i'm fredericka witfield in new york today. with just weeks before key 2024 election contests take place, president biden is hitting the campaign trail this weekend amid new legal distractions hovering over his son. on friday, the president kicked off a campaign swing out west just hours after his son hunter biden was indicted again. hunter biden is now facing new federal tax evasion charges. prosecutors accuse him of a four-year tax evasion scheme and spending millions of dollars on things like drugs, escorts and exotic cars. if convicted on all nine criminal counts, he could face up to 17 years in prison. the charges come as house republicans continue to pressure hunter biden to testify in a congressional hearing and prepare to vote on a resolution to authorize an impeachment inquiry into president biden. cnn's senior white house reporter kevin liptack is with us. how is the white house responding to hunter biden's latest charges? >> reporter: certainly there is no more sensitive issue inside the white house than hunter biden's legal issues. it's not a topic that aides like to bring up with the president very often. in fact, when you talk to them, there are very few who feel like they have a firsthand knowledge of how the president is processing all of this. certainly his son's legal issues do weigh heavily on the president, and this is no different. certainly some of the personal indictments that came out in those charges are embarrassing for the president's son and for the president himself. so this is a political headache that the president will have to confront as he faces his reelection challenge and other headwinds to his reelection, including low approval ratings. when you talk to people around the president, they don't think this necessarily will be a factor next year. but republicans try to conflate hunter's legal problems with those of former president trump. these are two very separate issues for the main reason that trump was president. hunter biden was not president and will never be president. they are two separate issues. that does not mean it's not a headache for president biden as he gears up for reelection. the challenge will be to try to frame the contest as the difference between him and former president trump as a threat to democracy. in fact, you've started to see him talk about trump more and more in public, including yesterday. he was in las vegas unveiling some new investments in passenger rail, and he went after his predecessor by name. listen. >> trump talks the talk. we walk the walk. [ cheers and applause ] >> lohe likes to say america is failing nation. frankly, he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. >> reporter: the president is in los angeles this weekend at two major fundraisers. i was talking to jeffrey katzenberg, the movie mogul. he said this 36 hours would be the most successful in campaign fundraising since president biden announced his campaign for reelection in the spring. >> let's talk about these legal developments on hunter biden. a criminal attorney is with me. great to see you. we've turned the tables here. you're in atlanta, i'm in new york. we're still not in the same room. [ laughter ] thank you so much. hunter biden has paid all his back taxes that he owed and he has paid all the penalties. how typical is this for someone to still be indicted for these types of charges even though they have paid all the taxes and fines? >> fredericka, that is his counsel's argument that he paid it all back, he paid all the interest back. why am i being charged? david weiss, the prosecutor, will say, well, we went for four years with taxes not being paid. abby lowell will say, well, he had a drug addiction and he wasn't in the proper place to pay it back. weiss would counter that with, well, he was paying off a car and he was making other payments, why couldn't he pay his taxes? the will be is it willful, is it intentional, and how political will this legal matter get? >> abby lowell is going to continue to make the argument that if you're an addict, you're not going to make reasonable decisions. that's going to be part of the defense as well. at that time, he was not managing the money like most people, i guess, would, knowing they've got big tax bills hanging over their heads. >> right. the indictment, which is a very lengthy indictment, talks about different ways he was spending the money. it almost reminds me of ken starr's report to congress about bill clinton and all the sexual innuendos about what was going on there. this is, again, the same thing with all these salacious acts that allegedly hunter biden committed. the bottom line is, he has paid back the taxes and the interest. generally what you do in that situation is you sit down with doj and work it out and don't get indicted. but it hasn't happened here. obviously there's a lot of political pressure coming from the republican side. the democrats will say that's what facilitated this indictment. the republicans will say, no, he didn't pay his taxes and he deserves to be indicted. >> if found guilty based on what the charges are wihich the indictment spells out, hunter biden could face a maximum 17 years in prison. do you see it getting to that point? >> i don't see it getting to 17 years, but he could certainly spend time in prison. this is the kind of case, for example, that generally you work it out in a plea. abby lowell thought he had a plea previously. the judge asked some very good questions, and the plea fell apart. so here we are again with another indictment. generally you would try to work it out, because this is an unfortunate situation with somebody who had a crack addiction and all the taxes are paid. >> republican oversight chairman james comer said he thinks u.s. attorney david weiss indicted hunter biden to actually protect him. listen to his logic on