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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  January 15, 2025 9:00pm-10:01pm PST

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1972, uh, with a bunch of other african americans on on that side of town. um, i've been living in that home since 1978. um, a lot of my cousins lived in that two bedroom house, um, sleeping in bunk beds and us up under bunk beds. and it was love up in that house. um, my father worked really, really hard and sacrificed a lot. my mom, uh, worked hard and sacrificed a lot of clean homes and everything else to sacrifice, uh, so we could have somewhere to be in a safe neighborhood. and it was a neighborhood of of people that cared about people. um, um, the leaves around the corner, >> lillian. steve down the
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street, and i could walk down to these people's house today and get something to eat. if i wanted to. they watched. they raised me and watched me grow up, up in that neighborhood. and, um, and being in that neighborhood when i was younger to walk around and eat fruits from every tree that i wanted to and wow, it was just a great place to be. and it still is a great place to be where i can sit back and somebody will be, um, riding a horse down the street and and they'll let you jump on a horse and ride the horse with them for a little while. and it's just that type of type of place up there. um, and it's a beautiful place to be. >> well, anthony ruffin, johnny miller, it's no wonder that a great place to be had such great people there as well, like yourselves. thank you so much. and thank you all for watching. more coverage after this. >> outfront next, live from malibu, where red flag warnings are in effect, crews are now battling hotspots here, like one that just flared up right
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where we are building up in flames. plus, we tracked down this van. it is still there while everything else around it burned to the ground. how did it survive? also breaking this hour, israel and hamas agreeing to a cease fire deal. some of the hostages expected to be released include the father of an american-israeli hostage, possibly on that list. his father is my guest. let's go out front. and good evening. i'm erin burnett, live from malibu tonight. out front this evening, the breaking news in this race against time at this hour, crews are rushing to locate and extinguish parts of the palisades fire that are still burning. strong winds fueling the flames that have so far killed at least 25 people, confirmed just moments ago as we were setting up here for our live program, a commercial building here in malibu right around the corner, went up in flames. firefighters showed up immediately and put that out immediately. there, the hoses and it was out and all day. that's what they have been
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doing. patrolling nonstop on these streets that seem so dead and deserted, looking for hotspots, putting out fires like that one. the fires have destroyed thousands and thousands of homes, including this one behind me. about one week ago, just over a week ago, it looked like this. and the reason that we are actually at this location on this particular street in malibu is because of a powerful image that caught our attention. so let me show it to you. in this sea of ash and debris, as you can see it from from the distance and from the air. look at that little bright blue spot. it's a vintage volkswagen van and it's still there. well, we went and we tracked it down. we found the van and there it is. it is just a couple hundred feet from where i'm standing tonight. it miraculously survived the flames, which destroyed everything around me on this street. now it's in fairly good condition. i've gone and looked at it. we've looked inside parts. there is damage. i mean, don't get me wrong. we'll show it all to you. but it does appear to be one of the
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few vehicles that survived the fires. certainly up here, almost all of them are burned out, like in a war zone. so in a moment, i'm going to speak to the vehicle's owner. actually hasn't seen her car up close since last week's deadly blaze. and she saw that image that went viral and said, oh, my gosh, that's my car. so many in this area are anxiously because it's empty and deserted. why? because they haven't been allowed in. they haven't been allowed in to see their homes, to see what happened just a short while ago, though, in a scene that one week ago would have been totally normal, something happened that we were standing here was very bizarre. a man was walking his two dogs while i talked to him. his name is michael gessel. he never left. he never left. that night as the flames came in, he never left malibu. he, as he says, the only person remaining here in this neighborhood. he says he's lived here for 50 years. it's home. he's not leaving because he has nowhere else to go. this is home. >> when i hear this, you've got to leave. you've got to leave. and the spanish, you know, you're not what it's like on a on a loudspeaker. it was like on a, you
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know, modern. yeah. and i thought, well, hell, i'm just watering my roof really? well have the sprinklers going this way. and, you know, it takes a couple of hours to put them up, hook them up and stuff. and then about 4:00, 330, i look across the street and i see a 100 foot high flame shoot up from the house. and i said, oh. and i felt hot on my side. >> he. you know, moves. yeah. >> and then i got a little scared. i thought, time to leave. so i packed my dogs, cash, credit cards, dog food, water. >> and here he is still here, he said. firefighters giving him some water. and now eventually he went to his home. firefighters did save it. now, as i mentioned though, the threat here continuing and there's firefighters actually over talking to our crew right now. they're going around they're checking for those hot spots. and as i speak, there is this red flag warning for wind in effect and little relief in sight for exhausted
