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Senate Votes To Confirm Noem As Homeland Security Secretary; Pete Hegseth Sworn In As Secretary Of Defense After Vance Casts Tie- Breaking Vote; Trump To Meet With Supporters Today In Las Vegas; Hospital Says All 4 Released Hostages Are In Stable Condition; Trump, Bass Clash On Rebuilding Efforts During Wildfire Roundtable; White House Begins Deportations On Military Aircraft; U.S. Military Increased At U.S.-Mexico Border; Source: Deportation Operations Could Target Over 2 Dozen Cities; Undocumented Immigrants Fear Going Out Amid Crackdown; Some North Carolina Residents Displaced By Storm Slam FEMA; Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) Discusses Trump Tour Of Hurricane Helene Damage, Trump Saying He May Get Rid Of FEMA. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired January 25, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:55]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right, we begin this hour with two new Cabinet confirmations for President Trump. Just in the last hour, the Senate voted along mostly party lines to approve Kristi Noem as the new Secretary of Homeland Security. Her confirmation comes shortly after Trump's new leader of the U.S. military took the oath of office.

Pete Hegseth narrowly won confirmation last night as the country's next U.S. Defense Secretary. And this morning he was sworn in by Vice President JD Vance.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

JD VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The duties of the office on which I'm about to enter.

PETE HEGSETH, NEWLY SWORN IN DEFENSE SECRETARY: The duties of the office on which I'm about to enter.

VANCE: So help me God.

HEGSETH: So help me God.

VANCE: Congratulations, Mr. Secretary.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOCLIP)

(END VIDEOCLIP) WHITFIELD: It was the Vice President who also had to cast the tie- breaking vote last night after the Senate deadlocked on the Hegseth nomination. It's just the second time in U.S. history a vice president broke a tie for a Cabinet nominee. Three Republicans voted with the Democrats against Hegseth's nomination, including former GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.

For more on this and these Cabinet votes, let's bring in Annie Grayer on Capitol Hill. Annie, good to see you again. So bring us up to speed on how Kristi Noem's vote played out just a short time ago.

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Well, her confirmation process and vote this morning went off pretty much without a hitch. She passed the Senate with a 59-34 vote, with seven Democratic senators joining Republicans to confirm her as Trump's next Department of Homeland Security.

But now that Noem is confirmed, the real work begins for her. Trump has laid out an extremely ambitious immigration plan from what he wants to do on the southern border to mass deportations. And he's already issued a number of executive orders on these fronts and is going to need Noem to continue to carry out these policies for him.

We've also seen Trump in the last day make news around what he wants to see happen with FEMA, which deals with emergency funding. He said that he doesn't know if that agency should continue. And as California is recovering from disastrous wildfires and the South is recovering from hurricanes in the last few months, these are another issues that Noem is going to have to deal with.

But she is cleared from the Senate. Republicans have given Trump another win for his Cabinet.

WHITFIELD: Trump also got his Defense Secretary pick confirmed. It wasn't easy. Tell us more about how that played out.

GRAYER: That was a much more complicated process that really was down to the wire, a nail-biter vote last night. There were three Republican senators who voted against Hegseth, and two of them, Senators Collins and Murkowski, we expected.

But Senator Mitch McConnell's no vote took a lot of people by surprise. And that's why Vice President JD Vance had to come in the 11th hour and issue that tie-breaking vote.

Now, there's no secret that there is a lot of tension between McConnell and Trump. And this is just the latest example of those tensions on full display. But Hegseth's confirmation process was riddled with controversies. He was accused of sexual misconduct against women.

He was accused of excessive drinking and mismanagement of funds in some of his previous jobs. But Hegseth has denied all of that. And Trump and his team stood behind Hegseth the entire time.

So for Senate Republicans to give Trump this win for his new defense secretary was huge for the President as he is trying to build out his Cabinet. Getting Hegseth was a huge hurdle, and Republicans delivered that for him.

WHITFIELD: Pretty significant indeed.

Annie Grayer, thank you so much.

