thousands of americans support their voice for israel and amid the antisemitism plaguing the nation. welcome back. >> sandra: great to be with you. watching the live event in this hour, "america reports" now, historic rally starting moments ago as jewish community members, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, families of the hostages are set to address a massive crowd today. >> john: the event sparking concern for law enforcement as the department of homeland security has deemed the march a level 1 security threat. highest in ranking system amid a rising amount of threats against jewish americans in recent weeks. >> sandra: complete coverage now, speaking with one of the organizers of this event. julie platt will be joining us in moments what she wants to see out of this. >> john: first to the team of reporters, griff jenkins on the reaction he is hearing from rally goers and mark meredith with the latest from the national mall. who are we expecting to hear from this hour, mark? >> john, we have a long list of speakers, those, some in congress, entertainers, and the people most impacted since early october, the families waiting every hour to get an update on their loved ones condition, those held hostage in gaza. as far as what we have seen on the national mall, israeli and american flags as far as the eye can see. tens of thousands of people piling in since about 10:00 p.m., the official program will get underway a few minutes from now. but we are going to be hearing from the israeli president, delivering remote address, also hearing from the new house speaker as well as top congressional democrats what will talk about what can be done to show americans continued support for israel. as you and sandra mentioned, security is top of mind here, given not only the large crowd, but also because of the antisemitic attacks and threats we have seen rise since early october. we had a chance to catch up with organizers a few hours ago to ask them how they were feeling going into an event, as of a few weeks ago was not going to exist and they say they are proud to see the jewish american community come together. >> it's just incredibly hurtful and like another punch in the gut. but thankfully, thousands and thousands of americans who stand with us, who stand with israel, stand against antisemitism, stand for the immediate release of the hostages. >> and that's one thing we have heard over and over again from the speakers, remember the hostages. john, striking is so many different signs, saying cleveland loves israel, miami loves israel, atlanta loves israel, busses chartered, possibly a plane chartered to bring people here to the national mall. and you may ask why tuesday, why in the middle of the week, most people have to work. the organizers said they wanted to make sure members of congress who work right in the building behind us could see for themselves how jewish americans are feeling and their questions and concerns. >> john: a lot of people coming, not the president or the vice president, though. the president is winging his way to the west coast, did not hear why the vice president is not coming. mark, thank you. sandra. >> sandra: to our national correspondent griff jenkins, in the crowd now. griff, what are you seeing and hearing? >> well, sandra, i'm seeing tens of thousands, i don't know what numbers are going to be, but issue been covering rallies and marches on the mall for more than 20 years and let me show you where we are. i wanted to find the rear -- you can see the people coming for as long as we can see. in fact, this family here came from new york. >> jonathan. >> idea. >> why did you come down? >> this is important for us, represent our brothers and sisters. it's important because people are -- there's a lot of misinformation going on around out there and i think people don't understand that we are a people of peace and for us the message is peace and love. don't want war, don't like what's going on not only the media but and the world that people are misrepresenting what the jewish faith is all about, what jewish people are about and we support our people in israel. >> you are here with your children, family. why are you here, what do you want the younger people to understand about today? >> well, i mean, we are here because we are marching for our homeland. action over words. we live in a world run by digital and i think showing up in the flesh, standing for something you believe in, right versus wrong and here to represent and not backing down. >> we'll let you go ahead. people coming in and they have been coming for hours. we have been out here since 6:00 a.m.. definitely going to be a large crowd. as you mentioned, sandra and john, obviously security, level 1 security is taken very seriously and while you can see people out on the grass here, further in the closer to the stage, it's under fencing and very intense security to get past the magometers to get into the event. >> sandra: we will check back in with you. quite a crowd. >> john: julie platt, the chair of the jewish federations of north america, one of the organizers for today's rally. quite a turnout, julie. you may have a problem hearing me because the volume is probably pretty loud. what do you want to come out of this gathering today? >> what we are praying for