amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "newshour" 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 on former president donald trump. amna: judy woodruff takes a closer look at that assasination

-- assassination attempt from a historical perspective. >> there is a very long tradition of political violence and violence inside our public life. geoff: 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. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. >> the foundation fostering an informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org.

>> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the newshour. the second night of the republican national convention is about to get underway. amna: the convention kicked 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: it was quite a dramatic moment. he now joins his newly minted vice presidential nominee, j.d. vance, and i will show you guys, as predicted, here are the first signs. all of this is part of one message, that this is a strong and confident republican party. >> please welcome the next president of the united states. lisa: 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 and assassination attempt came.

the crowd chanted "fight," the same word trump mouthed while being rushed off stage. it was the first public appearance of the new republican ticket as trump stood with his new running mate, senator j.d. vance, the youngest vice presidential nominee in a generation. he has 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. sen. vance: you texted a -- >> you texted a friend that trump is cynical like mixon who might even prove useful and he is america's h itler. sen. vance: he changed my mind. lisa: opening night started out

relatively sedate until south carolina senator and former presidential candidate tim scott took stage. >> saturday, the devil came to pennsylvania holding a rifle. but an american lion got back up on his feet and he roared. lisa: scott was one of several prominent black republican men to speak yesterday. polls showed 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, according black voters at the naacp's -- pres. biden: so many of you have my back and i think i have had years as well. -- yours as well. pres. biden: i did not say crosshairs. i meant bullseye. i meant focus on him. i am not the guy who refused to

accept the outcome of the election. lisa: while the gop convention has been forward-looking, there are ties to 2020 conspiracies analyze. 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. while republicans have generally called for calmer tones, some remarks yesterday were sharp. >> today's democrat agenda, their policies, are a clear and present danger to america, to our institutions, our values, and our people. lisa: also last night, there were sharp identity politics. marjorie taylor greene lashed out against transgender and non-binary americans in her speech. tonight, we will hear from a different prominent republican woman, nikki haley, 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. geoff: let's talk more about that because as you know, nikki haley was not invited to even attend this convention and now, she is speaking and even after she dropped out of the primary, in some states, she was still pulling 20% of the republican vote. i know you spoke with some of her former delegates. what are they telling you? lisa: they are all in for trump. the ones 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 had gotten out of the race sooner. they say it was disrespectful. now it's not just the delegates here that matter of course, but nikki haley voters around the country and i caught up with two letters we talked two january. i want to show you a picture. they are military family, all in for nikki haley.

they have not decided if they can support donald trump. they told me they are not sure about j.d. vance. they where he is too isolationist and they don't like the direction he's going and they want to see trump move more towards nikki haley before he can get their support. amna: those are going to be key voters to keep an eye on. republicans are going to be focused on another battle tonight. that is for control of the u.s. senate. what should we expect? lisa: a very big night i have been told by people around this convention that we will hear from. people like kari lake trying to take a seat from democrats there. all the key democrats running for seats and that battle is critical. geoff: the theme tonight is make america safe again. help us understand what the party is trying to convey with that messaging tonight. lisa: this will be a darker tone tonight 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. tonight, we have to pay very careful attention to how this tone does because this is trying to present kind of atmosphere of fear. many of these delegates believe there is a reason to fear. no statistics say otherwise so we have to watch it carefully. geoff: we should convey our apologies for talking during the prayer. these timing issues are outside of our control. amna: 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: we have learned from sources involved that 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 official in 2020 and they convey that to the secret service. the secret service surged its resources but they said that was before the assassination attempt this weekend and they say they do not think that is connected. amna: that is lisa desjardins on the convention floor where she will be all night for us as our special coverage continues. lisa, thank you. that's here now from the chairman of the republican national committee. i spoke with michael earlier today and i began by asking him about former president trump's appearance right here last night in this hall. >> 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 is here. it is a miracle that we are holding this convention. and i think that he wanted to send that signal. he did not need to be here until thursday and he was light, no, i am coming to milwaukee. i want to send a signal to the

people here but to the people across the country. i am here. amna: you mentioned you spoke with him after the assassination attempt. i talked to senator ron johnson yesterday. he seemed like a changed person. did you get that sense? >> he is very focused and he understands that he has a very unique opportunity to help lead this country and that is something that is driving him. again, you have to stop and reflect on what happened on saturday. you have to take stock of that and you need to step back and say, why are we doing this? what is this about? amna: you think that changed everything? >> it changed my speech. it changed everybody's speech to be able to have that conversation and focus on every american family but we are very blessed to have him here. amna: he did say he changed his speech, calling for more unity and tamping down some of the political rhetoric. did you ask all the other speakers? >> we had conversations with everybody. obviously, you want to make sure

