tv Deadline White House MSNBC January 9, 2025 1:00pm-3:00pm PST
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♪♪ hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. we start with what is already the most destructive fire los angeles has all -- ever seen. there's a long way to go yet. like on earth, five wildfires are now burning almost completely out of control across 45 square miles, at least six people are dead and that number is expected to rise. 180,000 people have been forced from their homes. 350,000 people are without power right now. the sheer scale of the destruction is almost too much
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to describe and comprehend. homes, businesses, schools, communities, suddenly reduced to nothing. ash. sewer, power, transportation systems there significantly damaged. an estimate from j.p. morgan late this afternoon, $50 billion in total economic losses. just look at the before and after satellite imagery of family homes in the pacific palisades neighborhood. at stood when the week began as late as monday evening have now been wiped off the face of the earth. the latest addition to the crisis is the sunset fire which started last night in the hollywood hills. it has grown to 60 acres now and threatens a number of iconic landmarks. thankfully that fire is as of right now 100% contained. as for the others while there was some hope that comber conditions today would allow crews to turn the corner on
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containment, winds are expected to pick back up again this afternoon and this evening, red flag warnings are in effect for much of los angeles and ventura counties and that's expected to be in place until 6:00 p.m. tomorrow. so it does appear, sadly, that things could get worse before they get better. a difficult realization for those people who have already lost so much. >> my husband, it's his childhood home so he's going to be 50 years old so he's -- it got passed down to us once his dad passed away and we've been there 11 years, raised our kids there. it's just still shocked how it happened. >> what are some of the items you were able to take with you? >> whatever was clean in my laundry. i grabbed photo albums. i grabbed all the important papers. dogs. i know, pretty girl.
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>> oh, man, like this is a whole shock. a whole shock. i've never seen nothing like this before from the smell to even how the sun is red, it's the worst thing i've seen. it looks like a bomb just went off over here. that's the only way i could describe it. >> any moment now, president joe biden will speak about the wildfires. we will bring you his remarks live as soon as they get underway. picking up our breaking news coverage with nbc news correspondent steve patterson on the ground in pacific palisades california. just tell us what you are seeing and hearing today from the folks who you are talking to. >> reporter: it's utter devastation here, nicole and apologies, communications as you might imagine our rough or limited with everything going on behind us. look at this. maybe we speculate this three- story home, now it's just steel
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pillars. most of what unfortunately we can bring you today is what's left of this neighborhood and there is almost absolutely nothing. not a bird is chirping, not a bug is crawling, you can see some of the most haunting sites are what people had to leave behind. pick up everything and go, the aluminum melted to the ground because of how hot this was. we've seen a few fire safes, not sure if anything survived in there and it's really heartbreaking to see the mementos that people unfortunately had to leave behind. this entire neighborhood blackened. again not a house that we've seen in this neighborhood is standing save for one house that's just around the corner somehow avoided being burned down. we spoke to one gentleman who came back here not too long ago, had not had a chance, again, so many neighbors like this had not had a chance to grab anything. had to leave everything and go, just came back to see it all burned down. police are doing a much more
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secure perimeter on these neighborhoods. we've seen lapd, we've seen the sheriff's department, there were concerns today about looting. we know at least 20 people arrested for looting and there are bound to be many more than that. there's really broad concern about that, the sheriff saying even if you are in one of the zone's and it is not necessarily a curfew time or late at night or when people are there, you will be arrested and cited and they will take action so, one of the things that they are trying to limit as the firefighting operation is still very much in play in a few hours it's going to get windy again, i guarantee we are still in red flag warnings. we could still see gusts 40, 50, 60-mile-per-hour, so that would implicate things on the ground, there are still fires burning, those embers can still land on people's homes but we are out of the major wind event that swept fire into these neighborhoods in the first place so that's good news and because of that one of the only sounds we are hearing is the aircraft up above. we've heard air tankards, helicopters making air drops which is great. what's not great is what's left
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of this neighborhood and again, there isn't much left. lapd also escorting what appeared to be a person back into the neighborhood, maybe they -- there is a safe or crucial medication, they are doing the best they can to accommodate neighbors and residents who have lost everything but it isn't much to come back to you and when the major firefighting operation ends, i think a lot of people -- it's going to be very heartbreaking for a lot of folks. >> steve, you were with julie yesterday when she saw what was left of her home. she told you that she planned to rebuild for families with young kids i know the schools have been damaged or destroyed as well. what do people say they plan to do in the near term? >> i can't hear anything you are saying right now, i'm so sorry. our communications are very spotty. >> that's okay.
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we will get some questions to you. that's okay. we will try to bring you back later when we can communicate more clearly. congressman swell well, you are here with us at the table. what do people do? what will congress be able to do to support these completely and utterly devastated communities? >> this is where you need government the most, right? when people are at their most helpless, that's when they count on us and i think the president's response on the governor's response of being on the ground helps making sure that fema is assuring families that relief will be there. i was on a briefing yesterday with the office of emergency services in california and there is a grant program up to $40,000 for immediate grants that people can apply for but what really has inspired me is, our hearts beat for los angeles, the individuals who have stepped up and the community organizations who have stepped up whether it's a
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gofundme that didn't exist yesterday that exists today, i'm on a couple group chats where people are sending around just the household needs that people need because families have lost everything. you are seeing the best in us and i hope that drowns out people who have tried to exploit this and bring out the worst in us. >> what, practically speaking do you do if you live in a neighborhood that's been burned to the ground? where do you go live with your family and your dogs and your kids? where do they go to school? >> i worry about the people who don't have anywhere to go or if you worked in that area you no longer have a workplace that our friends have gone to other family members to other friends or are scrambling to find a hotel room and the hotels are overwhelmed and booked at capacity right now but the shelters are also standing up as well in the los angeles area for people who don't have housing right now. so again, it has brought out in
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this awful environment some of the best deeds that i have ever seen. >> you and i are both from northern california and the trauma and the scars and the -- of the early 90s are still everywhere you look. it takes not months or years but decades to completely rebuild from catastrophes like this. what can you promise the people of california in terms of being able to obtain fire insurance? something that was difficult before this tragedy? >> i promise first and foremost to be compassionate and to be an adult about this and to ignore people who have conducted themselves like they belong at the kids table on this who are in elected office but to focus on the immediate needs. where are your kids going to go to school ? how do you get the
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resources you need to rebuild? what's the reimbursement going to be for local communities from the federal government so that all of the infrastructure can be built immediately and of course, the questions that need to be answered like what can we do in the future to make sure the responses even better? but in many ways this is an act of god, 80 to 90-mile-per-hour winds in january and southern california is unseasonable and unpredictable, we always can be better in our emergency response but right now is not the time i think for finger- pointing, it's a time to thank the firefighters, police officers and first responders and the community and then act as quickly as we can to get people hopefully back to what they felt was home. >> molly, to the congressman's point you do see the heroic acts of the first responders and the journalists on the ground telling the stories. we've been on the ground with people, some seeing their homes for the very first time. i described it as sort of the re-humanization. you feel what these people must feel to walk up to their front door and see nothing.
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and you can appreciate what the congressman was saying about the best of people but again, in this moment the worst of people is on display as well and it's not always falling along clean party lines. how do you stand with such a large number of people and make sure that we don't take our eyes off this destruction or take our eyes off the public safety needs and education needs and the economic assistance again not just for people who lost their homes but people who lost their jobs and all the businesses that have burned. >> i would add that climate change i think is a major factor here and we were just talking about insurance before this so, one insurer, we know at least one, more than one, dropped a bunch of palisades homes over 1000 in the summer. so they don't have -- so, the question is sort of like can we rebuild in these spaces?
