♪ ♪ happening now. ivanka trump under oath testifying in the civil fraud trial against the trump organization. we have a new update on what she just said on the stand. when it comes to abortion rights, the message from voters after last night, can you hear me now? the seventh consecutive election were attempts to further restrict abortion access since the supreme court stepped in. >> tonight we're down to five, five republican presidential candidates will face off on the debate stage in miami. trump, the front-runner skipping out once again to take the spotlight elsewhere just down the street, by the way. i'm sara sidner with kate bolduan and john berman. this is "cnn news central." ♪ ♪ all right. happening now at this moment, ivanka trump is on the witness stand in a new york courtroom. she's been there for nearly an hour or so testifying in the civil fraud trial against her father and the family business. she is no longer a defendant herself in this case, but she is clearly important to the state's case, as she is their final witness. we have new information about what she is being asked and what she is answering and let's get right to cnn's chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid. what is happening now, paula? >> so far this appearance has been quite a contrast to her father's appearance on the witness stand earlier this week which was quite combative and chaotic. the questions have focused on her time at the trump organization. she left the family business in 2017 when she went to the white house, but the government has been asking her questions about specific projections that she worked on while she was there. they've been focused, for example, on the old post office building here in washington, d.c., which was converted into a hotel. it was a project that she worked on and she said that yeah, she did profit from its eventual sale in 2022. she did not disclose how much she made. we previously reported it was around $4 million, and they've asking her about other projects like the doral resort and spa down in florida and they are especially interested how financing was secured for these properties. her role in that because it gets to the heart of the case and specifically loans that were received from deutsche bank and she's loans had quite favorable terms. they were granted those kinds of loans, based on trump's purported net worth and that gets to the heart of this case. the allegation that he did not accurately represent the value of his assets to get more favorable terms on loans and the insurance companies. so it was a part of the questioning and it has been selfized and technical and that's pretty much when we expecteded from this witness. ivanka is no longer a co-defendant in this case, but the attorney general's office has been seeking to secure her testimonial though she's tried several different times to get out of this appearance before today's proceedings got under way and the attorney general addressed cameras to talk about why they wanted to hear from ivanka. let's take a listen. >> we uncovered the scheme and she benefited from it personally, and miss trump will do all that she can to try to separate herself from this corporation and she's ine trickably tied to the trump organization and to these properties that she helped secure financing for so you cannot hide from the truth, and the facts will belie the truth and the evidence. >>. >> no cameras in the courtroom while ivanka is tough, but we have our colleagues in the courtroom giving us live updates about what she says. she is expected to be the prosecution's last witness in this case. >> all right. keep us posted and she is on the stand right now and as this testimony develops, paula reed, thank you. >> let's continue this conversation with former assistant special watergate prosecutor nick akerman and he's u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. okay. we watched ivanka trump walk in like she owned the place. she's now on the stand, a very different moment. most people get very nervous when sitting there and having to be questioned under oath. i am curious she is the fourth member of the trump family to testify. what are they going to try to get out of her because in this case, she was taken out of this case as a defendant. >> she does add some important elements here. for example, she was the principal person of the trump organization that was turned into that hotel that donald trump used to house various foreign diplomats to get lots of money for himself while he was president, but what she did was in negotiating with deutsche bank for the loan, a $170 million loan, it was very clear that deutsche bank wanted personal financial statements from donald trump. not only to make the $170 million loan, but to keep it going all of those years, and the reason is obvious. donald trump filed for bankruptcy six different times, and what it does is it undercuts his testimony last week that the banks really didn't care. they clearly cared and if the ag is careful they will delineate all of these conversations about how important those financial statements were to getting that $170 million loan. >> can you give us the overview of what hangs in the balance here in we are hearing these details and you're seeing family members come up and you're seeing the contention between donald trump and the judge, his lawyer and the judge and this is over money. >> lots of mono. at least $50 million the a.g. is trying to receive and basically at this point, donald trump is toast. he is going to basically found to be a liar by the judge here, but what people haven't focused on is not just his testimony last week, but it is also the testimony he gave in his deposition where he took the fifth amendment over 400 times. what does it mean to take the fifth amendment? it means that you are refusing to answer a question because a truthful answer would tend to be incriminating. then what did donald trump do last week? he went into court and said i didn't do anything fraudulent. i wasn't involved in a fraud which is just the opposite of, in effect, he was saying when he took the fifth amendment in his deposition. so you've got contradictory testimony. you can use his assertion of the fifth amendment against him to basically find that he's lying, that he's manipulating the system when he goes in and refuses to answer questions and answers the questions in a half-baked manner. i just don't see how this judge at the the end of the day is not going to found that with respect to donald trump, liar, liar, pants on fire. >> i knew you were going to say that and this is where