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Trump Lashes Out At Special Counsel As Judge Blocks Report; Trump Won't Rule Out Military Force Over Greenland, Panama Canal; Meta Cuts Fact Checkers From Facebook And Instagram; Evacuation Orders Expanded As Palisades Fire Grows In California; Two Bodies Found In Wheel Well Of JetBlue Plane. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired January 07, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

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[18:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now. Donald Trump comes out swinging at Special Counsel Jack Smith as a federal judge blocks the release of the report on the criminal investigations of the president-elect. Trump laying out his grievances and his plans for the Justice Department during a lengthy news conference.

During that same briefing with the reporters, Trump also turned his fire on U.S. allies, making fresh threats and refusing to rule out using military force to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland. This hour, I'll speak with Trump's former secretary of defense, Mark Esper.

Also tonight, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announces major changes for both Facebook and Instagram. We're going to tell you why the social media giant is doing away with fact checkers, even as Zuckerberg admits the decision will lead to harmful content on the platforms.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.

Let's get straight to our top story tonight, Donald Trump lashing out at Special Counsel Jack Smith as a federal judge puts his report on ice.

Our Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid is joining us right now with details. Paula, so what does this ruling actually mean for Trump?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: So, Wolf, during Trump's press conference earlier today, Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Jack Smith's final report cannot be shared outside the Justice Department until an appellate court weighs in. Now, Trump lashed out at the special counsel several times during this press conference. Let's take a listen to some of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: -- happening that are exciting just before I take office, probably. So, he'll do like a 500-page report, and it'll be a fake report, just like the investigation was a fake investigation. And I said, well, wait a minute, this guy was thrown off in disgrace. Why should he be allowed to write a fake report? It'll only be a fake report.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Well, the special counsel is required by federal regulation to submit a report to the attorney general at the conclusion of his work. The attorney general had signaled that this will be made public. Also Trump's comment there that Smith was run off in disgrace, he's still in office, but he has signaled he will step down because Trump has said that he will fire him once he gets back to the White House.

But here's how we got here. Last night, Trump's former co-defendants filed to block the release of Smith's report. They pointed to the fact that over the summer, Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Smith's appointment was not legitimate, and she tossed the entire classified documents case. This is a decision that caught most legal experts by surprise. It was appealed, but never resolved. So, that issue is still hanging out there. And that is why they say he cannot release this report. So, we're waiting right now for the special counsel to weigh in before tomorrow morning. Then we're looking at the appeals court.

This is something that could go to the Supreme Court. But, Wolf, I want to note that our sources have told us this final report doesn't really contain too much new information. They've already been indictments, they've released additional evidence that usually you don't see before trial. But this case, this is very personal to Trump, and he and his team, they are going to fight the release of this every step of the way.

BLITZER: Interesting, all right. Paula, Trump had a setback in a separate case today in New York. Give us the details on that.

REID: Yes. So, Trump is currently scheduled to be sentenced on Friday in that Manhattan so-called hush money case, where he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Now, he has tried to get this sentencing pushed back. Today, an appeals court rejected his latest effort to postpone this sentencing.

Now, I will note that this sentencing, he can appear virtually. That's a concession the judge made based on the fact that Trump is president- elect. The judge has also made it clear he's not going to face any jail time or any penalties at all. This is something that'll probably be pretty quick. But this too, this is a really personal thing for the president-elect.

So, even though this is something that most people in this country probably wouldn't pay that much attention to, and they're probably drawing more attention to it by fighting the sentencing, this is extremely personal for the president-elect. So, his lawyers are availing themselves of every option to try to push this back until after he takes the White House.

BLITZER: All right. Paula Reid reporting for us, Paula, thank you very much.

Our legal experts are here with me in The Situation Room. Let's get some serious analysis. We'll start with Laura Coates. The special counsel's report being blocked by Judge Cannon is again giving Trump a rather favorable ruling right now. Why is she preventing this report, which normally would be standard operating procedure for the U.S. Justice Department, why is she blocking it from being released?

