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Israel Warns More Gazans To Evacuate As The IDF Prepares To Expand Ground Operations To All Of Gaza; U.S. Pursues Every Possible Effort To Get Remaining Hostages Out Of Gaza; World Leaders Discuss Climate Action And Funding At COP28 Climate Summit; Israel Expanding Ground Operations to All of Gaza; Cheney: GOP-Led House Would Pose Threat to Country in 2025; DeSantis: Trump Doesn't Deliver on His Promises. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired December 04, 2023 - 02:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all our -- all our viewers joining us here in the United States, around the world and streaming us on CNN Max, I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead, Israel warns more Gazans to evacuate as the IDF prepares to expand its ground operations to all of Gaza. But finding refuge in Gaza is getting harder by the day.

We will hear from a woman whose sister is being held hostage by Hamas as efforts to free her and others hit an impasse. And doing dangerous work in a dangerous city. We will show you how South Africa's urban surfers are making a difference for the environment.

VOICE-OVER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Thanks for joining us. Well, the war between Israel and Hamas is expanding in Gaza and leaving devastation inside the enclave as Israel pursues those who carried out the attacks on October 7th. Israel Defense Forces now say that ground operations are expanding to include all of Gaza, including southern areas where many have taken shelter.

The IDF is warning civilians to evacuate large areas within the enclave. But it's unclear how many are receiving those warnings given there is limited electricity and internet services. The IDF also says it killed a Hamas commander in an airstrike Sunday. Israeli officials say he was responsible for carrying out some of the deadly raids inside Israel in October.

Meantime, the official Palestinian news agency says strikes hit the Jabalia refugee camp Sunday for a second day. Journalist Elliott Gotkine joins us now from London with more on all of this. So, good morning to you, Elliott. So, what is the latest on Israel's expanding ground operation across all of Gaza? ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Rosemary, Israel has yet to finish the

job in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, but as you say it's already saying that it's expanding its operations to the southern part of the Strip. Indeed, according to a Daniel Hagari spokesman for the IDF that Israel is expanding its operations to all of the Gaza Strip.

And any hopes that Israel may go in a little bit more lightly as no less than U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was calling for just the other day may have been dashed by the comments we heard from Israel's chief of the general staff Herzi Halevi saying that Israel's operations in the southern part of the Gaza Strip will, in his words, be no less powerful than those operations in the north.

And already we've seen rising civilian casualties in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, as well. Israel, as you say, has been issuing evacuation orders to large swathes of the southern part of the Gaza Strip. But either the message isn't getting through or it's not being fully understood. When CNN spoke with a spokesman for the IDF, Jonathan Conricus, he was asked what more Israel could do to help them evacuate safely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN CONRICUS, LIEUTENANT GENERAL, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON: If you remember the first days of the fighting in the north, we warned two weeks ahead of time that people in northern Gaza need to evacuate towards the south because we're going to operate. And you know what UNICEF said? They said that it's not possible to do so.

And UNRWA said it's not possible and there were people throwing words around like war crimes and other things when we were trying to evacuate people into relative safety. And now we're seeing kind of a repeat of that same practice where we're damned if we do and we're damned if we don't. And as Israel ratchets up its military campaign to all parts of the Gaza Strip, there are more moves on the diplomatic front, as well.

The U.S. and also the French with President Emmanuel Macron on his way to Qatar are trying to resurrect that truce agreement that lasted a week and that saw hostages abducted by Hamas during its attacks of October the 7th being released in exchange for Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. But from where we are right now, that seems like wishful thinking. It doesn't seem like that truce is going to be resumed anytime soon. Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right, our thanks to Elliott Gotkine joining us live from London. Qatar's Prime Minister spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday to discuss the situation in Gaza, emphasizing the need for de-escalation and a ceasefire, according to Qatar's state news agency.

[02:05:00]

This comes as the U.S. is working to bring Israel and Hamas back to the negotiating table after a breakdown in talks. CNN's Arlette Saenz reports from the White House. ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: A senior

administration official insists the U.S. is pursuing every effort possible to try to get the remaining hostages out of Gaza. But what remains unclear is whether that can even be done in the immediate future as those talks between Israel and Hamas have completely broken down.

Now, those talks broke down due to differences of opinion when it came to the release of female hostages. Israel insisting that Hamas still has more female hostages to release, while Hamas was arguing that these women who are being held should be considered as IDF reservist soldiers, something that Israel and the U.S. have both very forcefully pushed back upon.

