calling his political opponents vermin. plus cnn is getting a firsthand look at the tunnels used by hamas as israeli forces are closing in. president biden says hospitals in gaza, quote, must be protected. and for the first time in u.s. history, the u.s. supreme court has adopted a code of conduct. with one major question left unanswered, who exactly will enforce it. i'm kaitlan collins, and this is "the source." it is becoming clearer by the day what a second term for donald trump would center around, revenge. or, as he often puts it, retribution. he's spelling it out clearly for us on camera, warning that it's his political opponents, he says, who are the most dangerous threat facing the united states today, not china or russia or north korea, his opponents. for someone who has long used similar language to authoritarians and fascists, this weekend in new hampshire, trump took things a step further. >> we will rout out the communists, marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. the threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within. >> trump appears to be reading from the prompter, not ad libbing those remarks, where he vowed to rout out his political opponents like vermin. the biden campaign says the former president and potentially biden's opponent in 2024 is parroting the autocratic language of adolf hitler and benito mussolini. i should note hitler's biographer quoted the dictator as saying, should i not have the right to eliminate millions of a race that multiplies like vermin. one person who isn't condemning trump's words, the chairwoman of the republican party. >> i'm not going to talk about candidates in a contested primary. i am not going to comment on candidates and their campaign messaging. >> trump's campaign is pushing back on the comparisons to hitler and humussolini, saying those remarks are clearly snow flakes, grasping for anything. their entire existence will be crushed when president trump returns to the white house. the spokesperson who put that statement out later clarified and said he meant to say, sad, miserable existence instead of their entire existence. this isn't just language, by the way. there's a ton of reporting about plans underway for a second trump term, including from "the new york times," which says tonight trump is applauding mass detention in the deportation of undocumented immigrants should he regain power. trump promised to conduct the largest deportation operation in american history. and not long ago he said undocumented immigrants were poisoning the blood of the country. >> it's a very sad thing for our country. it's poisoning the blood of our country. >> i'm joined now by maggie haberman from "the new york times." you've covered donald trump donald trump for a long time. you wrote a book on him. what did you make of the comments in new hampshire on saturday night. >> what's striking from me was not him reading from the prompter about enemies within. he's said that before. vermin was new. the dehumanizing language that he is increasingly willing to use. poisoning the blood of the country also has echos of fascists. and that is a new piece that he has added to his repertoire about immigrants. i think the language, which has been very, very, you know, fascist-invoking or at least echos of fascists in history for a long time, has become much more dramatic and much more severe in recent weeks. and to your point, he's not hiding any of it. what's striking to me too is when his campaign tries to insist he's not really saying what he's saying. as you note, they push back on what he said but they push back on it with a quote that talks about crushing his opponents. i can see where they think they're being clever and suggesting this is a liberal troll. that's not what they said. >> they said crushed their entire existence. he later said that's not what he meant to say. but it is something he typed out and something trump said on camera. when you talk about the progression in trump's language -- he has long used language of authoritarians and fascists. why do you think it's -- how is it -- why is it progressing the way it is now? why does he now feel comfortable calling his political opponents vermin? >> i think number one he does feel as if he has somehow been unleashed by the existence of these indictments against him. i think he sees this as giving him free license to say what he wants. but this is, you know, the donald trump who says things like this is the donald trump who has always been there. that donald trump was much better at masking himself behind a more socially acceptable, contemporary version of a developer in new york or a reality television star or a media figure. but this is who he is. and remember things that we're seeing, like him threatening to go after political opponents in terms of investigations or whatever way he means it when he gets back into office, this is something we've learned since that he did a lot more when he was in office than people realized. we know there were efforts to investigate john kerry. there were efforts to investigate hillary clinton. there were all kinds of efforts to go after people. he also talked about a special counsel against hillary clinton in 2016. this is who he is. >> and now he, though, wants to investigate the people who worked for him, people like john kelly and jim mattis. when we look at the -- general milley, who just left the joint chiefs of staff. he wants to go after people that actually worked for him. >> i personally don't have reporting on that. but that having been said, one of the things about donald trump is that he never rules out anything. you know this as well as anybody, which means that everything is on the table. then his folks say, well, he didn't really say it. someone else said it. if he doesn't -- if he isn't open to these ideas, he is perfectly capable of saying them. >> i think this is not just theoretical. you've done a lot of reporting on what a second trump term would look like. the latest was on what his immigration plans would be. that was one of the biggest issues he rode into office on in 2016. what would that look like if he were re-elected? >> he, as you noted, has been pretty direct about that. he said in a speech he wanted to conduct the largest mass deportation the country has seen. and he's using an eisenhower model with a racist name, as what he had in mind. >> which is the name of an immigration program. >> that was the name of the immigration