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firefighting teams. there is no rain in the forecast. dangerous wind gusts continuing. more serious, potentially dangerous wind situations coming in over the next days and the drying winds that we've experienced over the past week have made many of the surrounding areas more susceptible to catching on fire. so there is this risk that they are facing every moment now. bill weir nick watt are here, of course, in southern california, as they have been every day. and i want to start with, bill, you're live in pacific palisades, not far from where i am. and what is the latest you're learning there, bill? >> well, the crews, of course, bracing. they've enjoyed what has been a rather nice 36, 48 hour respite from the winds as they shifted some of the most extreme warnings back. but it's not over yet. and to keep the the public vigilant more than a week into this fire siege is is a huge challenge. as you can imagine when it comes to evacuations and all sorts of things. but things are much better than they could be. we are standing on a street here in the palisades that is
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remarkably clean, thanks to the really fervent work of crews. we've watched construction crews cleaning up the streets. that is possible. flammable fuel. they're cleaning up the leaves there and whatnot, but it is also part of what is going to be the most monumental cleanup task, maybe in american history. certainly in california history. the eaton fire palisades fire number one and number two on the list of most destructive in this southern california's history, uh, twice the size of manhattan. and that means so much hazardous waste. my colleague ellen nelson today talked to the epa, who says it's going to take 3 to 6 months just to clean up the hazardous materials. that's paint, solvents, pesticides, gas cylinders, ammunition, lithium ion batteries can explode the ones in cars and houses. more and more in southern california these days, if salt water gets in there. and so that is a huge issue going forward. there's the air quality that we're thinking about keeping the mask on. but i just want to show you, on this street of total
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destruction, aaron, a little bit later, we're going to talk about this house that went viral for surviving seemingly unscathed. it is a great story. i talked to the architect, a mixture of luck and very smart fire hardening design that may become the new norm when it comes to rebuilding after this devastating lesson, aaron. >> and may and absolutely that house. incredible. but of course, around it the sea of devastation. it's just a hard thing to grasp. all right, nick watt, thank you. i mean, bill weir, thank you very much. i know we're going to get that story later. i want to go to nick watt because he's in altadena. and, nick, what you've been seeing there, and we've been seeing altadena, of course, spread over such a huge space, you know, what is the latest there? i know, just like here, just like where nick is. they've been driving around looking for those hotspots today. >> exactly, aaron. they're mopping up the hotspots, but they are also going structure to structure those 5000 plus structures that were destroyed, checking for human remains. we saw two guys come through here just within the past hour with some rakes,
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16 confirmed dead so far from this fire alone. you know, as bill just mentioned, there there is. now, the thought of rebuilding. and here in altadena that's making a lot of people anxious. they are concerned that the character of their community may never come back. mama, can you hear me? mama, they called in vain. dalyce curry known as mama d is dead, aged 95. also dead. rodney nickerson been here since 68. >> my son tried to get him to leave and my neighbors and myself. he said he'll be fine. i'll be here when you guys come back. >> a multicultural community that took 50 years to build, ripped apart in just hours. catherine you've been here since 1972. >> i put down $300 and i bought
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my home on mcnally. if you want me to say it, i will say it. it was called white flight, and they moved out of the neighborhood, and the black people were able to buy homes, and they've been there ever since. until the fire. just destroyed everything. >> it's a large black population, but it's not all black, man. it's mixed. i know people from every race that lives here and they're happy and they get along. it's nice. it's almost a perfect community. >> tony kinsey filmed its destruction. >> i'm really afraid to see what's going to happen to my neighbors. and you know who's going to stick around after this? >> brian perry, a middle school principal, moved here for community. >> it was, to me the ideal place to raise my son because he got to be around people who were like him, people who weren't like him. >> nearly 8 in 10 residents own their own homes. it's a rooted community in what can feel like a transient city. is this
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community going to lose that? >> i mean, that's the danger. um, a lot of the people who live in on scene and we're working class people, you know, we're, uh, we're not the rich celebrities we don't have, like, the ability to just go back in fire can destroy more than the tangible fire can destroy community. >> the people of altadena are determined. that won't happen here. >> restoration is is is going to happen because of the people i lost. >> everything that i had in that fire. we left with just the clothes on our back. i asked god for ten more years, uh, to see my daughter rebuild. her home. yes. >> now behind me, aaron, this was rosebud academy, a great school. by all accounts, 65% of the kids from low income households. where are they going to go now? that's what this community is grappling with. now they're thinking maybe a church hall, maybe schools elsewhere. but for
