evacuate several top democrats after violent struggles between police and protesters outside dnc headquarters. is now in control of gaza's harbor and questions remain about what the idf found inside al shifa hospital, saying they'll soon present more evidence that it was used as a base of operations by hamas. and new video of alec baldwin on the set of "rust". i'm kate bolduan with sara sidner and john berman. this is cnn "news central." breaking overnight, one person was arrested, six officers injured after a protest turned violent in washington d.c. members of congress, including top house democrats, were evacuated as tensions erupted between police and protesters. demonstrators outside the democratic national committee were calling for a cease-fire in gaza. guanta gabe cohen is on the ground for us. what happened and where do things stand now? >> reporter: yeah, so john, if you look behind me, you can see the police barricades still set up outside the dnc headquarters. that's where the clash between police and 150 protesters started. many of the protesters were locked arm in arm blocking the entrance but the physical altercations erupted and spilled out onto the street behind me. organizers said the plan was to block entrances around the building, the dnc headquarters, to force some of the members of congress, including leadership, hakeem jeffries, katherine clark, pete agulair, to come out of the building and be confronted by protesters calling for a cease-fire. we never got to that point because the scene erupted and the members of congress close to a dozen of them, had to be evacuated from the building. one of them sean kaston, said you have the constitutional right to peacefully assemble and protest, but blocking all entries to a building with multiple members of congress in it protected by capitol hill police officers who lived through january 6th is putting you and other innocent people at risk. and look, we know that both sides, police and the progressive jewish organizations that organized this protest, many in recent weeks, they're pointing the finger at the other side saying it is that party to blame for escalating the scene. capitol police saying six officers were treated for minor injuries. the language was interesting. saying we appreciate our officers who kept these illegal and violent protesters back and protected everyone in the area. and look, the organizations that were involved tell a very different story if not now, one of those organizations put out a statement saying protesters, nonviolently blocked one entrance to the dnc headquarters, the one behind me. police violently attacked them and it led to 90 injuries, including being pepper sprayed, minor cuts and dragged by the hair. to give you context, john, the groups that organized the protests, the progress iive jewh organizations have organized a lot of cease-fire protests in washington around the recent weeks, shutting down grand central station at one point, occupied the rotunda inside capitol hill. but most of the protests have been quite peaceful, nothing like what we saw last night, even though hundreds of people were arrested, they were acts of civil disobedience that the organizations going into the protests acknowledged they expected to be arrested but would have a cordial relationship with people. that's what i've seen on the protests i have reported on. the cease-fire protests. that was nothing like last night here. >> very heated moments there. gabe cohen, thanks for your reporting. today israeli forces remain both inside and in the vicinity of gaza's largest hospital. they are active in both places. the idf promised to present what it says is concrete evidence that hamas was operating a command base outside of al shifa hospital. saying the weapons they found inside the hospital. but for years they've insisted there's a tunnel system under the hospital. they have not released the videos of the tunnels that israel said has been there. ed lavandera is joining us from tel aviv. we are seeing the pictures that came out of these weapons found in al shifa hospital, making it a place where israel says look, this is what's happening coming out of the hospital so we have every right to be here. >> the israeli military said it's just a matter of time before they can present to the world the, quote, concrete evidence the military here believes exists around and inside of that al shifa hospital inside of gaza. this military operation, which started early yesterday morning, well into its second day now, and it is continuing ongoing, but late yesterday afternoon, israeli military officials released the first video they say begins to prove their case that this area and this hospital in particular is used by hamas fighters. you can listen to a little bit of what one of the israeli spokespeople presented to the world, walking around what is an mri office inside the hospital complex. >> military equipment. there is an ak-47. there are cartridges and ammo. there are grenades in here. of course uniform. and all of this was hidden very conveniently, secretly behind the mri machine. these weapons have no business being inside a hospital. >> now, as you can see, that is what the israeli military and officials here in israel has said is the beginning of the evidence they will discovery that does not really kind of reach the level of the vast underground tunnel system, multi-layered tunnel system, that military officials in israel have said for years exist, that it serves as a command and control structure in had and place of operation for hamas fighters. officials here in israel say as soldiers continue to move through the compound, discovery more tunnels and that, they will release more in the hours and days ahead. sara. >> there are a lot of people waiting to see what more they may have found there in al shifa and also how people are treated through all of this inside that hospital. thank you, ed lavandera to you and your crew there in israel. there's new reaction from the white house today on that raid at al shifa hospital and with it a clear statement from john keirby from the white hous about what the white house view is about what hamas is doing inside that medical complex. >> we're confident based on our own intelligence analysis that the basement areas of that hospital, underneath that hospital, and the hospital itself has been used, is being used by hamas as a command and control mode. >> president biden said that is a war crime. biden was also asked about the ongoing hostage negotiations at his press conference yesterday. listen to this. >> what i meant