♪ ♪ ♪ new this morning, the leading republican candidate for president pledged that he will be a dictator. on his first day in office, faced with questions from his pal sean hannity about whether he had plans to abuse power, break the law or use the government to go after people, after not answering for nearly five minutes, this what trump said. >> under no circumstances, you are promising america tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody. >> except for day one. >> except for -- >> except for day one. >> meaning? >> i want to close the border and i want to drill, drill, drill. he said you're not going to be a dictator, are you? no, no, no. other than day one. we're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. after that i'm not a dictator. >> that was during a town hall last night in iowa. the authoritarian talk didn't stop there. trump also reminded everyone listening of his relationships with dictators. >> tell you what, we are dealing and you are -- i got to know them all, the leaders of the world. i got to know them all and they're at the top of their game, some are bad people. some are decent people. they all have one thing in common, whether it's president xi of china or kim jong-un. >> will any of this come up at tonight's republican presidential debate, we shall see. the top remaining challenges are take the stage any again, without them, donald trump himself. cnn's jeff zeleny is live in tuscaloosa where the debate will be held. donald trump, he's not going to be there. how big of a role do you see his town hall playing. do you think he will come up at all? >> kate, it would be impossible to or nearly impossible, let me get myself a caveat there to imagine that question not coming up tonight. the fact that he said with his own words that he would be a dictator on day one. one thing that has changed about these debates from debate to debate is a central part of the question has been what has happened previously and what is new and this is a new element and part of a long-running story about how he would govern in a second term, so yes, i very much expect questions to be asked by this and the candidates, particularly if you're named chris christie will seize upon this moment to make the case to republicans to turn a new direction. the bigger question is will florida governor ron desantis and nikki haley try to seize upon this, as well or will they largely continue in the mold of trying to appeal to some trump supporters? that is the open question here, but it's hard to imagine that donald trump's words will not be front of and center in this debate tonight? of course, he is not here, but he hangs over this primary race, in fact, he's driving this primary race, so i do expect a rebuttal time. we'll see if the candidates, though, decide to do that. >> i think it's worth noting here that when he was first asked by sean hannity if he would abuse power or break the law, he dodged. he didn't answer. he didn't give a no for five full minutes and when he did it was dictator for a day and then, jeff, i think it's also worth noting that this doesn't appear to be a bug, but a feature of the campaign and those around donald trump, cash patel who worked in the first trump administration and is clearly still in the trump orbit has been telling steve bannon and others that they will go after people in the media and people who, you know, who crossed donald trump. he said yes, we're going to come after the media who lied about american citizens and helped president biden rig presidential elections. we're going to come after you whether criminally or civilly. this is part of the trump argument right now. >> it's the anthem of his re-election campaign. it's the anthem for his third bid for the presidency. he's been talking about retribution and revenge and none of this should be surprising at all. if you listen to what donald trump says, he's talking about his plans for the success term for his department of justice on and on, and his plan for the central part of that and now many republicans who are looking for a new direction, in fact, some of his rivals will say privately and publicly tonight that they believe that this is even more dangerous in a second term because the president knows his way around the office, if you will. he knows exactly what levers to pull. so i do believe this will be a central part of the conversation. in talking to voters in recent days and really for the last several weeks and months and a lot of trump supporters and voters are looking for something new because of of this exactly. they're not voting for him in the long run and should he become the nominee and this is a chance for the republicans to make the case and time is running out for them. 40 days before the iowa caucuses and a week later the new hampshire primary. the smaller stage and the biggest moment for these candidates without question. >> good to see you, jeff. glad you're there. thank you. >> extraordinary new charges by the government against four russian soldiers and this is the first time the u.s. has used a decades-old law for war crimes. according to the indictment, russian soldiers violently abducted a u.s. citizen from his home in ukraine, beat him, to the youtortured him all while taking photographs and evan perez is there and talk to us about the historic significance of this. >> john, this is a very extraordinary case, certainly for the justice department as you pointed out. this is the first time that they're using this 30-year-old war crimes statute, this war crimes law to bring charges. in this case they're bringing charges against four members of russian-affiliated military. we don't know exactly whether they're russian military or whether they are connected or whether they're members of the -- of the donetsk people's republic which is the russian-supported group or -- sorry, section in eastern ukraine that is governed by a pro-russian government, but we know that the -- in this case these four people, these four members of the military abducted an american, held him for ten day, tortured him and conducted a mock execution. this is all happening in april of 2022 in the village of mylove in the kherson region of ukraine. according to prosecutors this all happened over a period of days and agents from the homeland security investigations and the fbi went over there, interviewed this person and have now brought these charges. it's pretty extraordinary for them to be able to do this. obviously, we know that the fbi and hsi have been working with ukrainian prosecutors to try to collect evidence, john, for