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Trump Ramps Up Inflammatory Rhetoric On Campaign Trail; Nikki Haley Gains Momentum In New Hampshire, Iowa Polls; Florida GOP Censures Its Chairman Amid Rape Allegation; IDF Claims To Have Found "Biggest" Hamas Tunnel In Gaza; String Of Men Exonerated This Week After Spending Years In Prison. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired December 17, 2023 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:01:55]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. Good evening.

We begin the hour with the Biden campaign linking Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, saying the former president parroted Adolf Hitler at a New Hampshire rally last night. That's in response to Trump once again accusing immigrants of poisoning the blood of the country, an echo of the vile rhetoric used by Nazi Germany to justify the holocaust.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're poisoning the blood of our country. That's what they've done. They've poisoned. Mental institutions and prisons all over the world. Not just in South America. Not just at three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world. They're coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world. They're pouring into our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: The Biden campaign also arguing that Trump is channeling his role models, including some of the world's most ruthless dictators during campaign events. In fact when it comes to American democracy, Trump is taking his cues from a man known for murdering political dissidents and interfering in American elections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Vladimir Putin of Russia says that Biden's -- and this is a quote -- politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Trump's admiration for authoritarians met some harsh criticism from Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie who warned the American people this morning that Trump is, quote, "becoming crazier."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump realizes the walls are closing in. He's becoming crazier, and now he's citing Vladimir Putin as a character witness, a guy who is a murderous thug all around the world. It's time to send Donald Trump back to Mar-a- Lago permanently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins me now.

Priscilla, Trump is set to take the stage at this rally in Nevada at any moment now. What is the White House expecting in terms of responding to this kind of rhetoric that we're seeing from Trump?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're calling it for what they see it as, which is dangerous. And in a statement to CNN, a White House spokesperson said the following about Trump's remarks just yesterday, saying, quote, "Echoing the grotesque rhetoric of fascist and violent white supremacists and threatening to oppress those who disagree with the government are dangerous attacks on the dignity and rights of all Americans, on our democracy, and on public safety. It's the opposite of everything we stand for as Americans."

This has been the message from the White House and from the Biden campaign, and the president himself, in private events with donors, has condemned his predecessor's language on immigration as well, likening it to Nazi terminology. And the White House and the Biden campaign have repeatedly blasted Trump's controversial immigration proposals if he were to take a second term.

In fact, just this month, President Biden issued a statement for the first time through his re-election campaign, criticizing Trump's travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries, something that he did in his first term and what he has proposed doing if elected to a second term, and President Biden calling that, quote, "cruel."

[18:05:10]

But, of course, Jim, this is a delicate issue for the White House. Immigration has been a political liability for President Biden going into 2024 as he continues to grapple with record levels of migration across the western hemisphere and at the U.S. southern border.

You don't have to look much further than Capitol Hill to see how that's manifesting as Republicans push the White House to reach an agreement on border policy changes to pass funding for Ukraine and for Israel, putting a political domestic issue at the center of his foreign policy agenda, just underscoring the headwinds ahead for President Biden.

ACOSTA: All right, Priscilla Alvarez. Thank you very much.

Here with us now to discuss, Democratic strategist and former press secretary to First Lady Jill Biden, Michael LaRosa, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, and CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Alice Stewart. Alice and Maria are the hosts of the podcast "Hot Mics from Left to Right."

Alice, let me start with you. We're getting really close to Iowa, and Trump is out on the campaign trail saying that immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country. In weeks past, he was talking about being a dictator on day one of the administration. Are you starting to get a little worried about who your party is on the verge of making its nominee or very close to doing so?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Unfortunately this is classic Donald Trump, right? What he does is engages in language that plays to his base but aggravates his critics. And anyone who thinks he's going to change that is fooling themselves.

Look, his comments that he is making recently is ripe for criticism. Look, certainly Hitler is no royal model to Donald Trump, but when you are using language from Hitler's manifesto, "Mein Kampf," you're parroting his words. And we don't need to focus on that language. When we're having this immigration conversation, let's use the real language that Republicans actually really feel. We want to have legal immigration.

