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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip

Horror in California, Five Dead As Fires Destroy Neighborhoods; Trump Blames Biden, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) For Deadly Fires; Biden Canceling Italy Trip To See Pope Due To California Wildfires; Congressman Johnson Set To Introduce Panama Canal Bill; Wildfires Raging Out Of Control In California. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired January 08, 2025 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST (voice over): Tonight, blame for the flames. As fires leave an apocalyptic nightmare, Donald Trump points the MAGA hose at liberals.

Plus --

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: I would consider it a privilege to be taken over by the United States.

PHILLIP: The president-elect's land grab fantasies become a litmus test for Republicans.

Also, the lines already get blurry as we learn Trump and Justice Samuel Alito spoke before a Supreme Court request.

And admissions, regrets and delusions from President Biden's exit interview.

Live at the table, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, Scott Jennings, Congressman Dusty Johnson, and Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett.

Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here, they do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening, I'm Abby Phillip in Washington.

Let's get right to what America is talking about, the horror in California. Tonight, at least five people have died in those raging wildfires. Scores of families have lost their homes and everything that they own in this unprecedented disaster. We're going to discuss the blame game happening, including President-elect Trump pointing the finger at Democrats in the government, including Gavin Newsom and Joe Biden.

But first, a picture of the suffering.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: So, this house is gone. This house has now -- is now underway. The left side of this house is ignited and also now the house nearby it. But, literally, I mean, these embers are like snowflakes. They're falling all around us. The sun -- I mean, this is so crazy. You can't even see the sun, it is completely blacked out.

JAMES WOOD, ACTOR: Sarah was on with her eight-year-old niece last night. She came out -- I'm sorry. Just, you know, one day you're swimming in the pool, and the next day it's all gone, but she came out with her little Yeti piggy bank for us to rebuild our house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Right now, there are thousands of people under evacuation orders. Those wind gusts are still incredibly powerful, and more than a thousand buildings have been destroyed in this fire.

CNN's Bill Weir is joining us now from Pacific Palisades. Bill, I know you were just on with Kaitlan. This Hollywood Hills story, though, is unfolding and it's moving fast. What do we know about the situation there?

BILL WEIR, CNN CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: This is a brand new fire, Abby, that this one has just kicked up in the Runyon Canyon area. That's right above the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame, Grumman's Chinese Theater, on the handprints there. If you've ever been to that strip, just in the hills, just above, the flames have now entered those neighborhoods.

And that is the iconic winding streets with the million dollar views from downtown to the Pacific. And that would provide a whole new set of challenges for firefighters given these winds, given the tinder fuel that's been drying out since October with very little rain since then, and you'd hope it doesn't reach down into, you know, Franklin Boulevard, which is a major east west thoroughfare into the heart of Hollywood right now, but this is just one of five different fires blazing around.

And here in the Palisades, we've been watching this art gallery just go up in flames for the last couple hours as fire trucks drive by because it's a triage situation. We just saw a crew from Sta. Rosa, Northern California, all hands on deck. It's a matter of water pressure in some places, triage for where the life is most at risk, those folks first, but this is just like something out of a war. You cannot imagine this idyllic community, a thousand buildings. It's so reminiscent for me of Lahaina, the fire there, and then Paradise, the deadliest in California and most expensive. This one will likely surpass that just in terms of numbers.

But right now, it's about human lives and stress and children and the elderly just trying to make sense of this and knowing what's coming tomorrow.

PHILLIP: This is a once in a lifetime kind of devastation unfolding right now in California.

[22:05:02]

Bill Weir, stay close and stay safe. Thank you very much.

As the wildfires rage on, the president-elect is choosing to play the blame game. Trump is attacking President Biden, Governor Gavin Newsom for these fires. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: I've been trying to get Gavin Newsom to allow water to come. You'd have tremendous water. They send it out to the Pacific because they're trying to protect a tiny little fish, which is in other areas, by the way, called the smelt. And for the sake of a smelt, they have no water. They had no water in the fire hydrants today in Los Angeles. It was a terrible thing.

This is a true tragedy, and it's a mistake of the governor, and you could say the administration. They don't have any water. They didn't have water in the fire hydrants.

