possible. quite striking. it's epic and spectacular. >> i'll have to move fast. go, go! whoa! >> one of the best movies of the year. what a wonderful day! kingdom of the planet of the apes. rated pg 13. now playing when lawyers who don't handle injury claims need help, they call us justice. >> takes more than a fighter. you need a champion walk a personal injury law visit. walk up law.com, find local resources >> announcer: "this week" with s george stephanopoulos st >> announcer: "this week" with george stephanopoulos starts right now. >> martha: stark warning. >> they're not going to get our support if, in fact, they go on these population centers. >> martha: the state department finds israel's use of u.s. arms may have violated international

law as republicans slam biden's threats to withhold weapons. >> give israel what they need to fight the war they can't afford to lose. >> martha: tens of thousands flee rafah as ceasefire talks grind to a halt. >> we will do what we have to do to protect our country. >> martha: this morning, the latest on the humanitarian crisis in gaza with unicef's tess ingram. plus, reaction from house foreign affairs chair michael mccaul, and democratic senator chris coons. fiery testimony. >> everything you have been watching has nothing to do with the case. >> martha: stormy daniels takes the stand in new york as trump successfully delays two of his four criminal trials. our powerhouse round table on what it means in the race for the white house. and -- >> you are aware of the weight of history when you're in that room, and the history echoes through the room. >> martha: our george stephanopoulos dives into the

nerve center of the white house in his new book "the situation room." >> martha: good morning, and welcome to "this week." with >> martha: good morning, and welcome to "this week." with tens of thousands of palestinians killed with protests raging on college campuses across the country, and with israel poised for a full-scale assault into southern gaza, this was the week president biden put his foot down. after months of urging israel to do more to protect civilians in gaza, the president announced that he has withheld u.s. weapons that were supposed to be sent to israel and warned that more could be stopped if israel invades the city of rafah, but at the same time, a state department report out friday fell short of concluding that israel violated international law, but the report did say it is reasonable to assess that some u.s. weapons have been used

in instances inconsistent with israel's obligation under the law, and that the high levels of civilian casualties caused by those weapons raises substantial questions as to whether the israeli defense force is using them effectively in all cases. "this week" anchor george stephanopoulos sat down with white house national security adviser jake sullivan in the situation room this week and asked him about withholding those weapons. >> george: israel has responded to president biden's statement saying that it sends the wrong message to hamas and puts israel in a corner. how do you respond to that? >> nobody has been a stronger supporter of israel than joe biden. he has sent an enormous amount of capability for israel to take on hamas. secondly, the president has made clear he's going to continue to make sure israel has what it needs to defend itself,

full-stop, four square, that's all. the president has said he has concerns about a full-scale military invasion of rafah, a place where there's more than a million people sheltering. >> george: what would happen if they went in? >> because first, there are a million people who have been pushed there because of the other operations in parts of gaza, you would have other really significant casualties, and while israel would also be able to kill some hamas folks, many hamas folks would melt away because they're terrorists. they're not really organized fighters in the way we think about a typical military. in that context, he doesn't want to see american weapons used in that type of operation. that's not to say he's going to abandon israel or cut them off from weapons. he was focused on a particular operation that he doesn't believe will succeed in defeating hamas and that will cause grievous harm. >> martha: so what does it mean for what happens next in this conflict? i'm joined now by democratic senator chris coons of delaware. good to see you this morning,

senator. these huge bombs that the president is now pausing have already been used by the israelis in gaza causing massive destruction, civilian casualties, and yet the state department report says there is not enough information to conclude they violated any international law. are you satisfied with that conclusion? >> well, martha, thanks for a chance to be on with you again. let's be clear about what that report also concludes, which is that because of how hamas has conducted itself in this horrifying conflict that began with their tragic barbarous attack on 1,200 civilians in which they also killed 45 americans on october 7th, because hamas embeds its fighters and its war piles and its stockpiles underneath civilian targets, beneath hospitals and mosques and schools, the report by the state department says it's difficult to conclude whether the

unacceptably high civilian unacceptably high civi toll is because of hamas and its strategies and tactics or because of israel and how they've conducted this conflict. i do think it bears repeating every time we talk about this, that hamas started this conflict and hamas and their conduct has largely driven the humanitarian crisis that continues in gaza. >> martha: no question that hamas started this on october some estimates of 7th, begagain, what you've seen massive destruction, civilian casualties. some estimates of 14,000 children killed. are you happy with the conclusions of the report, the conclusions gii just read you? >> well, what matters more than the conclusions of the report, martha, is what we do, what the united states does with our close and trusted ally, israel. privately over many months, president biden has urged, has cautioned prime minister netanyahu and his far-right

