Utter Devastation
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It's Thursday, January 9th, right now on CNN This Morning. Everything is just gone and I just want to wake up from this bad dream. Utter devastation. Residents in Southern California reeling as multiple fires rip through neighborhoods leaving nothing but ash and... We are not out of danger. Raging out of control while the winds have decreased some, the danger far from over and... Whether it's one bill or two bill, it's going to get done one way or the other.

Donald Trump on the Hill meeting with senators to strategize about how best to get his agenda through Congress. Then later. It's time for the people to run the government and not the other way around. Remembering America's 39th president, today Jimmy Carter will be honored in the nation's capital. All right, it is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here is a live look at the Capitol Rotunda. There you can see President Jimmy Carter lying in state.

that shot from the top of the Capitol Dome at the Rotunda, just a stunning one that really strikes a nerve at moments like this. In just a few hours, his state funeral will be held here in the nation's capital at the National Cathedral before he'll be buried later on today in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us

We do want to start with the scenes of total devastation that are unfolding across Los Angeles County at this hour as tens of thousands of residents are fleeing from the most destructive wildfire outbreak in LA's history. Dramatic images out of the Studio City neighborhood overnight, where a home caught fire and then collapsed, sending embers flying. But thanks to the quick action of Los Angeles firefighters, that fire was contained before the nearby hillside could be engulfed in flames.

There are now several major fires burning across L.A. County, most of them 0% contained, and they're being fueled by powerful hurricane force wind gusts. More than 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders or advisories, many getting out with just moments to spare. Houses were on fire. There was gas shooting out into the road. All of the trees were on fire. I was riding. I had my helmet on.

And there were branches and embers hitting me. And it was definitely a sight to behold. The Sunset Fire is burning in Hollywood Hills. That's putting famed landmarks like the Hollywood sign into harm's way. At least five people have lost their lives in the fires and thousands of structures have been damaged or destroyed. So many have lost everything. This is our nest egg. This is

where we moved in when we got married. This is where our son was born. This was our house and this was what we worked for. This was what we were going to use to retire. That was our investment. The danger not yet over as firefighters continue to battle the flames. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us now with the latest on when conditions might improve. Derek, when could we see some relief here in Southern California?

Casey, I was encouraged this morning to wake up to see this view with helicopters actually able to fly and drop their retardants in their water on the ridgetops here fighting the fires. Remember, that's the difference between this morning and yesterday morning when we were not able to fly those fixed wing helicopters, the aircraft to help fight the fires from above, which is such a

incredible way to combat these fires. But now that the winds relaxed somewhat yesterday, they were given that opportunity to fly those airplanes. Will that continue? That's the big question because we do anticipate the wind to pick up through the course of the day today. Five active fires, Lydia Fire, Hearst Fire, Eaton Fire, Sunset Fire and Palisades Fire. But I want to zoom into Palisades

Our largest fire in western L. A county that is now moved into portions of Santa Monica. Here's the famed Santa Monica Beach, the pier and this is the burned area from the Palisades fire. Look at the outer edges right here encroaching on this very densely populated area. The winds here gusting 50 60 MPH through the course of the afternoon today. So it is going to be yet another challenging day for people and firefighters.

on the ground, Casey. - Yeah, that is an incredibly concerning detail there, Derek. Thanks very much for that report. For more on how firefighters' efforts to contain the blazes are going, let's bring in Mike Lopez. He is a retired CAL FIRE battalion chief. Mike, good morning to you. I'm sure you have many, many friends who are out there on the front lines. What have you heard from crews about the challenges they're dealing with right now? And do they have what they need to keep going?

The challenges right now have been, you know, is the wind. Obviously, if the wind slows down, the men and women of the fire service can get in there and put lines in place and start doing some active firefighting and trying to corral this. So that's our biggest hurdle is really is just trying is to get the firefighters around the working edges of the fire while the wind is slowed down to minimal before it kicks back up in the afternoon.

Mike, can you talk to us a little bit about some of the things that unfolded over the initial kind of 24 hours? We've heard reports, for example, of hydrants running dry in the Pacific Palisades. If you are a firefighter, what is what what causes that? Who's to blame for that? And how much of a problem is it?

