should be here in a couple of minutes. i don't believe it. all of a sudden the door opened up and she just ran. it was beautiful. just like in -- just like i imagined it, you know? running together. >> what an interview. you will hear much more of that soon. good morning, everyone. glad you are with us this hour. that was the father of 9-year-old emily hand describing the moment he reunited with his beloved little girl after she spent more than seven weeks in hamas captivity. this morning he sat down with our own clarissa ward for his first interview since emily came home. >> right now we are watching and waiting for hamas to release ten more hostages today after the temporary truce of israel was extended for two more days. late yesterday, hamas released a fourth round of captives. that group including a mother and her 3-year-old twin daughters. sadly, their father still being held. >> this video this morning, 12-year-old atan getting a hogue as they were reunited last night. the only american hostage released since friday is 4-year-old abigail idan. later this hour we will be joined by her family. >> kaitlan collins is in tel aviv. one american released. what do we know about when officials expect the other americans, two in particular, two american women, to be released? >> reporter: it's a question that even u.s. officials are wondering right now. they certainly believe that those americans would be in that first group of 50. there are several americans still being held, but there are three that they believed would qualify for women and children and make it into those first four days of the hostage releases. so far that is not happening. and now we are on day sfief of ma was really supposed to be a four-day temporary truce. it has now been extended for two more days. it's clear why it was extended. every side feels like they are benefiting from this. it's quiet in gaza right now. there is a lot of aid going in. you are not seeing the idf forces there move around much. they maintained these truce lines as they are referring to them and, obviously, israel is getting its hostages back and you are seeing that after emotional reunion and emotional reunion with all of these families who want to know whether or not their loved ones are going to be next. i think one thing to keep in mind here is this is such a heartbreaking day-by-day basis for these families who they get a call from the israel government each night once hamas has handed over the list either telling them, yes, your loved one is on it, no, they are not. they are waiting for the phone to ring. that's where we are on day five. a big question right now is what comes after day six. it's not clear on either side yet if it will get extended again what this will ultimately look like or who hamas has left into captivity to produce under this category. we are seeing a lot of emotional reunions between the families and one that is probably the most searing is emily hand and her father. cnn's chief international correspondent clarissa ward is here in tel aviv. you spoke to him, you know, no one will forget when he said he initially thought his daughter was killed. where do you start now that they have been reunited? >> i think there is obvious joy and you saw that in that clip, the moment that he saw her, that he held her, he talked about squeezing her too hard, talked about how skinny she had become, how pale she was, and for days she would only speak in a whisper because she had been told repeatedly during her captivity to be quiet, to be quiet, and she is only now rediscovering her voice. there is a sense it will be a very long journey ahead. and we asked about the events of october 7th. of course, one of the biggest challenges for tom as a dad had been basically telling emily about what happened in kibbutz be'eri where they were living and what happened to people in her own community, part of her family. tom's first wife, who was basically like a second mother to emily, the mother of his two older children, she was killed on october 7th and this is something that he had to break to emily. take a look. >> does emily understand what happened on october 7th? >> yeah. yeah. unfortunately, she does. and how do you tell her, you know, your second mom is dead? killed. shot. when we got back to the hospital, i asked the psychiatrist, you know, what should i do? you've just got to tell her straight. that's the best way. okay. yeah. that was very hard. because we told her and, you know, her little eyes glazed up and she just went, took a sharp in-breath, took a breath. terrible thing to tell a child. and they recommend you have to close the book. sounds cruel, but you have to stop the hope. you've got to stop that. it has to be final. she is dead. >> reporter: and you feel how much pain there still is, even for families, that have had the fortune to have their loved ones returned to them. there is such a profound sense of grief for all that has been lost, for the loss of emily's innocence. he said she is starting to smile more. she is starting to play more. even last night, out of nowhere, she hid underneath the cover in their hotel room and just started sobbing for an hour and didn't stop and didn't want to be comforted and didn't want to talk about it and he said he has been told by the psychiatrist and psychologists who he is consulting with it's an really important to allow this to unfold at its own pace, allow emily to share when she is ready and not to push her too much to try to get details of her captivity, although we are learning more of those details. >> what are we learning? >> interestingly, kaitlan, she was not held in the tunnels as many of the hostages have been. she was held in houses and moved frequently. house to house, because the bombardment of course was intensive. the israel military was on the move. they are worried about being targeted or located. so there was a lot of movement from house to house. she was kept intact with this unit, the young girl who she had been spending the night with, the sleepover with and her mother, hilla and riah were separated. he said that riah was like a mother to emily and they became incredibly close. how she used to stroke hilla's ear at it's night to help her fall asleep. he talked about the fact that she hasn't been physically harmed. she has terrible case of head l lice and there wasn't enough food. they got breck fwas every day. lunch and dinner not always. she learned to like to eat just plain olive oil and bread because sometimes that was all that they had. and beyond that he is really just waiting for her to give more information, to