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"the source" with kaitlan "the source" with kaitlan collins starts now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com tonight, straight from "the source," donald trump on the stand reeling against the attorney general who brought the case and the judge who will decide his fate. the highlights from a chaotic day in court. plus large explosions are rocking gaza tonight, as israel claims it has isolated gaza city, while striking 450 targets in just the last 24 hours. and alarm bells are sounding tonight for democrats because donald trump is ahead of president biden in these states that could decide the 2024 race one year out from the election. i'm kaitlan collins, and this is "the source." under oath and off the rails. that is really the only way to describe the four hours of extraordinary testimony that was wild, even by the standards of donald trump. the former president repeatedly got into it with the judge, who will decide his fate at this civil fraud trial. but getting really just minutes after he took the stand. at one point judge arthur engoron threatened to dismiss trump from the witness stand, warning him not to give speeches when he was being asked direct questions, yes or no questions. at one point, the judge noted, quote, this is not a political rally. he even urged trump's lawyers to intervene saying, quote, i beseech you to control him if you can. if you can't, i will. it was only when trump walked out of the courtroom after a break that was ordered by the judge to have a conversation with trump and his attorneys, that he zipped his lips. i'm being literal here. he made the gesture to reporters. he went back in the courtroom after that. and later when his testimony did finally wrap, he had this to say. >> i think it went very well. i think you were there, you listened, and you see what a scam this is. this is a case that should never have been brought. i think you saw what i had to say today, and it was very conclusive. everything we did was absolutely right. >> the courts did not agree. they actually ruled otherwise because the judge, who is the decision maker here, there is no jury that was in the courtroom today. there's no jury in this entire case. they have already found trump, his adult sons, and the company here, the trump organization, libel for persistent fraud, inflating the value of assets in order to get more favorable loans. there were key moments that stood out in the chaos today, though, that were important for the attorney general's case, including when trump acknowledged helping put together the financial documents that are at the heart of the matter. when he was asked whether he had maintained accurate books and records from 2014, he told the court, quote, i hope so. i'm joined now my former superior court judge cordell and former prosecutor and cnn legal analyst elie honig. judge, i am so glad you are here with me. it's, kind of, perfect timing for what happened today. when the judge has to tell the defense counsel to control their client, how far out of the scope of what usually happens is that? >> well, first of all, the trump show, not withstanding, the only important person in that entire courtroom, it was not trump. it was the judge. there is no jury here. the judge is the finder of the facts, and the facts are determined by documentary evidence that the judge finds relevant and also testimony from witnesses whom the judge finds are credible. and donald trump did very little, if anything, to bolster his credibility with this judge. so, today, trump's responses were inconsistent, incoherent. they were incriminating. they were irritating. and they were insulting. so, when you take all of that together, this judge really had a lot on his hands. and there are some people, by the way, who say, you know, why didn't the judge rein him in? trump was insulting the judge. he was ranting during all kinds of things. and i think the judge played it right because this was a court trial. if this had been a jury, the judge would have had his hands full. he would have had to do everything he could to keep the jurors from being distracted from the facts. but this is just the judge. this judge has been on the bench a long time. he's in his 70s, just as trump is in his 70s, and he's a new yorker. so, he gets people, and he understands that he's got to look at the facts only. so, what this judge did was -- you know, he let a lot of the stuff slide. and in my view, it was the right thing to do to get through the day and to get the facts because in the end, he makes the decision about the future of the trump brand. and trump identifies only through his extraordinary wealth. and if that falls apart, then trump is a nobody. no one has any reason to even listen to him. the only reason he's even out there is because of this so-called extraordinary run. >> and of course, you know, he's running for president. and this is what helped propel him to the white house in 2016. i think that's why he's so angry personally about it. that's what we hear from sources. and elie, there was so much chaos in that courtroom today, it was, kind of, unbelievable. there were