The governor has not done a good job. With that being said, I got along well with him when he was governor, we worked together very well, and we would work together. I guess it looks like we're going to be the one having to rebuild it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Anderson Cooper has been in Southern California and reporting on these fires. He did speak with Gavin Newsom just a short time ago. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: I hate to even ask this question, but the president-elect chose to attack you, blaming you for this.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): One can't even respond to it. I mean, it's -- you know, people are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools, families completely torn asunder, churches burned down. This guy wanted to politicize it. I have a lot of thoughts, and I know what I want to say. I won't. I stood next to the president of the United States of America today, and I was proud to be with Joe Biden. And he had the backs of every single person in this community, didn't play politics, didn't try to divide any of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: We're back here with the panel in the studio. Congresswoman Crockett, it's not surprising to anybody that Donald Trump would go to politics immediately, but this is a really devastating but ongoing crisis, and a lot of what he was saying there is not accurate.

REP. JASMINE CROCKETT (D-TX): Yes, I think that we're going to see a lot of that over the next four years. I don't know that Donald Trump has a relationship with the truth. The sad part is that even when we have lives that are on the line, we do not have what is about to be a commander-in-chief that actually will be in command of the issue, especially when, as the governor has stated, we have lives that have been lost. We have homes that have been lost.

I know that I have been sending text messages to people in L.A. trying to check on them and letting them know that regardless of the dysfunction that they continuously see coming out of D.C., I will have their back in addition to the only bright light that I saw was the fact that this happens on Joe Biden's watch. And so that emergency declaration came immediately because we know that Donald Trump likes to play games. He's talked about the blue states versus the red states instead of just deciding that he will be a president for the United States, as he's been elected.

PHILLIP: And, Congressman, he has talked about this issue of the water, which is not what's happening here. There is water. It's just that there's so much demand. There are five fires burning in California right now. Why is he going straight to politics and not simply offering support? I mean, he's not president yet, so he can't offer resources. But why does he have to start attacking people politically?

REP. DUSTY JOHNSON (R-SD): Well, first off, I would tell you the tragedy we see unfolding is terrible. And obviously we all want to start there. Water storage is a problem. And you said it yourself, there's not enough water to fight five fires. You can't build water storage in California because you can't build anything in California. There's one water storage project in Sacramento Valley. They've been trying to build for 40 years. The reality is the left will not let it advance. There should have been more water storage and that would have helped save lives and property.

PHILLIP: I mean, what we are hearing from California officials is that this is a water pressure issue, that the water has to come down and that in some areas the water pressure was lost as they tried to reestablish that pressure. It's not an absence of water. There is water.

JOHNSON: No, it's the same issue. If you got water storage up on a hill or water storage with pumps, then you can maintain that water pressure. The reality is when they needed water to come out of those hydrants, it was not available and it takes seven years to get the same kind of project done in our country that you can get done in Canada or Australia in two years. We have made it impossible to build things, and that is a government problem.

PHILLIP: But is that the problem in this case with this massive, you know -- I mean, the fire of the scale is not just about can they put out this house or that house. This is a fire that is being accelerated by incredible winds.

JOHNSON: And government policy plays into that too. We, across this country, have made it impossible to manage forests. A managed forest is a healthy forest. Instead, across the country, we have turned them into tinderboxes. We see it. [22:10:00]

And, frankly, if we don't let the loggers get in, and in a targeted and appropriate way, get that underbrush out there, we will see more terrible visions like we have seen on your screen.

REP. STACEY PLASKETT (D-VI): Well, you know, I agree that, and this is an area where Dusty and I do have agreement that there is a lot of federal oversight and bureaucracy that sometimes makes resources very difficult for individuals and communities to have, particularly after disasters occur. I've seen it my own district in the Virgin Islands.

But I think that what we're seeing here is also climate change, right, because there has been no water, there's been no rainfall in Southern California since May. They've had 0.1 percent of rain -- inches of rainfall in California since May. That has led to the dryness that you're seeing. And then with the high winds that are occurring at this time of year, that's bringing the fires across.

So, how do we, as government officials, how does California deal with this? It is one is some of these infrastructure projects that President Biden put forward in his bipartisan infrastructure plan, which is now allowing communities to be able to build the infrastructure that's going to mitigate these kinds of fires in the future.

PHILLIP: Trump was talking about a water restoration declaration and Gavin Newsom's office responded. He says, there's no such document as the water restoration declaration. That's pure fiction. He goes on to say that he's focused on providing resources to Californians. Trump -- I'm not really sure what Trump is talking about with that, but there are a lot of other issues, climate change, even the forestry issues are very real here.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I agree.

PHILLIP: Then why not focus on that?