We want to make sure that people come into this country legally. We need to call attention to the historic influx of illegals into this country, the problem with fentanyl coming into this country, the human trafficking, and those are problems that we do need to address and even Democrats across this country realize the financial impacts of illegal immigration is something that we need to address. Fortunately members on the Hill right now are trying to come to an agreement on immigration.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Unfortunately the Republicans on the Hill are not listening to my friend Alice because if they were, they would not be trying to shut down every single legal avenue of being able to come into this country legally. If they really did want legal immigration, they would work with Democrats to try to come up with a way to reform our immigration system, which absolutely is broken.

But doing it at the 11th hour, holding hostage money for Ukraine and Israel, is not the way to negotiate in good faith with such a big problem as we have on our border and on immigration. And the Biden administration is absolutely willing to negotiate. We've heard from the reporting from Priscilla and others that they are willing to give a lot on where they would want to do some more restrictions on the border. And that's fine.

But let's not give up everything when you know Republicans, especially in the House, are not going to do anything unless you pass their draconian bill in the House, which is called HR-2, which essentially would lead to shutting down our legal immigration system.

ACOSTA: But, Michael, why do you think the White House, why do you think the Biden campaign really wanted to seize on these comments from Trump yesterday, getting back to this issue of his comment? I mean, I think this is more than just your garden variety of Trump trying to whip up free media when he's out there and talks about immigrants poisoning the blood of this country.

MICHAEL LAROSA, FORMER SECRETARY TO FIRST LADY JILL BIDEN: He refused to condemn David Duke or the endorsement of David Duke in the past, too, and he still won. But to your point, the free media part, there's something that's missing from your setup to the segment and to Priscilla's. Nothing from Biden himself. Nothing from the candidate. We have to start hearing from the president, from the candidate.

He has to start going on offense on Donald Trump. He has to start taking swings at Donald Trump. Voters, especially disaffected Democrats who, you know, we spend a lot of time covering with polls and given the president's poll numbers, he has to start giving a reason for people to want to get back on the team. And part of that is going to be taking the fight to Donald Trump. This is a gift.

ACOSTA: You don't think he's done enough?

LAROSA: No. No. This is a question that always gets me in a lot of trouble with my old colleagues. But no --

CARDONA: He started, too, with a statement that they --

LAROSA: I don't -- it was a nice statement, but he has to start fighting back. And fighting back does not mean proxy wars in pool reports and fundraisers. He needs to start coming to the cameras. He had an opportunity today. I think he left on Marine One to go somewhere, to Delaware. If that was Donald Trump, you know he wouldn't have missed an opportunity to go and talk to the press about his opponent.

ACOSTA: Right.

[18:10:03]

LAROSA: We need to start hearing that from Biden. We also -- he needs to start taking advantage of these opportunities himself.

STEWART: If I could just say, look, talk about Donald Trump getting earned media. No one is to blame for that except for Democrats who talk about him all the time and the media who covers it all the time. And my dear Maria, I know you want to blame Republicans for the stalemate we have on immigration. Look, there are Democratic governors and mayors across this country that are begging this administration, please do something about the influx of illegal immigrants into this country.

It is costing us financially having to house, clothe, and feed these people. Democrats are asking for this administration to do so, so don't blame it on Republicans because they're wanting help.

CARDONA: That's a great point. And guess what? The Democratic Biden administration offered $14 billion of an increase in border security money, and Republicans turned them down. Why? Because they are negotiating in bad faith. They don't want to solve this problem. They don't know how to solve this problem. They want it to continue to use as a political football going to 2024.

LAROSA: They want the issue and the politics.

CARDONA: They want the issue. Exactly.

LAROSA: They don't want to solve it.

CARDONA: That's exactly right.

ACOSTA: Well, Michael, let me get you in more trouble with the Biden White House.

LAROSA: Yes. Please. I committed one, might as well take another. Yes.

ACOSTA: Say what you want. Obviously what Trump said this weekend is repugnant. It's part of a long list of repugnant things that he's been saying for -- I don't know -- forever. But the Biden White House has sort of given a gift over to the Republican Party, haven't they, this time around when it comes to this issue of immigration, not getting something done on this issue with this Congress?

LAROSA: Well, Donald Trump didn't get anything done either.

