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♪ ♪ a sad day in america this morning. donald trump is reacting to the colorado supreme court decision keeping him off the state's 2024 primary ballot. colorado secretary of state jena griswald joins us to talk about the unprecedented ruling. new hope in israel. the stalled negotiations to try to get more israeli hostages released from hamas captivity, they're beginning once again. the proposal to pause fighting to try to pull this off.

>> the level of iran-backed attacks on shipping vessels on the red sea is the most in two generations. the u.s. launching a new coalition to try to protection those critical shipping lanes. i'm sara sidner with kate bolduan. john berman is off. this is "cnn news central." ♪ ♪ ♪ taking it to the u.s. supreme court. that is the promise from donald trump's team this morning after the colorado supreme court removed his name from the state's primary ballot. now the 4-3 ruling from colorado's high court leaned on section 3 of the 14th amendment of the constitution known as the insurrection ban and prohibits people from taking an oath of office if they've engaged in an insurrection or rebellion. if trump's team will appeal, they and the supreme court are looking at a tight timeline. colorado elections officials say

they need a certified list of candidates by january 5th which is just three months exactly before the state's primary in march. cnn's joan biskupic joins us. now the attention turns to the u.s. supreme court. what could happen here? >> yes, a lot and very fast. the colorado state supreme court is the first court in the country to say that donald trump should be kept off of the ballot based on that provision of the 14th amendment. it said in its ruling that it concluded that the evidence, the great bulk of which had been proved at trial established that president trump engaged in insurrection, president trump's direct and express efforts over several months exhorted, to alleged fraud on the people of this country were overt and voluntary. i should tell you, kate, that the three dissenters in the 4-3

case stressed that donald trump had never been convicted of insurrection and there are other questions about whether donald trump should even be covered by this provision of the 14th amendment as a colorado trial judge had said. so very weighty questions that are going to be put to the supreme court that will affect not just colorado, but other litigation that's percolating up here. the timeline you asked about. the colorado supreme court said that its ruling should be put on hold until january 4th, but if trump's lawyers get to the supreme court by then, and at least appeal this, then there could be an indefinite hold until the supreme court itself acts, but we already know from the secretary of state that there's a january 5th deadline for certifying the ballots. there are other deadlines later in january that the state faces to get these ballots out to people. so time is really going to be of the essence here, kate. >> do you think this will encourage other states to follow

suit? >> i think that some -- first of all, this is a very groundbreaking decision. as i mentioned, other lower court and other state lower courts had not gone this far, but it could open up the potential for these losses to be brought in other places and kate, we're in the primary election cycle now. this could continue until the general election cycle unless the supreme court quickly and definitively resolves whether former president donald trump will be covered by this provision. kate? >> there is a lot going on here. joan, thank you very much. >> sure. >> meanwhile, the former president is using this ruling to drive voters to donate to his campaign. his allies and supporters are rallying around him even those who are running against him are rallying around him from the republican party. joining us now is cnn's jeff zeleny from iowa where the candidates are all over iowa trying to convince voters that they are the ones that should be

in the front-runner's seat even though donald trump clearly is right now in the polling. what are you hearing? >> sara, it certainly is complicated by the fact that every time these underscandidat trying to draw these distinctions and trying to consider the choices in this race and they're rallying around the former president and defending him or talking against the court rulings. we heard nikki haley saying that voters should make these decisions. she said we are going to win this the correct way. judges should not be, but some interesting sound and thinking from florida governor ron desantis just a short time ago. he did call the ruling in colorado unfair. he said they believe voters should make these decisions, but he also asked if voters want all this drama hanging over their lives in the presidential race for the next year? >> 2024 to be about this trial, that case, this case, having put

hundreds of millions of dollars into legal stuff or do we want 2024 to be about your issues, about the country's future? >> so that's an electability argument he is making rate there, asking voters if they want to live through all of the legal cases and the drama. that's a word that nikki haley uses as well. this ruling is less than a day old and we will see in the coming days if the republican rival candidates can get the message and it is an uphill road on republican voters and the sentiment expressed at a rally he held last night in iowa shortly after that ruling and this is what some of them had to say. >> it's not right that they should take him off the ballot. it's not what the people want. isn't it odd that everything that he does they attack him for, they file court proceedings against him, but the democrats can get away with everything. >> of course, there's no sense

