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CNN This Morning

Brock Long is Interviewed about the Wildfires; Former Presidents Gather at Carter Funeral; Fetterman to Meet with Trump; Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 10, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:07]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.

Five wildfires delivering more pain and devastation this morning to the people of Los Angeles County. Paris Hilton posting a video of the charred remains of her Malibu home, one of more than 10,000 structures gone, burned to the ground. At least ten people have been killed since the flames broke out earlier this week. One of those fatalities was a beloved father and grandfather, 82-year-old Ron - Rodney Nickerson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said, he'll be fine. I'll be here when you guys come back. And he said his house would be here. His house is here, and he was here, too. He was in his bed when I found him.

The last thing he verbally said to me was, I'll be here tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Some Californians have been able to return to what's left of their homes, and what they've seen has been horrifying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's Armageddon. I'm driving through a war zone right now and I don't even know what to say. I'm speechless. I'm shocked. I'm just so sad for our devastated community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Former FEMA administrator Brock Long joins us now.

Sir, thanks so much for being here.

Obviously, we're still in the disaster response phase of the - or the, you know, the active firefighting phase of this. But as this continues, this rolling disaster is just getting bigger and harder to recover from. I mean, what other types of disasters have we, as a country, has FEMA and the entirety of our government coped with in the past? And do you think we're prepared to deal with the challenge ahead?

BROCK LONG, EXECUTIVE CHAIR, HAGERTY CONSULTING: Kasie, it's truly heartbreaking. You know, we're seeing far too many of these types of disasters. And FEMA's in an impossible situation. They have an impossible task ahead of them. I think the Trump administration, Congress needs to sit down with experts like me and other experts at the state and local levels to really talk about how we build resilient communities going forward.

[06:35:00]

And I know this is not going to help the heartbreaking situation right now that's taking place in L.A., but we have to incentivize communities to start implementing proper land use planning, the highest levels of building codes. How can they ensure their infrastructure? We have to get the insurance companies back to the table to understand how we can buy down risk in these communities so that people can access insurance.

The situation is far greater than what FEMA can handle. And so we have to have meaningful reform.

And, Kasie, one of the things that bugs me is that right now there's over ten different bills inside Congress to revise FEMA. How do we get it down to one bill that reforms emergency management and really highlights incentives for communities to do the right thing. And when they do them, how do they get greater access to education grants, transportation grants? How do we incentivize communities to do the right thing and rethink our public awareness campaigns that are falling woefully short over the last decade or two?

HUNT: Sir, can you talk for a second about what needs to happen with the insurance companies in particular? Because obviously a lot of people lost their policies even right ahead of this in January when the new year turned over. But also, I mean, the way that natural disasters are getting worse and worse, it's making it really hard to have structures in some of these places considering what might happen to them. I mean, what is the right balance? What do we need to do?

LONG: Well, first of all, we have to find the right balance and compromise. You know, in some cases, insurance industry is pulling out of vulnerable areas that we continue to populate, and rightfully so. But how do we use the infrastructure improvements and jobs act funding, the post Covid funding? You know, nobody is having an intelligent conversation on how we use that funding to really buy down risk in communities, to get the insurance companies back to the table. And until we do those things and incentivize the latest ICC or International Code Council building codes, we're going to continue to see these problems get worse and worse as the hazards increase or change.

HUNT: All right, Brock Long. Sir, I'm always grateful to have you on the show. I do hope you'll continue to join us because this is going to be a story we're going to be covering for a long time. Thanks very much.

LONG: Thank you, Kasie.

HUNT: All right, let's turn now to what we saw yesterday. Remarkable scenes through the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter. It was a rare time when all five living presidents gathered side by side. And we saw their interactions. Their vice presidents were also there. Donald Trump in the same room for the first time since January 6, 2021, with his former vice president, Mike Pence. You can see in this video there, Pence stood to greet Donald Trump. This is a slightly different video here. But Pence's wife, Karen, yes, she stayed seated. She did not greet the president-elect. A few moments later - here it is. Here's the moment. Let's watch it. So, there you go. Donald Trump shakes hands with Mike Pence and Melania as well, as Karen Pence remains seated by his side. Karen Pence did shake the hand of Barack Obama and several of the other former presidents and first ladies.

