good afternoon, i'm jose diaz-balart in for chris jansing. at this hour, tim walz wants j.d. vance to know he's quote, damn proud of his service. the tensions ramping up between the two men over their military records as both venture out on the campaign trail solo. also ahead, eye on ernesto, the hurricane bears down on puerto rico with heavy rains and winds knocking down trees and power lines. power has been knocked out to hundreds of thousands of people. we'll get the very latest on its

track. plus, could this be a turning point for ukraine? what we're now learning about the cross border attack that president biden calls a real dilemma for vladimir putin. we begin with two veterans, and vp contenders battling it out over accusations of stolen valor. just moments ago, just moments from now, i should say, senator j.d. vance will speak in michigan after rival governor tim walz used his first solo campaign appearance to push back on vance's claims he distorted his record in the national guard. >> i'm going to say it again as clearly as i can, i am damn proud of my service to this country. [ cheers and applause ] and i firmly believe you should never denigrate another person's service record. anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent, i just have a few simple words,

thank you for your service and sacrifice. >> vance quickly doubled down, posting online, quote, hi, tim, i thank you for your service, but you shouldn't have lied about it. you shouldn't have said you went to war when you did not. nor should you have said that you didn't know your unit was going to iraq. happy to discuss more in a debate. nbc's dasha burns is following this for us. also with us is former republican congressman of florida, carlos curbelo, and msnbc political analyst. what is with the attacks on walz's service? >> reporter: i'm in asheville, north carolina, waiting for the former president to speak in a few hours, but j.d. vance, his running mate, is keeping up these attacks, jose, because they feel that there is some stickiness here. you've seen former president trump and we'll see what he does today when it comes to attacking kamala harris, he's been trying out all sorts of lines of

attack. hasn't quite figured out which will be most successful yet. but vance is perpetuating these attacks on walz, and walz is having to respond. and that's sort of what the campaign wants is having them a bit on the back foot, making them talk about this, so they're spending less time talking about the issues. walz having to issue statements saying that he misspoke when he characterized his service. things like that they see as successful. and let's not forget, jose, that a very high level trump adviser, a co-campaign manager of the trump campaign has a history of these attacks. he was behind the swift boat controversy in the 2004 campaign, attacking then candidate john kerry on his military record. that plagued the kerry campaign and he seems to be trying to use the same play book here. the difference is walz is not at the top of the ticket, and

neither is vance. and the guy at the top of the republican ticket dodged the draft because of bone spurs, so it's certainly a different context and a different time. but that playbook, they believe, could potentially be successful, and they don't show any signs of letting up on those attacks, at least anytime soon, jose. >> dasha burns in asheville, north carolina, i thank you so much. carlos, let's go into this aspect first of our conversation, what do you think the trump team sees in this line of attack? who is it geared towards? >> jose, this is all about disruption. we know where they're momentum is in this race. we see it in the polls. we see it in the crowds. and obviously since kamala harris came into this race, she has gotten a big boost. so what is the trump campaign trying to do? they're trying to muddy the waters. they're trying to disrupt the harris campaign, change the message, and put them on defense. i think to some degree, it works. but to dasha's last point, this

is about the number two guys, and at the end of the day, no one is going to make their decision based on the vice presidential candidates. it's going to be about trump versus harris, and i know we have to cover this, but i think this is going to end up being a whole lot of noise. >> and talking about efforts to disrupt campaigns and affect the momentum you were mentioning. on the flip side, the harris campaign has been taunting the former president about big crowd sizes. sources tell nbc news the campaign is now in talks to hold a rally in milwaukee during the dnc next week. possibly using the same forum where the rnc was held. the size of crowds is one of trump's major top focus points in life. how do you think he's going to be reacting? in other words, is this something that can actually disrupt that campaign? >> well, clearly they have gotten into donald trump's head here with this crowd sized

