treaties, for example, like asean and coalitions, international coalitions that he will have to lead the u.s. on and in. and it wasn't clear whether or not he gave the senators asking those questions satisfactory answers there were a number of points here on which his lack of experience was very much on full display for the committee, and essentially the reaction to that broke down on on partisan lines. >> democrats, effectively appalled by it and said that it showed he didn't have the experience to do the job of defense secretary. republicans, however, focused on something completely different his commitment to war fighting and said he's exactly the right guy, but on the point you make. he was asked about three

operate in other countries. they effectively set a series of rules and regulations by which u.s. service members can be in that country. and he wasn't able to name that. the democratic senator there pointed out that it was an example of his lack of experience. he may have led to nonprofits, but he hasn't come anywhere close to leading an organization of this magnitude. with this reach, with this power. so that was one example of that point. he has also openly advocated including, i believe, in his recent book, the war on warriors for the firing of general c.q. brown, when he was asked fairly close to the end of the hearing if he would advocate for that or try to make that happen if and when he's confirmed, he effectively tried to go back to something. a point he made repeatedly is that his goal was to get it back to a meritocracy, where officers are promoted based on merit and their qualifications. so he didn't answer the question of whether he would try to fire

the top u.s. general, an officer he has repeatedly said or accused of of perceived wokeness, to the point you made right at the beginning here on the status of women in combat, roles that took up a big portion of the beginning of the hearing. he has advocated and said women should be barred from combat roles. he showed a bit of contrition when he was first asked about that, saying instead that he supports all people of all genders and all races being able to serve in roles. and it's just a question of whether you're truly qualified and have the abilities to do that role. and yet, it is no surprise, dana, that he was repeatedly attacked on that for his previous statements. it was senator elizabeth warren who pointed out that it's been about 30 days since he last argued for barring women from combat roles, and he seems to have had quite the transformation here. i think she called it a nomination conversion. >> yeah, i think she did. thank you so much, oren. appreciate that. i want to go back to kaitlan collins and caitlin. caitlin, i think it's

important to underscore that it wasn't a sure thing, just even a few weeks ago, that he would even get this confirmation hearing. it was kind of teetering, unclear whether or not he would go the way of matt gaetz, who withdrew his his nomination because there was so much incoming. and yet that didn't happen. the hegseth allies hegseth himself. they were very strategic, of course, led by, i'm sure, donald trump and his aides to wage political, aggressive political campaigns to get republicans who were on the fence to give hegseth another chance, at least private hearings. during those conversations. and now that we saw him today, caitlin, it was so clear that he gets it that he understands what the drill is when it comes to working for donald trump, communicating for

and to donald trump. i mean, there was almost a kavanaugh esque approach to this hearing in that instead of being totally deferential to the senate confirmation process, he pushed back and pushed back hard on a lot of the democrats. >> yeah, justice kavanaugh might argue those allegations are very different. but, dana, you make such a great point in terms of the effort and the kind of groundswell of support that was put behind pete hegseth going into this hearing, because you're exactly right. when you remind people that it was only a few weeks ago that there was a lot of skepticism, even in trump's own orbit, about whether or not pete hegseth would survive this long, that his nomination would make it to where he is going to get a vote in a matter of days. we'll wait to see when that vote is going to be. they were even discussing potential alternatives down at donald trump's mar a club, in case he did go the route of withdrawing his name from consideration for this role. but what changed was a huge effort by many people in trump's orbit and his allies

outside of the halls of congress to really kind of go after those senators who were sounding at all skeptical in their comments to reporters like manu in the halls of congress. senator joni ernst was one of those who felt the pressure campaign the most. and you saw some people even talking about primarying republican senators who voted against donald trump's nominees here. and so that's why i noted who was in that room today, because it really did set the tone kind of going into this hearing, to see all of those people who were there supporting him and sitting behind pete hegseth. i mean, megyn kelly was one of the figures just out of the camera shot, sitting right behind him there. and so you saw what that effort is going to look like. it could be a path that they take for other nominees if they come under increasing amounts of fire. but you've heard from a lot of republican senators who are really looking to how senator joni ernst herself was going to handle this. i will say that was something that surprised me was, you know, secretary mark esper, donald trump's second defense secretary. his name was not

really brought up until the end, even though, you know, a lot of the questions that hegseth batted down, he said that they were hypotheticals. but elissa slotkin, who is the new senator from michigan, there she was the last democrat to go and is also served. she had one of the most incisive lines of questioning when it came to past examples of situations that trump's other defense secretaries have been in, and secretary esper has an entire book that he wrote saying why he resigned, in part because trump wanted to use the military for political reasons, and she was questioning pete hegseth if he was faced with an order like that from president donald trump, whether or not he would follow it. and i think that, you know, talking about the allegations against him, obviously, there is a reason that democrats wanted to go there. but also, if he is going to be confirmed as the next defense secretary, that is something to watch, because whether it was secretary mattis who was resigned over a disagreement with trump over numbers of troops in afghanistan or secretary esper, those were two figures who actually had real on the ground experience with donald trump in the oval office and serving as

his top pentagon chief. >> yeah, no such good points all around. and i know that, as you, i think, alluded to, the people inside donald trump's orbit and mar-a-lago were, of course, watching this very carefully and pleased with the way that he performed. katelyn, thank you so much. let us know if you get anything else. i want to go to a terrific panel. they've been sitting here watching alongside with me and everybody else for the past, i don't know, four plus hours. and before we start talking, i do want to because we've all kind of referenced since this ended, the joni ernst line of questioning. i want to play part of it specifically on the question of women in combat. >> as secretary of defense, will you support women continuing to have the opportunity to serve in combat roles? >> my answer is yes, exactly the way that you caveated it.

yes, women will have access to ground combat roles. combat roles, given the standards remain high, and we'll have a review to ensure the standards have not been eroded in any one of these cases. that will be part of. one of the first things we do at the pentagon is reviewing that in a gender neutral way. the standards ensuring readiness and meritocracy is front and center, but absolutely jeff zeleny this is, as elizabeth warren rightly said, a different not just tone and tenor, but point of view than he expressed not that long ago during the presidential campaign. >> and the fact that he is expressing this now, after he had those private meetings with joni ernst, a combat veteran herself, is, to me kind of the ball game without question. >> i think senator shaheen summed it up as an 11th hour conversion. i mean, that clearly is what it is. but this is one of the things that senator ernst has been waiting

for. now, she has many other questions, but it's clear that this is what she chose to focus on. the hearing today. i've covered senators for a long time, as have you. this made it easier to support pete hegseth. we will see if anything else comes up, but as of now, people around senator ernst would be very surprised if she did not support him. she hasn't said that yet, but you could just see by the line of questioning she chose to ask today. she could have been. she had many concerns. in december about his womanizing, his allegations of drinking. et cetera. this, of course, is what she focused on. but i think that the a lot was learned about him. i think overall, as someone who has never been in a confirmation hearing before, he actually handled himself pretty well, talking with some staffers and things. they thought the smirk was a little bit too much. at some point, unclear, he did not have some specifics of like members of

