tv Don Lemon Tonight CNN July 15, 2021 8:00pm-9:00pm PDT
8:00 pm
y here. my name's lucas. breaking news, days before the january 6th insurrection, the former president telling the chairman of the joint chiefs and the acting defense secretary the protest was going to be wild, a big deal, and they should be ready for it. in just a moment i'll speak to the "new yorker" writer who has the reporting on that. also tonight, it could be the biggest change in our country since social security,
8:01 pm
medicare, obamacare. the first payments in the government's expanded child tax credit program, one payment per month through the rest of the year. will they be permanent? that's the question. and the growing climate crisis impacting americans from coast to coast this summer. everything from extreme heat, to devastating wildfires and flash flooding. joining me now, susan glasser, a staffer writer for "the new yorker." susan glasser, good to see you, thank you so much. >> hi, don. >> i've got a long question to ask you. you have some incredible new reporting tonight about the conflict between trump and the chairman of the joint chiefs and trump's final days in office. the reason it's long is because i want to read something you wrote, in part. at the very end of the meeting on january 3, it says trump brought up the forthcoming rally of his supporters on january 6, asking millie and acting defense secretary christopher miller if they were prepared for what
8:02 pm
trump had already promised on twitter would be a wild protest. it was a short conversation. milley later recalled to associates, no more than a couple of minutes at the end of an hour-long meeting. it's going to be a big deal, milley heard trump say, you're ready for that, right? it was the last time the president would ever speak to his joint chiefs chairman. okay. so here is the question. did general milley have any idea what would unfold just three days later, susan? >> you know, don, i think that general milley was worried, according to the accounts i've heard, for months that something terrible would play out in the aftermath of the election. but the two scenarios that he was most worried about, one was that trump would get us into a war with iran, that he would insist on a military strike that would escalate out of control and lead to full-blown war. the other was what he called a potential reichstag moment, echoing germany in the 1930s.
8:03 pm
he was afraid there would be some kind of street fighting between pro-toupro-trump and anp protesters that trump would use as an excuse to call out the military. he didn't understand exactly what was going to happen on the capitol that day. >> susan, you're also learning that iran was repeatedly mentioned in trump's meeting with general milley after the 2020 election. the chairman of the joint chiefs had to argue against a strike. tell me about what you described as nightmare scenarios. >> well, that's right. what what was apparently keeping the chairman of the joint chiefs up at night was this worry that trump would get us into a full-blown military conflict with iran. this came up again and again. he actually said directly to the president repeatedly, according to the accounts that i've been given, you're going to get us into a bleeping war if you keep pursuing this path. trump was apparently being pressured to do this by some of
8:04 pm
his own very hawkish advisers as well as by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, the prime minister at the time. this was after the election, by the way. but milley was very insistent in these meetings. he said to others that it would come up again and again. >> more of your writing, susan, you write about how angry trump was that general milley publicly apologized for taking part in the lafayette square photo op. here is the quote. milley said he had to ask for forgiveness because he was a soldier in uniform who did not belong at a political event. i don't expect you to understand, milley had said, it's a n ethic for us, a duty. trump referred to that in his angry statement about milley. explain why this struck a nerve. >> donald trump doesn't do apologies, as we all know by now. and he was furious both with general milley and also with
8:05 pm
defense secretary mark esper because they regretted their participation in that lafayette square photo open. trump called milley out on it in a meeting in the oval office. donald trump just wasn't going to understand and milley just said that's the way it is, we're apolitical in the military, and i was in a uniform. >> susan, great reporting as usual. i don't see you often enough, so keep writing so we can keep bringing you back to discuss what you're talking about. thank you, susan glasser, i appreciate it. i want to turn to former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe, a cnn senior law enforcement analyst. andrew, thank you for joining us, i don't get to see you enough as well. but now we have you this evening. as we learn all these disturbing
