earthquake has rocked the county. the death toll has jumped to 1,300. this is the moment the earthquake struck. the initial panic has given way to new fears. strong aftershocks are expected threatening damaged buildings and adding to the number of injured. cnn's sam kiley joins us from marrakesh. i understand it's about 9:00 p.m. there. how are the recovery efforts going? >> reporter: jim, i'm in the medina of marrakesh here in the old city, that is. this is a very, very ancient city. and you can see the remains, glorious remains of its past, and now here is much of its present. this devastating earthquake killed 13 people here in marrakesh. mostly here in the medina because the city is ancient, and it is very tightly packed. there are buildings here that if there's another quake that are riddled already by cracks, it could come down. elsewhere in the country things have been even worse, jim, with 13 people, as i say, killed near marrakesh. 1,300 as you reported there across the country. that figure is expected to climb because in the foothills of the atlas mountains where the devastation was most keenly felt, there are whole villages that have been destroyed, utterly flattened. we've seen that in pictures coming in from the authorities and from the local media. it's those areas that the government is desperately trying to get to. it the king of morocco muhammad has declared three days of national mourning. the whole country's been mobilized to try to cope with this, but it's coming at a time when there have been serious aftershocks, particularly south of the city. if you look here up through here, this is a building that has collapsed from within. i'm standing on what was up there. that black hole there is the sky, jim. the whole thing just plummeted down and landed under where i'm standing. now there is a fear, of course, that these walls could collapse in further. as a result of that, this major tourist destination is being evacuated. large numbers of tourists are being moved out of this medina, and that's for their own safety. so far it's kind of on the edge of feeling like a ghost town, and of course a little bit frightening every time there's a fall of dust or rubble. but that wasn't enough to shock -- it was just me being a little jumpy, jim. >> i totally understand. sam, are you still feeling aftershocks, and what are the needs there right now? i have to think that you have scores of people who are displaced. where will they go? where will they take shelter? >> reporter: many thousands of people have been displaced. last night they camped out in the open areas out of medina, this old city, which is where they feel most vulnerable. people have been flooding into open spaces. there is, of course, a pressing need with the government mobilizing to find them accommodation, temporary accommodation being set up tents and so on. the main effort is to get out into the atlas mountains where the death toll is much higher. a lot of the access there is almost impossible because the earthquake has broken the roads. there have been landfalls across the roads. entire villages are reported to have slid down hills with total devastation of those environments. a lot of these accessible only by air, and that is really where the main effort of the government is being put at the moment. but elsewhere in this city, there is much reduced presence of people, but in the safer areas, particularly in the big, open squares, where nothing can fall in on people, there are still people trying to sell vegetables, there's still people having a cup of sweet tea and trying to -- particularly tourists -- trying to get on with their holiday. there has been a very significant movement, indeed, of tourists out of these more vulnerable areas. >> all right, sam. i'm sure you have to watch your step wherever you go. please be safe. thank you so much. sam kiley in hard-hit marrakesh in morocco. in the meantime, learn how you can help victims of the morocco earthquake. go to cnn.com/impact, or text morocco at 707070 to donate. always on our radar, hurricane lee. it is a dangerous category-three storm, expected to gain strength over the atlantic this weekend. cnn's jennifer gray now with the latest. what are you seeing? >> jim, a 115 mile-per-hour storm, gusts of 140. this is major storm, category throw. ragged overnight. we are expecting strengthening as we go through the next couple of days. most likely maintaining category-four strength once again by the time we get to monday, and then significantly slow before it makes that hard right turn. depending on how soon that happens will determine the impacts to the u.s. if any. so right now good news is staying well north of the caribbean islands. however, we are going to see some swells, rough surf. we could actually start to see some swells and even rip current concerns across the u.s. east coast as early as tomorrow. jim? >> do we have any sense at this point whether this is ever going to pose a threat to the mainland, or it's just unclear? >> we'll really have a better idea once we start to see that turn which is expected to happen by the middle part of the week. if it turns sooner, then we may not see any impacts. but maybe some rip currents. if it makes that turn a little bit farther to the west, then our impacts could be a little bit higher. it is still far too early, unfortunately, to tell. that's the million-dollar question, the impacts to the u.s. >> such a big hurricane now. thank you very much. let's go to india where president biden and world leaders are gathering