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Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on TikTok; Malibu's Coast Transformed into Devastation; Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) is Interviewed about Wildfires; Robust Jobs Growth for December; Venezuela Inaugurates Maduro. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired January 10, 2025 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning the fate of TikTok hangs in the balance. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether a congressional mandated ban on the app can take effect in just nine days. Influencers argue that this would violate free speech, but the administration and some in Congress, the ones who passed it, say this app is a national security threat.
Let's get right to CNN's Joan Biskupic.
A lot of really fascinating issues at play here, Joan.
JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: It is. Great to see you, John. And it's nice to have a Supreme Court case that we've got lots of people paying attention to.
You know, there's 170 million users in America of TikTok. You know, it's known mostly, of course, for, you know, dance videos, cat antics, you know, recipes, newsflashes. But this is one of the most substantial First Amendment cases the Supreme Court's going to hear in years.
And you know, what's in dispute here is a law that was passed by bipartisan majority, signed by President Biden in April, that would force TikTok to essentially shutter in the U.S., unless it divest itself of its Chinese owner. TikTok is - the company is based here in the U.S., but its parent company is ByteDance. And that company is headquartered in the Cayman Islands. But - I mean, it's incorporated in the Cayman Islands, but it's headquartered in Beijing. And most of its business dealings and operations are in China.
And the Biden administration points to a couple of different concerns that had arisen with Congress. One is that TikTok - the - China could amass all sorts of American users' data that could be used for blackmail down the road or other forms of espionage. And secondly, that it could also covertly manipulate the content on TikTok. And, you know, just, you know, this is a foreign adversary that should not have that kind of control here in the U.S. Now, a unanimous D.C. circuit panel here, the lower court, sided
completely with the federal government and said, yes, there are important national security concerns here. And it said that in these kinds of cases, courts need to defer to the government's view of what the dangers are in terms of foreign affairs and national security. So, TikTok is going into this, John, with a substantially weaker hand than - than the government at this point.
BERMAN: And again, the timing on this is fascinating because unless the Supreme Court acts, it goes into effect on January 19th, which is the day before there's a new president on January 20th.
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Joan Biskupic, we'll talk to you again. Thanks so much.
BISKUPIC: Sure.
BERMAN: Kate.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also next hour, President-elect Donald Trump is going to learn his sentence for his conviction in the hush money case in New York. An historic day coming up in court just days before his inauguration as well.
And as people in Los Angeles wake up to a fourth day of wildfires, some are returning to what is left. And you see there, not much. With everyone now left to figure out, what next?
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RAYA RAYNAGA, LOST HOME IN ALTADENA WILDFIRE: We need everything. I - I have this that I got from the shelter yesterday. I'm so grateful for their supplies, their food, the clothing they provide.
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BOLDUAN: This morning, Los Angeles is still burning, and entire neighborhoods have been reduced to ash. In the midst of all of this - this tragedy, strangers are becoming heroes and neighbors are becoming family.
CNN's Kyung Lah witnessed one of these moments in Altadena yesterday when a group found a dog among the rubble.
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RICK MILLER, ALTADENA RESIDENT: 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 you want - try to help each other out. Yes, you're seeing like all your friends and family, like, losing
their houses and you're just trying to help them out. Like, our house was, you know, fortunately, my house was saved. But our friends right across the street, their house is gone. All these memories. All these pictures. All these, you know, years that people have spent, you know, having friends over, all these memories. And it's like, those are, you know -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
MILLER: But that's why you just want to help - help your friends out, help your families out. Help, help the animals out.
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BOLDUAN: And so many people need so much help now.
Looking now to another place that has been hard - very hard hit, the iconic beach town of Malibu. It too has turned into miles of devastation. You can see in this aerial footage oceanfront beach homes now, well, nothing.
CNN's Bill Weir is there.
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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This was some of the most unique and valuable real estate in the nation. That iconic strip of homes between Pacific Coast Highway and the sea.
But now, it holds mile after mile of smoldering ash and twisted metal, the result of Tuesday night's blizzard of embers that came howling down the hills to the beach.
WEIR: If I had to guess, I'd say 75 percent of the mansions along this five-mile stretch of coastline look like this, utter, utter devastation. We've been watching as a crew from Kern County, in another part of the state, has been spraying water on the hotspots around this former mansion. There's obvious water pressure here. But so many questions about water pressure around L.A. County as multiple crews try to tap in.
As we speak, there are flames up in Topanga Canyon, where nervous locals are watching and hoping.
Oh, there's a little drop there.
TYLER STOCK, TOPANGA CANYON RESIDENT: Yes.
WEIR: What's going through your mind?
STOCK: It's been a long couple days.
Until this morning it's been really hard for us to get resources up here, especially in the air, like you're seeing now.
WEIR: Yes.
STOCK: Yes. So -
WEIR: Do you chalk that up to the fickle winds or -
STOCK: Yes. I -
WEIR: Fire management?
STOCK: I don't blame this on our elected officials or the fire management. There's just no way you can plan for an event like this.
