AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "News Hour" tonight: Here at the Republican National Convention, conservatives try to walk a fine line, firing up voters, while calling for unity in the wake of the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.

AMNA NAWAZ: Judy Woodruff takes a closer look at that assassination attempt from an historical perspective.

KEVIN BOYLE, Professor of American History, Northwestern University: There is a very long tradition of political violence and violence inside our public life.

GEOFF BENNETT: And Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey is convicted of bribery and acting as a foreign agent.

We explore the implications for the Democratic Party.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

The second night of the Republican National Convention is about to get under way.

AMNA NAWAZ: The convention picked off last night with former President Donald Trump's first public appearance since he was nearly killed.

Lisa Desjardins is on the convention floor with a closer look at the stirring start to the week here in Milwaukee.

LISA DESJARDINS: It was quite a dramatic moment last night, of course, when the former president arrived here.

He now joins his newly minted vice presidential nominee, J.D.

Vance.

And I will show you guys, as predicted, here are the first Trump/Vance signs.

All of this is part of one message that, this is a strong and confident Republican Party.

ANNOUNCER: Please welcome the next president of the United States.

LISA DESJARDINS: A grand entrance and triumphant return.

The GOP's nominee for a third time, Donald Trump, appeared on the first night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, walking into his family box at the Fiserv Forum to thunderous applause.

It was his first public appearance since the attempt on his life, a white bandage on his right ear a vivid reminder of how close an assassination attempt came.

AUDIENCE: Fight!

Fight!

Fight!

Fight!

Fight!

Fight!

LISA DESJARDINS: The crowd chanted, "Fight," the same word Trump mouthed while being rushed off stage three days ago.

It was also the first public appearance of the new Republican ticket, as Trump stood with his new running mate, 39-year-old Ohio Senator J.D.

Vance, the youngest vice presidential nominee in a generation.

He's barely served two years in elected office.

His life is changed now.

A security detail walked with him and his family on a morning trip to Walgreens.

By afternoon, he was standing in the spot where he will speak for the Trump/Vance ticket tomorrow.

Vance was once a sharp Trump critic.

He addressed the change of heart on FOX News.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX News Anchor: You literally said -- you texted a friend that Trump is a cynical A-hole like Nixon, who wouldn't be that bad and might even prove useful, and that he's America's Hitler.

SEN. J.D.

VANCE (R-OH), Vice Presidential Candidate: Well, Sean, I don't hide from that.

I was certainly skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016.

But President Trump was a great president, and he changed my mind.

LISA DESJARDINS: Opening night started out relatively sedate, until South Carolina senator and former presidential candidate Tim Scott took stage.

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): On Saturday, the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle, but an American lion got back up on his feet, and he roared!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) LISA DESJARDINS: Scott was one of several prominent Black Republican men to speak yesterday.

Polls show Trump has made moderate gains with voters of color, and the campaign wants to firm up and improve their support, as does President Biden, back on the campaign trail for the first time since the Trump shooting courting Black voters at the NAACP's national convention in Las Vegas.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: So many of you had my back, and I think I have had yours as well.

LISA DESJARDINS: Yesterday on NBC, he addressed his words to donors that Trump should be in the -- quote -- "bullseye."

JOE BIDEN: It was a mistake to use the word.

I didn't say crosshairs.

I meant bullseye.

I meant focus on him.

I'm not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election.

I'm not the guy who said they wouldn't accept the outcome of this election automatically.

LISA DESJARDINS: While the GOP Convention has been forward-looking, there are ties to 2020 conspiracies and lies.

Several Republicans who served as fake electors are among the listed delegates.

A few other delegates were there on January 6 in the mob outside the Capitol.

And while Republicans have generally called for calmer tones, some remarks yesterday were sharp.

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): Today's Democrat agenda, their policies are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values and our people.

LISA DESJARDINS: Also last night, there were sharp identity politics.

Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene lashed out against transgender and nonbinary Americans in her speech.

Tonight, we will hear from a different prominent Republican woman, Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador, South Carolina governor, and, of course, the number two, the runner-up in this race for the nomination.

She will be speaking here tonight.

We will see what she says -- Amna, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let's talk more about that, Lisa, because, initially, as you well know, Nikki Haley was not invited to even attend this convention, and now she's speaking.

And even after she dropped out of the primary, in some states, she was still pulling 20 percent of the Republican vote.

I know you spoke with some of her former delegates.

What are they telling you?

LISA DESJARDINS: I will tell you, the Haley delegates on this floor are all in for Trump, the ones that I have spoken to so far.

But there is still some discomfort between the two camps.

Speaking to some in the Trump universe, they say they wish she'd gotten out of the race sooner, that it was not respectful that she waited as long as she did to even say that she was voting for former President Trump.

Now, it's not just the delegates here that matter, of course, but Haley voters around the country.

And I caught up with two voters we talked to in January.

I want to show you a picture.

This is Dennis and Sherri Monsotter (ph).

They are military family, all in for Nikki Haley.

They will be watching tonight.

They have not decided, Geoff and Amna, if they can support Donald Trump.

They told me they're not sure about J.D.

Vance.

They're worried he's too isolationist.

They don't like the direction he's going in, and they want to see Trump move more toward Nikki Haley before he can get their support.

AMNA NAWAZ: Those are going to be key voters to keep an eye on there.

Lisa, also, you have been reporting on this idea that Republicans are going to be focused on another battle tonight.

