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hello, i'm boris sanchez with brianna keilar in washington. we begin with a major breaking development in the is heal-hamas war. two americans taken hostage by hamas nearly two weeks ago have been released according to a source familiar with the negotiation noose this is a mother and a daughter as we understand it, they were among at least 200 people who were kidnapped during hamas's attacks on israel in which 1400 people were killed. we have cnn's alex marquardt and mj lee with details on this. alex, tell us what more you can about this release. >> reporter: well, a mother and daughter as you say, we understand from a source that i spoke with about the negotiations, that the mother is not in good health. so we've been told by both our sources and by hamas that this is a, quote, unquote, humanitarian release because

presumably hamas doesn't want to deal with someone who is not in very good health. we've been told that they have been handed over to the red cross so they are now an independent body, they are not with the militant group anymore and that they are heading to a crossing to get out of the gaza strip. in southern gaza there is both the rafah crossing that goes into egypt and the kerem shalom crossing that goes into israel. we are not clear which one they will go to and what officials they will be handed over to. this is certainly excellent news for the families. we can assume that once they are handed over that they will be given medical treatment that they need, but there are still major questions about the remaining hostages and there have been all kinds of numbers that have been put on how many remain. the idf saying earlier today that that range could be between 100 and 200. hamas has said that it is closer to 200.

big questions about where those hostages are. we have been told, we reported that they are spread out among different groups. hamas, islamic jihad, other militant groups, and that has certainly complicated the prospect of israel going into gaza on the ground, which of course they are expected to do. >> alex, thank you so much for that. we want to get to the white house right now because mj lee is there and, mj, you have some new reporting about communications between the israeli government and the u.s. over american hostages. tell us about that. >> reporter: that's right. boris, i am told that israel had previously told the u.s. government that some americans taken hostage by hamas were believed, known to be alive. what is not clear, though, right now and this is very, very important, is whether the israelis were referring only to the two people, the two americans that are currently being released by hamas or

whether there was information about any other american hostages. now, the u.s. government, keep in mind, has never given a firm number as to how many american hostages are believed to have been taken by hamas. they have used language like a handful of americans were believed to have been taken and the u.s., i'm also told, is not aware of any proof of life videos pertaining to american citizens, akin to the video that was released earlier this week by hamas of that 21-year-old french-israeli citizen. now, i don't have to tell you that ascertaining information about any of the hostages that were taken by hamas, that has been extraordinarily difficult and that is why we have seen u.s. officials in recent days speaking extremely carefully whenever they have even broached this subject, and of course, president biden himself has said himself repeatedly that getting any american hostages out of gaza has been a top, top

priority and in recent days notably he has gone to lengths to say that he simply cannot talk in public about all of the things that u.s. officials are doing to make an effort to try to get these americans out. now apparently we are seeing some of the effects of the negotiations, any conversations, efforts that have been made behind the scenes by u.s. officials with these two americans being released, but, again, a big deal that now we can report that israel had previously told the u.s. government that they believed that u.s. hostages were known to be alive. >> all right. mj, thank you so much for that. all right. we have breaking news. >> major breaking news. >> we, do, we have big breaking news. we're going to the hill now. a huge shakeup in the speaker's race. let's bring in our chief congressional correspondent manu raju. manu, jim jordan now officially out of the race.

tell us what happened. >> reporter: yeah, i'm here right now right outside this very chaotic moment where republicans just voted about whether or not jim jordan should continue on as the candidate for speaker. they voted against him. they voted essentially said that he should drop out of this race and now there's going to be a candidate forum next week on monday for new speaker candidates who could yet emerge and a potential speaker vote on tuesday. i'm here with congressman dusty johnson who was in that room just now. explain to us what happened in the room and is jim jordan officially out as a candidate for speaker? >> i'm not going to talk to you about what happened in that room. i will reflect on what needs to happen next. i mean, clearly there is yet another void, we are going to have a couple more days of chaos as we try to get a sense of what's next. to me it reminds me how incredibly irresponsible it was for 208 democrats and 8 republicans to put this house into absolute chaos without any kind of a plan for now we were going to move forward.

