work our way through our decision making process with the national security council, we're managing all of that, looking at all that, and we're using every instrument of national power to address various issues. so i think, i mean, there are ways to manage this so it doesn't spiral out of control. and that's been our focus throughout. >> let's go to alg jazeera. >> speedy recovery, mr. secretary. i have two things. back in december in your speech at the reagan library, you told israeli leaders they have to protect civilian lives in gaza. since that speech, 12,000 more palestinians have been killed. we're now at 27,000 killed. why are you still supporting this war when this government that is the most extreme in the history of israel led by someone

who refuses to recognize any political right for the palestinians, and with elements that are calling for ethnic cleansing and displacement of those palestinians. do palestinians have the right to dignity as you said in angola when i was with you on the trip. you said the future belongs to those who protect dignity, not trample it. >> yeah. i said that in a speech at the reagan forum. i have said that to my counterpart every time that i talk to him. and i talk to him every week. and i emphasize the importance of protecting civilian lives. i also emphasize the importance of providing humanitarian assistance to the palestinians. it's critical. it's really important. there's no question that this is a tough -- this has been a tough conflict. but we're, as i said earlier, we are starting to see the israelis

kind of shift their stance and change their approach to a more focused and controlled -- controlled is probably not the right word, but a more focused effort, focused on a discreet set of objectives. so i think we talk to them about that weeks ago. and they said they were going to do that, and they are doing that. but i will continue to emphasis and i know secretary blinken and president biden will continue to emphasize the importance of addressing the issue of the palestinian people. it's critical. and you know, we're doing more. but we're not doing enough. >> time for a few more. let's go to cnn. >> secretary, allow me to join my colleagues in wishing you a speedy recovery. the 30-day review is due in a matter of days now. do you commit to making that

review public? and second question, has your chief of staff offered her resignation or have there been discussions about her resignation in the wake of the failure to notify? >> i commit to being as transparent as possible and sharing as much as possible. and you'll understand because this is command and control of policies of our government here, there will be elements of this that are classified. but we're committed to sharing as much as possible as soon as possible. >> your chief of staff, has she offered her resignation? >> she has not. >> let's go to pbs. >> mr. secretary, i have seen what you're going through up close among loved ones. again, we wish you a full recovery, and i know it's possible. so thank you. you have described this as a gut punch. your instinct to privacy. if i could ask you bluntly, you had nearly a month between the

time you learned of your cancer and the time this came out to inform the president. how could you possibly think that it was okay not to tell him? if i could be blunt. and just a small question on iran and the middle east. what do you believe iran knew operationally about the attack in jordan? and how important is that when it comes to the u.s. response? >> so when the diagnosis was made, the doctor highlighted that you have a finite window of time to actually get this done, if you go beyond that window, then you have a problem. christmas holiday is coming up. for me, to be as little impact on what we're doing in the department, christmas was a time for me to take a look at getting that done. it was a tough decision for me. and i did not decide until very

close to when the procedure was done to actually do the procedure. in terms of informing the president, again, i admit that that was a mistake to not talk to him about that early on. when you're the president of the united states, you have a lot of things on your plate. so putting my personal issue on -- adding to all the things he has on his plate, i just didn't feel that was a thing that i should do at the time, but again, i recognize that that was a mistake. and i should have done that differently. >> iran knew about the attack in jordan or operationally it was involved? >> you know, we believe this was done by an element of what is known as the axis of resistance, and these are iranian proxy groups. and how much iran knew or didn't know, we don't know, but it really doesn't matter because

iran sponsors these groups. it funds these groups. and in some cases it trains these groups on advanced conventional weapons. so you know, again, i think without that facilitation, these kinds of things don't happen. >> let's go to ft, and then politico to close it out. >> thanks, mr. secretary. have you seen any signs that china has been successful in pressuring iran to rein in the houthis in the red sea? >> we have not. again, what's happening in terms of close communications between leaders, you know, we don't know. but we have not seen any visible evidence that they are encouraging or pressuring iran to cause the houthis to back off what they have been doing. >> final question. >> good to see you, mr. secretary. i also hope you make a speedy