international war crimes tribunal, but in this case they're actually bringing charges in the united states against these four members of the military. we should point out that these people, these four people are not in custody, and so it is something in the future that the u.s. hopes to do. john? >> evan perez, thank you very much for that. >> joining us now for more on all of of this is republican congressman mike mccall, chairman of the house committee. thanks for coming in. >> appreciate it. >> these charges that we vuft he just heard about homeland security and they highlight the brutal war against ukraine. what does it mean to what you all are facing right now which includes a funding fight, putting u.s. support for ukraine on the brink of collapse? >> well, i think it's very significant as a former federal prosecutor myself that department of justice that they're going forward with this first war crimes case dealing with an american citizen which gives them jurisdiction, and i would like to see more of this in the future. you know that i was at the hague, the international tribunal indicted mr. putin for basically taking 25,000 children hostage and then putting them in these indoctrination camps in russia which really goes to the heart of genocide itself, and i think the stronger case we can make for ukraine against these war crime atrocities that we've seen come out of the kremlin. in addition, kate, the idea that putin invited hamas after october 7th to the kremlin to meet with them. so his unholy alliance with chairman xi and now the ayatollah and hamas, people need to know who our adversaries are and when it comes to supplemental funding it's imperative to get this done. ukrainian funding, israel, and the last line of defense is the u.s. border. >> so on the funding fight, the senate's fighting it out right now as is the house. there is briefing for senators yesterday that kind of evolved into something of a shouting match, senators as they left the meeting with cabinet officials who were coming to brief them essentially to motivate them to get onboard and to get past this impasse on u.s. border funding, and here's what democratic senator chris murphy who has played kind of a leading role in negotiations with republicans over the past few weeks and what he said leaving that meeting, we are about to abandon ukraine. when vladimir putin -- they decided to play politics with the future of ukraine's security. do you fear that is how this is going to look and could end? >> i've moderated that classified briefing with secretary blinken and the secretary of defense, as well in the house side, and i think we had a more amicable discussion in the house, but i will say that border is important for republicans to get onboard with this overall package. so i know that chuck schumer is trying to move forward without any border security at all. i know on the house side when speaking with speaker johnson that is imperative for to pass, and i do believe the majority's house and senate support, to your point, i actually raised what you just said with secretary austin and blinken and that is if we abandon our nato allies and allow putin to take over ukraine in a week, and then threaten their neighbors, that being moldova, georgia, possibly the baltic states, then where are we? if we'll abandon ship just like we did in afghanistan, what is the end result from a foreign policy standpoint? i would argue it would be disastrous and it would empower and embolden our adversaries that are already emboldened enough and that being putin, chairman xi? china and the ayatollah all in this together, and i think it would be projecting the strongest weakness that i've seen in my lifetime. we have a role to play to leave the free world against our adversaries just like ronald reagan did, and the people in my party, i would say what would reagan do? what would he do in the sense of -- i know what he would do and he would take on the russians. >> and what you're speaking to is what you would think folks can do which is to find a middle ground here when it seems broadly, republicans and democrats agree ukraine needs more fund, and israel needs support and everyone acknowledging there is a crisis at the border and the detail of which needs to get hammer out. you have been focusing on the ongoing and escalating threat from the houthis against u.s. forces and the interests since the october 7th terror attack. u.s. forces were sent to the red sea as a point of deterrence from this escalating any further. from what you is seen is the deterrence working? >> well, we have the force and projected force and that is carrier strike groups in both the eastern mediterranean and the persian gulf along with the nuclear submarine. the question is i think iran is looking at is do we have the resolve? they tested our forces in iraq and syria hitting them numbers of times before we even responded to this, and i will say we are slow to respond, in addition, houthi rebels and the same situation and one thing is clear the proxies are getting a very injurized and very hot and dangerous right now. i love the effort to designate the houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organization and one of the first things this administration did when they came in was take that designation off the table. i think you project strength and you get peace and deter aggression. i did compliment secretary austin for putting this projected force in the mediterranean and the persian gulf to respond to these very threats and they know that we have that capability and that does provide deterrence. >> mr. chairman, a lot on your plate. thank you so much for coming in. let's see what happens with this funding if congress can yet again get its act together. thank you. >> i'm an eternal optimist. >> i don't know why, but okay. john? a pregnant woman in texas is suing the state over abortion restrictions and why she says the law puts her life at risk. cnn exclusive reporting it, but who is on the witness list for donald trump's georgia election interference trial and brand-new out just this morning, taylor swift just named "time's" person of the year. why she is sharing the title with her cat. a cnn exclusive. donald trump could come face to face with his former vice president during his trial in georgia. sources telling cnn that among the potential witnesses that fulton county says it may call to the stand, mike pence. nick valencia has more on this. nick, what are you learning? >> this is fascinating because up until now, mike pence hasn't been much a part of the criminal proceedings and even in