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All Federal DEI Staff Now Ordered On Leave After Deadline Passes; Crews Battling Rapidly Growing New Fire In Northern L.A. County; Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) Announces New House Select Subcommittee To Continue Republicans' Investigation Of January 6; Musk Bashes $500 Billion A.I. Project Touted By Trump; Crews Battling Rapidly Growing New Fire In Northern L.A. County. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired January 22, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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


[18:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now, breaking news, President Trump begins the process of wiping out diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the federal government. All DEI staffers now ordered on administrative leave after the deadline passed just a little while ago.

Also tonight, as more January 6 rioters go free, sources now say the Trump White House is in talks to host some of the pardoned convicts. This, as House Republicans are forming a new panel to reinvestigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol. I'll get reaction from former January 6th House select committee member Jamie Raskin.

Plus, a very dangerous new outbreak in the Southern California wildfire disaster, residents are now under mandatory evacuation orders in northern Los Angeles County as crews battle the rapidly growing blaze.

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

And we begin with breaking news on President Trump's very fast and furious moves to overhaul the federal government and make good on his MAGA agenda. Employees who work to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, taking a hit tonight, a major hit, as they are ordered all of them on administrative leave.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is over at the White House for us. Jeff, a key deadline just passed in the President's push to wipe out these DEI programs.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it did, we're about an hour into this new world order, if you will, a sweeping dismantling of a diversity, equity and inclusion programs throughout the government, not just here in Washington, but indeed across the federal agencies and across the country as well. It also includes and seeps into the private sector as well.

But what this executive order did, the president signed on Monday, shortly after taking office, it effectively revokes what President Lyndon Johnson did in the 1960s with his affirmative action executive order. This is ordering all agencies to effectively erase their websites explaining diversity. It is calling for an end to anti-bias training, diversity programs, et cetera. All of these staffers are placed on paid leave right now. But after next Friday, some of their jobs could be in question. Some could be at layoffs.

But in the executive order, Wolf, when you read through the executive order, what it really says is this. It explains the president's thinking on this. Of course, he campaigned on this as he ran for office. It's the cornerstone of some of his many policies. But he says this in the executive order. Let's take a look. He said, these programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars and resulted in shameful discrimination.

It goes on to say this, we are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language. Please report all faces and circumstances to DEIatruth@opm, that's the Office of Personnel Management, within ten days. So, Wolf, that is a very interesting part of this. There's a directive here essentially telling federal employees to look for any disguised programs, in their words, disguised programs that actually are diversity, equity, and inclusion programs called something else. And it is asking federal government employees to report them here to the very powerful Office of Personnel Management.

So, it's something we have not seen certainly in recent times, but it's something that has been talked about for a very long time here. But, again, one of the many executive orders we saw him signing shortly after taking office is now coming into effect, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Jeff Zeleny over at the White House for us, Jeff, thank you very much.

I want to get a closer look right now at President Trump's moves to dismantle all of these DEI programs and the impact for the country. Here CNN's Rene Marsh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Our country is going to be based on merit again.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Tonight, all employees of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI offices at federal agencies have been put on administrative leave. The Trump administration also cutting DEI initiatives, training offices and taking down social media and websites focused on DEI. And the changes are coming quickly. This was the Treasury Department's website on its commitment to DEI before Trump was sworn in. Here it is now, the same at the Labor Department.

[18:05:02]

The administration also set an end of the month deadline for a plan to execute a reduction in force for these employees, in layman's terms, a plan for firings.

How many federal workers are we talking about here that could be impacted by this?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): We have no idea. And one of the things that we hope to learn this week is exactly how many employees are working in DEI.

MARSH: Republican Chairman of the House Oversight Committee James Comer is an ally on Trump's mission to eliminate DEI. He says he'll work to pass laws in Congress that make Trump's executive orders permanent.

COMER: It amounts to hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars in added payroll.

MARSH: The impact will cutting equity-related grants and contracts and ending DEI requirements for government contractors all coming within the next 60 days.

EVERETT KELLEY, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES: People are taking to tears because they don't know what to expect You know, it's a smoke stream to really just fire a whole bunch of civil servants.

