the republican party uniting around donald trump at the rnc. we have the big moments from day two. this, as president biden heads back to the campaign trail to try to shore up his own base. and some democrats signal efforts to replace him on the democratic ticket may not be over. the 2024 horse race leaving some asking what voters really care about. nbc news talks to voters in one swing county that has gone four every winning president since the year 2000. how two michigan teens are deep diving for their college tuition. and the american league is back on top. we've got the highlights of this year's mlb all-star game. it's wednesday, july 17th. "early today" starts right now. good morning, welcome to wednesday, i'm frances rivera.

we begin in milwaukee, where former president trump returned to the convention floor, making another unscheduled appearance and listening to speeches given by his former rival from the primary. >> reporter: former president trump electrifying the crowd with his entrance on night two of the republican national convention, joining his new running mate, ohio senator, j.d. vance and watching as former u.n. ambassador took the stage. >> donald trump has my strong endorsement, period. >> reporter: a late addition speech. >> president trump asked me to speak to this convention in the name of unity. >> reporter: from the former president's fiercest critic during the gop primary. >> you don't have to agree with trump 100% of the time to vote for him. >> reporter: next up, another primary rival, florida governor ron desantis.

>> let's send joe biden back to his basement and let's send donald trump back to the white house! [cheers and applause] >> reporter: some of the loudest cheers came for one-time presidential hopeful vivek ramaswamy who embraced the "make america safe again" focus on crime and immigration. >> if you want to seal the border, vote trump. if you want to restore law and order in this country, vote trump. >> reporter: speakers repeatedly blaming president biden's policies for illegal border crossings, with some of the most ramped up rhetoric since leaders on both sides called for unity, in the wake of the assassination attempt against former president trump. the former president looking on, as one-time rivals pledged their support and rally around the new republican ticket. in milwaukee, alice barr, nbc news. meanwhile, tensions reese

mainremain high around the convention as there was an officer-involved shootingr sho shooting. shots were fire at a man armed with a knife. police say it was unrelated to any activity at the convention. as president biden makes his return to the campaign trail, three sources tell nbc news he has notified lawmakers he has considered endorsing big changes for the supreme court, that includes backing term limits for the justices. the white house declined to comment. gabe gutierrez is following the president's campaign. >> reporter: president biden back on the campaign trail in battleground nevada, trying to shore up support among black supporters at the naacp convention and slamming donald trump's policies. >> because we must lower the temperature, doesn't mean we

should stop telling the truth. >> reporter: but a new signal that the effort among some house democrats to convince him to leave the race is not over. two sources tell nbc news in a new draft letter more than 20 lawmakers are urging the democratic national committee not to speed up the nomination of president biden before the party's convention, through a virtual roll call vote, writing, stifling debate and prematurely shutting down any possible debate is a bad idea. >> do you feel like you've weathered the storm on this issue of whether you should be on the ticket or not? >> look, 14 million people voted for me to be the nominee in the democratic party, okay? i listen to them. >> reporter: the president, eager to move forward, calling on congress to give relief to renters by passing legislation forcing corporate landlords to cap rent increases at 5% or lose

federal tax breaks. a key issue especially in nevada where housing costs have skyrocketed. mic michelle lao has been behind on rent payments. her husband was laid often earoff earlier this year. >> we are definitely living conservatively. >> reporter: still, capping rent is controversial, because critic critics say it discourages new construction. the president has been delaying a significant announcement about supreme court reforms, including term limits, something progressives have been urging him to do. much of the proposals would require congressional approval. u.s. intelligence in recent weeks learned of a possible iranian plot to assassinate former president trump. according to three officials familiar with the matter. the information led the secret service to ramp up security

around the former president. that was before saturday. but there is no indication the rally shooting is connected. the trump campaign was notified of an evolving threat but were not told it was related to iran. the islamic republic's commission said it was unsubstantiated and malicious. the war in gaza churns on with dozens of palestinians killed in israeli israeli strik. hamas condemned what they called deliberate savagery, accusing israel of targeting civilians in designated safe zones many for the latest, let's go to daniele hamamdjian. >> reporter: there were battles in several parts of the gaza strip yesterday. the death toll, the total death toll, according to health

officials, at least 57. as you mentioned, one the airstrikes was on a u.n.-run school that was a temporary home to displaced families. this was in a camp in central gaza. keep in mind. thousands and thousands of families have had to relocate at least ten times with whatever belongings they have left since the conflict began. among those killed was a local journalist, taking the total number of journalists killed to 160. now now, in a statement, the israeli military says it had attack add group of what it claims were terrorist terrorists who had operated inside the school. nbc news cannot independently fair v verify this. on tuesday, they said they had kb eliminated half the brigade. hamas has accused israel of stepping up attacks in the

enclave to try to derail efforts by arab mediators and american mediators to reach a cease-fire deal. >> okay, danielle, thank you. now to pressure that's mounting on new jersey democrat senator bob menendez to resign from the senate, facing threats of expulsion from fellow democrats. he was found guilty on tuesday of 16 federal counts, including bribery, extortion and acting as a foreign agent. he previously pleaded not guilty in the case and did not testify in his own defense. he is set to be sentenced on october 29. meanwhile, the trial for his wife nadine menendez has been delayed indefinitely as she undergoes treatment for stage three breast cancer. let's turn to the forecast, with 43 million people at risk of severe weather in the mid atlantic and the northeast, as we finally see relief from scorching temperatures. nbc meteorologist violeta is tracking the latest.

