California Fires Still Raging
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Surveying the damage, residents in Southern California returning to the charred remains of their homes. But the threat is not over yet. And... I'll do my little thing tomorrow. They can have fun with their political opponent. Sentencing day. Donald Trump about to cement his status as the first person convicted of a felony to assume the presidency. And... We're going to find things to work together for a better Pennsylvania and a better nation.

Reaching across the aisle, John Fetterman becoming the first Democratic senator to make the trip to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump. And then later. We're not used to driving on ice and snow. We're not used to driving in conditions like this. A powerful winter storm hitting the South, dumping several inches of snow in Texas and leaving dangerous conditions in its wake.

All right, 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at Kansas City, Missouri, where it is rather snowy on this Friday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. For the fourth straight day, residents of Southern California are waking up to unimaginable scenes of devastation. Several major wildfires continue to burn in and around Los Angeles County, including the Palisades Fire, which is already the most destructive in L.A. history and is only 6% contained at this point.

complicating the fight, an incident in which a firefighting plane like this one collided with a drone that was illegally flying in restricted airspace. The crew was able to land safely, but the plane sustained damage and it was taken out of service. The FAA is now investigating. And new overnight, police announcing they've arrested a person suspected of trying to start a fire in the Woodland Hills area.

Now, the LAPD is not confirming whether the suspect had any connection to the newly formed Kenneth fire that we saw explode overnight. At least 10 people have died in these fires and 10,000 structures have been lost across Los Angeles County. The progress in getting the fires under control is slow as the weather conditions continue to remain treacherous.

We're hearing some weather reports from National Weather Service that there might be some more red flag conditions coming up next week. So this fire is far from over. And while the threat, as he says, is far from over, so many have already lost everything. Right over here is my kitchen, my living room. Oh, my God. Pots and pans and stuff right there. Oh, my God. Yeah. Mm-mm-mm.

25 years I've been here. Easy, 25. Gone. Less than three hours. When you look out at your neighborhood, what happened here? It just looked like a war zone here. This is a war zone. Looked just like a war zone. I saw the fire at 2 o'clock. I took a picture. At 4 o'clock, my phone went off and it says, evacuate, evacuate. And that's what we did. There's nothing. There's nothing left. I literally just have the clothes on my back.

There's nothing. Things that my grandmother gave me, my granddaughter, she's always making me something, and I put it in a frame, you know? I don't have those no more. Yvette said that this guy's house was touched by God. It had to be, because it sure didn't burn. But if his house is touched by God, what happened to the rest of the neighborhood? God didn't care about us. There it shows it right now. But I'm going to let this go, and I'm going to close my gate, and I'm going to get out of here.

'cause it's just making me sick. - Just so many tragic stories unfolding all across Los Angeles County. CNN's Maribel Gonzalez has been on the ground over the past several days. She is joining us now, and of course, Maribel has been with us each morning throughout this as these flames have continued to burn. This is from Thursday in the Pacific, Palisades, California. Maribel, what are you seeing where you are right now? - Keep going, keep going. Don't point the light at her.

Casey is just a devastating scene here. We talked about thousands and thousands of people who had had to flee their homes into safety. Many of them will be returning to scenes just like this one. Almost their entire neighborhood burned down, reduced their homes, reduced to ashes and debris. Now here where we're standing, this is the scene that's replaying

over and over again all throughout Pacific Palisades. As we know, this has been one of the hardest hit areas. And Casey, yesterday we were in the downtown area where we saw multiple buildings burning overnight. The threat of the fire damage still very real as in this area, the fire, the largest one of all five is at 6% containment. All right, Maribel Gonzalez live on scene for us this morning. Maribel, thank you very much for that.

all right let's turn now uh to this we're going to bring in brian rice who is the president of the california professional uh fire fighters uh brian we're so grateful uh to have you back on the program uh this morning can you talk to us a little bit about i mean these your firefighters have now this is the fourth day of this many of them i'm sure have not slept in days uh what are you hearing from those on the front lines about this disaster

Good morning Casey and thank you. The firefighters are on the line. We're hearing much that, you know, they have a job, they're focused. You're going to hear much the same thing that you're hearing from the residents. They're stunned. They're in disbelief. Nobody thought that a wildfire could transition into an urban interface, into an urban conflagration like this.

