♪ ♪ will the house get back to work today? first, you know how this goes. first they need a speaker which means first they need to go to the floor and vote yet again. that could happen next hour when republicans have called a vote again and donald trump, he just weighed in, as well. explosions in gaza as israel carries out new air strikes. a ground invasion seemingly on hold as israel seems to be letting diplomatic disputes play out. a new legal reality for donald trump. his former chief of staff granted immunity. what mark meadows is reportedly ready to say under oath about his former boss. i'm kate bolduan with john berman. sara sidner is on assignment in israel. this is "cnn news central." ♪ ♪ next hour, the house representatives and republicans especially are going to give it another go. they're going to gather and try once again to elect a new speaker. this is a try for the fourth time in less than a month. senior republicans tell cnn that they do think that louisiana congressman and the now-republican nominee for speaker, if you will, mike johnson, they do believe they can win the gavel on his first try. johnson is the latest lawmaker tapped to fill the job that has been vacant now for 22 days. in those 22 days there have been 14 candidates, four nominees and three floor votes. if johnson, if he is elected, johnson would be the least experienced and that's not a subjective call either and it's the resume of the past speakers and the least experienced house spooker speaker in recent history. the question on everyone's minds right now is can mike johnson do what steve scalise, jim jordan and tom emmer could not? cnn's manu raju has all of the answers on capitol hill. first and foremost, is the vote going to happen? everything is so up in the air, let's just start with the basics. >> yeah. i think it is widely expected that it will happen and there's growing momentum and expectation that mike johnson will get the votes today and will end this very ugly and messy period for the gop where they have been in complete disarray over the past three weeks after the ouster of kevin mccarthy, the first time ever a sitting speaker pushed out at the hands of his own colleagues and failing to get behind any speaker candidate to replace him. three different candidates saw the bids collapse including another one just yesterday, but ultimately the republican congressman settled in on mike johnson, someone aligned with the more far-right elements of his conference on social issues and fiscal issues and someone who is seen acceptable to some of the more moderate members who are just simply concerned about everything that has gone down and even if they supported and wanted kevin mccarthy to stay in the speakership saying they are tired and weary of the infighting and simply ready to put this chapter behind them and no governing can happen unless a speaker is elected which underscores the depth of the problem the republicans are in as the house remains paralyzed amid key issues and actions. johnson is taking steps laying out how he would deal with the job as speaker. just this morning sending out a letter to his colleagues detailing how he would approach some of the key issues that he would face including how to handle putting out a schedule for dealing with government funding which will be a central issue for him to handle as he comes into the speakership assuming he has the votes today. there is a mid-november deadline to avoid a government shutdown. how he'll do with some key questions such as aid to israel, aid to ukraine. things the white house is demanding should be lumped together and passed as one, something that could run into opposition in the republican-controlled house, but at the moment the immediate question, will mike johnson get the votes to be elected speaker and the expectation is yes, unless things go south unexpectedly on the house floor here in about an hour's time here, kate. >> one quick follow here, manu. the rule that was in place, that has made it so possible for kevin mccarthy to get ousted. have they changed that rule at all leading into this vote? >> they have not. in fact, that is going to be a threat over any speaker whether it's mike johnson or anyone else. one individual member could call for a vote seeking his ouster. the thing that's a bit different here, kate is that he is more aligned with his members who pushed out kevin mccarthy given his politics or ideology unless he strays significantly from them, he should be in line with them and it shouldn't be as big of a risk in talking to the members who are part of the freedom caucus and they told me yesterday and this morning that they want to give him some leeway to govern and negotiate with the democrats and they'll decide if johnson runs into the same issues that befell kevin mccarthy. >> manu, thank you very much. appreciate it. >> such a good question. joining us is senior political commentator scott jennings and cnn political commentator and republican strategist alice stewart. so, scott, what lessons have been learn individual this? republicans fully now have their act together, no chaos evermore? >> well, that's the hope. we don't have time for chaos. we have to get the government funded and republican voters and donors and supporters and conservatives