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Trump Defends January 6 Pardons; Bishop Implores Trump To Have Mercy On the Vulnerable Groups, Trump Slams Bishop's Remarks; Wildfire Victims Struggling To Find New Home; Ichiro Suzuki Inducted Into The Baseball Hall Of Fame. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired January 22, 2025 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, Donald Trump defends his blanket pardons of January 6th rioters, even violent ones he once suggested would not go free.
Targeted immigration operations are underway across the U.S., places like schools and churches are no longer safe.
And Israel announces a large-scale military operation in the West Bank.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Thanks for joining us.
Donald Trump is wasting no time in flexing the enormous powers of the U.S. presidency, already pushing the limits to see just how far he can go. We've already seen an avalanche of executive orders and actions and controlling the levers of justice in America.
Now the president is defending his pardons and commutations for those who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Mr. Trump claims the defendants have viciously served years in prisons under horrible conditions. Some of those already released were serving more than a decade in prison for trying to prevent the transfer of power to Joe Biden after his 2020 election win. Others were convicted of assaulting police officers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER ALEXANDER, NBC NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You would agree that it's never acceptable to assault a police officer?
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Sure. These people have already served a long period of time. These were people that actually love our country, so we thought a pardon would be appropriate.
UNKNOWN: The leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were free following their pardons yesterday. Is there now a place for them in the political conversation?
TRUMP: Well, we have to see. They've been given a pardon. I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: More now from CNN's Jeff Zeleny reporting from the White House.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: One day after signing a series of executive orders and issuing a mass pardon of those January 6 defendants, the actions of President Trump is roiling the Republican Party.
Several Republican senators and indeed House members, many of whom were on Capitol Hill on that day of January 6, 2021, when there was an attack on the Capitol, are disagreeing with the action of this White House, saying that they believe the violent offenders from that day should not have received mass pardons.
President Trump was asked about that Tuesday evening. He offered a defiant response and he said he's a friend of the police.
TRUMP: I am the friend of police more than any president that's ever been in this office.
They've served years in jail. They should not have served, excuse me, and they've served years in jail and murderers don't even go to jail in this country.
ZELENY: So President Trump saying a pardon would be appropriate, it's hardly new. He's been saying it on the campaign trail for nearly two years. It's one of the things he indeed ran on.
But once it became official, not drawing a distinction between the violent offenders and everyone involved in January 6 that day, that is what sparked the controversy. But the president, for his part, showing no defiance or regret on that move.
It's an open question, of course, how long this will linger. The administration in its second day here at the White House is issuing many executive actions and moving very quickly on the legislative front as well. But this is hanging over the Trump White House on day two.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: President Donald Trump is rolling out a slate of new policies targeting birthright citizenship and mass deportations. The White House has just made it easier for undocumented immigrants to be arrested in places once considered safe zones like churches and schools.
It will also allow a fast track deportation process to be applied to any undocumented immigrant who can't prove they've resided in the U.S. for at least two years.
CNN's Ed Levandera shows us how one Texas town is coping with the knowledge that members of its community could soon be caught up in immigration raids.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
T.J. FUNDERBURG, PRINCIPAL, CACTUS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Good morning, Cactus Elementary.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SR. U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every school day at Cactus Elementary starts like this.
Moments of patriotism and reflection with a high energy dose of inspiration from principal T.J. Funderburg.
[03:05:06]
UNKNOWN: Why are we here?
UNKNOWN: To learn!
LAVANDERA: You do that every morning?
FUNDERBERG: Yes, sir.
LAVANDERA: When I looked out on the student body this morning, I mean, it's quite something to think that we're in the Texas panhandle and that's what your student body looks like.
FUNDERBURG: It's always very eye-opening to people that come here. We've got 13, 14 different languages, all these different cultures represented, and yes, we're up here in the heart of the Texas panhandle.
Everybody would think it would be farm and ranch and country and kids in cowboy hats and we've got just about a little bit of everything.
LAVANDERA: The population in Cactus, Texas is about 3,000 people, but the diversity is staggering. There's an African restaurant, Safari Restaurant and Halal Meat. There's an Asian grocery store.
There's a Mexican butcher shop. There's a Guatemalan grocery. There's also an Islamic center.
