good morning, to our viewers in the usa and around the world. i m john avlon. it is monday, december 18th. it s 5:00 a.m. here in new york, noon in tel aviv, where the u.s. defense secretary is scheduled to meet now with his israeli counterpart. secretary lloyd austin s mission is to press israeli officials on specific milestones for progress in israel s war against hamas, as civilian casualties climb. here s democratic senator chris van hollen talking to abc this sunday. we do have unacceptable levels of casualties. we see loose rules of engagement, way looser than anything that the united states would exercise. we would not drop a 2,000-pound bomb on a refugee camp to target a hamas commander. a senior defense official tells cnn that austin will, quote, want to hear very clear articulation of the israeli self-assessment today. that same official has confidence in the israeli military and so he s there to ask questions and learn more about their plan. elliott gotkine
they shot at everyone. you can see the trees yeah, in the trees, it s everywhere. on april, two, i came here as well, already in bucha self. and the first place, i was here on this square. and here i can show you photos, i have photos of my library. you was one car with a killed man inside. that was a man who worked in bucha for, like, park maintenance, and humor was trying to take wounded people to the hospital. and he transported several, then he again came back. he was killed right here by russians. there was a car with his buddy inside. and here was another car which he just smashed with a person inside. oh my gosh, there was a person inside? yeah, yeah, powerful. if you are pointing out the bullet tore holes in the trees, it looks normal. it looks normal, right. it looks like a suburban community. people going about their business. it s early morning now. you can see traffic is happening. explain that to me because when you are in kyiv it looks normal and
forced to spew her hateful anti semitic rhetoric someplace else. we have full details coming up straight ahead. but first, we have more big news from zero experience. hunter biden, after years of having his precious good nameno we have some news ofgood nameno and reputation sullied by his father s political enemies for absolutelyr , positively no reason at all whatsoever. hunter is now fighting around hr back with a team around him, or at ls how the mediaound him, or mob is trying to spin it. it looks like it might be true.i and letters popping up here and there and everywhere to the doj, the irs anyway,g it hunters laj, the irs anyway,g it hunters ma disinformation of material on hunter by his laptop from .h this is where it gets interesting at the veryg to same time, hunter s camp is actively refusing to admitctl that the information on the laptop actually belongs to huntebelongr, even though onf the lawyers, well, seemed to clearly indicate that it wasd his laptop and that
president biden is taking on a policy issue that republicans have been trying to turn into a dangerous political. weapon the president sending to the southern border this morning and then on to mexico city. we have a live report from el paso coming. a plus, what history tells us about what might be next in a bitterly divided u.s. congress, and why the speaker fight is not democracy at work. i somewhat have you. believe she received one of the highest civilian honor in the united states on friday, for her role in protecting democracy in the aftermath of the 2020 election. but today, the michigan secretary of state tell me about the bottles that still lie ahead. the book club creature has stories, a police brutality, and white allyship. which one suggests should be taught alongside the classic to kill a mockingbird. others wanted. band will talk about why this book is so, important in the incredible story of how it is two coauthors met. velshi begins now. good, morning it is