government to not go into rafah at scale without first allowing for civilians, the million refugees who have moved down to rafah at the direction of the idf, and are now trapped up against the hard border with egypt because egypt will not allow any of them in. what matters, martha, is whether the next stage of this conflict against hamas, which israel has every right to carry out, allows for civilians to get out of the way of any future attack on rafah, and that's what president biden has said now publicly as well as privately to our trusted ally, israel, is you can continue this war against hamas, but if you are going to use our munitions and continue to have our support, you have to do it in a way that minimizes civilian casualty. >> martha: senator, i know -- >> now that you've encircled rafah, pausing and allowing civilians to move forward. fra frankly i'll also note how hard

president biden is working to achieve a hostage deal and ceasefire. >> martha: cwhich has been paused, of course. senator, i want to go back to the report. your democratic colleague chris van hollen said, it's all making the actual determination. i think what they're trying to do is make clear they recognize how bad the situation is, but they continue want to have to take any action to hold a netanyahu government accountable for what's happening. your response? >> well, i disagree. i think president biden has taken forceful action, so much so there's been a lot of blowback for his recent public statement, and i'll remind you other american presidents have done the same thing when a close, trusted partner isn't listening to private admonitions. it was president reagan who repeatedly paused the delivery of f-16s the then-prime minister

senator van hollen t conducted a strike against a syrian nuclear complex and invaded southern lebanon and conducted the war in southern lebanon in a way that raised real concerns about the civilian consequences. so for my colleague and friend, senator van hollen to say that there's been no consequences and no forceful action by president biden, i think, misses the point here that president biden has over and over urged the far-right government of prime minister netanyahu to take the appropriate action and he has publicly said what the consequences will be. >> martha: so senator, what is the line for moving from inconsistent to illegal? >> i think we'll be looking closely at the path forward that prime minister netanyahu chooses in the days ahead. whether he will use american supplied munitions to bomb and invade and attack rafah and the million civilians who are there in order to get at the hamas fighters, who are buried in tunnels deep beneath rafah, or

whether he will move ahead with allowing the civilians to be relocated in accordance with a plan developed with the united states, a plan that isn't yet fully acceptable to us, or my preferred outcome, whether the months of work to make ready a deal between saudi arabia and israel that will allow for a ceasefire, a hostage release, and a resolution to the arab-israeli conflict and a regional architecture that will allow for that against iran. i'll remind you and your viewers, it was just three weeks ago that president biden ably came to israel's defense in partnership with the british, the french, the saudis, and the jordanians when iran launched 300 missiles and drones at israel. it's clear we are willing to strongly defend israel, but he's urging president -- excuse me. prime minister netanyahu to choose the path of peace that's

right in front of him. that requires reaching a deal with regional actors. >> martha: if netanyahu, if prime minister netanyahu does go in with a full-scale assault on rafah, what do you think the president should do? we've heard his warnings. >> i think we will act, and i think this will be up to the president in exactly what way he will act, but i'll remind you there's precedent for this. president reagan was -- >> martha: again, you remind us for that, but what do you mean he will act? he'll stop weapons? he'll stop more weapons? >> yes. >> martha: how many weapons? all weapons? >> i'm clear that we will not abandon israel. he will not stop providing defensive systems to israel. look. hezbollah continues to attack israel in the north. just last night there was more rockets and shells coming into the north of israel. >> martha: so you're saying he'll stop offensive weapons. not defenseless, but you talk about specifically defensive

weapons. are you saying offensive weapons should be stopped? >> look. i think whatever munitions such as the 2,000-pound bombs that have previously been used in gaza that are supplied only by the united states, and that can cause massive civilian casualties may well be paused. it is tragic that we're at this point, and martha, i want to conclude by saying that i hope prime minister netanyahu is thinking about his legacy. right now his legacy is the huge, strategic failure of october 7th, and his legacy could be a real gap, a break in the long, strong, bipartisan strategic relationship between the united states and israel. i think that would be tragic. his legacy could instead be achieving regional security and peace for israel. >> martha: okay. thank you so much for joining us this morning, senator. for the latest on the humanitarian crisis, i'm joined now by unicef spokesperson tess