was i'm doing everything in my power to get you out. coming to help you, get you out. i don't mean sending military in to get them. is that what you thought i might mean? no, no, i was not talking about the military. i'm getting too much detail, i know, mr. secret, ary, i'm goin to stop but i am mildly hopeful. >> so the latest believed is at least 239 hostages were taken by hamas on october 7th and that includes ten americans. there's also now this. first lady jill biden has received a letter from israel's first lady in which she said one of the hostages has now given birth while being held captive in gaza. scott mclean is tracking this for us. he joins us now. you heard president biden there, he's middlely hopeful on the negotiations, they're delicate, been ongoing. what's the latest you're hearing? >> reporter: kate, mildly hopeful is what president biden is saying. not going to be an american military intervention but he said he's deeply involved in the negotiations himself. he said it's five or six times a day that he is trying to be helpful on that hostage release. he didn't give any specific insight into where exactly things stand. talked about a pause that israel agreed to and then cut himself short. but we know from recent days and u.s. and european officials that there is some level of optimism that a deal might get done for at least a partial release of these hostages. the broad parameters would be that hamas would agree to release primarily women and children. they've pegged the number at around 70, obviously that's not final. in exchange for a prolonged pause in the fighting. perhaps up to five days. and during those five days, an unknown number of palestinian in israeli jails would be released alongside those perhaps 70 or so women and children held hostage in gaza as well. this week we learned about a 3-year-old american girl who is amongst those hostages and her great aunt liz was actually on cnn's air last hour and wore the number 41 on her lapel. that represents the number of days that young abigail edan has been missing. both of her parents were killed, two older siblings managed to survive and get away, they're now with relatives. and she described on cnn her hopefulness she could be released perhaps before her birthday, the day after american thanksgiving next week. and she described how abigail managed to survive despite her father, who was holding her being shot and killed. >> abigail was under her father's body and she came from under, blooded by his blood and walked to a neighbor. they let her in, a family. another member of the kibbutz had seen the terrorist walking the mother out with the four children. it took us a few days because of everything. when we learned that, we understood this mother, her three kids, and abigail were all hostages. >> and president biden, kate, was also asked to react to the fact that abigail is being held, again just 3 years old, and he said that's why i'm not going to stop until we get her. kate? >> scott mclean, thank you for the update. john? just a reminder, there are 239 hostages, israel says, although it's unclear whether that number is now higher if a baby was born in captivity based on that letter that kate was just reporting on right there. and this would be the 42nd day in captivity. with us now is general wesley clark, former nato supreme ally commander. general we're talking about the operation that continues to take place around the al shifa hospital. the israeli troops have control of the hospital and they're searching through it. they've produced images of weapons they say they found there and they say they found evidence of a hamas command center but no evidence of tunnels underneath at this point. why do you think that is? >> if i were the israelis, john, i would be cautious about going into the tunnels. there's been a lot of discussion about it, so hamas knows the israelis are coming. those tunnels are likely to be booby trapped at the entrance inside, no telling what's in those tunnels. so they've got to move step by step to go into this area. they said they found numerous entrances, they found weapons up there you know under international law, you cannot defend a hospital like that and be in it when -- and resist because that makes the hospital a target. so what hamas is doing is already illegal. if the israelis say they're going to get into those tunnels, i'm sure they will. but they're going to do it cautiously because they have to protect their own troops and there may be hostages in there. it's not a matter of going in and blowing up the tunnels. >> you make a good point, the geneva convention states clearly hospitals should be protected unless they are used to store munitions. and israel releasing the photos we saw moments ago of those weapons they say they found there. israel clearly operating around the hospital. i have a picture of this. also getting information there are negotiations over hostages, general. if there were some kind of a pause, if part of the agreement over releasing some number of hostages were to pause military operations for some number of days, what would that do to the operations at al shifa or, in fact, all over northern gaza? >> not necessarily anything, john. it depends on where the hostages are, the details of the negotiations. first of all, the israeli forces have the inherent right to defend themselves. they're not going to pull back out of gaza. and they're still in combat every day there's reports of fierce fighting around the hospital. the hospital has a lot of different buildings in it. it's a complex set of buildings on grounds that are pretty large. you can't look at it as a single hospital building. going back and forth through the grounds is tough. every israeli soldier that's exposed is liable to get shot. they know there are still people in there, i'm sure. and when they say they've got control of the hospital, that doesn't mean you got a ring of soldiers with arms locked around the hospital perimeter. it means you have forces out there. it doesn't mean there's not people sneaking in and out, there's tunnel networks in there. so this is still a complicated military operation. if the negotiations said, oh, the hostages are right there under the hospital and if you'll stop shooting we'll release the hospital and we'll release the hostages, fine. that's a different set of circumstances but we don't know where the hostages are. they could be in a tunnel network in south gaza. so it's not going to necessarily have any impact whatsoever on al shifa. the israeli mission is go after hamas. they're going to go after