Now that the primary battles on each side of the presidential race are over, the calls are growing for party leaders to rally around each party’s nominee. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are combating high unfavorability numbers and will each face an uphill battle when it comes to unifying their party after a scorching primary season.

Bloomberg’s Masters in Politics hosts Tammy Haddad and Betsy Fischer Martin heard from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is on a media blitz to promote his new book, “The Long Game.” McConnell doesn’t think GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has all of what it takes to work effectively with Congress, suggesting rather candidly that he make up for it with a Vice Presidential candidate who has the requisite political experience. “He needs someone highly experienced and very knowledgeable because it’s pretty obvious he doesn’t know a lot about the issues.”

McConnell, who is serving in his third decade in the Senate, didn’t end his criticism of Trump there. When pressed about the numerous accusations of racism that are currently being lobbed at the presidential hopeful, he said, “I object to a whole series of things that he’s said — vehemently object to them. I think all of that needs to stop. Both the shots at people he defeated in the primary and these attacks on various ethnic groups in the country.”

Haddad and Fischer Martin also got a glimpse into the Clinton campaign’s strategy for the general election with Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri.

“What we’ve settled on, how we think about it is Donald Trump is not a serious man, but he’s a serious candidate,” said Palmieri. “And even though he’s not a serious person, what he’s proposing is a real threat, and it’s a real danger.”

Palmieri also touched on Elizabeth Warren’s role in bringing Democrats together against Trump. Warren, whose endorsement is the most coveted in the world of Democratic politics outside of President Obama’s, endorsed Clinton last night and just today held a meeting at Clinton’s home in Washington, DC, fueling speculation that Clinton may tap Warren as her VP. Palmieri suggested that Warren has been one of the most effective voices in the fight against Trump, saying “she’s just been extraordinary in taking on Donald Trump, she’s also obviously very effective in getting under his skin,” while adding “she’s somebody that Hillary has said that she would consider as a running mate, too.”

Following are more headlines from coverage of the McConnell interview:
Washington Post: Mitch McConnell just made a devastating admission about Trump — and the GOP
Politico: McConnell doesn’t rule out revoking Trump endorsement
The Hill: McConnell won’t rule out rescinding Trump support
Washington Examiner: McConnell: ‘Pretty obvious’ Trump ‘doesn’t know a lot about the issues’
The New York Times: Mitch McConnell Won’t Rule Out Rescinding His Endorsement of Donald Trump

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This Memorial Day weekend, Episode 9 of the MASTERS IN POLITICS Podcast, hosted by Tammy Haddad and Betsy Fischer Martin, features interviews with the Democratic Governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, and the Editor of the Weekly Standard, Bill Kristol.

The presidential swing-state of Colorado will get a lot of attention this fall and there’s no doubt that their Governor (often buzzed about as a potential VP pick) will be pulling out all the stops for likely nominee Hillary Clinton. Gov. Hickenlooper shares his impressions of the race so far – including his dismay at the popularity of Donald Trump in his state.

EXCERPT: “There is a lot of support for him. I do think as time goes on … people haven’t really examined that this is the president. This is the person who more than any other person, young kids in elementary school and middle school they admire and try to emulate. And is this who parents are going to want to be the model for their children? And I think, as kind of a bully and a braggart, I think that’s probably something that’s not going to go well with a lot of parents.”

Hickenlooper, a former geologist, turned brewmaster, turned politician, is out with a new book about his life in politics and beer called The Opposite of Woe. In his book – and with us – he shares a mix of funny tales, personal challenges and life lessons that he’s encountered along the way.

On the Republican side, just when you thought the notion of a high-profile third party candidate emerging to take on Trump and Clinton was not in the cards, Bill Kristol says he has reason to believe that Mitt Romney is now seriously thinking about making a run.

EXCERPT: “I’ve spoke to people who have spoken to him and I think he is at least having serious conversations, listening to other people make a pitch and asking questions about it. He is not sort of saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m busy playing with the grandchildren.’ He is a patriot and really cares about the country.

