lawyers who led that case were in d.c. for a meet and greet with their client. before they walked into the oval office, they were told do not give him false hope, do not indulge the conspiracies about the election. some of them listened, some of them didn't. here is a clip from ken chesebro what the lead attorney in wisconsin told donald trump. >> it is clear that troops personally told the president there was zero hope in wisconsin. as part of this message, i think trying to get him to concede, give up this long shot challenge. so there was a conscious effort to deflect him from a sense of any possibility that he could pull out the election. >> zero hope. that's what he said. so, look, some people around trump told him that he couldn't win and he tried ty eied to ovee election any way. that's a part of the criminal case. that indictment is filled to the brim with examples of trump being told that he lost. this oval office meeting was not in the indictment, so it builds on the existing case, the existing evidence against trump. >> you also say that another part of the audio reveals something that could possibly help donald trump's defense. >> that's when chesebro started talking in the meeting with donald trump. again, remember, he was told don't give trump any hope. once the conversation moved to arizona, he did just that. take a listen. >> i ended up explaining that arizona was still hypothetically possible. i explained the whole logic, because the office of lectors had voted, we had more time to go into litigation. so i think it was clear in a way maybe it hadn't been before that we had a chance to win. >> so he brought up january 6th, brought up the fake electors. he told trump there was still a viable path to keep contesting the election. this was immediately met with fallout. reince priebus, who helped arrange the meeting because of his wisconsin connections, he was in the room, he was livid. listen to chesebro describing priebus' reaction. >> right after the meeting, he said that reince priebus is extremely concerned with what i told the president about arizona and about january 6th, that he was going to do damage control. reince was going to follow up and -- i mean, i was trying to mitigate whatever optimism i guess i created. >> so some people told trump he lost. some people told trump he could keep fighting. we all know which path he chose, which of course, ended with the insurrection here in washington. >> and ended up with kenneth chesebro getting indicted, and donald trump. excellent reporting. thank you so much. maggie haberman is here. what stands out to you most when you hear these tapes? >> it's terrific reporting and it's the fact of this meeting happening in the first place is what stands out. when chesebro pleaded guilty, the basic takeaway for people around trump was, well, chesebro didn't deal with trump directly. there's clearly a lot more to learn about what was happening in these various interactions. the fact is, he brought it up proactively, giving the desire by all of these people around trump not to the same degree, but to please him, to bring him some kind of offering is what stood out to me there. >> and chesebro is clearly willing to talk openly in a way that could be damaging to donald trump. what do you know about others in trump's circle who might also be willing to flip? i'm thinking, of course, of a different white house chief of staff, mark meadows. are the dominos starting to fall on him? >> we're going to wait a long time until we see something like that. i can't predict if he flips. if he does, it will be problematic for trump. i think that he shared enough with investigators that they're going to be able to paint a compelling picture at this point already. i'm not sure how badly they need a plea like that opposed to this. reince priebus was probably having ptsd of having a meeting not getting derailed when he was chief of staff. >> here you have this president, and he has all these people that he knows, the white house counsel, his attorney general, former white house chiefs of staff, like reince priebus, et cetera, saying it's over, you lost. and just these straglers are coming in, people he barely knows. they tell him what he likes, so he listens. >> so there used to be a line that one of his senior advisers would use, if trump wants an opinion on something, he will ask 49 people and a 50th if that 50th will give him the answer he wants. it was a parade of people telling him this is over. even if they weren't all doing it declaratively, there were enough people telling him you are out of options here. then he gets one who says no, no, no, this is real. and he goes for that. >> just these stray dogs that he brings in and listens to them bark. now to the news. a judge has just paused donald trump's 2024 election interference case, which could leave his march 2024 trial to be delayed. earlier today, trump lawyers compared special counsel jack smith to the grinch for trying to keep the trial on schedule. here is what they wrote. this is an honest to god court filing, my hand to god. "this proposed schedule would require attorneys and support staff to work round the clock. inev it is as if jack smith growled, i must find a way to keep christmas from coming. what are the real world and political and legal consequence it is the trial is delayed, and how likely do you think it is? >> there is a real possibility the trial will be delayed. i think the march 4th start date has seemed aspirational. the question is, how long? does it start before the republican nominating convention in july? does it start later in the summer? would the judge feel okay starting it in august? there is so many variables built in, it's very hard to say when this will begin. it is still seen as the likeliest trial to start before the election, if not the only one. but there is a lot of moving parts. >> and obviously, you can't keep these trials -- you can't keep track of them without a program, especially when you bring in some of the other players. rudy giuliani all right found libel for election lies, and they are seeking tens of millions. at trial today, the -- trial today, they -- giuliani told reporters everything he said about the women was true. and this could support another defamation claim. we know giuliani already has serious financial troubles due to the trump legal cases. does he have value digging into these lies more than the money he could lose? >> it's hard to fathom why giuliani is saying what he is saying. anybody who has been around giuliani, who is no longer with him privately says the same