ACOSTA: Well, no, no, no. I know that.

LAROSA: The problem has plagued presidents going back to Reagan, I think.

ACOSTA: Sure.

LAROSA: It's not Joe Biden's fault, but it has been a vulnerability for him, of course, although I don't know if Democrats have ever really been punished for it. If you look at the border states, Texas, three out of the five congressional districts that touch the Mexican border are Democrats. Arizona, New Mexico, and California --

CARDONA: Do you know why -- do you know why, Michael?

LAROSA: Democratic governors, Democratic senators. So I don't think Democrats have really ever been punished.

CARDONA: There's a reason for that is because when Democrats talk the way that they should be talking about immigration, which is a balanced approach, absolutely, strong border security, but we also need to increase legal pathways. Americans are not anti-immigrant. They are anti-chaos. And the way that you fix the border, Joe Biden cannot do it. It's not in his portfolio. He can't do everything.

This is Congress' responsibility, and when you have Republicans who are in charge of the House, who have absolutely no reason, no wanting to fix this, and not knowing how to except for using it as a political football and saying yes to their overlord, Donald Trump, on everything that he wants on immigration, then we're not going to fix it because they're not going to accept anything no matter how much the White House concedes on this.

LAROSA: But also what a striking contrast between what Donald Trump said yesterday and his wife said the previous day.

CARDONA: Yes, that's right.

LAROSA: About immigration and the arduous journey that immigrants face.

CARDONA: Yes.

LAROSA: And the harsh realities they face. It was a beautiful speech that she gave at the National Archives.

STEWART: Look, I think no one expects President Biden to do everything, but it would be nice to do something with regard to this. And the current conversations that is going on in the Senate to pass meaningful immigration reform, in order to also pass the aid for Israel and Ukraine is important, and I think the best thing we can do is hope that President Biden, Schumer, McConnell and everyone can come together on meaningful reforms.

ACOSTA: All right, guys, sit tight. I didn't have to do a whole lot of work during that segment. You guys did it all. But more to discuss right after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:18:03]

ACOSTA: All right. We're back to talking about the Republican campaign for the GOP nomination.

Alice, I want to go with this new CBS News poll to you on this. Look at Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina. She really has emerged as the top alternative to Donald Trump right now. But you and I both know we've seen this movie before. If you add up the rest of the field, they do get pretty close to putting together an alternative to Donald Trump, but nobody is really showing any signs of wanting to get out of this. What's your sense of all of this right now?

STEWART: Right. If we could keep that graphic up for a second.

ACOSTA: Yes.

STEWART: Look at these numbers. Let's just say everyone decides let's do what's best for the party and they rally behind one person potentially Nikki. Vivek's people are probably going to go to Donald Trump. The others would more than likely coalesce toward Nikki Haley. And then we're looking at a pretty darn good race there.

ACOSTA: Yes. It's around 50-50.

STEWART: Yes, exactly. And so if that were to be the case and we're able to whittle the field around Iowa and New Hampshire, then I think it's game on. And I think Republican voters, rational Republican voters, will realize there is an alternative to Donald Trump, and that would be beneficial in the general election. And his argument that he is the only one that can beat Donald Trump doesn't match up with the reality of what we're seeing in the polls because Nikki Haley also is head-to-head with Biden. She can beat him.

We've also seen that with DeSantis. But she has a good message heading into Iowa and New Hampshire that not only could she -- if she were to galvanize the GOP, she could beat Joe Biden in the general election, and that's a message that people want to hear.

ACOSTA: But you're not seeing any sign at this point that any of these other candidates are willing to -- I mean we saw what happened in 2020. The Democratic field getting in line behind Joe Biden at a pretty critical moment during that campaign.

CARDONA: Chris Christie said that he's not going anywhere.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CARDONA: And so I do think that if it stays that way with everyone else in, it's going to be impossible for Nikki Haley to get to where she needs to be in order to beat Donald Trump.

[18:20:02]

Look, I've said this before. If this had happened three months ago, four months ago, five months ago, I do think it would be possible for whoever needs to convince people to get out and support Nikki Haley, for them to realize this is the only way that we're going to beat Donald Trump for that to happen. But we're going into the holidays. It's 30 days until the first contest, and Iowa is first, by the way. And if Nikki Haley gets blown out in Iowa, these numbers might not hold going into New Hampshire.

