If it's Tuesday, 12 more hostages held in Gaza are now free. With just 24 hours left in a current cruise, the US is pushing for an extension to get more hostages out and more aid in. Plus, with Israeli forces preparing a renewed military assault, the White House is renewing its call for restraint, warning Israel it must develop a plan to protect Palestinian civilians. And Hunter Biden offers to testify publicly before the House as Republicans look to ramp up their impeachment break into President Biden with the 2024 campaign cycle quickly approaching.
Welcome to Press Now I'm Garrett Hake reporting in Washington where we're covering breaking news that 12 more hostages have just been released from Gaza. These newly released hostages, 10 Israelis and two ties according to the Prime Minister's office, are now back in Israel. Any in exchange, Israel released 30 Palestinian prisoners. The Israelis released today include a mother and her 17 year old daughter, as well as several elderly women.
There are no Americans among those released today. Since the ceasefire began on Friday, 81 hostages have now been free. Based on estimates from Israeli officials earlier today, roughly 160 hostages remain. Today the IDF released the names of three soldiers it said died in captivity in Gaza.
Also today we're seeing more emotional images of hostages reuniting with loved ones. The IDF shared this video of 12 year old Itadya Hallomi embraced by his mother after his return last night. And Schneider Children's Hospital, which is caring for several of the released hostages, shared this scene as the Broadish children aged 10, 8 and 4 saw their dog for the first time since their release on Sunday. Meanwhile, both Israel and Hamas are accusing each other of violating the cease fire deal with the Israeli military saying shots were fired at its troops and explosive devices detonated.
But for now the ceasefire is holding and Qatar's Foreign Ministry says the truce continues so long as Hamas can free more hostages. There have been some minimal breaches which which have been noted by by both parties but they did not harm the essence of the agreement that the agreement is still algorithm. The four days were used to increase the number of hostages that are identified by by Hamas and therefore we reach this number of 20. We are hopeful that in the next 48 hours we'll be getting more information from the rest of the hostages.
This afternoon the militant group Islamic Jihad said they have handed over a quote number of hostages as part of the exchange deal. That comes to questions about how many hostages are being held inside Gaza by rival militant groups. Qatar previously told the Financial Times that there could be as many as 40 hostages not being held by Hamas. Itself.
Meanwhile, a senior Biden administration official confirms to NBC News that CIA Director Bill Burns is in Doha for talks as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit Israel and the west bank this week to focus on hostages and the need for more aid to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Joining us, reporter McLaughlin in Tel Aviv. So Aaron, 12 more hostages release today. What we know about this latest group and what do we know about the Palestinian producer prisoners rather than released?
Well, we know the nationalities of the Hostages release today. 10 Israelis and 2 Thai nationals. We know their ages ranging from 17 to 84. We know some of them were from the kibbutz near Oz, which is one of the hardest hit of the kibbutz team.
A quarter of that kibbutz was either murdered or kidnapped on October 7th. We know some of their identities. You can see her there on the lower left hand side of the screen. This is a Heyman.
She's 84 years old. The family form releasing a little bio for her saying this is one of the founders of kibbutz Nir Oz. She is the bond that connects her family and is known for her chicken sou and fruitcake. Zitza is a family woman, a beloved and loving grandmother.
Since her husband passed away, she was alone and adopted a cat named Nia. Now Hamas is claiming that this latest round of hostages was released alongside the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group. This is we're hearing that the Bibas family, which includes four members of the family, including a 10 month old baby and a four year old, is still being held. According to a spokesperson for the Israeli government, that family is believed to be held by a separate Palestinian militant group which just sort of underscores the complexity of this going forward and how they're going to get all of these hostages out here.
And Aaron, the first US Military flight with humanitarian aid for Gaza arrived in Egypt today. What do we know about the humanitarian situation in Gaza during the ceasefire days? Unless there was some sort of extension? Well, it is improving.
Some 200 trucks a day have crossed from Egypt into Gaza carrying the essentials, food, medical supplies, water, fuel. Some of it is reaching northern Gaza, which Hamas was particularly concerned about, nearly halting this deal over the fact that it wasn't initially getting to northern Gaza, but that seems to now be happening. Speaking to the humanitarian community and of course welcoming the continuation of the ceasefire. But they're demanding a full ceasefire in light of the overall situation.
I was talking earlier today with an official from the World Health Organization. He was just expressing this concern, noting that the 24 hospitals in northern Gaza. He said that four are barely functioning. And he was saying that he's worried that this war resumes as the Israeli military, Israeli officials say will absolutely happen once this hostage release is complete.
He's worried about the overall status of Gaza, this healthcare system. Take a listen now. We are extremely concerned if the fighting would resume. We cannot afford the health system, cannot afford that any of those hospitals which I'm discussing now, the eight in the south and a few in the north, will get damaged or become non functional then we are really facing an even increasing unitarian catastrophe.
