Hegseth's Heated Hearing
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It's Wednesday, January 15th, right now on CNN This Morning. Anonymous smears. All anonymous, all false, all refuted by my colleagues. All I'm pointing out is the false claims against me. A heated hearing. The dodged questions, the fierce pushback. But Pete Hegseth thrown a lifeline from a key senator. Plus... The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted.

Next in the spotlight, the president elects pick for attorney general, a Trump loyalist who, if confirmed, will shape his Justice Department. And... This is a great day for women in America. An uncertain future, a bill banning transgender athletes in women's and girls' sports passes in the House. Where will it go in the Senate? And then later. Remain alert as danger has not yet passed.

A dire warning as another round of fierce winds hits Southern California and firefighters battle to control deadly wildfires. All right, just a few seconds before 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at Capitol Hill, the site of all the action here today in Washington. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. Hegseth in the hot seat. Democrats get their first chance to question one of Donald Trump's cabinet nominees, and it went about as you'd expect.

Are you saying that you would stand in the breach and push back if you were given an illegal order? I start by saying I reject the premise that President Trump will be giving any illegal orders. You cannot denigrate women in general, and your statements do that. We don't want women in the military, especially in combat. What a terrible statement. So please.

Do not deny that you've made those statements. You have. Another colleague, not anonymous, we have this, said that you took coworkers to a strip club. You were drunk. You tried to dance with strippers. You had to be held off the stage. Yes or no, have you led an audit of any organization of which you were in charge?

Senator, in both of the organizations I ran, we were always completely fiscally responsible for the money that we had. Yes or no, did you lead an audit? And the way my leadership has been stated has been completely mischaracterized. What are you afraid of? You can't answer this question. Yes or no, did you lead an audit? Do you not know this answer? Senate Democrats threw everything they could at the Army veteran and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, the president's elect's choice for secretary of defense.

In an earlier age, the allegations thrown at him, sexual misconduct, excessive drinking, financial mismanagement, might have been enough to keep him out of the job.

But this is the Trump era, and Hegseth denied all of it. A small handful of anonymous sources were allowed to drive a smear campaign. I was falsely charged. Those were false charges. Those are all anonymous false claims. Anonymous smears. Anonymous smears. You passed out in the back of a party bus. Is that true or false? Anonymous smears.

The performance reportedly passed muster with the president-elect's team, multiple sources telling CNN that transition officials were reassured by the warm reception Republicans gave him on the committee. And so despite it all, Hegsath's confirmation to leave the Pentagon seems all but assured. Does he have your vote?

I am breaking news, Simon. I figured you would ask this. So yes, I will be supporting President Trump's pick for Secretary of Defense. I know there was a couple other Republicans that was looking at the way she was going to go, that they were going to follow her lead. I think with her saying absolutely yes, she's going to support him now, all but confirms his ability to be the next Secretary of Defense.

- All right, joining us now to discuss Annie Linsky, White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Zolan Kanoyungs, he's a CNN political analyst and a White House correspondent for the New York Times. Megan Hayes, Democratic strategist, former director of message planning for the Biden White House. And Matt Gorman, Republican strategist and former senior advisor to Tim Scott's presidential campaign. Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here. Annie Linsky, let me actually start with you because the Wall Street Journal, the paper that you write for, this is the opinion page. You do not write for the opinion page,

But it was interesting, they're pretty skeptical about Pete Hegseth. They say that, they called it the Senate, the world's most non-deliberative body. And they say that his real views are now a mystery. And they say, let's hope he rises to the occasion. I was struck yesterday by the fact that he struggled to answer some relatively basic questions about some of the big issues that he'll have to deal with, grapple with as Secretary of Defense. You know, he could answer what caliber bullets

goes into a sidearm that a soldier carries and he emphasized that part of his biography. But this is not someone who in an earlier era might have won confirmation of this post and yet

Here we are. Yeah, yeah. I think, look, when you think about that hearing, the audience really wasn't, you know, the country writ large. It was really focused on a few senators, and in particular, Joni Ernst, the Republican from Iowa, who came out of the hearing saying exactly what

the Trump team and his supporters wanted her to say, which is that she was feeling that she didn't hear anything that was disqualifying in his responses and was going to vote for him and support him going forward. The other thing that I think was really interesting coming out of the hearing

was a tweet from Elon Musk saying that he was 100% in support of calls to, on the Republicans, to primary, anyone who was gonna vote against him. And that's a sort of organization on the outside that the Trump team has pulled together and is going to all but, you know, it makes it a very, a much smoother ride for Hegseth. And many Republicans have been saying this for a while, particularly even on your show. - Yeah. - I mean, when it comes to this hearing,