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: There seems to be two primary reasons. One is she believes that because he's an illegitimate special counsel, anything that he gathered as a part of his work also can't be used now to kind of go through a back door and say, I'm not legitimate, but here's everything I learned while I was illegitimate.

The second argument, of course, is that it will prejudice the two people who still have remaining cases.

[18:05:02]

Yes, Trump's case is no longer active down there, but he still has two co-defendants known as co-conspirators. They take issue with that assessment because they believe it unfairly ties him to the former president of the United States and soon to be future president of the United States, and at the release of the information is going to be so prejudicial that it will have the effect of being an indictment all of itself.

Now, these two arguments, of course, are pretty novel in the context of this case, prejudice, due process, of course, legitimacy, all key concepts, but here as it's applied, pretty novel and pretty farfetched.

BLITZER: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, as you know, will review Judge Cannon's decision, her ruling. How do you expect this relatively conservative court to react?

COATES: You know, it's really kind of a guess at this point of how they will rule, precisely because they have been a circuit that has slapped her on the wrist before because of her rulings. But also in this context, you're dealing with a very novel concept. Why would this be the only court to suggest that special counsel was illegitimate? Every other jurisdiction has said this is a legitimate proposition that this person is able to be under the authority as that title alone. And so, here they might punt the issue, as Norm and I were discussing possibly, punt the issue and say, we haven't resolved that issue, so you can release the report pending our ultimate choice, and they haven't actually said anything.

BLITZER: You know, Elliot Williams is with us as well. Elliot, Trump was asked about this decision during that lengthy news conference he had earlier today. I want to play a bit of what he said. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: If I did something wrong, I wouldn't be standing here right now because I've won all these cases. Nobody's ever won so many cases as I have against the Justice Department. I mean, Jack Smith had cases all over the place. People were being subpoenaed, lives were being ruined.

I don't know the judge in Florida, but we had a brilliant judge in Florida that saw right through it and we won the case. She was a brilliant judge with great courage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What do you make of what we just heard from the president- elect?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's very effective communications from the former president and the president-elect. By referring to all of these cases and having won all these cases, he's lumping together a series of cases that really had nothing to do with each other. He has not won any of these federal cases.

Now, certainly, the Justice Department has had setbacks, and these are the things that Laura was talking about, where courts have ruled in a manner that, you know, sort of went Donald Trump's way. But none of these have gone to trial yet. Because of the fact that there have been four years of litigation against the president in state courts in New York and Georgia and federal courts in Washington, D.C. and Florida, he's conflating a lot of things together.

And I think it works and lands with many people, you know, the point that Paul Reid had noted at the beginning referred to Jack Smith as in a fake report and so on. And I think this is language that lands with many people, although it's just simply legally inaccurate what he's saying.

BLITZER: Good point. Norm Eisen, Trump appointed Judge Cannon, as you and I well know, to the bench. So, how do you interpret his claim that he doesn't know her?

NORM EISEN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Wolf, he's engaging in trying to tell a story, a completely made up story about what happened. Any other American who had maintained these documents in their home, if I had taken even a single document when I was in the White House or the State Department, I would be prosecuted and be in the pokey right now. He wants to distract from that. He says he won all the cases, Wolf. 34 criminal convictions, Laura and I were in court for them in New York for election interference and cover up.

So, he's distancing himself from her, even though she is his nominee as part of this narrative, he's trying to change the reality of what happened.

BLITZER: You know, it's interesting because, as you know, Trump takes office as president in about 13 days from now, 13 days. So, does the attorney, current attorney general, Merrick Garland, have enough time to rule on whether or not this report should be released? Can he release it? COATES: Well, he has a window of opportunity. If a court order is in effect that says he cannot, he doesn't want to violate that distance order, but once there is a window to suggest that there is an opening, he could ultimately immediately release it to the public, as he has done in two other instances during his own tenure right now, and then the issue becomes moot.

Now, they could, of course, ultimately decide not to use the information that is gleaned if it somehow unduly prejudices a jury or makes it substantive, they cannot actually have a fair trial, but let's be honest here. In about two weeks, this is going to be gone because we know that any attorney who is overseeing these matters under a Trump Justice Department is unlikely to pursue these very charges.

