kagan is calling a second trump term a clear path to dictatorship in the united states. and former speechwriter for george bush david frum said it would instantly put the country in a constitutional crisis. and liz cheney said that if trump wins, he'll never leave. so what is donald trump's response to in? it is not me, but it is president biden that democracy should fear. we go over to kristen holmes, and hearing from liz cheney this morning saying that if you vote for trump, it is the last election you could vote in. so what is this urgency that you are hearing from the republicans? >> well, if you are talking to the republicans on the campaign trail that i do, it is more and more likely that donald trump is going to be the republican nominee, and what you are seeing is the republicans who are not supporting president trump coming out to talk about what the trump agenda or the second term would look like, and that has been joe biden's biggest argument against another trump term, and he has said that if trump is to be re-elected, it is a threat to democracy, and so now, the charges to overturn the 2020 election, and one of the democratic institution, and he would question the legitimacy of all of the elections and at one point called for termination of the constitution, and now he is saying that it is actually joe biden who is a threat to the country, and he is using an argument that he has used before saying that the four indictments that he has been currently charged with are all because joe biden is using his position as president to weaponize the justice department and take it out on his political opponent, being donald trump, and listen to what he said this weekend. >> joe biden is the destroyer of american democracy. it is him and his people. so if joe biden wants to make this race a question of which candidate will defend our democracy and protect our freedoms, and i say to crooked joe and he is crooked the most corrupt president that we have ever had. we will win that fight, and we will win it big. >> and kate, one thing to point out here is that donald trump has said himself out loud that if he is re-elected he would weaponize the justice department to use it against his enemies and put the entire justice department underneath presidential control, and effectively making the executive branch more powerful, and making it have unprecedented levels of power. another thing they want to talk about is what donald trump outlined for the second term agenda should he be elected is health care. this is a big pivot here, but it is critically important for a general election being a nominee, and he has continued to attack obamacare which is something that is giving democrats fresh ammunition as they go into the potential general election rematch between trump and biden and they like the affordable act, and most americans do like it. it has accelerated plans for biden to start campaigning on what he would do when it comes to a second term coming to health care. we have some of the reporting here from arlette saenz over at the but measures would be expansing more drug price cuts and expanding medicaid, and clearly here, they want to be clearly running on health care, and it is a favorable program here in the united states, and it is not something that they want to run away from, and the republicans here, they don't want to touch it with a ten-foot pole. >> that is a perfect description of it, avoid, avoid, run and hide. thank you, kristen. john? >> and with me is the correspondent for pbs newshour and the national reporter for the public news, and so welcome both of you, and so this drum beet is-- drum baeat is getting louder, and looking at these politic pieces, that trump is going to be use the justice department to go against his challenges is a naked look at his values. >> it is because people are taking trump's word seriously, and over the course of the year, this is the person likely to be the republican nominee, but it is not the same candidate from 2016 and 2020, but it is someone who has escalated the sense of rhetoric and now promising policies to truly put the things in action. my colleagues who are following him are laying out three areas where he would shift and in comparison to the trump in presidency, and that is weaponizing the justice department, and as we heard, the drain the swamp, and fill the bureaucratic jobs with some people who are more supportive of trump, but it is going to expanding the military powers for immigration, and more importantly, the general expansion of the power, and this is a president who is pushing to unify the power in the executive branch and go after the checks and balances that have grounded the american democracy for a long time, and though it is a stale presidential race that might feature biden and trump, it is a mistake, because this is a radicalized donald trump. >> and lauren, to that effect, to what extent is this who he is, and versus what donald trump would do as president? >> well, i think that the republican base is very much focused on who he is, but also what he would do, which is that trump has made it very clear since the beginning of this campaign when he launched the re-election bid, this is all about retribution, and him getting revenge on the perceived political enemies, and i do believe that the voters are paying attention to that, and also in 2022, because when i was out in states like michigan and georgia, and a number of voters, and some swing voters and democratic voters said they were very worried about what they were hearing in terms of the election lies, and the president has continued that, and the former president has continued that, and he said that if he were to lose in 2024, the entire system will have been rigged and the only way it is not rigged is if he were to win again, and yes, the economy is important, and health care is important, but this is something that is going to be front and center for a number of voters in 2024. >> kate mentioned it that liz cheney was on "today" show and has a new book out, and stood up against the former president. this is what congresswoman, former congresswoman cheney said if former president trump is elected again. take a listen. >> do you believe that donald trump, if he were elected next year that he would try to stay in office beyond a second term, and he would never leave office? >> no question. >> you think that he would try to stay in power forever? >> absolutely. he has already tried to do it once, and you cannot count on a house of representatives led by someone like mike johnson to stop the president, or josh holly