LAROSA: But I will say --

ACOSTA: I was going to ask how much of a concern would Nikki Haley be to the Biden White House versus Donald Trump?

LAROSA: Oh, I wouldn't -- I mean according to every poll, she beats him pretty badly, right, by -- the last poll we saw comparing Nikki Haley to Joe Biden. Look, it's a contrast that I don't think Democrats would really want to see. Nikki Haley is incredibly talented. She's a great political athlete. She is quick on her feet. She is charming. She's charismatic, and she's funny. She's a great candidate.

I don't know -- I don't bet, but if I were betting, I probably would bet that she won't win. But I'm not sure she was ever given the structure. Look, I don't think the right-wing media, the left-wing media, or the Democrats really wanted this to be a race. I don't know if there was ever going to be a race, right? Everybody wanted it to be Trump, and I think, you know, that hurts -- we get to much premium.

CARDONA: No, don't put it on Democrats. The Republicans wanted it to be Trump.

LAROSA: Well, we wanted it, too, because he's the most vulnerable. I would still love to run against Trump. I don't want to run against Nikki Haley. But --

CARDONA: Well, then --

ACOSTA: But be careful what you wish for.

CARDONA: And the MAGA Republicans want it to be Trump, and clearly they're the ones who have a stranglehold on the party or else these numbers wouldn't be what they are.

STEWART: Here's the thing. We've all either covered or been on presidential campaigns. This is how you want your momentum to be when you're a month out from the first caucus.

LAROSA: Yes.

ACOSTA: You're talking about Nikki Haley.

STEWART: Nikki Haley, you want to have the momentum in your corner, which she absolutely does. Not only is she looking also to do well in Iowa, with the endorsement of New Hampshire Governor Sununu, that is going to be instrumental in her following through with those numbers we saw in New Hampshire, and the Americans for Prosperity, they have a tremendous ground game across the country, which will help her past New Hampshire and into these other early states. So depending on how Iowa winnows the field, she is in a good spot to certainly give Donald Trump a run for his money.

CARDONA: I don't know. I mean you might be right. And anything can happen, right? New Hampshire and Iowa always surprise. But there is no question that historically no candidate has come from behind to win the nomination when they've been that far behind Donald Trump, when Donald Trump has essentially, you know, run away with it up until now. There's nothing really to indicate that that is going to change in any other state.

Now, again, anything could happen. But right now the MAGA stranglehold is still with Donald Trump.

LAROSA: We're declaring it over. Remember in 1984 --

CARDONA: No, I'm not declaring it over. I'm just saying --

LAROSA: Mondale won Iowa by 30 points over the next person. That race went until June. It was a race. I think people wanted a race then, him and Gary Hart. I don't know if there is appetite for a race on the Republican side.

CARDONA: Yes. I mean --

ACOSTA: Michael, let me ask you --

CARDONA: Certainly not. I don't think so.

LAROSA: Yes.

ACOSTA: Let me ask you about another potential concern for the White House, and that is the House impeachment inquiry. How concerned do you think they are inside the White House about this? We saw Hunter Biden go up on Capitol Hill this past week and deliver what a lot of people thought was a better-than-expected performance.

LAROSA: It was a brilliant move. It was a smart move. He put them on defense. He had the Republicans scrambling, taken by surprise, and scrambling into a hallway to give this impromptu press conference and respond to Hunter. You could tell that he got their blood pressure raised and got under their skin.

But, look, Jay Carney, the former White House press secretary under Obama, said his biggest mistake, their biggest mistake as a White House that he and President Obama made was laughing off the birtherism stuff and not engaging and not responding. And that cost the country. It didn't cost him the election, but it cost the country because it led to the rise of Donald Trump.

ACOSTA: Oh, yes.

LAROSA: And I don't know what the panic level is in the White House, but I know this first lady, and I know that family, and I don't think that they can be too pleased about Biden being the fifth president of the United States to face an impeachment inquiry or potentially becoming the fourth president of the United States to become impeached. Nobody wants that in their presidential library, so they better start taking it seriously because silence and ignorance has not worked so far. It brought us to this point.

