right now on "early start," trust but verify. where things now stand between the world's two largest super boy powers. plus what biden said about hostage negotiations and potential deal to come. overnight top house democrats were evacuated from dnc headquarters as police clash with protestors calling for a ceasefire. good morning to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm casey hunt. it it is thursday, november 16. president biden and xi jinping putting their tensions aside to agree on a series of issues after talking for the first time in a year. the two leaders spent four hours together at a secluded california location with relations between the two biggest economies near a low point. biden and xi agreed to take steps to curb fentanyl production and restore military communications and work together on art fificial intelligence. and to pick until phone and call in times of crisis. but biden said there was no agreement after raising the issue of detained americans in china. the issue of taiwan came up too and xi firmly said the u.s. must stop arming the island. still xi told biden planet earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed. as for the u.s. president biden, here is how he summed up his approach. >> do i trust? trust but verify as the old saying goes. that is where i am. you know, we're in a competitive relationship. china and the united states. but my responsibility is to make this rational and manageable. >> marc stewart is joining us hive in beijing with more. marc, always good to see you. what is your sense of how this meeting affected the ongoing tensions between the u.s. and china? >> reporter: good morning. by nature this is going to be a fragile relationship even in the best of times. these are two nations with profound differences on how they handle the domestic policy as well as their view of the world. but for the most part, the response that we had been seeing thus far has been very encouraging. in fact if we look at some of the reporting and some of the statements we're hearing from government officials, we're hearing words like positive and comprehensive. in fact there is almost a portrayal of warmth during these meetings. cctv which is the state broadcaster is really showcasing the moment when after the meeting president biden and president xi took a walk around the grounds at the location where this was taken. president biden walking president xi to his car to give him a personal good-bye. these are moments that are being highlighted. while there is certainly some agreement as you mentioned on the fentanyl question, on the fact that military response communications that is will be restored, that there is and going oig relrelationship, ther also moments highlighted that the united states should maintain its own business, stick to itself. among the headlines that we have seen today, xi stressed to biden that the u.s. should not interfere in china's internal affairs. and as you mentioned the whole notion that the world is big enough to accommodate both china and the united states. this also has been an opportunity for president xi to meet directly with american business leaders. there was a dinner last night. apple ceo tim cook was there, elon musk was there, and his message is that china is a partner and friend of the united states, part of his attempt to bring in more foreign investment here to mainland china. >> very interesting. marc stewart, thank you very much. see you soon i hope. for more on the biden/xi meeting, let's bring in senior fellow from the hudson institute. miles, always wonderful to see you. we heard from a senior u.s. official that these talks were very direct and included more back and forth discussion than their previous meeting did. do you think that the stated goal to try to improve relations, was it accomplished? and what was your top takeaway from what we saw yesterday? >> well, president biden said that each principle on this issue is trust but verify, and i would slightly modify it to distrust and verify. the two sides have profound disagreement. there was a long list of issues announced before the talk. south china sea, taiwan, the stance on war in ukraine and election interference in taiwan, human rights and many, many issues that were not really mentioned after the meeting. so what really is announced was two things. one is they agreed to establish a military to military hotline, but xi jinping doesn't even have a defense minister yet. so there is no guarantee in a time of crisis that the other side will pick up the phone to solve the problem. and then narcotics, there was basically no substantive measurement going on. so what i'm saying, this meeting, both sides agreed to disagree and the more things change the more things remain the same. >> so cnn reporter mj lee asked president biden about xi being a dictator, that is the key word here. take a look at what president biden had to say in response. >> mr. president, after today would you still refer to president xi as a dictator, a term you used earlier? >> well, look, he is. >> chinese foreign ministry called the comments extremely erow e called the comments extremely ero erroneous and irresponsible political maneuver. how is it viewed? >> i think that chinese spokesperson is extremely erroneous. article one of the chinese constitution says, and i quote, the peoples republic of china is a socialist country. and xi jinping is president of the republic so he is a dictator. so the constitution enshrines him as dictator. so they shouldn't be thin skinned about that. >> but clearly they are peeved about it. >> well, of course. china, i mean -- many of the chinese announcements coded the word. china say the world is big enough for two countries to co-exist. and so basically don't bother what we do. what china defines as domestic affairs could also mean china's work in taiwan, china's attempt to occupy the south china sea. so that is domestic by chinese definition, but it is not really that simple. >> miles yu, thank you very much for being with us. i appreciate your time, sir. >> good morning. all right. president biden says that he is urging israel to be very careful with their ongoing raid on al-shifa moment. but he also stressed he is confident that hamas had a command center under the facility that is now shut down because of lack of fuel and supplies. and there is growing condemnation over the incursion into gaza. israel says weapons belonging to hamas were found inside the hospital and promised more concrete evidence today. hamas disputes those claims. scott mclean joining us live from