all right. standing by for news from the supreme court, and they are meeting right now and we could hear very shortly about whether they will take up the issue of donald trump being banned from the state ballots. >> at any moment, the top u.s.

diplomat is going to land in middle east as the tensions will reach new heights in the region and what secretary blinken is hoping to accomplish in this trip. >> and president biden is planning to give a major speech on threats to democracy and why the biden campaign thinks this is a winning strategy. kate is away, and i'm john berman with sara sidner, and this is cnn "news central." all right. at any moment, the supreme court could decide of whether or not they want to weigh in on donald trump's eligibility to run for president on the states that have removed him from the ballot. the justices are meeting for first time since colorado and maine have taken action based on the 14th amendment on insurrectionists. the trump legal team is pressuring supreme court justices by name. >> i think it should be a slam

dunk in the supreme court, and i have faith in them. people like kavanaugh who the president fought for, and who the president went through hell to get in place, and he'll step up. >> interesting to hear that. voters in illinois and massachusetts have file their own suits, and in oregon, that decision is pending, and it could come at any moment, and joan biskupic is here, and paula reid is here as well, and paula, standby, and joan, lay out what the justices are doing, and what we are expecting to hear from them, and maybe when. >> sure. i was just up there at 10:00 when they all took the bench, all nine of them for the first session together since the start of the year and since all of the trump controversies broke. they handled scores of routine bar admissions, and that process took ten minutes, and they left the bench, and starting to shed the robes, and they are meeting in a private conference, just the nine of them, and looking at the cases pending on recent

weeks, and they will decide which ones to take up, and when to schedule them, and among those are the trump disputes. now, it is not an easy question, john, of just take a single case with a single question, because there are several questions baked into the appeals landing on their doorstep, and as a strong measure is if this is too political for the justices to handle, and if it is beyond the domain for them to handle, and something that is a political question, and if something that president trump would be covered by this. as you know, the trial judge in colorado had said that the presidency is not covered by the provision that would bar anyone who engaged in an insurrection, and cover other officeholders and the supreme court rejected that, but it is another question that could be a hurdle for the supreme court. so what they are deciding, john,

is not just whether to take the cases, but what specific issues, and the timing. let me say two final things on the timing. the parties have stressed urgency, and that is donald trump, and the original colorado voters who have challenged him and the colorado republican party also in this case. the voters have said, please decide by february 11th which is the day before the ballots in kro r are set to be mailed out. the colorado republican party has said, please decide it by march 5th, which is super tuesday when 15 states have primaries, and colorado balloting would be completed by then, and so that is the broader timetable, but for what might happen today or next week, and today is a start of the imperfect decision as to be taken up the cases, and they could give us an order this afternoon, john, but looking at

the complexity of the cases, they might want to refine what they they are deciding, and put down a briefing schedule, and the filings that would come in, and nothing is a given with the court, and they have discretion about what cases they will take up, by it is in their lap. >> and complicated, and it is in their hands now, and so we are on alert, and joan biskupic, do not go far from the camera. and paula reid, what are they looking at here with the cases from illinois? >> well, we can expect more and more challenges to be filed. the new challenges in massachusetts and illinois are the same arguments litigated in the other states for months, and that is the argument that trump should be disqualified from appearing in the 2024 ballot under section 3 of the 14th

amendment, and this is the post civil war amendment that bars civil war participants from make it into the ballot. they never talked about the merits, but they put them on the proseat ur ground, and the issue of how that particular section applies to trump, and the otherm question of what is in there, and this is another question so that the massachusetts ballot commission, and the illinois board of commissions, and the former president trump, and former commission of illinois and congress who should litigate the issuesf who should and should not be on the ballot. both of the challenges were challenged by free speech for

free people, and they have signaled that they will not stop. let's take a listen. >> this is the time to challenge a, file a challenge in illinois, and we will do it in other states, because unless and until the court issues a ruling, and so for for and we will continu to see these chals. >> thank you, joan biskupic and paula reid. and now, the challenges against donald trump, and there are so many of them that we are looking at, and now, you can see the key colors there, and some of the decisions have been obviously made. there are some more coming up. oregon, i think that it is coming up as well.

