california firefighters continue relentless efforts to contain the massive wildfires burning across los angeles, leaving entire neighborhoods destroyed and families wondering how they will move forward. and ahead of president biden's speech summing up his foreign policy achievements today, my exclusive interview with secretary of state antony blinken with the possibility of a cease fire in gaza and a hostage release deal possible, according to u.s. officials, within days. this has always conditioned on the fact that hamas, mohammed sinwar, could back out of it, but that everyone else is on board. correct. >> andrea, we are closer than we've ever been. the ball is in hamas court, but it's very close, and we are very hopeful that we get it over the finish line and make or break. >> confirmation hearings for team trump begin this week with

pete hegseth, president elect's controversial choice for defense secretary, in the spotlight tomorrow. good day everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. the critical fire threat is threatening. it's getting a lot worse as california is destructive. 70 mile per hour. santa ana winds threatened to undo gains made by crews this weekend and trigger explosive fire growth. >> the anticipated winds, combined with low humidities and low fuel moistures, will keep the fire threat in all of los angeles county critical as we speak. >> the los angeles city fire department has maximized our resource capabilities and response capabilities. all available lafd resources have been staffed. we are not in the clear as of yet, and we must not

let our guard down. >> for the second time in just a week, the national weather service is taking the rare step of issuing what's called a particularly dangerous situation. red flag warning. the first was issued before the massive palisades fire ignited six days ago. with the threat imminent, ground teams are on standby in some of the most high risk areas, while others are dousing hotspots and desperately trying to establish burn barriers in a race against time. air crews are rushing to drop as much fire retardant as possible before the santa ana's potentially ground them again. already, at least two dozen people are dead and 23 are missing. 12,000 structures have burned to the ground, including hundreds of homes. 40,000 acres are destroyed. that's an area nearly three times the size of manhattan. the palisades and eden fires now rank among the top five most destructive in california history. and adding insult to injury, at least 34 people have been arrested for

looting, trespassing and other violations. the governor has called in additional national guard troops to patrol inside the fire zones as frustrated residents demand answers. we begin with nbc's ellison barber in altadena. ellison just what are the residents there facing? it's just the scene behind you is just devastating. >> yeah, i mean, it's just devastation everywhere you look. it is homes. it is family businesses. it's memories. it's entire communities just reduced to ashes and rubble. and for so many people, you mentioned the frustration among residents. we've seen and heard so much of that in the last few days. but at that press conference earlier today, l.a. officials saying that they cannot allow people into many of these evacuated areas because there is such a significant and ongoing safety issues, particularly as we anticipate those santa ana winds to significantly pick up today, tomorrow and wednesday. on top

of that, we heard from officials today from both the los angeles fire department and the l.a. police department saying that one of the things that they are doing in these communities and in altadena, specifically where we are. they said they were on day three of a grid search. they said, we cannot let you back into this community because we are literally searching for your neighbors, the remains of people who are missing and believed to be deceased in these fires. the death toll right now at 24. but officials have been very clear in saying, as they have this grim task of conducting these grid searches, they expect those numbers to rise. but for so many, the question right now is just how do we even begin to rebuild? we've seen so many neighbors trying to help each other get through this time, but when everything looks like this, it's hard to understand when rebuilding and coming back will possibly begin. andrea. >> thanks so much, alison. and joining us now is democratic congressman george whitesides. his district covers the area impacted by the fire. he's also

co-founder of mega fire action, which focuses on researching and enacting policies to prevent massive wildfires. congressman, thank you very much. and first of all, just our sympathy. our condolences to you for losses. the devastation there is just horrific. the whole country is the world is really looking at what's happening there with horror. and there's so much misinformation and disinformation circulating about the fires. conspiracy theories, including alex jones i saw yesterday spouting elon musk, spouting things that are completely inaccurate. this includes that president elect trump's claim, frankly, that governor newsom blocked a measure allowing water to flow from northern california to southern california. can you clear up some of these myths? you know, false statements. >> yeah. first of all, as you say, it is absolutely heartbreaking what we're seeing across los angeles county. you know, my heart goes out to every family who's lost their home or

