Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

At Least 24 Dead, Dozens Missing in Los Angeles Wildfires; Confirmation Hearings Begin This Week for Trump's Cabinet; Special Counsel Reigns Amid Fight to Stop Report's Release. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired January 13, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Dangerous winds returning to Los Angeles, gusts up to 70 miles per hour, firefighters reaching a critical point as they race to contain the deadly wildfires.

Plus, President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks gearing up for a week of potentially bruising confirmation hearings, first up, his choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.

And Mark Zuckerberg sits down with Joe Rogan as the social media empire gets rid of fact checkers.

Good morning. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. You are live in the CNN Newsroom.

And good morning, it's 7:00 A.M. in Los Angeles, daybreak and more heartbreak in Southern California. At least 24 people have died. Dozens are missing at this hour. More than 40,000 acres have been burned, according to the last estimates, along with more than 12,000 buildings, homes and businesses destroyed.

And it's about to get even worse. Fire officials are warning this week that wind gusts could reach 70 miles an hour. That means the progress made to contain 14 percent of the Palisades fire and 33 percent of the Eaton fire may be lost. People are expected to be let back into some evacuation areas Thursday, but many will find there is nothing left.

And check out this video, wind gusts and flames whipping up fire tornadoes, as they're called, like this one. Fire crews are looking for possible causes of all of this with an electrical transmission tower or other power equipment coming under scrutiny.

And President-elect Donald Trump and his allies are accusing California's governor and the Los Angeles mayor, both Democrats, of mishandling the crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: There is a serious lack of competent governance in California, and I think it's part of the reason why these fires have gotten so bad.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): With respect to the future vice president. I didn't hear his remarks, but I would invite him, as I did, Donald Trump, to visit with the community, express empathy of the scale of this tragedy and be here for the American people that happen to reside here in Southern California.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: All right. Let's get the latest on the fire. CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Malibu for us. Stephanie, more dangerous wind gusts apparently on the way. That is not good news.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not good news as they've been really making some progress on these blazes, Jim, and that is precarious. Because with these blazes, there comes the threat that some of those embers could get caught up in that wind and fly really far and started to fire someplace else. So, that's what they were working to prepare for, staging firefighters in parts of these areas where they know that they could be a threat to prepare for what we're already starting to feel. It's windy out here now.

And let me just show you. I'll show you where we're standing here. This, now the sun is up, you can see that this is what's left of what wasn't in here along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, just completely destroyed, stairs to nowhere. You could even see a palm tree that just looks like it was taken down, the remnants of the tree still there.

But this is just a microcosm of the overall loss in this area, and you're talking about here, and you're talking on the east side and Altadena and Pasadena, where I was earlier, and it's week -- I mean, block after block after block of just lost homes.

And when we cover these wildfires, you're used to seeing maybe a block that's destroyed, maybe where it runs through front and back, but to see blocks of just homes that are just decimated. And it's not just homes, it's also businesses. It's also the infrastructure underneath of the ground. All of that has been destroyed in these areas. And that is why officials are saying it's going to take a long time to clean things up. In fact, take a listen to the FEMA administrator talking about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEANNE CRISWELL, ADMINISTRATOR, FEMA: The complexity of removing the debris from this fire is going to be significant. And it's going to take a long time. It's going to take more than six months to remove this debris. We'll get the majority out. California will get the majority out in that timeframe, but it's going to take some time to be able to get everything out so they can start rebuilding and make sure that it is safe for people to come back in and start rebuilding those homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:05:04]

ELAM: And obviously that's what a lot of people are trying to figure out. When are they going to be allowed back into those evacuation zones? I can tell you as far as children are concerned, Los Angeles Unified School District is putting school back in session today, say for nine schools here in Malibu and also in Pasadena. Schools are still closed for the rest of this week because it's just too precarious. Too many families have been impacted by these blazes, Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, it's just staggering to take it all in.

And, Stephanie, I understand you were I.D.ed by the authorities there as you were navigating the fire zone, trying to get to your live shots. Tell us more about that.

ELAM: Yes, it's normal that there are checkpoints when there are wildfires. But that's normal. Because we are media, we can show our I.D. and we can get through. But this time what they did is they didn't just want to see our I.D. They wanted to see our actual work I.D. They wanted to see our personal I.D. to make sure that they match. There have been cases where we know two people were posing as firefighters, that they were actually just taking advantage of the situation and were arrested for potentially looting.