key moments where trump seemed to have acknowledgments or admissions that could be helpful to the attorney general's case. >> through all the drama and the spectacle, this really was a debacle in substance. i agree with the judge -- for donald trump. there were a couple of key moments that stood out to me. one of the things i was wondering going in, is he going to defend these valuations. is he going to say, no, we got it right when he said mar-a-lago was worth $500 million. he doubled down. he said, no that's worth a billion dollars. which is surprising. he simultaneously tried to distance himself from the valuations. he said, we're going to bring in the very big bankers. okay. i guess he's saying these people from mazars, these accountants are going to come in and explain it. to me, the most important sentence of the day, trump said something like, i saw those statements, i reviewed them, and at times i gave input. it was a quick moment, but that's something i think the ag's office is going to latch onto. he acknowledges he knew them and knew enough to give input into those statements. i think his testimony was inherently contradictory and a mess. there's some real useful pieces in there for the a.g.'s office. >> were there any parts of his testimony based on what you said -- you think the judge made the right call in how he was acting. are there any parts -- some are questioning, is this a strategy by trump? can they say, look, the judge is biased against me? do you see any grounds the for that? >> first of all, i don't think what trump did is a strategy. this is who this man is. he cannot control himself. he cannot control what comes out of his mouth. so much of it was incoherent. at one point he was asked about a deficit on a piece of property in 2013, and his response was to attack letitia james and say, she's taking property like they do in china in a communist country. makes no sense at all. this is who he is. i don't think it's a strategy. the strategy that's needed is for his lawyers to figure out how in the world to deal with a client that they cannot control and cannot rein in. >> his lawyers, though, weren't even really trying. they were -- chris kise was praising his answers as brilliant when he came out at the end. i was standing on steps when he said trump was one of the best witnesses he's represented in his 30 years. do you think he feels that way? >> no, i don't. there's been a noticeable shift in chris kise's tone. one thing you are taught as a prosecutor, as a litigator -- the judge knows this -- you always keep a poker face. you always act like you're winning in front of the judge, in front of the jury -- there's no jury here -- in front of the media. what are you going to do, hang your head? sulk? what is chris kise going to do, come out and say, oh, my god, that was a disaster. he has to act like it went well for the cameras, for his client. he can't possibly believe that went well today. >> how do you think the judge responds. there was also a lot of back and forth just between the judge, mainly chris kise, other attorneys. he asked them to explain the rules to trump when they took that ten-minute break. >> so, i mean, i was a trial court judge for almost 20 years and i had belligerent lawyers and i had angry defendants. nothing, however, like this. and there were some reporting about the judge, even the non-verbal behavior. at some point he was looking at the ceiling. he shook his head when trump was talking about evaluation of mar-a-lago. so, what that says is that judges are human beings. we're human beings, and we have feelings. and hearing all of this -- this judge, i think, remarkably contained himself sufficiently enough to be able to get through the day but also to end up at a point where there's not going to be a mistrial or reversal because of bias. this judge got through it, and he's going to have to get through it again even more. but i do not envy the judges that are coming up that have to preside over jury trials with donald trump. they're going to have their hands full. >> you think this could signal what those are going to look like? >> oh, my gosh, it's a totally different ball game with the jury in there. you have to protect your jury, as the judge knows. i mean, 90% of this nonsense today would have been shut down immediately. i want to see how you would have handled donald trump. >> oh, i can handle him. >> i'm sure you could. what the judge did today, and i agree with you, judge, it was smart. he didn't take the bait. he almost said, let him get it out of his system. ho he can vent. he can rant and rave. it's not going to influence my decision. but when you have a jury there of 12 normalcy vill yans, you have to protect them. you can't let them be exposed to political rants and extraneous comments. the judges are going to have to exert a lot more control. >> you raise a very good question. i'm curious. put yourself in judge engoron's robe, how would you handle that today? >> sure. >> would you have dismissed him from the stand? >> dismissed him -- no, no, no, no. the object is to have a fair trial. whether or not i would permit -- for example, trump at one point -- the judge made