mark: hello again from downtown cleveland. republicans are gathering ahead of the national convention next week. we have a brand-new bloomberg politics poll which is surprising. important results about hillary clinton and donald trump and how they are doing a month college educated voters. first, a triptych of the news stories print one, democratic unity in the north, and another, about deep stakes intrigue in the midwest, but we begin in the south, pacific league in alice, president obama giving and emotional and spiritually

searching speech at the memorial service for the five police officers slaughtered by a lone gunman in the big "d" last week, both bush and obama found grounds for hope and optimism for a country full of overwhelming cause for despair. praised lawnts enforcement and called for unity and reconciliation. president obama: i'm here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem, and i know that because i know america. i know how far we have, against -- how far we have come against impossible odds. bush: at our best, we honor the image of god. we recognize that we are brothers and sisters, sharing the same brief moment on earth and owing each other the loyalty of our shared humanity. john: we will place a more extended excerpts from the dallas situation in a minute, but first, about this event

today struck you the most? mark: these are two guys who did this before, and i thought they were extra ordinary. so much conflict, and a beautiful job. somewhat remarkable, and where the optimism can come from. john: i agree. in a weird way, it was good to see george w. bush, and this is a horrible through line through his presidency, the shootings, the mass shootings in some cases, individual shootings and other cases. he has had to console a lot of parents. mentioned twice that he has

been to too many of these things. as grim as it is, his ability to call on scripture and speak language of spirituality, very powerful. it was very powerful last summer when he did it in charleston, very powerful when he did it again today. mark: one of the things they both did, again, remarkable and a remarkable ability, almost every sentence they said, you would say, of course, that's true. but it had power and the narrative they've built and also power of the whole tableau of races, religions, parties up there. i am not sure the whole nation focused and paid attention, but my instinct, at least, what everyone would have watched, is going to have a lot of good feeling after the hard week that they have had. john: yes, and it is no dis to president bush to say the president obama's speech is important. and in two ways. a longer speech, and rightly so because he is the sitting president. comes from a unique

place. he is the first african american president. the speech recalled to me the famous ichi given 2008 where he talked in such a powerful way in the middle of the jeremiah wright controversy and asked for both size to empathize with the other. he gets criticism from the right or trying to focus on police brutality, and he gets criticism the left for focusing on the white police officers. i think he is perfect pitch on these things. the way he spoke to both istingencies today, it embracing and in a measured way uplifting. and it was just about perfect. mark: i saw a lot of conservatives praising the president. and i thought this is great. this is great to see that. some people who are normally regular critics of the president , they were praising. in then they were harping

nitpicking. and i thought this was a good day to put this aside. to see both presidents up there, and our second big story has more to do with politics, and this is a rather unambiguous endorsement of hillary clinton out on the campaign trail today before hugging his competitor, in portsmouth new hampshire and. from theead his speech teleprompter. and then clinton paid back the favor. mr. sanders: hillary clinton understands that we must fix the economy in america that is rigged and that sends almost all of the new wealth to the top 1%.

hillary clinton will make an outstanding president, and i am proud to stand with her today. mrs. clinton: it is such a great privilege to be here with senator sanders, to be here with him in new hampshire. i cannot help but reflect how much more enjoyable this election is going to be now that we are all on the same side. because, you know what? we are stronger together. campaign,hout this senator sanders has brought people off the sidelines and into the political process. he has energized and inspired a generation of young people who cared deeply about our country and are building a movement that

is bigger than one candidate or one campaign. so thank you, thank you, bernie, for your endorsement, but more than that, thank you for your lifetime of fighting injustice. i am proud to be fighting alongside you. we accept $27 donations, too, you know. mark: john, from the use of the springsteen song, and hillary clinton mentioning and praising jane sanders, could this event have gone any better from the point of view of the clinton campaign? john: may have been better if protesters did not have signs that said, do not vote for hillary. so there are still some among bernie sanders's people, even in an event like this, there is resistance. bernie sanders could not have done better.

