center, the north hall of the convention center and they will slowly move students there. police at the same time are going building by building, and from what we understand, this is a large campus. they're going building by building, floor by floor, making sure that they can go in and clear each floor, making sure there's no one else that may be injured, making sure that if there are people who are still scared, hunkering down, that they are helping them get them out of the building, and get them to safety and get them back with their loved ones. so these are all some of the things that we have been seeing, along with some of the images that we have been looking at, coming out of las vegas where they're showing armored vehicles, s.w.a.t. vehicles making they way to the scene as they expanded the perimeter around the campus. all of that making people very nervous in the area, but at the same time, police are say thing is now a time where we don't have any other threat. but they still want people to avoid the area, and also looking at just everything else that has been happening here around the community. we can also now tell you that unlv was expected to play a basketball game versus the university of dayton, and the team is actually in ohio. but that game has now been canceled. it was supposed to be played at 9:00 p.m. eastern. we know that has been canceled at this point. but looking at what these people have been through, it's no surprise that unlv and the rest of the higher education institutions throughout the entire state of nevada have canceled school for the rest of the day. this all during a study period where the students are supposed to be hunkering down and preparing for those final exams before they go off on their winter break. so all of that is what is happening here, jake. >> all right, stephanie, thank you so much. i want to bring in cnn law enforcement analyst steve moore. steve, thousand that the suspect is deceased, what's the main priority for police on the scene, on the campus of unlv right now? >> well, jake, what happens now, you've gone from your first phase, which is the exigent phase, ending the threat, into a recovery situation. you've got to have -- depending on the number of casualties, you've got to have a triage center, a mass casualty callout essentially. and you have to tend to the victims and you have to search for victims. you have to go through all the buildings that this person might have accessed. finally, what you've got is concurrently with the investigation going on about who this guy is and why he did this, you've got to go through every building where somebody might receive that warning text and make sure that you still don't have people hunkering down this there, fearful for their lives. and that is a difficult situation, because they're going to take anybody coming into a room as a potential threat. so this is a long, involved process. >> how can police be confident that there is no other shooter, that there's no further threat? >> that's a good question, because as somebody who has run one of these on site, you don't want to be the one to say there's only one, and then hear gunshots. so you have to be absolutely certain of identity, motive, things along that line. and so what you're going to want to do is, number one, go with statistics, 99% of the time it's a single actor. secondarily, though, you have to identify the person. you have to find out if they have friends, if they have associates who might be a part of something like this. you have to get in as quickly as you can to their social media, interview friends and family, and aquancquaintances and deter what a potential motive is, and if there are potential accomplices. >> we still don't know the motive for that mass shooting in las vegas from 2017, right? i mean, it's not always easy. how will investigators go about figuring out a motive? >> well, yeah, you're right. that one is just out of the ballpark. we just don't know what's going on there. in most of these, you're going to find some triggering aspect of the person's personality, their situation, anything that might be happening in their life. hypothetically, you could find that this person was a business student. one of the halls, i believe, involved was part of the business school. maybe shehe was asked to leave school. you're going to go in and find out what their writings are. very rarely does somebody do something like this without leaving a trail of bread crumbs ial media, of writings and ra rantings. they don't go out and lose their life over something so insignificant that they haven't talked to somebody. >> steve, thank you. let's bring back in john miller and former dhs assistant secretary and cnn national security analyst julia kayam. john, what are the biggest questions you have right now? >> the biggest questions we have are still the fluid ones, which is what is the extent, the human factor here? how many people have been hurt or killed? the good news, if you can call it good news, is that the numbers we're getting are these single digit numbers, maybe three with one deceased being the shooter. we don't know the condition of those other people. those numbers can change. one other factor is about the sheriff, the fire chief and the chief of the university police coming up to the microphone and saying so little is having been in these situations myself, the information changes. the numbers go up, the numbers go down, they're adjusted. the facts shift because different facts are coming in literally as you're walking up to the mike crophone. so you try to stay what you're sure of, but those numbers are reassuring in that we have seen so much worse. the governor has