right now, rudy giuliani is in court where he says he intends to take the stand in his defamation damages trial after days of emotional testimony from the two election workers who say their lives were ruined because of him. we're live outside the court with the very latest. >> after house republicans

formally launch their impeachment inquiry into president biden will they move now to hold his son in contempt. markets soaring, the dow reaches a new high. retail numbers in, beating expectations, stock furthers up again. how high can it do? i'm john berman with kate bolduan and sara sidner, this is cnn news"news central." just moments ago we watched as rudy giuliani arrived at court in washington d.c. after saying he intends to take the stand in his defamation damages trial. in a move to counter emotional claims from two election workers who say his lies and conspiracy theories after the 2020 presidential election turned their lives upside down. over the past two days, the

court heard gut wrenching testimony from former pole workers. they described how giuliani's lies spawned a flood of racist messages and even death threats that forced them to leave their jobs and home, cost them some friends and made them feel so unsafe they were afraid ton even use their own names. katelyn polantz is live outside the courtroom today. we heard rudy giuliani outside the courtroom again spewing lies, what can we expect today in court? >> today the question is does rudy giuliani take the stand in his own defense, take the oath and say the things he was saying about these two women, the georgia election workers. he's saying that he intends to take the stand and testify his lawyer told me as he was exiting

court yesterday that is the plan. giuliani is planning on testifying. what is happening here in court, though, is this is a trial of emotional appeal. and a lot of emotional weight. so if giuliani is taking the stand, it's about him convincing the jury that they shouldn't saddle him with millions of dollars in payments to owe to these women for the emotional distress, the reputational damage they felt. but yesterday ruby freeman, one of the women, a volunteer in georgia, she created a scene in the courtroom that was so intense you could hear a pin drop. it was so emotional. she was wailing at times how she had lost her name, she was afraid to introduce herself to people, afraid to use her name, her id, this is about defamation and the damage of her name. and she also spoke about how deeply disturbing it was to get

taunting racist voice mails over and over again, so much she had to go to the police in person and multiple times calling the police to help her after the election because of the harassment she felt having to leave her home. that is something the jury witnessed her speak about from the witness box just feet away from them with giuliani in the courtroom as well. and so now the plaintiff's side, they're done with their case, the jury comes in at 10:00 a.m., in just about an hour. and that's when rudy giuliani's lawyer will stand up before the judge and tell the jury whether or not the former mayor of new york, former lawyer for donald trump and his campaign, is going to be testifying as well. >> these two women were literally doing their civic duties and have had their life blown apart by the lies from rudy giuliani. he's already been convicted -- or he's already been found to have defamed them now it's whether he has to pay for that

momentarily. thank you we'll be back with you in a bit. joining me is former manhattan prosecutor jeremy solan. we are waiting to see if rudy giuliani takes the stand. we'll know in a few minutes if he does so. can we take a step back and explain to me in a defamation case like this, particularly one he's been found to have defamed the plaintiffs here. what is a jury determining? what do they have to find? how does it work? >> they don't have to determine the defamation, whether it happened or not. it has to do with the damages. did he make the statements, and he knowingly made them and ultimately damaged them and hurt them. so we have the two elements at this point already resolved meaning there were the statements, the judge said there were these wrongful accusations that they cheated and took these ballots and recounted them. now what does that mean? how badly were they hurt? that's what they're deciding

now. >> as he takes the stand, how can he help himself? >> i'd be concerned he could hurt himself if he takes the stand. we have a rico case in that same state with election fraud elements, if he goes out and tells the judge you're not allowed to protest this. if he goes out and testifies inconsistently, there's a risk that could impact his rico case. i don't know if he testifies, i wouldn't be shocked if he backed himself out like trump has. >> let me show you something that giuliani said this week, even after the trial started. after the first day. listen to this. >> of course i don't regreat it. i told the truth. they were engaged in changing votes. >> there's no proof of that. >> you're damn right there is. stay tuned. >> it seems as if giuliani wants

