now are you with me? to awesomeness! to watchathon!! big is back. xfinity watchathon week starts april 18. the greatest collection of shows free with xfinity on demand. hello. i'm jim sciutto. wolf blitzer is on assign today. it is 1:00 p.m. in washington. 9:30 in kabul, afghanistan. 1:30 a.m. in pyongyang, north korea. wherever you are watching around the world, thank you for joining us. we begin today with breaking news. paul ryan, the former vice presidential nominee for the republican party, current house speaker, will make a statement shortly ruling out being

considered for the gop presidential nomination. cnn senior political reporter manuraju joins us with more. you help to break this story. what will paul ryan say this afternoon? >> he will make it clear, jim, that he will not be a candidate, no matter any circumstance this year. this has been something that has become a distraction for the speaker. increasing chatter about how he maybe positioning himself to run the last second as we head in to a contested convention. not wanting it to seem hike like he is maneuvering behind the scenes and may prop himself up. the message has not been different than what he has said publicly for months but hasn't been able to quell the speculation. we will see if it does. expect a definitive statement from the speaker this afternoon.

>> so, manu, this ruling out happens in politics and sometimes it changes. i want to show our viewers, remind them of a tweet from rye dwran in october. where the speakership was open. he said i will not be a candidate for speaker. i continue to believe i can best serve this country and conference as cham of the way and means committee. we know that changed. how do we know this is different? >> well, the difference is that -- i talked to ryan aides about that specifically. they say look speakership was a different race than running for the presidency. one thing ryan made clear when he ran for speaker he would only do that if the republicans united behind his candidacy. that meant all factions, conservative to the most moderate. this time he does not think there is any chance at unity behind his candidacy. even if the figures in the party establishment want him to run,

him doing so the last second would almost certainly cause a bloodbath for his party. my colleague spoke to one conservative house republican who told her that if paul ryan were a candidate he would destroy the republican party. you are hearing that coming from the right. ryan believes that will be detrimental not just for the republican party chances in the fall but the speaker himself and he wants presrve himself in being neutral. he is chairman of the republican convention and will have to call balls and strikes when things possibly evolve in to a messy floor fight. >> thank you for following this for us. cnn will bring you the remarks live 3:00 hour here on cnn. i want to get reaction to the news we are expecting from speaker ryan from all three gop campaigns. here with me is trent duffy, national communications director and spokesman for the kasich

campaign. ken -- the delegates operations director for the cruz campaign. steven miller, senior at viefr to donald trump. thank you for having all of you on today. stephen, i want to start with you, any sigh of relief with paul ryan taking his name out of the contention? >> only one candidate will go to the convention with the most delegates, popular votes and primary wins and that is going to be donald jchl trump. i would make the point that ted cruz's campaign rests on disenfranchisement. he has no democratic path to the nomination. he has won three primaries outside of his home state. the only way he can win, only way he can win is anned inner deal like the cancelled election in colorado and the last thing i will say about this if disenfranchisement is on the issue, one to off shore jobs, support uncontrolled migration. these are the policies

destroying middle class and that donald trump will stop once and for all. >> ken, i imagine you disagree that donald trump is the only credible candidate for the convention. >> wow. he's already a sore loser. we haven't even beat him yet, though i expect we will. i think the news today isn't really news. paul ryan isn't running and was never going to parachute in. nor is anybody else. the only viable candidates are donald trump or ted cruz and ted cruz has been demonstrating in one of on-one contests who the better candidate is, on substance, on building a grs roots campaign about not surviving on lobbing the name calling you heard from steve miller and from donald trump, the candidate himself and intimidation and threats to delegates and death threats to party chairman in colorado. this is banana republic stuff

come out of the he trump camp chp is in disarray while ted cruz pushes his message of economic growth. the only one with the best plan for security for this country to increase cream and that's what sold in colorado, along with a strong and traditional grassroots campaign. >> hold that thought. i want to get specifically to the issue of paul ryan taking his name out. trent, if i can go to you. you have heard from ted cruz in the last 24 hours there are only two credible candidates with a credible path to the nomination, that being cruz and donald trump. he is taking a shot at your guy. in our town hall last night, governor kasich talked about the possibility of multiple ballots at the convention. i want to ask you, is john kasich a credible candidate for the republican nomination? >> yeah, absolutely. it is going to be the delegates that decide. none of the three will have the majority. i disagree with stephen's