What draws so many immigrants and migrants here to a community like this is the work and it is brutal, back-breaking work.
There is a meat processing plant that runs 24 hours a day. There are dairy farms that run non-stop.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): These are the kinds of jobs that the United States' economy and food supply rely on every day. It's also the kind of work that only immigrants, by and large, are willing to do.
There are towns like Cactus, Texas all over the country. And with President Donald Trump promising to carry out mass deportations, a sense of fear and uncertainty looms over these streets.
LAVANDERA: What are you hearing specifically from people?
ELIZAMBETH OLIVEROS, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: They, well, they're scared. They don't know if they're going to be able to stay here. A lot of them have been here for decades. They've built their lives here. Their kids are here. You know, everyone they know is here.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Elizabeth Oliveros grew up in Cactus, the daughter of immigrants who became citizens and earned their living working in the city's meat processing plant. She went away to college, became a lawyer, and moved back to Cactus to work as an immigration attorney.
LAVANDERA: If there were to be mass deportations here in this city, what would happen to it?
LAVANDERA (voice-over): It'd be quite empty. I think there's a lot of people here that don't have status that keep a lot of the businesses, the smaller businesses around here running. So if immigrants leave, I don't know where they're going to find workers as hardworking as some of the immigrants.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): As we walked the streets of Cactus, it was clear that most residents, regardless of their immigration status, didn't want to speak with us on camera, and especially didn't want to talk about President Trump's deportation dreams.
UNKNOWN: You know, I don't like politics. I don't like.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The fear among many in this town and other agricultural communities across the country is that vital food production would be paralyzed and communities torn apart.
The meat processing plant here says it only hires people authorized to work. Under different management in 2006, the plant was raided by immigration authorities. About 300 people suspected of identity theft or being in the country illegally were detained, many of them deported.
Elizabeth Olivaros remembers the day clearly.
OLIVEROS: I was in elementary school, and I remember they had to keep us because they didn't know how many of us, our parents were gone, and a lot of my friends, their parents were gone. They got deported.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The children at Cactus Elementary are mostly oblivious to the political storms brewing outside these school walls. Principal T.J. Funderburg is bracing for whatever comes next.
FUNDERBURG: It's just the unknown that scares me to death.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): He says as many as half the kids in the school could have undocumented family members. These are the kinds of places where the reality of mass deportations could play out.
LAVANDERA: To the people who are going to be making these decisions about deportations, whether it's mass deportations, just broad or targeted, what's your message to them?
FUNDERBURG: Just, I mean, come talk to me. Come meet these kids. I think, you know, I know there has to be rules, there has to be checks, there has to be balances, but it can't just be paper.
This community of people that have come together, that are here now from all these different countries, all these different places, we can do amazing things.
LAVANDERA: Residents who lived in Cactus, Texas back in 2006 when those first immigration raids were carried out say it took the town more than a year to recover. Fast forward nearly 20 years, Cactus is a different place. With immigration cases that run the gamut.
People who have legal refugee status are here on green cards, have pending asylum cases, and some who are here undocumented. And it really speaks to the challenges that the Trump administration will be facing. And it's not as easy as waving a wand and just carrying out mass deportations.
These are complex and serious questions that the Trump administration will be facing.
Ed Lavendera, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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CHURCH: Meantime, a prominent Christian leader is imploring the U.S. president to, quote, have mercy on immigrants and LGBTQ Americans. The Episcopal Bishop of Washington delivered this pointed message to Mr. Trump during the national prayer service.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BISHOP MARIANN EDGAR BUDDE, WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL: Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God.
In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Earlier, CNN's Erin Burnett spoke with the bishop, and here's their conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT: All right, Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, the bishop at Washington National Cathedral, is now outfront. And, Bishop, I appreciate your time and your tone there, so serious and genuine.
You see him. He's stone-faced. He then looks down, but he's listening to every word you say. As you made that personal plea to him, were you looking at him in that moment and what kind of response were you perhaps hoping for in that moment?
BUDDE: I was. I was looking at the president because I was speaking directly to him. I was also, frankly, as you do in every sermon, speaking to everyone who was listening through that one-on-one conversation with the president, reminding us all that in the people that are most frightened in our country.
