No Hope of Containing CA Wildfires
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It's Wednesday, January 8th, right now on CNN This Morning.

This week is no joke and it can change on time and you start. No hope of containment. Fierce winds fueling dangerous wildfires in California. Tens of thousands evacuating, still evacuating at this hour. Plus this, the next six hours, they're going to be critical. The warning from officials while the worst still yet to come for Southern California. And then. Canada and the United States, that would really be something.

Expanding the U.S., Donald Trump not ruling out military or economic force to take what he wants. Plus, President Biden telling the USA Today that he still thinks he could have beaten Donald Trump in November. We'll have more from his last print interview as president.

all right it is 6 a.m on the east coast here is a live look at los angeles county california at this hour it is 3 0 1 a.m pacific time and as we have been discussing all morning these these hours right now some of the most dangerous hours for people living in and around la forced to evacuate because of these fires good morning everyone i'm casey hunt it's wonderful to have you with us

We begin with the night of sheer hell in Hollywood. Los Angeles County continues to burn. Three horrifying, devastating wildfires triggering a state of emergency threatening thousands of homes and lives. Evacuations widening overnight, the flames being whipped by fierce winds forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes.

This is the worst fire I've ever encountered. I've been within three within a mile and I've never had to get evacuated. So I was really surprised that the fire moved so quickly this time. We were running down, you could see palm trees, just like random palm trees on fire. So I'm sure leaves are burning and falling down and it's literally apocalyptic.

The fires are spreading so fast that it's not yet possible to contain them or to calculate how many homes and businesses have been lost. Firefighters telling CNN the flames are burning the equivalent of five football fields per minute in the Pacific Palisades. People understand how bad a hurricane is or how bad a tornado is. You know, you can't stop those. The wind is so strong, there's nothing you can do. You wait till it passes through and then you fix what's left, right? Well, add fire on top of that, and that's what we're up against.

So let's take a look at the famed Sunset Boulevard. Hundreds of cars were abandoned by panicked drivers there, fire officials, there they are, deploying bulldozers to push them all aside to reopen the road for emergency vehicles. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam has been tracking the weather conditions overnight and into this morning. Derek, what's the latest?

Yeah, this next couple of hours is so critical right now because we do anticipate the winds to peak as we head towards the dawn hours on the west coast of the U. S. Extreme fire behavior. And as you can see with this video, look at the little swirls, kind of almost like the

actual flame is creating its own weather patterns in and around it. So we call this extreme fire behavior. And this is just incredible to see how quickly this what's called long range spotting can occur. An ember from a flame like that being driven by 100 mile per hour winds will start additional fires

That is why it's so hard to contain what is happening on the ground in Los Angeles and Ventura counties as we speak. This is the moment from space when the Palisades fire broke out late last night and you can see it and also the direction of the wind. Notice the plume of smoke going directly into the Pacific Ocean. That's the northerly component to the wind. It is being driven up and

over the mountain ridges towards the coastline. This is typical with Santa Ana winds. Remember, as we go through the overnight period, the land cools faster than the ocean. So what happens? The air moves from hot to cool and that increases the wind. That's called a land breeze. So it combines with that and we see that peak of the Santa Ana winds as we head towards the dusk hours. Look at this view. This is very interesting. This is Santa Monica

And there's the Palisades Fire. I want to show you just how close this fire actually is to burning additional homes and additional structures. All those white buildings right there are at threat of these embers spreading quickly and creating more additional wildfires as we go through the course of the day. We are monitoring three active, large, out-of-control fires that are 0% contained as we speak in LA County. Yeah, and again, as you pointed out, they're just the tens of thousands of people

that are in the path there. And of course, for anyone that's flown into LAX, this is usually what you're seeing when you're looking out the window of that plane. And I think we have some video we can show everyone of someone, this is out the window of a plane last night landing in LA.

