we have some breaking news on this special counsel investigation into president biden's alleged mishandling of classified documents. sources telling cnn the special counsel is not expected to bring

charges. he was appointed in january after classified documents from biden's time as environment were found at his private office and home. paula reed is here with the details. tell us what's happening. >> reporter: several weeks ago we reported it wasn't looking like any charges would be filed by the special counsel in this case. today, multiple sources telling us they do not expect criminal charges to be filed in this investigation. for right now, the special counsel and his team, they are working to compile a very detailed report about exactly what they did in the course of this probe. we have learned from multiple sources that they have been fastidious, going to witnesses once, twice, going back again and retrodding a lot of ground they have already covered. leaving some witnesses to complain about how tedious this investigation has been. we have learned that investigators on this team have told some people they expect

this to all be wrapped up by the end of the year. of course, if there are no charges that is likely to draw some criticism from the president's republican adversaries, but a key part of this case is the fact that once these classified materials were found, that the president's team alerted the national archives and did return the materials that they were required to. >> let's be clear here, he shouldn't have had those materials. >> yes. >> but there's this false equivalence some critics of biden's will try to make between biden and trump and handling of classified materials. it's very different what trump did. >> exactly in two ways these cases diverge. one is the volume of materials. dozens of pages verses hundreds of pages. then, once the discovery was made or known these materials were in your possession, and the government was seeking to get them back, how cooperative these two entities were. there really is no clear

comparison beyond questions about the possible mishandling of classified documents. in biden's case, appears to be closer to the review of former vice president mike pence and his retention of classified materials. then the mar-a-lago case which is a full-blown criminal case expected to be tried in may of next year. >> i'm so glad you brought pence up. it's a better comparison. pamela. >> we're also following breaking news out of the middle east. israeli soldiers have found the body of a second hostage taken by hamas on october 7th. israeli defense forces say she is a 65-year-old grandmother and she was found in a building next to al shifa hospital. yesterday, the idf raided al shifa claiming hamas had been using tunnels beneath it as a command center. this just in, israel saying it has found an operational tunnel shaft inside the hospital complex. let's get right to cnn reporter nava bashir in jerusalem. what more is the idf saying

about this tunnel? what proof is it showing to support its claims? >> reporter: well, pamela, as we know, this operation is ongoing and we are also waiting for more details from the israeli military with regards to this latest statement. they say they have located tunnelling infrastructure and an operational tunnel sheft inside the al shifa hospital complex. as we know, the idf has held they believe there's a hamas command and control center beneath the hospital. as we saw following the raid of night in the early hours of wednesday morning, there was mounting pressure on the israeli military to demonstrate and show further evidence of these allegations given the fact in that initial video released by the idf, there were clearly signs of military equipment and according to the idf, technological assets belonging to hamas, but no clear proof of this said command and control center beneath the al shifa complex. we're still waiting for more

details on that, as we know, of course, hamas and doctors on the ground at al shifa have long denied these allegations, have denied hamas military presence in the hospital complex. as we know, there is mounting concern over the safety and security of civilians inside al shifa. hundreds of patients, hundreds of medical staff and other civilians who have taken shelter around the complex as we know, we have been hearing from doctors within the hospital in the early hours of wednesday morning describing the terrifying scenes outside of the hospital, but since then, communication with doctors inside al shifa has largely been cut off as a result of a communications blackout, so getting more details on the ground from doctors, from medical officials, has proven extremely difficult. and we heard from human rights organizations as well as other international medical organizations who have lost contact with their teams on the ground. there is a huge amount of concern around the safety of patients and medical staff.

