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CNN This Morning

30,000+ People Ordered To Evacuate In Southern California; Trump Muses On Land Grabs Of Canada, Greenland, Panama Canal; Meta Makes Sweeping Changes To Content Moderation Policy. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 08, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:34]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Wednesday, January 8th.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

Devastating wildfires. A state of emergency in Los Angeles as a life threatening windstorm fuels the flames engulfing southern California.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Panama Canal is vital.

We need Greenland for national security purposes.

Canada and the United States, that would really be something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Redrawing the map? Donald Trump lays out a plan to expand the U.S., refusing to rule out using troops to seize territory.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA): It's an ambitious agenda. We're starting today with the Laken Riley Act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: First order of business. The Republican-led House passes their first major immigration legislation of the new Congress. But it does face shaky ground in the Senate.

(MUSIC)

HUNT: All right. It is 5:00 a.m. here on the East Coast.

Here is a live look out west where fierce, fierce wildfires are currently racing through the Los Angeles area. We have been tracking this overnight with major wind gusts expected through the early morning hours there.

This is a live look at Los Angeles at this hour. It is 2:01 a.m. Pacific Time. We had heard as we were going to bed on the East Coast last night, that some of the most dangerous hours in California, we're going to be playing out right now as those fierce Santa Ana winds have made it all but impossible for firefighters out there to try to battle these blazes, instead simply focusing on getting people out and to safety.

We saw really striking images of cars lining Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, people abandoning them as they tried to flee these fires. They engulfed many multimillion dollar mansions in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, many celebrities among those who have homes in that area.

So this is going to be something we are going to be tracking throughout the morning.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It is wonderful to have you with us.

And again, these terrifying, devastating wildfires are burning across Los Angeles. There is a state of emergency. Thousands of people being threatened. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God,

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: These evacuation orders are widening overnight. The flames being whipped by those fierce winds. There are more than 30,000 people at least forced from their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the worst fire I've ever encountered. I've been within three within a mile, and I've never had to get evacuated. So I was really surprised that the fire moved so quickly this time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were running down. You could see palm trees just like random palm trees on fire, so I'm sure leaves are burning and falling down. And it's literally apocalyptic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Apocalyptic.

Thousands of acres already burned, countless homes, businesses, cars torched. We know that at least one firefighter was seriously injured.

The flames burning the equivalent of five football fields per minute at one point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHEILA KELLIHER, CHIEF, LAFD: People understand how bad a hurricane is or how bad a tornado is. You know you can't stop those. The wind is so strong, there's nothing you can do. You wait till it passes through and then you fix what's left, right? Well, add fire on top of that. And that's what we're up against.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: And this just in, a third fire, it's called the Hurst Fire. It erupted overnight in the Sylmar neighborhood, that is just northwest of San Fernando. And that fire has burned through 100 acres. An immediate evacuation order has been issued for the area.

CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam has been tracking the weather conditions this morning.

Derek, what do we know? What are firefighters facing as this blaze races across these enormously densely populated areas in and around L.A.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. Kasie, you know, I want our viewers to understand just how quickly these fires can spread. It is at a moments notice that an ember can travel across a road, across the expanse of a highway, start additional spot fires, and then erupt into a raging inferno.

That's what we're experiencing right now, over western L.A. and into Ventura Counties. The Palisades Fire in particular. This is a dangerous situation.

And we have this video coming out of the L.A. County Fire Department of extreme fire behavior.

[05:05:01]

That's how they labeled this video. And you can see it just with the rapid swirls in the fire itself, actually kind of creating its own weather patterns here in and around these fires.

So this high potential for rapid fire spread, that is what they are experiencing. Changes in wind direction, long range spotting, meaning the embers are traveling several hundred yards because of the intense winds, obviously, a life-threatening situation.

So, currently tracking three large, active, out of control wildfires that are all three at zero percent containment. I highlight this Palisades Fire because this is the one that we saw overnight and late last evening when cars were abandoned on Palisades Avenue. They're just trying to get out of harms way.

