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Soon: Senate Confirmation Hearings For Six Trump Cabinet Nominees; At Least 25 Dead In L.A. Fires As Crews Face New Wind Threat; South Korean President Arrested For Questioning. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired January 15, 2025 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:33:15]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Today is a huge day for Donald Trump on Capitol Hill. Half a dozen of his nominees will be facing confirmation hearings, and it is all about to get underway with two of the biggest jobs in the president's cabinet, his picks for attorney general and secretary of state, about to sit in the hotseat.

We'll see if today mirrors the tone that was set very clearly yesterday with the first big hearing -- the contentious line of questioning that Donald Trump's choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, faced -- well, from Democrats.

But Democrats he does not need in order to get through to get a full vote in the Senate, which is why everyone watched one Republican senator very closely in that hearing on that committee, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, who had questions leading into the hearing but then announced her support for Hegseth after it wrapped.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON CONWAY, TALK SHOW HOST, 1040 WHO: Does he have your vote?

SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): Um, I am breaking news, Simon. I figured you would ask this. Um, so yes, I will be supporting President Trump's pick for secretary of defense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Alayna Treene is standing by in West Palm Beach, Florida. You know that Donald Trump's team was obviously watching every moment of that hearing very closely. What are they saying after hearing that from Joni Ernst? And now, what are they expecting today?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, there's a lot of expectations about what's going to happen today. But just to go over what happened yesterday following Hegseth's hearing.

Look, they were, of course, very pleased with how it went. The warm welcome from the chairman Wicker and saying that he had essentially thought that he was an excellent choice during his opening remarks.

[07:35:00]

And, of course, Joni Ernst. Her line of questioning really did not produce any fireworks. She said that a lot of her initial concerns over Hegseth that they had hashed out behind closed doors.

All of that very welcome to Donald Trump's team.

And look, what they had wanted is what they saw. They wanted Republicans to kind of defend Hegseth. To be the opposition force to the very ugly questioning that they were anticipating that would come from Democrats, and that's what they saw. They saw a lot of Republicans really kind of show their loyalty to Donald Trump, saying that they anticipated that Trump knew who the best pick was to serve in his cabinet.

But, of course, yesterday was such a big moment for them. Not only was it Donald Trump's first nominee to face questions in Congress but also Hegseth is one of the most controversial picks that he has. And so, of course, yesterday was going to be one of those moments that they were very worried about. I know there was a lot of anticipation and some uneasiness heading into yesterday. They feel very good about his chances now -- that he is going to get confirmed and get confirmed soon.

(Audio gap). Her signal of support for Hegseth does show that this is likely to go to the Senate floor very quickly.

Now, as for the other nominees today, a couple of ones I want to point out. You're going to have one of the biggest selections that Donald Trump had made. Pam Bondi to serve as his attorney general. She is going to be in front of a committee today.

You're also going to see Marco Rubio, as you mentioned, secretary of state -- another massive pick given all of the wars in the Middle East and the enormity of the foreign affairs position right now.

And then also, he's going to have Kristi Noem, his pick for Department of Homeland Security. Donald Trump clearly wanting to hit the ground running as it comes to border issues and immigration.

So a lot of big moments today as well. All of them have been preparing rigorously behind closed doors with the help of Trump and some Senate Republicans, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, and we'll get underway in just about -- just in a couple of hours here on the show. We're going to be taking that live as this confirmation hearings with some of the -- for some of the most important positions in Donald Trump's cabinet, they'll be in the hotseat.

It's great to see you, Alayna. Thank you so much -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, Kate. Joining me now to discuss, Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns. And former presidential campaign manager for Marco Rubio, Terry Sullivan.

All right, we'll start with Rubio because Terry, you're with us. You know, we saw Democrats battling with Trump's pick for defense secretary. But as you see, Joni Ernst, one of the people that people were concerned -- that Republicans were concerned wasn't going to say yes to nomination has decided she's going to vote for him.