And so it really boggles the mind why if he has said politically the people heard about it, they knew about it and they didn't care about it and it's all lawfare, as he claimed, why fight so hard to try to suppress the information that no one was concerned about if you're going to ultimately either pardon or do away with the matter?

[18:10:03]

BLITZER: You know, it's curious, Elliot, if the clock does run out over these next 13 days, is it more about Trump successfully delaying the case or the Justice Department acting too slowly?

WILLIAMS: A little of column A and a little of column B. You know, the Justice Department did act slowly here, and in many respects, Wolf, the Justice Department is victims of its own morality here and sort of a set of conduct and norms that simply don't exist anymore by taking the time they did to pursue these cases, by pursuing them the way they did in a, frankly, far less aggressive manner than they could have, and Donald Trump's very successful litigation strategy over the course of the last several years. We are now literally on the eve of the exam, and everybody's cramming at the Justice Department for sort of how to study it and get it done. So, no, I think both things are very much true here.

BLITZER: Norm, button this up for us.

EISEN: Let's not forget the most responsible party here. It's not just Donald Trump's tactics. The United States Supreme Court issued a reprehensible immunity decision. The dissents were some of the most excoriating. There's no legal basis to say a president can do these things, in addition to that very serious criminal conduct charged with the holding classified documents, the election interference conduct, and that was charged. We can't lose in our conversation. The Supreme Court's is a 3rd pillar in the abdication of responsibility, maybe the most serious.

BLITZER: To all of our analysts, excellent work. Thank you guys very, very much. Laura, of course, will be back later tonight for her show, Laura Coates Live. That's later tonight, 11:00 P.M. Eastern. Laura, we will be watching.

COATES: Thank you.

BLITZER: Just ahead, Donald Trump today saying he might order the U.S. military to seize land that doesn't belong to the United States. His former defense secretary is standing by live.

And later, a one-on-one interview the first transgender American elected to Congress, Sarah McBride, is here live for her first CNN interview since being sworn in.

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[18:15:00]

BLITZER: President-elect Donald Trump is renewing his threats to take control of both Greenland and the Panama Canal, and he's refusing to rule out using military force. Listen to Trump at a news conference earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Can you assure the world that as you try to get control of these areas, you are not going to use military or economic coercion?

TRUMP: No. I can't assure you. You're talking about Panama and Greenland. No, I can't assure you on either of those two, but I can say this. We need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military.

REPORTER: You will not use military.

TRUMP: I'm not going to commit to that now. It might be that we'll have to do something. Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I want to bring in our Chief National Security Analyst Jim Sciutto. Jim, what are you hearing from your sources after this dramatic statement from the president-elect?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Listen, there was a tendency in Trump's first administration to dismiss comments like this from Trump as bluster. And many of them turned out to be. This time around, I think it would be unwise to do that. And when I speak to people close in Trump's circle, and I ask them, is he serious about the Panama Canal? Is he serious about Greenland? And how far is he willing to go? They say he is quite serious. And that he frames it, and you hear it from his advisers as well, they frame this as a national security issue.

In Panama, they allege Chinese control there. In Greenland, they talk about the importance of it to the Arctic and elsewhere. They describe it in national security terms necessitating hard action, which might begin with economic pressure, to say to Panama and Denmark, a treaty ally of the United States, is a fellow member of NATO.

BLITZER: Greenland is part of Denmark. SCIUTTO: Greenland is a territory of Denmark with its own elected leaders.

BLITZER: And Denmark is a NATO ally.

SCIUTTO: A NATO ally, fought alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan on hard frontline duty and lost many dozens of soldiers there. But that it may begin with economic pressure. Trump saying, if you don't give me what I want, I will impose serious backbreaking sanctions on you, Panama, or on you, Denmark. And if that doesn't work, you heard the president- elect there say himself that he might very well order military action.

