the distance. the israelis are trying to engage anyone that tries to ambush their forces. the battle is street by street. it's urban gorilla warfare. >> neil: one month in, israel says they have gaza city surrounded and preparing to move in. the white house trying to move in. is the president starting to back off from his israel position? still with them, but maybe not as with them. coming up, we're going to talk to the national security council's john kirby on how far the white house is willing to go. welcome. i'm neil cavuto. happy to have you with us. let's go to mike tobin in southern israel with the latest on this preparation for something big and pretty soon. mike? >> neil, while the israeli forces are not letting up as you mentioned, gaza city is surrounded. in fact, they have the israeli navy bringing pressure from the sea. overnight, there was an aerial bombardment with 450 targets being hit. the air strikes continue tonight. the palestinian health minute try said the number 10,000 was crossed in terms of palestinians that have been killed. israel said two of those were high value targets from the hamas ranks. israel ground forces says they have seized stores of rockets and rocket launchers from mosques and from a children's recreation center. that gives hamas the p.r. angle to work when the counter fire comes in. meantime, we caught up with emily roushenberger. she caught up with her inlaws just before october 7. she got trapped there. they survived on whatever was left in the cupboards. they made their escape out of the rafah crossing in to egypt. >> the night before we left, i couldn't sleep at all. i was listening to the bombings. i counted within one minute between 14 and 17 booms. it was every 4 to 10 seconds. it was just -- i mean, i couldn't get over how many i was hearing. i was trying to make sense of it all. >> our cameras caught one 0 the rocket launches that made it to tel aviv last night. this rocket launch is remarkable because the rockets took off from the center of the gaza strip with the israeli ground forces in the north, it's difficult for them to launch the rockets so they have to travel a greater distance. meantime, israel is getting it from all sides. there were 30 rocket launches from lebanon in the north aimed at the north of israel. israel responded with artillery fire. combat in the west bank with four gunman being killed. so far since october 7, some 348 israel soldiers have been killed. neil? >> thanks, mike. be safe. meantime, the secretary state has been around the region visiting friends, allies and even those that weren't close friends to get a lay of the land as the president works the phones. i had a chance to speak too benjamin netanyahu. jillian turner with more from the state department. >> secretary of state blinken just wrapped another 11th hour tour of the middle east. he hoped to secure a humanitarian pause in the war. but so far he's not managed to do so. the state department just a short while ago did manage to update us on the status of americans, hundreds of them that have remained trapped since the war. take a listen. >> november 1, we assisted more than 300 individuals to depart. we expect these numbers will continue to grow. we'll have more updates as of course that progresses and for impacted american citizens to remain in close touch as opportunities to leave continue. >> blinken came face to face with a regime that is on the other side in this israel-gaza war. he says his main goal now is getting aid in to gaza and getting americans out. >> israel has raised important questions about how humanitarian pauses would work. we've got to answer those questions. we're working on exactly that. >> in the palestinian territory saturday where blinken met with plo leader abbas, the resistance came up against a wall. >> it's clear since the war started, it's a war against our people. >> how can we justified to anybody that killing 9,000 people, killing 3,700 children, destroying 150,000 houses, destroying hospitals, how can we justify that this is self-defense? >> so after visiting four countries, neil, in the middle east, secretary blinken has not secured the release of any more american hostages as he hoped to do or secured a pause in the war for humanitarian aid to get in. he's now on his way to east asia and india. that's where his focus will be the remainder of the week. >> neil: with us now, john ki ki kirby. admiral, good to see you. >> thank you, neil. >> neil: we were told there was a good deal of discussion about a potential for tactical pauses in the fighting. again, for humanitarian relief and all of that. did that come up? was it nixed by benjamin netanyahu? what can you tell us? >> it did come up. it's one of the top things that the president wanted to take to prime minuter netanyahu about. we believe it needs to be considered. we're not talking about one pause. we believe there's value in multiple pauses discrete time for discrete purposes. we still want to pursue that. we believe that this is a conversation that we have had in recent dates with the israelis and we know we're going to continue to have those conversations going forward. we're at the beginning, not the end. >> neil: so if