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CNN This Morning
Deadly Wildfires Rage In Southern California; Trump Urges GOP Senators To Move Quickly On Broad Agenda; Soon: Jimmy Carter's Funeral At National Cathedral. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired January 09, 2025 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:35]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Thursday, January 9th.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is our retirement. This is our nest egg. This is where we moved in when we got married.
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HUNT: Apocalyptic scenes in southern California. Wildfires tear through the region for a second day, charring neighborhoods to the ground.
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MAYOR KAREN BASS, LOS ANGELES, CA: We are still facing strong and erratic winds. We are very much in an active firefight.
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HUNT: Not letting up. The intense winds fueling the flames, burning out of control.
And --
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had a great meeting. It is great unity, whether its one bill or two bill, it's going to get done.
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HUNT: Cuddle up. Donald Trump meets with Senate Republicans to plot out a strategy that could make or break his legislative agenda.
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HUNT: All right. It's 5:00 a.m. on the East Coast. It is 2:00 a.m. out west. This is a live look at Hollywood, California, as neighboring areas in
L.A. continue to battle devastating wildfires.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
And we do begin this morning with those scenes of devastation unfolding in southern California. Deadly wildfires raging across Los Angeles County. Most of them remain out of control.
The latest fire breaking out near the Hollywood Hills late last night, putting some of Los Angeles, most famed landmarks in harm's way. So far, at least five people have died in the wildfire outbreak, and there are now several major fires burning across the county that are fueled by winds which have at times gusted up to 100 miles per hour.
Evacuations, which some residents describe as chaotic, are underway. The gridlock getting so bad in some places that evacuees have abandoned their cars and continued on foot. More than 130,000 residents impacted by evacuation orders, and more people need to be ready to leave.
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CAPT. ERIK SCOTT, LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT: Right now, people are very awake to the -- to the potential and if you see smoke, you smell smoke. Get into that. Ready? Set. Go. If you live in the brush area, you should be in the set absolutely right now.
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HUNT: The toll of the destruction already coming into focus in places like the Pacific Palisades, where at least 1,000 structures have gone up in flames. This makes the palisades fire alone the most destructive to ever occur in Los Angeles County. Among the buildings lost, three schools, two elementary schools, one high school badly damaged or destroyed by the blaze. The scale of it all leaving residents in shock.
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AVERY GRANT, PALISADES RESIDENT: My neighborhood is entirely burnt down. My elementary school is probably burnt down. My high school just burnt down. And my middle school might burn down.
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HUNT: The destruction far from over. CNN's Nick Watt has more on how these fires have devastated these communities.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just have one bag to pick.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No time, Mom. Just get out of the house.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just look at that view out her window. And this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, let's get out of here. We tried, we tried, bro.
WATT: Approximately 155,000 people have been ordered or advised to evacuate.
SHERIFF JIM MCDONNELL, LOS ANGELES COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT: That makes the difference between living and not.
WATT: Flames hopped major roads, including the fabled Pacific Coast Highway.
CHIEF KRISTIN M. CROWLEY, LOS ANGELES CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT: We're absolutely not out of danger yet with the strong winds that continue to push through the city and the county today.
WATT: Those strong Santa Ana Winds were forecast. We knew something was coming, just not this. Officials say they prepped for maybe one or two fires.
CHIEF ANTHONY MARRONE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: There are not enough firefighters in L.A. County to address four separate fires of this magnitude.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm acting calm, but I'm really very upset inside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This year we knew with zero rain that one big windstorm, and we were toast. It seems like a lot of the homes here they're burning because of embers that have landed in bushes and are lighting.
WATT: Wind gusts in SoCal hit 100 miles per hour, driving flames through bone dry brush and homes. Utter devastation in the desirable neighborhood of Pacific Palisades.
This is Palisades Village, the now barely recognizable sashay downtown. We were here last night as those winds were picking up.
[05:05:04]
In the early hours, the fire hydrants here ran dry.
JENISSE QUINONES, CEO, LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND POWER: We were not able to fill the stands fast enough, so the consumption of water was faster than we can provide water.
WATT: The Palisades Fire already among the 20 worst in California's recorded history, and 15 of those have hit in just the past decade. As our climate changes and our planet warms.
MCDONNELL: This is a tragic time in our history here in Los Angeles, but a time where we're really tested and see who we really are.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WATT (on-camera): Pacific Palisades still burning. This community has lost hundreds, maybe thousands of homes, and also its infrastructure. The library, the theater, the school, the bank, the grocery stores -- gone.
Back to you.
HUNT: Our thanks to nick watt for his reporting there.
Lets bring in Ariel Cohen now. He is the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Los Angeles.
