santos speaks. facing expulsion vote tomorrow,

the new york congressman defended himself outside the capitol just minutes ago. a truce extended for now. moments before it was set too expire, israel and hamas agree to continue the pause in hostilities with more hostages set to be leased today. and elon musk with choice words, four letter words, for companies who pulled their ads from twitter while telling disney to go blank itself win hearts and minds. i'm john berman with sara sidner. this is "cnn news central." this morning republican congressman george santos speaking defiantly from outside the capitol where he could make history as the sixth member of congress to be expelled from the people's house. >> if i leave, they win.

if i leave, the bullies take -- this is bullying. the chair of the committee putting out a motion to expel just introducing it was designed to force me to resign. reality is it is all theater. it is theater for the cameras, theater for the microphones, it is theater for the american people. at the expense of the american people because no real work is getting done. >> one could say that was also theater. the expulsion vote expected to happen tomorrow is the latest attempt to oust santos after a scathing house ethics report that he mentioned there found that he defrauded donors and used their money for himself. the report says that the new york republican spent thousands of donor dollars on bobotox, luxury goods and personal vacations. he also faces 23 federal charges including wire fraud, lying to the s.e.c. and house of representatives identity theft, and stealing public funds.

if he is expelled tomorrow, he would be the first lawmaker to face that punishment in over two decades. lauren fox is joining us now from capitol hill. we heard a little bit of what santos said, it went on for 10, 15 minutes. what else did you hear from him? >> reporter: yeah, i mean, he did address reporter questions directly. and i would just say, it was really interesting because he was asked really quickly why not just resign, right? given the fact he is facing so many headwinds including the expulsion vote, why not just step aside. and he said that he did not plan to resign because then they would win. he also made clear that this is not how he saw his year going. here is how he started out his press conference. >> this is not at least how i thought this year would go. i don't think that this is how most people in the media would think this year would go. and it is just be a unfortunate

circumstance that i had to sit here and watch the american people waste, congress waste the american people's time over and over again on something that is the power of the people, not the power of congress. >> now, he has called this scathing ethics report against him a hoax. he has argued that it is unfair. but when i pressed him on why he didn't sit down for an interview with the ethics committee and clear up the record, he said he req did have involvement, that he did try to participate. but i would just note that the ethics committee was clear in its report that when they asked for an interview with santos, he denied and did not want to participate in that. so obviously that is one area where he could have corrected the record. the other thing that was so interesting about this, he pulled out repeatedly expam les

of other members who had rap sheets without naming them. and he said today at noon he will introduce a privilege resolution to expel jamel goalman for pulling a fire alarm. obviously these are two very different circumstances. very clear that he is trying to deflect. he repeatedly made the case that he was not going to resign and he repeatedly made the case that if his colleagues try and expel him, that that would set a dangerous precedent. >> an old playbook, deflect and deny. that is what he has done over and over and over again. but did admit to some of the lies that he told earlier on before this ethics investigation. thank you so much, lauren fox, for all of your reporting. we saw you running out there to get the details for us. >> yeah, lauren fox with a cameo behind george santos there.bar to push santos out of congress is pretty high. two-thirds need to vote against him. what happens if he is kicked

out? sunlen serfaty has the details. what is the procedure here? >> reporter: yeah, things could potentially move very quickly if santos is expelled by the house rules, clerk of the house of representatives would immediately notify the state and then it is really up to new york governor kathy hochul, it is up to her to declare formally a special election. and per new york law, she has to do it within ten days of that seat becoming vacant. and she's already said earlier this month that she would be very happy to call for a special election here. now, per new york law, that special election would then have to happen 70 to 80 days after. so a special election within potentially a few months of him potentially being expelled from congress. and the new york county party leaders would put forth their nominees for each party unlike a

traditional primary election and then the election would be held potentially in a few months. so democrats are really eyeing the seat if he becomes expelled to flip the seat back to democrats' hands. as congress moves past santos, of course his troubles are still there for him. he is as sara said facing a slew of charges from conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements, falsification of records, aggravated i.d. theft, credit card fraud among many. trial going in september of 2024. of course his legal troubles if he were to leave congress only starting for him. >> he has legal troubles and republicans have political troubles because democrats being it is a winnable district. sunlen serfaty, thank you. to give you a little context here. expulsions from the house of representatives are incredibly rare and it is the harshest form of punishment in the chamber. only five house members have been expelled and kicked out in more than two centuries.