8:06 pm
details about trump's final days in office, does this show the threat to our democracy described in all these books, that it's still a clear and present danger? >> i think it does, i think it shows clearly the continued significance, the continued influence that trump holds over the xwiert of the republican party, right? here is a guy who you know, the first time you step into the room with him, i experienced this myself in may of 2017, he communicates to you very quickly that there is only one thing he values in the world and it is your slavish loyalty to him. i'm sure that kevin mccarthy knows that as well as i do, as well as everyone else does who has ever been around donald trump. it seems that's what he was communicating to trump today with his trip up to bedminster. >> from what i noticed, the first time i was in a room with him, he tries to co-opt you and bring you into his reality. he brought his own polls and talked about what that meant to
8:07 pm
him. he's still trying to bend reality to shape his own narrative. and i learned that from the very first time that i sat down and did an interview with him and i'm sure the first meeting, you had something similar. >> don, i walked into the oval office on the night that donald trump fired jim comey. i received a phone call that said the president wants to see you in the oval. i had never even been in the oval office before, so i was taken down to the white house and shown into the office. i walked in and within 30 seconds he said to me, i hear you were part of the resistance. and i said i didn't really understand what he was talking about. he said he had heard i didn't like jim comey and didn't approve of the things he did and disagreed with all the decisions he made. i quickly told him that was false, i was a part of that leadership team at the fbi and worked very closely with jim. i realized later that was the moment that he was throwing that false narrative out to see if i would embrace it and to
8:08 pm
communicate to him that i was on his team, not anybody else's. and of course that's not something i would do. >> and there you go. so trump is now lashing out at general milley after reports he feared trump would attempt a coup in his final day in office. the former president releasing a statement denying the reporting and saying in part, if i was going to do a coup, one of the last people i would do it with is mark milley. so there you go. he would prefer to commit a coup, which is very interesting. >> he's picking his favorite kickball team in the playground at lunchtime, it's the coup team. i guess general milley didn't make it, good for him. i think the thing that this whole sordid tale drives home to me is how lucky we are that we still, despite everything that's happened, we still have people in government, committed career
8:09 pm
public servants, who are dedicated to the oath they swore to the constitution and not the president, whoever that might be, from whatever political party. and they do their job and they try to protect the american people. and it sounds like that's what general milley try to do, under really adverse circumstances. i think we're all lucky he did. >> this is something you have expertise in. the homeland security department, warning about more violence this summer. some right wing conspiracy theorists think trump will be reinstated in august, the pillow guy says it's going to be soon but maybe not august. after the security failures in law enforcement, are we ready for more violence? >> i don't know, don, i wish i could more confidently tell you we are but i just don't feel like i can at this point. we really haven't had a competent and full scope investigation of what led to the failures on january 6. and so without having peeled
8:10 pm
that onion back and figuring out where we went wrong the last time, i can't say we're better positioned for the next one. i think these disappointments that all of these trump supporters, republicans, qanons, whatever they are, each one of these predictions is going to fail, and that level of grievance and disappointment and outrage is going to rise. when that happens, we know that some of these people will resort to violence. and i'm really concerned as to how -- what this is going to look like as we get deeper into the fall. >> andrew mccabe, thank you, sir, i'll see you soon. now i want to bring in ruth ben guillat, author of "strong men: mussolini to the present." the perfect guest, right? ruth, thank you for joining us, good to see you. >> hi. >> just days into the trump administration, you predicted we could be heading towards a coup.
