Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) is Interviewed about Trump and Congress; Nicole Maul is Interviewed about the American Red Cross; Wildfires Rage in Southern California; Kate Andersen Brower is Interviewed about Carter; Biden Grapples with His Place in History. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 09, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lack of water. You can't prepare enough for something like this. It's impossible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome back.

The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, poking fun at Donald Trump's proposal to rename the Gulf of Mexico. This was her suggestion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM, PRESIDENT OF MEXICO (through translator): Why don't we call it Mexican America? It sounds nice, right? Since 1607, the constitution of Apatzingan referred to it as Mexican America. We are going to call it Mexican America. It sounds beautiful, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Trump's idea to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America is just one of several new foreign policy ideas that he's put on the table and that are causing some backlash.

[06:35:06]

Leaders from Panama and Denmark reiterating their territorial sovereignty after Trump refused to rule out using military force to acquire both the Panama Canal and Greenland. Democrats say his proposals are all part of a larger strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Why is Donald Trump doing this? And I think the answer is, let's have a big distraction and several more questions so we don't spend more time on Pete Hegseth, the nominee to be the head of the defense department, so we don't spend more time on Tulsi Gabbard, who has been in the pocket of Putin. SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Donald Trump is in over his head. So, he's

doing what he always does in times like this, distract America with crazy ideas. Renaming the Gulf of Mexico may be a zany new idea, but it isn't going to help people save money at the grocery store.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining us now to discuss, Republican Congressman Zach Nunn of Iowa.

Congressman, great to see you again. Thanks for being here.

REP. ZACH NUNN (R-IA): Kasie, thrilled to be here with you. Thank you so much.

HUNT: So, you are a veteran yourself -

NUNN: Yes.

HUNT: Having served two decades or so in the Air Force. "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board looks at this this morning, and they say that the trick is figuring out when Mr. Trump is trolling and when he means it. They think he's trolling Canada. It's a muddle in Panama. But the Greenland is intriguing.

What do you think is real and what is trolling?

NUNN: Yes. Well, here's what I know. I know that the U.S. has severe, you know, national security aspects that have gone basically unanswered for the last four years here. And so, Democrats can get angry at the president all they want. But we know this much is true, we have multiple Chinese deepwater ports being built in Panama today. We have a direct threat from Russia against the continental United States, where Greenland is the overland path - or the airspace path. It's the land space in which we can protect our country.

The president is laying out a number of things. I think that the media likes to stir the pot on these things and, you know, try and box him in. And he has just given himself the latitude to be able to make sure that U.S. national interest is put first.

The other aspects of this, I think, are part of the vibrato of the team here, that the administration does like to raise the tenor on this. Most importantly, though, I know the administration coming in is very focused on a national security playbook that puts America at the center of defense for the country.

BOLDUAN: As a veteran, would you be comfortable with America using military force to take control of Greenland?

NUNN: Yes, I think the president's been very clear on this. He's just ruling out no limitations on this. And I think it's very important that there's a difference between suggesting he's going to invade Greenland versus being able to say he wants to keep his negotiating position open so that he can have a conversation in tandem with our allies to be able to deter actors like Russia over Greenland and China off the coast of the Panama Canal.

HUNT: Donald Trump, the president-elect, was on Capitol Hill yesterday meeting with Senate Republicans about how best to get this massive agenda through Congress.

NUNN: Yes.

HUNT: What do you think is the imperative in - from where you sit in the House Republican Conference -

NUNN: Yes.

HUNT: To get Donald Trump's agenda passed?

NUNN: Kasie, I think, you know, we spent this weekend here working with House and Senate members and the administration's team to move forward agenda items that were top priority for the American people. First amongst this is securing our southern border. This was passed in HR-1 last time by Congress. This is a ready round that we can fire immediately.

The second was, unleashing American energy. It helps drive down costs for every American. Whether you're spending six bucks on eggs or just trying to fill up your minivan, these are things that are important. We were able to pass that again in HR-2. This is something where we've shown great coalition.

