>> susan's organization, generate hope, has been a refuge for more than 100 survivors. some as young as 18. go to cnnheroes.com right now to vote for her, for cnn hero of the career or any top ten cnn heroes. thanks for watching. our coverage continues. good evening. thanks for joining us on a very busy friday night. a lot to get to. new reporting from the wall street journal that reveals despite denial from the white house and the president was involved every step of the way in paying off stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. also news on the tight race in florida that has the president tweeting up a storm and beginning with recounts. two days ago the president named matt whitaker for that position after he fired jeff sessions. today after two days of stories about matt whitaker's past

involvement and apparently shady company and his numerous past comments about how to slow down or end the mueller investigation, now the president is saying he doesn't even know matt whitaker, which is sort of surprising because previously he'd said he did know him and he said it on television. it was actually live. many human beings with ears that worked actually heard it. we're actually going to play it for you in a moment because it's been recorded. but first setting aside the lodging of why the president would appoint someone he allegedly doesn't even know, it's also demonstratively false. whitaker has met with the president and they've spoken on the phone several times according to cnn's reporting. and the president just a month ago reported he knew matt whitaker. >> i never talk about that but i can tell you matt whitaker is a great guy. i mean i know matt whitaker. >> okay, it seemed pretty clear.

i know matt whitaker. but since he's been appointed matt whitaker there's been criticism. so here's what the president said today when asked about that. >> well, matt whitaker, i don't know matt whitaker. matt whitaker worked for jeff sessions and she was always extremely highly thought of and he still is, but i didn't know matt whitaker. he worked for attorney general sessions. he was very, very highly thought of and still is highly thought of. but this only comes up because anybody that works for me, they do a number on them. but matt whitaker is very smart man. >> all right, so just to review, all of a sudden the president claims not to know his own choice for acting attorney general, and he didn't just say it once either. >> i don't know matt whitaker. i didn't know matt whitaker. i didn't speak to matt whitaker about it. i don't know matt whitaker. in all fairness to matt

whitaker, who again i didn't know. >> okay, of course the president knows matt whitaker. it stands to reason that the president knowing whitaker spoke out against the russia investigation. our senior investigative correspondent drew griffon has been doing, last night he reported on whitaker's ties to a company the federal trade commissioner has shutdown because of a scam. >> when fired attorney general jeff sessions walked out of the department of justice and shook hands with the man who would take over at least temporarily, this iowa state senator was aghast. >> well, i initially thought i couldn't think of a more ill qualified person to assume that role based on my history with him. >> it is not a good one.

in 2007 mccoy was a young gay rising star in iowa's democratic party. matt whitaker was the young conservative republican u.s. attorney for the southern district of iowa. >> at the time you were indicted you were openly gay, the only openly gay legislator in the state of iowa. >> yes. >> you were a democratic. you were considered a rising star. do you think that's why you were targeted? >> i absolutely believe that's why i was targeted. >> the federal indictment was brief. the u.s. attorney was accusing mccoy of attempted extortion by a public official. mccoy says it was a $2,000 business dispute with a private consulting client who wouldn't pay a bill. those facts didn't matter to whitaker, he says, who brought the full weight of the federal government against him. >> i believe it was a political prosecution. there's no doubt in my mind, 100% certain that it was. >> reporter: here is all you

need to know about the case. the u.s. attorney's office under mi whitaker's direction spent more than two years going after mccoy, using the fbi, a paid informant, secret recorders, a special prosecutor and after two years it took a jury mere minutes to reach its verdict, not guilty. >> that's correct. i was acquitted within really 20 minutes. >> reporter: whitaker was criticized heavily in iowa's press. reporters asking why was mccoy prosecuted? dill granberg asked if the u.s. attorney's case was misplaced zeal or partisan politicking. >> this for most u.s. attorney's decision in court would have been embarrassing. >> yes. >> did he apologize to you in any way, shape or form? >> no, he never reached out to me. >> reporter: whitaker's career sputtered after he left the u.s. attorney's office in 2009. he tried and failed to become an