MARSH: Trump's order could also impact government initiatives at agencies, like Health and Human Services that use DEI funds to increase the diversity of patients in cancer clinical trials, vaccine equity in rural communities, and research that promotes maternal health equity.

COMER: We are going to abolish these DEI agencies and we feel it's a duplicative service, a repetitive service. It's already illegal to discriminate.

MARSH: If the protections aren't there, doesn't it make it easier to violate a law?

COMER: I think the protections are there.

MARSH: Right now, agencies are not required to track DEI expenditures, so it's unclear how much the government has spent overall. CNN analyzed the proposed budgets of 20 federal agencies. HHS, for example, requested $113 million in its budget for training for diversity in the health workforce. And the Department of Defense asked for $50 million to fund DEI-related activities. That amount accounts for just 0.006 percent of the department's total budget requests, according to a spokesperson.

The Biden administration expanded DEI protections to a broader group of Americans, including women, rural communities, military spouses and caregivers.

KATY YOUKER, LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER LAW: What diversity, equity and inclusion programs do is open opportunities to qualify deserving people who worked hard. It's not about dictating hiring decisions or filling quotas.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MARSH (on camera): And, Wolf, while we don't know exactly how many of these federal employees will be impacted by today's actions, what we can say is that the actions that we are seeing by the Trump administration here to roll back all DEI will certainly reverberate into communities throughout the country, when you talk about taking away grants and policy programs that benefit many of these underserved communities.

One other note on this issue of them asking for callouts for people within these agencies who may have information on federal employees who may have been disguising certain DEI initiatives, we should note CNN reported just last week that there were federal employees within these agencies working to quietly edit job descriptions and policy descriptions because they feared this very day would come, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Rene Marsh reporting for us, excellent report, Rene. Thank you very, very much.

I want to get some analysis right now. Our political and legal experts are joining us right now, and, Laura Coates, let me start with you. You're our CNN anchor and chief legal analyst. It took effect the decision to freeze all these workers, put them on administrative leave one hour ago. Give us the impact.

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: The impact could be extensive because the actual order is vague enough to leave room for doubt as to how far they can actually go. What constitutes any DEI practice? For example, there's a whole civil rights division devoted to ensuring that there are civil rights equities in this country and ensuring that there are no violations of suspect classifications of race, of gender, of religion, and beyond.

And so the question would be for those entities, how they might be impacted in the decisions they're making. Consent decrees, they have already enacted and gone into effect up until now, that's part of it. Also, there is a call for investigations into the private sector for entities that might be the most, quote/unquote, egregious offenders.

So, this could actually be vague enough to worry everyone, and yet not specific enough to allow a court to feel that it is a narrowly tailored objective of the government so that it does not offend our principles of constitutional equality. And, of course, the First Amendment comes to mind as well, the idea of freedom of speech, association will be challenged on that and being able to associate with one another if that's a program that's under that same category. So, it can be very, very extensive.

As a former federal employee, I can tell you the morale must be under the ground knowing that a lot of the work that they have done up until now has been lauded, five Republican presidents and Trump, including his first one left in place the LBJ order about affirmative action federal contractors, so it's a huge seismic shift.

[18:10:08]

BLITZER: Huge, indeed. It's affecting a lot of federal employees now who are on administrative leave.

Bryan Lanza, you were a senior adviser to the Trump campaign. What's your reaction?

BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Listen, Trump's fulfilling a promise. This is a promise he made in the campaign. He wanted to address DEI. He felt it was discriminatory. A lot of his people in his base felt it was supremely discriminatory. And what you're seeing is Trump fulfill one of the many promises he's made, and he's going to continue to push. But what we've learned more than anything, that he's now aggressive in his push.

We didn't know, you know, how aggressive Trump was going to be out of the gates when he's pushing these policy changes. We're sort of wondering, is it going to be a tiptoe? Is it going to be around the edges? He's going all in and restructuring the federal government as we understand it.

He has four years to do it. Technically, he only has two, which is probably why you see him racing. But it's important to know that he had his first term, he had a gap, so he had four years to learn, you know, what he -- how to make things better, and now you're seeing what better looks like. You're seeing an administration that can now accelerate very fast.

