good day to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm kasie hunt. it is friday, october 20. it is 5:00 a.m. here in washington, noon in gaza where we had thought we would see trucks full desperately needed humanitarian aid rolling through the rafah border cross buying nby now. but not yet. this is a live picture. u.s. officials now believe the first convoy will cross into gaza this weekend. possibly saturday. last night president biden addressed the nation tying israel's war against hamas in gaza to ukraine's battle against russian aggression. >> hamas and putin represent different threats but they share this in common, they both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy. history has daughters when terr -- has taught us when terrorists and dictatorses don't pay a price, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction. they keep going. and costs to the americans and the world keep rising. >> the president is trying to build support for a $100 billion foreign aid package that would include new money for israel and ukraine. a key theme in his speech? the idea of the united states as the indispensable nation guaranteeing global stability. >> american leadership is what holds the world together. american ally answers are what keep us americans safe. american values is what make us a partner other nations want to work with. to put all that at risk if we walk away from ukraine, if we turn our backs on israel, it is just not worth it. >> jomana karedsheh is live for us in london with the latest. can you help us understand what is going on at the rafah crossing? >> reporter: expectation was that we would see the first aid convoy, the 20 trucks, crossing the rafah crossing into gaza today. that was the expectation. we had heard and seen the preparations on the egyptian side over the past 24 hours or so. but what we understand, that it is not happening. that this could possibly take place tomorrow, possibly sometime this weekend. it is very unclear right now. i mean, it was so close. you've got the u.n. chief antonio guterres just arriving in northern sinai. you have high level official, you have u.n. convoys and workers on the ground all set, all ready to go with the 20 first trucks desperately needed aid ready to go. but what we understand is that there is a lot of work that needs to be done. you've got the physical work, repairs taking place to the destroyed and damaged roads around the crossing as a result of the strikes but also the work that is taking place behind the scenes to ensure safe peaceage for these trucks, safe distribution of the aid. and also israel's concerns that this doesn't get into the hands of hamas. so a lot of work has been taking place. we'll have to wait and see when this finally happens. but you've got the civilian population there, majority of the 2 million people inside gaza are women and children. and they are facing dire humanitarian situation, catastrophic situation by all accounts as we are hearing from u.n. agencies, as we are hearing from aid organizations saying that for nearly two weeks now, they have not received supplies of water, food, fuel. water and electricity have been cut off by israel and people are facing these dire -- this dire situation right now. ear hearing from aid organizations saying that it is a matter of days before they run out of food. takes matter of hours before they could lose electricity in the hospitals. and a lot of concern about that when you don't have fuel to run the generators respect the hospital going in with that first convoy of 20 trucks, a lot of concern of what will happen to patients who are reliant on -- who are in hospital, in intensive care, on incubators. so a lot of concern about getting that aid in and getting it in fast. every minute counts according to aid organizations and they say that time is running out for civilians inside gaza. >> and i think we should underscore is the plan is just 20 trucks which aid organizations say is far from enough. jomana karedsheh, thank you very much for getting us started this morning. and just ahead here, new signs that israel may be closer to launching a ground invasion of gaza. we'll have more on that military buildup. plus the man who hopes to bes new speaker of the house planning to speak live just a few hours from now. what will jim jordan say? u.s. navy warship in the middle east intercepting missiles thursday near the coast of yemen. three land attack missiles and several drones were shot down launched by houthi backed forces. no casualties of forces. >> this was action that we are prepared to utilize whenever necessary to protect our partners and our interests in this important region. >> let's bring in retired major general co-author of "hunting the caliphate." and sir, good morning, thank you very much for being here. can you help us understand what we know or don't know about these missiles, who fired them, possible targets and what this represents in terms of degree of possible escalation? >> good morning, kasie. in fact the shooting of the missiles was well done by u.s. navy, by the destroyer that was stationed not far from yemen in the northern red sea. i believe the two to three cruise missiles were fired by houthi rebels out of yemen which are supported by iran. iran has been fighting a proxy war with both the u.s. and israel and others. and we should expect more of this, of iranian proxies like hezbollah, like houthis, the new aniey i can't yemen, shia milit and others. luckily we intercepted the missiles and also some drones in the area. >> so let's talk about what we're expecting in gaza. we've been expecting the ground incursion now for days, but it does seem as though we're picking up