thank you for staying with us. here are the top stories we're following right now. just one week away from the iowa caucuses, and it is a full court press as republican presidential candidates and hawkeye state residents prepare for the first big 2024 test. also, the defense secretary under fire. i'll speak to former cia director john brennan about the

mystery surrounding secretary austin's illness and hospitalization with new nbc reporting on president biden's point of view. plus, secretary blinken heads back to tel aviv after a new wave of explosions along the gaza strip and new israeli strikes against hezbollah targets in lebanon. and we will go live to south carolina where president biden will arrive this hour ahead of his speech at mother emmanuel church as part of his 2024 campaign kickoff. thanks for being here. it is 11:00 eastern. i'm ana cabrera joining you for a special second hour this morng. josé diaz-balart will be up at noon today. it is the final push in iowa for republicans running for president, and the front runr donald trump is not even holding a campaign event in the hawkeye state until this weekend. the former president, who is out defending january 6th rioters again is set to appear in

courtrooms instead, in two separate trials this week. meanwhile, the two candidates fighting for second place, nikki haley and ron desantis are trading barbs on the campaign trail and iowa campaign ads, claiming they are the trump alternative. >> pretend you're one point down, okay? you're one point down. you have to get out and you have to vote, vote, vote. >> donald trump is running for his issues. nikki haley is running for her donors' issues. >> but every single commercial, god bless him, that ron desantis has put on the air, there's not an ounce of truth. >> let's head to iowa and nbc's priscilla thompson, who is kicking off her road trip across the state today. and joining us now from granger, iowa, priscilla, iowa, it's not always predictive of who ultimately gets the nomination, but it's about momentum. how critical is the state to the three leading candidates, and what are iowans telling you?

>> reporter: yeah, ana, good morning, and welcome to iowa. we are at casey's general store. this is an iowa staple, and we're here talking to average iowans to get a sense of how engaged they are this caucus cycle, and i will tell you the things we're hearing. we have heard from the die hard trump supporter who says no matter what, they will be showing up on caucus night to caucus for him. i also spoke to a woman who one week out is still undecided. she caucused for trump in the past, but while she likes his policies, she doesn't like the wake he talks. that said, she has still not decided on one of the other candidates. and again, one week out from caucus night. i will tell you the vast majority of folks that we've spoken to here say that they don't plan to caucus. i spoke to one independent voter, nancy, about why she's not caucusing, and also what her top issues are, and i want to play a little bit of that conversation. >> they just -- they seem to grand stand a little when they're caucusing when i see it

on tv, and it's like i don't want to hear that. i want to see what you're about. our economy is insane. you know, going with gas and groceries and, you know, that's hard for just the average person to try and bring their paycheck home and half of it's gone by the time, you know, they spend their money on that, let alone anything else. >> reporter: and nancy supported biden in the last general election. she says that she's a never trumper. but i asked her if it was a matchup between biden and nikki haley, and she said that she would consider nikki haley, and i will tell you, we have heard that from a number of democrats this morning, but as you mentioned, this is the first leg of our road trip. we have got our casey's breakfast pizza, another iowa staple, and we are about to hop back in the car and head to carol, iowa, next to talk to voters there. >> breakfast pizza, that does look good.

it's almost lunchtime here, so save some for me. priscilla thompson, enjoy and thank you. you're going to need that fuel as you keep going on your road trip. a trump campaign official is defending the fact that he is spending a lot less time than his competitors in iowa. ron desantis has held 160 campaignvents in iowa, compared to just 34 by the former president since he launched his campaign. team trump says, quote, it's like comparing a corvette to a rick shaw insisting he connects with far more voters. let's discuss this and more with republican strategist, susan del percio, "new york times" reporter, jeremy peters and former federal prosecutor paul butler. >> susan, i guess the conventional wisdom here or the narrative at least is that trump's just going to run away with this. he's up 30 points in iowa. do you expect a potential surprise next week? >> i don't expect a surprise, but what i am watching for next week is voter turnout.