ingram who was in gaza just last month, and tess, i want to start with another part of this report that says it does not currently assess that the israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of u.s. humanitarian assistance. is that your experience? >> we have for months now been calling for more aid to get into the gaza strip. the average number of trucks that got in last month was 200 a day compared to 500 before the escalation in hostility. it's nowhere near enough, and my experience was that the slow and complex screening process at the border is what is really slowing down the aid, and that's something that we can remedy to get more aid in and to prevent a famine which is -- could happen any day now. >> martha: describe what the situation is on the ground overall from your trips there, what you are say -- seeing.

>> it's absolutely catastrophic. it's unlike anything i've seen, and a colleague who has been working in humanitarian emergencies at unicef for the best part of 30 years says tit' the worst he has ever see. there are people on the ground fleeing rafah in the thousands. we know in the last week, 300,000 people have been forced to leave rafah. they're piling onto donkey carts and trucks and buses, possessions, people. we even saw people loading a toilet onto the back of a truck which just shows how desperate the situation is that people feel like they need to bring these sort of items with them because they know that where they're going, the services are nonexistent, and that is unacceptable when we talk about having safety for people. it's not just safety from the bombardments that they need. it's also a safe place to go to, and the places where people are being told to move to, completely unsafe.

>> martha: and tess, i just want to say. you read the report obviously. you've heard that president biden wants to put a pause on weapons, but you've also heard, and our next guest, michael mccaul, wishes we would give more weapons to israel. what's your reaction this week? >> look. as somebody who was on the ground and spent a lot of time in hospitals in gaza, including in rafah, i saw the impact of this fighting on children's bodies, and it is horrific. i saw a 9-year-old girl who was clinging to life in a hospital bed in rafah with major blast wounds down one side of her body, and when i met her, she had been that way for 16 days because the medical ability in gaza to repair those wounds was nonexistent. she was lying there in pain with open wounds. a 9-year-old girl, and that was -- she was in her grandparents' house when it was shelled. this is what's happening on the ground. so we have been clear at unicef.

we need to see an end to the fighting, especially children. >> martha: thanks so much for joining us this morning, tess. thanks so much to your courage and what you do. house foreign affairs committee chair, michael mccaul joins me now. thanks for coming in this morning. >> thanks, martha. >> martha: congressman, you slammed the administration for withholding some weapons and you slammed the state department reports. do you see any evidence that it is reasonable to assess as the state department found, there are instances in the use of those weapons? those big bombs especially that are inconsistent with international law? >> there's a lot of confusion about what's happening on the ground. i can tell you the weapons we approved, i sign off on all foreign military sales and myself, the ranking member -- the chair and ranking member in the senate. that's four in the congress. we also passed the appropriations package. what we're worried about is sort of a defiance of congressional

intent here that we passed these weap weapons out of congress, and now the president's holding them back. i would say most of theise weapons to answer your question, are precision-guided weapons and that means precise, and that means that it spares civilian casualties because the targeting is so precise. >> martha: congressman, we're talking about 2,000 of pound bombs here. the u.s. rarely uses 2,000-pound bombs. the radius can be 1,000 feet. if you look at the casualties there, if you look at the craters, if you look at the investigations, those 2,000-pound bombs cause civilian casualties. again, the u.s. rarely uses them in especially population centers. you have no problem with them doing that? >> i, you know, the precis precision-guided weapons, you know -- >> martha: you keep saying precision-guided, and that may be a term, but it's not that. >> hamas embeds themselves with human people, and use humans as shields. they are blocking a lot of this

aid they're trying to get in. they destroyed the checkpoint going from israel into the gaza -- into rafah itself, and it's really an enemy like that. >> martha: you say human shields without question. they are doing that, and senator coons said the same thing. they're being used as human shields, and they're in these tunnels, but would you be comfortable if u.s. troops were in gaza, say, and doing the same thing with that enormous amount of casualties, the destruction of that? we didn't use 2,000-pound bombs in mosul when we were going after isis. we didn't destroy kabul. we didn't destroy others. so would you be comfortable, if this was a u.s. operation and u.s. military? >> i think a good comparison is what happened in iraq and mosul what happe between isis-k and civilians,

