i would say right now, it's the best in terms of being united that it's been since we began. we're doing incredibly well. >> trump has been under fire from members of his own party distracting voters straying off the hillary clinton message and seemingly picking fights with other republican leaders like house speaker paul ryan who says he's distressed trump is not focusing all his attacks on hillary clinton, but this morning, donald trump's campaign chief said they've righted the ship, and the message is clear. >> the campaign messages are worked out. the themes of this campaign are settled. we know -- >> will he follow them, is the question? >> well i think he is trying messages out on the campaign trail. he's been very successful in the primaries. he draws his strength and his messages from the interaction he has with the public, and he's doing that right now. >> so we'll see today in portland, maine f donald trump stays on message or whether he strays. jason carroll, our national correspondent, is there in portland for us. jason, you were with him in florida yesterday. does he seem like he's getting more focused? >> reporter: well it did yesterday in daytona at least for part of his speech, that's for sure. at one point he was hammering clinton on that $h400 million payment to iran, and hammering her on her trustworthiness. these are some of the things the gop says this is what we want to see you doing and not other things. part of his speech, wolf, the reason why, yesterday in daytona he focused on clinton and started to relitigate some of the things we heard before, talking about megyn kelly and whether or not he made fun of a disabled reporter, these are the types of things that the gop says you need to sort of move beyond that but you heard what trump said. he says look, despite what critics are saying, whether it's gop or otherwise, he says that this campaign is on track. he says they're more united than ever, but really, the reality bears something much different than that. you look at what's happening with the gop, clearly there are some problems here that the campaign needs to address. they say that his rhetoric is a problem. his inability to stay on message is a problem. they look at what happened with paul ryan, for example, house speaker paul ryan. they say this is something you didn't need to do by not endorsing him. in fact, paul ryan spoke out about this for the first time and the question was put to him, is there anything that trump could do to make ryan pull back his endorsement of trump? >> none of these things are ever blank checks. that goes with any situation, in any kind of race, but right now, i think it's important that the voters, you know, he won the delegates. he won the thing fair and square. it's just that simple. >> reporter: ryan also making it clear in that radio interview that, following the rnc convention, wolf, he felt as though what trump has done has been "strange" and distressing. he really wants trump to stay focused on clinton. that is the best way he and many others in the gop feels he should be moving forward now in the general election. wolf? >> jason, as you know, the trump campaign is quick to point out the crowds, as an illustration of donald trump's success. they say 10,000, 15,000 people at those two events in florida yesterday. but how many new people based on everything you're seeing are actually coming under that tent, voters he's trying to sway, new voters to support him, as opposed to the fervent base of his support? >> reporter: well that's a good question and first let's point out, look, it is very clear when you come out to these rallies whether you're in pennsylvania or ohio or yesterday we were in daytona, wolf, the crowds are huge. there's no question that he has strong support from his base. i spoke to a man yesterday in daytona. you know what this man told me? he said there's nothing trump can say that would make me not vote for this man, but the question is, moving forward in the general election, can he bring in others beyond his base? can he bring in women? can he bring in educated whites, latinos, african-americans and you look at the poll numbers and the poll numbers suggest he needs to do more. he is slipping in the polls, and some key states that he needs to win, places like pennsylvania, for example, so the question is, can he move beyond the crowds that we see here, the supporters that we see here? clearly it worked for him in the primary, the general election, a much different story. i will tell you this. you hear from the trump camp and what they'll tell you is, polls are polls. they go up and down but the real question will be what happens after labor day and by that point, they expect this campaign to be back where it used to be. >> jason carroll he's covering the trump campaign in portland, maine, thank you very much. let's talk more about the message ing from donald trump, backlash from some senior members of the republican party. here nia-malika henderson and manu raju and ryan rogers, washington correspondent for "the new yorker." the relationship between donald trump trmp and paul ryan the highest ranking republican out there, the speaker of the house it's tense i assume right now after what donald trump said, the response from paul ryan. though he isn't yet ready to pull i had endorsement. >> it seems like a hard thing for him to do. he said there of course that donald trump won this thing fair and square. he knows that the people who backed trump in the primary are essentially romney voters, the same sort of run of the mill republican voters voting republican all the while, so it's hard for him, and i think it's hard for a lot of these elected officials particularly elected officials in red states to come out against donald trump and go against