Claim, by the way, trump denies. And also some members of his staff, as dana bash is reporting. Party leaders are outraged at this latest trump firestorm. Refusing to endorse two party candidates. This is all part of an interview with the Washington Post when asked about ryans reelection bid. I like paul. But these are horrible times for the country. We need very strong leadership. We need very, very strong leadership. And im just not quite there yet. Im not quite there yet. In quotes. Now, contrast that to some news made minutes ago as trumps running mate, indiana governor mike pence, calls in to fox news, voicing his support for speaker ryan. It takes time to have relations together. Im strongly supporting paul ryan, strongly endorse his reelection. Hes a long time friend. He is a strong conservative leader. I believe we need paul ryan in leadership in a congress of the United States. Having the president ial nominee, maybe not being as forthcoming with that same view, leads some to believe that the Republican Party is a little out of step with each other. Is that the case . What are people to make of it . No, not at all. I talked to donald trump this morning about my support for paul ryan, a longtime friendship. He strongly encouraged me to endorse paul ryan in next tuesdays primary. Im pleased to do it. Lets bring in dana bash, our chief Political Correspondent who has all these different breaking details on the Trump Campaign today. You have fascinating quotes, i know. Can we just first begin with what we just heard and what donald trump said or didnt say to the Washington Post . Whats up . Reporter with paul ryan and the fact that mike expense endorsing paul ryan and donald trump isnt . Yes. Yes. Yes. You know what . Put this in the long, long list of things that are very unusual in the 2016 race. Just add that to the list. I do think it is actually more simple than maybe at first blush two appear. And that is, mike pence is genuinely a good friend of paul ryan. They served together in the house of representatives. They have been friends for 15 years or so. Paul ryan said nice things about mike pence as soon as pences name was even floated as trumps running mate. So it is not a surprise that pence would take a stand in even a republican fight next week. Certainly you have paul ryan tearing Donald Trumps convention and kind of going through the motions. But paul ryan also, you know, ticked donald trump off in not endorsing him right away, and more recently, in issuing a very strongly worded statement about the way donald trump handled the khans. I think if you read the transcript of phil rucker, the Washington Posts excellent interview with donald trump, it is pretty clear because he asked about the ryan primary. Donald trump gave kind of a mundane answer. Then called him back with like a twinkle in his eye apparently and said like, do you want a line on paul ryan . Like im not ready to endorse him yet, intentionally echoing what ryan said about donald trump a few months ago. Precisely the same phrase. So you have that. Then you have your initial reporting that some of the Trump Campaign staffers are frustrated with the nominee himself because hes been going off message. But then you followed up and apparently the staffers, including at the top, Paul Manafort, saying no, no, no be with were frustrated with you, the media. Tell me about that conversation. I think what was most fascinating that certainly i was trying to follow up and get some ontherecord quotes and more reporting. But whats most fascinating is they called me today to push back on the notion that i was reporting, which i stand by, that Paul Manafort and others were expressing to others in and around their orbit that they were frustrated and they felt like some felt like maybe they were wasting their time. So this was a call to push back on that. Essentially saying, point blank, were not frustrated, do we sound frustrated . When i say the we, paul mane for the, rick gates, his top aide and associate for a very long time, jason miller, hope hicks, jeff miller, excuse me, the excuse me, Steven Miller ive got too many millers and too many jeffs. In any event, the point im trying to make, i have never had such a situation where the entire senior staff of a campaign is in a room calling to say, i was frustrated . Were not frustrated. But as you can imagine, they blame the media. But also said that at 3 00 when donald trump gives his next big rally speech, they promise that he is going to be much more focused in the areas where republicans want him to focus, Hillary Clinton and all of the problems that she might have on the issues of honesty and tru trustworthiness and the iran hostage deal. Dana bash, thank you very much. Now here in the hot seat, guy who was White House Press secretary under george w. Bush, Ari Fleischer, welcome to cnn. You just heard we played the sound of mike pence. We talk about lack of unification within the Republican Party on trump. Im thinking is the ticket unified . You have trump not endorsing paul ryan and his own vp nominee saying, yes, strongly endorse. The key was the second part of what mike pence was he talked to donald trump this morning, he checked with trump and he said i want to endorse ryan and he got the goahead. It wasnt as if he said im 180 degrees opposite the boss on my ticket. But theyre still not on the same page. But donald trump is a negotiator on everything. I think trump is comfortable saying you say that, im going to move the goal post. I want him to work to get my support. I can see