question. and by the way, donald trump has been pretty open and transparent about the fact that this is very important to him back since 2016 when he had his first, well, his inaugural speech, only inaugural speech, his whole emphasis was about, you know, crowd size, so, yes, this is working, and it's actually doing donald trump a lot of harm. but jose, this is not a surprise. i mean, donald trump has been one of the most undisciplined candidates in u.s. history, and the harris campaign knows that this is something he struggles with, and they're really messing with him now, and it seems to be working. >> it's effective. it actually does get to donald trump. >> well, when he's talking about crowd size, he's not talking about immigration, an issue republicans perceive a great opportunity. he's not talking about inflation, highlighting perhaps some of the more liberal elements of kamala harris's record as governor and senator. so, yes, this makes a whole lot

of sense for the democratic campaign. >> stick around, if you would, we have a lot more to cover in this hour. i want to go overseas where high level talks are set to resume tomorrow, for a gaza cease fire deal, without hamas at the table. the group's representative in lebanon told our sister network, sky news, they had agreed to a peace proposal last month, and new demands by israel threw the talks off track. nbc's raf sanchez is reporting this afternoon from tel aviv. raf, good to see you always, how far are these two sides apart, and what part of hamas still is able to go to any negotiating table. >> reporter: jose, these two sides are significantly far apart. i'll give you a couple of the most contentious issues. one of them, what's going to happen on the border between gaza and egypt. israeli forces seize control of the border, of the rafah crossing back in early may and the israeli position going into these talks is they need to remain in control there because

that border is where hamas through its tunnels smuggled the weapons, smuggled the rocket components that it has used on october 7th and in these last ten months of fighting. hamas is saying for them, that is a nonstarter. they say israeli forces need to withdraw from that border post. another big issue is a series of israeli check points that divide northern and southern gaza. israel is saying those check points need to stay in place to make sure that hamas fighters aren't returning to northern gaza. hamas is saying those check points need to go. there needs to be the free movement of palestinian civilians. so those are just a couple of the issues, jose, that the u.s., egypt and qatar are really trying to find a bridge across. cia director bill burns will be at those talks. what is different about this summit on thursday to these absolutely endless rounds of talks we have been through over

the last ten months is the u.s., egypt and qatar are saying if israel and hamas cannot get to a deal themselves, the mediators are prepared to put their own text for a final proposal on the table. as you mentioned, jose, hamas is not going to be there at the talks in qatar. a diplomat briefed on the negotiations says the mediators will, then, go to hamas separately to try to get their response. but the line you have been hearing from hamas is as far as they're concerned, they have made their demands, there's nothing else to talk about now, except for israel to agree to them. and this is, jose, the first high level set of negotiations since yahya sinwar, hamas's hard line gaza chief, the mastermind of october 7th, became its overall political leader, following the assassination in teheran a little more than two weeks ago. so the white house trying to set expectations here. they do not believe that the cia

director is going to emerge from a hotel room in qatar with a piece of paper signed by both sides that is going to finally bring about a cease fire and get those hostages home after 300-plus days, but the hope, at least, is to make some significant progress tomorrow in doha. >> it's kind of been haunting me since you so eloquently presented to us the reality of what is going on in gaza today. if you would, just kind of let us know how dire the situation is there right now. >> reporter: jose, i'll give you one example. there was a father of three-day-old twins who proudly was going out to get birth certificates for his newly born children. he came back his house a couple of hours later and the house had been destroyed by an israeli bomb, his newborn twins were killed, his wife was killed, and we asked the israeli military,

what was going on here, what was the purpose of this strike. we gave them detailed times and coordinates, they did not come back to us on this. they do say hamas hides among the civilian population, but jose, that is one family destroyed, and this is something that has been happening every day for the last ten months in gaza to say nothing of the displacement, to say nothing of the collapsed health care system. and of course, jose, the israeli hostages who are hidden in darkness, many of them in tunnels, somewhere underneath gaza at gunpoint with their families here in israel desperately hoping for their safe return. jose. >> raf sanchez in tel aviv, i thank you so much, my friend, really appreciate it. right now, hurricane ernesto is blasting puerto rico with torrential rain and winds of up to 75 miles an hour. the gusts have ripped trees from the ground, the area is bracing for dangerous flash flooding.

