♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪

this is cnn breaking with news. >> we are starting this hour with breaking news and out of the supreme court, special counsel jack smith is now responding to donald trump's legal team about the federal elections case. the special council is pushing high court even more now to take this matter up quickly, and we will get over to joan biskupic which have details that are truly just coming in. >> yes, the donald trump subversion case has just submitted another filing to the supreme court doubling down on the imperative of the supreme court to take this case up now before waiting for another court to handle it. the question is whether former president donald trump is immune from criminal prosecution for election subversion arising from the 2020 election right as we head into the 2024 election.

what he is trying to do here, the special counsel jack smith, is to counter what donald trump's lawyer said yesterday. they said, supreme court, no need to take this case up hastily, and it needs to go to the appellant court first, which is, kate, the normal processes, and yesterday, trump's lawyers said that jack smith had not made a sufficient case on this, but today, in this 11-page filing, special counsel jack smith tries to reinforce how the rule of law is at issue, how donald trump's actions back in 2020 need to be resolved, and here is a line from that case. enforcing federal criminal laws that prohibit such conduct, and this is related to election subversion is vital to protecting the constitutional processes and democracy, itself. what he is finding in the initial filing, kate is how much america's rule of law, and the democratic order depend upon the

court to resolve this issue of whether the former president can be tried at all needs to be resolved sooner than later, and just to be resumed that donald trump should not be immune from criminal prosecution. donald trump is appealing that, and he is appealing that, and he wants the courts to intervene, but he does not want the supreme court to hear it until a lower court hears it, in part, because he wants it on the legal side to go through the normal processes, but frankly as a political strategy, it could also mean delay, delay, until, you know, until we are really smack in the middle of the 2024 election cycle, and not having the 2024 election behind us. so the supreme court behind us has everything in front of us to decide if it should take it up, and expedite this case so that the nation has an answer to whether former president donald

trump is immune from trial or will it say that this is an issue that should remain in the lower court, and it will be months, kate, until we get the final answer from the supreme court which is the only bench who can finally and definitively answer this question. >> and also, just by way of the background, a little bit more about this, trump's team in their filing that we also just got overnight, his team argued that the case should, quote, should quote be resolved in a cautious and deliberative manner and not break-neck speed. so the two obviously opposing takes on this, and one would not be surprised at. but is that unusual, joan, the first ask from the special counsel that the supreme court take it up in an expedited way, and then the response of donald trump's legal team saying, stay out of it, and then the special counsel coming back again, and the response to the response, is

this unusual? >> no. and actually, kate, i am so glad that you asked that, and this is a p.s. on why this is intriguing, because normally that is how it happens with the cases. you have the initial petition and the response and reply, but jack smith, in his initial petition said, i will waive my right to a reply. he was waiving his time period for filing like in a couple of weeks. he said, i don't need that, i want you, supreme court, to decide that right now, and let us know if you are going to intervene, and you will have all of the filings as of last night, but what he did knowing that the court had not yet given an order, he dropped us in before lunchtime today, and p.s., consider this also, it is 11 pages, and he had every right to do it, but what he tried to do was the counter again what donald trump's lawyers were saying just as you so proper stated that what trump's lawyers are saying, look, there is a process for, this and the

process is going to appellant court first and do not do this hastily or break-neck speed using their word there, kate, but what jack smith has come back and again, i should stress that jack smith is speaking on behalf of the united states government, the department of justice saying, no, the kind of conduct at issue here needs to be put to trial and it needs to be put to trial as soon as possible. and right now, everything has been on hold because donald trump is saying he cannot be tried, because he should enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution. he says that the actions that are in dispute occurred as part of his official work when he was a president back in 2020, and jack smith is saying is, no, that cannot be that he should be shielded. this is something that never has been tested, kate, the question of whether the former president or the sitting president should be immune from a criminal prosecution, and he is asking for complete immunity here.

