♪ ♪ ♪ new this morning, the leading republican candidate for president pledged that he will be a dictator. on his first day in office, faced with questions from his pal sean hannity about whether he had plans to abuse power, break the law or use the government to go after people, after not answering for nearly five minutes, this what trump said. >> under no circumstances, you are promising america tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody. >> except for day one. >> except for -- >> except for day one. >> meaning? >> i want to close the border and i want to drill, drill, drill. he said you're not going to be a dictator, are you? no, no, no. other than day one.

we're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. after that i'm not a dictator. >> that was during a town hall last night in iowa. the authoritarian talk didn't stop there. trump also reminded everyone listening of his relationships with dictators. >> tell you what, we are dealing and you are -- i got to know them all, the leaders of the world. i got to know them all and they're at the top of their game, some are bad people. some are decent people. they all have one thing in common, whether it's president xi of china or kim jong-un. >> will any of this come up at tonight's republican presidential debate, we shall see. the top remaining challenges are take the stage any again, without them, donald trump himself. cnn's jeff zeleny is live in tuscaloosa where the debate will be held. donald trump, he's not going to be there. how big of a role do you see his

town hall playing. do you think he will come up at all? >> kate, it would be impossible to or nearly impossible, let me get myself a caveat there to imagine that question not coming up tonight. the fact that he said with his own words that he would be a dictator on day one. one thing that has changed about these debates from debate to debate is a central part of the question has been what has happened previously and what is new and this is a new element and part of a long-running story about how he would govern in a second term, so yes, i very much expect questions to be asked by this and the candidates, particularly if you're named chris christie will seize upon this moment to make the case to republicans to turn a new direction. the bigger question is will florida governor ron desantis and nikki haley try to seize upon this, as well or will they largely continue in the mold of trying to appeal to some trump

supporters? that is the open question here, but it's hard to imagine that donald trump's words will not be front of and center in this debate tonight? of course, he is not here, but he hangs over this primary race, in fact, he's driving this primary race, so i do expect a rebuttal time. we'll see if the candidates, though, decide to do that. >> i think it's worth noting here that when he was first asked by sean hannity if he would abuse power or break the law, he dodged. he didn't answer. he didn't give a no for five full minutes and when he did it was dictator for a day and then, jeff, i think it's also worth noting that this doesn't appear to be a bug, but a feature of the campaign and those around donald trump, cash patel who worked in the first trump administration and is clearly still in the trump orbit has been telling steve bannon and others that they will go after people in the media and people who, you know, who crossed donald trump. he said yes, we're going to come

after the media who lied about american citizens and helped president biden rig presidential elections. we're going to come after you whether criminally or civilly. this is part of the trump argument right now. >> it's the anthem of his re-election campaign. it's the anthem for his third bid for the presidency. he's been talking about retribution and revenge and none of this should be surprising at all. if you listen to what donald trump says, he's talking about his plans for the success term for his department of justice on and on, and his plan for the central part of that and now many republicans who are looking for a new direction, in fact, some of his rivals will say privately and publicly tonight that they believe that this is even more dangerous in a second term because the president knows his way around the office, if you will. he knows exactly what levers to pull. so i do believe this will be a central part of the conversation. in talking to voters in recent

days and really for the last several weeks and months and a lot of trump supporters and voters are looking for something new because of of this exactly. they're not voting for him in the long run and should he become the nominee and this is a chance for the republicans to make the case and time is running out for them. 40 days before the iowa caucuses and a week later the new hampshire primary. the smaller stage and the biggest moment for these candidates without question. >> good to see you, jeff. glad you're there. thank you. >> extraordinary new charges by the government against four russian soldiers and this is the first time the u.s. has used a decades-old law for war crimes. according to the indictment, russian soldiers violently abducted a u.s. citizen from his home in ukraine, beat him, to the youtortured him all while

taking photographs and evan perez is there and talk to us about the historic significance of this. >> john, this is a very extraordinary case, certainly for the justice department as you pointed out. this is the first time that they're using this 30-year-old war crimes statute, this war crimes law to bring charges. in this case they're bringing charges against four members of russian-affiliated military. we don't know exactly whether they're russian military or whether they are connected or whether they're members of the -- of the donetsk people's republic which is the russian-supported group or -- sorry, section in eastern ukraine that is governed by a pro-russian government, but we know that the -- in this case these four people, these four members of the military abducted an american, held him for ten day, tortured him and conducted

