thousands of americans support their voice for israel and amid the antisemitism plaguing the nation. welcome back. >> sandra: great to be with you. watching the live event in this hour, "america reports" now, historic rally starting moments ago as jewish community members, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, families of the hostages are set to address a massive crowd today. >> john: the event sparking concern for law enforcement as the department of homeland security has deemed the march a level 1 security threat. highest in ranking system amid a rising amount of threats against jewish americans in recent weeks. >> sandra: complete coverage now, speaking with one of the organizers of this event. julie platt will be joining us in moments what she wants to see out of this. >> john: first to the team of reporters, griff jenkins on the reaction he is hearing from rally goers and mark meredith with the latest from the national mall. who are we expecting to hear from this hour, mark? >> john, we have a long list of speakers, those, some in congress, entertainers, and the people most impacted since early october, the families waiting every hour to get an update on their loved ones condition, those held hostage in gaza. as far as what we have seen on the national mall, israeli and american flags as far as the eye can see. tens of thousands of people piling in since about 10:00 p.m., the official program will get underway a few minutes from now. but we are going to be hearing from the israeli president, delivering remote address, also hearing from the new house speaker as well as top congressional democrats what will talk about what can be done to show americans continued support for israel. as you and sandra mentioned, security is top of mind here, given not only the large crowd, but also because of the antisemitic attacks and threats we have seen rise since early october. we had a chance to catch up with organizers a few hours ago to ask them how they were feeling going into an event, as of a few weeks ago was not going to exist and they say they are proud to see the jewish american community come together. >> it's just incredibly hurtful and like another punch in the gut. but thankfully, thousands and thousands of americans who stand with us, who stand with israel, stand against antisemitism, stand for the immediate release of the hostages. >> and that's one thing we have heard over and over again from the speakers, remember the hostages. john, striking is so many different signs, saying cleveland loves israel, miami loves israel, atlanta loves israel, busses chartered, possibly a plane chartered to bring people here to the national mall. and you may ask why tuesday, why in the middle of the week, most people have to work. the organizers said they wanted to make sure members of congress who work right in the building behind us could see for themselves how jewish americans are feeling and their questions and concerns. >> john: a lot of people coming, not the president or the vice president, though. the president is winging his way to the west coast, did not hear why the vice president is not coming. mark, thank you. sandra. >> sandra: to our national correspondent griff jenkins, in the crowd now. griff, what are you seeing and hearing? >> well, sandra, i'm seeing tens of thousands, i don't know what numbers are going to be, but issue been covering rallies and marches on the mall for more than 20 years and let me show you where we are. i wanted to find the rear -- you can see the people coming for as long as we can see. in fact, this family here came from new york. >> jonathan. >> idea. >> why did you come down? >> this is important for us, represent our brothers and sisters. it's important because people are -- there's a lot of misinformation going on around out there and i think people don't understand that we are a people of peace and for us the message is peace and love. don't want war, don't like what's going on not only the media but and the world that people are misrepresenting what the jewish faith is all about, what jewish people are about and we support our people in israel. >> you are here with your children, family. why are you here, what do you want the younger people to understand about today? >> well, i mean, we are here because we are marching for our homeland. action over words. we live in a world run by digital and i think showing up in the flesh, standing for something you believe in, right versus wrong and here to represent and not backing down. >> we'll let you go ahead. people coming in and they have been coming for hours. we have been out here since 6:00 a.m.. definitely going to be a large crowd. as you mentioned, sandra and john, obviously security, level 1 security is taken very seriously and while you can see people out on the grass here, further in the closer to the stage, it's under fencing and very intense security to get past the magometers to get into the event. >> sandra: we will check back in with you. quite a crowd. >> john: julie platt, the chair of the jewish federations of north america, one of the organizers for today's rally. quite a turnout, julie. you may have a problem hearing me because the volume is probably pretty loud. what do you want to come out of this gathering today? >> what we are praying for is exactly what we see. hundreds of thousands of jews and allies coming together to express their solidarity with israel, to speak out loudly against antisemitism and to make it clear that we must bring the hostages home. we dreamed of how many people might come and this will far exceed our wildest dreams. there are people all the way down the national mall. we needed to come together and they showed up and we are so thrilled to create this community for the north american jewish community. >> john: that stands in sharp contrast with a lot of demonstrations in cities across america, on college campuses, across america, and it's