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beyond the borders, the nation grapples with a surge of migrants, the battle over immigration reform is playing out in congress and across the country. how this all factors into the 2020 presidential election. and battle on the red seat. the u.s. is creating a new coalition to fight off iranian -backed houthi rebels attacks on commercial ships. attacks that are already threatening the world supply chain. we will have more on the economic fallout ahead. and we have lift off. more than a year after a fiery failure, blue origin launches its new rocket. what is its mission? we are following these major developing stories and more all coming in right here to cnn news central. ♪ ♪ ♪

we are only 11 months out from the 2024 presidential election, and a key issue for both parties is a divisive one. immigration. to put it in perspective, some recent cnn polling, economic concerns far and away are the most prevailing issue for voters, but immigration is second. when it comes to which party voters most closely aligned with the opinions vary greatly. 43% of people say they side with republicans views on the issue and 29% with democrats. 27% say no banks, neither. in the meantime, the situation on the ground is dire. crossings at the southern border or higher than ever. we are talking record setting numbers. congressman henry cuellar says in the del rio border sector alone more than 8000 migrants are either in cbp custody or waiting to be transported for processing. more broadly though across the southern border, over 23,000

migrants were in custody overnight, and the issue is not just at the border. remember, the strain put on cities targeted by republican governors who sent scores of migrants to democrat led cities like chicago, d.c., new york. in new york, mayor eric adams says more than 154,000 migrants arrived there in the last 20 months alone. those bus programs are only one step taken by governors like greg abbott of texas. he has now been locked into a slew of legal battles with the federal government over what he can control at the state level, like the installation of those floating border barriers at the rio grande. last night he took an even bigger step by signing espy for into law. we will dig into the details of what that entails. it adds more than a pavilion dollars for funding for a new border wall construction that increases the penalty as well for human smuggling. the most controversial aspects,

it makes it a state crime for someone to illegally cross the border into texas, meaning that local law enforcement would be granted the power to arrest migrants, or at least people who they suspect of being migrants. this sets up yet another legal showdown between texas and the federal government. breonna? >> yes, and the law is sparking feet in texas is latino community which accounts for 40% of the states population. amid concerns that the measurable open them up to racial profiling by law enforcement. legal opponents of the bill allege that texas is overstepping the powers of the federal government, which is why 21 democratic house members are also saying here. that it's, quote, unconstitutional and dangerous, even as proponents of the bill insist that it is lawful. bill opponents compare sb 4 in texas to arizona's infamous 2010 immigration measure, has b 1070, which critics dubbed the show me your paper's law. they called it that because the arizona law has a key provision that tasks police with checking

a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws if there is reasonable suspicion that person is in the u.s. illegally. the supreme court rejected multiple parts of the law in 2012 but, the court let that controversial provisions stand. still, and this is key, the court upheld that the federal government sets immigration policies and laws. this does not bode well for the new law in texas according to cnn senior legal analyst elie honig. here's how he explains it. >> reporter: no, this is not constitutional. that's the easy answer there. this is day one of constitutional ball. issues like immigration, foreign policy, foreign affairs, are specifically and only reserved to the federal government. it makes sense. imagine if every state could have a different immigration policy and enforce it differently? it would be wild. we have seen similar laws in other border states including arizona that have been struck down within the last decade and change by the supreme court. we saw a case involving arizona in 2012 that went to the

supreme court and the supreme court struck down. i think we will see the same result here. >> of course, the court is significantly more conservative now than it was then. the lake justice antonin scalia wrote the dissent in the arizona case with two justices still on the court, alito and thomas, who backed his dissent. he said this, quote, arizona has moved to protect its sovereignty, not in contradiction of federal law, but in complete compliance with it. the laws under challenge here do not extend or revise federal immigration restrictions, but merely enforce those restrictions more effectively. if securing its territory in this fashion is not within the power of arizona, we should seize referring to it as a sovereign state by descent. you see some similarities there. there are law enforcement voices in texas that are expressing support for this law. kevin lawrence, the head of the largest texas police association, told cnn, quote, sb 4 at least to some measure would give local law