who's been affected by this terrible tragedy. and i am absolutely committed to working with the congressional. you know, everyone across the across congress to make sure that we help get the funds and the assistance that people need to rebuild their lives and to move forward. it's going to be a long process ahead. and the disinformation that you see, you know, rampant on social media is really, really quite damaging, right? we need to have people focused on the most important things. those who are affected need to register, you know, at disasterassistance.gov to make sure that they're in the queue so that they can get assistance from fema and other organizations. clearly, this was a historic fire, right? it was a historic windstorm. and this idea that it was because of, you know, endangered species or something. california has actually been a leader in wildfire prevention. and the resources that we dedicate to wildfire preparedness and suppression are unprecedented on

a global scale. we spend billions of dollars a year. this was a fire. my good friend, chief fennessy in orange county said, you know, this was this was basically unstoppable. now, does that mean that we don't need to do more going forward as a nation, as a country, as the american west? of course we do. there's a lot that we can do to make sure that we're establishing resilience on the part of our western communities. but this fire was, was, was, was unstoppable. and, and, and we need to make sure that that disinformation is rebutted everywhere we can. >> well, as you point out, california has, i think the best environmental rules and counter, you know, wildfire rules and regulations in the country. so if it can happen there, what more has to be done? do homes have to be rebuilt in a different way? do new regulations have to be put in place? >> yeah. so i like to put forward a three part plan that i

think are the are the key things that most people who have been studying this topic agree on. number one is we need to make sure that we're doing fuels reduction in the wildlands. in order to accomplish that, we need many more people, and we need to make sure that we're paying those people in the in the wildland professions. these are people who both do fuels reduction, and they're the ones who are fighting the fires on terrible events like this. and we need to pay them a living wage. second, we need to make sure that we're doing everything we can to protect our communities. and that means building in fire, safe construction techniques with construction materials that are adapted to landscapes that are, that have wildfires frequently. and we need to make sure we're also putting in community level protections that will help us on these very bad days. the third thing is we need to invest in technology. this is a this is a this is an event that will cost probably over $50 billion. i think that we are not spending enough as a nation on technologies that might be able to help frontline wildfire

fighters know where the perimeter of the fire is, know where the high intensity fire is that is most damaging, and that might be able to, over time, help us on these very, very bad days, get to the fire quicker so that we might be able to constrain it. i'll give you one final example. the worst fire in my district just happened to be noticed by two firemen who were going to something else. there was a line down and they just happened to notice the first fire just starting. and so they were able to throw all of their resources on it very early, very quickly. and when they did that, they were able to contain it in a way that didn't allow it to get into adjoining structures. and that's the kind of extremely rapid response that we need to build towards in the long term. >> future points, i want to ask you about the palisades reservoir, which is a local, not a state reservoir. but first, i want to ask you about insurance, because i understand that your own policy was canceled and other people can't get insurance or their policies were canceled. what's the situation there? and can that be remedied by regulators? >> well, you know, i mean, as you say, many people, like my

own family have been notified that we've been dropped or will be dropped in the coming year. the california insurance market was already on shaky legs, and this is going to be a huge and damaging shock. we have actually just put the state has put in place some reforms that will move the market into a somewhat better place, but i think we need to be thinking about this on a national scale. andrea. you know, we're going to have wildfires that are increased intensity due to wild due to global warming in the west, but we're going to have hurricanes that, you know, will be more cat five's in florida. we're going to have wind events in the american midwest. and what we're dealing with is climate risk getting worse across the country. now, does that mean that this was caused by climate change? no, but it was it could have been exacerbated by climate change. we're going to have more of these very damaging events across the country. and we as congress, we as you know, federal government need to think about what is the risk posture that we put in place. my personal opinion is that we need to have policies that encourage people at a local level to do the right thing, to build in the right ways, to build in the

right places. but we also need to make sure that we're providing backstops, whether that's reinsurance or other ways, so that these communities can rebuild and can continue as as you know, the places that we that we love to live in. >> and very briefly, the palisades reservoir, because there was criticism from president trump blaming the state. but that's a local reservoir. but in any case, why wasn't it filled? >> yeah. i mean, i think we're going through the investigation, you know, on that. and i don't have any particularly inside information on it. but i think the key point is that this was something that was catastrophic. when you're drawing water from, you know, hundreds if not thousands of hydrants at the same time, you're going to have a flow that is, you know, that the water system is not built for that. now, we could decide as a country to build for that. it would cost, you know, tens or hundreds of billions of dollars. and perhaps that's what we need to move towards. but no, no water system in the united states is built to carry out, you know, simultaneous suppression across an entire