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will these people be able to get insurance? is this a sustainable place to live? i mean, there are larger fundamental philosophical questions here that are being asked that, for example, we all know because we are in our hearts, california people even if we live here and the palisades and pasadena is not supposed to burn. those are not rural areas. those are suburbs. uc fires in malibu a lot because it's rural. this is not rural. these are suburbs so if suburbs are burning what does that mean for the rest of the state? what does that mean for the rest of us? i mean, these are real existential climate change questions that we are going to have to start looking at because it's here. >> nicole can i add yesterday in this briefing from the street -- state emergency services director, he said, typically you have hours of warning that something like
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this is coming, that there are embers because of the high winds that hit the power lines and that drop into bone dry conditions. he said this happened like that so to molly's point if it can happen like that in a place like the palisades that's more dense, then no area is off- limits in california. >> for folks that aren't more familiar with the topography and the scale, just talk about these communities. >> so these are oceanside, cooler climate communities in southern california going from ventura county down along the coast and so you have malibu which historically because it is a little bit more rural has had these fires but palisades which goes a little bit further inland, does not have as much brush and trees, is not a place that you would expect that and also going further down to
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santa monica which is in an evacuation zone also not an area you would expect it but in california over the last few years we have seen higher and higher winds. so the winds kick up the brush or knock branches off the trees and they hit hot powerlines and that powerline explosion is what would cause a fire. in the bay area we have a lot of what are called managed outages so if we see these conditions coming we have been conditioned that you are just going to have a managed outage for a day or a day and a half because we know what happens when you hit the power lines. you may say why not put the power lines underground? we are trying to have the utilities do that. that is very costly. they should continue to do that, they are also working to put a plastic coating over the powerline so that when the brush hits the powerline it doesn't, you know, create a massive fire but those are expensive infrastructure investments. we should expect those of the utilities and i imagine more of that is going to come in denser
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areas. >> this is the question of climate change. we can't keep living like this. we are going to rebuild these houses just have them burn down again. i mean, this is the new normal so we are going to have to do things like changing the way our powerlines are or putting things underground which is wildly expensive but maybe the only way to sustain us living in certain areas. >> i want to bring into our coverage my friend and colleague in bcs jacob on the ground in palisades california for us once again. jacob, just tell us what you are seeing and hearing today. >> reporter: nicole, it's a different feeling in the air and i mean that quite literally. the winds are not blowing today like they have been and over the course of the day so far we have seen those impressive supers cooper's going out to the pacific ocean and circling back and dumping water on the remaining hotspots here in the palisades that we are a long way from actually can we swing around? chris is going to show you that american flag. this is the flag at the palisades gas station and car wash. the flag is -- i think it's got
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to be the biggest american flag in the pacific palisades and it has flown up there for as long as i can remember and it wasn't blowing like that just a couple minutes ago so what i've been told is the forecast is going to change and the winds will pick up again which means that we are not out of the woods yet, not here in the palisades, not on the other side of l.a. county, we even have fires burning up at mount wilson and that's a critical piece of infrastructure where the radio repeaters and other types of information technology are not only serve as the first responders in los angeles county but also all the broadcast over the air, television and radio. so this is still a countywide emergency. it was declared a statewide emergency and a federal disaster area by president joe biden who we are going to hear from him just a little bit on the ground i'm starting to see people try to get back into the community and earlier today i went to my synagogue which
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remarkably is still standing and i went there with -- i hadn't been there in a long time, frankly but i went there with the two rabbis that are there now and the cantor who performed at my bar mitzvah and we walked into the synagogue and all over the place were ashes and what he remarked was these are the ashes of the homes of 300 of the 900 members of our congregation but there will be hope through all of this. a place like that is a spiritual home. people may not have their homes but a spiritual home for so many people in this community is still standing even though not all of the houses of worship are and it's those little glimmers of hope i've been looking to over the course of the last couple hours that i've been here in the palisades. >> you, 24 hours ago were bringing us into what it was like to see your hometown burned to the ground. i think something that people don't appreciate when they see the numbers 17,234 acres, 27
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square miles is that is a big number but it's a packed area. and i'm not denigrating wildfires but that is a fire that swept through densely populated community and homes and structures and i wonder if you could just give some voice to what that actually means in terms of the toll and the human beings impacted, the homes, businesses, schools and infrastructure. >> yeah, nicole, this is a wildfire. a firestorm as i mentioned to you yesterday in the heart of an urban population. los angeles county is the most populous. a lot of people think of new york and surrounding areas as the most populous but in terms of county by population l.a. county is the most populous county in the united states of america, los angeles city
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within it 437 square miles if i got that number correct is has a 4 million population and those 400+ square miles is a city made up of distinct neighborhoods and pacific palisades is one of them that's comprised of 23+ thousand people who live here. the idea that a wildfire would rage through a community and earn 1000 structures, as you said, any loss of life or any loss of structure in any of these wildfires is devastating but to see it in such a geographically compact area within the city would be jarring for anybody. much less someone who was a native son of the community and i think that's part of the issue here is that this was the supermarket, this was ralph's supermarket that i went to as a child. as you can see, come over here chris, look at the coca-cola's. i just noticed it but there's a whole rack of coca-cola's that are still standing there on the shelf that somebody like me might've walked through. they are the christmas coke so they must've been leftover inventory from the holidays
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would walk in and grab. this is not a remote isolated area. we are in the heart of the city of los angeles and that's why it's going to require a response on the scale that is going to be marshaled not only by the municipal government karen bass or the state government, yesterday i spoke with gavin newsom briefly as he was getting on the phone talking to president joe biden before he departed to go back to washington for the state funeral today, it will require a federal effort including for members of the trump's administration and without violating the confidence of the senior trump's official who called me actually, there are members of the senior inner circle of the trump's administration who have family members that live in pacific palisades and i hope that they know too that there is this recovery effort because there is been a lot of discs and misinformation going around. it is going to require the marshaling of many federal resources from the government as well. >> i know you have to jump but you say something about the misinformation that's rampant. we are picking it up anecdotally but tell us what
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local officials are most concerned about? >> the idea that something could have been done differently to stop burning here outside of not developing which i think is a fair concern in a conversation with having to develop communities anywhere with so much wildlife around it within the santa monica mountains were in between the santa monica mountains and the coast. this community has been here over 100 years but development is always an important conversation to have with so much native brush and all of that around but the idea that there was a policy failure that ended with such a loss of structure and the devastation of this community i think is one that is going to be highly debated based on the facts. there were local would-be politicians who came on local television saying the firefighters couldn't use the fire hydrants because they weren't working because of policy decisions that had been made by the current mayoral administration here and this reporting indicates that is not
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borne out by the facts, that the water tanks were full in pacific palisades and it was a matter of water pressure not the availability of water in this area and so just that kind of thing, i don't think anybody on the ground here likes hearing about political posturing. in the wake of so much devastation certainly not as the flames continue to burn. >> we are going to keep this going, jacob, as you know, these hours are your hours. you wave your arms we will get you right back on the air. we are still waiting for a briefing from the president in the white house, we will talk next with an l.a. county official who represents one of the hardest hit regions. we will also later in the hour switch gears to a final farewell for president jimmy carter now underway, he arrived in georgia a short time ago and is making his way to his longtime hometown of plains, georgia to the place he regularly taught sunday school in which will be followed by a flyover to honor the 39th president of the united states.
