near the southern gaza strip where palestinians say they have nowhere else to go. and now, one blast is blowing out the windows as police are trying to serve a warrant. what led up to this. i'm skate bolduan with sara sidner and john berman, and this is cnn "news central." so what is chris christie going to say on the debate stage tomorrow night now that he knows that at of people don't want him there? according to "the new york times," republican donors, strategists and pundits are publicly pressuring mr. christie, to end his campaign and many want him to support nikki haley, and many want him to quit not only yesterday, but a month and two months ago. and liz cheney has said that she has not ruled out a third-party run, and this is as donald trump prepares to hold a solo town hall and ditch the debate tomorrow and head back to court thursday. kristen holmes and alaina treene joining us. now, where is donald trump seeing things? >> well, john, donald trump continues to run a campaign unlike anything that we have ever seen, and not only is he under four indictments, but he is not playing by any of the rules. we are six weeks out of the iowa caucuses, and the gop rivals are doing what we usually see at this point in the campaign. they are barnstorming the state of iowa and trying to woo the last-minute voters and preparing for the debate to make the lasting impressions ahead of the iowa caucuses. tr trump, himself, he is not. he is doing a town hall in iowa and then heading to florida to do a fund-raiser, and then going to go back to give testimony in a fraud trial thursday and he is expected to testify himself monday, but despite all of this, he is still leading in the polls in the gop primary and not only in the state of iowa, but nationwide. it is likely because of that, that you have started to hear these amplified focus on what a trump second term would look like when it comes to democracy, and one of the loudest critics has been former republican congresswoman liz cheney. as you mentioned, she has been essentially not ruled out with a third-party run, and she has pledged to do anything that it takes to make sure that donald trump does not make it back into the white house. this is what she said about the state of the republican party. >> i don't know if our party can be saved. maybe it is that we need to build a new party, but those issues have to come after the 24-hour cycle, and we have to make sure that trump does not return to the white house. >> these warnings are coming after donald trump's conspiracy and fringe theories are moving from the political space to the legal space, because there is a lawyers asking for information on some of the fringe conspiracy theories that it was a government job or conducted by the deep space and not sure how it is going to be playing out long term on any legal strategy, john. >> and now we will bring in alayna treene, and the calls for chris christie to drop out are very specific and focused all of the sudden here. what is going on here? >> well, one is that if you are thinking of chris christie, he is the republican candidate who is the most directly going after donald trump, and he is not afraid to attack the frontrunner head-on, but you know that a lot of the republicans and particularly those who don't want to see donald trump to win the nomination want there to be a consolidation around one trump alternative, and you have heard that for months now, and it is increasing as we are gettingr t that pressure is increasing. chris christie says he is doing very well in new hampshire and that is where his campaign has focussed a majority of the campaign's efforts, but we will see, you know what shakes out as the primaries are coming closer. looking to debate tomorrow night, you have the smallest debate stage yet, and four candidates, chris christie, ron desantis, nikki haley and vivek ramaswamy all going to be on the stage tomorrow night, and this is that opportunity for them to continue to try and capitalize on any coverage they can get as we close in on the primaries. but, of course, the front runner is not going to be there, donald trump, and he is instead going to be attending front raiser that kristen mentioned, and that is frustrating his opponents, and especially ron desantis who attacked donald trump monday asking why aren't you showing up. take a listen. >> donald trump is not willing to debate. i mean, you have to ask yourself why? why can't you just stand up on the stage for two hours and articulate what is different this time than what happened in 2020. how is he better candidate? will he admit any mistakes? i don't think so. >> and now, john, i have talked to many of the advisers and those in the inner circle about this, and they argue that the reason that he is not showing up to answer ron desantis' question is because they believe that debates are beneath him, and make like it like donald trump is in a league of his own, and the other candidates cannot compete, and again, that is frustrating a lot of the candidates, because they want that opportunity to try to attack donald trump on stage directly, but they are also losing out on the pro-trump viewers that they want to win over, because many of those people are not tuning into the debate. >> alayna treene and kristen holmes, thank you. and now, let's bring in some