community. it's just not the way that these things are built currently. >> well, again, my best to you, your family, your constituents and all of our friends out there in california who are suffering so terribly. thank you, congressman. thank you. >> thank you andrew. >> and in just 90s, the latest on the trump transition as the president elect rips california's governor over the wildfire response and prepares for his more controversial cabinet choices to sit for their confirmation hearings. this is andrea mitchell reports. you're andrea mitchell reports. you're watching -honey... -but the gains are pumping! dad, is mommy a "finance bro?" she switched careers to make money for your weddings. oooh the asian market is blowing up! hey who wants shots, huh?! -shots?? -of milk. the right money moves aren't as aggressive as you think. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job on indeed, it's easier for talented candidates to find it. which makes it easier for you to hire them. visit indeed.com/hire

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he takes the oath of office, donald trump has been sharply critical of local and state officials in california, especially governor gavin newsom, whom he called incompetent. the governor responded sharply in an exclusive interview with our colleague nbc's jacob soboroff for meet the press. newsom said that trump is misstating the facts, and that he's invited the president elect to come to california, but has not heard back multiple times. >> mr. trump has threatened to withhold aid for california wildfires, both as president and now again as president elect. are you worried that he might actually do that? >> i mean, he's done it in utah. he's done it. michigan native, puerto rico, he did it to california back before i was even governor in 2018, until he found out folks in orange county voted for him. and then he decided to give the money. that's his style. and, you know, we take it seriously to the extent that in the past we've

it's taken a little bit more time. >> and joining me now, jeff mason, white house correspondent for reuters, former democratic congresswoman from pennsylvania, susan wild, and former republican congressman charles dent, charlie dent, also from pennsylvania. jeff, over the weekend, president elect trump, he slammed california's leaders, karen bass for having said that she, you know, would not go overseas. former congress member, colleague of all of yours. and she said she would not go overseas, that she would only visit, you know, other cities that are relevant to los angeles. and then she was in ghana when this broke out, in touch, but out of the country. and then, of course, gavin newsom. and as we saw, newsom is sharply responding on meet the press. yeah. where is this? where does this leave us? as as the houses are burning down, literally. >> it certainly means that there is a fight on both a political level and on an environmental level and a disaster response level. and trump is getting into

the fight on politics, and he sees vulnerabilities. no doubt the vulnerability with mayor bass is will potentially be a real one for her about not being there and being abroad. when that first started with governor newsom, he has had a kind of complicated relationship, i would say, with the california governor, including during his first term. they went back and forth. and yet he also went out to california a handful of times during his first term and met with the governor. and i remember governor newsom at times having positive things to say about president trump, just as right now he's criticizing him. so but that the blaming democrats is in president elect trump's interest, and he sees an opportunity here to do that, despite the fact that it's coming at a major time of crisis for the state. >> and, charlie, let's talk about governor newsom's response, because he's concerned that this could delay the aid that has been promised 100% up front by joe biden over the weekend. >> well, my quick response is

that i think disaster relief has been horribly politicized in this country. and i can go back to katrina, to hurricane sandy, to what we're experiencing now. i think the american people expect that their leaders, you know, focus on rescue and response right now and then ultimately recovery. and then, you know, don't engage in this after action analysis and finger pointing until, you know, we've taken care of the people who are who've lost their homes or lost their lives or lost their livelihoods. this is an enormous problem for us. and so, i suspect, you know, governor newsom is probably right, that the relief will probably be delayed. and that might not just be because of the political finger pointing, but but that's just the way it's been with these disaster responses over the years. i mean, people starte said it was a boondoggle. i voted for the sandy recovery, but a lot of people didn't. they said, we're spending too much money, and i and there are

people who are going to offset the monies to pay for this. so it's a mess. but right now they should focus on rescue response and recovery. >> and in fact, we saw it most recently in north carolina, congresswoman, when there was a lot of blame going back and forth. some correct, some not correct. so let's talk about a republican led congress, which is a continuation, contrary to democratic hopes. is it something that you think the republicans and the democrats can work on in a bipartisan way to try to deal with california that speaker johnson wanted right now, at the beginning of a new session of congress? you mean an early test of bipartisanship? >> that and the need for more disaster relief. just to further complicate the things that are on the trump agenda, and this republican congress is very much led by donald trump. and a lot of it will depend on what president trump's reaction is and what his response is to what's going on in california,