8:11 pm
on february 21, 2017, you wrote, welcome to the shock event designed precisely to jar the political system and civil society, causing a disorientation and disruption among the public and the political class that aids a leader in consolidating his power. from their actions and pronouncements, we cannot exclude an intention to carry out a type of coup, february 1, 2017. at the time, a lot of people thought that was hyperbole. what did you see that many people didn't end up seeing until after the november election leading up to january 6? >> yes, one of those pieces you don't want to write and you hope, you fervently hope that you're wrong. and i saw immediately, i had been studying fascism and authoritarian regimes for so long, that this was not going to be a presidency like any other, republican or democratic, that
8:12 pm
this was a project in right wing authoritarianism, that psychology warfare -- and i wrote it after the first shock event, which was the travel ban from predominantly muslim countries which was implemented, it was like engineered chaos, implemented on purpose with very little preparation. so i realized there was this whole project that was familiar to me from history. so you strike at the state, which is steve bannon's favorite term. and that means that you think of all the things that happen to the government, with the purging of federal agencies, doj and state department, and you fill them with loyalists, and then you attack the notion of truth, you attack the press. so january 6 and everything that happened after november, after he lost the election, the prompt for january 6 was of course the fact that he didn't want to leave office. and i have a whole chapter at the end of my book about how these guys cannot leave office quietly and they do desperate things. he had created for four years ahead of time a kind of climate
8:13 pm
that supported this kind of extremist action. >> oh, ruth. so prescient, it's like you had a crystal ball. let's talk about this new book by carol leonnig and phillip rucker, writing about how general milley viewed trump as the classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose, and trump's false claims of election fraud. here's an excerpt. this is an reichstag moment, milley told aides, according to the book, "the gospel of the fuhrer." making it clear, this is mark milley's assessment, not mine or ruth's assessment. but do you agree with what he said? >> yes, trump is an
8:14 pm
authoritarian leader. and just because he couldn't wreck our democracy yet doesn't mean he didn't check all the boxes. my book was the first to put him in historical perspective. not saying he is hitler, because today things work differently. you don't have to close down elections. you keep them going but you declare them fraudulent, right? but the leader cult, and now we have the creation of martyrs like ashli babbitt. he draws a lot of things from fascism, both italian fascism and of course naziism. january 6, i was shuddering like so many americans. with the added thing, it was like a leader rescue operation. he called the faithful there and then he set them on the capitol. and this film that was playing as they left was just -- it ended with just trump's face up there. so this is entirely fascistic, this leader cult, the psychological warfare, and all
8:15 pm
of it, it's very apropos, this analogy. i'm not surprised he had those fears, general milley. >> but you think about the third reich, the reichstag. you don't think that's hike hyperbole? >> i think he knew how many extremists around. this was a coup attempt, technical a self-coup, somebody who is already in power and wants to stay there. but it had a lot in common. there were months of recruiting and planning. what he couldn't get, because thank goodness for general milley, he couldn't get the armed forces so he had to put together his own army, his own team of civilians and military. >> i get where you're going with that. let me ask you this. do you think he's that smart or is this something that's just innate and he just has
8:16 pm
authoritarian tendencies, not something that's that thought-out? >> there is no master plan. it's not like he -- these guys are extremely smart and opportunist and theiy're amoral. they're expert at manipulating. they create situations of crisis and chaos. when he refused to accept the election results in november, this became like a state of exception. and all kind of things can be done during a period like that. but there isn't any master plan. they don't know how it's going to end up. and very sadly, a lot of them are amazed they got so much power and got so many people to fall in line. >> it doesn't really matter how it ends up, it's the chaos and loyalty they want to see happening. i'm way over here, real quick, everything you've written about, that you've seen come to pass, what do you think about the state of our democracy or the state of the republic right now? >> it's not in a very good state. i think that we can hold on to
8:17 pm
the fact that we did something unusual in voting him out. and we're all exhausted, we haven't had time to mourn our losses or celebrate the biden/harris administration. but we've got to dig deep and be very resilient because the greatest test is yet to come. >> i love having folks like you on, ruth, you're so smart, you educate and inform all of us. thank you so much. >> thank you. good news for america's families today. hundreds of dollars in parents' pockets from the child tax credit. every month through the end of the year. did you get your money today? >> i think this will be one of the things the vice president and i will be most proud of when our terms are up. icy hot. ice works fast. heat makes it last. feel the power of contrast therapy, so you can rise from pain.
8:18 pm
replace old pipes? i can do that. install energy-efficient windows? i can do that. build an electric car? i can do that. weld the tower of a wind turbine? modernize the grid? install 10,000 solar panels? do what i've been doing my whole life? rebuild the country and protect america against climate change? we can do that. fine, no one leaves the table until your finished. fine, we'll sleep here.
8:19 pm
♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. okay people. oh yeah. let us begin. people!!! less with the puns. more about the moms. they want healthy, affordable options. moms want to save that dough. hold onto that green. enough with the puns! land o'frost premium. fresh look. same great taste.
