Order of business under the new House Speaker passing a resolution supporting israels war against hamas. It passed with a vote of 41210, a rare moment of close to total unity, at a pivotal time. Thank you so much for joining. Our coverage from israel our coverage from israel continues now with ac 360. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com it is 3 00 a. M. In tel aviv and tonight we have a rare look inside the Hamas Tunnel System that israeli troops could face if and when they go into gaza. Also the efforts to get more hostages out. And an update on deteriorating conditions inside gaza itself. We begin with what happened back in washington, which certainly matters when it comes to American Military assistance for israels war effort here. Today, three weeks after ousting Kevin Mccarthy from the speakers chair, House Republicans finally agreed on someone to replace him. He is congressman mike johnson, with less than seven Years Experience in the chamber. Hes a 2020 Election Denier who worked to overturn the outcome. That said, he managed to win unanimous support from fellow republicans today, even those on record saying they would not vote for an Election Denier. They did. Melanie zanona starts us off on capitol hill with more. How was speaker johnson able to do what all those others could not . Reporter anderson, johnson really benefitted from the pure exhaustion inside the gop. After 22 days of chaos, republicans were really desperate to unify and put this ugly chapter behind them. Johnson is well liked in the conference. Hes also very conservative and very closely aligned with former president trump. It seems his most important quality was that he had no enemies in the conference, in part because hes a lowlevel member, pretty obscure Rank And File member. So, you know, he became the nominee last night, and less than 24 hours later, he was already the speaker. And he didnt even have to cut over any deals with the right wing of his party in order to become speaker, anderson. And has johnson said what his priorities will be legislatively . Well, his first act as speaker today was to put a bipartisan resolution on the floor condemning hamas, expressing support for israel. And it passed with overwhelming support. So, there was an early and easy victory there for johnson, but he is going to face much harder legislative challenges in the days and weeks ahead. Of course he has Government Funding to deal with. That expires november 17th. That was an issue that bedefled Kevin Mccarthy. Hes going to have to heel these deep wounds that exist insid the gop. And hes also going to have to tackle the topic of whether to couple ukraine aid and israel aid. I caught up with johnson a little bit ago, asked him whether he supports ukraine aid. That is something that has been divisive within the gop. Heres what he had to say. Were working through it. Well get you more details. What kind of conditions . We want accountability, and we want objectives that are clear from the white house. But were going to have those discussions and be very productive. Reporter so, johnson is going to have to face the same tricky political headwinds that Kevin Mccarthy did. And johnson is a much less experienced leader. Hes very untested. But in a positive sign for johnson, those hardline republicans who ousted Kevin Mccarthy are signaling that theyre prepared to give johnson a much longer leash to govern, at least for now, anderson. All right. Melanie zanona, thanks. More now on where johnson stands on important issues, positions that might not have been widely known, significant beyond his constituency during his comparatively short time in congress leading up to this moment. For that, i want to turn it to dana bash. Dana, how surprising is it that this particular congressman, out of everyone in the house gop conference, is the new speaker . Well, its surprising when you look at the context of how one usually becomes speaker. Because its usually based on tenure, and that tenure allows somebody to get relationships, to build those relationships over years, to help with fundraising. That is usually a very, very big part of becoming speaker, proving to your conference or your caucus that you can help them get elected or reelected. And its also usually proof that you can lead. Somebody is usually but the very least, a chairman of a committee. And mike johnson is none of that, ha of that experience at all. And its really, really telling about where the Republican Party is, particularly in the house right now. As ive heard from several House Republican members, its because he had the fewest enemies. And the Biggest Issue with all of those who tried before him and failed is that they had too much experience. And it was experience in this really, really divided, really toxic environment that you see the House Republicans a part of. The more experience, the more knowledge that people have, the more enemies that they made, which is such a new dynamic when it comes to picking a House Speaker. One experience that congressman johnson does have is his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which he was obviously asked about before he was elected. Lets listen. Can you the efforts to overturn the 2020 election next question. I mean, they dont want to hear about it, clearly. But its true. Can you walk us through how involved he was . Yeah, it is true. And that was a really important and very good question. And the reason why his colleagues who are had just elected him this was the night before he became speaker didnt want to hear it is because they dont want to go there. But the reality is, anderson, that, as an attorney, he took it upon himself to try to gather signatures among House Republicans to file a friend of