Now more than a million Palestinians have evacuated from the north into the south, making the health care situation in the south that much more complex news tell you already they're seeing a rise in a number of diseases from diarrhea to lice. And of course the concern is that that situation will get worse unless they can get more aid and set up more field hospitals, specifically in southern Gaza. Some of you will be watching closely. Aaron Watlin, thank you for that report and for one now on the efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
I'm joined by Leticia Courtois, the permanent observer to the United nations for the International Red Cross. Leticia, we saw 12 more hostages released today. What kind of condition have these hostages been in when your group's been able to receive them? Well, indeed today we have facilitated the release of 12 more hostages, amounting to 81 since the beginning of this release operation has been agreed upon by the parties.
It's difficult to set the conditions because we have not been able to visit them prior to their release. What I can say is, however, that obviously people are extremely anxious. They don't know what's happening. And it's our job as well to reassure them the moment that they get under our responsibility, getting our Land Cruisers and make their way out of Gaza back to their authorities and back to the families.
The Red Cross is basically charged with the logistics here. Your folks might be doing initial evaluations or initial first aid and then handing the hostages off to other hospitals, other care facilities after the fact. But can you talk a little bit about the kind of resources that are needed for these hostages longer term after their captivity? I'd have to imagine just the physical and mental challenges down the line are enormous.
Well, indeed, the hostages will need to be taken care of very, very carefully. I mean, it's obviously a traumatic situation to have experienced weeks of captivity separated from their families as well. We have seen children being separated from their parents and obviously when they return to their communities. They will also be confronted to the losses that probably have occurred around them.
And then the loss is very traumatic. So it's probably a long way ahead. But we are trustful that everyone is making the best to bring them back carefully and cautiously back to their environment. You mentioned the fact that you've not been able examine these hostages prior to receiving them in these hands over that was supposed to be part of this deal, that the ICRC was supposed to get access to the hostages, start being able to make some of those visits that the Red Cross is known for due to any expectation that that part of the deal will be fulfilled and if so, what the timeline would be like.
I mean, we've been pushing from the onset from ever since people have been taken hostage to first calling for the immediate release, but also to make sure that there can be some Unitarian visits, medical support can be brought to those that need it, and making sure that they also are into the most acceptable conditions. It's not happened yet and we've been continuously pushing for it at every level, at every intervention level that can also make this happen. And we really call for this to happen for those remaining hostages as well. So it is something that we want to see happen.
When you say you're pushing forward, are you in direct contact with Hamas? What are these other militant groups who may be holding hostages? Are you able to appeal to directly to see and visit with these hostages? We are in contact with Hamas.
We've been in Gaza for many, many years now. We are known and we have engaged with the mid Arab groups that are present there. As you mentioned, it's a very complicated situation. We don't know who has who, but at the same time the communication is something that the communication channel is also on our end a key element to make sure that the parties will allow us to facilitate to visit them.
Because this is not just a matter of willingness on the ICRC to go and visit. It needs to be agreed upon and facilitated. We are dependent on the good willing of those parties to abide by those responsibilities. We haven't talked much about the transfer of the Palestinian prisoners or the other part of this arrangement here.
What can you tell us about how that process has unfolded? Indeed, part of the deal that was agreed between the parties is to facilitate the release of Palestinian detainees back to the West Bank. Mostly that always comes after the release of the Israeli hostages. As you can see, it happens very late in also complicated conditions.
It's also very time simple west bank. And we've been able to facilitate the side release of most of the Palestinians that have been agreed upon as well. And we hope more can also return, particularly children and women. All right, Leticia Courtois, thank you.
Have to leave it there. Appreciate your time and the important work that the Red Cross does all over the world. Coming up, we're digging deeper into what's next on the front lines of the Israel Hamas war. With that fragile truce deal now set to expire tomorrow, the White House ramping up pressure on Israel to limit civilian casualties, plus a big win in the race for campaign cash.
Mickey Haley just scored a bagging of a major big doll donor. We're live on the trail in battleground South Carolina. Ahead, you're WATCHING me, the PRESS now. Welcome back.
And as we mentioned, the ceasefire inside Gaza continues to hold at this hour. But in anticipation of the military campaign restarting, the White House is urging Israel to exercise restraint. Today, Israel's military chief said the IDF is prepared to continue fighting and has been using the temporary pause to strengthen its readiness for future operations. That echoes statements from Prime Minister Netanyahu that the war against Hamas will continue once the truce ends.
And it comes as the US has told Israel, it must limit civilian displacement inside of Gaza when the fighting resumes. According to a senior administration official, the White House told Israel it does not support Israeli forces moving into the south unless they have a plan to protect the civilians that have evacuated to that region. Joining now is Mike Menley at White House and retired Admiral James DeVries. He's a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and his NC News Chief International analyst.
