city. >> on the brink of the one decisive battles of this war. >> possibly byian we'll get to the next phase, what we're about to see a longer term campaign. we begin this hour with exclusive breaking news. cnn is learning that mike pence the former vice president could be taking the stand when donald trump goes on trial in january. >> sources say fulton county prosecutors have put the former vice president on their list of witnesses. the most recent versions of the witness list is 150, more than 150 names, but pence could be key, right. >> absolutely, we know that the pressure campaign targeted vice president mike pence at the time is a key point of this broader conspiracy case. who better to speak to that than is mike pence himself. by putting him on this witness list, you know, they're preserving their right to call mike pence to testify during a pivotal trial in this case. look it remains unclear when that might happen. the judge hasn't set a trial date yet. mike pence, this is different from his cooperation in the federal case. he's not testified under oath in any capacity in the georgia case, but take a listen to what mike pence said when he was asked about his willingness to testify in the federal case. >> i have no plans to testify, but, look, we'll always -- we'll always comply with the law, but look, i want to tell you, i don't know what the path of this indictment will be. there are profound issues around this pertaining to the first amendment. freedom of speech. >> now at the same time after trump was indicted in georgia, though, pence said this, despite what the former president and his allies have said for now more than 2.5 years and continue to insist the georgia election was not stolen. i had no right to overturn the election on january 6th. so i'm sure if they do call mike pence to testify in a trial they'll want to say something to the effect of that. >> you mentioned the federal case, trump's team is pushing the access to documents in the hands of special prosecutor jack smith, what is their argument for sharing them. >> pence is on this witness list becomes immediately relevant. because trump's team wants access to pence's notes. they don't seem to be in the possession of the district attorney's office in georgia. trump's lawyer is saying, if pence is a witness in this case, clearly a lot ofover lap in these two cases, we need to see it in order to defend our cli client. >> thank you. cnn legal analyst ellie honig back at the table with us. what's significance of pence in this case in. >> mike pence is an obvious witness that the fulton county d.a. has to call to the stand in her case, because he's uniquely situated, to me mike pence is one of most pivotal and necessary witnesses here. let's remember he's the person who had a series of face to face meetings with donald trump. as donald trump was trying to steal this election. mike pence said i don't think i have the authority to overturn this election. it doesn't surprise me at all that d.a. has mike pence on her witness list. but still significant. this is going to happen in one or both of these trials mike pence is going to take the trial. >> and the reporting of more than 150 witnesses. this is going to be a long, long trial. >> those witness lists it's important to understand that, you're preserving your right. >> switching over to jack smith federal election subversion case, filing yesterday expands, goes further than what they had to say further, explain why. >> so, prosecutors have to serve this kind of motion before any trial, okay, judge, we're going to prove the indictment itself with the ed but also there's some areas that maybe are on the fringes or outside the indictment we'll need to introduce to prove the intent in indictment. jack smith's team said we want to issue prior statements that he said, we want to show stuff he did -- >> statements like saying they're hostages, not -- i want people to listen to understand the context. >> i call them the j6 hostages. not prisoners. i call them the hostages, what's happened. and it's a shame. you know they did that and they asked me whether or not i would partake and i said yes, i would. you saw the spirit, the spirit was incredible. >> stuff like that. >> that's a perfect example, a statement that trump made recently after the allegations in the indictment. prosecutors will argue, look, that shows his intent, that he was perfectly fine with people who stormed the capitol. he may even pardon them. i think the judge will allow that evidence in. >> the scale of the witness list, i was thinking through the racketeering case in atlanta, the long est ever, not necessarily just in isolation to her case against the former president, but all the cases, we're talking about a very real re-election campaign that's under way for the current president, the former president, likely front-runners, both, what's timing right now. >> so there are four pending indictments. the question on everyone's minds, how many of these are going to get tried before the election. i'm going to set the over/under, 1.5. i think we're very likely -- i'll quickly run through them all. march 2024, two cases scheduled for trial the federal election subversion case in d.c. and the new york hush money case, the federal case is definitely going to go, new york has signaled they're willing to push it off. mar-a-lago case that judge has kept the trial date for may, i think she's likely to push that off as well, and fani willis' case, no way she gets in time, 150 witnesses, i think the d.c. federal case for sure, i think the others are unlikely. >> and seating a jury for that case. ellie, thank you very much. donald trump with an ey eyebrow-raising response if he'd abuse power. president biden said he's not sure if he'd be running for re-election if trump was not in this race, those comments caught some of his own top advisers by surprise. she said you're not going to be a dictator, are you. i said no, no other than day one. we're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. >> former president at a town hall in iowa last night refusing to say unequivocally he wouldn't abuse power. liz cheney offers stark warnings about a second trump presidency, will those warnings break trump's grip on the party, including his grip on evangelicals. thanks for joining us. the book is fascinating. just because of the stellar reporting and also the lived experience you have yourself. it gets a question that a lot ofs have been asked over the six years, which is