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Apocalyptic Scenes in California as Four Fires Tear Through L.A. Area; DOJ Intends to Release Part of Report on Trump's Jan. 6 Actions; Trump Asks Supreme Court to Pause Hush Money Case Sentencing. Aired 10-10:30a ET
Aired January 08, 2025 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, you are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.
We are starting with breaking news. These are live pictures from Southern California as the sun rises there. Three wildfires, could be four, exploding overnight, burning more than five football fields a minute, we are told. We just learned that a fourth fire, yes, that's right, a fourth fire has just broken out. Tens of thousands of people are under evacuation orders. The flames are moving so fast that people are abandoning their cars and fleeing on foot.
Take a look at this right here. Yes, you are seeing bulldozers clearing cars that have been blocking the roadways in Los Angeles. This was in Pasadena, as a senior center rushed to evacuate its residents.
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REPORTER: You can see how many people are out here in this parking lot. It's really cold and windy out here right now. This is so chaotic. A lot of people in wheelchairs with just, you know, little blankets on right here trying to stay together. We're going to chat with Randy real quick because he's kind of in charge of helping to evacuate people tonight. You said like 95 people you're trying to get out of here safely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopefully, hopefully we could get everything, everyone there.
REPORTER: How close was the fire getting to your facility?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like one block away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: All right. And take a look at this. This was the scene from above one of the fires, flames scorching everything in its path, the intense winds and drought conditions hampering the first responders' efforts at this hour. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is 100 percent in alignment with the wind. It has the potential for 200-plus acres in the next 20 minutes. We have a potential for structures being threatened in the next 20 minutes.
It is pushing directly towards Palisades and this thing has got a wide to travel already. So, this thing is going to make a good run.
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ACOSTA: Thousands of residents in L.A. County, it is a race to get out in time before the flames engulfed their homes.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Active flame unchecked, got a lot of unchecked fire on the left flank.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the worst fire I've ever encountered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This whole street, gone, gone. There's nothing left. Nothing left. Nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say a prayer, keep your fingers crossed. That's about all I can do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The smoke just got really bad, so I just started packing up all of our stuff and we got in the car to go. And then all the cars were abandoned, so I had nowhere to go. So, I just had to get out of my car and start walking. The smoke is so bad. I have no idea where we're going.
I'm scared for my life. It's terrifying.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's literally apocalyptic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: All right, let's go now to CNN Stephanie Elam. She is live in the fire zone. Stephanie, what are you seeing on the ground?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's eerie out here, Jim, now that the sun is coming up. I'm just going to step out the shot so you can see here how the smoke is coming off of this side of the hillside off the PCH and coming out over the pacific ocean. But let me show you what's causing that. Look at this Look at what's blowing up here on the side of this hillside here. You can see how those flames are just engulfing the skyline in just white and black smoke as things are starting to burn more as we're starting to see the sun come up.
To be honest, it took a long time for us to be able to tell the sun was coming up because it was just so smoky. And now the wind has just kind of cleared it out, like even the air feels clearer right where I'm standing, where it has been for the last few hours overnight. But I want to show you over here as well, because we've had some activity. Overnight, we've been here watching the top of this apartment complex burned down, the top right hand corner of that gone. There was a massive wind gusts that came along. It was like hurricane level wind gusts that came along engulfed that top part of the building in flames and it burned down.
There's so much smoke, you can't even see most of the building there. But between that building and this smaller building in front, there was more flame that popped up. And that's when we saw firefighters come out, law enforcement blocked off what is Sunset Boulevard right here. And they said that no one is allowed to go up there right now. It looks too treacherous.
Remember, Pacific Palisades is a lot of very small, interconnected little streets, very windy, very difficult to get around. That's why they had to bulldoze some cars out of the way yesterday when people abandoned their cars to get away from this really, really fast moving blaze.
So, because of that, they're just making the call now that no one can go up there.
[10:05:00]
But this situation that you see here is not just happening in Pacific Palisades, also on the other side of L.A. in the Foothill communities, the Eaton Fire, right now, people are evacuating out of their house. You may have just heard an explosion. That's because of the fire. It's exploding things inside of buildings that are burning down right now.
But all of this, schools closed, they've also asked more firefighters, if you're off, please report to work because this is a dire situation, never seen anything like this, Jim. I've never felt winds like this while covering a wildfire, let alone in January. It's just all very bizarre.