Ariel, very grateful to have you on the show this morning. What is the status of the conditions around battling these fires? And what can residents expect as this continues into the next day?
ARIEL COHEN, METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, LOS ANGELES/OXNARD: First of all, I want to say on behalf of the National Weather Service that our hearts go out to everyone who has been impacted by these fires. These fires are going through, raging through our own communities in our area, and it is heartbreaking to see what has happened. We know that the loss has been truly catastrophic and extensive across the area.
You know, we're here standing by our partners in the emergency operations center in the Los Angeles area, make sure that were working together to foster public safety as we go forward. We are past the peak of the destructive windstorm component of this event, with those 80 to 100 mile an hour wind gusts being in the past at this point.
Nevertheless, strong Santa Ana winds do continue across the region and will continue for at least the next couple of days. They are becoming increasingly confined to wind prone areas from the San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Mountains, all the way through the Santa Monica to the Malibu coast area.
And with these winds remaining in the 30 to 50, occasionally 60 miles per hour range and very dry conditions, very significant amount of fuel loading available for these fires to burn through, we continue with critical fire weather conditions and red flag warnings as we head through tomorrow.
So while we don't have the same extreme level of a destructive wind storm going on, we still are expecting fires to grow rapidly and explosively at times as this is continues to be a very strong wind event across the area. Everyone needs to be at a high state of readiness.
WATT: Ariel, can you talk a little bit as well about the air quality that were seeing in southern California and how the winds and the wind direction is going to impact how worried people should be, who are perhaps not evacuated necessarily because their home is at risk. But who could be facing significant issues if they breathe in the air?
COHEN: These fires have large footprints and the winds are causing the smoke from the fires to extend over a broad area that's transporting all that smoke. Overlapping smoke plumes, in some cases creating a very dense smoke situation.
And so those with vulnerability and susceptibility to the smoke and the particulate matter from the fires are at a very significant risk for breathing problems or other health related ailments, as there's just so much smoke in the air across the area, taking all the precautions that you possibly can, being in well-ventilated areas, wearing masks, making sure you're doing what it takes to be able to breathe as healthily as possible is going to be key as were looking for multiple compounding days of the smoke ahead.
HUNT: Ariel, the other piece of this, of course, is the big picture these red flag warnings this time came in January, which my understanding is relatively unusual. The amount of water rain that had fallen on southern California just unbelievable drought conditions.
Can you talk about how that contributed to it? And what is the long term outlook as the climate continues to change?
COHEN: You know, a big factor for all of this was in the past couple of years before the onset of prolonged dry conditions, we had record breaking rain across the area, the highest rainfall total over a two year time span at the Los Angeles downtown observing site since the late 1800s.
[05:10:21]
And so, so many fuels, vegetation brush grew from all of that precipitation that -- and when the rains turned off, went dry and there was a whole lot more of it for these fires to be able to burn through.
This is a very unique circumstance. Ultimately, wildfires have affected southern California for, you know, for a long time. We're seeing this happening now and everyone needs to be prepared for conditions as we've experienced, because we know this area is prone to wildfires. And the more you do to prepare, the more you do to know where to go and have multiple ways of receiving emergency alerts, you're going to be more likely to be able to protect yourself and your families, because seconds count in these life and death situations.
HUNT: Indeed they do. Ariel Cohen, we're thinking of you. I'm sure your family is personally affected, as well as all of the people that you work with and the entire community in southern California. I really appreciate you taking some time to be with us this morning. Thank you.
COHEN: Stay safe.
HUNT: All right. Straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING:
Republican led immigration legislation heads to the Senate. While the bill gains some traction with Democrats, will it be enough to pass the upper chamber of Congress?
Plus, one bill or two? Republicans strategize about how to get the ball rolling on Donald Trumps agenda and a hellscape in Los Angeles, the latest conditions as residents flee from the most destructive wildfire in L.A. history.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't seem real. My -- my neighborhood that I grew up in, in the rec center used to be basketball at. Everything is just gone, and I just want to wake up from this bad dream. And it doesn't seem real.
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HUNT: All right. With just 11 days until he takes office, president- elect Donald Trumps message to Republican lawmakers is clear. Pass his agenda as quickly as possible. During a 90-minute strategy meeting with the Senate GOP, Trump talked about his plans for the border raising, the debt limit, and his desire to balance the budget, but when it comes to actually getting it done, he'll leave that process up to Congress.
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TRUMP: We had a great meeting. There's great unity. Whether its one bill or two bill, it's going to get done one way or the other. I think there's a lot of talk about two, and there's a lot of talk about one, but it doesn't matter. The end result is the same. We're going to get something done that's going to be reducing taxes and creating a lot of jobs and all of the other things that you know about. But this was a really unified meeting.
