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Deadly Los Angeles Fires Still Mostly Uncontained; Venezuela Prepares for Inauguration of Nicolas Maduro; U.S. Supreme Court Rules Trump Can Be Sentenced; U.S. Honors Former President Jimmy Carter with State Funeral. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 10, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a set of unprecedented circumstances.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm never going to be able to show my kids where I grew up. It's all gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the warmest year on record. It's very hard to find a cool spot on this map.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whatever they do tomorrow, they will bury themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maduro in power for more than a decade does not intend to back down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. Friday, January the 10th, 8 a.m. here in London, 1 a.m. in Los Angeles, where one sheriff describes the devastation left by several wildfires as though an atomic bomb was dropped. At least 10 people have died and authorities are warning the total may grow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really disheartening. I mean, our families in tears, the communities in tears. I mean, this is devastating. It's never going to be the same. I'm never going to be able to show my kids where I grew up. It's all gone. It's all gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The three largest fires that are burning right now have barely been contained, including a new one that broke out on Thursday. Officials say intensifying winds, dry conditions will continue to complicate firefighting efforts into next week. But add that they're doing everything they can to get the fires under control.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LINDSEY HORVATH, MEMBER , LOS ANGELES COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: At the rate of spread and the density of the communities in this area, it is serious. Please act swiftly, move quickly, evacuate now to protect your life, the lives of your community members and the lives of our first responders.

ALBERTO M. CARVALHO, SUPERINTENDENT, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: This is a set of unprecedented circumstances. 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.

CHIEF KRISTIN CROWLEY, LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT: I've never seen this in my 25-year career and I can tell you as a chief, I can stand strong. I can tell you that LEFD and the rest of our regional partners, our firefighters boots on the ground are absolutely tired, but I tell you they will never, ever give up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: California Governor Gavin Newsom has deployed the state's National Guard to help law enforcement. It comes after authorities warned of looters and scammers trying to target vulnerable victims. CNN's Natasha Chen has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're in the same Altadena neighborhood where just 24 hours ago there were flames popping up on one side of the street and another. Now it is extremely quiet. So many streets of houses and businesses completely burned out.

Now there are a lot of people desperate to come back in here, but the roadblocks are being seriously enforced. And now we're also hearing from families who are learning that their loved ones died in this fire in these neighborhoods right here. In fact, one woman told the Washington Post that her father was found dead in their home next to the bed of his son. Now her father, she said, was an amputee who used a wheelchair and his son had cerebral palsy. She said her father would have never left his side.

Now there are multiple fires going on around Los Angeles. This is just one of them. There's a fire on the west coast by the ocean. This one in the northeast, there was the Hollywood Hills fire. So there are several fires large enough that it feels that everyone in the metro area seems to know someone who has been affected by these fires.

That happened to me today when we were at an evacuation center talking to people who had lost their homes and I ran into my friend Kimiko Warner-Turner.

CHEN: Do you want to rebuild there? KIMIKO WARNER-TURNER, LOST HOME IN EATON FIRE: Oh my gosh. It's so

hard to say. I mean, we thought it was going to be our life long home. We thought we were never going to move. So I don't know, but it would be nice, but who knows.

CHEN: And Kimiko showed me pictures of her house before the fire and after the fire. Just completely destroyed there. Heartbreaking for so many people.

[04:05:00]

She's one of the lucky who have told me that they have somewhere to stay tonight. They just went to the shelter to try and find a toothbrush or some clothes because they left with whatever they had on their backs in that moment. But right now there are 1,200 people staying in that one shelter, mostly from this fire, the Eaton fire. And a lot of people just don't know what their next step is going to be. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: We're joined by Wally Moran, a restaurant general manager who lives just a couple of blocks away from the evacuation zone, which is near the Sunset fire. I mean, what's the situation there? And are you planning to evacuate anyway?

WALLY MORAN, GENERAL MANAGER, CHELSEA RESTAURANT IN SANTA MONICA (via phone): I almost evacuated last night. I was right outside the zone and ended up not having to do that. I just had a bag ready. The car was gassed up and I kept my cell phone charged and was touching base with friends all over the city. And I had friends who were evacuating. I ultimately ended up not having to evacuate.

