republicans rallying against trump, but i wish it would happen. i think it's very important for our democracy for that to happen and it's one of the few things i could imagine that would seriously hurt the trump campaign as he tries to win another term. >> errol, leah, max, thank you for hanging out. >> thank you. "cnn this morning" continues now. ♪ >> israel ramping up the fighting in southern gaza as a near communications blackout hits the entire gaza strip. >> he expects the fighting to be much more complicated. >> every time we think things cannot more apocalyptic in gaza, they do. >> the reason this pause fell apart, they don't want those women to talk about what happened to them. ♪ a list of qualifiers now down to four. >> if you're ron desantis, if you're chris christie, you need to go for the big guy. >> nobody is entitled to the title. >> bring her closer to trump if not over the finish line. growing doubt that congress

is going to be able to pass a package for additional aid for israel and ukraine. >> congress has to decide whether to continue to support the fight for freedom. >> as the house pushes to formalize an impeachment inquiry into president biden. >> a loss of principle but a great recipe for democratic victories. ♪ good morning, everyone. i'm phil mattingly with poppy harlow in new york. new satellite images this morning show israeli forces pushing into southern gaza where united nations officials say the situation is apocalyptic with nowhere safe to go and civilian casualties rapidly rising. a warning now the following video is graphic. >> this is what the video shows inside of a hospital in southern gaza, this morning it is dire. wounded patients are lying on the floor, surrounded by their bloody clothes. the hamas-run health ministry says hospitals in southern gaza now are collapsing. alex marquardt is live in tel aviv with much more. alex, thank you for joining us.

what is the idf saying responding to growing criticism about the ratio of death, which now is two palestinian civilians, according to the hamas-run ministry of health, for every hamas militant? >> reporter: well, poppy and phil, israel has always taken issue with the numbers, the death tolls that have been coming out of gaza from the hamas-controlled ministry of health. they say that around 16,000 gazans have been killed so far since october 7th. but israel, themselves, have been claiming that several thousand, they don't put an exact number on it, but several thousand hamas militants have been killed during this campaign. and our colleague erin burnett asked an idf spokesperson about a new report that for every hamas militant killed, two civilians were killed. some believe that that could be rather low. but if that ratio is two to one, he said that that would be tremendously positive.

take a listen. >> if you compare that ratio to any other conflict in urban terrain, between a military and a terrorist organization using civilians as their human shields and embedded in the civilian population, you will find that that ratio is tremendous, tremendously positive and perhaps unique in the world. >> reporter: poppy and phil, if you just do some simple math, and there are several thousand hamas militants who have been killed, according to israel, but around 15 to 16,000 who have been killed overall in gaza so far, that ratio could be a lot worse than two to one. still, tremendously positive is quite something to say about the scenes we are seeing in gaza right now. the civilian death toll is rapidly increase. phil, poppy. >> alex, i want to walk through this new satellite imagery we just got in which shows dozens of israeli armored vehicles

operating in the south. to give you a sense of things, we're looking here. we're looking here. we're also looking up here. there has been a lot of question about when the ground offensive operations would launch in earnest. it seems like that's happening right now. what do these satellite images tell you, alex? >> reporter: well, they basically reflect what we have been told by the idf, that the operations are essentially wrapping up in the north and that they're heading south. this is evidence that israel is now operating in the southern part of the gaza strip. remember, phil, the initial phase of this ground incursion they told palestinians to move south of the river for safety. what we're seeing there in that satellite imagery is dozens of armored vehicles now operating in the southern part of the gaza strip. there are some around a road that runs north and south towards khan younis. that's where so many gazans fled

for safety. phil that is also where israeli and american officials have said that they believe hamas leadership to be. some of the most senior members of that hamas leadership. so we can certainly expect more activity, more fighting in and around khan younis and israel has told palestinians in khan younis to flee even farther south. the u.n. says that the vast majority of gazans are now displaced. 1.9 million, phil, people are displaced out of a total population of 2.2 million. >> alex marquardt, for the latest. thank you. the white house is making it clear, time is nearly out for congress to approve more funding for ukraine. it has been about seven weeks since president biden asked congress for $60 billion in additional aid to help arm ukraine with ammunition, et cetera. nothing has happened. nothing has passed. now jake sullivan warns a vote against supporting ukraine is a vote to improve putin's strategic position.

today, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy will personally appeal to lawmakers in a senate classified briefing. lauren fox joins us on the hill. there are people who support this, people like mike round telling us last week, if you don't get this done -- they want border funding, by the end of the year, it won't happen. you lose the momentum. is that the sense? >> reporter: exactly. in fact, talking to about a dozen republican senators last night, this is the sticking point right now. border talks are really stalled out between some of the key negotiators. but you still have republicans saying that they do support ukraine aid. they just want to make sure that that border policy component is a piece of this larger supplemental package. that is really the crux of the issue right now. you also have democrats warning that it's irresponsible for republicans to be demanding border changes at a time when this is so crucial that ukraine gets this funding. here is chris murphy, one of those negotiators on border

talks. >> i'm not holding ukraine hostage to some other political agenda i have. only republicans are doing that. and so, yes, our allies around the world should be really worried about what republicans are doing right now. >> reporter: and last night, majority leader chuck schumer took a procedural step to potentially set up a key vote as soon as wednesday on a package for ukraine aid as well as israel aid. but right now there's not a border deal. so republicans are telling us that they will vote against that procedural step if it comes to the floor, arguing that they are going to insist that these border talks continue, that border changes happen as part of this deal and that despite the fact that many of them support aid to israel and ukraine, they are going to be willing to vote against that procedural step and make a point. senator john cornyn telling us last night that sometimes a failed vote is the momentum you need to keep things going.

poppy? >> two weeks and counting. lauren fox, thanks very much. well, from the policy to the politics. new harvard polling this morning shows president biden holds a lead over donald trump over 18 to 29 registered voters but falls short of majority support. young people also less enthusiastic to vote in 2024 than four years ago. happened with less than six weeks from the iowa caucuses. tomorrow is the gop debate. we're now down to our smallest field ever, nikki haley, ron desantis, chris christie, vivek ramaswamy will all be on stage in alabama. i'm joined by cnn's alayna treene from washington. i want to start with the debate. six weeks until iowa. nikki haley has been the hot candidate inside that primary at this moment. do they believe inside that campaign the momentum will have a lasting impact? >> well, they hope it will, phil. but it's hard to see right now how far that momentum will take her. i do think that this debate is a great opportunity for her. i've talked to many republicans

on all of the campaigns and voters. they do see her performance on stage really having helped her, at least in part, help her emerge as the candidate seen as the alternative to donald trump. but, look, donald trump is still leading very heavily in the polls. especially in these early states. and it's going to be very difficult for nikki haley but also the other republican contenders to try and eat away at that support. especially, like you said, just six weeks out until the iowa caucuses. now, trump, the front-runner, is not going to be on the debate stage tomorrow night. he is skipping it as he has done with the previous debates, to hold a fundraiser in florida for one of the super pacs supporting his candidacy. that's also continued to frustrate a lot of his opponents. we heard ron desantis in new hampshire yesterday attacking him for not showing up. let's take a listen. >> donald trump is not willing to debate. i mean, you have to ask yourself why? why can't you just stand up on

the stage for two hours and articulate. what's going to be different this time than happened in 2020? how is he a better candidate? will he admit any mistakes? i don't think so. >> reporter: now, phil, i think just to answer one of ron desantis' questions there, why won't he debate? i've spoken with donald trump's team repeatedly about this. and they argue that they see these debates as beneath him. they are trying to make it look like the other candidates are in a different league. and they think it's working. that's why he's continuing to skip these. but it's also been a core sense of frustration for these candidates because one part is they don't have an opportunity to attack him directly on stage. but also, a lot of the pro-trump viewers and supporters that they're trying to win over to their own campaigns are not really tuning in without him there. >> which would seem to make the trump campaign's point, also the 40-point lead is helpful to making their point as well.