we have seen so many of these, and can you give us a sense of understanding the petitions, and who filed them, and what they intend to do, and republicans in some of the states who have already challenged this. >> we know at least five for free speech for people which is the oregon which is the outstanding one, but they failed procedurally in michigan -- >> michigan. >> that is right, michigan. excuse me. so you have affiliated road player, and it is a little bit of the bill murray "groundhog day" because it is the same. >> and it is not the word convicted or the word accused.

and like it is interesting, because it is a little bit, and i don't know if nebulous, and i should not be commenting on the constitution, because i am not a constitution expertm, but it is something that the supreme court will be picking up, and voters rights as well, and if you they the person cannot be on the ballot, you are affecting a huge voting population. >> well, i cannot fathom that the supreme court does not step in and do something at this time, and it would be a disservice. it should not be as trump's attorney was speaking for kavanaugh that he went to bat for him that he should vote to make a decision in his favor, but they have to make a decision on the merritthe merits, and is process to follow. >> i would be shocked if they said that he was not an officer,

and i mean, the president of the united states is not an official, and that would be interesting. >> looking at the strict language, and it does not say that he is a official, but many of them becoming a texturalist, and look at the all of the time, would be included can, and practically speaking and the intent is there. >> it could happen any moment to pick up the case. and i am curious, lastly, if they pick up the cases, and the pending cases, and do those judges in the cases, say hold on before we move forward. >> no, they have to proceed, and it is not a waste of time, because i am not belittling it. >> it is moot. >> yes, it becomes moot, and this is what we have to follow,

and so they will proceed, and keep going forward by one way or another. >> and can i get some props for the moot. a little lawyering language. and ano about a vexation litigant, and that is my small legal term, and i never went to law school, but thank god that you did, jeremy. thank you for explaining it. >> vexatious litigant? well, i can't wait for the break. and now, 25,000 people are facing a winter storm this weekend and how and when to prepare for heavy snow and treaeacherous icice.

tony blinken is arriving in istanbul for a multi nation trip to middle east. the fourth trip to region since the october 7th hamas terror attack on israel and it is coming at a drit cal time amid concerns of a widening conflict in the region. overnight, the military says it struck, the israeli military says it struck 100 targets across gaza, and they say they

were targeting command centers and military sites, but reports of the civilian casualties of course. alex marquardt is joining us, and what can blinken hope to accomplish? he has been in the region more than we have seen officials in a long time, and so many times, and what will he try to accomplish? >> yes, sara, the fourth trip to the region since the war proek out after the horrific attacks on october 7th, and making nine stops. the centerpiece is the meetings with the israeli officials next week, but there are two main buckets of things to accomplish, and that is to prevent the war from spreading rapidly, and in past few days and months, and ratcheting areas of significant concern and conversation, and the state department says these are going to be tough conversations with the israeli leaders and system of the stuff is quite competitive, because

more progress needs to be made. this is a little bit of what the spokesman matt miller had to say yesterday. >> the secretary believes that we need to try to make progress of getting humanitarian access in, and the secretary believes that we need to make progress on minimizing arm to palestinian progress, and to make progress on trying to keep the progress from escalating. that is why he is returning to the region, to be there face-to-face and make more efforts. >> so we continue to see the number of gaza civilians killed, and the lack of humanitarian aid in gaza, and that is a major focus for blinken as well as trying to figure out when israel is planning to transition from what they are calling a high intensive phase, and the heavy fighting in the last few months to and far more civilians on the

ground, sara. >> the biden administration has been asking for this for quite some time, and there going to be pressure publicly if not on the ground. thank you, alex marquardt, for all of your reporting. >> we want to go live to attorney general marek garland, over the crime rates falling. let's listen. >> prosecuting those who, members of congress, judge and election workers. first with respect to cry lent crime, and we know that hard fought and must remain photo sfm

and between 2021 and 2022, and the major chiefs association has report pd a triple number decrease from 202 to 203 and during the same time period of 2022. this not the time to relax our efforts, in 2021f launched the violent cream occur d occurred federal law enforcement agencies who are assisting in fighting crime, and the cooperation of state and local law enforcement agencies tasked with protecting their local communities and the local communities themselves. as part of the strategy, we are

