the first test of the 2024 presidential election is six weeks away, will the caucuses propel a chump -- trump challenger push him to a second term? israeli forces are expanding their fight against hamas. the gruesome, terrifying details the way they savagely raped women. a destroyer of democracy is what donald trump is calling joe biden. the attack is a distraction. we are going into it more with inside politics. i want to start with iowa, a month and a half from now republicans will be gathering across the hawkeye state to select the first winter in the republican contest, let's go first to jeff in iowa. how's it feeling there besides i'm guessing pretty cold. >> there is a bit of snow on the ground with christmas shopping season, it is time for the iowa caucuses to enter a new phase. talking to voters, it is clear the ones who at least are inclined to participate are paying a new level of attention. it is hard not to, there are so many television ads from donald trump and run the sentence over the meat and -- weekend. there is no question the former president still looms large. he holds a commanding lead in all the polls even though there have not been many recent polls, one strategy is says it feels like we are flying behind. when you talk to voters, the set of republicans who are interested in moving on from the armor president, half the party are beginning to focus more intently, we talked about nikki haley. others are still considering vivek ramaswamy. we did get news that doug burgum is suspending his campaign, not a big factor. what it shows is the races consolidating and getting smaller before the voting -- begins. that could have an impact, ron desantis is putting all of his eggs in the iowa basket, he needs to win, he made this point yesterday. >> i will be able to lead because it's not about my issues, it's going to be about your issues. i think that is very clear, clear with the media, they are agitating because they are not doing anything right now. they are waiting and want to get to the primary, you will see them open this up and it will be blistering and unfortunately it will work. why will we want to nominate who the democrats want to nominate? why don't we nominate who the media wants us to nominate? >> the florida governor is trying to make his pitch to iowa voters to think independently and not necessarily follow the rules that show the former president is in the lead. he's at his own drum, he's outsourced most of his campaign to a pack called and and never down. it's gone through leadership turn oil, a couple of different leaders, resignations, firings. the question is is the organization going to be enough to help pu him over the finish line or is the rising support from nikki haley going to really make a difference? there is one more debate this week in alabama on wednesday, the fourth republican debate, both iowans are watching that to see how it goes. six weeks before the iowa caucus, donald trump, it is still his race to lose, the bigger question is who is in second place, that race is a tight one. >> thank you for that reporting, got a lot in their. we will talk about what jeff just talked about with our panel, cnn's kristin holmes, and the national reviews. thank you so much, happy monday to all of you. you spend all of your professional time on donald trump, and the broader field but mostly the trump campaign. the question is, whether or not based on your reporting and being out on the field, the argument we just heard from desantis is going to fly meaning the whole idea is that donald trump is -- he can't win against joe biden. >> a couple of things. when i talk to republicans, they don't believe that argument is much as they used to. if it was back in 2022, that was the argument desantis was leaning on saying that trump cannot win a general election, we talked to republicans now out in the field, many of them are so dissatisfied with joe biden and they also consume so much conservative media that it's reiterating that idea that they think that there is no possible way that joe biden could win another election, this argument is not really there anymore. one thing i do want to point out, i was there with him in cedar rapids and one thing i found to be the most striking to talk about his before he took the stage, somebody asked how many people here is it going to be there first time caucusing this year in january? half the room raised their hand, i think that is a really important note because we talk about has a sticky base. these are not people in his base, these are new voters. >> let's go back to desantis and mistakes for him in iowa, you did not mention, maybe jeff did that he completed all 99 counties in iowa which is not that easy. he has certainly been touting that, listen to what he said on meet the press yesterday about the importance of iowa. >> we are going to win iowa, it will help propel us to the nomination but i think we will have a lot of work we have to do beyond that, you don't take anything for granted and i do recognize their people who have wanted the nomination. i think this year is a little bit different. >> there is no question that he is pursuing an iowa first strategy, if he does not win iowa especially now he said he's going to win iowa, i don't think there's any future for the campaign, he alluded to several people winning the iowa caucus then lost the nomination, what i think differentiates him from those previous losers is that he's got a stronger campaign and more of a campaign organization and more campaign money, more supporters who are high profile but