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kids, they need that community as well. the fear it's never going to be the same. aaron. >> all right. and they need it right away. right. there's no gap of two years. it doesn't work that way for a childhood. nick, thank you very much. and i want to go now to the l.a. county fire chief anthony marrone. chief marrone, i'm glad to speak to you again. and can you share right now what your biggest areas of concern are? i know, you know, we see here fire trucks coming by. we saw a blaze, fire, fire crew put it out immediately. but they are they are on patrol, constantly looking for hotspots. >> yeah. that's correct. thank you for having us on aaron. so right now my immediate concern is the current red flag that we're under. it's supposed to expire at 6 p.m. this evening. but looking forward with the weather forecast, we are slated to have another red flag warning. moderate santa ana winds, uh, beginning monday and tuesday. >> so, chief, how do you manage through this? i mean, this
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seems as if it's never ending. you've got thousands of firefighters at the rose bowl stadium. you've got guys here just on alert all the time. is it just a never ending way of life at this point? three days. another wind warning. two days after that, it will happen again. >> yeah, we're certainly under a weather fire siege here in los angeles county. we do have lots of resources like the ones you mentioned. um, the assistance that was provided not only from northern california, but from the western united states and canada and mexico, has been overwhelming. we have so many people here that are prepared to go if we get another event. >> so i know we've looked at some infrared technology on those hotspots. it shows several of them burning in that palisades fire footprint. right? i mean, obviously you have the active fire itself, but the footprint in neighborhoods like the palisades or malibu, where where we are. how worried are you about those hotspots? i
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mean, you have a hotspot in an area that's already burned. maybe if if that happens, wind picks up an ember. obviously that's a real fear. >> yeah. so our crews really right now are focusing on perimeter control. we're trying to get black line in around that fire perimeter, but we're also going deep into the perimeter to extinguish those hotspots. if we have another wind event, we do have the possibility of that fire squirting out and becoming larger at either the eaton fire or the palisades. but what concerns me most would be a new fire start in an area fire far away from the current two areas that we're battling. blazes. >> yeah. i mean, when you talk about being under siege, to even imagine that happening, i'd even have another a brand new fire. all right, chief marrone, thank you very much. i appreciate you taking the time. >> yeah. thank you for telling our story. >> all right, well, you know, when you talk about the stories that resonate, you know, that there was that picture, that viral
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image of that little blue dot in the middle of the devastation here. it's a blue volkswagen van. and next we tracked him down. we're going to speak to the person who owns that van. she'll see it up close here for the first time. we're going to show her. plus we're going to tell you why this house was able to survive the deadly flames. everything else around it is gone. i mean, and look at that. the car is gone. it gives you the point. but, i mean, it's unbelievable. also breaking this hour, president biden is about to give his farewell address to the nation. pulitzer prize winning historian doris kearns goodwin will join me with what she expects to hear in this important moment kobe the making of a legend premieres january 25th on cnn. >> i didn't do this for the fame. i did it to pay it forward to the next generation of athletes. i joined sofi because they've helped millions of members bank, borrow and invest for their ambitions.
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your dvr now. welcome back. >> here in malibu. >> the destruction of the santa monica mountains behind us. and the palisades fire. what you see here is destruction. i just want to point at this car. that's what most of the cars here look like. even the ones on the road that were abandoned, cars that were parked. almost all of them look like that. there are a few that are just completely covered in ash and soot, not completely destroyed, but they pretty much all look like that, like in a war zone. so then this image comes out taken from an aerial of this, and it stands out in this sea of destruction. how the heck did this happen? so this is a vintage vw. look at it, this blue vw and it's in incredible condition. we'll show you where the damage is because this went through the fire. you see the burnt headlight and you can see the burnt along the paint. although the paint just incredibly survived the tires. you can see those tires survived. and you see all the heat here along the side and the heat here. now when we come to the back of it, i'll just show you some of the main damage on this vw because
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it just looks so perfect. we have to show you the damage it had. it did melt a little bit of the, um, the rubber here along the back window, and that caused the glass to melt. break. so you see all the break and glass inside and it is covered in soot and ash and, and melted cup holders and everything inside. and i know we've, we've shown a lot of that, but it's just this miraculous little thing when you see so much destruction. all of it is black and gray and ash. and then there's this little blue dot, i guess, a whole new meaning to the the carl sagan concept. and that is this vw van. so we saw this, we came up to find it, and here it is indeed parked right here up on the hilltop in malibu. and so we wanted to know who owned it to to get the story here. and, and and we found them. so megan, krystal weinraub joins me along with preston martin. they are they are behind the people behind the story of this van. so preston sold the van to megan
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and they were surfing together. they were friends. and this van ends up parked here. so. so both of you, thank you so much for being with me. megan, can i just start with you? because you own the van now? you obviously bought it from preston. and here we are with it. you've had a chance to look at it with these images. what, what what do you even think about the fact that your van is here? you are the owner of the little blue dot. >> i just can't believe that this is actually, like, my bus is the only thing that survived on the street that i walked by with my dog, like every single day. um, it's i'm speechless to see all the houses burnt. and i can't believe that. azul. the bus, that's what we named it. survived like it's. i'm just in shock. honestly. but it's. we always said, like me and my friends. like the magic bus. we put the energy in it and we're just always, like, vibing high. just like our frequency. and vibration is
