check this one out in our national lead, something you don't ever want to see at an amusement park. that is a crack in the roller coaster's support beam. it's supporting the tallest roller coaster in the country. it's the fury 325 at kcarowinds outside charlotte, north carolina. it hits speeds up to 95 miles per hour. today crews from north carolina's labor department inspected the ride, and a man visiting the ride spotted the crack on friday. this ride has been shut down ever since. and i will never be going on it. but our coverage continues right now with wolf blitzer over in "the situation room" -- actually alex marquardt is in "the situation room" for wolf. happening now, the largest israeli military occupation in the west bank in more than 20 years. we're following what israel is

calling a -- an explosive attack in northeastern ukraine. a new russian drone strike causing death and destruction as ukraine claims it's regaining ground on the battlefield. florida governor ron desantis slamming donald trump for a past promise to protect gay rights. the video further driving a wedge into the republican party and the republican presidential field. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world, wolf bloot ser is off today. i'm alex marquardt. you're in "the situation room." let's get right to israel's intense incursion in jenin in the occupied west bank, its impact on middle east tensions and the government of prime minister benjamin netanyahu. cnn's hadas gold joins us from jury room. give us the latest on this israeli operation in jenin. >> reporter: this operation, as far as we understand, is still on going. we're well past 20 hours that

this operation has been ongoing. it started around 1:00 a.m. overnight with air strikes carried out by drones. the israeli military saying it was targeting what it says are militant locations in the jenin camp. they say these are things like tunnels even underneath mosques they say they found, and also hundreds of israeli forces have been in jenin engaging in firefights with who they say are militants. we've seen bulldozers taking to the streets to tear up streets. the israeli militants saying it's because there are ieds underneath the concrete. tanks have been seen on the outskirts of jenin. none have entered the city itself. this has been confirmed to us as the largest israeli military operation in the occupied west bank since 2002, since the days of the second intifada.

the israeli military saying it's carrying out targeted air strikes. the ministry of health says eight palestinians have been killed and at least 100 injuries. they're claiming they don't believe any non-combatants have been killed, but they are acknowledging that civilians are among those injured and vital services in the jenin camp, things like electricity and water have been affected. obviously when you look at what's been happening in the camp, you see the streets are completely torn up. you see several buildings heavily damaged. alex, i was in jenin yesterday to speak to residents there, that jenin has seen regular military raids over the past year, year and a half or so. this, the israeli military has been doing across the occupied west bank in response to what they say are a wave of attacks against israelis. the residents say they have not seen the likes of what they are seeing right now in decades. what we're seeing at this moment is more than 500 palestinian

families are evacuating the jenin camp in response to what they expect will be a continuation of this operation especially overnight. the israeli military saying as much as well, saying the operation could continue for another day or so. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu commenting on the situation. he was at an event at the u.s. embassy here in jerusalem a few hours ago. >> in recent months jenin has become a safe haven for terrorists. from that safe haven terrorists perpetrated savage attacks, murdering men, women and children, as many children as they could find. as i speak, our troops are battling the terrorists with unyielding resolve and fortitude while doing everything, everything to avoid civilian casualties. >> reporter: alex, the big

question right now is will this current operation that the israeli military operation is saying is focused on the jenin military camp, will it spill over into something much broader. we're hearing calls from militant group hamas, calling on all their members to strike israel wherever they can. alex. >> an extraordinarily combustible situation. hadas gold, thank you. back in washington the biden white house says it's closely monitoring the situation. let's get straight to our white house current jeremy diamond. >> reporter: here at the white house and also the state department are closely monitoring this situation that is unfolding, the operation unfolding inside the west bank. they are not saying much more beyond that. all we've heard from both the spokesperson from the national security council as well as the state department, the u.s. reiterating its support for the u.s.'s right to defend itself while calling on israel to

exercise strikes, particularly as it relates to civilians saying it's imperative to take all possible precautions to prevent the loss of civilian lives. what u.s. officials are also monitoring here is what hadas just mentioned, and that's the concern that this operation inside the west bank could escalate into some kind of a broader conflict between israeli and palestinian militants both in the west bank and gaza. u.s. officials over the last couple years have played an important role in trying to immediate some of the conflicts that have erupted between israeli and palestinian militants and really to a good deal of success, in terms of limiting the amount of time those conflicts have gone on and how big they can get. keep in mind some of the broader context here, the deadliest year for palestinians in years and also, of course, just the broader powder keg situation in terms of the politics on both sides. it's something that u.s. officials are keeping in mind.