The two groups of people that I mentioned are our fellow human beings, and that they have been portrayed all throughout the political campaign in the harshest of lights that I wanted to counter as gently as I could with a reminder of their humanity and their place in our wider community.
And I was speaking to the president because I felt that he has this moment now where he feels charged and empowered to do what he feels called to do. And I wanted to say, you know, there is room for mercy. There's room for a broader compassion.
We don't need to portray with a broad cloth in the harshest of terms some of the most vulnerable people in our society who are, in fact, our neighbors, our friends, our children, our friends' children, and so forth.
BURNETT: So you spoke, I like how you use the word gently because it was gentle. I mean, it was intense and passionate, but yet it was gentle. It was not ugly or confrontational. It wouldn't expect it to be.
But, you know, these are hard things to talk about in that context. You spoke, obviously, about undocumented migrants, also the LGBT community, the two communities you're talking about. I wanted to play a little bit more of what you said and also, again, the president's reaction at that moment.
BUDDE: There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives. The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors.
I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.
BURNETT: What made you decide to say all that today? BUDDE: Well, these are the people that I know. These are not abstract
people for me. These are actual people that I know. So I wanted to speak on their behalf.
I wanted to present a vision of what unity can look like in this country that is transcending of differences and viewpoints and acknowledging our common humanity.
I wanted to speak in such a way that reflected that dignity and respect. But I also wanted to bring into that space the real humanity of the people that I was referencing.
BURNETT: Now, he was asked about that because obviously there was -- there were cameras in there. People saw that interaction and they saw it. He was asked about your service afterward. And here's what he said.
TRUMP: Not too exciting, was it? I didn't think it was a good service. They can do much better.
[03:15:00]
BURNETT: From him, honestly, Bishop, it's tame. He could have said much. He could have been much stronger than that. Obviously, he made his feelings known in that context. But we know, right, he'll say what he thinks and he could have said much more. What do you what's your response to him in that?
BUDDE: Well, I agree with you. It was a very muted response. I wasn't expecting. I keep my expectations low whenever I preach, Erin, I don't and I don't always. I can't always measure impact by body language or even what people say afterwards.
And so I have to let all of that go. I speak from what I believe I've been given to say and and and let it go from there. But I actually it was, it was a respectful response. He didn't like it. He said so. He said we could do better.
Some of the other comments I've received haven't been as kind or has been as muted, shall we say. And one of the things I was trying to get across is that we can actually have these conversations in a respectful way.
BURNETT: Yes, yes. Well, I can only imagine. But thank you so much for taking the time to talk about it and to be so thoughtful about it. Thank you so much, Bishop.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Later, President Trump slammed the bishop on social media and demanded an apology, he wrote, and I'm quoting here, the so-called bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a radical-left hardline Trump hater. She brought her church into the world of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone and not compelling or smart. Well still to come, details of Israel's large scale military operation
in the West Bank that Prime Minister Netanyahu says aims to eradicate terrorism from the air.
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CHURCH: Israel has launched a new military operation in the West Bank just days after the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect.
The Israeli military killed at least 10 Palestinians, including a child in the city of Jenin on Tuesday. Operation Iron Wall, as it's being called, is the latest escalation of Israeli violence in the area. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it's intended to, quote, eradicate terrorism there.
Meanwhile, as the Gaza ceasefire enters its fourth day, hundreds of humanitarian trucks continue to make their way into the war ravaged enclave, bringing much needed aid.
Our Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv with the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Three days into the ceasefire in Gaza, the agreement between Israel and Hamas does appear to be holding up. The people of Gaza are finally finding a renewed sense of safety after more than 15 months of war.
[03:20:01]
Hundreds of trucks loaded with much needed aid have begun entering the Gaza Strip every single day. And Hamas appears poised to release the next four Israeli hostages this coming Saturday.
But there are already questions about how long this agreement will actually hold up and whether Israel and Hamas can actually get out of that six week ceasefire, phase one of this agreement and into a much more enduring ceasefire, perhaps even an end to the war and the return of all the remaining Israeli hostages.
You heard President Trump saying that he is not confident that Israel and Hamas will get to phases two or three of this agreement. And in Israel, there are already voices calling for the Israeli prime minister to go back to the war in Gaza as soon as those six weeks are up.