So, Mike, I'll start with you. Tell me a little bit more about this reporting about what comes after the ceasefire. You have the reporting of the White House averaging restraint from the Israelis, but I'm not even clear on what restraint looks like in the context of a ground invasion. Well, what's so fascinating to me, Garrett, as somebody who combines both the policy as well as the politics for President Biden in the White House is the evolution we've seen slowly but surely in their public posture as it relates to Israel's right to defend itself since October 6th in terms of how they're speaking publicly.
Right in the beginning, we saw President Biden, two great political blowbacks, including from his own party here, fully embrace Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and largely defer publicly to Israel for how they prosecute their response to Hamas's actions. And what we also heard at the time were very coded but very polite urgings of the prime minister and of the Israeli government more broadly to sort of mind the rules of war here and to keep in mind the civilian toll as they're engaging. Now, more than a month and a half into this, we are hearing much more publicly from the White House, from senior officials, that they are in fact making these kinds of closed door appeals more public, that they are saying that essentially because you have already displaced a significant population from northern Gaza into southern Gaza, when this pause ends, you have to be that much more targeted, that much more careful in how you prosecute invasion, given the displacement that already happened. It must be done in a way to ensure safety of civilians.
And that's a tall order. And that's one reason why the White House is at the same time trying to extend that pause. The President's visit to Israel a month ago in the early stages of this was in large part about trying to create the space for the release of hostages in parallel, hoping that that would then also create the kind of pause, ceasefire, whatever you want to, that would potentially become a lasting cease fire. And a lot of this continues.
That's what really what we're seeing here. All right, Admiral, talk to me a little bit about what this looked like on the ground. Then you just hear from the White House. Once you add, you have to kind of tamp down its military operations.
What does it look like here is that more of a Special Forces kind of operation on the ground and less large scale bombing? I mean, what does restraint mean in this context? Well, I think the mistake people make is thinking about this like it's an on and off switch. In other words, your only choices are binary.
You're either all out warfare, turning Gaza into Stalingrad, or it's a complete ceasefire and you only do diplomacy and humanitarian. Neither of those are realistic options, especially at this point. So, yes, the administration is going to press the Israelis hard. They'll do it kind of behind closed doors.
Then it'll be more of a public conversation. And your summary is pretty good, Gary. It's going to be moving in Special Forces forces. We got to remember the most precise thing on a battlefield is not a precision guided bomb, a precision guided missile.
It's an infantryman. And because that human can make rational decisions, you particularly want to use your Special Forces on the cutting edge who are trained for this. And secondly, you want to really up your intelligence game. You want to be on top of all cell phone communications, put your drones back up, really soak the area for intelligence, as we call it.
And then third, when you're going to use a significant piece of lethal force you do it in the most precise way you can with eyes on infantryman who is directing the particular strike. That's your best chance at doing all of that in a way that doesn't cause unnecessary collateral damage. But as, as Mike said a moment ago, it's a tall order. It's gonna, it's gonna going forward.
Final thought in the midst of all that, the hostages are still out there. Unfortunately, I think it's unlikely all 250 of them are going to come off the table. So you've got that additional complexity even before you go to the south. And everything you just described puts more Israeli IDF lives at risk, which is the calculation that many Iowa military leaders have to make.
There something that the hostages. I wonder about that as an intelligence thing too, right? I mean, how much is IDF Israeli officials able to learn from the hostages who've been returned that will affect how they resume the war if it does resume? Well, first and foremost, let's reflect on the fact that the hostages coming out are Thai farm workers, tiny children, some women and some of the elderly.
These are hardly the kind of intelligence assets that are going to help you find your way back. I wish they were. I think the Israelis are going to factor in whatever they can glean from talking to all of them. But they are all also going to be using, I think, more Garrett unmanned vehicles, unmanned capability that can go in and around those tunnels.
They're going to have to also use human intelligence. Very, very difficult problem. When I was commander Southern Command, everything south of the United States, I was part of a rescue of hostage in Colombia. But boy, it's tough.
And all you can do is be steady. And let's just hope as many as possible can be diplomatically negotiated off the battlefield before hostilities resume. Incredibly complex political environment and incredibly complex military environment that we have many animals to read us to walk us through. Thank you both for your time.
I want to turn back now the ordeal of these hostages in Gaza and the ordeal of their families. And I'm joined now by Sharon Lipschitz, whose mother was released by Hamas last month, but her father is still being held hostage inside Gaza. Sharon, it's been over a month now since your mother was released. My first question is, how is she doing?
My mom is doing okay. She's fully engaged, actually. I will say that the guy saying that these elderly ladies know very little, I think is underestimating the kind of people they are. They're super toughly.
