as the family now said bronny has a congenital heart issue which was then corrected with surgery but so good to see him out there doing what he loves to do. >> absolutely wonderful. so glad he's well. coy, you've done a lot of reporting on the health of youth athletes in sports. what do you see here? and parents -- they're not lebron, right, but they're still worried about their kids, what should they be looking out for? >> yeah. i think this gives hope that it's not all the end. if something comes up and pops up and it's big stories and big names like this that shine light on these sort of things to give that hope for everyone out there. >> you're absolutely right. coy wire, thank you as always. see you later. thanks to all of you for radical left democrats and

their fake news allies have unveiled their newest hoax that donald j. trump and the republican party are a threat to the democracy. >> donald trump won't take the stand, the witness stand today. he had plenty to say from the bully pulpit as you just saw. what brand-new cnn battleground polling tells us about the state of the race ron desantis goes on offense, finally, against donald trump. why his the former president's behavior is an example of, quote, coward'sness. what president zelenskyy will say to senators to secure funding for the war with russia. "cnn this morning" starts right now. good morning, everyone. welcome, this morning, we have

brand-new cnn polling showing president biden trailing president trump in two crucial battleground states that biden won in the last election. georgia, trump leading biden 49 to 44%. >> in michigan, trump is up ten points, biden won that state, remember, by nearly 3 points in 2020. over the weekend, trump's dismissed biden's warning that he's threat to democracy. >> baker today in the "the new york times." he said that i want to be a dictator. i didn't say that. i wsaid i wanted to be a dictatr for one day, i want a wall, right, i want a wall and i want to drill, drill, drill. >> we'll get to that in a little bit. the numbers, david at the magic wall in washington. david, when you look at what we're seeing in both georgia and michigan, how are these voters feeling about president biden,

where is his support clearly faltering? >> this is having an impact on those closely fought battle groundstates. president biden on this side and three of the different candidates running on the republican side. against haley, bests biden. desantis here, this is within the margin of error, he doesn't perform as well. in michigan, which joe biden won by a little bit of a healthier margin than he did georgia in 2020, haley trouncing bide 50 to 38. trump, 50 to 40 against joe biden. desan stis the below 50 here, he's also besting joe biden in michigan. i want to show you guys a horse race in michigan with some of

the third-party and independent candidates and you see what trouble that brings to joe biden. underneath the horse race, we look at some attributes. this in georgia here, we asked, which candidate does not have the attributes you want a president to have when it comes to temperament? that's donald trump's worst score. 58% say that he doesn't have that quality. across the other three, understanding people like you, policy positions and sharpness and stamina which is joe biden's weakest point, you see 66 .of georgia voters say that biden does not have the sharpness and stamina that they're looking for in a president. only 46% say that about donald trump. then flip it in michigan, we

asked folks at the other end of the scale, this candidate has exactly the attributes you're looking for when it comes to a president, only 15% say that on temperament on donald trump. 20% say that for joe biden. a sharpness and stamina, only 6 .of michigan voters say joe biden has exactly what they have looking for in sharpness and candidate. >> the numbers are so interesting and so crucial in those states. so unprecedented. trump goes into this with 91 charges against him. i wonder if the criminal charges are having impact. >> in one of these states, fulton county case is playing out on a daily basis. we asked folks in georgia do you approve or disapprove to criminally charge donald trump in fulton county.

a majority of voters approve of the charges. by party, 91% of democrats approve the charges. majority of independents. and only 11% of republicans. we also in georgia asked if true the charges against donald trump regarding efforts to overturn the 2020 election, does that disqualify him for the presidency? 41% say it disqualify. 39% say they're not relevant to his fitness for office. look at that by party, you'll see here, 82% of democrats in georgia say he'll be disqualify if the charges are true. 47% of independents. only 39% say that's disqualifying factor. in michigan, 46% of michigan

voters say if true that's can disqualify. 39% aren't at all related to his fitness for office. 86% of democrats think he should be disqualified in michigan if proven true. only 10% of republicans. >> david, if there's through line from our reporting it's people that aren't happy right now. in terms of enthusiasm to vote, where are voters about going to the polls next year. >> a pretty clear advantage, phil, for republicans on the enthusiasm factor. take a look here in georgia, for example, 72% of the republican-leaning voters in the poll say they're extremely motivated to vote in 2024, only 59% of the democrats and democrat-leaning independents say the same thing. something similar in michigan as

