president biden set to meet with chinese president xi jinping as he tries to prevent tensions from spiraling. and we are about to find out how retail sales that been faring leading up to the crucial holiday season. much more ahead. this hour of "cnn this morning" now. israeli troops carrying out an operation inside gaza's largest hospital, al shifa. a palestinian official says the soldiers entered the basement and ground floor of the surgery building and interrogated medical staff. the idf releasing video claiming to show troops dropping off aid. cnn cannot independently verify that and has not been able to reach the hospital for confirmation. >> the idf accused hamas of running a command center beneath the hospital and using civilians above as human shields had. the israeli military is calling this a precise and targeted operation based on their intelligence. we will be joined by a spokesperson for the idf in minutes. >> meanwhile, fbi director christopher wray is about to issue to congress and issue a stark warning that the war has raised the threat of attack against americans in the united states to a whole other level. evan perez joins us now. are you surprised by the level of concern that wray appears to be about to tell lawmakers? >> we have heard a lot, phil, from the fbi director in the weeks since the attack in southern israel from hamas, and one of the concerns that he has been raising is the issue of that -- is the issue of terrorism in the united states inspired by what happened in israel and, of course, the threat level against jewish americans, against muslim-americans inside the united states. i'll read a part of his testimony. when a year where the terrorism threat was elevated the ongoing war in the middle east raised the threat of attack against americans in the united states to a whole other level and he talks a little bit about the rogue gallery of terror organization. some, obviously, hamas and hezbollah supported by iran. but also al qaeda and isis who are making threats against u.s. interest in the middle east against americans in the united states. and the concern always is, of course, that someone will get through the dragnet. sometimes the fbi tries to put that in place to protect americans in times like these. >> what about -- to quote christopher wray, these multiple investigations into individuals affiliated with hamas. i wonder if that was striking to you? >> it is. we have known, poppy, that the hamas has a presence in the united states, supporters of hamas have been here for many years. a lot of it focused on financing of hamas. they have never really seen an effort by hamas to a strike inside the united states, but they are doing -- the fbi is doing a reassessment of that in light of what happened in israel on october 7th, and that's one of the things that you see here from the fbi director is that they are investigating multiple people associated with groups not only hamas, but other terrorist organizations in the united states, and it's something they do periodically, especially after a big event as what happened here, phil and poppy. you know, republicans are going to ask questions about hunter biden and other things. you bet this will be an interesting hearing. you think you will be busy today. >> loaders say president biden with sit down with chinese president xi jinping near san francisco. a meeting with high stakes for the world. xi is in the u.s. to attend the asia-pacific economic cooperation summit. he landed in the bay area yesterday. president biden spoke about what he hopes to get out of this meeting. >> how would you define success with your meeting with president xi? >> to get back on a normal course of corresponding, pick up the phone and talk in a crisis, make sure our military still have can't with one another. we are not trying to decouple from china. but what we're trying to do is change the relationship. >> joining us to discuss bobby, and former spokesperson for the u.s. mission to the u.n. and host of the oh my world web series, which is great, by the way. >> it is. >> bobby, that sounds like a low bar laid out by president biden, but just to tick through what's happened since the leaders met in bali at the g20 last year. the u.s. shot down a chinese spy balloon. u.s. commerce secretary emails hack. secret chinese police station was busted in new york city. tensions with taiwan continue to escalate as well as the south china sea. they took away the pandas. >> phil is very personally upset about that. >> i have a controversial view. >> but it has been a very, very difficult year for this relationship and a concerning manner. the low bar, is that enough? >> it's essential for the world economy, for the security of the world. the two most powerful people should be able to get on the phone and speak to each other. it is a low bar, but as you say, this has been a year of incredible tension between the two sides. xi was practically ghosting joe biden earlier in the year. you need to begin to talk before you can begin to address more important things. now, the signals we are getting is they are going to address. so of the important things. there is already talk of the fentanyl issue that china will crack down on the factories and labs that produce this sort of materials that go into making fentanyl. this is not a small thing. this is an important achievement. the larger world audience will be looking for more than that though. they will be looking for a reassurance in a time when we have two raging wars going on, in a time when the climate change crisis seems to be getting progressively worse and worse. we need the two most powerful men in the world to be able to communicate. symbolically, that is not unimportant. it would be great if they could get much more done and we know that there has been weeks of negotiations on -- by officials on both sides before this meeting takes place. this meeting had last for a considerable period of time, several hours. so we can hope that something more meaningful would be achieved. if it isn't and if all we get is they shake hands and agree to talk ben, that's not bad. >> and our militaries talking again. remember, federal lloyd austin saying his counterpart would not pick up the phone. i thought it was interesting they are not going to issue a joint statement. each country will provide their own accounting of the meeting. there is reporting in "the new york times" that chinese officials say xi will look for assurance from biden that the u.s., quote, does not seek a new cold war. >> right. >> i thought that was interesting. >> it is interesting because we have