next. have a great day. back home. more israeli hostages are set to come home this morning, if a shaky truce holds. jake sullivan joins me next. president biden touts the truce. >> i pressed for a pause. >> with a day left before it runs out, what happens next? senator chris murphy of the foreign relations committee joins me exclusively. all in. foreign policy dominates u.s. politics, one republican candidate makes his case. >> we got serious problems. we need a serious president to take them on. >> is there a better way to counter trump? 2024 republican presidential candidate chris christie coming up. ♪ hello. i'm dana bash in washington. we are watching families reunite and thinking about those still waiting. we begin with breaking news. hamas is set to release more israeli hostages from gaza, including an american citizen. this is the third day of a four-day pause in fighting. israeli leaders have a list of the people who are expected to come home today after weeks in hamas captivity. 41 hostages, 26 of them israeli, are already home now. this morning, the israeli prime minister's office said they believe 201 hostages still remain in gaza. we saw a 9-year-old run into her father's arms. he was originally told that emily was dead before learning she was a hostage. this moment of pure joy was once unimaginable for him. for others, the reunions are bittersweet. the orr children were released saturday. their mother was murdered on october 7. their father is still being held by hamas. the question now, whether this fragile truce could hold longer than four days allowing more aid into gaza and more hostages to come home. jeremy diamond is live. what's the latest? >> reporter: dana, for now israeli officials are preparing for the third round of hostages to be released into the arms of the red cross. eventually, crossing into israel. we have watched over the last two days as 26 israeli civilian hostages as well as 15 foreign nationals crossed via this crossing, which is right behind me here. even though those two releases showed the promise of the deal with hamas, yesterday we saw the fragility as there were issues that led to delays in those the hostages being released. hamas claiming israel was not allowing sufficient aid into gaza. i'm learning of another major struggle. israeli officials pushed to try and include the mother of a 13-year-old who was released as part of the 13 israeli hostages yesterday but who wasn't released was her mother. that is not in keeping with what we have seen in recent days where mothers and children who were taken hostage together have been released together. i'm told israeli officials fought hard behind the scenes yesterday to try and get the mother included. at this point, her condition, her whereabouts are not known. now, dana, we are looking at next steps, not only trying to sort out whether today's release will go forward, if everything will go smoothly or if we will have bumps like yesterday. also, looking forward. we are on day three now. tomorrow will be day four, which is the last official day of the 50 israeli hostages deal in exchange for 150 palestinian prisoners. there is an option to extend. ten additional hostages per day earn an additional day of truce and 30 more palestinian prisoners. officials will turn to that issue to see if this truce can be extended. >> jeremy, thank you so much for that reporting. here with me now is white house national security advisor jake sullivan. thank you so much for being here this morning. an israeli official told cnn that at least one american citizen is expected to be part of today's release of hostages. can you confirm how many americans are on that list? do you know who they are? >> just taking a step back, dana. the 50 hostages that were part of this initial four-day deal, those were women and children. there are three americans who fall into that category. two women and one child. we know those three were missing. we cannot say for certain whether all three are still alive. we do know this. we have reason to believe that today one american will be released. i say reason to believe because i want to be cautious about making any firm statements until we actually see that individual cross the border to safety and ultimately be reunited with their family. we are dealing with hamas. we are in a don't trust but verify situation here. we have reason to believe that there will be an american released today. we have been in close touch with the israelis, with the qataris, egyptians over the last 24 hours. president biden has been personally engaged with the emir of qatar on this issue. today should be a good day, a joyful day. but until we see it happen, we are going to remain at the edge of our seat. >> do you have reason to believe the american you are talking about is 4-year-old abigail? >> here is what i will say. we are now hopeful that abigail will be released, reunited with her family. she turned 4 two days ago. she has been through hell. she had her parents killed in front of her. has been held hostage for the last several weeks. we are hopeful she will be released. i'm not going to confirm it's today. i am going to say that we have growing optimism about abigail. we will now watch and see what happened. >> jake, later in the show i'm going to talk to the parents of a 22-year-old idf soldier who is an american citizen. do you have any idea on his condition and that