live in that horrific day and something that's had an impact on all of you. we have heard so many things, so much feedback from people and personal stories and people asking what they can do to help? cnn has updated its list of organizations that are vetted and safe to donate to. you can go to cnn.com/impact or just text the word relief to 7070, a safe way to donate in a way so many people have asked about upon i want to thank you for joining us live here in tel aviv and we will be back with more important stories on the ground reporting. cnn news with abbey philips starts right now. 707070 to donate. a presidential plea on what feels like the eve of a deadly ground invasion of forces. tonight on "news night." good evening. israel giving its forces the green light for a likely ground invasion 12 days after hamas attacked and terrorized their nation. and fresh from his trip to the war zone what is only the second oval office address of his presidency, president biden tonight is calling on congress to provide aid for the wars in israel and in ukraine, describing it as an inflection point for the world. >> when terrorists don't pay a price for their terror, when dictators don't pay a price for their aggression they cause more chaos and death and more destruction. they keep going and the cost and threats to america and the world keep rising. i know we have our divisions at home. we have to get past them. we can't let petty partisan angry politics get in the way of our responsibility as a great nation. we cannot and will not let terrorists like hamas and tyrants like putin win. i refuse to let that happen. in moments like these we have to remember who we are. we're the united states states of america. >> but it's a tall task to convince a skeptical nation. in the last two decades the u.s. spent more than $2 trillion in afghanistan, nearly 3 trillion in iraq and so far more than $113 billion has gone to ukraine. in a recent cnn poll the majority of americans are against sending more aid to ukraine. but biden is banking on the gravity of the message that if ukraine falls and israel suffers the consequences to global democracies will be catastrophic and even more unstable many middle east will be a threat to the homeland and democracies will be empowered, with taiwan, but the question is do americans believe in that message, the manager and also the price tag. in just a few minutes, anderson joins me from israel and a retired general and from israel, and presidential candidate, tom scott. first, we want to begin with major developments on the ground. let's go to anderson cooper in tel aviv for us. today, the israeli defense minister is saying troops will soon see gaza from the inside. that appears to signal a ground invasion which we've all been talking about could really be imminent. what are you hearing and seeing on the ground today? >> first of all, people have been using the word "imminent" almost two weeks now. i am always skeptical when i hear the word "imminent," everything points to more than 350,000 troops amassed on borders here in israel and the border with lebanon. nic robertson was down and in the course of tonight he's been hearing the machine gunfire and seeing flares, something you don't hear all the time, rockets, yes, explosions, yes, but machine gunfire is a little different. i talked to the colonel from the idf who said israel has done a number of whether you call them probes or number of cross border operations in gaza to target specific hamas individuals. nobody will say, nobody will telegraph exactly when something is going to happen. certainly, this region is on the cups of something, and i think everybody here, it's a matter of when and whether events on the ground. >> yeah. this is always going to be a dual story, the military story and also the human story. on that second part we're learning tonight the rafah crossing, which leads from gaza to egypt, is expected to open tomorrow, is not expected to open tomorrow, i'm sorry, but it could open this weekend. what do we know about the status of this critical humanitarian aid issue president biden has pushed really hard to get going here? >> people have been talking about this opening for days. egyptian state media yesterday thursday was reporting it would open friday. other officials indicated it will open friday as well. now the word it's not going to open friday and one u.n. official said they hope it will open saturday. it's a fluid situation. a lot of competing concerns. israel is very concerned about who is examining the content of these trucks and what is being shipped across the border and how will it be distributed. israel as well as the u.s. are concerned about this not falling into the hands or stolen by hamas and they will watch future aid shipments. humanitarian workers are very concerned about the controls at the border. is the road secure enough and is the road repaired enough? >> there's been literally road construction on the egyptian side to carry the weight of these heavy trucks with potholes, sounds basic but it is a factor. but also there's a great concern among humanitarian relief officials very experienced with this thing, if you send in 20 trucks and hundreds of people in the south think it's only going to be 20 trucks there could be pandemonium of people trying to get what is in those 20 trucks. if the message is it's 20 trucks today, another 50 trucks tomorrow, 