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so magical. so we're like, wow, it is magic. so we're just in shock. i said, when i got that sent to me, i was just like, oh, my god, i freaked out. um, everyone keeps saying that. so. >> preston, when you you had this van before, i know i believe you lived in it for a year in college. i did, and you see it here. i mean, you know, there's a there's a towel in here, like a rug that you were using in the front. i mean, it's covered in ash. you know, i don't i don't know if you're going to when you'll be able to drive it again, but, um, you did say there was magic in this van. and it does maybe give a new definition to magic with the fact that it's here. >> there is this was having this. i went to uc santa barbara, and whenever i would drive this bus, it was always a good day. i got to to live in this and surf and go to class. and when when megan ended up taking possession of it, it was this awesome thing where i was sad to see it go, but excited to see it in the right hands and someone who would love and appreciate it. and we thought it was gone. um, we really
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didn't think we'd ever see this thing again, and we got to surf with it on sunday and parked it right where it's still sitting there. and tuesday the fires hit, and i'm looking at these images live that i've never seen. like, this is it's amazing. it's amazing. and everyone in my family, my friends, all megan's family, everyone's and so, megan, you parked it here, i believe, because, well, it's a stick shift, obviously. >> i mean, and you're learning how to drive stick, so it's it's very hilly here. i know you live over the corner and your apartment is okay, but you parked it here because it's a flat surface. so then when you got the evacuation orders, obviously you're not going to jump in this car. so. so tell me what happened. >> so i'm at one 800 coastline at the bottom, and i just got the news from my whole building that we have to evacuate. we have to evacuate. and this is our second evacuation. i'm like, oh, my god, let me just grab my dog. like i didn't bring anything with me except my dog, literally. and i'm like the hill. like it's all i saw. the hills on fire. and i'm like, oh, my god. like the vans
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are gone or like it's on flat. like we just that's my area where we just walk and just drive around in it and i'm like, that's the first thing that i detach from. and i'm like, i'm surrendering. the vans are gone. or like i'm detaching from this van. yeah, it's me and buddy. yeah. so i was like, i'm not escaping. i'm just going to leave it. so i'm grateful that my our buildings still survived, though. >> yes. and that is a miracle, obviously with everything else that we're seeing up here, preston, i know, you know, when you look at it and you look inside, i know it's it's megan's now to restore, but, you know, we're showing you. do you think that you can restore it and drive this again? >> oh. >> oh, yeah. i depending on the engine and the battery in the back. because if it got really hot, if stuff is really melted back there might, might have a little bit of issues. but all you do, you restore the paint, you fix the melted headlights, we'll get the engine checked up and hopefully, hopefully azul will be driving again soon and it will truly be a magic
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van. >> that little blue dot somehow stands for. hopefully what the future will be after this horrible, horrible tragedy. thank you both so very much. i really appreciate it. appreciate you letting us be the ones to come up here and see your van. thank you. >> thank you, thank you. >> all right. and we talk about this van and the little blue dot. there is a house that is standing in the palisades in the middle of a sea of disaster, you know, not one of those ones in a clump of a few. just one out of nowhere. and it looks pristine. if you didn't see everything around it, you could think it was an architectural digest. we're going to tell you the story behind it after this. >> after a big comeback, donald trump begins his second term. history unfolds live on cnn. join jake tapper and anderson cooper as the 45th president. >> i, donald john trump becomes the 47th. >> the inauguration of donald trump monday at eight on cnn. >> honestly, i was scared when i was told age related macular
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anything survived the fire so far. there are those incredible stories like that vw van that we've been talking about that amazingly survived that bright blue spot amidst the rubble and char in the palisades. it is just destruction as far as the eye can see. but as you go down this one street, you see the destruction. this is what it looks like up there. building after building, sometimes a little bit of a skeleton. sometimes it's all gone. sometimes it's only a chimney. and then you see a home untouched, just totally untouched. and you can see it even more starkly from the sky. we'll show you a loan building that is standing. so in context here, you can see it. bill weir is out front. >> amid block after block of destruction. it is so striking to see this. a house so clean and unscathed. it looks trucked in and placed gently amid the ashes. how much of that is luck? how much of that was was by design? >> um, design is an important
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part of it, but we're very happy there wasn't a two story, five bedroom house on fire next to us. >> the vacant lot on the windward side definitely helped. but the architect who designed this home also credits the tempered glass windows and steel roof fire smart landscaping, house walls designed to burn for an hour, and a concrete fence that held back a car fire. >> obviously, it wasn't there because we thought a car was going to be burning next door, but it was a big help in this case, and i think everyone needs to be concerned about the flammability of the fences around their property, the lack of roof vents. we have a fully insulated building envelope without any eaves, so that reduced the number of vulnerable areas. >> it's striking how clean the lines are, and that is advantageous when it comes to blowing embers. there's just less to get hung up on, right? >> i really think it is the