of other americans still in captivity? is there any progress towards bringing them home? >> dana, which of the idf soldiers are you referring to? >> his name is omar nutra. >> i actually had the opportunity to meet his parents at white house along with the family members of other american hostages. i know just listening to them that they are going through incredible pain and uncertainty and difficulty. i can't even imagine what that could feel like. i told them directly -- we have been candid about what we know and don't know. we do not know the specific whereabouts or condition of omar or other americans. because until the end of this deal, until the end of tomorrow, we will not have from the red cross proof of life or other information related to their ability to visit hostages. as we learn that information, we will absolutely share it with the parents. no, i do not sitting here today -- i'm not in a position to confirm the precise condition or whereabouts of omar or other american hostages. >> you said that you hope that you will get information from the red cross after this initial deal is complete. prime minister netanyahu said that -- also said that the red cross would be allowed to visit hostages still being held by hamas to ascertain their status. israeli officials say it hasn't happened. did lamhamas, in fact, agree to that? do you have confidence it will happen? >> that's part of the deal. we expect it will happen. i'm not going to characterize myself as confident in anything right now. again, we are in a don't trust but verify circumstance. we do believe that hamas is obliged to maintain its part of the commitment on red cross visitation of the hostages. we expect qatar and egypt and other countries to hold hamas accountable to fulfill that commitment by the end of tomorrow. >> israeli officials are signaling that they plan to resume their offensive, the military offensive, as soon as this pause expires. the defense minister said yesterday, quote, any further negotiations will be held under fire. is israel rejecting calls from the u.s. to hold off on its offensive in order to try to continue negotiations? >> first, dana, just to be clear about the terms of this deal, israel has already agreed that it will continue to pause fighting day by day after the end of the four days as long as hamas keeps releasing hostages. s really in hamas' court. if hamas wants to see an extension of the pause in fighting, it can continue to release hostages. if it chooses not to release hostages, then the end of the pause is its responsibility, not israel's. it is holding these hostages completely illegitimately and against all bounds of human decency. >> to be clear -- >> really, we will see what hamas ends up choosing to do. >> to be clear, if hamas, after this four-day pause is over, says, okay, here is the next list of hostages that we will release, israel will continue its military pause? no question? >> that is correct. ten hostages per day for as many days as hamas releases ten hostages, israel will continue the pause in the fighting. that's part of the terms that israel agreed to. that's a commitment israel made. the ball is in hamas' court. >> have any of the hostages who have been freed provided insight or intelligence to israel and u.s. officials that could help locate those still in gaza? >> we are just at the beginning of learning about the debriefings of those hostages. i will withhold comment until there can be more time for that to take place. we are just talking about the last couple of days that hostages have been released. in the early hours, it's more about caring for their trauma. >> understand. >> getting them reunited with their families. it's going to take a little wlie while to get that information. you can be sure that israel is focused on learning anything it can about whereabouts, locations and other information based on conversations they have with the released hostages in the days ahead. >> another major aspect of this deal is that it is allowing for significant amounts of desperately needed humanitarian aid, fuel, medicine, water, food, to enter gaza. president biden said there are mechanisms in place to ensure those supplies go to civilians and not hamas. what are those mechanisms? do you have any indication that they have been in place? has hamas benefitted from this pause? >> first, dana, there's the inspection mechanism. the israelis at a crossing check all of the trucks before they go in through the rafah crossing into gaza. they check to make sure that it is, in fact, humanitarian supplies and not goods that could help hamas in its military campaign. second, those trucks go to u.n. depots and to other humanitarian organizations that are vetted and trusted partners. once they are in the hands of the united nations and humanitarian organizations, they are distributed directly to the people. we have seen this work over the course of the last several weeks as humanitarian assistance has ramped up. we have seen it work that it's getting to people and that it's not being diverted into the hands of hamas. that's something that we have to continue to focus on, on an ongoing basis. president biden stays in close touch with the israeli leadership on this, with the u.n. leadership, and with others to make sure, in fact, the aid is getting to the innocent people who are suffering. >> i want to look ahead a little bit and ask about