their word to endorse donald trump. they're in a tough position. >> there is a republican congressman from colorado, tom kaufman. he's a republican. he's actually putting ads out there severely distancing himself from the republican presidential nominee. watch this. >> for me, country comes first. my duty is always to you. so if donald trump is president, i'll stand up to him, plain and simple. >> pretty extraordinary, when you think about it. >> it really is. mike kaufman has a difficult re-election race in a colorado, denver suburbs and who comprises that district? we have college educated whites, hispanics, suburban mothers, all voting blocks where donald trump does not do particularly well so he is working very hard to distance himself from donald trump. it's interesting whether senators can do that. they're in more difficult spots even ones in targeted races because they need donald trump supporters to come out to the polls at the end of the day, not just the independent voters and swing voters who may be alienated from donald trump but the core donald trump supporters. one interesting thing to point out in the new hampshire poll, kelly ayotte, the new hampshire senator is now down 10 points in her race largely because of donald trump, but she's in a mind. donald trump won the new hampshire primary and he has passionate supporters in that state so a difficult spot that a lot of the republican senators are in, even if they distance themselves from trump. >> adam kissinger republican congressman from illinois, he's an iraq war veteran. he made it clear he can't vote for hillary clinton but also can't vote for trmp trdonald tr. >> he was one of the republicans on the fence for a long time, wasn't sure, very anti-trump and finally decided he's had enough. he can't vote for him. trump is in maine today, susan collins, the senator from maine still has not endorsed donald trump, last i heard she's still undecided and was considering still actively considering supporting hillary clinton. so we have to wait to see what she decides. i think the bit of leverage trump has with some of the races is not every republican is out of their primary. so if you're paul ryan, he'll have an easy primary looks like next week. he probably, if he was ever considering unendorsing trump he probably wants to wait until after that primary is over. john mccain in arizona, not a tough primary but something that his campaign staff was always monitoring and worried about. they start early voting right now in august in arizona, and so he's going to wait until labor day until he's clear of his primary, so once all of these republican primaries clear, the elections where the trump voters are the most important i think if trump is still engaged in the same kind of controversies, that's when you might see more of a larger scale movement away from him, if he hasn't, you know, changed. >> i suspect republican leaders and you can confirm this, i know you've been talking to a lot of them, they see kaufman, the congressman from colorado, kinsinger, congressman from illinois moving away interest donald trump, others are distancing themselves. they're afraid this going to encourage a bigger avalanche if you will. >> let alone what republican elected officials do, who are on the ballot and some facing primaries, some in the tough swing states. what about actual voters? if you look at that fox poll which has hillary clinton up by i think ten points, 12% of republicans are thinking they will vote for hillary clinton come november. that's a troubling number. i think it's something like 3% or 4% for republicans or dpm democrats who might want to vote for hillary clinton. this is a problem if they start seeing this actually at the ballot box, and i think according to these polls, a lot of actual voting republicans are having a hard time actually voting for donald trump. there's no sense that it's going to get better if he keeps behaving this way. >> the paul ryan model is something a lot of republicans are following here, which is to criticize donald trump on key issues and as paul ryan said he views himself as defender of republican values and the republican brand, but not unendorse him because they need donald trump to do well even if he loses to do reasonably well so it doesn't wipe out the congressional majority. >> we do speak to house republicans all the time, manu, how upset were they in the interview in "the washington post" donald trump said he's not quite ready to endorse the speaker of the house? >> very upset. >> he's well liked. >> he's well liked and won overwhelmingly his speakership. they said why? i talked to tom cole "the oklahoma republican" close to paul ryan. why are you picking fights with your own party? focus on hillary clinton, that's the one thing that actually you nights us and i think that's why we're hearing the trump campaign doing some damage control over the last couple of days. >> even just from basic electoral strategy, the trump campaign is really puzzling. he's in maine today, he's in portland, maine. republicans haven't won maine in a presidential election -- since 1988. >> nebraska, they split their electoral votes. >> i know we're fighting for every electoral vote, there's one in nebraska, too, but you need to win the industrial midwest first before you concentrate on that single electoral. >> susan collins is maine is not going to be at this trump rally today in maine? >> no, but the governor is a big trump fan, he will page, one of his early backers. >> newt gingrich we seem to get some conflicting words from him in "the washington post" said the other day, he said he, referring to trump "cannot win the presidency operating the way he is now. she can't be bad enough to elect him if he's determined to make this many mistakes. trump