knocked out in the first career start. look what dobbs does. he goes for three scores. a remarkable drive, brandon powell with 22 seconds left, picking it up. dobbs admitted afterwards he didn't know his teammates' names. he had to have the playbook is you have to be a genius to step into this, luckily for dobbs, he graduated with a perfect gpa, and he is a rocket scientists. and texas running back called on, he hit a huge 29-yarder in the fourth quarter. check and check. c.j. stroud, the fourth overall pick leading houston the drive. capping off with 475 are you kidding me for the

rookie, casey, it was a wild weekend for the nfl. >> thank you very much. i appreciate your time this morning. thank you all for joining us. don't go anywhere. "cnn this morning" starts right now. good morning, everyone. we're glad you're with us to start your week. here are five things to know for monday, november 6th. donald trump set to take the stand this morning. the former president and currently republican front runner will be questioned in the civil fraud trial that could cost him hundreds of millions of dollars and bar him from doing business in new york. >> trump's legal troubles are not weighing him down, at least not at the moment. the former president is beating president biden is five critical states, nevada, georgia, arizona, michigan, and pennsylvania, and it's not just the states, the top line, it's the types of voters that president biden is losing. trump making gains with young voters, black voters, and

hispanic voters. pushing towards gaza city after cutting it off from the south. the idf says it's struck 450 targets in the last 24 hours. >> the pentagon announces a guided missile submarine has arrived in the middle east. "cnn this morning" starts right now. ♪ it's such a contrast, if you think about trump is going to be on the stand in just a couple of hours, and this big, big trial about the core of who he is, right, a businessman in new york city. does he lose all of that, and then at the same time, this poll is great news for him in the battleground states. >> yeah, if you expected the legal troubles of which this is not the only issue he's dealing with right now to have a dramatic effect on the polling, at least at the moment. >> in a couple of hours, trump will take the stand, he will testify for the first time about

his business empire, and his rep t -- reputation is at stake. the case strikes at the height of his identity. prosecutors accusing him of exaggerating his wealth by billions of dollars and manipulating the value of his real estate properties. >> this comes as trump faces 91 felony charges while running for the white house. this is the first time we'll see the former president come under extensive questioning. first time he'll testify, what are we expecting to see today? >> as you noted, this is completely unprecedented. not only is the former sitting u.s. president but running for president in 2024, and you mentioned the polls, leading in the hypothetical head to heads with joe biden, and this is going to be a test. as we know, he's somebody who likes to spin his own narrative. he likes to be in control of the

situation, and really he isn't in control of this situation. we believe he'll talk to the cameras as he does. remember, he is under oath and we know that lawyers have been prepping him, giving him the logistics, walking him through what this is going to look like. a lot is hanging in the balance here. this is not just the fact that it's the fate of his company but also his reputation, his brand, one of the things that the new york attorney general letitia james is seeking is to bar him from practicing business in new york again, a key part of his identity. >> there's also, i mean, this is the beginning of just an onslaught. i think that's a fair word. of trials for the president. and what's so striking to me is a lot of them start on critical days in the election, like the iowa caucuses. walk us through the calendar of the next couple of months. >> reporter: it's been really interesting. i have been talking to his

advisers about how they're going to manage this. they are trying to figure out the calendar that you mentioned. they believe that some of these dates are going to shift. that makes things much harder for them. they have to get the dates from the lawyers, then get a hypothetical estimate, what that looks like, how long these trials will be, and then plan campaign dates around them. they don't want to plan too far in advance because they don't want to be constantly cancelling or postponing various events. it's going to require essentially a working relationship hand in hand between the legal team and the campaign team to figure out how to actually run a 2024 campaign. multiple advisers told me they do believe they have a system in place, just in terms of grass roots infrastructure, so even if trump can't be there, they have the volunteers on the ground, this is not an easy feat. and it's really coming together, seat of the pants, moment by moment. >> kristen, thanks for the reporting.