need the house majority to be functioning because the speaker of the house is the republican member at the table here negotiating with democrats. there is a democrat in the whwh white house. if you don't have a funkctionin majority. i think he's very conservative and he's values oriented, but at the same time he has been someone who has said over and over again that he believes dialogue with democrats is good. institutions must be strengthened and a civil discourse must take place. i'm hopeful and optimistic that he can do what others can't and that's use this job to be a legislative mechanic and not use this job to simply be a tv pundit what some of the other folks were hoping to be. >> not that there's anything wrong with tv pundits because a lot of them can be super and really nice. >> super awesome, but alice, you heard what manu said that there's a sense that amongst the republican congress that they want to give mike johnson a chance to govern because that's exactly what got kevin mccarthy ousted and he tried to use leeway because he needed to govern. has exhaustion won the day? >> that's exactly it, kate. i've gotten two texts in the last five minutes from key gop members of the house and they say the gop is tired of fighting. they feel a boxer late in the round where the arms are just tired and they are ready to move forward and they are optimistic that johnson will get the necessary votes this afternoon and they will be able to get back to what they were put in there to do which is govern and legislate and get things done and work not just across the aisle with democrats, but heck, work with republicans because that doesn't seem to be happening and if we haven't learned anything else in the last 22 days or so, that we are seeing in terms of the race for the speaker and who this person will be. you don't have to be the one who has the most experience. you have to be the least hated. you don't have to be the last man standing and it's a heavy dose of maga. that's exactly what he has. he's a trump ally and he supported to overturn election result which is is ludicrous in and of itself. trump has been working behind the scenes to uplift people who have been supportive and he has that going for him and johnson himself doesn't have a big legislative record. he has been really someone who has been behind the scenes, for the most part, but the key to him is people don't know a lot about him because he hasn't done a lot and therefore he hasn't created a lot of enemies and what we're seeing that is going to be to his benefit as they make those votes today. >> scott, what about alice's point on donald? donald trump spiked tom emmer yesterday. emmer who voted to certify the election and it seems as though house republicans are saying we can't have someone who said the answer was legitimate as house speaker. >> that was the only thing going into this. certainly trump's spiking of emmer was not up expected and they had been telegraphed for several days and i guess they'd never had a super close relationship and the same could not be said by johnson. he's been a very vocal supporter of trump and he was part of trump's first impeachment theme and johnson was one of the most vociferous people on tv defending him and trump saw it and put him on the team and obviously, they have a little bit of a relationship going back, but the reality is that's where most of the republicans are. not all of them, but most of them and it's where the republican grassroots are, and even if they don't have much about him today, and getting trump's seal of approval is going to go a long way to making them believe that this is going to be a right answer. regarding leash, i think they'll give him latitude to operate and jim ord jordan and others will able to make the hump over again. >> am not confident of that. the senate wants to link aid to israel among other things that have been proposed and we have heard clearly, there are so many republicans that have no appetite for that. >> including mike johnson. >> and what he's going to do there will be fascinating. >> great to see both of you. appreciate it. coming up for us, overnight deadly strikes in gaza continue and now sources are telling cnn that american military advisers are urging israel to avoid a full-scale ground assault in gaza to essentially learn from the mistakes that the united states made like in the war in iraq. a live report ahead. plus united nations agency warns if it does not get fuel in gaza soon, its relief efforts could begin shutting down by the end of today. there are also new reports that former president biden's former chief of staff mark meadows, that he's been granted immunity for testimony against donald trump in the federal election subversion case and what trump is now saying about this. we'll be back. we'll show you right now, this is some new drone footage that has come in in the aftermath of an israeli strike in khan younis. people seeing sifting through the rubble in gas where more than a million people have been told to flee as they were going to be focusing efforts in the northern end of gaza. the u.n. agency working in gaza says it is continuing to try to help people there, but also says its efforts will be forced to come to a stop tonight if no fuel is allowed into gaza