this. >> my concern is that weiss may have indicted hunter biden to protect him from having to be deposed in the house oversight committee on wednesday. >> what do you think about that? >> yeah. i don't see that at all, because, in fact, hunter biden was willing to testify in public, and republicans said, no, we want him in a deposition. then prior to testifying in public, he gets indicted. now the advice to him will be, you cannot testify, because you have a fifth amendment privilege and you need to assert it because there's too much risk for you to testify. >> how do you see the legal road and the political roads kind of dovetailing here? republicans have argued that hunter biden is connected to all kinds of inappropriate foreign business dealings. thus far, he has not been charged with anything as it relates that. his father, the president of the united states, is not mentioned in the indictment. there appear to be noi ilinks between hunter biden's alleged wrongdoings and his dad. how do you see these two either coexisting or conflicting? >> priesident biden is not mentioned at all. so they will conflict because the parties, at least on the republican side, will try to make it a political statement. however, i think the legal aspect has to be analyzed by abby lowell and has to be essentially a narrow defense, although you can argue the reason my client was indicted was because of political reasons. but david weiss is a special counsel and he was appointed by merrick garland. he's part of the department of justice, and merrick garland was appointed by president biden. it's a tough argument to make. >> thank you so much. >> thank you, fredericka. several of the republican candidates hoping to take on president biden next year are in iowa today, where the first caucus is just over five weeks away. nikki haley, ron desantis and vivek ramaswamy are all holding events today after participating in a faith and family forum this morning. what will you be watching for today? >> reporter: i'm looking at how these candidates connect with voters, their ability to advance their message with them. that is because the former president still holds a significant lead here of 20 or 30 appointments. we were with nikki haley last night in sioux city, iowa. we were speaking to voter there is. no doubt her debate performance has helped elevate her national profile. voters there say they're just not convinced as of yet that she can beat the former president. they describe her as a goodall ter alternative to trump. how does she make up a 20% deficit in just six weeks? take a listen to what voters have to say. >> it's been really finding her more appealing each time i see her on the debate stage. i like what she's saying. i like that she is a strong woman that doesn't back down. i don't know if she can win. i'd like to say i'd like to see her win, but i don't know if anybody is going to be able to get past trump. >> reporter: and the concerns of these voters really vary. many people were asking the ambassador about the future of social security in this country, many asking her about her foreign policy experience, how she would deal with ukraine, israel, the economy, immigration. no doubt, though, that they will hear a lot from her over the next several weeks as all of these candidates crisscross the state offering their vision for this country. still to come, a texas woman fighting to get a legal abortion, and she's told she has to wait once again. much more on the court ruling, next. a late-night court decision is dealing another setback to kate cox, a texas woman trying to obtain a legal abortion to end her high-risk pregnancy. the state supreme court is temporarily halting her attempt to get that emergency procedure. this comes a day after she was granted permission by a lower court judge. camila bernal is following the story. >> reporter: kate cox is 31 years old and 20 weeks pregnant. her fetus has a fatal genetic condition. she says her pregnancy and how difficult it's been is putting her life and she says her health at risk, but also her future fertility at risk. so she specifically sued the state of texas to ask for a legal abortion in the state. a texas judge granted that and essentially said she could go and get that legal abortion. this was extremely significant for the state of texas, especially when it comes to the debate over medical exemptions in the state's abortion ban. this is one of the strictest in the nation, a six-week abortion ban. after this texas judge agreed and allowed her to get this legal abortion, the state attorney general ken paxton asked for help from the state's supreme court, because he does not agree with allowing her to get an abortion. that's exactly what the state supreme court did. they intervened and essentially froze the lower court's decision, saying now that this case is pending. now, they did not put a timeline as to when they would address this case, which is a problem for kate, who is 20 weeks pregnant. her attorney is saying this is why people shouldn't beg for health care from a court of law and saying this is an urgent medical emergency that needs to essentially be addressed quickly. now, the state supreme court saying, no, she cannot have an abortion in the meantime. part of it is because attorney general ken paxton's argument is her life is not at risk. he's saying she has failed to demonstrate this is life-threatening for her. in the meantime, though, she says in her suit that she's struggled throughout her pregnancy, gone through the emergency room multiple times because of what she's going through and also says when her baby is born, it would only survive a couple of days. in the meantime, the texas supreme court saying she cannot have a legal abortion in that state, at least not for now. meantime, we're seeing a similar legal battle play out in kentucky, where