alayna treene, thank you. the stark warning being sounded about a trump cabinet in a second term if he wins. and a shocking video out of northern virginia showing the moment a suburban home erupted the middle of the night. the latest from that scene ahead. ♪

of supreme power. that's a risk that we simply can't take. >> that warning from congresswoman, former republican congresswoman, liz cheney, that was last night underscoring the concerns that trump would prioritize obedience over credentials in a second term. that from a new essay in the atlantic titled loyalist, lap dogs and cronies. arguing the second trump presidency would alter america dramatically for the worse.

in this case, staff writer argues the serious qualified people willing to serve in a trump administration has dwindled. >> spoke with a former trump spokesperson i think there will be a very concerted, calculated effort to ensure the people he puts in his next administration they don't have to share his world view exactly, but they have to implement it. came up with a list of names currently circulating in maga world who would fit that description like steven miller being eyed for various potentials including chief of staff, vivek ramaswamy for united nations ambassador, even vice president. what about texas senator, ted cruz is among several names being floated for general along with jeffrey clark faces charges in the georgia election interference case. mccay, why i think your piece is so important is the washington

addage, personnel is policy. personnel is policy. that's what your piece delves into here. why this is so different from january 20th of 2017. >> well, when trump first came into office, his administration was a mix of loyalists and mainstream republican figures. there was this idea in the republican establishment in 2017 that what the trump administration did most was adults in the room. so you saw a lot of people like james mattis and john kelly, rex tillerson, who were willing to serve in the trump administration out of -- what happened is a lot of those people suffered pretty humiliating breaks with the trump administration. they were unceremoniously fired, left in frustration or disgrace. so a lot of those people that i've talked to say there's no way that they or anyone in their orbit would serve in another trump administration.

meanwhile, trump himself feels burned by a lot of those people because they left. they often didn't do so quietly. they voiced their criticism with the president. trump has been very clear that he feels he was thwarted in his first term by what he calls the deep state. what i hear from people in trump's orbit now is that he will prioritize obedience over everything else in his appointments. he wants people who will do exactly what he tells them to do without orders. that could make for a very different administration second time around. >> can we talk about the position of attorney general. you write and float names like senator ted cruise, josh hawley and pam bondi, florida ag and on and on. how trump talks about the two attorney generals who served in his first serve, particularly bill barr, it's a real window into who he might put in that incredibly powerful position.

>> right. he feels that both of the men who served as attorney general for him, you know, betrayed him in one way or another. right? it's interesting because neither bill barr nor jeff sessions were, you know, especially critical of donald trump during his administration. in fact, i think a lot of critics would say they were fairly sickofantic. but because they weren't willing to do everything he said and because, you know, in the case of bill barr, for example, he wasn't willing to go along with trump's election conspiracy in 2020, he feels that they betrayed him. so, that is one position i've been told he will be focussed on, especially making sure that whoever has that job is extremely loyal to him. and so you mentioned some of the names, the senators, mike lee, josh hawley, ted cruz, pam bondi in florida.

these are people he feels will do what he says. and that job is important to him for a couple reasons. one, is he made it very clear that he wants to use the justice department to visit vengeance basically on his political enemies. he said that he will prosecute joe biden, for example. that he'll go after other people who have come after him. but he'll also use the justice department to shield himself from further criminal inquiries. so to trump, that job is maybe more important than any other one. >> mckay, i think people may not grasp -- this is important, what a lot of the stories maggie and jonathan swan over the times have been doing great work on this, our team has as well, the formalized operation tied to the campaign or roughly adjacent to the campaign on the policy side of things, making sure they enter office with a very clear kind of road map of what's ahead, very different than 2017, does that exist on the personnel side, too? >> yeah. this is a really important point because we're talking about the