And most of the firefighters on the line right now are entering into probably about hour 96 plus. And those men and women are not going to stop working outside to, you know, hydrate up for a minute, get an energy bar, maybe get something hot if they're lucky, because they're going to focus right now and in the overnight of trying to build containment anywhere they can. These men and women are not going to be resting probably overnight.

I'll bet you they have 48 hours plus more of straight work here. And then you're going to see probably some rotations. But this is a job that

All conventions are out the window until we have the residents taken care of and in safe harbor and the fire beginning to see some containment around it. The men and women on this, the boots on the ground are committed 100% without stopping because that is what you have to do. And here's the other thing. It's us. There's nobody else coming. We're the men and women, or excuse me, the men and women on the line are the ones that are going to take care of this and make the situation safe.

It's pretty stark when you put it that way. Brian, when you say that no one expected this to jump from basically a wilderness brush fire to an urban conflagration, can you talk a little bit about why that might not have been expected? And help me understand a little bit. My understanding is that it's kind of different sets of skills and different training to fight these different types of fires. What does that mean for those on the front lines?

Yeah, I'm going to correct myself a little bit, Casey. When this fire started and the winds were blowing so hard, it was an interface fire and it quickly transitioned into an urban conflagration. I think that we all knew that that was a major possibility. I don't think anybody realized the scale because how do you imagine this?

I look at this and to me, I equate it to 1906 in San Francisco and the earthquake itself and the devastation after. That's what we're looking at. The firefighters and California firefighters in particular,

There are CAL FIRE, you know, predominantly in the Southern Cal area, LA City, LA County, but all municipal fire departments in California, the firefighters are urban interface fire trained, meaning the men and women down there are trained to deal and work in this kind of an environment. They're equipped with it. They're equipped to attack this type of a fire, but we're seeing it in a scale of

I think worldwide that's never been seen before. And, um, even the most hardened seasoned professionals, um, when they get a moment to themselves to reflect on what they've done, they're going to be stunned and it's going to be, um,

It's going to be a tough recovery for everybody in that area that has played a part in this, whether you're a resident, evacuee, somebody who's lost your home. We know some families have lost loved ones. But California firefighters, we are trained. We are equipped. These men and women are some of the best in the world. And, you know, even though the training is that high, the level is that high, and the qualifications, no one is –

set up to deal with Mother Nature in the way that we have just seen it in the last four days. - Yeah. Brian, briefly, we learned that there was a civilian drone flying in restricted airspace and it damaged one of the two large water planes that are able to fight. It's now been grounded. What's your message to anyone who may be putting up such a civilian drone that may interfere with the firefighting effort in this way?

Casey, if I could give a little safety message. Overall, if you're a drone pilot as a hobby enthusiast, stay out of

of the evacuation zones, the fire parameters, this would be a time when you should ground your drone and not be flying it. They did have one hit one of the air tankers, successfully landed, but it did damage the asset. That aircraft is not flying. The second thing is, this is not an area that you want to be a sightseer. And we know that there's, you know, 15 million people living in Los Angeles County. That environment is toxic.

The International Agency on Cancer Research has classified firefighting as a group one carcinogen. And they do that because of the smoke and the byproduct of smoke from building fires. Y'all, we've lost thousands of homes down there. And that thick, dark, black smoke, it's toxic. And so stay out of the area, evacuate. If you're a drone pilot, do not put your drone in the air and evacuate.

and stay off the roads in the area because right now when the weather is somewhat calming and we have anticipation, now is the time for firefighters to make gains. And if we have things that interrupt like drones that strike an aircraft or people that want to sightsee or have good intentions but they impede the roadways, all these things complicate this emergency. So that would be my caution to all Californians. Stay away from the area.

and pay attention to what's going on and take care of your neighbors. - An important message. Brian Rice for us this morning, sir. Very grateful to you and of course everyone on the front lines fighting these fires. Thank you.

All right, coming up, of course, on CNN This Morning. After a failed last-ditch effort today, Donald Trump will be sentenced. The president elects vow to keep fighting. Plus, the fate of TikTok in the hands of the Supreme Court. Today, the justices will hear arguments about the future of that popular app. And utter devastation, apocalyptic scenes across Southern California as those wildfires continue to burn.

