Christmas In Bethlehem, Biden's 2024 Campaign, Congress Year Ender
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The streets of bathroom hama are usually bustling with people around Christmas, but with the war in gaza raging on these shares, traditional celebrations .

have been cancelled.

What does the holiday look like in the holy land? I must must hold that filling in as host on up first for mp r news. With twenty twenty four rider around the corner, the presidential election campaign is expected to kick into high gear.

What can we expect from the candidates? And it's been an eventful year on capital hill, even if little legislation was actually passed. I'll take a look at some of the ongoing drama in a deeply divided congress. So stay tuned for all the news you need to start your day.

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Christmas morning in bethlehem is suber not the usual joyful town, with parades and bans and major square church leaders cancelled celebrations there because of the israel hamas war.

Some palestinian Christians say they are not celebrating when, according to health officials in gaza, more than twenty thousand people have been killed since israel began its offensive after the october seventh, hamas's attack on southern israel that killed some twelve hundred people. Joining us now from bath for him in the israeli occupied west bank is in paris. Jason donogh, good morning. Jason.

good morning.

So what is the scene like in bethel him this morning?

Well, Christmas cheer is definitely not in the air there about two hundred thousand palestinian Christians who live in and around bethlehem, the galaxy region, gaza, and usually crowds of them would be packed into major square for celebrations on Christmas day. Loud speakers would keep behring Carols. But now the mood is subdued, and major square is essentially deserted this morning.

And what have you've been hearing from the people that you ve spoken with?

Those i've spoken with bring up the war immediately know about ham is just forty five miles from gaza. People here have friends and family there, and they say they just can't celebrate knowing conditions for people there. I met kud ara in major square. He's at twenty two year old electrical engineering .

student in this war and did pretty bad days. Even if we if we make some parties, we are not able from our heart this. But if this is still in our hair, like IT will be heavy.

As he says, it's the parties that are cancelled. But people are still observing Christmas as a religious holiday. The cathode midnight mass at the church of the nativity was full.

IT was at another worship service earlier last evening where the pastor said he wasn't expecting many people, maybe twenty five thirty, but instead the church was packed with about two hundred people. So many they were printing extra boulle letz as the opening him began. In fact, mine was still warm from the printer.

Wa, so sounds like people are finding some solace in worship ceremonies at this point. I understand, Jason, that the only Christmas decoration in major square is an activity this year. Is that right?

That's right. But it's not your typical cozy major cy. It's this destroyed nativity statues of mary and Joseph and jesus.

And circled by razor wire, there's a rubble everywhere, big pieces of broken concrete. The shepherd is turned away and despair. The artist who created this nativity is deric elsa. He says he wanted to show the holy family as palestinian refugees are pressed, rejected, displaced.

He says, pain is .

there .

as long .

the occupation is there. If the occupation withdraws, then the pain is over.

And just an outside of beat him. Can you fill us in on the leaders developments in user s war against hamas?

Well, the united nations says more than eighty percent of gaza's population is now displaced over the weekend. Health officials in gaza say at least seventy people were killed on sunday alone in israeli military says its sustained some of its heavy est losses since the war began. Also, the humAnitary arian crisis continues to worse and food is scarce.

The us, as starvation is happening in gaza, and clean water is a huge problem. The average person uses about seventeen leaders of water a date right now. The world food program says each person in gaza is getting less than two.

That is in P. S. Jason to rose in bethlehem. Jason, thank you so much for .

your reporting.

The last thing you will probably wants to talk about right now is politics. But for those of us who cover this all the time, it's clear a presidential election year is upon us and twenty twenty four is promising to be like no campaign we have experienced so far. My friend and colleague and prior senior White house correspondent timer Keith is following the biden campaign, joins us now with a preview of the year ahead. Good morning, my friend.

Hey, asthma.

So the campaign is still in its early stages, but what can you tell us about how biden plans to run based on the kinds of things that he's been doing?

Well, we've all seen polls showing biden may have serious trouble with Younger voters and voters of color. They are turned off from politics and in some cases, disillusion. So the biden campaign is already spending money on advertising directed to black and latino voters in key swing states.

And part of that is trying to figure out which messages will work and how to get them to people. Not a lot of them are likely to vote for trump or a republican, but they could stay home or vote for a third party candidate. And the biden campaign needs to get engaged. So they do vote and vote for biden.

So how does what we are seeing now compared to to barack obama's reelection campaign in twenty wealth?

Well, they had a ton of people out in the field organizers in these key states. The biden campaign just doesn't have that yet, and that makes some democrats nervous. But the biden team says they have to do things differently because the way people get information has changed so dramatically since then, and they have begun announcing some new highs in swing states.