It wasn't, though, all icy reception for Trump. What appeared to look like a moment of bromance going viral. Trump and Obama seen having a lighthearted chat. At one point, he even got a laugh out of the 44th president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT: I didn't realize it, how - how friendly it looked. I saw it on your wonderful network just a little while ago before I came in, and I said, boy, they look like two people that like each other. And we probably do. We have little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don't know, we just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Our - my panel is back.

Donald Trump seems to really have enjoyed watching the video of his interaction with Barack Obama. Pretty remarkable.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, look, we would be better served as a country if we got this version of Donald Trump more often. And I think generally the idea that people who are on two different sides of the aisle can talk to each other and be civil, particularly at something like a funeral, should not be something that is so far-fetched and lost in our public discourse.

So, look, I would - I was just saying in the break, I would really love to see there's the kind of TikTok phenomenon of the lip reader, the people who watch like celebrity interactions and lip read. I would love - somebody get on that and let's see what they were saying -

HUNT: My guess is we're just behind on TikTok. Somebody's probably already done it. But who knows?

BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: After 2016, Donald Trump didn't get the normal honeymoon that a president would get. He didn't - his victory was treated as illegitimate by many Democrats. There were hundreds of thousands of Democrats in the streets the day after he was sworn in. It would be better if this time he's treated like every other president is treated when they're sworn in, and you'll get more of that Donald Trump.

HUNT: Well, I mean, I think he was in this case, but, I mean, the Pence moment, you know, Donald Trump supporters were chanting, hang Mike Pence the last time they were near each other.

[06:40:00]

Sorry, Molly, jump in.

MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes, I mean, if I ran into someone at a funeral who I thought had tried to kill my husband, I probably wouldn't shake their hand either.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes. Yes.

BALL: I mean as somebody - somebody tweeted that this was like the - the political equivalent of a real housewives reunion with, like, complete with all the, you know, gossip and backbiting and interpersonal dynamics. And it really did kind of feel that way.

But, you know, one of the - the sort of theories about Donald Trump, and I am not a psychiatrist, is that he's always just wanted to be accepted by the elites that he - that he decries, right? That all of his -

HUNT: The kid from Queens wanted to be OK in Manhattan (INAUDIBLE). Yes.

BALL: Yes. Yes. That it all comes from - and - and without, you know, saying I necessarily endorsed his perspective, that it's all - it all comes from this sort of inner insecurity about being on the outside looking in. And now that he's in the club, he loves it. And you can tell that he enjoys being accepted in that way. And - and it does calm him down a little bit.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: And I think, you know, to take him at his word, he might well get along with everybody and he might actually like all of the other presidents. Who knows what happens in that very elite club.

I will note, however, that he has quite aggressively gone after every single one of our living presidents, including George W. Bush, in quite pointed terms. Now -

TODD: But Barack Obama went after him too. It might have even provoked - provoked him to get into politics at all.

WILLIAMS: There's - there's - right. And Barack Obama may personally like Donald Trump, too. This is the bizarreness of politics, which is that they behave this way at funerals and maybe in private they actually do like each other quite a bit.

BEDINGFIELD: But let's also, like let's not equate Barack Obama made a joke that Donald Trump couldn't take - WILLIAMS: Right.

BEDINGFIELD: With Donald Trump making a sustained - waging a sustained campaign to say that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. I mean these are not two comparable lines of attack.

HUNT: Well, and Michelle Obama, notably, was missing from this proceeding.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely.

HUNT: Because, I mean, it's been kind of reported that she's often felt more anger around some of the race-based attacks that they endured from Donald Trump.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes. Yes. Yes.

HUNT: Brad, there did also seem to be a little bit of ice between Trump and George W. Bush on display. They did not appear to shake hands at the beginning. What - in some ways, that was the frostiest - setting aside Karen Pence, that was the frostiest.

TODD: Well, Trump has been a sustained critic of both Bushes, which a lot of it is unfounded in my view. But he has - he - they sort of epitomize the establishment that he's sort of raged against. You know, George Bush -

HUNT: Look at that belly tap that Obama got. Bush walks right by Trump, ignores him and taps - like, look at that.