Surreal doesn't even begin to describe it. It just feels like, I mean, we're in the land of movies and it felt like beyond a movie. Their entire history, we watched Burn live on TV. 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.

unless its owner sold it to a non-Chinese company. TikTok challenged the law, saying it violates the First Amendment. The United States government has never banned a social media app before. Follow CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. Hours from now, President-elect Donald Trump will face sentencing in his New York hush money cover-up case, and in just 10 days will become the first convicted felon to assume America's highest office.

After months of delays and a slew of appeals, the Supreme Court denied Trump's emergency request Thursday to delay the sentencing. Following the high court's decision, Trump attacked Judge Juan Marchand, who has already said he will not impose jail time. We're going to appeal anyway, just psychologically, because frankly, it's a disgrace. It's a judge that shouldn't have been on the case. So I'll do my little thing tomorrow. They can have fun with their political opponent.

Two of the court's conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined the three liberals, making it a five to four decision. Our panel is here. Molly Ball, CNN Legal Analyst. No, she is a senior political correspondent at The Wall Street Journal. CNN Legal Analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams is also here. Kate Bedingfield, CNN Political Commentator, former Biden White House Communications Director, and Brad Todd, who's a CNN Political Commentator and also a Republican strategist. Welcome to all of you. Elliot, were you surprised by this decision?

- Yes and no. No in that it is the right decision legally. Now we can set the politics aside and I'll talk about the legal-- Yes, only in so far as nothing has been predictable when it comes to legal matters with respect to Donald Trump and where the courts are going to go on. So there is an element of surprise to it. Legally, it's quite straightforward.

in order for Donald Trump, not even say Donald Trump, the defendant to be able to have his rights as a defendant, to move on with his appeal, to make the arguments he's talking about, the sort of challenges of the underlying lawsuit, he's gotta be sentenced. That's a basic fact in American law and the Supreme Court

what's a bipartisan or at least cross-ideological segment of the Supreme Court said, let's let this play out in the future, sentence this defendant. If he has other arguments in the future, he can raise them. So it's a quite straightforward legal matter. Now, there's all kinds of politics around Donald Trump, and I get it, legally,

- I have a question though, Elliot. The court said that because the judge had indicated that his sentence would not include any jail time, it was gonna be just an unlimited discharge, that that also gave them the flexibility to make this ruling. Do you think if Mershon had not sort of foretold what his sentence would be, that the court would still rule this way? - That's a great question. They might have, but there were two different arguments Trump was making, which is a legal one. I have other arguments to make.

and a practical one, which is, well, I might go to jail and that's problematic for me to be president. And he's, frankly, he's right on that. I think on that practical point, they were saying, look, the court has already said that you're not going to jail. So that practical argument doesn't make sense. To the extent you still have a legal one, then have at it, make your legal arguments, but your legal arguments are not triggered until you're sentenced. And the Supreme Court more than anything else in the world likes to punt

and give parties opportunities to raise legal arguments in the future. So again, as a straight up, the state versus John Doe issue, this was absolutely the right call. - Molly, the politics though are what they are. And this is going to mean that when he,

that conviction will be there on his record when he stands on the Capitol steps on Monday, January 20th. - Yeah, well, but politically, Donald Trump has already beaten the rap in every meaningful sense, right? I mean, and he feels that the election to some extent was a referendum on these charges and the American people decided they were not disqualifying, they did not care or at least waited against other concerns, they were not that important.

And he won the election anyway. He tweeted yesterday, he truthed yesterday that this was, you know, the pathetic dying remnants of the witch hunt. And that really is how it feels, right? Not without, you know, necessarily agreeing with his language about a witch hunt. This is the sort of pathetic dying remnants of all of the legal cases against him. There were so many. And

for so long last year, it seemed like he was going to be mired in all of this stuff. The Supreme Court took a lot of it off of his plate with the immunity decision. And this is sort of all that's left. And like, why?

What are they going to do? Put him under house arrest? He can't leave the White House? It really is sort of over when it comes to these legal cases. Yeah, look, I don't disagree with any of that. I think this is fairly politically irrelevant at this point, which is still, I think, a sort of shocking thing to accept that the incoming president of the United States' criminal convictions are politically irrelevant. But that's just the fact of the matter. They are.