through the rafah crossing. no additional fuel, which they say, has become a dire situation and all of this as the united states is asking israel to put a pause on the ground invasion there. nic robertson is live in sderot outside of gaza. any sort of ground incursion does seem to be on hold as diplomacy plays out. what are you seeing and hearing? >> yeah. we are still hearing shelling. the shells going into gaza. we watched some of the artillery firing them and we have seen and heard missiles impacting on gaza and seeing the huge plumes of smoke from just outside and seeing idf forces and armored personnel vehicles heading closer toward the border fence with gaza and not an incursion, per se. all of the military activity going on to strike hamas targets inside of gaza. the civilian casualties that accompany all of that and it remains in place and a ground incursion, as you say, doesn't feel imminent and you can get that from the relaxed checkpoints that we've been seeing close to gaza today, but by -- by means of artillery strikes and missile strikes, this is still pressure on hamas as these negotiations continue because they're all pressure points. the lack of fuel is a pressure point on hamas. hamas wants a humanitarian pause, wants the humanitarian aid. these are all pressure points, but the military is -- and the actions of the idf is yes, still in place and pressuring ham abu -- but i would not expect tonight to see a ground incursion. >> let's continue to watch it. nic right in the front lines for us. thank you so much. john? with us now cnn global affairs analyst kim dozier. i want to start outside of israel with a meeting that took place in beirut over the last 24 hours and it involved hasa nasrallah, the head of hezbollah, the shia militant group that operates in lebanon and political leaders from hamas and islamic jihad. this was a meeting that was covered. they pub licized the picture there and they wanted the world to see. what message do they want to see? >> they're sending a message of a united front that if israel invades on the ground into gaza that israel could face military action from hezbollah in the north. at the same time current and former israeli officials i've spoken to believe that hezbollah is trying to look like it's supportive of what's going on in gaza without triggering a full-scale israeli invasion. they don't want to the have to go that far. they are aware of the fact that there is u.s. fire power now in the region that could help knock out some of their missiles if they start raining missiles down on to israel from the north. >> so talk to me more about that because we obviously have seen, we have seen explosions around the lebanese-israel border which is right there and we have seen firing back and forth, tanks and what not. you just said hezbollah, what you are hearing, might be willing to only go so far. why? what doesn't hezbollah want? >> well, they've got something like 150,000 missiles, some have been very sophisticated, but once they start firing it almost certainly triggers an israeli ground invasion, and because they waited, that they didn't do it right around october 7th when the horrific hamas terrorist attack was launched on israel, israel's now had time to prepare at that border. they've moved a number of troops there and they've moved a number of civilians out and israel has been doing things like hitting airstrips in syria to keep iran from bringing in more sophisticated weaponry to arm all of the militants along the border. so hezbollah can see this from the north. the harassing attacks that they've been doing thus far, what that does is pin idf forces, israeli defense forces, in the north so they can't go south and be a part of the gaza invasion, but it's really questionable if hezbollah goes further, they know that israel will invade and also possibly launch missiles -- missile strikes on iran and no one wants to see that. >> just finally, there is this issue of fuel shipments inside gaza. the israeli military says if they were to allow fuel in over the rafah crossing right down here then that fuel ultimately would be taken by hamas. from a military standpoint what are israel's fears with that fuel? >> well, according to israeli officials, they believe hamas has already stockpiled a lot of fuel in order to keep the war machine going and keep electricity running at that network of 300 miles tunnels that hamas claims to have underneath gaza, and they claim that any additional fuel would be funneled into the war machine and also they keep saying that it is hamas' responsibility to take care its own people and they should use some of that stockpiled fuel to keep track of the water desalination plants, et cetera. of course, if you're a military planner that means if hamas uses it for that they can't prosecute israel. >> if they don't get fuel hospitals will have to close down. kim dozier, thank you very much. i'll speak to one man whose palestinian-american mother is trapped in gaza and desperately trying to leave and we'll speak to him about those efforts. another legal blow for former president trump. a new report says his ex-chief of staff mark meadows is striking a deal with prosecutors as part of a new immunity deal. israel is continuing its air strikes on gaza to hit hamas