for the g20 summit. earlier they agreed on a statement laying out shared views on climate change and economic development but notably stopped short of condemning russia's invasion of ukraine. ivan watson is in new delhi for us. they were able to put out a consensus declaration, but it a's not what some countries wanted. >> reporter: that's true. you know, there were concerns that there wouldn't be total agreement here in new delhi because of largely one enormously divisive issue, and that is the war in ukraine. russia's ongoing full-scale invasion and occupation of parts of that country. in the end, ukraine did come up early on in this joint statement, but it did stop short of condemning russia, instead talking about the fact that no state should be allowed to threaten or use force against another state to acquire its territory, saying that the use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible. another statement was that, quote, we welcome all relevant and constructive initiatives that support a comprehensive, just, and durable peace in ukraine. the biden administration, top officials have been saying that they're happy with there kind of wording. one country that is not, one government, is ukraine. last year at the g20 summit in bali the ukrainian president, volodymyr zelenskyy, he was beamed in and addressed the gathering. he was not invited to this one. and a spokesperson for the foreign ministry in ukraine has come out with a statement saying that it's grateful to countries and its allies who supported it, but then going on to say, quote, at the same time the g20 has nothing to be proud of in the part about russia's aggression against ukraine. obviously the participation of the ukrainian side would have allowed the participants to better understand the situation, the principle of nothing about ukraine without ukraine remains as key as ever. beyond the ukraine issue, there were other areas of agreement, jim. one of them to invite the african union to be a permanent member of the g20 going forward which would technically make it the g 21 from now on. jim? >> very interesting. ivan watson, thank you very much. let's discuss this more with democratic congressman on the house intelligence committee and ranking member on the house select committee on the chinese communist party. great to see you as always. thanks for being here. let's get your reaction to the statement from the g20 that avoids condemning russia for the war in ukraine. what's going on there? are you concerned that this could have some effect on supports for the ukrainians? what do you think? >> i don't think it will support support for the ukrainians, but i would have liked to have seen stronger language. they made it very clear that nobody should violate another country's sovereignty, but they didn't come out and say russia was the aggressor. on the other hand, that possibly would have meant there would have been no communique which might have been worse than having something. i think their other achievements with the communique and rail and seaport deal are significant, as well. >> yeah, but what message does this send to vladimir putin if the g20 can't get together and condemn what russia is doing? >> well, i think it sends the message that he has sway in the g20 unfortunately. i do wish that they had condemned russia. on the other hand, i think that this statement proclaiming that no nation's sovereignty should be violated is important, and i hope that they can build upon it going forward. >> and congressman, as you know, both putin and china's xi jinping, they skipped the g20 altogether. are you concerned that china snubbing this summit could be part of a larger shift for them? what message are they sending? >> well, i think they were absent, and i think that that was actually to their detriment because i think that joe biden was able to kind of fill the holes left by both vladimir putin and china at this particular summit, and i think that he was able to at least so far be able to really show kind of a muscular presence on the part of the united states at this -- at this particular g20 summit. i like the photo op with him and the other democracies in the quote/unquote lines including south africa, brazil, and india. and that shows that the united states is here and is present and willing to work with anybody. >> and during the summit, india, president biden pitched in china's backyard essentially that a global alliance led by the u.s. is a safer bet for the world in china. he's heading to vietnam to strengthen ties with that country, and of course they're always worried about china's aggression. as a member of the house select committee on china, do you think the president is taking the right approach here? what does he need to say during this trip overseas in reference to china? >> he's absolutely taking the right approach. and by the way, vietnam has kind of upgraded the status of its relations with the united states to its highest level which they've never done before. and i think that what he's going to say is that, you know, now is the time to establish a -- an international rules-based order in the indo-pacific region. we can't have a situation where the chinese communist party, for instance, draws a map laying claim to the entirety of the south china sea or to states in india which it claims are its own. there has to be a situation where also differences are resolved peacefully, not by force. >> and i'm not sure if you've seen this news that just came in to cnn in the last several minutes, apparently