a ruling. trump pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and wanted to read it. the judge said, that's not happening. no. trump's immediate response was shock meaning, oh, yeah, i'm really shocked at that, really corres condescending the judge. i've had people make comments like that in court. i said, excuse me. did you say something. i want to make sure the record is clear. there are ways to deal with it because, you know, donald trump, quite frankly, he is a bully, and bullies are cowards. so, he's not going to -- he'll go up to that line. he's not going to go over that line. this is not going to happen. it takes a judge to be able to be up front and say you go over that line and see what happens. >> i'm curious because the other person who had a large presence today was the attorney general, letitia james. we saw her come out and speak before. we also saw her come out and speak afterward. is that typical behavior for an attorney general? >> no. i think letitia james is deserving of some criticism here. two things can be true. donald trump was involved in a massive fraud and letitia james politicized this case. she ran -- that's not an opinion. that's a fact. she ran, vote for me, i'll nail trump. she fund raised on it. she was tweeting throughout the testimony saying in her tweets, she's lying. you cannot do that. as an attorney general, she's not acting as a prosecutor here, but she's enforcing the law. you can't tweet to the public while someone is testifying, that's a lie. i don't think that would be tolerated under normal circumstances. >> social media is a problem. it really is a problem. i didn't know she was tweeting throughout. i thought the statements she made at the end of the case, i thought that was entirely appropriate. she didn't get into any details. she said, we have a strong case. the numbers are what they are. i did not know that. social media, just so, i think, is such a problem when it comes to handling these trials. >> yeah. we tried to ask her questions. she did not take the bait on those. elie honig, judge, so great to have you here in person. thank you for joining us. >> sure. though today was unprecedented in many ways, i should note trump was not the first former president to testify on the witness in his own defense. teddy roosevelt did so twice more than 100 years. first in 1913 when he sued the editor of a newspaper in michigan for looinl. and two years later when he was sued for libel in new york. he won both cases, i'll note. meantime, a former trump world insider takes us inside what is going on in the 45th president's mind right now. it's a big ask, but why she thinks he was so fired up in that courtroom todayay. that's's next. defendant, candidate, and former president. the line between all of those different realities for donald trump was already pretty blurry. but at times it appeared to completely e vabvaporate insidet new york courtroom today. while the judge declared this is not a political rally, trump did cite the latest poll numbers to the cameras as he walked in and out of the court, and as his campaign was firing off fundraising email after fundraising email. here with me is alyssa farah griffin, who was donald trump's white house communications director. we've seen donald trump before in taped depositions. he's typically more muted and has a bit more restraint. it seemed very clear the minute he walked into that courtroom today he wasn't trying to appeal to the judge today. he was trying to appeal to a larger political audience. >> very much so. the word i would use the defiant. i think that was by design. i think he's, kind of, realized in this civil case it's a foregone conclusion. there's already been the summary judgment. there's not really a case for him to win, it's how do i win in the court of public opinion? you know this. i faux had this well. when he has media attention on him, he just wants to dominate that attention he has. he wants to look strong above anything else. the facts, at times, be damned. i think to the degree there was a strategy, it was look tough, look defiant. use the playbook of this is b rigged, this is a witch hunt. he's not on the campaign trail. governor desantis is being endorsed by kim reynolds in iowa. he did have the media's attention and american eyeballs on him. >> and his campaign was sending out fundraising emails the moment he walked into court. but moments later -- we were watching these exchanges in real time -- and quoting the judge out of context. like the one where he said, i don't want to hear what donald trump has to say. he was saying about the tangents trump was going on. but they were quoting that and blasting it out to millions of people. >> that's why it's important to have reporters in the courtroom to relay those facts. if it was purely communicate through donald trump and his attorneys, we wouldn't have the facts. and we also saw alina habba give a bizarre speech outside the courtroom when she was talking about procedures you would in the courtroom. this is classic donald trump playbook. it's us versus them. i'm being indicted for you is what he tries to convey to the american public. the reality is it might