you hear that? you hear it? underneath the music? crickets. republican party getting remarks from donald trump. donald trump on a 2024 campaign of vengeance and vile remarks vowing to root out his political opponents and labelling everyone against him as vermin and making some rather extreme plans to round up every undocumented immigrant and put them in camps. meanwhile, donnie trump jr. is back on the stand as the defense team begins their case in civil fraud. plus, cnn cameras going deeper into gaza than any past reports. this time up close near hamas tunnels under a hospital. running to the heart of the terrorist operation. welcome to "the lead," i'm jake tapper. you know, it is become cliche to ask americans how they respond to something that donald trump has said to ask if such a thing were taking place in neither country, what they might think. it is so cliche that i've never asked you engage in this exercise. but his comments as of late have been so stark, and so shocking, that i am now going to ask you to remove yourself from what you may now have all become numb to, and in terms of american politics, and try to look at what we're all being subjected to from a different perspective. say, a top politician in, i don't know, canada, and ask yourself, what would be your response? what would be your response if a candidate for canadian prime minister started calling anyone in canada who opposed him, who criticized him, calling them vermin. vermin that he would root out and expunge from the fine nation of canada. what would you say? no doubt you would be shocked. or disgusted, no doubt any major political candidate using language that recalls mussolini and hitler, you would be disgusted by. >> we pledge to you, that we will root out the communist, marxist and fashionist tlugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. >> what would you say if a potential prime minister in canada, a leading candidate to run that great country, said that he or she after being elected was going to use the government to exact revenge on anyone who had criticized him. >> if i happen to be president, and i see someone who is doing well and beating me very badly, i say go down and indict them. >> okay. so you know this is not a theoretical exercise. "the washington post" has reported that donald trump has been mapping out plans to use specific parts of the federal government to punish his critics. to go after his opponents. and that according to people who have talked to trump, trump has said in private that he wanted the justice department to investigate and possibly prosecute among others his former chief of staff, general john kelly and his former attorney general, bill barr, his former attorney ty cobb and former joint cleave of staff general mark milley. another plan that donald trump is being open about, rounding up the millions of undocumented immigrants in the united states, and putting them in camps. putting them in camps. detention camps. to await deportation. so, there is no candidate in canada like that. you know that. and i'm sorry to my canadian brothers and sisters for even sugging such a thing. and there are -- conservative leaders all over the world, the conservative leader of the u.k., and a conservative leader in italy, one in greece, they don't sound anything like that. the only major western leader who sounds like this is donald trump. right here in the united states. and his language calling his opponents, quote, vermin, is shocking an his proposals about using the justice department to go after critics, it is unfathomable. and it is anti-democratic. now "the washington post" reached out to the trump campaign to get a response to how his language, this vermin terminology, echoes that of previous dictators like muse oliny and hitler. they said, those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes, grasping for anything because thaey're suffering from trump derangement syndrome and their existence will be crushed when president trump returns to the white house. what better way to prove you do not have authoritarian instincts than by promising your critics will be crushed upon returning to the white house. we'll start with kristin holmes who is following the increasingly harsh, dire, authoritarian language coming from donald trump and his campaign this weekend. >> reporter: former president trump ramping up his inflammatory rhetoric. >> the threat from outside forces is far less sinistic and dangerous and grave than the threat from within. >> reporter: denigrating his political opponents on left as vermin during a veterans day speech in new hampshire. >> we will root out the communist, marxism, fascist and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. >> the white house condemning trump's remarks likening them to language used by authoritarian leaders. using terms like that about dissent could be unrecognizable for our founders but horrifyingly recognizable to american veterans who put on their country's uniform in the 1940s. white house spokesperson andrew bates said in a statement -- >> as the former president commands the primary with the combative rhetoric, his allies are planning a second term. proposals include the department of justice to go after his political rivals. >> if they do this and they've already done it, but if they want to follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse. >> reporter: the agenda would expand the hard-line immigration policies during the first time in office. >> we'll begin the largest domestic deportation operation in american history. >> reporter: with the mass detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants. >> i will shut down this travesty and terminate all work permits for illegal aliens and demand that congress send my a bill outlawing welfare pages to any immigrant of any kind. >> it is from the former president. >>s it poisoning the blood of our country and people are coming in with disease, people are coming in with every possible thing that you could have. >> reporter: trump's darkening receiptockir appears to resonate with republicans, tim scott who campaigns on a more optimistic message, ended his bid on sunday. >> i think the voters who are the most remarkable people on the planet, have been really clear that they're telling me that not now, tim. >> reporter: and jake, the trump 2025 potential agenda that we've laid out is just the tip of the iceberg. we've heard from sources who say that trump allies are building a data base of loyalists who would want to seven donald trump and follow through with the policies on day