well. a clear enthusiasm advantage at this moment, a little less than a year out on the republican side. >> such interesting numbers. david, thanks very much. an 11th hour surprise reversal from donald trump now he won't testify in his civil fraud trial in new york. in the case that threatens the future of his family real estate. he wrote in part, i have already testified to everything and i have nothing more to say other than that is complete and total election interference. biden campaign witch hunt. that will keep businesses out of new york. the exclamation point aside, the reversal, where were you surprised and why? >> we were surprised given that he was so adamant he wanted to

testify. his attorney said there was nothing left for trump to say. but the gag order was completely irrelevant to any testimony that he would have, he could still answer about direct questions about this case. as you mentioned several of his attorneys had warned him it would not be a great idea to take the stand and this isn't the first time or probably won't be the last time we hear this, donald trump pushing to take the stand, saying that he's going to testify and then at 11th hour his attorneys convincing him that it's a bad idea and when you look at it it really comes down to risk and reward, remember, he did testified in this case, he had a very contentious day in court. there wasn't much left to say, because he answered so many of those questions. whether or not the risk/reward factor they decided there was

greater risk than reward in him taking the stand. >> the court is dark today. what happens starting tomorrow, this is the judge is going to decide. >> this case is expected to wrap up this week, an expert is testifying again tomorrow, we saw him last week and they do expect this to be done, the defense to rest, but no decision to be made until early next year. what we're watching now is this navigation between donald trump's political campaign and the legal side, because he also has another court case, another trial, coming up in march, right as those primaries, caucuses is ramping up, it's really becoming a balancing act for donald trump and his campaign as he tries to run for president and he has a number of legal trials pending. we have a lot more to go to from these new cnn polls from georgia and michigan.

how people who didn't vote in 2020 could influence what happens in 2024. president zelenskyy faces a capitol hill divided over helping ukraine. more, next.

new cnn polls just released this morning from georgia and michigan show a tight race for a crucial voting bloc. young voters, trump leads by biden by ten points. by 11 points in michigan. >> with that now strategic communications expert is former biden deputy assis. laura, let me begin with you on this spread, it's not good for biden. he was able to win georgia in 2020. how do you turn this around? >> there's a lot of time left, you're right, it doesn't look good for president, i was looking back at some 2011 polls and showed that around this time in 2011 barack obama was also trailing mitt romney by about five percentage points in a lot of these swing states, it's not impossible to turn this around. the young voters number is striking to me, young voters broke for biden in these swing states in 2020, they're a key part of his coalition and

clearly they're frustrated with him likely because of the israel/hamas and potentially some other issues, but i think that if democrats lean-into what's more sal yent with young voters, abortion, democracy, climate change, a way to bring them back. >> jamaal, give me the other side of this, a single poll, you can quibble with numbers, the trend line is very similar, poll after poll after poll, if you're the biden campaign and trying to tell people chill out, take a breath, why. >> first of all joe biden is going to be the nominee, democrats need to muscle up. listen, i've doing a lot hoff holiday parties. he's the nominee. so the question now is going to how does the biden campaign communicate over the course of

the next year to people. they're putting real people on television telling their story how the biden/harris administration has helped out those real groups. lot of these voters are cynical and they don't want to listen to any politician. hearing real people is going to important. inflation is important. wages are outpacing inflation. gas prices are going down. i think that will help. gaza war is a real challenge for democrats. keep in mind bernie sanders is still the heart of the democratic party in terms of his ideology. jesse jackson won the michigan primary back in 1984 and '88 this is an incredibly liberal party in many ways, you have to find ways -- >> look at the u.s. veto the

u.n. resolution to a cease-fire in israel/hamas. >> abortion could be saving grace for democrats, especially young democratic voters, i thought how republican senator j.d. vance, he's 39, talked about this with jake yesterday. >> we have to accept that people don't want blanket abortion bans. when i say people don't trust, i've been shocked, you go to hospital, have a baby, $20,000 unexpected bill, what does that look like for a middle-class family trying to pay the mortgage. we've made it hard to have children in that environment if people republicans not as the party making it easier to have babies, trying to take people's

rights away. >> does that make it harder for democrats to prevail on this? >> absolutely does. in fact, when nikki haley in the debate talked about how difficult it was to make these decisions and more practical there's no way we're going to ban abortion -- that moment in the debate when she was talking about it something that's not realistic, state by state, one of the top moments for her. 7 out of 10 independent women the primary reason they're going to go to the polls is. >> talking to a republican strategist in arizona over the last few days and they were saying that the economy there is not good for biden. that's of course impacting

voters. the one thing that could save him in that swing state is abortion and the fact that abortion may be on the ballot come november, specifically for arizona, but if abortion is something that's playing out in other states or something that democrats are putting the focus in other swing states it could actually save president biden as it duels with the economy. >> they're trying to get abortion on the ballot to drive people to the polls in those states. >> do you think there's time on the economy? we covered every single legislative success they've had on these issues the economic numbers on a macro level remain positive. the idea of it washing over, is it too late, it seems like that in this poll, do you think they can move? >> we learned the lesson of '92 james carville it's the economy, stupid. >> george w. bush didn't win the

