stuff alex jones says. this paints a picture, it sets the stage as we go into 2024 for a platform like x that's going to be totally off the rails, but also then we've seen youtube and meta, other platforms allowing election lies. meta recently emerged will take money from candidates to allow them to promote lies that the 2020 election was stolen. >> the pendulum is swinging back. something to watch. i don't know where the line should be, clearly shifting back the other way. cnn this morning continues right now. new cnn polling shows president biden struggling in two critical 2024 battleground states. >> georgia, goes back into the trump column. >> these numbers in michigan would be an alarm bell for him.

>> donald trump announced that he's now not going to testify at his new york civil trial. >> clearly a reversal here from donald trump. >> this is smart move, or the least self-destructive move. >> congress stalled over foreign aid to ukraine and israel. >> if we don't solve this, vladimir putin is going to have an opening to march through ukrainian threatening all of europe. >> two university of pennsylvania leaders have stepped down. >> an intense spotlight is on the heads of harvard and m.i.t. >> it made us feel like we're alone in this. good morning, everyone. we have new cnn polling this morning showing donald trump

leading president biden in two crucial battleground states that biden won last election. >> in georgia, hypothetical rematch shows trump ahead by five points. many michigan, trump is up by ten points. a state that president biden won by nearly three points back in 2020. >> trump's dismissed biden's warning that he's a threat to democracy. he said it's a hoax. >> baker today in "the new york times," he said that i want to be a dictator. i didn't say that. i want to be a dictator for one day. you know why i want to be dictator, because i want a wall and i want to drill, drill, drill. >> peter baker shout-out makes that whole thing. david at the magic wall in washington, when you dig into these numbers, let's start on top line, where are these voters

when it comes to president biden, where is his support faltering at this point. >> they're not in a great place when it comes to president biden, his overall approval ratings and these matchups in the horse race in georgia, critical battleground states, haley besting him, 49% to 43%. donald trump besting him, 49% to 44%. desantis, this is within the margin of error, biden has a numerical lead. look at this, guys, haley is at 50% against biden at 38%. trump is at 50%. desantis up seven over biden. i want to show you here in michigan, another problem for joe biden, beyond the economy and his age, it's these third party and independent

candidates. trump's at 39%. he loses some support there. biden goes down to 31%. rfk polling 20%. we'll see if they can hold that level of support throughout the next year. what's behind this? in terms of what you're looking for in a presidential candidate. among these qualities tested, temperament is the worst for donald trump, in georgia, 58% say trump does not have the temperament they're looking for when it comes to a president, 47% say that about biden. but every other one of the measures, understanding people like you, policy positions, sharpness and stamina, significant majorities in georgia say that joe biden doesn't have those qualities that they're looking for, 66% say he doesn't have the sharpness and stamina they'd like to see in a president in georgia. >> what about all of these charges including the criminal

charges against former president trump, any effect in the polling? >> poppy, such a good question, because if indeed dx sx going to be nominee, biden campaign is to contrast his ongoing legal troubles as the main selling point to the electorate to get biden's numbers back up. 52% of georgia voters approve of the decision to criminally charge trump in fulton county. 47% disapprove. 52% of independents approve of those charges. 11% of republicans. what if the charges are proven true, does that disqualify him for the presidency? 47% of georgia voters say yes. that would be disqualifying. another 14% on top of that says it casts doubt for his fitness

of his office.k at it by party, of democrats say if the charges are true in georgia he should be disqualified. 48% of independents believe that. only 9% of republicans believe that indeed he should be disqualified from the presidency if the charges are true. >> david, bigger picture, you know if i'm texting you after the show, what's your takeaway on this moment when you look at these polls? >> big picture, donald trump is far and away is the dominant candidate and poised to be the republican nominee and when you look 11 months from now, this is going to be a general election that's going to be very closely fought in these battleground states and joe biden is in a world of pain right now, he's bleeding some support of his own fellow democrats they've got their marching orders to do,

they just hope the contrast with trump is going to be the answer to their problems come next election day in november. >> i know phil texted, 9:01 and he's texting. >> he's our political north star. >> thank you, david, we'll get back to you very soon. overnight, we learned that donald trump won't be testifying in his new york civil fraud trial. just friday the former president's attorney said how trump planned to testify against her advice. >> he still wants to take the stand even though my advice you should never take the stand with a gag order. he's firmly against what's happening in this court, he'll open himself up to whoofr they want because he's not afraid. >> joining us now is former u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, ellie honig. what happened? >> good question.