8:20 pm
8:21 pm
8:22 pm
tonight millions of american families receiving the first payment from the federal government's expanded child tax credit program. they'll get payments each month through the end of the year, part of the stimulus package president biden signed into law in march. >> it's hittstoric. it's our effort to make another giant step toward ending child poverty in america. i think this will be one of the things the vice president and i will be most proud of when our terms are up. >> a whole lot to discuss with cnn's john harwood and economics commentator catherine rampell. good evening, good evening. john, the first child tax credits have been sent, i asked people before the break, did you get your money today. tell us more about the magnitude of this for this white house. >> look, this is an extremely
8:23 pm
satisfying day for president biden. you heard it in that comment when he said it's one of the things he'll look back on as one of his proudest achievements as president. we've gotten used, over the last four years, to paying attention as the news media to the spectacle, sometimes comic, sometimes pathetic, sometimes dangerous donald trump, a president who cared about no one and nothing other than himself. but most politicians, and joe biden is among them, are not like that. they care about helping their constituents. and in this case, you have a program that was passed on a one-year basis only, that nonetheless is putting money in the pockets, in the bank accounts, of the households containing 90% of american children. it will cut child poverty in half as long as it lasts. that money will make life easier for millions and millions of people who joe biden is serving
8:24 pm
as president. it was a deeply satisfying day for him. it was the start of a longer process. he's got a lot more work to do to try to extend that benefit. but today was a day for him and vice president harris to celebrate the achievement. >> catherine rampell, up to $250 for kids 6 to 17. this is going to make a huge difference for millions of families. >> it's going to be transformative. this is the most revolutionary part of the biden agenda. as john mentioned, the scale is quite impressive, they're going to cut child poverty in half, that's the estimate at this time. it also decreases the number of hoops a family is required to jump through compared to the rest of the safety net. if you're a low income person and filed your tax return and
8:25 pm
said you had a couple of kids, the irs just gives you the money. that's it. you don't have to file reams of paperwork, you don't have to document your work hours or assets or sit through humiliating interviews. you just get the cash. if you're too poor to have filed a tax return and a lot of people don't have to because of their income level, you can go online and tell the irs this information. that part of the process is not quite where it needs to be in my view but the irs is working on it and this program overall just has the ability to lift so many kids out of poverty, to improve so many families' lives. it's really impressive. >> john, the white house would ultimately like to make this permanent. so this is a big test for them, to get this right. >> absolutely, it is. this is a one-year program. they're now seeking in the follow-on legislation that they're going to try to pass over the next couple of months a
8:26 pm
four-year extension. they would of course like to make it permanent. but at more than $100 billion a year, it's a very expensive item. and there's a lot of other items on president biden's agenda that are very costly. but in line with what catherine was saying, you know, one of the core elements of what democrats have try to do over the last generation is try to ameliorate the growing income and wealth inequality we've experienced in this country. so what you have is millions of families who have been left behind as our society and our economy have diverged in terms of outcomes for people with higher levels of skill and education and various other divisions. this is a way for the biden administration to try to help catch up some of those families, give them a better shot at succeeding in the future. he's going to count on democrats to give him the votes to make
8:27 pm
that last longer than just one year. >> catherine, correct me if i'm wrong, you said this would cut child poverty in half, i think your word was transformative, am i correct? >> yes. >> is this a social safety net, albeit temporary, right up there with social security or obamacare? >> it's basically social security for kids, that's how we should be thinking about it, at least for a year, in any event. it will be a guaranteed payment for families making below a particular income threshold. they get it every month. they don't have to prove anything to the government, again. the government knows how much money they're making based on their tax returns, they know if there are kids in the home, they have custody of children. that's all they have to do. it's like social security in that respect. this is about basically fill in the existing holes of the safety net. there are people who will be getting these payments who get other payments, they get food stamps or medicaid. a lot of those programs let people fall through the cracks.
8:28 pm
there are benefit cliffs. if you make a dollar too much in income, you mild lose your medicaid, for example. or, you know, if you save up too much money in the bank, in some states you could lose your food stamps. this is not how this program works. it's just a much more flexible program, because you get the cash, again, no strings attached. you can pay for diapers which food stamps won't help you with. you can pay for your car payment. you can pay for childcare. you can use the money as you see fit. and you can use it to plug those holes where the existing safety net has left your family exposed. >> catherine and john, thank you so much, i appreciate it, see you both soon. i says there's total agreement when it comes to voting rights. but do the texas dems who fled their state to stop their colleagues for voting for harsh voting restrictions agree with senator joe manchin after their meeting today? i'll talk with someone who was in the room, next. e! ♪
8:29 pm
8:30 pm
to be a thriver with metastatic breast cancer means... grabbing a hold of what matters. asking for what we want. and need. and we need more time. so, we want kisqali. living longer is possible and proven with kisqali when taken with fulvestrant or a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor in hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer. kisqali is approved for both pre- and postmenopausal women, and has extended lives in multiple clinical trials. kisqali is a pill that's significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant alone. kisqali can cause lung problems, or an abnormal heartbeat, which can lead to death. it can cause serious skin reactions, liver problems, and low white blood cell counts that may result in severe infections. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including breathing problems, cough, chest pain, a change in your heartbeat, dizziness, yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine,
8:31 pm
tiredness, loss of appetite, abdomen pain, bleeding, bruising, fever, chills, or other symptoms of an infection, a severe or worsening rash, are or plan to become pregnant, or breastfeeding. avoid grapefruit during treatment. kisqali is not approved for use with tamoxifen. it's our time. for more time. we asked for kisqali. ask your doctor about living longer with kisqali.
