There s a hamas right, and you it it was the First Time Since i started covering the white house in 19 that i can remember such a Briefing Om Reporters on Air Force One. A sign of just how uncertain the trip could be. But here is the rthat got me. Was what to do if Air Force One had to leave you, peter, behind in the wake of the attack. You right now there are some numbers and small print for you to call for help. Im like what, go back and get peter. But anyway, what went through your mind during all of this . , know when you talk to the president , you feel a certain degree of security, because obviously there are a lot of very well Trained Secret Service agents around, there but its always important to remember that they are not for you. They are for him. Eventually it will be for her, but not for the reporters, and theyre going to leave you behind if they feel they need to. Theyre going to do whatever they need to protect the president of united states. As they should, that is our mission. And i think it is important to remember that. But you are, right its sort of as real atmosphere on Air Force One as you remember. It was put together so quickly. Obviously, the airport bengurion International Airport is within range of missiles, so much of the International Carriers have been flying there right now. The Secretary Of State had just been forced into a the day before with arid sirens. The chancellor of germany was forced off the plane to the senior airport by air raid sirens. The reporters who are traveling with him were told to throw themselves on the tarmac, flat on the ground. So it was definitely a sense that you did not know what the you would be experiencing once we landed there. Unlike other wars on trips. Iraq, afghanistan when president bush orban goes there, it was not done in secret. It was done, announced an advance, and it was done in live television. There wasnt any sort of protection of clandestine possible clandestine nature of the leak. And so i think that that created an atmosphere on the plane of uncertainty that of course was very striking. Yeah. Im so glad to see you just sitting there nice and calmly and your library. It is wonderful. Peter baker, always good to see you my friend. Thank you so much. We will see you next week and i hope. As i bid you all a bit of a tardy good day from msnbc headquarters, welcome to alex witt reports. Just pass one pm eastern, eight pm and gaza and israel, and we begin with Breaking News now. Two weeks after the hamas attack, new video from unicef shows 28 trucks loading up today before they were allowed to bring that aid from egypt into gaza. International red cross Officials Say while they support the u. S. Brokered deal to allow in trucks for humanitarian aid, gaza needs far more support. International aid agencies have become increasingly alarmed, and their language . Increasingly strident . U. N. Experts calling israels siege and Bombardment Unspeakably cruel. And gaza city, a blast from an israeli air strike destroyed the hall and scott center at a orthodox church. The Christian Community have been using them as shelters. [interpreter] put your hand under him, he said. As parishioners try to extract their friends and loved ones from the rubble, this man had lost his life. Also notice, our Palestinian LeaderMahmoud Abbas telling arab leaders in cairo for peace summit the palestinians will remain on their land regardless of the challenges. Meanwhile, israel says it is pushing forward with its planned ground offensive. Israeli fenced Officials Say the 210 hostages are still being held in gaza. Two american hostages, mother and daughter, Judith Raanan and Natalie Raanan from illinois are now receiving millet treatment after being held in hamas. Now the search for the republican speaker of the house now that guy, jim jordan, is out. Our clock tells you just how long the house has now been without a speaker. In new today on the legal front, the perils facing donald trump. Kenneth chesebro became the second lawyer to plead guilty and agreed to testify in the Georgia Election conspiracy tapes, and heres what his attorney is saying today. His i want to make something clear. He did not implicate anyone else. He implicated himself in that particular charge. Someone asked me earlier, if you are donald trump, would you be worried . And i could personally honestly answer you, no. And it is not that mr. Chesbrough is trying to protect donald trump or anyone else. I personally do not believe the state will call him to testify on their behalf. We are going to begin with the Breaking News from israel, nbcs Josh Lederman is joining us from ashdod. So josh, talk about how the Israeli Military strategy has changed in light of the Hostage Release and aid. Is there a palpable difference now . Well alex, that is been the big question over the last 24 hours is whether these two major developments, the release of those two u. S. Hostages and the potential for more hostages to be released and the resumption of aid crossing the border finally into egypt intog. Whether that would change israels calculus about whether to move in a imminent fashion towards that Ground Corruption that israel has been promising frankly now for more than a week. Today we heard from the