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"cnn this morning" starts right now. ♪ good morning, everyone. so glad you're with us. i'm poppy harlow with phil mattingly. happening today, hamas is getting ready to release ten more hostages. that is the plan after the temporary truce with israel was extended. and new this morning, israeli officials tell cnn their families have been notified. fourth round of hamas captives were released yesterday, late afternoon. a mother and her 3-year-old twin daughters were among those released. their father, though, still being held hostage. take a look at this new video, showing 12-year-old getting a big hug from his mom, reuniting after spending 51 days in captivity. this morning, brand new details about the conditions hostages endured and the trauma they're grappling with now, like this 13-year-old, who talks about what happened to her in the third person. >> she says she saw horrible things but she say it with a straight face. it's like she's describing a scene from a movie that she watched somewhere. >> 72-year-old was kept deep under ground with little food to eat and only allowed two hours of sunlight per day, according to her nephew. >> they were fed only by rice and some beans from can, which they try to avoid eat in order not to have stomach ache. >> just unbelievable conditions. and teenage siblings did not know that their mother had been murdered until they were released. >> the first news that they had to confront with was the fact that their mom is no longer alive. and that was terribly emotional and traumatic moment for them. >> oren lieberman starts us live in tel aviv. just to hear each and every one of those accounts of what it was like for them during these weeks. it's unthinkable. what can you tell us about the extended truce and what we're expecting today? >> reporter: it's simply impossible to imagine what these hostages endured over the course of more than seven weeks now. these are the stories we're beginning to learn about. there are ten more hostages who will be released tonight, according to israeli officials. we have learned that as part of the extended truce that's supposed to go today and tomorrow into the following morning. crucially we learned from the family of the youngest hostage, 10 month old, his names and names of the family not on that list. a strong lobbying effort. see what they can do to make sure the family is on the list before the extended truce is over. we, of course, don't have news that will be extended any further even though that remains at least somewhat of a possibility. meanwhile, we're seeing the joyful reunions in israel for those families that are able to come together. 12 years old, let's see that video again. this is him being embraced by his mother who waited all this time to see him. you can see that hug, not letting go in any way. i suspect that will be a hug that lasts quite a while and replayed many, many times over the course of the coming days. then the video of the reunion of the family in the hospital here, the three kids and the mother, newly released, all the joy there. you can see the dog joining in the celebrations in the hospital. we have seen these videos. we have seen these pictures. they are powerful each and every time we watch them and look forward to seeing more play out tonight. we wait for 100 more hostages wait to be released. we'll see if the truce can hold. it's scheduled for another 48 hours. ten more released today and ten more released tomorrow in exchange for humanitarian aid going into gaza and palestinian. women and children being released from prison. it is still a delicate truce and we'll follow it every step of the way as it plays out. >> yeah. oren, i want to watch the video of the kids and dog on repeat for the remainder of the morning. you know, oren, in talking with u.s. officials last night, something they said is behind the scenes one of the big parts of this truce is their conversations with israeli officials about what happens next militarily. when these truces come to an end, the israeli defense minister said they're actually going to fight with a stronger force when combat continues. what does that mean? >> reporter: so, there's the short-term question and the long-term. in the short-term, both israel and hamas said, look, this war is still on. this may be a pause in the fighting. but when that pause ends and when as many hostages as possible are brought out of gaza, this is still very much a war. israel has thousands, if not tens of thousands of troops who remain in gaza. they're in defensive positions. when this truce expires or runs its course or whatever terminology you want to use there, this is still very much a war and israel said its goal is to destroy hamas and you expect that hamas will fight back and try to fight back against the israeli forces that are still there. in terms of the long-term question, what happens when this war is over, phil, that is very much a serious and open question. >> yeah. and a critical day ahead in the near term. oren lieberman, thank you. this just in, cia director william burns returns to qatar this morning. burns' visit comes as the national security council spokesman john kirby warned that hamas could use the pause to regroup. >> any