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(marci) here's a wild idea: homes-dot-com? (luke) we're gonna go with homes-dot-com, we're gonna keep it. (vo) homes-dot-com. we've done your home work. it's tough to see. very emotional. we've been here in pasadena for 25, 23 years and we never seen anything like this. >> we have to play our part too, so i'm here to do whatever i can selflessly for whoever needs it. my neighbors did that for me on my street and i'm doing that
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for my neighbors tonight. i'm going to sit on the street and make sure there's no problem with their places. >> they sprayed all the embers and next thing i know a 30 foot wall of fire was coming at 60 miles per hour and they couldn't see, it was so smoking -- smoky. we lost everything we own but -- it doesn't even look like our house anymore. it just looks like something. >> doesn't even look like a house anymore. scenes like those human reactions like that happening over and over again, all too common this week, people returning to what was their homes to find them completely gone, unrecognizable. that sense of community that you also saw among californians, southern california's -- californians strong as ever. joining us now is district supervisor lindsay.
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tell us what you are seeing and hearing and what you need at this hour. >> it is absolute devastation. we are seeing the worst of what a fire does to community, destroying homes, destroying structures and when we see that word we know it is so much more than just a number. these structures are where people build their lives. they build community, they grow families, these are places that created these beautiful cities that people have come to live in for generations that people love to come to visit but more than that we've also seen the best of what can come from people. people showing up in droves supporting people, bringing resources, volunteering, i just -- i'm just overwhelmed with what we are seeing on the ground here. >> a lot of folks are already asking questions about not just
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whether they will rebuild but if and when they rebuild, how they will attain insurance and that question coming at the front end because before you go through all of the work and all of the emotion of building something or something you love burned down you want to make sure that it can be insured and you want to make sure that it can be passed on and that others can obtain insurance. what are the front-end conversations on that topic? >> i know our los angeles county assessor is working with property owners and has placed information on his website to get people that information from a county perspective as well as our state insurance commissioner who has been working with insurance agencies to try to bring them back to the table in california but we know that also with the devastation that we are seeing here that could also come with increased price hikes so these are challenging conversations, the state has created a plan to
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try to help support homeowners who need insurance coverage. what we are doing at the county is really the social safety network of, people are navigating all of that, how do we make sure their mental health is supported and bringing in mental health workers. how do we make sure the social service support that people need to get through day today, that they are being supported, that their families are being supported, that they have a place to stay, that they have food, they have shelter, you know? that's what we are doing on the ground here in the county and this is an all hands on deck moment. i am incredibly grateful to those on the front lines fighting this fire because it is truly extraordinary and i know we have a team that is second to none working on this right now. >> i imagine the plans are in the early stages but with climate change and the santa ana winds, the stuff of legend, there have to be some plans
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already on the books. where do you envision people go for the months and years it will take to rebuild their homes and schools? >> we are working on the longer- term plans of where people can stay and how we work with people as they get to the process of rebuilding. right now, as you know, several of these fires are still at 0% containment and so while we know those conversations are starting while people are sitting in shelters or other spaces waiting for information, we also know that we still have to get this fire contained and so longer-term, as you mentioned, resiliency and sustainability is something we are looking at, at the county when i was chair of the board of supervisors we adopted a countywide water plan for water sustainability, really thinking about how do we think about water during times of crisis as well as all of our everyday needs and so, working throughout the jurisdiction in los angeles county, we have 88 cities but we have 200 water
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agencies so making sure all of those agencies are working together is incredibly important as you also mentioned, you know, this year, the challenge we are seeing here in january at the start of the year is these tragic fires. one year ago, we were in the nearly same space just up the road in topanga canyon, the road was closed because of a landslide due to excessive rains so we know that these climate threats are challenging. it's not a fire season or a rain season, it is extreme climate experience throughout the year and so we do preparation with community members in advance of these to try to make sure in nonemergency times they are connected to all the services they are going to need at a time like this. >> with all of your constituent needs we appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. if there's any needs we can help you get out, please don't
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hesitate to come back. l.a. county supervisor lindsey horvath, thank you for joining us. it's an important point to molly's point about climate change, a year ago it was these extraordinary -- they called water bombs or cyclone bomb rains and still, i think northern california is under the experience of those in the extreme weather is not unique to california, florida deals with it as well. but, not a lot of the answers i think even for people for whom rebuilding is an option which won't be everybody, about whether and who and how and how much insurance costs. >> it comes down to will we plan for this? will we invest in this? and it's expensive if we are being realistic to molly's point earlier. california is a treasure for the country, it's a treasure for the world. it's a land of opportunity. it is the fifth largest economy in the world. and so we can't just raise the white flag and move east so we
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have to prepare, i've written legislation on the homeland security committee called venting the next natural disaster and it's to make investments in communities that are going to face the worst of climate chaos and so what we are going to have to do that, there is no question but right now in this moment, i really think it comes down to community and what can we do to come together and then have high expectations of our leaders that they will make those investments. not in a political way but in a realistic way about what are our dreams for our children and to what you said, will we be able to pass this on, not just the home but this dream of california to the next generation? >> what are your -- i mean, as one of donald trump's sort of sharpest political critics, what is the best hope that you
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personally have in terms of the kind of partnership you could see from him in rebuilding southern california? >> we need donald trump's. we need him to succeed in making california whole again. so, i don't want to be antagonistic toward him. i want him to see the people who suffered from this and i don't want to jacob's point, i don't want it to be just because someone in the trump's administration has a family member in the palisades they are going to get help come about because we are all americans and if an american in kentucky suffers we all suffer. if an american in california suffers we all suffer so here we need him to rise to the occasion, but donald trump's as we have seen already in this crisis, he can be cringe, he can be cruel, but we really need him to succeed so that's why i think we have to act like adults, encourage and inspire more and more community and hope that he acts, because we need a president in a moment
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like this. >> just an idea i mean, california is the fifth largest economy, they pay a ton of federal taxes. they could be their own country, like the federal government needs to serve that, right? they are a huge amount of money, huge amount of federal taxes, the federal government has a responsibility to serve california and even if they -- even if it was a poor state, they would have that same -- right? we just saw this in north carolina but i do think we've seen the right to politicize this tragedy and we've seen this -- we've seen a lot of people politicize this tragedy but the question is, is it appropriate to talk about climate change which is political come up but is clearly a major driver here? and because, remember, we saw democrats try to pass the green new deal and they were -- you know, there was a lot of making fun of it and a lot of hostility towards the idea that we would have to legislate for
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this new world, so now, here we are and we are going to have to change the way we live and what that looks like, we don't know, but that is going to have to start being a conversation and whether or not we have to talk about it in a way that is less scary to republicans, maybe, but i mean, we have these people who have lost everything. and i mean, it's a real question, and i think, we are seeing it with hurricanes, we are seeing it with flooding. >> i don't think people who have lost everything care what you call it, they care what you do about it so if donald trump's needs to call it something else, great, but at the end of the day it comes down to, will you invest in mitigating against climate change, climate chaos? >> 1 million thoughts, i will keep them to myself for now as people are still in such dire circumstances. everyone stick around we are going to speak with the retired elite california firefighter next hour and also ahead for
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switch gears, consider yourselves warned. we want to tell you about this though, manhattan district attorney alvin bragg today urged the united states supreme court to reject donald trump's's 11th hour attempt to halt his sentencing scheduled for tomorrow, friday in the hush money election interference case although judge juan merchan who oversaw the case said he would not sentence donald trump's to any prison time, for his 34 count felony conviction, trump's has tried every avenue possible to avoid being formally branded a convicted felon, going so far as to argue that a president elect is afforded absolute immunity from that. not a thing. d.a. bragg's office fired back at that today writing this, quote, the defendant makes their unprecedented claim that the temporary presidential immunity he will face in the future fully immunizes him now weeks before he even takes the oath of office. we could hear from the supreme court justices at any moment, further scrambling the news we are trying to bring you,