I think one of the takeaways would be that actually the actions, to Annie's point, that happened outside of the confirmation hearing in the days before the confirmation hearing would be some of the more influential actions when it comes to this process. By that we mean outside groups that are affiliated with the press intellect spending money on buying ads in Ernst's home district. Allies also threatening her with primaries too if she didn't come to line. That sort of pressure outside of the hearing

That may be something that we have to watch moving forward. And this was December 10th, Matt Gorman. Mark Caputo reports in The Bulwark that as Joni Ernst was publicly exploring her issues with this, it didn't take her long for her to realize that she had stepped in it shortly after Ernst offered a chilly reception to the nomination to head the Defense Department. She recognized she was in trouble politically with grassroots Republicans calling for her head. How...

How do I make this go away? A flabbergasted urn said to an intermediary, according to a top Donald Trump advisor who received the message. This is how she makes it go away.

I think the interesting part about this was, again, the day before December 9th, she met with Hegseth and released a statement to effect saying all but yes, she would vote for him. She relayed that the concerns she had had for about the month or so prior were relieved. I think in that month or so prior, she kind of didn't articulate an exact concern. In that meeting with Hegseth, she did. And I guess what...

You know, you don't make a good point. What this really reminds me of, if you close your eyes, you would have thought this was a Supreme Court hearing, right? Outside affiliated groups spending really with, by the time of the confirmation, the only thing is a few senators. And the actual hearing itself, you have Democrats trying to get under the skin, trying to really get the person off their talking points. And the Republican nominee or the Supreme Court nominee trying to be boring, not have any moments that would go off script, stick to the script.

And it worked. Well, and speaking of Supreme Court hearings, Megan, one of the things that we also heard in this more critical period back in early December for Hegseth was there was reporting in The New Yorker that came under the byline of Jane Mayer, who Republicans really turned on in the wake of what she did all the Kavanaugh

reporting it and excuse me that was a a moment that seem to coalesce republicans around at Hegseth and this background check was conducted differently I mean the FBI reportedly did not speak to the woman who is the subject of the NDA who was you know paid I settled with Pete Hegseth after the allegation of sexual assault Roger Wicker the chairman came out afterward and said he understood that he wasn't sure she wanted to talk

to the committee. And of course, I mean, the experience that Christine Blasey Ford had with Kavanaugh had to have been weighing. Yeah, I think, you know, look, the way these hearings have been done and the way that the background checks have been done has not been acceptable, I think, to the American people. I think the Democrats are doing the best that they can, knowing that they cannot really stop his confirmation and doing the best they can to bring some of this stuff to light. Like you heard Senator Gillibrand doing that. You heard

You know, Alyssa Slott can doing the same thing and doing that what they can here to make the best of it. But to your point, and we talked about this on Monday, he is a media personality. He was very good at keeping his cool and doing and being right on his talking points and not letting get under his skin. Less trained people in media would not have been able to do that. And Donald Trump is not dumb. He knows that this is an optics game and he is playing to the optics here.

The continual interrupting of the senators stood out to me. As someone who has watched a lot of senators get interrupted and be very unhappy about it, I think speaks to the point that you're making. All right, coming up here on CNN this morning, today we've got a packed schedule on the Hill as more of Donald Trump's cabinet picks sit for their hearings. Former Defense Secretary for the Trump administration Mark Esper will be here to discuss. Plus, Republicans in the House getting Democratic support for their ban on transgender athletes in women's and girls' sports.

That's unlikely to happen in the Senate, we'll explore. And powerful winds causing dangerous conditions for firefighters in California today. Imagine if you're driving down the freeway at 70 miles an hour, you stick your hand out flat and have the wind press against that. That is the wind that's happening from Ventura to northern L.A.,

I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast, Terms of Service, Gary Shulthorn, an attorney in Philadelphia, was driving to work one morning when his cell phone rang. Dad, I'm in trouble. They arrested me. By the time I got to the bank, my phone rang. It's my son. Dad, you've been scammed. Since then, the technology behind voice cloning has only gotten more convincing. Follow CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcasts.

Joe says he'll build back better. Yeah, build the Bidens back better. Winning this election means reclaiming something to which I've dedicated my entire career, the rule of law. It is time to stand up and say in a loud, clear voice, enough. It is time for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Justice Department, will face questions on Capitol Hill in just a few hours for a confirmation hearing, one of six happening today for Trump's cabinet picks. Bondi has been a familiar face in Trump's orbit. The former Florida Attorney General was part of his defense team during his first impeachment trial, and she supported his claims of fraud over the 2020 election. Bondi has frequently criticized the legal cases against Trump.