A senior administration official saying that the onus is on Hamas to live up to the terms of the deal and release all of the women they have without delay. But the U.S., even as these talks between Israel and Hamas have completely collapsed, the U.S. is still remaining in contact with their counterparts in the region trying to get people back to the negotiating table.

The special envoy for hostage affairs, Roger Carstens, met over the weekend with his Israeli counterparts in Israel. And then Vice President Kamala Harris on the sidelines of a climate summit in Dubai had phone calls and meetings with Arab leaders, including the Emir of Qatar, as well as the Egyptian President. And in those conversations, she once again stressed the need to try to get these hostages out.

Now, John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson, said that the U.S. is doing everything they can to try to get these talks back on track.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Well, there are no official negotiations going on right now, Kristen, and that's because Hamas. Hamas failed to come up with yet another list of women and children that could be released, and we know they're holding additional women and children, not combatants, not female IDF soldiers, but innocent civilians, women and children that they have that they couldn't put on a list and turn that in.

So, unfortunately the negotiations have stopped. That said, what hasn't stopped is our own involvement trying to get those back on track and trying to discuss with those partners and all those interlocutors, see if we can't get it back in place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: The U.S. so far has secured the release of four American hostages since this conflict began. But there are still eight Americans who are believed to be in captivity in Gaza. That includes one woman who the U.S. had initially hoped would be part of the initial negotiations to release 50 women and children.

And then there are seven men, three of which are believed to be IDF reservist soldiers. The U.S. is insisting that they are still working around the clock trying to get these hostages out. It just really remains unclear whether that is possible at this moment as those talks have broken down. Arlette Saenz, CNN, the White House.

CHURCH: Yarden Gonen is the sister of Hamas hostage, Romi Gonen, and she joins us now from Tel Aviv. Thank you so much for being with us at this very difficult time for you and your family.

YARDEN GONEN, SISTER OF HAMAS HOSTAGE ROMI GONEN: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.

CHURCH: Now, your 23-year-old sister, Romi, is still being held hostage by Hamas. That is despite- other women and children being released over the course of that seven-day temporary truce. Romi is not an IDF soldier, but Hamas is claiming that all remaining female hostages are IDF soldiers. So, what is the Israeli government doing to convince Hamas that your sister is a civilian and needs to be released now?

GONEN: I don't think no one should be, should do any convincing. She's not a soldier. She just went and came back last year from the trip of eight months in South America. She planned to be a flight attendant on the ground in Thailand. She's working as a waitress for the past year and a half. And she -- sorry, she was planning to come back after Thailand and start studying.

She wanted to study education and I have no idea why are they claiming that because it's absolutely not true. Nor she or another woman that are with her still held as hostage at Hamas ISIS hands. And then we saw them lying about so many things like for example, Hana Katzir, they told us she's dead and then she was released at the first time. So, I feel like it's a big manipulation.

CHURCH: Yeah, I mean, it's so difficult. And so how much do you know about what happened to Romi on October 7th, and of course, about her injuries that you've been told are apparently getting worse because she got shot, didn't she?

[02:10:00]

GONEN: Yeah. So, on October 7th, we knew everything that's going on with Romi because she was at the festival with her best friend and she immediately called my mother and afterwards me. And for four and a half hours, we were on and off with her on the phone. So, we knew everything that's going on over there.

The terrorists that are after them, that on her head when she was hiding inside the bush or whether they were rescued inside the car. And during that rescue, they attacked them on the road near kibbutz Salomim. And she was shot on her hand and she told us that her hand is not functioning well and she doesn't know what to do. And she wanted to help Ophir that was with her and fortunately wasn't murdered on the first -- second of the terror attack on their car.

And she tried to bandage him with her -- we assume her functioning hand and she told us that she's bleeding and she's wounded pretty badly. And on Friday, unfortunately, after Ophir's funeral, we got a phone call from one of the families that told us that she -- the families of the returned hostages that told us that they saw Romi this week and she's alive.

And that was amazing news because we didn't know anything about her since October 7. But they told us that her injury is very neglected and infected. And she needs a proper care at a hospital -- a proper hospital as soon as possible.

CHURCH: Absolutely. She does. I mean, clearly this is so distressing and unbearable. How is your family coping with this challenging time, wondering, and when -- when Romi may be released?