20 trucks the next day and a steady flow, nen distribution can go more easily and more calmly. that is something we are hearing from humanitarian officials just about the logistics of this, which may sound boring and may sound slow because it is crucially important because the last thing you want is a human cat tsafy of people desperate for relief. >> it is life or death for hundreds of thousands or millions of gazans who want to get out of the way of the war. anderson, thank you for joining us tonight. >> thanks, abby. >> joining us is former abc to israel, tom, and we have to say he is married to a cnn vice president. good to have you here. we have been talking about this potential ground invasion basically 12 days since this attack. i'm wondering is it possible for israel to do what it says it wants to do, which is basically eradicate hamas without in fact destroying gaza and a cost of civilian lives that could be significant? >> as we all watched tonight, the president's comments were clear to me, which is he was building the case for the importance of protecting the state of israel, obviously discussing the ukraine war as well and protecting the state of israel and making sure we are concerned and focused on the humanitarian cost as well for the innocent palestinians in gaza. make no mistake. we got here because of hamas' behavior. hamas isn't liked in gaza, they don't care about the palestinian people, they are encouraging palestinians to stay in their homes in northern gaza and gaza city. this is what they have created, their reign of terror on their own people. none of us, as i spent an enormous amount of time on the palestinian side when i was in israel. you have to have compassion as the president said on tv today making sure the egyptians open the border to humanitarian abilities and giving goods and services to the palestinian people living in southern gaza. that's very important. >> i want to get back to the rafah crossing and egypt in a moment. president biden as he was in israel issued a warning to america's friend essentially, don't let the rage consume you. do you have an understanding of what he is warning about and do you share the concern that israel cancould potentially go farther than what it wants to go. >> i think the president has been very clear about this. he has israel's back. he understands hamas is a terrorist organization. also the president has a moral compass as well. that's what you see. you saw it tonight on television when he talked about the importance of protecting israel and protecting innocent lives. he will step in and talk to the israelis as friends do. he has a moral authority he talked about tonight and he will be talking about the prime minister and the leadership of israel as this proceeds. make no mistake they will do what they need to do to stop the reign of terror on the israeli people. >> as you pointed occupant the president came up with an agreement between israel and basically egypt, of aid going into southern gaza. one of the concerns of one of the cnn groups is it is not safe to administer that aid. when you look at what we're facing with a ground invasion do you think it's necessary for there to be a safe humanitarian zone where humanitarian aid cannot only come in but actually get to the people who need it? >> absolutely. i think the president's articulated, the vice president articulated it and the secretary blinken has been working this behind the scenes on a daily basis. we need the ability for them to do what they need to do to eliminate the threat against the people at the same time, provide humanitarian for those innocent palestinians that want nothing to do with this, basically bystanders living there, pushed out of their homes and trying to save their lives. yes. in reality, whatever way we can working with the egyptians and working with our allies, provide them the ability to have that protection. >> on the egyptian, the final thing. arab countries have been reticent to take in gaza refugees. nobody is leaving right now but if they were to leave one of the reasons is their concern they would not be let back into gaza by the israelis? do you think there needs to be assurances there for the possibility 0 escape the violence and come back to their homes? >> i think there's a lot of ways to do this. the most important message you heard from the president and people around this administration, both democrats and republicans, we have to have humanity and protect people. at the same time, it has to do what it needs to do to protect the state of israel. one of the other messages the president said today, the other enemies, hezbollah, iran, we're watching you. don't get involved and the strong message to those countries as well, ultimately, the importance is protect the state of israel, try to do whatever they can to eliminate the threat as well as try to protect the innocent people that live in gaza as best we can. >> tom nides, thank you so much. we appreciate it. up next, the looming invasion and lieutenant general mark hartling is here and presidential candidate, tim scott, joins me tonight and why he doesn't support aid going into gaza. we're also getting word a u.s. navy warship has intercepted missiles near yemen that sources believe were heading to israel. stand by for that. we are watching the skies over gaza tonight as israel green lights a ground war against hamas. moments ago