Well, you know, it's not – it's sporadically. And what happens is not every hydrant is gridded to be affected exactly the same. Some have more pressure. Some have less. Some have more containment of containers of hydrogen.

water tanks on top of the hill. And so when you have everyone draining the system all at one time, the firefighters, and unfortunately we, you know, our citizens are trying to do the best also by, you know, they think that they're using their garden hoses and pre-wetting their, their

their homes, that helps out. It does to an extent, but the firefighters need the water to come in and extinguish that. And so the whole drawdown on the system is really when you have that, when you have millions of gallons of water being used, then that takes its toll on the whole system at large. So to blame anybody, that's a real tough one.

Yeah, fair enough. We are seeing some political conversations already about this. I'm curious about the frontline firefighters' view of what should be done as these fires are clearly getting more intense, more dramatic.

What do firefighters need? Is it more training? What kind of funds do you need? Is it, I know it's different to fight a wildfire in the brush than it is to fight it in an urban area. What do you all need from our leaders going forward? Well, throughout government in California and across the country, you know, fire departments are at a,

they're trying to retain as many firefighters as they can and try to hire. But because of budget cuts along those lines, that always creates an issue across this country, specifically California. There's a lot of that, but firefighters, fires gets put out by firefighters. If you lack firefighters, that is one of the issues that, that really contributes to this. California has the best mutual, uh,

aid system in the world where we can move resources up and down the state. So the governor did pre-position over 100 fire engines before the first fire started down in Southern California. So we have in motion a great system to predetermine and to get our resources available. So they use Cal Fire, they use local government, they use federal resources. So firefighters move down there and

You know, the question is, is it always enough or is it enough? And we can send an extra 500 fire engines down there at the very beginning. But when you have 40, 50, 60 mile an hour winds come all at once with fires behind it, you know, the firefighters are now under rescue, life safety, and they're trying to extinguish all at once. So that becomes very difficult.

Yeah, for sure. All right. Mike Lopez, very grateful for your time this morning. Again, we are always thinking of you and your frontline colleagues who are doing so much to try to help their friends and neighbors. Thank you. Thank you very much.

All right, coming up next here on CNN This Morning, one agenda, Donald Trump meets with Republicans to strategize less than two weeks before his inauguration. Republican Congressman Zach Nunn joins us live to discuss. Plus, saying goodbye to President Carter in just hours, his state funeral will begin here in Washington. And we're going to continue to cover those destructive wildfires in Southern California as tens of thousands of acres burned this morning, sending homes and iconic landmarks up in flames. It's just been nonstop. It's madness.

It's just nonstop. Once one house goes, the next one goes, the next one goes. I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast, Terms of Service. Last April, following years of concerns from lawmakers that TikTok could pose a national security risk, President Biden signed a law that would ban the app in the United States.

This is a true tragedy, and it's a mistake of the governor, and you could say the administration.

They don't have any water. They didn't have water in the fire hydrants. The governor has not done a good job. With that being said, I got along well with him when he was governor. We worked together very well, and we would work together. I guess it looks like we're going to be the one having to rebuild it.

The devastating wildfires in Los Angeles reviving Donald Trump's feud with California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom. Overnight, Trump posting on Truth Social calling for the governor's resignation, saying, quote, this is all his fault, end quote. Newsom taking a brief moment to respond while in the middle of the flames. One can't even respond to it. I mean, it's...

People are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools. Families completely torn asunder. Churches burned down. This guy wanted to politicize it. I have a lot of thoughts and I know what I want to say. I won't.

All right, our panel is here. Eli Stokols, White House correspondent with Politico. Isaac Dover, CNN senior reporter. Megan Hayes, former Biden White House director of message planning. And Scott Jennings, CNN senior political commentator, former senior advisor to Mitch McConnell. Welcome to all of you. Thank you all for being here. Scott Jennings, I will say that usually what happens here is while people are still, while these things are still happening, typically in the past, the sort of unwritten rule has been

"Hey, let's not talk about, let's not play the blame game yet. Like, let's get the fire out, right? Let's save these homes." Is it too soon for what Trump's doing? - I mean, if I were a California Democrat, I would also be screaming politicization 'cause I wouldn't want anybody drawing attention to my management of this or decision-making either. I don't think it's politicizing anything to draw attention to public policy choices. And whether you're the governor or whether you're the mayor of LA, whether you're looking at things that happen in the city, such as cutting the firefighter budget, whether you're looking at issues like

because it's California, they can't manage to build water storage, which would have come in handy on this.

