Hes a good guy and not going to hurt anybody. Reporter did the Presumptive Republican nominee really pose as his own pr agent . Doesnt sound like me. Reporter will the tabloid kings old antics come back to haunt him. And Hillary Clinton, as trump continues his attacks on her husband, a new report renews questions about Clinton Foundation fundraising. Will it hurt hillary . Plus the best political minds will be here with insights from the campaign trail. Hello im jake tapper in washington, where the state of our union is still in denial. New report in the Washington Post says a kabal of dissident republicans including former nominee mitt romney are actively attempting to recruit a third party cop servive candidate to run against donald trump and Hillary Clinton. What theyre missing . An actual candidate. Ohio Governor John Kasich and never trump cheerleader ben sass of nebraska both said no theyre not interested. Even mark cuban also said thanks but no thanks, even without a new rival trump had a bumpy week with renewed calls for him to release his tax returns. Hatefilled diatribe from his former butler on facebook calling for president obama to be killed and of course those bizarre tapes mocked on saturday night live. Who am i . Im his publicist joey pepperoni. No im not donald trump in disguise. This is just what classy people sound like, okay . Lots to talk about with Trumps Campaign manager paul manafort. Thanks for being here. Great to see you. I want to start with this meeting donald trump had with House Speaker paul ryan on thursday. People in the ryan world describe it as a meeting where donald trump said what they wanted to hear, what speaker ryan wanted to hear about how he would comport himself Going Forward and ryans concerns about things that trump has said that potentially alienated women, latinos, et cetera, but in the New York Times this morning, mr. Trump told maureen to you we talked about the success ive had trump replied. So ryan didnt ask trump to stop making remarks that alienate women . No, trump said, he wants me to me. So much, dowd writes, for the showdown. Did he affirm to paul ryan, speaker radio ian he was going to behave in more president ial manner or was the conclusion hes got to be him . Look, both statements have elements or both true, actually. Donald trump was not asked by the leadership to change, and theres no reason for him to change. Hes just won the prime moary process with a Record Number of votes beating a field of 16 qualified vaents kaents. Not necessarily true, appealing to one partys electorate, democratic or republican is not appealing to general election. But trump in the primaries was appealing to the broader electric terrorate, which is why you had crossover even though there was spirited contest going on the democratic side. The conversations that they had focused on the trump agenda to make America Great again and paul ryans agenda to return prosperity. There were a lot of overlap on the objectives of both of those programs. Surely you look at the negative ratings that mr. Trump has with women at large and the general electorate and latinos and you think Going Forward its going to be tough to win the white house if those negatives stay where they are. This is one of these conventional wisdom facts that are not correct. Yes theres some high negatives on the part of trump right now who has just come out of a spirited contest. Hillary clinton has got high negatives, too. When you look at the recent quinnipiac polls came out last week which show trump winning in florida and even slightly ahead in ohio and pennsylvania, you look at the gender gaps and the real gender gap is a male gender gap on the part of clinton where shes got a bigger disparity between her support with men than trump has with women. So its an issue. It will be dealt with. Were coming through a healing process. This is when were unifying our party. The National Polls have all shown closure where trump now is either one or two points behind or one or two points ahead so this is way early and still already were seeing convergence on the part of the electorate with donald trump and the meetings at the hill with the leadership were very positive. Lets talk about the policy of nominees or tradition rather of nominees releasing their tax returns. Its been a tradition since 1976. Its done to show the American People if there are conflicts of interest, how much charity hes been given and see if the nominee is paying in taxes. Mr. Trump said in the past he would release his returns if he became the nominee. Now he says voters do not necessarily have a right to see them. Ronald reagan, bob dole, george w. Bush, john mccain, mitt romney, all of those nominees thought that voters had a right to see them. Why does mr. Trump feel zmimpl. He doesnt feel differently. He said he will release taxes. He said once the audit is completed he will release the taxes. Why not release the ones before the audit . First of all the irs says you can release them to the public even if theyre under audit. But why not release 2014, 2013 and 2012 and put the issue to rest. I understand the audit is going back eight years worth of tax returns and anything beyond eight years is not going to be reflective of anything other than interest on the part of the media. You know nixon released his returns while under audit and donald trump released his returns to a Gaming Commission i believe while under audit when he was trying to get a casino in new