I could see the Sunset fire from the roof of my building and they got it under control pretty quickly. But there were a couple of hours where it was touch and go. So at this point, I'm not planning on evacuating.

FOSTER: Are you only going to evacuate when you're told to evacuate? Because obviously we've seen situations when that has happened. People get the order, but then they can't get out because everyone's trying to get out at the same time.

MORAN: I'm keeping an eye on the situation. So if I feel unsafe, I will leave. And last night was the closest I came to actually leaving. Other than that, I'm ready to go in a matter of minutes. And if there's danger near me, then I will definitely leave and not wait for an evacuation order.

FOSTER: Are you worried about leaving? Because we're getting these reports now, aren't we? Horrific reports that people have started looting houses that have been deserted.

MORAN: That's been a concern about leaving all of my belongings behind. But if that's what has to happen, that's what has to happen.

FOSTER: Just describe what you're feeling right now as you watch your city burn.

MORAN: It's overwhelming. And it's just as the more cropped up, I'm in the middle of Hollywood and I was on the phone with my sister on the East Coast and everyone was upset. And I was assuring them that I was safe. And then the sunset fire sprung up and everyone started to get panicky again. And I was talking to my sister about my evacuation plan. And she said, but I'm watching CNN and you're surrounded by fire.

So there's some -- I'm watching the news obsessively and checking social media and touching base with friends throughout the city to find out what's happening on the ground to stay as informed as I can. But I am basically surrounded by fire.

FOSTER: And the authorities have been very good speaking to us because they know that people like you need to get the very latest information. You own a restaurant as well, don't you? I know that everyone's been rallying around to try to support everyone. How have you been using that restaurant and supporting people?

MORAN: Well, Wednesday night, the first day of the fires, we chose to remain open because we knew people were evacuating. All the hotels on the west side of the city are full. So we stayed open as a service to our guests because we had Wi-Fi.

So we had several tables of evacuees come in and just took care of them, gave them food. And several tables spent the evening eating on the phone, trying to make hotel arrangements or on the phone, talking to loved ones and discussing their plans. So we did that and we'll do it again.

We remained closed the last two nights because we're two blocks out of the evacuation zone. And yesterday for a couple of hours, there was an evacuation warning for our area. So we opted to stay closed. We're planning on reopening tomorrow for the same thing.

We've been in touch with businesses throughout the community, most of the hotels. We have relationships with multiple hotels in Santa Monica, and we've been in regular contact with them to see what they need, what their guests need, what the public needs.

And then it's weighing that against the safety of our staff from coming into that area. It's getting safer by the day. So we will probably open the restaurant tomorrow.

And in the meantime, it's been -- I'm part of several groups that are running lists on Facebook groups and text threads about what restaurants are open throughout the city, what restaurants are closed, who's donating food, who's collecting food for first responders, who's giving food to first responders if they walk in the door, who's doing what for the community. So we've been spreading information around the restaurant community throughout the city and it's been working really well.

FOSTER: What about your supplies? Because presumably you're struggling to get food into the restaurant now. Are you going to start struggling to? Are you worried about enough food going around?

[04:10:02]

MORAN: So far we haven't had a problem. I'm mildly concerned, but we're in a weird situation where we own two restaurants. One of them is in Sherman Oaks, and bizarrely that one is closed because it lost power Wednesday night and it's still out of power.

So we were able to actually move all the food from one restaurant to ours. So we're safe for the time being. And I'm in touch with my suppliers. They're not anticipating any significant delays in getting us food as the demand surges in the coming days.

FOSTER: That's good to hear. Can I just ask you another question? We're looking at these images of streets completely burned out. So these houses are gone. We've reported a bit about the insurance issue there in California, particularly in some of these areas in L.A., and how people had their insurance taken away and then they couldn't get new insurance. So they won't be able to afford to rebuild their homes.

And I'm also hearing that obviously they'll still have mortgages on those homes. So they'll effectively have to keep paying out on a building that doesn't exist. And that obviously leaves them in a situation where they won't be able to afford to rent elsewhere. They're effectively homeless.