which so far has not been very presidential, in my view. but maybe that will change. but it they will have to work on a bipartisan basis. and the california delegation is going to be working on overtime to make sure that that happens. and it remains to be seen. disaster relief in the last congress turned out to be a really tough thing to get across the finish line, and i wouldn't be surprised if that continues. >> and, jeff mason, let's talk about these confirmation hearings, because what you're going to see is tomorrow, pete hegseth, one of the most controversial. now the trump folks are putting out that he's got the votes now in the senate. but that seems to be trying to set the stage or, you know, set the conventional wisdom, if you will. i'm still hearing from democrats, certainly, and a couple of republicans, they're concerned about his background and that he refused to meet with democrats today ahead of the hearing tomorrow, that only a few people have been able to

see. i guess the chair and the ranking, the fbi report and their complaints that the fbi report may be incomplete, as was criticized of the fbi in the judge, justice kavanaugh now confirmation that it does not even question or interview the people involved in those two veterans groups, where the accusation is that he ran them into the ground and couldn't manage the money. >> and you can bet democrats are going to raise that. i think you're right that the narrative about pete hegseth has changed a little bit, certainly from the trump side and from the republican side, giving, i think, their desire to have an early win with him, despite all of the negative press at the beginning. but those questions are going to come up, and it'll be interesting to watch and see if any of those questions come up from republicans who, so far as we were discussing a little bit in the green room beforehand, have largely fallen in line behind the president elect. >> it seems to have stemmed almost from when he took hegseth and tulsi gabbard, two of the more controversial choices with him, to the army navy game, and

made a big, big sign of show of his personal support. and let's talk. also, charlie, about your thoughts about vice president elect joe. well, vice president elect jd vance, who was talking about the hostages. and he said yesterday that the january 6th hostages who were violent should not be pardoned, which is not the same as what donald trump was earlier projecting, which was that they were all victims. where do you think this is coming down? >> well, look, it would be certainly an outrage to pardon these people who were engaged in violence during. >> let me just let me, let me just say that we should not refer to them as hostages because they are either either they've pleaded guilty or they have been convicted. and they're certainly not hostages. i've been working on hostages all day and all night. so that's what i was thinking about. oh, i'm so sorry. >> yeah, absolutely. they are

not hostages. they're not victims. they are convicted convicts. they entered a space that was a restricted zone that they, because of covid, you know, some obviously committed more serious offenses than others. but i can't see any reason why anybody should be pardoned for that, for what happened on that day. and so i think if i were giving advice to the president and vice president elect, i would tell them, this is not good politics to be pardoning criminals like this. obviously, joe, joe biden right now is being criticized for many of his pardons, including his own son. why would they want to do something so, so reckless and really to basically almost normalize what happened that day, which i think all of us can agree was horrible. and susan wild is sitting there, and she was right in the middle of it all in a very, very distressful way. >> and, charlie, do you think that these rioters that these pardons for the rioters will come, as he has said on day one, is that what we're expecting? >> well, i well, donald trump's

going to have a very busy day one. he said he's going to do a lot of things on day one. i'd be surprised if he actually pardoned any of these folks on day one. i suspect they will have to do a review, because if they are going to pardon people, there are a lot of people look at a lot of cases and i mean, i can't imagine they would pardon all these people. frankly, i don't think they should pardon any of them, but they're going to it's going to take some time. so i would not expect a whole lot of action on day one. >> charlie, thank you very much. former congressman charlie dent, former congresswoman susan wild, and of course, jeff mason from reuters. thanks. and next, my exclusive interview today with secretary of state antony blinken one week before the next administration takes over at the state department. and later this day, of course, president biden will be giving his farewell speech on foreign policy. this speech on foreign policy. this is andrea mitchell reports only prilosec knows, for a fire... one fire extinguisher beats 10 buckets of water, and for zero heartburn 1 prilosec a day...