That sort of behavior is why they're being extra cautious out here. You've got the National Guard staged. You can see their tents up along the Pacific Coast Highway as well. They are out here making sure that the people who are coming into these evacuation zones actually have a reason to be here.

ACOSTA: Yes, all right, very important. Stephanie Elam, thank you so much. We're so grateful for all the work that you're doing, all our colleagues are doing out there. We really appreciate it. Thanks so much.

In the meantime, our next guest is a mother of three, three who lost her home and business to the Palisades fire. Jaimie Geller joins us now with her husband. Thank you both so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

How are you doing? How's your family doing?

JAIMIE GELLER, HOME AND BUSINESS DESTROYED IN PALISADES FIRE: I mean, that's a loaded question, I guess, right? We are alive. We lost, you know, everything but a couple of things in a suitcase. so, you know, you revalue what's really important, but it's just, I think at this point, I don't know how many days in we are, I think it's just really overwhelming because you feel like you lost everything, but then so did everybody that you know.

So, how do you mourn the loss of your life? And then also everybody is mourning the loss of every -- it's overwhelming. I think how I feel is overwhelming, if we want a one word.

ACOSTA: And Michael, we have video of where your house once stood. Tell us, I mean, how are you coping with this? What were the next steps? What are your plans? I guess you're still trying to get your arms around all of this.

MICHAEL GELLER, HOME AND BUSINESS DESTROYED IN PALISADES FIRE: I mean, your correspondent said it perfectly. It's decimated. You know, like she said, we are a small city. We're actually part of Los Angeles, but our community is kind of like a small island. It's kind of like a little island in the middle of Los Angeles. You know, people -- it's hard to get on and people don't want to get off once they're there. And it's a small city, completely decimated markets, churches, you know, our home is gone, but you know, and --

J. GELLER: I think the plans are we have to find somewhere to live.

M. GELLER: Yes. First steps are finding someone to live. You have, you know, thousands, 50,000 people trying to find rentals. You have landlords, you know, trying to price gouge and listings that were once, you know, $1,200 to $500 are now $10,000 and $20, 000. It's complicated. It's complicated. I think we're still in shock. And it's, we're just, you know, trying to take it one step, one day at a time, you know, one step, one hour at this point,

ACOSTA: And what do you want to hear from local officials? What do you need? I mean, I know you're just explaining. You need a place to live and you need people who are running out places live to not price gouge. But what can be done at this point?

J. GELLER: That's exactly right. What can be done at this point? Like that's -- I don't know. I never thought -- you know, when I evacuated our house -- when we evacuated our house, I thought maybe 20 percent chance my house will burn. We're used to fires. We live, you know, up a mountain. We're used to the fires and leaving. But I don't -- I never even crossed my mind that my store would burn down, right?

So, I don't know how -- it's like we did sneak in on somebody else's press pass.

[10:10:00]

And what we saw, it's like the things you see on the news of war, maybe not nuclear, but a bomb, a bomb, bomb.

M. GELLER: Like it's as if there's flew over the community and completely decimated the community.

J. GELLER: So, how you move forward? I don't know. They couldn't save us. There wasn't water. How can they think they're going to move -- I don't know what officials can do if they couldn't get us where --

M. GELLER: You know, I was born and raised -- this is a good point. I was born and raised in the community and I remember, you know, this is not the only time that the conditions were ripe for this type of wildfire. When I was younger, I remember when, you know, weather -- you know, they had weather information, they would stage firefighters just preemptively in certain, you know, vulnerable streets. They would just have engines on the tops of the streets waiting. And the first bit of smoke or any fire to break out, they were prepared, they were ready, you know, they would get these fires out immediately. This just seems like a lack of resources, you know, not enough engines, you know.

And for them to even once the engines and the firefighters showed up, to not have water, you know, we know for a fact fire hydrants were depleted, whether that's because, you know, they had been strained earlier or they -- you know, the actual reservoirs were just not -- there was no preparedness.

ACOSTA: And how are your boys doing? How are your sons doing?