iowa supreme court justice, tried and failed in a run for senate. he seemed to have limited success in private practice. then in 2014 using the legal system as a political weapon he found an entirely new career. backed by conservative republican donors, whitaker became director of the foundation for accountability and civic trust, fact. the non-profit claims it is dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics and transparency in government by demanding the truth. under whitaker's leadership critics say it became a tool to attack democrats through the legal system. went after dozens of democrats, and especially after hillary clinton, filing ethics complaints, federal election complaints, anything it could do to legally hamstring democrats. >> i think when you're looking at an organization that is focused almost exclusively on

investigating individuals of one party and one political persuasion and that the head of that organization is now going to be installed as the attorney general of the entire united states, that sets off a number of alarm bells. >> reporter: matt mccoy doesn't need an alarm bell. he is frightened by the prospect of matt whitaker in a position of power. >> it's very frightening because i know how pliable he is. >> reporter: you mean an attorney general who will do whatever the boss wants. >> absolutely. without question. >> in the case of matt mccoy he was found not guilty i think you said in 20 minutes. how much damage due to his career and how much money he must have spent defending himself. >> reporter: yeah, financially he said he's still suffering. he really took a beating. he's actually still paying off his legal bills, anderson. but politically it didn't seem to hurt him that much. he stayed in the iowa state senate, and just this week with a vote that got him 80%, he was

elected to the poke county commission. >> have you gotten a response from the department of justice or even matt whitaker? >> reporter: surprisingly they did give us a response. but basically they told us it was matt whitaker's responsibility to pursue these allegations because they were credible allegations. and despite the fact that the jury didn't believe any of it, the justice department says it doesn't negate the obligation to open cases when laws may have been broken. >> drew griffon, appreciate your reporting. you hear drew's reporting. it'sse sort of ironic he's cast such doubt on the mueller probe when he himself has led what mr. mccoy believes is politically motivated case and a special prosecutor and the fbi and was a two-year investigation. >> the report that was just given really just dove tails right into the issue as to

whether matt whitaker at the lead of the justice department would use the department in the president's interest for political purposes. we know that over the course of the president's term he has repeatedly expressed a desire and an interest in the justice department being used as an arm of political retribution. it's my view that attorney general sessions and rod rosenstein have basically been keeping the barbarians at the gate. and now with a political operative, basically somebody who has expressed a desire and an interest that the special counsel could be fired, he said that publicly, i think the president has somebody in place who potentially will use the department in a political way. >> laura coates, matt whitaker had talked in the past about a biblical, i'm trying to get the right phrase, i think a biblical view of justice. what does that actually mean to you? i mean, what does that exactly

entail? biblical view of justice. >> i mean it fundamentally means he miscontrues and doesn't adhere to the first amendment and we do actually have a secular for the judicial branch and other branches of government. for him to take that viewpoint actually shows, frankly, there's no other way to describe this as being an asinine and idiotic statement to make. that in addition to the fact to have a biblical view also eliminates a lot of people whose religious viewpoints or the existence or absence of religious viewpoints would not be fit to serve on the bench, which is not how our society is run, and now when we have a separation of church and stalte. i think he's grasping for straws. >> can you explain what it means for the nation's top law enforcement official to disagree with marbury vs. madison, which

is actually a pretty big deal? >> yeah, it's a foundational constitutional case. and so it says that the supreme court is the final arbiter in determining what the law is. so this is foundational place, and, you know, all of these issues, his views on whether or not there is a biblical requirement for judges, his views on marbury and madison, his views on potentially as your story reported his office when he was the u.s. attorney in bringing a politically motivated case, all of those are the types of issues thad would be explored in a confirmation hearing. if he actually would have gone through a conifer haitian hearing for a senior position in the justice department. and that's why you're seeing in part so many lawyers across the political spectrum over the last 24 hours raise really serious concerns about the fact he's been elevated to the position of attorney general having not gone through that confirmation process for service in this administration.

