an end here in new york city. defense team expected to call an accounting professor as an expert witness. so the president may take questions from reporters before going inside and if that happens, we shall bring it to you. first the fireworks from last night. >> nikki haley, she caves any time the left comes after her. any time the media comes after her. >> he continues to lie about my record. >> the only person for fascist than the biden regime is nikki haley. >> he has insulted nicki highlyy's basic intelligence. not her positions, her basic intelligence. >> bill: wow, tough night in alabama. republicans honing in on nikki haley while largely ignoring the elephant in the room that wasn't in the room. good morning, everybody. thursday. hope you are having a good day. i'm bill hemmer. >> dana: i'm dana perino and this is "america's newsroom." we're ever closer to the first votes in iowa. >> bill: yes, we are. >> dana: that was the final debate before the iowa caucuses. the brunt of the attacks were aimed at nikki haley. she expected that despite polls showing that president trump is far and away the frontrunner. haley and desantis a distant second and the former president skipping the debate. >> bill: christie sounded like this. >> we've had these three acting as if the race is between the four of us. the fifth guy who doesn't have the guts to show up and stand here, the fact is that when you go and you say the truth about somebody who is a dictator, a bully, who has taken shots at everybody, whether they've given him great service or not over time, who dares to disagree with him, then i understand why these three are timid to say anything about him. >> dana: first alexis mcadams is live in alabama with the morning after. good morning. >> good morning, dana and bill. as you said it was a tough night on the debate stage. nikki haley was hammered hard by those candidates. she expected that and she didn't even respond to some of it saying it isn't worth my time to respond to some of these attacks. they went after her hard saying you aren't even a real conservative and saying that she needs to do more to step up to the plate and stop taking money from democratic donors. watch this. >> these wall street liberal donors make money in china. they are not going to let her be tough on china and she will cave to the donors. nikki is corrupt. a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house. this is the problem using identity politics more effectively than kamala harris is a form of intellectual fraud. >> trump skipped the debate and hit a town hall with sean hannity in iowa. he wasn't on the stage trump was a hot topic. the moderators asking if trump is mentally fit to be president, desantis saying it's not a question of his mental fitness but his age. chris christie didn't mince words, though. check this out. >> father time is undefeated. the idea we put someone up there almost 08 and no effects, we all know that's not true. >> i'm in the race because the truth needs to be spoken. he is unfit. >> so trump's team firing back this morning saying the battle for second place has become the biggest waste of time money and energy that politics has ever seen. according to the latest monmouth university poll trump has a 40-point lead against the competition. the poll also finds, dana and bill, most supporters of the former president say they would have preferred a primary where no one opposed him for the gop nomination. back leave in alabama we heard from nikki haley who shrugged off the attacks saying they are jealous she is getting a surge in the polls and doing better than they are right now. trump said the other day trump will hold onto the lead. all the others will be back in the hawkeye state. we'll keep an eye on it. >> dana: thank you. >> bill: josh holmes former mitch mcconnell chief of staff. nice to have you on here. the buffet is yours, josh. you can take 15 seconds, a minute. what was your takeaway? >> i appreciate that, bill. the florida is open. look, my first takeaway is we could do a lot worse, america could do a lot worse than the people on that stage. my second take away is we probably will. what these candidates all needed was separation. they needed consolidation and separation. i don't think anybody got it last night. they take turns one after another sort of turn at the barrel. ron desantis and ramaswamy and everybody pointed their guns toward nikki haley. she moved up in the polls. a validation of that. who is doing their best stuff? desantis translated conservative anxieties into accomplishments he had already done in florida. i also thought that chris christie. his pitch isn't every republican's cup of tea it's his best stuff on message as he sees as the insufficient -- i don't see anything changing here. >> dana: you mentioned ron desantis. i want to play this for you. this is what he said could happen even though the polls say what they say. watch. >> so we have a great idea in america but the voters make the decisions not pundits or pollsters . i'm sick of hearing about these polls. i remember the polls in november of 2022 said there would be a big red wave, monumental. it crashed and burned. the one place it didn't crash and burn