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fancy new houses they have gable upon, gable upon gable, and it just creates more and more areas for fire and embers to collect and do damage. >> these design ideas could become a lot more popular among those rebuilding from scratch. but what about replacing the irreplaceable? >> this would have been like the front here a century ago. >> german immigrants hand-built this charming sierra madre clubhouse to encourage the working class to get into nature yeah, i affirm, continuing the trend. it was no match for the ravages of 21st century nature. so as volunteers vow to rebuild it by hand. they're also vowing to do it smarter. >> there's all kinds of products now that are made out of concrete. you know, they look like boards, but they don't burn, right? you know, we can make sure that what we have going forward is not going to burn. when you get up to the top, it's just like a bill
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when you look. >> i mean, it's just unbelievable. but people talking about they're seriously thinking about what's next. they're seriously thinking about rebuilding. but of course it's a toxic zone. the soil is toxic. the air is toxic. are people really going to quickly move to rebuild as you are talking to them? >> it's a great question. i mean, the folks who can't get in there to see their properties, you know, they're probably trying to figure out the lucky ones that may have an insurance check already. but then how do you find a builder? um, one thing worth mentioning. if there's mass deportation as promised by the next administration, that is really going to hurt the building trades in southern california at a time. there's already a housing crisis before the fires. so you've got all of those considerations. and more and more people, though with the means, will be thinking about these design ideas. there's a premium on them now. hopefully the price comes down as it scaled more and more. but a lot of people thinking about shelter in a whole new way. erin. >> yeah, absolutely. and builders are telling me they said we were already two years backed up for houses in these
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areas. is this going to be impossible to meet the demand? we'll see what happens. bill, thank you so much. >> you bet. >> turning now to another major breaking story tonight, the cease fire deal. you are looking right now at celebrations in israel and gaza. both of them after a ceasefire and hostage deal has been reached 15 months since the fighting began. 251 people hostages were kidnaped by hamas the road to this deal has not been easy. >> i've worked in foreign policy for decades. this is one of the toughest negotiations i've ever experienced, and we reached this point because because of the pressure that israel built on hamas, backed by the united states the deal is expected. >> expected because it's been announced but doesn't take effect yet. it's expected to stop all fighting in gaza and to release some, but not all,
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of the remaining hostages. and it's unclear the the state of hostages there, of course, who is alive, who is not. the deal will happen in three phases, as we understand it right now. in the first, hamas will release 33 hostages, and that will include some americans. then israel, in exchange, will release hundreds of palestinian prisoners. and that happens simultaneously among the americans expected to be released. sagui dekel-chen. his story is one that, you know, because you have seen his father on the show again and again since he was captured 15 months ago. his family, originally from connecticut. he's the father of three young girls. and, you know, if you know the story, the littlest one, the baby was born while he was a hostage. so he's going to come back to a child, a year old child. his father, jonathan, has been on the show again and again, tirelessly advocating for his son. and jonathan is with me tonight out front. jonathan, those times talking to you and seeing you, i know
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that you never let yourself believe that, that this could happen. and here we are. but and i know the but is everything to you, which is that the cease fire takes effect sunday. and of course, today is wednesday. so what have you been told about this deal? >> well, quite honestly, i know about as much as you know about the deal. >> to the best of my knowledge, none of the hostage families has really gotten any kind of update as to the details of this agreement. and clearly this is progress. the mere fact of of having gotten to a point where the two sides, israel and hamas, have signed an agreement that that is progress, but it's a lifetime between now and the start of this cease fire on sunday, but in no less important, i mean, it's an enormous effort that the incoming trump and outgoing biden administrations have put
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in to getting to getting this far. i believe it will require at least as much effort now from the trump administration to see this through through all three phases, you know, here in the middle east goes sideways very quickly. and so we're going to need our region, and the world is going to need sustained effort, really to make to make this happen until all 98 hostages are home. >> and you say, you know, all 98. and of course, this would only be 33. but, jonathan, i mean, gosh, your son, he's a man. this has been 15 months. so many did not think that that so many hostages could be alive and able to be released. that in and of itself could be a miracle. are you even allowing yourself at this point to believe, to think that you might see ziggy again in in just three days? >> well, i don't know how long it's going to take. three days. three weeks? i don't have