a big day ahead for sure here in new york city. >> let's take a look at what happened when trump testified about this case before the new york ag's office last summer. >> i decline to answer the question. i decline to answer the question. same answer, same answer, same answer, same answer, same answer, same answer. >> trump invoked the fifth amendment more than 400 times. joining us cnn legal analyst, el elie honig. we don't expect him to do that to today. what should the former president expect today? >> the first thing he should expect is this is not like anything he's used to. this is not a campaign speech, this is a tightly controlled environment. he should only be able to answer questions as posed to him by the attorney general's office, and the judge is going to be sitting next to him enforcing that.

you don't get to go on monologues and stem winders and say whatever you want in court. donald trump is going to have an issue with that. it will be interesting to see how the judge and ag's office try to manage that in the courtroom. >> this is a bench trial, one judge, and a judge who has said when trump took stand previously, he thought he was not credible. he fined him, i think it was $10,000 for that. talk about what he's walking into on that front. >> look, he has antagonized the judge, in a bench trial is not a great idea. it's never a great idea, but it's not a great idea when this your jury. he's the finder of fact. the judge said the trump organization has committed fraud. this witness is not credible. he basically lied on the stand under oath. a lot of the tactics are going to be trying to use the judge. i think we're going to see donald trump continue to use the judge as a foil, and sort of say, this system, which is

rigged against me, this guy is the symbol of it. the judge doesn't express a lot of emotion from what the reporting suggests. he's marching through this, making decisions that are devastating against trump's case, and doing it really in the normal course of things. he has been dealing with this for three years. he has a real good measure of who he's going to be talking or hearing from today in court. that's not going to help donald trump either. more campaigning than testifying if he can get away with it. that means talking outside of the courtroom, talking past the judge, talking about, you know, himself and his business and how all of these forces are rated against him. it's going to be difficult to do that when he's going to be asked a lot of yes and no questions. >> eric trump said the former president was fired up to come in and testify right here. where are the limits here for the former president? >> there's a couple of limits. a lot of people by the way think

that testifying is going to be a lot different than it is. when you get on the witness stand, there's pressure put on that person to, one, answer the question that's asked. it's called responsiveness, and so if you're asked, did you have anything to do with this financial statement and trump starts giving a campaign speech, what the ag's office should do is say objection, your honor, the judge says overruled if he dis disagrees with it or sustained if he agrees with it. he can order i strike it from the record, kick him out of the courtroom. the judge has various tools at his disposal which ordinarily are effective. donald trump is not your ordinary witness. i'm watching the dynamic. can the judge keep control over his courtroom. >> he has attacked the judge, the clerk, the ag's office, just

about everybody in the courtroom. thanks, guys, appreciate it. new video just in to cnn, explosions in gaza this morning. israeli troops close in on gaza city. wewe're going g to have ththe l from the b battlefieldld ahead.

happening today, president biden set to make a speech on the economy as he's facing new brutal poll numbers. it's been something democrats have been talking about now, seeing it very clearly. hypothetical head-to-head

matchups in six critical swing states. joe biden trailing former president trump by eleven points in nevada. he falls behind trump in georgia, arizona, michigan and pennsylvania. he's only two points ahead of trump, and now wisconsin, democrats are worried. >> i was concerned before these polls, and i'm concerned now. these presidential races over the last couple of terms have been very tight. no one is going to have a run away election here. it's going to take a lot of hard work, concentration, resources and so we have our work cut out for us. >> cnn's arlette saenz is live at the white house. i know you're talking to the campaign yesterday. what is their push back to these numbers they would have to acknowledge aren't exactly great? >> well, as you know, polls are simply a snapshot in time. the latest round of pollings really present a grim and challenging picture for president biden one year out from the election. the campaign stresses that these

