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Connect the World
CNN International: Catastrophic Scenes as Fires Destroy Thousands of Homes; Deadly Wildfires Rage on Around Los Angeles; Trump to be Sentenced for Hush Money Conviction; U.S. Supreme Court Hears Arguments on TikTok Ban; App and Creators Challenging Controversial U.S. Ban. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired January 10, 2025 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Well, you're looking at the outside of the New York courtroom where Donald Trump is set to be sentenced
in his hush money trial just 30 minutes from now. It is 09:00 a.m. in New York. It is 06: 00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Becky Anderson, you're
watching "Connect the World".
Two other major breaking stories that we are following for you this hour. The death toll in Los Angeles rising to at least 10 as a new fire there
breaking out and firefighters bracing for a new surge of dangerous winds. And the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next hour on whether a ban
on TikTok should stand.
And the stock markets in New York will open about 30 minutes from now. Futures down at the moment off the back of the U.S. -- latest U.S. jobs
report. A whopping 256,000 jobs were added last month. That is eclipsing economists' estimates that huge number could, of course, have an impact on
the Federal Reserve's next rate decision, investors mulling that report and more on that, of course, at 09:30 New York time.
We're going to also have extensive coverage of the Trump hush money sentencing coming up shortly. We start though in Southern California,
daylight just breaking in Los Angeles, as the city's residents there endure a fourth straight day of raging fires. The fires have claimed at least 10
lives and destroyed at least 10,000 structures.
Emergency officials caution the actual death toll will not be clear until responders can get into the hardest hit areas. Firefighters are bracing for
return of those vicious winds that we've seen that fanned the flames across the city a few days ago, but they are looking to take advantage of a break
in the weather to make some progress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRENT PASCUA, BATTALION CHIEF WITH CAL FIRE: Yesterday, we were very hopeful that we could turn a corner on this fire, and we did. We gained
some containment, not a lot. It's going to take a lot more work to see that number grow, but we're headed in the right direction. And again, we see the
winds calmer today.
They're still here, but these are the ones we're used to battling and dealing with during these fires, nothing like we saw the first two days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, five major fires now burning across Los Angeles County, the largest, the Palisades fires, has exploded to almost 20,000 acres. That is
more than 8000 hectares, and is at present, we are told, just 6 percent contained. And you're seeing video here of the massive destruction in the
Pacific Palisades neighborhood of L.A.
Homes and cars incinerated, as you can see, and we are hearing more stories from shell shocked residents. A private security guard touring the area
says it reminds him of a war zone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILAL TUKHI, SECURITY GUARD: All smoky. It's all burned out, and you could see all the burned cars, and you see like there's no houses and stuff like
that. It reminds me back to like Afghanistan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, here's another example of the destructiveness of these fires. You see that house on the left before the fires reduced to just a
pile of debris on the right. And here's a look at a street in Pacific Palisades. It's just startling, to see the difference before and after. And
remember, the flames roared through in just a matter of minutes.
We're going to get you an update on the forecast from the CNN Weather Center in a few moments. But I want to get to Stephanie Elam, who is
connecting us from Altadena there in L.A. And Steph, just bring us up to date. Where are you? What are you seeing around you? You know, what's the
news from there?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Becky, I think the last time I talked to you, I was in the Palisades fire, which is along the coast, now
more inland, against the foothills. And this is where the Eaton fire is burning in Altadena. And just look at this devastation behind me.
It's the sun's not up yet. So, I'm showing you this one house, and you can see there's a gas leak back there that is still flaming. Still signs of
what was here. But it's not the only house. House across the street is gone. Down there is gone. Up there is gone. This is not an anomaly
throughout these areas that have burned. You see this.
[09:05:00]
You see places, where an entire block is just decimated, gone. We have 180,000 people who have been forced to evacuate their homes, and some of
them will never, ever be able to go back because their homes are gone. Another 200,000 people have evacuation warnings where they live, throughout
the entire area, the air quality is awful.
That's why I'm wearing the mask, because you can't see it. But in the lights, you can see how quickly the ash is moving through here just beyond
on the other side, in fact, it's just gotten worse. On the other side of that ridge over there, the fire is burning out in the wilderness, because
this area here does push up against some wilderness there, but it looks better here.
They have a better handle on fighting it, and this is what they need. They also needed to be able to get those aircraft into the sky to fight the
battles, which they were able to start doing. Yesterday, there was a drone, an illegal drone operation, that hit one of the aircraft, and so that
aircraft is down.