All right, President Donald Trump is in Las Vegas today, where he's expected to meet with supporters later on this afternoon. And this follows that late-night action on Capitol Hill and from the administration, aiming at furthering Trump's agenda on a wide range of issues, including the elimination of DEI from federal agencies within 60 days, to advocacy groups being ordered to stop aiding refugees.

[13:05:09]

I'd like to bring in now CNN's Senior White House Reporter, Kevin Liptak. Kevin, I mean, this has been a pretty busy first few days for the administration. What is expected today there where you are?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, you've really seen President Trump attest the bounds of his executive authority in so many areas to start reshaping the federal government to his will, trying to execute on some of the promises he made as a candidate on the campaign trail.

And you have seen that continue all the way up until the end of this week, including overnight this news that the White House had ordered the firings of these inspectors general at more than a dozen federal agencies. These are individuals tasked with investigating waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government.

The White House telling them that because of changing priorities, their positions were terminated. It's already drawn a backlash on Capitol Hill, including from the Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who's questioning whether this act is actually legal.

So you're already starting to see President Trump really going through the federal government and trying to execute on all of these things he said he would do as a candidate, whether it's with the federal workforce when it comes to policy and personnel, or whether it's on immigration or on cultural issues like renaming certain landmarks.

You have seen the new administration really come into office knowing which levers to pull, knowing where they can act on their own. Now, here in Las Vegas, what we'll hear the President talk about is his campaign promise to eliminate taxes on tips. That's something he cannot do on his own.

That will require Congress. But this is all sort of in the theme of President Trump really wanting to show his supporters that he means business now that he is entering his second week in office.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kevin Liptak, keep us posted there from Las Vegas. All right, now to the Middle East, where just a short time ago, four female Israeli soldiers were freed by Hamas. It's part of the latest round of hostage releases under this ceasefire agreement. Hamas handed them over to the Red Cross in a highly staged event in Gaza City.

Here's the moment Hamas militants took them, kind of paraded them through the streets and then to a stage.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WHITFIELD: Short time later, each of the hostages taken to a hospital where they were being checked. And then, as you see right there, reunited with their families. Officials there say all four of the women are in stable condition.

As part of the deal, 200 Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel today. CNN's Bianna Golodryga is in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. You've been speaking with some of the hostage families. This must be, you know, a very kind of bittersweet, right, very emotional day for a variety of reasons.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Extremely emotional day, Fred. I'm here at Hostage Square where a rally, a weekly rally has just gotten underway. You hear behind me, thousands of people have gathered here, really emboldened and thrilled with the fact that we saw four hostages return today.

Naama Levy, Liri Albag, Karina Ariev and Daniella Gilboa, all coming back today, reuniting, as you noted, with their families in emotional reunions there before they were taken to the hospital where they are now under observation.

I had the opportunity to spend time today with Daniella Gilboa's aunt and uncle as they watched the moment their niece came back. Remember, Fred, it was the first time they had seen her in over 15 months. They were joined by other friends, family.

And here's some of those moments that we captured.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

(Speaking in Foreign Language)

GOLODRYGA: I am in the home of the aunt and uncle of Daniella Gilboa. And I have to say it was just sheer emotion, so much enthusiasm here. Cheers of joy, champagne popping. We are the only foreign news media who were allowed to witness this moment as family and friends saw their loved one, their niece Daniella Gilboa, 20 years old, alongside three other female hostages for the first time in 15 and a half months.

RAZI SHARABI, UNCLE OF RELEASED HOSTAGE DANIELLA GILBOA: Daniella, she's a daughter of a lioness. They are fighters. And they are proud Jewish girls who never lost hope. And I'm sure that Daniella never lost hope.

DEKELE SHARABI, AUNT OF RELEASED HOSTAGE DANIELLA GILBOA: We didn't know what to think, you know. We just wanted to think good things, but we didn't know how we're feeling. And we just want to hug her, want to see her and to hug her.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

[13:10:15]

GOLODRYGA: And they will get that opportunity soon enough, Fred. Now, we're expecting Hamas later this evening to release the status of the remaining hostages to be released over the phase one of this deal. Remember, there were 33 hostages that were set to be released. Their status was unknown. We are expecting to get that information hopefully any moment now.