he could not have done more. he did exactly what the clinton campaign would have asked him to do. what he does after this event matters a lot. but it was very good from hillary clinton's point of view. how many of them will end up with hillary clinton is the big question. mark: i had in my minds eye what this event would look like if it went well. sanders exceeded that. he very cleverly talked to his supporters, where there was overlap with hillary clinton. handed it out in any areas where there is disagreement. i thought he was warm to her. i do agree it will be hard to bring all supporters along. i was curious to see what he would do with the mailing list. how he campaigns for her. whether he keeps it up. philadelphiaat will be about unity and brotherly and sisterly love.

that's very good news for the democrats. john: the headline says, clinton gets endorsement from sanders, unifying party. that's a rather hopeful version. then the actual story says hoping to unify party. which is a more accurate assessment. i think she would have liked to get this endorsement a little earlier, to give them time to bring their folks together. after today, they go forward. that is another big question. is this just a one-time thing for bernie sanders, or to the fight metaphorically at clinton's side. if he does that, i think he has a chance of pulling it all together. from very strong pushback the trunk campaign, largely talking about how this is an odd couple. rather than doing what some

republicans would do, which is pushing clinton to the left. saying she agrees with the democratic socialists. that is not the attack they are going for so far. john: we will hear from some of the speeches today after this. we will talk about those right after this. ♪

mark: welcome back.

we want to talk more and show you more of the remarkable memorial service in dallas today. president obama and george w. tribute to the officers who were shot and killed last week. music.a ceremony of margaret, we know the president labors over these things. talk about what you know about how he prepared for and worked on the presentation today that was so moving and got such high marks. margaret: the white house that thes today president was up late into the night finishing his speech and went back to the bible to consult scripture. we saw the today as he quoted a passage from easy kill -- about and implored americans, in the absence of being able to

find a legislative compromise on to asklike gun control, god to pray for a new heart. we heard president obama throughout the years, since the beginning of his days as a politician, go back to the scripture to find passages that apply, and this whole theme of hope and change was paul's letter to the hebrews. it is just another example of his search for words from the bible when his own words are not enough. words, when by his he said that he came to the conclusion that his own words have been inadequate. that struck me, too. but before we go on in this conversation, let's play a little bit of the sights and sounds of this day and we will come back after that. ♪ president bush: at times, it seems that the forces pulling us

apart our server than the forces binding us together. we need to remember our values. we have never been held together by blood or background. we are bound by things of the spirit, by shared commitments to common ideals. at our best, we practice empathy , imagining ourselves in the lives and circumstances of others. this is the bridge of cross our the bridgeeepest -- across our nation's deepest divisions. seen how obama: i have inadequate my own words have been. we know the overwhelming majority of police officers do an incredibly hard and dangerous job, fairly and professionally. they deserve our respect. and not our scorn. we also know that centuries of racial discrimination, of

slavery and subjugation, and jim crow, they did not simply banish -- vanish with the end of lawful segregation, and if we cannot even talk about these things, if we cannot talk honestly and openly, not just in the comfort of our own service, but with those that look different than us, or bring a different perspective, then we will never break this dangerous cycle. with an open heart, we can worry less about which side is been wronged, and more about joining sides to do right. [applause] john: margaret, it strikes me that the degree of difficulty was very high for president obama. he has done a lot of speeches like this. rather than just talking about a situation where there was a white shooter with black victims, or a black shooter with

white victims, he had to basically talked about both communities, and talk about both dynamics here. just talk a little bit about that. to me, it was a little of the reverend wright speech back in 2008. margaret: this has been the central challenge of last week, a compounded series of tragedies. from louisiana and minnesota, to the shooting in dallas which completely overtook those two events. and they were connected in the sense that the shooter in dallas was angry about police, racial mistreatment by police. but, for the president, it is been a real struggle to figure -- to keep the focus on racial disparities and policing while drawing a clear line in that what happened in dallas is completely unacceptable, but

there is an explanation of this anger but also cannot be ignored. to hear the president invoked by name the political movement, black lives matter in the middle of this presidential campaign was also pretty jarring to me. i think he pined after how to make these lasting points about how he hopes that they can try to put themselves in the shoes of what black americans experience without being an apologist for violence that is completely out of bounds. and that is what he was attempting to do by threading the needle in today's speech. it is different than that speech in charleston. a year ago, that was much more obama speaking from the heart, he had the robes flowing behind them. today was the dallas police chief talking about stevie wonder, and how he used to quote stevie wonder to young women that he loved, and how we wanted to quote them to the crowd.