BLITZER: He's moving very, very quickly.

Ameshia Cross is with us as well, Democratic strategist, former Obama campaign official, administration official, as well. What do you make of all of this?

AMESHIA CROSS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think that Donald Trump is leaning in on his base. He did make these promises, but I also think that he is somebody who is very much on a personal level against the progress that we've seen among certain groups, particularly groups of color. This dismantling of essentially the Civil Rights Act and civil rights gains that were hard fought, many of which he spoke and castigated against on MLK Day just a few days ago.

I think that this is very disastrous for America, one, because we are a diverse democracy. We are the most diverse democracy that exists in the world. And when we talk about things like diversity, equity and inclusion, we have to remember that this nation was not built nor did its laws actually open up opportunities for an equal playing field for people of color, for people of diverse backgrounds. And that is why we see some of these redresses.

And, quite frankly, when I see numbers where it's less than 2 percent of black people who are America's attorneys, when I see the housing appraisals, where an appraisal for a black homeowner is drastically lower than that for a white homeowner, when I see that there are less doctors in my community who look like me than there are across white communities, there are some significant disadvantages that still exist across this country. And I think that once you push to eradicate some of these policies, we're only going to see those gaps widen, which is not what America is supposed to be. BLITZER: Let me get Laura back into this conversation. Help us understand, Laura, the difference between the government's DEI programs and federal laws that have been on the books for decades to prevent discrimination in the workplace.

COATES: It's a great question because that is the question raised by those who oppose DEI in part. They will suggest that this is superfluous, it's redundant, and the government needs no other layers for bureaucracy. But there are some key distinctions. One is about the concept, and one is about how you actually implement it. You can always have a directive from the government that says, I want to make sure X happens. But then there's the actual policy that goes into place of how you do that, the devil being in the details.

Oftentimes, DEI is about those implementation of details and the policy parameters that actually accomplish a particular government objective. But we've seen a rolling back over time through either affirmative action and education or a Supreme Court that had six members that essentially said, look, they are in support of affirmative action being a whole different animal and ending.

So, it's hard to suggest that this political machine that is now in motion might not be supported by a court, but we have laws on the books where it is not superfluous. We are protected in civil rights and beyond for this very notion. And so to roll back indefinitely across all sectors, you will be hard pressed to see America progress even towards the vision that Trump has envisioned.

BLITZER: Bryan, what is the White House's current definition of diversity?

LANZA: I think it's a moving target. I think it's -- they know what it is, right? You know, they know when you're targeting, you know, when you're putting a thumb on the scale for a specific, whether it's race, or these inclusions, that is not -- that is sort of forced diversity that doesn't work. I come from California, where, 20 years ago, we got rid of affirmative action. And California is a Democrat-run state and it still does a very good job with respect to bringing Latino communities into the elite universities, into the medical field, into doctor fields.

You know, this is -- affirmative action at least in California, and I think nationally, is antiquated. It's old news. It's LBJ. And it served a purpose. But we've seen in California that when you can get rid of it, you can still be a diverse state and have a tremendous amount of growth. And that's what Trump's saying, because California's a meritocracy. Whether you like it or not, you know, you're going to get into that university because you've earned your right, not because they've set something aside for you. And that's what we want.

COATES: Can I just say though, on one point, first you like Democratic politics in California. I'm going to go on the record on that right now, Bryan, because you said that.

LANZA: I'm a former Democrat. COATES: I'll say that. Number two, I think people have to know what it's not. The assumption that DEI programs trying to correct inequities is not synonymous with a meritless system.

[15:15:02]

The people who are in positions have earned those positions as well. They're not just being handed a silver spoon as if they did not deserve it. And so we have to make sure that any competition we have about DEI going away or affirmative action or anything else is not the same thing as people who were given a chance and did not otherwise deserve it.

BLITZER: All right, guys, thanks to all of you, excellent discussion. Laura, of course, we'll be back later tonight, 11:00 P.M. Eastern, with her program, Laura Coates Live. We'll be watching.

I want to get to some more breaking news right now in Los Angeles County, where a new wildfire has just exploded in size. 19,000 people now under new evacuation orders.