But as you see, you saw the reaction of one family to the return of their loved ones. This entire city, this entire country, this entire community here has become one family here. And their message is that every single hostage will come home. And that is the only time they will stop rallies like this one. Fred?

WHITFIELD: Yes, that was a beautiful moment. So glad that you were able to bring that to us for that one family. We know the other reunions will be just, you know, as beautiful as that.

And then this is interesting because, you know, earlier it was reported that Israel said it didn't have a list. And so now you're saying that they are expecting to receive a list of the status of the remaining hostages. How many are, you know, alive? How many families will be, you know, still, of course, grieving but then soon to get the remains of their loved ones?

GOLODRYGA: Yes, and that's 26 that we're expecting to get the status of any moment now. Now, Hamas has backed out of previous agreements. So no one's really holding their breath now in terms of when that list will be released.

Israeli intelligence believes that the majority of those hostages in phase one, those 33, are still living. So that is good news. What they were not aware of is the exact condition of those hostages. So there are families here.

Right behind the camera is one anxious father waiting to know the condition of his son, as is everyone else here. So as soon as we get any more information about the status of that list, Fred, we'll bring it to you.

WHITFIELD: OK, very good.

Bianna Golodryga in Tel Aviv. Thank you so much.

All right, still ahead, President Trump says he's considering dismantling FEMA while also putting conditions on aid for California's wildfire recovery. Details on his controversial plan to rebuild, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:17:10]

WHITFIELD: President Donald Trump touring the wildfire damaged areas in Southern California yesterday. After pledging to work with California Governor Gavin Newsom to aid wildfire recovery, he met with a group of local officials from both parties during a roundtable, which included also a congressman, Brad Sherman, who urged the President to approve federal aid to California without conditions.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

REP. BRAD SHERMAN (D-CA): I really disagree with Louisiana on their abortion policy. I disagree with them on their campaign finance policy. I disagree with North Dakota on their gun policy. And I would never turn to somebody from Louisiana and say, you keep living on your cousin's couch because we're not going to help you rebuild until Louisiana agrees with me on a woman's right to choose. So I'm hoping that we can get these funds and that we don't punish individuals for the policies of their state.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, Congressman Brad Sherman is joining us right now. So, Congressman, that was a moment of you saying to the President of the United States, listen, let's put aside any political differences. We are all American when we're dealing with natural disasters like this, you know, hardships that we should come together. How do you believe that was received?

SHERMAN: I -- he did not talk in that room much about conditioning aid to California the way he had another forum. And I hope I'm pushing him in the right direction. He'd earlier said that California will get no aid unless we change our voter registration policies, which obviously have nothing to do with fires, and our water policy, which actually has nothing to do with this fire.

Because this fire, we have lots of water here in L.A. County, our reservoirs are kind of full. The problem we had in the Palisades was pumping water up the hill. And we didn't have a delivery system that would do that. We had a delivery system that was fine day to day, but it wasn't designed for the biggest fire in terms of property damage that has ever happened in America.

WHITFIELD: Yes. So politely, you and others have tried to say to the President that he was misinformed, you know, and people who are registered to vote do have to show, you know, I.D. in California and addressing the water issue, you know, which is contrasting his sentiment of releasing water.

So then now with that, are you still concerned that perhaps families in your district, which includes Sherman Oaks, the Palisades area of the fires, are you concerned that they're not going to be able to get federal aid given the posture that the President had? [13:20:08]

SHERMAN: It's going to be difficult. We got the declarations we needed from President Biden on his way out. President law only applies -- only provides $43,000 of aid to the uninsured who have to rebuild their homes. And we could do a lot better. We tend to do a lot better through special appropriations.

And it would be very hard to pass it if Trump opposed it. People -- a lot of people didn't have insurance. And with climate change, a lot of people in various parts of the country can't get insurance, homeowners insurance. And that's especially true in Florida, where over a million people have not been able to get private homeowners insurance.

WHITFIELD: Right.