that democrats at a national level or local level are involved in this at all, but that is just a whisper, a hint of the conspiracy theories that the former president often espouses that he is being attacked by his rivas. sara, the bottom line it all of this and the supreme court will be a central stop as well as all of the other legal jurisdictions in the presidential campaign and the votes begin in 26 days as you take the holidays out of there and not much time for campaigning and these candidates making their case across the state trying to make their case. >> we'll have to let the caucus goers make their decisions and i know you'll be there. jeff zeleny, thank you so much. >> moments ago, president biden's campaign, and this is the first reaction and response we've received from joe biden -- has not offered any reaction, but from his campaign to the colorado ruling and they would not comment on ongoing

litigation, but did say this, we are prepared for whoever will emerge from the primary. there you have that. joining us is white house correspondent for "usa today," jessica chambers. what do you think about that from the biden campaign? maybe we shouldn't expect much more than that. >> this has been consistent with what their strategy has been so far which is to not get into the legal issues and to say that is up to the courts because one of their central arguments has been that the department of justice is independent, that the courts are independent so that donald trump cannot make the kinds of claims like his campaign is making that somehow democrats are involved in this of which there is no evidence of that. >> let me play for you, we had democratic senator, close ally of joe biden's on the show, chris coons was on the show earlier about this colorado ruling and let me play chris coons, how he reacted to it. >> so whether it is a court that

determines he's unfit to hold office because he took up force against our constitution or mobilized a mob against our constitution or because the electorate throws him out, i don't think it really matters if he's unfit to hold office, we should all be encouraged by any action that makes it less likely that he will return to the presidency. >> i found an interesting take hearing that from coons who is so closely, who is such a close ally of president biden's and how he reacted in saying that no matter how it comes about, whatever avenue it is it makes him less likely to be president is a good one in his view. >> and campaign surrogates can say things that the campaign themselves cannot say or will not say, and so that could be one of the roles that chris coons is playing there, but he hits on a point that is somewhat similar to what chris christie was saying who has been one of

the most vocal people like donald trump saying i don't hate the guy and i believe he is unfit to be president, however, this is something that the voters should decide, and you've heard the other republican presidential candidates chime in there, as well and say we want the voters to decide. haley saying she wants to win fair and square. >> i had chip roy, republican congressman now speaking of surrogates, the surrogate for ron desantis and he's in iowa with ron desantis and was on with me earlier and it seemed he was trying his level best to move on and want talk about it, separating the legal from the political, could one reason be is that this ruling and how donald trump talks about it that it could benefit him and how this is unfolding when it comes to republican voters? >> and that's what we've seen in the past is that every time that donald trump winds up in court that it has often just improved

his numbers as he goes out and claims that this is an assault on him and then it's an assault on his supporters and when you look at a state like iowa where in two polls in the last week he is at 50% or above for the other candidates to be able to catch up to him, they'll have to win over some of his voters. they can certainly try to turn out new caucusgoers which is a strategy that his campaign is employing, but seemingly, to catch up to him, they need to catch up to the people supporting him so far we've seen the campaigns take the strategy that they think that criticizing him is not the way to do that. you've been following the nikki haley campaign very closely, and i wanted to ask you kind of what you're hearing in terms of the state of play there because again, i want to play now something from congressman chip roy because he spent a lot of time attacking nicki haley in trying to make that distinction, a very firm distinction between nikki haley and ron desanntis ad

iowa. >> with respect to governor haley they're the ones that have dumped $30 million combined in attacking governor desantis. why would that be? is that they view him as the front-runner in u iowa and theye attacking him and that's the truth. >> which is exactly the argument that nikki haley is making about why donald trump and ron desantis are attacking her because of how she is doing. >> so in the closing days of the iowa caucus we've seen both of these camps do the desantis camp and the haley camp is try and drag down each other's numbers because both of these campaigns are hopeful that they'll get into a head to head race with donald trump, and so in one sense if the haley campaign can cool down desantis' numbers in iowa and it's a blowout for donald trump and potentially