there were no pauses on the part of benjamin netanyahu, would the president be disappointed? >> we certainly believe, neil, that these are good ideas. in order to help get aid in and get people out. including hostages. the vast majority of the hostages are israelis. so we hope that our israeli counter parts cede in that vein. would not not talking ant a general crease fire or easing up the security assistance that we continue to provide continues every day. we want to get those guys for what happened on october 7th. we share with them a desire to get the hostages home with their families. a tactical pause is one way, one vehicle to see if you can't facilitate that. >> neil: i know the administration has tried to draw a distinction between the deaths of civilians going on right now in gaza versus the deaths of civilianses going on in ukraine with vladimir putin. many don't see that distinction. >> i understand. i want to say right at the outset, there should be no civilians casualties. we mourn and grieve them all. there's be many thousands in gaza. we're working very hard with the israelis to urge them to be cautious and careful and deliberate in their targeting so as to minimize any more civilian casualties. in ukraine, they're making it a war aim to kill innocent civilians and torture and murder them. that's a war aim of his armed forces as opposed to what is happening in gaza, an effort to go after hamas. it's hamas that made it a war aim to torture, murder and slaughter until israeli civilians on october 7. it's hamas holding these hostages. it's hamas who is putting the innocent people of gaza in greater harm's way by not allowing them to move and tunnelling under their homes. >> neil: do you feel there's a threat of some nefarious elements to do the same thing here? that maybe they snuck through the border and are here? >> i'll tell you, we don't take anything more seriously than the safety and security of americans. no matter where they are. we work in close contact with the department of homeland security and our border patrol agencies to make sure that we can control and vet and to minimize any threat of terrorism coming through our borders, wherever the borders are, maritime or land. we do that very, very stringently. the process is constantly under review to make sure that we can minimize that threat 100%. >> neil: maybe the threat is already here. fbi director christopher wray mentioned the case of this jordanian national living in texas studying how to build bombs, wanting to target just. he's here illegally and his tourism visa has been yanked so that they can pros cues him or get a trial going. can you share anything you know about it? >> i can't share anything about that case. i'd refer it to the fbi. that's really a law enforcement matter. the fact that we have visibility on some of these folks i think speaks to the degree to which our agencies are talking to one another and sharing intelligence and increasing their situational awareness about potential threats here in the homeland. we take that seriously. we're going to continue to hone those procedures. >> neil: when you look at threats like that hand we don't know and maybe christopher wray will reveal more than what he announced last week, a lot of people slip through and the feeling is that given the wider number of countries that are doing so, used to be three or four, up to a dozen, right now better than 140 countries represented going through there, are you worried that this is a huge issue now? >> again, we're always concerned. certainly since 9-11. we're always concerned about homeland security and making sure that our borders are secure as possible. that's one reason the president continues to urge for more money at the border to help us with asylum courts and to help us add more border patrol agents on the ground to improve our technological capabilities there. we believe border security is important, which is why we want congress to act on that supplemental request. >> neil: so let me get a sense of where you see this going right now. we're making it up to israel to decide what is proper and when. do you think they have gone too far? >> we're not going to get into evaluating each and every tactical event on the battlefield. we don't have boots on the ground. we don't have great visibility to everything going on there. i'm not going to parse every event. i can tell you, we continue to have conversations with our israeli counter parts continuing and have since the early hours about the need to respect civilian life, the need to act in accordance with the law of conflict to reduce collateral damage to civilian infrastructure. we continue to urge that in all their operations. >> martha: this trip on the part of secretary blinken to meet with arab leaders or his counter parts from all over the arab world. they have indicated right now that this is on the u.s. and israel to solve. particularly when it comes to israel, it's gone too far. they're still condemning that. that's their focus. nothing changes until israel stops. >> i think the arab leaders will admit they know how hard we're working to help eliminate hamas as a threat. we're working at this very hard. that was one of the