early polls one year out aren't necessarily predictive of the final outcomes, and they say they will win in 2024 by keeping their heads down and doing the work, not fretting about polls. there are warning signs from the president, which shows him trailing former president trump in at least five key swing states. it's not just the fact that he's trailing in the states that he won in 2020. he's seeing his support widdle. the youth vote is up by 1 point, which is a challenging number for the president. there's also winnowing of support or narrowing of support between the former president and president biden between suburban voters. not in the battleground state but in his home state of

delaware is the issue of the economy. the president has been trying to push this bidenomics messaging throughout the start of his campaign. he is also going to promote some investments that are being made in rail, about $16 billion to improve some of the railway systems in this country. but even the discussions about the economy have proven so far to fall flat with many voters. there's 19% of voters in the key swing states who believe the economy is an excellent or good condition. it's clear that the president has an up hill battle that he is facing, heading into next 2024 election in november. >> it seems like he has an uphill battle on almost every front in these states in the polling, whether it's the economy. whether it's handling of the israel, hamas war, et cetera. david axelrod of course was close to biden when he was vice president in the obama white house. here's what he tweeted. only joe biden can make the

decision. if he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the democratic party. what he needs to decide is whether that's wise, whether it's in his best interest or the country's. i was stunned reading this. >> president biden sees these types of warnings from democrats all the time, just as we see them in the press. one thing that his team continuously stresses is that he has been underestimated before. he's been underestimated in 2020. we believe that will be the case this time around, that he has a record that they believe is successful, and that he can run on. but there are some just very challenging figures in these polls, concerns about his age are also a key topic of discussion. not just among swing state voters, but also among democrats. ultimately what the campaign believes is when this gets down to a race between president biden and potentially former president trump that that contrast will really crystallize, and that is what will not just propel democrats

to coalesce around president biden but also the country writ large in these key swing states. >> arlette saenz at the white house, thank you very much. overnight, the idf says ground troops control of a hamas military compound from gaza. the latest from the war front next. the u.s. military makes a rare announcement about a guided missile submarine arriving in the middle east. those details ahead.

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we're looking at live pictures of antony blinken. he made a surprise trip to iraq on sunday, met with regional leaders there about growing calls for a cease fire. >> israel released new video of ground and air strike operations in gaza. the idf says it struck 450 hamas targets and captured a hamas compound in the last 24 hours. it comes as israel emphasizes targeting the infrastructure above and below ground. gustavo valdez joins us live from tel aviv. it's a striking contrast, you have the secretary of state going country to country to country, humanitarian aid and potential cease fires, topics everywhere he goes, and yet the

fight on the ground led by the idf shows no signs of ebbing. >> reporter: that is correct, and the israeli defense forces say they now basically control gaza city. they have split the country and they continue to make gains, territorial gains inside gaza. they say that they hid these targets overnightment t. they will continue their offensive inside and go over as many hamas militants as they can. the one thing the idf has not made comments on, israeli is responsible for the explosion that happened saturday in a refugee camp where dozens were killed and injured. many blame the israeli forces for the attack, but israel said that they are simply investigating. another casualty of the overnight attacks in gaza is the telecommunication infrastructure inside gaza with many international aid organizations

complaining that they cannot commune at a time with their personnel inside gaza. like you said, all of this is mounting pressure for the u.s., for secretary of state antony blinken. the arab leaders in the region calling for a cease fire. the u.s. said that the cease fire might aid hamas, may allow hamas to regroup and launch more attacks. the u.s. wants just a pause, and the israelis have said that they will not stop unless all he or she ta-- he oostages are releas. the u.s. making a rare announcement that a guided missile submarine has arrived in the middle east. nuclear power vessels usually operate in complete secrecy, this was announced on x as a clear message of deterrence to prevent a wide war. sending strikes groups and an amphibious group to the area. >> notable they put it out

there, the picture and the fact that it's there. >> just a low key social media flex. just a heads up, guys. new polling bad for president biden in key swing states, among several key voting blocs, we're going to take a close look at those numbers. governor ron desantis just scored a bigig endorsemement fos presidenential campapaign. we're gogoing to have the detai coming up.