it is a very big question, and as i say, only the u.s. supreme court can answer that definitively. >> i want to bring in cnn's katelyn polantz here as well. a big development, and read quickly a little bit of what jack smith told the justices in the court papers because i think it hits at the crux. the public interest and a prompt resolution of this case indicates a immediate definitive decision by the court here, and the channels of here are of the utmost gravity. you have been following case as it has been going through the trial proceedings or the case proceedings up to this point, and is this as urgent as you have seen it and piggybacking on what kate said, to see another filing on top of or after the defense filing when we would in theory be awaiting a decision from the supreme court? >> i am with joan in that there is always and almost always three rounds of arguments. so this is pretty typical to hear it, but the way that the

justice department is speaking about this case just underlines how important it is for the administration, for the justice department, for the country, what they say is for the presidency, for our understanding of the constitution, and that, you know, the question here is about timing. the trial of donald trump's, the timing of donald trump's trial, which is set for march, and that date is still on the calendar. donald trump has tried to argue repeatedly including at the supreme court in this context that he should not have to go to trial to quickly and that this push from the justice department is about politics, and that they want to prosecute him because of the campaign. but the justice department is having to explain themselves over and over again, and now yet again before the supreme court emphasizing why there needs to be some sort of resolution, some sort of finality here of how the country is grapples with and how the law falls into place in

understanding what happened in 2020, january 6th, 2021 and the former president's role in that. not only are they saying that in this filing, just a couple of their words that this is an issue of great constitutional moment, they are also saying that only this court can provide the final word on this issue of presidential immunity, and that has to be resolved before donald trump can go to trial as a criminal defendant. they also are saying that, you know, we did maneuver like this way back in the nixon administration or after the nixon administration determining that there was a need before a trial related to nixon to get resolution from the supreme court before and any other appeals court weighed in. the stakes here, they are saying here today, the stakes with donald trump, the former president going to trial, and that is more necessary situation than even when this happened with richard nixon. >> and even before this filing,

you had mentioned in the reporting as well, the supreme court could make a decision at any time. does this filing affect that filing in any way or is that essentially the waiting game that we are still in at this point? >> well, as the legal reporters as joan and i like to say, they are fully briefed. they have heard all of the briefing, and they have it before them, and the supreme court could do what they want. now, i'll leave it up to joan to be a prognosticator on when the justices might take some action on this, but it is before them, and the justice department has made their arguments twice now as to why this case should be taken quickly and resolved and the other thing about the timing here is that they point out in this filing that not only do they want the supreme court to take this case quickly, they want it taken quickly to be resolved this term of the supreme court which would theoretically end in july or the beginning of the summer. so, that shows you that they

want it to be maybe not resolved by march 1, but they want the supreme court to be addressing it before the end of the term. >> yeah, i can say that coming up on this holiday, i am going to be ready this afternoon for an order, but i think it is more likely to go on friday, because they all want to seriously look at the briefs. the nine are not together in one room right now. they are dealing with this by phone, memo and trying to figure out the best way forward. it is not going to be an easy 9-0 decision here frankly. because this court is not 9-0 on most issues anymore, and i would expect by the end of tomorrow before the holiday weekend they would decide it. if they don't, that is showing you how much they are struggling with it, and we wouldn't get something until next week or soon into the new year, but i think that we are all just watching, because they can indeed issue the order at any point. >> joan, caitlyn, thank you,

guys, so much for jumping on to give us context around this important filing that we have all seen coming in. >> i feel fully briefed now. >> that is it, fully briefed talking to them. >> and that is not the only case we are dealing with when it comes to donald trump, because the legal calendar is very full for the next year with several trials that could see him in court, and off of the campaign trail. you can see him with some of the key dates on the screen there, and jessica schneider is joining us now. trump is the republican frontrunner, and depending upon the outcome there, all of these other cases could impact him as the election gets closer. >> yeah, and what is interesting, omar, we saw that filing from jack smith. trump's legal team, they have referenced in legal filings including the one yesterday before the supreme court how they are battling on multiple legal fronts at the same time that donald trump is trying to crisscross the country campaigning for presidency, and they wrote yesterday that jack smith is trying to ensure that president trump will face a