JENNINGS: There are a lot of issues here and it has a lot to do with local governance. I mean, you know, today, I've heard Democrats try to deflect and say, oh, you're not allowed to politicize this right now, which means you're not allowed to criticize the decisions that we've made out here in California. I keep hearing climate change all day. Nobody seems to want to take responsibility for the local governance that has led to some of the failures and the devastation that we're seeing.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, had one of the most disastrous public appearances I've ever seen in the face of an emergency today, where she was incapable of answering questions about her decision- making. She had a terrible press conference. There's no local leadership. She was in Africa when this was going on and then had to scramble back. They did cut money from the fire department in Los Angeles.

PHILLIP: They cut about $17 million. JENNINGS: And people have questions about why that is. It's not but I just want to know criticizing things to raise public policy questions when this devastation is occurring.

PLASKETT: Can I tell you that I agree with you, that I think Democrats have got to do a better job of pushing back, not just by saying, oh, let's look at what's really happening right now, but going directly after some of the inconsistencies that you're saying. You're talking about how local government has problems. State government is where you want to push all of these resources into, and then being the ones that are going to be solving these problems.

But then you want us to say that federal government is supposed to have the one -- be the ones who are in charge of this? State government had to make decisions in California, whether it's reducing budgetary constraints in one area for others, and a mayor being overseas when a disaster happens, that can happen anywhere.

JOHHNSON: I would agree that --

CROCKETT: The storm came through Texas, and Ted Cruz decided that he was going to flee. So, like what we're not going to do is talk about like what electives are doing --

JOHNSON: Let me just finish my thought real quick.

PHILLIP: Let me just let the congressman --

JOHNSON: Yes, you're right. I mean, spending -- you have to make hard decisions in spending. And so when Karen Bass reduced by $17 million, the budget of the fire department, they instead put millions of dollars into their cannabis regulation program, and $10 million under their city attorney's office.

(CROSSTALKS)

PHILLIP: Hang on a second. This is why I wanted to just provide a little bit of context on the budget, okay? $17 million was cut from the budget, which, by the way, she was under a lot of pressure from conservatives to cut the budget. The fire department has an $800 million budget, so it's a huge budget. Also increased in that budget was the LAPD, the police department, increased by a $126 million. So, there's some budgetary give and take there. But I think you would agree it's a relatively -- it's a 2 percent cut to the fire department budget, and it's not even clear that that had anything to do with readiness. So, just to --

JOHNSON: Okay. But I think we can all acknowledge that with a $43 billion budget, there's enough money to pay the firefighters and the cops.

PHILLIP: I know. But I'm not --

JOHNSON: This is not a false dichotomy.

PHILLIP: All I was saying was that I don't know that it has anything to do with the readiness of the fire.

JOHNSON: Okay. But here's what I know. When she was cutting the fire department $17 million, she was putting million more, millions more into cannabis regulation. At some point, these decisions about who our leaders are have impacts on real people's lives.

[22:15:04]

JENNINGS: And they signal priorities. Because also in California, you might have recall a new story from last year, there was some interest in the fire departments and the firefighters in California. And the interest was there were too many white men who were firefighters and we need to have a program in California to make sure we don't have enough white men as firefighters.

So, we have DEI, we have budget cuts, and yet I'm wondering now, if your house was burning down, how much do you care what color the firefighters are?

PHILLIP: Congresswoman, you can respond and then we'll --

CROCKETT: Listen, I am so tired -- you know what, there was an article that just came out that said that actually the most educated demographic in this country right now is black women. So, let me be clear. Because you are woman or because I know that some of the right has been sharing these photos of the fact that I believe that the fire chief may be a woman or something, that has nothing to do with it. We are looking at qualifications.

What diversity, equity and inclusion has always been about is saying, you know what? Open this up. Don't just look at the white men. Open it up and recognize that other people can be qualified. And the fact that we want to, at a time when people are dying, decide that a country of immigrants is failing or people are dying because the same very people that built this country, because the last time I checked, you all didn't say that anything was wrong with the White House, and I can promise you, it was my ancestors that built the White House.

So, listen, if we have been good enough to build this country, we are good enough to serve and die overseas, we are good enough to serve in other ways. And the fact that people actually decide that they want to engage in public service, whether it's sitting in Congress or whether it's serving on the fire department or the police department, should not be an issue.

The fact is stop trying to act as if only white men are the ones that are capable, because right now, you're sitting at a table with three very capable black women.

JENNINGS: I'm not. I'm just simply saying that as a matter of public policy in California, the main interest in the fire department lately has been in DEI programming and budget cuts, and now we have this massive fire and people are upset.

PHILLIP: Hold on. Are we really -- but, Scott, are we really blaming the fire department, in the L.A. fire department? JENNINGS: No, I'm blaming the Democrats who run the state.