STEWART: If I can just say with all due respect to my dear friend Michael, I think a brilliant or smart are not two words I would ever use in the same sentence with Hunter Biden. He'd done some serious trouble, and --

LAROSA: I'm talking about his reaction and the public relations --

STEWART: Maybe the way they handled this might have been --

[18:25:05]

ACOSTA: But, Alice, do Republicans in the House really want Hunter Biden to go out in front of the cameras? I mean, why didn't they take the opportunity to have him there? They could have grilled him for 10 hours or whatever and just keep asking the questions over and over again. Why not take that opportunity?

STEWART: I don't know why they needed to change the rules for Hunter Biden. These are closed-door proceedings.

(CROSSTALK)

LAROSA: They didn't. They didn't. Secretary Clinton did not do a closed-door hearing.

CARDONA: A public hearing. Yes.

LAROSA: She didn't testify behind closed doors. She went right to public testimony. There's precedent.

CARDONA: They didn't want to give him the opportunity to do it publicly because they want to be able to shape the message. They want to be able to craft whatever it is that they think that he would have said behind closed doors in order to hurt him and to hurt the president. Look, I think --

ACOSTA: Do they really want to impeach Joe Biden, or they just want this hanging around for next year?

STEWART: No, look, there's some "there" there. Look, again, this is an impeachment inquiry with regard to President Biden. There is plenty of reason to ask questions and inquire about the text messages, the conversations, and why did he call in to these business meetings with Hunter Biden? And look --

CARDONA: He didn't call in.

STEWART: And more than anything, you want to talk about a brilliant strategy. This administration has for years said there was absolutely no knowledge, no involvement whatsoever in Hunter Biden's foreign business deals. And then it became, oh, he didn't know anything about it. Now your story is, oh, he didn't financially benefit. So if you keep changing your story --

(CROSSTALK)

LAROSA: See, this is the problem with respect to my dear friend Alice.

ACOSTA: There's a lot of respect going on.

LAROSA: The reason why Hunter's business partner Devon Archer hasn't come for a public hearing is because he told the truth in his deposition, which said the president had no benefit financially from his business dealings and was never involved in any of Hunter's business dealings.

ACOSTA: Yes. All right, guys --

LAROSA: It's misinformation like that --

CARDONA: And this is exactly the point. This is a fishing expedition. There's absolutely no evidence right now that is linking Joe Biden to anything that Hunter Biden did, and it's an embarrassment to Republicans.

ACOSTA: And if there's a "there" there, maybe that there will show up one of these days.

CARDONA: Hasn't yet.

ACOSTA: We're all going to look at it. All right, guys, thanks very much. Appreciate it.

CARDONA: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: The fallout from a sex scandal that led to the Republican Party in Florida taking action today against their party chair, that's next here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:31:27]

ACOSTA: Today the Republican Party of Florida voted to censure its chair, Christian Ziegler, who's been accused of rape. Ziegler has not been charged, says he's innocent. In an emergency meeting, the state party stopped short of removing Ziegler but they are stripping him of nearly all authority and cutting his salary to $1. Ziegler and his wife Bridget are being denounced for hypocrisy and accused of scandalous sexual behavior.

Bridget Ziegler is a co-founder of the conservative group Moms for Liberty which calls itself a defender of family values.

For more on this, let's talk to Marc Caputo, national political reporter for "The Messenger." He has an expertise in Florida politics. He was on yesterday as we were talking about this. And I guess the Florida GOP took action today. What did you make of what happened?

MARC CAPUTO, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE MESSENGER: I was surprised just on the very small particulars that they didn't empanel an investigative board to go after Ziegler. They're going to come back in a month and vote to officially kick him out of office. They had to do it in this two-step fashion according to their rules. All of the Republican members that I spoke to and the other media I spoke to were just surprised that Ziegler just didn't quit.

He showed up at the meeting. He apologized, sorry if I put you guys through this, but I'm staying, he told them. And so then they started the motions censuring him, stripping him of his authority, taking away his ability to get reimbursed for travel, so like the mileage driving between Sarasota where he lived and Orlando where they held the meeting, he's not going to get that. Setting his salary to a dollar.