They know a lot. They have agency, there are, you know, they know what they're saying, and they are saying a lot about what has happened. Well, that's true. Your mom talked about this spider web of tunnels in a press conference after she was released.
I mean, she obviously has pretty significant memories of that experience. What else have you learned about her experience in captivity? We have learned a lot. And that is helping us both in terms of understanding the system underneath and downtown Gaza as it was described by the Hamas terrorist organization to them.
But we are also learning from the new people who are coming. We are understanding how urgent it is to release all of them. And I think that Israel has one objective at this moment and one objective only, and that is the release of all the hostages. I think that nobody should confuse the factors, introduce other objectives to the conversation until all hostages are released.
How important do you think it is that this cease fire continue as long as possible? To that end, I think it's absolutely essential. They must continue. It must continue now.
It's a very delicate moment. I know there's a lot of to and fro by two big kind of terrorist organizations, State of Israel trying to beat themselves up in front of each other. But I hope that it's just a way of threatening each other in order to really then engage in the continuation of the ceasefire and the release of all the hostages. We, the families of the hostages, demand that of Israel.
I think Israel has a moral duty towards its citizens to return them home after they were abandoned, totally abandoned on 7 July, at least October, at least in Nike woods. Talk to me about one of the citizens, your dad, who's still hostage. Have you been able to learn anything else about his condition? Has it worked with the Israeli government?
What kind of information and communication are you getting about the process of finding him and bringing him home? Look, we are very tight knit communities and my community there are still, you know, about 45 hostages after the three days of release in which people's hostages formula were released. So we talked to each other and most of what I learned is from them. My family has learned this week from one of the returned hostages that she was with my father, that she did see him alive.
This is the very first time I see we heard certain news about him being alive in Gaza that makes us feel even more urgent that the conditions there are very, very, very bad for the citizens of Israel, for the hostages and that they must come back. There is no medical care. They're under very horrific conditions. They really are worried for their lives and we are worried with them.
That has to be fantastic news just to get to know that he's even still alive. I can't imagine what that's like even here. You talked about the community and I think about the community of folks like you who are waiting for news, waiting for word, hoping to get your loved ones back. Does that community have what it needs?
What do you need from Israeli government, from the international community who are all thinking about your family? I think keep the pressure up. I think that we have not felt that the NGOs, the Red Cross, the UN has done the duties towards us as citizens of this, of the world. I think that there's so many stories that emerge and this is such a vast event in which different groups experience different experiences.
But there are, you know, pockets in Gaza in which people treated the hostages without being totally unkind. But if you look at the horrificness of the whole situation, these have to be kind of put to the front. But apart from that, we just have to work towards the release of all the hostages so that these communities that were uprooted, murdered, beheaded, etc. Etc.
Can start to find their feedback and come back to trying to rebuild it and the region as a whole. Of course. Sure. On the ships with the message, keep the pressure up to bring those hostages home.
We will. And we'll be thinking about you and especially about your dad. Thank you for coming on. Thank you.
Up next, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are responding to Hunter Biden's offer to testify publicly as the GOP looks to escalate its impeachment inquiry into President Biden. You're watching me depressed now. Welcome back. For the first time, President's son Hunter Biden says he's going to testify publicly before the House Oversight Committee next month as Republicans plow ahead with their impeachment inquiry of the president.
Whether that testimony actually happens is still very much in question, though. Hunter Biden was subpoenaed earlier, earlier this month by House Republicans who insisted he appeared for a deposition behind closed doors, similar to how Democrats conducted their impeachment depositions back in 2019. We let it. Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, Biden's attorney, insisted that everything should be done out in the open.
Comer quickly pushed back, accusing Hunter Biden of trying to play by his own rules and reiterating the appear before for deposition before testifying publicly. Joining us this sort of outside of the poor, my Capitol Hilton pally societal about mine here. What are the chances we actually see and hear Hunter Biden testify publicly in some capacity before the end of this year? It's very much up in the air right now, Gary, the two sides are at an impasse.
And we have this response from the oversight chairman, James Comer essentially rejecting Hunter Biden's request to do this publicly. Let's put up that statement that comer releasing, quote 100 Biden trying to play by his own rules. He said that won't stand with House Republicans. He goes on to say we expect full cooperation with our subpoena for a deposition on December 13th and that hunter Biden can testify publicly at a future date.
Now, it's worth noting Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on that committee, said the show that Republicans lack, you know, lack confidence in their own case. And that amounts of frank concession that they're not interested in the fact of this case. So either these two parties come up with some sort of arrangement here or maybe House Republicans will try to escalate. One thing is very clear.