no matter donald trump's going to win. it's not about what the percentages between the candidates look like, it's are donald trump, trump's followers as revved up to go out to support him as they have been in the past. so i think that's one real important thing. the other story coming out of iowa will be does nikki haley leapfrog over ron desantis, and if she can pick up a big enough win over him, does he drop out? >> and you mentioned the enthusiasm and who shows up. the weather could play a role in all of this too. we're seeing there's a storm that could be moving in to iowa about a week out as well. paul, one of the reasons that trump hasn't been spending a lot of time in iowa, at least lately, is that he's requesting to be in the couroom for two days, two separate cases this week. tomorrow there's the appeals court hearing dealing with trump's claim of presidential immunity, which he argues shields him from prosecution in the federal election

interference case. what are your expectations in this immunity matter tomorrow and the prospects of a trial in that case in march? >> trump is saying he has absolute immunity during the time that he was in the white house, criminal prosecution. he made that same argument about immunity from civil lawsuits and the d.c. circuit told him that he was wrong. so i think the court will use the same analysis about the election interference case, the big lie had nothing to do with trump's presidential responsibilities so he can face prosecution, and then trump will appeal that to the supreme court, and they can either go along with what the d.c. circuit decides or agree to take the case themselves. then the big question will be timing. >> right, timing is key here, and just in, we have a new filing, three, in fact, three motions just filed in the fulton county, georgia, case, very

similar to what we were just discussing. one of the motions is to dismiss for presidential immunity. one for due process and one for double jeopardy protection. so it sounds almost identical to what the appeals court is going to be hearing tomorrow in the federal election interference case. why do you think he's just now making these motions in the georgia case, and is it any different in this case versus the federal one? >> it's not different. i think he's trying to run out the clock. so the later he makes motions, the longer it will take the court to decide. so trump clearly wants all of his criminal trials to happen after the election. we know why. it's because if he is successful, then he can either appoint an attorney who will dismiss the federal cases or he can pardon himself. he wouldn't have that luxury in the fulton county case. but again, if that trial happens after the election or if it's

scheduled after the election, it's pretty certain that the trial will be delayed until trump is no longer in office. so that would be 2028 at the earliest. >> jeremy, let's take a listen to what trump said in iowa over the weekend defending the january 6th rioters again. >> they had to release the j 6 hostages. they've suffered enough. they ought to release them. i call them hostages. some people call them prisoners. i call them hostages, release the j 6 hostages, joe. >> jeremy, why is he focusing on this? what does it tell you about trump's strategy? >> that it's a strategy of grievance and misinformation and misdirection. this is what we've seen from him since he first became a

candidate in 2015. not only has he called these january 6th defendants hostages. at one of his rallies over the weekend, he played a recording of some of the jailed defendants singing the national anthem, and what he's done here effectively, is turned these people into folk heroes of the right, into martyrs. and he tells his base that they're victims of the same kind of witch hunt that he is, and his base believes that. his persecution complex is kind of central to his political identity, and as much -- as easy as it is to dismiss that, as easy as it is for many people to dismiss that as an outright lie, it's very resonant with his supporters and will continue to be because she and his allies have so distorted the history around january 6th and rewritten it. this is what you see a message

coming from biden and his campaign that, you know, trump doesn't have the -- you know, he's tried to steal the election, and now he's trying to steal history. and you know, it's kind of an open question how resonant that will be with independent voters, you know, beyond the democratic base, but it is seriously worth considering given that the -- many people, polling shows, are concerned about what a trump -- second trump presidency would mean for our democratic norms. >> and susan, after iowa comes new hampshire and south carolina. what's your advice for those chasing trump right now? >> give it up. seriously, i think at this point desantis needs to drop out even if he comes in in second in iowa. there's no path for him, and everyone's seemed to give up on him. chris christie, if he really

wants to start with even a sliver of hope of defeating donald trump in 2024, he's got to also drop out before new hampshire. new hampshire is an interesting state because non-affiliated voters can vote in either primary. there's no democratic primary, so at 40% of the electorate, you're going to see independents show up, and they will probably break for haley. it's expected. so if haley could pull up -- excuse me. if haley could pick up -- >> it's a monday. >> it's a monday. >> if haley can get a nice win out of new hampshire going into her home state, even though she's really behind in the polls, it's a path, i think it's a very, very narrow path. >> okay. we'll watch. just one week away. i mean, we are in it. it is election season. thank you so much, susan del percio, paul butler, and jim peters. >> today at 2:00 eastern, katy tur hosts special coverage one week out from the iowa caucuses. that's right here on msnbc. when we're back in 60 seconds, controversy engulfing the pentagon as the nation remains