was in the state of florida. >> dana: what do you think about that? a lot of the polls are very consistent but does he have a point? >> well, they are pretty consistent. you always have a problem with a poll where the polls don't go your way. clearly that's not going to be the case for anybody on this field other than donald trump. all that being said he is right. at the end of the day it is about the voters in iowa, a caucus system. turnout is pretty important. you have four candidates working their tails off in iowa and donald trump with the lead and sat on top of it. whether or not those sort of deficiencies within that campaign ultimately translate to a sea change in terms of what we expect for turnout remains to be seen. i am not sure we moved the ball a lot last night. >> bill: dictator comment. chris christie took it on. call for number four from last night we'll play that next. >> do i think he was kidding when he said he was a dictator? all you have to do is look at the history and that's why failing to speak out against him, making excuses for him, pretending that somehow he is a victim empowers him. >> bill: well oh he see him in court this hour. here was the comment when asked by sean the night before at the town hall. >> do you in any way have any plans whatsoever if reelected president to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people? >> you mean like they are using right now? >> if you are a trump supporter, that's like rolling a strike right down the center aisle of the bolling alley. he talked about drilling and border policy. the left is going to run with this comment for some time. does it have legs for them or even independents? yes or no. >> yeah, for sure. in the center of the electorate this has been the misgivings people had about a donald trump presidency back to 2020. the problem is the right certainly doesn't have a problem with it. conservatives want to hear more of it. chris christie is in this race and on the stage in the final four in large part because of this argument because he is the only one taking it on, the only one that's pushing it forward. there is a constituency within the republican party. it is not a huge one unfortunately for him but it is that enabled him to get on the stage. it carries huge general election liability. what he is talking about in terms of trump and second term and what it would look like is a problem in the center of electorate and see it show up in almost every poll. >> dana: trump has just left his condo and will head down to court. quickly the breakdown in the house call for number eight without kevin mccarthy and santos we have 220 republicans. 213 democrats. two vacancies. you need 218 to get anything to pass. how is this next couple of months going to look on the hill? >> yeah, truth is, dana, house republicans haven't had a functional majority in quite some time certainly from before speaker mccarthy was ousted. they did a nice job in the debt ceiling getting a conservative accomplishment but after that it broke down quickly and will require democratic votes for everything. unless republicans have unanimous support for everything they are doing, they are inviting democrats to come and use leverage and shape any sort of policy that can ultimately pass. that means more left of center than ideally most republicans would want. that's the situation they're in at least until next november when we have another election. >> bill: it's your town. deal with it, all right? josh, nice to have you on, brother. thank you. >> dana: that's so mean. >> bill: thanks, guys. as of right now, we love josh. you are roughly 40 days from iowa. at the moment i don't believe there are any more debates scheduled so we could go into that caucus. >> dana: there could be but nothing scheduled. >> bill: with last night being the final word. we'll be out in des moines and see what we get that evening. >> dana: president trump's strategy of not going to any of the debates worked for him. he maintained his lead and increased his lead in some places and the rest of these candidates they have narrowed down from 2016 they still have a distant second from him. so we'll see what happens. keeping track of it. >> bill: donald trump has just left trump tower moments ago so now we're back on this caravan, dana, that has become all too familiar to us at 9:00 a.m. during this hour he will run down the east river to lower manhattan, walk inside the courtroom. usually he takes that opportunity to speak to the cameras. he may do that. if so, you will probably see that within the next 30 minutes or so. >> dana: i bet he does. i take the over on that, or under. i don't know how it works. i think he is going to speak. president biden dismissing a reporter's questions about his involvement in his families dealings a bunch of lies. records show otherwise. peter doocy at the white house with the latest. >> bill: president biden is dismissing the premise there was any wrongdoing here and declining to explain or give any kind of context to these accusations that house republicans think warrants an impeachment inquiry. >> can you explain to americans that this impeachment inquiry why you interacted with so many of your son