Hunter Biden's team does not think Republicans are operating in good faith here. They expect them to try to twist and manipulate if this happens behind closed doors. Well, look, I mean in 2019, the Democrats did all those depositions behind closed doors, but they also were rushing to try to get them done in 2019 before the start of election year. Completely different situation here where House Republicans are moving ever so slowly.
Let's talk about the other Hill story though, this expulsion effort on George Sand Santos we're seeing vote this week or what we very well may. The Democrat Congressman Robert Garcia has teed up this expulsion resolution and its privilege, which means this could happen within the next few days. The big question is which way this goes. George Santos is undoubtedly in real trouble here.
But an expulsion requires two thirds of the House. That is 290 votes when the 435th member gets sworn in later today. Earlier this month of 24 Republicans voted in favor of expulsion. But that was before this damning Ethics Committee report.
It remains to be seen. But that number will go up to the minimum of roughly 80 years of house Republicans that are necessary and Democrats vote to expel him. Notably, House Republican leaders are staying quiet about this. None of the top four members have said how they're going to vote on this.
And we also know that Tom Hammerley, whip, is not going to push members to vote one way or the other. But one thing George Santos does have going for him here, Gary, is the narrow majority of teams already starting to put whispers out there that, you know, you have only three or four votes to spare. Lose me and you have one fewer vote to get these crucial appropriations and government funding goes through that is his best case that he's gonna try to make to members to stick around the house. It's not looking great for him, but this one's not over until it's over.
Yeah, the speaker's been pretty coy about it, Sahil. We gotta leave it there. Thank you so much for your report. And Democratic Senator Michael Bennett is gonna join us a little bit here to talk a little bit more about the Senate side of things, which we didn't have a chance to get with.
Sahil. But first, an emotional farewell to Rosalynn Carter. Family, friends and former colleagues paid their respects to the former first lady today during the memorial service in Atlanta. Among those in attendance, her husband, 99 year old former president Jimmy Carter, one of the few public appearances he's made since entering hospice more than nine months ago.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were also in attendance, as were former President Clinton and Hillary Clinton and every living former first lady. And faithfully watching over all at the Carter Secret Service detail. They are the longest protectees in the history of the Secret Service. And get this, officials of the agency say that agents on the detail today include of former agents who've been part of their protection.
Rosalyn Carter died last weekend. She was 96 years old. Welcome back. On the 2024 campaign trail today, a boost for Nikki Haley's presidential campaign.
The former South Carolina governor and have an endorsement from a major conservative group, Americans for Prosperity Action, which is backed by made owner Charles Koch. It's one of the few large Trump skeptic groups actually spending money this primary season. And their financial resources could be a major lifeline for the Haley campaigns. It tries to tackle the Republican primary Goliath that has been Donald Trump.
Americans for Prosperity made the endorsement polin Haley the best Republican candidate to quote turn the page on the current political era and putting out this new ad. Joe Biden and Donald Trump had their chance. They can't fix what's broken America with the right leaders. We faced adversity and risen to victory.
Now it's our time to turn the page and choose a new leader who will unite our party, our nation. That proven leader, Nikki Haley. Embassy's Dasha Burns is in Charleston, South Carolina following the Haley campaign. So Dasha, the Haley campaign has struggled for the first part of this race to have enough money to really be aggressive on the airways.
What does this infusion of support and cash potentially mean for that campaign? Well, look, Garrett, you know as well as I do for the last couple of months Haley and Desantis have really been duking it out for that Trump alternative mantle. And this endorsement gives Haley a big win in that fight. It means not only money, but it means the operation.
And it means that the sort of center of gravity of the anti Trump universe is moving in the direction of Nikki Haley, which is a big deal. As right now that window of opportunity to create that one on one fight with Trump is starting to close. Garrett, the Haley campaign has put South Carolina up as the state where they expect to get that one on one opportunity. That's sort of like her Alamo State right now.
You talk to a lot of voters in South Carolina who are at least considering her at this point. What are you picking up from voters? Yeah, I mean, her path to victory looks like this. She hopes to survive the January contest of Iowa and New Hampshire and get here to her backyard.
The problem is her backyard is also really still Trump country. There are a lot of voters here that like her, that respect what she's done, but even those voters still tell us that they think that Trump is likely to carry the state. There is a lot of love for her, though, and it's a long time for the South Carolina primary, which is why this is still a huge part of her strategy. Take a listen to some of the conversations we have right now.
I'm leaning more toward, I think, Nikki Haley, not how she was going here, but I think she's got some experience to go in there, both running state and international. Being at the Nikki Haley is your former governor. How do you feel about her? I think that she promised things that she didn't deliver.
I think she was too eager to step up and did not deliver a lot of things that she told her voters that she would do before she moved on to her next position. So where do you lean? I want the economy that we had when Trump was in office. Does that make you feel like you want to see him back?