or at least flying over Los Angeles. And that is what it looked like from the sky. Again, Los Angeles, LAX is really not that far from Santa Monica along the coastline, where of course the Palisades a little bit up from it, but just unbelievably stunning scenes. Derek, can Los Angeles County residents

Can they expect any relief from these wins? I mean, what time of day are we looking at when people might be able to breathe a sigh of relief that at least it may not get worse from there?

remember the most erratic, the most powerful winds are anticipated here within the coming hours. So as we combine that land breeze with the Santa Ana winds, we expect the strongest winds to occur as we head towards the dawn morning hours as we get that sunrise on the West Coast roughly seven a.m. And then we will get a bit of a relax

relaxing in the winds through the course of the afternoon. Pay attention to the legend of the top portion of my screen, and you can see how they drop in numbers. But then the cycle repeats itself overnight tonight and into the day tomorrow. We expect this extreme fire behavior to continue at least for the next 24 hours. Maybe that brief window in time during the course of the daylight hours today. But the strongest winds

Again, occurring overnight because of just the sheer nature of how Santa Ana winds work

work and operate here in Southern California, driving up and over those mountaintops funneling through the valleys and the sides of these mountains, almost creating this wind tunnel effect. Remember when it gets squeezed wind between these canyons, that's when the wind accelerates even further. And so when we have those peak winds this morning, that is where we anticipate the most erratic and most intense and most dangerous part of this ongoing wildfire situation in L. A county.

All right, Derek Van Dam for us this morning. Derek, thank you. We'll be coming to you throughout the rest of this hour. But I want to go now to Brian Rice. He is the president of the California Professional Firefighters Union. Sir, very grateful to have you on the show this morning. What have you been hearing from crews on the ground? What are they facing right now? Good morning. And I just, I spoke to a firefighter just a few minutes ago. You know, I've been following this like everyone else, but we're hearing, um,

Unfortunately, the same things that we've heard over the last several years. This is apocalyptic. We've never seen fire behavior like this. It's moved so fast.

and the wind is so powerful. It's all the things that you've already been talking about. I thought one of the telling pieces of video were the abandoned vehicles. That tells you that people felt so imperiled that they exited their vehicles because of a traffic jam and ran. We saw similar things in the Paradise Fire.

several years ago. The difference was many of those vehicles were burned over before they were even able to push them out of the way. But this really looks almost like the Lahaina Maui fire. It started as a brush fire. It's moved into the interface area and into neighborhoods, and it is really wind driven.

Brian, you said that you spoke recently with a firefighter. Are you hearing anything at this time about the human toll here? I mean, you note, of course, that the people clearly incredibly afraid. We've heard here at CNN that at least one firefighter was injured. But do you know anything more about how many people may have been injured or, God forbid, killed so far in these fires?

Just general information. We know, have not heard of any reported civilian deaths nor firefighter deaths. We're seeing in the civilian population, there have been several, I've been told multiple burn injuries.

that have reported kind of into the PCH area and then into the beach areas they've been treated, taken to hospitals, don't have a number, don't know the severity. You're gonna get that information probably later today when the fire department and the incident command gives an overview. As far as firefighter injuries, we're seeing the very typical things, strains, sprains, eye injuries, smoke inhalation.

The other piece of this that I think is really important, if you don't live in the area, don't go sightseeing and the smoke is a toxic soup.

It's not just the brush that's burning, but homes are burning and homes contain plastics that are built from petrochemical compounds. And the firefighters right now, not only the exposure to the wind and the flames and the heat, but the respiratory exposure is incredible. And if you do not have to be in that area and breathe that environment in, don't. It's dangerous.

That's a really really important note. Sir, one of the things we've been hearing from authorities through the night is that because of the speed of the winds that it's not really possible to actually fight these fires or try to contain them at this point but rather they have had to focus on life-saving missions. What insight can you give us into how firefighters think about this kind of a weather pattern, what that means they have to do now

and when they may be able to change that mission.