SHERMAN: The President claimed to say that, well, if people didn't have homeowners insurance in the Palisades, that's the fault of. And I think he said people like Brad Sherman, although not really crafting state policy, the fact is, who's he going to blame for the million Floridians who can't get homeowners insurance?

The other thing to keep in mind, during his first administration, he provided tens of billions of dollars to subsidize flood insurance, not a penny to subsidize fire insurance. Coming from a desert city, fire insurance is a bigger issue.

WHITFIELD: And I guess you're also inferring there, Florida is his home state now. And so there was deference to Florida. But you're not seeing it right now.

I wonder if, man, described your moment with him a little terse, even though you said he didn't really respond. But, you know, maybe you were offering clarity. Well, there was another moment that I guess we can safely call terse. And this was an exchange between the President and the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES: The number one thing that we are going to do immediately, and you will see this happen, is to clear out the debris. And, you know, we're concerned right now over the weekend because of the potential rain. But we are going to move as fast as we can. But we want you to be safe and we want you to be back in your homes immediately.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have emergency powers just like I do. And I'm exercising my emergency powers. You have to exercise them also.

BASS: I did exercised it --

TRUMP: As I looked -- I mean, you have a very powerful emergency power.

BASS: Yes. TRUMP: -- and you can do everything within 24 hours.

BASS: Yes. And if individuals want to clear out their property, they can.

TRUMP: That's a long time a week. I'll be honest. To me -- everyone's standing in front of their house. They want to go to work and they're not allowed to do it.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WHITFIELD: So how concerned should residents be, you know, when interpreting the tone of that session, that meeting?

SHERMAN: Well, first, Karen Bass is right. A week is not an unusually long amount of time to determine. I mean, we've just finished finding out if there are any dead bodies in the rubble. And a week to make sure that it's in -- that you're not going to poison yourself. There are a lot of toxins.

And now that we have electric cars, you've got the lithium that burns. So, you know, to say it's got to be a day and not a week is unreasonable. But the meeting wasn't really all that adverse. There were a lot of good points. Like I pointed out to the President, please, if you're going to do tariffs, exempt building materials.

And he took that under advisement and that's what he would do, because there's going to be a building materials shortage in this country. We're rebuilding two large sections of Los Angeles on top of all the other building that's going on in the country.

WHITFIELD: So you remain hopeful in the days ahead?

SHERMAN: It's the only way to live life.

WHITFIELD: Very good. I got you.

All right, very good. Congressman Brad Sherman, all the best. Thank you so much.

SHERMAN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, coming up, new details on the scale of the Trump administration's ongoing deportation operation as the administration takes new action against refugees. We'll go live to El Paso next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:47]

WHITFIELD: All right, we're learning new details about the White House's moves to ramp up immigration enforcement. A source now tells CNN that the Department of Homeland Security is planning for new operations in as many as 30 cities across the U.S. with the first major action plan for Chicago. This, as the Trump administration said this week, that it has begun deporting illegal immigrants on U.S. military aircraft. They're also increasing American troops to the U.S.-Mexico border with U.S. Northern Command saying it's aggressively bolstering security there.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is live for us near the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas. Ed, what kind of activity have you been seeing there?

All right, it looks like our signal is having a problem there. We'll try to reconnect with Ed Lavandera momentarily.

All right, President Trump also visiting Western North Carolina yesterday where communities are still struggling to rebuild. Why some residents fear they may never be able to.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:34:31]

WHITFIELD: All right, now back to the increase of the U.S. military along the U.S.-Mexico border, among other things, as part of the Trump administration's new policy.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is live for us there in El Paso, Texas.

So what are you seeing? What kind of activity are you seeing there?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, in terms of the number of migrants crossing the border, seeking asylum and those types of cases, over the course of the last several months, though, those numbers had already been dropping rather quickly.

[13:35:04]

I spoke with some people who run some of the shelters here for migrants, and they talked about just how low the numbers are. They've dropped even more during the first week of the Trump administration.

And what President Donald Trump and his administration have really been touting over the last few days is what they sell as increased efforts to stem the flow of illegal immigration into the United States.

