>> good evening. the program tonight, j.d. vance preparest to take the state of the republican national

convention here in milwaukee. a look at his political views and how they have shifted in recent years. >> he thought donald trump have prescriptions. >> all of this despite a lack of evidence. we lay out the facts. >> a detailed human rights watch report accuses hamas of war crimes. ♪ >> major funding is provided by -- >> consumer cellular, i thought i would let you know you get

nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. >> a successful business owner sells his company and restores his father's jazz club. >> the kovlar foundation, strengthening democracies at home and abroad. the walton family foundation. working for solutions. supported by the macarthur foundation. and the ongoing support of these institutions.

this is made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by ontributions to your stations from viewers like you. thank you. >> welcome. tonight, the stage behind us belongs to j.d. vance, who will headline the evening. >> last night belonged to donald trump's one-time rivals in the primary race making peace with the nominee. and urging the party to put aside its differences. we have coverage tonight from the floor. >> last night it felt like the convention started to find its energy. a night to unite the party. >> let's send joe biden back to

his basement and let's send donald trump back to the white house. >> form arrivals now eager allies. >> donald trump has been demonized, prosecuted, and he nearly lost his life. we cannot let him down and we cannot let america down. >> a political 180 from those who were critics just months ago. >> nobody is entitled to be nominated. especially anybody who could not even stop joe biden. >> donald trump was totally unhinged. nikki haley was not initially set to speak here after she held off on endorsing trump for months. but on stage, she left zero doubt. >> i will start by making one thing perfectly clear. donald trump has my strong endorsement. >> she is important, but the

convention knows that her voters are even more so. representing a spectrum of never trump. she spoke to them directly. >> you don't have to agree with trump 100% of the time to vote for him. take it from me. i have not always agreed with him. but we agree more often than we disagree. >> she went further, challenging the party to look beyond his base. >> to my fellow republicans, we must not only be a unified party , we must expand our party. >> it was also a family affair. his daughter in law stressed his immediate actions after saturday's assassination attempt. >> millimeters separated him

from death. and yet it was in the midst of it all as he was jostled offstage by the secret service that he knew how defining that moment would be for our country. he wasted his fist in the air. >> steve scalise, who survived a politically motivated shooting in 2017, added a poignant note. >> not many know that why i was fighting for my life, donald trump was one of the first to console my family at the hospital. that is the kind of leader that he is. >> amid praise on a night focused on law & order, republicans generally ignored his only 34 felony convictions. except as evidence is what they see of weaponized justice system. >> today we have a two-faced justice system.

just look at what they are doing to president trump. all while hunter biden is roaming around free and attended classified meetings. >> the organization is checking statements made at both conventions. in this case, the claim comes from an abc report about hunter biden. >> that reported not say anything about him attending classified briefings. that would be something i would not be illegal because he does not have security clearance to be in those sessions. >> last night, many statements were made about immigrants and the border. some work come to impeach true. -- were found to be true. >> we have seen the highest number of internal deaths during this administration. >> but several other statements did not hold up. >> on the border, they opened it

up to the entire world. prisons are being emptied. >> this claim is false. they have not opened up the border. even more egregious is that there is an organized effort to recruit prisons from other countries. we have looked into if there are being prisoners released. it is just not true. >> i joke with the president that i'm very excited about this evening. i don't plan to screw it up but if i do, it is too late. he made the choice. >> former president trump prepared for his biggest moment of the week, taking a look at the convention podium. the first 20 has stood at since he was shot behind one on

saturday. he is slated to speak from here tomorrow night. something that you may see more of on the convention floor tonight, behind me some delegates are actually using paper and putting bandages on their ears symbolic of the assassination attempt. this is the arizona delegation. for folks who want to follow lives, political fact will be live checking tonight's speeches. they are doing a lot of work on that. >> we are set to hear from the vice presidential nominee later this evening. what should we expect to hear from him? >> this is a critical moment for this campaign. we have advised of the little nominee who is not very well-defined yet. he will have to define himself tonight. he spent a lot of time talking about how he hopes to appeal to working-class americans in

appalachia. he also spent a lot of time talking about the media. i think he will go on the attack even more against the media. we expect former president trump to do that as well. his first words out of his mouth were that the media is telling lies. it is traditional for the vice presidential nominee to go on the attack. >> when he was first announced, delegates seemed largely unfamiliar with him. is that still the case? what does the trump campaign hope that he will do for them? >> there is still uncertainty about who exactly he is. i heard something new today, this is a group of people who are largely antiabortion. they want abortion restrictions across the country. there is some nervousness here that perhaps he could be seen as