to say he ordered the code red and he was admonished for those statements from the judge. >> he goes outside the courtroom a la trumps and says these things. see if he says it in the courtroom. the issue is not whether he said it and did it, although what the defense is arguing is what's the connection, we heard about postings on the internet, how many times these things were viewed. so there could be some argument there, but he has to run a tight rope, be careful. >> he is a defense witness. if you are the plaintiffs' attorneys on cross, what do you try to do to giuliani? >> you try to get him flustered, get him to make admissions. he's such a hot person, sort of again like donald trump, that it's not inconceivable he'll make that mistake and say something to damn him in this crimin civil case and the criminal one as well.

if he comes out and says i'm telling the truth, these people committed frauds, it's going to blow up in his face. let's talk about the donald trump case, the judge put it on pause while donald trump gets some presidential immunity going through the system but perhaps a more consequential thing happened is the supreme court stepped in and said it's going to hear a case about whether the obstruction of congress can be used against really any january 6th defendants. how much does it muck up the federal case against donald trump? >> it can be delayed because if the supreme court decides to hear this case and appeal, and trump's attorneys have the ability to challenge that if they want to and stay in the circuit, it's going to delay the case and push it past march 4th. so it's reasonable if it gets delayed too long we may not see a trial before the election. >> jeremy saland thanks for

being with us. joe biden is waking up facing a formal impeachment inquiry now. now the eighth president to face such an investigation. house republicans voted unanimously in support of the move. you can see how the vote count landed there. democrats voting unanimously against it. the investigation is already months long and it continues now despite showing no conclusive evidence that joe biden ever personally benefitted from his son's questionable business dealings. here's what the white house had to say today about that vote last night. >> they're just making up lies to attack the president in a relentless smear campaign that frankly has been going on for four straight years now. we went through an impeachment in the last administration over these same made-up allegations and the republicans in the house are rewinding the tam tape and running it again to try to score

political points against the president instead of doing their actual jobs for the american people. >> house republicans are moving forward with their look into joe biden and are also vowing to hold hunter biden in contempt for defying their congressional subpoena to have him come testify behind closed doors yesterday. >> joining us now is democratic congressman from connecticut, sitting on one of the republican-led committees spearheading the impeachment inquiry. congressman thanks for coming in. president biden is formally facing the impeachment inquiry. you have called it absurd. do you think there is a chance here they will come up with anything concrete? they'll uncover anything concrete that will make you reconsider how you are describing it today? >> i don't think so. i think we've looked at so much quote/unquote evidence that the republicans have put forward and even republicans like mitt romney and others say there's

not a shred of evidence implicating the president in any wrong doing whatsoever. >> what i keep hearing from republicans is that this is an impeachment inquiry. and that does not equal actual impeachment. let me play republican chip roy for you on this. >> this is an impeachment inquiry. that's all. what are my democratic colleagues afraid of if there's nothing to see there? >> what do you say to that? >> i think i would just inquire why there's an impeachment inquiry vote when we have so much other business to do. the reason is, they need something to bring the caucus together which is otherwise fractured on funding the government or doing any of the other things that your constituents want them to do right now, kate. >> the argument that we hear often from all sides, we can walk and chew gum at the same time, are you saying that you do not think that the republican

majority in the house will be able to walk and chew gum at the same time when they go now full speed into this impeachment inquiry? >> well, i'm -- we're not able to take up anything subst substantively in the house to do. yesterday believe it or not, the signature vote in addition to this impeachment inquiry vote was whether or not he should allow whole milk in schools for our children to be drinking. that was the substance of the proceedings yesterday. so we're really at a loss right now as to how we're going to fund the government, w how we're going to take care of aid to israel and ukraine. taking care of border priorities and so forth. >> i have seen, you know, over the years i've seen many statements from your office, many emails from your office and you and statements from you, talking about just in general and i'm not talking about just in general with the impeachment inquiry of joe biden, but in general the need for people and