election because of the economy he won because of national security. you got to be credible on economy, but this case about abortion is incredibly important. i was at the white house last year with the vice president and i remember the 10-year-old girl was raped in ohio and she had to go to indiana in order to see a doctor. the vice president called to doctor, the doctor talked about it later, that was an important point for people. what happened in texas right now is a point that might matter for people going forward and this is what it looks like when republicans are in charge of government and women lose their rights. >> thank you all very much. pressure is growing on harvard's president to resign after testimony on antisemitism on campus, how hundreds of harvard faculty members are defending this morning. and the latest on the deadly

tornado outbreak slammed the south.

this is something lawmakers are very clear about, this week is a pivotal moment in ukraine's battle for help in the war against russia ukrainian president zelenskyy will visit the white house tomorrow. and will hold a joint news conference with president biden, this is zelenskyy's third visit to washington since the war began. he posted this message just hours before he took off for the u.s. >> translator: every hour we utilize to give more to ukraine, more opportunities, more protection, more strength, i thank everyone who helps. >> zelenskyy will arrive in washington a very different wash tan than he visited back in december of last year, september as well, it's very divided on how to move forward with fund ing for ukraine. many house republicans opposed to it entirely. lauren fox is in nation's capital, how is this visit going

to change the dynamic if at all? >> that's the key question, phil, it isn't clear that anything zelenskyy says is going to change the minds of those republicans and conservatives especially in the house who are dead set against giving any additional funding to ukraine the key question is how this affects those senate border negotiations that have been going on for weeks now. remember, lawmakers are about to head home for the holiday recess and there's growing -- there's a growing sense at this moment nothing more is going to be going to ukraine by the end of the week given the fact that republicans are insisting on robust changes to the u.s.'s border policy as part of any package to give more funding to ukraine. just to give you a sense of the meetings tomorrow that zelenskyy is going to have, he'll meet with senators on a bipartisan

basis tomorrow morning, then he'll have a one-on-one meeting with house speaker mike johnson, that's probably the most critical meeting even though it's a one-on-one meeting, it's an important moment to cement to johnson who's a newly minted speaker that this aid is crucial to ukraine's future. phil. >> very interesting and that he's meeting with the entire senate and just the speaker of the house, not the entire house. a consistent call from republicans and now democrats as well, president biden needs to get involved, the one to strike a deal on the border, any sense it's going to happen in the days ahead. >> you heard yesterday from senator chris murphy, the leading democrat, he certainly signaled getting biden more involved would be helpful because of the political gamble really that democrats have here, they have to make sure that anything they do on the border is going to ensure that it's not

so much that it affects the president's re-election in the future with his latino base, that's a key dynamic here, but obviously senator murphy making clear that biden was more involved it would certainly help the negotiations. people in middle tennessee recovering this morning from a deadly tornado outbreak over the weekend, at least six people including two children were killed, dozens more injured and homes were damaged as well. here you see one tornado moving through the national al suburb madison. more than 30,000 customers are still in the dark this morning. peak winds of 125 miles an hour. about 50 miles northwest of there, even more powerful ef-3 hit clarksburg with winds around 150 miles an hour. nearly 400 structures were damaged or destroyed.

>> all this started just caving in, glass was busting, stuff was flying around, it was crazy. >> you just had to drop to the floor? >> yes. all we could do. >> my most precious possessions are my kids, you know, everything else is replaceable. >> just terrifying for them. that same storm system headed to the northeast bringing rain and snow throughout the day. eric van dam with new information on these twisters. >> yeah, after this weekend's killer tornadoes, this is the most number of deadly twisters in a single year since the year 2011. that includes this beast of tornado that tore a path across the state line of tennessee and kentucky, clocking winds of 150 miles per hour, traveling nearly 23 miles per hour, all encompassing, 30 reports of tornadoes across the deep south.

a lot of that energy is transferred to the east coast, not the severe threat, more of a flood threat as well as heavy snowfall for northern new england. it's extremely wet. boston, new york, all the way to d.c., the good news is the rain is quickly coming to an end and we'll start to see a clearing trend in the sky later tonight. >> thank you, appreciate it. the state of 2024 race in iowa, what it means five weeks until the first in nation contest there. the u.s. urging israel to do much more to protect the cicivilians inin gaza. how w is israel respsponding tot pressusure, next..