too conservative on abortion. his position has changed at different times. there is some question about whether or perhaps he will not bring on board those types of voters to nikki haley was reaching out to. others love him and think he might be the type of full-blooded attack dog that they want to see. this is a group that as you said has been chanting to fight for the last couple of days. mike pence is not here and former speaker paul ryan. we do not expect them to attend. they are not feeling welcome or decided not to be here. >> the theme tonight is make america strong again. in terms of what? tell us about this. >> we will hear themes about

energy. i want to point out some of the speakers. they will have harrowing and touching stories that republicans think are important. there are some i spoke to who are on the election denial spectrum. she was involved in the production of a conspiracy theory movie. he was able to find a case of ballot harvesting that was real. just for ballots in arizona. based on that one case, a lot of conspiracies came out. he is still an election the dire. that is to show that there is a lot going on many to surface of this convention. >> we saw trumped doing a walk-through. he still had a bandage on his year. where does that investigation into the attempt on his life now stand? >> mitch mcconnell and the last

few minutes has asked for the secret service to get new leadership. we know there has been a subpoena issued by the house oversight committee for the secret service director to appear at next week. the department of homeland security inspector general is launching an investigation into that as well. >> we have learned that president biden has tested live for covid and won't be delivering a speech as planned today in las vegas. earlier today a top democrat came forward and said that president biden should withdraw from the race. tell us more about who it is. >> there was a pause on these kind of calls. but now adam schiff, a top democrat in the house and senate candidate from california issued a statement saying that a second trump presidency will undermine the foundation of democracy and he has serious concerns about if president biden can defeat

donald trump in november. we will have to wait for the response from the white house. >> thank you so much. >> you are welcome. >> j.d. vance is a one-time critic of former president trump who has turned into a fierce defender. >> earlier today i spoke with a national political reporter who has covered j.d. vance for years. no vice presidential nominee has had a more meteoric rise than richard nixon. help us understand it. >> he literally wrote himself into history. he was a working-class kid from ohio. he had a rough upbringing. he went into the military and then ohio state and yale law school. he was meant toward into writing his book. it has sold 2 million copies at this point. a lot of families got to know

him as a rustbelt working-class conservative who thought donald trump had the wrong prescriptions for people he grew up with. they were being misled. he says he started to see what he was told about trumper lies. he has talked about breaks he has had with the liberal consensus. he ran for senate as an american first candidate. he said he was wrong. he saw the light and he supported trump. >> based on your reporting, is that conversion sincere? some think it >> >> is craven and calculated. lucky for him it is a very

common story. he will be one of several speakers to say they were told lies about donald trump. then they were converted. that is something you hear outside of the convention. the media focuses on his tweets and the way he speaks. does not focus on the results. that is a very safe space to be inside the republican party. a lot of people think it is a dead-end. it is not helpful in a debate. that he could be made to defend that and being a flip-flop. they are more focused on the conservative record he had once he started running for office including some disagreements with the party who did not want him as the nominee. >>'s opposition to ukraine has been a real feature of his time in the senate. how rude it is that in his military experience? >> dn lists before he goes to college. he serves in iraq. he comes away with the critique

that there are forever wars around the world, their nationbuilding exercises that george w. bush and a lot of democrats engaged in and they made america weaker. when he came to the floor yesterday when he was toyed with the rest of the program, he came on stage to a war against -- song against the war. he has been very consistent on that. he is anti-interventionist. he has a different stance on ira n. his position once he did not care about ukraine's interest. it was not worth spending american money there. that is a disagreement between him and a lot of republicans worry that if trump gets back into office, people around the world will say we know what to expect from these guys. america will pull out of its

responsibilities. >> is the expectation that he would have more policy influence in the west wing if they win because donald trump is not as invested in past policy? >> a lot of people want to be writing policy for the trump administration. that is one of the biggest arguments. he wrote the forward to the heritage foundation's upcoming book. they developed project 2025. he is much more aligned with national conservatives. he is in favor of eliminating abortion. getting back to 1950's american norms. those policies have a real pedigree. he came up reading conservative writers who have already thought the stuff out. they do want to policy role in this administration.

they do view this as a victory. the old republican party is not going to be at the table. it is the antiwar national conservatives with completely different views on how you should spend money. >> those views extend to abortion. he opposes abortion rights even in the case of rape or incest. this is the position differs from donald trump's public stance. he says abortion rights should be left to the states. >> on policy they have a disagreement. he said he was 100% pro-life. he has changed that a little bit of interviews since then. he said he supported a national band. his intellectual framework, he has three kids who he talks about a lot.