That is for control of the U.S. Senate.

What should we expect?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right, a very big night, I have been told by people around this convention that we will hear from people like Kari Lake of Arizona trying to take a Senate seat from Democrats there, but all of the sort of key Democrats running for seats.

And that battle is critical, as will be the things, every one of those candidates says on stage tonight.

GEOFF BENNETT: The theme tonight, Lisa, is make America safe again.

Help us understand what the party is trying to convey with that messaging tonight.

LISA DESJARDINS: This will be a darker tone tonight.

This will be a night where Republicans will try to convince the public that President Biden has led to a country full of crime, where undocumented immigrants have been causing problems for communities across this country.

We know, of course, that violent crime in this country has gone down in the last couple of years.

There are some communities where that's different.

But, tonight, we have to pay very careful attention to how this tone goes, because this is trying to present kind of an atmosphere of fear.

Many of these delegates believe there is a reason to fear.

We know the statistics say otherwise, so we have to watch it carefully.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we should convey our apologies for talking through the prayer here on the floor.

These timing issues are outside of our control.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, finally, we know also just a few hours ago we learned about reports that the Secret Service had increased security for the former president, former President Trump, due to a possible foreign threat.

What should we know about that?

LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.

We have learned, myself and producer Dan Sagalyn, from sources involved that the National Security Council has been tracking increased potential threat from the Iranian government against former President Trump because of the assassination strike he launched against a top Iranian official in 2020.

They conveyed that to the Secret Service.

Secret Service then surged its resources, but they say that was before the assassination attempt this weekend.

And they say they do not think that assassination attempt is connected.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, that is our Lisa Desjardins down on the convention floor, where she will be all night for us as our special coverage continues.

Lisa, thank you.

All right, let's hear now from the chairman of the Republican National Committee.

I spoke with Michael Whatley earlier today, and I began by asking him about former President Trump's appearance right here last night in this hall.

MICHAEL WHATLEY, Chairman, Republican National Committee: When I had talked to him prior to him coming out there, I said: "Sir, this place is going to melt for you."

People are relieved.

It is a miracle that he's here.

It's a miracle that we are holding this convention.

And I think that he wanted to send that signal.

He didn't need to be here until Thursday.

And he was like: No, I'm coming to Milwaukee.

I want to send a signal to the people here, but to the people all across the country, I'm here.

AMNA NAWAZ: You mentioned you spoke with him after the assassination attempt.

I talked to Senator Ron Johnson yesterday, who said, in speaking with him, he seemed like a changed person.

Did you get that sense too?

MICHAEL WHATLEY: You know, he is very focused, right?

And I think that he understands that he has a very unique opportunity to help lead this country, and that's something that is driving him.

And so, again, you have to stop and reflect on what happened on Saturday.

You have to take stock of that.

And you really need to step back and say, why are we doing this?

What is this about?

And it really is... AMNA NAWAZ: You think that day changed everything?

MICHAEL WHATLEY: I think so.

I know it changed my speech.

I think it changed everybody's speech to be able to have that conversation and that focus on every American family.

But we are very blessed to have him here.

AMNA NAWAZ: He did say he changed his speech, trying, I think he says, intends to call for more unity and tamping down some of the political rhetoric.

Did you ask all the other speakers to change their speeches?

MICHAEL WHATLEY: No, we didn't have to.

AMNA NAWAZ: Are you reviewing them?

MICHAEL WHATLEY: We have had conversations with everybody.

I think, obviously, you want to make sure that we continue to focus on the messages for the convention.

And the thing that's really remarkable, I guess, is that we had always planned this convention to really focus on every American family, to talk about everyday Americans and the experience that they're having right now in the world and what Donald Trump can do to help make it better for everybody.

AMNA NAWAZ: But the calls for unity, to be fair, that's a change in tone and rhetoric.

Was that something you have asked speakers to try to work into their speeches more?

MICHAEL WHATLEY: Again, I think that people are following the lead of the president, right?

And, certainly, I changed my speech and made sure that we had that conversation in there.

And I think the president really wants to focus on it.

We have unified the Republican Party.

But now it's time to unify this country.

AMNA NAWAZ: Speaking of unifying the Republican Party, Nikki Haley is expected to speak tonight.

Why is it important for her to take the stage?

What's the message that you hope she delivers and who she brings further into the fold?

MICHAEL WHATLEY: Well, look, I think the fact that we have Ron DeSantis here, we have Nikki Haley here, we are a unified Republican Party.

I think that we are unified in a way that, frankly, we have not been for generations as a party behind Donald Trump.

That is tremendously important, because, right now, this nation is at an inflection point.

This election cycle is going to determine not just where we go for the next four years, but for generations to come.

And, again, we have an opportunity here to reset our standing in the world, to restore our economy and to secure our southern border.

That's what matters for the American people.

AMNA NAWAZ: In naming J.D.

Vance, his running mate, there's a clear strategy approach there.

It seems to be Midwest, Rust Belt, blue wall.

This is someone who appeals to a lot of key voters there, for Republicans as well.

Tell me a little bit about the appeal that you think he brings to other people too.

Is this sort of room for people who were previously skeptical of President Trump, as was J.D.

Vance, to come into the fold?

MICHAEL WHATLEY: Absolutely.

You know, and when you think about it, there are really two criterion that the president is considering when he thinks about it, right?

One, who is somebody he can work with every single day?

And, secondly, who is somebody that can step up and be the president of the United States?