thing. people can't understand what the strategy is here. >> why is he even testifying? to be quite frank, he says a lot of really wild, crazy, untrue things. and he's now saying them, you know, under oath. >> based on people i talk to close to him, there is a part of him that genuinely believes he has been proven right about various things, whether it's some of his arguments about hunter biden, because he was the one trying to force that laptop into the conversation in 2020. that he genuinely believes he's right in some of the allegations he's making here. and many of them have adapted the donald trump ethos of fight, fight, fight. if you believe you're right, then you fight. i think that's what he is doing. this is different than what i would have expected to see him do a couple of decades ago. >> last question, donald trump is clearly campaigning something of a basement campaign. something of the kind of campaign that joe biden did in 2020. a lot of republicans made fun of him, they talked about how donald trump was out there doing six, seven events a day. joe biden was doing maybe one. donald trump is not even doing one campaign a day, maybe two or three a week. obviously, he's 77. obviously, he's far and ahead the front runner. he doesn't need to do it. at what point do you think the pride that he feels about the fact that he used to be so vigorous and able to do this, and it's pretty apparent that he doesn't seem capable of doing it anymore, at least there's no evidence that he can do it anymore, that will cause him to try to get back into that old routine? >> he's not doing rallies. yes, he is older. yes, he is far ahead. they also cost a lot of money. so they don't see a reason to spend campaign resources when they don't have to. i don't think that is a top of mind concern for him, especially if, as they hope, iowa delivers him a sizable victory on january 15th. remember, it's a state that he lost in 2016. >> to ted cruz. >> he's so much more focused on the legal cases than the political campaign right now. specifically, a case we haven't talked about, the new york attorney general case. because that involves his business, and that involves the extent to which he's going to be able to continue to run his business as is, and we will know the details of that outcome in january. he will appeal whatever that is, and that will go on for a while. but that case cuts at the heart of his identity and who he is. it is just fundamentally different than anything else we're talking about. >> it seems likely he will lose that case and maybe his business license. >> we don't know how many properties it impacts. so many unanswered questions. >> tough to see that case going his way. >> he's already lost it. the question is how bad the penalty is. this hour, the house starting votes to start an impeachment inquiry into joe biden. for what? good question. we'll talk about that, next. within the hour, we expect the republican led house of representatives to pass an impeachment inentiry into joe biden after republican holdouts are saying there is no evidence that they have seen suggesting that joe biden financially benefited personally from any of his son hunter biden's business dealings. they are now getting in line, saying yes, we're going to open an inquiry to see if there is anything there. this comes after hunter biden marched up to capitol hill defying house republican subpoena to testify behind closed doors for an interview. this is what hunter had to say. >> there is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen. i'm proud of my time serving on a dozen different boards of directors. and i'm proud of my efforts to forge global business relationships. >> cnn's manu raju is on capitol hill where it has been a dramatic day. manu, why does it seem most if not all house republicans are going to support this impeachment inquiry vote, each though some of them are still saying they haven't seen any credible evidence that joe biden financially benefitted from any of hunter's business dealings. >> reporter: yeah, a lot of those members are coming from the swing districts. 18 republicans who are have districts that joe biden carried. they are making a big distinction, trying to say this is just a vote to allow the investigation to go forward. to try to get documents where they're unable to get documents, give them more power in court. even though the inquiry has been going on since september, this is just a vote to say that this is formally been authorized. but those members are still down playing or saying that this is different charging the president with high crimes or misdemeanors, saying there needs to be more evidence before charging the president to be impeached. there are still some prominent republicans in the house gop making it clear that they believe impeachment is still likely. that is in the words of one congressman. >> i think there's plenty of proof there. we're going to tie this all down. i think it's likely we move towards impeachment. but we want the evidence to speak for itself. >> members say they haven't seen the evidence yet to prove that joe biden had improperly helped his son. >> that's why we're going to finish our investigation. voting for an impeachment inquery allowing us to finish our investigation. >> reporter: this vote will happen later this hour. we expect speaker mike johnson will have the votes to officially authorize this impeachment inquiry. it is potentially one republican no vote, ken buck of colorado. they can't afford to lose more than three votes, and we don't expect that to happen. still, there's a lot of questions about where this investigation goes, what evidence they will get and whether it will lead to the president's impeachment. all questions for the new speaker as he grapples with the members who want to push for impeachment. others saying where's the evidence? >> yeah, good question. meanwhile, house republicans are moving forward with putting hunter biden in contempt of congress. >> reporter: yeah. we expect those proceedings to continue on in the new year. it's coming from james comber, the house overnight chairman in the aftermath of hunter biden's decision to defy the republican subpoena today. they said they plan to move forward with those proceedings, but they will take time. first, it has to be approved by the house committee, then referred to the u.s. attorney before deciding whether charges can be placed. that will take time. republicans still plan to press ahead on that. >> a little quiz for you, manu. can you think of a current republican chairman of the house committee who also defied a congressional subpoena? >> reporter: that would be jim jordan. >> oh, yes. >> reporter: he decided not to comply. >> yes, yes, true. good. all right. collect your prize after work. manu raju, thank you. coming up, some of the criticism inside israel of the country's controversial prime minister. i'll speak to a man who says benjamin netanyahu "must be politically destroyed or israel will go down with him." loving this pay bump in our allowance. wonder where mom and dad got the extra money? maybe they won the lottery? maybe they inherited a fortune? maybe buried treasure? maybe it fell off a truck? maybe they heard that xfinity customers can save hundreds when they buy one unlimted line and get one free. now i can buy that electric scooter! i'm starting a private-equity fund that specializes in midcap. you do you. visit xfinitymobile.com today. our 2024 lead, cue the music. yes, nice. all right. 