Trump Lukewarm On Paul Ryan As Speaker, Dismisses Marco Rubio

The secret to real estate mogul Donald Trump's popularity in this election season has eluded pundits, pollsters, the Republican establishment, and really, everyone else.

"Honestly it's my looks," Trump said before a rally in Atlanta on Saturday. "I'm very handsome. That's the only thing I can think of right now"

There you have it. Trump held a press conference before his speech, where he once again weighed in on the race for Speaker of the House. With word that Rep. Paul Ryan was the new establishment favorite - albeit undeclared - to take the departing Speaker John Boehner's seat, Trump expanded on his tweet from earlier in the day which said that Ryan was not his first choice.

"Paul Ryan is a nice man," Trump said. "I would love to see somebody extremely tough in there. I think the Republicans need somebody extremely tough. But that vote's not up to me. It's up to the people that are voting."

He also downplayed Texas senator Ted Cruz's comments on Friday to WABC radio. Cruz had suggested that Trump's long-term prospects for the GOP race are limited, saying "I don't believe Donald is going to be the nominee, and I think in time the lion's share of his supporters end up with us." He has typically gone out of his way to profess admiration for Trump during the campaign cycle.

"Well of course he's going to say that. What's he going to say?" Trump said. "I mean I love it when they hit me. Because so far as you know, everybody I've hit has gone down the tubes. Okay? They've all gone down. A lot of them are out of the race."

Thousands flocked to the North Atlanta Trade Center to catch the campaign's first appearance in Georgia. His speech contained mostly the same rhetoric that has catapulted Trump to the top of the polls. He did tweak his attack on Florida Senator Marco Rubio, one of his fellow rivals for the GOP nomination, saying that he sweats too much to deal with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

"So you have Putin - he's sitting over here," Trump said. "And he's waiting to kill the stupid Americans because he's been just destroying us so badly. So he figures, and a guy walks in, and he's soaking wet and sweating. "Hello, hello, can I have some water?" And Putin's sitting there what the hell kind of stuff is this? This is not exactly a poker player here folks."

Before Trump took the stage, Herman Cain, the former fast food executive and presidential candidate, addressed the crowd. His "9-9-9" tax plan briefly pushed Cain to the top of the polls in the 2012 race for the Republican nomination. Cain, who at one time led the National Restaurant Association, held an actual fork in his hand, to illustrate that the country had reached a fork in the road.

"He's an outsider," Cain told CBS News. "He's bold with his ideas, not afraid to speak his mind Just like Hermain Cain!"

Cain did go on to say that Trump's tax plan only got a 7 out of 10 rating from him.

"It's not '9-9-9' but I like it."

When Trump first arrived to the expo center, he huddled privately with a group of African-American pastors. And it was a literal huddle, according to Pastor James Davis, of the New Spirit Revival Center in Akron, Ohio, where he has preached for nearly twenty years.

Because there was so much noise from the crowd seeping into the room, Trump had the pastors physically huddle around him, like a football team, for more intimacy.

"I believe that his ego is way too big to pander," Davis said. "He didn't have to go in there and play Christian. There was a side of humility I saw in him that was genuine."

The pastors said they would be meeting with Trump again "very soon."

Near the press risers, two women wearing only bras on top caused a small commotion during the speech.

One woman had painted in red on her chest "LEGAL IMMIGRANT" and underneath, it said "OFFENSE TAKEN." The other woman's chest said "[expletive] TRUMP." Throughout the rally,18-year-old Yujin Kim and 17-year-old Sara Park, continuously flipped off the crowd and cameras.

Kim was born in South Korea and immigrated here and said she was "standing up for her family and her friends."

"I'm here to protest against Donald Trump's beliefs," Kim said. "I'm standing up for my Mexican friends."

There was some hostility in the room toward the two. One man, a Trump supporter, kept referring to them as "anchor babies" and told them to "go home." Another referred to them as "whores" and "prostitutes." A group surrounding the duo covered them with Trump signs to keep the press from filming them.

The altercations were mostly confined near the press riser and security escorted them out about halfway through the speech, which wasn't disrupted.

The speech ended in the way a pro wrestler's appearance might. Trump led the crowd with saying his catchphrase, "We're going to make..." And the crowd finished for him, "...America great again."

"I am a CEO and I know when a CEO talks, and he means it and he's spending every penny that he have (sic) and he's not asking no one for nothing," said 52-year-old-Hoke Johnson III, an African-American businessman who runs a construction and cleaning company. Johnson became emotional as he considered Trump's candidacy.

"He means this from the bottom of his heart," Johnson said, as his voice cracked. "We need someone to come save America. He is the one."

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