messages that secretary blinken brought to leaders throughout the region. how seriously we're taking this issue and how much we continue to press it with our israeli counter parts. i think everybody also would admit that hamas brought this on. this attack on october 7 and the slaughter of some 1,400 innocent israelis. hamas is to blame here. they started this. you can't blame israel. no nation, whether it's jewish, democratic state like israel or an arab nation, nobody would take that attack and not retaliate. >> neil: there's some democratic leaders that do blame israel. rasheeda talib has accused the biden administration of genocide and turning the other way. she's been criticized by people like bernie sanders and others. are you concerned this is leading the a schism in the democratic party and those normally that support the president going against him in a foreign affairs matter? >> members of congress have to speak for themselves and for their beliefs about this. we're not focused here at the national security council about the political domestic situation here -- >> neil: what she said is that the administration was supporting genocide. >> of course we're not doing that. what is happening in gaza, again, as terrible as all of these civilian casualties are, there's thousands of them, we don't want there to be any. you can't look at what is happening in gaza and say that it fits the definition of genocide. we don't agree with that description. we think that is an irresponsible way of describing this. we don't associate ourselves with that. in our view, that is not what is happening here. that said as i said at the on the and i want this clear, we don't want to see any civilians hurt. we don't want to see any civilians killed and we will continue to work with our israeli counter parts to minimize that. >> neil: thanks, john. i appreciate it. >> yes, sir. >> neil: john kirby on all of that. meantime, former president donald trump has his day in court and did he let it be known how he feels about it after this. knock, knock. number one broker here for the number one hit maker. -thanks for swinging by, carl. -no problem. so what are all those for? 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(feedback rings) have a choice in how you invest with schwab. there's something going around the gordon home. good thing gertrude found delsym. now what's going around is 12-hour cough relief. and the giggles. the family that takes delsym together, feels better together. with the freestyle libre 2 system, know your glucose level and where it's headed. no fingersticks needed. manage your diabetes with more confidence. freestyle libre 2. try it for free at freestylelibre.us lowe's knows the holiday's don't stop even if your appliances do. that's why during black friday every day we've got deals on lg appliances for your entire home. with the best deals of the season you can make the most of your season. don't miss our black friday every day deals. in store and online. >> neil: all right. donald trump testifying in his $250 million fraud trial going on in manhattan. it will continue the day after tomorrow. ivanka trump will be featured as well. it got a little testy today. nate foy following it all from new york city. nate? >> neil, testy is certainly a good way to put it in the morning and afternoon sessions. more recently in the afternoon session at the end of his temperature, former president donald trump explained how upset he is he doesn't have a jury, this is a bench trial. the judge has full discretion in deciding his punishment. they were discussing loan agreements that the president used. he said his net worth is higher than was listed. so because of that, the state doesn't have a case. in the morning session, there were concerned about the length of trump's answers coming from the judge. the just said "i'm not here to hear what he has to say." that's what former president trump posted about on truth social. >> you can see what a scam this is. this is a case that should have never been brought and should be dismissed immediately. the fraud is on behalf of the court. the court is the fraudster in this case. they made references to assets that were very valuable. >> so during his directed examination, trump again said his net worth isser higher than what was listed. he said he paid the banks back in full and on time. he criticized letitia james who said she remains focused on her case. >> we'll no be bullied or harassed. this case will go on. >> during lunch break today, trump attorney alina habba shot back at james pointing to her history of campaigning going after trump. here she is. >> miss james, you taunted him before you came in to office, before you saw one record. one statement of financial condition. you taunted him. you said his administration was too male and too pale. those are her words. >> former president trump called this a sad day for america when his testimony concluded. you mentioned the trial will resume coming up on wednesday when former president trump's daughter, ivanka, will take the stand. she will be the state's financial witness before president trump's lawyers will call their own witnesses to the stand. now back to