asean, for example, there are ten asian countries, so i'm not sure that it was as. as, uh, as deep into details as you would get from a second round of questioning. and that perhaps is the biggest takeaway of all. i recall chuck hagel's confirmation hearing to be defense secretary in the obama administration. it went 2 or 3 rounds, and it was brutal. and he was a fellow senator and senators on the republican side of the aisle, and perhaps even some democrats really raked over the coals. and he seemed unprepared at some point. pete hegseth will not have that opportunity because he largely got through with really simple questions by republicans. by and large, some tough questions by democrats. but that's it. and that is pretty extraordinary in and of itself. >> yeah. the i think the reality here is that most of pete hegseth confirmation process was probably asked and answered last year before we ever got to this point. and the question today was really, was he going to make some kind of mistake, especially if it involved his audience of one in the president elect, donald

trump that was going to cause some sort of issue that would make it either impossible for donald trump to continue to back him all the way, or that would cause some sort of issue with the joni ernst. and i think you're absolutely right that the experience that joni ernst had when she seemed to be stepping out and saying, i don't know about this guy because i've had a personal experience with sexual assault, obviously, she's a combat veteran in the military, and she was publicly out there kind of by herself, and she came in for incredible pressure from maga supporters of donald trump to the point where she was reported to have asked, how do i get this to stop? right? the answer is you pick that line of questioning in the confirmation hearing and you likely vote for him. >> yeah. um, colonel layton, i want to ask you about some of the the policy that we heard. we heard a lot of predictable sort of questions, slash

comments from republicans about dei and about the kind of woke military, which is defined by different people based on where they come from and what they perceive as to be woke. but we also heard a lot of questions about specific points of view, about just world view and defense policy, which, because of all of the allegations about his personal life, his alleged drinking, alleged problems with women and beyond, alleged problems with women, uh, the policy, which is so important for this huge role, particularly for somebody who doesn't have a ton of experience the way that other defense secretaries have, maybe didn't get as fleshed out as they would have otherwise. >> yeah, i think that's a very key point, dana, because one of the things that i noted at the very beginning of the hearing,

or maybe in the midpoint of the hearing, was the fact that when they asked him about when the senators asked about the geneva convention versus rules of engagement, he actually did not really differentiate between rules of engagement and the geneva convention. those are two very distinct things. the rules of engagement need to follow the geneva convention. he did not seem to know that distinction. so this could be a critical thing, because when you look at what the secretary of defense has to do when he or she approves rules of engagement for forces in combat, there needs to be an understanding of what the legal parameters are and what the operational mission is. so you need to combine what the operational mission is, the types of force that you're going to use, the types of weapons you're going to use, and not just artillery rounds, but, you know, are we going to employ fighter aircraft? are we going to employ naval assets? are we going to do all of those things? and he really didn't seem to get to that point.

other things that also struck me were that we didn't really talk very much about the senators, didn't talk very much about key important issues like ukraine. >> they got to it a little bit, a little bit. jacky rosen, senator rosen got to it a bit. >> yes, she did, but other than senator rosen, i didn't really see very much in that direction. and of course there are, you know, 40 plus million people in ukraine waiting to hear exactly what the trump administration is going to do for their country. >> i respect that when marco rubio has his confirmation hearing for secretary of state, we'll hear a lot more about that. natasha, i want you to just stop, and i want our viewers to listen once again to some of the exchange that the new senator from michigan, elissa slotkin, who is a military veteran who is a veteran of the cia, had with him about some of the questions regarding what he views his role as when and if his boss, the

president, asks him to do things that a u.s. military, active duty u.s. military should not do in the u.s. >> do you believe there is such a thing as an illegal order that joe biden or any other president donald trump could give? is there anything that a commander in chief could ask you to do with the uniformed military that would be in violation of the u.s. constitution? >> senator, anybody of any party could give an order that is against the constitution or against the law, right? >> okay. so and are you so are you saying that you would stand in the breach and push back if you were given an illegal order? >> i start by saying i reject the premise that president trump understand you've done any illegal orders at all. >> this, to me, was probably one of the most, if not the most moments of the most important moments of this hearing. because this when you're talking to people inside the pentagon right now, these career civil servants, these people who have been

serving for decades in the military, this is what they're worried about. this is what they're talking about is how is the u.s. military under donald trump and his second term, knowing perhaps, that he doesn't have to face another election is how is he going to be using the military at home? that is one of the most, you know, prescient topics on people's minds right now. and he did not really explain how he would push back against perhaps using active duty troops for law enforcement. for example, he was asked if president trump were to tell you to send the 82nd airborne division for domestic law enforcement at the border or for law enforcement on the streets in cities to quell protests? again, he referred to it as a hypothetical, and he really would not necessarily not necessarily go there other than to say that he basically rejects the premise that donald trump would order anything illegal. so this is one of the things that the we have reported that the military is spending some time now actually discussing

informally in conversations amongst themselves at the pentagon. what are we going to do and how are we going to respond if we see that the president, you know, orders us to send these active duty troops to the border in capacities other than, for example, administrative functions, which that has precedent law enforcement functions, it really doesn't. and so it's weighing very heavily on them. and then, you know, i think also the conversation about purging generals and purging flag officers from the military, particularly when it comes to cq brown again, you know, he said that he was going to review all, every single senior officer is going to be reviewed to determine whether or not they have a place really in the military. now. i mean, talk about politicization of the military, talking about political bias. i mean, that is something that people are going to be very concerned about. look, we have been there are 800 flag officers in the military. are our political views now that we hold personally or privately going to be subject to a review or some kind of vetting by the incoming secretary of defense, that's traditionally not the way that the military has

worked, obviously. so just a lot here. i think that again, because there was only one round of questioning, they weren't really able to delve much into. >> yeah. no question. okay. everybody stand by because i want to go to somebody who knows what it's like to be in the very seat that pete hegseth was in. you see him right there just a couple of years ago. leon panetta, former secretary of defense, not to mention cia director and member of congress from the great state of california, leon panetta, good to see you. thank you so much for being here. how did you think today went? how did pete hegseth do? >> well, you know, it it at moments, it was a pretty rough hearing, but, uh, you know, it was pretty clear that he had been pretty prepared to deal with the more controversial questions that he was going to get. it reminded me a little bit of the kind of hearings we've seen for justices of the supreme court, uh, who are able