bringing to bear our tech local cal rules, and including advanced ballistics to support local investigations to support the identification of violent crime in specific communities. we have been bringing to bear our federal statutes and prosecutorial rules to convict the repeat offenders and the criminal offenders in our communities that are drivers of violent crime. and we are making use of the safer communities act of 2022 known as bisca. and that is to bar firearms from those who are not allowed to purchase them. we are continuing to enhance

background and we are announcing since the passage, those checks have kept 527 firearm out of the hands of young people who are prohibited from having them. we have also been utilizing the grant monies that are led by both the law enforcement and the community partners, and we have been focused on stopping community partners, and vus and we are also funding community violence and community fp in light of the encouraging news that we have seen in 2022 and

2023, we will meet to evaluate the initiatives and look at which ones are working, and which one we can and we will be determining our work aut the outset. we have so much work to do. violent crime is not just a threat to the person's physical set to the crime. violent crime fractures of public life, and when it is not addressed it undermines the people's trust in the federal government and each other. this department and the state and local partners are not going to rest until every community in

the country is safe from the scourge of violent crime. at the same time we are seeing the encouraging downward crime in violent crime, we are also witnessing a disturbing spike in this the department, the investigated and charged individuals with making threats against fbi agents, federal judges, including a federal supreme court justice, presidential candidates, members of congress, members of the military and election workers, and just this week, several bomb threads were made gantst courthouses across the country. the departmenting gresively investigating bomb threats that are serious threats. and just yesterday investigating a threat to kill a member of

congress and his children. this is a snapshot and against those who ep sure our safe elections, and the travel of churn rngts and trept safe these threats of violence and over the past several years, the department of dnts combat how we can determine how we can double on the third anniversary that mark ps -- you are watching a press conference with merrick garland

that shows a drop sflefrmt things. this, this is something snrnlgt and so they were talk about the drop in violent crime making clear that work is not done, and the second part of the news conference is interesting talking about the increase in threats to officials, both federal and state officials in office and running for office. he was talking about what a danger that is to society, and of course, he is doing that on january 5th, and tomorrow is january 6th, the anniversary of the insurrection of the capital, and probably not a coincidence the timing of this speech. agaiain that was a attorney gen garlanand is strtrn

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and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. moments ago, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken arrived

in istanbul and you can see him there. it is part of the nine-stop journey, and part of the goal of the mission which he is going to travel all over the region is to keep the war between israel and hamas from spreading. you can see him with the u.s. ambassador of turkey, and former u.s. senator jeff lake there. he is there to keep the war from israel and hamas to keep from spreading to the wider region. with us is former u.s. general mark kimmon and with us is also a columnist from the washington post, joining us, and gentlemen, you have conflict in gaza, the conflict in the west bank, and

the conflict of the killing of the official in bay ruth, and the conflict of the houthis squaring off with the ships there, and a strike of the promilitia group in baghdad, and the explosion at the tomb of qassim suleimani, and could it get worse? >> yes, it could get worse. and what tony blinken and the administration is trying to do is to keep a lid on this, and keep it from bursting out of control. and that is good news, but neither the u.s. or iran has any desire to engage in a full scale war, and iran doesn't want a full scale war, and that is why the hezbollah is not mounting an all offensive against israel. but we have examples throughout history where you get in the

tit-for-tat situations, and you could have it spiral out of control, and end up with a war that nobody wants. so the administration is trying to walk a tight war, and trying to keep the war from expanding, and trying to keep, you know, hostile till cities, an hour permission to attack the region, and which they have been doing if there is shipping in the red sea, and attacks on the u.s. installations and iraq and so on, and so trying to push back teheran without triggering a conflict, and that is difficult to do. >> picking up on what the general was talking about, i left out syria, because october and stationed in iraq and syria here, and again, we saw this u.s. response drone attack on the pro iranian militia leader