And I think in the way that, you know, I think the way Trump is responding and sort of downplaying it and kind of saying, you know, let them do their little thing rather than, you know, getting riled up and fighting it,

also just kind of indicates, you know, it's just not, it is not going to have a whole lot of political salience in this moment. I think it is a pathetic dying remnants of a witch hunt. That's a pretty good description. But I also think one takeaway from this is all the left-wingers who got their knickers in a twist over Amy Coney Barrett and saying she would do whatever Trump wanted, they owe her an apology today. Oh, come on. And let's see it. That will not be forthcoming. I'm just going to tell you right now.

All right, our panel is going to be back a little bit later on in the show. Ahead here on CNN This Morning, a winter storm is sweeping across the South. Hundreds of flights already impacted by the conditions. And Democratic Senator John Fetterman accepts a bipartisan invitation from the president-elect. Michael Smirconish will be here for Smirconish Friday.

Welcome back. A winter storm is growing in strength this morning, dumping snow, ice and rain across the southeast. That combination causing dangerous road conditions. You can see it here in this footage from Arkansas. The storm also prompting nearly 2000 flights to be canceled. Let's get to our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, with more on this. Allison, good morning.

And good morning and I can confirm it is actually snowing outside of our downtown Atlanta office. I ran out just before the commercial break to go take a look and it is snowing in several places. Pretty much most of the state of Tennessee. You've got some heavy snow coming down across Arkansas and Missouri right now. And yes, even portions of northern Georgia, northern Alabama and Mississippi. Now rain is on the southern end as it starts to warm up here. Sun coming up. You're going to see more of this start to transition more into a wintry mix where you get that

the freezing rain and even rain mixing in Atlanta sitting right at 32 degrees right now, 29 in Birmingham, 30 degrees in Memphis. Now we talked about is it warms up. You're going to see that transition more over to ice and sleet and some of these areas are looking at pretty significant ice accumulations as we go through the day Saturday. Some of these areas, a quarter of an inch, maybe possibly as much as half an inch of ice a little bit farther north where those temperatures are cooler and you're mostly going to get snow. A lot of these areas could get three to

five inches of snow. Yes, even some of these southern states and then we'll start to see more of that transition back over to the warmer precipitation by the afternoon.

All right, Allison Chinchar for us. Stay safe getting home. It's been tough here in D.C. Sorry you guys are having to deal with it, but thank you for the update. Coming up here on CNN This Morning, a viral moment at the funeral for Jimmy Carter. Barack Obama and Donald Trump all smiles with each other as they gather to honor the 39th president. Plus, thousands of Californians coming to realize they no longer have a home. I teach people to save lives and

I couldn't even save my house, and I'm just shattered. Welcome back. Five wildfires delivering more pain and devastation this morning to the people of Los Angeles County. Paris Hilton posting a video of the charred remains of her Malibu home, one of more than 10,000 structures gone, burned to the ground. At least 10 people have been killed since the flames broke out earlier this week. One of those fatalities was a beloved father and grandfather, 82-year-old Rodney Nickerson.

Said he'll be fine. I'll be here when you guys come back and he said his house would be here. His house is here and he was here too. He was in his bed when I found him. The last thing he verbally said to me was I'll be here tomorrow. Some Californians have been able to return to what's left of their homes and what they've seen has been horrifying. It's Armageddon. I'm driving through a war zone right now and I don't even know what to say. I'm speechless. I'm shocked. I'm just so sad for our devastated community.

Former FEMA Administrator Brock Long joins us now. Sir, thanks so much for being here. Obviously, we're still in the disaster response phase of the active firefighting phase of this, but as this continues, this rolling disaster is just getting more

bigger and harder to recover from. I mean, what other types of disasters have we as a country, has FEMA and the entirety of our government coped with in the past? And do you think we're prepared to deal with the challenge ahead?

Casey, it's truly heartbreaking. You know, we're seeing far too many of these types of disasters and FEMA is an impossible situation. They have an impossible task ahead of them. I think the Trump administration, Congress needs to sit down with experts like me and other experts at the state and local levels to really talk about how we build resilient communities going forward. And I know this is not going to help the heartbreaking situation right now that's taking place in L.A., but we have to incentivize communities to start implementing proper land use planning

the highest levels of building codes, how can they ensure their infrastructure. We have to get the insurance companies back to the table to understand how we can buy down risk in these communities so that people can access insurance. The situation is far greater than what FEMA can handle. And so we have to have meaningful reform. And Casey, one of the things that bugs me is that

Right now there's over 10 different bills inside Congress to revise FEMA. How do we get it down to one bill that reforms emergency management and really highlights incentives for communities to do the right thing? And when they do them, how do they get greater access to education grants, transportation grants? How do we incentivize communities to do the right thing and rethink our public awareness campaigns that are falling woefully short over the last decade or two?