“I think he thinks someone should do it. And I think that he thinks that maybe he is the right person to do it. He has the national stature and name ID, access to resources. He was right about an awful lot of things that he said in 2012. … He is a man of high character compared to Clinton and Trump and just generally and objectively. So I think we might have a shot at Mitt Romney doing it.”

You can hear much more from these two “Masters in Politics” – including why Hickenlooper keeps a $20 bill that Obama gave him in his wallet, and how, ironically as the Governor of a state that has legalized marijuana, he once got in big trouble trying to grow pot from of his bedroom window in high school.

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Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz says she isn’t worried about the sniping between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in the party’s presidential primary.

“At the point that we’re at in the process, it’s understandable,” Wasserman Schultz said in an interview with Bloomberg Politics’ Masters in Politics podcast.

While Sanders and Clinton have clashed over campaign finance, breaking up the big banks, and whether gun manufacturers should be held liable for mass shootings, Wasserman Schultz said the tenor of the campaign has been less heated than the last time two candidates fought for the Democratic nomination.

“Of course, you know, both of our candidates feel passionately about the issues that are important to them, and they’ve taken slightly different approaches to achieving the same goals,” Wasserman Schultz said. “But ultimately, if you look back to our primary in 2008 between then-Senators Obama and Clinton, it was far more divisive than this primary has been.”

Wasserman Schultz brushed aside Sanders’ suggestion that Clinton and the DNC may have broken campaign finance laws by raising money jointly. “It’s just simply, completely and patently false,” Wasserman Schultz said, adding, “We followed the rules and followed the law and have done so to the letter.”

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During a recent conversation with Tammy Haddad and Betsy Fischer Martin for Bloomberg’s “Masters in Politics” Podcast, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus admitted that if Donald Trump is the Republican presidential nominee, he will have to moderate his tone.

“You do have to reach out to Hispanics, and black voters, and Asian voters, and you do have to watch your tone. And you do have to have a general election message that builds and creates what I believe is the ultimate image of our party which should be the Open Door party.”

Priebus also insists that the GOP convention will end on Thursday as planned. “I expect to have a nominee either before Cleveland or at Cleveland, and when that happens, I can’t tell you, but I expect the convention to be done on Thursday with our nominee, if not before we even get to Cleveland.”

Despite Donald Trump’s recent declaration that he many not support the eventual GOP presidential nominee should he fail to win the nomination, Priebus has faith that Trump will not go back on the loyalty pledge he signed last year. “I’ve never had a situation where he has told me something and he hasn’t done it.”

On the possibility of a ‘white knight’ candidate, Priebus said, “highly, highly unlikely. You have to have a gazillion rounds of balloting, and everyone in the world to realize it wasn’t getting anywhere to then move on.”

Read more via Bloomberg Politics: Priebus Says He Trusts Trump Won’t Violate Loyalty Pledge

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Conventional wisdom in Washington may hold that the 2016 presidential race will pit Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton in the general election, but two seasoned political veterans tell Bloomberg’s “Masters in Politics” Podcast, “not so fast.”

Tad Devine, senior strategist of the Bernie Sanders campaign, says even though Hillary Clinton had a good night on Super Tuesday, her winning streak may be over. “We see a path forward and I understand the math that’s involved and also the working of proportional representation in the Democratic Party. I think we can do it.”

Devine, who was also a top strategist to the Gore and Kerry presidential campaigns, recognizes that it’s a tall order. He concedes that the Sanders campaign needs a big win to move forward, but he is hopeful that he can run up the delegate tally in his favor. “We are going to have to beat her in a number of upcoming states and we are going to have beat her in some decisive battleground states – big states, like probably New York her own home state, and a state like California, at the end of the process. And I think if we do, if we can put together enough delegates, if we can win the race for pledged delegates, I think it’s going to be close but I think we can still win it.”