enforcement better tools to work with. all of this only heightening the importance, of course, of these border talks on capitol hill that we are following. that is where we start this hour with our manu raju. manu, how are negotiations going? >> reporter: they are moving along, that they are moving slowly. in fact, a bipartisan group of senators just finished morning meeting with the administration, including the homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas. they made clear that there's still far more work to be done, that is what kristen sinema, who's one of the members who's part of those talks, in an incredibly complex area of law. she could not overstate how long or hard this is. there's real questions about when this deal can be reached. there is a growing expectation and belief that this will certainly be punted into the new year. at that point, we will see whether they can actually get an agreement, vote in chamber, and if presidential politics won't interfere with this. that is because the parties leading presidential contender, donald trump, has taken an

increasingly hard line on the issue of immigration, something that some republicans and democrats fear could impair their efforts to get a deal. in the aftermath of his comments about illegal immigrants, quote, poisoning the blood of people in the united states, a number of republicans are pushing back including the number two senate republican, johnson. -- jonathan. >> my grandfather is an immigrant so that is not a view i share. we are a nation of immigrants, but we are a nation of laws, and we've got to enforce the law. >> do you worry though, more broadly, that he may come out against any deals that are reached and make it harder to best? >> that could happen. but i think in the end as long as we get what we believe are the right policies in place that will address right now what is a runaway train at the southern border, and change the signals we are sending. so if that happens, hopefully we can get the necessary votes in the senate and house to move

something, irrespective of what, you know, others may say about it. >> reporter: that is going to be easier said than done because this bipartisan group of senators are simply looking for a deal to give the president more authority to expel migrants at the southern border. to increase detention programs as well. he essentially put it as more restrictive laws over how migrants can apply for asylum. all of those measures have generated significant pushback from the left, we have seen that pushback from the left. some folks on the right saying this needs to go much further. and there are a lot of questions whether if a deal is reached, that is drafted and gets the votes in the senate, if it will eventually get approved by the republican-led house. all the while aid to ukraine and israel hanging in the balance here because republicans say the border must be dealt with first before they deal with these other pressing issues. so just a lot of questions here. this will get punted into the new year. can they get a deal? both -- or will it stop amid all these

crises both domestically and internationally? guys? >> a consideration of presidential politics cuts both ways. manu raju, thank you so much. let's get the white house perspective with cnn's mj lee. mj, the biden administration navigating these border conversations carefully trying to get something done while also not trying to alienate a key part of their base. >> reporter: that's right. there's no question that chris border issue has been incredibly complicated, and very delicate for this white house, particularly as we have seen polls showing that there is wide dissatisfaction among voters about president biden handling of the immigration issue. so far what the white house has said is that they have been willing to make major concessions, and they are still willing to make additional major concessions when it comes to some of these tighter immigration policies that some republicans have been pushing for. but these are concessions that definitely can cut both ways, as manu was alluding to. of course, you can imagine that

there are independent voters and moderates who would love the idea of stricter immigration policies that basically or seen is taking action to address the record number of migrants that we have seen coming to the u.s. southern border, but it also has the effect of potentially alienating and angering and frustrating progressives who say that they are not okay with some of these policies that are seen as being more conservative. that some of them are seen as being inhumane and not compassionate. in fact, there are some democratic allies of the white house telling my colleague, priscilla alvarez and camilla dish allies, that if some of these policies that are on the table to end up being a part of this package, but they cannot even imagine campaigning for the president because they see these policies bad policies. i think it's also just worth reminding everyone that even though the major hang-up is over the issue of the border, we are talking about a supplemental package that