none of that matters at all if he does not win iowa. let's pull up some of that history. >> 2016, ted cruz won and was not the nominee, mike huckabee, same. since 1980, the only republicans who have won the iowa caucus then ended up as the nominee, george w. bush in 2000 and bob dole in '96. >> not a big predictor, he has to win iowa, if he does it it does not matter what he said, iowa voters are pretty notoriously independent in their own ways and they make some decisions that we don't expect, that is interesting jeff said there is no new polling, so it's hard to tell what's going on, the thing that caught me about desantis, the media wants trump and there is no reporting on trump, well he's not reading a lot of the stuff we are reading, there's a lot of reporting on trump, i guess he sees that as a good argument. this is it for suited desantis, he started out in this position that he was the guy obviously, we said he's the logical alternative. it's not playing that way and turmoil at the top and a campaign is never a good indicator of things. >> turmoil at the top and a campaign but also the other layer to this is that it's not even his actual campaign, it is super pack. even before this is done right now, there is a lot of looking at the way that desantis decided to structure his path to victory where he does not really have control is really interesting. you mentioned you were with trump in cedar rapids, iowa over the weekend, he likes to pontificate about his opponents and he did so about desantis. let's listen. >> we had him very hard and he's been falling out of the air like a very seriously wounded bird. to the ground. it's a very pleasant thing to see, it looks like he's gone but we never want to say we've got to get this thing finished. >> i think that donald trump is going to continue to hit ron desantis until he is no longer breathing at all which is essentially what his advisers have told me when you look at where the poll numbers have gone, it seems actually strange that donald trump would still be focused on ron desantis especially given nick and haley's -- nikki haley's search, climbing in multiple states but he has remained fixated on ron desantis, part of that likely because of the disloyalty factor that he feels that he thought he should have never run, if he did he should have called them first to talk to him. clearly for donald trump, things are personal and he wants to see him lose. >> you're wearing taylor swift bracelets, the reason i said that is because i want to read this quote that really caught the attention of our team about the des moines register about taylor swift as it relates to this campaign just minutes before trump set foot on the stage, someone they were talking two, 54 told the register she cannot envision anyone other than trump. teens said rock stars like taylor swift, grown-ups have trump whose red hoodie carried the portrait of the former president, the word legend snapped underneath, it's not a snapshot, it really is a snapshot of the cultlike figure that donald trump continues to be. across the political -- sort of in the political world, very much transcending politics. >> one might quibble with how much grown-up this behavior is applied to a political figure to have that sort of same degree of devotion and fandom to a political figure i think is not the way, it is not a helpful attitude for citizens to have -- the thing is with trump, it is not just he's got that hard-core base of support that will be with him regardless of what he does, it's the other republicans who think he was a successful president, who think favorably of him who have not been necessarily totally sold on him but right now, they are read them -- with him, those are the voters that desantis and nikki haley need to get. it >> up next, a wider war, israel expands operations following the collapse of the short-term truce, we are live in israel after a quick break. the cnn israeli ground forces are operating inside southern gaza, cnn has geo located video confirming they are 3 miles from the southern city of con eunice were many civilians have fled, after israel announced it's expanding its fight across the entirety of the gaza strip, cnn is in jerusalem, what is the latest at this hour? >> we have just heard from the head of israel's armored core, he says that they have almost completed achieving their object lives in the north of the gaza strip and certainly over the weekend we saw a series of punishing strikes on the refugee camp north of gaza city just north to the east, it now does appear the focus is going to be on the south as you said, the israelis now have armor on the street which is the main north-south highway linking the north with the south, that was the route through which people had been advised to move from the north to the south. the problem is that there are hundreds of thousands of people crammed into the south, the area where they had been advised to go to be in a safer area. what we have now is a mountain humanitarian crisis in much of southern gaza where the schools that have been turned into his the shelters are full of people, we are hearing from the u.n. that and in some instances there as many as 400 people to a toilet, that is if a toilet is functioning as well in the town which is to the southern part of the gaza strip, the only functioning bakery was hit overnight as a result, there was looting, what we heard from people is that the situation is desperate and it is increasingly chaotic. >> thank you so much for that report, i want to come back to the u.s. and talk about