to provide an answer that, uh, is very difficult to suddenly challenge that particular candidate based on that kind of answer. he was giving those kinds of answers that i think in the end, kind of gave him a chance to be able to to push back on a lot of the areas that have raised questions for senators. >> you not only know what it's like to sit in that chair, you know what it's like to run the pentagon, to be the top civilian at the pentagon. all of the challenges, all of the experience that you drew on. i didn't even mention the fact that you were chief of staff at the white house. i could go on and on. maybe you were uniquely qualified. certainly. maybe in many cases more so than some of the other secretaries of defense who have been there for democrats and republicans. but i'll just ask you point blank, does he have what it takes to do the job that you did at the

pentagon to be defense secretary? >> you know, i think the fundamental issue that every senator is going to have to make a judgment on relates to whether or not he's qualified to be secretary of defense. and and the primary question that they're going to have to be able to arrive at a judgment at is whether he can be trusted, whether he can be trusted to tell the truth, because as secretary of defense, your primary role is to tell the truth to the president, to the congress, and to the american people. i think that will determine, frankly, whether or not he's able to win. confirmation is whether or not senators arrive at a judgment on that issue. >> what do you think? >> i think it's a close call, and i think it's going to be a close vote. >> okay. mr. secretary, thank

you so much for being here. i really appreciate you giving us your your very informed, hot take on what we just saw for 4.5 hours. hope to see you soon. >> good to see you, dana. >> we're going to have a lot more special coverage at pete hegseth. confirmation hearing ahead. and we are going to turn to the very dangerous situation in los angeles. high winds are fueling fires, and a new wildfire is breaking out in ventura county. the latest on this absolute disaster that's been going on for a week now. straight ahead. >> have i got news for you is back for a new season. whether you like it or not. >> are those the only two choices? yes. >> you like it or you don't? >> i'm on the fence. >> this is going to be a long season. >> have i got news for you returns february 15th on cnn. >> want a next level clean swish with the whoa of listerine? it kills 99.9% of

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>> play. blink. relief. >> the only 3 in 1 extended relief formula for dry eyes. blink. kobe. >> the making of a legend premieres january 25th on cnn. >> there is increasing concern about the spread of wildfires in southern california, as stronger winds are moving into greater los angeles and the entire region around it for the next 24 hours, the l.a. basin could see near hurricane force winds. again, fire officials are calling today a, quote, particularly dangerous situation. and just last night, a new fire, the auto fire, erupted in ventura county. fire officials say it is not advancing, but also not contained. and they're telling residents to be alert and prepared. officials, meantime, say they are still investigating the cause of the wildfires, but cnn obtained video that appears to show the

moment the eaton fire may have erupted tuesday evening. a pasadena resident captured these images of flames at the base of an electrical tower near his home. cnn's stephanie elam is in pacific palisades, where for now, the fire is not growing. stephanie, what are you seeing? and more importantly, what are people who live there and the officials in and around there telling you about their concerns about these winds coming? >> yeah, the fear here is that the winds could pick up and take some of those embers blowing deep inside the palisades fire area and spread the fire. so they're still not people here. and if you look at where i am, there's not a lot for people to come back to. i mean, just same thing with the eaton fire. you go for blocks here and you can see just devastation after devastation. in fact, cal fire reporting new data today saying that the eaton fire is now the second most destructive fire in california's history and now

the fifth deadliest. so it's burned through 14,000 acres, 7000 structures. and then you look at the fact that 16 people have been lost there. according to the los angeles county medical examiner. then you look at the palisades fire where we are standing. it's the fourth most destructive and the 14th deadliest, but it's larger, having burned 23,000 acres and burned 5000 structures. so obviously the eaton fire is smaller, but way more impactful. but you can't say that to anyone who lives here. when you look at this devastation, this is west side, east side, these communities are devastated, and it will take a long time for people to get back here. but this fear of these winds coming up is why they want people to be on alert. and if they live in a place where there could potentially be fire danger, they're saying be ready to evacuate. they want people to take that very seriously here because you just look, i mean, you can even just look over here on the other side of the street. there's devastation

everywhere. and i've gone through blocks and blocks of this today, dana, where you just see this kind of devastation, street after street after street. and in some places it's even down to their to their infrastructure. as far as, like their center of the town, like here in palisades. it's just devastating. and so to be prepared, they want people to be ready to get out if they need to, as they're like we saw with the auto fire starting up last night, there could be other blazes. it may not be here in the palisades fire, it may not be the eaton fire. so that's why they want people to be prepared. >> yeah. and it just looks. the sun is out, the sky is blue. it's so sort of discordant with what we see behind you. what you've been describing. and the wind that is expected to come. stephanie, thank you so much. appreciate that. and for more information about how you can help los angeles area wildfire victims, go to cnn.com/impact or text wildfires to 77,070 to

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reception that he received from republican senators as a very good sign. i want to discuss this with cnn senior political commentator scott jennings and cnn political commentator karen finney. hello to both of you. scott, what's your takeaway? >> well, in short, i think pete hegseth kicked their today. i mean, it wasn't even close. they didn't lay a glove on hegseth. no mistakes. calm, cool, collected. i mean, before the thing even started, you had this, like, code, you know, protester freak show trying to disrupt the hearing. that's the democratic base, by the way. which probably explains why the democrats on the committee acted in such a bizarre and unprofessional way. i was appalled at some of the way these senators handled themselves and some of the lines of questioning. i mean, tim kaine sounded like a sex pervert in his questioning of pete hegseth blumenthal, who lied about his service in vietnam, questioning his qualifications. you had gillibrand, you had warren, you had hirono going on unhinged rants about things. angus king

obviously doesn't understand what it's like to fight terrorism on and on and on. hegseth was cool in the face of this unhinged questioning. they made him look good today. it would be difficult for a republican to vote against hegseth after the democrats unseemly mudslinging today. >> karen well, look, it was as performative as these hearings ever get. i mean, republicans do it to democrats. democrats do it to republicans. i mean, so that happens on all sides. look, overall, though, clearly hegseth was well prepared and it was clear democrats recognized that given that there was some clearly concern that he wouldn't be able to handle more than one round of questioning, they were clearly trying to get certain things on the record. personally, i would have the comms person in me would have framed it differently. i would have talked about a number of these issues, both based on his writings, which at one point they were trying to do that. that was part of the strategy. but really in the context of

the modern military, because the reality is, as military leaders will tell you, climate change is a national security concern. it's real. it is. it is a threat to our forces. it is a threat to our bases. it is a threat to our readiness. you know, so i would have framed some of these questions more in the context of the current challenges. the modern military faces. it is a diverse force, which is part of why diversity matters. i thought they also could have done more to, you know, again, use some of the concerns about the way trump has spoken. i thought slotkin was very effective with this in terms of the use of force on american soil. and, you know, and the geneva conventions. i think those questions got a little muddled. and i think those topics actually are very relevant and did not get quite the airing i wish they would have. that's interesting. it doesn't sound like you're all that thrilled with with the way that your party's senators sort of