This is a great pick.

And I think it sends the signals that you were talking about to the Rust Belt.

I think that it sends the signals to working Americans every single day.

This is a guy who grew up poor.

This is a guy who grew up in Appalachia, who managed to work his way into the Senate.

And when he ran for the Senate, he did it by talking to every family in Ohio.

And now he's in a big position to talk to every American and talk to every American family about his experience and how America gives us the opportunity to do better, but we need to do better.

AMNA NAWAZ: He's also exactly half Mr. Trump's age.

Is he the heir apparent here?

MICHAEL WHATLEY: Look, I think we have such a strong bench here in the Republican Party.

I think that we have a future of young leaders.

You think about guys like Wesley Hunt or Byron Donaldson and, obviously, Senator Vance.

AMNA NAWAZ: But he didn't pick them for V.P.

He picked J.D.

Vance.

MICHAEL WHATLEY: He did pick J.D.

Vance.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

MICHAEL WHATLEY: I think it is the face of the party.

I think it is the future of this country.

And I think that it's because we're addressing the issues that every American family cares about, things like jobs and the economy, safety and security, that every family cares about, whether they're urban or they're suburban or they're rural, whether they're in the north or they're in the south.

And so his ability to connect directly with American voters is something that's matched only by the president.

AMNA NAWAZ: The theme for tonight is make America safe again.

It's worth noting former President Trump is now himself a victim of gun violence, like millions of Americans, an experience that they can relate to.

Is that something we should expect to hear about tonight?

MICHAEL WHATLEY: I think what we want to talk about is making sure that there is a community that is going to be safe in every community.

We want to talk about making sure the American people are safe, talk about the fact that we have had 10 million illegal immigrants who have come across our southern border.

(CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: But with regards to safety and gun violence, in particular, is that something you expect to come up?

MICHAEL WHATLEY: All of that matters.

I think everything is on the table.

What we want to talk about is the everyday American experience, and we need to support our law enforcement officers, and we need to have a number of conversations at every level.

AMNA NAWAZ: You have had a decades-long career in Republican politics.

Tell me about how you're thinking about the strategy ahead in terms of, on election night, if there's one state that you think former President Trump wins that tells you he's won it or one state he potentially loses that says to you it's game over?

MICHAEL WHATLEY: You know, look, I think we have got a series of battleground states that we have been focused on since the campaign opened up, places like Arizona and Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

We're -- we have opened up our map to places that Republicans have not competed in for a long time, places like Minnesota, Virginia, New Hampshire, even New Jersey that we're seeing that we're now competitive in.

So we're hoping that, if we do our job, we get out the vote and we protect the ballot, that we're going to be able to have an early night on election night.

But I think that when we see how those battleground states go that decided '16, that decided '20, then we're going to have a sense of where we're going here.

AMNA NAWAZ: RNC Chairman Michael Whatley, thank you so much for your time.

Good to speak with you.

MICHAEL WHATLEY: Absolutely.

Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: And let's turn our focus now to some news impacting the Democratic Party today.

New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez has been found guilty on all counts in a federal corruption trial.

The prominent Democrat was accused of abuse of power and enriching himself and associates.

GEOFF BENNETT: And just minutes after the verdict was delivered, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer again called for his fellow Democrat to step down immediately.

William Brangham has the latest back in Washington.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Menendez was convicted on 16 counts, including bribery, fraud, obstruction, and acting as a foreign agent.

Prosecutors detailed how Menendez trade political favors to the Egyptian government and an American businessman in exchange for lavish amounts of money and luxury goods.

After the verdict, U.S. attorney Damian Williams spoke outside the courthouse in New York.

DAMIAN WILLIAMS, U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York: This case has always been about shocking levels of corruption, hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz.

This wasn't politics as usual.

This was politics for profit.

And now that the jury has convicted Bob Menendez, his years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For his part, Senator Menendez decried the verdict and vowed to appeal.

SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ (D-NJ): I'm deeply, deeply disappointed by the jury's decision.

I have every faith that the law and the facts did not sustain that decision and that we will be successful upon appeal.

I have never violated my public oath.

I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country.

I have never, ever been a foreign agent.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The senator's wife, Nadine Menendez, has also been charged, but her trial has been postponed indefinitely as she undergoes cancer treatment.

To break this all down, I am joined by Ry Rivard of Politico, who has been covering this.

Ry, thank you so much for being here.

I detailed briefly the charges that Menendez was found guilty of, but can you sketch out the sort of overarching conspiracy here?

RY RIVARD, Politico: Yes, it starts with those shocking or sometimes comical levels of gold and cash that were found by the FBI in his home, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, over a dozen gold bars.

And it goes back to the people that are now found guilty of providing it to him, people who include a prominent New Jersey real estate developer who Menendez helped cement a deal with Qatar for the benefit of this real estate developer, and a halal meat mogul who wanted a meet monopoly from the Egyptian government to be allowed by the American government, that he didn't want American officials to interfere in this arrangement, and Menendez made phone calls for -- or made a phone call for this person to try and get the USDA to back off scrutiny.

And then there was a Mercedes in his -- car that was tied to another defendant who pled guilty and testified in this trial, where that defendant wanted Menendez to attempt to disrupt a state investigation of his insurance company.

And so there's all of these overlapping conspiracies involving a trio of New Jersey businesspeople who wanted different things from the senator and gave him money and cash to get them.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And the central conspiracy allegation is that he used his influence as a senator to squash investigations, to make aid to Egypt flow, like, he basically put his thumb on the scale in lots of different ways in a corrupt way?

