♪ ♪ not eligible to run for

president for now. lawyers for donald trump vowing to fight the colorado supreme court ruling that could keep him off the ballot in 2024. where this fight goes now and how fast. >> and here's not a surprise, trump's republican rivals are rushing to defend him after this unprecedented ruling. we're in iowa as the candidates storm the campaign trail with less than a month to make their cases to voters before the caucuses. and new images from inside the tunnels built by hamas. the new york times reporter who was taken inside is our guest. i'm kate bolduan with sara sidner. john berman is off today. this is "cnn news central." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ this morning donald trump is vowing to fight back after being booted from the ballot in colorado. last night in a stunning decision the colorado supreme court ruled the former president is not eligible to be a

presidential candidate in 2024 because he, quote, engaged in insurrection citing the 14th amendment. the majority opinion came to the conclusion that trump not only incited, but had, quote, direct participation in the events on january 6th, but donald trump, obviously not backing down. his team is promising to appeal the decision to the supreme court. cnn's marshall cohen is joining us from d.c. marshall, can you walk us through how the colorado supreme court came to this ruling and explained it all? >> sara, good morning. this was a historic ruling and historic moment for our country, but as you mentioned it won't be the final word as the u.s. supreme court looms over all of this, but let's look at that decision from the colorado supreme court. remember, this is all about the 14th amendment which was ratified after the civil war. it says that anyone who swears an oath to the constitution and then breaks that oath and violates the constitution by

engaging in an insurrection, you can't go back to serving the public. you are disqualified, and this colorado supreme court, the majority in a 4-3 decision said that that is exactly what donald trump did. he engaged in insurrection and now he is ineligible to run again for president. let me read for you a quote from the majority opinion that carried the day in colorado. the justices wrote that president president trump did not incite the insurrection. even when it was fully under way he continued to support it by demanding that vice president mike pence refused to perform his constitutional duty and by calling senators to persuade them to stop the counting of electoral votes. these actions constituted overt, voluntary and direct participation in the insurrection because he participated in the insurrection he is disqualified from office. that was the majority, but sara,

was there also a dissent. it was a 4-3 opinion, and they took some issues with several of the rationales put forward to remove trump from the ballot. let me read for you one of the dissenting opinions. this one said that in the absence of an insurrection-related conviction, i would hold that a request to disqualify a candidate under section 3 is not a proper cause of action. it's true that trump has not been charged with the crime of insurrection. he's facing other charges in the federal election subversion case, but he wasn't charged with insurrection and according to this justice and according to a lot of people on the trump side, without that type of charge you can't be disqualified. ultimately it will be up to the u.s. supreme court to hash this all out. sara? >> and of course, there is reaction to this. how are both sides reacting to this ruling? >> well, the challengers in this case, they are taking a well-earned victory lap. a lot of people, a lot of scholars and experts kind of

laughed this off at the beginning and said it would never work and it may not ultimately win at the supreme court, but they have a victory, take a look at what chuck grimsley, one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs, here's what he told our colleague kaitlan collins last night. >> donald trump is the only person to blame for this. i understand that his supporters may be upset that he could be off the ballot, but he neds to look in the mirror as to what he did on january 6th and the days leading up to it. he is the one, and it is his actions that are going to be the thing that keeps him off the ballot. >> their argument -- their argument, sara, is that they are simply holding trump accountable with the way that the constitution provides accountability for insurrectionists. the other side of this, donald trump, his lawyers, his supporters, they are livid, and they have said that this is a massive abuse of the legal process. they have said that this is un-american, it's undemocratic. they've labeled it as election interference and they have been

making the case, sara, that the only reason that they're doing this is to take trump off the ballots in the courts because they can't beat him in the polls. >> marshall cohen, there is a lot more to come on this case. thank you so much. >> the former president is using this unprecedented ruling as a fund-raising opportunity very quickly turning to campaign e-mails. in an e-mail sent last night his campaign wrote the following. this is how dictator ships are born. i, donald trump, will not let judges steal votes of the majority of americans. the republicans running against trump are weighing in, as well. let's get to jeff zeleny in iowa, speaking to caucusgoers and speaking to the candidates and what are you hearing from the republicans and how they are responding to this? >> hey, kate, good morning. i mean, the republican rivals to former president donald trump have just begun making closing arguments and trying to draw some distinctions with him and his campaign.