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a clue. um, but i've held this same image in my mind since october 8th of 2023, which is a guy walking into a room somewhere or down a hallway, and i hope on his own two feet and his now three little girls will run and leap into his arms, and he can reunite with his wife. and after this hell that he has been through. and you know the suffering that his family has gone through and that alone and that that sustained image in the in the possibility that it's going to come true at some time soon, is what sustains me more than kind of a belief that that any of the parties. necessarily is completely committed to getting this done. >> so, jonathan, do tell us, at least as we understand it, and i will say
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it's a little unsettling to think that i may know as much as you know, when this is your child, your family, but they tell us that ziggy is one of just two americans. so he and one other on the list of hostages that are supposed to be released in this, this 33 hostages, have they told you that? i mean, have they confirmed to you that he's on the list? and have they said anything about his physical health? >> well, as far as his physical health is concerned, we knew from over a year ago with the release of the first 100 women and children in the first negotiated agreement for hostage release. we knew from a handful of them who were from our kibbutz, who saw ziggy briefly in the tunnels under gaza before they were released, that he had been wounded. and we kind of knew that already. so ziggy was wounded on october 7th. um, you know, it remains to be seen whether or not he is one of the releases we have not received. our family has not received
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official confirmation from israeli or u.s. authorities that ziggy, indeed is is slated to come out with that first batch of 33 hostages. >> and is there someone that you talked to regularly from the state department? i mean, are they obviously i know you would have a personal relationship with them. i'm sure they try to tell you what they could, but, you know, i can't imagine what it must feel like to be in this moment and to not know and to not know if all of this is being done and your son is on a list. >> well, i hope this is the final chapter in the living hell that we've been, that we've experienced for the last 15 months. an answer to your question. we have continuous contact. we've had we've been very lucky, privileged to have ongoing contact with many, many parts of the biden administration. and right now we have yet to hear from them about this very question. who exactly is going to be
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released? um, as of as of sunday. and we've also had very, very good informal, uh, relationships with the incoming, uh, senior administration officials in the trump administration. um, but they only assume their posts. of course, as of monday. so, you know, no complaints on, on on our part. on the contrary, we're incredibly grateful that the trump team and the biden team have worked so hard together, really shoulder to shoulder in the last couple of months since the election to get this one thing done. >> well, jonathan, obviously, every moment, no one, no one can truly comprehend what these these moments are like for you. but but also the fact that you're even in this moment. what an incredible miracle to get news like this, when of course, we know others have have not gotten this far. thank you so very much and i hope that we'll be speaking with you
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soon, and that it will be, uh, you'll be there. you'll be across the finish line. so thank you. >> thank you so much for having me. >> and next, president biden is about to deliver his farewell address. with just five days left as president of the united states, presidential historian doris kearns goodwin will be out front with me next. >> this part changed my life. >> superman. crazy. just that simple little thing over the horse. >> chris wanted to change the world. >> people are literally walking because of him. >> superman. >> the christopher reeve story february 2nd on cnn. >> my grandfather's run martha hatter for over 75 years, now 99 years old. and he'd come five days a week if we let him shape is great. >> the color is nice. that's a swell lid for you, baby. >> finding the exact date on ancestry that our family business was founded really struck a chord with my grandfather. >> i have never seen this
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50 year career in public service. and also and this is interesting, we've learned that the first lady, jill biden, will also be in the oval office with president biden for this speech out front. now, pulitzer prize winning historian doris kearns goodwin, also the author of an unfinished love story, as well as so many other books, of course, doris, that's simply your most recent talking about a storied careers. but it is wonderful to talk to you in this moment, because the president's farewell address is a tradition. it goes all the way back to george washington. this is part of what defines the pomp and circumstance, the the process of the change of power in this country. and there's a lot at stake for president biden. it could be a forgettable speech, or it could be something meaningful. what does he do need to do to make it meaningful? tonight? well, i think he should look back at history and figure out which ones are the ones that have stayed with us over all these times. >> and old george washington's is the first. and it's not only
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because he was the first to do it, not only because he announced then that he was not going to run for a third term, but because he issued a prescient warning to the country. he was very worried about the partisan spirit that was beginning to build up in his administration. there were these factions, he said, that were dominated by revenge, false information that was kindling animosity. this is incredible how relevant it seems to us today. and he said that citizenship and an aroused citizenry was the answer to it. so that's one of the ones that was. and then eisenhower followed up. that was probably the second most famous one where he worried and he issued a warning against the military industrial complex, something that has again become something that's still relevant to us today. and then obama turns out to be one of the ones that was memorable, in part because he quoted old george washington and talked about the fact that the party divisions were even more worse than it was at that time. and he said, a citizenry is the only thing to answer it. otherwise, people are not going to want to go into public life. so i think if president biden thinks about what kind of warnings can he issue, maybe