>> you know, laura, it's interesting to hear -- you heard the president on fox, you know, a month or so ago or several months ago saying he knows matt whitaker and praising him. now today saying he doesn't know him reminds me of when carter page was announced by the president on confidential call during the campaign as being one of the foreign policy advisers. he was praised by the president and later on it turns out they never actually met. the president didn't know anything about him. turns out they never met until he had become president. so it's just odd that the president, you know, whether all the reporting he had met whitaker or talked to him on the phone, either way he's lying. >> well, convenient amnesia is the president's mo. you could have gone onto include george papadopoulos, michael cohen at one point in time when he had a foehned recollection of

who he was. this is the president's mo of trying to establish a 10 foot pole between himself and people who are controversial. now, the irony here is the reason matthew whitaker is now controversial is by the president's own actions. and as carrie was alluding to, the fact matthew whitaker has essentially leapfrogged not only out of respect for people who were more senior than him but also the rank and file and out of the chain of command and out of the line of succession is the president's own doing. this would be the equivalent of all a sudden the president himself were incapacitated. instead of having the vice president take the reigns of the ship or the horse he said i think i'll have general kelly be in charge of it country instead. there was an order of succession. he went around that and saying i don't know why anyone's blaming me, i hardly know the person. that's the point. that's the argument the people are making.

and the people and the senate don't know who that person and they shouldn't be in that role until they do. new rorring from "the wall street journal" about how involved had president actually was in those hush money payments. and the latest on three wildfires roaring through california. thousands of structures have been destroyed and thousands of people are fleeing. some praying as they drive away through the flames. >> heavenly father, please help us. please help us to be safe.

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first, keeping them honest about those denials, as you may recall the president himself has spoken on camera once about the $130,000 hush money payment to stormy daniels. it happened on air force one back in april. >> mr. president, did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no, no. >> why did maichael cohen make this, if there was no truth to her allegations? >> you'll have to ask michael cohen. michael cohen was my attorney, and you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> subsequently he's down-played michael cohen's relationship with him and the fact he was his attorney. pretty clear denial there and it was after sarah sanders also said point-blank from the white house the president didn't know. >> there was no knowledge of any payments from the president, and

he's denied all of these allegations. >> and for the next couple of months sandra has kept up the same line about the payments right up until rudy giuliani admitted he reimbursed the payments for stormy daniels. >> specifically can i ask, did the president approve of the payments made in october by his long time lawyer and advisor hi michael cohen? >> look, the president has addressed these directly and made it clear none of these allegations are true. i've addressed this as far as i can go. >> did he know about the payment at the time? >> not that i'm aware of. >> you haven't answer the subsequent question of whether the president was aware of a $130,000 payment the president was aware of an agreement. you were asked threes weeks ago and today you weren't aware. are you aware now? >> look, the president has denied these allegations.

anything beyond that i would refer you to the outside counsel. >> you said on march 7th, there was no knowledge of any payment from the president and he's denied all of these allegations. were you lying to us at the time or were in the dark? >> the president has denied and continues to deny the underlying claim. and again i've given the best information i had at the time. >> best information she had at the time. keeping them honest, in august as part of his guilty plea cohen admitted he made payments quote, and now according to "the wall street journal" the president was briefed on on every step of those hush money agreements. one of the bylines on today's new reporting. he joins us now. extraordinary reporting as always. according to it this actually goes way back to august of 2015 and a meeting at trump tower between trump and david pecker, who's a chief executive at

american media. >> when michael cohen pleaded guilty in august the prosecutors in their filing mentioned there was an agreement. that agreement actually happened when david pecker went to trump's office. and trump said to him the campaign was two months old, what can you do help my campaign, and pecker said if stories come out about women from the past, allegations of your affairs, i can help kill him by buying their stories. and i'll alert michael cohen, and we'll take care of it. >> and based on all the reporting, that's exactly what the national enquirer did. >> that's right. the following june, karen mcdougal, playmate of the year 1998 was looking to sell her story, and her lawyer contacted howard, and howard called cohen, cohen told trump and trump called pecker and said hey, can you help me out with this. and there were some

