♪ ♪ all in. with two months until voters weigh in, a new iowa rivalry heats up. >> i deliver on 100% of my promises. >> all this vendetta stuff, we can't go down that. >> florida's governor is all in on iowa. will it pay off? >> we have to send a great signal and then maybe these people say okay, it's over now. >> republican presidential candidate ron desantis is here for an exclusive interview next. plus, choose your opponent. facing political headwinds. >> come on, man. >> president biden ramps up his attacks on former president donald trump. will that be enough to sway swing voters? our panel is here to discuss and under pressure, amid outcry over gaza deaths. >> free palestine! >> president biden rejects calls for a ceasefire while his administration says they're working on a deal to bring back the hostages held by hamas. are they close? deputy national security adviser jon finer is here and mare landes democratic congressman jamie rask in joins me exclusively. ♪ ♪ hello. i'm jake tapper in washington, d.c., where the state of our union is praying for peace and for an end to this conflict as soon as possible. pro-palestinian protesters took to the streets all over the united states this weekend as president biden tried to defend his support for israel amid a growing divide in this party over israel's war against hamas which has led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of palestinians and the death of thousand of gaza. the world health organization says the al shifa hospital targeted by israel as a hamas headquarters is now, quote, a death zone and hours ago, 31 neonatal babies were finally evacuated from the hospital. also in northern gaza, and i want to warn you, this footage that i'm about to show you, it's very disturbing. a horrifying new video showed dozens offed a bodies includingn and children lying in wreckage and covered in dust after a blast rocked a u.n. school being used as a shelter. the unsaid it did not know who is responsible for the incident. the israeli military said it is reviewing what happened. on saturday, president biden rejected calls for a ceasefire in the war. president biden writing in "the washington post" that, quote, a ceasefire is not peace. he underlied a support for a two-state solution in the long term as his administration is working hard to strike a deal between hamas and israel to release the hundreds of hostages still being held in gaza in exchange for some form of pause in the hostilities. >> and joining me now is the u.s. deputy national security adviser jon finer. thanks for joining us. so what is the state of negotiations as of this morning? is there a deal imminent? >> thanks, jake. so i think you heard probably the prime minister of qatar speak to this earlier today. they have been extremely close, obviously, to these negotiations as we have. the united states has been following this minute by minute, hour by hour up to the level of the president for whom this is a major overriding priority obviously in part because there are a number of americans who are in this horrific situation. what i can say about this at this time is that we think we are closer than we have been perhaps at any point since these negotiations began weeks ago, that there are areas of disagreement that have been narrowed, if not closed out in entirely, but the mantra that nothing is agreed until everything agreed applies here in such sensitive negotiation and there is no deal currently in place. we'll keep at this intensively over the coming hours and days. we believe it is imperative given how the situation is in gaza to get these people home and we will stay on top of it. >> i assume from the remark you just made that it is a requirement for president biden that any americans being held by hamas must be included in any deal, must be released? >> so i'm not going to get into any of the substance of the conversations in part because we only have really one imperative here which is to get the deal done. there will be a time and a place to lay out more detail about what was agreeded if we get to an agreement and exactly how this came about, but that time isn't now when we are still in the throes of lot of back and forth to get this deal. what i will say is president biden feels no higher obligation and no higher priority than the safety americans, americans here in the homeland and overseas and certainly americans who are held in such horrific and dangerous conditions those being held hostage in gaza right now. >> we know at least three of the hostages kidnapped on october 7th have been killed. the remains of one and the bodies of two have been found. how many hostages, do you believe, are still alive? >> so, jake, we don't have exact numbers. one of the challenges associated with this is we are not on the ground in gaza in the united states and we are not in direct contact with hamas and we do that only through intermeadiaries and we don't have perfect fidelity about the exact numbers hostages including those who are still alive, but we do believe that there are a significant number of americans still being held and americans are the highest priority and they include, by the way, a 3-year-old girl who is an orphan because her parents were murdered by hamas on october 7th and i think you can see and understand exactly why this is such an acute children and laying out detailed information because first and foremost, we just want to get this deal done. >> meanwhile, the devastation in gaza continues as the idf targets hamas. the u.n. says one of its schools in northern gaza was struck yard yesterday. the school was being used as a shelter and video from skeeven does show dozens of dead bodies including the bodies of women and children. what do you know about this strike? does the administration believe this was the result of an israeli strike? >> so we are still gathering information about this incident that just happened yesterday. we've been in direct contact with unra, the u.n. agency on the ground in gaza which, by the way, has lost more than a hundred members of its own staff. people who are going around distributing assistance inside gaza. i met virtually with the head of unra just a couple of days ago and we are in touch with israelis to find out what they know about what happened. if harm was done to innocent civilians sheltering at a u.n. site that would be totally unacceptable and so we will continue to try to look into what happened in this incident. when we know more we will share. >> president biden when he traveled to israel after hamas attacked on october 7th and killed 1200 israeles. president