There are some critics of all of that who say, essentially, that, so far, the Trump administration is really touting numbers that have already been in place in terms of the number of deportations.

But things are definitely changing. The President Trump has put into motion efforts to be able to enforce immigration arrests at -- in what -- during what is described as kind of like a sanctuary, safe places like schools and churches. That has changed.

We've also seen military aircraft starting to be used for deportation flights and repatriating migrants to their home countries. We know of several flights that were sent to Guatemala yesterday. We don't have a full tally on exactly how often and how many of these

flights are underway. So we're working on trying to get more clarity on that. But the use of military aircraft is definitely done.

For context, we should also include that deportation flights, repatriating people back to their home countries is something that has gone on for years. But there's definitely a shifting dynamic here in terms of the enforcement and how things are being carried out all along the U.S. southern border -- Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right. Ed Lavandera, in El Paso, Texas, thank you so much.

All right. A source tells CNN that Chicago could be the first of at least 30 cities targeted in a new immigration removal operation, even before they begin the sweeping deportation effort by the Trump administration, is sending shock waves throughout immigrant communities.

CNN's Whitney Wild has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SIREN)

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With President Trump moving swiftly to deport undocumented immigrants across the country --

(on camera): What does this space mean to you? What does this room mean to you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

WILD (voice-over): "Relief is one aspect of it. I feel calm because I'm sheltered."

This bedroom is part home, part hiding place for this woman, whose name we are withholding because she fears deportation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

WILD: "A lot of helplessness because I'm nervous," she says," and anxious. I'm afraid of losing this trip I took across the Darien. I'm afraid of losing those dreams of having something in my country because I'm 50 years old," she says.

She has been in the U.S. for more than a year. She hopes to make some money here and then go back to Venezuela where her two children and mother stayed. She had planned to find a job this week but was too afraid to leave this apartment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

WILD: "I put on makeup today because I had a job interview and it was really like putting on a mask because I'm really devastated," she says.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

WILD: Fear is spreading as the Trump administration makes clear cities like Chicago, a sanctuary city, are major targets for enforcement. Here, local ordinances generally bar officials from helping Immigration and Customs officials unless there is a criminal warrant.

TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: If they're in the United States illegally, they're going to be arrested, too.

(CROSSTALK)

HOMAN: So, sanctuary cities are going to get exactly what they don't want. More agents in the communities, more people arrested, more collaterals arrested. So, if that -- that's a game they want to play, game on.

WILD: Now, the Department of Justice is threatening to prosecute local and state officials who obstruct, resist or fail to enforce immigration law.

The impact of stepped-up immigration actions could be massive, according to leaders here, particularly for businesses who regularly use migrant labor.

Here, in heavily Hispanic Little Village, normally busy streets are slow.

JENNIFER AGUILAR, LITTLE VILLAGE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Ever since the word got out over the weekend, we have seen and heard from our small businesses that foot traffic and that the amount of people they're seeing is just going down drastically.

WILD: It's a real fear that is impacting an entire community.

SAM TOLA, ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION: We're a very independent restaurant community, not a chain restaurant, so we could see some of our independent restaurants closing.

WILD: With so much uncertain, this woman can only hope to still fulfill her dream.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

WILD: "I came here for something," she says. "I came to fight. I came to get ahead and I haven't done anything. I don't want to feel like a failure."

[13:39:36]

Whitney Wild, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: On Friday, President Trump toured the damage from Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and met with families impacted by that devastating storm that hit four months ago.

Trump laid out some of his plans to overhaul or even get rid of FEMA and leave disaster recovery to the states.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, FEMA is not good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Thousands of households impacted by that storm have been helped by FEMA's Transitional Sheltering Assistance Programs. But many are left homeless by the disaster. Some say the process has been confusing and stressful.

CNN's Meena Duerson reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[13:45:02]

MEAGAN STELCHOOK, DISPLACED RESIDENT: There's another spot to -- you kind of do some schoolwork and eat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got our second bathroom/slash closet.

STELCHOOK: Yes, yes.