and brother's association >> president biden: i won't comment. i did not. it is a bunch of lies, they're lies. they are lies. >> james comer writes on x, joe biden kind with oligarchs from around the world and joined on speaker form and used aliases. potus continues to lie. white house officials pointed us to part of sworn testimony from devin archer said the speakerphone calls did happen and they were about things like the weather. >> there is this testimony now where one of your sons former business associates is claiming that you were on speakerphone a lot with them talking business. is that what -- >> harris: we never talked business. i knew he would have a lousy question. >> why is that a lousy question? >> president biden: it's not true. >> thank you, mr. president. >> president biden has been clear throughout he never talked to his son's business associates about business. before yesterday he never claimed that they never talked at all. dana. >> dana: all right. just like little incremental changes that keep everybody wondering what the heck is going on. thank you, peter doocy. >> everyone is running frantic and hysterical. 30 more gunshots and powe pow. >> we're confirming more of the identity of the shooter there at that school out west. at least three dead. what we know about the gunman and what we're learning. >> dana: illegal border crossings breaking an all-time record. what is behind is surge and how to stop it? >> bill: some of the best schools in this country, you could say, some of the best schools in the world, doing serious damage control on how they have handled the issue of anti-semitism on campus. >> in that moment, i was focused on our university's longstanding policies aligned with the u.s. constitution. which say that speech alone is not punishable. balanced nutrition for strength and energy. yay - woo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, nutrients for immune health. and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. 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(dog bark) it's just smarter, healthier pet food. it's amazing what real food can do. 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. >> dana: a gunman opens fire at the university of nevada las vegas and killed three people, wounded a fourth before being shot dead by police. authorities say the suspect was a professor who represently applied for the job at the school and turned down for that opportunity. unlv canceled all classes and other activities through sunday of this weekend. >> bill: meanwhile the story goes on. the presidents of two ivy league universities trying to clarify positions about callings for genocide of jews on their campuses. now the do overs follow backlash after a heated congressional hearing we watched two days ago dealing with anti-semitism at the elite schools in america. harvard's president now saying quote, let me be clear, calls for violence or genocide against the jewish community or any religious or ethnic group are vile and have no place at harvard and those who threat en our jewish students will be held to account. the universities of pennsylvania president doing this last night on x. >> i was not focused on what i should have been. the fact that a call for genocide of jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate. >> dana: it's so pitiful. imagine when they were prepping for their testimony that they had maybe lawyers or communications people saying this is what you should say about asking about genocide. two, you are crazy we'll get crushed. their apology was pitiful and they got crushed. >> bill: they could have done that on tuesday and chose not to. for whatever reason. from the u.n. we have followed this news all week and now this. >> silence is despicable. the women who were raped and murdered on october 7th may be silent forever but justice will be done. >> truth shall prevail. we'll never forget them. >> dana: a stirring speech by israel's former miss world at the united nations. the jewish state pressing the u.n. to investigate the sexual violence committed by hamas terrorists on october 7th including rape and mutilation. lenore is also a victim of sexual assault and she joins us now. that story of what you went through came out just before or right around when you won miss world your story was out there are foreverybody to know and you have been an amazing advocate. what was it like at the united nations giving that speech? >> wow, to be so emotional, and hope people will respond to what happened to my story and to what happened to the israeli women. i think something changed since my speech a little bit. we still have a long way. the thing is, you know, for me 25 years ago when i promote my film, [inaudible] it has people watching it from all over the world and i felt the u.n. was supporting me and believed me. didn't ask for any investigation then. but today i feel so ashamed that i was a part of this organization and any other women's organization that are so silent and didn't condemn hamas even once except one time on friday evening when they said in the same sentence they are alarmed by what happened to the israeli women by the sexual assault and then in the same sentence