When it comes to Marco Rubio though, who works with these senators, who they know, do you think this will be a much more sort of bipartisan kind of confirmation like we've seen in the past?

TERRY SULLIVAN, FORMER PRESIDENT CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR MARCO RUBIO, PARTNER, FIREHOUSE STRATEGIES: Yeah. I mean, look, because he's clearly one of the most qualified people for that job so this is going to be boring and it's why people aren't talking about it because he's going to get -- it might even be unanimous consent. But yes, he will get plenty of votes on the Democrat side of the aisle as well.

SIDNER: Yeah, they've already signaled that.

Today you have Pam Bondi, which may be a very different confirmation process. She is the nominee for attorney general. You know, Bondi was Florida's first female attorney general, so she does have legal chops. But she was also a huge supporter of Trump, backing his 2020 election lie at times, saying there was evidence of cheating.

She has also said, "The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted -- the bad ones." She also said, "The investigators will be investigated."

Chuck, she's already held this job of attorney general in Florida. Can she be independent of Donald Trump when you look back at some of the things she has said and that she has done?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO BERNIE SANDERS' 2016 and 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS (via Webex by Cisco): Well, that's what the Constitution says. And you've seen lots of Democrats say that this should be an outside organization. It's not Donald Trump or Joe Biden's Justice Department. It should be standalone.

And I think that it gives Pam Bondi a leg up that she actually did run as the attorney general and successfully so in Florida. We may have a disagreement on philosophies but unlike a lot of the other picks, going back to Marco Rubio, I don't like Marco Rubio, and most Democrats don't. But you can't deny that he's not qualified to do the job.

I think with some of these nominees, outside of the two that we're talking about, there's lot of folks who simply aren't qualified, a lot like Pete Hegseth yesterday. But I think you're not going to see as much pushback on Bondi or Sen. Marco Rubio who has been in the Senate a long time and there's lot of Democrats who will vote for him. SIDNER: Yeah, it's certainly a far cry from Matt Gaetz who was initially put in that nomination position, who just simply left. He didn't have the votes.

All right. One nominee that hasn't really been discussed much is the person who will lead the Management and Budget Office, Russell Vought. He's Trump's nominee. He served in that government office in 2020 for Trump. But he is also one of the architects now of Project 2025, which Trump said he didn't know anything about. He didn't know the people who wrote it.

[07:40:00]

What does this tell you -- this nomination tell you about the next four years, Chuck?

ROCHA: Well, I think you heard a lot about Project 2025 and it's the old okey doke. Anybody who has been around for 10 seconds knows he's like I don't know nothing about that old boy or nothing about this project. But guess what? We're going to hire him to pretty much run the entire government.

This is one of the most powerful positions in America because they oversee so much of the budget. So much of the infrastructure of our government.

And I'm not here to defend every aspect of everything that the government does. I'm as big a critic as anybody else, especially when it comes to tax time. But this is the old okey doke. If he knew who this fellow was, he knows what Project 2025 is. And I think the American people are going to get a rude awakening when they go seeing what this old boy is going to do when it comes to making sure that the government checks show up on time.

SIDNER: And Terry, what do you make of what you just heard?

SULLIVAN: Yeah. I mean, look, the Project 2025 talking points didn't work in the election for Democrats and I'm not sure it's going to work now. No one gives a flying -- well, no one cares about some think tank in Washington, D.C.

And so look, he's a qualified guy for the job. He's a policy person. He was in the administration before and he's loyal to Donald Trump. A shocker: Donald Trump picks people that are loyal to him. And so he's going to do a good job. He's got the experience. He's loyal to the president. And yeah -- I mean, look, so he worked for a think tank in D.C. that no one really knows about.

SIDNER: A lot of people know about it now though because it did become a talking point.