in the dark on details regarding defense secretary austin's hospitalization and elective surgery. what the white house is saying this morning about whether he'll keep his job. plus, what we can expect from president biden in a critical campaign speech in south carolina. and airline safety, boeing 737 max-9s are still grounded causing major flight disruptions as federal investigators ramp up inspections. up inspections.

we have an update right now on secretary austin. president biden is not considering firing the defense secretary according to three administration officials. the nsc's john kirby saying, quote, there are no plans for anything other than for secretary austin to stay in the job. this after secretary austin failed to disclose his hospital stay and treatment in the icu.

he was admitted a week ago. he's still in the hospital, but waited three days to inform the white house. let's take a look at the time line. we have learned on new year's day, secretary austin was hospitalized in the icu after he started experiencing pain following elective surgery. january 2nd, his responsibilities were transferred to his deputy secretary kathleen hicks w was on vacation in puerto rico, but she was not told why. on january 4th, hisy secretary and the white house werehe informed, and it wasn't until friday thathe public found out about the secretary's condition. secretary austin reasing this statement over the weekend saying i am very glad to on the mend and look forward to returning to the pentagon soon. i also understand the media concerns about transparency and i recognize i could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. i commit to doing better. meantime, secretary of state antony blinken is on a whirlwind

trip to the middle east, and our andrea mitchell is traveling with him and asked blinken about austin's condition. >> were you aware of this? when did you learn of it? what is your threshold for transparency for a national security official, a cabinet member such as yourself under those conditions? >> with regard to secretary austin, i wasn't aware of his medical issue. in fact, i talked to lloyd last weekend before this incident, and i know that he's put out a statement addressing it. what i can say is this, it has been and remains one of the great privileges of my career over 30 years now working in government to serve alongside lloyd austin. >> joining us now is former cia director john brennan. director brennan, thank you very much for joining us.

the white house was in the dark for three days about secretary austin's hospitalization. there's the israel-hamas war, the ukraine war, attacks on american troops in syria and iraq, hostiliies in the red sea just to name a few things that are happening in the world. you've held a similar cabinet level position as the secretary, and you have worked closely with secretary austin in the past. what's your reaction to this? >> well, ana, first of all, i think we all wish secretary austin a full and speedy recovery. as you point out, there's still a lot that we don't know about his medical condition and what it was that required him to go back into walter reed and the icu on 1 january. and it is possible that his health condition or his medical condition clouded his judgment at that time. i don't know whether or not he was under some types of medication or whatever else, and so that could have been the reason why he decided not to notify people as he should have. with that said, it's clear that

the system broke down because there needs to be established protocols that if a cabinet secretary or a senior member of the president's staff is going to be incapacitated or in the hospital and the authorities that they have to execute could be, in fact, affected, that needs to be that immediate notification that is done. so i know over the holiday period and there's reports that his chief of staff was ill, but there still needs to be this chain of command in terms of any type of notification that should have taken place. so i do think that the pentagon is going to do quite a review of what happened, what needs to take place under these types of circumstances, but also, i think the white house is going to make sure that there's going to be no similar type of occurrence, whether it be in the pentagon or in other cabinet offices. >> can you just tell us what the rules are? what is the protocol typically for notification in a situation like this? >> well, again, if a cabinet secretary, particularly one with

such enormous responsibilities and authority such as the secretary of defense, is going to be out of commission in any way or is going to be unavailable, there needs to be this notification done to deputies, to the person's deputy, and also to the white house because we don't want there to be any type of misstep or miscommunication in terms of what has to happen, particularly at a time of a lot of crises around the world. so whether or not you're the secretary of state, secretary of defense, or the director of the cia, your staff is supposed to be on readiness the protocols in terms of who needs to be notified, what steps need to be taken, whether it's a delegation of responsibilities and authorities, or whether it's a simple notification that is done to the white house or to members of congress, and clearly, that system was not followed. again, maybe it was a result of the holiday weekend and the fact that some people were out of their position for illness or whatever, but there always needs