he was a speaking from the heart, but obama arguing from the brain today. mark: margaret, we know the president met with law enforcement leaders. any idea what he intends to do, what he intends to have the administration do going forward on these important issues that again are not new, but obviously or the top of the country's agenda? margaret: there is so little time for any kind of action. you do see echoes and embers of bipartisanship, republicans that have to run another term to get on air force one. it is safe to do that if you're going to a memorial service, but much riskier when you're talking about legislative compromises. in many ways, what president obama is try to do, be on to americans about what he cares about is pave the way for these conversations when his presidency is done, for the next president. mark: thank you very much. vice president biden has been

involved in all of these issues, he was there again today. any idea if he will have a special role going forward to deal with this? margaret: yes. they have already put him out there. he has been a credible figure it to talk about these issues. the minute president obama starts talking about them, he -- they turn away from it. biden has always had that appeal, to certain demographics of the voters, older, male, white. and vice president biden also continues to have those relationships to the senate. the question is, in the midst of a presidential campaign, will there be that pivotal turning point that allows any real action or legislative action going forward? absolutely, what we saw with joe biden doing this round robin of networking reviews, the white -- network interviews yesterday, give us a taste that the white house still believes he can play

in this administration. mark: thank you very much. coming up, more after these words from our sponsors. ♪

mark: apparently a new name on hillary's list, the clinton campaign is betting a retired four-star navy admiral who oversight nato operations in the middle east and elsewhere.

he is currently the dean at tufts university in massachusetts. that is a clinton development, but the man predicted to pick first, is donald j trump. trump in an interview said he will decide between five running mate contenders, plus some secret once he is considering. on the familiar list, former house speaker newt gingrich. today, fox news broke off with him because of -- because he might be on the ticket. a lot of people still consider a top contender mike pence. also, rally tonight with donald trump. our reporting tells us that governor chris christie of new jersey who campaigned with him yesterday is still near the top of his list. if it comes down to the garden state versus the hoosier state, what is the political argument for taking christie over pence? john: they comes down to a number of things. first, he is a much more compelling candidate and campaigner than mike pence is.

if you are asking for a comparative argument, that is why. he is the best brawler in american politics. why not get a street fighter. and i will say, there are only a couple of things that a vice president actually needs to do. he needs to give a good convention speech and when the vice presidential debate. if you are trump asking who is more likely to win the debate, christie or pence, you're picking christie. mark: in congress, the leader of the conservative movement, pence played at a high level, but not at the level christie has played because of the nature of the media coverage, because christie has been on the cover of time magazine. he has gone through bridgegate. what i'm hearing about pence on the negative side, he has not been through the kind of fire that christie has been through.

they have been through significantly more national fire then pence has. the one time he recently went through it was legislation over gay rights. he did not perform all that well in the eyes of many people. john: remember, you and i are both aware, we know exactly what some of the stuff in christie's closet, he has betting problems. that was back with mitt romney in 2012, and things like bridge gate. when we saw him running for president he did not do well in this nomination fight. but he did have some great moments. at one point during the race he said i have already been through hell and that, and i have survived. that makes me a dangerous candidate. that did not help him win the republican nomination, but could make him a strong running mate for donald trump. mark: i will say, there are two things about pence we did not talk about.

he is a grassroots conservative, a legend in the conservative movement. christie is not. the other thing, pence is a populist. he voted against things in congress that the establishment was for. he is an antiestablishment figure. while he is known in washington, he also will reinforce a strong way for trump. the notion of being an outsider. when we come back, he loves her, he loves or not. now he seems to love her. the entire history of bernie sanders and hillary clinton's relationship after this. ♪

