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 were a bummer for democrats,

about the top of the ballot was dragging down the rest of the ballot. but now that president biden stepped out and vp kamala harris has stepped in, the vibes have flipped. now, the democrats are riding high with big crowds, big enthusiasm, and big new numbers. and all of the polls that matter, including a brand new one, we'll bring you in a moment. most significantly, vp harris has taken from donald trump his biggest political asset, hi ability to ride on a wave of personality over policy, relying on a magnetism that so bewitched his voters, it didn't matter to them what his positions were, which was good because he kept flipping and flopping and flipping again on a whole host of meaningful policy. this vibe shift is such a problem for donald trump that megyn kelly says he rambles at his rallies and interviews, quote, you lose interest, she

says, which is not something you're used to with trump. trump in 2016 was tough to lose interest in, and i think megyn kelly, that is probably an age-related change. he's not alone. a growing number of folks around the former president are now openly begging him to do the opposite of what got him elected back in 2016. they're going on tv and radio to tell him, to beg him, to ditch personality and stick to policy. >> focus on policy. who's going to secure the border? who's going to grow the economy? who's going to stay out of world war iii, and more intangibly, steve, who's going to restore national pride in this country? i think donald trump has a strong case on all of those counts, and i think he and the republican party would be well served to focus on the policy contrasts. >> it's going to be a race, and you've got to make this race not on personalities, stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position when it comes to what did she do as attorney general.

>> the one thing republicans have to do, 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. it's not -- you can't win on those things. the american people are smart. treat them like they're smart. >> is he going to do it? is he going to change? history has shown it is not wise to hold their breath waiting for a pivot. if they do want to turn blue, he's scheduled to hold a policy speech in battleground, north carolina, in just a few minutes. joining us now to go over that, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard, also nbc news chief political analyst, chuck todd, and "punchbowl news" cofounder and msnbc political contributor, jake sherman. i know you wrote about this today. i want to read a line from goldberg, trump and his enablers created the vibe and now they're being hosted on it. >> he created a cult of

personality, it's fine, you know, i've been chomping at the bit to either make an apprentice metaphor or not, but, i mean, this is the gary bussey celebrity apprentice season 15, right? like he's desperately trying to recreate the 2016 vibes, right, and that's what's really happening with him right now. and in fairness to him, he's not the only candidate where when things go wrong, you sort of go back to your political womb, and for him, his political womb is 2016. that was the one he won. so that's why you hear talk of kellyanne conway coming on the plane. maybe she can talk him into being slightly more disciplined because she seemed to pull it off for 11 days at the last 11 days of the campaign in 2016. but, you know, the democrats stared at their candidate and realized, wow, he's got an age

problem, and you can't get younger. republicans realize they have a problem, but while democratic voters were more than happy with throwing biden aside, republican voters, they wouldn't tolerate with throwing trump aside, which is why they're all going about this different way of trying to get him to change. he isn't going to change. he might change for a day or two. but he isn't going to change, and it's why, when people ask me what's happening with this race, i say trump is the one that can lose it. he has some built-in advantages on issues and he doesn't know how to take advantage of them. >> the issues that work for him, vaughn, are immigration and the economy. the speech that he's giving in north carolina, is this going to be about immigration or economy? >> it's being tapped as being about the economy, and the trump campaign is saying this is not a campaign rally, even though thousands of people are going to be in attendance, instead it's going to be a policy address. you and i have been covering this for a long time. we have seen the campaign, they

set up themed events, whether on immigration or criminal justice, and while he may read lines from the teleprompter focused on those issues, and he may very well do that today, talk about inflation, the cost of housing, gas prices, we see him then go off script repeatedly and go off like he did in the last week in talking about, claiming that the crowd sizes for kamala harris are fake, ai-generated, right or go off about her race. this is the frustration where the campaign team, each of these individuals who signed up to work for the campaign, they knew who they worked for, several had been doing it before. there's only so much you can do to build out the signage, and put on the podium, the economy, and donald trump is running the campaign. >> donald trump has been somebody who does it his own way. trump will be trump. that's what corey lewandowski said early on. let him be himself. he's eight years older, says something, can you move a person that old to be different from who they fundamentally are.