The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones. The investigators will be investigated because the deep state last term for President Trump, they were hiding in the shadows. But now they have a spotlight on them and they can all be investigated and the House needs to be cleaned out.

Matt Gorman, you saw her there. I mean, I remember she was flying all over the place on the Romney plane back in 2012. It was a great surrogate. And suddenly she's, you know, right there in Trump's orbit. It's a little bit head spinning, but she clearly does not. In some ways, Matt Gaetz was the heat shield for her, not just for her, but for a lot of these Trump nominees.

Absolutely. Look, it made it so much easier for people to get through, right? And look, Pam is really good, as you saw in the media. I think she's going to have a very successful hearing today. She knows much in the mold of Hegseth, Sean Duffy's today as well. They know how to kind of work their way around tough questions.

give it, you know, either, you know, answers that seem substantive but might, you know, avoid the question if it's a thorny topic, which is, I say that as a compliment. And I think, I think it'll be fine. I think it'll be unmemorable today. And I was actually surprised about, too, Washington Post endorsed her nomination, which kind of surprised me. And... Well, the New World does it?

Check. Megan Hayes for Democrat. I mean, that that soundbite that we played of Pam Bondi has come into very sharp focus because this question of prosecuting the prosecutors. Right. Jack Smith just put out a letter yesterday kind of staunchly defending the investigation. He did the charges that he brought against the president elect Donald Trump in the wake of January 6th.

What do you expect to see today from Democrats? I mean, I think they're going to do the same thing that they are trying to do in the Hegseth. They're trying to make it political. They're trying to say that she's more of a political figure out there. But I just don't think it's going to be less fireworks in the Hegseth hearing, which was not a lot. So I think, you know, they're going to try to bring that to light. But I'm not sure that they're going to be very successful here. I think that you didn't see Merrick Garland flying around with Joe Biden on the campaign. You know, that's not normally something you would see attorney generals doing. These are supposed to be nonpolitical offices. And it's

Clearly, she is inherently political, and I think that they'll try to make a lot of that. Yeah. All right. Coming up next here, a major GOP campaign issue. Now, one of the top priorities in the new Congress, the House voting to ban transgender athletes from women's and girls' sports. So what happens next? Plus, Governor Gavin Newsom hitting back after the criticism surrounding his handling of the wildfire disaster in California.

All right, welcome back. A ban on transgender athletes in women's and girls' sports is headed to the Senate after all Republicans and two Democrats voted to pass it in the House. The GOP-led bill would affect sports at federally funded schools. Transgender issues were front and center in the 2024 election cycle, coming up in ads in competitive races across the country. House Speaker Mike Johnson celebrating the bill's passage as a, quote, great day for women in America.

House Republicans have yet again stood up for women. This is a commitment that we have made because it comports with what is right and what is common sense. It's a matter of biology. It's how we're made. And if we try to ignore that or to undo it, we do so at our peril and to the detriment of our daughters.

So, Annie Linsky, this obviously became a focal point in the campaign. One of the, you know, it's a messaging bill, right? It's the fact that it came out so early in this Congress shows you that Republicans really want to capitalize on this. But two Democrats did vote for it because I think they saw this as something that did move votes. Yeah. I mean, I think this is a moment that Republicans...

Republicans are trying to elevate this issue. It's an issue they can be unified around in a caucus where they really can't lose votes, so it makes sense as a place for them to start. And to your point, you have two Democrats who joined Republicans, and I think that just shows you the power that, you know, that

you know, elections are very clarifying and there are a lot of Democrats who feel that the Harris campaign did a very bad job on this issue and are trying to stake out a new position and that's what you're beginning to see. - I'm surprised, I mean, only two people voted against it and there's 13 Democrats in the House who represent Trump-1 districts. And look, I think we saw this during the campaign, Republicans feel that this is something you can go to the American people on

They feel they can press this issue very, very well. The Democrats are trying to tell the American people by having kind of women in, sorry, men in women's sports, essentially, that one plus one equals three, right? And it's very easy for them to push this sort of issue. And I think they are, I would expect Trump to be willing to sign it. It's a matter of whether they can get 60 votes in the Senate. I think that's a big thing. Yeah.

Yeah, look, I do think it's worth noting that we're talking about a very small number of people here that are being addressed by this. I mean, the Republican governor of Utah, once governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, has sort of talked about this in an eloquent way. But eloquence, not always the order of the day when it comes to how people talk about this issue. Let's watch a moment that played out in a hearing on the Hill on this. Watch. We're talking about civil rights coming from a party.

that can't define what a woman is and won't give women the right to privacy. You all want men with penises, chicks with d***.

in the bathroom with us. She gonna keep saying trans, trans, trans so that people will feel threatened and child, listen, I want y'all to tell me whether or not... I am no child. Do not call me a child. I am no child. Don't even start. I want to find out which of those emails actually have... I am 47 years old. I have broken more glass ceilings than you have. I am reclaiming my time. You will not do that. I am not a child. I am reclaiming my time. If you want to take it outside... Mr. Chairman...