a mock execution. this is all happening in april of 2022 in the village of mylove in the kherson region of ukraine. according to prosecutors this all happened over a period of days and agents from the homeland security investigations and the fbi went over there, interviewed this person and have now brought these charges. it's pretty extraordinary for them to be able to do this. obviously, we know that the fbi and hsi have been working with ukrainian prosecutors to try to collect evidence, john, for international war crimes tribunal, but in this case they're actually bringing charges in the united states against these four members of the military. we should point out that these people, these four people are not in custody, and so it is something in the future that the u.s. hopes to do. john? >> evan perez, thank you very much for that. >> joining us now for more on all of of this is republican

congressman mike mccall, chairman of the house committee. thanks for coming in. >> appreciate it. >> these charges that we vuft he just heard about homeland security and they highlight the brutal war against ukraine. what does it mean to what you all are facing right now which includes a funding fight, putting u.s. support for ukraine on the brink of collapse? >> well, i think it's very significant as a former federal prosecutor myself that department of justice that they're going forward with this first war crimes case dealing with an american citizen which gives them jurisdiction, and i would like to see more of this in the future. you know that i was at the hague, the international tribunal indicted mr. putin for basically taking 25,000 children hostage and then putting them in these indoctrination camps in russia which really goes to the heart of genocide itself, and i

think the stronger case we can make for ukraine against these war crime atrocities that we've seen come out of the kremlin. in addition, kate, the idea that putin invited hamas after october 7th to the kremlin to meet with them. so his unholy alliance with chairman xi and now the ayatollah and hamas, people need to know who our adversaries are and when it comes to supplemental funding it's imperative to get this done. ukrainian funding, israel, and the last line of defense is the u.s. border. >> so on the funding fight, the senate's fighting it out right now as is the house. there is briefing for senators yesterday that kind of evolved into something of a shouting match, senators as they left the meeting with cabinet officials who were coming to brief them essentially to motivate them to get onboard and to get past this

impasse on u.s. border funding, and here's what democratic senator chris murphy who has played kind of a leading role in negotiations with republicans over the past few weeks and what he said leaving that meeting, we are about to abandon ukraine. when vladimir putin -- they decided to play politics with the future of ukraine's security. do you fear that is how this is going to look and could end? >> i've moderated that classified briefing with secretary blinken and the secretary of defense, as well in the house side, and i think we had a more amicable discussion in the house, but i will say that border is important for republicans to get onboard with this overall package. so i know that chuck schumer is trying to move forward without any border security at all. i know on the house side when

speaking with speaker johnson that is imperative for to pass, and i do believe the majority's house and senate support, to your point, i actually raised what you just said with secretary austin and blinken and that is if we abandon our nato allies and allow putin to take over ukraine in a week, and then threaten their neighbors, that being moldova, georgia, possibly the baltic states, then where are we? if we'll abandon ship just like we did in afghanistan, what is the end result from a foreign policy standpoint? i would argue it would be disastrous and it would empower and embolden our adversaries that are already emboldened enough and that being putin, chairman xi? china and the ayatollah all in this together, and i think it would be projecting the strongest weakness that i've seen in my lifetime. we have a role to play to leave the free world against our

adversaries just like ronald reagan did, and the people in my party, i would say what would reagan do? what would he do in the sense of -- i know what he would do and he would take on the russians. >> and what you're speaking to is what you would think folks can do which is to find a middle ground here when it seems broadly, republicans and democrats agree ukraine needs more fund, and israel needs support and everyone acknowledging there is a crisis at the border and the detail of which needs to get hammer out. you have been focusing on the ongoing and escalating threat from the houthis against u.s. forces and the interests since the october 7th terror attack. u.s. forces were sent to the red sea as a point of deterrence from this escalating any

further. from what you is seen is the deterrence working? >> well, we have the force and projected force and that is carrier strike groups in both the eastern mediterranean and the persian gulf along with the nuclear submarine. the question is i think iran is looking at is do we have the resolve? they tested our forces in iraq and syria hitting them numbers of times before we even responded to this, and i will say we are slow to respond, in addition, houthi rebels and the same situation and one thing is clear the proxies are getting a very injurized and very hot and dangerous right now. i love the effort to designate the houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organization and one of the first things this administration did when they came in was take that designation off the table. i think you project strength and you get peace and deter aggression. i did compliment secretary

austin for putting this projected force in the mediterranean and the persian gulf to respond to these very threats and they know that we have that capability and that does provide deterrence. >> mr. chairman, a lot on your plate. thank you so much for coming in. let's see what happens with this funding if congress can yet again get its act together. thank you. >> i'm an eternal optimist. >> i don't know why, but okay. john? a pregnant woman in texas is suing the state over abortion restrictions and why she says the law puts her life at risk. cnn exclusive reporting it, but who is on the witness list for donald trump's georgia election interference trial and brand-new out just this morning, taylor swift just named "time's" person of the year. why she is sharing the title with her cat.

