friends. it is wednesday, december 27th, i m willie geist. joe and mika have the morning off. a lot to get to including israeli forces shifting military efforts to southern and central gaza with officials warning the war could take many more months. and hours from now, antony blinken and alejandro mayor kas are set to meet with mexican president obrador. plus donald trump continues to claim he should be immune from any prosecution surrounding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. we ll have the latest there. also ahead, bus drivers across the country increasingly under attack on the job. we ll dig into an alarming trend and what officials are doing about it. with us this morning, jonathan lemire, susan paige, and retired four star navy admiral james stavridis. good morning to you all. let s begin together with israel expanding the ground invasion in gaza. this as the united states continues to urge israel to protect civilian lives and shift to a more low intensity oper
scenes from the scene of the killing. sandra: the first two witnesses took the stand, phil and lori are here to break down the latest developments from the courtroom coming up. but we begin america reports with bipartisan outrage boiling over after the senate intelligence committee had denied access to classified documents handled by president biden. former president trump and former vice president mike pence. hello, welcome, everyone. john: good to spend friday eve with you. senators are sounding off saying they need to review the documents to assess if there is damage to national security, congress grapples how to keep the sensitive information secured. sandra: met with more stonewalling. deferred the lawmakers to the justice department following the two-hour briefing that happened yesterday. john: troy nels will join us in a moment. sandra: the white house where our correspondent, peter doocy is standing by. live on the north lawn. hello, peter. good afternoo
We need to. This is not what we want, not what were looking for. We dont want escalation. Is we dont want a second or third front develop. We dont want to see our forces or our personnel come under fire, but if that happens, were ready for it. Secretary of state Antony Blinken making it clear, the United States will respond to any provocation from iran connected to the israelhamas war. It comes as Israels Defense Forces are expanding air strikes in gaza. Well get the latest with a live report from israel straight ahead. Plus, new reporting on how President Biden and other u. S. Officials helped delay the Ground Invasion of the territory. Also ahead, well dig into the republicanled dysfunction on capitol hill. There are now several candidates hoping to become House Speaker after jim jordans failed bid. And well get you expert legal analysis on Donald Trumps violation of the gag order in his Civil Fraud Trial, as well as another new guilty plea deal from one of his codefendants in the ge
in gaza, there s no safe place, says the un secretary general. the health care system is collapsing. hospitals have become battlegrounds, and palestinians have no shelter and everything else needed to survive, he says. this was the scene in khan younis in the south yesterday in the aftermath of an israeli airstrike as the military pushes ahead with its war against hamas. hours later, at the un in new york, the secretary general called for a ceasefire and had this warning. there is a high risk of the total collapse of the humanitarian support system in gaza, which would have devastating consequences. we anticipate that would result in a complete breakdown of public i fear the consequences could be devastating for the security of the entire region. but the us, which has veto power, ignored his calls and voted against it. our goal should not simply be to stop the war for today. it should be to end the war forever, break the cycle of unceasing violence, and build something strong