some roads already under water and rivers overflowing. antonia hylton is tracking the damage. good afternoon. what's the latest? >> reporter: hundreds of thousands of people in puerto rico have been without power as they have been absolutely battered by ernesto. it's strengthened to a category one hurricane and will soon make its way to bermuda. what's happening on the island right now is devastating in some ways. you have to keep in mind, too, as you see these images that this is an island that was battered. i mean, utterly devastated back in 2017 by hurricane maria, and much of the infrastructure, the grid has really never recovered from that. and so, you know, we are hearing about communities that have had trees falling down, homes destroyed, roads blocked by debris, rivers that have become overwhelmed, leading to very dangerous flash flooding. on the ground in the communities we're hearing it's neighbor helping neighbor right now.

more than 40% of puerto ricans live in poverty. going out getting supplies, buying food, buying a generator, that's not easy for a large portion of the population there. what we know, though, is that president biden has approved a disaster declaration, an emergency declaration, so they are going to be getting supplies from fema. things like generators. right now, there is an immense struggle there. it's really mayors, local officials stepping up and going out and supporting people in the moment. they're keeping an eye on the damage today to assess whether or not schools and businesses can open up and go back something close to normal tomorrow, jose. >> antonia hylton, thank you so much. our love and solidarity going out to the people of puerto rico, u.s. citizens. thank you. in 90 seconds, vladimir putin in the unusual position of playing defense as ukraine

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nbc news has been unable to independently verify. already, this is the biggest incursion to hit russia since world war ii. my colleague, debra haynes at sky news got a look at the site where ukrainian troops first entered russia. >> this is the ukrainian border crossing point. there's been a lot of military around here as we have been moving here. you can maybe hear a vehicle now. you see the triangle there. that's the symbol of this operation. this is the crossing point beyond which is an area of territory, and then you're in to russia. as we're driving down here, you can see russian territory in the distance. you can see this place has been pretty deserted. this area has been a war zone since russia's four-scale invasion, but of course it was from here that ukraine launched its counter attack, its major

incursion into russia just over a week ago. it feels quite calm here at the moment. there was a lot of military activity on the way down here. we saw a lot of vehicles driving past, including large armored fighting vehicles, and troops, troops on the sides of the roads. not many civilians. as you came out of the city, the number of civilians on the roads significantly reduced. it felt like you're in a real military zone here, where in the border point, you can see that's the crossing point there. there was some officials, some military personnel here, which we'll try to speak to. but like you can see, it is pretty calm at the moment. >> i want to thank deborah haynes and her extraordinary camera team. i want to bring in nbc national correspondent josh lederman, former u.s. ambassador to

russia, and nbc international affairs analyst, michael mccaul. ukraine carried out the largest drone attack on russian air bases. what do we know about that? >> according to the sbu, ukraine's elite security service, they say ukraine overnight attacked four different russian air bases in the largest drone attack of the war so far, and the ukrainians are saying that the goal here was really to reduce russia's ability to use air forces and air capabilities against the ukrainians. of course we've heard from the ukrainians for a couple of years now about how they feel, like a big weakness for them is that they don't have the same air capabilities of the russians. they have been asking for the f-16s for so long. the russians are continuing to maintain that they have this situation in the kursk region under control. increasingly, there are signs that this is not under control for them, that they are really struggling to respond to this. we have seen satellite imagery

showing the russians who are trying to build trenches to fend off additional advances by the ukrainians. in addition to those 100 or more russian prisoners of war that the ukrainians now claim that they have been able to capture, we're hearing the ukrainians say that a key goal for them is to create a buffer zone. they essentially want an area on the russian side of the border from which russia cannot launch attacks towards ukraine in the fuchl. -- future. the russians have not discussed much about how exactly they plan to rest control back from the ukrainians, but we're starting to hear from russian military bloggers who are very influential, publicly criticizing the russian government for the fact that they seemed so caught off guard by this incursion and the fact that more than a week after ukraine crossed the border into russia, they have still been unable to take back their territory. >> josh lederman, thank you very