observation and analysis. i don't think that donald trump will be able to get there. neither is ted cruz. that's why we are talking about an open convention and the people that make the decisions at the convention are the delegates themselves. many are unvowed and many voted for other candidates and they will look at the candidates and decide who best can represent the party going forward. push back to mr. trump's guy, he still doesn't have a majority of republicans that support him and that will be an interesting dynamic as we go forward. john kasich talking about two paths. one path talks about optimism, bringing the country together, which is what you need for a general election. and case sick the only one that beats hillary clinton in poll after poll after poll and achievement and accomplishment. as we go to cleveland, kasich will get traction. >> i want to -- you bring that up and thank you for bringing it up, i want to play a quick clip of how kasich laid out the

argument this morning. have a listen here. >> some who feed off of the fears and anger that is fell by some of us and exploit it feed their own insash able desires for fame and not make us great again. stephen miller, i have to go to you. he did not say the word trump there but it was pretty clear who he was directing criticism to. what is your response? he says this is about donald trump's ego. >> this is about tens of millions of americans who have had their future stolen from them. stolen from them because we can't control our border, stolen because we are sending manufacturing jobs overseas. john kasich, like ted cruz supports obama's trade agenda that will halt the middle clachls of course he will say whatever he can to lend himself

credibility. we are running the only issues-based campaign in the race. everybody is talking about how to steal delegate and play insider fwam. we are taking our case to the people and bring back the middle class. >> i will let you respond but the point is, it is directed not just at trump but cruz, the idea and its members of the party itself. the gop who said this campaign dragged the party down in to the muck. how do you respond to that criticism? >> well, first of all, the idea that steve miller put forth that donald trump is running an issues-based campaign. >> the only issues-based campaign. >> it is a joke. they have one issue and took ten months to spell out what any sort of detail on their one issue. now, donald trump is afraid to debate because the minute you get below about two centimeters of depth on any issue he's wrong.

he's just wrong. he's not conservative. he is for bigger government all over the place and ted cruz laid out a plan to get government, shrink government's role in health care, free us up in health care, expand economic opportunity and get special interest out of power in washington with. and he's the only one with a track record of doing it. donald trump has been funding special interests for so long. he's part of it. he's part of it. ted has a track record and a vision. that's what is appealing to these grassroots republicans who were the ones who win races for us on the ground in the fall. the only candidate building the kind of campaign on an issue basis and expanding the coalition, bringing in bush people, bringing in rubio people, bringing in all of those sorts of folks, perry, lindsey graham, carly fiorina, that is ted cruz. hold on there. >> i want to give trent the final word.

>> you have had a good chance. >> you have had a chance to have a platform. i want to give trent the final word here. you have heard the cruz and trump campaign say they are issues-based campaigns. i imagine you disagree with them? >> well, for the general election they are not enough to get us past the hump. i they is what kasich was talking about today. you can only get so far on fear this this country. when you have to get independents and people that center right, you need optimistic future. that's always been the history of success in elections in this country. that's going to continue to be the successful path. that's why governor kasich laid that out. if we go down this other path we're not going to only lose the white house but the supreme court, the senate, hundreds of races. and the people that gather in cleveland know that and will think carefully who they put at the top of the ticket. >> ken cuccinelli, trent miller,

stephen miller, thank you for coming on today. >> cnn town hall continues tonight. donald trump and his wife melania, daughters and sons will take questions from the voters of new york. tomorrow night at 9:00 it is ted and heidi cruz's turn. that sheer here on cnn. donald trump and bill clinton are political adversaries in them race. but 500 documents made public by the clinton presidential library in response to a freedom of information request show interactions. as you look in there, what are some of the most interesting things you have come across so far?

