>> not one for the kids. thank you all for joining us. i'm kasie hunt. don't go anywhere. "cnn this morning" starts right now. good morning, everyone, it's friday. it's friday. >> it makes me happy. >> it makes us happy. we're so glad you're with us to get your morning started here. five things to know, friday, november 10th. election workers receiving suspicious letters in at least five states. some may contain fentanyl. this morning, police are hunting for who sent them. and senator joe manchin says he's not running for reelection. a big blow to democrats and the majority. the move stoking speculation about whether he's going to mount a third-party bid for the white house. one week to avoid a government shutdown, and there's no path to do it. the house is a mess. happening now, israel is announcing a six-hour pause in fighting today. humanitarian corridor now open for people to flea northern gaza as u.s. secretary of state anthony gaza says far too many palestinians have been killed. a maid, wood worker could testify against former president trump in his documents case, and trump went ballistic when the maid was asked to speak to investigators. "cnn this morning" starts right now. ♪ are you hopeful? >> you're going to need more specificity there. oh, no, no, we're back in this game again, and no. they always figure out a way. >> they don't always. >> 17 hours, 58 minutes, 13 seconds and no clear path forward. >> for congress to do its skjob one week left to prevent a government shutdown. the house and senate have gone home for a long holiday weekend. it doesn't look like house republicans have a plan to keep the lights on. their new speaker mike john son failed to pass a spending deal. he's struggling to come up with a deal that won't spark the hard right rebellion that ousted kevin mccarthy. >> he's going to listen to everybody, including the freedom k caucus. he needs almost every one of us to get anything across and the sentiment is to support him as best we can. >> there's a honeymoon period here, i'm not sure how long it lasts, maybe 30 days, with what's going on the floor today, i think that indicates the honeymoon might be shorter than we thought. >> there's cnn east manu raju. we know that. one senior congressman told man you recollect, the house is -- manu, the house is a mess. meanwhile, democrats have suffered a huge blow to their chances of keeping control of the senate. joe manchin announcing he will not seek reelection. that state, of course, is very deep red. >> lauren fox joins us on capitol hill. lauren, what's the plan? >> well, right now, we don't know what the house republican plan is, which is why you have so many republican members who are getting a little bit nervous about what is going to take place next week. yes, lawmakers typically find a way toward, but there's just not that much time to figure it out. and this is a new speaker. no one really knows how mike johnson is going to operate in a crisis, especially as he is getting messaging from his right flank and his moderate members that really is at odds with one another. so that is why you're starting to see so much nervousness in the house of representatives. and just giving you a little sense of what johnson is contending with. yesterday, house republicans had to pull their second year-long appropriations bill of the week because of disagreements between moderates and hard liners. so you're starting to see this play out, and you've heard many members say that they think there's some kind of honeymoon period, but certainly, what happened yesterday on the floor with the financial services appropriations bill shows you that mike johnson has his hands full. meanwhile, the senate is expected to move forward with their own spending plan. potentially jamming the house, if they don't unveil a plan in short order. house republicans probably have until about tomorrow to post their language, post their plan, their path forward, in order to give members the three days that their rules require in order for them to vote on tuesday. obviously everyone is watching very closely at what mike johnson is going to do. >> i have been anxiously awaiting talking to you about this since we've spent so much time over the course of the last six or seven years, trying to figure out what joe manchin is thinking, why he's doing this, what his preferences are. is what he's saying the reality, what's driving it. he's not seeking reelection, why? >> reporter: yeah, he's not seeking reelection, and our colleague, manu raju, asked him shortly before the video was posted what his future plans were, if he was going to run for reelection. he said the time is right when the time is right, and a few minutes later he posted the video that he was not running for reelection. he had a tough race on his hands and i think that obviously is one of the factors here. he says he feels like he's done everything he set out to do for the people of west virginia. the reality is that state is getting more and more red every election cycle, and that is probably one of the toughest challenges. this is a huge blow for democrats because if there was anyone who could pull off a victory for the democrats in that state, it was joe manchin. now obviously they have a number of seats, more than 20 across the country that they're going to be defending. republicans have just ten seats, and this is not the only seat that's in a very red state. you have races in ohio. you have races in montana. and that's before you get to some of those swing states like arizona, nevada. fill it's going to be an up hill climb. >> all as he teases a potential third-party run. this into cnn, the idf has announced a six-hour pause in the military openings to allow civilians to flee to the south. the senior israeli officials say will come each day. 80,000 people traveled south in gaza on thursday to escape the fighting in the north and earlier this morning, the u.s. secretary of state, antony blinken praised that decision but said more needs to be done to help civilians. listen. >> these steps will save lives and enable more assistance to get to palestinians in need. at the same time, much more needs to be done to protect civilians and to make sure that the humanitarian assistance reaches them. far too many palestinians have been killed. far too many have suffered these past weeks. we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them and to maximize the assistance that gets to them. >> our oren liebermann joins us from tel aviv. it's good to have you. can you talk more about what these tactical military pauses mean? i think