chuck, what i'm struck by, something else that megyn kelly said, he's getting boring. i think she's right when she says in 2016 it was hard to look away. if you loved him, you didn't want to look away. if you hated him, you couldn't look away. but now, you can look away. it's easy to not be glued to him any longer. >> katy, i was struck at the republican convention when he spoke. remember who's in the hall, these are the die hards, these are the maga hat people, and he kept droning on and on, and you saw his most fervent supporters doing this, looking at their phones, scrolling instagram or whatever they're scrolling. >> chuck, people left early. >> they weren't paying attention. >> correct. we have seen this a lot at these rallies because it's the same schick. they want me to read on the teleprompter, and kamala harris,

she's always saying the same speech, she's always on message, isn't that boring, and yet his off message is the same stuff. he doesn't have new stuff, and part of his frustration is he basically had two routines he learned, one against hillary clinton, and one against joe biden, and i think at nearly 80 years old, he doesn't want to learn a third routine. >> he's still talking about joe biden at interviews, he's going after joe biden. at rallies, he's trying to practice his derogatory names about joe biden, even though joe biden is no longer in the race. people left rallies because he would drone on in 2016. they were going to vote for him. if you have a number of people looking for a change, who want to be enthusiastic, who want a new show, if you will, donald trump is no longer the new show. if he rambles on, he's no longer new. everybody has heard that before, and that's going to be a problem going forward for them. the enthusiasm won't be there in the same way, if it's going to

be a race that comes down to enthusiasm. quinnipiac has new numbers, these come out of pennsylvania. it finds that -- i was going to say megyn kelly, vice president kamala harris has a slight edge over donald trump, 48 to 45. it's in the margin of error. but very interestingly, jake sherman, if you look at the next part of this poll, bob casey is up eight points over dave mccormick, that's for the senate seat in pennsylvania. down ballot, donald trump could be a big problem for republicans if they want to win back the senate, which felt for a long time to be a pretty easy task for republicans. >> i've heard, katy, in recent days, and i don't subscribe to this, i'm just suggesting what i hear, that democrats have an outside chance of keeping the senate. that's what party officials told me yesterday. i don't buy that argument. but there's an undoubtablely

notice level of confidence and enthusiasm that democrats were seeking with joe biden on the ticket that they have found in kamala harris, and i just want to add one more thing to what chuck and vaughn and you said, it's not only that he can't stick on message, it's that he's talking about patently bizarre things. i mean, the hannibal lecter, the ai thing is stuff that undercuts the argument that he's trying to make that he's a competent, sober leader, and i think that's troubling to a lot of republicans, and i had a republican say to me the other day, he needs to understand he's not running against hillary clinton, and he has to learn a new thing because it's just not going to work against kamala harris, and i think we see that every day, and i think next week when many of us are in chicago for the democratic convention, i can tell you that i have spoken to senior congressional leaders and folks over the last couple

of days who have said just the enthusiasm they're seeing on the campaign trail, the money they're able to raise is far beyond what they were able to raise before. so those data points put together are quite interesting, and, listen, i think a lot of this in down ballot races, katy, will come down to the candidate. dave mccormick has been for now, two cycles, an underwhelming candidate. tim in montana took over the lead. there are signs democrats are hanging on narrowly, but republicans are pulling ahead, but i will say with a non-donald trump candidate on the ticket, remember, a candidate who has won but one election and has had a pretty abysmal election record since then, they would be doing much better. >> jake, what are they saying in the halls of congress right now? >> we hear kevin mccarthy, we hear, you know, vivek ramaswamy going on television, nikki haley saying he needs to focus on policy.

