you're live in the "cnn newsroom." i'm jim acosta in washington. we begin this hour with breaking news right now. the university of pennsylvania, the president there, has resigned. this comes after her testimony earlier this week before congress about anti-semitism on campus. our polo sandoval is live with more on all of this. polo, not that surprising we're getting this news this afternoon, given what took place this week. the devastating testimony for the president of the university of pennsylvania, that she delivered up on capitol hill. her attempt at cleaning up that testimony, which was also pretty widely panned, and then matching pressure, sounds like, from the board of trustees of that university for liz magill to step down, that's what's happened this afternoon. what's the latest? >> confirmed directly from the university. jim to your point, not surprising giving the days of outcry we've seen and heard from throughout the university, state and federally elected officials and not to mention donors who support the university and calling on magill to step down after that really disastrous bit of testimony that was offered during a congressional hearing. just this past tuesday. it's developed extremely quickly and now days later the university announcing she has voluntarily stepped down in a statement released from scott bach, actually the chair of upenn's board. saying that she will remain tenured as faculty at penn law and agreed to stay onboard while they figure out interim leadership for the university. again, just to remind viewers, just one of three university officials who failed to really offer a very direct and express it answer, saying calling for genocide of jews would immediately violate the codes of conduct for their university, and since then we've heard this growing chorus asking for her to step down, and that's where we are today. finally, jim, an interesting note. just today new york governor kathy hochul announced she actually submitted a letter to some of new york's universities and colleges warning of what she described as aggressive enforcement action, if they don't comply with discrimination laws. basically a preemptive letter to various universities. many of the chancellor of these universities each confirmed call for genocide would be considered a violation of the codes of conduct. very different from what we saw from liz magill a few days ago. we cannot stress enough. much of that outcry, not because of what she said, but what she failed to say, and now you have those two other officials she was flanked by in those images, president of harvard and m.i.t., also under similar scrutiny. the president of harvard actually since yesterday issued a statement of apology via the student newspaper there. >> yes. a hot mess for the leaders of a lot of these very esteemed institutions for just not going far enough in condemning anti-semitism, condemning genocide which should be a layup. joining us now is the university of pennsylvania student who also testified before congress last week and file add lawsuit against the university of what he says is the university's failure to respond to anti-semitic incidents on campus. what's your reaction to this? the president of your school stepping down? >> thank you so much for having me on. this has been something that myself and many alumni and fellow students, parents, working on for a while since penn hosted a lot of anti-semitic speakers to penn, which resulted in a swastika on campus. but i do want to make clear that this is just the first domino in a culture from many leaders, including chairman bach, who have allowed this to happen. >> and when you saw president magill make these comments up on capitol hill earlier this week, did you think immediately that this was going to be a problem for her and for the school? >> i think this has been a problem for a long time coming, and i think what the congressional hearing showed the world is what a lot of us have been saying for a while. that there is an indifference to anti-semitism and a culture of hostility that has been brewing on campus for some time now, and i think if the true cultural change is meant to happen and should happen, then magill is just one figure that has allowed this to happen, and there are continuous steps that need to be taken in order to safeguard and protect all students on campus for such hatred and hostility. >> do you think members of the board should step down? >> i can't steek for members of the board. i'm not aware of -- >> would you like to see that? >> i would like to see chairman bach resign as well. he has told the community that things are under control. that he has full confidence in president magill for some time now, and it's time for not everything to just depend on president magill, but for accountability to be taken across the board. just like we've seen, if this was any other situation, i don't know the ins and outs of the board and i'm assuming many members of the board were a part of asking president ma goil resign. but i do know and a lot of students know we've been told for some time by chairman bach that everything is under control, and i think it's time for beyond just president magill to take accountability. there are other people that need to take accountability and i think that also does include chairman bach, coaching magill on how to handle the situation, and the campus climate has just gotten worse, and we truly need to restore safety. number one. to campus, but also need to secure and restore academics to the university