now, we really do need -- we really do need somebody to step forward, somebody who is mission driven, somebody who is focused on doing something rather than just being something. blind ambition has distorted this process enough. we need to go find a leader. >> you just heard -- she just said jim jordan was the planned, she was one of the eight who voted to oust jim jordan. >> nancy mace, it's been a long time since she's done being productive to move forward this broader team. america has real problems and we need people who are interested in problem solving not self-aggrandizement. most of us know whether you come from d., south carolina or washington state there are always going to be people who are more interested in themselves rather than the team and i think americans are sick of t and i know most members of the house are sick of it. it is time for big boys and big

girls to stop with the nonsense and get back to work for the united states. >> reporter: what's going to happen now? >> what's going to happen now, i think we will need to take time to decompress from what was a difficult environment and we will need people to do sole searching, i think we will need to find some people who never thought of themselves in this way, somebody who has not spent five or ten years trying to become the speaker of the house. we need to find somebody who frankly understands that this may well be the last opportunity they have to serve in politics. we have dealt ourselves an incredibly difficult hand. >> reporter: could anyone get the votes to become speaker? >> there are people in that room who can get the votes. they have not thought of themselves as being the guy or girl yet, but this country, this republican conference, we are going to turn our eyes to them and we need them to step up and i believe someone will. >> reporter: if you guys are still with me here -- yeah, so as you can hear a very, very

frustrated congressman dusty johnson, a pretty even-keeled member here, but just furious at the eight republicans who -- hold on one second here. mr. donalds -- >> it's not going to be me. right now -- hold on, everybody. hold on, everybody. our process is going where every member votes, they make those decisions for themselves. we are where we are. my view is we should be here in washington continuing to work until we resolve this. >> reporter: what are you going to do? what are you going to do? are you going to run for speaker? >> manu, right now i don't know what i'm going to do. a what i'm going to do is frankly sit down, think, because we have to get our business together and that's going to be my entire focus. >> but you are not ruling it out clearly. >> reporter: one member there, byron donalds saying clearly not ruling it out. i have a lot going in my ear, control room, if you can fix

that. one member byron donalds not ruling out running for speaker. when we came to air i did talk to kevin hern, he told me he is going to run for speaker. this will be a contested race, several other potential republican candidates here could jump in the race, jodey arrington being one of them, mike johnson, republican from louisiana being another one. there is another congressman here i want to grab him once he breaks away from this gaggle here, but just to take a step back, this is a hugely significant moment. jim jordan who had been the candidate for speaker for three ballots, someone who had been pushed by members of the hard right, people who had pushed out kevin mccarthy bowing out for the bid for the speakership amid a revolt mostly from more mod moderate, establishment line members aligned with the leadership who thought it was time to move on. he lost a secret ballot election vote. they asked the members do they

want him to continue to run for speaker or will he -- should he step aside. the conference, a majority vote said it was time for him to step aside now once again, republicans are going to have to pick up the pieces, try to figure out what the next step is here and whether another candidate can actually get the votes to become elected speaker. that is going to be a very difficult proposition as we've seen time and time again in the unprecedented ouster of kevin mccarthy as speaker of the house. no candidate has been anywhere close to getting 217 votes and can anyone do that? now they're going to solicit their membership. by noon on sunday, that is the next deadline for candidates to come forward and say that they might be a candidate for the speakership. and then monday there will be a candidate forum in which the members will have to go behind closed doors, make their case about why they should be speaker of the house and then potentially by tuesday, that's when we could see another floor vote for whoever gets nominated for speaker, maybe even it will

push into wednesday, the time frame is a little -- is a little uncertain about the floor vote for all of this, but just such a significant moment as republicans remain so badly divided and what you heard from congressman dusty johnson, just going after those eight republicans who initially voted out kevin mccarthy, blaming them for all of this, saying they have no plans, they were motivated by a political agenda and taking direct and personal aim at some members including congresswoman nancy mace. a revealing moment for the gop as they struggle to figure out a way forward. >> man netu, it was telling you conversation with congressman dusty johnson and something that he said stuck out to me when you think about the potential for a future speaker. he said whoever wins may have to accept that their time on capitol hill will be short, essentially saying that they are not going to win over the majority of the conference, they may not win over their district.