targets. also as israel promises to take out hamas leadership and its command capabilities, hundreds of thousands of people have fled to and been forced to flee to southern gaza and the rafah border crossing in an attempt to get to safety and to leave the war zone. among them we now know is many americans. u.s. officials say there are as many as 600 americans trapped there right now and also say the effort to get them out has proven complicated. let me play for you what john kirby from the white house said yesterday. >> we are actively trying to get americans out of gaza. ambassador satterfield was appointed for that purpose. we know there's americans in there. we know they want to get out. we are working very hard to find safe passage. >> and joining me now is nabil al, sharafa. his 66-year-old mother is palestinian-american and one of those stuck in gaza. here's a picture of her. she traveled there to visit her sick mother and she is now stuck. nabil joins me now. thank you. how is she doing? >> thank you, kate. i spoke to her about 24 hours ago. i couldn't reach her this morning, and i was hoping she could speak to you, but the last 24 hours i spoke to her and it's been an impossible situation. there's no food. there's little water. they're eating garbanzo beans, whatever they can find. when my uncle went to go get some bread it took him about two and a half hours to wait in line to get bread. when the israeli military bombed the store forcing everyone to fall and collapse on top of each other, it's been a really challenging situation. they just bombed, i heard from my uncle that they bombed the street where my mom is so if she needs to go to the rafah border she'll have a very difficult time, and it's just, you know, it's an impossible situation to be in. right now my mom is not that she is stuck in gaza. she was trapped in gaza. she was ten minute away from getting out of the border, the rafah border on october 10th when the israeli missile -- when israeli military struck down the rafah border, shutting it and trapping 600 u.s. citizens and hundreds of european and other international citizens, trapping them in gaza, so this is really an important narrative that's missing and what strikes me right now, kate is that, you know, in 1990 in the first gulf war the u.s. president george h.w. bush, before getting involved in the kuwait-iraq war he sent freedom flights to get the u.s. citizens out, and i was on -- my family was on those freedom flights because we're u.s. citizens. why doesn't the u.s. before getting involved in the war get u.s. citizens out? this makes no sense to me before getting involved and now our allies trapped our u.s. citizens, the israeli government trapped them in there and it's raining bombs on them -- there are bombs raining on them. it's just unbelievable what's happening. >> we have new video that we had coming in of strikes in southern gaza and the devastation that is left behind. idf says -- i remember seeing the idf speaking about the air strike in the same day near the rafah border that they were targeting underground tunnels that are used by hamas which, of course, adds to the complexity of all of this, and the administration has said that it has proven really complicated to get americans out. we've heard from the secretary of state speaking about it. he was asked about it. what he has said is that to date hamas has blocked people from leaving and then the spokesperson for the state department explained the situation further this morning when asked on cnn. listen to this. >> the egyptians are on their side, ready, they say to accept people, foreign nationals and the united states citizens if they can make it to egyptian processing. on the other side, we have seen a couple of things. at times as in the clip you just showed hamas has had no one there manning the border station. at other times we have seen hamas militants acting with guns and preventing people from approaching the crossings. >> adding to the complexity of all of this. if you can appeal to the administration and the egyptians, what would your message be? what would your ask me with regard to getting access to that border? >> yeah, kate. this is not a very complicated issue. the ministry wants us to think it is a complicated issue, but my morgue has a stam p on her passport to exit and when they struck down on the border and prevented her and others from leaving. there is no one preventing my mother from leaving right now. right now we are in a dire situation and there's no food or fuel to get her to the border, and so what they're requesting is aid for the civilian population. i mean, right now it is no longer just about my mother. there are thousands of children, mothers, women being killed. i had four family members that were killed as well recently. buildings are being wiped out, neighborhoods wiped out. doctors are operating without anesthetic. this is not israel at war. this is israel performing genocide on the palestinian people and our government is -- is just sitting there quietly. now, what i just heard is that american hostages, there were hostages that hamas let go into israel. if israel is our ally, our closest ally why won't they let our u.s. citizens exit through israel? they want you to think it's complicated, but