negotiations. they didn't immediately buy it, but after she started talking with abc news investigative reporters ami went back and paid $130,000 in coordination with michael cohen and donald trump to buy her silence. >> and you also talked about where the money came from to pay stormy daniels. >> that's right. we know the money ultimately came from michael cohen's home equity line. but there was a discussion about michael cohen and trump, and allen weisselberg, according to what cohen has told prosecutors the cfo of the trump organization, about how to wrap the money without trump's fingerprints on it, and ultimately they couldn't figure it out. that's why as we previously reported cohen missed deadlines to pay stormy daniels, she almost backed out and he was like i've got to pay it myself. >> and cohen actually made money off the deal?

>> he did because he was reimbursed through the trump organization cfo, but he did get a $60,000 bonus for doing this. and the money was grossed up to take care of his income taxes because they characterized it as legal fees. >> so according to reporting the past essentially two years of denials from the president about paying hush money to these women is pretty much a lie? >> pretty much. initially when we reported the karen mcdougal deal four days before the presidential election we reported hicks asked trump about it, and she came back after speaking to him based on what she was told and said we have no knowledge of any of this. but just in the last couple of months we heard the secret tape michael cohen made in which he's talking to president trump about buying the rights to karen mcdougal's story in 2016, like

right before we reported that. there's evidence beyond our reporting today based on three dozen people we spoke to that trump actually knew about it even though he denied it. >> trump and cohen were talking about basically buying the file from david pecker about all of trump's alleged indiscretions and all the stories had been killed because trump was concerned if david pecker got hit by a truck -- yeah, a truck you don't know what's going to happen. >> that's on the tape cohen made. and because pecker had been covering up for trump in terms of killing bad stories about him for many years, and so they wanted to do that. >> well, it's remarkable reporting from "the wall street journal." with me now former u.s. attorney preet bharara and jeffrey toobin. what's the significance of this reporting? >> i would say two things.

one the president has been lying about this to the public over and over again. about his knowledge, his involvement. >> probably lying to sarah sanders and hope hicks and anyone around him. >> correct. he's been lying about this as soon as the questions arose. the more complicated question is whether the president is implicated in a crime. because that rests on the question of does -- were these payments to these women campaign contributions, which of course were not reported and not handled in the appropriate way, he could be accused of campaign finance violations if he used these payments coordinated with, conspired with the american media and ami in violation of the campaign finance laws. that's a harder legal question. i don't know the answer to that. but the lying is quite clear. >> preet, is that the significance? a campaign finance violation, traditionally a monetary fine, correct? is that really a big deal?

>> yeah, it can be. and it also can be a criminal violation. and with respect to reason why the lies are important, if the president was being notified of all these things and as "the wall street journal" reporting that's very expensive and thorough suggests he was in on it at every phase of the process, what was in his mind? and even though the lying that went on with respect to the public is not in itself a crime, it is often able to be used as evidence later to suggest, well, what was the reason for the lying? what was the thing you were trying to hide? there's an argument you could make and john edwards made in a similar case brought by the justice department was the reason this lying was taking place was not to avoid the campaign finance laws primarily but to avoid embarrassment within his own family. that argument seemed to prevail in the john edwards case. but there's an element at issue

here we don't know because the reporting doesn't go quite that far. >> what makes the trump case stronger against trump is the money in the john edwards case came from an elderly supporter who just wanted to help john edwards. this is american media, the national enquirer. why would they spend this money other than to help donald trump get elected president? why are they so worried about trump's marriage? they have an interest in improving relationships with the guy who's about to get elected president of the united states -- >> or other personal friendly reasons or because they wanted to have an advantage, something to hold over the president of the united states for a future business dealing. >>iec correct. so i think it's a stronger case than the john edwards case, but i don't want to give any impression it's a slam dunk. >> people are focused on was the president compromised by russia, by vladimir putin. if american media has a file