is exactly what we see. hundreds of thousands of jews and allies coming together to express their solidarity with israel, to speak out loudly against antisemitism and to make it clear that we must bring the hostages home. we dreamed of how many people might come and this will far exceed our wildest dreams. there are people all the way down the national mall. we needed to come together and they showed up and we are so thrilled to create this community for the north american jewish community. >> john: that stands in sharp contrast with a lot of demonstrations in cities across america, on college campuses, across america, and it's interesting that there are reports that this has been designated by the department of homeland security as a level 1 security risk which is on the same level as the super bowl. what does it say that in america in 2023 a rally against antisemitism, in support of the hostages, is a security risk? >> i can't really believe where we are in this moment that this would require this kind of security. on the other hand, we wanted to make sure that everyone felt safe, felt able to bring their children, their parents, their grandparents here to safely gather. so we implored security across the city of washington, d.c., to stand with us and to provide that security. so that we could safely stand up against antisemitism and i think this is the strongest possible way to make that point and make it safely. >> john: so there was a large amount of bipartisan support there at the rally. i know that the speaker of the house johnson is going to be there, the senate majority leader chuck schumer, along with other bipartisan members of congress. notably absent, though, the vice president and the president. the president left a short time ago for the summit in san francisco. he lands there at 1:45 in the afternoon. but he doesn't have anything until 6:45 at night, and that is a campaign reception. would you have liked the president to delay his departure for a couple hours so he could be there? >> honestly, the only thing i can say is that i am grateful that we have bipartisan support for the state of israel and in the fight against antisemitism and for us today, the person who is speaking for us from president biden's administration is ambassador debra lipstat, whose goal is to join us in this very important fight against antisemitism. she is the best possible person to speak on behalf of president biden because she is our partner in this work. >> john: all right. how troubled are you by what you see in these demonstrations that i mentioned across the country and particularly on college campuses that have risen up in the wake of october 7th and israel's response to it. many jews in america say wow, we are hearing echos of 1938 here, and that is an unbelievably dark place for this country to be going. >> i don't want to go there. i want to tell you that our government, our law enforcement, the members of every state, local municipality and government are with us. i don't think this is 1939 germany. this is the united states of america. i think there are loud voices against us. i think we are mighty as you can see on the national mall. we are loud and mighty and will make this horrible moment in american history go away. >> john: well, loud certainly is a good way to describe it and certainly crowded. julie platt, thank you for joining us. >> it is very loud right now. thank you. >> john: we'll let you get back to the rally. >> thank you so much. >> john: wow, sandra, that's an unbelievable crowd today. >> sandra: yeah, and one of the -- one of the things coming up is going to be a segment on the stage, a hostage segment, led by actress debra messing on stage, she's going to have the mother and some of the family members of some of the hostages. we will certainly be meeting for that. ambassador herzog will give a greeting. a lot of really important things will be happening and members of congress both sides of the aisle. so, we are going to be getting in and out of some of these live events as they happen there in washington, john. >> john: it is amazing. you consider over the weekend, 180,000 people that marched in paris, which stood for antisemitism, which -- which, or against antisemitism, rather, stood in contrast to the anti-israeli rallies that we had seen across the country, and people were saying where is the rally against antisemitism here in the united states? they are going it in paris, why aren't they doing it here. to see the national mall is a powerful answer. >> sandra: a student, nyu student who has not felt safe on campus, we are going to talk to her, ask her thoughts and what she thinks about the absence of our top leadership in the country, the president and vice president not in attendance today. as the march for israel gets underway in washington, president biden says a deal to free hostages held by hamas is going to happen. idf capturing hamas parliament, government and police headquarters, as israel releases new footage of hamas tunnels under gaza shifa hospital. trey yingst is live in southern israel for us. what is the latest from the battlefield? >> hey, sandra, good afternoon. 