jeremy, are you hearing jim sciutto in washington? >> we're going to come back to that. audio problems. >> hi, jim. sorry we're having a little audio problem it seems. certainly we have some finding from the clinton presidential library. we had some press conference material come out here. donald trump especially his documents come out from the clinton presidential library showing the clinton white house was especially considering how they would field questions about donald trump essentially showing the white house has been dubbed by donald trump's presidential plan before preparing for whether his scandal and his time at the white house prompted candidates like donald trump running for president. donald trump in october of 1999 was doctoring a run for president. he formed an exploratory committee to consider that presidential bid. so the documents show that

clinton was -- well, i think the american people will be able to make the right choice. we had considerations that the white house was considering sending a birthday note to donald trump in 1996. that shows while they didn't send the note they were close enough between the clintons and trumps to consider sending that birthday note. today things have very much changed since then. with we do not anymore have any considerations of birthday notes to be sent. donald trump referred to president clinton as one of the great women abusers of all time and calling hillary clinton an enabler in reference to those scandals in the 1990s. jim? >> i'm sure a lot of the notes back then have friendlier language. democratic candidates are getting ready for a showdown at thursday's debate. up next, from gun control to the iraq war how they are sharpening their messages and laying the ground work for the fight ahead. later, the worldwide fight against isis.

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hillary clinton and bernie

sanders are squaring off. clinton stepped up her criticism of sanders of on gun control, specifically foreign policy and his struggle to explain some of his issues. sanders hammering away at clinton over her vote for the iraq war and her ties to wall street banks. joining me is the national press secretary for the democratic national committee. we heard the argument she's not qualified back and forth and then the fwloefs seemed to be on for 24 hours a and then yesterday you have some antics change in sanders language saying judgment is different from qualification. what debate will we see on thursday, calm and polite or a dog fight. >> like every other debate. incredibly substantive. you have seen discussions on health care and the economy. when differences have come up, you have had a respectful, thoughtful conversation which is different from the republican side. where you see insults.

>> there are some on the democratic side, too. she is taking money from the wall street banks. she's in their back pocket. personal stuff. >> you have seen it play out in a respectful way. it's not devoevolved in to a lo debate not worthy of the white house. on the republican side you have seen differences that have exploded in a person personal way and that happened the last six, seven, eight months. >> we have seen hillary clinton the last couple of days begin to pivot from sanders to trump. even in some of her ads. i will play a clip from that now. saying she can walk and chew gum at the same time. she can fight for the nomination an take on the republican front runner. let's listen to her latest ad. >> i don't think the e-mails will take her down because she's being protected by the democrats.

it would take anybody else down, but it's not going to take her down because she's protected by the democrats, which is a disgrace. she's going to have to live with that when she runs because everybody knows she's guilty as hell. okay? everybody. her whole life has ban big, fat, beautiful lie. it's been a terrible, terrible lie. everything about her is a lie. >> that clearly not a hillary fan, that is donald trump laying in to her over the e-mail controversy. how concerned are you? how concerned is the party that this cloud hangs over her campaign presuming she's the nominee until the election? >> i think the key for us is how the american people understand how the republicans are on a number of different issues. i think donald trump, for example, you saw his clip right there, the republicans, the rnc after the 2012 election created

an autopsy, a report that talked about succinctly what they needed to do to win in 2016. >> more inclusive party particularly with minority voters. >> and donald trump buried that report effectively. they said they needed to reach out to female voter and latinos and as you know donald trump angered both of those constituents. >> on that issue of the e-mail controversy, because this is something that feeds in to a larger impression among voters, democrat and republican about trustworthiness. recent poll, most recent poll from cnn/orc talked about honesty and trustworthy. it is not an enormous lead for hillary clinton over donald trump on the key issue of trustworthiness and the e-mail feeds to that problem. how does she get over the hurdle in the election? >> if you look at the republican

side you have seen a backlash amongst voter against donald trump. voters are not comfortable with his leadership and his stance on the issues. that contrasts very clearly where democrats are. you saw in exit polls after wisconsin, for example after that race with that contest where seven in 10:00 ten democrats were optimistic about bernie sanders and secretary clinton. i think there's a real difference. i think voters come, general election when trump becomes the nominee will have a real problem with him. >> thank you very much for coming on. in two days bernie sanders and hillary clinton will have that debate facing off in. [ lynn for the next cnn democratic presidential debate. that's this thursday at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. it's a daunting assess from the former director of the national counterterrorism center. >> by all measures, isis presents the most urgent threat to our security in the world

today. >> that's from a hearing on the hill just moments ago. the chairman of the foreign relations will join us live to talk about the fight against isis. are we winning? right after this.