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secretary of state about all that and a lot more, as well as the administration's close coordination on the hostage deal with president elect trump's special middle east envoy, steve witkoff, who also is in qatar. he arrived three days ago for the talks and who the biden administration says has been very helpful at key points. mr. secretary, thank you so much for making time for us today. we appreciate it. >> always good to be with you, andrew. >> we're told that there is potentially some very good news that there is a breakthrough, that we've been close before, but that this time there could be a deal, a cease fire deal with the hostages starting to come out within 48 hours of the announcement of a deal. and it could come this week. that this is always conditioned on the fact that hamas, mohammed sinwar, could back out of it, but that everyone else is on board. >> correct, andrea? we are closer than we've ever been. the

ball is in hamas court, but it's very close, and we are very hopeful that we get it over the finish line. finally, after all this time. we've had lucy in the football moments before where the ball gets pulled away at the last minute. you can never exclude that. but as i said, we are closer than we've ever been and that the priority would be the same as the president announced in may and that is based on this is based on the framework that the president put out in may that we got the whole world to endorse country after country, the united nations security council, and everyone got behind it. and then finally back then, hamas was was isolated. it accepted the framework that the president put forward. ever since then, we've been working on negotiating the final details, everything that has to go into implementation. and time and again that's been delayed or derailed by some event. but now we're at a point, as i said, where we are closer than we've ever been, and we'll have to see if hamas can can finally say yes.

>> and i've been told by several sources very close to this that, as we have expected, the injured, the women, the injured, the elderly would come out firs. and then, of course, the americans, alive and dead. >> that's look, i can't i can't get into the details of the president when he put out the framework, made clear that during the first six weeks of this agreement, because it's basically a two step process, a phased deal the first six weeks, the conflict stops, israel pulls back its forces. a lot of hostages come out. some prisoners are released by israel. we surge humanitarian assistance. and we also use that time to try to finalize an agreement on an enduring cease fire. we've done a lot of work on that. we haven't waited to get to the ceasefire itself. we've done a lot of work with arab partners, with israel, with others, to try to get an understanding on what would

follow, basically a post-conflict plan so that the vacuum that's that's there when hamas is effectively not in charge and israel pulls out, is filled by something that can run gaza effectively. >> and a very important part of this, by your initiative, is that simultaneously, steve witkoff, the envoy from president elect trump, has been there for the last three days working with brett mcgurk, the white house envoy. that's right, that they have been full partners in this, i am told by u.s. officials very close to it that he has been very helpful on a couple of key issues, and the israelis are on board and it's now up to hamas. >> yeah, i think steve witkoff has been a terrific partner in this. and also president elect trump, in making clear that he wants to see this deal go forward and go forward before january 20th. and of course, everyone wants to know. and it's very useful as well to have steve a part of this. they want to make sure that the deal that

the president's put on the table and that we've negotiated, the trump administration will continue to back. so giving creating that confidence by having steve witkoff participation, i think has been been critical. but this has been a very good partnership, and we hope that together we get this over the goal line. >> now, with hezbollah all but destroyed with hamas and the war potentially over in gaza, with syria, the regime now gone, isn't iran appreciably weakened without its proxies? and what is your expectation about what israel might do next? >> yeah, this is a dramatically transformed middle east for all the reasons you've said, and it has put iran on its back feet in ways that that we haven't seen before. it's lost its best proxies in hamas and hezbollah. it no longer has syria and assad. and as a result, i think there's an opportunity to

transform what's what's happening. and also to have something that deals with the fact that it's what's happened in the last couple of years has come at a terrible human cost to actually get to a broader transformation in the middle east. >> but let me interrupt you to ask, since you yourself have said that iran is a week away from having enough fissile material to theoretically build a weapon, they don't have weaponization yet, but they are reaching a red line. and as a red line, the israelis see this as an existential threat to their existence. what would stop israel now from going in and taking out the nuclear program? they've already taken out critical air defenses. >> so, yes, iran is at a point where, in terms of the fissile material necessary for a nuclear weapon, it could upgrade that material to bomb grade quality in a matter of a week or two. but as you said, it still also

