♪ the voters have spoken. the message they are sending now today to republicans and democrats alike after last night's big election. it is debate day in america. donald trump is skipping, but the five candidates who are showing up, they are already planning sharper attacks. which candidate absolutely needs a knockout punch? and michigan congresswoman rashida tlaib censured over her comments about israel, how she's responding to the rare and stunning rebuke. i'm sara sidner with kate bolduan and john berman. this is "cnn news central." forget reading the tea leaves anymore, forget analyzing polling data. this morning we have new and concrete data from the voters themselves who went to the polls in multiple states. democrats appear to be breathing a sigh of relief, republicans maybe some of them left scratching their heads about what this means today. one issue that voters seem to speak with a loud voice on yesterday is abortion rights. an increasingly conservative ohio even voters from districts that have supported donald trump moved to approve a constitutional right to access to abortion and, remember, this is a state that voted twice for donald trump. in virginia democrats won control of both the statehouse and the state senate and that means the republican-controlled legislature that the republican governor glenn youngkin was hoping for is not happening. abortion a key issue in those races as well. in kentucky governor andy beshear locked in a second term in that deep red state. despite millions of dollars of super pac money stacking up against him all of this means a lot for today and could offer important insights for tomorrow, and by tomorrow i mean 2024. let's start with cnn's eva mckend in louisville, kentucky, for us this morning. great to see youaeva. what are you hearing after the big night last night for andy beshear. >> reporter: kate, democrats are waking up this morning in this state elated that they are still viable in a state this red. they weren't as successful, though, in down-ballot races but they really attribute governor beshear's victory to a number of factors, one of them being he spent the critical final weeks of the campaign speaking directly to trump supporters in rural pockets of the state, including in places like western and eastern kentucky. he spoke to that strategy, that spirit of inclusivity during his victory speech last night. let's listen. >> this election shows who we are as kentuckians. we are a proud people who take care of each other. we believe in the golden rule that says we love our neighbor as ourselves and the parable the good samaritan that says we are all each other's neighbors, no exceptions. >> reporter: now, another potent issue in this race was the issue of abortion. there is a near total abortion ban in this state and he talked about how republicans really pushed for no exceptions for rape or incest, and if beshear could be successful in a state like this one centering this issue no doubt democrats across the country are going to try to replicate this strategy as we head into 2024. >> eva mckend in louisville, thank you. >> let's talk more about abortion rights because in ohio they voted to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution by a margin of 13 points. that is particularly significant because ohio is a state that voted for donald trump by 8 points. so an 8-point trump victory and a 13-point victory for abortion rights. let's dig deeper there. let me show you counties that donald trump won, every county colored here orange or green is a county that donald trump won. the green counties are counties that voted for abortion rights. so you can see these are counties that voted for trump and abortion rights. it provides a little bit of a target for democrats as they run around the country. and there is a little more information we can glean from this. let's talk about the suburbs here. i think analysts look at the suburbs as a key battleground, maybe the key battleground in 2024. again, every county that's colored here is considered a suburban county. these counties i'm going to circle them voted for abortion rights in ohio and i just want to show you these green counties voted for abortion rights, if we go back to the presidential election, these suburban counties, many of them voted for donald trump. there is a little blue in there, but there is a lot of red. a lot of red trump counties in the suburbs are supporting abortion rights. you can bet democrats are looking at this map, kate, and they are considering how to adjust their campaigns in 2024. >> absolutely. and that map is visually extremely informative. let's talk more about this. cnn's senior political analyst john avalon is here. let's start where john just left off. what, then, from what we see in these districts -- john, please come over -- what, then frrks what we see in these districts should be the instruction for republicans in ohio and beyond and also democrats in ohio and beyond when we are talking about the issue of abortion? >> i think berman laid it out graphically so well because it's the suburbs, it's swing voters that make swing states and suburbs are usually the swing. with the overturning of roe that was done not through any, you know, voting process, but through the judges, many of who promised that it would stay in place, all of a sudden the issue of freedom ingot recast in democrats' freedom. the essence of pro choice and how that's different. the maximalist positions don't reflect the majority of american people. they had been told the right was theirs for half a century. >> they felt this way for a while but it hasn't been motivating them. >> now it is because it was taken away. even in these sort of center-right suburban districts people are saying, no, that should not be the government's decision. we are going to preserve that now in the constitution. it's a push back against i think the extreme edge of the maga agenda and that's one of the big take a ways from last night. i think you see over and over again donald trump and his policies and the people carrying it forward to its more extreme ends are absolutely toxic to the center of the political spectrum. >> how far can democrats take abortion rights in 2024 and are there any limits if it is trump at the top of the republican ticket because, remember, trump -- and i will let you analyze this, yes, he put all those supreme court just sis on the court, however, he has a position on a lot of abortion rights issues in states that is what might be considered more moderate than some of his opponents. >> donald trump is not a conviction