of pennsylvania, if we really want to restore the reputation of this university, and not be fearful for our lives or for professors discriminating, harassing and bullying their students in classrooms and outside of it. >> all right. eyal, thank you for responding to all of this. appreciate it. keep us posted how thing, going on campus. we definitely want to stay on top of the story and we will. meantime discussing more with senior political common dater, and republican strategist doug hyde. brought you on, booked you on the show to talk politics but talk about that in a moment. i think all of you would be just great on this issue, and especially sitting with me here in the studio. doug, to you first. you mentioned to me before we were on the air during the commercial break you are on the board of trustees at the -- >> visitors. >> board of visitors of north carolina and an issue on campuses all over the country. what's your response to what we just saw this afternoon with the president of the university of pennsylvania stelling down? >> eyal, students like him tell me the next generation would be okay. clone him and put him on every campus and have as many student leaders as we could. back to october. in chapel hill, wearing a tar heel high. alumni. week after very ugly anti-semitic protests on campus, saw posters depicting people flying in on paragliders and things like that. just the next week i was on campus for the board of visitors meeting. we weren't prepared to talk about that. talked about the women's tennis team winning the ncaa championship. fantastic. talked fund-raising. great. when i got text messages and phone calls that week it wasn't what the football team or tennis team did, but what happened on campus. the school was unprepared to talk about it. as we saw last week with the college presidents or chancellors, they're unprepared to talk about it because the people hired in communications positions come from academics and academia. they want to surround themselves like that and use words like "contextualize" instead of being clear what you need to do in a congressional hearing. it is a life or death situation for your job survival whatever you do in your profession appearing before congress. you have to take it very seriously. >> ana navarro you've spent time up on capitol hill, involved in politics in your part. how devastating was this tem we saw this past week? we saw the university of pennsylvania president try to clean it up and obviously that did not help. >> incredibly painful and i think like doug i was at institute of politics in harvard as fellow. incredibly painful to see the president of harvard along with the president of m.i.t. and the president of the university of pennsylvania engaging in legalese and just lacking complete verbal clarity and moral clarity when it comes to the issue of anti-semitism, and so this lady is gone now. this president is gone. i hope that this serves to lead to reflection and for universities all over the united states and the world to take stock of what has happeneds, and take the necessary steps to not be equivocating but taking steps so jewish students on campus feel protected. no student in the united states of america should be going to school afraid for their lives. that is deplorable and sthamefu and actions and lack of actions have consequences. that's what these people are feeling today. >> yeah. molly i know you have been really upset about this growing anti-semitism that we're seeing across the country, and that has, i think, picked up since what took place october 7th. what is your sense of it? i mean, the way that these university leaders have been handling this. this really should not come as a surprise, as to what took place today? >> right. i think it's really clear that we need people to say, to condemn anti-semitism, just like they condemn any kind of discrimination against any group. right? it's the same as anti-muslim rhetoric, anti-you know, racism, sexism, these are all the same. right? it's not okay. what we needed in that moment was for these presidents not to sort of spout this kind of very legal, very kind of wishy-washy statement, but instead to say, no. it's not okay. discrimination is not okay. and i think that, you know, this is something as i'm jewish and my family's jewish and this is something we have, you know, experienced firsthand, and i think that we all suffer. right? when we allow any kind of sdwrim discrimination. what happens the people of the university suffer, the rest of us suffer. you know? and we -- so i do think it was, there was moment -- i hope that we can take the teachable moment here, which is to say that any discrimination hurts everyone, and that we really need our moral clarity from our leaders. >> and when i did that in 2015, part of your orientation you go through a series of, you know, not judge warnings but teachings on how to avoid microaggressions. how to properly communicate with students and faculties to avoid getting yourself in trouble. god forbid, you say the wrong pronoun or something about a gender neutral bathroom you have a real problem on that campus. meanwhile, what we saw college administrators, presidents and ch chancellor, students literally feel unsafe for their lives. not because somebody called them the wrong name, didn't have sensitivity, but calling for their race or their ethnicity to be just completely removed from, vanished from society. that's a real problem. >> and just as -- >> and -- >> go ahead, ana. >> to me, this has shown that