the court brief, an amicus brief, on behalf of a lawsuit that texas was bringing to decertify, not texas votes in 2020, but the votes of several states that were Battleground States that donald trump lost. Now, ultimately the Supreme Court didnt even hear the case, so it became moot. But that was a big part of his effort in 2020. And he still has not answered a really fundamental question, which is, is he satisfied with that . Does he feel comfortable that joe biden was the free and fair freely and fairly elected president of the United States, as all evidence shows he was . And you know, when he was a back venture, it was something that was not great. When he is second in line to the presidency, as he is now, it is a question that he must answer. Dana, the new speaker is very closely aligned with former president trump, the maga agenda. He also has a very conservative voting record. How is that going to impact his speakership . Its not yet. And so much of this is unclear because hes so untested and hes so new. And, yeah, he is closely aligned with donald trump, so much so that he was first elected in 2016, the year that donald trump was elected president. And i mean, that just shows how new hes, in some ways, a more traditional social conservative, very staunchly against Abortion Rights and staunchly against rights for gay marriage, which actually, in the second in both, it puts him at odds with the majority of people feel in the country. But when you look at his party, that is not a position on gay marriage, on samesex marriage that in 2023 a lot of main Stream Republicans support. So, it definitely puts him at odds with those voters. The question is and youre getting to this with your question, to me, anderson how he will govern as speaker. Whether he will try to push those agenda items in an aggressive way, especially given how we have seen voters react on the issue of abortion in particular. We know that democrats are going to be all over. They already are all over the 18 republicans who serve in the house, who serve in districts where joe biden won. The democrats who want to take back the house are going to hang speaker johnsons positions around the neck of every one of those endangered republicans. Dana bash, dana, thank you. Thanks. As for the former president , he briefly took the stand today, the Witness Stand in the new york civil fraud trial. It came at the judges orders after the defendant said this during a break in testimony by his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen. This judge is a very partisan judge with a person whos very partisan sitting alongside of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is. As you know, the former president is already under a gag order, barring him from attacking the judge and the judges staff, in particular the judges clerk. Hes already been fined 5,000 for violating that order. So, when the court returned, the judge called him to the stand, where trump insisted he was not talking about the clerk, who sits to the judges right. Instead the former president claimed he was referring to Michael Cohen in the witness chair to the judges left. Now, the judge, replying, quote, i find that the witness is not credible, and fining him 10,000 in response. Joining us now, cnn legal analyst, joey jackson, and cnns kaitlan collins, host of the source, coming up at the top of the next hour. So, joey, how unusual is it for a judge to haul a civil defendant up to the Witness Stand, listen to what he has to say, and then deem him not credible and fine him . Yeah, anderson, it doesnt happen that often. And obviously it does happen. It happened here. But its certainly a significant step for a judge to do that. Think about what happened here. Number one, the judge issued a determination that there was a vie liefgts gag order. But more importantly, the judge held mr. Trump accountable for that violation and account to believe the tune of what he understands. And that is money. And so i think what the judge is doing, by doing that and ill get to the credibility determination momentarily is saying, look, what i say matter. If theres a gag order, youre going to follow it. Im going to hold you accountable now and im going to deter you in the future from even thinking of violating my order. As to the finding of credibility to mr. Trump, thats huge too. Think about the case were talking about. Credibility is everything in a case like this, where youre running a company and youre alleged to engaged in persistent fraud. If a judge deems you not credible, think about what the judge might be believing with respect to testimony involving this company and the fraud that theyre accused of. So, a wholly Significant Development by all accounts with respect to the merits of the case and with regards to him not abiding, mr. Trump, that is, by the orders the judge imposed. And kaitlan, any sense how this is going over in the trump orbit . I can guarantee you when they all woke up this morning, trumps legal team and trump himself, they did not think he would be called to the stand today. This is a result of nearly every day when he has gone into the courtroom here in manhattan, he has spoken to reporters, railing against the Attorney General here in new york, going off on the judge, of course, what the judge believed going off on one of his law clerks again today after he already posted pictures of her. That was the reason he got the first fine. It was seen as a technicality because he left it up on his campaign site. I think the 15 grand is not something that is obviously going to hurt someone like a donald trump, but it is the essence of it. He is now facing punishment for the comments he is making. And he got up there and tried to make his own argument, tried