president biden made the case for wartime aid to israel and to ukraine. >> american leadership is what holds the world together. american alliances is what keep us, america, safe. american values is what makes us a partner other nations want to work with. to put all that at risk if we walk away from ukraine, we turn our backs on israel it's just not worth it. >> joining me to discuss president biden's oval office address republican presidential candidate, senator tim scott of south carolina. thank you for joining us here. president biden, today he asked for $100 billion for israel, for ukraine, for the border, and for taiwan. would you support that legislation, $100 billion? >> thank you for the question. i certainly say i was frustrated by this speech. terrorists bombed our ally, israel, and we heard more about ukraine than we did our ally, israel. and the package itself has more money for ukraine than it does for israel. i think we would be better off having a single focus on israel, giving them the resources they need to win this war and then move on to other topics. >> do you disagree with the way he connected these conflicts? he said that turning your back on ukraine and on israel is just not worth it. he says it's an investment in keeping u.s. troops out of future conflicts. you disagree? >> i think we definitely should keep our troops at home. we can do that by making sure our allies have the resources they need. one thing we know without question, israel needs our help for their war, they need our single-minded focus on their conflict and then pivot back. we will first start by having the resources and hands of israel. >> someone said putin would actually love that, if congress decided we can't deal with ukraine right now, we have to focus on israel, taking our eye off the ball in ukraine might be exactly what president putin wants. >> we have $100 billion in ukraine. we have provided so far nothing to israel other than our annual preparations. if we want to focus on being successful in israel we need to focus on two things. number one, making sure israel has all the resources they need and number two, making sure iran pays a very high price for the challenges they brought into the middle east, to include freezing the $6 billion president biden gave to iran that helps support and found terrorism. he said it himself for the first time so far since the conflict started he said iran funds terrorism, hamas, hamas says, thank you for the money. freezing those assets should have happened -- actually, he should never have given the assets. >> to be clear, that money is not spent and going to iran. >> money is fungible. >> as a factual matter, the money has not been spent. >> your president gave $6 billion to pay for halloweens. he gave it to the number one state sponsor of terrorism. as a result of that, $6 billion, the price on every american head is high and there's a price to be paid for that. i want to make sure we get this point right. i am not misleading your audience and make sure they understand. $6 billion is a high price that causes more terrorism. >> i just want to clarify the question i asked initially. if $100 billion for all those priorities that the plenty listed came to the floor of the senate, would you vote in support of it? >> certainly it matters how it's broken down. >> if it's a package for all of those things, would you vote in support of it? >> let me break it down as we understand them. $60 billion for ukraine and only $10 billion for israel means the president does not have his eye on the ball. >> let's leave it there for now. i want to ask you about 100 million dollars that is aid being sent to gaza. you said recently you oppose that. >> yes. >> i wonder putting aside the political rhetoric around this. >> absolutely. >> how is making life more miserable for gazans something that helps israel? >> i'm glad you asked that question. let's take a look how this thing started on october the 7th. we saw babies decapitated, we saw babies burned, we saw women raped and grandmother's taken. israel's response is make sure that never happens again, to provide complete and total support for israel means giving them the resources and the flexibility they need to engage in -- >> i am trying -- >> i am, too -- >> to what israel has agreed to -- >> the way you get there the fastest is making sure every single support system in place is there. number two, i don't want a dime, a nickel, a penny ending up in the hands of hamas. we know at the end of the day in the gaza strip, hamas controls every penny. >> this is not -- what i'm talking about here and what this aid is, is not cash, we're talking about access to water. >> who's driving the trucks. >> food, medical care. >> who's driving the -- >> i guess what i'm saying, senator, if israel has agreed to allow 100 million dollars of aid into southern gaza where they have asked civilians to go to, why would you oppose that aid being provided? >> number one, i believe making sure that every penny that america spends anywhere does not end up in the hands of terrorist organizations, is my responsibility. >> one of the other issues here is about the americans who are in gaza. >> yes. >> presumptively some of this aid would benefit them, too, about 5 or 600 of them there. do you think they ought to be fending for themselves? >> i will say what i said earlier, not on the show, israel has provided