people do have a voice and people do have a platform, because it's been students like the one you just had on speaking up. it's been their parents, alum, it's been journalists. it's been the press. it's been donors. it's been jews. it's been the allies of jews. anybody who is against anti-semitism and these college presidents, these university presidents look like high school students trying to answer an s.a.t. question. they don't know whether it was a., b., c. or d. it should not be that difficult to unekwiv lick condemn hate speech calling for genocide hate speech. this has taught all of us we do have a platform and when we speak together those voices have consequences. >> yeah. i thought these were smart people running these schools. these are some schools i could never get into. never gotten into, yet i could not have been more tone deaf how they handled. hang time, ana, molly, doug, talk more after the break pap tweet came in as we talking from elise stefanik, one down two to go. obviously, this is in the political bloodstream. we're talk about it on the other side. stay with us. right now donald trump may be the runaway favorite for the gop nomination but new polling reveals he may have a tougher race against president biden than some of his republican opponents. the "wall street journal" found that in a head-to-head general election matchup next year nikki haley meets president biden by 17 percentage points. trump fares worse. only 4-point advantage over the president. back to the panel and talk about this. molly, had you on the show before. so i may be teeing myself to get whacked here. you're not a big fan of these polls. it's a long way out. anything can happen. caveat, caveat, caveat, but what is your reaction to this, and what do you think? we saw the president late last night in california going after trump, calling him a danger to democracy, saying he would destroy democracy, calling him despicable about january 6th and so on. tougher talk than we've seen. maybe responding to headwinds. what do you think? >> you and i are buddies and you know how i feel about polls, but i will say, you know, we have, since trump has been elected, right, in 2016, when we told hillary clinton was going to be president, we have absolutely all of the polls, almost all of the larger general polls like this have been wrong. so i'm just going to put that out there. especially you'll rob the red wave mid-term, which barely was a ripple and that off-off year election where democrats flipped the virginia state house, but with all of that said i definitely think that donald trump is probably a much weaker general election candidate than nikki haley, but the republicans have a problem, which is they, and they keep wishing that donald trump will go away. we all know, donald trump is not going away, and he is going to very likely win this nomination, because he's -- he's 50 points ahead in every state. i think it's unlikely that biden will be running against haley, but if he were i think he would have a harder race. look, trump is shopping this kind of autocracy which american voters don't really like. and if the republican party cared about electability, then they wouldn't have him as their nominee. but they really don't. >> ana what was your sense of things right now? the other question i had is, are we overlooking how abortion could be a single issue fact are for a lot of women? maybe it's not showing up in the polls. put abortion on the table might that change how republican women vote next year, and if a pollster calls, says is it biden versus trump, maybe because not asked about issues of abortion that isn't factored into consideration. what's your sense of it? >> absolutely right when it comes to that issue, and monthly, weekly, daily, we get reminders particularly "we" as women, of what the roe v. wade overturning has meant. this week it has been the story, the news, of the mother in texas who had to go to court while 20 weeks' pregnant to beg for the right to an abortion for a child that according to her doctors was not going to survive. and, again, she has been stripped of that right now by the supreme court of texas. that's very reminiscent to a case that happened in florida where a mother was carrying a child, a fetus, who had no kidneys, that was sure to die shortly after birth and was made to carry it to term and hold it for 90 minutes as he gasped for air on, in her arms and died. those stories are not going away. those stories are getting worse, and i think women have to realize that we have to fight for all other women. even those of us who are too old to bear children. we are fighting for those behind us and fighting for the rights of women and it's an issue that angers all of us. look, you can you pro-life. that doesn't mean you're pro-cruelty and making a woman carry a child to term that's going to die in her arms is being cruel. and, jim, when it comes to trump and biden, listen. i think there's no doubt that probably the most difficult issue joe biden has to face right now is his age. and if the donald trump running against him, all of a sudden that issue is moot, because, news flash, they're both old. there's a difference. once is 81 years old. the other has 91 counts. 