interesting that there are reports that this has been designated by the department of homeland security as a level 1 security risk which is on the same level as the super bowl. what does it say that in america in 2023 a rally against antisemitism, in support of the hostages, is a security risk? >> i can't really believe where we are in this moment that this would require this kind of security. on the other hand, we wanted to make sure that everyone felt safe, felt able to bring their children, their parents, their grandparents here to safely gather. so we implored security across the city of washington, d.c., to stand with us and to provide that security. so that we could safely stand up against antisemitism and i think this is the strongest possible way to make that point and make it safely. >> john: so there was a large amount of bipartisan support there at the rally. i know that the speaker of the house johnson is going to be there, the senate majority leader chuck schumer, along with other bipartisan members of congress. notably absent, though, the vice president and the president. the president left a short time ago for the summit in san francisco. he lands there at 1:45 in the afternoon. but he doesn't have anything until 6:45 at night, and that is a campaign reception. would you have liked the president to delay his departure for a couple hours so he could be there? >> honestly, the only thing i can say is that i am grateful that we have bipartisan support for the state of israel and in the fight against antisemitism and for us today, the person who is speaking for us from president biden's administration is ambassador debra lipstat, whose goal is to join us in this very important fight against antisemitism. she is the best possible person to speak on behalf of president biden because she is our partner in this work. >> john: all right. how troubled are you by what you see in these demonstrations that i mentioned across the country and particularly on college campuses that have risen up in the wake of october 7th and israel's response to it. many jews in america say wow, we are hearing echos of 1938 here, and that is an unbelievably dark place for this country to be going. >> i don't want to go there. i want to tell you that our government, our law enforcement, the members of every state, local municipality and government are with us. i don't think this is 1939 germany. this is the united states of america. i think there are loud voices against us. i think we are mighty as you can see on the national mall. we are loud and mighty and will make this horrible moment in american history go away. >> john: well, loud certainly is a good way to describe it and certainly crowded. julie platt, thank you for joining us. >> it is very loud right now. thank you. >> john: we'll let you get back to the rally. >> thank you so much. >> john: wow, sandra, that's an unbelievable crowd today. >> sandra: yeah, and one of the -- one of the things coming up is going to be a segment on the stage, a hostage segment, led by actress debra messing on stage, she's going to have the mother and some of the family members of some of the hostages. we will certainly be meeting for that. ambassador herzog will give a greeting. a lot of really important things will be happening and members of congress both sides of the aisle. so, we are going to be getting in and out of some of these live events as they happen there in washington, john. >> john: it is amazing. you consider over the weekend, 180,000 people that marched in paris, which stood for antisemitism, which -- which, or against antisemitism, rather, stood in contrast to the anti-israeli rallies that we had seen across the country, and people were saying where is the rally against antisemitism here in the united states? they are going it in paris, why aren't they doing it here. to see the national mall is a powerful answer. >> sandra: a student, nyu student who has not felt safe on campus, we are going to talk to her, ask her thoughts and what she thinks about the absence of our top leadership in the country, the president and vice president not in attendance today. as the march for israel gets underway in washington, president biden says a deal to free hostages held by hamas is going to happen. idf capturing hamas parliament, government and police headquarters, as israel releases new footage of hamas tunnels under gaza shifa hospital. trey yingst is live in southern israel for us. what is the latest from the battlefield? >> hey, sandra, good afternoon. 39 days into this conflict between israel and hamas, hamas has maintained their abilities to fire rockets toward major population centers in southern and central israel. sirens were sounding in tel aviv, sending hundreds of thousands to bomb shelters. inside gaza strip, fierce battles rage on. we understand 47 israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground operation began. about two and a half weeks ago. israelis say they are in operational control of a camp in the northern part of gaza. this was largely considered to be a hamas headquarters and stronghold for the organization inside the strip. much of the fighting continues to take place inside gaza. we do expect the coming days and weeks to be very difficult for the israelis as they look to capture more territory and get civilians out of the way. they are continuing the air campaign against the gaza strip, targeting the jabalia camp yesterday. they say 31 were killed in the strike, don't know the break down of civilians versus hamas. >> sandra: we'll see you again soon, trey. thank you. john. >> john: another liberal columnist urging president biden to drop out of the 2024 race saying a diverse candidate is needed to better suit the democratic base. ben is here on whether the liberals obsession with identity politics could sink the president's re-election bid. plus this. >> they looked at floyd bennet field, in the middle of nowhere in brooklyn and say i don't want to stay here, i'm going to go back. >> sandra: a family is refusing to relocate to a $20 million site in brooklyn. they say the conditions and the location is not nice enough. how new york city officials should respond to those demanding better accommodations? 