Donald trump in the wake of the shootings in louisiana, minnesota, and dallas. Today brought a shift in tone from the president ial republican nominee at a Campaign Event in Virginia Beach where he read an extended statement from teleprompter about his candidacy in the wake of these tragedies. Donald trump i am the law and order candidate. [applause] donald trump every kid in america should be able to securely walk the streets in their own neighborhood without harm. Everyone will be protected equally and treated justly without prejudice. We will be tough. We will be smart. We will be fair. And we will protect all americans. Mark those words were barely out of his mouth and people were already comparing what he said to the remarks Richard Nixon made using comparable rhetoric when he won the white house in 1968 during his comeback. Richard nixon let us have order in america, not the order that discourages change but the order which guarantees the right to dissent and provides the basis for peaceful change. Tonight, it is time for honest talk about the problem of order in the United States. Mark john, as the nation continues to grieve the tragedies of last week, how are both candidates dealing with them and what is the potency of this new message from trump about being the law and order candidate . John we have to step back to friday. We had not heard Hillary Clintons message and have not seen Donald Trumps video. There was surprising synergy in a lot of ways. Trump spoke about the tragedy in dallas and also of the tragedies in louisiana and minnesota with equal weight. You could have expected him to play the law and order card and just focus on the Police Officers in dallas. He did not. He and Hillary Clinton said , you could imagine either one of them saying the same things. Today, donald trump is nixonian in what he is doing. This comes on the back of Rudy Giuliani sticking out an aggressive argument against black lives matter saying they are putting targets on the backs of Police Officers. That seems to be where the Republican Party rhetoric is drifting. That is the unmistakable drift of where we are heading if trump keeps going in this direction. Mark trump did mention the victims of the Police Shootings last week. So he is not going all the way to one side. But this is a big change. It is a change that republicans have used effectively. David axelrod talks about how the public looks for the opposite of what they have in an incumbent president. John a remedy. Mark critics of president obama would say he has not done enough to bring the country together. Trump will say he is a unifier and tough and strong. It is going to be fascinating. Hillary clinton has not commented since friday. It will be fascinating to see if she tries to compete with trump on this notion of being for law and order. John it is hard to imagine she would, given the politics of where she wants to be and where her base is. Mark except when you think about the clintons in arkansas. You never want to be outflanked on lawn order. John they have moved to the left in Hillary Clintons candidacy. She is no longer a new democrat trying to fend off sanders in this campaign. I really think the 1968 analogies are sometimes overdone. We are still in the middle of the summer. There is a long way to go. We are here in cleveland. There could be demonstrations and worse on the streets below where we are sitting. This could look a lot like 1968 soon. These echoes trump has not gone full George Wallace on this there could be demonstrations issue yet. There have been comparisons to wallace and nixon. Is Hillary Clinton the Hubert Humphrey . As you pointed out at the beginning, Richard Nixon won that race. The key was he won when there was a scared, white, silent majority, as he called it. Not what we have now where demographics have changed a lot. Mark we said is there anything the Trump Campaign has done that put you on the defensive and made your job harder . The crafting of that speech today puts them in a position where they have to figure out how to respond. They may not be threatened by it. They may figure it out. But trump saying he is the law and order candidate is something they will have to look at and say, how will we respond . We have not heard from Hillary Clinton yet on that. John one doesnt want to make these things too schematic or too black and white. Interestingly, the criticism that the remedy trump is providing to obama, you also hear that from those on the left who criticize obama for trying to strike a balance when from their point of view he and Hillary Clinton should be staking out a strong argument on the opposite side, sympathizing mainly with African Americans and not at all with the white officers. Mark these are tough issues for the country and politicians. We are not trying to overly politicize it. But there is no doubt trump has different inference his position today that puts this into play and makes the events and how they handle them key to what is going on in the race. John yes. Im going to move on but we will talk about this more. Tomorrow, president obama and former president bush are going to speak at a Memorial Service for the five officers killed in dallas last week. They will be in that city with Vice President biden who is also expected to attend funerals for philando castile, shot on thursday. In any other Election Year the week before a National Convention would be dominated by news of Committee Meetings and the keynote speaker lineup. We have not gotten much of that yet. How will the