those residents living in gaza an opportunity to leave the vulnerable areas. >> that's where this aid is going. >> as a result of that they find themselves in a position to get out of harm's way. by doing that we accelerate the path of victory for israel and eliminates our need for the conflict. >> one of the things you've done today is introduce a piece of legislation that would pull back federal aid for schools that in your view facilitate or promote an anti-semitism message. you say this hits them wketbook. there are a lot of students beneficiaries of federal student looks and have nothing to do with these pro-palestinian protests. wouldn't this hurt them? >> i introduced legislation for the definition of anti-semitism to be codified on college campuses the same way we see it in state departments. what we've seen since october 7th is people protesting, their constitutional right, asking for genocide of jews, murdering of jews, supporting terrorism. for those universities and colleges that do nothing to stamp out that kind of racism, discrimination and frankly, support of genocide, that is a problem with american tax dollars. >> again, doesn't that just penalize people who may otherwise have nothing to do with it? that's a small minority of people on these college campuses. people have raised questions about -- you've described it a certain way. >> that's the way it is. take a look at the videos. >> it's fine how you described it, need your view of it. >> yes, ma'am. >> some of the protesters say we might be penalized simply for advocating for palestinians. doesn't this risk infringing on their freedom of speech? >> the first thing i said was their freedom tov speech is protected. you do not have the freedom to encourage genocide. you don't have the freedom to say, let's murder people in our country. you don't have the freed dom to say, we're going to support terrorism and frankly, it means supporting the death of americans and others. i think with my tax dollars that is a part of the federal spending, the colleges and universities are not going to push back on hate on their college campuses, not the expression of disagreements but saying, let's murder people, that leadership should be punished. >> leadership should be punished but i think you would agree students would be as well. >> let us be clear here. the universities are responsible for the actions on their campuses. the president himself said, we should rule out hate. but he didn't talk about the squad, he didn't talk about the universities where we find the hate being fomented. >> i want to ask you about your presidential campaign, we're in the middle of this cycle. today "the new york times" is reporting your super pac is pulling millions of dollars in ads this fall and the chairman of the super pac wrote to its donor saying we aren't going to waste our money when the electorate isn't focused or ready for a trump alternative. do you believe the electorate isn't ready for a trump alternative? >> i don't run the super pac but the focus is on reserving our resources until later in the campaign as we get close to the january 15th date of the iowa caucus, we have resources to spend festival. effectively. breaking through this current news cycle so any alternative to the current president will not have the opportunity to showcase why they should be the alternative. >> there will be a presidential debate coming up. will you be on the debate team. >> have you met the requirements? >> i have. >> would you consider dropping out? >> of course not. we believe america is ready for an optimistic positive messenger who is anchored in conservative values. >> this was refused by the wife of a colleague in then house as a result of the rancor. i will play it for you. >> war mongering piece of s -- listen, you will start getting calls and e-mails and i'm putting all your information over the internet now and everybody else's. you will not be left alone because your bleep husband jim jordan or more conservative, you will be -- molested like you can't ever imagine. again, non-violently. >> what do you make of that? >> unfortunately, that's disgusting and reprehensible and unfortunately consists with dozen of messages i get on a consistent basis. i would say public officials and their spouses and families are greater targets than we've ever been. not only unfortunately, it's criminal. >> senator tim scott, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate you giving us time today. >> absolutely. good to be with you. an american warship shooting down missiles that may have been intended for israel, a live analysis. and lieutenant general joins me on what to expect with this ground invasion. cnn's live special coverage. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? 