and it was five isis-k -- i'm sorry. one isis-k to five civilian, and in this case, it's two civilians to one hamas. so it's actually -- >> martha: where are those from? those statistics? >> that's what we gathered, you know -- those are the facts and figures that we have. tsa actually lower than what america did in iraq. >> martha: again, people that i've talked to who were in iraq, who were in afghanistan, members of the military say we would not do a war like this, and if there were mistakes made, they would admit it. >> i we have commanders working with them. here's what i object to, martha, is just to say point-blank that we are not going to give weapons to israel if they invade rafah. now of course, you want to conditions with the humanitarian to be in place. of course, you want the tents in place, but to say you cannot invade rafah, we're telling the israelis, dictating their military strategy. this is the last point -- the

last step in the completion of their military objective, and for us to step in and say, no. you can't go into rafah and finish the job, i think is tantamount to an arms embargo. it's also very similar for us to say in world war ii, hey. like my dad's generation, you can invade all the way up to berlin, but you can't go into berlin to finish the job, and chris coons is right. until we do that, we will never have the resolution, the peaceful resolution that i think everybody wants. >> martha: do you think what president biden has done pausing those weapons would really make a difference? the israelis basically say they have everything they need right now even for a full-scale assault. so why does this pause really matter in terms of rafah if that is, in fact, what they decide to do? >> well, it may not matter -- i know it doesn't matter with respect to israel. netanyahu has said and i've talked to him, i'm going to do this alone if i have to. you know where it matters,

martha is a signal and the message we're sending the rest of the world that you can't count on the united states, ecayou can't trust the united states. that our allies, you know, and our enemies see this as if our friends see this, and they want to buy military equipment from the united states, how are they going to trust us? and the rest of the world looks at this. iran looks at this. there was a victory by this administration without a shot sfi fired from him, and i think russia and china are right there looking at this too. >> martha: you regularly invoke former president ronald reagan. you heard senator coons bring up the fact he paused weapons to israel as well. you constantly ask yourself, what would ronald reagan do? what's the ronald reagan did. >> well, look. i think in this case to say, look. i'm all for the humanitarian peace here, and that can be done, but i am not for saying -- what the president said is different. he said, if they go into rafah,

i'm not supplying the weapons, period. he didn't say something else. that's what he said, and i have to go by his words because you know what? they're not giving us any information. the state department, this administration, have not been transparent. they have been hiding the eight ball, and that's what he said. >> martha: just quickly if you can, you heard tess ingram. you heard the horrible situation on the ground. are you comfortable when you see those pictures of children and estimates are 14,000 children have died there. are you comfortable with that? >> no. i'm not at all. it's heartbreaking, you know, war as they asay is hell. war is messy, but israel didn't start this war. hamas started this war and israel's going to finish this war, and until hamas is eradicated, we can't get to the peaceful solution, and i think that's my biggest concern, but yeah. my heart goes out thomo them. i saw a video today of hamas trying to get food out of the

trucks. >> martha: we'll stop it there. thanks for coming in this morning, congressman. >> thanks, martha. up next, stormy daniels' testimony in the hush money trial gets heated and michael cohen prepares to take the stand. stand. we'll break ate d (♪) ♪ healthier's not something that happens all alone ♪ ♪ it takes greg and lydia, and josie on the phone. ♪ ♪ it's grammy getting checked on in her favorite chair. ♪ ♪ or dolling herself up to go ♪ ♪ handle all of her care. ♪ ♪ with doctors to nurses ♪ ♪ and all the people in between ♪ ♪ healthier happens in more ways ♪ ♪ than ray's ever seen. ♪ ♪ healthier happens together. ♪ if you spit blood when you brush, it could be the start of a domino effect. new parodontax active gum repair breath freshener. clinically proven to help reverse the four signs of early gum disease. a new toothpaste from parodontax, the gum experts. we all need fiber for our digestive health,

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taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. living with type 2 diabetes? ask about the power of 3 with ozempic®. so this was a very big day, so this was a very big day, a very revealing day as you've seen, their case is totally falling apart. they have nothing on books and records, and even something that should bear a little, the relationship to the case is just a disaster. >> martha: that was former president donald trump reacting to the sometimes salacious and often heated testimony of stormy daniels this week in his new york hush money trial. trump's former attorney and fixer michael cohen is expected on the stand tomorrow.