mr. president, here are the reasons you should not testify tomorrow. you already testified. no offense, it didn't go great. the judge doesn't like you. you had a chance to say what you wanted to say. second, we put on your case for the last month or so, we've called experts about accounting, bank lenders who said they were happy to do business with you, they were sophisticated parties and finally d you see those polling numbers that david just gave us, let those be the story of the day, if you take the stand the story will be how your company is a big fraud. i don't know if the decision was that rational. that's my legal advice. >> billable hours would be very high. so what happens next? this trial resumes tomorrow. wraps up this week.

>> it will be a little bit different than typical jury trial, the jury deliberates, they deliver a verdict in court, one witness left, an expert for the defense, then there will be closing arguments, it will be different because there's no jury. emotional appeal we're used to will be missing. then the judge will issue a ruling, he'll write out his ruling. i don't think there's that much mystery. he's already ruled for a. gichlt on causes of actions. six others are still in play. >> to the federal election subversion case, filing late on friday responding to trump's lawyers asking for reams of classified documents to try and prove the election fraud that

never actually happened. >> as a prosecutor you have very broad discovery obligations, you have on turn all over your evidence, basically open file at this point, you're entitled to that as a defendant. donald trump, what he's asking for is way beyond that, he wants to force prosecutors to go on fishing expedition for evidence that doesn't exist. somewhere in the u.s. that there was massive election fraud. that's also beyond the prosecutor's obligation, you have an obligation as a prosecutor to turn over everything that's in your control, you don't have to plum the depths of the cia. it's an interesting filing. i think the judge will deny it. this morning, the president of harvard university facing some pressure to resign after last week's congressional

hearing on antisemitism, now hundreds of her colleagues are coming to her defense. we're live in cambridge. plus, this. >> safe place and the next thing i know all you hear is stuff started flying and glass was breaking. >> what you're looking at now is fireball caused by a tornado hitting a power substation. more on this deadly outbreak of tornadoes, that's ahead.

welcome back. this morning, the president of harvard university claudine gay is facing mounting pressure to resign. after her and other university presidents widely criticized congressional testimony on antisemitism the president of the university of pennsylvania over the weekend stepping down. claudine gay does however have hundreds of people, key people at ha vard in her corner. more than 600 faculty members.

jason carroll joins us live in cambridge, massachusetts. a keyboard meeting yesterday. what came of it? >> reporter: well, it's really unclear what came of that meeting yesterday, there's going to be another scheduled meeting today. what we can tell you is that at this point, you know, we don't know whether or not harvard's president claudine gay will stay or will she go, it's clear she has her supporters here on campus, but what's also clear is that her words last week, poppy, caused a great deal of pain and for some people her apology was simply not enough. now that the university of pennsylvania's president has resigned the question for some here at harvard university is, will their president claudine gay be next? >> i don't think that she should leave, because she's like a few months into her presidency and i think it's like a little wild that, like the entire outside

world gets to decide what happens on a college campus. >> it's hard to address all issues in one conversation. >> reporter: a student is israeli and says she hasn't felt safe being jewish on campus for some time. that widely criticized congressional testimony last week just made things worse. >> it felt like failed leadership, i was really expecting a clear statement of we're against antisemitism and either here's our plan or we need our help implementing this or that. the attempt to evade, it made us feel like we're alone in this and i'm sure a lot of muslim students have been feeling the same way. >> reporter: presidents from university of pennsylvania, harvard and m.i.t. all came under intense scrutiny after

their disastrous testimony when they failed to c-- >> so the answer is yes that calling for the genocide of jews violates harvard code of conduct, correct? >> again, it depends on the context. >> reporter: gay later apologized, telling the harvard crimson in an interview, quote, words matter, but the damage was done one of her staunchest critics bill ackman, a harvard alum, sent a letter sunday to the university's governing board of directors, it read in part -- >> i hope that she'll be able to do what's best for the university and best for her, but i don't know what that is. >> reporter: until recently, a