performed as a whole with this, despite very notable exceptions, i just you didn't love it. okay, well, there's one senator who you know pretty well, considering the fact that he was the vice presidential nominee when he worked on the hillary clinton tim kaine presidential campaign, because scott mentioned this, i do want to run part of what tim kaine said in his line of questioning. and then on the backside, i want to listen to markwayne mullin, a republican senator who's very close with pete hegseth, said as a counter to many of your work, colleagues have said that you show up for work under the influence of alcohol or drunk. >> i know you've denied that, but you would agree with me, right? that if that was the case, that would be disqualifying for somebody to be secretary of defense. >> senator, those are all anonymous false claims. and the totality, they're not they're not anonymous. >> we have seen records with names attached to all of these, including the name of your own mother. so don't make this into

some anonymous press thing. the senator from virginia starts bringing up the fact that what if you showed up drunk to your job? how many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night? have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from their job? and don't tell me you haven't seen it because i know you have. and then how many senators do you know have gotten a divorce before cheating on their wives? did you ask them to step down? no, but it's for show. you guys make sure you make a big show and point out the hypocrisy, because the man's made a mistake. >> karen. so here's what i thought was interesting about that. and mark kelly tried to get to that. first of all, tim kaine, did you know he came, you know, loaded with the questions he wanted to ask? he has a son who served in the military. so obviously he takes a lot of this very seriously in terms of the expectations that the expectations we have of our

service members should be the same expectations and standards we hold the secretary to. i don't think he was wrong on that, but i thought mark kelly did a little bit of a better job kind of teasing some of that out and trying to get more underneath some of the substance of that question. in terms of, you know, he said, well, you've said you have made mistakes, but you're not willing to tell us what the mistakes are. i thought that was another way to kind of go at that question. and scott, before i let you guys go, did you have any concern about the sort of lack of answers on some of the really important policy issues that he will have to face as defense secretary, or even information about treaties like asean? >> no, i don't have any concerns about anything he did today. i thought he specifically answered the questions he needed to. and some of this stuff is going to be set by the president, united states and the president's national security council advisers and staff. i mean,

he's not a one man show. the secretary of defense is important, but there's a whole national security team. i don't think hegseth or anyone else for one of these kinds of positions should go to the table and act like they're going to unilaterally set policy. so i think he handled himself well today. i think democrats had maybe built up in their mind that he was going to be a low performer. he they lowered the bar, but he far jumped over any expectations they had set. and i just want to say one thing about karen's comment. she made some great points. she raised some issues that democrats obviously care about. these are important issues. i agree with her that maybe they did deserve a little more questioning today, which is why it's all the more puzzling why a tim kaine, who has worked for the clintons or campaigned with him, who campaigned with doug emhoff, decided to spend eight minutes, eight minutes of the so, so, so he's he's supported some of these folks. and then he decided to spend eight minutes on the granular details of this man's sex life. i mean, it was embarrassing for the democratic party today, particularly coming from kaine. so i think karen has it right. they did not do a good job. they totally

whiffed on this. and they made it more, not less likely that hegseth is going to be confirmed. >> well, it seemed as though that was the writing was on the wall. even going into this hearing. but i appreciate both of you coming on and giving me your and our viewers, your expertise. scott and karen, good to see you. thank you. and ahead, hamas and israel are inching closer to a deal. that is what officials on all sides are telling us. but can they agree on that final pact that could see the hostages finally come home and a ceasefire put in place in gaza? that's next it's apparent. >> nice going lou. nothing like a little confidence boost to help ease you back into the dating scene. of course, that also includes having a smile. you feel good about. fortunately, aspen dental specializes in dentures and implants made just for you with affordable options and flexible ways to pay. and now they're

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israel and hamas appear to be on the brink of a ceasefire and hostage deal. now, we have heard on the brink before. but it does seem, according to officials on all sides, that it is different this time. what they are talking about, you see there on the screen, is 33 hostages in exchange for hundreds of palestinian prisoners. the agreement would also mean a 42 day cease fire in a war that has been raging for 15 months. at this hour, though, details are still being finalized by negotiators who are meeting in doha. cnn's jeremy diamond is in tel aviv for us. jeremy, what are you hearing from your sources on where these talks stand? >> well, listen, dana, there's no question that israel and hamas are on the cusp of an agreement here. and at this moment of incredible hope and promise, but also uncertainty. what we saw here tonight at hostages square in tel aviv was

thousands of people gathering to stand shoulder to shoulder in that moment, and no less among them the families of the hostages who may indeed be released as part of this agreement. i spoke tonight with the uncle of yarden bibas, that father of those two beautiful redheaded babies who you may remember being taken captive on october 7th. here's part of our conversation. everyone says that we are now on the cusp of this cease fire and hostage release deal between israel and hamas. how are you feeling at this very moment? >> wow. actually frightening to hell. you know. very frightening. you know, it's, uh, it's a kind of, you know, a, like i said, the carousel, you know, up and down right now, a roller coaster. terrifying roller coaster. yeah. terrified to hell. what, because we don't know. first of all, we don't know if it's

going to happen. it looks like it's going to happen, but we don't know if it's going to happen. we don't know what we are going to get. who is going to come back, how they are going to come back, their physical condition, their mental condition. we we don't know if they are going to get them back. they say that some of the people, you know, some of the kidnaped, they don't know where they where they are right now. we know nothing right now. the only thing that we that i will know when something will be here in israel, and we will see it by our by our eyes. then i believe. >> and dana hamas has said that those two babies, kfir and ariel, as well as their mother, shiri, that they are dead. but the israeli government has yet to confirm that. and tonight, yair, their uncle, told me that he is still holding out hope, as is the rest of the family, that just perhaps they may come out alive as part of this agreement.

>> dana, it's just so brutal, so heartbreaking on so many levels. thank you so much, jeremy. appreciate your reporting. and up next, we're going to come back to the united states and look at jack smith's conclusion. revealed his final report. the special counsel says the evidence is there to convict the president elect for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. >> laura coates live tonight at 11 eastern on cnn. i'm howie mandel. >> the newest ambassador of skechers. >> funny story. how i became an ambassador. >> i went to the store and i lied and said i was an ambassador. do i get a discount? the owner called me and said, would you like to be an ambassador for skechers? and i said, yes, try skechers slip ins. >> want a next level clean swish with the whoa of listerine? it kills 99.9% of bad breath germs for five times more cleaning power than brushing and flossing alone.

