[applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the honorable cathy mcmorris rodgers. ms. mcmorris rodgers: good afternoon. it is an honor to join everyone and thank you for being here. i certainly want to recognize leader polsi as a trailblazer herself, as the first woman female speaker. [applause] mom of five, grandmother of nine, and it is an honor for me to be able to be here with the first lady michelle obama and dr. biden, and i have the pleasure of cochairing the military family caucus with sanford bishop and we spent a lot of time together as we were thinking through priorities and it is great to be on the stage with you today and certainly recognizing general baught. it is hard to miss the reminders of great women before us. we follow their lead, remember their struggles, and enjoy the rights and freedoms that they have helped to secure. so often we talk about the past but women's history month provides us an opportunity to challenge people to think about those who live today and create history for the next generation. today, we honor women who dream big, set goals

with house leadership, including speaker ryan, majority leader mccarthy, conference chair cathy mcmorris rodgersafter that meeting concludes, my guess is around 10:15, as are trump will head over to the senate side of the capital where he will meet with mitch mcconnell and potentially some other folks. my understanding is mr. trump's head back to new york. >> will we hear from any of the principles tomorrow? the chairman of the party? >> i know speaker ryan hosts a weekly press conference on thursdays at 11:30 at the that isvisitor center, mostly about an opportunity for the speaker to talk about the legislative agenda for the week. my understanding is that that is still on, but that would largely the speaker's legislative activities. i don't expect him making on camera remarks to the media -- tomorrow. why meeting at the rnc? >> one, it is right across the way. we like to keep political matters out of the capitol building, since -- since this is a party business matter. . now between talks the republican national committee and the trump organization about the upcoming convention in cleveland. >

meanwhile, the highest ranking woman in house leadership, congresswoman cathy mcmorris rodgers dazzling folks saying she not only endorses trump but voted for him as well, and today trump's campaign chairman paul manafort had this to say after a weekly meeting with house republicans. >> i'm very pleased with the growing support for mr. trump's candidacy. we answered all the questions the members had. less questions and more support so we're pleased. >> what do you think about the democratic convention? >> it is fair play. lou: manafort very pleased there, saying turnabout is fair play, and as they say on wall street, the trend is your friend. certainly is for donald trump and millions of supporters and voters and some would say that goes for the whole country. now the quotation of the evening, this one from booker t. washington on working hard to be successful because a lot of hard work is going into the trump campaign. washington said -- we're coming right back. stay with us. the general election will be the most expensive ever and donald trump needs at least a billion dollars to beat

cathy mcmorris rodgers said, i voted for donald trump, but i sure didn't want to. i think you're hearing more and more republicans who are coming to terms and coming to grips and acceptance of this. it's like a 12-step process to get to where so many of them are going or will end up going, to accept him as the nominee. but it's not with enthusiasm. they're concerned about house and senate seats, first and foremost, their own elections certainly. and as we look at troubled senate candidates throughout the country, a lot of republicans are going to focus their efforts on those senate seats and not the presidential race. >> and then you've got, you know, he was just at the nra convention, and he said, you know what, he's going to do away with gun-free zones and abc news reporting this morning that mar-a-lago is a gun-free zone. trying to draw some correlation here between what he's saying and what he's doing. there's some hypocrisy. you look at today east "washington post" yesterday, "the washington post," the same article was running, talking about in a 1981 report b

i got an stunt to speak with cathy mcmorris-rodgers, the highest ranking woman in that conference, in the room with donald trump yesterday, take a listen what she thinks will be an advantage for him as he runs for the presidency. >> i believe we can unite around a belief that it can't be business as usual. it can't be status quo. that's more than anything what donald trump represents. our members also agree it can't be business as usual. >> she thinks trump as the disruptor could work on the campaign trail. i also asked her about donald trump's comments about women and she is the highest ranking woman in this conference. she said, i encouraged him to talk about how women are job trainers and entrepreneurs and out there and softening donald trump to the voters and want that to continue. as to when paul ryan embraces him, it's anybody's guess. he still has concerned about his conservative principles and legislative branch and executive branch. donald trump expected to come back to capitol hill and have a meeting with the entire conference. can't wait to see the circus once again, media

. >> sreenivasan: republican conference chairwoman cathy mcmorris rodgers: >> when you go to disneylandu aren't wondering if you are going to live long enough to make it to space mountain. clearly, the v.a. is not the "happiest place on earth," and veterans have died waiting in these lines. 18% of appointment cancellations go unfilled. we can do better. >> sreenivasan: however, veterans groups who have been vocal about problems at the v.a. offered a more nuanced reaction. >> his statements were certainly poorly wondered. i don't think they were-- they were meant to do any harm to veterans, certainly. i think that he's got a big job to do, and we need him to stick in that job and keep moving forward with his department to serve veterans better. >> thomas porter served in afghanistan and the persian gulf and is the legislative director for iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. >> sreenivasan: thomas porter served in afghanistan and the persian gulf and is the >> he's certainly changed the way the v.a. is look at the problem. he's been very transparent. he's been open with the v.s.o.s-

speaker -- >> i was going to say ladies first but -- your colleague, cathy mcmorris rodgers, came out and said he voted for mr. trump. you are on an island. you are the only one that hasn't endorsed him. speaker ryan: i have more to say about this on another point, our teams are meeting. we're making progress but that's all i got to say at this point. reporter: mr. speaker, you said you would speak out when you believe that conservatism is being disfigured. when your presumed nominee said he would speak directly to kim jong un, u what -- speaker ryan regot a lot to work -- a lot of work to do. whether it's zika or puerto rico or appropriations so that's all i got to say. reporter: should congress or law markse on the appropriations committee try to disfund the president's directive on public school rest rooms and transgendered issue? speaker ryan: i think it ought to be left to the states. reporter: the vote on the confederate flag, that's a big change from last year. your temperature, what happened when the 84 republicans voted for it, last year it would have ?lown up all appropriati