one as well as allies working with attorneys who are crafting executive orders that the former president could sign on day one to put out those policies. >> kristin holmes, thank you so much. i wan to bring in mayor huck and jonah goldberg. let me start with you. and let me start with this word vermin. which is quite provocative. here is how ronna mcdaniels responded to trump's remarks when asked about it. >> i'm not going to talk about candidates that are if a contested primary. that is -- you could talk -- >> will you condemn that. >> >> you could talk to him about that. >> and he was slamming on twitter saying she refused to condemn the gop candidate for using the same nazi propaganda that mobilized germany to evil. it is fair to assume she's collaborating. what is the rnc chair's responsibility here when trump uses -- i mean, i don't think it is hyperbolic to say that is mussolini hitler-like language. >> she would release it in the text originally in german. i feel about the piling on of mcdaniel about the way i felt about ramaswamy. the party is not a thing. it is this paper tiger. she's aint poed by trump. she's a creature of trump. and in a perfect world, in a better world, both parties would have a much more robust ability to screen candidates and there are some things that are under the peail and those days are behind us. >> and injure guy, joe biden, could lose to this guy. >> isn't that horrifying. someone who talks about democracy and the care acatures online and part of the public discourse, he's not -- he's neck-and-neck with that. i will say, though, that biden does have an opportunity here. given the war between israel and hamas, and given the challenges of china, that national security and the u.s. standing on the world stage is something that is becoming top of mind for americans and in a way that we have in the seen for many years. so if that context, talking about how the u.s. plays on the world stage, what does it mean to be american on the world stage, that certainly is an argument that favors biden not trump. >> and there is no secret here, jonah, about trump's potential second term plans. he will -- there wouldn't be a john kelly or a bill barr. there couldn't be guardrails. people were very critical of john kelly and bill barr, but at end of the day, they had some idea of what guardrails should exist. and like a doug mcgregor, who was a pentagon official in the trump administration, was criticized for anti-semitic tropes. he's out there on x today saying that israel support is only because of money. the same stuff that ilhan omar got criticized for. but nobody will criticize him for it. he could be like a secretary of defense because he's so loyal. >> this is one of the areas where i think ron desantis is right. he just doesn't press the case very much. which is that it is not the same donald trump any more. he's now become as weird as it is so say, far more of a caricature than he was in 2016 and surrounded himself -- it is important to point out, one of the bulwarks against a lot of this is federal society trump appointed judges who want no part of it which is why the lawyers around trump want to reject federalist society people and they it is an insurgent movement within the right that is not conservative. bannon said in an interview over the weekend that, he said, look, trump is a moderate in her movement. we have guys calling for how america needs a new pinot -- >> and democrats are shooting their own. you have dean phillips running against joe biden. you have people like congresswoman tlaib talking about how people shouldn't vote for joe biden. because she doesn't like his support for israel. there isn't the robust support for the democratic party from the democratic party. >> well this happens every time you have an incumbent president. you have people looking for their own opportunities to advance themselves within the party agenda. the idea that comments right now are going to permanently ding biden when it comes to election day, when it becomes the one-on-one binary choice, i think those are a bit overblown and there are concerns about biden as his ability to turn out voters in key districts and what the map looks like. you have the republican party in disarray on how they're all competing for second place and spending money and energy for second place for someone who is telling us he has no interest in upholding any of the norms of democracy or ever being accountable to the people, to the public. so that is the piece that you will not see any of the democrats argue that they will -- at the end of the day they will support the kooug of the united states. >> i agree. the right is a hot mess. donald trump would be a disaster as another term in office. at the same time, to my point about weak parties, the gop season the only weak party in the field. joe biden, according to most democrats and most americans, is too old for the job ab not up for the job. >> but only like three years older than donald trump. >> but that is not the point. it has to do with the mental acuity and the fact -- >> the perception of the voters is what it is. >> and most americans don't want either of these guys to run and if we live in a country with strong parties, neither would be the nominee. but instead, we have a democratic party that is too weak to find an alternative and republican party that is too weak to stand up to donald trump and it is a hot mess. >> okay. on that note. jonah goldberg and mayor huck, thank you so much. drinks are on me in about an hour and a half. donnie jr. just stepped off the stand and what could shut down the trump organization operations in new york. and an american teenager shot and trapped in hospital in gaza. hadar plea to the u.s. as the u.s. military accusesed that hospital o of housing g hamas. in our law and justice lead, donald trump jr. back on the stand today in new york against the trump family business. last week, when he was called by the state of new york, don jr. testified that he had no direct involvement in the company's annual financial statements. today, trump jr. was called as the first witness by his father's defense team and the son walked the court through a promotional power point of various trump properties calling his father an artist with real estate, unquote. pointing out details such as the vault, at 40 wall street, the inside of mar-a-lago and the library at 7 springs. this was an attempt to show that in anything the trump properties were undervalued in the financial statements. let's bring in fixer for donald trump, author of the book revenge and