to be irrespective of whether or not there are holidays or illnesses, the ability to be able to transfer those responsibilities to others so that those protocols are followed, those notifications are made and that all of the different responsibilities of the individuals are going to be taken care of. >> just in the last hour we got a statement from a republican leader in the house, elise stefanik, calling for his resignation saying that this was a significant national security threat. the president we're told still has full trust and confidence in austin, but if he didn't follow the rules and protocols here, could he be in any kind of legal jeopardy? what possible fallout could come from this? >> well, again, i think there's going to be a review, and the white house will do a review. as i said, secretary austin's medical condition might have contributed to this lapse in terms of the notifications. calls for secretary austin's resignation are absolutely ludicrous. they're absurd.

secretary austin is one of our nation's most accomplished military officers and cabinet officials. he has dedicated his life to this country. the fact that this took place and that he was in the hospital, again, should be no basis for his firing or resignation. i am certain that president biden retains utmost confidence in secretary austin, but i think they both will work to ensure that there is going to be follow-up actions that are taken so that nothing like this ever happens again. >> former cia director john brennan, thank you very much for sharing your insights and perspective on all of this. up next here on "ana cabrera reports" top lawmakers agree on some funding levels. will they have the votes to avoid a shutdown. and we'll have new reaction from democratic congresswoman abigail spanberger to former president trump's comments on the january 6th insurrection. y n

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speaker johnson will likely need significant support from democrats to keep the government running. joining us now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent ryan nobles. ryan, what's in this deal, and why is the house freedom caucus calling it a total failure? >> reporter: well, ana, to be clear, any deal that has even a modicum of it democratic support would likely be rejected by the house freedom caucus. that tends to be the way they operate. we do see a deal here where you do see compromise frobo republicans and democrats, especially when you track back to the deal that was hatched to avoid a government shutdown over the summer. you can see in ts plan that was released by the leaders in both the senate and the house last night, it's about a $1.66 trillion framework with the top line number of $1.5 trillion. it also has another $69 billion in domestic funding, $6 billion in -- they're going to cut in unspent covid funds, and they're also going to shift the irs cuts

down to just one year as opposed to two years, and as you point out before, ana, delay do have -- they do have two deadlines they're facing. there's a deadline coming up just in the next week or so where a big chunk of the federal government will lose funding if they don't do something quickly. then there's a second round of funding that needs to be in place by february 2nd. that has a big chunk of probably the most important federal government agencies including the defense department and others. it's important to point out that now that they've reached this stage of coming up with an overall top line number, these two separate deadlines don't matter that much because they've decided they want to do it all at once. they're basically going to have to come up with the fine details of this spending plan. they've reached that top number. now they've got to fill everything in in all these different departments before that january 11th deadline, if they want to avoid a government shutdown. others they're going to have to come up with a short-term,

continuing resolution, something that republicans and the speaker himself say they do not want to do again. >> joining us now is democratic congresswoman of virginia abigail spanberger, a former cia officer now serves on the intelligence and agriculture committee. she's also running for governor in virginia. congresswoman, good to have you here. are we heading to a two-stage shutdown, or will democrats vote for this deal even if republicans don't? >> the crux of this next step will be whether speaker johnson chooses to bring this bill to the floor. certainly not to speak for all of my colleagues, but democrats time and time again have stepped forward when it was necessary to ensure the proper function of government. that means voting for the rules to get bills to the floor, voting for bipartisan bills in order to avoid a debt crisis, in order to avoid a government shutdown and to do the business of the people, which is to fund