an alarming warning from the white house about the war in ukraine, the white house budget director says there is no money left for the u.s. to support the fight unless congress acts fast, that will quote kneecap ukraine on the battlefield, cnn is at the white house, sounds like a very dire situation, and a war that is still waging in ukraine thanks to russia attacking almost two years ago. >> the white house is trying to build pressure on lawmakers to pass this funding, and omb director says this is a do or die moment in time is running out, the lawmakers have had the sum of mental -- supplemental funding request, there has not been action to pass this bill, $106 billion for ukraine, israel, taiwan, and border security. the omb director laid out the stakes saying i want to be clear without congressional action by the end of the year, we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and resources for ukraine and to provide equipment, there is no magical pot of funding available, we are out of money and nearly out of time, mike johnson quickly responded to this letter in a post on social media arguing the administration has yet to provide a clear strategy for the future in ukraine and how this funding will be used, and also once again insisting this will include any national security supplemental funding including major changes to border security policy, this remains unclear whether lawmakers will be able to clear these hurdles as the administration is issuing very dire warnings about the state of this funding for ukraine and what it could mean on the battlefield as we are fighting against russia. >> i spoke to lindsey graham, a spokesperson who was a huge supporter for ukraine who said point blank they will not get any money, neither will israel against -- unless congress agrees on border security and immigration reforms, there is a stalemate, thank you for that reporting. donald trump is calling president biden the destroyer of democracy but the biden camp is unfazed calling the job a distraction. donald trump offers his most forceful rebuttal to presidents biden -- president biden's quote, he took a weakness and try to paint it as a problem for his adversary saying it's actually biden who threatens democracy. >> joe biden is the destroyer of american democracy. it's him and his people, if joe biden wants to make his race a question of which candidate will defend democracy and protect our freedoms, i say to kirk and joe, the most corrupt president we've ever had. we will win that fight and we will win a very big. biden's campaign is calling a desperate attempt at distraction. he will lock up his pillow look -- political enemies. trump has admitted to it himself. trump has said verbatim i have going to use the justice department to go after my political enemies and more. because of trump himself, of course there are some differences here. certainly the case against trump on document retention seems to be very solid, and these charges had to be brought to vindicate the rule of law, you do get into a difficult position where one of the major candidates is in fact at risk of going to jail and he will make that his basic campaign argument. >> this is vintage trump. >> the entire argument for why biden is a threat is because of these indictments he's facing, saying it is biden who is weapon rising the justice department against donald trump. trump himself has said he was going to weapon is the justice department to retaliate against critics and enemies, the other part is that trump also said he would get rid of anyone who works in government, any civil servant's talking about schedule f, he's talked about moving the executive branch, taking it out of being an independent entity and moving it underneath the executive so he can control it in his favor. >> let's continue looking on this ahead, to the alarm bells that a lot of republicans are ringing about a potential second trump term, the biggest ringer, the one selling a book, lich cheney. >> he's told us what he will do. the steps you will take, if you select did it's not that dangerous because we have all these checks and balances. they don't fully understand the extent of which the republicans in card -- congress today have been co-opted. one of the things we see happening today is a sleepwalking in to dictatorship in the united states. pretty powerful. he doesn't want to be surrounded by people who will restrain him. he will bring in people who will help him to the checks and balances comments, one of the reasons it works is because previously people in different branches were not intent on overwriting them, some of that was people who held those offices, we are doing a lot of reporting on what a second trump administration would look like, he has to say certain things to motivate his people as he did in iowa and people really cheer that, they alarm the rest of the public, that is trying to have it both ways. there is a lot of concern. other people are starting to look at it more specifically, things we have seen in the last day, robert kagan, like caesar, trump wields a clout that is based on unswerving personal loyalty of his army of all lowers, will his presidency turn into a dictatorship? the odds are pretty good and then the atlantic, you mentioned, trump what arrive with a much better understanding of the systems vulnerabilities, more willing enablers and toe in much more focused agenda of retaliation against his adversaries and impunity for himself when people wonder what another trump hold, their minds underestimate the chaos that would lie ahead, it's