program under eisenhower. that is what he wants to emulate here, with that in mind. when we approached the trump campaign about trump's immigration plan, they referred tao us to stephen miller, who is not formally advising the campaign, was the architect of his immigration policy in the white house, and is now working on finding lawyers for a future republican administration. and so they laid out and various people we spoke to laid out a very detailed plan that would involve camps on massive open land, to enable this expedited removal and mass deportation. they talk about invoking all kinds of different laws that would enable them to get around existing systems. they talk about re-establishing title 42, which was used during covid as a protocol, which was initially kept in place by president biden. this time for some kind of general illness. so, it's very specific. and this is something that, you know, those of us who have seen stephen miller around a long time, this is something stephen miller is pretty passionate about. donald trump kicked off his campaign with demagoguery and demagoguing immigrants and talking about mexicans as rapists. so, none of this is hugely surprising. >> i was reading this story yesterday in "the new york times." stephen miller is on the record with you. you noted in the story that the trump campaign referred you to stephen miller. so, how do we explain the statement we're getting the night from people running trump's campaign, saying that all of these stories of what a second term would look like they say are purely speculative and theoretical and any personnel lists, policy agendas, or government plans published anywhere are merely suggestion. >> we get that by the basic fact they are very upset. our stories, by others, a number of outlets. and we've been working on this story since june about what trump 2025 would look like that invoke these groups and not only these groups. they've lost control of it, and they're angry for seeing groups get credit for things they're working on and so forth. a lot of this is not just trump's own mouth but people the trump campaign is referring reporters to. t. >> so, why are they putting out the statements then? >> i assume because they think that they think what trump is saying is problematic for him in a general election, which seems like a them problem. >> i want to read one line that stood out to me on immigration. you said part of what their plan was for u.s. consular officials abroad will be directed to expand ideological screening of visa applicants to block people the trump administration considers to have undesirable attitudes. >> they are planning for, at least as they describe it, whether this would be doable or not. we note all of this is going to get challenged legally, particularly birth right citizenship and attempts tend to it. yes, they are going to try to impose a broader ideological screen to try to weed people out. whether they will be able to successfully do that or not, i don't know. they are saying that, and this is being discussed at a time when there are obviously mass protests about global events. >> i mean, the staffing of a trump term -- i think what's important for people to remember when you talk about things that are so important, it's because there are people like general kelly, like mark esper, others who basically stood in the way, maybe not enough for some people. they did block some of the things they wanted to do. >> you know this as well as anybody, trump is very, very responsive and reactive to media coverage. for instance, when they were doing the family separation policy -- which they will not say what's going to happen with that. trump noted with you at the town hall that he would not rule that out. he was very reactive to the negative coverage of it. and that was used to push him away from it in 2018. and that worked. i don't know that he will be as responsive to headlines as he once was just because of everything else engulfing him. >> maggie haberman, great reporting. >> thank you. up next, we have a firsthand look at the widespread destruction on the ground in gaza. cnn's nic robertson says that his 30 years of war reporting, he has never seen anything like it. we'll show you it next. . tonight cnn has an exclusive look on the ground inside of gaza. my colleague, nic robertson, embedded with israeli defense forces, as they conducted an operation against hamas next to a hospital in gaza city. cnn reported from gaza under the idf's escort at all times. i should note cnn did not submit its script or footage to the idf and has retained complete editorial control over the final report. this is from nic robertson. >> reporter: driving into gaza with the israeli forces. it's a war zone. the conditions of our access only show officers, no faces of soldiers, and don't show sensitive equipment. we are passing mile after mile of destruction, buildings blown, collapsed. nothing untouched by the fury of israels hunt for hamas. streets here crushed back to sand. shops, everything that we see, no sign of any civilians here, and the soldiers have been telling us that even inside the stores, they've been finding things like rocket-propelled grenades ready to use against them as they were advancing through this area. >> reporter: a few miles in we pull up at a command post. soldiers living in blown apartment buildings. every building i'm looking at here, wherever you turn, is destroyed. it's shot up. hard to imagine how civilians endured the bombardment here. >> reporter: our next journey much deeper into gaza. and it's about to get dangerous. the troops are going in, but this is what we're going to travel in, this armored vehicle here. we arrive 100 meters from a battle with hamas. tanks blasting targets in nearby buildings. the idf's top spokesperson waiting for us. >> we're now conducting an operation inside gaza. >> reporter: israel is facing massive international pressure over the destruction of homes, the shockingly high civilian death toll. and in the last few days, over its apparently heavy-handed tactics at hospitals. >> we revealed the tunnels that we suspect are underneath the hospital. >> reporter: gari has brought us here to show the connection he says exists between hamas and the ren tee si children's hospital. >> we are now here in an area between a hospital, a school, and a terrorist house. >> reporter: a hamas commander, he says, lived there. he points out the solar panels on the roof. >> this