Sir, can you talk for a second about what needs to happen with the insurance companies in particular? Because obviously a lot of people lost their policies even right ahead of this in January when the new year turned over. But also, I mean, the way that natural disasters are getting worse and worse, it's making it really hard to have structures in some of these places considering what might happen to them. I mean, what is the right balance? What do we need to do?

Well, first of all, we have to find the right balance and compromise. You know, in some cases, insurance industry is pulling out of vulnerable areas that we continue to populate and rightfully so. But how do we use the infrastructure improvements and jobs act funding, the post-COVID funding? You know, nobody is having an intelligent conversation on how we use that funding to really buy down risk in communities to get the insurance companies back to the table.

And until we do those things and incentivize the latest ICC or International Code Council building codes, we're going to continue to see these problems get worse and worse as the hazards increase or change.

All right, Brock Long, sir, I'm always grateful to have you on the show. I do hope you'll continue to join us because this is going to be a story we're going to be covering for a long time. Thanks very much. Thank you. All right, let's turn now to what we saw yesterday, remarkable scenes through the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter. It was a rare time when all five living presidents gathered side by side and we saw their interactions. Their vice presidents were also there.

Donald Trump in the same room for the first time since January 6th, 2021 with his former vice president, Mike Pence. You can see in this video there, Pence stood to greet Donald Trump. This is a slightly different video here, but Pence's wife, Karen, she stayed seated. She did not greet the president-elect.

A few moments later, here it is. Here's the moment. Let's watch it. So there you go. Donald Trump shakes hands with Mike Pence and Melania as well as Karen Pence remains seated by his side. Karen Pence did shake the hand of Barack Obama and several of the other former presidents and first ladies.

It wasn't though all icy reception for Trump, what appeared to look like a moment of... bromance? Going viral? Trump and Obama seen having a light-hearted chat. At one point, he even got a laugh out of the 44th president.

I didn't realize it, how friendly it looked. I saw it on your wonderful network just a little while ago before I came in and I said, boy, they look like two people that like each other. And we probably do. We have little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don't know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.

our my panel is back uh donald trump seems to really have enjoyed watching the uh video of his interaction with barack obama pretty remarkable yeah look we would be better served as a country if we got this version of donald trump more often and i think generally the idea that people who are on two different sides of the aisle can talk to each other and and be civil particularly at something like a funeral uh should not be something that is so far-fetched and and lost in our public discourse so

Look, I was just saying in the break, I would really love to see there's the kind of TikTok phenomenon of the lip reader, the people who watch like celebrity interactions and lip read. I would love somebody get on that and let's see what they were saying. My guess is we're just behind on TikTok. Somebody's probably already done it. But you know, after 2016...

Donald Trump didn't get the normal honeymoon that a president would get. His victory was treated as illegitimate by many Democrats. There are hundreds of thousands of Democrats in the streets the day after he was sworn in. It would be better if this time he's treated like every other president is treated when they're sworn in, and you'll get more of that, Donald Trump.

- Well, I mean, I think he was in this case, but I mean, the Pence moment, you know, Donald Trump supporters were chanting, "Hang Mike Pence," the last time they were near each other. Sorry, Molly, jump in. - Yeah, I mean, if I ran into someone at a funeral who I thought had tried to kill my husband, I probably wouldn't shake their hand either.

Somebody tweeted that this was like the political equivalent of a real housewives reunion, complete with all the gossip and backbiting and interpersonal dynamics. And it really did kind of feel that way. But one of the sort of theories about Donald Trump, and I am not a psychiatrist,

is that he's always just wanted to be accepted by the elites that he decries, right? That all of his... The kid from Queens wanted to be okay in Manhattan kind of thing. Yeah, that it all comes from, and without saying I necessarily endorse his perspective, that it all comes from this sort of inner insecurity about being on the outside looking in. And now that he's in the club, he loves it. And you can tell that he enjoys being accepted in that way. And it does calm him down a little bit.