I think if I lived out there, I would have these questions right now, too. And so I think if Congress, by the way, is going to spend a bunch of money, which they're going to need to do, some of these issues need to be addressed. So the fact that Trump is bringing them up now, it's actually I think most taxpayers are going to want to see policy changes so that we don't have to repeat this in the future. Megan Hayes. Yeah. So I'm from California and these water fights have been older than I am. And the

long time and I'm from Northern California, so there's always the fight of the water. But L.A. doesn't actually get most of its water from Northern California. It gets it from the Colorado River. But needless to say, you're right on some of these policy decisions and that's fair to look at. You say the president-elect wants to get along with the governor, but calling him new scum is probably not the best way to do that. But I agree that people should look at their policy decisions, but I don't think now is the time to do that. People literally have lost

everything they have in these urban fires are not something that california's used to are used to wildfires and that's i think there is a little bit different argument here one of us took was in the bottom line is that this is about presidential politics right i mean the back and forth between donald trump and

Gavin Newsom. I mean, it is no secret that Gavin Newsom wants to run for president. Obviously, Donald Trump cannot run again, but I mean, I feel like I'm hearing the next presidential campaign already in his words. Which is wild because we just finished one and Donald Trump has four years in office. The inauguration hasn't even happened. I mean, if this was happening last year, it would make a little more sense in the context of, well,

Donald Trump has a political case to prosecute. And also, this is just sort of what Donald Trump does. We've seen in natural disasters and tragedies when he was president and after his presidency, his instinct is not to express empathy to the people who are going through it. His instinct is to point the finger. And that's what he's doing. Scott's right. There are legitimate questions to be asked about

about management, about budget cuts. I mean, the nuance of this is a little more complicated than the way Trump is presenting it. The budget cuts in Los Angeles, $17 million to the firefighters budget, those were pushed forward by Republicans as well who wanted her to cut the budget. There are consequences to all these policy decisions. They're playing out in real time. It's understandable that people would wanna talk about that at some point

But this is nothing new from President Trump. What's interesting is just sort of like, what's the upside for him politically? He's the president now. And, you know. What do you think, Isaac, are the implications of this for Newsom, who clearly so does want to be on the national stage? I mean, this...

This is a disaster and it did happen on his watch. - It did, but I don't think you can blame any politician for this kind of natural disaster. - Doesn't mean people won't though. - Sure, and let's see what actually happens with the fires and the aftermath of it. I do think that given the way that this fight is playing out politically, we can talk about the back and forth and the presidential implications or political implications.

People in California have reason to be skeptical that they will receive federal aid at the level that they might have had another president been about to come in. Because as Eli was saying, Donald Trump was vengeful when he was president his first term in deploying federal aid. He clearly sees a political issue with Gavin Newsom. He wants to have this fight, call him Gavin Newsom. We can go back and forth, but at the

the end of it, it's about the people whose houses have been destroyed, whose businesses have been destroyed, and what's going to happen to them. And that's where this fight really becomes about more than just 2028. And on top of that fight, all these people lost their insurance, too. Like, insurance policies were canceled just in January. Like, there are some serious questions here about how insurance companies are operating that Congress should probably be investigating, too. There's a lot that goes into this. I mean, people were talking about how they've had homes in...

their families for 70 years and their policies were canceled the beginning of January and they didn't have fire insurance. So I mean, I don't know obviously all the facts there, but that's a real policy issue. - I do think there's a split screen here too with Florida to be honest. A lot of what we talk about in terms of emergency management in this country almost always comes from hurricanes and weather and who is the recognized best emergency manager

in the country, Ron DeSantis in Florida. So Newsom is also, he's under assault from Trump a little bit, but he's also dealing with, I think, a comparative here. What do other governors do? Is he as good? So when you talk about the future politics of it, is he as good at this as another governor might be?

Could be a real problem for him because, you know, right now I think people have serious questions and there are no answers yet. He'll have a chance to answer them, but it doesn't look great right now. Trump is blaming Biden for this on a presidential level. He's about to be president for another four years. There are going to be more natural disasters that occur on his watch. And so you're setting up the situation where is it the president's fault every time there's a fire because conditions are dry or every time there's a hurricane? When he's president, he will say it's not his fault, but it just kind of sets that up, that expectation up that...