includes some 60 billion dollars in aid for ukraine that when it comes to that, the white house is basically saying time is up. we could get one more package through before the end of the not, but after that there is more money. >> mj lee, thank you so much for that report. let's expand the conversation now with john sandweg, he's the former acting director for immigration and customs enforcement in the obama administration. he also served as the former acting general counsel for homeland security. john, thank you so much for being with us. i just want to note for our viewers that moments ago we got into our inbox confirmation from congressman henry cuellar of texas that i quit apprehensions on the u.s. southern border topped 12,600 in the last 24 hours. 24 hours alone. john, when you hear those numbers and fears that the white house is weighing whether to expedite pathways to deportation, to limit asylum seekers, how effective do you

think those policies would be in slowing down the number of illegal crossings? >> look, the devil is in the details. we have not seen any details come out of the senate negotiations. i said this 1 million times, the fundamental problem is we are just not enforcing the laws that are on the books because the system is overwhelmed. as i understand it, some of the things the senate is talking about would be streamlining the process, which ostensibly could kind of provide that deterrent effect. look, unless we start sending people back to their home country this flow is going to continue. ostensibly, the senate could, depending on what exactly they agree on, they could streamline that process, allowing the department to carry out the deportation of individuals which could help stop the flow. all we've heard is what is coming out of rumors. we have no details yet. >> how do you think this might potentially cost president biden politically? it's obviously right before an election year. he is trying to cut down on republican claims that he's not

doing enough about the border. you hear from left leaning groups on the issue of immigration that this could potentially harm him with his base in key swing states. >> yes, boris. look, we'll focus on the sheer number of claims, but there are a lot of legitimate claims. people who are legitimately fleeing persecution. this country does have this great tradition of, you know, pledging to give safe haven to people fleeing persecution. so by having -- i will tell you that there will be extreme frustration. i think what is probably most frustrating is there's probably alternative ways to do this. if we had put resources into the system so we could make the existing laws work, we probably could have slowed down the crisis and limited the flow at the border without compromising our values in any way. it's unclear. maybe we are a bit past that now. the numbers are shocking. these are massive. these numbers are unprecedented. they are certainly far bigger than we ever dealt with during my time at the department when

that was viewed as a crisis. so something is going to have to give, but i think what we are seeing here with the senate bill, with this texas law. this is a solid byproduct of not just the biden administration, but the congress, the trump administration, their failure to adequately resource the system this by the fact that it's been going on for seven years. >> to that question of the texas law, sb 4. the supreme court has historically sided with the federal government's right to patrol -- control immigration and its authority over the border, but this is a supreme court as we have noted that has been openly undoing precedent. if this winds up going there, do you think sb 4 survives? >> i think it probably does. the president is pretty comprehensive in this regard. arizona tried a very similar tactic to what texas is doing now. it is a different court however, but it's a different climate. so we will see, but i think all in all it probably fails. i think the end of the day the

biggest issue is that it's just probably not going to be effective from reporter security perspective. it does nothing to address the core problems that are being faced at the border. it's not going to deter or help fix the crisis in any way. it creates a lot of other problems. you could argue that this is a boon for drug cartels. texas is basically saying let's shift from complex investigations on cartels and shifted over to the low hanging fruit. the economic migrants. it will be extremely difficult without stepping on civil rights and engaging in racial profiling. at the end of the day, this is very similar to what arizona tried in court. they shut it down. we will see, but i will have to think the president will prevail in the court. >> john sandweg, thank you very much for sharing your expertise with us. we appreciate the time. >> my pleasure. still ahead, under pressure from his own party, a group of t -- key democrats urging president biden to use, quote, all our

leverage to get israel to change its military tactics in gaza. we will speak to one of the lawmakers pressing the white house. and the largest credit union in the country now facing a lawsuit, alleging it discriminated against black and latino applicants. details when we come back.