it's six hours today. >> it is six hours today. it opened three hours ago and will close in another three hours. at least from the israeli perspective, that's how these will work. they'll announce where they are and what time. so far they appear to line up at about the same place, the same location. a major north/south corridor. president joe biden has been pushing for some time now, and hoped it happened earlier. giving the idea in northern gaza, palestinians there, away from where the israeli military is focusing its operation. israel says it has gaza city in northern gaza encircled as two hospitals say israeli strikes have landed close to the hospital. you get a sense of how intense the fighting is and the risk to civilians, especially when you hear antony blinken said. there isn't a promise this will happen every day. that's announced by the israeli military. >> you went, oren with the idf in gaza. can you talk about what you saw? >> reporter: we had an opportunity to go into gaza with the idf. we were under idf escort. they had no control over our reporting or the editorial process for us in putting together our work. we went about a mile into northern gaza and saw what used to be open farmland used by the farmers there. that was completely empty, much destroyed in the fighting. we stopped in a hill overlooking the town of the jabalya, pretty much no matter what direction you looked at, when you saw where civilians used to live, there was destruction to an extent that was stunning, and as we were there, we could hear the fighting, we could hear israeli artillery fired. there were rocketed two kilometers a mile and a half from us into southern israel as red alerts went off in the city of ashdod. we didn't get too close to the front line, but in such a small area, the front line is never far. >> oren liebermann, thank you for the reporting. a maid, a plumber, a chauffeur, this isn't a who done it. we don't have a professor plum or colonel mustard, new exclusive reporting next. suspicious letters, some containing fentanyl sent to election offices in at least six states. what federal law enforcement is saying and doing next. and so i think what you're seeing is just how thorough jack smith's investigation has been, and that there's no one who has seen or heard anything at mar-a-lago regarding these documents who is going to be immune from testifying if they believe they have relevant information. >> that was chris christie reacting to exclusive cnn reporting on the potential witnesses who may testify in donald trump's classified documents trial. sources tell cnn the prosecutors may call several mar-a-lago employees to the stand including a wood worker who installed crown molding in trump's bedroom and noticed stacks of papers. a maid who clean trump's suite and a plumber who has worked at the property for years. a chauffeur, who had visited as vip guests. joining us is errol louis, and former assistant district attorney for new york, elie honig. this team is fascinating and gives an in-depth window on what's going on. the idea these are not political aides, these are not people close in trump's orbit. what does this tell you about where prosecutors are on this? >> the other thing they're not is corroborating witnesses. they're not criminals. so often that's how you make a case, call a criminal to the stand, the defense attacks them. here they're putting their case together. you can see the case taking shape naming normal people. i would have loved to have a wood worker when i was trying a case. it looks like a combination of these people on the inside, as long as you have eyes and ears, you can see and hear things, you can be a witness, and then they have documents, video surveillance footage, and you can really see the shapes of this case taken together. i have said all along, i think this is the strongest of the four cases in terms of the evidence and the match between the evidence. >> it's also the least likely case to be played out before the election given what judge canyon said a couple of weeks ago. >> she made it clear she would rather see it happen after the election. on the other hand, a lot of it is going to play out to the extent it has any political impact at all, it's going to play out as we see the evidence, as we hear the testimony, as we get these witnesses to talk about what they know and what they have seen. that is going to set the mood in a way. even if the legal part of it is decided after the election, a lot of people are going to take this into account. like elie says, this is pretty easy to understand. this isn't about financial documents and whether or not you over estimated what you told the insurance company. this is about somebody saying, a house cleaner, i came in and there was paper all over the floor. >> isn't our reporting, some people that were inside the room when trump allegedly discussed that iran document as well, right, that we've heard audio of. >> i sense this is going to be about the mood, what was going on in mar-a-lago rg, how seriou was this. was this idle chitchat over drinks or laying out there for all to see. it's going to be the heart of the case for the government. >> i think you're right, and as chris christie said, jack smith is being clinical about this. i think he's going to be able to show the jury with precision where every box went, when and who took it there. i think that's going to be an important part of the case. >> it's just a fascinating contrast, given what the former president said in an interview last night on univision. we talked about the depth of jack smith's case, what they have laid out, the witnesses they have talked to, and trump saying this. listen. >> something that allows the next party. if i happen to be president and i see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly, ikz -- i say go down and indict them. mostly, they would be out of business. they would be out. they would be out of the election. >> i want to pause because one that's not what's happening here as we have all laid out repeatedly, and the indictment does as well. those aren't flippant remarks, that's insane. >> if he says he's going to do this, i believe him. if we look back at the first trump administration, maybe it will be the only one, maybe the first of two, donald trump would often call for the prosecution of his political enemies, whether it was james comey, andy mccabe, the prosecution of joe biden, barack obama, hillary clinton, and i'm going to defend someone like bill barr who i wrote a negative book about, but bill barr had a line he would not cross. big