force him into a decision and what they have is a situation where they're in new hampshire and south carolina and she's head to head with donald trump because they think in that situation that they can be. certainly the desantis campaign has been saying the same thing for a long time, as well. if we can get in a head to head race we'll have a chance here. . >> racing towards the end point or the beginning. >> depends on how you look at it? depends on where you stand on this one. great to see you, thank you. >> thanks. this morning there are new concerns as a volcanic eruption releases toxic gasses into the air. look at those pictures taken tuesday. potentially, those gasses could reach the capital of iceland. monday's eruption sent lava and thick plumes of smoke into the air from a vent over two miles long. cnn's senior international

correspondent frederik pleitgen is in grandovik iceland where residents are not allowed to be home for christmas. first of all, what you're seeing, what you're feeling and it is still freezing out there and yet you have this huge, explosive volcano that's wreaking all sorts of havoc. what can you tell us? >> it is a special time right now because we've been allowed the exclusion zone that's been cordoned off by the authorities and we're as close as authorities will let us get. we can zoom into what we're seeing right now, sara. i think we're about a mile, a mile and a half away away from the actual fissure that you saw there on that video where you had those massive explosions that were going on. the activity has calmed down a little bit the authorities are saying, but they are concerned. you mentioned that vent that was spewing lava and magma dozens of feet into the air, sometimes a hundred feet into the air and that is still going on, but it

is now going on in fewer places, however the authorities are saying that they feel that new vents could open up and that then the explosions could get worse. again, right now it's not clear. of course, we know this is all geology and seismic activity and lava activity that's going on, so right now things have calmed down a little bit, but the danger has not passed and the toxic gasses that the authorities believe are being released rid now. we are very close to the icelandic capital. we are also very close to the main airport of iceland. right now the gasses -- i can tell you from being here on the ground though, it is quite a natural spectacle, if you will. it is something incredible to see, the force of nature and the power of our planet as it spews this magma into the air and to see that up close is certainly something very special and there are a lot of tourists that have come out, as well.

for the residents of this area they've been told they will not be able to return to their houses until christmas. if you have something like what you're seeing behind me close to your house that's not a surprise to people evacuated. >> you don't know this about me, but i am obsessed with volcanos and you are a mile away and we can see it exploding out of the ground and absolutely incredible where you and your team got and our hearts go out to those out of their homes. fred pleitgen thank you for getting there and showing us those amazing pictures. >> israel back in negotiations with hamas to secure the release of hostages who have been held captive in gaza forrer inially three months now and members of congress are urging president biden to push for a way they're saying that is a significant shift from israel's military strategy. more on that. and the colorado supreme court has spoken, and now we're

going to speak to colorado's top election official, the colorado secretary of state next.

negotiation in exchange for a pause in fighting the war grinds on and civilians in gaza are still suffering the brunt of those battles. here in the united states a group of house democrats is

calling on president biden to pu push israel for an immediate and significant shift. it came in a letter to president biden's desk this week and sign by six democrats who sat on national security committees. one of those lawmakers is democratic kelly houlihan and with the arms services committee and joins us now from pennsylvania your home state this morning and thank you so much for joining us. let's talk about what has happened so far. so far we have seen the biden administration send their top cabinet members, secretary of state of defense -- excuse me, lloyd austin went this week to send a message to protect civilians better. netanyahu for his part, the prime minister of israel, doesn't seem to be listening. what other types of leverage do you think that the biden administration should and can use? >> first of all, thank you for having me again. yes, the letter that we all collectively wrote was an opportunity to speak publicly about some of the things that