And then making sure that we draw down the amount of government overspend. There's a huge way to do this. One, reduce our debt, but also grow our economy. And that's something we are seeing in the extension of the Trump 2017 tax cuts. This is something we want to be able to see extend.

I have a lot of faith in the reconciliation process. We can get all three of those accomplished by memorial of this year.

HUNT: Elon Musk, this morning, seems to have rewritten his goal for DOGE. He had previously said $2 trillion would be cut in government spending. We here at CNN have analyzed that, and it's very difficult to get there. He seems now to be revising that number downward to something closer to 1 trillion.

What do you think is realistic?

NUNN: I think, absolutely, we need to be cutting a lot at the federal government level, both the overreach, but it has to be done in tandem with growing the American economy. I mean the best stimulator to get us out of a $36 trillion debt is to be able to allow small families in Iowa, farms, communities to actually be able to grow their ability.

We have seen time and time again, all the way back to Reagan, to what Newt Gingrich was able to do, you know, with passing a balanced budget, to what Trump's been able to do is, we want a blue-collar boom that really helps grow the economy. And that's giving more Americans their tax dollars back in their pocket where they invest in their local community. So, I want to see that grow, as well as a cutback on just the vast

overreach we see coming out of Washington, D.C.

[06:40:00]

HUNT: Briefly, I want to ask you about relief for these wildfires out in California.

NUNN: Yes.

HUNT: Which is going to be something that inevitably is going to come to Congress. In previous decades, this was typically an apolitical thing.

NUNN: Right.

HUNT: Tornadoes could happen in Iowa, for example.

NUNN: That's right.

HUNT: So, members of Congress typically would support each other when - when their states went through something like this. But we've seen this be increasingly politicized in recent years.

NUNN: Yes.

HUNT: Do you want to see Congress support aid to California without regard? Do you think that President-elect Trump should take into consideration that it's a blue state, that there are political considerations, or should he not?

NUNN: Well, Kasie, first of all, for the thousands of Americans who lost their homes, it doesn't matter what political stripe you're from, you've lost your home. And I think as a guy from Iowa who saw one of my small towns, Greenfield, nearly wiped off the face of the planet, we want to make sure that Americans, in their time of need, have the support that they demand. It's one of the reasons we were able to pass $100 billion towards relief just this last month.

Now, I think the president's absolutely correct on this, though, is, it's not just a blank check. And in some areas we have seen a failure to be able to do the important things. Like we just noted here on water resource management, on being able to control forest fires by proper forest management.

I've got family out there helping fight the fires right now. I don't want any first responder to be out there in a dangerous way when the lead up to this has been a government that has been negligent. And, even worse, American taxpayers trying to help the relief of victims, knowing that it's just going to go back to the same bad practices that tragically helped lead to this situation.

HUNT: Do you think Donald Trump was too quick to criticize Governor Gavin Newsom considering the fires are still burning, or do you think he has a point?

NUNN: Yes, I think he has a long term point here on what precipitated this.

Now, we're in the middle of a disaster, and I expect that all hands will be on deck. As a military guy with 20 years, you know, as a colonel in the Air Force, I want to see a mission focused result, one that helps save lives and prevents the situation from happening again.

I think we can do two things at the same time here, effectively go after these fires, provide local, state, and federal resources to help mitigate it, while at the same time recognizing, before we give more dollars over to a system that's not working, we do the reform on the front end.

HUNT: All right, Congressman Zach Nunn, so grateful for your time this morning. Hope you'll come back.

NUNN: Kasie, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

HUNT: Thanks very much.

All right, coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, in just hours our nation will gather to honor a legacy of service. Today, America's 39th president, Jimmy Carter, will be laid to rest.

Plus, these stories just of utter terror as people flee the flames in southern California.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It got to a point where, in the Palisades, we were at a deadlock and the fire came down on my car on both sides. And the firemen started running in between all of the cars, screaming, get out and run! Get out and run! And people just abandoned their cars and people running down the streets with their babies and their dogs and running towards the ocean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:46:00]

HUNT: All right, we are now going to southern California. These are live pictures that you are looking at right now. Catastrophic wildfires have just caused unimaginable loss. And firefighters are still reporting zero containment with three of the blazes.