more debate on this. and rodney, i have to ask you, do the debates matter when the frontrunner does not show up, and you heard alayna treene say most people are not watching. >> well, we have to see after the iowa caucuses. and clearly the republican structure for the presidential nomination will be going by the wayside, but if a ron desantis or nikki haley or even if a chris christie can come along the catch fire, then the debates are justified. >> it is interesting, because there is a big push publicly to get chris christie to jump out of the race and support nikki haley. and john, talking to you about a serious matter, democracy, itself, and we have been hearing from liz cheney, the former congresswoman who is a very vetted conservative republican, and she has the new book out "oath and honor" and she has been warning about what is happening with the republican party and their allegiance to donald trump as she says it is marching towards a dictatorship. this is what she said. >> house with republicans like mike johnson, and a senate with people like josh hawley and mike lee, they won't stand up to him. and what is also important in this regard is that he is not going to abide by the rulings of the court, and people need to pause and think about what that means. >> what does that mean? i mean, it sounds like a full blown constitutional crisis if the former president says i will not abide by the courts. >> that is the definition of a constitutional crisis, and liz cheney says you can't be for trump and the constitution, because they are in opposition to each other, and for a party priding itself on constitutional conservatives, and that should be more than enough reason to pause, and not only the praise for dictators and the reason to have a stronger revenge on the political enemies, but that prospect of the constitutional crisis and the fundamental disrespect for law and order, and for good republicans to stand up like liz cheney has and too many of them drummed out, and too many of them by cowardice and careerism, and too many cowing to him, because it is good for the short-term politic, but it bad term not only for the republican party, but the republic itself, and that is what liz cheney is asking for the broader coalitions to stand up to be counted, and now is the time, and especially for republicans in iowa and new hampshire to take a stand and to feel the courage that comes from the convictions, because simply going to donald trump out of party loyalty is a path to disaster. >> and you are saying that people are picking trump over party and country at this point in time, and some of the republicans in the republican party? >> yes, that is the slippery slope to rationalization, and structurally, the problem is that because of the threat of primary is used as the congressman knows, the threats of the structural incentives end up empowering the worst instincts as opposed to the best impulses. >> and now, rodney, you served with liz cheney and she did not rule out a third-party run when she was asked by the washington post. do you think that liz cheney would be a spoiler for donald trump or actually have a shot at the office of the presidency? >> look, i have not seen recent polling on a what a third-party candidate would pull from trump or president biden, but i would say that liz who is more polarizing as a republican right now, i think that she becomes an alternative choice for many republicans who would hold their nose and vote for joe biden. she might become more of a spoiler for joe biden and give donald trump the nomination. or give donald trump the presidency. >> rodney, that is interesting, and john wants to jump in on that point. >> well, look, we are dealing with so many factors with all of the independent candidates running right now, and it is hard to see how the ball bounces, but many of them have been to the left of joe biden and liz cheney is to the right, and you might head to the place where, nobody gets to 270, and it goes to the house, and this is where somebody with 30% approval rating gets to presidency, but one of the causes that she is making and approaching it that after the election, there is a place for a new party and center right, and center left party, with a lot in common, and the folks on the far right and the far left, and those things are not working out in rationalist ways right now. >> rodney, i am curious from you and you, john, reporting from the "atlantic" from those in the trump camp are saying that they are hearing from trump that he is going to be prioritizing obedience over credential, and what does america look like if that is the case, because we know that in some cases in the past term that it was those with credentials who stood up who said, no, you did not win 2020 and we won't do that and go after this person or that person to make your dream come true, and what does america look like if he serves another term? >> well, america is going to be the greatest country in the history of the world, and that is going to continue no matter who is our president, but in the end, this should concern people. if donald trump and the people he is putting in charge of personnel decisions are going to focus on loyalty alone rather than competence, then you are not going to have a government that is going to be as effective, but again, divided