a cnn exclusive. donald trump could come face to face with his former vice president during his trial in georgia. sources telling cnn that among the potential witnesses that fulton county says it may call to the stand, mike pence. nick valencia has more on this. nick, what are you learning? >> this is fascinating because up until now, mike pence hasn't been much a part of the criminal proceedings and even in the evidence gathering stage during

the special purpose grand jury he wasn't even called as a witness and now we are told that he's among this list of 150 names that are potential witnesses to testify against the former president at a future trial and it's interesting also because pence, he has been -- he was one of the longtime republican allies of the president that has publicly rebuked the comments by trump saying there was fraud here and pence has been full throated saying that the election was not stolen and infamously we all know that he was pressured by trump to overturn the election results by the election certification in 2021. now he could be a key witness here for the state. kate? >> you also spoke with the district attorney there in fulton county, fani willis last night. what did she have to say? >> last week trump's defense team, they made their debut last week in court. he is a high-profile defense attorney and he submitted arguments to try to get this case dismissed and one of them

is claims of election interference. he says his client to likely to be the nominee for president and it would amount to political interference if he's running for president at the same time his trial is proposed to start by the d.a.'s office which is august 2024. fani willis was in new york last night receiving an award for her work and we put that question to her about what she thinks about this claim of political interference. >> i think it's ridiculous. we've been conducting that investigations since 2021, january 1st. the investigation has taken its course and we are at the point that the investigation naturally took us to. so i think it's a ridiculous allegation. >> so there's no hearing scheduled on the books just yet, but the judge in this case has given the defense attorneys until december 15th to broaden out their arguments to try to get their case dismissed and the state has until january 2nd to respond to those arguments. kate? >> nick valencia, thank you so

much. john? with me now former special prosecutor renato mariotti. that has to do with the georgea case. we heard from jack something's team that as part of the prosecution explore donald trump's support for the january 6th rioters and his public support since, you know, over the last two years. why is that significant? >> i think it's going to be really important evidence, john, to undercut a key defense that trump is going to raise. trump's defense should be, if he has a good legal team that he said these words on the rotunda and he tweeted some things out and he was shocked and appalled that people took his words and decided that they were going to attack the capitol and brutalized police officers and others. that's what a lot of republicans, for example, have said. however, that doesn't praise

with trump calling them patriots and suggesting that he's going to pardon them. that's completely inconsistent and so what jack smith and his team are going to do is say that this was donald trump's plan all along, that he supported the attack and he supported the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, that he was trying to interfere at that proceeding and i think that will be challenging evidence for him to overcome during the trial. >> even though he is not charged specifically with inciting a riot? >> yeah. exactly because what it is, they're going to use it to show, john, is evidence of his intent, his knowledge back in january 6th. what they're going to say is we know because -- we know what his knowledge was back on that day and we know what he was intending back then because look how he's acted since that time. in other words, if you happen to be, for example, outside a bank and you were saying a bunch of

words and you said you were surprised that people rushed you to the bank and robbed it, if afterwards you were praising them and you were trying to support them and giving them aid in some way it would suggest that perhaps you weren't telling the truth or your defense is wrong and you're suggesting that you're condemning their activity. >> back in new york in the civil fraud trial where we should note that donald trump and the organization have been found liable for fraud, we thought that eric trump would testify for the defense. we've now heard that he will not. why not, do you think? >> well, he did testify in the deposition, and he took the fifth over 500 times which really puts the trump team in a difficult position because in a civil case the judge can actually infer that his testimony would be negative, would be adverse to the trump position. so i think at this point it's not a mystery that the judge is

determined that the trump organization has committed fraud any there's been a determineatin as to one count and it looks like the trial is not doing well for them and i think the trump team outweighed the side on record on appeal and they're not putting upperic trump. >> we still expect to hear from trump himself who testified first for the state and now will be a defense witness. >> i don't view that as a legal decision. i view that as a personal decision by trump and also a pr spin sort of decision. trump is trying to turn that trial into a bit of a circus. he's trying to divert attention from the finding of fraud which is very significant in trying to turn this into kind of a personal back and forth with the judge so i expect him to be very colorful, to try to distract and tell his own story to use that

as a megaphone rather than carry forward a legal strategy. council renato mariotti, thank you very much for being with us. >> kate? >> coming up for us, six people are dead, a suspect is now in custody after a shooting spree across two texas cities. what we are now learning about that suspect. and the iconic tv and movie producer and writer norman lear. he has passed away at 101 years old. we'll look back at his career. we'll be back.