prime minister neta netanyahu. he is, as you well know, in a precarious domestic/political situation. he knows as soon as the war is over, he will face questions that he has been putting off about the failure to prevent the october 7th attacks. questions about list tenure as prime minister. is there any concern inside the biden administration that netanyahu doesn't necessarily see it as being in his interest to end this war as quickly as possible? >> look, i'm not going to speculate on israeli politics. we're going to stay focused on who is sitting in the chair of prime minister, and that is prime minister netnetanyahu. deal with him on the issues we are confronting today. president biden has been able, through his direct diplomacy with prime minister netanyahu, as well as with arab leaders, to generate humanitarian assistance, the safe debarpartu of americans, and hostage releases. president biden believes that his engagement with prime minister netanyahu paid difsh d -- dividends. he will focus on that and leave others to determine the politics, the political considerations. we will stay focussed on the task at hand. >> let me ask you it this way before i let you go. maybe it's easier than delving into domestic israeli politics. if hamas doesn't continue to release hostages, and if the military operation -- israel's military operation resumes, would president biden support that, no matter what? he has supported it, of course, until now. but would that change if israel resumes its military campaign? >> president biden has been clear that israel has a right, indeed a responsibility to defend itself against a terrorist foe that continues to say it intends to attack israel, continues to launch rockets, not during this pause, but in the days leading up to it, and continues to indicate that it will not stop representing a direct physical threat to the people in the state of israel. president biden believes any country, including israel, has a right and responsibility to defend itself against that kind of enemy. he also believes that any military operations have to be conducted in a way that protects civilians, that distinguishes terrorists from civilians, and that ensures that those civilians have safe places to be and access to life saving humanitarian aid. he has been focused on the kind of work necessary to get that humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of people in gaza. he is going to stay focused on that as a primary objective in the diay days ahead. >> jake sullivan, thank you for joining me. >> thank you. my next guest just visited israel where he stepped up his criticism of former president donald trump. now, some republicans say there's a better way for him to take trump down. chris christie is here next. as we watch for more hostages to be released today, we are going to continue to get the latest on that. stay with us. welcome back to "state of the union." happy pictures of families reunited. israeli women and children are the first to be released. 41 people have been freed over the past two days. we are awaiting the release of more than israeli hostages this morning, including at least one american. here in the u.s., the temporary truce is welcome news, despite rising questions about what comes next. here with me now is republican presidential candidate and former new jersey governor, chris christie. thank you so much for joining me. i want to start with, of course, what's going on in israel. president biden said the deal is only a start and expressed hope it could lead to a more extended truce. it expires after tomorrow. do you think that israel should try to keep this pause going in order to get more hostages out? >> dana, look, i've been very clear on this. i think israel has to make that evaluation based upon the success of what they have done regarding degrading hamas' military capability. i traveled throughout israel a couple of weeks ago. i saw the destruction that hamas did to israel, killing so many of its innocent citizens. i think that their main priority has to be degrading hamas' capability to military strike against israel and its people again. you can't ask the israeli people, who survived the attack, to return to their homes near the gaza border if you have not degraded hamas' that needs to be priority number one. i have no problem with continuing to negotiate for hostage release, obviously. we would love to see all of the hostages released. we also don't want to see another tragedy like we had on october 7th in israel. >> you also, when you were in israel, met with families of hostages. do you believe that degrading or trying to dismantle hamas is a higher priority than bringing home the hostages? >> look, it's a very, very difficult call, dana. i think for those hostage families, obviously, the highest priority for them is to get their family members home. i just think israel can wind up being able to make that evaluation itself. it is the one in the best position to make that evaluation. i would say this, the long-term peace and stability of israel depends upon the degrading of hamas' military capability. it has to be the highest priority, because hamas is trying to wipe israel off the map. they are doing so with iranian, north korea and russian assistance. the u.s. has to be supportive of what israel is trying to do military, but always provide advice that friends provide in terms of when is enough