the point you made about people who were there who were putting guardrails on, those people are like i'm not coming anywhere near plus trump has a better understanding because he had never been in office, i also add that no opportunities have been taken to restrain the powers of the presidency. we have had these warnings growing in recent years especially under trump of the insurrection act which is vaguely worded and seems to give the president a lot of power to callout the military, that has not been changed, no one has tried to make that effort, there have been some changes, the electoral count act , there is so much a determined president does not care about the constitution can do. >> it is not just the president, he has people working right now before he's worked into a general election working on workarounds, looking at the policies he wants to end, how can we do this without congress, what is it saying in the constitution, what are the loopholes. it's all about the fact he knows what he wants, he did not know what he wanted and 2016. >> what is interesting is all of this and what we are hearing from people who worked with him in the first term, the question is whether or not if it does come down to trump versus biden, even those who were criticizing him might support trump anyway, listen to what lindsey graham told me yesterday. >> her hatred of trump israel, i understand why people don't like what he does and says at times. in terms of actions and results, he was far better than biden. if we have four more years of this, we will not recognize america, the world will be on fire. >> he's responding to the liz cheney quote. >> the number one republican enemy of donald trump has said that he would support the republican nominee. i think in the house, there will be enthusiastic support, the senate is not so enthusiastic. >> it really is perplexing and it will be a conundrum if in fact donald trump is the nominee, we are not there yet. coming up, very different topic, we have more stomach churning details about hamas terrorists savage rape of women. richie torres says it calls for unequivocal condemnation, not everyone in the prprogressive e caucucus agreed.d. we wilill talk to him nextxt. it has been nearly two months since hamas terrorists attacked israel, the united nations is holding a special session on sexual based violence. i asked progressive caucus chair about this today, here's part of our exchange. >> i've seen a lot of progressive women generally speaking quick to defend women's rights and speak out against using rape as a weapon of war. downright silent on what we saw on october 7th, and what happens inside of gaza right now to these hostages. why is that? >> i don't know that that is true, i think what we always talk about, the impact of war on women in particular. i remember 20 years ago, i did a petition on the war of iraq. have come bend -- condemned what hamas has done, i think we have to remember that israel this is why they are a strong ally of ours, if they do not comply with international humanitarian law, they are bringing themselves to a place of a much more difficult strategic place for them. they can build public allies to keep public opinion with them, morally we cannot say that one more try -- crime is more than another. that's not what humanitarian law says. >> with respect, i was asking about the women and you turned it back to israel. i asked you about hamas. >> i answered your question, i said it is horrific. >> there have been quick on social media today, richie torres of new york who joins me now. thank you for being here, why do you think it is difficult for them to unequivocally callout the barbaric sexual violence against israeli women? >> look, there's often been a double standard against israel. condemning the sheer butchery and barbarism of hamas, public officials have a moral obligation to speak with clarity rather than caveats. i found it troubling for example that the u.n. woman, the so-called women's rights arm of the united nations went 50 days without commenting on or condemning the sexual atrocities that hamas perpetrated against israeli women. for me, this is not about politics, this is about decency. it is indecent to deny or downplay both sides the rape and sexual violence against israeli women. >> we reported on israel's investigation with sexual violence committed to hamas a few weeks ago. i want you to listen to what one rights activist told there. this contains graphic and disturbing accounts of sexual violence. >> the chair of the civil commission on october 7th, crimes on hamas women and children points to one reason why the investigations have been so difficult. >> we will never know everything that's happened to them, we know most women who were sexually assaulted were also murdered. >> congressman, since that reporting over the weekend, more has come out and again i want to warn our viewers this is tough but it's important to hear. this is israel, a 39-year-old witness who attended the novant music festival said she fell to the ground shot in the head i pulled her body over me and smeared her blood on the sword look as if i were dead too. i will never forget her face, every night i wake up to her and apologized to her saying i'm sorry. after an hour, he peeked out. i saw a beautiful woman with a face of an angel and eight or 10 of the fighters beating and sexually assaulting her. she was saying stop it, i'm going to die anyway. just kill me. when they finished, they were laughing and the last one shot her in the head. this is the kind of barbarism we