airport to go somewhere to see the family? >> well, it was a tough lesson for everyone to learn especially southwest after the 10-day meltdown that started pretty much a year ago today. 16,900 flights cancel and 2 million passengers left in the lurch. southwest says it has turned the page, and more deicing available, and war games behind the scenes have been done, and so far, things are smooth. at reagan international airport, the security line has taken people less than five minutes to get through. the number yesterday was anticipated 2.5 million at airports across the country according to the tsa but we exceeded it to 2.64 million people screened nationwide and today, it is bigger and closer to 2.7 million and 44,000 flights, and there is a little bit of a warning here from the faa that we could see ground stops as the day develops, because of the storm in the

southwest, and places that don't get a lot of rain, l.a.x. and phoenix, also seeing delays and texas because of the low cloud ceilings. listen to warnings from the transportation secretary pete buttigieg who says that the airlines have to stay on the game and so do to passengers with the big days ahead, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, and friday, and the potential of bad weather out there over the weekend. listen. >> we know that the weather is coming our way. it is why you want to make sure that you are keeping in touch with the airline. the big thing that we can control though, that airlines need to control is how resilient the system is to that weather. >> of course, a lot of people are going to be driving. tomorrow is one of the worst driving days according to aaa, and sunday and monday, take advantage of the low traffic because of the holiday. >> all right. sunday and monday does not sound great, but we will try it, pete. thank you so much.

appreciate it. the next hour of cnn "news central" starts right now. ♪ donald trump recorded again, and this time, he is not pressuring people with power, but regular citizens trying to do their civic duty as an election server and not certify the election that was won fair and square by joe biden. what was said to the canvassers and how they responded is coming up. the new air assault by israel in gaza and dropping bombs in the first month against hamas. and days after being held liable for $148 million for ruining two election workers' lives, rudy giuliani dellairing bank -- declaring bankruptcy, and

what his lies left them leaving fearful and police protection. i am not sleeping on you guys, john berman off today, but i'm here with kate bolduan, sara sidner. donald trump caught pressuring election officials once again. this time in michigan. it is new reporting coming from "the detroit news" who reviewed audio saying that 14 days after the election in november 2020, the then president personally called two local republican election workers in michigan pushing them to not certify the results. some context here. the call happened just hours after this, what you are looking at, and this is video friom it, where the same workers voted against certifying the election certifying joe biden, but then they changed their votes to yes, to support certification, and

then later that evening, that is when donald trump picked up the phone and "the detroit news" gained access to the four-minute phone call, and he told them we can't let these people take the country away from us, and he said, everyone knows that detroit is crooked as help. the rnc chairman rona mcdaniel was also on the call. and she said, we will get you attorneys and take care of it. and so what was the context and around the call, and what does it mean today? jess, talk to me about this audio and what it means? >> kate, this is a phone call that reporters from "the detroit news" they have heard it, but they have not released the audio. they have listened to the portions of the call amounting to four minutes but the people who shared it with them do not want it released at least not right now. so the reporter who broke this story said earlier. >> there's a whistle-blower that

possesses the audio of these recordings and the timing of the release and the ultimate decision on whether to release these recordings publicly is up to that person. >> yeah, and you know, we previously reported that trum htrump had called these two michigan canvassers and he was actually pressuring them to not sign the certification for joe biden in wayne county which is home to detroit, and the time line played out that the two canvcanvas ers initially said no, and then pressure and then they said yes, and then after that they got a phone call from trump and rnc chairman ronna mcdaniel, and this is what trump said. how can someone sign something when you have more votes than people? his statement was false and alluding to the false claims that the vote count in detroit was somehow rigged, but, kate

and sara, the emergence of the video is really important, because the efforts to prevent certification in michigan as well as other states is all part of the special counsel's case here in d.c. and the audio transcripts could be eventually part of the case that is moving forward. it is currently scheduled for trial on march 4th, but because the ofappeals are playing out, could be sliding. >> and what the trump camp is saying that is all part of the presidential duties and they are saying that there is nothing to see here is their take. has there been a response from mcdaniel? >> yes, there has been a response from her. this is what she said according to "the detroit news" and she said, if you can go ohome tonight, do not sign it, and we will get you attorneys, and trump said, yes, we will take care of the attorneys, and trump