they say that they are very worried about palestinian women and that we have to have a cease-fire. >> bill: the ambassador from the czech republic a month ago said why is my country even an organization here? why are we even involved in the u.n.? when you go to the u.n. you know what you are up against. you are pushing a big rock up a hill and whether or not you are even making progress. a couple of things now. we have had significant women's groups in america that have said nothing about rape. we can put it on screen and show everybody world health organization, emily's list, women's march, i stand with her and on and on the list goes. i want you to listen to the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu on this very topic from yesterday. >> i say to the women's rights organizations and human rights organizations, you have heard of the rape of israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation, where the hell are you? >> bill: can you answer that? >> yeah -- no, it's me too unless you are a jew. it is hard for me to say that but this is the truth. what women organizations did they took it to the political side. it is not about political. it is not about free palestinian. it is not about what side you are on the map. to use rape as an act of war is unbearable. what happened to humanity? you know, there is -- one of my friends, it is hard for me to speak about it -- >> bill: take your time. >> before i arrived here he told me a story about this young woman that he saw a video of her that she was raped by ten hamas people one after another, a young woman. screaming, they are beating her, they are beating her. they butchered her and then one of them took her cell phone and just sent everything to her mother. her screaming just haunts my friend every night he is trying to sleep. and hear screaming should be out there for all the world to shout out for these girls. if they are not here to shout for themselves. instead all the women organizations are just silent. i'm telling you, i am speechless and i have nothing -- >> bill: there is no humanity in what you are describing to us. it's absent. you are exactly right. >> dana: for the hostages that have been released and know there were sexual assaults perpetrated against them during their captivity. what kind of help and support will they need and can we help provide to them as they recover? >> i think the first help you can do is first to believe because when somebody goes through something so bad, you have to first believe and support them. and that's the basic. it cannot go, you know, do anything if you don't have that. what just kills my heart now is just the fact there are so many hostages that are still there going through i don't know what and the world is silent. now it's just like -- >> bill: you are very brave. >> dana: you are not silent. >> i'm not. >> dana: glad to have you. have a safe trip. >> bill: stay strong. >> thank you so much for everything you do. >> bill: thank you for being here. let's get to this now. >> it's not the republicans that opened the border. every one of that 1,000 plus persons was 18 to 35-year-old men military age. they have made this country very dangerous. >> bill: we watch it again this week the floodgates are open america. migrant encounters at the border hit the highest total for a single day that we've ever seen. also this in new york right now. check it out. donald trump is heading back to court. his motorcade has arrived, we hear. and we'll probably hear from him in a matter of minutes, so we'll wait on that and our program will continue. in a moment after this short break. out of control. get a newday 100 va cash out loan at lower mortgage rates to pay off those high rate car loans. directv sports central brings your games, stats and scores together... and now you can get it without a satellite. one more reason to finally get rid of cable. but getting rid of the cable guy might not be as easy. oh yeah, touchback! visit directv.com for up to a $400 reward card. i'm sholeh, and i lost 75 pounds with golo. i went from a size 20 to a size 6. before golo, nothing seemed to work. i was exercising for over an hour every day. it was really discouraging. but golo's so easy, the weight just falls off. >> dana: former president trump is expected back in court this morning. the civil fraud trial is coming to an end in new york city. to that end his defense team will call an nyu accounting professor as an expert witness today. the president may talk to reporters before entering the courtroom and known to do that. we'll bring it to you if it happens. >> bill: let's go back to the border. what a story throughout the week. eagle pass, texas right now. yesterday on wednesday hit about 1500 encounters, the day before 3300, grand total of almost 5,000 in one place in eagle pass. this town of lukeville, arizona we've been watching our coverage throughout the week. phenomenal story down there. what is happening in lukeville, arizona on our side of the border is in the middle of nowhere. on the mexican side of the border you have two main roads that go right to that spot of the border. in lukeville the past couple of days they are setting records all over the