They're watching what's in front of them and finding opportunities and they may be little to make a little safe here and there. But right now their primary mission are moving the citizens, the civilians and the residents out of harm's way. That is the most important thing that they're doing. They will find places where they can begin to make a stand, but it's going to be small. Their main focus right now is saving lives and getting people to safe harbor.

What can you tell us about as well, just briefly, in your, you mentioned how this fire behavior is just so different than it has been in the past. What does that mean for firefighting crews? What more do they need? And does it start to feel hopeless at a certain point?

You know, we, we, as a firefighter, you never feel hopeless. You might feel like you're really behind the eight ball. And if there's one thing that we need that we're never going to have, we need to be able to control the weather and we can't. And right now the firefighters on the line, these men and women are going to put in 24, 36, 40, 48 hour shift. They're not going off the fire line anytime soon. And, um,

That's just the way it is. Everyone is at the mercy of the wind right now. And until we see a shift in the wind or a drop in the wind, it's just not going to let up. A couple of interesting things. Governor's Office of Emergency Services pre-positioned 65 engines and over 120 personnel throughout LA, Orange, San Bernardino, and Ventura County prior to the fires. CAL FIRE pre-positioned 45 additional engines and six hand crews.

So the wind event was anticipated and resources were moved in.

But when you have weather like this with sustained winds, you know, over 40 miles an hour, 40, 50 miles an hour gusts that are reported into the 60s, 70s and 80s, you're not going to control that. You're going to get people out of harm's way and find your opportunity to begin to bring control to that situation. But it's going to be a little bit of time right now. And the daylight hours and the reports for today and the weather reports for today and what's observed are going to be critically important.

All right, Brian Rice, thank you very much. I know it's been quite a night for you, middle of the night out there in Los Angeles. I know I'm sure you've got a lot of friends, associates whose lives are on the line tonight. So we're thinking about them. We're thinking about you. I really appreciate your insight this morning. Thanks for being here. You're welcome. Thank you. All right. Coming up here on CNN this morning, a vision of expansion. Donald Trump laying out his plan to gain control of Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada.

And we're going to continue to follow those destructive fires burning across California. We are live on the ground in Los Angeles ahead. Have you ever seen anything like this? Never, never. And I've lived in Malibu my whole life and I've seen tons of fires. This is nothing. I was scared for my life. It's terrifying.

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. People really don't even know if Denmark has any legal right to it. But if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security. That's for the free world.

They should give it up. The incoming president of the United States making clear he wants the island territory of Greenland to be American. During a press conference, which lasted more than an hour Tuesday, Donald Trump went into some detail about how he might go about annexing Greenland, the Panama Canal, and even potentially our neighbors to the north.

Can you assure the world that as you try to get control of these areas, you are not going to use military or economic coercion? No. You're talking about Panama and Greenland. No, I can't assure you on either of those two. But I can say this. We need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military.

I'm not going to commit to that now. Are you also considering military force to annex and acquire Canada? No. Economic force. Because Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line,

The leader on the other side of that, quote, artificially drawn line. Should we do a history lesson? Firing back at Trump's idea, the outgoing Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, writing in response, quote, there isn't a snowball's chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States. Leaders in Panama and Denmark also throwing cold water on Trump's ideas. The sovereignty of our canal is not negotiable.

The only hands that control the canal are Panamanian, and it will remain that way. Greenland is not mega. Greenland is not going to be mega. And I think in many ways it's a Trump stunt.

all right our panel is here to discuss michael warren senior editor at the dispatch elliott williams cnn legal analyst susan wilde is former democratic congresswoman from pennsylvania and kristen soltis anderson cnn political commentator and a republican strategist good morning to all of you thank you very much for being here we haven't even gotten to the fact that he wants to rename the gulf of mexico the gulf

Of America. Michael Warren, you know, as the as a journalist who has spent a lot of time on the right, this kind of rhetoric and God bless David Sanger for being there to ask these questions of Donald Trump. What is actually going on here with him?