usually speaker of the house is like a position that you aspire to, but it seems like it's a difficult position to be in right now for anyone. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, that's part of the issue here, right? any one republican can vote out -- can call for a vote ousting the sitting speaker. whoever can get the job may not have the job for very long. i can tell you there is real concern among republicans about whether or not they can actually keep the majority here and whether or not this effort, this whole messy episode will just simply cost them what they battled on. let me talk to congressman austin scott. conksman scott, with err live on air. you have been very, very upset at the way all of this has gone down here. what do you say about the people who started this, the eight republicans who initially voted out kevin mccarthy at this moment? >> same thing i said to the 208 democrats that voted with those eight republicans. it was a dangerous game that was being played, the consequences are real for the country. if men were angels we wouldn't

need the government but men aren't angels and we need the u.s. house of representatives to open. we have eight republicans that are guilty but there are 208 democrats who voted with them to put us in this position and now we have to come up with a another speaker nominee. >> reporter: you guys can't even get behind a speaker nominee. republicans are so badly divided about this. why? >> we're upset about what happened, right? because 208 democrats voted with 8 republicans to remove the speaker of the house and put us in the current position that we are in. that's what happened. they took out the largest republican fundraiser that house republicans have ever had. so it did a tremendous amount of damage to our party, did a tremendous amount of damage to our conference, there is a tremendous amount of resentment among the different groups in the conference. the resentment is something we have to work through, hopefully we have a nominee on tuesday and can go to the floor and hopefully we can get that person across the -- >> reporter: who is that person? >> it will be up to the conference to make the determination on who is going to represent us on the floor. >> reporter: how does it make the republican party look like

now? >> i think it makes congress as a whole look very bad. it makes congress as a whole look very bad. the democrats have had a lot of fun with it but the fact of the matter is 208 democrats voted with 8 republicans. the democrats are not innocent this. they're not. >> reporter: matt gaetz and the republicans started this. >> but matt gaetz has very personal differences with kevin mccarthy so it was very personal differences not legislative differences that led to this and when he brought the motion and he was -- he was the person that brought the motion, you know, the end result of it is a very dangerous position that we are in as a country. so we're going to have conference on monday, we will have different candidates running and then we will have a vote tuesday morning inside the conference to come up with a republican nominee and then hopefully we will be on the floor shortly after lunch. >> reporter: i appreciate your time. if you are still with me here -- okay.

let's talk -- congressman roy, how big of a mistake was it for the republicans who voted to oust kevin mccarthy without a plan here? >> look, i'm not going to go down that road. that's been asked and answered, right? i didn't support the motion to vacate, i supported jim jordan wholeheartedly, i think it was a mistake for the republican conference to just walk away from arguably the most popular republican in the republican party. so we shouldn't have done that, we just did, so now we have to go -- >> reporter: who is going to be the candidate now? >> you think i'm going to start positing that? i will pick somebody i definitely don't want to be speaker and i will mention that name. >> reporter: why is it so hard for the gop to get their act together here? >> look, i've answered this before. you can agree or you can disagree. our democratic colleagues will not work on us with a single thing to secure the border. >> reporter: you are the ones who can't get behind a candidate here. >> we're having a debate among the 221 willing to have a debate about the things our people care about and some of it spills out in public. it's a hell of a lot better than

having a decision made by the kremlin and hoisted upon you. the american people can see t it is the sausage getting made, the worst system except for all the others. >> reporter: you think this looks good? >> having the american people be able to see how we are wrestling with the tough decisions and what we are trying to do and doing it with intensity and because we dare about this country, god bless all of this people who put their names forward because it's a lel of a lot better than the way the rest of the world has always done it. >> reporter: very, very strong feelings as you're hearing coming out of this room. just one republican after another just -- some at a loss of words, some furious at everything that has gone down, some angry at some of the members, some trying to shift the blame, democrats who did vote with republicans to us kevin mccarthy. this was initiated by republicans themselves to push out the speaker of the house and then they can't -- have been unable to find any sort of consensus nominee. just for viewers to understand how significant this is, if you

don't have a speaker of the house nothing can get done. legislation can't get done. the president sending up an aid package for israel and ukraine that needs to get approved for the people who say that this is absolutely essential to deal with pushing and deterring america's enemies, none of that can happen unless there is a speaker of the house. we are seeing something we have not seen in u.s. history, a speaker pushed out in the middle of his term and a failure of a party to figure out who can replace him and the feelings in that room from republicans right now, the emotions so raw because they are at a complete opposite sides about how they should move forward, how can they get out this have crisis that they caused. they have no idea how do do that yet. it is highly, highly uncertain. guys? >> that is a good word there, manu raju. i think that is where they find themselves and where we find ourselves right now.