be working. we saw the latest "new york times" cnn numbers. he's beating joe biden in four of the five battleground states and outperforming significantly where he was at this time in 2020. so, i think he's relying on there's going to be courtroom and legal battle fatigue of the american public. so, as long as he looks on top of it, looks angry and looks like he's fighting for something, that might work. >> the other 2024 candidates who are preparing otubercto be on t debate stage this week, how do you think they view something like what happened today? >> it's the myth of these candidates, many of whom are my friends, are still buying into. which is he's suddenly going to be out of it and their nomination is going to happen. we're two months out of iowa and i don't see something fundamentally changing unless something takes him out of the race. nothing is going to. nothing is going to make him drop 40 points in the polls. what i couldn't help but think, obviously today he had to be there. this is a civil trial and he was on the stand. he hasn't had to be in the courtroom on these other dates he's chosen to show up. he cared more about showing up because his business interests were being challenged than when he was being accused of sexual assault. name a person you know wouldn't be there to defend himself against an allegation of sexual assault. he didn't show up in the e. jean carroll case. that shows you what you need to know about donald trump. >> what did you make of him talking about his brand value, saying that's something that should be part of the financial statements. which i think is what most bankers would say is not something you can put on a loan valuation. >> he puts a lot of stock in the brand value. and i think in many ways the brand value has diminished in recent years, at least in his presidency, or the main stream probably. the business is a brand. the presidency is a brand. it's not about the american public. it is about donald trump. >> alyssa farah griffin, thank you very much. of course all of this is going on, as we are also looking at those poll numbers that were just mentioned there. despite trump's legal problems, despite the felony counts, he is leading the president in some of the most crucial battleground states. according to this new polling out, it is causing democrats, prominent ones, to sound the alarm. we'll break down the numbers for you next. so do you think he should drop out? >> i -- wolf, i'm not going to -- i'm not going to -- you want to be able to provide your child with the tools or resources they need. with reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. fellas, fellas. that's how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. we wanted to give y'all the necessary skills to compete with the future. kevin's now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. ♪ ♪ tonight, democrats are responding to new warning signs that president biden's prospects for a second term are not looking great as of this current snapshot that we have. that includes a former senior adviser to president obama, david axelrod. listen to what he told cnn tonight when he was asked if he does believe that president biden, given these latest numbers, should drop out of the 2024 race. >> i think he's entitled to make that decision on his own, and i've said many times, i don't think a primary challenge would be successful. it would only weaken him. so, i have not encouraged that. but i think, you know, he has a record to be proud of. and i think history will be kind to joe biden based on what he's done in his first -- in his term as president. and, you know, the question is, how will it end? will it end with the defeat of donald trump or not? that's what he has to consider because how it ends is important. >> safe to say the white house was not happy with those comments. and, i should note, there's no indication that president biden plans to drop out of this race. his own former aides say as much. but these new numbers from the "new york times" and the sienna college poll show the incumbent president does have a lot of ground to make. look at these polls. right now based on these numbers, donald trump is holding a solid lead in four critical battleground states that really could decide the fate of the 2024 race. he is up in nevada, georgia, arizona, and michigan. and both wisconsin and pennsylvania, the president and trump right now are within the margin of error. if you compare it to biden's numbers in 2020, he's down in some of those key states that put him in the white house, like arizona and georgia. to break down these numbers, here with me now, cnn political commentator karen finney, who was the communications director for the democratic national committee, and kristen -- a cnn political commentator and political strategist and pollster. i'm so glad you're both here with me on these numbers tonight. karen, it's serious erosion in states biden needs. what do you think he needs to do to improve his standings? >> right. a couple of things. number one, let's remember these public polls. they tell you what people said when they were given a certain set of choices. but they don't tell you why