institutions to comply with congressional subpoenas. even though you think this investigation is absurd, should hunter biden have complied with the congressional subpoena to appear in private? >> well, he actually did one better than that, kate. you know that. he actually said, i will appear for a deposition, as long as it's in the open. and i think that, you know, republicans stand on shaky grounds when they say he is refusing to appear to answer their questions. all he's saying is, in light of their distortion of private deposition testimony and the fact, the selective leaking he wants to make sure that not only can they and we hear his answers but the american people can too. >> there's always a negotiation -- often i should say, in coming to appear before a committee. but by the letter of the quote/unquote law if you will, didn't he defy a congressional subpoena? >> i don't think that a court is

necessarily going to say he defied the subpoena when he said i'm going to appear but i'd like to do so in the open in light of past abuses of the process. i think had he said i'm not going to appear at all, i'm not going to produce any information, that would be another issue altogether. similar to what president trump did when he was being subpoenaed in past congresses. in this case, the biden family has produced tens of thousands of records. at least ten witnesses have appeared from the biden administration. i think it's probably a stretch to say they're not cooperating with the house at this point. >> you were talking about the substance that occurred or lack thereof in terms of congressional action yesterday on the floor. also happening yesterday the house passed a bipartisan resolution denouncing the troubling anti-semitism rise on

campuses. the vote breakdown was 303 supporting the resolution denouncing it, 126 voting no. 84 democrats voted for this resolution, 125 democrats voted against this resolution denouncing this congressional testimony. you voted against it. why? >> i condemn the testimony but one sentence within the resolution called for basically their firing by the universities. i think that's within the province of the universities and not something that congress should be doing. i think that what they said was abho ab ab ab abhorant and i disagree with the way they approached the line of questioning. >> thank you for coming on. looking at stock futures right now. look at that, green arrows pointing up. retail sales figures just in,

beating expectations. the markets open in a few minutes, will the rally continue? donald trump is not an authoritarian. he's a narcissist those words from one of the most prominent republicans in america. and remarkable reporting, clarissa ward gets inside gaza for the first time since the war began without an idf escort. >> reporter: no sooner does our tour begin when -- and this is what you hear all the time now? >> yes. at least 20 times a day.

hear the opening bell on wall street after the dow soreared ta record high. the federal reserve decided not to hike rates wednesday for the final decision of the year and projects three rate cuts in 2024. it comes as a relief for wall street and a lot of americans after two years of aggressive rate hikes aimed at staving off a recession. does this tell us the economy is now going to avoid the r word? as in recession. >> yeah. so in the words of jerome powell, it is too soon to declare victory, yet. >> bah humbug. >> right. but i'll give you this, we are moving in the right direction. wall street clearly liking the fed's decision yesterday, a pause in rates and also baking in three interest rate cuts next year potentially. and the dow reacting. closing at a record high.

beating what it did two years ago. so for the fed, essentially, th they're signaling they could be done with rate hikes possibility of three next year but jerome powell saying the work is not done yet. inflation is still too high, prices are still too high for americans, nothing is off the table. but in terms of rate cuts next year this is encouraging because when you cut rates mortgages become more affordable. we heard from red fin this morning that says the daily mortgage rate average dropped below 7%. we were between 7 and 8 so now below 7. and also makes it more affordable if you have student loans, car loans, credit cards. but the big question is, do these encouraging signs track with how americans feel? because we have seen that people

still don't feel great about the economy. the -- in a cnn poll from november we saw most americans are still worried about the economy. and the big question is will this news translate to how people feel? you can't capture that in data you have to do surveys and polling and, of course, president biden is not going to want to see those numbers he's going to want to see better numbers so will this turn the tide for how people feel, politically? we have to caution that things can change at any moment and we need to be careful about that. this is good, things can change quickly. >> a lot of people feel like they were in the hole. so digging out of it is different than the economy looks like it's doing well. personally it may not feel that way to you. >> exactly. people want to make sure that they are feeling good about their finances and clearly right now they don't. but let's see, 2024 is just about a couple weeks away. >> dow up, gas prices down,

going in the right direction. >> right direction right now. >> thank you vanessa. appreciate it. coming up for us, joe biden's national security adviser meeting right now with the israeli war cabinet and a cnn exclusive. u.s. intelligence finds half the israeli munitions dropped on gaza are imprecise dumb bombs and cnn is the first on the ground in gaza without an israeli escort what we're hearing from those inside at a field hospital there. >> reporter: the world isn't listening to us she says. nobody cares about us. we have been dying for over 60 days, dying from the bombing and nobody did anything.