That, of course, Megan Hayes is Nancy Mace, who has made quite the effort to be front and center on this, shall we say. What is this? I mean, well, one, they shouldn't be fighting like that. These are members of Congress that are elected to represent the American people. So that is gross in its own display on both sides of the aisle there. But I do think this is going to be the Achilles heel for Democrats. This has been made to be an issue that

that Democrats writ large care more about trans issues that do impact such a small percentage of people than they care about their cost of groceries. It was very wide known in the election that that was one of the issues. And the ad that played, this is going to be the Achilles heel. So if Democrats do not learn how to speak about this, they will continue to lose ground on this.

regardless of how many people it impacts. - And they didn't speak about it during the election. They were essentially muted. It does seem like part of this, looking at that clip, is about stoking divisions and sort of anger in the country when, to your point, 510,000 NCAA athletes, 10 identifying as transgender.

This also isn't the first time we've seen this bill. Republicans tried this last year. Last year alone, put forward 87 bills that had to do with this topic. So you see them trying to elevate this focus here, while on the other side, Democrats haven't figured out really any message. Well, I mean, yeah, the challenge, right? The ad said Kamala is for they, them. Donald Trump is for you when you juxtapose it that way. Is that why that worked so effectively?

Right. I mean, I have talked to strategists who have said that it was about sort of saying Democrats care about this population and aren't working for sort of you that have come out for the party. But at the same time, also, we did start to see it's interesting to start to see the sort of the ripple effects from the election as well on Democratic messaging, even in the defense or excuse me, the pushback of this bill among many Democrats yesterday. You did not hear much of a message that centered Democrats.

on trans rights. It was about invasion of privacy for little girls as well. That's a shift as well. That's always the key to this, right? Is that Democrats are very far more concerned about talking to this slice of the act right and that slice of the act right and making sure that every subgroup feels catered to and named as opposed to kind of normal people and majority of the public sees this. But guys,

it doesn't work here you know i think and that is i think it's very plain spoken way of putting that it just there's a disconnect there i do think it's worth noting one more thing too that there are also activists representing the trans community too that do feel like one party is not speaking on their behalf and that they're sort of caught in the middle of a political fight here and there are real people behind this as well that are watching this and probably pretty scared and alarmed at this point

All right, coming up here on CNN This Morning, the Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth grilled by senators. We're going to talk about his prospects with the former Pentagon Secretary Mark Esper. Plus, how communities are pulling together in Los Angeles in the face of unimaginable loss. Still surreal. We lost everything. We lost our home. We lost our school.

We're taking on some of the most unique and challenging projects we've ever done. I definitely want a catio. A what? Have you ever heard of a catio? No, I haven't. For Dave and Jenny Mars, the bigger the challenge. An old lodge. How much work does it need? A lot. We have today and today only to do it. Go, go, go, go, go! The greater the reveal. Oh, my God. Fixer to Fabulous, all new Tuesday night at 8. See it first on HGTV. Stream next day on Maxx.

All right, welcome back. The winds picking up this morning in fire-ravaged Los Angeles. Red flag warnings now in effect from central California to the border with Mexico until late this afternoon. Expected wind gusts nearing 70 miles an hour, leading to dire warnings that no one there is out of the woods yet. 25 lives, thousands of structures have been lost. Pasadena firefighter Chen Yu was helping his neighbor evacuate when his own home and everything in it went up in flames. What's that? Well, almost everything. What's that?

- Oh my God! - That was Chen's wedding band. Let's get to meteorologist Allison Chinchar. Allison, the next 12 to 24 hours critical here, right?