rabbi a visiting scholar, was part of the university's antisemitism advisory group. he was chosen by gay, but while he had accountability he had no real authority to do anything, gay's testimony was the final straw, he resigned from the group last week. >> i had wanted from any of the presidents a certain urgency and anger and indignation, it wasn't even the content of the answer, had they once pounded their fist on the table and said, this is unacceptable, i won't have this at my university, i think people would have felt reassured. >> but instead you got what? >> instead we got legalism -- >> should gay resign? >> not for me to say, really -- >> why not? >> because i'm a rabbi who's been at harvard for two months.

>> reporter: several hundred members of the school's faculty signed a petition calling on university leaders to resist political pressures and outside forces trying to remove gay. >> united to say that it's not appropriate for national politicians and major alumni to be dictating who should or should not be in the leadership of the university. >> reporter: over the weekend, congre congresswoman stefanik tweeting, one down, two to go. issued a statement in support of their president. harvard board of governors is going to be meeting today, regularly scheduled meeting, it's unclear, we don't have a readout of the meeting, unclear if harvard's board of governors will end up issuing some sort of statement about their president. poppy. >> jason carroll, thank you very

much. let's bring in host of smerconish, michael smerconish. michael the letter that jason was just talking about in his piece, urging harvard not to fire their president in the wake of what happened at penn, two points, resisting political pressure and that outside forces are involved here, do you think that's the case? this has moved far beyond what happened in a hearing room. >> i think it has moved well beyond that hearing room and let me say the obvious, all three of them, they flunked. they were tone-deaf, they wrapped themselves in their answers in the first amendment without expressly saying so, providing some context what they say was actually legally correct, they never explained that, what they should have

done, a condemnation of hamas and antisemitism, a condemnation of any talk of yen side and then put their reflection in some form of context. if you look at five hours of testimony, you can find them saying that. bottom line, i don't think any of the three should be ousted for this alone, if there's more to their record let's have that. >> liz magill at penn there was more to her record specifically on this issue. i thought your interview yesterday on your show, saturday on your show was illuminating, you got into what the first amendment means and where the bounds are the first amendments. it applies differently between private and public institutions. do you think they were too

lawyered up? >> absolutely. poppy, they're well educated. they're usually good communicators. each of the three of them. i suspected and said and it was confirmed over the weekend by "the new york times," that perhaps they were prepared by the same law firm and two of the instances that was the case. behind closed doors they were doing a murder board going over the different questions, but given bad advice if terms of talking about context and talking about speech versus conduct, instead of saying as rabbi said, slam that table and condemn all of this and then explain some of the confines of your position in view of the first amendment. the rules and regulations adopted by each of these universities has the first amendment in mind. it's complicated. it gets reduced to a soundbited a for that they're paying a price.

>> as an attorney can you explain that to our viewers? because there are limits to the first amendment. jewish students or arab students, muslim students walking around campus feeling threatened, feeling intimidated, the question is, where is that line? >> right, let me begin by saying, those students also believe that other minority groups are receiving more attention, more protection and their rights, particularly jewish students, have been cast aside, you mentioned other events at the university of pennsylvania, preceding the hamas attack on israel, was the palestinie ian writes, marked a literally festival but some saw it as cover as anti-israel -- when that speech now becomes conduct, when it becomes

harassment, in somebody's face, intruding on the rights of others, then all of a sudden you're afforded far less rights. that's what they were trying to get to, context, if i'm pro-life and i show up at a planned parenthood facility and i believe there's genocide being conducted behind those walls and i start shouting and holding a sign and saying, stop that genocide, that may be appalling speech viewed by many but it's afforded a certain level of protection, these are very complicated issues. in front of the lights of congressional hearing, elise stefanik asking those questions, she has an agenda, they came out on the losing side and they flunked. >> michael, we appreciate it. thank you. in just a few hours, jury

selection begins in rudy giuliani's civil defamation case, brought by the two georgia election workers that he lied about what to expect, next. the texas woman granted an emergency order to get an abortion had that blocked, waiting for another order to terminate her pregnancy. we'll be joined by her attorney, stay with us.