>> clinton, sanders, here's what happened. 2016, they are back to being

friends. mr. sanders: hillary clinton and i disagree on a number of issues. >> he launches campaign, same thing. in may, he's not a threat. by august, he is. ms. clinton: i very rarely read that he is a socialist. >> first date, sanders does easy. really easy. mr. sanders: the american people are sick and tired of hearing about it in e-mails. >> she wins, he wins, more of this and this. mr. sanders: i don't believe she is qualified. >> they meet, makeup, best friends forever. mark: joining us now to talk about the clinton and sanders

courtship is kristin walker who is still in portsmouth. what surprised you today at the event between sanders and clinton? kristin: one of the things i thought was noteworthy was he used the word i am going to endorse secretary clinton and then vowed to fight vigorously for her. i think that is significant and based on my conversations with clinton campaign officials, it was it they were hoping for and more than they expected, so they think it is a major step forward in terms of unifying the party. i also thought it was noteworthy that part of this rally felt like a sanders rally. he ticked off what he had been writing or and areas where they had found common ground. and that $15 minimum wage.

and then there were those moments where you find that not everybody is ready to get on board with secretary clinton area you had folks saying never hillary, protesters shouting out amidst both of their remarks, so there was a little bit of everything and a reminder that this was a hard-fought primary and secretary clinton clinched the nomination more than a month ago and sanders was not ready to get on board. once he had those victories on health care, education and the minimum wage, she felt like she could throw -- he felt like he could throw his full weight behind her. if you look at the polls, the majority of sanders supporters say they will likely support secretary clinton. the question is held vigorously is he going to campaign for her. based on my conversations, he is planning on hitting the trail for her and they continue to insist their number one priority is to defeat donald trump.

john: my question picks up where you ended, which is talking about what comes next. what does the clinton campaign expect now that they have an endorsement pretty much the way they would want to get it. what do they hope he can do for them between now and the convention and beyond. kristen: that is the all-important question. i think he will give him a speaking role at the convention. they would like to see him campaign as vigorously for her as she did for barack obama back in 2008. so that's the bar they have set. he is going to campaign vigorously for her, but how frequently is he going to be out on the trail? those are the details still getting work out. he is not going to fight for any more victories. he's holding the line at what he

has oneself are for he has made -- won so far. decisionld it was his to not win any more at the party convention. he got about 80% of what he wanted in the party's plat negotiations, so he can go back to his supporters and say we did win some tangible things here. how frequently will he be on the campaign trail? we will get those details in the coming days. mark: we mentioned reporting now that admirals are freed us is vtting that it -- gettingm etted. what the logic of hillary clinton who has a lot of national security person, picking semi-with a military nonpolitical background? kristen: this is a retired four-star admiral, a former member of nato, he is someone who could help to rally military

voters. we always knew she was going to look at some candidates who have a military background. i'm being told, based on my conversations, is in the top tier? not necessarily. it doesn't mean she's not considering him seriously. she wants to have all of her options on the table, but someone with a military background would help in some of those areas. and of course, it comes after we learned that donald trump is flynn asing lieutenant his vp pick, so it checks on those boxes. but she is several days out rum -- several days out from making the final. mark: lieutenant general flynn. sten: that's right. john: i'm curious if you have any sense of any detail of what the convention element might look like? what kind of speaking role center sanders might have and how they might present a unified picture of the party.

kristen: i think he is going to have a major speaking role. elizabeth warren is going to speak in the early days of the convention, i believe tuesday. senator sanders, we have not then even an exact day but i think you will have -- we will hear a lot of what he said today and this full throated endorsement of how he plans to fight for secretary clinton to become president. mark: thank you very much. up next, our new bloomberg politics pull. we look at college-educated voters come out what they think of hillary clinton and donald trump right after this. if you're watching us and washington, d.c., you can now listen to us on the radio at bloomberg 99.1 fm. ♪

mark: joining us from our nations capital to walk us through the new results of our brand-new bloomberg politics national slice whole is doug usher. managing director of purple insights. educated folks, what we find? doug: educated folks are supporting hillary over trumped by a fair margin. we have her wing by over 20 points. right now, among white college educated voters, the republicans have won every election since they've measured such things and she is -- and he is trailing by 11 points. he may be given up a segment republicans have always one through recorded history.