and three of those happened during the civil war. john clark, john reed, and henry burnett were kicked out for siding against the union and fighting for the confederacy. only two house members have been expelled since then in more than times, both were convicteded of crimes. pennsylvania democrat michael myers in 1980 after fbi agents caught him taking a $50,000 bribe, and jim traficant, a democrat from ohio who was expelled in 2002 after being convicted of ten felonies, including bribery, fraud and tax evasion. if santos is expelled this week, he would be the first house member in more than times to be kicked out without being convicted of a crime. something that he himself mentioned. santos facing though 23 federal charges including fraud and identity theft. he has 34r50ed pleaded not guil and new reporting this morning on text messages that shed new light on republican congressman scott perry's role

in former president trump's effort to stay in power even after he lost the 2020 election. it appears the d.c. circuit court of appeals publicly releasted the texts briefly last night before unreleasing them. katelyn polantz has the details. what have you learned? >> reporter: we've never before seen these text messages from scott perry, the republican congressman from pennsylvania. and the reason they are important right now is because there had been a whole aspect of the special counsel's investigation looking in to perry's cellphone, to see exactly what he was saying to other people. some of these text messages are really startling to see exactly what he is saying to people that were even in the trump administration. so totally different branch of government than congress. some of those text messages are directly between scott perry and jeffrey clark, the official at the justice department that

donald trump wanted to install as attorney general because clark really wanted to question the election results. those text messages include this exchange, at the very end of the year of 2020, just before clark makes the bid to be the attorney general of the united states, scott perry writes, potus seems very happen with your response. i read it just as you dictated. and then jeffrey clark responds, i'm praying, this makes me quite nervous and wonder if i'm worthy or ready. and then perry says you are the man, i've confirmed it. god does what he does for a reason. clark wasn't ultimately placed in charge of the justice department and law enforcement across the country, but there was this effort by scott perry to essentially coach jeffrey clark into that position. there is also some later text messages we're now learning from this briefly public court filing that scott perry was also talking to jeffrey clark about his access to intelligence, trying to get donald trump, the

president, to give jeffrey clark some access to classified information and in intelligence briefings. so really a member of congress who was quite involved in conversations to an extent we really didn't realize how significant until we saw this court filing yesterday. >> really highlights a pretty central role in all of it. katelyn polantz, thank you very much for that. coming up, secretary of state blinken is in the middle east where israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says that he plans to discuss the next phase of the war in gaza with him. we'll bring you inside the talks as we await new release of hostages after the overnight pause agreement. plus elon musk had some choice words if that is what want to call them for advertisers. what he said in his first interview, it is a four letter word, and since his anti-semitic post. also moments from now, the racketeering trial against young thug gets under way in atlanta,

fulton county d.a. charging him with the same law she used to indict former president trump.

happening now, u.s. secretary of state soantony blinken is in israel pushing for an extended pause in fighting. overnight israel and hamas extended the pause for a seventh day. israel says it will maintain the pause as long as hamas keeps releasing ten living hostages each day. katie bow willis is at the pentagon for us. where do things secretary of state meeting with a number of officials including benjamin netanyahu. we know from a state department spokesperson that netanyahu and blinken discussed three big

things, of course the need to secure the release of the remaining hostages held by hamas, need to accelerate delivery of humanitarian assistance into gaza, and the need to try to limit civilian casualties once hostilities do resume in gaza. there is a fine line that they are walking giving them the right to defense themselves but also limiting the casualties. this is the result of the punishing air campaign launched by israel in the first phase of the war. colleagues and i were able to report last night that senior biden administration officials have been discussing with israel how exactly do that, how to try to do more to protect civilian life once fighting resumes in the south as it is expected do. again the south being where so many civilians fled from the