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joining our conversation, former federal prosecutor in as nbc legal analyst kristi greenberg. take us through how you see this playing out, kristi. >> well, i do think that this sentencing is not going to -- i think that the supreme court is likely to delay it, not because there is necessarily any merit to donald trump's's argument that somehow the president elect is entitled to immunity. the trump's case on presidential immunity says nothing about that but, the supreme court has had these two issues. one, that we -- presidential power and immunity, they have a very expansive vision of what that looks like and it would not be shopping -- shocking to me if they were to find that in this transition period donald trump's has significant responsibilities and this sentencing , having a
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sentencing at all, that in itself is going to interfere with those responsibilities so this cannot go forward. i also think that the supreme court, judging from its last opinion has a lot of disdain for lower courts wherein they feel like they are rushing things and so even if the supreme court doesn't actually say that there is president elect immunity, what they could say is we need some time to think about it, we need some time to think about this question, it's an important question and therefore we are going to hit pause on it and delay is the name of the game here. this has been donald trump's's trump's card the whole time. all he needs to do is delay the sentencing 10 days then he's president and then he cannot be sentenced during his term so we've seen this movie before and it neing to do it again here and the fact that samuel alito is on the phone with donald trump's on tuesday saying it's an unrelated matter and then the emergency application comes from trump's, the very next day to the
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supreme court, these optics are terrible. so i don't have a lot of faith if this happens tomorrow but i would love to be wrong >> the public polling on the supreme court shows that the public's faith in it has fallen faster and farther than in any other institution including the media, including congress including just about anything you can think of. and i guess i put that data point onto the record in this spirit of this. what is, just lay out the many ways that donald trump's chatting on the telephone with supreme court justice samuel alito further erodes the public's faith and confidence in separation of powers? >> yeah, so justice alito said that call to -- qualifications to have a position in his
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government and to be clear it's not necessarily unusual for a potential employer to contact the judge about a former -- seeking employment but it's highly unusual here for a supreme court justice who certainly should have anticipated that an important appeal from donald trump's could be before him very soon. i mean, justice alito said when he spoke to trump's on tuesday he wasn't aware that donald trump's would file this emergency application i mean, really? everybody thought that this was a very real possibility was on appeal, on its way up in the appeals in the state, the very heart of donald trump's's appeal here is based on the supreme court's immunity decision so the idea that he is out there -- alito is out there saying i had no idea this could come up, i mean, give me a break, and the other thing that is strange here, this isn't somebody who is just a very new clerk. this individual who they had
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this phone call about clerked for justice alito 14 years ago so there's other experience that people would have within the last decade, him being a partner at a law firm, working the doj that would've been much more recent that donald trump's could have called upon to vet him. the appearance of impropriety here is significant but because we don't have any enforceable judicial code of ethics for the supreme court, it further erodes the integrity and the reputation that the supreme court has when it comes to donald trump's in particular. >> what's interesting about the supreme court is that they take -- we have president joe biden speaking right now about the fires. let's listen in. >> spare no expense to do what they need to do and contain these fires in their communities that have been really devastating and we are doing literally everything we can at a federal level.
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that's also why i call this group of folks around this table of all relevant federal departments and agencies together to discuss what more we can do and some of the folks around the screen as well. before we begin, here's an update on where things stand right now. first, we are focused on helping contain these fires. over the last 24 hours, the united states forest service working with state and local responders has suppressed over 15 fire starts and the fire in the hollywood hills has been contained by brave firefighters risking their lives. right now, three major fires are still burning in the pacific palisades, pasadena, and snow mod. i want to be clear, what i know from talking to the governor that there are concerns out there, that there has also been a water shortage. the fact is, utilities understandably shut off power because they are worried the lines that they are that
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carried energy were going to be blown down and spark additional fires. but, the cal fire, when it did that, it cut off the building -- ability to generate pumping water, that's what caused the lack of water so cal fire is bringing in generators to get these pumps up and working again so that they are no longer a shortage of water coming out of these. i'm also surging all federal resources possible to southern california, including 400 additional federal firefighters, over 30 firefighting helicopters and planes federally supplied. firefighting planes and helicopters and eight, the department of defense c-130s that are equipped to suppress wildfires. today, the secretary of defense also authorized 500 wildfire
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ground clearing personnel from the defense departments and i direct the department to continue working to identify additional resources that can be provided for public safety and security. and, we secured additional firefighters and firefighting aircraft from our ally in canada as well. i also want everyone in southern california to know we are going to keep at it. we are sticking with this, we expect that may be a temporary break in the winds but in some areas the wins are likely to continue well into next week. and so we are going to continue to spend -- sending everything, literally, every resource we can find that's appropriate to help the governor and the first responders. second, we are focused on helping people who have been displaced or in many cases lost everything. you've seen the homes that burned to the ground. the whole area is burned to the ground. large areas. they've been misplaced and
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they've lost everything. as i said, since the fire started, fema has been working with the state to help residents get shelter, groceries, prescriptions and other critical goods like baby formula. also fema director criswell to los angeles to manage our response on the ground. she was supposed to be on this call but we have a deputy here because she is out in the field with the governor right now. surveying what's going on. let me close with the message to people of southern california. we are with you, we are not going anywhere, to the firefighters and first responders, you are heroes. many of these firefighters are out there risking their lives and -- i won't go beyond that but risking their lives and while their own homes are in danger, their families are in danger. to the firefighters and first responders, you really are heroes. you are genuinely heroes and this is the most widespread,
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devastating fire in california's history. it's amazing and there's nobody who understands it that are then the press who cover this on a minute to minute basis and they literally have to run into the flames, these firefighters and there's an old expression -- who runs into flames. in doing so you are leaving your own families who may be in harms way as well. so we owe you and we are going to make sure you get every resource you need, every possible resource you need. you know? to the families who have been impacted by this disaster, you are living through a nightmare, i know. i promise you we are going to help you get through this and eventually recover and rebuild. i want to turn it over now to the vice president before we go on to the folks in the various cabinet positions as well as agencies to control these issues. madame vice president, i know
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you are directly affected so you fire away. no pun intended. >> thank you mr. president and also for the work that everyone around this table has been doing with the appropriate sense of urgency. because this is an urgent matter. what we have seen in california in particular in southern california is apocalyptic. in terms of the nature of it and the unprecedented nature of it as well. and what we are seeing is a situation that is extremely dynamic, it is very much in play and to some degree, unpredictable. because we are literally waiting to see which way the wind blows. and i cannot praise enough the local leaders most of whom i have talked with and in particular, our firefighters who as the president has said, they are working around the clock. they are working 12 hour, even
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longer shifts. and they're doing it with a sense of optimism but also with an understanding of how serious this moment is and how important their work is to real lives and real people. thousands of families have been displaced. many of those families with young children, with nowhere to go. and what we know is that this is a matter of current urgency but this is also something that is going to have an impact for months and years to come. and on that point, i will also make note of the fact that sadly, many insurance companies have canceled insurance for a lot of the families who have been affected and will be affected which is only going to delay or place an added burden on their ability to recover. and i think that is an important point that must be raised and hopefully there can
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be some way to address that issue because these families, so many of them, otherwise will not have the resources to recover in any meaningful way. and many of them have lost everything. in the midst, however, of all of the trauma that has occurred, we have seen extraordinary acts of heroism. i am hearing countless stories of strangers helping strangers, people who are opening their homes where they are intact and have not had to evacuate, opening their homes to neighbors to friends of neighbors, feeding them and providing shelter for them. and i do think they did -- that it speaks to the best of who we are as a country which is that in times of crisis we find the heroes among us who we may not have known before but act out of a sense of courage but also a sense of community and i applaud all those who are