as you know, of course, this operation is set to be taking several days. it isn't just a one-day operation, and of course, we heard earlier in the day from the israeli military spokespeople saying they're quite close to completely dismantling hamas's military systems in northern gaza. northern gaza has of course been the focal point of israel's now relentless air bombardment and now ground incursion. but there has to be said mounting fears over the possibility of that ground incursion moving further south. now, as we know, the israeli military has been calling on civilians to move southwards from the early wooks of this war. we have seen 1.5 million palestinians internally displaced. the israeli military says it has allowed for safe evacuation. we have seen -- from northern gaza to southern gaza, but today now in the southern parts of gaza, near the largest city in the southern region, leaflets were reported to have dropped from the sky,

warning civilians to move to known shelters. now, of course, there is concern that this warning could signal a push by israeli troops on the ground into southern gaza, and there is mounting fears that there simply isn't anywhere safe anymore for palestinian civilians inside the gaza strip. >> all right, thank you. let's get right to retired army colonel liam collins who co-wrote the book understanding urban warfare. thanks for coming on. i want to get to this news. israel saying it has found a, quote, operational tunnel shaft inside the al shifa hospital complex in gaza city. what is the significance of this finding? what do you make of it? >> yeah, what this shows is something that israel has known and most likely u.s. intelligence has known. that's hamas, right, they don't follow the international humanitarian law. they use hospitals, schools, churches, things like this, for

their own protection in turn what would otherwise be unlawful military targets into lawful military targets. israel has no desire to go into this hospital, but they're forced to go in there because that's where hamas has set up either in the vicinity, inside of it to use for their own protection and put their own citizens at risk. >> i want to ask you about the news also coming in, sad news today, the discovery of a deceased hostage. we know the idf has taken control of northern gaza. how do you see the shift in dynamics impacting hostage negotiations in the wake of this body found? >> yeah, i mean, i think that's what's been really unique about this conflict from the start, is just the number of hostages and how that impacts negotiation and how the war will be fought. obviously, hamas has no real desire to release any of these hostages. they didn't attempt to do that in the three weeks leading up to the ground war. so it complicates it, but you

know, i think it isn't a surprise unfortunately some of them have died. what's more telling is where it turned up, next to a hospital. if anything, if you're trying to keep these hostages, they should not have -- that's probably where they have a command center, obviously. >> i'm going to ask you about the leaflets. the leaflets falling in southern gaza telling civilians there to go to known shelters. what does this signal to you in terms of what's next in this war? >> if israel is dropping these, this typically isn't some type of deception. they want the civilians out of there so they can do military operations. they want to minimize civilian casualties as they attempted to do throughout. just like they did before the invasion into northern gaza. took three weeks to try to get everybody out of there, so it's a good indicator they're going to expand into that area next.

remember, it's not all that southern gaza. but expanding into that, thas what it would indicate. >> you talk about minimizing civilian deaths. the palestinian ministry of health which is hamas-controlled says i believe the last number was more than 11,000 civilians who have died so far in gaza. a top eu diplomat has urged israel not to be, quote, consumed by rage. of course, we should note this all started with the october 7th attack by hamas on israel. we're now six weeks in and in your view, is israel upholding the laws of war? >> if you look at it, they're following the laws set out, military necessity distinction, proportionality, probably that's where people might have discussion and debate about what it is, but by and large, they're following those laws. if you look, hamas is the one that isn't primarily. hiding in and amongst the population, putting them at grave risk.

and so there should be more public outcry against hamas for endangering their own citizens, and the reckless behavior, for example, of having a command center in or near a hospital. >> with so many civilian deaths there, how would you determine, right? if a line is crossed. >> yeah, that's the challenge in war. you have to look at military necessity. is it for legitimate military purposes. they're going in there, conducting this operation to eliminate the hamas threat. distinction. they're trying to distinguish between combatants and noncom bat nlts which is hard to do when hamas is hiding amongst them, but they're still trying to -- again, proportionality is where the debate is, and no doubt people will come in after it and try to do that, but that's the challenge. they're trying to minimize what type of munition, what they're doing, but that's really where the big debate is going to be, are they being proportional enough with their use of force.

>> colonel, thank you so much. congressman george santos says he will not run for re-election after a damning house ethics report. we'll tell you what he allegedly bought with campaign funds, as he claims he's innocent, not guilty of these claims. >> plus, new polling in new hampshire showing nikki haley has jumped into second place after the last gop presidential debate. details on that and the donors she's now attracting just ahead. you're watching cnn n news cecentral. wewe'll be rigight back.