that all changed last night. certainly, they have been circling the wagons and defending donald trump. we were just hearing a few moments ago from florida governor ron desantis who was speaking to a group of conservatives at a breakfast here this morning. he had this to say about that colorado ruling. >> i think the u.s. supreme court will reverse that, but here's the larger thing what the left and the media and the democrats are doing. they're doing all this stuff to basically solidify support in the primary for him, get him into the general and the whole general election's going to be all this legal stuff, and look, it's unfair. they're abusing power 100%, but the question is is that going to work? and i think they have a playbook that, unfortunately, will work and it will give biden or the democrat or whoever the ability to skate through this thing. that's their plan. >> so saying the whole general election is going to be about

legal cases, perhaps not wrong about that. it's extraordinary to think that all of the supreme court has really waiting on its desk, these weighty decisions involving the 2020 election campaign -- the 2024 election campaign, they have major rulings including whether he can be criminally prosecuted or if his name can be on the ballot. as much as this campaign is being litigated on the campaign trail, significant decisions are being made in the courtroom, as well. so all of the rivals are defending donald trump, saying voters should make these decisions, but the biggest takeaway of all is that donald trump once again benefits from all of this now, just 26 days before voters start weighing into this race. kate? >> great to see you, jeff. thank you. >> next hour, just a programming note, everybody, the colorado secretary of state jena griswald, she joins us to talk more about this colorado supreme court decision and what it means happens next. >> joining me now, former

assistant special watergate prosecutor income akerman. all right. you have this decision by a supreme court in colorado and they have come back and said he's not eligible, but he has not been convicted and there has been no one so far that has actually been convicted of insurrection. other crimes, yes, high crimes, yes, but not insurrection. how did they come to this decision? how do you make this decision? >> first of all, there is no requirement in the constitution that you need to be convicted. there are three other requirements for someone to be president. you have to be 35 years old. you have to be born in the united states and you have to have 14 months of residency. nobody ever suggested that there has to be a conviction or a civil action even that finds those facts. the fact of the matter is we've never had a president who has been involveded in an insurrection before. this is the first time and there's no requirement that there be a conviction. that is just bogus. >> it's really interesting

because when you think about that, that is the way most people think about punishment or taking someone, there has to be some major thing that's been decided by the courts. that being said, let's look at the dissent. people saying there's no precedent in this so we shoudn't do it. section 3 of the 14th amendment says insurrectionists can't serve as senators, they can't serve as representatives, electors, or hold any office civil or military in the united states or under any state, it does not specifically say president. >> no, but it does say officer and clearly, donald trump is an officer -- was an officer, i should say. >> yeah. >> the constitution itself refers to the president at least in the 25 different spots in the constitution as an officer. so that's another bogus argument. what's remarkable about this decision is they've addressed every single issue that's been raised against it knowing that

this was going to go before the u.s. supreme court. >> they have already answered the questions that were going to be put in front of the court and likely i'm hearing you say this is going to end up at the supreme court. the supreme court has a myriad of cases dealing with the presidency. unprecedented number of cases dealing with the presidency because of the cases against donald trump. how do you see this all playing out as we inch very close to an election? >> well, i think what's going to happen there are two cases that are important. it's this one and it's the one on presidential immunity. donald trump will have to take the opposite position of what he's been taking on the presidential immunity case, and say that he can bypass the d.c. court of appeals and go directly to the supreme court. so he's going to be talking out of both sides of his mouth when he files his papers today in the immunity case. so that's not very helpful fact for donald trump. the court is going to feel compelled to take both of those

cases, to decide them immediately. there's a march 4th date scheduled for the criminal trial in the district of columbia. they're going to take that very seriously, and they're also going to take this issue very seriously because it doesn't just impact colorado. it impacts all 50 states. so this is going to have to be decided by the supreme court, and nobody should figure just because trump appointed three of those justices that they're going to go his way. this is the exact same argument, or at least the feeling around the time of watergate when the court then considered whether richard nixon had to produce his tapes. there were three appointees that richard nixon had on that court and it was a unanimous decision forcing him to turn over those tapes. >> you were there. you were involved. you saw it happen yourself, but we are in uncharted territory, and it is fascinating to sort of see because this is bigger than just obviously donald trump. this is about the presidency as a whole and how it operates in

this country, and so we will all be watching. i know you will be. >> absolutely. >> thank you. >> coming up next for us, one of ron desantis' biggest supporters who is on the campaign trail in iowa with him today joins us to weigh in on all of this. also just in to cnn we have new numbers that are giving a new sense of how americans are feeling about the economy as we head into the holidays, and also what this -- where consumer confidence stands and what it means for the new year. >> and it's an underground maze. we will speak to a reporter who was taken inside the labyrinth of tunnels built by hamas in gaza. what he saw.