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president elect. that's a pretty powerful conclusion from smith's final report on trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. it was released overnight, and in it, smith made clear that while trump's reelection prevents him from being tried, he doesn't believe it exonerates the president elect. cnn's paula reid has been following this case from the start. paula, it was just a little more than 24 hours ago where you came on with me when judge aileen cannon kind of cleared the way for this report to be released. at the time, you said that if it is released, that perhaps there won't be much in it then that we haven't already reported. is that true? >> yeah, that is the case. >> there were some interesting insights, though, from the special counsel. we know the allegations. we've seen a lot of the evidence, but we haven't heard much from jack smith about his overall experience during this investigation. >> and he said, you alluded to this in the intro. the evidence was there to convict. now, you don't always know how things are going to go when you take a

case before a jury. but he never had the chance to take this to trial. and he talked about how one of the big roadblocks that he faced was the supreme court. he asked them over a year ago to just weigh in on this question of whether trump has any immunity, and they did not. they waited for it to go through the trial court, the appellate level. they waited seven months. it was the last decision that they released in the supreme court term. and because they took so long, it was impossible for smith to bring his case before the election. and, of course, he says for him, the ball game was trump's reelection. and we heard judge juan merchan up in manhattan touch on this last week. he said, look, the american people have seen the allegations. they've seen the case. and that case, they saw a conviction and they decided to send him back to the white house. i mean, that's a blow for a prosecutor who has worked on cases like this. the one thing i was a little bit surprised at, dana, is that smith took some shots at the trump legal team and of course, trump. that doesn't surprise me. but that same legal team, many members of that team, including todd blanche, are about to occupy very powerful

positions inside the justice department and will be in a position to investigate smith and his team for any possible evidence of political motivation or any other misdeeds. so i don't know if i would have taken those parting shots, but it's water under the bridge now. >> presumably they were going to do that investigation no matter what jack smith said or didn't say about them. so fascinating that the strategy to delay at every stop, which was aided by a supreme court that didn't answer to a lot of the questions along the way, and the judge in florida, the federal judge, aileen cannon, who helped with that delay. it worked. >> takes a village to delay two federal trials. >> it worked. it worked. all right, paula, thank you so much. ahead, we are following new evacuations in los angeles as winds are growing stronger. it is complicating the very difficult efforts to stop these deadly wildfires there. we'll be right

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faced a barrage of questions for what he calls the most important deployment of his life. lawmakers grilled him on everything from possible invasion of greenland that was mentioned by the man who wants him to be defense secretary, combat readiness. women in combat roles and ending, quote, wokeness within the ranks. and also, sexual assault and substance abuse allegations that have been leveled against him, which he denies. he also was questioned about why he feels he's qualified to lead the largest department in the u.s. government, nearly 3 million personnel, despite never running an organization even close to that magnitude. here's a portion of his opening statement, which was briefly interrupted by protesters. >> as i've said to many of you in private meetings, when president trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture back to the department of defense. >> he, like me, wants a

pentagon laser focused on lethality, meritocracy, warfighting, accountability and readiness to bring back warfighting, if confirmed, i'm going to work with president trump and this committee to one restore the warrior ethos to the pentagon and throughout our fighting force. >> in doing so, we will reestablish trust in our military. addressing the recruiting crisis, the retention crisis and readiness crisis in our ranks. >> my colleagues have been watching these hearings from capitol hill to florida, near the president elect's mar-a-lago home. manu raju oren liebermann, alayna treene. manu, i want to start with you. you have now made your way. i see from the dirksen building over to the u.s. capitol. i think you saw the senate majority leader, john thune, along the way. what is he saying? >> yeah, i just asked john thune about this nomination. it

is really not said a whole lot about whether he would support hegseth. i asked him if he had any concerns about the allegations of sexual assault and misconduct and the like, all of which hegseth denied. he said he that hegseth, quote, acquitted himself well today. and he also said that he plans to move on this nomination quickly. when i asked him if he wants to move this to the senate floor by next week. so there's a big push for republicans to get this done. i also caught up with the senate armed services committee chairman, roger wicker. just moments ago. he told me that he believes that all committee republicans will vote to advance this nomination. that includes a one vote of senator joni ernst, a republican vote. watch. closely watched. she had a friendly exchange with hegseth in that hearing just moments ago. and then i caught up with wicker, too, about the questions about the fbi background check into hegseth. we heard complaints from democratic senators that this was incomplete and did not interview some of his accusers, especially the accuser from 2017, about that sexual assault allegation. why did they not interview that woman? and

wicker indicated that this investigation was thorough and that the woman did not want to be interviewed. >> they did a thorough interview of persons at all the places where mr. hegseth has lived and worked, and i don't have any objection to the why didn't they interview the accuser of that sexual assault from 2017? i don't think she wanted to to speak and they interviewed. some 60 or more witnesses. and three asked not to be identified. >> he didn't meet with any of us except for jack reed. you know, that's not typical of how this process is supposed to work, and i can only speak for my office. >> we gave them multiple days, multiple opportunities. >> it's very clear to us, i mean, it should be clear to everybody that he avoided meeting with all of us. >> and that was a common criticism from democrats

throughout the hearing that pete hegseth, when he was trying, was meeting with members ahead of this hearing, he focused primarily on republicans, really only met with one committee democrat, and that was jack reed. and that same democrat, jack reed is the only member on the democratic side who saw that fbi background check. roger wicker being the only republican senator wicker indicating that he would not allow the full access to the committee, in keeping with practice from other nominees in the past. but even, dana, as you know, the democratic complaints only go so far. they don't have the votes to stop him at the moment. republicans are confident they will have the votes to confirm him. >> yeah, and i know that people out there might be saying, why are the democrats complaining about something that might seem sort of processy, but they also, most of them who have been there made the point at the beginning of their questioning if they have voted for republican nominees for defense secretary in the past, that that's what they did, meaning that this is not always the partisan situation, that it is in this particular case,

even with donald trump in his first term. manu, thanks so much for that. great reporting. i want to go now to oren, who covers the pentagon for us. oren, you're still up there on capitol hill. it really it was striking, not surprising, given the way that we have seen hegseth kind of evolve in his private conversations with people like joni ernst, but still noteworthy to hear the difference in his public comments when it comes to his view of women in combat. and it was just i believe it was in november where he gave some statement saying that he's very much against it. and today in this hearing, he sang a very different tune to the point where jeanne shaheen, who was a longtime member of this committee, longtime senator, said, i appreciate your 11th hour conversion. >> in fact, it was just a day or two before he was picked as the nominee for defense secretary that he said,