♪ ♪ all right. breaking news. former house speaker kevin mccarthy will soon be former member of congress kevin mccarthy. he is resigning. our chief capitol hill correspondent manu raju here with the news. manu, what have you learned? >> yeah. this is a big deal. this is former speaker of the house kevin mccarthy announcing he will retire at the end of this year, resign his seat from congress and will step aside and no longer serve the district in california that he has for some number of years now in the aftermath of his ouster as speaker of the house. two months ago the historic vote pushing him out of speakership when he led by matt gaetz and voted out by seven other republicans along with democrats pushing him out as the first speaker ever to lose his position at the hands of his

colleagues now announcing that he won't even serve for the rest of his two-year term that would have expired at the end of 2025 saying in this new article that he wrote for "the wall street journal" that his time was up. he writes it is in this spirit that i have decided to depart the house in the endthe year to serve america in new ways. i know my work is only getting started. he goes on to say i will continue to recruit our country's best and brightest to run for elected office and the republican party's expanded every day and i am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders. he doesn't specify exactly when he intends to do next, but he details what his accomplishments were in office and successful efforts to take back the house republican majority and john, make no mistake about it. this is a member who was at the peak of his power not too long ago, weeks ago pushed out because of his decision to move forward and keeping the government open without any

spending cuts, relying on democrats to do that. that caused a revolt on the right and other members who did not want kevin mccarthy wanted him out for a variety of reasons and some of them said he broke the promises that he made and it was mccarthy's undoing. he did everything he could in the midterm election to have a comfortable governing majority and this was a job he dreamed of getting to be speaker of the house and wanted to rule it, but with that narrow majority came so many problems that he ran into. first, he avoided debt default and did that narrowly with republican support and democrat support and it got hard liners upset at him for that deal making and then the efforts to keep the government open on october 1st is what ultimately led to his ouster after nine months in power. mccarthy wanted that to last much longer here, but it was clear. a talked to mccarthy not too long ago after his ouster as

speaker and he was still very angry and bitter and told me he did not believe he should be in the position and he would rather be in the room negotiating and mccarthy himself not attending republican meetings and skipping votes and different from nancy pelosi, after she stepped aside decided to continue as rank and file member and for mccarthy that was not in the cards and this decision significant in this moment for the republican party and significant that it would further narrow the republican majority down to 220 to 213 after we saw last week george santos expelled from the house narrowing the majority even further and other retirements could make it more complicated for mike johnson and the new speak ter to push it ou and now becoming a former member at the end of this year and kevin mccarthy announcing his resignation from year end. >> it is a remarkable turn of

events and a dramatic fall and it is a republican seat this kevin mccarthy sits in and until there is a special election to fill it, the margin that republicans have in the house, razor, razor thin after george santos leaves that district in long island so this will be an extraordinary few months that we are about to witness in the congress. manu raju, thank you very much for that. kate? >> we also have breaking news coming in right now. the coast guard has just released a rare and highly critical report acknowledging that it had, quote, failed to keep our people safe. it is a direct result of cnn's investigation which revealed coast guard leaders covered up damning information about sexual assaults and other misconduct for years. cnn's chief investigative correspondent pamela brown has much more on this. a lot of hard work has gone into to uncovering a lot of this, pamela. what does this report say? >> that's right, kate. >> this has been a team effort

covering the story for several months and this report from the coast guard is unbelievably direct about the problems within the coast guard. for months, cnn has been covering a culture in the coast guard that goes back decades of sexual assaults that were ignored and victims were told to keep quiet. survivors sometimes punished while their perpetrators were never brought to justice. the head of the coast guard launched a 90-day review after cnn's first story over the summer interviewing hundreds of coast guard members sifting through data and the resounding message is this. these failures and lack of accountability are entirely unacceptable. the coast guard must do something about it. the report shows the coast guard failed to live up to its core values by lacking the programs to prevent military sexual trauma and properly supporting victims and the aftermath and too many coast guard members are not experiencing the same, empowering workplace they expect and deserve. in fact, less than half of the women in the coast guard felt

that they would be treated with dignity or respect by the coast guard if they reported being sexually assaulted and one thing that is repeatedly noted in this report that is just coming out is the loss of trust within the coast guard by its members, and while the coast guard did take a look back at the history, this is a forward-looking report and what they call a road map aimed at improving the coast guard's culture and the commandant called for sweeping reforms called for directed actions and that includes new training for everyone from recruits to senior executives and assault revengz response and recovery, creating a so-called safe to report policy so victims are not worried about being penalized for minor misconducts like using alcohol at the time of an incident and improving oversight of the coast guard academy and the cadets also having policies to hold people accountable including coast guard members headed for a retirement.