81, versus 91. you choose. >> yeah. and, doug, one of the things, glad you're on with us this evening. i wanted to ask you about trump's comments on fox earlier this week when he was on with hannity saying i would only be a dictator on day one. i don't know if we have some of that sound ready, but if we could play it. i do want to the play it. get it in a second, but biden at this fund-raiser in california last night, he really went after trump on this issue, and was scoffing at this comment about being a dictator day one. curious. does this conversation resonate? we saw the"atlantic" magazine, and long-term conservative out with a "washington post" op-ed talking whether a trump dictatorship is on the horizon. what do you think? >> a lot resonates to those already on that side. some preaching to the converted even if it's the absolute right thing for the president to say, what donald trump was was very troubling. comments about donald trump in 2016 should have taken seriously and not literally. in fact, we should take him literally and makes senseed by been talk about it more and more. as far as seeping into independent voters they don't like what he says on this then go to lunch spends $20 on a sandwich that costs $13 three days ago. spending money or anything or don't spent it because they can't afford it or the interest rate, becomes real to them in a way trump's rhetoric isn't. part of the trump base doesn't like what he says dismiss it because they think it's all a fate acomp plooe. >> and get your reaction to this as well, molly. to me, hard to wrap your head around. let's play it. >> under no circumstances you are promising america tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody? >> except for day one. >> except for -- >> except for day one. >> meaning? >> i want to close the border and i want to drill, drill, drill. >> that's not -- >> i mean, molly, you know, we're talking with mary trump previous hour. dictator day one, you could say dictator tomorrow, too, because you are of dictator on day one. astonishing to hear that, and in our culture now, trump says things and go by the wayside 24 hours later, it does feel different this time. feels like people are starting to pay attention. >> yeah. i mean, look. he did a lot of autocratic things when he was in office. and including led an armed insurrection. it was very dicey about whether or not he was going to leave. and i think you know, he had his people go to the capitol. they tried to keep the certification from the election from happening. they had slates of fake electors. like, this is not -- this is not how we do it in democracy, and i think that trump does his thing where he says it loud and a lot of trump's people try to dismiss this and say he was joking, but there's no reason to give this man the benefit of the doubt. and if anything, we've seen again and again, he does these very anti-democratic very autocratic things and it's very dangerous and i think that this is the "do you want to have elections anymore" election? because if trump wins again i don't think you will have elections or certainly not the way we've had them previously. >> guys, apparently more breaking news to share with viewers. excellent discussion as always. thank you for your time. appreciate it. we'll be right back. dangerous and i think that this thank you for your time. you're probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. but what if we told you it's possible that comcast business mobile can save you up to 75% a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers? did we peak your interest? you can get two unlimited lines for just $30 each a month. there are no term contracts or line activation fees. and you can bring your own device. oh, and all on the most reliable 5g mobile network nationwide. wireless that works for you. it's not just possible, it's happening. and we have more breaking news involving the university of pennsylvania where president liz magill voluntarily tendered her resignation. how the board puts it. right now krn cnn is learning a another high-profile resignation. haven't cnn's polo sandoval is with us. sounds like more fallout with respect to what's happening at the university of pennsylvania. what can you tell us? >> in the last hour learned of magill's resignation from a statement of the chair of upenn's board of trustees. now that chair is announcing that he will be stepping down from his post as well. talk about scott bach. again, released that statement not long ago announcing the president's resignation. now almost seems like coordinated resignations here to have been announced. i want to read a portion of the statement that the chair released to cnn just a short while ago as obtained by our colleague matt egan. he writes specifically here that former president liz magill last week made a very unfortunate misstep consisting with that of two period university leaders sitting alongside her after five hours of aggressive questioning before a congressional committee. following that it became clear that her position was no longer tenable and she and i concurrently decided it was time for her exit. he then goes on to write, to describe magill as a very good person, a talented leader, but also, and this is interesting in the statement. he assured she not only is not the slightest bit anti-semitic, also magill was "worn down by months of external attacks." he then rights magill was "not herself last tuesday during this testimony." and then finally, said that she, at the time of her testimony was over prepared and overlawyered. so what we're getting here, jim, a sense of trying to explain what was just an absolutely disastrous testimony that was received on capitol hill on tuesday. >> yeah. it was a disaster indeed. polo, thank you. joining us to talk about this, democratic congressman steve cohen