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New Blaze Erupts as Death Toll Rises in L.A. Fires; Trump to Be Sentenced for Hush Money Conviction; Soon, Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on TikTok Ban. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 10, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Apocalyptic images out of Los Angeles as new fires break out and the death toll rises. This morning, an estimated 10,000 structures damaged or destroyed.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also today, Donald Trump learns his sentence. A judge will hand down the sentence to the president-elect, marking the end of the road of the hush money case in New York.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Supreme Court and TikTok. No, Neil Gorsuch is not posting a Trendy Cat video, as far as we know. But very shortly, the country's highest court could weigh in on whether a congressional ban on TikTok can take effect in just nine days.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: All right, we begin with breaking news, a brand new fire erupting overnight, flames now rapidly spreading in northern Los Angeles County. The nightmare there far from over, as the deadly fire disaster now rages into its fourth day.

The new fire is located just outside Calabasas. Police nearby arrested a man on suspicion of arson, but they say right now they cannot confirm if he's connected in any way to that new blaze.

This morning, the wind threat about to pick back up as fire crews face new challenges overnight. An illegal drone collided with a crucial firefighting aircraft, that aircraft now grounded today. The number of dead has doubled so far to ten people, more than 10,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed, and those numbers are sadly expected to rise.

And new images of the unbelievable destruction. The L.A. County sheriff says it looks like a bomb was dropped.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have nothing. I can't even teach and I'm a first responder. I teach people to save lives and I couldn't even save my house. And I'm just shattered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Caring for each other, like everyone needs help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Everyone needs help.

Stephanie Elam is live in Altadena, one of the area's hardest hit by this. And unusual because normally these fires are often in the hills and now you're seeing them down in the valleys. What are you witnessing there today?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, it's difficult to see what these people have gone through. I mean, this whole block, it's still dark out here, looks like this behind me right now, which you can see here. You can see that this house has been just decimated. The chimney only thing standing there, and if you look back in the corner, you can see that there's a gas fire still back there, another one of the dangers why they don't want people here, also because people have been out here looting. So, there are now -- National Guard has been deployed out here.

And I can tell you they're out here because we had to get through them to get here today. There are 8,000 personnel, including firefighters, battling not just this, the Eaton Fire, which is now some 13,000 acres that have charred and burned and destroyed livelihoods, homes, the feeling of safety, and the Palisades fire, which is burning about 20 -- burned through like 20, 000 acres. It has a little bit of containment now.

But the number of homes that have been destroyed, it is just astronomical. They're looking at more than $50 billion worth of losses here, and that number continues to go up. And then when you look at how people are trying to figure out how to put their lives together. You can see here, where do you start? Where do you begin?

We cover wildfires that are massive, that are large, that have all this acreage. The difference is it's not in densely populated areas. That's the part that makes this so different. In the Palisades Fire, walking around, there's entire blocks where the houses are all gone, and I can tell you, since I got here out to Altadena, you see some of the same thing here too, Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, it doesn't matter if you're rich, working class, poor, these fires have ripped through so many neighborhoods.

Stephanie, what can you tell me about anything about those ten people who ended up being killed in these fires?

[07:05:00]

ELAM: It's devastating. And that number is expected to go up, according to law enforcement. And you are hearing stories of how some people didn't want to leave people behind and then others who maybe they just couldn't get out and they thought that they would be safe. Take a listen to this one woman who lost her dad, 83-year-old Rodney Dickerson, in this fire here in Eaton, the Eaton fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMIKO NICKERSON, FATHER KILLED IN EATON FIRE: This is where we've been our whole life. And my son tried to get him to leave and my neighbors and myself. And he said he'll be fine. I'll be here when you guys come back. And he said his house would be here. His house is here and he was here too. He was in his bed when I found him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: Just the ultimate loss. There are a lot of people who are dealing with the fact that they've lost everything. They've lost their homes, but other people are also dealing with the fact that they've lost loved ones. It's just unbelievable, the amount of loss that we've seen here.

In January, we don't normally see fires like this in January. It is just unprecedented, the amount of loss at this time of the year. It just goes to show you that things are changing here, the climate is changing, we're very dry. After two very wet winters where we have all this brush that has grown up, then it dried out, and now we are off to the driest start to a wet year ever on record.

This is what's leading to the situation that we're seeing here, and that's why people are saying we need to change how we respond.

SIDNER: I can hear some of the sort of alerts going off right now on your phones there. And that hasn't ended because the fires are still raging.

Thank you so much, Stephanie Elam. It was heartbreaking to hear. It was like made us all gasp that that daughter found her father dead in his bed from the fires. I know we'll be hearing more devastating stories like this. The loss of life expected to rise. I appreciate your time and your crew for being out there during this time, Stephanie. Kate?