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approaching this crisis with that spirit. and the bottom line is this, there are incredible heroes every day who are working right now in california on the front lines of this fire and in particular i want to thank the firefighters for all they are doing. they are, as the president said, putting themselves in harms way and they are doing the work that is about helping people who are perfect strangers to them and doing it in some of the highest moments of need that anyone could face and with that i want to turn it over to liz -- >> back to me. >> okay, back to the president. >> i have had a chance to speak with a lot of senators and congress persons as well as -- as well. and i want to be clear that one of the reasons i've asked this larger group to come together is because they control the very agencies that are needed at the federal level to get
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things done and in a situation where the u.s. for service chief, brandy morris here is going to provide an update to the -- to discuss how the u.s. fire service -- for service is assisting in the state of california with fighting the wildfires including the action this team has taken to suppress new fires. so, chief, why don't you fire away. >> thank you mr. president, madame vice president, it's great to see you. i, too consider california my home and so it's great to be here, to talk about this dramatic situation that we have. so, the for service and the department of interior are actively engaged in supporting response to the wildfires in southern california and there are four major fires that we currently have going on. the for service is in unified command with l.a. county as well as other local
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city agencies. we are looking at the evening, the hurst and the lydia and if you look at that area, that's the northernmost part of the area where the fires have taken place. the palisades fire, which cal fire is in control of and then we have a new start which is the sundown fire that just started last night and it also has the potential to expand quite significantly just based on location that it's at but also with the winds that are expected to continue. right now when i look at the mutual aid system in california, i want you to know that it is second to none in terms of how that system works and how it really moves to activate the federal firefighting community and how it is activating and engaged. you know, every year we prepare for the santa ana winds. it's just that what is happening now is happening
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sooner. it's happening at a time, now, where we normally are in our lowest point in the fire year and the fact that these fires are taking place now, it says that there are things that are going on in our climate that is creating truly year-round fire situations that is something we all need to be mindful of and this is a good indication of that. to give an example, as a fire starts from any ignition source due to santa ana winds, it has the potential -- when that happens with these wind conditions it's very difficult to control and in addition to this when the winds are high, resources cannot fly so it limits a lot of the potential area support. as of this morning, there are over 4000 firefighters that we have assigned to these large fires. 600 or so were currently federal work which means for service and apartment of interior. and it doesn't include many who
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were assigned to the home units to provide initial attack. to give you an idea of the unsung heroes in these fire type of conditions, in the last 24 hours we've had 50 starts and the initial attack success has been wonderful. so we stopped a potential for 50 additional fires to be added to these fires we currently have and that's what i currently mean by having initial attack crew stay put reposition across the state aced on intelligence that we gather so i wanted to mention that because we talk about the act of fire suppression, there's so much that takes place behind scenes that limits the amount of fires and our firefighters that happen to respond to. the president did an excellent job of mentioning all the resources that's available and assigned to the fire, i won't go over those, we have a number of equipment that is out there that when the winds allow us,
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we will be in the air fighting those fires. we also have a number of private contract crews that we are working with, working wonderfully with the state and other federal firefighters and tribal firefighters as well from the communities. we look at these maps which we call the marginal area firefighter assistance caretakers there's eight of them. eight of them. we will have all eight available. these aircrafts -- >> 5:00 in the east. we have in coloring -- covering breaking news on southern california. you have been listening to a briefing there from biden and vice president kamala harris. that was randy moore describing something the president started off with, the efforts by the federal government to put out
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50 fire starts, as well as the big headline today, a commitment on the part of president joe biden, who said this, quote, i'm announcing the federal government will cover 100% of the cost for 180 days. this is going to pay for things like debris and housing removal, temporary shelters, first responders salaries, and all necessary measures to protect life and property. we still have the congress -- big news. welcome news for the residents. >> it shows leadership from the president, that he literally was on the ground as the palisades started to burn. he knows the knees and has talked to my colleagues in southern california and is responding. i think what is so important i now about 10 days until the transition takes place is to make sure the team that lands on january also understands what they need is and that there is no drop off as far as whether resources are that are
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provided on the ground. he will be watching for that, to make sure they're paying the firefighters and paying to clear the debris and giving hope to people, that they can start and build a new. we may politically change in washington, but at your home and your community, the belief that there will be hobo proceed. >> he seemed cognizant with that 180 days commitment. the residents impacted by the fires -- he seemed to at least be everything this transition in power and parties. leadership is different in style and views on climate change and california and california's governor, to be frank. also the mayor of los angeles. president joe biden stimming to get ahead of that, making, again, a 180 day commitment to cover all 100% of the cost for fire control, debris, and removal and shelters and first
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responders salaries. >> i think the idea that emergency management should be a nonpartisan activity is something that is broadly agreed upon by all america, right? when it is an emergency, no one cares if the governor is a republican or democrat. they want to know that their children are safe and that there is a place for them to stay if their house is burned down and that there is somebody -- this is the worst thing that can happen to someone, to lose everything. i think when we see these videos of the correspondence going back to these places and seeing them gone, this is a nonpartisan activity. this is about helping these people. >> congressman, you have been so generous with your time. . it is like hotel california. we know that you do have to leave, but it was a pleasure. ut i want to bring in now i colleague, correspondent gadi schwartz. tell us what you are seeing and hearing and if you have had any
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chance to hear or process or hear any response to the president's announcement that the federal government will cover 100% of the cost for 180 days for all firefighting and recovery. >> reporter: that is going to come as a sigh of relief to a lot of the people we have been talking to today, but communication is difficult in this area for the likelihood they know what is going on in the outside world right now is d very slim, however one thing we have been monitoring above, you see this is the first time we have seen the hills about alt edina, and yet that plume of smoke, that is burning in the direction of mount wilson. that is the newest concern in los angeles. it is the fire, the eaton fire, that has been moving up the h mountain and is now threatening mount wilson. that is where the main telecommunication infrastructure or most of the television stations and a lot of the radio stations and a lot of the critical firefighting iti
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meant communications among the durham fire department and the public safety department around here, so everyone is watching that and hoping they can get a handle on what is going on up the mountain, but, nicole, here is where we are in alt edina. think about schools and things that are -- the last things that might be standing in the community that has been ravaged by fire. the only thing standing here is this brick that shows where the auditorium once stood. ri this is benjamin franklin elementary school. this goal, which closed down a few years ago because of budget cuts within the pasadena school district, was still used for ceremonies and still used for the community, but there is a woman across the street who broke down a while ago. this is the elementary school that she went too. you can see there is still smoke coming from this pile of debris, and then you walk around a lot of this destruction and you hear it is
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going to be kind of hard to hear what is going on over here, but this right here, this is water, water that is still gushing inside of the elementary school and the sounds that we hear right now are water still running and in a lot of these neighborhoods, gasoline still burning. there is devastation and there are these thickets of flames from the gas that has not been shut off, but in so many of the blocks we have visited, it is absolute destruction and are a w little less, minus the chimneys and the flames that you see and water spilling onto what is effectively rubble. >> are they beginning to allow people to come back in and see those images that you are standing in front of, that are absolutely harrowing? >> reporter: technically, no. this area is closed and it was evacuated and there are concerns with looting here, at
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the palisades. there were concerns in hollywood hills yesterday about looting. law enforcement has been pretty strict about who they allow -- allow back here. these are the neighbors they grew up in and they know their way in and out, so we have seen a lot of people come back, starting to realize what has been lost. we have spoken to some people that have been going through. the way this fire came in, we were in the same area, which we thought there might be able to save this building based on what we saw yesterday. there were a lot of firefighters around and they were focused on structure oc protection, but in the neighborhoods, the amount of wind we saw -- it felt like a fire hurricane. we had hurricane force winds. the winds were swirling and there was black smoke and zero visibility and embers were flying sideways. some people were holding strong, trying to fight that fire with garden hoses, and as soon as firefighters would show up to protect their homes, they would evacuate.