increasing signs that action may be imminent. you have been inside gaza, we've seen the commanders there saying that israeli troops will soon see inside gaza. can you take us into what they might see there? i think the phrase often military folks use is the ground is softened. you can helcan you help us understand what that means and what they will see when they get there? >> yes, in fact i have been to gaza. and gaza city. what is important is what we haven't been seeing from an obvious standpoint, what the isra israelis have already started as far as operations. we've seen the tar getting of hamas leadership which israelis are doing really wiell. the idea of cutting off the head first. and so bombardments of different targets within gaza and gaza city from fire jet bombers to artillery, all that has been happening over the past week. we've seen intelligence operations, we've seen psychological operations, we've seen other operations possibly looking for the hostages, we've seen cyberattacks. all this is a part of the preparation for the actual ground campaign. and what we should see as a ground campaign would be attacking from the north, possibly attacking from the east, and possibly from the west from the sea. now, the fighting is going to be tough because of the densely populated areas. when i was in gaza years ago, a lot of people, a couple million people there, now there is even more people. so the fighting will be urban fighting block by block, street by street, building by building. and then also subterranean. since the last attack from israel years ago, hamas has spread its tunnel network throughout gaza and gaza city. so there would be a subterranean fight. there will be an above ground fight as well as a fight in the highrise buildings. it will be a you have tough fil and a lot of casualties on both sides and unfortunately there will be civilians caught in the crossfire. >> major general, thanks very much. we appreciate it. have a wonderful weekend. >> thank you, kasie. up next here, what about the other war? we'll have details on what joe biden told ukrainian's volodymyr zelenskyy before last night's big speech. ukraine has regained more than 50% of the territory russian troops once occupied. backed by u.s.-led coalition of more than 50 countries around the world, all doing its part to support kyiv. what would happen if we walked away? >> that was president biden last night talking about the war that we haven't been focused on very much the past two weeks. let's bring in max foster to talk more about this. good morning, good to see you. before the speech president biden actually called president zelenskyy and assured him that there is still strong bipartisan support for ukraine, but obviously if you are in kyiv right now, this is pretty nerve-racking. this was a pitch from the president to the american people to say hey, we need to support this, here is why. but the numbers aren't bearing out here. public sentiment has really shifted in the united states in recent weeks and months. what hope and what is the view from your side of the pond so to speak? >> well, it was you that said it just recently that any package for ukraine would now be tied with a package for israel. israel is kirntcurrently the headline. but he's asking for is $14 billion for israel, $60 billion for ukraine. so he is pushing the package through together which may overt this, you know, lack of support for the ukraine war and continuing to fund it amongst some republicans. but you'd know better than me whether or not he is going to be able to push that through as one package, whether or not the republicans will ask for a separation of the israeli and ukrainian package. if that is the case, i think the ukrainian package would be much harder to push through. >> that is absolutely right. 100% what is going on here. what i really heard in biden's speech last night was a pitch to the american people to try to say that america still has absolutely indispensable role on the world stage and that these two things are tied together because supporting democracy over autocracy is more important perhaps than it has ever been with the potential for somebody with autocratic tendencies to get reelected here in the united states, especially. but the message is coming from somebody who, if you watched the speech last night, you could see biden's age very clearly. and there does seem to be this feeling that there is a fracturing going off the world order that we have known in the post world war ii landscape. i mean, does it feel to you like america still has the role that biden is trying to convince people that america does? >> i think it is really suffering that role certainly in the middle east and amongst arab countries. obviously u.s. has very strong links to many arab countries, but if you look at all the protests, all the demonstrations, a lot of language coming from arab leaders, the u.s. and israel have very much being lumped together now. so having this global policeman role becomes much more difficult if you have clearly taken one controversial side in that region. i think that that will be a real challenge for biden going forward. and then you've got -- you know, more statements coming from beijing today, constantly from moscow trying to undermine that global statesman role that the u.s. has. so i think it is a huge challenge and it is one where you are seeing much more of a reflection of that in recent days, aren't you, in biden's language, expressing a lot more sympathy for what palestinian civilians are going through rather than just focusing on the horrific terror attack on israelis on their own soil. >> right. and i think that there are very significant reasons why he is