It is. And the good news is there is light at the end of the tunnel. When we get closer to the weekend, we are going to see much more favorable conditions. It's really just getting through the rest of the day today. And you can see those red flag warnings valid from now all the way until 6 p.m. local time today, where we do anticipate some of those wind gusts up around 60 to 70 miles per hour, especially in these two locations here. This is the particularly dangerous situation area that's been highlighted, and that's valid until

three p.m. This afternoon, it does include three of the fires that we've been tracking are within that embedded area there. When you look at some of the wind gusts that have come in in just the last 24 hours, these are impressive 74 61 60 50. This is why these these forecasters and firefighters have been so concerned because if you have some kind of spark, if you have a new fire that develops, these winds are what's

going to carry that fire rapidly through these areas. Right now you can see we've got a 37 on the map. We've got several in the teens and even the twenties for their gusts that we're having. Those are going to kick up as we go through the morning hours today. That's why you have this wind advisory, those sustained winds

about 20 to 35 MPH and then those wind gusts up around 50 to 70 MPH and you can see that here as we go through the rest of the day. They're still they still remain relatively high all the way through the afternoon. But then once we get into tonight and especially into thursday, now you start to see almost all of those finally back down into single digits.

making it extremely helpful for the firefighters to really be able to get the rest of those containment numbers back up to 100%, which is exactly what they want to hear. And you can see that on this again for today, we still have that critical fire threat level two out of three. But once we get to thursday, we start to see that lower back down to category one again, noticing there that the improvement that you can physically see

on the map. Now when we talk about these fires again, two of them specifically have been incredibly destructive. Looking at the top 10 most destructive California wildfires, you can see the Eaton and the Pacific Palisades are both on this list at number two and number four respectively.

But anyone that you see that little red star on the side, that means we have half of these. Five of the top ten have occurred just since 2018. So again, just putting that in perspective of the last five years. The unfortunate part still, though, Casey, is we have no rain in the immediate forecast. All right. Allison Chinchar for us this morning. Allison, thanks very much for that.

So when most people were running from the flames in Los Angeles, some people ran toward the fires. One of them was the actress Ashley Scott. She and her friend helped friends in Topanga County retrieve medicine from their homes and hose down their properties ahead of the flames. And they stood side by side with firefighters. And Ashley Scott joins us now from Los Angeles. Ashley, good morning. I'm so grateful to have you with us. Tell us a little bit about what you've been experiencing.

Well, thank you for having us. This is my husband, Forrest. More than just a friend. Very nice to have you as well. Yeah, we at this point in this journey, we are exhausted. I think all our firefighters are exhausted. We

evacuated to another part of the canyon and got us out of danger's way with his mom, who has dementia, on Tuesday evening up and we got to, we were able to kind of have a bird's eye view of the canyon and the winds were out of control as you all know and the fires were just burning everywhere. It was like a perfect, actually a perfect firestorm. I mean the conditions, the weather conditions, everything were just, it was horrific.

So once we got mom settled, the next morning we kind of came out to the center and went to see our property. And Forrest had sprinklers going and everything. And fire was going up the ridge to our neighbor's house, who was an elderly woman that we loved very much. And we went to her house and watered her house down and just...

You know, I felt the spray from the helicopter. I was like, okay, it's time to go. But they didn't have the reserves then, you know, like they do now. Thank goodness.

Can you talk a little bit about, I mean, we obviously are, the days are stretching here. Obviously the firefighters have been working day in, day out. There has to be a sense of exhaustion in some ways setting in as you wait for this. Talk a little bit about what that feels like.

I think our nervous systems are shot, truly. I think everybody, just the roller coaster up, and there's been so many times that we've packed up and got ready to leave, and you're seeing fire on the ridge, and it just, I think we've all, we're in a house with four other kids and then our parents, and I think we've all had these kind of moments of just

We feel frazzled. We're just, it doesn't, we haven't regulated as we keep trying. Right. When you say it's stressful. And then trying to keep the kids cool and the parents cool. And I think we're,

I'm glad that things are hopefully settling down. Wrapping up a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, as a mom of two young kids myself, I cannot stop thinking about all the little children who have lost everything. You know, my son's teddy bear. It's really just difficult to think about. Let me ask you. Yeah, I talked to it. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.

I was going to say, I talked to a little boy that was here and his dad lost grandfather's house, everything in the Palisades. And, you know, his dad was a real, he grew up in the Palisades his whole life. And I said, you know, the thing is, these are just things. And I know that's hard to say. I have my home and I know that so many people have nothing right now, but they are just things. And I said, your grandfather will always live right here. No one's ever going to take him away.

You know, and it's something collectively as a community that we this is what this has done. It's decimated all the things. And what's really showing up for us is like people really like supporting one another and opening their homes and giving their food. And we're running out of food. You know, it's really it's it's.

There's beauty in the disaster, you know? Yeah. Ashley, briefly, obviously Hollywood, the industry, the film and television industry is a huge part of Los Angeles, and we're entering a season where there's a lot of celebration of all of the accomplishments that everyone has, but obviously confronting that now, we've got Grammys coming up and the Oscars. What's

What tone do you think at this point Hollywood should strike and what can those celebrations do to try to help what's going on in this terrible moment? Yeah, I mean, it's finding the voice. I mean, I don't know. I think read the room. I don't think it's a great time for celebration right now. You know, I think it's a it's.