to argue that he wasnt actually talking about this law clerk, even though the judge noted she sat a lot closer to him than Michael Cohen did, who was in the Witness Stand. And the judge quickly did not believe him. This is the first time weve seen donald trump testifying in an open court in more than a decade. He is expected to testify in this trial not related to this matter, anderson. And it doesnt seem to bode well for what that testimony is going to look like. Kaitlan, the fact he continues to attend this trial i know there were some days he wasnt there its just a sign of how important he thinks this is. Its personal. Its incredibly personal for him. Hes flying up here from florida to come to this. Hes not just hanging out in new jersey at his nearby club. He went back to florida after leaving the courtroom. He has sat in multiple days. He is not sitting there quietly paying attention to the proceedings. Weve heard from reporters in the room, hes at times throwing his hands in the air, rolling his eyes at the proceedings. Him and Michael Cohen being in the same courtroom is itself shocking. I dont think theyve been in the same room for five years. Theyre relationship has completely devolved and deteriorated. He really cares about the outcome of this, even though largely its already been, kind of, decided. What happens if he runs afoul of the gag order again . Yeah, i think the judge is setting the tone, anderson, as to what it relates to what he anticipates. This is not a broad, hard to follow gag order. Staff is off limits. Do not address them. He did. What the judge did is in keeping with what judges like to do, that is ensure decor m, ensure people are not attacked or demeaned for simply doing their job. Its setting the stage for moving forward, that im going to have something to say about it. I think we could see fines that increase and continue to increase. And remember this is not the first time in connection with this case that he was fined. He was fined because of not complying with handing over information to Attorney General to the tune of over 100,000. And i would just add that in a case where a judge is making a judicial determination about whether youre responsible and certainly your licenses are at stake in the state of new york and what you do in your Business Practices and what the findings are, i think hes the last person that you might want to get upset and who you might not want to follow their orders. So, well see whether mr. Trump could comply with that moving forward. Joey jackson, kaitlan collins, well see you at the top of the hour. Coming up next for us, inside some of the tunnels that Israel Forces may soon have to go into in search of hamas gunmen or the hostages. Also the latest on conditions at hospitals in gaza, with very little aid and no fuel coming into the territory. And as we go to break, more of the faces and names youll see throughout the program of israelis taken hostage on october 7th. In his televised address earlier today, israels Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu said this about sending troops in gaza. Quoting now, i will not detail when, how, or how many or the overall considerations were taking into account, most of which are unknown to the public, and this is how it needs in order to better safeguard the live of our soldiers. Whether spoken or not, one of those considerations is certainly the network of tunnels that hamas has built under gaza to move undetected, store weapons, and now hold hostages. More from cnns nic robertson. Reporter this is the invisible danger awaiting israeli troops in gaza. Hamas tunnels, miles of them, hiding the wellarmed terror groups fighters. The video, Hamas Propaganda, distributed by the Israel Defense force shows concrete reinforced subterranean passages. Israeli hostage, lifshitz, Saw Them First Hand before she was released late monday. Translator we began walking inside the tunnels with the wet ground. It was moist all the time. Reporter hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad have been building tunnels under gaza for at least a decade. The is made out of concrete. Reporter over the years, cnn has been shown them by both the idf, after capture, and by the terror groups themselves, showing off their underground advantage as propaganda, a place to hide weapons, estimated at dozens of miles long. They snake underneath many of gazas neighborhoods. And theyve become known to israelis as the gaza metro. These new videos the idf is sharing appear to show a progression in sophistication, and therefore an increase in potential danger to troops in the event of a Ground Incursion into gaza. Like a 21st century equivalent of world war i trenches, these b burrows small trap doors in the desert let militants evade advancing troops, even sneak up behind them. And the danger down here, not just to the troops above, but to israeli civilians too. Longrange rockets stored on Wall Brackets can be rushed forward to be fired toward tel aviv and other cities from Hidden Gun Pits connected directly to the tunnels, making the launch sites even harder for the idf to strike back at. Only after an incursion can israel expect to fully destroy the terror tunnels. Absent that, the socalled Gaza Metro With Outfox and endanger Israeli Soldiers and civilians alike. Some of the detonations we can hear from here that you can feel sometimes, anderson, i think these are intended to try to penetrate deep down and take out some of those tunnels. But after the 2014 incursion, the idf went in and they used bulldozers to get rid of the tunnels. So, that really shows you, even with the really heavy munitions, theyre not going to be able to eradicate all these threats that the troops are going to face when they g