focus and coverage of these tragedies impact things donald trump has got to do. Picking a running mate. Mark in the last two republican conventions, there were National Disasters that caused the campaign to have to react. Those were big stories. O. Is is a big story, to i dont envy the Trump Campaign. They need to pick a running mate and announce their schedule. On any given day, a single violent action involving a Police Officer threatens to put them off the proverbial front pages. They have a challenge because they are running out of time. They have to announce the keynote speaker and who trump is picking as his running mate. John the biggest difference, those were natural disasters in 2008 and 2012. They were not what this is, which is now the Political Climate that envelops all of us. The reason why this is a hot moment is the things that happened that led to the shootings in dallas and in rouge. Olis and in baton this has been building. Whether we are ready to explode fully, we dont know yet. Mark where might the explosion occur . Right here. There is going to be and i dont care how many officers ar. Here or how welltrained they are, there will be moments of tension. Even if everyone is on their best behavior on all sides, it is still going to be problematic. The Trump Campaign has a lot of choices to make. They have to make them without knowing what the future holds in the next seven days. John to go back to the 1968 analogy. In 1968, the convention in chicago, the democratic one is the one where there were rights riots in the streets with a democratic mayor. We know cleveland was going to try to keep demonstrators far away. That has been overruled. The judge said that is not ok. There is a lot of reporting lately about protesters on both sides saying they are planning to march everywhere and are expecting things to get out of control. And that was before any of the things that happened in the last week. Mark on the Trump Campaign, i they did not have the schedule ironed out. Now people are not expecting it because there is other stuff going on. When we come back, the latest on the stakes on both sides after these words from our sponsors. John one of the biggest questions in politics, even with Everything Else going on, is still who donald trump will pick as his running mate. He has been floating a new potential sidekick. That is retired Lieutenant GeneralMichael Flynn who has been advising on foreign policy. Trump has also been appearing on the campaign trail with allegedlyleading contenders on his purported short list, giving them all a chance to audition for the job. Today in Virginia Beach, it was Chris Christies turn to describe what kind of president the donald would be. Governor christie we need a president who once again will put law and order at the top of the priority of the presidency in this country. Our Police Officers, the men and women who stand each day to protect us, need to understand that the president of the United States and his administration will give them the benefit of the doubt. Not always believe that what they have done is somehow wrong. I know that he will be the type of president who will put the rule of law first, who will make sure the law is enforced aggressively and appropriately, and that will put people in his administration who understand the rules and laws of this country apply to everyone, not just the least powerful but also the most powerful. We need someone has always demanded the best from everyone who has worked for and with him and who will place the interests of the American People first and foremost. He absolutely gives you the confidence every night when you put your head on the pillow that his number one priority will be the safety and security of your family. John tomorrow, trump hits the trail with another top perhaps the top contender indiana governor mike pence, who is also practicing his audition today, speaking to reporters in indianapolis. i think we need strong leadership supporting our troops, strong leadership to get this economy moving again, and we need clear minded leadership to make common sense, conservative appointments to the supreme court. I am prepared to make that case anywhere across indiana and this country that donald trump would want me to. John i generally prefer to ask you questions i have not asked you before, because they yield more interesting answers. Where do you think trumps veepstakes stand . Mark here is a combination of my reporting and spidey sense. Im downgrading the possibility of a surprise pick. I believe trump wants to pick christie but his head is telling him to pick pence. I believe there are people who think Newt Gingrich or Chris Christie have risks associated that are not worth taking on. Mike pence is qualified. He will be seen as qualified. There will be some people attacking him for various things, but i think he is headed towards picking pence, but he could change his mind. How is that . John not bad. I have always thought pence makes a lot of sense on paper. I dont know what the chemistry is like between them. I cant imagine it will not matter to trump. Mark that is why i say he would rather have christie. In his gut. John i think trump is a gut guy. I dont mean that in a demeaning way, i mean he goes with his instincts. I still think christie has got to be in the race. I do not think Newt Gingrich will be on the ticket for a million reasons. The general who backtracked and changed his position on abortion in the last 24 hours illustrated how difficult it is to put somebody on