are hearing more and more about and you mentioned congressman it is hard for people to speak out about this when it is israel, can you explain why that is? >> there has been a long standing pattern of anti- semitism directed against the jewish state. israel is the only country on earth whose existence is called into question that's targeted for both destruction and the legitimation. israel is combating double standards and the legitimation campaign as it seeks to defend itself after the deadliest day for jewish people since the holocaust. this is nothing new, repeating a pattern we have seen before. >> you said this goes beyond politics, that is an understatement. i do want to ask about what is going on inside your progressive caucus because i have certainly heard there's a lot of turmoil. i do want to say that sure woman i had on yesterday has been one who like you has called what happened on october 7th a terror attack, i have seen the term genocide which is what other members of your progressive caucus have used using that word. what israel is doing to retaliate, the division and frankly what i have heard is anguish. >> the word division gives the impression it is evenly split, almost every member of the democratic caucus has been unequivocal in condemning the sheer savagery of hamas. there is a fringe that uses provocative language, dishonest language like ethnic cleansing or genocide. that is fundamentally unrepresentative of the mainstream. also the progressive caucus. >> thank you for giving as you said you believe the majority of the progressive caucus. thank you, congressman. >> coming up, who thought obamacare would be an issue in the 2024 republican race? donald trump and ron desantis promise it will be. the biting campaign, what their message will be on a prescription for 2024. first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones brings so much joy to your life. a family trip to the team usa training facility. i don't know how to thank you. i'm here to thank you. president biden has a prescription, the campaign says for a 2024 turnaround. this is for undecided voters and in -- include cutting prescription drug prices, back with us with new reporting, what you hearing. they have been seizing on former president donald trump's to repeal and replace obamacare. the president even expressing surprise, the trump would reopen this conversation. he's talked with a.i.d.s., beyond attacking trump and laying out stakes of what is under threat. the advisers acknowledge the president is to talk about what he's >> another issue, also trying to extend the previous subsidies that have made obama care more affordable. those are set to expire in 2025. he is hoping to make it permanent beyond that. healthcare can be a potent issue. something that they have spoke about before. >> i'm sure that they are definitely eager. thank you for that great reporting. let's talk a little bit more. about the contrast and what the former president said about obama care. >> we will fight to give much better healthcare than what we have right now. this is a newer subject. obamacare is a disaster, we will do something about it. >> not a newer subject, we'll talk about that in a second. next we will hear what ron desantis said about this. >> president trump promised that he would repeal obama care. he is running on a lot of the things he campaigned on in 2016. obamacare has it were, we will replace with a better plan. >> the plan will come out in the spring. we will see where he is in the spring. meaning, the santos. >> the politics of it flipped pretty comprehensively. when republicans actually tried replacing obamacare. it does not appear that any lessons have been learned. they have not figured out what they want to do instead of obama care. there are challenges coming up with the verb for how they want to pulverize, repeal, replace, supersede. there is a huge healthcare system with a lot of problems. a conservative or republican does need to have a platform having to deal with that. having that platform exclusively look at a particular set of changes that was made 13 years ago, some of them have been changed since then, it makes no sense at all. >> we were around for the votes, when they actually put obamacare into place. at the time, you remember, emmanuelle, and others in the administration saying there will be a short-term hit, it's hard to take away something once it there. look at this from the kaiser family foundation. the redline are people that owe pose obamacare. it goes up, up, up. as people are getting used to having that benefit. >> democrats cannot believe their good luck. getting rid of something that is actually popular and is a winner for them. in some respects, the challenge will be reminding people what it was like before obamacare. pre-existing conditions, that kind of thing disqualifying you from insurance. the reason they have not come up with a replacement, it is really hard, really expensive. there is only so much you can do. republicans have stepped in on this in a major way. >> republicans want to take this on. it is a donald trump thing. >> he is the republican. everyone was surprised. policy video after policy video. nothing on obamacare. this was new for them after they read the wall street journal. >> he promised healthcare when he was in office and did not do it. most republicans wish that this would just go away. >> thank you so much, it's great t to have each of you her on this happy monday. i appreciate it. >> thank you for joining inside news politics, cnn central starts right here. this is cnn.