PHILLIP: No. But the fire department right now, they are dealing with a historic fire, okay?

JENNINGS: And they have terrible leadership.

PHILLIP: That is caused by climate, the fact that extremely dry in the state of California and they are fighting it in tropical force winds in that state? So, how is it anything to do with DEI? How is it anything to do with the fire department at all? They are doing their very best as far as I know.

(CROSSTALKS)

PLASKETT: Is it the water that's the problem? Is the fire department is the problem? Is it a $17 million budget cut to an $800 million budget? I don't think that those are the issues that have caused this horrendous fire, the wildfires that are in California at this time.

And to bring DEI into this so early, I mean, well, how long have we been talking and you already came in with the DEI? Oh my God. You didn't even give us ten minutes.

JENNINGS: If I were trying to defend California Democrats, I wouldn't want to hear me talk about it either. But the fact is this has been mismanaged from a public policy perspective from top to bottom.

PHILLIP: I don't think this is about California Democrats, but I do think To the Congresswoman's point, it's very telling that whenever you're talking about a woman, the fire chief being a woman or the mayor being a woman, it's always DEI. Why does D. E. I. not ever come into play when you're talking about a white man?

JOHNSON: Oh, no. Let's be clear though. It's not -- it's wonderful that the fire chief is a woman. I don't think -- if she is capable --

JENNINGS: I didn't bring that up.

JOHNSON: Yes. If she is capable, I don't care what gender she is. I don't care who she loves. I don't care what pigment her skin is. If she's willing to go save somebody's life in somebody's house, good on her. The reason Scott brought up diversity is that just like your budget tells people what your priorities are, what you talk about in your bio, what you talk about on your website, what you emphasize in recruitment helps people understand what are your priorities in the organization,

PHILLIP: They are putting their lives on the line.

JOHNSON: And they're incredible.

PHILLIP: As we speak, okay.

(CROSSTALKS)

JOHNSON: The political leaders aren't, the firefighters are.

PHILLIP: I'm talking about the firefighters, okay, the ones who are recruited, the black ones, the brown ones, the women, they are all there on the line right now.

Everyone stick around. We are following some breaking news. Another fire has broken out in the Hollywood Hills. Evacuations are underway there. Stay with us. We'll have much more after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:20:00]

PHILLIP: We have more on the breaking news tonight. Wildfires are out of control across Los Angeles and we're hearing that another fire has broken out in the Hollywood Hills. Evacuations are underway there. And we are also learning tonight, President Biden is canceling a planned trip to Italy to see the pope in order to deal with these fires.

You know, the significance of that for the president personally as a Catholic president, but it signifies just, this is a really historic moment that the country is going through in L.A.

PLASKETT: The president every day after Christmas spends at least a week in my district on my island on St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. And cut it short knowing that he had to do work and the family was so looking forward to going to Italy for him to make this visit while he was president to see the pope. And we must know that this is so on his mind for him to break off on such an important trip to himself and to the family.

PHILLIP: Just on a kind of business note here, Congressman, President Trump has raised the issue of FEMA not having enough money, et cetera.

[22:25:06]

This is your territory. Is the Congress going to fully fund what California needs in order to handle these fires to recover from them if it's needed?

JOHNSON: Absolutely, we should. This, of course, is a town that constantly disappoints people, but shame on all of us if we don't acknowledge that these disasters hit every state, and this is a really big one. People need to expect that their state, local, and federal government are going to be there, and we need to be.

PLASKETT: I think that members always end up coming together when it comes to these disasters and doing the right thing by the people that are there. What really becomes the more glue that puts it all together is the actual execution of the resources. And that's something that I think members of Congress need to do a much better job about, is making sure that the money gets on the ground to the people who need it the most and the manner and the speed at which they need it.

JOHNSON: And just in December, we did together, Republicans and Democrats, refill much of that disaster fund. This is going to take a lot of money out of that.

PHILLIP: So, we are in -- it's January 8th. President Trump is going to be inaugurated in just a few days. The incoming president, I hate to say it, but he has a history of threatening to not fund fire relief, specifically to California.

JENNINGS: What did they do to Puerto Rico? I mean, we spent historic amounts of money on Puerto Rico.