he needs to focus on policy. i know that they're in a luxury position to be able to speak their mind because they're not in the day-to-day of politics and trying to win campaign races with donald trump at the top of the ticket, and potentially drawing his ire, what are you hearing from rank and file republicans about how they feel about their candidate? >> there's a split. there's the true trump maga enthusiasts who say this is the guy. he'll do what he wants and he'll win the way he wants to win. and then there's more sober-minded realistic people, katy, who say that he has been given a gift, which is an administration which has presided over an economy, rightly or wrongly, that people feel is going in the wrong direction, the border issue is particularly potent in key places, and donald trump almost refuses to capitalize on that by going off on these bizarre tangents. and i can tell you that people

are concerned. people are concerned in the house and the senate that the message from the top of the ticket is not resonating and it's difficult to separate themselves from that message, and it drags them down. >> are you hearing anything about being concerned? >> absolutely, because this is a party, if you look at dave mccormick, donald trump was at a rally in pennsylvania, after he endorsed me ounce o -- oz, being the man of wall street, so this is a republican party over the last two election cycles that has fallen with donald trump, in everybody that is running in 2024, down ballot, they are running with donald trump at their hip. for dave mccormick, is he going to be there on saturday with donald trump. he has appeared at other rallies

with him so far. mark robinson, running for governor of north carolina, he is going to be speaking ahead of donald trump at this economy address here today. and so donald trump, this republican party is his, and there is of course concern not just about the white house but down ballot in the repercussions in 2024. >> talk about your insights on down ballot. >> i would say one thing about trump himself, though, is he's proven that he only knows how to run an outsider insurgent campaign. that was '16. he was the incumbent in '20, the victim, the legal community, now he's the incumbent again. he's hillary clinton in 2016 who is the incumbent without having any of the up sides of incumbency, to go back to the down ballot and reinforce the point, democrats were finding ways to distance themselves from biden. they have tried to carve out their own identities. tester has his own identity,

sherrod brown, the republicans are all defined by donald trump save for a larry hogan in maryland, and the daughter of a long time popular republican senator down there, other than that, the problem for the down ballot republicans is in '16, some of them could run away from him, because they never supported him. now they didn't get their nominations without his support. they can't run away, and if mccormick doesn't go to a rally with trump in pennsylvania, do you think trump will mention it to the crowd? you're down right he will. >> mccormick was at the rnc, i did see him there. chuck todd, vaughn hillyard, jake sherman, thank you very much. after his new report, president biden says the u.s. has beaten inflation, what is in the report and what might it signal about what the fed will do next month with the interest rates. plus, what hamas officials are saying now about the possibility of a cease fire

deal, what they're saying about the possibility of a cease fire deal. we'll tell you. and it could be an electrical, an electoral, tie breaker, i can read, what residents in one district in nebraska are saying about the election. we're back in 90 seconds. e backs why didn't we do this last year? before you were preventing migraine with qulipta®? and look at me now. you'll never truly forget migraine, but zero-migraine days are possible. don't take if allergic to qulipta®. most common side effects are nausea, constipation, and sleepiness. qulipta®. the forget-you-get migraine medicine™.

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start writing that way, okay. >> good news on inflation, it is relenting, hitting 2.9% this morning, the lowest level in three years. cars, air fare and gas are all getting cheaper, while grocery costs are leveling out. so what will the fed do with interest rates? joining us now, nbc news senior business correspondent christine romans. so what's going to happen? >> you know, here's what the fed is looking at, katy, the fed is looking at a 2.9 headline on inflation, the lowest, as you said, in three years. and the trend is your friend. look at this, this is the 9%, that terrible peak in 2022. it has come down here considerably, getting closer to that fed's 2% target. you look inside the numbers, sideways on food prices, housing still a really big problem, though, and housing actually about 90% of the overall inflation rate. used cars and trucks down month to month. car insurance, by the way, is up 50% over the past four years.

that's one of the reasons people don't feel so good about the inflation numbers. there are parts of the budget that have been a problem, but for the fed, this means it's more ammunition for the fed to be able to start to trim interest rates, and that takes a little more pressure off american budgets, katy. >> that's great news. the grocery aspect, though, that's still not going down. it's leveling out. but the prices are still a whole lot higher than they were a couple of years ago. >> that's right, they're about 20% higher than they were from before the pandemic, and so that is something when you go to the grocery store, you are still paying more today than you did several years ago. what the white house is pointing out today that wages, your paycheck has been rising faster than inflation for about 17 months. that means that's improved buying power, purchasing power for american households. at some point people might start to feel that. you're absolutely right, the sticker shock is something that is still very very close, you know, close at hand here for so many families when they are paying their bills. >> christine romans, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. coming up, nbc news

correspondent, jacob soboroff traveled to a district that could have an out-sized impact on the election. what matters to voters there. first up, though, what u.s. and foreign officials say has complicated efforts to reach a gaza cease fire.