northern part of the strip during the first phase of the war. there is a keen understanding here that this truce that has taken place the past six days, now extended twice, is not likely to last forever. so we've reported that administration officials have been urging israel to avoid a resumption of the kind of air campaign, the kind of intensive airstrike campaign that characterized the first phase of the war. also discussing the need to have areas in the south that are very clearly understood to be safe places for civilians. and so i think that you can expect that this kind of thing would have been a key part of the discussions that blinken was having today in the region. >> yeah, discussions it seems geared towards when fighting resumes less than if fighting resumes. even as the pause is now in its september day. katie bow lil police, thank you very much. and secretary of state's visit comes as the u.s. is

discussing thousand protect gazans in the south when the fighting does ultimately resume. multiple sources say one option is moving citizens from the south back to the north, which is pretty much destroyed once the military operations there end. but that problem with that of course is it is crumbled. there is up to 50% of all structures in northern gaza have been damaged. you can see the pictures there. not a place that you want to go back to. i'm joined by national security analyst and former deputy director of national intelligence beth sanger. thank you for joining us. first of all, we're hearing netanyahu double down on the fact that he says we are going to continue to go after hamas and try to eliminate hamas. the u.s. obviously pressing saying look, the civilian casualties are too high, we need you do not do what you did in northern gaza. is this even possible at this point with all of the people that have fled, a million people

fleeing from one side to the other, in such a densely populated place? >> right, i mean, palestinians really do believe that they have no place that they can go that they are safe according to some recent kind of fragment taker polling there. so i do think that the ability of the united states to restrain the idftaker polling there. so i do think that the ability of the united states to restrain the idf is kind of limited. the idf is facing in the south a very similar situation that they did in the north. it is where hamas leadership is concentrated. kahn yunis is where the head of hamas is from. and so, you know, that place in the south, one of the bigger cities, is rife with these tunnels. so i think that the israelis will be maybe limiting a little bit on the air campaign, but i think that it will be hard for them to destroy tunnels without

doing this kind of bombing. >> sounds like your thoughts are that the u.s. doesn't have as much sway as people might think they to. is that kind of how you feel about this when you look at the scenario?to. is that kind of how you feel about this when you look at the scenario? >> absolutely. a poll done in israel last week said only 39% of israelis think that israel should be working with, negotiating with the united states in how this goes forward. so a majority says not. and i think that the pressure that is going on inside israel for the government to proceed with this is only ratcheting up. because look at the attack in jerusalem today that hamas claimed that took three israeli lives. so that pressure is really on eliminating hamas and going back at this even though people want

hostages to be released at the same time. and that is going to be much more important as well as the right wing in the netanyahu government that is threatening to withdraw if any they don't re and resume hard. >> just yesterday i had a conversation with bob beyer oig a and we talked about how hamas may be considered a terrorist government, but it is also the government of gaza. intertwined with how gaza runs and how the government works there. is it possible to actually eliminate hamas? what does that mean exactly?isrd it in ways that eliminate it as a military threat and also eliminate it as a government. how you do that, i don't understand really how that can

be done. plus hamas that was very unpopular by all accounts before october 7 has only actually increased in popularity. which is kind of mind-blowing but that is how a lot of palestinians are thinking about it both in the gaza strip and also the west bank. so the idea of eliminating hamas as an idea is very difficult. plus there is no alternative really that is popular. the palestinian authority that runs the west bank is very, very unpopular. >> and has been quite weakened when you look at what has been going on. i do want to lastly ask you, we're looking at these pictures and i've also talked to palestinians who have basically reiterated what you say. it is the bombing of gaza, the way in which it happened, the number of civilians killed, that made them have more sympathy for

