i will save democracy. >> what would a second trump term look like? top trump ally j.d. vance of ohio is ahead. plus on the line. a split over foreign aid divides congress as world pressure grows over the civilian death toll in gaza. >> there's more that has to happen. does the biden administration have any conditions in its support for israel in the war? secretary of state antony blinken is next. and survival, world leaders meet to confront the climate crisis and consider phasing out fossil fuel, but will they go far enough? >> if there is an agreement to phase out fossil fuels, it will be a success. if there's not, it will be a failure. >> former vice president al gore joins me exclusively. ♪ ♪ hello. i'm jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is preparing for what looks to be a quite ugly 2024. we are closing in on a presidential election year in america already feels irreparably divided. late last night we saw former president donald trump leaning into his new argument that despite his and his allies' efforts to overturn the 2020 election it is he who will save democracy days after he told hannity that if re-elected he would be a dictator on day one. though just on day one, a line that many republican officials laughed off. democrats of course, face their own divisions. the president of the university of pennsylvania resigned yesterday after ham handed comments on anti-semitism saying any calls to commit crimes against jews would only violate policy depending on context. over foreign aid on ukraine and israel the pressure over the biden administration over policies are growing this weekend after the u.s. vetoed a u.n. security council ceasefire resolution that was backed by allies and the state department said it would bypass congress to send israel more ammunition for tanks as israel pursues its offensive against hamas and gaza. hamas hides among the civilian population, of course, but the u.s. continues to say it wants israel to do more to stop the bloodshed of innocents. aid officials are now warning that the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe in gaza is only growing and the president's support for israel is continuing to divide the democratic party. joining me now is secretary of state antony blinken. thanks for ginning us. the u.s. stood alone at the u.n. security council to block the ceasefire and the administration is sidestepping congress to rush more weapons to israel. you said this week there is, quote, a gap between the intent to protect palestinian civilians and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground in gaza. can you describe that gap? what is israel doing right now that you think does not demonstrate enough care or protection of palestinian civilians? >>. >> jake, we think there needs to be a premium put on protecting civilians and making sure humanitarian assistance to get to everyone who needs it. as i said, i think the intent is there, but the results are not always manifesting themselves and we see that both in terms of civilian protection and humanitarian assistance. we want to make sure that as israel continues this campaign because remember they're dealing with a terrorist organization that engaged in the most vicious possible brutality, and has made clear that would do it again and again if given the opportunity so israel needs to deal with this, to protect itself from keeping september 7th from happening again and it's imperative that civilians be protected and here the critical thing are designed around civilian protection and to focus on that, when it comes to humanitarian assistance that we, as you know made the argument to get humanitarian assistance in, and we got it doubled for the humanitarian pause to negotiate and now what's critical is this, even as israel has taken additional steps, for example, to designate safe areas in the south, to focus on neighborhoods, not entire cities in terms of evacuating them. what we're not seeing sufficiently is a couple of things. one, making sure that the humanitarian operators who were there starting with the united nations performing heroically that there are decon ffliction, times, places and routes to the people who need it. similarly, we need to see the same kind of deconfliction, times, pauses, designated routes and plural, not just one and clarity of communication so people know when it is safe and where it is safe to move to get out of harm's way before they go back home. these are the things they're working on every single day to make sure the gap between intent and result is as narrow as possible. >> the idf told cnn's alex marquardt that they estimate they've killed 7,000 hamas fighters. when do you anticipate this phase of israel's military campaign is going to end. obviously, they can't kill every member of hamas and even if they did, 150,000 new ones would show up the next day. are the israelis telling you when this phase will wrap up because the civilian death toll is mounting and it's unimaginable. secretary austin suggested that israel might ultimately be facing a strategic defeat by chasing so many palestinians into the arms of hamas. >> jake, we have these discussions with israel including about the duration as well as how it's prosecuting against hamas and these are decisions for israel to make, but hamas has decisions to make, too. it could get out from hiding behind civilians tomorrow. >> right. >> it could put down its arms tomorrow and it could surrender tomorrow and this will be over. >> right. obviously, but will the u.s. continue to back israel the way it's backing israel right now if this continues for months and months as opposed to days or weeks? >> again, israel has to make these decisions. of course, everyone wants to see this campaign come to a close as quickly as possible, but any country faced with what israel is facing a terrorist organization that attacked it not most horrific way possible has said repeatedly that it would do it again and again and again. it has to get to the point where it is confident that that can't be repeated, but you make another point that's very important. when the major military operation is over, this is not over because we have to have a durable, sustainable peace and we have to make sure that we're on the path to a durable and sustainable peace. from our perspective, from the perspective of many around the world that has to lead to a palestinian state. this is -- we're not going to have durable peace and durable security for israel unless and until palestinian and political aspirations are met and of course, what happens the day after gaza itself once military -- major military operations are over and that's usually important and urgent to make sure that governance, security, reconstruction, all of that is in place so that there's no vacuum. >> the committee to protect journalists says at least 63 journalists and members of the news media have been killed. 