GONEN: I can't tell you how it feels like to wake up every morning at the week of the ceasefire and the releases and hope I'll get the phone call that's saying Romi is the next one on the list and we waited and waited and waited for a week. And we know that we have remain 10 or 11 women that are fit to the first deal that we had about women and children. And it was the worst morning.

Friday morning was the worst morning I had in the past 60 days that not only I woke up to not getting a list, I woke up to resume the war because Hamas broke the ceasefire. And I feel like we got back to week number two and that's frightened us so much. We have to do anything in our power to stop what's going on, to get another negotiation, to get our people back.

We know that also the men are wounded. We know that Hamas is hitting them with their cables from testimonies that came back. We know about another women that are injured from the beginning and are not treated properly and it's not -- no one should live like that. No one. And we must stop it.

CHURCH: And Yarden, you mentioned that some of the other hostages have told you about Romi. I wanted to ask, too, how much harder it has been for your family since the other captives were released, reducing the number of families now able to apply pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government to return the remaining hostages to their loved ones.

GONEN: Well, it's a mix of joy and a bit of envy because we all wanted it to be our loved ones, but we're so happy for the ones that came back because anyone deserves to get back from this nightmare and terror. But I want to stress that we're not less people that are putting pressure because all the families of the returning and hostages and the returning hostages themselves are coming to help us.

A lot of them are in the headquarters helping us filming videos, go to talk to ministers and everything they can and it's amazing. Can you imagine it? People that were returned from 50 or more days in captivity that they were treated badly, they had no food, no shower.

[02:15:00]

Some of them were neglected by their wounds and we saw it on a few like Elma Abraham, the 84 years old, and Miarek, the 21 years old. But a lot of them are coming to help us because they know. They know how it feels like to be inside. They know how it feels like to be left out. And they want to do anything in their power to help us bring our loved ones home. They know they deserve to stop all this crazy stuff that's happening since October 7th and it's almost two months.

CHURCH: Yeah.

GONEN: It's unbearable. Please help us, too. We need all the help we can to stop everything that's going on right now.

CHURCH: Yarden Gonen joining us from Tel Aviv. I hope your sister Romi is returned very soon. Many thanks for talking with us. We do appreciate it.

GONEN: Thank you.

CHURCH: Still to come, a look at a group in South Africa known as the Urban Surfers, how they are making the country one of the best locations at recycling in the world. We're back with that and more in just a moment.

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[02:20:00]

CHURCH: Climate scientists and advocates are alarmed after the President of the COP28 climate summit claimed there's no science behind phasing out fossil fuels to limit global warming. Sultan Al- Jaber is the UAE's climate envoy and also heads the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

He made the comments November 21st at a climate panel event. He said phasing out fossil fuels was inevitable but that the world needs to be pragmatic about it -- pragmatic about it, suggesting the shift could negatively impact global economies.

Some countries at COP28 are calling for a fossil fuel phase-out. Others want a phase-down, which has weaker language. The head of one climate advocacy group says Al Jaber's statements raised deep concerns over his ability to lead the U.N. climate talks.

It's Finance Day at the COP28 Climate Summit, that means more financial discussions and the potential for climate action and disaster support funding to be announced in the coming hours. In addition, Saudi Arabia will host a side event promoting its clean energy plans and the U.N. climate agency could publish a new draft showing what kind of progress countries have made in the latest push to fight global warming.

And CNN's David McKenzie joins me now live from Dubai. Good to see you David. So, what more can be expected in the day ahead?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): Well, we can expect more events here at the COP28, as well as the ongoing negotiations on whether the language that they come up with is strong, calling a phase out of fossil fuels or weaker, calling for a phase down.

Now, it may seem like semantics but it could have a very real impact on the amount of effort the world puts into reducing emissions and those comments that have surfaced from the COP President certainly are worrying to many. There have been a number of people telling me here that they worry that there's a trust deficit with this COP 28 because it is hosted by an oil rich nation and led by a man who is in charge of the state oil company.