you, neil. >> neil: thanks, nate foy in the middle of that. tom dupree is with us. always interesting. when i hear the judge say the principle sort of target, not interested in what he has to say, the former president, man, i don't know if that is a stacked deck right there. >> this judge has made no secrets where he's coming down. he issued a pretrial ruling that granted judgment against the former president on the claims here. so former president trump understands that he may not be able to persuade this judge. but he's playing the a different audience. he's playing to the court of public opinion and probably playing to the appellate courts that will entertain any appeals arising out of an adverse judgment from this trial judge. >> neil: i'm not a lawyer. you're the lawyer. the whole case amazes me because it does seem like a stacked deck whether you like donald trump or not in that the judge already ruled that he committed fraud. so now he's collecting proof or whatever to stack the deck of the proof. there's very little that i think a defense or maybe you can educate me here that can provide what might make him take a 180 on this. >> yeah. that's a fair point. as realistic matter, it's unlikely. i'd say 0% that the former president's team will persuade this judge to come out differently. you're right. in that since, the deck is stacked. that said, trump's legal team can do a few things. for one thing, they can do their best to put evidence in the case supporting their side so that when a court of appeals looks at this, they may say, hey, this trial judge was a little hasty in rushing to jump. look at the evidence showing these were fair evaluations and that sort of thing. >> neil: the fact is the judge ruled that the former president committed fraud. he will rule on that. meet out his punishment. almost guaranteed to follow-through with that $200 million fraud case that could destroy the former president and his business empire. so this is a case now that is advanced to how its preparing for appeal, it would seem to me. >> i think that's exactly right. look, i think another thing the trump legal defense team can do here is to argue that even if you think there was fraud here, judge, the sanctions, these remedies that were discussing are draconian an unwarranted. there's no need to break up the companies, no need to impose a crushing financial penalty. so there are things the trump team can do with the margins. as far as getting this judge to reverse course and do a 180, that is too uphill a battle, this judge has made clear where he stands. >> neil: where is the president comporting himself and how is he with his first lengthy appearance, five hours of testimony today? he got angry. hot under the collar. is it's helping, hurting him from what you heard and seen? >> you know, look, it's not going to help him with this judge. i don't think anything will help him with this judge. the president is sending a clear signal that he thinks this entire case is unfair. he thinks the deck is stacked. he doesn't think he did anything wrong and being very vocal and forthright about it. for me, it's been interesting watching how the things he's been saying on the stand are actually very similar to the things that he's been saying when he leaves the courtroom and gives a press conference. he doesn't have an on and off switch. he's communicating what he thinks about this lawsuit. >> neil: i wonder about those that want to go after him that it might be regrettable that this is sort of the first kickoff case. it does show some blatant stacked deck features here. i'm wondering if some of those are prosecuting those cases including role he had in the georgia recount, the actual january 6th attack on the capitol, that this is a bad way to get the ball rolling. in the eyes of a lot of people, many not fans of the former president, this doesn't smell right. >> yeah, it is curious, neil, that this is the first case out of the gate for all the reasons you mentioned. the trump lawyers have been making an effective point to say that look, no one was harmed by this. it wasn't like the banks lost money. they were sophisticated entities. they knew what the documents said. at the end of the day, the trump lawyers say there's no victim here. if they can get that story to resonate with the american public, i think a lot of people will be asking that same question you just asked. was this really a case that needed to be brought? if so, why does it have to go first when there's the other cases that raise much more serious issues? >> neil: still a ways to go. we'll see. thanks, tom. >> thank you, neil. >> neil: meantime, deep divisions among some democrats right now regarding the administration, its handling of the hamas war and the economy, bidenomics. one key democrat saying so far is to maybe the president should think twice about running for re-election after this. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. thanks to skyrizi i'm playing with clearer skin. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. with skyrizi, nothing on my skin means everything! ♪ nothing is everything ♪ ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. >> neil: axelrod said, you know, mr. president, maybe you should not consider running for re-election. did he run that by barack obama? after this. hey, jen. i need skin advice. sure. am i ready for retinol? neutrogena® retinol? yes! it evens skin tone, and smooths fine lines, with visible results in just one week. sounds like you've said that before. once or twice. neutrogena® retinol >> neil: its one thing when republicans tell the president don't bother running for re-election. but when democrats say it, it raises eyebrows. jacqui heinrich with more with the fallout from the white house. jacqui? >> hi, neil. the president did not touch on the growing democratic anxieties speaking about railway infrastructure investments in delaware this afternoon. progressive democrats are certainly clamoring to get his attention. congress woman rasheeda talib whipped out outrage on time. she posted a montage of clips. her democratic colleagues are getting uncomfortable with her anti-israel rhetoric. >> the 2024 election is in great trouble for the president. for our democratic control. >> people of color are disengaged. muslims are disengaged. the arab community is vehemently upset at the president's handling of gaza. there's a large part of the democratic base that is struggling to come around. >> axios cited one high-ranking dnc official said the president centered his 22 campaign on a battle for the soul of the nation. seems like the administration is currently in a battle for its own soul. still, it's not moving the needle inside the white house. >> we need this is a conflict about where there's strong views on all sides, including in the united states, including frankly within the united states biden administration. all that said, some of those characterizations and the terms used we believe have technical definitions, have certain historical resonance. >> so so far the white house is staying course on its backing of israel. of course, that's going to become harder resolve to maintain. the president in fact was delivering his remarks as the park service was scrubbing fake bloody hand prints off of the walls of the front gate here that were left by dozens of protesters that marched through the capitol this weekend. neal? >> neil: thanks, jacqui. let's go to daniel lipman. you're publication is the one that mentioned the significance of these remarks from david axelrod. a former top adviser to barack obama, which makes you wonder when he's talking about the wisdom of the president considering another run for the white house, whether that goes all the way to barack obama. what do you think? >> i think that obama would never say anything to undercut joe biden. it's a tricky scenario where you have a lot of democrats privately and publicly saying hey, we're going to lose this election with biden on the ticket. it would be harder for kamala harris to win re-election without biden kind of pulling his weight. i don't think axelrod, if you look at the gallup poll from a year before the 2012 election, obama was down by eight points. so polls take awhile to change. they haven't spent hundreds of millions of democratic ad money to make trump unelectable. >> neil: if you to switch horses and went beyond kamala harris and opened this up to other entrants that might be interested, it's almost too late, isn't it? >> yeah, you're right. you're not going to see biden drop out unless it's a serious health issue. he's going to be on the ticket. democrats kind of have to be on the same team if they want biden to have any chance of re-election. so i think what they're counting on is a few convictions, if they happen, a felony charges for trump and then there's a lot of republicans, hundreds of thousands in it -- it only can take 40,000 votes in those swing states to make a big difference. people say i don't want a felon in the oval office even if i'm not a huge fan 0 joe biden. >> neil: you like at the polls showing the president traying five out of six states and some in substantial margins. you're right. it's early. things do change that is history. if you're in the white house and you're getting pressure from fellow democrats, you can understand why they're panicking, right? >> you're right. this is -- these are not good poll numbers. they thought that the economy would turn around more and would -- people would feel the results of lower inflation. but when you see a world on fire and prices have not really come down to the effect where wages have caught up with inflated prices, then it makes it much harder for biden to say, hey, you're doing better than four years ago. so he can -- what trump will say, hey, look at the trump economy. we did so well back then. >> neil: what is interesting, too. and i understand between the statistics that go the president's way, the steady job creation, slowed from early momentum. americans are spending at robust pace. a record amount of summer spending. americans when asked whether they're feeling those good numbers, they're clearly not. that's why the president is in the pickle he's in. they keep saying the trend is our friends. they had little time for the trend to register. oftentimes there's a delayed effect. >> there is. the whole term bidenomics has not gone well. the republicans