abc's aaron ka ter tersky has a preview of what this could mean for the case. >> reporter: over the last three weeks, the jury has heard a story of skpex scheming. stormy daniels described a night with donald trump in a hotel suite he says never happened. she told the jury he kept old spice and manicure set which was gold in his toiletry bag. she said while she never felt threatened, there was an imbalance of power for sure. there are the details the prosecutor said trump paid to bury in 2016, and relied on michael cohen to pin the crime on trump. >> i'm kind of looking forward to it because, again, can't be finished with something unless you start it, right? >> reporter: cohen has already been a trial fixture. the jury saw his $130,000 wire to daniels 12 days before the 2016 election. the invoices cohen prepared, and the checks trump signed to reimburse him in monthly install

h installmentes, and the jury heard him on the phone. >> i can't even tell how many times he said to me, you know, i hate the fact that ewith did it, and my comment to every person that you've spoken to said it was the right move. >> reporter: trying to distance rims from criminal conduct, but trump will say cohen did not learn of the sexual encounter with trump that he denies happen. cohen will have to overcome unflattering testimony from other trial witnesses. stormy's lawyer called cohen a jerk and highly excitable, sort of a pants on fire kind of guy who no waunted to talk to. hope hicks says he was trump's fixer because he broke things. trump says he cannot be trusted as a convicted liar and he's obsessed with trump. here he is wearing a shirt on

tiktok taunting his former boss. >> trump 2024? more like trump 20 to 24 years. >> reporter: ahead of his testimony, the judge instructed prosecutors to communicate to mr. cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any more statements about the case. he will have plenty to say from the witness stand. martha, when michael cohen takes the witness stand here on monday, it will be the second time in recent months he has come face to face with donald trump. cohen testified against trump in the attorney general's civil fraud case. that time trump volunteered to come to court to stare down michael cohen. this time as t he'll have no choice but to sit there and listen. >> martha: thanks to aaron kater katersky. let's bring in our powerhouse round table, donna brazile, ramesh ponnuru, rachael bade, and charles lane. i want to start with you. let's go back to storm ky danie.

trump denies there was any encounter at all. how do you think this played out? >> it's still open whether her testimony will help our hrt the case in this particular matter, but clearly a huge embarrass moment with the former president with her describing in details this alleged encounter. >> martha: given what the judge has said. >> and given he cannot attack her personally given this gag order, the former president has brought in a bunch of allies to two after her, people like rick scott who wants to lead the senate republican conference and is trying to get in his good graces right now, but as aaron was just saying in that piece he just did, the big question is i think, is moving forward, what is michael cohen going to say? this is a person who is a central witness. he was very close with donald trump, his fixer for a very long time, and he's going to be on the witness stand this week and to see them interact is going to be -- >> martha: it's going to be hard for donald trump to sit still during that one i'm sure. charles, donald trump and his team actually thinks a all

helping him and it polls say the same thing. >> the polls say it's not hurting him and not just this trial is not hurting him, but the three other criminal cases, one in georgia and the two in florida, and the one in washington -- it's hard to keep track sometimes, they have caused a lot of hassle. they have caused him to sit in a new york courtroom, but haven't really affected the polls in the presidential race which show him still well-positioned to win, and on the testimony this week, you know, don't forget the fact that she under the prosecution's own direction kind of strayed into, you know, a lot of detail that's kind of extraneous to business records -- >> martha: putting it nicely. >> yes, because that's the only way you can put it, sets up potential appeal issue, and that is the only case of the four that even stands to finish a trial before november. >> martha: and donna, regardless of all the legal merits or what was said in the court, daniels' testimony really did seem to get

to trump. >> of course, and now we perhaps know why they went out of their way to make sure that this story never saw the light of day back in 2016, immediately following the release or whatever of the "access hollywood" tape. you know, i have to remind myself, and i'm not -- i'm a churchgoing christian, but i have to remind myself this is not about the sex. it's about the documents. it's about the paper trail, and i think to the extent the prosecution can continue to focus on what's at stake in those 34 indictments, that's the case. that's the meat and bone. so the fact that a 27-year-old woman, you know, had consensual or nonconsensual sex, that's irrevanlt. what's relevant is the documents and the fact that had those documents come out -- had that story come out in 2016, it could have altered the outcome of that race. >> martha: ramesh, do you agree