pause in the fighting could benefit your enemy, in terms of time to refit, rest your armies, rearm them, reequip them. but again i want to stress, this was always part of the calculus. >> cnn's katie bo lillis joins us from washington. what are you learning about this visit? >> reporter: phil, officials tell my colleague alex marquardt that cia director burns will be joined in doha as well as egypt's director general intelligence coming of course as the u.s. has helped broker this two-day pause in the fighting in gaza in exchange for the expected release of ten additional hostages for each day of the pause and as incredibly delicate conversations are expected to continue in the coming days about the potential of possibly extending this pause even further. the interest, of course, with the biden administration is not just the sort of general release of its many hostages as they can help engineer, but also in particular these two american women who are expected to be part of the original tranche of 50 released over the past four days that ultimately were -- that ultimately did not leave gaza. these obviously been incredibly, incredibly sensitive negotiations. burns has been an integral player really from the beginning. he's been in regular contact with israel's point person on hostage negotiations, in and out of doha over the past month. interesting really here, phil and poppy to see how biden has chosen to deploy his cia director in this context specifically. this is something that presidents will also do when they want the united states to be able to talk to, even indirectly talk to an entity that is not state department recognized as a nation state and don't want to send the secretary of state. biden has really leaned very heavily on burns in his capacity as kind of a shadow diplomat fist in ukraine and now here in israel. this is a space where burns has an extended amount of experience. he was, of course, a state department diplomat in the region and he also was the lead negotiator under obama for secret talks with iran that ultimately became the iran nuclear deal. so this is a space in which the cia director has a lot of experience and the president is leaning on him very heavily for a very sensitive mission. >> thank you for the reporting. we are getting new information about what life was like for those hostages during their weeks in hamas captivity, what they ate, where they slept and how one man actually escaped for four days before he was recaptured. plus, how the freed hostages are coping with the physical and emotional trauma they endured. one woman still fighting for her life. we'll speak to a doctor who is treating her. that's next. ♪ ♪ that touching reunion just in overnight. three siblings reuniting with their dog. at the children's hospital in israel. the children and their mother were released by hamas sunday night. she lived every parent's worst nightmare when her kids were taken hostage. they were finally released and shared this moment, a hug that certainly never wanted to end. and on monday, 12-year-old was released and reunited with his mother. another touching hug. these touching reunions come as we're learning more about the conditions that the hostages were held in during their captivity in gaza. >> reporter: it's the chilling testimony shining the light in conditions in which israeli hostages were held for seven weeks. now freed, those hostages say they mostly survived on rice and bread and reportedly slept on chairs pushed together, all as bombs rained down overhead. they all lost considerable weight according to their cousin. >> they ate a lot of rice. sometimes they didn't have rice, so they ate only bread. she told me that if you want to go to the toilet, you have to knock on the door and only after one and a half hour or two hours they open the door and you can go to the bathroom. >> reporter: two teenagers only learned of their mother's death after they were released. their uncle provided cnn with some details of their time in captivity. >> they were held in house, in a room. with another lady, also from the kibbutz. i know also that they were keeping a diary, the three of them together. and the terrorist did not allow them to take it. >> reporter: 72-year-old was held under ground and only allowed two hours of sunlight per day. >> they didn't have any decent facilities like shower. they didn't shower for seven weeks, so it's horrible condition. >> reporter: this woman was released by hamas but her ex-husband remains in gaza. her niece tells cnn her aunt is a hero. >> she actually took the role of taking care of others and she helped many of them. even in the tiny little things like getting up from the mattress. they're all very old. they were old. they had all the oldies together, so it was challenging. and knowing she was there for all the others, i think made her even stronger. >> reporter: a russian-israeli hostage whose release was negotiated as part of a separate deal was the fist adult male released from gaza. his aunt tells an israeli radio station that the 25-year-old escaped his captainers after an israeli air strike collapsed the building where he was being held. after four days he was caught and returned to hamas captivity. and 13-year-old was released over the weekend, but her