TODD: Oh, the belly tap is the best. George W. Bush is the man. That is the man.

WILLIAMS: That might - that might be the Bush-iest thing we've ever seen in any of our lives. Like -

HUNT: Yes. Yes.

TODD: It does make you miss him as president, I will say.

And, you know, I think that Barack Obama took it in good stride, too.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Younger viewers may not remember when he came up and, what was it, the - the hand massage of Angela Merkel from Germany.

HUNT: Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

WILLIAMS: It was just, ah, Bush, man.

TODD: Yes, the best. The best.

WILLIAMS: It was a simpler time. A simpler time.

HUNT: Well, the look on her face.

WILLIAMS: She - yes, right. In fairness, it was not. HUNT: Yes.

All right, really, really fascinating. And I heard from an official, too, there's a very small room inside the National Cathedral where all the presidents are held together before they walk out to something like this. So, being a fly on the wall there also would probably be pretty interesting.

Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, are some key Democratic senators getting on board with the new Republican majority? And Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman accepts an invitation to Mar-a-Lago. Michael Smerconish joins us live to discuss.

Plus, TikTok on the docket at the Supreme Court, just days before a ban of the app is set to take effect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT: We'll take a look at TikTok. You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points. And there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[06:47:40]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I am not just the senator for Democrats in Pennsylvania. I'm the senator for everyone in Pennsylvania. And my state picked Donald Trump as president. And if I have the opportunity to have that conversation, and I bet we're going to find things to work together for a better Pennsylvania and a better nation. And that's why I'm engaging in this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Pennsylvania's John Fetterman defending his decision to become the first Democratic senator to meet with President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort. This coming as Fetterman has all but abandoned the progressive label of his party and criticized some policies on the left. Fetterman has recently met with several of Trump's cabinet picks, and he co-sponsored the GOP-led Laken Riley Act to crack down on crimes by undocumented migrants.

As Democrats prepare for Trump 2.0, Fetterman has encouraged his party not to reflexively oppose the president-elect. That might remind you of one Pennsylvania senator past.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARLEN SPECTER (D), FORMER PENNSYLVANIA SENATOR: In some corners, compromise has become a dirty word. Senators insist on ideological purity as a precondition.

Politics is no longer the art of the possible when senators are intransigent in their positions. Polarization of the political parties has followed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, its Friday, which means it's time for Michael Smerconish, CNN political commentator, and, of course, the host of CNN's "SMERCONISH."

And, sir, always great to see you.

That clip was for you because we know that you, of course, were close with that former Pennsylvania senator. And I'm honestly dying to know what you think about how John Fetterman is positioning himself in Donald Trump's new Washington.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Kasie, for starting my day, and everybody else's day, with that clip from the late, great Arlen Specter, for whom I had the privilege of working. I think it sums up so much of what's lacking today when he says that polarization has gone overboard and that compromise is not a dirty word. It's a reminder to me of the way in which he comported himself as both a Republican and a Democrat, representing this state, Pennsylvania, as our longest serving United States senator.

And when I saw Senator Fetterman saying that he was going to go to Mar-a-Lago this weekend, it reminded me of Senator Specter in a very good way.

[06:50:07]

And I'm taken aback by some of the online hostility. I shouldn't be surprised, I guess. But Senator Fetterman represents a 50/50 state. Why shouldn't he be having a relationship with the president. It doesn't mean that he has to agree with him. And, frankly, it reminds me of the conversation you were just having with your panel, which I thoroughly enjoyed. And, by the way, I do have a body language expert on my radio program today because I'm so taken with the interaction among the five former presidents.

But I loved what I saw yesterday. I mean, I loved the civility. And it wasn't always, you know, friendly, the partner, the spouse. I'm looking at you, Karen Pence, is always the tell. Like, did you ever go to the holiday party, the Christmas party, and you meet the partner or the spouse and the reception is a little bit chilly and you say, oh, maybe that lets me know how my coworker really feels about me. I've had that experience.

But anyway, civility is a good thing. Civility is a good thing. Whether it's John Fetterman and Donald Trump getting along, or whether it's Barack Obama and Donald Trump having a moment where they're civil to one another, even if they don't mean it.

