biden wants to ban menthol cigarettes which are favored by black smokers. he wants to legalize weed for white college kids. republicans hope to siphon off some even if a small amount of biden's voters in some of the battleground states like nevada, iowa and pennsylvania. the white house for their part they have not given a clear reason for this delay. >> it's really interesting and important. thank you for tracking it. and "cnn this morning" continues right now. i don't have a woman problem. you have a corruption problem and that's what people need to know. nikki is corrupt. >> it's not worth my time to respond to him. >> her donors, wall street liberal donors make money in china. they are not going to let her be tough on china and she will cave to the donors. she will not stand up for you. >> he is mad because the wall street donors used to support him and now they support me. >> there you is have it. if you watched the debate it was fiery one. good morning. i'm poppy harlow with phil mattingly in new york. four of the five remaining presidential candidates sparred and traded insults during their final debate this year with less than six weeks to go before the iowa caucuses as you just heard nikki haley took the brunt of the attacks from desantis and ramaswamy over her big ticket donors and foreign policy positions. at one point ramaswamy even holding up a handwritten sign reading nikki equals corrupt. chris christie defended nikki haley last night and on our air moments ago when he had this to say about her. >> look, i disagree with nic on a lot of things and i don't think she is strong enough to take on donald trump. ity she is absolutely avoiding doing it. she is playing prevent defense on the stage last night trying to protect a lead she doesn't have. i don't think nikki haley should be our nominee and i don't think she should be president of the united states. but she is certainly a very smart and accomplished woman and deserves credit for what she has done in her career. >> notably absent was the republican frontrunner donald trump left unscathed by the candidates with the exception of chris christie. if you don't say that, he will get angry. instead of the campaign trail, trump is expected to be in a new york courtroom in that $250 million civil fraud trial against the trump organization. it's expected it to wrap up next week after trump takes the stand again on monday. let's bring in the aforementioned jeff zeleny in tucson, alabama. we will get to the former governor of new jersey in a second. last night's debate did it move the needle given the frontrunner by large margin wasn't even there? >> reporter: good morning. time is running out to move that need am. we will find out how voters really assessed all of this, particularly those iowa voters, new hampshire voters who begin this process in just about six weeks or so. but it certainly was that confrontation with florida governor ron desantis and former south carolina governor nikki haley going after one another throughout the debate, particularly desantis after haley trying to slow her rise. she receded a wit in the background likely by design by strategy trying to stay out of the fray. he clearly was trying to make his case, his record on conservative issues known. this is one of those exchanges. >> i am sick of republicans who are not willing to stand up and fight back against what the left is doing to this country and you have other candidates up here like nikki haley, she caves anytime the left comes after her, the media comes after her. >> i said his "don't say gay" bill didn't go far enough because it only talked about ag ge gender until the third raid. it should be talked about with schools. >> reporter: a little sampling of the pile on nikki haley. most of her rifles going after her on her new found donors, some from wall street on her position on china, on and on. clearly they are trying to slow her rise. the florida governor auto trying to make the case he is the most social conservative candidate in the race. without a doubt former new jersey governor chris christie was trying to get across the point that he believes trump is unfit for office. phil, that is where he started with you are interview last hour. >> i mean, my guess is that you guys have probably spoken sense. he had a very sharp criticism i didn't agree with. i will always defend you if it's not nebraska football -- yes, we are showing a picture. you have had an animated discussion. i assume it was off the record. if there's anything you'd like to share, we'll take it. >> reporter: no, it wasn't often the record. the former new jersey governor clearly has some urgency in his campaign right now. he went after donald trump without question during the debate. you know, directly questioning his fitness for office. when he was quarterlying with me saying that donald trump was the winner of the debate by not showing up on the debate stage. christie says that is not the case. we will see what voters say. the reality is republican voters have not embraced this message. but perhaps new hampshire voters did. he is leading here. you saw the conversation in the parking lot. friendly conversation. i have covered him a long time, back to my newspaper days. look, he is feeling some pressure and he is going to try to make his case to new hampshire voters and there are many who accept that argument that they do not believe donald trump is fit for office. but the challenge here is the ways of this republican party still controlled by donald trump is still supporting him. but not a single vote has been cast in this race yet. so let's take some time, be patient, see how the campaign proceeds through the holidays. that was our exchange on this early morning here in tuscaloosa. >> i love the laptop open. a true newsman. jeff zeleny, as always, my friend, thank you very much. >> thank you, jeff. we love you. all right. as he mentioned in a few hours donald trump is expected to be often the campaign trail. he is going to be where? in a new york courtroom in the $250 million civil fraud trial against trump. care a outside the courthouse with more. he is going there at i will. he doesn't have to be there. he wants to be there. and this is as much political as it is a legal story. >> reporter: yeah, good morning, phil and poppy. trump will be making his ninth appearance. it is not required that he be here, but this trial is about his business. remember, it was his business reputation that helped catapult him to the white house the first time. trump will be attending today. what he will hear is the testimony of one of