recovery. i have two questions. first of all, do you regret not personally telling the deputy the think she had a right to know? and then i have a question on the middle east as well. >> as you heard me say in my opening statement, i apologized my colleagues. and also the american people, that i wasn't as transparent as i probably should have been up front. >> my second question, is there any discussion of withdrawing troops from syria or iraq, especially given what has happened in the last couple weeks. >> what's happened in the last couple weeks is not driving us to consider withdrawing troops from syria. there are ongoing discussions with the iraqi leadership about our future footprint in iraq. and i think that's been fairly well publicized. the high military commission, we have taken the first steps in

conducting those meetings. so that will play out over time. >> does that include discussions about withdrawing troops from iraq? >> it will include discussions about our footprint going forward, for sure. >> thank you very much, mr. secretary. that's all the time we have for today. thank you very much. >> we're still doing the forensics but most of the drones in the region have a connection with iran. >> mr. secretary, why a multi-tier response? why not one and done? >> i don't think the adversaries are of a one and done mindset, so they have a lot of capability. i have a lot more. and so as i said earlier, we're going to do what's necessary to protect our troops and our

int interests. >> thank you. >> multi-tiered, how can you say it's not an escalation? >> you're watching defense secretary lloyd austin limping gingerly off the podium. he was addressing for the first time his prostate cancer diagnosis and surgery and hospitalization, and most importantly, the fact that the president and the american people were not informed about it. he said, and you can see right there, he is recovering well. but still recovering. he is suffering from leg pain. he admitted flatly, quote, we did not handle this right. i did not handle it right. he says he should have told the president about his cancer diagnosis and he takes responsibility and he apologizes. now, he added that he never directed anyone to keep information from the white house. he said his prostate cancer diagnosis shook him. he called it a gut punch. his first instinct was to keep it private. but now he understands that taking that job, defense

secretary, means losing a certain amount of privacy. he told us he apologized directly to president biden. and president biden responded with grace and warmth. defense secretary lloyd austin said just now, he never considered resigning. let's bring in national security reporter natasha bertrand. senior white house reporter kevin liptak, military analyst cedric leighton, and steve anderson. natasha, i want to start with you. what did you hear and not hear from secretary austin in this first major discussion of what happened last month? >> reporter: well, john, forgive me if i need to look at extensive press briefing, arguably the longest we have ever gotten from secretary austin since he became the secretary. he went through a lot here. he spoke about how he desired privacy after his cancer diagnosis. he was visibly limping to the podium. he's now using a golf cart to get around. he's apparently recovering from

a leg injury that resulted from his complications from this prostate surgery. and he essentially issued a mea culpa, said i'm sorry, the american people have a right to know when their leaders are facing health challenges. he did say that he did not offer to resign, nor did his chief of staff who was kind of embroiled in this as well because she did not inform the president until days later that he was in the hospital. and he also said that he is going to commit to being as transparent as possible moving forward, even though elements of this 30-day review that the pentagon is carrying out will probably be classified so the public may not get to see all of the details about what went wrong here, but he says that he is going to commit to doing better in the future. now, i do want to get a little bit to his response to the jordan attack that killed three u.s. service members. he did start out at the top there, conveying his condolences to the families of the service members who were killed and he also explicitly said these attacks were carried out by, quote, radical militias backed

by iran. he said we believe it was done by the quote, axis of resistance which is this umbrella group of iran backed proxy groups inside iraq, but he said the u.s. doesn't know at this point how much iran knew or didn't actually know about this attack. but he went into a little bit also about the response that the u.s. is planning to that attack. he said that response is likely to be multi-tiered, something that we have heard from other officials in recent days. and that the u.s. can continue to respond a number of times to these provocations, and a notable quote, he said they have a lot of capabilities, but i have a lot more. so obviously, signaling that the u.s. response to these attacks is going to be very forceful and very strong and warning these groups that they have, you know, a significant response here coming. >> as he was describing the condition he was under, he said he was suffering at one point during his second hospitalization, chills and shallow breathing. did we know the full extent of his condition before this