RY RIVARD: That's exactly right.

And in some cases he wasn't always successful.

The prosecutors in this case, the federal prosecutors said he didn't succeed in disrupting the federal investigation or a federal criminal case that he was attempting to disrupt or a state investigation that he was attempting to disrupt.

But he was found guilty of taking bribes and acting to try and disrupt those investigations.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And what was Menendez's argument here?

What was his defense in all of this?

We heard a little bit of what he had to say.

But what did he argue in court?

RY RIVARD: Well, it became popular to call it the "throw the wife under the bus" defense.

But in some ways he said that his wife, Nadine, who he married in 2020 and was dating in the early part of this conspiracy and these schemes, had done things behind his back, that they lived separate lives in some ways, at least financially separate lives, and that she had made arrangements with people that he didn't know about.

His co-defendants, two of his co-defendants in this case, had slightly different defenses, which didn't always mesh with his own, which is that they didn't deny that they gave the senator things.

They didn't deny that they gave him gifts.

They said that these things, if they gave them, just weren't bribes.

They were goodwill gifts, which can be permitted in certain cases by the law.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I guess it's -- a gold bar and a Mercedes-Benz are hard to be seen as goodwill gifts in this case.

What happens now?

I mean, he says he's going to appeal, but the calls for him politically to step down keep growing louder and louder.

RY RIVARD: Right.

He hasn't heeded them so far, although they have obviously intensified in the hours since the jury found him guilty on these 16 counts.

He is mounting an independent run for the Senate, but you have Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, suggesting that he should step down.

It seems like it's possible, although nobody has said this, that, if he doesn't, if Menendez doesn't voluntarily step down, the Senate could choose to expel him.

In the meantime, it's hard to imagine that New Jersey is getting effective representation from somebody who's being shunned by their colleagues.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And what happens with regards to sentencing?

There's got to be a date set for that.

And what kinds of time might he be facing for these crimes?

RY RIVARD: If you stack them all together, he's facing over two centuries in prison.

I think the lengthiest sentence, the single sentence would be 20 years.

He could serve those concurrently.

But there's a long way to go, I think, before sentencing.

I mean, the sentencing hearing is in October, but there's a long way to go legally.

There are appeals of the jury verdict that he wants to make before the judge.

Then there are appeals of the sentence or the conviction that he could make to appeals courts.

We have a Supreme Court that's very interested in some of these corruption issues.

They have overturned other corruption convictions.

And they're interested in reexamining, as we saw in the case involving former President Trump, or examining, in some cases, for the first time novel legal issues around immunity for elected officials.

And there is a form of congressional immunity that Menendez has and tried to use, and the judge didn't allow him to use it in certain cases in this trial that he could very well appeal on.

It's an intriguing legal issue that the Supreme Court could be interested in.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Ry Rivard of Politico, thanks so much for sharing your reporting with us.

RY RIVARD: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's return to the Republican National Convention, where a number of candidates, as well as lawmakers, up for reelection are slated to speak this evening.

AMNA NAWAZ: Representative Anthony D'Esposito of New York is a former police officer, and his reelection this November is key to the Republican Party's effort to address the House majority.

The congressman joins us here now.

Welcome.

Thanks for joining us.

REP. ANTHONY D'ESPOSITO (R-NY): Good evening.

thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: I want to start with the overall tone here at the convention, which you have seen.

And in the wake of that assassination attempt on former President Trump, you echoed what we heard from President Biden, Speaker Johnson, others.

You said, it's time for everyone to unite against political violence.

What do you want to hear from Republican leaders here that you think helps to do that?

REP. ANTHONY D'ESPOSITO: I think that the message needs to be unification, that we are putting the rhetoric aside, that we want to talk about the issues, the issues that matter most to the American people, the ones that I believe the Republicans are on the right side of.

We want to talk about solutions to the problems that the people back in my district, when they sit around their dinner table, that they talk about, the border, the economy, what we are doing on a global scale, the fact that, right now, under Joe Biden's failed leadership, we look weak.

Those are the things that I want to talk about.

Those are the things that the Republicans need to focus on and show that they are unified in not only the problems, but finding solutions come January.

GEOFF BENNETT: House Republicans are dealing with the slimmest of slim majorities right now, and you have said that New York voters in particular in this election, voters who in the past might have voted for Democrats this time around, are poised to vote for Republicans or at the very least not vote for Joe Biden in New York City.

What accounts for that level of confidence?

REP. ANTHONY D'ESPOSITO: I -- because I am out in the community.

The community that I represent is one that Joe Biden won by 16.5 points in 2020.

Democrats outnumber Republicans in my district by about 70,000, countywide 140,000.

Right now, in Nassau County, we have -- Republicans hold all four countywide seats.

We control three towns, two cities.

We have obviously three Republicans that represent Long Island, one that did represent Long Island and is no longer with us and now represented by a Democrat.

But that pendulum is swinging.

And the Democrats in New York, because of Governor Cuomo, because of Governor Hochul and the overreach of the state legislature, the botched criminal justice and cashless bail - - we just went through congestion pricing, where they were again reaching into the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers.

People are fed up.

And the Democrats feel that their party is pandering so far to the left that they are not focusing on the middle of the road.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, Cook Political Report is called your race a tossup at this point.