of tennessee. congressman, what's your response to this fallout? the president of the university of pennsylvania and the head of the board? both stepping aside? >> well, i was hoping they could just have a come to jesus moment. what was called for. she obviously thought she should resign so did the chairman of the board pap disaster for the committee. she and the two other college presidents seemed like they read the same footnotes on, prepped by the same person and all seemed stiff, dispassionate and inhumane. i think that the president of harvard and m.i.t. need to give serious thought to what their futures should be. i think they may need to talk with their board and try to settle things down and let the public know that they have different opinions about this type of behavior, but also they have to balance free speech. they have a difficult job. >> congressman, i mean what do in of these university leaders get wrong on this? do they just not see it? do they -- what's going on? >> i think one of the things a college president does more than anything else is raise money. a lot of money from people. in the middle east, they get involved supporting these ivy league institutions and others as well. their concerned about middle eastern money and concerned about humany mant humanity. the state of israel, talk about genocide, the jews, that's about hornet and within my life -- a little before the my lifetime but within current history and shouldn't be forgotten. too many young people don't have memories of holocaust the idea why israel was created to give the jewish people a homeland to be free and not in ghettos, holocausts treated like second-class citizens. they were treated that way beginning of the last century at these ivy schools. so many jewish students at these schools, lots of discrimination. people don't realize that. the young people. and why they are quick to jump on israel with, they should be with the palestinian people but not in any way with hamas. some lose track of that and get wrapped up in the idea being for the underdog. the underdog government, hamas, is a fascist theocratic group for genocide. >> and i do want to ask you about the israel-hamas war. i mean what do you make of the u.s. veto of the u.n. security council resolution calling for a cease-fire in gaza? good idea? i think it was a good idea. harry truman was the first president i think, that had, recognized the state of israel. the united states and israel had a good relationship many years and israel is the righteous side of this. they were attacked. hamas broke a long-standing truce. they attacked horrendously october 7th. killed about 1,200 illies, citizens there and in the kibbutz it's and took the people hostage. they did terrible things to those people. taken hostage and kidnapped one thing. they've done other things that are egregious and i'm sure doing that now with victims there and one of the reasons they wouldn't surrender, my opinion. hamas then broke the truce trade be prisoners for hostages. they shot missiles into southern israel. even in tel aviv and did a terrorist attack in the west bank. hamas broke the truce. so you ask israel to come up with, be for a cease-fire with a group that said he would have another october 7th soon and prepared for it? they've got to destroy hamas. this is like new york city and having somebody in new jersey coming after you. it's right on your border. they've shown who they are, when they show you who they are, believe them. >> all right. congressman steve cohen. thank you very much for your time. more on this breaking news after the break. bus meantime, thanks so much. more on the breaking news straight ahead. days. now to russia's war on ukraine. ukraine says almost 100 airstrikes over recent days. faltering on ukraine you are here to talk about this and we appreciate your time very much. i mean, what is your sense of things right now? if, talk about the fighting battle in a moment. but if ukrainians don't get more aid from the united states, what happens? >> they'll have a regard time, jim. no doubt. they said that. when you -- they can't win when volodymyr zelenskyy was here. can't win unless they get support we've been provided up to now. they can't win. >> and a senat signal. putting money to the side, obviously ukraine need the help. if the u.s. can't muster the political will or capability to get that funding passed by the congress over to the president and to the ukrainians sends a noefg putin and the rest of the world? >> right. putin will say americans don't have the stomach. president xi will take from that the americans don't have the stomach to support their allies. this is really important for us in several of these areas. both against putin and against president xi. >> is this, to some extent, what putin has been waiting for? >> putin's only hope is this. this is his only strategy. if he can try to break the will of the ukrainians and he's trying, you've just broadcast that. if he can break the will of the europeans if he can ways us out and if we get tired or falter, then he can win. he can win. he can push, push into and well into ukraine. that's his goal, but his only hope is if we fail. >> there's a funding battle going on now. obviously the biden administration talked about wanting more funding for ukraine. they want to couple it with funding to help the israelis and their war against hamas and there's been a discussion about including immigration funding, perhaps changes down at the border to get all of this through. do you think