that we continue to focus on the messages for the convention. and the thing that is 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 are having right now in the world and what donald trump can do to help make it better for everybody. lisa: the call -- amna: the call for unity are a change in tone and rhetoric. >> i think that people are following the lead of the president, right? it certainly, i changed my speech and make sure 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: nikki haley is expected to speak tonight. why is it important for her to take the stage? what is the message you hope she delivers and who she brings into the fold? >> the fact that we have ron desantis here, nikki haley here, we are a unified republican

party. we are unified in a way that we have not been for generations as a party behind donald trump. that is tremendously important. right now, this nation is at an infection -- inflection point. it will determine where we will go for generations to come. we have an opportunity here to reset our standing in the world, to restore our economy, and to secure our southern border. that is what matters to the american people. amna: in naming j.d. vance, there is a clear strategy approach. midwest, rustbelt, blue wall. this is someone who appeals to a lot of key voters for republicans as well. tell me about the appeal you think he brings to other people, too. is this room for people who were previously skeptical of president trump as was j.d. vance to come into the fold? >> there are two criteria in that the president is considering when he thinks about it. who is somebody he can work with every single day? who is

somebody who can step up and be the president of the united states? this is a great pic and it sends the signals that you were talking about to the rust belt. it sends the semester working americans every single day. this is a guy who grew up poor, 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. now, he is in 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 be better. amna: he is exactly half mr. trump's age is he the heir apparent here? >> we have such a strong bench in the republican party. we have strong leaders. we think about guys like wesley hunt and senator vance. amna: he picked j.d. vance. >> i think it is the face of the

party. i think it is the future of this country. i think it is because we are addressing the issues that every american family cares about, things like jobs in the economy, safety and security, that every family cares about, whether they are urban, suburban, rural, whether they are in the north or in the south, so his ability to connect directly with american voters is something matched only by the president. amna: the theme for tonight's make america safe again. former president trump is now himself a victim of gun violence , like millions of americans. is that something that we should expect to hear about tonight? >> what we want to talk about is making sure 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. amna: safety and gun violence, is that something you expect to come up? >> do want to talk about 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: you have had a decades long career in republican politics. tell me about how you are thinking about the strategy ahead in terms of on election night, if there is one state you think former president trump winds that tells you he won it for one state he potentially loses that tells you it is game over. >> 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 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 are seeing we are now competitive in. so we are hoping that if we do our job, we get out the vote and protect the ballot, that we are 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 are going to have a sense of where we are going here. amna: thank you so much for your time. good to speak with you. >> thank you. ♪ amna: 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 -- abuse of power and enriching his associates. geoff: senate majority leader chuck schumer again called for his fellow democrat to step down immediately. leanne brangham has the latest back in washington. william: menendez was convicted on 16 counts including bribery, fraud obstruction and acting as , a foreign agent. prosecutors detailed how menendez traded political favors for the egyptian government and an american businessman in exchange for lavish amounts of money and luxury goods.

after the verdict, u.s. attorney damian willians spoke outside the courthouse in 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, and a mercedes benz. this wasn't politics as usual, this was politics for profit. and now that a jury has convicted bob menendez, his years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end. william: for his part, senator menendez, decried the verdict and vowed to appeal. >> i am 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: 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'm joined by ry rivard of politico. thank you so much for being here. i detail briefly the charges that he was found guilty of but can you sketch out the sort of overarching conspiracy here? william: 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 deal with qatar for the benefit of this real estate developer. and a halal meat mogul who wanted a 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 -- made a phone call for this person to try and get the usda to back off scrutiny. and then, you know, there was a mercedes that was tied to another defendant who pled guilty and testified in this trial, where that defendant wanted menendez to disrupt a state investigation of his insurance company. and so, there's all of these overlapping conspiracies involving a trio of new jersey business people who wanted different things from the senator and gave him money and cash to get them. >> the central conspiracy allegation is that he used his influence as a senator to squash investigations, to make aid to egypt flow, that he basically put his thumb on the scale in lots of different ways in a corrupt way? ry: that is exactly right. in some cases, he wasn't always