8:32 pm
8:33 pm
nonstop, displayed at the highest performance level... finding something and the us takes gold! ♪ dream on ♪ ♪ dream on ♪ ♪ dream on ♪ ♪ dream on ♪ - yes! ♪ ahhhhhhh ♪ ♪ dream until your dreams come true ♪ senator joe manchin says he wants a pared-down voting rights bill he thinks republicans will support. he met today with texas democrats who fled their state to block restrictive voting rights bills. they're calling on washington lawmakers to act immediately on federal voting rights legislation. cnn's tom foreman tells us what's at stake.
8:34 pm
>> reporter: don, texas republicans have backed away from a view voting measures but not many. and these are still on the table. as for voting places, no drive-through voting or dropboxes would be permitted if this legislation is finalized. republicans tried to stop drive-through voting during the 2020 election with a real eye on largely democratic houston where the sites were very popular. the court said no. but this new legislation says enough, republicans want people voting only inside solid buildings. so no standalone tents or movable structures can be used either except as part of a building or in an emergency and no 24-hour voting. in general the legislation allows for voting from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. all of this, critics say, could impede working class people, shift workers and people of color in particular who might struggle to reach the polls in those hours. what about security measures? the legislation contains a sort of poll watcher's bill of
8:35 pm
rights. observers say they need to be free to go wherever they want to go to see and hear everything happening with the ballots and if there's trouble, the courts are to be ready for swift rulings. the bill's backers want live streamed video coming out of many places where ballots are handled along with monthly reviews of texans using the voter registration database to cast out anyone who might not qualify to vote. and mail-in ballots get special attention too. election officials would be forbidden from just sending mail-in ballot applications to encourage people to vote. the applications must be requested and even then there are new i.d. requirements. texas republicans say all of this is a formula for a secure election, while democrats say the elections are secure, this is an attack on democratic strongholds aimed at casting a chill on cities and minority communities which might just flip this state from red to
8:36 pm
blue, don. >> very informative, thank you, tom foreman, appreciate it. i want to bring in a texas state representative, thank you so much for joining us, congresswoman. >> thank you very much for the invitation. >> so you and other texas house democrats met with senator joe manchin today and he says there's total agreement on what you want, protecting voting rights. but do you have total agreement about how to make this all happen? >> you know, we are so grateful to senator manchin and really pree appreciate the time he took with us to discuss what's happening in texas which has national implications. we shared with him stories of, for example, i served on the committee that heard the nearly 24-hour hearing where we had a mom and dad who came to testify in the wee hours of the morning with their children sleeping in the committee room, to talk about how this legislation is making it harder for them to vote.
8:37 pm
we heard from naacp, organizations, people with disabilities, about how harmful this legislation is going to be to texas voters. and we're here to do everything that we can to urge congress, especially the u.s. senate, to implement some federal protections that we need. senator manchin was very supportive. we are aligned on the ideals and necessity for passing voting rights legislation and protections in whatever form that may come for us, it is imperative because we are on a time crunch, certainly we're on borrowed time, given the end of the special session that is approaching. we're grateful to him and we left that meeting feeling very hopeful and positive after the conversations we had with him. >> representative, manchin says he thinks republicans will support a pared-down bill that focuses solely on protecting the right to vote.