"Oh, well, the president has something to do with this or could have prevented this," which is not necessarily the case. - All right, panel will be back a little bit later on this hour, but straight ahead on CNN This Morning, final trip canceled. President Biden nixes his last presidential visit abroad. We'll talk about that. Plus, working through the night, firefighters continuing to battle the flames in California. Our breaking news coverage continues next.

All right, we're back now with our top story this morning. The Palisades fire, now officially the most destructive on record for Los Angeles. Over a thousand structures gone, with more in the fire's path. The actor, James Woods, sharing video of the Palisades fire closing in on his home. He and his wife escaped. A devastated Woods telling CNN he's not sure he'll have a home to go back to. Sarah was on with her eight-year-old niece last night. She came out.

I'm sorry. Just, you know, one day you're swimming in the pool and the next day it's all gone. But she came out with her little Yeti piggy bank for us to rebuild our house. I'm sorry. I'm usually, I thought I would be stronger than this. I thought I'd be stronger than this, but you know. CNN's Lee Waldman has been on the ground reporting for us there. Let's watch.

Here in the Pacific Palisades, we've watched as building after building continues to go up in flames. This one, the latest one we've watched as the building itself seems to be collapsing in on itself, throwing embers across the street as wind gusts pick up those flames and throw those embers across the street. Here in LA County, now six

Wildfires are burning. This is stretching resources of already exhausted fire crews incredibly thin as we hear explosions off in the distance as more buildings like this one are engulfed in flames.

People who live near the Eden Fire burning in Altadena are worried their homes are gone. The deadly blaze ballooned more than 10,000 acres overnight and is now threatening about 13,000 buildings. It's been moving throughout the night. It was pretty clear last night. I came back this morning, fire and the winds moving this morning.

The Palisades fire is now over 15,800 acres and has already destroyed at least 1000 structures, making it the most destructive ever in Los Angeles County, according to Cal Fire. My neighborhood is entirely burned down. My elementary school is probably burned down. My high school is burned down.

and my middle school might burn down. Tens of thousands of people are under evacuation orders. First thing is rescue operations. We want you out. Houses can be replaced, all that. Lives cannot.

Thursday is expected to see critical fire danger stretching from Santa Barbara to San Diego. The White House says President Joe Biden has officially approved a major disaster declaration for California, unlocking federal resources for survivors. I mean, it is heartbreaking. We lost everything and not only us, everyone around us. When I was standing in my front yard, I was looking at this giant red building

glowing fire that was just enveloping everything and it was just heart wrenching. Fire crews from other states will be coming here to assist with the already stretched thin resources that we're seeing across California and the Pacific Palisades. I'm Lee Waldman reporting.

Our thanks to Lee for that report. After the break here on CNN This Morning, renaming the Gulf of Mexico? Add that to the list of things Donald Trump wants to do when he takes office. Republican Congressman Zach Nunn joins us next to discuss. Plus, other states now sending backup to help fire crews stretched thin in Southern California. It was a very, very long night, similar to today. Lack of resources, lack of water. You can't prepare enough for something like this. It's impossible. I'm Anderson Cooper.

Grief isn't talked about much, but that's what my podcast is all about. I had a really nice dream about my mom a while ago. You know, just a visit with somebody. This is All There Is, Season 3. My guests are actress, author, comedian Amy Sedaris and her brother, author David Sedaris. I think about it still every day. Every day, yeah, I do. Mom, dad, people who die, friends, animals. You don't know what it's like until you lose a parent. It just changes everything. Listen to All There Is with Anderson Cooper wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, welcome back. The Mexican president, Claudia Scheinbaum, poking fun at Donald Trump's proposal to rename the Gulf of Mexico. This was her suggestion. Why don't we call it Mexican America? It sounds nice, right? Since 1607, the constitution of Apatzingan referred to it as Mexican America. We're going to call it Mexican America. It sounds beautiful, right?

Trump's idea to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America is just one of several new foreign policy ideas that he's put on the table and that are causing some backlash. Leaders from Panama and Denmark reiterating their territorial sovereignty after Trump refused to rule out using military force to acquire both the Panama Canal and Greenland. Democrats say his proposals are all part of a larger strategy.