I think everybody's doing the best they can and trying to get through it.
WEIR: Yes.
STOCK: You know.
WEIR: How would you grade the response just by what you've seen?
STEIJN VANVEEDEGHEM, TOPANGA CANYON RESIDENT: I think the response is enormous. And I think the firefighters that we have here are absolutely the best in the world.
Initially on Tuesday, when the fire started, and I drove around at night and it was burning all across here, I did not see any firefighters at all. The only thing that I could see is a flashlight. So, I assume there were some people, but no helicopters, no planes at all. But now it's a totally different situation.
WEIR: You chalk that up to the winds, or do you blame planning? Some - there's a lot of anger from folks in the Palisades, like where were you?
VANVEEDEGHEM: There's a lot of anger. But, you know, the fire spread so fast and there were a lot of winds. It was night at that time, so I think it was too windy for helicopters and for the jets to come in.
WEIR: There's so much heightened emotion, right?
STOCK: A lot.
WEIR: You want somebody to blame. You want - you say, where's the cavalry, right? Yes.
STOCK: Yes. That's a totally understandable emotion to feel right now. But I think it's better to just focus our energy on doing what we can for each other and supporting our firemen who have been incredible.
These guys are heroes. And we need to support them the best we can. And, you know, save the politics for later.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: That was our Bill Weir reporting there with those incredible images.
All right, President Biden announced that the federal government will cover 100 percent of all recovery costs from the fires for six months.
Let's discuss with Congresswoman Judy Chu of California.
First, I know that you got to see the entirety of the damage in Altadena, which is part of your district. Can you first describe to us just what it is that you saw and what it did to you seeing these apocalyptic scenes?
REP. JUDY CHU (D-CA): I visited and toured the entire destroyed sites of Pasadena and Altadena yesterday. I did it with the FEMA administrator. And I was - I was stunned by the devastation that I saw, especially since so many of the areas were so familiar to me.
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But to see it all burned to the ground, I just - I just could not believe it.
In Altadena, I saw utter destruction. Blocks of homes that were burned to the ground. In Pasadena, I saw homes that were selectively burned to the ground.
For instance, in Hastings Ranch in Pasadena, it was just astounding where you saw one home burned to the ground and the home next to it just totally intact. And it was explained to me that's because it was an ember fire. The embers chose to settle on a home, and that home burned.
But also what astounded me were the major institutions that I've been to so many times, like the Altadena Town and Country House. It's a site where so many events take place and where I've gone to so many times. Totally burned to the ground. The Pasadena Jewish temple, totally burned to the ground. And these are going to be huge holes in the community where we will definitely have to come together and make sure that we rebuild so that this community can be what it once was, which was a beautiful community.
SIDNER: It truly was a beautiful community. I am familiar with both Pasadena and Altadena. I've been there many times. And it's just so hard to look at these pictures and know the pain it has caused the residents and business owners there.
The public has heard a lot from celebrities who live in the hills of the Pacific Palisades and who are in dire pain after losing their homes. But Altadena is where middle and working class families live, who are in a much different financial situation. What will those federal funds that are, Biden says, will pay for 100 percent of recovery costs for six months mean to Altadena residents?
CHU: Well, actually, the - we're talking about two different types of funds. President Biden did something very, very important. And that is approved 100 percent of the federal fire management grants. And I - I have to thank Governor Newsom because immediately they asked that Washington, D.C., approve our area for these grants. Normally, though, the coverage is 75 percent. But President Biden did something wonderful in saying it would be 100 percent.
Now, in terms of help for residents, that comes from FEMA. And that's why I was so insistent that the FEMA administrator come from Washington, D.C., to our area of Altadena and Pasadena so she could see how this entire community has been devastated. And FEMA has a huge amount of resources that can help residents get back on their feet. I would encourage, in fact, everybody who is affected to go on to the disasterassistance.gov site and get the process going, input your information, also contact your insurance because what FEMA will do is assess where you are, what the insurance will pay for, and what they can make up in terms of making sure you get back on your feet and making sure that you have somewhere to stay for one thing.
SIDNER: Congressman Chu, our reporters were there when the fire hydrants ran out of water in Altadena, and now L.A.'s fire chief is saying that crews are no longer even using hydrants to help them fight the fires, which are still burning. What is the problem with the fire hydrants?
CHU: I had a briefing yesterday when I was with the FEMA administrator. And there is enough water. But what there was, was a - a problem that occurred right at the height of the fire, which is that they had to turn down the electricity in order to make sure that the fire wasn't aggravated because of the electricity. They need electricity in order to pump water. So, they turned that down. And then, at the same time, there were so many hydrants that were being used all at once. That aggravated the situation.
In addition, they said, there are homes that have been devastated where the water wasn't turned off. So, there actually are homes where the water is just pouring out and they have to go home by home to turn it off. So, this was a temporary situation, but they do have it - the situation in hand right now.
SIDNER: OK, so the hydrants would be working now. The electricity turned back on, correct?
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CHU: Yes.
SIDNER: All right, Representative Judy Chu -
CHU: Yes. Yes. And, in fact, I have to say -
SIDNER: Go ahead.