-- republicans have always won in recorded history. mark: a breakdown of democrats and republicans and how they are feeling about their candidate? doug: we see a consolidated vote among different kratz -- democrats. right now with college educated them across porting hillary clinton as their nominee. when you take a close look at republicans among this segment, you do not see consolidation. support is at 75% and partisans need to be supporting him at 85% to win overall. but especially among this demographic. again a demographic obama won by , two points, you see trumped down by a fair bit. the real question for them to be considering is not whether they can make up a number among those without a college graduate, but

what can they do to cut down these numbers because it is troublesome for that campaign. they have to do something to change that dynamic. mark: is it because of trump's issue conditions as opposed to mitt romney or style question mark what is turning off college educated republicans who voted for romney that are now supporting clinton? doug: i think it is stylistic and i think it is policy. i think another dramatic finding ist we had inside this poll the huge divisions we are seeing within the white electorate. if you look at white men and white women, you see a typical gender gap, where among white men, trump is leading by a point. but among white women, he's losing by over 20 points. the real thought is when you compare it to when we see it in the electorate overall. if you look at the pew results that came out a week ago, you see white men without a college degree are supporting trump by

37%. if you look at white women, they are supporting hillary by 31 points. that difference on education of 67 points, that is something unprecedented and we have never seen it before. that division is something they are missing as they look at divisions accurately across race and gender, there are some huge fissures going on among white voters that i think are take -- are worth taking a close look at. and education is a good place to find that fault line. mark: we tested the three people who are talked about as running mates, gingrich, christie and pence with the college educated group. what did we find there? doug: the question is what is good for trump question mark -- for trump among these voters. frankly, there are only two people almost as unpopular as

donald trump and that is chris christie and newt gingrich. in fact, if you were to take a list of people and say who are just as unpopular as hillary clinton, the answer is chris christie and newt gingrich. having said that, they have an appeal in the republican party, and to consolidate votes. but the real question right now is are they going to concede this part of the electorate? something will have to change if they are not. if they are going to concede it, then the question is can they win by building up numbers among the rest of the electorate? those without a college degree. i think that is threading a difficult needle because it's difficult to communicate messages around turn out. you don't just need big numbers with them. you need to have a high turnout. one would expect trump should be looking at numbers like this to

see what they could do moving forward to break down these deficits because that's going to be essential to put together a winning coalition. mark: thank you very much. we will have more slices coming up soon. coming up next, we will check in on today's convention planning and committee meetings and cleveland when we come back. ♪

john: the stop trump movement will make it final stand here in cleveland this week. a successful coup is unlikely, but here is one way it could go down.

>> more than 2400 delegates will be here in cleveland. 62% are bound to vote for donald trump. there are 112 delegates in the rules committee. guam hascane rules, law as many votes as california. if they fail, the next number is 28. that would force a full delegation vote. that means a chaotic floor fight is within reach for trump opponents. they would have to convince 12 -- 1237 delegates to take their side. can they do it? i would not that on it. john: joining us is one of the cofounders of the anti-trump freebie delegates movement.

john mccormick is with us. before i get to regina and her grand conspiracy to throw this convention into chaos, tell us whether you think any of it is likely to play out in a way that would make her happy. john: it's -- we will know by friday when the rules committee finishes their business and we will know if we have a minority report. john: tell us why you still have hope. regina: we have been continuing to contact delegates and we know roughly 70% of those do not want to have to vote for donald trump. many are there underdressed, basically told by their state basically being told by their state parties how they have to cast their vat -- their ballots. john: as a mechanical matter, having laid out what matters, tell us how you would remove -- how you would maneuver your way to victory.