39 days into this conflict between israel and hamas, hamas has maintained their abilities to fire rockets toward major population centers in southern and central israel. sirens were sounding in tel aviv, sending hundreds of thousands to bomb shelters. inside gaza strip, fierce battles rage on. we understand 47 israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground operation began. about two and a half weeks ago. israelis say they are in operational control of a camp in the northern part of gaza. this was largely considered to be a hamas headquarters and stronghold for the organization inside the strip. much of the fighting continues to take place inside gaza. we do expect the coming days and weeks to be very difficult for the israelis as they look to capture more territory and get civilians out of the way. they are continuing the air campaign against the gaza strip, targeting the jabalia camp yesterday. they say 31 were killed in the strike, don't know the break down of civilians versus hamas. >> sandra: we'll see you again soon, trey. thank you. john. >> john: another liberal columnist urging president biden to drop out of the 2024 race saying a diverse candidate is needed to better suit the democratic base. ben is here on whether the liberals obsession with identity politics could sink the president's re-election bid. plus this. >> they looked at floyd bennet field, in the middle of nowhere in brooklyn and say i don't want to stay here, i'm going to go back. >> sandra: a family is refusing to relocate to a $20 million site in brooklyn. they say the conditions and the location is not nice enough. how new york city officials should respond to those demanding better accommodations? 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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 to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. >> john: tragic story out of ohio, a charter bus carrying high school band students was involved in a deadly crash. three people were killed and 15 others hurt after a semi truck rear ended the bus on interstate 70 west this morning, about 40 miles outside of columbus. the superintendent for tuscarora west valley local school posted a message on the district's facebook page, said students and chaperones on board were travelling to a conference when the accident happened. >> sandra: absolutely tragic. we'll continue to update that. meanwhile, president's unpopularity, a warning, biden's age and lack of diversity could sink democrats up and down the ballot nationwide and urging him to step aside in 2024. ben is joining us now, editor at large, and fox news contributor. i'll ask you about the ral in washington. you stopped by earlier. but first the "washington post" piece and what you take from it, saying if biden were the first woman, it reads, lgbtq person or person of color as president there would be a strong case to re-elect him to show the country embraces leaders who are not straight white men but not that symbolic or cultural case, also biden's age is a real issue. so, what do you make of this all happening as these concerns over his re-election seem to continue to grow and a fever pitch? >> look, i love it when the left is particularly honest how much they have put identity politics at the center of everything they believe as a substitute for a kind of ideology or philosophy or anything approaching the way that they view the world, instead it is this all-encompassing religion. they say if joe biden was doing the exact same things and yet he occupied a position we would describe on the left as victim-based, some kind of victim of history, victim based on their race, ethnicity, the color of their skin, their background, gender identity, etc., then of course the case would be strong to re-elect him. but the problem is he's just another old white guy, so we should get rid of him. i mean -- it's so blatant. you can't really avoid but laugh at it a little bit. but the truth is that what's really going on here, joe biden is so old and so out of touch, so incapable really of performing the basic tasks of the presidency that he's not going to be able to perform the basic tasks of a presidential candidate. a rose garden campaign, even without the spector of covid, he cannot function as a traditional candidate and i say an along with many other people if you can't function as a traditional presidential candidate you can't function as president either. >> sandra: interesting analysis there. this is from "fox & friends" first this morning, they put together a montage of minority voters who say they are ditching joe biden. listen. >> it's not just black americans, it's hispanic americans, asian americans, indian americans, diverse communities as a whole are definitely moving away from the democratic party. >> i can't name one benefit for me and my family, i can't name a policy we benefit from. >> janelle king, and jackson brown, that could be a problem if there's more of those janelles and jasons who feel the same. >> and democrats are aware of, those are voters who they are going to have a very difficult time motivating based on the record and based on the approach that the president has used. his embrace of the state of the economy as bidenomics, it damages people in the working class, includes a lot of minority voters who democrats have counted on. if they stay home, it has a huge, glaring sign of problems for the democratic party and when it comes to motivating