witnesses in the doj election case, but he is free to attack the special counsel. and israeli raises its flag in gaza city, a highly provocative move. the united states stand alone in vetoing a resolution calls for a ceasefire. plus, grim, that's how one pollster describes his latest findings. young voters, black voters, lgbtq voters all currently giving higher grades to trump than biden. what's going on? i'll ask him. i'm john king in for erin burnett. trump silenced, a d.c. court of appeals upholding most of a gag order in the federal 2020 election case. the three judges say trump can no longer target witnesses or single out individuals related to the court proproceedings, writing, some of trump's statements pose a significant and imminent threat to the fair adjudication of the criminal proceeding. trump has repeatedly gone after potential witnesses, calling mike pence delusional, mocking bill barr as slow-thinking and lethargic and he tore into mark meadows, writing, some people who make that deal are weaklings and kocowards. the former president is vowing to appeal, posting online, quote, what is becoming of our first amendment? the judges say in their final paragraph of their ruling, mr. trump is a current candidate for the president but he is also an indicted criminal defendant and he must stand trial under the same procedures that govern all criminal defendants. evan, what else can you tell us? >> reporter: you could hear the reluctance certainly when we were listening to the court hearing a couple weeks ago that there was a great reluctance by these judges to ss to muzzle t former president. they understood these arguments that he does have a first amendment right as the leading candidate for president and the public does have a right to hear from him. but they also said you can't just allow complete first amendment freed herom here when comes to a criminal trial. he has to be treated like any other criminal defendant. they say this is what the rule of law means. so that's why today you saw this ruling, which is pretty lengthy and very thoughtful. one thing they did concede to the former president is he is allowed to criticize jack smith. this is something that was not in the original order. in the original order, he was not allowed to talk about jack smith. he can criticize the prosecution of himself. he can criticize the justice department. he can criticize biden. he can say that prosecution of donald trump is politically motivated. all of those things are permissible. the other thing that was interesting in this ruling was the three-judge panel here really pushed back on donald trump's very, very well-documented efforts to try to delay this trial. one of the things they say is allowing that to happen, it would be counter productive and create perverse incentives and unreasonably burden the judicial process. we can expect the former president is going to go to the supreme court to try to get this gag order tossed out. but the record here is very clear, that the judges know what donald trump's record is when he comes to his attacks on some of these witnesses. they want to try to preserve this trial which is scheduled to be in march. >> farrah griffin is the former white house communications director for trump. brian goodman and laura coates are with us. what do you see as the most significant pieces of this? >> i think the most significant piece is imposing a gag order on the former president. the big question is, does he cross that line? the court is also pretty specific about saying the line that we're drawing here that you can't really attack witnesses or speak about those witnesses in terms of their testimony in the case is similar to the line on the conditions for your release. they really are saying your legal jeopardy and your liberty is at stake if you cross these lines. also, you're not supposed to communicate with theitd what ar tweets and posts but communicating with the witnesses by threatening them as well. >> trump likes to test lines. he likes to cross lines. he doesn't want to lose money in fines, certainly doesn't want to go to jail. what are you expecting? >> donald trump is a deeply undisciplined person. i can't count the amount of times we agreed you shouldn't do this because it will jeopardize x and he goes out and does it. i will be stunned if he doesn't violate it. at the end of the day, this is a high net worth individual. $10,000 is a drop in the bucket. does he take the step of potentially giving him jail time? >> laura coates, you're a former justice department prosecutor. a judge does not want to send a former president who's an active candidate to jail, but the judge also wanted to say, i issued a ruling and you need to follow it. how is this going to play out? >> he doesn't want to do that, of course. no one's above the law. wouldn't that put somebody who says they're a candidate above other particularly similarly situated defendants? think about how significant this is. this stops the end run around the order that says you cannot communicate with witnesses, but trying to give them the message just the same. it won't mean anything if you cannot directly or intimidate or threaten a witness, giving perverse incentives about whether they want to testify again, deterring them from coming forward and having due process in not just this case, but other cases as well. you put it on social media and they get the message. a judge will not take this l lightly. why? because the first amendment implications, because they know about free speech, because he's a candidate, but it does not give him an excuse to just defy court orders or really to invite the reversal of due process. >> trump cannot go after the former vice president, his former chief of staff or any other potential witnesses. the court did say the justice department and special counsel are fair game. does that surprise you? >> that's an appropriate call. it's within the bounds. it makes sense in a certain way. they're also saying this is part of the first amendment issue that individuals have an ability to criticize their government and public officials. and who is jack smith but an arm of the justice department? that's why the justice department is a fair target, and that's why jack smith, to a certain degree, is a fair target. it makes sense in that way. on the other hand, you could also say trying to intimidate the very prosecutor is a line that people should never cross, most defendants should never cross. it also could pollute the jury pool. the court is saying today we're concerned about the administration of justice, we're not today