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we're just getting this for you right now. breaking news, rudy giuliani who said he was going to testify will not testify today. a spokesman for the former new york mayor confirming this to cnn a few minutes ago. giuliani originally said he was going to testify in his own defense at the defamation damages trial stemming from a case brought by two georgia election workers in federal court in washington d.c. we are following all the updates we'll bring you all we can as soon as we get them. >> that's an interesting development. this just in to cnn. national security adviser jake sullivan is in israel at this moment behind doors meeting with prime minister benjamin netanyahu and members of the war cabinet. also new this morning we are getting a rare look inside gaza,

as cnn is the first western media outlet to get access into southern gaza and report independently. this is an extraordinary visit to a field hospital where doctors are treating young patients. cnn chief international correspondent clarissa ward was in gaza, now is in abu dhabi. tell us what you saw. >> reporter: well, john we've been trying for weeks and weeks and weeks now to get into gaza. it has not been possible for us. we've been relying on the heroic and courageous work of journalists inside gaza who have been dying in this record numbers in order to tell the stories of what's happening there. we were finally able to cross the arafa border crossing from southern egypt. on tuesday we traveled with a team of medical volunteers who are working at a field hospital

that the united arab emirates, uae, has set up. this hospital is almost at capacity, they are being inundated with patients flooding in from other hospitals in the gaza strip that have simply stopped functioning and within moments of us arriving there for the visit there was a big strike nearby, casualties were brought in. i want to play you an excerpt of our story we'll be playing throughout the day. take a look. >> used to be a stadium -- >> arriving at the field hospital we meet dr. abdullah. no sooner does our tour begin when -- and this is what you hear all the time now? >> yes. at least 20 times a day. >> reporter: at least 20 times a day? >> maybe more sometimes.

i think we get used to it. >> reporter: one thing none of the doctors here have gotten used to is the number of children they are treating. the u.n. estimates some two thirds of those killed in this round of the conflict have been women and children. 8-year-old janan was lucky enough to survive a strike on her family home that crushed her femur but spared her family. she said she's not in pain so that's good. her mother was out when it happened. i went to the hospital to look for her, she says. and i came here and i found her here. the doctors told me what happened with her. and i made sure that she's okay.

>> reporter: they bombed the house in front of us and then our home janan tells us, i was sitting next to my grandfather and my grandfather held me and my uncle was fine so he is the one who took us out. but the doctor said it is hard not to cry. >> i work with all the people, but the children -- something touching you heart. >> reporter: touches your heart and tests your faith in humanity. and just -- and just moments after that heartbreaking moment talking to janan, hearing from that doctor, the other doctor came back in to say that casualties were arriving as a result of the strike that we had just heard. they brought in a man who had lost his leg. and a 13-year-old boy who was

moaning in agony, john, who also had lost his leg. and they said this is what we're dealing with every single day. amputees, people dying, people being crushed. and they are doing everything that they can, but with the collapse of the health care system, it is simply impossible. and the situation keeps getting worse and there is no safe place for people in any part of gaza to go now, john. >> so important that you and your team were able to get in there independently without escorts and report on this. we're going to hear so much more of it throughout the day. thank you so much for everything you've done. john we also have this just in, the israel defense minister now telling u.s. national security adviser jake sullivan that the war in gaza will last more than several months. it comes now as sullivan is in