it comes at a time when u.s. officials are trying to push for more normalization between israel and countries in the middle east, in particular saudi arabia who has expressed openness to that possibility, but has made very clear that the situation with palestinians needs to improve before any of that can happen. >> making that normalization practically impossible. joining me is someone who has mediated, former state department negotiator aaron david miller. thank you for joining us tonight. appreciate your opinion. it's been decades since we've seen anything like this in the occupied west bank. ten air strikes so far, hundreds of israeli soldiers. echoes of the second intifada.

h >> it's not our fight -- second, tan scene who was so instrumental in the second intifada is not interested in another mass uprising. right now hamas -- neither hamas nor palestine islamic jihad has the influence to create such an explosion. if this is left to its own devices and continues to escalate, more sustained operations, perhaps suicide attacks against israelis in the west bank, no telling where it can go. a perfect storm very soon. 56-year-old israeli occupation, palestinian authority is unwilling and unable to control places like jenin, and now the most extreme government in the history of israeli committed to

reforming the west bank -- facilitated by hamas and jihad which have i think surprised the israelis in terms of the lethality of their resistance. >> it really is a perfect storm. in terms of what the u.s. can do, what tools do they have? what pressure can they apply to both the palestinian and israeli sides to prevent the scenarios you just laid out? >> well, part of it, alex, is the absence of political will. involving themselves in the conflict right now with any hope of creating some measure of stability is probably beyond even the capacity of the most talented mediator. you can bring james baker and henry kissinger down to help meade at this. i'm not sure they could. the administration knows they have politics, republicans emerged as the go-to party when it comes to israel. number two, the administration is really not interested in involving itself in a major way

in an issue that's doomed to fail. far more interested, as you pointed out, as jeremy diamond pointed out, in the other peace process, the one between israel and the arab states. if the west bank is on fire, can they move forward? i think that's an unanswered question. in the coming weeks we'll findout. >> we certainly will find out. aaron david miller, appreciate your expertise on this matter. thank you. >> thanks alex. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is speaking exclusively with cnn as putin's forces unleash attacks. the ad from republican presidential candidate ron desantis some in his own party are calling dangerous and h homo

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without the ick. zevo on-body repellent. people love it. bugs hate it. republican presidential candidate ron desantis is now under fire for a new campaign video that critics are calling homophobic. the video posted to the florida governor's rapid response campaign account slammed republican front-runner donald trump for his 2016 campaign to

protect lgbtq rights. cnn's eva mckend is following this for us. what is the desantis campaign saying about this video that they themselves posted? >> as expected, they aren't backing down. a spokesperson for the governor taking issue with the concept of pride month altogether, justifying the video by arguing there isn't a similar celebration for straight people, this is pandering and describing identity politics as toxic. at this point this video widespread. many people have seen it. let's take a look. >> i will do everything in my power to protect our lgbtq citizens. >> if katelyn jenner would walk into trump tower and wanted to use the bathroom, you would be fine with her using any bathroom she chooses? >> that's right. >> in the future can transgender women compete in ms. universe?

>> yes. >> make america great again. psych! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> so the irony here, of course, is that during the former president's tenure he adopted many anti-trans policies. certainly trans folks in this country certainly wouldn't say trump has been a friend to them. nonetheless, the reason we're seeing desantis and his team take this approach is there's an anti-queer hostility among some conservative-based voters. a few weeks ago i was at the faith and freedom forum here in washington. that's a gathering of evangelical conservative voters. time and time again, i would ask them what their number one issue is. they would often say transgender americans are concerned about