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. israel is inching closer to launching a ground invasion into gaza. one official say this army has been given quote a green light to wipe out hamas. i'm joined by retired military analyst and retired general. this ground invasion that's coming we expect it to be up here in this northern area of gaza. when we talk about a ground invasion, what can we expect? are we talking about door-to-door, hand-to-hand combat? based on what we've seen, what indication do you get? >> you see in this film a lot of tanks. that's a specific kind of israeli tank. israel has called up 300,000 soldiers. a lot of armored equipment. they will be fighting street to street, in buildings, high rises but most importantly they will also be fighting underground. hamas has expanded these tunnels since 2014. we will talk about that in just a second. there is almost 300 miles of these tunnels. as you can see walking through one of them, this is typical, not a subway tunnel, you have to go through it single file. it's exceedingly tough as an infantry man. there are some you have to crawl into to get in there. it is in here where we're seeing some of the hostages and human shields being taken. >> i want to get to one of the other developments today, which is that the u.s. says they basically have intercepted some missiles coming from yemen that were believed to be headed toward israel. what can you tell us about what is going on here, especially when it comes to this question of a wider conflict? >> yemen became the subject du jour today because they did fire a couple of drones and missiles. there's yemen right here. that probably occurred close to the gulf of hayden. what you saw, what a navy ship saw as it was going up into the gulf was two drones, a couple of missiles, they engaged them and shot them down. this is just one of many things that occurred today, things going on in hezbollah and southern lebanon. we had two israelis killed in egypt in the sinai. we had several of the professional military fronts in both syria, iraq and iran rising up. these are those professional militias, if you will, that received a call to fight on behalf of the palestinians. what we're seeing is a prediction that the supreme leader of iran had was, rise up, help your muslim brotherhoods. >> so far, more-or-less isolated but u.s. military clearly watching this very closely? >> yeah, absolutely, after the uprising the other night of the hospital event you're seeing a lot of people very upset about what israel is about to do in the gaza. >> all right. general mark hurtling, thank you as always for breaking that down for us. up next we talk about the irony of a democratic president to fund two wars. and a stunning list of an interference case in georgia, sidney powell pleading guilty on the eve of her trial, may signal trouble for donald trump. and joining me with geraldo rivera and anna navarro. we're showing you here live pictures of gaza where israel is expected to launch an imminent ground invasion. new polls tonight show there are mixed reviews for president biden's handling of this crisis in israel and the hamas conflict so far. 44% of americans approving, that's identical to his ratings for the russia, russia's war in ukraine. joining me now is former fox news host, geraldo rivera and political commentator, anna navarro. this was an important speech for the president because he rarely does oval office address and clearly did it for a reason because he thought he had to sell this moment to the american people. do you think he needed to do that? he may need to sell this to his own political party by the way. >> i'm not sure how much the political party matters when i started in 1973, richard nixon, a republican, was still the president. he came through or the united states came through and the arsenal of democracy came through as israel faced an existential crisis. if we don't screw this up with the nonsense over the speaker of the house, this coup attempt, another counterpe attempt by ral republicans. and we need to stop the worst holocaust, the rains and murders and we will step up to the moment and deliver what israel needs to defend itself. >> how do you think he did? >> i thought this was a var important significant speech. he has shown tremendous moral clarity at a moment there is such chaos in congress and such discourse in america. joe biden has been unwavering in america's support of israel, the special relationship but also has been unwavering and reminding americans that we are not a place where there is hatred, we are not a place that fosters anti-semitism or islamophobia. i thought it was incredibly important today that he spoke about american values. about what america means to the world. he also spoke about the little 6-year-old boy who got stabbed to death, the little muslim boy who got stabbed to death by the wacko man. i think it's important to weave all those things in because this is a very difficult moment for israel, of course, for gaza, of course, but also for us here in america. we are all very affected. >> from a political perspective he has some potential roadblocks to get around. one of them is the left. i want to just play for you what rashida said this week. a lot of pain and anger in this clip. just listen. >> president biden, not all america is with you on this one. you need to wake up and understand that. we are literally watching people commit genocide and killing just like this and we still stand by and say nothing. we will remember this! >> in his words, you hear him talking about palestinians and their plight and pushing for humanitarian aid. but i can tell you, i've gotten e-mails from democratic groups attacking biden tonight for not doing enough on palestinians. >> first of all, rashida talib is palestinian origin. if it was puerto rico being bombed they would have deep emotional investment in it also. i feel awful for everybody on both sides. it's one thing to say israel is protecting itself against this awful crime that was committed against