mother still remains in gaza. israel defense forces say their separation is in direct violation of the hostage agreement. uncle tells cnn about the moment she was separated from her mother. >> they came and they took us and they didn't give us a lot of time to prepare, but i had time to give her a hug and my sister, her mother, was crying when the girls -- the children left. she had to say good-bye to her mother. >> and joining us now to provide more insight on the mental and the physical recovery they are facing ahead, we are happy to be joined by the head of the medical team for the hostages and missing families forum and he's been monitoring especially the condition of 84-year-old elma, who was rushed to an israeli hospital in critical condition after she was released this weekend. doctor, thank you for joining us. can we just begin there on how -- because you had contact with her and been overseeing her care, how is her recovery coming? is she still critical? >> hello, poppy and phil. yes. she is still in critical condition, fighting for her life. she's ventilated and we are just focussing now on saving her life. the medical team and the medical center. i must testify to the world, her condition not only medically that she didn't receive the medications she needed and some of them are rather simple medications that could have been given, and obviously she deteriorated with time. but also you can see on her body that she was dragged from a place to place. that she was handcuffed. that, you know, like she has chemical wounds from not meeting her basic needs, if you understand what i mean. so that's loss of basic dignities. that's immense suffering. it's not clear why they didn't release her before based on humanitarian. and we are very worried that some of the other hostages hopefully are released today but some of the other hostages are dying or in such a condition and they must be released immediately to allow the red cross to visit them. it's really worrisome. as we see the light and we're so glad with the release and the recovery of some of the hostages, i must say also for those when -- we hear from them, some underwent, you know, it's not necessarily intentional torture, which also is possible, but they were cuffed for long periods. they were in dark places. they were in poor ventilation. they got door diet, as you just showed. and they have mental consequences and they will need strong and lasting support from the families and from the multidisciplinary teams. >> professor, to that point, i want to play some sound. we have seen these emotional reunions. i think your heart fills with joy when you watch them. doesn't appear to be any physical harm, at least on the surface. but to your point, what actually is happening inside particularly for these kids. listen to what one child has been referring to herself as in the wake of her release. >> she's a little bit distant now. she's a little bit cold. she talks about things that happened like it's in third person, like it happened to someone else. she says she saw horrible things, but she say it with a straight face. it's like she's describing a scene from a movie that she watched somewhere. >> that's the uncle. what does that tell you, professor, levine when you hear that? >> you know, when the situation is completely abnormal, it's something that you just simply cannot accept. you cannot accept for some of the children. see their parents and family members, killed, murdered, in front of their eyes. they need the necessary help to digest this kind of very, very difficult things that they experienced. so they distance themselves away from that and now seven weeks have passed and they cannot close it now because what we do usually when you have a trauma, okay, the trauma over is. it was how bad but now you're in a safe place and we can start recovery. but, you know, for her, her mother is still there. it's not only against basic -- it's against basic morality. why would you separate kids from their living mothers, and i must remind you, for many of the families, the fathers are still there. it's horrible. we normalized hamas way that, yes, we now released children and women. but you know, all of them deserve to be free. all of them deserve to get proper medical and mental care. for elma, she didn't return home yet, she's hospitalized but also her home was violated. she doesn't have a home to return to when she's hopefully released from the hospital. so, it's just show you how deep is the tragedy and for many of the families, not only that they care about the hostages. they just -- their own family is still there. so it's very difficult to recover. must say a bit of the medicine that the support and solidarity among the hostages, among the families of hostages and among all the people around the world that support the families and hostages, is very stressening the families and hostages. and all of you that sent support. >> dr. hagai levine. thank you so much. you're so right about being traumatized on so many different levels. thank you for the work you do. >> thank you for good news. happening now, a rescue mission to save 41 workers who have been trapped inside a tunnel in northern india for more than two weeks. some should be coming out at any moment. we'll take you there