much. i want to talk a little bit more about this. "the washington post" is reporting that the ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson took the opportunity to, quote, troll the kremlin about taking over some of their territory saying, quote, i can emphasize here that unlike russia, ukraine does not need that which belongs to someone else. now, i know you've negotiated, ambassador, with putin before. how much of an impact do you think this is having on putin, and how significant is this incursion? >> well, because russia is not a democracy, and there's no independent media, we can't see what the public reaction is, and the public reaction wouldn't have an effect on putin's power, right? think about if this happened in the united states, this would be an outrageous event, and you would be covering it every segment and american people would be demanding what's happening. this is not -- that's not the case because russia is a dictatorship. but i think psychologically this blow is tremendous to putin,

especially among elites because he's supposed to be the protector. he's supposed to be the strong man defending russia against the west, defending russia against ukraine, and now for a second time in as many years, he has failed to do so. this reminds me a lot of what mr. prigozhin did, the rogue uprising that happened last year, where he was marching toward moscow. putin had to negotiate with him to stop that. here, ukrainians aren't going to negotiate with him to leave, and it's clear to me that so far he does not have a strategy for repelling them. psychologically, i think this is very damaging to vladimir putin. >> does it, you think, affect his strangle hold on the russian military? is this something that could actually erode that stranglehold? >> maybe. hard to say early on. most certainly we saw that when prigozhin was marching toward moscow last summer, but this is an embarrassment for

intelligence. remember, the intelligence folks didn't get this right either. it's an embarrassment for the military. josh rightly talked about these very influential bloggers saying what's going on here, what has happened to our military, and i think it's also striking, we're already a week into it, and there's been no response. i think part of the reason is usually russia, to deal with such kinds of situations where they're trying to liberate territory, they usually carpet bomb cities and kill lots of innocent civilians and other nonmilitary targets. that's what they did in ukraine, they did that in syria. they did that in chechnya. they can't do that in their own territory, and putin faces a dilemma, how is he going to eliminate this territory. so far he has no answer. >> he has no answer to this. his answer to prigozhin's activities ended up with prigozhin not having a good

flight. ambassador mcfaul, thank you for being here. nikki haley has a two-word tip for her fellow republicans, quit whining. her new comments about the state of the 2024 race, next. xt help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need, and the flavor you love. so, here's to now... now available: boost max! we planned well for retirement, but i wish we had more cash. you think those two have any idea? that they can sell their life insurance policy for cash? so they're basically sitting on a goldmine? i don't think they have a clue. that's crazy! well, not everyone knows coventry's helped thousands of people sell their policies for cash. even term policies. i can't believe they're just sitting up there! sitting on all this cash. if you own a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more, you can sell all or part of it to coventry. even a term policy. for cash,

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have to stop doing, quit whining about her. i want this campaign to win. but the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. it's not going to win talking about what race kamala harris is. it's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb. you can't win on those things. the american people are smart. treat them like they're smart. >> joining us now, nbc news chief political analyst chuck todd, also with us is former congressman, carlos curbelo, also back with us. chuck, the advice seems kind of simple but any chances that trump and his campaign will follow any of that? >> well, that's the question, and then that's why there's chatter about do they not shake up the campaign team, but bring some people on board that he'll listen to. because he's in one of these, whatever you want to call it, and that in and of itself, you know, if this was a rational world, a corporate board room, you would say this guy can't

handle the job, let's find a new ceo. that isn't what's going to happen. this isn't a very hard pivot to execute. in many ways, carlos will probably be able to reaffirm this, it's a pretty cookie cutter republican campaign against a democrat. that's all they're asking trump to do. say she's liberal. run on these three issues that republicans have been running on for a decade. and see if you can cut back your sort of personal animus. for 95% of candidates that run for office, this wouldn't be difficult. it's difficult for him. you hear chatter, maybe you bring kellyanne on the plane because she proved she could talk him off the ledge the last days of the 2019 campaign. clearly he's in his own head. i'll let others decide if that should be a disqualifying factor of him not being able to be president, but that's the problem that the republican party is facing right now.