HUNT: Yes, Michael, let's - let's stay with this, because I'm actually fascinated by sort of your - your take on it. We were also talking about Trump and George W. Bush.

SMERCONISH: Right.

HUNT: Because there is this moment where George W. Bush walks in. Trump and Melania remain seated. Barack Obama there stands up and, look at that, from George W. Bush, like, hey, we're buds, as he ignores the incoming president entirely. What do you think's going on here?

SMERCONISH: I love zaburdering (ph) the tape and breaking it down. I could do this all day.

Now, here's what went through my mind when I saw that. Got to say it. What went through my mind is that W.'s father, papa Bush, 41, George Herbert Walker Bush, would have extended a hand. That's what I think. Do I think that papa Bush would have been a Trump voter? No. Would he have had the decorum and the civility to extend a hand to Donald Trump? I think he would have.

And I'm not letting Trump off the hook either. I'm blaming all of them.

You know, it always bothered me. Obviously, January 6th bothered me. But it bothered me that Donald Trump left Washington without the decency of going to Joe Biden's inauguration. I mean there are moments in time when you've got to put it all aside and, for the good of the nation, just play the role. And most of them played the role yesterday.

HUNT: Yes, I think that that's my big picture question here, Michael, because, I mean, you know, I've covered enough of these types of events now in Washington. And, you know, the first presidential funeral I covered was Gerald Ford's, which was in the early days of 2007, after he passed over Christmas time in 2006. And we always do remark on how these people are rivals in political life, they run against each other, but they do set it down for good reason in these kinds of moments.

I think what made this one so different for me is, and again, you can kind of see it on Karen Pence's face, is just that we've not had a situation where someone, you know, tried to say that an election wasn't fairly won. And then there was violence aimed at one of these fellow people in the public spotlight. I mean, I remember I listened myself to the chants of "hang Mike Pence" from inside the Russell Office Building on January 6, 2021. And that has still not been repudiated.

I mean, do you think that we, as a country, can move past that back to a place where we never have to deal with this reality again? Or - I'm just kind of curious your thoughts.

SMERCONISH: I'm not asking anybody to forget the events of January 6th, nor the role that Donald Trump played in bringing them about, which was significant.

I am saying that ten days from now he's going to be sworn in as the new commander in chief. I think everybody should be there and give him the benefit of the doubt as he begins a new term. And if he goes off the rails, as he did, by the way, in that inaugural address in 2017, it would have been, you remember what W. said, right, that was some real dark blank. I won't say it on your program. Then call him out for it. Then call him out for it.

But there are - what I'm really saying is, there are select moments in time, like the passing of a president, like an inauguration, like a State of the Union Address, I'm thinking of Joe Wilson shouting out at Barack Obama, "you lie." I found that appalling. There are certain moments when you just put it all aside and be civil. And that's why I like Fetterman going to see Trump in Mar-a-Lago.

HUNT: Yes, it's fair enough. And, you know, I am interested to see, I mean, that - that "you lie" moment, I was in the chamber for that actually when that happened. And incidents like that have suddenly become kind of normal, right? And they didn't used to be. So, let's see, you know, if we can get back to kind of where we were or not.

Michael Smerconish, love having you.

[06:55:00]

SMERCONISH: Kasie - Kasie, when you go to the -

HUNT: Yes, sorry, go ahead.

SMERCONISH: When you go to the holiday - when you go to the holiday party, take a good look at the partner. Take a good look at the spouse. That's the tell as to whether you're really respected. It's the tip for the day.

HUNT: That's a great tip. I'm going to keep that in mind for myself too. You know, like, whether I'm showing it on my face if I -

SMERCONISH: Right, don't give it away. Don't give it away.

HUNT: All right, Michael, thank you, I appreciate it. Have a good weekend.

And for our viewers, remember, tune in to "SMERCONISH." It's tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

All right, let's turn now to the debate happening before the Supreme Court today over national security and free speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON": The Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the federal government can ban TikTok. It's expected to be the first time a Supreme Court justice said the words "Skibidi Toilet." That's the - should be an interesting case. The justices will start scrolling through evidence. Then, two hours later, look up like, what was he doing again?