been in direct touch with them, talking about things like the halting of classes and all the other state universities across nevada, they were clear that was an out of an abundance of caution. but they wanted to do that in a way so that if this incident were perhaps connected to a network of other planned incidents, and that is not what we are seeing, that those schools would have already reduced the number of people there and the activity to make themselves safe. interestingly, joe lombardo, the governor who is in close touch with the sheriff here, used to be the sheriff here. during the last las vegas sniper incident, he was the man in charge. so this is not a politician who has some vague awareness of the dynamics here. he's been in the thick of it himself many times. so what happens now? the first is, the suspect has been identified. they have a name. they are working with that name to go backwards now. where did he come from? where did this weapon come from? where was he bedding down and laying his head? is he a resident there? if so, let's get that house locked down by patrol, make sure that no one has been hurt or injured inside there. then secure that for a search warrant, because they're going to want to look. where is his computer? where is his phone? where are, you know, any evidences of a manifesto of a message board or chat rooms he's been in. so those wheels are all turning backwards. the two major developments, we have some victim numbers and they are thankfully small. we don't know their condition. and two, we believe there's only one gunman, and he's out of the picture right now. >> julia, you note there can be a ripple effect, and the impact of some of these social cancellation alss will have on students after this. >> we call it the consequences of gun violence in america. this is what happens to the people who respect shot. you're going to have the immediate community of students and teachers and faculty and staff, they are shut down through at least tomorrow if not longer. and long-term studies of college and university shootings show that students do have an increased fear that things like a car backing up or other triggering noises can cause significant mental harm and other harms. but then, i just want to -- just a couple weeks after maine in lewiston. every university for a couple days, with precaution and in honor of what happened, are closed down. here you have an airport closed, the strip closed somewhat. you have every university in nevada, every state university, closed. now, this may be correct in terms of the abundance of caution and also there's a respect issue to it. but we -- you know, we focus on those who are shot and dead, obviously. but we should not lose cognizance of the social consequences that our society is adapting to. closing the airport, closing universities, depriving children of school, essentially, and commerce and all the other things that happened, because of the number of gun shootings, and because we simply don't know whether it's done. so it's just worth remembering in our reporting about what these social consequences that we sometimes forget as we talk, of course, about the victims. >> julia and john, we'll continue to follow the breaking news. police now say at least three individuals were victims in the unlv shooting. we do not know the extent of their injuries. as soon as we learn the extent of their injuries, we will bring that to you. we are also following another big story out of nevada. at least six people were indicted by a grand jury in nevada. they are accused of participating in a scheme intended to overturn the 2020 election. we're back in a moment with that story. welcome back. we're following a major story in our law and justice lead. a nevada grand jury indicted six people who acted as pro-trump fake electors in a scheme to overturn the 2020 election and subvert the will of the american people. let's get to kyung lah. tell us what you're learning. >> reporter: this indictment was announced by the attorney general. the state termattorney general at one point he wasn't going to pursue this, but something changed. let's show you what this all goes back to. it was december 14th, 2020. six people in the state of nevada had gathered to sign what was a fake elector sheet, saying that they were giving the six electoral votes in nevada and declaring donald trump the winner. the problem, this is all fake. even though it looks like a ceremony, it's not. and this became part of the charade of the 2020 lie. and so the attorney general in nevada has now announced these indictments, handed down by a grand jury. what has happened to these republican leaders? many of them leaders in the state party, we found them still basically leading that party in the state of nevada. we found at least two who are now crisscrossing the state, talking about next year's caucuses. take a listen. >> you're not going to comment on whether you have spoken to anybody? you do understand -- >> if you would turn that off. we have nothing to talk about on that. i have nothing to say. >> do you still believe trump won? >> that's irrelevant. the electoral college elects the president, and they elected joe biden. so joe biden is the president. >> how do you explain what happened in 2020, that ceremony you participated in and that document you signed? >> again, no comment. >> reporter: the irony a little thick there. the others have also maintained some leadership in the republican party. even one of the people who were announced as a defendant, he announced his candidacy for a state assembly state. it's important to note that these are felony charges, very serious, carrying a max penalty in one of the felonies