he has criticized the left for what he calls the childless nature of the left. he has argued in speeches and writing that one problem with the left is that they are prioritizing family-planning and alternative lifestyles. not a traditional married with children and that is bad for america. he thinks we should encourage stricter policies to make it tougher to get divorced or get an abortion. look at his life. he did not have a lot of advantages growing up and look at where he is now. that is something democrats think they can argue against because in ohio, there was a ballot initiative that enshrined abortion rights that he was against. most people do not agree with the framework of value need to bring the country back to the 1950's. >> this week, the country will be advanced -- introduced to his

family. his wife grew up in a suburb of san diego. >> he met his wife at yell law school. they have three children. that is been part of his story. his advertising started talking at -- about immigration. it ended with his family life. it was very central to him. his success meant he was able to have a stanley -- stable family. that is important to his story. it is a soy they do not mind telling. vice president harris is a stepmother. this is some of the argument

about the choice facing america. this is someone who formed a traditional family. they came together. that is part of his story. they will be the people most introduced to the country tonight. >> thank you so much. ♪ >> some speakers here at the republican national convention have repeated the unsubstantiated claim that democrats are rigging the presidential election. specifically about noncitizens voting. >>? ? how did we get here it happened because democrats decided they wanted votes from illegals more

than they wanted to protect our children. >> just last week, he voted to lead millions of people come into our country and cost invalid -- cast a ballot in this upcoming election. >> that is one of many conspiracy theories about the security of the american election system. our white house correspondent has been covering this and she joins us now. we should point out this claim is not new but it is now frequently repeated by republicans. where did it come from in the first place? >> this dates back to 2016 when donald trump said he lost the popular vote because millions of noncitizen emigrants voted for hillary clinton. that was not true. that is become much more pervasive among republicans going all the way to donald trump to speaker mike johnson who has repeated this claim over

and over again. house republicans just last week tested -- a bill making it illegal for noncitizens to vote. that was already illegal under federal law. >> another key figure peddling this claim is elon musk, who just endorsed donald trump. help us understand how he is sowing doubt about the presidential election. >> she has more than 189 million followers. it is widely reported that the algorithm since he started owning some platform boosts his post more than any other user. he has written posts that attack at voting system specifically saying that the system is designed to make it impossible to prove fraud.

he has also amplified a baseless claim posted by another user that set the number of voters registering without a photo id is directly doing. in three key swing states. the maricopa county recorder responded pointing out that voter rolls have actually decreased in arizona. refuting the claim that was being amplified. i spoke to him today about the impact of elon musk posting and reposting these types of inaccuracies and it told us that he is concerned that a lot of people will believe this and it makes the job of election officials unsustainable. >> despite the millions of dollars we have invested in the countless hours we have invested for articles and reports, it

does not seem like we have made a significant vent in this culture. at some point he will throw up their hands and just stop. i am personally nearing this point. >> he is pretty disheartened by the situation. we also put out a request on these conspiracy theories. we received no response. >> how are other election officials in key swing states responding to all of this? >> i spoke to the secretary of

state in michigan today. they said they have guardrails in place to prevent noncitizen things from voting. they have ways of catching that. she's concerned that these lies can have a negative impact >> >> on the system overall. we invite people with questions to ask these questions. set of just amplifying this information. we can debunk the lies. >> she also said that she is concerned that this could lead to some eligible voters deciding

they do not want to engage. and they may not participate in the election. >> how these baseless claims fit into the overall effort by some republicans to undercut confidence in the selection? >> this is part of a larger effort to so doubt about the election system. to convince the electorate that the system cannot be trusted and if donald trump or toulouse, that result is not legitimate. an example of this comes from the heritage foundation. the right weight -- wing think tank that is issued a blueprint for a potential second term. they said recently that as things stand right now there is a 0% chance of a free and fair election in the u.s. that report claimed without any

evidence that president biden will retain power by force. some fear what happens when all of this disinformation, if he were to lose, that it could potentially result in political violence. >> thank you so much. ♪ >> while the battle at the top of the ticket has dominated the news this election cycle, there are several key down ballot races that should shift the balance empowering, -- congress. >> republicans are facing these

races in the senate. we have been tracking all of this closely. let's start with the senate. four races are listed as tossup's. these are all currently held by democrats. >> this is the reality of the map. all of the competitive seats this year are democratic held seats. it is only one seat if they don't win the presidency.

coming into the cycle, democrats knew what the map look like. they were hoping that republicans would have bruising, competitive primaries. that has not really happened. except in arizona. kari lake lost the race for governor. many republicans are excepting that is not a race they are likely to win. they still have other places. they were hoping that joe biden would be running strong enough

to give their candidate and opportunity to build on whatever momentum he had. this has not been happening. >> let's talk about the house. moderate republicans in new york were key to the majority. those races are now competitive again. what is animating those house races that could make it tougher? >> there are 16 republicans who sit in the district. if you think about the math, democrats only need to win those seats. that is pretty easy. those are not as easy as they look on paper.