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today, we have checked on a few of those homes and some of them are still standing, but many of those, most of those, have been lost. we spoke to amanda little earlier who had a burn mark on his cheek, where the embers hit him. he tried hard to fight the fire until his son-in-law physically grabbed him and got him out of there. they came back today. his daughter was going through the rubble and they could only find a broken teacup and to them, that broken teacup meant the world because it was the only thing they have left of their home, nicole. >> gadi , unbelievable. unbelievable reporting about what they're going through. i want to ask you to go to something you said a couple minutes ago about the fire making its way up mount wilson. what are the efforts and what are the stakes if they are not able to stop that fire spread? >> well, the good news, and want to focus so much on the good news these days because hope is all we have, but the good news is we are not seeing a lot of wind right now.
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we cannot see what is happening on the ridge, but we know throughout the day, firefighting air assets have been in the sky and making some incredibly precise drops. so, we are hoping up mount wilson, they have lines around that communication infrastructure because it is so important and those firefighters, those helicopter pilots, and those air tankers are making their anway around, like we saw in the palisades and yesterday, saving the hills above hollywood. those drops are so important and those pilots were grounded when the winds were so high. they were itching to get back into the fight, to do what they do best, ich is protecting lives and these properties and we are hoping that is what is happening on the ridge right now. >> gadi come you have to hold onto the hope and the good news you can find there. thank you for your reporting and being there. if anything else happens, just wave your arms and will get you
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back on the air. please stay safe. >> thank you extract now pasadena, california where victor gordo. mr. k you for joining us, mayor. tell us what you have experience and what it is that you need at this hour. >> thank you, nicole. one, let me say that our hearts go out to people in the palisades and altadena and the residents who have lost so much. some people have lost their lives and homes have been lost we have over 1000 structures that have been lost. we have 879 firefighters from multi-agencies out there, trying to assist. the fire has now grown to over 12,600 acres and gadi -- the images you just saw, it is devastating in pasadena and altadena and the eastern part as well. our hearts go out to everyone ts who has been impacted. it is refreshing to hear president joe biden step out
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boldly and offer assistance. that is great news for altadena and pasadena and for the palisades, all who have been impacted. what we are asking people to do is to stay out of the impacted areas. i know it is tough to do so, is ashley if you have lost property or you are concerned about your property, but at the moment, let the first responders who are doing a terrific job do their job. wait for the order to allow people back in. right now, the more impacted communities -- >> we can tell you're in a central command of sorts. we want to thank you again for taking the time to talk to us and helping all of our viewers from all over the country understand what it is that you and your community is going through. i know every day and every hour probably feels like 100, but could you take us back to when this began and at one point he
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realized the scale and the scope of the tragedy? >> initially, we were prepared for windstorms. we have prepared ourselves for downed trees and downed power lines. little did we know the re windstorms in january would spark this level of wildfire. it is unprecedented. we have never seen one this time of year. not one quite as devastating as we have seen in this instance. particularly with the fire coming down into the neighborhoods. we initially saw that happen and knew it was going to be bad when the fire started tuesday into wednesday. >> mirror, there is a lot in our politics, i think, to just tear over, but there is a lot in neighbors helping neighbors and neighbors helping
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neighbors' pets and helping homes. share any f you could of those stories, which must be uncivil in a community like yours. >> we are receiving requests and people are opening their homes and offering neighbors a place to stay. we are asking hotels to continue to accept people. we have a convention center open as an evacuation center and people are volunteering, coming out, ringing supplies in and helping the staff. we are asking that people reach out to the city of pasadena if they would like to volunteer and help staff in these locations either at the convention center or at some of the churches that open so that's back -- that also open their stores. they're showing compassion for older neighbors and friends that have lost their homes and property or in some instances,
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losses of life. >> as you reference, president joe biden announced a 180 commitment to cover 100% of the cost of firefighting and debris removal. as well as salaries for first responders and shelters. what happens after that? how long do you expect to be rebuilding? >> you know, we started to have the discussions as we are responding to the evolving situation. we are having a discussion. there will be a need for wi interim housing and there will be a need for -- we have 100,000 people who are under mandatory evacuation orders and 9000 others who were under a warning and possible evacuation. nearly 200,000 people who lost over 1000 structures, you know?
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that includes homes, and so we are beginning the discussions on how do we how was people in interim and how do we permanently -- that will be the next challenge, but the first order of business is to get this fire under control. >> pasadena, california mayor victor gordo with a lot of demands on his time. thank you for taking the time to talk to us. please stay safe. >> thank you. thank you for bringing attention to this matter. >> of course. we will have much more on the wildfires in los angeles and the challenges of el containing five fires burning in a majorly populated metro area at the same time. also, a final farewell for former president jimmy carter and his -- in his hometown. the service at the church where he taught sunday school for 40 years is that to take place later in the hour. we will have that and much more as deadline: white house continues after a quick break. do not go anywhere. go anywher
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this is unbelievable. i never thought it would happen to us. >> it was raining hellfire. >> so many neighborhood houses are burning. it is oops heading and so heartbreaking. >> it felt like i was catching on fire. >> i do want to go back as i'm hopeful we will find something in the rubble. >> we are back with our coverage of the latest on the devastating fires still raging in los angeles. residents and the first responders there are still dealing with the ongoing destruction for joining our conversation, elite special forces unit hotshot, jordan
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thomas. he wrote the book, when it all burns -- fighting fire in a transformed world." i was wondering if you could tell us what it is like to fight fires at the same time in this climate of the santa ana winds and in this density, this densely populated area. >> thank you for having me on. i interrupt her head around what it is like him disbarred and to recognize we are in a new era of fire. when i was on the hotshot crew, we would take helicopters out into the wilderness to fight catastrophic while debtors -- wildfires and they would say this is not normal. i guess it was only a matter of time with climate change before these things hit our cities as well. the level of exhaustion people are going through is difficult
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to comprehend. first responders -- it's one of the most difficult jobs on earth and normally winter is a time when first responders are recovering from the fire season. it is january, but instead of getting recovery, first responders are working around the clock, still fighting fires. >> jordan, what is it about the santa ana winds that make it so difficult to contain a single fire? i think i grew up in northern california and it lived in tahoe. i mean, fires burn out of control, but i do not know if i have covered five running out of control in urban areas at the same time. >> yeah, it is unprecedented as people are saying, but it is important that we do not mix that with unexpected. this is -- climate scientists have told us this will happen for many years. it is very difficult to stop fires when the wind is the strong. essentially, you have to wait for the conditions to change. you essentially can only protect structures when this is happening. on top of that, the vegetation we are historically dry this time of year, the fire should
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not be able to burn my best in january. you can say this is a natural disaster, but i also think it is important to the subject of this as a result of our political choices, to keep burning fossil fuels and to mismanage the land in certain ways. >> jordan, and i know it is a leap, coming to the table, wanting to solve underlying problems that you're talking about, climate change, what solutions are available to the residents of los angeles? >> to the residents of los angeles, yeah, i think that is the big picture stuff. if we are going to get a handle of the wildfire, we need to stop burning fossil fuels as soon as possible. beyond that, we need to start burning more of the land in the way it needs. california is a fire adapted state. most of it has evolved to certain kinds of fire there are concrete ways to do this. there are lots of parts of california that have prescribed
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learned associations, where anyone can get involved and learn about how to build a healthy relationship with fire and put fire on the land in a good way. it does decrease the chances of events like this happening in many areas and can increase landscape rezoning to climate change. >> jordan, what is it like to have to make the kinds of choices that first responders are making? since we have been on the air, we had correspondence on the air standing in front of people's homes as they burned to the ground. we have heard residents go home to nothing, to rubble, and they are just looking at shock and loss. what is it like for the firefighters who are running and when residents are driving and running out? >> i would say that fires like this one in particular are deeply, deeply personal for firefighters because they are defending their community.