For their part the UAE, officials are saying they are in this, like everyone else and that solutions need to come from everybody. You know, the climate change crisis that we're dealing with is often talked about in terms of billions of dollars flowing in to help solve these issues. We spent some time with extraordinary people in South Africa to show that it really doesn't take much money when the need is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Lamoke Makoka (ph) and his cart are on the move. His job goes by many names here. Reclaimer. Hustler. Even Urban Surfer. It's dangerous work in a dangerous city. There are thousands like Makoka fanning out well before dawn. After an hour on the road, he's in a neighborhood south of the city.

MAKOKA: I'm looking for the plastics --

MCKENZIE (voice-over): I'm looking for plastics, cardboard boxes, metals and cans, he says.

MAKOKA: -- metals.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): I'm looking for plastics, cardboard boxes, metals and cans, he says.

MAKOKA: -- metals.

MCKENZIE: And it's a dirty job. Do you mind?

MAKOKA: I don't mind.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): What they discard, he recycles, earning about $150 a month. It's steadier than his old construction job, and Makoka likes being his own boss. There aren't any jobs here, he says, so we've made our own work.

Making their own work with a scale and impact that's hard to overstate. Just look at this sorting zone near Joburg where thousands live. It's informal but hardly simple. Everything is carefully separated. Everything has value.

MCKENZIE: Towards the top of the pecking order are cans. Now, a bag of these will get reclaimers almost 40 U.S. dollars. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. I'm always surprised how rich people throw away so much rubbish, says Kakat Lakhang, but I'm happy they do. This collection took them weeks. I don't know much about climate change, he says. Of course, I'm glad

we can help, but what matters is to survive. Today is payday and every bag is carefully weighed. There's always trust amongst us, says middleman Watsama, though he seems a little skeptical. I have to double check they didn't put any water in the bottles to make them heavier, he says. It must just be the plastic bottles. What reclaimers don't find end up in a nearby landfill.

[02:25:00]

Even here, they desperately salvage what they can. Back in the neighborhoods, Makoka's in a race against the dump trucks.

MAKOKA: Done, we have done.

MCKENZIE: Are you done?

MAKOKA: Yeah.

MCKENZIE: Just in time.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Today, they arrived a bit late.

MAKOKA: I have more stuff today, man.

MCKENZIE: More stuff?

MAKOKA: More stuff than other days.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Mokoka is proud of his work, proud of his effort.

MAKOKA: Yeah, I feel so happy.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): I feel so happy. I feel so happy, he says, because I'm going to put bread on the table.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE (on-camera): Well, it was a real privilege spending the day with Makoka on the streets of Johannesburg. Ninety-nine percent of plastics are made from fossil fuel feedstock, Rosemary. And sometimes, it's easy to forget when you are strolling through the air-conditioned halls here in Dubai about the impact of climate change and the solutions that are out there, in this case, bred by, if not desperation, certainly a lack of opportunity in South Africa. But it really shows that sometimes simple solutions can make a difference. It's just the rest of the world needs to follow suit. Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yeah, absolutely agree. David McKenzie joining us live from Dubai. Thanks for that report. And still to come, why hundreds of trucks are needed every day to solve Gaza's humanitarian crisis. We'll have a report on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:30:29]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

Well, more now on our top story. Israel's expanding ground operations in Gaza. The IDF announced its ground operations will now cover all of the enclave. A military spokesperson said Israel will forcefully strike any threat posed against them.

The United Nations estimates up to 1.8 million people in Gaza, nearly 80 percent of the area's population, is internally displaced from Israeli airstrikes, or as a result of Israeli airstrikes. That estimate comes as the IDF warns Gaza residents they need to evacuate further south for their own safety.

More than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7th. That is according to the Hamas-controlled ministry of health in Gaza. That death toll is expected to rise in the coming days, especially with renewed airstrikes by Israel. As the IDF says, they are continuing to target Hamas.

And CNN's Fareed Zakaria spoke with a reconstructive surgeon who left Gaza after working in two hospitals for 43 days. He made the decision to leave after pain medications ran out, making many operations impossible.

Here's more of what he experienced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH, BRITISH-PALESTINIAN RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGEON: I've never ever experienced something of this magnitude. The idea that you would be operating for 43 days and 50 percent of those that you were operating on were children. The sheer number, the magnitude, all of the injury and all of the killing was like nothing I had seen before.

Every day felt worse than the day before. And we were running out of -- initially, running out of antiseptic solutions and especially dressings for burn. But by the end, we had run out of morphine, we had run out of ketamine that we use to anesthetize patients that needed dressing changes. I was having to do really painful dressing changes to keep wounds clean, with nothing but paracetamol and no ketamine as the ketamine ran out.