Now, as the prime minister is facing that pressure largely from the right-wing of his government, he and the Israeli military are instead turning their attention to the West Bank, ramping up military operations there, launching what's being described as a large-scale military operation that has already killed at least seven Palestinians.
We've seen in videos from the scenes of armored vehicles and bulldozers entering the city, Israeli military vehicles, to be sure. And they are confronting Palestinian militants inside the city of Jenin, including members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who said that they have been confronting Israeli forces as they enter the city.
Now, this operation comes amid the release of Palestinian prisoners inside the West Bank and as Israeli settlers have been carrying out attacks against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, including setting fire to vehicles there.
Meanwhile, Israel's top general, General Herzi Halevi. He has submitted his resignation to the Israeli prime minister, citing his responsibility for the Israeli military's failures on October 7th. This resignation will be effective early March, and it marks the highest profile resignation in Israel, stemming from the failures of October 7th.
And interestingly, he is also saying that he believes a military investigation into the failures of the 7th are not sufficient. He says that there should be some kind of an investigative committee to look into the broad range of failures that led up to the events of that day.
Notably, the Israeli prime minister, who has faced these calls before for a state commission of inquiry, he is continuing to resist those calls. And unlike Halevi, he has not taken responsibility for the failures of October 7th.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Turkey is now observing a national day of mourning after a fire at a ski resort hotel killed at least 76 people and injured more than 50.
Many children are believed to be among the victims, as the resort was full of families visiting on a school holiday. Witnesses say some people jumped from their windows, others tied bedsheets together to escape the flames.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OMAR SAKRAK, WITNESS (through translator): We woke up to screaming, we woke up to shouting. We could only see smoke in the building at first. Then when the flames appeared, people all of a sudden started to jump with panic.
They tried to climb down using bedsheets. The bed sheets ripped as one person was trying to climb down.
MELVUT OZER, WITNESS (through translator): There was nothing we could do. There were some extra beds on the first floor, so we threw those so that they fall on soft ground if they jump. Finally, we saw the ones on the higher floors, but there was nothing we could do. We just watched. All we could do was cry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The cause of the fire is under investigation and nine people have been detained.
Just ahead, President Trump has missed his campaign promise deadline for bringing peace to Ukraine, but he did have a message for Vladimir Putin.
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Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump bragged that he could stop Russia's war in Ukraine on his first day in office. But the U.S. president has missed that self-imposed deadline and criticized Vladimir Putin for not making a deal to end the fighting.
As CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports, Ukrainians have heard the words, but they're looking for actions that will end the war.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON-WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: In a war where the unexpected has continually happened, Ukraine holding back Russia, vanquishing it at times as well, we've now seen President Donald Trump criticized in his first term for being too cozy with Vladimir Putin and his first comments since coming to power about the war in Ukraine starkly critical about the economic damage this conflict is doing for Moscow.
And that perhaps suggests that he might be taking a position that would be deeply favoured here in Kyiv of trying to negotiate some kind of peace from a position of strength.
PATON-WALSH (voice-over): Neither Ukraine or Russia got a mention here. But hours later, Trump gave reporters his most stark criticism yet of Putin's war.
TRUMP: He should make a deal. I think he's destroying Russia by not making a deal. I think Russia's going to be in big trouble. You take a look at their economy, you take a look at the inflation in Russia.
So I would hope, I got along with him great and, you know, I would hope he wants to make a deal.
PATON-WALSH (voice-over): He said Europe should almost double its defence spend and he would meet Putin soon.
TRUMP: He can't be thrilled, it's not making him look very good.
PATON-WALSH (voice-over): Rare criticism of Putin, the germ of a policy, economic warnings, pressure almost, all as Russia advances slowly but surely its top general visiting the latest ground captured Tuesday.
Trump's words long awaited and welcomed here in central Kyiv's fog. PATON-WALSH: All the talk of peace deals, the conditions for it, of
negotiations somewhat distant and theoretical from the real dangers people in Kyiv here go through every day, the sirens sounding so frequently and this vast sea of loss, clearly so many Ukrainians desperate for peace but also to see the sacrifice that's made yield some kind of future they can be happy with.
PATON-WALSH (voice-over): As the sea of grief spreads to fresh grass, hope is their only option.
Nazar is just back from the recruitment office.