Well, we're talking about Donald Trump. He's not president yet, and we're talking about him. I don't know. I had a flashback. I watched that entire press conference live yesterday. It's just like what it was like to cover the first Trump White House and the first Trump presidency. He threw out a lot of things. It was really a... There were a couple of glances down at some notes, but it was sort of a stream of consciousness,

classic Trump press conference, everything that was on his mind sort of coming out on this. I think he's trying to get attention. I think there's some seriousness to some of these. I really do think he's serious about Greenland. You know, his son, Donald Trump Jr., was there in Greenland this week.

I guess a fact-finding mission. I think with a bobblehead of his father, I may have pictures of him. So look, I think he's very still, if you listen to that press conference, he's torn up about the Panama Canal, something that happened 50 years ago almost. And I think it's something that he is motivated by. The question I have is there is a segment of his coalition that is very against sort of

United States expansionist foreign policy. And I think that is going to come into some tension in these next few years. Well, I couldn't help but think about the GOP-controlled Congress that I just left, where the trend was completely toward isolationism and nothing outside our own borders. And here we are now facing isolationism.

I guess, becoming an imperialist country and just exerting our power over other sovereign entities, which is certainly not what I thought...

the GOP was headed for. But what Donald Trump is trying to argue is that there are many other conflicts around the world where it's not in our interest to be involved, we've gotten too overextended, but this is in our interest, this is in our hemisphere, this is something that is important for us to do. And in a way, I think the reason why you see Donald Trump so animated about all of this is I think he views it as a really big real estate transaction.

What does Donald Trump do? Big real estate transactions, branding the Gulf of America. I mean, this is just Donald Trump taking the same playbook he's been running for decades and now trying to apply it to the US government yet again. And I'd say combining both your points, it's we were here four years ago where the former president, president-elect will make these claims that in many ways are kind of preposterous, but

there's an element of truth to them. Like, yes, we technically could, under the laws of the military, annex another nation if we so chose. But here we are, once again, assessing the seriousness of these kind of harebrained, almost schemes being cooked up by the former president.

That could be the future of America, but it's hard to know where we go. But keep in mind, he didn't rule out the idea of using military power. Invading Greenland would mean invading a NATO country. And under Section 5 of the NATO Treaty, all NATO countries have an obligation to come to the defense of any of their allies. I mean, it's just preposterous that we would ever...

be able to do that by way of some sort of military invasion. If we actually invade Greenland, have me back on the show, show me this clip of me saying, we're not going to invade Greenland. You can tell me I'm dumb. You can tell me I'm foolish. We're not going to invade Greenland. But I think to the extent that Donald Trump thinks of this as like a real estate deal, he says things like all options are on the table because he's trying to have the strongest negotiating posture. It may be ridiculous. We're in for four more years of it. But this is totally in line with how Donald Trump works.

Congressman, you want to? I just I think that it's more than a real estate transaction to him. I think this is his expression of his ultimate power over not just this country, but the world. And that's what he is trying to convey. I would agree with that. Congresswoman, how for Democrats, you know, we were talking earlier about how there is a sense of approaching this second Trump term a little bit differently about how

"Freaking out," I think was the phrase that you used, not doing that quite so much. How do you counter this as Democrats in Congress? - Well, I think, I hope that Democrats in Congress and elsewhere have learned from the first Trump administration. John Fetterman made a very good point, pace yourself. There's gonna be a lot of this. And if you freak out at every single thing,

you're going to get exhausted quickly and you're also going to lose some credibility. I do hope that what the Democratic Party does, and you know there's this debate within the party, do we move further left? Do we move, do we become Republican-lite? And my answer to that is you don't do either one. You find, you figure out what the most pressing concerns are of the largest number of Americans