essentially, period, women should not serve in combat roles. and then to to have made this effectively a transformation in the matter of a number of weeks here, when he was asked about this and he was asked repeatedly by different democratic senators in the committee about his position here, he effectively at the beginning tried to offer a bit of contrition, not quite an apology, but tried to say that he supports all genders and all races, in all roles for which they are qualified. so he tried to make it a question about meritocracy, but his comments were repeatedly brought back to him, comments that were made quite emphatically against women serving in combat roles. he then tried to make it a question about the standards one point tried to argue that there were quotas for infantry officers for women, and he was shot down quite quickly on that when it was pointed out that there are no such quotas. so this was one of the main points upon which democratic senators attacked pete hegseth, as he effectively tried to perhaps walk back his earlier comments

about women in combat roles. when it comes to questions of dei or perceived wokeness in the military, that was a effectively a doubling down. and he certainly got some help from republican senators there, he said, and made clear that that's one of his top priorities to remove. if confirmed. >> all right, oren, thank you so much for that. appreciate it. now i want to go to elena. oren was just talking about the way that he changed his tune on women in combat. one of the things that was most striking for somebody who almost didn't make it to this point to get the hearing because of allegations which he denies about sexual assault, about. drinking, drinking on the job at fox and elsewhere, that he was so, um, trumpian in the way that he responded to those questions, both in terms of his demeanor and also his absolute

refusal to say anything other than, um, you know, these are people who are trying to attack me. he said something like, these are anonymous sources or anonymous allegations, for the most part, without fully denying it, sidestepping it. >> that's exactly right. >> and i think trumpian, his his posturing, his answers, the way that he answered those questions is definitely the right characterization and remind you as well, that hegseth has gone under rigorous preparation for today for these different moments with trump's allies, with some republican senators themselves, to prepare for moments like that. they had spent hours yesterday, but also over the course of recent weeks, really working with him and going through mock trial or mock hearings, excuse me, and different mock scenarios to answer those questions. and when i talked to donald trump's team today about this, they said that they are very happy with the way that he defended himself. and they are encouraged that perhaps he will be able to get a quick

confirmation, especially after seeing how the different republicans on that committee responded to him. i would remind you that it was very unclear how many republicans would act. it's still unclear if republicans will fall in line to get behind hegseth, but they do feel encouraged after today, they told me now two key things that they pointed out, as well is one, how both roger wicker and senator joni ernst responded during the hearing. one, i'd note that wicker we really hadn't heard much about from him on hegseth, but he gave him a very warm welcome. the chairman, when opening he said that he was an excellent choice, that donald trump had made. so they were encouraged by that. and then, of course, joni ernst was a republican, that everyone was watching. she had initially been very hesitant. i would note that she, of course, is a veteran herself. she's also been very vocal about the sexual assault that she, um, had gone, had received, had been exposed to, but also sexual assault in the military. currently, she actually did not have many fireworks in her line of questioning or hard questions for hegseth. instead, she really said that they addressed those concerns during their

private meetings, all to say again that donald trump's team is feeling very good about this. the key question now is if he can get through with the entire republican conference in the senate. dana. >> yeah, he can't afford to lose more than three republican senators, but, um, doesn't seem like that's a that's going to happen right now. but you never know until the votes are taken. elena, thank you so much for joining us on this very windy day there in west palm beach, florida, right now. speaking of winds, the greater los angeles region is under heightened alert as a new round of dangerous santa ana winds is. they're moving into areas already ravaged by deadly wildfires for the next 24 hours, the l.a. basin could see near hurricane force winds, sweep in, and exacerbate conditions for firefighters dealing with the palisades fire and eaton fire fires. two of

california's deadliest and most destructive ever, cnn obtained video that may show the moment the eaton fire erupted tuesday evening. you're looking at it now, a pasadena resident captured these images of flames at the base of an electrical, electrical tower that was right near his home. cnn's veronica miracle is on the ground in altadena. veronica, what are you learning and what are you hearing from residents who are maybe starting to come back as much as they can to see what's left of their beloved neighborhood yeah, it's been really difficult. >> we'll show you some of that community outreach and support in just a moment. but in reference to those videos of the start, a potential start of the fire, in addition to that video, we've obtained two other videos from people who live in the area who also say that they saw the fire start at the base of an electrical transmission tower. now, southern california edison, the

utility company, has vehemently denied claims that they are responsible for the start of the fire, and firefighters say that the cause of the fire is still under investigation. but we're hearing more from residents of what they saw that deadly night in terms of the winds that you were also just talking about. it's picking up a little bit. but in terms of the forecast, what the national weather service had forecasted has actually not come to fruition, which is great news. but i did speak with firefighters just a bit ago, and they are concerned that the winds could pick up this afternoon. so everyone is on high alert and how can they not be? it's been a very difficult week for so many. just right across there is a checkpoint where the national guard is stopping people from coming in and out, and then just across the street, we're going to move over a little bit, though. our service is really bad. people are just bringing donations after donations to help those who have lost everything. in fact, there are so many donations here that the owners of this house say they don't need any more. they just need residents who who need support to come

and take what they need. so, so many community members want to support dana. >> yeah, some of the best of humanity showing up in these days. since this started last week amid some of the worst of of destruction than humans are seeing. thank you so much, veronica. appreciate that. and let's get an update on the red flag warnings with cnn meteorologist derek van dam. derek, what are the models showing you about these winds? >> well, dana, there has been some relief. you just heard it there a moment ago from veronica that the winds did not get really as bad as what was originally forecast. but there is still kind of a caveat to that, because what could happen later tonight is something we want to keep a very close eye on. so the latest and greatest information that we have is that the high wind warnings have been now removed from the hardest hit areas. i'll show you that in just one moment, but i want to remind our viewers, anyone who happens to be tuning in from southern

california, that this area is still ripe for explosive fire growth. and the reason is, is because of the dry tinderbox conditions, but also the winds that are still there, not as strong as what was originally forecast, but they could pick up later today. and there's just simply no rain in this forecast. unfortunately, now 20 to 30 mile per hour sustained winds, we still have the potential gusts over 50mph, especially in those higher elevations. this is a particularly dangerous situation. we highlighted this yesterday. this is much of ventura county. the san fernando valley, this area. they've really honed in on as the potential for this greatest risk for this explosive fire growth to take place. it'll be interesting to see if that's lifted in the coming hours. with the lessened winds that have actually taken place. but what happens tonight? that's another that's another. completely different scenario. we do anticipate that santa ana winds here will at least begin to pick up in intensity through this afternoon and evening.

maybe, though, dana, dana, as we consider whether or not it's as powerful as what was experienced yesterday at this time. >> well, that's some slight cooperation from mother nature. let's hope it stays that way. a little rain would be nice, too, if she's listening. yeah. derek, thank you so much. appreciate it. and when we come back, more on the senate confirmation hearing this morning for donald trump's pick for defense secretary, senate armed services committee member jacky rosen, who was one of the questioners. of course, she will be here after a quick break to follow the trump confirmation hearings, follow the facts. >> follow cnn. >> now's the time to go back in time and shine a light on the family journey that led to you. ancestry can help you piece together the past with billions of records, photos, and more. memberships are on sale now. i have another pancake from full house to empty