among many things, to fund the government. so my expectation is as long as speaker johnson brings this bill to the floor, it will pass, and it will likely as has been the case in prior continuing resolutions and in prior efforts to avoid catastrophe, the vast majority or at least the majority of those votes will likely come from democrats. >> okay, let's talk about the situation involving the defense secretary now. it took the pentagon three days to inform congress, the president, and the public that secretary austin was admitted to the icu. his own deputy wasn't even told he was hospitalized until thursday. he was admitted on monday. there's still been no information about what kind of health issue he's dealing with. how concerning is all this secrecy? >> i think there's a couple of ways to look at it. first and foremost, the white house should have known that he was in the hospital. from a larger national security standpoint, i think the question of who needs to know what and

when is a secondary question. the fact that there wasn't a public pronouncement to me is wholly acceptable. there's a variety of reasons why the health and ongoings of our top nation's officials may not need to be broadcast out for foreign governments to hear and learn about, but certainly within the department and certainly within the white house, they should have been briefed immediately. i think it's important that secretary austin has owned this mistake, has made clear that it was an inexcusable choice for his actions, and ultimately, i do hope that there is a review to ensure that there wasn't any jeopardizing of national security protocols or processes because of his condition. >> bottom line, though, was america less safe during this period? >> i think that at this moment in that time, that's not something that anybody can answer with certainty. i say that as a former cia

officer. i say that as somebody who always has an eye towards national security issues. there's a lot more that needs to be determined about where there were disconnects along the way over the past couple of days, before anyone definitively says yes or no on that. >> let's move on because over the weekend, the nation marked three years since the january 6th insurrection and former president trump was in iowa defending those who have been convicted for their roles on january 6th. take a look. >> they ought to release the j-6 hostages. they've suffered enough. they ought to release them. i call them hostages. some people call them prisoners. i call them hostages. release the j 6 hostages, joe. >> congresswoman, trump has called them hostages before. what kind of impact could those words have? >> his use of the words hostages is despicable always and every

day, but while there continue to aeli and u.s. citizen hostages, people who are held captive by a terrorist organization abducted from their homes, abducted from a music concert, abducted from their civilian day-to-day, the fact that there continue to be american and israeli hostages held by a terrorist organization and the former president is using that same word that is so publicly in our consciousness today because of those folks, because of those hostages being held by hamas terrorists, the fact that he would use that word to describe people who have gone through the legal process, people who have been indicted, people who have been charged, many of whom have pled guilty to the crimes of which they were convicted, it is absolutely just a despicable use of vocabulary

for a reason intended presumably to evoke a type of emotion, and it is -- to me it's inexcusable among all the oh things that the former president does. >> congresswoman abigail spanberger, thank you very much for taking the time with us today. >> thank you. up next on "ana cabrera reports," president biden begins his 2024 voter outreach in south carolina today with an emphasis on rallying black voters in big numbers. and shuttle diplomacy, the big challenges facing secretary blinken during his trip to israel. we'll break them down for you. k. and a gangster's out of style. i got back to my roots. we come from a long line of cowboys. my grandfather, my great-grandfather, my aunt even rode horses. when i see all of us out here on this ranch i see how far our legacy can go. now on sale at ancestry.

welcome back. president biden just landed in charleston, south carolina. next hour will speak at the historic mother emanuel ame church. in 2015 a white supremacist shot and killed nine black church goers. the biden campaign says the president's remarks will underscore the stakes of this year's election from the threats to democracy to continued threats of political violence and extremism. in short, the same kind of extremist hate that led to the massacre at that church nine years ago. and joining us now from charleston is nbc news senior white house correspondent gabe gutierrez as well as white house reporter for "the wall street journal" sabrina siddiqui. gabe, talk to us about the significance in the biden

campaign chooing this location for his remarks today. >> reporter: hi there, ana, good morning. the program here is already underway, and as you said, this is the oldest ame church in the south and such an iconic site. the site of so much history but also so much tragedy. you mentioned the 2015 shooting here that killed nine black worshippers at bible study. during the 1800s this church was the site of where this congregation was forced to meet in secret during the height of slavery. the president and his campaign plan to deliver an emotional speech here describing what he sees as maga extremism led by donald trump, and the threat it poses to democracy. and we spoke with a state rep who lost his sister during that shooting in 2015. here's his reaction to the president's visit. >> as it relates to mother