with all these stories that they have owned the rights to, that they never published as a favor to donald trump who's now president of the united states, that is a lot of stuff to have hanging over the president of the united states in a private corporation that could, you know, turn on the president. >> that's why it's very believable. even before this article came out, common sense tells you that the president cared about his reputation. he cared about how he looked in connection with the campaign. even though he didn't think he was going to wrirn he wanted to win. and naturally he would take an interest in how these payments were being made, what the process was. we don't have corbrasioberation the next shoe to drop would be what is the corroboration for the testimony that it appears

michael cohen as given to the government, former officer prosecutors, as to how you corroborate what he siz the president knew and was involved in. >> that's why this wall street journal story is shocking but not surprising. of course donald trump would know these financial transactions were going on because it was all for his benefit. >> this is something that gives the head of national enquirer great leverage over the president. >> it's american kompromat. >> american kompromat, exactly. florida elections, two races tightening, legal moves on all sides.

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sinema has a slight lead, and two races in florida could be headed to a recount. both the race for governor and senate. the senate race between outgoing republican governor rick scott and democratic incumbent bill nelson is tightening. same for the race for governor republican ron desantis. the margin may be tight enough to trigger an automatic recount under florida state law. there's charges and counter charges between both sides in florida that have been flying all day long. and before he left for paris president trump weighed in as well saying, quote, you mean they're just now finding votes in florida and georgia but the election was on tuesday. he also posted this, quote, rick scott was up by 50,000 votes plus votes on election day. now they found many votes and he's only up by 15,000 votes.

the broward effect. how come they never find republican votes? joining me now to discuss welcoming back jeffrey toobin who literally wrote the book on that election, too close to call. what's up for florida? >> i think it's important to point out this is not a recount yet. they're simply counting the votes, and that's a very different thing. florida has had terrible history in figuring out how to count its votes. they have terrible technology. it's not the punch card ballots anymore, but it's still an inferior system. they alow people to mail in their ballots on election day. so the fact that they haven't gotten all the votes in, it's a reflection of them allowing people to vote. it is a not a flaw in the system. so i don't think you can argue that anything is really going wrong in arizona or california.

florida is a mess, but certainly there's no evidence as far as i can see there's any actual fraud going on. >> david, we've certainly seen this before, the president claiming election fraud. this is now for races where he's not even on the ballot. what kind of effect do you think this has on the public faith in integrity of the elections which is a vital part i think of our democracy? >> we've seen this three times in florida the last 18 years starting with the infamous case in the year 2000. i agree with everything jeffrey just said, but i would add to it it's not just of a question of getting the technology right, and there are standards today today better than chads from 2000, but the fact is we still leave the supervision of these elections in state after state and especially raw in florida,

we leave this in the supervision in the hands of partisans. one side thinks it has the advantage of having that partisan there, but the other side suspects fraud from the get go. and when it gets like this both sides they've been lucrative one way or the other -- >> georgia is the classic example of that because the republican candidate in that very close election is the secretary of state. he stepped down a cup of days ago, but he's the one responsible for running the election and he's the candidate. absurd system. >> so if there is -- how likely do you think there is for a recount in florida. >> i think it's very likely. however, i think it's important to point out if the recount starts with scott ahead by 15,000 votes and desantis ahead by 30,000 votes, there is almost no way a recount will turn that around. >> why is that? >> because it's just too many

votes. recounts don't shift that many votes. the bush-gore recount in florida, the margin was 535 votes. that's very different from 15,000. now, what's unclear is whether they will set -- when they count all the votes for the first time and the margin keeps shrinking if the margin goes down to 1,000 votes, then the recount might actually matter. but at this point i am unaware of any recount that has shifted 15,000 votes. >> david, it's interesting to hear the president say why are they always finding democratic votes and never shifts in the favor of republicans, which is not always the case. but it's also the same president that said there were millions of illegal immigrants or undocumented voters voting for hillary clinton in california which is why she won the popular vote and the commission which ended up disbanded found

