like the name of a law firm but it happens to be the names of our next guest. My colleague is also with us on board. Guest we have so much to talk about. Can we start with donald trump . Can he get away with not releasing his tax returns . There may be an irs component. He has set a couple of different things. One is when the audit is over, he might be willing to do it. It appears he has told the Associated Press not until after the election. What kind of ground would it break and how big a deal would it be . Guest i think tax returns are one of those wonderful things the press likes a lot. Having to work for a candidate that has tried to delay it, it builds up the pressure for when the taxes do come out and you do have to release them as part of the Due Diligence voters are going to do before the election. I think he probably will on his timetable. Guest if you recall the release of his socalled medical records, it was a release from doctors that sounded like his cousin they talked about the greatest health ever. Donald trump doesnt actually play by anyone elses rule. He may decide he doesnt have to do this and we will see how the voters feel about it. Guest mitt romney said it would disqualify him not to do it. Guest he should know. She and her husband hadnt released returns for 30 years i could almost see the steam rising. Guest her not releasing her speeches is becoming the equivalent rhetorically with not doing tax returns. We can argue about the substantive values that because this is the keeping of secrets by candidates when the media and political opponents believe information should come out. Mark if you did a Public Opinion poll, do you think the American Public would demand this . Guest demand that he releases tax returns . I think if you ask in a certain way, the American Public would believe he should do it. That is it a voting issue . For candidates like former governor romney, it can issue that became damaging because of the suspicion he had not paid any taxes. Donald trump loves to talk about how he has gamed the system and uses the rules in his favored of have the same problems there. I feel you can probably get that answer from a pole. Its not clear i think we have a way to go in this campaign before becomes an issue that hurts them. Guest speaking of issues that could or might not hurt candidates, lets talk about where the investigation of Hillary Clintons emails is going. The fbi director today talking to reporters, saying he is staying close to the investigations and making sure it is handled the right way. The candidate herself as not been asked to come in but aides are bringing in the issues. Do you think its going to have any impact on the convention or the nominating process and mark on this nominating process . Guest i think it is a shadow over the campaign, not unlike the argument you were making about Donald Trumps taxes. This is a large piece of information which there is a demand to know about which stays silent. That she hasnt been asked to come in yet confirms shes the target of the investigation. That builds the suspense even more. Guest is she the target of the investigation . Guest i dont know that and the people who do know are not talking. I think is fair to say the interest of this political process and in the interest of the american people, everyone has a belief this should get wrapped up one way or another quickly and i think the director made it clear he is moving as expeditiously as possible because you dont want to have this happen postconvention. Whatever the disposition is, let people know what it is. Guest do you see Bernie Sanders using this . Mark i dont think a concrete thing has come out that he could warn voters about. I think we are a million miles away from that. Guest he has made it clear what his campaign is about and how he is going to wage this campaign, which is on the issue of the Democratic Party and how powers exercise, who he gets exercised for and who it gets exercised by. Mark but he has shifted, talking about electability. That cricket hillary was not just donald trump boston u, but the Justice Department policy view. Guest if you were scripting out this convention you would probably not say lets add to the suspense by letting the emails hang out. Guest im in the camp that thinks expeditiously is a good thing. Guest the latest polls its may, who cares anyway one National Online poll today, if this is between donald trump and Hillary Clinton it looks awfully close. How much stock do you put in and even if you say not that much, democrats have been talking that he is a million miles behind her. Is he . Guest first of all, it is may and theres a whole campaign to be run here. One set of polls that could or could not be outliers should not have too much read into them. It is a closely divided country. Are these races always close . Yes. Is this likely to be closer than conventional wisdom . Republicans do tend to solidify, democrats will solidify, and there will be a small group of voters at decide the election, which is kind of the way it goes. Guest that you are asking the question albeit in may shows that these polls have shifted the perception of the race. Democrats are trying hard to make the argument that it was out of control and theres a huge gap between the candidates and would lead to the down ballot disasters of republicans using the house and senate. If nothing else, these