also this hour, hamas and its money, how the terrorist group is funding its side of the war, its big money tunnel exploration. my guest ahead was a finance tractker at the treasury department a historic day in a new york courtroom, donald trump taking the stand in the civil fraud case that could bring down his family empire in new york, new york. he repeatedly went back and forth with the judge who accused trump of rambling in long-winded testimony. trump today called the case election interference as he runs for president in 2024. he called the new york attorney general who brought this case a political hack and a racist. let's go to cnn's paula reid who is outside the courthouse. trump's strategy on the stand not surprisingly attack, attack, attack. his lawyers debating a motion for a mistrial. where do things stand? >> reporter: jake, after all the chaos and those contentious exchanges in court today, it does appear that the attorney general's office was able to elicit some helpful testimony from their star witness. trump acknowledged at least some role in helping to value these assets in his real estate portfolio, undercutting the argument by his own attorneys where they had been trying to put distance between him and these estimates, that the attorney general's office is trying to prove were fraudulent and should result in these massive penalties. trump, it appeared his goal today on the stand was to use this time to attack the attorney general and the judge. after first the judge was trying to rein him in the he went off course or didn't answer a question directly, the judge would cut in. as the day went on, the judge did that less and less and instead deferred to the assistant attorney general who was ultimately able to get some answers that are helpful for this phase of their case. >> what does this tell us about what we can expect for the other numerous trials trump faces? >> reporter: jake, this is the first time we've seen the former president facing hostile questions. how does he do on the stand? now, i want to 'emphasize this s a civil case. what's on the line are potentially significant penalties and his company's ability to do business in the state of new york. that's significant. but when this moves to a criminal case which is what he's facing in fulton county, georgia and two federal criminal prosecutions, there's the possibility for jail time. so that threat can always alter someone's behavior, alter their conduct. it did appear today he was willing to potentially expose himself to greater legal peril or what he may perceive to be inevitable legal peril to get his message across, and that is he believes he's a victim of political bias and try to paint himself as a martyr in the court of public opinion even if it increases his exposure in the actual courtroom. >> paula reid, thank you. let's bring in former trump attorney tim parlatore. trump's lawyer said his team is happy with his testimony today. how do you think it went? >> obviously, i didn't watch it directly. from everything i heard, it doesn't sound like he did much to really help his case. whenever you don't answer questions directly and you go on and on and answer different things, it doesn't help for your credibility at all. what paula just said about some of the answers at the end, maybe that hurt him. i think this is a case where going into it he had already lost summary judgment, so i think he's already kind of in a bad position where there's not much he can really do to help himself in this case. >> you don't think there's any way if he were to come to the stand and express -- not contrition necessarily, but try to explain his point of view. he has an argument to make -- not you, people may not believe. you have an argument to make about the worth of things might mean more with the trump brand, et cetera, et cetera. there is an argument he could make. if he wasn't attacking the judge, attacking the attorney general, trying to explain his case, might that not win over a judge, not in terms of not fining him, but potentially not fining him $250 million? >> it's one of those judgment calls you have to make in the trial scenario. i've had some cases where you know right off the bat you're going to lose, so you might as well try to build as many points as you can for appeal. i don't know the strategy they're following here. certainly there are things in here that can be explained, other people were doing thing, as far as you said, the value of the trump brand. other things are matters of -- is it plausible. the whole discussion of the size of his atment at the top of trump tower, that's not something tremendously difficult to figure out. all you have to do is look at the footprint of the building. so it is something that i think in the ordinary course you would want to try to explain a little bit better. as i always say in trial, if it's a jury trial, there's only 12 opinions that matter. if it's a judge trial, there's only one opinion that matters. yours isn't it. you have to really play to the decision maker, in this case the judge. >> i've never been tried for anything. i try to imagine, when i get pulled over for speeding, i'm not going to be a jerk to the cop. i'm going to be polite and hope that maybe if i'm nice he'll give me a break. that's obviously not trump's approach. >> right. and one other thing to remember here, this is a civil case where he does not have a fifth amendment privilege ledge. in a criminal case or if you get stopped by the cops, you don't have to say anything at all and it won't be held against you. in this case he is forced to testify. in fact, he was called as a witness by the attorney general's office. so they had to do a direct examination instead of a cross. >> trump is facing criminal cases over his handling of classified documents, allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election results. this case is personal. the future of the trump organization in new york is at stake. do you think that makes him nervous? what do you think it means to him? >> i think this one, not only is it the entire life's work that he's built up before the presidency, but it also involves his kids. if he goes down for the january 6th case or the mar-a-lago case, that doesn't really involve his family. this is something that directly implicates the conduct of his children and something that would have much longer lasting effects. i think that's one of the reasons he's taking it so much more personally than the other cases. >> why do you think trump's team chose to not cross-examine him today? did that strike you as strange at all? would