place. you have to drive 170 miles to get to yuma. 150 miles to get to tucson. to go from lukeville to eagle pass you have to drive almost 1,000 miles and the entire border has been a major concern for the past 2 1/2 years running and just this week we hit some of the highest marks ever. this now a live look at lukeville, 7:34 in the morning. this is where two days all bill melugin introduced the country and world to what's happening in that part and bill now joins us again. he is live in lukeville. how is it going now? what happened overnight? what are you expecting today, bill? >> bill, it has only gotten worse. a non-stop flow of mass illegal immigration out here in lukeville. border patrol process people out during the day. sun rise you see the results. over 900 people waiting in line right here. these guys you are looking at are from senegal and guinea and the demographics. adult men from all over the world. africa, liberia, india, syria, mor morocco. 250 people from guinea in the area. no longer just the northern triangle countries. these guys have little to no fear of consequences for crossing illegally and expecting to get released into the united states and a line of people as far as the eye can see that shows up here almost every morning. we want to show you the situation before sunrise here. look at this video a few hours ago before the sun came out. it gets cold out here. the guys will start campfires to stay warm. they'll burn anything they can find. pull brush out of the desert . burn plastic, foil. fumes get bad out here. anything they can find to stay warm. we talk about there is a nonestop flow. the video late yesterday. another breach of the border wall in lukeville and masses of hundreds of people began pouring in and crossing illegally. you see them walking down the road right to where i'm standing delivering this live shot to you where border patrol has been trying to process people out. they can't get people out in time because it's a never-ending flow of mass illegal immigration and we've had a chance to talk to a lot of the guys out here. none of them are asylum seekers we've talked to. they all say they want to work or link up with family in the united states. expect to be released and told us the cities they plan to go to. listen. >> where in the united states do you want to go? >> detroit. >> california. >> new york city. >> new york city. >> miami. >> omaha. >> miami. >> oklahoma. >> south carolina. >> it is not just the single adult men out here. you look behind my shoulder. those are family units. border patrol keeps them separate from the adult men and get processed out first. we'll give you one final look at the situation here, guys. we're told by border patrol there are more than 900 people waiting to be processed. this line just goes as far as the eye can see and more people will cross illegally during the day. border patrol can't keep up. facilities are over capacity. this is one tiny little spot on the southern border. this is mass catch and release. you are seeing the policy of mass catch and release behind us and why the people are coming. a pull factor. they don't have any fear of consequences. send it back to you, dana. >> dana: bill, this is the same scene where secretary mayorkas every time he goes to capitol hill and asked about the border he says the border is closed. you talk to border patrol. even these migrants obviously it is not closed. >> yeah. i don't even know what to say at this point. we're in year three of this. every time we hear the border is closed, take a look at the situation. does this look like a closed border? there are breaches along the border and they will wave to cameras and have cities they plan to go to. no fear of deportation. they believe that they are going to be processed, released into the united states and yeah, look, i don't even know what to say when we hear them say the border is closed or secure. all visual evidence says otherwise. >> dana: thanks for being there for us. >> bill: you really don't need to say anything. we can see it with our own eyes. rodney scott is a former border patrol chief with me. good morning to you. we have seen boats cross the mediterranean trying to reach spain, italy, greece. it's ongoing at times. but name a country in the world who runs their immigration policy like this. >> yeah, it doesn't exist. you can't continue to be a nation if you don't have borders and we basically dissolved our borders. today we have an argument in congress in the senate. i think people are looking at it wrong. the democrats are fighting hard, they are line in the sand to keep the border open. why would you do that? >> bill: can you answer that question? we've been asking it for years. >> i think it's time for america to answer that question. people need to understand what's really going on. it's not just about the aliens and migrants that you see on the screen. bill knows this. he is out there. lukeville is an area that has been controlled by the sinaloa cartel for decades. it is primarily a drug smuggling corridor because of the two highways on the south side of the border. it is fairly easy for the mexican government to shut this stuff down. they aren't helping because