PHILLIP: Let me just play what President Trump said. This was just in October about actually fires in California.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to take care of our farmers. We're going to take care of your water situation and we'll force it down his throat and we'll say, Gavin, if you don't do it, we're not giving you any of that fire money that we send you all the time for all the forest fires that you have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROCKETT: Yes. The only thing that I would say is that I would feel more comfortable if we decided to send additional resources to FEMA now before he is sworn into office. So, my challenge, my charge to the newly elected speaker of the House is let's get a bill on the floor. Let's come together, just like we came together when it dealt with Georgia and North Carolina and Florida, and let's make sure that California has the resources without delay and make sure that there is no planned politics. Because if you trust what he says, he has already made it clear that he likes to pick and choose who it is that he wants to support.

And while the Congress may come together, I don't know what he's going to do with the veto pen. So, I think that we should get it done while we still have President Joe Biden.

JENNINGS: Look, the Congress and the president, whether they do it now or two weeks from now is going to obviously fund this and take care of this, and they need to, it's important. However, I do think this, policy changes should come along with this relief money here, with whatever it takes to rebuild and to fix. We have to look at the root causes, whatever forest management problems there are, whatever water problems there are, whatever issues happen in the local governance, rebuilding here is a good thing and everybody should support it. But we ought to, as taxpayers, expect necessary policy changes at the federal state and local level so that it doesn't happen again.

PHILLIP: Does that include climate change and (INAUDIBLE)?

JOHNSON: Clearly, we need to be good stewards of the environment. And America I think has a better track record on this front than most people give us credit for. The reality is in the last few years, we've reduced our carbon footprint by more than the next 15 carbon-reducing countries combined. I would say this, clearly, President Trump speaks from the stump in a very different way than I do. It said that you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose. We actually know how this guy is going to govern. He was president for four years. He didn't cut off funding. He didn't look at people whose homes were burned down and say, forget about it, you had a Biden sign in your yard, so we're just going to pass on by your home. Those things did happen in the last administration, probably in a narrow way. But I got to tell you, Donald Trump will be there to help out people in California. He was there four years ago, he'll be there now.

PHILLIP: I'm just going to read one quote. We have several of them from his time in office, but just one as it relates to this. This is Kevin Carroll, a former Homeland Security official, told The New York Times and Politico and The Guardian, Trump absolutely didn't want to give aid to California or Puerto Rico purely for partisan politics.

I hear what you're saying about the hurricanes, what happened in North Carolina and Florida. I do, though, think that there is a track record here of Trump too, where his own aides, there are several others I didn't read, but his own aides say they had to convince him that there were votes there for him.

PLASKETT: Well, I think what's going to be important is that we have --

PHILLIP: Which is why they did --

JENNINGS: No. But what did they do? I mean, people make this allegation about Puerto Rico just like with funding.

[22:30:02]

PLASKETT: What I think what is going to be important is when the Senate is confirming those cabinet members speaking with them about what they're -- their policy ideas are and what they're going to do. Because when you're reading things like that, we recognize that it was the individuals who were there as experts, cabinet members, officials who were able to convince the president to do certain things or convince him not to do other things.

And we want to make sure that those great minds are still there for him to be able to provide that guidance and support. So that when Congress does give bills, good people like Dessy and others who are working on these things, to be able to put it in front of him, to get him to sign it and to do the right thing.

REP. JASMIN CROCKETT (D) OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: I think that that's really the big issue, is that he was surrounded by what I would consider to be actual experts, people that had actual resumes talking of diversity, equity, inclusion, and people just getting jobs and they're not qualified.

I mean, when you look at the people that he has decided to nominate for these posts, we're talking about people that have never served a day in a lot of these various agencies that he's now like, oh, you should go ahead and head this agency.

He has specifically decided that loyalist is who he wants around him. People that will not give him that honest, kind of reflective moment and say, you know what, this isn't what we do. And that is my biggest, like, concern about this.

And listen, I wasn't here serving as a member of Congress, so I can't say what he did and didn't do from an up close and personal perspective when he was in office before. But what I can say is what he threatens to do along with the judgment, that we've seen thus far, going into the second administration. His judgment is way worse.

I mean, looking at just the cabinet picks, obviously we still have other decisions that he's going to have to make. But I can tell you one thing for sure, is that California will not have to worry if we get this done before Trump is in office. And if we wait, then I don't know what's going to happen.

JOHNSON: OK, I got to say two things. First off, when it comes to rhetoric, I get it. In private moments, Donald Trump complains about Gavin Newsom. I'm guilty of that, too. I don't think the guy's a good governor. I think he's lousy.

But you can't show me one single emergency disaster declaration that he rejected because he thought a governor was a bozo. He delivered for Puerto Rico. He delivered for every place that was hit by disaster. And I got to say this about the capacity of the nominees.