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HUNT: All right. Joining us now to discuss, Stef Kight, politics reporter for "Axios".
Stef, good morning. Thanks for being here.
You were up on the Hill all day yesterday. I can understand why Donald Trump is basically saying, I don't really care how you do it, just get it done. I think the question is, what is the best way if you are Trump? What's most likely to be successful? Help us understand why this one versus two bills is actually a thing.
STEF KIGHT, POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS: One of the problems here is that the House has one argument, and the Senate has another argument. On one hand, the House Speaker Johnson thinks that it will be easier for him to corral his caucus and get something passed. If its one bill this too big to fail kind of strategy if everything's in there, if there's something you don't like, he thinks he can get everyone on board and that will make it easier for him.
On the other hand, Majority Leader John Thune and many people in the Senate who I talked to think that they need to do two bills and move faster, especially on the border element of this package. They say, you know, the tax conversation is going to be really complicated, especially when you're dealing with, you know, lifting SALT caps and some of these very controversial tax policies.
And they want a win quickly. They want to move on the issues that they think that they can all get support on faster on the border in particular. And there's also some nervousness from people I've talked about that, you know, Trump may say its fine to do one big bill, but then as the weeks and months go on without any wins on the border, that he may get impatient and they want to move faster to prevent that.
HUNT: Yeah. Can we talk about the border for a second? Because you reported at "Axios" that there was an extensive conversation with the border advisor, the immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, and Senate Republicans. What did you learn about what they're outlining?
KIGHT: Yeah. So Stephen Miller did kind of outline some of the details of the executive orders they plan to do on the border and immigration. I had multiple sources in the room who told me that they kind of said that they were going to be 100 executive orders, maybe not all on immigration, but that's kind of the number they're telling them and unclear if they mean specifically executive orders or executive actions from agencies as well.
And part of that included Stephen Miller walking through the details of some of the immigration proposals, specifically one that several sources mentioned to me was re-implementing Title 42, which, if you remember, this was the pandemic policy that essentially, you know, points out concerns about illnesses coming across the border and allows officials to very rapidly deport, expel migrants at the border without giving them the chance of seeking asylum.
HUNT: Stef, where are Democrats in all of this? Because you did see some Democrats support the Laken Riley Act over in the House. It's uncertain in the Senate. You've also had John Fetterman, Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, talking about some of what Trump wants to do in a way that might raise some eyebrows.
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KIGHT: It's clear that there are several Democrats in the House and in the Senate who feel the need to reach across the aisle and get on board with some of these issues, especially the immigration issue after the 2024 elections. Fetterman is the clearest example so far. He has expressed eagerness to get on board, not only with the Laken Riley Act, which will get a vote on later today, but also on issues like ICC sanctions.
We are seeing Democrats, especially those moderate Democrats, in states that Trump won, especially those up for reelection in 2026, being much more willing to maybe vote with Republicans on some of these early bills.
HUNT: All right. Stef Kight for us this morning, very grateful to have you on the show. Thanks for being here.
KIGHT: Thanks for having me.
HUNT: All right. Ahead here on CNN this morning those wildfires continue to rage in Los Angeles County. How firefighters are battling these new mega fires.
Plus, a final farewell to Jimmy Carter, all five living American presidents are expected to attend his funeral later this morning.
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[05:25:43]
HUNT: All right, 25 minutes past the hour.
Here's your "Morning Roundup".
President-elect Donald Trump asking the Supreme Court to halt Friday's sentencing in his New York hush money cover up case, arguing he is entitled to full immunity.
Meanwhile, Justice Samuel Alito, confirming reports that he spoke to Trump by phone on Tuesday, the day before Trump asked the court to intervene. But Alito says he only discussed a former law clerk of his who is seeking a job with the incoming Trump administration.
Today, the Senate holds a procedural vote on the first bill in the new Congress, the Laken Riley Act. The GOP led immigration bill would require detention for undocumented migrants charged with theft or burglary. It has gained traction among some Senate Democrats, but it's unclear if it's enough for final passage. The bill is named after a Georgia student killed by an undocumented migrant last year.
In just hours, a funeral service will be held at the Washington National Cathedral for America's 39th president, Jimmy Carter. There he is live, lying in state at the United States Capitol. He will then be transported to Plains, Georgia, for a private service.
Five current and former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden will attend.
Special coverage of the state funeral of Jimmy Carter begins today at 9:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. And I will see you there for that from the National Cathedral.
All right. Ahead here on CNN this morning, forced to evacuate, devastating wildfires raging in L.A., forced thousands to evacuate, leaving many wondering, do they have a home to go back to?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How was the pack? And there were still -- my neighbors were still in their houses. We couldn't breathe anymore. And we had -- we had all the filters going in the house.
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