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Large Wildfires Continue to Burn Mostly Uncontained in Southern California; President-Elect Donald Trump to Face Criminal Sentencing for His Hush Money Conviction in New York after Supreme Court Ruled against His Request for Delaying It. Trump to be Sentenced for Hush Money Conviction; At Least 10 Dead, Neighborhoods Destroyed in LA Fires. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 10, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

SUMMER LUCILLE, FOUNDER AND OWNER, JUICY BODY GODDESS BOTIQUE: One of the best companies and databases in the world, Oracle. So my stance is the same. TikTok is one of the safest apps and businesses and companies in America right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I asked you also at the time, would you ever support a politician who was in favor of the ban? And I think your answer was no. Donald Trump now says he's against the TikTok ban. How do you feel about his stance?

LUCILLE: That's new news to me. You know, honestly, it's contradicting, because our current vice president, Harris, our President-elect Trump, both used TikTok heavily during the 2024 election. So it's kind of -- I don't -- if it's so unsafe, why did you use this app to win the seat? President-elect Trump, why do you -- and president, and current Vice President Harris, why did you use TikTok? If it's so unsafe, why did you use it to get to try to get into the office?

BERMAN: Well, I'm not sure that President-elect Trump thinks its unsafe anymore. He is using it. Summer Lucille, great to see you this morning. Thank you for helping us see this perspective.

A brand-new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The imagery of this is next level shocking. I mean, it's something out of a movie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just imagine if you go to the front door and behind it there is nothing, and you walk in and you have your car keys, but there's no place to put it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just pure devastation. I've never seen anything like this before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At no point in the history of our community, or perhaps the country, have we had fires simultaneously happening, not one, multiple serious fires simultaneously occurring, wrapped around hurricane level force winds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And that is exactly what happened. The breaking news, Los Angeles is still burning. The race to contain the now deadlier fire disaster in and around Los Angeles is facing new challenges this morning. Overnight, a new fire broke out, and officials say one of the most critical aircraft that they have to use to battle the flames is now grounded. It collided with an illegal drone being flown in restricted airspace, damaging the aircraft's wing.

Some promising news, though. CAL FIRE told us last hour they may have turned the tide on the firefight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRENT PASCUA, BATTALION CHIEF, CAL FIRE: Yesterday we were very hopeful that we could turn a corner on this fire, and we did. We gained some containment. Not a lot. It's going to take a lot more work to see that number grow. But we're headed in the right direction. And again, we see the winds calmer today. They're still here. But these are the winds we're used to battling and dealing with during these fires.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: As it stands this morning, the Palisades fire, the very damaging Palisades, fire is six percent contained. The death toll has now gone up, at least 10 people killed from the fires. Nearly 200,000 people are in evacuation zones. And we know now thousands of homes, structures, businesses gone, entire neighborhoods now rubble.

The major X factor in any progress to contain the fires is and continues to be that wind threat. Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is watching that and is standing by. We'll get to her in just one moment. First, to CNN's Stephanie Elam on the ground in Altadena, where so much has been lost. Stephanie, what are you seeing there now?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's devastating. I mean, you know, a lot of times we cover these wildfires, Kate, and you'll see one house gone and maybe another one there and another one across the street. It's entire blocks here, just like it was in the Palisades fire where I was earlier this week. Look at this, behind me you can see that there's a gas leak over there of some sort. So that's just burning over there. But this house completely decimated. Oftentimes you will see this just the chimney standing there, the only thing standing there.

You're talking about the number of people impacted by this. You've got 180,000 people who have evacuation like they have to go, and then 200,000 people who are under warning. Think about how many people that is in this very populous county. It is a lot of people being impacted by this. And on top of it, the air quality. You're talking about people who have lost everything. Some people now knowing that they've lost loved ones, at least 10 people. Those numbers are expected to go up.

When you're looking at some 20,000 acres that have been burned in the Palisades fire, and here in Altadena, this Eaton fire, some 13,000 acres that has burned in just a very, very short amount of time. I mean, it is colossal to see something of this magnitude. And you take a listen to what people are discovering when they are able to get back to their homes. And keep in mind, a lot of places you can't.

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Like, the California National Guard, they sent them down here today. I can tell you, getting in here tonight, they are out because they have had people who have been looting, and so they've been making arrests. It is difficult to get around. There's 8,000 personnel coming from firefighters. We even just saw a police officer drive by who was from a different city far away from where we are right now. So you take all of that into account, and when people get here and are able to look at what is left, take a listen to what it was like for this one resident.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is how hot the fire was. This is my Harley Davidson.

ELAM: Oh, I didn't even recognize that that was a motorcycle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that right there where you see the exhaust pipe, that used to be my Yamaha. So it was so hot that all the aluminum from the frame and everything melted. All that's left is the engine.