and you focus on those issues. And I would submit to you, issues like childcare and what are we doing about childcare and how are we making it happen? - One second, I'm sorry. Congressman, we didn't get a chance to talk about this earlier, but the ethics committee report, you were the top Democrat on the ethics committee that came out

about Matt Gaetz and that required Republicans to vote to release it publicly. Can you take us behind the scenes and help us understand why they were willing to do that? Was it because they are not, they don't like Matt Gaetz or is it because they were willing to take on Donald Trump? - I can't take you behind the scenes of how the ethics committee operated. The report itself is public now, but I can't discuss what happened behind the scenes or what motivated anybody's vote. - Are you confident the report's comprehensive?

Yes, that was a report that was worked on for a very long time and was gone over many, many times. All right, Congressman, thank you. I appreciate it. All right, still ahead here on CNN This Morning, with just days left in office, President Biden giving his final print interview as president. And he is still adamant he could have won the 2024 election. Also, apocalyptic scenes in Southern California. A CNN crew making a harrowing escape last night from the flames. We'll bring you that just coming up next.

All right, welcome back. A CNN crew had to make a quick escape last night when they saw flames on both sides of the Pacific Coast Highway. They had, of course, been out there covering those L.A. wildfires. CNN's Natasha Chen explains how they made their way to safety. We were there from about noon until about just after 6 p.m. local time when we had finished our last live shot. And I guess what we hadn't quite realized

surmised was exactly how bad it had gotten south of us on pacific coast highway and that's the way we came in to get to our spot to cover the fire and we knew that we had heard reports of the flame jumped the highway but uh i i guess we had not seen with our own eyes just exactly what that meant and what that looked like for us getting out of there so at the end of the night you know we're

we pulled up to a fire truck and kind of waved at a firefighter and said, hey, where do you think is the best way for us to leave, to get out of here? He kind of shook his head at us and said, well, I guess you go south. And so that's what we did.

pretty quickly realizing that there were flames on both sides of the highway. There were embers flying over the lanes of the highway. I spotted an emergency vehicle and decided our best bet is to just follow that car. To follow right behind him as closely as possible.

If he's driving, then he's probably knowing the best way out. So as we're driving behind this emergency vehicle, I'm hearing an explosion on my right. There are houses on fire right up against the road on the left. And as I mentioned, embers flying. And so at this point, Rosemary, I'm just holding my breath. And I can feel the heat from...

inside the car just watching the embers fly across the windshield. So not ideal. In that kind of, you know, we get put on a lot of risky assignments, and in this situation we have to make a calculated risk for the best way to leave. And I think, you know, thankfully we got out of there and we got a real look at what

Just the level of destruction and really the fear that a lot of those residents might be feeling if they're looking at those images on the news, if they've evacuated. I can't imagine. They're wondering if their house is the next one on fire, if they have anything to go home to.

Very glad Natasha and her crew are OK. But of course, that is a situation facing tens of thousands of people in California who are trying to make their way to safety. Coming up next here on CNN this morning, we are going to continue to cover those tens of thousands who have been forced to flee. Officials are warning the worst is yet to come. We continue to bring you our latest coverage from Southern California.

It's tough. It's tough. They can't get up. They're stuck on the wheelchairs. You gotta lift them up, put them in the vans, and then take the wheelchairs at the same time. So you gotta get everybody out of here. A lot of these people are terrified and they don't have a blanket. They don't have a wrap. They have nothing.

all right we're going live now to los angeles county california these are live pictures at this hour of the fire that is burning there and this is one of three out of control wildfires that have burned thousands of acres through the night officials are warning the worst may be yet to come

Fire crews on the ground say there's no possibility of containing the fires as the winds near 100 miles per hour. Tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated and new overnight. All residents in Malibu have been told to prepare to evacuate even if they're not under an order.

It blew the fire into every single neighborhood in the entire town. And there are a lot of houses lost in every neighborhood. You're not going to find a single neighborhood where people haven't lost their homes.