why evangelicals seems antithetical in every single way to their faith, to their day-to-day lives. have you answered that question? >> i've tried. look, i think we all recognize at the outset, this time eight years ago, evangelical christians were beginning to warm up to this idea of transactional relationship with donald trump, he was going to give them policy victories and they were going to give him the votes he needed to be president. an uneasy relationship. that has morphed into something else entirely. there's spectrum here. in certain quarters, this cult-like attachment to trump is best explained, by this idea of america, their kingdom ordained by god, under sieged. believing that the secular god-less leftists are coming for them, coming for their churches. look at covid-19, they shut down our churches. this mentality that the end is near and we need a strongman to protect us. >> you write fascinatingly about -- about the flags that there were, not the flags and not the crosses, why was that such an important scene to set to show the connection the grip that trump has on the evangelical vote. >> poppy, such a great question. there's a scene in the book of second kings, where some of the jewish leaders, they see an idol that has been built by the asyrian king, they bring it into their temple and they put it up to where the altar of god is, they don't displace it, they push it to the side and that's sort of what's happen ing the christian flag. the cross is parallel to the flag and we're kind of worshiping both. to merge these two kingdoms into one. when we talk about christian nationalism, a phrase that's loaded, ultimately it's this idea that fighting for one, the flag, is fighting for the other, god. the kingdom of god -- and that by fighting for this covenant nation you're fighting as salvation itself hangs in the balance. theologically speaking is just dead wrong. >> my understanding, i'm not an evangelical, but i understand bible fairly well, is that antithetical to how it's supposed to be, what's the rationalization of those two things merging in. >> the rationalization is best i can tell is that there's a belief among a lot of these folks that we're living in an age now where it's no longer republican versus democrat, conservative versus progressive. . this good versus evil. if you look from the rhetoric not only from donald trump and the people around him, the people who are in his ear, policy-making decisions, these are folks who are viewing every day partisan political dispute as a proxy for this grand sort of cosmic spiritual clash between the forces of good and evil. when you think about things in that way, all bets are off. i mean, desperate times call for desperate my shurs. when george w. bush said he had the jettisoned market principles to save the free market. for evangelicals to save christian virtue you have to do away with christian virtue. >> it's important for our viewers to understand where you come to this, the son of an evangelical minister, this book was borne of your grief and grieving your father. take us back to that day. >> yeah, so, my dad was an evangelical pastor, we were very close, he's amazing guy, he passed away four years ago right as my first book came out, pretty critical of donald trump. i was in crosshairs of right-wing media. when i went home to michigan for the funeral, to the church that he pastored for over 25 years, where i had grown up, it was my home, i was confronted by a lot of people about politics, about trump, people wanting to argue, people asking me if i was still a christian while my dad was in box nearby. it was a jarring experience. i gave an eulogy here. it got even worse from there. i received a note from someone who had an elder in our church, a friend of my dad's, basically saying i was part of the deep state, that i was undermining god's odaned leader of this country, donald trump, and that i needed to beg forgiveness. i'm telling this story here, i've not encountered this sort of thinking in churches around the country and not only have i encountered the radicalism but rally sane, normal compassionate christians who are feeling outmanned inside their own con dpre gagss. >> you end the book as a pastor retaking his church and congregation. >> yes. >> a nuanced view. very well reported. thanks so much for coming on. we really appreciate it. >> congrats, tim. when u.s. officials expect the current phase of israel's ground invasion of gaza mto end. first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones brings so much joy to your life. a family trip to the team usa training facility. i don't know how to thank you. i'm here to thank you. new this morning, video that shows israel's ground operation and air strikes continuing in gaza, the idf says its troops are coming, quote, face to face with terrorists and killing them. israel said this video shows a weapons caches including missiles and explosives stock piled near a school and clinic in northern gaza. meanwhile, u.s. officials predict the current phase of the offensive could end in just weeks, in january, then narrows targets to hamas militants as the biden administration warns israel it needs to exit this phase that has killed more than 15,000 palestinians if it wants to keep meaningful international support. video shows an explosion in gaza just last hour. israeli forces striking 250 hamas targets in 24 hours in what idf said are intense battles. alex marquardt joins us now. what are you hearing about this time line, because i have to be candid, when i read that cnn reporting i was struck that this phase may dramatically change in a matter of weeks. >> reporter: change, but probably continue for quite some time, popty, there are major questions about how much longer israel can maintain this pace of operations considering the humanitarian crisis we're seeing unfolding in gaza. we can hear the israeli fighter jets circling overhead. what my colleagues andry being told they believe israel will continue to carry out what they're calling a high-intensity pace of operations for the next few weeks, we're talking about weeks not months before they transition to a lower intensity phase of this, the lower intensity stage would look more targeted and localized operations. the u.s. has warned both publicly and privately they don't want to see israel carry out the same level of operation in the south as they did in the north. they've warned israel that international support is quickly waning. in terms of the calendar, we