we, frankly, have been speaking behind the scenes for quite some time. a real concern that the level of civilian casualties is far too high. we all understand and agree that hamas must be illuminated and decapitated and less powerful, but it cannot be at the expense of the palestinian people, and so what our letter is publicly asking our president to make sure he is using all of the levers that he can and those levers, as you mentioned is things like diplomatic pressure and things on netanyahu's administration. we have those levers, and i'm hopeful that some of those are coming to fruition. as i mentioned, there's conversations in poland and in israel about this particular conflict right now, and i am hopeful that it will resolve in a durable and lasting peace. we have a responsibility to tell israel honestly as allies, as

strong allies that we've seen this play before and we've learned lessons about this sort of conflict before. we cannot bomb our way into peace. we need to make sure that we have a strategy and that is one of the things that we're trying to articulate publicly as this group of democrats has done. >> i do want to ask you about one of the potential levers. the biden administration has been very clear publicly that it has no current plans to place conditions on military aid to israel. would you like those conditions to be placed on the aid? >> i -- i hope that it would never come to that, honestly, and i think one of the things that i'm frustrated at is the fact that we now have our congress going home for the holidays without having addressed the issue to aid to israel or the issue of aid to ukraine or the issue of support for our southern border and these are all things that are very much tied to one another, and i want to make sure that we address those pressing needs and i'm frustrated, frankly, that

this congress has been so unproductive that we are able to support our allies in israel and our own national security through our border. so i guess my answer would be this is why we have these conversations. we want to make sure that we are indicating that we are here to help israel and they're our strongest ally and the beacon of democracy in the middle east and we want to make sure what they're doing represents those values and we are supportive of them. >> when you talk about conditions because you said you hope it doesn't come to putting conditions on the aid. which conditions? what are things other than sending in cabinet members to have very stark and -- and talks often about the casualty numbers, about the civilians in gaza, about that the united states believes that israel is going to really lose a lot of the allies, if you will, when it comes to dealing with this problem as they see so many people getting killed.

what, specifically, do you think has not been met. in other words, what more can the united states and the biden administration do? >> we can help in terms of our military experience and advice and many of the colleagueses who wrote that letter and co-wrote that letter was part of the decades-war we fought in a fairly similar situation where we learned hard lessons and we're trying to articulate to the israeli government and the israeli military how to be more thoughtful, more strategic and less reactionary to this threat. i think those are things that we are also learned and communicated with our help with ukraine and our ally with ukraine and so those are some of the things that we are able to do and help and explain to people how to be more thoughtful and forward thinking in terms of what a durable and lasting peace would look like. so i think those are some of the things that are happening behind

the scenes, so to speak. congresswoman, chrissy houlihan joining us from pennsylvania. thank you and have a wonderful holiday. >> thank you, you, too. the colorado supreme court removed donald trump from the primary ballot saying he incited an insurrection on january 6th. jena griswald said she would uphold the court's decision and she joins us next.

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donald trump's team is promising to appeal the colorado state supreme court ruling taking him off of the state's primary election ballot. in the 4-3 ruling they said donald trump is not eligible to hold office because he, quote, engaged in insurrection. the justices acknowledged that in their opinion -- they said this also in their opinion that we do not reach these conclusions lightly. we are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us, and the weight of those questions and weight of this ruling also is now landing on colorado secretary of state and secretary jena griswald joins us now to talk more about the next steps. the first -- first, i want to ask you about the ballot certification deadline coming up on january 5th. that is a real question of what happens and what happens after. have you considered yet and do

you have a conclusion on what happens if the supreme court does not issue a decision by then? >> well, first off, thank you for having me on. this is a historic opinion from the colorado supreme court which affirmed a lower court's decision that donald trump did, indeed, engage in insurrection and that is barring him from being on the colorado ballot. ballot certification is in a couple of weeks on january 5th and we do hope that if the supreme court is going to take the case that they do so quickly because we need to make sure that the right people are on the ballots when colorado votes in the presidential primary. >> and what happens if they don't by january 5th? >> well, there's a couple paths that could happen. first off, the u.s. supreme court could decide that they