One of the members, Michelle Salzman, a state rep, has said, I don't know what he's doing here. No one really does, but he is. He says he's innocent and that if he resigns, it will look like a sign of guilt. And therefore he's saying you're going to have to kick me out. And so the Florida GOP is saying, OK, we'll take that deal.

ACOSTA: I was going to -- but, Marc, they didn't oust him. They didn't get rid of him altogether, right? They basically, you know, neutralized him, I guess, emasculated him to a large extent. But I mean, he's still there as the chairman.

CAPUTO: Ish. Right? He's a chairman in name only.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CAPUTO: And, you know, there's some particulars about the rules. They thought, oh, it had to default to Robert's rules of order, kind of very complicated things that most viewers and people don't care about. Do they have to elect to go and have a panel to investigate this? They weren't quite sure. But they decided, well, we'll just come back in a month. We'll unanimously vote to boot him. And then if he wants to sue us, fine.

Some people are speculating that he wants to get fired so he can file suit, sort of wrongful termination suit. That's probably going to be a star-crossed endeavor. But the Republicans are saying, look, this is an embarrassing thing. Let's put aside the rape issue. No one's kind of discounting the investigation. They're saying just on the merits of the admitted conduct, being involved in a threesome relationship with some other woman, having sex with her behind his wife's back while apparently she was, quote, "drinking tequila all day."

Then the woman called and said that he had raped her. Just the threesome in and of itself, the members said, is not living up to this family values conduct that you've consulted on, that you've campaigned on, that a lot of the members of the Republican Party of Florida executive board voted for him for. And so therefore he's on his way out.

ACOSTA: But for now they're stuck with him to a large extent. I mean, and, Marc, I mean, Bridget Ziegler, she has not been accused of anything criminal, but there has been an uproar over her involvement with the group Moms for Liberty that claims to have this family values, conservative agenda, including an anti-LGBTQ point of view.

[18:35:10]

The Sarasota County School Board asked her to resign. I mean this is a mess even by Florida standards.

CAPUTO: It's a total mess. Yes, you know, it's another day in Florida. You have the chairman who's accused of rape for the Republican Party of Florida. He's involved in some threesome relationship with his family values wife. He faces getting booted. Then you have the governor's super PAC for his presidential campaign is melting down. It all happened in a span of a few hours.

They were sort of used to the bizarre news in Florida, but the Zieglers' case is pretty unique. I mean, the reality is, is Moms for Liberty and Bridget Ziegler held themselves up as this sort of paragon, almost this Stepford Wives organization and association. And there was no nuance when they talked about gay-related matters, LGBT- related matters.

Now, they did talk about, look, this stuff shouldn't be in school, and privately some of Ziegler's defenders, very few of them, none of them will really speak publicly, are saying, well, their private conduct is different than what they're talking about publicly-related policy. However, you didn't hear that nuance before. You didn't hear Bridget Ziegler say before, hey, I'm bisexual, I like to have threesomes with my husband.

You know, that's our private life, but, you know, in schools they shouldn't have this LGBT-related pornography and various types of instruction, or what they called indoctrination. You didn't hear any of that. You just heard this very strong messaging that was very aligned with Christian conservative values that LGBT-related matters are things we don't talk about, and they shouldn't be brought up in school at all. And now here we are.

ACOSTA: And, Marc, while I have you here, I have to ask you about this. Jeff Rowe, the chief strategist for the Ron DeSantis super PAC, just quit. Ironically, the PAC was called Never Back Down. Do I have that right?

CAPUTO: You do.

ACOSTA: I mean, what is going on in DeSantis world right now, especially at a time when we just showed this poll to our camera earlier on this program Nikki Haley is on the rise, DeSantis is just not? Why is he hanging in there?

CAPUTO: Well, he's hanging in there because he's put all of his eggs in the basket of Iowa and plans to win it. The polling indicates that he's tilting at windmills, but you know, stranger things have happened. Hell, this is Florida we're talking about, albeit that's Iowa. But the fundamental problem that DeSantis is encountering is this, in his kind of broader orbit. That is the super PAC, which is independent from the campaign. And that is he's losing, and he's losing badly.