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. a top hamas official tells the associated press that the militant group is losing faith in the united states' ability to mediate a gaza cease fire. the next round of talks is scheduled for tomorrow, but hamas has said it will not attend unless last month's proposal, which they said they already agreed to is back on the table. joining us now is nbc news international correspondent raf sanchez. so what's happening here? because this proposal, which joe biden had laid out a little while ago -- he did it in three steps -- the talk from joe biden was that the israelis had signed on to it and that hamas was saying yes to it, so what

happened? >> reporter: well, katy, a lot of moving parts here, but one of them, according to u.s. and foreign officials is that benjamin netanyahu, israel's prime minister, continues to add newer and more hard-line demands in between these different rounds of negotiations. i'll give you a couple of examples. these officials are saying that netanyahu is insisting that israeli forces remain on the border between gaza and egypt. israeli troops seized control of that area, of the crucial rafah border crossing in early may. they say they need to stay there to prevent hamas from smuggling weapons underneath the border into gaza. hamas is saying that is no a nonstarter, as far as they're concerned, that for them to make a deal to release the hostages, israeli forces need to move away from that border. another sticking point, netanyahu now insisting, according to these officials that israeli check points which divide northern and southern

gaza remain in place. israel says those check points are crucial for making sure hamas fighters don't return to the north of gaza, the israeli city is further to the north, but hamas is saying palestinian civilians displaced from their homes in gaza city have to have free movement and they will not submit to israeli check points. these were already really complicated negotiations, and these officials are saying netanyahu, who is under a lot of pressure from the far right of his government, not to make concessions to hamas is making these talks even more difficult. >> raf, looming over all of this, what might iran do, what might hezbollah do for the retaliation of the hamas leader. what's it like there tonight in tel aviv? >> reporter: you know, katy, every night for two weeks now, israelis have gone to bed, and they have looked at the skies, and they have wondered whether tonight is the night that that expected wave of iranian

missiles and drones will come, and it is tense here. people are, you know, trying to go about their lives but there is a feeling that any day could be the day. it's 10:30 here. so far so good, president biden did raise the possibility there might be one off ramp here for the iranians, and that is if there could be some kind of breakthrough at these cease fire talks in qatar tomorrow, then potentially the iranians would delay, maybe even call off the attack all together, in order not to be blamed for jeopardizing those talks. the white house has also been trying to set expectations, katy. no one thinks that cia director bill burns is going to emerge from a hotel room waving a piece of paper saying the war is over, and the hostages are coming home. the hope is there will be some progress. >> raf sanchez, thank you very much. joining us now, senior fello --

what is the calculation from iran's point of view as best we can understand it? >> i think the calculation is pretty clear, katy, in that iran needs to do something to save face, but they don't want to go so far as risking their lives. they can't not retaliate because it risks being humiliated in the eyes of their own population. all dictators want to be feared by their population, so they need to respond. they need to respond to save face with regional proxies. but if the response is excessive, that could risk massive israeli retaliation or even a u.s. retaliation. at the end of the day, the regime is deeply ideological, but more committed to staying in power. those are the parameters of iran's calculations. >> israel is not taking responsibility for it, but the fact that a hamas leader can get

assassinated within teheran on the day of the presidential inauguration, the new president in iran, what does that say about iran's intelligence, its ability to keep its own leaders safe? >> it's a combination of both iranian incompetence and that israel has shown itself able to assassination either senior iranian officials or guests of the iranian regime, almost at will. but it's also a sign of the deep discontent within, not only iranian society, but the iranian regime itself. because if israel didn't have iranian government collaborators to work with, they wouldn't be able to so routinely pull off these assassinations. >> that are absolutely remarkable. noga, we ended with raf saying what it's like to be in tel aviv. i know you're in jerusalem. everybody is playing this