And I think, you know, to take him at his word, he might well get along with everybody and he might actually like all of the other presidents. Who knows what happens in that very elite club. I will note, however, that he has quite aggressively gone after every single one of us.

our living presidents, including George W. Bush, in quite pointed terms. - Barack Obama went after him too. It might have been provoked him to get into politics at all. - And Barack Obama may personally like Donald Trump too. This is the bizarreness of politics, which is that they behave this way at funerals and maybe in private, they actually do like each other quite a bit. - But let's also, let's not equate

Barack Obama made a joke that Donald Trump couldn't take with Donald Trump making a sustained, waging a sustained campaign to say that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. I mean, these are not two comparable lines of attack, in my opinion. Well, Michelle Obama, notably, was missing from this proceeding. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Because, I mean, it's been kind of reported that she's often felt more anger around some of the race-based attacks that they endured from Donald Trump. Brad, there did also seem to be

a little bit of ice between Trump and George W. Bush on display. They did not appear to shake hands at the beginning. In some ways, that was the frostiest, setting aside Karen Pence, that was the frostiest of the relationships on display. - Well, Trump has been a sustained critic of both Bushes, which a lot of it is unfounded in my view, but they have sort of epitomized the establishment that he's sort of raged against.

Look at that belly tap that Obama got. He walks right by Trump, ignores him. George W. Bush is the man. That is the man. And Trump doesn't even stand up. That might be the bushiest thing we've ever seen in any of our lives. It does make you miss him as president, I will say. And, you know, I think that Barack Obama took it in good stride, too. Younger viewers may not remember when he came up and was the hand massage of Angela Merkel from Germany. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ah, Bush, man. The simpler times. The best. Well, the look on her face. Yeah, right. In fairness, if it's not, we should. Yeah. All right. Really, really fascinating. And I heard from an official, too, there's a very small room inside the National Cathedral where all the presidents are held together before they walk out to something like this. So being a fly on the wall there also would probably be pretty interesting.

Still ahead here on CNN This Morning, are some key Democratic senators getting on board with the new Republican majority? And Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman accepts an invitation to Mar-a-Lago. Michael Smirconish joins us live to discuss. Plus, TikTok on the docket at the Supreme Court just days before a ban of the app set to take effect. We'll take a look at TikTok. You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points.

And there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with it. This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish. Joshua Coleman is a psychologist with a very specific therapy focus. People who cut ties with their family. It's a very tragic moment that we're in. Why some people are putting politics over family. And what to do if you find yourself on either side of an estrangement.

Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app. I am not just the senator for Democrats in Pennsylvania. I'm the senator for everyone in Pennsylvania. And my state picked Donald Trump as president. And if I have the opportunity to have that conversation, and I bet we're going to find things to work together for a better Pennsylvania and a better nation. And that's why I'm engaging in this.

Pennsylvania's John Fetterman defending his decision to become the first Democratic senator to meet with President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort. This coming as Fetterman has all but abandoned the progressive label of his party and criticized some policies on the left. Fetterman has recently met with several of Trump's cabinet picks and he co-sponsored the GOP-led Lake and Riley Act to crack down on crimes by undocumented migrants.

As Democrats prepare for Trump 2.0, Fetterman has encouraged his party not to reflexively oppose the president-elect. That might remind you of one Pennsylvania senator past. In some quarters, compromise has become a dirty word. Senators insist on ideological purity as a precondition. Politics is no longer the art of the possible.

when senators are intransigent in their positions. Polarization of the political parties has followed.

All right. It's Friday, which means it's time for Michael Smirconish, CNN political commentator and, of course, the host of CNN Smirconish. And, sir, always great to see you. That clip was for you because we know that you, of course, were close with that former Pennsylvania senator. And I'm honestly dying to know what you think about how John Fetterman is positioning himself in Donald Trump's new Washington.