istanbul. scott, so far the underground tunnels that the idf says existed under hospital complex haven't been located and there is no sign of hostages at this point. what can you tell us about this? >> reporter: certainly israelis are under a lot of pressure to prove that the accusations that they have made about this hospital being used for military purposes are in fact true. just to give you one illus illustration, erdogan previously said they were not a terrorist group but yesterday he said it is a terrorist state and turkey will do whatever it can to hold israel in account in international court. so israel at least from outside world perspective needs to show that it had justification in going in to this hospital. you had president biden yesterday saying that there is a hamas command center, headquarters, under the hospital. and he says that that is established. but perhaps he knows something we don't, but based on the publicly available information that the israelis have put out, it is far from established. what israelis have said is that they put out a video yesterday featuring an idf spokesperson going through different rooms of the hospital itself pointing out bags that it said were grab bags, you can see rifles, weapons, magazines, but nothing so far that has come out to indicate that there is a sophisticated multi-level tunnel system underneath of that hospital. the type of sophisticated command and control center that israel claimed a little less than three weeks ago existed under that hospital and they have used it as their justification to go in. and one other thing to mention quickly, that look, international law on this is complicated, but broadly speaking, hospitals are protected with few exceptions, one of them being if they are used to cause harm to the enemy, but even still, you still have to prove what they are doing is proportional and what is proportional to one person may not be proportional to someone else. >> all right. scott mclean, thanks very much. coming up next here, xi jinping's unexpected ties to rural iowa, meeting with old friends from four decades ago. plus new details in trump's 2020 georgia election subversion case and who leaked confidential interviews of witnesses. and the ananti-semiticic conspipiracy theorory pushed b n mumusk, that i is ahead. so while he is here on u.s. soil, xi jinping is meeting with some old friends from iowa. a group invited to join xi for dinner last night included sarah land. here she is in 1985 with xi during his first trip to the united states. david culver spoke with her yesterday. >> i am an old sfrifriend of xi jinping and that is why i was invited to come. and even in 2012 when he walked in the door, there was a big smile that there is just a wonderful feeling sort of between the peoples that we care about each other. >> so let's bring in max foster live for us in london. max, good morning. always good to see you. it is so funny, i think a lot of people are probably surprised that this woman from iowa is a friend with xi jinping. >> amazing. >> one of the first things that you learn as a reporter in the u.s., you go to iowa and there are chinese students there basically everywhere. they are all very interested in the caucus process in addition to being there they are learn to learn usually agricultural policy, ways of doing things. really interesting that this kind of popped up again. so i'm interested in your thoughts about that, but i think that we should underscore yes this american woman from iowa was at this dinner, but the tickets reportedly cost $40,000 and business leaders like tim cook and elon musk were also there. and we have a bit from xi on what is going on here. take a look at what he said. ther there. >> translator: it is reaching out to reach out bilateral peoples that as time and again brought chinese relations from a low back to the right track. i'm convinced that once open, the door of china/u.s. relations cannot be shut again. >> so there is a lot going on here both behind the scenes and also from an optics perspective. xi trying to do something that relates to his own diplomatic standing back home. what did you see? >> it is the optics and communities, the chinese/american communities you are talking about i think is part of this massive process to this visit. chinese being very careful about where he appears. not necessarily at the white house, that would say one thing. but amongst the chinese community, an area known for chinese residents, certainly play fld to the optics of why he was appearing in particular places i think in the biden meeting as well. in terms of the dinner, i think it was successful ful diplomaty because we've heard that xi suggested that pandas coming back to the united states. and there is no greater soaring of tensions than pandas being sent over. and on the meal, one thing that is undeniable and holds china and america together is the economic relationship, isn't it. america needs china to make things for its economy and china needs to sell thing to the american economy. so when it comes to these big dinners, and a lot of it was tech, this is something that was sort of nonnegotiable, discussing how the two countries can trade with each other. so it wasn't necessarily a political move. so when it is criticized for being political, maybe that is the case. you know, these big business leaders who weigh into politics like elon musk does occasionally. but i don't think that this was meant to be political at all. >> and of course you have biden calling xi a dictator which turned things political fast. >> didn't go down well, absolutely not. >> max foster, thanks very much for being here. ahead for us here, the gilgo beach murder suspect appears in court with someone notable behind him. and a rally outside the dnc headquarters turns violence prompting the evacuationon of se top lawmakakers. stayay with us.. c'mon, we're right there. c'mon baby. it's the only we need. go, go, go, go! ah! touchdown baby! -touchdown! are your neighbors watching the same game? yeah, my 5g home internet delays the game a bit. but you get used to it. try these. they're noise cancelling earmuffs. i stole them from an airport. it's always something with you, man. great! solid! -greek salad? exactly! don't delay the game with verizon or t-mobile 5g home internet. catch it on the xfinity 10g network. welcome back. quick hits across america now. gilgo beach murder suspect rex heuermann appeared in court yesterday where lawyers discussed matters of discovery. his wife who filed for divorce also made an appearance. in the georgia election subversion