doing that. they can see how people are feeling about the plight of those palestinians just as plain as you and i can. i have to say as you were talking i have flashing back to the pictures of president xi and president putin of russia and china shakes hands meeting together. i think that this is something that i think you and i will be having a lot of conversations about in the year ahead as they try to as you heastutely point t challenge western dominance. >> and the latest comments from xi in china are two state solution, we need a ceasefire, we need a political solution. and a lot of people seeing that as completely unrealistic and not timely. because no one in the middle east is in that state of mind right now. but what she sigxi is doing is presenting himself as global peace maker. so more about messaging rather than reality. but trying to replace the u.s. >> and reality is these are auto autocracies, not democracies. don't want to lose sight of that. max foster, have a wonderful weekend. pro palestinian demonstrations erupting across the world. a live look from one country where that is happening. and congressman jim jordan set to speak after failing to find the votes to get elected house speaker. what to expect from him today, coming up. hamas and putin represent different threats. but they share this in common. they both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy. completely in-nile eight it. >> thanks for getting up early with us. that was president biden speaking from the oval office last night. making the case for sending more aid for ukraine and israel band . and he made a clear distinction between hamas and palestinian people. >> hamas' stated purpose for existing is the murder of jewish people. hamas does not represent the palestinian people. hamas uses palestinian civilians as human shields and innocent palestinian families are suffering greatly because of that. meanwhile pew ten dcontinue denies ukraine has or ever had real state another. >> betsy klein is joining me now. thank you for being here.state . >> betsy klein is joining me now. thank you for being here. the white house doesn't do this very often. what stood out to you last night? >> it was a rare oval office address from president biden last night where he sought to tie together israel and ukraine and the wars there and make the case really that it is a criticomr bo u.s. national security and the future of democracy. now, the president has often said that this is an inflection point in history and the battle between autocracy, the world's dictators and democracy. and he made the case that this is a critical point in that fight saying that it is time for the u.s. to step up. here is the president. >> american leadership is what holds the world together. american ally answers are what keeps us, america, safe. american values are what make us a partner other nations want to work with. to put all that at risk if we walk away from ukraine or turn our backs on israel is not worth it. >> president biden said that supporting israel and ukraine is a smart investment, that it is an imperative as we both seek to stop russia and a mass from causing more destruction across the globe and also because it sends an important signal of deterrence to other bad actors and adversaries who are also seeking to cause -- to really build off of this events of the last week. and biden was speaking directly to the american people. he was trying to galvanize support as the white house is about to make a $100 billion request for more assistance that includes $60 billion for ukraine, $10 billion for israel, $14 billion for border security. and something the white house is going to have to really sell. and there is an uncertain path forward. they are confident that they will get bipartisan support but without a speaker in the house, the future is sort of uncertain timing-wise. >> entirely uncertain. a fair characterization. and i think that it is worth underscoring that this is personal for the president, this idea of defending democracy. the reason that he argued that he got into the 2020 campaign in the beginning of it all and really motivated him fundamentally. he also talked about anti-semitism and islamophobia here at home? >> and that moment stood out as he spoke out against both of those. there has been a rising tide of both in the last week or so. and making the case that this is the time for americans not to be silent, to step out, to call it out. and also a message for those who have been impacted and said i see you, you are american. >> betsy klein, thank you very much for being up early with us. i really appreciate it. and more demonstrations are under way right now over israel's airstrikes on gaza. the anger fuelled in part by a hamas narrative claiming that israel struck the hospital in gaza. and as the state department advises all americans overseas to exercise increase caution in a worldwide alert. nada bashir is live in amman, jordan for us. nada, explain to us what is going on behind you. what are protestors trying to say? >> reporter: behind me now, friday prayers are ongoing. [ inaudible ] for friday prayers. but it is after the prayers they are expecting to begin a march through downtown that in that - inaudible ] we've seen protests from the outset of the war almost daily, but these demonstrations are getting bigger and bigger and they are spreading across the region as they are across the globe. and in fact here in jordan, this is an issue that is deeply personal for many. more than 50% of the population are [ inaudible ] when you walk around the city the feeling and sentiment is clear, many hanging palestinian flags out of their windows and cars and chanting pro palestinian