this morning ron desantis is on the campaign trail once again in iowa, and it is crunch time for him and all of the republican candidates as we are running, racing, barreling now towards the iowa caucuses on january 15th. the polls right now say donald trump remains the front-runner, 30-plus point ahead of iowa and ron desantis not giving up. on the trail with desantis is republican congressman of texas chip roy joins us now from iowa. thank you for coming in. you're in iowa with ron desantis and i've heard you say many times you do not put a lot of stock in the polls that i'm just citing about him being a distant second to trump there. do you consider anything short of a win in iowa a victory for ron desantis there? >> well, i'm not looking through that lens, all right? we need a victory for the

american people. governor desantis is the leader that i believe will provide that victory and a lot of people in iowa see it that way. iowans take this very seriously. they know polls don't decide who the president will be. they get to decide. all roads to the white house lead through iowa and when they sit down and meet with governor desantis they meet a leader who has delivered. he has time and time again proven to do what he said he would do and he's done it on serious, conservative principle, right? this is a time right now when people in iowa want strong, conservative pushback than we're seeing with biden, wide open borders, the economy teetering and worldwide, all sorts of instability with what's going on in israel and the middle east and russia and ukraine and we need leadership that's sorely lacking and we need conservative leadership and we don't need someone from south carolina, saddling up with wall street donors and we don't need to look at donald trump's past and

whether or not he will give a medal to anthony fauci and we need someone like ron desantis who delivered for florida. >> will say the certain governor's name because that's exactly who i wanted to ask you about next. ron desantis and nikki haley and outside groups supporting them have spent millions on campaign ads attacking each other and i was looking at the numbers this morning and desantis has spent relatively little in targeting donald trump who you need to beat. do you think that is good strategy when it doesn't matter if trump's 30 points ahead or ten points ahead, he's clearly a formidable challenger. >> yeah, well, the main purpose right now is we're getting governor desantis' positive message out, but with respect to governor haley, look, they're the ones that have dumped $30 million in attacking governor desantis. why would that be? is that because he can't win or they view him as the front-runner in iowa and they're

attacking him? that's the truth, and look, we just saw what's going on with afp and all of the big donors and new york and wall street saddling up with nikki haley with longtime relationships doing deal with china and saddling up with disney and saying why don't you come to south carolina when donald trump was taking on the corporate world, governor haley was trying to move them to south carolina. the people of iowa, they don't like that. they don't like someone who is expanding daca at the border and fine when we need to secure it and we certainly don't want anyone coming from gaza, and she's a friend and i like governor haley and i'll support the republican nominee and we need a true, tested conservative -- >> i just want to make sure i got this right because the control room is giving me a time in my ear. who from gaza?

i'm going to say this, i'm not going to go through and give the nikki haley defense on a lot of these positions and this is what we're seeing in the attack ads, but what is this about gaza? >> well, i mean, governor haley was pretty sympathetic to saying we need to be opening our doors to bring people in from gaza and palestinians during this conflict which to me is very troubling and dangerous. when we've right now got wide-open boards and we have massive exploitation of the israeli borders by people in gaza affiliated with hamas and when she was at the united nations she did nothing to stop $12.5 billion to the united nations and funded hamas. in addition to qatar when governor desantis was asking what are we doing to allow money to be flowing to hamas and now qatar is hosting half of hamas. >> wouldn't you agree that qatar has played a key role in getting