israel for meetings with the israeli war cabinet as part of a push to minimize what president biden has called the indiscriminate bombings in gaza. it comes as intelligence says half the bombs dropped on gaza are so-called dumb bombs. natasha tell us more. >> reporter: this was an assessment by the intelligence community that outlines how many of the munitions that israel has dropped on gaza have actually been unguided. in other words, they have been dumb bombs. they're far less precise than guided munitions and pose a greater risk of civilian harm to people on the ground there. this is really significant because the israelis have made a point to say that they are doing everything that they can to minimize civilian harm on the ground in gaza and the u.s. has also come out and said they

believe the israelis have the intention of trying to protect the civilians as they undergo their operations in gaza. but experts that we spoke to said the fact that israel is using the unprecise, unguided munitions, roughly 40 to 45% of the 29,000 munitions israel has dropped on gaza have been these unguided dumb bombs undercuts the israeli argument they're doing everything they can to try to protect civilians. it's important to note that precision guided munitions are not perfect either. but in a densely populated area like gaza, every kind of precise munition you can use matters. missing a target by a few feet can determine whether someone lives or dies. so the white house is saying that national security adviser jake sullivan who is in israel today and tomorrow, he is going to be focused on other things,

emphasizing to the israelis they need to be more surgical and precise in their operations in gaza. here's what the white house said yesterday. >> jake will also discuss the next phase of the military campaign and efforts to be more surgical and precise and reduce harm to civilians. that is an aim of ours. >> reporter: this comes just two days after president biden said that the israeli campaign amounts to indiscriminate bombing so the u.s. intelligence assessment that suggests that israel is using the dumb bomb reflects what president biden said a few days ago. >> we know jake sullivan is meeting with the israel war cabinet as we speak. we'll see what comes you on of it. the economy looking up but donald trump invoking the words of president reagan, asking are you better off now or four years ago as he goes on the attack against joe biden. that's ahead.

we have a live look at the stock markets this morning. up about 48, 49 points so far. this is after hitting record highs yesterday. all the economic numbers that have been coming in have looked good. inflation is cooling. unemployment is low. retail sales numbers just came in a few minutes ago. beating expectations. gas prices are sinking, growth is resilient. yet donald trump says the economy is sinking and a depression. >> the biden administration is running on the fumes of the great success of the trump administration.

without us, this thing would have crashed to levels never seen before. and if we're not elected, we'll have a depression the likes of which i don't believe anybody has ever seen, maybe 1929. >> elena joins us with the new messaging. >> reporter: that's right. he had a clear message. i argue i attend nearly all of donald trump's campaign events and i argue this is some of the most clear messaging he had while on stage talking to these iowa voters last night. the message was this. this isn't just about the caucuses or the primary elections. this is about the general election and he was trying to use joe biden's unpopularity to galvanize the voters to come out in big numbers for him on january 15th. here's the messaging from last night. take a listen. >> during this holiday season, families across america are

under the weight of biden omiks. this year alone the typical family is $7,500 poorer because of joe's blunders and greedy betrayals have hurt us badly. the zblsh. >> reporter: the economy clearly he's focused on that and i'm told he's going to continue to focus on that in the leadup to the iowa caucuses. but they think this could help in the primaries and the general election. they know even though the economy, as you mentioned, gas prices are going down, stock market is doing well. voters are still worried about the economy in many respects. and that's something that donald trump and his team recognize and are leaning heavily into. and i want to talk about the other attacks donald trump made last night went after nikki haley. he normally saves the attacks

for ron desantis but he spent a lot of time on stage last night going after nikki haley and from my conversations with donald trump and his team i know that her rise in new hampshire and her gaining ground in new hampshire has been a concern for them. and, of course, the new hampshire governor chris sununu gave her his endorsement the other day, another thing that's worrisome to the trump campaign. >> thanks so much. sara? >> hey, john. i'm joined by political commentator alice stewart. and republican strategist doug high good to see you. >> good to be with you. >> i'm going to give you a softball. despite his bombastic style, i'm speaking of donald trump, is it fair to say, yeah, it's still