right now, really it's a matter of get food, fuel to the civilian, the majority civilian population so that the u.s. citizens can get out of the rafah border or get them to get out through our closest ally, israel. so it is really not complicated, kate. >> continue -- folks continue the biden administration continuing to face questions on that. they say day to day they're working on it and they'll continue to track it. thank you for coming on and telling your story. john? >> a new report that mark meadows was granted immunity and testified in the special case against donald trump, and we are minutes away from what could be the final election for house speaker at least for a while. two key players in donald trump's world going under oath against or at least about their former boss. happening now, trump's one-time fixer and lawyer michael cohen is on the witness stand testifying in the civil fraud case against trump where trump has already been found liable. this comes as abc news reports that mark meadows, his former chief of staff, was granted immunity to testify in the special counsel probe in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. with us now former assistant special watergate prosecutor and former prosecutor for the southern district of new york, rick akreman. how central do you think mark meadows is in the special counsel case against donald trump? >> oh, i think he's huge. he is a fulcrum point in this entire case that's going to be tried on march 4th of next year. he was the person that basically took in all of the communications that were directed to donald trump. he carried messages from donald trump to everybody. we know from the testimony of cassidy hutchinson who was meadows' chief assistant, that meadows was supposed to go to a meeting at the willard hotel and the war room with bannon and giuliani and other miscree ants that were there the other day and hoo attended by telephone. we know he talked to roger stone who was up on the capitol steps with the proud boys and the oathkeepers. he might be able to put evidence out there that donald trump knew beforehand that there would be violence on the capitol steps. he is an extremely important witness. he was in the room at the time. he knew what was going on. i know there are reports in abc about what he may have said, but we're not going to really know the import of that testimony until we actually hear him testify at the trial. >> one of the things he reportedly said according to abc news was that he, mark meadows, never believed that the election was stolen and told trump repeatedly that that was the case. however, mark meadows wrote a book. mark meadows wrote a book where he says the opposite or basically, where he says things that are different than what abc news is reporting under oath. how much does that matter? >> it matters to the extent that when he's at trial he'll be cross examined extensively on his prior inconsistent statements and what he's going to say are lies. the problem that the defense is going to have here is that mark meadows is going to be corroborated by lots of other witnesses. he is going to be corroborated by his own text messages and other documents and the government is likely to incorporate that into the narrative that they put forward when mark meadows testifies. he's going to talk about it. >> when mark meadows testifies, so you think this mean he's on the stand? >> there's no question about it. he is going to be one of the star witnesses, but don't forget, there are other witnesses who have lots of credibility, like pat cipollone, the white house counsel who has never had inconsistent statements and has always told the truth about the matter and he was claiming executive privilege which was basically knocked down by the district court judge. so there's going to be a lot of evidence, but what's critical about mark meadows is he really can tell the whole story about what trump knew, when he knew it and what he was doing during the insurrection. nick akerman, thank you very much. >> the house of representatives will take another stab at electing a speaker and maybe, possibly getting back to actual work. where does support stand at this moment for congressman mike johnson? we'll head back to the hill to find out. you want to be able to provide your child with the tools or resources they need. with reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. fellas, fellas. that's how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. we wanted to give y'all the necessary skills to compete with the future. kevin's now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. ♪ ♪ those were pictures from just minutes ago of the man who in just minutes may be the next speaker of the house. congressman mike johnson, a republican from louisiana, looks like he is on the verge of succeeding where all these other people have failed including kevin mccarthy right from the moment that he got booted from the speaker's chair. just to review, overnight, 22 republicans didn't show up for a vote on whether they would support johnson today. three voted present, but it does not look like there will be the four republican votes to keep him from earning the speaker's gavel. let's get the very latest from lauren fox on capitol hill. lauren? >> yeah, john. in