them, why they are gripping, white knuckling on the issue, hoping they are going to be able to make up for this loss in support in minority communities increasingly trending. >> sandra: quick live pictures out of washington, this march for israel, it is happening, speakers right now, this is a massive crowd. i know you were out there earlier, what did you think? >> it is absolutely massive and you know, i think that it's very impressive in terms of the -- in terms of the turnout for something like this, especially on a working day and i think that's because so many people feel so strongly about this issue and have seen so many of the images of antisemitism, hate across the country, they want to send a message to congress and i hope congress is listening. >> we'll be watching as a whole list of speakers is coming up, we'll dip in for some of them, and also the president will be speaking -- president herzog, live from the western wall. john. >> john: young americans spending big on experiences instead of saving money. so, funflation driving up prices. >> sandra: and iran proxies carrying out over 50 strikes in the middle east. is the biden administration doing enough for strength in the region. we will be told how the u.s. can start deterring attacks like them. >> there's an axis of terror here against alliance for peace. axis of terror is controlled by iran, run by iran, financed by iran. r activities, and it has been consistent with several policies that we have, one, to try to reduce iran's leverage over iraq and two, to try to wean iraq from iranian energy independence. we have had policies to assure their energy independence, in the meantime they buy iranian electricity so we have in the past, as has the trump administration, issued waivers to move to restricted accounts to be used for humanitarian and other nonsanctionable purposes. >> potential optics of i guess extending a sanction waiver while iranian proxy groups are attacking u.s. assets in the middle east? >> we don't worry about optics, we worry about reality and the reality is these funds as i said can only be used for humanitarian and other nonsanctionable purposes and when it comes to holding iran accountable for destabilizing activities, we have imposed more than 400 sanctions on iran since the outset of this administration. in the past few weeks, taken a number of actions to ensure deterrence and to -- the pentagon has conducted strikes against iranian-backed militias and we will hold iran accountable for the destabilizing in a number of manners. >> you don't worry about optics, you worry about reality. aren't optics reality? >> no, no. i mean -- we are going to get into a bet of a metaphysical debate. >> when you see is what you get, that's reality, right? >> i would say what's -- what you see is what you get. the optics in the terms i mean the optics is people taking this and misinterpreting it and saying it's something that is not has happened in the past when it has come to the waivers and i'm making clear the waivers have dated back to the trump administration. >> what is it that it is not? what are you saying -- >> i will say what it is, and let those who tend to talk about these waivers over and over again, they can speak for themselves. >> okay. are you saying that this is an absolute straight up renewal of what has been done in the past and there are no changes to it, it doesn't allow the iranians to convert money from iraqi dinars into euros? >> i am not going to speak to a new waiver, one has not been issued at this point. if we get to the point to talk about a new waiver, i'll be happy to talk about specifics but the waivers in the past are clear the funds are held -- >> you are saying should there be a waiver this afternoon, it will be exactly the same, don't change anything? >> i won't be here tomorrow, i'll be here furs, if something has happened the next time at the podium, i'll talk bit. >> what about the fungibility argument. why is that wrong? >> we have heard this a lot, addressed it a lot. with respect to the iranian regime, it has always funded destabilizing activities. one of its top priorities. it does it whether the people receive humanitarian benefits or not. to the extent the people have greater access to food or medicine covered by the waiver, it would not have otherwise been available to them and i would say again it's a policy that goes back to the previous administration. the previous administration apparently decided that it was worthwhile to have this money spent for the benefit of the iranian people with whom we have no quarrel, our quarrel is with the iranian regime and destabilizing activities. so our -- what we see is iranian regime that whether the waivers are issued or not, whether their people benefit from the moneys or not, funds hostile activity, that has not changed going back years. >> whether or not they benefit from this money, isn't that the whole point, the whole point is that they are supposed to. but the problem and the argument against this is that iranians are going to spend the same amount of money on their people as they did before but now they have another 10 billion or so to -- >> i don't accept that argument. what we believe -- no -- what we believe the iranian regime is going to spend the same amount of money on destabilizing