waiting game. but at the same time, there are these news reports about what benjamin netanyahu is or is not doing within the negotiation. what is the feeling within israel about benjamin netanyahu, about his leadership, about his ability to put the country before himself? >> well, i think it's pretty clear that very few israelis at this point believe netanyahu is capable of doing that. there was, again, another one of these bomb shell polls just two days ago by the israel democracy institute showing -- i think it was less than 20% this time of israelis have any faith in his ability to execute this war. so on the one hand, that shows how scared and how unconfident israelis feel, and on the other hand, looking at it from netanyahu's perspective, it's a measure of how stubbornly he wants to hold on to power and

keep in office. keep himself in office until those figures can shift. so it's a real tug of war between the population of israel that, as raf very well described, is just sort of like sitting ducks for the last two weeks, and the prime minister. the other thing that's happening that's just astonishing is an overt tug of war between the nation's security top brass, not just the army, also the mosad, all of the men, mostly men in charge of israeli security, are more and more openly pointing the finger at netanyahu and saying he is setting up obstacles. and israelis see it in a series of announcements by netanyahu, you know, that on the one hand, he authorized this delegation to go negotiate in doha. on the other hand, he has sent

one of his personal advisers to supervisor the affairs of the head. israelis feel netanyahu is not acting on their behalf and see overt signs of it. >> do israelis have recourse? we're talking about 20% who still believe in him. there have been protests on the street. do they have anything beyond just political pressure, going out and marching to get him removed from power? do they want him removed from power during this war? >> well, i can't remember if it was 80 or 90% of israelis believe he should resign. they have very little recourse. netanyahu was legally elected at the very end of december 2022, and since then, he has employed every legal and illegal measure he can to try and ensure that no one will be able to unseat him. on the one hand, there's just the technical matter that it has to be a parliamentary maneuver

that overthrows him, if there are going to be early elections, and he has a majority in parliament. on the other hand, throughout this period and we saw this really called out in an op-ed today by the former prime minister, netanyahu is taking advantage of the wartime emergency measures to try to really, i would say, harm the civil state, trying to appoint his own cronies, civil service commissioner and other positions that will help him stay in power, and possibly help him avoid the conclusion of his own trial because he's on trial for corruption. >> noga tarnopolsky, karim, thank you very much. what vladimir putin is doing as russian forces have been unable to push the ukrainian military out of russian territory. and how one nebraska official, one of them could serve as an election tie

breaker, one consequential electoral vote. nbc's jacob soboroff takes us there.

. you don't often see presidential campaign rallies in the great state of nebraska because the great state of nebraska usually isn't a make-or-break win. so why is tim walz going there this weekend? that's according to a source who spoke with nbc news, no, it is not because it is his home

state. yes, he's the governor of minnesota, but he's from nebraska, and it's because nebraska's second congressional district, this one right here in omaha has one electoral vote. and nebraska splits its electoral votes, and the democrats could need that one electoral vote in the case of an election electoral map tie breaker. so nbc news political and national correspondent jacob soboroff traveled to omaha to hear from voters what matters. >> reporter: there was a guy named jason who responded to me on social media, and he said we should come see him at rotella's, an italian bakery. >> jason odom is a marine corps veteran and engineer at a big tech company. a father of three, he reached out, said he was worried about his three kids being sent to war. >> there's a lot of people, they used to be described as the

silent majority. i kind of feel like that a lot of times. >> reporter: we came to omaha because a rare electoral system could have the city in the ultimate spotlight come election night. people here call nebraska's second congressional district the blue dot. it's a democratic island in a sea of republican voters. unlike the rest of the country, only nebraska and maine award their electoral votes by congressional district. the one electoral vote here could prevent a tie and help the one candidate win the 270 volts needed to win. >> reporter: why did you want to meet here? >> it's kind of famous in omaha and i happen to live nearby, it's got the best b bread, i think. >> we met karen hidalgo, who's also a veteran. >> me as a single parent, we would come here to lincoln and come back, because it's more affordable. >> you drive here because it's an affordable place to come. >> reporter: that two-hour round trip made perfect sense. >> two bucks for five. in the grocery store, how much