>> we sound like a broken record. everyone is ready for a little bit of a cool down. we do have one more day of this heat in store. you can see the temperatures from hartford to raleigh. you can already start to see the relief off to the north and west across the midwest and parts of the great lakes as well. now eventually, that front is going to move through. so, by tomorrow, we will notice a difference here in the northeast and parts of the mid atlantic. still quite hot across the southeast. heading into the weekend, temperatures start to particular up. new york will be close to the 0 90-degree mark. it won't feel quite as bad as what we've seen. still heat alerts in effect. some in the south central and southeast. but mainly across the i-i-95 corridor. we had another stormy night in the ohio valley. the flood risk continues for today. we'll also see a threat for

severe weather akro th triple digits in some spots. and that's a look at the weather in your region. frances, back to you. >> violeta, thank you. nbc spoke to voters in one wisconsin county who voted for every president this century. lys little hands, learn best when they're hands-on. that's why we're donating science kits to schools in need. [kids chattering] and helping teachers keep their classrooms protected by killing 99.9% of germs. because little hands,

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soboroff went there to find out what matters to voters. >> reporter: welcome to door county, wisconsin. they call it the cape cod of the midwest. check it out. it's not hard to see why. over the course of the last six presidential elections, voters here have accurately picked the president every single time. and that means three republicans and three democrats. >> my grandparents came over from norway, and then he sailed on tugs. >> reporter: tom and sue own melody cherry orchard. two native wisconsinites. >> yes. >> reporter: two door county natives with cherry pickers. how does it change in the generations of cherry picking? >> it's always a wave. some years you make great money, then it goes down. >> reporter: what do you think the people running on both side to be our leaders need to know. >> people need to work. they just need to work. >> reporter: what work means on a cherry farm is much different

than when tom and sue's family started in the business. this is what changed the business. >> this is what changed it. >> reporter: first time on a cherry tree shaker. here we go. >> you just come on up. >> reporter: the shaker now does the wok of what used to be hundreds of migrant farm workers. turns out, it's a pretty good place to talk about politics, too. it seems like people here in door county are in the middle, a purple place. >> i never said i was a democrat or republican. i don't do that. >> reporter: when is it going to be that you decide? >> a coin? >> reporter: really, is it like that? are you going to wait till the last minute? >> whether this is done. >> reporter: when cherry season is over. >> it's not on my mind right now. >> reporter: the choice in november is very much on the mind of imelda. you were picking cherries and apples on the farms here in door county. >> yes. >> reporter: she was born in

texas and as a young person spent her time traveling the country working on farms. >> right now there's so much population that we got in last year from nicaragua, el salvador and guatemala. >> reporter: what is it like knowing that you've heard this? >> it hurts me. they're not taking jobs away. >> reporter: have you figured out how you're going to vote this time around? >> i haven't made up my mind yet. >> reporter: democrats? republican? >> i've always been a democrat. >> reporter: do you think politicians understand the way of life out here? >> no, they don't. they don't. they haven't lived in these people's shoes, okay? i've been through that already. >> reporter: you live thad life? >> yes. >> reporter: and now you're trying to help people that are living that life themselves? >> mm-hm. >> and our thanks to jacob for

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it is not unusual for college students to work summer jobs to save up for school. but two michigan young men are diving to new depths to help cover the cost of college. our traverse city affiliate has the story. >> we figured, what better way to make some extra money for college. >> reporter: there are worst ways to save money for college than this. a realization that hit ben and brett kind of out of the blue when brett here dropped his phone in hlake superior. >> my first thought was we have sc scuba diving equipment. we were in the water going down. ben found it. >> reporter: the pair knew they weren't the only ones who accidently dropped things in deep water but were one of the few folks who had the skills and equipment to retrieve them from the bottom. >> it started out when my uncle reached out and said my friend dropped some fishing equipment, would you go recover it?

he'll give you some money, oh, that's a good idea. >> reporter: a good idea that turned into a summer job. >> we get a lot of messages for phones or fishing equipment or stuff here and there. i'm sure as can you believe, we get a lot after the fourth of july. people send us a message and see if we can't find whatever they dropped often their boat or any accidents that happened like that. >> reporter: some jobs are easy. others require a little more skill, luck and patience. >> it really depends on the water. if we're in the bay or some of the clear lakes, like elk lake, we've got a good success rate. i would say it's 80% or 090%. we'll bring out an underwater metal detector. >> reporter: cell phones and fishing gear seem to be the most frequent calls. they get to dive, something they like to do.

they get paid, something they need for college, and they get the reward of bringing sufficient back to the surface from someplace it never should have been. >> the reaction first off is wow, you found it. when you drop something in the water, you don't expect it to be recovered. first they're like that, then they're very happy that they took the opportunity to let us out there to get in the water. >> that's a fun deep dive for your college education. our thanks for that story. before we go, here's al roker with a look at what's ahead. >> this morning on the third hour of "today", john stamos live, and harry connick jr. sharing his new movie. more great deals from amazon prime day, all on the third hour of "today". thanks so much for watching "early today." it's midweek. have a great one. we'll see you right back here early thursday morning. hey, flex. considering there's a heatwave, it's kinda chilly in here. oh, that's because i'm pre-cooling the house with the ac before 4 pm. then i'll turn our thermostat to a comfortable 78 or higher that way i could stay cool later.

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