nothing. >> when we get to the president on this, the question of people having suspicions of it being tipped one way or the other, in this program alone we started with a story about whitaker and how the president has been lying about he knows whitaker and he doesn't know whitaker and moved to a story ability how he knew stormy daniels. one of the ironies, though, anderson, which i find really interesting when you leave elections in the hand of partisans which are also not very competent, it can back to bite you. and in broward one of the problems is the ballot itself was designed in such a way in broward county that it was very hard for voters to find a spot where the two senatorial candidates were competing against them. it was down at the bottom of the page after a long list of really boring instructions. and then the rest of the ballot

looked like you would expect. you'd find all the things very easily. but as a result of that, apparently, nelson, the democratic incumbent may well have lost his election based on an undercount in broward that was based in turn on a bad design, which really is the responsibility of the woman and person overseeing these elections. >> just like al gore lost the 2000 election because in palm beach county the ballot was so poorly designed that a lot of people who wanted to vote for al gore voted for pat buchanan. up next, the one thing former first lady michelle obama cannot forgive president trump for. she's speaking about that. and a raging wildfire in california parts one community.

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former first lady michelle obama in her new memoir "the washington post" reports she shares mr. trump role is pushing

the birther lie. she writs, quote, what it someone with an unstable mind load a gun and drove to washington, what if that person went looking for our girls? donald trump in his reckless innuendos was putting my family's safety at rifsk and fo that i'll never forgive him. here's what the president responded to this. >> i'll give you a little controversy back. i'll never forgive him what he did to our united states military by not funding it properly. it was depleted. everything was old and tierred, and i came in and i had to fix it. >> let's quickly look some facts here and numbers. president trump is spending more on the military than president obama. and for a few years during president obama's presidency the numbers dropped. president trump also had more to

say at the press conference, a lot of not so nice things. take a look. >> i think jim acosta is a very unprofessional man. he does this with everybody. he gets paid to do that. you know, he gets paid to burst in. he's a very unprofessional guy. i don't think he's a smart person but he's got a loud voice. the same thing with april ryan. i watched her get up, i mean you talk about someone that's a loser, she doesn't know what the hell she's doing, she's very nasty and she shouldn't be. >> do you want him to rein in robert mueller? >> what a stop upid question th is. >> kirsten, i'm just watching the president there. april ryan is obviously

african-american. abby philips is as well, i think it was on wednesday as well at a press conference he spoke to an african-american reporter saying her question was racist. some said there's a racial component to this, to the president's willingness to call african-americans stupid. do you see that s? >> yeah, i do. he plays on racial tropes that go all the way back to the beginning of this country, that we in our past had literacy tests for black people in order to vote. and i don't think when he talks about whether it's doon don lemon having a low ike or lebron james has a low ike and now we're supposed to believe abby philip is asking a stupid question. there's a constant theme here, and it's frankly right out of the white supremacist play book. i mean this is classic white

supremacy. >> michael, do you believe it? >> of course not. i don't. i think the president is an equal opportunity abuser of the media. i don't think the president is anti-black or a white supremacist anymore that i believe jim acosta is anti-woman because he's mean to sarah sanders. jim acosta actually treats everybody in the white house the same way just like the president treats all media the same way, especially those who attack him incessantly. the president grew up and came of age in the new york city media market, and that's a brutal place. he's always been punching back for quarers for decades. and i think the idea that it's white supremacy or he's a racist is another trope. >> where's he punching back at? abby philips just asked a question. the idea it's out of bounds for a reporter to ask a question, i mean the response the president

had to her was so out of line and so kind of out of nowhere, and that's why i think there's a racial component to it, the contempt he spoke to her with. when she's a reporter that's just a straight shooter. i think anybody who watches her, she's it really there's i don't know how you can't see this. >> i don't disagree. i didn't like the president answer. there was an answer. it wasn't the way he answered it. it was really out of line. i don't think it had anything to do with race. president is angry with media. the media disrespects him. i don't think the reporter during the reagan era or bush era. who spent time in the white house press room would recognize that place anymore. it's a place there's so much disrespect in the air. >> i do recall -- i was in high school college during the time.