american hostages freed from hamas' control. >> well, right now what we need is leadership in the white house that would end all of this instead of allowing our shipping channels to get shut down and allow american hostages to get taken while we're projecting weakness rather than demonstrating strength. they were trying to help negotiations and hamas is hanging out in qatar right now. so i think we need to do our job to stand strong in the world of governor desantis, and the american people see that, and people of iowa see that and that's why i'm happy to be on the campaign trail here. >> let me ask you about what the big news this morning colorado supreme court deciding that donald trump is disqualified from the state's primary ballot. what's your reaction to that? >> yeah. look, it's a terrible opinion. i think it will be struck down by the supreme court, but this is all the kind of stuff the

american people are teaired of. they're tired of hearing what the next attack is going to be. they want to look forward. they want someone who can serve for eight years and someone that can provide a vision that they can get behind and follow and sdem straighting success, and securing the xhuvenities in the streets and standing up to stop illegal immigration and doing all of the things that he's done to make florida a net migration state where people are moving there, and they don't want to be talking about the colorado supreme court. literally, you guys are asking about. when i'm in a gaggle, nobody at the breakfast was going oh, man, the colorado supreme court and there was one question and it was about trump and it was not whether or not -- >> it's a historic ruling coming from a supreme court kicking, removing a presidential candidate from a ballot. this is an immediate creation, i know you can respect that. it is news to be discussed, and i want to know what ron desantis

thinks about it, and that's why i also care what you think about it because it gets to the question to what happened on january 6th and what role did donald trump play in it. this is all intertwined. the politics and the legal can be two very separate things here -- >> well, kate, i've answered the question. >> i just want to ask you one more time. >> i answered the question yesterday and so did governor desantis in saying that we believe that clearly a wrong opinion by the colorado supreme court. i believe it will be struck down by the u.s. supreme court. i don't think it's unconstitutional. i think it's harassing the former president in ways that are completely inappropriate. it wasn't to say you shouldn't cover the question, it's to say this, the people in iowa that i'm talking to, they're not talking about the colorado supreme court other than the extent to which it's about all we're focusing on are those questions about the former president. we're not focusing on inflation. we're not focusing on how we're going to end the internal

combustion engine in iowa. and texans and this administration will lead us to a fleet of electric vehicles which will destroy the internal combustion engine, and drives up inflation and is harming hardworking families. let's stop that. governor desantis would stop that. they care about their food bills, their electricity bills and having the ability to get a car they can afford, a house they can afford, interest rating coming down, a border that is secure. they don't want to talk about legal rulings because of the focus on the past issues with the president. >> a lot of things happening on the trail, and you are one of them. congressman chip roy, thank you for coming in. i always appreciate your time. >> thanks, kate. merry christmas. >> thank you. all right. coming up, attitudes are changing. what new numbers are showing now about how consumers feel about the u.s. economy. plus, israeli military officials say they have uncovered some 1500 tunnels in gaza.

ahead, i'll speak with "the new york times" reporter ronan bergman who went inside of those tunnels, those incredible pictures and source-rich insight next.

new this morning, consumer confidence grew for the third month in a row. new data showing the confidence levels are now at their highest

since july. cnn's vanessa kavich has more. what is in the numbers? tell me. >> what are people seeing in terms of prices. this is what people are feeling and this is a really good indicator and we are seeing that people in the month of december are feeling much better about the economy, and that's great news. the index at 110.7 riding from the previous month which was at about 102, the highest since july and then the present situation. how people are feeling right now. that's 148.5, and that's up more than ten index points and expectations which is really important is how people feel the economy's going to be doing over the next six months. for the past few months, that number has been below 80 and usually indicates that people are feeling like a recession is coming. now that this number is above 80. it's 85.6, it's encouraging and people are feeling like we're going to potentially avoid a

recession, and when you look at who is feeling this way it's across all age groups, but particularly people between 35 and 54 are feeling the most optimistic right now. >> what's behind that, do you think? it's hard to judge, but -- >> i will also say these are higher earnings. these are people who are making over $125,000, and so probably they are looking at, you know, potentially their 401(k)s and their savings moves and they're going to make in the economy, and a lot of folks in this survey are saying that they believe that interest rates will fall. they believe the stock market will rise, and a lot of people saying that they are potentially going to be making big purchases now, spikily on homes and we've seen mortgage rates come down. >> that's been the stickiest and most stubborn when we've been talking about inflation. >> right. people have been waiting on the sidelines waiting for prices to come down and that's what they're starting to see,

