prompting new retaliation from u.s. forces and new fears that the violence could spread. let s bring in aaron gillcrist who s covering today s diplomatic meetings in washington at the white house and nbc s jay gray who s in tel aviv. jay, starting with you. what is the latest on the ground in israel and gaza as we talk about last hour the war cabinet meeting last night and what may have come from that. day 81 of the war and as intense the u.n. says it has been since the start and as deadly. they are saying the intensity of the battles on the ground as well as the air strikes has ramped up over the last 48 hours. we know that the attacks have been targeting from the air control and command centers according to the idf. they have been working also to identify and target some of the senior hamas leaders saying that one of their air strikes did kill a leader but not saying to this point who that may be. on the ground, they are continuing to try and expose and then eliminate the
efforts to keep donald trump in office. recordings detailing how trump operatives scrambled to get fake elector ballots to washington in time for january 6th. also this hour, republican presidential candidate nikki haley trying to clarify her comments about the civil war after she failed to mention slavery as a cause for the conflict. the backlash to benight is grow as our republican opponents are pouncing. also tonight, paul whelan speaking exclusively with cnn as he marks five years of being wrongfully detained in russia. he s now pleading for the president to do more for his release as if he were the president s own son. i m kaitlan collins and you re in the situation room. this is cnn breaking news. and i want to get right to the breaking news tonight because we have extraordinary behind the scenes details of the trump team s efforts to carry out a fake elector scheme as then president trump was trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat and hold on to the white
in gaza can end the war. the latest on the israel leader s prerequisites for peace. plus, the u.s. firing back after u.s. soldiers are hit by a christmas day drone strike in iraq even as a new attack is reported in syria. what the biden administration is doing to punish those responsible and stop more attacks from coming. then to politics. volunteers for desantis, they re going door to door more than two million times as they try to build support for the governor in early voting states. what s at stake? particularly in iowa. and with christmas rush coming to end, it s been so far so good weather wise. we ve got tips for holiday travelers who still have places to go and people to see, but we re going to start in d.c. u.s. and israel officials holding new meetings to grapple with war strategy even as israel strikes close to multiple refugee camps. palestinian authorities say at least 70 people were killed in those attacks. the w.h.o. reporting the main hospital in the area has
numbers. we ll speak with the bishop about that. the new take on the color purple comes out on christmas. what is it that resumes with so many people? we re going to discuss next. we promise we ll get to the color purple. we ll dive deep. but first the iowa caucuses about are three weeks away and republican front-runner donald trump got a win, at least for now, as he battles legal troubles on the campaign trial. on friday there was a denial of jack smith s request to fast-track the former president s immunity case. trump is also waiting for his colorado ballot case to full ya played out. his team appeals to boot him based on 14th amendment rules regarding insurrectionists. we bring in joey jackson. frank question, you tell me, what are the odds trump s name appears on a ballot in colorado in 2024. i do think, danny, there could be many odds in favor of trump, but i think we can t look at this from a political perspective. i guess it has to be because it s an e
if you are hitting the road or jumping on a plane today, you will have plenty of company. one of the busiest travel days of the year is in full swing right now. the nightmare keeps getting worse for families of hostages in gaza. word today a 73-year-old american citizen, father of four, grandfather of seven, died at the hands of hamas. what we know about him and his wife who is still a hostage. lots to get to. we start with the new and significant reporting out of michigan. the detroit news obtaining audio recordings from 2020 in whicthen president trump urges officials not to sign off on results that show boden won. he said, we ve to fight for our country. we can let these people take our country away from us. he also said,quote, everybody knows detroit is crooked as hell. on the call, rnc chair mcdaniel who told election workers, if you can go home tonight, do not sign the certification papers. we will get you attorneys, to which trump added, we will take care of that