gabe cohen joins us live from freedom plaza in washington, d.c. gabe, tell us what's happening. >> reporter: i have to admit, i can't hear you particularly well. the crowd has grown rapidly here in the last few minutes. you can see here freedom plaza now filled with these protesters. it even extends out into the streets behind me, shutting down several blocks here in washington, d.c. we just heard the speaker say there are buses that haven't been able to get into this area with even more people who are coming. we expect this crowd is going to grow even more. organizers said it would be the largest free palestine rally in u.s. history. that remains to be seen. we are going to see speeches starting in the next few minutes until 4:00 p.m. eastern. then demonstrators are going to march to the white house, where they're going to demonstrate there. what we expect to hear in these speeches is more political pressure on president biden to call for a ceasefire and break that unequivocal support that he and u.s. leaders have offered israel up to this point.

and cnn's gabe cohen is live at the rally. gabe, what's the latest? what are you seeing on your end of things? [ chants ] >> reporter: jim, what you're seeing behind me is that massive crowd marching through the streets of washington, shutting down several roads here in the district. they're making their way from freedom plaza where that rally was held this afternoon to the white house where they're going to be demonstrating for the next hour or so. you can see the crowd coming through, chanting. we have seen people of all ages, little kids here, elderly people here, families, lot of young people. and as you mentioned, they have called for a cease-fire, yes. they have called for an end to the bombings and the ground operations in gaza. but so much of this rally, today's rally in designees was really focused on putting political pressure on president biden to call for a cease-fire and to stop the unequivocal support of israel during this conflict. take a listen to a couple of the people at the rally i spoke with about their message and feelings about t

gabe cohen is on the national mall. gabe, tell us about the turnout so far and what you're seeing and hearing? >> reporter: brianna, up to this point it's massive as we're waiting for the speeches to get under way any minute. i am looking at a sea of people across this section of the national mall. they were expecting potentially tens of thousands of them, packed into this area, about a mile long, all fenced in at this point. organizers said they expected this to be the largest gathering of american jewish communities in recent history, and it appears they may have accomplished that. organizers told me they were very intentional about the speakers they selected, the language they used as they were planning the event because they wanted to create a big tent of unity and support, an event that could unify jews and jewish organizations across the political spectrum. they said there are three points of focus here. one, showing solidarity with israel and the israeli people. two, combatting anti-semitism across the country and

cnn's gabe cohen is traveling with the president. gabe, what did he say?porter: paula, we just heard from president biden speaking before boarding air force one to head back to d.c. from an event here in norfolk, virginia, speaking about rosalynn carter's passing. let's play what he had to say. take a listen. >> and i was speaking to her grandson, and the family was just showing up. you know, they're really an incredible family because they brought so much grace to the office. and, you know, it's one thing if one is being president and you're putting on a show while you're president. look at what kind of post-president he was. he did the same thing for people after he was president, when he was retired, not for money, for just help. he's an incredible guy, and he still is there. i talked to the family today -- not the family -- the family spokesman today in plains. i was told that all of the family, all the children and grandchildren are with jimmy carter. and i always joke because he always would say to me, you're the first person -- i endorsed him. i was

cnn's gabe cohen spoke to some people who are calling out u.s.resident joe biden. >> reporter: thousands of protesters marched through washington and ended up here at the white house after that huge rally just a few blocks away at freedom plaza. hours of speakers who called for an end to the bombings and the ground operations in gaza, but also demanding that the white house and president joe biden call for a cease-fire and end its unequivocal support for israel, saying that it could be a serious political issue for the president in 2024 if he does not call for that cease-fire. here's what some of those protesters told me. >> my message to president biden is, i voted for you and i regret it. >> will you vote for him in 2024? >> absolutely not. >> i'm not going to vote for him. because he's supporting israel. he has control of $13 billion to do more killing of the palestinian people. >> reporter: the organizers told me they had hoped this would be the largest free palestine rally in u.s. history. while i can't confirm that i can tell you, it is by

guanta gabe cohen is on the ground for us. what happened and where do things stand now? >> reporter: yeah, so john, if you look behind me, you can see the police barricades still set up outside the dnc headquarters. that's where the clash between police and 150 protesters started. many of the protesters were locked arm in arm blocking the entrance but the physical altercations erupted and spilled out onto the street behind me. organizers said the plan was to block entrances around the building, the dnc headquarters, to force some of the members of congress, including leadership, hakeem jeffries, katherine clark, pete agulair, to come out of the building and be confronted by protesters calling for a cease-fire. we never got to that point because the scene erupted and the members of congress close to a dozen of them, had to be evacuated from the building. one of them sean kaston, said you have the constitutional right to peacefully assemble and protest, but blocking all entries to a building with multiple members of congress in it protected by capitol hill police officers

gabe cohen, cnn, washington. >>> it may be a year away, but the u.s. presidential elections is on the minds of many arab american voters, as you heard in gabe's report, especially as the tensions increase. the voting pollack was once fairly reliable for democrats and president biden, and now they're looking for alternatives after the events of october the 7th. cnn's diane gallagher explains why. >> you can't ignore history. >> reporter: it's not a statement imam hamut ever thought she'd make. >> i voted for biden. >> reporter: and are you going to vote for him again in 2024? >> i mean, if you would have asked me a month ago, i would have said, absolutely, 100%, no doubt about it. but honestly, the past few weeks have changed everything and i don't know anymore. >> reporter: the michigan immigration attorney is one of a growing number of muslim and arab americans who say they are reconsidering their support for president joe biden, due to his response to the humanitarian crisis and rising death toll in gaza. >> reporter: the democratic party risks losin

the national guard will help because there are security concerns about possible lone actors and gabe cohen is covering it all and joins us this morning. it's expected to be quite a turnout. ♪ >> reporter: yeah, poppy, the organizers are hoping this will be the largest american of american jewish communities with tens of thousands of people expected on the national mall in the hours ahead and, look, organizers were really intentional about the language, the toned down language they used as the prey prepared this rally. big tents and organizations from across the political spectrum and said this rally was about three mings, combating anti-semitism, calling for a release of the israeli hostages still in gaza and calling for solidarity with israel and the israeli people. take a listen to the heads of one of the organizations that put this event together speaking a little earlier on cnn this morning. >> we're going to stand broadly and say we will not be intimidated in our homes, communities, places of worship and stand on the national mall in the most visible place in this country and say, ame