transgender americans and how gender identity is taught in schools. that's why they're going all in on this. >> that imagery and production, just incredible. there are, of course, gay republicans, lgbtq conservatives. how are they responding? >> they're pushing back against this, arguing that the campaign is not doing enough to delineate between conservative queer folks and liberal queer folks. in a statement they say republicans and other common sense conservatives know ron desantis has alienated swing state and younger voters. desantis' rhetoric will lose hard-fought gains across the nation. that has been tried in the past and failed repeatedly. this is a case of maybe winning the battle but losing the war. we know an increasing number of americans embrace lgbtq folks. this might be popular with a certain segment of the l

electorate that governor desantis is trying to capture in a republican primary, but the position is not consistent with the view of most americans. >> the timing of it is interesting, posted at the end of pride month. i want to bring in cnn political correspondent ron brownstein. desantis's team not backing down from this video despite the blowback. why do they see this as a winning strategy? >> it's the core of their strategy, right? dance has chosen to run at donald trump almost entirely from the right. you could think of donald trump as a mac truck rolling down the far right lane of american politics. ron desantis is trying to squeeze past him on the shoulder on this and on other issues, in a way that, to use his word, could prove toxic if he gets to the general election.

even before that, it makes it hard for him to build a coalition to beat trump. i think what's really revealing about this video is what is donald trump's offense in quotes that he's citing here? it's not any particular policy. it's the idea that he has spoken favorably about lgbtq people and indicated he would treat caitlyn jenner with respect. in that way it's reminiscent of the bud light buy cot which is not about any specific endorsement about the company. it was just that they associated with someone who is transgender. you see this is all in line with his proliferation of laws in republican-controlled states, limiting transgender rights, prohibiting gender affirmation surgery or treatment even for minors, limiting what teachers can talk about in the classroom. one last point. in both parties for the past 20 years, to eva's point, we've seen a steady increase in the

share of adults who say same-sex relations are morally acceptable. it's gone from 40% of the country in 2000 to 71% in 2022, including a majority of republicans as recently as 2022. that's plummeted to 40% of republicans as more of this becomes common. >> we've yet to hear from donald trump. chris christie was critical in an interview that took place yesterday. let's take a listen. >> i'm not comfortable with the way both governor desantis and donald trump are moving our debate in this country. it is a teenager food fight between ron desantis and donald trump, and i don't think that's what leaders should be doing. >> eva, what do you make of the silence from the rest of the field? >> in many ways this is mission accomplished from governor desantis. we're having this conversation this evening and the elites are

admonishing him. i think the rest of the field is kind of treading carefully. they don't want to give governor desantis too much of what he wants which is to be the center of conversation. >> ron, you touched on this a moment ago. this comes on the heels of the supreme court decision ruling in favor of a website designer being allowed to deny services to a gay couple. what does this say about the republican party's evolution on lgbtq issues? >> similar to on a broad range of issues. the republican party, the glue that holds it together above all is that it is strongest among the people and places that are most uncomfortable with the way the country is changing, demographically, culturally, economically. lgbtq rights is a big part of that. what we're moving toward in portions of the conservative movement is a desire not only to change public policy, but to reattach the idea of a stigma to same-sex relations.

it's very hard to look at this video as really a policy prescription. it's more about making -- that trump is being morally objectionable by acknowledging and associating with lgbtq people, and that does reflect a portion of the republican coalition, one reason why many other candidates are biting their tongues. >> ron brownstein, eva mckend, thank you both. latest on the war in ukraine as we learn more about the mobilization of russian troops, plus a preview of cnn's exclusive interview with president volodymyr r zelenskyy. you're in "the situation room." so today let's stain, with behr, the #1 rated statain. and makeke your deck, yours. behr. exclusively y at the home dep.

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in ukraine officials are claiming new gains against russian forces even as kremlin soldiers are unleashing drone attacks. cnn's ben wedeman has our report. >> reporter: ukraine's counteroffensive now well into its fourth week. the front lines evermore intense. but the gains so far are small and incremental. ukrainian forces are pushing forward in the south, liberating just over 150 square kilometers. that's only 60 square miles. as ukraine advances, the country's deputy defense minister says russia is stepping up attacks in the east. the enemy is trying to force our troops out of their positions, but is receiving a worthy rebuff, she said in her latest update. on several fronts russian forces moving forward, now in the