I don't know. I don't know if they are moving forward. We haven't been on the news. We didn't have electricity for five days. So are they continuing?

I think that, yes, the plan is, I think the idea being that, of course, so many people who are in the industry have, you know, resources. Obviously, there are many under-resourced people in the Los Angeles area. And if the celebrations, what typically would be celebrations, can instead be used as an opportunity to try to help the communities, that would be the way forward. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, maybe that's the, that's the, that's a good way to funnel, you know, some resources and, um, you know, there's going to be so many people out there. I saw your piece with the, uh, the realtor about, you know, just, there are some elements of, you know,

We have to be very careful with scammers and things like that. And so if these people can organize themselves, I mean, there's a, my friend Michael Caponi has global empowerment mission and their partner Be Strong and they're raising big, big money. They've already got semi trucks with generators and all the things, you know, you just have to, I guess we just focus on companies we trust and people that can really help us in a large scale for a long time.

Yeah. And of course, we just had up on the screen some ways that people can help specifically in Topanga, where you all have been affected. Ashley Scott, Forrest Morrow, I'm so grateful for you to you for spending some time. We're thinking about you and everything that you have have been doing and the losses out in California. So thanks very much for your time.

Thank you. Thanks for having us. Thank you, Katie. All right. As the California wildfire disaster has unfolded, the criticism over the response of state and local leaders has been growing. Governor Gavin Newsom has come in for some of it, a lot of it, defending his handling of the fires, including in a weekend interview with Pod Save America.

I want to know the answers. So I'm the governor of California. I want to know the answer. I've got that question. I can't tell you about how many people. What happened? My own team saying what happened. And I want to get the answers. And I'll be candid with you, I'm getting straight answers.

That interview not sitting well with one Los Angeles resident, the longtime political reporter and writer Amy Chozek. She wrote this in an op-ed for the New York Times. Quote, in a viral video, Gavin Newsom of California in aviator sunglasses looked to me as if he couldn't wait to get back in his idling SUV as an anguished Angeleno told him her community had been destroyed and implored him for help. He did make time to do a lengthy interview with Pod Save America in which he defended his record and response to the crisis

explaining that he wasn't getting straight answers from local officials. How about we pod save Los Angeles first? And this is the exchange that Chozik wrote about at the top there, caught last week by Sky News cameras. One who went to school there, they lost their home. They lost two homes because they were living in one building and another.

Governor, please tell me, tell me, what are you going to do with the president right now? We're getting the resources to help rebuild. Why was there no water in the hydrants, Governor? That's all literally... Is it going to be different next time? It has to be. It has to be. Of course. What are you going to do? I'm doing everything I can. To fill the hydrants. I would fill them up personally. You know that. I literally have to. I would fill up the hydrants myself. I would. But would you do that? I would do whatever I can. But you're not!

Okay, panelist back. Megan Hayes, Matt Gorman. The hand on the door is what caught me. He wanted to get the hell out of there by any means necessary. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that there is definitely, as we're looking here, there's a lack of leadership, right? Like this is a, people are looking for leadership. I think that doesn't show the best leadership. I don't have the post cover from yesterday, but it was bonfire of the vanity and it was. Yeah, and I also think, you know, look, I think this is the second time that Podsafe has now burned Democrats.

in the last month or so, so I think maybe Dems should take a lesson and maybe stay off of it, but for at least the time being, but, you know, being serious here, there is a lack of leadership here. There is a lack of people understanding what is being done and what can be done. Look, that woman has obviously lost her home, lost everything in their communities. You have to understand the emotion. There was no empathy from Gavin Newsom in that. He's...

He's not going to fill out fire hydrants, but you can show empathy. You can give that woman a hug. You can do something to relate to her and to show her that we care and we are trying. And that just didn't come across in that video. Leaders, when they try and solve this as a political issue, always screw it up. Like, look, we talked about Romney a little earlier. In the waning days of Romney with Christine Hurricane Sandy, there's a lot of people critiquing him, saying he should have gone to the bathroom.