manu raju, amazing work on the hill. i just feel like we are there. this is like a day in the life of manu raju tracking down members of congress and there we have what everyone needs to know. thank you so much for that. florida congresswoman and freedom caucus member anna luna is joining me now. thank you so much for being with us. what is your reaction to this? jim jordan who you've supported is now out. >> you know, jim jordan is arguably one of the most popular republicans in u.s. history and you had some members of the gop that really just spat in the face of their voters. what i've really come to find is that there are those candidates like me that exist on both the right and the left that really don't hold their votes accountable to special interests and i think that you all saw that, the world saw that play out this last couple weeks. >> so where now? >> well, we have to find a speaker, but unfortunately you're seeing that this conference decided that we are going to go home, which i would argue is one of the worst things that you can do --

>> congresswoman, i am sorry to interrupt you, let's listen to jim jordan. >> i appreciated getting to work with everyone, talk with everyone, i got to know members in our conference that i didn't really know that well over the last three weeks and that we need to come together and sfig out who our speaker is going to be. i'm going to work as hard as i can to help that individual so that we can go help the american people. i'm also going to go back to work. we've got several depositions lined up next week in the judiciary committee, work that we need to do for the american people and our investigative work. so we will go back to work there, but it's important we do unite. let's figure out who that individual s get behind him and get to work for the american people. thank you very much. >> do you have any preference of who you want to see as speaker? >> all right. congresswoman, luna, back with us now. that was a pretty short and sweet what he said there, but just that we are going to get back to work he said and it's time to unite, figure out who that person s that's the

question, unite behind who? who are republicans going to unite behind? >> well, as i right now we have to find someone that not only our voters support but that the conference can support. one of the big things you're seeing right now, i heard you ask a question of representative chip roy. it seems like there are personal issues that boiled to the surface that predate my freshman class and the last six years. it's my hope that people can, again, go back to policy which is what this should have only been based on and find someone to lead our country right now because we are certainly not finding it out of the white house. >> i think some of the personal issues that brie date your freshman class were linked to some of the personal issues which might have been some of what you saw some of the other republicans you felt like was bullying. there were a lot of death threats coming from supporters, people -- >> sorry to interrupt dur:snoosh let me finish and then you can speak. >> okay. >> they were certainly upset that there were death threats coming to them and in their case some of their spouses and they felt that they were being

bullied and intimidated as they opposed jim jordan. >> you know, i'm so happy that you brought that up because i saw members saying that their constituents calling their offices asking them to vote a certain way was bullying and as far as i'm concerned the people who elected you when they call you and tell you and voice their concerns that's not bullying. i will be the first person to say of course i don't condone death threats but i received one that cnn could ever had in my 2022 election. do you know what happened? people thought that was crazy but unfortunately in this game of politics it gets nasty, these exist on both sides and to say that it was the mchairman of th house judiciary that was behind it was a farce. >> i didn't say he was behind it. i said this was occurring in conjunction as people were upset about what was happening. >> yes. >> and we didn't see him vociferously publicly saying that this should not happen. as we understand it there were also -- and you were there inside of these meetings -- sort of to your point where you said this is just sort of way things are, it sounds like that's sort

of -- let me ask you about this. why is that okay? i mean, this is the way things are? >> no. >> how is that acceptable? >> it's not acceptable but what you're seeing is a failure on both sides and within very, i think, important leadership positions to condemn it. i heard an interview earlier today where nancy mace said she received death threats and her family was harassed, she had her car keyed. this is politics, people get excited, they get sometimes -- their blood boils but it's not acceptable and we should condemn it across the board. what i'm saying is i saw members trying to blame this on representative jordan who is a chairman of house judiciary and if we're talking about moving forward it's important for people who remember that what you say on television and what you put out from your office whether or not it's personal it's going to be long-lasting effects. what i am saying is the chairman of house judiciary, jim jordan during his campaign for speaker was not behind is that. >> who are you thinking that you would like to support now?