is helping her to win by proving he is more unacceptable than she is." he later tried to clean things up, tweeting this, "media has wildly misinterpreted my critique of a bad week for trump. trump is vastly better than hillary as president." >> this is a position newt gingrich has been in often. he'll deal out the criticism and. tull back. he sometimes plays sort of the explainer of donald trump for instance when the russia thing came out and donald trump seemed to call on russia to break into hillary clinton's emails. he said oh, he was just being sarcastic. so this is his role in some ways to come out, he seems to criticize him, sometimes he gets blowback from donald trump and he pulls it back. so listen, i mean, the think the request he is whether or not anyone is in the position to criticize donald trump and change his behavior. >> we have much more to assess. also there's breaking news, we're following right now, the 2016 olympic games, more than 100 athletes were just banned from participating in the games. we're going to update you on that and a lot more, when we come back. nutritional needs... all in one. purina one. healthy energy, all in one. strong muscles, all in one. highly digestible, and a taste he loves, all in one. purina one smartblend is expertly blended... with 100% nutrition, 0% fillers, always real meat #1. lifelong smart nutrition. it's all in one. purina one. there's no such thing as adverse discoverconditions.lexus suv ♪ ♪ for a limited time get some of our best offers of the year at the lexus golden opportunity sales event. this is the pursuit of perfection. the check they sent isn't enough to replace your totaled new car. the guy says they didn't make the mistake. you made the mistake. i beg your pardon? he says, you should have chosen full-car replacement. excuse me? let me be frank, he says. you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car plus depreciation. call and if you have more than one liberty mutual policy, you qualify for a multi-policy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. call liberty mutual for a free quote today at that's liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we welcome our viewers in united states and around the world. much more on the race for the white house in a few moments. right now there's breaking news out of rio de janeiro. the international olympic committee just announced more than 100 athletes have tested positive for doping and will not be allowed to participate in the olympic games. the 2016 games. while the decision on the russian athletes who have been at the center of this scandal is not expected until later today, russia says it believes 265 and 270 of their athletes will be able to compete. nick paton walsh is in rio. what else was announced today? >> reporter: this is a key moment really for the future of russia in these olympic games. we've always known about 100 were going to get banned. it was 287 or so, the numbers are always hard to precisely track down who were having their cases reviewed by their own separate sporting federations. they were supposed to announce at some point today we thought perhaps later on exactly how many of those 287 were going to get a clean record, a clean bill of health to be allowed to compete. i just heard from a spokesperson for the russian team here that they've received documents, information that suggests between 265 and 270 of those 287 or so are going to be okay, are going to be allowed to compete in the games. that is a quite substantial victory, you might argue, for the russians. they even go on to suggest the remaining 17 or so, i again say the numbers are never precise the remaining 17 are looking to appeal judgment so may try and still compete. they also point out obviously it's the international olympic committee that make the final ruling. that's what we're waiting for. at this stage this process launched a few weeks ago in which it wasn't going to be the international olympic committee that made a judgment. it was going to be those separate sporting federations for each sport would have to rule on each russian athlete's bill of health. that process has gone massively in russia's favor, talking about at least 265 out of 287 having their cases looked at, and now going to compete in the games. so only under about an 8% or so are not going to be allowed to compete. that's massively gone in their favor and may perhaps leave some to be increasingly critical of the ioc's decision to devolve who is working out in the games. this all came about because of substantial massive body of evidence from investigator, whistleblower, anti-doping agencies there's been a state-run industrial scale doping problem in russian sports, and that led to this review, and we're now going to see instead of the russian team entirely excluded which was something american officials had pushed for, we're going to see 100 of the track and field and other athletes banned, a lot of these were big medal hopefuls, big potential shining success stories russia wanted to have, they're not going to have. the others who could have stood a chance they'll have about a 90% success rate in getting through to the games. this will be a very controversial verdict in sporting history. wolf? >> when did you say the announcement would be made of this decision? >> reporter: well we're thinking in the hours ahead. that's what the international olympic committee is saying. russian officials giving us information to suggest it's going to go pretty massively in their favor. as we get literally within 24 hours or so of the opening ceremony, we still don't know which of the russian athletes that have flown here, about 290 or so i'm being told will be competing in the games. imagine you fly half way across the world to a country