month's long criminal trial at the height of his presidential campaign, and they are trying to use this argument to their advantage urging the judges or the justices to really slow down or delay these proceedings, but so far, those tas ticks have not worked in all of trump's legal proceedings, they are set to collide as the election calendar ramps up in 2024. so i will lay out what trump is facing. in the first of a matter of weeks the first of the trials will begin brought by carroll. this is the comments he made where he denied that he raped her, and this is the defamation trial, the civil case. then the federal krcriminal cas of trump trying to derail the election. that is still on track to go to trial march 4th, despite the appeals of the claims of immunity seeing that play out, and jack smith's team trying to get it to the supreme court.

and this date, it is likely march 4th to be pushed back once we see if the supreme court is going to step in. then march 25th, weeks later, the hush money case related to stormy daniels brought by the manhattan d.a., and that is slated to start, and then the documents case in florida is slated on the may 20th date, and then the proposed date for the georgia trial to start on august 5th. so his legal team is barreling forward with trump as the political frontrunner, and guys, this is tumultuous and busy 2024 on the legal and the political front, and we will see how it collides. >> and the trump team has been trying to keep them together, and fund raising off of some of the court dates, and in the hours after the colorado supreme court, there was a fund-raising

email sent to my inbox to reporters. jessica, thank you very much. we have an update out of prague where ten people have been kill and 30 people injured in that shooting at charles university. we have new information coming in. we will bring that to you next. six americans are now free after being wrongfully detained in venezuela, and cnn was there the moment they touched down back on u.s. soil for the first time. the details of the what it took to get them all back home. that is s next.

>> we are following breaking news this hour in the czech republic where people are still evacuating charles university in prague after a deadly shooting there today. we are going to show you the video that is really coming in, and this is from moments ago. you can see what looks like police, rescue teams and emergency crews, and searching the balcony of a building. this is near and around where we'd seen a lot of activity with the emergency vehicles. you can see them with the flashlights on the balconies there, and this is clearly still an unfolding scene. we have also learned from prague emergency services that ten people were killed and 30 people were wounded in this shooting. police say that the gunman has also been killed.

now, we get over to cnn's melissa bell, gathering more details coming in, and new details unfolding. >> yes, kate. the first was when the czech police began tweeting in the last hour, and the first images coming in, and the scene there that is actively being searched, as you can see, kate, they are looking for what weapons, what else might have been hidden there. we know that the shooter, himself, he has been killed, eliminated, and we had heard killed, but now it is confirmed to cnn by police forces. we know nothing of who he is or the motives, but clearly extremely troubling scenes there in prague. the dusk is falling, night is falling, and you can see the entire perimeter of the charles university in the center of prague completely cordoned off. this is, kate, an extremely busy tourist center within the very center of prague just opposite prague castle, and very busy

campus as well. what we have begun to see over the course of the last hour of course whilst this was still an active shooting scene of students climbing out of the windows to hide on the window sills to hide from him. it is violent scenes that went on here. and this is extremely rare here in europe. we are not in the habit of mass shootings, and they do not happen often, and this is shocking scenes. we are weight more to see what might have driven this person, the perpetrator to carry out these killings. we don't know whether he was a student or czech or anything at all that we know about him. but he has managed to kill 10 people, wounding 30 people, and extremely violent scene there at prague university until the police could take him out, kate. >> and also, amongst the 30, we don't know the severity of the

injuries as well. so this is a really tragic scene as this is continuing to search and unfold. melissa bell is gathering more for us, and she will pop back up as we get it. thank you, melissa. >> we will continue to follow that story. another story we are following and coming up, donald trump is speaking out on social media this morning as the republicans are rallying behind him insisting that colorado had no right to boot him from the ballot. more ahead.