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the fight against terror moved to capitol hill today. the senate foreign relations committee heard about the spread of terror including from the former director of the national counterterrorism center. here's what he said about what he believes the u.s. needs to do to defeat terrorism including stopping attacks here at home. >> one is a surge in our intelligence capabilities. develop sources and form closer relationships with intelligence services. this would address the gaps because of encryption and because the legal disclosures which are hampering our intelligence community today. >> senator bob corker is the chairman of the foreign relations committee. thank you for taking the time. >> thank you, jim. >> we heard matt olsen. he knows the issue well. he spent a lot of time with the

director of the counterterrorism center talking about the surge in intelligence to combat isis, specifically encryption, terrorists going dark. do you agree this is a crisis in terms of putting a damper on the isis threat? >> no question that greater intelligence sharing and gathering is important. the new technologies that exist, that allow isis to download encrypted platforms so they can communicate so we can listen in as we have in the past is difficult and also the cultural issues that we have in europe in germ. on one hand, they understand greater cooperation is necessary. they are concerns about privacy issues. they work against each other. all of us who want to be sure our citizens are safe, particularly here in the united

states from my perspective intelligence is one of the key ingredients, if not the key ingredient to keep those attacks from occurring. >> i will hear this frequently from counterterror officials that the europeans are in over their heads, some through no fault of their own, they just have a far greater number of jihadis running around there and they are closer to the battlefields of iraq and syria. as you mentioned, some of the legal protections, are you saying europe is the weak link to some degree in the fight against isis? >> you have 28 countries there. it's very different than the format that we have here. i think you saw, earlier, you are well informed and pursuing these issues constantly but in belgium in particular there were different speaking elements of the agencies, meaning that one language wasn't speaking well to the other. there are a lot of problems there. there's no question.

when you say weak link, it's a challenging environment with 28 different countries. as you mentioned, the open borders issue. you have people constantly moving through. i was in the balkans recently and thousands of people are passing trains in to europe are. the intelligence issue is a problem. certainly the approximate imsimilarity, as you mentioned, with so many refugees coming in and you and us and them knowing many of these jihadists are embedded in those groups. they have significant challenges, far greater than what we have here in the u.s. what that means is there needs to be greater cooperation between ourselves and them. >> another issue brought up today in the hearing was the need to deny safe haven for terrorists in syria, and as as isis has expanded in to places like libya. this idea of greater u.s. military interrengs in libya has been on the table for some time. does the u.s. need to expand the war against isis in to libya in

greater numbers? >> well, in the 6500 people there there's no question. by the way, there are three groups operating there. but it is a place, again, where we have this vacuum. what we have known watching in syria, what happened there, i think we missed an opportunity, i will say over and over and over again in august of 2013, but with syria, iraq, libya, when you have ungoverned places where governments are unstable, you have the creation of this land taking, the caliphate, that occur cans with isis. no doubt denying safe haven has to be a part of what we are doing. we need to get the countries there on the ground more fully involved. it does take u.s. leadership for that to occur but it does take that. but one of the things that came out today, this is all hitting

at the surface, the intelligence, safe haven, all of those things, the fact is there are root causes that this is happening and those root causes are still there. they are going to be organizations that come behind isis until the root causes are dealt. this will be a long, long, long-term struggle that our nation and others who care about western values will be dealing. again, we need to combat it certainly now. the sort of superficial issues, those things that keep us safe. at the same time, what's driving the region is going to continue. we have to be more effective in countering the root causes, the poverty, the lobbyism, the things that are, the clerics that are driving this. other clerics have to speak out against. they are complex issues. it's going to take years for us to resolve this but certainly

today an urgent is making sure we keep our citizens safe here. >> years long war. senator, thank you for your time today. >> thank you, yes, sir. ahead, isis is recruiting taliban fighters in afghanistan as it tries to expand there. we need two of those fighters who say they were so horrified by isis atrocities they actually defected and are now fighting against isis. 80% of women say a healthy lifestyle is a priority. but up to 90% fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. let's do more. add one a day women's 50+ complete multivitamin. with vitamin d and calcium to help support bone health. one a day.