and how would you assess the u.s. response to these attacks? >> well, first of all, the u.s. is doing a half decent job of responding to the attacks, but i am baffled by the attack in iraq. if we are trying to prevent the conflict there, and protect our solders and diplomats, that is the worst way to go around it. we slapped iraq in the face, by attacking a pro-iranian militia group on the day that they were celebrating, mourning the loss of soleimani two years prior. so, again, if we are trying to avoid war, i don't understand how we are trying to provoke more complications. now we have the government of

restaurant to be thrown out, then the entire relationship with isis and syria ends. and then we are bringing isis back into the fight. >> you can see how all of the conflicts are connected. i wanted to talk about what is going on gaza. we could see an ap moech to and released is this video from central gaza which they say is hamas running into structure there, and you can see the targeting of the air from that structure. max, do you think that represents a new approach? how likely do you think that this is to be effective? >> there are signals that israel is changing their approach, sglirnlgt and trying to knock

down the transition phase of the operation thafr and whether that is going to come to pass or not, it is hard to say, because the war has been trying to continue, but with the operation to destroy hamas, it is going to be and the part of oisrael to achieve that, if it is even achievable. and so they are trying to reduce casualties and to release some israeli reservists to go back to civilian life. but whether this is a truly major shift in the operational or more aspirational determines to be sheer. >> global financial operations. how important is that in the

battle against hamas? >> well, the important thing to understand is that if you want to defeat a terrorist organization, you can't just have it done with boots on the ground. it has to go through the entire spectrum of anti-hamas operations. whether it is boots on the ground, whether it is going against the financing resources, going against the resources, incorrectly, and going against and so while you may be seeing a transitioning is of the higher value attacks from got to khan yo younis, they are not slowing down the operations in khan

younis. >> khan younis is here in southern gaza. thank you both, mark kimmitt and max burns. there are disturbing new detail tgs of a t -- details of young student who killed a young student, and then killing himself. and plus, donald trump makes an appearance tonight as president biden going to deliver his big speech that donald trump is a threat to democracy. we will have all of that on the detail trail coming up.

huge day on the campaign trail today and shortly president biden is going to begin the 2024 push with what his campaign is billing as a major speech near valley forge in pennsylvania the historic revolutionary war site. the theme is doing to be that donald trump is a threat to democracy. he'll be talking about the

perils to u.s. democracy. donald trump is going to be in iowa campaigning, and that is following dual town halls of nikki haley and ron desantis right here on cnn. cnn's national affairs correspondent jeff zeleny is outside of what is going to be a ron desantis event in iowa. jeff, what are you seeing today? >> john, we are seeing all of the candidates back on the campaign trail as you said, and the florida governor is going to take the stage momentarily here, and he is sharpening the argument against but argument that donald trump is simply not electable, and warning the republicans to consider their options here. john, he is doing something more than that, because he is going after the sbeg le and he said to

chip roy a few moments ago, consider the character and integrity of donald trump. so the personal qualifications have not been explored nearly as much. in the final days of the campaign, desantis, and nick di hay lis do and so peeling away are some of the donald trump supporters which may be more difficult to do, but as you said, president biden is also on the campaign trail raising the larger question of electability. is donald trump an asset to the party or not? that is the question in the ether or the air all year long, and there is not answer to it at toemt. and so many courtroom challenges going back and forth, and so is that what either party wants?

it is putting this 2024 election into a carp focus though. >> and interesting gr and it is going to be interesting to see if ron desantis continues that. for the first time last night, you saw trump's supporters trying to get him the speak thunde and joining us is julian zelter, and now, we are ten days from the caucuses, and you are seeing desantis, and haley to some degree really going after donald

trump in a way that we have not seen before. and we are so close, and have people made up their minds? >> well, the odds are that you will have big shifts between now and iowa, and haley is thinking of new hampshire, and probably desantis as well. this is a setup for the next competition where there is a little bit more time, but again, the numbers still show that the former president is overwhelmingly in the lead, and far ahead of them. >> i do want to talk about something that we did not hear from ron desantis. he started out this whole campaign about wokeness, and i don't know, some of issues that he saw as transgender bans and then he did talk about abortion this time, and pointed out what distinguishes him from donald trump in a state like iowa, and will this work, because the evangelical voters are such a high number of those going to the caucuses, and going to polls? >> well, he is desperately