or others to stop him. >> surely, this is a focus of the republican debate wednesday night or not. >> i mean, you would think so, but you not seen the republican rivals to go to this directly, and this is going to donald trump pitching them to himself, and many like it, and many see his presidency as stymied by the checks and balances, and see him as someone who can finish the job, but going outside of the norms of legislating that we have seen consistently, and congresswoman cheney is correct to call it out, because this is the evidence that we have seen from donald trump since day one, and he is not going to be deferential to the democratic norms or the checks and balances, but what is important about the trump campaign, they are strategic of infusing the trump campaign with state parties that are supportive of his every move, so not only donald trump at the top of the ticket to push these policies is, but a trump ticket from top to bottom that is his, and so at this point, you can't count on the internal checks of the party to push back on him, and this is what congresswoman cheney is focused on. >> well, what do you think is the most effective threat to democracy or he is going to get rid of obamacare? >> well, i think they, if you are asking the campaign if biden wants to talk about threat to democracy or obamacare, they would rather talk about ob obam obamacare, but many would like to see biden in more forceful to talk about it more frequently, and we have seen him give specific speeches about january 6th, and about even this project 2025 that trump and the republican allies are pushing which is an outline that has to do with installing loyalists across the government and weaponizing doj and going after the political enemies, and president biden has talked about it, but not for months, so it is going to be something that i would like to see if president biden decides to be more forceful like liz cheney, because i asked him about speaker johnson and whether or not he thought that he was concerned that speaker johnson might help a president trump or might not certify election results. and president biden struck it down, and so it is interesting that someone like former congresswoman cheney is saying that yes, it is something to worry about. >> and we did get a piece of breaking news that doug bergam is suspending his campaign. not much more to say about that. >> and now, just miles from khan younis, civilians have been ordered to clear out. this new video just in from khan younis showing a 2-month-old baby being examined, and injured in the strike, and he is born on the second day of the war, and his father says from the north and evacuated to khan younis thinking as they were told that it is safe, but quickly found that nowhere in gaza is safe. ben wedeman is in jerusalem for us. and ben, the idf is saying what the plans are, and going forward and what are you hearing about the expansion? >> yes, they are going to be focusing on the southern strip of gaza, and khan younis is the largest part, and there were a lot of strikes on the villages and the towns to east and to the north of khan younis. now, it is worth noting that of course, it is the israelis who advised inhabitants of northern gaza to move to the south where they are presumably would have been safe, but that is clearly not the case. of course, many of those who fled to the south are crammed into the u.n. schools that have been converted into the shelters where the sanitary conditions are very bad, and we have heard from the spokesman from unicef who says that approximately 400 people to every single toilet, and that is if there is a functioning toilet. also overnight, we know that a part of the southern part of the gaza strip south of the dividing line of gaza over which israel told palestinians to go to, the last functioning bakery in dela bella was hit, and people were ransacking the bakery looking for flour, cooking wood to cook their food and to stay warm. so i think that if israel is going really ramp up its incursion in the south of gaza, we will see despite what the u.s. administration advised the israelis not to do which is to incur huge numbers of civilian casualties, it is inevitable that is the case. >> and you mentioned huge humanitarian crisis of little food, warmth and water. thank you for all of the reporting, ben wedeman. kate? >> a u.s. destroyer is shooting down at least three houthi drones. the confrontation coming from iran. and the white house is warning congress, if you don't approve more aid to ukraine, you are kneecapping them in the war against russia, and why this is still stalled. and now, a new session to focus on the rape and other violence from hamas, and this is coming after weeks of silence from international organization, and now a new report detailing the eyewitness accounts and other atrocities committed by the hamas that day. >> in the red sea, u.s. navy destroyer shot down at least three houthi drones as they came to attack commercial ships. yemen is claiming responsible for the attacks in what they say are israeli ships. natasha bertrand, what are you learning? >> yes, john, a significant group of attacks on the "u.s.s. kearney" based in the red sea now, and in response to several missile attacks targeting the commercial vessels. three in total of four separate attacks throughout the day yesterday. and what we are told is that the "u.s.s. kearney" responded to distress missiles by the ship, and when they saw this, they saw that some of the missiles resulted in damage. one of them that hit a cargo ship was a ballistic missile. it could have caused casualties, but it did not. the houthi missiles also launched drones as and the general ordered to shoot them down, and clearly escalating and that is where the maritime security have jeopardized tand they said they are looking at all of the responses options here. and they have responded to the groups in the past, but it has not deterred groups to carry out strikes on u.s., allied coalition part thers in the region today. >> a lot of very dangerous activity in the red scene. >> joining us is the cnn analyst, and commander general. this and considering all option, and pointing the figure right at roun, and was that the sfn and putting it in the red sea, because it was not working? >> well, i think that it means that the u.s. deterrence has to be stepped up. iran knows that we, the united states don't want, and we made it very clear, we don't want a widened conflict in the region. they are taking advantage offthis doling things that are provocative and directly against iran. we will have