welcome back. gaza this morning, the death toll is nearing 18,000 people according to hamas-run ministry of health. displaced people don't have the basic necessities like food and water and medical supplies that's allowing disease to spread really quickly. all of this as united states is pushing vocally for many protections for civilians. jeremy diamond joins us now. the words that secretary blinken chose to use in the sunday

interviews yesterday were striking, talking about the gap between what israel says and what they're actually doing, however all of the u.s. actions including the vote on the u.n. cease-fire resolution are in lock step with israel. >> reporter: no doubt about it. look the u.s. is trying to bring to bear significant pressure on israel, but only to a certain point. we're seeing the limited impact of that pressure on the ground here, israel is very much pressing forward with its offensive in southern gaza to much similar effects to what we've seen in north, particularly as it relates to civilian casualties, very similar images of women and children being pulled out of the rubble rushed to hospitals in southern gaza as in the northern part of the strip. yesterday saying israel's offensive can't be measured in weeks and perhaps not even in months, making it very clear that israel is going to continue

to push forward up until it reaches its goal of destroying hamas and capturing or killing hamas' leader. the u.s. secretary of state saying he believes that israel has an intent to protect civilians but on the ground the reality is very different. >> i think the intent is there, but the results are not always manifesting themselves and we see that both in terms of civilian protection and humanitarian assistance. it's imperative that civilians be protected. >> reporter: and secretary blinken making clear that israel needs to establish better routes for humanitarian roaid to get io gaza. the ability of gazans to do that is very difficult. when they get to rafah humanitarian aid officials are

warning the shelters there are overcrowded and the bombing there is continuing. >> jeremy, thanks very much for the reporting. brand-new this morning, a story that has continued to gain momentum, nearly 600 harvard faculty members signed a petition in support of harvard's president claudine gay. resist the growing pressure to remove her. university of pennsylvania's president stepped down amid outrage after the hearing. ron desantis, his new pitch to try to win over trump's primary votes. and the man who called sandy hook a hoax returns to x, alex jojones gets a a wararm welclco fromom elolon mumusk himself..

just moments ago we got more numbers, more polls, this one from des moines register, critical poll showing the state of race in iowa. only five weeks to go until the caucuses. in that poll donald trump leading with a majority 51%, ron desantis and nikki haley battling it out for a distant second. david is back with us. when you look at these numbers, trump has been a runaway front-runner in this race, dig into the numbers. >> you showed the top line there, phil, just take a look at it again, this lead 51% over 19% for desantis and 16% for haley, this is the largest lead that any republican has held this close to the caucuses in the history of the des moines register iowa poll, a commanding lead and a historic one and he has majority support. that's key.

you've noted that there's been change over time, trump is eight points since the same poll in september from 43 to 51. i would just note, when you look into these numbers, trump's supporters are the most committed and the most enthusiastic, they're least likely to say they're going change their minds, in fact half the republican electorate said their mind is made up in iowa. 63% of first-time caucus goers say they're backing trump. 50 points ahead of anybody else. trump still has the ability to bring new people into this process. >> as for governor desantis he went after trump in iowa this weekend. listen. >> he spent first full day in office arguing with the media about his crowd size at his

inauguration, that's a lack of focus and discipline and i have that focus and discipline. you know, sometimes i think most of the time he's his own worst enemy by not being able to control his mouth and that has consequences for governance and for us being able to get things done. >> desantis doubled down, he took to x and he slammed trump for denigrating troops. >> i went on to that stage a few days later and the general, who's fantastic general, he said, sir, i've been on the battlefield, men have bgone dow left and right. but i believe the bravest thing i have ever seen when you went on stage with hillary clinton after what happened, the woman asked you the first question about it and i said, locker room

talk. what the hell in. >> braver than those who sacrifice their lives for this country. what a comparison. given comments like that, still people sticking by him, so many republican voters in iowa, what i thought was interesting from this iowa half, likely caucus go goerss half of the minds are mae up. >> the debates haven't been helping these candidates. the rivals of trump because of the fact that since october he has increased by, what, david, said eight points or so, that means more and more are rallying around trump, including new caucus-goers. trump right now looks like he's going to be the nominee unless something dramatically changes. republican voters are very much behind what is he proposing, to

install loyalists at the justice department, total overall civil service. scholars say that could lead to corruption. >> i'm fascinated by ron desantis' turn last night in waterloo. it was very different ron desantis. i want to go back, as you listened to what he said to the new york republican event, lee, does it matter, if you listen to that, you got to be kidding me right now in part that was the worst moment for 2016. he won. we're citing unnamed generals. >> if hillary clinton had a couple of days after that said that republicans who support donald trump are a basket full of deplorables he wouldn't be