urged them to leave and not sign it, and turned out they did not need their signatures, but ronna mcdaniel said what i said was referenced in the letter that there was ample evidence that warranted an audit, and that is what she is pushing for. and so they may have a copy of this, and maybe it is another central piece of this election subversion case here in d.c. >> thank you very much. >> and the trump phone call was waiting to ensure that the law was being followed and not the first time that trump's team has had to deal with fallout of a controversial phone call by the former president involving the 2020 election, and cnn's alayna treene is in washington, and what else are you hearing from team trump, and some sort of strategy that we can expect here? >> well, look, i did speak with donald trump's team last night after the story was published.

they are clearly frustrated releasing a statement pushing back on it, and we should not expect to hear more from them beyond that, but, you know, this is a crucial piece of evidence potentially as jessica laid out, because it could fit into the broader case that special counsel jack smith is looking at for the trial, the federal election subversion trial that is scheduled to take place in march in the height of primary season and unclear if that could slide, but this is how the trump campaign pushed back, and spokesman said that all of the president's actions were taken in furtherance of the duty as president of the united states to faithfully take care of the laws and election integrity, but they are not addressing this phone call specifically, but the importance around this is that it is speaking to a broader pattern of donald trump making phone calls to election officials across the country urging them to block some of the

electors and the results in the key states. we see it here with a couple of the examples and the notorious example with the secretary of state in georgia brad r raffensperger asking him to find the votes. and if the secretary of state doesn't have the audio, i am sure he is going to want it. so we will see how plays out. >> that is clear that is something that prosecution would want to look at. thank you so much, alayna treene, for your reporting. >> joining us now with more on this is jeanne rossi. good to see you and you have written about and know about what tapes mean and can mean in the past for donald trump, and do you think that trump has reason to be worried about this being on tape? >> he has a lot of reason to be worried. vi my holiday tie, and happy holidays, because this is a christmas decoration for jack smith, it is. the reason is when you are

calling the witnesses that relay the context of a call, and it would monica palmer and william hartman who has passed away, you can challenge the recollection of those witnesses, but when you have a tape, and i wrote about this in july of 2018, regarding michael cohen's recording of a conversation regarding stormy daniels with trump, and when you have a tape, and i just finished a one-week trial, and when you are playing tapes against a defendant, it has a profound effect on a jury, because you hear the tone, the cadence, the words, and you don't have to listen to a witness's summary. so based on what i know, and i haven't listened to this tape, it is consistent with the manners and means in jack smith's indictment that donald trump allegedly used to get election officials to change their positions.

this is the problem for donald trump, because it could violate the bribery laws for the state of michigan and possibly, possibly could violate federal bribery laws, because these two canvassers and one has passed, they voted to approve, to certify, and the audit was going to be done as part of the concession. it was a 4-0 vote. hours later, he calls and i have heard that he pressured cajoled and then promised an attorney. that is a classic quid pro quo allegedly. so this is a bad day for donald trump and once again, it is a christmas gift for jack smith. >> what will donald trump's legal team need to do to argue in response to this if it is needed in court? >> here is what i would say if i were their attorney, and i would stick with this as part of my official duties, and therefore, immunity is part of the whole

package. the difficulty with that argument, and that is the one they will make and should make is that it is ultra viries beyond his power. and so we don't call the person who is mad about the election, and call up the local officials and get them to reverse the vote. that is not part of the president, you deal with nations and house and senates and it is not getting people to change their views, so you can serve a second term. that is not part of the presidential powers. if there is a case that says that, i'd like to find it. so i make the argument it is not the greatest, and i saw the segment before about the big dipper and the little dipper. and we have two big dippers before the supreme court. one is this immunity case, and the second is this colorado appeal. those are the two big dippers.