don't want to take the case in which case the colorado supreme court's decision that trump is disqualified would hold. now if they do take the case trump would be presumed to be on the ballot unless the u.s. supreme court would quickly vote otherwise either in a full decision or in a decision that's part way through the case and we just have to see how this plays out, but as of today, if the u.s. supreme court does not take the case, if those appeals are not filed donald trump is not qualified as a candidate in the state of colorado. >> some legal scholars have been arguing over the section 3 of the 14th amendment that this leans on. some saying that it does not apply to the presidency. others arguing that it does and the law says every citizen. you have said that your office determines candidate eligibility

based on the constitution every day. what is your interpretation of this bigger question? >> kate, i agree with the colorado supreme court. donald trump tried to incite an insurrection to steal the presidency. not only did he incite the insurrection. then he spent months trying to undermine the peaceful transfer of power and when it comes to the 14th amendment, i do not think there should be a loophole for the presidency. that basically would say if there was a loophole that donald trump is above the law when it comes to rebellion or insurrection. i don't believe that that's appropriate in the united states of america. ultimately, though, i am not the decider in the case. the courts are. as of right now the colorado supreme court says that he is disqualified and we'll see if the u.s. supreme court intervenes and holds otherwise. >> secretary, if you could stick with me, we need to jump over to

the state department right now. secretary of state tony blinken is speaking. let's listen in. >> -- international system, more inclusive, more effective, more responsive to advancing these issues from the world bank to the g20 which will now have the african union as a permanent member. on every one of these priorities and on many others, delivering for the american people means improving the lives of people around the world. the reverse is also true, leading on these global challenges is good for americans. when we help reduce the flow of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs we're not only tackling the number one killer of americans 18 to 49 it hurts families around the world and rooting out the criminal organizations that profit from their suffering. when we rally democratic partners and allies to build clean energy infrastructure in countries that can't afford to build it on their own, we are

preserving our shared planet and creating new opportunities for american workers, american businesses, american investors. when we team up with other countries to hold accountable and deter governments that arbitrarily obtain foreign nationals as political pawns we can apply more effective pressure to bring our citizens home and we make people in our nations less vulnerable. fourth, in the conflict between israel and hamas we will continue to focus intensely on our core priorities helping israel ensure that what happened on october 7th can never happen again. bringing the conflict to an end as quickly as possible weil minimizing the loss of life and the suffering of civilians, getting the reing hostages back home to their families, preventing the conflict from spreading and once and for all, breaking the devastating cycle of violence and moving toward durable, lasting peace.

we continue to believe that israel does not have to choose between removing the threat of hamas and minimizing the toll on civilians in gaza. has an obligation to do both, and it has a strategic interest to do both. we are more determined than ever to ensure that out of this horrific tragedy comes a moment of possibility for israelis and for palestinians and for the region to live in lasting peace and lasting security, that out of this darkness comes light. realizing that possibility will require all parties to make tough choices about the steps that they're willing to take including the united states. we will test this proposition with the urgency and the creativity that it deserves and that america's interests demand. this is the spirit that has long animated president biden in the face of seemingly intractable

conflicts. as vice president, he helped oversee the end to the iraq war. as president, he ended the longest war in america's history in afghanistan. he helped secure and later extend a truce in the conflicts. he's bringing that same focus to bear right now. across every one of our priorities america has been more effective because of the steps we've taken to build a more agile, a more diverse state department, there, too, we continued the effort in 2023 in partnership with congress, and i note know this department participated in 106 hearings this year which by our count is a record. we secured new authorities to rapidly fill critical staff and gaps in crises and we established a new bureau on global health security and we added hundreds of positions on the training float and created dozens of new courses and

development opportunities. we established a global pay-based line for staff. we boosted access to student loan repayment programs and expanded positions for eligible family members among many other steps we've taken to advance to the greatest resource, its people. as you heard the president say, we are at an inflexion point for our country and for the world. what we do, what we failed to do in this moment, will have profound consequences for decades to come. the stakes could not be clearer. if we want to deliver on the issues that affect the lives of the american people we have to keep investing in ourselves in our ability to solve global challenges, and to do that we need the congress to pass the a additional funding requests.