government which this may be under a trump presidency is designed to not move policies is forward in a legislative manner, because the american people chose a different party to lead different institutions. i would not put too much credibility on this destroying our democracy, but it is a concern, and i would hope that the republicans are going to stand up and say that we need to govern, because country comes first, and that is not how liz cheney sees is it or you, john? >> well, trump has been putting party over country, and so the challenge is not whether the divided government will work, and particularly if the executive branch goes on a retribution bender especially over the courts and constitution, and that is not a system that aligns with the founders' visions. but american exceptionalism is dependent on america being a beacon of democracy and to the extent that he degrades it through the damaging of the constitution, is a reason for people to unite across party lines. >> rodney and john, thank you both so much for being with us here this morning. kate? also this morning, the israel defense forces are saying that the troops are moving further into southern gaza, and in the heart of khan younis, one of the largest cities in southern gaza. one person is describing it as the most intense day since the israeli offensive. there is also imagery of israeli tanks gathering near the city. and so, what are we learning about these operations in southern gaza now? >> well, kate, this is indicating that israel is truly operating in the southern part of the gaza strip. khan younis is the biggest city in southern gaza, and where many of the refugees fled from northern gaza after the officials told them to leave northern gaza after the initial phase which is focused on the north and now we are seeing the operation moving from the north into the south, and it has not completed yet in the north, israel says, but the operations are moving to the south, and much of the focus is around khan younis, and the general in charge of the southern command said that this is the most intense day yet since israel's ground incursion launched in late october, and the most intense in terms of the number of hamas militants killed, the number of firefight, the amount of firepower used. over the course of the past few days, we have seen the extraordinary number of air strikes all over the gaza strip, but what israel is going to be focusing on next is khan younis, and where they believe there is command and control of the hamas, and hamas leadership, but in terms of the humanitarian implications, this is where so many gazans fled to, and now israel is telling gazan, civilians, to leave khan younis, and go farther south. there is a lot of confusion. there is a lot of disarray of, you know, 1.9 million people displaced so far according to the united nation, and the u.n. says that so many of them have nowhere to go and nowhere to find shelter, and they say that nowhere is safe. kate. >> alex marquardt, great to have you there. john? the fbi is working to disrupt possible attacks in the u.s. for those sympathetic to hamas. and christopher wray is on capitol hill right now. and atf is investigating after huge house explosion, and new information about who might have been inside. all right. happening now, you looking at live pictures of fbi director christopher wray testifying on capitol hill saying that agents are working around the clock to disrupt potential attacks by people inspired by hamas. director wray is warning the senate panel about the troubling trend of anti-semitic threats since october 7th. evan perez is with us this morning, and what else are we hearing from the fbi director, evan? >> well, john, a lot of the fbi's concern is certainly surrounding the events of october 7th and sort of the aftereffects of it. and of course, that includes the threats to jewish people of course and institutions in the united states as well as some of the threats that you are seeing in the muslim and arab communities here in the united states. the big concern for the fbi though is the idea that after, after octoberp 7th, you have groups like hamas who have sort of put out a global call for people to put out attacks against the united states and other countries, and that is what is keeping him busy with over 2,700 domestic terrorism cases in the united states that they are investigating, and a number of people are anti-government and now there are people who may be trying to heed the call by those terrorist groups to carry out possible attacks here in the united states. but a big portion of his testimony today is trying to urge members of congress to renew a surveillance law 702 which is due to expire in the next few weeks which he says is very, very important to keep an eye on the terrorist groups which are trying to pose a threat to the united states as well as iran and china. and so what he says if you don't renew the authority, it is a form of unilateral disarmament, and that is what he just talked about in his testimony. john, you know of course, it is a congressional hearing, and so these members can go anywhere they want, and few of them have brought up some of the investigations, including the ones relating to the biden family, and hunter biden and of course investigations related the donald trump. we