And just think about it. That's water that they were picking up from the ocean, 1500 gallons of water that they could just drop on a fire over and
over again. Now they can't do that because that aircraft is down. When you look at it, though, people aren't allowed in here, the National Guard,
California National Guard, coming out, staging around places to make sure that people aren't coming in and looting.
Some people have been doing that. And then for other people, they're starting to get a bigger picture on how much they've lost. Many people
losing everything their wealth was tied up in this house. And for some people, they're also losing loved ones. We know of 10 people now who have
lost lives, and that number is expected to go up.
The overall dollar amount of what's been lost is expected to go up. All of this while all the children, many children throughout the region are
outside of school, staying home because of the air quality, and for a lot of people, that's trying to figure out what to do when they don't even have
homes right now.
So overall, even people who aren't impacted directly by the fires, Becky, they're still impacted here. I've never seen anything of this widespread
level of decimation as we're seeing here in L.A. County. And you know, I've covered a lot of wildfires.
ANDERSON: Yeah, I mean, we talked about that, what, 24 hours ago, and we were talking, and I mean it to hear you reporting on this, and you and I,
we were saying what we the other day that you and I have spoken over the years as you've covered wildfires in the State of California.
It has been really remarkable, just as to hear you reporting on this and to hear and feel your shock, it is remarkable. We're going to leave it there.
And thank you very much indeed. Back to you as the sun comes up, I hope. I want to bring in Allison Chinchar at the CNN Weather Center.
And Allison, Stephanie and I, there talking about just how unprecedented this is. We've been now discussing this for what 48 hours. Things still not
contained by any stretch of the imagination. The authorities talking about a window of opportunity at this point that may close quite quickly. Just
get us up to speed on where we are at weather wise.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, it is. It's going to be a very, very narrow corridor in which we will have some relief from the wind, so
the firefighters will have a chance to hopefully be able to add to those containment numbers. But again, it's going to be a very narrow corridor.
So, we look for today in the forecast, you can see that wide stretch of orange. That's the elevated fire risk and a little bit of critical fire
risk, a little bit farther down to the south of L.A. By Saturday, that really shrinks back, because we're hoping that those winds will start to
die back down.
But what you can't see is that Sunday and Tuesday of the upcoming week, it's going to go right back up again. So, here's a look at the winds for
today again, 20, 30, 40 miles per hour still a possibility. Once we get to tonight, though, especially overnight, those numbers will start to drop
back down into the single digits.
That's what we want to see is those wind well below 10 miles per hour. But the unfortunate part too, is by the time we get to Sunday, they jump right
back up again, 30, 40, 50, even 60 mile per hour wind gusts. So that's going to be a problem. Again, there is a window, but it's very, very small
for those firefighters.
The other concern is wind direction, because that's important too. Most of what we're going to see today is that wind coming down from the north, but
it will, at times, shift. It could be coming from the east. It could be coming from the west, and that's a concern too, because when you see those
sudden changes in the wind direction, it makes it very difficult for the firefighters to plan accordingly, because it happens so rapidly.
So again, these are going to be some of the concerns they have, at least going forward for the next 24 to 48 hours.
ANDERSON: Good to have you. Thank you. Well, in the coming minutes, Donald Trump will be sentenced in what is the New York hush money case, after
months of delays and a slew of appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Trump's emergency request to delay the sentencing in a five to four ruling
on Thursday.
[09:10:00]
So now, just days away, of course, from his inauguration, Donald Trump will be the first convicted felon to become president, although New York Judge
Juan Merchan has already said he won't face any prison time or any other penalty. CNN's Marshall Cohen following it all from Washington. So, what
does he face? What can we expect?
MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Hey, Becky, well, you basically laid it out right there. The only permanent punishment from these 34 felony convictions
will be the fact that Donald Trump is a convicted felon, of course, assuming that he does not prevail on his appeals, which of course, he will
file.
But the sentencing hearing today, let's see. It's about 09:10 now, 20 minutes to go will begin in New York. Interesting to note, Becky, we are
going to get audio of today's hearing after it's over. That's different. We did not get to hear any of the trial before last year when it took place in
New York, but we will be able to hear this sentencing hearing after the fact.
But the judge made very clear last week in a letter to both parties, he is planning to issue what is called an unconditional discharge. That means the
conviction stands. He is a convicted felon, but no prison, no probation, no fines, no penalties. That is that the case will be over, and then, of
course, Trump can lodge his appeals.
This is only happening, Becky, because, as you mentioned, the Supreme Court, the United States Supreme Court last night cleared the way for this
to happen. President-elect Trump, wanted the justices to step in and shut this down, at least, put it on hold, put it on pause, put in a five to four
decision, with some of the conservatives joining with the liberals. They said that it needs to go forward, and that's what's going to happen today,
Becky.