hamas than they have in the past. i do want to talk to you about the negotiations. because this is all beginning because of the october 7 terrorist attack that killed hundreds of israelis. most of them civilians themselves. there is this truce going on. what is it going to look like if there is the possibility in your mind, if men and soldiers might be released, or do you think that the end of this will be the last few women and then that is it? >> i think if it extends to men, that it may have to be renegotiated as a completely new agreement that has to go through the israeli cabinet again. and if that is the case, it makes it extremely hard because i'm not sure that it can pass the cab threat inet given views

right wing. the first truce did pass overwhelmingly. so i think it becomes much, much harder as we go on. >> there is definitely nothing easier from this point forward. beth is anner, thank you for your great analysis. and like experiencing a nightmare, that is how one vermont shooting victim described the terrifying attack. and elon musk says go blank yourself. so what are bob iger and disney supposed do now?

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from one of the palestinian college students who was shot in vermont. he said it was like experiencing a nightmare. the 20-year-old believes his training as an emt helped him survive the shooting and police are still considering whether to charge the suspect with a hate crime. with us now, chief law enforcement intelligence analyst john miller. great to see you. he talks about his view of whether this crime was hate motivated. what is he saying? >> here is the statement that he gave, which actually lays out the incident. and he says i heard a thud on the ground. and then he started screaming. a split second later -- sorry, i have the pages reversed here. we see the man on the porch essentially looking away from us. he looks at us and without saying a ready would, it was almost surreal, went down the steps, pulled out a pistol and shot my friend. i heard the thud on the ground

and he started screaming. a split second later he shot my other friend and i heard the thud on the ground. he of course, kinnan, didn't know that he was also wounded. once he found blood coming from his back, he used his training as an emt and told the police don't wait for the second ambulance, this is a serious wound and i'm losing consciousness, i need to get to a trauma center. >> and what is the latest on the investigation? >> the investigation has gone from fast, which is identifying a suspect and getting him into custody which happened literally within the first few hours, and it is a smoking gun case. according to the affidavit filed with the arrest, they literally found the gun that ballistically matches to the crime in the apartment with the individual who they have charged along with a box of bullets which match the brand that was used in the shooting. the question is how do you get from the attempted murder anding a gra it have aed assault charge

to the hate crime charge which is a major concern to the victims. the community. the palestinians across the country. and that is a tougher legal issue. to do that, the state's attorney has to be able to prove that hate was the chief motivateor o reason for the assault and challenge they face is the statements of the witnesses that he approached them and didn't say a word before opening fire. >> all right. john miller all over this for us. thanks so much for that. go f yourselves, that is emondalon musk's words for advertisers who were boycotting his media site x. take a listen. >> if somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with

money, go [ bleep ] yourself. but go [ bleep ] yourself. is that clear? i home i hope it is. >> not sure advertisers think it was funny. they are boycotting for his anti-semitic posts on x. let's discuss this. thank you for being here. oliver, this is a man who is a billionaire, but he did borrow, correct, to buy twitter for a heck of a lot of money which is now undervalued. you now have this boycott because of something he did. why do this, what is the purpose? does he not need the advertisers to fund x? >> i can't get in elon's head, but he does need the advertisers to fund x. and what is really interesting, he is refusing to take any

responsibility for why they left x. they are not blackmailing him. they are leaving x after they put up with quite a bit to be honest. but they are leaving x because he made this ecoanti-semitic endorsement and hate speech has been on the platform specifically because many of the decisions that elon musk made. he says this will kill the website, kill the platform because they can't survive without advertising money. it is their life blood. but then he does this. he could have wooed back advertisers yesterday, he could have said i'm responsible for that, i'm so sorry, you know, i want to assure you that i understand my actions led to this consequence, but i want you back on the platform. but instead, he tells them to go f themselves. apparently he doesn't really care about his $44 billion investment. >> have you heard anything from any of the advertisers like disney, have they responded at all? their response may be nothing and they just stopped advertising completely?