the u.s. has seized about a million barrels of iranian oil allegedly bound for china. just wanted to get your quick take, if you've seen it yet. what's your response to that? that is potentially a fascinating development. >> i have not seen that news. i think that obviously iranian oil bound for any country could violate any number of united nations sanctions. so i think that the u.s. is probably acting within its interests and within international law. >> and congressman, i did want to ask you about politics a little bit, talking about the 2024 election. as you know, democrats are growing increasingly concerned that the president is taking too many punches from trump, not hitting back hard enough. wondering what your thoughts are on that, and also i wanted to see what your take was on the former president ramping up his rhetoric following these four indictments. listen to what he said last night in south dakota -- >> you have to get out, and you have to fight like hell because these are dirty players. and what we have to do is we have to take back our country. we have to scrape that whole situation out. we fight -- we fight like hell. and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. >> congressman, that second bit of sound obviously is what donald trump said on january 6th of 2021. but it is almost word for word, very similar, to what he said last night at this event in south dakota. and i'm wondering what are your thoughts, him using that same kind of language that he used on january 6th? >> having lived through january 6th which was a harrowing day for democracy, a day when i believe that he did incite a mob to march and then to riot on capitol hill, it feels like this type of language again is being used to incite potentially provocative action. in the minds of his followers, it's inker-- interpreted a cert way and would contribute to the rise in political violence that's happened since donald trump came on the scene. we can't go that direction. we just can't. >> all right, congressman, great to see you as always. thank you so much. appreciate it. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you. speaking of the former president, trump is making new threats against his political opponents. what happened at his first public appearance since he was indicted. that's next on cnn. we'll talk about that in a few moments. plus, the growing impact of one senator's hold on military promotions. the secretary of the air force joins us live in a few minutes. you're live in the "cnn newsroom." we handcraft every stearns & foster® using the finest materials, like indulgent memory foam, and ultra-conforming innersprings, for a beautiful mattress, and indescribae comfort.m, for a limited time, save up to $800 on select steas & foster® adjustable mattress sets. 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obviously the trump people will be tempted to say he's just kidding, but i think we know otherwise. >> yeah. i mean, it gets pretty serious because there are people who actually do take this rhetoric that he's -- that he comes up with literally and act on it. and we kind of seen that already. i do think there's an element, jim, of he doesn't have a second act. i'm not sure he knows what to say. he isn't going to drop into a discussion of policy. and so i think this overheated rhetoric is just kind of the act we're going to be seeing for the next 14 months. >> and david, you're a criminal defense attorney. if trump were your client, would you want him doing rallies and saying this kind of stuff? >> it's every criminal defense lawyer's nightmare to have their client out there speaking. but in this case, you know, he's trying to speak to potential jurors. he thinks he can sway potential jurors out there. and nobody's really stopping him. there hasn't been a motion to stop him from speaking. i think it would be dangerous if there was. no judge has stopped him. he's trying to persuade jurors. >> and ben, let's talk about this -- this is a pretty important ruling that came out yesterday, a judge rejected mark meadows' bid to move his georgia criminal case to federal court. according to the court filing this week from trump, trump is also looking into moving his case out of georgia. but ben, isn't this a troubling sign for him if mark meadows wasn't able to do it? >> it is, which is why mark meadows said he was going to take it up to the quite conservative and trump judge-dominated 11th circuit. yes, it is very serious for him. what mark meadows tried to do was to draw an argument that anything he did was protected as an official act. and the judge saw right through that and recognized that while he may have some sort of privilege for official actions he took, what he did for the trump campaign, making the calls to georgia, was really outside the scope of official duties. >> yeah, david, what do you th think? >> i'll tell you, ben's got it exactly right. the play has always been to go to the 11th circuit and the supreme court. they were in front of judge jones in the trial court. and while a very nice man, judge jones rules for the prosecution like many trial judges often. the play has been let's go to the 11th circuit where trump has six of the 12 judges that he placed on that court and seven of the 12 are republican nominees. he's got a much more sympathetic audience just like the supreme court. so i think they're still hopeful that they have a sympathetic audience in the 11th circuit, in the supreme, so they haven't given up hope on this meadows issue yet. >> and ben, in th