mia culpa, michael cohen. what do you think about him referring to his father as an artist if real estate. >> i'm not sure if i would call him an artist. if you look at properties that don jr. put up on the powerpoint, donald trump was not the creator. he was just the purchaser. mar-a-lago, obviously he didn't build. that was marjorie meriweather post and he didn't build sen springs nor did he build for example bedminster. that is the former delorian estate. and 40 wall street, obviously as well. he acquired that property. >> details, details sh michael. when you testified last month. >> yeah. it is always details. >> you described on the stand how you manipulated trump's financial statements and describing it as reverse engineering. do you think that is what don jr. is doing with this powerpoint presentation today? >> well, i think what don is really doing here is he's holding the trump line which is what we were all supposed to and required to do. in fact, they sh probably change the name from maga to mega and m m-e-g-a because i watched as the judge was getting visually nauseous from the lies that were being told by the trump team, by trump's counsel, by don jr., that he was merely a broker and eric trump just laid concrete, none of which anybody believes to be accurate or truthful. >> when it comes to this, or any other case, do you think that donald trump deserves to go to jail? >> so, look, that is a question that has been posed to me, the answer is, he needs to be held accountable. and do i believe if it was anyone else that that individual would already be in prison or jail, the answer is emphatically yes. but because he's the former president of the united states, and for four years he was debriefed on a daily basis, our national security seeks, i personally as an american citizen, would you be concerned because donald is the guy that would sell any of that information for like a bag of tuna or a book of stamps an i do really mean that. it is dangerous for america to have somebody like donald trump in an environment where he could share the information. look, he's already shared it already with members of mar-a-lago as well as other individuals that came to visit. so why would he not do it if it would benefit him somehow in some way in a prison situation. >> so what does accountability look like, do you think? >> a very significant home confinement scene. where he doesn't have people coming and going at leisure, he certainly is not going to be playing golf. he's going to have to fund the bureau of prisons to ensure that there is a guard that is there watching the property, his phones would be monitored. there there wouldn't be computer access. the same exact life other than the fact he's not sharing a cell with somebody, he's sharing the house by himself. >> what do you make of this washington post report that trump and his allies are looking at, if he becomes president again, to use the levers of government, the justice department to punish critics and opponents and are you worried that he would target you? >> well, 100%. first of all, he already did. december 14th, i'm going before the appellate court on the case of michael cohen versus the united states government. where he and bill barr, department of justice and the bureau of prisons, that they conspired to -- to infringe upon my first amendment constitutional right making me the very first political prisoner held by my own country because i won't wave my first amendment constitutional right not publish my book "disloyal" and not do television appearances an not do media, et cetera. if anybody thinks that this is a one-off, if donald trump becomes president of the united states again, it is not just going to be me being the very first person that this happened to, there is going to be a multitude people, possibly yourself included, jake. >> yeah, that has occurred to me. but our washington post article they talk about john kelly, bill barr, ty cobb and general mark milley. >> i mean, he talked about executing mark milley. you could imagine the man, a general who has given his life to serving and protecting this country as opposed to captain bone stur spur that avoided his responsibility that he wants to have this man executed because his angry at him. and then there is still americans that want to do what, they want to support him both financially and by voting? i don't understand what is happening here. >> michael cohen, good to see you, sir. thank you so much for being with us. >> good to see you, jake. coming up next, cnn deeper inside of gaza, bullets flying and buildings leveled. we'll show you the footage just in from our crew. the focus of the fighting in gaza has become hospitals in and around them, which israel insists hamas is using to shield its fighters. a u.s. official with knowledge of the american intelligence tells me that hamas specifically has a command node under the al shifa hospital that hamas used fuel intended for that hospital, and that members of hamas regularly cluster in and around that hospital. and yet, of course, hundreds of patients remain at that hospital and others in gaza. trapped by the fighting. nic robertson is embedded with the israeli defense forces and cnn reported under idf escort at all times, cnn did not submit the script and has remained over the final record. where were you today and what did you see? >> reporter: wie went to a hospital, a children's hospital five miles into gaza, close to gaza city. it is a long way inside and on the journey there we rode in open top vehicles a long way into gaza itself. driving along the coast highway or what is left of it. i have to say, i've never seen a scale and level of destruction in more than 30 years of war reporting than we saw along the road on the drive in. single story buildings, demolished and blown up. villas blown up. stores and demolished and blown up. and the idf said we've been in the buildings or some of the buildings where we found rocket-propelled grenades. this was an area that hamas was using to attack the troops as they went in. this is what they say they've discovered. and when i talked to the senior commander who was there with us about the level of destruction, he said, look, this is hamas hiding among the people. we went on that coast road witnessing all of this destruction. the road turned to dust and changed into an armored vehicle to go right into the center of the area around the hospital. the edge of jabalia camp. there was intense fighting around the hospital. tanks firing and we had to take cover several times from gun fights going on. we