And just last November, last year, I should say, DeSantis won Florida, which used to be a swing state, by almost 20 percentage points. And polls showed that he would beat Donald Trump in a Republican primary. He looked like the heir apparent. So they ran, and he suddenly just couldn't win. And as a result, they just are coming to grips with the fact that he's losing, and this is sort of one of the stages of grief from the campaign where everyone just starts to fight everyone and everyone blames everyone else, and then people get fired and moves on.

ACOSTA: Yes. All right. Well, we know you will be tracking it. Marc Caputo, great to see you again. Thanks for coming back on tonight. Really appreciate it.

CAPUTO: Yes, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it.

ACOSTA: All right. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:42:33]

ACOSTA: Now to the war in between -- excuse me, the war between Israel and Hamas. The Palestinian Ministry of Health says more than 18,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began. They say 70 percent of those killed are women and children. As the humanitarian crisis there grows, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is preparing to visit Israel tomorrow, where he will push officials on the country's goals in the ongoing war.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live for us in Tel Aviv with the latest developments.

Jeremy, we're also getting some news that Israel has uncovered this massive underground tunnel. What can you tell us? JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim. Typically when we see

images of Hamas tunnels that the Israeli military has discovered, they look quite the same. They're very narrow. You'd have to walk single file down these tunnels. But this latest one that the Israeli military is now disclosing is very, very large, big enough in fact, according to the military, to fit a large vehicle through it. And that may be exactly one of the purposes for which this large tunnel was used.

It is part of a broader network of tunnels stretching 2 1/2 miles according to the Israeli military. It reaches up to 50 meters underground, and it has everything from electricity to ventilation and communication systems. Now this tunnel doesn't actually cross into Israel from Gaza, but it is in northern Gaza, about 400 meters away from the Erez Crossing, which was the site of Hamas' attack on October 7th.

It's one of the crossings that Hamas attacked and then used to push vehicles and motorcycles through to attack some of the neighboring towns and kibbitz in that area. And this tunnel is very wide as you can see here, and the Israeli military says that it was, in fact, a project of the leader of Gaza, his brother, the brother of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza. They say his brother was in charge of this tunnel.

Hamas of course still claims to have hundreds of miles of tunnels in Gaza and the Israeli military of course has been systematically discovering these and destroying them.

ACOSTA: And Jeremy, what do we expect from Secretary Austin and his talks with the Israelis?

DIAMOND: Well, his visit comes at a really critical moment in this war in Gaza, and of course on the U.S. pressure that we have been seeing ratcheting up on Israel to minimize civilian casualties and begin ramping down this war on Hamas. We saw the National Security adviser, Jake Sullivan. He was in country just days ago, raising the very same issues that we're going to hear from Secretary Austin tomorrow, and having some of the very same conversations with Israeli officials, which is give us a timetable effectively for when you're going to ramp down these operations.

[18:45:08]

Less intense fighting, less of this all-out ground offensive and bombing campaign, and move to more targeted special operations raids to target Hamas' senior leadership. We have watched as the civilian death toll has mounted. That has opened up a public rift between President Biden and the Israeli prime minister. And that will be the subject of very intense conversations tomorrow between the secretary of Defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who will also be with him, and Israel's War Cabinet -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

In the meantime, a dangerous storm is moving up the East Coast. What people in its path can expect. That's next here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[18:50:09]

ACOSTA: Tonight that major storm on the East Coast is intensifying after lashing Florida all weekend long. The system is now hitting the Carolinas, triggering tornado watches and flood alerts as it moves up the East Coast.

Meteorologist Elisa Raffa is in the CNN Weather Center with more.

Elisa, what's the latest? All I see is a lot of colors on that radar screen. That is a big mess.

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, these are some of the rain totals from today in South Carolina that has been just prolific. We talked earlier about record ties. Well, we also have some record amounts of rainfall. You see near Georgetown there, some of those pinks? There are estimate of nine to 12 inches of rain that fell just today. Flash flooding emergencies have been in effect all day for extremely quickly rising waters.

And then you can see all the kind of yellows and oranges. That's widespread four to six inches of rain across the low country of South Carolina. So flooding has been a problem there today. The tornado watch continues until 8:00 this evening. We're expecting it to be dropped soon as that threats starts to wind down in the Carolinas. But the flood threat continues through tonight into tomorrow.