morning? >> reporter: well, we knew it was serious enough for him to be put in the icu when he went to walter reed in an ambulance on january 1st. and although he was never under anesthesia during his second hospital stay at walter reed, we were told his condition was serious enough that they were concerned that he would need to stay there a bit longer for his recovery. he says now that he is expected to make a full recovery soon, he is in physical therapy, receiving treatment. he says his leg really is the biggest issue that he is facing. mentally and professionally, he says he is fully capable at this point of carrying out duties. >> we did see him limp off the stage. he told us he took a golf cart to this press conference. kevin liptak at the white house, defense secretary lloyd president biden and apologized directly. any more information about that phone call and how the white house feels now about how secretary austin is handling

this? >> reporter:el i tnkhe white house would agree with secretary austin that things were not handled well in terms of who was notified when. and it was interesting in the press conference for as much contrition as austin was offering, there were still a number of unanswered questions about how exactly this breakdown in communication occurred. and even austin himself said he's not exactly sure what happened in the days between when he was hospitalized at walter reed and when the white house eventually found out about his condition. he also said he wasn't exactly sure why one of his aides in calling 911 asked for the ambulance not to use lights and sirens when it was going to his house to pick him up. those answers will presumably be included in this review that the pentagon is conducting about what exactly transpired. but throughout all this, president biden even though he has been somewhat frustrated at how this all played out, there has been no signs that he's

losing confidence in secretary austin. the white house has said repeatedly there are no plans whatsoever to fire him or ask for his resignation. so certainly, this apology from austin directly to the president isn't necessarily a surprise. and i think president biden certainly handles it with a certain degree of grace. certainly, as this was all unfolding a couple weeks ago, there was a level of frustration among white house officials about how this all transpired and it did lead to this effort led by the white house chief of staff to organize all of the agencies and come up with plans for when their agency heads are incap incapacitated. they were required to submit these protocols to the white house, and white house eventually said you need to notify us when an agency head, for example, goes under general anesthesia. certainly a lot of contrition you hear from austin, but a lot of questions i think also remaining. >> absolutely. one of the big questions, a

carefully worded part of his statement where he said that no one was ever directed not to tell the white house about his condition. this will clearly be part of the internal review that he kept on leaning on over the course of the news conference. colonel lleyton, where want to go to you. explain why it is so important in the chain of command to get this right. >> yeah, john, this is a critical issue because as one of the reporters asked, if somebody who issane military unit has to tell their bosses going in for hospitalization or for any medical procedure that will make them absent from a duty station. so that's something you learn when you're a very junior person in the military, all the way up to presumably a four-star general. however, in this particular case, it's pretty clear that some of the procedures that would normally be followed at a lower level were not followed. and one of the things that i

wondered about is if they wanted to kind of project a feeling of strength, that nothing was going on, when in fact they should have made it very clear that there was in fact an issue with the secretary and but that things were under control because the deputy had control of things. so these are definitely questions that will come up in this review or the multiple reviews and i'm sure congress will also ask a bunch of questions about this. >> he said he understands that taking the job of defense secretary means losing some of the privacy he might expect. but he was a general for a long time before that. how much privacy do you reasonably expect as a general when it concerns things like this? your ability to physically carry out your job? >> well, john, it's actually perhaps ironic that 25 years ago, i worked with lloyd austin on the national military command

center. one of the responsibilities we had was to keep track of all the senior leaders in the military. no one knows more than lloyd austin how important it is to keep track. and this was a major breakdown in judgment on his part and probably that of his staff. however, having said that, he is a great american. he is a great soldier, great leader. i have seen him in action. we as americans are lucky to have a secretary offense defense like lloyd austin who cares about troops, cares about the country, and makes good decisions. we need to keep him as the secretary of defense. i think a lot of this has been somewhat overblown by the media. i believe that what he screwed up, he admits he screwed up, it's going to be studied and investigated. we'll figure out what went wrong, but nee teedz to continue to do the great job he's been doing of leading our great defense department and performing in the manner he has. we need him now more than ever.