Thank you, Casey, for starting my day and everybody else's day with that clip from the late, great Arlen Specter, for whom I had the privilege of working. I think it sums up so much of what's lacking today when he says that

polarization has gone overboard and the compromise is not a dirty word. It's a reminder to me of the way in which he comported himself as both a Republican and a Democrat representing this state, Pennsylvania, as our longest serving United States Senator. And when I saw Senator Fetterman saying that he was going to go to Mar-a-Lago this weekend, it reminded me of Senator Specter in a very good way. And I'm taken aback by some of the online hostility. I shouldn't be surprised, I guess. But

Senator Fetterman represents a 50-50 state. Why shouldn't he be having a relationship with the president? Doesn't mean that he has to agree with him. And frankly, it reminds me of the conversation you were just having with your panel, which I thoroughly enjoyed. And by the way...

I do have a body language expert on my radio program today because I'm so taken with the interaction among the five former presidents. But I loved what I saw yesterday. I mean, I loved the civility and it wasn't always, you know, friendly. The partner, the spouse, I'm looking at you, Karen Pence, is always the tell. Like, did you ever go to the holiday party, the Christmas party, and you meet the partner or the spouse and the reception is a

little bit chilly and you say, oh, maybe that lets me know how my coworker really feels about me. I've had that experience. But anyway, civility is a good thing. Civility is a good thing, whether it's John Fetterman and Donald Trump getting along or whether it's Barack Obama and Donald Trump having a moment where they're civil to one another, even if they don't mean it.

Yeah, Michael, let's stay with this because I am actually fascinated by sort of your take on it. We were also talking about Trump and George W. Bush because there is this moment where George W. Bush walks in, Trump and Melania remain seated. Barack Obama there stands up and look at that from George W. Bush like, hey, we're buds as he ignores the incoming president entirely. What do you think is going on here?

I love subruitering the tape and breaking it down. I could do this all day. Now, here's what went through my mind when I saw that. Got to say it. What went through my mind is that W's father, Papa Bush, 41, George Herbert Walker Bush, would have extended a hand.

That's what I think. Do I think that Papa Bush would have been a Trump voter? No. Would he have had the decorum and the civility to extend a hand to Donald Trump? I think he would have. And I'm not letting Trump off the hook either. I'm blaming all of them. You know, it always bothered me. Obviously, January 6th bothered me, but it bothered me that Donald Trump left Washington without the decency of going to Joe Biden's inauguration. I mean, there are moments in time when you've got to put it all aside and for the

good of the nation just play the role and most of them played the role yesterday

Yeah, I think that that's my big picture question here, Michael, because I mean, you know, I've covered enough of these types of events now in Washington. And, you know, the first presidential funeral I covered was Gerald Ford's, which was in the early days of 2007 after he passed over the Christmas time in 2006. And we always do remark on how these people are rivals in political life. They run against each other, but they do set it down for good reason in these kinds of moments.

I think what made this one so different for me is, and again, you can kind of see it on Karen Pence's face, is just that we've not had a situation where someone, you know, tried to say that an election wasn't fairly won. And then there was violence aimed at one of these fellow voters.

people in the public spotlight. I mean, I remember I listened myself to the chants of "Hang Mike Pence" from inside the Russell office building on January 6, 2021, and that has still not been repudiated. I mean, do you think that we as a country can move past that back to a place where we never have to deal with this reality again? Or I'm just kind of curious your thoughts.

I'm not asking anybody to forget the events of January 6th, nor the role that Donald Trump played in bringing them about, which was significant.

I am saying the 10 days from now, he's going to be sworn in as the new commander in chief. I think everybody should be there and give him the benefit of the doubt as he begins a new term. And if he goes off the rails, as he did, by the way, in that inaugural address in 2017, it would have been. You remember what W said, right? That was some real dark blank. I won't say it on your program. Then call them out for it.

then call him out for it. But there are, what I'm really saying is there are select moments in time, like the passing of a president, like an inauguration, like a State of the Union address. I'm thinking of Joe Wilson shouting out at Barack Obama, you lie. I found that appalling. There are certain moments when you just put it all aside and be civil. And that's why I like Fetterman going to see Trump in Mar-a-Lago.

Yeah, it's fair enough. And, you know, I am interested to see, I mean, that that you lie moment. I was in the chamber for that, actually, when that happened. And incidents like that have suddenly become kind of normal. Right. And they didn't used to be. So let's see if we can get back to kind of where we were or not. Michael Smirconish. Casey, Casey, when you go to when you go to the holiday.