jersey. This is an issue that the media is interested in, not an interest for middle america. Donald trump will comply when the audit is done. You talk to tax attorneys who are not politically motivated. Theyd never advise their clients to release any Tax Information in the course of an audit. Youre saying the audit is for eight years worth of returns . Thats what im led to believe, yes. I still dont understand why just to get this out of the way, mr. Trump wouldnt just release the returns. Because theyre not complete yet. Is there something in there that mr. Trump doesnt want the American People to see and for that reason youve made the calculation better to take the hit pause the American People really arent that engaged in it as opposed to the media than to take the hit on what is in the returns . He said theres nothing in there. I have no basis to believe otherwise. The the Washington Post on friday reported that donald trump used to pass himself off as his own Public Relations agent either named john barron or john miller. People magazine reporter speaking with someone who claims to be john miller. Are you seriously, is the campaign seriously claiming that was mr. Trump . I could barely understand it. Donald trump says its not him, i believe its not him. In 1990 under oath he testified he did use the name john barron and in 1991 he told People Magazine he did use the name john miller so this has already been admitted previously. I dont understand why now. I dont know those facts to be true or not. I just know that he said its not him. I believe him. I dont know the relevance of this frankly other than its 25 years old, its dealing with interest that People Magazine and not focusing on the issues trump is trying to talk about today, jobs, terrorism, immigration problems. These are the issues we should be talking about. Why the media is spending so much time going back 25 years to talk about People Magazine tape that may or may not be trump. Totally irrelevant. Mr. Trump brought up things that were 25 years old on behalf of mr. Clinton, former president clinton. But that was not People Magazine. Those were issues that related to a core component of Hillary Clintons strategy, which is that shes talking about breaking the ceiling for women, and yet she was an enabler and made the victims of those d dalliances into a bad situation. My point whether or not it took place in the 90s isnt the issue. The larger point, i understand what weve talked about issues on cnn all the time, the issue is i think here you have a man in his 40s allegedly acting as his own Public Relations agent, bragging about his exploits with women while married to ivana trump, the mother of his three children and speaks to a character issue. The tape has not proven its him. The justification for the tape is words that are on that tape are words donald trump uses. Ive been working for donald trump for six weeks. Im using words he uses. Im not the person on that tape. Its no basis in fact other than some allegation and now theyre even saying he leaked the tape, that he had this tape for 25 years and he leaked the tape. Makes no sense. When you start saying the construct i think youre looking for is tremendously successful, the one he use a lot in real life and john miller used in there. Let me move on. An issue dealing with you i want to give you an opportunity to redress. 1992 report center for Public Integrity one of the lobbying firms that profited most doing business with Foreign Countries with human rights issues with how the governments treated their people. You were reportedly the closest political adviser, american political adviser to Viktor Yanukovych, a close adviser to vladimir putin. Some are saying they have questions about donald trump getting classified briefings because of you, because of your close ties to Viktor Yanukovych and others. How to you respond to that . Well there are so many different parts of that we said are wrong. First of all i dont see the classified briefings. Donald trump sees the classified briefings. Youre not in the room when he receives them . Not in the room when he receives them, he doesnt talk about them. Theres a bearrier. Second i have no foreign clients, i have one client donald trump. You have in the last decade. Some of the clients youre talking about, in concert with u. S. Foreign policy. As far as the Yanukovych Administration is concerned if you did Fact Checking i was the person who negotiated the framework based upon which ukraine is a part of europe. That was my role and thats what i did. When it was completed i left. I did do a lot of Fact Checking and reuters wrote an extensive story that talked about you being a Strong Political adviser to Viktor Yanukovych, not just you, tad devine at the Sanders Campaign but you being a powerful and influential person with Viktor Yanukovy yanukovych. Thats what the facts will show with public policy. Mr. Trump was talking about remaking the map in his fight against Hillary Clinton. What are some states that are not Traditional Democratic states in general elections that you think you can win that mr. Trump can make competitive in november . Not traditional republicans . Yes, please. There are a number of them, theresish ish imichigan, ther pennsylvania, several new england states. We think that new hampshire, maine . New hampshire for sure, maine a real possibility. Connecticut is a possibility. Connecticut . Yes, connecticut. We are going to have, you know, we are ain the