Why is Donald Trump doing this? And I think the answer is, let's have a big distraction and several more questions so we don't spend more time on Pete Hegseth, the nominee to be the head of the Department of Defense. So we don't spend more time on Tulsi Gabbard, who has been in the pocket of Putin. Donald Trump is in over his head. So he's doing what he always does in times like this: distract America with crazy ideas.

Renaming the Gulf of Mexico may be a zany new idea, but it isn't going to help people save money at the grocery store.

All right, joining us now to discuss Republican Congressman Zach Nunn of Iowa. Congressman, great to see you again. Thanks for being here. Casey, thrilled to be here with you. Thank you so much. So you are a veteran yourself, having served two decades or so in the Air Force. The Wall Street Journal editorial board looks at this this morning, and they say that the trick is figuring out when Mr. Trump is trolling and when he means it.

They think he's trolling Canada. It's a muddle in Panama, but the Greenland is intriguing. What do you think is real and what is trolling? Well, here's what I know. I know that the U.S. has severe national security aspects that have gone basically unanswered for the last four years here. And so Democrats can get angry at the president all they want, but we know this much is true. We have multiple Chinese deepwater ports being built in Panama today. We have a direct threat from Russia

against the continental United States where Greenland is the overland path or the airspace path. It's the land space in which we can protect our country. The president is laying out a number of things. I think that the media likes to stir the pot on these things and, you know, try and box him in. And he has just given himself the latitude to be able to make sure that U.S. national interest is put first.

The other aspects of this, I think, are part of the vibrato of the team here that the administration does like to raise the tenor on this. Most importantly, though, I know the administration coming in is very focused on a national security playbook that puts

America at the center of defense for the country. As a veteran, would you be comfortable with America using military force to take control of Greenland? Yes, I think the president is very clear on this. He's just ruling out no limitations on this. And I think it's very important that there's a difference between suggesting he's going to invade Greenland versus being able to say he wants to keep his negotiating position open so that he can have a conversation in tandem with our allies to be able to deter actors like Russia over Greenland and China off the coast of the Panama Canal.

Donald Trump, the president-elect, was on Capitol Hill yesterday meeting with Senate Republicans about how best to get this massive agenda through Congress. What do you think is the imperative

from where you sit in the House Republican Conference to get Donald Trump's agenda passed. - Casey, I think, you know, we spent this weekend here working with House and Senate members and the administration's team to move forward agenda items that were top priority for the American people. First amongst this is securing our southern border. This was passed in HR one last time by Congress. This is a ready round that we can fire immediately.

The second was unleashing American energy. It helps drive down costs for every American, whether you're spending six bucks on eggs or just trying to fill up your minivan. These are things that are important. We were able to pass that again in HR2. This is something where we've shown great coalition. And then making sure that we draw down the amount of government overspend.

There's a huge way to do this. One, reduce our debt, but also grow our economy. And that's something we are seeing in the extension of the Trump 2017 tax cuts. This is something we want to be able to see extended. I have a lot of faith that in the reconciliation process, we can get all three of those accomplished by Memorial of this year.

Elon Musk this morning seems to have rewritten his goal for Doge. He had previously said $2 trillion would be cut in government spending. We here at CNN have analyzed that, and it's very difficult to get there. He seems now to be revising that number downward to something closer to $1 trillion. What do you think is realistic? I think absolutely we need to be cutting a lot at the federal government level.

both the overreach, but it has to be done in tandem with growing the American economy. I mean, the best stimulator to get us out of the $36 trillion debt is to be able to allow small families in Iowa, farms, communities to actually be able to grow their ability. We have seen time and time again, all the way back to Reagan, to what Newt Gingrich was able to do with passing a balanced budget, to what Trump's been able to do is we want a blue collar boom that really helps grow the economy. And that's giving more Americans

their tax dollars back in their pocket, where they invest in their local community. So I want to see that grow as well as a cutback on just the vast overreach we see coming out of Washington, D.C. Briefly, I want to ask you about relief for these wildfires out in California, which is going to be something that inevitably is going to come to Congress. In previous decades, this was typically an apolitical thing. Tornadoes could happen in Iowa, for example. So members of Congress typically would support each other when their states

went through something like this, but we've seen this be increasingly politicized in recent years. Do you want to see Congress support aid California without regard? Do you think that President-elect Trump should take into consideration that it's a blue state, that there are political considerations, or should he not? Well, Casey, first of all, for the thousands of Americans who lost their homes, it doesn't matter what political stripe you're from, you've lost your home. And I think

As a guy from Iowa who saw one of my small towns, Greenfield, nearly wiped off the face of the planet, we want to make sure that Americans in their time of need have the support that they demand. It's one of the reasons we were able to pass $100 billion towards relief just this last month. Now, I think the president's absolutely correct on this, though, is it's not just a blank check.