their last expert witnesses. a professor accounting from new york university. part of trump's defense in this case, accused of inflating the value of the properties they own on financial statements to banks and insurers to get more favorable rates is that there complying with the accounting rules. that's what professor is going to talk about today, how they came up with the valuations for the properties including the golf courses is in compliance with the u.s. and accounting laws. we heard expert witnessesen the trump defense side. this is their close in a sense, the person expected to provide the most comprehensive testimony about the accounting rules and trump will be sitting through that. he equipped the debate last night. the hallway cameras behind me are going to be on. he is someone who often speaks to the cameras when he is here. remember that the gag order in this case has been reinstated. trump will be restricted are from making any comments about the judge's clerk. one of the times he was here in recent weeks he did violate that gag order by statements he made in the hallway before the cameras. so it's going to be an intense time here. the temperature in the courtroom always rises when he attends and he had be here. we expect throughout the day, throughout this testimony all leading up to him appearing on the stand and monday when he will be -- his defense's final witness testifying for himself. >> so he is thered it today. he will be there monday. we are in the homestretch headed to the iowa caucuses how does this play into his schedule in the weeks ahead? >> reporter: well, phil, this is just colliding his legal issues and the politics of it all. you know, this case will end next week as far as the testimony goes. but then it will continue into next year. that's where we see the iowa caucuses in january. we will be back on trial in a civil case related to e. jean carroll. a jury will decide how much in damages he will pay for defaming her. in february we expect the judge in this case to issue his decision. then we go right into march where we have super tuesday and then he will have two of the four criminal trials that he is facing. they are expected to kick off first in washington, d.c., with the election subversion case and then followed by the hush-money case here in new york. guys. >> thank you. joining us on this former republican congressman adam kinsinger. welcome. >> great to be here. >> what did last night mean? >> okay. so for somebody like me i enjoyed watching it because i could pretend like the republican party was semi-normal with one crazy guy on the stage like it used to be. >> who is. ? >> vivek of course. the number of conspiracy theories he spouted even from january 6th we are going back to 9/11 now to saying that the great replacement theory is fine and we should actually discuss that. i mean, blatantly racist theory. he was the crazy guy. the rest, ah, like the old republican party. chris christie, he wiould answe the question. most importantly, he talked about donald trump. it blew me away to watch these other candidates unwilling or unable to talk about the frontrunner in this campaign. if they think there is some magic pony that's going to come along and wish him away, it's not going to happen. you have to take on the frontrunner. obviously, in my mind everybody except chris christie seems to be trying to preserve their name for a vice presidential candidacy or a cabinet. >> do you think that is the reason, because you want to be in a trump administration or you are saving yourself for 2028? it will collapse their polling? >> i think it's both. i think ron desantis started out believe that donald trump would fall apart when he was indicted. so his play was to be mini trump. it's not a bad maneuver if thought this would happen. when trump goes down, desantis could be like, okay, i'm just like him. boy, he got a bum rap. vote for me. that didn't happen. that's the point you have to pivot and none of them did that. chris christie was very effective, whether it moves his numbers or not, i don't know, in saying you guys are running against former president donald trump. he is up by 40 points and you can't even say his name. i mean, you cannot expect donald trump to lose a primary if the people running against him are only complementing him and never saying his name. >> the key issue in washington right now about is the u.s. going to give more funding to ukraine and israel or is it all going to blow up because they can't come it a comprehensive immigration reform in a matter of works, we had the u.k. foreign minister on. >> i was watching david cameron's interview. how come nobody from the biden administration, including the president, has ever made a case like that? his case was so effective and so simple and so -- >> in what way? >> look, ukraine is making gains. they have taken back half their territory. they put the black sea fleet like nobody ever thought would be on the defense and basically hunkering in crimea and trying to hold out and they need -- they destroyed 20% of russia's attack helicopters in one atacm strike. when you make those statements to the american people and talk about the rick and what's at stake, they will follow you. i have not heard joe biden say that case, nobody from the admini administration, nobody from my party has made that case. for whatever reason, they are scared of talking about the importance of american leadership at this moment. >> adam kinsinger, thank you. >> you bet. a cnn poll showing over 70% of americans have bad view on the economy. how the president is navigating those numbers ahead. senate republicans blocking a bill that would have sent billions of dollars of aid to israel and ukraine. alex padilla next to talk about what's going to happen from here. welcome back. so this morning billions of dollars in u.s. aid to israel and ukraine is look more uncertain than before. senate republicans last night blocking the emergency spending bill demanding tougher immigration measures at the southern border. >> we can't let putin win. it's in our international interest. >> we are more exposed here at home in the short term than putin winning in ukraine. >> joining us democratic senator from california alex padilla. senator, great to have you. let's listen to something else president biden said about his willingness to make, quote, significant compromises on the border to get the funding for israel and ukraine through. here he was. >> i have already laid out in our negotiations -- what we're willing to do. significantly more. particularly starting off here clipping