luhansk region. back in moscow, rush's military leaders continued to project strength even the recent mutiny by wagner mercenaries. >> these plans failed primarily because the forces showed loyalty to their oath and military duty. the provocation did not have impact on the actions of the groupings of troops. the servicemen courageously continue to solve the tasks assigned to them. >> reporter: russia's assault on ukraine also continues further from the front lines, hammering civilian infrastructure. monday four russian drones were launched at the northeastern city of sumi hitting two residential apartment blocks and a local administrative building. that attack killed two people and injured at least 19. rescuers are determined to quickly clear up the aftermath, just as ukrainian forces tell cnn they're determined to keep

inching forward. just to put in perspective the challenge facing the ukrainian army, today we heard from the spokesman for ukrainian forces in eastern ukraine on national tv saying that along the eastern front, the russians have deployed 180,000 troops, that's more than twice the size of the entire british army. there are 50,000 russian troops alone in and around the town of bakhmut. alex. >> our thanks to ben wedeman for that report. now to a new and exclusive cnn interview with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. he spoke at length with our erin burnett about the russian mutiny, the state of the war and the prospects for peace. listen to zelenskyy link a potential end of the conflict to the fate of crimea and discussing his recent talks with the head of the cia.

>> translator: we cannot imagine ukraine without crimea. while crimea is under the russian occupation, it means only one thing, war is not over yet. >> to be clear, in victory, in peace, is there any scenario where crimea is not part of ukraine? >> translator: it will not be victory then. >> i know the u.s. cia chief bill burns has come and visited you regularly. he was here recently. what did you tell him about your plans to take back territory in the counteroffensive? >> translator: to be honest with you, i was surprised to see the information in some media both in the u.s., ukrainian and european media. my communication with the cia chief should always be behind the scenes because we discuss important things, what ukraine needs. we don't have secrets from cia

because we have good relations. our intelligence services talk with each other. i don't know what were other contacts. i don't really remember which media i read it in. the situation is pretty straightforward. we have good relations with the cia chief. i told him about all the important things related to the battlefield which we need. >> you can see the full interview with president zelenskyy on "erin burnett outfront" on wednesday night at 7:00 eastern here on cnn. let's get more on this former national security council official, retired lieutenant colonel vin man. you heard president zelenskyy saying his talks with bill burns should remain behind the scenes. what message does that send to the kremlin? >> thanks, alex for having me.

happy independence day. we're seven hours ahead. i met with officials and they're deeply frustrated that our government apparatus leaks like a sive. this is a constant theme. the ukrainians have been doing an excellent job of keeping their secrets close. but also -- >> it appears we've lost colonel vindman -- can you hear me? >> i've got you loud and clear. >> what message do you think this meeting between burns and zelenskyy is sending to the russians? >> first, let me pass deep frustration from the ukrainians for a u.s. government that seems to leak like a sive. that's coming from a lot of reporters. the message that comes through is really that this is a razor's edge. what's happening on the

battlefield is a razor's edge, that the ukrainians are burning through enormous amounts of ammunition and need additional support. this was never going to be an easy operation. this was going to be a months' long struggle to liberate territory, deplete russia's forces like they did last year, and then after that achieve some territorial gains. the way the russians are going to interpret it is that the u.s. is there to support them. >> the officials you've been speaking with over the past few days in kyiv, how do they think this counteroffensive is going so far? >> they're still cautiously optimistic. i think they're also frustrated -- that was the interview with the chief of the general staff about how there's misconceptions about this war, how quickly it should happen. the expectation is u.s. military defeating the iraqis in desert storm, like it's some sort of lightning strikes. that's not what this war is. this is heavy formations, very

fortified positions, and this is always going to play out over the course of months. there's some frustration that there's a misperception about how quickly this is going to go. at the same time there remains cautious optimism that the ukrainian armed forces will receive their operational objectives when all is said and done by fall and be in quite a good position to compel putin to a negotiating table or mobilize, which is extremely dangerous for him. >> we are just a few days out from a nato summit. ukraine obviously has designs on eventually joining the alliance. what are officials telling you about their immediate hopes for this summit in terms of commitment and the timeline for joining nato? >> the population overwhelmingly supports nato. there was a recent report where almost 90% of the population supports nato. i think the leadership is a little cautiously optimistic. i've come around 180 degrees

from being deeply reluctant about ukraine joining nato during the war. at this point i see no other choice. joining nato would put an end to putin's indefinite war, perpetual war, with this idea that the longer he waits, he can wait out the west. there's absolutely a path to ukraine joining nato, but immediately they need ammunition. they need attack 'ems, they need planes and continued support for a months' long campaign to wear down the russian army. >> colonel alexander vindman joining us from kyiv, thank you very much. >> thank you. just ahead, what we are learning about state to overture 2020 election and whether it could add to the president's legal jeopardy.