MEENA DUERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Right now, this hotel room is home for Meagan Stelchook and her daughters. In September, the house they just moved into flooded in Hurricane Helene, and they bounced from shelter to shelter until a FEMA housing voucher came through.

STELCHOOK: We stayed at La Quinta there for a couple weeks, and then they said they didn't have any more vacancies for us, so we had to move over to the Comfort Suites. And then that hotel decided to not participate in the voucher program any longer.

DUERSON: They've lived in this hotel for the past month, but her voucher is set to expire on February 7th.

STELCHOOK: I'm terrified that I'll wake up and, you know, I'll just get a phone call and -- and it'll be like, yes, your voucher's no longer active.

It makes it hard to breathe. It's very difficult to sleep. It's the most, you know, disabling feeling I've ever -- you know, ever felt.

DUERSON (voice-over): The voucher is through FEMA's Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program. The agency says almost 13,000 households have used the program in western North Carolina since Helene, and benefits have repeatedly been extended.

FEMA says it reassesses the need every two weeks, a process displaced residents say has been confusing and stressful.

STELCHOOK: I can't tell you how many hours I've spent down there thinking that I was making some progress here, you know, because I am really limited on funds and trying to, like, properly, you know, make sure that I'm filing correctly, you know, so that I can get the assistance that, you know, really, really need.

DUERSON: Stelchook says she relies on updates from Mira and Brian Williams. They own the Blue Ridge Tourist Court, where she and other storm victims have been living.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, OWNER, BLUE RIDGE TOURIST COURT: Access to information for us as hotel owners is a little more straightforward. We're able to speak directly to the third party that oversees the FEMA voucher program. So we have a direct line to them that I'm not sure the displaced people do have.

DUERSON (on camera): How long do you think you're going to be able to be a participant in this program?

WILLIAMS: I think it depends on how long FEMA keeps the program active.

DUERSON (voice-over): FEMA's relief program in North Carolina has drawn a lot of criticism. False claims went so viral, the agency had to create a rumor page to debunk misleading information.

In a letter to the governor, Sunday, FEMA said the voucher program is approved until the end of March and is still supporting over 2,700 people.

The agency says it will call anyone whose voucher may become ineligible and give three-weeks' notice instead of seven days.

But LeaAnn Bowlin says she never heard from anyone at FEMA before the hotel where she stayed told her that her voucher expired.

LEAANN BOWLIN, DISPLACED RESIDENT: They knock on my door on the 13th and said, FEMA just sent us an e-mail saying that tonight is the last night they're going to pay for you.

DUERSON: She filed for FEMA assistance as a household with her boyfriend at the time and says she was told she could change it to an individual claim later.

She says FEMA ended the voucher for the household 10 days ago, but she hasn't been able to get help filing for benefits as an individual.

DUERSON (on camera): You haven't been able to get a hold of anyone to untangle that situation?

BOWLIN: Nope.

DUERSON: Since then?

BOWLIN: No, I've called nothing.

DUERSON (voice-over): Out of money, she had to move out of the hotel and take everything to a campground.

BOWLIN: We got donated a camper not from FEMA. FEMA sucks.

DUERSON: With the area already crunched for affordable housing and temperatures now in the single digits, displaced residents fear they'll have nowhere to go and that they've been forgotten.

BOWLIN: I guess we're just mountain people that nobody cares about, that nobody tells our story or nothing about how bad it is here.

DUERSON(on camera): You're feeling left behind?

BOWLIN: Very much so. I mean, we're just thrown out like garbage.

STELCHOOK: I hope that we haven't been left behind. There's got to be a better way. I mean, I don't know it, but there's got to be.

DUERSON: FEMA told us they are still here, and they are encouraging anyone who still needs aid to apply for it if they haven't received it. They insisted that they have been notifying applicants if their eligibility status for these vouchers has changed.

But locals told us this is really an issue of people slipping through the cracks because of bad communication.

Meena Duerson, CNN, Boone, North Carolina.

WHITFIELD: All right. Joining me now to talk more about all of this, the storm recovery efforts, Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards of North Carolina. He represents areas devastated by Helene.