embattled new york congressman george sanltose is not running for re-election and may end up booted from office after a damning house ethics committee report that says he set to fraudulently exploit any part of his house candidacy for financial profits. it also says there is substantialeds he misused his office and lied about it. some of the suspicious conduct

was he aedgedly paid off personal credit card bills, paying over $4100 at a luxury store, shopped at sephora, paid for botox services, and made purchases at the online porn subscription service onlyfans. the report also says the committee found more illegal activity by santos and has referred it to the department of justice. santos calls the report biased. >> bought designer goods, benefitted yourself. >> essentially everything i do, everything i have ever spent in my account is going to be deemed as oh, my god, george santos stole money, he bought designer clothes. that's what i buy. i have been a client of the same stores for many years. it's not like i bought all my clothes, all my shoes in the last campaign. so it's very -- that's what i say, narratives can be built. i'll accept that, but i'll

defend it. the government has the burden of proving guilt. >> that was george sanltose talking to manu raju days ago. let's bring in melanie zanona. after this report came out, you have santos saying he's not going to run for re-election, so changing his stance on that. new york's governor is calling for his resignation, and now there could soon be another move to get him booted from congress. right? >> yeah, that's right. there certainly will be another expulsion vote. we're seeing that momentum is growing for that effort inside the gop. i am told that michael guest, the republican chairman of the house ethics committee, is planning to make a motion to expel george santos as soon as tomorrow. that would set the stage for a floor vote, potentially after the thanksgiving break, but before the end of this month. now, previous efforts have failed to expel george santos. it is a high bar, it takes two-thirds of the entire chamber to succeed, but now that this effort has the weight of the

house ethics committee behind it, that is significant. we have already seen a number of republicans, nearly a dozen at this point, who have said they will now support expulsion after previously saying they would not. that includes members of the ethics committee, vulnerable swing state republicans and members of the new york republican delegation. this would be a dramatic step. expelling someone is exceedingly rare here. the last member was james traficant in 2002, and he was already convicted. clearly, pam, republicans here on capitol hill just ready to put this entire george santos drama behind them. >> understandably. melanie, thanks so much. brianna. thank you. on the phone now with us, we have new york governor kathy hochul. and you have calling for his resignation, governor. you have called for it before. it's also possible that he could be expelled as we're hearing. if that happened and you call a special election, when would that be?

>> first of all, yes, i did call for his resignation. he has to go away. this mega clown car has come to a screeching halt in high gear, so he and his colleagues and his enablers need to be held accountable. so i'm very happy to have him resign. stop the embarrassment that has befallen the people of his district and the state of new york. go away. and i'll be very happy to call that election within ten days of the official vacancy. then also i have to call it within 70 to 80 days. that's the timeframe. >> that you would call for the special election, it would be scheduled within that other timeframe of 70 to 80 days. so far, though, he is just saying he's not going to run for re-election. what would change his mind, do you think? especially considering santos flipped the seat, a democratic

seat, a democrat could win a special election. why do you think that he would listen to your calls and the calls of others, including republicans telling him just to get out? >> the gig is up. it's time to move on. and if he gets expelled from congress, he won't have any choice. i served as a member of congress. he has brought disgrace to an institution that was once more respected and honored. and he has debased it with his actions. he must move on, and let's start restoring some semblance of integrity into that institution. >> you served. you know what it takes to get expelled. it is no small thing. it doesn't happen very often. do you think they will expel him? >> how much more evidence do they need that he abused his position in office? you're entrusted with the responsibility of fighting for your constituents, not feathering your own pockets, not abusing the role, and taking advantage of the position.

that's exactly what's been happening, so his colleagues have a moral responsibility to expel him, let us move on. i'll call for that election as soon as possible. and let's start regaining some sense of dignity with that institution and not the shame that's befallen it because of his actions and the rest of the mega clown card riders who are trying to talk about fighting each other. why don't we call it a boxing arena if they're going to start attacking each other? i have to tell you, this is shocking. i'm in utter disbelief of what's happened in the last few days. we need to restore some dignity and respect to that institution, and it starts hopefully sooner than next year's election. >> what do you think was the worst part? what stood out the most to you in this ethics committee report? >> oh, my god. so much to work with here. i don't know how i single out one particular thing. you know, crime that he committed. but lining his own pockets,

stealing money, lying about it. the list goes on and on and on. i mean, i don't know who he's trying to emulate here. we have all the crimes and allegations that donald trump, they're just in the same category. i mean, i'm filled with shock and in disbelief of what he's done. >> governor, we appreciate you joining us, as you're calling here yet again for santos to resign. but we're seeing some republicans change their mind on whether or not he should be expelled. thank you for your time this afternoon. >> thank you. bye-bye. still to come, elon musk under scrutiny for agreeing with an anti-semitic post on x, formerly twitter, that claimed jewish people push hatred against white people.