are keeping an eye on the hearing for the next couple of hours. >> thank you, evan perez. thank you very much. sara. today, volodymyr zelenskyy is expected to make a direct appeal to senators as the clock is ticking down for approving funding for ukraine. he is going to urge them to pass the $106 billion funding bill. and the white house is saying that the money is running out, and ukraine will be kneecapped on the battlefield if that happens, but the house is tying the money to aid on policy change 230s the u.s./mexico border policy and insist on voting against the aid package before them. manu raju is joining us from capitol hill this morning. manu, what are you learning about who is going to be doing what and how far apart are the party right now from coming up with a deal? >> yeah, they are having real fears that congress is going to leave for the christmas holidays without any action to aid ukraine, to aid israel, amid this bitter part san dispute over immigration and border policies. these are issues that have divided parties for decades. there is a fear if there is a deal to deal with the migrant surge at the southern border and something to satisfy the democrats and republicans, and there is nowhere near the agreement on that, and they say that must be reached first in order to get a deal to allow for the ukraine aid to pass, and democrats are saying they want to tie all of issues together, and not just pass israel and ukraine, but move it altogether, and the house says to move israel first and deal with ukraine later, and so you can see it is a total mess right now, but in talking to the republicans this morning and including those on the senate and the house side, i asked them directly about the administration's warning that without action to help ukraine by the end of the year, ukraine could be kneecaped in the war against russia, and some brushed off the warning. >> look, it is 40, 50 people in the house, and it is not a majority of the house republicans, but because the house republicans are divided, the senate can have a louder voice here, and this is what is going to happen here. >> i mean, i would say, listen, first of all, they have been managing the war, joe biden, into a proxy war, and they have managed it catastrophically. >> so, speaker johnson this morning responding to the white house's warning from yesterday, and the warning of course that if they don't act on the ukraine aid, that it could essentially collapse if there is no action from congress before the year's end, and johnson responded that there needs to be a significant immigration and policy measures not unlike the bill that passed earlier, and something that the senate democrats call a non-starter, and you can see the divide that continues at that urgent time for ukraine even as zelenskyy is prepared to talk to the senators and not house, but the senators in the classified briefing, and this is the difficult time ahead with israel and all of the rest to raise concerns if any of it can be done. >> and yes, as all of the americans have seen, and manu, you of course, the immigration battle has been going on decades and decades, and the system is broken and they have never found out how to fix it, and this is going to be a tough fight there on capitol hill. thank you for your reporting there. >> and another mess up there on capitol hill for sure. coming up for us, what caused a massive explosion in virginia? that is what the local, state and federal authorities are now trying to answer after the officers watched a home essentially blow up as they were trying to serve a warrant at the residence, and the federal authorities are now getting involved. and now, a federal ambassador accused of spying and why the attorney general of the united states is causing it the longest lasting infiltration of the u.s. government by a foreign agent is next. we first reported the break news of the u.s. ambassador turned alleged cuban spy. now, this morning we are learning more about what 73-year-old manuel rocha told the federal agents in the sting that exposed him. he was ambassador to bolivia and now accused of betraying the united states for decades. here is attorney general merrick garland in announcing the charges yesterday. >> this action exposes one of the highest reaching and longest lasting infiltrations of the u.s. government by a foreign agent. specifically, the criminal complaint alleges that for over 40 years, rocha acted as a covert agent of the cuban government. >> 40 years. and he is going to be in court tomorrow for a pretrial detention hearing. now, let me bring in cia operative bob baer, and it is quite incredible when the attorney general laid out how long this went on, and how much damage could rocha have done? >> well, exactly, kate. it is not the amount of time he spied for the cubans, but it is where the information went which is no doubt to russia, and eventually the cubans, because they have a very close relationship with the kgb, but more than that is the access that the man had, and in that the white house, and the southern command and the pentagon, and he probably saw about every intercept capability that we have, and this is not to mention all of the back channels that he knew about between the white house and various governments around the world. he was in a position to help the