you have done a cross-examination to at least try to clean up whatever messes he made? >> of course i would. i think any competent attorney would try to do a cross-examination, even if it's a fairly rudimentary one. as to what chris kise and alina habba have as far as strategy, that's not something i can possibly guess. >> tim paratore, good to see you. thank you for your time. we have breaking news for you now. flares are lighting up the gaza sky as we hear a new round of explosions. let's get straight to cnn's nic robertson who is in sderot, israel, near the gaza border. that's one of the communities that hamas brutally invaded and attacked on october 7th. nick, walk us through what you're hearing and seeing on the ground there. >> reporter: just heard a large detonation behind us in the distance. i believe you can see there images from inside gaza, flares illuminating the sky. we're perhaps a little north of there, looking into gaza from further away. we were able to see about four or five flares hanging in the sky. we can see -- we were able to see those flares a short time ago from here. earlier on there were more flares over that same area, over the past couple nights in that part of gaza, we've been able to see flares and hear detonations and at times see some very, very heavy detonations, multiple detonations. right now i'm listening to a fighter plane in the sky above us. we know on the ground, in gaza city itself and surrounding it, the israel defense forces have been about and poised to go in on the ground. of course, this is dangerous territory for them because hamas for them sort of controls these streets, until now at least. they can create what the military will call a killing zone to draw in the troops on the ground, in their tanks, in their armored fighting vehicles and try to block them off with explosions, pin them in and then fire on the piercing rocket propelled grenades at them. that's the military tactics of what can play out on the ground. we know the idf has now cut the gaza strip in two. they've opened humanitarian corridors between the north and the south that they're opening for civilians to move along during certain hours of the day. it's at nighttime that we intend to see some of the heaviest bombardments. we're hearing just a little bit of it at the moment right now, jake. >> all right. nic robertson, thank you so much. we're going to continue to monitor this breaking news. stay with us, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. former president trump wrapping up his -- shall we call it reality tv behavior in a very real civil fraud trial in new york. the drama, and there certainly was a lot of it, was seen both inside and outside the courtroom. cnn's kristen holmes is outside trump tower in manhattan. how have those within trump's circle been reacting to his dramatic testimony today. >> reporter: trump campaign advisers were happy with his performance. they immediately starting turning quotes from the judge, taking them out of context and using them on social media to portray this as a sham case, just a reminder of how this messaging is, they wanted those sound bites. obviously there was no camera inside the courtroom, but we have reporters in there essentially pushing out what exactly trump was saying. what was interesting about it was we knew he was going to go to the cameras and say this stuff about election interference, it being a political retribution, that it was his rivals or democrats were coming to get him. that's the reason he was going through all these various trials because he is, in fact, running for president and they don't want him to win. what was interesting was that he did that in the courtroom as well. one of trump's advisers saying to me they thought he did a good job because of the fact he was controlling the messaging. they said turning this into the trump show. so that's why they were happy with the way it turned out today. >> how did trump's testimony give us any idea of how he'll fight for his presidential campaign? >> reporter: jake, this is exactly how he's going to fight for his presidential campaign, talking about the election interference, talking about how this is all political. we know the messaging between the legal world and political world has combined. he doesn't want to fight any of these cases in an actual courtroom. he wants to fight all these casss in the court of public opinion. take a listen to just one of the things he said today about this. >> it's very unfair. in the meantime, the people of the country understand it, they see it, and they don't like it, they don't like it. it's political warfare as you would call it, or political lawfare. >> reporter: jake, i get asked all the time what people on the campaign trail think, what do voters think. i will tell you, it's not just his base listening to this rhetoric and picking up on it. i've talked to republicans who attend these events who aren't sure they're going to support donald trump, but they do believe this messaging, that there's a two-tiered justice system, that it's unfair and people are targeting donald trump. that's something they're going to continue to message out there. i, of course, want to draw attention to the polls we saw over the weekend, "new york times" times polls leading head-to-head in the battleground states against joe biden. that's all the team talked about on sunday before this testimony, these poll numbers. when they see those kind of polls, that doesn't make them change their strategy. it makes them double down on it. >> kristen holmes, thank you so much. major elections in several states tomorrow will likely give us a preview of what 2024 will look like from the trump factor to the momentum of democrats, to abortion rights on the ballot in the wake of the roe v. wade decision. we'll talk about it next. is it possible my network could take my business to the next level? it is with comcast business. powering all your devices with gig-speed wifi. and you get fast downloads and uploads. pick it up! pick it up! oh we got this! because it's powered by the next generation 10g network. more speed for your business? it's not just possible. it's happening. get started for $59.99 a month for 12 months. plus, ask how to get an $800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. comcast business, powering possibilities. cnn election music. you're going to be hearing this election music quite a bit over the next 36 hours. tomorrow is election day in some parts of the united states. we'll be looking for what actual voters, not pundits, not repo reporters, actual voters have