. welcome back, we have a much closer look at "the new york times," sienna college poll that shows trouble. it shows biden trailing trump in five of the six swing states that the president won in 2020. trump leads by six points and five points respectively, but even in states where biden won by more than 1 point like nevada and michigan, trump is leading. in pennsylvania, trump has a 4-point edge. in 2020, biden won that state by

a point. the only key swing state that biden flipped in 2020 where he is still ahead is wisconsin. even there his lead is less than the margin of error, and when you dig in more, take a closer look, you see there are serious cracks in the keey coalitions that helped make biden president. biden won that age group by 24 points. biden is shedding support among black voters, getting 71% of their vote to 22% for trump. 2020 exit polls showed biden won the black vote them. biden is up among 8 points in 2020. biden won hispanic voters by 33 points. while biden leads among women he has shed a significant amount of support among men. trump leads men by an 18 point margin in 2020. trump won men by only 8 points. phil. >> it's a similar story when you look at the issues, the policy.

on the economy, if you take a look at that on the top line, based on the polls, voters in the battleground state, trump the former president. 37%. now, on the issues of immigration, and national security, critical issues that trump talks about often, they trust trump to do better. 41% shows biden. what about the ongoing israeli/palestinian conflict. new numbers that we see come out, 50% trust trump, 39% trust the current president. biden does outperform, and this is critical on the issues of abortion and democracy, but even then, it's only by single digits. biden ends up 9 on the issue of abortion. these are issues democrats point to as trump card heere. the issue of biden's age has become clear. 71% say biden at 80 is too old to be president. 39% feel that way about donald trump. he is 77. there is a caveat to all of this that we should keep an eye on.

if donald trump is convicted and sentenced in the federal election subversion trial, the picture changes dramatically. in that situation, those polls say biden wins in all of those swing states, every single one of them. something to keep an eye on going forward. . >> got to read the cross tabs. let's bring in cnn political analyst, natasha allen, cnn political analyst, john avlon. great to have you with us. reading in the cross tabs, the most important part as phil reminds us, black voters, 22% of black voters behind trump, that is not seen in the modern era for a republican front runner, right? i mean, wow. >> it's startling. i looked at the democratic response, kevin munoz, the spokesperson for biden, and this idea that, you know, we have a year. we can turn things around. i think you have to look at this

being a challenge from the very beginning. right? black voters from the very beginning were saying, we will help you get joe biden into office, but, you know, this is not necessarily our preference. this was about democracy and saving democracy, and so here we are a year later, he has not been able to change their impression. black home ownership is down. going to the store, you know, even if jobs have improved in terms of numbers, the prices that people are paying, it doesn't resonate with them. bidenomics, all of the things he has been doing to connect, it's not connecting with the group. >> black unemployment was quite low during the trump administration. >> but lower now. >> he said it all the time. trump said it all the time. >> he had a gift for messaging, no question about that. errol, you talked to democrats, look if the coalition becomes home and a one-on-one race, and you have the clear contrast, and donald trump every day that everyone is focusing on, the picture will change

dramatically, no way whether it's young voters or black voters that these numbers stay static or close to it. >> that's exactly right. >> you got to call them home or they won't come home. that's number one. number two, with the black vote, frankly, i would ask the pollster, check your sample a little bit because, you know, the last time a republican presidential candidate got more than 17% of the vote was in 1960, right, so this is not something that you can take all that seriously, that particular number. like wise with the latino vote, you know, the notion that trump could almost catch women voters, you know, close to biden on the abortion issue, i just don't buy that. but what this does do is suggests that democrats have to get out there, they have to talk to their younger voters, 18 to 29s are the ones they should be worried about. they get their information from different places, tiktok or wherever.