chants. but this is a moment that is deeply important, deeply significant, deeply personal. and we've seen protests in lebanon, egypt, libya, tunisia, iraq, occupied west bank and they are spreading, they are getting bigger. in cairo we know protests will be taking place today with permission from the state. a significant move by the egyptian government. we've heard condemnation from arab leaders and as well as vocal condemnation from international rights groups, independent u.n. experts have accused israel carrying out -- accused them of carrying out [ inaudible ] crimes against humanity and this is an issue which is not going to go away here in the middle east. >> nada bashir for us in amman. thank you very much for that report. let's come back to washington now because in just a few hours, republican congressman jim jordan is planning to hold a news conference ahead of a planned 10:00 a.m. vote to choose a house speaker. this if it plays out as we expect would be the third vote since kevin mccarthy was forced out. jordan lost the first two rounds, but he has vowed to keep trying. this decemberspite a meeting la night with holdouts and several say they are immovable and he has no path to become speaker. quote, purpose of the meeting was to make it chris it will clear that it is over these members say. multiple sources sayen a earlier gop meeting group heated with some members getting really angry at jordan and congressman mike bosk cussing out matt gaetz who led the rebellion against mccarthy. he yell at gaetz to sit down and when he didn't listen, another member said sit the f down, matt. afterwards gaetz seemed to shrug off the lhostilihostility. >> passions are a little in-flamted. i think he is working through the stages of grief. >> does the congressman lunge at you? >> i think that he was pretty animated. i don't know if i would describe it as a lunge. >> okay. so we're debating whether or not there was a physical fight over how to become speaker of the house behind closed doors. let's bring in teia mitchell. lovely to see you. jordan has scheduled this #:00 a.m. press conference after what was clearly a very contentious night of trying to convince people to get on board with him. we expect he is going afford to a forward to a third vote but we're not sure what he will say. >> right. good morning to you as well. s ifforward to a third vote but we're not sure what he will say. >> right. good morning to you as well. s if it is interesting that he has decided to go to the public first before the house convenes at 10 ork:00 . why it is unclear what jordan is doing, as you noted, the republicans who oppose him were pretty resolute as things broke up last night that they are not changing their minds and there are a lot of them. jim jordan has about 22. and so he would need to flip all but four. he can only lose four votes. so it doesn't look like he has the math. but the signals are showing us that he might be wanting to move ahead with a third round of voting anyway. >> right. and of course the sort of thing that has been dangled out there is that this idea that they could install patrick mchenry, temporary speaker of the house, for a limited period of time, say until january, to keep the government open, to pass this funding for israel and ukraine that the white house wants to push through. but the reality is patrick mchenry really doesn't want the job and he keeps saying my goal is to make jim jordan the speaker. does that still feel like a live possibility at this point? >> so it doesn't feel like much of a possibility. number one, not only because interim speaker mchenry has kind of thrown water on the idea, but talking to republicans yesterday in the hallways, a lot of the rank and file members didn't want to go with that possible way of breaking up the logjam. a lot said that anywhere constituents want them to elect a speaker. they don't want to just kind of have someone appointed and empowered in the interim. so there were a lot of republicans who said no, i would not support empowering mchenry on the floor. now, could it possibly pass with the help of democrats? yes. but one of the themes, even back to october 3 and kevin mccarthy's ouster, not only is this a problem of republicans making, but they have not yet decided that they are ready to engage with democrats to get out of it. so speaker mccarthy did not engage with democrats to try to keep his speakership. and now that for 2 1/2 weeks the speakership has been vacant, right now republicans are now ready to engage with democrats on perhaps empowering mccarthy or something else that can be done to again open the house back up. so they are just engaging with each other. and they are at an impasse. they can't find a path forward with republicans only, but they are not ready to negotiate with democrats. >> kevin mccarthy was ready to talk to democrats like right there at the very end, it was like we got a little bit of messaging. suddenly it was about the institution and then there was a lot of anger leveled at democrats when they declined to help him keep the gavel. i mean, look, big picture here, your paper is out of georgia, a critical swing state that voted against donald trump and seemed to reject these kind of politics as well in senate elections. it has been a pretty consistent reality. i mean, bottom line, this is really reminding americans of the chaos that goes with a trumpian republican party. >> yeah, and i think it is something that the republicans have to wrestle with. the fact that it didn't come in a vacuum and in a lot of ways there were political benefits to aligning with donald trump and the america first mentality. but now some of those same republicans are seeing