trying to be invisible. is this what they mean by acting chicken? >> did i do something? >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn. >> what the -- >> reporter: new york. >> oh, my god. >> i don't care what you say, that hawk is in the tree, i am standing still. those chickens were not moving. what i also don't understand is one froze, then the other ones got it? or did they all see the hawk at the same time? >> at the same time. that's really remarkable. >> all right. thanks, jeanne moos. next hour of "cnn this morning" starts now. good morning, and welcome to "cnn this morning." it is sunday, december 10th. i'm victor blackwell. >> so remarkable. i can't get it off my mind. i'm amber walker. thanks for joining us. here is what we are watching. everything just, like, exploded. that's what it felt like, like everything exploded, like a lot of pressure built up and just popped. >> at least six people are dead after tornados ripped through tennessee overnight. there is significant damage in some towns, and a state of emergency is in effect. we're also tracking the threat for more severe storms today. former president trump is expected to testify in the new york civil fraud case against him despite advice from his attorneys. the potential legal implications of that decision. two university of pennsylvania leaders have stepped down after the highly criticized testimony about anti-semitism on campus. the reaction coming into those resignations. the house is preparing to vote on an impeachment inquiry into president biden this week. how the white house is responding, just ahead on "cnn this morning." tennessee rescue crews are searching for survivors after thunderstorms and tornadoes tore through the state leaving six dead and dozens injured. the state's governor is telling citizens to follow the guidance from state and local officials as they continue to monitor and assess the storm damage. three people, including a child, were killed in clarksville when tamd tornadoes tore through town. eyewitness video shows the tornado churning across a clarksville road, throwing debris and ripping through power lines. >> oh, [ bleep ]. oh, my god. >> this video is from nashville. you see the tornado moving through, and then the electrical flashes, then the explosion, and then darkness. officials in nashville say another three people were killed there by the storm. the mayor declared a state of emergency and says that emergency crews are still working in hard-to-reach areas. also, we are tracking threats for more storms today. meteorologist elisa rafah is here now. we're seeing more severe storms right now. what are we looking at for the rest of the day? >> yeah. we still have some tornado watches in effect as this line that dropped those tornadoes yesterday continues to move east. now, yesterday, some of these warnings were so significant and so severe the national weather service was using wording like "large, dangerous, considerable damage likely," and we're seeing that in images this morning. 25 preliminary tornadoes reports do far. so, we have to keep an eye out on that number. it keeps increasing. 65 hail reports and 44 wind reports there. here's a look at radar. wilder showers to the north. we're focussing on the south, where that severe threat continues this morning. right now, it looks like we have a severe thunderstorm warning to the north there of tallahassee. we've had a couple more tornado warnings from alabama to the florida panhandle this morning where a watch continues from macon down towards panama city, continues through about 9:00 this morning as this intense line of storms continues to work its way eastward. as we go through the rest of the day, this is what the threat looks like. you see this yellow here for the eastern carolinas, wilmington down to charleston, and this other pocket, that's where a few more tornado are likely as we go through the day today. in the green areas, still a risk of damaging winds, 60, 70 miles per hour. this front could still pack a punch as it moves eastward. you can see that as we fast forward the time line, the storms billowing from charlotte to tallahassee as we go into the afternoon. then it pushes eastward tonight, a punch of cold air behind it changing it to snow from the appalachian mountains through the mid-atlantic. you can see the snow pumping in upstate new york and vermont. heavy rain a threat for new york to boston along the east coast. a flood watch is in effect for 255 million people. like i mentioned, we're looking at snow totals up to a foot possible in parents of new york and vermont. multiple hazards. >> thank you. on monday, donald trump says he will take the stand again in the new york civil fraud trial against him. trump's attorneys told reporters that she tried to dissuade trump from testifying again while he is under a gag order. but she claims trump insisted on t testifying. his conduct during the trial has been a flashpoint. he's been fined twice for violating a gag order barring him from speaking about the judge's staff. trump will take stand as the defense's final witness. joining me now to discuss is former federal prosecutor shan wu. shan, of course, as we just said, trump's attorneys do not want him taking the stand. what could go wrong? >> a lot could go wrong. he's a bad witness for everybody, actually. he meanders a lot when he's on direct. he meanders a lot on cross. he gets hostile on cross. that's not a very good look for him. it is a bench trial. it could be less damaging than before a jury, and it may mean nothing because the judge has already decided the important apartment parts of the case. first of all, usually, you don't get in front of the cameras and say what you advise the client. it's kind of privileged. second of all, it seems wrong. i mean, no one is going to find he violated a gag order by testifying. i mean, apples and oranges. the gag order is don't talk about the trial outside of the courtroom, not that you're not allowed to testify. so, it just seems odd. >> the gag order shouldn't impact the testimony in any way. if you're his attorney, what would you be telling him in terms of strategy? what should trump be trying to accomplish taking the stand? >> he should really lean into the hundreds of thousands of dollars that he paid for that expert who testified that there was no fraud in the case. that's what he needs to do, is to lean into that and really use that as almost a guideline for his testimony rather than, you know, going into it's a witch-hunt, all that sort of thing. he needs to try and stick with what his expert talked about regarding the