barr ignored those. he wasn't going to go out and indict barack obama or andy mccabe. what donald trump is telling us, i'm going to pick different types of people the next time around, people who don't even have that line, and that to me is really really dangerous. >> to be clear, there's no check on that. there's no body that is a check on that. >> people can defend themselves and certainly try and either counter sue or -- >> i'm saying the official act. >> that's right. and that's why we have to be careful about who and how we pick our presidents. this is real serious stuff, and you have to take him at his word. this whole idea that weaponization, you know, they're weaponizing the justice department by looking into what i did at mar-a-lago. a lot of that is going to fall apart when these witnesses come forward. they're not weapons. they're just people who sort of, you know, work at mar-a-lago. the rest of us have to take seriously the idea that donald trump has announced that he's going to make that the standard. that's a campaign promise he made. if you vote for me, this is what i'm going to do to the justice system. >> thank you both. stick around. so senator joe manchin says he will not run for reelection. why some think the west virginia democrat can launch a presidential bid. you're looking at gaza city this morning, the humanitarian pause will be extended to six hours. could these pauses be a potential breakthrough for getting hostages out. we're going to ask someone who's involved in hostage situations with hamas. that's ahead. new overnight, president biden saying at a closed door fundraiser that the supreme court's decision over roe v. wade galvanized america. referring to the supreme court opinion that lets states decide if abortion should be legal. he tied donald trump to the decision saying he's the only reason there are abortion bans in america. his comments after voters supported the right to abortion access at the poll, despite republican lawmakers trying to flip the political issues saying democratic opinions on abortion are extreme. john avlon has a reality check on that. >> look, if anyone thought overturning roe would cool abortion culture wars by kicking it to the states. they have had a rude awakening. ohio voters enshrined abortion rights, including deep red states like ki kentucky, kansas and montana. republicans are reeling. others are trying to make democrats sound like the real extremists. here's ohio governor mike dewine on election day. >> allow an abortion right up until the time of birth. >> here's senator tim scott on the debate stage. >> i would not allow states like california, illinois, or new york to have abortion up until the day of birth. >> now, the talking points are clear, right. it's the specter of abortion on demand, well into the third trimester, all at the hands of morally monstrous liberals, but it begs the question, how often do third trimester abortions actually occur in america. and the answer is very very rarely. get this. in 2020, 93% of abortions occurred in the first trimester, according the cdc, another 6% between 14 and 20 weeks, early in the second trimester, less than 1% were performed at 21 weeks or more, which is to say third trimester abortions are vanishingly rare, and almost always because of fetal abnormalities or a medical emergency that threatens the life of the mother. while the number of people who support abortion rights at the first trimester is at record levels, it's important to note that the number of abortions have been going down in america since 1990, decades before the overturning of roe. this is a deeply personal issue. you can believe every abortion is a tragedy, and also believe it's a decision that should be made by a woman, her doctor, her family and her god, not the government. most americans don't hold extreme views on abortion, with the majority saying it should be legal in some circumstances. we're not as divided as activists have us believe. we'll find more common ground when we stop demonizing people. that's your reality check. >> thank you so much for that, the facts matter especially on an issue like this. >> facts always matter, especially when there's a lot of fear mongering. cold front sweeping toward the east coast after a recording breaking 80 degree temperatures in some regions this week. meteorologist derek van dam with us now. it's going to get chilly. >> good to see you. this cold front is making a change for many across the southeast. what a difference a day makes, you can see that. in memphis and nashville, your region cooled your temperature by 20 degrees this time yesterday. a significant difference. plan accordingly. plenty of rain associated with this front as well. that band of rain stretches from the rio grande all the way from the nations capital over 1,500 miles. desperately needed rainfall, places like jackson and alexandria. guess what, you haven't had any meaningful rain, 1 inch or more since 7 months ago. below average in terms of rainfall, picked up on our drought monitor across louisiana. 73% of the state under exceptional drought in the next five days will put a dent to this, and we will time this for the weekend. expect a soggy weekend across the deep south, and we do have the potential for our first significant late autumn, early winter storm that could bring meaningful rain to california by this time next week. >> back to you. >> thank you. the former house speaker unloading on gop critics, what kevin mccarthy said about the colleagues who ousted him, that's next. police and public officials on high alert after suspicious mail was sent to election offices around the country. some of those letters laced with fentanyl. >> this is domestic terrorism, and it needs to be condemned by anyone that holds elected office and anyone that wants to hold elected office anywhere in america. this morning, federal law enforcement is on high alert as public officials in multiple states, mostly election officials have reported suspicious mail, and some of those letters contain fentanyl. officials say more than a dozen letters have been reported so far, california, georgia, nevada, oregon, texas and washington state were all targeted and investigators are treating the letters as connected for now, given the timing. the fbi says they're continuing to keep the public safe and that is the top priority. west virginia's democratic senator, joe manchin making this announcement. >> i will not be running for reelection to the united states senate. but what i will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there's an interes