president biden has been engaged enough? does he need to be more engaged on this publicly, privately, all of the above for this to get through? >> everybody has to do their job. president biden really needs to, sounds like he is, like he's now engaged on immigration. really very vocal, very supportive, very adamant about the need for ukraine funding. and if he's involved in these negotiations and if in the senate they have their leadership and even in the house. i mean, even the new speaker has said good things about support for ukraine, if they can get this immigration deal passed. there's hope. there is hope that can pass. >> and we were talking about trump earlier on in the program. obviously, you testified during one of those impeachment battles up on capitol hill. you know this president and what he's capable of and so on. lately he's talked about being a dictator on day one. he's been praising people like xi jinping, praising kim jong-un out on the campaign trail. what kind of message does it send and what does it mean for the world if trump somehow gets back into the white house? lots of concerns about the future of nato. what's your sense of it? >> so the ukrainians are concerned about continued support from the united states for them. the only way they can win and know that and need the united states and listen to what everybody else. what former president trump said and what president biden says. they listen to other candidates. they know that our support is crucial for them, and so they also know how much they need us, and they appreciate what they've gotten. just want a little more and want it soon. they need it now, and they know they can get it from president biden, and they're not sure about what they're hearing from others. >> and nato? >> nato is why we are where we are. that is, we are strong because we've got that alliance. that alliance has never been stronger, never bigger. now it's largest ever been. >> expanded. >> it's expanded, because the russians invaded ukraine. t the swedes and ouukrainians kno it to. only secure if part of nato. nato has proven itself to be really important. people are joining it, want to join it and that needs to be supported. >> ambassador bill taylor. thanks for your time. a lot of concern ukraine news on the back burner with everything happening in the middle east. a lot of news in the middle east, glad you were on to talk about this. >> thanks for having me. still ahead, severe weather moving across country including a confirmed tornado in tennessee. we'll have the latest, next. this video just in to cnn. the national weather service confirming several large and dangerous tornadoes in tennessee. also in other parts of the state. at least three people have been injured. senior meteorologist alyssa is joining us. what's the latest? these look like some pretty dangerous tornadoes. >> it's been a busy day. a lot of the information in these warnings have been large, dangerous, considerable damage. we've already had eight reported tornadoes, three of which at least so far have been confirmed and plenty of wind and hail reports to go with it. the radar is still busy. there are the storm reports. we have warnings right now just near nashville. nashville included in the warnings. we had a tornado on the ground just north of nashville, also called large, dangerous, consider damage possible. it's been a very busy afternoon for meteorologists in tennessee. you can see the pink where the tornado warnings are and then warnings for wind and hail. this is the watch. it has gotten bigger. it goes until 11:00 this evening for communities there in central tennessee, and this line will continue to work its way eastward as we go into the overnight. you can see the showers and storms still blowing up with the storms getting to areas like knoxville by midnight. heavy rain from charlotte and then toward raleigh in d.c., and then even some snow could pile in on the back side of this in the mid-atlantic and the interior new england. the threat continues east tomorrow. you can see the level one marginal risk for a lot of the east coast. >> all right. thank you very much. a lot to keep your eyes on. we really appreciate it. in the meantime, this time of year is about giving back. cnn heroes salutes ten extraordinary heroes who put others first all year long. it premieres at 8:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. >> tomorrow on cnn -- >> we provide bilingual education for children at the u.s.-mexico border. >> making a difference in our world. >> we are rebuilding here in the florida keys. >> we show that people in ghana have access to health care. if i see a need, then a person who cares for them dearly -- >> trauma in the pathway for growth. >> we install child friendly reading space in the barber shop. >> we are all connected because of the shared experience of having an incarcerated parent. >> there should be no homeless vets. period. none. i don't want to be defined as a victim of my circumstances. >> i do want to make sure that they get all the attention and love that they deserve. >> cnn heroes. an all-star tribute tomorrow at 8:00.. 8:00.. on cnn. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ you're live in the cnn newsroom. i'm jim acosta. breaking news right now. the president of the university of pennsylvania has resigned and we've just gotten word that the chair of the university of pennsylvania's board of trustees, scott bach, has also resigned effective immediately. the u-penn controversy began spiraling after the testimon