biden warned israel not to make the same mistakes after 9/11 and not to allow rage to consume them, and not to allow rage to guide their response. you, more than those of us watching the show right now and more than me, know how much the israeli military is actually targeting hamas, whether israelis are actually doing everything they possibly can to avoid civilian casualties. how bad the civilian death toll actually is as opposed to what the hamas-run palestinian health ministry claims and how wide the destruction actually is in gaza. do you think the israelis took biden's advice about not allowing retaliation to be driven by rage? >> what i can say about this is it's not an assessment that can be made based on a snapshot at a particular moment. this is an ongoing conversation for the united states and the government of israel. when there is an incident that takes place that raised concerns that suggest possibly that there has not been enough care taken about innocent palestinian lives which in our view are equal to innocent lives anywhere that should go without saying. we raise those concerns directly with the government of israel. the president has raised those concerns directly with the prime minister and for us it's less about a real time assessment and much more to steer things in the best possible direction including for whatever combat remains during the course of this conflict. we believe the government of israel can draw, should draw lessons based on how the operations in the north have gone and apply those lessons to wherever it takes this conflict going forward. >> a growing number of house and senate democrats are putting conditions on the aid that continues to go to israel. senator bernie sanders, for example, says any u.s. aid must be contingent on indiscriminate bombing in gaza committed to not reoccupy gaza and re-entering peace ney gosgotiations on a two-state solution. what do you think about future aid? >> i think what i would say about this, jake, is no assistance that the united states provides to any country is unconditional. it comes with a requirement that it be used consistent with international law and armed conflict. the u.s. president has said that israel has every right to defend itself against the horrific attacks that took place on october 7thing and that is every country's right and certainly israel's right and we are not only supporting that rhetorically and we are providing assistance to israel so it can do that in the most effective, pol way, but to the points we were talking about just earlier in this same conversation. those rights come with obligations and that obligation includes conducting this conflict in a way that distinguishes civilians from non-combatants in a way that's proportional. all of the requirements with humanitarian law are applicable here and it's important to bear in mind is that israel is fighting an adversary that not only does not hold itself to the same standardses and it openly boasts about flouting them and flagrant violations of international law. that does not diminish israel's obligations and it is a facet that makes it extremely daunting. jonathan finer, thanks so much for your time today. >> thank you. president biden is asking iowans to give him a decisive victory in january at the caucus. my next guest says he is the best chance to stop that if he's going to win the iowa caucus. republican candidate ron desantis of florida is here exclusively next. plus, a big birthday for president biden. my panel breaks down his new campaign strategy. thatat's coming g up. ♪ ♪ welcome back to "state of the union." i'm jake tapper. we are less than two months out from the iowa caucuses, believe it or not. former president trump asked them to seal up the nomination. with the fierce battle under way between two of his rivals, ron desantis says he is still the one that has the best chance to challenge and defeat donald trump and he said trump's attacks against him prove. joining us now from iowa is republican presidential candidate ron desantis, the governor of florida. thanks so much, governor. i want to start on israel. president biden is out now with a new op-ed and called for a two-state solution and even before the attacks you have cast doubt on president biden's two-state solution. how do you think this should end then for the palestinians? do you think israel should occupy the gaza strip? what's your view of what comes after hamas is defeated? >> well, i think the fatal flaw with the push for a so-called two-state solution is that the palestinian arabs have never embraced israel's right to exist as a jewish state. that, ultimately, when israel's made offers in the past that was the sticking point and so you don't want a two-state that ends up just being a stepping-stone to the destruction of israel. i don't think that that should be contingent on any aid that they pursue that, and i would also note, jake, that for many, many decades, people in d.c. said you're never going to be able to have relations in the middle east between israel and any other country unless you have that and yet we saw under the trump administration the abraham accords where they were able to make peace with many countries in the middle east and probably would have ended up been able on do it with saudi arabia had we not had the october 7th attack. going forward, i think israel has to do what's best to defend themselves. i would note gaza was not under israeli occupation. they pulled out in 2006. they uprooted thousands of their own israeli citizens and forced them to leave the gaza strip and the idea was give the arabs down there an opportunity to make something of it and unfortunately, they turned to hamas and hamas used money to build a big, terrorist infrastructure and ultimately wage attacks for many years and then the devastating october 7th attack. israel cannot allow history to repeat itself? >> right, but what comes next? i think you would agree probably that israel occupying gaza is not going to result in peace in the region. do you think that there should be a palestinian state where gaza is? >> oh, i mean -- i think that that would end up becoming a hotbed of terrorism. i think we need to let israel win this war. we should support them publicly and privately to actually finish the job because if you just do some glancing blows, hamas reconstitute itself we will end up in this same cycle going forward and israel is in a situation where they suffered the biggest attack on jews since the holocaust. you have an organization in hamas that wants to wipe israel totally off the map. this is