live. also, new information this morning on the tragic shooting of those three palestinian students. the mother of one of them will join us live as her son recovers. first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones brings so much joy to your life. a family trip to the team usa training facility. i don't know how to thank you. i'm here to thank you. well, breaking news, it appears that dangerous weeks-long saga is reaching a dramatic conclusion. you are looking at live pictures right now of rescue workers closing in on 41 trapped workers inside of a collapsed tunnel. they have been trapped for two weeks in india. and they could emerge at any moment. let's go straight live in new delhi. two weeks. and they've been feeding in water and oxygen and food to keep them alive. and are they all going to get out alive today? >> reporter: well, they're hoping they do, poppy. what we have just been told through a press conference, a representative of the national disaster management authority just briefed the media and said that about two meters away from these 41 men. they've been inside that tunnel for more than 17 days now. so that's more than just two weeks. and they've been waiting to hear from these rescue teams to pull them out. they've heard from them on multiple occasions. there have been disappointments in the last 17 day. but this, we believe, is the final phase. rescuers have gone inside the tunnel. it's a 16 meter distance between the exit, the only exit and them. and we're being told that it could take a couple of more hours. we shouldn't expect them to be out any time soon because the last two meters is extremely crucial. they're dealing with mangled metal, they're dealing with debris and rocks. and this is an ecologically fragile area. the family members are waiting outside. more than two dozen ambulances are on stand by to get these people out. can you just imagine what their mental health state would be right now or even physically how they would be placed at this moment. so we're waiting to hear from them, but this could take more time than just a couple of hours given that it's already 5:00 in the evening as we speak. back to you. >> hoping for the best news possible. thank you very much live from new delhi for us. we have breaking news in just the last hour, the u.s. military is set to deliver three plane loads of aid for gaza this morning. a aide workers will describe a situation growing more desperate by the hour. interesting new development on capitol hill, israel making a push to senate democrats as aid is hangingng in the babalance f israel.. ♪ nine americans still held in gaza this morning. and the white house had expected, you'll remember, that two women on that list would be released as part of the original four day truce agreement. that did not happen. and the white house says it does not believe that they were intentionally held back but they didn't elaborate on that. the father of one of those women still has hope now that the pause has been extended for two days. listen. >> obviously i'm disappointed. but remain optimistic and hopeful that her release will come in the next two days. >> all this comes as the administration is under pressure to help get all the hostages back home and back a longer pause in the fighting. activists including actress cynthia nixon rallied outside the white house monday announcing the start of a hunger strike. joining us now kim dozer and cnn political commentator errol louis. in talking to administration officials, they put forward the idea that without the president, without his approach the last seven weeks there would be no four to five to six-day pause, there would be no hostages coming home and yet the political pressure domestically is immense. do you kind of believe their position here? >> well, there is a certain amount of dissonance in that because it's pretty amazing that this particular israeli government agreed to a pause at all. and i think that only came thanks to president biden going there in person shortly after the october 7th attacks and giving israel a bear hug, as the country has talked about since then. he built up a lot of political capital with bibi netanyahu, the prime minister. and that, together with the u.s. relationship with interlock ters like qatar, has allowed the communication to stay open with hamas for this pause. then again, we always have to remember, hamas took the hostages to create just a situation like this, where hamas is essentially in the driver's seat. >> errol, you have said, look, israel has no choice but to continue this. i think the question is how they continue it. that's the concern especially among a number of democrats in congress. that's why the idf went to speak with senate democrats. but do you believe that the white house will change its public tone and posture on how israel is conducting this? >> i think the public tone is going to remain what it's been, which is cautious support. full throated support but also caution and a word of caution to try to sort of hold back what they know is coming and make no mistake about it. what is coming is a resumed attack on the leadership -- >> stronger one according to the israeli defenses. >> absolutely. absolutely. we keep forgetting, i have been reading a lot