MORAN: Those are the conversations I'm having with friends that have lost their homes and our guests that have lost their homes. The Pacific Palisades is an affluent community, but not, it's, you know, people, yes. They don't know what they're going to do, because yes, they still have to pay their mortgage. They still have to pay their HOAs. And right now, they're staying in hotels, and that's a short- term solution. But they're going to have to figure something else out.

I mean, Airbnb stepped up and was helping coordinating free lodging for anyone displaced by the fires for the last two days. And that's been wonderful. But these are short-term solutions.

When the dust settles, a lot of people are going to be in a really precarious financial situation, handling a mortgage, HOAs for their neighborhood, and paying rents, if they can even, you know, find an apartment.

FOSTER: Yes, I know. It's absolutely, you know, obviously, the focus now is keeping everyone safe and fed, like you're helping with. Really appreciate you speaking to us about that.

But there is a second crisis coming, isn't it? It looks like, in terms of accommodation. Sorry, carry on.

MORAN: We're still in the first mode. And we're still, normally, by now, the city starts to come back to life, while we simultaneously deal with whatever disaster has happened. In this specific situation, the disaster is everywhere.

So we're still in who needs a place to stay, who just lost power, who just got an evacuation order. And there's text flying all over the city about, I can take people. Wednesday night, I was offering to take people and then had to be like, I just got an evacuation warning. So don't come here, because I may not be here.

So our focus right now is on dealing with the current situation, while starting to look at the carnage that's about to happen, once the fires are dealt with, and all of these people don't have homes anymore. But we'll still have financial obligations.

FOSTER: Yes, it's just frightening. Wally, really appreciate your time. Thank you for speaking to us today.

Now, officials with the Emergency Management Agency FEMA are working to assist families who lost everything in the fires, which includes registering for federal assistance during the recovery process. The top U.S. fire official explains why the flames spread so quickly once they reached homes and neighborhoods.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LORI MOORE-MERRELL, U.S. FIRE ADMINISTRATOR: You can look around in any of these communities and see very heavy fuel loads, the close proximity of these homes, the vegetation that is heavy here. They're in drought. We had winds that we knew were coming. So that's why the red flag warnings are so important.

And then when you have an ignition and you get vegetation or wherever the initial ignition was, and you get structure to structure fire spread, now we have a conflagration. This is totally different than a vegetative fire.

Once you have structures involved, now the fuel load is even heavier, because it's not the structure itself. It's the contents of that structure that feed this fuel. And so this fuel is heavy, so it's fast. All of this is fast fuel. So yes, they saw it fast. Was it wind- driven? Yes. Was it horizontal fire? Yes.

Firefighters, there's no firefighters in the nation, in the world, who get in front of that. And so the fire departments here, through everything they had, they had pre-positioned. In fact, FEMA had awarded what we call fire mitigation assistance grants.

And so we knew that FEMA had enabled these departments to pre- position, to get in place, and to move as quickly as possible. So every resource that was available was availed on this issue.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:15:02]

FOSTER: Well, Texas has been hit hard by a winter storm that's now moving across the southern U.S., blanketing parts of the region in snow and freezing rain, closing schools, causing chaos at airports there. More than 1,600 flights have already been cancelled on Friday. The storm's footprint will only get bigger as it spreads across the South this weekend, bringing some of the coldest temperatures of the season to a region that's not well adapted to extreme winter weather.

Opposition and government supporters were back on the streets in Venezuela, meanwhile, ahead of the controversial inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro just hours from now. Maduro was declared winner of the election in July, but the opposition says the winner was Edmundo Gonzalez. In the run-up to the inauguration, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was violently intercepted and kidnapped, in the words of her team, after a rally on Thursday.

She's now free again, and the government denies that she was detained. But her team says she was forced to record several videos before being released.

The upcoming inauguration is taking the country into politically uncharted territory. Both Maduro and Gonzalez are claiming they should be sworn in. Several former presidents of other Latin American countries are saying they will join Gonzalez in his return to Venezuela, but Venezuelan authorities are discrediting that support, alleging the former presidents are implicated in crimes including complicity and terrorism. And fears are growing of another violent crackdown against the opposition. Stefano Pozzebon has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Refusing to be silenced. Once again, Venezuelan protesters taking to the streets on Thursday, demanding President Nicolas Maduro step down. Among them, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, her first appearance in months.