the u.s. government hasn't asked them to help. all this activity that you are looking at on the screen is literally just a distraction for the sinaloa cartel to keep border patrol busy so they can bring the second wave people that don't want their fingerprints on a scanner, fentanyl, narcotics and who knows what else into the united states at will. people forget phoenix is directly north, too. >> bill: remember jay johnson, dhs secretary a couple of years ago? remember what he said then? roll this. >> i know 1,000 overwhelms the system. i can't given to imagine what 4,000 a day looks like. we're truly in a crisis. >> bill: that was march of 2019, rodney. >> yeah. the funny thing is he worked very, very closely with who is now the secretary of dhs mayorkas. so anybody that doesn't think this is a crisis, they are lying to america. the fact that they are fighting hard and that they are willing to even potentially shut down government to keep the border open is unfathomable. this is a national security risk. >> bill: he was awesome. you are right. we don't have an election for 11 months. if this administration wants to keep this policy they can do it for almost another year. who knows what we get then. rodney, thank you for your time and we'll stay in contact. thanks. >> thank you, bill. >> dana: college athletes may be getting a bump to bank accounts. the nyaa proposed paying student athletes for the new time. the new plan coming up. one rabbi speaking up after his menorah lighting was canceled over his support for israel. he joins us next. no mask. no hose. just sleep. learn more and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com (carolers) ♪ iphone 15 pro, your husband deserves it! ♪ (mom) carolers? 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(horse neighing) sleep more deeply. and wake up rejuvenated. purple mattresses exclusive gel flex grid draws away heat. relives pressure and instantly adapts. sleep better live purple. right now save up to $900 dollars off mattress sets during purple's black friday sale. visit purple.com or a store near you today. >> bill: he will not testify today but he may have something to say before court gets underway at 10:00 a.m. stand by. we're watching the door move for the former president, donald trump. meanwhile today marks two months since the hamas terror attack on israel. the first night of hanukkah. senior foreign affairs correspondent greg palkot live in southern israel from his post to tell us what's happening today. >> we're in the town a mile away from gaza. we can hear the pounding of the battle between israel and hamas. it is two months since october 7th and the hamas terror attack. this town saw very badly. behind us a 40 foot tall menorah, the first candle about to be lit. let my cameraman give you a sense of what's there. a police station was there. now you see flags attached to what's left. the festival of light. celebration of dedication. at sunset we reckon that to be 15 minutes from now the first candle will be lit on the menorah. we talked to the deputy mayor and saying it is a show of life and living to the world. it is not a show at all, it's a reality. pretty eerie here right now. this town is basically evacuated. maybe a few thousand here. again, the war going on near us. back there two months ago, 12 police officers died. we talked to the mother of one. she was in tears. why did it happen? why did it happen? remembrance and celebration all together in a very eerie, quiet town with the booms of the explosions of the battle nearby. back to you. >> bill: sometime before israelis feel safe to live in that part of the country again. thank you on this hanukkah as the sun sets in israel. >> dana: tonight is the first night of hanukkah. rabbi offered to hold a menorah lighting at a local festival this weekend. the director said publicity of the event doesn't allow any religious groups admitted in private messages they didn't want to be seen as taking sides. rabbi joins us now. this sounds so crazy to a lot of people but it is real and happening to you and your community. can you tell us what you thought was going to happen and how you felt when they said no? >> so we were clear that we were going to move forward with this event. we haven't had a time yet set, place or exactly when it will happen. we're working on the details. we expressed interest in doing something called a fun activity for the kids that were excited about it. we were clearly moving forward. however, when the organizer went back to the board. the board said we don't think this is appropriate given the current situation in israel. which is kind of hurting for the entire jewish community taking a side. we're american jews and here to celebrate life and love of hanukkah and share it with the world. i thought it was very appropriate in such a loving festival to express that with the world not just the jewish community. they were excited about it. they are wonderful people. the organizer has been doing so much for our small town here in williamsburg and they get the full credit. when that message came back to us it hurt and it hurt really strongly. the jewish community here and we have strength and pride despite the fact