More than 1,400 firefighters are battling the three blazes. LA Fire has asked all of their crews to report availability. It is the first time in two decades that they've had to carry out that protocol. CNN's Stephanie Elam joins us live. She is in Pacific Palisades in Southern California. She's made her way there for us. Stephanie, what did you see through the night? What have you seen where you're standing and what you saw on your way to get where you are now?

Okay, see I'm a Californian. I was born and raised here and I have covered a lot of wildfires for CNN, but I have to tell you the drive here is one of the most treacherous drives I have had to make to get to a wildfire simply because when you cover a lot of wildfires, they're out and about. This is some densely packed terrain here and I just want to show you from where we're standing on the Pacific Coast Highway, this building over here, we've watched this structure burn down since we've been out here overnight. And then when you pan over to the side just a little bit,

you can see that this apartment complex is also on fire. We've been watching fire crews race up there now. And then just on this other side here, you can see there's another blaze on that side, just in this little bit of section of highway. I can tell you that we have been hearing

The gusts shaking our cars. Yesterday while I was driving, I felt like the Hulk was trying to like flip my car while I was sitting in it at a red light at one point. That wind is part of the problem here. And then you compound that with the fact that LA County, just in and of itself, is in drought. Just getting back into drought and this is the driest

start to the wet season on record here in Los Angeles. That's making things worse as well. These winds, if you can see with some of this, oh, there you go. The winds are picking up right now. What happens is it picks up some of those embers and it just

flies through the air and then fire takes off, rushing through with all this dry brush. A lot of this area has not burned in a long time, so it makes it very difficult here. So the effects of climate change are definitely a part of what we're seeing here. Why tens of thousands of people are outside of their homes right now, not even knowing if their homes are still standing. Why you saw people abandoning their cars.

and running away. Driving back into the city yesterday, I can tell you the plumes were so high and the winds were so fierce that you could even smell the fire, even being, you know, I was about 100 miles away at the time, and I could still sort of see some of the smoke that was coming up, the plumes that were coming up.

this morning waking up, I could also smell the fire. The drive here, there's power lines down, there's fire burning all along the Pacific Coast Highway. If you've not been out here before, it's a remote, beautiful road. Directly behind me this way, right here behind where we're standing, is the Pacific Ocean. So I can hear the waves, but I'm also hearing things exploding inside of buildings nearby as these fires are raging here. And remember, this isn't the only fire. There's also a fire out by Altadena,

They're warning people in Malibu. This is all very concerning because these winds are not expected to die down until later on today, Casey.

Stephanie, as you've been talking about that wind, we know that the firefighters haven't been able to focus on containing the fires. That's not part of their mission right now. The mission is strictly people's lives, the human toll. What do we know at this point about when they might be able to start firefighting?

trying at least to contain the fires? And do we have any information right now about the human toll of what has unfolded here? As of now, we don't know that anyone has lost their lives, but it is still early, right? And those winds kicking up again. And what they do worry about first are people.

People first, then property. So right now they can't worry about containing it. They've just got to try to stop it. And just listening, you know, maybe you hear the eerie sound of the alarm going off behind me. I don't know if you can hear that. But this building has been sparking all night. They've got to go make sure all of that is without people.

That is the priority right now. And as long as these winds are picking up as they are, like I parked over here and an ember flew out that was about this size and went underneath my car. Someone came over like there was an ember that went under there. As long as these embers are blowing like this,

The mission here is just to make sure that people are safe and that's why they want people to be gone. It took a lot for some people to get out of these areas yesterday, but as you can see, this is still very threatening along the highway. I mean, you can't even see it because I'm looking up the highway. It's so smoky, but I can see there's more fire burning up there. I drove past.

four different places that I can remember off the top of my head where I saw the blazes were burning on the side of the highway. They have closed off the Pacific Coast Highway. They don't want anyone coming up here right now. It is not safe. And I'm telling you, if you're thinking about doing it, don't do it. It was a treacherous drive getting here. It's not worth it. We're out here to show you what it looks like so people don't have to do the same thing, Casey.