define himself as loyal to the conservative base, but many of the evangelical voters are still willing to go with donald trump, and they believe with the supreme court and other federal court appointments, he delivered what they wanted. the dobbs decision was a product of the trump presidency, and they won't forget that. >> but in many states, including florida that happened this morning, an abortion rights group who says we have enough signatures and trying to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot, and those amendments have been successful in places like kansas. so is this really what the voters want to hear or could this be a stumbling block for him, too? >> oh, it could be a big one. it might be what a large number of the republican caucus and primary voters want to hear, but

it is clear that in the general electorate it is not a popular issue. so sglmgt and so, it is a risky move if the republicans go all-in on this question. >> all right. let's move to nikki haley, and desantis was considered at the beginning the most likely person to beat trump and he is the one that donald trump campaigned and focused on right from the beginning, but he has not. he has stumbled and he has not lived up to it, and it is nikki haley who has really risen over the past few months, and gained momentum, especially in new hampshire very, very strongly, and also talked about her own, and this is what she talked about iowa and then clean it up.

this is what she said. >> i trust you, i trust every one of you. you know that iowa starts it. you know that you correct it, and you tknow that you continue to -- [ laughter ] we banter on different things, and iowa makes fun of south carolina, and that what we do. >> does that line work? because some people were offended by her brushing off iowa, and well, i have gotten new hampshire. >> well, the voters are not always forgiving in the states at this point in the nomination process. she has made a couple of problematic statements from the statements about the civil war which did not include slavery to this. and part of it, look, the media is look agent her, and focused on her, and this is what comes with success. so, these mistakes can add up. but again, this is not the big

issue. the big issue for her is the fact that trump is doing so well and might have a lead that is insurmountable barring a conviction in one of the trials going on. >> and this is what the polling numbers is telling us as well. thank you for coming on to explain this. and with the caucuses in ten days, don't miss the cnn presidential debate moderated by jake tapper and dana bash starting january 10th, at 9:00 p.m. eastern. be here or be square. to duckduckgo on all your devie

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and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. we just learned moments ago one of the victims injured in iowa is now out of the hospital. this news comes as authorities are digging into the shooter's social media for any idea as to what trigerred his deadly rampage at the high school in perry, iowa. before the 17-year-old took his own life, he killed a 6th grader and wounded several other students and the school's

principal. veronica is here with details that you have just learned. what are you hearing about the investigation? >> reporter: a big part of what investigators are looking at right now is a potential motive and part of that analysis is looking at the shooter's social media posts before the shooting and also during. we're learning of a tiktok video that he posted from the bathroom posing next to a blue duffel bag with the caption now we wait. just absolutely devastating. also what we're learning is what may have played a role is bullying, according to some friends who spoke to abc news. take a listen to what they had to say. >> he got tired of the bullying. he got tired of the harassment. >> we tried to be there when he needed us. clearly, we weren't there for him enough. >> reporter: those friends suggesting that he may have been bullied since elementary school. the shooting took place before

school even began under a 7:30 in the morning where kids were gathered for a breakfast club when the first shots rang out apt. at a vigil, cnn spoke to some individuals who were there when it happened. take a listen to what they had to say. >> at first like the whole cafeteria went silent. and then more shots continued. and everything just went into chaos. i just saw the principal start running. and all my friends. i just got out of there. >> meanwhile, this community is mourning the loss of that sixth grader who was killed. five others were also injured. four students and a faculty member. that faculty member, according to his daughter, was a principal here at perry high school. he had to go into surgery but is in stable condition. all injured are expected to survive. and posting on facebook, the principal's daughter saying that

he may have actually tried to save other lives by saying he tried to approach and talk the shooter down and is distract him long enough for some students to get out. he's a gentle giant. an amazing dad and just an amazing person. the shooter died of self-inflicted gunshot wound. >> what stands out from your reporting is that young lady who was friends with the shooter who really, really feels like it's on her shoulders. it isn't, but what emotion and what heart ache all of those students and teachers and faculty are going through. thank you so much for your reporting. >> thank you all for joining us. this is "cnn news central." "inside politics" is up next. to duckduckgo on all your devie

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