people feel that way. and i think that's one of the things they have to do is understand why do people feel that. that's where the campaign is. that's where you figure out what are the messages, what information is going to move voters either towards president biden, away from -- if you're the other side, towards your candidate. so, i think they need to better understand what's going on with voters, what information, what we would call the informed vote, do people not have about president biden that they need to know to move those numbers. but i think the other thing they have to do -- and david actually touched on this a little bit earlier -- they've got to take a really critical look at the fact that clearly the way they're communicating, it's not getting through to voters. it's just not working. so, they've got to figure out what can we do differently in terms of both the campaign side, the white house side, to break through with voters. but the last thing i'll say is the fact that it's a year out is a lifetime in politics, and i do think that when it is a binary choice and we're really comparing trump versus biden, issue by issue, i think you're going to see those numbers shift. >> and kristen, it's not so much that trump has just grown leaps and bounds with moderate voters or suburban women. i mean, he, kind of, has this firm basement, this firm ceiling. he's not moving much. it's that biden himself has gone down in the key groups that helped put him in the white house. >> that's right. if you look deep within the numbers in this poll, it is voters of color, it is young voters, who are overwhelmingly saying they are unenthused with joe biden's presidency. i will agree completely with karen that a year out from the election, nobody needs to panic over any poll numbers. but i do think this poll gives us clues as to why this is the case. when voters in this poll were asked, do you think that joe biden's policies have helped or hurt you personally when it comes to your economic situation, they say hurt. when they ask people to think back on trump's presidency, by almost a 20-point margin, they say that trump's economic policies helped them. there's plenty of time for lots of ads on the air waves to persuade voters. but voters are looking back at trump and they're saying, hey, maybe it wasn't so bad. >> and karen, sometimes when people see poll numbers that they don't like, campaigns, certainly they either criticize them or say, that's one poll, we've got a year to go. what do you think the biden campaign should be doing right now? this is one poll. they're snapshots. they're not predictions. but it's not the only poll that shows numbers like this. >> it's raivery true. we've seen this trend for several months now. that's why i think the key thing to do is take it seriously. you don't have to freak out because you've got a year. but take it seriously and try to understand what is it? why would voters say they think these policies may have harmed them instead of helped them? again, that's where i go back to clearly something -- there's a disconnect. and the other thing in the poll that i thought was interesting that i think we'll be talking about in the days and weeks to come was the fact that when they then also asked people if president -- former president trump was convicted of a crime, would you vote for him. and that's where you saw a six-point shift back toward biden. so, that also tells us that, you know, the way these cases shake out will certainly have an impact particularly on independent voters. >> i'm so glad you brought that up because that number stood out to me too. when you look at it, basically it says among the people who are non-voting for joe biden, 30% say -- not voting for joe biden say they'll still vote for trump if he's convicted and sentenced to prison in the d.c. election interference case. what did you make of those numbers, kristen? >> this poll tells me that the two most popular politicians in america are generic republican and generic democrat. it really just shows that voters do not like the two choices that they're being given. trump, when he is up against a quote, unquote generic democrat, anyone who's not biden, he loses by, i believe, eight points in this poll. similarly, if you flip out donald trump and put in a generic republican, that generic republican does great against joe biden. so, voters are looking at this trump/biden and going oh, please no, and they're begging the parties to give them someone different. it does not look like they're going to get their wish. >> i do think a generic republican sometimes -- i think kay bedingfield called it a fever dream for voters where they think of this perfect candidate that obviously doesn't exist if you look at the field. karen, one of the things that stood out so much to me as someone who covered president biden, is talking about democracy, the soul of the nation, restoring that and protecting it going forward. but when you look at these numbers on this, there essentially wasn't -- when voters were asked who would do a better john it, biden is only three points ahead of donald trump, the person who incited an insurrection. >> yeah. >> what