here's what will happen with the supplemental, our fellow citizens, our businesses, our workers, allies and partners, people around the world who are looking to the united states to lead. here's who cheers if we fail, moscow, tehran, beijing. if we come up short it won't be our adversaries and competitors who stop us, it will be ourselves. before turning to you for some questions, let me just say this, i want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you, to thank our press corps, those present in the room and those outside who may be listening in. this has been an extraordinarily dangerous year for press around the world. many killed, many more wounded, hundreds detained, attacked,

threatened, injured, simply for doing their jobs, and yet you've persisted, you've stayed at it, and i am immensely grateful for that. to all of the reporters here today with whom i've clocked a few miles this past year, your relentless efforts to ask tough questions often multi-part and get accurate, timely information to people around the globe is a true public service. it's vital that we continue, you continue to do that because it's so important to everything that all of us care about. inform, engaged citizens, truth, accountability, democracy, and you do it in a way that humanizes people in an ever-more dehumanized world. so i am profoundly grateful to you for the work that you do,

even if i don't always show it. with that, i'm happy on take some questions. >> thank you, mr. secretary. happy holidays? thank you. >> i know that this is intended to be a 30,000 -- >> all right. we are listening in to the secretary of state tony blinken. his year-end press conference, just starting to take questions from reporters. we'll be right back after this.

we want to take you back to secretary of state blinken on the state of the united states'

position in the world and we're talking about the u.n. security council resolution when it comes to israel and its war on hamas. let's listen. >> to the last part of your question, let me say this, what i have seen from day one is that countries throughout the region as well as countries around the world want to work with us and are looking for american leadership in this crisis, even countries that may disagree with us on certain issues that have come to the fore. that's been a common refrain. i've been not only in the region multiple times and traveled to not justice rail, but to virtually our partners and others including turkey and we've been on the phones constantly including this week with all of our partners and the common refrain is they are looking for american leadership and we're working to provide that. [ inaudible question ]

>> hi, michelle. >> just real quickly on gaza, how would you characterize the talks on a new hostage deal for a pause is that imminent, are you making progress on that and then more broadly, we end this year with much of the world blaming the u.s. and israel for seeing it as america's war also and it's hurting america's image in the world. there's a stalemate in ukraine and no new aid package and the fighting goes on in sudan. i wonder if there's anywhere that you're re-thinking strategy or have some ideas on how to change the dynamics on any this is something we very much would like to see happen. as you know, we're instrumental

in getting the first humanitarian pause that facilitated the release of 110 hostages. israel has been very clear, including as recently as today, that it would welcome returning to a pause in the further release of hostages. the problem was and has been and remains hamas. they during the first pause for hostage releases, the question is whether they are willing to resume this effort. certainly, something that we would welcome, i know that israel would welcome, and the world would welcome. so we'll see what they choose to do. we remain actively engaged in see figure we can get a pause back on and hostages moving out again. >> you heard there that israel says it's welcome ing the retur to a pause, but for the release of host ajs, the talks on are going. you is just heard that from secretary of state antony blinken. we will be right back after this praek.

goli, taste your goals. back to the state department, secretary of state antony blinken taking reporters' questions. >> it ended the state of intent to repeat october 7th again and again and again. that's not the interest of israel. it's not in the interest of the region. it's not in the interest of the world. and what is striking to me is that even as we hear many countries urging the end to this

conflict, which we'd all like to see, i hear no one demanding of hahs mass that it stop hiding behind civilians, that it lay down its arms, that it surrender. this is over tomorrow. if hamas does that. and how could it be that there are no demands made on the aggressor and only demands made of the victim. so it would be good if there was a strong international voice pressing hamas to end this. and again, that could be tomorrow. >> sorry to insist on this. i know just given answers, but

you're very careful publicly as to what you say on the israel -- >> we have all been listening in to the secretary of state antony blinken speaking to reporters. it's his year-end news conference and what an end of the year for him to be facing questions with so many problems in the world, that he is facing in the united states and the international community facing some tough questions from reporters this morning. >> thank you for hanging with us as we all face our tough questions. ththis is centnter centralal. "insidide politicscs" is up nen.

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