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CNN This Morning
New Major Wildfire Breaks Out In Los Angeles; Today: Trump To Be Sentenced In New York Hush Money Case; Winter Storm To Make Impact From Texas To North Carolina. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired January 10, 2025 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:37]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday, January 10th.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The life that you had is just gone.
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HUNT: Wide-scale destruction. California communities scorched, residents trying to pick up the pieces, wildfires continuing to burn.
Plus --
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to appeal anyway just psychologically because frankly, it's a disgrace. This is a long way from finished.
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HUNT: A last effort falls short. The Supreme Court blocks Donald Trump's bid for a delay, clearing the path for sentencing in his hush money cover up conviction today.
And --
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SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I'm the senator for everyone in Pennsylvania and my state picked Donald Trump as president.
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HUNT: Breaking the norm. Democratic Senator John Fetterman accepts an invitation to meet with Trump at the president-elect's club.
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HUNT: All right. It is 5:00 a.m. here on the East Coast. This is a live look at the Capitol dome on this Friday morning here in Washington.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
We'll begin with the latest from southern California, where deadly wildfires continue to rage out of control for a fourth morning overnight. The fight against a new major fire intensified. The Kenneth Fire is now burning in western Los Angeles, along the border with Ventura County.
Helicopters and firefighters are dropping precision strikes of water to try to douse the flames. But the fire has already grown to more than 900 acres. And this is just one of several major wildfires that have been raging across L.A. County, are still going at this hour, the two largest fires are still not at all contained.
And at least 10 people have lost their lives in the fires, but local officials say it's still too soon to tell how much that number could grow. The threat remains dire in the hours ahead.
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ADAM VAN GERPEN, LOS ANGELES CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT: We're going to have to be prepared because we're hearing some weather reports from National Weather Service that there might be some more red flight condition coming up next week. So that's --this fire is far from over.
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HUNT: Some hope emerging this morning as residents surveying burned neighborhoods in Altadena found a stray dog alive in the rubble. They carried him to safety, managing to save something, anything from the inferno.
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RICK MILLER, RESCUED STRAY DOG FROM RUBBLE: It's called caring for each other. And like everyone needs help right now, sorry for crying, but it's really emotional seeing like, my friends lose their houses and people losing their animals. And so you try to help each other out.
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HUNT: CNN's Nick Watt has more stories of survival and a look at what's next.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, there's the red plane swooping in to save us.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sadly, a little too late for this fleeing family. This morning, we found what's left of their home. Nothing.
Thousands of homes have been lost across the county, plus businesses and more than $50 billion worth of damage.
But the winds finally eased. So now they can attack these flames from the air. All last night we heard the planes are reassuring sound in a fire, but winds will pick up again, blow through Friday night and get stronger again next week.
More than 6,000 personnel now fighting the worst fires in the history of this great city.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sewer, water, your power system and the transportation system have all been significantly damaged.
WATT: We know the depth of the devastation. We can see it, the death toll. Well, it's just too early to tell.
SHERIFF ROBERT LUNA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY: At one point, we'll be able to do a more thorough search of these impacted areas. Some of them look like a bomb was dropped in them, where we will be able to bring in canines and other things to help us, hopefully, not discover too many fatalities. That's our prayer.
WATT: Forty-three acres burned in Hollywood last night. Hollywood, chaos in such a tight urban environment.
In Santa Monica, a sunset to sunrise curfew kicked in last night as the Palisades Fire threatens. So far across L.A., 20 alleged looters arrested, accused of preying on houses left standing.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shame on those who are preying on our residents during this time of crisis.
WATT: Here in Pacific Palisades, where entire neighborhoods are just gone, arson investigators are today on the ground.
And the post-mortem is already underway. Did the L.A. mayor's cuts to the Fire Department budget hamper the effort?
MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES: There were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation.
WATT: And that loss of water in the hydrants here in the Palisades at the peak of the blaze, Governor Gavin Newsom visited again today.
REPORTER: Why was there no water in the hydrants, Governor?
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: It's all literally --
REPORTER: Is it going to be different next time?
NEWSOM: It has to be.
WATT: But for neighborhoods like this and the people who once lived here, now what?
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HUNT: Really difficult.
Officials fear that more wind and dry conditions will continue to complicate firefighting efforts into next week.
CNN's Anderson Cooper spent much of the day on the front line with firefighters near Malibu in Topanga canyon. He gives us a look at the work they're doing and the challenges they face.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As of this afternoon, the Palisades Fire, which we are right now on the northern edge of, is the one that concerns fire crews. Most obviously, they are battling all the fires that are going on. You can see a helicopter that's used to drop water flying over this area. We're in Topanga right now.