we are going to end it here. we are going back to elementary school and it is elemental that you either are telling the truth or not on the stand and everyone has the right to plead the fifth and this is a civil trial and not a criminal trial and that could get you in trouble in a civil trial as opposed to a criminal trial. >> i have been practicing civil law for well over 40 years and i've had a number of defendants take the fifth amendment. i have never seen anybody do such a stupid move as to suddenly start testifying after you've taken the fifth. >> very unusual move. nick akerman, thank you. always good to see you. >> hold the house and flip the senate. that was the rallying chant and wish coming from virginia's republican governor leading up to last night. so now that the results are in, what's the message that virginia voters are sending back to that popular republican governor? democrats winning control of both the house and the senate there. voters offered up another big message in ohio last night voting to solidify the constitutional right to abortion access in that state even in areas where trump has won handling in a state that has voted for trump twice. let's get to virginia, jessica, abortion is what we talked about yesterday, not on the ballot in virginia, but it was an issue. what are you hearing there today after last night? >>s can as you can imagine, kate, demeanor democrats in shirj shirj are thrilled about how they were able to flip the house and effect ofly ride provide a block cade to governor glenn youngkin's trifecta overstate government and so they're very happy and the question is what happens to governor glenn youngkin? who is this rising star in the republican party who is conservative, but not quite maga and this was a test run for so much of his agenda, his message. he was not on the ballot as you mentioned and he did go all over the commonwealth of virginia selling his message and pitching himself to voters in a way saying if you just give me full republican control and vote for these republican can ats we can enact my agenda and one part of that was this 15-week ban with exception for rape, incest and life of the mother. he really sees that and pitched that as a bit of a compromise that the 15-week ban wouldn't go as far as the heartbeat bills as in iowa. kate, what was very interesting about last night is that voters here in virginia rejected that and they didn't want the compromise and abortion continues to be such a strong issue with democrats and that's when we turn our attention to ohio. you mentioned what happened in ohio, a state that twice voted for trump and still considered a red state and yet voted to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state's constitution and that is where democrats are turning their eyes today and it is also where the republicans are turning their eyes which is the issue of abortion which continues to juice democratic turnouts in states where you wouldn't necessarily expect it. this is ohio being latest in a number of states that have looked at this. now we look to 2024 and how that will play in that race and that is how people in both parties are focused on. kate? >> good to see you, thank you. as jessica is talking about virginia and ohio. later this hour joining us in the show will be the democratic governor of kentucky. andy beshear who just locked in a very big victory last night in his election and that deep red state and a new conversation with them. john? >> why are these people smiling? it is debate day in america. five now republican hopefuls on stage in miami tonight is an alternative to donald trump emerging? new reporting on where things stand for a proposal to pause the fighting in gaza and a brand-new new york times investigation detailing the devastating toll and heavy artillery battle are taking on u.s. troops after they come home. tonight, dueling republican events in florida. five republican presidential candidates are right now preparing for the bright lights once again in the third primary debate that will be held in miami. at the same time donald trump is preparing to thumb his nose at all of them, holding a rally of his own effectively down road. kristen holmes is in hialeah where donald trump will be holding this event tonight. what are you hearing about what trump's going to do tonight? >> yeah, look, donald trump wants a show that will directly compete with the gop debate or overshadow it and his team is trying to deliver that, and that's why they chose this location in hialeah just down the street from where the debate will be held. i've also been told that several vips who would normally go to the debate would go to this event, instead. sarah huckabee sanders will be on stage endorsing him and some of them which previously supported ron desantis and a lot of this is trolling by donald trump and his team. they are angry with the rnc. they have call for the rnc to stop hosting these debates because donald trump has such a commanding lead and one thing they will point out here is that donald trump does have a demanding lead in the polls and if he is to become the nominee he will have to work with the rnc as any nominee would to get help from the general election because of that infrastructure. the interesting way that they're dealing with this now when down the road they do believe they're going to be the nominee and they do believe they'll have to work with the rnc. >> with that in mind, do you think there's any chance at all that donald trump will join any of the later debates? >> i asked an adviser yesterday and they said that our position is that we're not doing any debates until we do a debate. that speak basically means trump will decide whenever trump decides if he wants to do a debate, but everything that i've heard is right now he likes this pattern that he's on of not actually participating in these debates. >> it's like a new form of the funny thing we always laugh about any politician says they're not running until they are running. it's the new form of that. it's good to see you, kristen. thanks so much. john? sometimes news central co-anchor david chalian. what is different about tonight's debate? in addition to the fact and besides the fact there are fewer candidates, how has the race changed? >> i'm not sure that the overall contours of the race has changed, but the environment around the race has changed, john. one thing that is different tonight is the news environment. the israel-hamas war is going to be a central issue here and increasing the time spent on foreign policy for the candidates. we haven't gotten a ton