this just in to cnn, new york appeals court temporarily lifts the gag order on former president donald trump and his attorneys in the civil fraud trial. kara scannell is outside the court. why is this happening, kara? >> reporter: well, pam, trump's lawyers filed an emergency petition asking an appellate court judge to lift this gag order that the judge placed on the former president and his attorneys. and after a last-minute call, the emergency hearing, one of the judges who heard the case agrees to lift temporarily the

gag order on trump and his lawyers. the judges imposed the order because trump made social media posts and comments about his law clerk who sits just beside him on the bench. the judge said he was issuing the gag order out of concerns over safety and security for his staff members saying they had received hundreds of threatening emails, texts, and packages. but trump's lawyers have argued this is unconstitutional and they have made the claim in a mistrial motion that they filed yesterday, saying that the judge appears to be biased, the law clerk appears to be biased. so this one judge, an associate justice at the first department of new york appellate court granted on a temporary basis a stay of the gag order, meaning the is lifted, that the former president and his attorneys can talk more freely about the case and the judge and his communications with the law clerk. this has been something that trump's lawyers have made an issue of throughout the trial, ultimately leading to the gag order on them.

and their argument here is that the public needs to know what is happening inside the courtroom and they want the public to be able to hear trump's version of this, but his accusations are biased. they don't want him to be infringed from making these allegations. they said imagine if this was a trump appointed judge who was taking steps in the other direction that the public would want to know about it. they're saying it's only fair for trump to speak about what he alleges to be bias in this trial, in this entire trial now in its seven weeks. for now, this gag order has been lifted and the former president will be free to speak about the judge, the law clerk, any of the staff. and the judge, as you remember, has already fined trump $15,000 for violating the gag order. now that is also appearing to be on hold as well. >> kara scannell bringing us the latest outside of court. brianna. >> as the gop presidential field is shrinking, nikki haley and chris christie are climbing in a

new poll from new hampshire. donald trump still is way out in front, to be clear, but haley and christie have gained support, and ron desantis is down a little bit, a point. let's talk about this with jeff zeleny and cnn flnational political writer, fredricka scouten. take us through this point here. >> it confirms what we know, former president donald trump is still in the driver's seat of this race, in new hampshire as well. this is our new poll from the university of new hampshire and cnn, and let's look at these numbers. donald trump at 42%, up slightly from 39% just in september. also, nikki haley, 20%. that's up eight points from september. so she has the most movement, the most change in this race. we have seen that, of course, as her debate performance has really been one of thecandidacy. chris christie up a bit, up to 14%.

and desantis at 9%. that explains why the florida governor is now putting essentially all of his campaign efforts into iowa, because new hampshire has stalled a bit. this is where we are a little more than two months before the new hampshire primary. they set the date of it yesterday. it will be on january 23rd. again, nikki haley having a good moment, but it's still donald trump's race to lose by a mile. >> definitely. and just a little asterisk there, it looks like the granite staters not loving ramaswamy. >> he's gone down from 13 to 8 in the last couple months. >> that's really intriguing too. fredricka, you say that tim scott who got out of the race, his loss is really nikki haley's gain here. >> you really are seeing that. he got out on sunday and we started to see this movement of major donors and fund-raisers to her. they're viewing her as the next best alternative to donald trump. and one of the things that is really striking as well is the number of people who are sort of kicking the tires on her. not just the folks who have said i'm with her.