you've never been to before to compete in what should be the games in your life and finding out at the last minute if you can attend that sporting event. critics of the russian team say that's because you've been heavily and repeatedly accused of doping but the way this has been handled has many raising their eyebrows. >> good report for that. i'm sure the russians are happy with the numbers. nick we'll stay in close touch with you, nick paton walsh in rio for us covering the olympic games. come up, we'll get back to the race for the white house, spotlight on some key swing states. new polls now show hillary clinton leading in bath l grotl states. what does that mean for donald trump and his quest for the white house. and president obama's highest approval ratings of his second term. will the numbers for the president affect this year's presidential contest? we'll break it all down when we come back. that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for the strength and energy to get back to doing... ...what you love. ensure. always be you. if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla (apremilast). otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. otezla may increase the risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ask your dermatologist about otezla today. otezla. show more of you. donald trump: i could stand in the middle of 5th avenue i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message. and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters, okay? and you can tell them to go f--- themselves! you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever... you gotta see this guy. ahh, i don't know what i said, ahh. "i don't remember." he's going like "i don't remember!" i we worked with pg&eof to save energy because wenie. wanted to help the school. they would put these signs on the door to let the teacher know you didn't cut off the light. the teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. so they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights! those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. we actually saved $50,000. and that's just one school, two semesters, three girls. together, we're building a better california. there's new polling in several key battleground states and offers some serious encouragement for the hillary clinton campaign by putting her on top after the conventions in a new cnn/orc national poll gives president barack obama his highest approval rating of this second term. 54% of those polled in this new national poll say they approve of the job the president is doing. david chalian joins us from new york and nia-malika henner doin'son, manu raju and ryan liz zha. what are the polls telling us? >> these are blue states the last couple of elections but pr precisely the states donald trump is trying to turn around to get to the electoral votes. from east to west a 15-point lead there, 47% for clinton in new hampshire, 32% for trmump, huge lead in a small battleground state but important battleground state. look at pennsylvania, also a double-digit lead there. hillary clinton leads donald trump by 11 points in pennsylvania, and if you look at michigan, the third state that we had a new poll from today, that's pennsylvania there 49-38, if you look at michigan it's a nine-point lead, 41% to 32%. this is the territory especially pennsylvania and michigan that donald trump had the most likely path to 270, try to up-end the rust belt, get those white noncollege educated working class voters to rise up and come out and support him and right now, off of her very good convention, she is sitting pretty in these key battleground states, wolf. >> what more can you tell us about president obama's rising job approval numbers? >> well as you mentioned, this is his best approval rating of the second term so far, and we know that there is almost nothing as important to hillary clinton's prospects for success than barack obama's approval rating. two-thirds of the country tell us that they see clinton policies as a continuation of obama. so when the country sees you as potentially a third term, or a continuation of the president, and the president's at his highest mark with 54% approval ratings, his highest mark in the second term that bodes well for hillary clinton and you saw last week in philadelphia and we're going to see it on the campaign trail from now through november she has completely tied her fortunes to president obama, right now, that's working out for her. >> and correct me if i'm wrong, but these job approval numbers for president obama very similar to the numbers that ronald reagan had at this point in his second term as he was getting ready to leave office as well as president bill clinton. take a look at that. you can see it right there. >> that's right, wolf. >> president obama at 54%. bush was way down at only 30%, clinton was at 57%, and ronald reagan at 54% so these are very good numbers for president obama and if it stays like that, it bodes billion to hewell to help clinton. >> and it bodes well for barack obama's legacy as well. as you noted he is in historic territory, tied with reagan, near bill clinton, in terms of two-term presidents in the modern era. >> david chalian, thanks very much. nia, the numbers are encouraging for hillary clinton. she's trying to attach herself as much as possible to the president of the united states. >> yes, we saw that on stage. obama in his speech saying he was going to pass the baton to clinton clinton, ask his voters or the obama coalition to carry hillary clinton in the way they carried him, and in the embrace on stage there. so she knows about these approval rating numbers, 54%, and the economy also. that's a measure of how people feel about the economy, how they see the country