ANDERSON: How much -- surprise was that decision by the Supreme Court. After all, you know, the experience to date that Donald Trump has had with
this conservative court has been pretty positive for the president-elect.
COHEN: Yeah, you know, look, there's the legal and then there's the political, right? Legally speaking, a lot of the experts believe that this
is the right decision. He wasn't even finished mounting all of his appeals in the state courts, which is something that you usually need to do before
you can ask the Federal Supreme Court to dive in, swoop in, and start tinkering with things.
So, on the merits, legally, probably the right call. But of course, politically, practically speaking, it's a six to three conservative super
majority. Three of those justices who are on the conservative wing were appointed by Trump. One of them was just on the phone with President-elect
Trump last week.
That's Justice Alito. They both say they did not talk about anything substantive. But you know, the perception is there that this is a court
that has in many occasions, been willing to give Trump what he wants, but not every time. There have been plenty of rulings that didn't go his way,
including last night.
ANDERSON: And we've been showing our viewers thank you, Marshall. We've been showing our viewers pictures, live pictures from inside that
courthouse in New York. And perhaps our viewers, who are regular CNN watchers, will remember that image, because, of course, we saw Donald Trump
coming in and out of that court over the months back at the beginning of 2024 and through the first and second quarter.
Of course, today, he will be attending virtually, so not expecting to see Donald Trump come through that sort of infamous door, as it were, and stop
and make comments as he did last year. Well, a controversial U.S. ban on TikTok is set to take effect just over a week from now, but the Supreme
Court could step in busy times for those judges.
Next hour, the court will hear arguments in two cases challenging the ban, which was passed by Congress last year with support from both Republicans
and Democrats who were concerned about national security. Well, the law offers an ultimatum TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance must sell
the app by January the 19th or cease operations in the United States.
I'm going to have a lot more on the arguments on that in a moment, but let's look at why TikTok is being targeted and what the Chinese are saying
about this. Marc Stewart joining us from Beijing, these challenges in the Supreme Court should bring at least some measure of clarity on TikTok's way
forward in the United States.
We do have a more TikTok friendly Trump Administration this time, it seems. What's Beijing hoping will happen?
[09:15:00]
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed. Becky, well, let's just look back to a few weeks ago, when the CEO of TikTok met with the president-elect.
You could argue that any kind of meeting is a positive move with the incoming administration. I talked to a government official today during the
daily press briefing.
I posed a question, asking about the Supreme Court hearing and about the government's involvement with ByteDance, of course, the parent company. He
didn't offer anything novel. He talked about -- he referred me to past statements about how China views the United States as now respecting free
markets and doesn't realize that there isn't a national security risk, as has been argued.
One person, though, here in China who is talking about this with quite a bit of detail is the outgoing U.S. Ambassador to China. Take a quick listen
to my conversation with Ambassador Nicholas Burns. OK, we are having some problems listening to the ambassador.
But he did talk a lot about the Chinese influence, calling it an authoritarian government that can have influence on a company such as
TikTok. There's no question that ByteDance and TikTok do want to say in the United States, not just because of the videos and the entertainment it
provides.
There is a potential revenue stream to come in through e-commerce. Here in China, TikTok's sister app known as Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
It has now established itself as a thriving e-commerce platform where users can stream videos, people can just touch the screen and buy whatever
products they see.
It has brought in hundreds of billions of dollars. So, Becky, in addition to all the political arguments, there's certainly a financial incentive for
ByteDance and TikTok to want to continue to operate in the United States. They would very much like to introduce and create an e-commerce platform,
certainly on American soil.
ANDERSON: Good to have you. Marc, really valuable insight. Thank you, sir. And that is later this hour, of course, still to come more on exactly what
we can expect in the U.S. Supreme Court today. This, of course, is the top of the hour. 10 o'clock local time is when we expect this to start.
CNN Legal Analysts are joining me next. Plus, an early test for democracy in 2025 both of these men should say they should be inaugurated later today
as Venezuela's President. Details of a political showdown there is coming up.
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[09:20:00]
ANDERSON: Well, from a disputed election to a controversial inauguration in less than two hours, Nicolas Maduro is expected to be sworn in for another
term as Venezuelan President. But the opposition says the winner of last year's election was Edmundo Gonzalez, and it isn't backing down from its
claim that the published results were false.