what can come with it, they are saying that they are receiving death threats. georgia representative drew ferguson is one of those republicans who currently doesn't support jim jordan and he said he and his family have based death threats. however, generally speaking republicans have been supportive donald trump and trying to appease the conservative base as much as they can. but now they have reached their limit when it comes to jim jordan. but there are some aspects of the base who don't like that and now turning on some of the same republican lawmakers. >> tia mitchell, thank you so much for being with us this morning. and president biden calling on congress to answer the call and fortify the war efforts this israel and ukraine. did he make his case? we'll ask congresswoman jasmine crockett up next. can't let petty partisan angry politics get in the way of a great nation. we cannot and will not let terrorists like hamas and putin win. >> president biden making his case for more aid in israel. the question is will congress answer. let's bring in congresswoman jasmine crockett of texas. good morning, very grateful to have you. >> good morning, good to see you, kasie. >> as you heard there, president biden linked together these threats posed by hamas and putin. he wants billions of dollars for both of these things. do you agree that they are tied together? >> oh, absolutely. you know, the unfortunate thing is most americans do not vote for their leaders based upon their foreign policy chops. but the reality is that everything is kind of coming to a head and most of the american people do not fully understand how much we do behinds scenes when it comes to financial aid in general to foreign countries. and the fact that the president was able to tie together the border, tie together israel, as well as the humanitarian aid to the palestinians as well as ukraine, it is really important that we do that as well as taiwan. they are all interrelated. for everyone that says that we're being overrun, the best way to make sure that we're number one, not overrun, and we do what we say that we'll do as good allies, is make sure that we help to stabilize these situations and help those modern day democracies that believe in defending themselves, make sure that they can do that. >> congresswoman, do you think there is enough money in request for the border? a lot of republican critics of ukraine funding say that look, we got all kinds of problems at home. our border is in crisis. there is only $14 billion of this $100 billion request aimed at solving that problem. do you think that is enough? >> you know, honestly, i'll be very honest with you and tell you i don't know what the number is. and i honestly don't think that my republican counterparts know what that mum is either. because we've been talking about border issues for years and seemingly no one has resolved the issue. but once again when we talk about foreign policy, one of the things that we need to make it clear about is that you have people that are risking their lives, people aren't risking their lives because things are just so amazing here, they are risking their lives because things are so bad at home. and people don't naturally want to leave their homes and want to leave their families. so what we need to make sure we do is, number one, make sure that we're helping out these other foreign countries to make sure that people don't want to leave home. we've got to make sure that we have good trade policies going, we have to make sure that we're helping the modern day democracies not crumble in front of their eyes. and make sure that people don't want to come to the united states. and then when they do come to the united states, what we need to do is make sure that these people are working. if they are going to be here, we need to help out those businesses that need the laborers and we need to make sure that we are not overburdening our cities and saying that they need to take care of them. >> let me ask you about one of your colleagues, ilhan omar, put out an initial statement that seemed to blame israel for the bombing of the hospital in gaza. obviously the hospital bombing was incredibly tragic event regardless of how it was caused, but the u.s. later assessed that the israelis were not responsible for what happened. do you think that your colleague who was quick to blame israel made a mistake? >> you know, i can't say what information she had that made her decide to put that statement out. we've not talked about that. but i can say that for me in my office, we wanted to remain very cautious about this. you know, i even received a text message from someone about this particular incident and they said you came out really quick against hamas and i said hamas, number one, said they did it. israel said they did it. no one actually took claim over what happened at the hospital. and so for me, we are granted the ability to have top security clearance meetings where they give us this intel. so i said i can't go out on a limb especially against one of our allies and be wrong. so for me, i decided that i needed to wait and get the information. >> fair enough. let me ask you about what is going on in the house because obviously your legislative body is currently unable to function entirely. we're expecting to hear from jim jordan here in a couple hours. we expect that to be him trying to convince people as to why he should continue to be speaker. we're expecting a third vote on the floor. there is this question hanging out there about patrick mchenry. from your perspective, democrats would have to decide what do if we get to that point whether or not they would support empowering mchenry temporarily with more