And what is happening here is there are two smaller fires which are moving up this hill and have been over the last hour or so. The firefighters here have been watching this, just tracking its progress as they prepare.
Over the ridge, there is a community. There's residential community, there's homes. That is of course, what they are trying to defend.
This is just one small part of the Palisades Fire, obviously. But what they are trying to do for the entire Palisades Fire is use bulldozers, in some cases using shovels, whatever they can to build a perimeter around the fire.
So we've seen -- we've seen three drops from these helicopters of water just on this one spot in the last ten minutes. There's a number of helicopters with water circling, trying to find the best locations for them to actually put down some water.
But this is a persistent fire that's been moving up this mountain. It looked like the helicopters had put it out, but it keeps flaring up again. There's also spotter aircraft, spotter helicopters which go around trying to assess where it is. They should put water down.
Over on this ridge, a large crew of firefighters, those are actually inmates who have volunteered to learn firefighting skills.
They are working, clearing the you see the road there on, that's a road likely created by bulldozers earlier to kind of create a fire line.
They are now widening that road, clearing out more underbrush, and then they will move to other locations.
But this is a very active spot. This is the northern edge of the Palisades Fire. And there are certainly because the wind has died down today, they're able to get a lot more air assets in the sky and a lot more water coming down. They've dropped a lot of water from helicopters over the last hour or
so. It seems like the wind shifted and suddenly, the fire just erupted.
CHIEF JEFF GILBERT, WILLIAMS FIRE PROTECTION AUTHORITY: Exactly. You know, afternoons they get the wind shifts up here. So that's exactly what's happened. And they had to vacate the -- the line that we thought were going to put in. So back to a contingency line, come down around these houses and just try to cut this bowl off. You guys are doing incredible work.
COOPER: Is this the worst you've seen?
GILBERT: We're from northern California, so this is a little bit different down here.
COOPER: There's another fire now. There's a residential community right over here, but there is another fire, as you can see on the other side of it.
So there's a lot of different areas that crews are trying to work on. They're trying to kind of build a defensive perimeter around the entire part of this northern edge of -- of this fire.
But it is -- it is a very dynamic situation. It is changing. The good news is the wind has died down. They're able to get a lot of these air assets.
But, you know, just watching this one little tiny part of the Palisades Fire seeing numerous water drops on it. And yet the fire comes back. So it is -- it's a very tough, tough battle right now.
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HUNT: All right. Tough indeed.
Of course, our thanks to Anderson Cooper, who has been on the ground reporting out all of this.
All right. Straight ahead here on CNN this morning, a Supreme Court justice nominated by Donald Trump sides with liberal justices blocking the president-elect's bid to halt his hush money conviction sentencing.
Plus, with inauguration day right around the corner, a Democratic senator signals some openness to the president-elect.
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And Californians facing new realities as evacuated residents start to try to return to what once were their homes.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just pure devastation. I've never seen anything like this before. This is the second time we've had to evacuate since I moved here ten years ago, but this just blows everything out of the water. It's apocalyptic.
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HUNT: All right. Hours from now, just 10 days before he's sworn in, Donald Trump, the first convicted felon to be elected president, will face sentencing in his New York hush money cover up case.
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The Supreme Court denied Trumps emergency request Thursday to delay the sentencing, meaning he'll become the first person convicted of a felony to assume the presidency. Following the decision, Trump attacked Judge Juan Merchan, who has already said he will not impose jail time.
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TRUMP: We're going to appeal anyway, just psychologically, because frankly, it's a disgrace. It's a judge that shouldn't have been on the case. So I'll do my little thing tomorrow. They can have fun with their political opponent.
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HUNT: Two of the court's more conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined the three liberal justices, making this a 5-4 decision.
Trump expected to appear virtually later today.
Joining us now to discuss is CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson.
Joey, good morning to you.
Were you at all surprised about this, especially the fact that Amy Coney Barrett, who was tapped by Trump for her slot on the court, sided with the liberals and Chief Justice John Roberts in this decision?
JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yeah, Kasie, good morning to you. You know, from a legal perspective, I was not surprised. From a political perspective, I was.
What am I speaking about from a legal perspective? This decision is right on the merits. And that's where courts should be in terms of it impairing his ability to conduct his transition. It's Trump I speak of. We see him there. It does very little. He's appearing for a brief appearance. The judge has already indicated, Kasie, that he's not getting jail time or anything else, and it allows Mr. Trump to proceed in his appeals.
And so that's proper with respect to any errors made by the trial court judge that can be handled in the normal course of an appeal, as anyone could. So from a legal perspective, I thought the decision very brief is right on the law.
From a political perspective, we know that were at an all-time low in terms of what people believe about institutions. Okay. Amy Coney Barrett, she was appointed by Trump. She'll go along with him.