they are going to decide the future of this country for the next 40 or 50 or 100 years. it is very exciting as a lawyer, but it is very tragic, because these cases go to the heart of our democracy, and accountability. >> gene rossi, bringing it altogether. thank you, gene. >> happy holidays. >> thank you. >> he is always so upbeat. house speaker mike johnson is deciding that president biden take executive action on the southern border. ro khanna is going to join us live to talk about that, and of course, we will touch on the 2024 race. just days after being ordered to pay $150 million to two former georgia election workers who he defamed, rudy giuliani is filing bankruptcy. how that is going to impact them ahead. and a new cnn analysis of

the war in gaza, and what we have learned about hundreds of 2000-pound bombs being dropped by israeli forces there.

>> speaker johnson is ramping up pressure on president biden to take action on the southern border, because there is a crisis there. and including a list of demands

to end the cash and release processing as he put it. this is coming around the same time that president biden met with mexican president obrador, and it is one of the biggest issues that he is facing with the second term in office. joining us is democratic represent ro khanna from california. and i wanted to get the sense of what you think is happening on the hill and also what is happening to the regional folks who are on those borders of the texas/mexico border and who in particular the democrats and the republicans alike and the folks who see what is happening, and they want to see better immigration policy in place, because there is a real and present crisis going on. and what do you think of president biden entering bait of the immigration when the repu republicans and the democrats have not quite come on the agreement on any sort of border bill? >> sara, no doubt there is a crisis, but this president has a solution, and the solution is

let's fund border patrol agents. let's fund people to be able to process the immigration, and fund the app that people can apply before they have smugglers take them all of the way to the border on a harrowing journey, and the democrats have passed funding for more border patrol agents and last congress, but we haven't been able to pass any of the funding in the current congress. >> i want to ask you about this section in the health bill, section 801, and it is, house bill, which is making it more difficult for the asylum seekers to apply for and get asylum, and for americans who change and start a job for all americans to seek approval from the federal government via a database like everify every time you decide to leave a job or start a job or what sounds like really big government. anything on the list that you

can see that has been sort of the controversial points of the house bill that republicans passed that is anything that you can see in that you can say, all right, add it in oso we can get this done towards money toward ukraine and israel? >> well, the draconian parts of the house are a nonstarter. they want to get rid of asylum, and in the country, many people, including me, if you are fleeing political persecution, and not just venezuela or ukraine or afghanistan, that you should have the right to apply for asylum. that is what the united states and the statue of liberty stands for, but there are compromises on the bord security, and those compromises are more funding for the border police, and better technology to monitor it, and more incentives to have the people apply for asylum well before they get to the border so they are not making harrowing

journey. and sara, we need the latino caucus, and the latino senators to be part of the conversation, but they have not been a part of the conversation, and to me, that is a big oversight. >> that is a huge problem, because it is directly affecting their constituents and themselves, and i wanted to ask you about some of the reporting that we got that president biden is for lack of a better word frustrated with the polling numbers. they don't look good in some of the swing states up against donald trump and up against, if he were to come up against nikki haley which is seeming less and less likely, but the economy is really chugging along, and inflation is finally down, and gas prices are down, and yet, biden, according to the polls, he is not gaining traction on any of the issues, and what is your worry? >> look, it is going to be a hard election. the president though has never been a frontrunner. he was not a frontrunner when he ran in 2008 or 2020, and so he

is going to have to go out there around barnstorm the country and be scranton john and be the underdog who comes bark and americans love that story, and the president is at the best when he is out there fighting. >> we will see what happens. there is a lot of time left, and we will be certainly coming back to you to get your insight. representative row khanna, tha you so much. >> thank you, sara. happy holidays. >> happy holidays to you. rudy giuliani is saying that e he is between $500 million in debt. what that means to the people he owes. now, state committee members are trying to oust their own chchairwoman, , and what cnn ha found insiside of finanancial rerecords.