of the israeli press, this has been so traumatic for that society. the worst one-day attack, you know -- the violence that happened. the worst in 75 years. this is their 9/11. this is their pearl harbor. they keep saying that. i don't know if we're absorbing it here. it's tempting here thousands of miles away, it's a christmas miracle, a hanukkah miracle. all the families are coming back and look at the cute dog and so forth and so on. it's not like that at all. unless they destroy the infrastructure of hamas and kill the leadership, kill, literally kill the leadership, and prevent the possibility of such a repeat of such an attack, they've done nothing. and israeli society in every poll that i've looked at, i mean, we're talking about 65, 75, 80% are unified on that. there's a lot of dissension within israel on a lot of different issues, but on this, they are 100% solid. and nothing from the white house or anywhere else i think is going to change that. >> kim, to that point, i think this feeds into a really important thing that's happening behind the scenes right now, u.s. officials i've heard from say in the midst of this pause, they are having intensive discussions about what's next in the military operation, which will take place in the south, where more than 1 million refugees have fled over the course of the last seven weeks. what impact do you think the u.s. can have on those operations and that planning? >> yes. right now u.s. officials have been messaging that they need to see a different kind of operation in the south than they saw in the north. and according to u.s. officials who briefed reporters last night, they think the message is getting through, that the next stage we'll see is more small operations, more targeted and focussed raids through the south, as opposed to these big military sweeps that smash through infrastructure and as many air attacks as we've seen in the past. so, it's because the south is even more densely packed, especially since there are 1.7 million displaced palestinians packed into the south, israel had proposed to have them move from one place to the next as it did its operations. and the white house said, no, that's simply not acceptable. you can't keep moving these people around and expect them to get to safety in time. >> what about -- just back to this interesting reporting that members of the idf, errol, went to senate democrats and met with them yesterday because there are big concerns about should there be conditions on aid to israel, on this package that the president has proposed. most democratic senators, we hear some now saying there should be. interesting that ben cardin, obviously the chair of the senate foreign relations committee, said i don't think there needs to be conditionality. he said that twice. how do you explain this divide? >> look, there are those feeling heat from their constituents because much of this is playing out in the media. they're worried that this is going to look awful and that they will be seen as having given a blank check to israel. so they want to start bringing about conditions. idf is there to tell them, you want to get involved. let's talk about it. let me show you what it looks like on the ground if you want to start putting in conditions, you want to start making strategy, you want to make tactical considerations about this very difficult situation, let me show you what we're up against. i think that will probably change the conversation. >> you do. you think it will make a difference? >> it would have to if they're paying attention, absolutely. absolutely. >> thank you very, very much. we'll stick you around in a couple minutes, errol. the call to repeal and replace obamacare is back on the campaign trail. how the biden administration is responding to donald trump's call to ditch it again. the first interview with thomas hand who thought hamas killed his daughter emily. he waited 50 days for the hug you're looking right now. we'll find out how he felt to hold emily again. >> she told me she was surprised to see me at the handover. she said, in whisper, she said, i thought you were captive. i thought you were one of the kidnapped. ♪ new this morning, the u.s. military says it's providing more humanitarian relief for gaza. senior administration officials telling cnn the first of three plane loads of aid will arrive today in egypt. the united nations will distribute that aid in ggaza. we're told this delivery is not linked to the current pause in fighting and will continue even when that fighting picks back up. but the official four day truce and two-day extension have allowed for some relief to flow into gaza. aid groups warned it's still not nearly enough for the more than 1 million displaced people. joining us now is the director of communications. she was in gaza last week. julia, thank you for your time. i want to start with the aid that the u.s. officials are talking about, not just the three plane loads but talking about since the truce began, i think more than 800 trucks of aid have entered gaza. there's been a surge of sorts. what kind of effect does that have given the scale of the need? >> yeah, thanks for having me. we have certainly seen an increase in the number of aid trucks that have been coming into the gaza strip. and that