56 of them palestinian in this war presumably mostly if not entirely by idf strikes. is that acceptable to you? you've made a press freedom, a hallmark of your term. how do you explain all these deaths of journalists? how do the israelis explain that? >> jake, as i see journalists including some of your colleagues and also from many other news organizations, putting their lives on the line to just bring the news, bring the facts, bring information to the world i have extraordinary admiration for what they do, for the courage that they show and for the vital importance of their mission and we want to make sure that just as every civilian is protected to the greatest extent possible, of course, journalists are, too, and when it comes to instances where journalists have been killed we want to make sure that that's investigated and we understand what's happened, and there's accountability. >> congress is scrambling to reach a deal to pass foreign aid to ukraine and israel. republicans are insisting on more border funding and new asylum restrictions that that be added to the bill. what would it mean for ukraine and israel. congress does not pass any additional support by the end of the year and why not agree to tougher border protections which is an issue of national security, as well? >> well, jake, the border is out of my purview, but i can say on day one of this administration or day two, the president put before congress the first bill on immigration reform and congress hasn't acted on that. in this request for additional funds there are $6 billion to enhance border security including having more people, more agents on the border. so i know that's very much part of the discussion and something the president's fully prepared to engage on, but in terms of what it would mean for ukraine and what it would mean for israel, what it would mean for our efforts to be competitive in the indo-pacific. i think the only people who would be happy to make the supplemental budget request are sitting in moscow, sitting in tehran, sitting in beijing. for ukraine, this is absolutely vital. they've made remarkable progress over the last year in pushing back russian aggression, taking back more than 50% of the territory that was seized since february 2022, but they're in a ferocious battle now in the south and east and we're running out of funding for them. by the way, 90% of the security assistance that we provided for ukraine is actually invested here in the united states to our companies, to our manufacturers. similarly, we've had extraordinary burden sharing with our allies and partners. we've provided very significant assistance about $70 billion over the last two years. our european frebs and partners beyond europe, more than $110 billion for ukraine so we have the burden sharing that we need. this is a time to really step up because if we don't we know what happens. putin will be able to move forward with impunity and we know he won't stop in ukraine and he may well end up going after a nato country and that will bring us in given obligations to our nato allies. so here an ounce of prevention is really worth ten pounds secure. >> antony, as you know, cnn has led the coverage when it comes to the evidence mounting in israel of rapes and sex crimes committed by hamas against women and girls and maybe even against men on october 7th. why do you think the united nations and the international community has been so slow to condemn these atrocities. i can't think of a real reason -- well, let me put it this way. i've heard anti-semitism hypothesized as a reason yet u.n. and the international community might be so slow to acknowledge this. what do you think? >> jake, first, i really mrappld the work of cnn in bringing this to light and to the world and as to your question, i don't have an answer. i don't know why countries, leaders, international organizations were so slow to focus on this, to bring it to people's attention. i'm glad it's finally happened. the atrocities that we saw on october 7th are almost beyond human description or beyond our capacity to digest and we've talked about them before, but the sexual violence that we saw on october 7th is beyond anything that i've seen either. so thank you for doing that and, look, i don't have a good answer to that question. i think it's a question that these organizations, these countries need to ask themselves. >> secretary of state antony blinken, thanks for joining us today. appreciate it. >> thanks, jake. good to be with you. >> have republicans who opposed more aid to ukraine already won the fight in congress. j.d. vance of ohio, and the vice presidential short list and could leaders agree to phase out fossil fuels? former vice president al gore will join me ahead. stay with us. welcome back to "state of the union." i'm jake tapper. much of the dialogue centered around what a trump term might look like particularly after comments by the former aides and trump called concerns about what he might do in office, quote, the threat to democracy hoax and key trump ally and republican senator j.d. vance of ohio joins me live in studio. thank you very much for being here. >> you heard secretary blinken and you and senate erepublicans among the reasons more support for a border package to protect those southern border. senate republican mitch mcconnell said that threats from china, russia, china hamas are all interconnected and i want you to take a listen to what he had to say. >> sure. >> the challenges facing america and our allies today are not on a la carte menu of projects we can address at our leisure. america couldn't have the luxury of facing these threats individually. our ability to contend with complex, simultaneous threats is exactly what our adversaries are testing. >> you disagree with that, and you oppose aid to ukraine. explain your position. ? first of all, jake, i think it's possible to have separate debates and congressional republicans tried to force israel alone aid package that democrats blocked in the senate. so i think we need to have separate debates, but on the ukraine question in particular, everybody knows, anybody with a brain in their head said that this was going to end in n negotiation, it was preposterous and nobody actually believed it. so what we're saying to the president and to