michigan is a critical state or the any path to victory in the 2024 election and it is a state that president biden won in 2020 and one that donald trump won four years before that, and one that the cook political report moved from lead "d" to presidential tossup. and serious trouble brewing in

michigan which is the worst possible time happening all centered on the state's party leader. jason carroll of cnn has more. >> michigan is ground zero for the takedown of the united states. of america. >> reporter: this is the person that some are behind the trouble plaguing the democratic party. >> i saw the firsthand systemic corruption. >> reporter: she is a former community college professor, poll watcher, election conspiracy theorist, and the chairman of the republican party. >> she is charismatic, and she is interesting when you hear her speak, and she can get a crowd going. >> reporter: for a time, brie and andy were among her biggest supporters and now part of her biggest critics and calling for her to be removed from office. >> i voted for her. >> she is losing the supporters and hemorrhaging supporters. >> another state committee member called her a tyrannical

incompetent dumpster fire. she lacked political experience but rose quickly promoting the steadfast support of donald trump and strong christian beliefs. in 2022 she lost the race to the michigan secretary of state, but in february, she was elected chair of the state's republican party. since then, her critics say that the state party has been bogged down with in-fighting, dysfunction and according to the documents dismal fund-raising. >> we are bankrupt. it is provable. >> reporter: you are broke? >> yeah, she ran it into the ground. >> reporter: warren carpenter is a former district chair and karamo supporter who shares her conservative values and the disdain for the establishment and the lack of political or business experience was also part of her appeal to her supporters. >> reporter: you understand what some of your critics say. they will say that you got what you asked for, and this is the person --

>> i was wrong. >> reporter: full stop, i was wrong. >> yes, i was wrong until i was on the team. >> reporter: and warren shared the documents that appeared to show that the party had a net income of $71,000 between march and november of 2023 compared to how much karamo said she hoped to raise. >> we will require 50 million dlrdz and i am confident that i will be able to raise it. >> reporter: and that is questionable spending decisions like taking out a $100,000 loan to push a man who is pushing qanon conspiracy theories, and so dire that some members have resigned fearing that the party is going to face imminent default on the line of credit, and such that in michigan, it could have broader implications

in a state that trump won and flipped, and then biden won by narrow margins. >> when a state is short on the fund-raising, it has an impact on everybody, president, senator, mayor. >> reporter: she would not speak to cnn. >> you come to the table with no political experience and which don't view it as a bad thing. >> reporter: but her deputy chief of staff joel studebaker and ken buyer says that the critics have not given her a chance. how much have you raised this year? >> far less. it has been a challenge. >> reporter: do you know the amount? >> i don't know the exact dollar amount, but i don't know that it is over $1 million. >> she is not a business person, and we knew that when we elected her. >> reporter: is that sort of coming back to bite you, because the business of this is not working. it is failing. >> what she is doing is to motivate a bunch of people inside of the community to get active within their own

neighborhood. >> reporter: buyer says that the republican establishment set karamo up to fail by setting the donations to other gop organizations. >> they are pulling the rug out from christina and blaming her for falling. >> reporter: but they are saying she is not making enough effort to reach the traditional republicans and gone out of the way to alienate them with statements like this. >> the michigan republican party operates like a politico-mafia. >> reporter: and they ranked the potential volunteers 1-4, and one being a patriot and four being me-first or rino. >> she has disenfranchised the voters and that is not how you build up a team or unite a party. >> reporter: and the detractors took a step to remove her from office in this meeting. >> if they would stand down and use the energy that they are trying to destroy us, and help

with us the experience they have, we would be unstoppable. >> reporter: too late for supporters like warren carpenter. >> i don't want her to do anything but resign. and if not, we will remove her. >> thank you for that, jason carroll. and once new york city mayor rudy giuliani is filing bankruptcy just days after he is ordered to pay $148 million to two georgia workers for defaming them and ruining their ability to have their life free from fear. he may ask the bankruptcy court to excuse his debt, be new the m -- but in the meantime, the lawyers for the workers are going to move quickly to get a look at his assets and real estate that is up to $500