give more details when she is able to talk about it with the full realization that might take quite some time. >> i can't imagine how many questions he has for her about what she has gone through, because, i mean, to be a parent and be protective and want to know everything she's seen and to not be able to necessarily outright ask that. >> it's really hard. he said that. he said i want no know everything. i want to understand everything she has been through. and every child and every hostage is different. for example, with hilla, now reunited with hrc brother, she wants to talk about it non-stop. she wants to give every single detail and it is a form of catharsis for her to talk about it. emily is very different. emily -- and she is younger, emily, keep in mind. she just turned 9 years old in captive city. it's harder for her to talk about it. she is still finding her voice. she is still struggling, i think, to process what she has been through. and even some small detail that stayed with me again, tom asked her, how long do you think you were held for in captivity? because of course they didn't have phones or clocks or calendars. she said hill and i thought we were held for a year, which i think goes to show you just how your entire universe is flipped upside down, time stands still, everything is different and alien and foreign. and i think it's going to take her a very long time before she really starts to let go of that, reacclimatize. for tom, of course, there is a lot of guilt involved, even though, of course, he has done nothing wrong and nothing to justify feeling that way. as a parent you understand it. why couldn't i help her, save her? whether he should have sneaked into gaza at some point to rescue here and all the things that go through his mind. sometimes we forget the trauma the people on this side who haven't been held in captivity and have been held hostage emotionally by their im potent to safely get their loved ones out freely. obviously, now emily is free. so many others are not. that's why where tom's focus is, to push and campaign for the others to get out, too. >> their journey is nothing short of remarkable. clarissa ward, we will be watching much more of that interview. great interview. poppy, phil, one of the many stories here as these reunions are happening. they look happy in the videos and they are, but they are also filled with some trauma, as you can still see. >> a long path ahead. as you noted, so many parents, children being reunited after 50 days, 4-year-old abigail idan is reunited with her loved ones. we will speak with two of her family members ahead. happening right now, this rescue mission underway to save 41 workers trapped inside a tunnel in northern india for 17 days. some should come out at any moment. we'll take you there live. i was the right president at the right time. [ applause ] i was proud to serve america in his administration. and i agree with a lot of his policies. but the truth is rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. you know i'm right. chaos follows him. >> that was nikki haley at a rally in bluffton, south carolina, pitching voters why she thinks she is a better choice than donald trump. with seven weeks until republican voters in iowa have their voices heard, haley touted a poll showing her in second place. she told the proud she expects the field to narrow after iowa and after new hampshire, which she suggested would allow her to have a real chance to win her home state of south carolina. trump, however, still has a wide lead in all three of those states. >> you can't deny haley's rise in the polls. that has raised questions for some of about the viability of some of her candidates including our next guest, chris christie, one of trump's biggest critics who has staked out a strategy in new hampshire. he is with us this morning, former governor of new jersey, presidential candidate. good to have you here. we were listening with you on dana bash on "state of the union" and you said that you are in this through the convention, the summer? >> yep. >> here is what you told us in july. lisp. listen. >> after i lost in new hampshire, eight years ago, poppy, i got out. and i think i wouldn't feel comfortable asking donors for more money for voters for their vote if i didn't see a realistic path to victory. >> then you also told "the new york times" in september i don't do well in new hampshire i leave. what changed? >> nothing changed. i have got better in new hampshire. it seems to me that there is no path now that doesn't include me continuing. i am going do well in new hampshire. >> what's well? >> look, i right now i am in the top three and i think i will do better than that. and so that's what's changed. what's changed we start today move up in the polls pretty significantly. ron desantis and vivek ramaswamy have dropped significantly in new hampshire. so that's what's changed. i am going to continue to keep you guys updated as circumstances change. and circumstances have changed. >> you like the polls right now? >> well, look, i still don't think the polls are really extraordinarily accurate. and my proof of that is just go back to the history. in '07 at this time, thanksgiving of '07, you know, mitt romney was winning the iowa caucuses and mike huckabee was at 4%. he wound up winning. in 2011, at this point newt gingrich was winning the iowa caucuses by a pretty wide margin and rick santorum, who ultimately won, was at 3%. on thanksgiving of 2011. and in 2015, ben carson was winning by ten points and ted cruz was at 7%. so he wound up winning. so it's not that i distrust these particular polls. i just know that voters make their decisions very late in this business and they are willing to change. in fact, in a recent poll we did, three quarters of donald trump's voters in new hampshire said they are open to changing their minds between now and primary day on january 23rd. so i know everybody wants to make this race over now, but it's not over and it's not even close to over. when you look at the history, forget about predictions, look at what's happened over time, and what's happened tells you that there is a long way it go and i like the fact that we are gaining momentum now. >> it seems that the new kind of it candidate in the field right now is nikki haley. she has been rising in the polls. there is a lot of talk about her. one of the issues i think she differentiated is on abortion, particularly in the wake of what we saw in virginia, what we saw a couple of weeks ago in november. i am struck a couple weeks ago in iowa she said she would sin a six-week