do you have some members in mind that you are encouraging to throw their hat in the ring? >> you know, i thought lee zeldin would be incredible but i'm hearing that some members in conference won't support someone outside of conference. i think kevin hern would be good. i think that there are a few people, but we were focusing on what the american people wanted, we were focusing and giving representative jordan the respect that he deserved. again, we are going to have to go back to the drawing board and i do think that it's important to note that, remember, we have a cr that's ending in less than, i think, 27 days now. we have a war in the middle east. we just had president biden try to lump israel and ukraine funding into a request that we're clearing not going to even be able to address. so we have a lot of issues right now and, again, going back to what just happened, you saw people puttyin ego before the american people. >> what's your message to the eight gop members who voted to oust mccarthy. >> i'm not going to go back and

address that. let me remind the american people and my own conference that they voted on that historical thomas jefferson rule motion to vacate the chair, that was something that predated the 118th congress, something that was put in place in order to empower the minority and frankly that would not have happened if things were not said and promises not broken. >> are you worried that what we are witnessing, which is incredibly messy, is going to cost republicans the majority? >> i don't know that it will cost republicans the majority but i definitely think that people have explaining to their voters. i'm the first person to say when someone calls my office when i get those tough questions i answer them, i don't ignore them. that is part of what it means to be a representative. i'm not sure as the queen of england. you are accountable to your voters and so go back and explain your vote. >> i'm sure there will be a lot of explaining that many members are going to be doing here over the weekend. congresswoman luna, we really appreciate you being with us. thank you.

>> thank you. god bless. >> obviously a very pivotal day there on capitol hill. jim jordan's attempt at the speakership, it is now dead. so onward, but to what? a huge question. in the meantime, president biden trying to sell americans on tens of billions of dollars in aid for israel and for ukraine, as you just heard we were talking about it there, tying both wars together adds vital to u.s. national security. will his primetime appeal work, though? we're going to discuss next.

in the meantime, president

of a signature moment in the biden presidency as we look back at this, a primetime speech from the oval office, biden saying the turmoil goes beyond disputes, the war poses existential threats to the ideals of democracy and insists that the u.s. has to lead the way in defending against the ideals, against terrorists bent on destroying them. >> when terrorists don't pay a price for their terror, when dictators don't pay a price for the aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more

destruction. they keep going and the cost and threats to america and the world keep rising. i know we have our divisions at home, we have to get past them. we can't let petty partisan angry politics get in the way of our responsibilities as a great nation. we cannot and will not let terrorists like hamas and tyrants like putin win. i refuse to let that happen. >> let's discuss with cnn presidential historian tim naftali. this is only the second time that biden has delivered an address from the oval office, obviously there's significance to choosing that venue to deliver that message to the american people. >> president biden was following in the tradition of american presidents who have gone abroad at times of war and times of conflict, had important meetings and then have come back to the american people to give them a report on what happened. woodrow wilson did that, franklin roosevelt, john f.

kennedy, ronald reagan did that. presidents reserve those moments for very important events and joe biden has followed in that tradition. i think if you listen to the speech, if you didn't you should, if you did you heard a president at his very best. he was trying to balance some difficult foreign and domestic political challenges and frankly he stood on the shoulders of those presidents who have done similar work before him. >> i think that's -- that's really the thing, tim, is he's making the case for the world order as it is that has existed for so long with the u.s. leading and he's urging americans at a time when americans are actually -- the polls show they're disinclined to support especially this aid for ukraine, he's urging them to do it and that if they don't there are these huge

ramifications. it's not a given that he's going to be successful in this. so if he doesn't succeed i wonder how you think history might judge this moment. >> well, if he doesn't succeed it's because the pro-putin faction in one house of congress will choose chaos over a commitment to international security. that's what the stakes are. the president made clear a view that american leaders of both parties have had since pearl harbor, which is that america is you can say an essential nation or indispensable nation, but that we are so powerful that we can and should play a role in maintaining international security. that is an understanding that most americans by far have had since pearl harbor.