the entire world is you need to articulate what the ambition is. what does $61 billion going to accomplish than $100 billion hasn't. just remember, jake, ukraine has functionally destroyed as a country the average age of a soldier in the ukrainian army is 43 and that's tragic. that's older than me and i'm 39 and if this thing goes on a bit longer and the average age is older than you and it would be wolf blitzer. that is a tragedy. what does this look like? >> yoi don't like this age thin. i'm 54 for those wonder snoorg it will be functionally on the hook for pensioners to regain the entire country and we need to bring the killing to a stop and that's what america should be doing and not writing more blank checks, not more. >> what do you make of the argument that if the u.s., the nato and the eu cede part of ukraine to putin or even all of ukraine to putin that really all we're doing is for them to invade a country that is in the nato alliance such as poland? >> there are two reasons i don't buy this. putin has shown he's much weaker than a lot of people feared and they've stalled putin in a very small amount relative to the entire country and the idea that he can march to poland or berlin is preposterous. our nato allies with the exception of a few eastern europeans are not carrying their fair share of the burden. most of them don't spend 2% of the gdp on defense, if putin is a threat to berlin, that means the germans should be changing something about their defense policy and it doesn't mean we can write indefinite checks to ukraine. >> russia has proven much like a paper tiger because the u.s. is helping ukraine. that's the reason. >> it's also because the ukrainians have fought very bravely and also because, look, you cannot occupy the entire territory the size of ukraine with the amount of troops that russia has. the idea that you can go further and control multiple european nations is, i think, a scare tactic to get people distracted from the fact that our ukraine policy just doesn't make a ton of sense. i listen to secretary of state blinken, what are we trying to do, jake? what is the end goal here? how long does this go until the president can articulate the answer to those questions and i don't know why we would write another blank check. >> the argument might be and i'm not secretary blinken and russia invaded a sovereign nation that is an ally and this is a pretty stark morality tale and putin's goals as he has stated them time and time again to rebuild the former ussr. >> it is a stark morality tale, jake, but you can't make decisions built on stark morality tales and we have to figure out what's in america's best interest, we have an energy crisis that has multiple allied governments in western europe. it's to accept, ukraine will have to cede some territory to the russians and we need to bring this war to a close. when i think about the great human tragedy here, hundreds of thousands of eastern europeans, and the thing that's in our interest and theirs is to stop the killing. >> let's turn to some domestic issues especially in your doorstep and ohio's constitutional amendment went into e feshl thursday. you said we have to recognize how much voters mistrust us on this issue of us meeting republicans. this week the texas supreme court is blocking a woman in texas from obtaining abortion each though her fetus has a rare jen theic condition that is almost always fatal and her doctors want her to be able to get this so that she's able to have babies in the future and for her health. isn't that situation an example of why many voters might not trust republicans? >> well, i don't know the details of that story, jake, but i will say that we have to accept that people do not want blanket abortion bans. i just don't. i say this as a person who wants to protect as many unborn babies as possible, and we want to protect the life of the mother and when i say that people don't really trust us, jake, what i'm getting at is i am luckily a person of means, but i have been shocked and you go to the hospital and you have a baby and get a $20,000 unexpected bill, what does it look like for a middle class family trying to figure out how to pay a mortgage. wooe made it too hard to have children in this country in that environment that's trying to make it easier to have babies and trying to take people's rights away. i want to protect as many unborn babies as possible and i also think we have to win the trust back of the american people and one of the ways to do that is to be the true family party and enact policy to that effect. >> is birth control part of that approximat policy empowering women to be able to make those decisions. i don't think that i know any republican at least not any republican with a brand trying to take those rights away from people. >> could provide a list for you if you knowed. >> not anybody i talk to, jake, but i think the more important question is i talked to a lot of people, a lot of young families who want to have babies. they can't afford mortgages and terrified about health care expenses and we have to answer those questions for people ask have a role to play because we have a problem in this country. not enough american families who want children are able to do it and that's how you destroy a nation. >> let's turn to trump. there are concerns about president trump a second term and gentlemen democracy if he's elected and take a listen to what former congresswoman cheney told me this week. >> he tried to seize power once. it's not hard to imagine he would do it again. once a president decides he's above the law as donald trump has everything unravels nearly immediately. >> do you have really no concerns that donald trump might try to abuse his power if re-elected. >> no, jake, i don't. the guy was president for four years, we had peace, prosperity and joe biden has been president for three years and the average ohio family pays 10,000 more to afford the same standard of living. the idea that trump is going to be radically different than what he was four years ago is just preposterous. he was an effective, successful president. i think he will be an effective, successful president again and that's why i endorsed him and i think this desire to make the election all about the past is indicative of the fact that the president doesn't have much to run on and republicans do. >> he's out there talking about how the 2020 election was stolen from him and using all sorts of bogus evidence, lies and assertions that were disputed and overruled by court after court, judge after judge, election board after election board, judge