good. and "cnn this morning" continues right now. suspicious letters were sent to election offices, potentially laced with fentanyl. >> just bringing fear to these election workers who are just trying to do the right thing. >> this is domestic terrorism. >> speaker mike johnson is struggling to come up with a plan to avoid a government shutdown. >> i think there's a honeymoon period here, might be shorter than we thought. >> the house is out of session, the senate is out of session. nobody is here. >> these folks represent the eyes and ears of mar-a-lago. just regular people working these kind of day jobs. the former president went, quote, ballistic. >> a political decision was made by a very politicized department. >> if i'm a prosecutor, this is the best case scenario. >> the shakeup that could very well shift the entire balance of power in the senate. >> i will not be running for reelection. >> we'll see where he goes from here. >> democrats have no margin for error. joe manchin doesn't make it any easier. good morning, everyone. it is friday, and we are covering a lot of big news. right now, take a look, people streaming through the streets of gaza city after the idf opened a six-hour pause in military operations. it's the latest in tactical localized pauses that senior israeli officials say will come daily, giving gazans a chance to get out and critical aid to get in. earlier this morning while u.s. secretary of state antony blinken praised the decision to have the pauses, more must be done to help the civilians in gaza. >> these steps will save lives and enable more assistance to get to palestinians in need. at the same time, much more needs to be done to protect civilians and make sure that the humanitarian assistance reaches them. far too many palestinians have been killed. far too many have suffered these past weeks, and we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them and to maximize the assistance that gets to them. >> it is very significant that he used those words in this moment, and just moments ago, cnn's team in tel aviv witnessed about ten iron dome interceptions of rockets fired from gaza. the military wing of hamas said on telegram it had launched those rockets towards tel aviv. our oren liebermann joins us from there. you're in tel aviv, this just played out. you also were embedded with the idf, your reporting this week, inside of gaza. tell us what is happening now on the ground and what you saw? >> reporter: we were standing on the top floor of the hotel when we heard red alerts. these are the first red alerts in several days, since about tuesday night. and as we came outside to take a quick look, we saw the interceptors launching just south of us here, a bit behind us, inland, and as we headed to the shelter here, which is the staircase, we heard the interceptions, tough to get an exact number, eight, nine, ten, right in that range. and israel police warning the public to watch out in this area for shrapnel from the rocket launches. keeping an eye out if there are more as we keep working throughout the day. the israeli military has opened up a humanitarian corridor in gaza. you saw some video of that there. thousands of palestinians leaving northern gaza, one of the main north/south corridors, moving south. israel and the u.n. say tens of thousands have gone in the past couple of days. israel announces them on a daily basis. they seem to line up in the same general time range, in the same general direction, though it doesn't appear there's a promise that will be consistent. president joe biden says this is something he has been pushing for for some time now and said he hoped it would come earlier. you hear there the concern of secretary of state antony blinken saying too many palestinians have been killed here, even as the u.s. gives israel its full backing. >> you have embedded with the idf in gaza. you got the firsthand look. what did you see? >> reporter: we had a chance to go into gaza with the israeli military, the idf on the back one on one o one of the tanks. we reported as escort at all times as a condition for the journalists to embed with the idf, they must submit their footage film for the review. they had no control over the final report, and they did not see our script in advance, but take a look at our 90 minutes to two hours inside gaza. through the breach, we enter northern gaza at the eraz border crossing, the land here, once fertile farmland is barren, and the trees that might have provided enemy cover, destroyed. in the distance, smoke is a stark reminder that this is day 34 of a war that may stretch much longer. on thursday, the idf chief of staff and the head of the country's internal security service entered gaza and promised strength through cooperation. everyone is doing everything, said general alevi, skjust so y can be as strong as possible. along our path in northern gaza, the signs of civilian life have given way to the constant hum of drones, and the distant echoes of artillery. our time with the idf began at the coordination base for the border crossing, the first international media to visit the site. the terror attack on october 7th hit hard here, the scars of machine gunfire and rpgs still visible. the base was mostly empty on the holiday, but not entirely. the idf says nine soldiers were killed here, and three kidnapped. it took 12 hours for israel to e are gain control of the base. now it's one of the main gates to gaza. we stop at an overlook near the town of jabalya. one of the things uncovered on the hill near jabalya is a meeting point of three different tunnels skpr tunnels, and you can see if you take a look, that's