for instance, ken griffin, hedge fund manager, billionaire many times over, said he's actively contemplating supporting her. that could be a game changer. i mean, this is someone who put $71 million into the midterm races, into super pacs to help elect republicans. imagine if he were to sort of jump into her race. >> so interesting to see this change. and what do you read in these desantis numbers? >> it's interesting. you definitely see for him one of the things that's striking as i have been talking to folks in the last couple days is that the donors who are sort of shifting over to haley have been talking a lot about abortion and that it's a key issue. one of the things they are very interested in is the fact she has been talking about being compassionate and trying to find a middle ground. what i'm hearing from them is concern about the six-week ban

that desantis signed in florida. and the fact that we have had a string of losses on the abortion issue in kentucky, in ohio, and virginia. and they're looking for someone who can really appeal to moderate voters in a general election. and that's one of the things that has been loud and clear in the conversations i have had with fund-raisers and donors. >> in the suburbs particularly. they view her as a stronger general election candidate. interestingly, more republicans than we have seen see donald trump as a strong republican candidate as well. our new hampshire poll shows 57% of new hampshire republicans think he has the best chance of winning a general election. what that's done, biden's weakness a bit has taken away the argument that some of these candidates are making that donald trump can't win. these polls show he can. but the next two months will be very interesting because no one has voted yet. polls don't vote. people vote. so let's keep our eye on this race. as we were talking earlier, a

lot of people mentioned people aren't focusing on this as much as we are. let's keep iowa, new hampshire, and south carolina voters to make their divisions. >> heir starting to think about it and we're starting to see movement. thanks to both of you. there's a sudden surge of sympathy for osama bin laden. and this is happening on tiktok. we'll have the details behind what is really a disturbing trend, next. but first, before we head to break, video of president biden taking what they call the family photo with economic leaders there at the apec summit. stay with us.

elon musk is being accused of using his influence on social media to promote anti-semitic rhetoric. musk recently endorsed a user's post that claimed jews push hatred against whites. oliver darcy is here. oliver, tell us exactly what he said. >> yeah, pam. this is just brazen anti-semitism from one of the world's most influential men. and to give you an idea of how, you know, this started, it started with a user on x, daring people to prove that, quote, hitler was right. and i'll read you the exchange. one user took up this other user's challenge, and he wrote back, okay, jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of diletical hatred against

whites they claim to want people to stop using against them. then elon musk responds and says, quote, you have said the actual truth. later, elon musk tried to sort of walk back what he said. he said he was only maybe referring to the adl, but to be clear, elon musk has engaged in this sort of anti-semitic rhetoric in the past. earlier this year, he went after george soros who has been the victim of a number of anti-semitic attacks, mausly from the right. and in that case, he said that, quote, george soros wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. soros hates humanity. so this is not new from elon musk. elon musk often engages in this kind of rhetoric. frankly, as you well know, he hasn't met a conspiracy theory that he hasn't really jumped on the bandwagon with. >> that's absolutely right. he's facing the consequences of that, right?

now ibm is withdrawing or suspending its advertising on x, right? >> that's right. that's a separate matter over on x where there is so much hate on the platform now that advertisers are seeing their ads running next to actual neonazi content, so there was this report out from the progressive media matters, a watchdog group, earlier today, that said all these brands have been having their ads placed ajacet to hate speech. ibm coming out quickly and saying they have, quote, zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and have immediately suspended all advertising on x as they investigate what they sddescrib as an unacceptable. a number of advertisers including the nfl and amazon and big blue chip advertisers were having their ads placed on an account for one of the most

anti-semitic, racist publications in existence. so this is a huge problem for elon musk and his chief executive over there, because they're trying to tell advertisers this is a safe place to advertise your products, to market your products. clearly, all the evidence shows it's not. >> very much to the contrary. oliver darcy, thanks so much. brianna. dozens of young americans on tiktok say they sympathize with osama bin laden. they have been posting videos on the social media platform supporting a letter that the terrorist wrote in 2002, filled with anti-semitic tropes and conspiracy theories. this is -- it's almost unbelievable. you can tell by how i'm reacting to it, when i first heard it, i was like, what, what's going on here? >> it's shocking. and from our estimations these videos have garnered about 14

million views over the past few days. so look, the background for this and bear with me on this, is a letter emerged in 2002 that was purportedly written by osama bin laden, it was called the letter to america. it's basically he attacks and tries to justify the attacking and killing of american civilians. in that, he tries to really go after american foreign policy particularly, american's policy when it comes to israel and palestine. but also goes off on kind of anti-semitic but also homophobic screeds, conspiracy theories within this letter. so what's happened over the past few days on tiktok, and again, this is kind of in the context of what is happening in israel and gaza right now. is people, young people, young americans, have been sharing this letter. they have discovered it somehow, it's been on the internet for 20