And in some areas, we have seen a failure to be able to do the important things like we just noted here on water resource management, on being able to control forest fires by proper forest management. I've got family out there helping fight the fires right now. I don't want any first responder to be out there in dangerous way when the lead up to this has been a government that has been negligent. And even worse, American taxpayers trying to help the relief of victims

knowing that it's just going to go back to the same bad practices that tragically helped lead to this situation. Do you think Donald Trump was too quick to criticize Governor Gavin Newsom considering the fires are still burning? Or do you think he has a point? Yeah, I think he has a long-term point here on what precipitated this. Now, we're in the middle of a disaster, and I expect that all hands will be on deck. As a military guy with 20 years, you know, as a colonel in the Air Force, I want to see a mission-focused result.

one that helps save lives and prevents the situation from happening again. I think we can do two things at the same time here. Effectively go after these fires, provide local, state, and federal resources to help mitigate it, while at the same time recognizing before we give more dollars over to a system that's not working, we do the reform on the front end. All right. Congressman Zach Nunn, so grateful for your time this morning. Casey, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thanks very much.

Our count up next here on CNN This Morning. In just hours, our nation will gather to honor a legacy of service. Today, America's 39th president, Jimmy Carter, will be laid to rest. Plus, these stories just of utter terror as people flee the flames in Southern California. It got to a point where in the Palisades, we were at a deadlock and the fire came down on my car on both sides.

And the firemen started running in between all of the cars, screaming, get out and run, get out and run. And people just abandoned their cars and people running down the streets with their babies and their dogs and running towards the ocean. All right, we're now going to Southern California. These are live pictures that you are looking at right now. Catastrophic wildfires have just caused

unimaginable loss and firefighters are still reporting zero containment with three of the blazes. Our next guest, Nicole Mall. She is the national spokesperson for the American Red Cross and she joins us now from an evacuation shelter in L.A. Nicole, we're very grateful for you to take for taking some time with us. I'd love to hear what you're hearing from people who are coming in there who are desperately looking for help from you. And we also know that this

is far from over. Well, for a little bit of perspective here in Los Angeles right now, it is still the three o'clock hour. So that means the folks that we're taking care of here at this shelter are really doing their best to try to get the best sleep that they can given the circumstances. As you can imagine, this is not an easy situation for folks with thousands of people evacuated. And we've got hundreds of those folks at shelters across Los Angeles County evacuated.

This is a difficult time and as I've talked with folks who've been evacuated, as I've talked with fellow Red Cross workers who also have experienced evacuation orders themselves, what I found is it's a difficult time but the sense of community, the sense of rallying together

It really, it's inspiring. And even during this incredibly difficult time, folks are pulling together for each other. And I hear conversations where strangers are helping strangers, strangers are comforting strangers, and we're proud to be able to just help folks alongside their journey.

Of course. Can you tell us a little bit about what you most need right now as you try to help victims of this? Because there are also additional, we may have just lost Nicole there. We may try to see if we can get her back. But otherwise, we are going to thank her for the great service that they are providing in this time. As she discussed, so many people need so much from them right now. Nicole Maul, thanks very much.

Let's go now to CNN's Julia Vargas Jones. She's live in Altadena. That is near the Eaton fire. Julia, what are you seeing this morning? Well, Casey, it's still very much an active situation. That fire is still at 10,600 acres and 0% contained. What we're seeing in street after street here in Altadena is scenes like this one. Houses that are completely ravaged by the fire.

still burning next to houses that are still okay. I'm not sure if you can see that quite yet. It is still quite dark here. But it also, I want to point out, it's as this fire that's coming through these constructions then

hits the fuel that's been growing. We had a record precipitation two years ago, more or less here in California, and that built all of this bush, all of this fuel for fires that now it's just waiting to run. That's how this fire spreads so quickly. And we have been quite lucky until, you know, this week when these 100 mile an hour winds end up

up pushing all of this fire into neighborhoods like this one firefighters are still working tirelessly they're still responding to some calls over here what we are hearing also casey they're working

36, 48 hour shifts and it's not enough. There are firefighters coming from Arizona, from Nevada, from Oregon and all of this as other fires are in the Los Angeles area not too far from here. You know, this really scary sunset fire in the middle of Los Angeles completely surrounded by fire. Now, we also saw a lot of resilience from this community. People helping each other, doing what they can with buckets, hoses to try and contain this fire from spreading even further. Casey.