He shouldn't have appeared with Obama, giving him hugs. I thought all of that was BS, right? Like you, if you try and manage this politically, natural disasters happen, major crises happen. You always look like an idiot and you have to just act.

just act like a leader. And the poll numbers follow. That comes downstream. Be normal, be a human. You come out better. Well, and you know, to that point, Amy also wrote this, and she raises an eyebrow about Rudy Giuliani's current situation, but she says, after September 11th, America's mayor stood at ground zero and assured a broken city that the terrorist attacks would only make us stronger. Will someone ever

anyone stand in the detritus of the Pacific Palisades or Pasadena and say the same about Los Angeles. Where are these press conferences happening that Karen Bass is speaking six that and saying nothing inspiring? In a conference room in downtown LA. Like, go out there to Altadena, go to the Palisades, have the backdrop be this area. Like, stop walling yourself off in a conference room. You look so, like, detached. Even, like, more so than when you were in Ghana when this thing started. Also, stop having press conferences that

aren't saying anything, go talk to people and show empathy. Go show up where there's handing out supplies to people. I mean, like Joe Biden was very, very good at this. And he showed empathy at all these crises. And that is something that these leaders can learn from. And he can get ripped for a lot of things. But showing empathy is something that these leaders should take a lesson from. There's soon also going to be another leader that has a role in this as well when President-elect Trump also takes office. And when he was last in office during times of

natural disasters, what have you, we did see it become a political issue as well. So yes, the California representatives absolutely being held accountable and are facing the pressure now, but there's going to be questions for the federal government to move forward, including who the FEMA pick is going to be.

We still don't have a bid for FEMA. And Annie, she also says at the end of this, I want people to step in who care more about saving the city than saving their careers. We need someone to stand with authority in front of our whiteboard and tell us the plan. I'd take Arnold Schwarzenegger appearing in front of the Eden Blaze and taking over. He did tell us he'd be back.

And at this point, I'd even take a Cuomo, she says. Yeah, you want some strength. And I think one of the things that gets lost here is there's still a crisis going on while there's a recovery going on. And it's a confusing issue for these leaders. We just haven't had this type of thing before where usually the crisis happens and then you move to the recovery. So there are a lot of moving parts, but there's clearly a failure in leadership. Yeah.

- As we speak. - Unfolding, as we speak, yes. All right, up next here on CNN This Morning, heated moments on the Hill as Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of Defense gets grilled. Trump's former head of the Pentagon, Secretary Mark Esper, joins us next to weigh in. Plus, will we see the famous Trump dance at the inauguration next week? These special guests set to perform. - The village people will perform at one of Trump's inaugural balls, leading many to ask, why?

You have admitted that you had sex while you were married to wife two after you just had fathered a child by wife three. Do you know that being drunk at work is prohibited for service members under the UCMJ? While in Louisiana on official business for CBA, did you take your staff, including young female staff members, to a strip club? Absolutely not. Anonymous smears.

Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth grilled during his Senate confirmation hearing Senate Democrats honing in on allegations of sexual assault and drinking on the job. But they also had other critical questions hoping to understand how Hegseth would answer to a president who in his first term demanded unwavering loyalty from his underlings even when they worried that his orders represented a misuse of military power.

President Trump directed former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper to shoot protesters in the legs in downtown DC, an order Secretary Esper refused to comply with. Would you carry out such an order from President Trump?

Senator, I was in the Washington, D.C. National Guard unit that was in Lafayette Square during those events holding a riot shield on behalf of my country. Would you carry out an order to shoot protesters in the legs as directed to Secretary Esparza? You know what, that sounds to me that you will comply with such an order. You will shoot protesters in the leg.

Joining us now is former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who served during the first Trump administration and is now a CNN Global Affairs analyst. Sir, thanks very much for being with us this morning. Good morning, Casey. Are you confident that Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense would stand up to an unlawful order if the incoming President Trump were to issue one?

Well, look, the senators yesterday, the Democrats in particular, raised some important questions, some tough questions. And that's what they were trying to find out is, you know, where does or how far does his loyalty lie? Clearly, he has the confidence of President Trump. And it looks like coming out of this hearing, particularly with the announcement by Joni Ernst yesterday, that he'll get an affirmative vote from the committee and go to the floor sometime next week, I assume.

How likely is it, do you think, that Pete Hegseth would face as Secretary of Defense an order that you would view as against the law?

Well, it's unknown. I mean, another Democrat raised this issue yesterday is, you know, what would happen or would President or any president ask somebody to conduct something illegal? And I think, look, it's the duty of his cabinet, his advisors to inform the president if a order is considered illegal.

That was the role I played, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs staff and others. And I think that's the expectation. Then the question is whether it would be carried out or not. And look, this is gonna be raised in the context of the deportation question, which was raised yesterday as well, is to what extent will the US military be used in deportation measures? And there are clear lines. I mean, as was stated, there are ways in which DOD has aided and assisted in the past more in an administrative and logistical role.