fact, two of the members who voted present last night have since said that they are planning to support johnson on the floor today. that shows he has momentum to get this gavel in just maybe even the first round of voting and we will be keeping close tabs. we expected that after they get through the formalities, the pledge, as well as keeping tabs of who is actually in the chamber they'll probably get to voting around 12:30, 12:45 and then things could move relatively quickly and we've seen this play out many times before over the course of the last three weeks. they will have members called by name any those members will decide who they are supporting for speaker. democrats, of course, are to be supporting hakeem jeffries on the floor, but you are hearing from so many republicans from the far right to the moderate wing of the party who say johnson is the guy for the moment. they are exasperated, they are exhausted and ready to move on to the speaker so they can actually get to governing, something >> so this chaos might be over soon. lauren fox, thank you so much. keep us posted. >> might. heavy dose of might. thank you all so much for joining us. this is "cnn news central." coverage of the house speaker vote starts after this quick break. we're following breaking news on very consequential events that are cob verging here in washington, as well as in the middle east. on capitol hill, the house of representatives is about to try again to do what it has been unable to do for three week, choose the house speaker. over at the white house, president biden is getting ready to hold his first formal news conference since the october 7th hamas terror attack on israel. cnn is live in the war zone in the middle east as well as all of this unfolds right now. i'm wolf blitzer in washington along with dana bash. she's up on capitol hill. skb jake tapper is in tel aviv. let's go to capitol hill first. suspense is building right now as we close in on the house speaker vote. >> it sure is. house republicans settled on congressman mike johnson as their fourth nominee for speaker. that happened late last night. he is just their latest hope for ending the party infighting that has left the house of representatives without a speaker for more than three weeks, paralyze d the united states government. that of all since hardliners ousted county.kevin mccarthy, b johnson has to clear a really big hurdle. he can only afford to lose four votes. that moons it's going to be very tight again given the party's very slim hold on the majority. so the question is whether johnson can seal the deal. we're going to find out soon. >> here many middle east, we're monitor the humanitarian crisis in gaza at a critical moment. the main united nations agency working there would be on the brink of halting operations due to a lock of fuel. and on the israel hamas war throughout our special coverage. >> let's start with manu raju, who has been covering all of the developments all week, three weeks, overnight, in the morning, you name it, he's standing there. manu, what is your sense talking to so many sources that you talked to about whether mike johnson is going to be the guy who can pull this off, who can actually get the votes for the speaker's gavel? >> reporter: there's widespread belief within the house republican conference this, in fact, will be the time that mike johnson will be elected speaker of the house. this coming after more than three weeks of bitter republican infighting and disarray that has left this chamber completely paralyzed, unable to act on issues of national and international significance. but now republicans believe it's time to move on. members of the hard right are aligned with johnson on the politics. members who are more centrist, just say it's time to move on and get a speaker elected here. just moments ago, johnson told our colleague that he will win on the first ballot. that's his expectation at the moment. so far, we have not heard opposition within the ranks. they tested this behind closed doors. there were 22 members who did not appear for the vote. three members voted present. those are expected to vote for johnson. and we expect the republican to attend this vote to vote yes. that means johnson could be elected speaker in this hour and assume the speak er office just down the hall from me and confront huge issues he will have to deal with that have been completely sidetracked as republicans have tried to rethis internal leadership battal and this crisis within their own ranks. namely, how to fund the federal government, how to deal with aid to ukraine, all major issues on his plate, assuming he has the votes later this hour. >> thank you. and wolf, i had a member say to me this morning that mike johnson is the person with the fewest enemies. that is likely how he is going to seal up this deal. that's quite telling. >> standby. i want to bring in harry earthen, he has been digging into mike johnson. what do people need to know about the man potentially who might be the next speaker of the house? >> he was an attorney with the focus on constitutional lu. he worked as a college professor. he was a little bit in our industry. he was a conservative talk show host. he served in the louisiana state house. now what about in congress