Observers say today's inauguration is taking the country into politically uncharted territory, with both Maduro and Gonzalez claiming they should be
sworn in. The opposition is also saying its leader Maria Corina Machado was violently kidnapped after a rally on Thursday, but was released later in
the day. The Venezuelan government denies that she was detained.
Let's get you back to the U.S. and more on the important debate happening before the U.S. Supreme Court over. Well, you can describe it as national
security and free speech, happening soon, justices will hear arguments over a law that would ban TikTok, the app in the U.S., if its Chinese parent
company doesn't sell the app by January the 19th.
Divest the app, effectively. Lawmakers argue that the Chinese owned platform, currently Chinese owned platform, is a threat to U.S. National
Security, while TikTok and many of its faithful users argue that ban violates free speech. Well, joining us now is Executive Director of the
Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, Jameel Jaffer, good to have.
You couldn't be better served with your experience on a day like today. We are just half an hour or so, about 40 minutes away from when we expect
these proceedings at the U.S. Supreme Court to start. Let's look at the basic arguments here.
The Justice Department says that there is a national security reason to ban TikTok if it's still owned by the Chinese company ByteDance come January
the 19th. So, let's start there. How valid is that argument in the real world?
JAMEEL JAFFER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE KNIGHT FIRST AMENDMENT INSTITUTE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Yeah, I mean, there are actually two arguments that
the government is making here, and both of them, as you say, you know, relate in one way or another to national security. One of them is TikTok
collects a lot of data about Americans, and we need to ban TikTok in order to protect Americans privacy.
The other argument is that TikTok is amplifying, is manipulating Americans by -- or might manipulate Americans by spreading disinformation or
spreading propaganda or spreading content that is favorable to China and unfavorable to the United States. I would take a step back, though, and
just say that the reason this case is so significant is that there are countries all over the world that restrict their citizens from accessing
information and ideas and media from abroad.
You know, that's something that the Soviet Union was famous for. It's something that Russia does now that China does, now that Saudi Arabia does
now. You know, a lot of countries around the world rights abusing countries around the world restrict their citizens from accessing speech from abroad.
And the question that the Supreme Court is going to have to decide in this case is whether our government should be able to do that too. That's why
the case is so important. It's not just about TikTok. It's a much larger principle that could be applied to all forms of media in all sorts of
contexts.
ANDERSON: Yeah. But let's be quite clear about this, because there are, of course, two cases here, aren't there? There is the government wanting to
ban TikTok, and that was a bipartisan piece of legislation ByteDance needs to divest its interest in the app or it is banned. The other argument is
those -- the other case has been brought by those users who say that a ban will violate 170 million Americans free speech rights.
JAFFER: Right.
ANDERSON: So, let's not -- I know it's difficult to keep them separate.
JAFFER: -- yeah --
ANDERSON: But they are separate effectively on the free speech rights, at least one Democratic lawmaker agrees. Do TikTok and its defenders have a
point then to your mind?
JAFFER: Yeah. I mean, absolutely. I mean, I think that, you know, it's tempting to think of this case as a case about the rights of the Chinese
government or the rights of a Chinese corporation, but I think that's a real mistake. There are 170 million Americans who use TikTok.
[09:25:00]
And whatever the rights of the Chinese government and Chinese corporations, there's no doubt that Americans have a right to access -- have a First
Amendment right to access this platform in the same way as they have a First Amendment right to access a domestic platform like Facebook or a
foreign media organization like the BBC or the Guardian, that's something that the First Amendment protects.
So that's why we're in the land of the First Amendment. I mean, you mentioned that the bill is bipartisan, and that's obviously correct.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of ideas that have bipartisan support that are nonetheless bad ideas. You know that has been true throughout our
history that there was bipartisan support for restricting Americans access to speech from abroad, that has happened before.
And in fact, that the Supreme Court has addressed it before, and the Supreme Court struck it down. There was a case in 1965, involving an effort
by the government to restrict Americans access to speech from abroad, and the Supreme Court found the law unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
ANDERSON: To a layman's eyes, it feels as if there's a balance here between the government's right to defend its national security with the people's
right to free speech. And I know that it's not quite that simple, but that's one way of looking at it.
JAFFER: Yeah.
ANDERSON: To a certain extent, looks be great having you on. Thank you very much indeed. We are going to get more on this.
JAFFER: Thank you --
ANDERSON: Our viewers will get a real sense of what is going on in that U.S. Supreme Court at about 30 minutes from now. That is, it for this half
hour of "Connect the World". Do stay with us for CNN's "Special Coverage", firstly of the sentencing in a New York court of President-Elect Donald
Trump. That airing begins just about two minutes from now. Our "Special Coverage" begins after this short break, stay with us.
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