however, when you dig into this report the biggest issue for people still is rising prices, and when people were asked about their current family financial conditions, they weren't feeling good about it in the moment right now as they were asked, but as they were asked about the future, they were feeling more encouraged. so overall, this is very good news in terms of how people are feeling. we'll also get another survey on friday. consumer sentiment and so we'll see if that tracks in line with this, but a very good number about how people are feeling today. >> it's very interesting. good to see you, melissa. thank you. >> israeli officials say since october 7th they have discovered some 1500 tunnels in gaza all part of an underground world complicating. many of these shafts are located in civilian areas and inside civilian structures. the largest discovered on sunday. it's wide enough for a large

vehicle and is equipped with electricity, ventilation and communication systems inside that tunnel and joining with us more on this and one of the journalists who was allowed inside to get a look. author of "rise and kill first: the secret history," it is a dense book, reads like a novel and very well done. first of all, you went into these tunnels and one of the biggest one so far and took some stunning photos. i'm curious just what your initial impression was of being inside that massive tunnel. >> thanks. it's not just being inside the tunnel. it is a walkable distance from the israeli border. you see -- actually walking from the some of us prefer to walk from the israeli border.

you see the ruins of the towers, the communication centers and the automatic machines that hamas destroyed on the first day of the attack and then you look at the tunnel. this is the biggest tunnel the idf sold us that they have found so far. in fact, off the record, with some confidential sources they say that they didn't know that hamas built such a tunnel, that a big car and small truck can go through. they found in one of the raids of hamas headquarters they found a video of muhammad sinwar, the brother of the leader of hamas was the leader of the tunnel project, driving in his private car in the passenger seat through this tunnel, and the feeling was, first of all, i don't want to say operation, but respect toward this kind of

unbelievable digging capabilities while knowing that this was done instead of building gaza, they built tunnels. second, the fact that the israeli intelligence missed that and israeli leaders did not devote enough attention to destroy those tunnels and third, it was just by the border with israel and so walking there gave the very clear understanding per the construction and military capabilities of hamas. >> looking at those pictures, it is remarkable to see just how much technology is in there, how big it is and what can come through there. you touched on this and i want to the go back to this. israel's intelligence agencies have always had this reputation of being all-knowing about what is happening in and around israel. october 7th tore that reputation apart and then when it comes to

these tunnels, did their scale and technological intricacies and the vast network surprise not only the military, but some of your sources at high levels in the intelligence agencies? >> so just to put things into proportion. in 2014 israel discovered that hamas was building so-called attack tunnels. hamas was planning its invasion into israel with this kind, they called it the orchard because tunnel, they didn't know it was so big, and they knew it existed and they destroyed it in 2014, and the israeli conclusion was to build a massive, sub terrain fence that was successful and it stopped the tunnels from crossing into israel. this was an achievement, a technological achievement and intelligence achievement, but it led to a catastrophe because while the israelis felt that they basically stopped the big

plan, we now know that the code name is jerry code, the hamas found a much harder way which was to go -- >> you're looking at the pictures that you took, and some of the video that your photographer took there inside of those tunnels where you have soldiers coming out side by sis side. ronen bergman, we saw the brother of yahya sinwar, a video of him driving through those very tunnels in a truck and it is remarkable what we see. >> those really are remarkable pictures. coming up still for us, a federal judge in new york just ordered the names of some of jeffrey epstein's alleged

associates to be made public. why? and what this could mean now.

are fanned out across iowa today as the caucuses are just a few weeks away. i think 26? that's happening on january 15th. florida governor ron desantis spoke earlier in urbandale. vivek ramaswamy just began a town hall in cedar falls and nikki haley's town hall starts in less than an hour.

this is happening mere hours after colorado supreme court made history by gop front-runner donald trump is unable to run citing the ban on insurrectionists holding public office. the gazette bureau chief aaron murphy is joining us from des moines. thank you so much for being here. give me a sense of how you see, i just want to talk about colorado quickly first, how you see the candidates basically defending donald trump, making a pitch for themselves in other ways to iowans who are about to go into caucus? >> yeah. much like they've had to do with other topics involving the former president, the candidates have tried to walk a fine line here. you mentioned the event this morning in urbandale with governor desantis. he said that he believes what the colorado supreme court ruled was wrong.

he believed the u.s. supreme court will overturn it, but he also said that whether it's not as fair, that's the kind of thing that follows former president trump, and he made that as a case for why iowa republican voters should look at him instead of the former president. so -- so, you know, he's careful to criticize the supreme court ruling, the colorado supreme court ruling, but also use it as an example of why voters should look away from former president trump. >> you are very diplomatic. i would say turning themselves into pretzels trying to figure out how to use this and also not be extremely critical of the person that they have to beat in order to go to the general. all right. i do want to ask you because you have spent a lot of time talking to iowa voters, and what are they -- what are they saying about if there is for them an alternative to donald trump, who the numbers show is the clear front-runner in iowa?