high profile posts. right? those are important. the attorney general, you know, department of homeland security, things like that. but, one of the efforts that's taking place is being run by the heritage foundation. and the goal there that they're trying to work on is to ensure that the lower level government bureaucrats, people who work as kind of like rank and file lawyers in the justice department, for example, budget wonks, administrators, are also essentially political appointees. the idea is for trump to sign an executive order shortly after he takes office, that would reclassify up to 50,000 federal employees as essentially political appointees, people that the president could fire at will with or without cause. the goal trump and his allies have been very explicit about this, is to renovate the federal government such that, you know, at every level this is a federal

work force that will -- that the president can bend to his will. he feels, again that in his first term there weren't enough government workers who were on board with his agenda. and so he's going to make sure that this time around there are trump loyalists throughout the federal government. again, this could make for a very different administration and i think a lot of people are very alarmed by that. >> mckay coppins, is out. important issue. liz cheney will be live with anderson cooper tonight right here on cnn at 8:00 p.m. somber american milestone this year has become the deadliest year on record for mass shootings. the grim details ahead. and pramila jayapal. congresswoman debbie dingell joins us to discuss next.

the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online.

only from xfinity. (car engine revs) home of the xfinity 10g network. (engine accelerating) (texting clicks) (tires squeal) (glass shattering) (loose gravel clanking) ♪ well, the outrage continues to mount this morning after accusations of sexual violence committed by hamas against israelis on october 7th. the united nations yesterday held a special session called

"hear our voices" focussing on the alleged atrocities. sheryl sandberg didn't hold back. >> rape should never be used as an act of war. no matter what march you're attending, what flag you're flying, what religion you practice or if you practice none at all, there's one thing we can all agree on, there are exactly no circumstances that justify rape. >> the state department so far suggesting there is no reason to doubt these reports. spokesman matthew miller even suggesting the lack of cooperation from hamas during hostage negotiations could stem from what victims might say. >> the fact that it seems one of the reasons they don't want to turn women over, that they've been holding hostage and the reason this pause fell apart is they don't want those women to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody. >> and now to house democrats say they're planning to

introduce a resolution this week condemning hamas' use of sexual violence. that will come after there was outrage over the weekend after a top democrat congresswoman pramila jayapal sparked more outrage by not condemning the allegations more strongly. joining us now, one of the democrats behind that resolution, michigan congress woman debbie dingell and also the deputy whip of the progressional caucus, which pramila jayapal leads. you had strong reaction to dana bash when you spoke to my colleague kasie hunt. part of that you said you wanted to talk to congresswoman jayapal, have you done so? >> yes, i have. i want to make this clear my strong reaction was not to my colleague, congresswoman praia pal, who did, by the way, on this show condemn the rape. she had not spent the last seven or eight weeks researching, like i have, the violence against women that happened during that attack. at the very beginning of this war, i had been told about the rapes that had happened and said

that one could condemn them. and i was taken on in a very vicious, hateful way for saying it. called a liar. demanded that it was retracted. i'm not someone who says anything lightly. i studied the issue. i talked to the national security council at the pentagon, harvard, media reporters who had been there, people in jerusalem, people that have been in israel know what happened. rape is a tool of war. and we -- my reaction is we -- any woman, every woman, must stand up against violence against every woman wherever it happens. and by the way, it's not -- this isn't -- we're not doing this because of what you said over the weekend. i've been working on this since it's happened. i can't even tell you sort of the hate and hostility i've said people have tried to bully me. they don't bully me. but it's also happening in ukraine. it's happening in the congo. it is happening in places around

the world. and as women, we have a responsibility to bring voices to that kind of violence that's happening against women because of the danger that they live in. that's my reaction. >> you make a really important point that the horror of using this as a weapon of war is widespread. it has been investigated. it has been part of perpetrating of war crimes. and yet you talk about the pushback you got, the criticism you got, the bullying you received. why? >> you know, i think there was a meeting in ann arbor, ann arbor city council last night and one of the council members brought it up and got widely booed. it is wrong. it is morally wrong. and in many religions it is morally wrong. so i think people want to think, oh no, it's wrong. nobody could do it. let me tell you something, it's a fact. it's happening. and the stories -- i have talked to rape survives now from some