right now u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin is in bahrain. he is there after spending the day in qatar meeting with government officials there, where they discussed qatar's pivotal role in hostage release negotiations between hamas and israel. >> let's go to tel aviv live now with cnn's will ripley. we'll, secretary lloyd's -- secretary austin's visit to the country comes while president herzog says the country is ready for another humanitarian pause. that is a significant development, no? >> it is significant, but it's unlikely to happen unless hamas dramatically changes its position because what hamas has been saying is that the remaining 129 or so hostages will not be released until, in their words, the war is over. and israel's war using the word

humanitarian pause. let me read beautiful quote from president herzog. i can reiterate the fact that israel is ready for another humanitarian pause, and additional humanitarian aid, in order to enable the release of hostages the responsibility lies fully with a hamas chief and the leadership. in other words, the two sides which already do not trust each other, and who are engaged in very fierce combat, are basically wanting to different things out of this. the hostages are the leverage, the remaining leverage, for hamas. so the concern is that they are really going to be unwilling to give up that leverage even in exchange for humanitarian pause, which is so desperately needed in gaza where over the weekend we saw those horrible images of people who are literally fighting over the few scraps of aid that are left. climbing on to the aid trucks themselves just trying to get whatever they can to survive. and it's a very, very difficult situation. the hamas-controlled health ministry reporting that the death toll is now surpassing

19,600. it's getting closer to 20,000 reported deaths in gaza, a large number of them civilians including the potential for people who are sheltering in a church. two women killed allegedly by israeli snipers over the weekend. that is creating a huge uproar of course in gaza, where they say they are being targeted, civilians being targeted, and supplies are desperately running low. >> yes. it's horrific what we are hearing coming out of their, will. i want to talk a bit about these attacks that we are seeing on shipping vessels in the red sea. attacks by iranian-backed houthi rebels out of yemen. the u.s. is now saying, as part of how they are trying to combat this, that they will lead a coalition to secure safe passage. what does that look like? >> reporter: they are going to have to actually try to patrol the waters and basically try to prevent fire from coming from yemen essentially to protect the supply chain, which is

already seriously disrupted. when you have to rebound cargo ships instead of going through the suez canal, basically the more direct route to vital supply lines across the indo-pacific region, they will have to add days to their trip. that's not to mention all the extra fuel to travel around the southern tip of africa to avoid these assaults on cargo ships that these houthi rebels, backed by iran, iran by the way also supporting hamas and hezbollah in lebanon. they are saying these assaults are essentially revenge for what is happening in gaza. so this regional conflict, which is sets -- such a sensitive flash point, already spreading faster than the united states could not. that is why you have the defense secretary moving across the region trying to find solutions to put out these fires before it starts to spread out of control. >> will, thank you for that report live in tel aviv for us. we now want to begin on the economic impacts of these major shipping companies halting operations in the red sea.

with us is cnn business editor at large richard quest. richard, great to see you. how much global trade passes through that region? how much of a disruption are we anticipating for global supply chains? >> reporter: well let's go back to that map you've just been showing if we can. it will give you an idea that the main route between europe and at the top, asia, southern africa, large parts of southeast asia, goes through the suez canal and down through the red sea. you can see they're 8440 nautical miles. anywhere between 15 to 30% of global trade goes that way. sometimes more if it's fuel. sometimes less if it's cargo. it's often bulk graeme. 10% to 15%, as high as 30% in some cases. now, you heard will say what

the navy was going to try to do. you've got fleets of drones coming from yemen on the eastern side across. can the u.s., the uk, france, all the other navies, can they shoot down those drones before they hit the ships? the answer is probably no, and that is why you have maersk, lloyd, bp, just about every major shipping saying, sorry. we are going to go a long way. as you saw on that map, that is 11,000 miles in distance. >> yeah. that is huge. richard, thank you for taking us through that. we appreciate it. despite a growing push from the u.s. and the international community for israel to do more to avoid civilian casualties in gaza, several key lawmakers in washington are saying that they've seen no significant change. six house democrats who sit on national security committees

