JOHN YANG: This is the week that Trump will be officially nominated at the Republican Convention in Milwaukee.

And that's where NewsHour anchors Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett are tonight.

Amna, Geoff, I imagine things are going to be a little different now from what was originally planned.

AMNA NAWAZ: John, I think that's fair to say what was meant to be a celebration this week as Republican lawmakers and delegates will gather to officially nominate Donald Trump in the space behind us here is taken on a completely different tone in the wake of this assassination attempt.

Senior Republican officials are telling me that they think the party is more united than it's been that even Trump skeptics are more firmly behind him, and that his very first remarks here in this arena are now even more highly anticipated.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yeah.

And that's with the RNC saying that this convention will go ahead as planned.

Officials say there are no major structural changes planned to this week's gathering.

But security has been stepped up for the more than 50,000 politicians, delegates, members of the media who are expected here this week.

Two law enforcement sources say planning is underway to expand the security perimeter here.

And President Biden today said he ordered the director of Secret Service to review all security measures for the convention.

Political correspondent Lisa Desjardins is covering the Trump campaign and joins us now.

Lisa, it's great to see you.

LISA DESJARDINS: Hi.

GEOFF BENNETT: So give us a sense of the reaction from Republican politicians and from the Trump campaign.

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

Well, Republicans writ large say something first of all, they wanted to acknowledge that this was an assassination attempt against not only a former president, but a man that millions of Americans would like to be president again.

After that there are two camps.

There's one camp that says it is time to tone down the rhetoric.

We heard some of that from Speaker Johnson.

The other camp is one that wants to express anger and outrage, and also wants to point a finger of blame at Democrats and President Biden as well.

One prominent example of this came from Ohio Senator JD Vance, who he posted on X today, brought up the Biden campaign and said that rhetoric from Democrats and the Biden campaign led directly to President Trump's attempted assassinations, very sharp words.

The phrase that he's talking about specifically was a phone call with donors that President Biden had last week.

The Biden campaign responded to my request about this.

And they gave me a full readout of exactly what President Biden said on that call.

They say the context here is important.

Let me read it to you, quote, I have one job, and that's to beat Donald Trump.

I'm absolutely certain I'm the best person to be able to do that.

So we're done talking about the debate.

It's time to put Trump in the bulls eye.

What the Biden campaign says he meant, of course, was that he was tired of the media focusing on him, and instead wanted it to be on Trump.

But judge for yourself that he doesn't add a lot of context here.

He did add that Trump should be in the bull's eye.

We know, of course, President Biden has said that there's no room for this kind of violence.

And we do expect President Biden to be speaking tonight to the American public.

But it's just to say that on the Republican side, there is a divide over how to respond to this.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, what about on the Democratic side as well, I know you've been talking to your sources there.

How are they handling this right now.

And also, specifically with the charges about President Biden and his rhetoric fueling this.

LISA DESJARDINS: The Biden campaign says he got into the race in 2020 to begin with is a response to the kind of rhetoric that Donald Trump was using the political violence that we saw in Charlottesville.

Democrats are really struggling with how to respond because they believe this entire atmosphere of political violence was begun by Donald Trump.

But yet he was of course, the victim.

There was an attempted assassination against him.

So they're struggling with that.

They're also trying to figure out how do they do things that heal their own communities, their own districts, I can report there are several Democrats House members trying to reach out to Republican members to try and have bipartisan events.

They're hoping that that kind of thing can put the country ahead of themselves.

But they are realizing there's a new landscape for them.

Some of them are pushing back at these Republican charges.

One is Bonnie Watson Coleman, Democratic Representative from New Jersey.

She wrote on X, we should be united.

She pushed back at Marjorie Taylor Greene.

And she said we should be united against violence, not shamefully exploiting this tragedy to push partisan hatred and lies.

So there is some pushback, but it's early days.

And I think the concern here is, does the conversation actually tamp down?

Or does more anger evolve on both sides?

GEOFF BENNETT: It is early days as you say, what do your sources though, think all of this means for the race ahead.

LISA DESJARDINS: There's some very important things that are happening right now conclusions that are being made, number one, talking to prominent Democrats, especially in Congress.

They believe the conversation about President by didn't know whether he should stay in the race is over.

Now, could that change?

Yes, of course it could.

But right now, they believe they don't see a path forward to having that discussion anymore.

They think the entire environment has changed.

This is from some Democrats who want President Biden to step down, but they believe that conversation now is realistically is over the other.

There are concerns about security everywhere within governments and state governments and also the Capitol, we're going to watch that very closely.

Also, we're watching the vice presidential decision that former President Trump has to make.

Does he pick JD Vance, who is choosing in this moment to express anger and outrage?

Does he choose someone else who instead is saying, well done President Trump, thank God you survived and is trying to unite.

The country the choice he makes for Vice President, we expect that potentially in the next two days, but you know, the convention starting we're going to have it sometime soon.

That choice will tell us something about the Trump campaign and about President Trump himself.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, what about voters themselves?

And I've been talking to some folks out there, how are they reading this moment?

And the temperature right now?

LISA DESJARDINS: This is what's interesting.

When you talk to members of Congress and political types, they think, oh, this might mean the election is over.

Even some Democrats are worried about this.

But when I talk to voters, I actually don't sense that kind of more movement in their voting.

I sense more real regret about where the country is, a real hope that somehow there can be a different conversation.

And we saw this even after the debate with President Biden, the numbers didn't move how much even though it was a historically bad performance.

So, I think the jury is out on exactly what this assassination attempt means in November.

For sure, as you reported, Amna.

The Republicans believe that this will create a new sense of unity.

And as much as there are so many concerning thoughts, and so many of my sources have dark thoughts right now they're worried about the country.

I'll tell you delegates here, there's a happy mood.

They feel like they can be united around Donald Trump in a way that maybe they haven't in either of his previous runs.

GEOFF BENNETT: On that point, we learned that Nikki Haley will be here later this week to address the crowd to deliver remarks.

He previously was not invited.

How do you think that the weekend's events will change the tenor and tone of this week's proceedings?

LISA DESJARDINS: I think it will change dramatically.

However, I want to caveat that with every word that former President Trump says is going to set the tone.

So if he decides to be more angry, then that we will see that on the floor.

And we will see that even personally, those of us who are on the floor in our interactions.

If he decides to say, let's rise above it, we are the party of unity.

And you know, I'm not going to blame Democrats, then I think that will absolutely affect the tone here as well.

I can tell you talking to the few delegates that I've met here, they're still coming into Milwaukee.

They would like more of that unified tone.

While they of course some of them harbor great frustration, concern and even anger over what happened.

Most of them really want to have a different kind of election.

And I can say that for voters as well.

Everyone's exhausted.

Few people in this country want this do overmatch between these two men.

This is a chance for both campaigns to reset.

Republicans think better for them.

Democrats not yet sure what they do campaigning going forward.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins, thank you so much for that great reporting.

LISA DESJARDINS: Welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: And there's certainly more to come from here in Milwaukee.

John, we'll send it back to you.