CNN's Veronica Miracle is on the scene for us with all the late breaking developments. Veronica, what are you seeing? What are you hearing? Tell us first what's going on where you are.

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, well, Wolf, the winds are just so strong. They have been gusting pretty much the whole time that we have been here. When we first arrived, the fire was burning along this hillside just behind us.

You can see some flames right there, but over the last hour, we have watched it just move steadily and slowly all the way around the lake beyond that bridge, and now it is moving dangerously close towards residences. There's an R.V. park in that direction. There are homes, there are businesses. So, that is a major concern, and these winds are a major concern here.

Now, when we first arrived, we were trying to get out of around the lake to get closer to the flames. And a CHP officer stopped us because he said back there is a crime scene. They have an arson investigator. And so that is something that's being investigated right now. It's, of course, in the early stages. We don't know the exact cause, but that's happening.

And also we understand that hundreds of inmates are some of those evacuees. They have been evacuated from a local detention center. There are also, as you said, 19,000 people just in this area alone that are under mandatory evacuation orders. As we were coming in, we saw people hosing down their homes. We saw people just standing in awe, just watching what was happening.

You know, this is about 45 minutes from Altadena. We were actually over in the other fire area where they Eaton fire had just burned a couple of weeks ago. We were doing a story on clean up and we came directly here. So, the proximity from these fires, these major destructive fires, it's incredibly concerning and just a lot of people here very tense and on edge. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes, I'm sure they are. We're going to continue to follow this breaking story, to be sure. We'll bring you more live reports. That's coming up. Veronica Miracle, thank you very much. Stay safe out there. We'll be in touch just ahead.

Just ahead, as President Trump tries to rewrite the history of January 6th, House Republicans are now launching a brand new investigation of what happened at the U.S. Capitol that day. I'll talk to a key Democrat who served on the former January 6th House select committee, Congressman Jamie Raskin. He's standing by live.

Plus, new threats against officials who resist President Trump's immigration crackdown are coming from the U.S. Justice Department.

Lots going on, stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:00]

BLITZER: There's more breaking news this hour, the House Speaker Mike Johnson announcing a new panel to continue the Republicans' investigation of January 6th.

Joining us now, a key Democrat who served on the bipartisan January 6th House Select Committee, Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

What do you make of this new committee to investigate your old committee?

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Well, I think they're purporting to say that they're going to be investigating the events of January 6th and what led up to it, as well as what took place afterwards. Of course, like every historical event, like the Civil War, the French Revolution, they're constantly open to historical debate and revision. And I'm not averse to that as long as they're looking for the facts, as long as they're looking for the truth. If they're interested in spreading lies and conspiracy theories, like Kash Patel has been doing for a long time, well, then obviously that doesn't contribute to public understanding.

But those of us who participated in the bipartisan select committee, which produced an 800-page report, which is painstaking and documented and exhaustive, in which nobody has laid a glove on, not a single factual detail has been contradicted in any way, we've got nothing to be afraid of, and so maybe can educate some of our colleagues who seem to be falling for the propaganda.

I do hope if they're going to do it, they call in some of the people who've never testified starting with Donald Trump himself. I invited Donald Trump to be the leadoff witness in the trial in the Senate and he refused. I think if anybody in your audience was accused of trying to incite a violent insurrection against the government, they would be the first person to go forward to say they didn't do it. But we've never heard from Donald Trump, his story of what he was doing that day, why it took him several hours before he finally weighed in and urged people to go home, telling them that he loved them and they were heroes and all of that stuff?

So, look, I'm trying to keep an open mind about it if they are really interested in looking for the truth. I'm going to talk to our leader, Hakeem Jeffries, in person. And we'll see. The committee that I participated on before was a bipartisan committee with a Democratic chair and a Republican vice chair. I think that would be a good model. I want to make sure it's truly bipartisan and that we're looking for the facts and we're not looking to chase a bunch of right wing conspiracy theories about Antifa and so on.

BLITZER: Do you want to serve on this new select committee, Congressman?

RASKIN: You know, I don't know what the terms of it are. I don't know whether or not the chair and the ranking member are supposed to be ex- officio members. I don't know how they're setting it up.