activities, it always has and we will hold them accountable as we have from the beginning of this administration. what we have seen is when the waivers have been issued, that money has been used for the benefit of the iranian people, period. >> yeah, and the money that they had inside of iran that would have been spent on this, is then freed up for. >> you are making assumption the iranian government -- let me -- let me finish. you are making assumption the iranian government is choosing the benefit of the people over funding terrorism and other destabilizing action. >> you are making the assumption. >> no, i'm not. a first priority, fund destabilizing activities, increasing the amount of money that flows for the benefit of the iranian people is worthwhile and this is money that was paid -- that iraq owes to iran for electricity that iran delivered. >> yeah, but -- you are twisting it 180°, opposite of -- i'm not saying that they are not going to spend any of this money on food and medicine. >> that's all this money can be spent on. >> yeah. about you that means that they have x amount of dollars more in their own treasury that they can spend on destabilizing activities. >> only if you assume they are going to fund food and medicine and other activities and i'm saying it's not necessarily a correct assumption. >> you said that they were, and you said also that -- >> no. >> they are going to still fund destabilizing activities. >> i said their first priority is destabilizing. >> why would give them, not give them money, why would you do this? >> i feel we are arguing in circles a bit. not for the first time. >> no, it's not. and this has gone back for several administration's now because i don't understand your argument that you can be so sure that none of this money is going to increase the amount of cash that iran spends to destabilize. >> because iran does -- what we see when making its choices for how to spends its money, the iranian regime does not choose to feed its people first, they fund destabilizing activities first. they always have, as far as we can tell always will. so looking at this money, we see the benefit to allowing these funds to move again to restricted accounts where they can only benefit the iranian people. >> all right. i -- >> go ahead, jen. >> i don't understand how youp can't see -- >> i don't understand how you -- well, we don't understand each other, i think. go ahead, jen. i don't think we are allowed to. i think we are stuck with each other. go ahead. let -- i'll come to you. no, no, jen. i will come -- >> going back to the hostages, though, the president gave some indication of optimism that a deal is going to be done. what is underpinning that optimism now? >> because we continue to work for it, hopeful we'll be able to secure the release, first and foremost, the american citizens but all the civilians held, women and children now prisoners for more than a month. so, as long as there is a possibility to bring them home, we will work to do it. i just don't want to talk about the underlying details that leads us to believe there is still a possibility. >> concrete movement toward that end, towards the agreement? >> ongoing discussions. i don't want to characterize where the discussions are. >> iteration of a deal to include all ten americans. >> i don't want to talk about the contours of what a deal might be. >> guys, guys, i will -- guys, i will -- let jen finish. >> is it the case there is not a formal assessment done by the u.s. government whether israel is adhering to international -- >> we monitor the use of our weapons and the actions israel takes and any conflict but not going to speak to internal deliberation. >> i'm not going to speak to internal deliberations inside the department. now. >> thank you for your patience. such as it is. >> i can wait all day. hamas spokesman suggested that they will release 70 hostages for a five-day pause. would that be acceptable to the united states? >> i think you'll understand, i'm not going to negotiate in public about a sensitive matter. >> on principle. >> i'm not going to take a negotiation question from the podium. >> can you update us on the status of the pauses? we have had a pause or two -- is that ongoing or did that stop, what's going on? from what you see and read and so on, there are no pauses taking place. >> there are pauses taking place. something the secretary pushed for when we were in israel, very direct conversations with the prime minister about it. you saw him come out and talk about the conversations afterwards and over the week, ten days after we left israel you saw israel implement pauses and every day they announce pauses in areas to alaw the evacuation of civilians along corridors. we think the pauses ought to be longer. we will continue with the government of israel. an one more thing, sunday morning, saturday night here, we have not seen any figures released from the shifa hospital because it's completely out of service. last count was 11,087, something like that. do you have any way of keeping track of the number of palestinians killed? >> we don't. we don't have an accurate assessment or assessment that we know to be accurate about the number of palestinians who have been killed. as the secretary said last week, far too many innocent palestinians killed. >> i