CHU: I have to say, right now, the water is in good shape. The fire actually is going north rather than towards the homes. So, it's - it's going to the Mount Wilson Observatory area and the firefighters are making sure that that is safe, because it's a major communication hub.
SIDNER: Yes. There has been a shift. Firefighters saying that they hope they can get some more of a handle on all of the fires that are burning there, including a new one.
Representative Judy Chu in Los Angeles for us. Thank you so much. I do appreciate you coming on this morning.
John.
BERMAN: All right, we do have breaking news. The final jobs report for 2024. What does it show?
CNN's Matt Egan is here.
The number's up.
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, John, it shows that the jobs market ended 2024 with a bang. And this is really good news for main street, right? It shows that workers are still very much in demand. For Wall Street, this is maybe not good news. We'll get to that. First, let's get to the numbers.
So, this report showed that the economy added 256,000 jobs in December. That blew away the forecast by 100,000. Think about that.
BERMAN: It's a big beat.
EGAN: It is a really big beat. And the unemployment rate beat as well because it went down to 4.1 percent. It was supposed to stay flat at 4.2 percent.
There were some whispers, John, of an increase.
BERMAN: Yes.
EGAN: That did not happen. It went down.
Now, when we look at the trend, we can see that, yes, there was a big slowdown in hiring in October, but that was because of hurricanes. That was because of worker strikes.
Now, the economy clearly bounced back in November, and it stayed that way. This was a sustained rebound in December.
Now, this is a relief again I think for workers. When you zoom out, you look at all of 2024, the economy added 2.2 million jobs. That's basically in line with pre-Covid trends. It's also so much better than some of those forecasts from a few years ago. Remember all those recession predictions? We are nowhere near a recession.
BERMAN: That is nothing near a recession.
EGAN: No. No. And I know that when people think about the economy, they're thinking about the cost of living. I do think there's kind of mixed news on that front. The good news is that paychecks, they continue to go up at a healthy pace. This report showed that wages were up by almost 4 percent year over year. That is well ahead of the inflation rate, which is just below 3 percent. So, if that continues, that's going to help workers continue to feel
better and sort of catch up to the higher level of prices at the supermarket.
But here's the little bit more concerning news is how investors are taking this, because we saw the moment this number came out, stock futures went down, bond yields went up because this was hotter than expected.
This is going to amplify those concerns among investors about interest rates being higher for longer, about what the Fed is going to do when they can start cutting rates. You see Dow futures down by almost 1 percent. More than 300 points. The S&P futures down about 1 percent as well. So, we're going to continue to see that story play out, especially, John, as the president-elect comes in and there's a lot of questions and uncertainties over what his policies will do to inflation.
BERMAN: Look, in theory, this is not an environment - those numbers aren't the kind where you cut interest rates.
EGAN: Right.
BERMAN: All right, Matt Egan, thank you very much for that.
EGAN: Thanks, John.
BERMAN: We are waiting for President-elect Donald Trump to be sentenced in the New York hush money case. He was found guilty on 34 counts. There is a hearing very shortly. Donald Trump might speak. His lawyers might speak. There will be a recording of this. This will be fascinating. So, stay with us.
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SIDNER: This is just into our newsroom. Venezuela shut down its border with Colombia and suspended flights there. The Venezuelan government says it's facing a threat as it prepares for its presidential swearing in today. Two men are trying to lay claim to the presidency. Incumbent Nicolas Maduro has a swearing in ceremony today despite many world leaders disputing his claim that he won.
His challenger, Edmundo Gonzalez, sits in exile right now but is determined to return to Caracas to take office.
Meanwhile, aides for another opposition leader says she was detained after protesting all of this.
CNN's Stefano Pozzebon joins us now from Bogota, Colombia.
Stefano, how did we get to this point where the borders are shut down and there is this enormous fight happening?
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. Well, the seeds of what we are seeing today were planted way back in July when the Venezuelan electoral authorities, which are tightly controlled by Maduro's party, proclaimed him the winner of a controversial election without showing any proof. On the contrary, the opposition presented tens of thousands of voting tallies that they say give the victory to their candidate, Gonzalez.
And, frankly, independent observers that we spoke with in the last few months say that the opposition tallies are believed to be legitimate, and they believe that the announcement was a fraud. They feel like it's their turn to rule the country after more than ten years of maduro rule.
And that's why yesterday you saw these images of thousands of people taking once again to the streets of Caracas and demanding freedom, demanding a change in power despite the repression of the Maduro government.
However, the government is going ahead and despite international outcry from other countries to the region, including the United States, who recognize Gonzalez as the legitimate president-elect, they are going ahead. And listen to how the interior minister describes or responds to other countries who criticize what is going on in Caracas.
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DIOSDADO CABELLO, INTERIOR MINISTER OF VENEZUELA (through translator): Go play Domino. You are meddling in the internal affairs of other countries.
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I have some Dominoes from my show. I can give them to you. What do I know? Go play something. But don't play meddling in Venezuela.
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