one, two, three, they came together here and let hamas move under ground quickly below the feet and out of sight. colonel tol says there were many explosives, trenches, we found a storage site with explosives against tanks, rpgs. from a distance, the scale of the destruction is stunning, apartment buildings, homes, neighborhoods, decimated. the colonel says the area is almost completely evacuated. we don't see civilians in our eyes. we see sometimes terrorists. the civilians have gone south. as we talk, we hear rocket fire and see the trails of launches triggering red alerts in ashdod. after about 90 minutes inside northern gaza, we make our way out, hugging the border wall for safety. even here, so close to the exit, we stop briefly so the dust clears and we can make sure the way ahead is safe. in the distance, once again, the smoke from another strike. and speaking of smoke from another strike, there's now video of heavy smoke ridesing or gaza that we can see. it has circled gaza city and working its way in, focusing on the tunnels and the underground infrastructure. israel would deepen its operation on the ground in northern gaza. phil. >> oren liebermann live in tel aviv, thank you. this morning, federal law enforcement is on high alert. public officials in multiple states, mostly election offices have received suspicious mail. some of these letters contained fentanyl. officials say more than a dozen letters have been reported across the country. california, georgia, nevada, oregon, texas and washington. all of those states targeted and investigators are treating all of the letters as connected now, given the timing. georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger said fulton county was among the offices targeted. listen. >> this is domestic terrorism and need to be condemn bid anyone that holds elected office and wants to hold elected office. >> nick valencia has that report. this is terrifying. fentanyl can kill you just on contact. what more are you learning? >> it is terrifying, and more than a dozen letters were sent at the same time, that will be a clue investigators will use to track down whoever is responsible for this. the department of justice is investigating as is the u.s. postal service, and one of the election offices targeted in fulton county. fulton county has been in the news a lot lately. familiar to our viewers because it has drawn the ire of the former president. it has been a target, if you will, for far right conspiracy theorists, election deniers and it was yesterday during a press conference that the secretary of state called on election officials and political candidates to denounce this activity. he went a step further and made this personal. five and a half years ago, raffensperger's son died from an overdose, and used the time to talk about how dangerous and deadly the substance fentanyl can be. >> some people like to call fentanyl a drug. it's poison. it will kill you very quickly, very dangerous. we lost our son five and a half years ago due to a fentanyl overdose. we know how deadly this stuff is. >> the suspicious letters come amid a back ddrop nationwide. rob pits was bold in a statement, saying we should be prepared for this to be a fore shadowing of more to come in 2024. we hope he's wrong. >> thank you very much. and secretary raffensperger will join us later in the show. phil. this morning, congress has one week left to prevent a government -- there's the clock, 7 days, 16 hours, 49 minutes, ticking downward again. the house and senate have gone home for the long weekend, and right now, it doesn't seem like the house and house republicans have any plan, at least one they have consolidated around, their new speaker mike johnson tried and failed to pass a handful of full year spending bills. struggling to unite republicans and come up with a deal that won't spark the same kind of hard right rebellion that ousted kevin mccarthy. >> he's going to listen to everybody, including the freedom caucus. he's going to listen, you know, he needs almost every one of us to get anything across, and i think the sentiment in the conference right now is to support him as best we can. >> i think there's a honeymoon period here. i'm not sure how long it lasts, maybe 30 days with what's going on on the floor today. i think that indicates the honeymoon might be shorter than we thought. >> cnn's lauren fox is live on capitol hill. what's striking about that is they're fairly candid on camera. off camera, i think seeing your gop aides, they have been more blunt. >> we're waiting to see what mike john sson's plan is at thi point. he has been meeting with members across the ideological spectrum all week long, trying to take under advisement suggestions, but the problem for the speaker is that he has the same issues that kevin mccarthy dealt with. and that is he has members of his conference who see the path forward very distinctly different in the months and weeks ahead when it comes to spending. and, you know, one of the things that you're hearing from a lot of veteran appropriate ors, let not have a huge show down over a short-term government funding bill. let's get it done, make it as clean as possible. c tom cole, the rules committee chairman, someone who has worked in appropriations for a long time, that's what i have been trying to tell the conference is the best path forward, and yet, you have members of the freedom caucus pushing for a two-step approach, that there would be different government offices that would step down at various dates, trying to maximize their leverage to have multiple deadlines. that's not going to fly in the united states senate