Perhaps even in the coming days, he says, Trump should give more information about what he plans to do. But I don't believe in Trump alone. This is such a war that it will not be ended by the actions of one person.
Yulia is here to remember her son, Yevgeny, who died fighting two years ago.
Maybe we'll be given more planes and weapons to win faster, she says. We really hope so. We have great hope that he will help Ukraine.
Ukraine's president delivering a gentle dressing down of his European allies in front of their elite in Switzerland.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Let's not forget there is no ocean separating European countries from Russia. And the European leaders should remember these battles involving North Korean soldiers are now happening in places geographically closer to Davos than to Pyongyang.
[03:30:14]
PATON-WALSH (voice-over): As his forces fought to hold back Russia here in Donetsk, he reminded the European elite some of its governments were less powerful now than TikTok's algorithm.
Trump baiting Putin, Zelenskyy baiting Europe. Day one and change of the less expected sort is here.
PATON-WALSH: I make no mistake, this is simply the beginning of a process. And diplomacy is something which the Kremlin has used in the past distinctly to its cynical advantage, pursuing its military goals right while it sits at the negotiating table.
And so while Trump's first comments here suggest that the United States is not about to suddenly fold, there's a long road ahead here and it's a road in which the Russians are making incremental but steady and at times significant advances on the battlefield. That will dictate any final settlement.
And it's certainly souring the mood here in Ukraine with a sense behind that hope you saw from people on the streets of desperation that things need to change fast.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: David Sanger is a CNN political and national security analyst. He's also the author of "New Cold Wars. China's Rise, Russia's Invasion and America's Struggle to Defend the West." Good to have you with us.
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Great to be back with you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So on his first day in office, President Donald Trump told the assembled media in the Oval Office that President Vladimir Putin is destroying Russia by continuing his war in Ukraine and added that he's open to applying more sanctions on Moscow. He also indicated he will talk to Putin very soon.
What does all this signal to you and how far might Trump go to find a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine?
SANGER: Well, what the first thing it tells you is that he's intensely attuned to the fact that the world thinks he will do anything for Putin, that he will roll over to Putin. And he wants to show that he's tougher than that.
The second is this was the first time that we had seen Trump make an assessment that Russia had made an error in going into Ukraine. You may remember that on the first days after the invasion, President Trump said to domestic newscasters here that he thought that Putin had done a very smart thing.
And he was incredibly criticized for this. So now he wants to turn around and say, see, Putin made a mistake. And I'm sure he thinks that this will help drive Putin to the table.
CHURCH: And David, turning to the Middle East now, and President Trump has taken credit for the recent ceasefire and hostage release deal made between Israel and Hamas. But he's now indicating he doesn't expect that ceasefire to hold. What does that signal to you, given the president now has the task of overseeing phase two of this agreement?
SANGER: Well, he did show a remarkable amount of disinterest in it when he was asked about it. I can't believe that he wants the ceasefire now, in effect, to fall apart on his watch, because it will simply open him up to the Biden administration saying, we handed you a working ceasefire and you didn't pursue it.
Now, we did hear from Steve Whitkoff, Mr. Trump's special envoy for the Middle East. He spoke at the rally last night right after the inauguration, introduced the families of a good number of the hostages. He clearly wants to get those hostages out and the second phase of the deal done.
The question is how much pressure President Trump is willing to place on Netanyahu. And we simply don't know the answer to that yet. CHURCH: Indeed. And of course, David, an Israeli official has told CNN
that plans are in place for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Washington and meet with President Trump in the coming weeks. So what do they need to discuss at that meeting to ensure this ceasefire holds?
SANGER: Well, first, I think that tells you we're going to have an incredibly active set of summit meetings happening because President Trump has indicated an interest in meeting Mr. Netanyahu.
Of course, he's indicated a strong interest in an early meeting with Vladimir Putin. And he said that he and Xi Jinping have agreed to meet relatively soon. He did not say when on any of them.
[03:34:57]
For Netanyahu, I think the surprise was the weekend before last when Mr. Whitkoff showed up and really pressed him to sign the ceasefire deal and begin to get the hostages back. I don't think he was expecting that kind of pressure from the Trump administration.
And I think the question is, is he willing to keep it up, particularly if Netanyahu comes and makes a personal appeal?