this is what we have been having the conversation about. why the top of the ticket matters. that helps the republican candidate. it is not as much as an uphill climb. >> what does adding j.d. vance to the republican ticket affect down ballot races >> this is been the most fascinating piece. for those of us were political nerds.

incumbent democrats are out running him by a pretty significant margin. the question is whether that can hold. one reason they are doing that is they are doing better with democrat leading groups. that is why you are hearing so much handwringing from them. they are worrying that those traditional democratic voters may like the democratic candidate but they don't show up to vote because they don't feel enthusiastic. >> i feel like we have a lot more to talk about. we will see you back here later tonight. thank you so much. ♪

>> severe weather refuses to let up across large parts of the u.s. with heavy rains and tornadoes reading addict. >> for that and all of the days other headlines we had back to washington. >> arkansas is the latest state to deal with extreme flooding. nearly 11 inches of rain turned backyards and bonds and sent water rushing through the streets. officials said thousands of residents had to leave their houses. at least 80 people were evacuated from a local nursing home. upstate new york is cleaning up after a tornado ripped through a county. the governor said her flight to the area gave her a birdseye view of the area. >> you cannot imagine the impact

of seeing from the sky how vast the destruction is. when you see entire swabs of trees collapsed. >> hundreds of thousands are still without power after a series of storms from taxes through illinois. prosecutors have appealed a federal ruling to toss out the classified documents case. eileen cannon ruled that the special counsel had been unlawfully appointed. the decision was the latest legal victory for the trumpcare. this appeal could result in

months of legal wrangling. in the middle east, an israeli delegation touched down in cairo, egypt where international mediators are trying to push following cease-fire deal. benjamin netanyahu faced criticism from opposition lawmakers in jerusalem for his management of the war. he insisted that hamas will only bow to heavy pressure. >> we are making progress in achieving our goals and freeing hostages and eliminating hamas and ensuring gaza will not pose another threat to israel. i can tell you that hamas is indeed under pressure. the more we pressure, the more they will give up. >> israel released 13 palestinians who had been detained for weeks. some wept when they reunited

with loved ones. others described brutal beatings and showed signs of bruising. those claims have not been independently verified. commemorations are taking place for the 10 year anniversary of the shooting of a malaysian airport flight. passengers and crew gathered at a memorial where the doomed flight departed. another memorial event was held near the crash site. russia has denied any involvement. russia and ukraine swapped prisoners. exchanging 95 prisoners each.

patriotic cheers rang out from ukrainians as they celebrated their newfound freedom. video released today showed soldiers exiting a transport bus looking gaunt but relieved. russia released footage of theirs. they were making calls to home. this was the first such prisoner swap in a few weeks. the mayor of paris took a dip in the seine river to show it is clean and ready for the other big names. she fulfilled a promise to show the waterway is suitable for hosting open water swimming competition. since 2015, officials have spent more than a million dollars to clean up the river. a pair of f/x shows lead dme nominations.

shogun had 17 nominations. the bear set a new record for comedies with 23 nominations. jeremy allen white will try for a repeat victory in the best actor category. his costar will compete for best actress after winning a best supporting role last year. this can six months after the industry held its last him he ceremony, which have been delayed because of the writers strike. stocks and admixed on wall street today as a drop in big tech stocks weighed on markets. the dow jones gained more than 200 points. the nasdaq posted its worst day since 2022, dropping more than 500 points per the s&p 500 also ended sharply lower. a dinosaur in new york has crushed prior records for archaeological auctions. an unidentified buyer paid $45

million for this 27 foot long stegosaurus skeleton. that is about 10 times the original estimate set out by the auction house. this creature roamed the earth more than 160 million years ago. it was excavated last year. still to come, need human rights watch report lays out the evidence that hamas committed war crimes on october 7. thousands in houston remain without power. more than a week after hurricane beryl. >> this is the news hour from our studios in washington and from the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism. >> a new report shows that hamas

committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the october 7 attacks. it shows how palestinian fighters had a coordinated assault designed to kill civilians and take as many hostages with them. more than 1200 people were killed. for more detail, i am joined by the director for crisis and conflict and human rights watch in washington. thank you so much for joining us. since october 7, there have been so many witness accounts and videos and photos that have come out. thank -- tell me what is new about this report and why it is so important to compile all of this research into one document. >> this is the first conference of her point -- report that