power than he currently has. would you support mchenry taking on the speakership temporarily? >> so as you can see, democrats are united. this is one of those things that we would have to game behind the scenes. i do have my concerns about expanding upon the powers of the speaker pro temp. i want to make sure whatever we do doesn't set a bad precedent. so we need to look at the pros and cons. and honestly, if it will just be more of the same which is more of a nothing burger, then i'm not really interested. so we would have to have some guarantees. we know our republican colleagues decided that they wanted to renege on the deal they already made with the president, so what will look that look like, what are we talking about when we say we open the house back up? people keep saying that we're not getting anything done, but i'd argue we hadn't gotten anything done. if we had, we wouldn't still have a looming shutdown over our head. we had months and months to pass a budget and it didn't get done. and so what does it mean to open the house? what exactly are we going to get done? are we just going to pass resolutions that say that we stand with our allies or are we actually going to have thoughtful conversations and make sure we send the aid that they need. >> so if you could get a commitment from republicans to keep the government open at the levels that were agreed to between the president and kevin mccarthy earlier this year, if you could get, you know, a guarantee that some sort of israel/ukraine aid package would move, would that be enough for you for democrats as you are in these rooms or do democrats need more than that from republicans if they are going to help them out of this jam? >> well, i mean, hakeem jeffries is our leader so i'll defer to him on it, but personally i will say that that would be a really good start and making sure that when we open the house, we are doing the people's work in the people's house by doing exactly what was agreed upon and making sure that we could actually move forward. right now the bills that they were passing, they weren't going anywhere anyway. you can't pass the crazy bills with the crazy spending cuts where we're going after the lgbtqia community and trying to pass appropriations. and not to mention the dei issues that we have some so many of the bills. so once again it depends on what we're going to do, if we'll open the house. but i don't see myself really trying to throw the republican as bone just so that they can say we finally got the house back open when they still aren't doing anything that is of value when they open the house. >> it will be an interesting week, weekend, potential future with no speaker of the house. >> do not say the weekend. >> sounds like that is what we're on track for. congresswoman jasmine crockett, thank you for your time. >> absolutely. and israeli officials say their troops have the green light to enter gaza. when the highly anticipated ground invasion could begin, ahead on "cnn this morning." is it possible my network could take my business to the next level? it is with comcast business. powering all your devices with gig-speed wifi. and you get fast downloads and uploads. pick it up! pick it up! oh we got this! because it's powered by the next generation 10g network. more speed for your business? it's not just possible. it's happening. get started for $59.99 a month for 12 months. plus, ask how to get an $800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. comcast business, powering possibilities. sa key spokesman is being detained, part of a wide scale counterterrorism operation which ended with more than five dozen members of hamas in custody. elliott gotkine is following the developments live for us from london. and good morning to you. this is drawing some fierce pushback from at least one palestinian group. can you explain who this person is and what we're hearing? >> reporter: he is a spokesman for hamas. he is the main spokesman in the west bank. he has spent a total of something like 24 years in hiz reallily prisons in his career. and i suppose a bit strange seeing this. wondering if this may not go down in the annals of the domestic security agency's greatest detective exploits because they have literally said that they have detained a spokesman for hamas on, and i quote this, suspicion of acting on behalf of hamas which i suppose is pretty obvious if he is a spokesman for them. but i think what we're seeing more broadly is a blurring of the lines between the political side of hamas and the military side. israeli is seemingly no longer making that distinction and is going after hamas both in the west bank and of course in the gaza strip. and the spokesman for the idf this morning saying in his words that we will go after -- we're going after each and every one of them, referring to anyone in hamas inside the gaza strip that it thinks was involved in this terrorist attack on october 7 which has sparked this war that we're seeing right now. there were other interesting things that the spokesman was saying this morning talking about the northern border with lebanon and the flare-ups we've been seeing with hezbollah, iranian proxy in the south of lebanon, saying quite simply every time they shoot, we'll shoot back. he said that the situation right now that israel is trying to contain the situation and that hezbollah knows where the line is to avoid this spiraling i suppose out of control into another front. he also gave some updates on the hostages, that there are 203 hostages and 100 people missing. kasie. >> stunning numbers on both sides of the conflict. elliott gotkine, thanks very much. and thank you for joining us. "cnn this morning" starts right now.