would that? >> $2.50 apiece. >> i believe the elite has a purpose. >> reporter: which is? >> just letting us -- >> reporter: sounds like everybody is on the same page. >> everybody is here for a reason. trying to make their dollar go as far as they can. >> reporter: how do you weigh what to do come november? >> unfortunately you have to pick the best of the two options. >> reporter: for jason, that's vice president harris, but he's not convinced either party can solve increasing inequality. >> that's what this place is partly about, right. >> reporter: because that is local business that quite literally feeds a population that may not be able to afford it otherwise. >> we don't have enough food to eat, nothing else matters. >> reporter: when he heard we were at his store, the owner who employs 700 people in omaha invited us to the factory attached to it. it occurs to me over 103 years,

this place has been open in good times and bad times. >> yes, today, everything is so expensive, we have done everything we possibly can to be able to be competitive so that our customers keep on going too. >> reporter: what do you think the people who are running to be our leaders should know about what life is like for people here? >> just family. trying to make it. trying to make a living. >> reporter: a century old bakery where dough stretches farther, that could hold clues about what matters on election day. jacob soboroff, nbc news, omaha, nebraska. and still ahead, what russia is doing to respond to ukraine's ongoing attack on russian soil, plus, what's being done on the local level to fight back against gun violence in philadelphia. philadelphia (♪♪) [shaking]

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moving piles of earth. towing up to 4,000 lbs. cutting millions of blades of grass. nothing compares to experiencing it for yourself. you just have to get in the seat. ukraine has now made it farther into russia than anyone since world war ii, advancing deeper into the kursk reach just to the north. now they say they are in control of 74 villages, which has forced moscow to withdraw troops from ukraine to fight back in russia. ukraine says it has also managed to force the surrender of a number of russian soldiers who they have in turn brought back to ukraine as part of what they're calling an exchange fund. ukraine says this is video of that happening. nbc news has not been able to independently verify it. here's sky news security and defense editor, deborah haynes

on the ukrainian-russian border for us. >> this is the ukrainian border crossing point. there's been a lot of military around here, as we have been moving here, you can 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 into russia, as we were driving down here, you could see russian territory in the distance. you could see this place has been pretty deserted. this area has been a war zone, since russia's full-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 road significantly reduced. it felt like you were in a real military zone here. we're in the border point. you can see that's the crossing point there. there's 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. >> joining us now, nbc news international correspondent josh lederman. so as she ended there, it's pretty calm at the moment, she says. our sky news correspondent. but tell me about what's happening within russia. we saw that video of ukraine of the forced surrender of a number of russian soldiers that they brought back into the country. what does president zelenskyy hope to get out of that? what does he mean by an exchange fund? >> he seems to mean that the

more prisoners of war ukraine is able to take now, the more likely they are to be able to get back their own prisoners of war who have been held by russia. in fact, zelenskyy in his evening address is saying that he believes that the capture of these p.o.w.s will bring ukraine's boys and girls back sooner. so this is one of the realities of war, katy, the more of your enemy combatants that you hold, the more leverage you might have in negotiations going forward. that appears to be one of the motives here. another potential motive according to the ukrainians is they really hope now to create a buffer zone along the russian border where essentially russia can no longer use this territory right along the border to launch attacks into ukraine. now, there has been a big question about how the u.s. government feels about this, given the that ukraine is using american provided weapons now inside of russia proper. the pentagon has said essentially, they don't want to talk a lot about what ukraine is doing on the ground. but it is within a zone that the

u.s. has authorized ukraine to use american weapons even though it is in russia because it is a part of russia that the kremlin is using to launch attacks into ukraine and so, by -- according to the standards of both the u.s. and ukrainians, they are considering this a defensive operation. >> josh lederman, thank you very much. and coming up next, what is being done to help young people living in philadelphia break the cycle of gun violence. gun viol. (aaron) i own a lot of businesses... so i wear a lot of hats. my restaurants, my tattoo shop... and i also have a non-profit. but no matter what business i'm in... my network and my tech need to keep up. thank you, verizon business. (kevin) now our businesses get fast and reliable internet from the same network that powers our phones. (woman) all with the security features we need. (aaron) because my businesses are my life. (kevin) man, the fish tacos are blowing up! (aaron) so whatever's next we're cooking with fire. let's make it happen! (vo) switch to the partner businesses rely on.