shows this. this report is important. there is clear information. it shows the coordination that went into the crimes. this was the central aim of the attack. we hope this documentation could support accountability efforts. it is also important for victims and their families to know that this will not be forgotten. >> this question of intent is important. when we talk about war crimes and crimes against immunity, they get thrown around quite loosely as terms. not every horrific act

qualifies. can you talk about what you found that confirmed your belief that these were war crimes? >> w were able to document as of the palestinian armed groups committed a widespread and systematic attack directed against a civilian population. according to the definition. we are calling for further investigation into other potential crimes against humanity. such as extermination. >> did your report reach any new conclusions when it comes to sexual violence that occurred on october 7, which has been a very fraught and debated issue. >> our research found evidence.

we were not able to verifthat information. there is only one public account. we have relied on the findings of the u.n. special representative. they were able to conclude that there were rat -- reasons to believe this. based on this we are confident that sexual violence did occur. we do not know the full vent and we were not able to reach clear

conclusions. >> you talk to some 94 survivors of the attack as well. was there one particular story that stuck out to you? >> we just heard story after story of people describing the sheer terror they experienced when they realized that the community was under attack. many hidden there safe rooms trying to understand what was happening. they described the horror they experience later in the day. they were able to go outside and they saw all the bodies and blood everywhere. there was one man who was from an area where 97 civilians were killed.

there was a blood trail. he said he cannot erase that from his mind. all of the blood. >> there have been accusations and denials from war crimes on both side of the conflict. what kind of accountability or justice are you hoping to see? >> we are pushing for the hostages to be urgently released. and to protect civilians and respect international humanitarian law. and for all those responsible on both sides to be held to account. we hope that atrocities do not

justify atrocities by the other side. this is a foundational principle. no atrocities attributable to armed groups. they cannot justify the use of starvation as a weapon of war. or unlawful airstrikes being carried out by israeli air forces. what we are really calling for is the need to address the root causes and hold violators of these crimes into account. >> thank you. >> thank you. ♪ >> it has been more than a week

since your -- hurricane beryl made landfall. repair crews across the senate trying to restore power to the last 50,000 customers who have been without electricity through a brutal stretch of hot weather. some local politicians say they have had enough. >> a lot of that anger is being directed at the local utility in houston. after thousands of residents have endured a heat wave with no power and no air conditioning. at least half a dozen deaths have been attributed to the heat and lack of power. emergency room's have seen a surge of heat related cases. there have been reports of threats to line crews. the governor give the utility until the and the months to develop a plan to minimize future outages. for the latest on this, we are

joined by a reporter from the houston chronicle. thank you so much for being here. about the 2000 people still do not have power. that is down from a quarter of a million a few days ago. and nearly 3 million when the storm first hit. hurricane beryl was only a courier -- category one. when it hit texas. why is it that that storm d so much damage? >> that is something people here wondering. it gained strength as it hit the coast. there were extraordinary winds. there was damage north of houston that was more categorized with a slightly stronger storm. the other consideration is these

power lines that bring power into the houston area. there are neighborhood issues that led to a lot of the outages. a lot of people have questions about that. how a system to be that vulnerable to what is a category 1 storm. >> a lot of criticism and frustration and anger from residents and the governor. is it your sense that this has reached a breaking point? the power has been out for so long that people are related? >> -- livid? >> i think so. it is hot. when people don't have air conditioning, they get frustrated. they look to whether power is not on. remember that we had an event in may that knocks people out off.

what are the answers? what is the principal problem? >> they are challenged. people and a lot of the neighborhoods have not seen this. this is fairly -- primarily about vegetation and whether trees need to be trimmed better. where the lines will be most

susceptible to tree damage. i think that the chief first duration is whether or not we are centerpoint in the state. we already have an opportunity for this. >> when you talk to people who study electrical grades, a lot of them said that we built a grid for a climate that we did not know it exists. there has been a lot of criticism in particular. are those criticisms fair? >> i hope those will be raised

as they come forward. residents think that there has not been enough then. to protect the system from what is the most predictable series of natural disasters that houston gulf coast can have. strong winds and sudden rain. everyone is looking to rethink the system. whether that is buried lines, hardening the instructor that is out there, are bringing people back online. >> thank you so much for joining

us. >> thank you. >> thank you. that is it for tonight. we have much more coverage online. please join us for live coverage. >> on behalf of the entire news team, thank you for joining us. we will see you soon. >> major funding for the newshour has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. the ford foundation, working to

have social change worldwide. and 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 by viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪

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♪ ♪ hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. >> we love trump! we love trump! >> trump riding high with j.d. vance by his side. what this gop ticket would