MARIA CORINA MACHADO, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER (through translator): Whatever they do tomorrow, they will bury themselves. It will be the end of Maduro.

POZZEBON (voice-over): But Maduro, in power for more than a decade, does not intend to back down. He's planning to be sworn in as president for a third time on Friday, despite widespread international outcry and independent electoral observers casting serious doubts over the legitimacy of his victory. The U.S., Canada and several countries in the Americas have instead recognized Machado's ally Edmundo Gonzalez as the true president-elect.

A former diplomat who fled the country last year, he plans to challenge Maduro by returning to Caracas and assuming power on Friday. U.S. President Joe Biden and other leaders backing him along the way. Gonzalez faces immediate arrest if he were to return, even though up to nine former presidents pledged to join him.

Maduro's government deployed soldiers and militia before his inauguration on Friday.

DIOSDADO CABELLO, VENEZUELAN MINISTER OF INTERIOR, JUSTICE AND PEACE (through translator): We have plenty of space in our jails. We have plenty of space for anyone who comes here to attack this country, to disrespect our people.

POZZEBON (voice-over): Tensions rising ahead of a crucial showdown and an early test for democracy in 2025.

Stefano Pozzebon, CNN, Bogota.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Ahead, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Donald Trump's hush money sentencing should proceed later today.

Elon Musk ramps up his support for Germany's far right in a live talk with the AfD leader.

And former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is laid to rest in his home state. Those stories when we come back.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSE ANDRES, CELEBRITY CHEF, FOUNDER OF WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: Like everywhere else in the world, there's people with ways and means and there's people without them. But you have to be there to all the people no matter what. Everybody needs support and love in these moments. Wealthy or not, poor or not, it's the right thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Celebrity chef Jose Andres on the ground in Los Angeles feeding people, taking shelter from the wildfires and crews working to battle the flames. The need is quite acute. The county sheriff says it looks as though an atomic bomb dropped in the scorched areas. There are five major fires burning around L.A. as we speak.

Officials say the two smallest fires are partially contained, but there's been almost no progress on the others, which have burned nearly 15,000 hectares. Authorities have confirmed 10 fire-related deaths so far, but expect that number to rise considerably.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump's sentencing later today in the New York hush money case can go ahead. The justices in a five-to-four ruling denied Trump's emergency request to halt the sentencing, meaning the U.S. president-elect will be sentenced just days before his inauguration. New York Judge Juan Merchan has signaled Trump will face neither prison time nor penalties, but Trump criticized him over the case, continuing to claim unfairness and political persecution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL-ELECT: A lot of lawfare. These are all people that understand what's going on here very badly. This was an attack on the Republican Party. This was an attack on the Republican candidate who just won an election by record numbers, the highest number of Republican votes by far ever gotten. And we won all swing states, seven swing states. We won the popular vote by millions of people. And that was the real vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, the court's majority said any potential violations could be addressed on appeal, and Trump said, quote, this is a long way from finished.

CNN's Paula Reid has more details on the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The Supreme Court has said it will not block President-elect Trump's criminal sentencing, currently scheduled for Friday at 9:30 in New York. He's scheduled to be sentenced on those 34 counts of falsifying business records that he was convicted on last year.

Now, Trump and his lawyers, they have been fighting this sentencing. Their last resort was to ask the Supreme Court to block the sentencing. It's interesting. Even though this was a 5-4 decision, there were four conservative justices who said that they actually would have sided with Trump and they would have granted this application and delayed the sentencing.

That's Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch, and Justice Kavanaugh, of course, the last two appointed by Trump. That is surprising because most legal experts said this was really a long-shot bid and not something that the Supreme Court could get involved with yet.

Now, Trump will continue to appeal the conviction itself, but during the sentencing, it is not expected that he will face any penalties. The judge has made it clear he will not impose any sentence of incarceration. And in a nod to Trump's status as President-elect, the judge is also allowing Trump to appear virtually, which he is expected to do.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: And in another setback for Trump, a federal appeals court refused to block U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland from releasing Special Counsel Jack Smith's report on the federal election subversion and January 6th case against the incoming U.S. President. But the matter may be far from over. Trump is also expected to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court.