either. there's a lot of concern right now that mike johnson is hearing from so many different voices, and at the end of the day, he's the one who's going to have to make the final, and you hear this a lot from republican members of his conference, the final play call. he's the coach right now. he's the one that's got to make the final decision on the path forward. so far, he just hasn't said what he's going to do. we asked him repeatedly yesterday. he did not want to comment in the hall waways. we're going to get a better sense today, tomorrow, that's the deadline. if republicans want to go to the floor by tuesday, phil, they need to unveil the plan by tomorrow so members have 72 hours to read the legislation. >> to extend, it's like 4th and 40, and they have ten seconds left. good luck with the play call, lauren fox, thank you. >> it's happened. >> it's possible. coming up, a cnn exclusive report. the potential witnesses prosecutors may call in donald trump's mar-a-lago documents case. and senator joe manchin says he's not running for reelection. it's a big blow to democrats, but does it mean a third-party bid for the white house is in his future? we'r're going toto discuss, , a. something that allows the next party. i mean if i happen to be president and i see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly, i say, go down and indict them. mostly that would be, you know, they would be out of business. they'd be out. they'd be out of the election. >> so that's former president trump in a new interview commenting on the criminal indictments that he's now facing. sources are telling cnn prosecutors may call several mar-a-lago employees to the stand in his classified documents trial. those employees include a wood worker who installed crown molding in trump's bedroom last year and noticed a stack of papers, a maid who cleaned trump's suite, a plumber who has worked at the property for years, and a chauffeur was asked about powerful business people, including foreigners who visited the club as vip guests. with us now, cnn senior crime and justice reporter, katelyn polantz, and elie honig. this is fascinating new reporting you guys got, and it's just remarkable in the detail and who and what they may say on the stand. what do people need to know this morning? >> a lot of these people had been approached during the investigation before trump was charged, and now what we're learning is that they still could potentially be witnesses because there were so many people at that property in florida. the resort, who were moving in and out, and were noticing things. they were seeing things that were suspicious. and one of the things that happened was that there was this wood worker. he was in donald trump's bedroom installing the crown molding, noticing stacks of papers, and those papers were so suspicious to him because they were very likely classified documents or had some sort of marks on them to make them secret or classified that he thought they were movie props, and so he told investigators about this. we learned about him. we learned about the maid cleaning trump's bedroom suites, a plumber, a wood worker, but that's only part of what the presentation the justice department is very likely to put on in front of a trial. they're going to have these people show what it was like at mar-a-lago, people coming in and out. but also there's quite a few notable people who are likely witnesses here. people whose names you would recognize from being around trump as aides in his political circles, even from his white house intelligence officials, even secret service agents. >> wow. i think if i'm being honest, i have been distracted by the other legal issues the president has been dealing with over the course of the past couple of weeks, what are we hearing about the timing of the trial, is it possible this could get pushed after the election? >> reporter: it is possible, phil. i wish we were hearing more. there was a hearing last week in federal court in florida where the judge said that she was looking at the trial timing, the deadlines in that case. the trial is currently set for next may, and she said she would release a schedule. she would tell us. and it's been more than a week. we have heard nothing on when that trial will actually take place. as of now, as long as it's on the books for may, that's when it's happening. but donald trump's legal team does not want it to be happening while he's still running for president. they want it to happen after the election next year. >> let's start with the reporting, and then the timing of the trial. what do you make as a former prosecutor when you look at the scale of who they're talking to. they're not political people, they're not people inside the trump administration. >> they're talking to everybody. we had virtually unlimited time and resources. they've got it all from the smallest detail of a wood worker putting in crown molding and saw a box in a certain place. all of this to me is has the makings of a compelling case. you have insiders, people close to trump. people who were normal every day workers. you have surveillance video, you have the audio tapes that we have heard clips of, and it looks like this is a powerful case coming together by the prosecutors. >> can we talk about what trump said in the univision interview that we just played for people about. the context here is i believe he is saying i'm a victim here, look what's happening to me. this is political persecution. then he talks about it in the terms of if he won a second term. >> yeah. >> was it concerning to you? >> absolutely. we hear this phrase batted around, weaponization, weaponization