[18:25:00]

So, let me just reserve judgment on that until something, you know, something is produced in writing. I've just read the news reports of it so far.

BLITZER: The House Freedom Caucus wants to invite pardoned January 6th defendants to the U.S. Capitol. And we're learning the Trump administration is also right now in talks to host some of them at the White House. So, what's your reaction to that?

RASKIN: Well, I think it's absolutely scandalous. I mean, just a week ago, I think Vice President J.D. Vance was saying that he thought that the nonviolent insurrectionists should be pardoned, but not the violent ones. There are Republicans who described the events of January 6th as terrorism. Go back and look at some of the things that were said by Mitch McConnell or even Mike Johnson who said all of the violent protesters should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

People understood at that point the gravity of this assault. 140 of our officers were bloodied, wounded, injured, hospitalized. Many have had to leave the force and move on to other things. I spoke to Mrs. Sicknick today, the mother of Officer Brian Sicknick, who succumbed to his strokes and other injuries on January 7th, 2021, after spending the day fighting to defend us against the mob. And Mrs. Sicknick said she invites any of my colleagues to go out and to visit her son's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. And I said, I'd be happy to go with any of them to join on that pilgrimage.

This is very serious business. And, of course, this continues to be a serious threat to public safety, to release 1,500 convicted felons, hundreds of them violent felons, into the community with no particular plan about what to do. And a lot of them, like Mr. Chansley saying, they're going out to get M.F. and guns at this point.

BLITZER: Congressman Jamie Raskin, thanks so much for joining us. RASKIN: You bet.

BLITZER: And coming up, the breaking news unfolding right now in California, a new wildfire exploding just north of Los Angeles.

But, first, new details on the order just coming in from the Pentagon to deploy even more U.S. troops to the southern border with Mexico.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

BLITZER: Tonight, President Trump's immigration crackdown is taking shape with the U.S. Justice Department now making threats against state and local officials around the country who refused to comply with enforcement operations. This as thousands of more American troops are now heading to the southern border with Mexico.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is joining us right now. Priscilla, update our viewers on these dramatic developments.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is certainly a crackdown by the Trump administration on the U.S.-Mexico border with a show of force by using Pentagon resources. Now, this falls into two different buckets, one, the troops that are going to be there, and then the assets that will be used.

So let's start with the first. 1,500 additional troops headed to the U.S.-Mexico border. That is in addition to the around 2,200 troops that are already there, which is part of the point here. Of course, Pentagon resources have been used along the U.S. southern border before to assist border authorities with the work there.

Now, as far as what they're going to be doing, well, that includes, for example, operational readiness, helping with air assets, also helping with intelligence gathering when it comes to threats and the flow of migrants and assisting in command and control. They're not doing law enforcement when they are along the U.S. southern border, but rather helping their partners when they are there.

Now, the second part of this is there is the air assets. This is specific to military aircraft being used for repatriation flights, so essentially sending people back home. Now, they are targeting the population that is already in border patrol custody, around 5,000 people. Those are recent border crossers.

Now, I don't have a breakdown of the nationalities because, of course, some countries decide not to take some of their people back, for example, Venezuela. But, certainly, they have identified enough to start using his military aircraft within the next 24 to 48 hours to start sending them back home.

Now, we are also told that the aircraft is being sent to San Diego and El Paso. So, again, Wolf, while the border has, as of recently, been relatively quiet, the Trump administration is certainly trying to do a show of force along the border all the same to those migrants who may be seeking to come to the U.S.

BLITZER: There are lots going on along the border. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you very much for that report.

Our political experts are back with me right now. Ameshia, let me start with you on this Department of Justice memo to prosecute officials all around the country who refuse to -- who are resisting these immigration orders that the new Trump administration is putting forward. What's your reaction to that?

CROSS: Well, I think it's disgusting. This is made to specifically target sanctuary cities and sanctuary states. I'm a native Chicagoan. So, when I think of the attacks on Governor Pritzker, as well as the attacks on Mayor Brandon Johnson, a lot of this has been used to basically scare the hell out of people, for lack of a better term, who have provided safe harbor for generations, for individuals who are members of society, members of society who have restaurants, who have families, who have contributed not only to the tax base, but also to the community.