russians and the cubans to defeat us in south america and in other parts of the world. this is a spy disaster which we have not seen in modern times. i mean, this is much worse than hanson, the fbi agent. >> with that in mind, what is the intelligence community doing now that this whole, this gap, this massive leak has been expo exposed. >> well, they will do a damage assessment, kate. the damage assessment will involve interrogating this man, and he will come up with what he passed to the russians, and the worst is that he copied documents that came across his desk which is absolutely devastating. you know, as an ambassador, he saw intelligence that most foreign service officers and the cia people don't see. this is why it is so disastrous. we will be looking at the damage of this for years and years. >> wow. i want to read a couple of things and get your take, bob. in looking at a recording of the meetings citing the documents he said, i always told myself the only thing that can put everything that we have done in danger is someone's betrayal, someone who may have met me, and someone who may have known something at some point, and that is what allegedly rocha told the undercover agents, and that they were first operating on a tip that led them to him, and adding it up, what does it indicate to you? >> kate, it is always the spy who catches a spy. that means a defector to the cia and maybe a russian, and maybe a cuban, and said, hey, we have a great source who is a former ambassador and i don't know his name, but enough detail that it led the fbi, and it is undoubtedly some sort of someone coming across the lines to describe the situation, and when it happens, it happened with hanson and ames and right down the line. it takes a spy to catch a spy. >> motivation is behind why someone betrays their country is always a question, and it is always something that makes me scratch my head. rocha has said that my number one concern or my number one priority is any action on the part of washington to endanger the life of leadership or the revolution, itself. does that sound like someone who was recruited or sound like someone who sought recruitment? >> he was an ideological recruit. he believed in the cuban revolution. he was upset apparently about the pinochet coup in 1973, and he was probably directed at that point, and if in fact he was in touch with cubans as far back as then to join the state department and to burro his way up in the administration and it is a brilliant part on the part of the cubans, face it. >> thank you, bob. and now, the idf says that the troops are in the heart of the city where the hamas leaders are the strongest. and a home blown sky high where the explosion could be felt for miles, and right there where the police were standing by. this morning israel says that the troops are in the heart of the southern gaza city of khan younis and this is where the hamas militants are currently to be the strongest. we have also seen satellite images from southern gaza that appear to show israeli tank and armor vehicle formations to -- if we can zoom in i will show you what we are looking at there -- and at least three setups here in one satellite images here, and you can see them situated right here, right here, and right here. all right. now, with me is cnn military analyst and retired air force colonel cedric leighton, and now, in khan younis, this is to be the popular gaza city, cedric, and what is it that they are doing here? >> yes, good morning, john. they are routing out as many of the hamas fighters as they can. khan younis is seen as one of the big strongholds of hamas, and they are going door-to-door and house-to-house and building-to-building and routing them out. they are using a number of elements of the power including the tanks that you just showed in the satellite images and so the tanks are moving forward and kind of the protective measure for them, but they are also using air and naval forces in order to actually achieve some of the goals they have, which is basically break down to capturing as many terrorists or killing them and as many as possible. they are bent on destroying hamas in a structural sense, and khan younis is the next target, and as you said, they are already in there. >> and talk to us, colonel, about the tunnels, and if we can push in here a little bit, but of some of the tunnels around southern gaza, and you can see how they are operating in and around it, and this is coming as there is continuing to be new reporting as israel is considering flooding the tunnels with sea water. and what is the view there? >> that is a technique that the egyptians used against hamas a few years ago, and so this is something that both israel and egypt have done before, and there is some talk even at the beginning of the war that the tunnels would be flooded at some point in time, and so basically what the israelis are doing is to basically have destroyed 500 or so of 800 tunnel shafts that they have been able to find, and they are moving into the areas where they believe they cannot only find command and control nodes and weapons and caches and things like that, but they are also looking for the hostages. so if they are deciding to flood the tunnels, they are probably believing that the hostages are not to be found in those specific tunnels. i believe