is very welcome. we've also had a breakthrough where we were finally able to deliver aid trucks, humanitarian aid trucks to the shelters in the northern part of the gaza strip. so that is also very good. and i think most importantly for people in gaza is the respite and the few days of calm that they've had after 50 days of brutal, brutal war. >> you were in gaza last week. it's almost -- you look at the pictures and it's almost impossible to understand just looking at pictures what that must be like. in your experience in the work that you do is there anything comparable to the scale of this humanitarian crisis? >> this is unprecedented. i have been serving with united nations for 20 years now. and i have covered several conflict zones. this is unprecedented in terms of the volume of the displacement. this is the largest displacement of the palestinians since 1948. the number of colleagues that were killed, we have lost 108 during this war. the 1 million people, 1 million people taking shelter in facilities, the siege that has been very tight and the level of destruction is just mind boggling. >> to that point, we talk about a million -- 1.7 million people have moved south. they were asked to move south. they have moved south. but for your capabilities, that many people moving into your camps, your facilities, what does that mean? what does that look like? >> so, just to be accurate, we are hosting right now more than 1 million people in our facilities. these are not camps. they used to be mainly schools for children, but since the war began, we had to unfortunately close these schools down and turn them into shelters. i visited one of those shelters in the south of the gaza strip, very overcrowded. people continue to come into these shelters. they said to us, we don't need food or weather, just protect us. so people come to u.n. shelters, because they are in search of safety and protection. however, note that since the war began, even those facilities have not been spared. nearly 80 incidents have been recorded where facilities, including those that were sheltering palestinian families, were themselves impacted. >> it's an important clarification. i appreciate you making it. you noted the 108 colleagues of yours that lost their lives. before i let you go, the immediate needs, i know they are immense. what should people know about what you need on the ground now. >> we're talking about people who have lost everything overnight, so right now they need everything. and the weather is getting much, much worse. it was very cold when i was in gaza last week. the rain is here. and so, winter clothes, blankets, and of course food and water and hygiene items so people can wash their hands, can stay clean and fuel. fuel is really absolutely fundamental. regular shipments of fuel to keep the humanitarian operation running in the gaza strip. >> we appreciate your work and appreciate your time this morning. thank you. well, first on cnn, clarissa ward's interview with the father of -- look at her there, emily hand. the story that we've been telling you about for 50 plus days. she was released by hamas. they were united. you'll hear from her father next. the mother of one of the palestinian stududents shohot i vermonont. she joinins us live.e. stay with h us. in order for small businesses to thrive, they need to be smart, efficient, savvy. making the most of every opportunity. that's why comcast business is introducing the small business bonus. for a limited time you can get up to a $1000 prepaid card with qualifying internet. yep, $1000. so switch to business internet from the company with the largest fastest reliable network and that powers more businesses than anyone else. learn how you can get $1000 back for your business today. comcast business. powering possibilities. ♪ chaos follows him. you know i'm right. chaos follows him. [ app [ applause ]. we have too much division in this country, and too many threats around the world to be sitting in chaos once again. >> that is nikki haley criticizing donald trump during a campaign event in bluffton, south carolina, yesterday. and recent polls haley climbed even with ron desantis in iowa. of course, he's betting on iowa. she pulled ahead in new hampshire and south carolina, but so far nobody has been able to really put a dent in trump's sizable lead. >> that's notable because in just seven weeks the polls will start to matter less once republican caucus goers have their say in iowa followed by the new hampshire primaries just a week after that. joining us now, sara fineberg, john avlon and errol louis is back with us. we point to that sound. now let's point to the spend. nikki haley and her outside groups spent a significant amount of money. they have spent no money attacking donald trump. there's analysis of their ads and campaign that they have been spending. i understand you're trying to knock ron desantis out. if you're not going after donald trump, what's the play here? >> yeah, that's right. ultimately, look, momentum is such a great thing for a campaign, right? i'm sure that she and everyone around her is feeling so good every morning they're waking up and there's more and more momentum. that starts to slide at some point. it becomes a two-person race and she has to contend with the fact that she's telling folks one thing in new hampshire and something else in iowa. that's not going to match up pretty soon. >> politicians should never do that. >> so true. so true. this is the first time that's happened. >> first time. >> we'll see what happens. exactly. at some point it will become a two-person race, nikki haley and trump or somebody else and trump. >> she had so many people there yesterday. 