you've got to also talk to women and get into the coalitionins tt force the base of the party. the environmentalists, the women's groups ch . you've got to make sure everybody is on message. there's a timing issue, and biden knows this better than most politicians in america. you can start too early too, blow a lot of money, spin up a lot of issues burk, but then yo really got to hit it hard next year, next june. we should have this conversation in six months and see where they are. >> with all due respect to my friend errol, i disagree with the posture that everyone is going to come home. it's too late to wait for next year. what this is among other things is a failure to hammer home basic messages to the base, and to swing voters as well. this poll should be a major wake up call to all democrats, as well as the white house. it's a snapshot in time. democrats have been o

outperforming in special elections. if democrats are starting to slide among young people, hispanics and african americans, when a lot of fact patterns are good, it's in part because biden's team has not been selling the accomplishments of the administration, and responding to these kinds of trends that are not their friend. one thing freaked me out about the poll, the three-point gap is biden is leading among democracy. i frankly don't know what to do about it. not that it's our problem. we're interpreting our numbers. the issue of democracy. >> we're saying it's not wider. when you have a candidate that tried to overturn the election, which shows fundamental contempt for the democracy. another candidate, however flawed he might be, and clearly is lot of it is about age, has been a stalwart for democracy. we have to dig into that deeper as a society. >> i think those 45% of americans polled on anything would side with trump on

absolutely anything. >> what polling shows is there's 30% of the republican party that will go with donald trump no matter what, literally no matter what. joe biden doesn't have that kind of passion and loyalty among a core support of the base. that's impacting these numbers. this is crossing behind the hard core ride or die, no matter what, even if he declares martial law. >> trump is in court on a totally separate civil case, a state case. look, the fact is he's going to take the stand and it's one of his many legal woes. that caveat that phil pointed out at the wall, if trump is convicted and sentenced in the federal election subversion case, about 6% of voters in the case, michigan, nevada, say they would switch their vote to biden, enough to tip the balance for biden. >> this is what we talk about when we say, you know, we're following this story day-to-day, but again, the american people are going to work, living their

lives. they may not absorb the gravity of what the charges mean. this is unprecedented in history. we will see the president in a different way than we have before if he is convicted. of course that can change things. right now, when you're talking about how people feel about their day-to-day, they're obviously dissatisfied. as john said, i think we have to listen to that. listen to what people are saying. young voters have disillusioned right now. gen z, millennials. >> we're not even talking about young voters, many of them upset about the white house standing staunchly behind israel. >> new factors are coming in obviously. >> significant factors. >> but, again, i have a very hard time believing that somebody, a president who by executive order, attempts at legislation has tried to sort of lift the burden of student debt, and did so for many many many

me americans, that they would say never mind, to make a case. >> it's an issue of the economy is good. black unemployment is low. prices are higher, people are feeling the pain. you have to make the case clearly. with regard to the israeli con fl flikt, you need to be driven by principles and allies. >> cnn is reporting that that is not, the political calculation is not driving. >> not yet. thanks, guys, appreciate. ahead, israeli fire stations are finding themselves very short staffed since the war began. now, american firefighters are heading to israel to help, and one of them joins us next rve. cnn journalists are a small group of reporters inside gaza for the first time since the war broke out. >> armored personnel carrier

right now into gaza, h here in e southernrn point of f gaza city.

moments ago, secretary of state antony blinken left turkey after a trip to the middle east on the tarmac weighing in on the state of hostage negotiations, he believes the humanitarian talks could help with the talks, and could help get hostages home. >> i can say that this is an intense forecloses for us, and we also believe and we're seeing that other countries can play an important role in helping to get hostages back. i am very much convinced that that remains the case and that not only is there still opportunity, there's a necessity to see that happen, and it's important that other partners, to the extent they have relationships use those relationships to help.