. >> we will keep checking with you, gabe cohen in washington, d.c.'m joined by a journalist and foreign policy analyst. organizers expect a massive turnout today. already it looks like a pretty sizable turnout to show solidarity for the palestinian people. how influential do you believe it will be? >> the real question is will it affect the white house and their consideration, because they seem oblivious to the fact that 66% of american voters on both sides of the spectrum believe we need a cease fire. also the overwhelming majority of americans want president biden to condition military aid, the $14 billion he wants to send to benjamin netanyahu to some kind of mechanism where the warfare that israel is waging is lawful, is legal, follows international law. they're seeing this is not being done. actually, they're seeing also the conversation within the state department where criticism of these kinds of approaches are being silenced. people are resigning. i mean, the administration is violating america's own law that indicates that any recipient of m

let's start with gabe cohen on the national mall. what are you seeing at this huge rally today? >> reporter: behind me you'll see a small section of this massive crowd here on the national mall. we just heard from israel's president, who thanked president biden and the u.s. congress for their support during this c conflict in recent weeks. with also just a little while ago witnessed a really interesting moment when our own cnn political analyst van jones was speaking on that stage. he talked about hoping that both sides, there could be an aend to the attacks on both sides of both israel and gaza. and the crowd really went quiet in that moment. very quick ly, we heard very lod chants start up of no cease-fire, no cease-fire. and it speaks to how polarized this issue still is today. this rally happening ten days after a massive rally just about a mile down the road here in washington that was proe palestinian calling for a serious fire. very critical of president biden. and as all of this is unfolding, there's a lot of issue concern about security on the national mall today. we kn

i want to go to gabe cohen, who is there on the mall. part of the reason why this rally is happening today is to push back on anti-semitism that is rising, but, b, to remind the world that these hostages are still being held by hamas. and there are family members, many of them who flew to the united states that are where you are on the mall that came from israel in order to make sure that the world doesn't forget that their loved ones are being held by hamas still. >> reporter: that's right. they are just part of this long list of speakers that we're going to see when the program gets underway. we're still seeing the massive crowd pouring on to this huge section of the mall, about a mile long now fenced off. people coming from ul over the country and all over the world. i met people from ohio, georgia, massachusetts, florida, california, who all wanted to be here to take part in this event. organizers think it's going to be the largest gathering of jewish american communities in recent history. they were really intentional with their lis

gabe cohen joins us now. this looked like it was getting out of control last night. what more do we know? >> you can see from the video how intense this clash was outside the dnc headquarters between capitol police and 150 protesters from these progressive jewish organizations that for weeks now have been leading these cease-fire protests across the country. and organizers told me they planned to block entrances to the dnc building. thipted to force those democratic members of congress, including the leadership, the names you mentioned, to walk out in front of them and be confronted by protesters with chants and with calls for a cease-fire in dpaz. the scene really intensified. it blew up before we got to that point. and those members of congress had to be evacuated from the building. and you can see why these physical altercation, those protesters locked arm and arm in front of the building being p pried away from it. now these groups are really pointing fingers at each other, blaming the other for escalating the situation. police tweed twooeting overnight saying si

. >> gabe cohen, thank you so much. >>> we're getting close to the end. national security spokesman john kirby says a deal for israeli hostages is near. we have details on that straight ahead.

around the country is this feeling of betrayal, is a feeling of -- >> oh, we heard this yesterday, gabe cohen was down following the protest in downtown d.c. yesterday, talked to a couple of palestinian americans who said, i voted for joe biden last time around, i'm not going to do that this time around. >> and that may be the case. we'll see, again, a year until the election. i think often in politics, we end up focusing on the critics and people who are opposed to it. you do see that there is a lot of strength and support for a lot of big jewish groups around the country for what joe biden is doing. and we think about this, those polls about battleground states. there are big muslim and arab american communities in states like michigan, and minnesota, in georgia, important states, there are also big jewish american communities in michigan, minnesota, georgia, and pennsylvania. so, we don't know how this is all going to come out. but it's not just about who's angry, but maybe people who are supportive, too. >> and what is -- i mean, they've got -- i mean, they've got a lot on theirplay plate

here is gabe cohen. >> reporter: thousands of protesters marched through washington and ended up here at the white house after that huge rally just a few blocks away at freedom plaza. hours of speakers who called for an end to the bombings and the ground operations in gaza, but also demanding that white house and president joe biden call for a ceasefire and end its unequivocal support for israel, saying that it could be a serious political issue for the president in 2024 if he does not call for that ceasefire. here's what some of those protesters told me. >> my message to president biden is i voted for you and i regret it. >> will you vote for him in 2024? >> absolutely not. >> i am not going to vote for him. because he supporting israel. asking for billions of dollars to do more killing of palestinian people. >> reporter: organizers hope this would be the largest free palestine rally in u.s. history. while i can't confirm that, i can tell you it's the largest one i have seen here in washington since the war began last month. >> and students at stanford university say they are on edge