successful. the prosecutors in this case, the federal prosecutors, said he did not 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: what was his 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: it became popular to call it the throw the wife under the bus defense but in some ways, he said that his wife, who he married in 2020, and was dating in the early part of this conspiracy and these schemes, you know, 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 codefendants, two of his codefendants in this case had

slightly different defenses, which did not always mesh with his own which is that they did not deny that they gave the senator things. they did not deny that they gave him gifts. they said that these things, if they gave them, just were not bribes. we were goodwill gifts which can be permitted in certain cases by the law. william: i guess it is a gold bar and mercedes-benz, it's hard to be seen as goodwill gifts in this case. what happens now? he says he's going to appeal, but the calls for him politically to step down keep growing louder and louder. ry: he has not heeded them so far although they obviously intensified in the hours since the jury found him guilty on the 16 counts. he is mounting an independent run for the senate, but you have, you know, chuck schumer, the senate majority leader suggesting that he should cap down. it seems like it's possible although nobody said this that

if menendez doesn't step down, the senate could choose to expel him. in the meantime, it is hard to imagine that new jersey is getting effective representation from somebody who is being shunned by their colleagues. william: what happens with regards to sentencing? what kinds of time might he be facing for these crimes? ry: he's facing over two centuries in prison. i think, you know, the lame theist sentence, single sentence would be 20 years. he could serve those concurrently but there is long way to go i think before sentencing. the sentencing hearing is in october but there is a long way to go legally. there are appeals of the jury verdict that he wants to make before the judge and then there are appeals of, you know, the sentence or the conviction that he could make two appeals courts. have a supreme court that is very interested in some of these corruption issues. they have overturned other corruption convictions, and they

are interested in re-examining, 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 tried to use and the judge did not allow him to use it in certain cases in this trial that he could very well appeal. it is an intriguing legal issue that the supreme court could be interested in. william: thank you so much for sharing your reporting with us. ry: thank you. geoff: let's return to the republican national conviction where a number of candidates as well as lawmakers up for reelection are slated to speak this evening. amna: anthony is a former police officer and his reelection this

november is key to the republican party's efforts to maintain the house majority. the congressman joins us now. thank you for joining us pet 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 is 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? anthony: 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 people back in my district, when they sit around the dinner table, that they talk about. the border, the economy. what we are doing on a global scale. under joe biden's failed leadership, we look weak. those are the things i want to talk about, that the republicans need to focus on and show that they are unified in not only the problems but finding solutions

come january. geoff: 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? anthony: i am out in the committee. the committee 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. national county, we have republicans hold all four countywide seats and we control three towns, two cities, three republicans that represent long island. one that did represent long island, no longer with us, now represented by a democrat but the pendulum is swinging. the democrats in new york, because of governor cuomo and the overreach of the state legislature, the botched

criminal justice and cashless bail, we went through congestion pricing where they are reaching into the pockets of hard-working 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: cook political report has called your race a tossup at this point. tell us how trump/vance helps or hurts you. it does not expand the voting bloc. it is more of the same message in a lot of ways. does that help you and other down ballot races? anthony: i think j.d. vance is a good choice. he has had of successful career thus far. obviously, a military man, fought for this country. what is most important for me as someone who is one of the younger elected officials and the republican party, it shows 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. amna: do you think the

generational piece is key? anthony: showing someone under their 40's who has the opportunity to be vice president of america sends a great message back home. geoff: does that also come along with sufficient resources, funding, and party infrastructure for you to run the kind of race you say he want to run? anthony: i'm confident under the leadership of speaker johnson and back, under the leadership of the chairman, we will have the resources necessary, just coming off our best porter yet. fundraising. 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 is going to keep and hopefully grow other districts for our majority in 2025. amna: in an effort 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 and say that you will accept the 2024 election results regardless of what happens? anthony: i always said i accepted the fact that joe biden was president of the united states. over the last 3.5 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. geoff: what is the metric of success this week for this gathering? anthony: the metric is based very much so on that unity theme and talking about the issues. nobody wants to hear rhetoric anymore. the american people want to hear solutions to the problems that they are facing. when they go to the supermarket, everything costs more. every city, state, and county in this country is a border city, state, and county. while the american people are watching, the talk about actual solutions to the problems that we face. amna: do you think, with the conversation within the democratic party about