for five years, maximum of five years. >> ironically named jesse law. >> the irony. >> let's bring in our next guests. tom, how serious are these charges and are you surprised it took until the end of 2023 to bring them? >> the first question, these are serious felony charges. you can face incarceration for several years. this is an election that happened about three years ago, and the fact that it took this long to bring what are relatively straightforward charges, basically false documents signing charges, it is curious it took three years. i think that reflects in these intervening three years, there's been some developments. so we have witnesses who participated in this scheme, not necessarily the people under indictment. people in the news in georgia who may have been cooperating or started to cooperate with the nevada attorney general. so the nevada attorney general may have access to evidence and testimony he didn't have previously. that's why he decided now is the time to bring these charges. >> kevin chesebro, perhaps. we know he's been allowed to travel to specific states where these investigations are going on. kristen, this election lie, it's still at the heart of the trump campaign. you can even say it animates mr. trump and his campaign. and it animates so much of the messaging that the gop pushes out there. >> that's true. i mean, what we have talked about time and time again, particularly on this show, is that one of donald trump's main messages is that one, 2020 was a rigged election. and two, the democratic process of elections is rigged and illegitimate as a whole. that is when you hear multiple people, including anti-trump republicans and democrats talking about what a trump second term would look like, that is why they use the term anti-democratic because of those processes. now, when it comes to this case in particular, what we have seen in the past, this is really the time where the trump lawyers and the trump team start going through who these indicted people are and what their relationship could be to the former president. i will point out that at least two names, two of the people indicted in nevada, testified before jack smith and that grand jury. and that just goes to show you that there is some level of interest outside of just nevada that potentially at some point jack smith had regarding this fake electoral scheme. so as we saw in georgia, as well, that's part of this. are they going to flip? are they going to cooperate? what does that look like for the former president? >> what happens next? >> and michael mcdonald, as we answer this question, you know what happens next politically, as well as in the legal space. politically, michael mcdonald is, as you well know, one of trump's closest allies in the west. so it's a question of where does this lead? we don't know. the attorney general is scheduled to have a news conference today that has been now delayed because of the news, the unfortunate news in nevada. >> okay. and tom, there's this other major legal story today. sources say prosecutors in the georgia election subversion case have officially put former vice president mike pence on their list of possible witnesses. if he is put on the stand, can he claim executive privilege and refuse to answer questions? >> i would be shocked if he claimed executive privilege and refused to answer questions. i think he will answer questions. this shouldn't surprise anyone. vice president pence was central to a lot of the events to january 6th, and it doesn't surprise me he would testify. he would be one of the most credible witnesses. the former president's vice president who was at the scene of so many of these contested events. >> a major vote is underway in the u.s. senate where republicans are threatening to block funding for u.s. allies ukraine and israel until there is a deal to substantive policy changes when it comes to border security. we're back with that, next. (car engine revs) (engine accelerating) (texting clicks) (tires squeal) (glass shattering) (loose gravel clanking) we're back with breaking news from capitol hill. the votes in the u.s. senate on aid to ukraine and israel is just wrapping up. democrats and republicans have been in a stalemate over whether to also include tighter immigration policies in that aid package. with us now to discuss, democratic senator chris coons of delaware, member of the senate foreign relations committee and national co-chair for joe biden's 2024 campaign. the senate is set to go home for the holidays next week. will this aid package pass before you all go home and wish each other a merry christmas? >> jake, we should not go home for the holidays without passing this urgent supplemental funding bill that would sustain ukraine's fight against russian aggression, provide critically needed assistance to israel. fund humanitarian relief for innocent civilians from gaza to ukraine to a dozen other countries. and support our partners and allies in the indo-pacific who are standing up to chinese aggression. it's a big and broad package, and it also includes the single largest investment in border security. joe biden's request would include $13 billion for border security that would hire thousands of border patrol agents, customs and border protection agents, asylum officers, and significantly improve border security. my hope is that after today's vote, we can get down to the business of crafting a compromise that can pass. leader schumer gave the republicans a path forward. by promising them the first amendment vote on this package. i know that's procedural, but the point is that if we can get 60 senators between the two parties to agree to a responsible compromise on border