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we are following new revelations around former president donald trump's moves after his defeat in the 2020 election. a source telling cnn that trump called then arizona governor doug ducey to pressure him to find fraud in the state's voting results. cnn national correspondent kristen holmes is working the story for us. what more can you tell us? >> there's some stuff we knew and some stuff is new. we knew that former president trump had talked to governor dues see. we didn't know what they had talked about. i learned that behind closed doors ducey said this is a pressure campaign from the white house, the former president to find fraud to overturn the results in arizona. if you remember, trump was obsessed with arizona. he lost by a narrow margin, about 11,000 votes. the other thing we learned was that mike pence repeatedly called governor ducey. sources say pence wasn't

pressuring him , but asking if there was any evidence of fraud. this week pence was asked about those calls. take a look at what he said. >> i did check in with not only governor ducey but other governors in other states reviewing election results. there was no pressure involved, margaret. i was calling for an update. i passed on that information to the president. it was no more, no less than that. >> he was specifically asked did you have pressure from the former president and he said no. this is coming at a time when it's been widely reported that the former president was putting an enormous amount of pressure on then vice president mike pence, not just about fraud to overturn the election but certifying the election. the other thing i wanted to point out is we have reported extensively about the call recorded between trump and the secretary of state in georgia, brad raffensperger where he asks

for more votes. we know that call has been part of the special counsel's investigation, that jack smith has met with raffensperger. there's no recording of this call. we asked and learned ducey has not been contacted by the special counsel's office as of yet. clearly not the same level of interest in this conversation or perhaps no knowledge of this conversation until recently. as of now he has not been brought in in any way. >> that's so interesting because of the parallels with georgia. let's bring in cnn law enforcement analyst and former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe and cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor jennifer rogers. thank you both for joining us. andrew, i want to pick up where kristen left off. there's no evidence that ducey has spoken with the special counsel which i think is interesting. do you think jack smith will include this call between trump and the former governor in his investigation into 2020 election

meddling? >> well, alex, whether or not a particular call or an incident would be included in the investigation is one question. whether or not it makes it into potential charges is a very different question. i would suspect the special counsel' team would look into each of these issues when they become aware of them. i would assume they were aware since most of us saw the video tape receiving a call from allegedly the former president while he was essentially certifying the vote in arizona. they may be a little behind the curve here on covering this call, but i would expect at some point they'll make a contact with the governor or his people to get at least his version of these events and then evaluate them as you would any other thing to consider. >> jennifer, the special counsel's team of prosecutors, they recently interviewed the georgia secretary of state brad

raffensperger. he also faced pressure as we know well, from that tape from trump to overturn the results. let's listen. >> look, all i want to do is this. i just want to find 11,780 votes which is one more than we have because we won the state. >> jennifer, trump's conversation with the then arizona governor ducey was not recorded, as we mentioned. how does that complicate things for prosecutors? >> well, it doesn't complicate them. it never gets old to listen to a recording like that raffensperger call. it's just such a golden piece of evidence for prosecutors. prosecutors don't always have that kind of evidence. instead you call witnesses. if they decide this piece of evidence, once they speak to former governor ducey is worth including, they'll call him as a witness and he'll explain on the

witness stand what happened on that call. it's not that it's problematic. it's not as powerful as hearing trump in his own voice, still a legitimate piece of evidence, relevant and credible to a jury. >> andrew, former vice president mike pence did testify before the special counsel's grand jury back in march. wouldn't he have been asked about these very calls? >> that's a great question, alex. we don't know. obviously those proceedings are secret. the vice president knows, he could share that if he chose to. my guess is this particular call, these interactions with governor ducey probably did not come up. we'll have to see. i also think that jennifer is absolutely right. there's evidence you could pull together here to shed light on what happened in this call or between the former vice president's contacts with him. but at the end of the day, there's a lot -- if you attempted to charge something like this, there are a lot of