new this hour, special counsel jack smith reiterating his request to the supreme court in a new filing that we have just received that the justices immediately hear his case and quickly decide on the immunity dispute that there is clearly with donald trump's legal team. this gets right to the core of the federal election interference case that trump is facing. in this situation, trump and the legal team is asking the high court to stay out, to not intervene, and just as his team is also likely to ask the very same supreme court to soon intervene in another case that he is now up against, the case coming out of the colorado supreme court removing him from the presidential ballot. cnn's alayna treene is following all of this. what are you hearing from the donald trump team of how they are handling and trying to

utilize all of this in his favor? >> well, first of all, i wanted to point out that according to my conversations with donald trump's team, and particularly about the colorado decision that came in tuesday night, they were surprised by that. they were not expecting that decision to go down the way it did. they had anticipated that the higher courts would rule in donald trump's favor, and of course, that is not what happened, and that is why they are planning to appeal it to the united states supreme court, and they will not file that appeal this week, but likely next week, but even though they were not expecting it, the reason they could respond so quickly is because they are using same strategy to pushback against this as they have with many of the other legal issues that donald trump has faced over the past year which is to attack this head-on as being political interference, and to go after the people behind the case, and in this case, it is the judges on the bench arguing they they are biased against the former president, and then trying to

take the momentum and elliptical momentum from this and fund raise off of it. and they are saying that it is already benefiting, because many people in the republican party are rallying around the former president, and it is solidifying the support with the base. some of the support is coming from some of donald trump's presidential primary rivals and one interesting comment that we have heard from florida governor ron desantis in iowa last night is that he thinks that this is all part of some sort of strategy that the democrats are behind to try to bolster trump to be the candidate that would face joe biden in the general election. take a listen to what he said. >> the democrats have a plan here. this is what they want. they want him to be the candidate, and then they are going to run this playbook all through 2024 and the whole election is going to end up being a referendum on this trial

or the conviction or whatever happens between now and then, and that gives the democrats the best chance to be able to get away with it. >> i mean, quite a theory there, kate, from ron desantis, and one that is not backed up by any evidence, but it is clear what he is trying the do. he is trying to say that the democrats want trump to be the candidate, because they think that joe biden could beat him. really quickly, kate, i think that all of the legal issues have put the trump rivals in a difficult position. they are trying to distinguish themselveses from the current republican frontrunner, but instead, they are feeling forced really to come to his defense in light of a lot of the most recent legal battles. kate? >> and putting the spotlight once again on donald trump where they have spent the whole primary trying to hold it away from him to differentiate and continue to say they want to move on, but it is hard to do so in this moment.

thank you, alanna. and now joining us is trump's former press secretary sarah matthews and i will start with you, it seems that it is the biggest campaign surrogate, and fund raising that this cnn poll out of georgia and michigan showing that the registered voters in both states say that if true, if this is true, it is not fit or relevant to his presidency. and then in the battleground states, 39% of the voters would still vote for trump if he were convicted and imprisoned, and so, why, sara, do these cases strengthen him and bring around the support, and at what point, does it truly start to hurt him? >> i think that these cases have definitely helped bolster him in the race for the gop nomination,

because there are so many of them. so, obviously, it is tough for the american people who see all of these different cases happening for them to differentiate between them. look, i'm of the belief that a majority of the cases against him are legitimate and have evidence to back up and support him, but there are some that do seem political. for example, the case in new york with alvin bragg focused on the hush money payments to a porn star, and that is not as strong when you are comparing it to the classified documents case or the january 6th cases, so the american people have, their viewpoint is little bit tainted then, because they will see some of these as a somewhat politically motivated, even though there is strong evidence for the majority of the cases, and that is ultimately just helping trump right now in the primary, and people feel like he is a victim. he plays that to his advantage, and we have seen him fund raise off of it, and i think that this