security, leader schumer guaranteed that will get a vote and attached to this package. we have a very short timeline to get this urgent work done. >> so the senate's classified briefing on ukraine yesterday, you were there, correct? >> yes, i was. >> it deinvolved into a shouting match over border security and republicans say it was a waste of time because you guys, the democrats, refuse to even let them address border security. now the white house's supplemental request includes $14 billion for border security. so did shutting down border talk at that meeting hurt the bill's chances of passing? >> i frankly think that that performance at the briefing and the vote today was meant to signal that republicans are united and firm in insisting changes in border security policy. i also think the president's supplemental showed the willingness to invest massively in border security. and we should stop with the theatrics and get to the bargaining table and close the gap between the two parties. >> if the republicans want tougher border policies, right, and they want tougher asylum policies, they want it to be easier for the border patrol to send people, send people who are not in this country legally back over the border and the border crossings are at a -- i remember when then dhs secretary said 4,000 people crossing the border -- i forget if it was a day or a week, and that was a crisis, and the number is like 14,000. it's exponentially higher. why would you not want the president to have the ability to alleviate this crisis? >> well, jake, that's exactly the sorts of things we are talking about. there's a record number of people crossing the border and seeking asylum. that's why there have been negotiations over the last few weeks about how we might modify or change the standards for asylum review. the overwhelming majority of the people who cross our border claim asylum and then go into our legal process for several years. they are ultimately found to not be eligible for asylum. so i do think there's room for us to agree on a higher initial screening system, on faster processing, on investing more and making sure that those who got a credible, legitimate legal claim, that they're being persecuted because of their faith or their political views, have a chance to get into our country. but the majority who do not don't get into our country. i do think we can work this out, jake. >> joe biden told donors that he wasn't sure he would be seeking another term if donald trump weren't running. what's your reaction to that, ane you still sure that he's the best one to take on donald trump? i understand in 2020, that was his argument, he's the only one that can beat trump and get that coalition together, et cetera. are you sure that's still the case? i've heard some democrats say he might be the only one that can lose to trump. >> i disagree with that, jake, that's for sure. given today is another tragic day where americans are mourning the loss of victims in a mass shooting. i'll remind you it was five years ago that las vegas suffered one of the worst, largest, most tragic mass shootings in american history at the mandalay bay where there was a shooter who killed dozens and dozens of people. joe biden last year signed into law the most significant gun safety legislation, the most significant investments in community mental health in our safer communities act in decades. he was derided in the early primaries in 2020 in my party for being naive, for believing that he could accomplish big things in a bipartisan way. and joe biden has signed into law the largest investment in infrastructure since eisenhower, the biggest reduction in prescription drug prices ever. the largest efforts to combat climate change ever. he has a remarkable record on which he can run in 2020. and let me just remind you in closing, jake, president trump has said he wants to bring back a muslim ban that would use religion as the basis to bar people from coming into our country. and to use the national guard to screen people throughout our country, round them up and me court them from the interior of our country. he has a whole series of extreme immigration proposals that don't reflect the values of our country. joe biden ran in 2020 to oppose that, to restore the soul of our nation,vinced he's the right leader. >> don't tell me, tell the democrats in deer born. thank you for your time. there was an intense confrontation with families of hostages and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. cnn has the leaked audio of that confrontation, and that's next. in our word lead, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says israeli forces are encircling the home of the leader of hamas in gaza, but acknowledges he might not be there. our reporter is following developments in the israel-hamas war from tel aviv. >> reporter: the new phase that israel's military announced now leaving gaza's second biggest city, khan yunis, in chaos and parts in ruin. this resident of khan yunis searching the rubble of this house after an israeli strike, says 30 people were inside, most of them children. "everybody is hurt," he says. "i don't know how we made it out alive." israel's military said wednesday morning it carried out about 250 air strikes in gaza in the previous 24 hours. it's now operating "in the heart of khan yunis," telling civilians to evacuate. this leaflet has a verse from the koran, referring to noah's warning that a flood was coming. the flood overtook them, it reads, while they persisted in wrongdoing. what isn't flowing into gaza is enough aid. the biden administration has sharply warned israel they aren't doing enough, and the u.s. hopes to see a change in israeli