potentially swapping out president biden at the top of the ticket, do you think the trump/vance ticket has a better chance of beating any other candidate out there? anthony: i think president biden is bringing zero enthusiasm to the democratic party, much like my opponent, but i think that president trump and our seem 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 are going to see victory in november. geoff: thank you so much for your time. we appreciate it. anthony: thanks for having me. geoff: dr. ben carson served as the secretary of housing and urban development in donald trump's administration and he is one of only a handful of cabinet members still in the former president orbit. he is slated to speak this evening and i caught up with him earlier today. dr. ben carson, thank you so much for joining us. you are a monk of --among a

handful of a dozen 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 advisor john bolton, h.r. mcmaster, former secretary of state rex tillerson, 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. carson: i think they are looking more at the person and at the personality and not so much at what he was able to accomplish. i would say it is akin to if you were patient with a terrible disease that 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: what is your assessment of donald trump as a person and his personality? dr. carson: his personality is similar to what you would see in

a manhattan businessman. somebody who lives in a doggy dog world, where -- dog eat dog world where you take no prisoners and rise to the top. geoff: the trump campaign says it is making a major play for the black vote. they are micro-targeting urban black men between the ages of 18 and 34. help us understand what that effort looks like. dr. 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. that has been clear in the policies he's put forth during his previous administration. everybody has benefited from it. you have the lowest black unemployment rates, the lowest hispanic unemployment rates, very low female unemployment rates. those kinds of things are noticed by people.

not going out of your way to sort of take one group and. them against another group. i think that is 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: 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 is 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. 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. carson: you know, i said that obviously before roe v. wade was overturned. geoff: you made that point in the book that came out this past spring. dr. 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 at the level of the state. and i think that is 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. you get to help fashion what they propose. the way it was before, you don't get to do that. that is what the founding fathers had in mind when they talked about a nation that was of tom o'brien, and for the people, not the government. geoff: are you saying you no longer support a nationwide abortion ban and don't think donald trump should embrace the same idea? dr. carson: i would love to see a nationwide ban on murdering little babies that i would love that, but we need to use the mechanism that is supplied legally by our country and by the principles that established our country. and i hope that we continue to move toward a society that honors life from the womb to the

tomb. geoff: i want to draw on your experience as a former secretary of housing and urban development. the biden administration released a set of proposals today aimed at tackling the housing affordability crisis. they are trying to cap rents at a certain level. if president trump, former president trump, is reelected, what would he aimed to do to solve the housing affordability crisis? dr. carson: one of the things 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 200 regulations and sub regulations. those are the kind of things that really help. you probably heard about the multi family luxury dwelling that was made for the homeless in los angeles recently. $600,000 per unit. the reason that it is 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 may be cost 150,000 dollars and drives it up to those kind of ranges. what we need to do is reevaluate some of the regulations. we have things that are duplicated and just not necessary. if we do that, we can come up with a solution. we are well on the way to a very good solution before covid hit. working with mayor garcetti, with the governor, and 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 are a drug addict dealing with that, the head of the american psychiatric association told me the vast majority of those people with

appropriate counseling and regular medications could be quite functional. but you know, we just throw them out on the street on their own. that's really not very compassionate. geoff: dr. ben carson, thank you so much for sharing your time with us. we appreciate it. amna: my pleasure. -- dr. carson: my pleasure. thank you. geoff: as americans continue to grasp what led up to the threat made on donald trump's life, judy woodruff sought some perspective on how ts moment of violence and deep division relates to the countries past. amna: it is the latest in her ongoing series, america at a crossroads. judy: kevin boyle is author of the 2021 book the shattering, america in the 1960's.

i traveled to chicago to ask him about the parallels he sees between our own time and that much was 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 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 in 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. and i think one of the great markers of the end of the 1960s was roe v. wade. judy: was roe v. wade. kevin: 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: what is it about america that these events keep happening? kevin: 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 motive and means. and 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 lead some of those young men to extraordinarily violent behavior. judy: what are some of the the forces that are pulling us apart -- 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: i think that what's happened in american public life in recent years is an

extraordinarily high level of polarization. of course, we've always had differences of opinions. of course, we've always had deep divides. and of course, we've 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: and what's your sense, your understanding of why that is? kevin: there's a whole lot of factors that 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: and what caused the guardrails to come down? kevin: there are a whole lot of factors that have transformed our politics in the last, say, 20 years or so. even in the last ten 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've also had massive, massive economic dislocations in the united states. the 2008 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: do you have a sense of what it's going to take to get us to a better place? kevin: 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, lot of ordinary people, think about politics. so if the political leadership is willing to scale back the rhetoric, and that happens at 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. i hate to think seeing the way forward in the short. these are issues that we have known about for very long time,

that we talk about from time to time but we don't see movement , on them. -- from time to time, but we don't see movement on them. you know, i'm a very, very great admirer, as are many, many people in the united states of martin luther king. an extraordinary thing about martin luther king, e 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 in the movement, called over and over again a beloved community, that you have a 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 in purely not the polar opposites to purely to individual rights.