ACOSTA: Yes, Stephanie. I mean, that was the thing I was going to ask you because I know you've covered so many wildfires and folks in other parts of the country might say, okay, well, they have these all the time. But this is very different. And it just seems like something that is going to be extremely difficult to get under control.
ELAM: Yes, the difference is a lot of times we call it cover these wildfires, a lot of them are in the wild land interface, right, where a lot of it is butting up against canyons. There's a lot of wild terrain here, but there's also a lot of homes. And that's what makes this different. It is more densely populated. And the fact that we've got multiple blazes burning around L.A. County, it makes it far more intense.
Then you add into the fact that normally by now we would have gotten some rain, right? Because a wet season in L.A. typically begins about November. We haven't had barely -- we've had barely any rain. And that's part of the problem with what we're seeing here.
ACOSTA: Yes. All right, Stephanie Elam, keep us posted. We'll get back to you. Thank you so much.
And we're joined on the phone now by L.A. Fire Department Spokesperson Margaret Stewart. Margaret, we just got an update from Stephanie Elam. Where do things stand right now and how are things going on the frontlines of battling these flames?
MARGARET STEWART, SPOKESPERSON, LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT: That's what it is, Jim. It is still a very intense battle, both at the Palisades fire and the Hurst fire. You know, she's down in Palisades, and we've had the biggest growth of the fires to the west. The fire to the north has pushed up against the boundary of what was the Franklin fire about a month ago. That was the L.A. County fires. So, our northern boundary has pushed up to that.
Our priority is saving lives and structural defense. So, we are in positions where we will defend as many homes as we possibly can. Unfortunately, the winds are not forecasted to lighten at all, and they're at a level where they prevent our rotary wing helicopters from being able to fly. The fixed wing have a higher threshold for wind, so we're hoping they'll be able to go up this morning. But it's extremely challenging when we don't have air support in this kind of a fire because you just can't stop it on the ground.
ACOSTA: And, Margaret, we are hearing about a possible fourth fire. Can you tell us anything about that?
STEWART: So, we have three within the city. So, we have Palisades fire to the north up in the Sylmar area of the valley. We have the Hurst fire that was estimated at over 300 acres. We know that is a low estimate, but we can't get an update until we can have aircraft do a survey. So, we have evacuations that are north of the 210 freeway up in the Sylmar area. Fortunately, we have no injuries reported in that.
And we also have a smaller fire in what we call the superlative (ph) basin, that is not threatening homes. It's within a marshy basin.
ACOSTA: Gotcha. And typically with these fires, you have to wait for weather conditions to improve. I think you were alluding to this just a few moments ago, so you can get the upper hand on some of these flames. It sounds as though that may not be happening for a number of days. How soon do you think you can get a handle on this?
STEWART: Well, we're hoping that the fixed wing aircraft are going to be able to fly soon. I don't have a number on that in terms of a timeline. Our air ops for the helicopters, you know, we have an aggressive profile when it comes to water drops and our helicopters do tremendous work.
Unfortunately, we can't get them up right now. And so we are fighting this on the ground, which is why I said we can't stop a wind-driven fire with winds in excess of 80 miles per hour from the ground. So, we are protecting life and defending structures.
ACOSTA: And there are also reports of people not responding to the evacuation orders. How was that going? STEWART: So, most of the Palisades, that area, the evacuations were yesterday afternoon into the evening. There were issues with people delaying their evacuation, and cars were abandoned on the roads, and so L.A. County had a dozer to move those vehicles aside to allow our emergency vehicles access.
[10:10:04]
This underscores the emphasis we always place on being prepared and heeding our orders, because the delay has ramifications. So, we need people to evacuate when we ask them or even earlier.
ACOSTA: And, Margaret, are your firefighters running out of water to fight these fires? What about the fire hydrants and the water pressure?
STEWART: We are aware there're some reports of some isolated areas. There where that may be an issue, but we just don't have details on that right now.
ACOSTA: And, Margaret, we're just looking at some images right now of bulldozing going on on one roadway where you're using bulldozers or somebody is using a bulldozer to push cars out of the way. I've never seen anything like that happening before, but maybe it happens from time to time. That was necessary to get fire crews into certain areas. Can you tell us about that?
STEWART: Yes, that was yesterday afternoon. It hasn't continued. That was an afternoon yesterday at peak evacuation. So, aforementioned, because there were delays, because those roads are challenging, you know, they're narrow canyon roads, somebody gets clogged up and then you've got a queue of cars behind them and people were abandoning them. So, we had the dozer come in and clear the roadway so that we can continue the fight. And, unfortunately, you know, those cars are going to be damaged, but it was what was necessary.