command and control nodes, they say one is in al shifa al shifa and they're going in. >> general wesley clark, thank you for explaining what is likely going on around this hospital right now. thanks, general. sara? >> still ahead, biden's significant sit down with china's president xi. now in georgia prosecutors in the election subversion case want to put one of former president trump's co-defendants in jail. why they're worried about be witness intimidation now. and the never before seen video of alec baldwin firing guns while filming "rust" just days before the round he fired killed cinematatographer hi lay na-hutchchins. new fallout this morning from president biden's meeting with a man he called a dictator. and new official reaction from those comments specifically. president biden's four-hour meeting with chinese leader xi jinping produced progress on fentanyl, military communication and artificial intelligence. less certain if anything is clarified on china's posture on ukraine, israel and taiwan. this morning, the xi jinping administration is calling biden's response to a question from mj lee extremely erroneous. this is that exchange. >> mr. president, after today would you still refer to president xi as a dictator? a term that you used earlier this year? had. >> look, he is. he's a guy that runs a communist country that's based on a form of government totally different than ours. >> you heard her voice there. now cnn's senior white house correspondent mj lee joins us from san francisco. what's the latest on this? >> reporter: look we did get the fiery response from china's foreign ministry overnight, saying the president's comment was extremely erroneous and an irresponsible political maneuver. we knew, of course, this is a label that chinese officials are extremely sensitive to. and i gather that chinese officials are going to want to move on from this, if they can, and try to sort of point back to all the progress that both chinese and american officials were trying to herald yesterday after this four-hour summit where they said there was real progress made in trying to take some tension out of that relationship. and, of course, one of those key deliverables we saw get announced yesterday was the restoration of military to military communications between the two countries. that had been severed last year by beijing when there was a lot of conflict and disagreement, especially on the issue of taiwan. and president xi, john, for his part, he is spending a lot of time here while he's in san francisco, trying to build alliances with the business community here. he attended an event last night that was attended by apple ceo tim cook, tesla ceo elon musk. and this is part of what he said. he said, if we regard each other as the biggest rival, the most significant geopolitical challenge and an ever present threat it will inevitably lead to wrong policies, actions, and results. china is willing to be a partner and friend of the united states. now president biden for his part is going to be attending a number of apex summit events today. we will hear him speak a little bit later this afternoon. this is a part of the biden administration's ongoing efforts to try to nurture its alliances with many other countries in this is asian region. u.s. officials have said all along this is key to their efforts to counter china's dominance in this region, john. >> mj lee in san francisco in the middle of this reporting. thanks so much. kate? >> and joining us now is sunlan kim. just on what they started off with there, when president biden talked about yet once again saying that xi is a dictator and then the response coming out of china, do you get a accepts from the white house that they're regretting that the president made this statement or trying to clean it up at all? >> i think his comments point to just how complicated this relationship can be. you heard president biden say over and over how much progress they had made, how he felt good about this meeting. how now they can pick up the phone and call each other and ease any urgent concerns should any arise. but the reality for president biden remains in his view xi is still a dictator, which is something not going over well in china right now. i think this is all kind of part of what president biden said over and over is a complex relationship to navigate. these two global superpowers are in constant competition with one another. whether it comes to the economy we differ with china on the form of governance but the two leaders have to do whatever it can that the relationship doesn't veer and tip to conflict. >> focussing on china, everyone will remember, at the beginning of his term, biden's foreign policy issue number one, where he wanted to put his focus. then as the presidency began to play out, other things demanded his attention, very clearly. why is china so important to president biden? specifically so important to him right now? >> reporter: well, i think it's going to back to what we were just talking about, that it is the world's two biggest powers and you really do -- like the united states and china really do need to cooperate on major issues, first and foremost, climate change. that wasn't an area of agreement but certainly one the u.s. believes they need china's cooperation to resolve on a global stage. but certainly you're right every time the president tries to turn his eye towards asia, china, dealing with that relationship, there are foreign policy crises that arise out of nowhere. we're certainly seeing that with the israel/hamas war right now. but this is one of his calling cards as he campaigns for re-election. he talks over and over about his decades in office and his decades dealing with foreign leaders and that's something that no one can match and you'll hear a lot of that over the years as he gears up for re-election. >> let me ask you a slice of what he might be facing in re-election. joe manchin since announcing he's not running for re-election, he's talking about his move, obviously remains unclear. he spoke to kaitlan collins last night one did not commit to staying in in the democratic party and two, whatever he does next, he does not want to be a spoiler in the presidential race. he doesn't want trump elected. let me play this. >> let me tell you, i'm not going to be a spoiler, i'm not looking for any spoilers, i'm looking for how we're going to govern the country from the middle. you cannot run your life from the extreme. >> what are you hearing from people at the white house about that? >> right. well, i think that everyone is kind of fixated on senator