and his top republican rivals are swarming the campaign trail tonight with 2024 almost here. we re getting a new read on the former president s confidence heading into the iowa caucuses. his campaign already predicting when he ll clinch the gop nomination. also tonight, a major legal challenge to a strict and sweeping new immigration law in texas. will civil rights groups be able to block the measure that authorizes police in texas to arrest migrants? a stunning explosion of red-hot lava as a volcano erupts in iceland. cnn is right near the danger zone getting updates on the threat from the oozing inferno and the toxic gases spewing into the air? welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin with presidential politics at an all-out push for votes in iowa tonight. the top three republican candidates are getting ready to hold events in the lead-off caucus state. front-runner donald trump i
change chang changing day by day. john fetterman and mehmet oz, their first and only debate just got underway. everett sturm pulled out of the race. quoting from his tweet announcing the decision, i am polling 3% which places democracy at risk. it s not clear what pennsylvania voters will make that have notion but it s one more thing for them to consider along with what they see from the two main candidates in race that could decide rcontrol of the senate ad perhaps congress the next two years. it s true that voters nationwide have more factors to weigh than most midterms, not just the economy or all the other domestic and foreign challenges at the moment. but things never seen before like armed civilians in camouflage lurking in polling places in pennsylvania or candidates they will only consider the outcome legitimate if they win. new reporting later on the voter intimidation as well as a conversation with a top arizona republican about the threat he sees to democracy. the
salute. when we saw those people with their tikki torches chanting jews will not replace us in charlottesville, which was so shocking. like, who are these people? there are people in l.a. they re all over the place. that s the reality, it is all over the place. we see in 2021 nearly triple the number of anti-jewish acts of harasment, vandalism and violent. we had a 300% increase, and there s a through line from charlottesville to pittsburgh to poway to collieville, texas. when people with platforms, whether it s the president of the united states or a member of congress or a hip-hop artist like kanye west with these huge followings, when they spout hate, it gives a license to other haters. so whether it s white
around the fighting in gaza when there was nearly a 150% spike in anti-jewish acts in new york, in los angeles, all over the united states. i was going to ask, that was a period where you did see a very, very sharp increase and the sharpest of the year. there were other periods where you saw blips where perhaps there wasn t as much of an explanation. well, i think one of the things we have seen say normalization of anti-semitism. we have seen conspiracies about covid, about the ukraine, with jews being blamed for everything in those and in between. and it is alarming, john, because it is coming from the extreme right, it is coming from the radical left, you see a level of venom that frankly is frightening. i talk to jews all over the united states and this year we had the hostage crisis in collieville. people are on edge. you talk about rhetoric, you say it is coming from different sides, speaking here in the united states. but it is international as well when you have vladimir p
tonight. as we remember dr. martin luther king and honor his legacy, we ll hear more from the cbs archives. first, a number of major news stories we re covering this monday night. many of you are still dealing with the powerful winter storm. we want to begin about the new information about the horrifying hostage situation at a texas synagogue. tonight the f.b.i. calling what happened a terror related antisemitic attack. the man who held four people captive was a british national. police detained his two teenage sons because they spoke with their father on the day of the incident. the department of homeland security sent a memo to local law enforcement warning faith-based communities will likely be the target of future violence. cbs s omar villafranca is outside the temple in collieville, texas. good evening, omar. reporter: good evening. sources tell cbs news the suspect was not known to u.s. intelligence officials. who in fact, they re not sure how he got from new york here to