they've got a head of the party that can't get out of his own way. >> carlos, in an interview with univision, i believe, yes, trump once again went into the issue that he thinks vice president harris is not smart. take a listen to this. >> now, she's never going to do anything about inflation. she has no idea. she doesn't even know what it means, the word means. and she is forced to go with my policies. >> you know, carlos, again, nikki haley, who didn't do well in the primaries, we have to add, for the republicans, you know, trump clobbered her, you know, why this focus on these issues? it just seems as though it's counter productive in every way, what's the logic in that? >> jose, this is particularly frustrating for republican senate candidates running in swing states, republican house candidates, i'm thinking in

places like suburban new york that really need trump to be disciplined. these kinds of attacks don't help those candidates. on the contrary, a lot of those swing suburban voters, especially a lot of women, they listen to this stuff, and they get turned off, and what ends up happening is that they not just end up punishing trump, but they end up punishing republicans down the ticket. i remember in 2018, when i was running, this was an issue. trump started talking about challenging birthright citizenship, which in some districts represented by republicans was very controversial. and back then people were saying, please don't introduce all of these weird topics, you know, out of left field topics, personal attacks, stick to the issues. like chuck said, talk about inflation, immigration, taxes. those are winning issues for republicans, but trump seems to be talking about everything else. and even when he talks about those issues as he did in that

clip you showed from the univision interview, he managed to still personally insult kamala harris. that doesn't play well in swing seats. >> chuck, you specifically mention this in an article you just wrote, republicans, you say, stuck with trump's obsessions and you, what carlos said, you say down ballot gop candidates are really kind of begging the trump campaign to re-focus on policy instead of grievance after grievance. but those beggings aren't going to get to much if the candidate acts like he's been acting since 2015. >> well, the comparison i was making is, you know, one of the driving forces that got biden out where president biden admitted himself over the weekend was that the down ballot democrats were saying, hey, i can't run with him. i'm going to basically be running against him, and i'm going to be everything i can to distance from him. republicans are in a different spot. take a guy like david mccormick,

many of these candidates, in this case, in my metaphor, are the frogs who in order to get to the nomination needed the help of the scorpion, right, and they get there and go, wait a minute, you just stung me, what did you expect? that's what scorpions do. that's the box they're in. let me bring up another point. and somebody else planted this seed in my head, i'll admit, which is trump has this total -- he doesn't respect harris as an opponent. you know who else had a disdain for their opponent, and it cost them, it was 2016, hillary clinton never thought donald trump was a worthy opponent, nor somebody that was worthy of the presidency, and that came through to voters. and remember, the deplorables comment only reinforced this idea that she was condescending towards trump and his supporters. in some ways, the script is

flipping. it's trump who has no respect. trump had a lot of respect for hillary clinton in his own weird way. he knew she was tough to defeat. he has no respect for kamala harris, and i think that disdain comes through in the same way this case, instead of deplorables, it's the childless cat ladies, and granted, that's his running mate who said that, but in an odd way, it's setting up what to me at times looks like 2016 in reverse. >> chuck todd and carlos curbelo, thank you both for being with us this afternoon. really appreciate it. and now to the results of a closely watched primary involving one of the big members of the squad, minnesota congresswoman ilhan omar, managed to fend off a challenger in her race last night, following high profile losses of borman of new york, and cori bush of missouri. ali vitali is covering this. great seeing you. what did omar have to say about her victory? >> reporter: look, jose, this

comes after a string of primaries for fellow members of the squad. we saw them in pennsylvania where congresswoman summer lee was able to fend off a primary challenger and of course i also covered them where congressman jamal bowman in new york, and later in missouri, congresswoman cori bush lost their primaries. for ilhan omar, she was the last in the challenges, she won, and she campaigned differently than her counter parts who lost their primaries. specifically she focused on the politics of accomplishment and optimistic message, and that's exactly what she touted last night at her victory party. watch. >> we run the politics of joy. because we know it is joyful to fight for your neighbors. we know it is joyful to make sure everybody has access to health care. we know it is joyful to want to live in a peaceful and equitable