ELAM: Thats wild.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And you see that a lot when you drive around these wildfires, those pools of metal that are just coagulated around places. That's what people are coming back to, if they come back to anything at all, trying to recognize anything that's of value, anything that's important to them. For many people, it would just be a complete loss, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. That is how hot these fires were burning. It was burning and melting metal in so many places. Unreal. Stephanie, thank you so much. It is hard to hard to watch, hard to cover, and Stephanie does such an amazing job describing it.

Let's go now to Allison Chinchar standing by. You've been tracking the wind forecast for us. Allison, what's it looking like?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so we are going to see conditions improve, but it's going to be a very narrow window here where we get that break from the wind before they start to increase back up again. So we take a look at today. Again around the Los Angeles area, you do still have that elevated fire threat. And then a little bit farther south you've got a little bit more elevated up, up towards the critical level there.

Now Saturday, it's just a very small area of elevated fire risk. And that's because we anticipate those winds to finally calm back down. Through today, you'll notice all these white little dots moving around. That's the wind direction. So you'll notice they'll go from a north wind over towards like a westerly then an easterly wind. They're going to kind of go back and flow and ebb and flow. Here's the problem with that. It makes it very difficult for the firefighters because that wind direction shifting at a moment's notice makes it very difficult for them to try to figure out how to coordinate around the fires.

When we go through the day to day, still looking at some of those wind gusts up around 30 to 40 miles per hour. Once we go through the afternoon and especially into the evening, you'll start to see them drop back into the teens and eventually down into the single digit numbers, which is fantastic. That's what we like to see.

Then the unfortunate problem is, though, once we get back into Sunday, they start going back up 30, 40, even 50 miles per hour. So again, guys, we will have a very narrow window here where these firefighters will hopefully be able to make some advancements in those containment numbers before the winds kick back up again on the back half of the weekend.

BOLDUAN: That is for sure. Here is hoping and here's planning for sure. Allison Chinchar, thank you so much.

We'll be getting back to Stephanie Elam on the ground a little later. Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, just over an hour from now, President-elect Donald Trump will face criminal sentencing for his hush money conviction in New York. The extraordinary moment coming just 10 days before his second inauguration. His sentencing going forward because the Supreme Court denied his emergency bid to delay sentencing. Trump is scheduled to appear in court virtually this morning. A jury found him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

CNN's Kara Scannell is joining us from outside of the court and waiting for this to begin. Kara, if he's not facing jail time and he's not facing fines or penalties, what will the consequences be? What will the judge be deciding today?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Well, Sara, right. He will not face jail time. He will not face probation or any fines. But he will have the stigma of being the first American president who is a convicted felon. And that is what we will see play out today when this hearing does get underway. It's only expected to last about an hour. Donald Trump will not be here in person, as he was throughout the criminal trial, but he will be appearing virtually on a screen that will appear inside the courtroom. So he'll be participating that way. We expect the prosecution will speak first, talk about the seriousness

of the offense, the charges, the conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up those hush money payments. And then we expect to hear from Donald Trump's lawyers and what they will say to the judge.

Then there will be the opportunity for Donald Trump himself to address the judge. He is appealing this, and usually attorneys don't want their clients to say anything, but Donald Trump has not been quiet about his views about this prosecution or about the judge. He has been criticizing him on social media. So to be the big question, will Donald Trump speak to the judge and say anything ahead of the sentencing, especially since he already knows what it will be?

And then it will be the judge who will deliver the sentence. And he has said this will be a sentence of an unconditional discharge. And as we said, that means no jail time, no penalties, no probation.

[08:10:02]

But the judge will also speak as he lays out his reasonings for this. He said in a written order detailing this that he was doing this because he thought it would be the most viable option to bring finality to this case and allow Donald Trump to appeal. But will he speak more about the 10 times he found Donald Trump in contempt during the trial? Will he say more about what this means about the rule of law, particularly since there is not going to be any kind of incarceration? All of that will be playing out shortly. But when this hearing is over, Donald Trump will be a convicted felon and the first American president in history. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes, there are a lot of things that he could say since he isn't going to be facing jailtime, penalties, or probation. We will wait to see what that is. Kara Scannell, thank you so much. Appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: All right, with us now is CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, Jennifer Rodgers, also CNN legal analyst and former U.S. attorney Michael Moore. And I want to pick up on something that Sara, brilliantly, I might add, just said, which is that Donald Trump doesn't face jail time, doesn't face probation, doesn't really face anything, except basically the label of convicted felon. So why not go off on the judge today when it will be recorded? At least the audio will, and we'll hear it in a few hours.