Israeli Military saying that they had made recent decisions to actually expand the operations that they have underway, which so far has been mostly sent with airstrikes. And the Israeli Military also saying that they intend to proceed including with operations on the ground. And so israels military releasing this footage that they say shows infantry troops from the holbrook Age Rehearsing for a potential Ground Operation into the gaza strip. Sending a very clear signal to the world that if anybody thought that israel is going to pump the brakes a little bit and pull back from that Ground Invasion because of the prospect of getting more hostages out or more aid in that that is not the case. And so they fully intend to go into gaza. Now when exactly that is going to happen remains an open question, but it is going to have huge implications for trying to get more humanitarian aid into egypt. Today finally we saw those 20 trucks heading over the border into the gaza strip. But it is truly a drop in the bucket, alex. According to a Palestinian Health official, there was enough water for approximately 22,000 people to have clean Drinking Water for a day. But remember, theres more than 2 Million People in the gaza strip, and while those eight trucks were carrying badly needed supplies like medicine, anesthetics, Surgical Supplies and sanitary kits, it is only about 3 according to palestinian officials of what used to cross into gaza on any given day of before the war. Its a Secretary Of State anthony blinken, the United Nations as well as aid groups operating on the ground in gaza, they are issuing a urgent plea today for that aide to continue to flow. For the border over the rafah Border Crossing from egypt into gaza to be opened on a daily basis, not just this one brief period for a few hours today. As of now, it is unclear alex whether that Rafah Water Crossing is going to reopen tomorrow or when more aid may be able to get into the gaza strip. Alex . It is not nearly enough. It is getting there. Okay, josh, thank you so much for. That back in washington, The Search For Speaker is back on after House Republicans dropped jim rd following his third failed forote. Several new candidates and are running with another round of votes expected sometime next week. And so lets go to nbcs Julie Tsirkin back with us from capitol hill. Julie, what can you tell with us about these candidates and what House Republicans looking for in the next leader. Is there a consensus even on that last part . Yeah, definitely not. Italy depends on who you ask, which faction of the House Republican conference, because they will tell you a different answer. And even when you look at the nearly doesnt candidates either in or considering running for spker, they are all over t Political Spectrum and the house. Includes two members of leadership. Current leadership, that includes tom whosheote counted here among republicans no trying to rodthis was a form self. It also includes congressman mike johnson. The vikings Vice Chairman of the republican conference. They both served under former House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy. But lets take a step back here before we take a step forward. Yesterday it was really a stunning defeat for jim jordan. Not only on the street ballots whens votes kept dropping and dropping, but on that Secret Ballot held Behind Closed Doors where he lost nearly half of the support of his conference, far more than the numbers that you are seeing on your screen. We heard from Mark Molinaro of a moderate republican from new york. One of those five or so that one districts that President Biden won two years before. Take a listen to what he had to say. And by the way, molinaro voted for jordan to times before switching his vote yesterday. Watch this. I supported jim because i felt he could unified the congress. We have entrenched opposition and we have people who are experiencing a level of violence and criticism that is just not acceptable in american politics, and therefore i think the best approach is to return to that Conference Room and coalesce around a conservative candidate who will win. Alex, after tell you. I spoke to a number of republicans, including florida congressman gimenez who told me that it is because of those threats and the president that they felt from jordan and his allies but they decided not to back him, and it sort of put a bad taste and a lot of these members mouth. So looking forward, they have until tomorrow at noon. The ones who are interested in filing for speaker to do so before a closeddoor Candidate Forum monday evening around 6 30 pm where they will presumably hold another round of internal deliberations. Tuesday morning they are prepared to proceed to an election. We will see if they can actually nominate somebody, but remember, as we have already seen with jim jordan, with steve scalise, even with the troubles mccarthy had we held the gavel, it is going to be a steep climb to the magic number of 2 17 on the floor. In part because they already have a four seat majority. And then the other part, theyre as fractured, in the words of congressman molinaro, and divided as ever. All of your points well taken. Thank you so much Julie Tsirkin. Well my next guest wrote