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you have made an impact. so have you. for you guys to be out here doing something like this, it restores a lot of faith in humanity. welcome back. next hour jury selection will begin in civil case against former trump attorney rudy giuliani. this is now to determine the monetary damages he must pay to two georgia election workers. he was found guilty of lying about them. >> i lost my name and i've lost my reputation. i've lost my sense of security. all because a group of people starting with number 45, and his ally rudy giuliani decided to

scapegoat me and my daughter, to push their own lines about how the presidential election was stolen. >> i second guess everything that i do. it's affect my life in a major way, every way. all because of lies. >> we all remember the pain from those two women, what is at stake here for giuliani and what do the results mean? >> fulton county and in washington, d.c., against donald trump, related to 2020 election, phil and poppy, this is a window into an episode of what happened after the 2020 election, that affected real people, those two women, a mother and daughter who

were election workers. this is civil case, a lawsuit against rudy giuliani, the judge has found that giuliani defamed them, he lied quite publicly about what happened after the 2020 election, he said they had been switching votes as they counted ballots, accusing them of doing things nefarious that was just not true, and so what's happening now is that he's going to trial before a jury in washington, d.c., in federal court and that jury is going to determine how much he should owe these two women for what he said publicly, now just in the trial itself, not even the stakes of what the jury could find, there's a lot at stake, giuliani must be there himself in person, we're expecting to see him today over at the federal court and also we do know that his defense attorney is mrijing he'll take the stand to testify and much of this could be replicated in some

way in other trials upcoming when we hear from very similar witnesses. >> does rudy giuliani have any money to pay whatever this judgment is? >> it doesn't appear so. it doesn't seem as if he's had much money at all even to fight these charges. one reason this is going to the trial for damages so quickly, he wasn't doing much to defend himself against the lawsuit before trial. and he doesn't seem to have much of a defense going into this other than wanting to take the stand in his own defense and the number here that these women are asking for, $15.5 million to $43 million in reputational damage al al alone. >> words matter. thank you very much for your reporting. the u.s. is calling on israel to do more to protect

civilian lives in gaza. the death toll nearing 18,000 people. we'll talk to a senior adviser to benjamin netanyahu, next.

this morning, palestinian death toll in gaza is now approaching 18,000. that's according to hamas-run ministry of health. united nations secretary-general said gaza is at quote a breaking point and warns of humanitarian cat strophe. demand a humanitarian cease-fire and now patience is wearing thin even among israel's staunchist allies. >> we think there's needs to be humanitarian assistant needs to get there. the intent is there but the results aren't manifesting themselves. it's imperative that civilians be protected. and make sure the military operations are designed around civilian protection. >> joining us now is senior adviser to benjamin e netanyahu. the intent is there, the results aren't as much, what's your response to that?

>> i think he's right. we have no intention whatsoever to hurt civilians, our target is the hamas terrorist organization, we want to hit them and the civilians of gaza aren't our targets that's clear. we regret every casualty because our goal is to minimize as much possible civilian casualties, they're not our target. if i can add, we're making an effort, but there hasn't been a conflict in human history where you haven't seen civilians caught up in the crossfire. as a democracy we're doing everything we can to reduce those casualties hamas is doing the opposite. their strategy of using civilians as human shields is making our job difficult.

>> the results aren't something that should be considered as important -- >> no at all. from our point of view, every civilian that's unnecessarily killed that's a failure, that's a failure and we have to find ways to minimize that. look, if you compare israel to preperfection, we fall short. but i believe when the dust is cleared and this is over and we compare what israel has done in gaza to let's say fighting against terrorism in places like iraq and syria, i think you'll find the idf compares pretty well. >> you know iraq and syria, it e 'sing, lloyd austin, having a lot of experiences in those places warned of turning a tactical victory into a