process now of organizing the framework for the strategy of our general election campaign, but without a doubt when you look at the appeal of donald trump in the primaries that have been held so far you see incredible crossover support. You see democrat support for Bernie Sanders that has a potential trump support indicated they will never vote for Hillary Clinton and when you analyze who those people are that are saying it, theyre the very demographic that trump is appealing to in independents and crossover democrats. We think in a number of places for a lot of issues, jobs, integrity, coal, for example, in pennsylvania and ohio and elsewhere, we think there are a number of issues that allowed us to expand the map. Democrats will have to have a narrow way to victory. Paul manafort, congratulations on mr. Trump becoming the prump tich nominee. Thanks for joining us. Well see you on the campaign trail. You will. A new poll showing donald trump leading in ohio. Could Hillary Clinton pick Sherrod Brown . Hell be here next live. I smbut ended up nowhere. A lot now i use this. The nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release Technology Helps prevent the urge to smoke all day. I want this time to be my last time. Thats why i choose nicoderm cq. [engine revs] [engine revving] the allnew audi a4 is here. Because you cant beat zero heartburn i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn ahhh the sweet taste of victory prilosec otc. One pill each morning. 24 hours. Zero heartburn. Another antiwrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works. In one week. With the. Fastest retinol formula. To visibly reduce wrinkles. Neutrogena®. Kind of like this look. Im calling it the name your price tool phase. Whatever. Welcome back to state of the union. I am jake tapper in washington. While Hillary Clinton insists shes still focused on locking up the democratic nomination, lots of people around her are looking ahead to whom she might choose as her Vice President. Including donald trump, who seems to have zeroed in on massachusetts senator elizabeth warren. Ive just learned that crooked hillary, along with her friend, you know, shes got this goofy friend named elizabeth warren. Shes on her twitter rant. Shes a goofus. She is a goofus. Another progressive senators name in the mix ohios Sherrod Brown, who, unlike elizabeth warren, endorsed clinton and did so last year, campaigning alongside her in ohio, a swing state, where some polls show trump leading. Senator brown joins me now live from cleveland, ohio. Thanks for joining us. Jake, good to be back. Hillary clinton is making a big issue out of Donald Trumps failure to release his tax returns. Take a listen. What about his tax plan . I hope youll keep asking that. And what about his taxes . Because when you run for president especially when you become the nominee that is kind of expected. So you got to ask yourself why doesnt he want to release them . Now it is true that bill and Hillary Clinton have made their tax returns public dating back to 1977, but, but senator brown, given that Hillary Clinton has refused to release the transcripts of those paid speeches to Goldman Sachs and that she had to essentially be dragged into giving her emails to the state department, isnt Hillary Clinton a flawed messenger when it comes to transparency . No, i think theyre very different issues. You see what donald trump refuses to do, and i listened to your prior interview and theres a lot of dancing there, and i dont know why trump doesnt want to release his returns. He clearly doesnt want to. Every president ial candidate in both parties i think you said since nixon, an interesting comparison, is that trump doesnt want to acknowledge, is it that he doesnt do much Charitable Giving . Is it he doesnt want people to know his real network . Is it some of his investments . You had trump on the show i believe a couple of months ago, jake, where you wore one of his ties made in china. I would add that im sitting in, im in cleveland today, unfortunately snowy cleveland, wearing a suit made by union workers, about five miles from here, and that plant hires several hundred americans and when i hear donald trump talking about making America Great again and then makes a lot of money apparently by outsourcing jobs to china, and then he talks a good game on trade policy, it just makes me question a whole lot of things and i think his tax returns would indicate a lot if he ever releases them. Of course he doesnt have to, with all the media pressure but i think it shows some issues that people will think about. For the record i wore that trump tie to make that point. I know. Just for the viewer. Lets talk about trade, senator, because its an issue where donald trump seems to be actually trying to run to the left of Hillary Clinton. Take a look at one of your Reelection Campaign ads from 2012. Sure. Sherrod brown is calling for action against cheating china. They dont play fair and weve got to fight back. Cheating china, fighting back later on in the ad it talks about imposing tariffs on china. To be frank, that sounds a lot more like donald trump than it does Hillary Clinton. How are you going to be able to convince your voters, your working class voters in ohio to vote for her when they seem to agree more with you and him on the issue of trade . Well, i wouldnt characterize my position as close to Donald Trumps. He is highly critical of china. He talks about big tariffs. Doesnt go any deep