could see these high-intensity operations continue through the rest of the month, through december, before transitioning to that lower intensity in january. >> alex, before you go, quite announcement from u.s. secretary of state blinken saying the u.s. is prepared to bar what the u.s. is deeming extremists israeli settlers in the west bank from coming to the united states, that was met with some pretty harsh criticism from israeli officials. how big of a deal that? >> reporter: the israelis, top israelis officials areup set that they're all settlers are being -- these travel bans, visa restrictions on extremist settlers inciting or carrying out violence if west bank. we've seen a surge of it since october 7th. imposed against their family members. unclear how people are being targeted but something that president biden warned of a couple of weeks ago. at the same time, this could apply to palestinians who are carrying out violence against israelis as well. >> alex, appreciate it. this morning, we're learning about the premature babies evacuated from a crumbling and now defiunct al shifa hospital. doctors are still carrying for many of them. larry, what is the status of these babies? >> phil, we have just soon these babies who came in here just over two weeks to the administrative hospital and some of them -- from the neo natal to the nursery for treatment. some of them receiving -- >> larry, hang on. we're having some audio problems. we'll come back to you in a little bit. it's very important. we'll fix your audio and get you back in. as we wait, onking has been all over the map, this morning he takes to the key battleground state of nevada, where voters say 2024 is still very much up in the air. >> we're in vegas, put your money on trump/biden, or we're going to be surprised? >> i think we're going to be surprised. i think we'll be surprised. we're following breaking news this morning, a killing spree across central texas leaving six people dead and three injured including two officers. police say the suspect is in custody and facing capital murder charges. ed, how do police say they were able to track down the suspect? >> reporter: it all came to an end yesterday afternoon around 7:00 after responding to a burglary call at a home in austin, police there say they engaged in an exchange of gunfired. they pieced together a troubling killing spree. police in san antonio believe it started there, inside a home, a man and a woman were found. yesterday morning at austin at a high school as school police officer was shot in leg, that officer is expected to survive. then, two hours later, there was a shooting reported at another home in austin where a man and a woman were found dead as well. it continued on, around 5:00 in the afternoon, a male cyclist reported that he was shot and then that led to that final scene there, just around 7:00 yesterday afternoon, where there -- a burglary where officers responded, when officers went back to that scene they found another man and woman dead inside. in all six people killed at these various scenes, three people injured including two police officers. right now police say the suspect who was later taken into custody after a chase, is a man in his 30s, he's not been identified yet, investigators say he'll face capital murder charges here in texas carries the death penalty. what investigators haven't shared just yet what is the motivation behind all this and any connection between all of these different shooting scenes if. >> ed, thank you. meantime to politics, hispanic voters across the country will play a significant role in this election and in the key battle ground state of nevada which has gone blue, modest republican inroads could spill a bigger opening in the party. john king with the latest installment of all over the map. >> reporter: lunchtime in vegas. he's happy to lay out the choices. more cautious though about a past choice. what about biden/trump? >> i'll stay away from that. >> you don't want to talk about that. >> no. >> why? >> because the nature of society right now. you know, we're a small business and they'll attack you. they'll attack you just because you support a certain candidate. >> reporter: muniz started the taco bar after being a officer. >> a dream of mine, i've always had a love of food. >> it's maizing that the hispanic power is great here in the state of nevada. >> if you look at it today it's right there 50/50. >> our vote has been taken for granted. >> reporter: a former democrat who worked for the teacher union now a republican with one defining issue. your son is how old? >> 6. >> you send him to public schools. >> i won't. >> why? >> i work with hispanic families for 15 years here and i've seen it, i've seen it firsthand how teachers have classrooms that are overcrowded. i'll vote per the candidate who support my views on school choice. >> reporter: in 2020 that was donald trump with reservations. >> i will never condone racist comments toward my community. >> reporter: now she hopes the gop makes a new choice. >> i like ron desantis, simply what he did in florida, i'd personally loved to see nikki haley to have another mom in the white house. >> reporter: she's been selling homes in las vegas and its suburbs for 26 years. voting history tracks nevada shift blue, democrat in the past four presidential elections. but sanchez is still a registered republican, her first and second votes for president went to george w. bush, sanchez liked the idea of lower taxes met with compassionate talk. >> does that republican party exist any more? >> it doesn't. >> would you love to come back? >> yes. >> she likes nikki haley. >> she can bring back what it used to be. >> if it's trump/biden, you're biden. if it's haley/biden. you're -- >> haley. >> some of them say look at what's happening in the economy, there's no way. >> what do you say to them? >> i say don't. don't. he's going to make things worse. >> the strip has changed a ton since carlos started as a treasure island pastry chef. >> to be in a job that long and still love it is awesome. >> reporter: he volunteers every election and knows a modest latino shift could tip nevada republican in 2024. >> i think we have a good chance of stopping that. >> reporter: he hear complaints that biden is too old or the economy. >> he's the working fif class people. as we get more information it will be a lot different. >> reporter: change is a constant here. erly debates between biden and trump, antonio said do your homework and keep