regina: it is talking tuna delegates to convince them that they have the right and responsibility to vote as they choose. that is what it comes down to. it is already within the rules to do this. many of them just don't realize it because we have just been having a nominee and everyone says yes, let's rubberstamp the guy and be done with it. it has been decades since we have had contention. argument is that you don't have to have a battle of the rules committee level. you just need to go into the convention next weekend do what you want to do? guest: he rules have already allowed this. in 1976, delegates in 246 different instances have cast ballots according to their own choice and insisted there votes are recorded that way. it's not new. john: reality is going to depend on the rules committee.

if they are not able to get the minority report outcome i think there's a small chance this could happen on the floor. you'd have to get half of the delegates. it would be impossible to quit that situation together. i do think the meetings on thursday and friday will be very important for this movement. wants good ratings for the convention, something like this would be astro-med uncle -- astronomical for ratings. john: a reporter of fox news recently said john kasich could put himself forward as an alternative. does your movement need an alternative to generate the kind of momentum and plausible scenario? do you need john kasich or someone else? regina: it would help some of the delegates that are hesitant. it is some of the questions that they have. it is not that they are not willing to do this. who would it be?

it is the unknown they are afraid of. whether they would want to beef put forward and accept a draft. john: that is rather tantalizing. who would those people be? regina: my lips are sealed. john: why would you want to keep that secret? regina: it is their prerogative to let their name out when they are ready. whether they are ready or not. john: is john kasich looking at that as a plausible path? regina how long he stayed in the : when he shouldn't have been there. john: when you think about these delegates, who would they like to be the alternative if they step forward? regina: i think, for a lot of them, it is ted cruz. he had the largest number of delegates other than donald trump.

largely, it's him. but for the most part, they are willing to accept another candidate because they know we have to stop donald trump. although ted cruz is a choice of most of them, they are willing to go with another candidate. mark: if trump picks a certain kind of running mate, say he picks governor pence, would that do anything or do a lot to unify the delegates who do not like and that much? -- like him that much? regina having a candidate to : come forward? mark: if trump picks mike pence as his running mate. regina: i have not heard anyone is talking about who it should be. i haven't heard anyone say if it was gingrich it is better. they want to remain candidate -- they want to know who the

main candidate will be and who donald trump picks does not play into this at all. mark: that surprises me. every convention i have covered, the delegates are rabidly interested in who the running mate is going to be. you are telling you and your associates don't care who trump picks? regina: i think it is interesting. people want to know. but i am not hearing that is what sway them. thing that will sway many of them and i don't see the commendation happening is possibly a ted cruz or rubio who had a lot of support. i don't think that donald trump is going to bring someone in that was never a candidate and is going to feel their passion and is not going to make a difference. mark: we still don't have a schedule. any idea why the trump campaign is still waiting to release the program?

john: i can't answer that. although i did run into some rnc officials, some fairly high-ranking folks. they said the schedule is in place and it was going to potentially have been released last week before the events in dallas and elsewhere took place. so there is a schedule somewhere. it just hasn't been released yet. john: good to hear you are hanging out in bars. that is where the best reporting goes on. regina thompson, thanks for you. we will be back after these words from our sponsors. ♪

john: you may have noticed that hillary clinton was very agreeable during bernie sanders'speech. shea showed it with a familiar clinton gesture. the nod. take a look. mr. sanders: thank you for your very kind remarks. for your support for so many years. mr. sanders: who's support -- john: that was just a fraction of her nods. we are still counting them. next up, on bloomberg radio, first word asia. coming up on bloomberg west -- on bloomberg tv, "bloomberg west." sayonara. ♪

♪ it is wednesday, july 13. i am angie lau. this is "trending business". ♪ angie: here is what we are watching. asian stocks surging, extending global rally that has wiped out host-brexit losses. investors wait for details of the next shinzo abe stimulus plans. a war of words over the south china