Our next guest, Nicole Maul, she is the national spokesperson for the American Red Cross. And she joins us now from an evacuation shelter in L.A.

Nicole, we're very grateful for you to take - for taking some time with us.

I'd love to hear what you're hearing from people who are coming in there, who are desperately looking for help from you. And we also know that this is far from over. NICOLE MAUL, NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON, AMERICAN RED CROSS: Well, for a

little bit of perspective, here in Los Angeles right now, it is still the 3:00 hour. So that means the folks that we're taking care of here at this shelter are really doing their best to try to get the best sleep that they can given the circumstances. As you can imagine, this is not an easy situation for folks with thousands of people evacuated, and we've got hundreds of those folks at shelters across Los Angeles County. This is a difficult time.

And as I've talked with folks who've been evacuated, as I've talked with fellow Red Cross workers who also have experienced evacuation orders themselves, what I found is it's - it's a difficult time, but the sense of community, the sense of rallying together, it really - it's inspiring. And even during this incredibly difficult time, folks are pulling together for each other. And I hear conversations where strangers are helping strangers. Strangers are comforting strangers. And we're - we're proud to be able to just help folks alongside their journey.

HUNT: Of course.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you most need right now as you try to help victims of this? Because there are also additional - we may have just lost Nicole there. We may try to see if we can get her back. But otherwise, we are going to thank her for the great service that they are providing in this time. As she discussed, so many people need so much from them right now.

Nicole Maul, thanks very much.

Let's go now to CNN's Julia Vargas Jones. She's live in Altadena. That is near the Eaton Fire.

Julia, what are you seeing this morning?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kasie, it's still very much an active situation. That fire still at 10,600 acres and 0 percent contained.

What we're seeing in street after street here in Altadena is scenes like this one, Houses that are completely ravaged by the fire, still burning next to houses that are still OK. I'm not sure if you can see that quite yet. It is still quite dark here.

But it also, I want to point out, it's as this fire that's coming through these constructions, then hits the fuel that's been growing. We had record precipitation two years ago, more or less, here in California. And that built all of this bush, all of this fuel for fires that now it's just - just waiting to burn. That's how this fire spread so quickly.

And we have been quite lucky until, you know, this week when these 100 mile an hour winds end up pushing all of this fire into neighborhoods like this one. Firefighters are still working tirelessly. They're still responding to some calls over here. What we are hearing also, Kasie, they're working 36, 48 hour shifts

and it's not enough. There are firefighters coming from Arizona, from Nevada, from Oregon. And all of this as other fires are in the Los Angeles area, not too far from here. You know, this really scary sunset fire in the middle of Los Angeles, completely surrounded by fire.

Now, we also saw a lot of resilience from this community, people helping each other, doing what they can with buckets, hoses to try and contain this fire from spreading even further.

Kasie.

HUNT: All right, Julia Vargas Jones on the ground for us this morning.

Julia, very grateful for you. Thanks very much for this.

[06:50:01]

All right, let's turn now to this story.

Today, former President Jimmy Carter will reach his final resting place. In just a few hours, Washington, D.C., will gather to say goodbye to the president, peanut farmer and humanitarian. Carter's state funeral at the National Cathedral expected to be attended by all the living presidents, including President Joe Biden, who will deliver the eulogy. President-elect Trump also expected to be there. He visited Carter as he lay in state in the Capitol yesterday. Later this afternoon, Carter will be laid to rest next to his beloved wife of 77 years in the place where it all began for him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT (August 20, 2015): Well, Plains is - is my home, you know. I was born there. My wife was born there.

When I got out of the Navy in 1953, I came back to Plains.

And then when I got through being governor, I came back to Plains. When I got through being president, I came back to Plains. And now, no matter where we are in the world, we're always looking forward to getting back home to Plains.