military tactics during this new phase. >> too many palestinian civilians continue to be killed. we want to see the civilian death toll lower, we want to see the civilian death toll lower than it is today, lower than it has been the past few days. >> reporter: in northern gaza, the idf said today they found a large cache of weapons, including rocket-propelled grenade and explosives. while israel intensifies and expands operations, 138 hostages are still in captivity, with talks over their release broken down. new recordings released wednesday show angry confrontation with hostage families in a meeting with prime minister benjamin netanyahu. some accuse him of prioritizing politics and said the military's pummeling of gaza threatened the hmo' hostage's lives, one accusing him of having no intelligence on the hostage's location. the feeling we had is no one was doing anything for us, she said. the fact is, i was hiding in a place that was shelled and we were wounded. at one point, netanyahu was heckled with cries of "shame." another woman told the defense minister, i'm not willing to sacrifice my son for your career. my son did not volunteer to die in defense of the homeland. he was a citizen who was kidnapped from his home, from his bed. >> our thanks to cnn's reporter for that report. joining us now is the family member of a hostage taken by hamas october 7. you were not at the meeting with netanyahu and the war cabinet, but you had representatives there. what did they have to tell you about the meeting? >> yeah, my sister survived the october 7th, and my brother-in-law and father were there. they said it was a difficult meeting, but they also spoke what they heard of what the other hostages experienced, those that were released. they were horrified to hear of the treatment they had with hamas. of course, that emphasized the urgency to release all the hostages as soon as possible. they spoke as well of the directions that were there with the elected officials. some were more positive than others. but we are going to keep advocating, going to go and meet those elected officials, whether here in the u.s., internationally, or in israel, because they are the ones who were chosen to take the decision to release the hostages. >> is there anything you can tell us about the treatment of the hostages by hamas? because i think that's important for people to know. >> yeah. from what we heard from the reports that were allowed to be -- people were under almost starvation conditions. some were abused electricity shocked. er irrespective of who they were. they were showering in groups, and there were other incidents that were possibly of sexual nature. both to women and men. those are some of the reports we had. we hear that men are treated even more severely than women. and we are, as a result, we understand that every second in captivity is an eternity, and time is of the essence to release the hostages. >> do you think the netanyahu government is doing everything they can to get the hostages home? >> i believe it is my role as a citizen of israel to continue advocating for the release of citizens of my country. it's my role of a family of a loved one in captivity to continue advocating them. i'm not a politician or military strategist, and i'm not going to choose what the government is going to do. i'm lucky i live in a democracy. because come elections, i can judge their decisions and whether their decision led to the release of my brother-in-law and all the hostages or not. >> i know that one of the hostages said at the meeting that -- i don't know if it was a man or woman, i assume it was a woman, because it's the women being released, that the israeli intelligence, they don't know what they're talking about, because they heard bombs hitting nearby. she doubted that they knew what they were doing when they were bombing. obviously, there are serious questions about israeli intelligence given what happened october 7th. >> i think there was an issue of trust. there is an issue of trust after what happened october 7th. i believe that israeli military, the idf, is doing what they can to ensure they minimize generally civilian casualties in the gaza strip, specifically making sure the hostages are not in harm's way. so i believe the released hostage for what she said. they experienced the most horrific thing and we need to keep hugging them once they're released, keep believing and hearing them. but at the same time, i also want to believe that my government is doing what it is expected to do, to bring about the release. >> sometimes i feel like we're living in the upside down, because while obviously the palestinian people have been victims of hamas in many ways too, since they were elected in 2006 and then since they stopped elections from happening and since hamas began oppressing them around that same time, there was a group of americans, a sizable group, that do not understand, this is a twisted group of people who kill gays, who oppress women, who -- this is -- this is a terrorist organization. this is not a revolutionary organization. >> yeah. i totally agree with you. i grew up in a blue collared town on the israel-gaza border. i spent most of my life there. i served in a unit coordinating with the palestinian authority and international community to reduce the stress and suffering in the gaza strip. but i know hamas is not a friend of the palestinian cause. i know it's not a friend of israel, definitely not a friend of israeliss and not a friend o freedom or liberty. it's not an organization that should be allowed to exist after this horrific war. but for me, my priority right now is not hamas. my priority right now is for israel and the