don't know how i can speak to that from here. >> on the west bank, quickly, a rampage going on by the army, by the settlers and so on. last night they went -- they killed 12 palestinians, or 10 palestinians, the number has exceeded 200 since october 7th and so on. are you guys concerned, are you doing anything to make sure that things don't blow out -- >> we are concerned about the issue. you heard the secretary speak to this. he spoke to it when we were in israel, in fact. the secretary has made very clear we condemn extremist violence and harassment against palestinians, had a district conversation with the prime minister about it and what he said to them is that the violence against settlers is unacceptable, we think the government needs to rein it in and hold people accountable and watching to see what steps they take. >> it has accelerated since this conversation. >> we expect them to take action and will watch to see they do. >> on shifa hospital, you and others in the administration have spoken about hospitals and hamas operating under them. is the u.s. taking any steps to declassify, to share more information about what it has regarding shifa? >> i don't want to talk about what we may or may not declassify before we take any action, just as i don't want to talk about intelligence matters from the podium. as i said yesterday, as you heard the national security adviser say over the weekend and the secretary has spoken to, we do know hamas has used hospitals as command centers and buried tunnels under command centers and say something about hospitals that number one, we want hospitals to be protected. we don't want to see any civilians and certainly not babies in incubators or other vulnerable populations caught in a crossfire. we want hamas to stop using hospitals as command posts. that would be the easiest way to solve this problem, if they would stop using the civilians in hospitals as humanitarian shields. but then i would also say that we want there to be safe evacuation for patients at hospitals so they can get out of harm's way. we would support an independent third party to conduct those evacuations. we know the government of israel would support such a step as well. they have said they would support such a step. the question is will they use them as human shields, appropriate step is to protect. >> has a third party candidate been identified to work on those evacuations and hamas front, has the u.s. made appeal through qatar or anyone else to do what you said? >> we are in conversations with a number of humanitarian organizations and third parties about this very topic. i don't want to speak to those issued in detail, but it's very much something that we would support, and i will just say generally we have sent mess tags through qataris and other counterparts to hamas, that they should allow evacuation. >> sandra: back to the state department and this briefing shortly. we are now going to go to the march for israel where we now have a live broadcast feed from the western wall, president herzog is speaking. let's listen. >> in the jewish world, western wall in jerusalem, reminds us that we, the people of israel, are eternal and no one will break us. [cheering] from the jewish symbol of fulfillment of our ancient dreams, to the american symbols of freedom, liberty, and democracy, thank you, thank you, hundreds of thousands gathered from all over the united states, all people of good will, friends from different communities, faiths and denominations who have gathered today for this massive show of solidarity. in the state of israel's darkest moment you stood up and declared i am here, we are here. there's no greater and more just cause than this. today we come together as a family, one big, to march for israel. to march for the babies, the boys and girls, women and men, viciously held hostage by hamas. to march for the right of every jew to live proudly and safely in america, in israel and all around the world. [cheering] above all, we come together to march for good over evil, for human morality over blood thirst. we march for light over darkness. 80 years ago jews came out of auschwitz and vowed never again. as the blue and white flag was hoisted over our ancient homeland, we vowed never again. 40 days ago a terrorist army invaded the sovereign state of israel and butchered hundreds upon hundreds of israelis in the largest massacre since the holocaust. let us cry out together never again, never again! never again is now! the hamas savagery and crimes against humanity bring to mind as president biden has said the worst rampages of isis. we, the people of israel, are grateful to president biden, his administration, and so many members of congress on both sides of the aisle. the morale clarity and bold actions of our american allies demonstrate the depths of the u.s.