a woman who is approximately eight weeks pregnant and seeking an abortion has filed a lawsuit. the class action lawsuit filed by the woman who is identified as jane doe and planned parenthood says the laws are imposing medical, constitutional and irreparable harm on women who want abortions. the suit names kentucky's attorney general and other state officials as defendants. coming up, as the hanukkah celebration begins, this is tension and fear within the u.s. jewish community about rising bigotry and hate crimes. you bring a lot back to civilian life. leadership skills. technical ability. and a drive to serve in new ways. syracuse university's d'aniello institute for veterans and military families has empowered more than 200,000 veterans to serve their communities and their careers. from professional certifications, to job training, to help navigating programs and services, we give veterans access to support from anywhere in the world. more than 70 lawmakers are urging the boards of three top universities to sack their presidents. those presidents failed to make clear during capitol hill testimony this week that calling for the genocide of jews would violate campus policies. meantime, jewish people are celebrating hanukkah amid skyrocketing anti-semitism and the shock of hamas attacks in israel. a man opened fire outside a synagogue in albany. >> reporter: that happened just this week after a man armed with a shotgun fired indiscriminately outside of a synagogue. fortunately nobody was hurt, but the shock was certainly there. governor hochul ordering police presence at jewish centers and across the state to reestablish that sense of security for jewish people to come together to celebrate hanukkah. here in new york city, they are still searching for an assailant that on the first night of hanukkah attacked a gentleman, taking his wallet and hurling anti-semitic slurs his way. according to local officials, the number of hate criming targeting the jewish community, 284 this year, significantly higher than the 270 last year. targets to the muslim community at 19, significantly lower. new york city mayor eric adams very clear in condemning violence against all faiths. but it's the lack of condemnation from the heads of those universities that continue to garner criticism and mounting calls for them to step town. the heads of harvard, m.i.t. and up upenn, with the head of harvard university issuing an apology amid calls for them to step aside. atlanta today is thanking some out-of-town tourists for saving a civil rights landmark when they leapt into action to stop a woman from burning down the birthplace of dr. martin luther king, jr. a utah man stopped the woman from lighting the gasoline she had just poured around the home. two other heros turned out to be retired nypd officers. rafael romo is outside the mlk home right now. what has the activity been like since you've been there? >> reporter: well, the good news is that there was no permanent damage to the home and tourists can visit as they always do, especially on the weekends. people have been coming here, so that's the good news. the other part of good news that i can share with you today is that two brothers, retired police officers from new york, were luckily here on thursday when this happened. ke they are brothers kenny dodson and axel. they are not only real brothers, but brothers in arms. kenny said he always wanted to work with his younger brother axel and it finally happened. in honoring the police officers in new york, officials said they helped prevent a national tragedy. the dodsons are being hailed as two american heros. they were here behind me when they realized on thursday there was a woman who was trying to set this home on fire. many of our viewers will remember this is the birthplace of martin luther king, jr., a place of profound historical significance. in honoring the brothers, new york officials also said that they immediately forgot that they were retired officers and put themselves back on duty. this is how they reacted to being called heros. let's listen. >> still hasn't quite hit me yet, because initially i wasn't even expecting to go to the site. when i think of martin luther king, jr., i think of alabama, selma, montgomery. atlanta didn't really dawn on me. it still hasn't hit me, but i'm glad we were all there, even the gentleman from utah. >> just the day before we were down there in atlanta to visit my father. so just the day before, my father asked, do you miss the job? i said, yeah, you know, i kind of miss that from time to time. i do. i miss coming out and doing the job and helping people. i miss that. and it's funny that the very next day we're involved in something like that. it wasn't just the adrenaline rush, it was doing it with my brother that i loved, that i had my brother there. i was like, i did it with my little brother. >> reporter: it's amazing the way they describe it, fred. these brothers were not doing this by themselves. as they briefly mentioned, there were a couple of friends from utah visiting here on thursday and they also were quick to react to what was going on. one of them had to physically stop the woman from going back into the home, because she already had a lighter after pouring gasoline on the home. she was about to set the home on fire. this is how he explained it. >> it didn't seem right. i heard splash, splash and saw her dumping the can over the porch. i said, what are you doing? she came around the front and was dumping gas all over the porch here. at this point i was like, this is important and pulled out my phone and started recording. >> reporter: finally, the martin luther king, jr. national historical park has issued a statement with profound gratitude for those who intervened to try to save this location, saying those who promptly intervened and averted