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discussed at pete hegseth confirmation hearing today. the defense secretary nominee was questioned about a lot of issues about nato, whether or not the u.s. could face its adversaries alone. >> it's your interpretation that american first foreign policy is america alone. does that include abandoning our allies and partners such as nato, taiwan, israel and others? you wrote that nato is at relic at best, a distraction and should be scrapped and remade. are you okay with sending us down a path where we can't win? >> senator, the world has had our friends in the world have had no better ally. our allies and partners have had no better friend than president donald trump, who's reinvigorated a nato alliance. >> donald trump. >> joining me now is that, senator, you just saw there, jacky rosen, democrat of nevada. senator, thank you so much for being here. first question is

about your overall impression. we heard this from senator slotkin that she comes from michigan and she won reelection even though the president elect won her state. same thing with you. you won reelection. congratulations. and donald trump won your state of nevada. does that give you some pause in thinking about whether or not you'll vote for or against his nominees, particularly someone as important as defense secretary? >> well, first of all, thank you for having me. and what i want to say to that is that we thoroughly try to thoroughly vet every single nominee, regardless of party, regardless of position. that is our role in the senate to advise and consent. our role is to get that, have that person give that job interview, if you will, for the american people, for these jobs that are so important and nothing more important or significant than department of defense. this

person, the secretary of defense, they are the person that, except for the president, leads our men and women in the military and our civilian employees, about 3.5 million of them managed about an $800 billion budget. we need that person to be strong, to be respected. and i can tell you after the answers that mr. hegseth gave today, he is unqualified for the job. and i can tell you why. for years he's been on television. he played my clip before. those were his words. he's had opinions, he's written books. and suddenly, suddenly, since he's been nominated, he has changed his tune. who is the real pete hegseth? what does he stand for? the person he has been or the person since he's been nominated? and once he's confirmed, what can the american people expect? >> so just to kind of put a fine point on it, it sounds like you are definitively voting against him in committee and then ultimately on the floor. >> i do not feel that he is qualified to do this job. i can

tell you that if he would have come and met with any of us except a senator reid, i was going to call him chairman. he's now ranking member. excuse me. it's the president of our committees to meet with nominees. i've been meeting with other nominees that are going to come before the commerce committee. foreign affairs committee. it's important that they come and have this hour to chat with them about some of these things, so we don't have to do it in the public eye, and we can get those questions resolved. he hasn't come forward with some of some of the reports. the fbi vetting seems to lack information, and he has not been clear or transparent. and you can see through the hearing, he refused to clearly answer many questions, particularly as you mentioned, from senator slotkin. >> well, one of the questions that he did answer, because he was asked by a number of senators, including republican joni ernst, was about his position on women in combat. and he

before the election in november, had given an interview that suggested that he was very much against women in combat and under questioning from senator ernst and others, he suggested that that view has changed, or at least that position has changed. the position he would take as defense secretary. what do you make of that? >> well, again, he's held this position. he's written about it in books. he's written about it or spoken about it on podcasts, on his television show, on many other shows. he's been a certain person. he's had these opinions. and for the last 30 days, all of a sudden he's changed that opinion. so we don't know who he is. and i can tell you, he continues to keep saying that we are lowering standards in the military. i want to be clear to everybody out there, if senator duckworth wasn't clear enough as she questioned him before me, we do not lower standards in the military. we have not done that. our men and women in the military deserve

to be respected, and they are a strong and lethal fighting force. and because of women in the military, we have strengthened our military in every single area that we've gone into. and i'm not sure which pete hegseth we're going to get the one that wants women in the military, or the one that doesn't think we can do the job. maybe especially after you have a baby, suddenly you can't be in combat. either he has a lot of views that we don't agree with, and we just don't know who he really is. >> senator, your line of questioning mostly about his position on america's role in the world. you also asked about veterans. the women in combat issue we were just talking about. those are really important, meaty policy questions because of the allegations against pete hegseth, there was a lot of questioning on on those issues as well, including from your colleague from virginia, senator tim kaine, who really went there on a lot of very

specific, very personal questions about the marriages and divorces and children that pete hegseth has had and his alleged drinking issues. did you feel like that line of questioning landed? >> well, i can tell you this, this job, a lot of it is about character. you are leading the men and women in the military. they are looking up to you. this is a i talked about veterans. one of the reasons i talked about veterans, and one of the other reasons that tim kaine and others are talking about character, is that you think about recruiting. if someone wants to join the military, they want to know that the people that are leading them, that they can respect them, they want to know that they're going to be taken care of when they finally become a veteran. when you're active duty military, you want the same thing. and when you're a veteran, you want to be able to access those benefits to buy a home, to go to school, whatever they are, open a small business. we have so many small business veteran owners.

veteran owned small businesses. excuse me. in nevada, it's important when men and women and their families sign on that line to keep us safe and protect us, we have to take care of them, too. so all of this is the arc of character. all of this is the arc of recruiting and how we stand up and how we treat ourselves and others with respect. and i think that was the really why we went to the issue of character in all of these areas. >> senator jacky rosen from nevada, appreciate you being here. >> thank you. >> and coming up, talks on a ceasefire deal between hamas and israel that goes along with hostages being released are said to be very close. we're going to bring you the latest after a short break. >> this park changed my life. >> superman. >> crazy. >> just that simple little thing over the horse. >> chris wanted to change the world. >> people are because of him. >> super. the christopher reeve

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three of his family members were taken hostage by hamas on october 7th, 2023. two were killed and a third eventually was released. gil, thank you so much for joining us. what are your thoughts and emotions about i can't even imagine what you're feeling as we are on pins and needles once again. >> yes. >> so we i'm here with all the family members of the hostages. we're all in sort of a roller coaster because it's been 15 something months, and we've been hearing for such a long time that a deal was approaching, and we never knew who to believe. but right now, it seems really very close. i actually spoke to prime minister netanyahu today. we met him with other family members of hostages, and he told us that it could be within days or even hours. we're just waiting on hamas. respond

to respond positively, and then we can start with the first phase in 33 hostages. it is very important that all of you know that we're still waiting for 65 more hostages. not there are not only 33 hostages, but 98 hostages. and we want all of them. we must have all of them, because my cousin carmel, she was in captivity, and she was alive for 328 days, waiting for a ceasefire and a deal that will bring her back. but then she was murdered in captivity. if we leave some of the people behind, we may never see them again. and we can't do that. trump, president-elect trump was sort of the x factor in bringing this cease fire. we've been waiting for a very long time for the two sides to agree. and now that he's about to enter the white house, i