million. and this is such a fall of grace when he was called america's mayor, and the way he handled 9/11, and so can we say that he is plain and simple trying to get rid of this huge, huge finding. >> yes, the lawyers are saying the same. no surprise why he filed yesterday. when the day before, the judge said that he should start paying these women nearly $150 million. the georgia election workers. it is no secret and it is called bankruptcy protection for a reason, and people are trying to get protection from the creditors, and he is saying that he has a lot of creditors, and they are by far the biggest ones, but he is facing a tax bill of needing to pay about $1 million which is significant and that is for two years and $1.7 million in unpaid legal bills, and that is stemming from a lot of the same election denial conspiracy theories that he was pushing over the past couple of

years, and he has a $30,000 unpaid phone bill. he is listing $10 million in assets, and he has not detailed it, but he has two properties and trying to sell the new york apartment for $6 million, but the assets could be tied up in the properties, and he is facing unknown ultimate bill is all of the lawsuits outstanding. he has three defamation lawsuits stemming from the election, and a lawsuit from hunter biden who is accusing him of hacking into the laptop, and former employee who is alleging harassment, and a grocery store worker who is accusing him of getting him arrested under false pretenses. and some are calling it a maneuver by giuliani, but they are going to continue to try to get their collection of what the jury awarded them, and as a reminder, they filed a second defamation lawsuit to giuliani by repeating same lies that he was found liable for.

>> and right before the court date, he started to say the same things that were flat lies and the jury said they were, but this is a crafty move on his part to try to save himself from the huge bills. thank you, kara scannell. coming up, new analysis on the fight in israel to take out hamas, and one intelligence analyst is saying that the density in the bombardment in gaza that has not been seen since vietnam.

hey, look at who is at work, and live pictures moments from

now when the u.n. security council is hard at work where a vote is expected to be held about the war resolution in gaza. and the language of suspending the fighting to allow more aid in gaza has been softened a little bit, and the u.s. is able to support it is what we are hearing. it is 11 weeks of war in gaza with no end in sight, and the humanitarian crisis is worse by the day by all accounts of people there and experiencing it, and living there, and the u.n. says that the entire population of more than 2 million people is facing acute hunger now, and warranting a full scale famine is not far off. more than 20,000 palestinians have been killed in the war since october 7th when hamas went into israel killing 1,200 and taking 200 more. that is in gaza ten times more than any israeli-palestinian conflict in the last 15 years killed, and cnn is investigating why that death toll is so high. we know how densely populated it

is, but there is more. kneema nbarger has more. >> reporter: here you can get a sense of the intensity and the scale. this is what it looks like up close of the bombardment. the scenes of destruction have become all too familiar, here, the aftermath of another israeli air strike. this time in late october at the jabalya refugee camp. one of the most densely populated residential areas in gaza. the bomb that caused this damage is a 2,000-pound bomb and likely made in the usa and dropped by the israeli air force and at least four times as powerful as the vast majority of the bombs used by the u.s. in the fight against isis.

in densely populated gaza the human cost is incomparaincompar whole families wiped out in one blow. jabalya refugee camp is one of the epicenters of the israel bombing campaign. to understand the complete picture and destruction in gaza, you need to look from above. in coordination with artificial intelligence company synthetic, cnn was able to locate over 1,900 craters left behind by bombardment in just the first month of the war. using a.i., we analyzed diameter of these crises over 500 of which were greater than 40 feet in diameter, consistent with the american-made 2,000-pound bombs used by the israeli air force. our analysis covers the period of up to november 6th of which a

staggering 100,000 people could be dead orren higher. >> the conflict and conditions of war, it is very difficult for any of us to assess what the rate of casualties are. we believe they are very high frankly, and it could that they are higher than cited. >> reporter: and yet the u.s. continues to back israel's bombardment, and why is the death toll so staggering? because it is not just about the point of impact. this is the crater caused by a 2,000-pound bomb, and the kill zone can spread up to 365 meters, and that is 1,200 feet. an area roughly equivalent to 60 soccer pitches or 90 american football fields. the idf have told cnn that the idf is following international