concerning the jury pool. that might be left for another day. >> we're going to see the president next week. he's supposed to testify next week. >> i think to the american public, it underscores he is more focused on staying out of jail than he is on campaigning and winning and earning votes. he didn't show up for any of the republican debates. yet he's been sitting in on these court dates. i would say it's 50/50 he actually it was. i think his lawyers are probably trying to pull that back. >> another big legal development in the last 24 hours is hunter biden indicted on nine charges. house republicans are also investigatiing hunter biden. the oversight committee chairman james comer just said this to jake tapper about the new federal charges. >> my concern is that weiss may have indicted hunter biden to protect him from having to be deposed in the house oversight committee on wednesday. >> weiss, the special counsel, is a donald trump appointee. he was the u.s. attorney in delaware held over for this case. does that make any sense to you? >> no. you could easily dismiss that as searching for a reason and grasping at straws to suggest the reason they will not take yes for an answer on capitol hill as to his statement he'll testify in front of the camera, but they want to do it behind closed doors. they ca it's fascinating to think about hunter biden and donald trump having something very much in common these days. that is, they are both talking about the political machine trying to undermine their pursuit of justice. on one hand, we talk about donald trump, he has a hand in that by trying to, in many respects, dictate the terms and express it in ways that are not truthful and forthcoming. on the other hand, hunter biden asking to have the opportunity to do so, but having a similar argument with the congress. you look at what hunter biden is charged with, what donald trump is charged with. both require and deserve the presumption of innocence and not to have everything litigated in the court of public opinion. courts are meant to do just that. congressional guardrails are not in place in the same way as it could be in a court of law. i suspect both attorneys would have a vested interest in having their clients be a little bit quiet about what could go in front of congress or in front of the camera. >> if you read the new indictment against hunter biden, it's very well documented, very serious tax evasion charges. most tax cases are settled, especially if the feds have the documentation. no tax cases in my lifetime have involved the president's son 11 months before a presidential election. what happens here? >> in a normal case, he would try to settle and plead. it's not worth the risk. i think he's in jeopardy, serious jeopardy. we'll see. in all likelihood, it looks like it's going to go to trial. >> when i started in this business, when there was a big case in federal court, the politicians would just leave it alone. the house republicans don't see it that way. >> no. nor does hunter biden, who wants a day in an open setting to defend himself, despite the fact that the president would much prefer he handle this privately and not expose it to public scrutiny. >> laura will be back tonight at 11:00 for "laura coates live." she's also cohosting the cnn heros tribute this sunday night. up next, combat in southern gaza tonight as one u.n. agency says it believes it is headed for collapse. plus, one democratic pollster says president biden has problems with nearly every reliable democratic voting bloc. and a barrage of missiles aimed at ukraine today as vladimir putin announces he's running for reelectionon. tonight, intense, close-quarter combat is taking place inside southern gaza. israeli defense forces releasing video of soldiers moving through kahan younis. israel claims it destroyed tunnels in that operation. you see an israeli flag raised in the middle of gaza city, that, to many, a very provocative gesture. the after math of israeli striks leav leaving hundreds killed and injured. the u.n. agency for palestinian refugees say it's on the verge of collapse, writing, quote, in my 35 years of work in complex emergency, i never expected to write such a letter predicting the killing of my staff and the collapse of the mandate i'm expected to fulfill. ben wedeman is out front. >> reporter: 8-year-old mohammed is doing his daily cloers chores but he'd rather be elsewhere. you think i like it here, he asked? of course i don't. i want to go home where we had food and water. that buzzing comes from israeli drones buzzing overhead. they never go away. he's been deprived of his childhood, says his mother. he can't live like a normal child, he can't go to school. he misses his friends. more than anything, the children here miss a sense of safety. overnight, israeli war planes struck a mosque. no one was there, but everyone heard it. the best the parents can do is keep kids' minds off the danger. i play with them, i joke with them, distract them from their misery. when they hear the bombing, they're terrified, but there is no escape. these children have already seen too much. we miss our town, we lived well, says the mother. now all we see are dead bodies everywhere. there are no basic services here. the garbage piles up in the street. they go from one place to the other while they bomb us. yet they still play as the drones buzz overhead. >> ben wedeman, remarkable reporting on those children caught in the middle of this. the israeli flag raised and flown in the middle of gaza city today. some might say military tradition, you take territory, you raise your flag. do you see a more provocative message here? >> reporter: keep in mind that is palestine square, and that is a very big flag in the middle of it. palestine square is where during the seven-day truce hamas handed over some of the hostages. that was after on the 14th of november, the israeli defense minister came out and said hamas had lost control of northern gaza. above and beyond that, i think this is israel's way of saying we have retaken this part of gaza. but keep in mind that june 1967, israel totally defeated the armies of egypt, jordan and syria, took gaza, the sinai peninsula, the west bank, the golan heights in just six days. the israeli ground offensive has been going on since the 27th of november and still israel has not been able to defeat hamas. still, hamas is firing missiles toward tel aviv, to the israeli towns around the gaza strip. i think they need to show the public that they are gradually retaking gaza. the question is, how long are they going to hold it? >> ben