>> and that was secretary of state. meantime, hamas terror attacks since then, it is completely altered every aspect of life in israel. since the war began, members o of the idf reserve have been called up for military duty. that has depleted emergency areas for israel, including fire stations. >> because of that, american firefighters are stepping up to fill in a rotation, deploying to israel. another 400 on stand by ready to head overseas if needed. these firefighters are providing much needed assistance during the war to routine fire calls to the after math of attacks joining us live from jerusalem. sir, we appreciate your time. i want to start with how did you end up there, and what's your day-to-day like? >> so how i ended up here was about ten years ago a buddy of mine called me and said that the

jewish federation abroad was trying to put together a team of firefighters and would i be interested in doing it. i said, absolutely. and since that time i was introduced to the emergency volunteers project which is a nonprofit based here in jerusalem start bid adia sahabi, an israeli first responder. he realized in times of war, israel has a gap. what he started doing was going to america and recruiting and training firefighters, so in times of war they can send us over here to help the people of israel, and that's why i'm here. >> these are live images of tent camp. you see smoke rising in the background there in gaza, and in the south. and it just shows how this continues, how the emergency continues. what was your decision like, lieutenant, to leave home, to leave family, to risk obviously your life. you don't know what you'll be called up to do. how did you make that decision? >> well, the decision actually was quite easy for me.

while i didn't take it lightly, after waking up to about 100 text messages on saturday, october 7th, people asking me about my friends that are here in israel, my firefighter friends, how everyone is doing, i knew immediately i needed to come here to help. and i wasn't the only one who answered the call. we have many firefighters in south florida, city of fort lauderdale, hollywood, miami beach has got a bunch of guys coming. martin county, we have people from virginia, louisiana, california, dallas, texas. so there was an awakening of firefighters who knew they needed to come here and help israel fight against what they're dealing with, and when we're here, it allows the israeli firefighters who are in the army to be called up and we can get on the fire trucks and help to respond to calls and help to serve the people and save lives, which is our mission. >> in terms of situations you face, certainly the threat of rocket attacks and the aftermath of rocket attacks is not something you dealt with back at home. how did you prepare for that?

have you seen any instances like that since you have been there? >> well, you know, to be honest, there's no way that you can prepare for a rocket attack. i can tell you that we were down close to gaza a few days ago, and eleven rockets were fired at our petition, and thankfully the iron dome intercepted all of them. we took shelter in a bomb shelter. we saw the rockets were intercepted over our position. there's no way to prepare for that. one of the things i did take from that, no one should have to live under a constant barrage of rockets, we have 240 people who today are kidnapped and the location unknown somewhere in gaza. no one should have to live under that, and it strengthened our resolve, and as a matter of fact, it really helped our recruitment effort because we had over 700 firefighters from around the world to start qui inquiring to help. >> that says a lot and shows the

power of the emergency volunteer project you're there as a part of. thank you, lieutenant astonbright. >> thank you so much for having us. virginians are about to vote in statewide races in what could be the biggest test for both parties. and president trump set to stand for his trial in new york. we will speak to members of trump world. anthony scaramucci here, and in the 8:00 a.m. hour, michael cohen live.

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election day is ftomorrow,

and there are key ballot races across the country, among those critical, key races in virginia. they could be an indicator of what's to come in 2024. voters could hand republicans a trifecta of control in the commonwealth which has republican governor and republican-controlled state house. this could have repercussions for several key issues, gun control, to the environment, and the biggest election of the 2024 election, abortion. here's governor glenn youngkin calling for a 15-week abortion ban. >> on the topic of abortion, this is a tough topic. it's one of the most divisive topics across virginia and america today. i feel this is a moment for us to come together around reasonable limits where we can protect life at 15 weeks, where a baby feels pain, with full exceptions in the case of rape and incest, when the mother's life is at risk, and i think this is a place that virginians can come together. >> joining us now is congresswoman jennifer mcclellan, served in the state