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taliban. we speak to two former isis commanders, who joined them from the taliban but appalled by their mass beheadings and other atrocities they have turned against isis. cnn nick peton walsh has the story. >> reporter: looking for isis in afghanistan's east, isis radio broadcast of hate off air recently by the u.s. but here it has been coming back in the past week. it was there three days ago. it's gone again, says one man. they were talking nonsense says oochlt they are asking people to pledge allegiance to march on kabul. this is one broadcast they were having earl kwer. ie is is trying to put down roots here. but every day more afghans want to tear them up. that starts here. two months ago -- commanders in

isis. >> they like beheadings saying they are good to do. >> reporter: isis they say came from pakistan and promised guns to their struggling group. their agenda, black flags, killing and looting which they went along with first. >> take your money. >> reporter: it went south fast and they both remember the moment when. >> i remember when they beheaded seven people the bazaar, including government workers and taliban. i saw the long strip of wood they did it on, covered in blood. they just threw the bodies away and buried. it was very islamic. >> if you were killed fighter for them they wouldn't help your wife and children but put them in a camp.

isis recruit children. their video showed. another reason the two men work to get other locals to join the uprising program against isis. they say they have lacked fwoft protection and money and what potential defectors want. the fight is left to american drones, they say. >> drones are killing isis. they get them as they leave their houses. >> the government hasn't made any progress in those areas. it's only the bombing that's effective. >> you are in the taliban and then isis and now american drones are bombing your own village and you are pleased about it because they are killing isis. is not strange for you? >> it makes us happy. we want it wiped out. >> they know they are talking about. he holds up his cloak.

holes from an american helicopter attack not long ago when he was taliban. isis shattered ordinary lives too. across town in a luxury village built for rich people who never came are hundreds of thousands who fled isis. >> a kind of virus that appeals to minds warped after decades of war. those in the taliban radical enough an idea that no matter how hard you battle it is difficult to extinguish. >> many of their homes are occupied and much damage is irreversible. they killed this man's brother and then shot him in the waist as he helped his family escape. he is left unable to provide for them. isis still live in their home. the man who speaks survived by his neve knew. >> my brother called our father

to tell him the death was on facebook. we couldn't bury him as we didn't have a body. pieces are probably lying where he was blown up. >> decades of trauma here and somehow it gets worse. >> we are joined live from kabul. nick, early on u.s. officials would tell us it was a limited number of turn coats in effect from taliban and other groups joining isis. do we have a sense of how many afghans have joined isis? >>. >> the afghans seem to be limited to some. the men there are pragmatic. they claim that isis came across the border from pakistan. pakistan is in fighting at the moment that taliban are having with other taliban saying hey, join us, we will look after you. that's how they claim to be part of isis. most people we spoke to suggest it isn't pakistani foreign, most

prevalent in the east in early parts of last year to fwet more territory and the air strikes pushed them back. some u.s. officials say they may have lost ground in one key province but are popping up again as well. you heard the radio station emerging after bombed off the air recently. deep concern they found some kind of route, they are mobile. the idea hasn't caught on but a massive distraction for the issue of fighting the taliban. security forces struggling in the fight against isis which is urgent and needs tackling and the longer term insurgency. >> nick in afghanistan, thank you very much. ahead, new intelligence on north korea. concerning four u.s. officials. there are signs they maybe plan an unprecedented ballistic launch. a live report from the pentagon is next. (announcer) need to hire fast?

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there's growing concern among u.s. officials that north korea could be planning an unprecedented missile launch with the potential of reaching

the united states. barba barba barbara starr at the pentagon. >> what u.s. officials are so concerned about, they are seeing signs, not actually happened yet, but signs that north korea is preparing for the first time to potentially test fire a mobile missile potentially capable of hitting guam, alaska and parts of the pacific northwest. there are three versions of this missile. they see some preparations being made. they don't really know what north korea's up to. here's the part that is so concerning to the u.s. this would be the first time a mobile missile has been launched with these extended ranges. the problems for the u.s. is mobile missile launches are very difficult to detect. they come off of trucks, large wheeled vehicles. they can shoot and move very rapidly in wartime. that would mean the north koreans could make a lot of efforts to evade u.s.