and that feeling was reinforced after 9/11. the question for most americans is do you still believe that. i think most americans do. the issue that americans debate is what kind of sacrifice we are willing to do on behalf of shoring up international security. and that's a great debate and it's a debate democracies need to have, but the idea that we can pull away from the world and the world won't react, i don't think most americans believe that. yes, there is a maga group of isolationists, but are they really most americans? no. so the challenge for the president is to speak to all americans and to try to persuade those who are isolationists. now, people understand, i mean, no one is naive here, he's probably not going to persuade others but he has to make the case, that's part of the job of being president. good presidents are those who try to explain and persuade as

opposed to divisive presidents who decide from the beginning they're only going to talk to the people who voted for them. >> and notably, tim, this speech and these trips also come at a time when there are a lot of questions in the electorate, even from democrats, about his image and his age and his ability to function as president, already being the oldest president in history, potentially in his 80s if he wins reelection. >> joe biden is the first american president ever to go to israel when it's in a state of war. richard nixon who was much younger didn't go, lbj who was much younger didn't go. bj and nixon were in their 60s, they didn't go. george w. bush didn't go, he was also in his 60s at the time. it took an 80-year-old man to do it. i'm not sure that age played any

role at all in the president's management of this crisis. what he did show was that he could do it. there's no question that americans would prefer someone who emanates vitality. of course. but next year the president will have shown us that he was able to manage a crisis in the middle east despite his age. so i think that his handling of the crisis at the moment is exactly what i would expect a 60-year-old or even a 50-year-old to do. i don't think age has played a role at all in how he's dealt with this crisis and frankly isn't that the way we should be judging presidents? >> tim naftali, we have to leave the conversation there. thanks for the time. >> thank you. my pleasure. >> of course. still to come, a last minute plea deal, pro trump attorney

kenneth chesebro pleading guilty in the georgia election subversion case. what it could mean for the former president's case when we come back.

you know i got two home runs. you got two jacks. and then my grand slam. i signed a ball for you. okay. and it says papa i love you. why did you do that? because you've taught me everything about baseball. oh hunny bunny, that's so sweet. (♪♪) (♪♪)

attorney kenneth chesebro pleads guilty in a georgia courtroom and as part of that plea deal chesebro admits he conspired with donald trump and former trump attorneys, rudy giuliani and john eastman, to put forward fake republican electors in the peach state. that of course is a felony. >> cnn's katelyn polantz is with us on this story. this is coming one day after another member of trump's inter circle, another former trump attorney sidney powell took a similar deal.

tell us what you are learning? kenneth chesebro and sidney powell are two top attorneys that were very close to donald trump and his inter circle around the 2020 election when they were all trying to contest the result in various ways and what they are doing here is both are pleading guilty, they are essentially canceling the trial that these two people had lined up to start today, so sidney powell and kenneth chesebro were supposed to have their jury selection start today separately from the other defendants in this case. that trial is not happening because these two are ready to testify at future trials. that includes potentially against donald trump himself. so sidney powell what she's admitting to in her guilty plea in fulton county, georgia, is the attempt to access voting data and ballot machines in coffee county, georgia, this rural county. but what ken chesebro pleaded guilty to today in state court in georgia is a felony where he admits to coordinating with donald trump, rudy giuliani,

john eastman, others, people on the trump campaign, republicans in georgia, trying to get fake electors organized to help this effort to delay or overcome trump's loss in that state. so chesebro being able to admit now in court that he's guilty of this conspiracy that's quite a domino to fall in favor of fulton county district attorney fani willis and it will have implications for the 16 other remaining defendants awaiting trial in fulton county, it also could have implications for the federal case against donald trump set to go to trial in march. >> it is huge potentially. katelyn polantz, thank you for that reporting. also happening today the journal that is overseeing former president donald trump's civil fraud trial in new york suggested that trump could be imprisoned for what he calls a blatant violation of his gag order. >> judge he think ron scolded trump's attorneys and issued

that stern warning after he learned that a social media post attacking his clerk had never been removed from trump's campaign website. cnn's kara scannell joins us now. how are trump's attorneys responding to this warning? >> reporter: so trump's lawyer stood up in court before the judge and told him that it was an inadvertent mistake. he said that trump made this post on his truth social platform and the trump campaign archives all of those on to the campaign website in a in case you missed it section. he said it wasn't caught. he said there was no intention to evade or circumvent or avoid the order. he was apologizing on behalf of his client and said they had went and checked the numbers and there were over 3,701 unique visits to that in case you missed it post that have reposting the post since the gag order. so he was explaining to the judge that this was essentially a mistake and that it had been taken down. he blamed part of this on the