and who have served in either the military or the cia just said president biden a letter expressing deep concern about israel's military strategy. they write in this quote, the mounting civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis are unacceptable and not in line with american interests, nor do they advance the cause of security for our ally israel. they also believe it jeopardizes efforts to destroy the terrorist organization hamas and secure the release of all hostages. one of the lawmakers on the letter is with us now. democratic congressman jason crow of colorado. he's on the intel and foreign affairs committee. congressman, you say in this letter that we, meaning the u.s., has consistently pushed for israel to shift its military strategy. there has been no significant change. what do you make of u.s. officials like the defense secretary highlighting this lower intensity approach? then you actually don't see it and the u.s. since unconditional aid? >> hello, breonna. this letter that we penned

comes out about your personal experience spending years serving our country, fighting our global war on terror. our experience is doing so and what those experiences taught us. it's that there are limitations to military power. that when you are fighting terrorism, it's fundamentally different then from fighting the government or a nation-state. terrorism is an ideology. you cannot bomb away in ideology. these terrorist organizations feed off of despair, anguish, hopelessness. and if you don't make every effort possible and center and really focus your operations on protecting civilians, and preventing civilian casualties, we will actually feed that ideology and make it worse. we are committed to israel's security and future. we are concerned the current operations are undermining that security over the long term. so i have encouraged secretary austin, delivering that message to israel. president biden has expressed

concern recently, as have other administration officials in the last two weeks. >> it was pretty stunning to hear secretary austin in israel talking about what he would like to see happen. then you hear the israeli defense minister saying something very different and making it clear that israel is not going to take that advice. what does the u.s. then need to do? does there need to be condition on the eight? >> well, what you just described, the dynamic between the biden administration and the netanyahu administration, is exactly why we penned this letter. we have been expressing these concerns over the last few months in private, as allies and partners do. we are a partner and a strong ally of israel as they are of us. so making sure we expressed those concerns in private, but those concerns have not been adequately heard so this is why we made this letter public. so continuing to push and use our leverage as an essential partner to israel, to impact

that change, and put in appropriate guardrails. we have to make sure that american interests are being served. american security is being served. there have been over 100 attacks on u.s. bases and installations and ships in the region in the last two months. those attacks continue to increase. we have to make sure that american interests are being served as well as israeli interests. that is why we sent that message through this letter. >> you call out netanyahu specifically in your letter for his approach. you say israel obviously is a key u.s. partner. is netanyahu a good u.s. partner? >> that is why we drew that distinction between the state of this and the israeli people. prime minister netanyahu, who i think -- which i think is an important distinction to draw here. i do not have confidence that be beaten at an yahoo is doing the right thing by israelis. i think he failed israelis on october 7th. listen, just earlier this year 20% of israelis, a fifth of the

country of israel, was out in the streets protesting the netanyahu government and some of its more extreme policies. then you have what is potentially their greatest intelligence failure in a generation, military failure in a generation on october 7th. so i don't think he has served israeli people well. that is why we have been very clear that we don't wreck his military strategy and approach is one that is terrible for the united states or israel. that is why we want a drastic change. >> what's the political threat to president biden and democrats here? you have new new york time polling showing 57% of registered voters disapprove of biden's handling of the conflict. notably, nearly three quarters of voters between 18 and 29 disapprove of his handling. >> public support is essential in anything we do. we cannot conduct any military operation. you can't support any conflict. we have seen that in ukraine.

we have seen that in israel. we saw that during our 20 years in iraq and afghanistan. public support and sentiment is essential. that is one of the reasons why we expressed these concerns. because those on the letter are members of the intelligence committee, the foreign affairs committee. we speak frequently with ambassadors, with heads of state all over the world, and we are concerned that there is a reduction in support for israel because of the conduct of their campaign in gaza. we want to make sure that we are shoring up that support both within the united states and internationally. that is why we expressed concerns about the manner in which the operation is being conducted. it's fueling extremism in the region we think. it is unacceptable that we are seeing the level of civilian casualties we are seeing in gaza. of course, a public sentiment we think is turning a small, both in the united states and internationally. these are all reasons why we felt compelled to write this letter. >> congressman, we appreciate you taking the time to talk to

us about it. thank you so much. >> thank you. the names of dozens of jeffrey epstein's alleged associates and victims will be made public. that is the ruling from a federal judge. we are going to tell you when and why they are going to be released, next.