>> anything you learn from his comments about the situation and impending u.s. response to the attack that left three americans dead? he continued to call it a multi-level response that will be coming. >> i think this is a signal, john, that we're going to execute a campaign. not just a single isolated event, a campaign. a multi-day, mull-week campaign. i would think perhaps i know cedric could remember this as well. operation desert fox against iraq in 1998. about a six-day schedule of attacks. hundreds of rockets were fired. hundreds of military aircraft were involved. this is the kind of thing we need to do to take out these and particularly in yemen. the houthis are out of control. they have shut down shipping, commercial shipping through the persian gulf. we need to take action and execute a campaign against all of thesenianacd proxies.

>> all right, thanks to all of you. again, secretary lloyd austin apologizing from the pentagon, saying that we messed up. he messed up. kate. a bipartisan breakthrough. yes, it is the first major bipartisan legislation to pass either chamber of congress so far this year. what's in this massive tax bill and why is the senate balking? we'll be back.

this morning, a $68 bilpack. it enhanced the child tax credit for millions of lower income families and also boosts three tax breaks for businesses. the combination there giving lawmakers on both sides of the aisle some much needed wins. and policy wins, but now, some republicans in the senate are balking. republican chuck grassley expressing concern saying this. i think passing a tax bill that makes the president look good mailing out checks before the election means he could be re-elected. and then we won't extend the 2017 tax cuts. joining us right now, democratic congressman from new york, dan

goldman. thanks for coming on. the level of bipartisanship, it's almost shocking. 357-70 is how it passed in the house. you just heard chuck grassley's take when he was speaking to reporters, you heard his hesitation, less on policy, more on not wanting to give joe biden a win. is that going to hold this up? >> i agree with you that it was a somewhat shocking example of bipartisanship and what has been a horrifically partisan congress, especially here in the house of representatives where the republicans have expressley made it clear they're not interested in any bipartisanship, and the child tax credit is essential for many families. it certainly doesn't go far enough, but it's better than what we have. for me in my district in new york city, the addition of low income housing tax credit is essential to building more affordable homes.

but again, here we are. both on immigration and now on this tax bill. where president biden and bipartisan group of congress are trying to actually solve problems for the american people. and chuck grassley, donald trump, mike johnson, they are trying to kill solutions just for political gain and political weapons. and it is an incredibly cynical way to look at things, especially after so little has gotten done this congress. this would help businesses. this would help children. this would help families. and yet, chuck grassley doesn't want to pass it because he's concerned about the election and he's concerned that the wealthiest and the biggest corporations won't continue with their plush tax breaks that they got from donald trump. it is -- it should be put to the american people that that is what the republican party stands

for, and the democratic party is standing for getting work done for the american people. >> is cynicism also just part of reality right now on capitol hill? because this is similar reasoning that we're hearing about the border deal that's been in the works and why some republicans are balking on that, even before seeing the text. politics drives policy decisions often on capitol hill. i don't think we need to be pollyanna about it, but maybe not as openly as this. do you accept that this is the reality of trying to pass anything big in an election year? >> no, i don't accept that. i don't think the american people accept that. and certainly the democratic party doesn't accept that. when you look at this immigration bill in the senate, and we haven't seen it, but by all accounts, it is dramatically favors the republican wish list. yet president biden recognizing