This is not just about those who have committed crimes who may be undocumented. This also to enshrine fear amongst those who have been the fabric of communities.

LANZA: Ameshia, I would add, you know, listen, these guys want to become martyrs in this debate. Trump's going to allow them to become martyrs in this debate. What is wrong with following federal law?

[18:35:00]

What is wrong with cooperating with the feds and enforcing our immigration laws? You know, there was a time where the feds had to step in states because states weren't enforcing federal law and the country cheered for this. This is another time where the states are now helping enforce federal law, and we should be thankful that we're enforcing federal law.

What we have is an overrun of our cities. You know, you have cities who are becoming beacons for illegal immigration, for illegal immigrants to come into the area, they're bringing crime, they're displacing workers, they're driving up cost of rents, they're getting all these other things. What's wrong with saying, hey, we have these set of laws, they should be enforced, and you know what, the federal government shouldn't do it? And if there's a conspiracy to violate federal law, those people should be held accountable.

CROSS: And Trump Republicans like to talk about crime statistics. What we know is that those are -- that is inaccurate. We know that migrant crime is extremely low, less than 2 percent crimes that are occurring.

LANZA: It could be 0 percent. The fact is it shouldn't exist to begin with. That's the whole conversation point.

CROSS: Well, crime in our community shouldn't exist at all. We can say that too. But that's the thing. LANZA: Yes, correct. But what we're doing is we're importing criminals, right? That's what we're importing. We're importing crimes into these communities, and we're saying, and the Democratic leadership's saying, suck it up to the constituency. Republicans are saying, no, we're not going to import criminals into our community. We're going to actually hold the elected officials accountable, and we're going to remove some of these criminals that exist. Whether it's 1 percent or 2 percent, that's 2 percent that shouldn't exist.

CROSS: I'm also old enough to remember when, you When the Republicans, specifically Republican governors across Texas and across Florida, actually push migrants to places like my hometown of Chicago.

BLITZER: Yes, hold your thoughts for a second, I want to bring Alex Thompson into this conversation. How do you think this is all going to land politically right now?

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, this debate is exactly why you're going to have one of the greatest, potentially one of the greatest showdowns between national power and local authority that we've had in decades, because Donald Trump has promised the biggest deportation act in history. And there are a lot of local officials that have already signaled in Chicago, in California, that they are not going to go along with ICE. And ICE has also made clear that they are going to go in and take these people. And then when you have a standoff like that, you know, who blinks first?

Now, you've had some Democrats, like Eric Adams in New York, actually take a much different stance and say, no, he is going to -- he met what the border czar, Trump's border czar, he is going to cooperate with the Trump administration, and every Democrat is going to have to make a choice whether or not they cooperate or they don't.

CROSS: Eric Adams is also trying to save himself from the federal from the federal cases that happen to be shrouded over him. So, let's be honest here.

LANZA: But also Eric Adams is the one who's been failed the most by the Biden immigration policy, that what brings us in this position where we have these mass migrations, the previous administrations that come here, illegal immigrants come here, take the jobs, take the housing, come here, and we gave it to them. And now we learned that cities, sanctuary cities, actually don't like these illegal immigrants in their community and Donald Trump's going to fulfill the promise --

CROSS: Eric Adams has committed more crimes in New York than any undocumented.

BLITZER: That's -- Alex, how is the new Trump administration measuring the success of these proposed immigration crackdowns?

THOMPSON: They're going to measure it by how many people they deport. And I think that's -- and how much border, miles of border wall. I really think that, to Bryan's point, and this could be a miscalculation, that they don't care if some Democrats make themselves martyrs for this cause. In fact, they think it helps them politically. And I don't think they even mind if there's going to be some really gruesome, potentially violent encounters in these communities. Because what they're trying to do is send the image that undocumented people are not welcome here. That is the message they want to send.

BLITZER: Yes, it certainly is. All right, guys, thank you very, very much.