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a lot of times, firefighters move around the state to address fires and people here are fighting for their homes and for their neighbor's homes. it is deeply personal. the level of distress that must be felt by the first responders as well, to have winds like this and conditions like this that make it virtually impossible to slow down the fire are -- they are devastating, really. i think on top of that, the health effects that linger with this as well. a lot of wildfires area -- they are burning the trees and the grass. that is not great for you, but it is different from burning cars and burning buildings and a lot of firefighters, especially those for the federal government, for the first service in other branches, they do not have healthcare in the off-season. it is wonderful that they are paying for all of these expenses for 180 days, but i think it is really important to ask what happens those 180 days as well and to make sure you're
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not just taking care of our state and municipal firefighters, but our federal firefighters. they end in the off-season and they are outside the fire window. >> when will wade -- when will they have any's and that the danger has abated -- if a single amber carried by these winds could ignite something in? >> that is a good question and that is a difficult one to answer because it will likely be weeks. it might even not be until the next rain, and it is difficult to tell when that is going to happen. without rain, these embers can smolder underground -- they have known to smolder for months in the right conditions. >> i imagine an inch of urban area, that is more difficult to us out -- to suss out. jordan thomas, what else
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should we think about, the first responders, because of the nature of first responders and especially the elite unit you are part of. we feel better trusting them with his job, but when you are talking about the dangers and you're talking about the potential pollutants and health risks and you're talking about the duration of a disaster like this, what have i not asked that i should have? >> you have been asking very good questions. i would just reiterate the point that it is important to take care of the first responders in terms of these immediate crises, but also take care of them in terms of larger structures, making sure they have healthcare and decent pay at different levels. over half of california's land is federal land comes over half of california wildfire needs are in force management needs by public service through the federal government and they are often given the least amount of compensation, the least amount of healthcare. so, i think we really need to address that if we ever want to get a hold of the fire crisis
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in california because over half of california's land is federal responsibility. >> jordan, i have a bad feeling we will continue to need your expertise, not because we do not relish talking to, but because what is happening in california is such a tragedy. thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. >> thank you for letting me tell my story. thank you. coming up, a final farewell for former president jimmy carter from the nation's capital to his hometown of plains, georgia. the last few minutes, i was at the u.s. navy held a flyover tribute to carter's career. we will have more after a very short break. do not go anywhere. .
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you lead this nation with love and respect. to me, this life was a love story from the moment that he woke up until he laid his head. >> it was president james earl carter that, to me, signalized -- symbolized the greatness of united states of america. he was a blessing that helps to create a great united states of america.
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>> just a very, very short taste of the many moving and beautiful tribute today to the late resident jimmy carter. this is during the official state funeral for our nation's 39th resident held at the washington national cathedral. as much as celebration of a life expertly lived, as a meditation on decent the and faith and character, his remains are in the homestown of plains, georgia at the church where he taught sunday school for 40 years, a private funeral is underway right now. later, former president jimmy carter will be laid to rest on his boyhood farm next to his beloved wife, rosalynn carter, a fitting final resting place for a man who dedicated his entire life to service, big and small, whether that was eradicating disease around the globe were building homes for the war were teaching sunday school every single sunday that he was able. by any and every measure, it was a life well lived and
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today's celebration of president jimmy carter's singular life was a much-needed reminder of what our nation can be at its very best. >> now, honesty and truth telling were synonymous with the name jimmy carter. for jimmy carter, honesty was not an at operational goal. it was part of his very soul. >> towards the end of our time in the white house, the president and i were talking about how we might describe what we tried to accomplish in office. we came up with a sentence which remains an important summary of our. we told the truth. we obeyed the law. we kept the peace. that, we did, mr. president. >> his values give him an unshakable sense of right and
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wrong. his faith brought integrity to the presidency. after the watergate and vietnam eras -- i will never lie to you, he promised. it was a val he fulfilled. i was a 31-year-old senator and i was the first editor outside of georgia, maybe the first one to endorse his candidacy for candidate. it was an endorsement based on a belief of jimmy carter's enduring attribute. character. character. character. >> joining our coverage, lancer journal-constitution political reporter greg and jonathan
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alter, an author and columnist, and he wrote the 2021 biography, his very best -- jimmy carter, a life. also joining molly and undersecretary of state republican -- public affairs during the obama administration, rick stein. i want to play for you, jonathan, the reverend andrew young. we are going to look for that, but there is an expertise. here it is. here it is. >> just about 20% to 25% of the population was white. growing up as a minority, he became the friend of the majority. when he went into the naval academy, he asked his roommate to be the first black
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midshipmen to come to indianapolis. he said, i know minority. i have been a minority most of my life and maybe i can help him in his adjustments. >> folks like you probably knew that story there. there is a generation of americans who may have seen some of this and you may not have washed the live coverage, but they might see it on social media platforms and might be hearing that story for the first time and it was a beautiful one. your thoughts about his life and moment? >> so, you mentioned young people, nicole. i went last night to the capitol rotunda and people were waiting for five hours to get into see the coffin on abraham lincoln's -- i was so impressed and inspired by the fact that many of these thousands of
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people waiting in the cold for young. they want to be inspired. they know we can do better. jimmy carter was a moral exemplar for them. he led with his deeds, so, really, this whole last few days have given me a hope that has been elusive in recent years, that we can do better and that jimmy carter can help, just help light our way back to a better place. >> i mean, it is something that you might have said earlier. he was so ahead of his time. he was talking about climate change. this is about leveling with the country about our lack of confidence about how we need to have faith in our's elves and we need to deal with difficult
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troops. -- truths. talk about how pressey and he was about the great challenges we still grapple with today. >> people know he put those solar panels on the roof of the white house that reagan took down, but that was just the beginning of his visionary leadership, so this was a president who was, let's face it, political failure. he got shellacked by ronald reagan and he did not communicate as well as reagan and some other politicians. but when you're a journalist, we assess these presidents by how they are doing politically and where they are in the polls. are they making people think they're doing a good job? the job of a historian is to consider all of that, but to look at how they changed the lives of people and how they charted a course for the future and how they peered over the horizon and did tough things that might hurt them politically, like with panama
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canal treaties, which are very relevant right now, and i could go on all day about the unpopular decisions that he made, that journalist at the time were trashing him for that ended up being very visionary, though 15 major pieces of environmental legislation, the first funding for clean energy, the first toxic waste cleanup, and then a number of areas that were not related to the environment, he was way ahead on foreign policy. it was the most durable treaty since world war ii and imagine egypt and israel, if they were fighting right now, how much worse things would be in the middle east. so, he consistently tried to do what was right, but he did not have a political bone in his body. his wife was better at the politics than he was. sometimes he could be, you
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know, very astute, retail politician when he was running for president, but in the job, he tried to move to a higher place than politics and it is really a wonderful thing that people are beginning to reassess his presidency. >> there is something about seeing all the presidents together. it does not happen very often. there is often a funeral or an inauguration. or a tragedy that brings them together. today was one of those moments and a lot of people described it as chicken soup for the soul. >> s, because it is so in contrast to last january 6th. it is healthy to see these rituals of our society. there is actually so much more continuity between presidents and presidential administrations than people think. there is a legacy of carter that still exist now, but it is reassuring to see this and it
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is reassuring even to see press:participating in it. these are the rituals, by the way, that small seed conservatives base their whole philosophy on and it is something that is powerful. i want to mention one other thing about carter and john talks about this in his terrific book. i experienced this myself when i was in the state department. he was really the first modern president to put human rights at the heart of our foreign policy, something that every diplomat in the state department and, you know, the obama administration and the biden administration nose, and that is something that, unfortunately, is going to go away for the next four years. there is that kind of transactional is some intron's foreign policy become a mercantilism that has nothing to do with human rights or virtual or anything like that. it is sad. it is good to see the fact that people are raising this, but it is going away and it might be going away forever. >> i am going to deal with the elephant and the role -- room.