Tell me about how this ticket, Trump/Vance, helps or hurts you, because the addition of J.D.

Vance doesn't necessarily expand the voting bloc it's bringing in, right?

It's more of the same message in a lot of ways.

Does that help you and help other downballot races?

REP. ANTHONY D'ESPOSITO: I think J.D.

Vance is a good choice.

I think he's had a successful career thus far, obviously, a military man, fought for this country.

And I think what's most important for me, as someone who's one of the younger elected officials in the Republican Party, it shows that the Republicans are embracing the youth, which is important to see back home, because people want to see elected officials that they can connect with, people that they see on the streets that they talk to, that are accessible on social media.

I think that... AMNA NAWAZ: Do you think that generational piece of it is key to getting people out?

REP. ANTHONY D'ESPOSITO: I think, yes, showing someone under their 40s that has an opportunity to be vice president of the United States of America, I think it sends a great message back home.

GEOFF BENNETT: Does that embrace, as you describe it, does that also come along with sufficient resources, funding, and party infrastructure for you to run the kind of race that you say you want to run?

REP. ANTHONY D'ESPOSITO: So I am confident, under the leadership of Speaker Johnson and back home in Nassau County under the leadership of Chairman Cairo, we will have the resources necessary.

We're just coming off our best quarter yet fund-raising.

So I am confident that we are going to have all the resources, both financially and troops on the ground, to make sure that this seat, which helped deliver the majority in 2022, is one that's going to keep and hopefully grow other districts for our majority in 2025.

AMNA NAWAZ: In an effort, as I know you want to do, to set the tone to tamp down the political rhetoric, avoid political violence in the future, one of the things underpinning this whole conversation is the fact that Mr. Trump had to pick a new vice president because his old vice president is not running with him this time.

On this issue, can you set the tone here and just say that you will accept the 2024 election results regardless of what happens?

REP. ANTHONY D'ESPOSITO: I have always said, I accepted the fact that Joe Biden was president of the United States.

Clearly, over the last three-and-a-half years, our country is much different than it was under President Trump.

There is no question that Joe Biden is the president of the United States.

And I look forward to electing and accepting President Trump as the president of the United States.

GEOFF BENNETT: What's the metric of success this week for this gathering?

REP. ANTHONY D'ESPOSITO: I think the metric bases very much so on, again, that unity portion, and talking about the issues.

Nobody wants to hear rhetoric anymore.

The American people want to hear solutions to the problems that they're facing, the fact that, when they go to the supermarket, everything costs more, the fact that every city, state, and county in this country is a border city, state, and county.

And this is our opportunity, while the American people are watching, to talk about actual solutions to the problems that we face.

AMNA NAWAZ: Do you think, knowing -- as we know, about the conversation within the Democratic Party about potentially swapping out President Biden at the top of the ticket, do you think that the Trump/Vance ticket has a better chance of beating any other Democratic candidate out there, or they want to run against President Biden?

REP. ANTHONY D'ESPOSITO: Listen, I think that President Biden is bringing zero enthusiasm to the Democratic Party, just much like my opponent.

But I think that President Trump and our soon-to-be vice president are running together.

And they have a unified front behind them.

People are going to talk about the message, deliver the message.

And I am confident that we're going to see victory in November.

GEOFF BENNETT: Congressman Anthony D'Esposito, thanks so much for your time.

We appreciate it.

REP. ANTHONY D'ESPOSITO: Thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: Dr. Ben Carson served as the secretary of housing and urging urban development in Donald Trump's administration.

And he is one of only a handful of Cabinet members still in the former president's orbit.

Carson is slated to speak this evening.

And I caught up with him earlier today.

Dr. Ben Carson, thanks so much for joining us.

DR. BEN CARSON, Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: It's my pleasure.

Thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: You are among a handful of the dozens of people who served in Trump's Cabinet during his time in office who say that he deserves to be reelected Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, former National Security Advisers John Bolton, H.R.

McMaster, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, former Attorney General Bill Barr all say that Donald Trump is not fit to serve.

Why, in your view, are all of those men wrong?

DR. BEN CARSON: Well, I think they're looking more at the person and at the personality, and not so much at what he was able to accomplish.

I would say it's akin to if you were a patient with a terrible disease and you required a good surgeon.

Would you rather have the one who has terrible bedside manner and saves everybody or the one with the sweetest words who kills everybody?

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, what's your assessment of Donald Trump as a person and his personality?

DR. BEN CARSON: His personality is similar to what you would see in a Manhattan businessman, somebody who lives in a dog-eat-dog world where you take no prisoners.

And that's how you rise to the top in that kind of environment.

GEOFF BENNETT: The Trump campaign says it's making a major play for the Black vote.

They say that they are microtargeting urban Black men between the ages of 18 and 34.

Help us understand what that effort looks like.

DR. BEN CARSON: Well, I don't know that there is a gigantic effort, other than having policies that recognize that a rising tide lifts all boats.

And that has been clear in the policies that he's put forth during his previous administration.

And everybody has benefited from it.

You had the lowest Black unemployment rates, the lowest Hispanic unemployment rates, very low female unemployment rates.

Those kinds of things are noticed by people, and not going out of your way to sort of take one group and pit them against another group.

I think that's what we need more of in America.

And it doesn't matter who does that, Democrat or Republican.

We just need to move in that direction.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's talk about the issues, because, on the issue of abortion, Donald Trump is playing down the prospect of a nationwide abortion ban.