Just ahead, we'll get back to California. Our CNN team is on the ground as new, very fast-moving wildfire forces mandatory evacuations around Los Angeles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

BLITZER: More on the breaking news. Take a look at this live pictures coming in from Los Angeles County in California, where we're tracking a rapidly growing brand new wildfire. This is the first significant blaze in the area since the fatal outbreak earlier this month.

CNN's Veronica Miracle is joining us once again. Veronica, what's the latest?

MIRACLE: Well, Wolf, the last time that I talked to you. I was in a park just over there and we were talking about an R.V. park that we were concerned about. That fire has actually come all the way here, but looks like firefighters have been able to protect all of these R.V. homes. You can see firefighters working up against this fence line trying to put out all of these hot spots to make sure that these embers do not travel as it is incredibly windy out here.

Now, this is an area that is just across the street from some apartments, a residential area. And in fact, I just met Octavio Prado. And so when we were talking, you live right over here.

OCTAVIO PRADO, CASTAIC RESIDENT: Yes, I live it right across the street.

MIRCALE: Yes. And you're under mandatory evacuation orders, but you still feel safe to be here right now.

PRADO: Correct. Yes.

MIRCALE: Given the fires that have burned in Los Angeles, the Palisades fire, the Eaton fire, how has it been for you and your family?

PRADO: Well, you know, I feel bad for the people. They have to go through all that, but I never thought it was going to happen here. And all of a sudden, you know, it happened. You know, we got a call from the school that we need to go pick up their kids so we can get them out of school. And next thing we know is the fire is moving over this way and jump over the road. And the next thing we know is we get and evacuated.

MIRCALE: Yes, incredibly scary. And what struck me is that you said your insurance company actually called you preemptively.

PRADO: Yes, I was moving actually my truck out of the way, you know, from the parking lot. And then as soon as I got on my truck, I got a phone call from the insurance company and I was like, why are they calling me? So, I answered the call and it was like, hey, you okay? And I'm like, yes, we're okay. The fire is getting pretty close, but so far we're good. And she says, well, if he needed to get in a hotel or you need to get some food or whatever, just say what you received. And he says we'll get you reimbursed for all that.

MIRCALE: They're going to take care of you?

And I imagine you know, given all of the fires that they've had to deal with all the families, such a different story than what we have been hearing from people who are having a tough time getting a hold of their insurance companies.

[18:45:11]

So --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was -- I was very surprised when I saw the phone ringing and it was Wawanesa, you know, so I was like, I don't know what happened, but, you know, they said, whatever you need to do to save all you receipt and we'll take care of you. So --

MIRACLE: Well, I'm glad you guys are okay. Stay safe with your family. We appreciate you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

MIRACLE: So we're right here in Castaic. Again, this whole area is under mandatory evacuation orders, 19,000 people have been asked to leave. And the evacuation warnings are getting bigger, as well as this fire continues to spread -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Veronica, stay safe over there. As I keep telling you. Thank you very much.

Coming up, one of Donald Trump's closest confidants, Elon Musk, is bashing a $500 billion project just hours after the new president announced it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:05]

BLITZER: Just two days into the second Trump term, there's already a public rift between the president and Elon Musk. The tech billionaire bashing plans for a $500 billion artificial intelligence project touted by Mr. Trump.

CNN's Brian Todd is covering the story for us.

Brian, this is potentially a risky move for Musk, right? BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Wolf, it's a pretty open revolt

by Elon Musk against President Trump, albeit a fairly low intensity one. It's leading to questions over how much leeway the president will really give to the so-called first buddy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're joined by Oracle executive --

TODD (voice-over): The president had two of the biggest moguls of the tech world in the room with him when he announced a new White House investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure and the creation of a company called Stargate.

TRUMP: We have an emergency. We have to get this stuff built. It's technology and artificial intelligence, all made in the USA.

TODD: By Donald Trump's side were OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Oracle co- founder Larry Ellison, and the CEO of Softbank, all there to promote an investment of $500 billion in Stargate.

Not in the room, Trump's so-called first buddy another tech giant, Elon Musk, who proceeded to undermine the announcement, posting on X, quote, they don't actually have the money. Softbank has well under $10 billion secured. I have that on good authority.