think it made a lot of a huge effect. he was the x factor for the fact that actually this deal took place. and we urge him not to finish with that, but to go on and make sure that all the hostages come home, be the x factor that makes it so no hostages left behind. >> what else did prime minister netanyahu tell you when you spoke with him earlier? did he give you any details about, we know, 33 hostages about who they are and why they were chosen in phase one. >> well, we know that these 33 hostages were considered to be humanitarian at some point. and israel delivered a list of names, and hamas is now just now agreed to it. but we know that a lot of time has passed since then. we know, and we are afraid that some of these

hostages that were taken alive and all of them were taken alive, some of them already were murdered or killed in captivity in the last few months. and we know that other hostages that were left that are not a part of this list, some of them are also sick, some of them are also ill and must be returned home completely. we know now that after so many days, after 15 months, more than 400 days, we all 98 hostages are considered humanitarian and we must get all of them back. so we have we know sort of who's coming, who's sister is coming and whose father is coming. and it's just it's exciting to think about that. and we can imagine the hugs that we're going to see and the running towards the hostages that we're going to have. we can have it in just a matter of days. and it's amazing to think about it. but for us, the focus is

that there are still people there and we must do whatever we can to get them back. >> yeah, it is so bittersweet even to think about it. i'm sure even especially for somebody like you, you just talked about carmel, your cousin who did survive, survive for so long and then was brutally, brutally murdered after, what, almost, almost a year of of being in captivity. did you have something? >> she she was. >> yeah, she was not only did not only did she survive for 328 days, she was. we're on the cusp of a ceasefire. she was also on the cusp of getting released, both on the first ceasefire of november. she was just a few hours from being released. and even when there were discussions and negotiations about a deal in july, she was supposed to come out in the first few days. but then the negotiations collapsed. she stayed behind

once again and was killed with other hostages. hostages, including hersh goldberg polin, who was also a part of what's called. humanitarian list. and for us, it's it's it's so painful to think that she could have been there. she could have she could have been home in this deal. but what i'm trying to focus on is the fact that many other hostages are also waiting to be released, and we have to make sure that their families aren't left alone, that they're not left alone there. and i want to call president-elect trump, thank him for all that he's done for to make sure that this deal could be signed, to thank president biden for all that he's done, because they've done so much. and to tell president trump, we trust you to get us to the finish line with all the hostages. 98 hostages home. >> jill dickman, thank you so much for being here. we are with you in spirit as you are

waiting for the final word, hoping that this hostage deal does go through as the prime minister told you. thank you. jill let's hope for good news. >> thank you. >> and we'll be right back. >> now's the time to go back in time and shine a light on the family journey that led to you. ancestry can help you piece together the past with billions of records, photos, and more. memberships are on sale now. >> these mushrooms make you feel better. >> they increase focus and energy while keeping you calm and stress free. >> plus, they cut down on bloat and heal your gut. wait. and they taste good. someone should make a coffee out of this stuff. >> rise. feel better. >> empire makes it so easy that you just don't need to shop around. everything that we need to get it done and get it done right. the new flooring just changes your whole house.( 800) 588-2300 and part.

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problems that sort of baffle the mind as far as. >> why they do things. >> mel gibson on fox news primetime after losing his home in the california fires. >> and then in the events like this, you sort of look, well, is it on purpose? >> which it's an insane thing to think, but one begins to ponder whether or not there is a purpose in mind. what could it be? you know, i don't know. do they want the state empty? i don't know. >> conspiracy theories spreading like wildfire. >> this is an obvious land grab. they get them out of their homes this way, and then they can build whatever they want to build. >> from the common refrain that it's all part of a government plot. >> this is siege by design. >> to suspected a.i. generated video and images falsely showing the fires approaching the iconic hollywood sign. fact checkers working for meta have been debunking some of the misinformation on facebook and instagram.

>> hey everyone! >> but last week, mark zuckerberg announced this. >> we're going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes, replacing fact checkers with community notes, a form of crowdsourced fact checking that is used on x. >> but critics say zuckerberg shouldn't be trying to emulate x, pointing to viral misinformation on that platform that goes unchecked. like this post viewed almost half a million times, baselessly claiming darpa, a wing of the department of defense, started the fires. >> i'm here with the fire command team at the palisades fire. >> indeed, x's owner, elon musk, has spent the last week elevating conspiracy theories about the fires. >> what about water availability? >> responding to a post from disgraced conspiracy theorist alex jones that the fires are part of a globalist plot, musk responded. true. and the california governor, gavin newsom, has set up a website, he says, pushing back on some of this misinformation. look, there is a political debate to be had

here about policies about how to prevent devastation like this from happening again. but so much of what we're seeing online from people like elon musk, some, some also from president elect trump, is just straight up misinformation. back to you. >> donie o'sullivan, thank you so much for that important report. tiktok is facing a deadline in five days to be bought or shut down in the united states. could the app end up in the hands of the man you just heard donald talking about? elon musk? that's next. >> you know what's brilliant? boring. think about it. >> boring makes vacations happen. >> early retirement is possible, and startups start up. that's why pnc bank strives to be boring with your money. >> the pragmatic, calculated kind of doctors recommend kohl's stool softener for gentle, dependable relief from constipation. >> it's so gentle. doctors even recommended during pregnancy and after surgery. kohl's increases water in the

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operations of tiktok. tiktok while china is, of course, opposed to the u.s. law that bans the app unless it is appropriated sold to somebody other than china. here in the u.s., the supreme court signaled it would likely let that law stand. cnn's hadas gold has been following all of this for us. hadas, is this elon musk possibility real? >> well, i mean, according to the wall street journal and bloomberg, it's definitely a real conversation that's happening amongst chinese government officials. >> and that's what's so fascinating about this, is that this is happening at the levels of chinese government officials. and they're not saying that this is a conversation that's happening amongst tiktok's parent company, bytedance. but it goes to show you how the chinese government is gaming out a potential future for tiktok. in the event, as we saw indicated by the supreme court, that they may uphold this ban or sell one of these ideas that's floated, according to these reports, is that elon musk's x would acquire tiktok, and that sort

of makes sense when you're looking at these two social media companies. x could really expand and work with tiktok. and elon musk has an a.i. company that could really use some of this tiktok data. and obviously they have reams and reams of data. but musk, for his part, he hasn't commented on it. and according to these reports, it's not even clear that he's aware of these conversations. and we should note that tiktok for their part, they are firmly denying this. they say in a statement. we cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction. now, as for why the chinese would want to do this, you know, elon musk obviously has the ear of president elect donald trump. he reportedly even have an office on the white house grounds. he's spoken out against this tiktok ban, and he has spoken in favor of this chinese government. and he has a lot of business interests in china as well. dana. >> yeah, it also requires tens of billions of dollars, which few people have. but elon musk is one of them. thank you. hamas appreciate that. and catherine, princess of wales

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