potentially very effective defenses. there is no recording. these are conversations that certainly former president trump or as we heard from former vice president pence could say, no, i didn't pressure him. i was simply looking for additional evidence as we were falling lawsuits around the country. there was nothing improper here. there's a lot of gray area here. >> it's a very interesting turn and lots of questions about the impli implications. andrew mccabe, jennifer rogers, thank you very much. the u.s. ambassador to russia lays eyes on the detained evan gersing wits. we'll go live to paris where the riots are continuing tonight. [music playing] subject 1: cancer is a long journey.

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ambassador's visit with evan gershkovich. kylie atwood is at the state department. what are we learning about the ambassador's visit? >> we heard from a state department spokesperson saying it's ambassador lynn tracy's judgment that evan gershkovich is in good health and remains strong despite the circumstances. when you look at the timeline of what has occurred during gershkovich's detention in russia, you'll see this is only the second time that the u.s. ambassador to russia, ambassador lynn tracy has been able to visit with gershkovich. the u.s. state department put in multiple requests for visits with evan. those have been turned down. it was significant that he was able to actually receive ambassador tracy today, have a conversation with her. he was detained back in late march. he has since been deemed

wrongfully detained by the state department. they came to that determination quite quickly. he's facing charges of espionage, and that is a really complicated charge that he is facing because what it means is that the russians are looking in return to get something for him that is related to their intelligence collection apparatus. if they're treating him as a spy, they want the united states to give them something that would help benefit their intelligence collection apparatus, their spy capabilities. paul whelan, who is another american still wrongfully detained in russia, he's also facing spy charges. behind the scenes u.s. officials have been working to try and figure out what they can offer to the russians to secure the release of both whelan and evan gershkovich. today the big news is the ambassador was able to see him. of course, he's in pretrial detention until at least august 30th. alex. >> is there any indication that the state department is getting

any closer to getting whelan and gershkovich home, that this complicated deal could come to fruition any time soon. >> i'm sorry. i couldn't hear you, alex, their effort to try to get it home. it would be a complicated deal. the bottom line for that is because the united states doesn't have any russian spies in their custody right now. so we have reported there have been conversations with countries around the world that actually do have russian spies in their custody, to see if those countries would be willing to play ball and essentially offer up that person for the united states to offer as a trade to the russians. those efforts take a long time. a lot of those russian spies are still going through processes in those countries' legal systems. so it's not really clear when or if that deal would come to fruition. alex. >> a multi-country deal would be complicated. kylie atwood, thank you.

now to >> 45 police officers. melissa, what is the latest? >> the violence, the damage done has gone down only just over 150 are way down from saturday or friday night. tonight the men and women say on the streets. but because of that decrease, we have seen some proof that might be petering out at least on the part of authorities. what we saw was a reaction to some of the more shocking events. weekend. a burning car was rammed into the mayor's house, just his wife and children were there. there was a march today in solidarity with him. this is what he had to say.

>> more than ever our republic is threatened and attacked. in truth, it is democracy itself that is under attack. >> perhaps the more important thing in calming things down certainly on sunday so far was what we heard from young nile's grandmother. he was the young 17-year-old that was killed tuesday. she buried her grandson the day before and she called for calm saying just stay home, this has to stop. still the 45,000 men and women, what we've heard in the last couple of hours, there are 11 people in custody so far so there are things happening around paris certainly. but it is unclear how bad it will get. just at the moment of political concentration as well launched to try to figure out what was at the heart of it so that authorities can try and prevent this from happening again. >> a very volatile moment. melissa bell in the french

capital, thank you very much for that report. and coming up, more of cnn's exclusive interview with vladimir zelenskyy. he's weighting in after ththe mutiny by y wagner mercenaries .

happening now, i'll ask former secretary mark esper. and the largest operation in the west bank in two decades is still ongoing tonight. a former u.n. ambassador to israel will share his insights. and scorching heat and travel days all threatening to interfere with america's 4th of july holiday