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about climate change, maybe about the political divisions that are even deeper. and he also could possibly make it emotional? i mean, george washington talked about his his problems and his defects and that he had errors that he'd made, and he hoped people would balance it against his 45 years of public service. and maybe biden can talk about his whole 48 years before the presidency, which will give it an emotional farewell not just to the presidency, but we'll see soon. >> we'll see what. but how interesting when you say the parallels there, george washington, with 45 years in public service and joe biden with 48, i had not realized that that specific parallel between those two presidents. but it maybe you always make me feel a bit better, doris, when you talk about if george washington was worried about the country fracturing because of partisan, partisan issues, and here we are 200 years later, so, so, so we can get through this. but this moment is so important. obviously, biden is exiting the public stage with an image issue, right? his approval ratings doors are the very lowest of his term. our
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poll here at cnn shows 61% of americans view his presidency as a failure, 61% failure, 38% success. it's a flipped situation for president obama. 65% said his presidency was a success at the end. but that's right. now that's a snapshot in time. do you think that will be the prevailing view of biden's presidency when history is written well, you know, once again, i think history can show us that these legacies take time to develop. >> when president truman left, he was at like 23% approval rating, and now he's considered one of the great presidents because it took time for people to realize the permanent things that he had done. you know, fighting the cold war, the unpopular decisions that he had made about releasing the atom bomb and sending soldiers to korea. he desegregated the army and and he aid to greece and turkey. marshall plan extraordinary accomplishments. and he's now way up or lyndon johnson. you know, the guy that i cared so much about working for him over over those years,
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he left under terrible circumstances with the war in vietnam so divisive and yet has ended up nearly in that top ten of presidents because of his domestic achievements in medicare, medicaid, aid to education, voting rights, civil rights, an extraordinary set of domestic accomplishments, the great society. absolutely. so time, it'll depend on whether the accomplishments that he's made domestically, that's president biden, i mean, will last over time. the problem when you get a party that comes in after you and you don't win that next term is you cannot know how many of these executive orders or legislative achievements will stay. but if they do stay, then i think he'll have a chance for history to look back at it and his character and his decency, i think, will play a role as they did with carter. as we listened to his farewell in terms of the real farewell during his funeral now, in terms of the inauguration itself, i mean, there are there are rituals and we know that there's been a break in them, maybe in part because of covid. >> on the transition from trump to biden. there were there were
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also traditions broken by trump when it went from obama to trump. and yet here we are in this inauguration. michelle obama is not attending. barack obama is going solo now. we don't know why. we do know that kamala harris did not invite j.d. vance for a pre-inaugural tour of the vice president's residence, which is a usual thing that happens in these transitions. what do you make of all this? how important are things like that right now? >> you know, i think the public really likes to see it. there's something about watching these people together as we saw some of them during carter's funeral that makes you just feel good that these presidents, who can be once against each other, can realize they're part of such an exclusive club. i mean, i think about bush and clinton, bush 41 and clinton, you know, clinton had called bush old man, and bush had said that clinton didn't know more about foreign policy than his dog and that suddenly they were invited together to tsunami relief and katrina relief. and they became really good friends. in fact, clinton said that the greatest one of the greatest gifts in his life was his friendship with with senior bush. and then
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that friendship was extended to the son, bush junior and clinton. they go out to talk together. i've interviewed them a couple of times. the audience loves it when they are joking on stage, teasing one another, talking about alliances. so that's what we can hope for. >> well, that that that is. and i know in these times, such a thing seems truly impossible. but you also said something else, doris. you said that there was a desire to make sure that good people wanted to go into public service, and we just don't see enough of that. great people, you ask them and they scoff, and we can only hope that that will change. doris, thanks so much. >> thank you. thank you erin. take care. president. >> all right. it's so good to see you. and president biden is expected to give that farewell address in just a few moments. and our special coverage starts now with jake tapper and anderson cooper. >> and good evening from the los angeles fire zone. >> and good evening from washington, d.c., where just about eight minutes from now, president biden is set to speak