33 days, 33 days, that's all we have left until the iowa republican caucuses, january 15th. it's now when you see the candidates try to break through the noise and win of votes in the next 33 days. that's what we're seeing today. let's bring in cnn's 2024 team, kristen holmes. donald trump back in iowa today. what do we expect? >> reporter: yeah, jake, we were told this is going to be one of his traditional stuff speeches in iowa. he'll go after ron desantis, talking about his record going to congress and ethanol. really the larger point here is that we're hearing from donald trump's team, that there is this renewed sense of competence here in the first caucus state. particularly because of that des moines register poll that had him at 51% and ron desantis 19%. something we have talked about on the ground here in iowa, gop operatives have long said, and people that support trump or desantis, that they believe that while the polls were correct, that they thought the margin was smaller. given this most recent polling, they don't think it's possible for desantis to catch up. that is something that i'm hearing from the trump team, they are really capitalizing on. now despite that, we are seeing donald trump ramping up his campaign in the beginning of a number of stops. he will be in new hampshire, nevada, and back in iowa. but one thing to make clear, even though he is ramping up his presence on the campaign trail, he is still being far outpaced by his rivals, still trailing him in the polls in iowa and nationally, jake. >> jeff zeleny is in new hampshire with nikki haley. she's trying to capitalize on a big endorsement from the state's popular governor, chris ssununu. what is her pitch to voters today? >> reporter: governor sununu calls this a reset in the new hampshire primary race. we will, of course, see about that. but they pitched that nikki haley is making it to voters, including room here in just a short time, she is a new generational candidate, someone that can reach out to a broad cross section of voters. she has not spent nearly as much time in her campaign, saying what is bad about donald trump. but what she would do for the future. so there's certainly a strong sense that the endorsement from the very popular governor here can move the needle for her. at least they hope it can. he will be putting his political organization behind her. he will be campaigning aggressively. really, a two-person show, if you will. but it is somewhat of a race for second place here, and she may be ahead of desantis here, not in new hampshire but in iowa. donald trump still commands the lead here in new hampshire, as well. she is making the argument it's time for voters to take a leap. she makes a general election argument that she can beat joe biden in a head-to-head matchup, far more than donald trump can. jake? >> jessica dean, still in iowa. i saw you there last night ahead of the big cnn town hall. tonight, with vivek ramaswamy, jessica, how is vivek ramaswamy trying to stand out? >> reporter: yes. we're still here, jake. vivek ramaswamy is going to take the stain behind me at 9:00 p.m. with abby phillip. he is all across the state of iowa. just to show you a map that i believe we have, you can see all the places he's hitting. that's just today. that is how he's trying to contrast himself with these other candidates. you mentioned that des moines register nbc news poll that had trump at 51%. vivek ramaswamy is polling in the single digits. he certainly has a lot of room to make up to be a contender here in iowa. but you can't fault the energy that he's putting out. i think by the time he makes all of those stops and counts on town hall, it will be ten stops in one day. he will continue that pacing for the next several days. that's what he is hoping might set him apart. >> all right. thanks to all of you. vivek ramaswamy, again, we'll get him on center stage tonight in the cnn town hall, where abby phillip will moderate the discussion between vivek ramaswamy and iowa voters tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern, only here on cnn. we're going to turn to our world lead. a growing public rift with joe biden and prime minister benjamin netanyahu. the white house trying to clean up biden's comments after he told supporters on tuesday that israel's offensive in gaza is "indiscriminate, the bombing indiscriminate" while other officials insist that israel's intent is so limit civilian casualties. joining us now a former ambassador and served as an adviser to multiple israeli foreign ministers. mr. ambassador, thank you for joining us. in your article titled "netanyahu must be politically destroyed or israel will go down with him." you lay out the prime minister's missteps, in your view with china, russia, saudi arabia, ish and the u.s. you say, netanyahu always meddling in and manipulating internal u.s. politics, has turned israel into a wedge issue in washington in contrast to decades of bipartisanship. what do you make of how biden has been handling this relationship and the chasms we have seen, like biden saying the other day that israel was indiscriminately bombing gaza? >> hi, jake. look, biden managed this admirably. i can't think of any other president, republican or democrat, that would have handled this in a better way, given that there is a ukraine crisis, china and other things. but by handling it the way he did, he also put himself in a certain bind, by extending to israel his generous, heartfelt, unwavering support by visiting here, you know, 11 days after the war broke out after the atrocities of october 7th, he positioned himself in a way that he thought would allow him to apply pressure or u