He's saying that at this point it should be left to the states.

You support a federal ban on abortion, and you say you don't believe in exceptions for rape and incest.

And J.D.

Vance, the vice presidential pick now, has also argued in the past against exceptions for rape and incest.

Help us understand your reasoning for that.

DR. BEN CARSON: Well, I said that, obviously, before Roe v. Wade was overturned.

GEOFF BENNETT: But you made that point in the book that came out this past spring.

DR. BEN CARSON: Now that it has been overturned, we abide by the law of the land.

The law of the land says that should be looked at the level of the state.

And I think that's actually not a bad idea, because, at the state level, you get to talk with your representatives.

You get to make your opinion known.

You get to hear from them and you get to help fashion what they propose.

And the way it was before, you didn't get to do that.

And I think that's probably what the founding fathers had in mind when they talked about a nation that was of, by and for the people, not of, by and for the government.

GEOFF BENNETT: So are you saying you no longer support a nationwide abortion ban, and you don't think that Donald Trump should embrace the same idea?

DR. BEN CARSON: I would love to see a nationwide ban on murdering little babies.

I would love that.

But we need to use the mechanism that is supplied legally by our country and by the principles that establish our country.

And I hope that we continue to move toward a society that honors life from the womb to the tomb.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the time that remains, I want to draw on your experience as the former secretary of housing and urban development.

The Biden administration released a set of proposals today aimed at tackling the housing affordability crisis.

They're trying to cap rents at a certain level.

If President Trump, former President Trump, is reelected, what would he aim to do to solve the housing affordability crisis?

DR. BEN CARSON: Well, one of the things that he did the first time around was say, for every regulation, I want you to get rid of two.

At HUD, we got rid of over 2,000 regulations and subregulations.

Those are the kinds of things that really help.

You probably heard about the multifamily luxury dwelling that was made for the homeless in Los Angeles recently, $600,000 per unit.

The reason that it's so expensive is not because the technology doesn't exist to create affordable housing, but because the number of regulations that you stack on takes something that maybe costs $150,000 and drives it up to those kinds of ranges.

What we need to do is reevaluate some of the regulations.

We have things that are duplicated and just not necessary.

And if we do that, I think we can come up with a solution.

We were well on the way to a very good solution before COVID hit, working with Mayor Garcetti, with the governor, and with the various county clerks, coming up with a solution that used government land, curtailed some of the regulations, and dealt with the entire person, not just getting them off the street, but, if they're a drug addict, dealing with that.

The head of the American Psychiatric Association told me that the vast majority of those people, with appropriate counseling and regular medications, could be quite functional.

But we just throw them out on the street on their own, and that's really not very compassionate.

GEOFF BENNETT: Dr. Ben Carson, thanks so much for sharing your time with us.

We appreciate it.

DR. BEN CARSON: A pleasure.

Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: As Americans continue to grasp what led up to the threat made on Donald Trump's life, Judy Woodruff sought some perspective on how this moment of violence and deep division relates to the country's past.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's the latest in her ongoing series America at a Crossroads.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Kevin Boyle is a professor of American history at Northwestern University and author of the 2021 book "The Shattering: America in the 1960s."

I traveled to Chicago to ask him about the parallels he sees between our own time and that tumultuous period, which witnessed widespread protests over Vietnam, women's rights and civil rights, as well as the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, and of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. KEVIN BOYLE, Professor of American History, Northwestern University: So, there are a couple of major parallels, in that the issues that I think were most central to the 1960s, the ones that were the most divisive in the 1960s, they have continued to be incredibly divisive issues up to the current day.

The most obvious of those is the question of race in America, foreign policy and the place of the United States in the world, which became a major issue again this spring with the college protest movement over Israeli policy in Gaza.

And then one of the themes that I think we don't think about quite as much in the 1960s is the really fundamental transformation of the relationship between the government and private life, and particularly sexual life.

One of the great markers of the end of the 1960s was Roe v. Wade.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Roe v. Wade.

KEVIN BOYLE: And, of course, that's an issue that had been -- has been incredibly divisive ever since, and now, of course, has become a major, major point of contention in American public life.

So there's huge continuities.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What is it about America that these events keep happening?

KEVIN BOYLE: I think there's really three factors that intersect in making these events happen.

One is, as sorry as I am to say this, there is a very long tradition of political violence and violence inside our public life.

It cuts across many forms.

I think it's compounded in our current moment, it has for the last 40 years, by the proliferation of gun ownership.

So what that means is that you essentially have motives and means.

I don't know anything about the motivation of this young man, but I think we have to be willing to acknowledge that it is also tied, to a striking degree, to the mental health crisis that does afflict young men particularly and that leads some of those young men to extraordinarily violent behavior.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What are some of the forces that are pulling us apart as a people, that would make us even think about wanting to kill or harm our political leaders?

KEVIN BOYLE: I think that what's happened in American public life in recent years is an extraordinarily high level of polarization.

Of course, we have always had differences of opinions.

Of course, we have always had deep divides.

And, of course, we have always had people on the fringes of American politics who were embracing extreme ideas, and sometimes, not always, but, sometimes, those were the people who committed acts of political violence like the assassinations of presidents.

But the level of polarization in the United States today, the sense of division that makes people in the mainstream -- and that's the extraordinary thing -- in the mainstream see their political opponents as enemies, that's a really dangerous and accelerating situation in the United States today.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And what's your sense, your understanding of why that is?