When I ask folks inside Trump's world whether that is serious, they say, not right now, but they're not taking it off the table. So, I think it's important not to dismiss this, to take it quite seriously. And the other point I'll make, Wolf, is this, when I ask folks in that world what his vision is, they describe it as a kind of Trump-Monroe doctrine. We got to go back to our high school history here, but the Monroe doctrine was in effect that the U.S. rules in the Western Hemisphere, and that's where the Panama Canal is, that's where Greenland is, that's where Canada is, and that he's going to push, flex his muscle here and that he's not going to tolerate any interference or any limitations on that.

And to your point this would involve pressuring treaty allies of the United States either economically or militarily to give the U.S. what it wants. That's an enormous break with decades of bipartisan tradition enormous, indeed.

BLITZER: All right. Jim Sciutto, thank you very much.

I want to bring in Trump's former defense secretary, Mark Esper. Mark, thanks very much for joining us.

You previously told me you thought Trump's rhetoric about Greenland was a negotiating tactic, but hearing him now, you take this more seriously than when he floated this idea originally back in 2018?

MARK ESPER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I do think we should take his words seriously, the words of all leaders seriously. He just continues to add more detail to it and flex his muscle, as Jim just said, even more.

[18:20:01]

What's surprising of all the issues that the new administration is going to face in the next two weeks when they come in that these would be out there being discussed for the last couple of weeks, let alone on the list at all. I mean, you were looking at a hot war in Europe with Russia invading Ukraine. Everybody's waiting to see what the Trump administration approach will be there. We have ongoing conflict in the Middle East. There's a curiosity again, how much Trump will support Israel and maybe more importantly in that region, how we will deal with Iran, which may be pursuing a nuclear weapon.

And then you have the broader issue of China's ongoing approach, trying to take the United States down in different areas. I think, frankly, that's a common thread that ties together both Greenland and Panama that we need to pay attention to. But, again, it wouldn't -- Panama and Greenland wouldn't hit my top 10, probably wouldn't hit my top 100 right now in terms of challenges we need to take on.

BLITZER: You served, as I mentioned, as Trump's defense secretary. How would you have reacted if he told you he wanted to invade Greenland, which is part of Denmark, a NATO ally, or the Panama Canal?

ESPER: Surprised, of course. I mean, as was stated, Greenland, which is part of Denmark, is a longtime NATO ally. We have very good relationship with Denmark. We actually have a U.S. military bases on Greenland, a Space Force base and a Defense Missile Warning Radar, what we used to call Thule Air Base. So, we don't have any problems in terms of access or working with the folks in Greenland or Denmark, and, of course, same type of relationship in Panama.

That said, I think there is some credibility to be given to Trump's concerns about the Chinese in Panama. It's certainly grown over the years. You know, in 2017, Panama changed its recognition from Taiwan to China. They joined the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative in 2018. Investments in ports and bridges and rail lines increased dramatically. They own two of the five port zone concessions in Panama. So, I think we should be concerned about continued growth and engagement in China. I wouldn't consider military force, but I think certainly engaging them diplomatic and economically to make sure we can push the Chinese out of Panama is something that's very important should be considered.

I might say, though, Wolf, when you look at concerns about shipping and economic security, and I think, again, that's legitimate, if we go back to the broader landscape that's happening out there in the world, Panama represents 5 percent of global traffic in terms of trade. The Houthis, which have cut off or reduced traffic in the Red Sea for global shipping is at 12 to 15 percent. And more concerning, I think, which entails the broader focus against China is the South China Sea where, you know, 20 to 30 percent of global shipping passes through there and yet we have standoffs happening in the Second Thomas Shoal and the Spratly Islands and other places.

So, again, it's a big world. Chinese influence is all over there. And I think we need to step back and take a look at the bigger issue of the Chinese strategy to usurp the United States.

BLITZER: Trump also made some rather noteworthy comments about Mexico earlier today, as well at that news conference. Watch and listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring. That covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, is this a serious proposal from the president-elect? Why do you think he's even floating this idea?

ESPER: You know, if it comes from the president of the United States, you have to take it seriously. You know, we have a lot of issues on the table between the United States and Mexico. I think Mexico is now our largest trading partner. That's number one. Actually, it'd probably be number two. Number one is immigration, and we're going to need to work with them very closely to cut off illegal immigration and to seal up that southern border coming from there.