have flipped it on biden saying, hey, do you really want more bidenomics for four years or do you want tr trumponics and trump handling the economy. so i think they're hoping they can hammer this home, that we're not seeing record inflation. we don't see the numbers. most people have jobs. the unemployment rate is at record lows. people will say, hey, we don't want four more years of chaos with trump back in office. that's not good for the economy either. >> neil: that's how they'll play it if he ends up being the republican nominee. watch it closely. daniel, thank you. really great writer, daniel litman. meanwhile here, the issue about iowa and its governor who had always an acrimonious relationship with donald trump now set to go with ron desantis. that could be a big development. bryan llenas has more. bryan? >> neil, good afternoon. the desantis campaign feels like they have normer president trump on the defensive in iowa. the florida governor has moved a third of his staff to iowa. plus he's visited 87 of the 99 counties in iowa so far. now add in the expected endorsement by republican iowa's governor, kim reynolds tonight and you can see why the campaign feels like they can upset trump in the iowa caucuses. now, reynolds is a popular two-term governor winning re-election by 19 points. she initially said she was going to stay neutral in the race. but two weeks ago signals she would endorse. she says this election is too important. now, trump who takes credit for getting desantis an reynolds elected as governors says the endorsement will be the end of her political career and that maga would never support her again just as maga will never support desanctimonious again. according to the des moines register poll, trump is dominating with 43% support from likely republican voters. desantis and ambassador nikki haley are in second place tied at 16%. a "new york times" sienna college poll finds trump would beat president biden in five of the six critical battle grounds states winning nevada, arizona, pennsylvania, georgia and michigan. the same poll found trump fares better against biden than desantis does in four out of the critical battleground states. desantis says the recent results show that he's more electable than trump is. >> we have blown winnable elections year after year the last three election cycles. the brand of republicans has become toxic. >> a source familiar with the matter tells me that governor reynolds will travel here to miami to fund raise with governor desantis around wednesday's debate that will be hosted here in miami. neil? >> neil: thanks, bryan llenas. the significance of this was julia manchester back with us. how big a deal is this? she's a very popular governor. the iowa governor. so that backing means a great deal. i'm just wondering if it moves the needle given poll numbers show the president running away with it in that state and so many others. >> it could move the needle in iowa for desantis when he's going up against other candidates for second place like nikki haley. you're absolutely right. there is a question as to whether this will ultimately matter going up trump who is running away or seems to be running away with this nomination not only in iowa but across the board. this endorsement plays in desantis' strategy of putting all of his eggs in the iowa basket, looking to win iowa and the caucuses in january and hopes that gives him momentum for new hampshire, south carolina, nevada, super tuesday and so on. there's this question of whether endorsements ultimately matter in general. >> neil: a lot depends on this miami debate wednesday and how the governor performs. again, to your point about endor endorsements, a big carrying card of the desantis folks is that look at all the representatives and others we have backing us. they lost a few in florida, very embarrassing to donald trump. i'm wondering where that part stands. it's supposed to give you political cred. as far as the polls are concerned, it hasn't given the governor polling cred. >> yeah, you can look at this in two ways. it shows how weak the gop establishment is. when i say gop establishment, i mean the part of the party that is more practice additional not supporting donald trump or could show that essentially donald trump is the establishment. he is the one calling the shots and carrying the weight when it comes to polling and the direction of the party. in that clip, we played before of ron desantis talking about the republican brand becoming toxic. he's right if you look at the past few elections. we've seen with trump at the helm in some of these elections, republicans have not done as well. the mid-terms of 2022 are a prime example of that. the issue is that republican primary voters still believe donald trump is more electable than a joe biden. if you look at the recent polling coming out of major swing states like michigan and arizona, it does appear that donald trump could be more electable than joe biden. however, i want to caution this with the fact that we're a year out, a lot can happen in between and a lot will happen in between when it comes particularly to donald trump's legal problems. seems to be playing to his favor right