BOLDUAN: The fires, they are still raging and officials fear that the danger and say that the danger is far from over. But there has been some progress made in containing some of the fires. The biggest factor in any forward progress, still the wind threat, which could complicate this fight once again.

CNN's Allison Chinchar is tracking this one for us. She joins us now. And, Allison, what are you seeing in terms of the wind, in terms of what they're up against and what the next few hours look like?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So they're going to have a very short window for the firefighters to really be able to make some huge advancements in those containment numbers, because while things will start to get better, they go right back to being worse on the back half of the weekend.

So, let's take a look for today. You have an elevated risk around the L.A. area, slightly higher critical fire threat a little bit farther south by Saturday, just a very small elevated risk area. But then Sunday we start to see those winds pick back up and especially on Tuesday, looking at those winds to really creep back up.

So, here's a look at all the fires. The white that you see here, those are the winds in the direction in which they're coming from. So, for the bulk of the day, it's going to be really a north-based wind, but it will start to shift. It will go to the east, it will go to the west. And that's what's going to make it very difficult for the firefighters because that can change at a moment's notice. So, they'll set up a camp one spot to be able to fight a fire and have to move immediately once those winds begin to shift.

Now, the winds will start today, still have in about the 30 to 40- mile-per-hour range. As we go through the day, they'll start to creep back down. And by the time we get to Saturday, most of these areas really just looking at single digit wind speeds, couple into the teens, but overall not too bad. But then we get back into Sunday and we start to see those numbers ticking back up again, 30, 40 even 50- mile-per-hour gusts.

So, like we said, we've got a very short window here where those firefighters can go out and make advancements in those containment numbers before the winds come back up again in the back half of the weekend. Even in the short-term, even with the improvement of winds, you're still going to likely have some very bad air quality, not just Friday, but through the weekend.

You can see all of the dots here kind of showing what that air quality is, several here in the unhealthy group. And that is not likely to change as we go into Saturday and Sunday.

BOLDUAN: A major factor that people are going to have to be tracking even after these wildfires are starting to be contained, for sure.

Allison, thank you very much.

We've got other more very important stories coming up today that we're tracking. In just hours, President-elect Donald Trump will be sentenced on the 34 felony counts that he was convicted of. A hearing in New York coming up after the Supreme Court denied a last minute request to stop it from happening.

And speaking of the Supreme Court, oral arguments are about to kick off on a major case over the fight to ban TikTok in the United States, a ban that is supposed to set in just days from now.

And we're going to show you some live pictures of snow coming down in Atlanta, the road's there. Atlanta of all places is actually a really good point. States across the South, dealing with a major winter storm that could create some very dangerous travel conditions.

[07:10:02]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Very shortly, Donald Trump will officially become a convicted felon just ten days before he will be sworn into office a second time. It is sentencing day in the New York hush money case. Overnight, in a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court refused to step in to stop it.

New York Judge Juan Merchan said he will not impose a jail term or probation. Still, Trump will become the first president to take office as a convicted felon.

[07:15:02]

CNN's Kara Scannell is outside the court. What do you expect today, Kara?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, as you said, after numerous attempts to try to stop this sentence, it will go forward as scheduled. And in just a short while from now, this hearing will get underway.

It's expected to take about one hour. And how it will play out is that Donald Trump is not going to appear here in person like he did during the course of the trial. He is going to appear virtually. So, inside the courtroom, there will be television screens where Donald Trump will be appearing and able to face the judge for the sentencing.

The prosecution will go first. They'll make their arguments to the judge. Then Donald Trump's lawyers will have an opportunity to speak. And then Donald Trump himself can address the judge. As you know, he's been very critical of this judge, very critical of the prosecution. It's unclear if he's going to say anything, but he will be given the chance to do that.

After that, Judge Juan Merchan will deliver his sentence. And as you said, he's already indicated that he will issue a sentence of an unconditional discharge. What that means is that there will be no prison time, no penalties and no probation. So, Trump will be able to leave his space where he is after the sentencing and move on without anything else hanging over him as it relates to a form of punishment.

But the judge has said that the reason he's going that route, he said it seemed the most viable option because he thought it was important for the public interest for there to be some finality of this prosecution. And it also enables Donald Trump to move forward to appeal the conviction. He has said multiple times, including again last night in a statement, that he is going to appeal this conviction, as he said, for the sanctity of the presidency.