enough. we will help to make that evaluation with them. but ultimately, that's israel's decision. >> do you believe president biden deserves credit for pushing through the deal that has at least brought some of the hostages back to their families? >> look, i think that any time there's return of hostages, that's incredibly helpful. president biden and his administration have played a role in it. the terms are lob psided toward hamas. three to one in terms of hostage release. this pause as well. i think everyone can second guess a negotiation from the outside if you are not in the middle of it. what i'm grateful for is the hostages have been returned to their families. that's extraordinarily important and humane to have that done. i think president biden deserves credit for that. where i think he is starring to err in an area that i think is wrong is to say he hopes this continues, that the truce continues. he can't be doing that kind of stuff, in my view, publically. his voice has to be supportive of what israel is doing to try to protect its territorial integrity and safety and security of its citizens. that's got to be priority number one for the united states. everyone in the middle east has to know that's america's number one priority. >> governor, i want to ask about the spike in hate against jews in the united states. you"the new york times" that you believe trump has contributed to this. >> when you show intolerance towards everyone, which is what he does, you give permission as a leader for others to have their intolerance come out. intolerance towards anyone encourages intolerance towards everyone. that's exactly what's going on here. that's been going on for some time, not just with donald trump, but with university professors on some of our most elite campuses in this country. with university administrators and presidents who have been unwilling to stand up against anti-semitism on their campuses, most particularly. there should be no campus in this countries where a jewish student is afraid to leave their dorm, a jewish student is afraid go to their classes, a jewish student is afraid to go to have a meal in the dining hall. that is outrageous and it's wrong. i think governors in those states should be sending state police to make sure that they are protected on those campuses. we need to have university presidents who are willing to stand up and be counted against hate. that's exactly what's going on here. we saw this display at the macy's thanksgiving day parade. these are folks who are ignorant. my guess is two-thirds don't know what intifada is. if they did, they would be ashamed for calling the elimination of the jewish people around the world, which is what intifada is. in the end, look, i think that there have been a lot of people who contributed to it. i believe donald trump's intolerant language and conduct gives others permission to act the same. >> let me ask you a little politics. the race that you were in -- you wa want to be president. but your twin missions are to do that and stop donald trump. in the most recent poll, donald trump is winning by 42% of likely gop voters. you are third behind nikki haley. neither you nor nikki haley come close to challenging trump on your own. together, you have support of 34% of new hampshire voters. is there any scenario where you and nikki haley would somehow work together to try to consolidate that anti-trump vote? >> i think governor haley and i both have the same goal. that is to be president of the united states. i think we are showing great momentum in new hampshire. we have been gaining over the last couple of weeks. i think we're going to continue to gain in that fight. i think we're going to do very well in new hampshire on january 23rd. this idea of people just doing math and adding up numbers, that's not the way voters vote. i would say to everybody out there, let's let the campaign move forward. this is the smallest republican field at this stage in this century that did not include an incumbent. the smallest. it was 13 eight years ago at this stage. i was in that race. before that, in 2011, there were eight people in the race at this stage. in 2007, there were nine. this race has consolidated nicely. you are now, in my view, have four major contenders, donald trump, ron desantis, me and nikki haley. the fact is that we are the major contenders for the nomination. everyone else who is still hanging around is not a serious contender. >> to button it up, you are in this race through the new hampshire primary? >> i expect to be in this race through to the convention, dana. yes, absolutely. >> okay. governor, thank you so much, appreciate you being on this thanksgiving weekend. >> dana, thanks for having me. happy thanksgiving to you and your viewers. one of the key questions is, how much longer will a truce between hamas and israel last? democratic senator chris murphy is next. we are waiting for the next group of israeli hostages to be freed. welcome back to "state of the union." we are awaiting a hamas hostage transfer. jake sullivan told me earlier in this program that the u.s. has reason to believe it will include an american and is hopeful it will be 4-year-old abigail. here with me now to discuss this and more is democratic senator chris murphy, a member of the senate foreign relations committee. thank you so much for being here. senator, 41 hostages have been released