the evidence gathering stage during the special purpose grand jury he wasn't even called as a witness and now we are told that he's among this list of 150 names that are potential witnesses to testify against the former president at a future trial and it's interesting also because pence, he has been -- he was one of the longtime republican allies of the president that has publicly rebuked the comments by trump saying there was fraud here and pence has been full throated saying that the election was not stolen and infamously we all know that he was pressured by trump to overturn the election results by the election certification in 2021. now he could be a key witness here for the state. kate? >> you also spoke with the district attorney there in fulton county, fani willis last night. what did she have to say? >> last week trump's defense team, they made their debut last week in court. he is a high-profile defense attorney and he submitted arguments to try to get this case dismissed and one of them is claims of election interference. he says his client to likely to be the nominee for president and it would amount to political interference if he's running for president at the same time his trial is proposed to start by the d.a.'s office which is august 2024. fani willis was in new york last night receiving an award for her work and we put that question to her about what she thinks about this claim of political interference. >> i think it's ridiculous. we've been conducting that investigations since 2021, january 1st. the investigation has taken its course and we are at the point that the investigation naturally took us to. so i think it's a ridiculous allegation. >> so there's no hearing scheduled on the books just yet, but the judge in this case has given the defense attorneys until december 15th to broaden out their arguments to try to get their case dismissed and the state has until january 2nd to respond to those arguments. kate? >> nick valencia, thank you so much. john? with me now former special prosecutor renato mariotti. that has to do with the georgea case. we heard from jack something's team that as part of the prosecution explore donald trump's support for the january 6th rioters and his public support since, you know, over the last two years. why is that significant? >> i think it's going to be really important evidence, john, to undercut a key defense that trump is going to raise. trump's defense should be, if he has a good legal team that he said these words on the rotunda and he tweeted some things out and he was shocked and appalled that people took his words and decided that they were going to attack the capitol and brutalized police officers and others. that's what a lot of republicans, for example, have said. however, that doesn't praise with trump calling them patriots and suggesting that he's going to pardon them. that's completely inconsistent and so what jack smith and his team are going to do is say that this was donald trump's plan all along, that he supported the attack and he supported the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, that he was trying to interfere at that proceeding and i think that will be challenging evidence for him to overcome during the trial. >> even though he is not charged specifically with inciting a riot? >> yeah. exactly because what it is, they're going to use it to show, john, is evidence of his intent, his knowledge back in january 6th. what they're going to say is we know because -- we know what his knowledge was back on that day and we know what he was intending back then because look how he's acted since that time. in other words, if you happen to be, for example, outside a bank and you were saying a bunch of words and you said you were surprised that people rushed you to the bank and robbed it, if afterwards you were praising them and you were trying to support them and giving them aid in some way it would suggest that perhaps you weren't telling the truth or your defense is wrong and you're suggesting that you're condemning their activity. >> back in new york in the civil fraud trial where we should note that donald trump and the organization have been found liable for fraud, we thought that eric trump would testify for the defense. we've now heard that he will not. why not, do you think? >> well, he did testify in the deposition, and he took the fifth over 500 times which really puts the trump team in a difficult position because in a civil case the judge can actually infer that his testimony would be negative, would be adverse to the trump position. so i think at this point it's not a mystery that the judge is determined that the trump organization has committed fraud any there's been a determineatin as to one count and it looks like the trial is not doing well for them and i think the trump team outweighed the side on record on appeal and they're not putting upperic trump. >> we still expect to hear from trump himself who testified first for the state and now will be a defense witness. >> i don't view that as a legal decision. i view that as a personal decision by trump and also a pr spin sort of decision. trump is trying to turn that trial into a bit of a circus. he's trying to divert attention from the finding of fraud which is very significant in trying to turn this into kind of a personal back and forth with the judge so i expect him to be very colorful, to try to distract and tell his own story to use that as a megaphone rather than carry forward a legal strategy. council renato mariotti, thank you very much for being with us. >> kate? >> coming up for us, six people are dead, a suspect is now in custody after a shooting spree across two texas cities. what we are now learning about that suspect. and the iconic tv and movie producer and writer norman lear. he has passed away at 101 years old. we'll look back at his career. we'll be back. ♪ ♪ all right. breaking news. former house speaker kevin mccarthy will soon be former member of congress kevin mccarthy. he is resigning. our chief capitol hill correspondent manu raju here with the news. manu, what have you learned? >> yeah. this is a big deal. this is former speaker of the house kevin mccarthy announcing he will retire at the end of this year, resign his seat from congress and will step aside and no longer serve the district in california that he has for some number of years now in the aftermath of his ouster as speaker of the house. two months ago the historic vote pushing him out of speakership when he led by matt gaetz and voted out by seven other republicans along with democrats pushing him out as