case facing donald trump, fulton county superior court judge says he plans to bar the public release of, quote, sensitive evidence after key video evidence was leaked earlier this week. as for who leaked the video, an attorney for the co-defendant in the case says he did it. protestors clashing with police outside the democratic national committee headquarters in washington last night during a demonstration against the conflict in gaza. members of congress were evacuated including house minority leader hakeem jeffries, his number two katherine clark and also number three democratic leader. and now to weather. some areas saw more than 6 inches of rain in 24 hours. let's get straight to our weatherman derek van dam. good morning, a tough situation there based on those pictures behind you. >> yeah, as they say, this escalated quickly. there was a problem here because there was a combination of high tide, king high tide i should say as well, and several inches of rain. so this is the result. miami beach flooded. doesn't take much to flood this area, but when we get this kind of scene, it causes all kinds of pandemonium and chaos, people still trying to traverse the flooded roadways. bad idea. how much rain fell? some areas in the florida keys about 10 inches. and really we're lucky across miami-dade and broward county, because heaviest precipitation stayed offshore. there is this little rotation there, it has a tropical-like feature to it. and time will tell and maybe we'll analyze that, but in the meantime the immediate threat still the flood concern. we have floods advisories for miami-dade, broward, flood warnings for parts of the keys. the other big story here is the winds. there have been hurricane force gusts with this nontropical system that is moving off the southeast coastline of florida. high wind warnings, check out dane i can't beach, juno beach, this is impressive stuff. and when we talk about a nontropical system, we saw it coming yesterday and it escalated quickly. all things coming together and unfortunately we're seeing the result this morning. >> weatherman derek van dam, thank you. we'll see you tomorrow. just ahead here, new agreements between the u.s. and china as biden says president xi is still a dictator. and the war on gaza rages as outcry incncreases ovever the r on a h hospital ththere. good morning, thank you for being up early with us. always great to have you. i'm kasie hunt. the big story at the above the hour, president biden touting his high stakes talks with xi jinping as, quote, some of the most constructive and productive that they have had. it comes after a year of violence and rising tensions stoking fears that the two continues are on a path toward direct conflict. now biden zsays they have new agreements to curb fentanyl production and restore military communications. >> we're resuming military to military direct contacts. as a lot of you press know and follow this, that has been cut off and it has been worrisome. that is how accidents happen, misunderstandings. so we're back to open clear dre direct communications on a direct basis. >> and cnn's new white house reporter is joining me now. camilla, we're so thrilled to have you. welcome to cnn. it is wonderful to welcome you here in an official capacity. so let's just start with the news. what were the big takeaways from the xi biden meeting? >> reporter: i think some of the biggest takeaways was the fact that both have made it clear that they are willing to take efforts to improve the relationship between the two countries. biggest things notable is that biden said going into the meetings that he really wanted to touch upon fentanyl and both of these countries -- both presidents came out saying that they will take efforts to curb fentanyl production. and that is a really big deal because they have said that he is not doing enough to mitigate the flow of fentanyl coming into the country. sonde that is a really big deal. and seeing the steps that they have taken to open up the communications when it comes to military operations emphasizes what biden was trying to achieve and that was to decidiffuse the tensions between the two countries. >> and as it was written, it happened therefore it was a success. there was one speed bump i should say in the wake of this because mj lee asked the president about biden's previous comments that he believes that the chinese president is a dictator. take a look at what biden had to say. >> mr. president, after today, would you still refer to president xi as a dictator, a term that you used earlier this year? >> look, he is. i mean, he is a dictator in the sense that he is a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that based on a government that is totally different than ours. >> from the u.s. perspective, it feels that biden is stating the obvious but chinese put out a statement saying this was erroneous. what impact will this have? >>. >> reporter: biden just doubled down on comments that he's made in the past and there has been this question of will it detracts from the progress made during the summit and the answer is it still remains to be seen. at this time biden has said that he knows that both presidents won't see eye to eye on exactly everything, but the important thing is the fact that they will have open lines of communication to talk through some of their issues and policy instances. so at this point biden is just reiterating things that he's said in the past and it will remain to be seen whether they will move forward and the steady progress. they have said this is just one of many meetings that they are hoping to have in the upcoming months. >> all right. camilla dechal husband, thank you very much and welcome again. hope to see you soon. and turning now to the war between israel and hamas, president biden said this about hostage negotiations at last night's press conference -- >> i have been deeply involved in moving on the hostage negotiation. i think the pause that israelis have agreed to down to -- i won't get into too much detail. i know, mr. secretary. i'll stop. but i'm mildly hopeful. >> mildly hopeful. he is also urging israel to be very careful with their raid on gaza's largest hospital al-shifa, a facility that is now shut down because of a lack of fuel and supplies. on wednesday, the idf claimed hamas weapons were found inside the hospital and they promised more concrete evidence today. hamas says israel's claims are not true. cnn cannot independently verify either side's position. cnn's scott mclean is joining us now from istanbul. what can you tell us about the going