of prosecution, doj, and it's something that you always sort of learn about and are taught to guard against as a prosecutor. when you're a prosecutor, even a lowly prosecute like i was, you were given unimaginable power, and you can destroy lives even as a routine run-of-the-mill prosecutor. if you're taking the entire institution of the justice department, using it to sell political scores, that's one of the most dangerous threats to democracy. donald trump says straight up, this is what i will do. i think we ought to listen to him and really take that into account. >> i'm glad you said that about prosecutors. >> i became a prosecutor when i was 29 years old and giving someone that much authority at that age to me now is a scary thing and doing that with the ag, with the white house, abusing that power is really a scary notion. >> elie honig, katelyn polantz, great reporting. read the story, it will tell you a lot. thank you very much. a political earthquake for democrats. senator joe manchin says he's not running for reelection. what that means for balance of power in the senate as speculation swirls about a potential presidential run. c'mon, we're right there. c'mon baby. it's the only we need. go, go, go, go! ah! touchdown baby! -touchdown! are your neighbors watching the same game? yeah, my 5g home internet delays the game a bit. but you get used to it. try these. they're noise cancelling earmuffs. i stole them from an airport. it's always something with you, man. great! solid! -greek salad? exactly! don't delay the game with verizon or t-mobile 5g home internet. catch it on the xfinity 10g network. this morning, a possible blow to democrats and their chances of holding on to that slim majority in the senate. joe manchin of west virginia announcing he will leave capitol hill after '24. >> i believe in my heart of hearts that i have accomplished what i set out to do for west virginia. i have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that i will not be running for reelection to the united states senate. >> does not mean that he's all done with politics. he is a moderate democrat who was first elected to the senate in 2010. since then, worked to fight extremism, find compromise across the aisle. a message that he stressed in his announcements. >> every incentive in washington is designed to make our politics extreme. the growing divide between democrats and republicans is paralyzing congress. and worsening our nation's problems. the majority of americans are just plain worn out. we need to take back america and not let this divisive hatred further pull us apart. >> as i said, he isn't quite done with politics. it's just not clear what he plans to do next, like launch a third party run. maybe he's teased it before, and his departure leaves questions about the future of his party's narrow majority in the senate. phil is here with a break down on much more on what this looks like. >> we're going to have a ton of time to speculate about the soon to be retiring senator from west virginia. that's a deal with joe manchin, whether it's legislation or politics or what he's going to do next. we should talk about what this means for the senate. it's clearly a problem for democrats who at this moment hold a 51-49 majority. that is the balance of power right now. it leaves them an either tougher course to maintain the majority in the u.s. senate. let's make this clear. pull this up right now. when you look at west virginia, there are two republicans in. joe manchin's exit leaves no clear democratic successor, in the words of one national democrat, quote, becomes unwinnable for democrats. is that hyperbole, it's not. in 2008, democratic senator, jay rockefeller won reelection by 30 points. by 2020, after rockefeller's retirement, republican senator won that seat by 23 points. donald trump won twice by 40 points. state legislature has 134 seats, 14 filled by democrats. the gop primary is underway. the democrat turned republican governor jim justice jumped into the race in april, reported more than a million dollars cash on hand, national support from republicans, including from former president trump and is expected to be the clear favorite to win. he does have a primary challenger in the form of alex mooney. top party officials and donors have moved quickly to bolster justice, the most coveted prospect in their path to retake the senate majority before manchin retired. here's something that's important when you talk about why this matters so much. we're talking about the balance of power right now. assuming republicans are successful in flipping manchin's seat, that would give republicans a crucial 50th senator. that's an assumption. if republicans can flip one other side next year, that would give them the clear majority in the chamber. if the republicans take the white house, manchin's seat is technically all they need for a majority in the senate with the vice president's tie breaking vote, if they hold on to all of their seats in 2024. let's just work under the assumption. again, it's a safe assumption that republicans will be successful in flipping manchin's seat. that alone gives republican's that 50th crucial vote. what else is on the map. these right here are the senate seats that are up in 2024. if republicans can flip one other seat, it would give them the majority in the chamber. if they flip the white house, manchin's seat is all they need for a majority to win. based on what's up right now, and all the seats you see highlighted right now are considered targets. you will see there are much more front line seats in the democratic side than on the republican's side. obviously