Yeah, well, and Stephanie, as you pointed out, you have covered so many of these fires for us here at CNN. You are from, this is your home, and that perspective, remarkable. We really appreciate you rushing to get into position there. Stay safe, and I know you'll be covering this for us throughout the day. Stephanie Elam, thank you very much.

All right, straight ahead here on CNN This Morning. Remaining confident, President Biden says he believes he would have fared better against Donald Trump than Kamala Harris did in November, apparently. Plus, more terrifying scenes overnight in Southern California as those wildfires rage out of control, fueled by hurricane force winds. Just when you think you know what the fire's going to do, it swirls around and comes behind you. So it's definitely erratic.

All right, welcome back. We're continuing to follow the shocking scenes out of Southern California where wildfires fueled by extreme winds continue to rage out of control. Overnight, at least three separate wildfires exploded in size, some of them burning at a rate of more than five football fields per minute.

The Palisades fire has now burned more than 2,000 acres, including the campus of the famed Palisades Charter High School. You've probably seen the school before. It's featured as a movie set in films that go back decades: Teen Wolf, Carrie, and Freaky Friday.

Palisades Charter High School is currently engulfed in flames. We know that there are firefighters working heroically who are on the scene now trying to preserve the main structures, but the baseball field, tennis courts, some bungalows, athletic buildings have been destroyed. All right, let's bring in Santa Meteorologist Derek Van Dam with the latest. Derek, what are we seeing?

Casey, the next few hours are absolutely critical as we anticipate the strongest of the winds during this particularly dangerous situation to unfold. And I want to show you just how quickly and how erratic the fire is. This is a palm tree just engulfed in flames in a matter of seconds. Look at those embers being blown across the road with winds shaking the vehicle trying to steady that camera shot. Just incredible. That shows you what's going on.

what they are contending with on the ground. This is another way to look at it as well. These are the wind gusts that they experienced overnight, 71 mile per hour wind gusts in Burbank, 55 in Santa Monica. That's dangerous. And when you think about the environment of the dry conditions,

This is just a recipe for disaster and we're seeing it unfold in real time. So what you're looking at right now is a radar image. Why do I bring this up? It's not raining. Derek, what this has the ability to do is pick up particles in the sky like a rain particle. This is actually ash from the Palisades fire. You can see the direction of the wind coming up and over the mountain ranges coming down towards the coastline. And there it is picking up on the radar. It's being

pushed around by nearly 100 mile per hour gusts and some of those higher elevations. Of course, that gets funneled through the canyons and it starts additional spot fires. So at the moment we have three out of control, 0% contained fires in Los Angeles County. Still, our critical fire weather continues extremely critical. In fact,

And it's all being fueled by the driest start to the water year on record. Just incredible to see what has happened from October through to right now, how Los Angeles County creeping right back into drought conditions. Really unbelievable. And of course, some of the most dangerous hours for residents of L.A. and the surrounding areas are right now through 5 a.m. local time. Derek Van Dam, Derek, thank you very much for being with us throughout the hour. And we'll see you throughout the day as well.

All right, let's turn now to politics because new this morning, a one-on-one conversation with the outgoing president, Joe Biden. USA Today's Susan Page sat down with Biden as he prepares to leave office in less than two weeks. Following Democrats' devastating loss to Donald Trump, Page asked President Biden if he believes there would have been a different outcome had he stayed in the race. She asked this, quote, do you believe you could have won in November?

Biden replied, quote, It's presumptuous to say that, but I think yes. Based on the polling that Page jumped in, quote, Do you think you would have had the vigor to serve another four years in office? Biden said this, quote, I don't know who the hell knows. So far, so good. But who knows what I'm going to be when I am 86 years old?