Here's a perspective that's very interesting. I believe this is from the Cal Fire side. So what you're looking at is Santa Monica right here. So into western L.A., this is the Palisades Fire. And if we zoom in a

little bit closer, all of those areas in red are the regions that have already burned. But notice the population. This is all areas of homes. This is where people live or are attempting to evacuate.

And you can see the topography here making it just extraordinarily difficult to fight this fire, because it doesn't take much for one of the embers from this canyon to jump over that road and start a new spot. Fire, start an additional fire past that. That's how it flames out.

You can see the wind gusts here, just as we warned yesterday, nearing 100 miles per hour, the peak of the winds through this morning and our critical fire weather continues for western L.A. and into Ventura Counties through the course of the morning.

This really, truly a nightmare situation here in southern California -- Kasie.

HUNT: Derek, what do you know at this point about when those winds may subside? I mean, when may people get at least a little bit of relief and firefighters, perhaps an opening to try to do more here?

VAN DAM: Okay. So through the next six hours is the most critical point of this firefighting venture. The ongoing wildfires, the potential for new fires to erupt certainly there, we call that an extremely critical, particularly dangerous situation. But that level starts to get lowered as we go through the course of the day today, because the winds are anticipated to relax, conditions will change.

But that doesn't mean that the dangerous situation doesn't continue. So as we go forward in time, it is just a matter of how the weather and the wind directions unfold. Well have to keep a very close eye on that actually happening and what actually occurs.

But regardless, the next six hours is the most important time frame to try to attempt to get some sort of handle on the ground with the firefighting operations here in western Los Angeles County.

HUNT: And we were looking just a second ago at live pictures of these flames burning. Derek, I know. There they are again. That's this is again live in Los Angeles right now at this hour. It's -- it is really, really difficult to look at.

And again, if anyone are -- anywhere near these evacuation areas who happens to have turned us on, be worried about this. Of course, we know that authorities are urging people to heed those warnings immediately, as all of this is so incredibly unpredictable.

Derek, you're going to stick with us throughout the next couple of hours as we continue to cover this breaking story. We also -- so thank you very much for that.

We also want to show you a CNN crew had to make a quick escape last night when they saw flames on both sides of the Pacific Coast Highway. They had, of course, been covering those wildfires in L.A. Let's watch CNN's Natasha Chen explaining how they got to safety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): We were there from about noon until about just after 6:00 p.m. local time, when we had finished our last live shot. And I guess what, we hadn't quite surmised was exactly how bad it had gotten south of us on Pacific Coast Highway. And that's the way we came in to get to our spot to cover the fire. And we knew that we had heard reports that the flames jumped the highway. But I guess we had not seen with our own eyes just exactly what that meant and what that looked like for us getting out of there.

So at the end of the night, you know, were I -- we pulled up to a fire truck and kind of waved at a firefighter and said, hey, where do you think is the best way for us to leave to get out of here? He kind of shook his head at us and said, well, I guess you go south. And so that's what we did, pretty quickly realizing that there were flames on both sides of the highway. They were embers flying over the lanes of the highway.

I spotted an emergency vehicle and decided our best bet is to just follow that car to follow right behind him as closely as possible. If he's driving, then he's probably knowing the best way out. So as were driving behind this emergency vehicle, I'm hearing an explosion on my right. There are houses on fire right up against the road on the left. And as I mentioned, embers flying.

[05:10:00]

And so at this point, I'm just holding my breath, and I can feel the heat from inside the car and just watching the embers fly across the windshield.

So, not ideal in that kind of, you know, we get put on a lot of, kind of risky assignments. And in this situation, we had to make a calculated risk for the best way to leave. And I think, you know, thankfully, we got out of there and we got a real look at just the level of destruction and, really, the fear that a lot of those residents might be feeling if they're looking at those images on the news, if they've evacuated.