KEVIN BOYLE: There's a lot of factors to play into it.

There's no question that issues of race play into American polarization and have always played into American polarization.

There's no question that questions of foreign policy have in the past and continue to play into our polarization.

Those issues are perennial points of division.

But what's really fundamentally different now is that, in the past, the Republican and Democratic parties have essentially provided guardrails to that politics.

Those guardrails have fallen off, especially with the Republican Party, so that no more does the Republican Party serve as a way of kind of preventing the sharp polarization that it once did.

That's a fundamental transformation.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And what caused the guardrails to come down?

KEVIN BOYLE: There are a whole lot of factors that have transformed our politics in the last, say, 20 years or so, even in the last 10 years.

There is a really extraordinary transformation of communication systems in the United States, the ways in which news or disinformation circulate.

It's just dramatically different.

In the 1960s, we had three networks.

Now, suddenly, you can get information from all sorts of places.

You can spread information in all sorts of places.

And that's broadened out the world of extremist politics, the world of extremist ideas.

So that's certainly one huge factor.

And then I think we have also had massive, massive economic dislocations in the United States, 2008's financial meltdown, for instance, which has caused a high level of frustration for huge portions of people, of fear for huge portions of people, that then can get channeled in various ways that causes -- intensifies that polarization.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you have a sense of what it's going to take to get us to a better place?

KEVIN BOYLE: We need to tone down American political rhetoric.

We need to scale it back, because whether we like it or not, powerful figures have huge influence on the way that ordinary people, a lot of ordinary people, think about politics.

So if the political leadership is willing to scale back the rhetoric -- and that happens in both parties, but I do believe that it's only fair to say that the Republican rhetoric has been much more inflammatory in recent years than the Democratic rhetoric.

It's not to say there hasn't been moments of inflammatory rhetoric with the Democrats, but I don't think there's an equivalency there.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Are we talking about something that's going to take generations to make progress on, or is this something that could happen more quickly?

What do you think?

KEVIN BOYLE: I hate to think that it could take generations to solve, but I have a very hard time seeing the way forward in the short term.

These are issues that we have known about for a very long time, that we talk about from time to time, but we don't see movement on them.

I'm a very, very great admirer, as are many, many people, in the United States of Martin Luther King.

And the extraordinary thing about Martin Luther King, the thing that made him such an extraordinary figure in the United States, is that what he was calling for was a transformation of how the nation, how people in the nation thought of themselves, how he wanted to see them create what he called over and over again and the movement called over and over again a beloved community, that you have sense of obligation to each other.

And that's the fundamental transformation, I think, that King was pushing for in the 1960s and that American society needs today, is the sense that you have an obligation to someone else, rather than to purely, not polar opposites, but to purely to individual rights.

And it seems as if, in the last 40, 50 years, we have moved in very much the opposite direction.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And if our current political leaders don't change the rhetoric, the language that you were just talking about, what does that mean?

What does that look like?

KEVIN BOYLE: I fear for the country if we don't manage to think about and act on the crisis that is clearly staring us in the face, and that this horrible event over the weekend is just the latest manifestation of.

JUDY WOODRUFF: For the PBS "News Hour," I'm Judy Woodruff in Evanston, Illinois.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, it's been a brutal summer for severe weather across nearly every part of the United States.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, last night, the Midwest bore the brunt of it.

For details, we turn now to Stephanie Sy with that and the day's other headlines -- Stephanie.

STEPHANIE SY: Thanks, Geoff and Amna.

The Midwest was dealt a deadly combination of heavy rains and tornadoes overnight.

The storms knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people across the state of Illinois.

In Nashville and Southern Illinois, cars were partially submerged amid flash flooding after reports of dam failures in the area.

Damage was also widespread in the Chicago area, where tree trunks fell on cars and crashed through rooftops.

A 44-year-old woman was killed after a tree fell on her home.

Others scrambled for shelter to avoid the danger.

MIHAJLO JEVDOSIC, Chicago Area Resident: We kind of heard a gust wind that came up quick, and we decided, my uncle decided that we would all go in the basement.

And as we went in the basement, we heard the big thump and the tree fall on the house.

I have never seen that before.

Like, a tree is -- it just came out of -- the whole root came out of the ground.

STEPHANIE SY: Meanwhile, just under 100,000 Texans are still waiting for power to be restored more than a week since Hurricane Beryl made landfall there.

Today, a group of Houston-area restaurants filed a $100 million lawsuit against CenterPoint Energy over its response to the storm.

In the Middle East, Israeli airstrikes across South and Central Gaza killed more than 60 Palestinians overnight and through today.

The deadliest attack hit near a refugee camp in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

Hospital officials say 17 people were killed.

The area is considered a humanitarian safe zone, where the Israeli military has told Palestinians to seek shelter to avoid the fighting elsewhere.

Today, the State Department said Israel still has to protect civilians while targeting Hamas.

MATTHEW MILLER, State Department Spokesman: We have had extraordinary concerns about civilian casualties for some time.

And that's why we are pushing so hard, not just pushing, but actively negotiating to get a cease-fire that would stop this daily tragedy, where you see innocent Palestinian civilians being killed as a result of this war.

STEPHANIE SY: Meantime, the Israeli military says it has eliminated half of the leadership of Hamas' military wing and roughly 14,000 fighters have been either killed or captured.

Gaza health officials say more than 38,000 people have died in the territory since the war began last October.