does that say to you? >> it's hard to know what that says. i mean, i think it may say to us what kristen was just saying, that this is a partially a way that voters are trying to tell us they're just not happy with their choices. i think it also tells us, though, that in addition to democracy, there will be other issues that clearly are going to be important to voters. so, in terms of, you know, how you're communicating with voters, democracy is critical. no question. and for some people, that is going to be the key issue they vote on. but for others, there are other slates of issues that intersect with democracy that you've got to make sure you are, you know -- that they have the information to know where joe biden stands versus donald trump and why he is the better leader for this country -- for our country. >> kristen, what did you -- i mean, here's the numbers here. it's joe biden 48%, donald trump 45% on who would do a better job on democracy. >> well, bear in mind, if you're somebody who's a trump supporter, you look at that question and you think, who's going to protect me against voter fraud or who's going to protect me from big tech censoring my views. that question means very different things to very different people. so, it can be hard to just say, well, one candidate has a leg up on the issue of democracy because one side of the aisle says that democracy -- we've got to make sure we're expanding voting access. those are the sorts of things that democrats in particular have faocused on while republicans say, no, we want to stop what they claim is voter fraud. i think the issues that are clearer are an issue like abortion, where republicans and trump are at a big deficit to joe biden, or an issue like the economy, where they have a big advantage. those are ones where it's a little bit clearer what voters are trying to tell us. right now republicans are hoping that the economy ends up, kind of, winning out as the issue that's driving the day. >> kristen, i do want to ask you quickly. we just found out who is going to be on the next debate stage. chris christie, ron desantis, nikki haley, vivek ramaswamy, and tim scott. donald trump has qualified, but he he has not been showing up to any of the debates. >> what my hope is that these candidates realize that running for second place is not running for anything useful, that they need to be running for first place. and that means they can't keep treating donald trump with kid gloves. maybe you don't want to go full chris christie, who has taken as his campaign strategy to be openly hostile to republican voters. it does not seem to be working out great for him at the polls. but i would like to see more of these candidates answer the question, why you and why not donald trump. they've answered that first question a little bit, but they've been a little bit afraid to get too much into the second one. i hope that changes tomorrow night. >> thank you both for joining tonight. >> thanks. ahead, we'll go to the ground in israel. explosions and flares have been lighting up the sky again tonight, as israel's prime minister is giving a new interview, his first with a u.s. outlet, i believe, since the war started. he's rejecting calls for a ceasefire. but being pressed on what a post-war gaza could look like. in a crisis caused by a terrorist massacre. warning civilians to clear out, while hamas forces them back. allowing in food and water, which hamas steals. how's the chicken? the prawns are delicious. oh, i have a shellfish allergy. one prawn. very good. did i say chicken wrong? tired of people not listening to what you want? it's truffle season! ah that's okay... never enough truffles. how much are they? it's a lot. oh okay - i'm good, that - it's like a priceless piece of art. enjoy. or when they sell you what they want? yeah. the more we understand you, the better we can help you. that's what u.s. bank is for. huge relief. yeah... ♪ . tonight we are seeing new explosions and flares over gaza, as the israel defense forces say it is closing in on hamas' stronghold and the entire gaza strip has been cut in two. the hamas controlled health ministry says more than 10,000 people have died in gaza. of course cnn cannot confirm that number, but i should note the white house has acknowledged, quote, many, many thousands of innocent people have been killed. all of this is coming as we are now hearing from the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, adamant tonight that there will not be a ceasefire, adding that it would only help hamas militants, who brutally killed 1,400 people in israel on october 7th. >> there will be no ceasefire, general ceasefire, in gaza without the release of our hostages. as far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there, we've had them before. i suppose we'll check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods, to come in or our hostages, individual hostages, to leave. >> that phrase, tactical pauses, caught your ear, it did ours as well because it is exactly what the white house put in its readout of the call that president biden had with prime minister netanyahu today, saying that was something that they discussed. of