And that's going to take work with the Mexican government, and then, of course, the fentanyl that's killing, what, 67, 80,000 Americans a year, Wolf, coming up through the south, through the border. We need to work on those big issues. And I don't think we need to necessarily antagonize the Mexicans if they're even concerned about renaming the Gulf of Mexico. Again, not a top 100 issue for me as this new administration takes office on January 20th.

BLITZER: Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, thanks as usual for joining us.

ESPER: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: And coming up, the makeover at Meta, a big policy reversal today, making Donald Trump happy while the CEO admits the change will bring, and I'm quoting now, more bad stuff to Facebook and Instagram.

Plus, there's breaking news out in California, a massive wildfire exploding in size just outside Los Angeles. Our CNN team is on the scene. We'll have a live report.

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[18:25:00]

BLITZER: Big changes are coming into the social media giant Meta with platforms like Facebook and Instagram doing away with fact checkers.

Brian Todd is taking a closer look at it for us right now. Brian, so what is the Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, saying about this major shakeup?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, he is saying that the fact checkers who Meta employed were too biased, but watchdog groups and critics say this is a dangerous move by Zuckerberg to pander to President-elect Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice over): Meta's 40 year old CEO is taking a page from Elon Musk's playbook, making sweeping changes to how videos and other posts are moderated on Facebook and Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg announcing his platforms will get rid of fact checkers in what he says is an effort to promote free speech, because Meta's fact checkers, Zuckerberg says, made too many mistakes and often engaged in censorship.

[18:30:06]

MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO, META: But the fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the U.S.

TODD: Instead of fact checkers, Meta will use so called community notes to monitor content, notes that any Facebook or Instagram user can post, as Meta's new chief of global affairs, Joel Kaplan, explained to Fox News.

JOEL KAPLAN, CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS OFFICER, META: So, somebody can write a note, and then the way it works is different people on the platform can sort of vote on that note. And if you get people who usually disagree, who all say, yes, that sounds right, then that note gets put on the post and people see it.

Mark Zuckerberg is now following in the footsteps of Musk, who has dismantled X's fact checking teams and replaced them with user- generated community notes. A Musk critic and anti-hate advocate says Zuckerberg and Musk are being irresponsible in making community notes the only way to guard against false claims and disinformation.

IMRAN AHMED, CEO, CENTER FOR COUNTERING DIGITAL HATE: This is going to create a tidal wave of unchallenged lies, increasing the spread of hate, threatening the integrity of our communities, our democracy, and potentially harming public health and our kids.

TODD: This comes as Zuckerberg, like Musk, who is now a key ally of President-elect Donald Trump, seems to be engaging in an ideological pivot to the right in American politics.

PROF. LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: This is not the guy who presented himself as a liberal humanitarian when he first presented Facebook as an idea and a reality.

TODD: Zuckerberg's global affairs chief, Kaplan, is a prominent Republican. Zuckerberg also announced that another major Trump ally, UFC CEO Dana White, will join Meta's board. Trump, who once accused Zuckerberg of election interference and threatened to imprison him, now says this.

TRUMP: Honestly, I think they've come a long way, Meta.

TODD: A source tells CNN, Meta gave Trump's team an advanced heads up that the Meta policy change was coming. Zuckerberg recently joined major tech CEOs, like Apple's Tim Cook, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and Spotify's Daniel Ek in courting the president-elect. One analyst says this about Zuckerberg losing his fact checkers.

SABATO: Trump is a big winner. The Republican Party is a big winner. MAGA is a big winner. The loser, of course, is correct information.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): In making his announcement, Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that his new policy could create new problems for content moderation. Zuckerberg said the reality is that this is a trade off, and it means Facebook and Instagram would, quote, catch less bad stuff. But he also said it would reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that they accidentally take down. Wolf?

BLITZER: Brian Todd reporting. Brian, thanks very, very much.