so far as part of this deal negotiated between israel and hamas. president biden says it is only the start. this truce expires in two days. jake sullivan told me the ball is in hamas' court, whether it will be extended. what happens if hamas doesn't agree to release more hostages? do you think that israel should resume its military operations in gaza? >> i believe that israel has a moral obligation to defeat hamas, at the very least to render it incapable of launching an attack like the one we saw on october 7th. yes, that job is not done. but let's give credit where credit is due. president biden and his team worked 24/7 with partners in the region to make sure that this release was possible and to set a framework through which we can see more hostages released. this is a president who is right now showing the american people what real leadership looks like. hopefully, hamas will accept the conditions that have been laid down that will allow for more hostages to be released. if they don't, ultimately, hamas will be defeated. it's in israel's interest but also in the interest of the united states. we don't want terrorist organizations believing they can get away with the murder that hamas did. >> fighting against terrorist and as you said a moral obligation for israel to continue this war. you also though have been critical of the wayducting the . you said the civilian death toll was unattainable. they want to pressure israel to reduce civilian casualties in gaza. sanders wrote the blank check approach must end. the united states must make clear that while we are friends of israel, there are conditions to that friendship. we cannot become complicit in actions that violate international law and our own sense of decency. do you agree? >> i stand by what i said. i do believe that the level of civilian harm inside gaza has been unacceptable and is unsustainable. there's a moral cost to this many innocent civilians, children often losing their life. there's a strategic cost. hamas will get stronger, not weaker in the long run if all of this civilian death allows them to recruit more effectively and ably inside gaza. listen, we regularly condition our aid to allies based upon compliance with u.s. law and international law. so i think it's very consistent with the ways in which we have dispensed aid, especially during wartime, to allies, for us to talk about making sure the aid we give ukraine or israel is used in accordance with human rights laws. that's a conversation we will be engaged in when we get back to washington monday. >> president biden said that he thinks it's an okay idea, but he also worries it could hinder diplomatic efforts to condition the aid. you are going to have to deal with this. this is something that's going to be on your plate to vote on quite soon. >> yeah. obviously, this will be a conversation we have when we return. i guess i'm not sure what would be controversial about saying that aid we give any country has to be used in compliance with international law. yes, of course, i do think that israel needs to be more careful in the way it is conducting these operations. i think that you can defeat hamas without this level of civilian casualty. that's an appropriate discussion for us to have, in part because i really don't know that it serves israel's strategic aims in the long run if hamas ultimately is given this bulletin board recruiting material. >> before october 7th, you were critical of prime minister benjamin netanyahu's government, the way he was conducting it with regard to the democracy inside israel. he knows that once this war ends, he is going to have to face questions over his failure to prevent october 7th, among other things. are you concerned that his precarious domestic political situation is an obstacle to the war ending as quickly as the u.s. wants it to? >> my sense is that though the israeli people may not be planning to have netanyahu as their prime minister for the long run, they united in their belief there has to be accountability. my hope is that when they do go to the polls, that they choose leadership that is going to make good on the only future that guarantees the survival of a jewish state in the middle east. that is a palestinian state. benjamin netanyahu believed that you could ignore the palestinians, that you could try to squash their desires for a state. ultimately, that would bring peace to the region and to israel. that's not the case. ultimately, the next government is going to have to put us back on a path to have a palestinian state. that's not easy, but it's the only way forward for israel, the only way forward for long-term peace. >> senator, we have seen an alarming spike in anti-semitism, hate against jews, across the united states, but particularly on college campuses. you also sit on the senate committee that deals with education. what's gone so wrong on america's college campuses that you have students openly applauding the terrorist killings of 1,200 or more civilians? >> yeah. i'm all for free speech on our campuses, but i've been disappointed at the response of many of our university officials. there's a direct line between some of the most vicious anti-semitism speech happening on our campuses and threats of violence to synagogues and jewish communities. i ultimately think we need to sort of think really hard about the way in which our young people are receiving information