Devine also gave a preview of the Sanders campaign’s message to Democratic Party super delegates who, in the case of a close nomination fight, would need to be convinced to abandon the so-called “establishment” candidate Hillary Clinton. The key to that argument, according to Devine, is that Sanders would be “a stronger candidate in the general election. I think we’ll have a very strong case to the leadership of the Democratic Party, to the super delegates and to others that it would be best if Bernie were the nominee, we’d have the best chance of defeating the Republicans.”

The veteran strategist waved off arguments that the Sanders campaign is purely symbolic or that he is a protest candidate. Devine said, “This is not a symbolic candidacy, this is not a message campaign, this a campaign to win the Democratic nomination. So if we feel that that’s not a real possibility, then sure, he’ll look at it, he’ll reevaluate it. But I think right now we all feel right now – that yes, it’s an uphill road, we concede her advantage but we still believe we can win this race. We’ve got a plan. The plan is going to go all the way through June and we are going to stick to it.”

On the Republican side is veteran strategist Katie Packer, who has made stopping Trump her political mission as the Executive Director of a newly formed anti-Trump Super PAC. Responding to the charge that it’s too late to defeat Trump, who has a sizable lead in delegates coming out of Super Tuesday, Parker said, “I think it’s insane to think it’s too late. Seventy percent of the delegates have not been awarded. And everybody wants to say that it has never happened before where somebody has won all of these early states, and has not gone on to win. Well nothing about this cycle is like ever before.”

Packer brings her credentials as the former Deputy Campaign Manager for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign to her new role as Super PAC director. In light of Romney’s recent, biting criticism of the Trump campaign, Packer acknowledges that the Trump-Romney relationship looked a lot different in 2012. But, she says, the reason for that was simply political survivorship. “Trump said a lot of bombastic things about all the candidates [in 2012] and we sort of made a strategic decision that either we have this guy on our team, so he’s not ripping on our candidate all the time, or we don’t. And maybe it was a mistake, but we reached out to him, and he supported Governor Romney.” In fact, she explained that it was her interaction with Trump four years ago that sparked her “passion” in helping to defeat him. “I found him [then] to be just as pompous and narcissistic as he’s turned out to be as a candidate.”

The “Our Principles” Super PAC has been up and running since January, and has been responsible for churning out political ads that aim to shine a light on the litany of past controversies that have plagued Donald Trump’s business career. “The next phase we are looking at is Donald Trump as a businessman. He touts his success but the truth of the matter is that if you talk to financial experts they will tell you that if he had taken his inheritance that his daddy left him and he had simply invested it in the stock market, he would be far wealthier than he his today. He has actually squandered a good deal of his wealth.” In the coming days, she warns, “You are going to be hearing from a lot of real people telling their story about this con man and the ultimate con that he is trying to push on the American people.” Her goal is “a much more concentrated effort to tell these stories in states that have big delegate contests.” By the time the March 15th primaries arrive, she contends that “those voters are going to be very familiar with his record.”

Packer also did not hold back on her view of Chris Christie’s surprise endorsement of Trump last Friday. To Packer, the Christie decision to embrace Trump at this critical time, was “a further example of the lengths that Chris Christie will go to exact revenge on people. It makes the Bridgegate thing all the more plausible to me now. Because we see what he’s willing to do when he is angry at somebody. He clearly doesn’t like Marco Rubio, he was angry at John Kasich for ever getting into the race, and so this was his way to sort of exact some revenge on them.”

Overall, Packer says that “everything about Chris Christie’s support for Trump has been very sad, for a guy that a lot of people used to have a lot of respect for. He’s made a mockery of himself. Everywhere you turn today people are mocking Chris Christie. Six newspapers in New Jersey called for him to resign as governor. He has sort of reached a new low as a governor.”

If, in the end, Trump does emerge as the Republican nominee, Packer warns that there will be a “civil war within the party” which just may spark a third-party candidacy of someone who could be “a more conservative alternative”. Ultimately, Packer argues that such a candidacy would “ensure that Hillary Clinton will win in the fall because I think the Democrats are not going to be nearly as kind to Trump as his primary opponents have been.”

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