that there is a need for addressing solutions at the border, recognizing that we are in divided government, and recognizing that we have to do something rather than just keep talking about it, is willing to go further than any democrat has gone before. and there are parts of this that i do not like. but in order to unlock aid to ukraine, to israel, and in order to actually address the problems that we have at the border, democrats are willing to move far to the middle to compromise. it is donald trump and the republicans who are playing political games, who have said all along, all the big problems at the border, and now when there's a chance to solve them on their terms, he says no, i don't want to do it because he wants it to be an election year issue. it doesn't have to be that way. donald trump turns everything partisan and everything political, but we do not want that to be the case. and that's why we're trying to solve problems. >> i want to ask, you mentioned

aid to israel, which is part of the package. we were just reporting the news coming in about president biden planning to issue an executive order this afternoon targeting violent israeli settlers in the west bank whom he has said have undermined stability in the area. you have been so outspoken on these issues. what's your reaction to this? what do you think this executive order could do? >> i fully support it. the settler violence in the west bank is absolutely unacceptable, and it must stop right now. it must stop for a number of reasons. one is lawalize, and israel needs to make sure those who are engaging in that kind of violence are pbrought to justic. they are doing that. but two, politically, and strategically, it is devastating to the future of israel, where they are defending themselves in gaza against hamas, but there is

no threat to the settlers from palestinian civilians that warrants such vigilante justice. so israel has to be able to defend itself. hamas is a terrorist organization that can no longer be in control of gaza, but israel must take the proper precautions to adhere to the rule of law and make sure that this conflict is contained in gaza. >> it will be interesting to learn more details about what these sanctions, what thissecutive order is going to move to do when we learn more this afternoon. congressman, thank you so much for coming in. >> john. >> the shocking journal entries from the michigan school shooter just revealed in court. how they could impact the manslaughter case against his mother. to duckduckgo on all your devie

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we are seen really high emotions. right now we're looking at the judge in the case there in michigan as this case goes forward, where jennifer crumbley, the mother of ethan crumbley, who shot and killed four people in a michigan school, is on trial and charged with involuntary manslaughter. with us is jean casarez and cnn legal analyst joey jackson. jean, i want to get to you first because there have been so many things coming out in court that

the public didn't know. so many things that are quite damning. >> argument right now in court to producers are telling me, ethan killed a baby bird in his room, and he videotaped it. and there was audio, and this was already determined it wasn't going to come in because there was no knowledge the parents knew, but they're arguing in court about whether the aspect that he killed the baby bird in the bedroom will come into trial. but earlier this morning, lieutenant timothy willis, he was the lead investigator for this case, and because this is a homicide case, that jennifer crumbley is responsible for the deaths, caused the deaths of the students because of her gross negligence, some of the autopsy results had to come in. listen to lieutenant timothy willis. >> the official cause of manner of death from the autopsy report, multiple gunshot wounds.

homicide. she was shot in her upper torso her abdomen, her thighs. >> could you refer to exhibit two? >> and as you see, jennifer was starting to sob right there, too. that was hana st. juliana. also, the contents of the backpack that were at school. a journal, 22 pages. the writers were all about the mass shooting he was going to commit, but there were also other entries on papers he wrote that he was begging, asking his parents for mental health treatment. they wouldn't do it. they would not at all help him to get to a therapist. the defense wants in as part of those writings, i have to find where my dad hid the 9-millimeter. i don't know where my dad hid it. so far, that has not come before

the jury. >> that will be a really interesting juxtaposition to what we have been seeing. joey jackson, there's a lot of evidence coming doyne this case. all of it is written down. they're in a text message or in a journal. how does this impact the jury? they have the cold, hard evidence of what he was going through mentally. if what he's saying is all true, he tried to get help from his parents, is that going to hurt the defensepusc case? >> it will, but then you have to go back to the legal issue. what are we doing here? we're trying to establish prosecutors are, a degree of carelessness on the part of jennifer and later on james crumbley, the dad who will go on trial next month. the degree of carelessness, what does the evidence say, number one, foreseeability. in the event you put a gun in the hands of this child, would it be reasonably foreseeable something like this can happen? does the evidence as it's coming in point to that reasonable foreseeability. i would suggest that turns on the issue of notice.