people accused of wrongdoing were a tllowed to retire with fl benefit, kate. >> a lot of this stretching back decades, but these coast guard members say the problems still exist? >> yes. they do. cnn has been speaking to dozens of victims who say the culture in the coast guard hasn't changed, but this report is really candid and the message throughout it is that the coast guard is finally trying to deal with these issues and next week there will be a hearing by the homeland security committee and there's also an inspector general's investigation that has been ordered. we are hearing from senators reacting to this report including senator kantwcantwell expressed dismay and that while it is good that the coast guard is trying to address these issues, there is lack of accountability that there were

sex a sexual assaults and she is looking forward to the investigation that is currently under way. that investigation under way, again, a direct result of cnn's investigative team's reporting. date? >> pamela, thank you so much for bringing that to us and for your continued work and the team's work on this. thank you. john? a woman in texas has filed a lawsuit across the state to try to obtain an emergency abortion. this lawsuit believed to be the first of its kind.

a woman living in texas is now suing the state asking a

court to declare that she has the right to terminate her pregnancy. kate cox says that she has a very high-risk pregnancy, at best her doctors say her child is unlikely to live more than a few days outside the womb and she says continuing the pregnancy is putting her own life at risk. that's why she now says that she is looking -- and why she is now looking to the court for help. she's 20 weeks pregnant and living in a state with a near-total ban on abortions. whitney wilde has more on this. whitney, what more are you learning about this lawsuit? >> kate, basically the crux of the lawsuit is that if she carries this preg nnancy to ter she risks her own life or possible catastrophic injury to her that would cause irreparable physical damage to her and that is one of the bars for the texas abortion ban. so the texas abortion ban is banning abortions after six weeks unless there is risk to the life of the mother or a

chance that carrying a preg na nancy to term would cause irreversible physical damage to that person that would impair them long term. so she says that she does qualify. however, she points out that that law is really vague. at this point there is major concern among her doctors as well as her husband that if she goes through with an abortion they face a legal risk because that's what the texas law allows. it allows people to bring cases against other people who facilitate abortions. so here's what's going on. as you point out she's 20 weeks and has had these very severe complications. she's been to the emergency room three times with severe cramping and unidentifiable fluid leaks. she believes this is largely a result of her infant being diagnosed with an extra chromosome, an extra 18th chromosome and this is edwards syndrome and we have a graphic that ticks through some of the facts of that. this is a very severe genetic condition and caused by an extra

chromosome 18 and in at least 95% of cases fetuses don't survive the full term. so this is, again, she believes that if she carries this baby to term she will have to go through the absolute agony of her own very severe medical injury, the death of the baby in ouutero or have to watch the baby be born and this is the first that we know of where minute is trying to get basically a court order to allow for an abortion. certainly a case to watch, kate. >> it sure is. whitney, thank you very much for the reporting. john? it is something only taylor swift can say. she is "time's" person of the year again.

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♪ in case you don't know who that is, that is taylor swift. >> oh, i have heard of her. >> she's been named "time person of the year. i don't know if you're aware, it's been a big year from her record-breaking eras tour to her relationship super bowl champ travis kelce, she's been in the headlines a the lot. harry etna is with us. she finally getting the recognition she deserves. >> thank god. this is a year in which she had multiple number one songs, it's a year in which she produced a top concert film. and she produced the swift

economy. billions of dollars for cities and country wide. she's had a fantastic year. and i should also note she had the word swifty was one of the finalists for oxford word of the year. she's doing quite well. i'm glad that "time" is recognizing her. >> i am going to say out loud, everyone is thinking, we knew that harry enten was the expert, we're so glad. but as person of the year, john thus she's been on there four times. if you count it. >> the silence breakers in 2017 she was on the cover for that. >> one of them she wasn't born. >> she was part of you in 2006. >> and then in 1975, she wasn't born you. >> she and uh-uh were not born. i don't think we can claim it. by the numbers. >> normally, presidents get named 23 times i think it was.

person of the century was albert einstein, so the fact that she's now up with albert einstein who has graced the cover of "time." she's done it more than he has. >> football fans, it's become a thing. >> record ratings for the kansas city chiefs on television. kelce's podcast has gone through the roof. she's given travis kelce their wonderful gift of fame. >> for people who don't like the football games, i have no awareness of if i'm being shown too much and pissing off a new brads, dads and. >> my daughters were debating how mad they were that she was chooeting on travis kelce. she says karma is her boyfriend thinking karma was a person. then we got into a long discussion about karma. >> that was worth it. >> thank you all for joining us. "inside politics" sup next.