president today, to make light of this whole thing, locker room talk, it's a mistake. but here's the thing that so many people don't understand, when you look at that iowa poll, one thing that jumped out to me, 3 in 4 likely caucus goers say that trump strikes the right balance. people believe his policy aligns of what they want regardless of what he talks about. people are willing to write off his temperament. no matter what we want to talk about the economy or before, the numbers are staggering on how bad people view the economy, 56% of voters in both states, georgia and michigan, say that biden's policies have made the economy worse, they feel worse today than they did three years ago. >> you know, i don't know if you listened to a pod cast, thanksgiving day podcast, it's

the most compelling thing i have ever heard. talking about the president election. democrats don't talk about the economy, lowering prescription drug prices, inflation, we're talking about making money, we don't talk about building wealth, buying a house, things most people care about, one thing that i'd want the white house to talk about, who's getting the contracts out of the infrastructure bill. what are people doing with their jobs. talk about the money. >> in terms of having a shot to start building generational wealth. >> absolutely. >> tie that to how trump is polling among black male voters, which is fascinating. >> yeah, i mean, republicans

under trump have been trying to pull away at the margins, some black and latino voters, trump has been somewhat successful at the margins with black male voters and latino voters, overall majority of black voters vote democratic, i think we can expect them to still vote democratic come 2024, a part of that is the economy and whether or not these young men feel as though president biden or democrats are doing enough for them to as you said create some type of generational wealth or create a future for themselves in an economy where interest rates are up, people my age or younger can't really buy a house. it's definitely something that he has to close the gap on to keep that coalition together that helped him in 2020. >> real quick. >> he was ahead by 20 points

with these coalitions and now he's losing them. that gap is much thinner. that's a big problem. he won by narrow margins. >> jamaal, lee, lawuralaura, th you. iowa town halls this weekend, ron desantis tomorrow. wednesday, vivek ramaswamy will speak with cnn's abby phillips also at 9:00 p.m. eastern. elon musk bringing back the man who called the sandy hook mass shooting a hoax. what the return of alex jones means for society as he'll be back on x.

first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones brings so much joy to your life. a family trip to the team usa training facility. i don't know how to thank you. i'm here to thank you.

lot of attacks on twitter. i trend all the time. if you're an absolutist on free speech bring back alex jones. i understand if he did that they would be able to probably shut down twitter. i understand that he needs to, you know, go through a process before he does that. >> so that was right-wing extremist alex jones days ago making the case to tucker carlson that users want him back on x. he was banned for posts that were previously cited for

violence and hate speech. this morning he's back on x thanks to the new owner elon musk. he did an unscientific poll of asking if alex jones should be reinstated. 70% satd. days before 11 years -- >> alex jones profited off of it. he was ordered to pay the families $11 billion. musk and jones took part in a audio chat. cnn correspondent joins us now. i'm having a tough time. please tell us what we need to know before i start talking and if you bring back up that full screen there of that cast of

characters who were on that twitter audio stream last night, i mean, that's twitter right now, to be honest with you, elon musk, alex jones, flynn, i mean the platform is obviously a mess and, you know, people don't have to use this but they do use this and it's still very, very influential. what we're really seeing is become now i think is this, after january 6th attack, a lot of these big conspiracy theorists including donald trump got kicked off the platform and that drove a lot of people to these kind of alternative platforms, some places where extremism and hate can really fester, now x one of the biggest platforms the world that's the platform, that's the alternative platform and it's mainstream. somebody like jones now as a

fringe character, he's not, stop the steal movement, an ear to former president essentially. >> 70% now qualifying that's what x is. after elon musk said just last november, quote, i have no mercy, explaining why he wasn't reinstating jones -- what changed? >> i think what we're seeing with elon musk is a very public journey down the rabbit hole. >> journey, yeah. >> i think he's going deeper and deeper the cast of characters that he's hanging out, i mean, quite concerning if, you know, one of the richest most powerful men in the world is amplifying these voices and choosing to amplify that. so i think that's what we're seeing here, just pulling this back very broadly we can talk about how crazy some of the

stuff alex jones says. this paints a picture, it sets the stage as we go into 2024 for a platform like x that's going to be totally off the rails, but also then we've seen youtube and meta, other platforms allowing election lies. meta recently emerged will take money from candidates to allow them to promote lies that the 2020 election was stolen. >> the pendulum is swinging back. something to watch. i don't know where the line should be, clearly shifting back the other way. cnn this morning continues right now. new cnn polling shows president biden struggling in two critical 2024 battleground states. >> georgia, goes back into the trump column. >> these numbers in michigan would be an alarm bell for him.