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
world. i m bianca nobilo. i m max foster joining you live from london. just ahead on cnn newsroom secretary of defense lloyd austin came to get more details from prime minister netanyahu to get a real sense of where israel is in its operations against hamas. the israeli military on sunday revealing new video of what it is calling the largest hamas tunnel they have discovered inside the gaza strip. former president donald trump ramped up this anti-immigration rhetoric during remarks in nevada sunday. they come from prisons, they come from mental institutions and insane asylums, many terrorists. senators have spent the weekend trying to see if they can get any sort of compromisen out issue of immigration. this is not just immigration reform. they re basically working diligently on just security at the border. announcer: live from london, this is cnn newsroom with max foster and bianca nobilo. it s monday, december the 18th. 9:00 a.m. here in london, 11
weeks away, donald trump is taking his campaign rhetoric to dark extremes. we re getting new reaction to trump s immigrant-bashing that s invoking comparisons to nazi germany. the gop governor of new hampshire chris sununu joins us live this hour. also tonight, two former georgia election workers are su su suing rudy giuliani again after he was ordered to pay the women nearly $150 million in damages. we re going to tell you what they want now. and hamas releases video of three elderly israelis it s holding captive in gaza. the u.s. is playing a role in restarting negotiations aimed at freeing the remaining captives amid pleas from hostages. i m wolf blitzer. you re in t the situation room. exactly four weeks from tonight, the first votes of the 2024 presidential election cycle will be cast in iowa. and gop front-runner donald trump is trying to fire up supporters with ugly and very chilling new attacks on immigrants. cnn s omar jimenez has more on trump s rhetoric and t
today on inside politics, donald trump hanging onto commanding leads, his rivals are running out of time to catch up but one of them is starting to see a narrow path to a major upset. let s make a deal, senators are racing to get new border security measures. president biden facing pressure on one of the toughest problems to solve. democrats have never been this nervous about biden s chances, we will ask the pollster who elected bill clinton. i am jim acosta, let s go behind the headlines and inside politics. four weeks from today, the first republican voters will make their voices heard, the iowa caucus is 28 days away, most of the major candidates were crisscrossing those states this weekend and are back at it today. the ones not named donald trump hoping to survive surprise finish, we have a lot of new polls this weekend, that will tell us what the challenges are for some of these gop rivals. they have been pouring all the numbers, what are you seeing right now? let s st
aliens invading our country it s only common sense that when i m reelected we will begin, and we will have no choice, the largest deportation operation in america. they come from prisons, they come from mental institutions and insane asylum. many are terrorists. joining us from the rally in nevada, what can you tell us about what trump has been talking about tonight? reporter: donald trump is currently speaking behind me as i m sure you can see. he is leaning heavily into his hard-line immigration rhetoric, but also policies that he s previewing for a potential second administration. we know from our own reporting as well as what other outlets have reported that donald trump wants to massively expand some of his immigration policies from his first term including rounding up undocumented immigrants in the u.s., placing them in deportation camps and sending them on to be deported after that. we know that he also wants to divert more resources to immigration enforcement in t