polls have shifted that discussion. Guest i have to jump in here because what you are seeing is you are seeing extremely close senate races. Those same polls show incumbents in ohio and pennsylvania in dead heat, one point behind their challengers at an early stage. Thats a bad thing and when you talk and it totally with people doing pulling in house races, you see very different patterns than what you have seen in the last eight years. Both realities can be true, but it is a closely divided country. Guest a fundraising letter from the Sanders Campaign we are going to have a contested election were the Democratic Party must decide if they want the candidate with the momentum or are willing to roll the dice on Court Disaster to protect the status quo for the political and financial establishment. Is that fair game in the closing weeks of a contest . Guest it is not over the top. It is a tremendous relief to republicans to have our race resolved and have the democrats fighting in this particular way, talking about contested conventions and who wants the momentum. Guest i have heard a sigh of relief from the Republican Party after nomination has been resolved behind the nominee, so im not quite sure i would buy that. They have to this thing was somehow and start shaking superdelegates loose. The fear tactic, that she cant win tactic is one they think appeals most to superdelegates. Mark thank you both. Always a pleasure. Coming up, a new grant from will mcavoy. We will be right back. John a couple of days ago, friend of the show, just daniels, star of blackbird on broadway. Daniels was review sleep star of many things, including the newsroom in which he played cable anchor will not voice. If you havent seen that show, you have probably seen the famous scene from the First Episode where he launches into an impromptu tirade about whether america is the greatest country in the world. We asked jess if he would be able to reprise that in the context of the 2016 president ial race. Before we show you the reprisal, lets take a quick look at the original. Can you say in one sentence or less or less you know what i mean and you say why america is the greatest country in the world . The new york jets. [laughter] no, and going to hold you to an answer on that. What makes america the greatest country in the world . Im not letting you go back to the airport without answering the question. Its not the greatest country in the world. Thats my answer. John thats how it starts. Lets take a look at our special version scripted by mark can you say in one sentence or less why donald trump is the best Case Scenario for Hillary Clinton . I think for the first time in election history, her opponent might donate to her campaign. What makes donald trump the best answer for Hillary Clinton . Im not going to let you go back to the airport. Because hes not the best Case Scenario. Thats my answer. Hes a fact bending loose cannon that alienates mainstream voters but he gets Constant Media attention for free. There will be a day from now until november when trump is in on every tv channel and with a straight as, youre going to tell me electing a woman is unprecedented. Germany elected a female president , denmark, poland, norway liberia, they are run by women. 22 sovereign states in the world have already beat us on that. Ok, game change guy, just think case you accidentally find yourself running writing a third look is theres no evidence to support the statement that trump is the best Case Scenario for Hillary Clinton. 38 of the people gave her a favorable rating. 30 of the people said shes trustworthy. Just 22 of democrats say they are enthusiastic. Sure, she beats trump in some categories like millennials where they dont show up to vote and shes leading in who has deleted the most emails from her private email server. When you say what makes trump the best for hillary, i dont know what the bleep you are talking about. His tiny hands . Mark thanks again to jeff daniels. One thing i did not get a chance to talk about is donald trump and his new sparring partner for him he has a nickname guzy Elizabeth Warren. Goofy Elizabeth Warren. Trump has decided to call her goofy. What does donald trump get out of fighting with Elizabeth Warren . John i dont get the nickname and i dont fight. Trump has had some the names that have release stuck to people. But i think even those who dont like Elizabeth Warren dont think shes busy. I dont think trump has found the real hook yet. Mark i think fighting with Elizabeth Warren is great. If theres anyone who the right hates more than Elizabeth Warren moran, i dont know who it is. Great symbolic politics for him to continue to do what he needs to do, which is consolidating his base. And hes not going to pay a price because hes not going to win over Elizabeth Warren supporters. John its probably good for her, too. Probably guaranteeing her reelection if she gets into a fight with donald trump for the people who love her in massachusetts. Time to head over to bloomberg politics. Com and check out our latest story outlining king trumps power struggle over picking a running mate, coming up, we have emily chang speaking to the president of m. I. T. That will be great. Sayonara. This is trending business. Here is a look at what we are watching. Mitsubishi confirming talks with nissan. Several mitsubishi models may be affected by rico wallace. Ta