it is going to be a little bit of time before we see them doing something like that, and like flooding the tunnels, but it is something that they could certainly do, and it is probably not as far off as we think. >> cedric, when we are talking about southern gaza right now, this is where the people have been told to move to, and at least in the beginning part of the israeli invasion into gaza, and they were told to move south, and then on december 2nd, they were told to move out of this area in southern gaza, and then on december 3rd and 4th, they were told to move out of khan younis, that area in red right there. can you conduct war like this? is this something that is possible where israel can tell people to move from this sector one day and to another sector one day and again and again and again and is this sus taenable? >> well, not over the long term, but it is something that is going to be tried at the very beginning, be one of the problems, john, the communication systems are at best somewhat haphazard in gaza right now, and in many cases the internet is down, so one thing that the israelis did is to issue this map with about 2,000 or so different districts on it that had digital codes associated with them. that was supposed to be the basis for the israelis to send out information telling people to either leave certain areas or go to certain areas. i am not sure that specific aspect has been successful, but the basic idea is that the israelis are moving in a dynamic fashion throughout all of gaza, and so the civilian population is basically subjected to all of the different moves. in essence, what we are seeing is the movement of their military forces from north to south, and that then means that the areas that were once set aside in kind of a haphazard way for civilian refugees, those areas are now combat zones or rapidly becoming combat zones. >> colonel cedric leighton, thank you, sir, for your help. sara? more worries in georgia and why one of the co-defendants in the election subversion case could soon see her bail revoked. police in arlington, virginia, are look ging for why home blew up as they were trying to serve a search warrant. details on that investigation ahead. also on you are radar this morning, one of donald trump's codefendants in the subversion case could soon find herself behind bars. a d.a. is considering trying to revoke the bail after she posted a video on instagram making disparaging remarks about a witness in the case, a former georgia election worker. in the video, she says she was going to f her whole life up when this is done. the d.a.'s office says the remarks violated the terms of her bond agreement. her attorney defending the post saying she didn't do anything wrong. beyond this, she's charge d wit pressuring the same fulton county elections worker in 2021. she's pleaded not guilty. overnight a huge explosion levelled a home in arlington. could be felt mile was in washington, d.c. where police were trying to serve a search the warrant. they were investigating a man who fired a flare gun dozens of times from the home. a short is time after, police arrived at that house. they heard more shots being fired from inside and then things took a turn. good grief. gabe cohen joins us. what do you know about this investigation? you're in a different place looking down on where this all happened. >> reporter: first, let me show you the view we have now. if it you take a look behind me, that is the house or at least what's left of it just a couple hundred feet in the distance there. you can see the rubble, which was smoldering all morning. and to dpi you a sense of just how powerful this blast was, we are in this backyard again across this road. and there is debris all over these yards really all over this neighborhood. you can tell from the video this was an unbelievably exchange blast that didn't just level that house, it shattered windows across this area. it could be felt in d.c., heard in d.c., five miles down the road where people could see smoke rise trg this area. and this morning, this is a very active scene. you can see some of the people law enforcement walking around behind me. we saw atf and fbi agents who have been combing these yards, combing a field just behind where we're standing, looking for any evidence they may find. ask there are a lot of unanswered questions a at this hour. what caused the blast specifically, and we're trying to learn more about the man inside that house. police haven't even confirmed as of this morning whether or not he's alive. but we do know the dramatic scene started hours before the blast, four hours before the blast actually happened. police arrived in this area saying that the man who live this is that house had barricaded himself inside. he was shooting flares 30 to 40 of them across the neighborhood. eventually police got a search warrant. they tried to enter the house. witnesses said they could hear gunshots that the man was firing. then that blast went off. we have obtained new video from a neighbor that shows that moment. it is new video just obtained by cnn. take a look. >> you guys can see that there. it looks like fireworks. you have to wonder what was in that house to make it explode. thank you so much. thank you for joining us. >> thank you all for joining us. "inside politics" is up next.