to say about issues and candidates that will resonate everywhere in next year's presidential election. a governor's race in kentucky which is usually reliably republican. the governor's race will test whether a moderate democratic can hold into power. in ohio we'll see whether voters push back against efforts to restrict abortion. they're also going to weigh in on legalizing marijuana. in virginia we're going to find out whether voters want to maintain divided control over the state legislature or give republicans a clean sweep. it's going to be a big test for the governor there, glenn youngkin, on whether his version of conservative governance can triumph over trump's. we have reporters in one state and two commonwealthses. jessica dean, youngkin is pushing for a totally republican legislature to enact his agenda, his version of the republican party, a conservative future but not a maga future? >> reporter: that's exactly right. that's exactly what's on the ballot here in virginia. the governor is sprinting across the state in the final hours trying to get out the vote. just to remind everyone, the reason we look to virginia in these off years is because oftentimes what their legislature does correlates with what happens at the national election the following year. in 2019, democrats flipped both the house and the senate, then joe biden won this state by ten points in 2020. in 2021 republicans took back the house, and of course in 2022 republicans took back the house in congress. so that is what we see in terms of patterns here. oftentimes they mimic what happens nationally. jake, you mentioned glenn youngkin's agenda. he has tried to put forth a number of issues and legislations that the senate democrats have blocked. chief among them, virginia remains the only southern state that has not enacted any further restrictions since roe v. wade was overturned in 2022. youngkin pushed for a 15-week ban with exceptions for incest, rape and the life of the mother, but that was blocked. that is one of the key issues that drove the turnout. we'll see what happens here in virginia tomorrow night. >> now on to eva mckend in the commonwealth of kentucky. how do they have a democratic governor in the first place and does andy beshear have any hope of winning a second term? >> reporter: jake, governor bashir is going to hold a rally here in about an hour. he enters the final stretch with key advantages, one being his name. his father served as governor here for two terms. he's also been at the help during several tragedies, the pandemic, natural disasters. all the while he really dismissed partisanship during those efforts, really branding those efforts, emphasizing to kentuckians they're all on the same team. that's why when you talk to some trump supporters, they say they like governor beshear and are willing to give him four more years. cameron presents a real threat to the incumbent democratic. cameron has worked tirelessly to tie beshear to president biden. he also has spent a lot of time attacking beshear for his record during the pandemic, arguing more needs to be done to work with the republican state legislature to address learning loss. a lot of folks expecting this race to be very clear. >> kyung lah is in ohio where abortion is on the ballot. voters have a chance to say yes or no with what the republican governors want. >> reporter: you have republican governors saying they want to make sure that abortion and recreational marijuana, yes, they're both on the ballot. it is absolutely issue one, abortion rights that will be what drives voters. that's what we're hearing from advocates. that's what you're seeing when you talk to the voters themselves. what is issue one? it's a measure where voters in a republican-controlled state are being asked to protect abortion rights. that's what is at stake. that's what we will be looking at to capture the national sentiment of republicans and independents and how they feel regarding abortion. we spent some time in franklin county. this is a county that's highly populous. we saw a lot of ballots still being dropped off. early vote numbers statewide certainly show there's a lot of interest. it is expected, if these trends continue -- if you look at early vote numbers and moving forward, that it is going to potentially be a high voter turnout for this off-year election, higher than in 2019, the last off-year election. those that are against issue one say they're focusing on the rural counties. those who want to pass this measure say they're framing this as a non-partisan issue, hoping to win over these independents. >> big races and big issues at state. kyung lah, eva mckend and jessica dean, thank you very much. i'll be talking to all three of you all night, tomorrow night. get some coffee brewing. what political watchers will be looking for in these elections tomorrow. we're back with that next. welcome back to "the lead." we're 70 days away from the iowa caucuses. tomorrow local races could provide clues about the national mood ahead of next year's presidential election. so let's bring back this august political panel. jonah goldberg and kate bed ding field. let me start by just asking which races tomorrow are you particularly interested in. let me start with you, kate? >> i'm particularly interested in ohio in part because abortion is so cleanly on the ballot. we've seen it's been such a motivator for voters across the country. it was in the midterms. we've seen it in a number of ballot initiatives. >> just to be clear, this is a referendum that the abortion rights community has written to put in the constitution. >> exactly, which ohio voters voted on earlier this year as well and voted to allow it to go forward and to not change the rules to make it harder to get it on the ballot, if that makes sense. so i'm just interested to see, particularly in an increasingly red state like ohio, how this fares tomorrow. actually abortion across the board in all of these races is going to be interesting to see because a lot of these candidates, governor beshear in kentucky have made this central to their argument. i'm interested to see how this will play out tomorrow night. >> jonah? >> i agree. historically abortion was good for voter turnout and fund-raising it seems it has flipped since dobbs. that will be the big story. if they do this in ohio, a state that trump carried by eight, that will be a big deal. i'm also sort of interested, one of my favorite endangered spee sees are southern modern democrats. if andy beshear could actually survive in a state that is so thoroughly republican, that will be very inte