with that? who do you think of the whole week? >> i think it's absolutely right that it's about the documents and not about the right now, and you relationship that happened 11 years prior, but that's what the prosecution is focusing on right now, and you have to wonder as charles was saying, whether that does set up the possibility of reversal or appeal. the political part of this though that i think needs to be kept in mind is the undermining character issues on display with donald trump here, they've always held his numbers down. it's just that there's no new information about his character that the trial is giving us. it's sort of already baked in by the electorate. >> martha: and charles, back to you. do you think that it is people just are not really listening at this point, and now as rachael pointed out, you know, probably no other cases are going to court before the election? >> there is a sort of hardcor of people, mostly democrats who follow this stuff really

closely, but i'm skeptical that outside of that group, a lot of people are focussing on the day-to-day. now look. stormy daniels is such a colorful story that it probably attracted more attention than usual, but i think trump has succeeded, you know, through skillful lawyering in part, through luck, and through his natural kind of bullet proofness with his own base to just kind of turn this into background music of american politics and something that's not providing a fresh drama that changes the narrative. as ramesh points out, people know donald trump is not exactly a conventional person and is kind of mean and nasty at times and does all kinds of sketchy the best way to putting it, but i think people w things, but that is not new. >> he's no choir boy, and that's the best way to putting it, but i think people want a person with a little different character. i think a lot of maramericans a paying attention. not just democrats, but independents. look at indiana. when you got that many voters

and 100,000 people saying, no way. im stick with nikki haley. >> martha: you're talking about nikki haley getting 21% of the vote. >> exactly. >> martha: i want to move to israel and you heard senator coons there and mike mccaul. the white house made the clearest conditioning of aid to israel yet. your reaction to that state department report, ramesh. it sort of muddied this up in a way. he said, look. we're not going to -- we've paused these weapons, and we could pause them even further as they go into full-scale, but then this report is kind of somewhere in the middle. it's finger-wagging and yet nothing illegal. >> somewhere in the middle i think is a good description of the biden administration's position on this, and it does make you wonder about what the underlying thinking is because a lot of it doesn't seem to make sense except with respect to a political problem in the united states, in the democratic party.

this deep split over our policy on israel, but who is going to be made happy by this kind of sort of alternately finger-wagging and statements of resolve? if you are one of the protesters who's saying, biden is complicit in genocide, it's hard to see you being mollified by this kind of gesture. >> martha: how do you see him threading that needle? >> with great difficulty. just on the report by the state department, i have -- mine the only one who thinks this. i think the report may actually be true in the sense that it is very difficult -- you're right. these 2,000-pound bombs are tremendously destructive, burned law, the question is whether their use was related reasonably to a proportionate military goal, and that's a judgment call. >> martha: it is about proportionality. every military person i've talked to said, look. it's proportionality, and from what many i've talked to are seeing, it's -- >> in some case it's true. you would find that their use is

inconsistent is international law, but the people ramesh is talking about, saying genocide joe are not interested -- they want a cutoff of aid, and they won't be happy, and over here you have 26 house democrats saying the president should not have done this. he's betrayed an ally. that's his problem. >> martha: what do you see from the angle of the hill? you've got republicans like mike mccaul saying, what you are doing? >> we're talking about the split in the democratic party, but you have to think about the republican side. as you mentioned, there are some republicans, one in particular who said he's going to introduce articles of impeachment against joe biden because of his ham handling of this situation. republicans tried to impeach biden months ago, and they didn't get any traction, and she shelved this. this idea has support by people like senator tom cotton. so i'm going to be watching that very closely. i think in the coming days we're going to see the house pass a

resolution to basically force biden to continue supplying the weapons to israel, and that's not going to go anywhere in the senate, and even if it did, biden would do that. >> martha: how big of a problem do you think this is for joe biden? >> the president made it clear in december he wanted to have a shift in strategy. the president has been firm in his support of israel. he has been so firm in giving israel everything they need including a couple of weeks ago when israel was under attack. so i doubt very seriously it will cause any more, you know, division within the democratic party, but it's clearly something the president felt very strongly about. this is a president who's very pro-israel. >> martha: rich, i want to end with you here and talk about what happened on the hill this week. the other big story, representative marjorie taylor greene's attempt to oust mike johnson didn't work. overwhelmingly so.

what does this tell you about the state of the republican party and the speakership? >> yeah. so i was fortunate enough to have an hour to sit down with the speaker right after this vote took place and i can tell you he was very relieved. he told me he didn't see it congress, didn't get a heads-up, but he's had this cloud hanging over him for months. now that marjorie taylor greene has lost this vote, he seems to think that he's going to be on track to continue his speakership as long as he has trump's support. so we'll see. -- if he maintains that. >> martha: a lot of drama yet to come. thanks to all of you. coming up, george stephanopoulos takes us inside the nerve center of the white house in his fascinating new book "the situation room." we'll be right back.