Michigan was concern nevada. We'll be talking about them a lot in the year income, and we can expect to see more of that. Interestingly, they also have staff now in south CarOlina. That's a state that is definitely going to go republican in the general election, but IT holds the first officially sanctions democratic primary of the year in early february, and the biden team wants to win.

Yeah tim u and I here, the president talk everyday trying to convince voters to give him credit for the policies that he has enacted during his time in office. How you expect that to shift IT all once the campaign kicks into full gear.

we're going to see him draw a lot of contrast with trump and republicans on everything from healthcare to abortion to Green jobs. And reporters like I have ve been hearing some of this in campaign fundraising, ready where he is refining his stump speech, talking about the stakes in two thousand twenty four. These are off camera, but here's a taste from a recent boston fundraiser. The audio is a little hard to here, because I was filmed on a phone by someone in the audience.

poses a lot of right to choose where are all standing in world. The great study, both stored very different.

are very democracy, he says in these reMarks, he talks about trumps authoritarian language and his promise of retribution. The biden team expects this election will be incredibly those, especially in those swing states.

So tim, let's go back to where a conversation started. In terms of what makes this such an unusual election cycle. First.

there are essentially two incumbent president. And unless something dramatic changes, former president trump, who still claims falsely that the last election was stolen from him, to be blunt, both are older than any president elected to a second term. They are also really unpopular and a large share voters say they are not looking forward to a rematch.

Then you have trumps indictments, and house republicans have now voted to formally open an impeachment inquiry into present brighten. His son is facing taxation ation in gun charges. All of this just introduces a massive amount of uncertainty.

a lot to keep an iron in. Por senior White house correspondent tama key ths so much.

you're welcome.

Lawmakers have fled washington and congress has officially wrapped up its business for the year. IT was a year full of drama, fraught with fights over the speakership and government funding. A lot happened even if little legislation was actually passed.

And for our congressional reporter, erik mcDaniel is here to help us make sense of the year that was and set expectations for the year ahead. Eric is great to have you with us here. How should we break down what happened in twenty twenty three?

I think we can do IT with three fs. We've got fired. We've got fraud and we've got funding. Where do you, anna, start?

Let's start with fired. And I assume that you're talking about the former speaker of the house here, Kevin mccarty.

That is right. The california republican. He became the first ever speaker of the house to be asked by his colleagues. Eight republicans, if you remember, with a mixture of personal and policy disagreements with my carthy, chose to remove in from the top job. Then, after the weeks of turmoil that took to replace him, he decided to quit congress altogether, leaving his successor, mick Johnson, within even smaller majority to pass bills, and someone else was notably fired. But lets go head and save him for the fraudful section.

I'm going to take a wild guest here and assume that you're referring due George santos from new york.

That is right. We're talking about the first term new york republican in the house. Colleagues ousted him after three tries from congress last month that came after he was exposed by the york times from lying extensively about his background and then later invited by federal prosecutors for various financial crimes, mostly connected with his campaign. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is the first congress person ever ousted other than confederate sympathizers without having been fully convicted of a crime. Also in the flood section here over in the senate, democratic senator bob mandis of new jersey, facing criminal charges, he and his wife were charged over allegedly accepting luxury goods and large sums of money and gold bars in exchange for committing corrupt x prosecutors say, in including providing sensitive information to the government of egypt, they have both pleaded not guilty, and the senator has so far refused to resign.

So if I believe this leaves us with your final f of the year that is funding, how do you want to a explain that to us?

So they haven't been able to pass the twelve animal federal spending bills. Instead, they pass two short term extensions, the most recent of which will expire in two stages next year, that genuine in nineteen and february second, or government down deadlines. Now that is, of course, unless mike Johnson can unite his house republicans in a way he hasn't been able to so far.

eric actually was just taking of one more f uh, foreign aid. That's another major issue that this seems unresolved as we rap up the year.

right this another f so it's been a year since congress approved any military aid to ukraine. They're currently negotiating in the senate even though they're on break on a big combined eight package that includes israel in the indo pacific as well. And also, kind of strAngely, immigration policy reform.

Right now, a record number of migrants are crashing the border, often in excessive ten thousand people each day seeking asylum. That negotiation has been all extremely slow going, though, and that negotiators, i'm told, are still working by the light of their holiday decor over zoom. We should know more by early january.

Yeah, we jest, but it's all very serious issues. And pears, eric mcDaniel.

thank you so much, so much.

And that's up first for monday, december twenty fifty to merry Christmas I am a ma holic today's ephod of up first was edited by Michael solvin were able to ramped in Kelsey snell and mohammed alba dc IT was produced by Julie debroah and moni corona. We get engineering support from fill at first, and our technical director is zc comment. Start your day here with us again tomorrow.

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