not just some minor dispute. this is an existential threat to the survival of the world's only jewish state. so i think they have to do whatever they can to protect their people and to make sure that this never happens again. >> something happened the other day, that i wondered what you thought about because you launched your campaign on twit are now known as x and right now major companies such as apple and disney are pulling their ads from x because elon musk openly endorsed this antisemitic conspiracy theory that jews are conspireing to replace white americans with minority immigrants. i wondered if you saw the e comment, and if you condemn it? >> i did not see the comment, , and so i know that elon has had a target on his back ever since he purchased twitter because i think he's taking it in a direction that a lot of people who are used to controlling the narrative don't like. i was a big supporter of him purchasing twitter. they're obviously still working some stuff out, but i did not see those comments. >> let me show you. here is a post that jews are pushing the dialectical whites and they'r're pushing minoritie and you have said the actual truth. he goes on to say that the adl and other jewish groups are pushing replacements of whites, it's a lot of condemnation for singling out a specific religious group during a time e rapidly rising antisemitism. you've been very out front with antisemitism on the left. is antisemitism on the right concerns you as well? >> across the board. actually, in the advent of these attacks, the amount of antisemitism surprised me and i'm someone who lined major legislation in florida to combat antisemitism on college campuses and what you've seen come out since then and you have seen it on both sides, but i will say this, the difference is that on the left that tends to be a attached to some institutional power like some of our universities where on the right it's more fringe voices that are doing it, but it's wrong no matter what, and i don't think that we've seen antisemitism this bad in the world probably since the second world war. >> i don't know how fringe the voices are, to be frank. elon musk is the wealthiest man in the world and we've seen major conservative media figureures, charlie kirk, candace owens and others pushing hateful stuff pushing the nonsensical theories of white genocide and white replacement theory, and i would ask that major republican figures like you use your voices, as well, to stand against it. but let's turn on -- turn to another topic. >> jake, with all due respect, with -- with all due respect on that to have someone that's blogging and doing stuff like that, okay, that's an issue, but to compare that for how some of these most powerful universities in the country have responded to this? we have jewish students fleeing for theieir lives because you he angry mobs and yet they have not done what they need to do to protect the safety and well-being of their students and i have constituents in florida whose kids do not want to go to campus in the advent of this because it's a hostile environment. i do think on the institutional side you've seen this become part of a left-wing movement, a very significant pro-hamas movement and it is backed by institutional power. >> yeah. absolutely. jewish students just like muslim students, gay student, all students should feel safe on campuses and the concerns jewish students have right now is very serious. i'm just saying elon musk is a pretty powerful guy and he's out there endorsing some pretty hideous antisemitic con pir see theories and i still haven't heard you condemn it. >> i have not seen it. i know you tried to read. i ha i have no idea what the context is. he's a guy who believes in america and i've never seen him indulge in that, so it's surprising and i've not seen it and i don't want to pass judgment on the fly. >> let's talk about president biden and the summit, the pacific summit. he referred to xi jinping as a dictator. yesterday you agreeded with th and you criticized personal diplomacy and you're not going to win these guys with personal charms and they're killers. just to be clear, you're calling xi jinping a killer? >> well, look, what's been happening to the uyghurs? what's been happening in so many places in china? of course he's an authoritarian, of course, he's a domestic tart and rule the country with an iron fist and the summit was a win for xi in terms of propaganda. you had american business leaders paying $40,000 to be able to sit with him at dinner and he got a lot of rousing ovation from american ceos. i know that's being played in china as an example of china being basically america's equal on the world stage. i don't think joe biden got anything of note out of this. they talk about cooperating for fentanyl as if china doesn't know the fentanyl is being sent to mexico and the united states. of course they know. this is part of the national strategy to hurt this country. i think it was a bust from biden's perspective and i think it was a win for xi. >> you also attacked governor nikki haley this week over her response to the death of george floyd. take a listen. >> she was tweeting that it needed to be personal and painful for every single person and i'm thinking to myself, why does that need to be personal or painful for you or me? we had nothing to do with it. >> so the officer who knelt on george floyd's back for almost ten agonizing minutes which we saw because the young girl filmed it was ultimately convicted of murder. i think you saw the video. >> yeah, look, that's fine, jake and he should be held accountable. >> let me just ask my question. >> i think what governor haley was going for and i don't speak for her, but i think what she was going for is watching the video is painful for americans to see, and do you not think that empathy is an important quality for a u.s. president? >> of course, it is, but to say the actions of one police officer means that americans in iowa or texas or florida that it should be painful for them when they had nothing to do with it, that does not make any sense. and so that individual was arrested. he went through a criminal process and that is not emblematic of police officers in general much less the american public in general, and i would note, you know, that was said at the time when we started to see the unrest in this country and you had massive riots that have destroyed cities like minneapolis. it will take decades from minneapolis to be able to recover. so the response to that was totally out of bounds. we didn't let that happen in florida? >> i called