him playing this game. It is not a big meaningful game because the American People are not going to vote on the basis of what politician did not endorse another politician. Theyre worried about other things. This isnt just another politician though. No, this is inside business. This is a man on the republican ticket for nominee for president , and the speaker of the house who ultimately took on hot water as to whether he would ultimately endorse donald trump. And he did. I wonder what do you think is Donald Trumps motivation to not quite go there . To send a signal to paul ryan that im bigger than you, im more important that be you and when i become president you better remember it. It is classic negotiating with. You always negotiate with the speaker. You want him to think i have leverage on you. Trump is all about leverage. I think thats all this is. Is that a good way to go into the white house . If youre going to have to negotiate you have to get things out of people. There are two schools. You go in through accommodation and hope people give you things because you earned them. Sometimes that works in politics, sometimes it doesnt. The other is you go in with a strong hand. I do think you have to stop judging donald trump through a traditional political lens. For a year now weve known there is nothing traditional political about him. What about what dana bush was reporting initially hearing about this frustration with trump and inner machinations of the campaign. Then all of these staff advisors calling her around saying, no, no, no. A lot of times the trump folks are throwing media under the bus. He has plenty to talk about with Hillary Clinton yet he is taking to task this gold star family. Its wrong. After the week Donald Trumps had where hes made so many selfinflicted errors, if his staff is not frustrated, im frustrated. They should be frustrated. I can tell you something, despite their rallying and calling dana, theyre frustrated. There is any way anybody in communications on the campaign is not frustrated when the boss doesnt take advice and goes after a gold star family. They are frustrated and they have a right to be. I think whats wrong is the story that Paul Manafort is not pushing back against trump any more, that is not true. I assure you the inside top people on the campaign are trying to do that, and it is just very difficult because donald trump does what donald trump does. Thats i think part of the issue. We also had heard that the Trump Campaign was reaching out to his longtime friends, Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie, as someone who perhaps he would listen to. What do you make of that . I think theyre in a very bad spot. There are only 14 weeks left and hes had two bad weeks in a row. You cannot win if thats your pace. What donald trump has done, hes become such a good counter puncher that at thes about to knock himself out. Hes got stop counter punching people who are not running for president. He needs to focus on hillary and only hillary. He can throw in a little bit barack obama because that would be hillarys third term. But last week when the government validated everything he was saying about the weak economy, 1. 2 growth thats not what he was talking about. Is exactly right. He whats having one of those rare moments where government statistics back what donald trump is saying, what did he do . Totally off track. This is communications 101 and donald trump is supposed to be good at communications. Hes hurting his own cause in a race where he can win. Hes going to blow this if he keeps this up not only for himself but for others. What about your former boss, george w. Bush, who spoke to a crowd of 400 last night in cincinnati, donors, this is for rob portman, a senator in ohio, and he was he never mentioned trump by name. Let me just be precise. He critiques his policies of isolationism, nay tivism and protectionism at this private fundraiser. A lot of republicans listen to president bush. Why do you think he a he not more publicly vocal about his feelings toward donald trump. For the same reason he doesnt criticize barack obama. He looks at this very seriously and thinks the office of the presidency should be respected and former president s are formers and they should not weigh in on everything little thing. If he feels so strongly, why can he not speak up . Because you can also feel strongly about the continuity and the people who come after you have the responsibility and burdenen of figuring it out by themselves. And a former president should let them do that. Now i have a problem with president obama if he constantly jumps into politics from the presidency, i can see at the convention, but if president obama is constantly becoming a spokesman for Hillary Clinton in this campaign, he is lowering the office of the presidency. His Approval Ratings are pretty strong. Compared to recent times. Compared to president bush, yes. But low 50s, thats good enough for the democrat base but not good in you have for republicans. There is also right or wrong. There is a graciousness to standing out as a about to be former president and let the two people fighting for successor to show their own mettle and see what they can do. Thats the spirit of george w. Bush. I have to wonder if donald trump were to win if barack obama would stay silent or chirp in and chime in every day. I sis expe success expect the latter. Cnn libertarian town hall this evening. Anderson cooper moderating that with gary johnson and william weld. Tonight 9 00 eastern, only here on