I would say the haven for our lives have been - has been in Plains, Georgia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining us now is Kate Andersen Brower. She's the author of "Team of Five: The President's Club in the Age of Trump," as well as "The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House."

Kate, good morning. I'm so grateful to have you.

You have, of course, written the book on this, and this is going to be a very rare situation in the age of Donald Trump at this Carter funeral to have all five of these living presidents together in the same place.

What does it mean to you, as you understand the arc of history, for this most exclusive of fraternities?

KATE ANDERSEN BOWER, AUTHOR, "TEAM OF FIVE" AND "THE RESIDENCE": We haven't seen them together since 2018, George H.W. Bush's funeral. And, you know, I think it's important in a time when there's so much divisiveness to see this as a country, that there are these sacred traditions that go beyond politics.

I think especially I'm looking forward to hearing Steve ford, Gerald Ford's son, and Ted Mondale, Walter Mondale's son, read eulogies that their fathers had promised to deliver at Carter's funeral because Carter and Ford were very, very close, even though they were rivals during the election. And then Mondale was the first vice president who really made - because of Carter, had an office in the West Wing. You know, Carter, among many things, professionalized the role of the vice presidency.

So, it's really paying homage to not only Carter, but these beautiful friendships and relationships. And I think we could all use that about now.

HUNT: When you reflect on Carter's legacy, we were struck - and, in fact, let me - let me play this for you. This was an interview in 2010 that Jimmy Carter did with Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes," kind of reflecting a little bit on his presidency. He, of course, was a one term president, just as Joe Biden is going to be a one term president.

Let's watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLEY STAHL, HOST, "60 MINUTES": They told you that you had an image of weakness. You write that they told you this.

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Sure, I did.

STAHL: A lack of esteem in the public eye, and they just beat up on you.

CARTER: I think they were telling me that the public image of me was that I was not a strong leader, that I should not only arouse support from affection, but also from fear.

STAHL: So did you change? Did you start to operate from fear?

CARTER: Maybe a little bit more than I would have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Kate, what do you make of - of that exchange there? And how do you understand Carter's legacy here in the present?

BROWER: Well, you know, he said he wouldn't lie to the American people, and he didn't. I think we - we kind of lionize his post- presidency and look at his presidency as - as a bit of a - a failure. But it's certainly not fair to say that he did a lot of incredible things, including, of course, the Camp David Peace Accords.

But, you know, he talked to the American people in his crisis of confidence speech and said, you know, you have to - we have to take energy conservation seriously. You know, people shouldn't be so obsessed with consumerism and - and constantly buying things. And he almost was delivering a sermon. And his faith, his Christian faith, was obviously very important to him. And I think the American people bristled at that because there was a sense that he was telling them what to do. But in his mind, he was speaking to them, you know, as an equal. As somebody who knew what it was like to have - have times in his life where he didn't have much money.

And so, I think that it backfired on him, that - that maybe we don't necessarily want a president who's always completely honest with us.

HUNT: Maybe we don't.

BROWER: Yes.

HUNT: Kate Andersen Brower, very grateful to have you on the show today.

BROWER: Thank you.

HUNT: Thank you very much for your perspective.

BROWER: Thanks, Kasie.

And do join us here on CNN as the country mourns the loss of the 39th president.

[06:55:03]

Special coverage of the state funeral of Jimmy Carter begins today at 9:00 a.m. Eastern right here. I will be at the National Cathedral for all of that.

Following Carter's funeral, President Biden will remain in Washington after scrapping his last overseas presidential trip to visit the pope. He is instead staying in the United States to focus on the fires scorching California.

Now, as Biden prepares to end his term in just 11 days, how is today's funeral impacting him? Our own Isaac Dovere spoke with a former Biden aide who said this,

quote, "is seeing all this coverage of Carter being a one-term president impacting his psyche about the last days of his presidency? The man set out to be president from the day he ran for office. Did he accomplish what he set out to accomplish? Is his legacy good enough for him?"

And our panel is back.