How do you think Donald Trump might react to Elon Musk doing that?

JASMINE WRIGHT, POLITICS REPORTER, NOTUS: Well, what we do know is that Donald Trump doesn't really like to be second-guessed, particularly not in public, and particularly not by people who he finds or he calls his friends or that should be loyal to him.

TODD: So far, President Trump has not responded specifically to Musk's post, but Trump's press secretary said this to Fox.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: So the American people should take President Trump and those CEOs' words for it. These investments are coming to our great country.

TODD: Hours after Musk denounced the White House, A.I. plan, Sam Altman took aim at Musk, first posting a line on how much he respects Musk, but then saying of Musk's claim that they don't have the money for it, wrong, as you surely know, I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies. But in your new role, I hope you'll mostly put America first, the latest observers say in a nasty feud between Musk and Altman.

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: First of all, they are in active litigation. Musk has sued Sam Altman and OpenAI for becoming a for- profit company, and Elon Musk has said publicly, I don't trust Sam Altman.

Sam Altman, for his part, has called Elon Musk a bully. TODD: This throwdown also signifies how Musk is seemingly throwing his

weight around, in just the first couple of days of the Trump administration, confidently striding around the White House amid speculation over whether he'll occupy a West Wing office near Trump's and on how much power Trump will bestow on Musk as head of the new budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency.

WRIGHT: I think that there are people around Donald Trump who potentially could be weary of Elon Musk, but that doesn't necessarily apply to Donald Trump itself. And we know within a Trump administration, Donald Trump is in the driver's seat.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): Analysts point out that President Trump had already given Elon Musk some leeway on another divisive issue, the use of H-1B visas for specialized foreign tech workers. Musk was in favor of the visas. Trump's MAGA supporters like Steve Bannon, hated them. Trump sided with Musk.

But how much more rope Trump is willing to give Musk at this point is something many people in this town are now watching very closely -- Wolf.

BLITZER: We'll watch it very closely, too. Thank you very much. Brian Todd reporting.

Coming up, the latest on the new explosive wildfire in southern California, and if weather conditions right now will make it even worse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:58:04]

BLITZER: All right, let's get back to the breaking news. A new wildfire exploding in size in Los Angeles County right now.

Our meteorologist, Chad Myers, is standing by in the CNN Weather Center with the latest fire forecast.

Chad, tell us more about the current conditions and what we should expect in the immediate hours ahead.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEROLOGIST: Thirty-five-mile-per-hour gusts right now. And the forecast is for that number to get higher. Right now at that number, we can get aircraft out there putting water and Phos-Chek that red retardant on the fire. That's good news.

But we get above 40 or 50. All that effort, all those firefighting efforts from the air will have to get shut off.

So here's the Palisades Fire, here's the Eaton Fire. And then up here, just kind of up toward the grapevine, 405 to the five. And then all you are up here into the Santa Clarita area. This is the lake that the fire is in, at least for right now, even

though 8,000 acres have burned. I don't think anything has really any structures have burned because it's been in this wildlife recreation area. But look at all of the people that live down here. That's the I- 5 corridor.

What's going to happen to the wind? It's going to pick up, especially going to pick up tomorrow. We're going to probably talk about winds to 40 miles per hour. That's why it's going to be so important to get the fire out tonight, or at least get it contained.

I mean, you're not going to get 100 percent containment because that doesn't happen for weeks sometimes. But you got to get it put out. Most of the way on the head, on the way the fire, the way the wind is moving, got to get that stopped. When you get that stopped. We're in good shape.

If we stop the air assets, that's going to be a problem. Another problem is that relative humidity right now, Wolf, is 7 percent. If you put 7 percent in your house for long enough, you'd have cracked fingers, cracked lips, chapped lips, it is completely tinder dry out there. The air is dry. It's blowing. And then, all of a sudden, we haven't had rain.

We haven't had one tenth of an inch of rain in 259 days. That may come to an end this weekend. We sure hope it does, Wolf, because they really need rain. They really need some help. Firefighters can't do it all.

BLITZER: Let's hope it rains, and very important. Chad Myers, thank you very much for that forecast.

And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.