cnn. Coming up next, we will speak live with john mccains wouldbe general election opponent and get her reaction to all of this. Then trumps lack of endorsement also for the senator from arizona. And breaking news for the first time, an American Police officer is charged with helping isis. Hear what the feds say this d. C. Transit officer actually did. And, 400 million in cash put on a plane to iran. Did the u. S. Pay ransom . We need to talk about this. Explosive details ahead. Im brooke baldwin. Youre watching cnn. You both have a perfect driving record. Perfect. No tickets, no accidents. That is until one of you clips a food truck, ruining your perfect record. Yeah. Now, you would think your Insurance Company would cut you some slack, right . No. Your insurance rates go through the roof. Your perfect record doesnt get you anything. Anything. 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This is truecar. Welcome back. Youre watching cnn. Im brooke baldwin. Donald trump is refusing to endorse a pair of republican heavyweights, both House Speaker paul ryan and former president ial nominee and current senator in arizona, john mccain. But why does it matter . Well, mccain, the incumbent senator in arizona, is in a pretty tough race in a traditionally red state. The last time arizona went blue was actually in 1996 for bill clinton. Arizona now an unlikely battleground state in this current president ial election. The sound bite that we watched play out between senator mccain and donald trump paving the way for my next guest. Republican anne kirkpatrick, a democrat who would face potentially mccain in november assuming senator mccain wins his primary this month. Congresswoman, good afternoon. Nice to have you on. Thank you, brooke. Thanks so much. So, first up here, just on the news today, we know john mccain has endorsed donald trump, a man who insulted senator mccains service as a prisoner of war, as a hero, and is now refusing to endorse john mccain. Whats your response to all of that . You know, its very interesting, isnt it. You and i were just talking about what an interesting election season this is. You know, i guess what surprises me most is that john mccain continues to support trump in spite of the fact that donald trump insulted john mccains service. I stood up for john mccain. But, brooke, what i hear most from people as i travel around the state of arizona is that theyre surprised that john mccain wont stand up for himself. Heres what they think. If he wont stand up for himself, hes not going to stand up for us. Thats whats really surprising. But he did in that statement. In that powerful statement on the khan family on monday. You know, he continues to say he supports trump over and over again. Over 50 times hes continued to say that. Look, my heart goes out to the khan family. They deserve our respect. Im a mother. Im a grandmother. I cant imagine, especially mrs. Khan, the grief, that loss that she feels and will feel the rest of her life. They deserve our respect. But again, john mccain comes out and says he supports trump, in spite of the very but, forgive me for interrupting, that statement senator mccain released, multiparagraph it was powerful. Do you give him some credit for that statement, for how emotionally charged it was and how he was standing up for himself and the khan family . Hes trying to have it all ways. He cant walk away from donald trump. Hes continued to say, in spite of. I mean Donald Trumps been saying, hey fuateful racist, insulting things for quite a while, and john mccain continues to say he supports trump. As recently as just a couple of days ago. Take a stand. Congresswoman, lets talk about your party and the democrats. Why didnt you go to philadelphia . Why didnt you attend the Democratic National convention . Ive never had the opportunity to go to a convention. Ive always had really tough elections in arizona. And ive won them. And were going to win this election. Were out everywhere in the state of arizona talking with people about what they care about, about education and building a world class Education System in arizona. So it was a scheduling issue. It was about creating jobs for rtthe 21st century. It was a scheduling issue. It is a Campaign Issue for me. Ive always been in arizona during the conventions talking about arizonans. Thats where the voters are. Thats what this campaign is about. Okay. John mccain is trying to link you to Hillary Clinton with this ad. Im sure youve seen it. Lets show it to our viewers. I did not send classified email. 110 emails contained classified information. Extremely careless. She served very well as secretary of state and im a hillary supporter. Congresswoman kirkpatrick, i understand youre fighting a tough fight and campaign reasons you didnt get to philadelphia. But is there any reason related to that ad and how he is trying to link the two of you that you did not show up in philadelphia . Well, you know, my opponent will do what he has to do to try to win. But im talking with real people in arizona. Meeting them where they are. And this is a serious election season for arizonans. People really are concerned about the direction of our state. Forgive me, but did that have anything to do with you not showing up and supporting Hillary Clinton in person in philadelphia . No, it didnt. It didnt. It did not. Do you think Hillary Clinton is trustworthy . Im sorry, what was that again . Do you think secretary clinton is trustworthy . Oh, i support hillary. Ive taken a public stance on that and i think shes the most qual