of these situations. mothers that have been raped in front of their children. stories of people from this most recent -- you've heard them. they're horrific. knives put up women's vagina, raping and shooting someone in the head at the same time. this kind of violence is unacceptable. and i can't -- it was a repeated -- this isn't true. don't say it anymore. you're not telling the truth. we can't be silent. >> but why? we saw this with -- >> i think the shame. >> we saw this with united nations. separate and apart, we have seen this repeatedly over the last several weeks despite the reporting of jake tapper, bianna golo golodryga, why are people slow or unwilling to acknowledge it? >> i think because it's a horrific crime. it's an absolutely horrific crime. violence against women. and people should be shamed by it. it is morally wrong. men, people who say they are

people of faith, because it is so wrong, don't want to admit that it's happened. but it's happened over the course of many wars. we have seen it -- the united nations began to address it in the early '90s. by the way, it's not just this hamas is what we're talking about. what's happening with russian soldiers in ukraine today. we got to speak up and be the voice for women who can't be the voice for themselves. that's what this resolution is about. and this is a bipartisan resolution. >> resolution that you guys have been working on, as you noted. i do want to ask the situation on the ground, you talk about the horror of war, obviously in gaza it has grown worse and worse by the day. morgan griffiths of the united nations tweeted every time we think things cannot get even more apocalyptic in gaza they do. people are being ordered to move, little to survive on, forced to make one impossible choice after another. this has been a very complex situation for the biden administration from day one. do you believe they're doing enough to press israel to protect civilians?

>> i believe the vice president has just returned over there and made very direct messages. look, i represent a lot of arab americans, muslims, a lot of people that have palestinian families. i've met with them. they've lost families. you are right about what is right on the ground. they get told to move, move where? homes have been destructed. there is no water. there's no food. there's no medicine. there's no energy. we have a nightmare apocalypse situation and something is going to have to happen. and the drips of humanitarian aid that went in last week have done -- they're not enough in any way, shape or form. something has to happen and it's got to happen quickly. we need a bilateral cease-fire here that is -- hamas has got to go. they are evil. let me be really clear. hamas is evil. but what's happening to palestinian people -- and people start finding, are the numbers true? how many people have died.

you know what, too many people have died. too many innocent people have died. and 6 to 8,000 of them, there's no questioning this number, are children. we've seen them. >> congress woman debbie dingell, very important conversation. thank you for your time. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> very important and very powerful. meantime, researchers at columbia and new york university finding, quote, significant and, quote, unusual trading spikes on israeli companies days before the october 7th attack. what does that tell us ahead? and the shocking moments in virginia where a home exploded overnight. cnn is on the scene. that's next.

♪ virginia police this morning investigating a home explosion that rocked a neighborhood in arlington, virginia, last night. officers were trying to execute a search warrant on a suspect who was still inside. after the man discharged a flair gun up to 40 times in the neighborhood earlier in the day and the sheer force of that blast blew the roof and several walls apart, causing the structure to collapse and prompting the evacuation of

several homes nearby. gabe cohen is live in arlington on the scene. what happened? >> reporter: well, poppy, i can tell you first off it's still an active scene this morning. police had this entire neighborhood locked down. several streets are taped off. if you look behind me, though, you can see the back of the house, at least what's left of it this morning. the rubble here still smoldering there at the scene. if you look up in the trees, there's debris from the house. it looks like possibly shingles. it's hard to tell from this distance. on the ground, there is a big crew of people, law enforcement, working to figure out what exactly happened here. i mean, this was a massive blast. it didn't just level the house. it shook the neighborhood. it blew out windows. people five miles down the road in d.c. could hear the blasts. they could see smoke rising from the area. and poppy, we now know that this dramatic scene started four

hours earlier. police coming this area to deal with the man who was living in that home. they say he was holed up in the home firing flairs out into the street. he fired about 30 flairs they say. police got a search warrant and 8:30 p.m. local time. they tried to execute that search warrant and enter the house. witnesses say the man inside then opened fire with a typical gun. police retreating and then just shortly after that, the house explodes. take a listen. here is what witnesses described at the scene. >> you could feel the sound concussion. it was impressive. i've been here for 50 years, and i've never experienced anything like that. >> it really did feel like something was attacking us. >> reporter: and federal law enforcement now also assisting with the investigation. atf, the fbi are helping local