been trying to move away from that kind of rhetoric. and to be fair, while things have been extremely tense and cold, particularly over the last year, as you all laid out, what undermines anyway the idea we would get to a cold war is the fact that we have ongoing trade. china remains our -- >> and a lot of it. >> yes. by the way, since 2018, since president trump's term, trade has gone up and a large part of u.s. exports to china. and that prevents things from getting too bad. that said, the military-to-military channel is critical and shows you how bad it has become when that is an achievement because we maintain military channels with all of our channels, for example, including russia. i see this milestone as the biden administration is trying to shift the general tone in the united states in washington away from hawkish rhetoric, which has been the case for the last year, from both republicans and democrats, to something where the chinese don't feel defensive and where we have -- >> but there is concern the house select committee on biden sent a letter ahead saying they are concerned, comes at an unacceptable cost, they called, to our competitive and defensive actions being delayed by the biden administration. are there risks that approach, too? >> biden has to walk that fine line. he is being attacked at home for being soft on china. there is polling to suggest that americans think that trump would do a better job dealing with china than biden. this is not a happy situation for a president going into a re-election campaign. so he has that problem. to the point that they china wants assurances, an interesting point is that china is also looking for acceptance. xi wants to be seen as a world leader. he wants biden to acknowledge his role as a world leader. so part of the challenge for biden is to give xi as the chinese say, give him face. allow him to behave like a world leader while reminding him that comes with responsibility. you can't just, you know, say you are a world leader. you have to take responsibility for some of the world's problems. to the point that -- to your previous segment, there is a war going on in -- between israel and hamas in the middle east. china, where is china? if you are a leader of the world, you need to take a role in trying to solve the world's problems. >> sure, especially given your republican and actions with iran and russia. thank you. president biden offering hope to families of hostages held by hamas in gaza telling reporters he belief a deal is going to happen. >> we are can going to be joined by a father anxiously awaiting news about his 8-year-old daughter. >> i went, yes! i went, yes! and smiled. because that is the best news of the possibilities that i knew. >> when he believed that his daughter was not kidnapped and had been killed, weeks later israeli army said they believed emily is still alive and is a hostage e now. her r father, ththomas, is w wi. optimism about a potential deal to free some of the hostages held by hamas telling reporters yesterday he believes it's, quote, going to happen. families of the americans believed to be held hostage will meet with officials at the state department and on capitol hill today. that comes after thousands of demonstrators filled the national mall yesterday in the march for israel, many showing support for those hostages. now, the family of 8-year-old emily hand are anxiously awaiting news, initially believed to have been killed during the october 7th hamas attacks but now believed to be among the 239 hostages. before learning his daughter was alive, her father said her death was a better alternative than being held captive by hamas. >> that was the west that i was hoping for. she was either dead or in gaza. and if you know anything about what they do to people in gaza, that is worse than death. >> emily's father was planning to burr are you his daughter alongside her mother, with who died from cancer several years ago, and now he is waiting for a chance to hug his beautiful little girl. emily turns 9 this friday. >> she won't even know what day it is. she won't know it's her birthday. there will be no birthday cake. no party. no friends. just be petrified in a tunnel under gaza. that's her birthday. >> emily's father, thomas hand, is with us now. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> we have been watching you, grieving with you, hoping for you. now you are here in the fight of your life for your daughter, who turns 9 on friday. tell us about that fight. >> we have been working non-stop to put pressure on all the governments all over the world to do their best to get, particularly my little emily, back home. she is an irish citizen, so we put a lot of pressure on the irish government. we are doing everything that we possibly can to get her home, and all the hostages. at least the children. they could start off with the babies and the children. they've got babies being kidnapped over there. >> poppy makes a salient point. all of us were shaken when we watched your interview with clarissa ward, i think, and we kind of rode the roller coaster with you, obviously, to a significantly less degree when we saw your interview with ed lavandera where things had changed. what has been the response to you? i can't imagine how painful and difficult it is to have to come out and talk about this. i also imagine the support for what you have been saying has been tremendous. >> the support worldwide is tremendous, and i've got people in brazil sending me messages, comfort and support. yeah. the campaign is viral, i suppose you'd called it. and it's been great, the support that we're being given. >> in the last 24 hours, president biden had a lengthy call with prime minister benjamin netanyahu and president biden came out of that call and said he believes it's, quote, going to happen. does that give you more hope? that they are going to get out? >> of course. you know, america has a lot of influence all over the world. if he says that, obviously, he knows more than i do, and every little bit of information gives us hope that we can get emily and at least the children and babies out of gaza. >> how often are you getting information either from the irish officials, the u.s. officials -- >> very, very little. nobody really knows anything. i just -- i know for a fact that she's not dead. you know for a fact that she was led away by hamas terrorists. there is eyewitness accounts of it. someone saw her being led away. her and her friend and her friend's mother. >> can i ask you, i know for a fact, that is the reporting, but do you also feel it? you know, parents