ACOSTA: And there were folks at that time on foot, just fleeing by foot. Is that still happening?
STEWART: No, not now. That was -- you know, that evacuation started over 12 hours ago, 15 hours ago. So, that's not the case now.
ACOSTA: All right, Margaret Stewart --
STEWART: If I can also just mention --
ACOSTA: Please, yes, anything else.
STEWART: I'm sorry. If I could just mention the Hurst fire to the north, the Sylmar fire, I want to emphasize we have an evacuation warning. If your viewers go to lafd.org/news, they'll see a Hurst fire page and a Palisades fire. So, if they go to the Hurst, you can see the map. The yellow area, we need residents to be prepared to evacuate at a moment's notice. They need a go-bag, their vehicle needs to be facing out in the driveway, they need all medicines in their go-bag because they are in a warning zone which could immediately turn to a mandatory evacuation.
ACOSTA: All right. Can we show that on screen one more time the map of the area? You're saying in the Hurst fire area, people -- is that right? In that area, they need to be prepared to evacuate right now?
STEWART: Correct. So, north of the 210 is the mandatory zone. South of the five and generally the Granada Hills North Community, that whole area is under a warning, and that could switch to a mandatory evacuation. So, we need them to be ready.
ACOSTA: All right. Margaret Stewart, thank you very much. We appreciate that update. Best of luck.
STEWART: Thank you.
ACOSTA: All right. Much more breaking news next. We're following more breaking news, the Department of Justice has just responded to President-elect Donald Trump's threat of legal action if he releases that -- it's the attorney general -- releases his report on the two investigations by the special counsel, Jack Smith. More on that, next.
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ACOSTA: All right. You're looking at some live images coming in right now from KABC in Los Angeles. Folks, if you're watching at home and you're wondering what that is on your screen, that is the sun. I've triple checked with the control room and they tell me that that is indeed the sun rising over Los Angeles. It is so clouded by smoke there that you can barely see the sun rising over Los Angeles.
We just spoke with Stephanie Elam and Margaret Stewart with the L.A. Fire Department. We're going to be getting back in touch with all of them as the hour goes on.
But in the meantime, we have other breaking news to tell you. The Department of Justice has just responded to Donald Trump's argument that he should not release -- that the report on the two investigations into the president elect should not be released.
CNN's Katelyn Polantz is here with us. Katelyn, a lot of fast-moving developments, what can you tell us about this?
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Justice Department is telling the appeals court, the federal appeals court over Florida, stay out of it. They have a plan. This is the plan that they just outlined. They say the attorney general now has that final report into the two criminal cases against Donald Trump that were brought by the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith.
The plan is that volume one of that report, which is about the 2020 election case, they plan to release that both to Congress and the public because it's in the public interest. And then volume two about the classified documents case against Trump, the attorney general, Merrick Garland, doesn't want to release that publicly because there's ongoing appeals related to Trump's two co-defendants, whether that case could be revived against them, and they could still face charges. They don't want to prejudice that.
So, the plan is that the attorney general wants to make public what they believe these courts down in Florida have no ability to stop them on, the part about January 6th and the 2020 election.
ACOSTA: Judge Cannon was not presiding over that case, that January 6th case.
POLANTZ: No. But what she did yesterday was put a stop to releasing the report outside of the Justice Department in full, both volumes, with an additional three days once the appeals court makes a decision here. And the attorney general, they made it quite clear that we've told you the plan, quote, that should be the end of the matter here.
[10:20:06]
We do have to wait and see exactly what this appeals court does because that order from Judge Cannon is still in place. And there's only 12 days until the end of the time when Merrick Garland is attorney general before Donald Trump is the president, and we'll get to make calls like this on his own.
ACOSTA: Interesting. Katelyn, all right, stand by.
Joining me now is CNN Senior Legal Analyst and former Federal Prosecutor Elie Honig. Elie, what do you make of this response by Jack Smith? Essentially, they're telling Judge Cannon down in Florida to butt out of this January 6th case. What do you make of all this?
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Jim, I think this is a perfectly fair and reasonable proposed solution by the Justice Department. First of all, with respect to the January 6th report in Washington, D.C., the Justice Department has the absolute right under law, if they so choose, to turn that over to Congress to make it public. They should do that, and they've said, that's what we intend to do. The legal dispute here really shouldn't have anything to do with the January 6th report.