And I understand you did meet with the president during his visit on Friday. So did you get any more clarity or, I guess, more information on how your area can be better served?

REP. CHUCK EDWARDS (R-NC): Well, I did have the honor to fly from Washington, D.C., and accompany the president on Air Force One here to western North Carolina, his first trip to -- or on Air Force One as -- as a matter of fact.

And, yes, we had a great deal of conversation on the failures of FEMA and potentially some of the ideas that are out there on how we can actually fix FEMA.

[13:50:05]

WHITFIELD: OK. So you also heard the president tell audiences everywhere that he's even thinking about doing away with FEMA altogether. Is it your feeling that FEMA should be gone, or should it be just processes that are reorganized or modifications made to better serve people in your district?

EDWARDS: Well, I think that we also heard the president say that FEMA deserves at least a major overhaul. I certainly agree with that.

That's one of the reasons that, right after the storm, I put a special phone number in place for folks to call, like those that you interviewed in the last segment. It's 222-FIXFEMA.

And I invite folks that are having problems like that to call that number, 223-FIXFEMA, to give me a chance to learn of those individual specifics and get engaged and push the buttons in Washington, D.C., to help them get the help that they need.

WHITFIELD: So this was a very unique situation, right? Because we're talking about the -- western North Carolina, which is not ordinarily accustomed to being hit by hurricanes and that -- and this -- is a very difficult area to traverse, especially after a hurricane of this magnitude.

So is it your feeling that states, your state of North Carolina would be better prepared to help pick up the pieces and help people out under circumstances like this, instead of a federal agency altogether?

EDWARDS: Oh, absolutely.

WHITFIELD: How.

EDWARDS: The 10th Amendment is -- is where I start in that that power should belong to the states. The states are far closer to the people that they serve. They -- they know the area. They know -- they know the people.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: But do you have the resources?

EDWARDS: -- the third --

WHITFIELD: Would you have the money, the resources to be able to assist? As we just saw in Meena's piece, some 13,000 households that are getting housing help as a result of Helene.

So you're saying the state of North Carolina would be able to -- to handle that? It has the resources, the money to do that?

EDWARDS: I think the way that the resources need to be managed would be for the federal government to continue to help fund recoveries in places of natural disaster, but remove the bureaucracy as we have in Washington, D.C., with FEMA, and let -- and let the state administer those resources or those funds themselves.

And of course, there should be some experts that would be more familiar with handling natural disasters on the federal level to assist the states in knowing the ins and outs and making those decisions. WHITFIELD: How do you know that would work, given, you know, your

state of North Carolina hasn't had to be tasked with something so colossal like this before? How do you know that you'd be able to do better?

EDWARDS: I think, if we look at almost every example inside of federal government, we realize that those folks that are closer to the people that they serve are much more qualified, much, much more prepared to help the people that they serve.

The federal government is just another level of bureaucracy that, quite frankly, could be eliminated or reduced significantly. Decision making is best when it's closest to the people.

WHITFIELD: So -- but you're a member of Congress. What might you suggest to help, say, an organization, an agency like FEMA, to be better organized? Meaning, what was learned in this process that you might be able to help assist in fine tuning this federal agency?

EDWARDS: Well, the -- the first thing is there has to be a different culture created, one of customer service, one of folks that are truly concerned about serving the people of America, not necessarily just living up to the standards of the bureaucracy.

And then I think that we could significantly cut the 20,000 jobs in FEMA that are creating that bureaucracy and allow the states to be able to receive the funding in block grants and to have available for the states experts in deploying natural disaster funds.

I'm -- I'm quite confident that we could do a much, much better job under a structure like that than we can this third-party bureaucracy that is clearly failing.

[13:55:05]

I can't imagine putting a system together that would be any worse off than what we've got right now.

What -- what I have seen in western North Carolina over the past five months is clearly not working. We've got to make some changes.

WHITFIELD: All right, Congressman Chuck Edwards, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you so much.

EDWARDS: All right. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, soon Donald Trump's new secretary of Homeland Security will officially be sworn in. We're live at the capital next.

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