law enforcement try to piece together what exactly happened here. we know there were, as i mentioned, several officers outside the house, just feet away when the home exploded. miraculously none of them had any serious injuries. what we don't know this morning is whether or not the man who was inside the house survived the blast. we're hoping to get more information from police in the next few hours, poppy. >> all right, keep us posted. gabe cohen for us, live on the scene. thank you. ukrainian president zelenskyy speaking with senators today after a blunt warning from the white house on ukraine funding. republican congressman anthony diepazito is here next.

♪ congress has to decide whether to continue to support the fight for freedom in ukraine as part of the 50-nation coalition that president biden

has built, or whether congress will ignore the lessons we learned from history and let putin prevail. we're running out of money. and we are nearly out of time. >> running out of money, nearly out of time. the white house with that warning to congress, stark terms about ukraine funding that is almost gone and the delaying u.s. aid will, quote, kneecap ukraine on the battlefield. we're told ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy will make a direct appeal to senators in a classified briefing in an attempt to help push through the aid that's been called in congress. last night, republican senators warn that i had are prepared to vote against advancing national security package unless it includes major border policy changes. and this is casting doubt whether the aid will pass at all this year over border talks hit an impasse. >> this side of the aisle has been clear that a security supplemental must include funding and policy reforms to address the crisis at the southern border.

and if that doesn't happen, we will not proceed. >> listen, i have all sorts of domestic priorities that i care about. i could demand that republicans pass changes in our background check laws as a condition of my vote for ukraine but i don't do that because ukraine is too important. because this is the future of the world. >> joining us republican congressman of new york. great to have you. good morning. let's start on israel because before speaker johnson's israel aid bill passed for the house, you said the quickest way we can get aid to our great ally, israel, is the way that we should do it. do you think a breakdown over border talks should prevent more funding for ukraine and israel this year? >> well, i think that the comment made from the security adviser that we're running out of time and we're running out of money, i mean, that comment can be used for our national debt. it could be used for our southern border. right now i think that there is

a lack of vision and there's a lack of accountability of where the money that has been sent to ukraine is going and what it's been used for. i do believe there's a lack of strategy moving forward. and i think that when we have our southern border wide open, when we have states and cities all across this country becoming border states and border cities, i think that this is an opportunity. i mean, if we want to focus on time, chuck schumer has had the secure the border act on his desk collecting dust for months now. i think that is one of the greatest threats that we're seeing in this country. i mean, it captures every news network and in my home state of new york, you have democrats that are saying that the border is wide open and that changes needs to be made yet chuck schumer is sitting there with the legislation on his desk. >> i don't argue that, including the mayor of new york city where i live, mayor adams. >> absolutely. >> but this is what you said on c-span in september about ukraine.

>> i think that at all costs we need to make sure that we keep russia at bay. i also believe there has to be checks and balances. we can't writing checks to foreign countries like ukraine and not know where the money is being spent, what it's being spent on. >> at all costs we must keep russia at bay. yesterday the white house said if you don't fund ukraine more, this increases the likelihood of russia military victories. is that acceptable to you? >> well, i think the other part of my comment was the one that's most important. we need to know where the money is going and what it's being used for. this isn't -- we often say congress is funding. this isn't congress funding. this is about the american people and their tax money and it going to foreign countries. we want to know what it's being used for and where it's going. i think that's a realistic expectation. >> munitions, for example, for ukraine. are you holed up on i want more