strategic defeat -- do you agree with that. >> it's important that we distinguish between innocent civilians and hamas terrorists. ultimately we think strategically when this is over and hamas is no longer in power in gaza, the civilians of gaza have animosity toward israel, they can think and they know who started this war, they know who broke the cease-fire and refused to release more hostages and i think when this is over, as i say and the dust is settled, civilians of gaza, you'll see this pent-up anger against hamas for bringing this tragedy, bringing this destruction upon them. >> you think that will be the response not the thousands of lives, family members, neighborhoods destroyed, that won't be the focus? >> i really think so. i'll tell you why, because maybe

in gaza, they're a historical animosities that i can understand, but people have had to evacuate, had to leave their homes, so much destruction and every knows, everyone knows who started this war, everyone knows that israel's responding to attacks with hamas' attack upon us. they broke that pause. anyone who thinks knows that hamas is responsible for all the fighting. >> we've been talking about u.s. officials have been saying publicly the warnings, making very clear the need for humanitarian pauses for aid. you compare that to the actions, being the lone no vote to veto the u.n. resolution. the u.s. is so far out on a limb

seemingly in isolation, staying close to one of its closest allies, are you concerned that you're not delivering your side of the bargain given what the u.s. has been willing to do up to this point? >> so, maybe there's an assumption in our question we're somehow arguing with the united states, we're not. defeat hamas and do so in a way that there's minimal collateral damage. if you mention the u.n. vote, first of all, i want to praise the united states for standing up against the automatic anti-israel majority at the united nations. we appreciate the america vie to, because that resolution, that text, basically what it did, it gives hamas a new lease of life, they wanted to eed to

hamas a lifeline. there's no cease-fire with hamas. hamas said my country must be destroy. hamas said every israeli civilian is target for murder. there's no cease-fire with hamas. >> one last question, a big story in "the new york times" over the course of the weekend talking about the money that qatar was providing to gaza for assistance, it says that the prime minister signed off on that encouraged that money as well the former u.s. ambassador called on the prime minister to resign based on that, my question, do you believe or have you found any of that money was used to help finance the october 7th attack? >> so, there's been at he of criticism of that money and israel as well, because it's almost presented as protection payments like to gangsters that you give hamas money and they keep the border quiet, it was a

failed strategy over years, by a number of israeli governments but this is the crucial point, hamas had all sorts of economic incentives to keep the peace, workers were coming into israel to earn salaries, reconstruction, many good things happening and hamas chose to attack and destroy and to murder and to rape and to burn people alive, to butcher our people and that choice by hamas exposed hamas for who it really is. some people thought hamas is in power and they're in charge of 2.2 million people, forces them to be more pragmatic, more moderate, more responsible. no, hamas showed its true face on october 7th, they're a brutal terrorist organization. there's no peace with hamas,

there's peace without hamas. when we have succeeded in destroying them, it will be better for israelis for obvious reasons and it will also be better for the people of gaza who deserve better than this current government that doesn't give a hoot about their well-being. really important eye-opening interview, phil. ahead dash cam individual that shows this tornado ripping through tennessee over the weekend. more deadly tornadoes this year than any other year in the past decade. the impact on climate change, all ahead.

first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones brings so much joy to your life. a family trip to the team usa training facility.

i don't know how to thank you. i'm here to thank you. walls bursted. the windows bursted. everything just like exploded. what it felt like. pressure built up and just

popped . search efforts still going under way right now. our chief climate climating toist joins us now. >> they found with her toddler in her arm. trying to protect him. just heartbreaking there. very tenuous science about climate change and tornadoes the data set only on the ground for so long. one here, one tornado was on the ground for 40 miles.

the science seems to be showing that tornado alley is shifting south and east, what was once a center of the country. moving toward places denser populations, mobile homes. >> cop28. it ends tomorrow. i believe. the u.n. showing gaps. the political, the gio political the industry here, where does that land? it comes down to how do you score this giant event. consider victory or failure. is this the year where the world decides this is the beginning.

>> we got to go all-in. that probably won't happen. >> you mentioned last week a number of the attendees at cop28 are members of the fossil fuel. the ceo of a big oil company was appointed to lead the talks. they have to be part of the conversation. the question is, how big or small is the chance that this vote when it happens tomorrow is actually going to land on, yes ,

this will be interesting to see how it comes down. >> shohei otani just signed a deal with the dodgers. the numbers comiming up. >> i know how mumuch it is.