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>> martha: coming up, my conversation with george on his new book "the >> martha: coming up, my conversation with george on his new book "the situation room," diving into the history of presidents in crisis since the kennedy administration. we're back in a moment. (wife) saving for retirement was tough enough. (husband) and navigating markets can be challenging at times. (fisher investments) i understand. that's why at fisher investments, we keep a disciplined approach with your portfolio, helping you through the market's ups and downs.

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for pneumococcal pneumonia. is there any prospect for a is there any prospect for a negotiated solution on bosnia? >> well, you know the secretary is going to hear about how the talks have gone right now and we continue to hope that the parties do -- are able to work out a settlement. >> the president believes this is a serious situation. >> he's taking it very seriously. we have an intensive review going on right now by the national security council and advisers and we continue to view our options. >> martha: that's our george stephanopoulos 31 years ago in a former life at the start of the clinton administration facing questions from the press on bosnia, just one of many global crises he witnessed first hand from the white house. george's fascinating new book "the situation room: the inside story of presidents in crisis" delves into the history of the secret white house nerve center where some of the nation's most profound decisions

have been made. i sat down with him this week to discuss that extraordinary history. it's the most secure location in the white house, first set up by president john kennedy in 1961 to coordinate national security after the disastrous bay of pigs invasion, but it was two years later when kennedy's assassination would throw the room into crisis and heartbreak. >> george: there are actually recordings, audio recordings of the situation room talking to pier sallinger, who was jfk's press secretary who was on their way to tokyo, and what you hear in the tapes is the situation room duty officer through a series of phone calls telling pier salinger who was very close to the president, the president's been hit. we're not sure how bad it is. five minutes later --

>> this is the situation room. i read from the ap bulletin, kennedy apparently shot in head. >> george: ten minutes later, we have to report to you and we hear his voice shaking. >> this is situation room. we have report quoting mr. kilduff in dallas that the president is dead, that he died about 35 minutes ago. >> george: and this was the actual communication from the day that john f. kennedy was shot. >> martha: that was, of course, the day that lyndon johnson inherited the presidenc situation room, where he would obsess on the vietnam war. >> george: not only was he there all the time. he was calling the situation room all through the night for any scrap of information about vietnam. >> it looks like, there are two pilots lost? >> it looks like two u.s. pilots lost and search and rescue is under way for them at this time, sir. >> george: one of the things i as a researcher and i think the

readers will take away from it is that you learn that this information is not necessarily insight. all the information in the world about what was happening at any particular battlefield wasn't really going to tell him how to win that war because it was an unwinnable war, and deep down, he knew that, but he was looking for any -- any chance he had to get some control over it. >> martha: lbj's reliance on the room did not pay off in the end, which may have colored the perception of the room for his successor, richard nixon, but he was managing a crisis of his own making, watergate. >> george: nixon hardly ever went to the situation room, but probably the most dramatic moment of his presidency occurred in the situation room without him there. it's october, 1973. war breaks out in the middle east, the first yom kippur war, and nixon is overwhelmed by the problems he's facing. he is said. ing -- spending most of his time in a private hideaway in the old

executive office building drinking scotch and listening to "victory at sea," and henry kissinger kissinger, the russians started to move towards the middle east, and henry kissinger and his team believed that the only way they could deter them was to raise the nuclear level to death con 3 which had only been done once before, the cuban missile crisis and he did that without telling the president of the united states. >> martha: if that weren't jaw-dropping enough, fast forward to a situation room meeting with the next president, jimmy carter. a nugget which george uncovered after reading carter's diary. >> george: the strangest story in the book. >> martha: it happened in the spring of 1980, just weeks after the failed rescue of the american hostages held if iran. >> george: there was actually a program in the intelligence community during the 1970s and '80s called operation grill flame which used psychics and because they were so fascinated