we have joe manchin out. that means at this point, democrats are essentially taking that one off the map. you look at the other seats they have. three seats were states that trump won handily in 2020. not just west virginia, you have jon tester in montana. you have sherrod brown in ohio. you have a series of seats that right now republicans feel likr. it's not just that democrats are bracing for those races. they will have to work to hold on to key states in swing states like michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin and nevada, states biden won by less than three points. in arizona, indemnity senator kyrsten sinema has not announced whether she will run. kari lake lost, has already announced her bid. national democrats say they are eyeing two seats right now in play. texas and florida. states that have eluded them up to this point, despite significant investments in top tier candidates. it's going to be a tough fight for democrats if they want to flip either of those seats and a tougher fight to maintain control of the chamber next year. >> that's so interesting. we're going to talk more about what's going on with manchin. the host of metro news's top line radio show in west virginia. jonathan kott joins us, former senior add viser to joe manchin. let me start with you, you are the voice, of west virginia. you really are. in the days of social media where everyone seems to tweet everything, people listen to you, and you always get the first joe manchin interview. we're glad you're with us this morning. you know, democrats talk about this big tent party, but often times joe manchin wasn't really in that tent, and i think it feet smaller than big to him. what drove him to this? >> well, joe manchin, throughout his career has always talked about this tent, and getting people together around a table, figuratively or literally, and trying to work out agreements, bringing both sides together. he said that a million times. so i think the kinds of things he's saying now are what he's always said, and he has been very candid about his frustration with the political polarization of washington and trying to get things done and bring together republicans and democrats, so i think he was really just done with how washington works, and going out now, going to go across the country and see if there is a middle way. are there other people in the country or a lot of people that think like he does, and if so, that may propel him to this third party independent run for president. >> john, in our years of working with one another on capitol hill, you on one side, me on the other. i probably asked you a million different times what some manchin comment meant. what a really meant, and i'm pretty sure most of the time he would say it means what he said. and i think that's a difficulty here. people try and divine tensions and meeting behind what manchin is saying. oftentimes, just listen to what he's saying. it's going to tell you what he's going to do. with what he's saying right now, what do you think he's going to do? >> i think he's going to do exactly what he said in his op-ed. he's going to travel the country, mobilize the middle and see if he can give a voice to those people he thinks are there, 65 to 70% of the country that doesn't work on the fringes, doesn't care what happens on twitter and wants it get stuff done in the middle. he made my job a lot easier on the hill. whatever he said was actually what he meant and what he was going to do, unlike a lot of politicians. i do think he's going to get on the trail, he's going to be out there talking to people across the country and see if there is a movement to bring americans together. i mean, he's so tired of the bickering and the partisan fighting, he uses bipartisanship as a noun, a verb and an adjective. it's all he talks about and all he wants, and i think he wants to see if he can bring that to the country. >> doug jones, former senator of alabama said on cnn last night, there's no question it will put donald trump back in the white house, and i don't think joe manchin wants that to happen. is that sort of political calculus, if i get in as a third party, who does it take votes from, what does it mean, et cetera. is that playing in his mind now as he goes across the country or is it literally a listening tour, see if enough people want this? >> i think just what jonathan said. i mean, manchin has very good political skills. i'm sure he thinks about those things. i'm sure that other people talk to him about those things, but manchin, for my money, is sincere when he thinks, maybe there is a middle way. maybe there is a way to stop the bickering and stop the polarized politics that go on and see if more people think like that. i don't think he goes into this thinking, wow, okay, i could get this person elected or that person elected. i think he's sincere when he talks about trying to appeal to a great middle and see if there is a way to change how the country approaches politics. >> john, manchin is nothing if not a very astute poll. he knows his numbers, he knows where things stand, where his constituents are on every issue to some degree. how do you think he'll gauge whether or not that kind of consolidation of the middle is there? >> i don't know yet. i think he's just trying to figure that out right now. >> do you think he knows or is he kind of going into this without clear metrics? >> i don't think he cares about the metrics more as he cares about what he starts hearing from people. look, you know, it made my job a lot easier because we didn't have to poll a lot. he got phone calls from everybody in west virginia because he