about the role Election Dialism played in jordans failure, seeing some house republics were uncomfortable with the possibility of having an election denier occupying the most powerful legislative seat. The author, jacqueline alemany, the reporter for washington post. Jacqui is also an innocent pc news contributor. So welcome my friend. So you say that this is a Boiling Issue in the gop. To what extent was jim jordan involved and Donald Trumps effort to overturn the election, it is that what you think singlehandedly brought him down from pursuing the speakership successfully. Yeah alex. Well jim jordans Annexation Denialism which has persisted we continued up into this week when he was asked Behind Closed Doors in a Congress Meeting on monday as he continued his bid for speaker, when she finally relinquish esther day, has not been a central nor and organizing factor here in the decisionmaking that has gone on behind the people who have ultimately defected towards jordan, but it has certainly been a topic of conversation amongst a private conversation even among members who ultimately supported jordan, who expressed grave concerns to me and a Background Capacity and said that this was not just a speakers issue but a long term issue in the conference. Jim jordan played a pretty key role in terms of being one of the conduits, him along with congressman scott perry from pennsylvania to the white house in terms of trying to coordinate and facilitate trumps efforts to overturn the results of the election in the lead up to january six, and in terms of just being a very vocal and prolific voice out on the airwaves. Cable news, Conservative Media who propagated these unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. And im dointhe same thing all over again . The majority of the new gop speaker candidates also objected to the certification of joe bidens 2020 election victory. Political courts say that trump says that he is not supporting tom emmer, the only leading candidate who did not try to overturn the election. What are you hearing about this . Yeah, this is why it is still such a contentious issue. Because it is a powerful, galvanizing Talking Point in the Republican Party, but it is also deeply divisive, and there is still a faction of people who would rather hear from the person who is going to occupy perhaps the most powerful legislative seats in the u. S. Government just simply say that Election Fraud it did not happen and we are moving forward, looking to 2024. Especially as this conversation is happening going into an Election Year where this is going to be a more important conversation than ever. And especially on the heels of the 2022 midterm performance, which was really disappointing. Amongst the candidates who did propagate Election Denialism and overwhelmingly lost their races. But as you noted, theres only one candidate for speaker right now who has officially jump into the race whacally voted against the objections against certifying the election, who voted in favor of certifying joe bidens victory, and that is tom emmer, and he is somebody who a lot of Trump Supporters and people who are allied with former President Trump have been rallying and advocating against to become speaker for quite some time now. Yeah. Lets take a listen to a little bit of what ousted speaker Kevin Mccarthy had to say on thursday. Here is that. What history will look at, the crazy eights led by gaetz, the amount of damage that they have done to the stamp party and this country is insurmountable. I told him to sit down. I think the entire conference screamed at me. Listen, the whole country i think would scream at matt gaetz right now. What more are you hearing from the crazy eights led by gaetz and what rules are they going to play Going Forward . Yeah alex, thats a really good question. I think right now what the jim jordan debate has put into perspective is that there are other factions, there are other lawmakers in different ideologies and Belief Systems who are finally fighting back. Who are trying to minimize the power that these hardline extreme conservatives have exerted in order to make really the ruling and most amit force in the house gop conference. You saw appropriators, moderates, centrists. Again, a whole slice across the spectrum of ideologically disparate lawmakers who came out against jordan. Who came out against tim, out of principle as they. Said profound opposition. People who have been opposed to the tactics that he has employed and facilitated since he has become a lawmaker. And since he has really brought up the House Freedom caucus. A lot of these governing strategies that many of them have inherited and employed in order to get their way in the house and to be a vocal voice even in the minority. And that is why i could see the speakers race really continuing for quite a bit longer as i think that there was the different slices of the conference would fight back in the way that we have seen in the past two weeks, but it is certainly going to make it extremely challenging going ahead to pick a new speaker. Yeah, and maybe it was part about the dress code. The guy never wears a jacket. Maybe that is irritated some folks. Let me just pivot quickly to ask you one more question about the