I can't imagine they're -- they're wondering if their house is the next one on fire, if they have anything to go home to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Just so difficult there from our Natasha Chen, who thankfully is safe.

All right. We're going to continue, of course, to cover these fires throughout the morning. It is overnight in L.A. Some of the most dangerous hours happening there right now.

Straight ahead here on CNN this morning, we'll also talk about how the Laken Riley Act passed the House with bipartisan support. But there are narrow margins in the Senate that could complicate its future.

And Meta's sweeping change, of course. Their decision to show fact checkers the door and ease rules that combat hate speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, COMEDIAN: I'm a little concerned. I mean, this is like Chipotle announcing that it's ending health inspections. Do you know what I'm saying? But it's an exciting time at Meta. I mean, Facebook is turning into Twitter and apparently Mark Zuckerberg is turning into Jack Harlow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:04]

HUNT: All right. From Greenland to the Panama Canal and Canada, Donald Trump pitching a major land grab when he takes office. During his first press conference of the year, the president-elect mused about how the U.S. would achieve those goals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Can you assure the world that as you try to get control of these areas, you are not going to use military or economic coercion?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: No. You're talking about Panama and Greenland? No. I can assure you on either of those two, but I can say this. We need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military. I'm not going to commit to that now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Well, Trump senior was talking about Greenland and Florida. Trump Jr. was traveling to the territory. He included a bobblehead of his father and a message from the president-elect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP JR., SON OF PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP: He says hello. We were talking to him yesterday, so he says hello to everyone in Greenland.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Back in Florida, on the topic of annexing Canada, Trump ruled out military force, but seemed to think that there might be another way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Economic force, because Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like. And it would also be much better for national security.

Don't forget, we basically protect Canada.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining us now to discuss, Margaret Talev, senior contributor at "Axios".

Margaret, good morning.

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

HUNT: I have to say, when I was watching this unfold yesterday, I was not quite expecting it to be. Well, we're not going to rule out military force for the Panama Canal and Greenland, but here we are.

What do you think we saw yesterday from the president elect? And how much of this is real and how much of it is just bluster?

TALEV: I mean, I think you've asked the big question is like, what is the intent of all this? Is he actually going to pursue expansionist moves that could involve the U.S. military and, you know, reorder the world and be some, like, weird throwback to a couple hundred years ago? Or is this about, you know, negotiations?

He did take the use of military force off the table when it comes to annexing Canada. So it sounds like that's not going to happen, 51st state talk notwithstanding, and it has been said and I think smartly so, that if Canada were to become a state and just to be clear, its not going to become a state.

HUNT: I think the quote from Justin Trudeau was not a snowballs chance in hell. Yeah.

TALEV: But it would also make California seem like moderate. So, it's about 41 million people. It's larger than California and the nation of Canada, the sovereign nation of Canada, far more liberal than the United States. So that would be sort of undermining Republican electoral math.

So I think maybe move Canada off to the side. But if you are -- if you're Donald Trump and you're looking at Russia's moves in recent years, Chinas threats in recent years, you're looking at Brexit and what happened there, you do see that there are some powerful nations in the world where voters get sick of their own governance situation, or where large powers like China and Russia just do whatever they want or threaten to do whatever they want and see if they can get people to move.

And it feels like he's trying to take a page, or the idea of a page from some of those countries and, and try to use it tactically or strategically. But the truth is, nobody really knows right now. Like what -- where is this all leading? And what is going to happen as a result of it?

And we've also seen such a blurring already before he takes office of his family's investments in business interests all over the world, including in the Middle East, with the appointments that he's making to office and the policies that he is floating, that it is also possible that we're going to see some Trump family business alignments around these strategies completely separate from governance and U.S. policy.

[05:20:10]

So I think it's too early to say. We don't know. This isn't normal compared to the last, I don't know, dozen or so presidents that we've seen. But it's -- I think we don't really understand yet where the strategy is going.