SULLIVAN: Well, but I don't know, but don't know the details about it. I mean, beyond the name 2025, which was a talking point in the -- in the -- in the campaign, no one really knows much about this think tank. I mean, so there's not a lot of -- a lot of visibility into it. So I don't know that they do know a lot about it. SIDNER: OK. Interesting, because a lot of people talking about, like, getting rid of the Department of Education, for example. So there are some things that have come up to the fore where the public has been talking about it.

Democrats though -- let's look at the nominee that has already gone before, which was contentious. They threw everything at Pete Hegseth. And there was a moment in particular that was embarrassing.

Senator Tammy Duckworth questioned him about what he knows concerning U.S. agreements with some of the Indo-Pacific countries. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): Can you name the importance of at least one of the nations in the ASCEAN -- in ASCEAN, and what type of an agreement we have with at least one of those nations. And how many nations are in ASCEAN, by the way?

PETE HEGSETH, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE NOMINEE: I couldn't tell you the exact amount of nations in that but I know we have --

DUCKWORTH: No, you couldn't, because you've not even bothered to do it.

HEGSETH: -- allies in South Korea and Japan, and in AUKUS with Australia trying to work on --

DUCKWORTH: OK.

HEGSETH: -- submarines with them, and data transfers with them. We have allies across --

DUCKWORTH: Mr. Hegseth, none of those countries are in ASCEAN. None of those three countries that you've mentioned are in ASCEAN. I suggest you do a little homework before you prepare for these types of negotiations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Terry, shouldn't it matter that a nominee that is about to have the most powerful military in the world doesn't know this?

SULLIVAN: Well, when you say this, I'm not familiar with ASCEAN either. And so this is game of gotcha

SIDNER: But you're heading the Department of Defense.

SULLIVAN: No, thank God. But no, it is a -- look, I don't -- it's a game of gotcha and both sides of the political aisle play it. And this time -- look, you can -- there's lots of stuff to argue about Pete Hegseth about but knowing whether ASCEAN is -- what countries are part of it I don't think most people know, and I know that most people are not appointed to this position. But I don't think this is a huge deal. It was a political gotcha moment by Sen. Duckworth. SIDNER: And Chuck, did other Democrats who went after him -- they went after him from allegations, and she did as well, about women in combat -- some of the things he has said. That he doesn't think that women should be serving in combat roles, or sexual misconduct. The allegations of that.

But did Democrats miss an opportunity to probe his knowledge of the job because Duckworth seems to be the one that did that; others didn't.

ROCHA: I think what you saw yesterday -- and I have gotten lots of presidential campaigns and candidates prepared for something like this, and what they're trying to do here is they know that they don't have the votes to stop the nomination. But what they're trying to do is protect themselves, as they should, and America by saying this person is not qualified either because of his character, or these allegations, or his limited knowledge of what the job really entails.

So if, God forbid, something was to happen, a Democratic senator could say I brought this up that this fellow is not qualified. I'm not wishing that anything happens. I hope that nothing ever happens. And I actually hope Pete Hegseth does a great job. But there's no question in my small mind that he's not qualified. And if something does happen they can say look, we raised these character issues early in the -- in the hearing but Republicans continued to support somebody like this who was not qualified.

SIDNER: Well, Chuck, I don't think you have a small mind. Neither do you, Terry. I am glad the big minds of the day are on the show this early and talking with me. I appreciate you, Chuck Rocha and Terry Sullivan. Appreciate it.

[07:45:00]

All right. Ahead, new video shows the fear and quick thinking when a teen with an Airsoft rifle was spotted at a Connecticut elementary school. You will see what happened next with body camera video.

And Sean Combs' lawyer says they want copies of the so-called "freak off" tapes. Why they say these videos actually prove Combs' innocence.

Those stories ahead.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:50:10]

BOLDUAN: So, wind gusts are expected to pick up today again for Los Angeles and Ventura counties after what became a welcome change in the forecast yesterday bringing relatively calm conditions.