accounting. >> he probably won't. if he starts to ramble or go off on a tantangent, could that backfire? could there be legal consequences? >> i think the consequences would be limited to the liability in the trial and what kind of penalty he might pay. unlikely he'd get hit with something like perjury. it's possible, but usually, when defendants are testifying on behatch of themselves, they often are found not to be credible by the fact-finder. usually perjury does not follow from that. in that sense, i don't think there would be other kinds of consequences. >> during the trial, we've heard from this accounting expert, who basically said he found no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud. those are his words. what did you make of that? and does that move the needle in any way, knowing that the judge has already ruled that there was fraud? >> i don't think it moved the needle very much. i'm not an accounting expert, but his testimony seemed so vehemently in favor of the anti-fraud notion that it didn't really seem that credible. i mean, to him, you know, accounting is more of an art than a science. he also seemed quite prickly on the stand. he got very mad at the prosecutor for bringing up his very high fee as well as sort of disagreeing with his points. i don't think it will move the needle that much. but i do think it's very smart of the court to allow that testimony as well as trump's testimony because it helps make a good factual record. so, if there is a conviction, a finding of liability, then on appeal, it's much better protection that the defendants have a full chance to put forward everything it could. >> i'm sure the full expectation is he will treat the stand as a campaign rally. shan wu, great to see you. thank you. the backlash against three university presidents over their comments to congress about anti-semitism have led to two resignations now. university of pennsylvania president liz mcgaill has resigned along with the school'. presidents of harvard and m.i. tvm were asked if calling for the general side of jews would vie late their school's cold of conduct. polo sandoval reports. >> reporter: in back-to-back resignation announcements, the president of the university of pennsylvania announced she would be stepping down from her position just moments before the university official who made her announcement also said that he, too, would be resigning. liz mcgill announced on saturday she would be stepping down from her position as upenn president. she will remain tenured faculty at the university's law school and stay on while they find an interim replacement. as we've reported, students, faculty, really the community in general said they lost confidence in mcgill after tuesday's congressional hearing in which she and the presidents of m.i.t. and harvard failed to explicitly say that calls for genocide of jews would immediately violate their universities' codes of conduct. moments after her announcement, scott bach said he, too, would be stepping down as the chair of the university's board of trustees. liz mcgill made an unfortunate misstep, he said. and he writes, following that, it became clear that her position was no longer tenable, and she and i concurrently decided it was time for her to exit. bach also defending mcgill, calling her a good person, a talented leader, and, in his words, not the slightest built anti-semitic. also interesting in his statement, he offered potential insight into what may have been mcgill's state of mind at the time of that disastrous hearing. as bok wrote she was not herself at the time she was being questioned by lawmakers, that she was, quote, over-prepared, over-lawyered, and she provided a legalistic answer to a moral question, and that, bok says, was wrong. >> polo, thanks so much. still ahead, the house could vote on an impeachment inquiry into president biden this week. how it's expected to play out and what the white house is saying about it. plus, as the humanitarian crisis deepens in gaza, the war between israel and hamas is taking a toll on children. president biden back at the white house half a california trip to drum up support and some donations for his twrourn. >> republican contenders hit the campaign trend, as well, taking over iowa. the caucuses there are just weeks away. we break down the campaign events and town halls. >> reporter: victor, these candidates imploring iowans to get out and caucus for them in just a few short weeks. governor desantis, ambassador haley, vivek ramaswamy all appearing at the same e secente sioux, talking about how faith and family informs their policy vision, something that is so important in the state of iowa, where so many of the caucus-goers are evangelical voters. for the most part, they strayed away from attacking one another, but governor desantis, ambassador haley did seem to suggest they both would be better general election candidates than former president donald trump. >> what i know is you don't defeat democrat chaos with republican chaos. and that's what donald trump gives us. rightly or wrongly. i had a great working relationship with him, but rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. you know i'm right. chaos follows him. and we can't have a country in disarray and a world on fire and survive this chaos. >> it's important to point out that normally in an iowa caucus you've got five or six cant dadate -- candidates running as conservative voters and conservative voters are having to look through. that's not the case this year. i think you have donald trump, who's obviously moved left, is not really putting in the work to earn people's votes. >> reporter: haley took questions from iowans in silver lake on a number of issues. many folks seem to be concerned about the future of social security. something else that's notable, both haley and desantis pushing back hard on this notion that they are interested in being trump's number two, not interested in being the vice presidential candidate, haley stressing she's not in this race to play for second place. victor, amara? >> thank you. after meeting with campaign donors out west, president biden returned to the white house and is facing a tough week ahead. >> not only was his son, hunter, indict v ed last week, he faces threat of a possible impeachment inquiry. house republicans could launch that effort as soon as tuesday. what does the white house say about this, kamala? >> reporter: white house officials are calling republican efforts to launch an impeachment inquiry a political stunt. and the president himself has even weighed in on this issue when reporters asked