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what do you think? >> you know, carter -- was think about what carter did after he was president. he spent his time building homes for habitat for humanity. i mean, the guy, there are pictures of him even into his 90s with a hammer and a nail. you walk humbly. you know, he carried water and he talked wood. he is the exemplar of this kind of moral character that we all treasure and it is the dream for american politicians. my sense is that is probably not appealing to trump. >> go ahead, gentleman. >> i was just going to say they did have some interesting interactions on china early on and carter wanted to be of service to trump when trump was first elected. he could not get caught or --
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carter to criticize trump because he wanted to help him be a better president and he tried especially on china and eventually trump, not surprisingly, rejected him, but the other thing that was sort of serendipitous about the other big news story going on today is that jimmy carter not only established the department of education and energy, but he created fema. he recognized that there was a problem with our emergency response. it was split between a bunch of different agencies not very well coordinated and he fixed that because he believed that when people are in trouble, like now in california, government is important and needs to work and we need people who believe that at its best, government can serve people. so, i think -- i do not agree with you that these ideas are gone forever.
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human rights, you know, foreign policy, george w. bush stressed democracy building and human rights in a big way, so i think the circle will return if we can get through this trump-era and i do believe there is hope that in the same way, after nixon, jimmy carter came along and helped renew democracy. democracy can always be renewed, so it has been dented, but it has not been destroyed and i think some of those young people passing his often will be inspired and go into, if not public service directly, do things in their community and build a better america, so in the long term, i'm hopeful. >> i mean, i will always side with ricks astuteness, but i think the young people will see a different example and all of
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the storytelling, what everyone is doing. i want to go to what is happening right now, happening there in plains, georgia. >> what we are seeing right now is plains, his hometown and he is at the baptist church. that is where former carter often held sunday service and gave sermons. we saw pastor tony lowden, and here he is. he is the former president's personal pastran was the pastor for a few years. he was so instrumental in his daily life. he actually recruited tony lowden and encouraged him to take the job as pastor of that church. that gives you an idea of the role he played, even in his hometown church. he did not only teach sunday school. he was instrumental in everything about it. those who live in plains, georgia, it has 150 county. plains is really small.
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it is an hour away from highways, just a few hundred people. but that is the place that fostered jimmy carter. we heard from a former ambassador talk about him, talking about sumter county. he was marveling that a president could become -- come from such a small community with such long-standing issues when he was growing up. >> i would like all of you to stay with us. colors -- president carter's funeral is underway. we will show you more of what is happening after a very short break. do not go anywhere. .
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to young people, to anyone, anyone in search of meaning and purpose, study the power of jimmy carter's example. >> a few days ago, i had my former colleague, brian williams, on the air, who interned for former president jimmy carter. he talked about how he stripped the presidency of all the pomp and circumstance. as you see people lining the streets, i appreciate your storytelling about just how small the community it is. think about the pomp and the circumstance and the rituals of grief, of losing and saying farewell to an american president and it is really the
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split screen and very fitting that now, as we near 6:00 in the east, former president jimmy carter is back home. >> we know the stories about former presidents, marching down the parade route in foot rather than observing it from his presidential limo and asking them not to play hail to the chief for the first time. i think it was jason carter, his grandson, during his eulogy that put it best, which was saying, showing people the personal side of his grandfather. the man who wore short shorts and crocs and has pictures lined with family members, who did not know how to use a cell phone, right in he reminded us he was a new person, and a regular person. >> let me play a bit of that video. >> by fate of a brief season, jimmy carter and i were rivals, but for the many wonderful
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years that followed, friendship wanted us as no two presidents since tom patterns -- john ahrens and thomas jefferson. however, distances have a way of vanishing when measured in values -- rather than miles. it was because of our shared values that jimmy and i respected each other as adversaries, even before we cherished one another as dear friends. my grandfather was likely to show up at the door in some short shorts and crocs. their main phone had a cord and was stuck to the wall in the kitchen, like a museum piece.
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and i'm asserting their depression-era roots, they had a little rack next to the sink where they would hang ziploc bags to drive. eventually, he did get a cell phone and one time he called me sort of early on and it would say "papa mobile. note quote --" >> say hello, papa. he was say, who is this? i would say, this is jason. he would say, what are you doing? i said, i'm not doing anything. you called me. he said, i am not calling you. i'm taking a picture. >> we heard some pieces from joe. >> nicole, i was just going to say, nicole, this reminded me of a memorable story for me personally. in 2015, i had an interview scheduled with president carter
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at his house in plains, and he heard earlier in the day that he had fallen into a pond when he was fishing that day and sprained his wrist and the secret service had taped it up and i thought for sure, you know, he was in his 90s. i thought for sure the interview would not happen, but they said, no, go over to the house. i went there and he answered the door and he was wearing short shorts and crocs. he had a wrist bandage and i said, you know, i can come back another time and he said, no, no, come in. we will do this. he had hung his wet clothes on a clothesline in the backyard. then we did the interview. >> that is fantastic. it is fantastic to have these conversations, rick. >> it is. i will make a larger point.
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past his prologue, he lost his presidency because of inflation, because of troubles in the middle east. he is kind of a stand-in for biden. this idea of optimism about democracy. our system is cyclical. he was succeeded by a conservative who liberals thought was going to destroy the country. it will come around again and those values that jimmy carter talk about will come around again, particularly if young people to accept them because the current values are ones that are not durable in a liberal democracy. >> i thought was interesting is you had all of the sons, right? you gerald ford's son and you had walter mondale's son because jimmy carter had outlived them all. they were reading these eulogies had been written years and years before and i thought that was moving and just sort of incredible. >> incredible. an incredible life. i'm so grateful for all of you for thank you so much. greg bluestein, jonathan alter, rick stengel, ali jong-fast,
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thank you for letting us in your homes once again during these truly extraordinary times. the beat with ari melber starts right now. >> we began as we've been covering, these terrible fires in and around los angeles, catastrophic in many places, the forecasters say the winds are picking back up tonight potentially spreading, the fires that have now killed five people.
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