(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: Fair enough. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this morning over a law that would ban TikTok if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, doesn't sell the app by January 19th. Millions of TikTok users are hoping the court will either delay or strike down the ban in the nine days before that deadline. Though ByteDance has repeatedly said TikTok is not for sale, they did receive a last minute bid yesterday from a group backed by someone relatively well known for striking deals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's have some fun. I'll drop my ask to 15 percent for 200k just to make it interesting for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. You've got Kevin going the right way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And - and to put some pressure on these other sharks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In that case, would you just go to our 10 percent? (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'll do it 12.5.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, right. Thank you. That's what he just heard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we initially asked you -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll do it right now at 12.5.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, Brad. Todd, what should the Supreme Court do here?

TODD: Well, TikTok is a very serious national security risk. We've already decided that you can't have TikTok on government devices. And so there's this First Amendment tension that the Supreme Court's going to have to deal with. But it also - with the federal government's right to engage in national security protections.

I hope they decide to hold - let the - let the law stand and let - see if - I don't think that we need the Chinese government having access to everybody in America's phone. I don't think that TikTok has proven it's willing to put in place any other security measures or cooperate with the U.S. government at all. But it (INAUDIBLE).

HUNT: But Trump now doesn't want to ban it.

TODD: Today. He might next week. He doesn't like - he's decided maybe to move on the TikTok ban because he thinks it's a competitor to other social media platforms that he maybe likes less.

HUNT: Kate, go ahead.

BEDINGFIELD: When he becomes commander in chief again and is getting access to daily intelligence reports, he might have a very different take on this.

HUNT: Yes. So, Mike Gallagher has an op-ed. He's a former congressman who was really focused on threats from China, wrote the bill in Congress, and he's - he's got this op-ed and he - and he mentions that there is this brief from Trump now as a friend of the court trying to strike down this law. But he says that the brief, Elliot, does note that there still is a national security threat here.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HUNT: What do you think the court is going to do?

WILLIAMS: So, six-three, Supreme Court. Six appointed by Republicans, three appointed by Democrats. And people tend to think of the Supreme Court as being reliable right, reliable left based on who appointed them. Nothing creates stranger bedfellows in the history of the Supreme Court than free speech issues. You found Antonin Scalia, who was one of the most conservative justices perhaps of all time -

TODD: Wrote the flag burning decision.

WILLIAMS: Wrote the flag burning decision with a dissent, I believe, from John Paul Stevens, one of the most liberal.

So, this is the kind of thing that I would - if there's any prediction I'll make, it's that it's not going to be a clean six-three decision where I think they'll cross.

National security also complicates things quite a bit. Now, the counterargument to the point Brad was making is that the - the Chinese threats, or at least the threats of data collection, have not materialized or - or at least aren't certain. I'm just merely -

TODD: Yet.

BEDINGFIELD: I - yes.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Yes, yet. And, no, no, no, no, no, and I'm merely echoing what the argument is. I'm not weighing in on it.

So, it hasn't materialized yet. So, it's hard to know how the court will regard that, but also how the court will regard the speech of the - of the users, the speech of the company against national security interests.

HUNT: One of the things, Molly, that impacted the way - I mean this was a huge bipartisan vote in Congress. And part of it was because TikTok mobilized its own algorithm to try to get this killed. They had all these thousands of people calling these congressional offices, and it really demonstrated that actually, if they want to control this app and control the people who use this app, they can do it. It was almost like they proved exactly what the problem was.

BALL: Exactly. And that really alienated a lot of lawmakers by doing that. And, as you say, it drove the point home. I mean - and I - you know, I wrote at the time about the sort of politics of it. And there was a feeling that this - that this would really hurt Biden, who was still the candidate at the time, with young voters. It would be interesting to see if this does actually go into effect, what are the political ramifications of Trump himself saying he basically fears that this will make him unpopular with young people who are so obsessed with this app.

[07:00:10]

You know, there's a statistic that one third of voters under 30 get their news primarily from TikTok. So, this is going to have huge ripple effects in populations who do not usually pay attention to politics if it does actually go into effect.

HUNT: Yes, fair enough.

All right, thank you all for being here on this Friday. I appreciate it. Have a good weekend.

Thanks to all of you for joining us as well back at home. And do have a wonderful weekend.

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