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great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. >> john: tragic story out of ohio, a charter bus carrying high school band students was involved in a deadly crash. three people were killed and 15 others hurt after a semi truck rear ended the bus on interstate 70 west this morning, about 40 miles outside of columbus. the superintendent for tuscarora west valley local school posted a message on the district's facebook page, said students and chaperones on board were travelling to a conference when the accident happened. >> sandra: absolutely tragic. we'll continue to update that. meanwhile, president's unpopularity, a warning, biden's age and lack of diversity could sink democrats up and down the ballot nationwide and urging him to step aside in 2024. ben is joining us now, editor at large, and fox news contributor. i'll ask you about the ral in washington. you stopped by earlier. but first the "washington post" piece and what you take from it, saying if biden were the first woman, it reads, lgbtq person or person of color as president there would be a strong case to re-elect him to show the country embraces leaders who are not straight white men but not that symbolic or cultural case, also biden's age is a real issue. so, what do you make of this all happening as these concerns over his re-election seem to continue to grow and a fever pitch? >> look, i love it when the left is particularly honest how much they have put identity politics at the center of everything they believe as a substitute for a kind of ideology or philosophy or anything approaching the way that they view the world, instead it is this all-encompassing religion. they say if joe biden was doing the exact same things and yet he occupied a position we would describe on the left as victim-based, some kind of victim of history, victim based on their race, ethnicity, the color of their skin, their background, gender identity, etc., then of course the case would be strong to re-elect him. but the problem is he's just another old white guy, so we should get rid of him. i mean -- it's so blatant. you can't really avoid but laugh at it a little bit. but the truth is that what's really going on here, joe biden is so old and so out of touch, so incapable really of performing the basic tasks of the presidency that he's not going to be able to perform the basic tasks of a presidential candidate. a rose garden campaign, even without the spector of covid, he cannot function as a traditional candidate and i say an along with many other people if you can't function as a traditional presidential candidate you can't function as president either. >> sandra: interesting analysis there. this is from "fox & friends" first this morning, they put together a montage of minority voters who say they are ditching joe biden. listen. >> it's not just black americans, it's hispanic americans, asian americans, indian americans, diverse communities as a whole are definitely moving away from the democratic party. >> i can't name one benefit for me and my family, i can't name a policy we benefit from. >> janelle king, and jackson brown, that could be a problem if there's more of those janelles and jasons who feel the same. >> and democrats are aware of, those are voters who they are going to have a very difficult time motivating based on the record and based on the approach that the president has used. his embrace of the state of the economy as bidenomics, it damages people in the working class, includes a lot of minority voters who democrats have counted on. if they stay home, it has a huge, glaring sign of problems for the democratic party and when it comes to motivating them, why they are gripping, white knuckling on the issue, hoping they are going to be able to make up for this loss in support in minority communities increasingly trending. >> sandra: quick live pictures out of washington, this march for israel, it is happening, speakers right now, this is a massive crowd. i know you were out there earlier, what did you think? >> it is absolutely massive and you know, i think that it's very impressive in terms of the -- in terms of the turnout for something like this, especially on a working day and i think that's because so many people feel so strongly about this issue and have seen so many of the images of antisemitism, hate across the country, they want to send a message to congress and i hope congress is listening. >> we'll be watching as a whole list of speakers is coming up, we'll dip in for some of them, and also the president will be speaking -- president herzog, live from the western wall. john. >> john: young americans spending big on experiences instead of saving money. so, funflation driving up prices. >> sandra: and iran proxies carrying out over 50 strikes in the middle east. is the biden administration doing enough for strength in the region. we will be told how the u.s. can start deterring attacks like them. >> there's an axis of terror here against alliance for peace. axis of terror is controlled by iran, run by iran, financed by iran. r activities, and it has been consistent with several policies that we have, one, to try to reduce iran's leverage over iraq and two, to try to wean iraq from iranian energy independence. we have had policies to assure their energy independence, in the meantime they buy iranian electricity so we have in the past, as has the trump administration, issued waivers to move to restricted accounts to be used for humanitarian and other nonsanctionable purposes. >> potential optics of i guess extending a sanction waiver while iranian proxy groups are attacking u.s. as