going, and there's economic numbers particularly unemployment numbers in some of the big swing states all fairly low. i think the national unemployment rate is something like 5%. o all of these things bode withal for her and trump's obvious path is to knock obama, to tie hillary clinton to them. if people feel good about obama it makes it much more tough for him. >> what he needs to do is recreate that coalition that president obama put together to win decisively in 2008, 2012, young people, women, minorities, that's a tough challenge for her. is it doable? >> it's doable, largely because a lot of those folks are simply unnerved about donald trump and she of course has struggled with more liberal voters, younger voters, those are bernie sanders voters but donald trump democrats hope is the great unifier. what's been interesting since the convention is her effort to attract swing voter, independent voter, white works class voters. maybe she can peel back some of donald trump's support in the key rust belt states like pennsylvania and ohio, which is one reason why they've been spending a lot of time there. >> look closely at the key battleground states, ryan. he's got to do well in like florida, pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, if he's going to get to 270 electoral votes he needs to win these states. >> you got to look at those solidly democratic states in the industrial midwest, the states that have gone for the democrats the last few cycles, if trump has a chance in this race to break through that blue wall that's where it's going to be done so you've got to start seeing movement in pennsylvania, michigan, even wisconsin to a certain extent. if you don't see movement there, you're not going to, he's not going to win. he can't win the race, even if he wins ohio he's not going to win unless he breaks through a lot more. that 54% approval rating for obama probably the number watch right through the end of the election. that is the sort of proxy how voters feel about the economy, how they're feeling about the country. it's confusing because on the one hand we see numbers about voters saying whether they want change or not and over two-thirds of voters say they want change, if you're donald trump, that's a nice number. on the other hand, they're saying 54% for the democratic incumbent, and so that's a slightly more important number, because that tells you how transferrable obama's popularity is to hillary. >> the key question pollsters love to ask is the country moving in the right direction, wrong direction. still not necessarily very good for this president or for hillary clinton. >> absolutely. over two-thirds of the voters are saying things are going in the wrong direction. at the same time they're saying 54% approval for the incumbent president. so you know, it's -- >> conflicts. >> it conflicts but historically look at the numbers you just put up on the screen, presidential approval is the single best indicator for whether the incumbent party get another term or not. >> and which is why they'll lean on president obama pretty significantly. >> he's going away on veigh case, got a news conference coming up before he goes away on his summer vacation to martha's vineyard. he wraps it up at 4:15 eastern later this afternoon from the pentagon. but after labor day, i assume he's going to be pretty active on the campaign trail. >> yes and you mentioned the questions about vulnerabilities on the left. he can help with that significantly. he's still very popular with the democratic base, bringing out folks on the left. but in addition to president obama, expect a lot of elizabeth warren, too, and bernie sanders as well, democrats believe could be their line-up to energize folks who may not be that excited about hillary clinton. >> you'll see donald trump, he's going to michigan on monday. he's going to give a speech in detroit so they very much want to play in these states. it's going to be hard, michigan i think owe bama in 2012 won by 400,000 votes. he has to figure out how to stay on message and make the focus of this campaign hillary clinton and obama's legacy, rather than chasing all of these shiny objects. >> going to green bay, wisconsin, as you know, but missing from that event will be the republican governor, the republican senator, and the republican speaker of the house, all from wisconsin. >> yes. >> the senator there also in a difficult race and distanced himself from donald trump. when i went out there in and interviewed rod johnson he said at the time in april or may that "i would stump with trump" like the ronald and the donald. since then he backed away from that. i will support trump but not endorse him. trying to make a distinction, but shows how difficult of a position trump makes these. >> difference between supporting and endorsing and voting for. >> basically saying i'm being a good party person so the voters chose this guy so i guess i'll choose him but i'm not exactly embracing him. >> won't be able to show up with you with the republican presidential nominee when he visits my state, a little odd. coming up, a north carolina man under arrest, accused of plotting isis-inspired attacks here in the united states. how he was allegedly trying to recruit would-be terrorists. much more right after this. ♪it's peyton on sunday mornings.♪ (peyton) you know with directv nfl sunday ticket you can watch your favorite team no matter where you live. like broncos or colts. 