But the Posse Comitatus law, which has been in effect since the 19th century, prohibits the use of the active duty military in a law enforcement role. So there's so many nuances to this, but that is one of the questions that was raised yesterday. Did you come away thinking that Pete Hegseth would feel comfortable with, as he talked about those deportation questions, would feel comfortable with using U.S. active duty military troops to conduct some of that?

You know, again, it's unclear. He spoke very affirmatively about the Constitution, about his experience as a junior officer. He spoke about the importance of the Geneva Conventions more in an international context. But these are going to be important questions that he and the Pentagon may indeed wrestle with. And and of course, he'll be advised by the uniformed military will have who will have clear views on the role of military in some type of operation such as this.

There have been some questions about how much this particular conversation about the use of the U.S. military on U.S. soil in these different areas has actually begun to occur inside the Pentagon itself. Can you give us any insight into what, you know, I know you're deeply connected there as well, how much concern there is in the building about these questions and what plans, if any, people may be thinking about to try to deal with some of it?

Yeah, there is concern, of course, about what DOD will be asked to do. There was concern during my time. There was concern, of course, during previous errors under presidents from both parties. But I think the question gets more to the, you know, the point that Tom Homan, who is President Trump's nominee to go in and run, I think, CBP, talked about using the military. Now, Homan, I think, has said that there are clear lines about what DOD can and can't do.

The Pentagon is trying to figure out what that may look like. And so I think we'll have to find out those lines. I mean, the other point you have to keep in mind too is there is also a distinction between use of the active duty military, which has prohibitions on it and the use of the National Guard, which has far less and which by the way is also trained in law enforcement. So you could see a pretty large role depending on the state and the governor when it comes to helping the Trump administration on its deportation procedures.

Bottom line, sir, do you think Pete Hegseth is qualified for this job? Well, look, he comes into the job with far less experience and background than others. He's acknowledged this before.

Others have as well. I think it's going to be the job, of course, of the Armed Services Committee and and the Senate writ large to assess that. That's the only qualification that's written out there in terms of what it takes. Look, he is right about the need to modernize the military, about making sure that we're ready for what's ahead with regard to China. That's what I took on as my priority when I assumed the role in 2019. So there is a lot of

a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of people agree that we need to be focused on war fighting and we need to modernize the military. And if he comes in and kind of puts an emphasis in those areas,

I and others will fully support any effort to really modernize the United States military and make sure that we are as ready as possible for what lies ahead. This is a dangerous century that we're in right now when we look at the Chinese Communist Party in the Indo-Pacific. Yeah. Briefly, sir, just as I'm thinking back to your own experience, and I remember covering what happened at Lafayette Square yesterday,

What kind of mental strength, emotional strength, human strength does it take if you are a military leader to resist the commander in chief?

Well, look, this is the tension that the military uniformed military officers face. On one hand, there are two principles and sometimes they are intention. One is that they are to remain apolitical. And the second is and it's been part of our history for nearly 250 years that there are civilian control of the military. So they are duty bound to obey any lawful order.

of the president i would also argue they are duty bound first to give him their best military advice so and this whole question about wokeness in the military clearly i've said in the past publicly the wokeness in the military thing it's it's it's not as bad as some on the right will say but it's far worse than what democrats would acknowledge

This is an issue where if there is wokeness and the military is being directed, they were following a legal order. So I think if Hegseth comes into office and others, I think a simple direction to the military, they will obey the legal orders and follow the path that they direct as long as, again, it's a legal order. And I think that's how we need to look at the uniformed military is balancing that tension between remaining apolitical, which we all want, the American people want, but at the same time making sure that there's clear civilian control of the military, which means obeying all lawful orders.

All right. Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, I'm very grateful to have you today. Thanks very much for being here. Thank you, Casey. Let's talk about this issue for a second, because Matt Gorman, at

than what Esper had to confront was pretty remarkable. And Pete Hegseth may confront something similar. We don't know. He might. And I think one thing that struck me too as Esper was talking is, you know, we look back and Austin and Mattis were unique nominations in that, you know, they needed waivers to assume office, right? Normally there's, I believe it's a law where you need to be out of office

military uniform essentially for 10 years before taking that job. And one thing I am very heartened by is, you know, one thing that the United States prides itself is civilian control of the military. And I'm glad we're not having a continuing trend of however decorated, accomplished people they might be, having people that just left the military assume control as a civilian.

Megan, briefly. Yeah, no, I think that makes a lot of sense. I do think that we have some serious concerns about Hegseth and I think Esper raises them. And these are real legit concerns. And I mean, obviously he's going to pass or get confirmed. So it'll be different. But I just, I mean, it's really concerning to have him leave the DOD. Thanks to all of you guys for being here this morning. I really appreciate your time. Thanks to all for you. Thanks to you at home as well for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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