gave his cell phone number out to half the state. he knew exactly what the state wanted. now he's going to have to see that around the country, and i don't know if he has a cell phone plan that lets him give his phone number out to that many people. he's going to have to take a different route to figuring that out. >> john, thank you, hoppy, we appreciate it. we'll have you back soon, i'm sure, given that this is going to be in the headlines. thanks. good news if you're shopping for a house. mortgage rates just plunged. hear how much a loan will cost you now. >> these are live pictures out of gaza as the idf announces a six-hour humanitarian pause for civilians to go south and aid to get in. israel insists the pauses will not change its war effort. there is some good news for home buyers this morning. mortgage rates fell in the biggest one-week drop since november. it's the second week rates have fallen after increasing for the previous seven weeks. the 30-year fixed rate fell to 7.5%. a quarter percent drop ending november 9th. >> we will take it. two florida firefighters going beyond the call of duty to help a paralyzed woman in a wheelchair get out of her apartment on the 31st floor after her buildings elevators broke down. our carlos suarez reports from fort lauderdale. >> reporter: with great appreciation and admiration, hally ro sa welcomed johnny jones and chance davis back to her home when in august the men and their captain responded to an emergency call. rosa who is paralyzed from the waist down was stuck in her high-rise apartment on the 31st floor after the elevator broke down. >> that flood led to the elevators not working. obviously if the elevators aren't working and i'm in a wheelchair, i'm stuck inside. >> firefighters davis and jones had just finished a workout at a fire station and rushed over to rosa's downtown apartment. after taking a working elevator up to the 44th floor in an adjacent tower, they were able to walk down 13 flights of stairs and get to her. once inside rosa's apartment, they had to gain her trust, then they all had to decide how to get her out of the building safely. >> they were very helpful from the start. >> reporter: the plan, go back up the same 13 flights they just went down, but this time, bringing rosa and her wheelchair along with them. >> i might have suggested a piggy back ride because in all honesty, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable way to do it, and they agreed that that was probably for the best. >> figured that would be a little bit easier and safer. god forbid one of us tripped going down, tumbled down the stairs. >> they sign up to help people, and that's exactly what they did. >> reporter: once in the stairwell, rosa thought the encounter would make for a good video on tiktok. davis and jones didn't mind. >> i was trying to make it a little lighter and, they were going along with it. >> this is why we train. >> we're just making do. am i choking you? >> she was happy to get out of the building. we were happy to accommodate her, and we're going along with it, she was filming a tiktok video, which i wasn't familiar with. and we were kind of having fun with it. >> johnny, you got the wheelchair? >> i got it, right behind you. >> reporter: fort lauderdale's fire chief said he learned of the rescue scrolling on social media. >> to think that 15 million people have seen that today, i can't begin to say how proud that makes me of our agency and our firefighters that were there that day. >> reporter: forrosa and the firefighters the recesscue that will stay with them forever. jones and davis aren't what to make of being a tiktok sensation, being prepared for anything is part of their job. >> i didn't feel that until my kids started showing me the views and notes and everything else, and it's just amazing to see all the recognition and all the people around the world that were actually following this story. that's when it really hit me that this is just way beyond us. >> reporter: and for that, rosa said she's glad she posted the video. carlos suarez. cnn, fort lauderdale, florida. >> wow, i love that story. one day after skipping his party's debate, donald trump is talking about his plans if he's elected president. what he says he may do at the justice department. new hampshire governor chris sununu joins us next to discuss trump's comments, the state of the party and many other things. that's up next, stay with us. c'mon, we're right there. c'mon baby. it's the only we need. go, go, go, go! ah! touchdown baby! -touchdown! are your neighbors watching the same game? yeah, my 5g home internet delays the game a bit. but you get used to it. try these. they're noise cancelling earmuffs. i stole them from an airport. it's always something with you, man. great! solid! -greek salad? exactly! don't delay the game with verizon or t-mobile 5g home internet. catch it on the xfinity 10g network. ♪ not only did donald trump, frontrunner for the republican nomination, skip his party's debate this week, he also suggested last night in an interview with univision that he would go as far as doing something to weaponize the justice department against his political opponents if elected. listen to this. >> something that allows the next party, i mean, if somebody -- if i happen to be president and see somebody doing well and beating me badly, go down and indict them, mostly that would be, you know, they would be out of business. they would be out. they would be out of the election. >> joining us now chris sununu. he said you weapon naysed the justice department, you said they weaponized the fbi. would you do the same if elected? he said