surveillance. very difficult for u.s. satellites to keep track of these mobile launchers. now, u.s. officials are saying they're not entirely sure what north korea's up to. north korea knows the u.s. is already watching overhead. this could be a deception campaign. they could just be moving a lot of things around knowing it will upset the u.s., but, in fact, what they do see are some signs that they are preparing for this type of unprecedented missile launch. the question now is whether pyongyang will really go ahead with it, jim. >> steady progress on missiles and nuclear devices. barbara starr at the pentagon. coming up next, the pay gap between men and women could be getting smaller but a new estimate predicts women will not be paid equally until the year 2059. not if current trends continue. we'll tell you how the white house is trying to buck that trend.

today is actual national payday in the united states. women make on average 79 cents to a man's one dollar in income. both president obama and presidential candidate hillary clinton talked about this issue today. >> i'm not here just to say we should close the wage gap. i'm here to say we will close the wage gap. >> the research is absolutely conclusive. that people, men and women, carry different ideas in our brains, our consciousness, about how to evaluate men's and women's work. >> president obama also dedicated a new national monument to honor women's equality. so just how close are we closing that wage gap? joining me now is tina chen, an assistant to the president, chief of staff to the first lady, as well as the

administration's executive director for the council on women and girls. welcome, thanks for joining us today. >> thank you, jim, happy to be here. >> so the equal pay act, it was actually signed 50 years ago. over that time period, if it's 79 cents to the dollar today, how much progress have women made? >> well, we've made some progress. i can remember a time back in the '70s when it was 69 cents on the dollar. we all agree that 79 cents isn't progress enough. we have a long way to go to get to what the law says which is equal pay for equal work. >> you heard hillary clinton just there, hinting at some of the biases in the workplace when it comes to judging men and women. i know, in fact, my wife and some friends were over last neat, talking about specific other issues like child care and allowances for that in the workplace. i mean, what can be done about that in terms of encouraging companies to make those changes? >> well, we've been doing it all along here in the administration. we tried to set an example as a federal employer by issuing orders to make sure our agencies are looking at their equal pay.

we've been doing things like making sure we're extending pay parental leave as far as we can without a statutory change. making sure that's available to both men and women. so not just women are being penalized. we want to make child care more available. this is a whole agenda. what happens to women is as they work through their work careers, you know, they start to run into the challenges of work and family. they are trying to balance themselves. these are not issues they should face themselves. they're national issue because this is really our national economy that suffers when women aren't able to work to their full potential. >> what really stands in the way? the data is out there that women are as or more productive. my wife's smarter than me, i can tell you that right now. the data's out there. companies that do it seem to benefit from it, you know, what stands in the way? is it an aversion to regulation? i mean, is it old biases? is it a combination of things? >> i think it's a combination of

all of those things. one of the things you mentioned, aversion to regulation. one of the things we think will advance is pass the paycheck fairness act. has common sense provisions like requiring pay transparency. if you don't know you're being underpaid and you can't advocate for it by teaching women negotiation skills. because we also know the research shows that women are not as good negotiator as men for their own pay. and by protecting workers who talk about their pay. one of the things we know is there are a lot of workplaces that actually prohibit their workers from even sharing information about their pay. we've prohibited that among federal contractors. it's one of president obama's executive actions. in order to do it all across the country, we need to pass the paycheck fairness act. >> is this something the president wishes he had made more progress on? >> from the first day, from the first bill he saved in the lily ledbetter pay fair act have made this a priority and we pushed it

every part of the way. do we wish we passed paycheck fairness? yes. because it came only two shorts vote of passing getting to 60 and getting closer in the senate so we can do better on that, but we have -- we're very proud of the record on extending the whole working families agenda including equal pay across the board and we're proud of our actions today, designating this new national monument, you know, to really remind everyone across the country how important these issues are. >> we'll have to leave it there. tina chen at the white house, thank you. that is it for me today as well. the news continues on cnn right now. all right, jim sciutto, thank you so much. great to be with you on this tuesday. i'm brook baldwin. you're watching cnn. we begin with the breaking news in the republican race for the white house. very soon, we expect to see house speaker paul ryan make really his most aggressive move yet