2,500 people this town hall turned into a rally, if you will. but to your point about the strategy, here is what -- let's listen to what karl rove said he sees happening. here it is. he was on fox. >> the first one is trump wins iowa and has more than 50% of the vote. if that's the case against this field, it will be very problematic from then on. but i don't think that's likely. hr likely is trump comes in first but under 50% and with a strong second. if there's somebody who comes out of the pack and emerges as a strong second, as gary hart did in 1984 in the democratic side, then we have a horse race. i think that's the most likely outcome. >> why are you shaking your head? >> president hart would agree with that analysis. it's -- look, it's not horseshoes, right? perceptions can matter. but it seems to me that whether trump has 51%, 52%, 38%, if he's 20 to 30 points ahead of his next closest rival in heavily evangelical iowa, he's done everything he needs to do. and he'll have done it without a single debate. and then he'll move on. he is on track to become the nominee period. the question is what everyone else does and why john doesn't understand that. >> i want to do something different and take the other side despite our long-running bet and the steak dinner i'm going to win from you, which is the idea here is hold him under 50, become the clear number two, get a bounce in new hampshire, the nontrump republicans funnels into nikki haley and creates a totally different race. >> correct. and nikki haley's home state, right? lest we forget. so, look, the whole point -- i think the frustration with horse race politics around this stuff and the polling and over indexing that is that people haven't voted yet. the fact that kim reynolds and bob vander plat backed ron desantis is significant because what it really is looking for an alternative to donald trump whether desantis is the right vehicle for that, we'll see. he has the most pressure. he has to outperform in iowa or he is toast. haley has been getting major momentum. that's when you start to see the republican field coalesce. you look at "washington post" and other polls seen a third, third, third. third republicans say they'll vote for donald trump no matter what. third are opposed. third are persuadable. let people vote. let's notover rely on the horse race. let's not forget the stakes are enormously high. >> obamacare, trump doesn't like it. breaking news. and he is trying to d, he said again i'm going to seriously look at alternatives. what's interesting to me the biden administration jumped on this and is knowing that president's popularity isn't high, they're going after policies that are pretty popular among americans who depend on obamacare at this point in time. trump tried how many times to overturn this in the court, never worked. by the way, never put out a viable alternative here. >> right. >> successful strategy for the biden team to do this? >> you know, look, i think they were probably right to jump on it right away when trump started talking up, i'm going to get rid of obamacare. but as biden always says, compare me to reality. don't compare me to a fantasy. and i think, you know, the closer we get to election day, people are going to be thinking about obamacare versus nothing. well, obamacare is a clear winner there, right? but obamacare versus, hm, could there be an alternative? the biden folks need to talk about not obamacare that was passed years ago is perfect but what can we add to it? what else can we offer people. medical billing transparency, better options on doctors that are in network and out of network. you know, some way to address the fact that i feel like i have good healthcare and every month i'm fighting with my insurance company, every month. it's infearuating. >> obamacare takes its place alongside medicare, medicaid, social security as things that the democrats will always use to say, the republicans want to take this away from you. you cannot trust them. don't goed any where near them. >> yeah. and let's also not forget, the whole repeal and replace thing was a complete fraud because there was no replace. and so this becomes a real fundamental problems no because you're taking something away, you look at the fights of obamacare and we see what was it about at the end of the day? barack obama and democrats trying to expand people's access to health care. was that demonization worth it, no. >> i thought we were going to have a lengthy debate about risk pools. it's not going to happen. >> we can do that later. >> i texted a senior republican aide about whether or not there was an alternative or something republicans wanted to pursue and the response i got was l.o.l., what? so, i don't think it's real, guys. i don't think it's real. sarah, john, errol, thanks. 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