Former media entrepreneur Carlos Watson was convicted today in a financial conspiracy case involving his company Ozy Media.

A jury found Watson guilty on all three charges against him.

Prosecutors alleged that he lied to investors about the financial health of his now-defunct company.

Watson started Ozy in 2013 and was a frequent contributor on cable news programs and other outlets, including PBS "News Hour."

Prosecutors say he could face up to 29 years in prison.

Watson had pleaded not guilty.

Also today, former CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry has been indicted for allegedly acting as an agent of South Korea's government.

The indictment says she began doing so in 2013, five years after leaving the CIA.

This included advocating South Korea's policy positions and disclosing nonpublic information to South Korean intelligence officers.

Like Watson, Terry was a frequent TV analyst who also has appeared on PBS "News Hour."

On Wall Street, the Dow surged to a new all-time high after retail sales data provided new hope that the Fed will soon cut interest rates.

The benchmark index jumped more than 700 points, closing near the 41000-point level.

The Nasdaq had acquired her day, but still ended higher, adding 36 points.

The S&P 500 also posted gains.

And country star Ingrid Andress has admitted she was drunk during her performance of the national anthem at last night's home run derby.

The four-time Grammy nominee says she's checking herself into a facility to -- quote -- "get the help I need."

In an Instagram post, Andress expressed her remorse, saying: "That was not me last night.

I apologize to MLB, all the fans, and this country I love so much."

Clips of the uneven performance quickly radiated across social media, drawing widespread criticism.

The 32-year-old is known for country hits like "More Hearts Than Mine" and "Wishful Drinking."

And, Amna and Geoff, back to you in Milwaukee.

GEOFF BENNETT: Thank you Stephanie.

The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump immediately sent shockwaves across the nation and through an already tense presidential campaign.

It also quickly became an event defined by iconic photographs.

AMNA NAWAZ: We spoke to two of the photojournalists who were covering Mr. Trump's rally in Pennsylvania that day and who are now here in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: And that's a little bit old, that chart, that chart.

That chart's a couple of months old.

EVAN VUCCI, Associated Press: I had my lens trained on the stage.

And over my left shoulder, I heard several pops.

(GUNSHOTS) EVAN VUCCI: And I knew right away it was gunfire.

So I ran to the stage and I pulled my wide-angle lens out and I started photographing.

ANNA MONEYMAKER, Getty Images: I just really tried hard to just keep on taking pictures, just keep on taking pictures, in between saying, "Oh, my God, oh, my God."

My name is Anna Moneymaker, and I'm a staff photographer for Getty Images in Washington, D.C. EVAN VUCCI: My name is Evan Vucci.

I'm the chief photographer for AP in Washington.

My thought when the gunfire started is that this is going to be one of the biggest news stories in American history.

And I have the responsibility to cover it.

The entire time, I'm thinking, OK, slow down, slow down, think, compose.

What are you doing?

Where are you going?

What's the light?

What's your composition?

Think.

ANNA MONEYMAKER: It was just surreal, confusing and nothing like I have ever experienced before.

It's all these blue suits.

You could just see in that little archway of legs, like, his face.

He's a distinct president.

And I didn't notice blood at first, but I just kept taking pictures.

EVAN VUCCI: I'm thinking, OK, where is he going to go next?

What's going to happen?

How is the Secret Service going to get him out of here?

As the former president started to stand up, I ran for the front of the stage, and he was sort of fighting with the Secret Service a little bit to start pumping his fists to the crowd.

And I started making frames there.

And then I knew that he was going to go down the steps and into a waiting vehicle.

So I ran to the steps as quickly as I could, and I started framing up what I thought was going to work.

I always say the curse of the still photographer is that you never have a second chance.

So I need to be there immediately.

I need to start making photos that are storytelling.

And I can't do that from the ground.

I can't do that from anywhere else.

I have got to be right where it's happening.

ANNA MONEYMAKER: I was covering politics during the pandemic.

I thought that was the biggest thing I'd ever cover.

Then I was at the Capitol when January 6 happened, and I thought that was like the biggest thing I would ever cover.

I was not a very, I think, seasoned journalist at the time, and I fled during the Capitol, and I hid in an office.

In the days and months after that, I had a lot of anxiety and regret for not having made better pictures.

I just did not have the training that I think I now do.

Instead of freezing up, I think I said, don't freeze up.

Don't freeze up.

Just go.

Just go.

It's OK. Just stay down.

Just stay down and make the pictures as best you can.

I think it's kind of made me think, like, if you can go through that, then you can go through anything.

EVAN VUCCI: Honestly, I'm just proud that I didn't mess it up.

And the other thing is, I work for AP, so we have a pretty distinguished history of photojournalism.

And when it was my time, I held the standard, and that's what I'm most proud of.

It's not really the single image that I made or anything like that.

It's that I was able to do the job and not flinch.

ANNA MONEYMAKER: Seeing some of the photographers I was with here, we just kind of look at each other, and we're just like, how did we -- how did this happen and what did we experience?

AMNA NAWAZ: It's remarkable work by those journalists under fire.

GEOFF BENNETT: Indeed.

AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

We will have much more coverage online.

And we hope you will join us for live coverage of tonight's events at the Republican National Convention.

That starts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on your local PBS station and also streaming gavel to gavel on our Web site and our YouTube pages.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

For all of us here at the "PBS News Hour," thanks for spending part of your evening with us, and we will see you back here very soon.