house, before winning a seat in a special election earlier this year. serves on the house armed services committee. i appreciate your time. you know the state, the two chambers as well as anyone. i'm interested in what you just heard from the governor, the pitch that we have heard repeatedly from him over the last several months, trying to reframe the abortion debate. do you think it's effective in the state based on what you're seeing? >> i don't. a ban is a ban. a 15-week is a ban. it's more than just restrictions, and more importantly, virginians, over 2/3 of virginians want our laws to stay as they are on abortion or even less restrictive. we have work very hard to remove medically unnecessary restrictions and leave the decision about whether and when to have an abortion between a patient and a provider. my constituents and people around virginia do not want governor youngkin to insert his belief into that decision. >> how much of what you hear from the governor do you think is through the lens of a potential presidential run versus trying to secure a

trifecta? >> you know, i don't know, but i do know that virginians want access to health care, including abortion care to be left in their hands between them and their doctor. and part of what i did not hear from the governor is what happens when there is a miscarriage. what he doesn't understand is virginia's abortion laws apply in the case of miscarriages, and abortions that happen after 15 weeks, it's because something has gone horribly wrong, and that is a complicated decision that needs to be left to patients and health care providers. >> there has been, every race has become nationalized in the current political environment, efforts to do that in virginia as well. when you see numbers like what we saw in the "new york times" sienna poll related to president biden, and these battleground states numbers continually showing big problems with the

coalition that elected him in 2020, and coalition that helped d democrats beat expectations in 2022. are you seeing that in the numbers in virginia? >> most of virginias are focused on the election tomorrow, and not on the election next year. i remember that back in president obama oos first-- oba first term, at this point, the same poll had him in trouble and had him down by five points. i'm hearing a focus on tomorrow, making sure we don't roll back the progress we have made on reproductive rights, on voting rights, on addressing climate change, on addressing gun violence, that's what i'm hearing here in virginia. >> i think that's an interesting point. the effort to nationalize, if it's not as effective, you're saying you don't see as much bleed over or spill over from where the current president stands, the races that matter most to virginians right now. >> no, and i have been all over virginia. i have done over 50 events for

over 80 candidates, and they are focused on the issues here, when democrat have the triif he can t -- trifecta. that's what people are talking about in virginia, and they're talking about tomorrow. >> can i ask you about your caucus. this is a very complicated time for the entire country as the war between israel and hamas plays out. one member of your conference caucus, rashida tlaib of michigan essentially said there's a genocide occurring, accused the biden administration of to some degree being complicit and involved in that, and that would have major ramifications, electorally. what's your response to that? >> as you heard secretary blinken, the biden administration right now is focused on making sure that we can get the hostages released and focused on a humanitarian pause to get much needed aid. i think there's concerns on all

sides with the civilian casualties and making sure that as israel moves forward to protect itself, that it does so in a way that complies with international law and that we can focus on getting the hostages out and destabilizing, i'm sorry, deescalating so we don't further desablitabilize t region. >> are you confident on the approach? >> i'm monitoring it. i think they're working hard to release the hostages and put pressure on israel to allow a humanitarian pause. >> democratic congressman, jennifer mcclellan, big day in the commonwealth tomorrow. we appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you. "cnn this morning" continues now. >> donald trump is scheduled to testify in the civil fraud trial against the trump organization.

not only what he says but the way he says is going to play out. >> this is a waiste of time. >> i was concerned before these polls, and i'm concerned now. >> the whole party needs to be cognizant that this is going to be a major challenge. >> the idf intensifying its offensive with a significant strike on gaza over night. >> we're working to make sure it does not spread to other places. >> there's no humanitarian crisis in gaza. >> if you manage to eliminate all of hamas, what next? good morning, everyone, so glad you are with us. as you can see, there is a lot happening on this monday morning, especially with the former president. >> a big day internationally but a big day in a courtroom in new york city. donald trump is set to take the witness stand with his business empire and reputation on the line. the former president's civil fr