the economy stupid when it comes to voters? i start with you alice? >> thank you, sara, i love a good softball so i'll catch it and run with it. the economy is a big factor while you can talk about the numbers and john mention some of the good economic barometers, the numbers might be good but the perception of the economy is not good. and voters' perception trumps everything else. when you have six, seven and ten americans feel they're not better off economically than they were four years ago, that's going to have an impact. and they say many of them, trust a republican candidate on the economy more than they do joe biden and the democrats. that's going to be very important and difficult hill for joe biden to climb. and it's another component of that is how they tell this. you can't just tell people things are great. you have to say, i understand how you are feeling but this is

what we are going to do to try to turn things around. that's the most important thing they can do messaging wise because of all the other things going on, immigration, foreign policy, safety and security, pocketbook issues are top of mind for voters, especially as we head into the iowa caucuses just over 30 days away. >> it affects you directly and strongly, if you will. doug i want to ask you about this. trump in iowa fine tuning his message but he's gone after nikki haley, which seemed interesting since he is such a front runner when it comes to the polls. let's listen to what they have to say. >> they've been talking about the haley surge. she goes up two points i go up, i think 9 or 10 points. that's a trump surge but they don't want to say that. they say she's surging against him but he's gone nowhere. >> what do you think this tells

you about donald trump and his thoughts on nikki haley's surge? >> well, i think what he said is largely true. we've been talking about a nikki haley surge for weeks now and haven't seen much of one. saw some endorsements obviously the sununu endorsement is the best one to get in new hampshire. we don't know the effect yet but we know that donald trump's campaign is concerned and donald trump likes to punch down. i argue we saw last night, we saw donald trump attacking nikki haley more than we've seen nikki haley go after donald trump in this campaign so far. so many times we've seen donald trump get indicted and wonder why the polls didn't move, they didn't move because nikki haley, tim scott, ron desantis and most other republicans running against donald trump in theory instead of practice reinforce donald trump's messaging. if you don't give voters a place to go they're not going to anywhere.

we're running out of time now. the iowa caucus in days not weeks or months. we're getting to crunch time. once we get past christmas, all bes bets are off at that point. >> always a pleasure to have you both on. >> thank you. >> thanks. coming up, congress in action. sort of. the senate passed the sweeping defense spending bill overnight and the house is expected to take it up today. that's progress. what they are not doing as they head out of town for the holidays soon is anything on the fight on ukraine funding, border funding and boborder policy. deadlinenes loom andnd jet fuel in t the air.

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very soon, house lawmakers are going to be taking up the $886 billion defense spending bill that just cleared the senate last night. it is called the ndaa and it has to be reauthorized congress every year, and in it includes things that impact the nation's military readiness and the lives of the country's service member,

and this is the largest pay raise for service members in over two decades. after the house passes this, they are expected to go out of town for the holiday, and any chance they will be expected to cut a deal for israel, ukraine as that is held up for a deal over the border. and what is that is going to tell us, priscilla, about the deal today on the stalled progress? >> the president has said that he is willing to compromise on this, but he is saying, get the deal done. but the concession that the white white house is willing to show an openness to, these are some of the most vexing issues to, and to the center of it is the border issue, and on that front, the white house is willing to

include expulsion authority, and that is to expel some of the asylum seekers without a hearing, and expanding the asylum seeker expulsions which is sounding like that of trump, and just yesterday, we heard from senator chris murphy who is a negotiator in the talks, and he signaled there has been some progress, so take a listen. now, murphy in this quote says that it is helpful to have the white house, and dhs in the room, and we are not there yet, but we are on the right path.

and he says no reason we cannot wrap this up by the end of the time, and that is optimistic, and there are points in discussion that remain a point of contention which includes one authority that the humanitarian progress is the parole that allows them to remain in the u.s. negotiations continue today at the white house. >> thank you, priscilla. keep us posted. and now, today, a win for the trump legal team as there is a pause on the subversioion cac against t him. what thahat could mean abobout case agagainst him. .

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.