And the day that I decided to leave, literally 5:00 in the morning, that day. We finally ran out of all of the anesthetic medication. We're no longer able to treat any of the patients in the O.R.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah speaking with CNN there.

Well, the Palestine Red Crescent Society says 100 trucks carrying food, water, medical supplies and more crossed the border from Egypt into Gaza on Sunday. The effort to get people out of Gaza is continuing, as well. CNN's Larry Madowo has details from Cairo. A warning, though, his

report contains some disturbing images.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aid trickling back into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossings from Egypt, for a second day on the weekend. The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed that 100 more trucks did get in, bringing food and water and medical supplies and medicine for the population, 80 percent of whom, the U.N. estimates are displaced.

With the truce having collapsed, that aid is a small percentage of what the people need there. During the seven-day truce, at least 200 trucks were allowed to come in, including cooking gas and fuel, and winter weather gear as the rainy season, the cold season, sets in on the Gaza Strip. But keep in mind, before October 7th, almost 500 trucks made it to the Gaza Strip every day.

Right now, the U.N. estimates they would need 200 trucks coming in every day for two months continuously to meet the needs of the people there. But that is not what is coming in. And for a lot of people across the strip, they are out of options, with the fear that nowhere is safe for them.

Listen to this man who is completely appears to be out of options.

RAFIK AL-REKEB, DISPLACED RESIDENT (through translator): Provide the means. Grant people tents and designate actual safe areas. A safe area should be equipped with all necessities. But simply indicating that some areas are safe, where are these safe areas? There aren't safe areas in Gaza. Am I supposed to sleep on the streets with my children in the rain in this designated safe area?

MADOWO: As the Israeli military action continues in southern Gaza, people fear that there's nowhere safe for them.

[02:35:03]

That's why you hear the dire warnings. The U.N. says people have lost everything everywhere. And that tracks with the World Health Organization warning that people have dire health needs, on top of the UNICEF statement that the Gaza Strip has become the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. A few wounded people have been making it across the Rafah crossing into Egypt to receive medical treatment, just over 400 so far.

That is a tiny drop in the ocean, considering the scale of the injuries across the Gaza Strip. Over the weekend also, 871 people, dual nationals, made it from the Gaza Strip into Egypt, 17 Americans, 130 Turkish nationalities, also nationalities from Canada, and Australia and South Africa and a couple other places.

Larry Madowo, CNN, Cairo.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: U.S. military officials say Houthi rebels have launched attacks on ships in the southern Red Sea. According to a statement from CentCom, the targets were commercial vessels, with ties to at least 14 nations. The U.S. says it has every reason to believe Sunday's attacks were, quote, fully enabled by Iran. Yemeni fighters claim the attack drones targeted Israeli ships.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YAHYA SAREE, HOUTHI MILITARY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): The Yemeni armed forces renew their warning to all Israeli ships or those associated with Israelis that they will become a legitimate target if they violate what is stated in the statement and the previous statements issued by Yemeni arms forces.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: (AUDIO GAP) was this U.S. destroyer ship, the USS Carney, that shot down drones and responded to a distress call from a vessel that came under ballistic missile fire.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

Well, one of Bologna's two famed towers is getting a little work done.

[02:40:02]

The 48-meter Garisenda Tower, which is half the size of its companion tower, has leaned for centuries. But experts say they are worried it could soon collapse because the materials in its base are disintegrating. The tower leans at a four degree angle and to protect it and the public, the area around it has been blocked off. The multimillion dollar restoration project will soon begin to shore it up. But some residents say they have faith in its staying power.

The people of Bologna love their tilted tower. It was in Dante's poem "The Divine Comedy" written in the 14th century.

I want to say thank you for joining us this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. For our international viewers, "WORLD SPORT" is coming up next. And for our viewers in the United States and in Canada, I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment. Do stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back to our viewers in North America. I'm Rosemary Church.

Well, former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney is issuing a strong warning about her party, saying a Republican-led House of Representatives would pose a threat to the U.S. in 2025.

[02:45:03]

Speaking to CBS to promote her new book which comes out Tuesday, Cheney said the Republican Party of today has made a choice and that they, quote, haven't chosen the Constitution. She had special criticism for House Speaker Mike Johnson, saying he was absolutely a collaborator in the effort to overthrow the 2020 election.