8:38 pm
do you believe they will? >> you know, i'm not serving in the u.s. senate. he knows the u.s. senate better than any of us. if he believes, he has those conversations, we believe him and have faith in him. we need to build consensus to implement some federal protections. we have seen that throughout the years. we need that type of support, again, for us in texas, a lot of us have worked across the aisle for many years in order to pass laws that help, you know, with respect to education, higher education, things like that. right now in texas we've gotten to the point where this legislation has become so partisan that we are at the point where we had no choice but to come here and leave and break quorum to deny the republican-adopted legislature the quarorum they needed to pas this terrible legislation. the community knows this has the power to change the trajectory of our nation.
8:39 pm
we saw that with the election of president biden and kamala harris. we had the highest voter turnout in 20 years in texas and we know this legislation is trying to roll back our rights. but we know the power of the people is stronger and that's why we're here. >> you seem optimistic about the meeting today, we'll see what happens. thank you, representative, i appreciate you joining us. >> thank you for the invitation. >> absolutely. unprecedented heat waves in the northeast. flash floods in the south. massive wildfires in the west. the climate crisis disaster isn't just coming. it's already here. [tv announcer] come on down to our appliance superstore where we've got the best deals on refrigerators, microwaves, gas ranges and grills. and if you're looking for... (man) eye contact. elbow pump.
8:40 pm
very nice, andrew. very nice. good job. next, apparently carvana doesn't have any "bogus" fees. bogus?! now we work hard for those fees. no hundred-dollar fuel fee? pumping gas makes me woozy. thank you. no $600 doc fee? ugh, the printing, the organizing. no $200 cleaning fees. microfiber, that chaps my hands. you know, we should go over there right now and show 'em how fees are done. (vo) never pay a dealer fee. with carvana.
8:41 pm
all the time in the world. it's just a saying. but today, for women living with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer. more time is possible with verzenio. proven to help you live significantly longer when taken with fulvestrant. verzenio + fulvestrant is for hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer that has progressed after hormone therapy. diarrhea is common, may be severe, or cause dehydration or infection. at the first sign, call your doctor, start and antidiarrheal, and drink fluids. before taking verzenio, tell your doctor about any fever, chills, or other signs of infection. verzenio may cause low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infection that can lead to death. life-threatening lung inflammation can occur. tell your doctor about any new or worsening trouble breathing, cough, or chest pain. serious liver problems can happen. symptoms include fatigue, appetite loss, stomach pain, and bleeding or bruising.
8:42 pm
8:44 pm
the climate crisis disaster spreading all across the country this summer. california officials warning extreme heat creating abnormally hot underwater conditions in the sacramento river could kill off nearly all juvenile chinook salmon because the water is really too hot. lake tahoe is normally crystal clear but is turning murky. researchers say climate change is a big part of the problem as warmer water on the lake allows algae to grow.
8:45 pm
let's take you to flagstaff, arizona. rains are causing flash flooding there. new york and new jersey under heat advisories. it's mid-july, temperatures across a lot of northeast above normal. back in the west coast, extreme heat is fanning devastating wildfires in oregon and northern california. so tonight, here's cnn's sara sidner in doyle, california for us. >> reporter: the entire town was evacuated. this was the second time in eight months kathy's hometown has lost more than a dozen homes to wildfire. >> it sounded like a freight train coming down the mountain. the flames are coming at you, the smoke rolls over you. it's dark. you see a big huge orange ball of flames everywhere in front of you, everywhere you look. >> reporter: she's the volunteer fire chief of this town of 600 residents. she's often the first one to call residents to tell them their home is gone. >> i'm still kind of numb. i mean, after losing everything that i worked for and everything, all these years, it's gone. and everybody says, oh, it's so
8:46 pm
replaceable. well, no. a lot of it isn't. >> reporter: saturday kelly lost one of the 16 homes burned in doyle. everyone thought the danger was over. but on monday, the fire came roaring back, devouring more homes. the chief and several residents were airing that air-drops from state and federal agencies didn't come earlier. >> we were like the lone ranger. a lot of the engines weren't where they should have been and weren't down there, maybe. and i was -- at that point i was ready to say i can't do this anymore. >> reporter: apocalyptic fire scenes are appearing more and more across the west. so far this year, 67 large fires across 12 states have burned an area nearly five times the size of new york city. >> the frequency of fires has skyrocketed. >> reporter: cal fire captain dennis smith spent 25 years battling some of the biggest blazes in the state of california. >> we used to get what you would call career fires maybe once