to what extent did the parents have knowledge about his maladies, the killing of the bird that you heard jean talk about just now and the admission of that, whether admitting or not, did they know about that? if they didn't know about it, what would they do about it. did they know the extent of what was happening. you have this issue with the backpack, and school didn't search the backpack at the time. wow. and so at the end of the day, when you look at the issue of foreseeability, what does the evidence point to in that, did the parents notice, have any knowledge. did jennifer know about this? and did she act reasonably and all of that will point to the critical issue of whether she's guilty of involuntary manslaughter. >> i did want to quickly ask you, jean, about whether or not we'll hear from jennifer, very quickly, your thoughts. you have covered so many of these cases. it's very unusual to have a defendant in a case like this to take the stand. do you think that this could possibly be the defense's first

witness? >> well, as we know in opening statements, the defense attorney told the jury you're going to hear from her. they're sort of stuck because if you don't put her on now, you have an issue. as joey could tell you, sometimes they want to start as the strongest witness with jennifer crumbley, to tell her story. it's going to be a lengthy examination and then probably a vicious cross-examination. would they want to end with her? possibly. more likely near the beginning. what do you think? >> listen, the reality is it's always a game time decision. i think they'll evaluate what everyday has come out with the prosecution, whether they have met the burden of proof, and it's risky putting a defendant on to begin with. they committed to that, which is very unusual. the issue is strategically, do you allow any other witnesses to go first to set up, to build up, to set up, to build up, and boom she testifies, gearing the narrative as to i may not be the best parent. we're not here on a referendum

on me and my horses and my affair. we're here on whether i had knowledge of whether my son can do this and whether i knew and i did not. going to be riveting and compelling. you start strong, you end strong. what they decide to do will be a game time decision. >> joey jackson, thank you so much for your insight, and jean, you follow every single detail so well and explain it so well. >> john. a cnn exclusive. fullen county d.a. fani willis has no plans to recuse herself in the case against donald trump.

a cnn exclusive. sources tell cnn fulton county d.a. fani willis will not recuse herself from the election

submersion case against donald trump despite scrutiny and subpoenas regarding her alleged affair with the lead prosecutor that she appointed. sources say willis is worried if she steps down, that could end or severely delay the case. cnn legal analyst, jennifer rogers, is here. is he right, if she stepped down, would it end or delay the case? >> i think so. she was recused off a case last year, and no one has picked it up. so if there's no other prosecutor to do it, then it will kill it altogether at a minimum, it would delay it significantly. >> so there will be a hearing in two weeks then that she will have to participate in at some level from judge mcafee who is overseeing the case. what questions do you expect he will want answered? >> she has a written response due tomorrow, so that will kind of lay the groundwork for what he wants to know. it will depend on what she says tomorrow. he's looking for conflicts that impacted the case. so he's going to want to know about, you know, if they were

involved in an inappropriate relationship, what that meant as far as their work together on the case. is it possible that they extended the investigation, that they added charges just so they could continue working together? that's the sort of thing it would have to be in my view in order to impact the case. that's the only way she's going to get kicked off. >> you explain it so well and have for several weeks now. say what you want about an affair, but the fact of an affair in and of itself isn't necessarily enough to sink a prosecution. >> it could be a violation of human resources type rules. i mean, she may not be allowed to without at least disclosing it, have a relationship with a subordinate, but she would only be taken off the case if it impacted the case in some way. >> norm eisen, who is often on with all of us here, he says that he thinks fani willis should step aside. is there a way to do it and guarantee the prosecution