>> executives say if any chance like disney would return to x at some point in time, he just nuked that possibility really. they are not probably going to return like disney, you know, elon musk basically called out bob iger to go f himself as well. so hard to see how bob iger would return back to that platform. but they have been really clear that they have brand safety concerns. and we should say it is not just that they are not advertising. disney, a lot of main accounts just stopped using it. marvel, star wars, pixar, they used to regularly post on x, on twitter. and now they have completely stopped and shifted over to mark zuckerberg's tech based social media platform threads. >> yeah, a whole shift in movement to that. but x is still popular. quite a few people that use both now. stick with me. let's go to you, lance. something that stood out to me here is that elon musk, this is

just one of his companies. very forward facing but he is intertwined with the u.s. government. he has government contracts. what is the u.s. government thinking right now about hip and their dealings with him? will thiship and their dealings with him? will this change anything? >> spacex has someone else, a ceo that is not him, running the company and he seems more or less hands off. so maybe there isn't as great a concern there that he will do something publicly ridiculously in the spacex venue that is going to mess things up. but you talked about his other companies. and tonight is the cyber truck launch. very important critical launch for tesla. he will be there i'm sure. he'll probably show up late. he always shows up late. but this is a terrible look right before that to go out there and you want people to be excited, you want the excitement

to happen on the platform that he owns. but more and more people are walking away from x because they don't feel safe, they don't feel comfortable. so even though his companies are separate -- [ inaudible ] -- impact on all of these other businesses to some extent. >> we lost for you just a few seconds. but you were making some salient points there about he is synonymous with all these other company. tesla, spacex and of course x. and others. in the end, how do you see this going for his social media platform, do you think the end is near? >> well, he just said it, right? he said that they are killing it. and i feel like was he opening it up -- was he sort of showing us what is really going on, that the system is running. things are still going on.

but i really worry that six months from now x will be gone and it will be one of the most calamitous and most catastrophic collapses of a major business and social media platform we've ever seen. and [ inaudible ]. >> lance, i think we lost you again. but yeah, if it goes down, it goes down big. oliver and lance, thank you so much. a lot of people have to remember there was a huge layoff when he started. and so if it does go down, more jobs lost in the tech world. not a great thing. thank you so much. go blank yourself. not you, sara, but that is what elon musk said on the stage. 24 hours before he might be expelled from congress, george santos lashes out at congress. what do the colleagues think this morning.

we heard from embattled lawmaker george santos waiting on a skocongressional vote to el him. he says he is being bullied and that the vote represents chaos in congress. with me now is republican congressman from new york. thank you so much for being with us. george santos, what do you think his job will be come saturday? >> he will no longer be a member of congress and he shouldn't be. the man didn't just manufacture his entire life story to defraud his voters, he stole from donors to personally profit. and he has yet to take any responsibility. however, after a bipartisan comprehensive ethics

investigation, his due process, high school clear that he shouldn't be a member of congress and likely won't. >> this news conference he gave this morning, he seemed to imply i have a lot of other dirt on members of congress and maybe you are about to hear that too. what do you think about that? >> first, i wouldn't believe anything georgen a toes has to say. he's proven that he is incapable of leveling the truth. i don't know that he knows the truth. but more importantly, he is doing exactly what con men do and by the way juveniles do, which is instead of taking responsibility for his own action, pointing the finger and suggesting that he is no worse than anyone either. he is. he has conducted a fabulous fraud manufacturing his entire life in order to defraud voters of the honest option to select their representative in one of the greatest deliberative bodies in the world. he defrauded donors and took those dollars to benefit position personally. there are standards of conduct in public service and he has not met them and he continues to

avoid any amount of sort of personal responsibility. that investigation has produced a comprehensive report that without question says that he is not only a con man but a criminal and he shouldn't be here. >> you seem to feel pretty strongly about this. >> i do. >> why do you think that house speaker mike johnson doesn't feel as strongly? >> oh, i think everyone -- i don't judge my colleagues. everyone has to come to this conclusion very carefully. i understand the concept and context of obviously not using expulsion -- by the way, or impeachment as a political tool. this is -- these efforts to provide oversight and account abts h ability has to exceed because someone has exceeded conduct, high crimes or misdemeanors or something that undermines the entire institution. george has achieved that. there is a standard of conduct here, there are laws to be