In some ways I'm still uncertain on some things. So Judith, who you just heard from there, her husband, though, is a huge Trump supporter largely because of the economy. And that's what we hear over and over again. And look, he does lead the state by 30 points.
So even among a lot of Haiti supporters, they say, you know, they're hoping for a for her, but they think he's going to carry the state. And to the point where there's somebody that was walking across the parking lot and we asked you, who are we going to support? They didn't want to talk to the news media, but they just yelled at us saying you should know. And the assumption there was of course former President Trump.
And the numbers kind of run against the idea that in a head to head Garrett that Nikki Haley would fare better if the field simply consolidated. We were shared on a survey from MAGA Inc. Which is of course a pro Trump super pac. Tony Fabrizio, who's a longtime Trump pollster, his survey recently in South Carolina shows that if DeSantis drops out, if it is a head to head with Trump and Haley, his lead over Haley actually grows rather than shrinks, which actually does align with some of our own internal NBC News polling, other numbers that we've seen as well.
So it is a steep uphill time for her though of course still a lot of time till the South Carolina. Yeah, I know NAF guy, but that's not the way you want to go. And Dasha Burns, thank you for that reporting. And join me now on our set is panel today Daniel Diaz, congressional reporter for Politico, Simone Sanders Townsend, former senior advisor Vice President Harris and hosted MSNBC Simone and Republican strategist Brad Todd.
So Danielle, let's talk about Nikhil, right. She's having a moment right now, but his dosser just laid out putting together the non Trump vote just isn't enough right now. Does the boost on the airwaves, does any of it make a difference or does it just sort of like shrink the margin of getting crushed here? We've seen this time and time again with previous candidates even before Nikki Haley in past elections unite.
Both know we both cover previous presidential elections. Garrett, this is what happens, right? There's, there's candidates that get a wave, they get a boost. But in the end there's a clear front runner and that is Donald Trump.
And he continues to be leading all the polls as Josh reporting to show talking to voters that he still has the lead from these voters in these key states to be the 2024 Presidential Non Nuclear Republican Party. So while this is a huge endorsement for Nikki Haley to get the backing from this Coke group, it's unlikely right now that it'll be enough to get her even over the finish line to continue in this presidential election is going so desperately for this to be a two person race, but endorsements like this keep making it not a two person race. I want to read to you some of their response to this. They say like clockwork, the pro open borders, pro jailbreak establishment is lining up behind the moderators no mathematical pathway of defeating the former president.
They said that every dollar spent on Nikki Haley's candidacy should be reported as in kind to the Trump campaign. I guess my question is, do you agree with their ascertainment here? And if you work in this race, would you rather be with Haley or DeSantis? Right.
Well, Andrew Romeo, I was supposed to friend of mine, but I will tell you that the DeSantis campaign has since that has begun to go into a flat spin. Yeah. And when you go into flat spin, the ground comes a lot quicker than you think. And so I think that's, that's the thing that most Republicans are watching now.
Donald Trump's stronger than most people thought he would be at this point. And Nick Haley is stronger than most people thought she would be. Ron Sense is weaker than most people thought he would be at this point. So when we look at the numbers, Nikki Haley's coalition is self identified moderates, liberals, highly educated voters and women.
That is not the coalition that wins Republican primaries. It doesn't sound like a Republican primary electorate to me. That sounds more like a general election. But you know, I work for Bernie Sanders in 2016 on his upstart presidential campaign.
And I used to always say crowds don't vote and you can't talk about a general election until you win a primary. And you have to win a primary to get your general election. I think that there's lots of things that's been written and you talk to folks from they're close to the Biden orbit. The Biden campaign folks are necessarily saying this, but people in orbit will say that Nikki Haley could truly be a threat.
Nikki Haley is struggling to get through a Republican presidential primary. So I, I mean, I think that the numbers don't lie. The way you win a primary and a presidential is by delegates. And with the lack of proportional representation in a number of these states, when it comes to the Republican primary electorate, they want to take So a situation set by Trump and his Dallas.
Well, it has been that way. Republicans have more order to take off stage. It does mean you have to get the domino's going early. There is no grinded out strategy to a delegate victory.
You have to win stage too early. Some of this seems to be the electability argument that Liz, Kevin DeSantis has made it, that Kiki Haley has made it. That depends on Joe Biden who looks like he beats Donald Trump. And right now, Daniel, Joe Biden in a lot of math struggles to beat Donald Trump.
Yeah. And it's unclear right now. We have to remember it's still pretty early. We haven't even gone to an Iowa Caucus.
Right. Lots of things change during Iowa caucus. We all know that sometimes Iowa caucus doesn't even matter as we've also learned. And we've also learned.
Exactly. So really right now it's pretty early to say what could happen. Of course, the age question is not helping Joe Biden. We all know that at this stable that will continue to be raised again and again.