The next Secretary of Homeland Security is going to be Kristi Noem -- that's my governor. And the idea that she's not qualified to get this done is totally without evidentiary basis. I have seen her in moments of terrible tragedy be there for people 24 hours a day, holding them as they cry, helping them gather their things after a tornado. She is going to be a total ass-kicker. And she -- this country, will deliver in disasters under Donald Trump because of Kristi Noem.

PHILLIP: All right. Go ahead.

PLASKETT: You're going to be in trouble with your wife because you said you weren't going to --

JOHNSON: I know, that's right. Sorry, baby.

JENNINGS: You know, I find this conversation is interesting because the current president is a Democrat. All of his appointees are Democrats. The leadership in California is all Democrats. We're doing a lot of doom casting about what Donald Trump may or may not do, but there doesn't seem to be much accountability for what the current people in charge didn't do that led to these issues, which I think the people of California should be asking these questions.

PHILLIP: I think part of the issue is that there's a desire to cast blame when a natural disaster happens, and we don't actually know what caused this fire. So, that's part of the problem.

CROCKETT: Well, climate change is definitely my answer for a lot of that, but --

PHILLIP: That's one of the answers, for sure. Everyone, stick around, though. Coming up next, we'll take you back to the ground with evacuations that are now underway in those Hollywood Hills. Plus, Donald Trump is on the Hill tonight. As Republicans confronted about the land grab dreams, we'll see what happened when he spoke to the press.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:38:18]

PHILLIP: More now on our breaking news. Wildfires raging out of control in California, including a new one in the Hollywood Hills. Right now, tens of thousands of people are under evacuation orders. Those wind gusts are still incredibly powerful, and more than a thousand buildings have been destroyed. CNN's Natasha Chen is joining us from Altadena, California. Natasha, tell us what you're seeing there.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is an incredibly heavy sense of smoke and you can smell that ash in the air. This is what we've been seeing all day. This is an example of just one of so many homes we've seen go up in flames, block after block of residential neighborhoods.

And we've also seen a lot of businesses along the main stretch here, the main part of town where you'd see restaurants and banks and dentists and dry cleaners. One after another, we've seen them go up in flames today.

And it's not all consecutive, either. Sometimes we see one on fire and turn around, come back a couple hours later, and then the one next to it catches fire. It depends on where the embers are flowing. And we're carefully watching with a wind direction, as well, because it can quickly change in a minute.

Now, as you mentioned, there is a new fire tonight. We're hearing pops there -- if you can hear that in the distance -- a new fire tonight in the Hollywood Hills. And you can imagine just how many people are living in that area who are now having to evacuate. It is densely populated.

And of course, any picture of Los Angeles includes that Hollywood sign. We do not know how close the flames are to the iconic sign at this point. But this is really hitting at the heart of the city now, in addition to the coast by the water where we were with the Pacific Palisades, and of course, where we are standing right now in the northeast part of the metro area in Alta Dena.

[22:40:07]

So, this is really now affecting everyone across the metro area. Not only is it terrible air quality and difficult to breathe, you know, a lot of people getting headaches and getting nauseous from this.

But also, the flames are just so close to so many parts of town -- to the homes in so many parts of town, that I'm getting text questions from my friends tonight of whether they should be leaving now. And that's not something they had to consider just a few hours ago watching this fire or the Palisades fire.

PHILLIP: Yes, and Natasha, you and a lot of our colleagues in Los Angeles are dealing with this on a very personal level, as the city now seems to be almost encircled by these devastating fires. Natasha Chen, please stay safe. Thank you very much for that report.

Coming up next for us, Donald Trump hits the Hill as he pushes to acquire nations. And Republicans answer whether they're on board with that. We'll tell you what they said.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:45:32]

PHILLIP: Tonight, with just 12 days to go until he is back in the Oval Office, President-elect Trump hit Capitol Hill to strategize with Senate Republicans. Was Greenland or Panama on the menu? It's not clear, but certainly becoming a litmus test of sorts for conservatives about whether their state support Trump's dream of acquiring both the Panama Canal and Greenland, even if it aimed to military force.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE WATTERS, "JESSE WATTERS PRIMETIME" HOST: I would consider it a privilege to be taken over by the United States of America.

UNKNOWN: It's offering them a better opportunity under an American flag. I think we should do it.

REP. BRANDON GILL (R-TEXAS): I think that the people of Panama, I think that the people of Greenland, I think that the people of Canada, for that matter, should be honored that President Trump wants to bring these territories under the American fold.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Congressman Johnson is set to introduce the Panama Canal bill tomorrow. Congressman, I know you know, we signed a treaty as a nation that gave Panama back their canal. OK, I get that we built it. No corals there. But nothing in that treaty says that we can just take it back because we feel like it.