world. so i am incredibly, incredibly honored by this victory tonight. >> reporter: now, you can chalk this win up for omar as really an example of lessons learned. just two years ago, she almost lost the primary challenge to the same man who challenged her this time, don samuels. this time they were putting it all on the table, putting millions of dollars on the air waves, trying to mount a strong counter campaign so that she could keep her seat and fend off this primary challenge. of course the other point of comparison, too, when you look at the two squad members who lost, cori bush and jamal bowman, the situation on the ground in those districts meant it was ripe for a primary challenger. you had a ton of outside money from aipac and other groups trying to come in and exploit the divides in the democratic party that were already evident, that would have given those two

incumbents challengers and of course is exactly what led to them losing. yes, it's a string of watching a summer of squad primary challenges, but omar's race is a bit different from bowman's and bush's, not just in the result. ali vitali. thank you so much. president biden declared the u.s. beat inflation after today's promising report. just a few minutes ago, one of his top economic advisers had a slightly different message. feree d to keep up. thank you, verizon business. (kevin) now our businesses get fast and reliable internet from the same network that powers our phones. (aaron) so whatever's next... we're cooking with fire. (vo) switch to the partner businesses rely on.

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42 past the hour. there's a new milestone in the fight against inflation, a new report says price hikes have slowed to their lowest rate in more than three years. here's what president biden said about it earlier this afternoon. you must beat inflation, mr. president? >> yes, i told you we're going to have a soft landing. my policies are working. start writing that way. >> one of his top economic advisers had a slightly different take. >> the momentum is certainly in the right direction. inflation is reliably coming down. we have a record of disinflation, meaning slower inflation, that is now, you know, 60% or a little bit more than that, off of its peak, and so this is a consistent trend that's moving in the right

direction. no victory laps. >> nbc's christine romans is here to break down what this report actually means for us, christine. >> this 2.9% number is notable. that is the slowest inflation rate since march 2021. that's important because this has been issue number one for american families, higher prices for just about everything. you can see here in 2022 when the inflation rate peaked at 9.1%, the highest in decades, and now this is the work of the federal reserve, raising interest rates again and again and again to try to cool that inflation, and now inflation at 2.9%. let's look inside these numbers. food prices basically moving sideways. that's important progress on inflation. energy prices sideways or lower. that's good for anybody who's filling up their car at the gas station. housing has been the problem here. housing prices have consistently been the bulk of inflation. when you look at this overall inflation rate this month, about

90% of that is because of higher housing costs, so this is one of the reasons why people still don't feel so great about the housing picture. you can switch out cheaper cuts of meat at the grocery store. it's a little harder to switch where you live. that's why that inflation is called sticky. inside these numbers, you may have noticed, used car and truck prices are falling from june to july. air fare down 1.6%. car insurance up 1.2%. that's on top of a lot of car insurance inflation over the past four years. it's one of those pain points for american family budgets, higher car insurance. also, what the white house is pointing out today is that for 17 months in a row, wages, your paycheck have been growing faster than inflation. your costs. eventually, hopefully people will feel better about the economic picture because of that, but at least for now, you've got 17 months, the white house says of wage growth, faster than inflation. that means buying power for american families has been improving. bottom line here, this means the federal reserve may be cutting interest rates, maybe next

month, and cutting interest rates, that's another pain point for families that will take pressure off american budgets, back to you. >> christine romans, thank you so much. now to a pretty terrifying, caught-on-camera encounter between two kayakers and a great white shark. check this out. 6th grade teacher, ian walters and a friend were paddling, noticed they were being followed. notice the fin going up. a huge fin appearing feet away, while they were still nearly a mile from shore. walters says it continued to tail him for three minutes in an area known as the red triangle, home to favorite foods like seals, and sea lions. fortunately, walters and his friend were not on the menu. >> it was simply curious. it was just there because that's where it lives and we were in its house, essentially, and it came to check us out. >> the encounter comes after a

rash of recent shark attacks in florida and texas, as well as a deadly attack in hawaii. i remind you what the gentleman said, the sharks live there. we're visiting them. still ahead, how donald trump's brush with death has claims of divine intervention among his most ardent supporters. [rumble] [whoosh] so you arrive exactly where you belong. hi, my name is damian clark. if you have both medicare and medicaid, i have some really encouraging news that you'll definitely want to hear. depending on the plans available in your area, you may be eligible to get extra benefits with a humana medicare advantage dual-eligible special needs plan. all these plans include a healthy options allowance, a monthly allowance to help pay for eligible groceries, utilities,