the ticket who has never had a political career. I also continue to think a surprise pick is still conceivable. But this is all head fakery and they are just lying about the numbers on the short list, that there is a fully vetted other ready to pop. Mark mike pence is all upside and the downside is limited and he is qualified. John you are right. People will attack him for being too conservative. But reporters love attacking. Everybody loves attacking trump. Trump is such a big target that pence will be small by comparison. Mark at last, Bernie Sanders is ready to endorse Hillary Clinton. It is expected to happen tomorrow at a joint rally in New Hampshire. While he is not under consideration to be on the ticket, sanders long anticipated backing might influence who clinton can and should choose. She has Bernie Sanders in hand. Where does that leave her search for a running mate . John the big event is thursday when she will be in virginia and suburban washington, d. C. , with tim kaine. She may be doing that. We saw her do an audition with Elizabeth Warren, and now we see tim kaine. I think theres a good reason why tim kaine has been at the front of her list. I think he continues to be at the front of her list. If she believes the only thing standing in her way to the presidency is getting Bernie Sanders voters over, that makes the case for warren. But the sanders endorsement will help diminish her worry about that, and leave her more likely to kaine. Mark i dont think there is any chance clinton will pick before trump. If you had dinner with tim kaine and mike pence and were asked to choose which one was more exciting, you might have trouble picking. They are similar in their resumes and backgrounds. John you could have a bilingual conversation. That is sort of exciting. Mark there is no reason to worry about picking a guy who is not the most exciting. I thought for a while it would be kaine. Most of the clinton people who have an opinion are enthusiastic about kaine or fine with him. I dont think she is getting pushback about picking tim kaine. Go with somebody vetted by barack obama, the safe choice. I will say, if trump makes a surprise pick, i could see her making a surprise pick. John do not count out the person who popped up recently, tom vilsack. Also a vanilla pick and someone she likes a lot. Delegates have been busy in the rock n roll capital of the world. We will check in on what they have been up to after this. Mark welcome back. We are here in cleveland. Republican convention Committee Meetings are underway. We have been tracking the pregame of the pregame. Here is a quick scene setter to get you started. Cleveland republican convention, here is what will happen. First, lets go back to 1796. General cleveland founds cleveland. That is not a typo. They dropped the a. Things are invented. The river catches on fire several times. Rock n roll, movies, tv, and politics. 1924, cleveland holds its first republican convention. 1936, republicans returned to cleveland. They choose this guy. Americans choose the other guy. Republicans choose other Convention Centers for eight years. Now they are back. Msnbc says expect fireworks. Starting with the debate on trade agreements and other stuff. Then comes the rules committee. The goal is to unbind delegates and force an open convention. The likelihood of success, low. The backup plan is to make it harder for him to choose his v. P. The backupbackup plan is to make it easier later. Mark joining us to update us on the Convention Committee debates is a conservative, prolifer that has been recruiting delegates to shape the Party Platform for decades, including this time. What is the worst that could happen from Donald Trumps point of view in the realm of possibility . It is very easy. If there becomes a fight on the platform, the theme becomes fight amongst yourselves. Everybody is talking about what will be outside. Youve got about three steps going before you get to the delegates getting here. Mark which fights are most likely to occur . There is the gay marriage fight. Today they dodged the trade one. There was a question of whether some freetraders would push back on trumps language. That went away. On the rules, theres the unbinding fight. I think the more likely fight is closing the primaries. Actually, one to watch is gutting the r. N. C. , taking the party power away from the r. N. C. There is a move to do that. I think there is a real sense of a lot of conservatives that they will not unbind. They will want to get their pound of flesh. That may be one way they get it. John we saw the reports that some of the people involved in trumps operation were giving hard counts that were lower than a lot of people thought. What is your sense of how strong this is . Perception was in the last couple of days, the pros that write the platform have been impressed by what trump arrived with. They arrived with a bunch of staffers and started whipping. They solidified the trump people. We had a dinner last night with trump delegates. They were getting more direction. Theres nothing worse than being for somebody and not knowing what you are doing. The perception is they are on the ground and making more progress. The perception a lot of people thought is they were not. The reality is these were very uneventful subCommittee Meetings. Vote onting where you prolife and marriage, they were 153, 162. There is a sense they have their ducks lined up. The question is what else is out there. Mark are the trump forces trying to have peace or do they care a