>> yeah. well, my sense of it is there are two different populations here in iowa. the folks who are in former president trump's camp are pretty staunchly in former president trump. a very small slice of that pie that remains open to a different candidate. those supporters are in his camp and they're not budging for anything and this colorado supreme court ruling, i highly doubt will be anything that changes that either. so that leaves governor desantis and nikki haley sort of competing for a smaller piece of the iowa republican electorate here as they try to beat the candidate that has a late charge here in iowa and that has happened in the past and be someone that gets closer to the former president and at least comes out of the state if not beating trump, at least with the momentum. >> all right. i do want to talk about the words that donald trump has been using in a new poll that's out

amongly likely gop caucus goers in iowa about trump's comments saying immigrants are poisoning the blood of america. here's how it looks like more likely to vote for him? 42% and it is a very high number and what does it tell you about the voters in iowa and the rhetoric that's been used and it's been widely criticized especially by democrats, but by a lot of different groups. >> yeah. that just speaks to what i alluded to. the folks who were with former president trump are with him through thick and then and there are folks who when he says things like that they're with him and it doesn't bother them what kind of historical context something like that may or may not have, and then there are other people in that same poll and another 30% that said it doesn't change their mind one way or the other. so you have people who it

doesn't matter at all and they hear things like that and they say i wish he wouldn't say things like that, but it doesn't change their mind about supporting him. >> every time something like this comes up, we see the same thing and it speaks to how firmly his support is entrenched. >> that's a good way to put it. spoken plainly and clearly from des moines, iowa. thank you so much, aaron, and we'll be back with you probably in the next week or so. stick around. coming up for us, a federal judge has ordered the names of several of jeffrey epstein's alleged victims and associates to be made public. what could be learned from the you i newly unsealed documents?

a federal judge has now ordered the names of dozens of jeffrey epstein's alleged victims and associates be made public. this is the latest development in a case that was settled years ago against epstein's former girlfriend ghislaine maxwell who was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking charges that was what epstein was convicted of. kara scannell is here now. what does it do? >> this has been at the request of some media organizations to try to understand the full universe of jeffrey epstein because it has been a story that has percolated for years, and ultimately with maxwell's conviction in 2021. so the judge has gone through this and it's not just going to be a list of names. she went through jane does and john does one by one deciding what information could be

unsealed and what couldn't and what she decided what could be unsealed where in the case of a number of does where they didn't object to the unsealing of the materials that relate to them, the determination was that these people had already become public because they themselves gave me the interviews or they became public through court cases and including at the trial where their identities came out and the material that includes their name was not salacious and the right of public access was something of greater importance. there are a lot of famous names that have been out around this and all those men have denied any knowledge of epstein's sexual trafficking operation, but this will shed more light on this. i mean, what won't be unsealed will be the identities of some of these victims who were minors at the time and have chosen not to go public in any way so the judge will protect their privacy in this. she is still giving everyone 14 days over the holidays to object to this, to file an appeal if

they want to stop it, but if not then these names could become public beginning in the new year and possibly january 1st and that's a holiday for the courts or january 2nd unless there is a stay with the appeals court. >> it is interesting with the long tale, and i did misspeak. epstein was not convicted. he died by suicide while he was awaiting trial and charged and indicted on many sex trafficking charges in 2019. it's great to see you. thank you very much for the update. coming up, it was an unprecedented decision. the colorado supreme court voting to remove former president trump from the state's 2024 ballot. reaction from the former president and the 2024 gop hopefuls. that's coming up. plus, we're standing by to hear from secretary of state antony bl blinken at his end of year press conference as israel and hamas are potentially on another hostage deal although they are still pretty far apart.

goli, taste your goals.