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, it's interesting. Of course, we know during trial, every day he stood outside of the courtroom in front of the cameras and railed at the judge and the D.A. and called it a witch hunt and so on. The one thing, though, John, you're right, it's not going to make a difference in the sentence, but the judge does get the last word here.

And if I'm Judge Merchan, like, I might have kind of two versions of my remarks about the sentencing, right, one where he just says something like, you know, I still say that I'm innocent. I look forward to my appeal. And one where he goes off on some diatribe, and I might use the second version about, as Sara said, all of the contempt and all of what Judge Merchan saw during the trial, how strong the evidence was, all of those sorts of things. He might give his own speech a little bit if Trump does that. So maybe that's the only thing keeping him in rain a little bit.

BERMAN: It is one of the things to watch today, and there is a lot to watch, even though the outcome in a way is predetermined, Michael, what judge Juan Merchan says, but also Todd Blanche, who is Donald Trump's attorney, who is also going to be the nominee for deputy attorney general, the number two job at the Justice Department. How do you think that might impact how he talks about the law?

MICHAEL MOORE, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I'm glad to be with all of you.

There's no question today that Trump will use this, and his lawyers will use this to sort of bolster him. I mean, I don't think you can overstate the likelihood that that's going to happen. And I think Blanche will essentially be Trump's mouthpiece. Now, he may try to stay away from some of the more outrageous claims that the president elect has made, and made during the trial, when he would go outside and talk to the press outside of the courtroom. But I do think you're going to hear him raise issues that he thinks are likely to be wrapped up in an appeal, which they are appealing this. This is, folks, this is not the end of it. This does not mean that we're never going to hear about this case again. This simply means that now that this bookend is placed on the trial and on the conviction that now the regular appeals process worked, that's really the reason the Supreme Court turned it down. And they said, look, you're going to go through the regular process anyway. There's nothing that we have to do right now.

So I think Blanche will make his objections. He'll talk about the fact that there was an immunity ruling. He's going to talk about how unfair it is and how this takes away from the presidential transition and those types of things. And he's playing not only to an audience of the judge. He's also playing in some part to maybe those senators who may sit in on confirmation hearings, folks who will ultimately be overseeing the Department of Justice, and as well, to his ultimate client, which, of course, is the president elect.

BERMAN: So, Jennifer, this is going forward because overnight, the Supreme Court decided by five-four vote that they weren't going to block it. On the one hand, they let it go forward. On the other hand, five-four is a close call. Donald Trump has, it seems, at least four, a floor of four justices on his side for these types of issues.

RODGERS: Surprisingly close, John, that there were four votes to stop this sentence from going forward. And it just can't mean that they think the transition is so important, he's so busy. I mean, here's a person who was pulled off the golf course right, a week ago, to get involved in the speaker's race. So it must be that there are four justices who think of expanding the massive amount of immunity that they've now granted to presidents, to presidents-elect. It makes me worried for where they're heading in the future, right, with respect to presidential power as we move forward into a second Trump term. BERMAN: The Chief Justice John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, the two Republican appointees who did not vote with the other conservative justices. They voted with the majority there.

And Michael, just what does it mean to be a convicted felon? We say there's no jail term, no probation, but it is a label, correct?

MOORE: It's a label. I will tell you that the results of the election make me wonder what the consequences are and the impact of that label. You know, it's not like were the scarlet letter that we used to talk about, but he's used it almost as a badge of honor, to say that he's been shamed and disgraced by this corrupt system.

[08:15:00]

But it does go, he's also concerned about his image and it does go in the history books that this guy is fixing to now enter his term. He'll have been convicted and sentenced as a convicted felon. Certainly, you have to question some countries that don't allow convicted felons to come in and these things may rear its head at some point. I'm sure people will be making hay about it.

It's just a matter of some shame for him. Somebody who said that he's sort of above things. You know, we talk about the Supreme Court. I mean, he said, people wouldn't vote against him or turn against him if he'd shot somebody in the middle of the road. Well, we at least know four people who would not, by all appearances.

But again, even the fact that he's been convicted, he seems to have gotten the benefit of the doubt throughout the entire process, something that other people who go through the court system and are convicted felons do not get. And you'll see him now continue to receive benefits and it'll almost be as if this closes a chapter in the book. And this label won't impact him much after today, probably.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: No. I doubt he'll be applying for many jobs will have to fill in that line. Have you ever been convicted of a felony?

Michael Moore, Jennifer Rodgers, thank you so much for being with us. This will be interesting to see today even though the outcome is predetermined.

All right, in just nine days, TikTok will be banned in the United States unless the Supreme Court steps in to save it. Oral arguments set to begin shortly.

And, a stray dog rescued from the ruins after surviving the wildfires in California.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Start caring for each other. Like everyone needs help right now.