feel something with their children, right, a bond like no other. can you feel emily? >> no. no. my feelings, i can't let my feelings interfere with getting her back. it's like a campaign. we just keep moving forward. i don't even see the interviews. i don't have time to look at the interviews. i don't watch the news. i haven't got time for it. it's just full on get it emily back. >> to that point, part of that is going to happen in times square right in the middle of new york, right? >> yeah. >> what are you doing? >> big billboards. i guess, for sure emily and marching on from there. just to keep emily -- just to keep her alive in people's minds and hearts. >> we mentioned, and you have spoken about, her birthday on friday. billboards? >> yeah. >> and driving and not being able to stop and think. how much of that is because you have a goal here, because you have a true porps, a north star, and how much of that is because you don't want to stop and think about what's going on right now? >> yeah. i can't. i actually keep her in a special place, and i don't want to imagine what she's going through. every day, 38 days now. i can't think about it. it would be too painful. she is down in the tunnels of gaza with hamas. i don't want to think of what conditions she's in. how she is being treated. how she is being fed. how she is -- if she has been given water. just has she got a toothbrush and toothpaste. toilet facilities. these are tunnels underneath gaza. i don't know. could be like the train carts in the second world war. they were just all in a cattle car and pe e&p oo where you stood. i don't know. >> i know you said when you get her back, you will take her to disney world and give her the world. she is so lucky to have you. thank you. >> thank you. >> we're -- i'm not going to send her to school for at least a year. we're going to give her the world. just happy times. and fix her. you know, she is not going to come back -- none of them are going to come back the way they went in. they are going to be mentally and physically and emotionally broken. and that's going to take a lot of fixing. that's going to take a lot of time and energy to pucks her. -- to fix her. we will do everything we can to fix her. >> we hope and pray for that moment when you get to give her the world, anything you need or we can do to continue to get the message out, please just let us know. we are very grateful fyour time >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. my spor. contra costa college saw potential in me that i didn't know i had. focus. determination. drive. contra costa college helped me blaze the trail. now i'm a comet, and there's no stopping me. come on, this is your shot. take it. join the team at contra costa college. start today at contracosta.edu new this morning, democratic senator joe manchin will not say if he will vote for president biden in 2024. listen. >> i think that's a -- it's a hypothetical question thinking not knowing what we are going to have and who we're going to have. to a imake a choice right now, okay? let me say i could not vote for donald trump. >> but you are not convinced you could vote for joe biden? >> well, i want president biden -- i hope the changes would come. >> this comes as biden is facing an uphill battle with a key group that helped him put him in the white house. young voters. he needs those votes. what are those young voters saying? >> reporter: hey, good morning. young voters are a critical part of the piece that helped president biden's winning coalition come together. as we talk to young voters, the economy is on their minds, the war in the middle east, also the president's age. >> people may not vote because they say this happened under the biden/harris administration. >> reporter: as he looks ahead to the next presidential election, he is thinking back to the promises he heard president biden and vice president harris deliver on a visit to atlanta. >> pass the freedom to vote act. pass it now. >> reporter: on that winter day, the president was closing in on his first year in office. hopes were high for singleton and other students on grounds of clark atlanta university and morehouse coverage. since then voting rights legislation stalled. the supreme court rejected a student loan forgiveness plan and high prices from fuel to housing are fueling economic anxieties. >> everyone is willing to hold the administration accountable for those promises made. if they don't happen, i think it's going to be a scary election. >> reporter: for all the warning signs facing the president, a year before the election the accident sim and apathy of young voters are high. >> folks feel poorer than two years ago. there will have to be a lot of conversations about how we feel like our issues are being heard. >> reporter: she is the youngest woman to win a seat in the georgia senate. in 2020, she went door-to-door in the atlanta suburbs building a coalition to help biden turn the state blue. that coalition, she said, could fracture by the president's handling of the israel/hamas war. >> i think that young voters recognize you can't bomb your way to peace and security. and so we do feel uncomfortable with that. >> reporter: rachel's first vote for president went to biden. she said she doesn't regret it given the alternative. but finds herself disappointed by some priorities of the white house. >> if they can fund a war, they can find the money to pay off our student loans. >> reporter: young voters were a critical component of the president's victory particularly in gorgeous. biden defeated trump by 11779 votes out of 5 million cast. exit polls in 2020 show voters 18 to 29 made up 20% of the georgia electorate. the only state of the top six battlegrounds where the percentage of young voters exceeded the national share of 17%. biden won young georgia voters by 13 points according to polls. now, a year before the 2024 election, surveys show a far closer race with voters and the age of 30 here in georgia spit 46% for trump and 44% for biden. according to a "new york times" siena college poll. >> the excitement is not as high as last time. >> reporter: elon and some classmates wish they had more inspirational and generational choices. >> two people who are very, very old and up in age. >> we would like to see biden pass the baton. >> reporter: the vice president, whose college tour brought her back on campus this fall, resonates more. >> you think she sparks that energy. when she came to morehouse, it was fun. i feel her passion. >> reporter: but wbiden at the top of the ticket potentially face a rematch of the 2020 race, voters s