loving this pay bump in our allowance. wonder where mom and dad got the extra money? maybe they won the lottery? maybe they inherited a fortune? maybe buried treasure? maybe it fell off a truck? maybe they heard that xfinity customers can save hundreds when they buy one unlimted line and get one free. now i can buy that electric scooter! i'm starting a private-equity fund that specializes in midcap. you do you. visit xfinitymobile.com today. welcome back to cnn news central. here are some headlines we are watching this hour. investigators are trying to figure out what caused this house to go up in flames in new jersey. crews struggled against a fire this morning after a powerful storm caused severe flooding in the area. officials say the house was no

-- not occupied so no injuries were reported. that same storm system has killed at least four people across the northeast, causing widespread power outages also. the nfl has suspended -- another story now, the nfl has suspended pittsburgh safety demonte casey without pay for the remainder of the regular season for repeated regulations or rules meant to protect the health and safety of players. in a game this weekend, he launched himself at the head of another player who was trying to make a diving catch. he was ejected right after that play. he can appeal the suspension under the collective bargaining agreement to see where it goes. in the meantime, nearly 9 million borrowers missed their first student loan payment after the pandemic pause and this fall. the department of education says it adds up to roughly 40% of the 22 million borrowers who had bills to in october. the borrowers though still have a grace period. those who missed payments in september 2024 are set to not face significant penalties.

so the nation's largest credit union, maybe federal, is facing a class action lawsuit over its mortgage lending practices. this is after a cnn investigation found it had the widest racial disparity in mortgage lending approval rates of any major lender. >> these are the numbers. navy federal credit union approved 48% of its black applicants for convention home mortgages in 2022 while approving 77% of white applicants. this is according to data from the consumer financial protection bureau. joining us now is cnn's rene marsh. what is this new complaint alleging because that is a staggering disparity? >> it certainly is. -- >> reporter: this lawsuit, one of the attorneys behind it, a civil rights attorney benjamin crump, he is one of several firms involved in this suit filed in federal court in virginia over the weekend. the lawsuit says that navy federal essentially violated federal housing discrimination laws. this class action is aiming to

represent a wide range of potential plaintiffs. people and minorities who try to get a loan, anywhere from 2018 to present, who may have been denied. who may have gotten a higher interest rate than was normal compared to others. for others -- or perhaps the process was delayed or dragged out unusually long compared to other applicants. this lawsuit says, and i am quoting here, while describing its corporate values, maybe federal claims it champions the community, but the claims of community support are meaningless in the face of its actions. the systemic discrimination in housing in violation of federal laws. so strong words there. again, what they are alleging is that this credit union was discriminatory. we should point out that cnn's reporting showed these racial

disparities, but it did not prove discrimination per se. >> so how is maybe federal responding? >> navy federal we have learned since our first report has hired a civil rights attorney who has come on board to review their lending practices. they shared that information with us. however, they continue to dispute that they've had any sort of discriminatory practice as it relates to who gets more and who does not get mortgages. i will point out here in washington d.c., this is caught the attention of people on capitol hill. congresswoman maxine waters yesterday calling on navy federal to explain to congress and to its members why the date looks the way it looks. and what is it that we don't understand. they are saying there is no discrimination. she's also calling for a federal investigation. >> it's so important. you point out not only is the projection of the people -- i mean when you are drying things out, that costs money. it's obviously costing money if

your interest rate is higher. all of these things are expensive even if you are getting the loan. that is key. >> that also, as well as depending on the time which you are applying, if it's a very competitive market, you potentially lose the opportunity to get that home. depending on what these investigations find in the lawsuit, we will see what changes of anything. >> we know you will keep following this, when i. thank you so much for that. still ahead, a new ruling in the case of jeffrey epstein. the names of dozens of jeffrey epstein's alleged associates and victims will be made public. we will have the details straightht ahead.