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>> the arrest of hendricks, wolf, is because' tempted according to the court papers filed in north carolina today he was trying to create a sleeper cell and he thought he was. this is part of a sting operation orchestrated in part by the fbi, but he was in touch with a lot of different people who have been part of other terrorist incidents, including as you mentioned elton simpson, one of the attackers who tried to carry out an attack on a prophet muhammad drawing contest last year in garland, texas. he was in touch with simpson before that attempted attack, if you remember a security guard was able to stop that before anyone else got hurt, just those two attackers were killed and we also know that what hendricks was trying to do was use personal information of members of the military that's out on the internet, if you remember some of the personal information of members of the military was published by isis, and he was going to use that information to be able to target members of the military, using the sleeper cell he was trying to organize. >> did he have weapons? >> he did not have weapons but he was in touch with people who were allegedly trying to get weapons. >> this is the second arrest of an alleged isis sympathizer here in the united states. yesterday d.c. transit police officer was arrested. >> that's right, this is another arrest, seems like every day we get another one of these, his name is nicholas young. he's appearing in court in another few minutes here in washington or rather in alexand alexandra, virginia. 13-year veteran of the d.c. metro transit police department, and the fbi has been keeping an eye on him for six years, wolf. they were very concerned about some of his statements, some of his comments. metro p.d. reported him to the fbi. all the time they were watching him, recording his conversations, he never actually crossed a line into anything criminal until just last week, when he bought 22 gift cards that he thought were being sent overseas to isis supporters in syria. turns out that was also part of the fbi and fbi operation. they arrested him yesterday. again he's appearing in court to get a lawyer appointed to him, and we expect that that case will be going forward from there. >> he was a transit officer, he worked in the subway system, the metro in washington. this is the first time a police officer in the united states has been arrested, charged with sympathizing with isis? >> that is right. we've had over 1 hub of these arrests, the justice department the national security division rolled up over about 100 isis supporters in the united states in the last couple years. we've had former corrections officers, we have hey former members of the military, reservists, we've never had an active police officer and that's the cascary thing this guy has been on the job allegedly protecting the metro system here in washington and now he's in jail facing these charges. 20 years in prison if he gets convicted on these charges. >> thanks very much, evan perez reporting for us. coming up, donald trump tries to right the ship, after feuding with the father of a fallen american soldier. up next, we'll hear from one of the gold star family members that donald trump met with yesterday, there you see him. was his message enough to win them over? we'll be right back. right now here in washington on capitol hill an effort is under way to try to get some republican lawmakers to revoke their endorsement of republican presidential nominee donald trump. that effort is under way, showing live pictures right now, a group of u.s. military veterans planning to deliver a petition to senator john mccain's office. they want mccain and other gop leaders to withdraw their endorsement of donald trump, after he criticized the parents of a muslim american soldier killed in iraq, criticized parents who criticized hip as the democratic convention. donald trump appears to be looking for ways to ease those tensions, with veterans groups, members of his own party. he met yesterday with the families of six service members killed in combat. with me now is gold star dad craig gross. he's one of the family members who met with mr. trump yesterday, his son army corporal frank gross, was killed by an ied in afghanistan on july 16th, 2011. there is a picture of the young man, the young american fallen soldier. mr. gross, let me extend first of all on behalf of me and all of our viewers our deepest on colenses to you and your wife for the loss of your son. tell us a little bit about frank gross, your son. >> well, corporal frank robert gross was just a great young man. he was just a good, he was not only a good son, he was a good friend. he and i golfed together, we fished together. we went camping together, just about everything that i like to do, frankie liked to do, and i'm an artist, and he was just a prolific artist. he loved to play the guitar. i play the guitar. so it was just a very unusual relationship. when i talk to other dads, i don't find very many dads that had the type of relationship that i had with corporal frank robert gross. >> he sounds like a great young man indeed. once again my heart goes out to you and your family. tell us about the meeti >> well, i got -- i received a phone call from chris hager, the day before yesterday. it was late in the afternoon and he asked me if i wanteded to go to the trump rally in jacksonville and meet personally with donald trump and karen and billy vaughn were going to be there as well as a couple other gold star families. and i just -- i said, you know, i'm going to take this opportunity to go and see what exactly mr. trump wanted to talk to us about. and i went with expectations of just walking in to a room, shaking his hand, and walking out the other door. that's not what happened. >> what happened inside, if you can share that with us? >> well, first of all, we were greeted by pam bondi at the front door. it was very nice to see pam. and then we were escorted into another room with donald trump. and once again, i expected just to shake his hand and just keep