The U.S. President-elect also says his future meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is in the works. Trump made the announcement on Thursday, saying the war in Ukraine needs to end soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He wants to meet, and we're setting it up. We have to get that war over with. That's a bloody mess. Soldiers are being killed by the millions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: But the number quoted by Trump appears to be wildly, well, wildly inaccurate. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the Russian has suffered more than 700,000 casualties so far, which would include both killed and wounded.

[04:25:04]

Last month, Ukraine's president said his country had lost 43,000 troops and 370,000 were wounded.

Trump supporter Elon Musk facing criticism for hosting a live interview on X with the co-leader of Germany's far-right party, the AfD. The tech billionaire spoke on Thursday with Alice Weidel, the party's candidate for chancellor. Musk has already endorsed the AfD in next month's snap elections, calling it the only party that can save Germany. He and Weidel blasted critics who they accuse of trying to suppress the AfD's far-right message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, TESLA CEO: It's actually quite easy to tell who the bad guys are. It's like, who wants to shut down freedom of speech? They are the bad guys. It's very clear.

ALICE WEIDEL, AFD CO-LEADER: Yes. And do you know what Adolf Hitler did? The first thing he switched off, free speech.

MUSK: Yes.

WEIDEL: So he controls the media. And without that, he would have never been successful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: He is staunchly anti-immigrant and critical of the EU. It's the first far-right party to win a state election in Germany since World War II. Although it's gaining support, a recent poll found that 79 percent of Germans view the party unfavorably.

We do, of course, have an election coming up in June.

Now, the United States has bid a final farewell to former US President Jimmy Carter. Carter's body was interred privately near his home in Plains, Georgia.

But the official ceremony earlier in Washington, D.C., included a rare constellation, the current and former four living former U.S. presidents honoring the former naval officer and state governor from rural Georgia. CNN's Brian Todd reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Jimmy Carter's funeral was filled with personal accounts from those who were closest to him.

JASON CARTER, JIMMY CARTER'S GRANDSON: They were regular folks. Yes, they spent four years in the governor's mansion and four years at the White House, but the other 92 years, they spent at home in Plains, Georgia.

TODD (voice-over): There were also unique touches, eulogies delivered by Steve Ford and Ted Mondale, the sons of President Gerald Ford and Carter's vice president, Walter Mondale. Eulogies to Jimmy Carter written by their fathers before Gerald Ford and Walter Mondale passed away.

Steve Ford, relating his father's account of a political rivalry, turned friendship.

STEVE FORD, GERALD FORD'S SON: During our 1976 contest, Jimmy knew my political vulnerabilities, and he successfully pointed them out. Now, I didn't like it, but little could I know that the outcome of that 1976 election would bring about one of my deepest and most enduring friendships.

TODD (voice-over): President Biden eulogized Carter by repeatedly praising his strength of character.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's about asking ourselves, are we striving to do things the right things? What values -- what are the values that animate our spirit? Do we operate from fear or hope, ego or generosity?

TODD (voice-over): In attendance, dignitaries from around the world, including the so-called Presidents Club, Biden, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Trump and his former Vice President Mike Pence shook hands for the first time since their falling out after January 6th. But as for Pence's wife --

KATE ANDERSEN BROWER, AUTHOR, "TEAM OF FIVE: THE PRESIDENTS CLUB IN THE AGE OF TRUMP": Karen Pence sat there very quietly, did not get up when Donald Trump walked in. There was a lot of tension in that room.

TODD (voice-over): But it was Barack Obama who seemed to be the only one engaging with Trump, chatting and smiling freely with the president-elect.

BROWER: Now that the political dialog has just gotten so vitriolic that Donald Trump can say really terrible things about these men and then sit next to them as though nothing had happened.

TODD: Despite the tension in the cathedral, author Kate Anderson Brower says we shouldn't forget the underlying lesson of the President's Club, that there is still a mutual respect between them that has not been completely done away with. And we should celebrate that.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: When we return, the mayor of Los Angeles is pushing back on criticism following her response to deadly wildfires that have been burning for days.

And natural disasters linked to climate change aren't only devastating, but they're very expensive as well. A report just ahead on how costly they really are.