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from the oval office. this will be his farewell address to the nation after four years in office, which began on the single deadliest day of the covid pandemic and just 14 days after the worst attack on american democracy since the civil war. >> and jake, of course, four years later, we are just five days away now from the inauguration of donald j. trump. we begin, though, as we wait for the president with the cease fire deal between israel and hamas. for that, i want to go to cnn's jeremy diamond in tel aviv. jeremy, how soon will hostages start being released in gaza, and what are the details of the deal? >> well, anderson, we could be seeing the first hostages being released from the gaza strip on sunday. that is the day that the implementation of this agreement is set to kick in. and, of course, that will also be the day that we will finally see after 15 months of war in gaza, the first enduring weeks long cease fire going into effect, this will be a six week ceasefire, during which time we will see over the course of e x weeks, 33 hostages
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being released, most of whom we expect will be alive. but we also do expect that there will be the bodies of deceased hostages included in that number as well. what we will also see are hundreds of palestinian prisoners being released from israeli prisons. the entry of much needed humanitarian aid into the gaza strip, as many as 600 trucks of aid per day to remedy the dire humanitarian situation there. here in israel, there will need to be some steps taking place tomorrow before this agreement is actually signed on the dotted line. the israeli prime minister, taking that agreement to his security cabinet and then to the full cabinet for a vote tomorrow before this deal goes into effect. this is a moment, anderson, that is 15 months in the making, not only for the families of those hostages who have been waiting, agonizing for the last 15 months, but also for the people of gaza who have suffered constant bombardment over the course of those 15 months, more
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than 46,000 palestinians have been killed during that time. and what is also important to note is the fact that this agreement that we are now talking about today, going into effect, is based on the framework that president biden announced in late may. that means nearly eight months of negotiations that have taken place over that time, during which nearly 10,000 palestinians have been killed. at least six hostages were executed by hamas during that time as well. a real human cost to the constant back and forth lack of political will that ultimately, finally today resulted in both sides agreeing and being willing to move forward with this ceasefire. anderson. >> yeah, we're going to have a lot on this tonight. let's go back to jake. >> jake, thanks so much, anderson, again. president biden is expected to speak in just a few minutes. right now, i'm joined by cnn senior political commentator scott jennings, former senior biden adviser ashley etienne, cnn's dana bash, biden biographer evan osnos, and cnn senior political commentator david axelrod, who joins us by
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satellite. david, let me start with you. what do you expect to hear from president biden tonight? how much do you think the hostage deal, the cease fire, will factor in? >> well, look, i think he is one of the things about joe biden is he is very, very concerned about his place in history and where his legacy sits and whether people appreciate the things that have been accomplished over the last four years. and clearly, he's signaled that that's going to be part of this. but i'm sure he considers this ceasefire part of that legacy. and i imagine that that will be part of it as well. just one thing, jake. it's this chasing of the legacy is also part of the story that led to him making bad decisions about running for reelection and perhaps denying mistakes that he should have embraced. so it's a poignant story in some ways, a kind of shakespearean story. you have historians on the on the set there who can speak to that? >> ashley? president biden will no doubt highlight some of his
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accomplishments while he was in office. but the fact of the matter remains he leaves office after one term at his lowest approval rating of all time. i think it's like 34%, 35%. do you think that president biden recognizes the chasm between how he sees his presidency and how the american people see it? >> you know, i was just with the the president in the oval office two days ago, and i think he's reconciled the notion that he's made tremendous amounts of progress on behalf of the american people. >> i mean, again, it has been a transformative four years. when you think about it and reconcile that with the fact that, you know, they probably did not do the best job they could, communicating that legacy to the american people, that for some reason, they're not they didn't believe it, didn't buy it, didn't, didn't, didn't fully grasp all of his successes. the one thing, though, that, you know, i was in the white house and talking to his my former colleagues about that. i think
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that gets lost in his legacy, that i think makes him the most transformative is his ability to work across the aisle. what he was able to do with republicans, i mean, far too many americans believe that washington is fundamentally broken to its core. many of the issues, from infrastructure to guns that were just intrinsic, that we could not get any movement on. there was movement. once joe biden showed up to washington. that has always been, in my opinion, one of his greatest assets from when he was the vice president and he led the recovery act to coming in the white house and bringing together both sides of the aisle to do what could not be done. i mean, i've been in washington 20 years and infrastructure and guns was in everyone's best interest, and it couldn't get done until joe biden showed up. so i think that's one of the parts of his legacy that they're most proud about, that they probably talk least about. and i think that's that's the disconnect is that they did not i think it's a bit of a communications failure. >> well, bernie sanders, in a, in a podcaer