That will all continue to move forward, but in a few hours from now, this case will be closed. There will be a final judgment issued with that sentence. And Donald Trump will be the first American president to be a convicted felon. And it will wrap up this investigation that began in the summer of 2019, when the very first subpoena was issued by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office looking into these hush money payments that were made to Stormy Daniels, Trump convicted of that 34 felony counts. It was the first time an American president had been indicted, the first criminal trial, and now the final judgment. John? BERMAN: All right, Kara Scannell outside the court. A couple things to keep in mind here, I think, we're going to get an audio recording of this, not live, but we'll be able to hear after the fact what has taken place inside the courtroom. Number two, again, Donald Trump could speak. What might he say when he knows he may not be? He doesn't face jail time or any probation. He's sort of unfettered and what he could say. And Todd Blanche, his attorney, his nominee to be a deputy attorney general, how might Blanche temper or not what he's going to say there? This will be fascinating. Kara Scannell, great to have you there.

SIDNER: All right. Breaking now, we are learning new areas have caught fire in California, but at the same time, some residents are getting their first look at what is left of their homes. Olympic Swimmer Gary Hall Jr. is among those residents who escaped the Palisades fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY HALL JR., LOST EVERYTHING IN FIRE, INCLUDING OLYMPIC MEDALS: I thought I had more time. I saw the fire charging down the hill and I had to get out of there. I opened up the back of my SUV. I loaded a painting, one other object.

By the time I was going back in from that run, hot embers were just kind of raining down from the sky. And I knew at that point that I just didn't have much time. I could see the embers hitting the roofs the houses around me and made that decision, it's time to go. And the medals were in a closet in my bedroom 70 feet away. I didn't have time to go get them.

From the time that I saw the first plume of smoke at the top of the hill, I live on Lachman Lane, I had about three minutes between then and when it came charging towards me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: So, this morning, TikTok heads to the high court. The Supreme Court is about to hear oral arguments over the law that is about to ban TikTok in the United States. It's really just days away from going into effect. There was broad bipartisan support behind this ban in the United States, lawmakers agreeing that China's control of the social media platform through its parent company poses a serious national security threat. Now, the justices are left to decide if that ban violates free speech.

CNN's Clare Duffy is here. This is a big moment in what has become a very long, drawn out fight.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, this is a fight that has been going on for years and these concerns that the U.S. government has really fall into two categories, but both related to the fact that TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is based in Beijing. The concerns are that the Chinese government could force TikTok to include certain videos or exclude certain videos from its algorithm, potentially spreading propaganda or causing discord among Americans.

And then there are concerns about the data, the user data that Tiktok gathers from Americans and concerns that the Chinese government could potentially access that for espionage or intelligence purposes. And like a lot of social platforms, Tiktok gathers a lot of data from users, things like location data, purchase history, search history, contact information. And so the worry is that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand that over.

And so that's what the Supreme Court is going to have to weigh here is how much do those concerns matter versus this free speech argument.

BOLDUAN: Yes, weighing -- I mean, you had Republicans like Mitch McConnell agreeing with Democrats like Joe Biden, that they think it's well within the protections of free speech, what they are pushing forward with this ban, but it's now left to the Supreme Court.

[07:25:06]

The TikTok argument is obviously this violates free speech. That's been the argument since they sued, but has the company responded to these national security concerns?

DUFFY: So, they have. The company, you know, pushes back on this idea that they are a Chinese -- that ByteDance is a Chinese company at all. They say it's incorporated in the Cayman Islands, although the headquarters is in Beijing. And they also say that they've taken a number of steps to protect U.S. user data and that they wouldn't or, you know, haven't been asked to hand it over to the Chinese government and wouldn't do that.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew addressed this during a hearing on Capitol Hill earlier this year. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHOU CHEW, CEO, TIKTOK: Our approach has never been to dismiss or trivialize any of these concerns. We have addressed them with real action.

The bottom line is this. American data stored on American soil by an American company, overseen by American personnel. We call this initiative Project Texas. That's where Oracle is headquartered. Today, U.S. TikTok data is stored by default in Oracle's servers. Only vetted personnel operating in a new company called TikTok U.S. Data Security can control access to this data.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: And, again, experts have actually said -- security experts have said that the U.S. government's concerns are largely hypothetical. There's no evidence that TikTok has been asked to hand over data or do anything at the behest of the Chinese government, but that it could potentially. And, again, you know, TikTok has made these reassurances, but it's been making these reassurances for years, and the U.S. government still feels really strongly about this.

BOLDUAN: Yes, they haven't. Lawmakers do not think they have gotten the answers that they are reassured that national security is being protected.

Great to see, thank you. This all will be picking up in just a few hours. Oral arguments will begin and going to be getting a sense from the justices throughout these oral arguments, where they could be headed. Clare, thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: All right. The breaking news, a curfew in effect in Los Angeles is the military now sending in planes to help fight the wildfires.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's all smokey. It's all burned out and you could see all the burnt cars and there's no houses and stuff like that. It reminds me back to like Afghanistan,

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: A powerful winter storm getting stronger and stronger. That is Atlanta right now. Not much happening. Multiple states declaring emergencies and all but shutting down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]