has to develop a weapon itself, and that would take a lot longer. look, iran's going to be faced with decisions of its own, of how it wants to move forward. but i think the incoming administration would have an opportunity precisely because iran's on its back feet. it's suffering economically in a terrible way. its people, i think, are disputing so much of what the regime has done, particularly in meddling in the affairs of other countries throughout the region. this is a moment of opportunity and maybe a moment of opportunity to resolve in an enduring way the nuclear challenge posed by iran, but also the actions that iran takes throughout the region. it's also a moment of opportunity. if we can get an enduring cease fire in gaza, and if there can be some greater agreement on a pathway forward for palestinians to realize their their political rights, a moment of genuine integration in the region where israel normalizes its relations with everyone, including saudi arabia. it's integrated into a regional security architecture that further marginalizes and

isolates iran and betters the lives of people throughout the region. there is a huge opportunity here, and everything that we've been able to set in motion or support in the in the last couple of years has moved us to this point. >> why shouldn't israel take out the nuclear program once and for all? >> you have to. you have to look at what would be enduring and what would make sure that the program doesn't come back. so one of the things you have to assess is, if that were to happen, would iran simply rebuild and rebuild even deeper underground in a place that would be even harder to get to? you want to make sure that whatever you do and everyone is determined that iran not have a nuclear weapon, starting with president biden. but you want to do that in a way that's enduring. >> let me ask you about syria, because syria has now had an attack from isis in damascus over the weekend. turkey has attacked the u.s. allies, the syrian defense force in northeast syria. this is such a fragile peace. is it important

to keep some u.s. troops there to make sure that those isis prisoners are kept in prison by the syrian defense force, to make sure that the whole thing doesn't collapse and isis regain a foothold? >> one thing we've learned over the years is that what happens inside of syria doesn't stay inside of syria. you see all sorts of consequences that flow out of the country, whether it's the potential for terrorism that goes well beyond syria, whether it's mass human displacement. so we have a stake in trying to make sure that this extraordinary opportunity that is now before the syrian people to actually control their own lives and their own destinies, not have a dictator do it, which is the case for the last five decades, not have some outside power. do it not have a terrorist group do it. that's the possibility. but you're exactly right. it's incredibly fragile. and i think the u.s. role in trying to help guide this and shape this, along with our partners, along with other european partners and others, turkey is essential. that means, i believe, keeping some presence, but it also means

being very engaged in all of the efforts to help support a syrian owned, syrian led transition to get the country to a better place. >> isis has had this incredible propaganda machine, and it's gained strength in the last four years. frankly, mr. secretary, on your watch and on this administration's watch, more specifically, but they are inspiring lone wolves all over the world, most recently in new orleans. what can the u.s. do to try to combat the propaganda machine of this terror group, you know, potentially gaining a foothold in syria? but even if they don't, they're inspiring terrorists. >> so, andrea, i think there are two things we have to focus on. first is making sure that isis doesn't emerge from the box that we put it in. when i say we, i'm talking about what the obama administration did to take away the so-called caliphate that had developed. it had actually had for the first time, a terrorist group and the trump, the first trump administration. and that's what i wanted to come to. this was a success of the obama

administration, completed by the trump administration. that caliphate was destroyed. all the territory that they'd taken mile upon mile in iraq and in syria was taken back. it was completed by president trump when raqqa, the last piece that they held, fell. isis was in a box. it's been in a box ever since. but we have to keep it there and keeping it there will also take away from the potency of its propaganda. you're right, of course, that propaganda continues. we see lone wolves who are inspired, but without the success of having a caliphate, of having controlling all this territory, being able to say for the first time we have a terrorist group, isis, that controls territory that really undermines the potency of its message. if that were to change, if we were to allow isis out of the box again, there are 10,000 foreign terrorist fighters, isis fighters who are being controlled, detained in detention centers in syria. we ultimately want to see them get repatriated to their countries of origin, but meanwhile they need to stay locked down. our kurdish friends and the syrian defense forces, they're critical

to doing that. that's why, even as we're working with turkey to deal with its very legitimate concerns about the pkk, a terrorist group that's attacked turkey for years, we have to do it in a way that avoids a conflict between the syrian supported forces in the northeast and the syrian defense forces with the kurds, and to, over time, integrate those kurdish forces into a syrian national force to have any of their foreign fighters leave syria. all of that can happen, but we need to give it a little bit of time. >> chris rea just told 60 minutes and homeland security secretary of the homeland security secretary, told me that the greatest threat we're now facing is from china hacking us from hacking our infrastructure, our telecom companies, our water companies. and this has just increased exponentially. how come we cannot stop this hacking in terms of storm? typhoon. we don't know how they got in, how long they've been there, and we