the jewish people but it's another thing when your kinsman are being bombed as israel tries to get the hamas, the mass murderers, there are 1500 mass murders hiding under gaza. i feel her anguish and others similarly situated. this is a officially terrible crisis israel is facing and the palestinian people also. what happens when israel sends the forces into the tunnels to get those hostages out? will the hostages survive the worst hostage crisis in israel's history? how many civilians will die in the process? can america stomach the blood that will necessarily be spilled. one thing, i talk about my long experience in the region, if you think this is bad it's going to get worse. pessimism always prevails. the pessimist is always right. when you add it again, i come back with the lunatic fringe of the republican party depriving the united states of an effective house of representatives, i think we're in for a rocky ride. >> what i think is really important to mention it is unbelievable at a time we are in this situation, there is two aircraft carriers in the region, a marine the contingency at the straight of hormuz, there are 250 military appointments that cannot get confirmed because there is one man, tommy tuberville of alabama holding all those appointments up. this is not a time for that. i wish all republicans in the senate, his colleagues, mitch mcconnell, all colleagues would speak up because we need all hands on deck. this is irresponsible for nothing other than performance. >> dysfunction is actually in both chambers. senator mitt romney talking about his own party says fox news is partly responsible. it's hard to image but tucker carlson is turning the gop into the pro russian pro authoritarian party and that's not what it used to be. this is a forthcoming book about romney. is he right? >> i think mitt romney is the most honorable man in the united states senate. i think his politics and mine are exactly in sync, when he says that about tucker carlson, i don't know what tucker carlson believes. he says one thing in secret text messages than he says on the air. i don't know what is in his mind. in terms of republican party and totalitarianism and all the rest of that we need some sober moderate patriotic people to put aside their own malignant narcissism to get going with the business of the nation. now, two existential crisis, ukraine invaded by russia has to fight against the hugely superior foe, and then, of course, in israel, where you have so much going on that you need the country to be united, not have -- >> i want to say this about matt gaetz i have known a long time. criticism does not come naturally to him. i think he feels the need to speak the truth because he feels the republican party needs to be rescued from itself. >> not running for re-election and certainly can speak his mind. thank you. up ahead we have a lot more to talk about including the trump ally who pedalled his outlandish lies about the last election pleading guilty about the georgia interference case. will sidney powell now testify against donald trump? that's next. >> a stunning twist tonight in the georgia election interference case against donald trump and his allies. one of his codefendants pleading guilty for her role in the breach of georgia's election systems and, as part of the plea, sydney powell now faces years of probation and she must testify against her codefendants. now, remember, she was one of donald trump's most outspoken lawyers who pushed these outlandish conspiracy theories and flat out lies. >> what we are really dealing with here, and uncovering more by the day, is the massive influence of communist money from venezuela, cuba, and likely china. >> i think justice department has known about this issue for a long time and turned a blind eye to. it >> the software that goes into other computerized voting systems here, as well, not just dominion, were created in venezuela at the direction of hugo chavez. >> as far as i know this is the first case of abject fraud and obtaining a coup of the united states of america. >> i wonder how much the cia actually had a role in starting this kind of program to begin with. >> president trump won by a landslide, we're going to prove it. >> it should be that he could simply be reinstated, that when the inauguration date is set and biden's told move out of the white house. and president trump should be moved back in. >> as part of that plea deal, prosecutors won't polled write a letter of apology to the citizens of georgia. i asked gabriel sterling, the chief operating officer the georgia secretary of state's office what he thought about all of that. >> there needs to be a full accounting, i just don't want a hey, i'm sorry, this caused real and lasting damage to our republic. like i said, to families. i don't know how you measure the impact of this because what it has done to the american people and the faith and elections. i mean, the voters have rejected election denialism across the board in every time we have one of these cases comes up, it should be another like getting knocked off of that because it just shows it was not based on facts or truth, it was based on a grift and ally. >> you can watch my full interview with gabriel sterling on x, also known as twitter. much more ahead on the war between israel and hamas, including the israeli government getting the greenlight for a likely ground invasion.