continues? >> no. because the rules are that if she steps aside, her whole office is recused. if they take that office off this case, there is a commission that would look to appoint another prosecutor's office. again, i don't know other prosecutors in georgia would be willing to take it on. it would take a lot of time. i think if she steps aside, this is effectively over. >> if she is allowed to stay on the case, what then could donald trump's lawyers or other lawyers, how could they use her situation, alleged situation, in the trial going forward? >> there's no real way to use it legitimately, but it does create a distraction. remember, the jurors who will sit on this case are just everyday citizens right now. they're out there, looking at the news, that sort of thing. if this blows up into a big scandal, if both she and wade stay on the case and trump and his codefendants continue to pound it in the news, then you know, you're starting to think

about whether your ultimate jurors are going to know about that, are they going to look askance at her for having had this affair. he, i guess, was married at the time. that's the sort of thing you look at, a poisoning of the jury pool. legitimately, you can't raise it as an argument in the four walls of the courtroom. >> jennifer rogers, as always, thank you so much. kate. coming up for us, nikki haley is heading home as a new poll shows her just how long the road ahead may be against donald trump. and here is dr. sanjay gupta with today's chasing -- >> hey, there. i'm dr. sanjay gupta, host of chasing life podcast. journalling is a great way to track your habits, both the positive ones and the ones you want to work on. years ago, i spent a week just keeping a detailed journal of everything i did and everything i of my own life and i learned a

lot about myself, like when i do my best writing. it's in the morning, and foods that inspire me, pickles. i'm not sure why pickles. probably my microbiome, but the point is i learned this through journaling. it helped me structure my days for success. for anyone looking to improve their focus and productivity, and even get some insights about themselves, start by simply keeping track. there's no one right way to do it. some people write for a few minutes every day. others weekly. others just when the inspiration strikes, but research has shown journaling regularly has proven benefits including anxiety reduction, reinforcement of your own positive personal qualities. it just makes you feel good. so pick up a pen and you can learn more about how to optimize your health and chase life wherever you get your podcasts.

>> anno

nikki haley is heading home today, and there's a fresh, new

look in a fresh, new poll out this morning showing her that she still has a long road ahead if she's going to top donald trump and secure the nomination. kylie atwood is following this for us. donald trump is up 26 points as we look at this latest poll. what are you hearing from the haley campaign about this new mark that we now see three weeks out, and if that means the strategy is changing? >> reporter: yeah. well, listen. the haley campaign isn't saying anything exclusively about this poll which is not altogether surprising because if it is an accurate portrayal of where south carolinian voters are right now, there is a substantial ground she would need to make up in her home state of south carolina which to remind folks, she has committed she will do better here than she did in new hampshire where she trailed trump by 11 percentage points. the differential in that poll that's a snapshot in time, but

she's 26 points behind former president trump right now. the poll that nikki haley has pointed to this week is that matchup with her and president biden which shows her winning in the general election. that is the type of polling that the campaign likes to point to. now when it comes to the campaign and their messaging here in south carolina, it's really twofold this week. they're putting out some new digital ads that cast trump and biden as grumpy old men, as stumbling seniors and basement buddies as they say in these efforts and they're trying to remind south carolinian voters who nikki haley did for them while she was governor of the state. listen to part of the digital ad they put out today. >> because it's a great day in south carolina. >> when we get to south carolina, donald trump's going to have a harder time falsely attacking me. >> reporter: now falsely

attacking her is something that trump has done throughout this entirety of this primary lawmakers who have endorsed him in the state to bash nikki haley on a number of events when it comes to immigration and when it comes to china. we'll have to see if that has lo at that new ""washington ou post"" poll, nikki haley's favorability numbers have gone down since the marker they were at in september. so clearly these criticisms of her have made some impact. she's going to try to get in front of south carolinian voters to change that. kate? >> all right, kylie atwood. great to see you. thank you. hilton head looks nice right now. >> i was thinking the same. i was listening to every word, but i was also thinking that. >> thank you so much. this is cnn "news central." "inside politics" is up next.

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