of that in previous debates and we've gotten some of it, and that's one difference here and the other difference is time, right? we are now 68 days, i think, away from the iowa caucuses. so time is running short here for the candidates to actually be executing on their goals to success if they're going to try and stop donald trump from just storming out of the gate and making his path to the nomination without much struggle. >> and each of the first two debates, former south carolina governor nikki haley has seemed to improve her position to the point now where she is arguably in second place, if not tied in second place with florida governor ron desantis. so what do you see her doing, david? punching up at donald trump or punching sideways or down at ron desantis. >> she knows she loves to kick sideways, in the past when she takes on incoming. i think you should pay attention to the center of that stage and how desantis and haley deal with their position as this battle for second place. they have been sort of out on the campaign trail or their super pac supporting them have been launching ads and message points, contrasting with the other and going after the other and let's see if they bring that directly to the stage. neither of them have seemed to shy away from that and certainly not nikki haley. she seems to relish the fight when it's there for her to take, but i think that you will see her do both, john. i think you will see her explain why she doesn't think donald trump is the right candidate for the republican party and that she is and take him on that way and no doubt you will see her take on ron desantis on policy. >> what do you think that ron desantis could do differently than he has in the past? because he has not improved his position either in the debates or overall in the polls? >> yeah. what's amazing is when you look at the makeup of his coalition and the polling, there is a lot of overlap with what would be trump's universe and coalition, as well. that coalition is with trump and it's 61% nationally and he is far, far ahead, but desantis has got to start taking some of that vote share away. more so, i think, than nikki haley who is building a different coalition and they'll need some of his support and ron desantis has to show and really make the play for it's time to abandon donald trump, republicans and come my way. it's not an argument as you've noted that has been successful to date for him. >> no. it's not an argument that he has really leaned into trying to make as directly as you just stated it there. david chalian. great to have you on. sara? >> ahead, a deep red state re-elects a democratic governor. we are speaking with kentucky governor andy beshear. you will hear from him and kate bolduan next. also in gaza, thousands of civilians have fled mostly on foot south as g7 diplomats are calling for humanitarian pauses, but not a cease fire in israel's war with hamas. we'll have more details on that ahead. one of the races that folks are watching most closely last night was the race in kentucky. andy beshear was facing a serious and well-funded challenge from daniel cameron. beshear won locking in a second term and he remained the only in elected state office in that state. here he was last night. >> tonight, kentucky made a choice. [ cheers and applause ] a choice to not move to the right or to the left, but to move forward for every single family. [ cheers and applause ] >> and joining us now for the first tv interview today after the big win last night, governor andy beshear and first lady beshear. said to you during the break this is the first time you joined us and we're not talking about a pandemic or natural disaster that hit your state which speaks to the wild road that you have faced in your term. what do you take from your win last night? >> we've been through a lot in kentucky, from a pandemic to tornadoes, flooding wind storms, ice storms yet we're sitting here today more optimistic and excited about our future than at any point in my lifetime. number two in per capita economic development in the country having brought more for private sector investment in expanding healthcare all across the state. it's an exciting time to be a kentuckyian, they voted for a better future. they pushed out the division and the noise and they simply said, you know, who has a record and who's going to work every day to make my life better for my family? >> first lady beshear, you have been right alongside your husband, your family has throughout. what really became a tough, tough campaign, a tough election cycle, well-funded challenger in daniel cameron. what did this tough election tell you about the political climate right now? >> it's tough. i think that the political climate in our country is extremely divisive and what kentucky voters see in andy is that, as he likes to say, it's not about the right or the left, but it's moving forward and for us that's what matters. it matters that kentucky families have food on the table, that their children can have an education and health care, and i think that the empathy that andy has shown each and every kentuckyian and that each and every kentuckian matters shows the politics of divisiveness and hatred do not have a place in the governor's office in kentucky. >> governor, when you hear people say that your re-election and the way you ran your campaign provides a blueprint for how democrats should being elsewhere and across the country. do you agree? >> i think our blueprint was as simple as show up, get results and care about everybody and don't get distracted by whatever the issue of the day is in washington, d.c. when people wake up in the morning they don't think about president biden or president trump. they think about do they have a good enough job? can they afford to take their kids or parents to the doctor when they're sick? do they feel safe in their community and can their kids get a good education and is the road they drive on to work safe and does it need repairs? those are the things that impact everybody's daily lives and i hope that not just democrat, but republicans and independents go there. you know, you have in of trying to demonize groups of people of driving a wedge between people of the attacks and the anger. how about we all talk about how to improve people's lives and then the electorate can decide who has the better plan or the better ideas or who they trust more to move them forward. >> governor, i think the control room told me you spoke with president biden at some point after the big victory last night. what is your advice that you would offer presi