law, and takes the feasible precautions to mitigate harm, but is that true? this is just near the main coastal road, and when you are going in closer, in just this small neighborhood, you can see nine craters consistent with 2,000-pound bombs which means the potential kill zone could encompass this entire area. cnn and synthetics analysis of the devastation of gaza showing extensive bombardment. in an area this densely populated and using these bombs, it is inherently indiscriminant, and the human cost continues to soar. surpassing 20,000. many of the dead are still unburied, still under the rubble, with no end in sight. nima elbarargir, reportingng fo

cnn.n. >> thahank you. more cnn a after the b break.

this is nuts. a damaged cruise ship is making its way to port of a violent storm sent huge waves slamming into the ship off the coast of denmark. the storm broke windows, flooded the bridge with water and completely knocked out power for awhile. passengers were told to prepare yourself to man a lifeboat. jayne bennett says it will be her first and last trip on the sea. she filmed this making it through the rough waters.

another passenger said there were chairs flying around, cutlery falling all over the floor. we all had to sit on the floor. authorities responded to the ship said while, quote, all is well on board, the navigation is and radar systems are down. two support vessels are accompanying the ship to its final port. we hope they get there safe ly. also today, millions of people are heading out and heading off for the holidays. travel period all experts are essentially saying could break records, which is great news, we hope. let's put it that way. between now and new year's day, aaa says it expects 115 million americans to travel wit car or plane ask that's over 2 million more than last year. let's get back to reagan national airport and we find pete muntean. what are your constituents telling you today? >> reporter: we just have seen a few ground stops and departure delays go into play.

it's not as smooth as we hoped. delays in seattle and miami, a ground stop in place for flights going to san francisco. the good news is the cancellations are relatively low. only in the double digits. about 40 nationwide. we have seen the delays go up to 1,who 0 nationwide. today is going to be even bigger than yesterday. yesterday it was forecasted to be 2.5 million people at airports nationwide. it was closer to 2.64 million people. today that's going to be closer to 2.7 the million million people, 44,000 flights. remember the mayhem of last year still on the minds of a lot of folks. so you may want to consider driving. 111 million people planning to travel 50 miles or more. 103 million of them driving. so you may want to play with the days a little bit. because the holiday falls on a monday. new yeerar's falls on a monday. so the message from aaa is that saturday is going to be bad,

sunday and monday, a little better, then it's going to get bad again on thursday. so you really don't want to meet with that con influence of holiday traffic and commuters who don't have the full week off. you may want to play with the schedule a little bit according to aaa. >> obviously, thanksgiving is a short amount of time. you don't have a the lot of options. with this you do have options. so if you have more time, depending on your work schedule, if you didn't take off a whole week from work, you might be more locked in. >> reporter: good news here the national average for a gallon of gas down a little bit. $3.12, still a few cents off from where we were this time last year. >> pete, it's not the holidays unless we're together and you're at an airport. i love you. it's good to see you. thank you. we'll check back in. we'll take all the good news.

it could be worse. that's the good news. >> then there's this. this is going to make some people happy. deers have been spotted flying across parts of utah. there are no delays for them. just days before christmas. do you see those sweeties? so these are santa's flying deer. that's not how he does it. the utah division of wildlife says there's some of 1,200 deer captured and tagged with gps con c collars every single year. >> this is a process they do annually to help them study other game patterns. they also say that helicopters are used because it's the most efficient way to move the animals and to limit their exposure to stress in the processes of the capture and the transport. so so keep your eye to the sky if you're in utah's back country, not only could you see the meteor shower reaching its

peak tonight, but you may see some flying deer. >> my mother would have said look at the reindeer and would have been traumatized for life. i would have still believe there they are they are lying down on the ground. there you are. they didn't get up. they were scared. >> they have to be released. thank you all so much for joining us. this is "cnn news central." "inside politics" is up next.

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