colorado ruling for example will just continue to help him. >> and i think it is no secret that the team is aware of the dynamics around it, and tim, in the d.c. subversion case, they have been arguing that it should not go to the supreme court as jack smith wants it to, but trump wants it to go through the court of appeals, so do you feel this is more of a political move by the trump team to drag it out longer than it needs to? >> of course, the trump team does not want the january 6 case that is venued in d.c. and brought by jack smith to go forward in march, april, may, because it is just right up to right around the time of all of the primaries leading into the general election cycle, the rnc political convention, and so, no, this is a delay tactic. with the right to speedy trial,

and the public interest in a speedy trial, and the arguments that jack smith are making are good ones, and there is a history as folks have said earlier, there is a history of the supreme court taking up cases where you have this issue that kind of stops everything. that is what it does. it has the effect of stopping the entire case from moving forward, because this immunity issue is so germane to the case, itself. so i think that, you know, i think that the supreme court is likely to take it up. they are likely to expedite it, and you only need four votes to take it up and six votes to expedite it, and they are likely to get the votes and even more, and i think that you will see a hearing very quickly. it took eight weeks to get a decision on the nixon tapes case in the 1970s. >> the gravity of the moment is part of what special council jack smith argued, and in the most recent filing today, to urge the supreme court to pick up the pace and see this case and hear this case. sarah, most people would want

the legal proceedings closed up quickly, and if you were a press secretary now, is there a political or communications benefit of drawing things out, and not just in the d.c. subversion case, but throughout the entire campaign calendar of 2024? >> yeah, one would think that donald trump would want to have the cases done and overwith so he could hit the campaign trail, but it is the opposite. they want to delay, delay, delay, because the further that these cases stretch into the 2024 presidential election cycle, then they look even more politically motivated, because right now, a lot of americans aren't tuning in as much, and paying attention to the 2024 race, but the further into the calendar, they will be tuned in to see the cases unfolding. >> yeah, and jim, really quickly before we go, you were in some of the rooms, and i mean, how much of a role does the outside perception in this case, politics and running for president, make in someone like

trump's legal decision-making process? are these things that come up? >> look, this -- all every decision they are making right now on that team is through the lenses of politics, whether it is to delay a case, and in the case of colorado, they will likely file an appeal and ask the court the take it up quickly, because it is politically expedient for them. they will have a harder time getting a quick look at that colorado case from the supreme court, because i think it is more likely that the supreme court is going to take up the jack smith case, because it is so much more imminent, but they will ask the supreme court to take a look at it, and the supreme court will take that colorado case and likely go to other way on it, and overturn the decision of that judge. >> we will see. sarah matthews and jim schultz, we will have more iterations of this conversation, and for now thank you. and now, colleges across the

country have been struggling facing tons of scrutiny for how they have been facing islamophobia and a antismemitisn the e campuses. .

the president of harvard university is facing more trouble today, and this time for allegations of plagiarism in the academic work. a congressional committee has now launched a new investigation into what they are calling quote credible allegations against claudine gay. gay received a flood of criticism, and you will remember

for her congressional testimony about anti-semitism on university campus last month, but she remain and is remaining the university's leader, and her counterpart at penn resigned after testifying at that very same hearing. after countless incidents of anti-semitism, and a antiislamophobia, many are left wondering, what is happening on college campuses. so there was a virtual round table of current graduates and other grads from across the country to find out. watch this. >> who would say that islamophobia is real on college campuses? raise your hands. one, two, three, four, five, 14 -- 16 of you. who says that anti-semitism is

real on college campuses. raise your hands. one, two, three, four -- 14 -- 18 of you. who would say that the engagement at the universities are primarily constructive? raise your hands. i don't see a single hand going up. who says they are primarily destructive. raise your hands. one, two -- almost everybody. >> frank joins us now. so talk me through what you learn and heard from this group of students. >> well, they have been told by a few people who know that i am going to appear here not to depress people. afterall, it is the christmas holiday, but it is more than depressing, it is shocking how much fear and loathing is happening on the college campuses all across the country. jewish students are afraid to