now. there's potentially a pit fall. >> neil: the pit fall is acknowledging the strength that a conviction could change everything. >> it could in terms of logistics. how does it impact his run and him being unable to hit the campaign trail. at the same time, maybe a conviction galvanizes his base. >> neil: it seems to work. the legal problems not withstanding, the more that comes up, the better his pull knobs look. thanks, julia. >> thanks, neil. >> neil: meantime, all the anti-israeli protests on campuses across the country. the fall-out from that after this. get help reaching your goals with j.p. morgan wealth plan, a digital money coach in the chase mobile® app. use it to set and track your goals, big and small... and see how changes you make today... could help put them within reach. from your first big move to retiring poolside - and the other goals along the way. wealth plan can help get you there. ♪ j.p. morgan wealth management. i'm sarah escherich, i'm the life enrichment director at independence village, the senior living community in waukee, iowa. everybody here really, really make you feel like family and that they love you. our goal with tiktok was to enrich the lives of our residents and just to be able to show people what senior living can be like. i think i am a tiktok grandma. my kids think i am. i mean, we're the ones that are being entertained. time goes faster when you're having fun. my most important kitchen tool? my brain. so i choose new neuriva ultra. unlike some others, it supports 7 brain health indicators, including mental alertness from one serving. to help keep me sharp. try new neuriva ultra. think bigger. >> neil: hell hath no furry like ticked off alumni. colleges have under press slur to address growing anti-semitism. they're potentially losing billions in funding. lydia lu with more. >> we've heard from donors threatening to self ties with ivy league schools. this one from bill accman is different. he's calling for suspensions and disciplinary actions for students that address anti-sy method tick and anti-israel activity at harvard. he says the failure by the university at harvard to act could be discrimination against jewish students. a civil rights issue, he says. the jewish students feel unsafe. his open letter published to harvard, ackman says he made with more than 200 students. he said jewish students are being fullied, intimidated and spat on and physically assaulted. students message board have anti-semitic statements. they use elimination as language seeking the destruction of the state of israel and the jewish people. when we reached out to harvard, the university pointed us to previously issued statements that say authorities are investigating. now, neil, if ackman is right and the university's failure to act amounts to a civil rights violation, billions in federal funding could be jeopardized. harvard received more than 3.1 billion in federal payments through grants and contracts over a four-year period. university of pennsylvania, another example received nearly $4.4 billion. it's a lot of money. sure. but neil, still, it's just a portion of the large endowments that the ivy leagues have amassed. $50 billion at harvard alone. roughly $180 billion across all of the ivy leagues combined, neil. back to you. >> neil: yeah, and they still have the rocketing tuition charges. so i never understood that. all right, lydia. thanks for that. samantha joins us. a harvard graduate that shares frustration with its constant reminder that maybe there is some anti-semitism going on there and the schools are not doing enough to address it. good to have you. tell us where you're coming from on this. >> i'm just sort of stunned along with the rest of the jewish community how universities have been reacting to this very blatant anti-semitism on campus. i think bill ackman's letter can be used as a blueprint for every frustrated jewish member on campuses across the country. what he's saying is so essential. we have now understood the last few years the importance of dei and protecting people on raise, disability and sexual orientation. why wouldn't judiasm be a depressed group? how can you not protect your jewish students on campus? it's unacceptable. what claudine gay did at harvard is an example whatnot to do as a leader. it is just an unacceptable way to not address anti-semitism. >> neil: the president of harvard, she was taking a position that was reprehensible. it's their right to state it. when you were there, did you enencounter anti-semitism or friction? >> i was there twice. neither time did i experience any anti-semitism. that is one thing that bill ackman addresses in his letter. when claudine gay made her tepid statement, she said this has been a problem for years. it's not true. she took over as leader a month before october 7. this was her opportunity to shine as a leader. i think it's a message for every business leader, for every university leader, you need to have complete intolerance when it comes to anti-semitism -- >> neil: maybe it was there, samantha and it took an act like this to bring it out? i hope that's not the case. there might have been this anti-semitism beneath the surface, an incident like this