Up the East Coast, we're looking at the Carolinas from D.C., Boston, up until Maine. 60 million people under this flood watch for widespread and additional, again, two to four inches of rain. We've got that heavy rain that will really make travel difficult tomorrow morning. Plus on top of that we're expecting some 65 mile-per-hour winds along the coast. So pretty messy.

ACOSTA: All right. Elisa, it is very messy. We appreciate it. I hope everybody stay safe out there.

In the meantime, two Illinois cousins who spent most of their lives locked up for crimes they did not commit finally walked free this week. James Soto and David Ayala now both in their 60s spent 42 years behind bars. And they were among a series of high-profile exonerations over the last week or so.

CNN's Josh Campbell has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL SOLORIO, EXONERATED: A few weeks ago I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family for the first time in 25 years.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After two and a half decades behind bars, Miguel Solorio is finally home. One of four men exonerated across the country this week, in prison for murders that prosecutors now say they did not commit.

SOLORIO: I was wrongfully convicted of a murder had no knowledge of. I was only 19 years old.

CAMPBELL: Solorio was arrested after a 1998 drive-by shooting that killed an elderly woman near Los Angeles.

SARAH PACE, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA INNOCENCE PROJECT: A witness mentioned Miguel's name, and then law enforcement officers focused solely on him putting their own judgment about guilt or innocence above the facts.

CAMBELL: The Northern California Innocence Project appealed to L.A. District Attorney George Gascon to reinvestigate the case. Prosecutors concluding that Solorio was misidentified in a police photo lineup. Solorio's wife spoke about the travesty that has plagued her family for a quarter of a century.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To see and embrace the moment to see my husband finally free after so many years, brings me the greatest joy and happiness.

CAMPBELL: Also exonerated in L.A. Wednesday, Giovanni Hernandez arrested for murder in 2006 when he was just 14 years old.

GIOVANNI HERNANDEZ, EXONERATED: I was innocent of this crime.

GEORGE GASCON, LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: In new analysis of Mr. Hernandez's cell phone records by the FBI shows that his phone was not at or near the location of the shooting.

HERNANDEZ: System that put me in there is definitely needs to change.

CHRISTOPHER HAWTHORNE, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL: People expected him to die in prison. We cannot go back to those days when people who say they care about children are putting children in prison.

CAMPBELL: In Illinois, Brian Beals was a college football player in 1988. He was convicted for murdering a 6-year-old, spending 35 years in prison before walking free this week.

MARVIN HAYNES, EXONERATED: It's been a struggle.

CAMPBELL: But Marvin Haynes went to prison before he even graduated high school, just 17 years old when he was found guilty of murder. On Monday, two decades later, he walked out of prison in Minnesota a free man.

HAYNES: All I want to do is move forward and just get my life back. That's it.

CAMPBELL: One common theme in all four exonerations announced this week? Police relying on statements from bystanders later shown to be faulty and contrary to other facts in the case.

PACE: Miguel's wrongful conviction and wrongful imprisonment were the result of law enforcement's tunnel vision. GASCON: We have known that eyewitness identification has been a

problem for at least 20 years.

CAMPBELL: With their innocence now declared those wrongfully in prison say they will continue to speak out.

SOLORIO: I let my story be a lesson to everyone. Life is precious. Don't take it for granted. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMPBELL (on-camera): Now it's important to note that these wrongful convictions didn't come to light because of law enforcement, rather because of the work of public defenders and volunteers and nonprofit groups like the Innocence Project, which works to ensure that people who are in custody are not being held unjustly.

[18:55:10]

Now the work of law enforcement obviously very critical that these cases show that law enforcement officers are not infallible, which is why it's so important to have outside groups essentially checking the work of the police to ensure that people aren't serving time for crimes they didn't commit.

Josh Campbell, CNN, Los Angeles.

ACOSTA: And a programming note, one of the men exonerated this week, James Soto, will join us live later tonight here on CNN NEWSROOM. We'll ask him what it's like being free after being wrongly imprisoned for 42 years. That's right, 42 years. So stay tune for that. We'll be right back.

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