Those comments now forcing Democrats to reassess how the final months of the race ultimately played out. This was earlier right here on CNN This Morning. That line would not have helped Democrats. And I think that who knows whether he could have won. But we can't underestimate the fact that having a woman, a woman of color at the top of the ticket,

may or may not have not helped Democrats win the presidency. I was confident in his mental acuity. I did have great concerns about his ability to project and to speak. He's had a lifelong speech impediment, as we know, but this was something different. Was it a winnable race for her, or was it unwinnable? I think it was unwinnable.

All right. Our panel is back with us. And former Congresswoman, I asked you earlier if it was winnable or unwinnable for her. Is President Biden right that he could have won this race? Was it winnable for him, do you think? I would have to agree with him that that was a presumptuous statement. I think it's I think it's

Not terribly likely. But I think he might have done better than Harris did, but I don't think he would have won the race. I think he could have won if he could have fixed inflation, the border, and his age as a candidate.

you know at a certain point we almost have to stop talking about this because it does not matter kamala harris was the nominee she was the candidate she lost there was a right but we're talking about it because this is what i'm not criticizing the decision thereof but it's just but the simple reality is uh he his polling was not suggesting that he was going to win the presidency it is a simple fact and it's almost you know in denial town to start

pretending that that wasn't the case. - I feel so badly for the very bright folks who have been advising him on polling, whose message was clearly not getting through. The data did not show that Joe Biden was in a position to be reelected. The data showed that the only way Democrats were gonna have a chance was to be able to make a clean break from the inflation, from the border. That was just not possible. - Can we just take a step back on the age question for a second, Mike Warren, because,

He is acknowledging in this interview something that he has never acknowledged before, to my knowledge. And, you know, we're talking about polling and data. Americans were telling pollsters and people asking them what they thought that they did not think that he was ready to do it. And I find it to be a relatively stunning admission for him to turn around and say after he said he was going to run for reelection, he promised the Democratic Party that he was going to, you know, he was fit, he could handle it.

And now he's basically saying, I don't know. - He's like moving toward that position of cognitive dissonance that I think most voters had with the idea that Joe Biden really could do this for another four years. That is exactly what voters saw. It was out there in front and at that CNN debate, it just was laid bare. All the sort of hiding that fact that the White House had been doing for maybe understandable reasons was just all laid bare.

He seems to be getting to that point, but I think he's got a big ego. And I think that's very difficult for him to admit, actually, no, I couldn't have done this for four years. A politician with an ego. Imagine that. I know. It's hard to believe. And I think the question is, can Donald Trump make it for four more years? But here's the thing.

Only God knows where any of us will be in our lives in four years, right? No one knows what the future would have held. But the simple fact is so far so good, which were his words, is not the standard we ought to be following when picking a president of the United States.

And not only is so far so good, not the standard, but that's really, I mean, voters so far in advance of when that CNN debate actually happened, we're sending this message. We're ready to turn the page. We're ready to turn the page. We're ready to turn the page. And it just fell on deaf ears. And I do think that Kamala Harris was put in a nearly impossible position of having, what, 107 days to run for president, just getting this thrown in her lap, really unable to fully break from the problems of the Biden administration. I think that Democrats, I think...

Joe Biden is trying to salvage his legacy, and I think this is a not getting it done. By the way, the energy change I saw, I saw Kamala Harris in Atlanta right after she got the nomination. The energy change among Democrats was so big. I don't think the Democratic energy would have been behind Joe Biden. And we can't forget that all these younger people, all these people that were very unenthusiastic,

about the race between Trump and Biden suddenly showed a lot of enthusiasm. My kids in their late 20s, you know, they're friends. They were all very, very excited about her. So those were people we likely wouldn't have seen vote. Thank you all for being here this morning. Thanks to you for joining us as well. I'm Casey Hunt. Do stay with us. We've got major breaking news out of the West Coast. CNN News Central starts right now.