large machinery of a campaign. so the judge said he would take this under advisement. he did not rule on what he would do but said i want to make sure that donald trump is still responsible for the large machine even if it is a large machine. so saying that the buck stops with donald trump. so he has not issued a ruling on that, we are waiting still to see fell do anything more on that today or if he is satisfied by this explanation but the former president's daughter ivanka trump has moved to quash a subpoena for her testimony in this case. she is no longer a witness in the case after the claims were thrown out against her. she is trying to fight the is subpoena. also next week michael cohen is expected to take the stand and he will be facing donald trump who is also expected to appear in court. >> that will be a big appearance. kara scannell, thank you for that. so sources say that two american hostages, this is very big news that we've been following today, a mother and daughter had been released by hamas. we will have the very latest details on this next.

we do have some more information now on the two american ohiohostages we're leag have been released by hamas. i want to bring in kaitlan collins. kaitlan, what can you tell us? >> reporter: this is good news for the families of these two american hostages. cnn confirmed via the israeli prime minster's office that the two hostages release ready judith and natalie renat. they were here in israel celebrating a relative's 85th birthday. the they were at a kibbutz a mile away from the border with

gaza where hamas came across on october 7th and attacked several of those neighborhoods and communities. and we have now confirmed that it is the two of them who have now been released. what we have learned and what we were told earlier is that this was on a humanitarian condition, because the mother, judith, we do not believe, is in good health. we're still waiting for more details about how she's doing. what we do know is the idf received these two hostages from the border at the gaza strip. they are now on their way to a military base here inside israel. their family is waiting there for them. and just -- our audience is familiar with them. they've seen the pictures of judith and natalie. we speck to the rabbi of their congregation earlier this week, and he was saying that before they made the trip, judith had given the daughter a pink

prayer -- incredible news to know they are coming home, they are safe, and they are on their way to a military base right now. i should note in this statement obtained by oren lieberman from the israeli prime minster's office that it is these two american hostages released by hamas, they say they are still committed to getting all those hostages who have been abducted released. stimworking on navigating their releases, but significant that it is judith and natalie ranaan who have been released, on their way to their family waiting for them here at a u.s. military base. >> such good news. >> let's discuss with mark ac esper, the former secretary under president trump. first i want your reaction to news that judith and natalie ranaan are heading home, or at

least this that they have been released by hamas. >> good news for them, their families and the other hostages. kaitlan answered one of the questions i had, which is why them? but the bigger question is why? why now? why two? i'm sure others have theories. people were telling hamas, you should release a couple to show some type of good faith that we can deal with you, and maybe hamas' logic was if they do that they can fore stall the israeli invasion they don't want to happen and allow their allies to cot to put political pressure on israel. that's kind of my best guess at why they're doing this now and why with just two. >> our understanding is their release was negotiated by qatar. they negotiated directly with hamas. walk us through how these hostage handovers work when

there isn't a direction line of communication between one party, the party that the hostages have been taken from, like israel and the captors. >> well, we know qatar is maying the intermediary role, trying to negotiate on mabehalf of hostag. we know there are over 200 now and they're working through the terms of what that might look like, the conditions that might happen. like i said, my only guess now as to why hamas might do this is the israelis were saying, times's up for negotiations. qatar's got nowhere. what are we waiting for? let's go in and try to find them ourselves. that's a possibility. maybe there's some type of play in here with israeli special operations finding some, not being able to find some. who knows. but to me that's the big

question -- why two? why not? what's the message being sent? what is hamas trying to fore stall. >> on the question of what they might be trying to fore stall, how does the looming incursion of israel into gaza impact the effort to save hostages? >> well, that's the big issue, because hamas promised in israel goes in, they're start executing hostages, and iran also promised consequences against not just israel, but the united states, given their threats. israel has to weigh that out. maybe they think they can rescue the hostages going in by force. hamas is seeing progress made on the international front through its allies putting pressure on israel and to some degree the united states to get aid to come in, to put tight time lines for

humanitarian corridors. clearly weighing that out. but if israel goes in, which we think might be pretty soon, that could accelerate the time lines and put question the fate of the hostages. >> stay with cnn. we'll be right back. >> thank you.