international community to do all they can to bring about the release of the hostages. i'm talking as well about putting pressure on countries like qatar and turkey. i understand there is a cost to have their policies and enter action with hamas, to put pressure on countries like russia and iran, to put pressure on the u.n. to do their job, the humanitarian mission, and fulfill that humanitarian mission to visit the hostages and provide medical attention. >> your brother-in-law is no different from any other hostage being held unfairly, unjustly, by any other group in the world. moshe levi, thank you for being here. we appreciate it. coming up, cnn's anderson cooper with a deeply personal project he's been working on, one that will affect every single one of us. stay with us. first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones brings so much joy to your life. a family trip to the team usa training facility. i don't know how to thank you. i'm here to thank you. as you know, anderson cooper has a fantastic new podcast about grief and lost. it's called all there is. i just can't recommend it highly enough. in the latest episode, anderson reflects on his brother who died by suicide. he spoke with president biden who also knows quite a bit, quite a lot. in fact, way too much, about what it's like to lose someone you love. >> a few days before i spoke with president biden, i was going through a box of stuff in my basement that belonged to my brother, carter. he died by suicide when he was 23. i don't have a lot of pictures of my brother on display in my house. his death is still so painful to me that i find it hard to see his photos. these two pictures really stunned me. they were taken shortly before carter graduated from princeton in 1987. he looked so young and happy. there's no hint that 15 months after this picture was taken, he'd kill himself in front of our mom. looking at these photos, i don't recognize my brother. and i realized i don't think i ever really knew him. i didn't allow myself to. and i didn't allow him to know me. when our dad died, carter was 12 and i was 10 and it slapped us both into silence. we never spoke about my dad with each other. or with anyone. i think my brother would be alive if we had. why is it so hard to talk about loss and grief? we all go through it. so why do we keep it hidden away? cry in private. speak the names of our loved ones in hush whispers only we can hear. that's why i wanted to talk with president biden. he's been more public about grief than any american president in history. and this is his most personal interview yet. do you ever still feel overwhelmed by grief? >> i do as it relates to my son, beau. god willing, i'm going to see him again. >> beau biden died in 2015 and in 1972, president biden's first wife died in a car crash with their 13 month old daughter, naomi. >> i found myself spending a lot of time, what could i have done? was it my fault this all happened? what could i have done differently? >> the interview is deeply revealing. the most powerful man in the world talking about the private pain he still feels. >> opened one of the boxes that had never been opened. it was a scrapbook and it was a picture of the car. i took it downstairs and i burned it. i could not, could not, i don't want to know the detail. >> grief doesn't go away but we can learn to live with it and learn from it. and like president biden, find purpose beyond the pain. the second episode of season two, a president's grief, is available wherever you listen to podcasts. >> so many people find comfort and meaning in that podcast. our thanks to anderson cooper for sharing a bit of it. his podcast, all there is, is available. coming up, an unprecedented indictment levied by the u.s. government. four russian soldiers charged with war crimes against an american who lived in ukraine. stay with us. today,the justice department has charged four russian soldiers with war crimes against an american who was living in ukraine during the invasion. it's the first time the u.s. has used a decades old law aimed at prosecuting those who commit war crimes against american citizens. evan, who are these four russian soldiers and what exactly are they accused of doing? >> well, jake, they are four members of the russian military and they're accused of kidnapping an american who was living in this village in the kherson region of ukraine. they kidnapped him and held him for about ten days. subjected him to torture including threatening sexual assault, subjecting him to a mock execution in which they shot a bullet just inches away from his head. all over a period of ten days, jake. now this is the first time the justice department is using a statute that's 30 years old intended to go after people who commit crimes against americans who are not combatants in a conflict. in this case, of course, the ukraine war. this all happened last year. the justice department you know, the fbi and homeland security, has sent agents over there to collect evidence, jake, on these war crimes and the plan is to not stop here. they're going to bring additional cases according to the attorney general today. >> thank you so much. and tonight after the republican presidential debate, post debate an analyst. coverage continues now with wolf blitzer in "the situation room." thanks for watching. >> happening now, breaking news. a shooting on the las vegas campus of the university of nevada. police say at least three victims were taken to hospitals and the shooter is dead. we're standing by for new details. also breaking. six more allies in donald trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election were just indicted. nevada becoming th