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Key Party in Netanyahu's Government Threatens to Quit; Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) is Interviewed about the Cease Fire Deal; Push to Contain Fires as Weather Improves; Johnson Removes Turner on Intel Committee; Garland to Say Farewell. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired January 16, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Jacqueline, thank you so much for laying it out for us. I really appreciate it.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we do have breaking news. Moments ago, learning new details about what appears to be a road bump inside the negotiations inside the processing for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire hostage deal. We are reporting on this. We are trying to find out as many new details as we can.

This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: Breaking news this morning. Getting right to it. There are new developments in the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. The big deal that was announced just yesterday. Well, moments ago, there's new reporting that key members of the Israeli - of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet, they're threatening to quit if Israel does not return to war in Gaza after the first phase of the deal has passed. CNN reporting is that could lead to the collapse of the Israeli government.

There is a lot of developments that we need to get to, and a lack of clarity where we need lots of clarity. Teams in Washington and Israel to help us through this. CNN's Jeremy Diamond, let me start with you.

Jeremy, what's the latest?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the Israeli prime minister is facing somewhat of a domestic political crisis within his own governing coalition. That is because after the cease fire agreement was officially announced by the United States, Qatar and Egypt last night, the Israeli prime minister has yet to bring this document before his security cabinet and before the full cabinet for an up or down vote, in order to put the Israeli government's full seal of approval behind this cease fire and hostage release deal.

The Israeli prime minister's office says the reason that that vote, which was supposed to begin to take place this morning, has been delayed, is because they say Hamas is making some last minute demands as they iron out some of the implementation details of this agreement, including parts related to the release of Palestinian prisoners in these negotiations in Doha. They say that they will not bring this agreement before the Israeli cabinet until those issues are first resolved.

But we know that that's not the only thing that's happening here. And Hamas, for its part, we should note, has said that they are fully committed to this deal. The United States has not brought up to, to this point, any major issues that are happening in Doha right now. But what we do know is that the Israeli prime minister is facing issues within his own governing coalition.

Bezalel Smotrich, the far right wing finance minister, he is demanding that the Israeli prime minister provide him with assurances that Israel will go back to the war in Gaza after the first phase of this agreement is over, meaning after that six week ceasefire is over, 33 Israeli hostages will have gotten out. But that would sabotage any possibility of getting to phases two and three, which would involve the release of all of the remaining Israeli hostages and perhaps lead to an end of the war in Gaza.

And so, at this hour, it's really unclear what the Israeli prime minister will do, whether or not he can resolve that issue with Bezalel Smotrich, or whether another solution is going to need to be found. But certainly the -- President Trump, President Biden have all made clear this deal is done and the Israeli prime minister is going to have trouble backtracking from that.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, Jeremy, thank you so much for that perspective.

Let's get over now to Washington. Alex Marquardt is standing by.

One thing that is clear in all of this is that to - getting to this point, both the outgoing president of the United States and the incoming president of the United States played important roles in getting this over the finish line. What are you hearing, though, now, Alex, about, I'll call it confusion, even though were hearing from the White House they fully expect this to be implemented. What are you hearing?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, I don't think either side, it's fair to say, Biden or Trump camps, wanted to be here this morning with this kind of uncertainty from the Israeli side. But what we are hearing from both the White House and from the Trump team is an expectation that this will go forward. The deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, speaking to you just a short time ago, saying they're still confident. We've heard the same from - from John Kirby. And we've also heard the same from Trump's incoming national security advisor, Mike Waltz. They're talking about implementation details.

So - so what does that mean? I mean, there are a lot of machinations that go into place when this deal starts. How do the hostages come out from Gaza? How do the Palestinian prisoners come out from those Israeli prisons? And where do they go?

[09:05:00]

The question over the humanitarian aid, the - the Palestinian civilians inside Gaza who want to go back to their homes in the north. So, there are all these moving parts that need to be set in motion and implemented correctly. So, that's what I think the various officials, including Finer speaking to you, mean about these implementation details.

So, you can be sure that the top Trump and Biden officials, who we believe are still in the Middle East, so Brett McGurk from the White House, Steve Witkoff from the Trump team, who were in Doha just yesterday finalizing these details, you can be sure that they are working on this right now to make sure that this gets across the finish line.