wedeman live in jerusalem tonight. next, young voters, black voters, lgbtq voters all collectively giving donald trump a higher approval rating than president biden. plus, the harvard president breaking her silence tonight after coming under fire for this. >> at harvard, does calling for the genocide of jews violate harvard's rules of b bullying a hararassment, yeyes or no? >> it cacan be, depepending on contntext. i was born ten weeks early without my left arm. with my polio, i have tough days and my pain just pops out, out of nowhere. there's nothing to be afraid of because all the doctors are all so nice. when somebody sees these commercials there'll be a phone number on a screen and all they have to do is call and make a donation to help kids like me. thanks to a generous donor, every dollar you give can help twice as many kids like me and have double the impact. when you join with us, we'll send you one of these adorable blankets as a thank you and reminder of all the abilities you are helping make possible. merry christmas! please call the number on your screen and give just $19 a month, only $0.63 a day or whatever you can to help kids like us this christmas. and when you do, your gift will have two times the impact. tonight, quote, this is grim. those are the words of the veteran democratic pollster stanley greenberg. th greenberg, who teams up with james carville at the democracy corps, found young voters, black voters, hispanic voters, lgbtq voters, all of them collectively gave donald trump a higher approval rating than president biden. just today the jobs report showing 199,000 jobs added in november, the unemployment rate dropping to just 3.7%. stan greenberg is here. you've been doing this a long time. you paint a very grim picture. what was the most sobering thing you learned about the president's standing? >> yes. i reiterated it was grim because there is a path, the grim is in that the base is a problem. we're behind in this race in the base. approval of the president is lower than that of trump in the base. probably the hardest part about that is that if the issues at play, it's not just we're not doing well now and inevitably the structure of the race will come back, i think we're dealing with issues of prices, wages not keeping up with inflation. we're dealing with crime. we're dealing with the border. we're dealing with issues that eroding our people on the issues. we can, i believe, get them back. i think there's a path in this poll. there's a structure that's actually pretty democratic if you look beyond the president's numbers. but there's also a path for him in these. >> you ask voters 32 specific topics. the president of the united states led on only six of those 32, women's rights, climate change, addressing racial inequality. we spent a lot of time together on a campaign a long time ago. there was an incumbent president george george h.w. bush. people wanted change. is president biden listening? >> i think he's going to be listening. i think this poll, i believe, will matter. what you need to look at is where the intensity is and the issues that really push each side. there you see women's rights, health care. democracy is slightly to our advantage. we're being hurt by crime, border and wages not keeping up with prices. if the president is looking at his own base of voters, black, hispanic voters, young voters, and they want to lean into him offering the kinds of benefits that are critical to surviving with this kind of infactlationa period. the inflationary period is not going to end. people rate the economy very poor in the latest poll. but what we show in our message is that, if you make a contrast going forward, talking about what he's done, but also make a very strong contrast with democrats dealing with the child tax credit and drug costs, you know, the republicans being for the rich and not willing to protect their corporations, i think there is a president who can make the turn and face those issues where democrats are actually across the finish line. >> we will watch in the weeks and months ahead if he indeed listens to that. stan greenberg, appreciate your time. thank you. let's take a closer look at what stan greenberg says. he says there's a path back to winning the vote. right now he says because of the weakness in the democratic base, what president biden would get is something more like this, a republican win like the win in 2016 over hillary clinton. he said softness among latino voters. i was just out in nevada. he's right. imagine you won the state by 33,000 votes, president biden in 2020. imagine if latinos vstay home. that would be huge damage. the president won only by 10,457 votes. if you have the slightest defection in your base, you lose the state. in wisconsin, imagine if the black vote goes for trump, some stay home, or a third-party candidate in a state that you won by only 20,000 votes. the biggest issue for the president is the economy. let's just look at the numbers. any president, democrat, republican, would love to have these numbers. nearly 200,000 jobs created last month. since president biden took office, the unemployment rate is 3.7%. that is historically very, very low. it is for the white house bragging rights, except the american people don't feel it, see it or accept it. look at our polling. in our new cnn national poll, only one-third of americans support the president's handling of the economy. nearly two-thirds disapprove. 7 in 10 americans say the economy is bad. it's going the wrong direction and they're not optimistic about the year from now when they will be voting to pick a new president or keep their current president. 6 in 10 americans say they believe the economy will be poor. you heard stan greenberg mention prices, inflation, gasses. two republicans in iowa and nevada voted for joe biden who right now feel economic stress. >> the economy is really bad. i don't know if i hadn't realized, but yesterday i went to the mexican store and i bought three for a dollar. right now there's three for two dollars, which was a shocker to me. >> they doubled? >> they doubled the price, yeah. >> i'm buying diapers. i was buying formula. the gas prices, i've done something to change the places i shop. i go to costco to fill my car with gas. those things affect me. >> some voters do see some signs of improvement when it comes to prices at the store, but they want to see and hear from the president. they say they're not hearing solutions. when stan greenberg talks about the path back, part of it is the president more visible and vocal on those issues. next, the f