All right, Julia Vargas Jones on the ground for us this morning. Julia, very grateful for you. Thanks very much for this. All right, let's turn now to this story. Today, former President Jimmy Carter will reach his final resting place. In just a few hours, Washington, D.C., will gather to say goodbye to the president, peanut farmer and humanitarian. Carter's state funeral at the National Cathedral expected to be attended by all the living presidents, including President Joe Biden, who will deliver the eulogy.

President-elect Trump also expected to be there. He visited Carter as he lay in state in the Capitol yesterday. Later this afternoon, Carter will be laid to rest next to his beloved wife of 77 years in the place where it all began for him. Well, Plains is my home. You know, I was born there. My wife was born there. When I got out of the Navy in 1953, I came back to Plains. And then when I got through being governor, I came back to Plains. When I got through being president, I came back to Plains.

And now, no matter where we are in the world, we're always looking forward to getting back home to Plains. I would say the haven for our lives has been in Plains, Georgia. All right, joining us now is Kate Anderson Brower. She's the author of "Team of Five: The President's Club in the Age of Trump," as well as "The Residents: Inside the Private World."

of the White House. Kate, good morning. I'm so grateful to have you. You have, of course, written the book on this, and this is going to be a very rare situation in the age of Donald Trump at this Carter funeral to have all five of these living presidents together in the same place. What does it mean to you as you understand the arc of history for this most exclusive of fraternities?

We haven't seen them together since 2018, George H.W. Bush's funeral. And, you know, I think it's important in a time when there's so much divisiveness to see this as a country, that there are these sacred traditions that go beyond politics.

I think especially I'm looking forward to hearing Steve Ford, Gerald Ford's son, and Ted Mondale, Walter Mondale's son, read eulogies that their fathers had promised to deliver at Carter's funeral because Carter and Ford were very, very close, even though they were rivals during the election. And then Mondale was the first vice president who really made, because of Carter, had an office in the West Wing.

Carter, among many things, professionalized the role of the vice presidency. So it's really paying homage to not only Carter, but these beautiful friendships and relationships. And I think we could all use that about now.

When you reflect on Carter's legacy, we were struck. And in fact, let me let me play this for you. This was an interview in 2010 that Jimmy Carter did with Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes, kind of reflecting a little bit on his presidency. He, of course, was a one term president, just as Joe Biden is going to be a one term president. Let's watch this.

They told you that you had an image of weakness. You were right that they told you this. Sure, and they did. A lack of esteem in the public eye. And they just beat up on you. I think they were telling me that the public image of me was that I was not a strong leader. That I should not only arouse support,

from affection, but also from fear. So did you change? Did you start to operate from fear? Maybe a little bit more than I would have. Kate, what do you make of that exchange there, and how do you understand Carter's legacy here in the present?

Well, you know, he said he wouldn't lie to the American people and he didn't. I think we kind of lionize his post-presidency and look at his presidency as a bit of a failure. But it's certainly not fair to say that. He did a lot of incredible things, including, of course, the Camp David Peace Accords. But, you know, he talked to the American people in his crisis of confidence speech.

and said, "We have to take energy conservation seriously. People shouldn't be so obsessed with consumerism and constantly buying things." And he almost was delivering a sermon. And his faith, his Christian faith, was obviously very important to him. And I think the American people bristled at that because there was a sense that he was telling them what to do. But in his mind, he was speaking to them

you know, as an equal, as somebody who knew what it was like to have times in his life where he didn't have much money. And so I think that it backfired on him that maybe we don't necessarily want a president who's always completely honest with us. Maybe we don't. Kate Anderson Brower, very grateful to have you on the show today. Thank you very much for your perspective. Thanks, Casey.

And do join us here on CNN as the country mourns the loss of the 39th president. Special coverage of the state funeral of Jimmy Carter begins today at 9 a.m. Eastern, right here. I will be at the National Cathedral for all of that. Following Carter's funeral, President Biden will remain in Washington after scrapping his last overseas presidential trip to visit the Pope. He is instead staying in the United States to focus on the fires scorching California.