a potential tragedy and saved the home that gave birth to a monumental legacy nearly a century ago. fred, back to you. >> thank you so much. the israel defense forces urging civilians in gaza's khan younis neighborhood to evacuate. we're following the latest from the region. fierce close-quarter fighting is under way in southern gaza. today israel defense forces issued an urgent appeal for civilians in khan younis to evacuate several blocks. israel says it's fighting house to house in khan younis, which it claims is hold to a main hamas stronghold. the evacuations come after the u.s. blocked a u.n. resolution calling for a ceasefire in gaza. international pressure is mounting for a pause in the war as the humanitarian crisis deepens. cnn's ben wedeman has more on the desperate situation facing gaza's children. >> reporter: friday, the head of the u.n. relief and works agency, the primary organization providing aid in gaza, warned that the humanitarian effort there is, in his words, on the verge of collapse. in gaza, where almost 50% of the population is under the age of 18, that means children will be hardest hit. 8-year-old mohammed is doing his daily chores, fetching water, collecting scraps oflastic to s his mother cook their daily meal. but he'd rather be elsewhere. you think it like it here, asked mohammed? it's terrible. i want to go home, where we had food and water. that buzzing comes from israeli drones hovering overhead. they never go away. he's been deprived of his childhood, says his mother. he can't live like a normal child. he misses his friends. more than anything, the children here miss a sense of safety. the israeli war planes struck a mosque. no one was there, but everyone heard it. in the camp, the best parents can do is keep the kids' minds off the danger. i play with them, i joke with them to distract them from their misery. when they hear the bombing, they're terrified. but there is no escape. these children have already seen too much. [ speaking in a global language ] >> reporter: we miss our town, we lived well. now all we see are dead bodies everywhere. there are no basic services here. the garbage piles up in the street. says mohammed, we go from one place to the other and they keep bombing us. yet, they still play. the drones buzz overhead. now, with the american veto of the u.n. security council resolution calling for a ceasefire, an already catastrophic situation is almost certain to get much, much worse. >> ben wedeman, thank you so much. the israeli military is responding to some disturbing videos posted on social media. they show israeli soldiers detaining dozens of men stripped down to their underwear. the men are seen wearing blindfolds and kneeling on the ground or packed into the back of a military truck. the idf says it is apprehending h military-aged men to determine who is hamas. joining us is a former u.s. senior defense attache. good to see you. so the idf says that they are only detaining men in areas where they have been calling on civilians to evacuate for over a month now. but we've heard from some palestinians who have said they have seen familiar faces who, as far as they know, are not related to hamas in any way who have been rounded up. you also hear people in the global community saying they are thinking about moments like abu graib in iraq. what do you think of what's happening? >> it's a great question. this is a hard situation overall. imagine how hard it is for young israeli troop leaders. they have a mission to go in. they're trying to clear hamas, and they're also trying to find the hostages, which requires it to be careful. but they're in a hurry. so you get a bunch of young military-age men. the israelis need to be more sensitive to how the world is and the media and the pictures and the islamic culture. all of it is true. but they've just rounded up a bunch of guys, disarmed them, tied their arms so that they can't be a threat, and they took most of their clothes off to see if they're not carrying weapons or suicide bombs. this is how hard it is, because if you do get a bunch of guys and they're all just standing around, it's a whole lot more dangerous. so the israelis need to be sensitive to this, figure out a way to separate and search. this obviously isn't the way. >> let's talk about these attempts to encourage civilians to evacuate in southern gaza, particularly in the khan younis area, where now the fighting is intensifying. there are flyers being dispersed. we're hearing descriptions from the idf that there are qr codes. some people don't have cell service or phones at all. this is supposed to be their route to safety. it doesn't seem to be going well. what are your thoughts on how the israeli defense can get ahead of maintaining their plan to take out their targeted subjects who are members of hamas and at the same time protect civilians or make concerted efforts to help civilians flee violence and find safety? >> right. get hamas leadership, protect the civilians and get the hostages out safely, it's almost an impossible task in the present circumstances. israelis are under a time gun. the whole world is more than watching now. we're critiquing. so, yeah, they've got to get it done. you've got to do it surgically, but at the same point, hamas has wrapped itself around the civilians. it's not working, clearly. there is no safe place. they've been crammed into the southern portion of already-tight gaza. the weather isn't good. yes, it's a desperate situation. the united nations has called it near catastrophic. they've got to figure out a way to do this. my hope is that they get yaya sinwar, the head of hamas in gaza. at that point, okay, we've got our victory, and then we're going to figure out a way to scale this all down. i don't know. it's hard. they're in a hurry. hamas is on top of those civilians. there is nowhere