Judge Roberts, okay, he's another Republican. He'll go along, too. Here we go again, a court who's just political.
So I think it was a big deal for the rule of law. It's a big deal for respective institutions. It's a big deal for the judiciary, the Supreme Court, to be independent and to do its job, which is to make rulings on the law devoid of politics.
HUNT: So, Joey, take us through what we're going to see today. This, of course, set to be virtual. And it seems like Trump does have to appear. What are you expecting?
JACKSON: Yeah. So he has indicated that he will appear, you know, as an open question to me whether he would even participate in the proceedings. I think now that the Supreme Court has weighed in, it certainly gives it more of the impromptu of authority, right, that the court has in New York to conduct this proceeding.
So what is this proceeding of which I speak? It's a sentencing. And normally, Kasie, at his sentencing. There's real high drama. You have a prosecutor indicating what they think a sentence that would be appropriate. You have the defense indicating what they believe would be most appropriate.
You have a judge reflecting upon both of those views, which are usually at odds, and then you have the pronouncement of a sentence. Here, it's somewhat anticlimactic. Why? Because the Judge John -- excuse me, Judge Merchan, in his opinion, had already indicated right in saying that I'm not dismissing this case, we're proceeding to sentencing, but I'm not giving you jail. I'm simply allowing you in sentencing you to an unconditional discharge.
That means there's no penalty at all. I'm allowing you to be sentenced, and then Trump can proceed in, appealing as he will. The underlying decision, the evidentiary issues pertaining to what the judge allowed in the case and didn't allow.
So, for purposes of today, to your question, it's probably the most anticlimactic sentencing well ever see where the judge says unconditional discharge. It's over. We're done. Trump will then proceed to appeal. We'll see what appellate courts do moving forward, Kasie.
HUNT: All right. Fair enough. Still, I think worth remarking on the historic nature of what's set to play out today, even though it may feel anticlimactic, as you note.
Joey, let me ask you about something else that we learned yesterday. A federal appeals court ruled that Jack Smith's final interference report can be released. This is, of course, the election interference that the final set of findings that the last word that were likely to hear from him on this. What's next? Do you expect a version of that report to be released to the public?
JACKSON: So I do, right? Although we know that there certainly could be more appeals as it relates to that Department of Justice guidance, Kasie. Provide for a report to be released to the public concerning what Jack Smith, the special counsel, would have found. The nature of those findings, the evidence involved, what it means to the public, what it meant to the rule of law.
And so, yes, I mean, that's the standard course, and it should be. Now, there are two cases, as we know.
[05:20:02]
There's election interference. Number one, pertaining to Trump. There's classified documents. Number two pertaining to Trump and two other defendants who worked with him.
And so on, in terms of the election interference, it should be public. I think we'll see it, though there would be appeals in terms of the classified documents case, because there are other two defendants now involved. It could impair their rights. And so we know there'll be a delay in terms of Garland -- of course, he's the attorney general and special counsel, Jack Smith releasing that.
So they'll still be legal maneuverings. I think ultimately at the end of the day, the timing is uncertain. We'll see both in my view.
HUNT: All right. Joey Jackson for us this morning -- sir, always grateful to have you. Have a great weekend.
JACKSON: Thank you, Kasie. You too.
HUNT: All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING: devastation across Los Angeles. Firefighters racing to put out several raging wildfires. The new warning from officials.
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HUNT: All right, 24 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.
Victims of the new year's attack on Bourbon Street, filing a lawsuit against the city of New Orleans. The suit claims the city and two contractors failed to protect the area with proper security barriers. Fourteen people were killed in the truck ramming attack. The New Orleans mayor's office has not yet responded to CNN's request for comment.
J.D. Vance officially resigns from the Senate as he prepares to assume the office of vice president. Ohio's Republican governor is expected to announce Vance's replacement next week. Sources tell CNN the states lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, is the leading contender.
A winter storm growing in strength as it drops snow, ice and rain across the South. Nearly 2,000 flights already canceled this morning, most in Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte and Nashville. Despite the wintry weather, Texas and Ohio state will still face off in today's college football semifinal, tailgating fans outside the Texas stadium. They seemed unbothered by the cold.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The weather is a non-factor for us. We're a true and true diehard, born and raised Longhorns. You got to be wired differently and only true Longhorns are wired like that.
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HUNT: All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING: the Senate getting closer to passing their first major bill in the new Republican majority. And several Democrats expected to play a significant role in the potential passage.
Plus, we are continuing to track the most destructive wildfire disaster in Los Angeles history.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just devastation because these are good people. Nobody deserves this, to be honest with you. But this is -- you can't -- you can't -- you can't quantify this. This is crazy.
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