In her book, "Oath and Honor", Cheney says Johnson is especially susceptible to flattery from Donald Trump, whom she describes as the most dangerous man ever to inhabit the Oval Office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIZ CHENEY, FORMER U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: If you look at what Donald Trump is trying to do, he can't do it by himself. He has to have collaborators. And the story of Mike Johnson is a story of a collaborator, and of someone who knew then and knows that what he's doing and saying is wrong, but he's willing to do it in an effort to please Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is accusing Trump of not acting decisively enough, saying the former president failed to keep his campaign promises, including a major one from 2016 to repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. DeSantis has been touring Iowa, trying to shore up support in the state ahead of next months caucuses.

The Florida governor says if he is elected president, he will replace the Affordable Care Act with, quote, a better plan. But he has no specifics, only saying his campaign would roll out a big proposal sometime in the spring. In an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press", DeSantis said he would keep his promises.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's important to point out he is running on a lot of things he campaigned on in 2016 and didn't deliver on. Whether it's repeal and replace Obamacare, whether it's building the border wall, whether it's draining the swamp. Remember, he said he would do a special counsel against Hillary Clinton, and then two weeks after the election said no. Now, he says he's going to do one against Biden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Donald Trump was also back in Iowa over the weekend, where he spent much of his time trying to turn the tables on opponents who say his re-election would threaten democracy. At one event, Trump said, his campaign is, quote, a righteous crusade to liberate our republic from Biden and the criminals, his words.

The former president who is facing criminal charges for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, accused President Joe Biden of being the biggest threat to democracy. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDNT: Our opponents -- and we have a lot of opponents. But we've been waging an all-out war in American democracy. Joe Biden is not the defender of American democracy. Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: For weeks, President Biden has been comparing Trump's recent rhetoric to the language he used in Nazi Germany.

Our Jim Acosta spoke with CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod about Trump's strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is his go-to play. When he is suspected of corruption, he accuses his opponents of corruption. When he loses an election, he fabricates a story about the corruption of the election. And Jim, he's good at this.

We should all acknowledge that he has a feral genius for this kind of branding, when you look at the fact that 70 percent of Republicans believe that the last election was dishonest, the most -- probably the most scrutinized election in this country. And yet they believe it, and a similar number believe that these charges against him are political.

And what he's doing now is he's trying to set up a construct in which these trials, which he will have to go through, at least one of them is likely to happen, relative to January 6th. They are going to -- he is going to brand it as a political attack on him by Biden. I mean, that's very, very clear. So, it's not surprising.

I mean, we all kind of like shake our heads at the audacity of it. But once -- when he does it again and again and again, you know, you can't be surprised by it.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: Should the Biden campaign come out with signs that say Trump attacked democracy?

AXELROD: Well, I don't think they need signs. I think that story is out there. I think that Trump needs to be responded to. He is going to be the nominee of the Republican Party unless something very, very strange happens. I mean, he's got a historic lead in that race.

So, we're looking at a race between Biden and Trump. And it has to be a comparative race. And Trump has to be in that equation.

[02:50:01]

So, when he says these outrageous things, he needs to be called on it. There needs to be an army of surrogates out there responding to him as a campaign strategy because in some says, despite all his bombast, he's been sailing a little bit under the radar so far, and I don't think Biden can afford that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Jim Acosta there, speaking with David Axelrod.

New York police have identified a suspect in the fatal stabbing attack that left four family members, including two children, dead, and one person in critical condition. Thirty-eight-year-old Courtney Gordon is believed to have carried out the attack in the early hours of Sunday morning in the borough of Queens. Officers received a 911 call from a young female saying her cousin was killing her family. The police chief described what happened next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF JEFFREY MADDREY, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT: So, officers, they pull up to the driveway. As they get to the driveway, they see a male walking out. He's carrying luggage. Now, officers asked the male a question or two, an encounter that lasted about ten seconds when the male draws the knife on the officers. He stabs one officer in the neck/chest area. He strikes the second officer in the head.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Gordon was killed by police. Both officers were discharged from the hospital Sunday night.

Well, after a long wait, the racketeering trial for rapper Young Thug is set to begin here in Atlanta this week. The case against him alleges that he is the co-founder of a criminal street gang, responsible for violent crimes going back decades. The rapper's attorney has denied the accusations.