When you go to the holiday party, take a good look at the partner. Take a good look at the spouse. That's the tell as to whether you're really respected. It's the tip for the day. That's a great tip. I'm going to keep that in mind for myself, too. You know, like whether I'm showing it on my face. Don't give it away. All right, Michael. Thank you. I appreciate it. Have a good weekend. And for our viewers, remember, tune in to Smirconish. It's tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

All right, let's turn now to the debate happening before the Supreme Court today over national security and free speech. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the federal government can ban TikTok. Suspected to be the first time a Supreme Court justice says the words skibbity toilet. Should be an interesting case. The justices will start scrolling through evidence, then two hours later look up like, what was he doing again?

Fair enough. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this morning over a law that would ban TikTok if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, doesn't sell the app by January 19th. Millions of TikTok users are hoping the court will either delay or strike down the ban in the nine days before that deadline. Though ByteDance has repeatedly said TikTok is not for sale, they did receive a last-minute bid yesterday from a group backed by someone relatively well-known for striking deals.

Let's have some fun. I'll drop my ask to 15% for the $200K, just to make it interesting for you. You've got Kevin going the right way. And to put some pressure on these other sharks. In that case, would you just go to our 10%? No, I'll do it for $12.5. I'll do it right now at $12. All right. Brad Todd, what should the Supreme Court do here? Well, TikTok is a very serious national security risk. We've already decided that you can't have TikTok on government devices. And so

There's this First Amendment tension that the Supreme Court is going to have to deal with, but also with the federal government's right to engage in national security protections. I hope they decide to let the law stand and see if—I don't think that we need the Chinese government having access to everybody in America's phone. I don't think that TikTok has proven it's willing to put in place any other security measures or cooperate with the U.S. government at all. But Trump now doesn't want to ban it.

Today. He might next week. He doesn't like, he's decided maybe to move on the TikTok ban because he thinks it's a competitor to other social media platforms that he maybe likes less. When he becomes commander in chief again and is getting access to daily intelligence reports, he might have a very different take on this. Yeah, so Mike Gallagher has an op-ed. He's a former congressman who was really focused on threats from China, wrote the bill in Congress, and he's got this op-ed and he mentions

um that there is this a brief from trump now as a friend of the court trying to strike down uh this law but he says that the brief elliott does note that there still is a national security threat here um what do you think the court is going to do so six three supreme court six appointed by republicans three appointed by democrats and people tend to think of the supreme court as being reliable right reliable left based on who appointed them

Nothing creates stranger bedfellows in the history of the Supreme Court than free speech issues. You found Antonin Scalia, who was one of the most conservative justices, perhaps-- - Wrote the flag-bearing decision. - Wrote the flag-bearing decision with a dissent, I believe from John Paul Stevens, one of the most liberal. So this is the kind of thing that I would, if there's any prediction I'll make, it's that it's not going to be a clean 6-3 decision where I think they'll cross.

National security also complicates things quite a bit. Now, the counter argument to the point Brad was making is that the Chinese threats, or at least the threats of data collection, have not materialized or at least aren't certain. I'm just merely... Yes, yes. Yes, yes. No, no, no, no, no, no. And I'm merely echoing what the argument is. I'm not weighing in on it.

So it hasn't materialized yet. So it's hard to know how the court will regard that, but also how the court will regard the speech of the users, the speech of the company against national security. One of the things, Molly, that impacted the way, I mean, this was a huge bipartisan vote in Congress. And part of it was because TikTok mobilized its own algorithm to try to get this killed. They had all these thousands of people calling these congressional offices and it

really demonstrated that actually, if they want to control this app and control the people who use this app, they can do it. It was almost like they proved exactly what the problem was. Exactly. And it really alienated a lot of

lawmakers by doing that. And as you say, it drove the point home. I mean, and I, you know, I wrote at the time about the sort of politics of it. And there was a feeling that this would really hurt Biden, who was still the candidate at the time, with young voters. It would be interesting to see if this does actually go into effect. What are the political ramifications? Trump himself saying he basically fears that this will make him unpopular with young people who are so obsessed with this app, you know,

There's a statistic that one third of voters under 30 get their news primarily from TikTok. So this is going to have huge ripple effects in populations who do not usually pay attention to politics if it does actually go into effect. Fair enough. All right. Thank you all for being here on this Friday. I appreciate it. Have a good weekend. Thanks to all for you for joining us as well back at home and do have a wonderful weekend. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.