the border capacity we need on the border from judges to more border security. in addition to making some substantive changes. but they are unwilling to do it. >> senator, what significant changes on the border are you willing to compromise on? >> look, first of all, appreciate you replaying the president's statements yesterday that he is already put plan forward. and if republicans were sincere and genuine about truly negotiating a secure border they would have voted to begin discussion on that bill. they had a prime opportunity to bring forward their own plans or their amendments to the president's package, but they voted no. they are not ready to genuinely talk and not ready to negotiate. don't take my word for it. republicans themselves are saying this is not a negotiation. this is a take it or leave it. this is a price for supporting the overwhelming bipartisan supported aid to israel package and the significantly bipartisan aid to ukraine package. so this is not the way to go about negotiations and certainly not for policy areas as complex and important and consequential as border security. >> let's talk about one of the key sticking points. that is the issue of parole. that's a policy that trump used at sometimes during his administration as well but essentially, you know, releasing sometimes to work into america those across illegally. the really interesting part of all of this is that you have had some border patrol officials, including one who testified before staffers spoke to staffers on your homeland security committee, who said, look, if don't change parole it encourages crossings. the quote, the belief they will be released with no consequences is something that many migrants tell our agents. why not curtail parole if it is incentivizing more crossings? >> we are not saying no. what i have said is that the devil is in the details. and let's also remember that it is not unlawful for somebody fleeing persecution, fleeing a natural disaster to come to the united states to seek asylum. so whether it's reforming the asylum system, reforming, you know, how parole is used by ththe president, others, those are valid policy discussions. that's not what's before us. it's a supplemental budget request by the president. fine f this is where we are, let's engage in conversations. here is another frustration i have had. i have been involved with the negotiation -- you know, discussions with senator langford and several republican colleagues. they are trying to keep it restricted to border. when you talk about immigration, it's trying to squeeze an end of a balloon. what's going to happen at the other end? dynamics are impacted. if you want to talk about reducing the flow, the numbers of people coming to the southern border of the united states you've got to look at what's pulling them here or driving them here. when i put that on the table they don't want to talk about it. they want to talk about more border patrol officers. i appreciate the president saying we need more july 4th to shear these asylum cases, make determinations, who is eligible, who is not. the last i checked republicans are trying to cut the budget, not add resources. >> i understand you are saying hr 2, which is what republicans in the senate want, addresses the border. you have to deal with it at the root and at the border. but senator, yes or no before we move on, will the senate go on rece rewithout getting more aid to israel and ukraine to voted on? >> i hope not. i think that's a question for leader schumer, leader mcconnell, president biden, the speaker, majority leader in the cause -- >> feels like it. >> i say the discussions are not over until we solve the problem. immigration as a whole is something that is way overdue. we haven't modernized our immigration system in decades. but had republicans and say hr 2 take it or leave it, that is not a genuine negotiation. >> do you believe along with senator then holland, senator welch, senator sanders that there should be conditions on aid to israel? >> i think there is a conversation every time. there is an aid package, how we are working with our allies on -- >> no, i'm asking you. i'm asking you. it's a clear cut within -- among democrats in the senate. some say no conditions or some say yes conditions. where do you fall? >> there are different ways to impose conditions. sometimes in the language of the bill, sometimes how we work with our partners hand in hand to oversee activities. i will insist on this. it's not just military aid. humanitarian aid needs to flow to the region. we need to deliver significant aid that's needed for the innocent palestinians that are also victims of the violence in gaza. they are the biggest victims of hamas over the years. their future is better once hamas is eradicated. >> i think everyone can agree on eradicated hamas. to politics, 2024 there is a new cnn poll, doesn't look good for president biden. his approval rating sunk to 37%. 71% of voters, senator, do not think biden is doing a good job on the economy. they view it as somewhat or very poor. are you concern that may sink his re-election chances? >> i am concerned that we need to continue to do better about messaging to voters to create jobs, to tackle inflation, which is now down significantly compared to a year ago, to invest in infrastructure that is the foundation for a strong economy for decades to come. we have a lot to be proud of. president biden has been the leader on getting all this done and that's what campaigns are for. you covered the debate last night. a lot of focus on the republican primary. once they have an official nominee and it's a choice between president biden and what seems likely donald trump, i think the contrast in the choice is going be clear and we will be celebrating president biden's re-election next november. >> okay. if it is trump, more americans think he would handle the economy better than biden right now. we will see where it goes. senator alex padilla, thank you. >> thank you, have a great day. >> you, too. a pregnant texas woman denied an abortion. now suing the state. the latest on her lawsuit. and a breeding ground for predators. that's what the new mexico attorney general is calling facebook and instagram. we will speak with him ahead. happening today in just hours a court in texas will hold an emergency hearing to decide whether a pregnant woman in the state can have an abortion. kate cox, 20 weeks pregnant, filed a lawsuit saying her unborn baby has a genetic condition and carrying the child to term could threaten her life. it also says the baby is not expected to live