Isaac, tell us a little bit more about the - the sort of imagery or the symmetry here perhaps is the word, is pretty striking.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and as I wrote in the story that's up on our site, this is a weird situation because Joe Biden is going to, today, attend a funeral that will look a lot like his own funeral, whenever that day comes. Every president makes a plan for his funeral. That's part of what happens. And it - this is getting to see what it will be like. And he'll be delivering the eulogy at it, at a moment when he is coming to the close of his presidency.

But not just the close of the presidency. He's been in politics his entire life, 55-year career, that is about to end. And Joe Biden, I think, I've spent more time with him over the years than maybe some others, but I think most people can see that he is a reflective person. He thinks about things in a deep way. Death has been a constant in his life. And as he thinks about this ending here, that's coming on January 20th, an ending that he did not want to his political career or to his presidency, not just because he didn't get re-elected to another term, but that Donald Trump is coming back, this is all coming on him pretty heavy.

HUNT: Meghan Hays, you, obviously, worked in the Biden White House for quite some time. And you know President Biden.

This also comes as he, you know, he reflected in an interview with Susan Page that he's not sure what's next for him, how he'll be at 86 years old. A pretty striking admission for a lot of reasons. But, of course, when you set it in the context of a eulogy and his own potential future presidential funeral, it's - it's quite a lot.

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: Absolutely. And also the Biden family just welcomed his first great grandchild yesterday. So, the circle of life is continuing here. So, it is a pretty reflective time for him.

I do think, you know, he always would say, when my dad retired is when he passed away. And so I think that the president's going to focus really quickly on what he's going to do, you know, to continue and what his legacy will be post-presidency. It probably will not be as long as Jimmy Carter's, as we see. But, you know, I do think that he'll want to do something. He'll want to still be involved.

You know, he had the Biden moonshot, the Cancer Moonshot, excuse me, before, and I'm sure he'll be pretty active in that as well and some other things that he's pretty passionate about. But I do think he - this is a reflective time and you can't help but reflect on this time.

ELI STOKOLS, CO-AUTHOR, "POLITICO WEST WING PLAYBOOK": I was talking to some people in the White House about why the president has planned to spend some of his final days in office visiting with the pope, and they acknowledged that this is a real - this was going to be a really personal trip for the president, a person who wears his catholic faith on his sleeve. And it was, they admitted, largely about his need to feel at peace with not just his four years in office, but 50 years in public life. And there is an acute awareness of an ending here, a threshold, where you're ceding power to Donald Trump. This has to be a difficult moment for, as Meghan and Isaac said, a reflective person, and a difficult moment at the end of a long career. And I think part of why he wanted to meet with Pope Francis was to just be able to feel a little bit more at peace with his career, what he did, and, obviously, the responsibilities of being president are going to deny him that meeting, at least in the short term.

DOVERE: And the specifics of it being Jimmy Carter, who was the first presidential candidate that Joe Biden endorsed as a senator, who was also a one term president, left in circumstances that Jimmy Carter didn't want, that they stayed friendly over the years. It's not just any presidential funeral or any former president that's died here, but it's - it's all of that that's coming into this, too.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, for Democrats, I mean, this is the first failed presidency since Carter. You know, Clinton got reelected. Obama got reelected. Democrats, I think, judged those things to have been successes.

But, you know, Carter - Carter was a failed president. And - and the image and the sort of caricature of Carter has hung over the Democratic Party for a very long time. If you're Joe Biden, you must be wondering, is how I'm leaving office going to hang over my party?

[07:00:03]

Not only did I not get reelected, but I also brought back Donald Trump stronger and more influential than ever.

DOVERE: I interviewed Jimmy Carter in 2018, and I said to him, how do you feel about being the example that's always brought up of a failed president? He said, well, you know, I don't like to be compared unfavorably to anybody, but, you know, it's politics. That's the way it goes.

And I think the question here is, you know, going forward, how much does Joe Biden take on that role in political conversation.

HUNT: Yes.

All right, thanks to all of you for being with us today. Thanks to all of you at home for joining us as well.

I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.