this just in.

a federal judge has ordered the names and documents and conducting with dozens of jeffrey epstein's alleged associates and victims to be made public in 2024. >> cnn's kara scannell joins us live now. kara, what more are we expected to learn? >> we are expecting more than 150 people to be identified when these documents are unsealed. these are associates of jeffrey epstein as well as some alleged victims. this is all stemming from a court case that one of his victims, the junior roberts to fray, brought against ghislaine maxwell, epstein's former girlfriend and longtime associate. she was convicted of helping epstein groom at recruit women that epstein sexually abused. so this is been a long running lawsuit and now some of these documents are going to be unsealed. it is a trove of documents. it's not going to be a list of names that we will see when the unsealing happens, but it will be a lot of documents and names referenced in them. so the judge, in making this order yesterday, noted that

many of the dose in this case did not object to their names coming out. others names have been in the public domain four years, either through media reports because they gave media interviews, or their names came out at the criminal trials. so some of these people it's not a surprise we will see their names. others peoples names are being unsealed because, as the judge put it, they are not salacious details around them. but there will be a number of victims whose names will not be unsealed because there were minors at the time of this alleged assault. while some of these names have been in public for a while, what will be interesting to see when this unsealing happens is just how they are referenced in these documents. what documents there are that exists. and the context for this, because a lot of jeffrey epstein's associates have publicly said they had nothing to do with the sexual assault and abuse. so we will be looking there to see exactly how these names are included in the documents and what it says about them. so the judge is giving all of the does about 14 days to see

if they will appeal the ruling. if not we could see these names being unsealed in all these documents by the end of the -- very beginning of next year. >> a very significant development. kara scannell, thanks very much for the report. stick around to news central. we will be right back.

senate minority leader mitch mcconnell offering his first respond to former president trump's comments that immigrants are poisoning the blood. that was the quote he used. that rhetoric drawing comparisons to hitler. >> manu, walk us through what

mcconnell said. >> reporter: i asked him about that specifically. if he had any concerns using the term poisoning the blood of our country, referring to illegal immigrants. in responding to donald trump, mitch mcconnell invoked his own wife, who is an immigrant and someone who is a natural losed american and served in donald trump's administration. he made that point as he pushed back against the former president. >> are you comfortable with your parties' leading presidential candidate referring to illegal immigrants as people poisoning the blood of our country? >> well, it strikes me that it didn't bother him when he appointed elaine as secretary of transportation. >> reporter: so mcconnell has rarely talked about donald trump and all the controversies that come along with trump through the campaign trail. in fact, in the aftermath of january 6th, very rarely

invoked the former presidents' name. even in the past when trump attacked his own wife over social media, mcconnell decided to sidestep and didn't want to talk about it. thought it was a distraction and wouldn't engage whenever was confronted about questions with it. decided here that it was important to reference his wife in a dismissive way. perhaps suggesting that trump is hypocrite cal by having an immigrant in his cabinet. you hear the response there. i talked to a number of other republicans about this. a lot of them simply are not comfortable with the former president being the party's leading candidate going that far saying that is not something i would say. as you can see here, donald trump putting his party in an awkward position with the republican leader of the senate saying clearly he doesn't agree with him. >> manu raju, thank you so much for the update. still to come, some incredible images of the lava

flow from an erupting volcano in iceland. it could last several days, potentially posing a threat. we'll be right back.

president biden hitting the trail as his campaign takes a more aggressive approach on abortion. why they believe the fight over reproductive freedoms will be critical to mobilizing voters in november. defense secretary lloyd austin is in the middle east as attacks to commercial vessels continue in the red sea and as israel's military says operations are ramping up in southern gaza.