followed. he broke both. >> and so if it is so obvious to you, are you disappointed that it is not as obvious to house speaker mike johnson? >> not at all. i think the speaker will come to his own conclusion as we will. but we serve in the state of new york. and there is nothing about george santos that matches my belief of public service. i actually believe public service is a dignified duty and we have an obligation to hold ourselves to a standard. george doesn't seem to understand that and shouldn't be here. >> so you brought up the word impeachment. there is an impeachment inquiry now into president biden. it was begun by then house speaker kevin mccarthy. it has not been voted on by the full congress. it might be soon. how will you vote on making impeachment inquiry official for lack of a better word? >> actually the marriage of these things is important. we have a fundamental responsibility to hold ourselves to a standard and to conduct the appropriate oversight of the

executive branch. there are issues of corruption and questions of impropriety. three committees now are conducting their work. if they present the facts in a way that suggest the next step is appropriately is an impeachment inquiry, i can support that. but the committees have jurisdiction and ultimately have to just as the bipartisan committee judged george santos have to present us those findings of fact and then we make a decision. if that threshold is met, it is our obligation. this is not about politics, it is about providing the appropriate oversight of the executive branch and criminals like george santos. >> are you a yes vote on impeachment inquiry today? >> i could absolutely be there. i want to see the report, the data and the facts as the committees present them to us, just as i know many of my colleagues wanted to see the bipartisan commission, ethics committee report, on george santos. it is the same standard. once we good s exceed the threse

need to provide the appropriate over sites. >> thanks for being with us. and right now, court back this session in the racketeering trial against young thug and five other defendants. the charge being used against them is the same way used against donald trump in the same place in georgia. we'll talk all about it coming up.

just moments ago, court resumed in the racketeering trial of young thug and what could be a landmark case in what is the young thug's record label which is the young slater. >> in the middle of fulton county and the lives of some of

the youngest members. >> the defense ridiculed that the grammy winner would spend his time running a small time gang. isabel rosales is joining us. this case could have bigger implications beyond the racketeering charges against young thug and several others, and give us the example of why this is worth watching for those who not fans. >> sara, good morning to you. this is one of the most high profile trials happening in the nation right now, and it is a test, a test of the georgia's expansive rico law, and the one used against donald trump and associates and the test of fulton county d.a. fani willis and her reputation ahead of the coming trump trial, and also the state's controversial decision to use rap lyrics as evidence.

this is a decision to draw fierce criticism where many of the critics have said it is a violation of the free speech, and violation of artistic expression and specifically black art. they are saying that you would not see the country lyrics of pop music lyrics being put up in court, so that is a big sticking point right there. on day three, the prosecutors called the first expert witness to the stand detective mark belknap how they had their own dress codes and gang signs. and young thug is accused of leading this street gang the ysl, and leading more than 80 acts, and it is the six defendants including young thug,

and the charges are murder, armed robbery, carjacking and drug sales and among the more serious charges that young thug is specifically facing is renting a car to commit murder games at rival gang member. here is more sound from young thug's defense brian steel and what he said. >> he is not running this criminal street gang in cleveland avenue area of bleveland and sitting there to tell people to kill people. he does not need their money. jeffrey is worth tens of millions of dollars. >> reporter: and sara, this trial is drawing chaos and headlines including yesterday

where the jurors names were briefly shown in a livestream. >> wow, a lot going on there. and you can see the ysl which looks like eaves saint -- yvez rau larent and it is not. >> what you may not know about the death of henry kissinger.

this morning, some world leaders are mourning death of the controversial giant in the world policy world. henry kissinger, former secretary of state, died yesterday, 100. his influence is felt from vietnam an