J. GELLER: They have such different personalities, right? So, they're 17, 15, and 10. The 10-year-old is crying a lot. The 15-year-old is like, I don't care, it's just stuff. Just give me my phone and I'm good, you know? So, that's refreshing. Most the -- 17-year-old is also more bummed. He, I think, has the capacity at that age to understand the loss and the loss of our community, the loss of every restaurant they've ever known, their doctor's office, their school, like he can comprehend that where the other ones are more stuck in my house is gone.

M. GELLER: We're a beach community. You know, we grew up surfing the beaches of Malibu. Although -- and our older son is a competitive surfer. He's lost every surfboard that he has, you know, from his first surfboard. He's -- you know, all of our possessions are decimated. We have three pants, three shirts. We have --

J. GELLER: I forgot my own suitcase when we were packing, and I forgot. And so I literally got to the hotel, the first hotel, and we got evacuated from that one and realized that I had literally what I was wearing. And it was in that hotel where I watched my store burned down on the news. And then when we got evacuated from Santa Monica and we went more south, I got the news of our house burning down. So --

M. GELLER: We never would have thought that this would occur. You know, this is not like, oh, you were ready. Yes, we were ready with the proper documents and things as if we had to evacuate.

J. GELLER: For two days.

M. GELLER: And perhaps, you know --

ACOSTA: But nothing like this?

M. GELLER: We're in an area where you would never think that the fire would have actually reached a community.

J. GELLER: Yes, that's sort of like the way the Palisades works. There's like there's a Sunset Boulevard, right? And then there's all these streets going up mountains and then streets going down to the beach. And I think the fire burned from the beginning to the end of the mountain on top and then just roared down every street. So, you had the gridlock. And people literally -- I was one of the people that had to abandon my cars and run to the beach. There was nowhere to go.

M. GELLER: If your controllers have a map, if you're -- I'm not sure if your producers have a map, but we are part of the Santa Monica Conservancy Mountain Range, and our communities is sort of at the base of that before the beach. And you just -- you would never think that the fire would have torn up the entire Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy, it's insane. It would actually have gone down to the community.

ACOSTA: I've been out there and, you know, I've hiked in those hills. I was just there in October. And it's staggering to me just as somebody who loves L.A. and has been out there many times to see what has taken place.

But in the meantime, Jaimie and Michael, thanks for just giving us a glimpse into what is happening with you right now. If there's anything more we can do or say to help you, please let us know. Keep us posted.

J. GELLER: Thank you so much.

M. GELLER: Thanks for having us. We appreciate it.

ACOSTA: All right. Give those boys a hug for us. Thank you so much.

All right, coming up, President-elect Donald Trump's controversial cabinet picks get ready for their moment up on Capitol Hill. CNN's Manu Raju is there.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- moment for 13 of Donald Trump's picks.

[10:15:01]

We'll have confirmation hearings in the days ahead. What are their challenges and can they get confirmed? We'll dig into all that when we get back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: 13 of President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks will be on Capitol Hill this week for their confirmation hearings before the Senate. They include Pete Hegseth for defense secretary and Marco Rubio for secretary of state.

CNN's Manu Raju is up on Capitol Hill for us. Manu, were any of these picks in jeopardy? What do you think?

RAJU: Right now, it appears that a lot of them, if not all of them, will be confirmed. But there're still questions about how they will perform at these critical, sometimes make-or-break moments during these confirmation hearings.

[10:20:03]

Do they stumble? Do they offer any ammunition to one side or the other?

But for the moment, the Republicans are in line, and that's really all that these nominees need in order to be confirmed. Remember, in order to get confirmed by the United States Senate, you need to have a simple majority of support. That means for the Republican-led Senate, which is 53-47, they can afford to lose. Three Republican senators on any party line vote at the moment. We're not hearing any opposition from a public and senators, many of them keeping their cards close to the vest.

But there are several ones that we're watching very closely this week, one of them, Pete Hegseth, coming before the Senate Armed Services Committee tomorrow. He has had a number of controversies emerge, including allegations of sexual assault back in 2017, allegations of excessive drinking on the job and mismanagement of a veterans' organization that he headed up. He has denied all of that. How does he perform when he is asked about that at the hearings?