politician, maybe in the legal sense, but not in the moral sense when it comes to abortion certainly. but he has taken credit for appointing these judges, he has embraced this. nikki haley, for example, is trying to carve out a broad middle ground saying that, look, we have to find some middle ground to come together. donald trump is not in the middle ground business. donald trump is in the divide and demonize business. he's going to have a hard time hughing that. democrats can't make everything about abortion but this is the seventh consecutive a election where attempts to further restrict abortion access in the wake of dobbs have been rejected even in red states. that's a very clear message. >> i would say after seven times you should start listening. phil mattingly this morning spoke to biden -- the biden campaign's principal deputy campaign manager, asked him to explain the disconnect between democrats' performance in midterms and last night and the struggling poll numbers that are facing biden right now. here is what he said. >> look, what we saw last night is maga extremism fail. we saw maga -- the maga agenda fall flat on its face. we do not feel like there is a disconnect at all. in fact, we feel like this is exactly what our campaign has been saying in the midst of this and so i'm extremely excited for the results tonight, i want to applaud all the campaigns across the country who worked their tails off to get this done. >> the sign of someone who hasn't slept overnight is the sign of someone who still talks about tonight. >> good catch. >> regardless, what do you think of that? >> i think he has a point. i think he absolutely has a point. there were a lot of pundits and analysts who were predicting a red wave in the midterm elections that's how the pendulum politics usually swing. it didn't happen. and we saw again last night, i mean, major tickets -- to be clear, andy beshear shows you can be a red state democrat but down ballot republicans did very well, but he can point -- the biden team can look at this, it shouldn't call them to ignore all the polling that says there is a problem with perceptions around the president. that said, as we've talked about, the special election record this year has been decidedly in democrats' favor, far ahead of the partisan splay in any specific state. this is a continuation of that story. it's really republicans who should be doing the soul searching right now. what's their problem? i think their problem is a perception they've been captured by extremes as embodied and personal if i had by donald trump. >> john avalon, great to have you here. >> always, guys. all right. sara sidner, by the way, welcome back. >> welcome back. >> thank you. thank you. it's good to be back. i'm going from politics to politics in case you guys haven't noticed. >> welcome back. exactly. >> it's a debate day. tonight five republican presidential hopefuls will take the stage in miami, but once again, former president trump he is not going to be there. it's the smallest debate stage yet with several candidates exiting the race and others failing to qualify. so you only have five people on that stage instead of verbally sparring with the other contenders, though, donald trump is holding a rally, practically down the street, because he is still the front runner. steve contorno joins us from miami this morning. what can we expect to see tonight? we have just had the special election, there are lots of things to debate and talk about, but the one person they are up against isn't going to be there. >> reporter: that's right, share ration but with that smaller field and with donald trump not there, this could be an opportunity for some of these candidates to get more time to explain and make their case to the american people and the republican voters and for them to challenge each other a bit more. we have certainly seen these candidates suggest that they are going to go toe to toe a little bit more than we have in previous debates. for example, nikki haley's camp put out a pre debate memo where they called desantis a, quote, sinking ship. desantis had his own pre debate spin, they called nikki haley a, quote, spoiler candidate who will only help to nominate donald trump. these two especially more than anyone have been on a collision course heading into this debate. we have seen nikki haley rising in the polls, forcing ron desantis to confront her a little bit more. desantis is struggling to maintain his support as he goes into these early nominating contests. tonight will be critical for them to both make their case that they deserve to be the top alternative to donald trump. for the rest of the field it's their chance to say that they deserve to still be part of the conversation, the debate stage has shrunk after each debate and the fourth debate will be even harder to make. for tim scott, vivek ramaswamy and for chris christie it's a chance for hem to say we're still in this race. >> it will be interesting to see because with five people you're going to hear a lot more from each of those candidates. thank you for the update. coming up for us, moments ago ivanka trump arrived at a manhattan courthouse where she is going to be taking the stand this morning in the civil trial against her father and her family. there has been plenty of drama as you well know leading up to her testimony so what to expect from inside the courtroom today. also with donald trump skipping another debate, what the five candidates who will be taking the stage are going to do about it tonight. and democrats divided this morning over a rare rebuke of one of their own, congresswoman rashida tlaib censured by the house for her comments on the israel-hamas war. we will be right back. as we speak ivanka trump is at the courthouse in new york, she will take the stand in her father's 2r50 million civil fraud trial. she will be the fourth member of the trump family to testify and she will likely be pressed about accusations that trump inflated his assets to obtain favorable bank loans for the family's real estate empire. she didn't want to testify but the court said she had to. cnn's kara scannell joins us now from outside the courthouse in new york. kara, what might we learn from ivanka trump? she is one of the children who is not named in this indictment -- in this case -- i shouldn't say indictment. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, sara. she is no longer in this civil lawsuit after the judge had removed her from the case, but her testimony here is something that the new york attorney general's office wants because she was involved in some of the deals, the deals at issue in this case. remember, this is a lawsuit alleging that fraudulent financial statements were given to banks and insurers to get more favorable rates on loans. so ivanka trump is the one who introduced the trump organization to one of their big lenders, deutsche bank, and she was involved in several deals including a golf course in florida, doral, and the old post office building in washington, d.c. the questions she will be facing will involve her knowledge of the financial statements, she has denied having any knowledge of them, as well as what her conversations were with bankers, what representations she made to them and that they may have relied on. so that's going to be the key piece of her testifying today. now, when her testimony wraps, and this could go into tomorrow because trump's lawyers say that they are going to cross-examine her, unlike the other trumps who have testified, when that wraps, which could be tomorrow, that is when the new york attorney general's office is going to rest their case. they're seeking $250 million but so far what has come out in testimony through expert witnesses, one expert witness said that they had -- that the trumps had received $168 million in improper gains by getting these better interest rates. during trump's testimony there was also some evidence that came in that showed on the old post office building which they sold recently that they had received $139 million. so that brings that total of potential ill-gotten gains now to $307 million. so that is a new knowledge that we are looking at that was kind of overlooked during trump's testimony and she may be asked about that today because she really worked on this old post office building project. so once they rest, though, then it will be trump's turn. his lawyers say that they will start his defense on monday and that that could go until mid-december. sara? >> kara scannell doing the math for us this early morn. thank you. >> joining us is jeremy saland. she's taking the stand, she will testify, but why do you think she worked so hard to avoid testifying? >> we hear this term intimate knowledge and she was involved just like her brothers and there is no doubt that she is a person that has that hands-on knowledge. she was the person who had to make sure certain loans were paid, made introductions with deutsche bank. she made some money on the sale of the post office. she was a person the former president routinely turns to as the iconic person in that family to be trusted. i don't think she wants to throw anyone under the bus and she has a pristine image as well so she wants to stay away and not be a part of this, even though she's removed from the actual charges. >> it is interesting, in the political sense she has been removed from trump world, it seems she has tried to do so for the last couple of years. >> years. >> she is not a defendant. >> she is not. >> in this case. how does that make her a different and perhaps even more threatening witness to the dense defense? >> she doesn't have as much at stake. it is her name and the family business she stands to inherit. could she perjure herself and face charges, certainly, but she doesn't have the same incentive to be as avoidant and bombastic and challenging as her brothers are. i think she still has exposure but not the exposure we think of the actual dollars and actual liability. >> i'm wondering do you think she can take that route that don jr. and eric did claiming ignorance, claiming below my pay grade. they did that you could argue with a varying degree of success from the stand. do you think she can do that? >> i don't think she does it in the same way. i think that she has put herself out there as someone different. she didn't go out there and support her father's new campaign, she did not go and say, you know, january 6th that i believe my father was actually won the election. she's always removed herself. i don't think she's going to take that same offensive and challenging tach, i think should be a lot more gentle and calm, but at the same time even though she doesn't have liability she's going to want to corroborate as best she can that it was someone else, it was the accountants who did this. we may be the fiduciaries, but we're looking up from way above not in the minutia. >> who is we here? does she testify -- what does she say when asked what did don jr. do? what did you see eric do? what did you see your father do? >> i think a lot of that we saw in the deposition, she did not point blame at her father, she said i don't really know, i don't know what's his and what's mine, i separate it. i don't think that she's going to point the fingers at her siblings, i think she's going to keep that same tune and same theme of we are here, yes, we have roles but it's not the thing that you believe it is that we are caught up in actually looking at it and understanding it. that's the accountant. >> the fact that she is not a co-defendant in this, does the state and attorney general approach her differently? >> i think that you approach her differently -- first of all, it's on direct, you are not cross exam i think. i think it will be a much more formal of what you would expect to see. what you have seen or at least what we've heard is not really how a trial unfolds, it's been all over the place. i expect them to be a lot more calm and assertive and direct with her and i think she will be a little more forthcoming, a little being the operative word. >> of course, ivanka trump on the stand very shortly. stay tuned for that. israel gives gaza residents more time to flee south as israeli troops are said to be deep inside gaza city. we're getting new reporting in on what the five candidates showing up to the debate tonight intend to say about each other and about donald trump. all right. breaking news, moments ago we heard from new york attorney general letitia james, she spoke on the courthouse step minutes before we are to hear from ivanka trump who takes the witness stand in the civil fraud trial against her father and her father's business. let's listen to the attorney general. >> donald trump, her brothers and the trump organization, ivanka trump secured, negotiated loans to obtain favorable terms based on fraudulent statements of financial condition, and she will attempt today to distance herself from the company, but unfortunately the facts will reveal that, in fact, she was very much involved. we uncovered the scheme and she benefited from it personally and ms. trump will do all that she can to try to separate herself from this corporation, but s