JOHNSON: Well, I'm not talking about taking anything back. We're talking about willing buyer and willing seller. Panama has cut a deal with China. China controls the ports at either end of the canal on both the Atlantic and the Pacific side. I think that should concern all of us. We know that 40 percent of all of America container loads go through the Panama Canal.

We know that people on both sides of the aisle are concerned about a very real trade deficit we have. We know that what goes through that canal is overwhelmingly American energy and American agricultural products. And so, why wouldn't we give our Chief Executive the authority, the flexibility to go talk to the Panamanian government to see whether or not there's a deal to be had?

PHILLIP: He wants to go and take it by force. That's what he says.

JOHNSON: To be clear, my bill does not authorize an invasion. I want to make it clear.

PLASKETT: You use the term controlled by. It's managed by. And that's what the Panama government will tell you, that it's not -- the two ends are not controlled by China, but China is managing it. I'm a member of the Intelligence Committee. I have great concern about China and the amount of control that they have throughout the Caribbean Basin, throughout Africa, in the center, other places. I think that should be our focus, rather than taking back the canal.

But what is -- how do we, in our global competition with China and with Russia make sure that we're putting the resources in place, that places like Panama will look to us, to be the ones to manage these kinds of things and for us for the infrastructure rather than going to China. For a cheap, shoddy infrastructure that's going to fall apart, that they're going to owe them a lot of money and then be indebted to China.

CROCKETT: I describe them almost as loan sharks as we've been on CODELs across the world and we've sat down and we've talked to these governments and we've asked them questions about why is it, for instance, we have a supply shortage when it comes to nickel.

So, when we start talking about how expensive it is for these fully electric vehicles which is the conversation we are constantly having, because we know the mandates from the EPA, everybody's been upset about it. And so, when we're looking and trying to figure out why is the cost so high, well, we know that China is the one that is leading but they control the vast majority.

JOHNSON: We've let them have a monopoly.

CROCKETT: But I'm saying, but they're taking the resources everywhere. They're taking resources. We never talk about it, but out of Africa, we have seen them and they partnered up with good old Russia in Africa to do that, as well. And so, you know --

JOHNSON: That's right.

CROCKETT: I think that it is about having a bigger conversation. And while I don't discount anything that you say, because we definitely don't want to ever put ourselves in a situation where we're shortchanged and we can't get goods in and out of any space that we need to. But at the same time, I think that it is short sighted to say that we're going to focus in on this. I also think it's problematic to say that we're about to take stuff by force and it's not just Panama.

And then the final point is, if we don't start to really deal with the threats that we are facing globally because of China, we are going to have a problem. And I think that that's one of the things we fail to really fully communicate about when we started talking about TikTok and the issues with TikTok that we were experiencing. JENNINGS: So, I think there's like widespread agreement at the table

that China is a major problem.

PLASKETT: Say that again.

JENNINGS: And so, and I share it and the only quibble I have with Dusty's bill is that it doesn't also include the purchase of Greenland, but we can talk about that on the floor.

[22:50:06]

But my question to you all, well, you, is will you support it? I mean, he's talking about giving the Commander in Chief the flexibility to have a conversation here about a willing purchase, willing seller, willing buyer. You get a vote. Would you help, Dusty?

PHILLIP: Can I -- before you answer that, does the -- I mean, does the president even need this bill? I mean, he can have a conversation.

JENNINGS: If we're going to expend money.

JOHNSON: No, no, that's right.

PHILLIP: I mean, but --

CROCKETT: The money would still come from us.

PHILLIP: Yes, he's got to bring an agreement to Congress anyway.

CROCKETT: Yes, because we have the power of the price.

JOHNSON: The same way that it's OK to be pre-approved by your banker before you go look for a house, let's make sure that the Panamanians know that Donald Trump is serious and that we are going to have his back. I would say this, we should not be putting all our eggs in the Panama Canal basket. I just want to make it clear to all your viewers.

It's not like this is the only thing I'm focused on with China. It's my bill, the Ocean Shipping Reform Act -- we passed out last Congress which pushed back on frankly, the Chinese Communist Party screwing us at our own ports. My bill on LIDAR, my bill on American farmland that has tried to take a comprehensive look at the Chinese Communist Party.

PHILLIP: But it's going to cost more than a dollar, OK? And if you wanted to really do this and this is also the era of DOGE versus cutting funding.

CROCKETT: I was just about to ask is DOGE going to be a part of this?