-israel alliance, stronger than ever before. since october 7th, israeli society and the jewish people have truly come together in unison. we feel our hearts beat as one. we hear our brothers and sisters blood crying out to us from the ground. once again in jewish history we demand let our people go! [cheering] while our loved ones are held captive in gaza and our soldiers are fighting for our beloved israel, jews all over the world are assaulted for being jewish. the hatred, the lies, the brutality, disgraceful outbursts of antisemitism embarrassment to all civilized people and nations. jews in america must be safe. jews all over the world must be safe. i salute you. the women and men who stand up to massive hatred and pressure in the community or on campus. just as you stand with us, we stand with you. dear brothers and sisters, dear friends, as president of the state of israel, i vow to you from jerusalem, that we will heal, we will rise again,s and we will rebuild. [cheering] to paraphrase a prophet, boys and girls should once again play in the streets of barri and sderot, and when the sights of sounds of laughter return to the kibbutz and the cities, our constant yearning for peace will return as well. together, together we pray for the safe return of our hostages. together we pray for the full recovery of the wounded. and together we pray for our beloved sons and daughters in the idf. may god bless them and keep them. together we grieve and together we shall overcome. god bless israel, god bless america. [cheering] >> sandra: that was the israeli president herzog addressing the large and growing crowds there on the national mall in washington, together we grieve together we shall overcome. speaking live, broadcasting live to the crowd in washington from the western wall. john. >> john: one of the holiest places in the jewish faith there because of the proximity to the temple mount. a quick button on the state department briefing, gillian turner and matt lee from the a.p. were grilling matt miller on was that the state department has just renewed a series of waivers that allows iraq to pay for iranian electricity in noniraqi bank, and critics say it just gives iran access to billions more dollars. some quibbling by the state department what the money to be used for, they say every dollar you don't spend on one thing you can spend on another. so -- >> sandra: and we'll continue to bring the news as the briefing continues. >> john: israel now, and bring in mark dubowitz, ceo of the defense for democracies, we were chatting together last week in washington, d.c. tell us what happened there before you came on here. >> i arrived last night, i've been in israel for extensive meeting with the israeli government, military, i'm just -- ran into a bomb shelter as continued rocket fire, missile fire falls on israel. so, it's -- we are certainly in a war footing here and you can see it in the faces of every israeli. what i've been struck by is the resolve and the commitment to bounce back from this terrible tragedy and do what needs to be done. >> and while you are running for shelter from the missiles from gaza, report there a missile was intercepted in the red sea area, the only time that happened in the past was when something was fired by the houthis from yemen. possible multi-day pause to facilitate release of some hostages, and then the focus on al-shifa hospital, the idf has surrounded here, it's believed, they say that, is where hamas is headquartered. matt miller said we want to see the hospitals protected, and saying the united states and israel would support a third party evacuation of that hospital. what do you know of the situation on the ground there in regard to al-shifa? >> john, i think the reporting is accurate, and matt miller was right. he often isn't, but he was right on this, israelis are doing everything possible to facilitate the release of patients and doctors and hamas is doing everything possible to keep those people in the shifa hospital so they can be used as canon fodder, as human shields. hamas is preventing the exit of these people for humanitarian reasons and i think it's a familiar pattern for the past 39 days, hamas has done everything possible to prevent palestinian civilians from leaving the war zone and going to safety in southern gaza. it's cynical, brutal, but what you would expect from hamas and from isis when we fought them in syria and iraq. >> john: and a great deal of your expertise is geared toward iran, and benjamin netanyahu was warning on "hannity" last night if hamas is allowed to survive, the threat from iran could you'lly affect western countries. listen to what he said. >> we have to win to protect israel, we have to win to safeguard the middle east. we have to win for the sake of the civilized world. that's the battle we are fighting and it's waged right now, there is no substitute for that victory. if we don't win now, europe is next and you are next. and we have to win. >> john: if we don't win now, europe is next and you are next after that. is that risk real? i mean, it seems to me, i could be wrong here, iranian proxies and it's not iran that would get directly involved, but proxies don't have global reach. they could try to mount terrorist attacks. anything beyond that? >> well, i think the risk is two-fold. iran is developing nuclear weapons, working on an intercontestantnal ballistic missile, one address, the u.s. homeland. so the brutal regime, massacring its own people and israelis, it's catastrophe for u.s. national security. the second risk is if hamas is allowed to succeed in massacring israelis on israel's southern border, it sends a message to terrorists, particularly on our southern border, they can come into our border communities and massacre and rape our people. and