Now, as Biden prepares to end his term in just 11 days, how is today's funeral impacting him? Our own Isaac DuVere spoke with a former Biden aide who said this, quote, is seeing all this coverage of Carter

Being a one-term president, impacting his psyche about the last days of his presidency. The man set out to be president from the day he ran for office. Did he accomplish what he set out to accomplish? Is his legacy good enough for him? And our panel is back. Isaac, tell us a little bit more about the...

The sort of imagery or the symmetry here, perhaps, is the word is pretty striking. Yeah. And as I write in the story that's up on our site, this is a weird situation because Joe Biden is going to today attend a funeral that will look a lot like his own funeral whenever that day comes. Every president makes a plan for his funeral. That's part of what happens. And

This is getting to see what it'll be like. And he'll be delivering the eulogy at it at a moment when he is coming to the close of his presidency, but not just the close of the presidency. He's been in politics his entire life, 55-year career that is about to end. And

Joe Biden, I think I've spent more time with him over the years than maybe some others, but I think most people can see that he is a reflective person. He thinks about things in a deep way. Death has been a constant in his life.

And as he thinks about this ending here that's coming on January 20th, an ending that he did not want to his political career or to his presidency, not just because he didn't get reelected to another term, but that Donald Trump is coming back. This is all coming on him pretty heavy. Megan Hayes, you obviously worked in the Biden White House for quite some time and you know President Biden. This also comes as he, you know, he reflected an interview with Susan Page yesterday

That he's not sure what's next for him, how he'll be at 86 years old. Pretty striking admission for a lot of reasons. But of course, when you said it in the context of a eulogy and his own potential future presidential funeral, it's quite a lot.

Absolutely. And also the Biden family just welcomed his first great grandchild yesterday. So the circle of life is continuing here. So it is pretty reflective time for him. I do think, you know, he always would say when my dad retired is when he passed away. And so I think that the president's going to focus really quickly on what he's going to do

you know, to continue and what his legacy will be post-presidency probably will not be as long as Jimmy Carter's as we see. But, you know, I do think that he'll want to do something. He'll want to still be involved. You know, he had the Biden moonshot, the cancer moonshot, excuse me, before. And I'm sure he'll be pretty active in that as well. And some other things that he's pretty passionate about. But I do think he this is a reflective time and you can't help but reflect on this time.

I was talking to some people in the White House about why the president had planned to spend some of his final days in office visiting with the Pope. And they acknowledged that this was going to be a really personal trip for the president, a person who wears his Catholic faith on his sleeve. And it was, they admitted, largely about his need to feel at peace with not just his four years in office, but 50 years in public life. And there is an acute awareness of...

an ending here, a threshold where you're ceding power to Donald Trump. This has to be a difficult moment for, as Meghan and Isaac said, a reflective person.

And a difficult moment at the end of a long career. And I think part of why he wanted to meet with Pope Francis was to just be able to feel a little bit more at peace with his career, what he did. And obviously, the responsibilities of being president are going to deny him that meeting, at least in the short term. And the specifics of it being Jimmy Carter, who was the first presidential candidate that Joe Biden endorsed as a senator, who was also a one-term president, left

in circumstances that Jimmy Carter didn't want, that they stayed friendly over the years. It's not just any presidential funeral or any former president that's died here, but it's all of that that's coming into this too. - Yeah, for Democrats, I mean, this is the first failed presidency since Carter. Clinton got reelected, Obama got reelected. Democrats, I think, judge those things to have been successes. But Carter was a failed president.

And the image and the sort of caricature of Carter has hung over the Democratic Party for a very long time. If you're Joe Biden, you must be wondering, is how I'm leaving office going to hang over my party? Not only did I not get reelected, but I also brought back Donald Trump stronger and more influential than ever.

I interviewed Jimmy Carter in 2018, and I said to him, how do you feel about being the example that's always brought up of a failed president? He said, well, you know, I don't like to be compared unfavorably to anybody, but, you know, it's politics. That's the way it goes. And I think the question here is, you know, going forward, how much does Joe Biden take on that role in political conversation? All right. Thanks to all of you for being with us today. Thanks to all of you at home for joining us as well. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.