don't know how to get them out. >> so this is an enduring challenge. there's no finish line. this is the this is the nature of the world we live in. it's the nature of competition right now. and what we've done over these past years is to shore up our defenses everywhere, including right here at this department, to do everything possible to detect and uncover these efforts as necessary to go at, to sanction chinese entities that are involved in it and give me more consequences. >> this is a serious threat. >> this is going to be something that's going to be with us for a long time, and we have to make sure as we're doing that, we continue to try to stay ahead of it, both in terms of our defenses, both in terms of taking action as necessary against china, making sure that others are doing the same thing, other countries working from the same page. but there's no finish line. we have to just keep making sure that we're as strongly defended as possible, and that there are consequences

that flow from these actions. >> climate change is a major threat and it's a national security threat. we're seeing it in los angeles most horrifically now. it's catastrophic. president trump last time got out of the paris climate accords. what advice would you have for him about reevaluating climate as a national security threat? >> yeah, i think it's exactly as you say. what we've seen is climate change is a driver of so many other things. it's a driver of conflict. it's a driver of mass human displacement. it's obviously a driver of suffering, as we've as we've seen horrifically in los angeles. and so it's exactly as you say, it is a national security concern. and i hope that as the administration looks at this, it will it will take action accordingly. one of the first things president biden did was to get back into the paris accord. but beyond that, we've taken so many steps over the last four years to try to make sure that we were doing our

part. but here's the challenge even if the united states does everything right, from my perspective in terms of emissions, we're maybe 15% of global emissions. you've still got to account for the other 85%, and you've got to bring other countries along. if we're out of the game, it's a lot less likely we'll be able to bring them along when we're in the game. we've had real success in doing that, so i hope the next administration stays in the game. there's another aspect to this too, and it goes to the competition with china. so much of the investment that president biden has made in climate technology, including through theing the competition for the 21st century economy, becausesto capture markets around the world and countries around the world want this technology, like electric vehicles. and if we're not in that game, if we're not making these investments, someone else is going to be doing it. and as china. so i think we have a profound interest in making sure that we continue in something that really is a win win. it's a win

win in terms of dealing with the climate challenge. it's a win win in making sure that we continue to have, by far the leading economy in the world that everyone else looks to. >> and our thanks to secretary blinken for sitting down with us on a very busy day. and next, we'll go back to one of the los angeles communities decimated by the wildfires, and learn how dangerous winds in the forecast will impact efforts on the will impact efforts on the ground. you're watching a what the biggest companies deliver is an exceptional customer experience. what makes it possible is unmatched connectivity and 5g solutions from t-mobile for business. t-mobile connects 100,000 delta airlines employees, powers tractor supply's stores nationwide with reliable 5g business internet, and partners with pga of america on game changing innovation. this is how business goes further with t-mobile for business. this is clem.

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>> powerful and dangerous winds with gusts up to 70mph are now expected to soon start up again across southern california, just as crews are beginning to get a handle on the devastating fires there. we really feel like we've got our situation at the palisades fire. we know what's expected in the next couple of ridges. we're really protected, but anything can happen and a lot of those unburned areas are really a concern. joining me now is nbc news meteorological meteorologist bill karins. bill, tell us what's going to happen with these winds of the santa ana winds going to really start up. and are they going to reach gusts as high as 100 miles an hour as they did last week? >> yeah. it's important to note this is not last week's event. last week was like extreme like off the charts. this is a more typical santa ana wind event. can still be extremely dangerous. we still could have new fires. we could have structures that are threatened. we could have new evacuation orders. we just don't know yet

if that's going to happen. so what they did this weekend was try to prevent the fires that have already formed from spreading and getting as much containment on those and getting as many hotspots out as possible. so we got 10 million people that are in these red flag warnings. red flag warnings mean that conditions are favorable for fires if they do form the spread. but what's different about this one is now we're put this up to a particularly dangerous situation from the national weather service. that's another level higher. that means they think if any fires form, we could have explosive fire growth. those are the ones, you know, like what we had with the 80 to 100 mile per hour winds. but this is a notch lower. this is like 60, maybe 70 mile per hour winds. still extremely dangerous if anything forms. the issue is that we can't get the planes up there to fight the fires if they form when winds are this high. that's what's scary about the next 24 hours. up to this point. over the last five days, we've had amazing air support. any new fires that have formed, they've knocked them down in a hurry. but, you know, with this forecast of these winds, they're not going to be able to do that. the water drops aren't as accurate and it may just get too dangerous to fly. period. so