about this conflict. we need to hold accountable the social media sites, in particular tiktok, which is full of pro-hamas and anti-semitic material. the college campuses need to have a better means of accountability for this kind of hate speech. we also have to recognize that these young people are getting their information from somewhere, often from a chinese-controlled social media platform that has in its interest trying to turn america against each other. one of the means they may be doing that is trying to promote a lot of pretty hateful and divisive material about the conflict in gaza. >> senator chris murphy, thank you so much. appreciate it. hope you had a nice thanksgiving. >> thank you. the parents of an israeli hostage on what it has been like, what it is like right now seeing women and children come back safely and still, of course, hoping that their son does, too. stay with us. we have seen beautiful images of hostages reuniting in israel with their families. but many more hostages are still in gaza, and their families are begging people not to forget them. like a 22-year-old dual u.s. israeli citizen and soldier who was taken hostage by hamas october 7th. here with me now are his parents. thank you so much to both of you for being here. your son was not included in this initial release of hostages. i can't even imagine how difficult and complicated it is for you to watch hostages who have been released while you are waiting for news of your son. >> yeah. the first two releases gave us hope. we are cautiously excited about the expected release today of more children and women. our son is not released yet. we have to continue and press for the men, not just the women and the children, for omer, for all the american citizens and all the hostages. it's not going to end before they are all out. >> the process is very important. we are thrilled that it's coming to fruition slowly. >> national security advisor jake sullivan told me that the u.s. does not know the condition or the whereabouts of your son or other american hostages. what goes through your mind when you hear that? >> well, obviously, we are worried. we were actually in israel this week. we wanted to meet officials and get reassurances that israel is doing its best in the effort to return our son. we have been in discussions with the american administration and seeing all the efforts they're doing. it's a long process. >> obviously, you know, the fact that they haven't been seen, that we don't know what the condition is, that the american red cross has not been permit godpermitted to go in, that's just wrong and against international law. it makes it all even worse. >> it really is a humanitarian crisis. wounded people, sick people, they need to seek care. the right thing is just to get the red cross in and take care of whoever needs care. >> you mentioned you are in israel and you have met with israeli government officials. have you talked to them about the truce? do you want them to maintain the truce as much as possible, continue the negotiations to bring the remaining hostages home, including your son? >> we have received reassurances that they will do anything that's needed to bring omer home. >> and the other hostages. >> and the other hostages. >> we saw commitment, whoever we talked to, that that's a key element in what's going on right now. they will do everything they can to bring all the hostages back. we truly believe that's the case. into tell us what omar is like. what do you want people to know about him? >> so, you no he, one more thing that we've been doing here in israel is meeting with a lot of omar's friends, and they've been sharing with us some of them actually saw him only a few days before all of this happened. he had a few days off and his task was to look for a apartment to move into. but what he ended up doing was just going to visit friends, going to visit family and that is so typical of omar, he's such a people person. and obviously it was more important to him to see people than to take care of his living arrangement. one of his friends told us how -- he said i have to go an see an apartment and she convinced him to see the sunset on the beach instead. and they ended up talking about life and eerily enough she hold -- he told her about us and he even mentioned to her how he knows that if anything happened to him, his parents would do anything for him. and obviously hearing that is like, you know, a big responsibility on us. and of course, we would do everything, we'll do everything to get him back. >> and you are. and you are. thank you so much for sharing your story and for sharing his story and we're looking at pictures of his beautiful smile. i really appreciate you joining us. >> thank you, dana. >> thank you. >> and we'll be right back. if you want to help with humanitarian relief efforts for the civilians in israel and gaza, cnn is compiling verified resources. head to cnn.com/impact and find a list of vetted organizations on the ground responding. that is cnn.com/impact. thank you for spending time with us. we'll follow the story at noon, i'll speak with two hostages released. >> that is live atat n noon. fafareed zakararia "gps" s star nenext. nice footwork. man, you're lucky, watching live sports never used to be this easy. now you can stream all your games like it's nothing. yes! 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