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gun violence is trending downward nationally, but for the victims of it, a trend is not enough. joining us now, nbc news national correspondent jasmine. and you focused on philadelphia and young people trying to break the cycle of violence. what did they tell you. >> there is something that i learned down in philly, it is trauma an that's what parents and kids feel when they anticipate possibly dieing from

a gunshot. now our parents being a phone call saying your child has been kill and this is something that they live with every day and kids are dealing with ptsd. let's take a look at what they have to say. >> and you raw wants to make music and he loves art, but he dreams of escaping the gun violence in his city. >> do you have a fear that that something is going to happen when you're out. >> sure yes. definitely have a fear. >> i see you looking around, because you're looking to see where your friends are at. >> watching my sur roendings. >> philadelphia has the highest per capita gun murder race of the largest ten cities in america. this year alone, more than 670 people have been shot. >> do you think it is fair that you live like this. >> i just live with what god

gave me. >> gun violence leaves a long trail of victims, who people lost someone, many are young. this year philadelphia is on track to have the largest drop in murders among cities over a million people. according to research firm a.h. data lytics. but it makes no difference to someone like andre who has been surrounded by gun violence. >> i'm 18 years old and my friends die, i can't cry about it no more. >> we're feeling every time, it will never get normalized. >> that is why andre and so many other boys and girls in west philly come to this hour. they paint making masks to represent how they feel on the inside. on the outside, they clean up the neighborhood for $20 an hour. the center's founder, miss mo as they call her, struck a deal to pay them.

back inside they talk about their trauma and in a healing circle. >> i could be going through something where i don't feel loved. co be going something where he's not eating but today we're going to sit in a circle and talk about it and make ourselves feel more better. >> miss mo knows their pain. she has lost family members across three generations. all to gun violence. >> people get to choose their issues. i didn't get a choice. obviously this issue was chosen for me. >> reporter: avita has dealt with her battles including pleading guilty to theft in regard to one of her nonprofit organizations. but for the kids coming into her center, miss mo is still a role model. >> mo became our family. >> and through that pain the relationships developed have made these kids hope to one day become role models themselves. >> we want to see peace. >> yeah. i definitely want to see peace. that is where i put the star on

top, symbolizing the start of one person that is going to try to push peace. >> so that one kid that we just heard from, not andre, but demir, the kid before who talked about miss mo being a role model, i asked him if his parents were constantly texting him if they were wondering about his safety because i heard that from a lot of kids that they're parents would constantly text them. are you at the store, did you make it to the bus, to school, because they are so afraid of what may happen to their kids. he's in a situation at home with his younger siblings and his mother died after a drug overdose and his father is incarcerated an the ome people looking out for him are his friends and people in his social group and folks like miss mo in this community center. these kids are on their own and they're scared and it is a reality that we are unaware of and it is something that we don't cover enough because it not only has become normized to them. you heard andre, i don't cry any

more, not because i'm not sad, but because it is normal. this anticipatory trauma. i'm ready for it and prepared for the worst. what kind of reality is that. one more thing, i visited martin luther king high school in north philly, they have this huge library. sprawling library. there is no books on the shelves. so if you want -- if you are a kid in that community that wants to get out, beyond the cards dealt for you, you look to education but there is no resources. >> where-y are there no book on the shelves? >> because of the resources. there is not enough resources put into the community. i spoke with the new police commissioner, commissioner bethel just sworn in in january, he knows this community and grew up in this community, single mom and knows what the kids are dealing with. they have -- they're optimistic something will change. >> thank you for bringing us this story. i'm