The National Weather Service has now reinstated the "Particularly Dangerous Situation" red flag warnings for the area. And now more than six million people are under a critical fire threat. The death toll stands at 25 people killed from these fires -- nine killed in the Palisades Fire, 16 in the Eaton Fire. Both of these fires are now among the most destructive wildfires in California's history.

And the fight is now over, clearly. Let's get an update.

Joining us right now is CAL FIRE battalion chief, once again, David Acuna. It's good to see you again, Chief. Thank you.

Yesterday seemed to be not as --

DAVID ACUNA, BATTALION CHIEF, CAL FIRE (via Webex by Cisco): Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: -- bad as predicted in terms of the winds, thank goodness.

What's it looking like today from your perspective?

ACUNA: Well, thankfully, you are right. We were able to make some progress and get some of those containment lines done and really mop up some of the areas that were hot so that when the winds do come it doesn't blow an ember up and over the containment lines.

But what we really transitioned is into our suppression repair or WERT -- it's our Watershed Emergency Response Team -- to prepare the landscape when it rains.

BOLDUAN: I've seen in terms of the kind of long battle to fully extinguish the fires that it's going to take weeks to fully extinguish these fires.

How long could this take?

ACUNA: You know, that's actually a great question. We don't know because there is a lot of areas that is unique here. So, you know, it's a suburban, sometimes urban area where there -- a lot of people have those battery storage systems. Those hold heat for months. Are we going to be able to mitigate that?

There's areas that we have to get to that is very, very steep and difficult to get to. We have more than 15,000 people onsite and more than 8,500 firefighters from local, state, tribal partners, and federal all working together to make sure this. Plus, we have additional personnel mobilized in the area for any new starts.

BOLDUAN: You've -- and -- I mean, talk about working overtime and the heroic the firefighters are doing. It cannot be overstated.

We're also seeing the reports in the L.A. Times reporting that even ahead of -- ahead of all of this there were days of warnings of hurricane-force winds that could come with threats of these fires sparking up. And even with those warnings the Los Angeles Fire Department did not preposition all of the available firefighters and engines that they could have on January 6 as the winds were -- seventh, as the winds were picking up.

The report claims that the LAFD staffed only five of more than 40 water-carrying engines that were available then before the fires spun out of control. Have heard any of this? What's your reaction to it?

ACUNA: You know, I'm not sure what the L.A. City Fire Department's status was.

But I do know for CAL FIRE, we took those warning seriously. We moved a large number of equipment, personnel, and heavy equipment crews down to Southern California from Northern California where there's less of a fire threat. So it was all prepositioned. And again, we do have additional resources now prepositioned in case if something else breaks out.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. And that is, again, the concern today as I keep hearing hold on for 24 hours and then you might -- we'll get a kind of more consistent reprieve from these winds.

Chief, thank you very much as always -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Developing right now, South Korea's president is under arrest after authorities scaled a blockade to get into his compound. Yoon Suk Yeol will be in solitary confinement until Friday morning. Groups of his supporters and opponents clustered outside the presidential compound shouting as he was taken into custody.

He is wanted for questioning in multiple criminal investigations, including some alleged crimes that could carry the death penalty, over briefly declaring martial law last month.

CNN's Mike Valerio is joining us live. Mike, so he's in solitary confinement I think until Friday morning your time. What happens next?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, and what a headline, Sara. Let's just stick with that for a bit. The elected leader of a stable democracy is in solitary confinement for a significant period of time. This has never happened before to the leader of South Korea while the president was in office.

So what happens next? Investigators are hoping that he'll answer questions, Sara -- about 200 of them -- concerning why he declared martial law back on December 3 throwing this country into chaos. And so far, Sara, our reporting is showing that the elected president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, is not responding to any of these 200 questions. He's essentially pleading the fifth.

[07:55:07]

So, you know, why we got here or how we got here was an open question. It wasn't a sure thing. There have been not one but two tense standoffs about bringing the now suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol into custody January 3. His equivalent of the Secret Service, Sara, was not giving him up. They said you know what, it's our job to protect the president and we are not going to give him up to investigators for questioning.