i recall there was a lot of criticism for donaldson for yelling questions. >> i was going to bring that up. i was actually about to bring that up. sam was criticized a lot. i worked in the gallery. shortly after his stint in the white house. i remember a lot of reporters net work anchors and net work on air folks and producers who didn't like the way sam operated. it's seems like everybody in the press room, a lot of people now are sam donaldson. things changed. i don't like the the way it became. >> i don't see that. people are asking questions. and they're not getting answers and they're pressing. in the situations we're talking about. with abby phillip or yamiche alcindor. these are women journalists. they are qualified professional asking normal questions and

being treated with -- you want to talk about lack of respect. they are being treated with lack of respect. and this president has a history of doing this to black people. if we want to -- we don't have enough time to go through the list. he has a long history of treating black people this way. >> let's check in with chris. >> we have a new segment tonight. that i think people will like. called "don't be a sucker." and it will be at end of show and point out things that should be obvious to everybody. we'll spend time getting deep into florida. and what's going on. we'll test the loyal cases of both sides and talk about the eventuality. >> death toll rising in california wild fire. >> devastation is widespread. a live update ahead.

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breaking news from california. six people dead in a destructive wild fire in california. one of three fires. the remarkable video. a woman describing what it's like driving through the deadly fire near paradise. praying they get through it. >> heavenly father, please help us. help us to be safe. >> that woman and her family are all thankfully safe. cnn with more. you're in paradise, california. it's done a tremendous amount of damage. what's the latest? >> this is a community of 27,000 residents. and it is gone. this is just gives you a tiny fraction of what we're seeing in

paradise. the business district. you can see the buildings levelled and the fire smoldering in places. when you drive around and 31 square miles. you see utter devastation. we talked to police officers and firefighters everybody has the same reaction. no one can believe what we're seeing. homes and businesses, businesses like restaurants. and motels. churches, schools. all of it is gone. it's nothing like i have ever seen. >> what about containment so far? >> the fire at this point is 5% contained. but when you talk to the mayor there's nothing left to burn in the town. the fire has swept through. right now crews are interested in the town of southwest of here. they're doing their best to protect that community. so far. the fire hasn't gotten up to the town. they're thankful for that. at this .5% containment. >> there are three fires that

have been are going on. what about torching southern california? >> same conditions there. the fire here in paradise was driven by wind. and southern california, you're talking about extremely windy conditions. right now the fire is in malibu. we have seen mass evacuations there. and that community malibu under a mandatory evacuation order. dozens of very large hillside homes go up in smoke. and of course talking about malibu. numerous celebrities evacuated. lady gaga to sher. tweeting about leaving their homes. crews trying to contain the flames. when you're talking about windy conditions like southern california. there's only so much they can do. >> the pictures are incredible. to see that devastation, it's all ash at this point. i appreciate you being there.

thoughts are with the firefighters trying to battle the flames. and that's it for us. the news continues. we hand it over to chris for cuomo "prime time." >> i am chris cuomo. welcome to "prime time." florida ballot counting is taking a turn for the worst. again. this time it's two major races in the balance. governor separated from the senior senator by a razor thin margin. alleging there's cheating and fraud. the president agrees. are there facts to support the feelings. we'll go deep and test both sides. not trumping up charges about the florida election the president picked a fight with the former first lady. why michelle obama says she can never forgive trump. we have a new segment called don't be a sucker. the president is telling you to believe something and he should not be believed. what they are and what the truth is. so it's friday night. have one for me and let's get after it.