I want to get some more analysis right now on these huge changes coming to Meta. I want to bring in CNN Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter. Brian, let me play for you and our viewers that sound from Mark Zuckerberg on content moderation that Brian just referenced in his report. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZUCKERBERG: The reality is that this is a trade off. It means we're going to catch less bad stuff. We'll also reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that we accidentally take down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, Brian, when we talk about disinformation and misinformation, just how bad is this going to be?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Right. Meta says this is about enabling more speech. More speech also means more lies and more propaganda on the platforms. This involves Instagram, Threads, Facebook, and in some ways, it's a rollback of eight years of progress, eight years since the 2016 election, when concerns about fake news stories spreading on Facebook caused companies, like Facebook to incorporate fact checking.

If you think about it in terms of information pollution, Wolf, how polluted is the online ecosystem at any given time? Right now, there's a lot of information pollution. But these tech CEOs, they are pulling back and essentially saying to users, you all go figure it out for yourselves. It results in a more free internet, yes, a more open internet for free speech, but also maybe a more confusing, chaotic environment where some people, well, there are obviously real world harms as a result.

BLITZER: You know, Brian, after Zuckerberg made this huge announcement, Elon Musk wrote this, and I'm quoting him now. This is cool, end quote. That coming less than two years after the two men were trying to fight in a cage match, I should say. Why is Zuckerberg now taking a specific page from Musk's X platform?

STELTER: Well, I'd say virtually every tech CEO is trying to make right with the president-elect, trying to recalibrate or reset a relationship with the incoming administration. And Zuckerberg has a lot of work to do because Trump has been critical of Facebook for years. Musk is clearly Trump's right hand man. CEOs like Zuckerberg have been going to Mar-a-Lago trying to improve the relationship.

I see two things going on here, Wolf. There's both a well intentioned effort by Meta to reflect the mainstream of public opinion and to reset the content moderation standards so they don't seem too much to the left or they're more in the middle. That's a well-intentioned effort. But there's also clearly here a craven effort to appeal to Donald Trump by rolling this out on Fox News today, by really speaking Trump's language when it comes to the changes that are being made.

[18:35:08]

Trump, of course, so truth challenged, and now Facebook is saying, we're not going to try to monitor the truth on this platform much at all.

BLITZER: Interesting. All right, Brian Stelter reporting for us. Brian, thank you very much.

Just ahead, the 119th Congress voting on its first bill today, Delaware Congresswoman Sarah McBride is here live as Democrats prepare for Donald Trump's second term.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Many of President Biden's environmental achievements are on the chopping block tonight as Donald Trump plans a major rollback of Biden's green agenda. Listen to Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to be ending the electric car mandate quickly.

He wants to get -- he wants everybody to have an electric heater instead of a gas heater. Gas heater is much less expensive.

[18:40:00]

The heat is much better. It's a much better heat. As the expression goes, you don't itch.

You know, you can talk about windmills.

It's many, many times more expensive than clean natural gas. So, we're going to try and have a policy where no windmills are being built.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's get some reaction from Democratic Congresswoman Sarah McBride of Delaware. This is her first interview with CNN since officially becoming a member of the House. Congratulations. You were just sworn in, Congresswoman.

Tackling climate change was a big part of your campaign platform. So, what do you make of what we just heard from the president-elect on this issue?

REP. SARAH MCBRIDE (D-DE): Well, this is clearly an attempt to undermine President Biden's legacy, a president who passed the world's largest ever investment in combating climate change that we've ever seen. And this issue is personal for me as someone who represents the lowest lying state in the country. We have to protect our communities, particularly our coastal communities, from rising sea levels.

And this administration's really trying to talk out of both sides of its mouth. We absolutely all want to pursue more domestic sources of energy. And they can't talk about doing that while also trying to undermine the Inflation Reduction Act and undermine our capacity to invest in renewable energy here in the United States, which creates jobs, good paying union jobs, but also helps to protect our communities and our states from the existential threat of climate change.

BLITZER: Trump also says he's open to using the U.S. military to potentially seize the Panama Canal and Greenland as well, which is part of Denmark. Sources close to Trump say he's very serious about this. What's your reaction to that?