here's the current wind gusts. you notice we already got some 60 mile per hour gusts. this event is not in los angeles like the last one. downtown la was extremely windy with the last event. this is typically up in the mountains. this is the angeles national forest. this is in the santa monica mountains and all the mountainous areas near santa clarita. that's where we're going to see these high gusts tonight into tomorrow morning. so here's 4 p.m. let's fast forward this. when we get up to the bright pink. that's kind of when the 60 plus and you see 69, 61, 60. these are more mountainous remote areas. they're not densely populated. what we dealt with a week ago. but we still could have evacuations in some of these mountainous communities and small communities nearby. and that's going to be the areas of concern. andrea, you know, notice that this is where we have the palisades fire. we're expecting 30 to 40 mile per hour winds there. and the same for the fires. andrea, this is a different threat, not for like the high population centers like last time. so do not expect a repeat performance. but we still could have structures and people threatened. >> thank you very much, bill karins. and joining us now, the mayor of malibu, doug stewart.

mr. mayor, thank you. tell us what the situation is in your community right now. >> well, we're facing just as your meteorologist said, potentially heavy winds again. and what's really disconcerting about it is almost a week ago, we were in the same position, not nearly as high wind forecast as we were have today, but it is just going to be a struggle again, because if we have another fire start, we're going to be right back where we were. and we're also facing with having to deal with the damage and the consequences to our residents in the population. from the fire last week, people are still out of their homes. we don't have utilities. for the most part. people do not have cell phone service. it's only coming back in sporadic hotspot locations and we don't have electricity and we don't have the ability to talk to our people. if there was another evacuation required. so we're we're still in some dire straits

and we'll be glad when thursday comes when this wind event is over. >> and at this stage, as far as the winds are concerned, you still have aerial support. >> well, i think, as your meteorologist pointed out, if the winds go up very high, then we're going to be in trouble. as far as getting air support, it's probably going to be boots on the ground. if the if the wind is strong and hopefully we don't have to deal with that. a new fire is our biggest concern at the moment, and they've done an excellent job at putting the palisades fire under control to a degree. we're not worried about that spreading at the moment. it's more about new fires and something that might break loose out of that controlled area. >> what are you hearing from your constituents about insurance and all the reports we're hearing about people who've lost their insurance at such a critical time? >> you know, it's a terrible issue. myself and everyone else that's in southern california

and especially in these very high fire zone areas, like we have, the insurance companies have either declined to renew or you're having to go to other insurance companies that either have less coverage. for instance, the cal fire plan. i think the story is going to be underinsured or uninsured, and that's going to hurt the rebuilding process. and we're going to have to depend upon support from the governments, whether it's state or national, to provide assistance for this. we've we've got a lot of rebuilding to do. as you're showing the pictures there, the damage along the coast highway, this is a major loss. and it's not like you're going to rebuild overnight on this and it's going to be expensive. >> well, mr. mayor, we're really, you know, terribly sorry about everything that's happening to your community. and best of luck to you and all of your neighbors. thank you. >> thank you very much. and, you know, stay with us. >> absolutely. we are here.

fortunately, the terror continues out there. and meanwhile we have breaking news. judge aileen cannon has just issued a new order. she is announcing that her decision not to further block that her decision is rather to lift that injunction and not further block the release of jack smith's final report dealing with president elect trump's now dissolved election interference case. this is not the mar-a-lago case on classified documents. her previous injunction stands for now at least, and the earliest the attorney general, merrick garland, could release. the volume is at midnight tonight. and that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. remember, follow us on social media at mitchell reports. and you can rewatch the best of our show anytime on youtube. just go to msnbc.com slash. andrea. chris jansing slash. andrea. chris jansing reports starts after a short -what've you got there, larry? -time machine. you gonna go back and see how the pyramids were built or something? nope. ellen and i want to go on vacation, so i'm going to go back to last week and buy a winning lottery ticket. -can i come? -only room for one.

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