course all of this comes after the u.s. military has done something it doesn't often do, publicly announce that an american submarine equipped with guided missiles is now in the region. clearly they are trying to send a message of deterrence detected at iran and its proxies in the area. all of this comes as they have been seeking to prevent a wider conflict. that has been a key part of the u.s. message that you've heard in recent days, highlighted, again, by the secretary of state antony blinen, who has been on another whirlwind trip through the middle east. also in addition to cia director bill burns, who is now in the region as well. for deeper perspective on what's happening tonight, i'm joined by senior fellow -- and national security columnist for "the post." i'm curious what you think about what prime minister netanyahu said there. he's talking about a pause. is that something that's possible? >> well, it's certainly possible. i mean, they can certainly stand down their military operation any time to allow humanitarian supplies to go in. and that's probably a good idea because that is something that the u.s. administration is pressing for. but i do think that prime minister netanyahu has a good point. i say this as somebody who is not a big fan of netanyahu. and i think his leadership has generally been disastrous. but i do think he has a decent point when he says, they can't have a ceasefire and fighting altogether because that would be rewarding hamas and giving hamas a victory. and a lot of well-meaning folks are saying, israel needs to stop the bombing. if israel stops the bombing, how do they fight hamas? that's the dilemma they face. and there's no good answer to it. >> so, he's saying tactical pause. secretary blinken has been pushing for what they were calling a humanitarian pause a few days ago. i mean, they haven't gotten it yet. >> they have not gotten it there yet. >> is it closer? >> it sounds like from what netanyahu is saying, they probably are a little bit closer. but he's talking about measured in hours, i think. the administration is talking in days. we'll see what happens. but clearly israel feels an imperative because they're reaching a critical point in the offensive now because they've encircled gaza city. and now they're trying to move in and to go after the hamas leadership in what's going to be some very brutal and ugly urban warfare. >> and you have spoken about something that has been a big question that israeli officials have acknowledged they don't have a plan for, which is having a plan before the ground operation started. obviously the ground operation has already started. and netanyahu was asked by david muir tonight what that plan is, if they have one yet. this is what he told him. >> don't want to continue the way of hamas and certainly is not -- i think israel will, for an indeft pinite period, will h the overall security responsibility because we've seen what happens when we don't have it. what we have is the eruption of hamas terror on the scale that we couldn't imagine. >> what did you make of that answer? >> it's very interesting because this is the first time i've seen a senior israeli leader acknowledge that the end game in this operation is going to be the renewed israeli occupation, something that israel thought they were done with in 2005 when they pulled out of the gaza strip. i think basically netanyahu is acknowledging a sad and dismal reality, which is that if the idf doesn't go in there and maintain security, who is going to do that? there have been a lot of plans in the international peace keeping force. but the reality is there are not a lot of countries eager to send their own troops into gaza. and i think the best end game would be for the palestinian authority to re-establish control of the gaza strip. but they're a long way from being able to do that. frankly the netanyahu government has been undermining the palestinian authority, making it hard to do that. what netanyahu is saying, that is the reality. the idf is going to take ownership of the gaza strip, but it's the last thing the people of israel want, it's the last thing the people of the u.s. want, the last thing the people of the region want, but that's probably going to be the region. >> the effects of this are being felt in washington. the pressure on the administration to figure out something here is growing. they're facing all these calls from world leaders to find a way to get a ceasefire, humanitarian pause, tactical pause, whatever you want to call it. i mean, look at over the weekend you can see these pictures that happened. there were pro-palestinian protesters outside the white house. this is paint, i should note, but these something they were removing from the white house today, as all of these protesters were there making very clear their feelings on this with this red fgraffiti. i covered the white house for several years. there were always protesters out there. i don't know that i've ever seen anything like this. >> it may relate to your previous segment. you were talking about why is president biden looking suddenly weak against trump. part of it is he's lost support among young voters. i think