they have already done it, it could certainly happen in reverse. that's more important context. does that worry you to hear him say that? >> donald trump saying outrageous, crazy, embarrassing things, frankly, shouldn't surprise anybody at this point. i think he feels like he has the opportunity to say whatever he wants and he is going to secure the nomination. i personally don't believe that's the case. i think you have threor four opportunities. even a lot of the folks -- i saw folks interviewing people out of that rally saying, well, he is a frontrunner, so we're supporting him, right? no. when people realize that other folks can make a move here, he is going to be smoked out and have to engage folks on a debate stage and watch what he says. >> you think donald trump is about to get smoked out? >> he could. no. look, he has to win, right? he has to win iowa, new hampshire and south carolina. otherwise, it will be seen as a major upset. somebody else has to come in a consistent second to be the alternative. if it gets to that one-on-one race before super tuesday, goodness, yeah. somebody will be within ten points or less than him and he is going to have to start engaging. he won't be able to avoid the fact that he is being severely challenged. most folks won't decide who they are voting for until after thanksgiving. that's the nature of the vote and nature of the base. >> political fights at the thanksgiving table i am sure in many households in america. you have said a lot of nice things about ambassador nikki haley, about governor desantis, and i am so glad you came on the show this morning to endorse one of them. where is your endorsement going? >> i can tell you i think -- i -- not yet. not yet. if i endorse today, you will never ask me back on the show. >> that unequivocally not the case, governor. >> well, look, i think there is clearly -- if you go about back three months, there were 13 candidates in the race. i think you can say three have a shot. those are the three governors, christie, haley, desantis, the three that did the best on the debate stage the other night. five on the stage, three governors are pushing hard. their numbers are moving a bit in iowa, new hampshire, and i think that's where a lot of the focus will be. and if you get past new hampshire and consolidated behind one, there it is. as a party, wie are consolidatig field and they are forced to engage not for ten minutes but for 20 or 30 minutes and get into the denails that americans want to see. >> you said about vivek ramaswamy, the business guy, this was july. here it is. >> ramaswamy i got to tell you is exciting people. he gets people excited on stage. i think he has to bring a little more other than being the other anti-woke guy. >> did he bring more? you have seen three debates now. still impressed? >> he brought more, but it was enough to tell me he ain't the guy to be president. look, i think the third debate, this last debate was just embarrassing for him more than anything. he tried hard to be kind of an antiestablishment outrageous type character, but he proved that he doesn't have the temperament for the job. if you are running for president of the united states, act like you have been there. he tried to take shots at nikki haley. they were personal. you don't go after somebody's family, daughter like that. that's a cheap shot. nobody watched that and said now i am with vivek. he lost ground and proved he doesn't have the temperament for. >> the issue of abortion, huge. we saw that tuesday night, obviously, how many wins to turned out for democrats. you called the abortion issue an electoral albatros for your party. just so people know your position in 2021, you signed a law in new hampshire to ban abortions after 234 weeks of gestation. 24 weeks. what is the solution to remove the albatros? >> i think nikki haley and chris christie to be honest are answering that very well. it's a state's issue. that's what the pro-life group wanted and that's what the supreme court decided. states are going to decide. anytime we are talking about a national abortion ban we are in trouble, i don't care how many weeks you put on it. national bans or provincial on that scares people. it will be decided by the states. at least i think nikki -- i don't want to talk for them. that's my understanding of nikki haley and chris christie's position and that's where it's going to be and that's the right answer. >> a couple years ago chris christie said he would sign a 20-week abortion ban if it came to him. joe manchin, if he runs, would he get your support? >> no. look. i am going to support the republican. i i know senator manchin. he does a lot of the work that other folks aren't willing to do in washington. you know, whether he decides to run in a third-party or just be a kind of a leader and a voice that america's looking for that says we want folks to be able to work together. he is not going away. nor should he. i think he has got a tremendous voice. third-party is going to be tough. even with trump and biden on the ticket. third party would be tough. so we will see where it goes. he has done a great job in washington and wants to be a leader for bringing america together. can't knock that. >> new hampshire governor chris sununu, i know you are sad you are not in the middle of this running. >> this weekend i am skiing and thinking abbaking cookies with e family. >> thank you, sir. congress has one week left to prevent a government shutdown. how will the new house speaker johnson navigate his grconferen to strike a teal. some letters laced with fentanyl s sent to fedederal ofoffices. whwhat law enfnforcement i is s next.