The same dynamic started to replay again this morning. And after six hours, President Yoon Suk Yeol said you know what, I want to try to avoid violence. And he actually gave a statement to the nation saying in part, "Responding to these illegal and invalid procedures is not an acknowledgment of them, but in hopes of preventing unsavory bloodshed."

Too long -- didn't read -- there was the fear that the Secret Service could open fire on investigators and throw this country further in chaos.

So what happens now? We're going to see if these sessions of questioning lead to the elected president being indicted. Being held responsible on a criminal basis for declaring martial law. And we'll also be waiting to see Sara, if he is impeached -- removed from office for declaring martial law back in December.

SIDNER: And Mike, I know you've been seeing some "Stop the Steal" signs -- some parallels there between supporters of President Yoon and President Trump here in America.

Mike Valerio, thank you so much, live there for us from Seoul -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also, a scary scene at an elementary school in Connecticut we want to tell you about. Manchester Schools -- they went into lockdown Monday after police received calls of a potential school shooter surveying the property and holding what appeared to be an automatic rifle. A quick-thinking teacher helped get students back inside once they heard all of this. Authorities say the gun was not actually a rifle but an Airsoft gun that shoots plastic BBs.

You can see -- we're going to show you. This is some of the surveillance video. You see how real that Airsoft gun really looks.

Police now say that the teenager who had that gun actually told them he wanted them to think it was real so they would kill him. The 17- year-old has been arrested and now faces several charges -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's all so terrifying.

All right. This morning attorneys for Sean Combs are asking the judge overseeing his criminal case for copies of nine tapes that prosecutors allege were taken during so-called "freak off" parties. These parties are the alleged drug-fueled events at the center of the racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking case against Combs.

CNN's Kara Scannell is here with the details. Good morning.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Yeah, so Sean "Diddy" Combs' lawyers want to amend the protective order so that they can actually get copies of these nine videos that were obtained from victim one's attorneys. Now, they've been able to view them, but they say they want copies because they want to do some forensics analysis -- dig in and clear up the audio that they say is on them.

But this though is part of -- and the reason why is because Diddy is saying that these videos would exonerate him.

He writes in this filing to the judge, "There is no evidence of any violence, coercion, threats, or manipulation whatsoever. There is no evidence that anyone is incapacitated or under the influence of drugs or excessive alcohol consumption. There is certainly no evidence of sex trafficking. Having reviewed these videos, it is now abundantly clear that they confirm Mr. Combs' innocence."

Now, these are just a handful of the tapes -- and these are nine. The prosecution says that they have dozens of tapes. They say that there's more than one victim here. And -- but this is part of Combs' defense. He has been saying since he was arrested that this was all consensual.

Prosecutors are saying that they are prepared to present evidence at this case at the trial that this was coerced. That these women were forced to take drugs. That they were doing this under threats of physical and other violence, and that they have more than one victim here in the case.

Now, they responded overnight saying that every -- all the details that Combs' lawyers have laid on in their letter to the judge, it violates the protective orders, so they want that taken down and redacted. And they said that they want more time to respond in fulsomeness to this. You know, they said, "...instead of conferring in advance or redacting all content related to the videos, the motion blatantly violated the protective order when it left unredacted descriptions and characterizations of material designed for attorney's eyes only."

Now, this is going to trial on May 5, but as you can see, we're already getting a sense of what Combs' defense is going to be. He's really leaning into that this was consensual and prosecutors saying that this was absolutely the opposite. That these women were forced to have sex with male prostitutes.

BERMAN: That's what I was going to ask. A) I mean, how central are these tapes to the actual prosecution? And 2) whenever we have a back- and-forth like this it's a window into what the case itself might look like when it gets in a courtroom.

SCANNELL: Yeah, exactly. I mean, the freak offs here are the center of this case. And prosecutors say they have these dozens of videos where they show multiple people having sex that they say was coerced.