As well as Pam Bondi, on Wednesday she'll go before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the nomination for to be the next attorney general of the United States. She's flown under the radar. But she'll face questions, particularly from Democrats, about Donald Trump's push to overturn the elections. How does she feel about that? Does she separate herself from Donald Trump?

And another one to watch too, Russ Vought, who would be the head of a very powerful budget committee in the White House, that budget office in the White House. The budget office will essentially help determine how to deal with regulations, pushes forward a policy agenda, on spending cuts and the like. He has pushed very conservative policies and Democrats will be targeting him.

But at the moment, it's uncertain whether any of these will stumble, any of these nominations will lead to any opposition from Republicans, which is why the Trump team is very confident that these nominees will be confirmed, maybe not on day one, but soon thereafter, unless something changes at these hearings this week, Jim.

ACOSTA: And, Manu, I mean, one of Trump's very controversial cabinet picks, RFK Jr., what do we know about his confirmation hearing?

RAJU: It has not been scheduled yet, Jim, but he has been trying to swage Republicans' concerns and Democratic concerns about his views about vaccines. Of course, he has falsely said in the past linking childhood autism to taking vaccines. He seemed to walk those back in those private meetings, even suggested that the members that he is, quote, pro-vaccine safety and he is not anti-vax. He said that to Republicans and Democrats alike.

Still, at the moment, no Republicans have come out in opposition to him. We'll see if that changes when it comes time to have his hearings. He'll have two before the Senate Finance Committee and Senate Health Committee in the coming days, Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes, how he answers those questions will be critical in all of this.

Manu Raju up on Capitol Hill, thank you so much.

And one week out from Trump's second inauguration, the president-elect is fighting to stop the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith's final report on his investigation. Smith resigned from the Justice Department, according to a court filing.

CNN's Paula Reid joins us now. Paula, are we going to see this report on January 6th? What do we think?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I don't know, Jim. Yes, I mean, right now, the Justice Department is under a deadline. It doesn't expire until later today. They have to wait until then before they release this. We're waiting to hear from the federal appeals court, the 11th Circuit, we might hear from the Trump appointed Judge Aileen Cannon.

There's a lot of unknowns. But there's not going to be a lot of news in this report, okay? We already had the committee investigation into January 6th, there was the Trump indictment. There was, of course, this unusual filing back in October where the judge allowed us to see a lot of evidence that you would never see before a trial.

So, most of the evidence that Jack Smith has collected is already really in the public square. So, we're not looking for news. The way I'm sort of looking at the potential release of this report is whether DOJ is really going to fight and be aggressive to just at least defend their work and get it out because the Trump team has been so extraordinarily successful in keeping this entire case at bay. If they're able to successfully block their release of the report, something that again has no news and is required by regulation, that would really be astonishing.

ACOSTA: Well, it's extraordinary because it's the Biden administration that is in charge until January 20th. And so if they're in charge and they have this report, I mean, it seems to me that it's a little odd that the courts could come in and block this from coming out. It's their report.

REID: Well, it was made very complicated, right, by Trump appointed Judge Aileen Cannon, who shocked the legal community over the summer by ruling that Jack Smith was not properly appointed. She tossed the classified documents case that is being appealed. It was widely expected that would be overturned. But that's another report that's out there. We're not expected to see that before Trump takes office because he had two co-defendants. Their cases are still active.

But, look, if the Biden administration doesn't let this report out of the Trump administration doesn't let this report out, Freedom of Information Act requests from journalists, other outlets, that is one possible way this information could see the light of day. And, again, that classified documents report, that's where there's going to be news.

ACOSTA: Sure. And the public has the right to know. I mean, they absolutely have the right to know. We should see that report.

Paula Reid, thank you very much.

[10:25:00]

Coming up, more on the deadly wildfires in California, President-elect Donald Trump looking to blame local and state leaders there. What about his response? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: As wildfires rage out of control in Los Angeles, misinformation is spreading across social media thanks in part to President-elect Donald Trump. He has used the disaster to point fingers at Democratic officials and make false claims about California's water policy and federal assistance.

Just last night, take a look at this. Trump reposted a meme on his Truth Social account replacing the iconic Hollywood sign with the phrase, Trump was right, as the hills around it burn.

[10:30:03]

Let's discuss with CNN Political Commentator, Democratic Strategist Maria Cardona.