JOHNSON: Well, every single ship that --

CROCKETT: Every single ship that goes through there is paying on average $50,000 or $60,000 in transit fees. This is a revenue source.

CROCKETT: Listen, Dusty, I understand how trade works. I'm just saying, DOGE is Trump's big thing, which I still don't understand how it's going to work. Hopefully, you can break it down to me one day.

PHILLIP: One of the other elements of this, the Gulf of Mexico. It is the Gulf of Mexico. Trump says he wants --

JENNINGS: Gulf of America.

PHILLIP: The Gulf of Mexico, as it's been known for hundreds of years at this point. By the way, Congresswoman Plaskett, the idea that we would then go ahead and let's acquire all these territories. Let's say we do this. As you understand, the lack of a vote --

PLASKETT: Well, we don't take care of the territories that we have now.

PHILLIP: Right. The lack of a vote, right. The lack of a vote is an issue.

PLASKETT: You know, there's a great book that's called "How to Hide An Empire" and it's about American imperialism through various mechanisms in which, you know, we have Pacific territories, as well. Guam, Northern Marianas, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. These are places that are territories.

We have had territories before but there's always been a path towards statehood, a path towards full inclusion. It has only been since Puerto Rico and these other areas have become -- I mean Puerto Rico has been waiting to become a state for over 120 years. The Virgin Islands, over a hundred years. Other places, less than 50 before they become a state.

That's really the issue. It's a process issue that many of us are concerned about that are part of the territories, is that there has not been an agreed upon process by which then we can become. And people are like, oh, then they'll all be Democrats. Listen, the Virgin Islands has had Republican governors in the last 20 years. And Puerto Rico just inaugurated a Republican governor.

PHILLIP: But --

PLASKET: So, you can't -- and in Congress right now, three are Republican and three are Democrats. It's not like you're going to end up with a monolithic people just because they're brown.

PHILLIP: And also, I mean, if you are going to, Scott, I'm looking at you because you keep insisting you want to buy Greenland.

JENNINGS: Yes.

PHILLIP: But are you going to give them a vote? Is Greenland going to become a state? Are you going to enfranchise the people that --

JENNINGS: Do we need a state for this, you know, a population of 56,000?

PHILLIP: No. I don't know, Congressman from a very small state -- JOHNSON: No, no, but let's be clear. I've got 30 -- I've got 30 percent more citizens in my district than the average member of the House does. South Dakota is a very populated congressional district.

PLASKETT: Well, how about --

JOHNSON: Greenland will not be that big.

PLASKETT: Let's go back to that though. When South Dakota became a state, what was the population of it at that time? When Wyoming became a state, what is it? Puerto Rico has over three million people and it's not a state. That's more than many, many states.

JENNINGS: Yes, which is why I'm not proposing statehood but I --

PHILLIP: Of course you're not.

JENNINGS: But the territory -- but the territory --

PHILLIP: It's very easy to want to acquire territory without enfranchising the people.

JENNINGS: But you guys are getting bogged down in like, the bureaucracy of this.

PHILLIP: Oh, the details.

JENNINGS: The bureaucracy of it --

PLASKETT: Bureaucracy is representation.

JENNINGS: And I'm getting bogged down in the rare earth minerals and the strategic imperative to stand up to the Russians.

PLASKETT: Yes, just strip it of its resources without giving the people who live there full inclusion into the place that they're going to live.

JENNINGS: I fully imagine that if we buy Greenland, the people of Greenland that live there, would be fully participatory in that. They might like it. They'll probably be compensated for it. I think it would be a much better deal than they got right now.

CROCKETT: No. Anyway, we're sitting in D.C. right now. I just want to point out, if we're about to start talking about population, if that is the measure of who should have a state, I do want to point out that D.C. has more people and does not have statehood than some of our actual states.

[22:55:04]

JENNINGS: Thank God.

CROCKETT: So, let me be clear. That is not the measure of whether or not you get statehood. But what is very frustrating for people such as Stacey, and she is a wonderful representative, but she is limited in what she can do when you literally say you don't have a voice. And I appreciate what you did on the House floor.

PLASKETT: Look, I always have a voice. I may not have a vote.

PHILLIP: You may not have a vote --

PLASKETT: But I always have a voice.

PHILLIP: She may not have a vote but she certainly has a voice. You all have a voice at this table. Thank you very much everyone for joining us tonight.

Coming up next, we've got much more breaking news about this rapidly unfolding situation of wildfires in Southern California, including now in the Hollywood Hills. CNN continues to be live across the region. Our reporting continues next.