specifics? or are you most concerned by the lack of faster progress in the counteroffensive by ukraine? because it sounds like you're backing away -- it's fine if you're changing positions. but it does sound like you don't feel the way about ukraine funding that you felt in september. >> i think that it is important, obviously. russia is a threat to us. but i also think that there needs to be a strategy in place. and i do have concerns that there's a lack of strategy. i think that we have no plan or they have no plan that they've really given to us. and this is a lot of money. again, this is not congress funding. this is the american people and their tax money. and i think that we should hold that accountable. >> tell me about the hearing that you're holding today on immigration and >> sure, our homeland security committee, i am the chairman of the subcommittee, hosting a hearing this morning on capitol hill addressing the effects of the migrant situation on public

safety throughout this country, how it has affected the fire service, emergency management, law enforcement, how it has affected someone that runs a county of 1.4 million people and how their operations needed to have changed because of issues that they are facing, whether it's drugs, whether it's crime being committed by migrants. so i think it's an issue we have seen across this country. sometimes the agencies that are tasked with handling most of these migrant issues, unfortunately now like we have seen in new york city, those agencies are -- their budgets are cut drastically. we have the if the of the fdny u as a witness. now it's changed in firehouses because of budget cuts. these are things we need to address. we can't put the safety of the american people, we can't put the safety of hard working taxpayers in places like new

york city, can't put that at risk because there is no plan in place for those so-called leaders who embraced the sanctuary city but have no plan to make it a sanctuary. >> congressman, i'm interested, especially given you were elected if a biden plus 14 district, what you think of what liz cheney, former republican congresswoman, has been saying recently. listen to two of her comments the past couple of days warning about a second trump term. >> one of the things that we see happening today is a sort of a sleepwalking into dictatorship in the united states. the vote for donald trump may mean the last election that you ever get to vote in. again, i don't say that lightly. >> do you think he would try to stay in power forever? >> absolutely. >> do you share any of those concerns? >> i am confident that the united states of america is the world's greatest democracy. i think liz cheney may be a

little bit bitter. we are focused on republicans are the failures of the biden administration and, yes, i run in a biden plus 14 district or maybe even a little bit more, and the republicans are on the right side of every issue, as we have seen over the last three years in my home queue of nassau county. we now control every bit of government are the city line out to sufficient u suffolk county. >> you are not concerned about what happened on january 6th and what could have happened if mike pence didn't do what he did in terms of certifying the vote? none of that concerns you? >> right now it is clear we have record debt. we have record spending. our border is wide open -- >> they are all issues. that's not what i asked you. i asked you about preserving democracy. >> joe biden is the president of the united states and i am

confident that the united states of america is the greatest democracy in the country and there will -- there are people that will continue fight for that democracy. >> congressman, we will watch the hearing today. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. stay safe. >> you, too. well, top u.n. officials warning of an apocalyptic situation in gaza with, quote, nowhere safe to go. university presidents on capitol hill today testifying to congress about growing antisemitism on college campuses.

appears to show that stockck traders some may have known in advance about the october 7th hamas attacks on israel. i know that's hard to believe. law professors say preliminary data showed that quote unusual

and significant he bets against the value of israel companies spiked the five days before the attacks. >> they say they far exceeded short selling activity and traders profited if the sale sales. joining us, matt egan. stunning when you dig into the research itself. why do you think this happened? >> this research really is -- [ inaudible ] for the attacks. what they found is startling, right. a spike in bets against israel. specifically what's known as short selling, which is a way to bet that the price of something will go down sort of like in the big short, the michael lewis book and movie about the housing crash. in this case, they were not betting against housing. they were betting against essentially israel. not in one place, but in multiple places, including a popular etf, a fund you can bit on israeli companies. also found this in options trading and in dozens of israeli

companies that trade in tel aviv. and what is so telling here, they went back in history and saw nothing like this in recent history. not during the 2020 covid crisis, not during the israel gaza war in 2014. this was the most short trading activity in 99.5% of all days since 2009. let me read you a line from the paper. they said taken together, our evidence is consistent with informed traders anticipating and profiting from the hamas attack. in other words, someone knew something and they made money off of it. >> it's something people are going to have to look into. seems like -- >> the s.e.c. >> yeah, at some point. fascinating. keep us posted. thank you. "cnn this morning" continues right now. top of the hour. this morning israel defense forces ground invasion intensifies with the new