HUNT: Margaret, I also want to talk about another breaking story out this morning, which is President Biden did a sit down exit interview with the "USA Today's" Susan Page. There -- "USA Today" has said this is the only print interview he has planned, but I want to really point out one question that she had for him, and she said, she asked, do you believe that you, President Biden, could have won in November?

Here's what Biden said, quote, its presumptuous to say that, but I think, yes, based on the polling that and then she followed up and she asked, do you think you would have had the vigor to serve another four years in office?

Biden says, I don't know. Who the hell knows? So far, so good, but who knows what I'm going to be when I'm 86 years old?

I mean, striking honesty, but also, he was telling the American people that he could do it by saying, I'm going to run for reelection.

TALEV: Yes. And I think so. I think that bit encapsulates kind of the emotional drama, trauma, torture, to some extent that that President Biden is experiencing in these final weeks in office is that there's clearly still this part of him that thought I could have won if my party hadn't forced me off the ticket.

There's no polling that suggests that that's, you know, the prevailing likelihood. But he obviously feels that way. And that's -- that must be very difficult for him.

I think the -- excerpt that you just talked about is going to be what gets a lot of attention, a lot of attention in the next 24 hours. But what's really, really interesting is when he was asked two things basically like, what are you worried about with Donald Trump and beyond the democracy stuff? He said he's worried that Trumps going to undo some of the climate stuff, and that he's worried that he's going to do some of the drug -- price prescription drug protections that he put in place for Americans with chronic illness and for older Americans.

So I think it's a really interesting interview. It gets -- actually gets in the policy, too, but I think everyone is going to focus initially on the age question.

HUNT: Yeah, for sure. But I'm glad that you highlighted it because those are things that are going to impact people where they live.

Margaret Talev, thanks so much for being with us this morning. Appreciate it.

TALEV: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING: Meta announcing sweeping changes to how it moderates content. Why the new policies will make it easier for users to post and potentially experience hate speech.

Plus, apocalyptic wildfires are ranging in Los Angeles, forcing thousands from their homes. We'll bring you the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:27:34]

HUNT: All right. We are looking live now at southern California right there. Three out of control wildfires are burning thousands of acres in and around Los Angeles. Fire crews on the ground say there is no possibility of containing the fires at this hour.

As winds near 100 miles an hour in some places, as people have been fleeing their homes overnight, they got stuck in traffic. They were forced to abandon their cars. What you're seeing now are bulldozers coming in to clear them so that emergency vehicles can get through. Some of these homes are owned by celebrities.

And the actor Steve Guttenberg lives in the Pacific Palisades. He left his home to help people fleeing the flames.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE GUTTENBERG, ACTOR: I got out of my car and I started to try to help people because people were just coming down the road. I was helping people in wheelchairs, and there were people that didn't have -- their feet were dragging on the floor. There were mothers who were hysterical.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Steve Guttenberg there.

The winds were so fierce that at times the Palisades Fire is blazing through five football fields a minute. We're going to have live updates for you on this throughout the morning, as some of the most dangerous hours out there in southern California are transpiring right now through early this morning, as those winds again have made it impossible for fire crews to focus on anything but simply trying to save lives they're having. It's almost impossible to battle these flames in a meaningful way right now.

All right, but let's check in on some other stories. It is 28 minutes past the hour.

Here's your "Morning Roundup".

No more fact checkers at Meta. Instead, you'll see on Facebook, Instagram and Threads a community notes system that lets other users call out what they think may be false or misleading. President-elect Donald Trump believes he played a role in this change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Meta, Facebook. I think they've come a long way. I watched it, the man was very impressive.

REPORTER: You think he's directly responding to the threats that you have made to him in the past --

TRUMP: Probably. Yeah, probably.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Meta also quietly relaxed some rules around hate speech. Among those changes, women can now be referred to as property.

District Judge Aileen Cannon blocking the public release of special counsel Jack Smith's final report on his investigations into President-elect Donald Trump. That prevents the justice department from publishing the report until a court of appeals reviews an emergency motion filed by Trump's.