is a tunnel that was like this in the floor. you can see here. >> this is the ladder going down? >> this is the ladder going down. >> i see the ladder going down, yeah. >> this is a 20-meter tunnel. and look at here. look at the tunnel. but look down here. the cables are going down to the tunnel, okay? >> so, they're hard wired into the tunnel. >> the solar panels on the terrorist house provide electricity directly to the tunnel. we have entered a robot inside the tunnel, and the robot saw a massive door, a door that is in the direction of the hospital. >> we're in what is an active fire zone here. you can hear the small arms fire. the idf say they're still clearing this area out. they're getting down here to take a little bit of cover. they're still taking fire. but over here we're able to smell what smelled like rotting flesh, bodies perhaps buried underneath the rubble. >> don't expose yourself. >> reporter: as we move off to the hospital 100 meters away, we're still taking fire. >> we're still conducting operation, operation conducted by our special unit, the israeli navy seals are researching the hospital. >> reporter: hagari later tells us he took a big risk bringing us into such a combat zone. it is clear he wants this story told. >> we're searching here to see the connection of the tunnel to the hospital, okay? we are looking for the connection. >> reporter: as we finally reach the hospital, it is already getting dark. a huge hole has been blasted through the walls into the basement. why is the hospital so damaged? >> so damaged? we came to this hospital five days ago. there were still patients inside the hospital. we did not enter into the hospital. >> reporter: he claims since then all patients were evacuated by hospital staff. >> we assist this evacuation, of course, to make it a safe pass for all the patients in the hospital. we do not know that the hospital is entirely clear. we do not know. we only enter through this area which was suspected because we were being fired. >> reporter: hagari leads us through basement corridors to this room. >> that was the armory, okay? >> reporter: he shows us a few rusting guns and some explosives, says he can show us evidence they found a lot more. but this is what they made safe for our visit. these guns alone have potentially huge implications for gaza's hospitals and israel's apparent push to take control of them. >> the international committee for the red cross say hospitals are given special protection under international humanitarian law in a time of war. but if militants store weapons there or use them as a base of fire, then that protection falls away. >> reporter: in other rooms, he shows us a motorbike with a bullet hole in it that he suspects was used by hamas attackers october 7th. and nearby, possible evidence hostages could have been held here. >> we are now in the basement in the same area yards from the motorcycle. we see right here, we see a rope. we see a woman's clothes, a woman's something covering woman. >> so you think a woman was tied up in this chair. >> this is an assumption, going to be checked for dna. >> reporter: evidence hagari says points to hamas and possible hostage presence below the hospital. >> reporter: in this room, he says, a -- begins october 7th, ends november 3rd, not long before the hospital was evacuated. and on the other side of the room -- >> this is a knife, right? >> yeah, actually i haven't seen it until now. >> what does it tell you? >> i don't want to think about it. but israel does not make assumptions. the forensic team will come here and check the evidence. i think there is no other evidence. by holding hostages here in this room. >> reporter: by bringing us here to this hospital and showing us the connection you believe exists between the terrorists and the possibly hostages, what does this say about the other hospitals here in gaza? >> we asked them to evacuate or assist. he asked us, the pediatric, the ba babies to take them out. we offered help. we even brought incubators to who will take them. the red cross, egypt, who will take them. but cynically, shifa hospital is known by facts, by intelligence, to be a terrorist hub. and it's suspicious also in holding hostages. this is the best shelter for the terror war machine of hamas. >> the hospital authorities said they have no knowledge of hamas or other groups inside their hospitals. is that possible? >> i think it's not possible for a hospital to have this kind of an infrastructure like we saw here and to build this kind of an infrastructure in a basement that was probably ready before for getting hostages after seventh of october massacre. and we knew the terrorists were there. >> how did you know? >> by intelligence. we got some fire from this area. >> from this area? >> from this area. and we were right to fire because what we found, an armory. and if one of our guys would have died from an explosive or a grenade, it's horrible. hamas using this war machine of hospitals in a barbaric way. it's a war crime. it's an international crime. not just a war crime. but holding hostages in a children's hospital? >> but so much damage all around here. >> there is damage all around here because hamas made it impossible for us to fight it. they built all this infrastructure in tunnels and in hospital, around areas populated. >> as we exit the hospital, it is already dark. >> we're just getting ready to leave right now. the fire fight is still going on, still intense, bullets fired, explosions going on up the street there. >> reporter: this war and the controversy surrounding it far from resolved. nic robertson, cnn, gaza. >> it is so rare to get a look like that inside of gaza. nic robertson, thank you for that. we'll have more on israel's war against hamas, including an interview with a top israeli official coming up. but first, here in new york, he spent more than three hours praising his father as an artist. he made a joke about committing perjury. donald trump jr. is back on the witness stand today in the new york civil fraud trial. we'll tell you what he said next.. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. donald trump jr. was back in a new york city courtroom today. this time he was testifying as the first witness for his father's defense. he used his time on the stand to hype up his father's business acumen, calling the former president, quote, an artist and a visionary with real estate. of course, at the heart of this, the $250 million