8:47 pm
every few years and we're seeing career fires, 100,000 plus acres is a common occurrence every year now. >> reporter: it's the new normal. >> the resources are spread through the state, as we're burning from the oregon border down to mexico. >> reporter: california is on track for a more devastating fire season than 2020, which was the worst on record, with 4.1 million acres charred. >> being from california i'm sure you've heard, this fire season is going to be the worst fire season. every year we hear that. >> reporter: which means their gruel work must go on longer, in days of 100 plus temperatures in some places. once the big flames are smothered, days of intricate work begin on hidden hotspots. there is one goal in mind: save lives, then property. you look around this entire house and it's charred 360 around this house. but the house, perfect. >> yeah. the house is still standing. >> reporter: but 250 miles away in doyle, the local fire
8:48 pm
volunteers are devastated and residents are worried they're at the beginning of what used to be the start of fire season. >> that was cnn's sara sidner in doyle, california. thank you so much, sarah. coming up, a conversation that i had with harry belafonte and an exciting new project coming to cnn. the perfect schmer of cream cheese. the recipe we invented over 145 years ago and me...the world's best, and possibly only, schmelier. philadelphia. schmear perfection. ♪ thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole. ibrance may cause low white blood cell counts
8:49 pm
that may lead to serious infections. ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs. both of these can lead to death. tell your doctor if you have new or worsening chest pain, cough, or trouble breathing. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are or plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding. for more information about side effects talk to your doctor. ♪ be in your moment. ask your doctor about ibrance.
8:51 pm
8:53 pm
few projects that we have going on right now. we have got an exclusive "cnn town hall" with president joe biden. i am moderating. it's live, next wednesday, at 8:00 p.m. and there is a new episode of my podcast, "silence is not an option" where i take on hard conversations about being black in america. this week, he inspired me to speak up about injustice. i am talking about harry belafonte and his daughter. they join me to talk equality. here is a sneak peek. >> for someone who's been fighting seven decades, do you ever get tired? did you ever think about giving up? >> not until they do. >> they, meaning who? >> all those people who see joy in crucifying us. they become my stimulus, they become my target. they become my raison d'etre. >> by the way, we share the same birthday. interesting. you will learn all about that, if you tune into the podcast. find it on apple podcasts or
8:54 pm
your favorite-podcast app. and then, finally, a look the new cnn original series, jerusalem, city of faith and fury. it premieres sunday at 10:00 p.m. only on cnn. for the arabs, it's the place where the first temple built by solomon stood. almost certainly, on top of the rock that, today, is the foundation stone of the dome of the rock. the gorgeous islamic edifice that stands there today. there probably is the most holy place in western and middle eastern civilization. >> but at the time the temple is done, it represents israel moving into this place, as a prosperous, settled nation. with a king, whose power is acknowledged by all. but it, also, is a falling away from the original idea that god
8:55 pm
was going to dwell with his people. and, therefore, you didn't have to have a physical place for him to be. >> hmm. and thank you for watching, everyone. our coverage continues. a regula. but if you're a kid with diabetes, it's more. it's the simple act of enjoying time with friends, knowing you understand your glucose levels. ♪
8:57 pm
8:58 pm
every day in business brings something new. so get the flexibility of the new mobile service designed for your small business. introducing comcast business mobile. you get the fastest, most reliable network with nationwide 5g included. and you can get unlimited data for just 30 dollars per line per month when you get four lines- or mix and match data options.
8:59 pm
9:00 pm
good evening. when we left you last night, we just brought you excerpts from carol leonnig and philip rucker's new book, documenting fears the former president might try to launch or inspire a coup. well, it took 44 presidents of all-political stripes, in temperaments, good ones and bad, until this one, today, became the first-former president ever to deny such a thing. to deny planning to launch a coup. and even as he issued that unprecedented denial, even as book after book, with page after page, of chilling revelations come out. top republicans were, today, showing that they, still, cannot quit him. house minority leader, kevin mccarthy, called on him today at his new jersey golf club. this kevin mccarthy. >> the president bears responsibility for wednesday's attack on congress by mob rioters. he should have, immediately, denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding
78 Views
Uploaded by TV Archive on