what happens in the middle east does not stay in the middle east, and hit us on 9/11, and it sends a message there will be a severe price if they provoke the united states. >> john: weigh in on what gillian turner and matt lee from the a.p. were asking matt miller at the state department a little while ago, the renewal of these waivers that allow iraq to buy iranian electricity with money from noniraqi banks. critics say that gives iran access to billions of dollars. state department was pushing back on that. what do you say? >> well, matt miller is right on hamas's cynical use of al-shifa hospital and wrong on what is taking place here, and it's pretty complicated technically. when the trump administration give the waiver, they had to pay with dinar, gave iran limited access and use of the money. what the biden administration has expanded and now no escrow account, and no dinars, it's now in euros, and they can use the money from any purpose they want. and they don't care about the humanitarian needs of the people, they care about funding their proxies, about building up their nuclear and icbm program and creating terror across the region and around the world. you give them access to $10 billion going straight into the bank accounts of the regime's terrorists. >> john: on the one hand, iranian proxies are attacking u.s. proxies in the middle east, the other, giving iran access to billions of dollars. a lot of people think it does not make sense. >> john, it makes no sense. in a sense, we are basically -- giving $10 billion to iraqi militias to attack our troops. >> john: right. mark, good to see you. good look on your meetings there. check back with you in the days ahead. appreciate it. >> thank you, john. >> sandra: we mentioned the grilling some of the reporters, including our own, were giving matt miller at the state department, this briefing is ongoing and right now he is being asked more about the hostage situation. he says we'll support third party to conduct evacuations from gaza hospitals, don't want to see civilians, certainly not babies and vulnerable populations caught in the crossfire. >> israeli airstrike killed a reuters correspondent. do you have any comment on that? >> we mourn the loss of every civilian life in this conflict, israeli, palestinian, lebanese or citizens of any other country. and i've spoken to this before. we know journalists put themselves in harm's way to bring the truth to people around the world and we commend them for that activity. it's one of the bravest acts you can ask anyone to do and when a journalist loses their life we are deeply sorry for having that occur. >> you say that you can't adjudicate every example, similar to discussion we had c airstrikes as well. department has, you know, the global engagement center that is constantly putting out material about governments around the world, you know, doing this information, this information. is that something that you would look at and you know, some examples there, and other examples that have come out as the israeli government, hamas as well. >> if we saw examples of disinformation, of course it's something we would call out. you have to remember the fog of war and everyone makes mistakes. i'm not saying that's what happened here, i have no way to independently determine myself but a difference between governments or individuals that make mistakes or claims they then later have to update when new facts become available and intentional deliberate misinformation over periods of time. >> you have the parts of the government that call out governments for misinformation but tends to be governments that your adversaries write, so you know, you could show some willingness to make the same judgments when it comes to your friends like israel. >> if we saw sustained campaign by israel or other government we would call it out. it's -- it's authoritarian regimes. more you would see us calling it out in the regimes that don't have the free press to challenge the information put out by the government but deliberate misinformation campaign we would call it out, no matter who it was. >> yesterday i asked you about russian delegation present at the summit, leaders summit in san francisco. turns out -- one who was sanctioned by the e.u. last december. do you have an issue that the e.u. sanctioned russian official will be in the same room with the president and oh >> i will let the e.u. speak to their sanctions. as the host of apec, we have a responsibility, we take our host obligation, responsibility and that includes hosting officials from all the members of apec, but we do it consistent with u.s. sanctions policy and rules and regulations. >> as a violation of e.u. sanction. >> i'm not going to get into technical sanction questions. i would say we have an obligation as the host. we attend, one of the things about diplomacy, you attend a lot of meetings whose policies you object to and sometimes things they have done, but we have a responsibility to conduct diplomacy on behalf of the united states. >> and second question ahead of the congressional hearing, in terms of the future -- you have azerbaijan celebrating a victory in a town surrounded by russian army. you have armenia bullied by russia every day saying i'm not going to go anywhere. is there a happy ending in your