we won't be moving with that menorah lighting but we'll have another menorah lighting that was pre-scheduled with student leadership at william and mary this evening at 5:00 p.m. >> dana: do you think they were worried about protests or do you think they were objecting to supporting the jewish nation of israel? >> well, the way it seems like they see it is that a jew is responsible for other people's actions. it is perhaps the actual message of hann kachlt it is a message of victory over 2,000 years ago about the temple and the oil that lasted for eight days and perhaps people try to connect it to the modern-day fight going on. that is not the message of hanukkah. to connect those two is unamerican. it is what we feel discriminatory. >> dana: one of the things that they said to us was that it was a proposed event and the proposal was denied. in 14 years they've never had a religious program as an event. it is one based on the objectives of the organization and desire to make this monthly event where all people can come together to enjoy music and art. if there were to be a christmas celebration here, do you think they would have objected? >> i'm not going to comment on other religions. they came back to us and said hey, we would be ready with the proposal if we would have a cease-fire banner taking a political side and welcoming the menorah. >> dana: the private message you got from her said unless we could get an islamic group to participate at the same time we're about peace, love and light. don't want to make it seem like we are choosing a side supporting the killing and bombing of thousands of men, women and children. that's where that stands. i'm glad you will have a menorah lighting and give you a final word. >> perhaps they haven't understood the meaning of the message. we've reached out to explain the hurting and why it hurts the jewish community to say those messages. everyone has a right to say this is not going to work in our scheduling and we hope and pray the intention of the text was not the way the jewish community perceived it. >> dana: you are being very gracious. happy hanukkah to you. >> thank you so much. >> dana: thank you. >> bill: former president trump waiting for him to enter the courtroom. we're watching that. the civil fraud trial continues today. keep an eye on it. proceedings set to resume in minutes. we will have the latest from the courtroom lower manhattan as we roll on after this. with 30 grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks. -ahh, -here, i'll take that. woo hoo! ensure max protein 30 grams protein, one gram sugar, 25 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients for immune health. (♪) >> great experts in the country. just about another day. you look at the case, we did nothing wrong, there were no victims, the bank loves us. the bank testified. they love us. we did absolutely nothing wrong. we never had a default letter sent to us. the bank said we were a perfect customer. the bank didn't know why they were here. and yet people all over the streets are being murdered and violent crime and this attorney general is crazed, a lunatic. the attorney general sits here because she knows that she has the judge. no matter all the evidence that judge is going to rule in her favor. before the case even started. the case hadn't started. he knew nothing and ruled against me. the other thing is this. he valued mar-a-lago -- valued it $8 million when it's worth anywhere from 50 to 100 times that amount. nobody has ever seen anything like it. just remember what i said at the beginning. we wanted the appellate division and the judge refused to honor that decision or that demand. >> bill: there you go, the defense before the court resumes today and he said he will be back in a little bit. when they get a break in court they'll hear him. he thinks he is being railroaded on this case and believes it has been decided and he has a strong misgivings about the judge in this case. >> dana: i certainly does. the defense for president trump will call an expert witness today from nyu about an accountant. to see if they can figure out a way to put points on the board before this wraps it up. >> bill: we'll watch that. in the meantime we roll on. >> dana: we begin this hour sundown in jerusalem bringing hanukkah. usually a time for joyous festivities triumphing light over darkness. this year many families will light their menorahs without their loved ones. welcome to a new hour of "america's newsroom," i'm dana perino. >> bill: love the red, by the way. >> dana: merry christmas. >> bill: i'm bill hemmer. jewish people around the world and this country observe the first night of hanukkah the world marks two months since the barbaric massacre of 1200 people in southern israel. surging anti-semitism reaching a fever pitch sparking alarms around the world. >> dana: a clear-cut moment calling for moral clarity. the president of harvard, u penn and m.i.t. refused to condemn anti-semitism on campus calling for the genocide of jews. >> bill: the "new york post" declared their testimony a day of college shame. incoming also coming from one of their own colleagues, the president of pepperdine in california scolding his fell