part of that may be attributed to this, the fact younger progressives are pro palestinian rather than pro-industrial. biden is getting a lot of blowback from his own party from standing with israel. you're seeing the political pressures at home as well as in the region. >> and muslim americans, not a monolith of several of them saying there is no ceasefire, they're not going to vote for biden. thank you for your time tonight. all right. it is also election day eve. i know maybe that's confusing to some people thinking, isn't the election a year away? but there are big races tomorrow that could have implications for 2024 2024. we'll talk about the biggest ones to keep an eye on. that's next. >> abortion rights are on the ballot in ohio. there's a major voters raise, and there's a key fight for the control of the swing state. all of that is up for grabs tomorrow, when it's election day here in america. the results could also tell us a lot about the mood of the country, and maybe even serve as tea leaves for that 2024 election. joining me now is cnn's senior data reporter harry enten. harry, i think one of the biggest ones that people are watching tomorrow is this amendment in ohio that would in shrine in bush an rights in the state's constitution. what are you -- i mean, what kind of impact would that have, depending on where it goes, what could it tell us? >> i mean, it could tell us a lot. obviously, there is the proxy back in august, which was essentially a proxy vote where no, which was the proxy vote for abortion rights, easily won, easily won. and that was in line with what we saw throughout the nation, which is six abortion right ballot members -- measures that have taken place since the dobbs decision. inin each case, the -- ohio would be the seventh, which is an indication of how popular abortion rights are in this country. >> okay, but on this issue you have to vote yes. it's one of the ones where you're not voting no, you're voting yes. there seems to be a real concern that the confusion over the language could end up how this vote looks. >> yeah, there's confusion on that. what's notable is on the ballot, you don't actually have the amendment language. what you have is essentially a summary by the gop secretary of state on there, which a lot of those who want this ballot measure to pass say that that language is trying to skew things in favor of being against abortion rights. will that change the outcome? look, we will have to wait and see. obviously there's a reason why the gop secretary of state is doing that. i look at some numbers to suggest that it would probably still passive people are in fact in favor of abortion rights. but it just there was an extra element in there to confuse us as we are trying to figure what exactly is going to happen. >> yeah, and it's called the same thing as the issue in august. but the other thing is -- yeah, god bless those voters in ohio, but also in kentucky we're watching, the governor there, democratic governor, andy beshear had a bunch of republicans running to run against him. it ended up being the attorney general, daniel cameron. what is the impact of that race? >> look, it's a very red state that is only elected, i believe, three republican governors in the last 75 years. so andy beshear is running in a very red state that donald trump won by 26 points. at this point, it looks like a very tight race. i've looked at historical data, and the chance of beshear holding on, winning a second term, is about 60%. that is well within any margin of error. daniel cameron has a real shot in this race. but at this point, it seems like beshear would hang on and would at least give the democrats some light in a very red state. >> what else are you watching tomorrow? >> virginia, virginia is the other thing i'm watching. we have a republican governor there. the house of delegates is controlled by republicans. the state senate is controlled by democrats all hundred seats in the house the delegates are up, all 40 seats in the state senate are up. and historically speaking, the party that wins the state senate the last few cycles has done very well in the next year's presidential race. so it's one of those key leaves that you teased in the intro. >> and marijuana as well? >> marijuana as well. there's a marijuana ballot measure in ohio. look, marijuana is something that is tended to do even better than democrats have done. right now, and probably expecting that to pass. it's really only failed in some very, very red states. ohio is a red state, but not deregistered it yet. >> all right, harry enten, we'll check back with you tomorrow to see even predictions pan out. >> we will see. i'm not nostradamus, i'm just a man. >> thank you, harry, thank you. and tomorrow you can watch our special election day coverage. i'll be co-anchors to kick it off with wolf blitzer. that starts at four pm eastern tomorrow. now, tonight, this might be the best job in the news business, apart from this one right here, america's first time taylor swift reporter. we will tell you who it is, right after this. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? 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