Sorry for crying, but it's really emotional seeing like my friends lose their houses and people losing their animals. And so, try to help each other out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[08:21:29]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY HALL JR. OLYMPIC MEDALIST: I could see the embers hitting the roofs of the houses around me and I 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)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Just insane, that is Olympic gold medalist, Gary Hall Jr., now, one of the tens of thousands of people in California who have had their lives turned upside down, losing everything, so many in a matter of moments to these fires that are still raging across Los Angeles County. So many other people are facing the exact same horrible reality today.

Let me show you this. Look at these two photos. This on the right is what is left of a home in Altadena and then you see on the left, a beautiful home that it was just days ago. Look at that side by side.

This is what has been lost for our next guest, Florence Kearns Wilson. She joins us right now.

Florence, thank you.

We were just talking in the break. We are so sorry to see what has been lost by your family. You and your wife, you just moved into that home three weeks ago, right before Christmas.

I mean, how are you guys doing?

FLORENCE KEARNS WILSON, LOST HOME IN ALTADENA WILDFIRE: That's right, yes.

I mean, how you'd expect -- we're lucky to be safe. We got out just in time with our baby and our two cats and my parents, who had actually evacuated to our house from their house.

So, you know, in some ways, were lucky, but we lost absolutely everything. I mean, we didn't have time to really pack, so it's surreal, it's devastating.

BOLDUAN: Surreal is something we've heard from so many people because it seems almost impossible to process. You're in your home one moment, and in a matter of, you know what really is minutes, it just basically has been evaporated.

I mean, how did you learn about what happened to your home?

WILSON: Mostly -- so we were driving and honestly, I grew up in the area. I've been through a lot of fires and where we bought our home, I assured my wife and everyone, this is too far into the neighborhood, you know, like a fire will never come down this far.

And so, we learned about it. We were driving up to Santa Barbara because we were going to Morro Bay. We didn't know where else to go and I was just texting with neighbors.

Someone put together a Google Map trying to tag structures that had burned, but it wasn't very up to date. And finally, God, not yesterday, the day before, the day it happened. It was so fast, a friend was able to go to the neighborhood once it had completely burned down, and send us a video and that's when we found out for sure.

BOLDUAN: And what went through your mind when you saw that? I mean, I can't even imagine you were able to process it.

WILSON: I almost threw up, honestly. I just -- I don't know if I fully processed it, to be honest with you.

BOLDUAN: I mean, your entire neighborhood looks like it was just wiped out. I mean, what have you heard from your neighbors? Have you been able to get in contact with them?

[08:25:12]

WILSON: Yes, we're lucky that even though we had just moved in, we had already communicated a lot with our neighbors who were so welcoming and kind.

And, you know, we have a few group texts going with them and we've been able to share the pictures we've gotten from other folks who have been able to go in there, and we're just -- we're all completely shocked and devastated and just, you know, kind of -- yesterday we started talking about making plans to get together and just like cry together once it's safe for us all to go back.

BOLDUAN: Yes. You and your wife -- you have a two-year-old daughter. You have a whole life you were creating in Altadena. Have you even started conversations with your wife about next steps?

WILSON: Not in a serious way. We've been, you know, you have to make jokes and stuff in these times and she always wanted a pool. And so, I was saying, well, I guess let's just build the pool first, and then we can, like, build a tiny, tiny little home or something.

But, we haven't really in a serious way, to be honest. We don't really know what's going to happen. It's one thing if just your house burns, which is terrible, and you rebuild it, but with the whole neighborhood, absolutely flattened, I mean, we're going to have to work together with all of our neighbors, or it's just going to, I don't know, get sold off to a developer or something, you know.

BOLDUAN: There is a lot that it's -- this disaster for your family and the neighborhood is -- you've got a lot to process and to go through and so many things to consider. I'm sure it seems really overwhelming right now.

So, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

Thank you so much for coming on and telling us your story and drawing a beautiful light on the beautiful home that was, and many memories to be made for your family ahead. Florence, thank you so much.

WILSON: Yes, thank you for your time.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much.

As you can see the need is so great in California right now. For more information about how you can help wildfire victims, you can go to cnn.com/impact -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: And ahead, we're going to take you back to California, where the fires have raged for days. The recovery will likely take years, and residents are finally getting to see some of them, what is lost and what is left of their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The imagery of this is next level shocking. I mean, I was down to my knees when I got up to my parent's house with just sheer amazement at what I was looking at, which was basically just a chimney stack and a pile of ash. I mean, it's something out of a movie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: A closer look at catastrophic damage to the iconic coastline of Malibu.

And, the future of your favorite TikTokers and TikTok in general, will soon be decided by the Supreme Court.

We'll break it all down for you.

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