and it seems as if in the last 40 or 50 years we've moved in very much the opposite direction. judy: 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: 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: for the pbs newshour, i'm judy woodruff in evanston, illinois. amna: it's been a brutal summer

for severe weather across nearly every part of the united dates. geoff: -- states. 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 thanks, amna and : geoff. 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, in 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 scambled for shelter to avoid the danger. >> we kind of heard a gust of wind that came up quick and we decided, my uncle decided, that we'd all go into the basement. and as we went in the basement, we heard the big thump and the tree fall on the house. i've never seen that before, like the tree, it just came out of the whole, the whole root

came out of the ground. judy: -- stephanie meanwhile, : just under 100-thousand 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 restaruants filed a $100-million lawsuit against "center-point" 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 younis. 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. >> 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

ceasefire that would stop this daily tragedy where you see innocent palestinian civilians being killed as a result of this war. stephanie: meantime the israeli , military says it has eliminated half of the leadership of hamas's military wing. and roughly 14,000 fighters have been either killed or captured. gaza health officials say more than 38-thousand 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 newshour. prosecutor say he he could face up to 29 years in prison. watson had pleaded not guilty. fs carlos watson 1 -- 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 non-public information to south korean intelligence officers like -- officers. like watson, terry was a frequent tv analyst who also has appeared on pbs newshour. 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 41,000-point level. the nasdaq had a quieter 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." back to you in milwaukee. geoff: thank you, stephanie. the assassination attempt on former president 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: we spoke to two of the photojournalists who were

covering mr. trump's rally in pennsylvania that day and are now here in milwaukee for the republican national convention. mr. trump: you know, that is a little bit old. >> i had my lens on the stage and over my left shoulder, i heard several pops. 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. >> i tried hard to keep on taking pictures. in between saying, oh my god, oh my god. my name is anna moneymaker and i am a photographer for getty images and washington, d.c. >> i am a chief photographer for washington. my thoughts when the gunfire started was 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, slow down slowdown, think, compose. what is the light, what is your composition, think. >> it was surreal, confusing, nothing i have ever experienced before. it is all these blue suits.

you can see in the little archway of legs, like his face, he is a distinct presence. i did not know this blood at first but i kept taking pictures. >> some thinking, ok, where is he going to go next? how is the secret service going to get him out of here? at the former president started to stand up, i ran for the front of the stage and he was sort of writing the secret service a little bit to start pumping his fist to the crowd. 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. the curse of the still photographer is you never have a second chance so i need to be there immediately. i need to start making photos that are storytelling and i cannot do that from the ground. i cannot do that from anywhere else. i have got to be right where it is happening. >> i was covering politics during the pandemic and i thought that was the biggest thing i would ever cover and that i was at the capitol when january 6 happened. i was not a very seasoned journalist at the time and i

fled during the capitol and i hated in an office. in the months after that, i had a lot of anxiety and regret for not having made better pictures i did not have the training that i think i now do. instead of freezing up, i think i said, don't freeze up, just go. it's ok. stay down. just stay down. make the pictures as best you can. i think it has kind of made me think like, if you can go through that, then you can go through anything. >> honestly, i am just proud i did not mess it up and the other thing is i work for ap so we have a pretty distinguished history of photojournalism and you know, when it was my time, i held the standard and that is what i am most proud of. it is not really the single image that i made or anything like that but that i was able to do the job and not flinch. >> seeing some of the photographers i was with here, we looked at each other like, how did this happen? what did we experience? amna: remarkable work by those journalists. and that is the newshour for

tonight. we'll have much more coverage online and we hope you'll join us for live coverage of tonight's events at the republican national convention , starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on your local pbs station, and streaming gavel to gavel on our website and our youtube pages. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i am 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. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including jim and nancy bill barr and the robert and virginia schiller foundation. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide.

funding for america at a crossroads was provided by -- ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

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wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to difor. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. a call to low the temperature after an assassination attempt against former president donald trump. tonight, we focus on all angles. first, the republican reaction just as they open their national convention. and later, an expert on political violence.