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51 past the hour. we have some breaking news.

for the second time in two years, the world health organization is declaring monkeypox a global public health emergency. this comes after an outbreak of the viral infection in the democratic republic of congo. it began to spread to countries in africa. the vaccine is commercially available in the u.s., but it is not readily available in the drc. well, former president donald trump said this week that his near death experience, surviving an assassination attempt made him more of a believer in god. for many trump supporters, the attack has changed the way they see his campaign and potential second term in office. nbc news correspondent and co-anchor of nbc news daily, morgan radford has been talking to those supporters. >> we will fight. >> reporter: from the pulpit to the political stage. >> to give thanks and glory to god for sparing the life of president donald trump. >> reporter: there's a new type

of language surrounding former president donald trump's campaign. >> divine intervention. >> god has his hand on him. >> reporter: doubling down after the failed assassination attempt on july 13th, at a rally in butler, pennsylvania, which trump survived with only a minor ear injury. >> trump is still alive by god's grace. >> reporter: a sentiment echoed in everything from fan-made merchandise to music videos on social media. >> white evangelical protestant voters supported trump at a rate of 80%. now could what many believe to be a miracle strengthen that even more? we spoke to trump supporters at religious events, churches and campaign events across the country who talked about everything from their goals from a second trump term to their fears if he doesn't win. >> we need to protect the babies. >> it's not logical for a man to pretend to be a woman and

compete at any man's sport. >> reporter: to their political opposition. >> i'm ready for them to make the bible hate speech. >> reporter: you think people who vote on the left would make the bible hate speech? >> reporter: allison painter says she was on the ground on january 6th. her belief, divine intervention played a role in saving trump and it can do the same for the nation as a whole. >> we need to have christ back in our country. >> reporter: what does that look like to have christ back in our country? what does that look like politically? >> just like louisiana, put the ten commandments back in our classrooms. we need that. >> reporter: shane winnings is a pastor and the ceo of promise keepers, a men's ministry group. he says there's a bigger message. >> my message to christians and it should be loud and clear now, if you don't want to be in politics, that's fine, but politics wants to be involved in you. >> reporter: do you think this

second run of trump has reenergized the christian right in a new or different way? >> 1,000%. >> reporter: all following a seismic shift among republican voters happening before the assassination attempt. while more than 40% of republicans believe trump was anointed by god in a 2020 survey, that number dropped to just 18% three years later. >> one of the reasons why we see trump and many others in his orbit using religious language and specifically going to talk to christians and christian audiences is to try to reinforce those connections. >> reporter: connections that are now resonating with some trump supporters like joseph patterson. if trump has been divinely protected, does that mean that he has to listen to congress or listen to manmade entities? >> he has free will. he can listen to himself, you know. >> reporter: even if it's against maybe, you know, the will of the american people or the supreme court or democrats? so whatever president trump says

goes, is that kind of what i'm hearing? >> yeah. >> reporter: we reached out to the trump campaign for comment. they have not yet responded. to put all of this in context, nearly 63% of americans consider themselves to be christian, according to the most recent polling from pew research, it's also important to note that not all christians are evangelicals. in fact, evangelicals are around 24% of the population, a number that has declined by 6% since 2007. back to you. >> morgan radford, thank you so much. that does it for us this hour. you can always reach me on social media @jdbalart. our coverage continues with "katy tur reports" next. "katy tur reports" next. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. i'm lowering my risk. adults lost up to 14 pounds. i lost some weight.

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good to be with you. i'm katy tur. in 2024, it's all about the vibes. vibes on the economy, crime, the future, the politics of all of it, and politics itself. up until last month, those vibes