CNN's Ryan Young has more.

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RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The high-profile RICO trial for Young Thug, the Grammy-winning rap superstar, began in Atlanta on Monday, after a ten-month jury selection process and more than a year to get started.

ADRIANE LOVE, FULTON COUNTY CHIEF DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I appreciate you all being here.

YOUNG: Young Thug, whose name is Jeffrey Williams, is facing charges including racketeering and participation in criminal gang activity. Williams initially indicted along with 27 others, is now sitting in trial with five other people. The other 21, either pleading guilty or their cases being thrown out.

Prosecutors say that Young Thug's YSL, the acronym for his Atlanta- based record label, Young Stoner Life, stands for Young Slime Life, an Atlanta-based gang, which is a subsection of a national Bloods gang, and that Williams allegedly ordered and oversaw violent crimes.

LOVE: The members and associates of YSL, they move like a pack, with Jeffrey Williams as its head.

YOUNG: One of the case's most serious accusations centers around a 2015 drive-by shooting of another high ranking gang member that Willis says set off violence and gang wars never seen before in Atlanta. The trial immediately drawing some criticism over the fact that the prosecution is focusing a great deal of their case on the artist's rap lyrics.

YOUNG THUG'S SONG: Gettin' all type of cash, I'm a general, true.

YOUNG: Playing lyrics like these in the grand jury indictment.

YOUNG THUG'S SONG: I never killed anybody. But I got somethin' to do with that body. I got the streets on my back, carry it like I'm movin' a body. I told them to shoot a hundred rounds, like he tryna a movie the body --

YOUNG: Williams' attorney defending his artist both his right to free speech and result of his upbringing.

BRIAN STEEL, YOUNG THUG'S ATTORNEY: And yes, he speaks about killing 12 and people being shot, and drugs, and drive-by shoots. This is the environment that he grew up with.

YOUNG: Fani Willis disagrees and says these lines clerically were just too close to what was happening in the treats of Atlanta.

LOVE: We didn't chase any lyrics to solve the murders. Law enforcement in Fulton County chased the muggers and found the lyrics.

YOUNG: Other artists also feel it's a stretch in quoting the defendant's lyrics.

FAT JOE, GRAMMY-NOMINATED ARTIST, AUTHOR & ENTREPRENEUR: You can't build the jail high enough for the lyrics set on songs, which are all untrue.

YOUNG: Atlanta-based defense attorney Scott Grubman says he believes the prosecution is walking a fine line.

SCOTT GRUBMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They shouldn't have been allowed to hear the lyrics. Yeah. If you said I'm going to kill that dude, and then some dude somewhere around your neighborhood somehow loosely affiliated with you is killed in the next few days, the D.A. is going to say, oh, that must have been about that. I think it's dangerous.

YOUNG: He also feels the RICO charges are too broad.

GRUBMAN: What RICO allows is just this idea of, well, you might not have committed the murder or been around, but you were somehow loosely associated with someone else who committed the murder, and therefore, we can charge you with it.

[02:55:08]

It's being weaponized. It has gone so far off what it was intended. YOUNG: Ryan Young, CNN, Atlanta, Georgia.

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CHURCH: There's controversy and anger in the world of college football after the top four teams for this year's playoffs were revealed Sunday. Michigan coming in at number one, followed by Washington and Texas. But the big headline centered around that number four position. Here's the moment we learned that Alabama and not undefeated Florida State made the cut.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who is number four? And Alabama returns to the playoff. And so, we have another unprecedented situation, as Florida State winds up at number five.

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CHURCH: You can see the reaction there from Florida State, clearly upset with the decision.

Meantime, the school's head football coach released a statement reading, and I'm quoting here: I am disgusted and infuriated with the committee's decision today. What happened goes against everything that is true and right in college football. Adding, it's a sad day for college football.

On a brighter note, Santa Claus has come to town in Liverpool, England. Maybe not the jolly fellow we know, but thousand of his lookalikes taking part in the U.K.'s biggest Santa dash. The participants hoofed it for five kilometers, dressed in red and blue outfits to raise funds for a children's hospital. In 2005, the run earned the Guinness world record for the largest Santa gathering. Runners say it's a lot of fun and a healthier way for Santa to get around town, rather than riding in a sleigh.

Thanks for joining us this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. I will be back with more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment. Do stick around.