walking. and he stopped us and he shook all of our hands and gave us a hug and told us that he appreciated us coming and meeting with him. and then he said, let's all just sit down here at this conference table and chat for a few minutes. a few minutes turned into ten minutes, 15 minutes, and we were there probably 35 or 40 minutes. he asked us questions about our sons, where our sons served, how they were killed in action, and he was -- he said it was a very empathetic year. >> can you identify with the khan family who lost a son back in 2004 in iraq and have had this feud, as you know, with mr. trump? >> well, you know, i'm the vice president of gold star fathers for the state of florida. and, wolf, if i was asked to speak at a political event, i would have -- i would have kept my comments strictly focused on my son. i would not have said anything about either candidate. i believe that as a gold star father, it is incumbent upon me to preserve the dignity of our sons and our daughters' sacrifices that they made. our sons and our daughters went in to war to protect the constitution of the united states, and to protect every american. they did not go in to war to protect a certain segment of society, a certain race, a certain religion, a certain color, or a certain creed. they went to protect the constitution of the united states of america. and i absolutely refuse to get in the middle of this. all i can say is, as a gold star father, we will continue to do everything we can to preserve the dignity of our sons' sacrifices. and whatever we do in the ballot box, we're doing it because of their sacrifice, because it has been said, freedom is not free. >> well said, craig gross. once again, our deepest, deepest condolences to you and your wife and your entire family in the loss of your son, corporal frank gross. he was only 25 years old when he was killed in kandahar in afghanistan when an improvised explosive device exploded and killed him. once again, thank you so much. thanks for all work you are doing as well. we appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up, turkey issues an arrest warrant for a cleric in pennsylvania considered a key suspect in last month's failed coup in turkey. but will the u.s. extradite this individual. we have a live report. you're here to buy a car. what would help is simply being able to recognize a fair price. truecar has pricing data on every make and model, so all you have to do is search for the car you want, there it is. now you're an expert in less than a minute. this is truecar. ♪olympics 2016, let me get you on my level. ♪ so you never miss a moment, ♪ ♪miss a minute, miss a medal. ♪ ♪ why settle when you can have it all? ♪ ♪soccer to wrestling. track and field to basketball. ♪ fencing to cycling. diving to balance beam. ♪ ♪all you have to sa♪ ♪ is, "show me," and boom it's on the screen♪ ♪ from the bottom of the mat, ♪ ♪ to the couch where you at? ♪ ♪ show me the latest medal count♪ ♪xfinity's where it's at. ♪ welcome to it all. comcast nbcuniversal is proud to bring you coverage of the rio olympic games. there's a very important new development unfolding in the failed coup in turkey last month. a court in istanbul has just issued an official arrest warrant for a cleric here in the united states. the warrant accused fethullah gulen of leading the july 15th coup. let's go to istanbul, our senior international correspondent arwa damon is on the story for us. arwa, how could this impact relations between the u.s. and turkey, two very close nato allies? >> reporter: well, there's a very real potential that they just may not be so close anymore because everyone here, wolf, from the president on down has very openly and harshly said that whether or not the u.s. actually does end up handing over fethullah gulen, it is going to be a direct measure of the two nations pea' relationsh. the turks believe that at the and his movement were behind this coup. they say they have the evidence to back it, and they say that the u.s. has a responsibility to actually bring him in to custody now. they have already put that request forward, even though they haven't presented all of the evidence and intelligence they have at hand to do with this most recent failed coup attempt. but they say they have intelligence that he may be trying to flee to another country where turkey won't be able to reach him. and, wolf, there's already a sense here amongst the turkish population that america must somehow be responsible for this failed coup because in their perspective, they are harboring the man that their government is accusing of having carried it out. and you can hear this music behind me. we're just overlooking istanbul's taksim square where every single night thousands have come to gaerther demonstrating against this attempted coup and showing their support for the government, wolf. >> arwa damon in istanbul for us, thanks very much. we will hear more about the cleric when the president of the united states holds a news conference later today. look for cnn's live special coverage. it all begins 4:15 p.m. eastern on cnn. i'm back 5:00 p.m. eastern in the situation room. the news continues right now on cnn. wolf blitzer, thank you so much. great to be with you on this thursday. i'm brooke baldwin and this is cnn. we begin with the counteroffensive, the most powerful republican in congress just launched against his party's presidential nominee, donald trump. by the way, trump is due to speak at a town hall a short time from now. we'll take that live. but this is part of a lineup of major political events with hillary clinton, the president as well speaking in the next couple of hours. so keep it right here. now when donald trump comes up to the podium, heil

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