Regardless, this was truly a historic coordination and cooperation between the two teams. Normally, as you know, Kate, an incoming White House essentially inherits all of the issues from the previous White House. Here, during the transition process, they were working in lockstep. As soon as Steve Witkoff was named the Trump Middle East advisor, he started traveling to the region. He went to Israel. He went to Doha. He started speaking with the Biden team, really getting steeped in all of these very complicated issues.

You know, this was a framework that Biden put forward eight months ago. But at the same time, that - the Biden team has not been able to get it across the finish line. There's been a lot that has changed in those last eight months, a lot more factors that put pressure, both on Israel and on Hamas. But at the same time, one of the key factors certainly was the election of Donald Trump.

And even if this goes into effect under President Biden on Sunday, most of this is going to fall to incoming President Trump to oversee.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

Alex, thank you so much.

Jeremy Diamond, in Tel Aviv for us. We're going to getting back to Jeremy for sure throughout the day as well.

Thanks, guys. Really appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: With me now is Congressman Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Florida.

Congressman, thank you so much for being with us.

A bump in the road, at least from now - for now. How concerned are you with this apparent delay in voting on this hostage and ceasefire deal? REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL): Well, thanks, John. Thanks for having me.

Well, look, obviously serving in the House, I've seen many deals get brokered and votes get delayed. And so sometimes that happens when you're trying to get something very complicated passed. And the Israelis know they're making a deal with the devil in Hamas.

And so, I'm sure there's all sorts of concern that Hamas is trying to add new prisoners that aren't agreed to at the last moment, or whether Hamas is going to live up to their end of the deal, or, you know, taking pressure off of Hamas. We've seen the pressure on Hezbollah work. What we saw, obviously, the collapse in Syria. All of this is connected. We've seen Iran's inability to actually launch a real military campaign, which they've threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. And so, their capabilities are questioned. So, all of these factors are going into how best to move forward in the region and in Gaza, the future of Gaza.

The most important thing, as you know, is getting these hostage's home. So, I'm - I'm happy with the deal. I give President Biden and President Trump credit. They both deserve credit. Both their teams worked on this. But I'm sure Mike Waltz, who's the, you know, incoming national security advisor, is telling the Israelis, you know, to get this - get this deal done. No one - no, no president, Biden or Trump, want to come out and take credit for a deal and then have the deal unravel.

BERMAN: You say you give the incoming administration credit. You also give President Biden credit for getting this deal done, if it does, in fact, get done. Again, we're waiting on the Israeli cabinet.

You give the Biden administration less credit, and I'm putting that euphemistically, for a decision that was made in the last few days vis a vis Cuba, taking them off the state sponsor of terror list.

MOSKOWITZ: Yes, I mean, look, that - that, to me, is a total misstep at the end of the Biden administration, OK? Why did - why didn't they do that, you know, a while ago? And the answer is, they're doing it out the door. And so, I think that should be obvious to everyone.

Cuba does not belong off the terror watch list, off the designation, OK? They harbor terrorists. They assist terrorists. All the evidence is there for that. And that's not even talking about human rights violations and what they do to political prisoners in Cuba.

And so, I think that's a mistake. My guess is, is that the incoming secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is going to put that back on, you know, or at least ask the - the incoming president to put that back on.

We kind of saw that dance at the end of the Obama administration as well.

From the political ramifications, coming from someone from Florida, you know, we've stood with the Cuban community in - in south Florida. And I can tell you, they are very against this move by the Biden administration. And from a political standpoint, Florida was already moving towards being a red state. I can tell you now, this is waving the white flag of surrender. Florida will be a red state with this decision at the end of the Biden administration. And that's a problem for the electoral map for Democrats.

BERMAN: You or switching committees. People got used to watching you on the Oversight Committee, you know, going after, in some cases, the chair, James Comer.

[09:10:06]

Now you're moving to Judiciary.

And you talk about Florida, politics and Florida. Pam Bondi, who will likely be the next attorney general, is from Florida. What do you see as your biggest concerns vis a vis the incoming attorney general?

MOSKOWITZ: Well, first, John, don't talk negatively about my friend, James Comer, OK. And just because - and just because I'm leaving Oversight doesn't mean I'm leaving James. I promise you.

