you are live in the cnn newsroom, i m jim acosta in washington. we begin this hour with donald trump arguing that lobbying owe election officials to overturn the 2020 election was within his official responsibilities as president. that argument was part of a brief filed last night in which attorneys for the former president asked an appeals court to dismiss his criminal election subversion case, one day after the supreme court refused to decide for now whether he is protected from prosecution. in the filing trump s attorneys argue that, quote, president trump has absolute immunity, the judicial branch cannot sit in judgment over a president s official acts. the legal wrangling could push a verdict into the heat of the 2024 campaign or even after the election if trump is elected he will try to pardon himself. politico argues trump s legal argument seems to be as much about prevailing in the appeals court as a bid to slow down the case against him. let s discuss that and mo
at the rafah boarder crossing near the gaza/egyptian border. the you haven t seen this video, it came in a short while to cnn. it shows crowds running as gunfire is ringing out in the streets. meanwhile, fears of a growing escalation in the middle east are also on the broadcast this evening. an iranian drone struck a commercial ship in the indian ocean on saturday. a u.s. defense official says a fire broke out on the chemical tanker with nearly two dozen crew members on board, but no one was hurt. the strike comes as newly declassified u.s. intelligence suggests iran has been deeply involved in a series of houthi rebel attacks on ships in the red sea. we have reporters covering this. will rippley is live in tel aviv with more on the outbreak of violence at the rafah crossing, and more than gunfire, will. it seems like out-and-out chaos breaking out outside that crossing area. what can you tell us? reporter: a lot of factors lead up to this. the rafah crossing is one of the
aerial bombardment continues. this situation here is basically when you combine months of anxiety and stress, and it all comes to a boiling point. in that one area, the rafah crossing in southern gaza, the lifeline essentially between egypt and the line of aid trucks that can try to come in, people so desperate to get their hands on the supplies that they rush the trucks and try to grab what what they can. you see in some of the videos people have huge bundles they are carrying on their shoulders, trying to make a run for it. at some point, on top of all of that chaos, somebody opens fire. people in the crowd panicking from the gunshots. you can only imagine starving people who are panicked and stressed, and then they get in a crowd situation. this whole just nightmare that they re living through, just listen. just take a moment and listen. [ gunshots ] what this means, unfortunately, is that the aid that needs to go in in an orderly fashion and be distributed in an orderly f