us from california. are you hearing anything about how this meeting went, the meeting started obviously with reasonably optimistic statements and smiles by both leaders. reporter: it did. it felt like it started on a positive tone, jack. i m a bit surprised that it went just a little over two hours as i look at the clock, wrapped up around 1:35 local time. we all saw that long list of issues between the two countries, and you expected it to go over the four hours allotted. they are still together. it s moved on now to a second portion of this, and that s essentially a working lunch. so they will dine together and continue discussions. you mentioned that optimistic tone starting things off. we expected that from joe biden. there s a bit more transparency on the u.s. side going into this. they wanted to cool those tensions. it s another issue off his plate. if he can stabilize things between the u.s. and china. but what surprised me is president xi in his opening remarks, he
releasing video as it attempts to defend the ground operation. key world organizations are condemning the raid as we re getting dire new accounts from inside the hospital. also tonight, a rare face-to-face meeting between president biden and china s xi jinping here in the united states. president biden now prepared to answer questions about the summit and his efforts to cool tensions with beijing. and cnn presses senator joe manchin about his next move now that he s not running for re-election. will he bolt from the democratic party and set his sights on the white house? kaitlan collins debuts her interview with manchin this hour. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. tonight, israel says its controversial military operation inside gaza s largest hospital, quote, will take time. at last resort, at last report, i should say, it was still under way as the israel defense forces is sharing some o