emanuel, i think there's always a need -- and i didn't realize this until nine years ago on september the 17th, 2015, that there's always a need to re-remind america of its sins. every day, every time. it's important that the president comes and reminds america that like, you know, we can still be evil. we the people can still be evil. >> reporter: now, ana, this all comes as recent polling shows that the biden campaign, the biden administration is perhaps losing some support among black voters across the country and potentially here in south carolina. we spoke with several voters yesterday who told us about their frustration that they felt that the biden administration hadn't done enough for them. still, the biden campaign pushes back strongly on that. it says that it's coming to south carolina, not from a place of worry, but because it wants to practice what it preaches and that it has been investing in

the black community. as for whether that message of threats to democracy will resonate, the campaign says it raised more than a million dollars online in the 24 hours following president biden's speech near valley forge on friday, ana. >> gabe gutierrez, thank you. and so sabrina, south carolina congressman jim clyburn met the president on the tarmac moments ago as he arrived there in charleston ahead of the speech. of course it was clyburn's endorsement that was really instrumental in helping biden win the nomination back in 2020. here he is addressing president biden's accomplishments and strategy this weekend. >> i have no problem with the biden administration and what it has done. my problem is we have not been able to break through that maga wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done. >> so in terms of trying to break through is president biden

or his campaign making any strategic changes? >> well, i think this really is the opening swing of president biden's campaign and the first of many major speeches that campaign officials say will be targeted towards black voters who are a critical voting block for democrats and were vital to electing president biden in 2020. you know, the visit does come as president biden, as gabe mentioned, has struggled with low approval ratings across the board. he is also contending with a decline in support among black voters. some surveys have shown an uptick in support for president trump. the potential for black voters to stay at home or to vote third-party. i think some of the frustrations that we've heard from black voters date back to the failure under this administration to pass voting rights legislation and an overhaul of policing.

those of course have been stalled in congress amid opposition from republicans. but moderate democrats such as joe manchin and kyrsten sinema, these are some of the challenges and frustrations i think the biden campaign knows it has to address in addition to the trns that black voters share with most americans around the economy, jobs, access to health care, abortion rights, student debt relief. biden campaign officials say they are going to make significant investments in media targeting black voters, and they see this effort to rally these voters early as a sign that they're not taking their support for granted. >> sabrina siddiqui, it's good to see you. thank you very much for sharing your reporting. up next on "ana cabrera reports," safety in the skies, what federal investigators are learning after that alaska airlines mid-flight scare. airli.

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saying if friday's terrifying mid-flight incident happened at cruising altitude with passengers walking around and flight attendants in the aisles, this outcome would have and could have been much worse. all boeing 737 max-9s in the u.s. are now grounded until investigators determine why a panel of an alaska airlines' plane blew out after takeoff leaving a gaping hole in the side of the plane and sucking items out of the aircraft including a teenager's t-shirt. remarkably no one was injured. a key piece of evidence has been recovered in a backyard in oregon. nbc news correspondent dana griffin joins us now with more. dana, this is a remarkable story. there still are more questions than answers this morning about this particular plane and the entire boeing fleet. >> reporter: yeah, exactly. that's why, ana, the faa has decided to ground these boeing

737 max-9 planes until they say they are satisfied that they are safe. so right now the ntsb is collecting that missing door plug that was found in the backyard of a portland teacher's yard. we are waiting for images to see where that landed, what it looks like. but that's going to be critical in trying to determine why did this plug fail. they also found two cell phones that were sucked out of the plane along with that teenager's t-shirt. as you said, luckily no one was hurt, but this could have been deadly and the ntsb has acknowledged that. they're also looking at alaska airlines because there were three pressurization warning warninglights that alerted crews on three separate flights days and the weeks prior to this incident that happened on friday, and alaska airlines decided not to fly this plane over water to hawaii because in case of an emergency, they wanted to be able to return back to an airport quickly. so that's going to be part of this investigation. the bad news for this investigation, however, is the

cockpit voice recorder was overwritten because no one collected the data within two hours. now the ntsb is probing the faa to change the rules so that old and new planes have that recording for at least 25 hours, which is something that you see in european countries. so right now they're going to continue their investigation, which could last several weeks. united and alaskan airlines have canceled hundreds of flights that will impact customers through midweek at least. ana. >> dana griffin with that update, thank you very much. up next on "ana cabrera reports," israeli forces ramp up their strikes on gaza and on he has bow la targets in lebanon. stoking fears of a