attend class. they are afraid to go out. they are being attacked and clear examples of islamophobia as well as these colleges, the place where we are supposed to be able to have conversations and debates and disagree have come apart. if you are noticing in the group, harvard, yale, columbia, usc, nyu, georgetown, g.w., university of maryland, and all across the country, significant places of learning and all that i hear is that people want to speak, and nobody wants to listen. that is the greatest threat to our democracy is when our universities cannot produce young people who are civil to each other, respectful to each other and decent to each other, and that is what is happening right now, incivility, indesen ti and lack of respect. >> more than one student in the discussion, the person that i was able to view said none of

them think that the conversations on campus around israel and the war against the hamas, and none of the conversations are instructive, and the engagement on the campuses is destructive. is it clear from their viewpoint what colleges and the people running them are getting so wrong if this is what they are all experiencing? >> yes, and i will give you three examples. number one, they are upset with the faculty who clearly choose a certain perspective, and more often than not, it is anti-israel perspective, and when the students feel shook down, shutdown and silenced. and two is the university presidents who do not demonstrate empathy for all students and participate in that conversation. some presidents right now being silent, because they are afraid. this is the moment when they need to participate. third, it needs to be a focus on

learning rather than speaking. there is way too much yelling and way too much of the protest and not enough gather of information, explaining, and what a university is there for, education. unless they effect these three components in january when the students come back, it is going to be even worse. >> i was going to ask you what surprised you, because you are so good at speaking and gathering the information and what words trigger people or better ways to talk about something. what surprised you in this? >> well, something surprised me from my own reaction which is that i showed them some of the most horrific visuals of the october 7th initial attacks. and i had not seen it before and normally i see it before, and i got so upset that i stopped the footage immediately, and what it did, it increased the sympathy

for israel, and what israel is going through, but it did not change support. in the end, our young people are asking, begging and even demanding that we have a day after. what the solution to this? how are we going to enact policies to bring about change that israel can live in peace and security, and the palestinians can have a state and feel respected in their own territory? no one is talking about that on college campuses, and no one is talking about solutions, and that fixing of the problem. it left me very depressed when it was over. because not too many americans of any stripes are talking about the future. >> there is so much to learn from these conversations that you havhave facilitated. thank you, frank. >> it is a privilege. thank you. and now, a record-setting

day y of travel and d what youo to knonow before y you head ouo ththe holidaysys.

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. today is expected to be the busiest travel day of the holiday. i want to get right to mayor pete live at reagan national. aviation correspondent and essentially the mayor of reagan national pete muntean. what are you seeing so far? what should people be looking out for? >> people are going pretty good. only five minutes to the get through security here at reagan national. cancellations and delays are low. only in double digits, 60

according to nationwide. the faa implemented a program for flights leaving miami due to the shear volume of flights leaving there. the tsa says today will be biggest day for air travel leading up to the holiday. 2.5 million people will fly. it's revised its projection to 2.65 million people is the new number. on eunited airlines alone, they are expecting 9 million people over the next few days. 4,000 flights her day. it's an increase compared to last year. and we went behind the scenes at united in newark to see how things are going there. they insist they have the people power. they have the deicing trucks. they are redty for whatever mother nature throws its way. but the good news right now is that the weather is not really throw much of a wrench into air travel. make sure you arrive at the airport early. especially with so many people

traveling. also make sure that you book your parking spot ahead of time if you're driving to the airport. you can also take public transit and keep your gifts unwrapped so it makes it easier to get through the tsa check point. >> mayor pete, always feel better when you're there. >> here's the thing. when it goes south, everyone turns to the mayor. pete better be ready for it. thank you. thank you for joining us. this is "cnn news central." "inside politics" is up next.