years. they read it, and they say, well, actually, osama bin laden's critique of the united states, maybe he has a point. and look, when you take a step back from it, i think, you know, we often talk about the dangers of older people going online and doing quote/unquote their own research. but clearly, stupidity when it comes to the internet is not exclusive to older generations. like i think what we're seeing here is clearly a lot of younger people, i think frankly, this is something that the older generations in the u.s. have been surprised about, that there is a lot more sympathy for the palestinian cause and the people in gaza among younger americans than there are older generations. a lot of that is down to what they're seeing online, but this obviously takes us to a stupid step further where they're trying to say, well, actually,

yeah, what we're seeing from bin laden, he has a point. you can critique and criticize u.s. government and you can find those critiques online. but you don't have to bring in osama bin laden to do that. >> you don't have to endorse violence to have a critique against your country. how is tiktok responding? >> tiktok put out a statement saying content promoting this letter clearly violating our rule and supporting any form of terrorism. they said they are taking it down. they also claim the videos on tiktok, the number of videos on tiktok on this issue are small and reports of a trend on our platform are inaccurate. i will say, me and my colleagues, allison gordon and catherine proback have been looking at tiktok all morning. we have found dozens of videos, millions of views of people praising this. now, and we should stress here,

this is not hundreds of people. it's not thousands of people. we have seen dozens, but it is still stunning to see dozens of american children, young people, praising this sort of thing. but clearly, tiktok is not doing the job that they're saying they're doing in that statement. >> yeah, no, this is getting around. let's be clear. donie o'sullivan, thank you for the report. very interesting, and d we'll b right baback. ..

president biden is touting an agreement with china to crack down on the flow of fentanyl making its way into america, including going after chinese companies that produce chemicals

needed to make the deadly drug. this year alone the cdc reported record levels of overdose deaths, talking 70% of those involves fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. let's talk to the director at the council of foreign relations. let's talk about what's at stake here. >> yeah, fentanyl opioids is the largest addiction crisis in u.s. history. as you mentioned 110,000 americans died last year, the majority from fentanyl. that's roughly 300 americans per day. now, most of the illicit sources of fentanyl comes from outside the united states. typically that supply chain starts with chemical precursors made in china, which is then sin these sized, manufacturing by mexican car tells and smuggled into the united states. to be sure, solving or making

meaningful progress on this in the united states is not just about supply. that being said, if we can have an agreement compels or spurs china to meaningfully cut down on the chemical precursors, it can make fentanyl supplies more scarce and more expensive. how do they view this issue? this is largely a u.s. problem, a drug problem, right? with overdose deaths, as they see it. >> from a chinese perspective, this is a geopolitical issue. china has no addiction to fentanyl. they need nothing from u.s. allies. so they view this issue as a way of getting something from the u.s., part of the broader dynamic. now, in the past the u.s. and china have cooperated on trying

to address fentanyl. in 2019, china agreed to schedule drugs, that broke down when speaker pelosi visited taiwan. so the u.s., after that breakdown, has tried to make it more of a global issues bring in allies to pressure china, but it's remained part of this bipartisan geopolitical dynamic. that's why you see this being addressed at a high-level summit. so it's really seen as a way of getting the u.s. to back off on some sanctions. >> how is this viewed domestically? there is nothing that matters more to a family when you have a child or a parent or a spouse dying of preventsable thing like this. you are so right. this addiction crisis has touched millions of americans either directly through their own challenges, or through the

struggles of their loved ones. this administration, president biden, he came in with a promise of enacting a u.s. foreign policy for the middle class. this is precisely that middle class issue that affects so many americans. that's part of it. we're also heading into an election year. you're starting to see republican candidates for president making noise about the fentanyl issue. republican polls show that more than two thirds of the voters favor invading china, and using military action again the car tells to address fentanyl. this agreement allows president biden to deliver on his promise, but also to keep the narrative in an election year. tom, thank you for being here.e. in "the e lead" wiwith jake tap

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