by this, they actually called a meeting in may so they could get a briefing on this parapsychology program. jimmy carter doesn't say a word, just takes out his note bad and writes one word on it and sends it across the desk. the word was hostages. can you do he was so desperate for anything that might help him get the hostages home. >> martha: needless to say it did not help. all of the hostages were not released until the day ronald reagan became president in january of 1981, and less than two months later, his aides would live another nightmarish day in the situation room. a gunman once again targeting a sitting u.s. president. >> george: richard allen who was ronald reagan's national security adviser, on the day he was shot carried a portable tape recorder so you hear his top

aides deliberating in realtime trying to figure out how to run the government with the president unconscious, and it really does capture the chaos, the fog of the equivalent of war and these people not really knowing what kind of shape the president was in, what the chain of command was. it captures a moment that became infamous, when al hague was the secretary of state at the time, famously went up to the white house press room and said -- >> as enoughof now, i am in conf the white house. >> george: thinking he was third in line for the presidency, and they're talking about it before he goes out there. they didn't bother to correct him because he thought, he won't do anything about this. it became such a famous mistake for him and an indelible mark on his career. you also saw the human moments of them trying to figure out what capacities the president had to continue to do his job, and it's really the only realtime record of that kind

that was ever made in the situation room. >> martha: there has been great sadness, but moments of incredible triumph as well like may, 2011 when president obama and his advisers watched two dozen navy s.e.a.l.s carry out the raid that killed al qaeda leader osama bin laden. >> george: i interviewed pete souza, president obama's photographer who was hitting the shutters as fast as he could. he's pretty sure -- he can't be 1,000% sure, but he's pretty sure that the moment that he captured that is now the most iconic photo ever taken in the situation room, is the moment when the first helicopter had the hard landing. president obama famously said, you know, after all the intelligence came in on where osama bin laden was, where that person, the pacer was indeed him, he said, listen. in the end, it's a 50/50 call and you just have to make the judgment, because someone

spent several hours in that room, you are aware of the weight of history when you're in that room, and the history echoes through the room. >> martha: and coming up, george takes us inside the situation room on january 6th. we'll be right back. and we're done. (♪) hmm, what about these? (♪) looks right. [thud] [rushing liquid] nooo... nooooo... nooooooo... quick, the quicker picker upper! only bounty absorbs spills like a sponge. and bounty is 2x more absorbent so you can use less and get the job done with one. this works. [thud] kind of. bounty, the quicker picker upper. and get four rolls in one with the bounty mega roll. our longest lastng roll. (vo) it's shrimp your way. choose three flavors for just $20*.d get four rolls in one with the bounty mega roll. like new street corn shrimp. and our famous garlic shrimp scampi. it's time to grab some cheddar bays and get flavorfull.

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vice president was in. he and his colleagues started to implement the continuity of government operations. the people may not know what that is. those are the executive order -- the first person, dwight eisenhower, figured out how the government could attack a nuclear attack to put everything in place, the line of succession, safe places for people to go to. it had only been done once before, on 9/11. they were implementing those on january 6th, dealing with a crisis inspired by the president of the united states, and all during that day as they're dealing with this crisis, president trump never once called down to the situation room. the nerve center of the white house, >> george: nope. it had been his dream to work in the white house and he couldn't believe what had happened, but he also knew he had to steel

himself for goin >> martha: never called the pent dp pen pentagon, never did anything? >> george: nope. it had been his dream to work in the white house and he couldn't believe what had happened, but he also knew he had to steel himself for going back in the very next day, and that's exactly what he did because like all those people who served in the situation room, they say we serve the presidency, not the president. he feared that the institution would crumble that day, but it didn't. it still stood, and he was determined to do his part to keep everything going, but to this day, he and several of his colleagues who served the day still have a hard time talking about it. go to the lincoln memorial every january 6th, and they raise a dpl glass that we didn't crumble that day. we stood our ground and the nation survived. >> martha: our thanks to george and "the situation room" will be out on tuesday. it is simply an amazing read. we'll be right back.

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>> martha: that's all for us today. thanks for sharing part of your sunday with us, and to all the moms out there, happy mother's day. good morning to you and a look from our vollmer creek camera where we've got some may gray for mother's day. it is sunny in our inland valleys, but we'll talk about the cooldown expected to come your way today and the forecastor theeek ahead.

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