You know, as far as Pam Bondi is concerned, obviously, I know the incoming attorney general. I was in the legislature when she was the attorney general of Florida. When the shooting happened at my high school, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas six years ago, she was the attorney general at that time and was involved in not just the response, but when we put together the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School Safety Commission to investigate what went wrong that day, and then to work on legislation to make sure something like that never happened again.

And so, I know her fairly well. Obviously, we have many political disagreements. But she is very capable. And I think she'll wind up serving well as the attorney general.

BERMAN: There have been rumors that you were being considered to be the FEMA administrator in the Trump administration. Can you 100 percent tell us this morning that's not going to happen?

MOSKOWITZ: Well, I mean, you can't accept something that's never been offered. And so, you know, that was rumors and innuendo. And I think that was just people looking at the fact that I had worked for Ron DeSantis for two and a half years as the Florida director of emergency management.

Look, John, the one thing I'll always say, which is why I've not come down - out and just totally said, no, no, no. I mean, look, I plan on staying in Congress and running for re-election. But FEMA is a non- partisan agency, and it should always remain that way. And so should disaster aid and disaster response. It should always be non-partisan. We saw reports in Florida, right, that some people with Trump flags didn't get their aid. That should not be allowed to happen, OK. Everyone should be able to get their aid.

And so, for me, fighting for whether its a Republican administration picking a Democrat or a Democrat administration picking a Republican, which has happened many times at FEMA and at emergency management agencies in different states across the country, I think is very important because politics has nothing to do with saving peoples lives when disasters strike.

And so, look, I'm not under consideration. I'm staying in Congress. But I do think every administration should not just look at their political party to lead FEMA, they should look at anybody who's qualified to lead that agency.

BERMAN: All right, Congressman - still Congressman Jared Moskowitz, thanks for being with us this morning. Appreciate your time.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also this morning, a brief and needed break from the brutal winds in southern California, where most red flag warnings have now expired. Forecasters do warn, though, that the winds will return early next week as the two biggest wildfires that they've been battling are still far from being fully contained.

As of this morning, Cal Fire says more than 40,000 acres have burned across the region. More than 12,000 homes and other structures, destroyed.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Pacific Palisades for us once again. Joining us once again.

Stephanie, what are you seeing this morning and what are you hearing from people now?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I can tell you that the - you're talking about those hotspots and making sure that the fire is fully contained. We've seen fire trucks out here in the darkness still looking for hotspots, putting them out. And then there's a huge concern about the quality of the air here. L.A. County coming out yesterday and saying, listen, air quality index may not tell you what's really there because the particles from the fires may not be picked up by their sensors. So, they're telling everyone to wear their masks, especially when you're in places like this, where you can see that there's just mass contamination.

And so, what is happening now is the EPA has $100 million budget, 500 people coming in to go through and make sure that they can clean up some of this toxicity, the toxic ash, the - all of the chemicals that may have burned, those electric batteries - the batteries in the electric vehicles, making sure that those are stable, which they may not be after fire, and clearing that all out, and the top layer of the soil, having to get all that out.

The county has made it so that people can't do it themselves. They don't want people clearing it out because it is so toxic. And that's also part of the reason why people aren't allowed back into this area right now. And there's no clear timeframe on when they will be back here. They're 30 percent through the damage assessment here in the Palisades Fire, but it's just the scale of all of this is just so massive, Kate, that that is taking a long time. And then also there's going to be lessons that have to be learned from

what happened here. And just look at this house next door. This whole block is complete destruction. But then you look at the house next door and it is standing. It almost looks perfect. You can see by some of the branches in that tree in front that the fire was blowing past it that way, the way it's bending.

[09:15:05]

But somehow that house survived.

So - but still, that house is there. There's no saying for sure whether or not the infrastructure, the piping, the cables, all of that have to be replaced. So, even for people who do still have a home, there's still a lot of questions on how they get back up. And so, this whole process is going to take a long, long time. In fact, it could be three to six months before they're able to get all of this debris out of here.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And, Stephanie, you're hitting on something that I think is really just starting to - the picture is starting to become more clear, which is the top - the scale of the contamination is just - it's so vast. It's going to take so long for people to get cleared by the EPA to get back in and then, honestly, feel comfortable to be back there, that it's healthy enough for them. I mean it's - it's one thing after another after the initial emergency and tragedy. It's so much.