abortion ban. poppy asked but abortion when you were on set a couple months ago-. would you sign a six-week abortion ban? >> i would not. the reason is because we fought for 50 years, i think we had this conversation before, we fought for 50 years to put this in the hands of the people to state federal government in that case the supreme court took it out of the hands of the people and gave them no voice. now people have a voice. you mentioned virginia, michigan, ohio, kansas. and one thing i know for sure is there is no consensus around a six-week abortion ban nationally. >> do you think that makes her unelectable? >> much more difficult in the general election for her because you could see when governor desantis signed that bill in florida it certainly a affected his popularity with a broader electorate, and my view is this h i want the people, not the politicians, to make the decision. let people vote in the states. we see a great exercise in democracy going on across the country. this is one of the most emotional issues. i am pro-life. that's my personal belief and i believe strongly in it. here is the bottom line. people should be able to make this choice. it's too emotional to put this in the hands of politicians. if you are the american people and watch this house of representatives try to pick a speaker and see what they went through. watch the senate not able to promote military officers because they are so paralyzed. you want to put abortion in the hands of those folks? i don't. as president i would not sign a six-week abortion ban. it doesn't represent consensus in the country and it's taking away, most importantly for me, what we fought for for 50 years, put in the hands of the people and let estate make their own decision. >> there is some big money guys and they are guys who -- ken lang doan in backed you in 2016 until you drowned out of the race, planning to meet with nikki haley next week. he told cnbc the only person i see could give trump a run for his money, nikki haley. another told bloomberg he was cop testimony plating it when it comes to nikki haley. are you worried about the big money going after haley? >> i am not. >> really? >> no, none of them have. >> you don't want it? >> none of them have. i met with ken griffin and spoken to him. i think he is going through the process of trying to decide if there is someone he believes could beat donald trump. if he wants to support that person -- there are plenty of other folks. we have had a number of people, folks that ahave known over the years in wall street and folks around the country supporting our campaign and supporting our super pac. and so i don't feel concerned at all. we feel like we have -- you always could use more money, poppy. no one is going to say no. >> that's why you surprised me when you said you are not worried. >> you can't wore wry. you go out and work and make your case to the american people, including the donors, why you are the best alternative. if you are convincing, you will get them to write a check. if you're not, you won't. i don't sit every day worry about it. governor haley's campaign is good about process stories, someone meeting with someone. i don't put out stories about every person i meet with. two reasons. one, i don't know what the meeting is going to lead to, and two, i like to keep those meetings quiet. those people tend to be more honest when you're quiet i quiet. my concern about this abortion issue is real because you can't say one thing in iowa and something different in new hampshire. now, i was on the stage neck to governor haley when she gave a long talk -- i think it was the second debate about how we don't want to divide the country, i don't -- we have to respect everyone's opinions. then sitting across from bob in iowa, a much more conservative place, she said i would sign a six week abortion plan. well, which one is it? i think we have to take her at her word she would sign a six-week abortion ban. i don't think that is consensus in this country. the republicans don't need that. we need to win. and to win we need to let people speak themselves. not put in in the hands of politicians. >> seems like something that might coming up at a debate. >> you know, phil, i'll answer. the thing that's different about my debate performance frs the other folks is i actually listen to the questions and then answer the question that is asked rather than the answer that i memorized beforehand. it's a crazy strategy, but we are going to actually try to be responsive to people. that's why you see our numbers go up after the last debate. people look on the stage and say she's or extraordinarily serious times. when you say onening in iowa and something different in new hampshire when you are not telling people responsive answer to a direct question, people wonder how serious you are. with the war in israel, with the war in ukraine, the problems at home economically, and the unrest that we have in our college campuses, you need a serious president who is going to answer the questions directly and tell people the truth. that's why we're running. >> governor chris christie, appreciate you coming in. >> good to see you both. so ahead, the suspect in the shooting of those three palestinian college students has plead not guilty to attempted murder charges. the mother of hisham awartani joins us live next. bold. daring. expressive. contra costa college allows me to be whoever and whatever i want to be, providing the stage, the canvas, the tools to use my voice and write my story. find your passion and create your future at contra costa college. start today at contracosta.edu we have new reporting just in to cnn. hunter biden's lawyers told the house oversight committee he is willing to testify on december 13th in their inquiry into his actions, but only if he can do so publicly. cnn's kaitlan po lands joins us now. what is behind this offer? >> reporter: mine and evan perez's, we obtained a letter from hunter biden's lawyers to the house oversight committee, this committee that has been to go an inquiry that the biden family and any transactions they may have with foreign entities or foreign people, and now the president's son is willing to testify publicly, not behind closed doors. his lawyers say, you know, he got a subpoena, they are willing to respond to that subpoena, and they are willing to put him under oath before this house committee. they are making very clear they disagree with what the house committee is doing here, but they do say and write in this letter today sent by hunter biden's lawyers we have seen you use closed-door session