brings it to the surface? >> i think that's a very good point. i'm sure there was bubbling anti-semitism that was not as overt. the terrifying thing about what we're seeing in america post october 7th is that it's now become acceptable under the guise of free speech to speak out against jews. we would not accepted this if it was another ethnic group. when you're running a campus or company, you are in charge of keeping your clients safe. in this case, it's the students. the students are the clients. they're not being kept safe. that is an unacceptable place to be. again, i don't like comparing to it other ethnic groups. everybody has their own stories and oppressions. in this case, jews are not being treated as a minority group and they are. until they're included in dei, we'll continue to see this. >> neil: i had a chance to catch up with david solomon and raise this issue whether it's worth remembering the students that write these anti-semitic messages or endorse hamas or palestinians. he didn't distinguish. the argument was it's not clearly distinguished, this is what he said. david solomon. >> some of your colleagues have said that they'd like to get the names of some of those kids that signed on to these positions to make sure that they never hired them. how do you feel about that? >> we have a hiring process. we see lots of talent around the world. we want people to work at goldman sachs that believe in our system of values. as i said to you moments ago, and i repeat, we think that bias or hate against anyone is unacceptable. when we recruit people, we look carefully for people that share our values. >> neil: what do you think of that, samantha? >> he could be stronger about that like any hiring manager would never hire someone that put racest tropes on their social media accounts. we have to have a no tolerance policy when it comes to anti-semitism. when i was on campus, the yard was closed for the first time since the pandemic because of the protests and lack of leadership from the school president. the other thing i ran into, a protest of the doxing truck that was showing faces of students who had signed off on their support for hamas. which obviously is a terrorist organization. these students had left class to stand up against the truck with sheets covering their faces. they were having a protest against the protest. these students were hiding from statements that they had made. the bottom line is we don't hire racists or anti-semites. >> neil: thanks, samantha. want to touch on this with general jerry boykin. i do want to talk about what is militarily going on in this israel hamas war. i'd be remiss if i didn't address the growing protests across the country on elite universities and some not so elite where israel is not favored. in fact, overwhelmingly not so. what do you make of it? does it worry you? . >> yeah, worries me a great deal. i would not have expected this. i would have expected pockets of people that would stand up with the hamas because we see them all the time right here in america. we see people raising funds for hamas here in america. but that said, this really surprises me. i've got to tell you, i think if these schools don't do something about this, then they ought to lose all of their government funding. that's a minimum. >> neil: let me switch gears. this move of getting a nuclear powered submarine to the middle east, that on top of the aircraft carriers what do you make of this build-up? >> first of all, the president is sending a strong message. frankly, applaud his actions on this. i haven't agreed with everything he's done. i do applaud him on this. this is an incredible machine. i was out there on bremerton on the west coast when they actually commissioned this ship. i got to go on it and do some looking around at some of the most highly classified stuff that we have in our subsurface navy. i don't want to talk too much about that. from a functional perspective, this has everything we need. from a psychological perspective, if this doesn't get your attention, this war will go on longer than anybody can imagine. >> neil: i did want your take, general, talking about this pressure. or what they call tactical pauses. israel is obviously going to decide for himself or whether it enforces them or follows them. do you think we should be advising that? >> no, absolutely not. i think the president did a good thing when he came out saying we are going to stand with israel. within a week, you seem to be getting cold feet. you cannot give hamas any advantage at all. when you start talking about a pause, thinking about this. they have continued to say we are going to do it again. we are going to do it again until we have eradicated israel. that is the people we want to have a strategic pause with. these are the people that have not back down one bit. to give hamas an opportunity to refit and get back into their positions, i think, is a terrible mistake. >> thank you very much. i apologize for the truncated time. former delta force commander. he is the real deal. thank you for your service as well. a bit of a comeback today. interest rates backing up a tad. i could be a lot worse. a six-day winning streak. here is "the five." ♪ ♪