But right now it's still very early to say where this land. But the counter argument is how much things change is how much things to stay the same. Our political unit is crunch the numbers in the candidates who have been most aggressive about the trailer done the most events are Vikramaswamy, Doug Burgam, Ron DeSantis to a certain degree. You see the numbers there up on the screen.
The folks who are doing less are sitting near the top. And the sort of extraneous events like the court cases have not moved the needle. Is it getting early late in places like Iowa or getting late early I should say familiar may be Ramaswamy's friend. By the way, the more Vincent the two of them do, less they wear me.
One thing I think is nuts given of credit is Iowa caucus voter is a pretty good voter for vetting candidates. They can spot fake and they can spot when you say something they don't believe and they put a lot into it. They cannot see candidates in person. They get extended conversations.
So these things do tend to sort And I think Achilles did a good job on the trail. Ronnie Sanders has underperformed on the trail. Donald Trump has been on the trail, but they know him well, but also haven't picked a GOP primary winner in a long time. They always get you to the finals.
If you win Iowa, you're one of the last two, no matter race a little bit. There's another guy running against Joe Biden, Dean Phillips, who put an ad that doesn't include the name Dean Phillips. Look at this. 2024 is different.
TRUMP is winning. It's time to pass the torch. I am a Democratic candidate who can win. It is time for the torch to be passed to a new generation of American leaders.
So this is Dean Phillips's pack. It's not his campaign pass the torch message. Do we have any sense of if anyone is listening to this message, at least anybody in the Democratic establishment who might agree with the idea that it is time to move on. I think that people are again, if you look at the polling and frankly, if you just talk to Democratic voters out there, they say, oh, I wish there was another option, right.
But I don't I have not seen the evidence that Dean Phillips is the answer to the question of the other option. I know a number of people working with Dean Phillips, Jeff. We were my former campaign manager, Sanders working with him. But I will just say I go back to my argument.
I made a Sanders, you cannot win a general election, is a Democrat without having first won a primary by winning and unifying black voters. And Dean Phillips has not indicated that he is able to win a large swath of votes of black voters, let alone what is his Dallas program like. It's even on the ballot. Voters is basically running a message that seems aimed at the White House, seems aimed at convincing Joe Biden.
Perhaps this is not the thing to do. It doesn't seem like we've a kind of Bobby Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson moment here where Biden gets out of the race. The only career he seems to be ending right now is his own in Congress. I'm curious what you hear from the Congressional Democrats about what we're seeing from Dean Phillips right now.
They're angry a lot. There's a lot of anger actually. They're going to replace Dean Phillips in his former leadership position that he had in House Democratic caucus tomorrow. They said goodbye, we're moving on.
He decided he's not ready for reelection. That's a sign. When your own colleagues that you've worked with for two terms aren't getting behind your presidential bid and are upset that you're moving forward with your own presidential bid, that's a sign that you probably shouldn't be doing. And that's what we're hearing from his own colleagues repeatedly.
The smoke filled rooms don't really necessarily exist in Washington, but when you start coming after the sitting president, you might get a little insurgents don't do well in Washington. Details. Reminds me a little bit of Patty Cannon, who the President Bush's team blew off in 1992 because of huge problems. He dumped the fatal blow.
And that's the question will Dean Phillips, master of attraction, to do that? Yes. We'll put bookmarks in both of those at a later date. All right, Daniela, Simone and Brad, thank you all for coming in.
And after the break, I'll talk to one of the senators who's in the room for a closed door viewing of that harrowing October 7th video of the Hamas terror attacks. After meeting with top IEF officials about the deadly conflict in Gaza yesterday, Senator Michael Bennett of the Intelligence Committee draw me next. You're watching me the press now. Welcome back.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are trying to put together a deal before the end of the year that includes aid to Israel and Ukraine and also border security and immigration changes. Lawmakers remain split over exactly what that deal would look like and if all these issues should be bundled together at all as Republicans push for stricter border security measures than the ones that Democrats propose or may be willing to accept. I'm joined now by one of lawmakers working to secure this deal, Democratic Senator from Colorado, Michael Bennett. So, Senator, you've been part of this group.
You work off and on through the Thanksgiving break on foreign aid and all these border policies. Take inside the room a little bit. What are the status of these talks right now? I think that, I think that we're keeping embers alive and that at the end of the day, at the end of this process, we will be able to reach an agreement.
I don't know what that's going to look like that will enable us to fulfill our responsibility to, to the brave people in Ukraine who have fulfilled their responsibility, not just to themselves, but to democracy itself. Senator, nothing evokes hope for progress like the phrase keeping embers alive. I mean, you set a deadline for yourself for this week to get this done. How do you fan the flames here a little bit?