MCBRIDE: Well, this is typical bluster from the president-elect, this obsession with Greenland and Panama really came out of nowhere and has been filled with mistruths and misunderstandings. I don't understand why this president is so committed at a time of global instability, of fostering more instability globally, of undermining our allies and at the same time diverting the attention of our federal government toward issues like invading Greenland or Panama, while we should be focused on bringing down costs, facing workers, retirees and families here in this country. That's what our focus should be on. If this president's serious about an America First agenda, he should be focused on domestic economic issues, not some weird obsession with invading Greenland or Panama.

BLITZER: Speaker Johnson, the House speaker, is looking to put Trump's legislative priorities in one massive, one large bill. How do you think Democrats should approach this?

MCBRIDE: Well, what's clear is that the Trump tax bill from 2017 was really just an effort to line the pocket of the wealthy by giving table scraps to working people to distract from the fact that they were really just slashing taxes for wealthy individuals and corporations. And their attempt here to double down on that is exactly why Democrats will oppose this new Trump tax bill.

Look, we want to make permanent the tax cuts for the middle class, but we shouldn't be exploding the deficit and utilizing those small tax cuts for working people to really line the pockets of Donald Trump's billionaire friends who now populate his administration.

And so we have to be crystal clear about what they're trying to do. Give us a tax bill that keeps the tax cuts for working people, we'll support that. But put forward a bill that gives table scraps to working people while really, really exploding the deficit and focusing in on cutting taxes for wealthy individuals and paying for that by cutting programs like Social Security and Medicare, we will do everything we can to stand in the way of that type of dangerous proposal.

BLITZER: Before I let you go, I know you've faced some attacks, some personal attacks, as the first openly transgender member of Congress, including on which restroom you're allowed to use up on Capitol Hill. You've said you're more focused, focusing in on the issues facing your constituents. But how do you plan on working on legislation with various Republicans, like Nancy Mace, for example, who've personally attacked you?

MCBRIDE: Look, there are professional provocateurs parading as public officials in the Republican conference, but those are individuals who won't work with any Democrat at this point and can barely work with their own Republican colleagues. I'm used to working with people who disagree with me on some pretty fundamental issues, including issues that are near and dear to my heart personally.

But that's the only way we make government work. It's the only way we have a pluralistic, diverse democracy. We have to be willing to have conversations across disagreement, and, yes, seek to find common ground with people who we may disagree with on every other issue but the one before us. That's what I did in the Delaware State Senate, where nearly every bill I introduced in past passed with bipartisan support, and it's how I'll continue to approach this work in Congress.

BLITZER: Once again, congratulations, Congresswoman, on your election, being sworn in the House of Representatives.

[18:45:02]

Congresswoman Sarah McBride, thanks very much for joining us.

MCBRIDE: Thank you.

BLITZER: And coming up, our CNN team is on the scene of breaking news out in California right now. A massive wildfire exploding in size in the Los Angeles area, with officials now scrambling to get people out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Evacuation orders are expanding in southern California as a fast burning wildfire is growing rapidly right now.

CNN's Chad Myers is standing by in the CNN weather center for us. But first, let's go to CNN's Natasha Chen, who's live on the scene for us in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Give us an update, Natasha.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, officials have just said that this fire has grown so quickly now to more than 1,200 acres, and you wouldn't know it by looking behind me that we are standing at the iconic Pacific Coast Highway, just right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, which is supposed to be more like a Barbie scene.

[18:50:09]

But now, it looks like this. It is completely hazy, dark smoke billowing in our direction all afternoon. We've seen palm trees on fire. We saw a structure up on the Hill on fire earlier this afternoon, and personally, I heard an explosion when I was standing closer to the street. So it's been very active, very difficult for the people who live in

those foothills because they have one way out here. So when they were trying to evacuate this afternoon, we saw a lot of them dragging suitcases with their pets and just some possessions, in some cases leaving their cars behind, creating a gridlock over here. So it's been very chaotic.