As you've heard many times and we've discussed many times, to survive politically, Netanyahu likely feels as if he needs to keep some kind of conflict bubble.
CHURCH: David Sanger, always good to talk with you. Many thanks.
SANGER: Great to be with you.
CHURCH: First came the fires, now comes the housing crisis. When we come back, why many residents forced from their homes in Los Angeles County are now struggling to find a new one.
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CHURCH: Crews in Southern California are battling new wildfires, again fueled by strong Santa Ana winds. It comes days after wildfires ravaged parts of Los Angeles County where at least 28 people are now confirmed dead.
And now in a competitive housing market with limited options and concerns over price gouging, many who have lost their homes are struggling to find new places to stay. CNN's Natasha Chen has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
I opened up my curtains and all I see was orange, red, black smoke, everything. All the parking structure was on fire. So my instinct was to get out.
NATASHA CHEN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rosa Olvera escaped this Altadena apartment. ROSA OLVERA, LOST ALTADENA APARTMENT: I could literally feel my windows hot.
CHEN (voice-over): Covering her two daughters in blankets. They've been staying at an evacuation shelter in Pasadena ever since.
OLVERA: One day I was good with my daughters. Next day I don't have anything.
CHEN (voice-over): Her scorched two-bedroom unit cost her $2,400 a month. But now the single mom says similar units nearby are going for almost $3,000, which she cannot afford.
OLVERA: Those looking for larger single-family rental homes are also finding stiff competition and inflated pricing.
JACKIE SENIS, LOST PALISADES HOME: They chose a family that was willing to sign a three-year lease and pay one year full in cash over us.
CHEN (voice-over): The Los Angeles area's housing market was already tight before the fires. But now tens of thousands of displaced residents are looking at the same limited supply.
STACY BERMAN, LOST PALISADES HOME: You walk into these open homes, there's hundreds of people there. And they're just price cage. I mean, it's how much are you going to give me? How much are you going to give me?
CHEN (voice-over): By one estimate, rental data website Zumper shows average rents so far in January for houses in the city of Los Angeles jumped 42 percent compared to the average in December. And anecdotes of soaring rental prices have become commonplace.
[03:40:00]
HUGH ADAIR, LOST ALTADENA HOME: I feel lost. My wife feels lost.
CHEN (voice-over): Hugh Adair and his wife lost their recently renovated Altadena home now as they search for a rental.
ALDAIR: Yes, let's see here. $10,000 deposit. Who has that, right? Just had in the back pocket. Oh yes, let me just, here's 10 grand cash.
CHEN (voice-over): He says they lost out on a rental home when someone else bid $1,000 more a month.
Since the fires, California's price gouging statute has been in effect, prohibiting a price increase of more than 10 percent on things like food, emergency supplies, hotel rooms and rental housing.
Violators could spend a year in jail, be fined up to $10,000 plus civil penalties. Landlords can't get around this by encouraging a bidding war. They've now sent at least 200 warning letters to hotels and landlords who could be violating the law. But with enforcement just beginning and long-term scarcity of supply coupled with overwhelming demand, Olvera wishes she could tell landlords.
OLVERA: When things like this happen, that's when everybody comes together. It doesn't even matter what you have, because you can lose it.
CHEN: The California Attorney General's office tells me enforcement requires a lot of due diligence on their part. Now, by now, many listings that were potentially in violation of the law have been removed from rental websites. But in those cases, it's hard to say whether they're off the market or if they've been leased and at what price.
And when we're talking about bidding wars, it's hard to say what price the house actually leased for. The long-term effect, if people are paying more for rentals now, that may push rents higher in the future.
Natasha Chen, CNN, Altadena, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: In Major League Baseball, Seattle Mariners' great Ichiro Suzuki is now the first Japanese-born player elected to the Hall of Fame. He made his debut with Seattle in 2001, becoming the first Japanese position player to join the majors. That season, he was named the American League's Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player.
Overnight, the Seattle Space Needle was lit up in blue in honor of Suzuki's achievement. He was just one vote shy of being a unanimous selection to the Hall of Fame in only his first year of eligibility. Suzuki also played for the New York Yankees and Miami Marlins during his career.
I want to thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "Marketplace Europe" is next, and "CNN Newsroom" continues with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane in about 15 minutes. Do stay with us.
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