for the civilians to go once they're already out of the house and stacked in a mile or two-mile cube at the bottom of south gaza. it's a desperate situation. >> there's that conflict, and then there's the ongoing conflict in ukraine. the white house has been trying to tie military aid to israel with more aid for ukraine as well, but that funding is in limbo in congress right now. the white house says funding dries up for ukraine, it would be catastrophic for that war effort. what are your concerns? >> fredericka, i'm quite concerned. if there ever were a black and white example of invasion and trying to take down a democratic nation that is fighting existentially for its survival, this is it. it's hard, and it's expensive, but we can do it. if the russians continue to get hot that we are not going to support ukraine, they're going to continue to push and continue to grind. ukrainians are fighting their hearts out. they've got issues and flaws, but they're in a total existential war. to pull their carpet out, it isn't just the united states. it's multiple allies or partners. this isn't the time. this is a key fight for whatever we want europe and the world to look like, i believe, five years from now. and if ukraine, because of us fading on support, were to be defeated by an aggressor of a nation that hasn't invaded in such a way in europe since 1939, poland, then we have really, really, really hamstrung, if you will, our civiiza civilization we all believe in. so, yes, it's a big deal. i believe they can do both. they can do the border and they can support ukraine and israel. they can do this. it's just the will and the focus. >> i hear your passion loud and clear. thank you so much. and new concerns from climate scientists. next year, the planet's temperature could rise to a new even more dangerous level. welcome back. right now 30 million people are under threat of severe weather across the south, and spreading east. cnn meteorologist alyssa rafa is tracking the latest. what's happening right now? >> we've got a busy radar right now as showers and storms are starting to blow up. the red is a tornado watch in effect for parts of kentucky, includes nashville, memphis, little rock. this goes until 7:00 this evening, with a threat for a few tornadoes, up to 70-mile-per-hour gusts and large hail. these are the warnings and that pink you see is a tornado warning. we have already confirmed at least one tornado on the ground in parts of northern tennessee. the radar signature was so significant that the national weather service was able to say, debris is coming up, there is large, dangerous, and there could be considerable damage. we're waiting for updates on that. you can see other warnings for the 70-mile-per-hour winds and torrential downpours. we're going to see these through the evening, it will push east and the flood threat hits areas near new york. >> we'll check back with you. thank you so much. the climate crisis will be a death sentence for us, and we will not go silently into our graves. that quote coming from a government official. a very fire warning for the marshall island at the cop28 climate summit this morning. it follows equally stark news from climate scientists who say the planet's average temperature could rise by 1.5 degrees celsius above preindustrial levels next year. researchers say anything above that threshold would pause potentially irreversible effects on the world. pretty dire indeed. cnn chief climate correspondent, bill weir, joining us right now. yesterday we were talking about the optimism, now a step back. no optimism here. >> well, this is the morning we've been getting for a very long time about where the temperatures are headed. we're just beginning an el nino, a natural warming cycle. yeah, 2023, warmest ever in eons, but will be the coolest for the immediate future, the rest of our lives. as for what's happening at cop28, for the first time in, like, 30 years of the u.n. throwing these climate conventions, some long-time observers are saying the fossil fuel industry is showing desperation and panic because there was an opec letter that was leaked this week, the president of opec encouraging other oil producing countries to resist calls for a phase out of fossil fuels. there's a phase down, which is squishy and nebulous, saying let's pull it out of the sky instead. meanwhile, other countries are calling for a phase out and a slow transition as well. so it will be interesting to see which in this tug of war prevails as it wraps up on tuesday. >> now so some of that polling we talked about yesterday that sparked some optimism about the u.s. and climate change. is there widespread support among americans for cutting greenhouse gases, making a commitment? >> reporter: yes, this poll was one of the most surprising i've seen covering this beat. almost 75% of americans agree with cutting the pollution in half by 2030. that includes 50% of republicans. now, it's been so politicized for so long, i wonder if the messaging is changing because it's so hard to sort of deny this, $25 billion disasters this year, 500 lives lost to these natural weather patterns. there's sentiment to do something about it. we'll see what that results in at the cop in dubai. >> bill weir, great to see you. two days in a row. >> reporter: yeah, good to see you, fred. >> take care. what's it like being billie jean king. dana bash sits down with the trailblazer tomorrow night, only on cnn. we'll be right back. the power goes out, and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book. who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up. plus, now through december 31st, eligible xfinity rewards members can get 25% off a storm ready wifi device. thank you so much for joining me. i'm fredricka whitfield. we begin in texas where a woman's fight to end her high-risk pregnancy is