to look at military options that respond directly against the elements in iran who are supporting and enabling these attacks. >> and now with the news that israeli military operation is moving into southern gaza, we know that the united states has been pushing israel, general, to do more to limit civilian casualties in gaza, while israel is going after hamas. i want to play what defense secretary lloyd austin said this weekend. listen to this. >> you can see it is in this kind of the fight, the center of gravity is the civilian population. and if you are driving them in the arms of a navy, you will replace them with a strategical defeat. >> there are many like senator lindsey graham coming out against this including the strategical defeat. >> i think that lloyd austin is correct. and the problem with hamas is that the civil wan population has been hostile or indifferent or overtly hostile to israel. the horse is opportunity to bon of this, and it would be great if the civilian pop yeslation said that we are against hamas, and all of the destruction, and it is not israel's fault, but it is a wartime situation, and no different than when the united states had to attack japan in world war ii, and british and americanm bombers flying over germany, and lot of innocent in consequence of this. unfortunately, i don't know if there is that much more that the israelis can do to prevent harming the populations in gaza and still accomplish the military objective, so they will go after the military objective now as hard as they can, and do whatever they can do, and it is important for the united states to take the posture it is taking. i understand that politically and tra they will do whatever they can to eliminate hamas or the best they can to eliminate hamas. it is going to be a tough fight, and they will have escalation, and it is going to be tough. but the thing is that blame has to be placed on hamas. all they have to do is to cur render, unconditional surrender, and that is where the blame rests. >> at the same time, bianna, at the same time, the u.n. is hosting a special session of the rape and sexual violence by october 7th attack, and this is coming weeks after, i will call it a strange silence, from the u.n., and other international organizations on the horrific atrocities that have been now detailed more and more, and you have been pushing hard on this to get some answers. what is going on here? >> well, i wish i knew exactly what was and that is because the israel, and israeli investigators are collecting information about the atrocities against the israeli women, and this is difficult, because sadly, most of the women did not survive. but any issues involving raping involving war, it is difficult to get the women to come forward, even those who do survive, but you have the women's organizations, whose sole purpose is to speak out against these types of acts sitting quietly while they are quick to condemn others in this war for actions specifically as to what is happening in gaza, and this is started by our jake tapper, and his really in-depth, and important piece on the atrocities of october, and including deputy director -- >> i think that we have that sound. it does not do justice, because you tried to give, and you give ample opportunity to get a straight answer and you did not. can we play this, guys. >> is there a reason though, sara, that you cannot specifically call out hamas and the mounting evidence now over seven weeks that israeli investigators have collected and that we have shown our viewers of the atrocities that they have committed october 7th. >> indeed. the u.n. women always supports impartial and independent investigations into any serious gender-based and violence against women. in these, the investigations are led by the high office of the u.n. human rights. >> this was over seven minute, and never once did we hear anything about the condemnation, and once again, the statement came out condemning hamas for the allegations of these atrocities, and they said they would look further into it, and why it is so important, because it is delegitimizing women around the world who are allowed to rain in terms of a weapon of war. every expert told me that all of the evidence suggested that this is premeditated and not one offs by the hideous terrorist, but it is part of the war plan itself, and this is a crime against humanity, and female hostages are still being held within gaza, and this is why the truce was broken, because hamas did not live up to the deal that they would release them, and this is what has happened to the women, and why won't they release them, and what horror stories do they have to tell? >> and it is not like some horror stories have been told, and even though it is a difficult thing to investigate. the sunday "times" gathered 1,500 testimonies from many of them eyewitnesss to the atrocities, and many of them witnessing rape and sexual-based violence only to then see the women then murdered after what they suffered through. it is not -- et it is out there, and the silence is terrifying. >> yes, even among the elected officials in washington. it is. >> and general wesley clark, thank you. we will be right back. this morning the white house is sending is a stark morning to congress without new approvals for funding the u.s. is doing to run out of money to send money to ukraine and risks kneecapping ukraine on the battlefield. arlette saenz, they are saying this is a stark warning and the time is up, arlette. >> yes, and the white house is issuing this blunt message to the lawmakers to build some momentum to get some funding for ukraine and other measures including for israel passed up on capitol hill. the senate majority leader chuck schumer is hoping to have a vote on the national security funding measures this week, but it remains unclear whether the votes to get it passed exist. the white house today, omb director shalonda young said it would essentially kneecap the battlefield without the u.s. to provide more weapons and equipment in the fight. she wrote in the letter saying, quote, no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment, and we are out of money, and nearly out of time. one of issues in the talks has been that republicans want to see policy changes when and house speaker mike j johnson responded to the letter in a tweet saying, that one, the administration has outlighted a forward for you, and that is something that the house republicans want to see more about, and the house republicans also said that any supplemental package must begin with our own border. and lauren fox said tha