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strike in southern lebanon adding to concerns about a widening regional war. this as secretary blinken is expected to arrive in israel this afternoon. want to bring in "new york times" diplomatic correspondent and the former israeli consulate general in new york and former adviser to former advisers. good to see both of you. this is the secretary's fourth trip to the region since october. what's different this time? what's his focus? >> well, i mean, the truth is a lot of the same issues have been persisting through his many trips. including the fact that there are still more than 100 hostages held by hamas and i think the u.s. government believes about eight or nine are american citizens. still a real desire to get more humanitarian aid into gaza with the biden administration under a lot of pressure for supporting israel in a war that's causing a lot of civilian suffering and

deaths. and this question of containing the conflict so that by don't have a wider war, thats been a priority for the u.s. government from the beginning. but i think to answer your question specifically on this trip, the concern about a wider war is as high as it's been since the first days after october 7th. and i think there's a real emphasis particularly as we're seeing strikes in beirut on hezbollah officials. u.s. mounted an air strike in iraq a few days ago and now the concerns that we have with the houthis in yemen. i think there's a sense that all these different pots are coming to a boil and secretary blinken is intent on not seeing the united states dragged into a multifront middle east war. >> i see you nodding your head, ambassador. does a widening war feel inevitable? >> in a way i subscribe to everything michael just said.

look, there's a qualitative difference here. at the outset of the war immediately after the october 7 attack on the 10th of october in fact, president biden said don't referring indirectly to iran and hezbollah then dispatching to the us navy aircraft carrier strike forces. the gerald ford and the dwight eisenhower. the name of the game was preventing the spread and expansion into lebanon. there was this lull, about 16-day period in which the u.s. assumed it was succeeded and preventing that and even pressing and pressuring israel not to do anything preemptive in lebanon, but things have changed in the last two or three weeks and i'm not saying it's inevitable in the short period of time because there's a case to be made that iran, which is hezbollah's mentor, supporter, funder, and provider of arms, is

less inclined or seems to be less inclined to escalate at this point, but as far as the u.s. is concerned, that's exactly what michael was talking about. as far as the u.s. is concerned, this escalation has to be averted not and not assume anything about iran or hezbollah. >> ambassador, let's talk about the hostage situation because there are still more than 100 hostages in gaza and the qatari prime minister said this weekend the killing of a senior hamas official in beirut is going to make it more difficult to secure a new deal for hostage release. what needs to be done to bring these hostages home? >> well, you know, on the other hand, the qataris have been exquisitely active and effective thus far. in fact, they hosted the representative of six families in doha over the weekend and gave them every moment of the

day and all the attention they can shower them with. i know that the qataris are working or trying to work with american encouragement on a new deal. until now, the major impediments to any deal was hamas, which reportedly i don't know that for a fact, conditioned any new deal on a complete and permanent cease fire. which is something that israel is not willing to entertain at this point. so i honestly don't know, but you're right. this is an outstanding issue that is not getting enough attention. >> we just have about a minute left, michael, but i want to ask about the development we learned this morning that israeli military saying some 9,000 hamas fighters have been killed or captured. that's about 30,000 in their fights force. they've also seized weapons. questions have been raised about how the israeli military has

waged war in gaza. are there military tactics impacting israel's stature on the global stage. >> i think there's no question about that. there's a wide swath of public opinion that feels the israeli response has disproportionate. the israelis might put it another way. i think the current estimate of people killed in gaza is something like 22 to 25,000. israel is now saying 9,000 of those are hamas fighters. so that's maybe like a third. to them, they would say that's proportionate, but i think a lot of people around the world think it's been too much. >> michael crowley and former ambassador, thank you both for joining us. and that does it for us today. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern. thanks for being here. jose diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now. good day. it is noon eastern. 9:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart with you for the next two