Thank you for being there.

She's been doing such amazing reporting day in and day out on this.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Speaker Mike Johnson boots the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, who was reportedly blaming Mar-a- Lago for his ouster.

And new reporting on how some victims of the California wildfires are being offered free Airbnb stays thanks to one non-profit.

And, quote, "I like to read." New explanation from Eagles receiver A.J. Brown after he was caught reading. The infraction of reading a book on the sidelines during a game.

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[09:21:04]

BOLDUAN: So, this morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson is set to announce a new Republican chair for the very important House Intelligence Committee. This announcement is getting a whole lot more attention than it typically would, I would say, today because just yesterday Johnson stripped the current Republican committee chair, Mike Turner, of that duty. Speaking to CBS, Mike Turner says the decision to remove him stemmed from, quote, "concerns from Mar-a- Lago." Speaker Johnson, though, denies that. The shakeup is to a key oversight panel like that one just days before Donald Trump is about to take office once again, is facing a lot of criticism, including from the top Democrat on that very committee.

CNN's Lauren Fox has much more on this.

And this is one committee, Lauren, where they often, in the - in the Senate and the House, they pride themselves as working in a bipartisan way, which is critical when it comes to intelligence. Thats why this is also getting so much attention. What is going on?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, what we heard last night from Speaker Johnson was that this was just an opportunity for him to refresh the leadership going into a new Congress. Here was what Johnson's explanation was after this news broke last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): It's a new Congress. We just need fresh horses in some of these places.

It's not a President Trump decision. This is a House decision. And this is no slight whatsoever to our - our chair - outgoing chairman. He did a great job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: But as you noted, Kate, there is some severe backlash from some Democrats who have worked really closely with Turner over the last several years, including the top Democrat on this House Intelligence Committee, Jim Himes, who said in a statement, quote, his removal makes our nation less secure and is a terrible portent for what's to come. The Constitution demands Congress function as a check on the executive branch, not cater to its demands."

He went on to tell us later, "one of the reasons I was confident in Mike's ability to do oversight was that he, you know, was not quick to bend the knee."

And I think that that is the concern that you are hearing from a lot of Democrats who are on this committee. We are awaiting who will Johnson name to be the new chairman. We expect that news could come as soon as today.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Let us see.

Lauren, thank you so much for your reporting, as always.

John.

BERMAN: All right, happening today, a final farewell from outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland to Justice Department employees. With us now, CNN crime and justice correspondent Katelyn Polantz.

So, what's that message going to be, Katelyn, for a guy who's been in the spotlight every day the last four years?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: John, this message from Merrick Garland in his prepared remarks for his farewell address from the Justice Department. It's less about him and much more about the employees of the Justice Department. He wants to tell them to stay the course on the work that they're doing, the motivations they have to be civil servants, prosecutors. He wants to tell them to stay independent. And he also notes that he believes they have been wrongly criticized by people motivated much more by politics.

Here's a little excerpt of what Garland plans to say today. "I know that a lot is being asked of you right now. But before I leave, I have one more thing I want to ask of you. That is to remember who you are and why you came to work here in the first place. You are public servants and patriots who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution."

So, he's really underlining the belief that the Justice Department should stay independent of the White House, of politics, of all of those interests.

But, John, this is a man who, for much of his career, stayed so far away from politics as a judge on the federal appellate court in D.C., as a Supreme Court nominee who never even got a confirmation hearing in the Obama administration.

[09:25:03]

And then now, exiting as attorney general, is very likely going to be remembered for the era of special counsels. Not just Jack Smith, but the two others he appointed during his tenure, and the criticism that has just rained down upon Garland in the final months by Democrats who wanted Trump to go to trial and wondered why Garland didn't move fast enough, and by Republicans who now, John, have spent a lot of time trying to say that the Justice Department has become an agency of political weaponization.

So, Garland is trying to put a button on this to put the focus back on the career employees in the government and to tell them, stay the course, this department can remain independent. Do your work.

BERMAN: Look, for a guy who never wanted to be connected at all to politics, he's had a very complicated relationship with politics now going back well over a decade.

Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

So, airbnb.org is offering hope for victims of the wildfires by offering them a way to find temporary housing for free.

And happening now, you will lav-a this, Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupting this morning. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)