Here's one of the officials at the press briefing that happened just a few moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF KRISTIN CROWLEY, LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT: Currently, the fire is at 1261 acres and growing based on aerial reconnaissance. The fire is being fueled by a combination of strong winds and surrounding topography, which is making it extremely challenging for our personnel that are assigned to this incident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What makes this so dangerous is that there are very high winds for today and tomorrow, making it very easy for the flames to jump. And in fact, there are some utilities that are preemptively shutting off power. There are more than 8,000 customers, for example, with preemptive power shutoffs, right now, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Natasha, be safe out there. We'll stay in touch with you. Thank you very much.

I want to go to Chad right now.

Chad, what is the forecast for the Los Angeles area look like in the hours and days ahead?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not good. Not good until at least noon tomorrow.

The winds right there were gusting to 47 miles per hour. This is a time lapse from University of San Diego. What this fire looked like. It grew at four football fields per minute, Wolf.

And it's still growing. It's still on fire. And the winds are going to go from 47 right now to 80 overnight.

The embers are flying everywhere. In fact, the radar can actually see the embers. Radar sees raindrops, it sees snowflakes. But it can also see the embers, the ashes in the fire itself blowing over 100 miles out into the ocean at this point.

This is the highest level of concern, a particularly dangerous situation for red flag warning, a category three of three for extremely critical fire weather.

Now, by tomorrow, things do go down a little bit, but you can still get sparks to fly at 20 or 30 miles per hour. Extremely critical. We didn't need a spark, but unfortunately, Wolf, we got it. Without a spark, this isn't a story with a spark. We have a disaster. This is easily the first billion dollar disaster of the year so far. And it's just getting started.

BLITZER: It's terrible. Chad Myers, thank you very much for that update.

Coming up, we'll have the latest on a very disturbing incident in Florida after two people were found dead inside a JetBlue, JetBlue plane that just landed in Florida.

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[18:57:41]

BLITZER: Tonight, officials are trying to figure out how two bodies ended up in the wheel well, of a JetBlue airplane that landed in Florida last night.

CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is the latest in a rash of in-flight incidents with fatal results. The discovery of two bodies at Fort Lauderdale's airport has police asking how and where the men snuck on board a JetBlue flight, apparently dying while stowing away with the planes landing gear.

DISPATCH: JetBlue is advising, the gate technician in the landing gear area, noticed two males, advised they are not moving in the landing gear area.

MUNTEAN: Police say passengers had already deplaned when emergency crews arrived and pronounced the stowaways dead. The flight arrived at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport around 11:30 Monday night from New York's JFK.

Now, investigators are looking at the plane's flight history, which started Monday in Kingston, Jamaica, then flew to JFK, Salt Lake City and back to JFK before flying to Florida.

CAREY CODD, BROWARD SHERIFF'S OFFICE SPOKESPERSON: Detectives will be looking at all aspects, contributing to the circumstances of this incident. Where did the plane come from? How long were the individuals on the plane?

ARLENE SATCHELL, FORT LAUDERDALE-HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: It has not happened since in the six years that I've been here, but clearly its been in the news recently at other airports.

MUNTEAN: Just last month, a body was discovered in the wheel well of a united airlines flight that flew from Chicago to Maui on Christmas Eve. The opening, which stores a planes retractable wheels, is about the size of a cars trunk but is not pressurized like the rest of the plane, meaning stowaways risk extreme cold, oxygen deprivation, getting crushed by the wheels or falling to the ground.

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Once you're in, you're in. But that's also where it is the most difficult to find something even approaching a safe place.

MUNTEAN: Former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz points to the latest FAA data, which says 80 percent of wheel well stowaways die.

GOELZ: I would not be surprised if we see a few more. These are high profile events. People take it into their -- into their minds that they can get away with it, that they -- they know a way to do it and it will turn out poorly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MUNTEAN (on camera): Still a mystery tonight are the identities of the men in this latest stowaway case. Experts point out that stowaways often target the main landing gear. Those are the wheels naturally hidden since they're under the wings.

This also really begs the question of airport security, specifically airport perimeter fencing. But again, it is still not clear where these men snuck on board this flight -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Pete Muntean reporting for us. Pete, thank you very much.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Thanks very much for watching.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.