Now, separately, we've got the report on the classified documents case in Florida. And what the Justice Department has said is, okay, we understand there's two other defendants here other than Trump, that's Walt Nauta and Mr. De Oliveira, they still have potentially live cases. And so recognizing that they have a right as defendants, we're not going to blast this report out publicly. Instead, what we're going to do is we're going to make it available behind closed doors to the leaders of Congress in order to protect their rights.
Now, Jim, of course, you and I both know Walt Nauta and De Oliveira are going to get pardoned, but that's going to happen after Merrick Garland and this DOJ are out of office.
ACOSTA: Yes. And, Elie, I mean, just to follow up on that very quickly, I mean, couldn't the Biden administration just make the decision unilaterally to release the report, put it up on the DOJ website, whatever, despite what the judge is saying, or does the judge have the final say here for the moment, unless it goes to an appeals court or the Supreme Court or whatever?
HONIG: Ordinarily, it would be fully within the rights of the current administration and DOJ to throw that report up on a website, but they cannot do that right now because a federal district court judge, Judge Cannon, has said, no, hold on until the 11th Circuit, the court of appeals, where they're arguing now comes out with some sort of ruling.
ACOSTA: And so if that doesn't happen before inauguration day, it's possible this thing could get buried. Is that -- I mean, not to belabor the point, but what do you think?
HONIG: Yes. The way that would happen is -- again, DOJ has now announced what we're going to do is we're only going to make this report on the classified documents case available to congressional leaders, unless and until the case against Nauta and De Oliveira goes away. The problem there is that's not going to happen until Donald Trump's administration takes office. So, at that point, they will be in control of the report and deciding what to do with it.
I don't think there's any way the new attorney general, Pam Bondi, or maybe there's someone who's in an acting capacity, briefly says, okay, these two have been pardoned. Now we're going to make the report public. I mean, that wouldn't happen under -- I don't think under a Trump administration.
ACOSTA: Yes. And Katelyn is also still with us. I mean, this is why I'm a little confused about this because, I mean, wouldn't Judge Chutkan, who was presiding over that January 6th case have say over whether report pertaining to that case is released, theoretically speaking? I'm just a layman here.
POLANTZ: Maybe, if they were to ask her. But, really, one of the arguments here is this is entirely up to the attorney general. The federal judiciary shouldn't even have a part in making decisions like this. That's part of the argument and with Judge Chutkan. It is plausible. There have been situations where judges have released, say, the Mueller report under public records.
So, other than this dispute in court with Aileen Cannon, there's a lot of different ways that this report could become public either through Congress, through the courts, the attorney general himself, or through FOIA Freedom of Information Act.
ACOSTA: Right, yes. And, Elie, we're also learning that Trump is going all the way to the Supreme Court to try to pause his sentencing in his hush money case. What's the Supreme Court likely to do there? Again, I'm just a layman asking the questions of a layman. I thought that was a state case, but it's going -- he's taking it to the Supreme Court.
HONIG: Yes, it's a good question. So, first of all, as to the when, we are going to get a ruling from the Supreme Court sometime in the next 48 hours because Donald Trump's sentencing is scheduled for Friday morning. Now, as to what they're going to do, it would be a fool's errand, I think, to try to predict it. But a reason they might take this case is because this is really the first application of their own immunity ruling, which they issued last summer.
But I think you're right, a reason they would not take this case is it's really sort of beneath the Supreme Court's pay grade. It's really a sentencing over a state level class E, the lowest level felony, where the judge has already said, I'm intending to sentence him to an unconditional discharge, meaning to nothing. Ordinarily, the Supreme Court's going to have no part of a dispute about a state case involving a sentencing for the lowest level felony that's not going to result in any prison time.
So, I don't think we can predict it, but I can see valid reasons either way why the Supreme Court may or may not take it. The good news is we'll find out real soon.
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ACOSTA: All right. Elie and Katelyn, thank you both very much. I appreciate it.
Still ahead this hour in his final days in office, President Biden is giving a candid interview revealing why he dropped out of the 2024 race and whether he has any regrets. More on that in just a moment.
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ACOSTA: All right. You are looking at some live pictures right now. That is the sun rising over Los Angeles, right there on the Pacific Ocean. You can see the fires have been spewing so much smoke into the air over L.A County that you can barely see the sunrise. It's that kind of a morning in California. We're going to continue to monitor that, more on that in just a moment.
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But in the meantime, with just days left in his term, President Biden is clearing the air.