him about republicans' allegations that he met several times with his son, hunter biden, business associates. he called them a bunch of lies. but white house officials will have to monitor very closely the developments of this inquiry and with the latest additional charges that have been brought and filed against hunter biden, because biden is facing a lot of scrutiny at this moment in time with the low polling of his job approval performance and with the scrutiny he's getting over him handling the israel and hamas conflict. >> thank you so much. maria cardona and former congressman charlie dent are with us now. it's been a minute since i've seen you on a sunday morning. good morning to both of you. charlie, let me start with you. so, the vote could come this week to formalize this impeachment inquiry. there is no evidence that republicans have produced that connect the president to anything that would be illegal or wrongdoing, that was on the part of hunter biden. they see this from a political context, of course. do you think it pays off politically for house republicans? >> no, i real huh don't think this will pay off for house republicans. look, they've made a very compelling case that hunter biden should be impeached. of course, the problem is hunter biden is not a federal official. and they have not yet made the case that hunter's nefarious actions somehow financially benefitted joe biden. i think that's fundamentally their problem. i think they're just doing this to say they can impeach joe biden because trump was impeached. i don't think it's particularly good politics. it may not hurt them that much, but i think it's a misguided effort, and i don't think the look is particularly good, given the fax ct they're still dealin with ukraine funding, israel funding, taiwan funding, the border, and of course the government is still not yet funded for the year. it's not a particularly good look. this is a miscalculation on the part of the house gop. >> the argument is they have to formalize the impeachment inquiry, although they don't have the evidence, to then get the evidence to justify the inquiry. it seems like it's cyclical. my question to you, maria, is how much should the white house cooperate with this impeachment inquiry? >> well, i don't think that you're going to see them try to stop it in any way because this is something i think that could backfire politically for republicans. the white house doesn't love it, of course. they have an incredibly challenging arena moving forward into 2024, but if there's anything we have seen, it's that president biden eats dinner in these situations. he is the most underestimated president we've ever had, and he always comes out on top. that doesn't mean that he should not and the administration should not take these things seriously, all these challenges, and they do. they're not leaving anything to chance. but i think there is a huge danger for republicans to overstep here. i agree with charlie. this is not something that will help them politically. it could also backfire because they're going to be attacking a president who has a son, and throughout all of the situations that they'll be pointing out in terms of when he got in trouble, hunter biden got in trouble, it was when he was at the height of the issues that he's had with addiction and drugs. millions of families can relate to that. so many american families have tragically gone through this exact same thing. they can easily see a father in president biden who loves his son, wanted to help his son throughout his difficult times, the empathy that he has towards his son. and so i think that that is not something that republicans should use politically, and it could backfire. >> let's talk about 2024 now. a new poll out from the "wall street journal," and let's put up first the hypothetical matchup between trump and biden. of course trump the front-runner here. in this poll, donald trump is ahead by four points. now, let's look at haley v. biden. 17 points, nikki haley is ahead in this hypothetical matchup. you see there's still a high number of people who are undecided. your reaction to these numbers. maria, you first. >> look, clearly, these are not numbers that the white house loves, but it's also a year out, and so luckily, these kinds of polls are not an election. the election is not tomorrow. it's not next week. it's, you know, a little bit less than a year from now. so, they have time. they have time to make sure that their messaging works, that it's about all of the massive accomplishments that joe biden and the democrats have had under their belts, about also, very importantly, what a huge existential threat donald trump will be to america, to our democracy if he is allowed anywhere near the oval office. and so, i think that there is time here. they're not taking anything for granted. they should take a look at these polls and see what it is that they need to do to shore up what they're doing. they're doing that every single day. so, i don't think they need to be panicked here. i think people need to remember that polls were wrong, the 2022 election. this same poll was predicting a huge red wave, did not show up. so i think the administrations and the campaign specifically just needs to keep their head down and do the work. >> charlie, 17 points ahead for nikki haley, for ambassador haley. we have seen where she had done better against president biden in other polls, but this disparity is huge. and still she is far behind former president trump in iowa, in new hampshire, still quite a distance in her home state of south carolina. what does this mean? does it change anything for voters? if you're looking to win, it seems like that would be a good narrative for the ambassador. >> yeah. regre regrettably, i suspect the poll might not change as a narrative. but i don't need a poll to tell me that nikki haley, is a better candidate against joe biden than donald trump. it's just obvious to anyone who can see. in fact, you know, we keep reading that somewhere over 60%, close to two-thirds of americans, want someone other than joe biden and donald trump. most americans think one of these candidates, joe biden is too old, and the other, donald trump, is something else. they want a new page, a new generation, fresh leadership. and nikki haley does represent that. she's also been very effective at speaking to voters beyond the republican base. you know, she's not logically moderate. her opponent is moderate. so she presents herself quite well. it should not be a shock to anybody that she is doing this well against joe biden. republican voters s