Well, that's the, that's the, that is the deadline because the Ukrainians are running out of bullets. They need to have the security of knowing that we're going to be there with this additional money. You know, I believe that the Ukrainian aid should be funded without our getting to a deal on the border. I think that the case has been made Ukrainians have the receipts because of what, what they've done to push Putin out of half of the territory of Ukraine that he has occupied to basically render the Black Sea fleet useless without even having a navy to continue this fight, as I say, for all democracy.
But having said all that, there are some people here who are saying they want to use this to try to lever a deal on the border. And I think that there's always, you know, our border system needs to be improved. We have had a decade or so of transnational gangs that have been smuggling people to the southern border of the United States that's overwhelmed the border in some respects. And if we can come together in a bipartisan deal that's rational, that's consistent with our commitment to the rule of law and our history as a nation of immigrants, then by all means we should do that.
If we, we can't, we should find a way to fulfill our obligation to Ukraine. Either way, as you say, we're running out of time. And I think that's why a bunch of us spent the whole Thanksgiving working on this. I mean, immigration has been an intractable problem for as long as I've been covering Congress and as long as you've been a member.
Is this the thing that really gets over the line on human on parole, on asylum? I mean, these are issues that have been doubled Congress for more than a decade, for decades. Yeah. I was part of The Gang of Eight 2013, that wrote the comprehensive immigration bill that passed the Senate with 68 votes, got killed by veto by the Freedom Caucus in the House.
Imagine what this country would look like today with a functional immigration system if we had only done. And a functional border, if we'd only done that bill. So you're right. It's tough to do this stuff under these kind of conditions.
This won't be a comprehensive deal. But. But if we can get to a. To a deal on some of the issues that you mentioned, like some modification of the asylum standard as an example, but nothing's agreed till everything's agreed, we might be able to have an agreement that gets us through.
I know House Republicans have been hard to negotiate with, even amongst themselves, but how read in is the speaker on what you guys are doing to prevent a situation like what happened in 2013? I think. I think the speaker is aware of it, and I. And I know Leader Schumer has been talking to him.
But let's. Let's think about what happened in 2013. Garrett, it's really instructive there. You had almost 70 senators vote to transform the immigration policies of the United States in a very irrational way.
A very small minority in the House of radical extremists issue a veto. John Boehner says his biggest regret as speaker was he didn't overcome them. Paul Ryan as Speaker, didn't overcome them. Here we will have a bill, I believe, that's supported by the broad majority of Senators, and then is going to go to the House supported by a broad majority of Democrats and Republicans.
The last thing we should be doing when the stakes are as high as they are, is allowing the Freedom Caucus, or whatever their replacement is today to have a veto on the will of the American people. That was a huge mistake in 2013. The country is still paying for that today. We can't afford to screw it up again in that way.
We're really watching to see if you can get a deal there. In the meantime, I want to talk a little about the war you have had access to a lot of the information about the war recently that a lot of people don't. Have you heard directly from the IDF. You heard this footage of the mass attack from October 7th, I guess, this morning.
How has what you've seen and heard just recently now impacted the way you view this war and our support for Israel in. Here's what I would say based on what I've heard. Any parents or child who saw the footage that we saw today and thought about their own families and thought about their own neighborhoods would, would be, would want nothing other than revenge based on what I saw. I mean, and you can imagine what it was like is the worst ISIS tactics that Hamas has taken.
And, and, and it's important to recognize that that's how people would react to a terrorist, terrorist attack by Hamas. I also think it's really important for people to realize that Hamas is using civilians as human shields. Let that sit with you. You know those, we use those words.
But imagine what it would be like to have an enemy who is using civilians as part of their game plan, part of their strategy. Having said all of that, Israel has to hold itself to the highest standards and make sure that as few civilians as possible are killed. We've always regretted it as a nation when we've engaged in war and we haven't met that high standard. Should aid, any aid against Israel be conditioned on them reaching that high standard?
I think that's a debate that we're going to have and I'm not prepared to answer that today. I am saying today that Israel should meet that high standard standard. And I am saying today that we should support Israel in this terrible tragedy that they have suffered at the hands of Hamas, these horrendous, horrendous terrorists. All right, Senator Michael Bennett, thank you for joining us.
Good luck in negotiations. I'm glad we could make your birthday wish come true with an appearance on YouTube. This was it, man. I'm done for the day.
Thank you, Gary. I appreciate it. Thank you for being with us and thank you all for being with us this hour. I'll be back tomorrow.
We won't be the press now. NBC News now coverage continues with Hallie Jackson right now. He was a young Marine. She didn't care about convention.
They made a life together. Then one night the Marine died. And then the death investigation took a wild, unexpected and utterly bizarre are turned. I'm Josh Makowitz and this is Trace of Suspicion, an all new podcast from Dayline.
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